Funny Signs

Sometimes I just run across a sign and it hits me funny. Here are just a few:

You have to wonder what prompted them to NEED this sign...

Dang it, we aren't Hansel and Gretel! No breadcrumb trails for the enemy, you litterbugs!!!!

Because you would grasp these in some other way? Ever?

Funny family videos

We've been capturing some funny videos lately and have shared some on Facebook and wanted to post them here, too. :)

Shaun playing peek-a-boo with Mason (our nephew)...

Mason discovering the webcam on Andie's computer...

a few of the photos Mason managed to catch of himself while discovering the webcam:

Mason and his daddy, Justin, having a "twitch off" (sorry it's sideways!) Justin used to do this in the bathtub when he was a baby and get us all wet!

Lastly, the reason why Shaun is sleeping on the couch and NOT his bed. :)

Mason fun

Today we were able to get a couple of videos of Mason while we had him...  He always smiles when we make a funny popping sound with our mouths and gets his feet kicking so fast... what a cutie! :)

Here is Shaun playing peek-a-boo with him with a napkin:

This is Mason's directorial debut... he figured out that the camera phone is a little heavier than he originally thought, I think!

It's not just us... :)

You've had them. One of THOSE kinds of days. Where EVERYTHING seems to go wrong. Murphy works overtime on all your carefully constructed plans. Some of us get more than a fair share of those days. I do. I'm sure they teach us to be flexible - but good criminy, there are days when I feel like God wants me to be Gumby and I'm more like the wooden toy soldier.

For the most part, I've just accepted that this is just a fact of my life. There is a family joke that Endersens just have bad luck. Our percentage for random catastrophe is higher than average. Getting married and changing my last name to Hendrickson didn't somehow alter my genetic material and sweat out the bad luck gene. Most of us Endersens just learn to laugh and roll with it. Eventually.

Now recently I've gotten into the show Gene Simmons' Family Jewels on MTV. I've never listened to KISS, nor could I probably tell you the name of ANY of their songs. I'd probably be shocked to recognize one if I had. I wasn't looking for the show. I just happened across it one night when I couldn't sleep. I love that family. They are so real... flaws and all. It's all out there. And they are HYSTERICAL!!! Gene in his feetie pajamas has to be one of the funniest and most adorable things I've ever seen. None of these people are perfect and I love that they're not really trying to be or make you believe that they are. Finally. Celebrities who are "real" people. ("Real" people with millions of dollars, a plastic surgeon, a house the size of a WalMart and who knows how much STUFF, true, but they're still pretty "real." )

But even they have THOSE kinds of days. Yes. The other night I was laughing so hard as Gene's car broke down on his way to Vegas for a premiere show starring him. There he was, stranded in the desert with no cell service and 6 hours 'til showtime. Now mind you, he'd decided to DRIVE himself (not use a driver) so that he could have "quiet" time to learn the words to the songs he was supposed to sing that night. Even though his "wife" and his assistant begged him to have someone else drive him.

There he was. No one would stop for him (maybe they were put off by the camera crew with him). He starts walking down that hot highway and FINALLY someone stops. A lady truck driver who recognizes him instantly and manages to finagle getting him to stop by her house to meet her boyfriend who is a HUGE KISS fan. That 2 minute drags out as they take pictures and Gene asks to use their phone (which they don't have because no one ever calls them). With his characteristic class, Gene manages to extricate himself from the house and gets to the nearest phone at a truck stop and calls someone to come and get him. Who shows up? Carrot Top. Who promptly gets them lost on the way to Vegas. Gene FINALLY shows up nearly an hour late to his show (where the audience is chanting "we want Gene!" and his managers are sweating and cursing like crazy, leaving him message after message after message...)

Meanwhile, back at his house, the girls (Shannon, Tracy and Gene and Shannon's daughter Sophie) discover a massive water leak in his office that has ruined several of his prized KISS artifacts. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been because Shannon had been trying to do plumbing repair herself earlier that day and Gene had been giving her crap about it before he left. So the rest of the show - as we are watching Gene slowly NOT make his way to Vegas, we get blips of his drowned office and the girls' mad rush to nearby KISS fan collections to see if they can replace what has been damaged before Gene gets home.

In the end, Gene gets to his show and pulls it off. The girls get the stuff replaced and the office cleaned up in time. But somehow they miss his office chair so as he walks in and walks by all the replaced stuff not noticing that they are replacements, he sits down and a wave of water hits the floor.

I was laughing so hard... How many days have I had like that? How many times have I had to eat crow because I did it "my" way when I was wisely advised to do it a better way and I totally paid for it. How many times has one thing after another gone wrong?

Yeah, it's not just us. These things happen to everyone. Even the God of Rock... Gene Simmons.

