Tonight the talk was we are ready. Ready for what exactly. Well the big answer was are you ready for life and if so how do you know you are ready. The first thing you need to know is your name! Huh? Everybody knows their own name right. Well the truly great people had more than their name. For example, Alexander the Great, William the Conquer, and Ivan the Terrible. So how would you fill in the blank. Mine would look something like this:
Rachel the ___________
high fall risk
One whose parents divorced and her life is ruined (I proved that prediction wrong! I’ve had a fairly great life!)
crazy in a fun way
compassionate
always thinking of others
I could list more but think about how you would fill it in for yourself.
Now here is how the speaker filled in the blank. Rachel is God’s masterpiece. Did anyone come up with that? Seven years of camp later and I’m still so far off. I will never get it right except there really is no right or wrong. I just need to remember this written by Paul (if I was paying attention) for we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us new in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. That’s heavy and hard for me to comprehend. Me a masterpiece? Well maybe a clumsy, crazy, compassionate masterpiece on any given day. So when I believe what God says about me (the masterpiece business), then I’ll be ready for what God has ready for me.
So intense to comprehend this. If we all lived and treated each other like we are indeed God’s masterpieces the world would be a beautiful place. However, I can’t ever see this happening on this side of Heaven so I will wait patiently till I either die or Christ returns.
SYesterday was the Big Stuf Olympics and in true form it was blazing hot. It seems like every year its the hottest day of the summer. That is probably a bit of an exaggeration but just sitting in the shade had me sweating a lot! The Olympics always means camp is fast approaching and it is used as an ice breaker for the kids to get to know each other. This years theme was The Hunger Games. They even had 12 districts. 7,8,9,10,11,12 grade girls and 7,8,9,10,11,12 grade boys. It was very clever and all thought up by the Obterns. They are college aged kids who spend the entire summer working as slaves for the church. Well not really but they do a lot of service work and are the counselors at camp. This year I am riding the pink bus with the tenth grade girls. I told them they all had to win so we would be first on the bus. In true fashion they rocked it and came in first. There first event was to run to the cornucopia in the middle and grab stuff to dress up one member of the team for a fashion parade. The kids were very creative with what they had to work with. I think a lot of the stuff came from the Kid Stuf prop box. Next up was the egg toss and Allyson had hers break all over her hand. Next was a three-legged race and they had to spin around a bat five times and then come back. Now that was hysterical. Some of the kids hopped there and back. Some fell and ended up crawling. The adults were dying. The next event was busting water balloons on one persons head. That was good for cooling off. The final event was running to the table grabbing a paper bag that had unknown food in it and the team had to eat all of it. They had three bags to do. Allyson’s group got donuts, jalapeno’s and saltine crackers. Sierra’s group got Oreo’s, baby food and peanut butter. They said the baby food was disgusting because it was warm from being outside. One group got cottage cheese and the other a gallon of milk. This is why I watch and forget about participating. They ended the day with hitting each other with paint balls in pantyhose. Sierra and Allyson were a painted up mess!
Church was really good before the Olympics. We sang a new song He Is Jesus As soon as it was over I knew I would be adding it to my running playlist. Later Tom came out and said it’s the theme song of camp this year. I should have known. So I’ve already listened to it three times. I cannot wait until camp. Church was very much like a day at camp so when Herc asked if I was ready to for camp I said yes super fast. This year I will not be out half the day cake hunting and will go to bed at a decent hour. All the buses are full which means if I want to nap, it will be on the floor jammed between the seats!
Mole moral~I may be old but the best part of camp after the sessions will always be the bus ride!
Sometime around the beginning of May I noticed loud frog noises coming from the backyard. Brian said when we opened the pool, they would be gone. He said the chlorine would chase them off. After the pool opened I didn’t hear anything for maybe two days and then the frog was back and with a buddy. We could hear them carrying on with the windows shut. Last week he told Kayla one of the frogs jumped into the pool so she refused to go swimming that night. Over the weekend I finally caught the suckers in action on the pool ledge. I just had to get their pictures. They were quiet until I went back into the house. Every evening after dark they park themselves on the same part of the pool ledge and carry on like two old women gossiping. I have named the Frog and Toad even though they are both either one or the other.
Growing up one of my favorite I can read all by myself books was called Frog and Toad are Friends. I bought a new copy when Emily could read and then discovered there were three more books in the series so I have them all. The Frog and Toad are Friends book is still the best by far! When I was younger one of my moms friends called me Frog and my sister Toad. It’s stuck with me all these years. I will admit a few years back I got stuffed Frog and Toad off of Ebay and they sit on my dresser. It just shows I am a kid at heart.
