Wow. I really need to write more often because there is so much that happens in my life, I really don't know what to write about.

So today has been a scramble of things to do. I honestly cannot believe that a 3 year old going to preschool needs a school list but aparently they do. Backpack,check. Markers, check. Watercolors, check. Mac G4 laptop, double check. I was sorta thinking that Malin needed more clothes but luckily I found a secret door to a magic land called, Mary Wojciechowski, single lady who loves my kids. I found a storage box in the kid's closet full of things from her that Malin never fit into last year so I am saved. They were all things that Mary had given to her for various reasons. (Just so you know, a single lady with money to burn needs no legitimate reason to buy my kids stuff.) Anyway, she has no clue how much pain in my life has been spared because of her compulsion to buy stuff. I was spared a large headache having missed out on dragging my kids to Fleet Farm to try to cash in on some Lee jeans at "Unbelievable Prices" while Aiden screams,"Taste! Taste!" at everything that even remotely looks like a food product,such as horse feed and cattle antibiotics.

No, I was much luckier today to be able to devote all my time to renewing my passport. Now, my passport is only 5 years old but over the course of that 5 years I happened to get married and being all old fashioned and stuff, took my husband's last name. I wanted to get this done right away, just in case I wanted to skip town at will. But at the time we were living in Chicago and that makes anything even more rediculous than it already is. (Sometime I will have to fill you in on what it was like to go to the post office and wait in line for 30 minutes to get a stamp.)So any way, back to the passport. Anyone who has ever done this knows what a joy it is. For the small fee of $67, you are granted the freedom to fly about the earth at will. That happens to be the price if you are willing to do the ol' "e-application". If you want a real person to deal with, add $30. Oh and if you want that done faster than 6 weeks time, just tack on an extra $60. Grand total, $157. I was thinking it would be, oh, say, $29.99. $157??!?!? What are they gonna do? Letterpress it by hand?

Well, I am going to go wait by the mailbox for 6 weeks until I get my passport back....

Good Tricks Gone Bad...Really Bad

I decided that if you want to know more about "Operation Fluffy Puff" you better talk to me.

-Ed.

The gentle prodding of a sister...

Under the suggestion of Elly, I have decided to post today. I am really, really, bad at posting but I love to do it, so here goes.

I could say that my life is so boring that there is nothing to post about so you would all be like Oh, yeah... poor stay at home mom, they are always soo bored! I mean, unless you think laundry detergent and puke are good conversation starters. Ho Ho!! My life is, and always will be, far from boring.

Exhibit 1: I am a pastor's wife. This in and of itself is never boring. I mean, just when the gossip stops about how bad Craig's and my marriage is, another bird flies in to tell everyone how much I hate every lady in the church and how my plans to become the worst pastor's wife ever, might be spoiled because I baked cookies for the neighbor, of my own accord..

Exhibit 2: I am a mom. I really don't think I need to elaborate on this point but I will anyway. At a small birthday party yesterday, Malin decided that it would be a great idea to jump in the lake. With clothes on. This lake happens to be sooo nastay, I don't think I have ever seen anyone set a toe in it. No really. I kid you not. But yes, with a pink dress on, Malin hopped into a lake with more bacteria in it than a johnny-on-the-spot at a rock music festival. Oh, I can't forget my darling son. His newest acheivement is this, when he realizes that something is not going the way that he planned, he screams with more fury than Beelzebub himself. His eyes turn to fire and he just opens the pits of Hell, with no descretion of his locale. We may be in the kitchen, or at the grocery store (most often his angst is related to food) or even picking up the babysitter.

Exhibit 3: Photograhpy. I have just started "professionally" taking wedding photgraphs. I have met with 3 couples in a week. Now I am not sure if that is normal, but for a "mom", I think it is freakin' awesome.


Exhibit 4: Moxie Moms. I have to admit, I have been super discouraged with the ol' Moxie. I mean, I have wanted to do this since April and basically we are just now getting to the point where I can actually say, "Are you a Moxie Mom yet?" To me, that is a loooong time to get to the point where there are 3 members. But here is the deal, yesterday I knew that I had to get a bunch of Moxie stuff done because I we are going out of town for the week. I was not looking forward to pissy, self-absorbed business owners and slacking teens running ice cream shop counters. So I had to get a bunch more agreements worked out with business owners and deliver a bunch of cards to other places so that everywhere moms turn, they are attacked with Moxie. So I asked, a long time ago, the owner of this super cute bookstore in town if he wanted to give the 15% discount. He said no, but that he wanted to be involved in other ways. Like hosting book clubs or readings. So I went in yesterday, seeing the hippest bookstore owner I have ever encountered, and handed over the little cards. He seemed intrigued and wanted more info. I ran out to my car, so fast, I would've beaten any Kenyan sprinter who dared take me on. I was back in a cloud of dust with an agreement and more infomation. In slow motion, he took the areement from my hands, read it over a little and on the apropriate line, in even slower motion, wrote "give a 15% discount to all members..." and then I heard him say something about his wife having a 2 year old and another baby due in December and he will have to tell his 4 best friends about Moxie Moms cause they all have kids too... I floated out to my cloud of elation (my car had been replaced by this dreamlike vehicle) and sped over to the clinic. I grabbed a stack and threw them at the peds nurse and the family practice nurse on the way to the apex, Suzanne Cooley, my midwife hero. She was with a very pregnant 18 year old but when she was finished I gave her my short stack to which she replied, "Jenah! You get back out to your car and get more of these things for me! I am giving them out to everyone that walks in here! Its about time someone started something like this!!"

So it is actually really cool now. But the cooler thing is that I had just prayed about it the night before. Not really wanting anything specific, just saying, I am frustrated and this sucks. Just kind of giving it over. So I guess the short synopsis of this too long blog is that when we give it to God, he takes care of it, better than we could.

Pretty cool, I'd say.