I Think I Might Throw Up and A Conversation with Baylee

Drew was asked tonight if he'd play the recessional for a wedding.  They want it to be done on an electric guitar and to be somewhat rockish.  Drew was like, "Oh, okay, sure."  I, on the other hand, think I might puke.  This is a wedding.  People remember their wedding forever.  Drew is only 13.  Lord, give me strength.  I hope David the Guitar Teacher can teach in a hurry, because, oh, did I mention the wedding is the day after Thanksgiving?

Mike and I found this on YouTube.  What do you think?   (We're only interested in the first couple minutes of it.  After that it gets a little too crazy.)




And a conversation between Mike, Baylee, and I this evening...

Computer:  Congratulations!  You've just won a free iPhone!

Baylee:  Don't click on that, Daddy!  It's a trick!

Mike:  I won't.

Baylee:  Remember what happened when Mom clicked on something, trying to win that free meal at Red Lobster?

Me:  [calling from other room]  Really???  You're going to bring that up?  That was five or six years ago!

Baylee:  I know, Momma.  You were young.

Halloween, 2011

 

Sanchez the Insane Hamster

Drugged

I've had a cold and cough for a long time now...about two weeks, I think...and just within the last few days I've started taking Nyquil at night so that I (and Mike) can sleep.  The only thing is that I seem to have an extreme reaction to it.  Last night I took what the directions said to take, and within fifteen minutes or so I felt incapacitated.  The next thing I knew it was 14 and a half hours later.  I'm not kidding.  In fact, the only reason I woke up at that point is that Mike woke me up.  I had really weird dreams, too.  I dreamed I was back in college and I couldn't seem to remember to go to a certain class.  I kept going to a different class instead.  Then I'd be in there for awhile, and it would occur to me that I was in the wrong room...again.  Anyway, I really think I need to do without the Nyquil if at all possible.

Tonight we're going to a practice-run of the Thanksgiving dinner our peer group is putting on for the whole church.  We're cooking it for ourselves to see if it's any good, and to iron out the kinks that might come up in preparing it.  Afterward we're going to let the kids carve pumpkins.  I'm glad, because we haven't gotten around to doing that ourselves yet this year.

Misc.

I want to tell you one more thing about Treasures of the Snow.  If you decide to buy the book, make sure you get the old, out-of-print edition.  You can still get it on Amazon.  The newest ones, which are published by Moody Press, are a dumbed-down, thinner version of the same story.  You really have to read it as the author wrote it, because she did such a beautiful job.  The one we have has a 1952 publishing date, and it's in its original format.

The Bible verses Baylee said the other day are actually the end of a long passage of Scripture she had to learn over the last month for her Bible class.  BJUP uses the King James version, which I think is a little...I don't know...awkward? especially for a 5th grader, but oh well.  Baylee doesn't seem to mind at all.

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New hamster pics:

Last night Zach did dishes at church for a wedding rehearsal dinner.  When he came home he told me that the church dishwasher is so complicated with buttons and levers that have to be pressed in the exact right sequence, that he felt like a Teletubbie.  LOL  That was a weird blast from the past.  Nobody has watched that show around here for years and years.

 

Also last night I started watching a documentary called Sister Wives.  It follows the lives of a polygamous family with one husband, 3 wives, and 12 children. Oh, and they're adding another wife, so his "courtship" with that 4th woman (who's a single mom of 3) is part of the beginning episodes.  I have such conflicting feelings watching this all play out.  On the one hand, the lifestyle is wrong.  I look at it from a woman's point of view and I can't help but think that man is playing a horrible trick on all of them.  He's got them all fooled into letting him play the field.  On the other hand, it's obviously a really nice family.  I like all of them.  He's very kind to his wives and children, and each wife is very loving toward him, the children, and each other.  They help each other.  I guess as an outsider I can sort of see how someone might be interested in a lifestyle that includes built-in support and friendship.  Still.  Yuck.  No man is so great that he's worth sharing.

