results of the fall...

is a really bad movie with some really cute guys in it...

or a summation of my last few days labor...

upon seeing my drug work (ha ha, i just like typing that), adam remarked that we shouldn’t keep all our drugs out where any visitor to our home to dope themselves silly with dramamine and nyquil. when i asked where pray tell we should keep these dangerous drugs...

he replied, “our bathroom”.

i guess that means move over tennis ball and caulking gun see this entry for bathroom photo . our 5x7 bathroom is going to get a LOT more crowded. at least those sleep meds will be closer to me.

and the other work of my hands... ALL my yard work (5 days in a row of at least an hour a day of weeding, digging out plants, pruning, etc....) has led to a lovely little rash all up and down my arm. i am pretty convinced (after a google search) that i have poison ivy. i had a bad case 6 or 7 years ago with it all over legs, arms, and my chest. this one is pretty much confined to my lower right arm. 

of course it covers the nice burn that i gave myself cooking dinner the other night. i splashed some boiling water from the corn on the cob pot onto my arm. but that is now covered with poison ivy, and really those two are not a winning combination... 

good thing i have a ziplock baggie full of “skin remedies” and can easily find it in newly organized system. that will all have to move to my 5x7 bathroom. really it is 5x7. come visit me and see it. but only one of us can stand in there at a time because it is 5x7...

which bring me to my new Bible chapter that i am working on... romans 8.

take a look at the first few verses and feel my memorization pain...

 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

it is really quite challenging (just like this life after the fall) because there is a lot of law (don’t i know that) and a lot of sinful man, sinful nature, sin and death (preach on sistah!) but there is also a lot of Christ Jesus (praise Him) thrown in there too.

i have felt the results of all my work being in vain, all my work bringing rashes and extreme itchiness to me, all my work being chaff that is quickly blown away. but then i remember that this life is not all there is, that God is more about His work than mine and that His work covers mine. all my acts are like filhy rags (filthy poison ivy filled rags that are organized nicely, but filthy rags nonetheless). the righteous requirements of the law are met in me NOT because of my work at all.

ok, i would write more about sin and righteousness and itchiness and burns and organization tips and how to love your 5x7 bathroom, but millie has a 7 a.m. orthodontist appointment...

i make drugs look good...

but not too good. 

i have now gained 32 new readers who googled the phrase “make drugs look good” and found this blog. welcome new friends... 

and by “make drugs look good” i mean that i finally organized our medicines yesterday. yes, i know FINALLY!!!!!!!! i am well aware that you have ALL been wondering when i would get around to that. you can take that item off of your prayer list.

here are the boxes all nice and organized now...

aren’t they lovely? can’t you sleep better at night knowing my medicines are organized?

well, if you went into the “sleep better” baggie (on the left), you could find a product to make you sleep better.

just in case you think i thought of that all on my own, i had seen on this blog that i visit http://creativeorganizing.typepad.com/, (of course i would visit a blog called CREATIVE ORGANIZING).

she makes her drugs look WAY too cute. that little red bucket filled with cough drops and that circle label... it would make me WANT to do drugs. so my drugs look good... but not that good.

only my food is allowed to look that good....

the nap explained...

aah, it is all clear now why i was feeling so nappish on monday (when i should have been at the gym)...

seems i had an ear infection that was brewing and struck me full steam yesterday and reduced me to a pile of rotten mush. you know how babies SCREAM when they get an ear infection.... yeah, i know why they do that IT IS BECAUSE THEY FEEL LIKE SOMONE IS REPEATEDLY HITTING THEM ON THE SIDE OF THEIR HEAD WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER. yes, that is why they cry and why i was not feeling at my usual level of perkiness and kindness and sunshine and flowers. 

millie hadn’t been feeling well either, so she and i went to the after hours doctor place at 6:00 last evening. we were there until about 8:00 (another reason to scream, but better than another sleepless and painful night for us both). we both have ear infections and sinus infections. i took millie home to eat dinner (potato soup that my sister had made and brought out to the car for us as we drove by her house, i love that kind of drive in place). i went and hung out in walgreens for about an hour while they filled my prescription. 

