Odd Times

Such an odd and perplexing day. I am thankful for our new puppy Layla, she is bringing some giggles and entertainment in a tense time. Here is what I did today:

Kept the dog and the music down low as Hubs was on the phone with 6 different people in offices asking him detailed questions about our work history, current expenses, life style and bank accounts. We are 2 months away from being out of savings to pay our house payment. He makes exactly $300 more a month than our house pmt. We've survived so far by slowly pulling from savings but it will be gone in March. Crazy times.

Here's the crazy part.....The agencies could help, but only when we have missed at least 2 house payments! Hubs has been an uber responsible and honest to a fault man all his life. Especially regarding money and never missing or being late on paying what he owes. To wait until we default on our house pmt simply does not fit in his brain or character.

But that does not count in his favor at all.

We are thankful that we have no debt or credit card bills. Like I said, we are careful, and living on ministry income makes you want to do the right thing with every penny. We have. But we also did not set up a retirement plan at all. Don't know what we were thinking. Naive and sure that we would be happily ministering to people for all of our days until death. But ministry does not equal $$. Like I said, we were not thinking.

One agency suggested we refinance our home. Another call was made, this time a conference call between agency man and house loan people. Ironically we do not qualify for a refi because we do not make enough $$.

Aargh!

Sorry for dumping this on you kind readers. There is nothing you can or should do, but you already have. You have been a place I could talk about my day. My very strange and perplexing day.

Thank you.

"Hello, this is the Emergency Room..."

I got the call that I feared.....I was home alone this last Wednesday, sitting down to eat my sandwich and enjoy my iced tea when my cell rang. It was THE CALL. The one I feared and wrote about just one post ago on Recovering Church Lady. In that post I talked about my fear that Hubs was in a motorcycle accident on his way home from work thirty miles away. But this call was about Rocker Son.

"Your son has been in a motorcycle accident and he is breathing on his own....."

I think, and I told her this later; that she should have said that he was coherent first. Breathing can be done while in a coma or whatever.  

I paced as the ER nurse had to repeat again and again where she was calling from and why my son who would turn 25 in two days was there. 

I hung up after scribbling info on a tablet and yelled a bad word for only the second time in my life. And then in the same breath I asked God where He was. My mind was swirling and I made a mess of Hub's work papers as I tried to find the phone number of his new job. I was put on hold as they found him and let him leave to get me and head to the hospital 20 minutes away to see how our son was.

We talked to God about our son as we found the hospital by my scribbled directions. I had sent out a couple of quick emails to friends and family before leaving the house. They made us wait while trying to find his name in the records at the ER desk. They had a "Doe" that just came in, yes that's him, have no idea why they did not know his name. Followed the guy to our boy.

He was laughing with a police officer and when he saw me the only look he had was "Don't cry Mom, I'm ok." The nurse had told me on the phone that this biggest concern was how I would react and how his girlfriend would freak out and try to come to him on her scooter. 

He was not ok, he was broken. But not irreparably. He broke the biggest bone in the body, the femur (thigh bone). Totally snapped in two. A pinkie is broken, a wrist is sprained and a suspicious spot on his brain has been shown to be only a cluster of veins that have been there all along. No other scratches or road rash at all! It really is amazing!

He flew over the hood of a car that was making an illegal left turn in front of him. He broke their windshield and landed on the ground beside the road with a twisted up leg yelling for help. Someone saw and police and ambulance arrived in minutes. 

That was 4 days ago. Yesterday the doctors inserted a steel rod in my boy's right thigh bone and it will always be there. He walked on it a bit today and will be out of the hospital early next week. 

My mind and heart are swirling with two differing conclusions.......

• My son was in an awful motorcycle accident and is now forever carrying a steel rod in his leg. 
• My son was in a motorcycle accident and we are all ok. It wasn't that bad!

The thing that I feared happened and we have been laughing, crying and enjoying each other for the last few days in a boring hospital room. Where do I land?

I land on the fact that stuff happens. The idea that everything good that happens is God and everything bad that happens is satan just does not work for me. Stuff just happens and we figure out how to deal with  it. 

God was there. I believe that my son was protected from what could have been much worse. He wore his new leather motorcycle jacket for the first time because even though it was a hot day it was too bulky to fit in his backpack. He wore no gloves but did not scrape his hands or dent his helmet. The police saw a "denim burn" on the road but he has no scrapes on his legs other than some small scratches on his ankle.

We have much more to be thankful for than to be angry about. I am learning so much from Rocker Son. He is charming the hospital staff and creating a party where ever he goes! They love him and have told us they don't want him to leave the ICU but were happy that he did just that tonight and is being moved to a regular room. His friends are streaming in and turning a quiet hospital into a celebration of not dying this time. 

