You'd be Surprised.

You'd be Surprised.

My Friends

Now I know that if you are reading this, you are hoping that I will be talking about you in this posting, because you are my friend. But most likely, the people I talk about here are not going to be reading this posting. Sadly, we are no longer friends.

There was Joshua (I think that was his name) in kindergarten. He lived across the street from us on Maple Street. We played outside on Big Wheels and he had the cool pump scooter. This was decades before the scooter fad of these days. Life was good for us. Outside playing with friends without a care in the world.

Heike and I are still friends on Facebook. She was my grade school best friend. We rode our bikes to each others homes on weekends and in the summer. We played dress up, dolls, had sleep overs, and rode bikes together.

Yvonne also became a friend in grade school. She lived down the street with her dad. She had a hard life and was a bit odd. She was socially different. Her dad was abusive it seemed. He yelled and hit her. She liked coming to my house to play. Sometimes she would come up to our sliding glass door and stare in while we ate dinner. One thing I remember is that I prayed with her to accept Jesus as her savior.

There was a friend named Melissa in grade school who was the one I played dolls with the most. We would pretend to be pushing our baby carriage around the play ground. I suppose that means we just walked around with our hands in front of us and talking to our invisible babies. Great imaginations.

I wish I could go back in time and watch myself with my friends. As I watch Micah with his different friend playing, I imagine myself with my friends and the joy we had together. Life was so easy. Spending all day Saturday just playing with friends... that's the life.

Homework

Micah is doing homework right now. I'm not helping him because I will only cause us both to end up in tears. Actually, only he will be in tears because I don't cry. But I will have to eat the other half of the cinnomon roll if I'm not careful.

When I was Micah's age, I also fell apart when I was doing my homework. I would flop around and have no clue what I was suppose to be doing. My parents would help me. My sister seems to remember that my dad would end up doing part of my homework. I didn't believe that was true until now.

When I help Micah with his homework, I often times give in and start "helping" him too much. Like right now, he is trying to write an outline. I have already given him the topic sentence and have strongly encouraged him in the first point of the outline. I had to walk away because my sister's voice was in my head again saying, "Dad always did your homework." I want Micah to do his homework. Even if he ends up in tears.

So now Steve is out there with Micah helping him. I'm trying not to listen or offer advice. Oh, and I went to see if the other half of that cinnomon roll was there (I was actually going to eat it) and someone else beat me to it.

Half Broke Horses

I just finished reading Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls. Another great read by Jeannette. This is actually the story that is before her book Glass Castle. I enjoy her writing style and the characters in her family.

The main character is Jeannette's grandmother. The story follows her life on a ranch. She was an extremely hard worker and a big dreamer. She followed those dreams to move to Chicago, learn to drive, learn to fly, and to become a teacher.

This book, unlike the Glass Castle, did not remind me of my own life. But I imagine my dad would relate more to it, or my Grandparents. I loved seeing how smart the girl was and how tenacious. I would have loved to meet her and be friends with her. But I think I would have been too timid to hang out with her and go on her adventures. She could lasso a wild horse and ride the silly thing.

I highly recommend this book to all my friends.

Mrs. Nibbles

We are babysitting a hamster for some friends this week. Her name is either Mrs. Nibbles, Mrs. Wiggles, or Mrs. Giggles. I can't remember. Two days ago, Steve decided to let her run around the house. So he let her out and didn't watch where she went. So we lost her. We looked all through the house and couldn't find her anywhere. The problem is that hamsters sleep during the day.

So last night I told Steve that he should get up in the middle of the night and look for her since he is the one who lost her. He said he would. So sometime in the night, Steve got up and started to look. He found her within two minutes, hiding by his guitar. So he put her back in her cage and went to bed.

This morning I got up and noticed the cage was empty. Assuming that Steve didn't find her, I started looking a bit. Since she is active in the morning, I decided to turn on some lights to let her know to run around. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, she was sitting right outside the bathroom door. So I put her in her cage.

When Micah woke up, I told him I had found Mrs. Nibbles. He said, "Really? I thought Dad found her." Steve had already told Micah that he had found her, so he was confused that I had said that I had found her. So I asked Steve to tell me how he found her. It turns out that Steve found her but then didn't notice that the top of the cage, where the house usually fits, was open. So he put her in and she got out again, probably falling off the bookshelf that the cage is on.

Now Mrs. Nibble is found and glad to be in her cage with the water and food. And we are glad she is found so that we can return her safely to her owners. Next time we babysit, I hope they give us her ball to travel around in.

Getty Crafty

I have wanted to make something for a long time now. I decided I wanted to make pillow cushions out of old dupattas (scarves) since I have so many of those that don't really go with things, and I hate wearing them anyway. So I finally got my sewing machine out (thanks Caroline for the machine) and made cut up the dupattas and here is what I made. Warning to my family and friends: You may be getting cushion covers for Christmas. As with the stocking caps made a couple of years ago, I can't just stop at one.

Chai Time

Steve went shopping for tea and sugar this week. We go through so much sugar that it is scary. He decided to get the big bag of tea. I guess it is a good deal to get the big bag of things instead of the small bags. He also bought 1KG of sugar. When he got to the check-out counter they informed him that the big bag of tea also came with 2 bags of 1kg each of sugar. So the guy at the counter sent another guy to get the 2 bags of sugar. So Steve came home with three bags of sugar and one big bag of tea. Not sure why they just didn't give him one more bag of sugar since he had one already, but sometimes you just don't think straight.

Still Got It!

I few years ago, Steve and I went to some intense counseling. We needed it. But what is really a bummer is that we are not perfect yet. You would think that after all of that time and money that we could at least be perfect. But I have issues. And more than just issues of magazines. I still have problems. I still react badly to situations. I still put myself down. I still act like a parent to my husband. I still am a messed up person in an imperfect world.

I just wish I had all the money I spent on counseling so I could buy something to celebrate my humanity.

Insane Day

I started out the day with my second week of the Insanity workout. I think I have been working on it for three weeks or so, maybe more. But I don't do it every day, so a week of workouts takes more than 7 days. That said, my week two is just as hard as week one. I think I pooped out about the same spot as the first time through the routine. I couldn't do the last set of the last circuit, but I still had a great workout. It was enough calories burned that I put extra butter on my apple bread.