"this plane is definitely crashing - part II"

this is flat out unreal. unconscionable.

a dutch reality tv show is running a one time episode of a dying woman (she has a brain tumor) choosing the recipeint of the kidney she is planning on donating to one of three people with kidney failure. like "dancing with the stars" or "american idol". viewers are even invited to "text in" and give their opinions.

i have given you my opinion...what's yours?

"this plane is definitely crashing" (JVE)

look. look what the world is coming to. wrinkles are scarier than skin cancer. how is that even possible? how vain and sad is that? i mean, i plan to use anti-wrinkle cream, and stay fit and eat things with anti-oxidents just as much as the next girl, but what the heck?

(and if you missed yesterdays post, please read it. i am so proud.)

dang, i'm good!

This is me, waving at the umpire & referree's, who turned around to wave at me!



This is me, singing the anthem! i got all the words, and hit all the notes, and had to PAUSE FOR THE APPLAUSE TO DIE DOWN in between anthems! it was thrilling! ha!

i talk a big game, but....

it is a terrible thing to be given your chance!

today is anthem day, people. fun in theory, "ack!' in actuality!! i am nervous! i have to go practice now, but i will update this post later to tell you how it went. if there is no update, it was humiliating and i ask for your gracious silence.

here is me & mark - hooray!

a picture speaks a thousand words

liar liar!

not the last post! for those of you who doubted, here is proof that engineers get paid to hurl ungodly things at airplanes! enjoy!

last post for the weekend...

The Girls are making cards for Mark & Tina, which involves many staples. and meg just came running downstairs exclaiming, "there are staples all over the rug! i need my metal detector!" ha! i knew that thing would come in handy!

have a good weekend...i know i will!

perfect fit

look! look! shoes named 'rachel' that tie up around the ankle!!

casey, look what i found for you... in all of 3 seconds....

the dance of joy

only 3 sleeps left, people, T-H-R-E-E, til the big weekend! i get to see my brother and his wife! there are no words to describe how i feel about this. i am boggled...kafuffled, if you will. and hopeful! because so far, in our e-conversations, he has pointed out that flies can wear glasses, hamsters can take viagra, and engineers launch thanksgiving turkeys at airplanes and get paid for it (no link there, we are going to have to take his word for it). these all point to a human being i can get along with! hooray!

And, payless has named a shoe after me! "The Rae Thong" - although, 'thong' is an unfortunate qualifier there. why not, 'flip flop'? and tho they have daisies on them, they don't tie up around the ankle, and i know we've discussed my penchant for that previously on this blog. but still! i don't think i've ever had a shoe named after me. i may have to get a pair...even though $8 seems a little steep for flip flops, i think "i" may be worth it!

ladies day!

guess what! it's ladies day at the quikstop gas station grocery! and our faithful reporter on the street, Sarah, has done a little investigative digging! for a full report, you can click here! and admit it, you want to know...

in unrelated news, i was walking the dog this morning down one of the broad, paved paths that run throughout our community, when i came across pink chalk printing on the path. in large, 6th grade girl printing it read, 'war is wrong' & ' no war' and 'bring our soldiers home'...and then i continued around the bend and saw a huge hopscotch drawn, and in letters 2 feet tall it said, "PLEASE hopscotch for peace!". so i did. i hopscotched for peace today. i hope the universe was watching.

DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!

GUESS WHAT!! I AM GOING TO SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM - BOTH OF THEM! - FOR THE DURHAM BULLS ON MAY 30TH!! HOW TREMENDOUSLY COOL IS THAT???

good news for the ladies

so, i'm sitting at red light this afternoon, gazing blankly out the window at the corner gas station, when i notice it has a new sign, one of the ones that scrolls through sales on milk & hotdogs. no big deal. til it scrolls to the next item, which says, and i am not making this up, "Tuesday is Ladies Day". at a gas station grocery.

now, i don't know about you, but as a "lady" (ew - what a squicky word), the first thought through my mind wasn't, "fantastic! ladies' day at the quikstop! this is going to be great! i can get knee high pantyhose for $1.99, and tampax 2 for 1!" it was more along the lines of, "WHAT?? WHO HAS LADIES DAY AT A GAS STATION?!?!"

really. craziness abounds. you just have to keep your eyes open...

an embarassment of riches

happy friday!

we have company staying with us this week/weekend, extra company for dinner tonight, a big party at the house tomorrow, and more company on sunday night. i am hoping that somewhere in between i get peace and quiet. ... yeah, right. :) oh, well. imagine how lonely i would be without all the people in my life to enjoy! that would be so much worse.

casey - i hope you find what you're looking for in CA...both of you. travel safe

sabrina - i hope tomorrow night you feel all the love your peeps have for you

sarah - you made me laugh out loud

j.vo - apparently, all my friends think you look like matt damon. no wonder you get all the chicks! ;)

mark - 8 sleeps!

