Fruit flies and a funeral (in no order of importance)

I cannot for the life of me form a coherent stream of thought this afternoon. All I can think is, “these fruit flies are so annoying,” “I really should say something profound about Melissa’s funeral.” And, “Man, senior pictures and video projects sure have taken over Lucy’s spot in I-photo.” (…Sorry Andrea, not much quality of the kids these days)

So here we go – a perfect specimen of stream-of-conscious writing:

Last week, an avid gardener (who shall remain nameless – but you know who you are) brought me 5 squash. Now, I had asked for one small zucchini – but you know how it goes with squash – and the gardener came baring an assortment of “had-seen-better-days-but-I-need-to-get-them-out-of-my-house-before-they-go-bad” produce. And this is why I need to put this into print – we gardeners need to establish a “go-bad” criteria. If there is mold – it is bad – if it is split and ozzing something – bad. More bruises than firm flesh – bad. Larger then life or turning an inappropriate color – do not give it away. It is not a gift – it is a blight. If the fruit flies have taken over your kitchen like moths swarming around bright lights – your harvesting methods are inappropriate. I give this little pep-talk as much to myself as others. But after the fruit-fly infestation of 2008 brought on by 5 “had-seen-better-days” squash I am taking a pledge to raise my standards and COMPOST if QUESTIONABLE. People, it is so bad that a bat tried to get into my kitchen and have at the fruit flies! Last night a bat was stuck in our stairwell just banging against my kitchen door… and we don’t have bats in KS!

But, you see, I got to experience the whole bat fiasco because late into the night I was peeling and chopping produce for a salad for a funeral dinner this afternoon. It’s like the only positive thing that could come out of a funeral… the funeral dinner cleaned out my kitchen enough that I should be able to starve out the fruit flies. There was so much food at the funeral dinner we could have done without my salad + 1/2 of the food there. But here is the deal – when someone you love dies… or I guess, when someone you love has someone they love die – you want to “DO” something to “help” - “to make things OK”. And well, you can’t – so you just make food. Maybe you can measure how much a family is loved by how much homemade food is at their funeral. You can quantify the value of a person’s life in how many of the “best” recipes and intricate time-consuming dishes are brought to that final dinner. And you know, today the over-supplied funeral dinner was for a woman who had been in a persistent vegetative state for 14 years. So I don’t need anyone to tell me that every life is valuable… it was proven today in the food. So thank you Melissa, for one last time showing me the value of life… and for helping me to eradicate my kitchen plague….

To continue you this random post….

here's a photos Jude took with his little camera right after Lucy was born... look at how good he is getting at including heads!


Here's 3 shots from Cousin Maysyn's b-day party




My mom captured this quaint photo of us making pies... from fresh peaches and blackberries....mmmm... even worth the fruit flies


Here is Lu w/ Grandma Stafford... one of the few times she would actually hold her!