Pets and Books

Baylee's hamster got out of its cage some time last night and was killed by the cat.   I found it early this morning on the living room floor and immediately woke Mike up.  I must've looked/sounded like something terrible happened, because he was on his feet immediately, ready to hear the worst.  (Poor guy.  It think it must be hard to be a husband, sometimes.)  He took care of the body.  That was such a cute, nice hamster, too.  It would let Baylee hold it, pet it, and even put it in her sweatshirt pocket whenever she wanted.  Anyway, it was a rough morning.  Baylee cried and I comforted her, then I called my own mom for a little comfort.  She told me a story about how, when she was a little girl, her dad, my grandpa, kept bringing home dogs to be her pet.  They lived on a farm, so the dogs ran free, and something bad kept happening to each one of them.  They would run away or be hit by a car or whatever.  Finally, when the last dog was hit by a car right in front of their house, my grandma, while comforting my mom, said to my grandpa, "If you bring another dog home I'm going to kill you!"  lol   Sigh.  Speaking of well-meaning daddies, after Baylee's tears dried and school was finished, Mike came home from work, took her to Pet Smart, and let her pick out another hamster, which she promptly named Annabelle.  He also bought a better, escape-proof cage.

Despite the bad start, the day was good.   Some days of school are ho hum, some are filled with fun stuff like projects, and some are just peaceful.  This was a peaceful day.  Everybody quietly and happily worked, and things moved right along.  My favorite part of the day was when Drew and I sat down together on the couch and I read to him.  I like to do that once in awhile with the kids, even if they're good readers, because it's such a nice time together.  Actually, I did it twice today:  Once when Baylee told me she couldn't understand a story set on a space station (She had no frame of reference.  We sat together and I read a chapter to her and explained what was going on, and then she was excited to read more.) and then the time with Drew.  Drew and I are reading a book called Treasures of the Snow, by Patricia St. John.  I didn't have high hopes for this book, I guess because I thought it was going to be corny, but I was wrong.  It's become one of my favorite children's books.  It's delightful and heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once.  In reading it to him, I've gotten a little bit choked up several times, and today I think Drew did, too.  He would never admit that, but when I looked at him his eyes were red-rimmed.  Afterward the two of us had the best talk about forgiveness, which is a major theme in the story.  One of the characters tells another one that we should love people, even when they don't love us.  That hit home for Drew, because of something that happened to him recently with some other kids.  Anyhow, if you want to read a great story with your family, I recommend this one.

Naughty

Early this morning Zach and Baylee were eating breakfast, and Baylee had Mike's laptop out on the table.  She was using it to listen to Alvin and the Chipmunks sing pop songs.  Zach told her to turn it off, Baylee got mad, they had an argument, then Zach got up to pour himself a cup of coffee.  This is what he came back to:

 
That and a naughty, smiling little sister who did nothing to stop it.

Later, though, I found the cat like this:

So that sort of makes it all okay, right?

Keeping Busy

Today was one of those days that felt kind of chaotic, but in the end a lot was accomplished.  I finished everything on my to-do list except making cupcakes for the Pioneer Girls Cake Walk tomorrow, and I'll still probably do that when I'm done writing this.  Here's some of what we did today:

• I cleaned out our junk drawer.  That was the final drawer in my kitchen cabinets/drawers/cupboards project that only took me about a month and a half. 
• All the cobwebs were vacuumed out of the huge windows up by the ceiling of our bedroom.  Ugh.  How is it I didn't notice that?  It practically looked like this:

source

• I carved a pumpkin!  I had to for an object lesson I'm doing tomorrow during PG.  I purposely didn't pop out the eyes, nose, and mouth yet, because it's part of my little talk.

• Drew got a capo for his guitar.  It's a thing that clamps onto the neck, shortening the playable length of the strings, which raises the pitch.

Cool, huh?  It makes it so songs that aren't in someone's range can be.  Here are Drew and Baylee messing around with a song that's normally too low for Baylee.  Drew's got the capo down really far, which doesn't seem quite right to me, especially when I hear how high the sound of the guitar is, but what do I know?  His teacher is going to show him how to use it in his next lesson.

