Politics, schmolitics… January 10, 2008

Anyone else absolutely sick to death of all the campaigning yet? I’m sick of listening to the front runners talk for an hour only to walk away and realize that I have absolutely no idea where they stand on ANYTHING! The big thing this election season seems to be to see how much you can say without actually saying anything at all. I think Hilary Clinton put it best in her victory speech in New Hampshire when she said, “I listened to you and I found my own voice…” What she was really saying was she listened to the people and was willing to say anything that anyone wanted to hear in order to get elected. And I’m not just placing the fault on her - they are ALL doing it. Obama, Clinton, Huckabee, Mitt, McCain… Take your pick.

And because I’m still undecided and unsure who I’ll vote for in the primary, I’ve been looking for a website that will show me where the candidates stand on the issues. Because they sure aren’te giving clear cut answers in any of the debates. The best that I’ve found so far is Electoral Compass USA and does a pretty good job of asking the important questions and graphing it all out for you.

Anyone care to guess who I was closest to?

You asked for it… January 8, 2008

And after months of promising, you can now FINALLY subscribe to my blog via email! There is a nifty little box over there ——->>> that says “My blog in your email - Subscribe to My Mundane Musings by Email”. Click it, fill in your email address, verify and you should start getting my blog posts in your inbox each evening between 7-9pm. Easy as pie…

Oh the weather outside is frightful… December 16, 2007

Well, not so much anymore, but it was last night! We got 8.5 inches of snow overnight. WAY too much for me, but the kids are happy. We postponed church and the Christmas party until this afternoon. The power went out for about 2 hours this morning, so we wanted to wait for the power to come back on and so we could give people a chance to dig out.

So, we’ve enjoyed a slow morning at home. I’m guessing I should probably go do my makeup and hair. I dont’ suppose that I could get away with wearing a beanie to church this morning. Even if I do look really cute!

Why I blog… December 12, 2007

Chip got a call for an interview the other day about his blog. He was a bit puzzled because he doesn’t blog very regularly (although he is now) and somehow they managed to find his blog and not mine. Doesn’t really matter to me, but he gave them my blog address and told them I was the one to talk to.

I’ve been blogging for almost 5 years now. I started shortly after Noah was born (unfortunately, I lost quite a bit when I changed blog servers from Blogger to Xanga many moons ago). I was blogging before before blogging was cool…

The big question for the article was “Why do you blog?” I blog because I like to write. I blog because it’s cathartic for me and much cheaper than therapy. With 4 kids, I need somewhere I can just let it all go. As a pastor’s wife, I need somewhere that I can just let it all out from time to time. As a wife, I just like a place where I can brag on my husband. And to show off my kids. To stay in touch with relatives far off. To be real.

That’s the thing about my blog that is different from most - it’s me. My whole theory on life is that life is too short to pretend that I’m something that I’m not. I’m who I am - and if you don’t like it, that’s ok. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. I don’t agree with everyone else. And from time to time I make people mad with things I say on my blog. Because I’m not into legalism when it comes to my relationship with Jesus. And if there is anything that will make people mad, it’s questioning what they believe - especially if they don’t have an answer!

I guess I just try to live an authentic life. I want people to see Jesus in me. Not because I’m trying to sell them anything, but because my love for Him pores from my very being. I want them to see that marriage really can be GREAT and FUN. I want them to see that raising kids is work, but it’s the most rewarding job in the world. I want them to see that you can adapt to small town life even if your heart is screaming, “But I’m a big city girl!” I want them to see me for who I am. Because that’s all I am. With all my faults and screwups. With all my accomplishments and hard work.

