peachy fine

apparently i like to argue.

this is news to me. and yet i seem to be arguing with everyone i come into contact with today! i feel like i am generally agreeable, nice to people, and try to compromise in most situations.

to you, dr. m, i say stick it. i am sorry that you did not agree with me on this lovely evening. i apologize for asking you to do your job (for which you are being paid significantly more than i). i am terribly sorry to have troubled you by making your phone ring and asking for your professional opinion. please forgive me for trying to explain my situation in an effort to save lives. xoxo.

and to you, ms. m, i say $%*&@$#%**^!#@!!!!!!! i don't know exactly what that spells out but i am fairly certain that it adequately expresses my current sentiments. you are right, as always, and i am wrong. i am humbled to have been corrected by you. thank you for standing up for me...oh wait, that's right. you didn't. well then, thanks for nothing. xoxo.

and then there's you, mr. m. to you i am actually truly sorry (all those other apologies up above were fake, in case you didn't get that). i am sorry that the two other conversations i have had have come before you. i am sorry that i said not nice things. i am sorry you are sick. i hope you feel better. xoxo for real.

and finally, to you, my poor little argumentative nature. stop arguing. just say the right things at the right times and smile and say thank you and it will all work out just fine. nothing will ever get done, but it will be just peachy fine.

so stinkin' adorable

i apologize to my sweet husband, but i simply could not resist posting this precious photo. you can see jeremy sleeping, with rookie in his arms and tucker on his pillow across his head. my three boys. doesn't get any cuter.

making christmas

today began my two day love affair with what we refer to at our house as "making christmas". everything is done except the outside, the tree, and tiny town. that all has to get done tomorrow...or maybe tonight the elves will come and finish it for me...

sadly, making christmas was not without some tragedies. mickey and minnie were making out (again this year) on top of our "happy anniversary" ornament and fell off in the process. they are still making out (those little lovebirds, er, lovemice...) and are back on top of things thanks to some heavy duty glue. mr. bunny rabbit baseball player (from jeremy's childhood) also had a little fall...to be more specific, his head fell off of his body. the glue has righted his wrongs as well. perhaps the most awful tragedy is the disappearance of joseph, the father of baby Jesus. the wisemen, the shepherds, mary and baby Jesus...they are all present and accounted for. the angel is here, as are the sheep, the donkey, the camel, and the cow (although he is missing a small chunk from his bottom...maybe joseph got hungry and needed a little rump roast...). i hope i didn't accidentally sell him in the yard sale... if you see my joseph, please send him straight home to bethlehem. tell him to follow the star.

all in all, it has been a very productive day. santa is on the wall. the reindeer are up. the snowmen are all in their positions. my house smells like christmas and memories and cozy and joy. i just need to get the cranberry-pecan bread in the oven and get ready for tomorrow!

have a merry "making christmas" time!

how cold is it?

what a great day. yard sale day always is.

there's really nothing better than getting up at the crack of dawn, opening your garage door 45 minutes before your yard sale is supposed to start, and finding old people in your driveway ready and waiting to shop. it happens every time, like clockwork. and i love it. truly...yard sales are one of my most favorite events.

today while my husband stayed warm and snuggly in our bed, one of my best friends arrived on her crutches to keep me company and "help" me. she brought along her walker/speed-around-on-her-knee contraption, which is kind of hilarious, and managed to arrange things, wait on customers, chop onions for our soup, and not break her other ankle tripping on my rugs and over my dogs. as we sat shivering, wrapped up in our leopard-print snuggies holding mugs of hot cocoa, she said something profound: "it's so cold there's air coming out of my mouth." really, linds? and this is different from the norm for you to have air coming out of your mouth? of course, i knew that she meant, "its so cold i can see my breath", but the absurdity of her comment coupled with not quite being awake yet, having old people in my garage and freezing to death all at the same time caused hilarity to quickly ensue. we giggled our way through a few transactions and finally regained our composure.

we finally warmed up once the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. we filled our bellies with black bean soup and nearly an entire loaf of bread and laughed with other friends that stopped by throughout the day. someone took me up on my "free" box and took the whole thing. random children ran helter-skelter in my backyard. i shopped at my own sale and gave myself some very good deals. and at the end of the day, my husband popped out to buy us a batch of slice-n-bake cookies (which we also almost finished entirely) and then hauled all the leftover stuff away.

