Pyromaniac

Well there are those things that you think will never happen in your home and it happened at me today! My son, Christian (10), decided that after watching Jesse James burn something on Monster Garage that he could do that too. So while I was talking to my hubby, he lit some paper, let it burn, blew it out, and stuffed it in the trash can.

I come out of my room and smell something that has been burnt. So of course I freak out! I ask my 3 kids about it and this is how it goes:

ME

Who was burning something?

Kids

Not ME!!!!!

Micah(5)

It was HIM!!!

as he points to Christian

Christian

No I didn't!!!!

Me

Come here!

imagine me pointing my "Mom"finger and giving the "death look"

I stomp back down the hall with Christian glumly following behind

ME

OK, smell that?I know that someone was burning something...want to revise your story?!

AS we stop at the door to his room where the burning smell is still scary strong.

Christian

I lit the lighter.

reluctantly spoken

ME

Oh no, there's more to it!!!

by now I think the smoke is coming out of my ears

Christian

I lit a piece of paper

eyes downcast- shoulders hunched

Me

WHAT?!! What did you do with the paper?!

I'm sure I'm losing my mind at this crazy turn of events

Christian

I put it in the trash in the kitchen.

at this point I run down the hall, knowing that I am going to find the trashcan blazing

ME

Did you wet it down before you stuck it in there?

Christian

No, I just pushed it all the way to the bottom

ME

OK, let me get this straight, while I was in the bedroom talking with your dad you lit a piece of paper in your bedroom, took it all the way through the house, stuffed it in the kitchen trash where it could smolder and catch fire and spread through the whole kitchen possibly burning down the whole house?!!!!!!!!!!

I think my head spun around a couple of times while I said all of this

Christian

Yes.

completely demoralized

My HUSBAND

Where did you get this idea?

Christian

Monster Garage... that guy that burned stuff(Jesse James)

this is a show that he watched with dad

Needless to say this incident ended with strong discipline and I am planning a trip to visit a fireman friend who will show him the danger of fire that is improperly handled. I am also beginning to get leary about the whole puberty/testosterone/preteen thing. Lots of prayers would be good.

I hope this gives everyone a good, "Thank God, that' not my kid!"

In Christian's defense, he is an awesome kid who is amazingly smart, and very creative. I love him even when he is plotting our family bonfire.

CRASH!!!!

My hard drive has crashed! I can't even begin to explain how crazed this makes me!!!! I have lost so much stuff. I know, I know... back up everything! This is a sad excuse...I don't know how. I am so ignorant about my computer and my husband is a techno-nerd so it's kinda like the cobbler's children having no shoes... All this to say it will be a couple of days before I blog again. I have to rebuild my computer stuff-YUCK!!!!! Pray for me - I need patience.

What a concert!

We had an AMAZING night! One of the things that is really important with the church that we have started is to be a part of our community, to live and move, and be a part of where we live and be where people are. The problem with that is we don't live in an area that has a great place for people to hang out. To help remedy this, we are hosting a series of free concerts at a local shopping center. We will do them every other week with different kinds of musical artists to provide a way for our community to come together just to be.
Tonight was our first one and we had about 250 people...Not too shabby! The band was great, the sound was mixed well, Starbuck's made a killing and people had a great time. Next time, we are having a Jazz group play-I, personally, am very much looking forward to that!
I think the thing that is so very cool to me about what went on tonight is that all kinds of people came together and connected, and that our baby church got a chance to do something for our community without expecting anything in return. I LOVE IT!!!!!! Sunday, we have a community-wide Easter egg hunt before our service. It will be interesting to see how things go! I love to think that we have the opportunity to reach out and do things, big or small, for our community that say, "Hey, we love you and you know what?God does,too!"
Easter to me is about so much more than bunnies and chicks and I am excited about the opportunity to proclaim God's love in a way that looks a little different to the World. It is my prayer that we will constantly seek ways to clearly communicate God's love to those we are in contact with!

Happy Easter!!!!!

He is Risen !!!!

May we never be the same!

Contradictions

What a paradoxical life we lead. Here are some contradictions that jumble my brain.
Becoming an adult:
You can drive somewhere between 15-17 years of age
(if you live in rural Texas you have probably been driving since you could reach the gas pedal)
You can see a rated “R” movie at 17
You can have an abortion at 16 and your parents not know
You can’t drink, legally, until you’re 21
When you’re 16 if you run away from home the police won’t force you to come
home, yet your parents will be held responsible if you are truant from school
You can serve in the military and die for your country at 18
In some states you can get married as young as 16 without parental consent
You can get birth control without parental knowledge as young as 12
You can’t buy cigarettes unless you are 18

No wonder teenagers are so confused! I know I couldn’t figure it out.

