Her Mind Wanders

Acorn: 2002-2010

2010-02-06T10:34:00.002-05:00

It is with a very heavy heart that I report that my first pet ever (Sorry Bubbles the goldfish - you don't really count) had to be put down this past week. This has been extraordinarily sad for Daniel and I and I am having trouble enjoying the idea of my regular routine without the comfort of Acorn around. I feel awkward since I am an adult, she was a cat, and life is life. However, she was the BEST cat ever and my sister is quick to remind me that these last few months in general have been an amazingly stressful time for our family.

I have missed blogging and hope to return to it soon, but I have been reminded a lot lately that time escapes me quickly, so we will see.

With sadness,
Jennifer

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-03-28T12:42:00.000-05:00

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

My Twin?

2009-03-12T21:37:00.002-05:00

Tonight Little Pixie turned to me and said

"Wouldn't it be funny if Ashley Tisdale was your twin and you guys didn't know it?

She then went on to tell me that we really looked alike and the only difference was that she was probably just a little bit taller than me. I explained that I was barely 5'1" and she was probably lots taller than I was. I didn't want to squash her fantasy so I didn't add in the part about how I don't look anything like her, but I am flattered non the less. There is nothing like a heartfelt compliment to make you smile.

Side Note: Little Pixie is more observant than I thought - it seems Ashley Tisdale is only 5'3".

Put-In-Bay Anyone?

2009-03-09T08:49:00.005-05:00

Okay, this is definitely self-serving, but I thought that I would try my hand at winning a weekend at Put-In-Bay, Ohio. All I have to do is include the following links in a blog post and I am entered. I debated about taking the time to do this, and I figured if I have to think about it this much, I may as well. I have been curious about Put-In-Bay ever since we moved to Ohio, but have never been, so this would be a great opportunity. Mind you, we are not filled with extra time at the moment (in fact, we are pretty much in the deficit), however, if someone were to give us a free trip, it would be rude not to accept it. So, if for some reason this comes our way (or if anyone else would like to offer us a free trip!), I will assume that God wants us to have a little break!!!

Ohio Put-In-Bay

Put-In-Bay Resort

Put -n-Bay Online

Disclaimer: I have a sneaky suspicion that my favorite sister might offer me a "free" weekend visit at their home in PA upon reading this post. I miss you tons and I am working on it!!!

Do pickles cause insomnia?

2009-03-05T23:21:00.003-05:00

On one of Skyman's first visits here, he was eating a McDonald's hamburger and singing the praises of pickles. I went and got a jar of pickles to give him a few extras and after two, he held up his hand and said:

"I'd better stop, when I eat too many pickles, I can't sleep!"

I have never heard of that before and didn't really put much stock into what he was saying, however I am now re-thinking his theory. It is 11:30 p.m. and Skyman is still awake and I served pickles with dinner!!! What is it going to take to get this boy to fall asleep. He had his usual snack, bath, and story and was in bed at 8:30 p.m., but sleep has alluded him. So far he has:

played with every toy that he can think of and set up elaborate toy scenes on his bed
come down and asked for water
come down and asked for crackers twice
come down and asked to sleep on the sofa
dropped his flashlight and caused a ruckus while he was looking for more books to read
knocked several toys off a shelf while looking for a tractor
asked me to read him a book

I am definitely not suffering from insomnia so I think that I am going to turn in and hope that sleep visits Skyman sometime.

Just a parting note: Skyman and I were talking today about different animals that he liked and out of the blue he said:

"And don't ever bring up clowns. I am scared of them...I think it has something to do with their noses"

Newsflash:
Certain foods can interfere with sleep. Salty foods, tomatoes, spinach, smoked meats and pickles trigger the release of adrenaline which can keep you awake.
(Google Search 11:46 p.m.)

It Has Started

2009-02-24T23:59:00.002-05:00

Today was my first taste (with undoubtedly many more to come) of a stranger contributing to a parenting situation. Although all ended up fine and it wasn't that big a deal, I do realize that I am going to have to develop some thicker skin for the future.