yard sale day rocks. my belly is full, my garage is empty, and there is money in my pockets!

mud in the mouth is worth coffee in the cart

sometimes i think the universe tries to send you a message. it left me three messages today...i ignored them all and i think it makes for some good entertainment.

i am having a yard sale on saturday so i started my day today with a plan to put out my signs. i got the first three placed with no problemo, but numero quatro proved to be a little more difficult. it involved parking in the kroger parking lot, slip-sliding down a small hill, hiking up a ditch, and a fair amount of hammering. all while rush-hour traffic drove by. some of my best work. on the hike back up, i slipped a tad in the wet grass...and came up with a muddy face. please note: rush-hour traffic was still going by.

not to be deterred in having a good day, i went into kroger, washed up in the bathroom (thankfully, there weren't many people in kroger yet), and decided to help negate my little misadventure with a treat and some coffee. there is a starbucks in the kroger, so i waited in line and happily received my peppermint mocha and doughnut. cheered and ready to conquer the world, attempt number two, i turned around and promptly fell over the grocery cart parked behind me. the universe had sent a lady to park her cart two inches from me, only it didn't tell me that. it let me fall into her cart and spill my delicious peppermint mocha! she glared at me, i glared back. it was a very effective glare. geez lady...ever heard of personal space?!

my friends suggested i go back to bed and start the day over. my father suggested i go back to bed and surround myself with soft and fluffy things since it seemed likely that my ceiling would cave in. others suggested i not drive or eat today...too dangerous. i drove and ate anyway...and when i got to work, i realized i had lost my check card. i said $&#@%! and began digging around my desk and purse, begging my friends to help me. we did the whole "when's the last time you used it" bit (it was yesterday-i used a different card for the coffee and doughnut). i got out my wallet to show them where the card is usually kept. i pulled out the card i used on the coffee. IT WAS THE SAME CARD I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!! I NEVER LOST IT IN THE FIRST PLACE AND I HAD JUST USED IT ON THE COFFEE!!!!

ok universe: message received. i am now back in bed. i give up until tomorrow!

dog toss

you've heard of a coin toss...drawing straws...rock, paper, scissors...well, ladies and gentlemen, may i introduce...the dog toss. it's a new way of making decisions that we have started using at our house.

calm down, calm down. no animals were harmed during the implementation of this method of decision-making. in fact, no dogs were actually tossed. let me explain. jeremy and i were sitting on the couch discussing something. we couldn't agree on a decision so we decided to toss a coin. we didn't actually have a coin in our pockets, so we came up with the dog toss. you see, rookie typically lays on the ground in a type of "c" shape, all curled around with his head near his tail. at other times, he curls around the other way, in a backwards "c" shape. he was nearby during our discussion, so we picked him up, chose our sides (i chose the backwards "c", jeremy chose the regular "c") and then set him down again (gently). he walked around for a while and then laid himself down....in a backwards "c"!!!! victory was mine! jeremy argued that it was rigged, of course, saying that i tilted him towards the side he chose when i set him down. this is simply not true and i am insulted by the accusation.

the dog toss is easy, fair, and since our dogs are always around, it requires very little effort. i like it. the dog toss stays!

just because

to know You is to never worry for my life. to know You is to never give in to compromise. to know You is to want to tell the world about You. to know You is to ache for more than ordinary. to know You is to look beyond the temporary. to know You is believing that You'll be enough. 'cause there's no life without You and i can't live without You. all this life can offer me cannot compare to You. and i count it all as loss compared to knowing You. -casting crowns "to know You"

these are the words that i needed to hear today. it's just a regular day. nothing awful has happened. nothing fantastic has happened. but my heart is feeling heavy. my mind is full of questions. about my future, about my own beliefs and convictions. to believe these words is to live them, to know them at the very core of who i am. and as much as i try to do that, i still have doubts. i was reminded recently by my sweet father of the words of "doubting thomas" in the Bible. thomas said he wouldn't believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he was able to put his hands in the nail-prints in Jesus's hands, until he could touch His side where He was pierced with a spear. and then when Jesus appeared before him physically, when thomas was able to place his hands in Jesus's hands and to touch His side, he said this: "Lord, i believe. help my unbelief." this faith that i have in my God, even on my best days, is still full of unbelief, of distrust. i can't help it...i'm human. i have seen miracles in my life, dozens of them. i have seen God's hand at work. i have seen Him heal hearts and lives. and yet i still question whether or not He can or will do that in my life. it doesn't even make sense to feel that way. how could i question the Almighty God?