BIG news

i am pleased and proud to announce that my baby brother, (whom many of you who know me personally have heard all about), is having his first book published next month! hooray, jordan! it is called, "death by love at first sight" by j.vincent elliott, and you will be able to get it from barnes & noble or amazon.com on june 7, 2007! it is a book of poetry, and owning a copy of the manuscript, i can promise you that it's amazing. and i'm not just saying because he is my brother and i quite love him! :) go buy one - or several! they're small!

way to go, big boy! i am wildly proud to be related to you, even though you hardly ever answer my emails. :)

paradox

my mom once told me that i am "the shallowest, deep person" she has ever known. curtis put it in a more flattering light, "you are like a diamond - turn you one way and it's all 15th century writers, and then turn you another way and it's all about fabulous shoes". they are both right. i am tempted to say that i know it's tragic, but you know what? it is not tragic! :) i am a whole human being, and whole human beings are complicated and multi-faceted! :) i want to become a woman of genuine wisdom and inner strength & beauty, and also a woman with fantastic shoes and style, and sometimes even eye liner! i don't why those two things are thought of as mutually exclusive in our culture, but i have to believe that if God gave me a desire to learn, he also gave me a desire for cuteness. it's either all from him, or none from him.

maybe this post is just to justify my (formerly) secret watching of america's next top model, but it's true none the less! :)

makes you feel old!

dang! just saw in the nypost that ian ziering of 'beverly hills 90210' "fame" is FOURTY-THREE!

updates

good morning!

brief visa update - the church received the wrong papers from the IRS (stupid IRS!), so now we are waiting. again. and this waiting is casting a pall over my whole life. i am not a patient woman, and this is so stressful. i feel out of control (which i am, in this situation)...feeling like i can't choose my own life. *sigh* but in the words of jordan, i am trying to 'hold fast'. although yesterday was more of a 'sobbing wreck'. but today is better - solviture ambulando. (the latin equivalent of "just keep swimming" ala Finding Nemo)

brief mark update - 10 sleeps! yay!

brief cat update - a whole day, no barf! yay!

brief friend update - you guys are my heros. i love you, and you know who you are. i would be lost without my peeps! so here's a shout out to you! "HOLLAAH!" (he he he)

an argument against pets

why, holidae? why did you eat plastic plants all night and throw up all over the house? they are PLASTIC. they are not yummy or digestible. and, why? why did you eat the leaves off my lilies, which also make you sick? i am starting to love my lilies more than i love you. they don't barf on the floor. they don't chew on plastic leaves and wake me up in the middle of the night 7 times. they are only beautiful and intoxicatingly fragrant. you'd better step it up, holidae. seriously.

gettin' naked with grandma!

honestly, people. what is the world coming to?

this morning while cruising the "news" online, i discovered a couple of things. #1 - people are stupid. #2 - nudists are old.

the first story tells of teachers, "responsible adults", who decided that as a learning excersize, they would fake a gunman attack on a group of 11 & 12 year old 6th graders during a class trip. they repeatedly told the children it wasn't a drill, and one teacher even dressed up as a gunman and pulled on the locked door. perhaps they were all high when this plan was concieved? because, apparently, this was a "thought through" plan! needless to say, the parents are not thrilled, since their kids were terrorized and honestly thought they were going to die. it's tragic when even the teachers are stupid.

secondly, nudists are old! and they are pulling all the strings to get you, young(er) person, to adopt their lifestyle! several points of interest, and i will leave you to your own musings. #1 - did you know there is a yearly fee to be part of an acutal nudist group or resort? #2 - if i were going to be a nudist, walking in on a bunch of naked people my moms age would definitely be a deterant (no offense, mom). #3 - they are also apparently trying to get "young families" involved. this is where i have to draw the line. i am not taking my beautiful, innocent and carefree daughters to a nudist resort for the summer. who knows what creep is out there, paying his yearly fee, just to watch naked children. he-ell no!

also, in local news, chubby pants went to the big fish bowl in the sky last night. you were a good fish, chubby pants. you will be missed.

a perfect day

ahhhh....

i had a long & happy conversation with my brother (yay!) this morning, The Girls are "swimming" in our inflatible pool, i got to lay out in the sun for an hour, there is a chocolate cake on my counter, and now i get to have a nap. this is a perfect day!

(later that afternoon ... )

topped off by a raging midday thunderstorm! hooray!

knowing

funny thing -

i was just at kroger, picking up a few things, when the cashier looked at me and said, "you are wearing your hair differently these days...are you growing it out?"

i don't hang out at kroger a lot. in fact, i am mostly a target shopper. but apparently, i make an impact! he he!

it made me smile - and i wondered why it mattered to me. then i realized, i want to be known. sure, she didn't know me, but she sort of did. i was recognized. we want our lives to matter, we want to leave footprints, you know?

i had an e-conversation this morning about the small and perfect things in nature that most people don't take the time to see. and as i sit here, it occurs to me that with our peeps, it's in the knowing of the small things that we are most fully known. taking the time to see the tiny things about one another - like what my husband takes in his coffee and that he likes walnuts in his brownies - learning the tiny pieces, and with more difficulty, being brave enough to reveal your own tiny pieces, this is what Knowing is.

i got a kick out of being a little bit known today. and yes, i am growing out my hair. i sort of hate it.

