Sparks, Scouts, Storms, and Scorpions

Run. Run as fast as you can. Hurricane Ike is headed to Texas and as usual, mass hysteria. Michael and I both think people are a bit too dramatic, but maybe we'll be proved wrong. There are a few activities going on this weekend that people are saying..."what about the storm?" And we keep keep planning as if nothing is happening, going on with our lives. Some today were all worried about rushing to the store, making sure they have their food storage, etc. I know I've got mine, I'm ok. So that's the storm. I'll let you know on Sunday how we faired.

I got stung by a scorpion this morning and it made me mad. I woke at 6am to meet a friend to run. I quietly snuck into my closet to put on my exercise clothes that I laid on my closet floor the night before. With just the closet light, I got dressed. Put shoes on, etc. Then I felt a sharp pain under my arm. What the heck? I looked at my arm, nothing. Looked down at my shirt, nothing. I thought maybe it was a very sharp armpit hair that somehow grew several inches in the night and pierced itself into me, but that was fairly irrational. I went to the mirror, flipped the light on, lifted up my arm to find a scorpion perched ON. MY. SHIRT. I grabbed my lip gloss on the counter and flung it off of me into the sink. I didn't even scream. I did peek me head out of the bathroom and call for Michael to come help me. He ALWAYS gets up before me, but my alarm went off 20 mintues before his, so for once, i was waking him. It's so rare, I feel bad doing it--but this called for reinforcements.

By this time, the little bugger went partially down the drain...a flushing of water, he came crawling out. Michael called for the tweezers...I found a ziplock bag and it was teamwork from there. That guy put up his dukes to those tweezers, ready for a fight. Michael nabbed him, we put him in the bag, and I was on my way for the run. Had to show that guy off to the boys when they woke up. It's the 2nd one we've seen in our home in 5 years...icky. It was about the size of a quarter.

I am now the scout leader for the 8 year old boys at church. I am not too excited about it, but I am happy that I will get to be tyler's teacher once he turns 8 in November. I've always had a bit of disdain for the whole scouting program...is it because I had to endure so much of it with 3 brothers who eventually became eagle scouts? I'm not sure. I'm not a someone who enjoys all the camping outdoorsy stuff. I have to get a better attitude about it. They all came over today for the first activity, luckly my co-helper is excited about it all, so I let her take over. Grrr...must endure.

Lastly, I have a new favorite song. My kids love the pop music that I share with them...Kelly Clarkson is a favorite. I heard this song a few days ago and downloaded it from itunes last night...then listened to it about 20 times as I worked on the computer...busting out singing as I learned the words. I called them over to hear it today and at first Matthew said it was "boring." and it looked like Tyler was rolling his eyes. So I turned it off mid song and told them if they were going to be rude about a song I liked, I wasn't going to share it with them. Tyler started to cry because he wanted to hear the end of it. After he calmed down, I realized I interpreted his actions wrong and he sat on my lap and listened to it with me. Then Matthew joined and wanted to hear it again. I found the video and its nice, so I'll share it. A nice upbeat theme that I think can be applied to many hardships in life.
I love the sound of the clicking of her shoes throughout the video. And I do LOVE those green shoes.
Jordin Sparks, One Step at a Time
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO (they wouldn't let me embed it here)

Connecticut pictures to come....its gonna be a long one.