• Zach is thiiiis close to being a quarter of the way done with Spanish I.  He does Rosetta Stone, which uses total immersion.  Sometimes Zach gets really irritated that the people on the program never just explain things in English, but then after awhile he realizes that he understands them.  This was part of a review.

• Zach also got a 95% on a Physical Science test today.  Those things are hard, too!  This school doesn't do Physical Science like most high schools.  Their Phy. Sci. class requires Biology and Algebra I as prerequisites, and involves a lot of math.  It's an intro to chemistry and physics course.

•  Baylee got to play with play-doh as part of her Heritage Studies lesson.  I don't know exactly what she was supposed to be doing, but it devolved into making train tracks while wearing a witch's hat.

•   And I made homemade pea soup!

Hot

A few weeks ago I was helping to set the tables at church for the missionary luncheon.  While I was working I was chatting away with my friend, Candace, and I happened to mention how hot I was.  Seriously, it was sweltering in there.  Candace agreed that she was dying of heat, too, when suddenly an older woman who wasn't even working, but was just standing around shooting the breeze and "arranging" things, broke into our conversation.  "I bet I know why you're hot," she offered.  "Menopause."

I was a little taken aback.  "Wait...what?  I'm only forty."

"Doesn't matter."

"No, really, I'm not going through menopause.  It's just hot in here."

"It can happen young."

Trying to wrap my head around what she was saying, I asked, "Are you talking about perimenopause?"

"No, I mean actual menopause.  You're probably going through it right now.  When did your mother start?"

"My mother?"

"Yes.  There are usually patterns in a family."

"I'm not sure, but I don't think..."

"Well, like I said, you should find out.  There are hormone pills you can take."

Finally I loudly proclaimed, "I am not going through menopause!" which in turn caused the woman to give me a look that said, "Hot flashes, check.  Volatile mood swings, check." 

That was the end of the conversation, but to this day part of me wants to get pregnant, then go up to her and say, "See?!  I WAS HOT!"

Sunday

A conversation between Drew and Baylee in the backseat:

"Drew, I just thought of a riddle.  What has wheels and windows, but isn't a car?"

"A pony wearing roller blades and glasses."

"What?  No.  A tire store."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Today I didn't go to church, but Mike did.  Therefore, my peer group, Adolos, made me the emcee of the Thanksgiving dinner.  They told Mike to tell me that's what I get for not being there.  LOL  Okay, I see how it is.  No problem.  Next time I'm with them I'm going to casually say, "Just remember, people, I'll have a microphone and complete power, and I can call on any one of you to pray for the meal.   Oh yeah.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid."

Beatles

Playing Blackbird late at night...

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So Cute!

Drew and Baylee were trying to do Greenday's "Good Riddance" for a couple days, but finally they realized it was never going to happen, because the song is too low for Baylee's voice.  Either she was singing so low she couldn't stay in tune, or she was bringing it up an octave, and then it was weirdly high.  Finally they asked Zach, who didn't know the song, to help them out.  Baylee taught it to him in about 1 minute, so he sounds a little stilted, but he did it!  What a nice big brother.

 

PS:  There are two false starts in this song.  Wikipedia says, "On the album version, at the beginning, Billie Joe Armstrong makes a mistake (the 3rd string of the open G chord is played instead of the 4th), tries again, repeats the mistake, and in anger swears in a barely audible voice."  Well, guess what.  That's how Drew learned it.  LOL!  

PPS:  Sorry about the glare.

Baylee's School

This week's Bible class scripture memorization:

And describing an activity in Science:

Baylee is still really enjoying BJUP's distance learning program.  She even has her own little nicknames for a couple of her teachers.  She calls the one who teaches Bible, spelling, and handwriting "Mrs. O" (Mrs. Overly) and the one who teaches math "Mrs. Frankenstein" (Mrs. Frank).  I put the kabosh on the second one.

Are You Sure?

This is from Drew's history textbook.  The caption next to the picture says it's a skull of an Anasazi woman from the 1300s, and that the spear point "suggests she met a violent end."

