Jerry and Her Cake

I'd like for you to meet my house helper. She is Ethiopian and we call her Jerry.

We like Jerry so much! And not just cause she helps me clean my floors and my dishes and the general dustiness of my house a few times a week but because she has a beautiful heart following Jesus and a sweet spirit and she adores my children and she is so cheerful!

SO, when she asked me if I'd make a cake for her to celebrate her first wedding anniversary with her husband I was honored and blessed to be able to do so for her!



This is what I came up with. She was thrilled and so was I! She is such a blessing to me...

My Girly

This is a cute picture of my girly in church (Yes, church is basically outside). She's pretty challenging in church these days... her face says it all.



But don't her sweet dress and cutest pigtails ever and big baby blues counter-act the whiny little look on her face?

Yeah. I thought so too.

Asleep Beside Me

This afternoon I laid down with my boy. It's probably been years since he fell asleep in my arms and today, as often happens when I manage to stop being busy and give my attention to him, my heart was just bursting with love. So I snuggled in next to him, wrapped my arm around him and put my forehead against his.

Mikey and I have never shared our bed much with our kiddos and falling asleep next to Mommy is not the norm. So for awhile he was chatty and restless. But when I was still and quiet he settled in, got comfortable with his head near mine and his arm wrapped around my neck. His breathing steadied and he fell asleep.

I just watched him sleep as mothers do sometimes and was so overwhelmed at the gift he is to me. Who knew one small boy could bring so much love and joy into my life?

I want to remember those moments forever.

Outbound

I don't think I ever told you how my solo-trip began one month ago.

It began with a record-setting time from home to the airport to the front of the check-in line. It was so stinking fast it almost felt weird. Well, it did feel weird. Like I needed more time to make the mental transition or something.

In any case, when I stepped up to the check-in clerk sitting behind a computer (yes, our airport actually has computers now. This is a fairly recent improvement... we're like totally living in the year 1975 here now, aren't we?!) I had a genius idea. I am traveling without children so I am entitled to sit in the exit row and benefit from that extra leg room, right? I know, I know, my legs aren't really extra long or anything, but what the heck, why shouldn't I get to stretch out a wee bit on this red-eye flight?

So, I kindly asked the clerk if there was a seat available in the emergency exit row. He looked up at me, paused for a moment and says "Those seats aren't available for women."

*gag*

*cough*

*spurt*

Wait, what?! My eyes get big. Like, huge. I'm certain the look on my face said all that was going on in my head. I know I said something outloud to accompany the look, but I can't remember what. The computer-using-clerk looked amused at my reaction, not in a smug sort of way, but in a I-knew-this-white-lady-traveling-alone-wasn't-going-to-like-that-answer sort of look.

Then he asked "Aisle or window, ma'am?"

The nerve...

;)

After the ticket was issued I continued on my speedy path toward the completion of the check-in process.

The next step was to fill out my exit form and do another round of testing in my on-going experiment to see how much I can replace real letters on the exit form with meaningless scribbles and get away with it. The on-going outcome to the on-going experiment is that actually the form can be almost entirely illegible and they won't even bat an eye.

Next step is yet another scanner.

This clerk asked to see in my bag. "You have batteries?" She asked. Yup, in my camera. "I need them" she said. I reluctantly hand them to her but plead with my eyes and ask her "What for? I have never had batteries taken before... I need them for my camera. They are no danger." I spoke a little Arabic, hoping that this would make her like me. No, she didn't like me though. Good try, Suz.

Please note that she didn't want my 20 ounces of 7up or 20 ounces of water or my various other sundry gels and liquids OR the batteries inside the camera... apparently those two batteries and all those liquids were harmless but my four backup double A's were of high danger. Oh my.

She explained in limited English that the batteries can be used to make a "bomB" (second B audible.). I remember vaguely motioning at myself and my appearance, implying that I am obviously no kind of bomb maker. (Let's not discuss the reverse-racial-profiling non PC thing that was going on just then with my behavior). For a moment we just looked at each other. Then I carefully, gingerly, oh-so-tenderly reached out and took the batteries back out of her hand while keeping my pleading eyes locked with hers. She said nothing. She didn't make a move. Is this happening? I placed them back in my bag and went through the next passage as fast as I could without making a full-on run for it.

I continued on. My batteries were saved. Halleluiah! Who wants to buy batteries while traveling? SO expensive...

Next up is a wait in the waiting hall which could have been located at the North Pole it was so freezing. At this point I'm so cold and so nervous that scanner clerk lady is gonna come with an entourage to find the white lady who broke the battery rule and embarrass me that I couldn't enjoy my newly remembered feeling of independence and the crisp magazine in my hands that I had been saving just for this special occasion.

But she never came back and I never spotted a battery sniffing dog.

Whew.

Wait, there is more though. This story is not yet over.

After suffering from frost-bite for about thirty minutes there was then a ten minute wait standing on the bus that then drove us 50 meters to the airplane. As I finally reached the top of the stairs and stepped foot on my transportation to the sky, the flight attendant glanced at my boarding pass and then at my stomach.

