Miscellany Monday, March 16, 2015: Ansley, Internet and a Shoulder

Jas and I were blessed to be able to attend a couples shower Saturday night, for our precious Ansley. 

Our first babysitter.

Our only babysitter for years.

She has gone and grown up and is getting married.

But Mark is a great guy.  He’d have to be for Ansley to like/love him.  

I got the lowdown on their engagement and some details that I hadn’t heard before about how they’ve handled their relationship up until this point.  I want Ansley to write it all down and do a guest post for me (hint hint).  I want my children to hear all of it!

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Up until recently we didn’t have a great station that played Christian music here in our area.  We did have a Christian station, but it didn’t always come in good, and it has quite a few talk shows on it.   So, up until now we just listened to our own CDs or episodes of Adventures in Odyssey while driving in the van (we don’t have a DVD player in the Silver Bullet…and no, we don’t want one (someone offered us one recently when they found out – aghast – that we don’t have one)). 

But now – woohoo! – we have a great radio station that plays Contemporary Christian music!

The children and I have been loving it!  Almost every song that comes on we say, “Oh, I love this song!” 

We are loving getting to listen to old favorites, like “If you want to steal my show”

by Toby Mac.

And I’ve gotten to introduce my kiddos to some old (OLD) favorites of mine, like “Stomp” by Kirk Franklin.

And we’re getting to hear newer songs, that we have just been missing out on since we now live out in the country (and have HORRIBLE internet) and can’t stream music all day long like we did in town.  One of our new favorites is “He knows my name” by Francesca Battestelli.

But it has led to some confusion for our younger crowd, namely G-man.  He still doesn’t understand that I don’t control what is playing and when.  When he loves a song he will call out when it has finished, “Mama, play it again!” 

Speaking of bad internet….

 maybe…

perhaps…

our days of horrible internet are numbered.

Being “way out here” in the country our only option henceforth has been satellite DSL.  That means…if it is raining, or heaven forbid – there are CLOUDS in the sky….we have no internet.

And even when we DO have an internet connection, the data limit is so incredibly (and I mean outrageously) low that for most of the month our (spotty) internet is running at dial-up speed.

This is such a first world problem.

And yet…it affects our lives in so many ways that it boggles. my. mind. 

One of the ways is affects us is with our schooling.  I really think I would make some curriculum changes in some of our subjects if doing some online courses were an option. 

But, we’ve had some “movement” on this issue.  An engineer was out here last week and called Jas at work to confirm he was at the correct house assessing the issue.   “You’re only .3 miles away from the junction box.”  (meaning: the last customers that DO have good internet!).  Ummm, yes....WE know!!!! 

But, we’re hopeful that we will soon once again join the 21^st century.

It looks like Jas will be having shoulder surgery soon.  Sooner rather than later anyway.

He hurt his shoulder years ago, throwing the ball for the children.  We know exactly when he did it….he knew right away he’d done something terrible wrong.  It has been almost exactly five years ago now.  He had physical therapy on it, and it felt some better.  But it has nagged at him ever since.

Now lately his neck has been really bothering him.  On the same side.  

Turns out, the neck is due to the shoulder problem.  

And it turns out the shoulder problem is actually torn cartilage.  

And it turns out - if he wants to actually fix it - he will need to have surgery.

He has an MRI today to fully check it out.

Ever since the children found out about the impending surgery, Noah has prayed for him at every opportunity, that Jas wouldn't be nervous, because Noah "knows what it feels like to be nervous about surgery." (so sweet)