You hear more and more about blogging. . . . .I'd like to consider myself a technologically savvy woman, but I am becoming more and more like my late mother who never did learn how to program her vcr to record a program.

I am a pastors-wife-mother-of-four-full-time-healthcare-marketing-p rofessional who seems to have less and less grey matter available to remember the funny times in my life.  I am simply blogging to try to remember it all. (well, may not ALL)  I chose CrazyMurphy for my user name because I believe I am Murphy's Law incarnate and want to inspire others to realize they are not crazy.  Leave that to me!

Let's begin with the past couple of weeks. . . .

My husband Brian was nominated to become Bishop of the LaCrosse Area Synod (yeah, wisconsin).  If elected, he would have  become the youngest Bishop ever elected in the ELCA (at the ripe old age of 37).  Their Synod Assembly took place from June 5-7 in Decorah, Iowa.  Throughout the process I knew that Brian would be a great Bishop, however, he was the underdog (young punk from outside of their synod who was known by few of the voting delegates).  We entered the first vote with no real idea of how he might do.  Well, he placed second on that ballot.  As the voting continued, he was consistently second and the possibility that he might win was always looming.  In the background of all of this was Brian's commitment to perform his cousin's marriage ceremony in Indianapolis (yeah, Indiana).  We had to leave the Assembly before voting was complete but wanted to stay as long as we possibly could.  We ended up leaving at 6:30 p.m. on Friday evening (with the four kids). On the way there we learned that a good friend, Joe, had died rather quickly at the age of 80.

We drove straight through and got to our hotel at 3:30 a.m. (our time which was 4:30 a.m. Indiana time).  We slept a few hours then all got ready and got to the wedding venue by 10:00 a.m.  Our daughter, Grace (5 years old), was asked at the last minute to be the substitute flower girl.  She was a bit sleep deprived and in diva mode.  I should also mention we'd had to miss the rehearsal.  Fortunately, she did fine (though she did milk it for all it was worth and I began to wonder if it would require a second song to get her all the way down the aisle).  Shortly after the wedding we learned that Brian had placed second overall and we would not be moving to LaCrosse after all.  This was actually a blessing as we love our current church home a great deal.

As soon as possible following the wedding we loaded everyone in the van - everyone still in dress clothes except for our little diva who was in a comfy dress.  We began the drive home and about Champaign, (yeah, Illinois) the air conditioner quit working on the hottest day, yet, of the summer.  We'd turn off the air and roll down the windows which made the kids mad because they couldn't hear the dvd players - God forbid.  Fortunately, when the windows were down I couldn't really hear them either :-).  We were all tired, hot, sweaty, crabby and overloaded on junk food.

About one hour away from home we hit a huge thunderstorm.  I was driving at this point and could only go about 30 mph on the highway at one point.  Thankfully, the kids were asleep at this point!  We arrived home at about 11:30 pm to find our back door locked and no key with us (I have now hidden a spare).  We're exhausted, stressed, overloaded on junk food and I, of course, have to go to the bathroom!  At 11:30 p.m. we were out in the pouring rain looking for an unlocked window in order to break into our own home.  One of our 12 year old sons (we have twins), Taylor, found an unlocked window and I hoisted him up through the window and we got into our house.  Though we have sump pumps they just couldn't keep up with the rain and we had a wet basement by morning.  Perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

The next day, Brian had to leave at noon for a week of confirmation camp.  I spent the morning trying to get some laundry ready for him and ducking over to church to announce to our church family that we would be staying as Brian had taken the weekend off because of our numerous commitments.  I got him out the door and began trying to figure out what to do about the basement.  There really wasn't much to do as the water was seeping up through the foundation.

We had a typical week with me working and the older two boys, Justin & Taylor, babysitting their younger brother, Nathan (7 years old).  Grace continued to go to her usual babysitter as she isn't quite of school age.  Day one was rough and ended with me throwing their airsoft guns into the garbage.  (What can I say, I had finally knuckled to their frantic requests at Christmas and bought into the promises that they wouldn't shoot their eyes out).  I did get my van to the dealership and they felt they had corrected the air conditioner (I should mention at this point that my van had already taken a three day vacation in their shop 6 weeks earlier for the same issue).  Day two was better and I was quite proud of my novice babysitters  This was the day of Joe's funeral.  Day three started out much the same but changed quickly. . . .

