This morning, Elliott went to a funeral for an aquaintence. He was actually the deputy sheriff for Callahan County and his son sometimes played baseball with John. I only saw him a few times, but he was very nice and it's always sad when someone dies so young and has small children. Anyway, the funeral was at 10 and Elliott came in the house about 15 minutes after he had left. I asked him why he was back so soon and here's the conversation that followed:

Elliott: Well, the funeral was at the Church of Christ and you know how small it is. There were people standing outside just talking because there wasn't any room for anyone else in the church. I wasn't going to stand around outside talking to people I don't know about someone I didn't know very well for the whole funeral. [And, it's important to mention here that Elliott couldn't take off his suit jacket because I only had time to iron the front part of his shirt that showed.]
Pam: It was nice of you to try. I guess people just don't think about that kind of detail when someone dies. They just wanted to have it at his home church.
Elliott: Where are you going to have my funeral?
Pam: Probably the Civic Center.
Elliott: That's what I wanted to hear.

That was funny and all, but seriously, though, keep these guys in your prayers. They're people in our community that we see around town now and then and they have families and jobs and hopes and dreams and most importantly, destinies. This kind of thing just makes me want to get out and get to know those people we see "every now and then" even more. This is the kind of thing that is a defining moment in someone's life. This can make or break a person. Not to mention a child. They need Jesus now more than ever. Anyway, you all know this stuff. I'm just preachin' to the choir.

Good idea!

This afternoon, while I was making supper, all the kids were trying to talk at once and the noise level was rising pretty fast. Then, in the middle of it all, Autie said in the loudest voice of all of them,

"Hey! You guys want to soak?"

You know, my daughter sees a need, and she wants to fill it!

In the hands of an angry God?

This is what I heard this morning while Autie was getting dressed:

[singing]

He's got the whole world in his hands,
He's got the whole world in his hands,
He's got the whole world in his hands,

[long pause]

Shake it all around.
[to the tune of the last line of the above song]

I'm just thankful God doesn't do the Hokey Pokey!

Be healed in the name 0f Jesus!

Yesterday, my kids were n the cmputer playing games when they all started t fight ver whs turn it was. I stmped ver there, tld them all t g sit n the cuch until I was ready t dispense justice. when I went t turn the cmputer ff, I nticed water all ver the keybard. WATER!!! I immediately went int freak ut panic mde. This is Ellitt's very expensive laptp that we're talking abut. The ne he takes t Nashville s he can d his real jb while he's there. I panicked. I grabbed the thing, unplugged every wire that was cnnected t it and turned it upside dwn. Water came dripping ut f it!!! That's hw bad it was. I set it pen and upside dwn n a twel and prceeded t pace. I let it sit there all afternn and I didn't tell Ellitt. That's right, I was nt abut t tell Ellitt what had happened. I wuld surely be grunded r spanked [nt in a gd way, either]. After letting it sit fr a lng while, I set it back up and turned it n. Everything really seemed t be running smthly. s I went n with my day thinking I had really ddged a huge bullet.

Fast frward abut 2 r 3 hurs. I start t sit dwn and d sme stuff with the cmputer and Ellitt says, "Hey dn't mess with that right nw. It's acting funny and I need t d a diagnstic n it." Crap! Nw what d I d? still, I say nthing. Right abut nw yur prbably thinking what a dishnest wife I am, but believe me, I had my reasns fr nt saying anything. First f all, I didn't want t agree that my cmputer was fried. By telling Ellitt that the kids fried it, I wuld be speaking death ver it. secndly, I did nt want my husband t get mad and start prclaiming negative things ver it. Things like, "h great! Mre mney dwn the drain." r "well, that's it. Might as well tss $xxxx.xx in the trash can." I just started praying again, really hard.

This afternn, I was trying t use the cmputer and it started reallly wigging ut n me. I had had enugh f the dishnesty. I tld Ellitt. He did freak ut a little, but I decided t stp him befre he said anything negative. I tld him that it didn't have t be fried if we didn't want it t be fried and he lked at me like I was a little fried. Then he went t the bedrm and shut the dr. He better nw, but I think he is just aviding the whle subject.

Here's where yu cme int the stry. Please pray fr my cmputer. I believe that I dn't have t live by the law that says if yu get water in a cmputer it will die. I believe that my cmputer can be brught back frm the brink f death. I wuld like t see this miracle manifested in a few ways. First, I there are several keys that are nt functining.....at all! ne f thse keys is the letter that is in between the i key and the p key. There are thers that dn't wrk, like the number key that's between 8 and 0 and the shift n the right side. There are sme ther things, t, but frankly, typing it ut wuld anny me way t much. I wuld like t see all f these things back t nrmal. N0, make that better than nrmal. I wuld like my Mac t run like it was created by steve jbs t run! In the name f Jesus!

