In The Badlands

May 2009

That is where I am in the process of archiving my pictures.  The Queen of Queens congratulated me because she thinks I only have one year to go.  She evidently thinks I have started with the oldest pictures and worked my way forward through time.  In fact, I have archived one year--2010--and I am working my way back through time.  I am almost half way through 2009.  I don't remember when I started taking digital pictures.  Or where the pictures prior to 2007 are.  I know that I have boxes of unlabeled and unsorted pictures and negatives and slides dating back over 30 years.  And now I have several DVDs. 

I vaguely recall an old Star Trek episode where they find these old discs on a deserted planet and the engineer on the away team figures out how to make the computer play them.  Someday, if someone from another planet's away team finds my archives, they will not have a clue what life was really like here. 

Here is the Goob's interpretation of this picture from our trip through the badlands:   He is saying, "Can I get back in the car now?"  I am saying, "Stand here and get your picture taken.  We need this for the family archives."  

Four Twentyfourths Equals One Sixth

So far, so good, with my two books a month, but should I be 1/6 done with all my goals for the year?
Two thoughts from Forgotten God then:
1.  What must a caterpillar think when it wakes up from a long nap with wings and can fly?  Behold I am a new creation.  The Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead lives in me.  Pretty sure I am not taking advantage of all that means in my life.  I don't want to crawl when I can fly.
2.  I need to worry less about "God's will for my life." God cares more about my response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than what I plan to do next year.  Walk by the Spirit.  Instead of worrying about His will for my future, I need to ask God what He wants me to do in the next ten minutes. 
Pretty sure it was not 'eat a bag of Honey BBQ Flavor Twist Fritos.'

Books Five and Six?
The Grasshopper Trap by Patrick F. McManus
Fearless by Max Lucado

Clean Sweep-Month 2

In January I cleaned the oven, the china cabinet, and the chandelier.  February was a shorter month, but I still managed to clean out my gastrointestinal tract, my cell phone contacts, and my checking account.

Can We Talk?

When the STP took the ice water plunge last week he took his phone along.  Even in my near death state I had enough sense to not ask (out loud) if he didn't think as he was turning around and clutching for the edge of the ice as he was going down about pulling his phone out of his pocket and hurling it back onto the dry ice.  
Lets back up.  Last summer on the tour training trip the STP put his phone in my bike bag.  In the same section where I put my cold water bottle.  Which sweated onto the STP's phone and fried it.  Which he thought was pretty much my fault.  Which I didn't quite see the same way.  My bottle in my bike bag was a problem for his phone?  We agreed to disagree about whose fault the fried phone was.  (Let's call this fried phone #1.) The STP used his free upgrade and several hundred more dollars and a $29.99 a month plan increase to replace his phone.  With a smart phone.  The STP wanted to know if I wanted to free upgrade my phone then, but I had barely had it two years and hadn't really learned how to use it yet.  And by use it, I mean sometimes I had trouble answering it, and the only way I knew to silence a call was to flip it open and then hang up on whoever was calling. 
So when the STP took his smart phone with him on the polar plunge last week (Lets call this fried phone #2 but since we are so glad the STP is ALIVE we are not going to assign blame for this one.  As long as its clear it was certainly not my fault.)  I let him use my upgrade.  So my free upgrade and $100.00 later the STP has a DROID.  Which is evidently even smarter and will do amazing things.  Like send and recieve FB messages from Obiwan. 
Okay, now back to this morning.  When the STP picks up clothes from the bathroom floor and starts a load of laundry.  Which includes the jeans I was going to rewear today.  The ones with my flipping cell phone still in the pocket.  Were my jeans in that load? 

Here is where I should insert the picture of my cellphone at the bottom of the washer under two inches of water at the beginning of the rinse cycle.  (Lets call this fried phone #3.)

But the STP and I were busy trying to decide whose fault this was. Mine for leaving my phone in my pocket near the laundry or his for picking up not quite laundry and not checking the pockets before starting the laundry.  There were a few tense moments.  Then we realized that a sunken cell phone was not the end of the world.  And neither of us said anything (out loud) that we will have to bring up at future counseling sessions. 
So the Goob gave me his upgrade, (which I combined with $0.00) and I have a new phone that has a slidey QWERTY keyboard.  And no contact information.  I explained to the helpful 14 year old salesclerk how I used my phone, and she spoke a little louder and slower, "Both my parents have this phone." And as soon as they make a phone that is smart enough to be WATERPROOF I will be happy to upgrade again.  In the meantime, we added the insurance to the STP's phone.  Because it is pretty clear who fries the most phones on our plan. 

Lets not miss the good news here.  There was enough room in my jeans pocket yesterday to comfortably carry my phone.  Am I having a good week, or what?

