my kaleidoscope world

For those of you that know me personally, you’ve probably wondered to yourself, “why, with all the excitement and fast-moving details within the past 5 days, would she be blogging about gardening and KitchenAid mixers?” Ha, ha! Please allow me to enjoy a brief chuckle at how planned and organized I thought I was being by taking some of my sick days and recovery time from the toothache episode to SCHEDULE FUTURE POSTS!

That’s right, organizationally speaking (hardy-har-har!), I’ve written several blog posts at one sitting that will go live each day at 7:00am. And, with all the commotion after this last Tuesday’s earth-moving phone call, I’ve just let the scheduled posts run as planned!

I always feel as though I write too much and cram it all in one post. I was encouraged to try this when I read on flowerdust’s blog that she keeps her blog rolling with new posts nearly every day, she just doesn’t always do it “live”. Wonderful suggestion! (I don’t know her personally, but she is one fascinating blogger!)

So with that, I’ll close this post and start writing the next one. The one you’ve all been waiting to see be made publicly declared. Oh yes, that one! :o)

On Memorial Day weekend, we did some work around the house and enjoyed the mild temperatures. I finally marked off one of my “wish list” items since we’ve moved into our new home: a vegetable garden!

Here are the pictures of Day 1, Monday 5/26/08: In the Ground.

Pic 1: We planted 80% of these starter plants for good, strong roots.

Pic 2: We planted 3 cucumber and 6 different tomato plants

Pic 3: E’s creativity and build-it-himself handiness displayed with a pulley system bird feeder mounted high in a tree in the woods behind our house.

Why, my new KitchenAid 5 Qt. Artisan Series Stand Mixer in Tangerine, of course! Wudjathink I was talking about?!

I want to unveil the newest appliance addition to hit my kitchen countertop! The first product of my new toy was a Pig Pickin’ Cake. Our neighbors helped devour the first one, then our friends from church let us bring dessert for a dinner we were invited to (and I needed to try that recipe once more) and the second cake was donezo!

I’ve since made my Fake Mashed Taters (whipped cooked cauliflower, y’all) and fresh, homemade whipped topping (I hope to never purchase cool whip or reddi-wip ever again!); it was admittedly a lot of fun. Yummo!

So, enjoy the show folks!

PS - I am SO going to be a baby-food-making-maniac in the future!

Seriously? Mmmmmkay…

Skimpy Prom Dress Gets Teen Arrested. I’m glad there was some forethought for all that extra material for her dress train. In the LIKELY event of a wardrobe malfunction, she might at least have a chance of covering up.

A beautiful girl with some screwed up priorities…

(make sure you read, or skip if you’d like, to the end!)

. . . Much has happened in the past 30 days since my last update, but I won’t bother with the excuses, I’ll get to the good stuff!

Eric spent a week in Vegas for NAB conference a few weeks back getting a deeper understanding of video editing. Me, I just spent the whole week missing him! I couldn’t wait for him to come home; so much that I was at the Marta train station waiting for him to come up from the airport 1 1/2 hours early. (For those of you who know me, you’re cracking up at my being early for something, right! Whodathunk it could happen?)

In the course of the past 5 Sundays with my work, I’ve had back-to-back excitement. First, we were back from Spring Break and the Attic at Browns Bridge had been remodeled. The room is so chill now. The following Sundays leading up to this last week have consisted of: Involve & Student Impact Volunteer Appreciation, Small Group Leader retreat in Jasper, Family Birthday Celebration baptism services (it was wow/amazing!), and Drive Conference. And that’s just work — not the personal “life outside of work” details.

This past week was our nephew Levi’s first birthday and he’s walking! Time flies! This upcoming week, one of our very good friends, Jamie, is being baptized at North Point.

We came to know Jamie, his wife Sam, and their two daughters, Chloe and Ivy, when they moved here from California. They became easy to recognize from the first Sunday they attended NP. Jamie had the rocker spiked mohawk, thick-gauged earlobe studs, crazy inked up arms with all variations of tattoos and Sam was his cutesy, tattoo bearing, Hot Topic wearing, bubbly, and lovely wife. They were the ones that had the two most adorable girls in the room. And Jamie and Sam were the doting, extremely calculative, very engaged parents that encouraged the girls’ participation and good manners while in KidStuf. They had me at hello! After some seasons of them moving around Alpharetta and even to CA and back, they ended up being our neighbors! (For those of you that know us, yes, that’s when Eric got the ginormous tattoo that is on his right arm! Did I mention Jamie is a ridiculously talented tattooist and artist?) We’ve witnessed God continue to grow their faith and prosper them and it’s been an exciting journey. Jamie and Sam both have a passion and love to serve God and reach out to people in incredible ways. They are both gifted and so easy to love and hang out with. Seeing Jamie celebrate his identity in Christ through baptism on Sunday will be beyond what words can say!

