Month: July 2013

Did you ever notice that there are moments in your everyday life when a totally unplanned, spontaneous and often quite surprising event seems to dictate your next move???  One such moment actually occurred just a couple of days ago as I had finally decided that, given the dreariness of a very rainy day, I would drag out the steam mop to clean my dingy hardwood floors.  But then, as my luck would have it :), the phone rang and on the other end was my “producer” sister-in-law, Maria who asked if her crew could use the front of my house for a portion of the film they were making to be entered in the Columbus 48 Hour Film Project.  Each film entrant is given a character,(Dennis or Denise), a prop (an extension cord), a line of dialogue (“That’s not a real word”), and a genre (dark comedy) on Friday night and all writing, shooting, editing and scoring must be completed and submitted 48 hours later.  A few years ago, Maria was involved in the making of a Halloween commercial for Wendy’s and set up production at our home with our front door area as one of the main props, so to speak.  It took a mere eight hours to produce a thirty second commercial and the only thing you could see of my front door after the final edit was a single window pane!!!!  And so, having had this previous experience and looking for any excuse to avoid the drudgery of mopping floors, I told her of course, to come right over.   As I was awaiting their arrival (steam mop safely stored away!), I secretly envisioned a grand replacement of the dear grandchildren’s pictures, which currently adorn the mantle, with an Oscar, a Golden Globe, or at the very least, a Golden Raspberry for “Best Scenery” award. LOL  To provide a bit of background on The 48 Hour Project……it began in 2001 with a mission to advance film-making and promote filmmakers, and has spawned over 700 competitions around the world.  Once Maria and her crew arrived they decided to film not only outside of the house, but inside as well!  Do you think anyone will notice my dirty floors???  Actually, the one camera shot of the female “victim” needed to be a super close-up view of her face, so, like my door scene in the Wendy’s commercial, I should not worry my little OCD mind.  LOL!!  The pictures below show the bloodless (ha, ha) deaths of two of the characters……I know not how they died nor why as I was only privy to these two brief scenes, and so I will have to wait the unveiling of the final edit when it is released at the screening at the Gateway Film Center in downtown Columbus sometime this week.  I am rooting for you Maria!

Interestingly, I just so happen to have a potential competitor for Maria and her crew.  It was, in fact, scripted, filmed, edited and previewed in 48 hours…………just not consecutive hours (would that be cause for elimination??).   At any rate, the film does have three of the required elements….a character – weather girl, a prop – slinky pop toob and a line of dialogue – “today’s weather is partly cloudy”.  Let me know if you think we have a winner :)!!

I seriously love my family (both Clark and Schultheis) and all of their quirky, entertaining, dramatic, eccentric, amusing, ingenious, unpredictable, inspiring, resourceful and engaging personalities…………..with soooooo much material, maybe I should be writing a mega novel……..I am sure there is a great story line that would speak to our family traditions……….. War and Peace comes immediately to mind!!  In fact, over the years I have amassed quite a repository of hand-written reflections from certain members of the family which could provide a treasury of data to be incorporated into a, dare I say……………best seller??!! It is no wonder that Crick tried, at times, to pressure me into throwing away the hundred or so letters stored away in my closet from his two years in Korea as well as his “hope this gets me out of the dog house” explanation notes from subsequent years.  I was just mentioning to someone last week that after Crick and I had been married about ten years, I suggested (coerced would be more precise!) him into attending a Marriage Encounter weekend with me.  M.E. is a religiously based program designed to help married couples improve their relationship with God as well as with each other.  My thinking at the time was that this effort might just possibly save Crick from the clutches of the “nut” as we explored more civil means of “dialogue” (ha, ha)  At the beginning of the weekend (this, I believe, was the allurement that drew Crick in…………..two days away from not only four small, young children, but from that infamous “pot of boiling water”!), each of us were given a notebook in which we were to write our personal reflections on the various presentations that were given throughout the day.  We would then return to our room to exchange notes and play back, in our own words (“dialogue”), what we felt was our spouse’s reply and then attempt to clarify the feelings that went along with their written words.  I know, I know…………it is still difficult for me to believe that Crick agreed to this and I am certain that the Kings Island Main Street incident is significant evidence that we did not “dialogue” long enough!!!  And you know what???  I still have those notebooks stored away as well…………….Jenn, Meg, Steph, Chris…………should you stumble upon this “ancient history” you will probably discover a wealth of information as to which parent you choose to blame for any of your personal shortcomings.  Now where was I going with all of this talk about writing and notebooks and thoughts and feelings??  Oh yes, I wanted to share a few “priceless” items from my latest housecleaning day at Jennifer’s …….the first three have Natalie’s affection for her brother, Sam written all over them……..I see a future advice columnist in the making!!!!

