Fly-on-the-Wall Documentary: Life in these 4 Walls

   There are few things better than laughing with one’s family. We’ve had plenty of laughter lately… winter puts us indoors and gives us extra time to sit around and just talk…which leads to conversations both serious and silly. Good times. Here are a few:

   Overheard in the dining room:

 Jonathan (sitting at the counter flipping through a magazine of furniture): “Hey Daniel, do you get into contemporary chairs?”

Daniel, after a moment of silence: “Umm…if they’re close by!” <pause> “Does my camping chair count?”

Observed in the kitchen: Jonathan standing on one leg, carefully rubbing his foot against the towel hanging on the stove.

 Mom: “Why are you wiping your foot on that towel?”

Jon (very patiently): Because that towel is dry and my sock is wet!”

Overheard in the living room: as the children gathered around doing calm activities, the sound of someone’s kettle of boiling water reached our ears.

Reagan: “What’s that? I hear something steaming!”
Zac: “Oh, it’s mom.”

Overheard during a family game:

Austin, to Jon: “Why’d you do that?!”

Jon: “Because I’m smart… I play with my whole right lobe, man!”

Overheard at dinner:
Asher, to Rachel: “So, when are you and Zac leaving for Florida?”

Rachel, after pondering a moment: “It’s a week from this Wednesday….<pause>…on a Wednesday.”

Here we are... my crazy wonderful family.

Tonight we reminisced about an unfortunate series of events that occurred many years ago when we lived in SC. We were on our way to church one night, and unfortunately… were running late. To compound this issue, dad was in charge of leading songs. Definitely a cause for great haste. Apparently, the cause was a little too great, because just as we were pulling into the (very full) church parking lot, a police officer joined us. Imagine the entertainment provided to all sitting quietly within the church building as red and blue strobe lights flashed across the walls. “Let’s see… it’s 5 after, and the song leader is late… wonder who that is out there in the parking lot?!” We thought tonight that an appropriate first selection for dad to lead upon securing his position as song leader would have been, “Speed Away! Speed Away!” J  

    I am so proud of myself… I have finally—at 21 years of age, no less!—left the remnant (du du du du duuuuu…..) of cell-phone-less individuals, and now am officially qualified to glance at “the phone” every 45 seconds and say casual things like, “Hang on… I’m getting a call” while strolling to and from class (not really, actually), just like the rest of the phone-enslaved population. Actually… I can’t stand such behaviors and am content to leave it out of sight and out of mind unless it’s an emergency, like my tire going flat… but pshhh… what are the chances?! ;) I think I must have been a fine sight going to school yesterday at 7:30 in the morning… my car lacks, among many other things, a heater, thus greatly impairing my thermoregulation and forcing me to take drastic measures to stay warm on the mornings I leave for school before the sun comes up.

     Yesterday I was completely prepared and must have been quite the spectacle to the ranks of wealthy citizens humming along in their luxurious, immaculate Mercedes, hair blow-drying by climate controlled heaters as they made their way past me… crouching low in the seat of my scratched and dented Honda, freezing despite the jacket…and coat…and blanket, holding a huge mug of Russian tea in one hand, my phone in the other, and driving through early morning traffic, stick-shift. Ahhhh… what memories, what memories… seeing how far I can blow smoke clouds by exhaling… watching the sunrise and forgetting how cold it is…making a turn, uphill, in my stick-shift, with both hands full, without spilling the tea!!  

As mentioned above… Zac and I are migrating south. We leave Wednesday, to visit some friends in FL… yay!! Grand times are ahead. We considered driving, but thought it might be a little awkward to have to stop every 200 miles to air up the tire (one of the other…unique features of my car). J

  Life is good… this semester will be over in 4 short weeks… 3 down, 1 to go… can’t believe the RN is in sight!! I am currently exploding with collections of notes, lectures, and flash cards—who knows how many trees I have in my 3-ring binder by now—all valuable tools in getting me through yet another test… this one due a week from Monday.  The material is very hard… but you can’t become a nurse without weaving this stuff into the very fabric of your being… one of the many challenges and joys of nursing school!

     Have a great week… smile bunches, and remember that no matter what happens… we still have room to praise.

....Well.... 3 months later, she finally arrives!

  I feel lost without being able to post pictures... the last three months have been a tapestry of events that are so scattered and many that I can't even think where to begin. Pictures would most certainly help. Perhaps another day...

