A Christmas Poem

Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
The boys were snuggled in for a Christmas Eve nap,
and the hot water flowed in the tub from the tap.
As I sunk down into the tub, I heaved a happy sigh.
The day had been splendid and the Christmas Eve service was nigh.
Everette and I gave our gifts and wrapping paper littered the floor
The day was so perfect I hardly noticed my back was a bit sore.
As the evening approached we hustled and bustled
Bending and twisting and moving our muscles.
 I simply bent over to pick up a cup,
one could hardly believe this  bad luck.
As I bent down I felt a great snap.
I promise I only shouted "oh Crap!"
 I  fell to the floor and made a great clatter,
and  Everette came in to ask "what's the matter?!"

So Christmas Eve we were getting ready to head to our first of two church services, and as I bent down to pick something up my back gave out and I fell to the floor. Did I mention I was leading the singing for both services and Everette was doing sound.  Not really knowing what else to do we loaded up and headed to church. At first I was ok sitting down, but as the night progressed so did my pain. My parents and sister joined us for the service and I managed to survive. During the break and the next service, I spent every available moment laying flat on my back in the sound booth with Everette.  My dad-bless his heart, was planning on taking  Jonathan home after the 1st service, offered to take him to our house and put him to bed, which meant we could come home right away.  Everette and I (and my mom and my sister) celebrated a festive Christmas Eve dinner with Chinese food from Lyn's Wok.
Thankfully I was kind enough to buy Everette a heating pad for Christmas which I promptly stole upon returning home and carried it around like my own presonal blankie.
I found some leftover painkillers which resulted in a bizarre night of  less pain, lucid sleeping and a morning of naseua and weird trippy feelings. After eating some food and stopping by the Mary Mills Pharmacy, I switched to a different painkiller and Laura found a real pharmacy and got me some icy-hot patches.

So here are some pictures from our Christmas adventures. Most of them are from my perspective.

Everette and I got Jonathan a wooden tool box, which he opened Christmas Eve (right after my back died).

That is me on the floor and Jonathan with his favorite part of Christmas--Grampy's Train  under the tree.

 Every year Everette's brothers Brad and Grant have an esalating present wrapping competition. last year it involved old pantyhose and a reindeer. This year I think Brad thought he did pretty well as you can see above he wrapped it in an old miltary chest and filled it with all sorts of random crap. we were all impressed until.... Brad opened his from Grant...

This is Meghan (or Grant's artistic interpretatioon of her) Brad's girlfriend. Grant papier mache-ed Brad's present inside Meghan's head. He instructed Brad he had to break his girlfriend's face to get his present.

Jonathan got his own snow shovel... Now we can put him to work!

Jonathan's favorite present. He received a train card (filled with money) from his Great-Grammy Mills. He carried it around all day.

After Everette's parents house we went to my gramma's house.

Here you can see, jonathan in sympathy joined me on the floor

My mom got Everette a singing Homer for Christmas... We all thought it was hilarious, Jonathan was not so sure...

Here is what I saw this Christmas...

Isn't it beautiful

FYI-those are not my sister's real glasses.

this is my dad.
Later I'll tell you about the rest of the day... but really I think this is enough for now.

A message of Congratulations

This is my brother and his wife.

Ten years ago today they got married. I was a senior in high school. I was a bridesmaid (so was my sister). We wore green dresses. We carried red roses. They were pretty. But not as pretty as Michelle.
I was fortunate enough to watch their relationship in its most beginning stages. Being an annoying tag-a-long freshman to my big senior brother. I was fortunate to call Michelle my friend before she was ever my sister-in-law.

Ten years ago.. they were young. My brother was 20 and Michelle was barely 21. They were both still in school. They lived in a tiny apartment above my parents garage. They took turns working to finish school.
Shortly after they had a baby... who turned into quite a remarkable young man.

A few years and one new house later they had beautiful baby girl. She turned out to be one part darling, and one part trouble.

A few jobs, one fundamental change in worship, and another trip back to school for Brian, they had another sweet baby girl. Although the verdict is still out on this one... she appears to be forging her own way.

In a world that seems to view marriage like ice cream flavors-- keep trying til you find one you like with plenty of free samples. It does one's heart well to see two people so committed, so real, and still so in love.

They have conquered a lot together, and seem ready to take on more (most recently a dog).
To my brother-- whom I love (blood is thicker than water, right?). Thank you for relentlessly pursuing that spunky little vegetarian flutist.

To Michelle-whom I love as my own sister. Thank you for being willing to overlook my brothers numerous faults, and being to first to walk into, freely, this ridiculous family. And thank you for eating meat again.

To you both--Thank you for bringing three amazing children into this world and what is more, into this family. Thank you for making me an aunt, and giving me such incredible nephew and nieces. It is true joy.

Thank you for being an aunt and an uncle to my son. Thank you for being his family.

Thank you for not giving up on each other. Thank you for being a light in a dark, dark world.
I love you and I wish you 100 more years together. (Ok that might be a little extreme, but 50 didn't seem like enough).

This is for you. And anyone else who bothers to click on the link, but I'm not going to explain it. So it's mostly for you.

