The End of the Story

So I'm in a bloggy-funk, but I've gotten enough snarky comments from the three of you people who read me on a regular basis to protect myself from further snarks, and go ahead and post.

I was waiting until I got pictures up and going, but that's going to take too long, and this (non-photo) blog as been rolling around in my brain for a few days now.

I love good endings. If I invest a few hours of my life reading a book* or watching a movie, it's got to end well. That means: the guy gets the girl, the wedding happens, the baby is born, the family lives happily ever after. If it's not happily-ever-after, I don't wanna know about it. I see too much of the not happily-ever-after in real life. I read or watch movies to escape.

So, having the former in mind, I'm switching lanes. Fear not, I'm still on the mountain, I'm just meandering a little.

A girl I knew in college lost her younger sister to cancer about a week ago. The sister shares a birthday with my brother. I don't know why, but that made this hit closer to home. I knew the sister in college (it was a really small college). I didn't know she was sick until after she had passed away. Her story was too brief. The end of her story was unexpected and tragic. And crappy.

And yet, the ending was victorious. It truly was happily-ever-after for her. (See, I told you I was still on the mountain.) We are all to finish the race well. We are all to strive for the goal. She just beat alot of people to the finish line.

Our victory is assured. We don't have to wonder about the outcome. We don't have to be anxious about the end. The battle is won.

There is a happy ending here. Even in the midst of feeling unhappy.

*If you're not like me and let your books end not-so-happily-ever-after, Sea Glass by Anita Shreve is good. It's just not happily-ever-after. Definitely not.

How to Bathe a Cat

We found out that Austin, the orange cat, is allergic to traveling. His tummy doesn't like the car ride. He complains most of the time when he's in his car carrier. We thought it was because he was hot, and we plan on having a battery operated fan installed on his carrier for future car rides.

The crying this time was not the heat.

The cat beat me to the bathroom.

Then he stepped in his *bathroom* mess.

I had left to go to church.

The carpets were generally ok. No major messes left.

The bathroom, not so much.

Ditto for the cat.

*Bathroom messes* left on several different posterior parts of a cat's body don't come off easily. Especially since I didn't try very hard. I had resigned myself. . . .


First, get the water a temperature you like. You will be bathed in it by the time the chore is over.

Second, get every towel you have and put them near you. You will need one for every structure in your bathroom, as well as several for you and a few for the feline.

Third, remove all clothes you don't want ripped to shreds. It's also a good idea to don both puncture proof and waterproof garments. Good luck.







Put plenty of soap on ALL AREAS of the cat's body. If the water is deep enough, it's like soaking the bits.

Rub, rub, rub him dry. Keep rubbing. Austin didn't particularly like this step, but let's face it, he didn't like any of the preceeding steps, either.

He's extra fluffy in this post.

Good news, he's finally talking to me again, and will sit in my lap again. There were a few hours where he steadfastly ignored me, even when I had food.

Next time you see me, ask me about bathing a 75 pound labrador retriever in the kitchen sink. I did that this weekend too.

What Hill?

Okay, so I wrote a long, scathing post, and when my good judgement returned, deleted it. Good.

Anyway, a company J really thinks he would do well in call this morning. We have a job interview on Wednesday!!! Yeah! Keep this in your prayers and for God's will to be done. I didn't expect anything so quickly (although J says this isn't quickly. Guess it's different when you don't go to work every day.) So we're praying for doors to be opened if this is the right place, and closed if this isn't where we belong. Please join us in this prayer.

On other news, we are getting internet at home next week! Whoo-hoo! I mean real internet, without a modem. We're talking high speed. Jeremy and I decided to jet right into the 20th century. (I know we're in the 21st century. I did that on purpose.)

Also, we have new cell phones. Had to, my cell phone was literally in two pieces. It's hard to hold one piece to your ear and another to your mouth. Apparently, cell phones aren't meant to last 3 years. And be dropped frequently. Really frequently. But Jeremy's phone was the one in the washing machine and his did okay for 3 years. These phones are so cool. Hey, did you know you can get a camera on a cell phone? Got one! Everyone was in line for Apple phones. Yeah, I have my old school flip phone, and I'm happy with it. At least I didn't have to wait 3 hours at the store like some folks.

Hope your day is good. And I think my blood pressure is down. Some.

What do you have?

Yesterday I was teaching a high school student. It was very interesting to teach someone who had NO IDEA about what I do. She wanted to see if she wanted to be a Physician Assistant when she grows up. So she followed me around all day to see if she could do what I do.

When last I taught a student, it was a PA student at the end of her rotations, and she was quite competant in seeing patients. So I am used to that level of comfort with patients. Yesterday, I was being followed by someone who is about 7 years behind the first one in school. It was quite an attitude shift for me.

If you have someone following you around all day, it opens your eyes to what you do, how you do it, and what you say about and to people. At least it did to me.

Teaching others opens my eyes to my own weaknesses, my failings, my short comings, and my strengths. It is a good time to evaluate what I really know, and what I just take for granted, because that's what I have always known.

Teaching others also opens my eyes to all that I know, and all that I have soaked up in 29 years on this planet. It reminds me of all that I learned, all the trouble I took to learn things, and how excited I was when it all "clicked" in my brain.