I picked up Little Pixie, Monkey and Skyman from school today to take them to a Dr. appointment. Foster Mom met us there and has been great on helping me slowly get acclimated to parenting these three (we still just have them on weekends). When we arrived, 2 of the kids jumped out of the van, but the third was missing. I turned around to see Monkey still in her seat with her head down, arms crossed, and the look that says "I am firmly planted here and do not plan on moving". Monkey enjoys huge amounts of attention and regularly employs drama (usually in the form of anger and temper tantrums) to get it. She declared that she wasn't going in and sat stoically. I ignored her and played with Little Pixie and Skyman while we waited for Foster Mom to arrive. The worst thing to do with Monkey is cater to her at these times because it is exactly what she wants and it feeds what we are trying to break her of. Foster Mom knows this better than anyone and when she saw the situation, she told me to just shut the van and head towards the building to give Monkey a moment to realize she needed to shape up and get inside.

We weren't going to leave her out of view, but I am sure that it must have looked that way to the lady that was sitting in the car next to my van. We arrived at the front door of the building and heard "Ma'am, ma'am!" We turned and Lady #1 yelled "the little girl in your van is crying!" I was glad Foster Mom took over and explained that we were aware of that and we were letting her work it out for a moment. However, we now felt under scrutiny and a little concerned that Lady #1 would try and get more involved, so Foster Mom took the other kids in and I went back to the van. I opened the door to Monkey screaming (not unexpected) and even then it took me a moment to convince her to get out and head in with me. She made it very clear that she was not happy about this and stomped her way to the building. Halfway there I heard "Ma'am, Ma'am" I didn't want to turn around as I couldn't imagine what Lady #1 would say now, but I did anyway and heard "your little girl left her shoe in the parking lot" Sure enough, Monkey had stomped right out of one shoe (probably purposefully) and I hadn't even noticed. I retrieved it, put it in my pocket and thanked Lady #1. I felt like maybe I should have a conversation with her as she was following us in, but I just didn't feel like I had it in me, so I just held the door for her and went on my way.

Monkey was now in the wrong waiting room (on purpose as she knew where we were going) with her other shoe laying in the middle of the floor. I put her shoes under a chair and told her to come on as we needed to get to our appointment and if she didn't want her shoes, we would just have to hope that they would still be there when we came back through. As I expected, this upset her, so she grabbed her shoes and put them on dragging out every little motion so that it seemed like 2 hours before she was trudging towards the correct waiting area. A few feet outside of the door, she leaned against the wall and staged another "I'm not going in" pose and I just kept on going. Foster Mom and I could both see her from the Waiting Area and didn't feel the desire to cave in to her games. However, it was only about a minute or two before Lady #2 stuck her head in and said "Does anyone know that there is a little girl standing out in the hallway..." Foster Mom again came to the rescue and said "We know, thanks." A few minutes later Monkey strolled in and was fine for the rest of the appointment.

My gut tells me that this was a minor incident with minor stranger involvement and I do think that everyone had the best of intentions, but it sure was annoying.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-02-24T20:25:00.000-05:00

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Weekend on the Farm

2009-02-16T01:02:00.002-05:00

We spent Saturday and Sunday visiting Daniel's parents (this is the first weekend in quite some time that we have not had the kids) and as usual our time was packed full. Here is what we did:

Told them a lot about their future grandchildren!
Went to Sears to exchange Daniel's Christmas Dockers - not having a Sears close to us really hinders exchanging gifts from Sears.
Went to Staples - picked out some computer accessories that were needed. I picked up a bonus of Post It Subtraction Notes and Word Pads that were clearanced for 50 cents each!!!!
Went to Radio Shack - Mother decided that it would be a good idea to have a Weather Radio so we helped her pick one out.
Ate at Steak & Shake - I love their skinny fries!!
Went to church - it was loose change Sunday and as we were heading out the door Mother handed us each an film container filled with a variety of coinage!
Went out for Sunday Dinner at a local restaurant
Hooked up Mother & Father's new DVD player - they got some DVDs for Christmas, but didn't have a player, so they invested in one, but needed some assistance getting it set up.
Set up a printer switch box so that Mother can print from the laptop & the desktop
Updated the laptop and ran all it's diagnostics
Remote Control Intervention: We went through the 5 or so Universal Remotes that they have and found one that we could program to run all of their components and gave a Tutorial on accessing the VCR, DVD Player, Satellite, and Broadcast TV
Hooked up the TV in Mother & Father's bedroom to get Broadcast TV
Took some pictures of me by one of the tractors and on the forklift and sent them via cell phone to the kids - We figured that this would give me a little more "farm cred" with Skyman who is not sure women know things.
Played a game of Ticket to Ride - Daniel and I tied!!!!
Hooked up our Wii and played a few games - Mother gets a kick out of watching us play and provides commentary throughout. She gave the Handbell game on Wii Music a try, but was not too successful.
Reprogrammed the garage door buttons in Mother & Father's new car to work correctly.