Now, I’m about to blow your mind . . . are you ready?!

Eric and I are on our way to being parents!!!! No, we’re not pregnant, but we are expectant in our hearts, thoughts, and spirits. We are in fact starting our adoption process at 10AM tomorrow morning! How fitting for this weekend of celebrating Mamas, eh?

This time next year, I hope to be wearing motherhood (a.k.a. spit up, baby cereal, drool, and yeah, I probably will not have showered in several days…) like a badge of honor!

We are incredibly excited! Even though the pressures of the paperwork (more like our new, unpaid part-time job of filling out forms!) and the money that we’re putting towards this adoption can be draining, those moments will fade the very nanosecond that our baby is placed in our arms. Every feeling of discouragement and fatigue will be dimmed and put to rest when our dreams become reality and the spark of hope that we had clung to and prayed for, the child that grew within us in our hearts and desires, is there in our hands. My mind is so limited in trying to conjure up the imagery of this moment. And, I don’t want to spoil it by thinking too long on it. We simply surrender that moment, as well as those before and long, long after it, to a trustworthy and loving God.

We are so happy to announce this to our family and friends. So many have cried with us and held us close over the years of infertility struggles. You’ve assured us time and again of how God has a purpose and plan for our life and he will be faithful to mark even the most painful of journeys with his provision, care and love. And, he has.

We have a lot of work to do to get where we’re going. We would sure love your support and prayers along the way. There is much to keep in mind, but God knows all. We have some fun, creative ways that we’re thinking up for raising support to help financially accomplish this dream. We also have a profile to put together and we need the expertise and creativity of the brilliant minds that are around us to help market — yes, I said market — us.

So, with all of that, I’ll sign off and be sure to update after our meeting tomorrow at 10AM. That is, if after the contract signing and check writing my hand isn’t too cramped up to type! :o)

I just opened this video that my friend Bo sent me. I wasn’t expecting to hear what I heard. But, really, I could watch it a few more times and still be smiling ear to ear (for a number of reasons)!

Oh, and how does Steve Harvey have such perfect teeth? Lawd, those are some pearly whites!

Won’t you be my neighbor?

I just caught wind that one of the largest estates in Georgia is up for sell. Got $45 million to plop down and call it your new pad? If so, we could be neighbors!

This house is just 1 mi. from my driveway and it’s that house that folks are referring to when they say, “who lives there?” It’s mostly hidden from view, lined in a bounty of privacy trees and gates, but this time of year, while the leaves are still gone, parts of the estate are visible from the road — and it is massive!

From my driveway to theirs . . .

Why are they selling? You got it: downsizing. Um, ya think?! Click here to see the article, an aerial view, and some specs like the 17 bathrooms, Fox Theatre replicated home theatre, and so on.

So, any takers?

Just an update before I turn in . . .

Last week, I finished my third go ’round with a certain hormone replacement med. I have done this same therapy twice before, once in high school, again in college, and now at almost 30 yrs old, my body STILL doesn’t seem to behave well on it’s own. Oh, and just two years ago, I underwent a different therapy to do something entirely different, yet it was still related to my diagnosis, so I guess that totals FOUR rounds of various hormone therapies. It’s been a rough two weeks, and I’m still struggling with feeling well. Probably the most regrettable though, has been the past 5 months of neglect for myself . . . finally leading up to my caving into taking the meds.

I can only imagine what a snore of a person I must have been to be around and how miserably I’ve failed at being a gracious, thankful, and respectful wife. Unbalanced is putting it lightly. Teetering on insanity is probably way too kind. Flat out not being myself and feeling cruddy — yup, that begins to scratch the surface alright.

Good news is my body is responding favorably and it would seem that things won’t be as rough on me with this latest treatment than it was the past two times. I think what’s helping is that I was prescribed a newer slow-release version of the same med rather than the injections they’ve administered in the past. Thank you LORD — on behalf of my husband, my doggie, my family, my co-workers — thank you!

So, now that I’m slowly coming out of my malfunctioning hormonal fog, I’m seeing some places I need improvement on. Rather, I’ve been convicted, awakened, startled into realization, and given direction on some crucial areas of my life that I’ve allowed to go unshapened and unsharpened. My husband! Not necessarily him, but the attention (negative and positive) that I give him and how I choose to speak to him and act towards him. Boy, oh, boy . . .

I was given the book For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn when I first came on staff with North Point/Browns Bridge. It’s taken a while for me to get around to it, but I finally started digging into it yesterday.

Ouch! is all I have to say.

I’m struggling with the content because it’s so hard to see that I’m the one in need of “fixing” when it would sure be great if God could just go about “fixing” all the other people around me. Ha! I know — I’m a dingbat!

