Happy Birthday, Tyler!

I wish I had a ton of baby photos uploaded onto my computer. I want the whole world to see how cute you were as a baby, and to know how marvelous you are now!



This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

Today, you are twenty years old. I have cherished each day with you! (Yes, even when you were eleven. You were pretty rough then, but you still had your moments of kindness and gentleness.)


I love your playfulness. I wonder if all your friends know about it? Do they know how you stood in line at Lil' 500, even though you've already worked there for three years, and started chanting, "Go karts! Go karts!" like an excited little kid?


Do they know how sweet you are to your sisters? It's no wonder your sisters adore you and would give you the world. I'm so thankful that even when things are tough, you don't take it out on them. Or, if you do, your apology is quick and sincere. They feel so safe with you and are so confident in your love.

It is my greatest treasure.



Do they know how you helped me win at the Mother/Son Road Rally? You coaxed me onto the track (I didn't want to ride in the rain. You convinced me it was only sprinkling.). You saw me take the lead. While I was racing as fast as I could, you were behind me, making sure I stayed in front. I even got to drive a victory lap with the checkered flag! Go Team W!
I am so thankful your tumultuous teens are behind you, though I wouldn't change a day of your hard work and spiritual growth. Every incident shaped you into the man you are today; a man of integrity who seeks the Lord, strives to know His will, and blesses others. Where I am quick to criticize others, you are quick to sympathize. I've taught you so much, but now I find myself learning from you.


My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will indeed rejoice. My innermost being will cheer when your lips say what is right. Psalm 23:15-16


With your father and myself, there is much cheering and rejoicing because of you.

You are greatly loved.


Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

From our Anniversary

I'm finally able to upload all the pictures from our anniversary weekend. Warning: There are a ton of them! We really had a great day and while it's hard to leave my kids at any time, I'm glad we did.





We spent the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's one of the smaller parks but so interesting! The animals and shows are incredible, and they threw in enough rides to keep the younger crew entertained.



Our friend Greg works mainly at this park. He got us in for free. It was hilarious talking to him about the rides (more on that later). We almost didn't want to hear the "insider" remarks! Let us just pretend it's all real, all right? :-D


Animal Kingdom has an Asian side and an African side. Since there's a new ride in the Asian side, we headed there first.



We were there pretty early. There were hardly any people.



One thing I appreciate about Disney is the great effort they put in to make everything look authentic. You can't turn your head in any direction without seeing something marvelous and picture ready.


Every item is purposely placed to look like you're in a village in Asia. The craftsmanship and artwork are amazing. Greg said many items were actually shipped from Tibet.


This is the new ride; Expedition Everest.
You see the wait time is maybe 10 minutes. There was SO MUCH to see in this line (museum quality) that for the first time, I wished the line were longer. We walked quickly past all these amazing artifacts! The ride itself is one you don't want to miss . . . I won't give anything away by describing it.

One hysterical note: While talking to Greg, he told us, "The Yeti isn't working."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, he's supposed to roar and move and really reach out to take a swipe at you as you go past. However, his shoulder is broken and the hips aren't moving. Instead of all this fabulous motion, you just get a stiff-armed wave and a roar."

In the four-tenths of a second that we see this Yeti, we never would have known. Since we DID know, we busted up when we saw it.


After Expedition Everest, we walked around the part of Asia where the animals were.

I encourage you to click on these photos to really get a look at them! We were looking at these sleepy tigers when suddenly a little girl was accidentally tripped by her mother and cried out. The tiger instantly woke from his stupor and was on full alert, causing all of us observers to gasp.
We heard a little girl cry out. He heard, "Weak. Helpless. Prey."



In the above picture, he is already "standing down" and figuring that he'll have to wait for dinner to be brought to him as usual. In the picture below, he was back to being a bored animal. For a split moment though, he was majestic.




The entire time we're walking through this area, it's made to look like we're expeditionary hikers in Tibet.






In actuality, we were as touristy-looking as we could be.
Is it wrong to wear a Snoopy hat in a Disney park? I didn't think so, either!



We entered a bird sanctuary. I mainly took these for Dave R., but he has a much better camera and would have gotten better shots. Again, click on the photos to enlarge.





We went to a free-flying bird show. During the show, a handler quietly took his place behind Himself with a hand full of meat. This gorgeous hawk swooped right at us and knocked Himself's hat with his feet! I was too stunned to get a picture; I should have just used vide.


This was a cool-looking owl.


Macaws and some sort of vulture? These were at the end of the show where we could come up and take pictures.


