Little Jack's CornerThe Life & Times of Jack-Evan and Family

And I’m hot.

Not in a looks kinda way, of course, but in a it-feels-like-an-oven-here kinda way!

We had homecoming at church today, which is always fun.  The little pentecostal church I attend was founded by my Uncle (mom’s oldest brother) in 1988.  My father, mother, and I were a few of the charter members - I started when I was 5 years old!  Each year, we always do a special recognition of those who have been with the church since day 1, and as I was standing up front, I noticed all the kids out there – many of them my teenage cousins. 

Suddenly it hit me…. I had been attending this church longer than any of them have been alive!  And then over in the corner was my own newborn.  It’s mind-boggling how fast life passes, and how things change.  People grow, people age, people come, people go.  It’s enough to cause a mind-blowout if you’re not carefully minding your thinkin’ wheels.   20 years is a long time, especially when it takes up 4/5ths of my entire life.

After the service, we had a pot luck dinner.  It was, in a word, delicious.  I’m not sure if it’s because we have some of the best cooks in the world in our congregation, or if it’s simply because everyone brings those easy-to-make-comfort-food-cassaroles, but I got so full it wasn’t pretty. 

It especially wasn’t pretty on the way back to the car, preparing to go home.  I was barefoot, on concrete, mind you.  And the temperature was unbearable.  It took all I could do to keep from fainting right there with Jack-Evan in my arms!  Maybe that’ll teach me not to eat so much….

We’re back at home, and according to the official google temperature for our city, it is 90 degrees with a humidity of 66%.  But it feels about 110! 

We’re all in the living room right now watching Herbie the Love Bug on the Hallmark channel.  Both the ceiling fan, and our tall floor fan is going, and the air is cranked down to 72.  All 3 of our dogs are camping out in here with us (Gabby and Gurtrude seem oblivious to the sweltering heat and are happily wrestling on the floor below me).  Kevin is snoozing on the couch, and Jack-Evan is snoozing in his Winnie-the-Pooh swing.  I’m sitting here trying to picture a cold, tall glass of iced tea. (I’m picturing it because it’s too hot to go into the kitchen and get me some…maybe I’ll make the effort in a few minutes).

…because you never see anyone when you do!

It’s only when you DON’T dress up that you see people.  And tons of them.  You know…those days when you’re still in your (mismatched) lounge-around pajamas, barefoot, hair in pony-tail, no make up, and baby spit up is kareening down you in a cakey fashion statement kinda way?  And then all of those cute baby outfits your son has to wear?  Those are hanging out in the dirty clothes hamper while he, instead, is dressed in a borin’ ol’ plain white onesie, complete with red-rimmed eyes from being fussy.  Yep.  Those are the days when you’re social life kicks it into high gear.

And that’s the way I looked yesterday when all of a sudden, here comes the busiest day in centuries (ok, well, I’m not really centuries old, but you get my drift). 

Off the top of my head, we chance encountered 11 people…a great feat for a stay at home mom like myself, with only one newborn child!  One of those 11 was a dear old friend from high school whom I hadn’t seen in years.  It was her first time meeting Jack-Evan. 

I kept relaying in my mind, “Why, oh why didn’t I slip on a pair of jeans?  Silly me, I didn’t even brush his hair!  Gosh, his onsie is so dirty! Um, is that pizza in my teeth??”

All of it was quite humorous afterwards, especially after realizing (on top of it all) that I had a nice smashing of chocolatesomethinganother stuck on my tushy. 

Yep.  Those are the days that go down in the memory book, so the story can be related again and again years later.    

Humorous days like this only add to the depth of life, the richness and fullness we feel about our overall experience.  Days like this throw us a curveball and provide us with a needed silly’ness that breaks up the ordinary and dolldrums of basic routine.
  …and it makes for nice blogging material too.

(happy weekend, yall)

…you have one of *those* days where you have no idea which day of the week it is?

This weekend was hectic.  I’ve taken a break from blogging the past week, and left my “Child of the 80s series” on automation (isn’t wordpress wonderful?!).  It was a much needed break too!  On Saturday, I had my kickoff show as an Usborne Books consultant (I made 40 bucks and earned Jack some free books!  Not bad for a few hours of fun with friends, huh?).  Then, Saturday night we went to our local city’s baseball game with some friends.   That was the fun day.

Then the bad part hit.