Mole moral~If something annoys you, try to make friends with it. If that’s not possible shoot it dead. HAHAHAHA
Today I went to the library to renew my library card. They had sent me three emails so I thought why not? There were a couple of books I had read in high school that were fairly racy for that time but I could no longer remember the names of them. Oh what would the young people do without Google. All I had to do was type a synopsis and BAM the names were right there. The one was available on Kindle so I bought it and read it last night. The other is not on Kindle and I really wanted to avoid ordering a hard copy but the library doesn’t have it either. It’s about a girl who runs away to become a model and ends up a hooker. I have never really grown up and still enjoy the young adult section so I walked over there to see if they had any books by Robert Cormier that I had not read. Score I picked up Tenderness and I can’t wait to read it. He wrote The Chocolate War and a bunch of other stuff. Most of his work is really bizarre. It reminds me of Wayward Pines, my newest obsession. I read the first book and it’s just bizarre. It also ended right where the TV series is at.
I also have checked a lot of books out via the library’s online site. Kind of like Kindle but they have their own app. It was obvious I hadn’t been inside the library for a long time when the librarian yelled to me that I could check myself out at the self check-out. It made me wonder if computers are going to take over everyone’s jobs. I mean seriously. Although maybe this gives the librarian more time to find research stuff for people. I have no idea. Let’s just say it’s been way too long since I have written a paper and I am perfectly happy keeping it that way.
Mole moral~Times are changing, even at the library. Does anyone remember the card catalogue? I have memories of opening the drawers and looking for books. They were categorized by title, author and subject and I am ending this because I am showing my age again!
I return to work in six days! Heck yes I am counting, I cannot wait. I am fortunate to work part-time which I think helps immensely. I truly enjoy my job and the people I work with and the patients I take care. I cannot wait to see them all again. I purchased a fitbit last September to get a feel of how much I was walking at work and how much bothered my foot. On days I work the entire 8 and I am busy I easily hit 10,000 and my little armband buzzes. At home if I don’t do much of anything we won’t discuss that number. So I feel my foot needs to be able to tolerate 10,000 steps three days a week and I can rest on the others. So today I decided to go for a walk. I only did one and a half miles. Just 1 1/2 miles. Only runners and crazy people talk like this! Before all these injuries that distance wasn’t even worth going out for. That shows you how warped my brain became. Wait it still is. So anyway due to the non stop rain I did a half a mile earlier and had to come back for rain and barely got the mile in before it was raining again. However I refuse to let it rain on my parade. Hahahah. I did notice it is much easier on my foot to go up the hill than down the hill. Now my horrible cardio will tell you that downhill was much easier. I have lost a lot in the past two months. Pastor Tom is right, what you work on, you get better at, what you don’t work on, you get worse at! I am worse but am hoping that this comeback will be the final comeback. I really would like to do my ten-mile run down to the shell station on Imperial Main Street sometime in the future.
Mole moral~ Walking leads to running (to get done faster) which then leads to crazy runner brain. You have been warned!
A while back my dad suggested I watch this show. I set the DVR up to record it, but hadn’t started watching it. When I saw my cousin Eddie last week, he told me it was awesome and all of his friends loved it. So yesterday I took a look at the DVR and saw I had 4 of the 6 episodes recorded. I then checked on demand and sure enough all the episodes were available. Because I overdid it on Tuesday with greater than 12,000 steps, I decided to cross stitch and watch this show. About thirty minutes into it, I was ready to kill Eddie. I was already freaked out. When I was young, The Twlight Zone came on channel nine at 10:30 at night. I didn’t always stay awake but I will never forget the episode that freaked me out for life. It was called “Stopover in a Quiet Town.” Not too long ago I watched it on YouTube and it was just as freaky scary in present day as when I was a kid. A husband and wife get drunk and wake up in a strange place. That’s all I’m going to say about it. I think this new show may have the same premise! After watching the first three episodes, my friend Laura stopped by with her new puppy so that was the end of that for the day. I did some googling and this show is based on a trilogy. It’s only ten episodes long. It also reminds me of American Horror Story as that show makes no sense till the last couple of episodes and then everything is tied together. So we shall see!
