A Six Word Story

Last night I was visiting one of my favorite author's blog. She was having a contest to win an autographed copy of her new book that is coming out in May. All you had to do was come up with a six word story and put it in the comments section of that post. I was thinking "Hey! How cool, I can totally do that!" Turns out I totally couldn't. Everything I thought of had eight words. It was driving me crazy! So eventually this is what I used: "Six words really? I need eight!" Of course, I was highly amused and thought it was much better than what I later read: "I want to read your book". I keep checking the web site to see who won. So far it hasn't been posted. There were some funny ones. While I was a little dry last night, today I've been getting all sorts of ideas.

A list of fabulous six word stories:

Girl writes blog. Few people read.

Girl loses weight. Weight comes back.

Milk left on counter. Cat full.

Girl lacking confidence, now Breaking Free.

Poop on floor, cat for sale.

Girl starts singing, cats now hiding.

Teenage girls pmsing, midol much needed.

Girl needing exercise, beware wii boxing.

Girl learning to cook, chaos ensues.

Oregano and Rosemary, what's the difference?

Recipe, celery seed, what is it?

Girl growing older, lies about age.

So as you can see, I could do this all day. A day too late of course, but this could go on for awhile. I imagine six word stories will haunt my dreams now. I don't know who she will pick. I am not likely to win the contest. But I do know one thing for certain, I can't wait to read the new book. If one thing is for sure, it will be a laugh riot. After all you can expect great things from a Purdue grad. I should know I married one.

A Vacation with a Purpose

This Saturday morning I woke up in my warm comfy bed. I was awakened with a hug and a kiss on the cheek by my husband. When I got up I took a nice hot shower and I thanked God for my nice warm comfy bed and hot water for my shower. Then the rest of the day I spent with the family doing things that we like to do together. We had lunch at a favorite restaurant and went to a movie. Simply things really. There wasn’t anything extraordinary about any of it. Just a family spending the day eating, watching a movie, and shopping, laughing, talking, and enjoying each other’s company.

If you look deeper though and think about the kind of day we had, it was a pretty special kind of day. Especially because at the end of it we got to come home. That would be the heart of it all wouldn’t it? We came home. We are fortunate because many people don’t have a house much less a home. I have done minimal traveling compared to a lot of the population. But I have been to a number of great places. I have been to the beach, I have been to Mickey’s house in Florida, I have been to Hawaii (a favorite, though I was only there once), I have been to both Carolinas, and I have shopped in the largest mall in America. They all have their merits. They all have their worth but none of those places is home and at the end of the day, I think that’s the best place to be. It’s nice to be able to get away for awhile. People always say, or maybe it’s just us, but we always say “it was a great place but we wouldn’t want to live there.” I think that’s true most of the time. While Hawaii was nice I don’t think I would want to live there all the time. I’m kind of a freak about weather and I just would not adjust well there. Also I think a lot of the time we take for granted what we have, and I would hate to live in a paradise and ever hear myself say something like “yeah it’s great most of the time but I really miss snow.” Imagine! Snow! It’s inconceivable to me that I could ever miss snow.

This year we didn’t go to Mickey’s house and we didn’t see the ocean. This year for spring break we went on a vacation with a purpose with five other families from our church. To say that it was out of our comfort zone would be an understatement. To say that it changed our perspective would be a fair assumption. In our family we spend a lot of time together, we do not however spend a lot of time with other people as a family unless it’s with family. I’m not sure why. We aren’t anti-social by any means and we are all fairly well adjusted individuals who all have friends that we talk to regularly. We have just never really bonded as a group with another family. If we get together with other families it’s with one of my friends, or one of my husband’s friends and their family but the kids aren’t bonded, or maybe just one of them is. I think it’s hard to find another family where everyone has someone close to their age they can connect with. My husband and I had children early in our marriage. Which is to say that we found out very quickly where babies come from and how they get here. So we have two kids 19 months apart then we had our son five years later. The spacing of our kids is one of the challenges in finding another family to hang out with. So we stepped outside of our comfort zones and went on a trip with five other families we barely knew.

We went to Kentucky to work with Wayside Christian Mission. It is in the heart of Louisville. On our first full day we spent our time working outside on the grounds of one of the locations they have. Our group moved dirt, loaded trash to be hauled away, filled pot holes, and painted curbs. We moved quickly and efficiently and by a few hours into our second full day those projects were completed and we were asking what we could do to help next. Aside from serving food and unpacking donated food there didn’t seem to be much else they had planned for us. So they had us folding Kroger bags for a food drive they work with United Way to accomplish.

We certainly came “home” (which was the church we were residing in for the week) tired every night. I guess you could say we had a working vacation, an at times uncomfortable vacation, a changing vacation.

