Deb Wuertley, Overtly

Christmas Songs

2008-12-04T17:18:00.002-05:00

Christmas music in our house starts playing Thanksgiving night as we start dragging out the Christmas decorations. Kicking off the Christmas music season each year in our house is The Carpenters' "A Christmas Portrait" starting out with "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." Thanks to ITunes, this year I was able to put an old family favorite, "The Gift Goes On" by Sandi Patty onto my IPOD and "Come Let Us Worship the King" and "Bethlehem Morning" conjoured up nostalgic feelings in me from Christmases of my childhood. It seems like every place I go now, Christmas music is playing in the background - malls, Wal-Mart, restaurants, etc. And since I have no control over the music playing out in public, I must take the good with the bad...and I have just as long of list of "annoying" Christmas songs in my book as I do of ones that are near and dear to my heart. So I decided to compile my top seven list of not so favorite songs on this post. They are as follows:

1. Santa Baby. This song is my all time least favorite Christmastime song. It doesn't matter who is singing it (Madonna was the one sticking in my head but my sister-in-law says that Kylie Minogue is most known for singing it) this song gets on my nerves. The words, the way it was sung, my skin crawls as I have to endure this song.

2. Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen style. I like the song, at least when the preschoolers are singing it at work. Bruce Springsteen's raspy voice is more than I can handle on this seasonal favorite.

3. Feliz Navidad. Are we going to sing in Spanish or English?

4. Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time. I can't put my finger on why this song bothers me - maybe the lack of melody?

5. Deck the Halls by Manheim Steamroller. Yes, it's only instrumental. But I hate the part of the song when it should be "fa la la la la la la la la" - the last 2 la's don't sound right to me. Like they went down an extra step or something.

6. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. I mean who comes up with this stuff?

7. Little St. Nick by the Beach Boys. Can't explain it, I just don't like it. When I'm singing along I want to morph the song into Little Deuce Coupe.

But to end this post on a positive note, I am going to list my top 5 all time favorite Christmas songs.

1. Bethlehem Morning by Sandi Patty. I love this song. I don't care who is in the car, I am going to belt out all the lyrics AND try to hit the high notes, my voice cracking with emotion as I go. It's pretty ugly.

2. O Holy Night - sung by many but I do like Sandi Patty on this one, too.

3. Carol of the Bells - with the lyrics. Too often this song is played instrumental only and that disappoints me. I do like the Garmin commercials where they insert their own lyrics to the tune.

4. Mary Did You Know - I have the Mark Lowry version, but I think I like Clay Aiken better on this one.

5. The Nutracker Soundtrack - especially the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. AND I get to see this performed next Saturday by the Butler Ballet Company! Anna is anxious to see boy "ballerinas."

Problems of a Five Year Old

2008-09-25T21:40:00.003-04:00

Anna, my five year old, informed me tonight that she has 3 problems. I was trying to enjoy at the time my big bowl of strawberry shortcake loaded with strawberries, ice cream, and whipped cream, but I tried to show the appropriate amount of motherly concern. She listed her problems in the order below.

1. "My first problem is that I'm scared that I am going to have a bad dream when I go to sleep."

2. "My second problem is that I'm scared I won't be able to find you and I'll look inside and outside and you won't be there."

3. "My third problem is you won't share your ice cream with me."

I'm not sure if she listed her problems in order of importance or not. She didn't get any of my ice cream.

Dreamin...

2008-09-25T13:29:00.002-04:00

Yes, I was two minutes late to work today. I walked in at 8:02, although the clock in the classroom, which is a little slow, said 8:01. I am normally a punctual, if not a little early person to work.

But today my morning schedule was put on pause at 7:49. Usually at 7:49 I have just finished combing my hair and I am heading into the girls' room to kiss Anna goodbye. I have already told Elizabeth goodbye at 7:44 after getting her out of bed to put her hair in a ponytail. But today when I got to Anna's bed it was empty. So I went into our bedroom and she had just gotten up and was in our room. She snuggled in our empty bed (Jason was in the shower) and as I kissed her goodbye, she said, "Wait, I want to tell you about my dream." Well, it was only 7:51 and I don't have to be walking down the stairs until 7:53 so I snuggled in beside her in the bed. However, it took her 4 minutes in between coughing, wheezing, and stuttering to tell me she dreamed she and Elisha went into a store to buy two Webkinz but once they got in the store Elisha said they should only get one.

So I was two minutes late for work. It's okay. I'll either take 58 minutes for lunch or stay until 4:02.

If Only I Could...

2008-09-15T13:55:00.009-04:00

A friend this weekend quoted a great, well, quote. She said, "Comparison breeds discontentment." Actually, now that I have typed that I'm not sure that's a direct quote (how many times can I say the word "quote" in one paragraph) but you get the idea. And I believe that is true. It is easy to be satisfied with what we have or who we are until we start gazing over at the neighbor's house or comparing our children with others or even feeling insecure about ourselves.

However, there are times when comparison and then the discontentment that follows can have a positive effect. Athletics is a good example of this. Actually, any kind of competitive endeavor is an example of this. There have been many times when I have played a video game or a game on Facebook and thought I was pretty good until I watched someone else or saw someone else's score. Knowing that a higher level was attainable motivated me to try harder (and play incessantly) until achieving the higher score. Seeing a 72 year old man compete in the triathlon this weekend motivates me to keep on exercising and stay in shape and not use getting older as an excuse.

However, no matter how much I compare myself and no matter how discontented I get, there are some things in life that I will never be good at. Some of these "things" are unattainable because I am simply unwilling to devote the time it would take to become proficient in them - i.e. fixing a car (actually, even changing a tire), playing the violin (or any other musical instrument for that matter), mowing the lawn (I tried once, it wasn't pretty.) But some of these "things" are unattainable because I am just not made to be able to do them. For example, those picture puzzles where the squares are scrambled and there is always one empty square space so you can move the pieces around to assemble the picture - I am terrible at those! But luckily life doesn't routinely put me in a position where I have to assemble those pictures in order to be successful. However, there are some areas that I wish that I was just awesome in that I quite frankly will never even be mediocre at. They are as follows:

Medical emergencies - oh, I'm trained, all right. 30 and 2 for CPR, 5 back blows and 5 stomach thrusts for the heimlich. But when a medical emergency is unfolding before my eyes, I break into a sweat, my eyes fill up with tears and my first instinct is to pray - not just for the victim but for someone else who is competent to take charge. I wish I could be the type of person to take over and apply the appropriate treatment, but it just isn't going to happen unless I am the last resort.

Singing - I wish I could sing. I mean REALLY sing. Not just sing somewhat on key in church. My voice is more in the alto range but I don't know how to sing parts. So my poor little old low voice tries its very hardest to reach those high notes on How Great Thou Art but we can only hope that only the hard of hearing are near when it happens. Now I'm not asking for American Idol type talent, but I would like to at least be good enough to sing in the choir and maybe even a solo in church.

Interior Decorating - I wish I had a knack for it. I'm really good at going into other people's houses and knowing what I like and don't like, but when it comes to my own house, I'm at a loss. I need someone to come in and give me three different ideas and then let me pick which I like best. I think I would be good at the execution of the ideas (i.e. painting, finding the "items" that would look good in the house) I just need someone to lay it all out for me...for free.

Landscaping - this is very similar to the interior design, but it's the exterior design. Again, I am so willing to buy the items and do the manual labor, it's just knowing what to get and where to put it. Of course if I would just water the flowers I did plant...

Play the drums - now maybe if I did devote the time I could learn how to do this, but let's just face it, it's pretty unrealistic for a 33 year old to take up the drums. So I'm planting the seed in Anna's head and maybe we can learn together.

So before I get too down about what I CAN'T do, I need to go do something I am good at. Actually Anna is calling me right now to help her pass a section of Chicken Little on the playstation...now that's something I can play!

Out of the Mouth of Babes...

2008-09-14T15:31:00.003-04:00

I guess my five year old was into the Olympics this year more than I thought. When I asked her today if she wanted to go to a volleyball match with me on Tuesday night, she asked me, "Is it in China?"

Get to Know Me Better

2008-06-18T08:25:00.002-04:00

I googled myself last night - was interested to see what kind of information on me the internet had to offer. (Am I the only one who has ever done that? Can you stalk yourself?) With a last name like Wuertley, it is quite easy to find links that talk about me and not some other Deb Wuertley in Arkansas. The majority of the links either were to this blog or to triathlon information. However, I did find one interesting link - to a website called Lookupanyone.com. For any of you out there who find that Deb Wuertley, Overtly does not disclose enough information about me, for $39.95 you can get the following information: my age, addresses (both past and current,) relatives, statewide criminal background check, bankruptcies and liens, sex offender info, and small claims and judgments.

Of course I must warn you that the information you get may not entirely be accurate. On this site they did give a couple of juicy tidbits about me to entice you to buy the package - my age and a little bit of address history. Both were wrong. They said I was 33, and I am only 32, and they had 9 address listings for me, but outside of IWU, I have only lived at 3 addresses. But hey, for only $39.99, what can you expect? So for a limited time only, I have decided to go one step further. For a grande mint choclately chip frappuccino from Starbucks, I will sit with any of you for an hour and give you the above information and more. It's a steal of a deal. But if anyone does buy the package and finds that I owe someone money, please let me know.

Got Milk?

2008-05-22T08:17:00.002-04:00

I was in an elementary school cafeteria earlier this week when a poster promoting milk caught my eye. After reading the poster, I came to the conclusion that the milk industry really needs to take a second look at who is doing their marketing. The poster read as follows (the caps are my doing for effect.)

The PROTEIN in milk helps build stronger muscles, and SOME studies SUGGEST that TEENS who drink it TEND to be leaner.

Could that be any more ambiguous?

Also, ironically Vince Carter was the promo athlete for the poster, and he isn't a teen.

Blog Hiatus

2008-05-11T21:06:00.003-04:00

I don't even know if I spelled the title of this post right, but hey, it's Mothers' Day, so cut me some slack!

It's almost been a month since my last post, and even then it took an earthquake to prompt me to write. What is the cause for my long dry spell? I could say it is the end of the school year which is the busiest time at work for me. I could say it is because with springtime came time to work in the garden, so every free minute on a nice day was spent outside. I could say it is because springtime also brought soccer games, tennis matches, piano recitals, and daylight savings time which made the evening seem longer than it really was. But the REAL reason for my lack of posting...Webkinz. Yes, Webkinz, the furry little stuffed animals that kids buy to give them a code to a virtual pet world where they nurture their pet (or pets) and buy them things. The way you earn money to buy the things your pet needs is to play games. Even though these games are geared for kids, they can also be quite challenging for adults, and the more levels you complete on a particular game, the more points and "money" you earn to spend on your pet. There are three games in particular that are fun to play and also earn my kids quite a bit of money - Cash Cow, Cash Cow 2, and Hide n Skunk. Cash Cow is a cross between Bubblepop and Tetris, and Hide n Skunk is a replica of Minesweeper, except instead of mines there are skunks and instead of flags there are flowers. I can't seem to get past Level 9 in Cash Cow and Level 12 in Hide n Skunk. If any of you out there have ever gotten to a higher level than those, please let me know - I need a little competition to further my game. Oh wait, I guess most adults don't play these games. I mean if your kids have gotten past these levels, please let me know.

Earthquake

2008-04-18T07:16:00.002-04:00

Yes, I said the "Rapture" prayer this morning as I jumped out of bed to investigate the cause of the house shaking.

My Third Grade Beau

2008-04-12T16:28:00.005-04:00

Actually, the title is a bit misleading, because at the time I was in 2nd grade and he was in 3rd grade...yes, I was seeing an older man. We were in the same class together, a split class with Mr. Ott. Apparently there were only enough 2nd graders for half a class and only enough 3rd graders for half a class so they combined us.

It was probably a relationship on the rebound. My 1st grade beau, Craig, had just dumped me for one of the other third graders in our class, even though he and I were part of a foursome of desks and we would play footsies underneath the desks while Mr. Ott read us the Hardy Boys and Boxcar Children. We even had skated the couples skates at the Idyl Wyld. Ultimately he chose an older woman, a blonde, and I was left in the cold.

As most relationships on the rebound go, my third grade beau and I didn't last long. Middle school, high school, and college came and went without another encounter with him...until last week. Our paths crossed in a work setting. "I know you from somewhere," he said. "I never forget a face." I tried to figure out who he was without asking his name, but I didn't recognize him. Then I saw his name (which will remain anonymous to protect the innocent.) "Wow, I haven't seen you in a long time. Weren't you my third grade boyfriend?" He agreed that yes, he was, and he even thought he still had a picture of me at his house. Of course, I still look almost exactly like I did when I was in third grade, with my short red hair and freckles. I mentioned that he, however, had changed quite a bit, especially the full beard he had that I am pretty sure wasn't there when he was nine. We chatted for a little while and caught up with our lives, and then he was gone.

My 2nd grade relationship must have had some sort of impact on me, because I didn't have another boyfriend until 6th grade. The scars from my 2nd grade relationship must have remained because my 6th grade beau and I didn't last long either...I felt suffocated because when it came time to work in groups in class, he always wanted to work with me and didn't want me to be in a group with my girlfriends. I broke up with him via a note in Industrial Arts class. He was wearing his boy scout uniform that day.

It's a wonder that I was able to put all of that behind me and am able to be married today.

The Wuertleys Visit the Big City

2008-04-02T17:00:00.003-04:00

Many of our friends were going somewhere "big" for Spring Break, but our family decided to forego the long trip and just spend one night in Indianapolis for our big Spring Break outing. Items on our "to do" list while in Indianapolis - go to Build a Bear, visit the Children's Museum, eat at the Old Spaghetti factory and Cheeseburger in Paradise, and swim at the hotel. The first major decision we had to make to plan the trip was our accomodations. I told Jason I did not want to spend the night in a crummy hotel in Indianapolis when we only live an hour away, so we typed in an offer for a 4 star hotel (one that we thought was pretty low but after hearing everyone else's success stories I guess we weren't so smart after all) and were pleased to get accomdations at the Omni in downtown Indianapolis. Our family usually stays at the Super 8 or Budget Host, so we were pretty excited to be staying at such a fancy hotel.

After a fun but VERY expensive trip to Build a Bear, we headed to check into the Omni. At the Super 8 or Budget host, the check in procedure goes as follows - Jason pulls up to the front door, leaves the car running while I stay with the kids, he checks in, gets our keys, gets back in the car, we pull around to the closest parking space to the outside enrance to our room, we all take a load up, I start unpacking, and he unloads the rest of the car. Apparently this procedure is not what happens at a 4 star hotel. We knew we were in trouble when we pulled up to the front and several young men in blue suits were standing by several pull racks for luggage. Uggh, valet parking. We both agreed that we would respectfully tell them we could get our own luggage. However, when Jason inquired about parking to one of the young men, he said our two options were to do the valet parking or to park in the closest overnight parking lot 3 blocks away. The valet parking was $25, the overnight lot parking was $18. For $7, we figured that was worth not dragging all of our stuff across Indianapolis. Then came the issue of the bags. Sure, we would pay the $25 for valet, but we were NOT going to have them take our bags and then have to tip them for that on top. So we started to unload. This is what we initially thought we would be able to carry ourselves (in one trip, of course, because they were going to take our car as soon as we left, and there was a line forming behind our car so we had to hurry) - 4 bags (one for each of us), Jason's laptop, two build a bear animals IN THEIR BOXES, two bitty babies, the bitty baby suitcase, the bitty baby stroller, the snack bag, and a sleeping 5 year old. Needless to say we didn't get far before we broke down and enlisted the help of the man.

Jason and I headed upstairs with the girls to our room. We were feeling a little uneasy about getting our "stuff," but less than a minute later the door knocked and we had our luggage. Jason got out his wallet for the tip, and having no idea really what to give him, had no less than a $10, so we had to give this man $10 for dragging our junk to our room. $35 later the price on priceline wasn't seeming like such a good deal.

After a wonderful meal at the Spaghetti Factory, we headed back to the hotel to swim. Jason and the girls changed into swimsuits (I wasn't in the mood to swim) and we headed to the pool. We didn't really know where the pool was, but Jason figured we would just "run into it." We went to the lower level and hearing dinner music in the background and not seeing anyone around, Jason said to wait where we were while he went to check it out. I didn't realize he wanted me to hold the elevator door open, so it shut, trapping me, my two girls in nothing but swimsuits and towels, and Jason in his swim trunks and a t-shirt on the lower level right next to...a private dinner party. Luckily the next people off the elevator was a family, and they pointed us in the opposite direction to the pool.

After swimming in a very unpopulated pool (I don't think a lot of families stay at the Omni) we went back upstairs to our room to find that someone had turned down the covers on our bed and left mints and cookies. Since the cokes in the refrigerator were $3.50 and the bath salts were $7.50, we were a little nervous to eat any of these snacks, but we took them assuming they were complimentary and thankfully didn't get charged.

All in all it was a great trip, although the Wuertley family was definitely out of its element. Elizabeth wrote a little note to the Omni management saying that it was the nicest hotel she had ever stayed in, so even she was impressed.

Peer Pressure

2008-03-18T17:21:00.004-04:00

Shortly after getting home from work today, I headed upstairs to change out of my work clothes into my "rest of the day" clothes. If I have nowhere to go for the rest of the evening, then I change into a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt. Actually, even if I do have somewhere to go, sometimes I still change into a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, but if that isn't appropriate, then I will put on some jeans and a shirt. This wasn't always my after work routine. I used to be a one outfit a day woman. Whatever I wore to work in the morning (which was usually a pair of dress pants and dress shirt or sweater) was what I wore until I went to bed at night. Not so with my husband. From the first day we were married and he went off to work until this day, the first thing he does when he gets home is go to the bedroom and change from his work clothes into his lounge clothes. Even if we are going somewhere a couple of hours after he gets home, he will still change into his lounge clothes and then will change back when we are ready to leave. When we first got married, I thought this was a ridiculous habit. First of all, it just created more laundry. Second of all, how did he decide how many days in a row he would wear the same lounge clothes? If I wear a shirt all day long, for around twelve hours, then I put it in the laundry. If lounge clothes are only worn 2-3 hours a day, then can they be worn for 4-5 days without laundering? It all gets very confusing. However, the longer we were married, the more I realized that he looked a lot more comfortable than I felt in the evenings. So now I have fallen into his pattern, and if you visit the Wuertley household anytime after 6:00 in the evening, you will find us both in sweats.

This pattern got me thinking today about other habits or "things" that I do solely because I have been around someone else for a long time who do these things and they have sort of rubbed off on me. For example...

Before I was married, I NEVER intentionally ate sour cream, especially on potatoes or tacos. I also never used mayonaise on sandwiches. When we got married, I realized that both of these condiments had to be staples in our household, especially when I witnessed Jason making a ham sandwich with mayonaise lathered on both pieces of bread. I learned to not even offer tacos as a dinner choice if there wasn't sour cream on hand. So now I use mayo on sandwiches, and I even PAY EXTRA for sour cream at La Charreada because I can no longer eat a taco or quesadilla without it.

I had also been camping 0 times before I got married, and never had any desire to do so. Jason, however, grew up camping, so he was somewhat disappointed that I didn't share his enthusiasm for roughing it in the wild. However, he talked me into a pop up in 2002, and now the Wuertleys are camping fools.

And my mother as my witness, I never used sunscreen growing up. Actually, my mother doesn't have to be my witness; the million freckles all over my body prove that statment. Jason, however, will not step out into the sun without lathering in the stuff. After a few vacations of me being miserable and burnt and him being white but free of pain, I crossed over to the world of sunscreen - my kids are thanking me because I let them use it, too.

Snooze button - never, ever used it until I got married. I still technically do not use it because the clock is on Jason's side of the bed, but I do request its use twice each morning.

As I was typing this post, Jason came home from work - and yes, he has changed into his lounge clothes. I told him about what I was posting about, and he wondered if there is anything he does now that he used to not do because of me. I thought and thought, and you know, I couldn't come up with a single thing. Hmmm, what does that say about the two of us?

The Challenge

2008-03-16T19:29:00.003-04:00

The challenge was thrown down late last night. I was talking to Jason about how I was disappointed in my time after running a mile yesterday. He started reliving the glory days and shared with me how in eighth grade he was on the track team and ran the 400 in exactly one minute, six seconds. He then proceeded to boldly proclaim that he was SURE he could now run the mile in less than 8 minutes. He chose 8 minutes as the benchmark for this proclamation because that is always my goal when I run the mile, and I have only done it once this winter.

I told him there was NO WAY he could run the mile in less than eight minutes. Convinced that he could with NO PROBLEM, the challenge was born.

Elizabeth was already going to be playing basketball at the gym at 1:30 today, so we decided that then would be the best time to run the mile. 10 laps around the inside track at the recreation center was all he would have to do...in less than 8 minutes. While no official wager was set for this challenge, he said that if he was able to do this, then he should be able to get an IPhone, no questions asked. I don't think I even stated what I would want should I win the bet, but the satisfaction of him not being able to do it would be enough for me. I'm a very supportive wife, but the thought of my husband being able to get up off the couch with no training and beat my time in the mile after I have been running the last few months was very discouraging.

The excuses started on the way home from church. He said he was going to be too full after eating a big Sunday lunch. Since we had to be at the gym at 1:30, his lunch wasn't going to have a chance to "settle." He said after he ran the mile, he was going to be too sore and would probably have to sit in the recliner the rest of the day. I didn't doubt it, but too bad, the time and place had already been set.

We arrived at the track precisely at 1:30, kitchen timer in hand to time the big event. Sweatpants and sweathirt were stripped off. Our five year old sat by me on the bench, ready to witness this spectacle. There were a few obligatory stretches. Then he went to the starting line. He asked me to call out his time after each lap, and I said I would. And he was off.

He started off at quite a rapid pace. If he could keep this up for 10 laps, he was going to have no problem breaking eight minutes. After one lap I called out "30 seconds." At this rate he was going to run the mile in 5 minutes. The second lap I could tell his pace was slowing a little, but as he finished the second lap, I called out "one minute, five seconds." I was starting to get a little nervous. Maybe he would be able to do it. But then about 1/4 lap into the third lap, he stopped suddenly, turned around with a smile, and said, "There's no way."

Ahh, I guess there is some benefit to training. Curious to see how well I could run since I was now so inspired, I had Jason set the timer to 8 minutes and I decided to see if I could beat the challenge. Wanting to impress my five year old and my husband, I did run pretty good, but after 9 laps I was at 7 minutes, 25 seconds, and I knew there was no way I could run the last lap in 35 seconds. Oh well, at least I didn't bet an Iphone on it.

This One's For You, Keetha

2008-03-14T23:06:00.002-04:00

When I was a senior in high school, my curfew was midnight. I remember rushing home some nights, trying to make it under the wire. Then I would sometimes get on the phone after that.

In college, curfew (in the dorms) was 1:00 on Saturday nights and 2:00 on Friday nights. I remember midnight basketball games at Center School, 1:00 a.m. Taco Bell Runs, late night pacman games at the Cafe 37, and one night I remember making it from the Ball State campus to our dorm in 27 minutes to make curfew.

Now I can barely keep my eyes open at 11:00 to type this post. Last Friday night I was in bed asleep by 10:30.

When I was in college, sleeping in meant noon or after. I think I slept 50% of winter and spring break.

Now sleeping in is 9:00, and if I sleep too much past that I either have a headache or hip pains.

The weekends just aren't what they used to be.

Letters to the Editor

2008-02-28T15:59:00.002-05:00

This past summer I e-mailed the Chronicle Tribune with a letter to the editor regarding RadioU's departure from 94.3. That letter was never printed. I re-sent the letter a few weeks after my initial try but never saw the letter printed and never received any response from the Chronicle as to why it wasn't printed. I still don't understand why it didn't run. There has certainly been more controversial letters, such as letters about MCS, the proposed smoking ban, and politically based letters. There have also been letters criticizing other IWU decisions, such as the closing of Nebraska Street, so I don't think that was the reason it didn't run (and my letter really wasn't critical.) And finally, it can't be because they refuse to print letters from members of my family because my sister-in-law had one printed a few weeks ago. But alas, it was not printed, so I have decided to use this blog as my forum for other letters to the editor that I would like to send.

Dear Fellow Community Member Who Must Use Her Cell Phone in the Wal Mart Checkout:

It is incredibly annoying to have to run to Wal-Mart in the middle of the day. I was already under a lot of pressure because I had exactly 5 minutes to run in, pick up a birthday present, and make it to the IWU gym to pick up my kids from swimming lessons. I would have gone to the self checkout, but you were almost done at the regular checkout so I got behind you in line. You were obviously enjoying your conversation on your cell phone, but it was distracting you as you were trying to pay. You paid for your groceries and THEN realized you forgot the two bags of ice. The cashier was waiting so patiently on you to get off the phone, but I was steaming behind you. I did not want to appear annoyed, but I also couldn't fake my true feelings, so I am sorry that I didn't acknowledge your comment about having a million things to do today and being scatterbrained. I decided instead to look past you into the background and think about the fact that I too had a million things to do today and I was going to be late to the gym. I understand that in today's technological world it is so tempting to be connected to the phone 24/7. But can you please complete the checkout process first next time and then talk to your honey on the phone?

Thank you for your consideration.
Deb Wuertley, Marion

Dear Person at Tucker Who Stole My PDA:

I know the PDA sat at my desk connected to my laptop all year. I know that defeats the purpose of having a PDA. But I still felt violated when you took my PDA AND rummaged through my desk drawer to find the case. But just one thing you may want to know: you forgot to take the base, so by now I'm sure it is dead and of no purpose to anyone. And just so you know, it did still have my daily schedule for the next several months on it, and when my laptop died on Monday, it would have been helpful for me to have my PDA so I could have at least known what I was doing this week. But hey, thanks for not taking the 7 DVDs I accidentally left on my desk overnight. I took them home today so you missed your chance.

Regards,
Deb Wuertley, Marion

Dear Person Who Turned Right in Front Of Me on the Bypass on the Way to My Wal-Mart Trip:

Why? I mean there were NO cars for three blocks behind me. I was going full speed on the bypass and you were on a side street. Then you only traveled three blocks and turned into the Lowe's parking lot. This may not have been a big deal to you, but because I had to slow down, I hit the next light and then only had 5 minutes at Wal-Mart instead of 6. I know you couldn't have known the trip I was going to have at Wal-Mart, and I didn't either, so that's why I didn't blow my horn. Oh yeah, and that wouldn't have been very "Christian like" either, so that's another reason I didn't do it. But in my head I was annoyed.

Deb Wuertley, Marion

And just so you don't think ALL of my letters would be negative, I've decided to add a couple of positive ones:

Dear Mrs. Hornett:

You are an amazing 2nd grade teacher. I asked Elizabeth on Friday how school went, and she said it was an AWESOME day (she had won some art contest and bingo, and since she is so competitive that was HUGE) except for one thing "was bad" she said. She had a substitute for half of the day because you were in training. Elizabeth absolutely loves 2nd grade and loves having you for a teacher. I know in elementary school learning how to read and write are very important, but learning to have a love for school and having a positive classroom environment is also important, and you have been an integral part of that this year. In the midst of a lot of stress and turmoil at MCS, you have been nothing but positive in the classroom. Elizabeth has no idea the chaos that is surrounding MCS because you have not brought it in the classroom. Thank you for all you do for the kids in our system.

Sincerely,
Deb Wuertley, Marion

Dear Linda:

My afternoon was absolutely uplifted when I got your e-mail that I had "won" the King Gyros tickets. I was on the phone when the initial e-mail came through and so I read it 7 minutes after you had sent it. Surely Bonita beat me to the punch, I thought. I refreshed my e-mail every ten seconds after I replied and let out a shout when I learned I was first to respond. Thankfully the kids at school had gone home for the day (my office is in the middle of a preschool classroom.) Thank you so much for the coupons. In fact, that night Jason and I got to talking about gyros, so we ordered out gyros that night. I am looking forward to another evening soon when I won't have to cook and we can enjoy the gyros again. Thanks for making my Friday end on a great note.

Thanks again.
Deb Wuertley, Marion

Christmas List

2008-02-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

Deb's Christmas List

pretty picture frames at IWU bookstore
I Tunes gift card
tennis shoes
salad fork and spoon server
5x7 dark wood picture frame
9x13 pyrex dish
watch band
curling iron
bath and body hand soap
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy
Red End of Silence CD
Creative Memories digital kits
Cord for IPod to play it on my work computer

Oh wait, it's only February, isn't it.

The Moment of Truth

2008-02-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

I'll have to admit, I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I haven't been checking many blogs, much less blogging myself. This tends to happen each year to me from January until March. I'm sure there are many little factors that each in of itself aren't THAT big of deal, but all rolled up together they create one big funk. There's the aftermath of Christmas with the tearing down of the decorations, the cold weather that causes me to start my car 10 minutes before I leave in the morning, thus wasting expensive gas, and then still having to scrape the windshield, and not to offend my mom and daughter who have birthdays in January and February respectively, but there really isn't anything to look forward to in these two months. I'm all for honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and our presidents, but those two "holidays" really don't have me all that excited with the exception of having a vacation day from school. But last year I had a little diversion from the typical February funk - the Colts' Superbowl run. When they lost to the Chargers a few weeks ago, I settled in for two more months of funk until the weather got warm. But then there was last night. The extent to which I love the Colts is just slightly greater than the extent to which I dislike the Patriots. I felt just as invested in the game last night as I did in the game last year, and I will have to admit, tears (mine and Plaxico's) were shed after the game. Last night and today, I have tried to watch as much coverage on the game as possible, reliving each play of that last incredible drive (and enjoying equally the interviews with the Patriots,) and my good mood was only increased by the wonderful surprise of the two hour fog delay this morning. Next weekend is Anna's birthday (5 years old!) and that will be fun, and then the weekend after we have a really fun weekend planned that involves good friends, good food, and campers. What more could you ask for in a weekend than that? So I have a feeling my mood is on the upswing, and what better way to celebrate than with a post.

There is a new show on t.v. called The Moment of Truth. Ordinarily I wouldn't care to watch this show, but since there isn't much else on t.v. right now, and at the time I watched the Moment of Truth I was avoiding ESPN so I wouldn't have to watch anything on the Patriots, I decided to check it out. From what I understand, the premise of the show is this: A professional asks the contestant around 50 questions while the contestant is connected to a lie detector. Then that same contestant is asked the same questions by the game show host for the episode, and the more questions he answers truthfully, the more money he earns. Of course the questions for the small amount of money are only slightly embarrasing or revealing, but when you get to the big bucks, the contestant's innermost thoughts and most secretive actions are exploited. I only watched one contestant compete for money, but what I saw really bothered me. The contestant was a man, and his wife was among the family on stage watching. Many of the initial questions were more personally embarrasing for the contestant, but as the stakes inreased, his relationship with his wife was questioned. The question was, "Is one of the reasons you have not yet had chidren because you aren't sure your wife is your lifelong partner?" He answered yes! What I found disturbing about this process was that he knew before the taping of the show what questions could be asked of him because he was already asked these questions prior to the show by the lie detector professional. Yet he still chose to go on the show and disclose this information. A couple of other answers that bothered me - he answered that yes, he had done something that would cause his wife not to trust him, and then he falsely answered no that he had touched any of his female clients more than necessary while helping them (he is a personal trainer.) The funny thing was, because he answered this last question falsely, he walked away with no money and a very hurt wife.

Of course I was thinking that if I went on the show, I would have no problem winning the top prize of I believe $500,000. I'm a pretty transparent person; after all my blog title IS "Deb Wuertley, Overtly." Telling the truth and not cheating are probably the two biggest virtues that I try to live by and preach to my kids. But then I really started examing myself. Sure, I would breeze through the questions regarding my marriage, my integrity on the internet and on the job, and even past skeletons in the closet (some would say I have lived quite the boring, uneventful life.) But then come the tough questions regarding the feelings inside that I have regarding certain situations or people. For example, was there ever a time when I wished ill will on someone (Okay, so I wouldn't have cried if Tom Brady had blown out a knee during the season.) That's terrible. Honestly, after this example I had listed two others to further prove my point, yet even those two general hypotheses made me feel uncomfortable enough to delete them, so I did. (To all of you who were at the Super Bowl party, please know there really isn't anyone I personally know that I derive a little satisfaction at their eternal destination, just monsters who abuse kids or murder their wives, people like that, not Tom Brady who I now feel convicted to pray for at this very moment.)

I want to be a person who could appear on the Moment of Truth and be confident that regardless of what was asked of me, I could answer truthfully immediately and not fear the consequences. Would I still answer some questions that might offend people? Sure. By nature of being a Christian, I would be bound to offend someone. But what I can work on are those feelings inside of me that are developed by jealousy, pride, greed, selfishness, and lack of faith. And then maybe next Superbowl, Patriots or no Patriots, Colts or no Colts, I can just enjoy the game.

All Pro Dad

2008-01-03T13:09:00.001-05:00

Jason and Elizabeth attended an All Pro Dads day at the Indianapolis Colts' practice stadium last year. Tony Dungy is a big promoter of the All Pro Dads program, and Jason and Elizabeth had a great time doing activities and drills that day. Since then, Jason periodically gets e-mails from All Pro Dads with encouragements and ideas for dads. The following story comes from an All Pro Dads idea that was pretty neat.

The two letters arrived, one addressed to Elizabeth, the other addressed to Anna. The return address had our home address, so needless to say, I was a little confused when I looked over the mail. Elizabeth ripped open her envelope and found inside a letter from her daddy. The letter stated how he is proud to be her daddy and for the coming year, he wanted to know some ideas of how she wanted to spend time together. Attached to the letter was a sheet with four questions, and he wanted her to fill out the questionaire and return it to him so he could "plan for the next year." Elizabeth excitedly found a pencil and ran off to complete the task. In the meantime Anna opened her letter, and I sent her to Elizabeth to have Elizabeth write in Anna's answers for her. When they both came back to Jason with their completed answers, we were greatly humored at the difference between our 8 year old's answers and our 4 year old's answers. They were as follows:

Question #1 What one thing have you wanted to do with Dad but have never done?

Elizabeth - "fly on an airplane." Hmmm. That shouldn't be too hard some day.
Anna - "sleep in bed (all night) with Dad." Guess she is forgetting the first six weeks of her life when she was a permanent fixture in the middle of our bed each night.

Question #2 What one thing would you really like Dad to teach you, or tell you, that he never has?

Elizabeth - "How do things work?" With further probing, we found out she wants to know how computers work, how the body works, etc.
Anna - "How do you do homework?"

Question #3 What have you done with Dad in the past that you really enjoyed, but don't get to do enough?

Elizabeth - "spend time."
Anna - "play games." Guess he can knock both of these out at once. Just play games with both.

Question #4 What one thing is really on your mind that you want Dad to know about?

Elizabeth - "I love you so much." Ahhhh.
Anna - "I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese." Not nearly as endearing, but pretty funny. She actually got this wish because we went last Saturday. Which leads me to a little interlude about Chuck E. Cheese...

I was going to post on Chuck E. Cheese quite awhile ago after another memorable excursion. For the record, I think my parents took me to Showbiz (the old fashioned Chuck E. Cheese) as many times in my life as my kids get to go in a year. We make it at least 3-4 times a year. When I was a kid we maybe got 5-10 tokens apiece. Now when we go, we get the family meal deal that comes with 80 tokens, and Jason doesn't play games, so the kids get around 30 apiece and I take a few for the pop-a-shot basketball game. Hey, I'm just trying to earn them more tickets. This past Saturday after I finished up one of my pop-a-shot games, the bells and whistles started going off and tickets started spurting out uncontrollably. They kept coming and coming and coming, and I didn't realize how many I had won until I looked at my score - 86! This was my best ever, and the sign says that if you get over 80, you get 100 tickets. After retrieving my 100 tickets and running back to the table to shove down some gourmet barbecue chicken pizza, I grabbed a few more tokens and headed back to the pop-a-shot. If I could get 86 so easily, surely I could get 80 over and over again, thus collecting so many tickets that my kids could finally "purchase" the Barbie doll for 6,000 tickets that would cost $9.99 in the store. However, despite my valiant efforts, I could not achieve over 80 again. I got 78 twice and 79 once, but I could never get over the 80 hump. The tokens were spent and it was time to cash in the tickets. There was a long line at the ticket redeeming machine, and then I found another quarter in my pocket. One last chance! I cashed in my quarter for a token and ran to the pop-a-shot. It was going to be the Hoosiers movie ending that I had dreamed about. One last chance, a magical quarter, and I would get over 80. Nope, I got 74. I trudged back to the ticket redeeming machine with the 5 tickets I earned, we cashed in all the tickets and headed to the prize counter with just under 400 tickets. Of course, the squishy eyeball that both girls wanted was 200 tickets. We were 6 tickets short. Jason asked the worker if we could buy points so both girls could have the squishy eyeball (he is an All Pro Dad, you know,) and she said yes, at the whopping price of...a penny a point! What? She was telling me that the 100 tickets I worked so hard to get would only really cost me $1.00 to purchase. Suddenly the novelty of the tickets wore off. A penny a ticket. Wow. He paid the lady a few cents to get the squishy eyeballs (which by now are either broken, lost, or banned to the "we don't play with this any more" toy bin.)