  So. To start at the beginning. What have I done since April 7...? Let's see.

  Big event #1: Finished my first year of nursing school!!! This was a fantastic day indeed. The annual awards celebration at the college also carried with it some surprises... I did not know until I went that I would be receiving an award for nursing, and it was so exciting! What a thrill!! Walking across the stage!! to claim my big wooden plaque!! and shake the president's hand!! <bows deeply><falls off stage><bumps head> It was a surprise but one that meant a lot to me personally. These kinds of things are more than just awards--they're measurements of progress. It was right at the end of the semester, before finals when we had the awards ceremony and it allowed me to sit back, breathe deeply, and realize that the hard work really is worth something.

Big Event #2: Went to VA to be with my dear friend, Brittany. I left on a Wed. and stayed until Friday night. We spent oodles of time at their new and prosperous bakery, and I <drumroll> became someone which I have (secretly) long aspired to be: a cashier! Yes, yes... a lowly aspiration, I know. But truly, cash registers fascinate me. They have also always eluded and confounded me, so with this in mind, my cousins spent some quality time instructing me in the ways of double zeroes, debit cards, and how to write a very professional "void". We had a wonderful, wonderful time, reconnecting and laughing and working together. Ahhh.

Big Event #3: KenE and Carmel's wedding. Hoorah!! From Brittany's house, I travelled west to this wonderful celebration of love and life... watching them get married and sharing a long weekend with a bunch of other good SMBI friends. It was a sweet balm to my soul after all the rigors and demands of nursing. "Life" ceases to exist, to an extent, when you're in school, and it was so refreshing to spend time connecting with old friends.  

Big Event #4: Marlene moved home from PA!! Her wedding is currently only 8 days away, and since she came home a few weeks ago, we've been planning, and shopping, and listing, and organizing within an inch of our lives. A wedding takes incredible volumes of energy and organization! But she is doing a phenomenol job, and things are coming along beautifully. It's taking some getting used to... thinking of my sister going away for good now. She has come and gone from PA over the past few years, but TN was always home. We close another chapter, and begin writing a new one... change is never easy, but necessary. And in the meantime, I'm trying to soak up every last minute I can share with my dear sis!

Big Event #5: Several rather catastrophic events have occured in the last two weeks, the first being an untimely meeting of my head and a very heavy iron. I was being very orderly and cleaning up the house one night and hung away our iron on its little plastic container on the wall in the mudroom closet. Now, you have to understand something: this is no ordinary iron! It is massive and potentially hazardous, especially when falling from relative heights of about 6 feet. In fact, it very nearly borders on doubling as a lethal weapon. So. On this night of nights, I put the iron away, and next attempted to stuff the ironing board in underneath it. Leaning over to move some stuff which was barricading the iron from its normal place of inhabitation, there was a sudden and unbelievably hard THUNK on the top of my head, and then a sensation of the world swimming before my eyes. I looked up to see the iron dangling by its cord where it had fallen and gotten snagged on the leg of the ironing board. When I was able to see straight again, I gave a great howl of pain, reached up to clutch my head, and then noticed Ah! I was bleeding! Rushing to the bathroom, I bent over the sink while blood dripped down my head and off my nose, and while Marlene hastily move aside and said, "Rachel! What happened?!" Then I had to say, "Oh, an iron fell on my head," and it struck me so funny that I just had to laugh. My head has healed up fine... but the iron is treated with a great deal more respect now. :) Last Monday, calamity #2 happened when I was on my way to my evening class. Jonathan had joined me to do some shopping in town and we were driving along amidst heavy traffic talking when suddenly I saw out of my right side a car looming into our lane. There was a terrific crash and the sound of stuff shattering and spraying everywhere, and then we ground to a halt in the middle of the road. Nobody was hurt thankfully, but both cars will most likely be totalled.  It took a while to clean everything up and get traffic flowing again... and it was hard to see my little car all smashed up, being towed away... but honestly, it didn't matter much in light of the knowledge that we were okay. As I've thought about it since, I have realized again how fragile life is... how every second is a gift. Our lives hang in the balance... and hundreds of times each day, there are moments that could change life forever, if only a few little tiny details were allowed to change. God is a HUGE God of intricate timing and great compassion... it struck me how that we had occupied only the precise nanosecond of time in which our accident could have turned out as well as it did. Had He placed us in the nanoseconds on either side, we would very likely have occupied a tragedy, based on how the accident happened and where we were hit. So... even though I wish we could have avoided the milliseconds in which the two cars crossed paths... I'm eternally grateful to a God who placed us there, and not in the devastating seconds before or after where things might have turned out very different.