APPLYING TO BE OPRAH

So, I’m naive. I have hinted at it before but today’s post is gonna make that blaringly obvious (I just want you all to know - that I know). Until the last year, my life was (I thought) totally uninfluenced by Oprah Winfrey. I didn’t watch the show, didn’t talk to people who watched the show, and was only vaguely aware of her “book club” and her other influential presence in our culture. Then two things happened:
1. I got pregnant and tired and started doing my laundry at 4:00 on Mondays while Jude napped – So I’d hook up our bunny ears, turn on the TV to our 1 channel and watch Oprah once a week and “veg out.”
2. 2. I started getting these emails and hearing these comments about the church of Oprah and how “evil” all these books were that she was promoting – like “The Secret” and “A New Earth”.
I became fascinated. 22 million viewers, instant success (an extra million copies of a book sold) if an author makes it on Oprah, overwhelming cultural acceptance of countercultural behavior if promoted by her, she has more credibility and influence among the public than any other political or media figure… and I had up until this point thought she was just non-prime-time entertainment for people who were WAY TOO BORED.
Then I thought, well if she is this influential I really should see about these books that “everybody” is reading, ‘cause there is nothing I distaste more than someone mocking or being frightened of my spiritual views when they haven’t read the Bible or any Christian classics, - so I try not to do that to others.
Off to the library I went in search of Eckart Tolle. They had 8 copies – more than usual – but ok, it’s popular. I went down to the stacks where it should have been. But it’s not there. Back upstairs to double check the call number – back downstairs – no book – back upstairs – ask librarians who I know well. They stare at me – stunned – and point to the adjacent wall – the first thing I should have seen as I walk in to the library and say, “That’s an Oprah book club book and they are all right there.”
I can’t believe it – there are so many copies of each book and they are in such a prominent place I had always assumed them to be reference sets or something – like encyclopedias. At that moment the only thing I could think was, “I want to be Oprah.” She has so much more than fame – she has the ability to make other people famous. “How do I apply for that job?”
Since I couldn’t find an Oprah job application I just sat down and read the book. I won’t get into my thoughts on it but just know that if I were Oprah it SO WOULDN’T make my list… nor would anything with such blaring chronological snobbery and self-absorption and inconsistencies. (If you’ve read it and want to talk more about it give me a call – or if you haven’t read it but are interested, it might do you some good to be familiar with some of the key concepts and their usage like “Ego” “I Am” and “Pain body” because in like 10 years they will be incorporated deeply in our culture and we won’t even know where they came from.)
Today, I don’t have a book club and I really don’t want to sit around criticizing someone else’s (because -face it- it would be a really tough job to decide in what direction to totally shift our culture) – and I don’t have a 22 million person following, I just thought I’d be your Oprah for the day. Enjoy.

Journalistic bit on safety: Whatever you do – do not take your child to the county fair and let him ride on something that looks like this – no matter how much he begs… even I know it is a death trap… cause I think it was there and dilapidated when I was his age. And besides – what is it? And where are the children supposed to come out? They just keep going in… and oh never mind it is too scary…


Personal interest story (translation – it would have no personal interest to anyone had Oprah not plugged it):




(3 a.m. photos of me and Meg in high school making donuts at Daylights)

Afterward I think I would turn from the big screen on the wall to the audience with a big tear in my eye and say, “We’ll be right back after this commercial for Krispy Kremes.”


Fashion plug: (One day I watched a whole show on finding the perfect pair of black pants – they ranged from $500 to $50… and she thought they were a steal!!! And then promised a coming show on the perfect jeans. PLEASE!!! NO!!) So here is my tip – call my friend Lori at the community assistance center (785) 625-9110 and make a $50 donation to feeding the poor in our community and I bet she’ll send you 10 different black pants in your size. I mean I am not a seamstress but there can only be so many ways to cut material… and fashions recycle (in case you hadn’t noticed) so you are bound to get a hand-me-down in the right style!

Home and Garden: I don’t have an interior decorator – and although my garden is producing like gang-buster it pretty much looks like a garbage heap – so instead I thought I’d show you some photos from my Aunt and Uncle’s… I think they have got the best home and garden around… mostly cause it is filled with lots of love… oh and ‘cause who else says pumpkins in August?





Poet plug: check out our friend at http://www.knifegunpen.com/ - my personal favorite is “Jesus wants to make you a millionaire.”

Best cook around: So one day she talked with some famous guy (sorry didn’t know him) and his wife who was like 30 years younger than him. Come to find out, the famous singer guy didn’t want to be on the show but his wife had just written a cookbook so she talked all about that. And near as I can tell the most creative thing she had to offer was to sauté your veggies before you put them in your meatloaf. Hmmmm… for some real creative cooking try thepioneerwoman.com (the stuffed Roma tomatoes are to die for!) and she is hilarious.

Health: Now, I don’t have my personal Dr. Oz but I am kind of getting sick of how many creative ways people think they need to repeat nutrition information – the truth is people don’t REALLY WANT to be healthy – it’s just not worth it to them… but just in case I’m wrong I’ll give it one last shot.
Smoking is bad for you.
Fat and grease are bad for you.
Nothing good comes of eating an Oreo. Are you surprised?
You should exercise.
You should eat veggies.
And apparently if something comes in a box or can or plastic wrap and is frozen or freeze dried and processed in some way and is REALLY EXPENSIVE – but has an approval sticker by someone in the diet industry it is WAY BETTER FOR YOU than fresh produce.
Got it? Good.