Back to the original story. In looking over the lists, all of the kids' requests seem very doable for Jason to do in the next year, except for the airplane one which may have to wait awhile. Now I am just waiting for his letter to me...

The Tale of Two Christmases

2007-12-23T17:33:00.001-05:00

Is there ever another time of year where the same event or season can bring about such polarized emotions? From the day after Thanksgiving through December 26th for our family (this is the date of our last official Christmas celebration of the year) I run the gamit of emotions from excited to frustrated to exhausted to elated and etc. etc. etc. Sometimes my emotions switch from one extreme to the other in a matter of seconds. Yesterday was an example of this. Last Tuesday night Jason had his office Christmas party, and in the kids' gift exchange, Elizabeth was the recipient of an e-pet. For those who don't know, an e-pet is a small stuffed dog that comes with a registration code for a special website that allows the pet owner to visit a virtual world for his/her dog and earn points/money to visit a diner, spa, and various other locations (according to Elizabeth, an amusement park is in the works.) The e-pet was quite a hit with Elizabeth and with Anna who was pretty upset that she also didn't get an e-pet in the exchange (although she was perfectly happy with her Backyardigans memory game at the party.) When Elizabeth was at school last week, Anna would get on Elizabeth's e-pet account and play, usually spending more money than she would earn. She complained to her grandmother that she didn't understand why 8 year olds were old enough for an e-pet but 4 year olds weren't. The e-pet website said that e-pets are sold at Target, Meijer, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart, so yesterday, when I headed to Wal-Mart for some groceries, I decided I would get Anna her own e-pet.

Anyone braving Wal-Mart yesterday deserved a gold star. The grocery side wasn't bad, but the other side, especially the toy aisles, were nearly impassible, especially with a cart. I headed to the stuffed animal section and looked for the e-pets. I didn't see any. I manuevered my way through the handheld games and board game aisles but still had no luck. "Maybe they are back in electronics," I thought, so I headed to the back of the store. The only section more crowded than the toy section at Wal-Mart was the electronics. I stood in line for 5-10 minutes at the electronics check out just to ask the cashier if there were any e-pets in this section. She said no, if Wal-Mart carried them, they would be in the toy aisles. I headed back to the toy aisles, flagged down an associate who told me that they weren't going to carry any more e-pets until after the first of the year. Feeling very defeated, I drove my cart to the checkout and proceeded to wait close to a half hour to check out, minus an e-pet.

The website had mentioned K-Mart as another place to get e-pets, so I called Jason to call K-Mart to see if they had any e-pets. I was already in South Marion, so Gas City didn't seem too far away. He said he would call, and I started over to Gas City. I was half way to Gas City when he called back. He said they didn't have e-pets at K-Mart, but they did have Webkinz, which apparently is similar to e-pets. I have heard of Webkinz, but since Anna was already familiar with the e-pets site and really wanting an e-pet, that is what I wanted to get. I figured since I was almost to K-Mart, anyway, I would check it out and probably end up purchasing a Webkinz. Feelings of disappointment were welling up inside of me. I knew how much Anna wanted an e-pet. I thought it would be so easy to get one for her, and yet after spending all that time at Wal-Mart fighting through the crowds and sweating profusely in my heavy coat (what was going on with the weather yesterday, anyways? 50 degrees?) and still not having this e-pet, I was very frustrated.

I headed into K-Mart and went straight to the toy section. I found the stuffed animals, and lo and behold, right there in plain sight, for $11.99, WERE THE E-PETS!!! I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or break into the Hallelujah chorus right there on the spot. After all the searching and frustration and disappointent, feeling of elation rushed over me - all over a little stuffed animal. But it was a little stuffed animal that I knew would make my 4 year old so happy.

I paid for it, rushed to the car, called Jason and told him of my good find, went home, wrapped that little cocker spaniel up, called Anna downstairs and gave her an early Christmas present. I will have to admit I had a very selfish reason for giving it to her early. Jason and Elizabeth went to the Colts game today, and I had lots of chores to catch up on and gifts to wrap, so I knew the e-pet would occupy her so I could get some things done. The look on her face and her jumping up and down and into my arms was definitely worth all of the effort.

The above story is just one example of the different emotions that the Christmas season brings. Below are some other emotions I have experienced.

The pressure of finding the perfect gift for someone
The joy of watching someone open up the perfect present from me
Exhaustion after a day at the mall carrying around so many packages that I thought my hand was going to have a permanent indentation in it from the bag handles.
Peace sitting in my living room with all of the light off except for the Christmas tree and candles in the windows.
Stress trying to make it to Christmas programs, parties, and family get togethers
Enjoyment sitting and relaxing and talking with relatives that we only see a couple of times a year
Comfort hanging out at home with Jason and the kids, all of us in pajamas watching A Very Brady Christmas (we don't make it a point to watch this every year, but it seems like we always stumble upon it on the tv, and once we start watching we can't stop.)
Worry that I spent more money than we had budgeted
The feeling of familiarity as we carry out Christmas traditions - putting up the tree and our special ornaments, completing the advent calendars, etc.
Frustration when gifts ordered over the internet don't come in on time
Honor lighting the advent candle at church
Annoyance when two gifts I bought in the store cost $25 more than if I would have ordered on-line
Gratefulness that we are able to spend Christmas time with both my family and Jason's family each year
Awe - the whole Christmas story and the fact that Christ came to Earth in the manner that He did - wow!

And in a little more than 3 short days, the festivities will be over. The gifts will be put away, the decorations will come down, the bills will be paid, and yet, our Lord is still our Saviour, today, tomorrow, in July, and Black Friday 2008!

Is it Real?

2007-12-09T15:16:00.000-05:00

Is it real? That is the question our four year old has been asking us often when she wakes up in the middle of the night and wanders into our room. The first night it happened, Jason, still half asleep and thinking she was talking about a dream she had just had, said, "No, it's not real." Wrong answer. Anna proceeded to ask hysterically, "It's not? It's not real?" to which Jason hastily replied, "Yes, yes it IS real," still having no idea what she was talking about. We just wanted her to calm down and go back to sleep. Two nights ago she asked the question again, and the next morning we finally got out of her that she is talking about the world, or more specifically, the experience she is experiencing at that exact moment she is asking the question. I guess that's why she was a little bothered when we were telling her that life was not real.

Now that we have cleared that little mystery up with Anna, her eight year old sister Elizabeth asked a different sort of "Is it real" question today on the way home from church. It was the question that I had been expecting and preparing an answer for, not knowing the exact time and place that it would be asked. She decided today was the day. "Mommy, I want to know if Santa Claus is real. And DON'T LIE TO ME!"

Let me back up a bit and give some added details to the story. Last year when wrapping up presents for the girls, we labeled all of Elizabeth's gifts to be from us except for one - the My Little Pony Magic Castle. This was the one present Elizabeth wanted and the one we said she couldn't have because it was too big and would take up too much space, and she would only play with it once or twice and then it would collect dust. So we decided that this special present would be the one from Santa. Elizabeth was excited when she opened up the present, but she was very perplexed that after being such a good girl all year, Santa only brought her one gift. It was one of those moments on Christmas morning where a little wind goes out of your sails as a parent because you have put time, energy, love, and yes money into this very special morning, and instead of hearing what a wonderful parent you are, you hear about what a cheapskate Santa is.

Determined not to let such a technicality put a damper on this Christmas, I asked Elizabeth before this shopping season began how many presents she thought Santa Claus brought really good girls. She said she thought really good girls would get 5 presents from Santa and 5 presents from their parents. I asked Anna the same question, and she said 1000 presents, so I went with Elizabeth's answer instead.

Since Elizabeth's Christmas list does not yet include expensive electronic items yet (I know my time is coming,) 10 presents seemed very doable for the budget, especially when a $2.50 set of earrings is still exciting. So gifts were bought, and last night I began to wrap. But I wanted to be strategic with the wrapping. She saw me wrapping other gifts with the wrapping paper I already had in the house, and she used some of it, too, to wrap her gifts. I was safe to use that wrapping paper on the gifts Jason and I got her, but it would take special wrapping paper to distinguish which gifts were from "Santa." Then comes the labeling of the gifts. I can't use our tags and my handwriting to say, "To Elizabeth, From Santa." So I thought I would go to Wal-Mart after church today, buy some special Santa wrapping paper, and then get a big "E" and "A" stamp to stamp all over the wrapping paper that covered the gifts from Santa (Good Housekeeping idea.)

After church Jason dropped me off at the door of Wal Mart and stayed in the car with the girls. I headed inside, got two rolls of wrapping paper, and headed toward the craft section for the stamps. The only letter stamps they had were in packs of all 26 letters and numbers 1-10 for $9.99. I'm all about playing Santa, but this Santa is too cheap to pay $9.99 for these stamps. I decided I could figure out another way to label the presents, so I checked out without the stamps and got in the car (being oh so careful to hide my newly purchased wrapping paper.) As I closed the door, Jason gave me a smile and said, "Elizabeth has a question, and I told her we would wait until you got back before we answered it." And thus, out came the question I had anticipated and mentioned above.

After sidestepping the question valiantly by asking what she thought and what her friends thought and why was she asking me this, I finally gave in and truthfully answered her questions. We talked about St. Nicholas many years ago and the tradition of gift giving and how Moms and Dads really give all of the gifts but it's still fun to pretend. Just to make sure she understood, she said, "So you are saying that when I grow up and become a mom, if I don't put presents under the tree, then there won't be any presents for my kids?" I guess she got it.

She seemed fine with the truth. In fact she asked if this year she could eat the cookies we set out. I don't know why I expected tears or disappointment - I can't remember when I learned "the truth," and I still remember playing along, even well into my teen years when my parents would still give me gifts from not only Santa but Rudolph and the elves as well.

And little Anna - well she was in the car during the whole conversation but I don't think she was even paying attention. We'll play along for her until she figures it out, too, and then we will probably still play along even after that. It's just fun. Both kids already know why we really celebrate Christmas, and I think they get (or will get in the future) that the whole gift giving thing is really just another expression of love.

And I am really glad now that I didn't buy those stamps.

Don't I Know You?

2007-12-05T16:18:00.000-05:00

We've all experienced this awkward situation. Someone approaches you and starts talking to you as if you know who they are. You know they look familiar, you just can't put your finger on how you know them. I run into this situation a lot with families I have worked with through Head Start. We enroll 168 families a year, so after 11 years of that, it is hard for me to keep track of over 1600 faces, names, and family histories.

But what is even more awkward is when someone strikes up a conversation with me as if we know each other, but I still have no idea with whom I am talking to. This happened two times to me recently. The first time was when we went to Chuck E. Cheese a few Saturday nights ago. I was standing by the Whac-a-mole game, waiting on Anna to win her two tickets, when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and say, "Hey, how are you doing?" I looked up expecting to see a familiar face, but I had no idea who this man was. He must have noticed the confused expression on my face, because he proceeded to say, "Frank, remember, from the cross country team?" I will have to admit that really didn't help me out at all, but I put on a fake big smile and said, "Oh yeah! Hey, how are you doing?" as if him telling me his name was Frank suddenly cleared up my confusion. At least he had given me the clue "cross country team," so I at least had a point of reference to talk about. I assumed he meant that he had been a part of the IWU cross country team, so I started up a conversation with him about some friends of mine who had also been on the cross country team. We caught each other up on mutual cross country team friends, told each other where we were working, that we were married, and how many kids we had, and then it was time to say goodbye. It was at this point when he said, "Yeah, I saw your IWU tennis team sweatshirt (yes, I still wear sweatshirts that are over 10 years old and say Porter on them) and I thought you were Morry's wife." Morry was a mutual friend who was on the cross country team, and his wife was also on the tennis team, and in Frank's defense, I am built like her and we both have short hair. So I guess the joke was on both of us - I'll bet after I turned around when he first approached me that he felt more awkward than I did at that point.

The second time I experienced a case of mistaken identity was at Papa Murphy's. First I want to say that I LOVE Papa Murphy's, especially when I have a $2.00 off any pizza coupon and can get an incredibly cheap pizza that lasts at least 3 meals. On this particular Papa Murphy's trip as I walked up to the register to order, the cashier said in a loud voice, "Hey, I haven't seen you since therapy." Many, many things ran through my mind at that point, not having a clue of who this person was and what kind of therapy she was talking about, but I wanted it to be known to the rest of the people in Papa Murphy's that I was not at one point GOING to therapy with this person. Again, I had a confused look on my face, so the cashier added, "The hospital, right? You do therapy at the hospital?" Well at least now I knew we were talking about PHYSICAL therapy, but I had to assure the woman that I had never worked for the hospital, that I don't do therapy, that I don't go to therapy, and we had probably never met before. I tried the standard, "I've worked with Head Start preschool for several years, did you have a preschooler in Head Start?" but that wasn't where she would have known me. Yes, another awkward moment, I paid for my pizza and left.

Just last week I was going from the main office at Tucker to my office when a familiar looking face stopped me and started talking about her son. Her face really looked familiar but her name and family situation just wasn't coming to me. However, I was able to play this one off good until finally through the course of the conversation I figured out who she was. Then I made sure I went overboard with facts about her family just in case she had suspected at first that I didn't know who she was. I don't want people to feel unimportant or slighted if I can't remember exactly who they are.

When we were in Florida over Fall Break, we stayed at a condo and went swimming often. While swimming one day, I saw a woman who looked exactly like a teacher I have seen at an elementary school here in town. I don't know this teacher at all, I have just seen her in the halls and have had maybe one conversation with her ever, so even if I was for sure it was her, I still would have felt awkward going over to her and asking her if she was who I thought she was. So instead I did the next best thing - I kept staring at her trying to figure it out. That was MUCH less awkward, especially when she kept seeing me stare at her. I saw that same teacher today at the school, and I still didn't have the guts to go up to her and ask her if she was in Florida over Fall Break.

And thus, the stories of the "Mistaken Identities."

My 100th Post!!!

2007-11-09T17:27:00.000-05:00

It all began 18 months ago in the summer of 2006. June 17, 2006 to be exact. 100 posts divided by 18 months equals...let me get my pen and paper out...5.5 posts a month, which equals...okay it's late on a Friday and my math isn't so great right now, but I can say for sure AT LEAST once a week. Wow, that's more often than I would have given myself credit for.

And now there is so little time and so many topics to blog about. What should my 101st post be about? The Chuck E. Cheese excursion? The cases of mistaken identity? Passions? Work and sickness? The rummage sale extraordinaire? The story of me disintegrating my bangs with a too hot curling iron yesterday right before leaving for work and then having a sink full of my burnt hair and a curling iron with my wrapped burnt hair all around and the bathroom reeking of burnt hair? Oh wait, that would be the extent of the post, so I guess I can cross that topic off my blogging list. And the pictures would have been so great.

Maybe I will sleep on it tonight and then post tomorrow on one of the above topics. Any suggestions?

2007-10-29T19:34:00.001-04:00

I recently have heard two advertisements that have really bothered me - one on the television and one on the radio.

First, the one on the television. The company behind the advertisement is Visa, and the ad is set to the song "When the Saints Come Marching In." The ad has several New Orleans Saints fans purchasing different fan wear and items - this ad was obviously filmed before the football season began, because the Saints have been a real disappointment this year, so Visa would have probably picked the Patriots to represent them instead. Anyway, as the various fans are buying their gear, they are paying for it with Visa. Then, after several Visa payers, a guy steps up to the counter wanting to pay for his gear with cash. The music in the background stops, he receives dirty looks from the cashier and fans behind him, the cashier and he exchange money, and as the next person in line steps up with his Visa, the merry music begins again. Then the final screen of the advertisement reads "Life takes Visa."

Let's dissect the real meaning of this ad. I think it says, "Hey, don't pay cash if you can for your purchases. Pay with a credit card instead, and then you can not only pay once for your item, you can pay for it over and over again in interest. Or maybe you won't pay for it at all, and then you can declare bankruptcy and start all over again." What kind of message is Visa trying to send to the viewers? It's obviously not financial responsibility. But then again, if people were financially responsibile, then how would Visa make all of its money? I'm not against credit cards - I rarely carry cash and use mine all of the time. But with the financial state many Americans are in right now, I think the commercial is not portraying a healthy way of spending money.

On to the next advertisement - the one on the radio. This one I heard this past weekend coming home from vacation. I'm not positive which beer was being advertised, but I'm pretty sure it was Busch beer. The tag line at the end of the advertisement said this: "If at the end of the weekend you have a clear conscience, then you either have a really bad memory or a really boring life." I have two things to say about this philosophy. First, if having a clear conscience means having a boring life, then I will take the boring life any day. And second, I have a clear conscience after the weekend (and on the weekdays for that matter,) and I don't consider my life all that boring. Maybe I just have a different kind of fun than the people on the radio.

That Time of Year

2007-10-14T22:08:00.001-04:00

In addition to family, there are two other people who are very important in a woman's life - her hairdresser and her gynecologist. These two people are irreplaceable, and if a woman is forced to replace one of them, it can be a very traumatic experience.

MALES, DO NOT GO PAST THIS POINT. The information that follows is too much information for you, and you wouldn't understand anyway.

Last April my "female doctor" retired. He actually delivered me 32 years ago, did my first exam, and other than seeing someone else while I was pregnant, has been the only female doctor I have gone to. He would have delivered my two children had he still been in that business at the time. Also in April I was due for my yearly exam. This is a day that I don't exactly look forward to anyway, but the added factor that my doctor had retired made scheduling an appointment unbearable. However, after going 6 months past due, I figured preventative health outweighed modesty and uncomfortableness, so I scheduled the appointment.

Who to schedule the appointment with came with much deliberation. Should I make an appointment with the doctor who delivered the girls? She now practices in Ft. Wayne, so that would be quite a trip to make each year when I could just go down the road. The only other female female doctor I am aware of has gotten mixed reviews from those I have interviewed, so that left the three doctors who practice where my former doctor practiced. One is new, so I didn't want to try him out. Another I had a brief experience with when I was pregnant and just didn't feel like that was the choice for me. That left the third - a doctor who I have only heard wonderful things about. The problem...I know him. I attended his Sunday School class several years ago. We attend the same church camp. I went to school with his brother. Our kids go to the same school. I was just having some problems with all of this, but the pros outweighed the cons, so in I went for the appointment.

When I schedule an appointment like this, it really is an all day procedure. My appointment was at 4:00, but I started preparing at 6:30 a.m. in the shower. Legs had to be shaved. Then after the shower toenails had to be clipped. I never know whether or not to keep the socks on or take them off, but just in case I was in the mood for them to be off, I clipped. I headed to work, playing the upcoming event over and over in my mind and thinking in just a few hours it will all be over.

After work I headed home to change into my most comfortable outfit. If I'm going to be stressing out, I at least want to be comfortable. I did my pre-appointment cleansing. I mean, when I go to the dentist, I brush my teeth really good first, even though I brushed in the morning. I then went to the appointment.

Sitting in the lobby was torture. There was a mother and daughter also waiting - the daughter was very pregnant, and judging from the conversation between the two, this must have been her first. They were looking at some parenting magazine, picking out items that would make their upcoming arrival a genius. I was hoping for a People magazine. Finally they called my name.

I headed back to a corner and got weighed. Then it was into the room for blood pressure and information. The doctor will be in shortly, she said. Well, something happened with one of the other doctors having to do a delivery, so because of this, my doctor was a little late coming in to see me. I had to settle for a parenting magazine that let me know about childhood obesity, back talk, and how to help my child with homework. Finally the doctor came in, we chatted, and then came the worst part of the appointment - the point where I had to undress and wear two oversized paper towels while sitting up on a table. I decided to take my socks off because they had holes in the heels. After sitting for several more minutes, the doctor came in with the nurse serving as a witness, and the exam began. I learned a lot about how to be a good friend from the poster on the ceiling. Thankfully, the exam did not take long, the doctor was very gentle, and after only a few minutes I heard the words every woman longs to hear at this point..."Okay, you can get dressed now."

All in all, it wasn't a bad visit. From start to finish I was in the office about an hour and forty five minutes, but only about 4 of those minutes were embarrasing. Now I have another 364 days to relax.

Homecoming

2007-10-09T20:36:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday my family attended a homecoming service at the church that I attended from birth through 7th grade. Actually, I should call it the meeting house, because I grew up Quaker, and that is where Quakers meet. The stats board in the back (we called it the narthex, I have no idea if this is the correct spelling) said there were 105 people in attendance. Counting my nuclear and extended family, we made up 19 of them. Right before my family left the church, it was not unusual for the attendance to be in the mid 200's. So needless to say, the church body is much different than when we attended.

I had not stepped foot in this church since my grandmother's funeral 14 years ago. As I carried my crockpot of beans to the fellowship hall, I could already feel the tears welling up in my eyes. "Get a grip," I told myself as I gritted my teeth and delivered my food. I had also brought chicken casserole, muffins, and brownies in fear of there not being enough food. I had forgotten how wonderful South Marion Friends carryins were. There was no need to worry about the quanity or quality of food. This spread was in stark contrast of the last carry in at College where the unfortunate ones at the end of the line came out with macaroni salad and a cookie. Of course I am just as much as to blame as the rest of the congregation; I only brought potato salad. But for this South Marion Friends homecoming, I was pulling out all the stops.

After delivering the food I mingled in the narthex with my family. There sat the two red chairs in front of the nursery, one where my grandmother would sit every Sunday morning waiting for me to arrive. Mom and Dad always had choir practice before church, so I would sit in the other red chair by my grandma and she would pull out a piece of Wrigley's spearmint gum for me from her Bible.

We headed in the sanctuary to sit down - the same place my family always sat on Sunday nights. Sunday mornings my parents stayed in the choir loft, so I would sit on the other side with my grandma. But Sunday nights we sat on the opposite side, easy access to the back door which led to the prayer room, aka spanking room when my brother and I would act up. The same red hymnals sat in the pew. #1 was still For the Beauty of the Earth, #2 was still How Great Thou Art, #100 was still Satisfied, and #21 was still Love Divine All Love Excelling. I passed the time through many a sermon leafing through those hymnals. The big "Come Worship The Lord In The Beauty Of Holiness" letters still hung proudly up front on the wall. I used to play word games with those letters. Darlene still sat at the organ and played. After the sermon (which I only can remember 1 of the 2 really funny illustrations - one was about a farmer and a lawyer and I can't remember the other one so if Bekah, you are reading, do you remember?) we had the time we call Communion After The Manner Of Friends where everyone meditates on what was just said. One time my mom had planned a surprise party for my dad after the sermon so she was deep in thought about the party when my dad leaned over and jokingly told her the pastor had asked her to dismiss the service...and she did! How embarrasing.

After the service we ate, and then came the time for the big tour. I had to show my kids and husband all around the church. The library looked like it was in a time warp - just as I had remembered it as a kid, hanging out for hours while my mom served on committees. The nursery still had a couple of toys that I remember playing with, and the old piano I used to practice on was still in the children's church room. In the library I found some old church directories and had a great time leafing through remembering the members of the church. Amazingly Jason's great grandfather's picture was in one of them - he didn't even know he had attended the church!

As we pulled out of the parking lot after leaving, a lot of thoughts were running through my head. There is definitely a different feel being a part of a church body of 200 compared to a church body of 1200 or however many now attend College Church. Will my children feel the same type of bond to their church and the church body that I did to mine? What kind of memories will they have 20 years from now of their childhood church? For a moment I wanted to gather up all of the former members of the church when I was young and restart a new South Marion Friends Meeting. But that's not realistic. Maybe my family could just go back to the church, meet the new members (all of about 30 maybe) and start new traditions. But then I got to thinking, it isn't the actual church building that I hold so dear in my heart. The church building was just the structure that held the people that meant so much to me. Without those people, the walls of the church really have no sentimental value to me - it's the memories that were created within those walls. And my children are creating those same kinds of memories within the walls of College Church with a different body of believers.

In the crazy pace of life, we find time for dance, for gymnastics, for tennis, and many other extra-curricular activities that the kids love. But it's the memories that are created in the church that I believe have the potential to be remembered most fondly, and so in this day when the trend seems to be going away from the traditional church setting and more focus is on your personal relationship with whatever god you serve, I want my kids to still grow up in a church that serves as a safe haven, an accountability tool, a support system, and most importantly a place to worship God.

The W On The Barn

2007-10-08T16:51:00.000-04:00

A project that was started almost a year ago has finally been completed. It was one of those projects that in reality should have only taken a week at most to complete, but we managed to drag it out for 10 months. First, a little history.

During my childhood through college years, my family was very close with another family. Our families had the type of relationship where we vacationed together, celebrated family occasions together, got together on Friday nights to hang out, went out to eat, etc. Some of my best childhood memories were made with this family. My best friend was a part of this family, and I was the maid of honor in her wedding and she in mine (although she was married the time, so does that make her the matron of honor?) They lived just outside of Swayzee out in the country, and the sure fire way to identify their house was the W on their big yellow barn. It was a large, black W made of metal, and it hung above the barn doors centered between the doors and the roof.

Years have passed, the family has since moved out of state, my friend has since moved out of state, and another owner occupies the house. My family (that is Jason, the girls, and I) moved to our current house around 7 years ago, and the house we bought has an old barn. 2 summers ago, we knew that we either had to tear down the barn or remodel it, because in its current state the roof was caving in and the barn was not structurally sound. After deciding that the barn was quite useful for storage and as a psuedo garage (we don't have a garage,) we decided to have the barn remodeled. A wonderful Amish crew came and gave the barn a makeover, and all of our neighbors stood around and applauded that they no longer had to look at an eyesore.

I could never get the idea of that W on my friend's barn out of my head. I always thought that W was so neat, and I wanted a W for our barn. Then an idea popped in my head. I would research to see who currently owned my friend's former house, I would call them up, and I would ask them if I could have/buy the W off the barn. This was going to be huge for me, because I am not a forward person. But I really wanted that W. First I called my friend to make sure she was okay with me trying to get the W. She was. She shared the history of the W and said that her dad had the W specially welded for the barn. This is a special W. Then I got on the internet on some housing assessment site to see whose name came up. To my dismay, the owner of the house had a first name that started with "W." Of all the letters the name could have started with, it had to be a W. But it was her first name, not her last, so maybe the W had no significance at all to her. I got out the phone book and found her name. Sure enough the address of the house was listed there. I took a deep breath and called the number.

It was quite an interesting conversation. I told her all about my friend and our families and all of my fond childhood memories and how we now had a barn and I would really love to have/buy the W off her barn. Did it have any special meaning to her like it did to me?

Of course it did. She had looked and looked and looked for a house, and she was at her wits end when she went to see this house, and lo and behold when she saw the W on the barn, she just knew this was her house - it was meant to be.

I thanked her for her time and assured her that I did not want to pressure her into giving me a symbol that was also important to her. But wait. She had one more piece of information that I did not know. THERE WERE TWO W's on the barn. I didn't know this part because I only went to my friend's house from one direction. Apparently there was another W just like the one on the front that was on the back of the barn, too. And she was willing to share - one W for her and one for me. She wanted to make sure it was okay with her kids if she sold me a W (I went ahead and told her we would buy it from her) and I told her I would ask my husband if we could buy the W. She said she would call me back. A few days later there was a message on my machine saying yes, we could buy a W, and to call her back to discuss a price. It was the first of December.

A couple of weeks passed. Jason and I decided on a price to offer her (pathetically cheap compared to what I'm sure it cost to make but comparable to if we would get a cheapie one off the internet) and I called her back. We agreed on the transaction, now we just needed to decide when Jason could go out and get it off the barn. She said she may be around that weekend, I said we would call.

Something came up that week, and before we knew it it was February. I called her again, she wondered what had happened to us. The superbowl, I explained. The Colts had distracted us and we hadn't gotten around to the W. Could we come out that next day. Sure we could, she said.

The next day came and I don't remember if it rained or if it was a huge snowstorm but inclement weather postponed our W trip. February turned into July, and still no W. My birthday is July 6. When Jason asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said all I wanted was the W on the barn. So July 5, he called W-----, made arrangements, and went and got my W off the barn. The next week I went to Wal Mart and bought some rustoleum black spray paint. The following week I sprayed my W. It dried until September. Then last weekend, finally, Jason hung up the W on our barn. Mission accomplished.

Big Brother

2007-09-21T20:01:00.000-04:00

This is the second school year my office has been at the Tucker building here in Marion. That's roughly 400 days. Two days ago I noticed for the first time that right outside the classroom door that leads into my office, there is a camera mounted near the ceiling. This camera feeds information back to monitors that are placed in the main office and monitored by either secretaries or a security guard. I had been aware of cameras that monitored the parking lot, but until two days ago, I was not aware of the hallway cameras. In addition to housing three preschool programs for Marion Community Schools, the Tucker building is also the site for alternative education for middle school students, so I understand the need for the cameras. I just didn't realize they were there.

I'm a little paranoid now about my past activities in the hallway. In the past, what if I looked both ways down the hall, looked behind me, and then while thinking noone was looking, adjusted a piece of clothing, or scratched my nose, or did something that would be embarrasing for another to witness? This got me thinking - what if there were hidden cameras everywhere, catching our every move when we think noone is watching? The point of this post isn't to talk about how even when noone sees what we are doing, God always sees, or anything even along those lines. It's more about the silly or embarrasing things we do each day that we would never EVER do if anyone else was around. Let me give you an example. At lunch yesterday I picked up Anna from preschool, took her home and fixed us both lunch. I wonder if she is getting sick of peanut butter and jelly, string cheese, and chips like I am since that is what we eat together every today. Anyway, the bag of chips was getting very low, so the majority of the chips on my plate were crumbs. I love these kind of chips - they're the cheddar and sour cream ones (don't know the brand, doesn't matter.) I finished the rest of my lunch except for some remaining crumbs on my plate. Not to let even one drop of food go to waste, I leaned down over my plate, and using my tongue as a utensil, cleaned my plate up so you could see all of the flowers that were under the food (my mom always used to use that phrase as a motivator, not sure why, because there were only a couple of flowers in the center of our plates growing up.) Would I have even dared to clean up the crumbs in that matter if any other person (other than my 4 year old who wasn't paying attention) would have been there? Of course not.

I gave a speech in speech class my freshman year of college about a procedure I do sometimes in the bathroom. I won't elaborate any further, but this is another thing that I would NEVER do in front of anyone else.

Anytime "Careless Whispers" by George Michael (or is it WHAM!) comes on, I have to sing along at the top of my lungs. "I'M NEVER GONNA DANCE AGAIN. GUILTY FEET HAVE GOT NO RHYTHM. THOUGH IT'S EASY TO PRETEND, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT A FOOL."

I've stalked A LOT of blogs that I would be embarrased if the author knew how often I checked the site. Get a life, Deb.

Cleaning out my belly button with a q-tip is something noone should have to witness.

Singing along with my children's kid cd's...when they aren't in the car anymore. "Old McDonald had a farm, eieio." It's even worse when I start trying to harmonize with them.

In reality, no matter how dignified any one of us looks in public, we all do crazy humiliating things that let us just be us with ourselves. What's even better is if you have a family you can do them in front of (oops, ended on a preposition, sorry Mom.) I'm glad I do.

Magic Tree House

2007-09-04T21:10:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid, I loved to read. I remember as an elementary aged kid going to the Marion Public Library, downstairs in the basement, to the children's section to pick out 10 books. My favorite series (what is the plural for series, anyways) were the Beverly Cleary books (Beezus and Ramona and Henry Huggins and Ribsy) and the Carolyn Haywood books (Betsy and Star, these were a little older where the moms never worked and the dads brought home the bacon and the kids were well mannered all of the time) and the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle Books and Encyclopedia Brown and Choose Your Own Adventure and The Bobbsey Twins and I could go on and on and on. I would plop down on our old brown couch that sat in the living room and not get back up until I had read a book cover to cover. So now that Elizabeth is to the age where she is getting into chapter books, I want her to share the same love of reading. She has taken to the Junie B. Jones books like I did the above series (there we go again, what is that plural?) but I want her to enjoy the books I did, too. She has gotten into the Ramona books, but another series that she has enjoyed is the Magic Tree House series. This is a newer series, one I am completely unfamiliar with, but my mom got her a couple of books for Christmas last year, so she has started her collection. Together right after Christmas we read Midnight on the Moon. It was pretty good I guess. Then this summer Elizabeth read one about Polar Bears. It seemed to hold her attention. Then during our last camping trip, she started on one called Space. One night she got about two chapters into the book before she fell asleep with the book on her chest. When I went into the camper for the night and turned off her light, I started leafing through the book to see what it was about. I was quite excited about all of the scientific knowledge she would be gaining - even while she wasn't in school. Imagine my surprise when I began reading the following and I am directly quoting the book here: (now, it has been over 10 years since college where everything has to be documented APA style, so know that all of these direct quotes come from the Magic Tree House book Space, written by Will and Mary Pope Osborne)

Wait, first I have to tell you on the front of the book it states that this book is "a non-fiction companion to Midnight on the Moon."

Okay, back to the book. Chapter 2's title is "The Universe." The first heading is "The Birth of the Universe." Under this heading is the following: "Today, most astronomers think the universe began with a huge explosion. They call the explosion the Big Bang. They think that it happened about 15 billion years ago. Two things happened at the moment of the Big Bang. First, the stuff that would become everything in the universe came into being. Second, the universe began expanding" more jibberish follows, then "At the moment of the explosion, the whole universe was smaller than the head of a pin. Within a second, it was billions of times bigger than Earth. For billions of years after the Big Bang, everything in the universe was just very, very hot gas." After more explanation, the end of this section is summarized as follows:

Birth of the Universe
Big Bang
Universe gets bigger and bigger
Gas balls form
Gas balls become stars

Well, I'm glad that is all cleared up for my 7 year old now. Just a little different explanation of the birth of the universe than what she has learned from the first few chapters of Genesis.

The next morning Elizabeth and I had a little conversation about her book. Thankfully, the biblical teaching has made its mark on her, because when I asked her about what she had read, she said, "Isn't that silly? I mean, how could an explosion like that position the sun just the right distance from Earth so it isn't too hot or too cold. And God created everything on the Earth."

My problem with the Magic Tree House book isn't that it explained the Big Bang theory. And the rest of the book seems pretty accurate based on what we know through science. My problem with this book was that it quickly moved from "this is what most astronomers think" to assuming that it was right, and then basing the rest of the chapter on it. I want my children to know about what other people think and that others have a different opinion on the origin of the universe. I just didn't expect a children's book to be so one sided about it.

