Tickin Away

Merciful heavens. 

February to May...my poor habit tracker has had a blank spot in the blog category for wayyyyy too long! In my defense, I have been quite busy. But then again, we've had a stupid stay at home order for a couple of months now so you'd think I'd have had a chance to blog somewhere in there. Poor blog. So neglected. 

Well, I've been very quiet about the junk that's going on in the universe right now. This whole sickness thing has been so overblown, in my opinion, but that doesn't fit the fear narrative and everyone poo-poos on people who don't go along with it, so I've kept my opinions to myself. It's really driving me nuts though...I'm ready to go back to living. 

Well, after my foot goes back to normal that is....I had foot surgery to remove a cyst that decided randomly to show up a few months ago and has been causing pain and making it difficult to wear shoes. It's enough to make me realize I'm not going to be good at getting old. I've been off it for a week and trying to stay off it like I'm supposed to when there's so much to do....totally difficult.

Mom and Dad came up to visit this week, they wanted to help me get some stuff done so I'd stay off my foot but I had a really hard time sitting down and watching them work...it's not my style. LOL. It was really good to have them up though...quarantine made it a really long time in between visits.

One of these days I'll get around to doing before and after pictures of our house, but since everything virtually shut down right about the time we were able to move into our house, we've been unable to get things finished and buy furniture and stuff like we would normally have been able to do. We've been working on what we can though...there are still things to paint (like half the kitchen cabinets), and still things that need to be fixed (like the water damage in the basement from the flood that happened right after we moved in), but we're chipping away little by little.

The inside is coming along, but what I'm really excited about my secret garden...well, it'll stay secret as long as KC doesn't read this....hahahaha. I'm pretty sure he doesn't, so I should be safe. I don't have a garden plot ready for this year, but I really wanted some edible things growing, so I'm using the centers of some of the flower beds for my garden and planting tall flowers around the outsides to hide the garden in the middle. LOL. I also have a not so secret garden area in the back...it was all weeds, and no one sees it, so I weeded it out and planted all edibles in those...I'm so excited. The top section is lily of the valley...they are really pretty and weren't super weedy, so I left them alone!

We have a lot of property to maintain, which is awesome and also a lot of work. I think it will be more manageable after we get all of the years of neglect caught up, but getting there is tough. Especially when you have a gimpy foot that is holding you back from all the things you want to do!

Patience

A virtue of which I am evidently lacking. Otherwise, I don’t think mine would be tested quite this often.

Life in the basement is getting to me. Actually, it’s not the basement at all. It’s the under 18 people that occupy said basement with me. This basement isn’t big enough for that. I don’t know how previous generations survived to adulthood living in much smaller houses with much larger families. Seriously!

Anyway, KC told me to find a hobby, so I’ve dragged out and re-subscribed to the ol Photoshop, and today I was blissfully engaged in redesigning a friend’s blog for practice. Oh my goodness. SO FUN! Made me want to redesign mine even though I like how it is now. HAHA. At the very least though, I’ve got to get back to blogging. I put it back on my habit tracker in my bullet journal in hopes that it will inspire me to do it more often. LOL.

I like how my long abandonment has led to zero site traffic here. I am way more comfortable spilling my guts. Okay, not entirely. My personality doesn’t allow me to be entirely comfortable with that. Hahah.

I’ll wrap up this post with a Thursday Thirteen, I haven’t done one of THOSE in forever!

