Remembering Summers Past

The school year is coming to an end for alot of those around me. High school graduations are taking place and elementary school kids are counting down the days till summer officially starts for them. For some kids in the area this wont happen for a couple of more weeks because of all the snow and ice we had earlier this year. For some parents its a time of sadness because they are seeing their babies grow up, for others its a time of happiness for the same reason.

This time last year I was feeling the same mix of emotions as the Guitar Man was graduating high school.

A young mother from my church made the comment this morning that she was excited that today was her oldest sons last day of kindergarten and she couldn't wait to officially get the summer started but this afternoon she was singing another tune as she realized her little man was now a 1st grader.

When my boys were young out of school for summer break was some of the best times for me. I love being a mom and for me when they started school it was like a piece of me was missing and I couldn't wait till they got home. When school was out is when summer officially began for me. Sleeping late, watching TV, eating when we got hungry instead of on a schedule, staying up late just because we could, trips to the pool, playing in the sprinkler, chasing down the ice cream truck as it went through the neighborhood.

One of my favorite memories took place probably 6 years ago. The kids were maybe in middle school and Jr. high. It was late in the summer and in the south that means 110 degrees with a heat index of 120, humidity so high you cant even breath if you go outside, and not a rain cloud in site. But on this one day it was raining so we stayed in the house all day. I don't think any of us even got dressed that day. We found something on TV to watch, there was a TAPS marathon on so we huddled under blankets and watched the TAPS team look for ghosts all day. No fighting or arguing, and if you have kids 17 months apart you know how rare that is, just enjoying the day. That seems like such a long time ago, my baby faced little boys curled up on the couch with me enjoying a summer day...

Not alot has changed since then. The boys have continued to grow up, but I still look forward to summers with them, and we are still enjoying the same things. Sleeping in, late nights, swimming, and snow cones. OK so they don't have much time for mom any more but I'll take what I can get for as long as I can get it and I'll enjoy every second of it knowing it wont last forever because they are growing up and eventually(a long long....LONG time from now) will have families of their own. I only hope that when they do have families of their own they remember their childhood summers and try to have as much fun with their kids as they did when they were little.

But for now I'm going to enjoy them while I have them and cram as much summer fun in as I passably can.

Crazy Weather

I know for some of us living in the south we are not strangers to severe storms this time of year. I have lived in this area my entire life and I have never experienced weather like we have been having for the past 12-24 months.

 We have had snow in March, deadly tornadoes in December, and torrential rainfall that has caused flooding all through the south.

I personally have spent the past several days glued to any source of weather information I could find just to keep up with the locations of the storms and try to decide if they were going to effect my family. I am so very thankful that my family is safe, my parents had some damage a couple of nights ago from strong winds causing a trampoline to go flying but they slept right through it and were unaware of the damage until the next morning.

I see the devastation all over the news and my heart breaks for those people. Although I don't know what it feels like to go through a traumatic event like a tornado and having your home destroyed around you, I do know what it feels like to have lost everything you have because of mother nature and I know how hard it is to rebuild. At the time you are just thankful to be OK and to have your family with you and know that you are safe but when the dust settles and things return to a new normal you start to realize the little things that you have lost; pictures of your children growing up that can not be replaced, school art projects, baby blankets that were made by grandparents that have passed away. You play the "I used to have..." game or in our case "before the house flooded..."game.

The people effected by the recent flooding and tornadoes need our help right now to recover but please remember to keep them in your prayers when the clean up is done and the news crews have left because that is when they will need it the most.

Doomsday....The End of The World......Or Not...

Clearly Harold Whatshisface doesn't have a very good track record, hes 0/2.

What surprises and shocks me is that people not only believed him but gave him money to advertise this so called Rapture....Domesday...end of the world....what ever you want to call it.

It makes me wonder if the people who gave him money even believe in God because if they did wouldn't they have read the Bible and know that no one knows when this is going to happen? Did Harold Whatshisface make any money off of this scheme of his? Or did he honestly think that in his engineer's mind that he could come up with a mathematical equation to predict Armageddon?

I saw a news report that aired tonight that was obviously recorded a couple of days ago. The reporter asked Harold Whatshisface if he would come back to do an interview Sunday and he said "I cant come back and talk to you Sunday because I wont be here".

In a way I feel bad for the guy, I really....REALLY...hope someone can get him to do an interview tomorrow.

*Whatshisface because I can't remember his name and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.

Movie Date

The Cable Guy actually got 2 days off in a row this week, that in itself is a rarity, so we put it to good use.

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm not big on going to movie theaters to see a movie simply because it cost so much, BUT on occasion I will splurge for something like a good Twilight Saga movie. I'm all about a mushy romance movie or a good comedy. Never will you see me in at a horror movie E.V.E.R. I will however pay full price (and sometimes more than once) to see any move that has Vin Diesel in it.

The Cable Guy being an amazing husband took me to see The Fast Five the other night. I LOVE all of the Fast and Furious movies (well except for the second one, it sucked) and this one did not disappoint. I think its the adrenalin rush combined with this that is the draw for me. I mean come on this much sexy in one place should be illegal....shouldn't it?

picture provided by google images

Anyway thats what I have been up to. What about you?

