What Goes Around

We have had a wonderful April with cooler than normal weather. But now it is hot! Today must have been 150 degrees! Well, maybe that is not quite right, but it might as well be that hot. I think the computer said it was 103 degrees, which is only 39.5 for those who only know celsius. I think 103 sounds much hotter. I always have a hard time at the beginning of the hot season. My body takes a long time to adjust to the heat. So today I turned the a/c on and brought a mattress into the dining room (where the a/c was) and just laid there for a while. I won't tell you how long. Micah and his friends were in the front room without a fan even on. I went out there and asked them if they needed it. They didn't sound like they cared, but I turned it on anyway. Then one of them said that it hurt his wasp bite to have the wind blow on it, so I turned it off and laid back down in the other room. The mattress was hot! It seemed like it could burst into a flame. Then I thought ...

Yesterday, Micah and friends colored Easter eggs. Today they were hid and the kids found them. For some reason, I took two of them to church with me. I don't know why, but Micah didn't want to eat these two. So I thought, "I will give them to the beggar kids on the way to church." But whenever we bring food to give to the kids, there aren't any. So ended up with them at church. Luckily, our church is next to a small slum area. There are always kids playing outside the church. So I just had to go give the eggs away. I saw a small group of boys playing with sticks and decided to give them the eggs. I made the mistake of asking, "who wants eggs?" So all the boys ran over to me with my two eggs in my hand. They all grabbed them and squished them out of my hand. Seriously squished eggs. One kid tried to eat some of the squished egg but then decided to throw it at his friend instead. I walked away a little amused and a little annoyed.

I am learning to juggle. It seems that a lot of skateboarders (I know of two or three) are also jugglers, so since I am learning to skateboard I also thought I should learn to juggle.

I signed up for a Twitter account a few days ago. I wanted to see what was so cool about it. Turns out that it is stupid. But I am still Twittering to see if it gets fun after a while or something. I think I need to take a Twitter course or at least listen to a Twitter tutorial. Maybe then I will understand why I need a Twitter account.

Over the years, Steve's dad has had many cars. I think there is a different car each time we come for a visit. I remember one time that he told us he was trying to cut down on the car expense so he sold one expensive car and bought two old Mercedes (I think that is right). We were always shocked at the cars, which were almost always nicer than any car we ever dreamed of having. On one of our trips to visit Steve's parents, we were surprised to be picked up at the airport in a new, red Dodge Ram truck. This was a big truck with the four wheels in the back (if I remember correctly). We climbed in and I am pretty sure I had to sit on the back bench seat thing that is smaller than the backseat of a Pinto. He needed a truck because, 1. men like trucks. 2. he hauls things. and 3. he just got a boat so he needed something to pull it with. On this particular trip we were lucky enough to be invited to go to Mexico with Steve's parents to a resort. So after a very stressful da...

I have been doing the workout by Jillian Michaels lately instead of my P90X. I just finished an hour workout and feel great. I will get back to P90X again because I like the muscle building in it, but it is nice to have a change. Micah has developed a fear recently. His fear is that I am going to have a heart attack while I am working out. Several people we know have died in the last couple of months from heart attacks, so I think his fear comes from that. So now when I work out he asks me how to do CPR. He wants to be in the same room as I am when I work out so he will see me collapse and be able to revive me. So I tell him how to do CPR because I really don't want to die either. Micah has a heart valve issue that isn't serious. A few years ago he found out about it while we were at the dentist's office. I am suppose to let the dentist know about the issue so that they can prescribe antibiotics if they think he needs it. I guess one of the complications could be ...

I am reading a book (that is on my bedside table and I am too lazy to get up to look at the title) about 4 women from the Bible. One is Rahab that prostitute who hid the spies of Jericho. I also just recently listened to a sermon on Ruth, preached by my dad. As I finished the chapter on Rahab, it ended by saying that she is the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth. I had never connected them before. The sermon on Ruth talked about the faithfulness of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. Boaz must have been a God-fearing, or at least a law-following man. He kept part of his field for the poor to harvest and he married Ruth, his dead relative's wife. So Boaz was probably raised by parents who were God followers. Then I read about Rahab and how she was the mother of Boaz. So here is this woman who was "grafted" in to the people of God. She must have given herself fully to the law to raise her son to be the man Boaz. I think of the girls we hope to help at Courage Homes who have been f...

There are three ways to leave the house. One is to think through all the things you need for the day and walk around gathering the stuff before you walk out the door, often running here and there as your think of more things. Two is the way Steve does it. He says good-bye and wonders around the house, says a few more "good-byes" or "I'm leaving" and continues to gather his stuff. Once he leaves I have to get up and lock the door. But I often times don't get up right away, because this second kind of leaving means that you leave two times. He usually comes back for something he has forgotten. If I lock the door too quickly, I will have to get up again to let him in. The third way of leaving is the way I do it. I get my stuff together and walk out the door. Once I pass through the door I don't come back. If I forgot something (and I usually have) it is just "sorry Charlie" for me. I get to the car and realize it would be nice to have s...

Not one of my best moments. I was riding in the car with some friends when we came to an intersection with street kids. There were about three boys who appeared high. They weren't begging, they were just being irritating. One pretended to hit the window with his stick in his hand. Another opened the driver's door. Then he called me a dog. I reacted immediately with, "No, you're a dog!" It came out as trying to be funny, partly, but also with anger. Mostly anger I guess. Why is it that my Tourettes hits when I am with people? Now I will probably be fired from my job with trafficked girls.

Yesterday I and my friend Chrissy went to have an Indian experience of a pedicure. I had never gone to the local beauty parlor so I thought this would be a good chance to try it out and see how good it is. We walked up to the very small shop and there were three ladies sitting outside on the massage table/bed thing. I asked if we could have pedicures and they started scrambling to help us. They had to clean off the chair on the inside of the shop and make room for another chair to be brought in. The day before, the shop had been painted with some strong smelling paint and everything was out of place. There were boxes of old supplies everywhere. So we sat down while the ladies looked for buckets for our feet to go in. They dug through bags to find their files and soap. I really wanted to walk out and go somewhere else, but I hate making people feel bad by saying that their business is gross, so we stayed. We thought we would just get high off the paint and not care anyway. The ...