Monday, July 31, 2006

4 Generations of Infomercial Mania

Our family has its newest member of the Infomercial Mania club - our six year old daughter Elizabeth. Because of my bout with the flu this weekend, I spent Saturday night at my parents' house with Elizabeth, and Jason and Anna stayed at the campgrounds. On Sunday, while I was still recuperating in the back bedroom, I kept hearing portions of a conversation between Elizabeth and my dad. They were watching t.v. in the living room, and Elizabeth kept saying, "You've got to get it Grandpa, you just have to." A few minutes later, Elizabeth came running into the bedroom with quite an excited look on her face. She proceeded to tell me that my dad had ordered the "Magic Bullet," some sort of kitchen gadget that according to Elizabeth can fix your meal in ten seconds or less. She also informed me that you just put in tomatoes, strawberries, and some spices, and then you have salsa for your chips. You can make smoothies by using strawberries, melons, and cantaloupe (I'm using her words here.) And the best part...by ordering this Magic Bullet, he received one free! But it doesn't stop there...he could purchase a third Magic Bullet for just half off - 3 Magic Bullets for the grand total of 150.00. Looks like my brother and I are receiving a Magic Bullet for Christmas. I think Elizabeth should get ours.

Elizabeth gets her infomercial addiction honestly. It started with my Grandma Porter. She was a QVC addict, and that made for interesting Christmas presents. The most memorable one was a clock/alarm in the shape of talking lips. Imagine my dad's surprise when he opened up this present from my 80+ year old grandmother. We tried to stifle our laughs when these types of presents were opened, but sometimes we could not help ourselves. The talking lips live on - each year a member of our family receives this gift and is responsible for wrapping it up and passing it on to someone else the next year. Elizabeth had the lips last Christmas and hated to give them up - actually I forget who she passed them on to, but I will find out next Christmas. Though my grandmother passed away several years ago, she provides us with a special laugh each Christmas.

My dad also has given in to the infomercials - the Magic Bullet isn't his first purchase. Jason and my brother received the Total Trolley a couple of years ago complements of Dad. I will have to say, we have used the total trolley, and it is quite useful for any of you out there who have thought about ordering one. My parents' Total Trolley is still in the package.

Jason and I have definetely ordered our fair share of infomerical products, and I thought I would run down a list of the good products, the bad products, and then finally products that each time I see them advertised, I am tempted to pick up that phone.

The Keepers
1. Forever 80's. I had to put this first. It was what brought Jason and I together. He had ordered it, I had just received it through Student Center mail, he saw me open it, a conversation started, the rest is history. We sold one of our copies, but we still have one left in our home. Total Eclipse of the Heart anyone?

2. Songs For Life/Songs For Worship. Pretty much any Contemporary Christian music hit is on one of these CD's, and we have listened to them extensively. There were some cons to them, however, so they also make my loser list.

3. The Garden Grabber. For those of you who hate to rake, this lawn gadget is for you. It is a rake in the shape of a cylinder. You rake up the leaves, then you gather them in the cylinder and push a button, and it lifts the leaves off the ground and lets you put them in the container without having to bend down and scoop them with your hands. I'm not sure it really saves all that much effort, but it is a neat gadget that does what it says it will do.

4. The Ionic Breeze Air Purifier. This product purchase was all about timing. Anna had been diagnosed with Restrictive Airway something or other (a precursor to asthma) at a very young age, and she was prescribed 2 a day breathing treatments. During one asthma episode, Jason was giving her a breathing treatment at 1:30 in the morning; the poor girl could hardly breathe. At 1:30 in the morning, not much is on besides Infomercials (this is before the day of TiVO) and on came the ad for the Ionic Breeze, promising to purify your air of any toxins and make a much healthier environment for your family. And if you ordered right then, you even got another smaller purifier for your bathroom. Who could blame Jason for ordering - any caring father would have done the same thing while holding his helpless child gasping for air. And sure enough, since we have had this thing, Anna has not had another asthmatic episode (except for the time we went to Florida and forgot her breathing treatment machine and we had to rush her to the emergency room after two days and buy another machine for $250 before they would dismiss us, but that's another story.) Ionic Breeze or coincidence, who knows. But the thing still runs daily in our house.

5. The laser straight gadget. This tool has really come in handy when hanging pictures. It puts a straight line on the wall that lets you know where to hang your pictures. Why can't I think of something so simple to make millions?

The Losers
1. The Egg Wave Microwave Cooker. First of all, a microwaved egg does not sound appetizing. And secondly, how hard is it to cook an egg? We tried this thing out once, hated it, threw it away.

2. The Bloomin Onion Maker. This came out when Outback had just started putting the Bloomin Onion on their menu. We love those things. Why not make them at home? Either we're dumb or the gadget didn't work, because not only could we not get our onion to look right, the batter fell right off the onion and didn't bake on it. What a waste.

3. Carburator (I know I butchered the spelling here) cleaner - guaranteed to clean out the insides of your car and get you better gas mileage. Maybe this product would have had a better chance if we were putting it in a nicer car. We both were driving older cars that had more issues than a clean carburator, and I never saw a difference in my gas mileage. Actually, a couple of years later, my car coasted into the Honda dealership and died when we were picking up my new (used) car, so I guess it didn't work any miracles for it.

4. Songs for Life/Songs for Worship. The problem with this purchase was it kept on giving. Every six weeks or so a new cd would come, and if we didn't want it, we would have to send it back. Of course we would open it first to see if we liked the songs, and then if we didn't, we had to pay to send it back. The more the cd's came, the worse they got. We cancelled after receiving (and purchasing) way too many of these things.

5. The Garden Grabber Part Two. The first one was great, but we fell for the scheme - buy one now, you get a second one half off. Where is that second one now, you say? Three years later, it's in our barn, in its original packaging. Watch out for the white elephant exchange, all of you in the Sunday School Class!

One product I am on the fence about is Crunch Art. My mom ordered it for Elizabeth for her birthday and then forgot about it, then she found it while she was cleaning out the closets for the yard sale, and forgetting again why she purchased it, put it in the yard sale for 3.00. I knew Elizabeth had been asking for it, so I scooped up that purchase for a bargain. Elizabeth had a lot of fun with it, but the problem with it was that after a couple of times playing with it, she had maxxed out the supplies. For what Mom paid for it, not worth it. What I paid for it, worth it.

And finally, products that I am tempted to purchase:

1. The Betty Crocker Bake n Fill. You can put all sorts of fillings into cakes - ice cream, jams and jelly filling, cream filling, etc. I have no idea how it works, but it looks really neat.

2. Blue Gel. This cure-all Gel has healed millions - just ask the people who promote it in the infomercial. I could have used some of it tonight after our game (which, by the way, we won 6-3, going undefeated for the regular season, YEAH COLLEGE WESLEYAN LADIES!!!)

3. Floam. This is a kid product that has lots of micro beads that will conform to any shape or can be put on any object to "decorate" it. But then you can easily remove it or let it harden to stay permanetly. If you order when it is on t.v., your tubs get supersized and you get two extra colors. Elizabeth would love it - possible birthday gift.

4. Bowflex. Come on, wouldn't all of us like to look like that - and all we have to do is make a few easy payments and exercise 10 hours a day.