Thirteen Current Things:
1. Praying for: a house
2. Listening to: the dog breathing, my in-laws conversing upstairs (can’t hear the conversation, just the murmur of voices), K-man’s music from the back corner of the basement (again, can’t hear clearly, just enough to be annoying – like everything he does these days)
3. Reading: Misleading Miss Verity by Carolyn Miller
4. Eating: too much junk food (I’m definitely eating my feelings…I should probably add that to the things I need to pray about)
5. Working on: A Little Bit of Insulin
6. Missing: the hubby (he’s traveling for work *sigh*)
7. Wishing for: a bigger kitchen
8. Needing: A bigger house (see a theme?)
9. Singing: Blessings by Laura Story
10. Digging: my amazing hair products that knock shampoo days down to 2-3 times a week (usually 2…I LOVE IT)
11. Watching: realtor.com like it’s the hottest reality show…seriously…I check it like every 20 minutes. *eye roll* reality is, it’s more like watching paint dry than an exciting tv show, but I can’t stop myself. lol
12. Playing: Toy Blast and Scrabble
13. Need to Stop: worrying =)

So what’s on your list?

Happy January!

Oh my word, I was going to do so much better at the end of last year…I failed. Miserably.

We had a great Christmas break, spent our 15th anniversary in the hospital with KC’s mom (surgery, but she’s recovering well). We did get a moment to eat at Red Lobster (the one restaurant without a wait) sans kids before going to stay with his mom at the hospital. Gotta get those date moments in while you can, right? =)

I’m just thankful…we are so blessed. Things could always be worse. Like, the gunman who killed 5 in the baggage claim of the Ft. Lauderdale airport…if he had done that two months earlier, when my family of four was in that same baggage claim getting our stuff and preparing to take a cruise, things could have been a whole lot different in my story.

We also just watched the movie, Sully, and it made me realize how many times KC has flown from NYC to CLT in winter weather, safely. So many things we’ve been protected from, we’ll probably never know all of them. So I’ll just be grateful. For everything.

Even the snow that we got today. LOL It was so cold and my hands were in terrible pain at one point, but I’m thankful for a warm house.

And cardboard games. This one is sequence…a card/board game. Sounds funnier to call it a cardboard game though. Haha.

And last, but DEFINITELY not least, my super fun bullet journal…it’s like a journal, sketchbook, AND planner…all in one place. I am REALLY liking it. I’ve got to figure out a way to pare down on the pen collection though…I love colorful pens, but they’re taking up way too much real estate around here.

I’m nowhere near pro at this thing, but pinterest got me interested, and now that I’ve finally tried it, I’m totally hooked. You know all those times you make to-do lists and write things on them that are already done, just so you can check them off? Then you throw the list away? Well, now I have a place to put all those lists and instead of throwing them away, I can have them forever as a record of having done them. LOL. I know…I’m a little crazy. It’s okay.

Know why I’m blogging right now? Because I put it on my list in my bullet journal that I need to do it more often. So now I’m going to go check it off of today! *insert maniacal giggles*

Later!

Cleaning FRENZY!

So Tuesday, I took the day off to recuperate after Monday night’s late night of sealing the floor grout. Me (just me), a tiny paintbrush, and 180 square feet….twice. It’s a sad story.

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s day, so I won’t tell it.

But I will say I slept in on Tuesday and I didn’t feel one bit bad about it. Not even a teeny bit.

I also slept in on Wednesday, but that was because it was my last Wednesday before my school starts back and I’ll have to be in class by 8 the rest of the semester, but anyway.

So my mother-in-law returned yesterday and helped me clean the living room from top to bottom. It’s not that it was THAT dirty, but little things like the pile of crumbs under the couch that never get picked up, the hairballs the cat left behind the couch that I couldn’t easily reach, the cat-sized fur shape matted on the curtains in all the places the cat likes to lay….all that little stuff that hides from daily cleaning got done yesterday. PLUS some. All the leather has been cleaned and conditioned, all the floor mopped, the windows washed, the curtains taken down/washed/ironed/rehung, every surface dusted….then we moved  into the kitchen and wiped, then polished, all the cabinets and table/chairs. Then we ran out of steam.

Actually, it would be more appropriate to say SHE ran out of steam because I ran out WAYYYY before we got the kitchen. But since I can’t sit and watch anyone work, even though they can run circles around me, I kept on going until she was ready to call it. LOL

That brings me up to the cleaning frenzy. Okay, yesterday was cleaning frenzy, too. We’ll call that part one…

Today was part two.

