But I Don't Want To Be Deaf

Today was our first day back in church. We used to go every single Sunday but our tiny old church lost its congregation and we all went our separate ways so we have sought after a new one. My idea of church is a small country church (Baptist or Methodist) with lots of songs, a great preacher and a child-friendly congregation and atmosphere. We found it.

As we sat down on the pew, we were automatically welcomed and saw friendly smiles flash our way. Today, it was just my daughter and I and she found a classmate to sit with, I joined them. As we burst into song, I heard hands clapping, feet stomping and people patting the back of pews as we all sang. I heard just the right about of country whine in the voices from behind...it was beautiful.

The preacher had us turn to a verse in our Bibles. He read it aloud and that single verse spawned a 45 minute sermon. He stood on the piano bench, he walked down the aisle, he got down on his knees. His voice was so loud at times, I could feel it bounce from my rib cage. He was full of enthusiasm and he assured us, "This ship ain't goin' down!" He talked about WHO should be Captain of our vessels and WHO is there when the water is rough, WHO is guiding us safely and WHO leads us and WHO stays with us when we feel like we are sinking.

I actually found myself shaking my head, getting carried away with the preacher's voice. I found myself crying when the beautiful little girl (almost 4) sitting on our pew sang OUT LOUD the words to a song that I had to read from a hymn book. While visually impaired, she may never be able to see the tiny words of the book but she's already received them through her heart. As tears filled my eyes at the beautiful sight, her mom told me she loves that song and sings if all the time at home. Her little voice could be heard over all others, and I'm so glad I got to be a part of that.

On the way home, Brook asked me how God makes babies. Luckily He gave me the proper words for her 7 year old mind. She then turns to me and says, "Does God make people have syndromes?" And again, he filled my mouth with just the right words. Without hesitation, my voice slipped over lips and answered the tough question.

"Yes. Sometimes, God decides that certain babies are going to be different than His other children. He decides to make them weaker in some areas and stronger in other ways. He decided you and Gage would be deaf." She quickly interrupts, "But I don't wanna be deaf. It's hard to hear!" I reply, "But He made you extra special so you could teach others. Had you not been deaf, so many people would not have learned about hearing loss, patience and understanding. God decided your ears wouldn't work but He's made you stronger in a lot of other ways."

She understood what I was trying to tell her. She now knows that God is the Captain, He is in charge and He sails the ship.

A Violent Ride

Ok, consider this your disclaimer...too much information headed your way!

First of all, I blame the teachers who didn't call me to sub today which forced me to show my face at Lady F's spin class. I knew that she would likely be in a violent mood today since the Alabama tornadoes not only took out her power for a few days, but since her husband works for the power company, he had to leave her for a few days as well. I knew that those of us who showed up today would be like sitting ducks with targets on our foreheads since she's had some disturbance in her daily schedule. I got as far away from her as I could.

When she turned on the music and began singing "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem and Rihanna, my suspicions were confirmed...were were in for a long ride. She allows no fans in her classes. (I'm telling you, she is crazy hard core!) She sang the chorus over the mic and I'm getting scared. She glanced at me just as Eminem screamed "my fist through the drywall!!" and my mind starts searching for a happy place. I need birds, I need the ocean, I need something other than this! I could not pull up a happy place to save my life. I'm sweating so bad at this point, it's stinging my eyes and I wonder if I've now reached a point that I'm sweating blood. She's yelling for me not to slow down so I pedal faster, still looking for a happy place. She barks for us to move up and down and up and down all while we are pedalling as fast as we can but all I can think about is how badly my thong is hurting...that's when I realized I didn't wear a thong, I had on big girl panties when I walked in but somehow they were reduced with all the commotion of the violent ride.

I double check with the nurse beside me on her ability to perform CPR and she assures me she can do it. Only 30 minutes had passed and I'm still convinced I'm sweating blood. I look to my other side and mouth the word HELP to Sharonda. She laughed at me.

When it was finally over, I went to the "Landlord". I told her I needed Lady F to sign a waiver so I can write nasty things about her-I tend to fight my battles with a pen because Lady F would totally kick my butt in a real fight...but the Landlord just laughed, she thought I was kidding. I made a few stops around town and chatted with several folks, and then the nausea set in.

I actually thought I was gonna throw up in my drive way. I ran inside and got something to drink and I was fine. I had burned so many calories and my stomach was furious with me for not feeding it well enough. I stepped inside the bathroom to wash the Lady F off of me. I looked in the mirror and I realized I had a black eye. Not kidding! I've learned my lesson about wearing mascara to the gym so now I only wear a tiny bit of eyeliner. I had apparently sweated and smeared it all around my ocular globe...I have got to start checking my mirror BEFORE I go around starting up conversations! I knew it was a violent ride.

