Philosophical Musings.....

...So I'm cleaning house while Carter is watching Max & Ruby this morning. Max & Ruby are brother and sister bunny rabbits. Max is the little brother and Ruby is the bossy older sister bunny.

Anyway, Max and Ruby were getting all excited about Easter and an upcoming visit from the Easter Bunny.

As they wondered what treats the Easter Bunny would be leaving in their baskets this year, I couldn't help but ponder this thought.....

If the Easter Bunny visits other bunnies, like say, Max & Ruby, wouldn't it just be like a break in?

....or would Easter be like Christmas for bunnies?.....and the Easter Bunny like their Santa?

....or maybe the progesterone shot I got last night is affecting my brain?

Something is up because as I listened to Ruby in the segment just before the Easter one, she was running around a candy store tasting every imaginable candy and I, Deedra Pike, got literally sick just thinking about all that chocolate and candy and hearing her sound effects as she enjoyed each one. MUST be the hormones! (which in a weird way makes me feel good, since I think maybe this means everything is going as it should be babywise?)

No doubt if this post disappears, you'll know the hormonal haze I am apparently drifting around in has worn off :)

Don't Hate Me......

......because my blog is beautiful! Don't you just love it? Lindsay, at Splat Designs, has outdone herself for a second time on my behalf! I told her I wanted "Farmgirl Sheek"......and I think she's pulled it off beautifully! Thank you Lindsay!


Another thing, you may notice that I've added a category to my sidebar called "Twitter". Don't know what that is? Don't feel bad, I didn't either until I noticed it on Lisa's blog. Furthermore to say I was mule headed hesitant about trying it would be a serious understatement. But! It's fun! It's like text messaging on steroids. Try it!...oh, and add me, or follow me, or whatever it's called....I'm DeedraP on Twitter. (And you don't have to have a blog to Twitter!)

Okay,....if you haven't read it, carry on to the Scrapbook post below, I just HAD to squeal a bit about the new look!

Well, now you know!

I found this on a couple of sites I visited last night and theirs was so interesting, I thought I'd give it a try! Here's the link if you want to try it for yourself!

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 58%

Visual : 41%

Left : 58%

Right : 41%

Deedra, you are mildly left-hemisphere dominant while showing a slight preference for auditory processing. This overall combination seems to indicate a well-working blend of logic and judgment and organization, with sufficient intuition, perception and creativity to balance that dominance.

You will at times experience conflict between how you feel and what you think which will generally be resolved in favor of what you think. You will find yourself interested in the practical applications of whatever material you have learned or whatever situation you face and will retain the ability to refine whatever knowledge you possess or aspects of whatever position you are in.

By and large, you will orient yourself toward intellectual activities and structure. Though not rigid, you will schedule yourself, plan, and focus on routine and continuity of operations, rather than on changes and disruptions

When changes or disruptions occur, you are likely to consider first how to ensure that such disruptions do The same balance is reflected in your sensory preference. You will tend to be reflective and measured in your interaction style. For the most part, you will be considered objective without being cold and goal-oriented while retaining the capacity to listen to others.

Preferentially you learn by listening and maintaining significant internal dialogues with yourself. Nevertheless, you have sufficient visualization capabilities to benefit from using graphs, charts, doodles, or even body movement to enhance your comprehension and memory.

To the extent that you are even implicitly aware of your hemispheric dominance and sensory style, you will feel most comfortable in those arenas which emphasize verbal skills and logic. Teaching, law, and science are those that stand out among the professions, along with technical sales and management.

Okay, so this is pretty accurate. (Nevermind that I had to look up half the dang words on here in the dictionary!) So then, if I tend to orient myself toward intellectual activities, structure and schedule, then you throw in a 2 yr old and a 4 month old, then I guess that would explain why I learn by maintaining significant internal dialogues with myself....LOL!

So! The next time you see me talking to myself in public......mind your business!!! I'm learning over here!.. :)

A Burning Question.....

...so I just finished watching the 10 O' clock news and saw this urgent news story. A Huntsville police officer was caught on tape taking a tinkle behind a dumpster. The surveillance tape made it on to YouTube (according to the story it has now been removed but it is on Channel 19 website). Anyway I'm wondering what you think about it.....The dumpster was shielded on both sides and his back was to the camera while he did his "bidness" (yes, they showed the video to the tune of "Bad Boys Bad Boys"...lol) then he casually checked out the area as if that's the reason he stopped at that location......

so my burning question to you is.....

If the pokey gotta go pee pee.....is it okay to do it behind a dumpster?

I'm a country girl, and I'm thinking it's not the end of the world as long as its in a secluded area....but that's just me!


Either way I'm thinkin' this guy might be rethinking his decision!! How embarrassing!!

Catching Up...

I haven't blogged in a week? Whew! Time flies!! Anyway, this week was Vacation Bible School at our church so it's been a pretty busy week. We had such a good time! I helped in the Babies-3 year old class and these kids are just plain adorable..........even when they aren't acting so "adorable"! They all get along great except for the occasional push or smack! Carter had a blast and just loved going to "Bible skooool" every night!