Mole moral~do not take tv suggestions from my dad or my cousin Eddie! 😂
Today is May 23, 2015 and Emily’s twenty-third birthday. What makes it even more special is she was born on a Saturday afternoon and today is Saturday. I’m just trying to orientate any of the un-orientated people who might be reading today. It’s hard to believe that it has been 23 years ago since I sent Brian to the bar with his friends and went to my mom’s house on a Friday night to watch my Uncle Larry try to beat this one level he and my mom were stuck on in Mario World for Super Nintendo. (That was at least 3 or 4 Nintendo gaming systems ago.) My mom came with us to the hospital I do believe and she would call Uncle Larry from time to time to see if he had beaten the level yet. If I remember correctly he still hadn’t beaten it when Emily was born. When I arrived at the hospital I was convinced I was at least 3cm dilated. Not even close, I was a whopping 1cm. By the time 5 am rolled around and I was finally a 3 the anesthesiologist asked me if I wanted an epidural. My response “yes, I don’t care if you paralyze me and I never walk again, do something about these contractions.” She was horrified I said that but I was dead serious! So my doctor came by around 7 before Saturday office hours and broke my water. Things progressed along nicely and around 10:30 my nurse said I should have the baby before lunch. The next thing I knew I was crazy as a loon and told everyone I was playing Mario in my head and making up levels as I go. Uncle Larry finally arrived and I said “hi honey” or something to that effect. I never talk like that. I asked the nurse what she put in my IV when I come out of that and she said I was just delusional from being up all night. I to this day do not believe this. I will always be convinced my doctor didn’t want his office hours screwed up and needed to delay my birth. (All my life I was convinced something went wrong with my appendectomy since I was in the hospital for a week and I found out from Dr. Meiners that my appendix most likely burst and I was never told based on the amount of adhesions Dr. V. found and the length of time I was in the hospital and my giant scar.) Uncle Larry and mom went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Uncle Larry came back up to see if anything was happening. He stood outside the door and heard Emily be born. Brian and I had fought for nine months about boy or girl and we did not find out. She was born and we just stared at her until the nurse finally asked if it were a boy or a girl. Finally uncle larry yelled through the door, “do we have an Emily or a Larry.) I said Emily and he went back down to the cafeteria to tell mom. They all came in and saw her. Now the Moehlmann’s were at the Lake of the Ozarks at their lake house. So they drove back and also arrived shortly after Emily was born. They visited with her for a couple of hours and then went back to the lake as it was Memorial Day weekend (just like it is this weekend). I was discharged on Memorial Day and was crying as the tech wheeled me out. Brian asked her what was wrong with me and she said “honey, this is totally normal.” I think I was overtaken with the spirit of every post partum hormonal woman ever when I looked at him and said “I told you so!” And so we brought Emily home and the adventure began.
The past ten days have been a living nightmare. As usual I thought I would wake up from surgery and just be my normal self. As if that would ever happen. If I had pain, I didn’t really notice it! I was way too busy being nauseated, dizzy and a raging headache. I even called the doctor office on Thursday and asked for Zofram. Which by the way did NOTHING. So yesterday in one last-ditch effort before I off myself I decided to go to the store and get the over the counter medicine for motion sickness. I always have horrible issues with post op nausea and vomiting. I expected to feel better within an hour. Like that didn’t happen either. So I went to be at ten last night and slept 11 hours and feel 100 times better. I wish I would have thought of this like last week. I swear I will need to be at death’s door before I consider surgery again. There are many days I think I should have just stayed fat and on the couch as this all started from running. If I wouldn’t have run, I wouldn’t have wanted my bladder fixed. Then I wouldn’t have had a hysterectomy and the stupid pathology report on my uterus. My adhesions wouldn’t have moved putting me in the worst pain ever. I wouldn’t have had repeated left-sided inflamed muscle pain. Then I would have never had the giant wart removed off my foot. I wouldn’t have bought into the minimalist running movement and caused plantar fasciitis in both feet requiring surgery a year apart. However, without all the running my resting heart rate wouldn’t be 48, making me a “finely tuned athlete”. My husband calls himself that because his heart rate is the same. However, he is on a beta blocker so it should be. BAHAHAHA
Mole moral~ Is it time to go back to work yet? It’s hard to keep a crackhead down!
Today is Allyson’s fourteenth birthday so there is no better way to celebrate than with my one hundredth blog post being about her. At this time fourteen years ago I was in the hospital with my sister and my sister-in-law and we were waiting for Brian and Johnny to get home from the lake. It was a Sunday morning. They did not leave when I first called them, so by the time Brian finally arrived an epidural had been placed to slow down my labor so he wouldn’t miss the entire thing. I was so numb that I couldn’t even sit up to push right so we all chatted for about two hours and by then my uterus had done all the work and she was out within three pushes or less.
She is the artist and musician in the family. She asked for a keyboard a couple of Christmas’s ago and learned how to play by ear. She then requested a guitar last year for her birthday and was doing well on it, until a string broke and her lazy mother still has yet to take her to get it replace. She has been asking for an electric guitar for at least a year so on Monday I surprised her and said let’s go pick out a guitar. I had googled what is the best guitar place in St. Louis. I picked the place based on excellent costumer service. They said some of the stuff could be pricey but it always goes on sale. Since I had no idea where to start, I didn’t need a jerk not wanting to be bothered. We got a really super nice guy and so she picked a purple guitar and went with the cheapest amp for now. He took her over and showed her how it worked. Of course we also had to purchase a cable and a carrying case. I felt like I was buying a computer. So she came home and plugged it in and Kayla said oh no you aren’t playing that thing right now. I asked her if she wanted to take lessons and she is going to think about it. There is no reason to sign her up, if she is not interested. She has not spent much time with it yet because she is right in the middle of another creation.
