This guy right here…

He keeps me in stitches.

This is a sampling of some of our conversations last night in the hour before he conked out. And does he ever conk out. When he goes, he is OUT.

But as long as he’s awake, he is my little bundle of energetic delight.

However, every now and then, he does have some down time and last night, I was the lucky one who was nearby when he did.

“Mama, will you come get in bed and cuddle with me?”

You don’t have to ask me twice! I know this will not last long and I am stretching it out as long as possible. I crawl into bed and snuggle him tight.

Indigo: Mom, can we go get a Transformer tonight?

Me: Well, we don’t have the car tonight, so…no.

Indigo: But if we did, could we?

Me: Um, well…that’s a hard question to answer…I…don’t know?

And then we both start getting tickled at each other, laughing our matching laughs, which only makes us laugh harder…

I lean over and nuzzle his soft neck that makes me swoon. He halfway sticks it out for me to get and halfway dodges me because it tickles. Either way, it makes us both giggle.

Indigo: Why do you like my neck so much?

Me: It’s so soft and it’s attached to you. Why do you like my fat arms so much?

Indie, as he’s squeezing my arm: Because they’re squishy.

We read Junie B and the Stupid, Smelly Bus and I am attempting to sound like Junie B~ sassy…but he’s getting drowsy and into chapter 4, I stop and say, “Let’s get you to bed.”

He struggles to lift his head and says, “It’s hard to stay awake when you read with no expression!”

I am offended. I am a Big Encourager of Reading with Expression.

“I was trying to sound like Junie B!”

“OHHHH!” He laughs and tries to dodge my yanking him out of my bed to take him to his.

He’s managing to walk to the bed, that’s a plus. Usually, one of us has to carry him to bed and tonight I’m the one. It’s getting increasingly harder to manage.

I kiss him and am shutting the door.

“Mama? What are we doin’ in the mornin’?”

Oh man, this takes me back. I answered this question every night for a couple years, but it’s been a while…

“The same thing we always do…sleep IN (please God, let him sleep ’til at least 7!), eat breakfast, get ready for school…”

That does the trick. He’s quiet and out before I can get down the hall…

Oh my heart. I want to remember these moments.

As a kid, I loved the Happiness Is…books by Charles Schulz. I still have Happiness is a Warm Puppy and my kids love the book too. Those Peanuts characters never cease to make us giggle.

Being grateful for everything changed my life a year or two ago. I always thought I was being grateful, but when I hit some snags and struggled with depression/life, I had to consciously make an effort to be grateful for EVERY LITTLE THING…find every ounce of the good. I have to say, this is what turned everything around for me.

A few things making me happy lately…

Happiness is…

A Scrabble (take a look at that vintage board~ at Nina’s Cafe~ I covet this!) date with my good-looking husband…

A sunny day with a soft breeze…

A cup of coffee with lots of cream…

Happiness is…

My new favorite mug that I painted at the pottery place with my friends, Carrie, Courtney and Nadine…

Let’s just take a moment to soak in its cuteness…OK, thanks. I’m ready to move on now.

Sleeping in until at least 8 AM…

This little lamb of goodness that I get to love on every Thursday morning…

And the fact that her mama says I’m her favorite…that ups the happiness…xo, Meredith.

Happiness is…

Cute new bookmarks (these too can make YOU happy~ heehee~ $5 each)

A vast supply of books to read…

Laughing so hard you look like a major dork…

(Tarryn couldn’t look like a dork if she tried+I made sure to cover that territory= True Friend)

Mexican Coke…

(Sweetened with real sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup)

Happiness is…

New lip gloss…

Realizing you’re not quite as klutzy as you thought~ the reason you spilled coffee down your dress Sunday morning, not once, but three times, was not actually your fault…

It was actually your formerly trusty mug betraying you with a leak under the lid…

Happiness is…

The fact that you were wearing a khaki linen dress when the three coffee spills happened and it just fit right in with the rest of the fabric once it dried!