About life:
Abortion at any stage of in-utero life is permitted in the US
If some one kills a pregnant woman they can be charged for a double homicide
Lawyers have been appointed for the unborn in court to protect their rights
A woman in Colorado was charged and sentenced because she failed to swerve to
avoid a squirrel and killed it
A farmer mowing his field was arrested for killing a rat when he unknowingly
mowed over it, apparently it was an endangered species of rat (are you
kidding me?!)

Now for me…it seems that I share a common affliction with Paul, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” There are too many conflicts to list just suffice to say that I do not wish to be “double-minded” James 1:8. So I am working on my inner (wo)man to be strengthened in Him. Pray for me as today has been a struggle of “taking every thought captive”. Yuk, what a day! I am not a fan of contradiction.

Two Loves and Other Thoughts

"There can only be two loves," wrote Augustine, "the love of God unto the exclusion of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God."

Wow! I am amazed at how I waiver between the two. And, yet, I totally agree. It's either Him or me and too often it's me.

Better Days

Today was a yucky, rainy, and cold day. Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was 70 degrees. This all of a sudden change seems to reflect my life. Last week was crazy but this one has already started well. We had new families visit church Sunday and some who came last week, came back again with other family members. How Cool! We sat down as a family last night and talked about our week and what we had going on. This is a first for us but I hope we can maintain this. The other cool thing is that I have been in a parenting rut and God has given me some creative things to do that I hope will help inspire my son to greatness, or at least to a more respectful attitude and a more Christ-like heart.
My dad's doing well-thank God! His 64th birthday was yesterday so the clan ate at Buca di Beppo http://www.bucadibeppo.com/
We all stuffed our faces and sang Happy Birthday!
What a great start to the week!

Hard times

This week has been something else! My dad had cataract surgery on Tuesday so I went to stay with him and my mom all day and I stayed the night so I could take him to the Doctor on Wednesday morning. This was supposed to be a no brainer…people have this done all the time with no problems and that was our expectation. Leave it to my dad to make things more challenging.
He was doing fine on Tuesday, a little nauseated and weak but ok. When he got in the chair at the eye doctor’s they had him put his head in that little thing to look at his eyes. He had to stop because he was feeling nauseated. Then he started feeling really bad-the nurse put a wet cloth behind his head and left me alone with him to go get the doctor. The color drained from his face and his eyes were all glazed over, then he started moaning and snorting… it was so scary. I was slapping his face and calling his name-he was completely unresponsive. Finally a nurse put her head in the room and I said, “Could you please not leave me alone with him?!”
Shortly thereafter the doctor came in and he said, “Call 911!” At this point I am completely freaked! They got him to respond a little so they said to forget 911 and they gave him some oxygen. He came around a little more and I suggested that it might be his blood sugar because he hadn’t eaten much in 2 days. A diabetic nurse ran and got her glucometer so she could test his blood. His sugar was 65(normal is 70-120). They gave him some crackers and juice and he started to get some color back and become more responsive.
During all of this I called his friend Katie since she is a doctor and was familiar with Conroe, where Dad lives. By the time she got there all of this was pretty much over he was sitting up, his color was better, and he was drinking a coke. We ended up leaving there to go to his primary care doctor who did all kinds of blood work and an EKG to double check. He said my dad’s hypoglycemic and gave him some instructions concerning diet and we went home.
It’s amazing that a lifetime can pass so quickly. This whole scenario took place in under 30 mins. Inconceivable! (I do know what that word means.)
I have never been so scared. When my mom almost died from her aneurysm I never saw her except in the ICU, this was different because I was present for the whole thing. I have never seen anything like what I saw yesterday except on TV or a movie. Trust me its totally different. I know that lots of diabetics and their families deal with this all the time but that’s not my reality. I feel like I got a glimpse yesterday of what my dad will look like when he dies…no color, eyes glazed over mouth slack… if I never see him like that again I would be completely happy!
OK, this is a long post , so I’ll be done. I just needed to get it out!
Things to thank God for:
That this happened at the doctor’s office and not at home or in the car
That he is fine if a little thick-headed
That I went through something horrible and didn’t have a panic attack or complete breakdown.