5. Okay, this isn't actually a real product, but it was a spoof on Saturday Night Live. Anyone see the hilarious commercial where the smoke alarm plays eighties music instead of a loud blaring noise? It's pretty funny, and I would get one if they really existed.

So there you have it, the run down on the Wuertley/Porter family infomercial products. I'll let you know how the Magic Bullet works when it comes in. The clincher...Jason called my parents' house to check on me minutes after the Magic Bullet was ordered, and when I told him about it, his response..."I've always thought about ordering that when I've seen it." Like I said, Elizabeth gets it honestly.

Triathlon Training update - today was a 30 minute bike, 35 minute run. As encouraged as I was last week, I'm a little discouraged after today. I went 6 miles on the bike, which I was pleased with, but my body was feeling it; I can't imagine going 16 miles. And then during the run immediately after, I went 3 miles in 35 minutes, which isn't bad, but I had to walk a little, and for the race, we have to go 4 miles after 16 miles of biking. Hopefully my body will get a little more trained in the next few weeks. I'm going to blame today's performance on the heat and lingering effects of the flu (sounds good, right?)

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Smile, You're on Candid Camera

Practical jokes and I do not mix. I was reminded of this fact at Family Camp this past week (which, by the way, Family Camp is the reason for my week long hiatus from posting.) My cousin Jaena was in charge of the morning children's service for kids going into grades 1-5, and I was her faithful assistant (well, until Saturday morning when a nasty flu bug hit me, but that's a story I won't share in this post.) One particularly nice day, we decided to take the kids out for a friendly game of kickball - boys vs. girls. Instead of using the normal size rubber ball, however, we were using a giant sized rubber ball. The girls were up first, and we had a lot working against us. First, most of the girls were wearing flip flops - not good kickball shoes. Second, over half of the girls decided they would rather be cheerleaders than play. Third, first-fifth grade boys have a lot more kickball smarts than the girls. So after the first couple of girls kicked and were thrown out, Jaena had a great idea. When the pitcher rolled the ball, the next girl in line would run up and pretend like she was going to kick the ball, but instead, I would run up beside her and blast it over the boys, who were at this point crowding in really close since the girls weren't kicking it far. The plan was in place, and the ball was rolled. I ran up to that ball and BAM!!! kicked it as hard as I could, aiming to sail it over all the boys' heads. Well, the plan didn't work out quite as I had expected. My ball did sail over most heads, but it made a beeline for one of the first graders in the outfield (anyone know Rob and Melinda Tippey? It was their son) who didn't know whether to duck or try to catch it. He either tried to catch it or didn't have time to duck, because this huge giant ball slammed into his wide open arms and face and knocked him to the ground. Of course I didn't see that I had hurt the kid, so I am whoopin and hollerin the whole way to first until I look over and realize that he is not getting up. So I went from feeling pretty cool to pretty low, and I was praying that he did not have a broken nose. Thankfully, I think the wind was just knocked out of him, but needless to say, he did not want to participate in kickball the rest of the day.

My bad luck with practical jokes goes all the way back to kindergarten. In kindergarten, I was really shy, so shy, in fact, that my mom even called the mom of one of my classmates to ask if her daughter would be my friend (actually, this girl ended up being one of my best friends in junior high, and I still keep in touch with her.) I wasn't one to get in trouble, and I always made sure I followed the rules. One day our class was in line to get a drink. I had seen a classmate of mine on a different water break occasion push the head of the kid in front of him down into the water so he would get his face wet. Well, it looked like fun to me, so I thought I would give it a try. Cody Harris was in front of me and was slurping that water up, and I had my perfect chance. So I gave his head a good shove, and he ended up with a face full of water. Unfortunately, my teacher saw me do this devious act, and she didn't think it was funny, and I had to miss out on my drink - how mortifying!

In 7th grade, another practical joke mishap happened. The same kindergarten friend mentioned above (Melanie is her name) had a crush on a very cute 8th grade boy. So I wrote a love letter to this boy, really mushy and gushy and silly, and then I signed Melanie's name to it. Then Stephanie I don't remember her last name grabbed the note from me and actually delivered it to that boy! So I had to make things right by tracking this boy down and telling him what actually happened (these things are really big deals in junior high.)

My brother also had a bad experience with a practical joke. When he was in junior high, he and my dad decided to start lifting weights at the Indiana Wesleyan weight room to help him bulk up for tennis and basketball (if any of you know my brother, it's pretty funny to think about him bulked up.) They were at the leg press, and my dad asked my brother to put the pin in for him at a pretty heavy weight. My brother, trying to be funny, instead put the pin in the lightest weight possible - 10 lbs. My dad, expecting to really have to push to lift the weights, gave a big grunt and pushed with all of his might. His legs didn't meet the resistance they were expecting, and his feet slipped off the press, and the press came back and gashed him in both of his shins. I don't remember my dad and brother lifting weights too much after that.

When I was talking about what happened at kickball with my dad, he shared with me one of his practical joke mishaps as a kid. In fifth grade, he had a crush on this girl, and he was trying to impress her. So he stole her purse and hid it in the desk of the classroom troublemaker. When the girl realized her purse was missing, she told the teacher, and the whole class couldn't leave the room until the purse turned up. Well, my dad being the sly guy he is, suggested they look in the desk of this troublemaker - and there was the purse. Of course, that kid got in a lot of trouble due to my dad. My dad said several years later, he felt convicted about this joke, and he told himself that if he ever ran into that kid again, he would confess to what he did. Wouldn't you know it, he said three weeks later he ran into him at the mall, and he told the guy the truth (who, by the way, didn't even remember it happening.)

With all of these practical joke mishaps, I do not like witnessing them or being a part of them anymore. I even get uncomfortable sometimes watching Candid Camera because of how the joke is making the people feel. I've never seen Punk'd with Ashton Kutcher, but I'm sure I would feel the same way with that show, too. I even dislike April Fool's Day. So when it comes to practical jokes, count me out. I've had too many bad experiences.

Triathlon Training Update - The nasty flu bug mentioned above put a snag in the training. I was only able to do half the training on Saturday, and I had to take today off. I was pretty encouraged about the training before Saturday, though, as I was able to swim 800 yards in 30 minutes, and we only have to go 500 yards in the race, and I was able to run 3 miles in 30 minutes. Again, not that these are record breaking paces by any means (actually, to see me swim is pretty comical, and I would share more about it here, but I am pretty sure it will end up being a future post topic) but at least I am working up to what we will have to do to finish. The biking is what I am most concerned about, and both times I have done the bike training, I have had kids in a bike trailer, so I don't have a true picture yet of how fast I can go and for how long. I know with two kids in the back, I am pretty pooped after 30 minutes and 4 miles, so hopefully without the extra weight, I will be able to go longer and faster. Unfortunately, I was supposed to bike yesterday, and I missed, so I will have to make it up tomorrow. I remember in high school my mom and I biked 19 miles to Swayzee and back, and I could hardly walk the next three days.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Maturity

Never say never is all I can say. Jason Wuertley has decided to contribute to a family blog. He felt our family needed a more traditional blog that posted pictures and talked about our experiences, and since my posts tend to not focus on these types of things, he has taken the matter into his own hands. You can check out our site at www.thewuertleys.blogspot.com. His most recent post shows pictures of our camping trip to Holiday World.

