Voting, Forgiving, and Hormonal

Whew! I'm worn out! I just traipsed around Swan, collecting signatures to turn into the county auditor in order to retain my city council seat. This is new. I have been through two election cycles while serving on the city council and we have never done a thing in order to get elected. When I was asked if I was interested in a council seat I said, "sure" and then people just wrote my name in. In fact, that's how all the members of the council, including the mayor, are elected here. Evidently, that's an anomaly, because two years ago this fall I had a news crew show up at my door. It's kind of a funny story: I was very, very pregnant and had just come home from the dentist and my face was quite numb, I remember. And this news crew showed up! Apparently, there were two towns in the entire state where not one person had filed papers in order to fill any of the council seats. I explained to the reporter that we just don't do that here - it's all write-in. Well, they decided to run the story as a "what a cute, small, town Swan, Iowa is - representative of many small towns in the state!" They noticed that I had laundry flapping in the wind out back (including my underwear, as I recall) and begged me to take it down in front of their cameras. I remember one photojournalist gushing, "Nobody hangs out their laundry anymore!" So I obliged them and there I was on the evening news, big bellied, puffy-lipped, and bringing in my clothes! So anyway, the whole point of this is that we have a new city clerk now. And the county auditor got ahold of her and is pressuring her to have people file papers in the proper way. Two of the council members at our meeting the other night flat out said they wouldn't do it. It didn't matter to them if they were re-elected or not and if people wanted them on, they could just write them in, like it's always be done! I asked our clerk if it would help her out if she had at least one of us file the papers and she said it would, so I told her I'd do it. It involved getting one form notarized and then obtaining ten signatures of town citizens who would support my "campaign." So, that's what I was doing tonight. Actually, it looks like the mayor's seat may be in jeopardy. Our neighbor was walking around tonight collecting signatures for his run at it. I have a feeling our current mayor would happily hand over the position, though. And I guess another neighbor was collecting signatures for his bid at a council seat. So it may be more of an interesting "race" this year. Last election, 12 people showed up to vote. Maybe we'll have 13 this year!

I went to the Ladies Retreat last weekend up at Clear Lake. It was good. I hadn't been there in three years. The speaker was very intense and I still feel like I need some time to assimilate all she talked about. Her subject was peacemaking - forgiving others. And wouldn't you know it, that one area is the area where I struggle most in my Christian walk? It would help if I didn't have such a good memory! And herein is the struggle: I don't want to forgive others. But God says I need to. So it's the age-old battle of the flesh vs. God.

The weather was fantastic up there and my allergies were not a problem at all, which was a huge surprise to me. Normally, I'm a blowing, dripping mess at these retreats since they are always in early September, which is the height of hayfever season. However, I absolutely could not sleep at all Friday night - just dozed fitfully. It was awful! So, I sure slept well Sat. night once I was back in my own, soft bed!

Before I left on the retreat I was "Mama" to Sam. I don't think there was anything sweeter than hearing that softly come from the lips of my toddler! Oh, my heart just melted every time he said that! I walked in the door Sat. night and Sam yelled, "Mom!" And ever since then, when he wants me, it's "Mom! Mom!" - yelled in a very demanding tone. Last week he had started doing that with Will and he's been doing it for months with Ben. He doesn't say "David" yet so I guess it was my turn. Although, I couldn't help but notice that he still sweetly calls Paul, "Da-da." Not fair!

Will has won his last two football games. He's playing more and more each game and my heart just thrills to see him grab the ankles of other players and plow into them! He had a JV game last night and I was surprised at how much his coach put him in. He played every quarter and quite a bit in each. He just now showed me a bruise on his upper arm. It's a series of little dots. He explained that it is from the mesh of his jersey, from when somebody's helmet crashed into him. You know, you really have to have a strong stomach and a bit of a masculine edge in order to be the mother of a football player!

Ben has been giving me fits lately, behavior-wise. I guess I recently posted about that. It's still going on and I'm running out of privileges to take away! He's always immensely sorry later on, but he doesn't seem to remember how sorry he was once temptation rears its head again. It's very tiring for me.

I took Ben in to see the nutritional consultant again. He gained 4 lbs since our July visit, so that's good. Just 16 more to go until he reaches the goal! So, I guess I need to bring on the cheesecake some more. Actually, the consultant gave me a little container of stuff. It's made by the Beneful people, only it's called "BeneCalorie" and there's 300 and some calories in just this tiny little container. You can mix it into any food. But the nutritionist told me a cheaper way to accomplish the same thing is to mix heavy whipping cream into his food. So I may try that.

I have a doctor's appt. Friday. The office finally called me today (after I emailed them) and told me that the dr. wants to meet with me in order "go over your test results." Ok, so I'm thinking I must be dying. Why else would they not tell me over the phone? Oh, it's probably not that serious. But I must have gotten some results that she would want to discuss treatment options with me. I just know something is going on with me, hormonally. I'm on day 40 of my current cycle and I'm not pregnant (I checked, just to make sure a miraculous conception had not occurred - boy, was I relieved!). Normally, I'm a straight 28 day cycle person, so this indicates to me that my body is getting more and more whacked out. In addition, I am having so much uterine pain. Part of me would be very happy if I could have a hysterectomy, but only if I'm not risking another stroke by having surgery. Ugh - so many things that can go wrong with the female body! I guess being so intricately made also leads to lots of possibilities for things to break down.

Well, I need to get that kitchen cleaned up, the boys in bed, and then head that way myself. Tomorrow morning is my first MOPS meeting of the season. I am working with the one year olds this year, so Sam will be with me. Although, I am half tempted to just leave him home tomorrow. He seems to have some diarrhea going on today and we're headed up to Waterloo this weekend. The possibility of him catching a cold from a fellow Moppet is great since kids that age seem to always have gunky noses and stuff leaking out of them. I would hate for him to be sick up there and then to spread anything to his cousins. Of course, Will would rather not have the responsibility of dealing with any runny diapers, though! He's so funny. He can do the manliest of things, but changing a diaper just unnerves him. David is worse - he won't even carry a wrapped up one to the garbage, positive that the contents are just waiting to fly out and get all over him.

I have a couple of other, single-topic posts I am hoping to get to this week yet. So I may be on here again before the week is out.