Curiously, “brother Sam” seems to be following in his Papa’s “hope this gets me out of the doghouse” footsteps as is demonstrated by  this note which he chooses, for some reason, to leave on his bedroom desk.  I am wondering if he figured he would just write one note, for all time, covering a multitude of sins, for which he would always be sorry to “everyone”, thus never having to say he’s sorry in the future

Now lest you think I am only picking on the grandchildren, I will share a couple of Christopher and Megan’s “blasts from the past”  …………..I so wish that I had been able to find the note, probably now lying underneath a gazillion pictures, which Christopher had floated down the stairs to Crick and me after we had sent him to his room for some now long since forgotten transgression.  He must have been about seven years old and as Crick and I were sitting in the living room (probably enjoying the brief respite from Chris’ misdeed!) Crick sees this piece of paper drop down from over the second floor railing.  The penciled note read, “I am naver goin to tok to Mom & Dad again…….Chris”.  As his “luck” would have it, he had prepared himself pretty well for the future.  Fast forward ten years…….there is no “pot of boiling water” for the evening meal and so a rather heated discussion erupts between Stephanie and Christopher as to who is going to get up from their respective positions on the sofa to drive to the nearby McDonald’s…………Stephanie held her ground (no surprise there) and so Christopher grabbed the car keys to our brand new car, stormed out the front door and seconds later as he backed the car out onto Weber Rd. there was heard a loud screech, a boom and the sound of shattered glass!!!  Needless to say, that was one expensive cheeseburger LOL!!

And then there was this gem from Megan which she actually dated (1983), making her ten years old at the time.  Once again Crick and I were witnesses to another folded note dropped from the upstairs “prison”…….Megan however, was much harsher than Christopher as you can read from her “will” LOL!!!

I do always smile over the part in her note, “except God”………….way to cover all of your bases Megan!!

I can hardly believe that I am now over my self-imposed 1200 word limit as I have plenty more, shall I say it?????????………….”ammunition”, “stockpiled” and waiting to be “discharged”.  Am I teasing you all with a political lead-in here??  It is soooooooooooooooo tempting and I also have soooooooooooooo much to say on that topic.   One of these days……………………………………………………………………………………..

I wasn’t sure with which devotional prayer, Bible verse or inspirational quote to use in closing out today’s blog and so I walked into my bedroom to pick up my Jesus Calling devotional.  As I glanced over at my bedside table, I saw one of my books called Bedside Prayers which a very dear friend from grade school had recently sent to me.  I brought each of the books downstairs, and as I turned the pages of the bedside prayer-book, my eyes settled on the Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier written over one hundred and fifty years ago.  It has always fallen upon our brave soldiers, past and present, to make the formidable sacrifices of bearing the burden of long separations from loved ones, enduring extremely forbidden and hostile environments, and risking severe bodily injury and even death to preserve for us Americans the freedom to effortlessly enjoy life and liberty in the pursuit of our individual happiness.  This seems especially important to bear in mind in our current cultural and political environment which seeks to strip all mention of the Almighty from every public and military forum. This prayer is rich with faith, wisdom, trust and hope………all of which our world, and each one of us, so desperately need.

Most Richly Blessed

• I asked God for strength, that I might achieve……
• I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey……
• I asked for health, that I might do greater things……
• I was given infirmity, that I might do better things……
• I asked for riches, that I might be happy……
• I was given poverty, that I might be wise……
• I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men……
• I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God……
• I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life……
• I was given life, that I might enjoy all things……
• I got nothing that I asked for——–but everything that I had hoped for…..
• Almost despite myself, my unspoiled prayers were answered……
• I am among all men, most richly blessed.

