Well, This Was Unexpected...

Five-fifteen in the morning. I am dead-to-the-world asleep. The phone rings. Of course I expect it to be my step-dad telling me he's taken my mom to the hospital or something. No, nothing like that. This is the conversation that ensued:

Me: (very groggily) Hello?
Father-in-Law: Are y'all up?
Me: Um...No?
FIL: Well, you need to get up and look out the window.
Me: Um...okay...Sound Man, look out the window.
Sound Man: (also very groggily) WHA..? WHY?
Me: Your dad said to.
Sound Man: (after getting up and looking out the window) HOLY CR*P! THERE'S THREE INCHES OF SNOW ON THE GROUND!
FIL: Well, just thought you'd want to know. Y'all be careful.

After which we both get up and laugh our tails off that the Memphis area was totally caught off guard. I mean, usually, they start a week in advance of a slight chance of flurries warning us, which in turn causes every crazy person in the tri-state area to head to MY Wal-mart for bread and milk, which of course means that everything else will be out when I'm doing my normal grocery shopping.

This...this was just crazy. They had mentioned last night that we might get some sleet, but no one made a big deal about it that I knew of. Maybe it was all overshadowed by last night's game. What game, you ask? If you have to ask, I'm not going to be the one to explain it to you.

Anyway, by the time Kiddo and I got up, there was 5 1/2 inches of snow. How do I know? Well, we are very scientific around here:

See? No, you probably can't. But trust me. That ruler went all the way to 5 1/2 inches. By the time this picture was taken, this was the only undisturbed spot in the yard. I do have three dogs, not to mention a 10-year-old boy.

Sound Man took this picture when he let the dogs out about 5:30. I love it because it shows all three dogs with it pouring snow. You can tell how much Jonathan loves it. He cracked me up with all the shenanigans he did while we were out there later.

My sweet boy with my big dog. They love each other, they do. And did I mention Jonathan also loves snow?

Windi and Shadow, however, tolerate it. Shadow more so than Windi.

Shadow taking a turn in the white stuff.

Windi is too prissy (not to mention short) to enjoy being in 5 1/2 inches of snow. This is where she liked to stay. On the patio. Poor baby tried her best to go potty, but she couldn't find a spot in the yard where the snow wasn't half way up to her head. She eventually was able to. Bless her 13-year-old heart.

Have I said that Jonathan LOVES snow? He and Kiddo got into a snowball fight, and this pic shows him trying to get the "ball" out of Kiddo's hands:

Here's Kiddo and Jonathan playing in the snow. I love it when Jonathan growls like that. He sounds so ferocious. And I suppose he would really be if something were really doing harm to one of us, but here he's just playing.

After we brought the dogs in, Kiddo took the sled out to the front to see if our neighbor's kids wanted to ride.

I think that lasted all of three minutes. That sled is heavy! It was built about 25 years ago by an old family friend, and it's still in great condition. Probably because it never gets used!

Well, Kiddo is now inside, warmed up, drinking decaf coffee(yes, coffee...he likes it...go figure) and eating lunch. I am watching what little birds I'm attracting to the yard with the meager fare I put out for them (I was not prepared and only had thistle...sad times). I am taking the day to get caught up on laundry even though I still have much too much of a word that looks a lot like snow but ends with "t" instead of "w" and a headache that WILL. NOT. GO. AWAY.

Maybe if I just spend the day blogging with all of you it will magically go away. Now that's a good idea!

Please Stand By...

While this blogger has technical difficulties. Okay, maybe not technical, but sinusal. Or something like that.

I woke up Friday morning with the WORST sore throat and sinus headache. Normally, I'd jump up and call the doctor and get a sinus cocktail shot the same day. Well, the only problem with that is that Friday happened to be the day that our entire county shut down because a major ice storm was heading our way.

So, I had to wait until Monday. Ugh. Double ugh. But, I finally was able to go get my beloved shot and cough medicine and Z-pack and I'm a happy, although not quite completely healthy, camper.

