Where Has The Time Gone?

Two months. It's been nearly two months since I last blogged. I can't begin to tell you everything that has happened during that time. June seemed to pass rather leisurely...but I barely even remember July! I answered a call...from God...around the end of June or so. No...He didn't use the phone. My phone is kind of crappy, anyway, so He might not have gotten through using my phone! Went through several in-depth interviews...and began working as a Preschool Ministry Assistant at my beloved Grace...once again. I'm actually coordinating the volunteers on Sunday mornings (about 75-100 per week), which is what I did when I worked at Grace before. Only now, there are a few other things I do as well, and I have more freedom and support to work! I absolutely LOVE my job. It's all about people and children. Both of which, I have a whole lot of experience with. Mostly good experience, but not without challenging relationships. And that's really what we deal with on a daily basis...relationships. So we'd be stone statues if we didn't face challenges right along with them! But that's a blog on a different day... Today, I just want to share w/you a couple of funnies I've experienced and learned over the summer... We recently bought a 700 pound cow. I named him Steak. We had to leave him in the neighbors pasture, because our peaceful little one couldn't handle such an obese intrusion. Dean came home one day after work and insisted we go for a walk down the driveway so I could get my picture of our new addition (before we sent him to market). Dean pointed him out, and it was exciting to watch Steak interact with his cow friends! Yum Yum!! So we got our pictures and came back home to email them out to our loved ones...to let them know our latest news...and as we flipped through the photos, Dean began to chuckle... "Uh...Carmen" "These pics are GREAT, aren't they honey?!!" "Um...yes..." "I can't wait to send these to our family!!! They need to see Steak, too!!!" "Yes, well...flip back a couple of pictures...I need to look at something" "What are you looking at, honey?" "Well..." snicker, snicker..."see that picture that shows his rear?" "Uh-huh" "Well...that doesn't look right" "What do you mean? It's a butt...ummm..." "Yes...but it's a girl-butt" "WHAT??!!!!" "That's not Steak" "You mean you pointed out a cow that I took all these pictures of and we almost emailed out pictures of a GIRL COW??!!!" "Uh...YEP!" And we proceeded to laugh until we cried!!!! As plain as day...it was a GIRL COW!!!! Needless to say...I didn't send out pictures of Steak. But now he's in the freezer...so it doesn't matter anyway. I didn't even know what color he was...sniff, sniff. In the process of all that, we sold our dearly beloved sheep and bought 2 calves...both boys. I named them "Bull" and "Moo". Toooooooo cute!!! We've bottle-fed them and banded them. It's a great experience for the kids...having cows. I LOVE looking outside during the day and seeing the cows eating grass. So peaceful. We had fun at "Meme Camp" at my parents house, visiting w/my Grandma, Aunt Debbie, & brother JET. Their house was recently remodeled and looks amazing!!! Why they didn't do that when I was still living there...AH!!!! I KNOW why!!! I'd probably STILL be there!!!! HAHAHAHHAA!!! No offense to my wonderful hubby and beautiful children, of course... We visited my precious Sherry and her family this summer. It was so wonderful to spend time with her...I always enjoy it. Our kids love each other, too. They've known each other since Summerlyn & Rachel were 2 & 3...and Rachel taught Summerlyn how to do things. I can still hear Rachel... "put your leg over...like this..." And I looked in to see them doing something that would forever change our lives. They were crawling out of Summerlyn's crib... I also purchased something I've never owned before...a food processor. Those are really fun and interesting appliances!!! I bought the Big Mouth by Hamilton Beech. And don't even think about making a rude comment about THAT!!! It broke the first day I used it. I had just finished shredding 12 pieces of squash, 3 zucchini's, and slicing 6 tomatoes, when I inserted the cheese. It made this AWFUL racket and after I tried it several more times, I realized that the inner plastic tube had stripped. What a piece of junk! Went right back to Walmart...it did!!! But it was fun owning a Big Mouth for all of 3 days. Hey...guess what?! Over the summer, I learned that my husband of nearly 15 years... HATES ketchup. Isn't that something I should have known about him from like...the first date? Well...no. We had spaghetti on our first date (actually...I always had a no-spaghetti rule when I was dating, so HE had spaghetti...I had cheese sticks). So I fix these yUmMy "house burgers" (remember Eddie and forget his dirty mouth!) a few weeks ago...and I fixed a big fat one up for my man. We're sitting down at the table...where it's quiet (for once), while all the kids are munching on their house burgers. My other 1/2 (notice I didn't say better-half) says, "aaaaaawwwwwwww" (real disgusted like)... "KETCHUP??!!!! I HATE KETCHUP!!!!!" "You DO?" "You KNOW I hate ketchup!!!!" "I DO?" So I'm thinking...we've been married for over 14 years and I didn't realize my husband hates ketchup? It was an enlightening moment for me...Dean choked down his ketchup house burger with no further comment...except... "it was very good, but would have been better with no KETCHUP..." Oops! Well...at least he adhered to the "house rules" while eating his "house burger"! Eat it or starve. That's MY philosophy...this ain't no restaurant! I was proud of him. So I learned not to put ketchup on my man's food. Seems kind of trivial, huh? It actually goes back to that relationship thing I said was "a blog on a different day"...it's important to know little details about your other 1/2. Details like which side of the sink they put the bar of soap on when they are finished using it (the left...and WHY? I ask!!!????). Knowing which room they visit right after they enter the door after work (the restroom), and how they like their bacon fixed (chewy-YUCK!-who EATS that?!!!). Knowing what their favorite flavor of icecream is (chocolate), always has benefits. After a long, hot day at work...you can cool them right down w/some good 'ole Breyers! It's just as important to know what they DON'T like. MY man does not like hotdogs. He doesn't like cold baths. He doesn't like too much noise or too much nonsense. He isn't particularly wild about my cold toes hitting his leg when I'm freezing. And he wants to see me in something besides my pajamas when he gets home from work at 5pm (...ummm...working on it!). And when he gets home at 5pm, it's definitely time for dinner! But I definitely won't be serving hotdogs w/ketchup!!! After a decade and 1/2, I've learned a thing or two about ketchup. I've also learned some things about relationships... And it won't take me 2 months to share with you about that!