This is the Himself, a flightless bird with a strange ear-appendage. Charming and humorous, it can be found in city dwellings.
The only mar to our weekend was this mandetory conference call he had to take. The bird show theater had emptied so he was on this call. I couldn't believe how politely the Disney staff got us to leave so they could prepare for the next show. The manager came over and asked if we had any questions about anything in the park and asked if he could be of assistance. We chatted for a little bit and he never let on that he was in any hurry or trying to get rid of us.

That's when we noticed that they're all kind of waiting for us to leave and everyone else had gone. Oops!


We found a quiet picnic table where Himself could finish his call. While waiting, he pointed something out to me.


This is the part where you DON'T laugh because I can't figure out how to turn the pictures back the right way. These little girls were staring at something in the bushes.


I went over to get a closer look, startled, then started snapping pictures. Click on the picture, turn your head sideways. Do you see it?


This woman was dressed in . . . ivy. Her face was painted perfectly to match the ivy and blend in with her costume. She moved exactly like a plant would move when you watch an elapsed time video, creeping and twisting herself among the plants.


She's walking on stilts and has poles/canes for her hands. She would stretch herself toward the sun and then stop and freeze, looking exactly like a plant in the middle of the sidewalk.


I cracked up at all the people following her. I wonder how many families have ME on their photos? :-D


Here you can see her head tilted back. What you may not realize is that the "branch" extended above her head is actually her LEG.



This little girl was so adorable! She was so fascinated by this man in native costume (we're in the Africa section now) and she would shyly wave to him. He was obviously as tickled by her as we were.


In Africa, we went on safari. Here the guide is telling us that there are two very important rules we must remember while on safari.
One: Keep your limbs, head, body, inside the vehicle at all times.



Two: I can't remember what two was. But I know it was really important.
Here, the driver said something amusing. When on a Disney safari, it's great how you immediately become friends with the strangers around you. The lady next to Himself is looking at him to share the joke.


African savannah or heart of Orlando? Great job, Disney! There's probably animals in this photo. I told myself I wouldn't take a ton of animal photos. I only took a half-ton.


King Louie! Who else but the Jungle Book characters should be at Animal Kingdom? (Oh, and Lion King.)



I'm sorry, but meerkats are stinkin' cute. They. Just. Are.


Himself checking out the sliverback gorilla.


Here's a sighting that wasn't so rare: Homosapien Exhaustus.


This is where we stayed overnight. Huge and sprawling, it was a nice hotel with plenty to see and do.


Do I even have one photo of him where he's not touching his phone? I'll have to work on that! Seriously, he made a supreme effort NOT to be on the phone this weekend. He was actually snapping photos with it.

Thanks again Greg G, for a wonderful weekend!

A Desperate Attempt

As I'm heading to bed late last night, I guess someone figured he had one last chance.

Ty: Mom?

Me: Hmmm?

Ty: Ben's letting me ride his motorcycle on I-4 tomorrow.

Me: What?!? Are you wearing a helmet?

Ty: April Fools!

Me: I didn't even think it was running . . . .

Kelly: I knew something was up. Why would Ben do that? And I-4?



***Note: Ty has had his motorcycle license for a while. I told him his grandmother needed to be in her grave before he bought one. I'm thinking I may need to be in mine as well. ***

April . . . No Foolin'!

It has been a great break from blogging and from the computer, though I admit I didn't break as much as I had hoped. Still, I've gained fresh insight, caught up on the laundry, and am determined to finish school well!

Today is a nervous day for me. After almost 20 years of "getting" Tyler with a joke on April Fool's Day, he's now figuring out that it's possible to pull one over on Mom. Last year he called me from Walmart and said he'd been in a car accident (he wasn't). This year, I'll try to be on my guard while figuring out a way to keep my prankster position as number one.

I'll let you know what pans out.

Great to be back! Now to scan through the 400 some-odd blogs that I've missed!

Announcing . . .

. . . Baby H!

James Eli H was born at 11:50 this morning. 8 lbs 5 oz, and 22 in. His elated father is already using adjectives such as, "awesome" and "cutest ever!"

Thank you for your prayers!

This Couple . . .

. . . is in labor! This is our youth pastor, Josh, and his lovely wife, Kimberly.



I broke my blogging "fast" to ask for prayer for the safe delivery of their firstborn, James.

Please pray for them! :-)

March

I have a bunch of pictures I wanted to share and a bunch of blogs I wanted to write.

Our church elders have asked us to set apart the month of March for prayer and fasting, praying for our church's future and direction.

In March, I will be fasting from the computer. Other than checking email because of school-related issues, I will not be blogging, nor reading blogs, nor watching TV shows on line, nor checking facebook, etc. (In fact, I'm writing this on Saturday and scheduling it to post on Sunday, March 1st.)