Sometime in January or February she became interested in fur suits and fur suit dancing so she decided to create her own. She started with the head and watched YouTube videos and did it all on her own. She then had me make the body of the costume while she did the hands and feet. However, it was so hot with all of it on, she rarely if ever wears the costume and instead cut out sleeves and had me sew them for her on the sewing machine. So this was her first attempt.
The head was too big for her to dance like she wanted to it, so she started on a different head. She also decided she wanted to try out of the talent show at school so she put the rush on to finish it. She made the talent show which is next Monday. When I went to pick her up for her orthodontic appointment on Monday the secretary and reading teacher were raving about her try out. They couldn’t believe her dancing abilities (she free styled it) but were really shocked when I told her she made the costume herself. They also said all the kids loved it, and I could attend the talent show on Monday if I wanted to. I am not sure if I want to navigate crutches, it will depend on how I feel. However my neighbor’s daughter is on student council and will video it for me. So this is her second costume and a link to her dancing in our side yard. She was quite annoyed that Brian kept video bombing her as he was cleaning out his work truck.
And now she is working on this head with the eyes that follow you. It is going to be purple and we had to order grey and purple fur off of the internet. Let me just say that it is not cheap but cheaper than drug rehab. And it keeps her busy most of the time. I cannot wait for this to come together to see how the purple will look. It’s longer fur as well so pretty exciting.
Happy Birthday Allyson Nicholemann!
Mole Moral~ I would have never guessed the day she was born that she would be a fur suit creator. So cool and so much fun!
The moles own four cars. Kayla has an 2002, Emily a 2004, me a 2006 and Brian a 2011. Please tell me how he ended up with the newest and best vehicle. I guess that’s what happens when you are outnumbered 4 to 1 in your own house. About six month after Kayla got her car, she kept saying the brakes weren’t right. Brian looked at them several times and even fixed the back rear brake as it kept locking up. After that was fixed the front brake was then acting up. He changed the pads and they were becoming even worse so he took it to the shop down the street. The guy looked at it and said the brake fluid had been contaminated and the entire system had to be replaced. He suggested we ditch the car and start over. As if I have five grand lying around and the time to try to find another car with low miles. Her car is only at around 50K miles so the engine and the transmission should be good for a long while. I hate to say that and jinx myself, (Refer to my magical thinking post). After much discussion and yelling we decided to fix it. I googled contaminated brake fluid and every single person that posted that they had the issue it started in the rear brake locking up and moved right along the course of Kayla’s car. The guy that fixed us told us it can take one to two years after the wrong fluid is placed before it ruins everything. So either the dealer did it which seems highly unlikely or the oil change place Brian takes it to. This is the only car that Brian does not change the oil in. He said it is a nightmare and not worth it. However from now on he will be telling those jokers not to fop off any fluid, that he will take care of it himself.
The car was finally finished today. I had already paid 800 so they could order one of the most expensive parts. So I went down to pick it up and it was another 600. The guy didn’t want to take a credit card again as he said my credit card charged them almost 200 for using mine. I of course said that’s total bullshit and asked him if he wanted cash. So he let me take the car and I picked up Kayla. We went to the ATM and the max withdrawal is 300 so I took out 300 and she took out 300. Apparently the ATM was out of 20’s so the guy ended up with 60 ten-dollar bills. He was telling us that the valves could have blown at any moment which would have left zero brakes and could have been a tragic car accident. He also gave her instructions that it would take 200 miles to get the brakes to set so not to be waiting until the last-minute to stop and to give herself plenty of time. He also wants her to bring it back after 100 miles for an adjustment. He was really, really nice.
It’s been a rough week, sharing vehicles and having to drive her to places. It’s one advantage of having older kids, no longer being a chauffeur. After 1400, I hope the repair bills are done for a while. However, my car will be ten years old (I purchased it in 8/05) and if have 167,000 miles on it. The passenger side mirror has been missing for two years or longer. The air conditioner has now gone out. It’s only a matter of time before I will have to crack and get a new one. My hope was for it to last until Kayla graduated high school and I’m a year past that.
Mole moral~ Why didn’t I just write a check you ask? I didn’t even think about it, until Meg asked. That probably made more sense but now the shop has plenty of ten-dollar bills.
LifeWithMoles 