Don't Roll Your Eyes at Me (aka Why I Like Mike)

The other day at Target, I was supposed to go to the Customer Service desk and pay my bill. I didn't bring the bill in with me, so I stepped out of line just as the worker lady was summoning me to come to the counter to call my husband on my cellular telephone. I stepped aside and told the man behind me that he could go because I think it is rude to be on the phone when you are conducting business with someone else. The obviously really joyfilled worker lady gave me the dirtiest look, rolled her eyes, and shook her head over what I can only interpret as her inability to understand what courtesy is. My answer was to point at her with my arm extended and say to Isabelle in a loud voice, "Izzy, do you see that lady? Now, I was trying to be considerate and let the man behind us go so I didn't have to talk on the phone while she was helping us, and because she is small minded, she rolled her eyes and gave me a dirty look instead of giving me the benefit of the doubt. That, Isabelle, is very rude behavior. Please do not grow up to act like that." While I was saying all of this, my husband had picked up his end of the telephone and listened quietly. Then HE said, "oh my gosh, can that lady hear what you are saying? You are so rude. Please stop talking." To which I cracked right up in laughter.

A super fast update

Not really an update at all.Just a quick note to say I got home a few hours ago from visiting the fam and I am tired. Also, I feel like a schmuck because I was supposed to work in the nursery this morning, only I was stuck in an airport and couldn't get home. awesome. Dana, if you are reading this, I am more sorry than I can say. I left Virginia yesterday morning at 11:02 and though I was supposed to arrive to my door around 7 last night, I got in at 5 this afternoon. awesomer. My trip was great. I am still working at taming my hair from the humidity, but I am oh so glad to be home. I missed The Man the most because he worked a ton before I left and then I was gone. He is downstairs vegging out his brain from the chaos that is five children and an only parent. That means I get to check blogs. :) I am beyond exhausted.

TwoGive and FourGet

Forgiveness is such a tricky thing. We all have to do it at some point, and we all beg for it at other times. Sometimes we aren't literally on our knees begging, but we can become consumed with needing or giving forgiveness. We dread our next meeting, we worry about running into that someone unexpectedly, we constantly play and replay the incident in our minds until we have either justified our actions or added more dramatic flair than a scene from Hairspray the musical. Or, if you are like me, you have sarcastic lines ready for anything the wrong-doer throws at you. I don't think this is how God intended me to use my gift of wit, but it happens. It then becomes up to me alone to choose my path. Both paths lead to the inevitable end where I meet Jesus, but one will take me the long way around (thanks for this phrasing Tom). I will have to crawl under things, over bumps, around rotten logs, maneuver over missing pieces in the path, and most likely stumble more than if I were on the path God originally intended for me. The good route sure may still be a little bumpy, and the Bible ensures me I will stumble at times, but this path is concise and close to God. The chances of me hearing God are far greater because there are less distractions. The path on the left offers serenity, whereas the path on the right offers obstacles. I am a great multi-tasker, but I will no doubt have a hard time focusing on God's still small voice while I am busy mumbling swears about the struggles I am going through. Okay, I am not really a swearer, but you know what I mean.
This Sunday we had a guest speaker. He isn't a guest really, but a guy who goes to our church every Sunday. I love that our Pastor chooses people like this when he is away because when you are part of the community you are speeching to, you know better what that community is going through. No vague sermon necessary. This one was all about prayer; a teaching I have heard various ways and times through my 27 years of attempting to be a Christian. My favorite part was the side bar.
Tom spoke of the Hebrews and their grumbling. The word he used is 'murmuring.' To put it not mildly, our church has been experiencing some changes and there is much murmur which, in my mind, leaves little room for prayers. Exodus tells us~ "And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD hears your murmurings which you murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD." ew. ouch. dang it. That means when we gripe rather than pray, especially about our Pastor or church happenings, we aren't really grumbling about them at all. So every time I have complained about something my church is or isn't doing, every time I think of how much better I could be doing things, and every time I sit around with my friends and roll my eyes at how much the church spent on fill in the blank, I am really saying, "God, you seriously suck at this; I could do such a better job." Pride can be so big it hurts sometimes, huh?
For weeks I have been digesting the changes and the areas that sometimes bug me at church. I felt badly at first, but then someone wise reminded me questions aren't sinful. Doubting isn't even sinful. But what I do with it can be. Another dig into my giant pride again. Sucky. I am not through this trial. I am really in the middle of it, but I am past the deciding what to do phase and on to the start-moving stage. This seems to be the one that hurts the most. But I feel in order to keep my mind focused on being a non-grumbler and support my church, God is asking me to serve more. He said I am part of the problem because I am not part of the solution. To that I roll my eyes and say whatever, because I like to pout before I obey. Now that that is done, I am going to give a little more of myself to my church through prayer, participation, and leading where God wants me. Lucky for me, my pastor is out of town so I have a few days to stew over it before I really get started.

