Ordinary

I think it was just an ordinary birthday party. Ya we celebrated Erin’s third birthday. There were about 6 kids between 2 and 4, 6 kids over 4, a bunch of adults, grandpa & grandma, uncle & aunt, cousin Charlie, and two dogs. After about sooooooo long grandpa and the two dogs went and hid for a while (i.e. took a break)! The kids all wanted the same toys, sit the same place, have twice much food as they could eat and wanted momma to help them. It was quite a day all right. Then we gave them all some cupcakes with a lot of frosting on them (i.e. full of sugar) to really get them going. I heard a lot of—do you have to go to the potty—say please—share your toys—wait your turn—what do you say—are you sure you don’t have to go potty—don’t spill—you’re a big boy—go play with the kids now—I don’t like that! I was told that one of the mothers use the “love and logic” method of parenting. It’s when she says—Uh-oh! when her son does something wrong and then they talk about it (i.e. it’s to make him think and help him make good decisions I was told). ANYWAY when the mother’s mother was in town, she was telling her mother about this method of parenting. She says to her son, tell grandma what I say when you do something wrong—her three year old son says--damit! Ouchy ouchy! Here’s a new one for me--One of the mothers used this new method to get her boy to go home. She said—We are going home in five minutes. She set her alarm clock to go off on her iPhone in 5 minutes and put it in her boy’s pocket. Now that’s a new method! I learned a lot at this party. When all the gifts were opened, the folks all left, and the mess cleaned up, James and Heather asked Erin what was the best part of her party—Erin said--the white one! The white one was the white cupcake compared to the chocolate one! The next morning Erin asked if she could have another birthday party today! Such is life.

I have no idea if our family is ordinary or not. How do you tell or know? What’s an ordinary family anyway? I do know that all of us in our family are all different. Ya just got to hang around each other for a few days to see that. We seem to look ordinary in the picture but pictures are sometimes deceiving (i.e. the picture guy says he can make pictures look anyway you want them too). MissPerfect says--Most folks put their best face forward when pictures are taken. So is our family ordinary? I don’t have a clue. We seem to be just ordinary folks doing ordinary things. But then again, I don’t know what you all do or what ordinary folks do. Soooooooo who is ordinary anyway?

Sunday morning when everyone was getting ready for church, I was sitting in the useless room (i.e. JerBear’s definition) with a view of the great room. Erin left her half eaten bagel on the table in front of the couch. Daphney, James and Heather’s dog, looked both ways, looked at me, and then with a quick move devoured the half eaten bagel in one bit (i.e. she knew I wouldn’t get mad at her—I’m her friend). I think she’s an ordinary dog doing ordinary stuff. What do you think?

I had a chance to hike on Mt. Falcon twice (i.e. just ordinary hikes—me and God). I was thinking through some stuff and asking God for some answers. He didn’t talk to me through a burning bush or a talking donkey. But the next day I did see something that caught my attention. It was on a guy’s tee shirt that was working in a kids’ second hand store (i.e. Heather bought some ski mittens for Erin for $2—great deal). This guy was maybe 20 and was taking the clothes from the women as they were bringing them in. He had a black tee shirt on that said on the top—What if Jesus meant everything he said…. There were some sayings below which I could not read as they were too small and he had an apron on. Sooooooo, What if Jesus meant everything he said…!

I don’t think this sounds ordinary. I heard a smart guy say the other day that faith in God can be discussed and shared between two folks who are at complete opposite ends of being educated in the Bible, religion, Hebrew, Geek, and philosophy. Think about that folks—in any other field like aerospace engineering, only the folks who are educated in that area could discuss it. That is the case in almost every other field except in the faith in God. Actually many times the most educated have the hardest time to believe in faith (i.e. blind faith). I read in the paper so it must be right, that atheists and agnostics are most knowledgeable about religions (i.e. ‘cause they study it more and don’t have blind faith). The article says that most Protestants can’t identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation and 4 in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church’s central ritual, incorrectly saying the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them. Sooooooo who is the ordinary person? If I remember correctly the Pharisees had a hard time with all this tooooooo (i.e. I don’t have to tell you smart folks who the Pharisees are but you ordinary folks might have to look it up—I’m just kidding folks! MyFriendJean says—There is no right way to do the wrong thing!

