Sometimes you just have to wonder what motivates people. Listening to NPR’s Weekend Edition while driving to church on Sunday, we heard the report of the death of a finalist in the World Sauna Championships. Who even knew that such a thing exists? Simply stated, the contest is designed to see who can endure the grueling heat and humidity of a sauna for the longest time. According to Wikipedia, here are the rules: • The starting temperature is 110 degrees…
I will post more pictures from Vermont but I don’t want anyone’s mind to go to mush while sitting in front of your computer staring at the beautiful sites of the green mountain state. So, here is a riddle to keep your brain agile, to keep your thinking cap on straight, and to test your skills of logical reasoning. What do ice cream cones (with no ice cream), a AA battery, an empty Coke bottle, a barrette, and a sweet…
In my last post you read my perspective on our current remodeling project. Here is Weber’s side of the story. I received this today while I was reading the paper. It is rather serendipitous (or not) that I had just read the “Love is” cartoon for the day – “Love is at the heart of a home.” As you have read, Kris and I are moving into “the old homestead”, as it were. It was my parent’s house and it…
In 2000, Mike and I sold our “starter” home. We had lived there for fifteen years. Both our children were born while we lived there. They celebrated their first Christmases, first birthdays, first days of school, first broken bones chicken pox, and all the other firsts that occur in the early years of a child’s life while living there. In 2000, we decided that it was time to move to a bigger home. We designed and built a house out…
Weber and I are slowly getting our act together for the wedding. Erin has a dress. That is the mot important thing according to our wedding planner – Erin. I have a dress. Erin helped me pick it out and we are both happy with it. I kind of remember what it looks like. I just need to be conscious of how many Hershey’s kisses I eat between now and the wedding. I don’t remember all the details of the…
It was 1980. My parents had just moved from Virginia Beach, VA, to Arlington, VA. and I was a freshman in college at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. I was an only child so when I left for school, my parents were empty nesters. How did they cope? My mom got a microwave oven, which back then seemed to be just a really big, really expensive popcorn popper. The early years of microwave ovens were marked by overheated…
Simply stated, my plate is quite full right now. We are in the midst of home remodeling, preparing for Offspring No. 2’s high school graduation and impending departure for college, and planning our wedding. In the midst of all this, our students still want to be taught (Okay, maybe WANT is a little strong), the kids and the dogs here still want to eat, laundry still needs to be done, the grass still needs to be mowed, and despite the…
Late the other night after a long day at school and a magnificent church service that left me both energized and exhausted, I was checking my email at about 10 pm in the car on the way home. I received an email that concerned me so I shot off a quick reply before any serious damage from that email could be done. Most of you know that quick replies to unnerving emails are never a good idea. In this case,…
Wow! Spring break has come and gone. As is the case with most school breaks, I had a list of things that I had planned to accomplish. Sunday night as I pondered that list I was first struck with all the things that I never even thought about during the very short week of spring break; then I saw the last item, “Get real!” I skipped ten or twelve things that comprised the bulk of my list and decided that…
Three and half years ago I decided that I was going to start writing a blog. I’ don’t really remember why I made that decision since, as is evidenced by the title of my first post, I thought that bloggers were kind of egocentric. Who wants to read all of the drivel of my daily life. Despite those feelings, I started writing and posting anyway. I have fun writing and I know that there are a few of you out…