 This brings you roughly up to date on my life of late... The next few weeks will be extremely busy, but fun. The weekend after the wedding (which is July 12), I will be taking a week-long trip out west to visit one of my good friends out there... which, I suppose, will be the next event in a long line. :)

  Perhaps next time I'll be in a position to post some pictures. Until then... live radiantly and compassionately toward the people around you. God bless!

Rachel 

Photostory:

Christmas and Beyond

Building gingerbread houses... we girls got together one night and had a party to make these fine little abodes. I always thought it would be wonderful to actually live in one... although in keeping with true redneck fashion our houses lacked one vital element: inflateable lawn ornaments.

hooray for fun socks!



Meanwhile...back at the ranch... we had the tradiational Christmastree hunt, which sadly, ended at Lowe's. Typically we go out to a nearby tree farm and spend...a really long time...picking out the very best perfect Christmas tree. However, this year we didn't make it in time before they closed, so we had to settle for a less "organic" feel and go to the concrete jungle to get what we were after. I will say though, that what we found was STILL the very best tree ever. Here we are erecting it... how many people does it take to get it straight? Maybe we shouldn't say...

All up and pretty... Marlene, Zach and I had great fun trying out the manual features on our cameras...adjusting shutter speed and other cool options allowed us to take some pretty fun photos of the tree lights. 

Ahh...pure loveliness. Evenings with the soft glow of the lights and candles on the presents made our living room seem like a little haven!

A recent pursuit of our family has been math puzzles (you'll hear more about that later); here we are after Christmas dinner working one about sheep and chickens. If a farmer has a herd of chickens and sheep that totals 34 head of livestock, and there are 82 legs total, how many chickens and sheep are there, respectively? Such was our after-dinner entertainment.

And of course... the key component to every good winter: Starbucks and Rook.

 Nine-peoples'-worth of snow equipment scattered over the hillside. Yesterday my family plus two other friends took advantage of the relatively cool weather to go skiing--what fun! Last week we had temperatures in the single digits....this week we traversed in flipfops and short sleeves! For the first few hours we snowboarded and skiied in light jackets, no gloves, and no hats... it was marvelous! The tell-tale patches of brown amid the slushy snow was cause for alarm at first... but the day grew colder as it went and we had a great time getting reaquainted with the ski slopes. This morning, in typical post-ski/snowboarding fashion, my family and I arose from our beds with creaking bones and aching joints. The sluggishness with which we move is quite something to behold. Our house smells like IcyHot and there are audible murmurs and groanings as we flex our protesting limbs. This year I only took one nasty spill (as compared to last year's 7 or so), which Jonathan described as an airborne cartwheel. "Hey look at me... no hands!!" Yes, real smart, I know. I'm feeling it today. :)

So that brings us up to date. I am currently getting ready for another big semester in nursing... this one covering OB, pediatrics, Labor and Delivery... what fun! Let the late nights, stacks of books, writer's cramp, and skills labs begin!! I'm not sure I'm ready for this semester--the winter break passed so quickly and was so refreshing that I can hardly stand to think of returning to the confines of the classroom and my study corner at home! However, the semester promises to be an exciting one, so I hold onto that anchor of a thought for now. :)

I mentioned Math puzzles earlier... we've been working on some as a family; it's a great center for debate and critcal thinking skills. I think, sadly, we are growing up amid a generation whose critical thinking/problem-solving skills are painfully reduced. Being able to sufficiently think things through so as to reach an educated and conclusive decision is a skill that benefits all areas of life--not just math; I believe too often we settle for things at face-value--without stopping to take a look into the real core of the issue-- these critical thinking skills are ones the  oncoming generation deserves to be taught and guided in!! So. Speaking of problem-solving...here are two Math puzzles (both focus on the same concept) to mull over. Don't give up--see if you can think them through to find a logical solution!

The Two Jars Puzzle: Given a five-liter jar and a three-liter jar and an unlimited supply of water, how do you measure out four liters exactly?

and

The Egg Timer Puzzle: How would you boil a four-minute egg with two egg timers that measure three and five minutes, respectively, and what is the shortest amount of time required?

(look for the answers in the next post!)