For Sooth I doth Bloggeth

Well, so it's been a month or more, but I'm back on blogging. It's a few days before Christmas and we took the kids to walmart tonight to have them pick out small gifts for each other. Mark and I had soooo much fun. Rod took Taylor and Julianne, and I'm not so sure that they had as much fun. (it was kind of late and they were both a little cranky). Anyway, there was a little old lady who was searching for a gift for her grandson. She was in a wheelchair and was having a hard time navigating the aisles. She asked me if I had seen Transformers anywhere. I'm proud to say that my sweet Mark waited until the busy aisle was clear then led her right to the Transformers and began to explain to her which transformer was the best to get for her grandson. She was so thankful for his help because she didn't know anything about the toys. She thanked him over and over. He felt very good about himself...and so did I. We are missing our families tonight, but we are rejoicing in our little family that Rod and I have built together. We were able to get the boys new bedding on their beds and they were sooo happy. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas too!

Pets!!

We have very good pets...except for our two cats...and that leaves one dog. So we have a good pet. Anyway, we are going to give away our cats because they won't stop puking. Every time a tiny change happens in our life they puke EVERYWHERE. When we put in the new floors, Ember stood in horror looking at them. She immediately started hurling. However, the dog is wonderful. I thought caring for a dog would be so much harder than caring for cats, but apparently not so...as long as you have a nice big fenced in yard. Anyway, for those of you who have not met our collection of pets, here they are in random order. All are self-explanatory except for the pet standoff in the bigger picture. These are the daily pet issues we deal with (no orange boo-bahs were harmed in the taking of this picture...he was an innocent bystander). We love our dog, Shakespeare. He is a wonderful dog, and we are lucky to have found him.

New Floors!!

Well, we found some laminate flooring dirt cheap on craigslist and decided to take on installing it ourselves in our kitchen and dining room. To say the least, it was difficult at first. We had to cut several "special" pieces to fit in "special" spaces. Ok, so Rod did all the cutting. I couldn't cut in a straight line to save my life. We worked until 5am and finally got the dining room done (and re-done a few times). The next day Rod finished up the kitchen, and we think it looks great!! So here are some pictures. Rod is very proud of his work since he's never laid flooring before. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We don't have any major plans for Thanksgiving; we had Thanksgiving dinner at the church tonight. I worked with Terresa all day making mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and all kinds of other stuff. It was a lot of fun. See everyone soon!!! (2 weeks)

Ode to My Husband: Knight in Shining Armor

I may not be the romantic "damsel in distress" but I cannot thank God enough for the man He has given me to share my life with. Those of you who know me very well (okay so that's probably everyone reading this blog) know that one of my earliest relationships was disastrous and abusive. This shaped a lot of the way I think about men. Sad to say, my early image of a good man created by the example of my father and my heavenly father were shaken when I experienced a horrible example. Even after all my bad decisions and ugliness inside me that went on for years, God decided to raise me up and show me His glory. He showed me that He only wanted to give good things to his precious daughter. Despite all circumstances and my choices (and my PMDD ha), out of all the men in this world, God chose my Rodney for me. He's intelligent, talented, loving, giving, vulnerable, imperfect as we all are, yet perfect for me. I don't know if this next thought is wrong or what, but sometimes I watch other couples, and I see how they work or don't work together. One couple in our church (who are our good friends, by the way), the wife is beyond submissive and does everything her husband tells her to do, and the husband brags about it openly..."I'm the one in charge; I do whatever I want." Now, maybe that works for them in their relationship, and that's great. But it sure makes me appreciate my beautiful husband who is in complete charge of his family without having to tell everyone or demean me in any way. He cares about what I think and works with me to figure out solutions to problems. He doesn't make arbitrary decisions without talking to me about it. We work as a team. Don't get me wrong, of course we have hardships. Our marriage comes with a little girl who's already hitting her terrible two's way early, 2 step children, an ex-wife, an ex-wife's "life partner," and an ex-father-in-law. I'd take it all any day for the absolute joy of spending the rest of my life with Rodney.

