(why we don't have a picture of me kissing the van)

Oh, I forgot, I have a blog.

All is going swimmingly and that's just such.a.good.thing right now. 

Good for me usually is synonymous with busy and that leaves little time for thinking. Thinking leads to writing for me.  No thinking = no blogging.   Just click "unfollow" and take me off your visited link list if I start writing endless details about boring details of my life.

Or start posting twenty consecutive pictures of my kids smiling.  Or sleeping.  Or swimming.

Speaking of pictures. . .

I don't have a camera right now and it's a very long story.  You don't want to hear it.  Well, you do, but you don't.

Let me abbreviate it.

We bought a van.  It is sweet.  It is actually beautiful. 

(I wanted Daniel to take a picture of me kissing it, but I was afraid to ask him because he was still rubbing the hurt place near his wallet pocket.)

Then we immediately took the van on a weekend trip.  It was like Heaven on wheels.  Our travel conversation was full of me blessing Dave Ramsey for making us save and drive a bomb until we could actually pay cash and apologizing for yelling about the bomb and saying Daniel was amazing and thanking him for making me stick to our budget and telling him he's awesome. . . but this is the abbreviated version of why I don't have a camera, so I digress.

(It's hard for me to abbreviate anything.)

We parked Heaven-on-Wheels in the driveway at the beautiful home of T & L.

We ate amazing shish kabobs and drank amazing coffee.

We slept in an amazing guest room.

We woke to amazing bacon and more amazing coffee.

We saw an amazing photo-op for the little cousins and headed to the van for the camera, which had been placed in the center console the previous day.

NOTE: "Locked the amazing van" is not present in this sequence of events.

After an hour of frantic searching trying to disguise as casual looking (wondering the entire time if I was truly the most disorganized person on the planet), I humbled myself and asked Daniel if he knew where the camera was.

Oh I think it's in my laptop case.

Where's that?

On the floor by Eli's carseat.

Suddenly it was all very clear to me, since the laptop case was not in the van at all, that some happy thug was miles away with my camera and Daniel's laptop.

*small group would want me to note the theft of the Love & Respect leader material

*I personally want to note the theft of the SD card with the only pictures of my 30th birthday;  since now there is no record of it happening, I am still 29

*the kids would want me to note the additional theft of The Incredibles DVD

(Can you tell we had to file a police report?)

Daniel walked around and moped for awhile saying stuff like

"I betcha no one would have tried to steal anything out of the old van! Why did I buy a new vehicle?"

and

"From now on I don't want to hear anyone making fun of anyone who locks their vehicles!"  *dark looks directed at me*

and

"I hate sin, sin ruins everything"

(he tends to get really righteous in the face of adversity)

until Tim decided what the day needed was some ice cream and Lazy River time.

That helped quite a bit.

The end of the story is that Daniel's laptop is replaced, the Love & Respect material replaced, and The Incedibles DVD loss graciously forgiven by the library. 

There was a recent sighting of Daniel in our driveway installing a padlock on his truck box with more noise and force than necessary saying "I hate sin, sin ruins everything."

And this girl right here who has previously laughed her head off at paranoid lockers is locking.



But I am in the market for a camera.

(So I can take a picture of me kissing the van.  I am that thankful for it.)