Me time
Yesterday I think Zale sensed that I was about to lose it. The girls have been on a screaming kick this week, things have been a little tense with the teenager, the dogs are driving me crazy, I wasn’t able to go to my life group because of scheduling conflicts, etc. (Jill, if you’re reading this, Noah wasn’t the cause, promise!) Zale stopped working around 2:30 and took the girls shopping, to the park, and to the green way to ride their bikes. I don’t know that I would even attempt to do that. Needless to say, I was very grateful. Noah took a nap while they were gone, I put the dogs up, and relaxed in the recliner for about an hour. It was so nice, but I still felt a bit on edge.
After Noah went home and we settled in for a typical evening I began to feel an even bigger need for some me time. So I asked Zale if he would mind taking care of everything while I rented a movie, got some food, and hid out in the bonus room for a couple of hours, completely ALONE. He’s such a wonderful and understanding husband that he immediately agreed and sent me on my way.
I really wanted some Mexican food and some Heavenly Hash frozen yogart. The Movie Gallery where we rent movies is in- between a wonderful Mexican restaurant and Kroger. But then I began to wonder how I could keep the food warm, the ice cream cold, and not spend a bunch of money. When I got to the shopping center I remembered that the Little Casear’s Pizza place just moved in that shopping center too. So as I’m getting my chick flick at Movie Gallery my game plan changed a bit. You know how they have the movie size candy at the movie rental places? I decided that would solve my sweet tooth, I could get a drink there too, and run into Little Caesar’s (where they have the pizza’s ready to sell and a large is only $5) for a pizza, and head back home. And that’s what I did. I got home with my pizza, candy (a package of Reese’s and Twix because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted, so I got both) a diet soda (diet instead of regular because if I’m going to consume a couple hundred empty calories I’d rather be chewing something, like chocolate) and a movie. I go to put the DVD in the player and discover that they didn’t take the security thing off so I couldn’t open the case. I started to get really frustrated about that, but decided I wasn’t going to let it ruin my alone time and got over it. Besides, there’s a microwave in the bonus room, so if my pizza got cold I could always nuke it. I went back to the Movie store, where they fixed the problem right away, and then back home.
I had the perfect “me” night. Junk food and a movie with no interruptions. It was heavenly. But after the movie I realized I had probably consumed two days worth of calories in that two hours and started to feel a bit guilty about it. I got on the treadmill and walked a quick half mile before heading back down stairs.
I feel so refreshed, even today, as a result of that time. Thank you Zale, for making it possible! You rock! I was energized enough to get up early and walk another 1/2 mile this morning (even after very little sleep), as well as taking care of the dogs, vacuuming, and getting some laundry done. So husbands, if your wives are acting a bit stressed, it may just be that they need a couple of hours for themselves to do whatever they want to do. I’m quite sure she’ll appreciate it!
our little nudist
I’m not sure who she inherited this from, but Reagan is going through a phase where she could care less about clothes. Thankfully I’m able to keep her distracted enough (most of the time) so she forgets she can now undress herself. But then there are days like today when that’s not the case.
I knew it was going to be one of those days when it was a battle to get her clothes on this morning. Then, just a little bit ago, I stepped out into our front yard to take the dogs out. I was only out of the house for two minutes. I come back and Reagan is proudly prancing around the living room in just her diaper. A few very short minutes later, I’m changing Noah’s diaper (the 21 month old I watch during the week), I look over and see Griffin sniffing a discarded diaper on the floor. I realize that Reagan had gotten rid of her diaper and was now sitting quietly on her princess chair, watching TV, butt naked, as if nothing unusual was happening.
I was able to get her back in her diaper, but she’s still resisting clothes. Sigh. Oh wait, I was wrong…I just heard Hannah say, “Reagan, stop taking your diaper off!” Guess that’s my que.
we’re talking about what?
Last Tuesday night I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours with some great ladies from church. There were six of us from our life group who got together to do a little pot luck dinner and enjoy each others company. I really needed it too. For the last few weeks I’ve felt a bit out of it and disconnected from people and life in general. It was good to have some girl time and truly laugh.
Now normally when we get together as a lifegroup we’re discussing a book, talking about our walks with God and life experiences. But this night was a bit different. Normally when you get a group of women together (at least it’s been my experience), the subject of sex always come up. But in this group with women who all have children, we end up talking about poop. Did you know there’s even a website dedicated to poop? And farts? I mean I guess there are websites that will tell you everything you need to know about anything, but I hadn’t ever met anyone before who had googled poop and fart. Especially a woman! I laughed so hard that I cried and tucked the web site information into the back of my brain because I figured Anthony (my 16 year old son) would get a kick out of it. As it turns out, he already knew about them. And I’m really not surprised.