Sunday, we had church and went to eat, just like we do each weekend.  That evening, I get a call from mom saying we had to take my dad to the hospital.  They were on the way to evening church, and he had a dizzy / blackout spell while HE was driving.  After the spell, he was sweating profusely and tingling all over.  Now, if you know my dad’s history of heart attacks, you’ll understand how panicked I got….sheerly, mortifically, terribubally, horribly panICKed (with a capital ICK.).  He’s been on the brink of death numerous times, while surviving 7 heart attacks in 15 years. 

So…Kevin and I put our shoes on, grabbed Jack-Evan, and headed out the door to pick my parents up back at their house.  We were in the emergency room for hours that night, until they finally moved dad out of the main ER and to an observation room for the night.  By then, he was doing OK enough to where he didn’t want us to stay with the baby crying and all, but with his history of heart attacks we never know what is going to come to pass when Dad falls ill.  Kevin and I went to mom’s house with the baby and spent the night there with her so she wouldn’t be alone and worried, and then the baby and I stayed with her all day today until dad was released around 4 pm.

We still aren’t sure what had happened to him, but the doctors are leaning towards a mini-stroke.  Thank God he doesn’t have any residual signs of it!  And better yet, thank God it wasn’t another heart attack.  If there’s anything that can make me cry at the drop of a hat is thinking about something happening to my dad.    

So anyway, with all of the stuff that has been going on this weekend, I have lost track of what day of the week it is.  Shoot, it feels like it should be Friday already.

My husband Kevin brings me to tears sometimes.  He has such a good heart.  This week has been realllllyy hot here, and he works on a crew for a local utility company.  Meaning, he is outside in the heat all day long!  Monday and Tuesday really got him drained out, and yesterday was only a little better….yet last night when he arrived home, before he even asked about dinner he told me about a blood drive going on across town where he had been working.  He wanted to donate.

Now, I don’t know about you, but shoving a needle in MY arm and draining my precious blood would be the very last thing on MY mind after a hard day’s work in the heat.  In fact, giving blood is often the very last thing on my mind.  I hate needles!  And after giving birth a couple months ago, I have sworn off needles permanently.  (Well…I wish.)

So anyway, at 7:00 pm last night after supper, me, Kevin, and Jack-Evan packed ourselves up in the SUV and drove the 45 minutes across town to the blood drive.  There were many nice workers there who greeted us with smiles and exclamations of how glad they were that we came out.  It was a really happy atmosphere, actually.  Over in one corner, there were volunteers serving snacks, drinks, and pizza.  Over in the other corners, the blood drive was set up with red-cross workers in white coats doin’ their thing with the people giving blood. 

After assuring them that I was in no way about to stick a needle in my arm tonight, I was directed to a nice waiting area where people started exclaiming over Jack-Evan (that’s a huge bonus about going out with a newborn – everyone talks to you!).  Whilst I was fending off 100 people (ok, maybe only 4-5) who wanted to touch Jack’s face and toes, Kevin was signing in and doing his prep work.

From start to finish, the entire process took about 45 minutes.  During that time, Jack and I read Sinbad the Sailor (well, I read…he just coo’ed), talked to more people, drank water, played a few games, talked to even more people, and even had to take a trip outside once.  It was all I could do not to pass out as I walked past all the little baggies that were filling with blood on the way to take Jack to the car for a nursing session.  I do not do well with the sight of blood. 

Finally, it was all over.  We were one of the last of the donar people to leave since the blood drive technically ended at 8 pm (It was 8:40).  

Now here’s the blessing part…

As we were signing in, we were given 4 free tickets to our city league baseball game.  We go there all the time (Jack-Evan’s already been three times) so it was a nice surprise to score some free tickets!  What’s even better was on our way OUT, the nice volunteers (who wanted to get rid of excess tickets) gave us even more free baseball game tickets.

All in all, we ended up with 12 free adult tickets to the baseball game this Saturday night.  The lady giving them out tried to give us even more but we had to decline on the basis that we don’t even know more than 12 people.   Ok, well, yes we do, but I was starting to feel bad!

We made it back to my parent’s house at 9:22 pm…just in time to watch the Baby Borrowers, and then home at 10 pm. 

So all in all, in exchange for my husband’s good will towards humankind (and complete absence of fear towards needles), we ended up with $60.00 worth of tickets, and a good fuzzy feeling in the pits of our hearts.