8-6-7-5-3-0-9

My brain was shocked into life this morning at the sound of a number. Not the sound of a crashing car, not a baby crying, not a news story of gun shots, just a simple seemingly harmless number.

109.

Seems innocent enough....I guess it wasn't the poor number's fault but the combination of it and the word that followed. Degrees. Yes, 109 degrees is supposed to be the heat index today. When I was pulling out of the garage this morning I had just turned on the radio and that was what greeted me. I started sweating just thinking about it even though I was driving in air conditioned comfort. I do know intuitively that you reach a point where hot is hot and a few extra degrees doesn't make a difference but there is something just wrong about a three digit temperature. And I love how they try to make it sound so benign by saying things like "well the high should only be 99...it will just FEEL like it is 109". Okay seriously, two things bug me about that statement. A: the use of the word "only" like 99 is just a perfectly reasonable temperature that no one should be complaining about - perrrrfectly comfortable - I wish it was 99 ALL the time!?!? And 2: Someone please explain to me the necessity of the heat index. I mean do any of us really care what the actual temperature is - no - we just want to know how we are going to feel in that temperature. If the actual temperature was 70 but the heat index was 109 - it isn't like we would wear a jacket!?! I know I know, I live in Texas and heat comes with the territory...I just think that the weather guy should quit trying to sugar coat it with an actual temperature and just give it to me straight - I'm a big girl I can handle it. So it's gonna feel like 109 today??....okay...I think I'm going to cry! (so much for the big girl).

Isn't it Ironic...

Aside from Alanis' angry side, I did think the title was appropriate for this blog as my dear husband and I spent the greater portion of the weekend cleaning the house (wait for it)..... before the cleaning lady comes this week. I don't have a regular house keeper but since I am hosting 13 people for a scrapbook retreat this coming weekend we decided to call in some reinforcements to get things squeaky clean. Having never used a cleaning lady in my life, I don't know if this is just common practice but while "picking up" before she comes makes complete sense, "cleaning" seems a little counterintuitive - no? I know I should never complain about my husband's propensity for cleaning but it did strike me as funny when I asked him about what he was doing and his response was "well I just want things to be clean when she gets here"...and by "she" - he of course meant the cleaning lady who by definition sees houses NOT clean all the time. The even funnier part, if you knew us, is that our house stays pretty put together all the time since the two adults living there are a neat freak and a wife of one. The one task that doesn't get done as often as it should is the dusting. While I can come home on any given day to find fresh vacuum lines on the floor, his idea of dusting is waving a rag in the general direction of the dust and hoping that the dust actually jumps on in the nano-second that the rag is there. Now I have heard of dust "wands" that are supposed to "attract" the dust but hmmm....just call me skeptical! I tried to think of other ironic/futile things we do like cleaning before the cleaning lady comes and here where the things that I came up with:

1. Showering in Texas in the middle of August (I mean you're just gonna walk outside of your room and sweat right!?!?)
2. Touching a hot plate at a restaurant after someone just told us "this plate is hot" (don't know if this is ironic - or just stupid but we all do it!)
3. Reading the book before you go see the movie (this is just one I have never personally understood because either way you are ruining the other one - right??)

So what am I forgetting? What are some of your favorites? Help me with this list.....

Hello...is it me you're looking for?

Yes I'm back to the music titles...and I thought that not only was the title appropriate since I have been slacking on my writing lately but also thought that this time of morning, a little Lionel Richie sounded easy on the ears. I am in the midst of life right now, nothing exciting per say, just the busy pace of working full time, taking care of two kids and a husband, and trying not to fall asleep standing up or "bark" too loudly at random strangers. I did have a small funny story to share...well at least it was funny to me, maybe a little bit sad, but funny. I digress...