i am amazed that at one point i didn’t just stand in the middle of the store and start sobbing and yelling, “WHO KEEPS HITTING MY FACE WITH THAT SLEDGEHAMMER?”. that is how bad my ear hurt. i was very pleased at my self control through the whole thing. even when the pharmacist told me it would be about 45 minutes until my prescription was ready, i just gave her a tiny desperate look and said in a really quiet and patient voice, “can you try to make it a bit faster?” instead of leaning over the counter and choking her and shouting, “MY EAR HURTS SO BAD THAT I CAN’T MOVE MY HEAD AND IT HURTS ALL THE WAY DOWN INTO MY SHOULDER AND MY WHOLE HEAD IS ON FIRE LADY NOW GET ME SOME DRUGS!” yes, i am nothing if not courteous and patient in the drugstore, because i wouldn’t want them to give me the wrong thing.

anyway, filling a cart full of stuff from walgreens consoled me (really, i filled my cart with stuff. some of which i needed and other cool stuff that was just there. the pain made me do it). and then, you just knew that i had to go down the feminine products aisle WHILST two YOUNG YOUNG, oh my gosh, i swear they were millie’s age YOUNG teenagers were in the family planning aisle discussing their needs AND it was another miracle of God that i restrained myself from chatting with them and trying to dissuade them from their fornication plans because it would not have been the Holy Spirit speaking through me, it would have been PAIN and FRUSTRATION and the fact that i have a daughter almost their age and those those emotions never give good lectures in the family planning aisle. though i do like the fact that in that walgreens, the family planning section is right SMACK DAB next to the baby products items. and i guess if they are in the family planning aisle, it means that they are acting responsible and know about some of the consequences. it is all those other consequences that no one tells you about and that there is no protection for in walgreens. anyway i digress from the matter at hand, or at ear and side of head which was still being SLEDGEHAMMERED..

i am better this morning. and after breakfast making, lunches making, carpooling to elementary school, trip to drycleaner to get shirts for adam to take to phoenix tomorrow and then taking millie to middle school, I AM GOING BACK TO BED and may not get out until rosie get home and we have to go to get maxx from titus, take rosie to soccer. and then pick up millie and our neighbor harrison for church night, and go rehearse for the musical on sunday. wednesdays are CRAZY. no wonder there is a oil shortage. blame it on me and wednesdays.

ok that is more about my life and the walgreen’s aisles than you EVER wanted to know. blame it on the fever...

hope all is well and that your ears and head aren’t being SLEDGEHAMMERED! and if they are GET DRUGS NOW!

drugstore rules for the 21st century

let me open with this caveat... one of my little vices is an INTENSE love of the real world/road rules challenges on MTV. i know that i shouldn’t watch the debacle and desecration that is a dozen or so 20 year old strangers with NONEXISTANT to BARELY THERE moral compulsions, discipline, or self control all put together in one really expensive and well decorated house and then made to compete with each other for obscene amounts of money (that when they win they use for noble purposes like say... breast enhancement surgery) in between their binge drinking and hooking up and fighting and screaming at each other and lounging in the hot tub (where do they find the time to get all of these activities in one TV show?) but you know, a gal has to have something to watch when she folds laundry...

and a gal shouldn’t type such a long run on sentence in an opening paragraph... but a gal just did.

sooooo, where does this lead me, you ask? it leads me into walgreens last night to pick up a prescription and as i am leaving walgreens, i hear a VERY familiar voice to my left and so naturally i look to my left to see who i know in walgreens because gosh darn it, i am a friendly person. is that a crime? no, it is not....

anywho, i look over to my right at the voice i know and i see two 20ish year old guys standing there and i recognize one of them as someone i know, not only the voice but his face.

now naturally i assume (and we all know what happens when we assume anything) that this guy has been in our sunday school class (adam and i have taught a college sunday school class for 7 years thus ensuring that there are hundreds of former students wandering around in the world and perhaps frequenting walgreens on a monday night) and how else would i know a 20ish guy?

