The Goose is Loose: Adventures of a Sleep Talker

I have a secret, I am a finicky sleeper. I have several conditions required for a good nights rest. The room should be completely dark and quiet. To create this effect we have industrial strength shades. I love to be covered up by soft sheets and fluffy blankets but the room must be cool. This is one of the reasons that I like a fan blowing. Reason number two is it drowns out any sounds that go bump in the night. All the doors should be closed not cracked. This rule especially includes the closet doors. I still believe there is a chance that the boogie man might jump out and get me.

To add to the already lengthy list, I happen to be a side sleeper, too. It doesn't matter which side, I don't discriminate. Pillows are a must. Specifically, I need three. Two should be lined up against the wall in a straight line just in case that I decide to flip from my left side to my right side in the middle of the night. The third one is my security pillow. I hold onto this pillow like there is no tomorrow. I am quite sure that if the boogie man did visit and tried to steal my pillow, the fight would be on!

As you can imagine, when something in this equation changes, I wake up! Enter my husband. During the first months of our marriage, I found out that Bryce was a sleep talker. He doesn't just say a few words then drift back into his dream. Oh no, he can have a full conversation while visiting cloud 9. The first time it happened, I was clueless. I was woken up in the middle of the night and had no idea what was happening. All I knew was that I heard my husband crying out....

"The goose is loose," my slumbering husband exclaims!

Startled by the noise, I sat up and looked around. "Bryce, are you okay?"

"The goose is loose!" Huh? What!? We had pets but the last time I checked we did not have a goose nor did we know anyone who did. I made my way through the mountain of warm blankets. I put my hand on my hubby's back to comfort and check on him.

"The goose is loose," He repeated.


"What goose?" I asked. There was no answer so I proceeded with the investigation.

"Why is the goose loose?" I questioned.

"I dunno" He mumbled.

"Who let the goose loose?"

"I dunno" He mumbled again.

"Did you let the goose loose?"


Bryce knew the answer to this question, it was emphatically "No."


I should note that early in our relationship, we had two different pets. Larry was a dalmatian that Bryce had before we got married. He was named after the great, Larry Bird. Without a question, he was Bryce's dog. To this day, I don't think that Larry liked me. He tried to run away a lot, eventually he succeeded.

Shadow was a sweet grey cat. She was a surprise that Bryce brought home. It was understood that she was my cat. She was cute, but Shadow had a small problem with the litter box, she didn't use it! That did not go over well with the Johnson household. Anyways, it is time to get back to the story. I was determined to get to the bottom of the goose situation so I decided to try a different tactic.

"Did Larry let the goose loose?"

"No," Bryce answered confidently.


"Did Shadow let the goose loose?" I continued.


"Maybe" He answered.


"Did I let the goose loose?"


"Hmmmm"


"I let the goose out?"


"Hmmmm, Maybe."


"What! Why did I let the goose out?"


"I dunno." Bryce proclaimed. I could tell that he was starting to get annoyed with this little interrogation because less than a minute later he announced that "He was done talking". He rolled over and nestled back to his side of the bed.


What in the world!? What had I done to be accused of letting the goose loose? A flood of insecurities rushed into my mind. Is there a secret meaning to this dream? Was I not a good wife? Did I forget to iron his favorite shirt? Did my lack of cooking skills finally catch up with me? I must have made spaghetti one too many times for dinner. I knew that it must have been bad. Not only was I being charged with letting the goose loose, my cat was being accused too! 

The next morning, I told him about it. Bryce had no recollection of the conversation at all. He didn't even remember his dream so he claims. I think that he may have decided it was better to plead the 5th. After 7 years of marriage, I have not heard about the goose again. It will always be an unsolved mystery. This was the first adventure with my sleep talker but it definitely was not the last....

Disclaimer:

No husbands, wives, pets or geese were harmed as a result of this incident. At least to my knowledge!

Disappointment

Disappointment happens all the time. You didn't get the grade you wanted on test, your parents went through a divorce, you didn't get in the college you wanted, the promotion that you thought you were getting did not happen. A relationship ended, your kids break the rules, someone you love is gone. I went through some hard times a couple of years ago. I felt disappointed with what God had placed in my life. It became hard not to ask, why me God? Why didn't you protect me from this? I have tried my the best, why is something that I never thought could happen, happening to me, Lord? As I was searching and crying out for answers, these two quotes came up in a devotion. They were so good that they made it to refrigerator decoration status.

