Never assume anything!

I really put my foot in my mouth at my son's baseball game a couple of weeks ago. I was taking pictures behind the fence along the first base line and there was a man standing beside me taking pictures as well. He was obviously a parent from the opposing team, as he called out to the first baseman, "You forgot your cap!"

So the kid runs back to the dugout to retrieve the baseball cap and returns to first base. I turn to the man and say, "Is she yours?"

The man looks at me and says, "Yes, HE is."

The kid looked just like a girl! He had long, beautiful blonde hair almost halfway down his back. We have a girl on our team, so it's not out of the ordinary to see girls on other teams. I made an assumption, and boy, was I wrong!

I was mortified! I quickly apologized and the man was very nice about it, saying it happens all the time. He said his son was a great kid and didn't give him a minute's trouble and he figured allowing him to grow his hair wasn't such a big deal.

I asked the man if it bothers his son that people sometimes mistake him for a girl and he said it doesn't.

My other son plays on a soccer team with another long-haired boy, who I initially thought was a girl. Luckily I didn't embarrass myself by referring to him as a girl in front of his parents. I think my face is still red from the first encounter.

Sheesh! I didn't know long hair on boys was back in style. I'm going to be walking around in a constant state of confusion. Folks, never assume anything!

The Glory of Spring

Beauty abounds in Northern Virginia! Spring blooms are simply everywhere I look. I've seen breathtaking azalea bushes, exquisite tulips and iris, pristine dogwood and redbud trees, all ablaze with amazing color. Spring has definitely sprung here and it's truly picturesque. I've snapped a few photos of God's gift of nature, some taken in our neighborhood and others at our church...



















Now... here's what's blooming at my house...


It's really something, right? And guess what? I didn't even have to plant this. It came up all on it's own!

Inspiration and Tears

Yesterday was a very emotional day for me at church. Of course the older I get, the less it takes for me to cry. Is that hormones or what? I don't know. All I know is I definitely shouldn't leave home without tissues.

A sweet lady in our church passed away last week. She was only in her early 60s and although we knew she was quite ill, it still seemed a shock when we heard the news that she had died. Miss B's husband and daughters were at church yesterday, and her husband even served in his usual role of usher, which I thought was incredibly sweet and brave, and not at all something I would have expected. Tears sprang to my eyes when I saw him walk down the aisle and begin to pass the offering plate. I felt inspired by his presence, and especially by his courage.

Miss B had been a member of the church choir and they honored her memory yesterday by leaving her robe and stole on her empty chair. I thought it was incredibly thoughtful and meaningful. Once again, I felt tears well up in my eyes, and thought to myself, "How can the choir possibly sing today after this loss?" But they did sing and I was inspired.

The kids' choir sang yesterday as well. They're preparing for an upcoming musical and were giving the congregation a sample of what they'll be hearing in a few weeks. My boys sing in the choir, so that's part of the reason I felt the tears come to the surface once again. But I think I would have been emotional regardless of whose kids were singing because there's just something so moving about hearing kids sing anything, but particularly when they sing God's praises. They stood up in front of our congregation and just belted out that song and it was awesome and yes, inspirational.

Inspiration and tears were definitely the theme yesterday, at least for me anyway. I know I wasn't alone though. There were lots of other misty eyes around me. I'm thinking it might be a good idea for the church greeters to start handing out travel packs of tissues along with bulletin, especially on those Sundays like yesterday.

So which is it?

You know how you hear phrases over and over and it just becomes second nature to hear them after a while? Today I was listening to the radio while running errands and I caught part of a conversation, one that I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to, until I heard a guy say, "I could care less about..."

That got me to thinking about the use of that particular phrase. Now I'm supposing when people say, "I could care less," what they really mean to convey is that they don't care. Is that what you would take away from a conversation in which someone has made the statement, "I could care less"?

So... if you don't care, shouldn't you say "I COULDN'T care less"? I mean, that would indicate that you couldn't care any less than you do at that moment in time. Doesn't that make more sense? If you say, "I could care less," that indicates you COULD possibly care less than you currently do, which means you DEFINITELY care, right? Over-analyzation? Hmmm... maybe, but it's one of those things that bugs me. Which is the correct way to say this phrase? Inquiring minds wanna know!

Awesome Field Trip!

My son and I enjoyed our tour of the White House during his recent class field trip, just one of the many perks of living near our nation's capitol.

Drama

Last night my older son had a Boy Scout Troop meeting, his second since bridging from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts a couple of weeks ago. The troop met at a local recreation facility to complete a swim test, which is a requirement of all the boys who wish to participate in an upcoming campout/rafting trip.