now this guy who i know has looked up at me and seen this 40 year old woman staring at him and he gives me a smile too and says “hi”. this means (to me) that he recognizes me and must have been a former student and i am frantically probing what is left of my mind to remember his name.

during this frantic probing of my mind, the other part of my brain responsible for visual image interpretation kicks in and at this precise moment i notice where he is standing in walgreens and how can i put this delicately..... hmmmm, nope no other way than to say... he is in the family planning section of the store and he is holding a family planning item in his hand. so in another area of my mind i am thinking, “wow, he most likely is not thrilled to see his sunday school teacher while he is holding this family planning item” and i am still trying to recall his name in some other recess of my mind, which is WAY on overload now.

i also must interject that when i told this story to my husband, he began to loudly question me as to WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU SPEAK TO SOMEONE IN THE DRUGSTORE? DON’T YOU KNOW NOT TO TALK TO ANYONE IN THE DRUGSTORE- THAT IS A PRIVATE PLACE AND YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO ADDRESS ANYONE IN THAT FACILITY! JUST GET YOUR PRESCRIPTION AND LEAVE, NO MAKING EYE CONTACT!

o.k. i had no idea of the social mores associated with the drugstore (note to self, look that up on miss manner’s website later today).

not knowing this drugstore place of secrecy rule... i continue in typical lea fashion (which means without thinking through the entire process and just trying to be nice and friendly). so now he has greeted me with a “hi” (meaning by my definition that he must recognize me as well), i don’t want to just ignore him and move on and look judgmental and like i won’t talk to anyone in the family planning section. because as i am about to illustrate, i will talk to anyone, anywhere, and at any time. 

we can now move into the really awkward part of the conversation....

lea: hi, i’m lea marshall (always give your name so they will give theirs)... i think i am your sunday school teacher?

guy: ummm, nope. but do you watch “road rules” on MTV. i’m ______________ from that show and i’ve been on a bunch of the challenges.

(left blank to protect his identity, this is not the national tattler online and i don’t want to besmirch anyone’s reputation on that classy show by letting it out who was in the family planning aisle at walgreens. though i hardly think any of them would find that little indiscretion besmirching, but i am a sunday school teacher who will speak to you if you are in the family planning aisle because i love and care for you as a person who is in the family planning aisle holding a family planning item because i do love families and i do love planning.)

lea: oh. yeah... so that's how i know you.

guy: (amused) so you are a sunday school teacher AND you watch road rules? cool.

lea: (in a voice not quite my own) yeah, i teach a sunday school class for college students and i sometimes i use things ya’ll do on the show as object lessons.

(ok, now i have totally insulted him by maintaining that what he does is used as fodder for our sunday school lessons. and i didn't really mean it that way. but i had used a challenge episode as a great illustration for a parable but it is really a lot to go into and explain IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FAMILY PLANNING AISLE AT WALGREENS. especially since i am still not thinking really clearly.  this is great and not quite what was meant by “what would Jesus do” which i have already failed at since i don’t think Jesus would watch MTV, but who knows, maybe He loves real world challenges. but even if He did watch MTV and He met someone in walgreens, Jesus would have something much better to say, like the whole woman at the well scenario. that went much better for Jesus than this whole thing is going for me. but then again as i have already established over and over- i am not Jesus.)

road rules guy: (somewhere between amused and offended) object lessons. great. nice to know i am helping. 

lea: (head nod, look at the family planning aid in his hand unintentionally and say in a weird voice that came from some alien who is inhabiting my body) ummm, have a nice night. 

(NOT meaning “have a nice night because you have family planning aid”, i just meant “have a nice night because i have just really insulted you and i recognized you and i should be a much better example for sunday school teachers everywhere, or even a better example of someone who loves Jesus and talks to people in walgreens, but i am not a good example of anythings except awkwardness and i am getting out of walgreens as soon as possible” i wonder if he got the subtle subtext and meaning in my “have a nice night”? i wonder if he knows what subtle subtext is? i wonder if on sunday he will wake up and think... “wish i knew where she taught sunday school because that is a class i would love to go to, she seems very Jesus like.”)