First, I slept in. No, I REALLY slept in. The weather was like artic chill last night, so school delayed two hours this morning an I didn’t have to wake up to put the kids on the bus, so that was awesome, plus, this is my last Thursday before my semester starts (HAHA), so I didn’t even feel bad about sleeping in again. (Tomorrow my semester starts, so goodbye, dear sleeping in)

Then I got the kids off to school and hit the kitchen. Evidently, the MIL left some of her steam here from the day before, because I was all whoopin up on that kitchen disaster.

I emptied all the pantry cabinets (they were the worst) and wiped them out and then returned ONLY the non-expired food back to the cabinet (after wiping all the dust off—yes, I probably should cook more often).

Here’s a photo of what it looks like when a pantry throws up in your kitchen: After I did all that, I kinda got crazy and re-organized most of the other cabinets, moving stuff around to make more sense. When we moved in, I put stuff where it fit, but I had bowls, serving dishes, pans, etc all spread out in different places…just where it fit. Now that I’ve used the kitchen for over a year, I know a little better how my brain works in this kitchen and I moved stuff to make more sense to how I use it. Hopefully more efficient and easier accessible.

Plus, I ditched a box full of stuff that I haven’t used in over a year. I know I *might* find a use for a tin with Gurgenshiem something or other written across it, but chances are, it’s a waste of cabinet space. Seriously. Ain’t nobody got time for dat.

So after I did all most of the cabinets, I removed every last thing off the counter…the pile of magazines, the 50 bottles of random medicines, the tray collecting random receipts and junk, the décor, EVERYTHING! Then I scrubbed the counters. And scrubbed them again.

Then I got sidetracked (hey, it happens) and moved to the fridge….there was lots of expired stuff and dirt in there, too. So it threw up on the now empty counters while I wiped it, sorted the contents, and then returned them to the now clean fridge/freezer. Then I had to wipe the counter and sinks again because the fridge stuff made them dirty.

But finally I was ready to return only the necessary items back to the counters. Would you believe the pile of necessary junk was a whole lot smaller than the pile of un-necessary junk? I didn’t think they were that cluttered, but obviously…

Well anyway. Here’s what a nice polished, organized (although you can’t really see most of that part), clean kitchen looks like:

Except there’s a couple of boxes of JUST expired things on the counter that I felt bad throwing away, so I left them there to use up tonight. And my celebratory Dr. Pepper and glass. And the small pile of things next to the door that came from the junk tray and need to be returned to the car….

Besides all that, it’s a lovely, uncluttered, kitchen. Way better than it was.

And it’s always lovely to run your hand down the counter-top and NOT encounter sticky masses or bread crumbs sticking to your hand from where the kids made lunch. (confession, it could have been from where I made lunch…but it’s more convenient—and also more likely—to blame the kids….lol)

After all that, I had to scramble to get supper (we had leftovers….go, me! cleaning out the fridge!) and get the kids off to TaeKwanDo.

Sometimes I hate being busy, but it sure makes time go faster. Not that I always want it to go faster, but sometimes it’s nice. Like this week, it’s nice. =)

Anyway, I’m wore slap out so it’s off to bed I go. Not to sleep…to veg. But I should sleep…because it’s back to the grind tomorrow! Ick. Yay! <---me being more positive. Like it? Bwahahahaha.

Told you I was tired. I’m stopping now. =)

Unpacking Time Again

Whew. Suitcase is going to be worn out by the end of this year. I took my first solo flight (solo, as in, flying with 150 strangers but no one I knew) last week. Yeah, I did it in spite of all the nerves. I drove myself to the airport in the big city, parked, rode the shuttle to the terminal, went through security, found my gate, boarded the plane, and rode five hours non-stop to San Diego. All by my lonesome self. Last Thursday. Go me.