I've been thinking more today about my post yesterday, and I have a few more thoughts that I would like to share. I was thinking about my comments regarding Elizabeth and Anna, and how Jason and I have this tremendous responsibility of shaping their lives. We could get into a nature vs. nurture argument - I know that each of them were born with specific personality traits that would play out in any environment that they were raised in, but I also know that it is up to us to teach and guide them in the right direction. There are times when they make a wrong choice, but their choice is not a result of disobedience. It is a matter of maturity; of figuring out what's right and wrong and appropriate and inappropriate - this includes social graces, interactions with family and friends, how to act in public, their walk with Christ, etc. Anna is a typical three year old who knows what she wants and gets quite upset if she doesn't get it in a timely manner. In time she should learn patience, sharing, diplomacy, and compromise. Elizabeth will learn when to lead and when to let others make decisions and how to be tactful instead of speaking exactly what's on her mind. If you think about it, we are all on a continuum of "maturity" where we are growing and learning and tweaking ourselves.

I can think back to several people who were placed in my life, especially at pivotal points during age 13-21, who helped me as I matured. I think junior high is a tough time for most kids, and I had two "best friends" at school who helped me through these years. The three of us were in most classes together, we ate lunch together, we hung out at the mall on Friday night together (we even snuck into Spencers Gifts once, sorry Mom if you are reading, I felt guilty the whole time.) Both girls came from homes where Christianity was practiced, and we rarely if ever had to worry about peer pressure, because we didn't care if we hung out with the "cool" crowd. In 8th grade we switched churches, and by my freshman year, I was pretty involved in the youth group at College Church. As stated in a previous post, my brother was a senior, and he drug me along to all the Bodyshop activities - visitation on Tuesday nights, prayer in the morning before school, Thursday night youth group. My 9th and 10th grade year were heavily influenced by the relationships I made through Bodyshop. I have to admit that grades 11-12 weren't so heavily influenced by youth group relationships. But God did place a very good friend in my life (named Anna, ironically) who was a friend at high school with whom I shared my every thought, and she was also raised with Christian principles. I regret letting a "boy" ruin this friendship (she liked him and I ended up dating him,) because we had a great relationship. The transition from high school to college was also a little bumpy, but again there were people there to help me along the way. I had great roommates, teammates (I would say coaches but my dad was the coach in both sports, and I'm not counting family in this post - they have obviously been instrumental, also, in who I am today) who were encouraging and uplifting and just plain fun. And during this entire time period up until even today, I've had one friend that even though I rarely see her now, we spent hours during these years contemplating God, life, friends, and all those kinds of deep thoughts. Sometimes it was just comforting to know that there was someone else out there that felt the same way I did.

When I was thinking about this topic, I knew that in a box in the closet I had a folder with a lot of memorabilia from the past - letters, cards, notes. I spent some time reading them and had a good laugh. There were catty high school notes written by Anna. Encouraging notes from youth leaders and friends from Bodyshop. Lots of writings from my friend mentioned above. It's hard to remember the person I was back then - in reading the notes and remembering the "issues" that all teenagers deal with, I think about how differently I would handle situations now that I'm 31. Sure I have some regrets. But God has been faithful; he placed the right people in my life to bring me to where I am today. I wonder 30 years from now if I will look back at who I was in my 30's and chuckle. And I pray that God will place people in my kids' lives (friends, teachers, youth leaders) who will reinforce what Jason and I have tried to teach and encourage them along the way.

TRIATHLON TRAINING UPDATE - Blogging until 12:30 a.m. does not make for a pleasant awakening at 5:30. We met up at the IWU pool for a 20 minute swim followed by a 25 minute run. I was actually encouraged after the workout - I'm pretty sure we all swam at least 500 yards, if not more, and I felt much better during the run today than two days ago. We may have a new member to the triathlon club...stay tuned.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Who Am I and Who I Am

I've entered into new territory with my blog - I received my first "spam" comment, so I have enabled the word verification command. I apologize to all commenters for the added effort when commenting - think of it as a game that you will win every time! I thought about not enabling the word verification and potentially receiving lots more comments, but the reality is number of comments are not nearly as important as the people leaving the comments - (quality supercedes quanity.) My sister-in-law JoEllen warned me this day would come - and here it is.

At the end of my "Toilet Paper Shortage" post a few days ago, I foreshadowed this post topic. I had mentioned at the end of the post that though I do not view myself as a lazy person, the situations I had posted about proved otherwise. This statement got me thinking about how I view myself and how that compared to how other people view me. I would like to say that how other people view me is of no concern to me - however, I have at times been caught in the insecurity trap of worrying about how I am perceived by other people. For example, after being in a social situation (such as tonight - a ladies only campfire get-together at Kelley's which had two of my favorite things - camping food and fellowship) I find myself replaying conversations in my mind, what I said, what other people said in response, did I say anything that seemed funny at the time but inappropriate later? I was talking to my cousin Jaena tonight about this post topic, and we observed that men don't seem to brood over these types of questions. I can't ever remember Jason, after a social gathering, saying later at home, " I hope the guys liked me tonight. Don and Jim seemed a little quiet with me when we were watching the game."

There are certain personality characteristics that can either a positive or negative spin to them. I've even seen lists where a negative characteristic is reworded to have a positive connotation. For example, a bossy person is instead a leader. A stingy person turns into a good steward with money. People have said my three year old's stubborness and strong will is good - she will stand her ground when she is older and tempted by peer pressure. The problem is, how do we know which connotation is being applied to us by other people? I don't think many people set out to be overbearing, obnoxious, judgmental, or mean-spirited. Yet there are some people who in a social situation come across that way to me (noone reading this blog need worry - none of you are coming to mind :). My insecurity is not in how I view myself, but am I being viewed in a negative context by other people? I think there is a definite difference between a low self esteem and insecurity. Low self-esteem is when you are not happy with you, insecurity is when you are afraid other people aren't happy with you (these definitions are from the Wuertley dictionary - probably a bit of a generalization.)

Have you ever had a time when what you really meant to say or the outcome you meant to occur by your action came out totally wrong, and then you felt misunderstood and your character or intentions unfairly judged?

I feel myself getting worked up when this happens with my children. Elizabeth is a self-confident, assertive kid, and she often says exactly what she is thinking, and she has no problem expressing her desires. I've described her personality accurately, but with a positive spin. I could just as easily say Elizabeth is a cocky, self-centered, bossy kid who has no tact. Anna is a sweet, loving, mischevious, humorous kid, but I could instead say she is manipulative with her affection, ornery, and silly. I love Elizabeth and Anna more than words can say, and I wouldn't change a thing about either one of them, even though at times I would like to tweak their words and actions a little. But when they say or do something less than desirable in public, I worry about how that will influence the opinions of both my peers and theirs regarding their personality and character.

I think that is why it is so important for people to be a part of a community - not just family, but friends who know each other's true heart and desires for themselves and their family. My family is very blessed to be a part of such a community with members of our Sunday School Class, and I value our relationships with these families. I especially enjoy the nights like tonight - a chance to fellowship with other women, to connect, chat, share, LAUGH! For any members of our class who are reading this post, know how much you are a valuable part of our life, and how much we enjoy the relationships that have been formed over the last several years.

