yee-haw!

As we were driving back from somewhere (it's hard to tell where -- most likely there was a Dunkin' Donuts stop along the way, though), we passed one of the area's larger churches. At the intersection where they have their sign, there is an enormous cross. It is kind of tipped over on its side like this:


...but clearly not actually this cross.

Anyway, I digress.

One of the twins piped up from the back seat:

"Look, Mommy! A cross!
It falled over.
Jesus must ride on that cross a lot!"

I had never pictured Jesus as a cowboy in the Wild West before. But I will confess, that is the image that popped into my head.

We laughed. A lot.

And then we corrected his theology.

No, Jesus did NOT ride on the cross for our sins; He died on the cross for our sins.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16

The Devil You Don't

There are plenty of creepy crawly things in the world, and, truth be told, a lot of them really freak me out. I am a completely independent, self-sufficient, 21st-century woman.

Except when it comes to bugs.

In the case of those, I really prefer to have a man take care of squashing it for me.

Here in lovely Arizona, I have come to be acquainted with a new variety of creeper. The scorpion.

He is not my friend. Truly.

When I was unpacking boxes here at our new house and generally getting things ready for us to move in, I happened to find one of these beasties hanging out in the master bathroom trash can. He was clearly alive. And -- praise be to the Almighty Lord who knew I would have dropped dead on the spot if I had found this little guy scampering playfully around the house -- he was trapped inside that trash can.

I promptly shut the door to the bathroom and refused to use it until the man of the house could take care of the problem for me.

Did you know scorpions can live for MONTHS without food and water?

We weren't going to starve this baby out.

And as brave and strong as my knight in shining armor is, he wasn't too keen on dumping the scorpion out and chasing him around the house. So he formulated a new plan.

Did you know that it takes a scorpion upwards of 30 minutes to die when covered in clinging lime-a-way?

He fought that lime-a-way with his stinger, with his pinchers, and with every ounce of strength he had in him. But -- be it from the corrosive chemicals eating away at him, or just plain drowning I can't say -- that scorpion finally gave up the ghost.

We are now taking precautions against further scorpion "attacks." Let me fill you in.

Did you know that scorpions fluoresce in blacklights?

Blacklights can be handy in keeping an eye out for these critters when it's dark outside. We wouldn't want to accidentally step on one. Rumor has it that folks who grow up in scorpion territory turn on the blacklights in the back yard and take the whole family outside for a good old-fashioned scorpion stomping contest.

Not sure whose idea of fun that is, but I don't think we are going to be doing anything like that any time soon.

We are also wearing shoes in the house.

Remember that my husband is very clean and very particular and has spent the last 3.5 years training our children that you take off your shoes in the house. Shoes are dirty. We want the floors clean.

But we also don't want to step on scorpions in our bare feet.

So off to the store we went to purchase special "house shoes" that the kids are only allowed to wear inside. For 2 reasons. 1) to keep the floors clean; 2) they are NOT stylish.
The boys LOVE them. Well, the tiny man loves to wear his brothers' shoes more than his own. This has caused many temper tantrums. But it seems that lately he only wants what belongs to someone else. In fact, earlier this week, he would not eat his own cereal. He only wanted what was in N's bowl. Anyway, this behavior is not limited to the shoes.

I spend an extraordinary amount of time checking places for scorpions. In the bathroom. In the kitchen. In shoes. In bed linens.

I dream about them.

The boys are convinced we need to be on the lookout for stingrays, too.

But if I am truly introspective, I know that the paranoia will wear off eventually and that these guys are no worse than other bugs with which I've spent my entire life.

This friendly brown recluse spider, for example:

He's nice and poisonous. And lives all over the Midwest. Don't get me wrong, I don't like spiders. But I think I can count on one hand the number of times I found it necessary to shake out a shoe before I stuck my foot in it.

The devil you know, right?

...at least it's a DRY heat

The temperatures in our new desert homeland were starting to soar past the 100 degree mark.

More pieces of furniture and other things in our corporate apartment were starting to fall apart (lamp, dresser, closet doors), the boys' beds had seemed to develop teeth and had bitten both the hubby and Thing 2 on the heel, and we may or may not have had bed bugs or another small biting crawling insect in at least one piece of furniture.

We still hadn't found a church to call "home."

And the breadwinner of the family was going to have a crazy month of work and we were facing several weeks of barely catching sight of him.

So...he kicked me and the boys out.

He took a look at his schedule and my frustrated face and twisted my arm and forced me to take a road trip to The Lou.

It's a good 10-20 degrees cooler here. But OH.MY.GOODNESS it has been a looooong time since I've lived anywhere with significant humidity.

I looked at the weather forecast for a morning we were headed to the park and was concerned that we hadn't packed jackets and long pants.

um.

No need to worry. We were soaked in sweat by the end of our play date. Seriously. I am not used to this. I feel like I'm breathing under water. Or in the steam room at the gym. I've been running the A/C in the car just to pull out the humidity.

I'm not saying that 115 degrees is sounding good to me right now.

But I am wondering if the clothes I have hanging up to "dry" will ever get there...

quiet

The 3 little ones are sleeping.

The TV is off.

This apartment has no radio, no CD player, and I forgot my iPod in Colorado.

The dishwasher has finished its cycle.

The washing machine is not washing anything (although it should be).

The hubby is at work.

Even the cat is MIA.



And Mama can breathe..........

life in the desert (so far)

We've been here for almost a month and it seems like we are busy all the time. Doing what? I don't really know. But here are a few things I hear from the mouths of my babes nearly every day:

• The men with trucks will bring all our toys and then we will be so so happy!
• Are we going to our old house or our new house?
• In-N-Out is Daddy's favorite.
• Can we drive on the bumpy road?
• Let's go to the frozen yogurt shop. I want worms and butterflies.
• We made cards for our friends. The mail man took them in an airplane. Maybe our friends will say "thank you" to us.
• I-K-E-A! What's it spell? IKEA!
• You don't hug a cactus.