The Amazing Power of Prayer

Well, three weeks ago in youth group I challenged three teenagers to "pray without ceasing." We talked about what that meant, and I told them I would hold them accountable. We didn't make it to youth group for 2 weeks (the first week I had to work, and the second week I was sick as a dog and NOT having the time of my life). Let me tell you what has happened through the power of prayer in the last few weeks. First, a man in our church found out he had cancer about a year ago or 9 months ago. The Sunday he announced that he had bone cancer, we, as a church body, laid hands on him and prayed fervently for healing. He's been undergoing treatment for 9 months, the doctors told him that his type of bone cancer was not usually curable, but the tumors could be minimized and his life could be lengthened by maintenance of treatment. This man is a very intense Christian and sold out for Christ. He is involved in the prison ministry and has a powerful testimony. He told the his primary oncologist that he had lots of people praying for him and that he shouldn't expect this case to go as planned. The doctor just shook his head. Now, 9 months later, he had extensive tests and blood work done, and NO CANCER....at all. Nothing. His doctor was completely confounded...Jim made an opportunity to witness to him.

I've heard miraculous stories like that again and again, but never experienced it with someone I knew and had prayed for myself. Should I really be surprised, though? Other affirmations of answered prayer came in the past weeks. I prayed for our small group partners, who've become pretty close friends. They are dealing with some heavy issues. I asked God to show Himself to them in a real and tangible way. The next day, with no prompting from me at all, the woman pulled me aside at church. She excitedly told me that God had revealed himself to her through a prophetic dream. I asked her what time she had dreamed....go figure....the same time I was praying. When I was sick last week I called and asked my Mom to pray. I knew exactly when she prayed for me because I called her and said that I knew she had prayed, and I was already starting to feel better (although her discussion of fried foods almost sent me back over the edge haha!). But that was the turning point in my illness. Today Rod was stuck on a problem he couldn't fix at work. He didn't want to call his boss and tell him that he couldn't fix the problem because he knew his boss would blow up at him and rip him to shreds. I told him I was going to pray that he would figure it out. I prayed that God would fix the problem in a miraculous or supernatural way. I almost laughed at myself for praying for a miracle over something so seemingly small. I called Rod back an hour later and asked him if he fixed the problem. He told me that he hadn't been able to fix it. I thought to myself...well God had a reason for answering "no" to my prayer. But Rod wasn't done...he said "I couldn't believe it; the problem just miraculously fixed itself. I still don't know how it got fixed." I almost fell off my chair. I didn't tell him that I'd been praying for a miracle. Tonight I went to youth group and followed up with my teens who I challenged to "pray without ceasing." I shared with them my experiences. One of the girls agreed with me...she couldn't believe the results of her "praying without ceasing." She prayed without ceasing for her brother, who recently got in some trouble over having drugs in school and has been out of the youth group for over a year, she prayed for him to come back to the youth group. He's been there for the past two weeks. I am overjoyed at the sweeping reality of Christ's power in our lives.

What am I learning out of all of this? God cares about the biggest heartache and the smallest concern in our lives. Can I challenge everyone else the way I challenged my teens to PRAY WITHOUT CEASING"? I think I just did.

Bible Study

Rodney and I went to our first "session" of our blended family Bible study. Wow, it is SOOOOO nice to talk to people who understand our family and share some of the same experiences. It ended up being just us and our host couple, but it was perfect for us. We were able to vent and discuss our situation, and they understood us like nobody else has. We are realizing again and again how much God blesses us with the people in our church who continue to love us and care about what happens to us.

Sigh

Here I sit again (hmmm sit-again...wasn't that a dumb commercial?), having just lost yet another story for the newspaper because of a missed deadline. Actually I couldn't get ahold of my source...and so it goes. Oh well, I turned in another one. Writing for a newspaper is hard work! I can't imagine doing it full time...or I guess I'd be better if I was full time. Well, I'm looking for a recipe for peanut butter pie. Rod is at practice and Julianne and I are enjoying our evening together. I better get going....soooo how could I make a chocolate tea ring?????

