My sister called me at work just now.

“Hey EJ- are you bored?”

“You just called me at work, right? It’s redundant to then ask if I’m bored.”

“Go to this website: www.stuckatprom.com and vote for couple #3881″

“What?”

“It’s a competition to design prom outfits out of duct tape. There’s a couple from Michigan in the finals and I want them to win.”

“You want me to look at prom outfits made from duct tape and then vote on a Michigan pair to win?”

“Yes! They are 200 votes behind!!”

“And this voting is critical to their lives – how?”

“It will change their life!!”

“Jules, it will change the life of whomever wins this, um, presitigious award. Do you know this couple from Michigan?”

“No.”

“So we’re voting simply on proximity alone.”

“Yes.”

“Well, if the reigning Duct Tape Prom Dress award makes Michigan a better place to live, they can have my vote.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

If you’d like to make my sister happy (which vicariously makes me happy, too) please go visit this site and vote for couple #3881. On the home page, click on “Top Ten” then scroll down. They are in silver and blue.

Oh, the things I do to entertain my sister.

I miss my boy.

Oh to have the capacity to write like Doig in The Whistling Season! If I were ever to wish for a skill (beyond having the vocal prowess of Martina McBride) I would wish for this. To hold in my hands such a novel as this and know those words, this story, these characters poured forth from my soul.

Elegant, captivating, lyrical, magical, witty, intelligent…this novel was delightful to read and will be savored in future readings again and again. With the arrival of Rose and Morrie into the home of Paul, his two younger brothers and widowed father, comes more than just new acquaintences, but a new education altogether. Sweetly, senuously entwining the past, present and years to come, Doig takes his characters through their simple Montana farm life and into our hearts. We can all relate to the way a teacher moved us, or the way a secret changed our lives. The moment we realized we were no longer a child, the way a parent sometimes needs protection provided by a child, or how lessons learned in our youth can help us understand how to best deal with the world as adults.

The story, the characters, the setting, the language is fresh, intelligent, and original. I loved the book from the first page and as I turned each one, I wondered who I would send my copy to first. By the end I wondered if I’d ever let it go from my favorites collection. Go buy your copy of The Whistling Season right now. Best $11 you’ll spend on a book for a long while.

I have owned my car for more than three years now (you’d not know that by the amount still due to the bank, but still…) In those three years I have struggled with a number of issues with the design of my Taurus.

1) My car came equipped with a single CD player and a radio. The console between the front seats, however, opens up to reveal storage slots applicably designed for tapes.

2) My turn signal will not stay on rounding curves in the opposite direction. Thus, making the right turn onto the street to my development while banking left on the road, requires you to hold the signal if you don’t wish to upset those waiting to turn at the corner. Likewise, not 100 yards later, in an attempt to turn on my street as the main road veers left, you will, again, need both hands on to turn the wheel while holding the signal in place. An every day double annoyance.

3) The window controls on the driver’s door are not in the right ergonomic location for the length of my arms. Despite the years of experience with this particular vehicular impairment, I still tend to put down the back windows when I mean to put down the front. A lesson learned the most severely when I got into my car this morning to find it soaking wet from the thunderstorm last night that blew in through perfectly open back windows. In my brainless driving, I had not even realized I had put the back windows down and therefore never thought to put them back up after putting the vehicle in park outside my door.

Soggy doesn’t even begin to describe the backseat.

My laptop is currently dead. It needs a $250 part to breathe life again. After having just shelled out more money that I care to admit for this machine, I’m not eager to do it again. That said, I’m not in the financial market to purchase a new one, either. Rock and hard place know me all too well.

I realized today that perhaps God is trying to show me in different ways that He is taking perfectly good care of me and my needs if only I would let him. First, there was Friday’s event. That, in and of itself is a demonstration of God’s hand in my life and His care for me and my needs.

Another issue was resolved today, one that has been of great concern to me. Upon leaving my current job (where they pay 90% of my family coverage) , I will have a 30 day waiting period before I’m eligible for health insurance at my new position (I tried to negotiate out of this, but to no avail.) I have heard the horror stories of COBRA (mainly the cost) and was fretting that necessity. I spoke with my office manager last week and she said they would keep me on the company policy for that extra month (my premium is paid through then anyway) . I was so relieved! While not a complete break, it would at least keep my costs down to the group rate and not COBRA rates.

Today, my office manager and I were talking and I asked if she could get me a ballpark figure for how much my health insurance costs the company each month (LM, too) so I could plan for that expenditure. She said I didn’t understand. They company will PAY the health insurance cost. The 90% that they currently pay now. I don’t have to pay anything other than what I usually pay. DESPITE NOT BEING ON THEIR PAYROLL.

This is a $700-800 savings for me, and a HUGE answer to prayer. I thanked her and thanked her (it’s not something they are just doing for me, they’ve done this before, too).

I am just so grateful for God’s working in my life right now. I need to sit tight and know that He will answer our computer needs, too (or remind me again how a computer at home is a luxury!).

God is so good!!

I don’t have the book with me (and my home computer is dead) so you’ll have to wait for me to remember the author (I can’t even find the book on amazon. Not a good sign.)

