If I Could Carry Beautiful in a Basket

If I could carry beautiful in a basket it might look like a puppy.

You probably read about Zoey's ten puppies in my last blog. They are nearly eight weeks old now and three of them, the ones we've referred to as 'the triplets' are still here at the house.

One is going to a woman who had a great Christmas-present-for-her-girls story but can't pick it up until December 1. I'm a such a sucker for this!

Another is Wes and Trevor's puppy, Charley (right, photo at 5 weeks).

I was adamant that we not get another dog. I don't think I need more to care for, honestly, I don't. But Wes' puppy eyes were much harder to resist than the actual puppy eyes. He was smitten by this four legged ball of energy and he has met the demands I insisted on if he were to keep him...well, mostly (Wes, answer those early morning texts and let the puppy out, he is loud!).

That leaves one puppy still up for adoption, and he is so fun!

Even though these boundless loving little friends require a lot of clean up and complete loss of sleeping in, ever...I find myself thankful today.

Thankful for much more than puppies, but more about what they show me. That God is infinitely creative and loving, that He always has something to show us to help us grow should we choose it. Best of all, He loves to bring us joy in the midst of wherever we are.

My boys bring me so much joy, when they're telling stories and laughing with me (sometimes at me...). My husband brings me joy, the way he loves me no matter what. My friends bring me joy, always caring for me and walking through life's challenges with me. Thankful to be able to use what God has given me and make something good out of the mixture of stuff life throws my way.

I am thankful. I guess if I could carry beautiful in a basket it would look mostly like God and my family. I probably should get more pictures of them...

Happy Thanksgiving.

News Snippet

I wanted to share that a new little book I wrote and compiled came out last week! You're Sweet is the title, Barbour Publishing produced it.

I have thought of dozens of funny blog stories, like Dave as a jail bird at the costume party....

or Zoey letting her first born puppy fall out on the floor and look at it like it was a moving poop...But I am working on stories for Heavenly Humor for the Teacher's Soul. I am excited to have actual writing projects! So, the blog has more photos than writing this time.

There are so many stories to tell!

Beautiful Chaos

I am so behind on blogging! Lots of work, 10 puppies and travel have kept me overly occupied.

But last weekend Dave, Trevor, and I went to New York City to visit our friend Tony, and also got to meet up with my cousin Matt. I've been there a handful of times now and it doesn't get old. I LOVE NYC!

OK, well, I do get frustrated when I can't find my way and get on the wrong train. But even when that happens the marvel of the endless different kinds of people mesmerizes me again.

On this trip, so many funny people scenes entertained once again, all amidst beautiful fall weather. There was the tough looking rapper looking guy in the subway who Tony accidentally nailed in the...upper thigh area...with my suitcase, then almost fell on him and the guy was cool with it. There were the talented street musicians ranging from full bands to single trash cans. There were the homeless guys fighting over food in the busy square and another guy asking them to take their fight elsewhere, so they kindly moved and continued fighting.

There was the block party with live music that Dave, and Matt, and I stumbled on where chatty New Yorkers welcomed us to the free burgers and beer. It was amazing.

Then, the rooftop of Matt's building with an awesome view of the Manhattan Bridge and some one's transformer car (that's a huge transformer emblem on a car in the dark photo). So funny.

So many different people and experiences. I couldn't stop the awe. The awe in God to make so many unique people and love each one so much.

Top photo taken from the High Line with a view of New Jersey across the Hudson.

Wide Load and the Messy Mix

Life is usually a messy mix of really great things from grin to glee, and not so great things, ranging from just annoying all the way to disheartening rounding up on hopeless.

Today, yesterday, no different.

So, rather than unload the wide load, oversize dump truck right here I would like to site a funny scene from Malcolm in the Middle (Yes boys, I know, the show I wouldn't let you watch when you were little, you didn't need any more ideas...).