TRIATHLON TRAINING UPDATE - Today's plan had me biking for 45 minutes. Hint to first time triathlon trainees on the first bike day - do not take your two children who combined weigh 100 pounds in a bike trailer behind you. Not only is the added weight a killer, after about 35 minutes in such close quarters on a 90 degree day, they have had enough. Also, do not choose the Riverwalk as your first biking trail. The Riverwalk and the route to the Riverwalk from my house is 49% steep uphill, 49% steep downhill, and 2% flat. After 45 minutes, I went a whopping 4.6 miles (if you translate that into minutes it would take me for 16 miles, which is what we will do in the triathlon, that would be over 2 hours on the bike.) I am anxious to see how my mileage will change once I ride solo.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

What a Day!

A big THANK YOU to all who participated in the blog experiment in my last post. I thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's comments, laughed many times, and even linked onto some new blogs from a few people who commented because of a connection through my sister-in-law. For the record, though I am a competitive person, my intent was not to try to receive more comments than any certain person (Holly, I know your blog self esteem was not hurt at all since you always get lots :) .) And I know that starting tonight, my comment level will return to normal - a part of me wanted to wait a couple of days to see if I could get any more responses, but I wanted to let everyone know how much I appreciated the response, and I had a lot of blogworthy things happen today, so I wanted to post again. I also thought about ending the blog, kind of like the athlete that retires after winning the world championship so he can go out on top. But with so much more to say, I have decided to continue. I do have a topic to post about that is a continuation of a post from a couple of days ago, but like I said above, quite a few blogworthy things happened today, so I will put that on hold for one more day.

This post could get a little lengthy, because my day was divided into four parts, and I have something to comment about each. I'll start with the a.m. My parents have a cottage out at the Wesleyan Campgrounds in Fairmount, and my mom commented to me a couple of days ago that the wallpaper in the living room/kitchen was peeling. She casually mentioned that for their anniversary, maybe I could volunteer to scrape off the wallpaper and repaint. That sounded great to me - in fact, I still hadn't gotten my father a father's day or birthday present yet (I know, I was supposed to do the golf thing, but I hadn't yet), so I offered to not only do the labor but pay for the supplies, too. I know it sounds like a big project, but my guilt from the father's day/birthday issue spurred me on. The area isn't that big; combined it may be the size of an average sized living room. I went to the cottage yesterday to assess the situation and began the work. Scraping wallpaper is fun for about the first fifteen minutes - the time period where the easy stuff just peels off and you think that it will take no time at all. Then the next 5 hours are a drag. Quite a few hours and blisters later, I had 75% off as of last night. So this morning, after the girls got up, we headed to the cottage to begin painting. I had to start painting even though the wallpaper in the kitchen isn't off yet just for peace of mind to see something finished. Let's just say that the project is a bit more than I had anticipated, and the girls and I will be spending every free moment there until it is finished (which hopefully is by Saturday since Family Camp starts Sunday.) Kelley, I am definetely still there for ladies night, though. Chalk this up to another project that I mistakenly thought I could whip out in a couple of days. Mom, if you are reading this, even though it is more work than we both anticipated, I am enjoying the process and will love the finished product even more.

Onto part 2 of the day - we could only stay at the cottage until 12:30 because we had family pictures (us, my parents, and my brother and his family) scheduled at 3:00 in Wabash. We ran through a Wendy's drive thru (which, by the way, Wendy's has the speediest drive thru ever, but in their haste mistakes are made - I ordered two kids meals - one with french fries, one with mandarin oranges, and instead I got two mandarin oranges with no spoons and no fries) and took it home. The kids ate and watched t.v. while I was supposed to be getting ready. I had a time frame all worked out in my head, but my fatal mistake was checking the blog. I spent way too much time checking comments and linking to other blogs, and before I knew it, it was 1:20 and I still hadn't showered. So I hurried and got ready, got the kids dressed, did hair, and we were out the door at 2:15. I could leave the explanation at that, but let me delve deeper into what really happened. Getting myself ready for a family picture that will be hanging in my parents' house for who knows how many years (our last one was taken when Elizabeth was 5 months) is very stressful; getting two girls in dresses and doing their hair adds to the stress. Then consider that we are all rushing around in a non-air conditioned house - we were upstairs in the bathroom, and downstairs was registering 84 degrees. By the time we left the house, I am pretty sure all the make-up on my face was a sweaty mess. All that said, we arrived at the photographer's in plenty of time and the pictures went well. The next stressful time will be when we all gather to look at the photos - the odds of all 12 of us looking great in one picture are pretty slim, and everyone secretly hopes "THE PICTURE" that is chosen is the one that they look best in. I'm sure there will be a post about the "viewing day."

After pictures, we went back home to change clothes - the girls were off to Grandma Wuertley's via Grandma Porter, and I was headed to the YMCA. Shelli Rowley and I are training for a local triathlon sponsored through the Mississenewa Reservoir, and it is classified as a "sprint triathlon." This entails a 500 yard swim, 16 miles of biking, and then a 4 mile run. Let's just say this body won't be "sprinting" any of it. I may be a little on the slender side, but I am not in shape. I am really hoping this 8 week training plan prepares me for this. I have always wanted to do a triathlon, and when I mentioned it to Shelli and she wanted to do it, too, we decided to go for it. I am not going to be competitive about this event - I just want to finish it. Today's training plan had us running for 30 minutes. I set the treadmill at a staggering 4.3 miles an hour which translated into 2.1 miles for the 30 minutes. I'm obviously not out to set any world record! This body was feeling it (and I have a feeling I will be feeling it even more tomorrow.) Well, I didn't have time to revel in my accomplishment because it was off to the...

Golf course, the 4th part of my day. My brother and set a 5:00 tee time for him, my dad, and me to play 18 holes. We always go golfing one afternoon of family camp, and we decided this year we would do a practice round before camp. Thankfully we had a cart and it had really cooled down. I was a little concerned how our round was going to go when after my brother's drive on the firt hole didn't even make it to the ladies tee off station, my dad said "You know what they say, if you don't drive it past the ladies tees you have to take all your clothes off." Thankfully we didn't play by those rules, my brother kept his clothes on, and we had a great time - Dad shot a 100, I had a 104*, and Doug had a 115. *does not include one whiff and one ball that was under a pine tree and I kicked it out into the rough. None of us are going to join the pro tour any time soon, but what can you expect for only golfing 1-2 times a year? It's funny how we all would get mad at ourselves for a bad shot, when in reality we should have been jumping for joy at the good ones.

I was supposed to head back to the cottage after golfing to do some more work, but it was 9:30 and I was pooped! So I came home to find 2 mini-disasters - #1) A strong wind must have come through last night, and 10 of my tomato cages were on their side, taking my tomato plants with them. I had staked them down, obviously not good enough, so I had to set them back up and put concrete blocks on them to hold them up. I don't think the roots were pulled up - I'll be pretty frustated if I lose them because I have lots of green tomatoes. Then disaster #2) Neither girl had eaten much of their lunch which was still in the playroom (they had a "picnic" while I showered, and I hadn't had a chance to clean it up) and a litany of small, biting ants were enjoying the leftovers. I did leave them to enjoy their last supper before I sucked them up in the vacuum - I decided to sit down and watch Treasure Hunters with Jason, though, before I sent them to their death.

