Miscellany

I thought I'd take advantage of the boy's naptime coupled with putrid weekend weather to catch you all up on what's been happening 'round these parts. 

Please fasten your seatbelts and keep all extremities inside the car as we make our way.  Here we go!

1)  Backyard Shenanigans:

If someone asked you to name the kind of things you'd find in a backyard, what would come to mind first? 

*A swingset?

*A Grill?

*Patio Furniture?

Sure!  All of these things would have come to mind for me also, but now I have one more item to add to the list.  This is what I found in my backyard last Saturday......


Esox Lucius aka Northern Pike

 Yep, that's a fully formed fish and let's just say I do not own anything that could be considered lakefront (or lakenear or lakeadjacent) property.  Isn't that just a nice way to start out spring???  My neighbor and a friend suggested that maybe a raccoon got it when the creek nearby was at a high level, which makes sense I guess.  As a side note, Ryan thought it was the coolest thing ever and for days after would stand at the backdoor and look for the "wishie."  That was the only redeeming factor of the whole situation.  :)

2) Taken down by Group A:

It all started innocently enough last Tuesday with a tickle in the back of my throat.  Other than that I was feeling great - helping people at work and feeling generally jovial and such.  Before bed on Tuesday, I noticed the tickle starting to feel a little burn-y.  I figured it was nothing since I'd been singing my larynx out in my car on the way to acupuncture.  No biggie.  Tuesday night, when Dennis gets home from work, he notices that I'm burning up in bed.  I wake up feeling like a rotisserie chicken and make my way to the couch because I can't get back to sleep.

Wednesday - Queue muscle aches e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e, headache, swollen glands and horrible malaise.  In my delusion I was wondering if I was having a very early miscarriage.  Ha! If you could miscarry phantom babies, that is....... :/  Nighttime brought little sleep as my body alternated freezing and burning out the bug. Since I was awake anyway, I Googled my symptoms and diagnosed myself with either strep throat or cancer. 

(FYI - Do not, I repeat DO NOT google strep throat "images." One of them scared me half to death until I realized it was the inside of a red bell pepper.......*sigh*)

Thursday - Urgent care and an antibiotics prescription.  Spent the day in a mostly unconsious state.  I think it's been a couple of years since I've had to use a sick day on myself.....

I'm feeling better now, but mostly petrified that Ryan could come down with it.  I have been checking his throat periodically for swollen glands and asking him if his mouth hurts (as I don't think he knows what a "throat" is yet.).  If he didn't think I was nuts already, I think this is sealing the deal.  :)

3)  Giving to Caesar what is Caesar's:

On Monday, April 18th, my life is going to change for the rest of the year.  Dennis will be home again!!  Why is it that all of the meanies come out on these last days anyway??  All demanding and unruly as though they haven't had the last THREE MONTHS to get this stuff done.  Indignant because they have a business that actually made money, but they have to pay taxes?????  Can't Dennis just do something???  Oh Dennis does something alright - he shows them the door.  I'm so proud of my husband for standing up to people to are bent to misrepresent and cheat.

4)  Passion Week:

In case you missed it this winter - the most wonderful time of the year is upon us again!

The week leading up to Easter is commonly called Holy (or Passion) Week. For any Lent-ers out there, Congratulations, you're on home stretch and I hope all of your aspirations have been fulfilled!  (I'm also expecting Facebook to blow up again as a lot of people come back - ha!) 

Well, it begins on Sunday (tomorrow, Palm Sunday), when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the people spread palm branches on the ground to prepare the way for his arrival.  This fulfilled many prophesies in the Bible (written hundreds of years prior) about the way the Messiah would come and a precursor to how He would die.  The rest of the week is filled with anointing, teaching, cleansing the temple, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Trial, the Crucifixion, and culminating with Jesus' defeat of death and Satan by way of the Resurrection. 

Wowie.  A power packed week indeed!  I hope each of you can take some time to think about what the implication of these events mean for your life.  God can certainly handle (and welcomes!) our honesty.  In light of the recent events in my life, this week means we will not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (source)