 

Houghton Mifflin's Discover Our Heritage, pg 166

Spots

So last night it was discovered that Baylee has a weird rash that looks kinda like mild chicken pox.  That is, it looks like individual dots with little fluid-filled tops every few inches all over her torso, arms, and legs.  Mike was scratching her back and saw it first, then he called me over and we studied it.   Baylee said, "Oh, that?  I've had that since the slumber party last weekend.  I woke up with it after spending the night on their couch."  Neither Mike nor I could figure out what it was, so, of course, we googled.  After looking at some disgusting pictures of spider bites, impetigo, scabies, chicken pox (even though Baylee was immunized against that years ago), BED BUGS!!!, and the like, we decided we'd better take her in to see a doctor.  She went mid-morning today and the diagnosis was...

flea bites.  Lots and lots of them.  The doctor said it's common here in Washington, because of the long, temperate seasons.  It's also common to get them at someone else's house.  Oh, and it's common for the fleas to go after one person in a group.  Bummer, huh?  They'll go away on their own, though.  We checked our pets just  to be sure it didn't come from them, and they're fine.  Anyway, now Mike's going to have to make that awkward phone call to our friends who had her over.  (He offered.)  "Hey...umm...guess what.  Good news!  You can start a tiny circus!" 

By the way, Zach's response was, "Cool.  Is Baylee gonna have to start wearing a flea collar?"

Speaking of the dog, I took this picture of him yesterday:

He loves patches of sunlight.

And speaking of gross things on the body, today in science Drew and I watched a video about microscopic toenail fungus, since he's studying Kingdom Fungi right now.  Here's what I know:  If your toenail starts to turn yellow, white, or black, or if it crumbles and falls off, you've got a fungus problem that, take my word for it, you don't want to see under a microscope.  Get pills.

Another Conversation

This morning Mike was telling me about a floor job he did over the weekend:

"So we were trying to clean these floors, and there was pet hair everywhere..."

"Pet hair?!  See?!  That's what I hate about this dumb state!  People take their pets everywhere!"

"It was a veterinary clinic."

"Oh.  Never mind."

I've So Been There

Sunday Things

Quote of the week, possibly the year, heard at church today:  "I'm a really wet cryer."

So I mentioned a few days ago that I was doing a little experiment where I didn't use any flex or activity points, just to see what would happen.  I actually went a week and a half, and I learned that it doesn't make any difference to the speed of my weight loss.  That's good to know!  Now where did I put those cookies?

I think I've got all the bits and pieces of this Thanksgiving program nailed down.  A few phone calls here, a couple conversations there, and I've got 6 different kids doing music (a couple are groups of two, though.  Drew and Baylee will do one song, and Rory and Saryn will do a song together.) and 5 kids doing poetry and scripture readings.  That's a load off!  Although today one of the poetry readers, a boy named Ethan, asked me something that gave me pause.  He said,  "Is it okay if I do my poem while I'm dressed in a turkey costume painted green?"

Alright, I need to drop Zach off at work, and then pick up the house.

This is why I married him.

A  conversation Mike and I had yesterday when I got home from the grocery store:

"Oh, Mike, guess what.  When I was at Fred Meyer I saw a guy wearing a kilt.  I tried to get a picture of him with my cell phone, but I couldn't do is discreetly."

"Yeah, that's hard to do."

"I didn't want to make him feel like a freak, you know?"

"Well, he was the one in the kilt..."

"Because I wasn't taking the picture to say, 'Look at this weirdo!'  I was taking it because I thought he was great.  You gotta love Seattle."

"You do."

"I wish everyone wore kilts."

"Or superhero costumes with big cans of mace that look like guns."  He switched into his superhero voice and added, "Desist!  Desist!"

At this I laughed and agreed that, yes, either one of those clothing options would be awesome.

And One More Thing

Having this for breakfast was much better in theory.  Ugh.  Sugar overload.  Still, I had to do it, because I was craving those candies.  On the bright side, I worked it all into my WW plan for the day, so it won't have any negative affect except making me feel a little bit like throwing up.