Wednesday night was a night there were many prayers answered, including one of my own! My sweet niece, Rachel (8 yrs), was saved!! This is something Rachel's mom and dad, family (including myself), and pastor had been praying about. God is so GOOD!!! There were also three others that I know of saved that night!!! Please pray that God will continue to move in our church and that we as workers, members, parents, aunts, etc can recognize when He is calling us to move on His behalf.

This next tidbit is in no way related to VBS other than the fact that knowing my niece as I do, I know that she would be terribly disappointed if I didn't share this with you.......

.....I went to Walmart Thursday.


No, that's not the whole story. Even though with a 2 month old and a newly 2 year old Maniac Rambo toddler it very well could be.


Anyway, I had Lilah in her car seat in the child seat part of the buggy and Carter was riding in the front of the buggy. I could only see Carter from the chest up because the infant seat is so massive. I had meandered around the store, out through the garden center casually looking at the plants, patio furniture, grills (since we now need a new one), chatted with a few people I knew, including a store employee who attends our church(remember this for later), and someone who used to work with my hubs who I haven't seen in ages.


As I made my way back down the main isle of the store, I noticed I was getting some strange looks. Finally, I glanced around the seat to see Carter in his shirt.......and NOTHING ELSE! His shorts and shoes were thrown carelessly in the buggy beside him.

Great.


I laughed. I couldn't help it. No matter how much of a loser I looked like at the moment it was funny. At church that night I asked the girl who works there if he'd had his clothes on when we talked to her. She said "yeah they were on when we were talking, but I noticed that when you came back through he just had on his shirt and diaper.". Hmmmm.......I hope he had his pants on when I was talking to the person who used to work with my husband.


Great.

I have no idea when he took them off.


Did I mention that he turned two?


Sunday?


We are wasting no time getting into those "Terrible Twos"!



And! On another entirely different note:


A wonderful christian young man in our area has been chosen for the reality TV show on the Gospel Music Channel called Gospel Dream. His name is Jeff Hawes. His mom is one of my mom's oldest and dearest friends and she is totally one of my favorite people in the whole entire world. I love Jeff dearly as well. He is incredibly talented and did fabulous last Sunday night when the show aired it's first episode. I'm including a link to the website where you can check out his performance and vote! Please click over and show Jeff some love and then tune in this Sunday night to the Gospel Music Channel at 8 PM CST to check out the next episode. Last weeks show was great! I promise, you won't be disappointed!
Are ya'll keeping up? This scattered, jumbled thought process I'm calling a post is how my brain is currently working. "Baby Brain", I believe, is the commonly used term that describes this brain fog I am currently muddling through. Bear with me.

One last thing! I will leave you with a Photoshow of my babies, because I know you haven't seen enough pics of them lately....ha! AND! I seem to be on a roll because this is definitely going to be one of my longest posts EVER!

Go ahead. Call me an overachiever.

In a brain fog.

This could be dangerous.

Hangin' Tough....

....was my favorite! My favorite what you ask? Well, if you happened to be a young teenage girl in the late 80's early 90's, it's not a question you'll have to ask! If you weren't, it was my favorite song by a little group known as New Kids On The Block. My favorite member of the group was Donnie....I always was a sucker for a bad boy! (although my parents are relieved that I didn't marry one!..lol)

Anyway! The New Kids (who must be kinda old now) are staging a reunion tour and are giving a preview on the Today show this Friday. Now, some of you may know that I no longer watch the Today show since they went and replaced Katie with that Meredith woman. I did, however, recently decide to give them another shot only to discover that they had added Kathy Lee to the show.....what in the world are they thinking over at NBC???

Anyway, I did hear about the NKOTB reunion there, so they can't be all bad, I guess....or can they? I guess I'll have to tune in Friday to see.

In the meantime, check out a few of the old New Kids tunes on the playlist to get you in the mood for Friday! You can also get a look at them on their website....Here.

I'm interested to see how this comeback goes....

.....while I'm on the subject of music, I was channel flipping yesterday and heard a new version of "Beat It"...the Michael Jackson one, on the radio. Personally, if I were a singer, I wouldn't go near a remake of any song on the Thriller album....isn't it like the highest selling one of all time or something?? Why mess with a good thing?.....(lol, somebody should have told Michael that before he started remaking himself...lol)

....and P.S.....if this post makes no sense chaulk it up to sleepless nights :

Boo Hoo It's the Flu!.........

.......and boo hoo is the understatement of the year. I have it, Carter has it....I just hope that Kyle doesn't get it too! Hopefully, we'll be better soon. It's been a week and we have left the house exactly one time to go to the Dr, the pharmacy, and the post office. I have had enough of myself...so has Carter. You'd have thought he won the lottery when the doorbell rang today and it was the Fedex man. Everyone is afraid of our germs. My MIL won't even come near us.


Please say a little prayer for Vicki and whoever helps her with our Awana class tonight. We have 10+ Kindergarten/1st graders. Trust me, she will need your prayers!


Okay, enough whining.....back to bed!

p.s.....we all took the flu shot! No one is safe from it!! Be afraid, be very afraid!!

Praise the Lord... and pass the cookies!

