othersomethings.com

I’ve been to a lot of funerals. A LOT.

Some aren’t so bad. Funerals for the elderly are easy.

Funerals for the young are hard.

There is a fine line you find yourself walking, between knowing (in the case of those who know God) that the mourning is temporary and their fulfillment in Christ is complete…and the other side, of knowing/feeling that the life that person was living was cut off abruptly, with so much left undone. I’ve felt this one too many times. Once is too many. 3, 4, 5 times…too many.

The levels of hurt are profound, and seem to amplify, as new wounds are added to old ones. Any time someone is removed from your life, for whatever reason, there is some hurt. Removed because they died…there really just aren’t words.

I think in this instance, the pain absolutely is personal. But even more, knowing first hand the grief my aunt, uncle, and cousins are feeling, and the road that is ahead of them, is what hurts more. It is as though their hearts are withstanding an unprecedented earthquake, and the aftershocks keep coming. And coming. And coming.

A firm foundation will hold them fast. They will not crumble, they will not fall. But the trembling earth will still be felt. For many years to come.

My heart aches for them.

I don’t think they read my blog. But either way…I love you Boville family, and I know exactly how to pray for you. I am, and I will. And if you ever want to know what the road looks like a few years from now, just ask. I wish I had someone to ask, and I didn’t. But you do, so feel free.

See you later, Michael.

On a 1000 mile stretch of road, you are bound to see things that make you go “hmm.”

This is what we saw.

Within 30 minutes, we saw two cars worth noting. The first:

Had 5 tomatoes in the rear window, ripening in the sun. “Hmm. Interesting.”

The second car?

I’m guessing cantaloupe.  In which case, I did not know you could ripen melons in the sun, let alone in your rear window. “Hmmmm……”

Next up, we passed a truck with a trailer full on ablaze. Couldn’t tell what was in the trailer but it kind of looked like furniture. I felt bad for them.

Shannon said it looked like a classic case of flicking a cigarette butt out the window and it catching on the trailer. Hope that wasn’t the case.

Next, is just plain….”?!?!?!?!?”

It’s a little hard to see in the photo, so I will describe it in great detail. A car club of crown vics. One outrageous model was lime green, was on 30” rims, with Lamborghini doors. How do I know about the doors?   Cause he had them open. On the highway. In bumper to bumper.

But that is not the car we are looking at in this picture. In the photo above, we see a white crown vic. It’s on some big rims too, but not that big. What really makes this car “special” is that it is a rolling advertisement for Family Guy. Yes, that “Family Guy.” It has door sized images of Peter Griffin, lots of quotes all over, and on the back as you can see…on the bumper…”Giggety Giggety.”

I didn’t even know African Americans were a demographic of family guy fans. (Duane doesn’t count.)

It was a rolling DRATW. Full on

Ok.  So that was crazy. Shannon and I laughed, and laughed. But this is not the best one. The best one?

This guy:

Clearly a Florida Gators fan, big time. The kicker? The plastic display case siliconed to the hood containing an actual gator head. The kind you pick up at your local Taxidermist.

He wins. hands down.

This is an onion. Your every day run of the mill large sweet videlia onion. A good 3 1/2″ to 4″ onion. We will name it “average big onion.”

And then along comes this guy. We will call him “Andre The Giant Onion.” I left “Average Onion” in the pic so you could have perspective.

I have been thinking long and hard about how this onion should be used. I LOOOOOVE onion. A sweet onion in any form is a welcome addition to….anything but ice cream, probably.

Should we slice it? Should we dice it? Should we eat it raw in a salad? Should we let it simmer in butter until it delivers it’s golden sweet caramely goodness?

There are too many options. And this onion of greatness deserves a meal of greatness.

I actually emailed The Pioneer Woman, asking her what she would do with an onion like this. No response. Maybe I should have tweeted her instead? Anyway, all that to say…I’m open to suggestions.  Leave your detailed and loving suggestions in the comments. If you inspire a new dish, i’ll name it after you. Or at least name the onion after you. “Andre” is a little impersonal.

Great. Another month slipped away, I’m doing AWESOME on the blogging, I’m sure to win national awards at this rate.

We moved. Ella discovered the joys of bubble wrap. We got at least 5 episodes of The Tick distraction free since she was 100% absorbed in this activity.

And the day after we moved in, we decided to have Fathers Day Dinner at our new house and invited the family over. I spent the morning pretty much digging plates and silverware and pots out of boxes, in quite a hurry.

Gotta tell ya, pouring $200 into that pool a few days later was GREAT FUN. Total fun. I highly recommend it.

Just kidding. Want to know what I DO recommend?

Naps. For toddlers. In their own beds. In their own rooms.

Can’t put a price on that one, my friends.