Speaking of WW, I've gone down two jeans sizes now!  One more size down and I'll be back in my old "skinny" stuff from over a year ago.  My goal is to get to a place where I don't mind wearing biking shorts in public.

Weekend Edition

Really Wet Clothes

Our washing machine randomly decides once in awhile that it's not going to do its job.  It's like, "You know what?  No.  You can spin your own clothes this time.  Why don't you go spin yourself while you're at it?"

Family Life

Yesterday morning Baylee jerked her thumb sideways toward Drew and said, "He's going through puberty."

I wasn't expecting that, so I replied, "What???  Why do you say that?"

"Because," she answered, "he's not being nice right now."

Drew and I both laughed, because it's actually probably the truth.  Although in Drew's defense all he was doing was giving Baylee rabbit ears while she tried to do something with Photobooth on Mike's computer.

Sleep Over

Last night we had Kian, Zach and Drew's friend, over.  He's right in between our two boys in age, and fits in well around here.  Between the three of them they ate A LOT of food, played a lot of video games, and watched some Top Gear, too.

Look at this beautiful, colorful bunch of stuff that I turned into a green smoothie.

Add water and crushed ice, mix, and you've got something delicious!

Heaven Must Be Something Like This

You just have to watch this.  It's from the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables.  These four men all played the main part, Jean Val Jean, in different major productions over the years.  The oldest man, the one who sings first, is from the very first Les Mis that ever performed.  The fourth and last man to come in, Alfie Boe, is the one who did entire 25th anniversary concert.  They're all amazing, but Alfie Boe is breathtaking.  One of the commenters on this YouTube video said that he soars.  Yes, he does.  They're singing my favorite song from the show, a prayer called "Bring Him Home."

"Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"

The only time I get good videos of these two making music together is when they're already doing it on their own.  If I ask them to do something...nope.  It's a disaster.  Today they were coloring and just playing around, singing several different things, when they started to do this Led Zeppelin song.  I thought it was so funny and cute to hear Baylee trying to do that husky voice that I ran for the video camera and asked them to do it again.

Friday

Two people complained in the comments and someone else complained in person, so I changed the header picture.  Sheesh.  Bunch of babies.  LOL 

Yesterday Baylee told me she had a nightmare the night before.  She said, "I dreamed that it was Halloween, but we never decorated, we forgot to carve pumpkins, and when we went trick-or-treating everybody gave us carrots."  Poor kid.

This is shaping up to be a busy weekend.  Drew is having Kian over here, and Baylee is spending the weekend with her friend Lily.  Lily's family is even taking Baylee ice skating at an indoor rink.  On Sunday I REALLY need to start putting pressure on folks to get their kids involved with our church's Thanksgiving program.  Our peer group is in charge of it this year and I said I'd be responsible for the "program" part of the evening.  It seemed easy, as it's just going to be about 10 or 15 minutes of some of our kids singing, playing instruments, and reading Thanksgiving poems.  No problem, right?  Except no kids are volunteering.  My kids are going to do it and so are the kids of a couple of my friends, but that's not enough and I'm starting to get a little worried.  I'm going to have to start strong arming people praying.

Zach

I have these two pictures sitting on my computer's desktop.

Aren't they nice?  They were taken by John, one of the leaders, during last week's youth group.  I LOVE the youth group at our church and the adults who make it their ministry.  They make it a good, nurturing, loving, challenging place for our teens.

Speaking of Zach, he's still doing well in karate.  He's about to learn form 4, which is higher than he ever got at the karate school he went to in Michigan.  The other day Zach was showing me a new move, and all I could think was, holy cow, when did he become so muscular?  Yes, he's thin.  He takes after pre-marriage Mike and I, but he's really got a lot of definition.  I guess I don't notice it normally when he's slouching around here like a typical teen.  What's really weird is the very next day Mike said, "Hey, have you noticed that Zach has six-pack abs now?" and I had never said anything about my own observations.  I guess karate is paying off!