SO THANKFUL

So many things came into place over the past few days it could only be God taking care of us.

Every spring/summer since we moved into this house sparrows have nested had raised babies in the eave of our porch, this year there are two nests but for the past few days we have noticed that some of the eggs had fallen out of one of the nests. I figured it was from the horrific weather we have been having. We live in Arkansas so if you have watched the news at all over the past several weeks you know what the weather has been like. Torrential downpours, severe storms, and flooding.

  

the front of the house

water coming off the hill and down the driveway

the driveway

If you have read any of my posts in the past couple of days you know that my children have been in the process on coming home for the summer from college. Monday Guitar man and I spent the day getting him and his stuff home from school. When we got home we did what we usually do when we are loading and unloading their stuff. We put the dogs outside so we could leave the front door open as we brought everything in, making countless trips back and forth from the car to the front door into the house.

Late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Sax Man and Miss B decided to come home after Miss B got off work instead of waiting till later in the day. Needless to say I didn't know anything about it being told earlier in the day they wouldn't be home until sometime Wednesday so I didn't leave any lights on and locked the door. They don't have a key to the deadbolt so they had to call to wake me up and unlock the door in order to get in all the while standing in the dark at the front door.

The Cable Guy had to work late as usual Wednesday night so we were up late watching TV and just spending time together as a family. As we were getting ready for bed Sax Man decided he was going to set up his TV in his room but some of the cords had yet to be brought in and unpacked so he grabbed his keys, flipped the outside light on and went truckin' it out the door...or so he thought. For what ever reason he was looking down at the ground as he started out the door and RIGHT outside the door was a snake that lunged at him, close enough that it almost got in the house. As he jumped back and made an attempt to shut the door and took off screaming Miss B right on his heels....about this time I see what all of the commotion was as the door didn't get shut all the way I see the tail of the snake under the door and in the house, The Cable Guy yelling for someone to shut the door as hes trying to get his boots back on, I in what I'm sure would have been quite comical to anyone watching that wasn't experiencing it, in great hong kong fooey fashon kicked the door closed and proceeded to follow the kids earlier path screaming across the house and jumping on the couch! All of this happening in what seemed to be taking place in slow motion but really happening in just seconds.

The Sax Man ran to the garage while The Cable Guy was tying his boots and grabbed the shovel to hunt the offender down and take care of it properly...ya know...by chopping it up into unidentifiable pieces, which they did manage to do by the way.

In the aftermath as everyone was starting to calm down we realized that it was probably said offender who had gotten to the bird eggs which means it has been around the house for several days at least.

Only God could have orchestrated this so that no one got hurt. Keeping me and Guitar Man safe as we brought his stuff in and not letting anything in the house, keeping Sax Man and Miss B safe as they were standing in that exact spot less than 24 hours before, whatever prompted us to stay up late, and then send Sax Man outside at that very moment and warn him to look down before walking outside. We might never have known we were all in danger because it was poisonous we realized after the fact.

ONLY GOD! and again I am reminded how awesome he is, and so thankful for every blessing he bestows upon us.

SUMMER!

Well the summer has officially began...begun...whatever....here at the Mi Vida Loca and I could not be more happy!

All of my little ducklings are are home, at least for a couple of days; Miss B is going back to school for the summer until she transfers back here in the fall, Sax Man and Guitar Man are both home as well and I have to say my house is a flippin disaster right now but I don't even care. We will get it all put back together in due time. I'm just grateful for the time we will get to spend together.

Classes are out for me as well at least until the end of the month. I have decided to take a couple of classes this summer to help me stay on track since I had to cut back on hours. Official grades have not been posted yet but I'm not expecting any big surprises.

Looking forward to getting the pool fixed and spending some much needed time outside soaking up some vitamin D.

What are your plans for the summer? I would love to hear about them....leave me a comment and tell me all about them.

Osama bin Laden and my conflicted emotions

I was hesitant to even say anything about the death of Osama bin Laden but I feel the need to put pen to paper words to blog(?).

I'm having a lot of conflicting emotions about the whole situation and the more information that comes out in the news the more aggravated...frustrated....conflicted I become.

I realize for some this may bring some kind of closure but it wont bring back their loved ones that were wrongfully taken away from them and it wont take away that pain and loss. At the same time bin Laden was an evil man but but he was still a man; a man with a wife and family. Was it necessary for them to kill him in front of his family? I heard a report that his wife was also shot but not killed. Was it necessary to bury him at sea? I understand they, whoever "they" are, don't want to make it possible for a shrine to be built to him but was there no other way?

There has been little on the news about anything other than this topic for days. This in itself has me worried, are we so naive to think that there wont be some type of retaliation?

 And what effect does this have on those that did lose loved ones on 9/11 having to relive those memories and emotions and see the pictures all over again?

Everyone is all up in arms chanting U.S.A.  U.S.A. but a life has been lost and whether he was evil or not...

Will the soldier who took that life forever be seen as a hero or a villain and how will that effect him and his family?


Remember, Beloved, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked...   Ezekiel 18:23


‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
--Martin Luther King, Jr