Strange But True Pictures

Amazing height differences. I'm wearing 2 inch heels, so that's not exactly my height, but Ruth would still look like a midget even without them, bless her little heart! And Kristin will still look tall no matter what shoes she wears.

You've heard of the white stag, but have you heard of the white-eyed stag? Well, there he is!

Midnight Adventures

My friend Kristin from Canada arrived yesterday, partly because we're singing for a wedding tonight and partly just to visit. So we got home pretty late from the rehearsal dinner and visiting with some other friends. We assumed we'd just go to bed, little knowing all the adventures the night would hold!

It started with the spider in the bathroom. I rarely have spiders in my bathroom. This was a strange looking spider with funny little antennae (Kristin accidentally called them antlers) in the front. We watched him crawl all over the bathroom, exclaiming over his scariness and deciding what to do. I finally took the bull by the antlers, so to speak, and squashed him into a pancake over the shower.

"Goodnight!" Doors close.

MEOW!!

I went outside to call Cheeky in, but he didn't come, and his meow sounded kind of distant. Kristin came out and we discovered he was on the roof. I've never seen him on the roof before. There he was with the backdrop of the starry night, meowing away, looking very worried. I thought he would figure out how to get down the way he got up, which was probably one of the side fences, but it seemed to be too far down for him. I tried coaxing him down, but to no avail. I finally went into my dad's shop, got a big ladder, and set it up near the roof. This was in sight of the road, and about 11:45, but wouldn't you know, that just as I mount the ladder in my flaming red pajamas, someone drives by! Aaaagh! I think they slowed down a little too. But I proceeded up, and after a little resistance, grabbed Cheeky and descended. He didn't even say thank you.

We put the ladder back and went to the back door. It was closed and locked. I learned this morning my mom had come out to find the door open and lights on and just went ahead and locked them without seeing where we were! Fortunately, a side door of the garage was open and we stumbled through the dark and dangerous garage to safety at last. Phew! What adventures!

"Goodnight!"

Then I started wondering if maybe a bad guy had snuck in the house and locked it after us and was at that moment lurking somewhere. So I started looking around, not finding anything. Kristin came out of her room, declaring there was a wasp in her room. There's never a wasp in that room. I gave her the fly swatter and we discussed who was going to kill it. She did, since I had killed the spider.

By now it was about midnight and we really did say goodnight for the last time! I went to bad laughing to myself over all the strange adventures of one midsummer night.

Things Kids Know

Have you ever noticed how most children seem to just know or do certain things, seemingly without any instruction? It's like they're born already "wired" for kid behavior. Here are a few examples that came to mind:

o Able to sing "Ring-a-Round-a-Rosy"
o Those little hand clapping games (this would be girls around 8 or 10 years old.)
o "I'm gonna te-ell!!"
o Fixation with macaroni and cheese
o Nose picking
o Knows how to play Marco Polo in pools
o "Are we almost there?"
o Quickly spot cheating, lying, and tattletaling in other kids
o Fear of spiders (usually girls)
o Fascination with reptiles (usually boys)
o The more noise the better!

Aren't kids great? :-) A few weeks ago I found myself actually missing my school kids. Teaching does have its perks.

Randomness

Okay, here's a random little post of random tidbits of my life.

My mom has been gone since Tuesday and returns this Tuesday. She's visiting my grandma in NH, plus of course those little grandkids of hers. We miss her and she misses us. Truly a mother is the heart of the home! When she's gone, there's just something missing. And I'm not talking about the cooking and cleaning aspect (though that's a bonus!). I miss her soft motherly hugs (my dad definitely feels different), cheery good mornings, bustling around the kitchen, taking time to listen when I need to talk something out, and all those other things mothers are known for.

The weather has been beastly hot the past few days, usually around 100 degrees. I don't think the house has gotten below 80 for days. Very few people have air conditioners around here. We have ceiling fans in several rooms, which have limited value. Today I felt infinitely better after a dip in the pool.

Speaking of pools, I had to rescue our poor pool on Friday morning. My dad had filled it up rather fullish the previous evening. I came out Friday morning just after he'd left to discover the pool about as high as my knee and still spilling over one side. The inflatable ring at the top which basically holds the thing up has a little leak in it, plus the pool is lopsided, so it just couldn't hold all that water. Now I have this strange phobia of pools, drains, plumbing, and that sort of thing, so I really didn't want to deal with it, but alas, we had company coming and my dad was gone. So I finally swallowed my fears and bolstered up enough Yankee spirit to inflate the ring with a ShopVac (another scary creature) and then fill up the pool for several hours. I didn't dare fill it up very high, so the water only comes up about three feet. Yeehaw.

And who was this company? For those who checked a certain Rhode Islander's blog, you'll know it was the Paul Browns! I sweated through the day cleaning the whole house, watering, making two raspberry pies, and a chicken salad. They came for dessert. It's so weird to see people here that I always see at Fairwood! They were rather weary from their travels so they didn't stay long, but we had a pleasant visit. They were still deciding what they were going to do each day, and not coming to any definitely conclusions that I could tell. I do know they went to the Red Sox/Mariner's game in Seattle today. Bless their hearts -- I hope they didn't melt in the heat!

Yesterday I played at an outdoor wedding. The ceremony was outdoors. It was a lovely somewhat shaded lawn, but it was still drippy hot. The groom and other men looked very uncomfortable in their long-sleeved shirts and ties and dark pants. Man, I'm glad I'm not a man! Not that I wasn't hot, but at last I could wear short sleeves and no socks! The reception was at a club, which was not air conditioned. Alcohol was flowing freely and I was asked several times if I wanted something from the bar. Hmm...I didn't say this ("Water is fine, thank you," is what I really said.), but even if I weren't a conscientious teetotaller, wouldn't it be kind of dangerous to give a harpist alcohol? What would it do to the music?? AND I'd have to drive home afterwards. What superfluous nonsense alcohol is! It stinks and it turns people into such idiots. Fortunately, we Christians have the Holy Spirit instead! How wonderful to be at Christian gatherings where joy and laughter and peace abound -- without any alcohol! Ahem, okay, enough of the temperance speech there.