Experiment

I didn't mention it here, but I got back on track with WW awhile back and it's going well.  I'm down another jeans size.  This week I got curious and decided to see what would happen to me weight-wise if I didn't eat any of the flex or activity points.  Flex points are points over and above your normal daily allotment.  You get a certain number of them each week, and their purpose is to make it so you don't feel too constricted and give up.  Activity points are points meant to replace those lost in exercise.  Both are optional.  So far it's been five days of going without them and I have to admit I'm starting to feel it.  Yesterday was a hungry day.  Today is a hungry/I-might-kill-you day.  This may not have been a good idea.

Cat and Kid

A Successful Morning in the Life of the Cat Involves:

1.  Staring at the hamster for at least an hour.  (Hope springs eternal.)

2.  Taking a nice, cool, refreshing drink from the toilet.

3.  Sitting on someone's schoolwork and/or batting their pencil as they try to use it.

4.  And, most importantly, napping for the next eight to ten hours.

It's a hard life, but somebody has to live it.

I took this video of Baylee this morning.  She's been studying World War I in her history class and she loves it.  (Sorry I'm so all over the place with the camera right at first.  I get better after about 10 or 15 seconds.)

 

PS:  She does actually own other clothes besides that striped fleece shirt.  She just likes it.  A lot.

Monday Stuff

I picked up a new soap for the bathroom sink, and for two days after I got it I wondered what its smell reminded me of.  It's a good smell...a happy smell.  This morning I figured it out:  It smells like David's House Ministries, where Mike and I worked for 6 years.  It must be the same soap we used throughout the house there.  It makes me smile to think that even before I knew what it reminded me of, it gave me a warm feeling.  We really did love that place.

Did I ever tell you about the time Mike tried to teach one of our residents to stop taking the Lord's name in vain?  He was a delightful guy named David (the house wasn't named after him) who had Down Syndrome.  He had the bad habit, which he most likely picked up at the center where he worked,  of saying "Oh my God."  Only he pronounced it "Ohmydod."  One day he did it again, so Mike told him, "David, you shouldn't say 'Oh my God'."

"Why, Mike?" David answered.

"Because it's wrong."

"Why?"

"Because it's a sin."

"Ohmydod!"

In other news, I'm really loving the World History book I bought for Drew this year.  I got it used at a place called Homeschool Potpourri.  It's a public school textbook.

Today Drew got to read a Time magazine article, which was put right the book, called "Secrets of the Lost Tomb."  It's about a huge mausoleum that archaeologists uncovered in Egypt.  They don't know for sure, but it might be filled with the sons of the greatest pharaohs.

We also talked about "primary sources" and "secondary sources," and how both can be helpful in gaining understanding of the past.  As an example of a primary source on the topic of the terrible famines of long ago Egypt, the textbook quoted an ancient Egyptian clay tablet.  It says, "The sons, the daughters, have come to an end...Give me something to feed them...I have nothing...There is no grain for our support.  What shall I say to my peasants?...There is nothing to give for deliverance..."  Wow.

Hodgepodge

 I've got a real hodgepodge of stuff today, so bear with me.

I just heard the best sermon at my church!  It's mission week and a man named Joe Campos, whose wife I went to school with, preached.  I was blown away.  Wow.  I listened to every word that guy said.  He passionately and enthusiastically gave his testimony, then he talked about four reasons why grace is so necessary to evangelism.

Speaking of church, this morning Drew came out of his room in a t-shirt and jeans, ready to go.  I was okay with the jeans, but I told him to go put a nicer shirt on.  He replied, "But, Mom, this t-shirt is fancy!  It has a pocket in the front!"

A few nights ago I was checking on Baylee before I went to bed for the night, and while I was arranging her covers she started to talk in her sleep.  She said, "I accidentally....I accidentally....I accidentally..." (repeat that about ten more times) "lost my job thingie.  I didn't mean any harm!"  I have no idea what she was dreaming, but it was pretty cute.  I assured her that I didn't mind that she lost her job and everything was okay.