So there's the day - WHEW! I'll leave you with one final important life lesson that I was reminded of yesterday when I finally made it to the store for toilet paper and milk (a full 24 hours after my post) - no matter what, always get a shopping cart at the grocery, even if you are only going to pick up a couple of items. I went to Marsh thinking "I am only getting 1 package of toilet paper and a gallon of milk, one item for each hand. Once I was in the toiletry section, though, after getting my toilet paper and milk, I figured I should pick up some kleenex since we had used it all up. We need 4 boxes to be fully stocked. So now I was carrying 1 package of toilet paper, 1 gallon of milk, and 4 boxes of kleenex. Of course I dropped the kleenex, right in front of a lady with a cart, who asked "Can I help you?" "No, I should have gotten a cart," I mumbled - reiterating this important life truth.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Happy 9 Years!!!



The post I was originally going to do for today has been pre-empted by a little blog experiment of mine. While I do not get hung up on the number of comments my posts receive, I have noticed that there are certain types of posts that other people do that elicit quite a few responses. My sister-in-law posted a few days ago a similar picture to the one I have above, celebrating her and her husband's 4 year anniversary and BAM - 15 comments! So I am going to try this also, and see if I can boost my comment number. Granted, I know my picture has a few things working against it when compared to JoEllen's and Burke's:

1. JoEllen is "in the family way" (unlike me.) It was a very sweet picture of her and Burke, especially with his hands on her stomach. Jason and I tried to recreate it, but it just isn't the same.

2. JoEllen and Burke look very stylish in their clothing. I am in my softball uniform, and Jason just fixed our broken drain in the pink bathroom (yeah!) so he is wearing "work" clothes.

3. Outside pictures always look better, in my opinion. I love our hallway, but let's face it, it's kind of drab in a picture.

4. Someone competent with a camera took their picture. Hey, Elizabeth didn't do a bad job - she is only 6.

5. Okay, today isn't actually our anniversary - it's May 31. But I had to go with their theme to do my experiment.

So we'll see if I can improve my comment count. However, rather it stays in the 0-5 range or boosts up to the hundreds, the regularly scheduled post will return tomorrow. Oh, and if you want to see a much better "couples" picture, check out the Hummel link.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Toilet Paper Shortage

I am hoping my family is not the only one that has to occasionally weather a toilet paper shortage. We have three toilets, and rarely comes the time when all three are out of toilet paper and there is no spare in the closet. Well, that time has come for the Wuertleys. Not only are we out of toilet paper, though, we are also out of toilet paper back up #1 - kleenex. So we have now resorted to napkins (there are only a few left,) and then we will move to the paper towel. We haven't given our kids liquids since we've been home from vacation yesterday, and we all went to the bathroom at church this morning. Okay, the last part is not true, but we are out of t.p. and milk, so I will have to make a run to the store some time today.

Isn't it funny how laziness gets us into these predicaments? I knew yesterday when we got home that we were down to 1/4 roll of toilet paper in the house and a handful of kleenex, yet I still did not run to the store. I can think of a few other examples in my life when the result of my laziness caused more inconvenience than if I would have just not been lazy and done what I was supposed to do. Case in point - my teeth. From age 6 through college, I had A LOT of dental work done - spacers, expanders, head gear, teeth pulled, wisdom teeth out, braces, and finally, a retainer. I was a faithful nighttime retainer wearer until my junior year in college when my retainer broke. The responsible thing to do would have been to go back to the orthodontist to be fitted for a new retainer. However, being the carefree college kid I was (and I didn't pay for the work to be done - funny how when you've paid for something you are more likely to take care of it) I did not get a replacement, and now 11 years later, my teeth are shifting back to their original position.

My teeth saga does not stop there. I had an occasional cavity growing up, but nothing major. After I got married, I stopped going to the dentist for preventitive reasons because we did not have health insurance that covered it. After I had Anna 3 1/2 years ago, I decided I should have a regular checkup. To my surprise, I had 8 cavities! The dentist said it could have been a result of the pregnancy, but in order to ensure this didn't happen again, I needed to have regular check ups and floss 2-3 times a week. You would think 8 cavities would be enough incentive to follow the dentist's advice, but it wasn't. I was so lazy, I didn't even take the time to make appointments, and after a couple of weeks, my flossing was not up to par either. So last school year, due to a throbbing pain in one of teeth, I made another appointment (almost 3 years later.) Four more cavities and a root canal later, I am sad to report that I missed my 6 month checkup (April), and I still do not floss as I should. PURE LAZINESS! Again, the inconvenience of going to the dentist every 6 months for a checkup and flossing a few times a week sure beats a root canal!

I am also lazy with laundry. The majority of our dirty clothes is upstairs, and the washer/dryer is downstairs. I will make a big pile of dirty laundry in the hall upstairs, then spend minutes trying to gather it all in one trip in my arms. Invariably, I will stand up with all in hand, and one sock or pair of underwear will drop. Then when I bend down to pick that one item up, a washcloth will fall. Could I just make two trips? I can think of other instances when I have tried to carry way too much so I could just make one trip, and in the process have either dropped everything or gone so slowly that I could have done two trips quicker.

Even as I type this I am reaping the consequences of being lazy and not putting Anna to bed for a nap. She went to bed quite late last night, and after going to bed, she did not fall asleep until...12:45! After getting up at 8:00 for church, I told Jason that we had to put her down for a nap this afternoon. Well, the afternoon is going by quickly, we have gotten caught up in other activities (okay, blogging is one of them, but not the only one!) and did not take the time to lay her down, and she is now in desperate need of a nap.

I'm sad to admit I am lazy at time with prayer. I've drifted off to sleep more than once at night while in the middle of my nighttime praying. You think that offends God? It offends me when Jason nods off while I am talking to him. I'm sure the benefits I would gain from having a thriving prayer life and having a few extra moments with HIM far outweigh the few extra seconds of sleep, yet my lazy body again makes the wrong choice.

The frustrating part of this all is that when I think of characteristics to describe myself, even negative ones, lazy isn't one that comes to mind. Yet these examples above and others I can think of but won't type on because of the length of this post prove otherwise. This observation ties into my post topic for tomorrow...

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Just a Few Random Observations

This post is somewhat on the lighthearted side, but these are just a few random thoughts going through my head today.

I have a garden, and one of my favorite vegetables to raise is zucchini. I like raising zucchini for quite a few reasons - it is very simple to plant, very hard to kill, and I love the taste of fried zucchini. In fact, if I had to pick my favorite summer meal, it would include corn on the cob, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on toasted bread, and fried zucchini. Also, a little bit of zucchini goes a long way, and one plant can produce quite a few. This is an oddity about how fast a zucchini grows - I can check on the garden one day, and there is nothing. The next day, there will be a full grown zucchini! Jason doesn't believe me; he thinks I must have missed it the day before. But I am not kidding, these zucchini can grow overnight! I wish I could sit and watch this happen - actually see a zucchini start from the blossom and grow a foot overnight. Maybe it's like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy - if you wait up for it, then it doesn't happen.

