Funny things I think . . .

Today, I was on a "fly killing rampage" in my kitchen -- will we ever win the war on the flies at our house?!? As I was waiting on this one fly to land, I had this thought:

Do you think a fly ever gets to where it's going?

What a life -- fly around aimlessly with not much purpose in life. I read once that a fly throws up 7 times every time it lands. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but the thought came back to me this morning and I thought what a life -- fly around, land, throw up 7 times, fly again, hoping that a human isn't stalking me just waiting for me to land again. And, do you think a "fellow fly" has warned them about the flyswatter? Or, do you think they just fly around oblivious to the thing that in one swat can take them out?

And, can you imagine how big my kitchen must feel to a fly? I wonder if he thinks, "Now, if I fly off of this table, I won't be able to find my way back, probably ever."

Anyway, that's my thought for the day -- as weird as it may seem!! =)

I'll also share these pictures:

This is a bird's nest that is in under our carport. We have been watching for the momma bird to come back, but we haven't seen her. I guess that doesn't really mean much.









They are funny because whenever we get out of the car and shut the door, they open their
mouths and start chirping, like we're the ones going to feed them!! I never knew a baby bird's mouth was so big!!

I just couldn't resist sharing this!! Last Saturday, we got home from our "vacation" to Ft. Worth. We got the car unloaded and played with the dogs. It was beautiful outside!! When we pulled in the driveway, we noticed that our trampoline had been blown into our backyard (it's usually on the side of the house), but we didn't think much of it.

About 10 pm, the wind kicked up and started blowing really hard. We moved the boys from their room into the living room in case it blew out a window -- yes, it was blowing that hard and it started hailing small pieces!! The floor started shaking and the electricity was going on and off. We turned on the news and they weren't reporting anything -- no storm watches, nothing!!

About 10:20, the weather came on and they said there was a storm moving through town and it would be through by 10:45 pm and that it could have wind gusts of up to 40 mph.

I went in the kitchen and looked out in the backyard to see that the trampoline was GONE!! I went outside to see if I could see it anywhere, but it was too dark. The wind finally just quit blowing all of a sudden -- not good news normally -- but it was just calm! I went out again to see if I could see the trampoline, but I couldn't see it anywhere.

At about 3 am, another strong wind came just like the previous one. I turned on the news and nothing. . . they had the dopplar recording on and it was reporting a storm about 2 hours south of us, but nothing around home. So, I went back to bed.

The next morning, when I woke up, I looked outside and saw our trampoline:




The trampoline is a twisted mess!! We had the safety net on the top and it's all wrapped up inside the mess shown here!! We haven't had a chance to try to untangle it all yet. We're planning on doing that sometime soon.

There were springs scattered all over the place!! If you've ever put a trampoline together, you know how hard you have to stretch those springs to get them to attach on the side!! The wind just scattered the springs everywhere!! There were only 2 left attached to this piece.

I would not be surprised if this was the working of a small twister. The way the house was shaking and the way the wind was blowing, it just shocked me that the news didn't have anything on it. . . Crazy!!

"This morning Payton came in and said, "Mom! God helped me find dad's knife thingy!!"

In his hand, he had a butter knife thing that has a penguin on the end of it. Aaron's mom got it for us at some point. It's small and you can use it to spread butter or jelly. . I don't know the "real name" for it, but we've never really used it that I can think of. Anyway, I guess Payton had taken it outside and he lost it. But instead of telling anyone, he went outside to look for it again. Here's the story in his words:

Mom, I went outside to look for that knife thingy. . you know that thing of dad's that has the penguin on the end of it. . it's a little knife thing. Well, I went outside to look for it and I couldn't find it anywhere, so I looked up at the sky and I said, 'God, will you please help me find that knife thing of my dad's?' Then, I just looked down at my feet and there it was. I think God just picked it up and moved it because I prayed and asked him to help me. So, I picked it up and I looked back at the sky and I said, 'Thank you God for helping me find this thing for my dad.' Then, I just came it the house and showed it to you. Isn't that awesome, Mom?"

I can definately say that I was excited about that and I did tell him that it was awesome!! You know, God is constantly showing me that He cares about the little things that we care about. God even cares enough to help us find the things that we've never used before!!

Here are some pictures of the dogs:

Here's a picture of Evan, Aaron, Blue, & Cracker.

