Pray for Bethany

One of our close family friends, Bethany (the motorcycle-riding Marilyn Monroe impersonator/actress), is in need of prayers. Last week she and her fiance were riding their motorcycles from Dallas up to Maine to visit my grandparents and get married up there. However, her fiance was in an accident and died. Not only does she have to deal with the pain of losing the person she loved right before they were supposed to be married, but she might lose her home too. They lived together, but his daughters are inheriting the house, and they have always hated her. So they're probably going to kick her out as soon as they can. So I don't know what to do for this poor woman except pray. God will be the best comforter she can have.

Opposites attract

For lack of a better topic to blog about, I've decided to list the ways my boyfriend and I are completely opposite.

1. the most obvious: I'm a girl; he's a boy
2. I multi-task almost constantly; he is a single-tasker (even down to eating only one type of food at a time)
3. I speak very rapidly in a high-pitch; he speaks slowly in a very deep voice
4. I listen to all music EXCEPT country; he loves country, even to the point of singing the same line from a country song over and over and over again
5. I am have no athletic ability and therefore dislike all sports; he loves to play and/or watch basketball, football, golf, baseball... get the point?
6. I go to bed early and wake up early; he likes to stay up and then sleep in really late
7. I believe that if you're not early somewhere, you're late; he believes that if you get somewhere before it's all over, you're on time
8. I like to eat snacks or small meals every few hours; he eats 2 or 3 big meals a day
9. I don't like thinking about politics or whatever is on the news much; he loves watching the news and debating politics
10. I can't remember numbers or statistics for anything; he knows the stats for everything
11. I like to cook my own food; his cooking seems to be limited to making PB&J sandwiches
12. I'm a little (well, maybe a lot) high-strung; he's ridiculously laid back
13. I find memorizing and studying facts equivalent to Chinese water torture; he wants to go to medical school (where he'll be studying almost every waking minute he's not in class for several years)
14. I'm a daddy's girl; he is much closer to his mom than his dad
15. I do laundry and go grocery shopping at least once a week so I don't run out of clean clothes or food; Sunday I did 3 loads of his laundry (including all 30-something pairs of his white socks), and he had no food or toilet paper in his apt

So what they say is true, opposites attract!

mail-order spouses

OK, so I tease my boyfriend about getting a mail-order bride if he wants someone to just grocery shop, cook, and clean for him without expecting anything back. Then, I'll get to do the fun stuff with him and not worry about all the mundane homemaker tasks all the time.

I've recently found an apartment to live in and now I'm going through the pain of trying to find the best deal on electric companies, internet, cable, etc that are available in our area. Today I spent a long time on the phone with AT&T trying to figure out if I could get off my parents' family plan for wireless and bundle that with internet and cable at my new place. I spoke to 3 different people. When I got to the person, I'd tell them exactly what I expected and they'd say they'd connect me to the right person to help me. Only they wouldn't. I'd have to talk to the computer, which of course, didn't offer what I needed as an option and kept telling me to only choose one of the options it was giving me. I've decided that figuring out this stuff and talking to customer service people is one of the worst possible things for me to do. After only 15 minutes on the phone, a nice lady (who I flat out begged to please not transfer me to anyone else and just give me an answer) who told me that I couldn't even get AT&T cable in my area. I proceded to thank her for her help, hang up the phone, and fall from the couch to the floor groaning in frustration and agony.

Perhaps I'm a little overdramatic, but I really really hate doing this crap! And I also hate worrying about money and answering people's questions about what I'm doing for my retirement funds. Therefore, I've decided that they should also have mail-order husbands. I need someone to deal with money and whatnot for me, and I need him now! Why should I have to wait for a real husband who is ready to commit himself to me for the rest of his life? I can just buy someone to do all the money stuff and change the oil in my car and reach high things.

OK, OK, I know it's crazy... but a girl can dream, right?

that's a new one!

So my kids have been getting into more than the usual trouble lately. However, today one of the "issues" we had to deal with was just too hilarious to be mad. One of my kids came to tattle that another boy in our class had let a boy from a different class do his homework. The assignment wasn't hard at all, and the kid from my class was pretty bright, so it seemed a little odd. I called my kid over (we'll give him the pseudonym Timmy), and Timmy tells me that (uhh, we'll say Todd) Todd forced Timmy to let him do his homework. Timmy says he tried to keep his homework away from Todd, but Todd kept bugging him until finally little innocent Timmy relinquished his homework to be completed by Todd.
I asked Todd's teacher, and she said that it was probably an accurate story; Todd loves math and would have really enjoyed filling in the bar graph and completing the shape crossword I assigned. So apparently, kids are bullying my kids into taking their homework and DOING IT FOR THEM! Next thing you know, they'll be forcing lunch money on poor innocent wimps! What is this world coming to?!

Grief

Tuesday after school one of my (9 yr-old) girls had to call 911 because her dad was having a heart attack. He died that night. She came to school the next two days, and only missed on Friday becuase her family was preparing for the memorial and funeral. She didn't really cry much.

I don't know if her lack of tears are more of her simply not understanding the finality of her dad being gone, or her not feeling the need to cry... I know they were close though, and that is is upset and worried about her family.

I'm not quite 3 times her age, but when my dad dies, I'm not going to be good for anything for a while. I certainly won't be at school, and at the memorial I probably won't even be able to see through my tears.

But luckily, I've made my dad promise not to die until after I have a husband, so he'll be alive for a while yet!

If You Made a Million

This week we read a story called “If You Made a Million” and I had the kids write about what they would do with a million dollars. The responses were... interesting.

One girl said she would buy presents for her teachers, family, and friends, then save the rest in the bank to earn interest.

A couple boys told us they’d buy all the video game systems and all the games ever made, and they’d buy some candy too, while they were at it.

Another sweet girl said she’d give most of it to children in Africa who needed food, but she'd also purchase an elephant and a bed for the elephant.

A different boy said he’d help his mom pay her bills and buy a house (along with a few toys and games for himself, of course).

And one of my “special friends” (who was mad about having to clean up his game 90 seconds earlier than everyone else for yelling at the people he was playing after multiple warnings) wrote that he would buy as many bombs and missiles as he could to completely destroy the school and everyone in it.

Yep.

Mom

OK, so I'm pretty much a mom. I have never given birth, but I spend a significant amount of time doing motherly things. I take care of children all day during the week, I sometimes teach kids' Bible class on Sundays, I clean house, and I take care of my friends when they are dumb. I do all this because I didn't really have a good mother-figure growing up, so I learned to fill the role. Sometimes I get tired of being a mom though. I don't see how real moms do it all. Don't they get tired of being the only responsible one around who makes people be safe and takes care of them when they mess up? Anyway, suffice it to say, being a part-time mom is plenty for me. I am in no rush to become a full-time one. But props to all those women out there who are!