Last night was...interesting, as I am sure my sister and bunk-buddy can attest! Moments before I crawled into bed, I mysteriously managed to develop a bad case of hiccups.  After a few minutes, I realized I had a serious problem, not only for myself, but also for my sister's (who sleeps below me) own attempts at slumber. Now, hiccups in and of themselves are quite annoying. But combine them with trying to fall asleep after an exhausting day and don't you tell me that's not bad. With every irrupting hiccup that would make it's presence known out into the darkness of our room (muffled as best I could inside my blankets), the gerk that it gave my whole body, also shook the whole entire bunk-bed!

So there I lay, trying to sleep while shaking the whole bed every approx. 7 seconds. Every proven and true method for getting rid of hiccups, I tell ya just didn't work! Holding your breath, taking deep breaths...not a blessed one! They must have lasted a good 10 minutes...oh, those lamented minutes of potential sleep that were so cruelly denied me! It was bad, I'm telling you.

Well, to make a long ten minutes short, they did eventually go away, much to my relief, I was beginning to get motion-sickness!  Altho, teehee, I'll never forget, after a  moment of laying there in bed, the patient voice of my sister coming up from the darkness below me:

"Ahem...yes??"  I know I wasn't the only one who sent up a prayer of thanksgiving when the bed ceased it's shaking and the room returned to it's normal state of sleep-promoting silence.

This day, October 5. Besides my own special day of course, this was the first birthday in our family that I ever memorized, because it was Katheryn’s birthday.

Katheryn, aka "Ryn," has been my constant companion since I was born. From trying to poke my eyes out when I was still helpless in the car-seat, to sliding down the driveway on skateboards together, going swimming in the big garbage-can that we filled up with water, and hunting the fat green hornworms out on the tomato plants (altho for some reason, she never joined me in stomping on them, can’t imagine why), we’ve always been together. Every memory I have...Katheryn is in it somewhere. But this year, for the first time ever, she’s been gone.

It’s crazy, really, all the things that she and I have done. Yes, she did try poking my eyes out when I was just months old. Yup, and we did go swimming in the garbage can! Dress-ups were fun, especially when cousins and friends were enlisted. Ah, all the endless "fashion shows" for mom! Those were years ago...more recently, the first time she took me out after she’d gotten her license! Nail-biting moment for sure! <wink> Oh, can’t forget all the after-work "outings" to Sonic, pooling all our change together and using as many coupons as we could find! What a riot of a life with her!

She’s always supported me in most everything I’ve done...and yeah, I’m positive she supported some of those many spankings I got!  Boy, we sure did fight all the time...but funny, I can’t remember now what we always fought over. Sisters, I guess!

I never realized how much Ryn was a huge part of my life until, of course, she was gone for the year. I didn’t have her to laugh with anymore, she wasn’t there to talk about our day and everything that had happened in it like we always did. The Sonic coupons have stayed un-cut on the refrigerator, and goodness, I’ve had to sneak out to the freezer to eat the left-over ice-cream by myself now!! 

There's many a word I could say about Katheryn in this "tribute" of mine, but I'll end with this. She has been more than just a sister, she has been one of my best friends!! Now look at that picture...aren't we cute?

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY, RYNNY!!!

Another misadventure of my day-off from work....

I was making breakfast for my four starving siblings after I had gotten them all diligently working away on their schoolwork. Suddenly through the kitchen, comes the voice of my 5 year old little brother:

Stuart: "Um, I smell burned scrambled eggs!!"

Yes...further proof of my lack of culinary skills, I had burned the scrambled eggs for the second time in two weeks, and any attempts at hiding the fact were now decidedly shattered by the frank statement made by my brother. I sighed and called back to him, "YES, Stuart, you DO smell burned scrambled eggs..."

After a moment’s pause, Stuart, in a very patronizing tone, replied: "Kellie...did you burn the eggs again?"

Wow...talk about confidence in me!

Wow, I can't believe that I just did that!! This morning, I went to wash my face....but forgot to take my glasses off first!  Ok, so how many years have I worn glasses? All of what...8 years? Sheesh, you think I'd remember these things by now!

Never trust an 8 year old boy with a giant-sized water balloon. Especially when that 8 year old is your student, and you are the teacher. No matter how much he may love you as his teacher...he's gotta let loose sometime! Woohoo, I certainly got my excercise for the day!  