I think that about sums it up and it is way past my bedtime....

Firsts

2009-01-28T23:10:00.002-05:00

Since we are starting at this parent thing a little differently than most, we have already been experiencing a lot of firsts. So far we have had:

(Just a little note, for now I am going to refer to the 10 year old as Little Pixie, the 7 year old as Monkey, and the 6 year old as Skyman. I am still not sure if I will keep with that, but it will work for now.)

First Fever: Little Pixie had that the very first weekend that we had them.
First Loose Tooth: Monkey had one causing her considerable distress during one of the first visits
First Lost Tooth: Monkey lost a different one brushing her teeth one night. We got a quick run down on the Tooth Fairy and surprisingly enough she left Monkey $1.00, exactly like she was expecting.
First Vomiting: Skyman was the winner with that one right as we sat down to dinner one night.
First Hugs: I honestly cannot remember, it seems like we have all been hugging forever!
First Kisses: I have given cheek kisses tentatively (so as not to scare them away), but the girls returned them immediately and showered Daniel with them too. Apparently we have graduated, because the night we talked to them about adoption, we were surprised with lip kisses!
First "can I get my ear's pierced" questioning: Little Pixie didn't waste much time with that one. We explained we will have to talk about that later.

Bonding

2009-01-22T00:39:00.003-05:00

It was the night that we had told the children that we were working to adopt them and I was saying good night to the girls. Little Pixie (I am torn on if I will keep this nickname here or not. It doesn't seem quite right, but I haven't thought of anything better, nor have I thought of anything for the other two...) was in the top bunk and said "Jenny, if you adopt us...."

I held my breath for something deep...

"would you buy me Bendaroos?"

Chia Pets and Chicken Thieves

2009-01-16T20:34:00.002-05:00

Right before Christmas my sister told me that my nephew Jonathan had seen a commercial for Chia Pets and was infatuated with them. He was going around the house talking about Chi Chi Chi Chia and how he wanted one. I could not pass up this opportunity. For years now I have wanted to get everyone in my family a Chia Pet for Christmas and every year I decide against it. Chi Pets just look like so much fun and so silly that they intrigue me. I figured one of these years someone would actually ask for one for Christmas, but I would not have guessed that it was going to be my 7 year old nephew.

Somehow in all the confusion of the Christmas celebration, I was out of the room when Jonathan was given this particular present to unwrap. I saw him about 10 seconds later and I can only imagine how priceless the original reaction must have been because the delayed one was amazing. He was standing there looking like he was holding onto a million dollars. He was almost speechless with glee and my sister said that it looked like he was actually going to produce tears of joy. He finally spoke and the excitement came flooding out with a neverending string of Chi Chi Chi Chias. I would have paid $100 (don't get any ideas, Chia people) if I knew that it was going to make him that happy. Definitely an adorable moment.

Later in the week I was able to visit my Grandpa at the Care Facility that he stays at. He is 93 years old and up until a year ago, he was living on his own and enjoying a slow, but routine life. Unfortunately he had what appears to be a stroke or something in that category and became incapacitated for awhile and has never fully recovered. He had to be admitted to a Nursing Home and he has a lot of physical limitations. He seems to be mentally sharp most of the time, but he has no desire to get involved with any activities or do anything but stay in bed. He enjoys it when people visit him and he loves it when we read the Bible to him, but other than that he likes to sleep. Because of this, he gets pretty confused on the days and the times and sometimes says things that don't make sense and you can tell that he is referring to something that he dreamed or that happened to him many years ago. On this particular visit right before I was going to leave, he asked if he had told me about his horses. He had been sharp the whole visit, so I was not concerned that he was losing ground. I think that he was just remembering a dream, but it seemed real to him. Either way, he was so happy and animated while telling me this story, I didn't care. I thought it was cute and it made me smile.