I am who I am. And this is why I blog…

Friday night mind dump… November 2, 2007

• Got a new keyboard tonight.  It’s cordless.  LOVING IT!  I spilled coffee on the old one and the keys were wonky.  It will probably be ok once it’s been given enough time to dry out, but I couldn’t wait that long.  And our backup keyboard has a sticky “a” key.  No matter what I did, it simply didn’t want to unstick.
• We turned down the initial offer from the insurance company. It was too low.  It would not replace our van.  We got some solid advice from a friend who did the body shop thing for 20 years before entering the ministry. We’re supposed to hear back from the other insurance agency sometime tomorrow.
• If you want to read the news article and see a picture of the other car, you can see it online at the Shelby County News website.
• I reinjured my shoulder today.  Seth was rolling over on the couch and misjudged the edge of the couch.  I saw him starting to fall and tried to grab him.  Didn’t work.  I couldn’t stop him because of my shoulder and so we both just ended up hurt.  It really sucks that I can’t do my job as a mom.
• Two of the boys are at Chip’s mom’s house for the night with their cousin Taet. He’ll be spending some time with Gramma this weekend and early next week.
• My shoulder REALLY hurts!  Vicodan has become my friend.
• My kids have learned how to run the washing machine and dryer in the last week.  It required me marking on the washer and dryer where to turn the knobs, but they can do it pretty much by themselves.
• I can’t believe Kait is going to be 8 in less than two weeks!  She was just turning 2 when we moved here.
• We moved into this house 6 years ago tomorrow. AMAZING!
• I’ve been loving my phone even more the past few days as I’ve had to do most of my emailing from it.  Having a broken keyboard really was *not* fun!
• My kids don’t go trick or treating and yet we’ve  ended up with way too much candy in the house.
• We’ve got some exciting things happening behind the scenes in our lives and some potentially huge things happening for the church.
• As much as we’ve gone through in the past year, I still have friends who make our situations pale in comparison.  I’m very thankful that things are  as good as they are.
• Chip had an MRI on his knees today.  Should hear about those on Monday or Tuesday.  But his knees are still way too swollen and I’m thinking water on the knee.
• I’ve had water on the knee.  I’d rather have 10 more kids  than ever have that again!  And definitely before ever having it drained again!  The.single.most.painful.moment.of.my.life!!!
• Seth has started being a mimic lately.  Love the big words that the older kids can make come out of his 2 year old mouth!  Excuse me - 2.5 years.  Today. *sniff*
• Not going on vacation next week.  Gram is definitely disappointed.  Pretty sure my mom is too.  I know I am.  Hoping to make it to WI sometime before the end of the year.  Got to get the van situation figured out first though.
• Not sure what God has planned for our family, but figure it must be something amazing for us to be under such heavy fire.  Looking forward to breaking through to the other side.

Dying… November 2, 2007

My.keyboard.is.dying.Spilled.coffee.on.it.two.days.ago.Will.be.back. when.we.get.a.new.one.later.today.hopefully.Pray.for.us.as.we.deal. with.insurance. stuff.today.

The diagnosis is in… October 28, 2007

I have a right shoulder sprain.  It actually took longer at the pharmacist than at Urgent Care I think.  When we got there, things were slow.  The triage nurse took my vitals and brought me back and I went straight to a room.  The only person in the waiting room was a man in scrubs watching the football game.  The admin person from the hospital came to the room to get me registered and she wasn’t even done yet when the dr - the man in scrubs from the waiting room - came in to examine my shoulder.  He poked and prodded.  Made me stretch until my shoulder felt like it would fall off.  Pressed on my collar bone until I thought I’d throw up (although I could tell by him pressing on it with the other one that it wasn’t broken).  He told me that he didn’t feel it was broken, he wanted me to keep taking 800mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours and putting ice on it until the swelling was gone and then switch to heat.  Also gave me a great Rx to take at bedtime for the pain so I could sleep.  And no lifting for 2 weeks.  Nothing I didn’t really know, but we didn’t want to take any chances.

 Tomorrow, we’ll call the adjuster to get started on the process of replacing things that were broken in the accident.  3 carseats (note to self - bring carseat manuals with to the body shop tomorrow) and the deductible for Chip’s phone to be replaced.  Thankfully for them we have insurance on Chip’s phone.  Those things are *not* cheap when you’re not buying them with a plan!  And we’ll find a chiropracter and make appointments.  Doesn’t that sound like a lot of fun? :roll

Chip’s going to wait until Tuesday and if his knee isn’t feeling any better at all, he’ll go see the dr then.  I am working on my letter of complaint to the hospital administration and I’m naming names.

The morning after the morning after… October 28, 2007

After a restless nights sleep, we’ve arrived at the morning after the morning after the accident.  I’m better able to guage what is real pain and what is just soreness/achyness from the accident.

No doubt about it, I’ve hurt my shoulder and collar bone where there seatbelt hits.  My collarbone is swollen, tender to the touch and looks funny. *ugh*  We’re going to urgent care after church.

Chip’s knees are pretty banged up and I have a question for you all.  When he went to the ER, the dr came in and talked to him very breifly (again, they wouldn’t let me back so this is all from Chip) and sent him for an xray.  He waited for the xray to come back, came in and told Chip that nothing was broken and discharged him.  Not once did a doctor even physically TOUCH him.  Would you consider that a thorough exam of his knee or would you be making him call his dr on Monday morning to get it rechecked?  It hurts when he puts weight on it, it’s very swollen and the bruises are various shades of dark green, purple and yellow.  What would you do?

Will update when we’re home from the hospital.  I am so not looking forward to this.

The morning that almost wasn’t… October 27, 2007

Chip and I slept until 11am this morning.  We never do that - especially Chip.  I guess the trauma from yesterday was a bit more than we thought on our bodies.

And I only got up because I heard the dog jump the gate to come upstairs.  Something she never does.  But it was 11am and her doggy bladder can only hold so much.

It’s good that she woke us up though because we were able to take care of getting a rental car this morning.  Chip got up and got on the phone to his dad right away and 20 minutes later when he got to our house, Chip and I were both showered and out the door.

