and God gets the last laugh . . .

so today . . . was sunday. sundays at our house are pretty busy, which is why many times i don't get a blog posted. by sunday night, i am tired. but a couple of funny things happened today, so i am blogging. it's your lucky day!

yesterday i went out to do some errands, and while i was at wal-mart, i saw cadbury eggs. diandra looooves cadbury eggs, but they seem to be a seasonal treat. usually i buy several and give them to her on easter. so i bought some yesterday, and when i was unpacking my shopping bags, i decided to just give them to her now. i'm not even sure exactly when easter is yet, and the risk of the pups finding and eating them was just too great. so i put the cadbury eggs on her pillow so she would find them when she got home last night.

this morning she came into my room to thank me for the treat. and then she said, "when i got home last night and found the eggs, i thought, 'wait. is today easter?'"

you see, this is what happens when a holiday moves around like easter does--it is hard to keep track of it. but not for diandra--she knows it is easter when the cadbury eggs show up. well, usually . . .

but today was not easter. it was, however, the first day of daylight savings time--you know, the day we are all tired because we had to move our clocks forward one hour? which really just means one less hour of sleep, because nobody i know goes to bed an hour earlier . . .

this always complicates church on sunday morning. even though i had reminded the band about the time change yesterday, i didn't hold out much hope that they would be on the stage and ready to play by 9:00. but i was pleasantly surprised to see that they weren't any later than usual . . .

we started running through the music when suddenly we lost the drums! i looked back, and realized that the drummer had broken a stick. this is not a totally uncommon occurance, but it is a little hard to play the drums without sticks. (i was just glad it had happened during rehearsal and not during church--which has happened more than once or twice.) we continued on, and then i heard the guitar player say, "oh no!" i just knew he had broken a string--we have a terrible track record with guitar strings, and this morning we didn't have time to run to target for more. i turned to look and was relieved to see that all six strings were still intact.

and then i did it--i said, "you know, i don't know what is the matter with you guys! i have NEVER broken a string or a drum stick!" i turned back to the keyboard and began playing the next song. or at least, i tried to play. i hit the keys, and no sound came out. none at all. i quickly noticed that all the lights were off on both the keyboard and it's monitor. the power switch was on, and i had just been playing it! but now the keyboard was dead, dead, dead.

i could not believe it. the timing could not have been more perfect. you can't play a keyboard without power--just like you cannot play the drums without sticks or the guitar without strings. i thought i was the one making a joke, but the joke was on me! i immediately accused the sound guys of saboutage, but they turned out to be innocent.

i'm sure it was God. i can just see him watching us, and thinking, "oh, the perfect set-up! i can't pass this opportunity up. this is going to be fun . . ." right before he jostled that cable loose. i mean, why have supernatural power if you can't have a little fun with it?

you may not think God is like that, and that's ok. but i know that when God is watching me, most of the time he is either shaking his head in despair, or laughing. because really, when you look at me and my life, what other choices does he have?!?

what goes around . . .

so today . . . i had to eat my words. i hate it when that happens.

today was a busy day. i woke up feeling yukky--i don't know yet it if i am having allergy issues or if a bug is trying to get me again, but i really, really didn't want to get out of bed.

i made it to work and crashed behind my desk. i am fortunate that most of the kids i deal with at school are pretty well behaved and responsive to my words. most of the time. this morning they did a good job of keeping busy without much intervention from me. which is good, because i didn't have much intervention in me. in fact, we started reading groups today, but just barely . . . because i was sitting there thinking, "i can't do reading groups today. i just can't--i'm just too much of a vegetable." so i had to have a conversation with myself summoning up the energy to grab the basket of books, relocate across the room, and listen to kids read. yeah, i know--it sounds exhausting doesn't it?!?

the afternoon went well, and then i had a couple of parent conferences.

i usually enjoy parent conferences. and today was no exception. i talked with parents about their darling dumplings for over an hour. i was animated. i was wise. i was understanding. i was amazing, considering i just wanted to put my head down on the table and sleep . . .

but the conferences took longer than i had planned, so i had to go straight to the church for band rehearsal without stopping at home. thankfully, my music notebook was in the trunk of my car. and then i pulled into the church parking lot and realized that my church keys were still at home, sitting on the keyboard . . .

not good. not good at all. here's why . . .

last week was the first full band rehearsal we had had since thanksgiving--mostly because i had been sick, but then we also had a couple of weeks off. so i was kind of excited to be back. i got there early and got everything set up, and then waited for the rest of the band to show up. and waited and waited and waited. and as i was waiting, a series of text messages came to my phone explaining why each one was going to be late . . .

