Saturday, September 29, 2007

R.I.P. "Slinky" - Gone But Not Forgotten


I'm happy to report that Slinky has been captured and....how do I say this delicately.....disposed of. Darren went downstairs this morning and I heard him yell for me to come and bring the shovel. Slinky had slithered from under the pool table and he had him pinned with the hoe but couldn't chop him in two. I smashed down on him with the shovel but he was still wriggling to get free so Darren crushed his head and thus Slinky's young life was snuffed out.

I apologize to all the tree-hugging, snake-loving, animal rights activists out there for the demise of Slinky but hey, whenever Slinky decided to come into the house as far as I'm concerned all bets were off. At that point it became "survival of the fittest" and not "live and let live."

Jacob is concerned that Slinky had babies in the basement but I told him I thought Slinky looked like a boy. At least I hope he was a boy and that he didn't invite any buddies over. I'm also hoping he came in through the basement door since I've had it open quite a bit lately and not through some other hidden hole that I know nothing about.
In any event, for now I'm sure a lot more comfortable in the basement!

Friday, September 28, 2007

Kids Say the Cutest Things

This afternoon I was lying on my bed and reading a book when Noah came in the room and climbed up in bed with me. He laid his head on my chest and I said, "Are you my baby?" He looked me in the eye and replied, "Yeah. You're my best friend." Sometimes I want to kill him but it's times like these when I just say "Ahhhh, how cute! This is what being a mom is all about."

Just had to share.

P.S. Slinky is still on the loose.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

No Sign of Slinky

Well, it's been a couple of days now and there's still no sign of Slinky the snake. I've been downstairs doing laundry and working on stuff for eBay but so far the coast is clear. I keep looking over my shoulder when I'm down there though. I guess I think he's going to sneak up on me or something. I think I know what his plan is. He is waiting until I get complacent, maybe even convince myself that Jarrod was hallucinating, letting me get comfortable, and then when I least expect it he's going to jump out and get me. I can just see it now. Does anybody have any snake repellant?

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Six Little Words You Never Want to Hear

Today I realized there are six little words you never want to hear uttered in your home. Now, individually these words (with the exception of maybe one) are harmless. Several of them could even be used in the same sentence without cause for alarm. But, trust me, you never want to hear them in the same sentence.

This morning at 6:45 a.m. we began our regular morning routine which begins with me getting up and making sure that Jarrod and Jacob are both up. They were so I laid down on the couch. Jarrod had gone downstairs to "iron" his clothes (aka run them in the dryer). He came back up and that's when I heard those six words come tumbling from his mouth......."There's a snake in the house." Chills of fear and disbelief ran down my spine.

Apparently, there was a snake lying in the hallway when Jarrod went downstairs. He said he nearly stepped on it but then ran around it and got his clothes. Of course, my brilliant 13 year old son did not attempt to capture the snake and even worse he let it get away. He didn't even see which way it went.

I went to the barn and got my hoe and went downstairs to investigate but soon realized the futility of the search. Those of you who have seen my basement understand this. There is stuff everywhere and a lot of ground to cover. This snake could be anywhere. I tried to get Darren to help me look but he wasn't much force. I'm pretty sure he is scared. He suggested that I let the dog in to trail the snake to which I replied, "What am I supposed to do? Give Socks the snake's shirt to sniff and say 'now go find him, boy.'" I did however try to get Socks to come in. Usually he is trying to get in the door every time you open it but today I had to force him in the basement and he promptly ran up the basement steps and went to the back door. So much for that idea.

I've set some sticky glue traps all over the basement but I guess for now we will just cohabitate with Slinky the snake as we've named him. Does anyone know if snakes can climb steps?

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Count Your Blessings




Wow! Yesterday was quite a day. We had planned a dinner for the senior adults for last night so we woke up knowing that the day was going to be busy but little did we know how complicated it was going to get and how lucky we would be.

Darren left the house at about 8:30 to meet his mom at church. Just a few minutes later the phone rang and the caller id showed that it was Darren. Now, this in itself is not unusual. He often calls me from the driveway to tell me something he forgot to tell me before he left so I didn't think anything of it. But when I answered he sounded out of breath and he yelled, "Gina, call 911 there's been a car wreck!" I'm like, "Okay, where?......where? I need to know where so I can tell them." I'm getting no answer and then finally he comes back on the line and tells me that the accident is on our road near Dr. Bacon's house. So we hang up and I call 911 and report the accident. Then I call him back to ask if he was involved in the accident. He was. He assures me that he is okay but that the person in the other vehicle is hurt. In hindsight it's probably a good thing he didn't tell me that he was in an accident the first time he called because I probably would've flipped out and been unable to call 911.