Happy

I sincerely apologize for leaving such a sad depressing post up for so long. I don't know what came over me. The truth is the very next day Everette took me on a date and my whole mood changed right around.
It was lovely! I started a blog post about it... but. alas I never finished it. Maybe someday.

We have been pretty busy... It has been a fun busy. Now if we could just get some snow to fall!

Even Everette has found some holiday cheer.
Two weekends ago we spent the weekend decorating. A Saturday at my mother-in-law's house and Sunday we got our tree and decorated our place.
Jonathan had a great time playing with Everette's old building blocks. Grampy built a wall over and over only to be destroyed with absolute glee.

Can we just pause for a moment and discuss how adorable these overalls are? Of all the overalls Jonathan has worn in all of his short little life.. these are my favorite.

He and Daddy had some good old fashioned wrestling on the floor time!

I can't explain why I think these pictures of Jonathan are hilarious... but I can't stop myself.

Jonathan is really into hats right now... He LOVES this hat and anytime he sees it has to put it on and walk around saying. "eee haht?!" (and yes my kid is sitting on a table amongst miscellaneous crap and some leftover Halloween candy.)

We had fun picking out our tree,and Jonathan had fun tromping around in the woods.

We even got a special treat on the drive home.

That's right folks! A real-live-dead-deer. Complete with blood running down onto the license plate. I love Indiana!

Season of Disappointment

So I would not normally consider my self such a debbie downer, but I very much feel that way right now.
We are only three days into December and I am already feeling the pressure of Christmas activities.
But here's the twist.
I don't feel like there is too much.  I am sad that I can't do more.
Suddenly at Christmas time everyone has a program or party or service. And I would love to do them all.
Christmas is the holiday of music.  No other holiday is filled with as much music. And I love music. I love all  music(almost). It makes me sad when I have to choose.
It is not even the first full week in December and I have already had to tell my mother-in-law I couldn't attend something with her, because it conflicts with something I am doing with my parents. Then something I wanted to do next Wednesday conflicts with something I am already doing. I don't feel like I am doing too much, I am just frustrated that everything seems to be on the same days at the same time.
But the real clincher came this evening when I saw that our church was going to have a Blue Christmas Service. Something I knew was in the works, but the date and time weren't nailed down.
I was really excited about the idea. Because as much as I love music, I love depressing and sad music.
Most specifically, sad music about the Messiah. weird I know.
shall I explain?
This world can be, and largely is, a pretty dark place. And people have serious crap happen in their lives. And I love music that talks about all the yucky crap that happens in people's lives in light of the hope that we have in Christ. He is the only difference between my crappy life and someone else's crappy life (for the record I do not think that my life is crappy all the time or even now-I am just talking about the general crappiness that happens to people). Christ is the hope for something better, something more meaningful, a reason, and a greater purpose, the peace that passes all understanding. 
Like a light shining in the darkness.
"There will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, ... will be filled with glory.

 The people who walk in darkness
     will see a great light.
  For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
     a light will shine." Isaiah 9:1b-2

So a service for people who don't love Christmas, is right up my alley, full of sad depressing music with a flicker of hope (although I do love me some good Christmas carols). I found out they scheduled it on Wednesday the 23rd. Which is a very logical day to have such a service, unfortunately it is also already booked on my calendar.
Such is life. There are only so many days in the month, and sometimes we have to make tough choices.
But I am already feeling the disappointment creeping in.
In an effort to spread some Christmas cheer...
Here is a song... It is the song that has been stuck in my head ever since I heard we might be doing a blue Christmas Service. Maybe if I post it here I can purge myself. I picked the most depressing one. Nevermind the spanish.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again!!!

Greetings people from the deep South.  It's Thanksgiving so that means we have migrated south to spend the holidays with Everette's extended family. If you would like to get oriented check this out.
We have had a pretty great time.
It has been exciting. Usually, Everette, his parents, and his youngest brother, Jonathan and myself make the trek down. Everette's middle brother usually saves his holiday time off for Christmas.
Six weeks ago Brad called Everette and told us no one in his office asked for Thanksgiving off so he found a reasonably priced ticket to Birmingham. We told Grant, but kept it a secret from everyone else.  It worked out superbly.  Everette's parents had a wedding in  Atlanta the week before so they left ahead of us and we met them down there. We swept through Birmingham to pick up Brad and Meghan (his girlfriend who at the last minute was  able to join us), and we all piled into his parents bedroom when we got to Selma at 1:30 AM. They were happily surprised, a little groggy and disoriented, but happy.
The rest of our weekend was composed of eating and talking and driving and the movies.
We hit the highlights...
the club
the gas station
the Winn Dixie
the wal-mart
and Diego's (the new Mexican restaurant)

Jonathan did his best to be charming in front of the great grandparents.

 

 

And thanks to Elmo and Thomas the Train, both the trip down and back up were quite smooth and uneventful.

Scandalous Photos

My recent blog posts have been such epic adventures, I haven't had time to share the little things that have happened in our family.  So the following is a post of randomness.

