Back to the Grindstone

We have returned from the mountaintop and are beginning to melt. At the base of Long's Peak and Twin Sisters sits a church camp. We spent 6 wonderful days in the cool comfort of Colorado, escaping 100 degree temperatures in Kansas. We attended seminars each day on worship and discussion about them. Each afternoon we had free to play. Outside our lodge, the children gathered on the playground. Our girls loved it. Especially Je with her new-found skill in leg pumping.

Daddy loved the outdoor adventure sports at camp. He flew down the zip line a couple times and just raved about the rock climbing wall.
I was prodded into trying the zip line.



The zip line runs 1000 feet long and at some points is 100 feet above the ground. This picture was taken as I passed the lowest point so Shan and the girls could get a good look at me. I was terrified, but I knew he was taking a picture so I smiled. We had a great time and the fellowship and worship times were refreshing. We went to church camp a lot growing up and so it was fun to take our kids. Many of the kids they played with at camp were children of kids I knew at camp as a kid and teenager. Some were even grandchildren of people my mother went to camp with as a child and teenager. I love the continuity of it. Sometimes the smallness and interrelatedness of our denomination can be a problem but usually I love it. The week at camp was one of those times.

Can you tell we got a new camera to take on vacation?

Phone Calls

It was another dreaded phone call. Mom called to cancel plans; she was going to sit with her aunt, whose grandson had been killed that morning in a motorcycle accident. He had just graduated college and was preparing for a year-long mission trip to Brazil. I've been sifting through my memories of family gatherings and other times when I saw him. His parents once stayed with my sisters and I while our parents were out of town for the weekend. I remember I was in grade school and it was the school carnival we didn't want to miss. They took us and then we went to have supper at Wendy's. We got some strange looks because it was just two parents and 5 children and one on the way. It looked like we were a huge family. I am not sure how to feel about this. Our family is a close one but second cousins, and especially ones that are 10 years younger are not particularly intimate relationships. But I am saddened for his parents and brothers. His grandparents and other loved ones.

On the completely opposite end of the emotional spectrum, while eating supper with my sister and family, my brother-in-law received a call from his brother. He is engaged, and the wedding is in December. This is another young man, almost done with college planning a career in the Navy. In the five years my sister has been married I have really come to love her in-laws. So I celebrate with them at this news.

Such a wide range of things. My mind raced as I tried to sleep. That couple with a bad backache kept me awake. I'm going to have a rough go today. I really dread these kind of things. I am horrible at knowing what to do and then I feel like my inaction is worse, but I don't want to offend. Lord, give me wisdom.

I've learned a lot about waiting on God and contentment since this picture was taken. This week the thermometer has pegged at 101 degrees for the first time since Aug. 26, 2003. For almost three years this picture has been on my fridge so I have not had any trouble remembering what I was doing that week. This was a picture of the first time I got to hold my new daughter; she was 4 days old and just 3 lbs and 8 oz. She was delivered by emergency c-section at 12:22 am and I saw her briefly before they whisked her to the NICU. After a couple hours in recovery they wheeled me back to my room by way of the NICU and I saw her again for a few moments, but I was very groggy. I developed a fever and wasn't able to go in the NICU. I didn't even get out of bed for three days, the nurses came in several times each night to wake me up and roll me over so I could get moving enough to get out of bed more quickly. I remember lying in the hospital bed feeling the waves of heat come through the window. The air conditioning wasn't up to the job of keeping the building cool when the temp outside had been over 100 for four straight days. That whole time has been on my mind a lot as the news has reported on the heat and as people have been so generous in support since my grandmother. I remember the volunteers who drove me to the hospital after I was released so I could visit Jo and meals brought in since I was supposed to be resting. Shan had started a new job the same week I had Jo and couldn't get time off. The first few days of school are hard to be gone. He took one day off, the day she was born but mostly I was on my own. My mother had Je and then she had a trip planned that she needed to do. No one expected the baby six weeks early. God truly is good.

A Hard Week's Play

I 've learned that if you keep a child so busy playing they will sleep well.



We've had a busy week of playing. First we had a playday at the park for our babysitting co-op. Je is trying so hard to make it across the monkey bars.



Je finally mastered the art of swinging on her own. I have tried for about a year to teach her how to pump her legs to keep herself going but she didn't get. Then this week a lightbulb moment and off she goes. We've had a hard time keeping her off the swings since.



