January 2, 2014
I was awfully dramatic about KB’s trip to the store and I feel I may have set a standard I cannot reach with following days. How about “Bubba lost a bit of himself in the wee hours of January 2”? Nah, I’ll just shoot straight and let you know that Bubba lost a tooth that Thursday morning. It was a glad occasion since that particular tooth had been loose for some time and Bub’s ability to chew had long been impaired. There was much rejoicing and a trip for celebratory ice cream was planned. Good Times.

January 3, 2014
I went into work super early because there was so much to be done and only half a day to do it in. Since it was 7 a.m., I was the first one at the church and I was lamenting the fact that I had left my cell phone at home when I realized there was an alarm sounding somewhere. I entered my code and opened the door to confirm that it was the fire alarm. I was also very aware of a strong smell. What to do? Of course a call to 911 was in order but, as you remember, I had forgotten my phone and I was pretty sure entering a potentially burning building to use the landline would be frowned upon by the responding firefighters.

I drove to the house of a friend who lives a couple streets over and knocked on the door. No answer. I got back in the car and headed down the street to the pastor’s house and the hope of heroism. (a bit of back story here. . . the pastor has 50 family and friends in town for a wedding this weekend and I was pretty sure no one was going to be awake at that house either.) Thankfully, mother-in-law was awake and once she realized I was not a scary rambling psycho, she went and got Mark and Tammy . . .but not a phone.

I can’t tell you how long it felt like it took before someone called the fire department. It turns out the alarm had gone off three times during the night and the department had gone to check twice before determining there was a faulty sensor. I finally was given the go ahead to go to work at 7:40. Once the adrenaline stopped I crashed and was exhausted. I went to bed at 9:00 p.m.

January 4 there was a big wedding at the church. The man who delivered all our children has a daughter who babysat all our children and today she married the preacher’s oldest son. It was beautiful.

January 5 there is the promise of a WINTER VORTEX. . .I realize it sounds like something off Star Trek, but it’s actually a cold front coming in from Canada (such friendlies to the north) that promises 10 inches of snow and temps below zero. NICE. Monday is meant to be the first day back to school and it looks like we’ll be staying home and finishing the cabinet I’m painting.

I am pretty confident we cannot maintain this kind of pace through 2014. Pray with me, “Dear Jesus, please dial it down one notch. Amen.”

So tell me whatcha doin in your neck of the woods. . .