Deep Thoughts Not at All by Jack Handy

Layla Grace is getting to be so beautiful. She has always been striking, but now that she is getting a little older, I find I can't take my eyes off that girl. My favorite part is what a total smarty pants she is. The boys aren't going to know if they love her more for her looks or her brains. Because she has done so well in her schooling at home, we had her tested for grade placement for her start in public school next month. She breezed through the first grade assessments, and the teacher said she would do great as a 2nd grader. We prayed and prayed about the right decision. God gave us our clear answer when we called the school district and they informed us she has to be seven years old before she is allowed to skip a grade. That is fine. I am grateful for the pros of her staying put. I am still worried she will be bored in first grade, but I am trusting God to place her with a challenging teacher.

My husband, the hottest fire fighter this city has ever seen has been working like crazy. I feel blessed for the overtime and the opportunity to make money when so many people are struggling, but is it selfish to just want my man home?

My little son Samuel is upstairs sleeping in his very own big boy bed. :( sniff. I can't even believe he is old enough for that, but it has been killing him not to do EVERYthing just like his big brother. Sigh. I love it, it scares me, and makes me sad all at the same time.

I get to go see my nephews in a couple of days. I would put both of them on here, but I only have the one picture of the one nephew, so for now you get to look at the greatest Sanjaya look alike EVER.
UPDATE!! I got a new picture of the boys. Here are my cutie nephews, Adam and Noah.

Under Construction

So, obviously things are spelled more wronger around here and you can't see my cute background as much as you want to heh heh. BUT Nonsense at its Finest is under construction, so bare with us. We will get things going shortly.

Such Little Faith

So, my oldest child has finally admitted she doesn't believe in our favorite, fictional, childhood characters. (Sad Sigh)No more Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Santa, none of it. And because Elijah has been ridiculously logical his entire life, I stopped beating around the bush when he asked again.

E- Mommy, tell me the truth this time. Is the Easter Bunny real?
M- What do you think?
E- That it seems not very possible that a bunny the size of a man would sneak in just to bring us candy.
M- ahahahahaa. Okay, don't hate me. The Easter Bunny is Daddy. He dresses up in a bunny costume every year and brings us candy and toys. He also sometimes works at the mall.
E- :/ What?
M- haha never mind. Are you mad that we told you he was real?
E- I haven't believed for years. I bet the tooth fairy and Santa aren't real either. You even told me magic isn't real, and if magic isn't real then Santa's sleigh can't fly and the reindeer aren't real. I believe you and you never lie to me. (death stare)
M- (mumble mumble) Daaaaadddyyyy, Eli is pressuring me!



In the end, I confessed to that tiny interrogator. We confessed everything but left Santa up to them. Layla is the only one who really believes in Santa. Eli said he will still say he believes in case Santa decides not to bring him presents lol.

Why Mike Like's Me

I got an invite to my friend's husband's 40th birthday party. As soon as I found out the theme was the 80s, I headed to Savers. awesome. obviously, you can see that I was the best dressed Jane Fonda at the party. I even won a prize. OBVIOUSLY!

TOOOO SOUR!!

AHAAAHHAA This picture was followed by the world's biggest shudder. Eli was trying out these crazy sour candies. I tried one because I love and tolerate sour candy well and couldn't finish it. Well, he is a boy and had to be the winner so he grabbed the blue ones, which are the worst. In fact, there is so much sour seasoning on them, they taste terrible. I didn't get a picture of Mike's grandma trying hers, but it was priceless.