"God may deny our request but He will never disappointment our trust"

"Thank God for your disappointment, celebrate His grace and love, know that He will never leave you and will bless you from above."

Avoiding some sort of disappointment in life is nearly impossible.We may not like the way something in our lives is unfolding. Maybe you feel like God let you down because you have prayed and hoped for something. The truth is that your expectation was in something or someone other than God. I have learned that even when things are down and out, it is not God that disappoints.

You know what is right for your family and your situations, right? It is easy to lose sight.The reality is that God is the only one who knows. He knows all the desires of our hearts and He knows which desires are best for us and which one are not. He knows more about us that we can ever comprehend.

"For if we died with Him, We shall live with Him, If we endure, We shall reign with Him, If we deny Him, He will also deny us, If we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself." 2nd Timothy 2:11-13

Weather we choose to claim this truth or not, God is going to be faithful. He allows for us to have free will but He will still be there in the midst of our choices. When I am not faithful, He will be. I understand that there will be days when it is hard. On those days, remind yourself that God does not disappoint. He will always be there to lift you up.

Yo

There are not a lot of good commercials anymore. Luckily, we live in world where DVR allow us to pause and skip all the annoyingly bad commercials. Every now and then there are still a few that are noteworthy. Personally, I like the new VW commercials and I think the Gieco commercials are awesomely funny. I can't believe that I am about to say this but I would highly recommend watching ESPN for the commercials. 

That being said, yesterday, Bryce and I were to pretending to act like "gangstas". Don't ask what sparked this silliness, however, I am pretty sure that we sounded more like "wangsta's".  As we were "pounding it" and saying things like "Yo, Hommie",  we were reminded of  a  fun commercial with Yao Ming several years ago. 

An oldie but a goodie! I remember laughing every time I saw it on TV. What are some of your favorite commercials? 

The Things They Say

Maxwell, my special student, brought in a Hannah Montana CD for "Free Time Friday". Sounds harmless, Right? That is what I thought. It had been a couple weeks since the last proposal, maybe he had moved on, maybe he was realizing that it just was not meant to be. I was completely wrong. Here is the scenario:

"Guess what I have?" Maxwell said, as he quickly flashes a CD from his book bag.

"Hmmm, did you bring something for free time?"

"Yes, can you guess what it is?"

"Hmmm, is it a UVA football?"

Maxwell is a big UVA fan, so his face lit up when I mentioned his team.

"No," he responded.

"Is it a new sudoku puzzle?"

"Nooooo," Maxwell said.

"Okay, I give up, Maxwell, what did you bring?"

"It's a Hannah Montana CD," he exclaimed!

"Wow, that is way too cool! What a great idea! I can't wait to listen to it. Can I see the CD?"

He handed me the CD and I open it up. First, I read the song titles and the messages. Then, I checked out the pictures. I have never seen a Hannah Montana CD before, so I noticed that one side had pictures of Hannah Montana and the other side had pictures of Miley Cyrus. Apparently, I am out date on the wonderful world of teen pop so I started to ask questions.

" Now, I know that this is Hannah Montana. Who is this?"

With much anticipation, Maxwell explained that it was Miley Ray Cyrus.

"Oh, that's neat. Thanks for sharing it with me."

At this point, most of the class had joined into the conversation. Even Mrs. Manning, my super wonderful assistant chimed in.

"Hannah Montana is a very cute girl."

Matthew blushes. Then turns to me and says:

"Mrs. J, I think that you look like Hannah Montana."

Please, try and contain yourselves from laughing too hard.

"Well, Maxwell, I am quite a bit older than Hannah Montana but thank you very much. That is so nice," I said.

I couldn't resist smiling, wouldn't you? Anyways, Maxwell began to feed off of this comment.

He held up Hannah Montana's picture. "Your hair looks like Hannah Montana's"

I showed him that my hair is brown and I pointed to some pictures, then explained that my hair looked more like Miley's hair. I don't know why I said this but at the time it seemed to make complete sense.

"Your right, It does look more like Miley Rays's hair," He agrees.