Then Grandma and Pacca came to visit and we went to the zoo and rode the mini train. Jo was so anxious about the tunnel that she hid her eyes and plugged her ears for the first half of the ride. She hates loud noises. After we emerged, she smiled tearfully but wouldn't unplug her ears. She was afraid someone on the train would scream.

Principle Vs Preference

http://happyhomefront.clubmom.com/happy_homefront/2006/07/that_would_make.html

I had to link to Jill's blog because I could soooo identify with her thought. We all have a dream church, or congregation or pastor. Heck, it probably extends to most of life, houses, cars, jobs, families, towns in-laws, the grass is always greener. I am firmly convicted that God puts us in the situations HE has for us and we should concentrate on glorifying Him rather than worrying about our comfort and convience. As to the church thing, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that there are salvation issues and things that are not. In matters of principle, stand like a rock, (salvation by grace) and in matters of taste, be willing to accept others ideas as their preferance and agree to disagree, (exclusive psalmody, a cappella singing). The church I have belonged to all my life has these as important parts of worship. I choose to stay in the church because I agree with the theology of the church and its Reformed premise. I also love singing the Psalms and doing so without musical instruments. Those are a matter of preference for me. I can attend other churches and sing the hymns to the accompaniment of an organ, a piano, or a rock band and it is still honoring to God as long as He is the focus of my worship not the minutia.

Seriously!

I know I have blogged about our favorite restaurant in a previous post.



But the episode today was too good not to pass on. We were seated and the waiter arrived with two diet cokes. He just brought them. Since we had extras in our party today, my sister and her husband are still visiting after the funeral, they go back Sunday, he had to take their drink order but he brought mine and my mother's before taking our order.I think they know us there. Huh. Viva!!!!!!

Sad News

This morning at 5:20 am my grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep. She was 83 years old and had suffered a recurrance of the cancer she had been fighting for almost 13 years. Please remember my mother especially at this time and our family in your prayers.

The Hardest Thing

I've learned that the hardest thing to do is to accept help. Most of us are so willing to give help but recently it was brought home to me that we don't like to allow others to help us. My grandmother has been living with my mom and is facing her last days on earth. She is a godly woman and after a long battle with cancer is ready to go home to God. As her illness has progressed my mother has needed to do more for her. This week Grandma has hardly been out of bed and my mom doesn't want to leave her alone in the house if she can help it. I have gone down several times so my mom can keep the rest of her life going and run errands etc. Several of our church family have offered to help sit with Grandma or do things for Mom and I know Mom appreciates that. She has had a really hard time accepting help. I told her that she has done so much for people over the years that they are just waiting for the opportunity to return the favor. My mom often takes meals, or helps with projects etc for people in the church. For her love is service. I know part of her reluctance is she doesn't want Grandma to worry about or be upset with the need for someone to be there and the reminder that a sitter would be. The whole situation has made me sure that we as Christians not only need to help our brothers but we need to allow our brothers to help us when we have a need. How often do we say "Thanks, I'm okay," when we could use a hand? In doing so do we deprive our brother of a ministry opportunity. I have wanted to do more for my mom this week and I have been treading lightly so as not to push. She doesn't want to impose but what is family for. I continue to volunteer and when she does ask I gladly agree to do. I am taking a lesson away from this, Help and be willing to be helped. It goes with our Romans 12 lesson. Give your brother an opportunity to use his or her gift in service to the body, even you.

Living Sacrifices

Romans 12:3-9 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.what is good.

This was part of the Sabbath School lesson last week and even before that I have been giving a lot of thought to gifts and roles in the body. I have heard people say that life doesn't come with an instruction book and that babies don't come with owners manuals but I would bet the people who believe that don't read the Bible. I have yet to come across a problem that I couldn't find a solution in the Bible, even if the solution means calling my mother and asking her. Honor your mother...

My recent experience with directing Bible School with Betsy and meshing our individual talents to put on a (in my humble opinion) successful week makes me even more sure that my role as a Christian is to use what gifts God has given me to glorify Him. I also believe that means helping those around me use their gifts, to form a body that compliments each other with service not competes with each other. We shouldn't bemoan the gifts some one has that we don't but find ways to take advantage of their strengths, and use our strengths to add another dimension. I felt truly blessed in our team at Bible School. Each person chose areas of interest and areas that filled our needs. We could truly hand off the assignment and not worry about their implementation because it was done and done well. Praise God.