Maybe I need to get some feetie pajamas to wear on days like that. :)

Thanksgiving 2010 Casualty

Poor Sean... but he did get out of dish duty! he he he

Ten Days before Thanksgiving Carol

One the tenth day 'fore Thanks-giving, I was bless-ed to receive:

• one gigantic snot laden sneeze from Cody jolting me awake
• two hot flashes
• three reminders to brush their teeth
• four benadryl distributed
• five identical answers to Cody's question "what day is it?"
• six requests to leave the dogs alone
• seven random kleenexes found to throw away
• eight episodes of wondering "why am I a parent?"
• nine attempts to stop the dog from chewing his hair off
• ten (or more) deep breaths

Shaun's footwear

Last night at DQ, Shaun left our table to go and refill my iced tea (Mr. Helpful!) and as he walked away Lee and I realized he was barefoot. (ick) We looked under the table to make sure that he had, indeed, worn shoes to the restaurant and this is what we saw:

Seriously. This boy dances to the beat of his own drummer, most certainly. :)

Brothers hiking...

Sibling rivalry remains alive and well, even when hiking...

Shaun:  "Hey, Cody, are you bleeding?"
Cody:   "No. Why?"
Shaun:  "I'm bleeding."
Cody:   "So?"
Shaun:  "I'm bleeding. You aren't."
Cody:   "I don't care."
Shaun:  "Uh huh."
Cody:   "I DON'T!"
Shaun:  "Okay."
Cody:   "Stop it, Shaun! I don't care!"

(parental intervention)

Cody:   "I still don't care, Shaun."
Shaun:  "And I'm still bleeding..."

"My stick is bigger than your stick!"

My "Lucky" Brother

Anyone who knows me knows that my family is what some would call a "magnet" for disaster or accidents, bad luck... what have you. We've just had our run of stuff. :) Some of us are more so than others but we all pretty much give a nod to Murphy's Law and thank God for the humor that He has given us to endure it all.

My brother, Ryan, is actually the "luckiest" of us all. Now he isn't wealthy or prosperous nor does everything he does always fair well. Nope. This guy is lucky and trust me, he has needed EVERY OUNCE of it.

It started when he was young. He and my other brother, Justin, were climbing a tree playing army (all decked out in full face paint, etc.) and the branch Ryan was hanging onto broke, plummeting him something like 18 feet to the ground. He missed the railroad tie below by a fraction as well as the fence. At the hospital, the docs couldn't believe he hadn't been more injured (I'm sure it helped when they realized that the dark colors all over his face were not, in fact, bruising).

Fast forward a few years to Friday, September 13th, 2001. That night Ryan was driving his vintage Z a little too fast around a corner and lost control, careening into a couple of other cars before flipping over and bursting into flame. It just so happened that a bystander saw the whole thing from his kitchen window and jumped over his rear fence, dragging Ryan and his friend out of the car just moments before the car burst into flame, melting the tires to the road. (The asphalt had a huge black mark until the city repaved the road years later.) Although Ryan's friend spent some time in the hospital, Ryan managed to escape with lacerations and bruises. The top of his right ear was torn off but reattached (and now it's a little floppy) and he has a distinct scar on his scalp that you can see when his hair is short. Fittingly, it is in the shape of a 13 with a backwards 3. The doc who sewed it up told Ryan it kind of freaked him out to be sewing up a "13" shaped cut on Friday the 13th.

The next few years for Ryan held more adventures with his characteristic "luck" holding. He never had it easy but things managed to come through in the end for him. He made it back through some really rough spots, giving us all a call to remark on how much his life had turned around.

This year, Ryan moved here by us. He'd only been here a few weeks when another remarkable event took place. He and my brother Justin were approached by a police officer in the desert and when the officer got their names and information, he told Ryan "you need to get those warrants down in Tuscon taken care of, son." Ryan had no idea what he was talking about and said "what warrants?" The officer told him that there were a few outstanding warrants for a Ryan with the same middle and last name and birthdate down in Tuscon, which completely baffled Ryan since he'd only been there twice and never approached by any officer for anything while he was there. So when Ryan got home, he called and checked it out. Turns out, there is a guy with the same exact name (first, middle and last) who was born on the SAME DAY as Ryan. Except for one small thing - the guy was born in 1976, not 1986. The cop didn't catch that one thing and could have arrested Ryan and taken him in long before they actually figured it out.

Yeah, one "lucky" guy. :)

Then this past week, Ryan was over for dinner. The next morning, he knocked on the door at 7am, saying he thought he'd left his phone here at our house. We tore apart the house looking for it, couldn't find it anywhere. He'd already torn his apartment and car looking for it, too. Shaun went out with Ryan and they looked again in his car for it, with Shaun calling the phone to see if they could hear it ring anywhere.

No luck. Had Ryan's "luck" gone away????

Then Shaun came running inside saying "Mom! This guy just called me on my phone - he has Uncle Ryan's phone!" So he handed his phone to Ryan who talked to the guy and figured out where it was. Ryan and Lee went down to retrieve it.