Swedish Tea Ring

Well, thanks to Mom's recipes and my hungry family, my cooking skills are improving...ever so slightly. I've always enjoyed baking, and lately the kitchen has been my therapeutic, safe place. I baked my first successful tea ring tonight. I haven't tasted it yet, but it looks wonderful. This is probably the fourth time I've attempted it, and it's the first time I haven't burned it!! By the way, Mom, I changed the time on my recipe paper to 15.5 minutes, since it was perfectly golden brown then. Well, I hope my family likes it anyway! Thanks MOM!

Helloooooo Poooopy

I woke up this morning, glad that I was getting to stay home for two whole days. I smelled something a little funny when I went up to make Rod's lunch. I figured it was the dog gassing as he had been having AWFUL gas the night before. So bad we had to let him outside. I went back to bed and slept in. When Julianne woke up, I fed her breakfast and then let her play in the living room with me. I noticed she had stopped playing and was now looking at her foot in dismay, which was covered in dog doo doo. She had stepped right in it. I washed her foot off and went to clean up the pile, thinking it was the only one. Then I found four more huge piles of poo. It smelled soooo bad, but I have a cold, so the smell was not as strong as I'm sure it was for anyone else. So I put Julianne in the bathtub to play while I cleaned up the mess. As I had just picked up the last large pile of poo, Julianne stands up in the bathtub and starts yelling "Ewwwww! Ewwwww! Ewwww!" When I look in the bathtub, Julianne has taken a giant dump in the tub. Sigh...just my luck. So I pick it up with a paper towel and flush it down the toilet. Then as I am pulling her out of the bathtub, she takes another, much messier dump all over the tub and floor. Sooooooooo, after I cleaned that up, I had her take a real bath. I put her to bed. Then I went downstairs and found smooshed pile of cat puke that I had already stepped in. I just don't think I can handle it!

I've Changed my Opinion on Amazons

We went to the library to pick up the Chilton's manual for our car. I have this problem with overdue books sometimes. I had to pay 20.00 one time to get my card activated again. Rodney has discouraged my borrowing privileges. When we went to get Chilton's, I asked if I could get a couple of books. He of course denies ever discouraging me from getting library books, but I was happy anyway and grabbed a couple of books. I started reading the first book when we got home. Strangely enough, I'd picked a historical fiction called Last of the Amazons. These women were strong and courageous (if somewhat brutal and full of hate). They were feared by everyone, and only beaten when their queen defected to an opposing army because she fell in love with their king. They were known for being extremely beautiful (although for some reason they had really bad breath) and completely untamable. I don't mind so much being called an Amazon anymore (except for the bad breath part). Anyway, I guess I didn't lose my job at the paper. My editor told me that I needed to communicate better if I was overwhelmed and that she really liked my approach to stories and didn't want to lose me. That made me feel a lot better. Rodney has been extremely supportive of me as well. Thank you, sweetheart, I love you!

Monster gets Fired from Company For Which She is Not Employed

Well, I apparently make a bad reporter for the newspaper. Oh well, one more thing I can't do well. I was late on two stories and missed one all together. I got introduced as "Amazon Woman" to a new person at church by a friend...I was also advised to "go get my spear." I am Amazon Monster...hear me roar. Me Big Chief Tommyhawk. Some days I do not understand my purpose on this earth. I'm a big blob of clay that God has to hacky-sack around to get into shape. But I remember that I am dust.