Since I’m just starting to really get into this book, I won’t talk about it now or how deeply to my marrow it is already reaching. I’ll move my thoughts over to the Gonna Dig, Digging, Dug page when I’m done and give my summary there.

I will say this though . . . considering the crumbling marriages that are highlighted in the news and the downfalls of great leaders to the lust of infidelity, I tremendously hope that this book saturates and shakes me to the core and revolutionizes and revives a newer, better, and more God-like ability for me to respect and cherish the gift He has given me in my husband, Eric. (Eric, you are so, so worth it! You’re a gifted and admirable person who continues to amaze me with your zeal for knowledge and life!)

Oh — feel free to comment on this book if you’ve read it! Or, just leave a general comment! Your thoughts are welcome here!

Here’s an Irish step video. I’d love to see something like this live. I swear, it looks like their legs are twigs and could just snap at any moment.

I need a foot rub just looking at it. Sláinte!

Our weekend was quite interesting weather-wise. We had to cancel plans to go to Peachtree City on Friday to visit friends for the fear of traffic concerns going through the city of Atlanta. What normally would be an hour’s drive would have turned into 3 — easily. Atlanta had St. Patty’s Day parade prep, Atlanta Home and Garden show, insurance conventions, Passion Play, the SEC tourney at the GA Dome, and it was rainy and icky outside, and so on. Most of all, it was Friday. Friday ATL traffic is the worst!

I had hopes of hitting Red Robin cafe in PTC/Newnan that night for a good burger, but since we canceled, we decided we would make our own at home. We were also tuning into the SEC games since KY would be playing GA at 9:45pm in ATL — and that’s when it happened. In the middle of AL and MS State’s OT, all of a sudden you hear the commentator’s yell “what was that? . . . was that a train? . . . people are running for cover!”

It was surreal. You could see in one swift motion all the players exit the court, the fans in the dome went running out of their seats, and the camera guys switched from shots of the court to a ceiling shot where the scoreboard and lighting trusses were building momentum in these big, long sways . . . back and forth . . . side to side. Insulation debris was scattering around like snow and panels of the dome were ripped and flapping in the wind as rain was coming in the dome’s upper bowls. The announcers were speechless. That was the moment that all the weather bulletins started interrupting television programming with tornado watches and warnings — for the next 20 hours!

Turned out that they let AL and MS State finish their game that night, but afterwards, all SEC games at the dome were canceled and moved to GA Tech. Finally, UKY and GA started their game and I became oblivious to anything going on except the game. We started getting phone calls from friends and family saying “are you guys in your basement? . . . what’s it look like there? . . . any sight of funnel clouds yet?” I was thinking, “geeze, there’s lots of rain outside . . . what’s the big deal?”.

After hearing the concern from others, I decided that maybe we should be watching some weather updates. Oh wait — but the game is on! But tornadoes are heading our way! But, the game. Okay, I compromised and used PIP technology. Picture in picture is kind of cool! When the little rotating icon got closer to our area, I’d swap pictures and listen to what the news had to say, all the while keeping an eye out to the little square in the corner of my screen where UKY and GA were playing. Okay. One storm down, another two or three to go.

The next storm dumped hail 2 to 3 inches in diameter for nearly 5 minutes straight. It sounded like someone was dropping metal out of the sky as the hail hit the gutters, cars, mailbox, metal porch roof . . . It was quite impressive. Abe thought it was popcorn or something because — yes, we were standing on our stoop this whole time — he was going after those little balls of ice and bringing them in the house like it was an Easter Egg Hunt. Around the neighborhood, you could see blinds raised and curtains drawn back with everyone’s faces peering out the windows watching the hail storm. When that one blew over, we resumed watching the game, where sadly, UKY lost to GA in OT. What is hysterical about that is that all the Bulldog fans down here are in complete surprise at GA’s recent wins in men’s basketball!

After that, I researched local CPAs and then online tax software and was determined to save my $200 and do my own taxes for another year. Our financial situation is not too complicated for me to try it again — I think. I landed on using TaxAct online. Seems as easy as TurboTax and it shows a refund and nothing owed — I love it!

We had a dinner date of sushi and jazz at Azel Blue with Kim and Aaron. It was nice to get outside after two days of weather dampening our plans. We enjoyed sushi and friendship and toasted to that day, two years from now, where all four of us will be parents by then and be out on a couple’s date with a babysitter at home watching our sweet kiddos.

By evening, the storms and tornadoes had stopped and the news was covering all the damage and debris. Sorrowfully, we all thought about the families that were devastated and even those that had lost a special friend and family member in the perils of Saturday afternoon’s deadly weather. I thought about how valuable time is and how precious my family and friends, my home, and my life really is.