Why????

Second post in two days about things going on in facebook world but I had to show this to my non-facebooking family and friends.

There is this little thing going around where you go to urbandictionary.com and put your name in and post what it says. When you type in Mindy, most of them are bad, nasty or just disgusting. This is the best one--it is the whole definition:

paradoxal; contrary to common sense, yet is perhaps true. A woman that is an enigma. Hard to figure but worth the effort.

And for Andrew, this is the best, cleanest one:

The Newest breed of Penguin.

When you type in Robert, you get this......

The most incredible guy in the universe, end of story. He’s sweet, caring, and truly amazing. He isn’t concerned with himself at all, but instead he’s concerned with other people. He always knows the perfect thing to say and the right time to say it. He takes your breath away and leaves you speechless. And he has a way of making your heart melt like no one else ever will. Robert is so wonderful, it’s almost impossible to find the words to match.

along with about ten other great ego-boosting descriptions.

First off, I am not going to recommend anyone else visit urbandictionary.com. One time of seeing words I shouldn't be reading I thought was a fluke but after seeing them three times, I don't think I want to support a site like that.

I would still like to know WHY, what is it about my kid that the whole world just helps make his head bigger??

God ALWAYS knows what's best

A friend of mine asked on facebook this morning, "How do you handle extreme disappointment". It was kinda the final straw in the "God wants me to tell somebody about this" category.

It is so hard to remember, when we are wanting something, that God is doing what is best for us, even if we don't see it. This has been happening at our house over the past several years, in particular, to Andrew.

Andrew has worked for Walmart for 25 1/2 years. When we first got married and he was 27, they were promising the world on a silver platter--if you will go on the road and do remodels for a year, you can have any store you want. Well, we got married, I got pregnant, our priorities changed and he asked to come off the road. Then, the story was, you go to Pennsylvania for a year and we will give you any store you want. We were in PA for 20 months, my mom started having health problems and Andrew asked to come home. After much red tape, we got to come to Pontiac IL. We had done what we needed to do, not what Walmart wanted us to do. So began what we felt like was "punishment" for not doing the Walmart way.

A couple of good things have happened though, more valuable to me at least, than a promotion. The biggest one being getting to come home to Jasper county. I love our life here and am just glad we get to be here. Andrew is a typical male though and believes self-worth is shown in things like promotions.

For the past several years, Andrew has put in for several promotions to the marketing team. This is a group of people that are basically like district managers over different areas. The auto shop, electronics, etc. He never understood why he couldn't get one of these positions.

Last week, we understood perfectly. Throughout Walmart, many, many, many of these marketing team members jobs were cut. Just done away with. They basically have a month to scramble around and find a Walmart SOMEPLACE that needs them and then basically, there are no guarantees to what the job is, or for that matter the pay.

Andrew was thanking God last week for what he had previously seen as "unanswered prayer". It has taken literally years to understand what was going on but it was so very clear that God knows the end of each path that we take and we are still just amazed at how He protected us through this.

I grew up going through a lot of big disappointments in my life, there were so many things I had to question and now, I know to live each day to it's fullest, without regrets and try to do what God is wanting me to do. I think Robert was about 6 the first time he asked me why I did something and I said, "If I would die tonight, I don't want you to say, "I wish Mom would have...." Taking what God says isn't always easy, but it IS always right. If you are going through disappointment right now, God will show you why down the road......in His time.

Peoria Bound

Robert moments before I dropped him off at school Wednesday. I love having a job where I can take a 2 hour lunch so I can see my kid off on his trip. We went and had lunch together at Puerto Vallarta and then packed him up and got him on his way.

Another adventure....Life is good.

It sounds like he has had an awesome time. They got to see the guy that wrote the music for the Halo video games, they got to see Robert's cousin Nicole play the piano piece that won first place in the young composers contests, they got to spend time with kids just like them from all over the state and they got to spend time with each other. Robert's roommate was Danny Cast. I wasn't blogging yet when he was a freshman but there is definitely a story....

One day at work, I get a phone call from Andrew, he is home and apparently so is Robert. Robert gets on the phone and the first words out of his mouth is "MOM, you HAVE to call the school and tell them this wasn't Danny's fault- it is as much my fault as his and if he gets in trouble, I need to be in trouble too"-- I had no clue what was going on. It just so happened that Danny and Robert were messing around before band started. They were really just giving each other a hard time, In fact, Robert was pretending to choke Danny and Danny reached up to take a swing at Robert. The problem is he accidentally connected. Robert had blood coming from a cut right under his eye, which made it look like his eye was actually bleeding. There was also a blood vessel busted in Robert's eye so he looked like he had been beaten up badly. The school nurse sent Robert home and wouldn't let him come back to school until we had taken him to the doctor.