1. If any of you are interested at seeing more pictures from 80's prom. click here!

2. I had a nude photo shoot today. Well semi-nude. Nude for me.  There was a backdrop, and lights, complete with background music and body paint. Everette's excited. So is my doctor.... 
I had mole mapping done today... yeah baby. Two hours of standing in my unmentionables while a stranger snapped close-ups of my skin.  I really wasn't prepared at all for this.  When I walked in the nurse asked me if I had brought a two piece bathing suit...
uhhh... no.... I was glad I had clean non-holy underwear, and I had my good bra on.  The lady kept asking if it was ok to mark all over my body with the surgical pens. Since it is going to be a while until the proofs are ready,  I made a few replica's of the photo's myself....
brace yourselves...

Please ignore my freaky arm hair. I don't know what happened, but I promise it doesn't normally look like that.

 Sexy legs! Oh baby.

3.  This is a hedge apple

My niece is five (crap-on-a-stick!).

She is incredibly smart and articulate, so is her older brother. Neither one of them hardly ever mispronounce a word. They come from a very verbose family. My brother, talks a lot (I know, hard to think we are even related) and my sister-in-law is one of the best ennuciaters I know. She is the only persion I know who pronounces the "d-wh" in sandwich.  She teaches kindergarten.
Anyway, my niece Mary brought me this hedge apple, and as she handed it to me she said,
"Here, Aunt Meg, I brought you a head chuckle."
Cute.

4. This is Jonathan in his halloween costume. He was an Indian. He was cute.

5. My son broke 2 "indistructable" nalgene sippy cups. I wrote the company, following is a copy of the letter I sent...
"To Whom It May Concern:

I recently purchased two Grip 'N' Gulp Nalgene bottles, blue and green. 
I was excited to find these "durable" sippy cups, as in the past I have 
been quite happy with Nalgene Products I have owned. 
A week or so ago, my two-year-old dropped the green one (not even threw) 
from a shopping cart only to have the bottom bust open. Knowing Nalgene 
bottles can withstand "being run over by a car" (or so rumor has it), I 
figured this one had a flaw or it was some sort of freak accident.  I 
put it on my desk as a reminder to contact your customer service dept. 
However just this morning my son dropped his other cup (again, not 
threw) from the mere three feet he stands off of the floor and it busted 
open all over our wood floors.

So now, I am wondering what is going on here. Does my son have some sort 
of super human strength? Are the Grip 'N' Gulps not as durable as other 
Nalgene bottles? Or was this truly some sort of freak coincidence?

Aside from the "tiny" problem of not being able to hold liquid anymore, 
I do love these cups. I love the leak proof lids, the size, and the odor 
proof containers.  I am sad to see them go. Do I have any options?

Sincerely,

Megan Mills"

They sent me two new ones. 

6. Yesterday, I went to the new Aldi's on the West Side.  Over all it was a positive experience, until Jonathan dropped his sippy cup and it rolled ALL THE WAY under the display shelves. The shelves were like chef's carts (wire shelves on wheels, with metal cross bars).  I was tempted to just leave it there and walk hurriedly away, but alas, it was the a fore mentioned recently replaced Nalgene "grip 'n' gulp". So I did what any good mother would do... I got down on my hands and knees and tried  to reach it. Too far back. So I looked around and got down on my belly (thanking  God this was the brand new Aldi's). Snaked my hand over the metal bars to reach it. Still too far back.   I looked around me again, this time people were staring, I know they were all wondering the same  thing, "Is she gonna do it?"
I did. I pressed my cheek to the floor, slid my arm under the bars, and letting go of that last shred of dignity, I rolled on my side to swipe the cup toward me. Victory. Then I thought, it could be worse, I could be scrubbing poop off of me in a public bathroom.. Oh wait.   then I thought well, at least no one is taking naked pictures of me...

7. This is my gramma.

She is 84. She has buried her husband and her oldest son. She recently lost 40 lbs. And two weekends ago she climbed up a ladder into a hay wagon and sat on a pile of hay while the wagon jostled along behind a tractor for an hour (this is called a hayride for all you city folk).

She then stood up can climbed out of the wagon herself. She is my hero.

8. Here are some more pictures from the hay ride...

Everette looking suuuuuuuuuuper excited.

The lovely and talented... Bethany Johnson (Or Jonesson as I like to call her-I'm cool like that).

Quite possibly the worst picture of Jonathan evah!!! I plan on keeping it for his graduation photo-though I am guessing I might get some more like this when he reaches 13.

 

Jonathan loved riding the tractor!!!

This is my mom's pocket full of straw. She is always doing weird things like that. I'm going to be just like her.

9. And finally, I need your help. I have these storage bins in my living room. They currently house all of Jonathan's toys.

I have them labeled with the kinds of toys in the bins. Right now, they are labeled with stick on labels, but they are not sticking.

I would like to label them differently so that the labels will stay on, but can change as the contents of the bins change (you know-like from toys and trains to leftover moldy pizza, video games, and dirty underwear).

Any ideas?


****I have turned off comments on this post. Because of the title I have been getting spam. Sorry!