This is probably my favorite scene. It's Season 2, Episode 3 where Lois gives the boys money to buy something for her and they end up buying things for themselves. Then Hal forgets Lois' birthday altogether. She runs away from home. In her time of escape she goes to a batting cage to smack some anger out with bats in a legal way. Makes total sense to me.

Meanwhile Hal and the boys realize they need to get her back and they are trying to pull together a "this is all we've got but we love you" birthday celebration. Once the crazy crew locates her, she and Hal have a word at the batting cage. He says (with a high pitch intermittent squeak) something like, "we're at the top of our game here, Lois!"

She looks at him in disbelief and there are more comments I don't remember. Then, an onlooking motley clown says to her, "Listen Wide Load, the guy's just tryin to do something nice."

Hal looks intently at the clown accompanied by several other clowns. "Did you call my wife WIDE LOAD?"

A huge, hilarious brawl breaks out, shown in slow motion to the tune of a Kenny Rogers song. There is ankle biting and cake splattering with all the boys in full swing clown tackling comedy action.

Lois looks on in shock and finally, glassy-eyed admiration, for her crew who would do all this to defend her honor. Moments ago she had had it with them all, then suddenly, redemption.

Thank God life can be that way too. Redemption is always just around the corner.

Photo: a few of my crew...probably just before wrestling broke out in the living room.

Spit, Broken Hearts, and Beautiful Labyrinths

Getting some exercise changes my whole outlook and my physical disposition. So I went running again today.

When I run I often feel the need to...spit. Spit. You have to get some of the crud out of you (in the field OK, I don't what I would do if I ran in town). I've not been one to pride myself in my spitting abilities so I decided over recent months to work on this. You know, just in case a car happens to pass by while I am spitting.

I discovered that no matter how much I improve my abilities in this regard, whenever someone is in sight this is when I will not spit well. I would rather skip the detail here. I will say that on really windy days things get rather dicey and can impair one's vision if speed and direction are not properly judged...by some.

Also while I run I seem to workout my heart in an emotional way too. Issues come to the surface. Sometimes I yell (also when cars are passing).

Today in between spit practices and laughing at myself, it occurred to me that I have seen a disproportionate amount of broken hearts over the summer. Sad, lost, or wandering hearts. It has been so hard to see, and to be one of them, mostly in the sad department. It drives me to my knees begging God to do something. There is too much pain in this world.

I'm not depressed. I went running, OK? Life is good too, I just hate seeing the pain. It's been too near.

Awhile back I was talking with a young woman, and we were sharing about some of life's struggles. "It's like a labyrinth." she said.

Honestly, I wasn't completely sure what a labyrinth was. I thought it was like a maze, but I learned some very intriguing stuff. For one, I thought it was like a maze but it's different in that there is only one way to travel through a labyrinth. There are actual life size labyrinths...I mean that humans can walk through. They contain winding paths, often within a circle, that lead to the center of the brain-like framework. The main thing is to move forward. If you stood still and forgot which direction you were travelling you might go backwards. It seems that the point is, focus, move forward, and get to the center of the thing, whatever it is, then find your way back to live life. This is what I get anyway.

I don't know how these strange little pieces of debris come together in my mind, but they do. Today the collage of thought reminded me that what God cares about is hearts, especially the broken ones. In the windy, winding paths of life where I spit, He cares about hearts more than anything else.

God, guard mine, teach it, and hold it. You are the only one qualified for this job.

Photography from trevormleephotography.blogspot.com

Back-to-School Grins

We live near not too far from the site of the National Tractor Pull in Bowling Green, Ohio. Every year this crowd of ...a few really roughnecks mixed with some good ole' down home country folk, arrive on the scene of 20,000 students moving into BGSU. At Walmart local Mom's are school shopping with their youngsters, and well, when these three crowds converge you can just sit back and enjoy the show. And why not, you're going to wait in line anyway.