See you guys in April!

Mornin'

A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning
will be taken as a curse! - Proverbs 27:14



My mother used to vacuum the house at 7 in the morning.


SATURDAY morning.

SEVEN.


As a teen, this was the worst form of torture she could ever inflict. At the time, I was going to cosmetology school from 7:30 am to 4 pm, would come home and change uniforms, then go to work at Arby's until 10:30 or 11:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Since I basically had my "second wind" by 10 pm and was pumped full of caffeine, I had a terrible time getting to sleep at night. 3 am, 2am, I would be reading a book or just staring at the ceiling. Blinking. When I finally did fall asleep, morning came too quickly.

I sometimes worked on the weekends, but I didn't have to go to school on Saturday! This was my morning to sleep. Glorious, wonderful, sleep!

Mom got up at the crack of dawn every weekday morning. She was awake at 5, out the door before sunrise, and came home around 4 pm. To her, 7 o'clock was sleeping in! Why, 7 am was the perfect time to vacuum the house!


Fast forward to 2009.

Ty has classes on Mondays and Wednesdays that start at 7 am. The rest of the week, he has to be at work downtown by 8 am. Saturday is the only day he has to sleep a little, since on Sundays he's at the church before 8 to practice music for the Sunday service. He likes to stay up a little later on Friday nights and watch a movie, because he knows he gets to sleep. Glorious, wonderful, sleep!

Imagine my horror when Himself gets up on the roof this morning and starts pounding and hammering and knocking off some of the rotted wood, all before 9 am.

Not only is it too early in the morning, it's too early, period! Our roof is scheduled for repair on March 11-14 according to the church calendar. Himself is two weeks early on this.

The first outraged child down the stairs was Glenna. Of course, all anger is spewed at me, the mom.

What on earth is going on?

Don't you yell at me, Miss! I'm not the one on the roof!

Tyler did have to have a haircut at 10 this morning. While Himself was still trying to defend his choice of chores and the hour, Ty stumbled down the stairs.

I get up at the crack of dawn every stinkin' day except Saturday, my only day to sleep a little, and someone's pounding outside my window . . . .

I feel for you hon. I feel for you.

Would You Say that to a Stranger?

I love to interact with strangers.


I've noticed this is a habit that completely embarrasses my son, so I try not to do it when he's around. For example:

This morning I was at the store and needed more tea. There was gruff-looking, construction-type man already in the tea aisle, trying to find something he liked. I don't care much for Bigelow tea, so I was searching for the limited ones I was allowed to drink (peppermint and Rooibus, no citrus) in the other brands.

He was at one end, I was at the other, and we were slowly walking toward the center.

At the point where we needed to go around each other, I hollered out, "SWITCH!"

Just as quickly, he hollered, "SWITCH!" and we both jumped to exchange places. I found my tea and we both parted with smiles.

I love that!

Kelly's catching on to it, but Ty would have given me a stern lecture after we left, although he's learning that this can even be appropriate.

Kelly made an observation the other day, stating, "Mom, what happened to us? We used to be so loud and fun, and now we're a very quiet family."

I encouraged her to be loud and fun! I know that for myself, I had to tone things down a bit when I noticed it embarrassed my son. Now that he's at a less-easily-embarrassed age, we can turn the volume up a notch.

'Natch. :-)

Helping

Before Himself and I were married, I went to visit him in the desert of California. He was working a job site, so I eagerly offered to help him.

He gave me a small pail of paint and a brush and invited me to brush some bi-fold doors covering an outdoor laundry closet. Great! Let's Work!

I painted one edge of a door without incident. I wasn't a complete rookie - I had painted doors at my high school as a band project after all - and I felt good about my accomplishments.

Turning to paint the second door, everything was going smoothly until I bent to get a lower part of the door edge. BUMP! I realized my rear had bumped the edge of the door I painted previously.

I immediately turned with my brush to touch up any mark I had made. BUMP! My other "cheek" hit the door I had just painted.

You read that right; both cheeks had paint on them now.

Himself came over, removed the pail and brush from my hands and requested, "Stop helping me."

We kept those shorts for a while because it was so hilarious.

After that, I was regulated to jobs that didn't involve actual painting. Few people realize how vital the "other" jobs are. Young children are especially amusing; when we hand them sandpaper, putty, or masking tape, their faces fall. "But, I want to paint." My dear, this IS painting!


Glenna is under no such illusions! You 'oughta know better, you're a the painter's kid! I had to smile when I received these photos from my friend Sharon. Glenna and Himself went to paint doors for them.