When I feel like it, I will get to my pics of the beautiful, if disruptive, ice storm. To be so damaging, that stuff is so absolutely gorgeous. I can say that because I didn't have any damage to my trees or house. Other folks around the Memphis area weren't so lucky, having trees fall on their houses, branches fall through roofs, and other very not-beautiful things. I'm sure they wouldn't think the images I have are beautiful, but maybe you will.

Here's an image that makes me smile...and at the time warmed my heart. My big ol' puppy dog knew I wasn't feeling good and allowed me to snuggle with him just a minute...and only a minute. Right after this pic was taken he decided he had enough snuggle time with Momma. Oh, well...I take what I can get.

Okay, I have to go take my antibiotic now. *sssnnniiifff*

My New Glasses

It's been a while since I've had new glasses. Like 12 years. I'm not kidding.

In 1997 Sound Man worked for a company that had a line of eyeglasses that you could use for safety glasses and still look fashionable...particularly helpful if you worked in an industry that required you to wear them all day long. You could wear them instead of the really clunky, ugly safety glasses.

Anyway, they had some frames they were discontinuing and would be free to us if we got the lenses through this part of the company. The lenses were going to be either free or way cheap, too (I can't remember which at the moment...it WAS almost 13 years ago, after all). The only thing was, they had to be safety lenses. So they had these permanent little marks at the top that all safety glasses have to have, making me think there was always a smudge at the top of my glasses.

My point. What was my point? Oh yeah! So, I mostly wear my contacts. I have ever since I started wearing them in 7th grade. I never really needed a new pair of glasses since my prescription really didn't change much over the years. Well, my prescription my not have changed, but fashion certainly did.

I felt like I couldn't NOT wear my contacts out in public. My glasses were that out of style. I didn't have the freedom to just not stick my finger in my eye every morning. Not that I mind sticking my finger in my eye, but I'm just sayin'.

So, in a spur of the moment kind of thing, instead of getting contacts with my eye exam this year, I got what I've wanted for years...NEW GLASSES!

Here's what my old ones look like...

Don't you love my expression? That's the way I felt every time I wore these things. Notice the lovely way the color is peeling off the frame. Ugh.

And HERE'S my new glasses!

I LURVE THEM!

Sound Man couldn't wait for me to get them. I texted him a picture when I was trying them on and he couldn't wait for them to come in. He says they're sexy. I think he's crazy. But I love him for thinking it anyway.

Oh, and as a side note...don't you LOVE my toile shower curtain? Why I decided to take these pics in the bathroom I'm not sure but I'm glad I did so you can see it!

Anyway, just wanted to share my good fortune with you. My glasses and I are now going to go see what's going on on Facebook. Ha ha! Get it? SEE what's going on?

Nevermind.

What I Love About Sundays

Okay, so it's Tuesday. But I love Sundays so much I decided to write about them. It's my blog. I can do that.

What spurred me on to do this was this past Sunday. It was a typical Sunday for the three of us, and I realized how much I lurve our Sundays. From start to finish. Even though I have to wake up before dawn. Here's why.

First, the before dawn part. On the weekends we have the entire worship team singing (we alternate between just having a Praise Team and having the full Worship Team) we have to be there at 7:00 a.m. Yes. Seven. A. M. Did you know I'm NOT a morning person? Have you ever tried to sing at 7 o'clock in the morning? Vocal warm-ups are my friend. Ugh.

But you know what? There's no group of people I'd rather hang out with at that time of the morning.

Sundays also mean sausage biscuits and Praise Team practice. You know, when you're really, really hungry...I mean, so hungry you'd think a gum wrapper would taste good, a homemade sausage biscuit from the church's little cafe is the best. thing. ever. And it really is. So every week, I get one and head to P.T. practice and hang with some of my favorite peeps in the world.

