LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

Lauren

In the Zone

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Today was the last day for middle school at Lincoln Lutheran, and they all went skating in the afternoon to celebrate.  Since I had the day off, I got to join them at SkateZone.

Everybody off!

Now, let me just start by saying that I have no skating skills.  I think I went a couple of times in middle school, but I stink - no balance, no coordination, vast fear of falling.  Let me also say that Lloyd has skating skills – mad skating skills.  Not that he can do tricks or anything, but he can certainly move with grace and speed.   God bless him, he wasn’t embarrassed to have me come along, or to have me clutch his hand as I wobbled around the floor, and he didn’t even laugh when I fell on my butt.  (Actually, he was busy helping someone else when I fell, so he didn’t see it – but he didn’t laugh when I told him about it.) 

The kids were pretty well-behaved, and all of them had a great time.  (Three of them were children I had in preschool, so that was a hoot!)  All in all, a very nice way to end the school year.  Good job, Lloyd.

 In a tie, no less!

He’s good!

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Thanks, God!!!  And thanks to everybody for their prayers and, of course, funny comments that kept this whole process light.  Lloyd went to the cardiologist today for an echocardiogram, and everything looks good!  They said he could stop taking his medicines, start moving around more – perhaps even exercising in a week or so, and we can stop freaking out about salt so much.  (We are actually in disagreement about what we heard the doctor say – I think we are still supposed to be conscious about it,  Lloyd thinks he could eat a salt sandwich with a side of salt.)  The down side is that he’s not golden anymore – no getting out of stuff like walking, or lifting, or cleaning…

We are so grateful to all the people who helped him get better, and all was well….. until we got the bill.  (See photo.)

You want HOW much money?!?!

A Dangerous Way to Cook

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Yeah, they're not done and it looks unappetizing - I'm not a food stylist.

When Concordia got out a couple of weeks ago, a family from my home congregation (the Clubbs) asked if they could leave their daughter’s things in our house while they made a quick trip to Des Moines for the weekend.  Since we have nothing around here but unused rooms, we said, “Of course.”  It was pretty funny to come home and see all the boxes that contain a college student’s belongings.   Remember when everything you had would fit into half of a dorm room?  I wish I’d have taken a picture of that.

Anyway, as a thank-you, the Clubbs left us various goodies that they had picked up from the trade show in Des Moines.  Some awesome chocolate-covered pretzels, a stange yardstick-thingie, and some grilling planks.  Last week we tried out the planks with some salmon, and lets just say – nothing can improve my grilling skills.  (Hey, that can be taken both ways, huh?)  I’ll stop there.

Foldy Bowl

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I love gadgets – or at least the thinking that goes into most gadgets.  (There are some that are completely useless – like the machine that scrambles an egg while it’s still in the shell for ‘easy scrambled eggs’!  Are you kidding me? How hard is it to scramble an egg?)

Anyway, I’ve been visiting a guy’s website, http://www.kk.org/cooltools/ , and if you click on the categories on the left side he’s got articles on all kinds of cool stuff.  I’m drawn to the backpacking things, because even though I’ll never hike in my life, I like all the stuff that goes along with it – the tiny pots, the tiny tents, it’s all good.  One of the things he wrote about was a set of foldable dishes.  They snap or fold together to make a cup, plate or bowl, then unsnap for easy packing.  I remembered that my sister had sent me one of those years ago!  I’d played around with it, but never used it for actual eating.  Well, I tested it can can vouch for it’s bowl-ness.  Behold:

Bowl or frisbee?

Folded, with a little life-giving Life cereal. (I'd already eaten First Breakfast.)

Poison for Brad

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You may recall that during our ants post, my brother Mark recommended Grant’s stakes – some stake thingies that you put around your house that will finish off the colony.  Well, I bought some a week or so ago, but never got around to putting them in.  (Beth, they’re at Wal-Mart by the pesticides in the garden center – and they have Terro!)  But by now, the ants aren’t coming back, so I’m just hanging on to the stuff.

I didn’t look at the packaging closely until last night, though, and I just about busted a gut.  Did Brad design this?  It has all his evil phrases in red lettering  – the most deadly lettering.

ENTIRE colonies!!! Y'got that, ants???

No 'God save the queen' here - she's on her own.

Lamp Post

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There are two kinds of people in the world: People who wouldn’t put an outdoor lamp post in their living room, and us.  Annette stopped by this evening and was most gracious in her reaction.  “I think it’s wonderful how God can bring two people together who would like this sort of thing.”  We’ve actually thought about this for some time, and are doing it for the funny.  I mean, really, if you’re not going to decorate your house badly now, when are you going to get around to it?

Lloyd did the wiring, even though the instructions said it should be done by a certified electrician. “My dad’s a certified electrician,” he said. “That’s not hereditary,” I responded.

Electricity can be a harsh mistress.

Anyway, it’s up. Time will tell if it will stay long enough for us to have to bolt it to the floor, as it’s rather tippy. Welcome to Narnia, everyone! Take your time formulating your responses – I want them to be as non-committal as Annette’s.

Where are those fur coats?