Blonde Moment?

I heard on the news last week about a woman who called 911 to get in touch with a cute deputy she'd met when he answered a disturbance complaint. Apparently she had no idea that there would be anything illegal or stupid about this call. She did meet the deputy again -- when he came to arrest her. I bet she didn't think that little call would lead to some jail time! The moral of the story? Don't call 911 unless it's an emergency!

Lavender Craze

Today we went to a lavender festival in the little town of Sequim, which is about two hours northwest of us. We visited various farms which had tons of lavender growing, as well as little tents of stuff for sale. The place with the barn had a square dance going on. No, I didn't join. They looked like they really knew what they were doing. Most of the ladies were wearing short poofy skirts which had the strange effect of making their waists look big and their legs skinny. Interesting. Another place where I picked a bouquet of lavender had this annoying rocky funky band playing the most repetitive, grating non-music. Definitely not my idea of lavender friendly music! The actual town of Sequim had a whole street lined with tents selling everything from lavender stuff to crafts to food to harps to paintings. The usual street fair stuff. There were a lot of people there. But I'm proud of myself -- I only bought the bouquet I picked! The real treat was seeing those beautiful rows of lavender and smelling their delicate fragrance on the breeze.

Moonlight

Even my basic camera caught some of the magnificence of this full moon from our back yard.

How I Yielded to Temptation (and Survived to Tell the Tale)

Every morning this week I've peeled myself out of bed early in the morning and left home by 7:30 for the hour and 10 minute commute (each way) to the Christian camp where I've been teaching music. I've been teaching about 40 8-12 year-old girls. I get them in four installments, and then all together, to make up a total teaching time of three hours. I'm kind of exhausted at the end, but overall, I think it's gone very well and I've discovered how much I love this particular age group of girls. They can so much fun.

Well anyway, that's not what this is about. Every morning I have to drive by our local Krispy Kreme. And every morning the hot donut light is on! And several times lately I've come home in the evening to see it lighted. I sit at the light right near the place and fancy I can smell donuts in the air. Now, I'm not a donut freak and I rarely go in there, but just the very thought of one of those hot, succulent, glazed donuts sets my mouth watering.

Today after camp I went straight to teaching lessons. My lunch in the car consisted of a pitiful P&B sandwich and a banana. By the time I left teaching around 5:45, I was very hungry, tired, and crabby. I came on the busy road where the Krispy Kreme is and found my van moving into the lane on that side. I think it was checking to see if the light was on. It was!! I can be dreadfully indecisive at times, but this wasn't one of those times. I helped my van turn into that parking lot, stilled my faintly twinging conscience, and marched right into that KK! I got my free donut and ordered 6 more (to share with my family of course!). I consumed that donut and another one on the way home. I let out a sigh of pure satisfaction and felt myself smiling like the Cheshire cat. The sky seemed a little brighter gray, my blood sugar rose a couple notches (along with my fat cell content), and my whole outlook on life improved! Praise the Lord for donuts!

Doings

Fourth of July was not very exciting around here, but you know what, it was okay! We were productive in our various pursuits, then had a tasty dinner, and a marvelous raspberry pie drizzled with chocolate -- mmmm! At about 9:30 we were still debating whether we were going to overcome our inertia to go see fireworks in town, or whether we'd just watch them on TV (am I getting old or what?). Of course, we really only had to look out the windows to see all the neighborhood displays. I love that distinctly American, friendly, homey feeling on the 4th of July when families and friends get together and enjoy fireworks. Well, we did end up going down town for fireworks and enjoyed numerous amateur displays on the way. The "real" fireworks didn't start until about 10:30 and lasted a little too long, but aside from a horsetrailer parking right next to our car from which we were viewing (they moved at our outcry) and an either drunk or possessed woman also parking next to us, it was a fun evening!

I took an English Literature test this week and passed, praise the Lord! More college credits -- yea!

My dad has been in NH for the weekend attending a family reunion with his brothers and sisters and other assorted relatives, including Jill and Evan, of course. I'm glad he got to go. Yesterday my mom and I attended the wedding of my good friend Chris R. Some of you may know him from playing at Jill's wedding and being the accompanist on my CDs. I was honored to play the harp prelude for the wedding. There were so many people there we knew! It was like a big jolly reunion. The weather was perfect, the bride and groom looked beautiful, everything was elegantly decorated, the food was delicious, and hmm, what else? It was just a day to get married, I guess!

This week I'm teaching music at a girls' camp in the mornings. I'm not totally sure what to expect, but it should be fun. The camp is a bit of a jaunt, so I have to get up pretty early every morning. Not cool in summer!

TTFN!

Happy Independence Day!

This was my patriotic creation for a picnic we went to on Saturday. That was our celebration for the holiday, I think. We don't have anything exciting planned for tomorrow. We were going to go to the beach with Lori's family, but they're doing something with their church. So...we'll enjoy the nice weather, eat good food, and go downtown to watch fireworks. Saturday was an all day affair for homeschool families (many large ones!), which included tons of food, game relays (like the sack race and tug-o-war), volleyball, a pie contest (51 pies! I helped serve the judges and it must have been close to 3 hours), skits, singing, and fellowship, of course. I got hit in the head two or three times by a ball of some sort. Once was a volleyball that slammed me in the sunglasses, leaving a little mark. That'll teach me to be ready for a spike! I survived, though. :-)