Why do men who ride bikes wear this?

I mean, really?  And, what's worse, they almost never have a shirt on underneath like the guy in the picture.  It's a cross between "I'm gonna go ride my bike!" and "I'm gonna go plow the back forty!"

I've been cleaning a Family Resource Center for months and months now.  Just this last week I realized that all those "candy jars" are actually filled with individually-packaged condoms.  Huh.  That was...unexpected.

My Crazy Family

Yesterday evening Drew made a treasure hunt for Baylee.  He thought of it and set it all up, then gave her the first clue, which said, "Defrost the next clue" in mirror writing.  She looked in the freezer and found the next clue:  "We will miss you!"  She realized right away that the clue she needed was behind the decorative plate (which says the same) that my sister gave us before we moved out here to Washington.  The clue behind the plate said, "Look under the place you enter."  She had to think about that for a minute, but finally she found a clue under the entry mat.  It was a big, hand-drawn puzzle, which, when she put it together, looked like a bunch of wine glasses.  She looked in the wine glass cupboard and found a note that said, "Ask Drew for the next clue."  He told her that there was fake money hidden around the house, and depending on how much of it she found, that's the kind of prize she would get.  She found fifty dollars worth of it and her prize was...a rock.  It was a pretty rock, but...  LOL  Oh well.  They had fun.

Awhile back I was taking Zach to karate, and he said something so funny that it made me laugh-cry.  I missed our turn because I was so distracted and literally tears were flowing, took a different turn thinking I could double back, and ended up getting lost, because the road meandered off in completely the wrong direction.  Zach was ten minutes late for his class.

One time Baylee called Mike to see when he would be home from work and Mike answered with, "I'm next to Pho Tic Tac," which is a Vietnamese restaurant a few miles from our house.  Only he said it really fast, so to Baylee it sounded like, "Iamnextto pho ticktock!"  She immediately apologized for dialing the wrong number, because she thought she'd called an Asian person who was speaking to her in a different language.

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

Yesterday when I was cleaning I found this note that Baylee wrote to Drew. I left the spelling and punctuation intact.

Dear Drew,

I would enjoy it if you would come bye my room this afternoon and help me rearange it.  Knowing that you are strong and nice I would love for you to help.

Sincerly,
Baylee

P.S. Sometime between now and 7:59 at night.

Yours till Niagra Falls,
Baylee

Ministry Flop

Do you ever feel like you just totally failed at God's work?  Pioneer Girls was such a flop last night.  We were doing a "Family of God" theme, and although one leader gave a presentation on the topic and several other leaders gave their testimonies, nobody gave a clear presentation of the gospel.  Finally it was time for Bible Exploration* at the end of the night, which is my thing, and all the girls were sent to me with this ringing in their ears:  "Now go to Miss Sue and hear her testimony!"  Tsk.  I decided on the fly that I wasn't going to do that.  The girls came to me and I said, "Here's my testimony:  I asked Jesus to be the boss of my life when I was little, and I've been in God's family ever since.  But I don't want to talk about that.  I want to tell you how you can be in God's family."  And I gave the gospel message to them.  The only thing is I crammed it into my time slot, and then I still tried to accomplish the other stuff I had planned.  I'm an idiot.  I should've let my plans go and just focused on making sure those girls know how to spend eternity with Christ.  Then the icing on the cake was that my body parts game didn't work very well.  I wondered if it would be too chaotic, and it was, but sometimes you can't know until you try.  Oh, and at the beginning of the night one of the leaders said my methods for teaching can be "cheesy."  I must have "Please tell me exactly what you think of me" written on my forehead.  

Swearing is bad, I know, but is it extra bad when it's about ministry? 


*My job is to pick out, explain, teach to the point of memorization, and play a game with a Bible verse that goes with the theme/badge of the night.

This and That

Baylee learned this song for her unit on nouns in English...

Cute, huh?  She knows one on prepositions, too.

