there is a mole making tunnels all over our front yard. I want it dead.

there has been a tricycle on the roof of the house across the street for about 3 days. i would love to know how it got there.

Truth be Told, I am Nothing!

If an atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of a marble. Please recall, the nucleus contains the protons and neutrons and is located in the center of the atom... Anyway, the only other part of the atom is the electron cloud. Now, electrons are about 1/1800 the size of a single proton. So, take a medium sized atom...it's got, say 40 protons and about 40 neutrons all packed into a marble-sized ball. Floating around this marble are 40 STINKING TINY electrons. But they get to roam around the rest of the stadium. My question is this, what the heck is taking up the rest of the space in that stadium? Answer: literally, nothing.

Take into consideration the following: every protein that makes up every cell, every bit of water, every molecule of DNA, absolutely everything in our bodies (and in the rest of the world, for that matter) is made up of these atoms which are more NOTHING than they are SOMETHING. In the purely physical sense, it blows my mind that I can have arms and legs and hair, knowing that they are made up of "little balls of mostly nothing."

Colossians (my favorite) 1:17 says:
And He (Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Having taken a few chem classes in my life, this verse has added meaning to me. Maybe the question is not so much about "what" takes up the empty space in an atom, but "who."

Seriously, seriously

Okay, people, I deleted my entire blog today, accidentally, of course. I am surprised at how sad this makes me! I don't know why this bugs me so much, but it does. I was really hoping my family would be able to read it, but, as of yet, I don't know that any of them have. Everything that follows is new, except for the "memories" post which I recreated.

bummed.

Special Memories with Special People

w/ Paul: the Yankees/Indians game during the ALCS; exchanging love letters, the day we got married; our childrens' births.

w/ mom: when I colored and cut out a picture of a clown in 1st grade. I took extra care to cut it out well. When I brought it home, mom said "did you cut this out?" and proceeded to tell me what a great job I did

w/ dad: Farm Shop sundaes, tickle fights, and the college trip to Pittsburgh

w/ Helen: our trip to St. Louis; my wedding; her wedding; the bad play that we saw the summer after we graduated and laughing uncontrollably when we go back home; Thursdays at Fazoli's

w/ Shelby: discussing as we walked home from movie nights in Bayley; walking home in the rain; the library typewriter; singing "McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut" as we walked to the College Life meeting; making up a rap about a drunk guy

w/ God: the summer of '94 at Penn State. When he was more real to me than he had ever been up to that point.

w/ Shelah: a walk during my senior year when she encouraged me that my desire to serve God counts, even if I felt like I was failing.

w/ Heather: (my best friend in high school) finger painting with ice cream on the kitchen counter; making brownies; long walks where we could say whatever we wanted and know that it was okay

Thank God for Do-Overs

Just before Valentine's Day Ms. Boo and I were making some cookies to send to some folks far away. I had one conscious goal in mind when we started out: that she would have fun. I had one subconcious goal: that we would have perfectly shaped, evenly sprinkled cookies when we were done.

After rolling out the dough... my two goals collided. It bugged me so much that she was messing up the cookies. I didn't want her to touch the dough until she was "supposed" to (this, I think, is punishable by law in 7 states.) And I kept telling her she couldn't use the spatula. And when it came time to sprinkle the sugar on, well, I had issues with her technique.

Needless to say, Boo ended up crying. I looked over at her sitting on Paul's lap. He was trying to console her. (This is no easy task, when the child's mom was being so unreasonable.) Anyway, I looked over at them and I'm like "what am I thinking?" Immediately, I thought, "I want a do-over."

Well, last week Boo and I planted some seeds together. She picked out a little shovel and started scooping soil into little pots. She kept spilling and apologizing. It was rather nice to tell her "that's okay." Soon her apologies just turned into delight. I let her fill a whole tray of planters all by herself. As she worked she said things like "whoa, mommy, this is messy!" Yes, dear child, gloriously messy. She keeps asking to plant more seeds. I think she had fun this time.

Thank you, God, for do-overs.

Every so often, I would like to do a "What I like about" post regarding different people in my life. I have decided to start today with Maureen, because she is going to stop reading this if I don't say something about her. Despite the fact that she is trying to hijack my blog, all of the following is true:

What I like about Maureen

1. she is hilariously funny
2. she is so different from me... and I find it refreshing to hear her perspective
3. she is insightful and wise (wait, that's two)
4. she is insightful and wise
5. she is the most out-of-the-box thinker I know. Since I have zero ability to think out of the box, I really like this about her, but I think I like it more that she doesn't just think that way, she lives that way.
6. she scares me. it's not like she's ugly or anything (in fact she bears striking resemblance to Marilyn Monroe.) She scares me because of #2 & #5 and because of that, I find that her life challenges me in ways that no one else's does.
7. she makes me want to be a better Christian
8. she ministers grace to me
9. ain't no pretense when you are around Maureen
10. she wants to love even (or especially?) the people that are unlovely
11. she IMs with me
12. this may be lame-o, but it is true: she has fantastic hair
13. Maureen is more concerned about living out God's purpose than she is about having things or "success" as the world sees it.
15. she reads a lot
16. she has a great vocabulary. it's like street lingo meets college prof.
17. conversations with Maureen are awesome
18. little things are not lost on her
19. she knows how to be thankful even when life is stinky
20. she knows the only person she can change is herself. and she does.

Yes, it is official. I love Maureen. And I am thankful that we are back in touch.