Had an AWESOME trip. My bag is still awaiting my unpacking efforts, but at the moment I’m working on unloading all my pictures to my computer. Here’s one of my ride home. That was my lovely ride. Only the slightest bit bumpy. =)

I got back last night about 9:30 and got the kids and dogs and settled everybody back in. Nice to be back in business.

I got to see my aunt while I was out there, but unfortunately, I didn’t remember to get any good pictures of us, just this one of us on the tour bus with my phone. =(

I think I look a lot like this aunt…we both look very italian. My mom always said I looked more like her sister (I’m not sure what all origins but with a bit of indian ancestry) and my dad’s sister (italian) than I look like my mom and dad. LOL. Maybe someday I’ll find some pictures that show why she thought that. lol. Anyway, it was so fun to visit with her and tour San Diego. What a beautiful city! I’ve got lots of pics once I get them all sorted out.

Tomorrow I have Jury Duty, which is SO not nice business, but I’m hoping it’s short and sweet and I get dismissed. HOPEFULLY. I went to the library and got a big fat book, just in case—since I can’t have my electronics in the courtroom. BOO.

Anyway, after my beautiful relaxing weekend in San Diego, I’m feeling much more relaxed and back to my normal self (in case anyone picked up on my slight case of the blues in the last few posts), although physically, I’m still a little tired from the time change stuff and the long flight days.

Oh, and I finished re-doing my headphone cord with the awesome teal thread. They look so awesome…AND they match my sunglasses. Happy coincidences! =)

For anyone who wants a pair, I have tons of leftover thread, and I can fix you right up. For only a minimal fee. LOL. Actually, KC suggested I make a few sets and sell them…I should…for all the compliments/interest I get when I wear them. =) Hahaha.

Anyway, I’m off for tonight. Will hopefully return with pictures in a day or two. =)

Rewind…

Back to Christmas…before it turns into NEXT Christmas…

A few pictures:

Christmas Morning:

Christmas Afternoon:

And last, but certainly not least: Uncle R’s birthday:

KC’s mom decided Uncle R’s birthday this year should be celebrated in style disguise:

So she wrapped up all these little gag gifts for him. She almost couldn’t stop laughing long enough to explain the purpose of each “gift.” LOL. It was funny to watch! LOL

And he was an extremely good sport about it, too. LOL!

Merry Christmas

Here’s a really poor quality (and slightly crooked) picture of a portion of our Christmas card this year. I took it with my phone, which explains all of the above. LOL. But Merry Christmas to all. =) Hope everyone had a beautiful, peaceful holiday. =) We sure did.

If you didn’t get our card this year, here’s a blog-edited version of it:

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello and warmest holiday greetings from our family. We hope this note finds you and your families happy and well. Every year it seems that fewer and fewer folks take the time to connect or be together (outside of weddings and funerals). Although we know that Jesus may or may not have been born on December 25th, we can celebrate His birth, life, death, and salvation every day of the year. This is just a good time to stop and send some greetings and an update or two.

Our MUNCHKIN is in fourth grade this year, and K-MAN is in second. They are both reading like champs now, from our second grade Magic Tree House fan, to our fourth grade Warriors (among many others) enthusiast. Neither of them enjoys the homework, but they love their teachers and classes at school.

We sold our house on SOME STREET in July. Unfortunately, we were not able to find another house to purchase before our closing date, but God worked it out for us to find a temporary rental house for the interim between permanent housing. The housing market in OUR TOWN seemed to experience a boom this year, which is great if you’re selling, but made it difficult when the houses we wanted were being sold before we could get in an offer.

We were very grateful to finally find a house in September. It needed a lot of work, and frankly, it still needs quite a bit, but we were able to get a lot finished before moving in on October 31st. It’s kept us very busy in the last few months (hence the lateness of this annual card and update), but we’re finally feeling semi-settled again and looking forward to staying in this one for a good while.

All in all, it just doesn’t seem possible that another year has gone by so quickly. It feels like we blinked and 2013 disappeared. We have had a very busy year, and the old saying rings true: “Time flies when you’re having fun.” We’ve truly been blessed this year, and we hope that you have, too. We’d love to hear back from you, and please stop in anytime you’re in our area.

