10 foot Titans in a 6 foot world

Do you remember when you grew into the adult sized body that you have now? Ever since I can remember, I thought I was huge- like Jolly Green Giant type huge. I walk loudly, I make noise in the kitchen, I slam the door- like someone who isn't aware of their own strength even today. I remember many many times that my folks would tell me not to walk so heavily or not to tear off the door to the car. Along with this feeling of being 10 feet tall in a 6 foot world, comes the gawkiness of banging into things. I have a nearly constant bruise on either a hip or an ankle- often times both.

I cannot begin to tell you the number of stitches I have had-and three sets that I remember right off the top of my head occured doing dishes where I caught a knife or shattered a cup and then picked it up like a rocket scientist. This week my graceful moves included running over my debit card in a drive thru and pouring boiling water into a plastic jug in an attempt to make tea. This last feat involved watching as the tea bags leapt for their lives out of the top of the pitcher and the bottom of the pitcher imitated a rogue Shrinky Dink: becoming smaller by the second and scaring the wits out of me. I only regret not having it on video because I was genuinely shocked that it didn't work out. It is unfortunately a familial trait.

Bear went through a time where she was always bumping something - or worse, dropping a glass in the kitchen. Honestly, I have gone through 18 glasses that were purchased as a wedding present 51/2 years ago- not all of them were Bear, but the majority were. My friend Mary bought me some glasses when Justin moved out - only one brave one remains - and that one is in my bathroom for my vitamins. Just call us Grace.

Joshua has broken a camera, an ipod, an video recorder and numerous other devices in his possession and he cannot say exactly how. Twice he has WALKED on his guitars, requiring costly repairs. This could be carelessness, but it is actually just a symptom of our BIGGER problem.

Jake is in that phase now- where he has grown nearly 7 inches in the past 12 months and he just can't seem to get his spacial perception to match where his body actually is located. We went to the movies tonight and he refilled the popcorn for our drive home. He set it on the counter and when he went to pick it up - it went flying - with most of it landing in the bucket- but a healthy shower of it decorated the floor. The man at Venture was very kind about getting it swept up for us. And if that wasn't enough, when we went to get in the car, he again held the bucket and somehow half of it dumped onto my floorboards - it was too dark to get it cleaned up, so there it will stay until morning. That will be an interesting smell in the morning.

I went to lunch with a friend today and mentioned that I would love to have stone walls- and while they are beautiful, they might be good for us! I have patches in the wall on the way down the stairs from where I turned to quickly and put my elbow through it- another two upstairs where I opened the door too hard and slammed the knob into the door behind it- and my personal favorite: the cutaway shelf that now exists in the hallway where I tripped and put my shoulder through the wall- and fearing it was too big to patch, I just made it into a shelf. If you look closely enough, you'll see some oddities in this house- and most of them are from the Titans banging into the walls....