Today’s Champions

I absolutely love going to stores during the holidays. People are just awesome. On this particular day, I feel the need to thank 3 different people who made my day memorable, as well as enjoyable.

So thank you to:
1. the cashier who found opportunity to use the phrase "Flippin' A" on 3 different occasions during a 2-minute transaction.

2. the lady in Starbucks with a loud, running, very typical approximately 1 1/2 year old who said to her child "Stop screaming...why don't you just meditate for a few minutes?"

3. the guy who got the very last something-in-a-big-square-box, hoisted it up onto his shoulder with a huge grin on his face, and hummed (in falsetto, mind you) the song "We are the Champions" as he walked away with his conquest.

You guys totally made my day! Love it!!!

Happy Easter!

Here are a few snaps of Easter at the Bruce house. The girls got books, a couple outfits, and a few healthy snacks from the Easter bunny. Ok, ok, and one unhealthy one, which of course was consumed immediately whilst the healthy treats made the cut much later in the day. Hope you all had a fabulous and fun Easter Sunday!

Old Ladies in Jeans

Even though my birthday is still a couple weeks away, I guess I'll preemptively post an age-related doozy that happened to me today. Siana and I went to the mall this morning because I was in desperate need of a new pair of jeans (or two). I'd gotten an email telling me that Gap was having a sale on jeans, and since I'd not been in there in literally about 6 years, I decided that I would check out all the new stuff and see if I liked any of their jeans on me. So I'm basically getting my size in every style of jean they have, and as I stood in front of a mid-rise, slim-fit, flare-leg pair, the little sales girl bounces up to me and asks if she can help me find anything. I respond that I'm doing okay...I'm just looking for jeans and haven't been in here in forever, so I'm kind of trying everything on. She then points to the jeans I'm standing in front of and says, "This style is really popular with a lot of older people." Now, the first thing that flashes through my mind is some little gray-haired old ladies walking around in flare-leg pants. This seemed a little odd to me, but ok. Then as I looked at her and she looked at me, I realized that by "older people" she meant ME! Seriously??? When did I grow up? And when did I start being "older?" 31 is the new 21, people! (Except we can hold our liquor...) It was the most surreal feeling. And oddly enough, I wasn't offended, but highly amused. It still doesn't "fit" with how I see myself, but perhaps my perception is getting blurry in my old age.

10/17/98

9 years today...Happy Anniversary, Mr. Brcue! =)

Tired...

For all of you wondering where I've been and if I've fallen off the face of the planet, the answer is no, but just barely. The last month has been utter insanity at the Bruce house and I am tired. We are not busy people. I purposely make our routine such that we are not running around like mad all week, barely seeing each other. I prefer that we spend most evenings at home, having some family time together before the girls' 7:00 bedtime. However, the last month has been so far from our nice little routine it's not even funny. First, Steven went to Nashville for a conference for 4 or 5 days. No big deal...I can handle single parenthood for a few days, no problem. The following week, I started a new job that would eventually be a once or twice a month deal. But in the inception of the business here in town, they were severely short-staffed and severely overbooked. So I agreed to help out for 2 weeks until they could get some new people trained. The company is one that is just beginning a new contract with CPS to take over many of their supervised visitations between children and the parents they've been taken away from. Difficult, yes, but I can handle it. So Steven and I finessed our schedules so that I could work quite a bit those first 2 weeks, and I became a working mom for a short time. At the same time, my transcription work was still booming and thriving, so I would come home and write the reports for the case I'd just supervised, then work on whatever transcripts were due that day, pushing off the ones that weren't. After those first 2 weeks, more employees were hired and I got a bit of a reprieve, at least from that job. I spent the next week catching up on all the transcripts that previously were not due immediately, but had now become due. The week after that, Steven left again for a different conference in Nashville, one that I usually accompany him on, but this time for a week and a half. And although the girls were great, it's just hard being the only adult in the house for that long. I am glad that he got to go, and got to go see his mom and sister for a few days after the conference...he really needed that, but I also am grateful that he's back home. During the time he was away, I continued to get transcription work, as well as adding 2 new clients during that time. So needless to say, it has been a loooong few weeks. I need a massage and a nice long nap!