This was just an ordinary set up! We were going down I-80 at 79 mph when a temporary sign was put up by the Nebraska Highway Patrol in the middle of nowhere. You know those signs that have the orange metal flags around the message. The sign read—drug inspection ahead. And then there was another sign—drug inspection one mile. Then another—drug dog in use. I thought, man this is going to take a long time if they are going to stop every car on I-80 and have a dog sniff every car. The traffic will be backed up back to Des Moines. Soooooo we go about a half a mile and there is an exit unto a never used county road that goes to more nowhere. We get to about where the mile is and guess what, there is no inspection. But I did notice that there were the same signs going east. Huh, interesting. I guess the folks who have drugs just exit on the county road and that is where the drug inspection is using the dog! Hey, they didn’t lie, there was a drug inspection ahead using a dog! Just another ordinary day on I-80 I guess.

We took a different route home from Morrison, CO. We went to Denver and then north on I-25 through Cheyenne, WY and caught highway 20 east through northern Nebraska. I wanted to see the Sandhills area. It is the largest cattle cow calf area as they say. I really enjoyed it (i.e. to me it was very pretty). It’s just not an ordinary type of place (i.e. wide open areas). The small towns had a lot of places that sold cattle equipment like shoots, gates, galvanized water tanks, balers, livestock trailers, big pickups and etc. I saw one store that was called—Knife and Spur Store. The smell was just that, cattle smell (i.e. a mixture of hay, cattle, cattle manure which equals – cattle smell). But you know what, many things are the same—they too watch CNN news, watch Monday night football, worship the same God, like ice cream, and love their kids. We stopped for a burger in Chadron, NE. There was a guy who looked like a rancher (i.e. had a leather looking face ‘cause of the sun and weather, had boots on, was slim wearing a slim type of blue jeans, a wide western belt with a large roping buckle which also had his name on the back Big Al, a western shirt with the snaps, and a white but dirty cowboy hat). I don’t think it was his first rodeo! ANYWAY So I said to Big Al—Are you a rancher—was but just sold out—how is the cow/calve business—good since the prices are up; we also had an extra ordinary amount of rain this year that made the grazing very good and the hay exceptional—so how many acres does it take for a cow and calve—the government land grazing contract calls for 160 acres for a cow and calve to live off for all year; some ranchers do more on their own land but they look pretty bare as the year goes along. That is not an ordinary way of life compared to city life folks. I wanted to stay in Valentine, Nebraska as I had some things I wanted to do but I wasn’t very excited and Arlene really wasn’t. Sooooooooo we decided to just head on home. It wasn’t an ordinary trip—16 hours of driving. Such is life.

You know those 2 to 4 year olds that I talked about at Erin’s birthday party will all grow up. Yes they will. And what will they become? I asked a mother about their grown boys (i.e. I have lost tract of them). The boys have done very well it appears (i.e. educationally and financially). They were just ordinary farm boys from Aplington who went to Aplington School years ago. After she told me about them, she wrote this--Enough about the boys. We've been blessed, but I certainly know not to ask them anything too personal, or I'm snoopy!! It's funny how they allow their dad to do things, but if I do the same, I'm not too smart. Go figure!! Have a good day. Is she just an ordinary mom? It appears that one parent can ask a son or daughter a question and it's okay and if the other parent asks the same question, it's not okay. Why is that anyway? It appears that these boys' parents, who are our friends, seem ordinary but their boys seem to have done very well. They don't and won't get the newspaper attention like the NFL boys from Aplington (i.e. that’s pretty ordinary) but they might be much more successful. I don't know and it really doesn't make much difference. It will be fun to see what those young kids at the Erin's bithday party grow up to be now won’t it. Such is life.

Have a FUN day my friends unless you have other plans. (-:

erv
ervmellema@gmail.com

KR’s thought of the day—The trouble with the younger generation is that most of us aren’t in it.