Schedules

2007-08-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

If you are like me, when you lie down in bed each night, you mentally go through the next day's events. You review who has to be where and when, what appointments you have, obligations, fun things, or even just chores that have to be done around the house. I have a PDA that I live by during the work day, but during the summer, my mind is the only calendar I have. So when I went to bed last night, today looked something like this: sleep in very, very late. We had a pretty intense triathlon training workout last night, and when I got home afterwards a little after eight, I was beat. After waking up around 10:00, I was going to eat breakfast, shower, and get the kids ready. Around 11:30, the kids and I were going into my work so I could get a few things done - I have an event at work tomorrow that I had to prepare for. After working, we would stop by Riverview and register Elizabeth for 2nd grade. A friend of mine had mentioned the possibility of her taking her kids to a dollar movie in Kokomo in the afternoon, so I figured the kids and I would also go and take in the movie. We would get home around 4 or 4:30, and I would head out to the garden to pick the corn. If I had enough corn, I was going to freeze it tonight. If I didn't have enough worth the time to freeze, I was going to invite everyone I could think of over to the house for corn on the cob. Then I would do some daily household chores, get the kids a bath, relax for awhile, and then get to bed around 10:30 since I have to go into work tomorrow (day off for training today.) Sounds like a pretty fun, relaxing day, right? Let me tell you how the day actually went. The roofers started working on our roof at 6:30 this morning...right above our bedroom. From 6:30 to 7:00, I sighed loudly, complained to Jason that I couldn't believe they came so early, and "slept" with the pillow over my head. At 7:00 when Jason got up, I sandwiched my head between both of our pillows and enjoyed an hour of sleep until the phone rang. It was a former co-worker of mine needing some information regarding work. Since I was up, I figured I would call the pediatrician - Elizabeth had been complaining of an earache for a few days. They said they could get her in at 10:30. I got up, showered, got the kids up, fed us all breakfast, and we headed to the doctor's office at 10:30. An hour, middle ear infection diagnosis, and two prescriptions later, we headed to Walgreens to get some medicine. That would take 20 minutes to fill. We went home for 20 minutes and did some chores. We went back to Walgreens, picked up the medicine, and drove to Riverview to register (administering the first dose of antibiotics in the parking lot.) After registering (it's now around 1:00,) I start aimlessly driving towards south Marion. Am I going into work? Am I going to the movie? Am I spontaneously going to take the kids shoe shopping for school? Oh, and we haven't eaten lunch yet. My phone rang. It was my friend - no kid friendly movies at the movie theatre. She offered to watch the kids while I went into work. So we hurriedly pulled thru the McDonalds drive thru and headed to her house to drop off the kids. After dropping them off, I went into work, taking the antibiotics in with me because they needed to be refrigerated (NOTE: THIS IS KEY LATER IN THE STORY.) I put the medicine in the refrigerator at work and headed to my office, where I was greeted with 22 new voice mail messages (I had stopped into work on Friday and cleared all other messages.) Due to the nature of my job and the fact that school is starting for one class tomorrow and the other classes in a week, I HAD to return these phone calls. Also, one of the messages was the social worker from our Westview school making sure that I was still planning on sitting at a Head Start table at their open house from 5:30-7:00 tonight. Oops. I had committed to that in May and had completely forgotten (I'm not on PDA time yet.) Well of course I am planning on going, I tell her on a voice mail on her phone. 21 more messages to go. Well, it was going to time wise make sense for me to just stay at work until I had to leave at 5:00 to go to Westview, so I called my friend and she so graciously offered to keep the kids longer. I called Jason, and he was able to pick them up in a timely manner, so the kids were set. I returned all of the phone calls but three when I noticed the clock read 5:15. I hustled out the door and headed to Westview, just in time for the start of the open house. The open house was going well until about 6:40 when I realized I LEFT THE ANTIBIOTIC AT MY OFFICE and the building is locked from the outside at 4:30. Oh, and I am not important enough to have a key to the outside doors. Since Elizabeth was literally crying today due to the pain (and also in the bag with the antibiotic were ear drops to be given at night to numb the ear) I knew I had to get those antibiotics. So I left the open house early and headed back to the office, praying that the night shift custodian would somehow see me to let me in (it's a rather large two story building, it wasn't likely.) I tried the front doors - locked, and no activity. I drove to the basement parking lot, and miraculously, a door was unlocked. I ran upstairs, got the goods, and headed to the car, ready to go home. I was just about home when it clicked in my mind that today was gymnastics sign ups at the gym. So I kept on going straight instead of turning and went to the gym to sign the girls up. As I pulled into the gym parking lot, I could no longer ignore the low fuel light that had been on since heading to Tucker (my work place) from Westview, so after registering the girls, I stopped by the gas station. Just a word of wisdom - it is always good to stay by your car, even if the pump is on automatic. I had planned on filling the tank, and as the gauge reached the 15 gallon mark (I have a 15 gallon tank,) I wondered why the pump wasn't clicking off. At that moment, gas started gushing out of my tank, and I got a foot bath of gasoline. I hoped Jason wasn't planning on a campfire tonight, because a spark would have set my legs on fire. I finally pulled into home around 8:30, settled for a BLT sandwich and some Doritos, and the rest of the night has gone on as planned...except now it is past 10:30.

All of the above to say that I think it is interesting how we, or at least I, plan our days down to the last minute, but in reality, our plans are usually thrown out the window by what life hands us for that day.

I Scream You Scream We All Scream For Ice Cream

2007-08-05T20:43:00.000-04:00

It started out as a simple bribe to Elizabeth. I needed to run 30 minutes for triathlon training, and I thought if she went with me and rode her bike, the time would go faster, and she could keep track of time and mileage. The motivator - a dipped ice cream cone from McDonalds. She lobbied for a dipped cone from Dairy Queen (apparently they are better) but McDonalds is closer to our house and cheaper, so she agreed to McDonalds. We set off to the Riverwalk for our training.

The first two miles went pretty smooth, aside from the water bottle falling from her bike basket 1/2 mile in to the run. "No, we can't stop to get it," I told her, because if her bike stops, then the time stops, and then I would have an inaccurate time. At the beginning of the third mile, I was starting to suck wind, and she was complaining that her knees hurt. No time for complaining, I told her, I wanted to finish three miles in less than 30 minutes, and I was just on pace. She was a trooper and coasted across the "finish line" a few seconds ahead of me. After walking a bit to cool down and then sitting on a park bench drinking the water (she rode ahead and picked it up quickly on the way back,) we headed to McDonalds for her reward.

We started at the north McDonalds, just a couple of minutes from home. We coasted up to the speaker to order our cone, only to find a note saying that the drive thru was closed and sorry for the inconvenience. After running three miles, I was not about to go inside to get this cone with sweat dripping off my body. I told Elizabeth, "I guess you will get your Dairy Queen cone after all," and we headed to Dairy Queen, five minutes down the road. We got to Dairy Queen, and apparently Sunday evening is a very popular time for ice cream in Marion. The drive thru was so long that when I turned into the line, the rear of the Jeep was sticking out in the road, blocking the right lane on the bypass. Oops. Luckily, after about 30 seconds the line moved, and we got out of traffic. However, there were still 7 or 8 cars ahead of us, so I told Elizabeth we would back out of line and head to the south McDonalds. We got to the south McDonalds, and I was happy to see the drive thru was empty and in working order. "I would like 1 chocolate dipped cone, please," I pleasantly ordered into the speaker. The voice on the other side said, "I'm sorry, we are all out of ice cream tonight." "What, you are all out of ice cream?" "I'm sorry, ma'am," he said. I told him we would not be ordering, and in disbelief, we drove on out. "Well, Elizabeth, I guess you will have to settle for a Frosty." So we headed into Wendy's, and without a hitch, we ordered a vanilla frosty for Elizabeth (and a chocolate one for Anna, I guess she was the big winner in this because originally she was not going to get a dipped cone,) and headed home.

Funny thing is, as I looked at our training schedule for tomorrow, I noticed I had made a mistake. We were supposed to run 45 minutes, not 30 minutes, and had I known about the 45 minutes, I would not have taken Elizabeth with me, knowing that she probably wouldn't last 45 minutes on the bike. Then we wouldn't have had our ice cream chase. But then I also wouldn't have had our conversation on the bench about second grade, and our Fall Break Disneyworld trip, and her birthday plans (which at the moment include Chuck E. Cheese,) and she wouldn't have had the proud opportunity to shout out to passer byers at the park that "We're training for a triathlon." So all in all, it worked out pretty good, for tonight at least. I probably won't be thinking that as I tack on 15 minutes of running to the 25 minute swim and 45 minute bike tomorrow.

If I Could Turn Back Time

2007-07-16T23:48:00.000-04:00

The other night Jason and I caught a Lifetime movie - one of those movies where you don't purposely sit down to watch but happen to stop at the channel as you're flipping through, and you can also pick it up 30 minutes in and still catch up. I don't even remember the name of it, but once we started watching, we watched until the end. The premise of the movie was this: The main character of the movie had an unknown aunt who died and left her house to this woman. That came out awkward but I don't know how else to type it. Anyway, in this house was an old music box. Every time the woman opened the music box, her reality changed. She didn't travel in time forward or backward, but rather parallel, in a world where her past had been different, thus making her present different, too. Right before this woman had received the house, her husband and only daughter had been killed in a car accident. However, one time when she opened the music box, her new reality was that her husband and daughter were alive - but the "tragedies" of her life were different. She had apparently had an affair with a coworker and was trying to straighten things out with her husband, and her best friend had been killed in a plane wreck. Of course, it took her a few times with the music box and her reality changing for her to figure out what was happening, but once she figured it out, she had a decision to make - stay with her current reality or open the music box, hoping for something better. She was satisfied with the husband/daughter/affair reality, but then her daughter found the box and opened it, and the next morning the new reality was her husband and daughter were gone again and she was just dating her coworker. She didn't like that reality, so she opened the box again, and this time her husband was gone, and her daughter had walking problems due to the accident. Then later in that reality, her daughter went missing, and then she found her daughter but they were being chased, so she opened the music box to get out of the situation, and then the new reality was that she and her husband were in a custody battle over the daughter, and she was the one being accused of kidnapping her child. Well, that's the plot in a nutshell. What we find out is that the aunt who had died and given away the house could not keep from opening the box time and time again, trying to avoid the tragedies of life or change the reality. What happened to the aunt, though, was she changed the reality of her life so many times that by the end, noone knew who she was, and people who knew of her thought she was crazy. Fortunately for the main character, she put an end to the cycle at the end of the movie and destroyed the music box, and like every good Lifetime movie should end, her new reality was the scene right before her husband and daughter had been in the accident, and she was able to change the circumstance so they weren't in the accident after all, and they lived happily ever after.

What would it be like if we had the power to change our reality? Would we choose to exercise that power? Would we excercise the power out of curiosity (my life's boring) or necessity (I want to avoid this tragedy) or regret (if only I had...) Tonight I sit at the computer replaying some different events that have happened in my life over the last week - witnessing a friend with sudden illness, a despondent waitress, a critically injured motorcyclist on the road, the death of a member of our church, the stories on the internet that I read about children with terminal diseases - I'm sure the people these situations directly affected would like to go back and make different choices to alter what their reality became. Wouldn't all of us like to fast forward to the future, see what that looks like, and then come back to the present to try to tweak the future to what we think a happy life should be?

I guess ultimately as a Christian I can say God is in control, and he knows the future, and even if I had the power to change reality, I wouldn't or shouldn't intervene in his master plan. But then where does prayer fit in? I prayed for my sick friend - he's doing well. I prayed for the motorcyclist in the road - he's in critical condition. I pray every night for the sick little girl - she's getting worse. What if the world is just made up of random events that we want to put a label on so we call it God's plan? Does that somehow soothe the tragedies and bless the good fortune? Or is the plan somewhat loosely fitted, and the little things that happen in between are trivial? Maybe these are the things that are negotiable through prayer. I guess I have a lot of questions for when I get to heaven, because there are a lot of things I just don't get. I hope my seven year old doesn't ask the same sort of questions until I get it all figured out.

How Firm A Foundation

2007-06-27T21:22:00.000-04:00

Jason's grandmother Wilfa Moorman went to be with Jesus this past Sunday morning. The viewing was yesterday, and the funeral was today.

I didn't see Grandma Moorman a whole lot - holidays, major family events, a random visit here or there. I didn't have long, sit down conversations with her; we would exchange hellos and pleasantries and show off the kids. After today's service, however, I feel like I know her much better now than before, and I am struck by the amazing legacy that she quietly left behind.

A business person from World Gospel Mission spoke at the funeral. Grandma Moorman worked in the accounting department at World Gospel Mission for many years. He painted us a beautiful picture of what Heaven may be like right now for Grandma - Kenyans, Bolivians, Hondurans, all greeting her in Heaven, thanking her for her part through World Gospel Mission in them accepting Jesus Christ.

Another gentleman spoke about Grandma, saying that you couldn't help but fall in love with her, and he couldn't think of one unkind thing to say about her. I believe him whole heartedly.

Her pastor spoke of her and Grandpa's faithfulness in the church, in reading the Bible, and praying for others.

The service ended with a tape recording of Grandpa and Grandma Moorman singing "Each Step I Take," a song stating that every step they take is one closer to the Lord. How fitting for a service like this. It was beautiful.

After the service the family had one last chance to say goodbye. She has 7 children, 20 some grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren, all but a few in attendance. It was obvious the impact that this woman had on her family. As my grandpa would say " Not a scrub in the bunch." Since Jason and I have been married for 10 years, I have gotten to know Jason's aunts and uncles, and I have a lot of respect for them. I enjoy watching the interactions between 7 brothers and sisters. And of course I've really gotten to know my mother-in-law, and she and my father-in-law are amazing people who are continuing the legacy that was started generations ago.

I started fast forwarding into the future (the very far future, hopefully,) wondering what people will be saying about me at my funeral. "She played okay at short field in softball." "Didn't she have a blog?" "I think she attended our church." To have them say anything close about me like they did Grandma Moorman is one lofty goal. Just sitting in that service today, listening to the testamonies, made me want to be a better Christian, a better wife, a better mother, and a better servant. That's what Grandma Moorman's life was - a great example of what the above should be. I know that just a little from personal observation, but a lot from the impact she had on others and her family.

Watching the girls in this process was interesting. Anna just matter-of-fact accepts the fact that Grandma is sleeping and is now with Jesus. Elizabeth was much more emotional, then started questioning on the way to the cemetary. What if it's all made up? What if the Bible isn't true and there isn't really a heaven and when you die, that's it? Then we won't see Grandma again. We had a quick conversation on faith, but it's hard to explain such hard things when I don't fully understand myself. It was quite comical to listen to Jason and I try to explain to Anna that Grandma is with Jesus, even though she was right there in front of us.

This post is kind of all over the place, but the service today really had an impact on me, and understanding the life Grandma Moorman lived really impacted me. We sang the song How Firm a Foundation, and I think about the foundation that has been laid for our family, on both sides (mine and Jason's) and feel like I am falling short of where I need to be for our girls to continue that heritage. I want to strive to continue that firm foundation for our family. As I passed by Grandma for the last time, I leaned down into her ear and whispered "Thank you," to thank her for her life, her witness, the example she was to her children, and I know right now she is reaping the rewards.

Save RadioU

2007-06-27T17:27:00.000-04:00

I read the letters to the editor on a daily basis. I have often been tempted to write my own letter to the editor, but I never have. There is finally a cause that I am passionate enough about to send in my own letter to the editor. I have not officially sent this in (will tonight) so I am posting this for two reasons. First, I want to get the word out to whoever will listen that RadioU will cease to play in this area in a few short days. Second, I want feedback on my article because I am a little nervous about everyone in the community reading my opinion (that's ironic, I post them on here all of the time.)

Keep RadioU on Grant County Airwaves

This letter is in response to the June 23rd article regarding Indiana Wesleyan taking over the 94.3 radio station, currently known as RadioU. Randall King, director of broadcast media at IWU, states in the article that starting in September, the station will “offer a mix of contemporary Christian music and locally based programming.” In addition, the article states that the station will be off the air from July 1 until September. As an avid listener and financial supporter of RadioU, I am very concerned about the possibility of RadioU becoming unavailable to this area. In addition to the thirtysomethings like me who listen to RadioU, I’m sure there is many more high school and college aged people in Marion who make this their primary radio station. In fact, when I have been in the Indiana Wesleyan locker room, I have heard RadioU playing over the speaker. There are already several radio stations available in this area that play contemporary Christian music; WBCL is one well-known example. RadioU is the only music station in this area that offers Christian rock and alternative music. RadioU is a ministry to the local high school and college students, not only by the music that is played but also by the programming that targets this age group. The station is 100% listener supported, so in between songs, listeners hear encouraging sound bits, testimonies from musicians, and music news regarding their favorite bands instead of commercials. There is a help line that listeners may call for support. I’m sure there are many people in the Marion area like me who financially support RadioU and their ministry. I hope through community members like me, IWU realizes the impact RadioU has on the younger generation of Grant County and decides to keep this wonderful ministry opportunity on Grant County airwaves.

Grace

2007-06-14T09:47:00.000-04:00

I was heading down St. Rd 22 with my mom and Elizabeth a couple of days ago, returning from a trip to Target. Of all the stores rumored to come to town, Target is the one I wish would actually come. Anyway, when I am travelling on a highway or interstate, most often I set the cruise at 5 miles above the speed limit. Sometimes I will get in a little bit more of a hurry and will set it 8 miles above. Today was one of those days. I was cruising down 22 going about 62-63 m.p.h. when I saw it - the police car parked on the opposite burn facing the other way. In that split second I had to decide what to do. Do I keep on going at the current speed as if I don't think I am doing anything wrong, or do I slam on the brakes (which I've always heard you are NOT supposed to do because it makes you look guilty.) My reflexes took over and I hit the brakes, taking my car down to the legal limit 55 m.ph. Maybe he wasn't paying attention to me. Maybe other cars have gone by him going much faster - I know many cars regularly go 10-15 m.p.h. over the speed limit. I get passed a lot when I am driving. My eyes darted to the rearview mirror. No such luck. As soon as I passed him, his lights flashed on and the car started moving.

I had just commented to Mom a few minutes earlier that I was sleepy - I was no longer having trouble keeping my eyes open now. My heart started pounding fast, and I was already calculating how much this ticket was going to cost. I looked back in the mirror. Because a lot of traffic had been coming the opposite way, it had taken him quite a bit of time to turn around, so he was pretty far behind me. Then I realized Elizabeth wasn't in a booster seat. Boy, it sounds like I am not a safe driver or law abiding citizen at this point. We do have a booster for her, but it was in the other car. "Quick, Elizabeth, get in Anna's booster seat." Elizabeth shoots me a confused look. "Hurry, now, get in the seat." Well we are just getting safer by the minute. Elizabeth unbuckled her seat belt, climbed across the back seat, and sat in Anna's booster. "I can't get the seat belt buckled," she told me. Well, the fines are just piling up at this point. Speeding, child without a booster seat, and unbuckled child in the back. The car is creeping closer to me. Snap, I hear the buckle go into place. At least we've got that going for us.

Now the police car is right on my bumper. My cruise is set firmly on 54.5 m.p.h. as it has been for the last few minutes. I'm getting irritated at the officer - just pull me over and get it over with. We were approaching a stop light when I looked back in my mirror and saw the officer back off - he made a U turn in the road and headed the opposite way. "He was just trying to prove a point," Mom told me. We went through the light when Mom said, "I think you wanted to turn there." I was so rattled that I missed my turn on 37. "Whew, that was close," I said. I cut through a gravel parking lot and started down 37, with my cruise control set firmly on 61 m.ph.

To date I have never received a speeding ticket. I have been pulled over twice; both times I was in college. The first time was very late at night coming into Fairmount off of 69. A car was messing around with me and would tail me for awhile, then would back off, then would get really close, then would act like it was going to pass me, then would back off. I sped up to get away from it, but as I did I came over some railroad tracks into town and was going too fast. When the officer pulled me over, he asked for my license. After noticing my last name was Porter, he asked if I was related to (Mom) Porter. I told him that was my mom. He informed me that he had pulled her over just a week or so ago, but he had recognized her from her stint as a teacher in the Madison-Grant school system many years ago. She did not receive a ticket. I explained to him my reason for going too fast, and he let me off, too.

The other time I was pulled over was for speeding, but I was not wearing my seat belt, so instead of giving me a speeding ticket, I got a seatbelt violation instead. I now faithfully wear my seat belt. Maybe if I ever get a speeding ticket, I will faithfully abide by the speed limit???

I've Been Tagged Addendum

2007-06-13T00:10:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if addendum is the appropriate word for the title, but it's 12:11 a.m. and I'm not going to take the time to find out. When I was posting earlier tonight, I got to number eight, and my original number eight had slipped my mind. I was fervently trying to remember number eight so I could finish up the post, but the kids were needing to get out of the tub, so I hurriedly typed in the backup number eight about the speeding ticket. As I was brushing my teeth just now, I remembered my original number eight, and because it is SUMMER and I don't have to get up early tomorrow, I will add this little post.

The original #8. My parents bought their first house in 19 sixty something, and my brother and I were both born in that house (not literally, but you know what I mean.) I lived in that house until the summer before my sophomore year of college when we moved to the address where my parents now live. My brother was somewhat newly married and was renting a house a couple of blocks away. I'm not sure if they were already looking for homes to buy or not, but he and his wife ended up buying our childhood home from my parents. A few years and 1 kid later with another on the way, they decided to buy a larger house. Jason and I were living in a house a few blocks down the road, and when the opportunity to buy my childhood home presented itself, we took it and purchased the home from my brother. A couple of years and 1 kid later, we decided to buy a larger house. Jason's sister was living a few blocks away, and she ended up purchasing the house from us. A few years and 1 husband later, she decided to buy a larger house, and the home finally went out of the family. Each family added their own little flavor to the house, but it still remained pretty much the same through each transition. My bedroom went from my bedroom to my nephew's bedroom to Elizabeth's bedroom to a guest room. I haven't been back to the house since Jen and Scott moved, but I have taken Elizabeth by the house and told her that was the first house she lived in.

Elizabeth says that when she gets married, she and her husband are going to live in our house - at this point she said Jason and I could stay, too. We'll see in 20 years. Anna says she is going to be a carpenter when she grows up, and she is going to build mommy and daddy a house and herself a house. She is going to live by herself she says, although she named who her husband is going to be the other day. We're not sure if she is going to let him live with her. Two kids, same parents, way different personalities. Go figure.

On a side note, triathlon training began yesterday. I am going to try to post updates like I did for last year's race, but that means I've actually got to start training. I did do yesterday's (35 minute bike) and figured playing in two softball games tonight offset the 20 minute run requirement. We are starting 7 weeks earlier this summer, so I figure I can take it easy these first 7 weeks.

Wow, with so much to blog about now, it's a good thing it's summer break.

I've Been Tagged Part 2

2007-06-12T22:15:00.001-04:00

6. I have only owned and primarily driven two cars since getting my driver's license when I turned 16. My first car was a 1990 gray grand am. My parents bought matching 1990 grand ams in 1990, one gray and one maroon, because they were IWU colors (is that school spirit or what?) My brother ended up buying the maroon grand am after he was married, and he drove the thing until it died just a few months ago. I believe my brother, not counting the replacement he just got for the grand am, also has only owned and primarily driven two cars since getting his driver's license (except for the family minivan) and he could write quite a hilarious post on stories about his two cars. However, this is not his blog, so maybe he will have to be a guest writer on Anon's blog and tell you all about it. This man drives cars until they will drive no more. But back to the gray grand am. I was given the gray grand am as a bribe, I mean incentive, to attend IWU the fall of 1993. Though it may seem unfair that my brother had to BUY his grand am and I was GIVEN mine, let me tell you that he was GIVEN his first car the Christmas after he turned 16, and though I was expecting the Christmas after I turned sixteen to either open up a set of keys or be taken on a mystery drive to the location of my new car, I was only told that I could be the primary driver of the gray grand am and drop my mom off at the office each morning before school. But that's another story for another post. After being the "primary driver" my junior and senior years of high school, I was allowed to drive the car three blocks down the road, park it in Evans Hall, and then call it my own. I faithfully drove that car (which I lovingly named Beauregard) until the spring of 2000, when the car would randomly die with Elizabeth in the back seat (she was only months old) and it needed more repairs than it was worth. We drove the car to Muncie, coasted it into the parking lot of Susie Morris Honda, and we picked out my next, and current car, a 1998 Honda Accord. I am still driving this car, and unlike my friend Kelley's Honda, I have not had to do any repairs on it except for upkeep and one windshield wiper that fell off at a very bad time (see Anon's blog.)

7. Though I was not officially introduced to my husband until the summer in between my sophomore and junior years of college, our paths had unofficially crossed many times before then, and we didn't even know it. He grew up just a school system over from me (a COUNTY SCHOOL) and attended the same church camp I did for several years (Fairmount.) In addition, when I was sixteen, I was a counselor at JBC in Fairmount, and his sister JoEllen was one of the kids in my group. In fact, my mother-in-law has a picture of me with my campers in front of our dorm - I had some of the Brookhaven gang. He even went out on a double date with a basketball player from Taylor, one of our biggest rivals, and this basketball player was the roommate of my best friend at Taylor their freshman year. The only reason our paths finally crossed was because he stayed on campus in an apartment complex with some of my friends, and when I would go over to hang out, we would chat.

8. I have never had a speeding ticket. I would type more about this topic, but I am going to write about this in my next post.

I now tag everyone in my links (except Wuertleys, Missy who hasn't posted in a year, and Bekah who tagged me) plus my sister-in-law Jen who hasn't made it to my links yet but will as soon as I can get Jason to add her. I haven't kept up with blogging too much during the school year, so if any of you have already been tagged and posted, please disregard.

I've Been Tagged

2007-06-09T16:42:00.000-04:00

Actually, I was tagged quite a long time ago. I had to look back at Bekah's post to see what that even meant, and I found her post in the May 2007 archives. I knew that being tagged had something to do with me giving out some facts about myself, but I was hoping there were predetermined questions to answer. Instead I have realized that I just talk about 8 random facts about myself. Since I'm a pretty boring person (meaning mostly boring, not pretty AND boring, although if I considered myself as such, I would have two random facts knocked out already,) I'm not sure how exciting of a post this will be, but after three days of sitting in the sun at a yard sale, this type of post is about all I can handle for now. So here goes...

1. I know I have covered this in a past post, but it is a random odd fact about myself - I sit down when I take my shower. This started when I was a kid. I am not an early riser, but ever since I have been old enough to bathe myself completely (which was when I was about 16 because my mom is compulsive about cleanliness,) I have taken a shower in the morning. I was/am so tired when first get up that I need that extra 10-15 minutes not on my feet. When I was in middle school and high school, I would get up, shower, and then go back to bed for 20 minutes before I finished getting ready. We were on a strict shower schedule since there was one shower and four people, so I had to jump in when I could, and sometimes my body wasn't quite ready. There are some exceptions to me sitting down - our camper shower (not enough room or hot water,) campground bathroom facilities (do I really need to say more?) and some hotels depending if I am the first to shower (if anyone else has gone before me, I figure they have washed away the previous inhabitants cooties.) Sometimes if I am bathing in a stand in shower only, I have to survey the situation to see if I can scrunch in. This is how our shower is in our bedroom, and it works okay unless I am 9 months pregnant.

2. If you follow Anon's blog, you already know this, but I am a huge Skillet fan. When we go to their concerts, I am always walking the fine line of loyal adoring fan and obsessive stalker. I mean, I REALLY like this band. Anon and I have driven 5 hours for a weekend festival because they were playing, and three hours for a 1 hour 15 minute concert. My oldest knows several of their songs by heart (and by number on the Comatose cd) and my youngest even has two that she requests. From middle school through college, my music tastes leaned towards bands like Nirvana, Guns n Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, and my two favorite, The Cranberries and Queen - great music, not so great lyrics. Skillet not only has incredible music, but their lyrics have substance and meaning and for the most part are appropriate for my 7 year old to hear.

3. Before I married my husband, I had been camping 0 times. The only state parks I had stepped foot in were Mammoth Cave when I was 3 and Turkey Run when I was in the youth group. In the fall of 2002, we bought a pop up camper, and ever since camping has turned into probably the most fun experiences we have as a family. I would have never dreamed that I would turn into someone who liked to camp, but now we can hardly get enough of it.

4. I love my job. I mention this as a random fact because I think it has merit. It seems like when I hear most people talk about their jobs these days, they are not happy where they are. They either don't like their boss, are looking for a new job, don't want to work but have to, aren't working but want to, or say they would love their job "if only." I'm not saying my work environment is perfect, but after 10 years, I can honestly say I have no desire to quit or work anywhere else. Aside from getting up at 6:00 a.m., I look forward (most days) to going to work, don't watch the clock all day waiting to be done, and even don't mind going in when I don't have to. Of course, I am going to fully enjoy summer vacation, but by August, I will be ready for a new school year.

5. I'm scared of the dark. I'm getting better now that I have kids, because I don't want them to be scared of the dark, so when Jason isn't home and we have to enter the house by ourselves at night, I pretend that I have no problem going into the house. He was out pretty late one night with some guys from church (just wanted to put in there that they were guys from church so you wouldn't wonder what he was doing out so late) and after I put the kids to bed, I searched the entire house, inside closets, under beds before I went to sleep. Why this fear of the dark? Growing up, my parents thought it was fun to randomly turn out all the lights in the house, starting a game of hide and go seek in the dark. I didn't know which was worse, looking for them by myself or staying in one place. Also, my dad would creep down the hall after my brother and I had just gone to bed and then jump up and scare us. Actually, I had a great childhood, and the real reason I am scared of the dark is probably because my mom was, too.

Since this post is getting rather long, and because my family is leaving for a bike ride, I am going to have to post "Tagged, part 2" at a later date. However, tagged part one probably hasn't been too informative for any of you who have read this blog for awhile, because I think I have already posted on each of the above facts. See, I told you I was a mostly boring (maybe predictable is a better word) person.

Mini Post

2007-05-11T21:54:00.000-04:00

I was scrolling down my links and clicked on the "Wuertley" link. What used to be a link to our "family blog" has apparently changed. So if you want to know about sleep facts and what causes depression, click on the link. If you want more family related pictures and updates, talk to my husband so he will put the family blog back up. (We have no idea how this link to this info happened - weird, huh?)

Psuedo Post

2007-05-09T23:04:00.000-04:00

This is just a quick, late night post to say that I have not deserted blogland forever. I've worked at my current job for 10 years, but this is the first year that I have taken on some different responsibilities, and April and May are crazy times at work - several evening hours. Also, ever since the weather has gotten warmer, free time has been spent in the garden, and with daylights savings time, the evenings can really get away from me.

I really am planning on posting again soon. Once school is out (June 7,) I hope to become a regular again. I haven't been even doing a good job at checking out other blogs, even my own links! In fact, last time before today I had checked my comments on my previous post, they were at nine, and I happened to scroll down tonight and saw they were at 13! Thus, I thought I should quickly post and say that the time will come soon when posting will become much more frequent. However, it won't necessarily be interesting to read.

In the Still of the Night

2007-03-26T10:18:00.000-04:00

It started around 6:00 a.m. I had gone to bed quite late last Saturday night, around 1:30 a.m. Jason was with some friends out of town and wouldn't be home until around 3:30, so I stayed up and watched Peyton Manning on SNL before going to bed. Once in bed I tossed and turned; I remember the clock striking at 2:00. I drifted off to a restless sleep until Jason came in somewhere between 3:30-4:00, and then I finally settled into a deep, comfortable sleep...that is until the beeping started. It was one shrill beep, every 30 seconds. I know it was every 30 seconds because after hearing it the first 10 times, I decided to pass the time listening to it by counting the seconds between the beeps. My body was too tired to do anything about the beeps, but too awake now to ignore them and fall back asleep. After 10 minutes of the beeps I couldn't take it anymore. "Jason, wake up. You need to do something about the smoke alarm." I had heard the beeps earlier in the day and after 5 minutes of standing in my bedroom trying to figure out the source, I discovered that it was the smoke alarm signaling that the batteries were dead. Noone is going to call me Sherlock Holmes anytime soon. The smoke alarm must quit beeping after awhile because after the kids and I got home in the evening after being at my parents' house, it was no longer beeping and I had forgotten about it. Making a smoke alarm stop beating at 6:00 a.m. in the morning when we've only been asleep 2 hours is the man's role in our household (at least it is now.) I wish someone would have been filming Jason trying to stumble across our bed and reach up at our 10 foot ceiling to knock down a smoke alarm after being asleep for 2 hours. It wasn't a pretty site. He finally had to go downstairs, get the step stool, climb on the dresser, and take the smoke alarm apart. Ahh, silence...until the alarm went off 45 minutes later to get up for church.

There aren't too many more frustrating moments than when sleep is interrupted in the middle of the night (or early morning.) With so many possible interruptions, it's a wonder we EVER get a full night's sleep. Here are some examples.

1. The very loud thunderstorm. When I was a kid, during a loud thunderstorm I would crawl into my parents' bed and sleep in the middle. My kids sleep very soundly; in fact, I can't even remember one time that either one have awakened during a storm. However, I still wake up, and with the anticipation of the loud boom after the lightning, I keep the covers pulled over my head and can't go back to sleep until the thunder (at least the very loud thunder) has stopped.

2. The sick kid. Anna is the one we have to tend to in the night sometimes. With her breathing issues, when she gets a cold she can really hack through the night, and we've had to give some middle of the night breathing treatments. Elizabeth never wakes us up - in fact one morning when she got out of bed she had vomited in the night and didn't even know it. That was almost worse because of the dried stuff in her hair and, well, you get the point.

3. The sick adult. This happened to me last Thursday night. I went to bed feeling 100% fine, but at 1:00 a.m., the pineapple banana orange juice I had before bed was not sitting well. I tossed and turned for around 10 minutes until I headed to the bathroom for the inevitable. Trips at 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00 followed.

4. The bed wetter. While vomit will not wake up Elizabeth, a wet bed did when she was younger, and it wakes up Anna. This is a double whammy because not only do I wake up, but I have to work, too. Strip the kid, put new clothes on the kid, strip the bed, pull out the pull out couch and get blankets for a new bed.

5. The mysterious noise. What was that? Did I dream the noise or did it wake me up? Is someone trying to break in? Is one of the kids sleepwalking? My body tenses up as I anticipate hearing the next noise. "Jason, did you hear that?" One night quite a few years ago I woke up to a mysterious noise and had Jason go all through the house (and even check the closets) to make sure there wasn't a robber in the house (another man job in our house.) When these types of noises happen, my body breaks out into a cold sweat and I can almost work myself into a panic. I start planning escape routes. First I'll hit the burglar over the head, then I will head to the kids' room. Irrational, I know, but it's 3:00 in the morning.

6. The bad dream. I am a very vivid dreamer, and many of the scenarios in my dreams involve bad things happening (this was actually a former post of mine.) I often times am jolted awake and then lie there thinking about what just happened.

7. Squirrels in the wall. We live in a very old house, and sometimes creatures can be heard running in our walls. One summer we had a squirrel visiting, and in the middle of the night we could hear him feasting on nuts inside a wall in our bedroom. Jason got out of bed and figured out the squirrel's exact wall location and was ready to pound on the wall when he all of a sudden turned and leaped onto our bed. "The squirrel gnawed a hole in the wall." Great, I thought, we're going to have a squirrel in our bedroom tonight." We stuffed a pile of clothes in front of the "hole" and went back to sleep. The next morning we checked the "hole," only to see it was a shadow.

8. The telephone ring. Most people who know us know we like to sleep in late on the weekends. People who don't know us will call very early in the morning, and the ring of the telephone can be very startling. Phone calls very late at night when we've already gone to bed are also startling. My first thought is, "What's wrong?" Why else would anyone be calling at this hour unless something is wrong.

9. The startling thought. Maybe I forgot to e-mail something to my boss. Maybe I forgot to tell Jason that I have to work late the following day and he needs to run the kids. Maybe I forgot an appointment earlier that day. When I was in 5th grade, it was the realization after I had gone to bed that a six week project was due the next day and I hadn't even started it.

10. The house alarm going off. When I was a kid, we had a house alarm, and my brother, the very early riser, would forget to turn off the alarm when he would get the newspaper. As a child, I already had fears of the dark and of people breaking in our house. When the house alarm would go off while everyone was in bed, I would hide under the covers until I knew everything was okay.

For those of you reading with babies, I know sleep interruptions for you can be a nightly experience. I think that is one of the most frustrating parts of parenting a baby because being well rested is so important to feeling good the rest of the day. Fortunately, that time is short lived, and sleep interruptions become more the rarity instead of the norm.

In our house, when it comes to kid related sleep interruptions, Jason and I have unwritten rules as to who takes care of what. I'm in charge of bed wetting and nosebleeds, he's in charge of breathing treatments and random crying. As to who puts the child back to bed when it is a random visit to our bedroom, that varies. I guess whoever gets to sleep later the next morning has to get up.

I am pleased to say, though, that after a short restless night of sleep on Saturday night, last night we had a nice, long, peaceful sleep. We are on Spring Break this week, so the girls and I celebrated by sleeping in until 10:00. Jason, however, is not on Spring Break, so he had to get up to go to work. Thankfully we had no random visitors to our bedroom last night - I would have had to get up.

The Things People Say

2007-03-03T09:07:00.000-05:00

Last night our family went to a family night sponsored by our church. These nights are so much fun because the kids go off and play together and the adults can sit around and chat and play games. I was talking to a friend of mine (who shall remain anonymous because I didn't get permission to share her story) who relayed a comment that someone had made to her in college about the way she ran. Several years later, she still remembers that comment when she runs. That got me thinking about the different comments people have made to me throughout the years, some complimentary, some innocent, and some purposefully mean, that still stay with me today and either affect the way I feel about a certain characteristic of mine or make me feel quite self conscious when that characteristic is displayed.

For example, I had just started wearing makeup in high school. I put on some makeup one night to go to J.C. Bodyshop, our youth group, and when our youth sponsor's wife saw me, she asked me if I had a cold because my cheeks looked flushed. I don't wear a lot of makeup now, but if I am going to put blush on, I put it on very lightly because of that comment.

