Blood work drama to craigslist shopping

Over the past couple of weeks I've felt like the bunny with the pocket watch in Alice in Wonderland trying to work in different appointments for our boys while they are temporarily home. One appointment offered my friend Kim and I loads of entertainment! My husband and I are setting the boys up with a good life insurance but this policy requires a lab tech to come to your house to do a physical (you know blood work and peeing in a cup....). The bad word in this equation being blood work. The mere thought of needles, shots or blood leaving their body turn these 19 year olds into 10 year olds. Surprisingly Caleb, who is usually the one who threatens violence when needles approach him, faced this day like a man. John does do well at controlling his actions by letting his mouth run free as he faces his needle fear.

So on a Tuesday morning the unsuspecting lab lady comes to our house to obtain bodily fluids from the boys. When it was time for the needle probing Caleb stood up to the plate bravely while John went to lay down on the couch so he would not see the horrors. I was amazed that this same child (John), who can't hear me speak when we are in the same room, could hear from across the room without looking the sound of Caleb's blood hitting the end of the tube used to collect the sample!! It's like he was gifted temporarily with super-power hearing just for that moment. Caleb did better than I have seen him do EVER, then, 30 seconds after the bandaid went on his arm he turned pale white and felt like he was going to throw up.

Now it's John turn. It was already decided before hand that John was going to lay on the couch for his needle probe. As John is getting ready for his blood drawing Caleb is sitting at the table, with his head down trying to eat a banana to help his queasiness, reassuring his brother that the procedure is not that bad. I can't say it convinced John any. The lab lady and I laughed as John grabbed a blanket and completely covered his entire head before sticking his arm out to be tortured. When the "attempted murder" was finished they began debating how having blood leaving your body is not natural and over 100 years ago when blood was coming out of you it meant you were either dead or bleeding to death....HA! As my friend Kim said, only my boys would find a way to compare giving blood to bleeding to death.

With the first year of college behind us now our quiet empty nest has become a noisy warehouse, storing all the personal belongings from two dorm rooms during this "stayup-late-sleep-late-catchup-on-all-your-tv-shows-hangout-with-your-friends" break called summer. Even our birds are noisier over their excitement of having their boys home. By June 1st however our boys will be heading to Chicago to work all summer as Directors of a Daycamp at a church we used to attend. The income earned at this job will be used to help finance the apartment we are setting up for them since this will be much cheaper than the on campus dorms.

For the short time John and Caleb are here we have been shopping at what I call the online garage sale called craigslist.com for cheap furniture to help get them set up in their new pad. Through this fun website you get the opportunity to meet all kinds of people from all walks of life, and the differences can be very wide. Like this one day John and I visited a couple of homes looking for a bed for him; the first house was way off the beaten path down a country road where we met a redneck fella who was clothed in camo (I can use the redneck term since I am one). The second stop was located in a neighborhood where we saw, between two fairly large neutral colored homes, a small bright mustard yellow house with grass 20% greener than the other yards, BRIGHT flowers and little pastel colored pinwheels decorating the yard. It looked like something from a Dr Seuss book. The owners were of middle eastern descent we think, but with each visit the people we met were all very nice folks. John did jokingly comment that at first sight these houses themselves did have a "creepiness" look to them, stating specifically with the bright yellow house, that it looked like a creepy grandma's house who was going to eat you (comparing it to the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel story). HA!

John, Caleb and myself made an hour and half road trip to a small town to get a futon for Caleb and the family we met for this purchase were so friendly and talkative and their "youngin's" were playful and running around barefoot out in the yard. They reminded me so much of my cousins back in Arkansas I felt like I had left my family reunion when we headed back home!

Then there are the homes that tug at your heart, as they are run down looking containing owners who are just trying to get by day to day. I stopped at one house to look at a dresser and met a very sweet young lady who was pregnant living in a house that from the outside looked unlivable and very cluttered inside. She seemed just as nervous about having a stranger come inside her home as I felt in walking up to it. I couldn't help but wonder if she needed the $35 she was asking for the dresser to buy groceries. Though shy, she was a very soft spoken and charming person but I could not help feeling sad AND convicted at that same time as I looked around her surroundings and realize I take my living conditions for granted and even complain! My son Caleb came up with a brilliant idea as a way to be a witness to those who are being challenged in their living conditions. He suggested offering to take them to the grocery store to get a little food, or even having the person write down a few items they need from the store that we could bring back to them. Maybe what I could do is have a grocery store gift card in my wallet ready to hand out to someone in need on my next craiglist outing. After all if we see a person's need and try to witness without meeting that need then how can our words be effective without action, 1 John 3:17 & 18.

Our children can teach us alot!