Frau Pepper

Frau:In German, (literally 'woman' or 'Mrs.') traditionally used as a title for married women.  

Monday night our family had an absolute meltdown at family camp. I mean, every dang person in the family ended up in tears. Well, except for Stella, the toddler, who kept wandering between us saying 'why you sad?' 

It was really just the result of too many late nights for the kids and bad parenting on my part. Or it could have been God's preordained plan for prep for Tuesday morning - ya know, either or. 

Oh, look. Fake smiles. 

So, bright and early the next morning we had a family sit down and asked each other for forgiveness and thanked God for a new day and new chances.  The kids headed to their activities and we headed to ours. This week, in the mornings, the adults have had the privilege of listening to Alex Himaya, a pastor out of Oklahoma. 

I've never seen the movie Oklahoma. Embarrassing, huh?

Tuesday morning his talk was on forgiveness...So, pretty good timing all in all. It made me, who was already feeling emotionally a bit raw, feel even more vulnerable, in a good way. 

If there can be a good way to feel vulnerable - a feeling I absolutely abhor.

As I was taking notes something kind of funny happened. To distract myself from what Alex was saying, which is what I do when people try to make me 'feel' something (I know, I know, I'm really amazing aren't I?!) I typed into my notes:

I'd like a Dr Pepper. 

Except I must have flubbed up the typing of 'Dr' because when I looked down it said:

'I'd like a Frau Pepper.'

And then I got this image in my head of a sweet old German grandmother with an apron on who wanted to be all huggy and comforty and it made me giggly and weepy at the same time. 

I mean, who wouldn't want a Frau Pepper? I'd love a Frau Pepper! We all need a Frau Pepper!

Sigh...

The good news is that the family was able to rebound -  with the help of Jesus, Alex Himaya and Frau Pepper - kind of in that order. 

We actually had a fantastic day yesterday and ended up seeing a guy just like this:

It's a stinking otter! I've never seen one in the wild but I'm loving it! Apparently, they are pretty prolific here on Lake Taneycomo due to the crazy cold water from the dam. A lot of people don't like them because they break into people coolers and steal their food from their boats and just generally cause trouble. But come on! How cute is that thing?! 

Hey! Wait just a minute! Maybe they just want a Frau Pepper too! Maybe that's why they break into coolers! Maybe they have bad parenting nights and preachers who make them too introspective to! 

We all just want a little love from Frau Pepper. Is it really too much to ask?