peace and heartburn

Got my hair cut, got some heartburn, it's 7 am, hey!

Since all I'm thinking about is Asher, and since I know that unless you have recently been pregnant, you really don't want to hear the details of my pregnancy, I offer a poem today.

My mom was in a writer's club when I was little. A few times, I memorized poems to recite for her group. And you know the thing about the earlier that you learn something, the more it stays with you? It's true for me. I can still recite those poems. Anyway, here's one of them:

Peace
by Henry Vaughan

My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
All skillful in the wars;

There above noise, and danger,
Sweet Peace sits crowned with smiles,
And One born in a manger
Commands the beauteous files.

He is thy gracious Friend,
And - O my soul, awake! -
Did in pure love descend
To die here for thy sake.

If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of Peace,
The Rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease.

Leave then thy foolish ranges,
For none can thee secure
But One, Who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

Happy Saturday.

9-25-06

Anyone else ever noticed that these blogs all have great, thought-provoking titles, but are full of banality?

So, here's mine for the day:

My dog peed on a poodle today. ON the poodle. He escaped from the apartment and peed directly on the poodle's back. Brian said, "It would have been better if he'd HUMPED the poodle. At least that's NATURAL. How do you explain to another dog owner why your dog is peeing on his?" It was ridiculous. He was promptly sent to his bed for being a Bad Dog. Thankfully, the other owner was polite about it. He chuckled and said, "They're just, um, getting to know one another." Right. Do YOU urinate on all of your acquaintances? I appreciated his graciousness, nonetheless.

title: MORE BIRTHDAYS, or, "Are you gonna eat that?"

This week, Amanda's son, Rusty's son, and Halle's son all turn one year old. Happy birthday babies! Anyone else noticed the plethora of birthdays in August and September? Watch our for holiday romance, friends, or you might have a September baby of your own ...

Also, I have eaten a baby's weight in HAMBURGER this week. Yesterday, I ate 3 of them. THREE. Hamburger and broccoli are my new favorite foods. And cold cold cold drinks - the kind of cold that makes your teeth hurt ... yummm .... I keep buying bottled water from the gas station, even though we have perfectly adequate water at our house. Theirs is colder.

Tis the season for birthdays and broccoli ... fa la la la la la la la la ...

it's sunny and fall outside, and my windows won't open. sad.

Asher Update:

Asher's growing and kicking, just like he's supposed to. But here's something strange - he's growing vertically right now. My belly no longer begins at its button; now it starts at my sternum. It looks like a little wall of baby is advancing forward into the world. And I SWEAR that most of pregnancy is a wives' tale. Make up a symptom - anything, seriously - and somebody will tell you, "I had a cousin's wife's best friend who had the exact same thing when she was pregnant." It's ridiculous. RI-diculous.

Reading Update:

I'm not. That's your update. I took a book off the shelf two days ago, but it's still sitting in the living room, unopened. Reading takes energy, and like Joshilyn, I prefer the mindlessness of TV these days.

Coffee Update:

Sigh. Here is my issue with life at the coffee shop - I want to do every job well. And yet, if I'm not careful, I can be overtaken by the swirling mass of drama that is in every establishment of this kind. This week, it has been particularly hard to fight the undertow. But I really can't afford for it to win, because then I'll want to MOVE ON FROM MAKING COFFEE ALREADY, and I REALLY don't need to move on just yet. So it's time, once again, for me to take a deep breath and repeat, "It's just coffee." Because it is, you know.

Montgomery Update:

I love our neighborhood. And I love living in town (as opposed to life on the lake, which was beautiful, but inconvenient). Our apartment is good, too - all that we need for it to be, and appreciated for its location more than anything else. Also, we are making friends, and we all know that friends are the difference between tolerating life and enjoying it. So, overall, life in Montgomery is good. Our restaurant choices are still lacking, but, meh.

Brian Update:

Since Brian doesn't blog, really, I'll speak for him for just a moment. Brian is teaching science, and though he's a little bumfuzzled by the number of kids who would rather make a 3 on a test than study for it, he's enjoying it. Can't you see Brian as a teacher? I totally can.

ONE MORE:

Taylor Update:

Taylor is living with us again, and has been, since we moved into the apartment. He's fine. He gets bored with his little world, having been exposed to basements and backyards and all manner of fun since the last time he was stuck in an apartment. But he does okay. The most interesting thing about Taylor is that he has a buddy, a squat little dog who shares a back fence with ours. He has a bark that makes Brian quote in a gruff voice, "Your mama sure does care about your education, boy."

Hooray for Lane,

who found the poem I asked about. Except that it's copyrighted, so I'm just going to post a link to it. It's called "Alcoholic," and it's by FD Reeve.

Read it HERE.

another call to those more computer literate than myself. but this request will be fun. i promise.

There was a poem called "Alcoholic" in an anthology of poetry my mom used to have. I have no idea which anthology ... anyway, the first line is "He was like the Lord drunk." The poem is about a man who thinks he's holding the world in his hands, but he's really an old drunk, rolling a green marble between his fingers and staring into it for some deeper meaning. I LOVED the poem. But now I can't find it anywhere. Anyone want to help? Valerie? Lane? Janet? You all are pretty savvy at finding the hidden crevices of the Internet. Anyone? Anyone?

I have become a mush.