All our love,
KC, Faith, MUNCHKIN, & K-MAN

And sounds like we’re ready to head off to grab some lunch, so this is it for today! Have a WONDERFUL day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

For the first day in ages, I had nothing on my schedule and was able to come back home after taking the kids to school.  Thinking I would take advantage of the opportunity, I threw a load of clothes in the washing machine (don’t want to be a complete slacker, you know), and then put myself back to bed.  Wouldn’t you know my brain was wide open and I never fell asleep!  Ugh.  And I was so tired when I woke up this morning, too…I could have totally used the extra sleep. 

ANYWAY.  Happy Valentine’s Day.  This year, both kids were able to do a lot more of the valentine work themselves.  It was tough for me to let them cut crooked lines and write not-so-neatly, but I managed.  LOL.  I helped with the more complicated stuff (obviously Photoshop is out of Munchkin’s league, and curly mustaches are out of K-man’s cutting skill range) but they did a lot of it.  =) 

Munchkin’s were bookmarks, and K-man’s were mustache blow pops.  The tags I printed and he cut out: “I ‘mustache’ you to be my valentine.”  He thought that was SO funny.  I saw the idea for the mustaches on a sucker on Pinterest…it was so cute, and he has a thing for mustaches, so it was totally perfect.  And Munchkin is a bookworm, so hers was an appropriate theme for her, as well. 

I know it’s been a week since I blogged, I can’t say I haven’t had time to blog, because there’s been time even though I’ve been busy.  I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind, and while that “should” make it easier to blog, it just feels scattered and somewhat difficult to talk about, leaving me in the place to just keep postponing the blog. I know, I could just get on and post random scattered thoughts…after all, that is my normal modus operandi, but English class is killing me.  Not literally killing me, but now it’s taking me tons longer to write anything because I’m back in the habit of wording and rewording my sentences to be, at least slightly, more grammatically correct.  Ugh. 

In other happenings, KC’s grandma moved to an eternal address last week.  KC had this strong impression that he should go up and see her two weekends ago, so he did.  She wasn’t in the best of health, and she was almost 93, but she seem to be still holding steady. Then, four days after he got back, we got a call that she was gone.  So I’m really glad he had one last chance to go up and see her. From all the stories I’ve heard from her family, in addition to my own experience from the times I was around her…well, it’s hard to know what to say.  I guess I could say she had a wicked sense of humor, never passed up a confrontation, embraced her age as a medal of honor, and was a master storyteller.  I think those things are safely truthful without speaking ill of the dead.  I loved her because she was KC’s grandma, but I wasn’t terribly fond of the way I saw her treat her family. Nevertheless, without her, my darling, sweet, handsome hubby wouldn’t exist, and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful.  

KC’s mom had open heart surgery on Friday to repair her mitral valve, and she’s already home, which really shocked me, but is awesome.  Hopefully it’s an omen of a speedy recovery to follow. 

That’s about it for today.  It’s lunchtime, the laundry needs attention, and the dogs could use a bath, so it’s going to be a full afternoon and I need to get started.

Have a lovely (less wet-dog-smell-y) afternoon…and if perhaps you want to share my pain: find a dog, spritz it with water, then bury your face in it’s fur for a good whiff of my world.

Reflections Of A Scattered Mind

I have a new favorite game when the kids want to play a game.

I like it so much, that tonight I talked KC into playing it with me WITHOUT the kids. (LOL)  He was very accommodating, bless it. 