Noah was still sleeping so I jerked him up out of bed and up the road we went. When I got there the ambulance had arrived and they were trying to get the other driver out of her car. She was screaming and crying about how much pain she was in. When I saw the cars I nearly cried. I could hardly believe that he walked away from it unhurt and my first thought was, "Thank you, God, that he was in the car and not on the scooter." He was very lucky. Apparently, the other driver was distracted and was completely on the wrong side of the road. He said he saw her coming but couldn't get away from her and they collided head on.

He has been a little sore from the seatbelt but he is otherwise physically fine. Mentally, he has just been really upset. He feels guilty that he wasn't hurt while she was injured badly and he just keeps replaying the accident over and over in his mind. I reminded him that he should be grateful that he wasn't hurt and that she wasn't hurt worse.

So, we here at the Fizer household are counting our many blessings. We are thanking God for His protection and asking him to watch over the other driver and give her a speedy recovery.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Laziness

Yes, I realize it's been awhile since I last updated. I wish I had a really good excuse for my absence but I don't. It comes down to just pure laziness. It's not that there hasn't been plenty going on to blog about because there certainly has. We have been busy as usual and there's no end in sight. We've had cross-country track meets, Bible Bowl practice, and a constant string of other engagements and responsibilities. We are doing the Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" thing and attended one of his live events last week. Jacob made his first (and hopefully last) trip to the principals office.....and so on and so forth. So as you can see there has been plenty of blog material just not a lot of blog gumption. Sorry. I'll try to do better in the future.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

A Busy Weekend

We travelled to Jacksonburg, Indiana yesterday for Dave Fagan's funeral. We almost got lost (Mapquest's directions were inaccurate) but we made it about 15 minutes before the funeral started. The church was packed as we expected it would be. It is just so hard to believe that Dave is gone. He was only 56 years old but he had accomplished more in those 56 years than most people do in a lifetime. It was just a really sad, emotional day.

On the lighter side, right in the middle of the funeral while Willie Martin was preaching, Noah, who was sitting on my lap, looked up at me and said, "I peed on you, Mommy." and he did sure enough. He was wet all the way down into his shoes and I had a huge wet spot on my thigh so we had to get up and leave the funeral to go to the bathroom for a change. I brought a change of clothes for him but never thought I would need one for myself so I just had to suffer through with the wet spot.

Today Darren, Jacob, Noah and I went to the Christian Olympics at Sugarloaf Christian Camp. There was a good crowd there and everyone had a good time. Jacob got several bronze and silver medals and won the sportsmanship award for his age group. Noah won a silver medal in the frizbee toss. He was in first place until the very last kid and got beat out by him. He was still excited and was so cute standing up on the podium grinning and collecting his spoils of victory.

Jarrod didn't go with us to the olympics because he had his first Cross Country meet today up around Ashland. His team finished second and individually he finished 18th out of 75 so that wasn't too shabby for his first time.

Of course, as a mom, I'm proud of all three of my boys!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

In Memory

We received word yesterday that Dave Fagan, one of Darren's professors from Sonshine School of Evangelism and the co-director of TNT Ministries, had passed away. Dave was diagnosed with cancer in May of this year. Dave was an awesome teacher, a kind man, and a great Christian. He was such an inspiration to us. He walked, talked, slept, ate and breathed his Christianity. He will be sorely missed but we know he is in a much better place. Our sympathy goes out to his wife, Teresa, and the rest of Dave's family. We love you all.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Prayer Request

We got a call Thursday evening saying that the five year old daughter of our good friends, Arnold and Judy Howell, was being taken to UK Children's Hospital. Many of you know Arnold and his family. He is the evangelist at Petersville Church of Christ. Apparently, Melody had been sick and a blood test revealed a high white blood count. She underwent tests yesterday at UK and they have determined that she has leukemia. The type she has is ALL. We went up to see them today and they are doing as well as can be expected. Melody was really sore today from the bone marrow biopsy they did yesterday. They are starting chemotherapy treatments today and she will have to be in the hospital at least 28 days. My heart just breaks when I think about all they have to go through and face.

According to Arnold they will be doing another biopsy next week to see how she is responding to the chemo. Apparently, how well the disease responds to the chemo during this first week will determine her chances for a cure/remission. So please be praying hard this week that the drugs they give her will go to work on this disease in a big way! Also keep Arnold and Judy in your prayers, but especially Judy. As a mom I can't even begin to imagine how hard this is going to be for her.