Magic in the Morning

Because we were late getting in from the Houston Rodeo last Thursday night, I let the boys sleep in on Friday morning and was going to take them to school late. They are early birds, though, and got up just a little later than usual - too late to ride the bus but early enough for me to get them to school just before the tardy bell. It was cold morning with a steady drizzle falling on my windshield. Sam asked a funny question, “Mom, why does the rain go upward before it hits the car?” I had to look hard for a moment before I could see what he was talking about. As we drove down the road the rain would sometimes turn into snowflakes that would bounce off the cushion of air around the car before hitting the window and instantly melting.

Snowflakes in southeast Texas! What a sight! My kiddos were so excited because they have never experienced snow before. It was like the morning had been sprinkled with a little magic. We made a game out of looking hard for the elusive snowflakes. The closer we got to the schools, however, luck was on our side and there were very visible flurries right over the two campuses. The boys each got to get out and stand in the snowfall.

Their excitement at such a small amount of snow made me long to take them back in time to my childhood and let them experience actual snowfall. Ah, the memories of going to bed with high hopes after smelling snow on the night air and waking up to a difference in the light, rushing to the window to see our mundane yard transformed into a beautiful winter wonderland, pulling plastic sandwich bags over three pair of socks and stuffing it all into boots so we could go out to play. I want my kids to experience snowmen, snowball fights, snow-forts, snow-angels and the sweet comfort of hot chocolate while thawing their feet by the fire.

I guess it’s not to be since we live in Texas which is for the best, I think, since my memories of snow have only to do with sleds and snowmen and not with snow shovels and ice-scrapers. The best we can hope for here is the occasional appearance of the mysterious white stuff. It’s funny how something so small could change a cold miserable morning into something exciting for my kids but the morning was magical and we will always remember it.

Phantom Pee

I awoke to little hiccups coming from the baby monitor next to my bed. I quickly turned it off before the full fledge wailing could begin. It was three o’clock as I hauled myself reluctantly out of bed and padded in my bare feet down the hall to the kitchen. Sure enough, as I made a bottle of formula my baby girl was giving it her operatic best. I grabbed a bottle of water for myself and put that and the baby bottle on a table beside the easy chair in the living room then went and got Tori. After changing her diaper I settled down in the chair holding her close and began to feed her by the glow of the light.

The whole house was asleep except for us girls. The air conditioner wasn’t running and neither was the fridge, everything was silent. Then I heard it; the distinct sound of someone peeing on the floor next to my chair. Do you know how loud that is at three in the morning? With my heart trying to climb up my tongue I looked around to see what in the world was peeing on my carpet. Was it a dog or even a pesky raccoon that had found its way in? There was nothing there and besides I would have heard it moving around long before it decided to lift a leg. Completely freaked out, I stood up, set Tori down in the chair and turned on the lamp. There it was – a wet spot right there on the carpet!

For a moment my brain was frozen. There was no rational explanation I could come up with besides a mischievous male ghost relieving his phantom bladder. Then I saw the wetness on the table and figured it out. My water bottle had a very small leak in it. When I took off the cap it released pressure allowing the water to slowly leak out and pool onto the table. When the puddle reached the edge it all spilled out on the floor sounding like Niagra falls in the early morning silence. Boy was I relieved. I mean literally, I had to make a trip to the bathroom.

Diagnosis

She lay back in the tub with her ears under the water. When she was a girl she used to like this sensation of not hearing anything but the sound of her own heartbeat – utterly cut off from the rest of the world. Her knees were sticking up out of the water and she stared at the slowly moving line on her jeans that separated the dark wet denim from the dry. A memory came to her from long ago of when her son was young and had hit a baseball into the windshield of the car. The glass had remained intact as one piece but was shattered into a thousand pieces.

Suddenly she became aware of her husband standing over her. With her head under the water she couldn’t understand what he was saying but she saw the question in his eyes and replied, “I’m trying to see what it feels like to have completely lost my mind.” The alarm in his eyes and the way she knew she must look struck some perverse funny bone in her and she snorted. Her husband sat down on the bathroom floor and together their laughter echoed off the tile walls.

This is how they had made it through 32 years of marriage and the raising of their kids – by laughing together, at each other, and at themselves. They would get through this diagnosis with laughter. But then the realization struck her that the future would change her husband into her caregiver and her into his burden. Her giggles then changed into hiccups as she sat up in tub and wrapped herself around the sobs erupting from her soul.

When she finally cried herself into exhaustion, she realized the comforting pressure of his big hand on her back and the water draining from the tub. He helped her stand up and get out of her wet clothes. Stepping from the tub into the towel he held for her, she left her clothes in a wet pile in the tub and followed him to their bed.

Beyond words but needing to reaffirm their connection to each other, they made love slowly and tentatively. Afterward she lay with her back to him, his arms around her, their breathing as one. She still felt anxious and alone. As complete exhaustion pulled her down into sleep she again remembered the ruined windshield, whole but shattered and thought she heard the soft plink of one of the pieces falling out.

A Day In the Life of a Mom

Something funny I wrote down a few years ago - Enjoy!
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Taking my kids to school this morning Drew, my second grader, asked me what sex is. I was completely unprepared for this. I thought I had another year of blissful ignorance but I guess it's true that kids are growing up faster these days.

