Well, I think tonight is the first night that Frank seriously considered swapping wives with our friends The Dubs*. Our friend Tadwich would really get the short end of the stick, and I’m not sure Frank would trade Valencia back for me. Sure, Tadwich would think it was funny, but then he’d become a worn out old man, too.

So what has driven Frank over the edge? Well, I have been sort of easing him into the idea of having Easter at our house. Sort of letting him know about people sort of… one at a time. You know, letting him get used to thinking about having a group over. And we have plenty of space. That’s the beauty of the new house – we can have more than 5 people over without breaking fire code. Niiiice. So anyway, I may have lacked honesty through omission. Ok. I did lack honesty via omitting certain guests. So yeah. We’re up to 15 people. Which is a lot for us. Well, for Frank emotionally – and it’s a stretch for me logistically.

Because I have gone through some pretty stressful entertaining situations (ie, smoke in the house, dropping a pan of cooked pasta in the sink as guests were arriving, not being sure of food being properly “done”), I learned not to make things I don’t know how to make. It’s actually a rule Frank created due to more than one harried entertaining experience where I sort of looked at the food, squinted at the picture in the recipe and said, “Do you think this looks close?”

Good times. Good times.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

In between this post and the last, Frank and I packed, painted, moved, painted, cleaned, unpacked, cleaned, unpacked… and found out that I have a fibroid and a growth on my left ovary. I probably have more than 1 fibroid – it’s just that the big one is 9 cm in diameter and 2 cm thick. Groovy. I will need to have surgery similar to a c-section (in terms of cutting into the abdomen, etc) to remove the fibroid and depending on the growth on the ovary, that growth may need to come out too.

The good news is that 1) I found out before I became pregnant and before there was any risk to a baby and 2) I now know why my cycles are so long and painful. Mystery solved! Unfortunately, with a family history of fibroids and a fibroid of this size, there is definitely increased risk of miscarriages and 2nd trimester miscarriages.

THe surgery will have me in the hospital for 2 days and out of work for 4-6 weeks (sorry DK!). My work is being so awesome, though, and is going to let me work from home. They realize that I am a mess when I am not doing something… allowing me to work from home is really a great benefit to society. They can probably write off my salary as charitable donation.

Anyway, definitely not looking forward to the surgery. I had an emotionally draining week last week and decided to cancel the large painting party we were going to have. Craig and Jamie still came up from (so sad – we wouldn’t be able to use our TV if Craig didn’t set it up! Thank you Craig!!) and friends from the Milwaukee area stopped in throughout the day, picked up a paint brush/roller and helped get some of the rooms done. I’m really glad we didn’t have a huge event because I was in pain all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. 😦 The good thing is that some of our friends are able to come up this coming weekend and it will be really nice to just be able to spend time with them and enjoy them, especially since the pain has gone away mostly. YAY!

Hope everyone is doing well. I will post pics when they are available!!

Frank (panting, breathing into a brown paper bag): I [pant, pant] think that I [pant, pant] lost my airport IDs.

Me: Wow, that’s not good.

Frank (eyes rolling back into head): No, it [gasping for air] isn’t.

Me: Did you check your coat pocket?

Frank: Of course I did. I checked everywhere. I checked in my pockets, the car, I called Panera, I called my mom. It’s gone. Gone. [sobbing]

Me: Are you sure it’s not in your coat pocket?

Frank: I told you, I checked there.

About 1 hour later.

Frank (after coming to from passing out): Oh, look, my IDs were in my left pocket. See, normally I put them in my right pocket. But wow, I really threw me for a loop. I never thought I’d put it in the left pocket.

Me: [sigh]

This afternoon I have a few hours before I need to review study materials for Vapor (high school ministry Frank and I work with). So what to do with this time?

Today at church, Tim talked about when God is silent. He referred to the gospel of Mark 14:53-65 where Jesus was being “tried” for his many wrong doings. When confronted with this false, inaccurate and contradicting testimony, Jesus was silent in response. He did not respond.

