Blogging On the Run

So, I have just a few minutes before I get in the car for an hour and a half...at least. Thank goodness for the DVD player! I'm looking forward to the holidays because I love the sound of Christmas movies. "A Christmas Story" and "Home Alone", they're just more fun to listen to...plus, I just love the holidays anyway. I have a tendency to romanticize them and build them up in my mind (kind of like the dad in "Christmas Vacation").

But, for now, it's "Star Wars"...or any superhero type movie. Most of them I've never actually seen, but they sound okay...

The morning after Thanksgiving, "it's on", though. Only Christmas stuff will be played in my car: Christmas carols, Manheim Steamroller, Christmas movies...etc. I might even wear a Santa hat!

Gotta run! The superheroes are calling me...

Peace.

The Remains of the Day

I woke up with a severe pinched nerve in my neck.

I couldn't raise my head off the pillow.

I couldn't go to C3.

I can't really type since I can't hold my head up.

I have a lot of thoughts running around in my head, but it hurts too bad to type them.

So, I'll blog more when I can. I'm having withdrawals from blogging. But, at least I don't have to work out or jog today.

I heard this morning was awesome...I'm so sad I missed it.

I have to be better by tomorrow morning.

I think the Advil bottle shouldn't have such a wimpy dosage limit.

I need to dust the ceiling fan.

My bedroom decor could use an animal print...probably leopard.

Sonny's banana pudding should be listed as an addictive controlled substance.

If I were on the show "Making the Band" and I had to jog five miles to be chosen...oh well!!!!

Peace out for now.

Week One "Wrap-Up"

The Bledsoe Family has successfully navigated the first week of school. Here are some highlights:

*The sunrise, from the 417, is beautiful when viewed through polarized sunglasses.

*My six year old can guilt me into buying him fast-food junk because I feel bad that he has to spend so much time in the car every afternoon.

*"Mr Big Truck" didn't speed obnoxiously by me in carline again - maybe he's changed his ways...we'll see!

*Nate knows how to deal with a bully...(must be passed down from father to son).

*Apparently, Kayleigh and Ashley aren't "jiggy" with Trapper/Keeper notebooks - they're not "the bomb"...as if! And I was so thinking they were "totally rad".

*High school girls think it's so cute when Kayleigh and Ashley's dad makes their lunch! What am I, chopped liver?!!

*Sleeping-in on Saturday is glorious - unless you think it's Friday and you've over-slept!!! BTW, if it had been a week day, we'd all be in trouble because I'm not moving fast early in the a.m. EVEN IF I'M ON FIRE!

*How come "waiting in carline by myself time" seems like an eternity, and "having sushi with the Leathers (and Byron) time" flies by?

*Now that I'm carpooling WITH MYSELF, I miss taking other people's kids home from school - I didn't know that I would miss that...but Amanda says I can pick up "my best friend, Emma" from kindergarten sometimes! Woo!! (Right now I'm throwing up my hands like the wife in Talladega Nights - just so you can get the total mental pic).

*In High School Musical Two, when Gabriella sings to Troy that she has to "go her own way" and he sings back "but what about us?", I cry just a little bit (just a single tear rolls down...) - and btw, who names their daughter "Sharpay"? Don't they know that's a wrinkly dog...BUT I DIGRESS!

*So, the kids had an easier time adjusting to school than I did, but overall it was a good week...what I remember of it after being jacked-up on way to much espresso.

*Tomorrow's gonna be "Crazy" great!

Peace out.

More Notes from La-La Land...

*High School Musical 2 has taken over my life!!! We've been on a countdown clock all day - and I've never even seen the first one!

*When did I fall in love with modern furniture from Denmark? Confession: I had to ask Byron what furniture from Denmark would be called - I did have the sense to know that "Denmarkian" didn't sound quite right! (He said "Danish", and I looked it up on the Wide World of Web, and he was right), but I digress...When did I fall in love with modern Danish furniture? I especially LOVE "BoConcepts"...it's the bomb! (It's awesomely Denmarkian!)

*I love clean laundry - I love when I take a walk around the neighborhood in the evening and the smell of people's dryers and dryer sheets fills the air!

*I think we should live every day like we are in the cast of a musical, and break into song every time we're trying to make a dramatic statement. I think there would be a lot less conflict if everyone had to sing, "I'm so mad at you...You really hurt my feelings...You really need to learn how to drive..." Things like that wouldn't have the same "bite" if you had to sing and dance while yelling at someone!. Just a thought.

*We went to "meet the teacher" at the boys new school today - Ethan said that Nate's class was "better" because his classroom had brownies! It will also have long division, so Ethan - and I - will feel more comfortable in the first grade class. There aren't enough erasers in the world for me to do long division...Okay, I just had a little shudder thinking about it!

*Apparently, the slang term for a sweet ride is "whip" - Something tells me the Bledsoe Family Bus wouldn't be in the "whips" category. Just trying to keep it real.

