Freeks and Geeks
Adam and I began a new series, thanks to the generosity of our friends the Peterson's lending us there collection. I have some issues with the main character in this series. I both love and can't stand her. We've only seen the first of I think 6 discs, so we will see where I stand, but we are really enjoying it. I think I might have been a mix between the main character and her holy roller friend who gets high on life instead of pot or alchohol. It's funny that I use to be that person and now we are planning a sunrise Easter service in the park and what runs through my head, "Mimosa's while watching the sun rise in silence." I am the same person and yet different. I still love God and while if I could go back in a time machine, I would still be the sober on purpose, person at a party, I don't think I would walk around saying I am not drinking and I am going to have more fun than all of you. I wonder if I would have really done that when I was in high school. I really just didn't go to the alcohol parties, not until I graduated at least. I just hung out with non-drinkers. We really did have a lot of fun too!
Pit bulls, lockouts, and birthday parties
This has been one exciting week. I learned that, well had it confirmed that my son sleeps like the dead. Victoria even yelled fire, from behind the locked patio slider, from which we were harbored from the heat and comfort of our home. We (Adam, Victoria, and I) were locked out of the house, with Sebastian asleep on the couch. I must have rung the door bell a thousand times, and Adam knocked his knuckles bloody, only after having already tore his finger open helping me put together the enclosure for the trampoline I'd already assembled the day before. Thank goodness that we live in Las Vegas and that it is the middle of March, but it was very windy and less than 50 degrees. I got Adam to put a hole in the top of a garbage bag to hold in some of his body heat. I wouldn't be so concerned about an hour and a half out in the cold except that we have all been around a lot of people with lots of stuff in the air, and we don't have insurance. Luckily Sebastian eventually woke up. I told him he was my hero. He loves being the hero and I was rewarded with the most adorable smile :)
Pit bull, do you ever wonder why pit bulls are called pit bulls? The other day at the end of a run, 2/10 of a mile from the house, two pit bulls came up and attacked my running partner, my dog, Ginger. Somehow she got away, and being faster she bolted up the street towards out house. Unfortunately, she went to the side gate where they pinned her in the corner. A neighbor helped in my futile effort to get the pits off of my Ginger by throwing rocks and the little running gear I had with me at them. Adam heard my cries for help and came to the rescue. He finally freed Ginger, and ran with her to the front door only to invite, the unlwelcomed pits into our home. Sebastian escaped to our bedroom and closed the door, but Victoria was stuck on top of an arm of the couch. It all happened so fast and was so scarey. I was sure I would lose Ginger that night, but my prayers were answered and she was delivered unscathed. I couldn't believe it, but she was my Daniel in the Lions den. Although the pits were not calmed Ginger didn't need a single stitch. It was amazing! I am so greatful!
This all happened only days before Sebastian's birthday, days after Victoria's. Victoria was pretty upset about it for a few days. Sebastian didn't have to watch the butal attack, praise be to God. It was hard for me to deal with. My neighbor said she couldn't go to sleep until 12:30 that night because she was so shaken up.
Then we really shook things up with a party. It was really Sebastian's first. We didn't send out invites, like I had planned. I've had the invites for like 6 months. Everytime I think I am getting more organized, I seem to begin to drown in my disorganization. However, I invited a few good friends, not as many as I would have liked, but do to our limited space, I had limited numbers that I could invite. However, it seemed as though fun was had by all. I was able to enjoy myself with my jammed packed house. I guess we could have fit a few more, but there were a few invited who didn't show up. It's weird invitations to parties. You either invite one group or another it's hard to mix because then spend all your time trying to make some feel welcomed. We had a good mix though I know there were some that I would have loved to invite and didn't. Maybe someday we'll have a bigger entertaining space and won't have to limit our numbers. However, other than not being able to invite everyone who was dear to us, we had a wonderful day! Many invited guests were very helpful, and so much so that we welcomed with open arms a second gathering in our home. It was a meeting which we hold monthly the week following our monthly gathering. We are usually at Jason's Deli and the kids were so much easier I felt in our home. It was nice having everyone who showed up. I so love the community God has placed us in. I am so greatful for my health and that of those around me. It seems that I am able to witness some miraculous doing of what could only be claimed by God more often than I deserve, and although I know there is much suffering in the world there is also a whole lot of Good.
A Birthday Boy Turns Four!
Sebastian, my son turns four today. I asked him how old he was and he showed me four fingers. I asked how old he was? He didn't answer and I so I asked, "Are you four?" He said no, not until everyone came over and sang Happy Birthday and then ate cake. How easy and uncomplicated. All he asked for was a scooby doo journal. I might have to use stickers to make it a scooby doo journal, but I will have one. Adam and I decided to get a certain something for his birthday for the backyard. I am about to print up a picture of one to wrap up, because we are going to go pick it up with him after Victoria gets out of school. I am so excited for him. Well, I am off Batman just ended, and it's nearly RAMEN NOODLE TIME. It's what he wanted for breakfast, but I convinced him to save the tasty, totally void of nutrient meal for lunch. I'll probably feed him a healthy serving of veg to go along with his noodles. Actually I have just been informed of the birthday boys request to play connect four first. So, farewell!
