You know you're a child of the 70's if...

First off I want to apologize to my devoted readers (I am talking to all 8 of you) for not updating my blog in almost 2 months. I plead busyness - school began, fall activities began and its a busy time with the special needs ministry....and worst of all I now have a facebook page which is just one more time sucker in my life! But I'm back.

This will not be a post where I list all the ways you know you were a child of the 70's. Instead I will just tell you of the two moments that this was made clear to me yesterday by my children.

First, my 13 y/o son was trying to call a family friend, who is an older lady who does not have call waiting or voicemail (or a cell phone - eek!). So Sam dials and listens and he is making a funny face, says he doesn't know what this is and hands me the phone. "It's a busy signal", I say. He still has the same confused, blank expression. This is when I realize that not only does he not recognize the annoying intermittent tone but he has never even heard the term "busy signal". I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry.

Then, as I was driving with my 8 y/o he began talking to me about seeing men on TV who were twirling and throwing sticks with the ends lit on fire. He asks me if I've ever seen this and I say yes I have on TV. (of course I am thinking about luau at the end of the Brady Bunch episode when they are in Hawaii) Then on the ride home he is talking about this man who was talking to a statue and when he watched the fire show he said, "I wish Oliver could see this". At this point, sadly, a light bulb goes on in my head and I ask Luke if he watched the Brady Bunch at his friends house that afternoon. I actually remember that the "bad guy" would talk to this idol he named Oliver!!! What does that say about my upbringing? It says I watched A LOT of Brady Bunch reruns after school each day.

So there is my trip down memory lane yesterday. What do you remember about the days gone by when you were a child?

Happy 8th Birthday Jedi Luke

And may the Force be with you.

Procrastination is my middle name

I remember the first time I heard the word 'procrastination'. I was about 10-11 years old and my mother used it to describe me as I was putting off some task I had to do. I stopped and asked her to say the word again and tell me what it meant. I repeated it. I just loved the sound of it - the way it rolled off the tongue. Of course what I didn't realize was that somehow my soul innately felt drawn to this word.

And here I am on this August afternoon avoiding (or should I say procrastinating) folding the rest of the clean laundry. Folding laundry isn't so bad but for some reason today I have found several other things to do rather than fold (like post a new blog entry). It sits there as I clean out my closet and finish unpacking from our trip (yep - I got home on Monday from that and I'm just getting around to putting the rest of the odds and ends away on Friday). I worked out, made breakfast and lunch (oh wait, I bought lunch on my way home) for my boys. I needed to water the plants outside (its been dry lately) and then a few friends dropped by to say hello or drop something off. And now I need to go bake those cupcakes for Luke's bday celebration tomorrow. The laundry can wait.

The thing about us procrastinators is we have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. We, of course, hate them because it is this looming time-bomb just waiting to go off. "What if we don't have *it* finished by then? What if *it*s not just right by then?" But then there's the appreciation of knowing that it gives us a boundary to work in - us procrastinators really need boundaries.

So my self-proclaimed deadline is tonight by the time my husband arrives home from his trip. That will probably be around midnight so I still have a few hours to go. I know that when I am getting ready for bed tonight, I am going to be kicking myself for not folding this laundry earlier in the day when I wasn't feeling like I could fall asleep standing up. Maybe I'll just spend this next 5-10 minutes folding it and then it will be off my shoulders.....or maybe I should get those cupcakes started.

Riding the Rapids!

Last week we had an incredible time at Young Life's family camp (Trail West) in Colorado! It was truly a week of adventure for our (adventure-challenged) family. We rode horses, hiked up to the continental divide, (some of us - not me) conquered our fear of heights by completing a high ropes course, and we went white water rafting on the Arkansas River. Here is a great photo of our family riding the rapids (that's Murphy, our guide in the middle - and his first name is Murphy, not his last - and he told us he was in fact named after the family dog - ha!). We had a blast - until we were drenched in a 33 degree rain shower, which made the melted-mountain-snow river seem much warmer! It was definitely an adventure we are all proud to say we experienced together.

I will post more photos later. And pray that I can figure out how to post a video. We were so proud of Jay going thru the ropes course despite his extreme fear of heights and I'd like to get it on my blog here.

Customer Service

Today I tried to refill some prescriptions from our mail-order pharmacy. As I am about to do this on-line, I realize my son has only 11 pills left and we are leaving on vacation on Saturday for a week. So I call the customer service phone number to ask if it is possible to have them shipped to our house by Friday. As I begin to explain the situation to Helen she interrupts me to say, "On the bottle it says you can order as early as June 26 so you don't run into this kind of situation."

I don't remember exactly what I said in response to this...something like "Thanks" or "I see"...but I know my voice was dripping with sarcasm. What I was thinking was...Do you think I am an idiot. I obviously see that I missed the boat here and I don't really need you to reprimand me for it. What I am looking for here is some help!

The answer is no, Helen cannot help me. I need to call our doctor and have him send in a 30-day script to the local pharmacy that I can get this week.

You gotta love "customer service"! *written in my most sarcastic tone*

The definition of insanity

So after much searching and praying and worrying and beating myself up, I found my wedding band. And I found it as I thought I would. I was just going about my business when it showed up. I was stripping Luke's bed and the ring fell out of his blanket onto the floor by my feet. I was so relieved and grateful.

In the process I found that Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is very true! Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I looked in the same four places at least 3 times each this week. I was getting so frustrated and feeling hopeless. I'm not sure why I never thought to look on Luke's bed - he suggested it the night it went missing but for some reason I didn't think it could possibly be there. Boy was I wrong!

Thanks God for bringing it back to me. I know several of my friends were praying for it to be found. Thank you dear friends.

Laura's Rules for Running

1. Stretch before running.
2. Be sure to use the bathroom right before running.
3. Run on the shady side of the road even if this means zig-zagging a bit.
4. Don't just run the 1/2 mile loop around the neighborhood over and over since its too tempting to quit early in front of the house when tired.
5. Enjoy the wildlife, ie: flowers, rabbits, birds. (Watching a muskrat run away is very comical with it's little tail sticking up as it's back end bounces up and down.)
6. Skip songs that may be demotivating, like "Its the End of the World as We Know It" or "Another One Bites the Dust". Stick with motivating songs such as, "All Things are Possible".
7. When finished with the run take the shortest route home, even if this means cutting through your neighbors' backyards.
8. Stretch and drink plenty of water when finished running.