Back From The Brink With The Stewarts

I thought about just giving up my blog, but since you all have been clamouring and demanding new posts returning here day after day searching for meaning in your life blissfully unaware I had not posted in over a week wondering what could possibly have happened to me, I am going to just go ahead and tell you.  Let's start last Thursday.
The STP and the Goob were father-son bonding over some late afternoon ice fishing.  And I was baking chewy cherry chocolate chunk cookies from Martha Stewart's Living Magazine which I almost have a subscription to.  I decided not to renew my Better Homes and Gardens Magazine because Martha wrote and made me such a good offer.  And she was going to send me a free tote bag.  And her cooking magazine.  And it was an offer I could refuse just by writing 'cancel' on my bill if I wasn't totally satisfied.  But when the bill came Martha added a surprise 'shipping fee' which doubled the price of the offer.  And it seems to me that a mail subscription to a magazine should include the cost of mailing it.  So even though it was probably still a good offer, I had to write 'cancel' on the bill as a matter of principle and send it back to Martha.  So I only got one copy of Living and no tote bag.  But there was this one good cookie recipe I wanted to try, so I was trying it out for the Goob's class fundraiser bake sale.  And I may have eaten some raw cookie dough.  And I had a headache the size of a brain aneurysm and a slightly upset stomach.
Enter the STP who had fallen through the ice into the freezing ice water. With all his frozen clothes.  And his frozen fish.  And by the time he got home, I was almost too sick to care.  Too close to death myself to realize how close to death he had been.  So when the friend who pulled the STP out of the lake stopped by to see if he was okay, I graciously thanked him with a plate of chewy cherry chocolate chunk cookies.  I should probably mention that two years ago I had taken this man's first born son up on the mountain and involved him in a four wheeler accident that I still have parent guilt over, so now the STP and I are both in deep with this guy.  I almost killed your son and you saved my husband's life--how about half a dozen of Martha Stewart's February cookies?  I think I will have to offer him my first born son instead. 
This actually solves a problem the STP and I have been working on for over a year.  Our Last Will and Testament.  Our Current (Last) Will was crafted when we had three little girls.  I'm not sure who gets the kids, but I'm sure they did not even imagine the Goob when they agreed to take our kids in the unlikely case of the STP and I dying the same week.  They do not know how close we came this week.
My headache stayed for three days and my slightly upset stomach developed into an involuntary colon cleanse.  It was not a 'good thing'.   But while I was like Martha Stewart and the STP was like Jimmy Stewart (in It's A Wonderful Life) we both survived. 
But aren't you kind of curious if you're in our will?

Just a Heads Up

We had the head gasket replaced in the car yesterday.  Amidala says it is important to have your head gasket functioning properly because it keeps your minion gaskets in line.  (She has lived with her Pap several times throughout her life and obviously gets her vast car repair savvy from him.)

After All These Years

Finally after 35 Valentine's Days we have got this right.  The STP got me 1 ounce of French lettuce seeds .  Because he knows I've always wanted to go to France.  And since that is so not happening this year I can instead plant 60 square feet of 14 varieties of French lettuce.  Since I devote two of the sixteen square feet of my SFG to lettuce, that is enough for 30 plantings.  Magnifique!  
But that is not all.  No that is not all.  The STP took the other love of my life (The Goob) on the biannual Valentine's Day ice fishing trip today.  On the way back from the lake he stopped by the Cowboy Chocolatier and brought me home some fine Meeteetse Mud along with 6 fish.  Cause if there is one thing I like better than French lettuce it is Belgian chocolate. 
And speaking of two feet, lets talk briefly about my gift to the STP.  You must know here that I inherited my gift giving savvy directly from my Dad.  (There will be a chapter on this in one of the books.  I'm not sure if it will be in my Mom's book or my Dad's book, but I'm pretty sure there is enough material on this subject for two chapters.)  And remember that I also inherited his feet.  Dry scaley feet that snag blankets and make all pantyhose single use.  So as a gift to my dear husband, I soaked and sanded and creamed and emu oiled my feet until they were no longer like coarse sandpaper.  And then I painted all nine of my toenails bright red.  And I was pretty sure they were the sexiest two feet around.  Right up until I tried to take a picture to show you. 

And they looked kind of wrinkled.

And mishapen.
And it was hard to hide that one big toe.(But I'm not really ready to blog about the mower accident of '93.)

Close ups were no better. 
One foot no better than two.

And it went from bad to worse.  From ridiculous...

....to grotesque.

So I decided to share my chocolate with the STP.  And at the end of the day it was all good.
Its good to know that our love isn't based on gifts.  It is a gift.
Still love you, STP.  After all these years.

Glorious One

It was a dark and dreary morning.  It has been an especially long and cloudy winter. 
And as you probably already know it is not usually like that here.