UPDATE: I spent some of my day today at the Rosalie Community Center. For obvious reasons I can't be out picking up debris or operating a chain saw, but I can offer my help in other ways. The ladies of the Rosalie/Pisgah and surrounding communities are providing food for clean up workers. I was amazed at how many people came through that place today. AMAZED!! This area is not only a neighboring community, but it is in our Sand Mountain Baptist Association, and it is where I grew up. The people you are watching on TV are people who I have known my entire life. To see the devastation first hand is unbelieveable,...almost unbearable. I went down the road behind my Mom's house today, one that had been closed until today and I literally drove with my mouth open. Even after everything else I'd already seen and heard, this was utter and complete devastation. I mean a road, several miles long, with maybe 3 houses untouched. The rest were gone, ...demolished. It is a miracle no one was killed on that road. A miracle.

I want to challenge the ladies in our community, our church and surrounding churches to take some desserts, drinks, or other food to the community center next week. It is right beside Rosalie Elementary School. The people who are working there are gettting tired, and are going to need reinforcements and help as this is bound to be a very long drawn out process.

It's also a huge ministering opportunity. As I drove down that road today I stopped at one point because I couldn't figure out where I was exactly. There were NO landmarks. A road I've traveled thousands of times and I was disoriented due to the devastation! I saw a familiar face running towards my vehicle. It was an old softball coach of mine. I was looking for his house and couldn't figure out where it should be. It was under a pile of massive oak trees. I asked him if they were okay and he said yes. I said to him, "God was watching over you." He said, "Something was." I told him, "It had to be God, nothing else could bring you through that!" Please pray for these families!


And on a MUCH MUCH lighter note:


My new bestest friend in the whole world, Kelly, from Dr H's office called me earlier today with some fantabulous news! I had the test done on Monday to see if I have gestational diabetes. When I was pregnant with Carter, I failed the first test and had to endure 6 hours of peeing in a cup and being stabbed by multiple nurses every single hour on the hour for a second test. That one came back negative, but I will forever be scarred by the experience. Yuck!

All that to say, I PASSED THE FIRST TEST!!! Yay! No 6 hours of needle poking this time!


.......I think I'm craving some cherry ice cream just now. The reeeally sugary kind! Or maybe a big chocolate milkshake,....or maybe,...the Sonic dessert menu!!..lol


(I just had to post this 'cause I know ya'll were all hangin on the edge of your seats for my results...lol)

Never leave home without it!

...without what, you ask? Well, let me tell you, I had one of my most embarrassing moments in a while the other day in Lifeway. Carter and I had been rushing around all morning getting ready to go do some shopping and right before we left I decided to pick up his toys one last time.

Lately he has this fascination with spoons. He eats everything with a spoon, and requires one when he is playing with toys or looking at a book. His favorite spoons to play with are from the silverware set that my grandmother gave me as a wedding present, so whenever I catch him putting one down, I grab it up and either replace it with a less sentimental one, or divert his attention elsewhere. This particular morning I found a spoon lying with his tractors and rather than go through the drama of him seeing me put it up, I stuck it in the back pocket of my jeans and continued on with my cleaning up.

Do you wanna guess when I remembered it? Yeah, in Lifeway. So, let me lay this out for you. I have been in two or three stores, pumped gas, paid for it, stood in line in various places and bent over who knows how many times to pick up various flying objects from Carter's stroller. All the while this large silver serving spoon is sticking out of the pocket of my ample pregnant behind.

Great. Just Great. I immediately began running through the many possible things that would go through my head had I seen someone in the same situation.

"Gee, that lady really doesn't wanna miss a meal, does she?" "Man, she can really fit a lot of pickles and ice cream on that huge spoon!" "Are the spoons at the restaurant/drive thru not big enough for her?" Just to name a few.

I had to laugh. Then quickly shove the massive spoon in my massive bag, which I'm sure anyone watching thought must hold massive amounts of snacks to sustain my massive rear end, and carry on with my day.

Campaign Strike...

....wouldn't that be soooo much better than the "writers strike" that has lasted F-O-R-E-V-E-R?! I mean, really....who wouldn't rather be watching the next all new episode of Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy than the lastest visit from Borat..I mean Barak, and Hillary? What do the writers want anyway? Does anybody know? I'll tell you one thing. If I could possibly stand it, when they do come back, and there finally are new episodes, I'd love to boycott them!

Except I can't do that because they left me hanging by a thread wondering how Gabby will react to Carlos' blindness, and what is to become of Merideth and Derek (again), and whether Baily's baby will live or her marriage survive....Ohhhh the suspense!

I think it's a conspiracy. Seriously. The networks are trying to push me over the edge. When I was pregnant with Carter, Katie Couric left the Today Show. Her last day was May 31. I gave birth on June 1. I cried like a baby during her last show. Ohhh how I'd looked forward to spending my maternity leave (which turned out to be permanent) with Katie and Matt! Then they replace her with that woman who tries to be funny and fails miserably. I can't even watch it anymore! To this very day, I remain uninformed every morning as a result of this change. Thank you NBC! Thanks a lot!

And now the writer's strike. (sigh)

I wonder how much HGTV a person can possibly stand to watch?