I Married a Science Teacher

The other night my husband sat in front of the computer for what seemed like hours taking some of those online quizzes that people can post in blogs from blogthings. Some of them were stupid, for instance the redneck I am married to only registered 35 percent redneck. The questions were pretty bad. To get redneck status you would have to have inbreeding and a car in your front yard. I know a lot of rednecks who have neither. I registered only 13 percent and while I am not really redneck, by virtue of being married to one I thought I would rate higher than that. As I took the below quiz I was hoping not to embarrass myself. I was never very interested in science but as a college graduate it would be humiliating to fail 8th grade science. My science teacher husband not withstanding.

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

So this Fits

After I did this I had Shan go through the questions. It was so right on it was scary. He actually thinks the cookies are making fun of him and that he has to eat them to teach them a lesson. I posted his Seasame Street identity, mine will have to wait.

table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="350" align="center" border="0">You Are Cookie MonsterMisunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth.
You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around.
You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking
How you life your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Fiesta Finale Finito

It's done, It's done, It's done. The kids are all gone, the crafts made the stories told, the tacos eaten and the decorations put away. The church is clean and back in orginal condition. The thank you notes are written and distributed, the extra workbooks are returned to the bookstore and my feet hurt. Give me a month and I can maybe start thinking about next year. It was such a successful week, we had 7 more kids than last year and we averaged 3 more per night. I am sure we blew the budget but no one seems to care that we did and the kids had a great time. Several parents came up to thank me for the week and I am basking in the glow of personal satisfaction. God is great and He blessed our week. So many things fell together and I have to believe that He directed it. Thank You Father.

The Flip Flop Favorites

My girls wanted flip flops ever since last year when they noticed their friends had them. So this year I looked at my local cheap store, NBC, and found Je a pair of flip flops. I didn't think Jo could handle them yet since she is only two. It took me about 10 minutes of them fighting over the flip flops to change my mind and schedule a return trip to the store to find Jo some. Jo has a real serious shoe thing. If you take off your shoes, beware. Jo will remove her shoes so she can try yours. I can't tell you how many times I have had to spend big chunks of time searching for my niece's shoes when she visits because Jo borrowed them and left them somewhere randomly in our house.


So we got the flip flops and the girls love them. They wear them everyday. They wear them to bed. I put my foot down though and they have to wear real shoes to church. Je quickly learned how to wear shoes without ties or straps. She does great. Jo on the other hand took a little longer. For starters, she has the littlest feet. I have yet to see a flip flop in a size 5 or 6 so she has some labeled extra small. I think they are from Children's place. Flip flops small enough to fit Jo are not really flip flops because they seem to all have elastic around the heel. The girls don't want that. So Jo's are a little big, but she has finally figured out how to keep them on and which toe they go between. Now if she can just get them on the right feet we'll be set. She cracks me up. I usually make Jo wear regular sandals when we go places because the flip flops are still big, so as soon as we get home she takes off her regular shoes and puts on her flip flops. They both put them on first thing in the morning. It's hysterical. I have passed the shoe thing on to my kids. I think Shan is ready to collapse from the thought of two teenagers and their mother with closets full of shoes. At least he has a few years before that happens. Maybe.

Sleep--Who Needs it.

Okay, I have given up on trying to sleep tonight, at least for a while. It is 2:40 am as I start this post. The last several nights I have had trouble going to sleep because I can't seem to turn my mind off. With Bible School looming I keep thinking of things to do or worry about. Sometime Saturday morning before reaching full consciousness, I had a brainstorm about the decorating. I got up before 7 and typed up room by room lists of the things we needed to do in each room. I used Hot Tamale font for the lists, and then posted them on the doors of each area so that when my helpers arrived I could point them at a list. Several people commented that my lists were helpful. I was really impressed with my snack coordinator. She and her daughter took the list for their area and went to town. I had a few decorations that were up for grabs and they took some and left a lovely environment for our snack time. We are doing it a bit different this year--we are making the suggested snacks that match the lessons and we are having the kids do it. It will be great. I keep telling myself that anyway. We did tape down three large drop cloths on the floor of the family life center, or as I call it, the gym. The whole church looked very festive today and fiesta like. Tomorrow, or rather today, I have people coming to finish the sanctuary. I am using a whopping third of my babysitting tickets today to give myself a kid free chance to finish all those little details. I have this nagging feeling that I am forgetting something huge.