The rain holding off until you’re done with the outdoor first grade field trip…

Happiness is…

Pink…

Pretty flowers…

Little boys who are worn out from all the fun…

A good teacher…

Happiness is…

A new library card…

All the books you can carry…

Roses showing up on the front porch from my dear friend, Savita…

Pink & Pretty Flowers makes the list again!

Happiness is…

Strawberry Shortcake Cake…

Oh my, yes. Yes, this cake brings true happiness.

Time with the girls at Tosha’s house…

You want to see more of those treats, don’t you…because you know happiness is…

This delicious egg concoction…

And this mouthwatering blueberry cake with a blueberry center…so pretty!

Being spoiled by my family on Mother’s Day…

Squeezes…

His “I Love My Mama” face…

Happiness is…

Knowing the reason I’m able to be a good mama…

On and on it goes…happiness is gratitude.

Remember that cardinal I’ve talked about for the last two years?

Staci finally caught the villain in the act.

This is the offspring of last year’s pest. The “little” guy has harriedly taken over his papa’s job, although every now and then 2 other cardinals come by to show their support.

Imagine this all day…sometimes until 9 at night…and starting sometimes at 5 or 6 in the morning…my craziness will make more sense.

Click to watch: IMG_1100

And poor Staci~ it’s right by where she’s sleeping.

Interestingly enough, it didn’t show up the morning the turkey did…hmmm.

I’ve been quiet about American Idol this season. Last year just about did me in with Scotty McCreery winning~ I shudder just thinking about it. I have watched sporadically, but haven’t let myself get too attached to any contestants. But, oh…I do still have my opinions.

Phillip Phillips~

I’ll tell you the only reason this boy is on the show at this point…

This:

And that is all.

Because if you really want to hear someone sing anywhere remotely close to Phillip Phillips, you’ll just choose to listen to Dave Matthews instead~ it will be better and actually in pitch. From the clip last night, it seemed Phillip was a little more down to earth than I thought. I’ve seen the cockiness and liked to see his clowning side and the fact that he doesn’t take himself quite so seriously. But seriously, he’s SO pitchy!

Hollie Cavanagh:

Little Cutie Patootie.

But not an American Idol for me. She has the vocal technique, but I don’t feel one iota of emotion coming from her…only the mechanics of a song, not the feeling. I wish she’d gone a while ago; same with Phillip.

Joshua Ledet~

An American Idol I would be excited about…

I know he goes over the top, but this kid has the skills, you feel something every time and land sakes, those songs just GO somewhere when he sings them! I’m not sure where he would fit in the secular world…of course, I can imagine him all over CHURCH…oh my, how I would love to hear him sing with our choir. But he can sing the daylights out of anything!

Jessica Sanchez~

Another American Idol to be proud of…

I’d be happy to see her in the Top 2 for SURE and she’d be a great winner. She is consistently amazing and like Joshua, Jessica is skilled far beyond her years. I’m always thrown by her interviews because she seems a bit vacant, but when she sings, she comes to life.

And if I close my eyes, I can sometimes hear Jennifer Hudson…

Joshua and Jessica not only have no pitch troubles, but it’s like whatever they decide to do with their voices just always works and with ease…

Can I take a moment to comment on Jennifer’s 80′s throwback hair? Actually now that I brought it up, I’m not sure what to say about it or the bubble gum pink lipstick. Or Randy’s plaid sportcoat. Or Steven’s ponytail…

Maybe I’ll channel Thumper’s mama’s rule here: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all…

The staging has been really fun…all the water…and the swings~ loved the swings.

The girls’ duet didn’t wow the judges and it didn’t wow me either. It was a little bizarre, especially the last note. But the swings were a hit.

Nate was snoring after the first song. If I wasn’t typing away, I’d be snoozing too. Staci’s watching with me and she’s probably still on California time. It’s a bit of a slow show, in other words.

It was cute to see Julianne and Ryan’s interaction with one another. And the preview for Rock of Ages~ does that movie look crazy or what? I can’t tell if it will be hilarious or just really interesting to hear all those actors sing.

What are your thoughts on Jimmy Iovine? Little sassy character, he is.

Oh Damien Rice. I love this song~ What I Am To You~and can imagine this song working for Phillip. If he can hold the pitches, it could be the best move he’s ever made.

