If I Burn It......It will Die

**Very Important Disclaimer**

If you happen to be married to me or are a male figure in any way related to me, you may want to skip this blog post. The following information could be harmful to your health, the mental kind.

Yesterday I went to the dermatologist. I adore my dermatologist....she is cute, personable, and has great skin - therefore I trust her.

I received the now familiar lecture about how poorly I follow my prescribed skin care routine (much like the lecture I get at the dentist for not flossing while bleeding all over that little napkin thing they have clipped on me.......and why in the world is that little suction thingy see through?? Watching the blood being sucked down the tube does not in any way help the already scarred reputation dentists have.......).

I inquired into a couple different procedures they advertise in their little pamphlet thing you get to read through while waiting for the doctor, but quickly wrote them off as being way too high maintenance, or just flat out too expensive.

I then took a deep breath, swallowed my pride, and inquired about laser treatments to deal with the horrendous condition called chin whiskers.

(Scot, I warned you at the beginning so don't blame me if some of the magic has disappeared because you are still reading this.)

The doctor quickly referred me to the lady who does that sort of thing in her office. After (very loudly) asking one of the nurses at the nurses station who was standing there with every employee known to man, to take me to the laser lady for info on CHIN WHISKERS.....geesh.....I was introduced to Hilda the laser lady.

I don't really know her name, but she was an older European woman and was every ounce a Hilda.

She asked me what the issue was.......I was surprised she didn't know after the booming announcement down by the nurses station. I told her about my "issue" and her first question was:

"What color iz de hair?"

Ummmmm......black. Does it really matter??

That was when she pulled out the dreaded round magnifying glass with 1,000,000 mega watts of light bulbs. One look and she said:

"Oh, yes......I see de problem."

You do?? Cuz I took full advantage of the natural light pouring into my car to pluck a few strays before coming face to hair follicle with that darn magnifying glass.

"Zou need to stop plucking for two weeks before I start ze treatment so ze hair follicles are intact."

"Then I will burn it and it will die."

Right there I knew that I needed a job where I could say that exact statement every day.

My mind was whirling with the news about no plucking for two weeks when she very suddenly pulled back her cute pink scrub top sleeve, thrust her armpit into my face and said:

"Zou see? No shaving for seven years!!"

After recovering from the sudden appearance of her pit in my face, I had to admit that it was an impressive sight!

I told her to sign me up and off we marched (high knees, straight back) to the desk to get me all signed up.

Two weeks from yesterday will be my first session with Hilda. Between now and then, I'm hoping my poor whisker follicles will be so afraid of their impending doom that they will have mercy on me and the imposed two week tweezer sabbatical.

Don't you just love being a woman??

Be Still

In four days G starts school and then on Monday, N joins him. A new start - almost like New Year's Day in many ways. Lots of promises are made for renewed discipline, culinary achievements, and organization. Unfortunately, these most often go by the wayside by September when I am talking loudly to the kids (yelling), driving through somewhere for dinner, and have papers scattered all over my kitchen.

The one thing that is different this year is that I am learning to Be Still. This is not easy for me as I think I have had an overloaded schedule since I was 12. I like to be busy, active, involved, and social so I end up being overwhelmed many times. My head, my life, all start to feel like this:

An enormous mess where I can't find anything I am looking for and just give up trying. Humility at its very best!! There was nothing in me that really wanted to post that picture except that it best describes how I feel inside most of the time.

Until God met me in Florida this summer. He knew it would take a week for me to calm down enough to pay attention to the lesson He was trying to teach me. Week two was all about quiet communion between my God, whom I love with my whole being, and me. Week three was about confirming all I had been learning. The big lesson??

"Be Still and know that I am God" was not written in the Bible just to take up space. It is a command. He is telling us to Be Still. Not just for a minute, or five minutes because how well can you really know someone in that short of time? Five minutes of being still would be like speed dating and I just don't see God being cool with that.

We tell our boys all the time to Be Still. Often it's when we are trying to get a point across and need them to pay attention. They are so distracted by everything else going on that even if they are still physically and listening, I can tell by looking in their eyes that they aren't really hearing me because they aren't still on the inside.

For me, it means cleaning out some of what makes my mind so noisy. Just like that playroom, it's getting rid of what isn't needed and finding a proper place for what is. None of it is bad and all of it serves a good purpose, but we just don't need all of it.

There were several weeks in there that God had been sweetly telling me to resign my volunteer position at Living Proof. Boy howdy, I did NOT want to do that, but He was persistent and I was obedient.