Typical

Today was typical at the BrewCrew pad:

pitter patter of feet around 7:30 (Sam of course)
I laid in bed, read my bible (Galatians 4)
made my grocery and errand lists
slooowly got out of bed only because the call of coffee had me at hello
The Man got home from work after a trip to the gym
I drank my coffee on the front porch and watched Layla and Sam color chalk
Took the big girls with me to UPS to mail a violin
to Home Depot
to G and G nursery
to the GameStop
to Target
to Walmart
back to Home Depot
to Whole Foods for a quick run through and lunch (yum)
then home.
We planted a tomato and pepper plant
colored more chalk prints
cleaned a little (a very little because that is boring)
made dinner of cold cut sandwiches with the works, a veggie tray, and chips
then we let the kids figure out how to get into the coconut I picked up at the store
we all took very small samples and decided we like the smell better than the flavor
Once the kids were in jammies, I read to them from Isabelle's book for a bit while The Man tried out his new commercial grade power pump for the weeds out front.
Prayers then tucked in the kids
As usual, I ended my day with homework and parusing the blog world with the man watching tv by my side. Goodtimes.
My favorite saying came from Addison, "Layla, I will give my cucumber if you stop being so gruuumpy. OR I will give you this Cheetoh off the ground." We were very giggly.

AH Love

It reads: 'You look like an angel.'
'You look like you want something from me.' lol

I Did It!

I am teaching a summer time bible study. Sorry boys, it's for girls only, but if you have wives that are interested, let me know. It will all take place on another blog I have set up. Each Sunday I will post some of the questions and info we would cover at a normal weekly meeting, and everyone will have a chance to leave their comments and questions. We are studying the fruits of the spirit starting with Love. You can check out the book at Christian Book. I love that the whole thing is only six weeks long. Easy to bite off for everyone involved. I also love that I can do this study now with my friends who live far away. Thanks friends. Anyhoo, any of you girls interested? Just let me know. I need your email address so I can send you an invite.

Layla's Birthday pics

I know her birthday was in March, but most of YOU don't know that lol. Anyhoo, her birthday fell on one of The Man's work days, but we celebrated anyway by singing Happy Birthday over Hostess Cupcakes. MMMMM yummo. Then over the weekend Layla got to invite a friend to go on a girl's only shopping trip. Of course we stopped by Starbucks first for a pick me up.


Then we shopped and shopped and shopped a little more stopping to try on a bazillion outfits.



These were a few of my favorites





We finished up with lunch at the favorite, Hot Dog on a Stick. It was a great day, and my little girl is six years old now. Now I need to get pictures of her unbelievably cute new Aline bob. Dang it she is cute!

The BrewCrew on Green

Red is usually my favorite color, but lately I have been challenged to go a little greener. We (as in me) have come up with a few things to make our budget a little more comfortable, our house alittle less toxic, and try being a good steward of the earth we claim to love. I have always been a tree hugging hippie at heart, but lately I have felt a little like a talker rather than a do-er.


I want to put my green where my mouth is, so this is what we (as in me) came up with:

No more disposable water bottles- we invested three bucks into reusable water bottles.

No more paper towels- except for windexing, we use cloth towels.

No more paper napkins- cloth napkins.

Keeping it Clean- we are making our own household cleaners. My kids have successfully wasted my money with store bought cleansers and I am always freaked out Sam is going to get ahold of them. So we (as in me) made everything non toxic. Even our furniture polish and airfresheners.

Easy on the air conditioner- hopefully we can afford to get fans soon, but for now, we will just pray for a breeze.

Easy on the gasoline- prompted by an article I read this week, we are following a local Rabbi's lead and not driving at least one day a week. This one is going to be a doozy to stick to, but even if we succeed one day a month, I will save about 20 bucks!

Grocery bags are a thing of the past- despite the heavy sighs I got when the Raley's lady had to ring up my unbagged fruit, I am no longer using plastic bags for my fruits and veggies OR for my groceries. We (as in me) purchased reusable bags from Costco, and I keep them in my trunk at all times. I am in the market for smaller ones for quick grocery store and farmer's market trips.

Farmer's Market, here we come- I am a proud supporter of local and nearby farmers. We will be attending more often.

Keep it cold- All of our appliances are set to smart wash and we now do all of our laundry in cold water. I am even hoping to hang a clothes line to lessen our need for using the dryer.

Plastic v Plastic- Because I am too lazy to look for the lid I am certain I won't find, I usually put many left overs into plastic ziploc bags. I am going to do a run through on our tupperware and use them more often.