When I was a freshman in college, we had visitation nights every once in awhile in the dorm where guys could visit our room. My friend Ryan was visiting us one night, and I happened to be wearing a white pair of shorts and a white t-shirt. I will never forget him telling me that wearing white on white is a faux pas (spelling?), and to this day, I have never worn white on white again. In fact, I almost don't even buy white shorts or sweats because since most of my t-shirts are white, I don't know what I will wear with them.

I have another freshman example. The first week of college, I was in the student center, and a guy that I thought was pretty cute asked me to play ping pong with him. Each time we would try to start the game, I would win the first point, and he would say, "Okay, now we are going to start the game." Not wanting to argue with the cute guy, but also wanting to win, I kept saying okay. After about the tenth point, he said to me "You are so cocky." He was calling me cocky because I obviously thought I was going to beat him if I kept letting him start the game over (I did know I was going to beat him.) That comment has stayed with me since then, and when I am in a competitive situation (with someone other than family,) I try overly hard to not come across as cocky. Oh, and the cute guy ended up being a real jerk anyway, so I am glad I beat him easily.

In high school, one comment from my assistant basketball coach completely changed the way I played basketball. Up to that point, I was mostly known as and used as an outside shooter. However, my junior year, I needed to step up my game and produce in other areas of the game. In practice one evening, I pulled down an offensive rebound, and instead of going back up strong with the put back, I kicked it back out to our guard. I will never forget her yelling at the top of her lungs, "Porter, quit being such a wimp and put the ball back in the basket." Here I thought I did a great job grabbing the rebound, but she was getting on me for not going beyond what I thought I could do. From that point on, I became a much more aggressive player, and in college, many of my points came from offensive rebounds (because each time Jill S. got the ball, I automatically got myself in rebounding position because I knew she was going to shoot.)

I remember in college talking to Dr. Huffman at length one day about my future and if social work was really what I wanted to pursue a career in. I was feeling inadequate in my ability to be a good social worker, and I was wondering if I should have gone into a field where success in the job is measured more concretely. I said maybe I should have been in a field that uses math, where I know if I have gotten the right answer or not. I will never forget Judy saying to me, "Deb, you are scared to become a social worker because you think you have to be the best social worker in the world or you will fail. You don't always have to be the best at something to be where God wants you to be." Her saying that made me realize that just because I am not the best at something doesn't mean I am a failure at it, and I don't HAVE to be the best at everything. I'll have to admit, I still struggle with that because I am so competitive, and I am not the best at anything, so I have to continually remind myself of her words.

My brother had a funny recollection of a comment. He said when he started junior high, someone said to him "I'd rather be dead than be a redhead."

Elizabeth, my 7 year old, was crying one day after school this past Christmas time. On the bus on the way home, the bus driver was letting volunteers sing Christmas songs in the microphone. Elizabeth wanted to sing Rudolph, but two lines into the song, the older kids on the bus started to boo, so she stopped. As a third grader was exiting the bus, he turned to her and said, "You are a terrible singer." This crushed Elizabeth. Elizabeth isn't the best singer in the world, but she isn't the worst, either, and I certainly don't want her to ever feel self conscious as a child about singing. Needless to say, I wanted to find that little boy and tell him a thing or to, but I realize that this is the first of many times that my children will here something negative directed towards them, and they will have to remember the positives instead. Since Jason and I are still the ones directly influencing our children the most, it is our responsibility to keep building them up so their self esteem can handle stupid comments from kids.

I would relay some of the positive comments people have said to me through the years that have made an impact on me, but since I don't want to come across as cocky, I won't.

The Office Bathroom

2007-02-28T20:17:00.000-05:00

At work, there is a bathroom in the main office that the female employees in the building use. It is a small bathroom; just two side by side stalls, two side by side sinks, a trash can, and a fulll length mirror on the wall. I am not one for public bathrooms, but this bathroom is nice enough, and I know the majority of the women who use it. However, this bathroom is also quite a source of awkwardness for me. I find myself either feeling self conscious in this bathroom or unsure of the proper bathroom etiquette. For example, if a coworker and I are having a conversation, and we enter into the bathroom together, once we are in our side by side stalls, I never know whether I should continue the conversation. Should I keep on talking like we are in a car or an elevator, or should I wait until we are both done with our business? What if one of us finishes before the other? Should I wait on her?

Then there are the times when I enter the bathroom and one of the stalls is already occupied. An awkward silence falls between the two of us as we sit, inches apart, yet we are not speaking. I feel like I should introduce myself as I enter in, such as "Hi, it's Deb over here." Then maybe we could carry on a conversation.

This is the worst - the person in the other stall does not want to be identified. Maybe she is self conscious about using the restroom in public. Maybe she has more in depth business than I do and she needs her privacy. For whatever reason, she is outwaiting me in the other stall. I haven't heard a peep from the other side, and I'm in and out, washing my hands, and still no movement, not even a drop.

Once my boss and I entered at the same time. I really needed to discuss something with her, and it seemed ridiculous not to take advantage of the few moments we had together. But it just didn't seem right conversing at that time.

Sometimes if I am in a competitive mood, I have two different competitions - who can go longest, or if I can beat the other person out - especially if she was in there before me.

Then there's the time when I see the person exit the other stall and I notice that the handwashing did not occur. I always make sure if I am doing the handwashing at the same time as the other person that I wash extra thoroughly. We have this really cool motion sensor soap dispenser, except for today when I couldn't get it to pick up my motion. Don't you hate it when you are in a public restroom and either the soap or the water is motion sensored and you can't get it to work? Sometimes I can't even figure out where to motion to get the water to come out.

And the full length mirror - for some reason there is that temptation to study myself before I enter back into the real world. I'm not sure what I am looking for. But it is quite embarrasing when I am staring at myself when the door opens and in walks a coworker.

Though the bathroom does produce some awkward moments for me, I try not to get too hung up on it - I need to just go with the flow.

The Phenomenon of the School Closing

2007-02-14T11:16:00.000-05:00

We are on the tail end of a two day school closing due to "inclement weather," and as this little unplanned mini vacation comes to an end, I would like to map out the vicious cycle that occurs when such a situation occurs.

The craze began Monday at work as the rumors started to fly. "Did you hear about all of the snow we are supposed to get? I heard up to 16 inches!" "Do you think we will have a delay or be closed tomorrow?" The staff was working itself into a giddy frenzy as the possibility loomed that we may not have to report to work the next day. This is so interesting, because don't we all love our jobs? I am one that doesn't buy into the weather rumors; in fact, I find them rather amusing. But by mid-afternoon, I gave in and called a couple of my appointments scheduled for the next day and let them know that in case of a school closing, we would have to reschedule our appointment. By the time I was heading home, I was starting to feel a little excitement myself.

After watching the news when I got home, I decided that I should probably make a trip to the store to stock up on some essentials. I had heard the horror stories at work about how the parking lot at Wal-Mart looked like the day before Christmas, so I headed to Lances instead. Sure, I may pay a little more, but the convenience was worth it. Apparently, several other people had already decided to avoid Wal-Mart and hit Lances, because I couldn't find any bread, and the only gallons of milk left were fat free skim and vitamin D. I grabbed the last vitamin D (yuk!) I couldn't bring myself to pay $2.00 for a half gallon of 1%.

I headed home, locked the door behind me, and the family settled down for a nice cozy winter storm. There was almost a calm, serene feeling about what may take place. Barring our power going out, we had all that we needed to enjoy this little break from reality and spend some quality family time together. We even had bought (actually gotten for free with coupon) some Nestle hot cocoa, and Elizabeth was excited to put some Reddi-whip and chocolate chips on top to make a nice winter treat.

Though Marion did not announce a delay or closing Monday evening, I let the girls stay up a little later, and I stayed up until almost midnight playing Pengapop. I was really banking on the prediction that this snowstorm was going to happen. When I went to bed, I had my phone tree sheet by the bedside, and Jason and I worked out a surefire plan to quickly call everyone. I would get the call from Michelle, then he would hand me the phone, flip on the nightlight, I would call my phone tree person, the babysitter, and my intern, and within seconds we would be back to sleep. In anticipation, I didn't sleep well, and when I did sleep, I dreamed scenarios that involved getting "the call." Thankfully, at 5:30 the call came in, and as planned the night before, I made my three calls quickly. However, the adrenaline rush that went through me after receiving the call kept me up an extra hour. I felt like a high school kid again, receiving a cancellation call on the day of a big test. This is ridiculous - you would think I dread going to my job.

I got out of bed around 9:30, excited for a day of relaxation, a day of catching up the laundry and doing a few little projects (if I felt like it,) and most importantly a day of spending time with the kids and Jason (who closed his office.) And what a day it was. The laundry was caught up. We played Clue until Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Rev. Green, Mrs. White, and Professor Plum were all the murderers. We played Jenga. We played even more Pengapop. We watched all of our taped crime shows. We watched the weather, sports center, ESPN classic, more weather, and as the snow fell, we realized we may be looking at another day inside.

Yesterday evening, however, was not quite so serene. The kids were still wanting to play games, and we wanted to relax. However, we had relaxed so much during the day, that we didn't know what we could do that would make us relax. TV watching became boring. The computer was mundane. I actually got out Happy Feet, a playstation game Anna had received for her birthday, and the four of us sat for 3 hours while I played the entire game. It actually is a very fun game - if you have a dance mat for DDR, you can use it for this game. But I digress.

By this time we had received word that there was no school for Wednesday, and after the kids went to bed, Jason and I looked at each other wondering if we could survive another day of games, dolls, trains, and t.v. (I mean relaxation.)

Today rolled around, and after a good night's sleep, we are ready for another day of family bonding. Jason and I now are anxiously awaiting tomorrow when we can get back to normal, get out of the house, take a shower and put on real clothes, and go back to work! It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? Two days ago I was anxiously awaiting the possibility of a cancellation and a chance to relax and enjoy some family bonding time. Today I am anxiously awaiting the chance to get back to normal, out of the house, and back to work. Two weeks from now, we will be anxiously awaiting another delay or cancellation to relax and enjoy some family bonding time!

Age

2007-01-28T19:58:00.001-05:00

This post would have probably been more appropriate closer to January 1, but since I am still in the same month, I think I can still go ahead and post about it.

Each New Year's eve, as the clock approaches midnight, I feel myself reflecting over the past year - highlights, frustrations, goals achieved, milestones, disappointments - and as those last few seconds tick away, I feel a momentary loss of control, almost a panicked feeling. The current year is slipping away, only to be replaced by a new year full of unknowns. What will 2007 bring? When I am counting down the clock on December 31, 2007, what will I be reflecting on?

This got me thinking about the different years of my life, and then I starting thinking, "If I could pick any age to be, and I had to stay in that year forever, what year would I pick?" First I thought about my childhood. I had (have) wonderful parents who took care of all my needs (physical, emotional, spiritual, etc.) Maybe life would be the easiest if I just chose 1978, the year I turned 3. My mom stayed home with me full time, I had no responsibilites, and at least in pictures I looked pretty happy.

Or maybe I would choose 4th grade (1984.) I did not want 4th grade to end. We were the oldest in the elementary school, so we ruled the school. I loved my teachers, had my little circle of elementary school friends, was just starting out playing tennis and basketball, school came easy, and in general I enjoyed every aspect of life.

Then there was eighth grade (1988.) Again, we were the oldest in the school, basketball and tennis were really taking off, and though I wasn't the prettiest or most popular in the school, I had my niche and circle of friends. School still came easy and my family was still wonderful.

I seem to not even consider the high school years and first two years of college (1989-1994.) This time period, though full of some great memories and experiences, had too many growing pains to want to suffer through forever. Trying to figure out who I was, dealing with boy relationships, finding my way through spiritual matters - I just wouldn't want to go back.

My junior year of college (1995) started what I would consider "the rest of my life." Jason and I began dating, I was really getting involved in social work, and I was starting to settle down as a person, really figuring out who I was and my convictions. Maybe my junior year would be a good place to stay forever.

Ah, but what about 1997 - the year I graduated, got married, bought my first house, and started my first "real" job. Wouldn't everyone want to stay in the "honeymoon" period forever?

Or there's 1999 - the year Elizabeth was born. Now we were settled in our second home, Jason and I were both doing well in our jobs, and now we had baby to make us a "perfect" family.

2003 would be hard to top, too. Anna was born, giving us two beautiful children. We had moved into the home we live in now, potentially our "last" house, Jason now owned the business and was doing well, and I was still in a job I loved. We were actively involved in a Sunday School class with great friends, and we were really starting to get into camping. Great memories, and a great year.

Or what about 2006, even. Nothing great happened this year, but nothing awful happened, either. We were just living the same comfortable, predictable life - which at this point I think is a good thing. We bought a camper, and that was fun. Maybe living forever in "comfortable" wouldn't be so bad.

I can think of a lot of years I WOULD NOT pick. The high school years come to mind first. Fifth and ninth grades were hard, being the youngest grade in the school and feeling intimidated. 1998 wasn't a lot of fun and is probably the last year I would pick.

I asked Jason what year he would pick, and he said when he is 43. That's the optimist he is - thinking the best is yet to come (I made sure it wasn't because he thought the last 33 years of his life were bad.)

So life rolls on, for the most part out of our control. We make decisions here and there that we think shape our experience, but bottom line is, only one person knows what the future will bring. It's a gamble - will the ensuing year bring more joy and laughter than the past, and is that the most important thing that defines a year, anyway?

Not really sure what my end point is, I guess just that we live each day and year at a time, rejoicing in the joyful times, learning from the mistakes, enduring the disappointments, and growing along the way. My grandpa is 91, and I look at him and think about how he has 91 years of memories to look back on, and from what I have observed from his life, how satisifed he must feel at 91. I feel pretty satisfied at 31. I hope I can say the same at 91, too.

The Bread Machine

2007-01-17T21:05:00.000-05:00

A year or so ago, a good family friend gave me this bread machine. It sat in our pantry, taking up space. Then, after eating some tasty bread from my sister-in-law's bread machine, I was inspired to dust off the machine and put it to work...thus beginning the saga of The Bread Machine.

It started innocently enough. The Thursday following my tasty sampling, my brother and I went to Meijer, and I spent around 1/3 of my weekly grocery budget on bread machine ingredients. My first mistake was I didn't look to see how much dry milk was required per loaf. Not knowing that it is only a couple of tablespoons, I bought enough dry milk to feed my family for a year if the cows decide to quit producing. But I figured even if we would have to skimp on groceries for a week, we would at least have tasty bread. That Saturday, Jason headed to the Colts game, and though I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to go cheer on the Colts, at least I would get to make some bread. I excitedly put in all the ingredients, plugged it in, watched it preheat, and then it began the "knead 1" cycle. After about 5 seconds, though I had never operated such a machine, I knew something must be wrong. The machine sounded like an off balance washing machine. So I called my sister-in-law. No, she said, it shouldn't be making that loud of a noise. After about 5 minutes the ingredients should be mixed in a nice ball. 10 minutes passed, I had a headache, and the ingredients didn't look like they had moved. So I called my sister-in-law again. Maybe it is the kneading blade, she said. So I dumped all the ingredients out and examined the kneading blade. It looked just like the diagram in the instruction booklet, so I dumped all the ingredients back in and gave it another 10 minute cycle. Same thing. So again I dumped out all the ingredients. It had to be the kneading blade. My sister-in-law said the kneading blade should come right out, but it wouldn't budge. It must be in backwards. I tried a knife. Then pliers. Then a wrench. Then a shoestring wrapped around and tugged with all my might. It would not budge. So now I had a broken bread machine, a mess of a kitchen, and no bread. I cleaned up my mess, set the bread machine aside, and then remembered that my mom had a bread machine in my childhood. I talked with my mom, and yes, she still had the bread machine, and no she doesn't use it. She let me borrow it the next week.

However, this one did not have a manual. How different can it be, I thought? So I got out all the ingredients, dumped them in, and started the cycle. Five minutes after I started, Jason got out the broken machine. Convinced he could get it to work, he began on his own loaf of bread. Upset that he didn't believe that I knew how to operate a bread machine and knowing the additional mess this would create, I let him know that he was responsible for cleaning up. He dumped the ingredients in, pressed start, and what????? No banging noise. The dough started looking like a ball. I looked in my machine, now running for ten minutes. The dough was looking a little dry. Well, to wrap up this little tale, I will just post for you the end results, and you be the judge of the professional bread machine maker in the house.

Mine is on the left, and his is on the right.

I'm not sure what we all can learn from this tale - Deb can't operate machinery? Jason can fix anything? It's best to have a manual when operating a bread machine? Well, regardless, we now have a working bread machine, and Mom, I will be returning yours shortly. And yes, for all of you infomercial fans out there, that IS a Magic Bullet in the background.

Kelley

2007-01-14T22:22:00.000-05:00

I can't comment on your post because it says you have comment moderator on. Just thought I'd let you know.

I'm Just The Vessel

2007-01-03T21:32:00.000-05:00

There are people lurking about the blog world who really need to start their own blog. One in particular has given me some good blog material, and since she does not have her own blog, I am going to post her material here. And since I think it is a good topic, I will add to the list.

The original material regarding life's minor annoyances:

getting to bed and realizing you both forgot to turn down the heat, lock the front door, etc.

losing the remote

getting to Aldi without a quarter

expecting to use a gift card in the "self checkout"lane at Wal-mart and then realizing the lane doesn't accept gift cards

while eating dinner your 3 year old asks for the 18hundredth time, "when are we gonna have a snack"

you get into the car after your husband has just taken a quick trip alone somewhere and it's on empty

you go to use your toothbrush and suspect it tastes like some kind of bathroom cleaner- Oh that hasn't happened to you?

someone calls during American Idol

My washing machine is out of balance in the basement

And to add to the list, Deb's own minor annoyances:

going to the bathroom and realizing as you reach for the toilet paper that the roll has two squares left (and there's no kleenex to rescue you. Happened yesterday to me actually.)

stores/restaurants denying your credit card even though you know it's not even close to the limit. - yep that happened to me twice in the last few months. Once a coworker was behind me in Elder Beerman, and the other was in the Wendys drive thru and I had no cash on me.)

trying to post and children needing me in the background (I KNOW you've been in the bathtub for an hour. I just have to proofread and then I can publish.)

Only a millimeter of milk left in the gallon - and the cereal has already been poured in the bowl. Just drink the last drop already and throw the gallon away.

The phone ringing and none of the four cordless phones are on their base so I can answer.

Realizing we are out of dishwasher detergent and there's a dishwasher full of dirty dishes.

Lights on in every room in the house, both t.v.s are on downstairs, and everyone's upstairs on the computers. Now I sound like my parents (don't you know electricity isn't free!)

Having a flush and my poker nemesis having a full house (on the river, no less.)

Ah, but life is good. If this is all I have to get under my skin, I consider myself blessed. And S.W., we will be waiting for your premiere.

Normal

2006-12-26T22:06:00.000-05:00

My least favorite day of the "holiday" season is December 26, the day after Christmas. It's not because Christmas is over - I don't experience any kind of post Christmas let down. It's the overwhelming feeling I get when I look at the mess my house has become. Because we have Christmas with my parents Christmas eve, our own Christmas on Christmas morning, Christmas with Jason's side of the family Christmas afternoon, and Christmas with my brother and his family Christmas day evening, we don't have any time in between the celebrations to put our gifts away. Sometimes they don't even make it out of the car before our next stop. This year we deposited all of the gifts in our dining room, creating quite a mess. Christmas decorations in our house that once added to the festivity of the season now seem out of place. Do I put the decorations away first and then tackle the new "stuff" we accumulated, or do I try to find room for the stuff amidst the decorations and then tackle the decorations? Do I organize one room at a time or do I unpack each box and put the stuff in its proper place? When are we going to put together all of the toys and other household items we received? Nothing comes preassembled anymore (and on a side note, it took us 30 minutes just to get the My Little Pony Magic Castle out of its box - why do they package things so tight?) It's hard to know where to begin.

I decided to tackle the project one room at a time - first take the Christmas decorations out of the room I was working in and then put the new stuff away. In order to put new clothes away, closets had to be reorganized to get rid of too small stuff to make way for the new. At times during the day I could feel my pulse racing and I was almost near tears, but little by little I whittled away at the piles, and I am down to the tree and ornaments and just a few odds and ends here and there.

Some people leave their Christmas decorations up until the new year; some leave their lights outside up year around. But for me, once the big day is over, I am ready to get back to normal. Our family thrives on normal. Some people love excitement in their lives, constant change, even drama, if necessary, but our family loves consistency. Some may call that boring, unadventurous, non-spontaneous, but it's how we are. When I run into friends or acquaintances that I haven't seen in awhile, and they ask "What's new," I rarely have anything to tell them. Since we've been married, we are both working at our same job, we've lived in the same house for the last six years, I'm driving the only car I've ever owned, we attend the same church we were married in, and most of our closest friends we have known since high school or college. A few months ago I posted on a topic I called "Robot," explaining our day to day (and minute to minute) routine that we follow. And while the post commented on stress and schedule, there is a certain comfort level to that. When major events happen, such as marriage or birth or death or change in job or a move, then a new normal is established, and you move on from there. I remember after the birth of both of the kids, I could not wait to get home. Fortunately each time we only had to spend one night in the hospital, and that was plenty long for me. I was ready to get home, get a routine established, and adjust to the new life that was beginning. When we moved, I couldn't wait to get all of the boxes unpacked, get things in their place, and then get used to the new surrounding. Our offices moved over the summer, and I went into work a couple of days just to get boxes unpacked and everything organized so when the first official day of work came, everything would be in its place. When we come home from vacation, Jason unloads the car, and as he is unloading I am getting the laundry started, putting things away, getting the house back to normal.

Everybody's normal is different. Maybe if we weren't so satisfied with our normal, we would be more likely to seek change. But I love our normal...even if it's abnormal.

Christmas Traditions

2006-12-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, Christmas each year would not have been complete if:

We hadn't spent Christmas eve at Grandpa and Grandma Bowman's house (I'll never forget those late evenings coming home in the snow, scared that someone had broken into our house while we were gone and stolen all the Christmas presents.)

While at Grandpa and Grandma Bowman's house, we hadn't searched for our special red stocking that had our name on the top in red felt letters - and the stocking always had a silver dollar in it.

Mom hadn't made spritz cookies (Dad and I both swore we could tell the green, red, and white ones apart - even though the food coloring was the only difference.)

Grandma Porter hadn't read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.

Dad or Mom didn't surprise either each other or one of us kids with "one last present." You know the kind, everyone has opened up all the presents, we begin to clean up the paper, and then one of them would say, "Wait a minute...we aren't quite through yet."

Grandma Bowman hadn't called by 10:00 a.m. Christmas morning, wondering if we were through opening up presents so they could come out for Christmas dinner.

Cookies, milk, and a carrot hadn't been left out for Santa and Rudolph.

Dad and Mom's presents to each other didn't have sappy tags such as "To Hubby From Wifey" or "To Mrs. Coach From Mr. Coach."

My brother hadn't counted all of his presents on Christmas morning to make sure they were equal in number to mine.

Joel, Jaena, Doug, and I hadn't been sat at the "kid's table," a card (I mean folding) table set up in our living room for Christmas dinner.

We hadn't taken a "cousin" picture on Christmas eve.

My brother and I hadn't hung the soldiers on the Christmas tree, and my brother hadn't hung his little marshmallow man that he made in kindergarten front and center.

Grandma Porter hadn't gotten my dad a gift that all of us tried not to crack up at (she really liked QVC - the talking lips are still making their rounds each Christmas.)

Hugs, kisses, thanks, and love hadn't been the theme throughout the season.

Now that I am an adult with my own family, and there has been somewhat of a generational switch where my kids are the kids, I am the parent, and my parents are the grandparents, Christmas would not be complete if:

We didn't spend Christmas eve with my parents.

We didn't spend Christmas day with Jason's parents.

If Elizabeth didn't bake a birthday cake for Jesus to take to Grandma and Grandpa Wuertley's house Christmas day.

We didn't get together with my brother's family and my parents on Christmas night, playing new games we received as gifts until late in the night (and sometimes early in the morning.)

If we still didn't search for our stockings at Grandpa Bowman's house - and now the kids have their own stockings with the felt letters. Yes, he still puts a silver dollar in each one.

If Mom didn't make cookies (and peppermint ice cream dessert - hint, hint.)

If we didn't take a cousins picture at Grandpa Bowman's house.

If Elizabeth and Anna didn't hang up "their" ornaments.

If Elizabeth and Anna didn't leave cookies, carrots, and milk for Santa and Rudolph.

If Mom's stockings for us didn't come in a grocery bag.

If I didn't listen to the Carpenters "A Christmas Portrait" a hundred times or more.

If I didn't get to hear Grandpa play his tuba in "The Yuletide Spectacular," an annual concert the Mississinewa Valley Band puts on each year (and thankfully, Jason DID NOT schedule the Goff Real Estate Christmas party on this date this year.)

If Mom didn't call by 10:00 a.m. to wish us a Merry Christmas.

If the talking lips didn't make an appearance.

If hugs, kisses, thanks, and love weren't the theme of Christmas.

It's interesting as the years have passed how some traditions have stayed the same, and some new traditions have been established as a result of the additions of family. There are schedules to juggle and parties to plan and programs to attend.

Over the last few years as Elizabeth has gotten old enough to understand all about Christmas, I really struggled about things such as Do we let her believe in Santa? How many presents should we give? We could do three to be symbolic, we certainly don't want to spoil her. If we give her toys, and grandparents give toys, and aunts and uncles give toys, we won't have room for them all. Will she understand the true meaning of Christmas or will it be all about the presents? And then whatever we decide for Elizabeth, will we hold true to that for Anna? And then this year I've realized that while those questions matter, I am not going to stress about any of it. I grew up with a mom (love you mom) who loved to give us lots of presents, and I thought that was great (I still do.) Yet even with the nice presents and stockings, as a child I never lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas. I believed in Santa for a little while at least, yet I still believed in the Christ child. Christmas is the birth of Jesus! That's the most important thing. That is what we are celebrating. The other "stuff" is just bonus. I think in the midst of all the other "stuff," my kids get that, just like I did.

Each family carves out its own traditions and way of doing things, and I think that is important. I treasure the traditions that I grew up with, and I treasure the ones we have started now with our family. And along with the parties, the programs, the family get togethers, and the food, my favorite part of Christmas is that the hugs, kisses, thanks, love, and the realization of the importance of family abound at this time like no other.

Tis the Season to Be Inquisitive

2006-12-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

Tonight in the car, my seven year old Elizabeth was singing along with a Christmas song that celebrates the Immaculate Conception of our Saviour. After singing the first verse, she stopped singing and asked, "Mom, what's a virgin?"

How would you respond?

Fickle

2006-12-04T20:33:00.000-05:00

I want to keep working full time, but yet.......
I want to stay at home.

I want a brand new red H3, but yet.....
I want to keep driving my '98 Honda until it dies.

I want to keep with the tradition of giving the kids 3 gifts at Christmas, symbolizing the 3 gifts Jesus received, but yet.....
I want to throw that tradition out the window and have Christmas like we did when I was a kid (deleted comment regarding my Mom's Christmas tendencies)

I think it would be awesome to have a plasma tv, ipod, expensive digital camera, and all the other cool gadgets, but yet...
I want to throw away the tv we have (except when the Colts are playing, unless they are playing like they did yesterday.)

I want to cook dinner every night, but yet......
I want to eat out every night.

I want the kids to mature and enter into new stages, but yet......
I want them to stay just like they are.

I want to wear my most comfortable sweats or jeans all the time, but yet.....
I want to dress stylish (even if it's uncomfortable.)

When the Colts play, I get really nervous, and when they win I'm ecstatic and when they lose, the rest of the day is a little bleaker, but yet.....
It's just a game, and I don't personally know any of the players - who cares if they win or lose.

I want to come home after work and spend time with my family, but yet......
I want to come home after work and have solitude.

I want to have all my Christmas shopping done and presents wrapped by tomorrow, but yet....
I want to wait until the last minute, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the season and the excitemet of wrapping up last minute goodies on Christmas Eve.

I want to be a "submissive" wife, but yet...........
I want my thoughts heard (and let's face it, I want it my way.)

I want my children to experience the magic of Christmas, even let them believe in Santa Claus as part of that wonder, but yet....
I don't want them to believe in Santa and have that be their focus of the season.

I want to get up early on Saturday mornings and get some projects done, but yet....
I want to sleep in late and be lazy for the day.

I want to be social and fellowship with friends on the weekend, but yet....
I want to get in my pajamas on Friday night and watch taped crime shows.

I want to have the kind of personality that allows me to speak as I feel, even if conflict will result, but yet.....
I want to be the peacemaker.

I want to post on this blog every night, but yet.......
I want to retire the blog.

View My Complete Profile

2006-11-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

Someone explain the "view my complete profile" phenomenon. I've gotten in the habit of checking this little blogging statistic almost as often as I check my comments. I don't understand what all makes the profile views number increase. Obviously, when a new stalker checks out the blog, that would make the number go up. But it has to be more than that. Before today, I had been "stuck" at 1491 for days, maybe even weeks. I haven't noticed any new commenters on my blog, and I've only posted a couple of times in the last week or so. Last night, my profile number was still holding steady at 1491. Then BAM! today I check my profile views, and I'm up to 1510. I didn't even post last night. What would make my profile views jump 19 in less than 24 hours with no new post and no new commenters?

I used to think Blogger randomly increased people's profile view numbers so they would think people were still interested and new crowds were being attracted every day, but Jason's, I mean The Wuertley's, link on my blog as stayed steady for the past several weeks, and he has posted new stuff.

Then I thought maybe when I posted something new, that Blogger would automatically increase my number to make me think more people were reading, thus inspiring me to write more. But like I mentioned above, I haven't posted in a week and my number jumped today.

Maybe it has to do with how much I comment on other people's blogs. If I comment on Jane Doe's blog (which I don't comment on anyone's blog that isn't somehow linked in our mad blog circle) then Jane Doe's aunt may click on "Deb" to see who I am, thus boosting my number. But, I haven't commented on anyone's blog in quite a few days, either (I am still reading, though.)

It's very perplexing.

A few updates from the 20 minute blog - yes, I was at Wal-Mart on Saturday night at 10:30 buying a pair of black pants, no the sheets have not been changed, yes, I have shaved my legs, no the Holiday Turkey did not get decorated, yes yes to the Bible and prayer, no no no to the lazy susan and back refrigerator and scrapbook, yes yes yes to the Racko (Elizabeth is going down tonight - she's won 2 nights in a row our series to 500), the laundry, and the cleaning out of the car, no no no to Moonlight Sonata (anon, I'm going to start practicing up for your personal enjoyment) dance dance revolution, the thank you notes, and any of the organizing. It's not a bad start.

The Blame Game

2006-11-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into Walgreens to buy a gallon of milk. As a side note, I used to think Walgreens was the place to go for overpriced personal hygiene items and greeting cards, but I was mistaken - it's unbelievable the items you can get there. Need a last minute birthday gift? Run to Walgreens and get a Red Lobster gift card. Need a Halloween costume for next year? You can probably find one 90% off this week at Walgreens. But back to the story.

When I went to the milk section, I noticed that the majority of the milk on the bottom shelf had expired the previous day. Immediately going into coupon shopper bargain mode, I briefly thought about taking a couple of gallons up to the cashier and seeing if they would give them to me. But I'm kind of funny about drinking milk past the expiration date. So I grabbed a gallon that was okay and headed to the front. As the cashier was ringing me up, I mentioned to her that several of the gallons of milk were past expiration date. Her first response was, "Well, I didn't work last night when those should have been pulled. We'll take them off the shelves." I found it interesting that she was so quick to point out that the milk oversight wasn't her fault. And I'm just a stranger - not a boss judging her cashier skills or a regular customer that specifically shops at this Walgreens for this particular cashier to check me out because she's so great. I don't really care why the milk is still there or whose responsibility it was to remove it, I was just passing on information. I find this part of human nature interesting - we want to make sure that everyone knows when it is not our fault when things go wrong. I'm not talking about shirking blame or responsibility when we really do fall short. I'm talking about that feeling of unjustness that wells up inside when others have misjudged us or the situation.

I find myself in situations like this often at work. Last week another school system called and needed some information on a former student. I looked in the student's file, and one of the forms that I needed to fax over was not adequately filled out - but it wasn't my fault, one of my co-workers had failed to get a needed signature. But if I faxed the form over like this, it was going to look like it was my oversight. But I couldn't exactly fax over an additional piece of paper explaining that the signature wasn't there because one of my co-workers forgot. But if I didn't, I looked like I didn't do my job well.

Then there's the social situations. How about the elevator situations when someone, um, "toots" as we say in our house (thanks Anon for giving us that word) the first thing you want to scream is "IT WASN'T ME." Or how about this one. You're in a public restroom, you enter the stall, realize the person before you did not clean up their mess, so you exit the stall to find another, but then a person waiting after you goes into the one you just left. It looks like you left the mess. You want to stop the stranger and make sure they know you weren't the one responsible.

I had this situation happen to me tonight, and ironically, it involved me going into the express lane with....................more than 10 items! I know, I know, but here's the story. I was in Lances, doing my weekly shopping, depressed because I only was going to use 2 coupons and spend a bundle. I had maybe 20-25 items in my cart, and Lances was very busy - with only 4 check out lanes open. I wasn't in a hurry - Jason was picking the girls up from gymnastics, so I staked out my lane and patiently waited. Then a cashier came up to our line and asked if anyone had 10 or less items for the express lane, and then she would check them out. Well, noone around did, so she looked at me and whispered, as if we were in cahoots with each other, "Come on, fast, and I'll check you out." I looked at her stunned. I pointed to myself. Me? You want me to come to the express lane with my 25 items? I was in an ethical and moral dilemna. But then I looked at the situation this way - she, being the cashier, was kind of like the "teacher" of the store, and me as the customer was the "student." So I needed to follow her directions. I rushed to the express lane and started throwing my items up on the belt, being dilligent to put all refrigerated stuff together and boxed stuff together for speedy bagging. Of course, halfway into our little escapade a lady (who I don't think has smiled in the last few years) came up behind me with 10 or less items in her cart. I was going double time now, and I wanted to turn and say, "She made me do it. I would have waited in the regular line." The cashier swiped the last of my items, but then ... she ditched me. She switched over duties with another cashier. I swiped my credit card, he pushed the button, and then the screen came up asking if "yes" I will accept the charge. But wait. I had forgotten to give him my 2 coupons that would save me a total of $4.00. What do I do? Thrifty won over chivalry, and I pushed "no" with authority. "Can you swipe my coupons?" I asked politely. How long can it take? Well, apparently if you push no, you won't accept the charges, the whole system freezes. Lady in waiting behind me was not happy. I started to panic. I could just pay by check, I said. Don't even swipe the coupons. If I had 2 twenties with me I would have thrown them at him and ran. But he had to unfreeze the computer. The manager came over, fixed it, and he started to scan my coupons. The first one beeped. Great, the cat food one. I was unsure of this purchase. The coupon says Meow Mix cat treats, but the product, which looked exactly like the product in the picture, says Meow Mix cat food. So I'm not a cat food pro, I don't know if cat food is the same as cat treats. I do know that the food was only 53 cents, and my coupon was for a dollar. I tell the cashier unconvincingly, "It was for the cat food, I mean treats, I got." He gave it to me, and doubled the dollar coupon. So I made 1.47 on the deal, now wasn't the time to be ethical - it's too late for that. So after about 7 minutes in the express lane, lady behind me wasn't happy, but I didn't stick around long enough to hear about it. And if you saw me in the express lane tonight with more than 10 items, IT WASN'T MY FAULT!

