My Husband: The Laundry Nazi

Most wives probably hate it that their husbands don't help out around the house. My husband is wonderful at helping out around the house! Sometimes to a fault... You see, he has this odd obsession with laundry. If there is not always a load in the washer, something is wrong. Something went wrong this week - the dryer stopped working. And Andy freaked out.

Andy: "What are we going to do?"
Me: "Wait until we get a repairman out."
Andy: "But, that could be a couple of days."

Yep, a couple of days when we have a closet full of clean clothes. The world might stop.

Much to his delight, the repairman made it out today to fix our dryer. We went a total of 3 days without a dryer. Andy just about had a stroke. So, I figured what a perfect opportunity to play a good old fashioned prank on him. After the repairman met me at the house, I gave him a ring.

Me: "Well, there's good news and bad news."
Andy: "Okay, what's the bad news?"
Me: "The repairman said he can fix it, but he has to order a part for it and it will be a week before it will get in."
Andy: Silence.
Me: "Are you there?"
Andy: "What are we going to do?"
Me: "I guess just wait a week to do laundry."
Andy: Long pause. "A whole week?"

Hehe. Don't worry, folks. I didn't let it go on for too long. When he got home tonight, he sighed a deep sigh of relief seeing that the dryer was indeed working, and said, "What a day of jubilation!!!"

He's doing laundry right now while I'm typing this... Obsessive, you think?


(Side note: This outfit matches wonderfully, eh?)

Beautiful

Isn't this beautiful?

I thought so too.

Mall Date

A few years ago Andy gave me a little coupon book for Valentine's Day. Included was the above coupon. Since I'm the kind of person who always saves things (ex. I save the best bite for the last), I still haven't used it. When Andy came home and wanted to do something fun, I remembered this coupon, and redeemed it!

First, we had corndogs and strawberry lemonade at Corn Dog Heaven. Every bit as good as they look.

Then we looked at the puppy store. Nothing is more fun at the mall than picking out a pitiful looking puppy and playing with it. Except for maybe buying that puppy. We didn't buy this little guy, but he was awfully cute. Just look at that pitiful face.


And then I got a new dress.

All in all, it was a wonderful date!!!

The Play Village

Meet Jazmine. Jazmine's friendship is one of the biggest blessings I've received as a result of working at the bank. She is such an encouragement and really loves people and loves Jesus!!! And, we eat chocolate covered strawberries and guacamole together while listening to Tejano music. It's fun. You should try it sometime.

Meet Saylor. Saylor is Jazmine's cousin. She is 2 1/2 years old and is very, very smart. So smart that she was moved up a grade in school. She's also lots of fun!

Last night Jazmine, Saylor, and I decided to go play at the Play Village park. I've been wanting to go to this park for years now. In fact, every time we drive by this park, I tell Andy how much I want to go to this park. He's probably glad we went so I'll stop bugging him about it. It's an enormous park and is made literally to look like a village. It was every bit as exciting as I had imagined it to be.

And, there were bunnies. Herds or flocks or packs or whatever large amounts of bunnies are called. Here's a little bunny just chillin.
I was looking for bunnies with Saylor and a little boy at the park came along to look with us. He was soooo excited about the bunnies and so he joined in with the fun. His parents who were looking on then asked me if I am a teacher. I said no, to which they replied, "Really? Because you seem like a teacher. You have that peppy teacher personality."

Hmmm.... I'm just not sure what to think about that comment. Peppy teacher personality? I don't think I want a peppy teacher personality. I think if I had that I'd have to wear Christmas and 4th of July sweaters or something.

Jazmine and I were talking with Saylor and I asked her what color her shirt is. "Pink", she said. "Well, what color is Jazmine's shirt?" I asked. "Blue," she said, "Blue is for boys. Boys wear blue." "So, does that make Jazmine a boy?" I asked. She looked at me with a very puzzled look on her face. And ignored my question. The jury is still out on that I suppose.

The Hedges.

No silly, I'm not talking about us.

I'm talking about the shrubs we planted in our front yard recently:

One of the previous owners of our house thought it would be a brilliant idea to put gravel in all the flower beds surrounding our house (this one pictured, all along the back fence, next to the shed, along the side of the house, behind the master bedroom and surrounding all the trees). Since I have been in school during the majority of my time in Lubbock, I didn't mess with the flowerbeds. Gravel is pretty low maintenance, believe it or not! However, I've been itching for quite some time to put real landscaping in at our house. All it took was a buy one shrub get one free coupon to entice us to do the work on the front flowerbed.

So my wonderful husband decided to start on a Friday afternoon while I was working to get a head start. Soon after he started digging, I got a call. Apparently the people who put in the gravel really liked it, because it was about 4 inches deep. And in ALL of the flowerbeds. After much backbreaking labor, we finished the front flowerbed completely, shrubs and all, and dug up all the gravel in about 1/3 of the backyard! We're anxious (sort of) to get more done in the backyard this weekend!!!

Empty-handed.

Pondering this Sunday's sermon on John 6:22-71 has reminded me once again of several precious truths. I am so often exactly like those who asked Jesus, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?" (John 6:28) - I feel like I am more important in the Kingdom of God if I am doing something. I like the feeling of accomplishment. I like to look at something, finish it, and sit back with my arms crossed, "I did that! It was me!"

Here is Jesus' response: "Then Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.'" (John 6:29) Jesus doesn't want our works. In fact, they are sickening to him (Isaiah 64:6). We have absolutely nothing good to offer him. He doesn't need our works to accomplish anything. Anything we do that is good is only good because he has enabled it. Even our very belief in Jesus is not something to boast about - it is given to us by God himself. "All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." (John 6:37)

Tends to make you feel pretty useless when you think of it this way, doesn't it?

I think that's the point.