Living life in the fast lane

I know you're probably thinking I live some sort of clandestine, secret life by the title of this blog, but let me assure you that I don't. My life is too exciting for more excitement. We had a very busy week last week. I actually remembered to take more pictures, too. I have found that taking photos helps me remember what we actually did! HA! I have a photographic memory!! Get it! Anyway, we started our week out rather humdrum and simple. Monday was a slow and relaxing day. Every Monday evening for the past couple of weeks, we have been doing a book from Cub Scouts so Robert can earn his religion badge. Well, it's his Church badge I guess. I have a hard time calling Christianity a religion because it's a relationship. It's a relationship with God through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. When we receive Him into our hearts, He sends the Holy Spirit to reside in us and by reading the Bible God communicates to us through the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. So, it's not "really" following a set of rules, which is what religion is. Back to Scouts. We have all been doing it because it's another opportunity to teach our children the Bible. We are using a pizza as an object lesson for it. So far we are still on the crust - which is the foundation of a pizza as Christ is the foundation of our faith. But first, someone sent me this and I thought it was hilarious!!

Funny, eh?! :)

Lindsay decided to make lunch. We had flour tortillas with peanut butter, bananas, and pears. It was very good.

If your children are ever bored, here is a GREAT way to unbored them: an air popper popcorn popper. Not kidding. One of my sister-friends clued me into this. So, Beatrice and Kristinie the Great are getting ready to make popcorn. Take note: the bowl they are using was way too small. I was able to switch it out with only two pieces of popcorn becoming casualties. Yup, I know, I need a cape, right?! :)

Here are Lindsay and Maddie working on our Bible devotion in their books on the Church for Robert's cub scout badge. They look totally bored but they are not. I think they knew I was taking their photo. They have been ruined by a member of our family who shall remain nameless because they take soooooooooooooo many photos! HA! This is their revenge!

And here is what actually happens when you are trying to empty a sink with a little water and a lot of dish soap. Note: I said DISH soap, as in Dawn liquid dish soap NOT dishWASHER soap. My mom told me my Grandma Jones (My grandpa Jones' wife) did this and it went all over her kitchen. And she had a pretty big kitchen! We were blessed because we have a dishwasher that makes no noise. I know, I know, you're thinking it's just quiet. Nope. It makes NO noise. I have to stand right next to it with my ear practically on the door to hear it running. Well, on this particular night I noticed it was making this funny swish swish swish swish noise. And it was LOUD. I told Mr. Handsome and he opened it and lo and behold, look what Mr. Ricardo found!! He was so sweet, he took the measuring cup from me and scooped all the suds out.

Well, here we are at Nursing Home day. I know this doesn't look like our usual nursing home and that's because we are at the nursing home facility not the assisted living facility on this day. The nursing home community is celebrating Pastor Rudy Shepard Day! That's right, our pastor was honored by the nursing home for his 26 years of faithful service. Lots of our church family came to celebrate with him. Some of our friends from Champions were brought over too and I was so thrilled to see them. They were very excited. See the fella on the left closest to me? He is a dirty old man!! I have always heard about them, and quite frankly, thought a number of my dads' friends were of that seedy description (Mr. Pete Brown comes to mind.) but he was whistling at the women and making comments to them!! It was rather humorous but a bit disconcerting! One funny thing that happened on our way out: Mrs. Vicky, the activities lady at Champions, was bringing one of the ladies back to Champions on a golf cart. That in of itself was hilarious to see these old people being taxied around in golf carts! But Mrs. Vicky was driving with one hand while her other hand held onto the walker!! She was "driving" the walker back to Champions! Ha ha ha ha ... well, it was funny when I saw it anyway. 

Here is our pastor - it's a bit difficult to see from so far away - he is holding the red heart. To his left is a guy with a pink shirt. His name is Bob Townsend. He is a newscaster here in town and he is recording everything. Our pastor also got the TV stations Hometown Hero award for February. The word on the street is, the nursing home community nominated him for volunteer of the year and he lost. So they were really upset and decided to do their own honoring. Isn't that great?!! 

Here is Preacher cutting the cake. We just call him Preacher. That's his name to us. He has lots of other names but he's Preacher to our family and lots of our church family too. After the big shebang, we headed to my Mom and Dad's house. We met my sister-in-law there and took John and Rachel for the afternoon. It was so cute. We arrived at the same time they did and Robert ran over to Erin's van to help John out. John jumped out before he could get there and ran and jumped into Robert's arms. Robert got a big kick out of that. 

In the evening, at church, I had the nursery. I do it once a month on Wednesday night. I usually do it with Mr. Handsome - we've been doing it together for over 11 years and I have been doing it for a total of about 16 years - but he had a conference call. So, one of my sister-friends helped me. She loves babies, and this is one of her favorites! She put his pants on and put both legs in one pant leg, so I had to take a photo!! He doesn't even notice. 

