is this a burping house?

when i burp my mother gives me the eye. you know - the stink eye with a raised brow that says i'm in big doo-doo. she thinks it isn't very lady-like, and while i'll admit there are certain social niceties we should all be mindful of, i must stress that "all" should be mindful. what makes burping from a guy more acceptable than from a girl? hmmmh?

the best burper - no! that doesn't do her justice - belcher!! the best belcher i have ever heard is my aunt. she can vibrate walls, register on the richter scale, and has, on occasion, attracted lion cubs responding to her roar.

i aspire to be as good as she.

my brother comes close. he used to burp the alphabet, earning himself the stink eye, to which he would respond, "i didn't do it on burpose."

when i get a good one, a real rumbly from my tumbly i'm right proud of myself. and so's my dot. he'll give accolades when deserved.

and sometimes it's a contest to see who can expel the mightiest between us. hey! when you don't have cable, you gotta find yer entertainment where you can.

i had a mindblowingly genius idea for a blog entry, but when i leaned forward to pull my laptop screen toward for closer viewing, i burped, and all other thoughts were blasted from me. and all i could write about was this simple joy we find ourselves many times too proper to indulge in.

friends.. join me in one of life's greater pleasures. burp. go on, it's okay. just do it! do it loud and do it proud. do it!

***eerrrrpppp!!!***

(and then say excuse me so you won't get the stink eye.)

halloween is coming

there is a cemetery in my front yard.

this is our 4th annual haunted garage and halloween party, hosted by yours truly. (well, ours truly, now. i love you, my dot.)

the first year we put black tarp up on my garage walls so it would be pitch dark for the haunted house. the thought of putting up and taking down each year was more than i could bear. so we painted the walls the next year. lazy? no. creative!

we also built small wall frames and covered them with cardboard and then black tarp (leftover from first year's walls) that come apart and store in pieces. again, creative.

we have a huge black coffin with red innerds and lots of headstones with (you guessed it: creative) sayings on them that get scattered around my lawn. this year i told my dot we need to put the coffin up on something like bricks so i don't end up with coffin shaped dead grass.

the maze part goes up fairly quickly now. but the theme!.. the theme takes time to develop.

we rely on rody for the groundwork. he usually has the year after next planned before this year is over. and he's the genius behind the scares. he's also the artist.

my dot is our builder. he can build a coffin, for goodness' sake. (when i see the word sake, i think of japanese spirits.)

and kelly? he's kind of our resident drinker. heehee.

this year is well underway. i still need to find one, big prop that is integral to our whole theme. i'm hoping i can get to garage sales this weekend and then that they have what i'm looking for. as you can see i will discuss no details so as not to give anything away.

all this evasiveness makes me feel like an undercover agent.

i could tell you, but then..

a new friend

there was a woman at my church who would sing with the worship team from time to time. and then i started seeing her more during the worship service - i remember one in particular. i was asked at the last minute to take a part in reading scripture during serving at one of the communion stations. it was maybe one of the coolest things we had done during a service. turns out she was the one responsible for it. the cool thing, i mean.

anyway, one day i passed her in the hallway where we exchange compliments about each other's hair. and i thought to myself - i'd really like to know her.. she is so cool. i found out later that, miraculously enough, she thought the same about me.

later, i was talking to our friend abby-gail and had told her about some things i'd been thinking about the direction my life was heading, how i felt about some changes going on at church, and some things on my heart. the next day this woman went to abby-gail asking about me and how i could fit in.. possibly. and, well, the two conversations were completely on the same page.

and.. we've been thinking alike ever since.

my new friend, my long lost twin, my jt-berry. she even hired me to join her staff as venue director. the position i just started this week. and i cannot think of any job i've ever had that has fit me more, felt better, and been more my element than this.

it really is a bit spooky to be around her sometimes when i notice even a very small and seemingly inconsequential thing about her is just like me. we even have the same wedding band and our husbands have the same name.

i consider it a blessing to know her and am honored to call her friend.

a new day has dawned on me

a whirlwind weekend has dumped me into a new job with quiet mornings to start me new days fresh and rested.

thursday evening we moved things out of the house to get ready for company, and my brother came over to pick up some of their stuff that was still here. i threw out my back somewhere between moving furniture and a mad cleaning spree.

on friday my sis-in-law had a hysterectomy. she would have been able to come home on sunday, but she has had a few minor complications arise that have delayed her return. her blood pressure was down, hadn't been able to complete some routine tasks, and has been plagued by terrible headaches. by yesterday afternoon she was feeling pretty good (except for a headache) and would have probably been released if it had not been so late in the day. but just as well since she is going to see a neurologist today about those headaches.

friday evening after visiting g in the hospital, i came home to my dot's folks arriving to stay with us.

saturday morning was our development-wide garage sale. my dot wouldn't let me help set up much since my back was still hurting. around 10am jt showed up and we perused the neighborhood for some REVO supplies. i found out i am a bargainer!! talked a guy into selling an old fashioned sink (the kind with the bowl and the pitcher set on a dainty wooden stand) for $20 and i got a pillow donated to the church. whoop!

after making $157.75 we decided to call it quits and moved the unsold items back into our garage. not much was left, though.

we went to the church and set up for the next morning's service, came back home and showered, dressed and went to dinner with friends to celebrate a birfday.

on sun morning we got to church around 7am and got down to bidne! and i got prayed over. aww.. my dot asked the group for prayer over my back so they went right to it and laid their hands on me and asked God to heal me. by that afternoon i was jumping up and down to the songs!!!

after church we had a creative meeting that had us finally headed for home around 3pm where we both promptly fell into a deep, serene... nap! until i had to get up and run out for groceries before caro showed up. i made burritos and we watched underworld while my dot played his game.

yesterday morning, i got up and went to my very first [official] day at my brand spankin' new job! we had a chili cookoff (i submitted the worship arts dept's chili - vegetarian, of course), a staff meeting where we got to pray over all the requested we'd received at church the day before, got my computer almost all set up, and got ready for our monday night REVO service.

which, by the way, seriously rocked the house. on our way home from the service, jt called me and said, "God took over". no kidding. we had more people on a monday than we'd had before, considering the fair opened this weekend and it's allen school break. and the people were totally worshipping and experiencing God in that place! what a treat to be a part of that.

i fell asleep on the couch last night [not] watching buffy.

and that breaks us to this morning. i'm sitting at 'my' desk (it's a beautiful roll-top desk that my dot made, i think out of oak) going over emails and mail and thinking to myself how wonderful it is to be able to wake up without the startling sound of my alarm, knowing i don't have a commute anymore and that i get to participate in God's work and the furtherance of His kingdom. and i get paid to do it.

doesn't seem fair to the rest of 'em.