Alabama Tornadoes

CRAZZZZZZY weather here in Alabama. It's actually chilly today while it was eerily hot yesterday as we awaited round two of a tornado outbreak. The kids and I had already spent 30 minutes at daybreak early Wednesday morning in the partial, dirt-floor basement trying to stay out of harm's way during round one. Unfortunately, many are still missing here in Alabama after a day long event of dangerous storms and tornadoes. Well over a hundred are confirmed dead at the latest count and thankfully, our community escaped safely, no deaths in my immediate area.

However, many of us are finding lots of things along our roadways and yards aside from downed trees and limbs. As we walked around our yard late yesterday and early today, we found lots of pages from various books, but this seems to be the most fitting, the most interesting...

 A few pages from a small Bible

My child ran to me with tattered pages in her hand. I took the dirty, wet scriptures from her plump, seven year old hands. She said, "What is it?" and I smiled and said, "A gift from God, I can't wait to read it."

We also found a bank paper with a name, a page from Chapter 15 of a history book with The Battle of Bull Run on it....

 We found a Kentucky Fried Chicken receipt, ironically all the way from Calvert City, Ky...not sure how that ended up here, it was a debit receipt signed by the customer, from several years ago...

We also found photos and an old baseball card...

We are very thankful this morning, we are praying for those who weren't so lucky....

If you are interested in seeing photos of the damage in AL, click here.

You can also watch the tornado that we saw live on TV as well ripping through Tuscaloosa (many miles southwest of me) HERE.

School is out again today, the kids are not excited that they will likely have to go a couple of Saturdays to make these days up...but we live another day, to love, to complain, to carry on as 'normal'.

I felt the warm sun on the back of my neck as I hung clean laundry on the line this morning. I was teary as I hung up my children's clothes that I placed on their small bodies yesterday, not knowing if it was all they would have left at the end of the day...

We are blessed.

It's perfectly fine...

It's perfectly fine to tell your child as you pull into the parking lot of her pediatrician's office that they will use pliers to pull that dangling tooth out before they give her a strep test...

she decided to pull it out before we went in, and she got lots of cash for that tooth that literally hung around for over a week...

It's also perfectly fine to pay your children to do housework-even if they are recovering from strep because they want money and you don't like to everything all by yourself anyway...

after all, you need to rest on the patio from all that you DID DO during the week...drinking coffee in your swimsuit, no make-up, hair pulled back wearing extra large shades will be fine for a half day chillout...

but just before the husband comes home, turn on the Scentsy or light some candles so the house smells fresh and clean...jump in the shower, apply make-up and brush through your hair so he has no clue that you've done absolutely NOTHING...

AHHH-it's perfectly fine to have an awesome weekend...hope you all had a great Easter!

Because we are the Blakelys, and that's how we roll...

I have to admit, I need one off-day a week...while everyone else is away at work/school...just to catch-up and mentally process the days that passed. If you have ever met us, you know we are some crazy people up in hurr! Mama needs some time to write out all the insanity so that when I do lose it for real, someone can remind me all the glorious things that led up to my mental deficit.

My kids...love 'em love 'em love 'em...but I've had to learn to laugh-off many incidences that would have really sent a normal person over the edge. Like when Brook wrote Gage's name on the bathroom wall...how did we know it was her? She used her own pink fingernail polish! Yep...I'm still waiting for the laugh on that one...let's move on.

What about all the random quotes my kids' (ahem, GAGE) gives faculty at school? ESPECIALLY when I'm around...remember I do work there part-time as a sub too, so they are MY CO-WORKERS!! It's a wonder any of them even call me to work-as nutty as my kids make me look! The most random quote ever that wins the blue ribbon is when my kids jump out of the car and before they could shut the door, they tell the Assistant-Principal that I WANT TO DANCE FOR HIM!!! Most random thing ever!! Now-here's where that came from...

I always try to embarrass my kids as much as possible-as you can see, the little rats deserve it! So this particular morning, I said that when we pull up at school, I was gonna start dancing in the car to embarrass them in front of their friends...
The only thing I could possibly do after he told the man this random information, is shake my head and drive-off, I couldn't hold up the car line just to get myself outta that mess! So from now on, when my kids tell you something completely off the wall just remember, we are the Blakelys...and that's how we roll...