And yes. It’s the best Phillip Phillips has ever sounded. This is the kind of song he must sing.

“You just sang like you really dug the way you sung.”~ Steven Tyler

Yeah.

“…really one of the most poignant moments a contestant has ever had.” ~ Jennifer Lopez

I can think of a few more poignant, but it was really nice.

Try saying Phillip Phillips fifty times super fast.

And on to Hollie…singing maybe my favorite song ever~ I Can’t Make You Love Me. I feel about Bonnie Raitt about like Greyley does with Stevie Wonder. We had to fast forward~ Staci and I couldn’t handle hearing more than a few lines of Hollie’s mechanical version of this phenomenal song. Sounds like the judges didn’t buy it either.

Joshua and Jimmy laughing about Jimmy’s phone number was hilarious and so cute.

This is a Man’s World~ wow! I loved the horns and violins and choir…man, crazy good. Joshua can SING. Oh my goodness. He is insanely good.

Steven said he’d never heard anything like that in his life.

Jennifer and Randy both raved~ Randy said that if you want to know how to connect to a line and the emotion to a song, to listen to Joshua. And it’s so true…

Joshua goes to church on every song and takes us there too.

Jimmy really is the king of random remarks.

I feel like Jessica has really studied Jennifer Hudson and then she sings “And I Am Telling You…” Yep, I thought so.

Mmhmm. Another standing O from the judges.

She sang the socks off the song. It was great. It didn’t do quite as much for me, but I thought she was amazing…just a personal preference for Joshua’s…but I think it was technically right up there with his. And Staci brought up a good point~ she can hold back and show restraint, whereas Joshua is usually full force…she’s beautiful on those soft notes too.

The last two songs made this whole show worth watching!

I hope Hollie goes home tomorrow night. Next week, Phillip…

So after years of torment from a pretty little cardinal and his offspring, tapping their beaks on our windows every day, day in and day out, endlessly tapping until there’s blood on the windows and other “gifts” on the deck…

We find out that’s only the beginning.

It’s time for the big dogs birds.

BEHOLD! I Stand at the Door and KNOCK!

Or bang my head, rather…

REPEATEDLY… I BANG MY HEAD…ON THE DOOR…AND DEMAND TO COME IN!

BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.BANG.

Oh, you’re gonna be that way?

Well, I’ll just leave a little something for you to remember me by…watch your step…

Pffft.

Fine. So 6:40 AM on a Monday morning doesn’t get the job done…

I’ll be back! So help me, I’ll be back or I’m not a wild turkey!

(Apologies for the blurry pictures~ it was early and Greyley had a good startle early Monday morning~ I can’t believe she was this steady! Thanks, Staci, for the patience with said banging and for the excellent blog title.)

It’s been a week since I’ve been home from Florida and I’m still smiling over the memories. What a great trip…I love it when things come together unexpectedly~ everything about this trip suddenly lined up and worked OUT. All thanks to our respective husbands~ Nate, Matt and James. Tosha’s been wanting us to go on a trip for my birthday since last year and at times it seemed iffy that it would happen. Now I can’t believe it’s all over…

Tosh and I dragged our sleepy, excited selves to the airport and giddily talked all the way to Florida.

Our God-given SMFFL (Soul Mate Friend For Life) Tarryn, met us at the airport and then we all three did our part to ensure we got our 120,000 words in for the day. I never knew I could talk so much. There’s something about these two that draws it all out of me. That and the fact that I go days without talking more than 1,000 words a day, so it was time to catch up.

Tosha and Tarryn at Jaxson’s~ aren’t they both so pretty?

The BEST ice cream ever!!!

Crunchy Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Hot Peanut Butter and Hot Fudge Topping~ OH MY!

We ran into two of these in different parking lots. I thought they were some kind of turkey, but they’re ducks and very common in Florida, I guess. Very interesting~ it looks like its eyes got hit by a turkey’s waddle and the duck was left with the repercussions.