If I Had An Extra 20 Minutes

2006-11-06T20:23:00.000-05:00

If I had an extra 20 minutes, I would...

change the sheets on our bed (I'm too embarrased to say how long it's been. It's probably a good thing that Anna has an occasional night time accident and Elizabeth gets bloody noses - this ensures an occasional change at least. In college, I once went the whole semester and then took them home at semester break. I know, disgusting.)

do a page in one of the girls's scrapbook. (I started the summer with such great intentions, only to contract a blogging disease that I can't seem to shake.)

take a bath and shave my legs (who has time in the mornings? Thank goodness it's getting to be colder weather. It was times like these during basketball season in college that I really hoped I didn't sprain my ankle and have to be examined by the male trainer.)

decorate, I mean help Anna decorate the Holiday Turkey cut out sent home from pre-school. (I tend to forget to turn these little family projects in. At least we sent her in her pajamas on the right pajama day. When Elizabeth was 3, we were a week early, so she had two pajama days.)

go get Elizabeth a new pair of black pants to wear to church Sunday for her sign language performance. (Or I could just borrow a pair if any of you blog stalkers have an extra size 8 laying around. I have a feeling I will wait until Saturday night at 10:00 before I make a Wal-Mart run.)

read the Bible.

pray.

clean out the back refrigerator that still has our leftover camping food (yes, our last camping trip was in September, and the fruit dip and fruit left over from that trip is still in the tupperware container. I'm scared to look.

organize the lazy susan. What really should you keep in a lazy susan that will stay organized? I have my storage containers in the bottom, and I can never find a container and lid to match. There is a hodge podge of things on top, including bottle nipples (yes, Anna has been off the bottle since she turned one, I just haven't cleaned everything out.)

play a game of Racko with Elizabeth. I got addicted to this game on fall break. We took it with us to Florida and played 36 games, she, Jason and I kept a running total, and I don't mean to brag, but after trailing through 32 games, I made an astonishing comeback.

sit down and play Moonlight Sonata on the piano. I don't play the piano well, but about 8 years ago, I practiced and practiced this song until I could play along with the cd. I'm so rusty on it now that it probably would take me 20 minutes to get through it. It's agony for all in the house to hear, but I don't care. I still like playing it.

play dance dance revolution. I love this game, and we were addicted when it first came out. It's one of those toys that we have forgotten about, but every time we get it out, we have a lot of fun - and it's a great workout, too.

clean out my car. My car is a dumping ground for...school papers, church papers, fast food leftovers, dumped snacks, McDonalds Happy Meal toys, silly putty that has melted into the back seat this summer, etc. Jason's car, however, is immaculate. Guess who transports the kids around?

do a load of laundry. I'm actually pretty much caught up, but if I would just throw in the day's towels (since we don't recycle,) I could be completely caught up. But no, I will wait until it's overflowing before I tackle it.

write about 3 thank you notes that I've meant to write over the last few months. I am so bad at this, and I hate that. I keep forgetting (or not making time) until finally I tell myself it's too late. When Jason and I were married, there were a handful of thank you's that I did not get out for a variety of reasons - didn't have the address, not sure who sent the gift - these sat out on my dresser, glaring at me for the next year. After a year, I finally told myself it just wasn't going to happen, so to stop feeling guilty, I threw them away.

comment on blogs. I've really gotten behind. To all of you reading who have a blog that I usually comment on, know that I have been faithfully reading, but I haven't been consistent in commenting. I think it's because of the same reason I don't blog every day now - I technically have the time, but not the mental energy to come up with something interesting to say. I guess I could just comment "nice blog" or " I agree," but that sounds lazy.

organize the game closet (no, wait, Jaena already did that for me - and I'm sure it took more than 20 minutes. Thanks again, cousin.)

organize the bathroom closet.

organize the closet with our bags/suitcases

organize the back porch closet that houses our seasonal decorations

organize my clothes closet.

I'm up to 7 hours now. Well, that's one work day for me. Maybe if I could choose one day when the kids do their normal school/child care routine, I could pretend I am going to work but instead stay home and get all of these things done. But then, let's be realistic. Would I really work on the above things? No, I would sleep a little later, blog a little more, and find a million other things to do instead of the above (like watch TLC.)

So I think tonight, after the kids are in bed and the day to day chores are complete, I will kick back, drink a cup of hot chocolate, watch a little Monday Night Football (or maybe a taped crime show) and leave the above list for another day (except for the Bible and prayer part of course :)

YIKES!!!

2006-10-30T18:23:00.000-05:00

GROSS
Finding a buried sippy cup with a half inch of curdled milk in the car on vacation in Florida and cleaning it out to put in the dishwasher.

GROSSER
Coming home from vacation, walking in the upstairs bathroom, and smelling something so rank that I was convinced something had died up there while we were gone. I braced myself, slowly opened the toilet lid, and discovered the smell was due to one of the kids going to the bathroom 8 days prior and forgetting to flush.

GROSSEST
Having my husband walk in our bathroom the other night as I was brushing my teeth, with the toothbrush I have used for the last six weeks, and saying "Why are you brushing your teeth with my toothbrush?"

It's Good To Be Back

2006-10-29T19:38:00.000-05:00

The Wuertley family has arrived back to good ole Indiana, and I must say it's good to be back. The vacation was really such a nice break, and it was the perfect length - not so long that we were bored while we were there, but not so short that we dreaded coming back. I'm happy to report that we did not forget to pack any major item (I don't count Q-tips as major,) and just as importantly, all items made it back home. I hope to post later in the week about some observations during our vacation, but for tonight, in David Letterman style, I am posting Deb Wuertley's Top Ten Ways You Can Tell You Are Vacationing With Young Children (at least the two Wuertley young children.)

1. The most welcomed sign on the interstate on the way home is "MCDONALDS GIANT INDOOR PLAYPLACE NEXT EXIT." I've never been so excited to eat at a McDonalds. On the trip down (we went to Daytona Beach, Florida, by the way - 16 hour trip not counting stops) we tried to stop at a playplace for a much needed break out of the car, but the McDonalds at that exit did not deliver. We even drove a half mile the opposite direction to the Burger King, hoping they had a playplace, but we were out of luck. I actually had a pang of disappointment in my stomach...over McDonalds. It's hard enough to keep a three year old still in a restaurant when you've just driven 5 minutes to get there - much harder when you've driven 4 straight hours. So on the way home, when the trip seems twice as long, I actually did a little victory dance when we saw the sign, and our Plan A of going to Bob Evans for a decent meal was suddenly replaced with a quarter pounder and cheese and 20 minutes of adult conversation.

2. Seating arrangments at every restaurant are a major ordeal. "I'm sitting by Daddy." "No, it's my turn to sit by Daddy. You sat by him at Pizza Hut." The best places to eat are ones with the really long booths - that way Jason can sit in the middle, the two girls on either side, and I get a whole side to myself.

3. Sleeping arrangements at the hotels on the way down and back are a major ordeal. "I'm sleeping with Daddy." No, it's my turn, you slept with Daddy on the way down." Notice a trend in who is in all of the arguments. It can be very lonely being the mother in this family. Thankfully, the condo we stayed at in Florida was a two-bedroom, so I got to sleep with Daddy during the week. We could put Anna and Elizabeth in the same bed in the hotels on the way down and back, but out of courtesy to Elizabeth, Jason and I took turns sleeping with Anna. She likes to talk to herself and play around en route to sleep, and Elizabeth takes her sleep very seriously. Anna is also a bed hog and does not like covers, so it can be pretty miserable being cold on the edge of the bed.

4. During the road trip, your family starts singing all of the preschool cd songs in four part harmony. "Stone soup, we're making stone soup. And it will be delicious, nutritious..." This is even funnier when our family sings, because none of us can on key. But hey, it's fun all the same. Of course, it's really bad when Jason and I continue to sing the songs even after the kids have drifted off to sleep.

5. When preparing for a trip to a theme park, you stategically plan your toddler's wardrobe so she can make the height requirement for the rides. This actually worked for us when we went to Kings Island two weekends ago. The height requirement for many of the mid-range rides was 40 inches, and without shoes, Anna is somewhere around 38 or 38 1/2 inches. So for that trip, we borrowed cousin Elisha's thick soled boots, and her height with these boots increased her to right at 40 inches. We slid by at Kings Island after much scrutiny on the first ride (the Monster) earning Anna a 40 inch blue wristband and a passport to a day full of fun. However, since we originally weren't planning on a trip to Disney World for this vacation, I didn't even think about height requirements. Since the weather was pretty cool in Florida for this time of year, the beach wasn't an option for a few days, so to break up the time at the condo, we headed to Magic Kingdom for a day, with Anna just wearing her regular shoes. Apparently, these shoes did not have thick soles, and she missed the height cutoff by millimeters. Too bad for her, these Disney workers are sticklers. We tried to coach her to stand on her tip toes, but she didn't get it, and it's probably good that she didn't let us corrupt her.

6. Swimming is a huge part of the trip. I'll touch a little more on this in my next post, but of all activities we do on trips, whether it's Florida or another destination, all the kids want to do is swim. They have both gotten to the stage where they aren't as concerned about us getting in the pool, which is great for Jason and me because we are both pretty much weenies when it comes to being cold in a pool. This trip was nice because the place we stayed was not very crowded with school aged kids, so the kids almost always had the pool to themselves.

7. Going to the bathroom in public is a huge ordeal. When it's just me out on the town, if I need to use the facilities, I excuse myself, do what I need to do, and return to the table in a few minutes time. When traveling with the kids, it takes a plan, especially in a crowded place. Elizabeth can at least now go in her own stall and take care of her own business, but in a crowded restroom, it's almost easier (and maybe more polite) to all go in one. So here's the drill - Elizabeth first, because she usually has to go the worst, so we layer the seat with two pieces of toilet paper (does toilet paper really seal us from the germs? I can't do the squat over, though, my leg muscles just can't hold up.) and she does her thing, we flush, get two more pieces of paper, I do my thing, then it's to Anna. By now I figure Elizabeth's toilet paper and behind and mine have washed away all germs, so we go without paper for Anna. The problem with Anna and the bathroom is she has a bladder of steel, and anyone who has watched her or knows her well knows I am not exaggerating. The girl can wake up in the morning with a dry pullup and then go until after lunch without going. It's amazing. So coaxing her to go is no easy fete. However, if sleep in the car is in the near future, it's paramount that she goes so we don't have a wet car seat. Well, enough about that topic...

8. If there is an arcade game/crane game/gumball machine/rubber ball machine/candy machine in sight, they will want to play. The problem with this is, our family has kind of gotten hooked on the crane game, so we indulge almost every time. What is the problem, you say, if we enjoy this? First, it's a money drain most of the time, second, we have won enough where our house is being overrun by cheap arcade toys (none of which the kids can live or sleep without) and third, when we don't win (which is more often than not) Anna looks at us like we are complete failures. She doesn't get that it's not an automatic win.

9. When you get home from the week long, intense family time vacation, you really just need a little vacation from the kids. And I mean this so lovingly toward them - I think they are great. But after unpacking and winding down from the trip, the last thing we want to do is play dolls or Sorry or whatever else we've just spent the last week doing. But they, so used to having our undivided attention now for a whole week, just cannot easily make the transistion back to reality (where we ignore them most of the time....just kidding, of course :).)

10. You realize how great your family really is and how important it is to get away from the day to day craziness and just enjoy each other's company.

I'm going to end this post with the quote of the week from our vacation:

On Monday morning, our family needed to go to the local grocery store to pick up some things for meals for the week. My dad belongs to a vacation club and so generously let us use his "points" to have a condo complete with kitchen, so it order to save money, we ate several meals in. Elizabeth was not excited about going to the store and was dragging her feet getting ready, so I jokingly said to her, "Well, Daddy and I will go to the store and you can stay here and watch Anna." Jason and I proceeded to walk out the door, not shutting it completely but enough to let them think we were leaving. Jason and I put our ears up to the door to listen. I braced myself for the two of them to bolt out the door, running to us and begging us not to leave, but instead I heard this from my three year old to her big sister who was now in charge. "So, what do you want to do first, Elizabeth?"

Trip Preparation

2006-10-19T16:26:00.000-04:00

Some of the more stressful hours of my life are when I am preparing for a big trip. If I just had to pack my own things, it would be a piece of cake. But since I choose to take on the traditional matriarchal role of the family, I am responsible for packing everything BUT my husband's suitcase. And even then, if he forgets something, I should have reminded him or put it in my bag. So my trip preparation responsibilites are as follows: The basics - packing Elizabeth's suitcase of clothes(which gets harder each trip because her clothes are getting bigger. She has really grown out of the toddler type suitcase on wheels that only holds a couple of outfits, but it's all we have so we use it, so on her Christmas list is a bigger kid's duffel bag type suitcase,) packing Anna's suitcase of clothes, packing my suitcase of clothes, packing swimming suits and gear, packing the kids' Loreal kids shampoo, suave kids body wash, and Dora kids toothpaste (are these products really any different from ours except they say kids and are packaged differently?) and packing family personal hygiene items (I hope I don't forget the fingernail clippers this year.) These are the mainstays - we cannot survive without these items. Then there's the luxury items - our pillows, an umbrella stroller, the cooler packed full of food because I'm too cheap to eat out on vacation, the 24 pack of bottled water because water from outside of Grant County does things to my stomach, 24 pack of Coke for Jason, Jason's laptop, our old laptop for the kids to play games on, the camera and video camera, the girls' blankets and stuffed animals for night time, and probably 25 other things that I will accidentally leave behind. Then there's the all important entertainment items - DVD's for the trip down, VHS tapes for when we get there, backpacks full of coloring books, markers, puzzles, travel board games, travel electronic games (may I suggest yahtzee and 20 questions,) and books, family board games for when we get there, sand toys, one year we even took the play station and Dance Dance Revolution (this only works if you are on the ground level) and lots and lots of magazines.

Even as I type this list I can feel my blood pressure rising, and I'm getting a headache. What am I forgetting? There must be something I'm forgetting. I always forget something. Here are some of the more memorable items I have forgotten on previous trips:

When I was 12, I had saved my yard sale and birthday money for vacation. I had it in a nice sealed envelope all ready to go. We pulled out of the driveway, headed to the highway, and then I remembered I had forgotten my envelope of money at home. This was before the day of whipping out the credit card. My parents only had the travelers checks to cover the vacation costs - they couldn't front me a hundred bucks. Do people use travelers checks anymore?

Then there's the time we were heading on vacation when Jason asked for a Coke. I reached for the cooler packed full of food to get him one when I realized...the cooler had not been packed. We called my parents, who went over to our house to fiind our cooler still sitting in our driveway. At least they were able to salvage the food.

A few years ago we went to Kings Island with my brother and his family. We were a good hour into the trip when we realized...oops, we forgot our Kings Island tickets. This was decision making time. Do we go back and get the tickets and lose two hours or do we keep going and lose $50.00 and buy new tickets. We went back.

Three summers ago we went to Florida with Jason' s parents. This time we forgot Anna's breathing treatment machine and medicine. At this time she was to be on 2 treatments a day. She hadn't had a flare up in awhile; we were sure she would be fine. We left for Florida on a Saturday. On Monday night we were in the Daytona Beach hospital emergency room with a year old baby that couldn't breathe. That was a costly item forgotten - the hospital made us buy another machine before they would dismiss Anna.

Then there was the time we took a big family trip to Paris, and we forgot Elizabeth. No wait, that wasn't us, that was Macaulay Culkin's family.

My two least favorite time spans on vacation - the drive back (yuck!!!) and the first hour into the trip when Jason and I have this back and forth conversation: "Did you remember to lock the door? Yes. How about the camera? Got it. Did you stop the mail? Shoot. Let me call my dad and see if he can pick it up for us. Oh, you know what we forgot, the_____________(fill in the blank with one of the many items that we realize we have forgotten.)

So with our family's past history of forgetting crucial items, it's no wonder that after we arrive at our destination, I spend the next 24 hours fighting a major headache due to the stress and worry. Oh yeah, last trip I forgot Tylenol but remembered the Children's Liquid Advil, so I had to down the maximum child amount to combat the pain.

The Saga of the File Cabinets

2006-10-12T18:39:00.000-04:00

Ever have a simple project turn into a big ordeal? For example, before we moved into our current house, I told Jason I wanted to repaint the dining room. Seemed like an easy enough project - the room was empty, four square walls, not a lot of trim. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours per coat. I headed to Lowes, bought the supplies, got all set up and went to work. I like rolling the best - trim is a lot of time with little progress, while rolling covers a lot of ground in little time. Plus, I get so anxious to see what the wall is going to look like with the new color that I can't help but to roll first. So I was rolling away, pleased with my speedy painting, when something awful started happening - seems like former owners of the house had painted over several layers of wallpaper. I thought I was painting just over paint, but I was mistaken. And as my thick paint soaked into the wall/wallpaper, the wallpaper started peeling off. I had two major realizations at this point: first, my work up to this point was for nothing, and now I had a mess on my hands as I had to deal with painted wallpaper falling off the walls. Second, before I could continue painting, I had to strip all of the remaining wallpaper off. A few hour project turned into a few labor intensive days - what started out so simple turned into a big project.

I had a similar experience at work over the last month. From last school to this school year, we had some major changes in our program. Our office moved buildings, and we had some turnover in staff. In the midst of the move and staff changes, some file cabinet keys were lost. Since our student files are mandated to remain in locked file cabinets, this presented a big problem, because we are utilizing all of our file cabinets to maximum capacity. However, some of our other files don't have to be locked; unfortunately, as I unpacked boxes this summer and moved files into a file cabinet, I picked a file cabinet that did not have a key. And since I needed a deep drawer file cabinet to hang our files in, I couldn't transfer the files to other file cabinets with keys because those file cabinet drawers weren't deep enough to hang files from the side. We kept the classroom door locked at night, but really the file cabinet needed to be locked. So when school started in August, the directive was given to me to get the situation fixed however I could and to call whomever I needed to call. I thought I would go the route of least resistance first. I called maintenance, and they tried to swap out the drawers - the shallow drawers to the unlocked cabinet and the deep drawers to the locked cabinets. Unfortunately, the shallow drawers fit in the unlocked cabinet but the deep drawers did not fit in the locked one. So we went to Plan B - let's switch out the locks. So we called back maintenance, and they jiggled and pulled and shoved, but the locks would not come out. Plan C - I got a box of wire file hangers - the kind that you have to manually put together with a screwdriver. That was an exciting afternoon for my social work intern - she really felt like she was diving into the social work field. We put together four of them, switched all 168 files out of the unlocked cabinet into the locked cabinet and hung them on our newly assembled wire hangers. This solution only lasted a day, though, because between the weight of the files and the number of times those files went in and out of the cabinet throughout the course of the day, our wire hanges collapsed, and now all of the files were laying on their side in a mess in the drawers. So I had to resort to Plan D - I called Peerless and ordered two new keys to two of our unlocked file cabinets. No problem, the lady from Peerless said, should only take a few days. "We can stand a few days of these files being a mess," I thought. The date was September 12. A couple of weeks pass, and no new keys. I'm getting dirty looks as people get into our file cabinet to find their files. "I haven't heard from them," I say in my defense. Finally, I call. The lady says the keys shipped out on Friday, it's now Wednedsay, she expects them any day. This past Tuesday comes, I call again. Yes, the keys are in, she's sending them over tomorrow (yesterday, October 11.) Wednesday comes, the keys arrive. I eagerly open the envelope, excited to organize the files, and I take the two keys to their respective cabinets. Yep, the one works. I put in the second key in the second file cabinet, the one I had reserved for student files - and nothing. The key won't turn. I look at the number on the lock. 103R. I look at the number on the key. 103E. You've got to be kidding me, I must have ordered the wrong key. I look at the invoice - nope, it says 103R on the invoice. I guess the company messed up. I called Peerless, explained the problem, and they said they would overnight a new key. I went to lunch. When I came back, there was a message from Peerless saying that 103R and 103E are interchangeable. I'm feeling key inadequate at this point, so I grab the key and try it again in the lock. I jiggle it around a little and can get it to move slightly, but then I realize the problem. When maintenance was trying to swap out the locks, they knocked it loose, so neither 103E nor 103R is going to work in this lock. I called Peerless back, explained the situation. Sorry, the key has already been overnighted. But now here's a new solution - Plan E. They can send over someone to look at the lock. But he couldn't come on that day, maybe tomorrow (today.) He didn't come today. The saga continues...

Grocery Store Rules

2006-10-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

I am an avid coupon shopper, and I take my grocery shopping pretty seriously. I am also a very organized shopper, so when I go into a store, I know exactly what I am getting and I have already pulled the coupons I will be using. Every now and then I will stumble upon a surprise good deal, but for the most part, I am on a mission to purchase the items on my list and I am focused as soon as I enter the store.

I've noticed, however, that not everyone in the store is as focused as me - this includes other shoppers, stockers, cashiers, and customer service people. I have had quite a few frustrating shopping experiences the last few times I went shopping, and because of these experiences, I am going to share with the blog world some of my unwritten grocery store rules.

1. Obey the express lane item limit. I get really frustrated when I am trying to fit a quick coupon trip in during my lunch break, I purchase one or two coupon items, and when I get to the express lane, someone in front of me who apparently doesn't think the item limit pertains to them is in front of me. Why don't the cashiers say anything to these people? I will admit, I may have a time or two gone in the 10 item and under express lane with 11 items. But I always ask the cashier first if it is okay.

2. An extension from rule number one - DO NOT exceed the item limit in U-Scan. I was at Meijer last week, and Meijer is notorious for not having enough lanes open. All of the regular lanes had people lined up in the aisle, so I headed to the U-Scan. The U-Scans were full, too, so I parked my cart behind a lady who was checking herself out. I surveyed the situation - sure does seem like more than 15 items to me at first glance. So I started counting. She had already scanned two bags worth, I watched her scan 8 items, and then she started in on the items in her cart. I would guess she had at least 30 items in all. And it always takes the general public a lot longer to scan items than the cashiers. The gall of some people.

3. If you are going to use a coupon, make sure you are using it correctly. It's people who use coupons incorrectly that give us coupon shoppers a bad name. I was in Lances Tuesday, and this was the scene. Once again, there were very few lanes open, so I headed to a lane where I was the third person back. The person ahead of me only had a few items, and the first person in line only needed to have 3 or 4 more items scanned. I was in a hurry because the kids were at gymnastics, and when the class is over, there is no supervision to make sure kids get with their parents, so I wanted to make sure I was back in plenty of time. The cashier finished scanning the other products and then went to scan the coupons. Coupon number one - Dentyne gum buy one get one free. It beeped. Oh, the lady had forgotten to get her gum. So she went and picked it out. Coupon number 2 - beeped. Oh, she had forgotten to get that item. The cashier gave the coupon back to the customer. Coupon number 3 - a produce coupon. The problem was, she was trying to use it on some tomatoes that she decided she no longer wanted. So not only did they have to void the coupon, they had to reweigh the tomatoes to see how much to take off (not sure why they couldn't just see the price it had scanned at.) Of course the cashier didn't know the code for the tomatoes, the manager had to come over, and by now I was getting mad. Finally, the coupon disaster was over, and it's time for her to pay. Oh wait, she needed two packs of cigarettes. The cigarettes at Lances aren't at the check out, so someone had to run and get them for her. Total time to check out - 15 minutes. I'm glad I didn't audibly say anything because the lady's mother was the one in front of me. They both thought it was kind of cute how this lady was causing all these mishaps. I was struggling with my Christianity at this point, and I managed to hold my tongue, although I wasn't as pleasant with them as I normally would have been. In fact, the mother turned and said something about "You never know what she's going to do. I just turn my head." I avoided eye contact and said "Yeah." My ice cream was melting. She said, "Don't worry, I don't have any coupons." I wanted to say, "I do, but I, unlike your daughter, know how to use them."

4. Aisles at Wal-Mart by the non-grocery side are one way. When you enter the store and go left, the aisle closest to the paper, folders, seasonal items goes one way to the back of the store, and the aisle by the personal hygiene products goes back to the front of the store. Please, people, two carts can barely fit side by side on an aisle, so if someone is coming the opposite way, it just can't happen. With the displays that divide the two aisles, there just isn't room to do it any other way.

5. Aisles at Wal-Mart are not the appropriate place to have a conversation. I already mentioned above that the aisles are barely wide enough to pass. If two people and two carts are stopped to have a conversation, there is no getting through. Can't you see me standing there, behind you, with an annoyed look on my face trying to keep a Christian attitude. I inch closer and closer until I'm part of the conversation, yet you still don't get the hint.

6. Baggers - please put my refrigerated and frozen stuff together and separate from non-refrigerated items. When we travel to Ft. Wayne, we take a cooler. I don't like my deodorant frozen, and I don't like my ice cream melted. It's hard to tell what all is in a bag when it's all shoved in together.

7. If you aren't going to be decisive about which product to buy, please move close to the shelf so I can get through. However, if I need to purchase what you are looking at, please move away so I can get to it. And know the difference without me having to tell you.

8. Control your kids. When I was at Lances this week (same trip mentioned above) there were two kids running down the cereal aisle. They had a couple packages of play money in their hands. The boy tripped and the money went flying, almost hitting me. The girl laughed loudly and ran towards me after it. I gave them the evil eye (really, I've never stared like that at a kid I didn't know) but they didn't care. I would have found my mom and cried if someone would have done that to me, but not these kids.

9. Please open more lanes. When we go to Kroger, we will be done shopping in 15 minutes and then stand in line for 20. It's ridiculous. It's even more frustrating when there are five baggers for two lanes, or 3 people in customer service. Can't we spread out the duties a little more?

10. If stores are going to put promoted items on the end caps or on a center display, thus clearing out the section they normally are, they need to put a sign where that item should be stating where it actually is. I almost missed out on a great Dole fruit-gel deal because the product had been moved. It was a great deal - 1.00 each (4 pack), the coupon was for 1.00 of 3, dollar coupon doubled, total price - 1.00 for 3 4 packs.

I feel better already after venting about the above situations. Some people have road rage - I guess I have Marsh Madness.

De-clutter

2006-10-03T15:53:00.000-04:00

When you enter our house from the back door, the door that everyone uses except the door-to-door politicians, Jehovah Witnesses, and UPS, the first room you come into is the back porch. After walking through the back porch, you come into the dining room. When we first bought the house, we thought it would be neat to utilize a pool table as our dining room table instead of a traditional table. So we bought a rather large pool table, and then we purchased a ping pong table top to go over the pool table. This gave us a multifunctioning apparatus - a pool table, a ping pong table, a dining room table, and a dumping ground for everything in our house that doesn't have its own place. I am ashamed to say that in the six years we have lived in this house, the apparatus functioned as a pool table or ping pong table for the first year, and for the last five years, except for a couple of parties where the table was actually used as a dining room table, it has been a dumping ground. When I come home from work, I drop my keys on the table. When Jason comes home from work, he puts his keys, wallet, and the mail on the table. When the kids come home from school, their backpacks go on the table. After I dig out the papers from the backpacks, I put them into piles - things to be returned to school, homework, and papers for Jason to look over. After Jason goes through the mail, it goes into piles - bills for him, magazines for me, family mail such as wedding or party invitations. The newspaper ends up on the table, and so forth. Even though the table looks much more attractive without the ping pong table top on, we keep the top on so we can dump our junk on it without messing up the pool table felt. After many days of "dumping," either Jason or I cannot stand it anymore, and we de-clutter the table. However, negative things can happen when this occurs. Last week, Jason threw away a stack of magazines my mom had given me to look through for Christmas presents for the girls because it just looked like more junk. Where else was I supposed to store those magazines? At times, I will find invitations to birthday parties, weddings, or home parties that were two weeks prior - I had them in the very important stack, but that stack keeps growing, too. Yesterday, when I walked in the house after work, I could not stand the atrocity on the table anymore, and I made a commitment to not only de-clutter the table, but to clear it. So I began. I couldn't believe what all I found - Elizabeth's report card from last year. Doves from the inside of a silver dollar that were stored in a butter containter. Elizabeth's basketball evaluation from summer basketball camp. A wedding invitation (whew, that hasn't happened yet,) a printout from the computer with some Christmas ideas for my mom (that I printed out last summer,) lots and lots of hair ties, the Magic Bullet box with some attachments still inside, a VCR that doesn't work, a ton of artwork created by the kids (had to throw that away at the bottom of the trash can,) McDonald's toys, gymnastics pictures, my library card, a wallet sized family picture with Jason's side of the family taken over a year ago, last year's dance pictures, a half written story by Elizabeth about learning how to play tennis, snapshots, snapshots, and more snapshots, an invitation to a toy party (I had already told the hostess I couldn't make it,) Family Camp crafts from our cottage at the campgrounds that we had to clear out because we sold the cottage, and lots of other odds and ends. Yes, all of this stuff was on the table - the first piece of furniture someone sees when they walk in our house. What a first impression.

Well, after clearing the table, I got inspired. If I can de-clutter the dining room, I can de-clutter the whole house. The rest of my house wasn't nearly as bad as the table - I do like to have things in order. But there were things laying around the house that didn't belong where they were - three drawings Elizabeth had done for Jason to take to his office that were still at the top of the stairs, 2 Junie B. Jones books on the end table in the living room, scotch tape on top of the microwave, canning jars and pint containers on the countertop, once full of garden goodies but now washed and waiting to be stored until next summer, a popcorn tin full of popcorn from Christmas 2004, receipts on my dresser from last Christmas (I don't think at this point anyone will be returning anything.) I reorganized our shoe rack - I discarded of several pairs of kids shoes and designated each of us a shelf. (Jason has to have one and a half, but he shares a shelf with Anna.) Some things I just left - like the energy saver Reindeer that sits in front of our never used front door to keep out the cold air. He's been there for two Christmas's in a row - and he stays even during the summer even though he's also a Christmas decoration. Hey, it's less than three months now until Christmas. At least I took down the "Congratulations Daddy Mommy Elizabeth and Anna" sign that Elizabeth made six months ago and hung in our kitchen. No, we aren't having another baby, she was just congratulating all of us on being a happy family. It hung right below a golden foot of Elizabeth that was made in preschool. I know, not your typical kitchen decor, but she wanted it displayed, and there was an empty hook in the kitchen. We only meant for it to stay up that night, not for 2 years.

By the end of the night, I felt pretty proud of myself. My house looked pretty good. However, all that clutter had to go somewhere...you should see my closets. That will be another project for when I have another inspiration.

Confidential to new blogger T.T. - I was able to get on your site last week and I left a comment, but I can't access it any more. It says I have to be invited. Suggestions?

Lucky or Blessed?

2006-09-28T15:48:00.001-04:00

I debated on which topic to post about today - the light-hearted funny one or the serious deep thinking one. The serious deep thinking one won out, probably because it is a drizzly, cold afternoon, an atmosphere that lends itself more to a low-key deep thinking mindset.

I've thought on and off about this topic for the last few months, and I have even started a post about it a time or to, but I could never really pull my thoughts together well enough to be able to express myself in this mode. I'm still not sure I am there, but after listening to Pastor DeNeff's sermon on Sunday, my thoughts are more clarified, and I'm going to give it a shot.

I've made it a point in my adult life to use the word blessed instead of lucky when it comes to the good fortune that I have had. For example, I am blessed with a wonderful husband and two children. I am blessed to have a roof over my head and plenty of food to eat. I am blessed to have a job that I enjoy, and so forth. To say, "I sure am lucky to have found Jason" seems so trite, and it completely puts God out of the equation - the responsibility falls to fate. And of course where does every good and perfect gift come from - from our Father up above, at least that's what the Bible says. So logic to Bible believers would say blessings are gifts from God. However, I have a few thoughts about this. First, if blessings are from God, where are curses from? Second, if I am a Christian, yet I am not experiencing blessings, am I not right with God? Third, why do "non-Christians" on the surface appear to have been blessed? Who blessed them? Fourth, why do Christians experience tragedies? Can tragedies also be from God? Or as a society, do we attribute the blessings to God and the tragedies to the fall of man?

Pastor DeNeff preached a really thought provoking sermon on Sunday, and one of the points we talked about in Sunday School was that God is not on our side. Someone in our class used the example of the angel talking to Joshua, and when Joshua asked the angel are you for us or against us, the angel answered "neither." Wouldn't you think that God would be on Joshua's side? The point our Sunday School member was making is that we are to be on God's side. So then I think, if we are to be on God's side, we should want what God wants. Well, if I should want what God wants, then how does that affect my prayer life? I think back to Judges when the people were asking for a king, and God did not want them to have a king, but they kept asking, so He gave them one. That wasn't the best choice for those people. How do I know what I am asking for is in my best interest? So then do I always only pray for God's will? That would make for a short prayer each night.

The thoughts above are a little jumbled for my liking, but I will continue to press on. While these last two paragraphs seem to talk on two different subjects, I think they are interrelated. Let's say I really want IT. So I pray for IT. I pray and pray and pray. Scenario one - I get IT. Did God bless me? Did God really want me to have IT, or am I like the people in Judges? Is God trying to further his kingdom by answering my prayer? Scenario two - I don't get IT. Is God cursing me? Is that God's will, so he denies me? Is God teaching me a lesson in patience or faith? How about windfalls? Things that I don't pray for, but fortune smiles upon me. Was that God blessing me, or did I just get lucky?

How about when non-Christians are blessed/lucky? Who is responsible for that?

Though I have so many questions on these ideas, these are my absolutes:
1.) The Bible is true
2.) Prayer can change things - if it is God's will
3.) God does have a perfect plan for my life

Here's a real simple scenario that loosely shows what I mean - the couple of minutes we didn't know where Elizabeth was last weekend, I was praying as I was running around the campgrounds. "Dear Lord, please help us find Elizabeth. Please keep her safe wherever she is" and other frantic prayers you pray in crisis. Two minutes later she is found. "Thank you Lord, thank you for protecting her." Then I think, did God cause me to find her? Did I thank him out of habit of thanking him for an anwered prayer, or did I truly believe he was the reason she was found? Had I not found her, had something tragic happened, am I as equally blessed, or was I cursed? Or does fate/luck play a lot bigger role in life than Christians give credit? Pastor DeNeff often uses the word "providence," but I have a hard time distinguishing between providence and luck, because providence is usually applied to positive things, and bad things must just be bad luck.

Then I think of the verse that says (loose Wuertley translation) families who follow God will be blessed through the generations or for a thousand years or something like that. I think of my grandparents - very godly, Christian people, devout prayer life, etc. They had two sons. One son, my father, has two children, and our immediate families have experienced relatively few hardships. The other son, my uncle, had a son die in a car crash at age 16, and the repercussions from that tragedy greatly affected that immediate family in a negative way. Was my father blessed and not my uncle? They were raised in the same household with the same heritage.

I know I stated in my very first post that I would not be speaking on spiritual matters, and my intent is not to do so, but when it is so much a part of your life, it just seeps through at times. I will end on some interesting info I found out about my 3 year old today when I came home from lunch. She was talking (to noone) and laughing, and I said, "Anna, are you being silly?" She said, "No, I'm talking to my friend." I said, "What's your friend's name." She answered, "George." This imaginary friend was new to me, but in the next few minutes, I found out lots about him by observing. #1 - Anna is faster at running than George - she won all of the races #2 - George lets Anna boss him around #3 George is not her guardian angel, because as they were playing in the window sill, she bumped the curtain, and the rod crashed into her head, and #4 George doesn't know how to start the computer games, so I had to go upstairs and help instead.

Misunderstandings

2006-09-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it has been a week since my last post - time has really flown by. Of course, a lot has been going on in the Hummel/Wuertley family, but you can read about that by clicking on the Hummel link. It's amazing, but that's all I'll say because you will get so much more out of just reading their blog instead of hearing a watered down version on mine.

I have experienced a couple of funny/awkward misunderstandings in the last few days, and I must say there is a certain kind of unsettled feeling that I get when I am involved in a misunderstanding. Here's the two scenarios.

Last Thursday night I was late for blog night. Tennis had ran late, I didn't get home until 7:00, the kids hadn't eaten, and blog night officially starts at 7:00 (although unofficially it's more like 7:30.) I threw together dinner for the girls (Jason was on his own this night) and was about ready to bolt out the door when the phone rang. Now let me tell you, this post could easily turn into what I hate about call waiting and caller i.d., but maybe I will save that topic for another post. I don't want to co-mingle topics. We do have both services (not my choice,) and I do utilize the caller i.d. occasionally, but not the call waiting. Anyway, back to the story. I decided to check the caller i.d. for two reasons - 1.) if it was JoEllen or any other member of Jason's family, I was going to answer it in hopes of an update. 2.) if it was Kelley or anyone else who was going to blog night, I was going to answer it in case blog night had been cancelled. In order to see the caller i.d. on the phone, I had to take it off its base. So I picked up the phone and saw that the person calling was my friend Melissa. I like my friend Melissa, I enjoy talking to her, and I hadn't talked to her in awhile. However, since I was running late, I couldn't take the call at that moment, so as I was staring at the caller i.d. screen and therefore inadvertently speaking into the phone, I yelled to Jason in another room, "It's Melissa, I don't want to talk to her right now." Then I realized that as soon as I had picked up the phone from the base, it had stopped ringing. Oh no, I must have answered the phone without knowing it and she heard me say I didn't want to talk to her. Now what do I do? I then tried to "answer" the phone again with a hello, but there was no answer. I decided that being a little later to blog night was probably better than severing ties with a good friend, so I quickly dialed her number back. No answer. I waited a couple of seconds, then dialed again. No answer. Well, at this point what could I do, so I grabbed my cell phone and headed out the door - I would call her on my way to blog night. So I dial her number in the car...voice mail. I have several options now. One, I could just give it up and pretend it never happened. Two, I could call her back tomorrow and play dumb, saying that I saw on the caller i.d. that she had called. Three, I could leave a voice mail message saying that I had just missed her call and was now returning it. Or four, I could 'fess up to what really happened. Against my better judgment, I chose four. How does one really explain to a friend what happened in the above scenario, especially over the phone. Let me tell you from first hand experience, you can't without sounding like an idiot. But I decided sounding like an idiot was better than potentially offending a friend, so I left a message that spanned from Dairy Queen on the bypass all the way to BP on state rd 9 about how I didn't have time to talk but I inadverdently answered the phone and blah blah blah. After that voice mail I didn't know if I felt better or worse, but the damage was done and all I could do was wait. My friend did call me back the next day and the kicker....SHE HADN'T EVEN CALLED ME! Her two year old son likes to play with her phone, and she said he must have accidentally dialed me. I'm an idiot.