This is not all of them by far. We alternate P.T. members, so this room is full of a different crew every week. And I heart them all. After eating and chatting and laughing our heads off at one another (usually Jae or Kevin), then we get down to the neety greety (as Nacho would say) and work on the next week's songs.

Then there's church itself. If I'm directing choir, like I was this week, this is the view the congregation sees of me.

Not. Pretty. Oh, well. I love doing it anyway.

After either eating at Casa Mexicana (our favorite Mexican restaurant) with our friends Jeff and Lisa, or heading home to eat lunch, I soooo look forward to the next part of my Sunday: a delicious nap. I truly believe that Sunday naps are the best naps there are.

Several years ago (okay, more than a decade ago, but who's counting?) we stopped having church on Sunday night so our people could spend the evening with family or have small group that night. For years our small group met on Sunday night, but now we moved to another night of the week and I loooooooove it. We get to hang out in our pj's and do little or nothing and watch "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and football.

Sound Man snapped a few pics of Kiddo building quietly (not something he's known for...LOL!) with his Legos...

Oops! Got caught!

He is quite the engineer!

And then we wind down our day and head to bed. After making sure we have read the funnies. I mean, Sunday is just not Sunday without the Sunday funnies, right? Oh, and for those of you not familiar with that word, that would be the "comics."

So that's what I love about Sundays. Man, just sitting here typing all of this made me want it to be Sunday again!

What's your favorite day of the week?

A Hero Once More....My Husband Rocks!

Yesterday my husband was a hero. Oh, not like he was here, but he was a hero nonetheless. Yesterday he went here:

He didn't just give blood, though. Yesterday he gave platelets. In case you need a Biology 101 refresher, as I did, platelets are what makes your blood clot and help you stop bleeding when you've had an injury. In other words, without platelets, you might bleed to death from crashing your hand through your back window while trying to get your dog's attention to get him to stop eating poop in the back yard. Not that that has EVER happened to me. Ahem.

All kidding aside, for real emergencies platelets can mean the difference between life and death.

Sound Man came prepared with his iPod and a book. The process of platelet removal takes about two hours. He was hooked up to a cool machine that did all kinds of stuff that I won't go into because, well, some of you may be squeamish. Suffice it to say the platelets were separated from his blood. Later on he said that his arm was sore, but after taking a couple of Advil he was good to go.

As common as it is, BLOOD can mean the difference between life and death, too. Sound Man has only one more unit of blood to give until he reaches 3 gallons. Meaning he has given 3 gallons of life to other people. Sometimes he knows where his blood goes and sometimes he doesn't. The last time he gave they told him it was going to LeBonheur Children's Medical Center. How precious to know that his blood was going to help save the lives of children in our community.

Lifeblood recently recorded a video and asked him to be a part. I can't help but share it with you. It's a bit long, at 9 minutes, but I hope you take the chance to watch it. The story of the little boy in the school bus accident made me realize how precious our blood is. My Sweet husband is toward the end of the video.

Lifeblood Video from Combustion on Vimeo.

If you have type O blood, your blood is in high demand. Sound Man's is type O+, but mine is O-. Mine is EXTREMELY in demand, as I can donate to anyone. Positive blood types can only donate to positive blood type recipients. However, negative blood types can give to + and -, and type O- is universal.

So, you'd think that I've given as much as Sound Man, right? Well, try as I might, I have yet to be able to give. The first time I tried, I had a fever blister. Did you know you can't give within three days of a fever blister? You DO know what a fever blister is, don't you? Well, I didn't until a few years ago, and about had heart failure. If you don't, I'll fill you in later.

Anyway, the second, third, and FOURTH times I've tried to give, my iron was too low. That is a common problem for women, and if you decide you want to give, make sure you eat lots of iron-rich food a few days beforehand. I haven't yet, but you can bet the next time I try to give I will have had more spinach than Popeye. It makes me so sad not to be able to donate.

I want to be able to follow the example my Hero of a Husband has made.

My Husband Rocks! Fridays were started by Katy Lin at The Great Adventure. I'm so glad she did!