Now We Wait......

After dealing with several symptoms for about a year and a half, I've come to suspect that my thyroid is slacking in it's duties, so I finally made an appointment and had some blood taken today. Hopefully this will confirm my thoughts and not reveal something more serious.

Saving It For Later

I apologize in advance to my mother-in-law for the subject of this blog.

There is a great tradition of gum chewing on my mother's maternal side. Even my great-grandmother, Hazel Sander, enjoyed the habit, although she never learned to blow a bubble until her late seventies. I was witness to the event during a visit to my great-grandparents' home in Lincoln, Nebraska. I believe that was the same trip in which she climbed over a booth at a restaurant, but that's another story. Each year while visiting family in Michigan, I could be assured of seeing a ceramic ring holder sitting on the top of Ma's rolltop desk. It was rarely used for it's intended purpose however, instead one could usually find it holding a wad of gum being saved for further use. My mother also carried on the tradition at my childhood home, rolltop desk and all. These days, my mom's desk resides at my house but more often than not you will find my gum wads, not there, but on the dash of my van. My oldest, Jubal is following in the family footsteps. A couple years ago I opened the freezer to find a mass of purple bubble gum the size of a baseball behind my frozen chicken. The most recent treasure was discovered today on Jubal's top bunk while helping Nolan clean in the boys' room. I'm QUITE sure that I don't want to know how long this work of art has been sitting up there. I've included a photo for your enjoyment.

Boys

This afternoon, I walked into the living room to find my 14 and 11 year old being chased around by the four year old who was throwing his two blankets at his brothers while yelling "hamburger!". Sometimes it's best not to ask too many questions.

Pushing the Limits of Poor Planning

With the two youngest in tow, I ventured out into yesterday's frigid morning to run my errands. I knew that I was quite low on gas but never imagined HOW low my reserve was. With snow crunching under the tires, I drove to the end of our gravel road. As I turned my left indicator on, I began to feel the engine losing some power, like it wanted to stall. "I'm gonna run out of gas....." was my thought as I quickly made the left hand turn onto State Road (Witch Spring Rd). I prayed that I would make it to the New Meadows Market about a mile away. The thought of walking back to the house in the bitter cold with an eight and four year old was not very appealing. I was relieved as the gas station came into view. With brakes applied, I neared the middle pump. I was preparing to come to a complete stop but as it turned out, there was no need. As the van's gas tank came parallel to the pump nozzle my engine gave one last gasp and stalled. "No way....That's funny..... It would not have been funny a minute ago, but it is now." I'm quite sure God has a sense of humor.

Winter Blitz and Worn Bearings

I've finally uploaded my photos from Winter Blitz to Facebook. I took them with my new iPhone app, Hipstamatic, that my photographer friend Chris Fawkes alerted me to. It's been interesting switching between the films and lenses to find the different effects. I found that I like photographing subjects close up with the "accidental photo" feel that it gives. That is quite appropriate, as any of these photos that came out well were almost completely by accident!

Winter Blitz, is a kid's weekend retreat at Camp Good News that Jim and I look forward to each year. We enjoy the investment into the lives of the children and of course the shared laughter with friends that we don't see nearly enough. Jubal and Nolan have been many times but this was Atira's first year. She loved it! Tell stayed back home and hardly missed us, relishing having his Mimi (my Mom) to himself.

Our van had been making increasingly loud clunking and rattling sounds so we thought it best not to use it make the trip up to Camp for the weekend. As it turns out, it was a very wise choice. We picked it up tonight after leaving it at the garage for repairs and not only were the wheel bearings on both sides VERY dangerously worn but the brakes are working much nicer also!

What time is it?

5 am came early this morning as I awoke to a pounding sound in the darkness. With disheveled hair and clad in my Bean flannel nightshirt I opened up the front door to find a very apologetic police officer who was going house to house attempting to find the residence from which a hang up 911 cell phone call came from. After informing him that it did not belong to us, I verbally helped him find his way through the maze of our dirt road to our two neighbors. (He could have walked there in 30 seconds but if you're going to drive, assistance is helpful.) He apologized again for waking me but I assured him that I have no trouble going right back to sleep, which I did until the alarm woke me up at 6:30. I shut that annoyance off and was up by 8 to begin packing for Winter Blitz. With two hours to spare, all that's left is to run to Wal-mart and pick up some toothpaste and shampoo!

Cake, Finally!

Nolan turned 11 on Tuesday, but due to all the snow we've had, we postponed his party until this evening. He chose China Rose for his birthday supper with Dad and then came home to enjoy a Lego cake made by Mom. Tomorrow afternoon, it's up to CGN for the weekend Winter Blitz. This translates into frantic laundering and packing in the morning.