Politics: Sorry, I can’t officially indorse anyone in D.C. or anyone interested in going to D.C. but I am in the process of reading Shane Claiborne’s, Jesus for President – it has me way out of my comfort zone and I am only on ch. 2 (Check back next week to see if it makes it to my book list) Oh and if you want to read it – you will probably have to request your library purchase it for you… at least I had to… since it hadn’t made it to Oprah’s reading list yet.

Philanthropy: Well, I don’t have much money to throw around but if I did I would probably throw it in the direction of these people: www.pettengillmissionaries.org.
P.S. They do medical clinics in poor neighborhoods in Honduras as well as teach the gospel and they are in huge need of a truck right now to haul medical equipment… so if anyone has any ideas or money…

Spirituality: Hmmm… I am really enjoying the book of the 12 right now – also known as the minor prophets. Not only do they use beautiful imagery they are so applicable to today… and so convicting to me… but be careful, they aren’t very “seeker friendly” or “touchy feely” - they pretty much tell it like it is: humanity is messed up – you and me – we are messed up and greedy and yucky and we create some messed up societies– and we need a messiah, we need a new heart… it is the only hope

What do you think? Could I be Oprah? I didn’t think so… but I couldn’t find an application out there anyway. But I'm sure if I did it would ask if I had potential to have really bad hair days... and at least I have that going for me.



(Thanks Meg for the photos from memory lane!)

7 years?

Is it really possible that we have been married 7 years today? I have been more reflective about our life and marriage today than I remember being on any other anniversary (maybe because due to nursing a REALLY slow eater I am sitting around more than ever.) However, this is what I have concluded - our life looks nothing like either of us anticipated and in actuallity we are probably not the people we thought we had married - thankfully for us we got married so young we were expecting to "grow up together" and expecting each other to change a lot over the years. And the only thing that has stayed the same is that we still make each other better people. When I married Jarod it was because I saw things in him that I wanted to be more like. As my friend Steph says, "over the years you pull each other toward the middle." And we have... but each year we realize how far apart we started. But the middle is a real nice place to aim for...


We spent the weekend at the Hett family reunion... and this was the family photo after 3/4 the people left. (Aunt Teresa can you email this to Elden and other people? I don't have their addresses. thanks)

stay-at-home-dad

Well, Jarod is preparing to return to work this week after almost 3 weeks of "vacation" (if that's what people call taking care of a laid up wife, a 3 1/2 year old and a newborn). Anyway, I just thought I should update you all on how that went. Please see photo below:



I love this photo for so many reasons - please notice:
The shoes in the middle of the floor for no particular reason (like he tried to go somewhere but didn't get there)
Sunscreen on the table from the lake trip the boys took the day before
Camera and other electronic gadgets within arms reach
Overflowing trash can
Lucy's blanket on the floor from earlier that morning (swing and bouncer chair just outside of the camera's reach - evidence of other failed attempts to calm baby) (also just outside of the camera's vantage point is a huge stack of dirty dishes, piles of laundry and a car seat that Jude threw up in 2 days ago after choking on a sunflower seed - but had still not been returned to the car)
SOLVED rubik's cube
feet propped up in total relaxation
A kid'konects airplane contraption that the two of them had spent HOURS (no - DAYS) perfecting
My smiling son

You see, Jarod is the perfect stay at home parent from any kid's point of view - he SO prefers playing to chores, outings to errands, one-on-one attention to multi-tasking, and macaroni & cheese and fruit pizza to fresh veggies and whole wheat. So thank you husband for caring for me and putting things back in perspective... now go back to work and let me clean this place up :).


I had to get out of the house on Saturday (maybe because it looked like this) and so we took Lucy, Jude and my parents over to a friend's house and Lucy had her first swimming lesson and Jude "mastered" the diving board.





Maybe Jarod gets his parenting ability from my dad some how... they are just so much alike!!




Oh and Lucy can do tricks now!! Make sure you have the volume up when you play this...

