Hello from Hawaii!!
Well, not the real Hawaii, such as Oahu or Maui, but apparently, this counts.
My little girls turn 5 and 6 eight days apart. Yesterday Ashlyn turned 6 and next Saturday Sarah turns 5. So we did what most red-blooded Americans do, and had a birthday party.
This was an easy one though. You see, because we moved so close to their birthdays, they did not know anyone to invite. So we had some family come in for the weekend to "beef up" the guest list!
While I am a little sad for them to have a party without friends, I am not sad about missing the chaos that ensues when you have 10 to 20 five and six year olds running around.
Either way, my girls had a blast and were just excited about going to Hawaii to celebrate.
At first, the two of them were adamant about having a Hannah Montana birthday party. I was not too thrilled. Not because there is anything inherently wrong with Hannah Montana, I just wanted something a little less teenager-ish, but that is an entire post on its own.
So imagine my elation when we went to the party supply store and instead of Hannah Montana, they chose a Hawaii theme!
They were so excited, they both said , "Mom, it is your FIRST time going to Hawaii!!"
Imagine my surprise when I was informed they had already been. In fact, this was their third time going.
Considering we do EVERYTHING together and are NEVER apart, I was a bit puzzled.
So I asked them when, exactly, did they go to Hawaii?
The much beloved and always adventurous Vacation Bible School and Sunday School had supplied them with a free trip. Who knew Hawaii could be so close?
So yesterday afternoon, I went to Hawaii. My first trip. And it was wonderful.
Smiling faces, laughter, food, and family. One for the history books.
Last night at about 8:30, our power went out. We have lost power more in the house that we've been in here for 6 weeks more than we have ever lost power anywhere else. It is driving us crazy!
I tried to call the electric company.The automated voice informed me that they had added a new feature for my convenience: voice activation.
You know, where you say or press 1. Everyone I know just loves voice activated systems, because they are so effective. Precise.
In case you can't tell, that is dripping with sarcasm.
I called back 700 times and pressed every option available, but NEVER got an actual person on the phone. Only the nice automated lady who I wanted to disassemble for saying, "I'm sorry. I did not understand your request. Please try again."
All I'm sayin' is, my power bill is OUT OF THIS WORLD expensive. More than friends up north who have their power pumped in from Florida, so it costs a gazillion dollars. Mine costs more than theirs.
So why on earth can't I get an actual human on the phone? I mean, what exactly are they doing with all the money I'm spending on power? Instead of "upgrading" the phone system to one that people have hated since the beginning of its time, they could actually hire PEOPLE so I could let them know my power has been out for 5 hours and when will it be on and what exactly is the problem anyway?
Whew. I'm done.
So anyway, we are all up now. And grumpy. Apparently there was a lot of bed-shifting and bed-sharing last night between the kids. And one in particular is NOT happy about being kicked out of her new queen size bed by two little munchkins.
The other day, Mad and Daniel got into an argument (shock!). He wrote a note that really made Mad mad.
It said: Be wear. Madison the evil monster.
Yes, I am aware be wear is misspelled. I am writing it as he did.
D and I laughed (in private) and came out from the private and gave Mad some good advise: Embrace the Monster.
We all feel like an evil monster sometimes. And if someone is calling you on it, then own it.
Well, today that advise has come full circle.
We all sleep with fans going, for "white noise". So, with no fans comes no noise.
Also, no A/C. And with psychos as they are in the world today, we do not dare sleep with open windows.
Needless to say, when the power came back on at almost 2 am, 4 out of 6 people in our house were awake to take notice.
I do believe we will all be embracing the monster today. So far, everyone is right on track with the monster mentality. And it's only 9 am.
Every evening for the last week, we have had thunderstorms.
I love a good storm. I did not grow up in tornado country, and got to enjoy just listening to the thunder and watching lightening flash across the sky. I was (am) always impressed with the strength of a storm, and usually just sit and marvel at how much bigger God is than the storm He's created.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday a tornado was spotted about 8 miles north of us and was moving in our direction. In our area there are no basements. Our house has 1 room with no windows.
It is a half bath under the staircase.
Did I mention it is narrow?
And has a toilet and sink taking up space?
As we watched the report on TV showing the storm, we were able to see the storm coming. It was a doozie. A double-doozie, like the cookie from the Great American Cookie Company.
Except not so much. Those are filled with millions of calories of sugary goodness and send you straight to heaven.