One of my other sister-friends' moms is our treasurer for our ladies group at our church. She didn't like the basket to take up the offering, so we found a tin bowl that's been in our church kitchen forEVER! So we decided it was too boring, so another sister-friend helped decorate it and give it some bling. I bet some of those buttons on there are older than me. A friend of my Mom's gave them to me. 

Here we are at homeschool co-op. Isn't this cute? None of the children are mine but they are friends with Kristinie the Great and Beatrice. 

I am teaching a basketball class and thoroughly enjoying it. It's for 7-10 year olds. I was teaching them to backpedal and we were almost done so my helper (also a sister-friend!) suggested we make them get ready (they had to start out backwards for backpedaling) and see how long they would stand there before they noticed I hadn't blown the whistle. It was so quiet in the gym you could hear a pin drop. OH - can I tell you that a whistle has to be the very best invention ever? I am borrowing THE BOY's but I may be investing in one because it is so handy to get childrens' attention!

Saturday morning, Maddie had a basketball game. SHE WON!! And Robert had his Scouts Pinewood Derby. Here he is in his heat - his car went 200.8 mph! His friend Brendan went faster in this heat but Robert ended up winning for his den! 

Here is his car going 203 mph!!! Amazing, isn't it?!!! 

Here is THE BOY happy for his win!! :)

Here he is in the King of the Hill race. He didn't win this one - the top cars were going over 208 mph!

After the car race, we all skittered home to get ready for the young people's group that meets at our church on the second Saturday of each month. Maddie is learning to draw - here she is using watercolor pencils - and Robert learned about firearms from a sheriff's deputy that goes to our church.

Here is my attempt and for some reason, it is sideways. 

After the young peoples' get together, we came home, then Mr. Handsome and I went to dinner. We always make these great plans to try a different restaurant but always end up going to the Bento Box.  Why? Well, you have to go to find out. They have THE BEST food in town. Hands down. Not kidding. And, guess what else? They're a locally owned restaurant. I got to talk to the chef/owner and I didn't even know I was talking to him. We sat right in front of him at the bar thingy. It wasn't a bar as in drinking bar though. It was a sushi bar. Who would have thought? Above is the Miso Dragon. I do not eat raw fish as a rule, nor do I eat caviar or fish eggs BLECH!! But every year (this is from the menu not 'cause I know) they make up a new sushi roll to benefit the ALS foundation. As soon as I saw that, I knew I was going to order it. ALL of the money on that purchase goes to the foundation. I may have drawn the line if there was eel in it, but I was determined to eat it. And I got to the last piece! I finished the last piece but I was in a rather awkward position - trying to decide if I could find the bathroom in time AND trying to keep myself from looking totally foolish. Thankfully, I finished it. OK, so why did I HAVE to get the Miso Dragon you are asking. There are family members that come into your life and you just know that they are going to be there from the cradle to the grave. You're going to see them when they're young and you're going to see them get old. You're going to get old with them! My very favoritest cousin in the world (and I really don't care about my grammar) was that kind of person. I didn't see him a lot but I absolutely loved him. And he loved me. He even named his first daughter after me! I learned to play basketball from him and it's the reason why I love it so much. He was very special. But a year or two before he turned 50 he was diagnosed with ALS. It was so hard on everyone. It was hard on me because I took his presence in my life for granted. And it was sad because I was so far away. I miss him a lot but I am thankful that God saw fit to put him in our family. So, that's why I ate the Miso Dragon - raw salmon, raw tuna, fish eggs, and all!

Here's Mr. Handsome's dinner. It's a lobster roll. It is some kind of grilled lobster that is to die for. It was wonderful. We also had the roll sampler. Four different kinds of eggrolls and each one was better than the first. For dessert, we headed over to Mayfaire town centre and I had a cookie from Atlanta Bread Company. Then we went to Rack Room shoes so I could get some shoes. I got two pairs of crocs. I said I would never ever buy those ugly things. But they had cute ones that don't even look like crocs. So I bought them and I actually wore them to church! And I am an old fashioned church goer. I think you should dress like you're going to see a king because you're going to meet with THE King! So my crocs, which are like those ballet dress shoes, fit my outfit great. And they looked like dress shoes! After Rack Room shoes, we went to Barnes and Noble so Mr. Handsome could get my valentine's, anniversary, birthday, and Mother's Day present: A Nook tablet. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Seriously. I thought my cell phone was amazing when I got it but now it's so blase! This tablet is amazing. I downloaded the Bible on it and I don't even have to go find my Dictionary. It has one with it and it just looks up a word when I touch it!! Can you believe it?!!

Well, that's my week. Today we spent it at church. In between services, I went shopping (alone!) and did all of our grocery shopping at three stores in two hours! That is TWO weeks worth of groceries, too! I think I set a land speed record for myself. And I didn't overspend because no one was there begging for things. Have a great week!