Yeah... she's that smart

+ baby - internet

Now, of these two things one would think the baby would have adjusted our life more... but that is not true. At this point baby just keeps me up at night some (but no more than I was up the 3rd trimester anyway), poops (but really takes no time to change), and cries (but is no noisier than Jude).
However, our internet has been down the last week and until this point we had not consciously admitted that the internet is our lifeline: source of information, entertainment, and connection to other people (especially with Jarod off work, me not able to move faster than a decrepit old woman and temperatures and humidity hovering around 100 degrees that requires us to keep baby mostly indoors).
Our week off line has probably helped us to bond better with each other and baby -spending hours talking, playing games, and goofing off with the kids. But in the last 8 hours of reconnectedness to our lifeline we have found out these pertinent pieces of information and now have the ability to pass them on to you:

Lanolin is indeed made from the grease pressed from sheep's wool.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" does not have anything to do with LSD... so let it go
There are many false TB tests each year... so don't worry if you get a big bump from your skin test
"Body Worlds" is a museum exhibit put together in Germany using the remains of only willing donors - while "Our Body: the Universe within" - a similar exhibit - may have obtained their specimens in a more questionable manner.
ETC...ETC... aren't you glad we got the internet back???

Well, Jarod is waiting for his turn again so I must go, but lucky for you we have no photos of us kissing our computer... just some shots of baby I had time to take while off line.





P.S. - Jude quickly abandoned my idea of 3 pirates who don't do anything and has been busier than ever with lake trips, train trips, and parties with the other people in his life... thanks son...

I have some photos...

LUCY JOAN TIPPY 7/18/08




You have no idea how long winded I could be about this week but I think I'll just let the photos speak for themselves... mostly... Here are some of my favorites... (you can click to enlarge and comment at the end)



My mom even brought my 92 year old grandma in to meet her... and it went really well. It just amazes me how much the simple existence of a newborn makes everyone else's life better.


Some people say they look just alike - others don't think they do at all - I don't know... you decide


Hey - look what I grew over the weekend!


Last but not least, I have decided that the new theme song for my life is the Veggie Tales, "We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" - Now I haven't seen the movie and I am not a fan of the VT in general but that song cracks me up. Considering Jude's obsession with pirates, and the fact the Lucy usual only has one eye open (like a pirate Jude says) and the fact that I was barely presentable to the world by 3 this afternoon... and I CAN'T DO ANYTHING with this incision .... I have decided the three of us will do nothing for a very long time to come. So feel free to come on by and join us....

never inevitable

(HOW I WRITE MY BLOG – Whatever has been on my mind all week and finds it’s way to the keyboard in 15 minutes – SO HANG ON.)

SHORT VERSION: THERE IS STILL NO BABY.
Nice trip down memory lane though – photo of Jude with Jarod days after he was born and photo of the two on Hugo’s due date.


LONG VERSION:
This week has brought nothing that was originally expected… namely a baby that is now 4 days overdue and showing no signs of hurry. And in contrast to being surrounded by new life and it’s joys, we found ourselves in the midst of a funeral – a funeral of 1,100 people come to pay tribute to the life of our amazing friend. We saw friends that we hadn’t seen in almost a decade (am I old enough to say that?) and “caught up” on life stories that to this point we had only been imagining. And may I just say that I am far too hormonal for any of this.

And it hit me this week that I have become too comfortable with the idea of the “inevitability” of my “good life.” Some of our friends have come upon bad times. Friends much smarter than us are in great debt. Friends far more humorous than us have found themselves lonely. Friends far more talented than us are at dead-end jobs. And as they laughed and smiled about how, “Good we looked” and “how good life was treating us,” and how they all just knew, “we’d be happy together forever,” I couldn’t help but be humbled anew that it is only by God’s grace that we indeed are truly and deeply happy. And the hard times may come – maybe this baby will be deformed and maybe we will make some financial decisions that destroy us forever and maybe, even maybe one of us will be murdered. But thus far God’s grace has been sufficient and may it ever be. My good life was not inevitable - it is a miracle. Now if I can just spread the miracle….

So here are some moments of joy from even the last two weeks…



Few things in life make me happier than seeing Jarod with his friend Pete from "back in the day," our friend Casper or with his sister... his skin and smile just seems to fit better when he is with them.



And I have some pretty cool friends myself...


Not only does this picture remind me that Kansas contains true beauty but it is hilarious to know that some not very bright people have been convinced that Ks is doing it's part to stop global warming by putting up very large fans to cool things down