11 churches is a decent number to visit in an area. Especially an area you’re already familiar with. Interestingly, the whole process of “looking for a church” was stressful for my husband, even though it was enjoyable and enlightening for me, I think partly because he’s done it before  and I haven’t, and partly because he already knew where he wanted to attend church.

So we are attending East Coast Christian Center, at their Avenue location. It will be good for him to be actively involved in church again, it’s been awhile, and I don’t know what my involvement will look like – for now not much more than on Sunday morning. But that remains to be seen. Shannon has experienced spiritual growth there in the past, and I am confident that if it’s where God wants us to be for now, that spiritual growth will continue in our whole family.

Not sure if I’ll continue blogging services. I might but I’ll have to evaluate what purpose it would serve, since I’ve had several purposes for doing so in the past and I’m not sure they all still apply.

So we’ll see.

I am about to make a rare comment on someone of celebrity status.

This is a 9 year old girl. She is out in public. She dressed herself.

Why didn’t her mother stop her before she went out the door? No, scratch that…why didn’t her mother stop those articles of clothing from entering the house to begin with?

Granted, I have a two year old who occasionally likes to assert her opinion on what she’s going to wear today, and it doesn’t always “play well together.” BUT SHE IS TWO.

This nonsense is inexcusable.

My sister Kelly turned 21 memorial day weekend. So mom and I took her for a mini vacation over to the gulf coast. A last time for everything, right? *coughoilspillcough*

It was a quiet weekend, no raving and partying for this crowd.

We did enjoy the beach though. And when I say “We” I mean the people who don’t have completely rational and founded fears of large bodies of water.

We took a boat ride through the harbor, and enjoyed a double rainbow.

And the sunset was lovely. One of God’s best ideas, I think.

I would like to mention that being the logical person I am, I packed accordingly. I had one small bag along with toiletries and my purse, and in fact did not even wear all the clothes I brought. One outfit I didn’t wear simply because I picked up something extra at a thrift shop. But the second unworn outfit was completely unnecessary.

If I had that much unnecessary baggage, what do you make of this?

I’m just sayin’.

I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe my mom knows something I don’t, based on her years of experience.  If that’s the case, I’ll live and learn.

Either way, I guess I’m just a light packer.

She loves that rug. No clue why…but she regularly lays on, rolls around on, pretends to sleep on, retreats to, and in general shows a preference for it.

She’s never had a blankie or special stuffed animal or toy…maybe she has a special rug?

Lack of opportunity and lack of motivation have created a backlog of blog posts. So here is the condensed version of all the ones I’d have been posting in the last month had I been more diligent.

I have the annual pass to seaworld so when the Saczynskis came to town, Ella and I went with them. Shannon met us for dinner after work. But the day was spent with them, in a crowded park, on a somewhat hot day, and fun was had by most.

Next up, Ella using chopsticks at Thai Thai. No food was actually consumed in the manner seen here.

When we moved here, my sister in law Cherie was about 5 months pregnant. I’m sure there were some downsides to having another family living with you at that season of your life, but God does work things out with timing and all, and I think we were able to help more than hinder. I certainly hope. Cherie is a woman of action, and waiting around for a baby to be born isn’t her idea of fun, so in the last few weeks she went out of her way to keep her mind occupied.  Here is a woman 40 weeks 2 days pregnant, using her bowling form to gently poke fun at a girl in the lane beside us who was on a date and was obsessed with “not looking silly.” Ok, on second thought…i’m not posting that photo.

Anyway, here is the end result of that hot mess. Levi Alan Shropshire, a tiny and cute boy.

At some point during this last basketball season, I told my husband I didn’t want to go to a Magic game. Under any circumstances, I just did not want to attend one, I would not enjoy myself and he would not enjoy himself as much as he would if he was with someone who actually wanted to be there. So one evening Shannon says “find a sitter, we’re going out tonight. dress comfortably.” I did not suspect. Not even for a minute.

Where do I find myself? Yes. At a game for watching the Magics do the basketball thing.

I found it more entertaining to watch the txting war going on in the seat in front of me between the teenage boy and 3 girls he was apparently involved with in various forms. But he was trying to end one of the relationships because she was too much drama, and she should go back to the guy (his friend?) she was originally with, because they were a better fit and he couldn’t take her constant crying for attention. Based on the txts, thats what I gathered anyway.

I think it is completely invisible from this photo. But the truck above had a Vermont license plate that read….”Burritos”.

I can only imagine the kind of explanation that man might have.

The house my parents live in was built by my dad over 20 years ago. I think that even before it had a proper porch, it had a porch swing.

Sitting on the swing watching the afternoon storms roll in was a staple of my formative years. If you’ve ever been to their house on a summer afternoon, you’ve done it too. The tin roof provides the atmosphere and relative security. The lightening and thunder the entertainment.

It’s summer. We’ve had some storms. But this is the first one in a long time that I’ve met while on the swing, counting the seconds after each roll of thunder.