Tonight at Pioneer Girls I'm going to talk to the girls about the body of Christ and teach them I Corinthians 12:27.  As part of that we're going to play a game in which everyone has a sign taped to their back with the name of a body part on it.  The object of the game is to find and link up with a connecting body part, like an "eye" could join with a "face" but not a "foot."  If all goes well the whole group will make one big, connected "body" by the end.  It should be fun.  It got me thinking, though, about some of the lesser known names of body parts.  Like did you know that the place where your arm bends...not the elbow, but the other side...is called the crelbow?  Now you know.

Drew has the cold we've all been passing around.  He didn't seem too upset to stay in his jammies and skip school today, despite not feeling well.

Today Zach told me about a true story he read in his Proverbs course.  A woman wanted to get rid of her boyfriend, so she greased the bathroom floor and the top of their staircase, hoping he'd slip and fall to his death.  What happened instead was she slipped on the grease, fell down the stairs, and was knocked unconscious.  When she came to, the police were there to arrest her for attempted murder.  This was used to illustrate Proverbs 1:18, which says,  "These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves!"  I don't know who wrote this course, but it definitely does a good job holding a teen's attention.

Lord, I Lift Your Name on High

Today Drew went up to Baylee with his guitar and said, "Hey, I made up a song.  I'll start playing it, and you jump in with any lyrics that you happen to think of."  Then he started, and Baylee realized right away that he was playing a church song called "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High."  She started to sing the actual words to the song, and Drew laughed and knew the jig was up.  LOL  Doofus.  Afterward, though, they asked me to download and print off the music (because Drew didn't know the chorus) and the words, and they learned how to play and sing the whole thing together.

(Baylee has a cold, so you'll have to forgive her voice a little bit.)

 

Lord, I lift your name on high

Lord, I love to sing your praises

I'm so glad You're in my life

I'm so glad You came to save us

You came from heaven to earth

to show the way

From the earth to the cross

my debt to pay

From the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

Lord, I lift your name on high

From: http://www.musicbabylon.com

That's What Friends Are For

I was telling some people about my fiasco with the super glue, and my friend Laurie said something that made me feel so much better.  She said that not too long ago she accidentally super glued something (she didn't say what and now I'm curious) to her eyebrow!!!  Awesome.  She said she "broke the connection" by rubbing it with ice until it froze, at which point she was able to crack it off and save her brow.  I can see now that I'm definitely in the "I super glued my _______ to my _______" minor leagues.

Other than that, there's not much to report.  Baylee and I have head colds.  I'm on a mission to clean all my kitchen cupboards, and today I got half the job done.  Drew is safely home from Leavenworth.  Zach had a great time at youth group tonight.  Mike started using a new soap, Dove for Men, and it smells delicious....like cologne.  Mmm.  I LOVE the smell of men's cologne.  I asked him if I could use his soap, too, but he said no.  He'd rather I didn't smell like a man.

Other Pics

These are from Baylee's slumber party.  Two of her friends couldn't come, one because of a too-early soccer game the next morning and one because of a family emergency, so it was just Baylee and Katie.  We really enjoy having Katie over.  She's such a lovely little girl.  They had a great time playing together, going in the hot tub, and watching movies.

Super Glue Castastrophe: A Story in Pictures

Today Baylee and I were going to make puppets.  Here's what happened instead.  

It started off okay, I guess.  I'm not crafty, but I found directions on Youtube and all seemed to be going well.  Baylee decided to snap some pictures.

At some point I realized the Elmer's craft glue I bought wasn't working very well, so I decided to use super glue instead.  It was great!  It really worked to make the felt pieces stick together.  Unfortunately it also made my finger stick to the tube.  I tried and tried to get it off, but it wasn't budging.  The super glue tube was now a permanent part of my body.   Mike finally had to step in to help, because I was starting to get panicky.

He grabbed hold of my hand and used a combination of nail polish remover and twisting/peeling, and the whole time I was going, "Ow, it hurts!  Stop!"

And finally he tugged, I screamed and yanked away...

and I realized it was off.

And now I'm done making stupid puppets and me and my sore finger are gonna take a nap.