I called the school; when my friend Laura answered the phone, I told her what Robert had said and she laughed. She had a story to tell me too.

When all of this happened, Danny was the one to take Robert to the nurse, when the nurse said Robert needed ice, Danny RAN to get it for him. Danny helped him to the office and after Andrew had picked up Robert, Laura told Danny he should go back to class. Danny's response: I might as well wait around for my punishment. After the doctor visit and declaring Robert's eye looked worse than it was, he returned to school the next day. They both got called into Mr. Athey's office and because there are rules against fighting and it was pretty evident they had been fighting even if it was friendly, they got two Saturdays of Saturday school. Do you remember the old adage about a good friend bailing you out of jail but a great friend...?

This summer, I came home from work one day and Danny and Robert were sitting on the same couch playing a video game with a bunch of other friends, I almost commented then that I didn't know if they should be competing against each other and sitting that close. When All-State was announced and Danny and Robert were the only two guys going, I thought somehow it was funny. Even more memories those two will remember the rest of their lives. I have a very short list of guys that I would feel totally comfortable with Robert sharing a room with. Danny is most definitely one of them.

We are heading up in a matter of hours. I am really excited to see Robert but just so very glad he has gotten to experience this. It's times like this I stop and thank the Lord one more time for bringing us back home to Jasper county.

Robert Browning as Uncle Henry

The results are posted! Jacob had this down so well on facebook that I just copied and pasted. Thanks Jacob! You made my job easy!! Of course I had to edit it to put Jacob back in.

Jenna Zuber and Kerstine Kerner got Dorothy, Jared Britton got Lion, Danny Cast got Scarecrow, Jacob Sainer and Landon Rauch got double cast as Tin Man, Luke Bloomberg got the Wizard, Robert and Danny Weishaar got double cast as Uncle Henry, Rachel Bratsch is Aunt Em, Kristen Shackman and Lisa Frichtl got double cast as the Wicked Witch, and finally......Taryn and Jamie Mahaffey got double cast as Glinda.

Of course, it takes a lot of cast to put on these musicals. Congratulations to all who are getting ready to go down the yellow brick road. Once again, it will be a trip to remember the rest of your lives!


Don't forget, the musical is Thursday, April 15th; Friday, April 16th; Saturday, April 17th (x2); and Sunday afternoon, April 18th. There will be dinner theater before the Friday and Saturday evening performances.

Wow, do you know that I now only have one more time to post about what Robert is doing in the high school musical? Next year is going to be an absolute killer for me!

Here We Go.......

Musical tryouts tonight.....so begins our spring adventures.

Results tomorrow night at 4:00. It's gonna be a long couple of days......

Good luck Robert!

St. Louis Trip

What an absolutely fantastic day! We got to the Science Center just as it opened. Of course, Robert was driving. He is getting pretty good at driving in St. Louis. I figure he might as well get plenty of practice while I am with him. I started going to St. Louis with friends when I was 18 and he loves it down there as much as I do.

One of the highlights of the day was Robert riding a segway

We no longer have to worry about his future, if all else fails he can be a mall cop.








We love the Science Center. I am really excited that they have put the planetarium shows back to the way they were when we were kids.


Monday afternoon, we took the Great River Road to Grafton. We couldn't believe how much ice was on the Mississippi. The barges were just barely moving through it. We have already decided we need a day trip in the jeep or maybe a weekend, just exploring the little towns down the Great River Road.



We finished off our day at the Fin Inn, a great fish place a friend of ours had told us about a while back. The food was scrumptious and the aquariums at each table were really a neat feature. This too, is someplace we are going to visit again! In fact, I can actually see us just running away for an evening and going here to eat fish. Life is an adventure!







We had a fantastic time and it was just what we needed to take a break before the busy-ness of the next couple of months kicks in.

Finally.... I get to GO someplace!

It seems like we have been in a routine lately of "it's the weekend, which truck gets worked on". The guys FINISHED the front overhaul on the jeep today. We still have Monday. St. Louis, here we come! I have been having severe St. Louis withdrawal. .;*^*;._.;*^*;. I AM SO EXCITED!!!.;*^*;._.;*^*;.