This little light of mine

I was rocking Siana this evening at bedtime, and shortly after I heard a car rumble by outside the window, I noticed an odd flash penetrating the darkness sporadically. I thought nothing of it at first, but then a few minutes later, when I was still seeing something flash occasionally, I started to wonder what it could be. As I sat there, rocking my sweet baby, I wondered what could be going on outside her window...perhaps it was the car that drove by a little bit ago...was it a police car...is something going on out there...should I open the blinds and take a peek...but if there is something going on out there, I don't really want to open the blinds, just in case...what could that light be...it does kind of look blue...but there's no red...that's really strange. So as I sat there with this random barrage of thoughts running through my head about this odd light, I began to sort of look for it. I watched the window for a minute and when I saw the flash, I realized it didn't appear to actually be coming through the window. It appeared to be coming from something inside the room. So then I started searching for any random toys that could be flashing, yet still turned up empty. I looked behind the chair I was in, thinking that just maybe I could be rocking onto some poorly positioned toy and making it flash each time I rocked back on it. Nope, nothing there. Although the light was really bright when I turned my head back that direction, so it had to be something really close. Then, like an idiot, I finally realized what it was...I had forgotten to take my bluetooth out of my ear before entering a pitch black room and was seeing the blue standby light flashing and lighting up the entire room. Good grief. What a waste of brainpower.

I'm a slacker

I know it. Therefore, that makes it ok. To all of you who have been giving me a gentle nudge that has turned into a solid shove, sorry for not posting in a month. =) I've got a backlog of blogs in my head that I just haven't pounded out yet. I won't bombard you with 40 posts all at once, but here are a couple new ones for you. =)

Family Photos

My family has been in town for a fun-filled almost 3 weeks, so we decided to take the kids and get a big family photo taken. It was lots of fun and here are the results:

The fam:


Kyra and Siana with Nana and Papa


Kyra


4 Bruces

A day at the lake

It's Imported!

I was passing through the dish section in Walmart the other day when a woman at the other end of the aisle picked up a plate made out of melamine and was examining it. She then turned to the 2 people who were with her and excitedly said, "I love these plates...you can't break them...they're made out of Melmac!" I had to quickly exit the aisle so as not to smirk and/or snicker. So don't ask why this tidbit of information is something that is lodged inoperably in my brain, but Melmac is the planet that Alf came from. Now that would be quite an import! Ok, now you can quickly exit my blog so you can smirk and/or snicker about the random bits of trivia that float around in my head.

Celebrations

There is much to celebrate this week. For one, I just reached the milestone of my 200th blog post. Wow. It amazes me that I still have so much to blog about. My sweet girls are such a joy and I am richly blessed because of them. Second, I just turned 30 yesterday. It makes me laugh to hear that people who really don't know me well were warning Steven to make a really big deal out of the day because turning 30 is hard for a woman and causes a lot of mixed emotions. By the time we met up at the movie theater after work, he was a little nervous because he had not gone to any elaborate lengths for my birthday...we had just planned to meet at the movies and go eat dinner afterwards. I just chuckled and told him to quit worrying...who knows me better...him or the person who warned him about female birthday angst. There were no mixed emotions for me about turning 30 at all. It does not bother me one bit. It is a bit surreal at times for me to remember my mom's 30th birthday party in our backyard in Michigan with all our friends and family, and then think that I'm now at the same point in my life that she was then. But I am not sad, nervous, or upset about getting older. I'm actually kind of proud. I wouldn't go back to 20 if given the chance, not even back to 25. Not that those were bad years by any means. I had a great time at 20 and I plan to have a great time at 30. I am able to look back with fondness at the things I did then and appreciate how far I've come since. I'm thankful for the journey I've been on and am anxious to see how I will grow and change in the next decade of my life. I love my family, I love my friends, and I have nothing to complain about, who would be upset about that?

Go Colts!

I'm not a huge football fan (see my previous post about who I sat by on the plane) but this makes me happy. I'm proud of our Indy boys! And though I may not be a fan of football, I am a fan of Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning. They're just good people and it makes me glad that good things are happening for them. Ok. That's all. Any more of me talking about football would be weird. =)

Coach Who?