This lead to Tim’s first point – God does not respond when we have a wrong view/understanding of Him. God is our sovereign king. He is the way, the truth, and the light in the darkness. He is almighty and powerful. He is merciful. It doesn’t say that He is the keeper of my happiness. Believing that God existed as a butler serving my happiness would be a false view of Him. If I was a small child who begged for candy and my parents gave it to me whenever I asked, sure I’d be happy, but in 20 years, I’d have rotten teeth and health issues. If God existed to cater to my every need, I wouldn’t be as useful to Him. I would get complacent and I’d never grow. I doubt I’d take risks.

Tim pulled out Jeremiah 29:11 as an example of an inaccurate picture of God. Jer 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” That is a great verse, but when it is not in its full context, it paints an inaccurate portrait of God. The actual verese is surrounded by God putting Jeremiah in captivity for 70 years. Sure they will be delivered and they will be close to God when they pray to Him with all of their hearts, but they lose everything first and get it back later.

When we have an inaccurate, false view of God, He often falls silent. Maybe that’s where a lot of non-Christians struggle – they have an inaccurate view of God and don’t understand why He’s not responding. And maybe that’s where Christians fall short as well.

The last thing Tim mentioned was that sometimes God is silent when you have a right view of Him. You know God, but it seems He is not there. Tim pulled out an excellent example from something Rob Bell said (pastor in Michigan). When Jewish people morn, they have a shivah (can’t spell it, first time I’ve heard of it). THis is where family and friends come just to sit with the family in silence. They don’t say anything, they don’t give them a card – they just sit with the family to show their support and love and grieve for the loss.

When God is silent, maybe He is just sitting with us, waiting for us to humble ourselves and run to Him. Afterall, He is also our Daddy.

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day (just a bit late…):

At a world brewing convention, the CEOs of various brewing organizationsretired to the bar at the end of each day’s conference.

Bruce, CEO of Fosters, shouted to the Barman: “In ‘Strylya, we make the bestbladdy beer in the world, so pour me a bladdy Fosters, mate.”

Bob, CEO of Budweiser, calls out next: “In the States, we brew the finestbeers of the world, and I make the king of them all, gimme a Bud.”

Hans steps up next: “In Germany ve invented das beer, ferdamt. Give me einBecks, ya ist der real King of beers, danke.”

Paddy, CEO of Guinness, steps forward: “Barman, would ya give me a diet cokewith ice and lemon. Tanks.”

All, including the bartender, stare at him in stupified silence with mouths hanging open!

Eventually Bruce squeaks out: “Are you not going to have aGuinness, Pat?”

Paddy simply replies: “Well, if you pansies ain’t drinkin’, then neither am I.”

Today is a gorgeous, sunny Wisconsin Saturday morning. The sun is shining brightly off the lake, the seagulls are squaking outside our windows and the streets are quiet and tranquil.

Oh yes, and the temperature is somewhere in the mid-twenties. Bloody winter.

On Wednesday I almost started crying when the snow started coming down. Fortunately I don’t have a window in my cube, so I can’t see directly outside – thank goodness for that! In all truthiness, if the sun shined this brightly all winter, I wouldn’t mind the temperatures. Well, I wouldn’t mind them as much.

This has been one long winter. According to Mark Baden and his meteorological fraternity of newscasters, we are short 10 1/2 inches of snow up here in Cream City.

Enough about the weather. Today, we are going to the house to paint our bedroom and our bathroom. We also have some areas we need to touch up on the first floor. I just need to figure out how to convince Frank that it is time to get up. He sure does love his sleepy time!!