Teaching my two students reminded me that we all have something to offer, something to teach others. These two women certainly taught me plenty in the time we were a team.

So, on that note, what do you have that you can teach others? Bible knowledge? Career know-how? Home-y activities? Child raising tips? What advice do you have in your brain that you can share with me? The possibilities are unlimited.

Be sure and teach others. Your wisdom will inspire others to reach and grow, to try something new. And learn from others. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

And on a related note, can someone tell me why my paragraphs aren't showing up when I publish the post, but they're there when I write it? What am I doing wrong!!

Everything I need to know, I learned from racket ball

As mentioned in a previous post, I played racket ball with my parents and husband this weekend. I write blogs in my mind all the time, and this one I thought may be worth posting.

We were in Academy the other day, and I saw this wonderful pink bag that I had to have. Look at the wonderful racket detail. It's got flowers! J said he'd love to play with me, but my excuse is, I've had no stuff to play with. No more! So now that I have a cute pink bag with a cute pink racket, cute pink glasses, cute blue balls, and a cute white glove, I hit the courts. I love Academy. And here's what I thought about while in the court, dodging balls and laughing with my mom.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW, I LEARNED FROM RACKET BALL

1. Work as a Team: Although I think racket ball was meant to be an individual sport, it can be made into a team sport, even if there's only two people playing. Take turns. Share. One person doing all the hitting gets worn out really fast, and the other person is bored. You can't keep that pace up for long. But you can play much longer when you work as a team.

2. Give Other People the Benefit of the Doubt: I'm SURE my mother, the sweet lady that she is, didn't mean to smack me in the neck when she was fielding that ball from behind me. Likewise, I need to remember that other people have issues that may have nothing to do with their current actions. When people don't feel well, they don't act nicely. And we don't always know what's going on with the woman who just cut me off in traffic. So say a prayer, and wave nicely.

3. You Don't Have to Keep Score:The problem with playing some certain sports with boys is they like to keep score. Ruthlessly. My mother and I played for a hour without keeping score once. Did we have fun? Yes. Get exercise? Yes. In life, there are multiple opportunities to keep score. Don't. Thankfully, God doesn't keep score for us, and we should extend that benefit to those who are travelling this road with us.

4. Communicate: Adequate communication helps us all figure out what's going on. So two people don't go for the same target, sports players often tell their teammates what their intentions are. We should be so transparent at work and at home. Meetings go better when agendas are acknowledged to begin with. Chatting with one's spouse or friends strengthens bonds. Use your words.

4B: Encourage Each Other: Most communication, 90% of it, should be positive. You will be known by your words. Make them sweet. You can speak truth gently. Do so.

5. Use All Your Equipment: I started the racket ball game without my racketball glove on. I thought it made me look like Michael Jackson. I'm not used to sporting just one glove. But my shots were wild. All over the place. The racket was twisting in my hand when I hit the ball. I put on my glove, and viola! My shots were still wild and all over the place, but it had less to do with the racket twisting and more to do with poor technique. Why would you go through life without all your equipment? God's been there. He's been here. He knows. We are told that the Bible has everything we need for life and Godliness. For life. Why would you have this wonderful resource and not use it? Daily.

6. Be Flexible: Wow! My mom can move fast when there's a racket-ball-missile fired at her (by her daughter). We found out that both of us can contort into previously unknown and untried positions when we had to. Take that flexibility into your home. Eat pizza when the cauliflower burns to the bottom of a pot. Have breakfast at IHOP when a car accident ruins your chance at a good berry picking. Don't nix things just because we've never done it that way. Sometimes we can come up with wonderful outcomes if we just try new things.

7. Laugh: Laughter can cover alot of error. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself. In fact, you should be the first to laugh when you did something humorous. Enjoy the laughter. It's good exercise. And enjoy a good, clean joke.

8. Drink Lots of Water: enough said

9. Say Sorry When You Hurt Someone: It's the little things that make society nice. It could be a car accident, a stray word, an angry outburst. Say you're sorry. It doesn't make you less of a person to admit fault. In fact, it makes you more. More compassionate, more full of a gentle and humble spirit, more like God.

9B: Right Wrongs. Give a hug when you nail someone with a ball. As much as you can, fix what you broke. Lamps are easy. Feelings are not.

10. Never Look Back: In racket ball, you are NOT allowed to look back. You'll shoot your eye out (said in a nasally 1970s voice a la The Chrismas Story). Or someone else will take your eye out. Not a great idea. The last time I played racket ball, my dad gave me a great lecture about Don't Turn Around, etc, etc. Um, let's just say I learn better from object lessons, and I left the court with quite a mark on my forehead. Just the size of a racketball ball. In Narnia, Lucy asked Aslan (who by the way is a stand in for God, just in case you missed that symbolism), "If I had trusted you, would the battle in the castle still have happened (that caused the deaths of many Narnian fighters)?" Aslan shook his head and said, "We will never know what may have happened. Let's just concentrate on what is." (Or something to that effect. The real movie line is better.) What's done is done. We can't undo the past. But we can trust God and allow His hand and guidance to lead our future. That is really the only way to live. With our eyes fixed on the Author and Perfector of our lives. Looking forward. Never back to the life we left, but with anticipation to what is to come, both here and beyond this world. I can't wait.

So, this is what I think about when I play racket ball. Who's up for a game?