He told me that he had two horses that he loved very much. He said that they used to nuzzle him and they were great horses. He said that his family was having trouble with chicken thieves and those horses found some sort of platform way up high to stand on and they took up buckets of water. They waited up there until they saw a man go into the hen house and then they started dribbling water on top of the hen house until the man came back out and then they just let him have it with the all the buckets of water. My Grandpa was so tickled over this and then he finished it off with..."I have no idea how those horses got so smart!"

Family of Five Forever?

2009-01-14T22:08:00.002-05:00

I know that I have been MIA lately, but things have been busy around our house. Remember those 3 children that we did our first Foster Care Respite for? Well, we have had the opportunity to provide Respite for them several more times and we have started the process to try and adopt them!!!!! There have been a bunch of circumstances leading up to this, but we feel that it is all of God's leading and we are moving forward. The oldest girl is the one I referred to as Little Pixie and she is 10 years old. The middle child is also a girl and she is 7 and the youngest is a 6 year old boy. We have all gotten quite attached to one another, but there are a lot of hurdles still to get over. They are currently in a wonderful Foster Home, but they can just not adopt them (they already have 11 children!!!!). So, as of right now, the kids are coming to our house each weekend while we work out all of the details. We were able to tell the kids our intentions this past weekend (their caseworkers and everyone involved thought that it would be good for them to know) and it went exceedingly well. They seem to be very pleased with this idea, which makes us feel great...and petrified. How in the world do we become parents to 3 little children???

Little Pixie informed us this weekend that being a Mom and Dad was easy...all we have to do is feed them, bathe them, and put them to bed. Oh, and if they get invitations to Birthday Parties, we have to decide if they get to go or not.

Do you really think that is all there is to it, or is she pulling my leg?

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T00:26:00.002-05:00

I am heading off to bed, but I noticed that it has been Christmas Day for the last half hour and I thought that I would take a minute to wish everyone a very Merry and Blessed Christmas. I hope that you have special and beautiful moments with family and friends, a lot of laughing and smiles, and a bit of quiet like I am getting right now to reflect on The Baby and the Manger and all that we have been given.

P.S. I started my wrapping tonight and the cats always want to help. They were especially involved this time with Acorn trying to eat every ribbon that I tied and Roscoe acting generally a little spooked and squirrely. He loves tissue paper and kept trying to dig through my tote that I have filled with all sorts of tissue, gift bags, etc. I kept shooing him out because he has a tendency to shred it, but I got distracted for a minute when I saw Acorn dragging away one of my presents. I rescued that and looked over to see Roscoe looking very suspicious in the tissue...peeing. So there went about 1/2 my tissue and a lot of clean up time (made much shorter by a very helpful husband), but I gained a silly story to share with you all.

Merry Christmas!

No Self Control

2008-12-17T23:25:00.002-05:00

Today I decorated Christmas Cookies. It is one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season and it has been a couple of years since I made time for it, so today was a big day. I had already baked the 15 dozen cookies, so I could focus entirely on making the frosting and decorating them. It was pretty fun for the first half and then I started questioning my sanity and by the time I was decorating my last cookie, my feet and back are aching and I was vowing that this would be my last year of doing this. But then I looked at all the fun cookies and I changed my mind (as I do every year) and got excited again about delivering Christmas treats to my neighbors and friends. Every time I decorate cookies, however, I have absolutely no self control and I end up eating about a pound of frosting, a bag of chocolate chips and half the cookies. I am exaggerating just a bit, but here is the pattern and this part is pretty accurate:

I make the frosting and feel that it would be wasteful to just put the beaters in the sink without eating the frosting off of them and since there is just me, I polish off both of them.
I divide the frosting into 5 different smaller bowls to make the different colors and I notice that if I use a spatula, I can probably get a bit more frosting off of the big bowl before it goes into the sink and so I eat that.
Then I get out the sprinkles and colored sugar and chocolate chips and this starts the random eating of chocolate chips throughout the rest of the day. I honestly don't even know I am doing it half the time.
Then I frost my first cookie and I usually need to eat that one just to make sure that it is okay and I am not going to poisen anybody.
As the frosting continues, a few of the cookies inevitably break and it just makes sense to eat those...but not before I frost the broken pieces and add some chocolate chips.
When the task is finally done, there is usually just a little bit of frosting left in each bowl...not enough to save, but definitely too much to just throw away, so I clean those out too.
By this time I have entirely overdosed on frosting, but I still feel the need to eat one more cookie when I am packaging everything up and grab a few more chocolate chips.
And now that it has been a few hours since the cookies were done and delivered, you know where I just was? Out in the kitchen eating two more cookies (I saved a dozen or so for myself) because I actually felt like I needed a snack for staying up late.