He’s actually been very accommodating all day…except for the parts of the day when he was doing his best to annoy me.  He’s really good at that, too, sometimes…

It’s usually on the days when I am craving chocolate and Dr. Pepper for reasons other than because I just happen to like chocolate and Dr. Pepper.  LOL…so I guess the being annoying probably isn’t really his fault.  =)  But I’m not telling HIM that.  ;-)

So something else I really love right now is this beautiful scarf that Aunt C made for me….it’s hard to tell in this picture (instagram is awesome but the quality is just not great) that the color of it is black and brown and white and grey.  (If you’re reading this, thank you again, Aunt C!! Love it and love you! =)

Speaking of Aunt C, here we are at California Dreaming in Greenville, SC last weekend.  Hindsight, I should have taken the picture before we left the restaurant and saved us from the harsh sunshadows, but it’s too late now.  Ah well. 

New topic: Today. I woke up at the usual before daylight time and showered because it’s Friday and I was supposed to have class.  They told us yesterday that it was going to be an early release day at lunchtime for my kids, because of weather, but I was still going to be able to get back in plenty of time, so I wasn’t worried.  So I get the kids all ready and we back out of the garage and I realize it’s sleeting.  Rut-roh…not good.  Get halfway to school and the phone rings that they’re cancelling and sending all the kids back home.  So I come home and check the college website and they’re still having class…grr.  So I get ready and then leave at 8:15 and call mom on the way to her house to see if she’s home because my kids are going to hang out there for an hour (okay, I didn’t tell her, I ASKED, but I was pretty sure she’d say okay, which is why I called on the way)…lol.  Mom is awesome like that.  =)  So I get there and prepare for a rushed drop off so I can head to school except between my house and moms, the school posted the announcement that classes after 9am were cancelled.  Grr again…but it’s not sleeting at mom’s so I decided to stay and visit for a few minutes since I didn’t have to go anywhere else.  Stayed there until about 9:45 when KC called and said it was so bad out that his plant had closed early and he was on his way home…that’s when Mom shooed the kids and me out the door because she didn’t want us to be out if it was beginning to get bad.  =)  She loves me like that…even when I forget to call her after I get home to tell her she can stop worrying because I made it and she has to text me to remind me that I forgot so I can remember and call then. 

Fast forward through the rest of the day because it was annoying.  I was SOO productive all week and working on projects and then the hubby and kids are home earlier than planned and we all ended up being lazybones all day.  Grrr. 

I don’t know where I was going with that whole story. 

So I’ll just skip to class, which is what I’m thinking about right now.  Wednesday’s class, the teacher talked about the purposes of writing, and I figured out the purpose of my blog.  It’s reflection…and reflection isn’t typically written for an audience (think journals) so it’s just me rambling down my thoughts/random happenings/whatever, and it doesn’t matter if no one else understands it, since it’s mostly for my own benefit anyway. 

Also, in class on Wednesday, the instructor killed me.  He was demonstrating the invention of a topic and thesis and illustrations and he used me for an example of how dancing can be dangerous.  One girl got jail time, one guy lost his career, and I died from dancing.  Kind of ironic. LOL  He apologized after class about my unfortunate demise, and I don’t hold it against him…I’m just hoping it’s not a sign of my future in the class!  LOL

Okay, enough rambling for a night.  I changed my colors again and very nearly added something to the blog description regarding reflections of a scattered mind, but then I decided it wouldn’t fit in the space (even though it fits quite well in actuality) so I left the description alone and just changed the colors to ones I LOVE.  =)

I haven’t had a Dr. Pepper in five days.  I was hoping we WOULDN’T be iced in tonight so we could go out for dinner and I could get a drink…alas, it wasn’t to be.  I am still craving. 

Ack.  I’m going to stop talking now.  See ya.

I Get To

Mom reminded me of this song, and I actually have thought about it several times over the last few weeks.  It’s not like my favorite song or anything (mostly because it’s more from a guy’s perspective) but the idea has hit home with me more than once lately. 

They used to make me go to church, clip-on tie, starchy shirt
I never heard the preachers words all scrunched down in that pew.
These days goin' to church is somethin' I don't have to do—I get to.

I used to have to hang with dad, wash his car and cut the grass,
It took all day and I hated that, till his heart attack last June.
These days helpin' dad is somethin’ I don't have to do—I get to.