The Stay-at-Home Moms vs. the Working Moms debate has intrigued me for the past 4 years. It may not be a reality I have to face at this moment – we won’t have kids for some time – but it is something I deal with on a daily basis because the people I work with are parents. Sometimes they come into work exhausted because after working full time, they still have children to tend to and homes to manage. Sometimes you hear conversations on the phone that would just break you heart,”I’m sorry honey, I can’t come home right now, I’ll give you a kiss when I get home. You be good for ::insert person::. Love you, miss you.”

Seeing the long nights away from home – last minute business trips – crying babies – exhausted parents trying to pull it together – the everyday question: who will get the kids from daycare and who will make dinner? Even when everything works smoothly, I know one couple who come home tired, feed the kids, put them to bed and then sit opposite eachother at the dining room table on their individual laptops. Is this worth it?

So first, how do you make the best decision for you? I don’t think it can be made in a vacuum – you have to know your spouse. You have to trust them truly with your life and well-being. Second, how do we women live in harmony? How do Stay-at-Home moms drop the “holier than thou” tone while Working Moms lose the “I am more important than you” attitude? How do women work together to help eachother – whether they decide to be working moms or the stay at home variety? Anyway, just something to think about. I leave you with this quote from the book, Mommy Wars:

Working moms might conceivably be grateful to moms who stay home and run our schools, our communities, a good chunk of our kids’ worlds. And stay-at-homes might arguably appreciatae the working moms staying late to get the big promotions, fighting to increase women’s presence on company boards and the front page of The Wall Street Journal, campaigning to win elections. Without the money, the power and the loudspeaker successful careers bring, women will never have the collective bargaining power to make the world better for ourselves, our children, andall the women who can’t leave abusive husbands, the ones who wear veils, the moms who earn less than minimum wage cleaning houses and don’t have choices about birth control or prenatal care or any other kind of care.

Things have been moving along at lightening speed, hence the lack of updates. Frank and I have been packing like FIENDS, I tell you.

Our walk through is on Tuesday morning at 7:30 and we should take possession of the house shortly thereafter.

YAY!!

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. PR Intern
2. Bagger at Dominicks
3. Associate at Hallmark
4. Babysitter

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Ever After
2. Office Space
3. Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea
4.

Four places I have lived:
1. Palatine, IL
2. Chicago, IL
3. Naperville, IL
4. Milwaukee, WI

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Everybody Loves Raymond
2. Friends
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. Anything on HGTV

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Lost Lake, WI (North of Minoqua)
2. Estes Park, CO
3. Jackson Hole, WY
4. The Bahamas

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Hotmail
2. Blogger.com
3. Bank One/ Chase
4. TheSuperficial.com / Drudge (smut, yes, but always entertaining)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Edwardos Pizza
2. Soup Ladle’s Sirloin Chipotle Chili
3. PBJ
4. Ice cream

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. California
2. Nashville (never been, but I know it’s gotta be warmer than MKE)
3. The Bahamas
4. Snuggling with my roommate

So Monday, we had the JAWS of LIFE in our office as our mail room manager managed to get his hand “crunched” in the soda machine while he was refilling it. Yes. That’s right. Crunched. While numerous individuals tried to dislodge his hand using a pliars and whatever they could find – this one called for the professionals. Once the fire fighters got there, they determined that the only way to resolve the issue would be to bust out the JAWS of LIFE. They freed the mail room manager (thumb was broken, ego bruised) and I am glad to say that he fared much better than the vending machine. The next morning, the vending machine was in two separate pieces with the entire front removed…

Which means that all that soda was unguarded. And I so would have looted, except the voice of God came from the heavens and said, “I don’t think so, Emily.” After what that beast did to our mail room manager, I decided to heed God’s warning.

Speaking of voices from the sky and vicious corporate schemes, Josh P’s 27th birthday is 3/23. We here at Brew City, USA can’t wait. It’s like Christmas, except with out God being born. Or presents for snotty little children. But I’m sure I can convince someone to put on an ill fitting red suit and jump out of the chimney. That gets the kiddies every time. At the very least, Frank will scream like a girl – and who doesn’t love that?