June 2008

The Most Annoying Sound in the World

June 30, 2008

in Uncategorized

Recently my 2 year old daughter has decided that a good way to pass time in the car is to scream really loudly. It’s also a really good way to annoy her older brother.

Typically we start driving down the road and she starts making some annoyingly loud noise and then 2 second after she starts, my son starts screaming, “Yell A Little Bit Quieter” followed by, “Mom, she’s not yelling a little bit quieter,” over and over. Not long after this the baby starts mimicking the noises she hears and, well, it gets quite loud. Typically, I just tune it out and keep on driving for at least several minutes before asking them all to quiet down. I can actually go several minutes with this chaotic noise in the background before I realize how loud it is.

Here is a 30 second clip of this circus act. Listen and tell me what it reminds you of.

It reminded me of the scene in Dumber and Dumber when he asks the hitchhiker if he wants to hear “the most annoying sound in the world.” As I watched this clip I found it is quite similar to a ride in my minivan. The petty fighting…. (lately my daughter will say to my son “no Mam” when he asks her something which drives him insane because it should be “no Sir” since he is a boy and they fight about it incessantly) This clip totally brought out a chuckle. I can’t help but think the man sitting in the middle is very much like my poor baby in the backseat silently screaming “Guys, guys, ENOUGH!”

What do you think? Does my daughter do a good Jim Carrey impersonation?

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You Know It’s Bad When…

June 29, 2008

in About Me

…your son won’t sit on your lap because your legs are “too spiky.”
My four year old son told me yesterday that my legs “are prickly like a cactus.”
You better believe I made sure to get up early enough to shave my legs before leaving for church this morning. They are silky smooth now (a fact that my son and my husband are both glad about).

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Weekend Thoughts: The Integrity Factor

June 28, 2008

in Weekend Thoughts

This week I wrote about my daughter’s hang up call to the local police station. We have no idea how long we were "on the air" before she hung up. I immediately started thinking, "What did they hear during that time?" Thankfully It wasn’t one of those meltdown moments when everyone was whining and crying, but what exactly did we say?

I remember the day we discovered that our baby monitor could pick up the signal of our neighbor’s baby monitor. We immediately changed it so as not to eavesdrop but we also became very concerned that the system would do the same thing in the other direction. After that discovery we became very good about unplugging the monitor when we weren’t using it. I didn’t like the idea of my neighbor being able to hear everything that is said and done in our house. This is of course a reasonable concern since hearing only gives part of the story (consider the sounds while disciplining a two year old). But, there is someone who not only hears but sees and even knows our motivations.

Psalm 139: 1-4

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

When I say I want to live a life that glorifies my Lord that means I need to do it all the time. There is no turning off the baby monitor or hanging up the phone. There is no putting on pretenses when He is concerned. The fact is, if it were not for the forgiveness I received through Jesus Christ, my Heavenly Father would be very disappointed in what He sees. But he has sent his son and he does forgive my sin. I am thankful that God knows the real me. He knows my attitudes, my motivations, my desires, my limits. And knowing all this, He loves me still. This summer, as I spend time in His Word, I want to get real with my Lord. To confess my sins to Him, knowing that "He is faithful and just to forgive me from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9.

Weekend Thoughts:
My posts typically relate funny anecdotes about the happenings here at the circus.  While my days are seldom “normal” enough to leave me without a “post worthy” moment, I use my last post of the week to highlight something a little more “thoughtful” and significant. If you had a thoughtful post from this last week, or choose to make a new one, please feel free to add a link in the comments section below.  I’d love to hear what others are learning.

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Wow! Tagged for the first time!!

June 27, 2008

in Uncategorized

My sweet sister in law, Jessie , tagged me with this “Share the Love” award in which you tag the blogs of people whose blogs you enjoy reading.

The rules are to tag bloggers who make your day, make you laugh and smile, and/or leave uplifting comments on your blog. You then include a link to this post , and ask each person you tag to do the same!

Soooo, time to share the love my friends!

Hmmm, well the blogs I read daily, that make my day are typically other stay at home mommies who find humor in what many might consider the mundane. I feel like many of you are kindred spirits and if we lived in the same town, I am certain we’d be friends. Some of you I know in real life, like Sarah – mom of three boys, and Megan mother of two, both of whom I know from college, 2 different colleges, mind you. Others of you I only met in bloggyland, but I consider you friends as I read about your love for your Lord, your husband, and your children. There’s my friend Monica whose been married a little longer than me and has kids about the same age, but her husband is deployed in Iraq while she holds down the fort in Germany. Then there’s Jessica , who lives in a beautiful farm house in Iowa and is pregnant with her third child. I also get to read about life as a mother and preachers wife in “Tinytown” on Sarah ‘s blog. And WGM makes me laugh with her antics of life with 5 (and I thought my life was a circus)!

