Month: July 2009

Catching Up

Well, VBS went well, but we didn\’t have any major decisions made during that week. Of course, who knows what seeds were planted in those precious little minds. Time and eternity will tell, as they say. By the way, who is \”they\” anyhow? Does anybody really know? And why do \”they\” get all the credit for stuff? Is that fair?

Saturday I had the youth group over for supper and a movie at the house. I fixed spaghetti, and the guys seemed to like it pretty well. Took us about 10 minutes to figure out what movie to watch. Ended up watching I Am Legend. It wasn\’t as scary this time as the first time I saw it, but it was still scary.

I woke up during the night with a terrible stomach ache. Apparently the acid in the sauce didn\’t agree with me. So even after preparing to teach and take the boys to church, I wasn\’t able to go. Bummer. I spent the day resting much as possible. Dave took me for a drive in the mountains, which was nice and peaceful. Then I worked on my pictures some more.

I know, I know! I said I wouldn\’t go on and on about the pictures, but I just can\’t help myself. I\’m having so much fun finding all these pictures again, and I even talked my mama into letting me have her pictures so I can scan them in. Her albums are all yellowing and the pics are fading, so I plan to fix them all up and give them back to her in new books at Christmas. She should enjoy that. I have some other ideas, too, but they aren\’t totally formulated in my mind yet.

I don\’t really have much to say. I\’m reading Dean Koontz\’s Frankenstein trilogy. I had already read the first two books, but it\’s been three years and the third book is just now coming out. So I\’m re-reading them. The new one should be here this week. I\’m looking forward to getting it, even though I have a really bad feeling about how things are going to turn out in the last few chapters. Who knows, though? Maybe I\’ll be surprised.

So there you have it. I\’m going to go talk to hubby for a bit and then read some more. And maybe work on my pictures some more. I know! I know!

Pastor\’s Wife Takes a Tumble and Other Attempts by the Devil to Thwart VBS

After several sleepless hours last night, I got up and went to the church to decorate for VBS. I got there early with hopes of getting finished fairly early and getting other things done at the house. Since I\’m just coordinating this year, my task for today was decorating the chapel where the kids will have opening session each evening. I noticed it was a little warm in the chapel and in the other rooms of the building as I walked around checking things out, but I figured the a/c either hadn\’t been turned on or was turned on late last night.

When hubby got to the church, he used his air compressor to blow up the big kangaroo that is part of the decoration. He also commented on the a/c and asked me when I had turned it on. Hmm? Me? Um, I didn\’t turn on the a/c.

It wasn\’t long before we realized that the a/c just wasn\’t working. This is not good news. We have 50 or 60 kids going to be in the building for the next five nights. No air is just not good at all. Dave called the a/c man to come out and check out the system. (He didn\’t get there until 5:30 or so.)

Meanwhile, I am setting up the chapel and trying to get this big 9\’x6\’ poster up. Dave comes in and helps me get a lot of it tied and taped up. The poster is in three 3\’ pieces, so we have to lay it on the floor and tape the pieces together. By this time, the Children\’s Director has arrived, and she is helping us by tearing off tape and holding edges together. It takes the three of us about an hour to get the pieces all together and taped on the cardboard background.

As I am straightening up some other things, I notice that there is a piece of tape extending about 6\” from the bottom of one of the poster pieces. \”Sweetie,\” I say to my hubby, \”could you please cut that piece of tape off that poster so it doesn\’t get stepped on?\” He said he would and that\’s the last I thought of it.

A few minutes later, after doing a bit more decorating to the front of the chapel with Melody and Daina, Mel asks me to fix something at the front of the poster (she is behind the poster at this time doing something else). I go over and fix what she was talking about. Unbeknownst to me I have now STEPPED ON THE PIECE OF TAPE that hubby has forgotten to cut off the bottom of the poster. As I step back, my shoe–stuck to the tape–catches and trips me up. I stumble backward and then fall and my shoe, with the tape stuck on it, RIPS the poster and yanks it off the cardboard we have just spent OVER AN HOUR fixing! I hit the floor, the other two ladies in the room jerk around to see me and the poster lying on the floor with a big rip in it. \”Oh, no!\” we all gasp at the same time. Mel comes over and removes the tape from the bottom of my shoe and helps me up. After looking the poster for a moment, we all laugh and decide we can fix it.

Just as I am getting up off the floor, hubby walks in, and seeing the damage, says, \”Uh oh.\” Mel tells him what has happened and then tells Dave, \”And she didn\’t even say sh*t or anything.\” At this time hubby decides he might better leave the room. And he does.

My first thought as I was falling and watching that poster coming off the board was, \”I wonder if Lifeway has anymore of these posters at the store?\” I didn\’t even realize I was falling until my backside hit the floor, because I was too busy watching the poster RIP OFF THE CARDBOARD backing.

Then I notice that one of the ladies decorating her room upstairs has been crying. I make an excuse to go look for something so that I can talk to her. She is clearly upset about something and we spend a little while talking until she calms down.

The enemy is clearly at work, which leads me to believe that this is going to be a GREAT VBS this year. I can hardly wait to see what God does this week in the lives of these precious little ones.

