THE SCARE

Natalie's post yesterday reminded me of this so figured I would keep the scare theme going.

Roll mental camera...

I was sound asleep in my outstandingly comfortable memory foam bed when our security alarm decided to test the system. Which results in every alarm in our house going off all at once.

Do you remember in Ghostbusters when Sigourney Weaver AKA "The Gatekeeper" levitates 4 feet above her covers? Yea that was me but throw in an invisible catapult. I went from a dead sleep to nearly setting a record for long jump and the 100 yard dash all at once. I looked like Shaggy and Scooby Doo up in the air legs just churning.

In what felt like a blink of and eye I had sprinted through our entire house, in nothing but my undies, to make sure we weren't on fire or being invaded. I had such an adrenaline rush I couldn't go back to sleep for hours. Talk about a wake up call.

Three of our life group families have had that wake up call in the last week and have made the decision to start new groups. They want to bring the feeling we have for each other to a whole new group of people who may not have the chance otherwise. While it is hard for us to see them go we understand why they are. They will still be part of our family even if we don't get to see them every week.

I guess my put up or shut up post actually worked :-)

When was your last wake up call?

THE SHACK

Our life group is going to read and discuss the book "The Shack". Shelly has already read it so now it is my turn. I have talked to many people who have read it and almost all of them have said the same thing, "you will laugh and then cry and then laugh and then cry."

I am not sure I am ready for a read like that. So I thought I would get your opinion on it if you have read it.

What did you think and is the quote above accurate?

Will it make a man cry too?

Now remember I haven't it so don't be a spoiler.

Reflection

This is a picture that Shelly took of Connor. You can see her reflection as well as the trees and grass behind her in his eye. That in itself is pretty cool but seeing the big picture that it came from amazed me. Can you make it out in the big picture?



Connor looks so happy doesn't he?

I know strange post, sorry. Just thought it was neat

PUT UP OR SHUT UP

I am guest blogging over at Bigisthenewsmall today so please head over there and lay the comments on thick.

Funny stuff will return next week

CALL FOR HELP

Shelly has been spearheading the development of a mission trip. She decided to make good on a quote that she read many years ago from Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

You see our family decided to sponsor a family through The Box Project, which is a charity started by Martin Luther King Jr's wife to help support families that live well below the poverty line in the United States. Our family was a grandmother and her children and grandchildren numbering 9 living in a single wide trailer in disrepair.

But with the very little she has, Grace (the grandmother) has used what we send her to help others that have less than she does. She feeds kids wandering the streets and freely gives away anything she has for anyone in need.

Over the past few years we have learned some shocking things about the reservation they live on in South Dakota. It is called the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and here are a few things we found out about a place that is near 11,000 square miles and is home to over 40,000 people.

97% live below poverty line
84% unemployment rate
Per capita income of less than $4000 a year
Life expectancy for women is 52 and only 48 for men
Infant mortality is 300% higher than national average
Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than national average
33% lack basic water, sewage and electricity
Many families live in homes that have been considered condemned
Many homes are missing windows and doors where temps reach -50 degrees

So we are going to travel there on September 30th to see what we can do to help. But we don't want to go empty handed.

We are collecting some things that we can take with us in a trailer and will be giving them to around 90 people that Grace lives near and are in dire need of help.
Here is what we are looking for.

Coats of all sizes in kids and adults
Blankets, the warmer the better
Clear plastic sheeting to cover exposed windows and doors
Tarps or other material that can be used to patch or cover large holes in roofs
Plywood sheets that can be used for flooring
Anything else that can help keep people warm and dry this winter

Please send a message out to all your friends and family and let me know if you want to help in any way.

I will be posting again on this in a few weeks. Thanks for any and all of your help and showing God's love to people you don't know and please pray for us we are going to need it.

Below are a few websites and a video that will explain the plight of these people.

friendsofpineridgereservation.org

re-member.org

Drives me crazy

Yesterday's post about the "wild hair" ended up causing me distress. Why you might ask? Well maybe you wouldn't but you are going to get the response anyway.

Hope made a comment asking what "wild hair" meant and when I went to respond I was going to link the Ask.com or Wikipedia answer. But all that did was prove that I am an idiot.

You see, it isn't "wild hair" it is "wild hare". I am in my late 30s and never knew it was "hare". Feel free to look it up if you want but I can't bring myself to link my own ignorance.

That is what distressed me. Ignorance like that makes me feel like a bumbkin. (Hope you will have to Google that one for yourself)

I can't even stand it if I think I am misspelling a word or using it incorrectly unless I am doing it on purpose. I would rather go through the trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or changing the word all together before I use it incorrectly. I can't even bring myself to text using any of the text lingo. I have to spell everything out.

I know... but it is my curse and I live with it.

So next time I get a "wild hare" to use a cliche' I will make sure and do the background check first.

When is the last time your own ignorance jumped up and bit you?

THE CLEANER

The wild hair grew crazy and unruly this weekend. I could not control it any longer.

Roll mental camera...

I usually try to avoid tackling large projects on holiday weekends, or any other week end for that matter. But our garage had become the catch all and was in desperate need of a clean out. The wild hair had been growing for some time but there was no controlling it this weekend.

Pulling nearly everything out of the garage, I actually used the leaf blower to clean out all the funk and then used the hose and broom to finish the job.

I pulled Shelly (under protest) into my project to help me reorganize because I have a tendancy to just throw everything away and I knew that would land me in hot water. Three hours and a bucket of sweat later the garage looked stellar. I can honestly say it looked better than the day we moved in. Of course the day we moved in the garage was stuffed full of all kinds of crud.

Don't you love when a wild hair takes over and you just have to clean/fix/build something? It is always inspiring to me when I see the final result. I just wish I could harness that wild hair because lazy comes back way to easy.

When was the last time the wild hair bug bit you?

What did you destroy or create?