Needing some zzzzzzs

I am not getting enough sleep. For the last week or so I have been sleeping very badly. When I am stressed my brain will not turn off at night, then I just can't sleep. Then my bed is being weird. My sleep number is 85 and after being in bed a few hours it is down to 20. I think I have to look at the cords.

Then, the last 2 nights I have been up with a litter of puppies. (they are not doing well at all, there are only 3 left). Life without sleep is not good. Every little thing is irritating. I can see that lack of sleep would lead to craziness, hearing voices and seeing things! The 2 big kids are understanding and helpful, but Mikkena is just trying to push me over the edge.

Do you hear that sound?....... Its my pillow calling my name.
I can't wait until its bed time!

Visa

Tow truck 86 dollars

Rental car 94 dollars

Fixing Van 530 dollars

Total cost of a really bad day....Priceless


Thank you Visa card for taking care of me while my husband was out of town.

Rules of the road

Yesterday on the way to Shoreview the van broke down. The van waited until we were in a construction zone (the unweave the weave project) , in rush hour, and bumper to bumper traffic. Of course Tim is out of town (the van seems to know when he is gone). I sat on the phone with AAA for 45 minutes trying to explain where I was. It must have been her first day working for AAA and she must have failed "maps" in high school. She kept telling me I was in Osseo. Hello, I was not in Osseo! I finally agreed so that I could just get off the phone so I could call my own tow truck. Oh, Yeah she also wanted me to call someone to pick up my 3 children because there wouldn't be room for them in the tow truck. Hello! If I could have found someone to pick us up we wouldn't have been on the side of the road!

I called my sister (she lives about an hour from where I was). She was going to help me find my own tow truck. But then the tow truck company called me. I told him where I was and he said Oh, that's not Osseo (oh, really!). He said he would contact a towing company closer to where I was. People I was just past Hwy 61. You know there are about a 100 car dealerships and service places right on 61.

Then the Hwy help dude came. His knowledge of cars included a possible hot wheels collection.
I got back on the phone with AAA. This new gal seemed to be better with maps. I talked with her for a while. They seem to need lots of info before sending out a truck. Why don't they just contact the truck first and then ask me my eye color and shoe size while he is on his way.

Well, a tow truck finally came. We had been on the side of the road for an hour and a half. People could see Hwy 61 from my van and see a few car dealerships. I could have walked and purchased a new van in this time.

Well the tow truck that came the AAA lady did not send. The lady on the phone said she wouldn't pay him because he was not AAA approved! I told her I wanted to get off the road and off the road now. I was more than a little mad. He got on my cell phone and talked to the lady, they finally agreed that I could pay him directly and send the bill to AAA and they would pay me back.

So, the kids and I are in the tow truck and driving to a repair place. No we didn't just loop back and go to a big service station on HWY 61, we drove to Shoreview (6miles). The dude thought that made sense since that's where I was going anyway. At this point I just wanted someone to "save" me.
The repair place didn't know if they could get it fixed before they closed. They were open until 11pm if I wanted to just wait and see. OH, OK the kids and I will sit here and hope that it will be done. (NOT) We walked to gymnastics (just a block away). Mikale joined his class and Mikkena jumped into a different class. I called my sister back and she gave me some numbers for rental car companies. It was 6:45 by now and all car rental places close at 6pm. The only rental place open was the airport. One of the gymnastics Moms that I know lives 5 minutes from the airport. Once her son was done (8pm) she drove us to the airport to pick up a rental.
The guy at the rental desk asked me if I was in town for business or pleasure. I didn't even know what to say to him.
As we were driving home I finally talked with Tim on the phone. We fought. I hung up on him.
I hope today is better. I feel like just going to bed and pulling the covers over my head. I am going to label this post "vacation" . I was just at the airport, I must be on vacation.

What a Day

Rejoice -- What a great day.

Worked outside for most of the day.

I wore a tank top and was still warm.

I have dirt under my nails.

My muscles are sore.

I am pink from the sunshine.

Some of my favorite things

My favorite morning things:

1. Sunshine and birds singing.

2. coffee

3. having quiet time before the kids get up

4. My husband kissing my cheek as he leaves for the day.

Today I am 3 out of 4. Mikkena climbed into bed with me this morning. She had a little purple quacking duck with her. There is a difference between being woken up by singing birds and a little purple quacking duck!!! Since then she has been whapping me over the head with the sword balloon from Awana carnival.

some thing to be glad about

Ok, so I haven't posted anything lately. My trouble is/was that I have not felt like I had anything positive to blog about. I have been struggling with my attitude.

Well, today will be different!!!

First of all the sun is shining brightly! Yahhooo! This better be it, no more snow, no more cold! It's Spring, I better see flowers soon or I am going to go crazy! I love planning my garden and planting new flowers. I even like weeding (for a few weeks anyway). I am also determined to turn this 11 acres of old corn fields into a wooded lot!

Second, I lost one pound. I have been working my butt off (so go already) at the gym. It just doesn't make sense that gaining weight is sooooo easy, but loosing it is so hard.

Third, Tim comes home tomorrow.

So that's it. Positive attitude here I come.

Sacred Marriage

Our couples cell group is reading/studying a book by Gary Thomas called Sacred Marriage. This book is really great. I thought I would do a little blog series on it.

The first Chapter is titled "The Greatest Challenge in the World - A Call to Holiness more than Happiness". Thomas says "what if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy". At first I couldn't wrap my brain around this, but after a while it started to make sense. If God uses our experiences to shape us into the person he wants us to become, then marriage is a perfect tool.

A few quotes from the Thomas' book:

"Any situation that calls me to confront my selfishness has enormous spiritual value".

"Being married forces you to face some character issues you'd never have to face otherwise".

"If I really wanted to see God transform me from the inside out, I'd need to concentrate on changing MYSELF rather than on changing my Spouse".

"We need to remind ourselves of the ridiculousness of looking for something from other humans that only God can provide".

"We can use marriage to grow in our service, obedience, character, pursuit, and love of God".

I have found this first chapter to be very interesting. I had never thought of my marriage in this way at all. I learned a ton just from the 1st chapter.

Thoughts or Comments??????

April fools one day late

My scale played an April fools day joke on me this morning! So I climb on to be happily rewarded with a 3 pound loss. I say to my self "way to go". It then reads "error". Oh my, its never said that before. I get off, let it re-set and climb back on. It then reads the same dumb old number as last week!!! It should have read "April fools". I guess I better just work harder. Dumb scale!!

Mikkena spent the day "April-Fooling" us yesterday. Pretty much just lame stuff.... "Mom you forgot to get dressed..April fools. This morning she decided that she can still "fool" us until April is over. I guess that's OK because last year she May fooled us, June fooled us, and so on until Fall.