The dirt cloud was still clearing from the weekend, when at our house, back-to-school morning for our BGSU boy meant bringing along a gallon of water for his radiator (With a good attitude, nice job Mitch!). Yep, it's that time of year for cars again. But really, what am I talking about, it's always that time of year.

Car maintenance with our fleet of six vehicles is like health care for a 99 year old on life support. Well, maybe a little better.

But not much.

I enjoy laughing about it, obviously. I find it way more fun than crying which I've also tried. It doesn't get results.

Dave and one his best bud mechanic friends, Storm, do most of the back yard repair, bless their weeping souls.

One time we had a free coupon at Tuffy that we'd bought at a fund raising auction. Okay so it wasn't really free, it was cheap - which makes me a cheapskate because of the fundraising thing, but no one else was bidding on that basket of stuff.

When I went in for my 'free' oil change and slid that little coupon across the counter, the mechanic came out from under my car with one of those computer print outs that the diagnostic machine spits out (maybe not quite as I'm painting it but you get the picture). My report was a couple pages long. The guy gently tried to break the news to me that the repairs my car really needed exceeded the street value of my car by $1,000 at best. I just smiled at him kindly and grabbed that jewel of a document for my blog folder.

But I forgot to tell you the funny part.

When I called Tuffy to set up that appointment a few days earlier I was in the middle of a few things. Some e-mail just chimed in and the cat jumped up on my desk and was being really funny. I started talking in the voice we have for the cat. He was saying something hilarious as I recall and totally entertaining me (I should not be a ventriloquist, I would get very confused).

Then I remembered that I had dialed Tuffy.

Gasp! I put the phone to my ear hoping to hear a busy signal (if you don't know what this is look it up on YouTube) rather than a human being. Worse. I had just left a message talking like a cat, for a cat, to men who use impact wrenches.

I hung up before they could hear my real voice.

Next morning, I called back on a cell phone hoping to God that they didn't have caller ID.

I love that life's hardships also bring laughter and joy along the way, strangely, and of course volumes of story fodder as well. It reminds me of Joseph, what the enemy meant for evil, God used for good. Yep, the good stuff.

Coffee Please

Your print job is ready. No, we do not have an account for you yet.

No, we cannot laminate that.

Yes, it is raining.

It was just an annoying morning. So, I decided to cheer myself up with Starbucks while I waited for posters to get laminated (so they wouldn't pulpify in the rain....sure that's word, I just made it up).

Well, as soon as I made the decision to cheer myself up, the world cooperated with me.

This is not usually how it works, so it really caught me by surprise.

But literally, I no sooner turned on my heels after making the decision, with a heavy box full of print job, in the direction of that nearly intoxicating brew of beans, and people were opening doors and trunk lids at every turn, all going out of their way to pave my royal way.

Was there a sign on my head? I swear, I was dressed appropriately.

Even at Starbucks, a gentleman opened the door. The baristas recognized me, a regular, as I headed first to the cleanest and roomiest public restroom in town. By the time I greeted them at the counter, the cheerful cute blond girl said, "do you need anything more than your red eye?" (that's my usual coffee with an extra shot of espresso.....ummm, is there an Sbux open yet this morning?....concentrate!)

She smiled, sliding my prepared coffee toward me.

"You made my day!" I said. "I came here to cheer myself up, and you took care of that."

The guy with the cool braided hair asked what was wrong.

"Nothing big, just an icky little morning." I said.

"Because we offer counseling too." he said with a laugh in his eyes. "Spiritual help...." he grinned. I got the feeling he was genuine.

"Would this be Starbucks brainwashing?" I asked. "Because I'm good with that."

It was a nice little laugh, and the door was opened for me again as I headed out to my car.

But no one opened my car door. And that's where the time the world cooperated with me for a brief little respite, ended. But I had what I needed.

God is good with details that way.

Photo from trevorleephotography.blogspot.com

He comments: This is my Mom before coffee...actually, it was his photoshop skill.