*Speaking of "keeping it real" - there's nothing like buying cheap toilet paper in bulk from Wal-mart...it doesn't get any "realer" than that!

*Birthday cake just tastes better when it has your name on it!

Peace and dryer sheet dreams to you all!

It's Friday, and I'm in...La-La Land

I'm a hurricane watcher. I, like many Floridians, am fascinated by these storms and the fact that now you can watch them approaching (24/7) and can obsess about which path they will take.

This year is different, though. Two of my obsessions are colliding - obsessing over possible hurricane landfalls and being "prepared" (I can make a "home" out of matresses, water bottles and peanut butter in 28 minutes - or less!), and the horrific thought that I could lose internet connection - not just for moments, but for days!!!

So, I asked Byron if we could get a battery-powered charger for my laptop, he said that we could, but it wouldn't help if we lost power. Apparently, the cable is somehow "married" to the electricity!!! I thought those electricity people were SMART. So then I asked if we could get a honkin' generator that would power the cable lines...He said, "No, honey, we can't." (He said this with a kind of deflated voice - like he's resigned himself to my "view of earth") - He knows he'll have to explain this to me again...because He knows that everything looks different
...from La-La Land!

Peace out, for now.

What Day Is It?...oh yeah, Happy Wednesday!

I was reminded last night that tomorrow (today, now) is Wednesday - so, I need to "do" Happy Wednesday. But, I'm getting ready to walk out the door (school and doctors appointments), so I'll have to do a real post later.

So, until then, "Happy Wednesday!" (Amanda). And I hope whatever I write later will make you smile and not depress you at all. Don't even give a moments thought to the death and destruction all around us, global warming, rising political unrest, or the imminent approach of hurricanes...

That stuff will still be "looming" tomorrow - so today, just be happy - it's Wednesday, after all, and that surely is enough!

Peace out.

Beautiful School Supplies

I love new school supplies - I always have. When I take the plastic wrap off of a new package of loose-leaf paper, I just stare at the clean white sheets, mesmerized - I think it's lovely! And a newly sharpened pencil is glorious. Maybe it's because I'm a poet, or because I'm an idealist - I love things that are clean, fresh and new...

I used to love the beginning of school and the fall - although I grew up here in Florida and the fall here never quite looked like the fall on T.V...But in my mind, it did! New clothes, new friends, clean school-supplies, and a crisp autumn breeze (okay, it was really August and 98 degrees on a hot school bus)...It was beautiful!

Now, as a parent, the process of getting ready for school is...a little more hectic - Wal-mart is a nightmare, the "lists" from the teachers often include obscure items that probably only exist in the southern tip of Madagascar, and my childhood ability to only feel the weather as it exists in my fantasies is somehow fading...maybe it's dying of heat exhaustion!

It's funny how we can remember things a certain way, even if they weren't quite that way in reality. Our perception is so wrapped up in our emotions and experiences, we can fool ourselves into believing it's a crisp fall day even in the sweltering heat of summer.

Christmas is like that for me. Even when it's sunny and 80-something outside, in my heart it's like a Thomas Kinkaide "Wintertime" painting, with smoke-filled chimneys and horse-drawn carriages...I guess because I need it to be that way. We all need a certain amount of idealism in our lives, some of us more than others - it's like hope. To imagine that things are better than reality - to see things how they could be, rather than how they really are.

I'm going to try to remember how I did that when I was a child on the hot school bus, and try to look at things around me with that same sense of hopefulness - and tonight as I "play" with my kid's school supplies, maybe I'll drink some hot chocolate and put on a sweater...

There's beauty all around us - even in unexpected things...like school supplies!

Peace.

Random Ramblings

It's Saturday and I have a few random thoughts:

*Cleaning my house is such a chore, I think I need to go live in a remote monastery somewhere and get rid of all my possessions - I wonder if they would have wi-fi?

*Laundry is the bain of my existence, and I have come to realize that in order for everything to be able to be put away, I need to have a delicate balance of dirty clothes, washing clothes, drying clothes, piled-on-the-couch clothes, folded clothes, and clean-in-the-drawer clothes - If this balance is disrupted by TOO MUCH CLEANING, then my whole domestic eco-system runs amuck!

*How does my microwave end up looking like a crime scene ????!!!!

*What can I possibly say about going to Wal-mart on a Saturday right before school starts when my SUV's "thermometer" registered at 116 degrees!!!!

*There was a time when I was "Pre-law" and going to be a ruthless attorney and live in a beautiful high-rise in New York with a butler and a maid...(as I tell this, you should hear classical music, and I'm speaking with a British accent)

*I'm excited about not having to sing on the platform tomorrow morning - "Riverdale" will be leading worship, so I get to sit in the congregation like a normal person!