Scenario #2. The names of the parties involved have been changed to protect the innocent, but this story is too good not to share. It also goes hand in hand with my last post and being fearful. We camped this weekend with another family, let's call the husband and wife Brad and Angelina. Friday night was terrible traditional camping weather, but we enjoyed an evening in the camper playing games. Saturday morning the weather had cleared a little, and I was preparing the eggs in the camper for breakfast pies. Elizabeth, still in her pajamas and no socks (but wearing tennis shoes without her heel all the way in) had ventured out of the camper but came back in to get her Sudoku puzzle book. She grabbed it and left, and I assumed she went to the Pitt's camper to do puzzles with Angelina. Baby Shiloh was napping. Fifteen minutes or so went by, the eggs were done, and I noticed a strong gas smell in our camper - either Jason or I had turned on one of the burners without lighting it, so we were slowly gassing ourselves. I needed to dress Anna, so I grabbed her clothes and headed to the Pitt's to get her dressed and get Elizabeth for breakfast. Jason and I knocked. No answer. We knocked louder. Still, no answer. We opened the camper door, and the camper was empty. Jason yelled, and Brad yelled out "I'm taking a shower." Okay, Elizabeth and Angelina must be taking a walk or something, which seemed odd, because it was wet, rainy, and Elizabeth was in her pajamas. So Jason yelled out, "Where's Angelina." Brad yells back "She's in the shower, too." Oops. Two very different emotions ran through my body - fear (where was Elizabeth) and embarrasment (wow, no wonder the Pitts like to camp.) Jason and I start yelling Elizabeth's name, running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and no Elizabeth. Last ditch effort - I run to the showers at the campgrounds. I have no idea why she would be in there, because we have a toilet in our camper, but I had no other ideas. I burst into the bathroom, and there stands Elizabeth, holding her Sudoku book and leaning up against the wall. I didn't know whether to yell at her or hug her, so I yelled first, then hugged, then realized the truth - Angelina was taking a shower here in the bathhouse, not the camper. OHHHHH! So my fear and embarrasment quickly turned into relief and laughter - another misunderstanding that caused again so much stress.

I hate the feeling of frustration and embarrasment that comes with misunderstandings. I remember in the 5th grade I had just had my first perm in my hair, and my fifth grade teacher reached out to touch the curls, and I thought she wanted to give me a hug, so I tried to hug her. Very awkward, and I can't believe I still remember that. My first year of work, I went out to eat at Pizza Hut during home visits with a teacher, and we both ordered a lunch buffet, but I had water (poor newlywed) and she ordered a coke. When the bills came, she handed me the one with the coke on it. I'm too non-confrontational to speak up, so I paid for her coke. Another misunderstanding - I'm sure she didn't mean to give me the wrong receipt, but I got stuck with the buck ninety seven.

Even worse than situational misunderstandings are verbal misunderstandings - especially when you really mean what you said but you can't get across the true meaning to the listener. Yep, I've had that happen several times, too.

Then of course I have had times when I wasn't misunderstood, I just stuck my foot in my mouth. But again, another topic for another post.

Triathlon Training Update - Nope, not done one thing since the triathlon for the 2007 Mighty Mississinewa Triathlon, and I miss it. I think we are going to do the homecoming 5K. We've got plenty of time to train - it's not for another two weeks.

Holding On Too Tight...Learning To Let Go

2006-09-17T20:25:00.000-04:00

The summer I was 10, my mom and I went to a women's church league softball game to watch one of my mom's friends play. After the game, a family friend took me home, and my mom went out to get a drink with her friend (a coke, not something from a bar.) I remember asking my mom at the ball diamond where she was going, and she jokingly said "We're going to Oregon." I went home, had a bath, and was ready for bed, and my mom still had not returned home. I was used to my dad getting home late due to coaching responsibilites and evening games, but my mom was never out this late, and I was getting really concerned. I was thinking that maybe she really did leave us and go to Oregon, or maybe she was in a car accident. Of course, eventually she came home that evening (you know how it is when two women go out for a drink and get to talking, especially away from the kids,) and after seeing my distraught face and understanding how scared I was that I was never going to see her again, she assured me that she would never leave us and she would always be there. I can still remember that awful feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach, imagining what life would be like without my mother.

Last Tuesday evening, my brother and I went to Ft. Wayne to do our weekly grocery shopping, and Jason took the girls to his parents while he dropped our camper off at the campgrounds for WMCR. I got home around 9:15, and he and the girls still weren't home. I called his parents' house around 9:30, a little concerned that they weren't home yet because it was a school night. His mom said they had just pulled out of the driveway and should be home shortly. From his parents' house to our house is about a ten minute drive. After about 9 minutes, I waited by the back door, ready to help unload the kids because it was raining and we don't have a garage. Ten minutes passed, then eleven, then twelve. I called his cell phone - no answer. After fifteen minutes I was getting really concerned - what was taking so long? Finally after about twenty minutes, much to my relief, they pulled in the driveway. He had stopped by his office on the way home to pick something up. Again, I can remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach - imagining what would happen if they had been in an accident on the way home.

Last night around 6:30 in the evening at WMCR, I decided to check in on the kids - a wonderful, capable senior in high school with an equally wonderful family was willing to keep our kids for the weekend. There was no answer at the home. I also tried her cell phone, and again, no answer. No big deal, I told myself, I had left the car seats - I had remembered that they had said they may go visit her aunt's family and I had said that was fine with me. At 8:00 I tried both numbers again - no answer. I continued this pattern for the next hour - with no luck. Again, that feeling in the pit of my stomach was there. What if they were in a car accident? How would anyone know who my kids were and who they belonged to? Noone would know to contact us. Then my imagination really started running wild - I've watched way too many CSI shows. My parents are friends with this family, and they knew the aunt mentioned above, so Jason called that home, and sure enough, the kids and the family were there as they had said they would be. The babysitter just hadn't taken her cell phone in with her. Logic told me that the kids were fine - like I said above, this family is wonderful, and I had no doubt that they would take perfect care of the kids. But that feeling of no control, of not knowing for sure, then imagining what may have happened, and if the worst did happen, what would life be like? I know my feelings last night were greatly magnified because of news that was given at WMCR about a youth pastor's family in Michigan - they were involved in a terrible accident yesterday and two lives were lost. The mother in the family watching our kids said something to me that is so true - when something like that happens, you just want to wrap your wings around your own and make sure that they're safe. When the attacks happened on 9/11, Elizabeth was at preschool, and my first instinct was to run over there and take her home, even though the tragedies were happening miles away.

I find at times that I am holding on too tight to the things of this world, and I don't know how to loosen my grasp. Sometimes in bed at night when my mind starts to wander, I imagine all different types of scenarios and how I would react to them. Then I start thinking about reality - that my family members are not always going to be around. And what will that be like? How will I handle it? And I have no control over it. I want to put my kids in a bubble or a safe place where no one can harm or touch them, and yet I don't. I want them to experience life to the fullest and not be scared of what could happen. But I find that I have such a hard time trusting God with what the future holds. I've heard the story behind the song "It Is Well With My Soul." The writer of the song had just learned that his wife and children were on a ship that wrecked, and there was only one survivor in his family - I believe it was his wife. Yet after hearing the news, he sat down and wrote this song. "When peace like a river attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." Well, I do a great job when peace like a river attends my way, but what about if sorrows like sea billows roll. I'm not sure how to get to that place in my life. Sometimes I get scared that God is going to test me - that I have had it too easy so far. Early in our marriage, we had some tough times as all young couples do, but really, our family has been very blessed. And I have such a stranglehold on what makes us "us," that I'm not sure I could be like Paul and say "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." Maybe the context of that verse was talking more about material things than people, but I think the same holds true for both. I know that secret is given in the verse that follows - I just need to have faith that I can have that kind of strength if needed.

I'm Not a Team Member :(

2006-09-15T16:26:00.000-04:00

Just tried to post a comment on the Toevs link, but you have to be a team member in order to do that. I'm so sad - I'm not on a team. So even though my efforts to comment on their blog have been squashed, I shall not be denied. I am posting my comment to their post on my blog, and hopefully they will read it and I will still have my comment read!

Comment:

I thought the hokey pokey was what it was all about. Just kidding. When I read that last line, I already had that song in my mind because the hokey pokey was always my favorite part of skate night - that and the couples skate :).

The Big Day is Over (Now What?)

2006-09-10T15:11:00.000-04:00

My blog typically is not a commentary of my day to day life, but this weekend's activities were the culmination of so much planning and preparation that I have decided to give a play by play of the weekend's events. Before I get started, however, there is something that I want to say. You know how when you are planning for a big event, whether it is a party, a shower, a wedding, or a sporting event, you have in your mind exactly how you want it to go. You know that due to different variables, your expectations may not be met, but you hope that generally things will go just as you had planned. This weekend was an example of a big event happening just as I had anticipated - my expectations were high and my goals lofty, but the experience really couldn't have been any better.

The weekend's events started Friday night. We got out to the Mississinewa campground around 5:00 (right on schedule, I couldn't believe it) and started getting set up. I was so excited to have a guest camping with us for the evening - my mom. My mom loves the atmosphere of camping with the accomodations of a condo, so I was quite surprised that she agreed to spend the night in our camper. It is so hard to find this campground, though, that it was the realistic decision to make so she could be sure to make the race in the morning. The Rowleys soon followed, then the Mundays, then Lynn, Missy, and Rob, then Jill, and finally Tanna and the kids (like I said, the campgrounds are almost impossible to find, and there is no cell phone reception in the area, so Tanna took a few detours but finally made it - pulling the camper with three kids in the car. She's the woman.) We had an unbelievable pre-triathlon dinner with spaghetti and too many sides to list. After dinner we relaxed around the fire, went over our strategy for the next day, and then Lynn surprised everyone by bringing out fan t-shirts for the next day. Kelley, Lynn, Missy, and Jaena had decorated the t-shirts the night before - Jason and Mom had one that said "Go Deb" and the kids wore ones that said "Go Mom." They were very cute, and you can kind of see them in the pictures below. It was so awesome of them to not only attend the race but to show this kind of support. Have I mentioned in previous blogs what a great circle of friendship we have? After our evening festivities, I headed into the camper to pack for the next day - bike shorts and shirt, running shorts and shirt (with number 142 pinned to it) goggles, swim cap, swim towel, water, and an extra pair of shoes and socks. I got to bed around 11:00, very apprehensive about what the next day would bring. The main thing I was worried about was the swim - not completing the swim but the temperature of the water. On weather. com, the projected temperature at 8:30 was 62 degrees, and at check-in the night before, the ladies had said the water temperature a week ago was 74.8 degrees. I was beginning to think I should have bought a wetsuit. 6:30 came before I knew it and it was game time. I put on my swimsuit, then I put on some shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt over it. I ate a small breakfast of some kind of Post cereal I had gotten on coupon and half a banana. I had to force that down because I was not feeling too hungry. Man, was it cold outside - probably high 50's. We grabbed our stuff after breakfast and biked down to the transition area by the beach - this is where we would park our bikes and keep our stuff. The first thing I noticed was that our bikes weren't like the other bikes. Almost all of the other bikes did not have kickstands, so people were "hanging" their bikes on the rack. I didn't even need a rack - I just put my kickstand down. We were all three using mountain bikes which have much fatter tires and I am sure are much heavier than the road bikes the others were using. When I was at the bike store on Thursday, the owner said that even swapping out my tires for thinner ones would add 3 miles an hour to my ride. Maybe for next time. After situating our stuff, we had to go get marked. Our age was put in marker on our calf, and our number was put on our biceps. Then all we could do was wait. There was a kid's run right before the start of our race, and that was a good distraction. Both Elizabeth and Anna participated, and hopefully by tonight you will be able to see those pictures in addition to a few others that will show their triathlon experience.

This is a pre-race picture taken right after the kid's race. I was so nervous at this point that my emotions were a little haywire. I was fighting back tears when the kids crossed the finish line. But no more time to be sentimental - it was time to get the game face on. We went back to our transition area and stripped and headed down to the beach. This was a different feeling - walking around in my swimsuit without a towel. No time for modesty, though, especially when we put on our bright pink swim caps that were required. I do have pictures of us at this point, but I didn't think it was a good idea to post swimsuit pictures without permission.
Here are most of our supporters right before the swim. Jason and Shelli's mom are also taking pictures, but I think everyone else is in there. Jill also had a lot of relatives come to support her. Notice the shirts? Even the babies were wearing supportive onesies.
All of the ladies went in the same heat - 56 in all. The water was not warm by any means, but it was surpisingly not cold. It also wasn't clean, but not full of fish and seaweed and muck like I had expected. My anxiety level went down quite a bit after I first got in the water. I didn't know what swim strategy to use. After watching two men's heats before us, I knew I wanted to stay to the outside so I wouldn't have to swim back to go around the buoy. It was 150 yards out, 200 yards across, then 150 yards back in. I started at the very back because I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't want to get kicked. As a result, I got quite a late start because I had to wait until I had room to start swimming. However, I swam my fastest time, and the reason why is pretty funny. The whole time there was a woman beside me swimming pretty fast, and I thought it was Shelli, so I was trying to keep up with her. I was thinking, "Man, Shelli is really booking it today, she's killing me." Every once in awhile I would yell something encouraging like "You're doing great," although I was thinking "Slow down!" We got to the end, the part where we were in thigh deep water, and I yelled, "You can stand up now!" The woman stood up...NOT SHELLI!" I don't think she realized my mistake, she probably thought my spiritual gift was encouragement. Nevertheless, she did push me to my fastest time ever, and I headed to the transition area to get ready for the bike.
You can see my fancy schmanzy bike shorts in this picture - probably my best investment for the race. I had a really nice bike shirt that Shelli had borrowed from a friend, but the temperature was heating up, so I just biked in my running shirt. You can also see Shelli in the background getting ready for the bike. Jill was first of the three of us out of the water, so she had already taken off. The bike went very smooth. It was pretty hilly, but my speedometer said we averaged 14 m.p.h. during the 16 mile race. Our times don't reflect that speed because they figure in your transition time with your bike time, so our official m.p.h. was lower. I was happy with our time and average, because during our training, we would just keep it around 12-13 m.p.h., so to average 14 after swimming made me pretty happy. Our bike was pretty uneventful - we headed in after the ride for the 4 mile run. The run seemed to go very quickly until the last 1/2 mile - I really had to push to keep running. Shelli's dad was there with 1/4 mile to go yelling encouragement, Shelli's mom and Hannah were a little farther down, and then everyone else was there at the finish line.
Here are the three of us shortly after the race (and Hayden with a "My Mom Rocks" shirt.)

This experience was was of the best competitive experiences of my life. Before we started training, my goal was to finish the race. A couple weeks into the training, my goal was to finish in 3 hours. The night before the race, my goal was to finish in 2 1/2 hours. My official time was 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 35 seconds - so I was really excited about my time.

After the race we headed back to the campsite for a post-triathlon celebration cookout. Again, too much food to list, but we had plenty. We were greeted after dinner with quite a rainstorm and it really cooled down. Even today, the temperature was much cooler than yesterday, so I am thankful we had the race on Saturday instead of today.

Here's a few triathlon statistics for anyone who is interested-

Deb's times - Swim - 10:33

Bike (including transistion after swim) - 1:17.44 (12.4 m.p.h.)

Run (including transition after bike) - 42:19 (10 min 35 sec mile ave.)

#1 Female times - Swim - 8:48

Bike - 47.26 (20.2 m.p.h)

Run - 30.27 (7 min 37 sec mile ave)

Her winning time was 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 40 seconds.

#1 Male times - Swim - 5:53

Bike - 42.58 (22.4 m.p.h.)

Run - 25.56 (6 min 29 sec mile ave)

So there are some pretty phenomenal athletes out there. The bike is what I really need to work on if I am going to cut a lot of time off. Out of 56 females, I was 36th in the swim and 36th in the run, but I was only 49th on the bike. Some has to do with the type of bike I had, but I think I could push myself harder on the training to cut time.

With this race I was strictly racing against my goal, but if I ever race again, I think the competitive side of me will kick in more and I will want to go after other people, too. With the equipment we had and amount of time we trained, I think all three of us did as well as we could expect - actually even better than that.

What do I do now? I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and would love to do it again. I guess there are these kind of events all through the state (especially Indy) during the summer. How much would I train? Would I invest in a better bike? The competitive side of me says that I will really start to research this sport and train harder and really get involved. The practical side of me says that I am a full time working mother with a husband who already thinks I am involved in too many activities. Maybe there is a balance out there. But I do know that September 8, 2007, you can find me at the Mississinewa Reservoir for the 2nd Annual Mighty Mississinewa Triathlon.

And finally, some thank you's to:

First, Shelli, my training partner, my friend - without her as an accountability partner and encourager, I wouldn't have even entered this race. Thank you for doing this with me - I had a blast (can't wait until we do it next year with a few others.)

Jill - I am glad you joined us in this event. Even though you didn't follow the same training guide as we did, you still did so good - you always add excitement to an event!

To the bike shop owner - thank you for encouraging me to wear the bike shorts. They made all the difference in the world.

To Tanna, who purchased the shirts for the fans, and to Kelley, Lynn, Missy, and Jaena who decorated them. Great fun and awesome encouragement.

To the Dawsons, Mundays, Rowleys,Womacks, Wuertleys, Mom, Lynn, Missy, Jill's family, and I hope I remembered everyone - your encouragement was incredible, and I am humbled that you guys took the time out of your weekend to come and cheer us on.

Mom - I am so glad you came Friday night and spent the night with us. You being there made the event even more special.

Jason - thank you for even letting me do this crazy event. I know it was one more thing to add to the schedule, but you were so supportive, especially on the race day. I know you are hoping this doesn't become an addiction (but in 6 years, Elizabeth can do them with me!)

The Party's Over

2006-09-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, it was a song title by Kenny Marks back in the '80's (the party's over, it was fun while it lasted but it aint no fun no more - okay, so his grammar wasn't the greatest.) I've had many a laugh at the blog bantering that has gone on this afternoon - now I feel I must make peace with a certain relative of mine and correct the "Anonymous" link on my link list. In response to the comment by Anonymous on my New Links post, I had planned on making a pseudoblog for her so I could really add a link for her - however, she beat me to the punch and actually made a legit blog today. After a moment of my bubble being burst, I decided to press on with my original plan and make the pseudoblog. I am pretty proud of her/my new blog - it actually got quite a few profile hits. Maybe I should start writing on that blog for real instead of my own.

So in all honesty, Anonymous does not think I rock, nor does she think I am the coolest person in the world. If you want to get to know the "real Anonymous," and most of you already know her and love her, you can click on the KKP link to the right. The Anonymous link, like me, is ready to be put to rest.

Oops, I Forgot One Link

2006-09-05T16:33:00.000-04:00

Per request, I have added one new link to my links list. Enjoy!

New Links

2006-09-05T06:33:00.000-04:00

Ah, the decisions to make on who to put on my links list. My sister-in-law JoEllen touched on this subject awhile ago on her blog (Hummels link) and I can relate. Last night after I went to bed, my computer savvy husband added three links to my link list. I felt pretty good about adding Jenn because she has been blogging longer than me, has commented several times on my blog (and me on hers) and I am on her link list. However, the other two links are newbies to the blog world, and maybe they don't want to be linked to by my site (if that is the case, please comment and tell me; my computer savvy husband can take you off.) I had to do it for selfish reasons. These two families are so new to the blog world that they are not a link option on any other blog I check. To read their blog, I had to go into my cousin's blog, find a comment that they had left, click on it, click on their site, and then I had finally arrived. This way I can add them to my quick check routine since I can click on them from my site. There are several other blogs that I check daily or weekly, but I can link to them from other sites. However, if you would really like to be a link on my page and I have not added you, please let me know. I would be happy to oblige.

What Not To Wear

2006-09-04T19:50:00.000-04:00

I have watched the TLC show "What Not To Wear" a few times, and I'm waiting for the moment when I am caught unaware to appear on the show. I definitely would qualify as a candidate. Out at the Fairmount Campgrounds, there are usually four or five distinct groups that are camping together. The other groups seem to have women wearing cute tops with matching shorts, painted toenails and makeup. Our group tends to wear t-shirts and gym shorts, and I'm doing good to shower each day we are out there. Okay, maybe I am in my own group, but I fit in best with the others that do camp with us.

My casual wear is heavy on the t-shirts, shorts, jeans, and cotton capris, and I'm okay with that. When I have time to relax, I want to be comfortable. I would like to beef up my out on the town wear - events when my casual clothes are either to sportsy or "mom-like," and my work clothes are too stuffy. My out on the town wear would probably be acceptable to wear to work, so if I did purchase some new clothes, my work attire would be beefed up, too.

A couple of posts ago, I talked about a potential $400 bonus I could receive if I have perfect attendance at work from tomorrow until fall break. I've decided how I am going to spend some of that money - I am going to purchase some clothing that I can feel stylish in at either work or out on the town (I don't know how else to phrase the out on the town events, but you know what I mean - out to eat on the weekends, a day out of town shopping, going to the movies, etc.) The major barrier to me getting new clothes is usually the cost factor, but that is not the case - now my major barrier is that I am like a tweener when it comes to clothes. I went through a similar stage when I was 11 and 12. I was too old and big to wear cutsie matching sets that only went up to size 14 girls, but the size 3 womens clothes were a little big and looked way too old for me. I remember finding a shirt and skirt set at a resale shop, and I wore that skirt set every other week to church my entire 6th grade year. On the off week, I wore a dress of my mom's that looked way too old for me. When I entered into my 7th grade year, I was really sucking it in to fit in the skirt, but I still couldn't find age appropriate clothes. This was before the time of Old Navy - it was Penneys, Meis, and Sears. I'm in a similar phase now. As I enter the 30's, I am finding that Old Navy and Gap and the like are fine for some things - jeans, basic tees, the annual 4th of July t-shirt; I even really like their dress pants. But their out on the town wear just seems a little young for me. My main issue is with the low rise pants. I have graduated from the waist up to your chin pants, but my pants cannot fall more than inch below the belly button, or I feel like they are going to fall off. I hate the feeling of bending down and feeling most of my backside visible. I also don't like shirts that are too revealing - either by showing the stomach, bra straps, or other parts of the female anatomy. However, at the other end of the spectrum, I am not ready for Sag Harbor pant suits and other brands that are more targeted for the generation ahead of me. When I wandered into J.C. Penney on Friday, I didn't know what section to go to. To the left was for the working older woman (not me) straight ahead and then left was for the petites (not me) to the right was more casual womens clothes (could be me - I did see a few things), and then straight and to the right was for the teens or twenties. I exited the store empty handed for me and with 3 $2.97 clearance summer shirts for Anna next summer, and I headed down to Christopher & Banks. I hesitated to go into the store, not only because of the connotation the store carries for me as being for women older than me, but I was dressed in a ratty pair of jeans and a black t-shirt - I felt kind of like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" when she is trying to spend the wad of cash and they look down on her in one of the stores. However, I made my way in, and I was pleasantly surpised at what I found. I LIKE CHRISTOPHER AND BANKS! I am almost scared to admit this in print for fear of being made fun of by other more stylish people my age, but I found several tops that I really liked. I cannot wear their pants, because they do come up to my chin, but I walked away with a skirt, a sleeveless shirt (I know there is a name but I can't remember,) a sweater, and a very comfortable button down shirt that is made of a material that starts with an "ly." Major barrier for me shopping at Christopher and Banks - it is pretty expensive. I spent all of my birthday money (yes, I had it since July) on just those few items. So back to the original thought - when/if I get my bonus, I am heading back to C&B to check out their fall wardrobe, and if you see Jason and I at Applebees on a Friday night in November, you will think to yourself "Wow, now that is a stylish couple sitting over there." Oh yeah, because Jason doesn't have a problem finding clothes - men just need to look clean and have a nice pair of jeans and a shirt and they look good.

Just a word on the magic bullet - we tried the seven second salsa tonight. I had a little taste of competition at Lances grocery store getting the ingredients. It was me against an older man - who can get the produce bag opened first. He grabbed his first off the reel, so I was at a disadvantage at the start, but I read the "this way open" instruction first, so then we were tied. We rubbed it between the fingers, we picked at it, then finally, a split second before he did, mine opened! I dumped the two jalapeno peppers in, tossed them in the cart, and I was off before he knew what hit him. Anyway, back to the salsa - mixed reviews. I would like to try someone's real salsa recipe because I didn't like the taste of the one in the magic bullet handbook. It was way too heavy on the jalapeno and not heavy enough on the tomato. I remember salsa being red, and ours was a pinkish orange. However, it was very handy dumping in the ingredients without chopping, and it blended it very quickly. I'm not sure if the magic bullet is capable of producing salsa that is chunky because it purees things so quickly - so if you like the consistency of The Hacienda salsa, you would like the consistency of the salsa the magic bullet produces.

Triathlon Training Update - heavy training weekend. Friday I took off because we took my parents to the Melting Pot for their 40th wedding anniversary - excellent restaurant, if this post wasn't so long I would blog more about it. Saturday, we ran 60 minutes, which translated into 5.6 miles. Sunday, I ran 60 minutes, which translated into somewhere between 5 and 6 miles. Today, we biked 30 minutes (7 miles) and ran 30 minutes (just over 3 miles.) Three more official training days until the big day.

Need a Good Cry?

2006-08-29T21:04:00.001-04:00

I've been checking my friend Kelley's site several times a day for the last few days, and the comment trail has led to people talking about crying, and how it cleanses the eye (and the soul) to at times have a good cry. I was thinking about the last time I had a good cry, and though I can't remember the exact date as it was awhile ago, it was in the evening as I was flipping through channels. The movie "Stepmom" with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon was in its last half hour, and I had to watch. The premise of the show is that Julia Robert's character hooks up withSusan Sarandon's husband (Ed Harris,) and though the divorce between Ed Harris and Susan Sarandon was mutual, Sarandon is still jealous of his relationship with Roberts, and she also uses the two kids as a weapon against both Harris and Roberts. However, Sarandon finds out in the middle of the show that she has terminal cancer, and through Roberts perserverance and Sarandon's acceptance of her fate, they all come together for a very emotional ending.

I thought tonight I would list a few other tearjerkers in my book for those out there who need to cleanse their eyes:

1. Beaches. The first movie I saw in a theatre where I literally could not control my sobs. I saw this movie with my mom, my friend Meg, and her mom, and all four of us had to sit through all the credits to compose ourselves. I couldn't listen to "Wind Beneath My Wings" for awhile without crying in the car.

2. Steel Magnolias. Another great Julia Roberts chick flick. This movie ran the spectrum of all emotions - hysterically funny at times, and so sad at others.

3. A Love Story. Okay, this one is a little dated, but I love it just the same. Maybe it's because we had the theme song sung at our wedding (my sister-in-law Kismet did a great job.)

4. Simon Birch. I read the book that I thought the movie was based on - something about Owen Meany. I liked the movie much better.

5. Schindler's List. One of the few movies I own, though the material is so heavy, I've only watched it once since I got it.

A movie that I highly recommend, and it will bring some tears but many more laughs, is Parenthood with Steve Martin. This movie is a little dated (I think late 80's maybe or early 90's,) but I absolutely love this movie. It isn't so depressing that you feel depressed at the end, but it does tug at the emotions while offering many opportunities to laugh.

If Kelley ever posts about a topic that solicits comments regarding laughter, maybe I will post about movies that I think are pretty funny. However, I'm no movie buff, so the majority of movies I can relate to are from teen through college days.

Triathlon Training Update - back on schedule. I ran 45 minutes tonight, and after a few blocks, the knee loosened up and didn't feel too bad the rest of the way. It felt really good running after taking a day off. The day before THE DAY, we rest, so hopefully I will have that really good feeling on that Saturday.

Smells

2006-08-28T20:52:00.000-04:00

One of the rankest smells I know of is that of spoiled milk. I remember last summer, every time I would get in my car I couldn't figure out why it smelled so bad. I would drive around with all the windows down to air it out, but nothing seemed to make the smell go away. Finally I decided to clear everything out of the car, and underneath the passenger side seat was a sippy cup with a cottage cheese looking substance inside. I decided the smell I would have to endure to clean out the cup was not worth the cost of the cup, so I threw it away (I've done that with some storage containers in the fridge that were pushed to the back and forgotten about until I could not even recognize the original contents.)

Call it a pattern in the Wuertley family, but we tend to run out of necessary household items, and then we see how long we can go before we restock. Last time I posted about this it was toilet paper. This time it is dishwasher detergent. We are going on day three with no dishwasher detergent, and since these hands do not wash dishes (unless it's an oversized pan that doesn't fit in the dishwasher,) our dishwasher is stuffed full of dirty dishes. I have arranged, rearranged, layered dishes over cups, and shoved silverware into the rack until not even a toothpick will fit. I have managed to fit everything in so far except for a 9x13 dish that held pizza casserole that we finished up tonight. And it's soaking in the sink, so in my mind it is where it would normally be anyway. A couple of problems have occurred since we haven't had detergent. First, since I don't wash dishes, the dishes we use tomorrow for breakfast will have to stay stacked in the sink. Maybe we will use paper towel instead and have pop-tarts. Wait, we are out of paper towel, too. We do have toilet paper, though, so we could use that. Second, there are about 5 dirty sippy cups in the dishwasher that at one time had milk in them. I will admit, I am not a good rinser outer of dishes and cups. When we bought our dishwasher, one of the selling points was that you didn't have to rinse your dishes - the dishwasher was so powerful that it would do it for you. So therefore, I have gotten in the habit of not rinsing dishes. So between the smell of three day old food stuck on plates and smelly sour milk sippy cups, anyone who opens up the dishwasher almosts falls over with the odor. I almost ran a rinse cycle this afternoon, but then I was concerned Jason would think the dishes were clean and then unload the dishwasher. We were going to run to Wal-Mart after a preschool ice cream social this evening but found we lacked the energy to do so after we left the school. Maybe tomorrow I will squeeze in a trip to the store...and maybe I will pick up some paper towel while I am at it, too.

While I am on the topic of smells, I would just like to share a few of my most favorite smells that don't involve food - a brand new can of tennis balls, an auto store where they sell tires, a brand new car, gasoline, and rubber cement (the last two I do not sniff, but if my nose happens to pick up the fragrance while I am in the vicinity, I do enjoy the smell.)

And finally, just a little update on the bike wreck injuries. I am feeling much better today, although I am a little sore. At this point my right knee is of most concern, but when I am up and around on it, it loosens up and feels pretty good, so I think it is just bruised. We are set for a 4 mile run tomorrow, and I plan to use common sense, but I am hoping I can get back on track. Ice has really helped the swelling, and Tylenol has done wonders for the pain. I received a packet of information regarding the triathlon, and I have one concern. The race starts at 8:30, and since my goal is 3 hours, I am hoping to cross the finish line by 11:30. The packet says that the post race awards ceremony starts at 10:45. Guess I won't be a part of that.

Bike Wreck

2006-08-27T19:03:00.000-04:00

I wasn't planning on posting today, but the day's events left me no choice but to share. It's funny, most posts that I write would have a theme song playing in the background if I knew how to do it (Jim, another training on blog night?) For example, on my "Windfall" post, I would have Pink Floyd's "Money" playing. For "Surviving Motherhood," I would have Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." For this post, I would choose D.C. Talk's "What If I Stumble, What If I Fall."

I can remember 3 different bike wrecks I had in my childhood. The first is when I was six years old. I was playing bike tag with the neighborhood kids, and when I reached over to tag my friend, I fell off my bike and cracked my head. My parents took me to the ER, I was diagnosed with a mild concussion, and Mom was a little concerned that night when she put me to bed and I said I didn't know how to give her a kiss goodnight. But I survived, and the next bike wreck I remember was in 5th grade. This wreck happened in our driveway at the conclusion of a bike race between my brother and me - we arrived at the same time. This was the last time we raced around the neighborhood. The third wreck I remember was when I was in 6th grade - I was riding home from the corner store. I fell on some rocks and gashed my elbow. I felt pretty cool the next day going to school with my elbow all wrapped up.

Today's triathlon training called for a 60 minute bike ride. Since the ride was so lengthy, and I really wanted to go at least 12 miles, I decided the Cardinal Greenway would be the best place to bike. The closest place to get on the Cardinal Greenway from our house is at 8th and D St., about a mile away. I had a little trouble finding it because to get on, you have to go down 8th street a little ways, but I followed another biker and was fine. I biked 5.75 miles on the Greenway before turning around and heading back. As I approached 10th and Nebraska St., I saw an easy exit to get off the Greenway, so instead of risking missing my turn, I went ahead and took 10th street to Nebraska. Once on Nebraska for about 1/2 block, I heard a car behind me, and out of courtesy, I decided to go on the sidewalk. The way the sidewalk looked, there didn't appear to be a bump to cross when exiting the road. Apparently there was a little incline, because the wheel of my bike skidded, and two seconds later, my right cheekbone was saying hello to the sidewalk. Have you ever been involved in an event when either right when it is happening or right after, you don't know what to do but you have to do something? It's like everything is in slow motion, and you can't move a muscle because you can't believe what just happened. Then, instead of cleaning up the mess, you just want to run in the opposite direction instead of dealing with it. For example, I've watched one of my children throw up, and while she is in process, the logical thing to do would be to run and grab a trash can or grab her and take her to the toilet, but instead I stare at her, dumbfounded, as she is spewing all over my mom's white carpet. Then the last thing I want to do is clean her and her mess up, but I have to. Today's wreck was just like that. I jumped up quickly but then just stood, not sure what to do next. Do I examine my injuries? My bike? Look to see if anyone saw anything? I went with the bike examination first - it seemed less threatening. The handlebars were twisted, but after turning them around, the bike seemed fine. Then there was me. Okay, throbbing pain in the right cheekbone (I can see my cheekbone, not a good sign.) Left knee with several gashes and blood running down the leg. Rocks in my right palm. Shoulder definitely in pain. Well, what could I do? I was at 9th and Nebraska (ironically, just past the Indiana Health Center, which was closed) with no cell phone and noone I knew nearby. Then I heard a voice behind me. "Are you okay?" I turned around and saw a man coming towards me - he had probably been coming the opposite way when I crashed. At first I thought it was someone I knew from the Chronicle, someone I would have accepted a ride from if it was him. But the closer he got, I realized this was not who I thought. Yes, I am okay, I told him, though I know my looks were to the contrary. I told him I lived close enough that I could just ride my bike home and take care of things there. I thanked him for stopping (it was nice) and he drove away. Then I got on my bike. Great. My chain was messed up and my bike would not pedal. Now what do I do? I have no choice but to start walking. So now I'm walking down Nebraska St., the right side of my face puffy, blood streaming down my leg, pushing my bike. I get to Gas America, 4 blocks closer to home, when I see another man coming toward me. Great, maybe he has a cell phone, I think. However, the closer he got, the more I noticed he was not a "nice" man, he was a "strange" man. I know that is stereotypical, but it's true - I could tell by his mannerisms that he was not going to be helping me. He looks at me and says..."Oh, I'm sorry, you won't be able to help me. You don't have a pocketbook. Have a nice day." And he walks on by. That would have been icing on the cake - getting mugged right after the wreck. So I walk another block to Corey's Tanning, go inside and ask to use the phone. The nice teen working (who at first was giving me strange looks, probably thinking I had been in a fight) let me call Jason, and she also gave me a towel to wipe up the blood. I called Jason, and knowing that Anna was napping, I told him I would just walk home, because by the time he loaded both kids in the car and found me, I could be home anyway. So I made the 1 mile trek home, feeling once again like a six year old wheeling her bike with two skinned knees after a crash. So three hours after the crash, here is an update:

The bike - Jason fixed the chain, and the bike is back in working order. I think I will still have it serviced before the race day.