Here's Himself near the doors. Here's Glenna far from the doors.
He stands the doors up in the garage and attaches a thin piece of wood to the top of each one, forming screens out of the doors. This way they stand the entire time and he doesn't have to wait for one side to dry before he does the other. Brilliant!



Why is she just standing there, holding the spray line?




This, actually, is a tremendous help to any painter in a "spray zone" and doing production work.
As he moves among the doors, Glenna's role is to watch the spray line. She holds onto it to keep it from snagging or tangling on anything. She also keeps one eye on the pump and makes sure the paint doesn't get too low. Having the pump suck air will make for spurts eventually coming from the gun. A good line watcher will quickly run and dump more paint in, then run back and watch the line again.

There's nothing more frustrating for a sprayer to get in a groove, only to have his movements hindered by the spray line snagging on something. If you're not paying attention and the line gets snagged, you'll hear an angry, Line! shouted by the sprayer. Oops! I'll stop watching the butterflies, dear . . .

He also needs to time his movements and coatings with the amount of paint left in the bucket - especially if there may not be enough to cover everything. He needs to stop in a spot that wouldn't be conspicuous, like having half a door finished.


I helped Daddy paint the doors today, Momma!

Really? Did you watch the line for him?

Yep!

Atta girl!

A "helper" (as in a non-sprayer) also does a lot of prep work. Sanding doors, masking floors, puttying holes - they do everything they possibly can ahead of time so the sprayer doesn't have to stop. If prepped correctly, a sprayer can blow through a room in no time and finish an entire one-story building before lunch!

The results from his and Glenna's efforts are these beautifully painted doors:

Now that's what I call painting!


Oh I wish I were a Spray Man
A spray gun in my hand man
I wouldn't have to work much
Just pull the trigger and wait for lunch . . . .

-Himself, sometime in the 80's, when his brother Dan was spraying and he was the line watcher.

The Squids

As my friend BA pointed out, the kids had a great time while Himself and I were away!


First, they had to go to Dinner A'Fare and get our meals. Thankfully, Jessie and her mother were there with Jessie's camera!

They did a great job of putting our meals together for the next two weeks. It has been interesting to prepare the meals only by the directions. When I prepare them, that's the first time I'm seeing them. Still works!

Tyler was impressed with the Dinner A'Fare facilities. He found them neat, efficient, and orderly.




At some time during their travels, they met up with Jessie and her charge at a pottery place before going to Park Ave.






Then, I'm guessing they ate somewhere.
Glenna says Ty kept putting the camera in Kelly's face for "close-ups," hence the wince.



This one's a favorite!
Glenna laughed when she saw it. Jessie got to experience first-hand how difficult it can be to get a decent picture of Ty! First he protested, then he denied the need for the photo, then he somehow manipulated Glenna into knocking her water over (which had to be cleaned up), then he gave a fake smile. Finally, she got a great photo! Welcome to my world, Jess!




Lastly, after Himself and I came home, Ty headed off to a Valentine's celebration with his girl.
He made the candle holder in Jessie's hand! Out of metal at his shop! Surrounded by "dudes" who were sure to mock! Then, they attended a symphony!


See why I wasn't worried about anything?

Traitor

He actually brought them into my house.

Girl Scout Cookies.


I am ashamed.

Taking Names

Glenna: Mom, why do people sit in the chairs outside the sanctuary on Sundays?

Me: What do you mean? Like whom?

Glenna: Like Mr. B or sometimes Mr. (other)B.

Me: Perhaps they're waiting for latecomers, to welcome them and help them find a seat.

Glenna: When I was little, I used to think they were writing down the names of people who walked in the halls during the sermon and would tell the pastor later.


Let that be a lesson to all of you. They're taking names!

What's This?

Can anyone tell me what this is?

Himself dug it out when he was painting The Mexican Side Dish. It obviously looks like some type of frame, but we have no idea what it would be for. It's made mostly of aluminum.







Maybe somebody who reads this blog, and also knows the former owners of this house, could give us a clue?

Weekend Plans

Friday: A visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom with Himself.
(free admission. Thanks, Greg!)

Friday Night: Staying at a Disney Resort.
(Major discount. Thanks again, Greg!)

Friday Night: Dinner out.
(We won't break the budget)

Saturday Morning: Sleeping in, relaxing by the pool.
(Included. Didn't even buy a new swimsuit.)

Sunday: 23 years of marriage to my beloved.
(Priceless.)


This anniversary weekend is brought to us by three amazing children, who are taking over Mom and Dad's chores for the weekend.
(Thanks Ty, Kelly, and Glenna!)