Since this conversation, Maxwell, has started referring to me as Miley Ray. No lie, when I walk by him in the classroom, I hear things like "Hi Miley Ray", "Will you help me, Miley Ray", "What did you do last night, Miley Ray?"Miley Ray is so pretty", "She is my girlfriend", and "I love you, Miley Ray." Maybe I am just reading these signals wrong. Personally, I like that theory. There is only one flaw with it. When he says these things, Maxwell looks directly at me while smiling and giggling.

Ultimately, I think it is important to recognize that there are positives to this new association. When Maxwell tells all the principals that he loves Miley Ray Cryus and that he is planning to marry her one day, they don't directly associate that with me! I think that merits a sigh of relief, for now!

Side note:

Has anyone noticed that it is impossible to talk about Hannah Montana or Miley Ray Cryus, without saying their whole names!? Does this seem slightly annoying to anyone else?

Don't Stop Believing

In case that you have not figured out from my profile picture, I should mention that we are baseball fans. Specifically, we are Red Sox fans. Boston fans are the best fans you will ever meet. We are not your typical fare weather fans, ether. We supported the Sox through the all highs and lows. Trust me if you know anything about the Sox, there were many years of lows. It would take hours, maybe even days to even properly explain all that we have been through.

Have you ever seen the movie "Fever Pitch"? Well, that pretty much sums up our story minus some of the extremes.  Bryce's dad took his family to Fenway Park when he was a kid. Needless to say that is all it took for him to be hooked. Secretly, I think it was requirement to a become Red sox fan to marry Him. I am pretty sure that it could have been the deal breaker! 

Anyways, It has certainly been an exciting ride. Even after many years of disappointments and heart-wrenching games with the evil empire, we kept the faith, we cowboyed up and we hung with the idiots! We witnessed the greatest come back ever! In 2004 and 2007,  we celebrated with the champs!  With all of that being said the sox will always hold a special place in our hearts. As Boston fights for the ALCS in game 6 and hopefully game 7, I think Journey's songs says it best, "Don't Stop Believing".

Here are some of our favorite highlights with the sox. 

Bryce is extremely excited about the amazing 7, 8, and 9th innings of Game 5 against the Rays! Like I said, we will never give up!

The Costco Way

The Johnson family has an addiction. I do not know that I can adequately describe the extensive amount of time that we spend feeding this addiction. This addiction not only includes us but the entire Johnson family. Bryce's parents, Billy and Frances are addicted. Bryce's brother, Chad is addicted. His girlfriend, Kim, is addicted and they live in Georgia. I have heard that the first step in facing an addiction is admitting it. So here it goes..... 

We are all addicted to Costco! 

Some of our first dates were at Costco with the Johnson Family. It is just too hard for a girl to resist a hot dog and a very berry sundae. That is just the beginning,at lunch and dinner time they give your free samples of new foods! Who can beat being able to buy enough toilet paper to take care of a couple of small armies. Let's recap,free food, toilet paper and a hot dog. All this in one shopping trip, Oh boy! Plus, you can't forget that each month, they send out coupons with even more discounts. That is just the icing on the cake.  

We happen to love Costco so much that we own the " Costco Way" cookbook. Conveniently, the recipes include items that you can only get at Costco. It is good thing that we shop there a lot. This weekend we made one of favorite recipes from the cookbook, Barbecue Chicken Pizza Bagels. As you can see this is a yummy treat! It would be great for a movie night, community group/bible study or the big game night. 

Here is the recipe: 

2 ounces of chicken breast meat (you can cook it or use canned chicken)

Sliced Bagels

Barbecue sauce

Cilantro

Green onions

Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Get the cookie sheet ready, spray it with some veggie oil. Place the bagel sliced side up. Spread a good amount of BBQ sauce on the bagel. Put the chicken on top of the sauce. Sprinkle lots of shredded mozzarella cheese on top. Bake for 10 minutes. In the meantime, chop up the green onions and cilantro. After cheese is melted and the bagel looks crisp, sprinkle green onions and cilantro to finish the recipe off.  

I would love to know what you think of this delicious recipe!

Watch Out Obama

There is a new presidential candidate in town. It might just be someone that you know. This is one campaign story that you will not want to miss. You will be in for a little surprise.

Just copy and paste the link. Then tell me what you think....

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=46832&altf=Cspplf1boe1Cszdf&altl=Kpiotpo

It is obvious that the "Mystery" candidate is creeping up from the bottom of the polls! Who will you be voting for?