Am I normal and will I ever get to sleep tonight?

Taste of Christmas

2008-12-04T23:23:00.004-05:00

I love Christmas foods, specifically desserts. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to me when the seasonal flavors start showing up in late November, but unfortunately I am a lot of talk and not a lot of action. I pine over these items, I drool over these items, and only occasionally do I indulge in these items. Here is what is tempting me this year:

First and foremost, the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake at Chik-fil-A has totally distracted me. It looks amazing and my sister who was lucky enough to have one, no wait was it two, no it was THREE, tells me it tastes amazing too. But alas, the closest Chik-fil-A is 45 minutes away and although I almost think it would be worth it, I haven't had time to drive 45 minutes for a shake.

Then there is Dairy Queen's Yule Flip Peppermint Chip Blizzard. I had one of these last year and it was a Christmas celebration to remember. It was all sorts of goodness and I am really hoping to get one this year.

On a slightly different flavor note, Red Robin is offering a Gingerbread Shake and some other Gingerbread drink that I cannot find on their website right now, but I did get an email on it. I have not had a Gingerbread Shake before, but I would like to start.

Slightly less exciting, but definitely worth a look is the Mint Chocolate Swirl Shake that Arby's is offering. Mint and Chocolate is always a favorite, so I think it could be a winner.

An annual tradition around here is the classic McDonald's Eggnog Shake. I cannot find it on their website, but it appears around this time each year and I usually have at least one.

I also have to add that I love frosted Christmas cookies. Not only do I love how they taste, I am overcome with how they look. I saw these particular cookies from Eleni's New York and I was almost ready to throw all my common sense out the window and spend hundreds of dollars to fill our house with them. I am warning you, if you have even the smallest interest in decorated cookies and you look around this site, you might never pull yourself away. Proceed with caution...

And last but not least is the Twisted Peppermint and Frosted Orange Cream hand soaps at Bath and Body. Of this whole list, these are the only things that I have sampled so far and they aren't even edible (as far as I know). I have these at each of our sinks and they smell amazing. I honestly want to eat my hands every time I use them!!!!

Well, now that I am entirely craving ice cream, I guess I need to head off to bed...but not before I wash my hands....

Week in Review

2008-12-01T23:24:00.002-05:00

Well the last few days are already starting to fade from my memory banks, so I better document quickly.

* I almost got caught up around the house, but then I didn't and now I am way behind once again.
* We had a low key Thanksgiving in Indiana with the in-laws
* Had our first Christmas celebration the day after Thanksgiving (Daniel's extended family in Indiana). Went well.
* We respited (not a real word, but I am claiming it) again on Saturday and Sunday. We had a 10 year old girl who I will call Little Pixie. She decorated our house for Christmas and it has never looked so "full" of Christmas before.
* We became proud Wii owners. Ordered the Wii, received the Wii, Daniel hooked up the Wii, Daniel went to get a snack, we both came back into the living room just in time to see Roscoe (the orange cat) running away from the cord that goes to the Sensor - the cord was chewed in half!!! We were not thrilled. Daniel became educated online and we were able to use 2 lit candles in place of the Sensor Bar temporarily (amazing isn't it?) and then we invested in a Wireless Sensor Bar. It is tons of fun.

Respite Anyone?

2008-11-22T23:36:00.002-05:00

I am sorry that I have been MIA for awhile, but it has been nuts around here. First and foremost, my husband and I are now official licensed Foster Parents!!! To celebrate, we provided respite for 3 siblings last weekend whose Foster Mother was sick. It started out a bit on the frantic side as we got the call on Friday morning and they were interested in us taking the kids that same day. We had one big problem, however...we only had 2 beds. So, they decided to wait until Saturday to drop off the kids and we spent Friday afternoon, evening, and Saturday morning buying a set of bunk beds, mattresses, bedding, groceries, etc. Then there was cleaning out the rooms, getting everything in place and finding our minds that we lost somewhere in the middle of it all!