Another thing I wish I could stay up and watch is snow accumulating through the night. I have gone to bed with no accumulation on the ground and then awakened 7 hours later with 7-8 inches accumulation. That must be some pretty heavy snowfall, and it seems like snow that falls during the day doesn't accumulate like snow that falls through the night.

Here is an odd occurence that has happened several times in my life. I will be in a crowd of people; church is an example. I will think that I see someone I know, but at a closer glance, I realize it is not the person I thought. Then minutes later, the person I thought I saw before will cross my path. WEIRD!

A coworker of mine has accepted another job, and though she will be in the same building as me next year, she will not be working with our program. She was to begin her job on Monday, July 10. Last week, she stopped by my house after visiting her new office and talking with her new boss. She expressed to me that she was feeling apprehensive about her new position, expectations, new coworkers, etc. I had to cut our conversation short because Elizabeth had crafts at the library. I invited my friend and her daughter to join us - often times crafts have last minute openings. We went to the library, and her daughter was able to do the crafts, also. While they were in crafts, she and I chatted while Anna played the computer. After Anna played the computer, she wandered over to the children's section. I followed, and my friend stayed by the computer reading her new employee handbook. Also back in the children's section was a lady I have played softball against for several years. After small talking about softball, she asked what my job was, and I told her I work with Head Start preschool. She responded by saying "Oh, you will be in our building next year." I asked her what her position was, and when she told me I couldn't believe it - she was one of three instructors that was going to be under my friend. When I told her this, she said, "I can't wait to meet her; we've been waiting for this position to be filled." Of course she couldn't believe it when I told her my friend was just sitting over a few feet. So I introduced the two, they had a wonderful 45 minute conversation, and my friend found out much needed information and some of her apprehension subsided. What are the odds that my friend would stop by on that day, I would invite her to the library, I would run into the other woman, let alone strike up a conversation with her that would lead to work, and then be able to introduce them. Coincidence, or providence?

One last random item - if when you're canning green beans, one of the lids doesn't "pop," what should you do? Run it through the canner again, hurry up and eat the beans, or throw them out?

Monday, July 10, 2006

College Wesleyan 15, Hanfield 5

I'm sure I have commented in a previous post about how much I love playing church league softball, but after tonight's game, I must reiterate again that it is one of the most enjoyable parts of the summer for me. Playing for our team combines two things I love - competition and fellowship (not listed in any particular order :) ). Now that I have played for several years, I even enjoy the camaraderie with the other teams and players that have also been playing for several years. With some of these women, softball is our only connection, but when I see them out in public, I will stop and have a conversation with them because I feel like I know them. Most of the players on our team have also played for several years, and the only time I really get to talk to some of them is during softball season.

Tonight was our biggest challenge of the season to date. We have had a rivalry with Hanfield for the last few years; we usually get the best of them during the regular season, and they get the best of us during tournament time. I feel almost silly admitting this, but I was really nervous today. I had a headache most of the day and made several bathroom trips. During the game, even when we were several runs ahead, I found myself light-headed (well, more so than usual) as I was running the bases. It wasn't until the game was over that I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was telling myself, "THIS IS CHURCH LEAGUE SOFTBALL, NOT THE WORLD SERIES." Doesn't matter to me, I can't help it. I inherited the competitive gene.

My nerves during this game and when my brother and I were playing in the tennis tournament got me evaluating why I put myself in competitive situations. The church league softball does offer the fellowship aspect, but I can't say I felt enjoyment playing in the tennis tournament. I was playing in 90 degree weather, I wasn't playing well, and my brother and I weren't exactly socializing. I had even PAID for this experience, and when it was all over, even though we won, my dominating emotion was relief. Not relief that we had won, but relief that we didn't lose. Some people can play a board game or a sport and really care less if they win (I cannot even fathom that, but I know these people exist.) I lost in a euchre game during our camping trip this weekend, and I was still lamenting the loss as I went to bed - we lost 10-8, I was euchred on the final hand even though I had 4 trump (if only Paul had played the queen of spades instead of the queen of hearts, we would have been ahead 9-8 instead of losing.) One thing I have discovered about my competitive nature is that I hate losing more so than I love winning. So I have started contemplating what is it about losing that I hate so much, and I have come up with a few ideas.

During my childhood, especially the junior high/high school years, I was trying, as most people, to find an identity. I didn't really fit in with the cheerleader type, and though I was in the "excel" classes, I wasn't the typical book smart studious type. Having a Christian upbringing, I was always pretty careful with who I hung around with, so that limited my social interactions, also. Until the 8th grade, my family attended a church with a youth group that consisted of me, my brother, and a couple other kids who sometimes attended church. I did have a core group of friends that I hung around at school, but they weren't the "cool" group that everyone secretly wants to be a part of. But I wasn't willing to participate in activities or be a certain type of person who would fit into that cool crowd. However, in my mind, I was "somebody" because of sports. Through junior high and high school, I was always known as the tennis player and basketball player. So even though I wasn't necessarily a part of the in-group, I felt like I still "mattered." Once I got to college, it was no longer about being "somebody," but it was all about living up to expectations - especially staying in town for college. So the drive to win (or not lose) was all about meeting the expectations people had for me. If I met those expectations, than instead of joy, I felt relief. These are pretty general statements; I know there were joyful times, and I look back on my college days fondly - I have great memories, and a lot of them revolve around sports trips/games/matches. But I think my attitude regarding performance was set, and a little bit of that carries over today. So why did I willingly participate in the tennis tournament (other than to please my brother)? I guess to prove to myself and whoever else that I can still do it. Maybe I still carry a little of that need for identity today, especially when I feel inadequate with the family/work identity I already have.

Of course, being raised in the family I was, I had plenty of competitive opportunities, and even now we rarely have a family get-together without a game being played. Getting my dad, my brother, and me involved in a game against each other can be trouble (we've had more than a few arguments over rules/strategy, etc.) And Elizabeth is well on her way, too. I wasn't there last night but heard the story. I guess there was a pretty competitive game of croquet last night between my parents, nephew, and nieces. It came down to my nephew and Elizabeth, and though they were both poisoned, he won. My dad said after a few tears were shed, she sat alone off by some bushes to contemplate the loss. After awhile, she joined the group, back to her normal self. He said as a coach, he likes that kind of "hate to lose" attitude, and I have to admit, I like a certain amount of it, too. Maybe not for a six year old.

I told Jason today was the perfect summer day. I slept until 10:00, hung out around the house all day, got to play softball, and then went to Kelley's for a birthday hangout and socialized (Happy Birthday again, Kelley, although now it's past midnight so I guess I'm a day late.) The ice cream and brownies tasted a whole lot better after winning! And the best part about summer...I get to do it all over again tomorrow.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

The Curse of the Gift Card

The phenomenom of the gift card has revolutionized gift giving occasions. My cousin Jaena and I had a conversation awhile ago about the gift card, and she said she loves receiving them as gifts - she says it is like getting a gift twice (once when you receive it and then again when you use it.) I, too enjoy receiving a gift card, and I have given my fair share of gift cards as gifts, but I have mixed feelings about both giving and receiving them. I have had two gift card mishaps in the last couple of weeks, and these experiences prompted me to post on this topic.