The next day, we made our way out to Sunny Isles, which is a fun little jaunt. If you’re ever in the Fort Lauderdale area, you should go over to Sunny Isles just to see the skyscraper penthouses on the main strip. Unbelievable. Donald Trump has some landscape there and let me tell you, it’s spectacular. Tarryn found a Groupon for a spa day~Seven Seas Spa & Salon~ in one of the hotels and this tiki hut was involved. Also included: lunch, massage, and facial. Yes, I felt SPOILED rotten.

Glorious

All the cares melted away…

Look at the bubbles coming out of the ceiling…

After we were thoroughly relaxed and pampered, we met Madison and Traci at Tatu~ a gorgeous sushi place in the Hard Rock Hotel. DELICIOUS.

Look at our pretty dessert. (It was delicious too.)

The next morning, we took our time before checking out and then headed to Starbucks. We also went to Ross, as in, Ross Dress for Less…we don’t have these in Minnesota and I love them. Found some cute things! They have so many more dresses than TJ Maxx or Marshall’s…

The next couple of nights we stayed at Tarryn’s house. Her dog, Willow, found a home at Tosha’s feet…

We met Tarryn’s mom, Cynthia, who is such a lovely woman. I wish I’d gotten a picture of her. She is from South Africa and has the greatest accent ever. Cynthia reminded me of a blond Mary Poppins, only much, MUCH sweeter…

We laughed a lot and cried some too. We ate great food and played a game or two…we talked about God and life and trouble and writing and heartache and all that is good and bad and fantastic and sad. I’m pretty sure we could have covered much more…

It was hard to say good-bye.

On the way home…

My heart is full.

Thanks, girls. xoxo

So much has been happening~ I promise to catch you up very soon. I’ve been out of town, sort of going in a new direction with a couple book-related projects (others’ books, not mine…YET), enjoying this nice weather we’ve been having, getting ready for company (tonight!) to be here for a couple of weeks~Staci Frenes, woohoo!, and working my bohunkus off for the Wild Ruffle Pop Up Shop.

My trip away will get its own post~ it was magical. I desperately needed the break and it was absolutely wonderful.

TONIGHT is the Pop Up Shop! I can hardly believe it’s already here. It seems all good things are happening TONIGHT~ why is it always that way? I’m missing some great things…BUT the place to be is downtown Prior Lake. The cute, quaint shops in downtown Prior Lake~ near the cross point of Hwy 13 and Cty Rd 21~ are partnering with local vendors (that’s me!) for this boutique crawl. If it’s raining, the vendors will be inside the shops. If it’s perfect weather, like yesterday, the vendors will be in front of the shops. Snacks, beverages and fun conversation will be flowing. I know from the last Wild Ruffle Pop Up Shop I was part of, it will all be GOOD STUFF.

Greyley will hopefully be there with me tonight~ she was feeling punky during the night, so I’m not sure what to expect this morning. As I write this, I do hear her rustling around, getting ready for school, so that’s a good sign. Her headbands are kickin’ this time. And I love having her by my side~ we can be nervous, silly geeks together.

My new jewelry is workin’…I know this because I want to keep just about every piece. This is my method of selling~ make what I love and be fine about selling out because I can always make more OR be happy when I don’t sell out because I have a brand new collection of necklaces. I do get attached to some! But, tonight, don’t worry, you’ll be able to pry my fingers off the lovelies when I hand them to you in a nice little drawstring bag.

Please come say hi~ I’ll be at Flowers Naturally on Main Avenue.

Click HERE to see all the participating shops and vendors…

If you missed the announcement on the Girly Muse Facebook page, this is for you:

Dun dun dun…and the grand prize of I Blame Eve by Susanna Foth Aughtmon goes to…MELISSA KIDWELL! Weehaw! If you’re not Melissa, you can purchase the book HERE.

How are you on this fine Monday morning? I must say, I am MUCH better than I was last week at this time. Although, if you saw me this morning, you’d probably think we were still going through the water difficulties and all sorts of other major trauma. I look haggard, y’all. I look like I’ve been through the ringer. I’m not altogether sure why my hair is on end and my eyes are so puffy. My dreams must have been something ELSE!

I assure you, I am just fine. My weekend was quite mellow and low-key…just what I like.