Now, if you will excuse me, I\’m going to go take an Excedrin PM and hit the hay. Goodnight.

When Did You Get Old?

My son was travelling through on his way to an Atlanta Braves weekend with his friend. They stopped at our house to spend the night, before resuming their trek. While I was cooking breakfast for them, I stood and watched the birds and my birdfeeder outside my kitchen window. When Josh came down from his room, I was talking to him about the birds and what types I had seen. He got quiet for a moment, and then he asked, \”When did you get old?\”

I suppose it comes as a shock to our kids that we get old. One morning they wake up, and we appear to have changed during the night. We don\’t move as fast, our hair either turns gray or it turns loose, we begin experiencing more frequent medical problems, and apparently our interests have changed.

I\’ve gone through this with my own mother. One day I went by her house, and not only did she appear to have shrunk several inches, but she also looked very old. She is 70, but because of her health problems, she looks much older than those 70 years. It can be a bit disconcerting.

I don\’t really have any words of wisdom about all this. I guess it just took me aback when Josh asked the question. If you count years, I am getting older. Don\’t feel old inside, most of the time–but then I remember that I have a 31-year-old son, a 29-year-old daughter, and three grandsons (grandsons!). My interests have changed a bit. I do enjoy getting out the old pics and looking at them. Since I\’ve always been a crafter, that doesn\’t seem like much of a change for me. Birds have become a real big interest for me in the past few months, as well. That is new. And the desire to reconnect with old friends has become a passion for me.

One thing about getting older and wiser is that I have begun to recognize what is truly important in life. After my relationship with Jesus, family and then other people become more the focus of my life than things. If I can deposit anything positive into the lives that I touch, then I consider my life successful. And I hope I grow VERY old while I work to accomplish that goal!

Now, about those birds……

i have six followers! how cool is that? pretty soon, i can begin my own kingdom. *wink, wink*

well, actually, i have five followers. one of those is me, for some reason. i have to remove that. don\’t want to \”fudge\” the numbers. i think my son ought to follow me, don\’t y\’all?

just trying to get some humor in the day before i head off to work. we are getting so slow there that i\’ve removed anything personal from my computer there just in case i get the \”you have 20 minutes to clean out your desk\” speech.

i make t-shirts for old-er ladies. my newest one is going to be: \”I\’m wearing a bra on Saturday. Can this day get any worse?\” You guys may not get that, but we girls understand, don\’t we?

okay, enough of this silliness. off i go! have a wonderful day, dear friends.

Well, here we are at the end of the weekend and a new work week beginning in the morning. I had a great weekend. Spent Friday evening with my husband and my mom-in-law. She bought a new car Friday and gave us her \’95 Buick LeSabre. It\’s still in fairly good condition, too. What a very nice thing for her to do.

Saturday, I just did what I wanted to do. I cleaned some in the house, cleaned up the car, took pics of the birds, made a cake for the grandsons, and bought groceries. Then I took a nap until the boys came over to spend the night.

Many times, when the boys come over, we\’re ready for them to go home after about 30 minutes. They tend to be wound up and going full-out. It wears us out. I don\’t know, either they were tired, or we were just really relaxed, but we really enjoyed having them over and had a nice evening with them. I took some pictures of the boys, which you can see on Facebook.

Today was just a great day. Good Sunday School class, great worship hour. Restful afternoon. Good evening service. Nice, relaxing evening. Sigh.

Now I gotta call Josh and ask him a question. Later, y\’all.

Hey dear friends. Hope you have all had a great week. After a LONG week of feeling pretty lousy, I am now on the mend and happy to be so.

I have a new project I\’m working on. You\’ve seen some of it on Facebook. I\’m scanning my pictures into my computer. Some of them were getting very faded, so this way if the picture eventually fades completely out, at least I have a digital copy. Some of the pictures make me smile, and some of them leave me feeling a little blue. I guess that\’s normal, isn\’t it? What i eventually hope to do with those pics is make some memory books. Pictures aren\’t really much good if all we do is hide them in a box.

I mean, why do we take pictures anyway? To capture a memory. And then we stick \’em in a box and forget about them. Honestly, how many years of memories do you have stuck in a box somewhere? Get them out of the box! Put them out for the world to see. Create picture wallpaper and cover a wall in one of your rooms (after you\’ve scanned them, of course). Upload them to your sites and show the world. Put \’em on something like snapfish and create one-of-a-kind books for your family and friends.

It\’s almost like catching up with old friends, in a way. Those \”Oh, I remember that day!\” moments can really be fun.

Anyway, that\’s what I plan to be doing for the next few weeks. I\’ll try not to go on and on about it. Just look at the pics, okay? Make a girl happy.

I Wish I Was as Dedicated as David Wagner

Every day Dave writes something in his blog. It\’s usually funny. He has an active imagination, and I never know where his blog will go, but it\’s interesting every time. I just can\’t always think of what to say.

Today I got up, went to work, went to church and taught the youth. Then I had a VBS teachers\’ meeting. Then I came home, took some medicine and played on my computer.

The End.