I can’t forget Kristen . Her blog was the first blog I visited with frequency that wasn’t some one I knew in real life. I remember telling all my friends about her, because she was so down to earth and seemed like someone we would hang out with in real life. After about 2-3 weeks of lurking on her blog, I ended up writing my own and then realizing the importance of commenting and thus started commenting on hers.

And last, but definitely not least, my dear family members. Both of my sister in laws, whom I love like sisters, check my blog daily and comment with frequency. They boost my self-esteem when I wonder if anyone is reading this. Jessie is married to my brother. She writes with humor about the joys of being married to my little brother and raising two beautiful little girls. I married Karen’ s brother. She writes of life as an army wife and shares her crafty projects (which make me jealous that I am not so talented) and fun anecdotes.

So, thanks dear bloggers for writing so faithfully. You are all in my google reader and I eagerly look forward to reading about your lives each and every day. So consider yourselves tagged.

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Clearly I Don’t Wear Enough Bling

June 27, 2008

in About Me,Darndest Things

I was shopping at BJ’s the other day with the kids when we passed the jewelry counter.

My son asked, "Why is there jewelry at BJ’s?"

I responded, "So people can buy it."

He then said, "Yea… I guess if they were getting married and didn’t have a ring they could come here."

Hmmm…. clearly this Mommy doesn’t wear much jewelry, since my son thinks wedding rings are the only kind of jewelry one wears. It’s not that I don’t appreciate jewelry. I do . But my morning routine is typically a race. I put the baby down for her morning nap and the "big kids" get to watch one show from our TiVo while I take my shower. I’m racing the clock to get showered and dressed because once the show ends they wonder down the hall and my time is up. I’m happy to shave my legs and put on deodorant, let alone “accessorize”…

How about you? Do you wear jewelry everyday or just on special occasions?

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Old Faithful

June 26, 2008

in Me to You

Its Thursday again and time for me to go into that box in the closet under the stairs and find another picture that didn’t make it into a photo album. I found a classic that is truly timely. This is a picture of me opening gifts on my 13th birthday (I think, might be 12). Can’t tell what I am unwrapping, but my brother behind me is definitely interested. Like my dangling shell earrings? How about those bangs? They were a work of art don’t you think? There was something else of note about my 13th birthday. It was the year that I got my first phone for my room. Yep, it was a memorable moment – I was a teenager and yes I was the stereotypical type that monopolized the phone all day long. I guess you could say it was a coming of age of sorts.

Here is another picture I have and this one shows the phone. Wow, to think of the hours I have logged on that phone. The girlfriends and boyfriends I spent hours talking to (and my brother will tell you they were always, “very important things”). Ahh the memories.

This is the phone that keeps on giving too because there is something else noteworthy about that phone picture. It was taken this afternoon as it sat as the only working phone in our circus of a house. Yep, it was only two days ago that one of our two portable phones made their blogging debut in this post involving my youngest daughter and her new friends at the police department. But alas, they have been claimed by the circus. I looked away for a moment and tuned back to see my middle child “wash” both of our portable phones in a basin on the deck. I found her holding them up, with water dripping out the bottom. Nice, huh? These were the only phones we used in our house. I knew when I had two girls with my genes that we would have our share of issues over the phone but I had no idea it would start so soon!

I was temporairily left with no land line at my house. Then I remembered my old faithful phone from middle and high school. I remember when I got this phone over 15 years ago, I thought it was “so cool” because it was clear and you could see all the wires and bells and stuff but now, after using nothing but portable phones for 4 years, this hand held one felt so huge! I didn’t realize how often I used caller ID until I didn’t have it. How strange to pick up the phone and have no idea who was on the other end! I thought talking on the phone with three kids awake and clamoring for my attention was difficult, but not being able to walk around (or out of the room) with the phone made it even more of a challenge!

This week I flashed back to the days of nothing but land lines with no call waiting, and no caller ID. For more musings of days gone by, check out Sincerely Fro Me To You at We are THAT Family.

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