Nate and I had a little anniversary getaway Thursday night and we were surprised when the Hotel Sofitel gave us the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE. While I would never in a million years want to be President, I could sure get used to staying in such deluxe quarters. There were two huge rooms with gorgeous lighting, flowers, a cozy couch, two flat screen TVs, two fabulous bathrooms, all-you-can-dry towels, an UMBRELLA in the closet…obviously, when you’re the President, hotels think of everything.

This was also waiting for us in the room…

Delicious and so pretty…

It was such a treat, especially after the last few weeks…we felt beyond fortunate.

18 years…I cannot believe 18 years have gone by with my husband. And I’ve loved him a lot longer than that. Most of our married life has not been spent in presidential suites, but it has been full of surprises, extravagant blessings, love, pain, growth, trauma, renewal, passion, upheaval, laughter, sweetness, challenge, bliss and a whole slew of lessons just about every day that I could not begin to fill in this blog post. Marriage is not for the faint of heart. Today I can say that I’m grateful for every lesson learned and I’m ready for the next several decades with Nate Sabin.

Now, it’s back to all-you-can-wash laundry. Thank the good LORD again for water!!!

Recently, I was privileged to receive Susanna Foth Aughtmon’s new book~ I Blame Eve: Freedom from Perfectionism, Control Issues & the Tendency to Listen to Talking Snakes. How’s that for a fun title!

It’s right up there with her other books~ All I Need is Jesus and a Good Pair of Jeans and My Bangs Look Good and Other Lies I Tell Myself. I’ve never met Susanna in REAL life, but through emails over the last few years and having new hip-hop nicknames for each other with every message, I feel like I already know her. One day we’ll meet for real, Susy J-Fo.

It sort of makes my heart hurt that she lives in my old neck of the woods and I live across the country. I think we would have enjoyed coffee and chocolate together every now and again…

I’ve read Susanna’s other books and think she’s hilarious. I knew I’d like this new book since I like her and her writing, but Shhh~ I’ve been a little soft on Eve the last few years. In fact, when I get to heaven, I’m going to go hunt her down and hug her neck.

As a Christian woman, many times I have wanted to give Eve a piece of my mind. I blamed her for years and then realized I blamed Adam more. After all, God did tell Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree before Eve even came along. I think there’s a reason the snake went to the woman…he knew she’d be a good listener and second guess herself. And when Eve gave Adam the fruit, he didn’t exactly put up a fight. He did blame her though, when God confronted them, and she has carried the bad rap all these years.

I will squeeze Eve tight…because I think all of us would have done the same thing she did.

I might drop kick Adam…

I jest, I jest.

We would have done the same thing he did, too.

And that’s what Susanna really brings out~ in such a comical and down-to-earth way~ the ways we have all been affected by what they both did and how God loves us, forgives us and gives us every chance to live our fullest life…even when we keep failing and keep struggling with trying to be in control.

But first she lets Eve have it and it’s SO funny, because for all my Pro-Eveness, I do think Eve has had some of this coming and y’all know I LOVE a list! On page 24, there’s a list of 40 reasons why Susanna wishes Eve hadn’t eaten the apple. Hilarium! I tried to pick a few favorites, but there are so many great ones, you just need to get the book so you can read the whole thing.

OK, OK, here’s one~

30. Texting Lingo (I don’t really think this is Eve’s fault, but it is annoying, and if life were perfect, I wouldn’t be annoyed, so I am including this in the list…lol)

All right, one more…since I so wholeheartedly agree with this one…

1. Female Facial Hair (mustaches, unibrows, etc.—I’m positive these are evidence of the fall)

There’s also a study guide at the end of the book that asks great questions~ questions to help you and your study group get to the heart of the matter.

Just read it; you’ll be so glad you did. I’m going to give you a chance to win the book~ leave a comment on here AND like Girly Muse on Facebook by Sunday 9 P.M. and you’ll be entered in the drawing! I’ll announce the winner Monday and will send you I Blame Eve!

Or if you can’t wait to read it, go ahead and purchase the book HERE.