So after Saturday's decorating marathon I was beat. My legs ached which is a sure sign that I am exhausted. I could be off my feet most of the day but really busy and get tired and my legs would still ache. I took a couple tylenol pm's to help me get to sleep Sat. Night and was sleeping great when my mother called at 7:26 to borrow sugar for banana bread she was making for my grandma's breakfast. Speaking of grandma, she is not so great, she doesn't leave the house much and has used the oxygen the home health people brought almost all day this last week. The cancer is affecting her lungs even more now. Pray for my mom as she takes care of her.

So now it is almost three am Monday morning and I am not sleepy, tired yes. I couldn't even get to sleep this afternoon when I tried to take a nap. I can't even blame it on the snoring husband because he wasn't.

Eventually, I will crash, probably sometime around five thirty p.m. when I am supposed to be getting our crew leaders ready to greet the kids.

Oh well sleep is overrated.

A Pit Stop in the Summer

So I've neglected to blog. Let me describe to you an average day in the last month. We get up before seven and try to clean a little house, do a little laundry make a few phone calls all while the monkeys, as their father calls them, interrupt. "Mama is sesame Street on now?" Yes please go watch. The phone rings, Can you watch my kids today? Sure drop 'em off. Mama are we going somewhere today? I think we'll stay home. But Mama!!!!! Kids come, They See, They Destroy, They move on. I go back to cleaning and phoning, and laundry. You should see the ironing stash. Now a usual day in our house is pretty busy. I run after the kids, and the errands, and house chores all day usually stopping for a break around two to eat lunch, before hitting the ground running again. With Bible School and all the other activities this YEAR has been busy and I don't see an end in sight. For example:

We spent Memorial day with Shannon's family at a reunion. Now Kansas in May is supposed to warm up but it is extremely rare to have temperatures in the 100 degree range. Not this year. On the bright side the Yucca plants were beautiful.

Bible School is coming up and after one of our meetings when I kept sharing ideas I'd garnished along life my co-director said, "You're all Bible School all the time." I see ideas everywhere. Since it is a Fiesta themed event, we have great shots of the Western Kansas Desert...
Stuckey's on I-70 past Oakley sells Mexican blankets cheap, I am on the lookout for big boxes to use as adobe buildings, and on and on...Today I was driving out of Wally World parking lot and towards the mall for Bath and Body sale and had to turn around because there were some great clean huge boxes to use in the trash dumpster. I could only get two in the car and my kids weren't even happy with that.

For my middle sister's birthday today my youngest sister flew in to surprise us all. She was supposed to be there on Sat for our birthday breakfast but she got delayed on the plane and didn't make it till Sat. Afternoon. It has been great catching up with here and her husband. He hadn't been back to visit since Christmas. Which sounds like a recent event except in our family where we get together often.

Four weekends in a row we had big family get togethers with aunts and uncles etc. My local brother in law thought that was an item of note but my sister and I told him that that is pretty normal for our family we just got out of the habit the last several years. My husband remembers those days pretty well since we did it a lot through our courtship. My sister has only been married five years and in those years we've had a combined total of five kids so we had a lot going on.

My older child has had a ear infection and now she has a bad cough all in a months time so we are a little stressed and I had to lead Sabbath School last week and and and

So to summarize, I've been a little busy and I didn't get to the blog. It will only get busier this summer. That was just my schedule...Shan has his own list and so do the kids. AAAAAAAA Calgon take me away.

Now they've gone too far

I work about 5 hours a week as the Menninger Bible Coordinator for the YWCA. Mrs. Menninger wrote a four year through the Bible course over one hundred years ago and at her death the family bequeathed all of her materials to our local YWCA since she had held classes there for many years. So I am in charge of distributing those materials to groups and individuals interested in going through the course. I keep the records and handle the finances. Today I was in my office there and I caught up on my email. This message appeared in my in box

As we move towards fully living out our mission I hope we will be mindful of the exclusivity of messages about a particular God, Jesus, Christianity, praying, congregations, Sunday worship....etc. in our workplace. Understanding that many of our staff, members, and co-workers around the world, have different values and beliefs, and working hard to be an inclusive organization means it is not appropriate to discuss/articulate our own personal religious or spiritual beliefs in the workplace as it makes others feel uncomfortable, disrespect, or marginalized. Over the past 100 plus years we have become a global organization and our foremothers who started the Young Women's Christian Association, would recognize the legal and ethical reasons we now separate "church and state/workplace". --LH

It had been sent in response to the following email

YWCASubject: RE:
I worked for a small local congregation where we modified the song slightlyÂ…

Red and Yellow, Brown, Black and White Â….

