Lunch, Fire, Gas, Etc.

***UPDATED - We ran in to my sister at Cheddar's where we were eating today and had her take a couple of pictures - Cassie is really not that short (well, actually we both are short) - I had some "elevated shoes" on. We had a fun time catching up and talking about our families and such -- hope we can do it again! (Next time we really should color coordinate our outfits though, cause we clash terribly in these pictures).

Today I am going to lunch with my fellow blogger and friend Cassie. She and I went to high school together (I went to middle school and high school with her husband). I remember in high school (yes, I can remember back that far, yet I have a hard time remembering what happened yesterday) all James ever talked about was Cassie. He told everyone that she was the most beautiful girl in the whole world and that he was going to marry her someday. She is beautiful and he did marry her. Go check out her blog and see their beautiful family. Cassie is also a part-time photographer. She takes great pictures and has a website for her photography business - check it out too.



When we made our plans to have lunch, Cassie said that we need to bring our cameras and take pictures to post on our blogs. If it were anyone else, I would be excited about that, but the problem is that Cassie has one of those fancy cameras with all the bells, whistles and long things sticking out of it. I, on the other hand, still have the Easy Share (aka. photography for Dummies). We'll see how it goes, I might take the old Kodak and give her fancy Nikon a run for its money (or I might just keep it in my purse out of embarrassment ;-). Either way, I hope I will have some pictures to post later this evening.



Speaking of Dummies, I almost burned our house down on Monday night. The hubs was refereeing a ballgame and I was home with the kids (that, by the way, is the story of our lives from August to November). It was almost 9 pm so I knew he would be home soon, so I figured I better go ahead and fix his dinner. I had made steak, salad, and baked potatoes for lunch on Sunday, so he was going to have the leftovers. I placed the baked potato in plastic wrap and put it on a "Microwave Safe" plate (yeah right) and punched the handy dandy button that says "Baked Potato" --- doesn't take a rocket scientist to do that, right? Wrong. I had promised the boys I would watch the Nickelodeon hit show "My Family Has Guts" with them (don't really know if it is a 'hit show', but I thought I would add that part for emphasis and importance), so I left the potato burning to a crisp baking and went into the den to sit with them for a few minutes.




When hubs came to the door about 4 minutes later, I heard the smoke alarm going off. I would love to say it is very unusual for him to come home and hear the smoke alarm, but the truth is that it happens quite often at our house (what am I Sara Lee?). Anyway, this time there was black smoke (that IS unusual - well kinda) and huge blue flames coming out of our microwave. I just stood there and screamed while hubs (the quick thinker of the family) doused the flames with water. After the fire was out, the smoke detector continued to go off for about 20 minutes. At first, our house smelled like a combination of hot ashes and burnt popcorn, but, now it simply smells like a chain smoker lives here and apparently no amount of Lysol or Oust can change that. The microwave is a Kenmore product, so I called Sears to see if there is a recall (ie. can you please give us a new microwave because the one you sold us is whack?). Apparently, since it is almost 9 years old, there is nothing they can do.........there goes $300+ out the window and until I get a new one, I will cooking like the pioneer women of old (well on the actual stove and in the actual oven - ugh) - Double Dern! This event will go down in family history as "The Great Potato Debacle of 2008" or "The Night the Lights Went Out in the Microwave".




Did I mention that my Bible study this week is on "Patience"???? Yeah, well satan must have heard what I was studying because he has tried to test me like Job this week in EVERY area of my life (including the area of microwave cooking). And, sadly, I have to admit that there have been times he has gotten the best of me and sent my patience out the window (and ya'll, I didn't have much patience to start with). Have you ever noticed that when satan seeks to tear you down, he enlists other people to help him? Yeah, the microwave ain't the only thing I have lost my patience with this week. I figured since I was confessing, I might as well give you the whole ugly truth (don't want to add being a liar to my list of sins this week - the list is long enough already).





Did you know that Wal-Mart does price matching? For instance, if I see cantaloupes at another grocery store for a $1, then I can go to my friendly Wal-Mart cashier and tell her then she will give me that same price. All I have to do is say "I read that Food City has cantaloupes for a dollar" and poof! that is what I pay for them at Wal Mart too. I was wondering if I went to the Wal-Mart gas pump and said, "I read that Iraq has gas for 39 cents a gallon", do you think they would give me that price as well? Just a thought.

For you parents, I strongly suggest that you DO NOT play soccer with your man child while wearing flip flops. Just thought I would throw that out there. Consider it a Public Service Announcement brought to you by mom's with band-aids on their toes.

Lindsay Lohan and Clay Aiken both say they are gay --- sadly I am not surprised by either. I predict she will head back into the closet and turn from her choice of gayness in a couple of years. (Kaden calls her Windsay Wohan - he saw her on Herbie Fully Loaded). Have you guys heard that song on Christian radio named "Britney"? I like it. Maybe we should write to Bebo Norman and see if he has a song named "Lindsay" in the works.

Today was See You At The Pole Day, where students all over the country meet at their school's flag pole to pray. I was glad to see at least a third of the students and many parents from Lake's school at their flag pole this morning. The Bible tells us in Samuel how God chose to speak to a boy instead of the priest. We know that Jesus used a boy's lunch to feed thousands. 1 Timothy 4:12 tells us not to look down on those who are young, but to encourage them.......The Bible is full of references to children, yet we downplay their role in the Kingdom. God has a special place in His heart for kids. We get so caught up in our own lives and ministries that we sometimes forget that kids have a ministry too and it's our job to help them grow in their ministry. Lake's kindergarten teacher always says that kids learn best from other kids. If that is true, then who better to tell a child about Jesus than another child.....peer pressure is not always bad.

Last night, Steve and I saw a man on TV who looked just like a kid off the cartoon Fat Albert. Do you all remember him? Do you remember this song----" You'll have a good time with me and all the gang, learnin' from each other why we do our thang.....Lalala gonna have a good time ---HeyHeyHey". I wonder why you never see that in reruns? That was a fun show - guess it isnt too politically correct to have a show with the word "Fat" in the title. We dont even allow our kids to say the word 'Fat' because I am afraid that they will see an overweight person (maybe me) and say the f-word out loud. My kids know 'fat' as a 'bad word'.......we are gonna keep it like that for as long as possible.

I suppose that is enough random boredom for you for one day......I might update with some pictures later --I might even get Cassie to take a new profile picture of me so I can get rid of that joke on the top left hand side of my sidebar----I know you will be waiting on the edge of your seat for that to happen.