Funny thing on the plane this weekend.... I was sitting with Siana, and Steven and Kyra were a couple rows behind us because the plane was extremely full and we couldn't get seats together. There was one seat next to me, and shortly before takeoff, a man sat next to me that seemed to garner quite a bit of attention from the other passengers nearby. I noticed an enormous ring on his finger, and I glanced at it as I leaned down to pick up something Siana dropped. I saw that it was a Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring, but he didn't quite look like a player to me. He said hello and we made small talk for a few minutes before some guys in the seats around us started chatting him up. One of them mentioned his ring so I asked him if he played, still trying to figure out who he was and why he was apparently big stuff. He said that no, he hadn't played and smiled at me. Then another guy asked him something else. So, stumped and not really caring all that much, I turned toward the window and Siana and I quickly fell into a nice little snooze until right before landing. The fellow and I chatted for another minute or two before everyone started de-planing and that was the end of it. After our family reunited with the other praise team people that were on our flight, one of them commented in an awestruck tone, "Did you know Coach Barry Switzer was on our flight?" I said, "Oh! So that was the guy sitting next to me. I knew he was apparently 'somebody' but hadn't a clue why." They both just stared at me, and I think one of them felt compelled to touch me, then both launched into hysterical laughter that I was the one who got to sit next to him and had absolutely no idea who he was. They found it even more hilarious when I told them I slept the whole trip. Oh well. Not big on football and not Texan...never had a clue. =)

Vacation Elation

We just got back from a 2 week vacation in which we first went to Nashville and attended the Zoe Worship Conference, then drove from there to Indy for 6 days. We had an awesome time and did about 1/2 of all the things we wanted to do. There never seems to be enough time. But we did tons of fun stuff. We went to the Indianapolis Zoo and then went apple picking in Mooresville, which were my top 2 things I wanted to do since there's not anything even close to an apple orchard in/around Amarillo (that would require trees) and the zoo here is basically all farm animals from what I've been told. So I was excited to take the girls both those places. Steven has chroncled a lot of our trip in his blog and has lots of pics posted, so for the rest of the experience, click here: http://web.mac.com/brucefamily/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html

Tribute to my Gramma Qualls

My mom posted a great tribute to my Gramma Qualls this morning, so she'll be my post for the day:


Wayfaring Stranger: The Times They Are A-Changing!

Say What???

It's been a bit quiet in my little blogworld the past week or so because this entire week, we've been sucked into the vortex of VBS. Loads of fun, but exhausting! However, I found it quite humorous that I had two incidents just today noticing the extreme Texan accents that you would think I would be accustomed to by now. Even though I hear them often, that doesn't mean I always understand it clearly. Some accents are so thick that they might as well be speaking a completely foreign language to me. For example, today, I received a phone call from Steven's cell phone, so I picked up and said "Hey!" Then after a sentence or so, I realized I had no idea whatsoever of any single word that sentence contained, so I said "What?" The caller then repeated the sentence over again and I realized that I heard some twang in there and that even though this was my husband's phone, it was not him on the line with me. I then had to request, "I'm sorry, can you say that one more time?" The poor guy on the other end then said very slowly for my benefit, "Ma'am, this is so and so from Barnes and Noble. We found this cell phone on the floor and this was the home number." Ah. Yes. That I understood. The other funny incident was at dinner this evening. As we were finishing up our food at one of the restaurants by our house, the manager was coming around from table to table saying the same thing to each group he approached. It sounded a little something like this: "Howzhyallzmealz?" or perhaps it was more like this: "How zhyallz mealz." This happened to a couple tables before ours, so I had time to interpret before he actually got to our table. Apparently, he just wanted to know if we were liking our food or not. Go figure.

Technology

I am a technology buff, just like my husband, father, and now daughter. It constantly amazes me how far technology has come since the days of my youth where I played Wheel of Fortune on our old NEC computer in our basement back in the 80's. You know the kind of game with the "melodic beeps" pumping out the theme song and Vanna moving across the screen in exactly the same position but side to side...you know what I'm talking about Ad. =) For those of you who've never seen a game this old and cheesy, I do a mighty fine impression of the stellar graphic movements of Ms. White. haha But back then, we thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to play Wheel just by putting in a floppy disk the size of your head. We also had Jeopardy and $10,000 Pyramid, which of course had similarly stellar graphics.... Anyway, it's incredible the advancements in technology in the last 20-25 years. I am so thankful for the fact that even though my family now lives 1000+ miles away from my parents, sister, Mammaw, and in-laws, my daughters can see any of these family members any time they want because of the miracle of internet video chatting. Kyra and Siana will never know a time where they can't just hop on the computer when they miss their family and see them and hear their voices. And all this for free even!!! It's not as good as a great big hug, but it certainly shrinks the miles to a manageable size. And Kyra, through instant messaging, is learning to spell all kinds of words. She can carry on a decent typed conversation for a while all on her own through the skills she's learning from this technology. It keeps us connected to family across the country and it's educational at the same time. What more can you ask for? Well, maybe an interactive hug vest, but I'm sure that's not far down the road....