It fits the melody very nicely. There was a sizeable Mexican & Mexican-American representation. The little guys in my Sunday school class thought it was a pretty cool revision. It made me think having grown up singing the original version.

We can so easily make someone feel overlooked even with the best intensions in mind. I am thankful for grace (capacity to accommodate and/or forgive people). I know I need to both give and receive it daily.

Thanks,

T

I have long endured subtle religious bias from this liberal organization. Frequently, they send emails out and have programs encouraging us to contact political leaders on causes that I feel are in conflict with my values, for example, they wanted us all to contact state legislators to urge them not to enact legislation that would mandate abstinence education because they believe birth control and pro-choice are the way to go. I am left wondering what Mrs. Menninger would say today of this organization. We are bound to this group because of how the bequest was made. I write the checks but they have to sign them and have oversight of us. The email senoriginallyly didn't seem all that religious in nature. Have we proceeded so far that to even mention that we are affiliated with a church or are a Christian is offensive. I bet not. The response email was written by the woman who runs the batterewoman'sns program at the YWCA. Her father is the district attorney and she was appointed to sit on the city council for a while to fill vacancycy but she was not elected to the seat when she ran for it later. She lost mainly because she endorsed a proposal to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. This would have applied to all jobs, housing attitudes etc. I think it was mostly a reaction to the Phelps family and the public was overwhelmingly against it. I am not sure how to respond to these emails, or even if there is a response. I want to be salt but I also don't want to offend. I fall back on the verse in Romans that says we are more than conquerors. At timelikeke these when it seems that the anti-Christian movement is gaining ground, I can take comfort from the knowledge that we rest on the side of victory. We may lose an earthly battle but the Lord has won the eternal war.

Everything I Needed to Know I learned From Sports

I read Agapepress.org 's daily email news. It is from the American Family Association in Mississippi and relates the news that is sometimes quickly passed over by the networks because it has religious significance. One of their columnists writes about sports. Not sports news just character lessons from sports. I think his regular job is at a paper in Mississippi on the sports section. As I read the column http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/192006bl.asp I was reminded that good sportsmanship is good living all the way around. Communication, attitude, teamwork, selflessness, endurance, perserverance, giving it your all are all Godly ways to live. The apostle Paul likens the Christian walk to a race and that is apt but I think team sports are just as effective an analogy. We live on a planet where we have to live with people. It is human nature to want the glory for ourselves, it is a poor athlete who hogs the glory from his team. Not one person on the superbowl teams could have one the game by himself. Even the game winning player has several hundred people to credit...parents, teammates, competition, coaches, wives, siblings, etc. It's been said behind every good man is a good woman and I believe behind every good person is a host of good people. As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another and without people to challenge us in practice, or anyplace we cannot improve. The article talks about the disrespect that Barry Bonds shows for the game and his team by not even attempting to run out the pop up and I cheered. The Christian life is like that. If we choose not to fight against the evil in our world and the apathy in our hearts, churches and communities we are doing a great disservice to the Lord and to ourselves, families and congregations. Everytime I read Brad Locke's column I am struck by how right on the mark he is. Sports are fun and relaxing but we also can learn from them. Or we should apply our faith to our sports. Play with everything you've got to bring the glory to God.

The Phone Rang

Ever since my mother called me at 2 am to tell me my father had died of a sudden heart attack , I have an entirely reasonable trepidation when the phone rings at odd times. This doesn't just mean late at night or early in the morning although that is when I am freaked the most. Whenever my mother-in-law calls during the day it sends streaks of unease through my stomach. Usually it is unwarranted but the call we received a week ago justified the queasy feeling. Her sister had been rushed to the hospital and they had discovered that her cancer treatments hadn't prevented the growth of a tumor which was cutting off the supply of blood returning to the heart. She was taken off life support about 24 hours later and died 17 minutes after that.

I had been expecting it about Shan's grandfather, I don't know how many times we've been told that he is a short timer. Last summer when his thyroid had shut down and he had cancer they were beginning radiation for, the word was, he probably wouldn't make it to Thanksgiving. I am not sure if that was a pronouncement from the doctor or if the family is making guesses. Since he is still here I would bet it was the latter.