"You're pregnant?" She asks in an almost non-asking kind of way.

Lord have mercy. Can't a girl catch a break? What girl, embarking on a solo-trip-of-a-lifetime, wants to be reminded that:

A. She's female and therefore apparently inferior and incapable of turning a lever and pushing open a door to allow other passengers to exit the aircraft safely, instructing them to please not inflate life jackets until outside the aircraft cabin.

B. She is an apparent danger to all passengers not because she carried over 40 ounces of liquids and gels aboard the aircraft but because she chose to take four extra AA batteries along to take photographs.

C. That her stomach is indeed a bit pudgy and round for not having a small human being incubated inside.

It was an interesting beginning, to say the least. As I settled in my seat I was so thankful that I was laughing and not crying. I was thankful, too, that I already had a handful of interesting experiences and I was still only a few miles from home.

I love my life.

Window Scrapers

This is part 2 of 2 in the theme of 'Jobs that make ya say "God bless 'em"'...



Check out these dudes who have been commissioned to scrape the huge sticker ads of larger than life soap off of the pharmacy windows. Not fun. Not fun at all.

God bless 'em.

Street Sweepers

What do you think of when you think of street sweepers?



A row of guys with brooms in the street?

I thought not.

But that is what we've got here.

It's got to be pretty discouraging to sweep dust from the street day after day when you're in the DESERT and all there is is dust blowing around.

God bless 'em.

Question of the Day

Random Question of the Day: If you had to evacuate your home because of a natural disaster, what three things would you take with you?

Three things. Hmm. Can we just assume that living things aren't included in this list? Cause obviously if I had too I'd throw my husband over my back and tuck one toddler under each arm and run for dear life marveling at my own feat of strength. But that's a given, right?

And let's also just state that I have no pets. I'm glad about this cause frankly cats make me sneeze and dogs are a lot of work.

Ahem.

Onto the real answer.

Except I don't have an answer yet.

*Pause for reflection*

Ah! I got number one. That was a short pause. Number one came easily. My computer!!! Duh. It's got the photos of all the best days of my life stored on it. Like when my hubby and I said "I do" under the canopy of trees surrounded by friends and family and some people whose names I didn't know. I never want to forget that day or the way my hair fell down at my reception and no one told me. Okay. I would actually like to forget the part about the way my hair fell down at the reception and no one told me. But I'm over it. Promise.

Number one also includes pictures of when my wittle itty bitty babies were still actually itty bitty and they spit up on me and learned to blow bubbles and discovered their hands and rolled over for the first time and do I really need to go on? You get the picture. The sweetest moments in all of the history of the (my) world are stored on this black chunk o' plastic that I'm looking at right now. This thing is number one.

Number two?

*thinking*

*trying to think about something besides dishes and laundry that I should be attending to right now cause those are definitely not things to be taking but I can't seem to clear my mind*

Wait. Let me try the meditative position.

Nope. That didn't work. I just got a text message and that was totally distracting.

My santuko knife? I loove that thing. But no, that's silly. C'mon Suz, get serious.

GOT IT! Number two is medical records. How boring am I? So so boring. But who wants their kiddos to have two MMR vaccinations cause dear Mommy can't remember if she got it the first time around or not? Not me.

Moving on quickly to number three, which hopefully proves to be less boring.

If only I knew what it was.

Here we go again.

*scraping the back of my empty cranium hoping to find an answer*

Okay. I got some ideas. Now I'm trying to choose between passports (also boring. Can this just fall under the we-know-you'd take-it-so-don't-mention-it-as-part-of-your-three category?), scrapbooks (sentimental, but mostly replaceable), home video tapes (possible front runner), this new bag I recently got that I love (you've got to be kidding, Suz), my boy's homemade-with-love blanket (would hate to loose that) and my favorite jeans from college (Seriously? Hey! I love them!).

I choose...

The video tapes! If I was more organized I'd have them all loaded on my computer and then I wouldn't have had to use up one of my three items for video tapes. But alas... they aren't loaded on my computer and they're too valuable to say adios to forever. So video tapes, I choose you!

But can I please just slide the santuko knife into the back pocket of my favorite college jeans that I could pull on so quickly that no one would even notice (never mind the muffin top) and throw that cute bag over my shoulder which happened to be pre-loaded with all of our passports and the blanket (yes, my bag is that big) while yelling at my husband to "grab the scrapbooks honey!!!" as we race out the door with one child each over our shoulders?

That would be much more ideal, don't you think?

I think so.

But wait.

[Changing tones]

I'd just like to state that if God forbid, we were actually in the midst of a natural disaster... that nothing that this world has to offer is really of an importance at all. I'd leave it all behind in a second to assure the safety of my loved ones. I think you dear readers know that about me and I think you feel the same.

Let's just hope (nay, pray) that this silly post can just serve it's purpose (which is for me to exercise my writers muscles and hopefully provoke a giggle or two ) and that we never have to use it as a reference.