I just realized now that after this long Labor Day weekend, the next legitimate (official) holiday we’ll have is Thanksgiving. That’s more than 12 weeks away! To put it into perspective, that’s longer than an entire school summer vacation! Way too long Of course I’m not counting the minor holidays in between, which most people don’t observe (my definition of “observe” is ”office closed”), or Grandparents Day and National Boss Day, which surely must have been invented by Hallmark. I’m also not counting the unscheduled days off which are prompted by a natural disaster because those are certainly no fun for the people who are directly affected by them.
I guess what I’m trying to say (after much whining, I know) is…appreciate your long weekend and make it count ’cause you don’t get another one for another summer vacation length of time. Maybe I’ll use the time to catch up on my life – wait, that’s what I said last week when we got the storm days off. Oh well… I’ll kick it off (no pun intended) by watching my son’s football team in their first game of the season. Then I’ll take it from there.
Today was a good day for me. I knew it was going to be, when I read the book of Revelation during my quiet time this morning and it made sense to me – what?! I’m not going to pretend that I am not one of those people for whom Revelation has remained pretty obscure, no matter how many times I’ve read it. My husband has even done a teaching on it and I promise I paid attention, honest! But this morning, I was able to see beyond the – shall we say – unusual creatures described in it, to what John was trying to show us. I’ll also admit here (since I’m baring my soul and all) that I gave an involuntary groan when I turned the page after Jude and realized that the next and last book was Revelation. But I made up my mind a loooong time ago that if it’s important enough to be included in the scriptures, then it’s important enough to read, so I stopped skipping books like Obadiah, Nahum and the likes.
Anyway, I got up from my study this morning knowing it was going to be a good day. It was confirmed when I turned on the AC in my car and it was working! Yes, my precious husband took it in yesterday and had it fixed. I could not have been a pretty sight to behold every day, coming home greasy, melting, with “windswept” hair and a harried look on my face. So I was able to listen to CeCe on my 30-minute commute (each way) to and from work without having to turn up the volume in order to hear her above the wind and traffic (don’t worry, I turned it down at stop lights - I can’t stand it when people are inconsiderate of others with their music).
Then I was so busy at work today that by the time I looked at the clock, it was almost time to go home! What’s more, there’s a long weekend just ahead – thank God for labor day! – and I get to babysit overnight the most gorgeous and best-behaved baby in the world. Then I walked into my house to see the contents of my pantry out on the counters and no husband in sight. Halleluyah! You see, I knew this meant that Joseph had found a moment to fix the shelves that had collapsed under the weight of flours, sugar and such, and he had gone to Home Depot to get materials he needed to fix the problem. He would never leave a mess unless there was a good reason for it, or…nah, he’d never leave a mess, period.
So that was my day today. Like Maria in the Sound of Music, I felt like breaking into song…”So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good!” Hey, it doesn’t take much to make me happy. Peace out!
Do you have a bucket list? You know, a list of stuff you’d like to do before you kick the bucket? I was inspired to whip mine out when we featured the movie (starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) during our summer series “See you at the movies” at church. So I thought I’d share my list with you, although it will probably change as time goes by:
*Learn how to rollerblade
*Learn how to swim
*Understand and speak Spanish (as distinct from spanglish)
*Act in a play or movie (a bit part will do)
*Acquire washboard abs (without resorting to surgery)…I believe in miracles!
*Go on a 10- day Disney Cruise with my family, regardless of how old the kids are by then
…That’s me! Sometimes I feel like I’m a teenager trapped in a 40-something year old body. Then I look at my teenage kids and realize I can’t be a teenager if they are (shoot!).
Every now and then, I take part in online surveys from specific companies that I’m signed up with. The other day, I got a survey invitation in my inbox addressed to “the 41 year old female grocery shopper in your household.” I kid you not, for a split second I wondered who that was!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not averse to aging. I just can’t believe it’s happening to me! Many women are sensitive about their age and the aging process – not me. I have loved every decade of my life, yet I wouldn’t want to do them over. So far, this is my best one yet. I find that I care less about what people think and more about what God thinks. If I’m being honest with you, I can’t say that it’s always been the case. Of course there are certain aspects of getting older that are less favorable than others, but we’ll keep those out of print, shall we? In the mean time, I’ll enjoy the season and, God willing, look forward to however many more He has me signed up for. And at the same time, I’ll try my darnedest to make every moment count:
“Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.”
So… I took Fay on and won – ha! I went to work today and it looks like the storm is finally over, even though we’re still wading through the record rainfall and navigating around debris from trees and such. Just in time for the weekend too. One thing we discovered in Florida is that when it rains, people don’t go to church! Far cry from Colorado, where the governor has to come on TV and beg folks not to be out in the streets before they’ll stay home from church (OK, slight exaggeration). Regardless, I love my Floridians!
On my way home from work, I saw a rainbow in the sky, fighting its way through the clouds. It made me smile and reminded me of God’s promise never to flood the earth again. It rained here for 4 days straight – great time to remember that promise!
So…Joseph will be home in a couple of hours – yay! I may have to whip out our wedding photos to remind myself of what he looks like. He’s been gone a lot lately, but thank God it’s unusual and it’s over. It’s always good to have him home.
Here’s wishing you a rainbow in your cloudy sky (if it happens to be cloudy right now). The weekend is here – have a good one!
So… it was back to work for me and back to school for the kids today. Funny thing is, this is really the day we should have had off. Lots of high, gusty winds, rain, rain, rain and flash floods everywhere. I had Joseph’s oversize, heavy-duty umbrella today and the wind whipped it inside out as if it were one of those tiny straw umbrellas in those tall, yummy drinks you can get at those places where the beautiful people hang out (ahem…so I’m told). A couple of times, I kid you not, I thought I was going to take flight like a veritable Mary Poppins!