Rocker Son has a gift for living in the moment and seeing the good in it. In his own words on his Facebook page last night: 

"Surprisingly this is turning out to be a great birthday, even though it's being spent in the hospital. 

My amazing girl is with me

I get free meals

Room service

Bluray player

Sponge bath

And FREE DRUGS at the click of a button!"

The awful thing we fear can happen and we will still live through it. As we drove to the emergency room wondering why this happened I contemplated how I could live in such a scary world. Why couldn't I just find a safe place and hide forever. That sounded so good, but so, so impossible. 

But then I spent three days around my son and his friends and I am inspired by them. Stuff happens and they find the joy in it and move on. And God is there in his hospital room whether they know it or not. :)

Take Me Away!

Tomorrow night I will be sitting around a campfire on the beach! Late last night I took a call from a friend who wanted me to join her and my other two best friends in someone's beat up trailer on a beach about an hour from us for three days!!

I am so excited to get away and have some fun with my girly-friends!! I am packing some bananas, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows which we will grill over the fire in foil and then open up for some yumminess!! Everyone else loves to cook and will bring tons of food and this will be sole contribution. They will be so surprised and will love it!!

These women are my closest friends, we have laughed till we snorted (well one is a snorter!) and did that other thing that women beyond fifty do when they laughed too hard. There have also been a lot of tears flow in our times together. We've held one another through both garbage and good news.  Add more than a few bottles of wine to those occasions and that may explain the loads of laughter at stuff that was probably not really very funny. (That is an exaggeration, sort of.) Heehee!

So my little bag is packed and off we will go on a Sunday morning no less! Scandalous! Don't be picturing a glorious sunshiny expanse of sugary sand though. Northern Cali beaches, at least ours, are foggy, rocky and gravely sand with lots of dunes and cliffs to climb up and down. No swimming at our beaches unless you have a wetsuit. We will be walking, hiking, sitting and yakking. That is the agenda and it sounds totally perfect.

But it will be a blast! Hubs hates camping. I grew up loving it and have missed the aroma of a campfire in my sweatshirt.

Cannot wait!

Riding and Writing....

I have to say that this leisurely life is really a great way to live! Lately I have lost track of what day of the week it is and sleeping in every single day. I could get used to this. We are getting chores and projects done around the house and yard. Things are looking nice and clean and organized. I even cleaned out that scary nasty dark place under our bed! Why did I save years of magazines under there? No clue. But getting all this done feels great! This is the life.

If it just wasn't for that pesky little fact that we are unemployed and have zero moola coming in. 

Oh yeah, that.

I doubt that it ever slips Hub's mind though. How long will we have this house? How many more weeks can we stretch out of our savings? Leftovers and our garden are looking pretty yummy these days. When we had jobs we ate lunch out every single day and then just snacked at dinner time. As of today we have not eaten in a restaurant of any kind, even fast food, in two months. 

We are looking better though! Must be the healthy vegies from the garden we are making full meals out of. I even cut my own hair 2 weeks ago and saved us my usual $30 salon cut. And it looks great! 

But the not working has also made us a bit stir-crazy. I love to write and have spent hours each day doing so. Sending stuff to magazines and online job offers. But oh man, you can only do so many chores around the house and we are so very thankful for our bike that allows us some free entertainment that feeds our spirits and rejuvenates our minds.

Every time we ride I get writing ideas! It's amazing. Must be something about the fresh air and inspiration of nature. I always come back to the house with blog and article plans buzzing in my head. My two favorite activities lately work together really well....riding and writing!

All the luggage we took on a recent overnight trip with a  B&B Gift Certificate!

Even the Photo Is Creeping Me Out!

We have an unwanted and uninvited guest in our home. And I am not happy about it! Mr. Mouse made his scurrying little appearance a week ago and had me run screaming from the living room couch back to Hubs in the bedroom with a book. He came to my rescue but could not find Mr. Mouse by the time he got there.

I saw the mouse go from under the stove (eeww!) just a couple of feet to the cupboard under the sink. Hubs hypothesized that there is a hole from the cupboard to the outside and the mouse ran back outside in fright from my screamings. I agreed with Hub's theory because it made me feel better. After all, I had to stand in that very spot several times every day at my kitchen sink!

As it happens, Mr. Mouse has not left the building. Again I am on the couch late at night alone and I saw Mr. Mouse run from stove to cupboard. After two more nights of this, the scary part is that I do not even scream! I jump a bit, that's it. That is just WRONG!

We set out some sticky paper traps. They did no good at all, he just goes around them I guess. So today we bought those awful and deadly classic mouse traps and placed them in the path that he takes. Now I am sitting here jumping at every sharp sound! Is that it? Do I want to look? No. 

