Thursday, August 10, 2006

Why he doesn't blog


So, he wasn't actually working all that overtime. He was out racing cars! Go figure. That's a guy for you. They tell you one thing and do another. Yea, now I will have to go out and buy the tshirts and die cast cars and everything. Opening stores, racing cars, it is amazing that he has time for seminary classes, too.

Well, if he gets popular enough, maybe people will stop calling him James Scott.

A store in san diego


It's bad enough I can't go into a restroom without seeing his name plastered all over the place. Scottowels, James River Corporation, Fort James, Scott paper products. Now there is a store in San Diego called Scott James East Village. Too funny. In case I forget about him I can always go shop at his little boutique in San Diego.

Check this out. They have this really cool handbag. Made entirely of seatbelts! Holds up to 5000 lbs. I need to get one for my MIL. She carries that much change in her purse.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Thank you! Thank you!

Thanks, guys, I feel loved. Everyone have a wonderful day. I am going to attempt a marathon clean and get my house cleaned up. We'll see...wait, how did it go? Do or don't do. No try. Okay, do.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

I wonder

I wonder if I were to turn off the comments, if I could then convince myself that people are actually reading my blog, but nobody is commenting because they can't. Whereas now, I think nobody comments because they don't read it. Is anybody actually reading it? Am I doing it for me, or you? I guess a little of both. Some feedback would be nice. Otherwise, I might as well do it the old fashioned way, get out pen and notebook and write down something witty that nobody else will ever read. My eyes only. When I was eleven, shortly after my brother died, my mom took it upon herself to read my diary. I was mortified. Angry, hurt, frustrated. Not only because she had read it, but because of what it said. I would never have actually done it, but after my brother's suicide, I spent some time thinking about suicide. I contemplated it. To myself, or so I thought. She sat me down to talk about it. My mother blew the whole thing out of proportion and thought I was suicidal. Nope. I wasn't drinking, taking drugs, dressing wierd, hanging with the wrong crowd. Nothing. My brother had just hung himself in a tree and I had found him there. I was dealing with death the way a pre-teenager would. I went to a private Baptist school and my mother picked me up from school every day, how much trouble could I get into? But from her perspective, she was completely in the right doing what she did. Boy, was I angry. I felt I couldn't trust her. I never wrote in a diary again. I am a writer. I write for me. I would still write, but not in one spot, only bits and pieces here and there, hidden in my purse or other places. When I got a computer, I would write and delete, never printing anything. I became paranoid about someone finding something I had written. I had a lot of secrets then. Not anymore. There are years of my life that I would like to be able to look back on and read my thoughts, but they are gone. They were not saved, to be read and re-read later. They were erased.

When I was about twenty years old, I spent some time going to see a MFCC. I went to see the counselor my boss knew. He wanted me to lose weight and thought that counseling would help. He paid for half the sessions. Actually, the woman was just getting her certification and needed her final hours. Well, I knew that I should have seen someone with more experience when she sat there with her mouth open when I told her all the things I had been through. I have some interesting stories. After going there for a while, and spending a lot of money, I decided to get a notebook and write it all down instead of paying $60 per hour (I paid $30) to tell her a bunch of stuff she didn't really want to know about anyway. At least it would not cost as much. So, even though I no longer lived at home, I would write and hide it. So nobody would find it. I was a closet writer. Not anymore. I write here.

I find it easier to express my thoughts in writing than in speech. I always think of something else to say when I speak, only it is always after the fact. When you write, you can fix it or change it. It's not out there and gone forever.

So, feel free to comment if you would like. I will just pretend that all you people are reading and for one reason or another don't want to write things down. Your secret is safe with me.

One camping experience

We were supposed to spend two weeks at Carpinteria State Beach in our camper at the campsites there. There were two other families there that we knew. SO, we get up at 4:30 in the morning to leave, getting all the last stuff in the camper. I was sitting on the edge of my bed, getting dressed. I stood up and my knee popped out of place. I couldn't straighten it. At all. Severe pain, couldn't stand on it. This happened all throughout my teenage years, but I was always able to straighten it and it would "pop" back into place. Well, this time I couldn't. My parents helped me into the back of the camper, all the while I am hobbling on one foot. So, we get to Carpinteria and throughout the course of the day, I still could not straighten my leg. So my parents take me to the emergency room at Santa Barbara hospital. X-ray. Go to your regular doctor. Okay, so the next day, we go to West Hills. It took the dr. about 30 minutes to slowly straighten my leg out. Childbirth didn't hurt as bad as this. He said any longer and he would have admitted me to the hospital and put me in traction. So now I have this knee brace on my leg and a pair of crutches. Back to the beach. Have you ever tried to get into the back of a camper without bending or putting pressure on one leg? Next to impossible. I spent the next two weeks inside the camper. Keep in mind we were less than two hours away from home. I couldn't get outside by myself, though. And going to the bathroom in the camper toilet in the closet was less than fun. No showers. No getting out. Everyone else got to go out on the beach, have fun, etc. I was stuck in the camper-jail. I got out of the camper one time in two weeks. I don't have fond memories of camping.

Tribute to a Wonderful Woman


To a friend who needs a little pick me up. You are amazing. You do everything. And you do it with a smile on your face. You took your whole family of six camping. And I know who did the washing, packing of clothes and food, organizing, staying up late to get finished the night before, unpacking, setting up, watching the kids, chasing the kids, making the kids sit so they don't run away, calling the kids when they run off, feeding the kids, putting sunscreen on the kids, holding the kids when they got boo-boos, cleaning the kids up when they played all day and got dirty. Yeah, and that is just the first day. You are loved and admired by those around you. And we are in awe of all that you do. You are totally different than our previous priest's wife. Different but equally amazing. Mother Betty was amazing. You are too. I don't know how you do it.

You, maam, truly are Mrs. Incredible. And even when things get you down, you hide it extremely well.

You work your butt off, have people at your house at all hours of the day and night, shlep kids around in your minivan and take teenage daughters to work and the mall. You work a full time job and take care of six at home, plus whoever shows up! You can whip up a great meal in a matter of minutes and everybody thinks it was all planned. Six pounds of ground beef to meatloaf for twenty in thirty minutes. You are Semper Gumby. Do you get thanked for it? They appreciate you, even if they don't show it. I bet they all learned to appreciate you even more when you were on bedrest for a few days, huh?

May I be so bold as to speak for the ladies of the church? We love you and we appreciate you! Keep it up. You are an inspiration to the rest of us. If other people don't appreciate all that you do, that is their problem. They aren't paying attention.

And, if you are crabby, you hide it VERY well.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Too funny not to

The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget....
was this particular Sunday sermon...
"Dear Lord," the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. "Without you, we are but dust." He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter (who was listening!) Leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice, "Mommy, what is butt dust?"