Author Unknown

Peace Out :)

TNT

TGW

P.S.  Welcome back Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter…………….A-Rod stay away from my Yankees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S.  This darned font issue……….aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!  Today I decided, after spending much time researching through Google and WordPress on how to correct the ever changing font size to upgrade ($$$$$) to the WordPress Custom CSS Editor……..don’t ask…………. technology is like learning Chinese (no offense intended)!!!!  Anyway, having done so, I think I may have a better looking font, but all throughout the blog it still randomly changed from larger to smaller all on its own………..”Calgon take me away!!!” (you will have to be really, really old to appreciate that line!!)  LOL

I will have to write to Bill Watterson one day and thank him for creating Calvin and Hobbes and for sharing elements of his life, beliefs and values with such humorous candor!!  I find it curious that when I read many of the cartoons, I can totally relate with Calvin’s sentiments, and yet at other times I can totally see the Calvin character come alive in Crick.  For instance, I once explained to Crick that I would probably be most content alone on a desert island because then there would be no one around to disagree with my philosophical view of the world.  I am imagining many of my family are vigorously shaking your heads in agreement, in which case I should presume that some of you are remembering this picture of the mug that Christine gave to me.

Apparently, as this mug reveals, there has always been some consensus among my family that I bear a resemblance to the Calvin in the above cartoon!  However, the Calvin of the next comic strip reminds me so much more of Crick’s philosophy of life:

As has been well showcased in this blog, Crick’s reality always, always, always focused on the positive, sometimes so much so, that TGW (The Good Wife/a.k.a Hobbes) often had to shoot (oops, are there any PC police around??) down DH’s (Dear Husband/a.ka. Calvin) “glass half-full” optimism with her own “glass half-empty” opinion on the perceived consequences of his idealistic thinking.  Having spent the better part of forty-seven years pondering and analyzing our sometimes complicated relationship, I still find myself reflecting on certain events……the King’s Island Main Street incident comes quickly to mind where we had a verbal face off witnessed by a few embarrassed family members (Jo…please accept my belated apologies!), and who knows how many amused onlookers!   It is conceivable that because I held onto such a stubborn streak of pessimism (oh, how I can picture Crick calling over all of the angels and saints to read that stunning admission of mine!!!) and he held on to his equally stubborn streak of optimism, that we inevitably spent a good bit of our married life “hashing” out our own reality of the moment.  Fortunately for us,  we were always committed to the very same values so that in the “hashing” out of these two very different perspectives we were always able to keep our eye on the prize which was our mutual trust and love for each other, the values we wanted to instill in our children and our Catholic faith.  Now why on earth did I ever get off on this subject???  I suppose it had something to do with the fact that these comic strips continually illuminate for me just how eerily similar, and yet how unlike, we all are in our own view of the world around us and how we must merge those philosophies and perspectives when we forge our relationships with one another.

As I have now brought the Catholic faith into this post, this would seem to be the opportune time to showcase another short video I took one day while watching three of the grandchildren.  Just one little note before viewing – I did not prompt Tommy, Mayce or Josh – they chose this activity completely on their own.  I simply had my camera ready and decided early on that it was worthy of archiving LOL!!!!

Of course, after all of my “careful” editing of this video, I realize now that I spelled Tommy with an extra “m”, but as I am trying to tamp down my “OCDness”, I am not going to re-edit, save and upload it again.  See Christine……..I really am working on myself :).  Just last week as Christine and I were walking out of church after morning Mass, I was explaining (or maybe I was actually confessing!) what had delayed me once again from arriving on time.  I rationalized that my perpetual tardiness stems from all of those things that a little voice inside my head says to me “make the bed, straighten those pillows/pictures, organize one last item on the dresser, open/close the blinds, make sure all of the doors are locked, etc. and ad nauseam; coupled with a repetitiously bad habit of hitting the snooze on the alarm, more often than not, causing me to hurriedly “put two feet on the floor”so that my habitual “ten minutes late routine” will not become……”Mass over”!!  So anyway, (sorry……unfortunately, I write exactly as I speak – tortuously long and meandering!!!!!!) as Christine and I were walking to our respective cars and I was bemoaning the status of my OCD as it related to my lateness, I pointed to a weed popping out of the shrubbery and admitted to her that I had to make a supremely conscious effort to resist reaching down to pull it out.  Now, don’t anyone reach for their phone to call the men in the white coats as I really am quite harmless, I assure you, and besides, my “OCDness” makes me an excellent Cinderella (before she met Prince Charming)!! LOL

I wonder if Cinderella ever found any notes, such as the one inserted above, in the bedrooms of her wicked step-sisters??  Cleaning houses can be quite an interesting experience as one can certainly learn a lot about the occupants, even when they happen to be family!!!  As I was at Stephanie’s last week, I came across this strangely worded note in Luke’s room.  Curious, and wanting to toss it out if it was just some type of scrap paper, I called for Luke and asked him if he wanted to save it.  He explained to me that he had had a friend over and they decided to try their hand at song writing………this note was the outcome of their endeavor!!!  What do you think, should I send it on to Taylor Swift or Blake Sheldon??  They would only have to fix some of the spelling………oh……..and find some more words to rhyme with coal and know LOL!!!

