Salamanders, Art, Religion, and Life

This morning I woke to a dead baby salamander in the kitchen sink. Thoughts immediately took me back to every instance the wife has chased them down with a little box... to save them... from the dogs. She catches them and puts them outside where they belong. Then she worries that she's sending them to their death by putting them outside. One night we chased three around the bedroom, and set them free through the window. After crawling into bed, the wife looks up, and what do you know, there's one on the ceiling. She totally freaked out, and probably didn't sleep the whole night. "What if he falls into the bed?" When we woke the next morning and he was gone, I told her he probably fell right into her mouth while she slept. I know, I know... not nice. Anyway, this morning I was still blurry eyed. My routine is to stumble out of bed with the three babies, take them out, pray there aren't fishermen in the backyard because who knows what I'm wearing, stumble back in, get the babies treats, and make coffee. When I saw this baby in the sink after I had already turned on the water... when I realized he wasn't washing down the drain... I thought, no, I will take care of this later. Need... coffee... first. Poor little salamander.

The girl is very excited about school and doesn't stop talking from the time she gets in the car until the time she goes to bed. I'm happy for the excitement because she has a rough schedule, which is necessary if she's going to graduate when she's supposed to. So I figure, enjoy her excitement now. Thursday she was telling us that she's been put in art class. They get to build a portfolio, and "............." <----that's her talking. What I did get out of all of it was that this art class is ALL drawing. The wife and I were beside ourselves. "Wait a minute," the wife says. "You can't draw. You can do photography, but..." The girl interrupts with whining "............". The wife then pulls out pictures the girl drew a few months earlier. Actually, I'm told she traced them. I tell the girl we're taking those pictures up to the school and we're going to ask them what they're thinking. "Noooooooo... I like to draw." What about yearbook? What about a photography portfolio? I went up to the school the next day. I told them how I understood about being well rounded, but the girl is not on the track to college. She will probably end up in some art school or something. She loves photography and she's good, can we not get her into something like yearbook? Then I pulled out the pictures she drew, "She drew these..." I could tell they were trying to figure out whether or not they should say, "WOW, those are wonderful!":::mouths wide open::: When clearly they are terrible for a 17 year old. I decide to let them off the hook and told them I brought the pictures in for emphasis on why I think she needs to do something else. "Ahhhhh..." Laughter all around  ::shaking head:: We aren't mean parents, we're honest. The girl really needs to focus on her future if she's going to do what she wants and be financially independent.

The girls drawing... or I should say, tracing

           

I've been on the hunt for a church in our small town. The biggest problem I have is finding one that will accept us. We don't want to go into a church lying about who we are to each other. I don't think God would like that. The other problem is that these churches have hidden denominations. Seriously, in Dallas, they have names like St. Peter's Catholic, or Blah Blah Baptist. NOT here. I have to Google them to find out what they are. So far we've got Pentecostal ::that's not happening::, Baptist ::no way::, Methodist ::this one is iffy::, and Presbyterian ::getting closer?::  I'm shocked at the absence of Catholicism, but this is a small town. Maybe that's a big city religion. Eh, I'm a recovering Catholic anyway. 

The other day the wife and I were driving down the only road out of town when we passed by a church (Yes, we pass it every day). I wondered out loud what denomination the church was. "Baby, you say that every time we..." I interrupt saying I do not say it every time. "I bet you've Googled that one at least ten times now." Noooo, I haven't. Im going to look it up right now! I want you to ask whats-her-face where the gay people go to church around here. She says we aren't the only ones in this town, and some of them must go to church! Then she says, "Honnnney, you know that tone you get when you're reading your mother's emails? You know... you're trying to sound crazy like her?" Uh huh... "That's kind of what you sound like when you get all worked up, you know?" Hmmm... I then tell the wife that, I don't know, but I scared myself to death the other day when I walked by a mirror in the store and thought I looked like her. The wife confirmed I do not look like my mother... Thank God. Then she called me a crazy a**. Ahhh, the love.   

I finally looked into that church last night. It's Disciples of Christ. I still had no idea what that was, so I had to look up beliefs. Apparently they were once totally against "practicing" LGBT's but have now come to show greater tolerance toward them. "They practice tolerance!!" I tell the wife, this is the one! "Sure they do... " she says. "They still call black people "coloreds" around here... do you know how backwards that is?" Yes, it's true. We'll just have to see about this church. I wonder what they would call us. 

The wife is awake now, so I'm going to wrap up this incredibly long post. She hasn't been feeling well this past week. Her MS has been giving her grief, which she would deny 'til her dying day. She says it's a "bug." Uh huh. We close on the Dallas home on Tuesday... finally, and I think this is what's stressing the wife. Why her MS is flaring. The money lost, the fact that we loved it so, but that it was time to let it go and move on, are things she hangs onto. 

I loved the crown molding in the old house. This is one small example.

    

The back yard was so beautiful and peaceful... until they built that damn treehouse

I'm going to try hard to keep up with my blogging so I don't end up writing such long posts. The problem is, after I take the kids to school I work out. If I don't, then I know I'll end up skipping it, which will then make me feel like a fat cow, because I have a love affair with food that I don't want to give up. Even though food makes me incredibly sick, I love eating it. It doesn't make sense at times, what will make me ill, and what won't. In Mississippi, I had a true southern meal of fried chicken and waffles, which didn't make me sick at all. The other night, the wife and I tried this old fashioned diner in the middle of town, and I had chicken fried chicken with gravy. I was sick as a dog afterward. Although, it may have been the chocolate pie that made me ill. Who knows... all I know is I need to workout if I'm going to eat this kind of crap.

The babies love to watch me work out

The wife wants to put my elliptical in one of the back bedrooms. It's windowless... NOT happening. No one uses this room, so it's MY workout space. :)

This is my view while I work out... LOVE it!

             

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!! I'm going to try to catch up on everyone's posts tonight!