Does this ever happen to you?

I can't remember if it was late at night, in the middle of the night, or early morning.  All I know is that I went to the bathroom, half asleep, and could not find the darn light switch.

"Ugh!", I said, feeling all around the dark bathroom wall, totally stressed that I was going to touch a spider or something equally hideous.  

In my mind I was thinking about how my hand is trained to find the light switch.  Out of habit, it just knows where to reach on the wall.  I never have to think about it.  Realizing that, I was in the middle of trying to clear my brain of all thought so that the habitual instinct would take over and guide my hand to the light.  Just then, Mr. T walked by.  

Since he was awake, I'm guessing it wasn't the middle of the night.

"I can't find the dumb light switch!" I exclaimed.

He calmly reached into the bathroom and turned it on.

I must have really been out of it because when he brought it up the next morning I didn't even remember it.  

We tend to chalk moments like this up to "the spice of life."  

Grammar Lesson

Last week was sort of bizarre.  

It started with an email.  Something along the lines of, "Don't forget, Steel Magnolias tryouts are coming up!"

Steel Magnolias is my favorite.  I didn't even know I was on the Community Theater's email list, which is why I took it as a sign from God that I should try out.  

So I did.

Later in the week, we received a flier from a car dealership in a town that's about an hour from where we live.  "Scratch off the center to see if you've won!"  Well, by golly, I scratched it off and it said we had won $25,000!  The only problem is that we had to drive to the dealership to "claim our prize".  We knew it was a hoax and that only one person could possibly win and that that one person probably wasn't us.  

Nonetheless, we loaded up our baby and our hearts full of dreams and started out on the road.

When we got there we discovered that we didn't win.

We were disappointed, but by no means shocked.

"Sorry you didn't win.  Here's a gift card to WalMart.  It could be worth anywhere from $5 to $200."

It was worth $5.

We figured.

While out on a walk I answered a call from the Steel Magnolias director.  "I'm sorry, but I'll be unable to cast you.  You had a good audition, but it seems you were too young for some roles and too old for other roles."

I assumed as much.

Looking back over the week, I realized that we placed glimmers of hope in things we knew would be long shots.  As it turns out, all of them were long shots.  But I'm still glad we pursued them.  I'm glad I tried out.  I had a good time and it brought me out of my comfort zone.  I'm glad we drove out of town.  It was nice to visit in the car and we took Tidytot to the park and even went to Starbucks (a real treat!).  

None of the things we hoped for worked out.  

And I don't mind.  I would rather live life knowing than wondering.  

Exclamation points, even at the end of sentences I don't like, are often so much better than question marks. 

Longing

I was visiting a dear friend the other day.  Although the subject was barely discussed, I'm aware that she would like to be married.  I don't know the plans God has, but I do know she'll make a great wife should he choose that path for her.  

Longing.

Before I was married, I longed for a husband.  After being married about three weeks, I started longing for a baby.  Now my heart looks forward to a second baby.

I've come to realize that longing is part of life.  Perfectly happy and content people are still faced with a healthy desire for more / something else / something new.  The way we manage our longing speaks volumes about our trust in God.

My friend manages her longing with such grace.  May I be more like her as she strives to be more like Christ.  

Such Cuteness

How is it possible that this little girl...

is already 8 1/2 months old?

Time flies when you're having fun.  

And getting ready to go swimming for the first time is big time fun!

Plumbing Issues

This morning began as usual.  I fed Tidytot, then went down stairs to make breakfast while Mr. T took a shower.  Usually he is faster than me and is ready to go before breakfast is prepared.  

But not today.

I made and ate breakfast before he came downstairs.  Assuming he was going to town on grooming his beard, I didn't think much of it.

Later I went upstairs to check on him and thought I might find him dressed in a three piece suit, since it took him 9.23658 hours to get ready.  Nope, he was in shorts and a t-shirt.

Noticing my perplexed expression he stated, "It's been quite the morning."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well," he said, "I was taking a shower and the water was pooling up around my feet, so I thought the drain was clogged.  After my shower I tried to plunge it but it wasn't working so I disassembled the drain to see if I could find the hair clog.  That wasn't working either.  Thankfully we had some Drain-o, so I tried that.  Still didn't work!  After all that time I was getting really frustrated.  That's when I realized the reason it wasn't working is because the lever that stops it from draining was pulled up!"

"Oh yea, I must have forgot to put that down after I gave Tidytot a bath." I replied sheepishly.

Mr. T looked at me and kind of did his blink-blink/sigh combination.

He was nice and said it wasn't my fault.  He must really love being married to me!

Phantom Baby

Ever since Tidytot was born I've had this phenomenon that I call "Phantom Baby".  Mr. T and I are not big on co-sleeping with our infant.  The both of us can hardly fit in our bed as it is.  However, the Phantom Baby syndrome still strikes a couple times a week, at least.

It's a feeling I get in the middle of the night that Tidytot is in the bed.  When she was a newborn, I would feel the down comforter on my chest and think it was her.  Then I would mentally go through the motions of thinking, "Oh I'm so tired.  I really need to lay her in her crib, but I'm SO TIRED!"  Then I would either just fall asleep or wake up and realize that she was already sound asleep in her own bed.

From there, Phantom Baby syndrome turned more to worrying that she was in the bed and that Mr. T was laying on her.  Many times in the middle of the night I would start shoving him in a panic while shouting "MOVE OVER!" until I came to my senses.

Well, two nights ago I was just sure she was in the bed again, except this time she was at the bottom of the bed under the covers.  So in my half-asleep state I reached to the bottom of the bed and started feeling around for her, only to discover my husband's hairy legs.  I searched and searched the bed but could not find her anywhere.  That's when I resorted to my fall back of shoving Mr. T and telling him to "MOVE OVER!"  

Oh hallucinations.  You certainly keep life interesting.  

Poor, Poor, Poor Annie

The other day we tried out a new groomer to save a buck or two and this is what happened:

Poor Annie.  She was not impressed with her very short hair or her very pink pom poms.  

In a way I felt kind of good about it.  Annie had a tendency to bark incessantly when Tidytot was a newborn, thus waking her up when I so desperately wanted to take a nap.  So Annie's new do sort of felt like a little vindication, a feeling which did not last long.  She "one up'd" me again by burying one of Tidytot's teething toasts in between my pillows.

I have no idea how Annie got it in between the pillows like that.  At first glance, you wouldn't know that the pillows had been tampered with.  She's good.  Very good.

Now I must go and find some doggie sunscreen, seeing how Annie has no hair to protect her skin from the sun's damaging rays.

Just another day in the life of a poodle owner...