In general I am quiet around people I do not know or know well. In groups I am unlikely to speak. Public speaking would make me feel faint or like throwing up. As a rule I am more comfortable around women than I am around men. I do not feel comfortable in strange places. Now on the flip side of that. If I am around people I know, I am perfectly at ease. To talk to someone one on one, try and shut me up. I suppose that’s where my children get it from. It just takes us awhile to warm up to people. As I grow older I am getting a bit better at it, but it’s still a struggle I have especially around the male species. There are only two I truly trust Jesus and my husband. I spent a week surrounded by homeless men and women. I spent a week with men and women that some of them I could count on one hand the number of conversations we had ever had, though I see them every week at church. For me this was a stretch. For me it was changing.

Our second night there we were invited to go and listen to their choir. I have listened to choirs before and I believe that we have had some men and women sing in our church that could be on the radio. But it takes something else to move me to tears. As I listened to this group of people who have been places that I could never imagine, I was struck by the pure joy they showed in singing praises to God. I listened and held back tears. It’s rare that I cry for a crowd. Their voices were beautiful. They played keyboards, piano, guitars, and violin. The violin of course being my favorite. Not one of them looking at sheet music. They didn’t need it. I listened as some of them gave their testimonies and I rejoiced in my heart for how good God is.

As I said before I’m usually quiet around people I do not know. But I pay attention. I observe and take mental notes. (then try to remember them) These are my notes. These were my observations. We went on a Vacation with a Purpose. We went to try and make a difference. We went and tried to help. But I think the difference was made in us. I think the help was given to us. I think the blessing was given to us, because I’m not sure how much help or difference we made for them. I only know the difference it made in me and I feel very blessed indeed.

Adventures with Linus the Cat

In our house we have two adults, two teenagers, a child, a geriatric cat Gabby and a crazy long hair black cat with a white patch on his neck named, Linus. My cat Linus enjoys sleeping on the white couch. I think he feels like he’ll get noticed more if he is there. His other favorite places to sleep include the following: on my bed, under my bed, the top of the stairs, the middle of the stairs, the recliners, and on top of my lap.

I once gave my cats a bowl of milk. They looked at it as if it were poison. They didn’t drink it and I ended up throwing it out. However, if the kids leave their milk out in the morning. Linus feels it’s his duty to jump onto the counter and see what the problem was. I like to think of him as the taste tester, he just does it too late. He sticks his face into the child size Tupperware cup spilling it all over the table and floor. *New rule: if you do not finish your milk you must put it into the fridge to be finished later or put it in the sink.

Just this week while I was finishing watching the program the kids were watching while waiting for the bus, I heard a noise. I turned around and found Linus was standing on the island. I looked at him and said “Really? Get down!” Of course, he got down. Then, after the program was over, I was turning off the lights that weren’t being used and where did I find Linus? Standing on top of the washing machine of course. Isn’t that where all cats hang out in their down time, between sleeping where you want to sit down and eating? This was a first. It was curious as the lid was open and it did take some balancing. Nothing was in the washer at the time and I wonder what he could have been looking for. I do have hopes that he will learn how to do the laundry, as currently it is a job that I haven’t delegated out. It would make up for the fact that he leaves black fur on the white couch and all over the floor all the time.

Last night everyone was in bed and I was turning all the lights off and heading upstairs. Linus was asleep in the recliner. To his benefit, I did wake him up when I turned on a light to check the doors to be sure they were locked. I then went up to bed. He followed. Which leads us to our nightly adventure. Each night the cats come up to bed also. While there are plenty of places to sleep downstairs, they like to sleep with “their” people. So they sleep at the top of the stairs, or in the doorway of our room or our son’s room where they can “stand a post” and be the good guard cats that they are. When that doesn’t work out for them or if I roll over or seem to be too comfortable Linus comes to the rescue. He gets comfortable at my feet or in the space right behind my legs between me and the edge of the bed making it next to impossible to move. If one of the children move to roll over or get up to use the restroom, they will get up, watch them, walk them back to bed, then go back to their posts.

Usually Gabby just goes along with these escapades out of a feeling of obligation. She is old. She is tired, she just wants to eat, sleep and be left alone. She is the cat version of a grumpy old lady and she will nip at you if you aren’t moving to get her food fast enough. Linus however, thinks that it is his job, nay his duty to be with all of us all the time as our guard cat. I am my mother’s daughter. My mother hated cats. I never hated cats, I preferred dogs but due to allergies in the family to dogs, I have cats. Which some people are allergic too also but they deal with it. They have to really. As the kids say these cats are not just cats, they are members of our family. Linus is like one of the kids. He reminds me a lot of my kids actually. When he wants my attention he wants all of it. When he wants to be left alone, well I leave him alone because he’s a cat. If he was a child I would only pretend to leave him alone while sneakily trying to find out why he wanted to be alone. He doesn’t ask for much. I feed him and he gives me his undying love and devotion. How many people can you say that about? Maybe that’s why we get along so well. We speak the same language.