So, we went from a family of 2 to a family of 5 for 2 days and it sure was exhausting. The kids were 10,7, and 6 and for the most part it worked out pretty well. The oldest, however, got sick which certainly put a damper on her time. All in all, everyone survived and I think that we just might do it again sometime.

On Monday I kind of felt like I had been run over by a bus and so I was pretty slow going and didn't even wash the sheets or towels from our little visitors. I decided that could wait until Tuesday and guess what...a call came at 10:30 p.m. on Monday asking if we could house a 13 year old girl for the night. Thankfully my always thinking mother-in-law had given us an extra set of sheets for the full size bed one time and so we were able to freshen the room up before she arrived at midnight. This was a very short visit as she had to be at school at 7:20 a.m. the next morning (did I mention that school for her was 1/2 hour away and that it was snowing!!!) Once again, we all survived.

So, I am just now starting to get caught up on everything and hopefully will be blogging a little more regularly....maybe.

A Fairy Tale

2008-11-11T22:25:00.008-05:00

Once upon a time there was a little girl that grew up, but was still a little girl in her heart and although she didn't have any children of her own (yet), she loved to look around the magical Internet and see what lovely things were available for children. She found all sorts of fascinating items and websites and blogs and one day she visited My Mommy's Bracelets and saw a wonderful Christmas Contest. There were all sorts of prizes, but she couldn't take her eyes off of one special prize. It was the most beautiful red and white Pettiskirt she had ever seen. It was being donated by the delightful woman who created Lucky Gabi. Oh, if only she could win that.

Although it would be inappropriate for her to wear that now that she was grown up, it would be just as fun and even more adorable to give it to her little niece, Gracie. So, she entered the contest and went about her regular life. A few weeks later, the grown up girl was surprised to receive an email from My Mommy's Bracelets. The email said that she was a winner in the Christmas Contest and can you guess what she won...the most beautiful red and white Pettiskirt she had ever seen. There was much joy and celebrating and the girl could not stop smiling.

German Women and Heated Seats

2008-11-07T12:39:00.002-05:00

These 2 topics are totally unrelated, but I thought that it made a catchy title!

I have been feeling a bit under the weather with a migraine, but was cheered up today when I headed into town to mail some letters. I live outside of a small town in Ohio of about 1600 people. There is a library, a post office, a gas station, a pizza place, and a few other small businesses. The Post Office and the Library, however, are my favorite haunts. I was paying for my stamps and a woman walked in, looked at me, and in a thick German accent said:

"Ack! It has been many years since I have seen someone so tiny. What happened to you?"

Oh my, I knew that this was going to be good. I proceeded to have about a 10 minute conversation with my new friend and it did not get any less funny. I wish that I had an audio clip to post, but we are just going to have to rely on your imagination for the German accent and my memory for the conversation. We talked about our life, our health, how we see the same Dr., and a plethora of other things that she asked questions about and it honestly was almost more than I could handle, it was so funny. We ended it with her trying to describe where she lives and saying that I should stop by sometime. I said that I might and she said I should...

"I have lots of things I could share and teach you. You know I was supposed to die twice, once when I was 4 and once when I was 16 and here I am today."

I said that I thought she might just live to 122 at this point, but she corrected me:

"Ack no, the doctor says 115"

And she was serious. Oh, it was priceless and I am still smiling.

As for the heated seats, I have said it once and I will continue to say it until someone stops me. The heated seats in my van are a gift from God. I hope that the person that created heated seats is living a happy and comfortable life somewhere knowing that they have made mankind better. Every time I push that little button and my seat starts to heat up, I become the "good" Jenny, the one that is happy and pleasant and caring and wants good things to happen to all people. I am a better person because I have heated seats!!!

Cats and Daylight Savings Time...

2008-11-02T22:31:00.003-05:00

They don't get it!

The cats have been very perturbed that their 8 am and 8 pm feeding times seems to be an hour off. Right around 7, they start getting antsy, about 7:15 they get irritated, and by 7:30 they are downright demanding. I am sure that they will catch on shortly, but since they can't speak English, I think all of this explaining that I am doing to them isn't really helping.

A Big Thank You

2008-10-31T22:20:00.004-05:00

A big Thank You to Shera at A Frog in My Soup for my new blog design. I was a winner of a contest that she had and I couldn't be more excited. You cannot tell by how infrequently that I post, but I do really enjoy blogging and having such a pretty design now makes it that much more fun!!! Let me know what you think of the new look and don't forget you can subscribe to my blog by entering your email address in the left hand column to receive an email whenever I update this site.