Me - I'm sure I will have to endure the next few days of "What happened to you" when people see my face. Jason's a little nervous - it does look like someone popped me a good one. My shoulder and left foot are definitely sore, but they seem to be the types of injuries that will gradually fade in the next few days. My right knee, however, is the concern. It is gashed and swollen, but it doesn't hurt when I am not on it. When I've been sitting awhile, it does hurt to walk on it, but the more I am on it, the pain becomes duller. My worst fear about the triathlon was that I was either going to get injured training, or worse yet injured during the race. I'm really hoping that in the next few days, this injury slowly fades away as the others will.

Oh, and another shower fact - I took a post wreck shower to clean up my injuries , but I wish I was a "face away from the shower" showerer because the hot water really stung!

Updates

2006-08-26T12:37:00.000-04:00

Though I don't get to catch too many of the shows these days, I have watched my fair share of "Dr. Phil," "Montel," and even "Maury." My favorite episodes of these shows are the update shows, the episodes where they have past guests back on the show to give us an update of their situations. What did they do once they found out the true identity of their babies "real" daddy? Did the incorrigible teen remain reformed after returning home after a week of Montel sponsored boot camp? Did the unfaithful husband remain true to his wife after admitting his straying ways on Dr. Phil? Even if I had not watched the original episode, I still enjoyed hearing "the rest of the story." So I thought I would do an "update" post today - some new information regarding topics that I have posted about in the past.

"4 Generations of Infomercial Mania"

The Magic Bullet arrived last week, and we have used it 3 times. The evening my parents dropped it off, I did not think Elizabeth would be able to contain herself. Given that we had few ingredients on hand, we were only able to make a strawberry-banana smoothie - minus the splash of orange juice. Magic Bullet novices that we were, we used the wrong blade at first, and our first smoothie came out a bit chunky. But we got our act together, and the last few glasses we made were pretty good - and made in less than 10 seconds. This morning we had a magic bullet breakfast. I had to be a team player and not make my usual homemade pancackes - the magic bullet recipe called for Bisquick. I was a little concerned as I put my 1 egg, 1 cup of Bisquick, and 2 cups of milk in the glass, because the Bisquick recipe calls for 1 cup of milk. But I am not going to go against the magic bullet instructions. After a few quick pulses, I opened the lid, and the batter had the consistency of milk. So I added another 1/2 cup of Bisquick, all that I had left, and we had very thin pancakes this morning. Elizabeth said they were the best she ever tasted. Jason mixed up the eggs in the magic bullet - we've never had such well-blended eggs before. We are going to try a new recipe a week, so I will give a recipe update every now and then. So far - Magic Bullet lives up to its reputation. It does the job in 10 seconds or less.

"Did You Know..."

Gas is now holding steady at $2.69 at the local gas station. And new updates about what is coming to town - I just heard the rumors on Wednesday...Target, Best Buy, Kohls, and the best yet - a new football stadium at IWU. Funny, Dad hasn't mentioned that IWU is getting a football team.

"Irony and the Sound of Music"

I am happy to report that all 3 Wuertley vehicles are in working order. However, after driving Jason's Yukon around for two days while my car was getting fixed, it was hard getting back into my '98 Honda. Maybe I am ready for a new car...

"OverIndulgence or Necessity of Life"

This post was about Elizabeth winning the stuffed animal at CiCi's. She has become quite the expert at this game. We were in Ci'Ci's a couple of weeks ago when she tried her luck again. Jason gave her 1.00, and she was 0-2. Grandpa's lucky dollar did the trick - on her 4th try, she won a beautiful pink aardvark or mouse for Anna. She wasn't so lucky at Wal-mart two evenings ago - she was 0-1. Gee, I guess we waste a lot of money on this game now that I am typing about all the times she has played this game in the last two weeks.

"Potentially Great Ideas"

I talked about our remodeling project in the study in this post, and I stated that the finishing touch in the room would be hanging the curtains. There are 3 windows in the room. Curtain #1 went up the weekend the curtains came. Curtain #2 was hung the evening we were having lots of company for my parents' 40th anniversary cookout. Curtain #3 is still in the box. Maybe sometime this week???

"What a Day"

I am pleased to report that my parents' cottage project is complete for this year. We finished the living room and kitchen, leaving only the bathroom to tackle. This will probably be a job for next spring/early summer, although I would love to be able to finish it before WMCR. We repainted the two rooms and Mom refinished the wood floor with Tung Oil. It looks great!

Another portion of this post talked about our family picture portraits. We received the proofs back, and I have posted a few to share. Unfortunately the photographer's camera was not working properly; she would take several pictures and only one would flash. The result - a three year old that is rarely looking at the camera. Everyone else looked great, so only Anna will have to deal with a non-smile look the next 5 years she sees her picture on the wall. Picture 2 isn't bad of Anna, but if you see the picture in "real life," she has a really goofy smile. We chose picture 4 (bottom right.) Anna isn't smiling, but at least she's looking forward.

"College Wesleyan 15, Hanfield 5"

I am pleased to report that College Wesleyan women's softball team not only went undefeated in the regular season, we also won the tournament, beating Hanfield 21-2. This year's team was our best ever, and we didn't fall apart in the tournament like we usually do.

"A Few Days Away From Reality...Priceless"

I typed this post shortly after several trees at our house were blown over as a result of a severe storm. The electric company has gotten proactive and taken down several of our remaining trees that were entangled in power lines. The result is that we have enough firewood to last us for the next 50 years camping. It's unbelievable, and the guys aren't finished cutting it up. We have lost a little bit of privacy, though, because those trees formed a barrier between our yard and the homes behind us. No more going to the bathroom in the garden to keep the bunnies away!

"Windfall"

I just may have my own little windfall. Due to budget constraints, we are not getting a cost of living raise this year. However, to make up for that, the administration is offering a $400 bonus to employees who during the period between Labor Day and Fall Break, do not break any rules, have any safety violations, and have perfect attendance. The first two qualifications will be no problem, but the third concerns me. Guess I will be going to work sick. And sorry, Elizabeth, no field trips for two months. Jason says I should just forget it and miss all the days I can during that time period. I don't think my employers would find that funny. Anyway, if I am able to perservere, the money is mine to do with as I wish. I have no idea what I will do with it...$400!!

"Phobias"

Two Sundays ago, Ken Schenck preached at College Church, and during his sermon he talked about how he was freaked out in the '80's by the rapture videos. I've heard lots of people refer to that since I posted about my phobia - glad to know I'm not the only one!

Triathlon Training Update

Two weeks from today, it will be over. Today was the last day I could use my YMCA card, so I will have to plan out how I am going to do the swim for the next two weeks. Shelli and I ran 55 minutes today - I think we are ready for a mini-marathon!

Oh, and in closing, just another fun something to try in the shower - that is if you can stand to face the water. Put your tongue under the heaviest stream of water for 5-10 seconds. I couldn't hardly stand the sensation - it almost felt like thick mashed potatoes were stuck on my tongue.

Robot

2006-08-24T21:25:00.000-04:00

I am a robot, a machine. The alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. After one snooze (6:07), I roll out of bed and go to wake up Elizabeth (6:08). She crawls into bed with Jason, and I head into the bathroom. I go to the bathroom (6:10), get out my towel (I use a new one every day) and washcloth, and sit down to shower (another topic for another post.) After showering (6:20), I dress (6:25), put on minimal makeup (6:28), go downstairs, get the newspaper (6:30), fix a bowl of cereal, and sit down to eat and read the paper (6:35). After breakfast (6:40), I head back upstairs, do Elizabeth's hair (french braid days take the longest, today was pigtails so not too bad,) send her down for breakfast (7:00), then dry and gel my hair. I go downstairs (7:05), prod Elizabeth to finish up breakfast, brush her teeth, put on her shoes, and then we head out the door (7:15). I drop her off at Doug and Kismet's to catch the bus (7:20), and I head to work (7:30). I work until lunch (11:25), then I head to Westminster pre-school to pick up Anna (11:30). I fix Anna lunch (11:40), babysitter arrives at 11:45, throw in a load of laundry (11:50), grab something to eat (12:00), and head back to work (12:15.) Work until 3:30, head home to face the evening. This part of the evening varies depending on the day - Monday is hopefully dance (haven't gotten schedule), Tuesday gymnastics/Meijer, Wednesday piano/Clubhouse, Thursday tennis and blog group. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is the above morning/afternoon schedule. Thursday and Friday are a little different because Anna doesn't have preschool, so I just go home at lunch. My car is on autopilot. Sometimes my car and my brain don't get together, so my car automatically goes to where it thinks it should go, but when the routine changes, my brain doesn't give my car the message. My office was in the same building for 9 years - this year it has moved. Yesterday I missed my turn going to work after lunch - I was driving to the old building. Today was even more laid out because after work, I went home and picked up both girls, dropped Anna off at Great Grandma Wuertley's house, took Elizabeth back to work with me from 4:30-6:00 (a madhouse taking applications - a job that requires three experienced people, and we did it with me and an inexperienced one), went to the Womack's for dinner (Jason stayed home, sick) went to Wal-mart to pick up supplies for Family Enrichment Time tomorrow morning at work, and then went home. Wal-mart with two young children is not the way to end a day like today, but when you are a robot, it doesn't matter. You go from event to event without thinking - it's second nature, it has to be done. There's no time to fret, to complain, to even think about how frenzied of a pace you are living. When the schedule is like this, there comes a time when I wonder if I am even feeling anymore, or if I truly have become a machine that completes tasks and honors obligations, with nothing left to give at the end of the day. Tonight I stopped to think about the events of the day and tried to place feelings with them, giving me hope that I am still a human being, a worker, a wife, a mother, a friend, and a child of God with feelings. I called up the "How Are You Feeling Today" chart that is placed in some of our classrooms to get some common feelings, and I have placed certain events of the day with some of those feelings:

exhausted - this is the feeling I felt when I came home from all the day's events and sat on the couch and ate a piece of delicious peach pie that my cousin made. Funny how you can have lots of energy when you go go go and then when you finally sit down, you realize how tired you are.

confused - A parent came in today to try to enroll her child in our preschool program. However, she is kindergarten age eligible. When I told her that her daughter needed to be in kindergarten, she said the teacher who screened her told her that her daughter was not ready for kindergarten, she had been neglectful in teaching her at home, and she shouldn't come to school this year. Maybe I am going to step on some toes with this one, but I feel it is the school's responsibility to offer public education to age-eligible children, even if parents have not laid a foundation - and it's the law. Maybe the girl will have to repeat kindergarten, but at least she will be in school, which is a much more educational place to be than home.

sad - that I had to turn some families away today because they make too much money for our program but not enough to afford private preschool.

frustrated - that I was short staffed today while taking applications - we have had a lot of staff turnover, and there just wasn't staff trained to help today, but the show must go on.

guilty - for cancelling out with Shannon on a kid's hope training tonight. With work and Jason being sick, I had to bail out. This also would fall under the feeling of being irresponsible.

happy - when I came home from lunch and Anna ran to the door with a big hug for me.

ashamed - that I snapped at the kids on the way home from Wal-mart because they were picking at each other and I was tired - I turned the radio up and told them they couldn't talk anymore. I probably overreacted and took out some of the day's frustration on them. Funny - the song that started playing was Sanctus Real's "I'm Not Alright." Fitting song for the time.

overwhelmed - that word pretty much sums up a lot of my work day.

hopeful - Friday's tomorrow - and no plans for tomorrow night, so the Wuertleys will be spending some serious family time together after a week that had nights of busyness.

lovestruck - when I walked in the door at 8:00 and saw my sick husband for the first time since 7:15 a.m. (puke, I know, I didn't know what else to say here.)

jealous - of my co-worker who had the freedom to elect not to come tonight to help take applications.

bored - nope, not today. Actually, not any day for the last two weeks. Except maybe when I am running laps for the triathlon.

shy - a little when I introduced myself to Elizabeth's principal today.

Here's a few more that were not on the poster -

grateful - for many things today. My awesome babysitter did my laundry (at least 2 loads and folded them, too,) Jason's grandma watched Anna while I worked, and Jaena invited us over for dinner last minute and it was great - especially since I didn't have time to make dinner.

peaceful - as I sit here and type this at the end of the day with the window open and crickets chirping, kids in bed and responsibilities of the day complete.

hysterical - as I watched The Office tonight. It has to be the funniest show on t.v. right now - many moments where I audibly laugh. I would also say last night at blog night, but I am only talking about today.

blessed - that I have a family I love, a job that most days I thoroughly enjoy, friends whom I have already blogged about so I need not say more, and all my needs are taken care of. I am going to bed in a bedroom with air conditioning and the only mattress in the world I can comfortably sleep on - and my stomach is full (with peach pie.)

tired - it is past my bedtime now, and since this is the end, I can take care of this feeling pretty easily.

8/25 post qualifier - As I reread this post this morning before I head to work, I feel as if I need to add a qualifier before the rest of the blog world reads (except for Jaena, who is a late-night blogger.) The tone of the post was not to be a commentary on busyness, and especially not to imply that my life is busier than others - because we all fill our time with things to do. It was more of a commentary on how my life (like others?) is so scheduled at times, especially during the school year, that I go from task to task checking off the list with no time to attach any emotions to what I am doing (except maybe negative ones that include frustration, being overwhelmed, etc.) Hope that is the tone that comes through to the reader. Just another example of when you blog, people can't hear your tone or see your expressions to understand the true connotation of what you are saying.

Triathlon training update - another guilty topic - I just couldn't do it today. There was really, honestly, no time. I apologize to my training partner; I will not take a break tomorrow and will make it all up in the next three days. I promise. Really.

Mediocrity

2006-08-22T16:22:00.000-04:00

I've been involved in sports for as long as I can remember. I remember walking with my brother to the Marion College Luckey Gym from Center School when I was in kindergarten and first grade. My brother and I would play tennis against each other during tennis season and shoot baskets during basketball season while my dad coached. We played miniature golf at Greens Golfland (now Rivers Edge) while the Marion College golf team practiced. We hung out at the softball diamond in the summer and at Lincoln School gym in the winter during Dad's church league days. Sports were almost always on the t.v. at our house - especially during major tournaments and big games. In gym class, during the days where captains were chosen and the non athletic kids felt left out because they were picked last (do they still do it that way?) I was usually the first girl picked (if boys were captains because if girls were captains they chose their best friend first) and often times I was picked before a lot of the boys. Sports seemed to come natural to me - I'm not sure if it was because of the environment I was raised in or just a natural tendency. Therefore, even today when I am involved in any kind of athletic endeavor (sports I know how to play at least) my tendency is to feel like I should win. And even if the competition appears to be superior, I still feel like I have a chance to win if they perform poorly and I perform well. Of course I don't always win - usually because I am not as good as the competition - yet it still eats at me when I lose. And I know the feeling that I should be able to win is unrealistic and maybe even a little bit of overconfidence. The events of this past weekend provided me a lot of insight on my attitudes towards competition in sports and also a great deal of humility and reality.

After 9 years of employment with Marion Community Schools, I finally had the opportunity to participate in Corporate Challenge this year. Corporate Challenge is an annual event sponsored by the Grant County YMCA, and this was Marion Community School's first year to participate. Grant County corporations compete against each other in various sporting events over two weekends - i.e. tug of war, golf, bowling, softball, basketball hot shot. There are two divisions - one for larger corporations (MCS, IWU, Marion General Hospital for example) and one for smaller businesses. I didn't even know our corporation was fielding a team until the human resource director (Dr. Howe) who was heading it up called me to play on the softball team. During that conversation, I informed her that I knew how to play tennis and would be interested in playing mixed doubles with my brother (who is a teacher in the corporation.) So at that point I was a part of the softball and tennis competition. My entry into a third competition was the result of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I had gone to our administration building to pick up my t-shirt, and I ran into Dr. Howe. "You don't happen to be a runner, do you?" she asked. I told her that no, I am not a runner, but I am in training for a triathlon so I have been running some. Sometimes I just need to keep my mouth shut. She said she needed a female to run the 5K at 7:30 Saturday morning. Of course, I couldn't say no, so I was now a part of three competitions. Let me break down the events and results for you:

THE 5K - it's 3.1 miles for those of you out there like me who don't know how to convert from the metric system. I was pretty nervous about this race for a couple of reasons - I had never run in a race like this before, and I wasn't sure how good the competition was going to be. My fear was that my competitive edge was going to kick in, and that coupled with my inexperience in running would cause me to run at too fast a pace for me and then burn out. On the drive over to the race, conflicting thoughts were running through my head. One thought was that there aren't a lot of females in the county who could even run an entire 3.1 miles. I have been training; I know I can finish the race - I just might finish pretty high. Then the other thoughts kicked in - Deb, you are not a runner. You run a 10 minute mile. Your mom can probably speed walk close to that pace. There will be girls running in this race who actually run. You are going to try to keep up with them and then have to walk the last mile. I pulled in the parking lot, walked across the street to the sign in place, and began scoping out the competition. This may be stereotyping, but from looks alone, the majority of the female competition didn't look too athletic. I was beginning to feel pretty good about myself. Then I ran into Scott Turcott, coach of the IWU team. I asked him who were the girls running for IWU, and when he said "Kristen Sommers" (past IWU cross country runner,) my confidence suddenly left me and reality set in. No time to fret, it was time to load up on the bus to the start of the race. After getting off the bus, we had to walk a little ways to the start. Of course I made sure I was right at the start line - why not get any advantage I can? Then the official made an announcement - "If you are going to run this race in less than 20 minutes, please come to the front of the crowd." Well, of course I immediately stepped back; I was hoping to come in under 30 minutes. Then he said "If you are going to run this race in 25 minutes or less, step forward." Again, I stepped back. Wow, there were a lot of girls in front of me now. My confidence level is at O - my goal is now to finish ahead of Dr. Howe (who was also running the race.) On your mark, get set, go - and we were off. I started at a little faster pace than I would have liked, but it was manageable. After 5 minutes or so, we had all spread out, and I was eyeing the competition around me. I had my eyes fixed on three girls - all wearing red. Two were friends running together, and one of them did not look athletic at all. "Surely I can beat her," I thought. The third girl had passed me after about 3 minutes and was staying just ahead of me. 10 minutes more pass - we are over half way done. Then I am hearing some serious breathing right behind me, and it's kind of messing up my own breathing pattern. Pretty soon the person is beside me - it's our superintendent! He says a pleasant comment, and I, in my delirious state, reply, "I wondered who was huffing and puffing behind me!" Let's hope my superintendent has a sense of humor - it's Tuesday today and I still have my job. 5 minutes later and one of the girls ahead is walking...now she's running. I'm going to get her, she's wearing down. Five more minutes pass and I am passing the girl who had passed me at the beginning. One more minute later and I pass non athletic girl. I never could catch the third girl, though, and I crossed the finish line somewhere around 28 or 29 minutes. There was a big clock at the finish line, but I was so delirious and exhausted that I didn't notice it right away. At this point, I should have been feeling great - I ran the race averaging about a 9 1/2 minute mile which is much faster than I usually run. However, the dominating feeling other than exhaustion was frustration that several women, including women who were much older than me and less "athletic looking" than me, had beaten me.

Softball - This was my first experience playing co-ed softball. There are quite a few differences between playing church league softball and co-ed softball - one of the obvious was that our co-ed pitcher said he had a hangover, and I've never heard Sue say that before. My opinion is that your co-ed team is only as good as your girls. You have to have equal numbers of males and females, and they alternate when batting. So even if you have decent guys, if your girls can't get on base, you aren't going to score many runs. Our guys were decent, and 4 of our 5 girls were decent. We won our first two games and then faced IWU's #1 team. This was not an enjoyable game for me for lots of reasons. #1. I had run the 5K earlier that morning and this was my second softball game of the day - I was pooped. #2. I am friends with several people on the IWU team and I didn't know anyone on my own team. But I was still 51% for our team, 49% for IWU. #3. It was hard playing against 3 of my church league teammates. #4. We lost 1-0 in a well-played defensive game except for a routine fly ball that our right fielder dropped that scored IWU's only run. I was 0-2 and did not help the cause at all. This softball experience was really humbling for me because I wasn't even close to being regarded as a respectible softball player - I was the 4th best girl on the team, or better put, the third worst . Actually during all three games I played, I only fielded one ball, and it was a grounder. I only had 1 hit. I never got to prove to my teammates that I actually knew how to play softball - I wasn't some scrub who just wanted to play for social reasons. It was a humbling experience to not be the go-to person, the one everyone was counting on. Instead I was the one who was almost assumed to be an automatic out.

3. Tennis - Ah, a time to redeem myself. Back in my comfort zone. My brother played some awesome tennis, and I played pretty good, and we were able to win the tennis competition. This was on Sunday, the last of the competitions, and it was good to feel like a winner again.

So my thoughts regarding the Corporate Challenge Weekend. Did I enjoy the 5K run and softball as much as the tennis even though I didn't win the first two events? No. Duh.

Did I feel like a "winner" in the 5K because I had bettered my time and in softball because we at least won 2 games? No.

Was it a waste of time to participate in the first two events because I didn't really contribute? I don't know. It was probably good experience for me to run the 5K with the triathlon coming up, and church league softball on Monday night (see Kelley Grate link) did seem a lot more slow paced and easier compared to co-ed.

Why did I have such a hard time accepting the results of the 5K and softball, aside from my competitive nature and desire to win? Mediocrity. That's what it is. I am a mediocre runner and softball player. Yes, a lot of people would not be able to run 3 miles, and I can play softball better than some. But there are a whole lot of other people who can do better than me in both sports. Would I have been bothered if someone had beaten me at archery? No, because I am terrible at archery (at least I was in high school gym.) Ice skating? Can't even stand up in the skates. Soccer? I don't even like watching it let alone playing it. So it comes down to this. My first preference is to win at any sport I am playing, regardless if I am dominant, mediocre, or lousy. But if I must lose, I would rather be lousy than mediocre. Because if I am lousy, I have an excuse - I am lousy. To be mediocre is the worst - good enough to expect to win, and not good enough to actually win.

Triathlon Training Update - Due to the adjustment of starting school last week and corporate challenge, my training took a big hit. I didn't completely take a break - I still biked and ran on Saturday (3.1 miles to be exact.) But I didn't swim at all last week. Shelli and I decided to not train on Monday due to the softball tournament (see Kelley Grate link, but just in case you don't, WE WON...21-2!!!) So I was back at it tonight, biking 7.25 miles and running 2 miles. The 5K must have given me some more confidence because I ran the 2 miles in just over 18 minutes - so I was pretty excited about that. I know taking the time to train is going to be a struggle over the next couple of weeks because when evening comes, I just want to stay in and see my family. But it will all be over in a few weeks, and the goal is definitely in sight!

Did You Know???

2006-08-17T17:05:00.000-04:00

Did you know...

that last week gas was going to go up to over $4.00 a gallon? It did in Wabash. At least that's what I heard.

that IWU's main goal is not to promote a Christian education university environment? It's really to overtake the city of Marion. That's why they are closing Nebraska Street.

that if ethanol becomes our primary source of fuel, noone will be able to afford to eat? Meat prices will skyrocket because there won't be enough feed for the livestock.

that Meijer, Kroger, Tyson Chicken, Toyota, Target, and Kohls are coming to Marion? And they are all going to be located on the land west of the bypass out south.

that if the site of the new Marion aquatic center is at the old Essex site on Adams, noone will come? It will be unsafe for the children who will be playing in the traffic, and it is in a high crime area.

that if the mega dairies come to Grant County, we will all be exposed to disease and the drinking water will be unsafe to consume?

that art, music, and p.e. in the next few years will no longer be offered in the school system?

that social security isn't going to be around when we are ready to retire?

that the government really has a cure for cancer, but the pharmaceutical companies who run the show won't allow the public to have it?

that Tom Cruise's and Katie Holmes's baby doesn't really exist? I mean, noone has really seen her.

I have to smile as I post the above questions. Some of them were written tongue in cheek, others were purely rumors that I have heard but not yet confirmed. With a couple of them, I don't have enough facts to determine if it is tongue in cheek or a factual statement. I think it is interesting to listen to people both speak of possible events happening and then also watch the recipient of the rumor react. We all know people who during the winter time, they are the first to march into the office (after watching the weather channel all night) and announce that we are going to have 7-10 inches of snow. So the rumor is started, and after work everyone rushes to the store, leaving the shelves of bread and milk empty. Then we all go to bed that night (way too late because we are anticipating a delay or closing) and wake up to an inch of accumulation. How about Y2K? I didn't buy a plot of land out west, but I was a little concerned the closer the clock got to midnight. I remember we were at a Sunday School class get together at the Rowleys. Elizabeth was just over a month old, and I was holding her in my lap on the couch as we counted down 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..Happ...the electricity went out in the house. I jumped (luckily held onto Elizabeth,) and a few seconds later the lights came back on, and Don thought he was pretty funny pulling that joke on everyone. But I remember the hype that surrounded that event and the precautions people took expecting the worse. I remember a short time period in my childhood when my mom didn't want me to watch the smurfs because of the rumored demonic overtones. And just how many days has Christ missed his return?

I have to admit, I am one who tends to get a little hyper when someone tells me of something that is going to happen, even if it is not confirmed. Then when that something doesn't happen, I have gotten all worked up over nothing. Or, like in the case of the new aquatic center, the negative comments start before the ground is even broken - maybe the aquatic center will turn out to be just as nice as Kokomo Beach - maybe even nicer. Or maybe it will be cruddy, but we might as well not be negative about it until the project is complete.

Our preschool program just completed a major reconstruction project over the summer, and due to budget cuts and space constraints, our offices and classrooms are much smaller than last year. Before and during the remodeling, all kinds of rumors were flying around about how the finished product was going to look and how miserable it was going to be. The construction is now complete, and it is definitely not an ideal situation. But it's workable - I hope as the staff gets used to their smaller surroundings, the negativity will lessen, because it sucks the energy out of the workplace. And I have to watch my attitude, too, because there have been many times already this week when our less than ideal situation has been pretty frustrating. But the kinks are getting worked out, and though the stress level of today was higher than I would like, it was lower than the previous two days - so there is definitely hope.

Triathlon Training Update - going back to work has really made training a struggle, and I haven't found the solution yet. I ran 4 miles on Tuesday after our softball game (we won 11-1, yeah! Semis and finals are next Monday) and it was the longest 4 miles of my life. But I finished
somewhere between 40 and 41 minutes, so I was happy with my time. Yesterday did not offer a free minute to train until 9:30 p.m., and I just couldn't motivate my body to cooperate. So I guess yesterday was a rest day and I will do yesterday's workout tonight (bike 30 minutes and strength training.)

The First Day Back

2006-08-14T21:52:00.000-04:00

Today was the first official day back to work, and we had the obligatory first day back to work staff meeting. This is where we meet new staff, get reacquainted with returning staff after being apart for a summer, go over rules and regulations, and have a little training thrown in. This year's staff meeting was a little sad for me because we have had quite a turnover in staff, and some of my closest friends through work were not there today. However, the staff meeting was true to form, and I don't know if my mind is working a little differently since I've been blogging or what, but I can't help but post on this topic, even though I hadn't anticipated posting tonight. In staff meetings across the country, rather it is in a school system, a business setting, or a church, certain staff meeting personalities become apparent during the meeting. I thought I would share a few tonight that I have observed over the many staff meetings I have attended.

The Gabber. This person talks incessantly to the person sitting beside them while the boss/speaker is talking. This person isn't just interjecting thoughts here and there; the gabber is carrying on a one-sided conversation with the person sitting next to them. The worst seat to be sitting in in a staff meeting...the seat beside the gabber. Do you pay attention to your boss/speaker and appear rude to the gabber, or do you pay attention to the gabber and risk getting in trouble with your boss? Luckily I was not in that seat today, but I sure have been before.

The Annoying Question Asker. I've heard it said that there is no such thing as a dumb question. Whoever said that has not sat in a staff meeting. The annoying question asker may be asking a question about something that has already been covered. They may ask a question about a different topic than the one that is being discussed. The question they ask may have such an obvious answer that you can't believe the question was even asked. And the most annoying question...the one where the speaker asks if there is any more questions, everyone is ready for a break or to be dismissed because they have been sitting in the same spot for 3 hours, and the annoying question asker actually asks a question (one that is totally irrelevant, of course. A relevant question that would impart knowledge to us all is always welcomed.)

The Complainer. This person is complaining because we even have to have a staff meeting. They have a pile of work back in their classroom/office to take care of. They don't have time to be sitting in this meeting hearing information they already know. The room is too cold - or maybe too hot. There wasn't any sugar free candy for them to snack on. The speaker isn't relevant to them. You get the picture.

The Conversationalists. This group of friends purposefully sits together during the meeting and then carries on their own conversation while the meeting is going on. They whisper and giggle in their own little party. Usually they are in the back, and when they aren't talking, they're writing notes to each other on their agendas.

The Daydreamer. This person has colored in all of the o's and pictures on their agenda. They aren't paying attention; they're thinking about what they are having for dinner tonight or who's going to get voted off Survivor.

The Multitasker. This person isn't just listening to the speaker. The multitasker is also working on lesson plans, writing a grocery list, or doing other work related to the job.

The Brown Noser. This person is fervently taking notes. They are asking all the right questions, interjecting the appropriate comments, and affirming everything the boss is saying. They offer to go make extra copies, hand out the handouts, and get the boss something to drink. The brown noser also gives dirty looks to the above personalities.

The Confronter. This person isn't shy about bringing up anything that is bothering them regarding the job, even if the time is not appropriate. This is when they voice concern about salary, schedule, or job description, in front of the whole group. The confronter usually puts the boss on the spot, and tension is felt over the room.

The Passive/Aggresive Employee. This person obviously disagrees with what the boss is saying, but they don't openly say so. You can tell it in their body language, the way they refuse to make eye contact with the boss, and by their lack of input on topics they should be sharing information on. This person figures by sitting in the meeting and saying nothing, the boss won't be able to "get" them on an insubordinate attitutude, but they are still able to show their protest about the situation.

The Stick Your Foot In Your Mouth Employee. This person is guaranteed to say something inappropriate. Maybe they share too much personal information. Maybe they make jokes that they think are funny but not appropriate in a work place. Maybe they implicate themselves or other people when it comes to lack of job performance. Again, this person can cause a wave of tension or an uncomfortable feeling in the room. And finally...

The Obsessive Blogger. I... I mean this person is listening to the boss/speaker, I... I mean he/she really is. It's just that I... I mean he/she can get a little distracted when a blog topic comes to mind. Before blogging, I... I mean he/she would have tended to be the brown noser, always doing just what was expected. But what can I... I mean he/she say? When the mood strikes, I...I mean he/she has to go with it.

In all seriousness, I do love my job and my coworkers, and I do actually really like my boss, too. I get amused at the different personalities that can come out in a staff meeting setting, especially when topics come up that are very personal to us. And just in case any of my coworkers happen to be reading this...I was not referring to any of you. I was going on knowledge of past staff that are no longer with us :).

Triathlon Training Update - Strength Day today. Yesterday we had to run 45 minutes - I did 4 miles in just under 43. My training partner, however, is the woman...she did hers in around 41. I'd better step up my pace! :)

The Deb Wuertley, Overtly Quiz

2006-08-13T16:59:00.000-04:00

When I was in high school, I loved to get teen type magazines like Seventeen or YM and take the quizzes that were inside. I was able to discern things about myself like "Am I a loyal friend?" "Does my boyfriend really love me?" "Am I an extrovert or introvert at a party?" "What would my perfect birthday celebration be?" and so on. I'll have to admit, I still love taking the quizzes in the grown-up magazines, too, it's just that the quiz titles have become a little more "mature." "Do you have good communication in your marriage?" "Are you at an increased risk for breast cancer?" "Are you in good enough shape for your age?" In honor of these types of quizes, and since school really begins tomorrow for a lot of us and to get us back in the school mindset, I have compiled the Deb Wuertley, Overtly Quiz. The quiz is 38 questions long with one question from each of my posts. At the end will be the complimentary "grading scale" so you can see where you fall. (I've taken the quiz, and not to brag, but I scored 100%. ) This post has potential to be quite lengthy, and since I am not sure when I will be posting again due to work starting, (I'm not signing off for good, I just know I am not going to be able to keep up the posting each night pace) you could even spread the quiz over the next several days. Oh, and one important rule...no peeking back at past posts! The purpose of the quiz is to see how well you know "Deb Wuertley" after visiting the site over the last several days (peeking would be comparable to Elizabeth looking at the answer key in word searches - I would think it would defeat the purpose of the entertainment.) Here goes...

1. The Intro Blog. Which one of the following topics did I say I would not ever post about on my blog? a.) my children b.) my husband c.) my job d.) my sister-in-law Kismet

2. Father's Day. Which of the following childhood games was one of my favorites with my dad?
a.) game in the hall b.) euchre c.) ball and strike d.) dungeons and dragons

3. I Have Music, Too Bad I Have No Talent. Which of the following songs to I not understand the meaning of the lyrics? a.) Bohemian Rhapsody b.) Stairway to Heaven c.) One Tin Soldier d.) Jesus Loves Me

4. Surviving Motherhood. On this post in which I posted my first picture, who was in the picture? a.) Anna with marker on her body b.) Elizabeth and Anna with ice cream on their face c.) Elizabeth after falling off her bike d.) Anna and Elisha after coloring the camper

5. Phobias. Who created the title for my blog? a.) My mom b.) My brother c.) My cousin d.) Anonymous

6. Dreams. Which of the following is NOT one of my recurring nightmares? a.) missing shots in a basketball game b.) problems dialing 911 in an emergency c.) I'm in my childhood home in the dreams d.) a fellow blogger torches my house when I make a rude comment on her blog

7. Windfall. If I won a lot of money, which of the following is true? a.) I would still work b.) I would move to a different city c.) I would buy a new home d.) I would split all the money between our Sunday School Class members.

8. A Few Days Away From Reality...Priceless. When the "big storm" hit this summer and we had no electricity at our home, we spent a few days a.) at Jason's parents' house b.) camping c.) at the Holiday Inn d.) at Wal-Mart

9. I'm Becoming My Mother. I have the following in common with my mom. a.) I sing in the church choir b.) I am a teacher c.) I have a phobia about the dark d.) I have a problem with moderation

10. Great Expectations. I picked up this sport my senior year of high school. a.) golf b.) softball c.) volleyball d.) football

11. Contentment. I strayed from my topics guidelines in this post by posting about...a.) Jason b.) a scripture verse c.) my job d.) my cursing habit

12. Blog Surfing and... Fill in the blank to complete this post title. a.) Spider Solitaire b.) Hearts c.) Euchre d.) Fantasy Football

13. Cousins. Elizabeth and Anna have a cousin named a.) Abby b.) Katelyn c.) Maria d.) Anonymous

14. Cousins Part II. Last summer, my family took a vacation to a.) Kings Island b.) Disneyworld c.) Mammoth Cave d.) Gas City Petting Zoo

15. The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat. The mystery people in the photo were a.) my friend Meg and her brother Scott b.) Elizabeth and Anna c.) Joel and Jaena, my cousins d.) Kismet and Kelley

16. Excuse vs. Reason. My brother and I competed in a _______tournament together this summer. a.) tennis b.) ping pong c.) euchre d.) weightlifting

17. July 4th pictures. I posted pictures of July 4th evening with a.) Jason's family b.) My brother's kids c.) my parents d.) we didn't celebrate July 4th.