Don't we all dread that phone call? Come to think of it, most calls after 10-10:30 and before 7 am are usually bad news. In college it meant that my alcoholic roommate was drunk and needed a ride. Of course that was after she temporarily lost her driver's license for driving drunk. She still drove to the bars but she called me for a ride home. Since I don't drink and my boyfriend lived 3 hours away she figured I'd be home and sober. I was, usually in bed so I could get up for church.

More recently we get early calls from people who read the newspaper early and want to buy whichever item we've got listed. Since our paper will let you place a free ad for items less than $75 it is better than a garage sale. I am usually sleeping at 6 am but people forget the niceties when there is a deal on something. Right now I need to list the old microwave, ( finally the new one is here and installed), a headboard from my grandmother's house, and a patio set since I got a new one for Mother's day. Better get ready for the early phone calls.

Bear is Back

Yesterday at naptime we couldn't find Je's bear. I looked high and low and it was nowhere to be found. I didn't want to delay nap to keep searching the girls rooms so I gave her a doll and told her to try to sleep. When Shan got home he said he hadn't found it last night when he'd looked either. I started to panic. Seriously. I couldn't imagine where he was and I kept picturing the "lovey fight" in the backseat of the car with open windows and bear sailing out of the car on 21st Street and me not noticing. It had been over 24 hours since that happened and I figured that if we lost bear then it might not be found. I really couldn't believe that Bear could have gone out the window and Je or Jo wouldn't have screamed but I had just yelled at them to stop that because I was afraid it might happen. We got home from Mom and Brother-in-Law's birthday dinner and I resumed my search for Bear. I had a knot in my stomach just like when my engagement ring slipped off my finger on a frigid day when my hands shrunk last winter. I picked up the sleeping bag in Je room for the third time and shook it hard. Out dropped Bear. All is well with our world. Je and I did a happy dance. Losing Bear would have been worse than the ring. The ring was covered by insurance and was replaced. (The new one is better than the old one, even Shan thinks so because the old one was a marquis cut that had a pointy end which scratched him). I asked Je what we should do now and she thought we should tell God thank you since He helped us find Bear. We did and she went to sleep really fast. I did too, over and over again b/c I could then sleep better.

BTW if you get a chance check out Evolution of Dance at You Tube. It cracked me up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeIWkK0t4s

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

My microwave is getting old. It is very weak, 625 Watts so it cooks slow and it is black when the rest of the appliances are white. I keep waiting for it to stop working. We bought it used when we moved into this house because the kitchen is spacious but no really good spot on the counter for a microwave. We found a microhood in the paper for $75 because some older gentleman's second wife didn't like the all newish appliances that the first wife had picked out before her death. So with our Christmas money we (finally!!!!) went out and bought a new one. Shan spent the morning installing it after removing the old one. (Not as easy as it sounded, apparently). I put the girls leftover mexican rice in the microwave, pushed the 1 minute button to heat it up and watched as the rice rotated in the new oven. (This is a novelty, the old one didn't rotate.) I opened up the door after the beep and touched the rice. It seemed warmer but not warm enough so I pushed the button for another minute. After that it didn't seem any warmer. We tried some other settings but the rice remained room temperature. ARGHHHHHHHHHH! I called the handy dandy 800 number to get product assistance. After pushing several buttons to get to a live body the guy tells me that he can't diagnois the problem over the phone but he could call an appliance repairman and have them call me to set up a repair, but don't worry it will definitely be covered by the warranty. DARN TOOTIN IT'LL BE COVERED!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BRAND NEW!!!!!! I only thought that I was nice to the phone guy but seriously. I do not want to wait until Tuesday to have a repairman come to fix the microwave that should have worked in the first place. With much wheedling, rational arguments made and a phone call to a higher authority, (my mother) I convinced Shan that the microwave had to go back to the store and a new one secured in its place. To be fair, it was Shan's idea to call my mom, he thought that if she thought we should take it back rather than get it repaired then that was probably the right thing . He was just trying to avoid having to take it down and put another one up. He also HATES to return anything to any store. So when he gets back from lawn mowing he will take down the old one, I will go trade it and he will put it up. Lowes is open until 10 so I am willing to be patient as long and I know it is going to happen.