WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?

Eight be-goggled, totally camoed fifth grade boys, seven AirSoft Rifles/Pistols, one VERY loud and annoying whistle. That lasted one hour; then they came inside. AHHH!

Seven large pizzas and four two liters of Mountain Dew later, we delve into the lavishly frosted Cookie Cake. Then, there are Oreos--handfuls--Warheads, sour strings and sour jelly beans; I'm sure this will lead to at least one sour stomach tonight.

There is boy stuff EVERYWHERE--stinky shoes, half eaten food, things you don't want to know.

It smells like wet dog. Don't know why I "refreshed" the carpet today. DUH.

Somebody brought a Wii game system; turns out, it's not so Wee! Lot of money for such little thrills.

Played a Crossword Puzzle for a prize--Whoopi Cushion, of course. It was quiet for five minutes until they all forfeited. I'm such a NERD!

"Lord of the Rings" will quiet them down, right? Please, Lord.....

Back outside after dark to play Flashlight Tag. Yay, some peace and quiet for me--poor neighbors; dogs are barking everywhere.

I hear rumbling of tummies and something about Shaving Cream and snoring. No sleep for the weary tonight.

Oh my gosh, WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!? I think I'm gonna' faint.

Boys are so much more up-and-down energy than girls; girls just won't shut up.

11AM cannot come too soon.

I just heard, "This is an awesome party. Thanks, Mrs. Porter."

Awesome Mom! Awesome Mom!

Note to self: plan a practical joke on the dad who gave them all a Vault to drink on the bus ride back from field trip today.

No School. Field trip. Vault. Cake. Oreos. Candy. Mountain Dew. Long night ahead.

Somebody, please help me.

LA FEMME LIT

Translated from the French, meaning "The woman reads."

If you are a woman and you are reading this, repeat, "la femme lit".

Anna is learning some French during her Activity Period at school.

I don't know when she started this elective because it is March and this is the first test I've seen for the class.

I knew she talked about learning some French in the class, but I thought they just dabbled in a few phrases.

Obviously, a faux pas.

Wonder what the phrase is for, "The mother is clueless"?

POPPING BUBBLES, PART II

Comment from Popping Bubbles, Part I:

tammi said...
Hmmmmm....I'll be interested to see where you're going with this.I remember hearing both of those stories when I was growing up - in Sunday school or at my Christian school, but I can't remember which one I heard first. Although the story that I heard about the little boy stopping on command had something to do with him almost being run over by a train, or something about being bitten by a crocodile - I'm not sure which - I can't really remember.I'm going to guess that you heard the drunk-driver story as a 3rd grader, considering that it's a little more simplistic in theme than than the story about the kid obeying his mother's command to stop. Actually, it's not really...so I don't really know.But that's my guess and I'm sticking to it.

Funny, this was the exact response I thought that I may receive--many people growing up in Christian homes/schools that had heard the same story, tweaked just a tad. The "tweaked" facts in this/these stories are of no relevance because it's the moral that is important to the narrator(s).

This is the moral of the "Bible-story lesson," as I remember it being communicated from the narrator(s):

Teacher: If the little boy had not obeyed his mother, what would have happened?

Children: The boy would have died.

Teacher: Yes! Most likely. That is why you should always obey, right when you are told.

Children (in head): If I don't obey, I could die.

Statistic: "A child's belief system (and worldview) is set by the age of only 13; after age 13, it is rare to change what one believes".

As I said, I was in first grade when told the story of the little boy and the venomous snake by my white-haired, small-framed, 60-something teacher. I was new to the school, having attended my neighborhood public school the year previous, of which I don't remember much but kissing a boy I liked on the cheek, playing in "centers," the happy, chatty, bouncing children with whom I rode the bus and my nice teacher hugging me occasionally (even though I cannot remember her face).

I also don't remember much about my first grade year--recess, my best friend and the thing that made me panic inside-messing up, i.e. : not sitting up straight enough in my chair, not folding my hands on my desk, not standing in a PERFECTLY straight line, being silent at lunch, not having my homework pad signed, forgetting my books and/or homework. Why would these childish behaviors make me panicky? Because if I didn't do these things, exactly perfect, day in and day out, I would be scolded in front of the whole class and to me, that was the worst thing that could happen.

I was painfully shy and I was an oldest child.

Being an oldest child, I was automatically predisposed to try to live up to everyone's expectations and make everyone happy and I didn't like confrontation. Being shy made my childhood even more difficult because if I was called out in class, it totally humiliated AND embarrassed me. I avoided confrontation and attention, at all costs. I realize now, it cost me alot.

So, in my little first grade, seven-year old head, I subconsciously decided that I HAD to be perfect. I obeyed. I did not question with my mouth, nor did my mind even think about questioning what I was told. I listened as intently as a child does, I took it all in as a child's mind does, and I believed it all, as a child does.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how this affected my whole life.