*I'm NOT going jogging tonight because I'm getting my exercise the "don't clean my house often enough, and insist on being a pack rat, so now I gotta suffer" way today - I better lose 2-3lbs.!!!!

*Talking about cleaning my house is much more fun than doing it.

*Byron has been very sweet and helpful today - I guess I'll keep him.

*Did I already mention the whole attorney thing?...

Peace out.

Jogging Blogger?...NOT!

I jogged tonight for the first time in twenty years - I waited 'til it was really dark because...well, it's been twenty years! I think this was the funniest part of this "Happy Wednesday"!

I have to go somewhere and die now...Peace.

Redeem the Time

It feels like my early days of blogging when I would often blog more than once in a single day, but I've had a fever today, so I've not done much. I'm giving myself today to get better - tomorrow there's too much to do to be sick...so, needless to say, I've done a lot of thinking today.

I've always had a weak immune system - if I get stressed or upset, my body seems to shut-down and just stop working well. I've prayed about this and tried to put things in place to keep from getting run down...but, that and being a pastor's wife/mother of four doesn't seem to go hand in hand. So, I've kind of learned to look at it as a constant reminder to rule out the bad (bad food, bad influences, bad relationships) and increase the peace.

So, tomorrow morning I'm hoping for a normal temp' so Byron and I can get out for a long walk, put in some time at the office, then maybe "Whole Foods" for some healthy stuff so I'm not tempted to eat junk when dinner rolls around. I've got to plan ahead to make the most out of my days, so there are less like today when not much got done. The kids go back to school soon, so I want to spend some time with them before they're out of the house all day.

Byron and I got an email about our 20 year high school reunion today, so I've thought a lot about what I thought my life would be like verses what it is like - in some ways it's so hard to believe it's been that long, but so much has happened during those years that it also seems like it must have been longer. I guess everyone feels like that about the passage of time...

It goes by and I'm learning more every day that I have to make the most of each day because I will never get this day back.

"Redeem the time, because the days are evil" - That's the awesome thing about the grace of God - each day that He gives us is a day that He has bought back or redeemed for us so that we can live for Him.

Time is a wonderful gift - I don't want to waste it. Peace.

Comments Anyone?

By the way, for some reason my blog only allows comments if you click on the TITLE. Also, if you want to see what others have commented you have to do the same thing - I'm not sure why this is, but oh well. Look forward to hearing from you - sorry it's HIGH MAINTENANCE (Okay, no comments about how fitting that is!). Peace.

A Blackberry, a Blog, and a Big Vocab (aka: The Perfect Storm!)

So blogging from a Blackberry on the road somewhere on I-10 is not easy. This is definitely going to shorten the length of my blog (and the people cheered...). But, at least I have neglected my nails, and they are very short - I'm really rethinking the importance of proper punctuation and grammar though! I also didn't realize how many long words I use. I need to get dumber if this is going to be workable at all! I don't know how Kayleigh and Ashley text messege so fast - I guess it's all about motivation! That's all I've got for now - my fingers are exhausted (like I can't just say "tired"? - I've got to change my ways!!). Peace!

What Day Is It?

I woke-up in a bad mood. Last night, my boys left to go visit their cousins in south Florida. So, no "Splash-Zone" for me today. (By the way, the Splash-zone "authorities" made me go put my large iced-coffee in the car before entering...I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy! (see Happy Darn Wednesday).

Instead of frolicking with my boys, I went to the office and tried to fill in for Byron's secretary, Peggy, who is out of town. The morning began with me spilling my large iced-coffee all over my desk and floor (it's like someone is trying to tell me something - like, "always use spill-proof containers!"), then the day progressed downhill from there.

Apparently, my office computer has developed quite an attitude over my growing love-affair with my MacBook, and it wouldn't cooperate - it refused to even recognize me on the network! Back to my Mac - I love her, she always accepts me, never judges - even when I write stupid stuff. She always acts shocked that I would delete any of my pearls of wisdom by saying, "Are you sure you want to delete this?". I know she's really saying, "You're awesome, Angie, and all of your words are wonderful..." I love her...But, I digress.

So, anyway my office computer reminded me, once again that I have no marketable skills, and Byron needs to check the amount on his life-insurance policy, unless he wants me to turn to a life of crime should something befall him, God forbid!

Tonight is band practice, so I need to get my stuff together, so I can worship the Lord properly...Maybe I just need to get some coffee. This time I'm going to "Cuppy's" where I know I'll be treated right! I'm gonna try to act happy the rest of the day, or Byron will remember that we haven't worked-out yet, and make me work-out my grumpiness on the Bowflex...I need to fly under the radar as much as possible...Peace!

Exercising is of the Devil!

So, I'm only writing this blog to get "happy darn wednesday" off the top of my screen. But, my excruciating and traumatic work-out experience this evening has robbed me of the energy to blog twice. So, if you enjoy hearing of my great sufferings, check out The Real Staff Wives of Orange County. Peace.