Four, three and three

(Clint's Harrison Puddle Pic)

FOUR FOR FRIDAY
Q1 - Have You: Ever attempted to put together your family tree? If so, how far back were you able to go? If not, would you like to put one together?

I think I tried to sort it all out when I was first married. My mom's side of the family is huge, and we were told that Mark was the 200th person in the family. (My grandfather had, like a dozen or so siblings.)
My interest fizzled out in about 10 minutes. My mom recently took up family-treeing as a hobby. Maybe I'll inherit her passion and her charts.

Q2 - Would You: Like it if first-run movies were released on DVD and/or Pay-Per-View at the same time as they are released in theatres? If so, do you think you would watch more movies at home, or would you continue to see first-run movies only in the theatre?

I like going out. I would still beg a friend to see a first-run movie with me at a theatre. Some actors just need to be seen on the big screen.

Q3 - Should You: See a doctor more often? If so, what's stopping you? If not, how often do you have a check-up or physical?

Yes I should see a doctor more often. What's stopping me? About 50 pounds of blubber.

Q4 - Could You: Survive living on the streets of your town for an entire month with no access to any of your money or other assets? Why or why not?

No I would not be able to survive. I would die. No seriously. I would.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. That my new leisure-wear inspired me to go to the gym. I burned 172 calories tonight.

2. That God knows what my kids need. And He fills in the wide open gap that's left when my parenting is not enough.

3. The hope that we're going to make it through yet another crisis.

For those of you not living on the West Coast, let me enlighten you as to the inhumane living conditions we have had to endure this winter...it rained everyday during the last half of December. It rained 29 out of 31 days in January. It has rained every single day in February. The days are short, dark and wet.

It's messing with my frame of mind. Coupled with the afore mentioned crisis, I've been, literally, treading water for the past month - frantically kicking and paddling just to keep my head above the waves.

I'm tired. I do not know how to swim. And all this frenzied action trying to survive the flood has plum tuckered me out. (My mom was afraid of drowning so we never took lessons or hung out near large bodies of water. Really, I cannot swim.)

Last night while we were praying, I gave a long heavy sigh and said, "And God? Please could we get a break in the weather? A few days of sunshine would go a long ways about now...I'm not doing so well with all this rai..."

"Don't listen to her God," Drew interupts. "If you want it to rain that's fine with us. I don't mind it at all..."

It's not my fault if we set new rainfall records again this month. Blame Drew.

Three pet peeves that are on my mind right now. I won't be able to sleep until I share them with you:

1. That everytime I land on a big-money-wedge on the internet version of Wheel of Fortune, I can count on getting bankrupt with my next spin.

2. That even though I click in the box that says "remember my card number" EVERYTIME I go to my online banking account - I still have to punch in my number EVERYTIME I go to my online banking account because it forgets.

3. That I bought a $60 remote garage door opener to screw to the frame of the garage door so that the kids could punch in a 4 digit code and open the garage door instead of the front door when they enter the house. I'm tired of them tracking in all matter of crap when they walk through the door. I'm tired that they drop their stuff RIGHT at the front door, so that I trip over it EVERYTIME I come through the door. I'm tired of them losing the front door key (17 missing keys and counting) so they climb through a window after they've removed the screen. I'm tired of hearing that yes they'll put the screens back on, but they haven't. The back yard has been littered with window screens for months. Tossed down from the upper windows, they lay scattered and abandoned on the soggy, puddle-ridden lawn. According to the packaging, it was a simple matter of capturing some signal or frequency with a twisted paper clip to get the device running. I am left with a $60 remote opener that we can't figure out how to activate, a pile of twisted paper clips and a broken hand held remote that used to be in my truck. We have no way of opening that frickin door and with all this rain, my front entrance look like a mud-wrestling ring. End of rent. I think I may be able to go to bed now.

Shalom,