“Unfortunately” Enterprise didn’t have any rentals availabe in the size we were alotted by the insurance company.  They wanted to know if we would be ok if we were to drive around in a Cadillac until we got things with our car settled.  While that would have been just great, Chip asked for a mini-van.  We ended up with a Nissan Pathfinder - big enough to fit us and all the kids.  Something that we really, really needed.

We are both sore this morning.  I’ve got a nasty seatbelt bruise appearing over my collar bone and my right shoulder is killing me.  Still going to try and hold off until Monday and see the dr in her office.  A word of wisdom to those of you who say you’ve often thought about throwing your hands up to shield your face in case of airbag deployment - make sure it’s your “non-use” hand.  I threw my right arm up in front of me and I’m paying for it today.  And of course I’m right handed so it’s making my life that much more complicated.

But, we are doing ok.  Thankful for Chip’s parents and the wonderful blessing they are to us all the time - but especially in times of crisis. Thankful for our church family who are rallying to take care of things that Chip just isn’t up to right now. (Soooo thankful that our church knows how to be the Church).  Thankful for all of the things that could of happened that didn’t.  Thankful that even through all of this, we know God will work it out for HIS glory.  Thankful that *all* things are going to work together for good.

Not how I had planned my day… October 26, 2007

Normally I really enjoy Fridays.  School is drawing to a close.  Chip is usually done with his sermon and we get to spend a bit of time together in the afternoons.  Today was extra special because a great friend of ours is being ordained tonight.  It was *supposed* to be great day.

We started out this morning by getting the kids up and dropping them off at Chip’s parents house.  We went to the dr to find out why he’s been dizzy lately.  And why he was coughing again.  His lungs sound ok, but she put him on a steroid to help heal them up.  His dizziness is from an ear infection.  Thankfully it should all be cleared up soon.

We were on our way home when BAM! Hit a car that pulled out in front of us.  As we were coming up to the intersection, we knew have both said we were thinking the same thing.  “Looks like it’s time for lunch at the high school.”  There were tons of cars and two pulled out in front of us which caused Chip to slow down a bit.  We thought it was all ok, and just as we got to the intersection a red car pulled out from behind a truck.  We saw it coming.  There was nothing we could do to avoid it.

I remember thinking, “We are going to hit that car!” as I threw my hands up in front of my face.  I know people who have had their noses broken from the air bag deploying.  I’ve gone over this scenario in my head.  And I also moved away from my door because I knew she was going to hit my side of the car.

I  remember the impact.  I remember going across the field of the Shelby County Electic Co-op and the fact that even though Chip was pushing the break, the van wouldn’t stop. I remember the airbag deploying as I turned my head (apparently not fast enough because I have a scratch on my nose, so something got me). I remember pushing the airbag down and watching us come to a rolling stop in the co-op fence.  I remember Chip saying something about being dizzy and jumping out of the van and running around the van to his door.  I remember the kid who was running across the field to make sure that we were ok. I remember Chip saying his back and knees really hurt and him sitting there stunned. I remember another guy coming up to the van to make sure we were ok and a bunch of the guys from the Co-op coming out to check on us.  I vaguely remember calling and talking with the 911 operator and then calling Chip’s dad to come down.  I remember them loading my husband onto a gurney and putting him in the back of the ambulance and then talking with the tow truck driver.  I remember the ride to the ER with Chip’s dad.  And then I remember them *NOT* letting me back into the ER to see my husband.  I was *LIVID*!  I don’t think Chip’s dad has ever seen me mad like that.  I didn’t say them, but I definitely thought some choice words for that receptionist.  I remember being on the verge of tears and waiting for an ETERNITY for them to let me back - almost 25 minutes.  Which is UNAccEPTABLE in my opinion.  Especially when he told me he was asking for me.  And then when I said, “I was *in* the car with him!” They said, “Oh, well that’s different.  Why didnt’ you tell anyone?”  I DID!!!! I *SOOOO* DID tell someone!

But after a couple hours in the ER, we’re home.  Chip’s banged up pretty bad, but all of his xrays came back negative so nothing is broken.  I haven’t had medical attention (yet), but I’m really starting to feel it.  I figure if I’m still sore on Monday, then I go to the dr in the office.  I don’t do hospitals very well.

It’s a miracle that I wasn’t the one hurt.  The front end of the passenger side of the van is pretty much totaled.  And apparently her car must have flipped around when we hit her because the rear passenger sliding door is all banged in as well.  But there is just a small scratch on the passenger front door - where I was sitting.  And the kids weren’t with us (although three of the carseats were tossed around the van and will need to be replaced).  And it was Chip’s phone that got broken - *not* mine!  (trying to keep my sense of humor.) God is good!

So, we’re home recovering.  The kids were already supposed to go home with Chip’s mom tonight to sleepover because we had something to do tomorrow, so they are still going to do that.  We’re still going to try and make the ordination service if we can.

So not the way I thought today would go.

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Edit - if you look over there —–> there is a picture of the van “resting” in the fence.