If you want to see more of Shera's Blog Designs, you can check them out here or you can head over to Sweet N Simple Design to see all the other design work that she does. If you would rather read some reviews and even enter a giveaway yourself, you can also find Shera at Froggy Reviews. She sounds like one busy lady (did I mention that she has 6 boys, including a set of 2 year old twins???). Check out A Frog In My Soup to see how she does it.

Brief Foster Care Update:

We completed our last class on Wednesday night. Our Medical forms are turned in and we passed our Fire Inspection yesterday morning. The only thing left to do to become licensed is finish some of the safety changes we are making around the house. I am really hoping that we can get them all done this weekend and be able to have the Safety Inspection completed at the beginning of the week. I have spent the evening going through all our cleaning supplies and medicines and getting them organized and stored away from little hands. It was quite exhausting, but in a good way. Incidentally, does anyone need any Glass Cleaner. It appears that I have close to a dozen new bottles of it. The good thing is I didn't waste any money on any of them, they were all free with coupons :)

Unfortunate Update

2008-10-26T17:04:00.004-05:00

Well, we got the call on Friday afternoon telling us that the County decided to place the children with the other family that they interviewed on Thursday. I have been careful to tell people that the children being placed with us was not set in stone, but up until last week, it sure looked like they were going to be. Daniel and I (and our Foster Care Director) are disappointed, sad, and a bit confused on why this happened, but we do truly believe that God's Hand is in all of this and for some reason or another this was not the path that we were supposed to take. It doesn't, however, erase all of the human thoughts that trickle into my mind, like:

Why did they share so much about the children with us, including pictures, and make it look so promising and get us emotionally attached if it was going to turn out this way?
Are we so bad that the County had to go out searching for someone else so the children wouldn't be placed with us?
What if I don't like the plan that God has for us?

But even when I think these thoughts, I already know the ultimate answer. God has every body's best interests at heart and if this is His plan than it would be pointless to second guess it. He knows a bazillion times more than I do.

So, I am sad right now and am thinking about the kids a lot, but not overcome and we still have about a week's worth of things to do to finish our licensing, so we need to keep on that. I am honestly a little apprehensive about why we are getting licensed so quickly if these children were not meant to be placed with us, but again, not overcome.

On a lighter note:
Have you ever gone to use the bathroom and noticed that there was only a tad bit of toilet paper left and seriously considered for a moment waiting to use the bathroom or using a different bathroom in your house so you don't have to be the one to change the roll? Just asking....

Even Smaller Update!

2008-10-22T21:52:00.002-05:00

We found out yesterday that another family did apply to take the children and they will be interviewed Thursday morning. I have mixed feelings about this.... Hopefully we will hear a decision by the end of the week.

Daniel created our fancy Fire Escape Plan and I have gotten all of the medical information gathered and just need to get our Dr's to fill out a form. I have a call in to our local Fire Department to schedule a Fire Inspection, but they have not returned my call yet. Culligan faxed over a statement saying that our water system was safe and wonderful and we completed another 3 hours of training.

On a lighter note - keep checking my blog for a fun change sometime in the next few days.

Mini Update

2008-10-19T19:27:00.002-05:00

I know that it has been a long time, but my mind has been wandering too far to lasso it back here. Believe it or not, we don't have a definite word on the children yet. We have been told that the Interview went well and we were liked by all, but they did have to post the availability of the children and see if anyone else applied. The deadline for applicants was last Friday and we were hoping to hear something, but the phone has been silent. If no one else applied, the children will be placed with us. If anyone did apply, they will need to be interviewed.

In keeping with trying to get licensed as soon as possible, we did a 6 hour training on Thursday and will have 2 more hours tomorrow along with our Home Study tomorrow evening (contrary to what it sounds like, it is not a Home Inspection, but more of a lengthy interview process). Daniel was able to start on some of the things around the house that need to be altered and I have been distracted with regular house duties, but my mind has been full of all the other things that need to be done. Next on the Licensing Agenda for me is getting our Medical Information written down and getting our respective Doctors to fill out some paperwork.