No naked ballets here.

This morning I was taking Francesca's girls home with me after coffee and heard Autie and Avery in the backseat planning what they were going to do when they got to the house. Autie would do a ballet move with her arms and call out some weird name for it that she made up, of course, and Avery would copy her and repeat what she said. I said, "Hey, girls. Why don't we watch Barbie's 12 Dancing Princesses Ballet lesson when we get home and you can learn some of the moves together?" Autie and Avery squealed with delight. Then, Autie leaned in close to Avery and whispered, "We'll have to keep our clothes on, though."

Adventures with the Tooth Fairy (Part 2)

This past Tuesday was my 2nd appointment with my favorite cosmetic dentist in the whole world. There was actually a meeting in between the first and second appointments in which I didn't open my mouth at all, just my wallet. Or Elliott's. And his jaw was actually open pretty wide, come to think of it. This appointment would prove to be a little more uncomfortable for me than the initial consultation.

Let's start at the beginning. When I got there, Elizabeth, the assistant, took me to a room with huge windows looking out on a rock fountain and fish pond. Elizabeth told me to take my shoes off if I wanted and get comfortable in the chair. This chair had some kind of tempurpedic pad or something on the top of the regular chair you're used to seeing. You know how I love that stuff invented by NASA! Anyway, I sat down, she leaned me back and then put headphones on me. Then she handed me the remote to the tv that was IN THE CEILING! I started channel surfing while she put a mask over my nose that had nitrous oxide coming out of it. I pushed a button on the remote that made a menu come up and I couldn't get it to go away so Elizabeth had to stop what she was doing and fix it. When she got it going again, I said, "Just find the Food Network and I'll be fine." Elizabeth was doing prep stuff when another girl came in and started giving me a hand and arm massage. For a minute I thought I was at the spa to get my nails done and then I remembered this was, in fact, the dentist. Just when they got me all relaxed and happy, Dr. Leedy came in and started to work. I don't have to tell you that most dentist appointments start off with some kind of shot so if that bothers you, well, I've already said it so nevermind. I have to say that that shot hurt pretty bad. My toes were curled like the wicked witch that got smashed by the house. I was holding on to those arm rests like I was about to be ejected. I was sucking on that Nitrous like it was going out of style. I was using similes like there was no tomorrow. Sorry, I got carried away. I got 3 shots. One above each of my two front teeth and one behind them kind of on the roof of my mouth. I know your butt is tight just hearing about it. Pretty soon after that, I was fine. She started drilling during Giada and didn't stop until well into Emeril. It was like she came to my door and told me what she was going to be doing to the outside of my house and then I went inside, turned on the Food Network and vegged out while listening to people working outside. Nice.

After a while of me dozing on and off, everything stopped. When I could see that the coast was clear, I felt my two front teeth with my tongue. Whoa. What's this I feel? How about next to nothing. My teeth were what felt like little nubs. I asked if I could go to the bathroom because I really couldn't hold it any longer. Elizabeth said, "Sure. Just don't look at yourself because we don't have your temporaries in yet." I said, "Okay." Yeah, right. Of course I looked. I felt like one of those people you see on Extreme Makeover, or in Baird. (That was Kristy Belcher's joke! She just loooooves Baird.) I got back to the chair and Elizabeth squirted some stuff on my teeth and then stuck the temporary on. That was it. She gave me a mirror and I felt like I was looking at Mr. Ed. Since then, I've gotten used to them. I've been using a whitening tray at night to whiten my other teeth so when I go back in two weeks, they'll know what shade of white to make the permanent crown. I'm so excited! Elliott took a picture of me and did some fiddling in photoshop and found that if I had them shave about a sixteenth of an inch off of the permanent set, they would look even better. We'll do that on the next appointment.

The only other thing I had done on that visit was get my initial cleaning. Let me remind you, I haven't had my teeth cleaned, by a professional, in over 10 years. I thought I did a pretty good job in the mean time with all the tools I have, and the hygienist even said they looked better than she thought they would, but man did it hurt. She was scraping and I was cringing all over again. My mouth was sore for two days after that. Anyway, I will be going to my next appointment on the 11th or the 12th and then I get my permanents on October 9th. Just in time for the ASCAP awards. (More on that later) I'm not posting any pictures until then because I want true before and after shots. And, of course, I'll include one of my tooth fairy!