It is MY kitchen, I feel violated by this ugly scurrying little creep! Makes me shudder just to think of it. I am suddenly realizing that dear old grouchy Tony the cat actually DID do something around here for us, may he rest in peace.

DOH! I posted this & totally left out the funny part that inspired me to write about it in the first place!.....


After Hubs had carefully (because there is no other way!) set the traps with tiny bits of cheese and a dab of peanut butter under the sink, I was cleaning up our dinner. Hubs watched as I wiped the counters and scraped a bunch of yucky shredded cheese into the garbage can and closed the cupboard door.

He then gently said, "Honey WHY in the world would a mouse try to get a teeny bit of cheese off a trap if there is an entire feast of it for free right next to it in the garbage can?"

Oops!

Ok, that's better. 

Charmed

Are charm bracelets back "in"? Is it even in to say "in"? Either way I am wearing my cherished charm bracelet these days when I feel the urge. It cannot be a day when I will be on my laptop much because I do not want to scratch my sweet Mac. I also have to be the mood to hear some jingle-jangle because that just comes with a charm bracelet.

My silvery collection of charms was given to me by my mom when I was a teenager. It is so cool to look at each charm and recall the reason it is there. Can you see the princess phone? Imagine the squealing excitement when I was granted a beautiful pink princess phone in my OWN ROOM as a teenager! The dial even lit up in the dark!

There is also a silver replica of a drivers license there, engraved with my name, date and real license number! I was given the heart as a bridesmaid for a dear friend. Unfortunately they are no longer married. But I'm not giving up my pretty engraved heart! Of course the Graduation hat is self-explanatory, as are the christmas tree and the two Disneyland charms of Dumbo and a Cinderella carriage.

This bit of old jewelry has been tucked away for years and recently it came across my attention as I was cleaning out some personal belongings. As soon as Hubs saw it, he got a funny look, which he tried to hide  from me. But I saw it and said nothing. A bit later he randomly (or so he thought) told me he had a great idea for my next gift. (Hello?! I saw the look!)

On Easter weekend we went to our sweet getaway before getting the call about my mom being sick. As we walked leisurely through some little shops I could see that he was in his "hunter" mode as he casually looked over the jewelry cases. Sure enough he asked a clerk to show him something and I was presented with the beautiful silver be-jeweled butterfly for my bracelet!

And, once again...I was charmed.

Had A Great M Day!!I

I love gifts so much! This sat around ALL day without a mention, drove me craaazy!

Any moments with Rocker Son are a treasure to me. He is creative and hilarious!

I adore these people! My men and their ladies.

Hubs calls Writer Son his "Giant leprechaun" since sporting this beard. He is over 6 feet.

Sweet Sassy Bride made us some wonderful chicken tacos with homemade guacamole! Delish!

At last Writer Son handed me the gift bag! Wonderful scarf and a charm necklace that
 I cannot wait to wear!

I also love Rocker Son's, Tattoo Girlfriend, she is so funny and strong!

Amazing dessert of yogurt, fruit, sweet granola and honey! So good!

Not sure why Hubs took a pic of these guys, but we laughed a lot at them
on our fav show, The Amazing Race Finale!

Sassy Bride even insisted on cleaning my kitchen after all that hard work!

Hubs "helping" Sassy Bride at the stove.

Yay for a great Mother's Day 2011.

I hope yours was a good one too! 

Gimmee, Gimmee

On your mark, get set, GO! Mother's Day weekend is just hours away and this year I have high hopes. I am the mother of two sons and a husband who loves to remind me that I am not his mother. Well, I don't WANT to be his mother but I DO want presents!

My sons are lovable, sweet and caring, but in the gift department, not so great. Oh, one year Writer Son presented me with an amazing box of chocolate covered strawberries though! That was amazing and delish! He got a lot of points that year.

But this year my hopes are high because both of my sons have lady-loves in their lives and that should make a difference right? Am I wrong in thinking that their ladies will remind them about Mother's Day? Don't dash my hopes now people.  Do your married sons give better gifts than they did before marriage?

My eyes are closed and my arms are held out, ready to receive the goodies on Mother's Day this Sunday.

Silver and Gold Have I None.....

A few weeks ago while we were sifting through my mother-in-law's belongings, trying to divide the contents up between the family and figuring out what needed to go to the goodwill store, Hubs put this item in our box.

It was covered with dust and had a few paperclips in it. I wondered why on earth he wanted to bring that home with us. We were 600 miles from home and had to fit our choices into a small car with four adults in it. But I did not ask at the time, I figured he had his reasons. 

At home I washed it and put it on the kitchen counter for a few days, then last night I put it out with black olives in it. It is not very big, about the size of a cereal bowl and it's all one piece of stainless steel.