Budget cuts required the church to cancel our C3 event for the Fall, so God took care of that without me being involved at all. I guess He figured my involvement just made it that much more complicated and time consuming!

With Scot's new job I have given my days at the hospital back to the other speech therapist that had so kindly let me take over when we were unemployed.

There is more and I fully realize that everyone's journey with this is different. For me, it was about not doing so much for everyone else that my family suffered. Let me tell you.......it feels really good. There was nothing wrong with what I was doing, it was all very purposeful and for a good cause, but there were many times I lost who God was because I couldn't hear or see Him in all the craziness.

Be Still. Sit with Him. Talk to Him. Spend time with Him.

Then you will know HE is God.

In a perfect post, I would have an incredible, Pottery Barn type picture to post as an "After" to the one I posted above. Honestly, I'm still in the midst of cleaning up so I can't tie all this up in a nice neat bow. Oh yeah, that's another thing I'm letting go of........feeling like I have to have it all figured out in order to talk about it.

There can be something powerful about allowing others a peek into the journey.

A Slap In The Face.....

That would be the gift Reality gave to me this morning. To think that in less than two weeks we will be diving back into our school schedule.......the boys and I are leaving tread marks in our attempt to sloooooowwwww summer down.

California was a ton of fun....crazy, but fun. My Grandmother loved having her son, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren surrounding her to celebrate 90 wonderful years of life! This is a woman who still put on her bathing suit and went swimming with all of us - she even wore her goggles! Up until about 3 years ago she still went skinny dipping on a regular basis and believes that being 90 is absolutely no reason at all for not going down the water slide (that activity includes her bathing suit in case you were wondering). She has, and continues to lead a fascinating life that includes being a championship diver. She is witty, edgy, and has a wicked sense of humor.

So Scot and I went from having endless amounts of time together to only spending ONE of the last six weeks together! I was happy to have him there with me......but very sad to see him go home early.

I completely soak in every minute I get with my siblings all together. This is Lisa, Dave (the gentle giant), and Cyndi who is home from Jerusalem, living with us, until December! Yeah!!

I love this shot of N. He was super excited to wear his pink button down shirt with his mohawk......that look on his face says it all!

G and his cousin who is now old enough to think that having older cousins absolutely rocks the world! It was all about fire trucks and racing cars and my boys were only too happy to oblige!

My sweet nephew and his parents below. All 3 of us girls absolutely adore our sister-in-law. She is one very cool chick!

The boys and I spent our last night in Venice Beach with my brother and sister-in-law. The next morning we went for breakfast at a place that was way cooler than I am. N was pitching a fit because outside of porridge or Ricotta pancakes, there was nothing on the menu that remotely resembled IHOP. I decided that as the oldest, I should treat......let's just say that I haven't had steak dinners that have cost as much!

We did, however, get to see Marisa Tomei dining right across from us. No entourage, no drama.......in order to keep it that way, I channeled my inner Californian and tried to blend even though I really wanted to run up to her and tell her how much I LOVED My Cousin Vinny, quote a few lines, and then whip out about 3 cameras to take pictures with her.

I think my brothers would have disowned me on the spot.

I have so much so share with those few of you that still pop over to visit the blog! Alas, alone time is right around the corner and I look forward to spending more time sharing with each of you! Between now and then, I challenge each of you to find some way to use the word "alas" on a daily basis........a very underutilized word in my opinion! Go ahead, try it!

The Wild, Wild West

I have been very neglectful of this blog this summer! I just realized that this is blog entry 101 which means that number 100 went by with no fanfare at all. Hmmmm....I'll have to rectify that very soon!

Tomorrow I leave for California to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday with all my siblings and my parents. This is very exciting because we are usually all together for about 24 hours, once a year. I can NOT wait.......I have packed every pair of heals I own because I'll be walking in the land of giants where my height won't be a novelty next to my 6'8" brother! There promises to be lots of conversation, laughter, one or two disagreements thrown in to keep things interesting, and a frenzied attempt to catch up on each other.

Oh, and remember this post? My big confession of the week.......we totally fell off the bandwagon on that one. Seems I am not nearly as hard core as I thought I was!

Austin City Limits

The boys and I headed West on Friday to Austin for a quick overnight getaway. We were going to visit a dear friend of mine since college. Dayna lives very close to some super cool caverns in Austin and we had to go explore! Since Scot just got home from China Thursday night, this gave him the opportunity to recover from jet lag in a quiet environment so when we got home Saturday we would all be in a good mood.