I get to wake up early, I get to go to work
I get to make an honest living, put my hands down in the dirt
I get to hear grandma complain about all her little aches and pains
I get to rock my baby girl to sleep, spend my weekends coaching little league
There's a lot of things I don't have to do—I get to….

Obviously, I don’t do clip-on ties and starchy shirts, but I like that I get to go to church now a lot more than I used to.  Dad hasn’t had a heart attack (and hopefully won’t…I’m pretty sure plain ol’ exhaustion will get him first anyway), and we didn’t wash the car much when we were kids, but these days, helpin’ dad is something I GET to do…and I’m glad. 

That’s what I’ve been doing the last few days while I’ve been quiet.  =)  I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time to get on here.  But the to-do list (here AND at dad’s) is slowly getting checked off. 

Here we were putting up the last piece of soffits on the back of the house.  I don’t have before and after pictures, but I can tell you, the after is CRAZY better.  The before was rotting wood and holes every so often.  Dad had to repair the wood and then vinyl over it to clean up the look.  Amazing the difference! 

So I’ve been GETTING to get up early and go to work, and I don’t know that I’d call it making a living, since all my work is strictly volunteer, but my hands have definitely been in the dirt lately. I don’t have any grandma’s left living, but the hospice patient I visit is a grandma, and I get to hear about all her aches and pains.  My baby girl isn’t such a baby anymore, and I don’t coach little league, but the sum of it is, there’s a LOT of things that I don’t have to do…I GET to. 

And I’m thankful that I GET to. 

And now, it’s that time of day when I GET to go to bed.  =)  And I’m thankful for THAT, too.  LOL. 

Brain-Mush

Looks like I’ve gone to bed too many nights as a pumpkin…because this morning I woke up feeling like a vegetable. 

One that is well on its way to the rotten point. 

Must go to bed earlier.  I am blogging earlier today, but obviously, blogging wasn’t what was keeping me up late the last few nights.  Hahahaha. 

I’ve been working on a Shutterfly photo book of the Haiti trip and they were having a two-day sale that would have made the book totally affordable (since it’s stretching into like 47 pages and I haven’t been able to shrink it anymore and still be able to see the pictures well…lol).  SOOO…I was trying to finish it before the sale ended.  And…I failed.  But there will other sales…I’ll just finish working on the album in daylight hours and then hold the finished album until they have another (and hopefully even better) sale.  =) 

While we’re on the topic of Haiti, a recent message compared the trip we took down there to our pilgrimage on earth as Christians from another kingdom (heaven).  Something that stuck out to me was the way our actions reflect on our home country.  Going to Haiti, our behavior/lifestyles/attitudes determined what those we came in contact with thought about Americans.  Living in our communities (and also on mission trips), our behavior and lifestyles and attitudes will determine what people think about the Kingdom of God.

¹¹Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, ¹²Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12 NKJV)

There was a whole lot more to that comparison, but that’s just one of the things that stuck with me.  It seems like one of those things you kind of already know but sometimes it’s thought provoking when you come at it from a new angle. 

And that’s what’s been in my brain this week. That, along with a few weird dreams that I’ve since forgotten, and sheet-rock mud.  My parents bought a cute brick fixer-upper and are…er…fixing-upping it.  Starting with ripping out the entire 70’s brown and yellow, oddly-arranged kitchen all the way down to the studs, then adding more electrical outlets and putting up sheetrock.  New kitchen cabinets are supposed to be put in on Saturday, so they’ve been burning the midnight oil, too.  I’ve been over there helping dad a couple days while the kids were in school.  Yesterday we were slinging mud.  Neither of us are particularly good at it, except dad is good at slinging it, and I’m particular about leaving glopped amounts on the floor because it seems a little wasteful. So I kept digging in the tops of his dropped piles instead of getting more putty out of the bucket.  (Yeah, mom, this explanation is for you…it’s why there were piles of mud on the floor that had been half cleaned up…I would have used the whole piles, but the floor was dusty and I didn’t want to put that crud on the walls.  LOL)

Totally unrelated to the previous paragraph, I must make my weekly confession and say that I have consumed way too many delectable desserts, a couple of extra helpings when I really didn’t need them, and two 44oz. Dr. Peppers this week.  I walked once and burned 69 fat calories, but I’m pretty sure that’s at least 3000 calories short of what really needs burning right now.  =/  Oops.  If anyone happens to run across my self-control, please return it as soon as possible because I really, REALLY need it back.  LOL. 