The Pros of Giving a Gift Card
Gift cards bail out those of us who have to get a gift for that person who has everything. My dad is one of those people. He has everything he needs; he buys most of what he wants; what he wants and doesn't buy for himself is too expensive for me to get him. Sometimes instead of a gift card, we will do tickets to something (which is kind of like a gift card/certificate.) Case in point - my dad was on vacation during Father's Day and his birthday. Great, I thought, I have an extra three weeks to figure out what to buy him. He has been back now almost a week from vacation, and I still have no gift for him. So I've decided last minute to buy 4 rounds of golf from Arbor Trace so we (dad, Doug, Jason, me) can go golfing during family camp this year (hope he doesn't read this blog before I get a chance to do this.) This "gift card" will be great because I will get to benefit, too! Another time a gift card is great is when you need an immediate gift. I find these times are plentiful during the Christmas season with work parties, sunday school parties, extended relative get-togethers, etc. I also like giving gift cards if I need to top off a gift - say the limit is 25.00, I have bought a 20.00 gift, so I can add a 5.00 Starbucks card to make it complete. Then it's almost looked at as a bonus. Finally, the gift card is a great way to tell someone "thank you." It's a gift that isn't expected, and when the person uses the card, they will again feel appreciated.

The Cons of Giving a Gift Card
Sometimes I feel guilty giving a gift card. I'm afraid the person I am giving it to will think that I didn't care enough about them to put a little thought into their gift. The impression could be "On the way to my birthday party, you realized you didn't have a gift, so you ran into Sirloin Stockade and picked up a card." Or, "You don't really know me well enough to get me something I would like, so you got me the generic restaurant certificate that anyone could use." I try to get a gift card that corresponds with the person's interests, but some people would rather receive an actual gift. I have given my fair share of gift cards, and hopefully none of the receivers of my gift cards have had negative feelings towards them. Another con is that the receiver knows exactly how much you have spent on them. Hopefully in the gift exchange, I have given them as much or more as they gave me!

The Pros of Receiving a Gift Card
I love receiving gift cards (or cash, for that matter.) I am not a person who has to have an actual gift to know you care (unless you are my husband on Mother's Day, Birthday, and Anniversary.) I frequent many restaurants that I normally would not due to the gift card. Jason and I just went to the Outback last week on a gift card. We have a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory that we need to use. I probably wouldn't go to the Cheesecake Factory without a gift card because of the expense, and if we did, I would not feel right about ordering a 7.00 piece of cheesecake. But with a gift card, I don't have to deal with guilty feelings. Gift cards to restaurants in town are also a blessing. There are some nights that I just don't feel like cooking, or with our schedules it is more convenient to eat out - we save our in town gift cards for these occasions. I have also received grocery store gift cards that are much appreciated. I do coupon shop out of town, but only rarely do I get coupons for meat, milk, and produce. I use my grocery store gift cards for these items. For anyone out there reading this who is getting me a gift this Christmas, I really need a car wash certificate - one that includes interior, too :).

The Cons of Receiving a Gift Card
As mentioned above, I have had two gift card mishaps in the last couple of weeks. The first is a common gift card mistake - not keeping the receipt on a previously used card, and therefore not knowing the balance that is left. We received a 25.00 gift card to Bob Evans for Christmas. Last week, Jason called and asked if the girls and I wanted to meet him for lunch. I asked him if we had any gift cards, and he told me about the Bob Evans card - so obviously, that is where we went. Because of the gift card, we even let the girls get their own kids meal, they split a clown sundae, AND Jason and I split dessert - the cost of the meal...24.00. Well, we were close, we'd have to pay tip, but hey, we got dessert. Then the bomb dropped when Jason went to pay the bill. Apparently, the Wuertley family had already eaten at Bob Evans since receiving the gift card, and the balance was a whopping 3.45. Bad, bad gift card mistake.

The second common gift card mistake - not staying within the gift card budget. I received a 5.00 Starbucks gift card as a thank you (thanks, Jil!) and was quite excited, because I never go to Starbucks because of the cost. Jason was with me when I decided to use the card, and I felt it would be rude for me to get a drink and not him, and I really didn't want to share, so we each ordered a drink. Final cost...almost 7.00. The smart gift card play would have been for me to go to Starbucks alone, get a drink and a muffin, and make sure I break even. Another smart move would have been to not get the drinks with the girls in the car, because we ended up having to share with them. Going over the gift card budget is okay if you are using the card on an item/meal you would have purchased anyway, but if it is an "extra," the smart play is to stay within the budget.

The final con of receiving a gift card is when the worker has not properly activated the card, and then when I go to use the card, the balance shows 0. This happened to an East of Chicago card I received, but the situation actually turned into a positive, because in the end I received my full gift card amount + breadsticks.

It's good to post again - these camping trips are hindering my blogging! It was nice to see a couple of new posts, though (Holly, very cute dog - that's the kind I want if we ever get one, and Jenn, just checked your blog and saw you've returned!) and catch up on the comments. We have a big game tomorrow night - I'm sure there will be something to post about after it.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Happy 31st Birthday to Me

Only 8 more minutes left in this day of birthday celebration. I can't believe I am 31. Elizabeth told me yesterday "Mom, it still seems like you're 29." What a daughter!

My birthday always brings bittersweet feelings. I do enjoy the celebration of the day, the family party, the birthday money :). However, 12 years ago today, my grandmother, Grandma Bowman, passed away. I was 19 years old and had just completed my freshman year of college. Grandma had heart problems, and during my childhood years she did have some health concerns. When I was very young, she had bypass surgery, but for the next several years she did pretty good. I'm not really sure when she started going downhill, but it seemed like it happened quickly. Maybe it was because I was absorbed in college life and didn't really pay attention. When I look at pictures from my brother's wedding in June, she doesn't look well at all. She was admitted into the hospital shortly after that, and then she was transferred to Indianapolis. I remember receiving the phone call informing us that she wasn't doing well - I was working paint crew at Indiana Wesleyan, and we were repainting the bathrooms in Bowman Hall. I left work immediately and drove down to Indy, and shortly after, she passed away. I had stopped by the hospital a couple days before to see her, but I didn't get to see her that day. After she passed away, my family gathered in her room and surrounded her singing hymns, but I couldn't bring myself to participate. It was a sad, sad day - July 6, 1994.

In memory of my grandmother, I would like to post some memories I have of her and our times together.

Grandpa and Grandma lived on Nebraska Street, about 5 minutes away from our house. I spent a lot of time with them growing up. When I was a kid, my grandpa had retired and spent his days in the garden or garage. My grandmother didn't work outside the home, and she spent her days doing typical household chores, tending to the flowers and garden goodies, and watching soap operas and the Cincinatti Reds. Aside from an occasional vacation and church, they were almost always home. When I would hang out with Grandma, we had our favorite activities - watching the Young and the Restless (I loved the theme song,) playing skipbo or rummikub, and doing word searches. When she wasn't up doing something, she was sitting in her chair in the corner of the "den" (I called it the family room.) We would spend hours in that den passing the time.