After a Week of Silence Because of Our Special Guest

Well, I haven't blogged in a week, and I'm waiting for Rod to get home from setting up the church (sound familiar, mom?). Today was a pretty busy day. Rod took his mom back to the airport, and we were both very sad to see her go home. We were absolutely spoiled by her GOOOOOOOOD southern cookin'! This was the first time I got to spend quite a bit of time with her, since the first time I met her was last year in Texas with 20 other people. I only saw her for one day, then, and we didn't get to know each other very well. I was so happy to hear stories from Rod's childhood (he wasn't as ecstatic). You learn a lot about your spouse from their parents. What I learned from Rod's mom makes me love him even more deeply. Anyway, on a more trivial note, Rod got to perform at a small (very small) concert with Reverend Chedda Bob (RCB) at the opening of "My Father's House" a place for teens to hang out, etc. It was pretty fun despite technical difficulties and all. Well, Mom, it's been difficult to get a hold of you recently, and I miss you a lot, but I understand the stress you are under. I hope things get easier soon because I want my mommy back! Wah! I'm calling the WAAAAAAmbulance! Oh, and apparently my resume skills stink, and I shouldn't have ever helped Dad out. Well, we all know that everyone knows more than me. One more knock for humility. No offense to Larry; I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. I just get offended when I feel like someone smarter than me shows me up! On a positive note, without naming names, a person that we know finally realized that their parents were full of some unholy things. Praise the Lord!

Pasth the Rollths...

What's funny about the green jalapeno jelly is that the lady that made them thought I loved them a lot so she brought a whole plate of crackers with green jalapeno jelly and cream cheese and I said, "Uuuuuhhh, no thanks." Like Mom at the end of a meal when we are out to eat...the waiter asks, "Would you care for a napkin?" and Mom makes the noise that the one vendor made "WHOOOBOOOO" Okay so I don't know how to type the sound. Oh, I can finally say "CONGRATULATIONS RYAN AND BETHANY!" I kept their secret pretty well. I was the FIRST to know...because I'm that spAYSHAL. How does the cornbread taste, Dad? Rodney's mom is coming tonight. We are going to have a fun. Mom, can you email me your yeast roll recipe. I want to say "pasth the rollsth."

Yuck!

Never eat jalapeno jelly and cream cheese on crackers....BAAAAAD things will happen!! And I lay down my life in the midst of a GIANT crustacean.

I Can't Sleep

I have coughing prob-a-lems and can't sleep. Oh and my right arm feels like a log. I feel like Rachelle's description of sleeplessness. I sat straight up in bed and started looking around.

My Big, Fat Mouth

Sometimes I wish I could learn to keep my mouth shut. I keep getting in trouble for the things I say. BAD BAD Allyson!

Blackberry Pickin' and Snakes

No I didn't start going to a snake charmer church. Today, Gabby Hayes came to fix the light in our bedroom and do some more muddin'. Then I cleaned the whole house. I looked out the window and saw the next door neighbor leaning over the fence and taking blackberries off my blackberry bush. I think I caught her off guard. Anyway, it reminded me that I should go pick my blackberries (before everyone else did or they all rotted). So I went out in my flip-flops (said in an Uncle Bobby accent) and picked a gallon or so of blackberries. There are still a ton on the bush. I got my hands purple and very torn up with thorns. (My daddy's got the other glove). Anyway, I took Rodney to practice and went shopping. That was my day. Oh forgot to mention the snake. Rodney went to mow the lawn and after the lawnmower broke and completely ate itself, Rodney found a snake that was like three feet long. He touched its back with a stick and its tail buzzed, but I'm sure it wasn't a rattler...I hope. Anyway, it crawled into Terresa's backyard. Oh well.

Pray

Well, Rodney and I went to our first staff meeting today at church. We were quite surprised at all the politics and arguments, but I guess this is normal in church leadership. Overall, we love our church and our pastor, and we stand behind both. Anyway, Mom and Dad, we have a more urgent prayer request. Darlene called today to tell me that her son, who is in Iraq, has somehow contracted a case of smallpox. Please pray for his health and safety. Darlene has really had several blows this year, so I worry about her. Her mother died a few months ago, and the family all fought over the details, which added to the stress for her. Anyway, we are doing well today. Your favorite local handyman is coming back tomorrow to do more "muddin," then he is going to paint the next day. They are not going to replace our screen door until next spring...I wish Mom and Dad were still here to boss Gabby Hayes around. More would get done. Oh well.