The phone, apparently, was in a bush by the side of the road five blocks away from our house. There's no way it could have fallen out of his car and wound up there, nor could it have slid off his car and wound up there. He would have gone around too many corners and it was on the wrong side of the street for that to happen. The guy who found it had just happened to be dropped off by his wife at a buddy's house that morning and heard this weird sound coming from a bush across the street (it was ringing as Shaun was calling it). Because it kept ringing, this guy walked over to the bush and found the phone and then called Shaun back. The phone was undamaged. No scratches or dents or dings. And the battery wasn't dead.

Yeah, one "lucky" dude. :) I think that he has a special guardian angel. 

Hot Flash Prayers

So lately I've been experiencing the onset of the dreaded M. Most of it I can hack but the hot flashes? Ummm... not so much. I've never been keen on being hot in any case so when I'm just sitting there and suddenly feel like my whole body is erupting into flame for no reason, well, let's just say I feel a little hostile about it. My poor guys. (side note here: I have already experienced more M symptoms at 38 than my mom who is in her 60s! SO NOT FAIR!)

Anyway, I was catching up with my friend, Robin, on Friday and filling her in on this recent development in my aging process. Robin is slightly older than I am and has already experienced this particular phase of life. She told me that the hot flashes were the worst part of it for her as well and then proceeded to share with me the strategy she uses for them.

Prayer.

Now I know you're thinking "oh seriously?" But really... hang in there with me on this.

She said, "I just started treating them like I would fasting. Everytime I would start in on a hot flash, I would use that time to remember to pray for something, like you do when you feel hungry when you're fasting. At least that way, it's something productive."

I love Robin. She is one of those prayerful, sweet, godly women in my  life who has a great sense of humor and just always brings peace when I talk to her. She also happens to be a long time pastor's wife and very wise. So even though at first her idea hit me as a little... well... silly (sorry, Robin!) I gave it a shot.

And you know something? This weekend I prayed each time a hot flash hit. Instead of complaining, I focused on praying for someone I knew needed prayer. I prayed in my head while driving, eating, crocheting, watching TV, reading, cleaning, etc. I felt calmer and more grounded. And the hot flashes weren't sending me into the pity party they had been before.

I realized that with life having been so busy lately, I haven't been very good at getting in focused prayer time like I usually do. I've really felt it in my attitude and outlook on things. The hot flashes, while hormonally induced, seemed to be God's way of getting my attention again and remembering to "praise Him in the storm."

So there you go. Yeah, I'm still having hot flashes but darn it all, I'm praising God through them and lifting up prayers all day (and most of the night)! If you've asked for prayer from me lately, be sure you are getting it and send up a prayer of thanks to God and Robin for me! :) ha ha ha

------
October 3, 2010
Got this message from Robin today about the Hot Flash Prayers and had to add it here! :)

I just read your blog on hot flash prayers. :)!!! Praising Jesus for His hand on our lives. Was wonderful to see how He customized the principle of "hot flash praying" for you. You took it to a whole other level. My hot flashes are so intense (strong wave of nauseousness comes with mine), that pretty much the only prayer I can get out is, "Lord, glorify yourself through this". The CRAZY AMAZING thing with this, is the way I got to see Him answer that "survival" prayer. The way God is using it in your life, I believe, is a direct answer to my continued, repetitious, desperate, heart-felt hot flash prayer of "Lord glorify yourself through this..." Always amazed at how God works. He's bonded us in so many ways...leave it to Him to bond us and let us experience His glory through something like hot flashes. :) Brings a whole new dimension to the phrase- "on fire for Jesus" he he he!!!

Shaun's Lockdown Perspective

So yesterday, the boys' school had a lockdown in the afternoon due to a "situation in the neighborhood." We have no idea what the situation was, exactly, but we had plenty of helicopter activity to keep us guessing for a while.

I happened to be out at lunch with Jayme and Mason (the famous "Boo Smoochie") when all of this occurred and was kept in the loop via my friend Melissa and Lee (who was at home). When I got home, the boys were home from school and I asked Shaun, "So, how were things during the lockdown?"

He said, "Fine." (Eleven year old boy. This is an elaborate explanation in his world.)

I prodded a little bit. "What did you do?"

"Oh, I was texting with Uncle Nick. It was okay, all the teachers had their phones out too. Did you know that Uncle Nick is in Mexico, Mom?"

Yes.

My son was in a lockdown and did he let his dad or I know he was okay?

Nah.

He just texted with Uncle Nicky. In Mexico.

Go figure.

:)

The Phobia List

I recently ran across some funny phobia names and posted it on my Facebook. My brother, Tyler, added some and then told me about the phobia list website where I now go to just entertain my word-loving brain. :) Some of these are hysterical.

Graphophobia: fear of handwriting
Barophobia: fear of gravity
Alliumphobia: fear of garlic

Seriously.

Check out www.phobialist.com for more... :)

(please note, I am NOT saying that it is funny that people are suffering from these phobias... just that they have named them is funny)