Grandma was an avid sports fan, and she was one of my biggest fans when I was playing sports. During my high school tennis matches, she and Grandpa came to all the home matches, and some away matches, too, and they would park the car right behind the court I was playing on. They would also travel to tennis tournaments that we were playing in, and they rarely missed a basketball game. After Grandma passed away, Grandpa gave me a scrapbook that Grandma had kept without my knowledge. Almost any time there had been a newspaper clipping about one of my sporting events, she had cut it out - even junior high basketball scores!

Grandma loved to go to church. Mom, Dad, and Grandpa sang in the choir, so Grandma and I would sit in the "narthex" (now known as the foyer, I think) and read the bulletin during early Sunday morning practice. She always had a piece of wrigley gum in her Bible for me. I was really excited when there was a bible cryptogram puzzle in my Sunday School papers because we would figure it out together during the sermon. She went up to the altar with my brother and me one Sunday after a sermon - my mom was in the choir loft and came down to meet us. She never sang a solo in church, but she belted out the hymns in a soprano voice during the singing.

Christmas Eve was a special tradition growing up. My family would go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house late afternoon. My cousins, aunt, and uncle also came over. The cousins would patiently wait on the adults to finish "supper" (now known as dinner) so we could search for our stockings. We still do this tradition with Grandpa and Millie, and the great-grandkids now have their stockings, too. Each year we would take a cousins picture - I have several of them at home. We continue to do a cousins, spouses, children picture - it's a pretty large group, now. I've wanted my kids to have the same type of traditions, so we now go over to my parents' house on Christmas Eve.

I pass by their house on Nebraska Streeet often. The porch swing is gone, the garden is overgrown, the garage door is always down. It's not the house I remember growing up, but I don't need visual cues to remember all the great times that I had in that house. I know my Grandma would have loved to meet her great-grandchildren. She was so involved with all 4 of her grandkids - each in their own special way. I miss her.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

July 4th pictures

On the evening of the 4th, our family got together at Doug and Kismet's house. From their front yard, we can see the fireworks set off at the park. Each year, Jason does a "pre- fireworks" fireworks show in the street in front of the house. Then we grab some snacks and settle down to watch the show.
Nathaniel, Sabrina, and Anna pose for the picture

Our corny family in matching Old Navy 4th of July t-shirts

The cousins plus Jordan the cat, the newest addition to the Porter family


Jason giving instructions to the cousins regarding the sparklers. His goal this year: no burns!


Elizabeth writing her name with the sparkler - did everyone do that as a kid or just our family?


The kids are ready for the show

Excuse vs. Reason

It's good to be back. We managed to stay dry for most of our camping trip, and we had a wonderful 4th of July with friends in the afternoon (see Kelley Grate link for photos - thanks again Kelley and Sue) and family in the evening (photos to be posted in Part II of this post later today.) My family is so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful group of people!!!

My brother and I competed in the Sports Hotline Doubles Tennis Tournament over the weekend (see post below for a little background information.) Our first match was Saturday afternoon against two high schoolers. I was a little nervous going into this match because I know there will come a time when the "new generation" will take the stage from those of us who have been out of high school/college for quite awhile. My brother and I used to be on one side of this equation, and eventually we will be on the other side. However, this was not the year for the younger generation, and we went through the match with ease. The win put us in the finals on Sunday afternoon against a couple who is 20 years or so older than us, and we have faced them several times in the past and won each time pretty easily. Before I get into the details of the match, I will explain tennis scoring to those of you who do not play. In order to win the match, a team must win 2 sets. To win a set, a team must win 6 games. To win a game, a team must win 4 points. To say I started out the match a little rusty is an understatement, and we dropped the first set 3-6. I give my brother credit; he only said one statement in frustration during this set, and I deserved any critical comment that came my way. However, I got going after that first set, and we proceeded to win twelve of the next 13 games, taking the last two sets 6-0, 6-1. The thoughts going through my mind during this match are what prompted this post subject.

I really can't remember the last time I played as poorly as I did in the first set. The only reason we won 3 games that set is because of our serve - I won 2 games when I served and Doug won 1 - we didn't have to rally too much. I could not keep the ball in play. During this set, a variety of excuses were going through my mind as to why I was playing so bad. In fact, instead of concentrating on the match, I was putting together this litany of excuses to give my brother, my dad, my family, and friends as to why we didn't win.

1. The wind. I have always hated playing in the wind, and it was swirling pretty good on that day.

2. I haven't practiced. It's hard to play at that level of tennis with no practice.

3. The heat. It was in the 80's if not hotter, and the sun was beating down on us.

4. I didn't have a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.

5. I'm out of shape. I didn't have the stamina to be out there that long.

6. I was distracted. Everyone else in our camping group had gone swimming, and I was stuck here playing this match. (I was also distracted putting this post together in my mind.)

I could probably list several more excused that are lamer than the ones above, but you get the point. However, I didn't need to pull out my arsenal of excuses, because I pulled it together and we won. Then I got to thinking about my excuses as to why we lost the first set. And when I thought about it, none of those variables changed in the last two sets - it was still hot, I didn't have a hat, the wind didn't die down, I couldn't really count the first set as "practice," and I doubt that playing that first set suddenly got me in shape. My family was still swimming, and I was now not only stuck playing this match, but I was playing poorly on top of it.

When watching sports competitions, I hate observing people who make excuses for losing. The athletes blame the refs, or an injury, or the coach, etc. Many people do not want to take responsibility for the loss. I think that's true in areas of life other than sports. People will say work isn't going well because of the boss, or there isn't enough time in the day, or they're underpaid, or the coworker isn't picking up his slack. The marriage isn't working because he works too late or she nags too much. Parents I work with can't keep a job because the child care is unreliable or the alarm clock broke. It's excuse after excuse after excuse. I just don't see many people taking responsibility for the way their lives are going. Granted, there are unforeseen circumstances that can hinder any endeavor. But on a daily basis, I believe our lives are a direct result of the choices we have made - good or bad.

I looked up the words EXCUSE and REASON on the online dictionary and thesaurus, and I was glad what I found because I felt it supported what I was thinking. The definition of excuse is "to explain in the hope of being forgiven or understood." Some synonyms given were "alibi," "apology," "cop-out," "cover-up," "disguise," "justification," "trick." However, when I looked up reason, the definition is "The basis or motive for an action." Synonyms were "comprehension," "deduction," "discernment," "intellect," "logic," "understanding," "wisdom,"

Exuses seem to be a person's way of justifying something undesirable, where as a reason is the actual truth as to why something has occurred. So the bottom line about that first set is that my EXCUSES were not the reason we lost that first set. The REASON was because the other team was playing better than we were. The REASON we won the last two sets is because we were playing better than the other team. The responsibility in all three sets fell to Doug and I, not the outside variables.

This touches a little bit on the spiritual side, which I said I would not do, but I was mulling over in my head if it is possible to use God as an excuse instead of a reason. It's too much of an abstract thought in my head right now to type any more about it, but it seems as if there has been times where I have thought this - can't exactly put my finger on it. However, I want to be a person, and teach my children to be, a person who is willing to take responsibility for my actions, good and bad, and not be one who always has an excuse.