In spite of growing up so fast, however, I got a call around lunchtime from the school nurse telling me that same kid has a story to tell. When Drew got on the phone he related to me how he had a ball bearing in his pocket he had brought from home. He was playing with it when he wasn't supposed to, got angry because he couldn't figure out his math problem and he accidentally swallowed the metal bearing. I'm not sure how being angry comes into play and I'm certainly puzzled how Drew could swallow an object he swore was not at any time near his mouth. Since the only real danger of choking on the object had apparently passed I told the nurse to send him back to class.

Between the sex question and the ball bearing story I had a flat tire I had to get fixed at a nasty tire shop. One of these days auto shops are going to figure out the brilliant marketing plan of having a clean bathroom. I mean, I would travel 20 extra miles to wait for my car to be rendered drive-able at a place with a clean bathroom. As it were I managed to hover while I relieved my screaming bladder. I guess it's good for my thigh muscles.

As I left the tire store and entered the freeway, my car started vibrating and threatened to come apart at the seams. I exited the freeway, did a u-turn and headed back toward the tire place just in time for my bladder to start complaining to me again.

Now I am home, my car back to normal and I'm writing myself a note so I won't forget to have Paul put Drew to bed tonight and answer any questions he may have. While he's doing that I have an appointment with Calgon and some chocolate. I figure difficult days are a lot like ball bearings - given time, they too will pass.

Auld Lang Syne

We spent the last day of 2007 among those closest to us. There were fireworks, hot chocolate, song and laughter. I have some of the best friends and family that anyone could ever hope to have. 2007 was a bad year for us financially and after losing two babies I started the year not so happy to be pregnant again but this year brought us the sweet and sassy Tori. Her birth was so scary – I’m thankful we both survived. I couldn’t ever imagine having a little girl, now I can’t imagine our family without her. I made new friends this year that I hope will become lifelong friends (I’m talking about you, Kindra). I am blessed.

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New Year’s Resolutions

My husband and I always joke and say our New Year’s resolution is to make no resolutions. That way we won’t let ourselves down. Regardless of that resolution, the New Year does inspire me to make changes. Losing weight has long been on the list and will continue to be for this year, I’m afraid. The battle of the bulge is one I constantly fight albeit half-heartedly. Staying more in the Word, being a better wife, mother, housekeeper (blah!), friend and neighbor all make the list as well.

What is it about the New Year exactly that inspires us to become better people? After all New Year’s Day is just a day like any other. The notion of an end and a new beginning are just figments of our imagination as time marches on without regard to human measurement of days, weeks, years or centuries. Human nature, though, cannot resist a new beginning real or imagined. We are all bumbling our way through life carrying our luggage full of regrets, lost opportunities, failed ventures and stale dreams. A chance to ditch that baggage and begin again with eagerness and a renewed list of priorities is just too sparkly an opportunity to pass up even though we know it will usually end up as more baggage in the long run. The need to improve oneself is divine, I think. So on that note, here is my list of my resolutions starting with the usual and ending with one I’ve never had before:
• Read the Bible more (reading it once a month would be more for me)
• Improve my prayer life
• Be sexier for my husband (yes, I put that on the internet)
• Be more patient with my children
• Seize the fun moments with my children
• Be less scornful of other people, in my heart and with my tongue
• Lose weight (sigh, at least I’m not pregnant right now like I’ve been the last three New Year’s)
• Get better organized with the housework (slay the laundry dragon a little everyday)
• Start a novel and generally work on my writing skills

Never forget the best new beginning we have; “Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22, 23)

~ H A P P Y 2 0 0 8 ~

Minor Emergency

We had an eventful evening at our house yesterday. I had the Christmas lights glowing and the radio tuned to carols as I was making candy and baking cookies to send to my family in Kentucky. It was a scene right out of a Rockwell painting. That is until Joe came bursting through the front door crying so hard he could barely breathe. He screamed out that he saw the neighbor’s dog, Gypsy, get run over.

Now even though it was the neighbor’s dog these aren’t just neighbors; Paul and Kathy are best friends of ours and their dog is as much a part of our family as our own dog. Joe was beyond consolation and Drew was getting there fast. Even so, I left them with the baby and ran down the street to see what I could do.

There was a crowd of some of the best neighbors you could ever hope to have. They were gathered around the beloved golden retriever doing whatever they could to help. There was a lot of blood but it seemed that Gypsy had bitten some hands and it was human blood, not hers. They loaded her into a truck and went on their way to the hospital.

When I returned home Drew and Joe were nearly inconsolable. I sat them down and we counted down from ten as we took deep breaths. Then my boys prayed. Aftewards I gave them things to do to keep their hands busy. Joe got out his markers and drew Gypsy a picture. Sam came home from another neighbor’s house and when he heard the news he wrote a sweet letter Paul and Kathy.

I called my husband who was on his way home from work and he instead went to the hospital. Later he brought Paul and Kathy to our house to dress the wounds on their hands where they gotten bitten. It turns out that Gypsy has only a broken leg. She is an older dog though and this may be a tough hurdle for her to get over. When Paul and Kathy left they had to take a bag with them to carry all the gifts my boys pulled out of their toy boxes to give to them and their dog.

That night before I went to bed I looked over my kitchen with the Christmas lights still glowing and my table looking like a MASH unit with all its bandages and disinfectant. As I put the cookie dough into the refrigerator, I thanked God. I thanked Him that Gypsy wasn’t hurt worse than she was, I thanked Him that it was the dog that got hit and not Joe. And I thanked him for the sweet and tender hearts of my usually rough and tumble boys.