Meep

Poor Julianne is still sick, I think I've narrowed it down to the strawberries, though. She was fine all day, then I fed her some strawberries at dinner and she got sick again last night. She had eaten strawberries both other times she got sick too. Poor baby. Rachelle, Lurp is the word I made up. I insist. Lerp is something about larvae...ewwwww. I remember making it up, and maybe there are other forms of the word out there, but I explained my etymology...how it came about. Someone probably made it up before I did, but I remember changing the word lurk and laughing about lurp. It could also be sort of descended from Learch on the Adams family because he kind of lurped around didn't he?

Rainy Day

It's been raining all day, and I don't think we've seen any in many moons. I have enjoyed it, except it got really cold. We even had to turn on the heat for a little while. This morning was kind of a pukefest. Our cat threw up everywhere and so did Julianne...in her bed. So, after we got her bathed and all her stuff in the laundry and disinfected...we went to church! The rest of the day was not so bad. I got to watch Rodney play the drums...he's good. Our worship leader is leaving after next week, so we will miss their family a lot. Their boys are good friends with ours. This means too that Rodney will be leading worship, which I think will be good for him. Mom and Dad, pray for Darlene's son, he's in Iraq for a tour. She is worried. We both got teared up talking about it this morning. All day we've been playing SIMS 2 on PS2. Julianne has been sleeping most of the day, but was very cuddly when she was awake...we enjoy her so much. Rodney's mom is coming it two weeks. We will have a good time. Rodney says she's a meticulous housekeeper...I hope she doesn't cry when she sees our house.

Thoughts on a Saturday morning

I don't quite feel like cleaning the house yet...big surprise, Mom?? Julianne and Rodney are still sleeping. Yes, it's 10:30 almost. They are late sleepers. I found Rodney's old senior yearbook from high school in the closet. Of course I read all of the little notes people wrote on the front and back pages. I was very impressed that several people said that they were proud of the way he stood up for his faith. Rodney went to a public school, so I don't know how many Christian friends he had, but that is a pretty good testimony to me. I also saw his football picture and track. He was a hurdler. Someone wrote that he was proof that white men could jump. I never realized how good he was at hurdling until that birthday party at our next-door-neighbors house when Mom and Dad were here. He went over the fence to get a ball we'd hit over into our yard. When he came back over the fence, he hurdled it. I couldn't believe my eyes. He must have cleared it by about two feet! (I think you got like 3 feet of air that time. Can I try it?) When he came over to me, he told me he was trying to impress me. It worked! I've watched him play football too, and he's really good at that too. Of course his old bouncy ball knee injury acts up every once in awhile (oh wait, that's Dad...Rodney's knee injury might actually be from football!!). All this to say, while Rodney does a lot of things well...especially singing and playing music...the thing he does best in the world is love our Savior and then his family. Rodney is the protector of my heart and has loved me even through my horrible bouts of PMDD!! (and we all know how bad those can be!) I know I wax eloquent sometimes when it comes to him, but when I think of all that we've been through together (and we'll have only been together two years this December!) and how strong we've become through our trials, I can only love him more and more every day. Okay, I've said my piece...piece...uhh...Hand me another piece of that pumpkin pie...Thank ya, Thank ya vera much.

VBS is Over!!!

AHHHHH...time to sit back and relax. VBS wore us out somethin' turrible! All I can remember of VBS when I was little is Rachelle, Ryan, and me asking Joel Slaughter to come to VBS. Then Rachelle told him that if he brushed his teeth we would give him candy...Of course we had other brilliant ideas...like asking the show "Newton's Apple" "Why are your fingernails hard?" When we placed the letter to Newton's Apple in the mailbox, we turned on tv to see if our question had come on yet. Anyway, we are glad to be done with VBS, and spend more time with each other and our children. I am working on an article for the paper about some 2.5 million dollar home. When I found out that I would have to pay five dollars to tour the home, I wanted to know if they would be reimbursing me on my paycheck...what a ripoff or a gyp as Grandma Stromberg would say. Maybe if I tell them I am writing for the paper they will gimme a discount. And yes, Ryan, a lot of people cannot say "Chevrolet" but I can say "DITHSTCOUMNT"! Okay, I am signing off for tonight. Thanks for reading my ramblings.