Of course I'm thrilled to be going to the recreation center because we've already been to baseball practice for my other kid for an hour and a half, now it's 7:30pm and this swim test is supposed to last until 9pm. Oh joy! And the reason I'm there and not at home is because my husband is out of town again this week. Really, I'm going to have to have a talk with the military powers that be and tell them that this hectic TDY schedule is seriously cramping my style and something needs to be done about it. Yeah, I know, I'm not actually going to do that. I'm going to suck it up like any other self-respecting military spouse and I'm going to take my kid to Boy Scouts.

Upon arriving at the recreation center, I quickly realized there was NO parking to be found. The place was absolutely crawling with people. Oh joy! I dropped off the big man at the door, told him to go in and try to find out where he was supposed to go and that his brother and I would catch up to him. Then I went to search for parking, finally choosing to park in the field where others had blazed a trail before me.

Okay, did I mention this place was CRAWLING with people? The Scouts were there, and boy howdy, were there LOTS of them! Then there were the numerous people on hand for various classes - water aerobics, kids' swim class, free swimmers, a music class, people on treadmills.... You get the picture. You couldn't stir the people with a stick because there were so many of them! I'm glad I'm not claustrophic.

My son found a couple of former Cub Scout buddies and waited in the registration line with them. Things seemed somewhat unorganized. No one appeared to know what was going on. Registration was finally finished and my younger son and I joined a group of parents waiting in the bleacher section of the pool area. Obviously it's an indoor pool and it's hot and humid in there. My hair and makeup quickly began to take a nasty turn for the worse. Trust me, it wasn't pretty.

I was sitting in the bleachers, making small talk with some other parents, when a couple of my son's friends came running up the stairs, showing us their bandaged fingers, telling us they'd been cut while using a bamboo pole to simulate aiding a drowning swimmer. They tell me that my son got the worst cut of all, that his whole hand was sliced open and I was needed at the front desk, as were all of the parents whose kids had been cut. Evidently an incident report had to be to filled out for each boy and they were required to inform the parents.

My son's hand was all bandaged by the time I made it to the front desk. The young girl taking care of him said it was a long cut, but not deep, therefore he wouldn't require stitches. However, it was still bleeding a little when he made it to the office for first aid. She didn't think it wise for him to get back in the pool at that point. The chlorine would only aggravate the wound she said. One of the other parents asked if the folks conducting the swim test were still using the same bamboo pole and the consensus was yes, they were in fact still using the same bamboo pole. HELLO! People, three kids have been cut with this thing. Don't you think you might want to discontinue use of it for the remainder of the night?

At least we didn't have to make a trip to the ER at 9pm last night, and for that I'm grateful. When we finally got into our truck and were heading home, my older son was quite preoccuped with his injured hand while the younger one was very concerned about how his brother was going to manage to take a shower in this delicate condition. I explained that we'd use a rubber glove with a rubber band around the wrist to keep the water out, after having been told not to get the bandage wet. Well... the bandage got wet and we ended up having to redo everything.

So I missed American Idol last night due to our trip to the pool, but I figure it's all for the best. I don't think I could have handled more drama.

Daytime thunderstorms only, please!

Yesterday we had lots of rain with intermittent thunderstorms, which I occasionally enjoy very much. When it rains like it was raining yesterday, activities move indoors and sometimes events are cancelled, like my son's soccer game which was supposed to be a makeup from a previously rained out game (That game may never be played at this rate!). Sometimes it's just nice not having anywhere to go, especially when we're on the go seemingly every night of the week. We had a very low-key day and I loved every minute of it.

Like I said, the rain was enjoyable during the day, however, I would have preferred it, as well as the thunder and lightening, to have stopped during the night. I was sound asleep when, at midnight, my 8-year-old came into my bedroom and touched my leg without saying a word, and scared me senseless. I bolted upright in bed saying, "What? What? What's the matter?" I thought perhaps he'd gotten sick or something. It was the storm keeping him awake.

He has a twin bed, which doesn't give us a lot of room to snuggle, and since my husband is out of town, I told the little man to crawl into bed with me. Let me just say that I've had zero sleep and I'm a walking zombie today. I'm so doggone T-I-R-E-D! My sweet boy had me hugging the edge of the bed all night long. My back aches from the bony knees stuck in it for hours. I may seriously require traction or, at the very least, a deep tissue massage.

Yep, I love a good thunderstorm, but only during the daytime!