Love

what does it mean to really, genuinely love someone? what does it look like? we throw "love" around a lot, but what takes it beyond "luv" into Love? i think Love moves us to act purely for the good of the other person...doing what they need, not what you think they need, or doing what you think will get them to do something for you. it is no strings attached action, not gooey feelings. it is muscular and strong - strong enough to be sad when the one you love is crying, and strong enough to celebrate when the one you love is celebrating, even if your own heart is barren. Love is brave and willing to live outside of it's own comfort to create comfort for others. it is fluid, moving past offense and obstacle with grace. real Love acts even when it doesn't feel. i want to live with more Love and less "luv".

the happy dance!

(this is a cuter picture of me and my dead puffer fish.... no other reason to add it to the blog...smile)

my parents recently went to england and brought me back a jar of "Harrods Raspberry Extra Jam". (i am sort of raspberry jam connoisseur) it was definitely the best i've ever had - so good that every time i ate it i was sad, because i knew there was less left, but i couldn't stop eating it. but i figured, hey, in the global world of the internet, surely i can find more and order it online. but no! i have been foiled! harrods doesn't list it as even existing in their store, although they do have strawberry extra jam. (why the "extra"? i have no idea.) boo on strawberry jam! i looked on ebay (who buys jam on ebay?) and still no luck. tragic.

but... OH HAPPY DAY! only 16 sleeps left til i get to meet Mark & Tina - i am so flippin' excited!! that is only 2 weeks - and that's not very long at all! in between i am having a baby shower and mothers day and company for a week, so i think the time will fly by...too bad you can't see me - i'm doing the happy dance in my comfy chair right now... la la la!

Good news, bad news...

hooray! it's honeysuckle season! the intoxicating smell is drifting everywhere along the paths i walk with bella the dog, and sometimes i have to stop and sniff the air. i love it.

ack! apparently, while pulling up some of the vine to put in my little vase here in the living room, i left myself open to a tick attack! fortunately, curtis found it, and there was a nurse here (as a friend, not a healthcare professional) who calmly rescued me. but what if i get a horrible, tick borne disease! poo! i hate ticks!

i swear i am not making this up

8:21 am

Meg (age 7, wide eyed) – “Mom, isn’t French kissing gross?!”

Me (age 31, wide eyed) – “Umm…”

Meg – “Do They have to do it at weddings?”

Me – “Um, no…”

Meg – “I am NEVER moving to France!”

Kyra (age 9, thoughtfully) – “What about French Canadians?”

at the beach...

ok - i don't know how to process my weekend in this forum, so i won't. but it was good. and i found this puffer fish washed up on the beach and carried him almost 2 miles to have his picture taken. (i did get one taken with me, too, but i don't look too cute in it, so you only get the fish. ha!) don't you think he looks like he died happy? perhaps, he was old and lived a full puffer fish life, and drifted in on the tide surrounded by the fish he loved. and then crabs ate his eyes out. but still, a tremendous find, don't you think?

now for something completely different!

have any of you guys ever wanted to carry your wives through an obsticle course to win her weight in beer? hooray! your opportunity is here! i think we should organize a group field trip - there is a wife relay race, if we could get three couples going together! c'mon! how much fun would this be?? of course, it may be tricky getting the beer home...

change

Earth rolled her shoulders
Adjusting the mantle
And everything changed

Deserts that have swallowed my tears
Steep hills where I’ve stumbled
Deep crevasses of rock that have held me captive

Tectonic

Roads I’ve traveled
Fields that have welcomed my bare toes
Broad trees that have sheltered me

Shift

My landscape foreign
Familiar
Changed

a little back up...

ack! people! think happy thoughts for me today, ok? or pray, if you are a praying person...i am overwhelmed and stressed and feeling a wee bit panic. and of course, since i am feeling all of that, i totally snarked at my husband this morning. *sigh* i need to reign this is - i have too much to do today, and my mom is coming tomorrow, and the retreat is friday!! let me say again, for the record, ACK!!

PSA #2

i finally realized what i don't like about spring.

death.

we go on and on about buds opening, birds chirping, but we don't talk about the death we see all around us. that's just denial, folks. it's not healthy. i have seen, already, probably 6 dead turtles on various roads. this is unacceptable! (you all know i have a soft spot for the little guys) turtles are not squirels, too stupid to get out of the way, dodging left and right helter skelter. they fall over a curb, and are left with few options but to keep going until they reach a low spot! they are innocent victims of our road rage! how hard is it to avoid hitting a turtle?? NOT HARD! i have many experiences of pulling over to put one in my car and drop it off at the first safe spot. they are NOT SCARY - unless it's a snapping turtle, recognizable by the dinosaur like spikes on it's tail. just pick them up like they are a cheeseburger, and you will be fine! and they are NOT DISEASED! the only turtles with salmonella are baby aquatic turtles that are poorly cared for pets.

so please, if you see something that looks like a rock in the road, slow down and check. if it's a turtle, STOP THE MADNESS! be part of the solution - save a life!

and does anybody else think this is wierd?