Thoughts on Red Tent and Thorn In My Heart at 3, O.K. 4 a.m.
I guess my friend, Kenny Parker's, not the only one up at 3:00 in the morning. I have been busy, so busy for the last 4 hours that I didn't realize that 4 hours had gone by. So, now I am just posting real quick. I was thinking about the book I just finished and realized that I don't think I usually blog about books I am reading...Whoah! I just had a crazy realization, I must be 1/2 brain dead right now! Wasn't I the one who read Grapes of Wrath last year and couldn't stop thinking or talking about it? Oh well, anyways, I just read 2 very similiar books. I began with The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, which I really enjoyed. I probably talked about it a little too much, and all the wonderful women in my book club will look down on me with pity, for thinking so highly of this book, but I don't think so, because it rocked. It was nice being familiar with the book of Genesis before reading it though. While introducing the book last month, someone who had read part of it said that I would probably equally enjoy Thorn in My Heart, by Liz Cutiz Higgs. Now, I usually don't seek out Christian authors, nor do I try and avoid them, but this was a Christian author and an excellent read. However, that is coming from someone who thinks they might really enjoy romance novels, although I've never read one. I think it's in my blood though, my Grandma Adams use to read a lot of romance novels. In digging for more Liz Curtiz Higgs, because there is a sequal to the book I just finished, I found that she has written more than once of love triangles. I did so enjoy reading about this one. Thorn, was similiar to The Red Tent in that it talks about Jacobs family and that's about it. Red Tent was set in whatever, Jacob time, A.D. in the lands talked of in Genesis, and Thorn is set in the late 1700's in Scotland. Red Tent is the story of Dinah, Jacob and Leah's daughter. It begins with the pre-Dinah history, of her 4 mothers, then comes her story as a girl, and it finishes off strongly with her story as a woman, who was in Red Tent anyways, more than a rape victim. Since none of us was there, we will never know exactly how it all went down, but Anita D. presents an interesting scenario. Thorn, covers more of the love triangle between Jamie McKie (Jacob), Leana McBride (Leah), and her sister, Rose (Rachel). Thorn ends before Dinah's story even begins. I ordered Fair Is The Rose on Ebay, because the Library didn't have a copy, although they did have a copy of the third book, Prince, (something or other) which is suppose to be according to the reviews and reader's opinions, the best of the three. Although I enjoyed both Thorn in My Heart and The Red Tent, it seemed to me that Higgs had to do quite a bit more research than Diamant. The Scottish culture, especially of two hundred years ago, must have been fun but long, hard research intensive. She appears from my limited knowledge to have done a good job, and everything seemed to be well researched and written. Beyond thinking about how much work all that reasearch must have been, I also thought of the cost she must have incured before even writing a single word. Something that I would think a Christian author would relish in is what stuck with me in the end. I was left with the thought of how Jamie didn't deserve anything, he couldn't live with the things he had done, but God loved and blessed him through it anyways, not because he deserved it, but just because. I might be doing God's will and He decides to bless me, but it doesn't have anything to do with my doing right and being rewarded. My life will definately go smoother, if I make the right choices, which is why there are rules, to protect me. However, there will be times when I'm not doing what I should be and God chooses to bless me anyways. He knows His ultimate plan for my life and that of those He will have me come in contact with. I have done nothing to deserve His love and I can do nothing to change His love for me either. How nicely Leana's love for Jamie is representive of God's love for us. Things we know, but don't think about until somebody writes a book we read, and I'm sure not by fate we think about things in light of a character we read about and relate to or try and understand.
Wanting, but greatful or grateful? Whichever, she's content!
My baby girl will be 6 tomorrow. She is even more excited than when she turned 5. I am excited as well, and shocked that my baby is turning 6. With her "Oh, my dear"s and all her talk about who she'll marry and her exasperation of love possibly lost before it evan began she in some ways seems even more grown up than she is, and yet there is the little girl that longs for a doll so deeply that she expressed her desire in these words, "If I don't get an American doll, I'm going to die." I told her I'd like to see that one play out, because I assured her that doll or no doll she would be just fine! We talked about getting her the (if you ask my opinion outlandishly expensive) American doll, but after careful consideration decided that we would get a knock off brand that is only 25% of the cost and if she really gets into dolls and plays with her doll a lot then we would get her the higher quality doll. However, without any knowledge of our conversation, Victoria, came up to me and said mommy you could get me the American girl doll or the one at Target would be O.K. too. I had last week taken her to see the knock offs at both Michaels and Target. Michael's did have cuter clothes, but Target's doll seems to appeal more to Victoria at least. I am so greatful for a daughter who is content with what she is given. She has never been really into dolls, but seems to think she would really like one, so we'll see. She once wanted more than anything, a guitar with a stick, whose novelty I hope fires up again after it's quick extinguishing shortly after Christmas last year. It's a good thing we did the test run with a violin rental then, and I'm glad we're taking the less expensive doll out for a spin this time as well.