I am a member of our local Lions Club.  Several years ago I initiated a new fundraiser called Taste of the Greenbelt (TOGB).  We had scheduled this TOGB long before I knew that Brian would be gone at camp.  After working all day, I had to rush over to the TOGB and help for awhile.  Then I was scheduled to look at a house with our realtor, Susan.  Loved the house by the way. . . . The boys were babysitting for me during this time - both Nathan and Grace.  When I got home our friend Lisa was waiting to visit with me.  We sat outside for a bit until the boys told me that Grandma King was on the phone to talk to me.  I visited with her for awhile and as soon as I hung up, Joe's wife, Gladys, called to see if she could bring me a plant from Joe's funeral.  I ran downstairs to ask the kids to tidy up a bit as the house looked like a bomb had detonated after their full day of babysitting.  As I passed our front door our neighbor, Leilani, was bringing Grace a bouquet of flowers cut from her garden.  We stepped outside to visit with her and Gladys pulled up with a friend, Keit.  We all stood outside visiting and I noticed that a storm was brewing.  The phone rang and it was Brian reporting that a tornade had struck a scout camp to the west of them killing four scouts but they were all in the tornado shelter and "fine".

I gathered all the kids into the house and made the decision we would all sleep together in our living room - remember the basement is still damp at this point.  We had our weather alert radio going off every few minutes and the tv on reporting all kinds of nastiness around us.  We finally all fell asleep and I awoke at some point to complete pitch black darkness.  "Well, I'd better get the flashlight that's plugged into the wall," I thought.  I tiptoed around bodies, got into the kitchen and..................no flashlight.  "OK, I'll get a lighter and light some candles....."  no lighter!  I woke up Taylor who found the lighter for me and fell back to sleep.  I lit a candle and began to look for my cellphone to call the utility company.  No cell phone.  "I probably left it in the van"  No key.  I began to pick up the house (by candlelight) and finally found my key.  Guess what?  No cell phone in the van.  As I retraced my steps for the evening I got a terrible feeling I knew where my phone was. . . . outside where I'd sat down to talk to Lisa.  There she was........ (a little background here.....My purse was stolen last November with my cell phone in it.  I got a new cell phone and one of the older boys got it wet and it quit working.  I made an insurance claim and had just gotten this newer cell phone within the past two months).  As I returned to the house (dripping wet from the rain) the lights flickered on and I quickly blew out the candle in time for them to flicker back off.  Back to hunting for the lighter. . . . . 45 minutes later the lights were restored and my house was much neater and I eventually got back to sleep.

Day four.  Much the same as day two.  I worked and came home after work to rush Taylor to a little league game in Alden (about 7 miles from home).  Nathan and Grace wanted to eat at the game.  Nathan wolfed down his favorite food - hot dog and rushed off to play with his friends.  Grace crashed in her carseat and slept through most of the game.  After the game everyone begged to stay for a bit which was OK with me for a short while - remember I still have a damp basement to deal with!  I rounded up the troops with many protests and we headed back to home.  On the way I asked if we needed anything from the store while we were out.  Grace began to argue that she wanted to go while Nathan argued that he felt "noxious".  Seconds later the first eruption hit!  (projectile hotdog vomit). 

I quickly rolled down the window in an attempt to prevent collateral damage - Justin has a weak stomach and was in the backseat of the van.  Grace began to cry because the vomit had hit her precious blanket.  Justin was yelling at Nathan between wretches, Taylor (in the front seat) grabbed my air freshener and held it to his nose like an oxygen tank and I was yelling at Justin threatening to do bodily damage if he vomited.  Wave two hit with more force than the first one only this time Nathan put his hands up to catch it and this redirection coupled with the wind flow sent it flying right at Justin.  I put the pedal to the metal figuring I could get out of any ticket with this story. . . .  As we approached Iowa Falls, Nathan asked if that's where we were.  I turned and looked only to realize he'd ridden the last half of the journey with his eyes closed because they were covered with vomit.  All I could do was laugh out loud.  The kids wondered what was so funny. . . .

We arrived at home and everyone piled out of the van as quickly as possible.  I rinsed Nathan off from the garden hose and stripped him down to his underwear and sent him in for a shower.  I began to take seats out of the van and had the boys grab the carpet shampooer, buckets, rags, towels, windex papertowels and vacuum.  Two hours later I put the seats back into the van and headed inside to get everyone ready for bed.  On the upside, my van hasn't been that clean since the day we brought it home.

Day four.  Brian came home from camp.  He was supposed to leave right away for the NE Iowa Synod Assembly in Waverly, but they were under water from flooding and he got to stay home.  Yeah!  We'd missed celebrating his birthday with him and enjoyed a nice weekend with him at home (helping to clean the basement) and no preaching responsibilities because he wasn't supposed to be here!  For the first time in twelve years he got breakfast in bed on Father's Day!

A much nicer ending to a much nicer weekend. . . .