Well then I guess you could consider this storm a double-doozie because I thought we were going to go straight to heaven. I was certain that a tornado was coming.
We took cover in the narrow (did I mention that?) 1/2 bath with sad pillows over our heads. Nothing says protection like a 2 for $10 pillow from Walmart.
D thought we had lost our minds. He is calm, cool, and collected in times of calamity. Which I would say is a good thing, considering he is a military man.
He sat by the door and when he thought the time was right, he opened the door.
Sarah, our (almost) 5 year old, started crying and said, "Daddy, close the door! I'm scared! The tomatoes are coming!"
To which we all got a good laugh, and God used it to lighten the mood.
We all climbed out of the bathroom, which looked a little like when people who eat sardines (not me) take them out of the can.
Or a clown car. You know when they just keep coming in a seemingly endless line from a place much too small to hold them all.
We ran to the door and checked to see how the storm was coming along.
Thankfully, no tomatoes today.
Man time flies.
How is it that long, hot summer days, the ones where you are B-O-R-E-D out of your mind, where your kids are driving you to the asylum in a Speed Racer fashion, seem to have no actual time in them?
We had company over the weekend of the 4th, and we will continue to have company every weekend until August. I am thrilled because... have I mentioned, I'M LONELY?!
However, there is a boat load of things I want to get done before each of these weekends occurs. So the last visitors will get to see a more completed house than the first.
Why this matters, I do not know.
Possibly it is a good excuse to spend money I would otherwise put off spending, even though I want to spend it to do these things. Does that even make sense?!
Last week we got two bedrooms painted. Mad's is ORANGE. Think tangerine. University of Tennessee. Home Depot. Terminix. These are all the possibilities D and I came up with while painting her room until midnight on Wednesday.
Thankfully, I got to sleep in. Unfortunately for D, he had to get up at 5 am for work. Oh, the things men do for their women.
Unbelievably, her room looks PHENOMENAL!! I am SO glad I took a chance and trusted my 11 year old with her room color! I wanted her to be satisfied with the result, but I secretly wanted to love the room too, and I DO!!
Did I mention this room will be the room our guests use? I have forewarned them to bring sunglasses for sleeping.
On Thursday, I got started while D was at work. It was the least I could do, what with his sleep deprivation and all. And it's a good thing too. I worked for 3 hours before he got home, and we worked together ANOTHER 8 HOURS.
11 HOURS TOTAL.
PAINTING.
This time, we painted the little girl's room a dark rich pink and all the furniture white. I saw it in the Pottery Barn kids catalog when I ordered the quilt that is on their beds and it looked awesome. The wall color matched the darkest shade of pink in the quilt, and I copied PBkids design idea.
Needless to say, dark pink halfway around a room with streaks is not very alluring.
When D came home and saw it about a quarter of the way completed, he did not have much faith.
Oh he believed, alright. He believed he would be priming and repainting the room a different color.
Oh ye of little faith!
Let me tell you, at 11:30 pm when all the painting was done and the room was put back together, he walked in and was like "WOW!"
I concur. The room looks amazing.
You cannot go wrong copying Pottery Barn stuff, folks. I believe it is virtually impossible.
So now we have the paint to do Daniel's room. We told him as soon as our company from last weekend left, we would paint.
Needless to say, they left Saturday afternoon, which is approximately 4 days ago, and his walls are still white instead of the granite gray we are going to paint them.
And I MUST get it done before this weekend's company comes.
Why I must, I do not know.
Maybe doing it because company is coming is the only way it will actually get done!
Our dog, Ginger, has a terrible fear of loud noises like thunder and firecrackers. She becomes nervous, pacing back and forth and finally crawling under our bed (which is pretty hysterical because she's too big to fit!).
I just realized I am just like Ginger.
I interviewed for a job about 3 weeks ago, and got a call back for a second interview. I went in this past Tuesday for my second interview and was told they would know something by next week.
I got a call yesterday, (yay! early!) but... I missed it. A voice mail was left saying a decision had been made and I needed to call to find out where I stood.
Here's the thing: I did not get the message until 6:30 pm, and business was closed for the ENTIRE 4th of July weekend.
So I called an alternate number and left a message, hoping against hope to get a call back before the next 72 hours.
Then I proceeded to become nervous, pacing back and forth and finally crawling under our bed (which is pretty hysterical because I'm too big to fit!).
Well, I did not really crawl under the bed, but I wanted to.