As we have now moved past the magical summer marker of the 4th of July, the Ohio weather seems to be suffering from a bad case of amnesia.  With the temperature being the one exception, every day of the past two weeks has seemed like an Ohio fall/winter/spring, the weather has simply forgotten that summer is supposed to mean sunshine and longer days.  Lately, the cloudy, grey skies have even made the evening darkness seem to appear sooner than is normal for early July.  Oh woe is us!!!  Of course that hasn’t stopped us from engaging in the usual plethora of summer activities (we just have to work them in around the pop-up thunderstorms!) and goodness knows that with seven grandchildren playing summer baseball there are always ball fields calling out my name (if only their games could be played in a climate controlled dome somewhere, away from the gnats and mosquitoes and the humidity!!!).  On those days and evenings when the weather has been uncooperative, the grand-kids have found other ways to pass the time, such as a cousin-friendly game of Black Jack (what in the world ever happened to Crazy-Eights??).   And just where in the world did my grandchildren learn how to play Black Jack?? (Jim/Joe/Christopher?)  At least the almost 3 year-olds found something innocent to occupy their time (well, except for the “kicking”, to which Josh took a great liking!!)

I have one more picture I found of Tommy that I took one day while Stephanie and I  were out talking with one of her neighbors.  I happened to look over to my left and saw Tommy sitting under a tree and so I walked over and asked him what was he doing sitting cross-legged under the tree all by himself.  Barely bothering to look up at me, he simply replied, “I am meditating.”  I was too afraid to ask him any more questions, so I just took out my phone and snapped the picture.  This is the very same grandchild who wanted to call down his Papa’s spirit to instruct us as to how to operate Crick’s ham radio because I, mere mortal that I am, was unable to get any clear signals.  He is, coincidentally, the same child who was recently observed telling Mayce that if she would just fold her hands and pray to Papa, she would receive anything she asked for!!  I am thinking that one of us will be having a little talk with Tommy…………and sooner rather than later.  I believe he may have gotten a bit confused by my video which I gave to the grandchildren titled “Papa’s Father’s Day Message from Heaven”.  It appears that Tommy has completely embraced this concept. :)

As it was a rather tongue-in-cheek statement from Calvin regarding being at peace with the world that initiated this blog, I will turn now to the Author and Lover of  true peace in order to bring the post to a more fitting close.  This particular message seems to speak directly to my OCD mind…………….perhaps I should tape it to my forehead!!  ha, ha, ha, ha!

The Peace that I give to you transcends your intellect.  When most of your mental energy goes into efforts to figure things out, you are unable to receive this glorious gift.  I look into your mind and see thoughts spinning round and round: going nowhere, accomplishing nothing.  All the while, My Peace hovers over you, searching for a place to land.

Be still in My Presence, inviting Me to control your thoughts.  Let My Light soak into your mind and heart, until you are aglow with My very Being.  This is the most effective way to receive My Peace.               Jesus Calling 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.                         Phillippians 4:6-7

TNT

TGW

P.S.  I had a scary dream not too long ago, actually, it was more like a nightmare!  I dreamt that there was a drone hovering outside my bedroom window and I woke up in a panic thinking it must be the government and wondering how I would ever survive in a re-education camp!  And then just the other night, the news was showing what the different types of drones looked like, and I drew in my breath as I noticed that one of the smaller versions they displayed was uncannily similar to the one that was in my dream!!!  Do you think I should remove the “I don’t believe the liberal media” bumper sticker from my car????  Is it too late?????  Perhaps it wasn’t a dream??????  Ohhhhhhhhhh noooooooooooooo………………………. my thoughts are spinning round and round!!!!!  Come to think of it, maybe someone should call the men in the white coats!!!!!  LOL

P.P.S.  That. Is. All.