monkeying around

i'd like for you all to go to this website and send me a monk-e-mail. it will make me smile, and you, too, i think. it looks a little fishy at first, but trust me. fun stuff. choose the "text to speech" button.

http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/

so may is a big month here. it's almost like december, but different. between mother's day, our anniversary (16), weslee's wedding, lots o' graduations, two parent bdays, and my 37th (woohoo!), we have plenty of celebrating to do. this year, i've asked for a 3-in-1 gift that will last. 3 trees for the front yard. they're being delivered and planted this week. it's all very exciting.

heading off to n'ville in a couple o' weeks. get to write 5 sessions on Daniel.

um. have you seen the movie Red Eye? that was scary and i don't really recommend it. going to watch The Greatest Game Ever Played and i think it will be much nicer. you're prolly wondering, how does she have time for movies with all that TV--24, Alias, 7th Heaven, King of Queens, & Amazing Race--they watch? Lemme' tell ya'...it's not easy.

carniverous

cows are big. we bought & rec'd a mere eighth of Hercules today, a cow raised by a teenager who goes to our church. and an eighth of Hercules is 130 lbs. we are generally more affectionate toward white meat (and THIS time when I say "we", I mean "me"), our freezer is now filled with assorted cuts of beefiness. i think we're set for awhile. tonight was 2 of Hercules' t-bones, and though i'm not certain where those are located on still-breathing-bovine, they were quite tasty.

so none of you have any help for our dc vacation? sigh. good thing for the internet, i suppose.

here's a shocking revelation: i like to mow. i've actually been volunteering to do that job since we last spoke of it. and i'm getting pretty good at it, too--so good that today i mowed with my legs tanning up on the front part thingy as i listened to my favorite tunes on my mp3. i really don't see why people think it's such a chore. it does work up a hefty appetite for red meat, however...

Hail to the Chief

Aren't Mondays exciting? I guess that's all we can say about that because of you know who...tally-ho!

And an equally exciting Wednesday awaits those of us who need Alias closure, as they begin the final "season" in which we all shockingly discover that, in fact, Vaughn is NOT dead. Why, you ask, has this knowledge been made public before the show is even aired? That, my friends, is because no one would tune in to see the show otherwise. It seems that the popularity of the show had more to do with the romance of Sidney and Vaughn than with fantastic and ginormous rolling balls of fire and eastern mysticism. Point: 24.

The ankle is doing ok...it wakes up each day looking normal and then proceeds to swell continuously again until bedtime. This week, I think I'll lay off long walks around the neighborhood and all-day trips to Six Flags.

happy bday tomorrow little bro'

what ya' got?

so you didn't express your opinion about the family vacation in august with free travel. but the kids did. surprisingly, they want to go to dc. we figure we better hit it now or else they may not like that idea again for a long, long time. you know, we are about to hit the years where distasteful attitudes tend to flare, esp. in regards to family vacations. i remember my own teenage trip to our nation's capital with my dear family--all i really wanted to do was swim in the pool at the house we rented and eat dc's best pizza and at some hoagie place. aside from that, my memories are reduced to a pretzel and a sprite outside the place where we saw the liberty bell and quoting the Gettysburg Address at the Lincoln Monument (i'd had to memorize it in school because I had gotten caught cheating on a test). also, i threw up on that trip.

anyway, enough rambling. the point? if you've been to the area lately, i'm open to helpful advice on where to stay. so send all wisdom and knowledge related to said vacation my way.

thanks and gig 'em.

hobbled

Retreat #2 is now complete. This weekend I was in Glen Rose with the staff wives of FBC Midlo for the Texas Minister's Wives retreat and we had a great time. We laughed and laughed and then we laughed some more. The theme at the retreat was Extreme Makeover, just like the theme of our own retreat a few weeks ago. They had a whole afternoon set aside for "Spa Day" and we chose chair massages, facials (well, sort of), a foot massage, and having our toe nails painted. There's a story in each one of those pamperings, but sometimes ya' just have to be there.

Due to my excessive retreating I missed B pitching on Friday night in a very Midland-like dust storm, from what I understand. But he pitched the whole game (it only lasted 3 innings) and he struck out 7. Yay for video! On the same day, C informed me that girls from school were calling the house to talk to B. That's the first time that's happened at our house and I'll be pleased if it's the last for some time to come. Middle school is only 4 short months away~ and no. No, I don't think I am ready for this.

Today I'm hobbling around the house b/c I was trying to act like a teenager last night. Um, playing bball in the driveway with some high schoolers from our small group, I rolled my ankle and sprained it badly. Good thing my job requires me to sit on my posterior all day long.

Raise your hand if you loved the weather this weekend. I even mowed the grass for the first time in my life on Sat. when i returned from retreating (b/c now we have a riding mower and it was kinda fun). There's a creek and really neat gazebo in our neighborhood...walked over to it twice on Sunday.

Six Flags on Friday...with Audio Adrenaline and Kutless....if I can walk by then, that is. so i must work now...short week!

note to self

here's a helpful tip: If your kid's new baseball team decides to have a pre-season cookout on a Sunday, you should go, even if your Sundays are generally reserved for church and family. Otherwise, you might not have the opportunity to say "No, I don't think we'd like to spend an additional $100 so that our son can wear a professional-looking uniform for two months of baseball and so that we can have matching parent t-shirts that we'll never ever wear. Because that's just silly." And I'm wondering, just who is such excessiveness for? Would that be for the boys who don't really care all that much or is it for the parents who are living vicariously through their children? hmmmm....

A has been working up a new laugh. It saddens me somewhat b/c I found her old laugh quite enjoyable...you know, that big belly-laugh of hers that is so great. Last week, she replaced it with what we like to call "The Wheezer". It's a low, breathy chuckle. Come to think of it, maybe I should work on a new laugh myself. After all, everyone needs a change of pace now and then.