POPPING BUBBLES, PART I

Please be in prayer for a family, Billy & Donna are the parents. Billy was flown home from serving in Iraq this weekend as his son was one of the eight children killed by the tornado that struck the high school in Enterprise, Alabama. The son's name was Mikey. He has two older sibilings. That's all I know about the family; our S.S. class has a YahooGroup that sends out prayer requests, etc. and this was sent out by a member of our class, who are best friends with the family--alot of the families were military and many are getting ready to move to Huntsville per BRAC. Be in prayer for them and all those affected by Mother Nature--many, many people in many states lately.

So, I started writing this blog in my head several weeks ago. As you may have noticed, I blogged the title but nothing else b/c I knew it wasn't going to be a one-blog, blog.

The "popping bubbles"analogy will be, at its simplest, a testimony of the last few years of my life's journey; it was a whirlwind and set all my preconceived notions of what being a Christian meant, spinning. I had been frustrated, depressed and discontented with life but I did not know why; however, the Lord did. He, therefore, devised a plan and plotted a journey, on my sole behalf I believe, to take our family to places and people that opened my eyes to many the "Christian" lie.

I believe that there are many out there like I...possibly a whole generation. They need answers to questions, but they don't know the question; they need solutions to problems, but they don't know the problem, they just know somethin's not right. I call them, "Fear Christians," and most have been burned...not by hell's fire but by hell's favorite converts.

Interested, yet?

Stick with me--I'll try to post everyday and keep the interest level high. I would love comments.

Today, I'll start with an elementary-level story:

There once was a little boy that was outside playing and his mother was watching over him from the back door. He thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of sliding down and then climbing up his newly purchased sliding board.

Suddenly, his mother stepped closer to the door and focused her eyes toward the bottom of the slide where Junior was about to collide with a venomous snake. With no time to lose, Mother quickly pulled open the door and shouted, "Junior, stop, don't move!"

Junior stopped, he didn't move...he obeyed his mother, without question.

He was spared certain death at the fangs of a deadly snake.

The end.

Here's the Middle High/Senior High version:

There once was a girl and she was good; she never went to parties, didn't drink or smoke, was a good student and did what her parents told her.

One night, she had a moment of weakness and decided to disobey her parent's wishes. While sleeping over at a friend's house, she attended a party and there, of course, was drinking.

She immediately became uncomfortable and decided that it was time to leave. She got into a car with her friends to start towards home. The driver had been drinking.

A few miles from home, they crossed the median and struck another car, head-on.

The teenagers were all flown to the hospital in grave condition and when the good girl reached the hospital and was lying on her deathbed, she asked the nurse to tell her parents that she was sorry. The nurse just leaned down and kissed her cheek and then the girl died.

Another nurse, witnessing this scene, asked, "Why didn't you tell the girl you would give her parents the message so that she could die in peace?"

"Because, her parents are dead; the car they hit was carrying her parents--they were out looking for their daughter."

The end.

These are two different stories. One I read recently on a website and the other I was told when I was in school. Which one, you ask?

I was first grade.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how this affected my whole life.

WHEN THE HUBBY'S AWAY....

I DON'T SLEEP.

If you've been reading my blogs for awhile, you know I don't sleep well anyway, and not for nearly as long as the human body needs to stay healthy and function at the top of the game.

But, it's even worse when "He" is not here, thank goodness he's not gone long...or often.

I could be watching TV but why when there's GoogleVideo?

I thought now would be a good time to give you "lurkers" (people that read but don't comment) and "what-iffers" (people that WANT to click on my blog links to see where it takes them, but are just afraid of "what if") a quick Bloggin' 101...for dummies--sorry, I couldn't resist :0)

First, just about everything that is posted on any of my (or other's) blogs will take you somewhere else, if you'll just "click."

By anything posted, I mean anything on any post on my blog. For instance:
1) go to the right-hand side and scroll down a little to: Be Bored No More...
2) look at which "link" looks interesting to you, and click it
3) this will take you into the blog or website for that link
4) to get back to my blog, just click "back" like you normally would on any website

Now, just like my blog, anything you click on anyone else's blog, will take you further.

Some blogs are full of links to commercial websites and then some are what I call "normal" and look alot like mine--just people out there blogging for their sanity and the community with other bloggers.

There is an infinite number of blogs out there and you could literally spend eight hours a day on your computer and still be "swimming" out there. It's interesting to see what's out there; I recently happened onto a blogging community of believing women and many of them own their own businesses and work from home--I have them on my blog.

Be warned, that not all the links on my blog are G-rated and some promote beliefs a little out there for me, but I like to see what's happening, nonetheless. I daily catch an emergent church blog even though I'm not sure where I stand on it yet, just getting information...the people are definitely real, not your standard plastic, smiling church Ken and Barbie-types standing under the big, white steeple. I like real "church" people.

That's another blog for another time.

Remember that nobody can get your personal info unless you give it to them and they cannot track back to your email address or anything like that.

Try my blog out first, if you haven't already, until you get comfortable enough to go lurking elsewhere. Click on anything and everything and see where you go--remember, just click "back" to get back to the main blog. You can see my profile, past blogs and the comments made about them. Soon, I hope to have more "stuff" on my blog (like my Ebay auctions) but I'm still a dummy, as well.

So go have fun, be a bloggin' voyeur; just be warned, you may very well get addicted.