This is Blue. She is full blood Blue Heeler. She is a very good dog. She's just been a little shy with Evan. =)

This is Cracker. She is 1/2 blue heeler and 1/2 sheep dog. She is a little more mischevious than Blue. As you can see, she doesn't seem to mind Evan hanging all over her, which is good for Evan!! =)

Our dog, Creek, died just a few weeks ago. We think she got bit by a rattlesnake. We really miss her and things have definately been different around here. She used to always walk me to the mailbox to get the mail every afternoon. She would run out ahead of me and jump in the ditch acting like she was making sure nothing was in there. I would get the mail and she would run back to the house with me and make sure I was safe.

When she died, I didn't think I would miss her as much as I do. . . I mean, she was a dog. But, when you've woke up every morning for the last 7 years and the first thing you did was feed her, then you wake up one morning and she's not waiting there.

I don't like to go on the back porch in the last few weeks. That's where she relaxed and whenever we opened the door, there she was wagging her tail.

After she died, I didn't think we would get another dog. I was wrong! Today, we got 2 new dogs, Blue & Cracker. Blue is full blood Blue Heeler and Cracker is 1/2 Blue Heeler and 1/2 Sheep Dog. They are still adjusting to our home, but the boys LOVE them!! They love to play catch and they haven't tried to run away, so I guess that's good.

So, now I have somebody else to feed in the mornings and I have somebody else to walk me to the mailbox every afternoon. I'm going to try to post pictures later.

Yesterday, I was thinking about children's ministry and all the things it entails. I'm a teacher, friend, organizer, planner, cleaner, etc. The one thing that I don't think is in my job description is cleaning out melted chocolate from plastic Easter eggs. Picture this: We have a MASSIVE Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday and it was close to 90 degrees outside!! Is there anywhere that you can hide an Easter egg in 90 degree weather that the chocolate inside won't melt? I think those eggs were doomed before they ever left the church!! =)

So, after the egg hunt, we asked parents to return the eggs if they weren't going to use them again so that we could recycle them for next year. I got back 2 clothes hampers FULL of eggs. The only thing is that most of them had melted chocolate somewhere on them.

So, I came home and just put the hamper behind my office door. I guess I hoped at some point they would just clean themselves or something. But, my husband was out of town one night this week and I decided to get a little organized in my office. I moved some stuff around and looked behind my door and there was that hamper full of chocolate covered plastic Easter eggs!! So, the boys and I decided that we were going to clean them. I didn't think it would take more than 30 minutes to clean the whole hamper full.

4 hours later, I was reaching the bottom of the hamper. We sorted all of the eggs from the original hamper into two groups: Dirty & Clean. Our dirty pile was about 1/2 of a hamper full. I sure didn't think it would take that long to clean 1/2 of a hamper full, but boy was I wrong!!

As I'm wiping off melted M&Ms from this one egg, I looked at the hamper and wondered: Is this really in my job description?!? Does it say somewhere that the children's pastor has to clean melted chocolate from the Easter eggs?

Then, I had a funny picture in my head: The Bible says to store up your treasures in Heaven and when we get to Heaven, that's where the real reward is. I wonder how God is going to reward me for cleaning Easter eggs? I pictured my first day in Heaven just looking around and someone takes me to my mansion and says, "Welcome Home". I open the door and there is a hamper of SPOTLESS, SPARKLING Easter eggs. Whoever led me to my mansion said, "Chocolate doesn't melt in heaven."

Wouldn't that be just like God? His sense of humor? There was also a golden bottle of ketchup on the mantle above the fireplace!!

My sister and I went to Canton, Texas to the First Monday Trade Days this past weekend. It was so much fun!! We ended up leaving my house late, so we hit rush hour traffic in Dallas and some nasty construction areas close to my friend's house where we were staying the night. I'm used to driving a little SUV, but we took her BIG OL' TRUCK!! It's definately different, but it's intimidating to those little cars that try to cut you off or cut in line!! =)

There was so much to see in Canton!! If your home is western decor, it is a MUST to go there!! That stuff is EVERYWHERE! I could have decorated and redecorated the boys' room several dozen times and not had the same things twice. My sister found quite a bit of stuff. I mainly found some ribbon -- yep, that's right -- ribbon!! It's great for scrapbooking and I think I got over 40 yards of ribbon for $17!! I also got a zebra cell phone cover, which was my "big purchase" of the day!! At the end of the day, I decided to go back and get some wrapping paper -- 2 rolls of zebra paper, 1 roll of leopard print, and one roll of pink tulle. That is all -- after walking probably over 5 miles and not seeing nearly 1/2 of it, that's all I walked away with.

So, we had to stop at the outlet malls on the way home. I did better at those!! =) Got a few things at Old Navy and got a few things at the Gap Outlet. Now it's time to get all of my ribbons organized (somehow) and get my new clothes washed!!