Griffin update
Griffin 5 1/2 months
We’ve had Griffin for 6 weeks or so and we’re still all adjusting to this addition to our family. Right now I’ve got a bit of a love/hate relationship with him. But that probably has something to do with him pooping on the carpet this morning. Not something he normally does, thankfully.
I’m really not sure just how much he weighs right now, but I’m guessing between 50 and 60 pounds. Of course he still thinks he’s a lap dog and has all but taken over my recliner. Zale had to bribe him with a bone to get him out of it tonight. He still prefers to sleep on me, which is getting increasingly more uncomfortable as he seems to get noticibly bigger every day.
I have to admit, he’s really good with the kids. (Other than accidently knocking them down every now and then.) Reagan has even climbed in the recliner with him and sat on top of him. Not once did he even growl. Griffin and Noah (the little boy that I watch during the day) have become really good buddies. I think Hannah just tolerates him and Anthony still isn’t too thrilled about having him around. But he is a sweet and lovable dog. I still look forward to him getting bigger and out of the puppy stage.
Griffin and the other animals are getting along better. Earlier today I was sitting in the recliner, Gracie (our 40 pound boxer) was beside me sleeping, and somehow Griffin found enough room to get in the recliner with us (on top of me) and take a nap himself. They still have their moments, and Griffin still prefers to think of the cats as his personal play things, but we’re getting there.
“conversation” with Reagan
I walked into the girls room to get some clothes for Hannah and noticed how impossibly messy it was. I couldn’t even get into the closet because Reagan was sitting in the doorway of the closet playing. This was the very short exchange that followed:
Me: Wow, this room is a disaster again.
Reagan: Yeah (without even bothering to look up from playing)
Me: Should I even bother to clean it now?
Reagan: Nooooooo (still couldn’t be bothered to look up and didn’t even notice when I left the room)
he broke her
One of Zale’s clients owns a company that makes sauces. Hot sauces, BBQ sauces, syrup, seasonings, etc. They gave Zale a few samples as we are big fans of BBQ sauce and Zale loves all kinds of hot sauces. Since Reagan has such a mature pallet and has been known to enjoy spicy hot things in the past, Zale shared some soup he had doctored up with one of the hot sauces (just one drop).
Now this was after he tried some himself and was actually laughing with surprise at this hot sauce. I am not a big fan of hot sauce, so I’ll have to trust his judgement in this. But he said that the sauce was so good that he kept feeling the “heat” coming in waves, even after having something to drink. And a couple of hours later he commented that he still felt the heat of the sauce in his stomach.
Anyway, after taking a bite of the soup, the expression on Reagan’s face was priceless. I wish I had taken some pictures. It was a thoughtful expression, as if she was thinking “I’m not sure what the heck is in that soup, and I’m not sure if I like it or not.” And yet, she had another bite. After the second or third bite, she just stared at the soup as if she was concerned it was going to jump out of the bowl and bite her. Then she started moving her tongue all around her mouth, inside and out. I’m not sure if she was trying to feel and make sure her mouth was still there, or if everything had just gone numb. I began to wonder if she hadn’t gone into shock because she was just staring and moving her tongue around. We were finally able to get her to drink some milk in hopes of putting out what I can only assume was a fire in her mouth. I think it was a full hour before she spoke again.
Shortly after all that, she got a burst of energy that you wouldn’t believe. She was all over the place, running around the house, getting the dogs all excited (which is always fun for us since Griffin is probably about 60 pounds now and is like having a miniature pony living in the house with us), and trying to climb me as if I was a jungle gym. I looked at Zale and calmly said, “I think you broke her.
I’m happy to report there aren’t any lasting side affects and she’s gone back to normal. I have to add that last night Zale made the girls pancakes and used some of the syrup they gave us. I’m guessing it has a higher content of sugar than the sugar free syrup we normally use (ha ha), because both the girls were bouncing off the walls for quite some time. I told Zale theses sauces need to come with a warning label that they aren’t suitable for children. (I’m kidding of course, and I have to admit, watching the kids and their reactions had me laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face)
new favorite food
I have blogged before about Zale’s talent of cooking. How he can cook by smell and throw stuff together to make all kinds of good stuff. Well, a few days ago he got an idea based off of a stuffed prime rib burger that September’s makes. I have to admit, this burger is the best “hamburger” I’ve ever had, so I couldn’t wait to try Zale’s new dish.