The caves were incredible....the best part was paying the extra money for the Explorer tour where we got to separate from the group at the end, grab flashlight, and go exploring on our own. The boys LOVED this and it didn't take long for them to find a sweet little bat on a particularly low part of the caves for an up close and personal look. It was a lot of "How sweet" and "He's looking at me" while my statements were more like, "At the first sign of flight, I am out of here and you guys are on your own!".

Dayna and I had both read Stephanie Myer's "The Host" this summer so we were reliving the book the entire time we were in the caves. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.....one of my favorite reads of the summer!!

Dinner that night was at the Hula Hut on Lake Austin. Yum, Yum, Yum!! An hour and a half wait was totally worth it to eat out on the pier over the Lake. By this picture you can tell that N was not happy with the amount of food he got and was asking for seconds. Miss Dayna saved the day with the promise of cookies when we got home! Dayna, I'm still thinking about your Tubular Taco......very soon we'll be visiting Hula Hut again! Thank you so much for a wonderful time and for your hospitality!

An added bonus of the weekend was getting to see some dear friends Saturday morning! My friend of 30 plus years, Christie, has a wonderful friend named Becca that I have heard about for a long time, but have never met. They used to be neighbors until Becca and her family moved to Austin a year or two ago. Because of blogs and Facebook, Becca and I have now become cyber friends......you've gotta love that!

Anyways, Becca and I were chatting on FB Thursday night and unbeknownst to me, Christie was headed to Austin for the weekend. We quickly devised a plan where the boys and I would stop by Becca's house and surprise Christie before we headed home to Houston. Becca, who just added to her crew two months ago with sweet Ian, was gracious enough to have my not-so-quiet boys and myself show up at 8 a.m. and add to the madness of a Saturday morning.

The surprise was everything I could have hoped it would be.....screaming, crying.....it was so much fun! I got to meet Becca and her family for the first time and she was as wonderful as I imagined she would be. It was a very fast hour and a half full of bacon cooking duty, rushed and unfinished conversations, baby holding, and lots of "I can't believe you are here" exclamations. It was not nearly enough time!

Christie, I loved seeing you even for a moment!

Becca, thank you for being so hospitable and gracious!

Grace and Barnes

Falling in love

Loving her very cute and trendy bed

Grace died this morning and my heart is very heavy. Two very different dogs have turned my world upside down these last two weeks. I have to believe that big 'ol Barnes and sweet little Grace are running around together in heaven.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air,

and they will teach you........In His hand is the life of every creature

and the breath of all mankind. Job 12: 7 and 10

I was hit hard this morning while I was holding Grace, bawling into her fur. I am mourning the loss of a puppy I knew for less than a week, wanting assurance she is in heaven, and yet people come and go in my life on a daily basis and my concern for their final destination can be very miniscule at times.

Lord, give me a heart for people who need to find You. I pray that people will see You through me and that I will have a heart for all of Your creatures.

Puppy Mill

Well, the drama continues....

Sweet Grace the puppy was not feeling well at all yesterday. She was very lethargic and didn't eat anything...it was pathetic! This morning I took her to the vet just to find out that she has Parvo. Since I have never taken any sort of animal science course, I had no idea what this was. Come to find out, it's a virus that is potentially fatal in puppies.

I had an immediate flashback to one week ago today when I was at the same vet office with Barnes getting very bad news - a visit that ended with me leaving without my buddy. I just couldn't take it again.

I called the breeder we got her from and couldn't get through. When he did call me back, he cried on the phone the whole time because his brother died in a motorcycle accident yesterday.

Seriously?? Could my life be any more dramatic?

He told me when he got back into town he would refund me the money I paid for Grace.

After much consideration, I decided to go ahead and leave her in the puppy hospital for some intensive treatment to see if they can save her.

I feel bad.....I spent 3-4 days after getting her regretting that I had rushed into the decision to get a new dog. I also was very taken aback by the amount of money it's going to cost for her hospital stay (over $1,000) and I'm still in unemployment mode where no money is spent unless absolutely necessary. It also stinks that Scot is still in China.

But, one look at that sweet little furry face and I knew that I had to try everything I could to save her. So now I wait for news on her condition and all I feel like doing these days is staying inside my house and withdrawing. I know that sounds dramatic....

Oh, did I mention that my sister who lives in Isreal is here? She will be living with us until after Christmas and I'm thrilled!!!! More on her and her amazingness later....