Hubs pointed to it later in the evening and said that he had given it to his parents for their 25th wedding anniversary. He smiled and said that he was in Junior High at the time. It was a gravy boat with a ladle. He remembers being so excited to watch them open his gift, he was so proud of himself. He thought it was made of silver for their Silver Anniversary!

I love that story and I'm so glad he saw it and brought it home with us.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Today Hubs saw me at my laptop and said, "Wow, you really look like a writer today! All you need is this pencil behind your ear, where's the camera?"

Thanks for the compliment Honey!

Oops! I forgot to tell you that i have put up a new post on GoodBlogs called, "I Am My Own Michael Scott". It could use some more votes to move it to Top Posts and add a little gold to my pocket. Thank you!

Tick-Tock

It's after 11:00pm on Sunday night and Writer Son and Sassy Bride have just left. We hadn't seen them for several days so I Facebooked them yesterday and said, "Don't you people have any dirty clothes? I think you do."..........This morning Sassy answered my question with the comment, "LOL, yes, we'll be there this afternoon.". They come to our house to do their laundry, use my Mac and watch "The Amazing Race" with us and I love it! (But I will admit that they are the only two people that have such free use of my precious Mac!)

Now my house is totally quiet as I sit here in my family room. Well, it is not actually silent as in 'no sound at all.' The wonderful 1921 Regulator clock you see pictured here is ticking away and sending out it's beautiful chime each hour. 

I am looking forward to finding out the stories behind this clock that has been in Hub's family for ninety years. His mom is still on her death bed 600 miles away from us but she insisted we bring home their beloved wall clock. We are so honored and thrilled to give it a new home and would love to pass it on to one of our sons some day.

It really does look good on our brick red wall doesn't it? The second picture makes it look like the clock is crooked but it isn't. Must have been the way I held the camera. If the clock was crooked it would not allow the pendulum to move correctly. We are learning a lot about these seven-day wind up clocks.

The other favorite keepsake that hubs brought home was a sweet little pair of chickens his mom collected and he played with when he was little. She had chickens figurines every where, along with chicken dish towels, photos, calendars.... We ladies do love our collections don't we? Well, men do a lot of collecting too don't they? Sassy just told me about an uncle whose house was full of hundreds of clocks! 

Today we are enjoying the gentle tick-tock and the chimes that sometimes surprise us in this small house. It makes us feel connected to my mother-in-law and aware of what she is going through right now. She does not want to watch TV or be read to. She wants to just be. I can't imagine what that must feel like, to know you are living your last days. Making your peace with others and with God would definitely be all that is important to you. Everything else is pretty much meaningless, isn't it?

He Did What?

Today I am going to continue on my theme of being real, but don't worry, it's not in a "What am I doing here anyway?" kind of  thing. I guess if I had to find a category for today's post it would fall under, "Dumb Stuff Hubs Does". 


I know, you thought he was perfect didn't you? Many of my posts may have inadvertently led you to that picture in your mind. This , this and especially this could definitely have created a picture of a husband so perfect that you wondered if we could set up a trade of some sort.

Well, my dear blog-friends, in the spirit of all honesty and forth-rightness (great word huh?) I am giving you a peek behind the curtain so to speak, and I am even including pictorial proof to go along with full disclosure.

Whenever someone writes or speaks about the little pet peeves that wives have about their husbands they always mention the two main items of frustration.

1 - Leaving sox on the floor.
2 - Leaving the toilet lid/ring up.

Often a close 3rd bug-a-boo is installing the toilet paper going the wrong way.

Hubs has taken this a few steps further, leading me into many grumbly moments in the bathroom which ought to be a place of rest and tranquility, right?

He hates replacing the toilet paper on the TP dispenser. So I used to find the new roll placed on top of the hanger as shown here....

That drove me crazy but not nearly as crazy as the newest version of "I'm not gonna do it..."! You are not going to believe this little trick........He has been reaching into the storage drawer and getting paper from the next roll and then putting the roll right back in the cupboard. All the while leaving the half finished roll on the hanger!!!

How sneaky can you get? I was amazed and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt by not confronting him about it at first. But he told on himself a few weeks ago. 

Believe it or not he felt bad about just placing the roll on top of the dispenser when it was mentioned in a joking way at church one Sunday morning. The speaker was talking about annoying habits that married people have to work through. So Hubs sheepishly apologized to me for it. My response?.....I said,

"Well, at least that was less creepy

and lazy than using a new roll out of the drawer

and replacing it back in the drawer!"

Talk about looking embarrassed! He really felt dumb then. And that is the goal of every wife isn't it? Sunday sermons are known for making people feel guilty, ours is usually not like that at all, but this one time, I was totally happy to see some TRANSFORMATION in my marriage! Ha!

Now, Hubs comes out of the bathroom and wants applause for replacing the toilet paper on the dispenser. OY!