Of course we didn’t go to the extent of using ground prime rib, Zale used ground turkey. But, he added several of the key elements of the stuffed burger to a meatloaf. Bacon, saute’d onions, and blue cheese. Now I know the blue cheese sounds a bit odd, and I’m not even that much of a blue cheese fan. But, not only does it make an awesome meatloaf, it’s makes an even better sandwich the next day. Yummy….I’m ready for him to make another one!
And yes, it’s pretty wonderful to have a husband who enjoys cooking!
The REALLY bad ones
When Zale started out in law school he had no intention of ever doing criminal work. He wanted to use his MBA and do business law, or use his 12 years of experience in insurance claims to do personal injury work. And not the kind of personal injury work that all the jokes are made up about, but the legitimate claims where people really do need the help of an attorney. It was a little bit about bringing home a really good income, but more about wanting to help people.
Wow, God has really opened our eyes to what His plans are for us, instead of what our plans were for us. Zale also didn’t have any intentions of being in the court room much and really figured he’d be a “desk lawyer”, spending 50 or so hours a week in his office. As it turns out, God had something completely different in mind. Zale spends several days a week (sometimes 5 or 6) driving between counties and court houses doing court appointed (mostly criminal defense) work. This is for defendants who can’t afford an attorney, but the Public Defender has to conflict out and can’t represent them. This isn’t to say that Zale doesn’t also have some private clients, and even a few injury cases working. But we had to come to terms with the fact that Zale is a criminal defense attorney.
In making this mind set change, Zale realized that as a private practice attorney he can do something that Public Defenders can’t do. Zale can use this opportunity as a ministry. He can pray with or for his clients and give them a book or a Bible if he wants to. For most of this time the “criminals” haven’t been the “really bad ones”, like the murders, rapist, etc. It’s usually about drugs, theft, domestic disturbance, that sort of thing. But last week he had a pastor call him and ask him to defend someone who is charged with the rape of a child. Since Zale and I were both sexually molested as children, that was a REALLY hard decision. Personally, I had to take a deep breath, say a quick prayer and respond by saying, if you can minister to them, then you should take it.
My first impulse was to say no, how could we be associated with defending someone who probably raped a child? Then God reminded me that Jesus died for all of us. Not just those of us who have done bad things, but maybe not REALLY bad things. Jesus died for each and every one of us, including people like Hitler, Manson, Stalin, even the child rapist and murderers that we don’t know anything about. Even the people who have done such horrible things that it turns our stomaches to even think about.
So Zale took the case and adopted this attitude about it “If Jesus died for them, I can defend them”. We had to realize that defending someone with charges like these doesn’t mean we have to like the clients, but we do have a responsiblity to show them a love like Christ has shown us. No matter what they’ve done.
Tastefully Simple
Sunday, August 30th at 5:00 I’m hosting a Tastefully Simple party for my good friend Sandi Hoke. I was able to try some of the food at our LifeGroup on Tuesday night, and I have to say it was VERY good! When I got the message from Sandi about hosting a party I stopped reading when it said something about the host getting free food, and immediately sent her a reply that said sign me up!
Tuesday I was able to sample the beer bread and a couple of the dips. I’m really looking forward to having it all again! In fact, she’s already brought me the food to prepare for the party..it’s just sitting on my kitchen counter and I have to say, it’s VERY hard to leave it there and not make some of it early!! 
Please feel free to look over the web site and see if there’s anything you’d like to order. If there is, please let me know so Sandi can get credit for it. (You don’t have to be in TN or even at the party to order something, it will be shipped directly to you.)
This will make the third party at our house during the month of August. I think I’m going to be done for awhile and maybe relax a bit before hosting something else….oops, Labor Day is coming up isn’t it? That means Aunt Jean will be in town and maybe cousin Kenneth…ok, so after that I’m taking a break!
Pretty cool
Last Sunday Zale was a guest co-host on a local talk radio show. He did a great job and the host wants him to be a part of it every week. I think Zale really enjoyed himself, but to commit to doing it every week is a bit much. Especially since Sundays are the only days of the week for the possiblity of any down time. Not to mention it might cut into watching football together!
We’ll see what happens, and how often he’ll go on the air, but we do know that he’ll be back on Sunday, the 30th from 3 to 5PM. Here’s the link if anyone wants to check it out. 1510 WLAC Pretty sure you can listen on line from anywhere.