They say Fay is moving so slowly, that at times, a fast-paced walker can out-walk it! Which brings me to something that’s been itching under my bonnet the last couple of days: who names these storms and how do they decided whether it’s a “boy” or a “girl”? And why on earth are people referring to Fay as a “she”?! That’s what I wanna know!
Anyway, as I was saying, the weather was so bad today that schools are closing again tomorrow. Of course, my kids are rejoicing. They made me prove to them that they had to go today, then Bimi “missed” the school bus and I had to take her to school! Me, as much as I enjoyed my surprise two days off, I really can’t afford a third in the same week. The thought of wading through backlog actually inspires me to challenge Fay to a one-on-one. You know…woman to woman! Hai-yah! You betta ax somebody, Ms. Fay!!!
The kids and I are enjoying 2 days off work and school (legitimate too…sweet!) because of Tropical Storm Fay which ended up not being much at all in our region. Just lots of rain and wind, nothing out of the ordinary, but they gave us 2 days off and I guess they couldn’t take ‘em back (ha!) We spent our bonus time off watching movies, listening to music, eating, talking and just hanging out, even though we miss Joseph who’s in Lagos at the moment. I also got to sleep in and enjoy some extended quiet time. Doesn’t get too much better than that!
So here I am right now, sitting in front of the computer trying to blog, but my kids won’t let me. They’re around me, talking, and their voices are drowning out the thoughts I’m trying to formulate in my head. I couldn’t tell you what they’re talking about (they’re not even talking to me right now), but for some reason, it’s more interesting to me than blogging, so I’m just going to give in and give up tryin’ to blog. I know you understand. I’ll be back when I’m more lucid.
Now where’s that Madea movie we got from Blockbuster…?
So, the kids went back to school today. Yesterday was the “calm”, if you can call the frenzied last-minute preparation and anticipation “calm.” Today was definitely the storm: masses of school buses back on the streets, school kids at bus stops, school traffic zones, and that’s just as it affects the rest of the non-academic world living on the outside. My kids regaled me with the inside report: schedule changes; getting lost in hallways teeming with students, most of whom are equally lost; agonizing over who to sit with at lunch so you don’t look like a geeky newbie; sizing up the teachers who are also sizing up the students…the list is seemingly endless. Then we have the real storm, Tropical Storm Fay, which is threatening to gain intensity as it sweeps across Florida.
In anticipation of the storm, schools are being closed over the next day or two. Me, I get the next 2 days off work due to inclement weather. I stopped by the only store along my way on the way home from work today to stock up on canned food and batteries. The water aisle was conspicuously devoid of all its customary gallons of water. I guess a few people made it to Winn Dixie before me! Good thing I have water at home. It reminded me for a moment of the parable Jesus told of the 10 virgins. Half of them were prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom and had oil in their lamps and the other half was not prepared.
So here I am, keeping an eye on Fay and my mind on the Lord. When we were moving to Florida from Colorado, we had many people ask what we were thinking, moving to a hurricane-prone region. Our answer is the same today as it was then: I’d rather be in danger, in the center of God’s will, than in safety outside of it. What’s more, I get 2 days off that I hadn’t anticipated!
No doubt the attention that Michael Phelps is garnering as a topshelf athlete is well deserving. However, something else caught my attention aside from the indomitable Phelps – Speedo’s LZR Racer, the supersuit of the 2008 Olympics. Here’s an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal:
“[Speedo's] crusade began in February when it blitzed the competition with the introduction of the LZR Racer. It featured a “compression zone” around the torso and other parts of the body that reduced muscle and skin vibration, allowing swimmers to conserve more energy. “
Forget about conserving energy. I’ll even pass on the core-stabilizing properties - a suit that can reduce muscle and skin vibration? Think what other kinds of vibrations it can reduce! The possibilities are endless! Why didn’t Hanes or Victoria’s Secret think of it? I’ll take one, please! And with a price tag of $475, surely they’ll have a layaway program…
It seems like only a week ago that I was dreading the loooong summer vacation that would turn my children into couch potatoes that occasionally came to life just long enough to deplete my food supply and say “I’m bored!” (see my blog ‘There it goes’ of 6/5/08). I can’t believe it’s over and time to go back to school.
They say time flies when you get older. I know time flies, but the “older” part, I’m not too sure about. You see, I took a “Real Age” test on Facebook, which puts me at 19, and you know those things are true. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Anyway, it’s back to school and it’s a big year for my kids. Demi is in his last year of high school, Bimi begins high school and Temi begins middle school. I remember people telling me when they were little to enjoy those days because they’d go by so fast. I remember looking at those people thinking, “alright for you to say, you’re not the one stuck in time warp while life goes on around you.” I even remember wishing the kids would hurry up and grow up so I could get a life! Not that I want them to be rugrats all over again, I’m just amazed how true it is that they DO grow up so quickly. Before I know it, Joseph and I will be empty nesters. In the mean time, bring on the teenage angst, hormones and drama. Oh, and double that order, as my baby joins the ranks of junior high-ers. Ay, ay, ay. Pray for me!
Of course I’m not counting the minor holidays in between, which most people don’t observe (my definition of “observe” is ”office closed”), or Grandparents Day and National Boss Day, which surely must have been invented by Hallmark. I’m also not counting the unscheduled days off which are prompted by a natural disaster because those are certainly no fun for the people who are directly affected by them.