The Rock is a Christian novel, but not strikingly so. The characters had questionable morals (something I actually enjoy in Christian fiction) and make some realistically bad choices. The novel is about a family, primarily two brothers, growing up during Prohibition. While the book isn’t centered on alcohol, it certainly plays a part. In a bit too-typical of a fashion, one son is dedicated to his family, rising to the occasion after his father (and elder sister) die. The other brother is lazy, mean spirited and spiteful. The opening scene tells as much as you ever need to know to understand the relationship between the two when one spends days building a very rough church in the woods and the other sets fire to it.

The novel primarily traces the path of the good son. Following the convictions of his heart, the way he hears God in his life and his desire to be on his own and yet faithful to his family and his calling. Ultimately, he decides that his life’s passion is to build a real church on top of the mountain.

I never felt as though this character was truly hearing God, as he declared, more than that he was just jumping from idea to idea without thinking it through. He seemed impulsive to me, quick to leave home or return with little effort given to see his dreams through. Even the eventual building of the church, while seeming to require immense effort, thought and calculation, proved to be lacking in a variety of ways, a fact he only realized when he received help.

Perhaps it is indicative of our own selfish desires, of our own blindness towards God’s greater plan. Perhaps it was simply an example of a weak character (a category I can easily relate to). Whatever the purpose or intention of the author, I wasn’t captivated by this novel. Even the conclusion seems to fall short of being a resounding declaration as the characters once again abandon the original plan and simply go on with their lives as if nothing ever changed.

Not a bad read, but I wouldn’t pay much for the book. Luckily, I picked this one up on a clearance rack. Even so, I think I still paid too much for the experience.

I read Was It Beautiful sometime last year and didn’t really love it, but I thought I would give McGhee another chance. There was nothing remarkable, nothing extraordinarily new, nothing so striking to fall in love with Rainlight, and yet, all told, it was a good read. The extent McGhee went to to connect the characters seemed a bit contrived for my tastes, but I enjoyed the various perspectives of the major characters in each chapter. The young Mallie struck me as a girl in desperate need of therapy, or at least a relative who might pay closer attention to some signs of grief, but nontheless, the plot was somewhat engaging and the characters likeable enough.

The story surrounds the death of a young father, as he tries to save a handicapped child from being hit by a truck. The history of the man, this child, and the people that surround both of them tell a complicated history, and the grief they carry forward demonstrates their personalities more than anything.

An easy, light read, nothing that will keep you up at night, or too engrossed in turning the pages not to put down and enjoy the sunshine on a summer afternoon.

I’ve written before about how amazing God is, and how He works in our lives in such small (and big!) ways. Friday, I was reminded again.

Friday evening was the last of the whirlwind to get LM ready to go to Pittsburgh. He needed to get his bike tires pumped, but otherwise, he was nearly ready to go when his dad arrived at 6:30. He pumped up his tires, carefully reading the pressure amounts, complaining all the while about what hard work it was on his arms. I reminded him of all the times I have pumped his tires for him and he was far more appreciative now for all that work.

Five minutes after he finished, before he even got the pump put away, a loud bang sounded and I thought I had been shot in the head. Turns out, the back tire blew. (It wasn’t his fault, I think the gauge on our pump is wrong somehow, but I didn’t know that then.) Luckily, a long time ago when his front tire had issues, I had bought a new inner tube but then had to take it to be fixed at a bike shop. I had saved the inner tube however, and sent LM out to the car to retrieve it from the trunk (it was only still in the trunk because I have been far too lazy to bring it into the house all this time).

LM came running back into the house out of breath and all worked up. “MOM!! Your (breathe) back (breathe) tire is going (breathe) flat!!! I can hear (breathe) it hissing and I can see (breathe) a rock stuck!!” I ran out to look and sure enough, my back passenger tire was going flat at an alarming speed. I ran inside, grabbed my pocketbook, keys and shoes and we jumped in the car. (I know, most people would stop, pull out the jack and put on the spare. Me? I’ve never changed a tire before, so I thought if I could make it to the tire shop, that was the best solution!)

We were headed to PepBoys, but realized at the first stop sign that we didn’t have that much tims. We remembered that our Walmart has a tire center, so we drove there, not 2 miles from our house. I realized during the drive that my two back tires are the poor-er quality tires that probably need to be replaced, but I really didn’t want to have to replace them that day.

Walmart initially said it would be an hour and a half before they could get to it, but when I pleaded, he said he would see what he could do. 40 minutes later we had a patched tire. Total cost? $10. The what if? If Jacob hadn’t blown his bike tire and had to go out to my car when he did, I probably wouldn’t have even known I had a flat until Sunday morning, and not until I was driving on it (since it was on the back passenger side).

Praise God that things happened the way they did, and that it was a $10 fix!

P.S. I did get his bike tire mostly fixed. The tube wasn’t quite the right size, but it’s rideable, and for now, that’s what matters!

…as the angels sang, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”

Tonight LM will be picked up by his dad so they can head to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Am I excited? Actually, yes. (I know, the MOTY award will now go to Newly or Katrina or someone more worthy). I’m ready to have the chaos settle and to regain control of my house. We spent three hours last night packing (I cannot spend three hours doing much of anything, and this about pushed me over the edge, but I made LM do most of the work, I just helped by telling him to pack 12 shirts, 8 shorts, etc.) Tonight I will slip into his bag the surprise books and gifts that I have for him.

Whew. I feel better.

Back to the angels singing….