Conversation with my mother as I was on my way to work.

Me: I am bringing a few picture frames and some pictures to cozy up my office.
Mom: I bet one picture is of BJ and the other is Gus.
Me: Am I that predictable.
Mom: Yes. I think you love Gus more than you love your father or I.
Me: Well if it makes you feel better, Gus probably beats out BJ, too.

(Not really. I love my husband, but it is a tight race. And also, for the record, there are three pics: one of me and BJ, one of our three babies, and one of me and BJ with my parents. So there.)

So here is how you pass a cold fall weekend in the middle-of-nowhere Kentucky...

First, you buy two rakes, bundle up, and head outside to put into piles the massive amount of dead leaves that has covered you lawn. It will take about three hours and approximately forty piles to once again see the ground that was hidden. While you are doing this, a few more leaves will fall as nature laughs at man's unending attempts to control nature. The laughter will most likely irritate you.

After the piles are created, you take a large tarp, lay it on the ground next to a pile, load it with leaves, and then take it to a designated area for burning later. You repeat this for each pile. It takes a really long time and a lot of walking. By the time you are finished, you have a pile something like this one (think 8 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall):

When this is all finished, you will hurt. Every muscle of your body will be screaming at you for suddenly doing manual labor when you know you are in fact a big, useless softy. So you go to bed, allowing unconsiousness temporarily take away the pain.

The next day, when the pain has dulled a bit, you start getting nostalgic about when you where a kid and you would run and jump in the piles of leaves every fall, so when the neighbors aren't looking, you take a leap. Unfortunately, you are heavier these days, so you end up in a position something like this:

When you finally crawl out of this mess, you find your dogs staring at you with a perplexed, yet intrigued, expression as they wonder why you are suddenly acting, well, like them. Then you notice that there are leaves all over you, and they are itchy, and they should never, ever be in the unmentionables area. But they are. So you wonder why you liked it so much once upon a time, and you take note to not get nostalgic next year. Of course, by next year, you will have forgotten, and you'll probably end up with nature laughing at you and leaves in your pants again.

Life is changing these days

It has been quite a week. I got a job offer for a position at Murray State that I was really wanting, I took my GRE and got a score that puts me well on my way to grad school, and BJ and I went to Alton to spend the weekend with his parents. It was a good week, but a hectic one. Even the great outdoors seem to be busy. Leaves are falling rapidly now, and the weather is getting bitingly cold. Despite the busy-ness of my life right now, I wanted to take a few moments to appreciate the beauty of fall, so here are a few pictures of our yard before winter entirely takes over.

Just a girl and a dog on a beautiful fall day.

Just hangin' with my dog. And no, we don't care if we're dorks.

November 4th, 2008

I've got the registration card....


...and the appropriate t-shirt (don't worry, I zipped up my hoody at the polling place so that I didn't break any laws)...

...and my lucky frog socks...

...and my favorite shoes (they've been with me through many major life events, like when I went to the political rally in Dallas and saw him in person)...

...and my mom's bracelet from when she was a kid (I don't know why, it just seemed like it could be lucky)...

...and last but not least, I winning smile. It should count for something.

Finally, mission accomplished...

...and now for the wait.

Sermon Preparation

I knew when BJ became a preacher that we would have conversations about his sermons as he worked on them. However, some of the interactions that have grown out of his sermon preparations have simply not been what I was expecting.

This afternoon, BJ was researching the history of Ephesus in preparation for an upcoming sermon and series of classes. I peeked over his shoulder while he was busy researching on the computer, and this is the picture I saw:

This is the short conversation that followed:

Me (shocked): Are those boobies?
BJ (matter-of-factly): Either that or buffalo testicles. She's a fertility goddess, so it's hard to tell.

Yeah, there is just so much wrong with that.