In a very large nutshell, that is everything you probably didn’t need to know about my week. 

And now, I need to get back to work on my Shutterfly book before bedtime.  =) 

Back To It

Well, after all the craziness of Friday, we got to chill out and kick back for a great weekend away. 

Unfortunately, today was the day to get back. 

The kids (and parents, too) were sad to see the end of a perfect, relaxing weekend with cousins and aunts and uncles at their family's lake houses. Many thanks to our cousins for hosting us and for the fantastic time our family had...from the moment they picked us up at the dock until this moment when they delivered us and all our bags back to our car at the Marina this afternoon.

341 pictures to go through now....lol. I know what I'll be doing this week. Hahaha.

It was so much fun but tomorrow is back to normal and it’s getting late because I was looking through all those fun pictures of the weekend.  I am incredibly sore and aching because I’m old and having fun hurts worse than it used to, but it was great to be able to kick back and just have a great time.  Can’t wait to get those pictures up…I know I have at least one of the MONEY shots.  You know…the perfect catch at just the right moment…lol. 

I’ll be back hopefully tomorrow when I get a chance to go through and resize and all. 

Night. =)

Back in North Carolina

What a draining week.  A huge thank you to everyone who prayed and sent healing thoughts my way…honestly, it was the fastest disappearing sore throat I think I’ve ever had.  It started Friday evening and when I woke up on Saturday morning after a long night of not being able to sleep because of not feeling good, my throat was swollen and I was exhausted.  I took advil and tylenol with me and got on the road with mom and dad about 7:30, and by the time we got to Virginia, my throat had already started feeling better and by the end of the day, it was only mildly swollen and a little hard to swallow but not nearly as painful as the usual sore throat.  Usually it’s at least a 2-3 day thing when my throat hurts like that, but this time it was only about 24 hours.  Thank God. 

Anyway, I rode up with mom and dad on Saturday and then KC flew up on Monday evening and I flew home with him on Wednesday night after the funeral.  It (the funeral) was tough.  I don’t really want to go back over that part again.  But I did want to get back on here and let everyone know how much I appreciated your prayers. 

Also, I don’t want to fly Delta again if I can ever help it.  LOL.  We were supposed to be home by 10:30 on Wednesday night and didn’t end up getting back until after 1am.  Fog, musical airplanes, double booked seats on a full flight…I’m just glad we GOT home.  lol. 

Except for the sad circumstances of the trip, it was good to see the family up there again…my dad’s siblings, plus the extended family members that you don’t see until someone is getting married or there’s a funeral.  Still sad, but you remember all the happy moments and still find something to smile about.  We spent a lot of time looking through all Grandma’s photo albums and I put together a few pages of pictures of Grandma to put up at the receiving of friends.  Here’s some pics…I didn’t get any of my dad’s sister…she wasn’t at the funeral home yet when I took these of my dad and his brother (and brother’s family) and us…anyway.

It was pouring the rain all day. 

Anyway…next subject…I’m so annoyed right now…watching Sound of Music and KC keeps making fun of it.  LOL.  I am much more comfortable with this emotion.  Sorry…I know I have a twisted personality.  =)  Follow every rainbow, til you find your dream…..

I dream of not being annoyed OR sad.  Where’s the rainbow I follow for that??  LOL.  Like I said…twisted.  HA. 

So…”twisted” is getting off here to devote all my attention to the Sound of Music…and smacking KC every time he makes fun of it….goodnight. =)