Just for the spell of it

Since Kyra can read anything you put in front of her at this point, we can no longer write things we don't want her to know about. We've resorted to quickly spelling certain words, and sometimes whole sentences in some conversations. I've gotten so proficient at this technique that I now find myself spelling random words in the middle of sentences that I have no cause to spell. This is evidenced by something I told Steven in the car today. We were driving past our neighborhood pool which we've been considering buying a membership to this summer. I informed him that the girls and I checked it out on our walk the other day and that I didn't know what it's like when it's cleaned up, but at this point, it looks a little "g-h-e-t-t-o." I then thought about it and realized there was absolutely no reason to spell that. *sigh* I'm sure this is only going to get worse....

Angela Version 29.1

Steven and I were blessed to attend a ministers, elders, and wives retreat this past weekend. A wonderful lady from church offered to keep Kyra while we were gone and so we went off to a state park in Oklahoma for 2 nights. This year's retreat was centered around fellowship and community since there are 4 new elders coming in and several ministers who are still fairly new. It was such a great experience for me to get to know some people I had never really spent any time with before, as well as to deepen bonds with people I already call friends. One of the main themes of the retreat was telling your story. This was played out in small groups of 4 or 5. Each person in the small group was given as much time as they needed to tell their story. There was no restriction on what you could say or what aspect of your story to tell. We were each given a free license to tell whatever version and amount of detail of our story as we felt led to do. As I've reflected on the weekend, I realize how long it has been since I've allowed people to really enter into my story. Anyone who knows much about me knows that I'm a pretty unemotional person, but as I told my story with a clear head and calm spirit, I ended up pouring out a lot more emotion than I intended. That was the most difficult part for me. I will tell anyone anything they want to know about me, but it will be a very sterile rendition of the story. As I thought about the version of the story I told that day, I think I can pinpoint my emotional shutoff to when we first moved to Indiana from Michigan when I was 11. I guess I just found it easier to deal with life in general without all those pesky emotions getting in the way, so I just ignored them. I got so good at it that they pretty much disappeared altogether, aside from happy and excited, because those were the "good" ones. Other feelings would pop up occasionally, but it was few and far between. I also remember that when I went off to college without knowing a soul there, I felt like I could basically reinvent myself and start over as whatever kind of person I wanted to be. That was extremely liberating and I did make a lot of changes during that transition, from a publicly quiet and reserved person to much louder and much more outgoing person. I jumped into a lot of college activities right off the bat, whereas before, I wasn't involved in much non-academic stuff until my senior year in high school. To come back to the present, I think that might be the opportunity that God is presenting me with once again at this time in my life. I'm seeing a better way to be and a better way to relate to people than what I've been practicing. After this weekend, I realize I want to know people and to be known myself, good, bad, and ugly. I think that's where true friendship and intimacy comes in, you see all the "stuff" and love anyway. I was able to experience a "safe" environment to be me, all of me, emotions included, and still be ok. I don't know if I'll ever be a weepy, hyper emotional female, but I am re-learning to unlock my emotional closet and give myself some room. I think I've missed a lot of what God has wanted to teach me by not paying attention to the way I feel. By turning off that part of myself, I've turned off a part of what God created in me. I can already see some areas that he's wanting me to work on and recognize that he has already provided me with the support system and the friendships I need to make those changes. I'm a little uneasy going forward into "new/old" territory, but I know, as with anything God asks of us, the rewards will outweigh any cost.

Blessing in de-skies

We were amazingly blessed to receive, out of the blue, 3 free plane tickets that the girls and I used to go back to Indianapolis for a visit. I had been racking my brain to figure out how we could afford tickets to go because I was missing my family and vice versa, plus I had a lot of shopping that I needed to get done that can't be done in Amarillo, unfortunately. God was truly faithful to our family and provided this totally unexpected opportunity for us. The girls and I had an amazing visit with my family and with my in-laws, but even being there over a week didn't get to see everyone we wanted to visit with. Such is life. We're hoping to go back as a complete family unit soon, as the most difficult part of the trip was being away from Daddy. I'm still blown away by this incredible gift and am so thankful to have been the recipient.