We've been invaded

Wow, talk about a shocker...showed up for spin class and it was her. I've heard stories about her spin classes, they've even thought about hiring a bouncer to stand outside the spin room at the gym for crowd control, that's how many nuts people want to get into her classes. I've never been crazy enough to show up for had the pleasure of participating in one of her classes and a last minute schedule change landed her on the instructor's bike at 5:15 am...lucky me.

And guess what? She brought her own crew too. We were invaded, we didn't have a chance...Her crew is very loud...very loud indeed for 5:15 A.M.
But that's fine, I kept my mouth shut and peddled. The girls were outnumbered. I knew my neighbor from Zumba class, but I barely muffled a "hey" to him. He was fast on his feet and I knew he was about to out-do me and then rub my nose in it. I tried to look at Carol and Jerry who were across from but I couldn't see their faces, my glasses were in the car...dang. I wanted to give Carol the WHO THE HECK ARE THE INVADERS AND WHAT DO THEY WANT WITH US? But she kept her head low, and didn't make eye contact with anyone...she's smart. I'm hoping Jerry at least has CPR certification...just in case, but his glasses were reflecting light and I couldn't tell if he was looking at me, or if he'd closed his eyes completely...picturing the end of our ride. The room reeked of sweat and Huddle House...musta been the testosterone...

We all survived, the chest pains I felt have passed so apparently it was only heartburn, the asthma attack I'd hoped for (to get me outta class) never came either, so I live to ride again...

I'm going to sleep in the car line

Went to The Gym and saw Lady F. I've decided what I experience in her class is sort of like hypothermia...only I'm about 10 degrees hotter than necessary for the condition. My body must be confused on how to handle such vigorous activity that it doesn't see outside of that gym, and it begins to shut down. Just the thought of going into that room, makes my bladder malfunction. I always make one last run to the restroom for that 'just in case' last attempt so that if I do faint, rip something, or die, they'll be less to drain all over myself in front of people. Then, after the 5 min. warm-up, my body has to make decisions...which parts are most valuable RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW? So my brain immediately shuts down 75%, in order to keep the vital limbs in action. Kinda opposite of hypothermia I guess. I watch myself move around the step at an alarming high speed, do lunges, repeaters, squats, chest presses, biceps, triceps, etc. etc. Shutting down part of my brain allows me to keep participating physically, but exiting mentally. But I was able to do most of what she ordered us to do, at least. And I must say, my 'hangy-down-thangs" are a lot less hangy...according to my daughter who describes my triceps in her adorable 7 year old kinda way. She is for sale.

I am tired and drowsy. I've exerted myself and now I need a nap, but instead it's time for me to go get in the car line at school. With the warm sun shining down, I know how cozy and comfortable it will be in my car. I plan to nap. Only wake me if I am holding up the car line, or my if my mouth is hanging wide open...otherwise, I'll wake myself soon enough by the unscheduled head doddle or the unexpected moan which I tend to do as I drift in and out of consiousness. But please feel free to give me that courtesy honk or a gentle tap on the window if I do begin to hold up the car line traffic. Thanks!

The Digit

Tomorrow I will wake and change my age by one digit. Back (a few years ago) when I was 29, I had no idea what kind of changes age would bring. Prior to that, it had only been good things, like wisdom, more family members, some pep to my step. Now, post 30, each year has added a variety of changes, which are not always welcomed and some things even have me wondering if I'm transforming to a man...

• at 31 I began grunting-now it's less awkward since it's part of all my routine activities and now I've been grunting for years-pick up a kid (insert grunt), pick up a pencil (insert grunt)
• at 32 I had to start warming up my body in the mornings before I could have full access-walking hunched over from the bed to bathroom for example holding my back (til it gets warmed up) has helped a lot
• at 33 I was called a grandmother in a check-out line. I got contacts and I do not look younger. I've not been back to that store.
• at 34 I decided to ditch the minivan in a hopeless attempt to restore my youth with a cooler ride...a 4 door sedan. I am still uncool-ask my kids!
• at 35 I woke up one day and discovered I had a beard. As I put on my make-up next to a window with all that beautiful natural sunlight shining upon my face-I saw that I had blonde hair that was thickening each and every day. I haven't sat in the sunlight since.

So when I wake at 36 years old in the morning, I can't help but wonder what THE DIGIT will bring me? Will I find a stray nose hair that I actually need to clip? Will I need to start coloring my hair or better yet, need bifocals? Maybe the high blood pressure news I got last week will be all the bad news I get this digit. We shall see what THE DIGIT has in store for me!!