and yet i do. and He knows about my questions, He cares about my questions. i wonder if He is as incredulous at them as i would be if i were Him. somehow, i doubt that He is. after all, He knew i would have them before they even entered my mind. even with all the doubt, all the distrust, the worry, the efforts at doing things "my way"...He still loves me madly. He pursues me with such passion, day after day, week after week, year after year. because i am His. i am His. and that's really all that matters. He will answer my questions when He's ready, in His time. and in the meantime, He will hold me close, wipe my tears, and continue to love me just because He does. because that's just who He is.

kinemortophobia

i am not a scary movie fan. why, you ask? well let me tell you...
i have always had a fairly sensitive startle reflex. i am pretty gullible and am easily snuck up on. i jump and startle at everything. when i was a kid, my prankster father took full advantage of this. my sister and i spent hours in the bathroom at night when we were supposed to be getting ready for bed (what were we doing? practicing our Crest toothpaste commercials, of course). dad would crawl around on the floor and creep into the bathroom while we weren't paying attention and then jump and yell and bang on the floor mid-commercial. he never failed in sneaking up on us and we freaked out every time. it was hilarious and is one of my favorite memories. unfortunately, it also slightly traumatized me. i also have a pretty healthy imagination, so scary + my imagination = i can't sleep and irrational fear takes over.

simple solution, right? don't watch scary movies! but i love suspense and mystery, so sometimes i deal with the scary in order to just get the suspense (yes, scary and suspenseful are two very different things. trust me on this.) sometimes though, i misjudge. like last night. i had taken two excedrin for a headache and couldn't sleep (p.s. caffeine plus irrational fear is not a good combo). a friend of mine had told me about a new series on AMC called "the walking dead". i should have known. i watched the pilot episode this morning at 1 a.m. in the dark all by myself. it was, by all accounts, a very good scary show. it's about zombies but i thought it was supposed to be a documentary although apparently you can't do a documentary about something that doesn't exist so it's more like a movie...a really scary movie...i don't know...all i can say is that i couldn't turn it off, but i was curled up into a knot on the corner of my couch with my hand over my face and partially covering my eyes through the majority of it. my friend had told me she "shuddered and cried" at various places. i managed not to cry, but i did a fair amount of talking to the screen ("no, no, no!!" "he's not dead, he's not dead!!" "oh my goodness, no, no!"...you get the idea).

afterwards, i double-checked that all the doors were locked and actually leaped into bed (i say leaped because it's the truth. if i had simply walked up to the bed and crawled in, the zombies that i am certain were under my bed would have been able to grab my ankles. by leaping, i prevented this from occurring and thus saved my own life). i am proud to say that i resisted the urge to actually look under my bed to make sure they weren't there, but i typically sleep with one foot hanging off the bed. last night i did not. i finally fell asleep around 3 a.m. ( i remember seeing 2:55 on the clock) and had no less than five or six different dreams, all of them scary, none of which i remember specifically, but all of which i recall trying to wake myself up from.

it was a long and awful night. i can't wait to see the next one!

craftorama

i am fairly pleased with myself. i have decided to make some christmas presents this year (prepare yourselves, my dear friends and family). i am also making our christmas cards. don't look now, but i might be crafty! i spent several hours last night getting all of my "ingredients" together (yarn, cardstock, the crafter's must-have corner rounder, markers, glue, needle-nose pliers...). if you happen to drive by my house and look in the window you will see our dining room table piled high with all my craft-crap (for those of you who are not stalkers, here is a photo so that you may be accurate in your judgement of me).



additionally, i have spent about half the amount of money i typically spend for christmas gifts!! i deserve a medal or something...maybe i will make myself one...everything will have my trademark "made by miller" woodchip. oh! i am so clever (they were cheap...i can use a magic marker...it was a good combo)!! i will leave you to imagine all the great things i might be creating. and believe me...they will be great!