This post on Facebook got a few comments…

Always, ALWAYS shower on Saturday nights…because as sure as you don’t, the power will go off and on and off and on, the tub faucet won’t shut off EVER, so the water will have to be shut off and you’ll be stuck at church with soapy arms and pits, dirty hair and a foul-smelling mouth. Thank God for dry shampoo, hats and old water from a water bottle, is all I have to say. Well, actually, I have a lot more to say on the subject, but I’ll leave it at that.

Some wanted the “more to say on the subject” so here we go. It’s not too late to stop reading if you are of the faint of heart persuasion.

I woke up yesterday morning at 5:56 to the bright fan light abruptly turning on by itself. I got up and turned it off, realizing we must have been out of power for a while. Nate had already called the power company hours earlier and they came out, but there was a loud explosion in our street at one point, so it sounded like the power company was having some troubles.

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time or if you own a house yourself, you know that there are seasons when everything in your house either breaks, explodes or floods. Or is that really just us? Don’t answer that. We’ve been in one of those seasons for a LONG time now.

It is taxing and it drives me to eat.

But that’s a topic for another day.

Before I continue, I must also say I prefer this season to seasons of not getting along or seasons of sickness…

Anyhoo…season of house and the things in the house falling apart…that is what we’re in. And back to yesterday morning~ of course, it was a Sunday. It couldn’t be a scuzzy Saturday! That would just be too easy.

I was cuddling Indigo, playing Scramble with friends (my latest game addiction) on my phone and lazing way longer than I should, intellectually speaking. I know there are a million ways for a Sunday morning to go wrong and have written about a few of those ways on this wee ole blog.

Let me digress (again~ goodness, how many digressions am I gonna take on this single post?) to say that our Saturday WAS indeed a scuzzy one, complete with lazing around and the kids playing on their new RipStiks~ hello, new reason to get on my knees in prayer!

Knowing it might be the last truly beautiful warm day we would have for a while, I caved when the kids asked if they could wait to take their baths in the morning. They played until the last possible minute and even though they desperately needed cleaning up, once they sat down, they were so sore and tired, I just sent them to bed.

Big mistake. Never ever succumb to this temptation.

So, when Indigo and I did hop up yesterday, we knew we had to scramble. I ran his bath water and didn’t run much water because I planned to take a shower while he was in the bath. I would wake Greyley up after my shower so she could get hers. Lucky Smart Duck Nate had taken his shower earlier like the good man he is. And since he vowed to me on our wedding day, 18 years ago (that very day!), that he would shower every day, he was feeling extra keen on keeping that promise.

Normally, Nate would already be gone, but due to the power outage, he had already had his hands full and was running late too. I don’t know, he might have tried to take me down in Scramble too, but that’s neither here nor there. Thank GOD he was still there.

I leaned over the tub to turn Indie’s water off~ he was already in there, splashing away~ and the faucet for the cold water just kept turning and turning and not stopping. There was already so little water in there that Indigo was getting cold right away and I said, “Uh, Nate…this faucet isn’t turning off.”

He tried and realized it wasn’t going to stop.

I don’t know why I didn’t turn the hot water on at this point and fill up the tub. Next time, I will think of that. But instead, I dunked Indigo in the water as fast as I could and helped him rinse his hair out while his teeth started chattering. Nate went down to the basement to turn the water off, Indie lifted the plug out of habit and that’s when I realized I needed to leave for church in 30 minutes and still wasn’t clean. I jumped in the water puddle that was left and began sudsing up, not bothering to plug the little that was left. I should have…but I didn’t. Again, next time, I shall know better. I got good and soaped up as the last trickle of water went down the drain.

I guess it’s a blessing that I hadn’t started on my hair.

I jumped out of the empty tub and began drying off the soap. In case you’re wondering, dried soap on your armpits feels very sticky. Deodorant doesn’t help. When Nate turned the water back on for a minute, the water went nuts out of the faucet and we scrambled to keep it from flooding out of the top of the tub, but I did take that opportunity to also splash my pits. It helped immensely. I didn’t manage to get my arms too, for the pits were the main concern.