finally everyone got there, but then we lost one. the guitar player got to rehearsal and realized he didn't have his guitar.

are you kidding me?!?!?! what did he think he was going to do??? i mean, he was coming to rehearsal with the sole purpose of playing the guitar, but he didn't bring it??!?!?!

teenage boys--sometimes they make me laugh right out loud, but sometimes they make me want to bang my head against the wall . . .

finally he made it back with the guitar and was able to rehearse with us--for about 10 minutes.

which brings me back to today. i knew as i sat there in my car, keyless, that i was going to have to endure some payback. i could just imagine it . . . "what?!? you forgot your keys???? where did you think we were going to rehearse?? i mean, you were coming for rehearsal and you didn't bring the keys that would let us into the building?!?!?!"

yeah, it wasn't going to be pretty . . .

i had a few minutes before anyone showed up, so i rummaged through my purse again thinking maybe i had just missed the keys the first time. of course, i hadn't. and then the boys drove up . . . 15 minutes early! this was an unprecedented action--they were there early AND they had their guitars. shoot! the one time i was hoping for tardiness, there they were. early. and prepared.

i was toast.

i got out of my car, collected my stuff and headed for the sidewalk where they were unloading their equipment. my strategy was simple--go on the offensive. "you are never going to believe what i did," i started. and then told my story. their faces registered mock looks of horror, and i had to endure a few words of ridicule, and then it was over.

as much as i would like to throttle them some days, really they are nice kids. considering they are teenagers. and boys . . .

a little help here!!!

so today . . . i was afraid there would be no blog. again. but the best way i know to kill a blog is to stop writing. so the pressure was on to find something to write about.

and it was hard! rollie is not feeling good today, and diandra had plans that did not include going anywhere with her mom. and i didn't really want to leave rollie alone anyway, so i spent the day at home. my prospects for blogging material were not good, not good at all . . .

. . . and then i got javvy's text message--"mighty to save and that other fast one. let's do like 6 fast songs!"

javvy is the drummer in my worship band. he is 16 years old.

sixteen year old boys are a mystery to me. i have a brother, but i am three years older than he is. so when he was 16, i was away at college. diandra was 16 once, but she is a girl--which is a whole different thing. since i lead worship in our alternative service at church, and half my band is 16 year old boys, you would think i would have a clue. but i don't . . .

don't misunderstand me--the boys in our youth group are funny and entertaining and endearing, and i like them. but their thought processes can seem so random, especially the boys in the band. they seem to have the attention span of a . . . well, i don't even know what to compare it to. let's just say that i think they have usually stopped thinking about what i am saying to them before i get to the end of my first sentence. i can tell this is happening, because they stop looking at me, and then when i get done talking (or even before i am done talking,) they will say something totally unrelated. it can be confusing at times, or frustrating. but i have to admit, sometimes it can be really funny.

today i needed to get a music set written for church tomorrow, and i just didn't feel like doing it. i do this every week--write a set--and it usually isn't a big deal. but today it just wasn't happening . . . i tried to get diandra to help me. "hey, do you want to pick your favorite songs to sing tomrrow?" i texted her. who wouldn't want to do that?!? apparently diandra--she declined. so javvy was next on my list. he always has an opinion. the problem is, he is a drummer.

drummers apparently don't hear lyrics--they hear beats, rhythms, and tempos--which resulted in his lack of being able to come up with the song title for what he was hearing in his head.

so i texted back to javvy--"that other fast one?!?! i think i need more info than that!"

he replied, "i think it's like 3 words long and one starts with an f. i think."

i had to laugh. come on! our band knows a lot of songs and that description was supposed to point me to the ONE song he was thinking of?!?

this was not helping me. not at all. but it did make me laugh. i don't think he was trying to make me laugh. i think he really thought he was helping--that i would get that message and think, "oh that one . . . " but that is not what happened.

i did try to track down his mystery song. i found songs with three word titles. i found songs with words that started with the letter f. but no songs that fit both criteria, not to mention being fast . . .

so i wrote the set myself and emailed it to the tech people. then i went on with my day. we gave the dogs showers and had panda express for lunch. i did laundry, played on pet society, did some more laundry . . . and then several hours later i got another text from javvy.

"trading my sorrows!!"

do YOU see the letter 'f ' anywhere in that song title?!?!

sixteen year old boys. drummers. God help me . . .