In fact, as more time passed, the more worried I became.
I finally got myself together and prayed for God to help me think His thoughts, to allow my thoughts to be conformed to those of Christ's.
Always faithful, God helped me to keep all those negative, worrisome thoughts at bay, even though I had to keep reminding myself to focus on Christ and was quoting scripture in my head (over and over and over!).
This morning, the call I had been waiting for came.
I got the job!! I am so thankful and know it was God that gave me this opportunity. What a celebration with my husband and kids, and a testament to the Lord's faithfulness!!
I heard something recently from my 8 year old son that I never knew.
It was so...well, so enlightening.
"Ashlyn, did you know your toes are made out of sausage? 'Cause they are."
Well, now you know.
I started this blog last week for several reasons.
1) I was (am) lonely. We just moved, and it takes me awhile to make friends. I still have my dear, precious, close friends and am SOOO thankful for free long distance on our phone, but they live in different states or countries.
No one to sit and have coffee with or sit by the pool and laugh with. So I laugh at myself as I write my entry. That sounds more pathetic than it actually is (I hope!).
2)I started reading Big Mama and Boo Mama's blogs, thanks to an old friend and blogger, Shelly. They made me laugh til I cried and share my faith.
I needed that desperately. I have a tendency to take myself and life way too seriously and forget to have fun, but I LOVE to have fun, and I know God loves it when I do too.
3) I was bored. Even with my "to do" list growing by the minute, doing stuff is not the same as connecting with people. And until we find a church we want to join, connecting with people is hard (see #1).
So I started blogging. It really did help to get mt thoughts out of my head and onto the computer screen. I spent all day Thursday thinking about what to write, how to not sound so sad and despondent but instead be positive.
Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not into fake or pretense. Most people that know me would agree, I'm about as real as it gets. I dislike shallowness and would rather remain silent than be forced into small talk. There is way too much to learn from one another, and unfortunately those things are usually not spoken of, whether from fear of judgment, rejection, embarrassment, etc. There's my serious side coming out in all its glory!!
But for the sake of my reader(s?), and to bring as much glory to God as possible, I would rather voice those things light-heartedly, when possible.
Plus, it just feels good to smile when God gives me a different way of thinking about something.
By Friday night, (I started blogging Friday morning) I felt God tugging at my heart, although I wasn't sure exactly what His WORD for me was yet.
All night I thought about it, wrestled with it, and still felt uneasy in spirit.
On Saturday morning, The Mama's (Big and Boo), along with some other blogs I read, were at a Deeper Still conference with Beth Moore, Kay Arthur and Priscilla. They all logged on to talk about God meeting them.
I wanted to be there desperately, to meet God with them.
Ok, meeting Beth Moore and Kay Arthur would have been really awesome too. But right now Lisa Whelchel (Blair from The Facts of Life), who I'm certain remembers me from a conference I attended (details later, but I'm CERTAIN we are BFFs!), will have to be enough celebrity-dom for me.
Where was I? I may not like shallow, meaningless conversation, but I can get off track and talk about 10 things along the way to meaningful.
Oh, yes. Meeting YHWH.
Saturday I just felt like, God I wish you would just SHOW me.
You see, every time we move, I feel so lost. My house isn't home. My friends aren't around. Nothing is comfortable.
In fact, almost everything is painful, as if my skin is raw and every circumstance is some form of rough cloth rubbing against it.
And being the woman of the house, you all know how it is. Until I find my groove, it's as if my kids can't find theirs either. And so the lostness seems overwhelming.
Hey, on LOST aren't there 6 survivors? There are 6 of us. Maybe this is some type of experiment.
No, wait. I'm not anywhere close to Kate on the looks scale, and you know if you were on the show you'd want to be Kate.
I'm just sayin'.
Back to topic.
God ALWAYS uses this time of loneliness to teach me. And I try to be teachable. I want to learn from HIM.
And it FINALLY dawned on me. I have been so busy, trying. Trying to reach out for friends. Busy working on my house so maybe I'd feel at home.
Instead of being. God just wants me to be still. Read HIS WORD. Pray, really pray, more.
So how AMAZED was (am) I to read the blogs of those who were at the Deeper Still conference and find that they were told that God takes us into the wilderness to teach us, and then they were challenged to be in The WORD more.
It's not the first time HE has shown Himself like that, but every time, I'm amazed HE would choose to do that for me.