There comes a point in every xangian's life, where the curse of "writer's block" invades the creative mind. Not sure about the "creative mind" part, but for me...there's no exception. And so I leave you with these inspiring words:

1) Never drive faster than the car in front of you. To whom it may concern --and those who have already jumped to this shocking conclussion-- I DO NOT know this from personal experience)

2) Do not scorch the scrambled eggs, as they leave a putrid after-taste upon the taste-buds (but haha....not that I'd know anything about burned eggs, of course.... *cough cough*)

3) Reading for 9 solid hours on a Sunday afternoon will leave you with a brain on overload and a horrible headache, no matter how good the book may be. (Ahah, yes, this I DO know from personal experience!)

4) Tickling your little brother affords great pleasure and an exilerating vocal excercise for him

5) And last but not least....I like cheese.

Do you ever get tired of the mundane? Ever wish you had a little life....in your life? Do the small things of your everyday existence become larger and larger, looming over you as a billowing shadow? Those minuscule tasks that are so necessary for a decent existence...but as time and time again you face the same never-ending tasks, do you ever feel the need to stand on a mountain top and make known your feelings to the uncaring world?

Well, folks, having said all that, here it is. My revelation of the day. Nay, 'tis not words of wisdom, nor comments of a comical nature. Not a question to ponder, nor a philosophical point to argue. It is merely a statement, bold in it's declaration of a deep feeling:

"AAHH!! I am tired of making my bed every day!!!!!!"  

Yesterday I added another completed and filled journal to my shelf...and so began another. As I was doing that, I really couldn't help but wonder at all the things that had happened to me during the course of filling in that little pink book I've carried with me to so many places over the past few months. It holds my triumphs, and my failures. It speaks of my mountains and my valleys. Some of the pages I know bear the traces of tears...others are alive with the laughter that was in my heart as I scribbled away. So many things. It just made me wonder, what will my next one hold? My journals--a record of my life, a testimony of God's hand at work in me. Over the next months as I pen down my life on the pages of this new journal, what things in my life will change? Just imagine it. So much can happen in the course of that time. What will these now-blank pages one day tell of in my life? --

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;" ~ Colossians 1:10

Saturday morning. I lay there in bed with my eyes still closed to the awakening brightness of my room, curled up in my warm and comfy blankets. Did I have a job to go to? Nope, it's Saturday! Do I have to get up and do ANYTHING? Not yet! I have at least another hour or two of lazing in my bed yet. What a wonderful feeling to wake up on the weekend, nothing urgent desires your immediate attention, realizing that you can just lie around, nothing is calling your name....aaah, <happy sigh> this is the life. Saturday moring in bed.

<phone rings>

"AAHH!" As my sluggish mind took in the realization that something WAS calling my name, the idea of just letting it ring went through my mind...bury my head under my pillow? Roll over and hum to block out the persistant ringing? But in about three seconds my extreme paranoia about letting a phone go unanswered kicked in. I sat bolt up, hair sticking out in all directions, did the little twist-flip-slide rutine of getting off my top bunk, tried to frantically avoid stepping on my sleeping little brother who suddenly loomed beneath my feet as I did an off-balanced sprint across his trundle bed. The ungraceful mad dash to the phone continued, as I, forgetting my glasses, blindly made for the phone yodelling on it's hook on the kitchen wall. Clearing my sleep-filled thoughts, I fumbled for the phone, and gave my best, most cheerful let-my-day-begin "hello":

" 'Lo?" I mumbled. The cheery voice came booming"Oh HI, Kellie!!! GOOD MORNING! HOW ARE YOU? Isn't it a beau-tiful day??"

I took a deep breath, trying to compose my dignity after my wild stampede, and answered wearily "Oooh... well, I'm doing great, just great. And yes...<sigh>... it sure IS a beautiful morning"..... Why me???

So much for my lazy Saturday morning.  Moral of the story? Don't call my house early on a Saturday morning...I might break something trying to answer it. It's really just not worth that!

Last night I dreamed that I somehow managed to slaughter my poor fish Sven while attempting to clean out his bowl. I can still see it in my dream-- his poor body just a soggy little orange mass laying at the bottom of the empty bowl. But of course, there he was this morning, happily swimming around his bowl yet. Which in and of itself is a miracle and a mystery to me, seeing as how the past year or so, every pet that I have "gotten my hands on" has consistently given up the ghost within just a short period of bringing joy into my life. Sheesh, what do I have? The touch of death itself, or something as similarily diabolical? But Sven, good ol' dependable Sven, still swimming!