18. Happy ___ Birthday to Me. Fill in the blank of this post title (it's my age.) a.) 30 b.) 31 c.) 32 d.) 21

19. The Curse of the Gift Card. I was burned by a gift card balance at a.) Bob Evans b.) Richards c.) La Charreada d.) Folkies

20. College Wesleyan 15, Hanfield 5. The sport this score was from is a.) Coed Softball b.) Church League Softball c.) Air Hockey d.) Tennis

21. Just a Few Random Observations. This plant grows in my garden overnight. a.) tomatoes b.) corn c.) zucchini d.) marijuana

22. Toilet Paper Shortage. We had to convert to using this for toilet paper. a.) napkins b.) newspapers c.) paper bags d.) the dictionary

23. Happy 9 Years. My highest comment count to date - it totaled a.) 32 b.) 37 c.) 48 d.) 2

24. What a Day! For my parents' anniversary, I took on what project? a.) Painting their cottage b.) cleaning their windows c.) Organizing their pantry d.) cleaning out my dad's closet

25. Who Am I and Who I Am. This group is a very important to my family. a.) Bowling League b.) The New York Yankees c.) Our Sunday School Class d.) NRA

26. Maturity. A new blog was introduced in this post. The author is a.) my mom b.) Jason c.) my brother d.) Anonymous

27. Smile, You're on Candid Camera. A practical joke backfired on me at Family Camp while playing this childhood game. a.) Kickball b.) Tetherball c.) Red Rover d.) Spin the Bottle

28. 4 Generations of Infomercial Mania. What product did Elizabeth talk my dad into purchasing? a.) the Bowflex b.) the Magic Bullet c.) Showtime Grill d.) Time/Life Acid Rock cd set

29. Some Sentimental Observations. This person helped me start my garden. a.) my grandpa b.) my mom c.) Jason d.) Anonymous

30. Blog Stalker Revealed. I left which of the following messages on people's blogs? a.) you've been spied on by the blog stalker b.) gotcha c.) Just wanted to let you know I stopped by. d.) your mama

31. Potentially Great Ideas. I wanted to plan a last minute summer trip to a.) Kings Island b.) Cedar Point c.) Indiana Beach d.) the Gas City Speedway

32. Overindulgence or Necessity of Life. Elizabeth won this stuffed animal in the crane game. a.) brown bear b.) pink poodle c.) white lamb d.) bob the tomato

33. Cutting it Short. This post was dedicated to... a.) Thumper #1 b.) my mom c.) Bambi #4 d.) Anonymous

34. The Perfect Day. My perfect day included breakfast at a.) Cracker Barrel b.) Dennys c.) Bob Evans d.) Pump n Munch

35. Irony and the Sound of Music. This song reminds me of my seventh grade boyfriend. a.) Look Away by Chicago b.) All Out of Love by Air Supply c.) Had the Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing d.) I Hate Myself for Loving You by Joan Jett.

36. Novelty Items the Wuertley's Can't Live Without. This item was #1 on my list. a.) Clorox Bleach Pen b.) Flushable Wipes c.) Tupperware Chopper d.) toilet paper

37. A Day With Cousins. We went to this fair Friday Evening. a.) Indiana State Fair b.) 4-H Fair c.) Van Buren Popcorn Festival d.) Motorcycle Mania

38. Unpreparedness. What grade was I in when I forgot about my six weeks project? a.) 4th b.) 5th c.) 6th d.) kindergarten

see end of post for answer key

GRADING SCALE

35-38 Deb Wuertley must be on your link list. You visit her site at least daily, and quite possibly multiple times a day. If Deb Wuertley misses a day with her post, you feel as if your day is not quite complete. You post a comment almost every, if not every time.

25-34 You visit the Deb Wuertley, Overtly site purposefully. You may miss a day here and there, but you scroll down and skim entries you may have missed. You may comment if the post directly relates to you.

15-23 You link to Deb Wuertley, Overtly from another blog if you are doing some blog surfing. There are quite possibly entries that you have not read.

5-14 You stumbled upon Deb Wuertley, Overtly one night when you had absolutely nothing else better to do. Only when you are bored out of your mind do you visit the site; usually it is when you are going down JoEllen Hummel's link list to kill a few hours.

0-4 Who is Deb Wuertley, and why did she post the comment "Just wanted to let you know I stopped by" on my blog? What a weirdo.

answer key
1.b my husband
2.a game in the hall
3.b stairway to heaven
4.a anna with marker on her body
5.c my cousin
6.d a fellow blogger torches my home
7.a I would still work
8.b camping
9.c phobia about the dark
10.a golf
11.b a scripture verse
12.a spider solitaire
13.c maria
14.b disneyworld
15.c joel and jaena, my cousins
16.a tennis
17.b my brother's kids
18.b I am 31 years old
19.a Bob Evans
20.b church league softball
21.c zucchini
22.a napkins
23.b 37
24.a painting the cottage
25.c sunday school class
26.b jason
27.a kickball
28.b magic bullet
29.a grandpa
30.c just wanted to let you know I stopped by
31.a kings island
32.b pink poodle
33.a thumper #1
34.c bob evans
35.c had the time of my life
36.a clorox bleach pen
37.c popcorn festival
38.b 5th grade

HOW DID YOU SCORE???

Unpreparedness

2006-08-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

Fifth grade, 1985, 10:00 p.m. I was drifting off to sleep in my bedroom when the feeling of dread washed over me - my six weeks social studies project was due 3rd period the next morning, and I had not even picked out what I was going to do from the list the teacher, Ms. Mankin, had given us. I was freaking out for several reasons - first, this was the day before open 24 hours a day Wal-Mart and the internet which could instantaneously generate information on any topic. Second, I was very conscientous about my grades, and for some reason social studies was giving me fits. The tests the teacher gave were multiple choice book tests, so all I had to do was read the textbook material and apply it. For some reason I would do poorly on those tests (one time I had studied extra hard, outlined the whole chapter, and still received a 60% - I remember excusing myself to the bathroom and bawling my eyes out.) I needed these project points to boost my grade. Third, how was I going to pull together a six weeks project with no resources in so little time? Thankfully I had parents who did not always live by that annoying saying "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." Dad went to Hooks (probably the only store still open) and bought me some posterboard. Mom helped me pull out our old 1968 Collier Encylcopedias. I decided to do 3 informational posters on 3 of our presidents, cutting out pictures from the Encyclopedia and pasting them on top of the poster and drawing handwriting lines down below and filling them with information. I don't remember what time we all went to bed that night, but I did receive a B on the project, and another crisis was endured.

I have had 3 situations in the last 3 days where my lack of planning has really caused some inconvenience. My tomatoes are finally turning (yeah!) and what better meal to make with tomatoes than BLT's? I went to the store, bought bacon, lettuce, bread, and some watermelon, and after scrounging around in the garden for 4 ears of corn I missed when I did my main picking, we were set for a true summertime meal. The tomatoes were cut, the bacon was fried, the bread was toasted, the watermelon was sliced, the corn was boiling, all I needed to do was get out the mayo for the sandwiches. I open up the refrigerator, and what???? There was an empy bottle of mayonnaise in the side door. NO MAYONNAISE? I knew Jason had been the last to use it the night before when he made a chicken sandwich. The wrath of Deb was unleashed. "JASON!!!" I went on to tell him how frustrating it was to open the mayo only to find it empty and blah blah blah blah blah. I think what really happened was that he left it on the counter while he was eating, and in my haste to clean up the kitchen, I put it back in the refrigerator. Anyways, you can't have a BLT without mayonnaise, so dinner was put on hold while Jason ran (okay, he isn't training for the triathlon, so he actually drove) to Marsh and purchased some mayonnaise. Maybe it's just trouble with BLT's, but we had another ingredient crisis tonight. Uncle Jerry had given me some corn to fix, so I thought again, why not just finish up the bacon and lettuce and have BLT's again. The tomatoes were cut, the corn was boiling, the MAYONNAISE WAS ON THE TABLE, all that was left was to get the bacon...WHAT? Where were the other six slices of bacon left over from the other night? Well, come to find out, they were in the trash (we dug them out.) Who put them there, Jason or Deb? It's a mystery that will not ever be solved, but Jason once again made a Marsh run, again choosing to drive.

Last night was yet another example of poor planning. It was around 11:00 p.m., and we were getting ready to head to bed when Jason said, "How are you going to get your bike from your parents' house?" I was supposed to meet Shelli at 8:30 in the morning at the YMCA, and I needed my bike. The problem was I had forgotten that my bike was at my parents' house (I had kept it there since I had stayed with them last week and just trained from their house.) Jason was willing to hook up the trailer and go get it, but at this point it was 11:15, and I felt guilty having him pay for my lack of planning. So this morning, I got up early, stopped by Wal-Mart to buy a bike lock, went to my parents', left my car, rode my bike to the YMCA, and locked it up while we did our swimming. Then after we biked and ran, I rode my bike back to my house, Shelli picked me up after riding her bike back to the YMCA, and she took me to my parents' house to get my car. What an ordeal!

I have a recurring dream about being unprepared. I'm in a school setting, usually high school but sometimes junior high, and one of two scenarios happens. The most common one is that it is the first day of school, and I don't have my schedule, so I don't know what class to go to. I try to find my locker to see if I stuffed it there, but then I don't know the combination. The bell rings, everyone else heads to class, and I am stuck in the hallway. Sometimes I go to student services for a new schedule; sometimes I wander the hall. The other scenario is that I am class, and I either haven't studied for the test or I haven't done my homework. When I wake up from these types of dreams, a feeling of relief washes over me when I realize I am no longer in school, I am gainfully employed, and I don't have to worry about test scores and homework anymore.

Triathlon Training Update - Today was the heaviest training day we will have for the 8 week training period. We had to do 90 minutes of training, so we decided to break that up differently than 30 minutes for each. We decided to do the swim until we had done 500 yards (took us just under 20 minutes), then bike for 40 minutes and run for 30 minutes. We were a little overzealous on the bike, deciding while riding through Shady Hills that we would visit a friend of ours in Forest Ridge. Forest Ridge seems really close when going 60 miles an hour down St. Rd. 15. Not so close going 15 m.p.h. However, once we had committed, we kept going. Unfortunately, our friend was not home, so we rode back to town, stopped at Kismet's and got a drink, parked our bikes, and ran. We only ended up running 2 miles (20 minutes) due to our extended bike ride - we went around 9 miles on that leg (Shelli went more since she rode back to the Y, and I went more with my initial trip from my parents' to the Y. ) All together today, I swam the full 500, biked 14 miles, and ran 2 miles. So it is somewhat close to what we will do on THE DAY, minus the added pressure of swimming in open water and competing against other people.

A Day With Cousins

2006-08-11T21:52:00.000-04:00

You would think by now I would be at least past the novice stage when it came to posting pictures - but I'm not. However, the main purpose of the blog tonight is to let Burke and JoEllen see what their daughter has been up to today while they were living it up in Idaho, so even though the pictures are a little out of order, and I wanted to start this post with an intro instead of a picture, the purpose will still be fulfilled. Last night my niece Maria spent the night (Anna's first official overnight guest - Kismet watched the girls yesterday for me, and when I went to pick them up, Anna came into the living room and said, "I said Maria could spend the night with us tonight) and today Caislyn spent some time with us, too. The picture above was taken by Maria - pretty good photographer, I think. I was glad to have some time with Caislyn today without Grandma or Mommy around so that she would hang out with me. I think she looked around at her options today (Anna, Maria, Elizabeth, or me) and figured I was the safest choice.

Pop Tarts and milk in the living room while watching cartoons - can it get much better? Hey, I don't get this chance very often to spoil my niece - I'm going to take advantage of it.

Anna drew the line on the paper to divide her "half" and Caislyn's "half." Probably I should have done the thing where one draws the line and the other chooses the side, but I'm not sure they get that concept, yet, and Caislyn didn't seem to mind. They are both using their left hand in this picture - great for basketball (and tennis.)

We went to the Van Buren Popcorn Festival in the evening with Caislyn, Grandma Wuertley, and the Womacks.

This was the "Bumpy Barrel Ride" - the kids loved it, and the adults got 7 minutes of free time (you can barely see Elisha in the back.)

This picture's a little blurry because the ride was spinning when I took it. I was pretty proud of my timing since the camera has a delay.

This picture is out of order - we made chocolate chip cookies right before lunch.

Caislyn with her Uncle Jason

JoEllen, in case you didn't know, Caislyn likes tomatoes! I picked this one for your mom and she let Caislyn hold it. Before we knew it, she had eaten about a third of it. She said she was hungry. She's so healthy. Jason tried to get her to eat all of her corn dog without success at the fair - she knows hot dogs aren't healthy for you. She needed some "real" food!

Novelty Items the Wuertleys Can't Live Without

2006-08-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

Thursday night - my last official vacation night before school starts on Monday. On a previous post, I talked about not being sure how I would spend my last vacation day. This is how it is shaping up - Anna's teacher called yesterday, and we scheduled an 8:30 get acquainted conference for tomorrow morning - there goes two theories of how I would spend the day (sleeping late and staying in my pajamas.) Then Caislyn, my niece, is coming over to spend part of the day. The afternoon looks pretty open at this point, and then tomorrow evening, I think the plan is to head over to the Van Buren Popcorn Festival for some fattening fair food - just what I need the eve of our biggest training day! All in all, I think it will shape up to be a great last day of vacation. Enough intro, onto the post...

The other day I used an amazing little product for the first time - the Clorox Bleach Pen. I have had this cool tool since Christmas (got it in my stocking - can't wait until Christmas time to post about the unbelievable stockings we receive each year) but put it in the cabinet and left it until this particular day. What prodded me to dig my pen out was that I witnessed my mom use it on a shirt when we stayed with her last week, and the shirt came out of the wash with no stains. I have a big container of bleach, but it is such a pain to lug it out, grab something to apply it with (I usually use a toothbrush,) dilute it, and risk spilling it (my mom has a "great" story about this, and if she had a blog I'm sure she would have posted on it.) This pen eliminates all of the above inconveniences of the regular big container of bleach - I highly recommend it!

The Bleach Pen wins the award for favorite item on this list, but I am going to share about 9 other "honorable mentions."

1. Bag Balm. Yes, the container says it is for sore udders. But someone gave me a container for my baby shower for Elizabeth, and it works wonders on diaper rash (even the kind all ages can get.) I still have the original container that I received almost 7 years ago - I guess it doesn't expire since it still works. I can first hand tell you that this stuff works (I know, too much information.)

2. Paint tray liners. I am a cheapskate, but even I will spend 40 cents to not have to wash out my paint tray. In fact, last time I painted, I only used the liner because I had loaned out my tray, and it was sturdy enough. My paint tray cleaning days are over. I wish I was so frivolous with roller covers because I really hate cleaning those.

3. Wings. I "ALWAYS" make sure I have them. I remember the days before wings. I wonder if my daughters will look at the pre-wings days like we look at the belts our moms wore.

4. The Cutco vegetable peeler. I've tried generic peelers. I've used electric peelers. I have not tried the Pampered Chef peeler, if there is such a thing, so maybe it is as good. But if you are going to peel some vegetables, you want to be using the Cutco vegetable peeler. My mom as of two months ago was using a vegetable peeler that I am pretty sure she received as a wedding shower gift. I know I grew up with it, and it was stinky to work with back then. I had two peelers (doubled up wedding shower gift, but I'm not going to complain about receiving too much Cutco,) so one night after trying to peel carrots at her house, I had enough. The next time I saw my mom I gave her my extra peeler, and she is just as happy with it as I am. Need a nice wedding present suggestion? I suggest the Cutco vegetable peeler - and as a bonus, a paring knife comes with it in the set.

5. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Do you have unsightly stains on your countertop or walls? The Magic Eraser is another amazing product we keep in our house. I had stains on my countertop that were there when we bought the house, and when I scrubbed it down with the Magic Eraser, it looked like new. I can't say it has been 100% effective - it only dulled a marker streak on the wall (it was a dry erase marker.) But it will definitely pick up more than $1.99 worth of stains.

6. Starter logs for camping. The most stressful time of camping for me is the evening meal on the first night. We usually aren't pulling into the campgrounds until close to dinner time, and we need a fire going to cook the meal. Jason is more concerned about getting the camper set up; I am more concerned about preparing the meal. For various reasons we have had trouble starting a fire while camping - rain the night before that left the fire pit wet, green wood, lack of sticks/paper. Before family camp Jason found a couple of starter logs that my mom had put in his stocking a couple of years ago (did I mention I can't wait until Christmastime to post about the stockings?) He threw them in the camper, and one night at Family Camp when it had rained, he pulled the starter log out. We had no trouble starting the fire, and from now on, I am willing to pay 33 cents for a guaranteed quick fire. My mom has a problem with moderation sometimes. We asked her to bring us another starter log for the last night of camp, and she bought us a 24 pack. Guess we won't have to purchase starter logs for next season, either.

7. Lysol Wipes. Another must have for camping. Forget the inconvenience of a soapy rag. I just grab a couple of wipes, and the picnic tables are good as new. When we are packing up to go home, I take some wipes and "clean" the bathroom. I keep wipes in the car for when we go to restaurants with playplaces. I think the workers forget there are tables back there to clean, either that or there is such a turnover that there isn't time to clean, but we rarely can find a clean table at a playplace. Use some wipes, and the table is clean and sanitized. I haven't used the wipes at home as much since a soapy rag usually resides in the sink, but for out of home experiences, they come in handy.

8. The Tupperware (or Pampered Chef) Chopper. Forget crying while cutting up onions. Put your half an onion under the chopper, pound pound pound, and you have perfectly minced onions. The fun doesn't stop with onions - I've used it for garlic, tomatoes, green peppers, pecans, and I'm sure many other ingredients. Again, another nice wedding shower present, and it is all dishwasher safe, which is a must in my book.

9. Blue Coral Upholstery Cleaner found at Auto Zone. A big thanks to S.W. for suggesting this one. We had a little incident in the camper that involved non washable markers and a couple of three year olds, and club soda, Fantastik, and Lysol Wipes weren't doing the trick. Shannon suggested this product and it took care of pretty much all the marker stain. A couple weeks later we had an incident at home that involved white board paint (I do not recommend this product for any age - Elizabeth was even being careful and it still made a mess) and once again the Blue Coral came through for us and took care of a rather large blue stain on the carpet.

Just thought I'd share a few of these products with you - maybe you will find one of them useful. I would love to hear of any products you swear by that aren't listed above.

Triathlon Training Update - Today's agenda was to just run 30 minutes. I had to say "just" because it is amazing how this training plan is increasing my exercise stamina. When we first started this program almost 4 weeks ago, the thought of running 30 minutes straight was overwhelming - I'd never run more than a mile in a row, and that was back in college. I was still pretty tired after the run, but it is encouraging how my body is getting used to the distances. As for the destination of the run - I had forgotten that I needed to bring 2 rolls of paper towel and a package of paper plates to Anna's conference tomorrow morning. I thought, "Why not kill two birds with one stone?" So I put a literal meaning to the phrase "run to the store" and headed to Lances. Lances isn't that far away, but it's not across the street, either. I figured 10-15 minutes there, 10-15 minutes back, and if I had any extra time I would run around the block. It only took me 4 minutes to get there! I couldn't believe it - I was running at the pace we normally run. It takes me 4 minutes to drive there if I don't hit the light. So I'm thinking about running everywhere now since I can do it in about the same time. I figure with the rising gas prices, I am going to save a lot of money, and my car is still at General Tire. I haven't figured out yet what to do when the kids are with me.

Irony and the Sound of Music

2006-08-09T22:33:00.000-04:00

I had to blab on yesterday's post about what I thought would comprise a perfect day. Of course what happened in response was that the next 24 hours from the posting of that post turned out to be far from a perfect day - in fact, it just hasn't been a good 24 hours. Immediately after I posted last night, I did a last check blog run of my links before heading to bed, and I came across my brother-in-law's new post regarding their doctor's appointment that morning with the triplets. He and my sister-in-law received some pretty disappointing news, and I went to bed last night with a heavy heart. Then I had to rise at 5:25 to do triathlon training, had quite a frustrating Wal-Mart trip that involved me being in a hurry to make an open house on time for work and getting stuck in the only open lane that wasn't self serve, and my reliable car I bragged about on my overindulgence post started making a horrendous noise on my way back to the office. I coasted into General Tire per Jason's orders, he met me and took me home to get the Jeep, our third vehicle that is paid for and pretty much sits in the barn until we have a dirty job to do or one of our regular cars is getting worked on. Jason headed back to work; I headed inside to do a few things before going back to the office. After doing a few chores, I hopped in the jeep, turned the ignition, and...it was dead. So I called Jason, he had to come back and get me, I dropped him off at work, and I took his car to my work. But since nothing too awful has happened since then, I decided to make my post topic about something other than the happenings of the day.

Ever so often I will hear a song on the radio that will remind me of a specific incident or situation from my past. I'm not talking about songs that remind me of major milestone events; obviously any time I here "All I Ask of You," I am going to remember our wedding. I'm talking about situations where if it weren't for the song, I would not have recollection of the memory. For example, while I was standing in line at Wal-Mart today for 20 minutes, I was listening to the music that was playing overhead, and on came the song "I Need a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler. I was an avid Days of Our Lives viewer growing up. In fact, we would tape the daily episode since none of us were home during the day, and as a bribe to get me to practice piano, my mom would let me watch the day's episode after practicing for 30 minutes. There was a love story going on between Bo Brady and Hope I don't remember her last name (it's driving me crazy, someone help me out. Her dad was Doug, he was married to Julie, her mom Addie had died when she was a child.) As soap operas go, Bo and Hope broke it off, and Hope was set to marry Larry Welch, whom she did not love. On their wedding day, Hope is going down the aisle, and Bo is racing on his motorcycle towards the church to stop the wedding. This song "I Need a Hero" is playing in the background as Bo races into the church, Hope runs out, they chase through the woods, he tackles her to the ground, they wrestle for a bit, and then they fall into a passionate kiss. Of course as soap operas go, Bo and Hope end up getting married, splitting up, characters are written off the show, and I think at the present time the original actors are playing the roles once again, and they are split up.

"On My Own" by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald is another example. I was 11 years old, and the Marion Giants boys basketball team had just captured their third straight state title in 1987. My dad and brother must have headed to the gym for the after game pep rally, and my mom and I were in my parents' bed listening to the post game show on WBAT. The announcers signed off on the game, and the regular programming of seventies and eighties music returned. This song was playing as we lay in bed that night waiting for my dad and brother to get home. I think of that night every time I hear that song.

In seventh grade, I was "going with" a boy named Scott Pattison. The problem: I was not allowed to "go with" anyone in seventh grade. I didn't know how to tell my parents I had a boyfriend. I'm not really sure why I felt the need to tell them because we weren't actually going anywhere. I was sitting in my bedroom on the floor playing with a nerf ball when "I Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing came on the radio. I can still feel the unsettleness and guilt I felt that night whenever I hear that song.

In eighth grade I stayed all night with my friend at her grandmother's house in Bluffton, and we went to the annual street fair. MTV was just becoming popular, and since it was not on at my house, I was pretty naive to music videos. However, MTV was on at my friend's grandmother's house (lots of teens were there) and I remember two videos distinctly: "Carrie" by Europe and "Papa Don't Preach" by Madonna. I really liked "Papa Don't Preach" but felt pretty guilty about it because of the subject matter.

When I hear the song "American Pie" by Don MacLean, I think of riding early morning in the back seat during drivers ed. Mr. Jacob, my drivers ed teacher, loved Magic 95.1, and this song was guaranteed to play daily.

My senior year of high school I took Carin Vardamin to school each day. One morning, the song "Walking on Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox came on the radio, and she said, "Oh, I love that song," and she started singing along. I hated that song, actually I still do, but since she loved it so much, I endured the agony (not of her singing, she has a great voice, but of the song.) I bet she doesn't even remotely remember that instance.

The summer between my sophomore and junior year of college was pivotal for me - most significantly Jason and I started dating during that summer, and even before we started dating, we were a part of a group that stayed on campus during May term. Our group had some really fun times - none of us were dating and probably all of us wanted to be (not necessarily each other.) One of our favorite past times was to sit around and watch VH-1 - this is when VH-1 predominately played soft rock and love song videos. We were all feeling pretty down about our love lives anyway, why not enhance the mood with some sappy songs. Our personal favorites, and to this day when I hear these songs I think of that May term and that group - "Tell Me I Was Dreaming" by Travis Tritt (really depressing video) and "Not Enough" by Van Halen.

I can think of several other instances, but for post length sake, I will stop. What I think is interesting about these songs is that I don't particularly like or dislike any of them (except the Walking on Broken Glass one,) they just remind me of certain memories. Another post I may do someday will be about songs that day after day, year after year, if I hear them on the radio or on a cd, I love them just as much as the first time I heard them. Some songs I will hear once and really like; then I run it into the ground by buying the cd and listening to it incessantly. But there are a handful of songs that every time I hear them, I just belt out the lyrics and get that funny, corny, emotional feeling inside.

Triathlon Training Update: Today was a milestone day for me - I successfully wore a pair of goggles for the entire swim time (30 minutes.) I have never been able to find a pair of goggles that don't let the water in. Jason and I went snorkeling on vacation one time, and I had a miserable time because water kept getting in my mask. On these goggles, I had unsuccessfully tried them before, but Jason swapped out the nose piece and they work perfectly. We followed the swim with a 15 minute run - pretty uneventful day.

The Perfect Day

2006-08-08T21:41:00.000-04:00

Let me start off first by stating that I had no idea the controversy I was going to ignite with my previous post. Those of you who know me well know how much I abhor conflict, and I read with disbelief this evening the drama that had unfolded during the day. I guess that's one more practical joke gone bad I can add to my list. I momentarily thought this evening I would activate the command that does not allow anonymous comments (just for a day, of course, to be funny) but I have decided not to press my luck. Besides, I can take whatever anonymous dishes out...I know where she lives. While I know all has been addressed through the comments mode, I would like to acknowledge my appreciation to those who thought I had really been admonished by a stranger, and it did feel quite good to know you fellow bloggers "have my back." I am going to return tonight to the normal, albeit lengthy post that normally appears on my blog.

One day. I am down to one summer vacation day. I unofficially have to work all day tomorrow and Thursday, and I officially return to work on Monday, so Friday is my last hurrah. How will I spend that day? Will I sleep late, knowing that come Monday, the alarm clock goes off at 6:15? Will I spend the day in my pajamas, knowing come Monday, I am trading shorts and flip flops for dress pants and matching shirts? Will I fervently work around the house in a last ditch attempt to tackle projects that I had all summer to complete? Will I make it a fun day with my kids, planning one last big outing before we all head to school? I probably won't be able to answer these questions until Thursday night, but the thoughts of how I will spend that day led me to a relevant question - what is the perfect day? What if Jason, on Thursday night, said, "Deb, tomorrow is your day. Resources are not an issue. You can do whatever you want, spend whatever you want, go wherever you want, invite whomever you want, for the next 24 hours." Wow, what would I do? Assuming the time frame is from midnight Friday morning to 11:59 p.m. Friday evening, the first question is, how much would I sleep? Would I take full advantage of the 24 hours and choose not to waste a minute on sleep? Or would I decide to take advantage of an opportunity to sleep as late as I want, even if that meant until noon? The second question is, how much time to I spend on travel? I've never been to Hawaii, and I would love to visit, but do I want to waste 16 of my precious hours in an airplane? (I assume I have to be back home by 11:59, otherwise Jason won't let me do this again.) The third question is, with whom do I spend the day? I'm trying to keep a fair mind with this one - after a weekend of camping and a full day at Kokomo Beach, I've had my share of family bonding time, and a day without kids sounds great this evening. But if I am planning the perfect day, shouldn't it include the three most important people in my life? I pondered these thoughts as we sat by our firepit (we finished up our Manwich leftovers from this weekend and had Manwich Pies, just can't get enough of camping food I guess,) and what I came up with probably shows what a simple person I am. I am not adventurous, so I am not leaving the country. I am not cultured, so I am not heading to the big cities. I am not a dreamer, so I am going to do something that is actually possible. Here is my perfect day iteniary:

6:00 - Get up, and with camper already packed, the family piles in the car and takes off, pulling the camper.
8:00 - We stop for breakfast at Bob Evans, my favorite breakfast place, and I order a ham and cheese omelet and hot chocolate with whipped cream (did you know it's free refills?)
9:00 - We pull into Kings Island right at opening time, grab our map, and plan our strategy.
10:00 - The rides open, and starting slow, we are first in line at the Baby Beast (oops, forgot to mention that people are meeting us down there - our entire Sunday School class and both sets of grandparents and siblings/families; this is when my dad takes Anna on the Scrambler since she doesn't meet the height requirement)
10:00-5:00 - We ride rides till we can ride no more. Amazingly the crowds are down on this day, so the wait is no more than 5-10 minutes per ride. The wait has to be a little bit on the Beast, though, to build suspense. That's half the fun.
5:00 - 9:00 - I'm going shopping with whoever from the group wants to go - Cincinatti has to have a big mall. Oh, the kids aren't going, and Jason doesn't want to go - they are going to stay until close at Kings Island and enjoy more rides. Don't worry, the grandparents are going to stay, too, to ride rides with Anna while Jason takes Elizabeth on the "big" rides. I am going to get some school clothes for all three of us, and I may even go out on a limb and get Jason a few things, too. I love to shop for clothes, especially for the kids.
9:00 - We leave the mall, it closes at 9:00.
10:00 - We're at the Kings Island Campground. The whole group is camping there, Jason has our camper all set up, the kids have been bathed and are in their beds watching a video (I would say asleep, but I want to kiss them tonight,) a campfire is going, and we are going to have pies.
10:00 - 11:59 - We sit around the fire, laughing, eating, well, doing what we do around the campfire. Since Jason and the kids are with me, I don't have to be home at midnight.

There you have it. Maybe not very imaginative. Maybe not too ambitious. But for me, perfect.

Triathlon Training Update - Strength day today, which since I missed the Y again, looks like situps and pushups. Hope Shelli doesn't think I'm a slacker when she reads this, but for me, strength day is almost as good as rest day.

Cutting It Short

2006-08-07T23:23:00.000-04:00

Anonymous commented on my last post that my posts are too lengthy, so out of respect for him/her, this is my post (or lack thereof) for tonight. (And this post is dedicated to Thumper #1, may he rest in peace - thanks for bringing up such a great memory!)

Triathlon Training Update - Today we had to do a 40 minute bike ride (rode 8 miles) followed by a 10 minute run. My softball game started at 8:15, and we are supposed to be at the game 15 minutes early, so when I started the bike ride at 7:15, I knew I was going to be cutting it short. Since my bike was at my parents' house, which is about 5 minutes from the ball diamond, I decided I would ride my bike, end up back at my parents' house, start running towards the ball diamond, and then they would pick me up on the way. The problem with this strategy - Elizabeth and my dad got involved in a competitive game of dominoes, and my 10 minute run turned into more like 15. So I was late to the game, Kelley benched me once again due to my tardiness (I really am sorry Kelley, I promise I won't be late next game - I know it affected my performance) and Dad and Elizabeth are grounded. However, someone much more talented than I played short field, we won our game 6-1, and we are into the quarterfinals slated for next Monday.

Overindulgence or Necessity of Life?

2006-08-06T22:54:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday evening when I was staying with my parents while Jason was out of town on business, we went to CiCi's Pizza for our evening meal. CiCi's has the most inexpensive evening buffet in town ($3.99 for an adult, had a free kids meal coupon, and Anna eats free) and it has a mini game room in the back. One of the games at CiCi's is the biggest money drainer of them all - the crane game. It's the one where you manuever a crane that is inside a glass box full of cheap stuffed animals. You place the crane over your desired animal, press the button, the crane lowers, briefly catches your choice, then rises back to the top of the box empty. Of course you come so close the first time that you think surely you will win the next. Elizabeth went 0-2 at the crane game in the first 30 seconds we were at the games (Grandpa's 1.00 down the drain, not mine) and she was off to air hockey. After wasting about 20 more minutes and about five more dollars, it was time to go. Just one more try at the crane game, Elizabeth pleaded with her grandfather. I tell Elizabeth that it is impossible to win at the game, and she should not waste any more of Grandpa's money. Of course Grandpa ignores me and forks over two more quarters for one last try. Elizabeth manuevers the crane over a pink poodle, pushes the button, down goes the crane, it clasps around the poodle, the crane rises, what is this??? The poodle stays in the crane!!! We shove the crane over to the drop zone, the crane releases, and Elizabeth is the proud owner of one pink poodle now named Sarah. Anna, my three year old, witnesses the whole scene, and now she looks at Grandpa and says, "I want a stuffed animal." Of course in her mind, you insert two quarters and out pops a prize. Grandpa gives the game two valiant tries, but no luck with winning a second animal. Now I'm in a dilemna - I have two choices. One, I tell Anna tough luck, you usually don't win at games like that, sorry she is going away empty handed, or two, I tell her when we get to Wal-Mart (our after CiCi's errand) I will let her pick out a small animal. I know you're in suspense...okay, I let her pick out a small bear ($2.97) at Wal-Mart, and both kids went home as happy as can be. As I was processing the situation in my mind later that night, I began thinking, "Was that overindulging Anna by letting her, too, get an animal, or was it a reasonable decision to make things even?" Some would say overindulgence, some would say they would have done the same thing, but it got me thinking about my own life and how interesting it is that I "indulge" myself in some areas, and in other areas I would go so far to say I make myself do without. For example...

Areas of indulgence - should I be embarrased to admit this, I don't know, but we pay someone to clean the house every 2 weeks. I would like to say the main reason we do this is because when I am working during the school year, the only free day I have is Saturday, and I don't want to spend my whole day off cleaning the house, but I also don't want to live in a dirty house. However, in the summer time I am not working, yet we continue to have someone clean the house. Why? I hate cleaning the house, but I enjoy living in a clean house. I know how to clean the house. I could make the time to clean the house. But I don't want to. So I don't. I've tried different methods to make cleaning the house more bearable. I would do a room a day - didn't work. Then I thought I would do the upstairs one week and the downstairs the next. Didn't happen. So we have someone do it for us, and it is a huge load off my back.

Here's another example - We have a lawn service mow our lawn. Like me, Jason did not enjoy spending his only day off (sometimes it isn't even a day off for him) doing chores, and his most time consuming one was taking care of the lawn - about 1.3 acres. Saturday morning would come, the kids would want to play a game or we would want to relax for a little, but Jason would be off to do the lawn. And if it rained on Saturday, we were really in trouble, because many days he doesn't get home until 6:00 or after, and darkness would set in before he could finish. To add to the above, he also has an allergic reaction to either some weed or plant in our yard, and his face breaks out in a poison ivy like rash when he mows. So enough is enough - the lawn service mows our lawn, our lawn looks better than ever, and we have Jason back on Saturdays.

The last two football seasons, we had Colts season tickets. I was bothered one Sunday when Pastor DeNeff was preaching on sacrifice during our capital campaign, and he was talking about different areas in our lives where we spend "extra" money, and he actually used Colts season tickets as an example! I do get his point, but I was bothered because to me, it was so much more than a football ticket (and I know Pastor DeNeff was talking in generalities, so I didn't take offense.) It was time alone with Jason, a chance to go out to eat, watch something we both love to watch, have time in the car just the two of us for conversation - I felt like it was nourishment for our marriage, not cheap entertainment.

These are a few examples of "gross" overindulgence in our lives - all of us have things in our life that are unnecessary, yet useful: a dishwasher, washing machine/dryer, hair dryer, microwave, t.v., the list goes on and on. But to my defense, let me share a few areas of life that for some can be overindulgences, but for me, the bare necessity is fine:

1. My car. My car is not shabby by any means, but it's not what I would call an indulgence. It's a '98 Honda with close to 90,000 miles, chipping paint, 4 practically bald tires, and desperately in need of a cleaning inside and out. But I don't need anything else - my car is paid for, it's reliable, it gets me where I need to go. Some people are really particular about their car and always upgrade to get the newer, better model, but I'm satisfied with what I have, and I will drive it until it dies.

2. My shoes. Actually I was looking at my flip flops today and realized they are the only pair of flip flops I have ever owned. They are the first Adidas model that came out 10-15 years ago - blue bottom with blue and white stripes across the toes. They were very popular in college. Somewhere along the way I have switched a flip flop with someone, because one is 1/2 size bigger than the other. I could go out and get a more fashionable pair, but these work just fine, and I will wear them until they no longer can be worn. I don't have a lot of shoes. I have a pair of brown casual shoes (had since junior year of college - 10 years ago) a pair of sandals (had 5 years) my flip flops mentioned above, my all purpose tennis/basketball/softball/triathlon training shoes, a white pair of sneakers, and shoes for work - 4 or 5 pairs counting all seasons. I know some people love shopping for shoes and have dozens of pairs - shoes are not important to me.

3. Eating out. We just don't do it a lot. We have been more prone to run through a drive thru this summer if we were out of food between camping trips. But on the whole, we are an eat at home family. I spend some time coupon clipping and coupon shopping to get the best bargains, and I feel like we are pretty economical when it comes to feeding our family. I have a co-worker who eats out EVERY MEAL! She doesn't cook. I can't fathom how expensive that must get.

Just as I hope people do not think I am overindulgent for having someone clean my house, mow my lawn, and having Colts tickets, I should not think the same of someone who drives a new car each year, has 30 plus pairs of shoes (or purses :) ) or eats out often. So was it overindulgent of me to buy that animal for Anna? I don't know if it was or not, but I do know we had a much more peaceful evening because I did.

Triathlon Training Update: Today was a rest day. Yesterday was pretty strenuous - we ran 45 minutes (made 4 miles in 44 minutes - yeah!!!) and biked 30 minutes (went 6 miles.) I was pretty stiff last night - my body felt like it did after the first day of basketball practice. Three weeks of training down, 5 more to go!