For some more ideas visit my new favorite website

http://www.treehuggingfamily.com/

My Baby

When we found out we were pregnant with Layla Grace so soon after having Eli, I hate to say I was without happy words. Elijah was very sick as a peanut, and I was holding the fort as a single mom while my husband worked his tail off to provide for our family working 7 days a week and crazy hours. I struggled with God mentally the way Jacob wrestled with the angel. I couldn't understand how I was supposed to handle my husband gone so much, a newborn baby I was certain on some nights may not make it to the morning, a four year old, and now a new baby. I was angry and paranoid. I kept thinking, 'what if God is giving us this new baby because Eli is not going to make it?' After checking all of my options, I felt helpless enough to turn to God. He lead me right to the story of Hannah. It is such a short story, but one I am affected by every time I read it now. By the time I finished the story I was weeping and I knew we were supposed to name our new baby Samuel. Then we had our ultra sound and Samuel wasn't even in there! God healed my Elijah, Layla Grace was born, and we moved to Reno. Pregnant again, I was certain THIS was our Samuel. I prayed, reread the story meant just for me, and we had our ultra sound. Samuel was NOT even in there. Hmmm. Who even knew there would be one more. God HAD given us the name Samuel. I was certain of it. When we finally found our Samuel in our last ultra sound, our family seemed finished. So many times I whined and cried and yelled and mocked and was angry and hateful and disrespectful to my husband because I couldn't understand why he wouldnt go in for his vasectomy. I was mad he was not holding up what I thought should automatically be his end of the bargain. Hadn't I done enough? Instead, God allowed my husband to decide when my husband thought our family was complete. And because The Man didn't rush into something just because I thought it was best, we were finally blessed with our Samuel. Samuel Fisher was born two years ago today. We celebrated his birthday over ice cream sundaes and a movie in the back yard last night. I am so glad God knew what we wanted more than we did.

Summer Break

So far summer break has been a whirlwind of laziness. We have had some company, some good times, some bad times, but mostly just laziness. I don't get summer break from school, but not having to take Isabelle to school every morning at 7:15 is the best from of vacation I can even think of right now. Our first week of true summer laziness has included:
our homemade summer reading program (the kids are loving it and have read for 15 hours each so far!)
Watching movies
breakfast with Nanna at IHOP
playing at the park
running in our neighborhood

trying out the YMCA that just opened near my house
building a sweet ramp for bikes and scooters and a neighborhood full of kids
planting flowers
killing flowers we didn't realize were shade flowers
nursing an apple tree (not quite like the way Pastor Greg nursed his babies)
whining about not being able to put in a real garden like last year
the farmer's market
spending time with friends
spending time with family
Nanna taking my kids far far away so I can veg on the couch and do nothing
applying for scholarships
praying, dreaming, praying some more for clarity
a little crying
a lot of laughing
a trip to the library
lots of laundry
trading beds with our friends (possibly my favorite thing)
FINALLY realizing how I want to decorate my master bedroom
breaking the zzzzz key on my keyboard (you have no idea how long it took me to type those z's)
sleeping with the windows open
waking up to birds chirping
waking up to saws whirring and hammers doing what they do best
discovering nature trails at Frenchmen's
sidewalk chalk and
late night BBQs while vegging on our front porch and loving my ideal life.
Anything exciting in your first week of summer break?

Ten Things I Love

the library
wild flowers
My red cell phone (mostly because it is red)
socks
smelly good lotion that doesn't make me sneeze
watching movies in bed
music
singing musicals randomly with my kids
my husband
quoting movies and TV shows with friends

Yard Work

Here are some yard pics. This is a before picture. Already our yard is prettier because our neighbors put a white fence between our yards. A little enjoyment for no money at all. We added burning bushes, a burning maple tree, and some flowers and herbs for some color. The Man brought home treasures from the river by way of huge pieces of driftwood that add a nice rustic touch to the front yard. Plus, the association put in a tree by our front sidewalk and as soon as the house next door is finished construction, we will have a gas lamplight out front. We are still adding to it, but our front yard is looking great. The kids and I planted a couple things this morning in hopes of filling the planter box near the front porch including sunflowers, a couple pumpkins, wild flowers and a small mound in the corner for cucumbers.







I love being at the end of the cul-de-sac. All the kids seem to accumulate here.

Pictures at the Park

These pictures make me so happy. I hope you feel the happiness, too. This is my Sam I Am, my baby.