Thank the Lord for dry shampoo. I’ve already talked on here about how long I could probably go without washing my hair with the curls/frizz, but I’ve always been a little scared of testing that theory, except for when I’m sick. I don’t even want to know how long I can probably go. I just wash it every other day and leave it at that. But it was already past my comfort level, thanks to my slothfulness on scuzzy Saturday and so I spruced it up with the dry shampoo, did curly pony tails and can I just say that I got loads of compliments on my hair…ha! Fist pump high in the air! Curse you, you wretched faucet!

Around this time, we realized we were out of a bass player for the morning service and while Nate tried to pull the washer and dryer out (it’s on the other side of the wall to the bathtub), he was also trying to hunt down another bass player. Who says men can’t multitask?

Greyley stumbled in around this time and wondered why there was no water in her bathroom.

By now, we were scared to turn the water back on and were running very late, so Indigo and Greyley got plastic baggies and packed our toothbrushes and toothpaste and we hurried off to church. If you’re new to this blog~ my husband and I work for our church/the music department. I’m sure if we didn’t we would have skipped yesterday, if not to A) celebrate our anniversary, then B) to figure out this mess. But we do, so we went and had a good time. It was a nice reprieve. We also had a delicious lunch at Red Lobster, using a Christmas gift certificate (woohoo!) and then Nate surprised me with these lovelies…

Aren’t they beautiful? We were still in great spirits and maintaining our humor about the whole day. We enjoyed some ice cream and laughed at Indigo’s attempt to wipe all the chocolate ice cream off his chin. It just would not go away…where’s an almost empty water bottle when you need it???

And then we got home and tried to tackle the water situation again. Nate had called a plumber friend on our way home and he’d told him what he needed tool-wise, but suggested he continue looking for the shut-off valve for the bathtub. It was our friend’s Easter and so he was in the thick of celebrating. Nate finally got the washer and dryer out~ not an easy feat with where it’s located, how massive it is and the mostly wood/partly carpet situation underneath…only to find out that there IS no shut-off valve for the bathtub. It’s an older house. It’s not there.

This is all over a couple of hours of sweat, aggravation and more aggravation. I started getting snippy with the kids (and their blasted RipStiks~ WHY, for the love of all that is holy?) and tried to keep all of us as clean as possible because we had a church concert to go to in just 5 minutes. Again, we do the stinkin’ music at our church, so skipping was not an option at this point. (Yes, I realize I had a bad attitude. Pray for me.) We used leftover water from water bottles to brush our teeth and this time I wore a hat. Perfume was also in the mix. Someone even told me I smelled good and I had a good giggle inside, but just said, “Thank you” like my Mama would.

Nate dropped me off outside Cub grocery store to get snacks for the guest band performing at our church that night. I ran in alone since I’m the speedy quick one and I went through the self check-out lane because all the others were so long. I had scathing words with the electronic scanner for being such a nitwit and finally got out of there, breathing sighs of relief when we reached the church parking lot.

Once we had the refreshments all nicely laid out and greeted our guests and met the ones we didn’t know, my friend asked if I had any medicine for his headache. When I went to get my bag is the first time I realized I’d left my purse at Cub. In the self check-out lane. In a not-so-great part of town.

Nate rushed over to Cub. I fought the near hysteria that threatened to take over my addled brain. I called Cub, GOT SOMEONE (can you believe it!), she let me spill out my guts without giving anything away until I had said some key word (still not sure what that was), but FINALLY she said SHE HAD IT. Oh, thank GOD. I went weak in the knees and tried to stop the sweat that threatened to take over since I didn’t know how long I’d be stuck with it.

The concert was excellent~ Jonathan Thulin and Charmaine. Watch for their single to come out soon, “Dead Come to Life.” They’re insanely good together.

It was 10:30 before we got home. We didn’t even attempt to do anything but use the bottled water we’d brought home…it would have to wait until tomorrow.

We collapsed into bed and fell asleep watching youtube videos on plumbing.

The saga continues today. I can’t even begin on that or I’ll never get this post finished, but I will tell you that after pony tails and then a hat, the hair is not faring too well, my friends…not well at all.