Ghost Stories (part 1)

I told you that since moving out of the haunted house I grew up in, there have been very few paranormal experiences around me. So I feel like that spirit was either attached to someone else in the house or the house itself...it did not follow me here.

We've lived in my husband's grandparent's home for many years now. Though no one actually died in the home, and the house has remained in the family since his grandparents' passing, we have had a couple of odd occurances, none of which frightened me like before in the house I grew up in.

One day, within the first year or two of living here, I heard my dogs barking like crazy. I looked out the window to find them crouched and ready to attack if necessary as they barked at something that was apparently really close. I looked out the window, I saw nothing. I moved to another room as the dogs continued to bark towards the barn and looked out of those windows which gave me a variety of angles...I say nothing but two crouched dogs who were adament that something was there, that wasn't supposed to be. We live in sort of a remote rural area so if something unusual comes along, my dogs have a fit. I continued my search out every possible window and still saw absolutely nothing between my house and the barn...weird.

After a few minutes they stopped and my phone rang...it was my mother-in-law who lives a hundred yards or so behind my house. "Can I talk to Chad a minute?" which is her son. I told her he was at work and she insisted she just saw him (or someone else) walking from the house to the barn. I stood firm that he was work and had been for hours and neither the kids or I had been outside in last couple of hours. She went on to tell me that her inside dog was was going nuts barking down toward my house and when she looked out, she saw a man walking to the barn in plain view from my house to the barn. He was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt. I then informed her that my dogs were going nuts too, but I looked the entire time they were barking and saw nothing..."It was Daddy," she said. He had come to visit and check on his house and barn. Weird coincidence or paranormal activity?

Answered Prayers...

I can not tell you how many times I've looked at these faces and prayed that time could just stand still for a moment. Just this morning as I knelt beside my daughter's bed as she peacefully slept, I looked at every freckle on her little nose, I kissed her forehead and I just wished the clock would stop for a little while so I could sit beside her bed and just watch.

Unfortunately, children wake when their Moms reek of coffee and their brows furrow in anger knowing it's time to get ready for a long day at school. What I once thought were the sweetest, most perfect little lips will part and the odor that seeps out will confirm that children DO gargle with sulfur before bed. Words will pass over those perfect little lips that I never intended to teach my children but just for that moment...before they wake...

Unfortunately, time did stand still today-it was just a few hours late during Lady F's aerobics class. Now, despite what some people think, the name Lady F isn't intended to imply I call her a bad name. Her name actually begins with an F so that is why I call her that-those of you who take her classes can feel free to call her the bad word if you need to do so-she may have earned it.

If you were in class today and wondered why the HECK I kept checking my phone any chance I could...it's because I had hoped some teacher was desperately needing to get in touch with me so I could rush out of class and say, "OOOPS, sorry, I've been called in to work!" Guess what? That didn't happen. When I saw "Lady F" and "Tall T" on the elliptical BEFORE class I knew something was wrong with them we were in BIG trouble. Some of the runners decided to go catch a quick mile before class, who does that?  I chose to walk around aimlessly until class began.

Once it started, it didn't let up. That's when God decided to answer one of my prayers...time actually stood still. I'm not kidding. I wondered if I was the only one who had been 'chosen' for this time warp-it was really weird and scary! No matter how many REPEATERS we did, no matter how many CRAZY STEPS she ordered us to do, the clock didn't seem to move forward. I had hoped it was a nightmare and I'd wake up at any minute but what seemed to be 3 hours of high impact shock to every body part I lug around-didn't seem to advance the clock much. Maybe Lady F's clock runs on 1-Miss-sa-sip-peeeee, (deep breath) 2-Miss-sa-sip-peeeee......who knows?

But the GREAT NEWS is this...
Friday I was not terribly surprised that my doc put me on blood pressure meds. My bottom figure was over a hundred in his office-it should be 80 or lower. Anyway-I've been on meds all weekend and it has hovered in the 90's-Sunday after Zumba it did get down to 89 on bottom so it must be true-exercise IS good for your blood pressure. Yesterday it was 132/93 and this morning right before class it was 118/90. When I left Lady F's class, I went straight home and checked it again...the lowest it's been in YEARS!!!  114/85-yes I was exhausted but I can't believe that it has finally been confirmed....LADY F is really really good for me. Granted, it's still out of the 'normal' range but going from 100-110 on the bottom (prior to meds) to an 85 after an intense workout-I'm super excited!!! So looks like more exercise is in my future!