My schedule is a little strange...I am trying to maintain full time status at my engineering firm, so in order to have a day at home with the kids on Friday, I go into work Monday through Thursday at a little before 6:00 am (which with my commute means waking at the ghastly hour of 4:30). I leave the office at 5:00 pm in order to pick the kids up by 6:00, since that is when their school closes. Since I would be arriving home about 6:15 to even start to cook something for dinner and since the hubby isn't due home for another hour and a half (hence leaving me to wrangle the two kids - while cooking), I have been known to find dinner somewhere a little more convenient than our kitchen. My need to give you all of that background just goes to show you that I do have a little bit of guilt for not performing my wife/motherly duty of providing sustenance for the family. On to the funny part of the story (seriously people, I have a wordiness and clearly a focus problem!).

So I picked the kids up from school and I knew I had some chicken thawed in the fridge so I was mapping out in my mind what I was going to cook and how to feed the baby and not give him a little salmonella with his baby food. As we pulled away and headed home, my four year old calls from the back seat "Momma can we go eat Chili's??” While I did think to myself that a Mesquite Chicken Salad sounded mighty tasty, I knew that I should cook what I had at home so I replied "No sweetie, we aren't going to eat at a restaurant". To which he seemed to instantly turn from 4 into a 14 year old and said "No Mom, I mean CURB-SIGHT TO GO". I had to bite my lip to contain the laughter...first that he was so adamant about it and second that he would even know what curbside pick up was...even though to him it was curb "sight". I squelched my laughter to just a chuckle and said "Clearly buddy - you eat out waaaaay too much".

From the mouths of children - I swear! They keep us honest don't they?? Honest...and humored!

Just Stop!

I was reading another blog this morning and a good portion of it really struck me as something that I needed to hear and I thought everyone else could use too! Now my "stop it" moments are not necessarily in the primary examples that were given but I sure have them.

Sometimes we just need to STOP IT. Just plain stop it. We don't need to keep praying over it. We don't need to keep deliberating it. We don't need one last shot at it. We don't need five more years of counseling over it. We flat need to stop it. Like, for instance,

*If we're married and we're flirting with somebody at work (calling it harmless), we need to stop it.

*And, Lord have mercy, if any of us are having affairs, we need to stop it NOW. With every second that goes by, the consequences are mounting. Please do not let the enemy trick you into thinking you're getting away with it. You're not. Don't rationalize it. Don't tell me what a jerk your husband is and how you're finally in love for the first time. Get some fear of God and stop it.

*If we're being a brat about something, we need to stop it.

*If we're still punishing somebody for what they did to us, we need to stop it. Enough is enough. Let God deal with them.

*If we're trying to do God's job with somebody, we need to stop it. No Scripture says it more succinctly and exactly than Isaiah 1:16b: "Stop doing wrong." Hear the voice of God say, "I've warned you and warned you and warned you. STOP IT." I say this as a woman to whom sometimes a brief, "STOP IT NOW!" works better than anything.

I know I needed that - how about you?

Me, I've been a long time gone...

Forgive the music reference once again in the title...it is just the way I am wired. Seriously people if they taught engineering classes to music, I probably would have enjoyed college a WHOLE lot more...and done a whole lot better at it! At any rate, I'm sure you've been wondering where I took off too...or maybe you haven't (let's not be too narcissistic here) but I have missed my blogging. After nine days away from home, seven of which were spent traveling by myself with a 7 month old and a 4 year old a total of 27 hours and 1650 miles in the car - I'm feeling a little like I need a vacation from my vacation. I could post a thousand pictures and tell a thousand blog worthy stories from our trip, but to be quite frank - I'm tired. The thought of having nothing on the agenda for this weekend just sounds heavenly. Okay well not "nothing"...speaking of heavenly, my oldest son will be attending Vacation Bible School for the first time. Brings back a flood of memories for me....I just LOVED to go to VBS as a kid. That was probably because nothing could have been geared more towards me - I mean c'mon people, aside from the Bible teaching, which granted is the most important part, VBS can basically be divided up into three categories: 1. Snacks (food - good, like it) 2. Crafts (yep, that's me, love it) 3. Music (um hello - perfect!, teach me anything). It should be fun for me...oops I mean him (wink wink). I will post pictures of it (and everything else) as soon as I can. Did I mention that I came home to a husband with mono?!? Hmmmm....I wonder if there is a church around here who has VBS for adults!?!?