Ex 1: Church this morning was lively. Brian has become a percussionist of sorts, using his body and guitar to keep rhythm (since he has no drummer). It really works better than you would think. One song in particular was fun, with Brian stomping the beat on the riser and the congregation clapping along. At the end, in the tiniest silence just before the transition to the next song, I heard the little boy behind me say to his dad, "I want to do that AGAIN."

Ex 2: A family in our church adopted two little boys, ages 5 and 6, last year. The youngest one looks like the All-American Boy. Think Opie Taylor. And he likes Brian, as some kids are wont to do. Three times this Sunday I looked up to see Opie standing close to Brian, who is inevitably talking to another grown-up. Whenever Brian would notice him, he would say, "What up dude. Give me five." To which the little boy would oblige, then, satisfied, run away. It was so cute.

Ex 3: I bought a going-home outfit for Asher yesterday. I bought some other stuff, too (including a very cool little model canoe for his dresser, and a railroad crossing sign to hang in his room. There's not really a theme, so much as a look that I'm going for here). But I'm superexcited about the going-home outfit. It's a green velour-looking onesie that has snowmen on it. It's definitely a Christmas outfit (so he better be here BY Christmas, or he'll be out of season). I know the outfit is a little silly, but I'm having a Christmas Baby and it's a Christmas Outfit and it's not blue (which is hard to find, when you're talking about baby clothes. Thankfully I like blue.) and I like it. Because I'm a mush.

By the way, Georgia is a genius. Seriously - I'm not just saying that. The girl is 18 months old and can tell you what she had for lunch that day. Most kids, at 18 months, can wave bye-bye and say "ball." That doesn't make me a mush; it just makes me proud.

pictures

Since my computer won't let me access pictures for the blog (for some strange reason), I've updated the flickr site. If you're interested, you can see pictures from this year at www.flickr.com/photos/thegreenlife, or click HERE.

Several of you have asked about pregnancy photos. Ahem. Pregnant women are only cute IF YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM. I don't HATE the way I look right now, but I don't want to archive my pregnancy for the rest of posterity, either. Let's just let this moment pass us by, shall we?

we're back online, jed and jaime have a blog, etc.

YAY! for fall in Alabama. Fall weather here really means it's no longer unbearably hot - not that it's actually cool. It will probably be another month before long sleeves are needed, but at least it's not 105* anymore.

Happy birthday! to Elizabeth and Mechelle.

And, Jed and Jaime have a blog. Jedandjaime.blogspot.com. For those who don't know, Jed and Jaime were friends from Nashville who spent a summer at Lake Junaleska with the band. Does everybody know they have a baby now? Keira, their daughter, is about 9 months old.

That's all for now.

quick update

1. Internet is still out. That's our problem, not the cable company's. We just haven't called about it yet. I don't really know how to explain this, but after our Blue Highway Year, we seem to have lost some of our - hurriedness. Things like pictures on the wall and cable internet connections just don't matter like they used to. It'll get done. Tomorrow. I promise.

2. We are superbusy, again. I guess our re-entry into mainstream living has thrown us back into the busy-ness, too. We have FIVE jobs between the two of us, and Brian is doing most of them. But he's enjoying what he's doing, which is really good. And we love love love love our new church. Those of you who have worked for churches will appreciate this - it's such a nice feeling to sit in church on Sunday morning and know that this is where you would choose to go - this is not just part of your job. So good.

3. Part of our busy-ness - I've started teaching (a little) again. That's job #2 for me. It's work, but work that you love is so different from work that is necessary. In the past year, I have definitely developed a new appreciation for a career versus a job. Anyway, teaching is good. Sometimes a little hairy (I DEFINITELY made a little boy C-R-Y this week), but overall, really good.

4. We're reaching the freak-out phase of pregnancy. We're REALLY going to have a little boy. I'm ACTUALLY going to go into labor, and GIVE BIRTH to a BABY. Soon. We keep talking about the fun parts of that, but there are serious decisions that ACTUALLY need to be made before he gets here. Like insurance and pediatricians and such like of the which. These things can cause me to hyperventilate if I think about them too hard. But I did make a Pre-Asher To Do list yesterday. It's a step.

5. I have baby showers coming up soon (yay!) and I don't have most of your addresses. So please email me (privately) and send me your addresses. Even if you are far away AND even if you have already done this when you moved, I probably deleted it because I am SILLY like that so I'd really like to have them again.

6. I've learned something important about myself-when-I-am-pregnant this week. I don't feel bad, but I just haven't felt good in six months. I can sleep as much as I want - I'm still going to be tired. It's silly, but acknowledging that is freeing. I'm just going to be tired, so I might as well be tired and get some things done, rather than trying to "catch up" on rest. I won't be "caught up" for the next year, probably. And that's ok.

7. Halle is having a little boy the same week as me! Her new baby's name will be Levi Hagen Searcy.

Sorry this is mostly about pregnancy. I'm trying not to talk to people about it unless I know they want to hear it, but, truthfully, my life is more and more about being pregnant and getting ready for him. So that's what I have to write about these days.

Hi everyone,

Our internet is out, just so you know. I hope it's back next week, but I don't know that for sure.

But this past week was the HISTORICAL EUMC BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA, and I didn't get to wish anyone happy birthday. I have pictures for everyone somewhere (and I probably have a picture of them together, but I'd really have to dig for that), so my loudest HAPPY BIRTHDAY! will have to suffice.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Janet

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Carrie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Laurie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Starr

All of their birthdays are in the SAME WEEK and they were all in EUMC youth group together - which is why I can never remember who has which day.