The Unexpected Non-Visitor

A friend of mine has a quote on her Facebook profile that goes:

Trust in God, but tie your camel.

Last night, that quote bounced around in my head as I laid fearfully wide awake in bed. It was 3:30am and I was enjoying a nice dream about a mean cheerleader who was knocking over my neatly stacked drinking glasses as I kicked her out of my party. Then I heard 3 loud buzzes. Wait! I knew those buzzes! Groggily I turned in bed and shook Jon. "Jon, wake up. Our buzzy thing is buzzing!" That was sleepy-talk for "Our buzzy thing is buzzing." (you know...the buzzy thing that tells you when someone is at the door and wants to be "buzzed" in!) Jon stumbled toward the door (anyone who has ever woken Jon from a sound sleep knows that he does not WALK he STUMBLES around) and spoke into the mic, "Hullo...?"
No answer. He stumbled back to bed.
"Probably just a homeless person or a drunk," he assumed.
"Is the door locked?" I asked.
Jon got back up and stumbled toward the door again, this time staring long and hard at the unlocked door before sliding the dead-bolt in place. "Why is the door unlocked?" he called into the bedroom.
"Because every time we come home we're carrying 17 million things with Abi." I replied.
"Maybe someone was going around checking the doors and found ours was unlocked and so they buzzed us to wake us up."
He came back to bed and we both laid there for a good 10 minutes. I could tell he wasn't sleeping because I couldn't hear him quasi-snoring. I knew his mind was racing just as fast as mine was. Who would buzz our door at 3:30 in the morning? Was someone really checking our door? And if so, how creepy is that?! How are we to know if they didn't actually come into our apartment?? I had heard of people whose houses were robbed say that it was an eerie feeling knowing that someone had been in their home. I suddenly knew how they felt, only 10x worse. What if someone had been in my home WHILE I WAS IN IT SLEEPING? Suddenly our charming little neighborhood was a sinister extension of the inner city and our building full of little old ladies was full of crazy ex-cons. I got up from bed and peeked into Abi's crib. She was sleeping soundly. I crawled back to bed and Jon whispered he had been thinking the same thing.
"Would you feel better if you checked out the apartment?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then go do it."
Jon got up and stealthily maneuvered around the apartment. (Notice, he was no longer STUMBLING.) A series of lights went on and off, and he returned without a robber in a neckhold. Now we knew there was nothing to fear. No one was in the apartment, nothing had been taken, we were safe. But there was still this creepy crawly feeling hanging over us, and we knew what we needed to do. We prayed and thanked God for His protection and asked for His peace. We prayed against any spirits of fear or violence that were in our room, and we prayed that they would not torment Abi's dreams. We know that God does not want us to live in fear, but to live with a sound mind.

Were we being paranoid? Shouldn't we be trusting God to protect us? Do I believe God can protect us? Absolutely! But why tempt disaster? As I previously stated, "Trust in God, but tie your camel." Or maybe I should say, "Trust in God, but lock your doors."

Wook at dat Wittle Face!!!

I just thought everyone needed the opportunity to fall in love with this face. Look at this picture and tell me you are not overcome with a desire to kiss that face a hundred times!!!

An Ode to the Apostrophes Abuse

Im saddened when people use the wrong punctuation mark's in their sentences'. I have seen an alarming amount of apostrophe's being used in the wrong place's. Likewise, some people forget to use the apostrophe altogether and put a nothing in the apostrophes place. The apostrophe has' several purpose's and plurazing a noun is not one of them. Thats the truth! It seem's too many high school's are forgetting how to teach grammar properly. Its a horrible fact that a student who pass's high school English still can not master the many beautiful function's of the apostrophes repitoire. Conjunctions', the deletion of letters, and possession are the grand use's for the apostrophe. If there is a question in your mind about whether or not to use an apostrophe, ask yourself these three question's, "Does something belong to the noun I just apostrophized?" "Is there suppos'ed to be a letter where the apostrophe lie's?" "Does the word I apostrophized contain two words' that still make sense in the sentence if I separate them?" If the answer is "no" to all these questions' then remove the apostrophe or apos'trophe's. If you have a plural noun that pos'sess's something, then add an apostrophe to the end of the word. Good punctuation bless's reader's many times' over. Too many apos'trophe's confu'ses' the readers minds'. Its a shame that peoples writing misu'se's one little mark so badly. Bles'sing's to the soul's who's pen master's it's master.

Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone??

Billboards like this have been popping up all over the U.S. put up by the United States Army. Their purpose is to recruit Arabic-speaking Americans to be translators in the Arab world, specifically Iraq. I saw a story on this on the news last night. Since my husband is an ex-Marine, a linguistic major, and a student of Arabic, I found the topic intriguing! So I watched the story. They interviewed the average "Joe-on-the-street" about their reaction to these signs. Now, I admit I was taken by surprise a little by the army's in-your-face tactics for this recruiting, since most Americans think of the Arab/Army relationship negatively. I expected these interviews to either reveal a populus of Arab-phobes or vice-versa people preaching tolerance and not really tackling the topic accurately. What resulted was a surprise to me! What resulted was absoulte IGNORANCE! One lady said, "I can't even read that! Who are they trying to reach?" That roused a chuckle out of me. Oh you simpleton. Go on to the next interviewee... Little did I know the next guy was going to be even worse! "What is that up there?" He says. "Is that Hebrew? Latin? I can't read it."

Latin? LATIN?!?!
Does that man even KNOW where his English alphabet even COMES FROM??? I was incredulous.

Please, someone tell me that there are intelligent people in America and that intelligent conversations still exist. I don't care if the billboard bothers you, just tell me that you recognized the language!!! In a country that's absorbed with a war in the Middle East and images from Iraq are plastered everywhere, how could one NOT recognize this language? Maybe I'm too quick to judge, but with the whole "Miss South Carolina" thing so fresh in my memory, I am quickly losing faith in the intelligence of our nation!

For the scoop on the Miss South Carolina thing...gah. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

A very purple autumn

I am DEFINITELY ready to move out of summer. I'm sure it wasn't nearly as miserable as I remember, but I was pregnant and VERY pregnant through the hottest parts. Yes, there is a difference between pregnant and VERY pregnant! It happens sometime after stretch marks and before swollen ankles. I'm not a big fan of summer anyway. It's my 3rd favorite season after autumn and winter (Minnesota springs don't even place. There are only 3 Minnesota seasons worth mentioning.) So now, with much pomp and circumstance, DUH-DUH-DUH!!! Fall has arrived! And what helps welcome in the autumn more than the football season opener?! Oh bliss - potato chips, taco dip, and pizza rolls! Oh joy - bobbled punt returns, game-winning field goals, and 60-yard touchdown passes! So of course, Jon, Abigail, and I dressed in our family uniforms and high-tailed it out of church to attempt to make the Viking kick-off against the Michael Vick tarnished Falcons.

We watched the game with our dear friends the Charlebois' on HDTV. Abigail went on her first social outing, visiting her little friend Israel. We got some really cute pictures of the two of them in their Viking gear being little fans! Abi definitely "cheered" her lungs out throughout the course of the afternoon ;) We look forward to a great season and as always, we hold out crazy hope for the playoffs!!