friday five

In honor of cheesy radio stations everywhere, I figured I'd do a "Friday Five" today. Only there's no particular theme...there's just...five things. And it's Friday. So...there you have it. Deep, I know...so let's just dive on in.

1. Ticks. I mean, seriously. Those icky creatures. Watch out for them indeed. In the past few weeks we've had more than a few encounters with these unwelcome guests. We've found a few crawling on (or attached to) Lola, and a few weeks ago I even found one on ME, which was unacceptable. The oral flea preventative we have Lola on doesn't have any tick repellant/killer to it, so I decided that when this prescription ran out I'd switch her to something with a tick component. This afternoon after I got off work was when I planned to take her to the vet to get the new stuff. I get home from work, let Lola out, and am getting things together to go to the vet, when what do I find? Another tick on my stomach. SUCKING MY BLOOD. Oh. My. Gosh. I was so freaked out and hyperventilating it took me MUCH too long to remove that little vampire. It was SO stuck in my skin. I actually ran outside, looking for a neighbor (or anyone walking/driving by) to help me because I was so freaked out I couldn't do it myself. Luckily for everyone involved, I couldn't find anyone. (Would you be freaked out if a strange woman in her late 20s with her shirt pulled up knocked on your door and wanted assistance removing a tick?) Needless to say, we got to the vet in a timely manner...I gave the poor girl at the desk my dead tick in a sandwich baggie and begged her to tell me it wasn't the kind of tick that carries Lyme disease. Her response? "Ummm...I think pretty much all ticks carry Lyme Disease." You liar, I know for a fact that most do not. You are no help to me. Just sell me the Frontline and let's be done with it. UGH. Anyway...hopefully we will have less encounters of the Tick kind in the near future.

2. Snakes. While we're on the topic of Unwanted Visitors in My Backyard, let's re-visit an event that happened 2 weekends ago, while Chris and Katy were visiting. As we're all hanging out inside, chatting and what not, Matt absentmindedly gazes out the sliding glass door and comments "hey, there's a snake in the backyard." This was said in the same tone of voice you might use to announce "pardon me, I'm going to go get a glass of water" or something equally inconsequential. So we look out the window, expecting to see something slightly larger than a worm. Instead, we find Snakezilla:

Pictures are worth thousands of my words, so I'll keep this short. The snake was making serious headway towards getting into our shed (catching flies with his snakey little tongue as he slithered), and we had not only Lola but also tiny little Eva with us that weekend. The 3 animals just could not co-exist, so somebody had to go, and unfortunately for the reptile kingdom, the snake got voted off the island. Chris and Matt did a very manly job of defending the house, as Katy and I jumped and squealed like 4 year old girls inside. We never were able to identify what kind of snake it was...obviously some mutant, since I don't think 3 inch-thick snakes are supposed to be living in suburban Georgia.

3. On a much lighter note, I've really been enjoying playing around with my Amish Friendship bread recipe lately. If you're unfamiliar with the Amish Friendship bread and it's offspring (infinite bags of 'starter' that bubble and smell funny for 10 days before you make MORE bread), you should Google it or something. But we've (and by 'we' I mean lots of my friends in Athens, and now Greenville too) been doing it pretty consistently since last summer, and it's only this last batch that I've started getting creative with-- and what fun!! And what yummy results! On Monday I made banana pecan Amish bread, and it was WONDERFUL- and easier than making regular banana bread. I'm still debating what kind to make next time.

4. School's out-- for the kids, that is. Until June 1st, when some of them get to come back for our seven week Summer Splash program where they'll catch up on the things they're behind on and get themselves all ready for kindergarten. Poor things. Anyway, I don't get any time off (well, I'm taking a personal day on Monday so that I can celebrate Memorial Day like the rest of civilized humanity), but it's a nice break from the kids for the next week. And it's really boring. But quiet.

5. Finally, a more sobering story. A 3-year old at my church was diagnosed with leukemia this week and my heart is really broken for him and his family. This is the second child of friends in the past 18 months that has been diagnosed with leukemia and it's such a hard thing. But as sad as I have been about this, I also have this strange feeling of excitement and joy deep in my heart. I am pretty close to Brian and Nolia, the parents of a (then) 6-year old boy who was diagnosed in November of 2007. They were devastated, as you would expect...but as I've watched them deal with Evan's disease for the past year and a half, I have seen God do so much in and through them. Evan's doing very well, now. I mean, there will always be health implications of his disease, but in many ways he lives a normal life now...and yet there's nothing normal about it. God did so much in his life and in his family's life and they will never be the same. They have an incredibly real and deep awareness of God as their strength, their provider, their Healer...their faith in His goodness is astonishing to me. Not only that, but I saw a whole community of friends, neighbors, believers, and strangers pull together to support them and Evan. The kindness so many people showed them regularly brought them (and me) to tears. It was a "restore your faith in humanity" kind of thing. And so I look back on that, and although I hate that Griffin has been diagnosed with such a horrible cancer, and I hate what Mollie and Josh, his parents, are facing right now...I can't wait to see God show His glory. I can't wait to see miracles, and for little Griffin's life to be a story of love, grace, and healing. I fully believe that the God I serve is a God who is consumed with love for his creation and is fully capable of restoring health and life in any situation. Please join me in praying for Griffin and his family...and pray knowing that God loves to do the impossible.

I think that's all I've got for now. We don't have much on the slate for this weekend...since we were supposed to have closed on the house today, we had planned on painting and such this weekend. But since we didn't, we can't. Boo. So we have some free time, which we will also hopefully keep tick and snake free. :) Hopefully there will be some nice weather and we can play outside this weekend!

Happy Friday!