You may also know that I have been enamored with sunrises, sunsets, moon halos and eclipses.  This past year was full of the most spectacular displays in the sky above my head.  And I have marvelled at the magnificence of the celestial bodies and the God who created them and holds them in place.  But Monday, on my way to work, I was listening to Steve Fee's song "Glorious One".  And I wasn't just listening.  I was singing along with reckless abandon like I can only when I am alone in my car on a deserted stretch of highway in the middle of nowhere.  (I think I will be able to sing like this in heaven, only better.  Surely with my glorified new body I will get a glorified new voice as well.  Although I think my heavenly Father is pleased to hear me sing His praises even with my less-than-glorified voice.  Kind of like how moms are happy to get a handful of dandelions from their kids.)  Anywho, as I was listening and singing, God Himself was providing the background visuals to the lyrics.  And even though the day was cloudy in the east and I could not see the sunrise, the sky in the west  opened up and the sun shone down in shades of pink and lit up the snow covered mountains.  Like God Himself doing the worship powerpoint.





Glorious One

Glorious One

Light of the world

You outshine the sun

And I was reminded that God is greater than, more magnificent than, in fact, outshines, the sun.  What a great God. 

Our hands are lifted high

our hearts are bowing reverence

and we're surrounded by

the glory of Your presence

While my heart was reverent, I kept both eyes on the road and I only lifted one hand at a time. 

With every heart that's been redeemed

we're lifting our song to the Glorious King

But I lifted my song and I set it on repeat.

With every creature every tongue

We're lifting our voice to the Glorious One

And I think the rocks on the mountaintops were crying out as well.  It was just that kind of morning.
On my way home it was snowing and blowing like crazy and I was listening to "Jesus Paid It All"

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

White as snow, white as snow.  I was going to take my snowflakes down off the porch today, but I decided to leave them a few more weeks.  As a right-out-there-in-front-of-God-and-everyone reminder of how great my God is.

O praise the One who paid my debt

And raised this life up from the dead

Valentine's Contest

The Dodge City Gazette has a Valentine's Day contest with great prizes.  You have to identify baby/childhood pictures of several couples from town.  (Young people ((like myself!))who are new to town are at a definate disadvantage.)  Last year I did not play.  This year I did.  I interviewed people at Dodge City Federal S&L.  I asked people at church.  I changed my answers several times.  Basically, I cheated.  But by Monday morning I had it ready to turn in.  The only problem was that the Gazette office opens at 9:00am and the contest closed at 4:00pm.  And I worked out of town from 8:00am to 4:30pm.  Normally, I would ask the STP to run this errand for me, but he was still in a state of PSD (Post Superbowl Depression) so I was just going to drop it in the mail slot on my way out of town Monday morning.  Only, go figure, the Gazette does not have a mail drop. 
Being the resourceful person I am, and determined to actually enter the contest, I dropped my entry into the night drop at the bank instead.  Because that is the benenfit of living in a small town.  So my wonderful co-worker at the bank dropped off my entry on her lunch break.  And if I win, I am taking her to dinner. 
Winners could be annnounced in this week's Gazette.  What with that and girl scout cookies being delivered this month, I have a lot to look forward to.

February's Project Circa 2009

Some projects take longer than others.  I finally put some of the Queen of Queens' wedding pictures together and had them printed into a shutterfly book. Just took me a little over three years.  Here is my wedding advice:  get some good pictures. I have already finished my February project.  It was only two years in the making.  Two summers ago I bought an old window from the Shell Community Hall.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  Over time I have had several ideas.  From simply using it as a picture frame to suspending it from the ceiling over my pony wall.  (Even though I don't have a pony wall.)  Then I got the map idea. 

First I had to procure the maps.  From a map lover who has had them since the 1980's.  And then I had to cut them up to fit the window panes.

There was something about cutting the maps that felt sacrilegious--something akin to cashing in my savings bonds.  (Gosh, I love my Dad.)  Once I had my western map I had this Bonanza moment where I felt the need to burn something, so I burned the edges of the map scale.  And I added some big horn sheep photos.

And a few coat and hat hooks.

And then I had the STP attach it to the wall. And voila!

A place for the STP to hang his hat. And a project finished.

The fact that I got to use both my sander and a paintbrush is just a bonus.

January's Project Circa 2007

Click here to view this photo book larger

3/24 Reduced to 1/8

Finished my library book.  (Cold days are good for reading.) Blink.  A quick read about thinking quickly.  Not sure what I thought about it although it did prompt me to think about how I think and how I make decisions.  And whether or not I really like Pepsi better than Coke. 
Moving on to Francis Chan's Forgotten God.

Avoiding Fines

Today I went to my public library with my library card and checked out a book.  I tell you this so you can remind me to return it in two weeks.  Thanks.

Booyah!

Weather for Dodge City, WY


-25°F
Current: Clear
Wind: E at 4 mph

Not celebrating the temperature, but am celebrating the miracle that my car started this morning.