The children have been on my mind a lot too. Whether they are placed with us or not, they are going to be going through a transition in the next few weeks and that cannot help but be very difficult for anyone, let alone little kids. That is what bothers me the most.

My Ship Has Come In

2008-10-09T19:33:00.003-05:00

While grocery shopping at Kroger today, I spotted a bin that said:

"Select Candy - 4/$1.00"

Now, I need more candy like I need another groundhog living under our deck, but I thought that I might have spotted Reeses Pieces and you can never have too many Reeses Pieces. If there really were individual bags of Reese Pieces in there for twenty-five cents each, I would have to invest a dollar or two for my future happiness. I got close enough to investigate and almost started to hyperventilate...it wasn't bags of Reeses Pieces, it was BOXES of Reeses Pieces. Beautiful orange 4 oz. boxes of Reese Pieces, and they weren't even expired. How many should I buy? At first 4 seemed enough, but then I thought 8 made more sense and the next thing I knew there were 12 in my cart. I honestly almost talked myself into more, but then I noticed the large Movie Theater boxes of Whoppers in the same bin. Twenty-Five cents for Whoppers!!! Somehow 4 of those made it into my cart too. Oh, the joy.

Just in case a certain sister of mine is reading this post and may think that I have forgotten that I will be seeing her this weekend and that she is also in the Reeses Pieces fan club --fear not --There are 4 boxes already set aside and ready!!!!!

The Plan

2008-10-07T08:18:00.003-05:00

Our Plan:

Take Foster Care Classes and complete Foster Care requirements and become licensed sometime at the beginning of 2009
Offer to do Respite Care (temporary care of Foster children to give their foster families a little break) until basement work starts in the Spring of 2009
Complete all of the house/basement renovations by Fall 2009
Start fostering children after Fall 2009 with the hopes to adopt in the future.

How the Plan is Going:

We attended our second Foster Care class last week and the Director asked to speak with us afterwords. She had received a call that day from a County Agency that was looking for a family to foster 2 children that were open to adoption if that option became available. The Director thought of us and wanted to see what we thought. Oh, I might have failed to mention that the fostering would start at the beginning of November!!!!! We kind of stared at her and blinked a little and then said "What was that again?"
I honestly think that I heard God chuckling as she continued to explain the situation. I just knew He was going to surprise us like that to make sure I don't get too caught up in plans. That sneaky, sneaky God! We asked if it was even possible to be licensed by then and she assured us that if we worked together diligently, it would be a whirlwind, but we could do it.

Details:

I really cannot give any right now, but the placement would be at the beginning of November for a brother and sister, ages 8 and 5 respectively.

Our Decision:

It sure seems like this is God putting the plan right in front of us again, so to say anything other than "let's do it" wouldn't make any sense.

My Thoughts:

Most of my thoughts have not been coherent enough to put in sentences. I have moments of peace and calm and hours of internal panic wondering what in the world I was thinking considering having children and believe it or not underneath it all has been a continual chain of excitement...

What has happened since last Tuesday:

We were able to share all of this with our family and some friends. That was part of the reason in my delay in blogging. My mom underwent knee replacement surgery on the day that this happened and she has been too drugged to follow much until the last couple of days. So, we wanted to tell her first before I shared with the blog world.
We were fingerprinted for our background checks (not as easy as one might think. Apparently I have small fingers with fine ridge detail which equaled us having to re-do my prints over and over and over again until they finally were clear enough to submit.)
The Director of our Agency came out to the house to see where we lived and give us suggestions on things we might need to do to make it compliant with regulations (there are several things, but nothing too major)
We had a meeting yesterday morning with our Director and several people from the County the children are coming from to see if we would be considered a good fit. (They mentioned they are actually considering some other families too, which was a surprise to us. So, we are not sure what that means, but they are too get back with our director by the end of the week)

Task For Today:

Fill out our Financial paperwork and get all the copies of financial information that are required to turn in at class tonight.

New Plan:

See what happens each day and go with it.

Stay Tuned

2008-10-04T21:58:00.000-05:00

Things are a brewing....

Question for You?

2008-09-25T22:43:00.002-05:00

Is it wrong that I purchased the above "My Soft Seder Set" at Meijer today because I am infatuated with fake food and I thought that the stuffed food was cute? It was 90% off and I only invested $1.59 so I don't think that I did anything economically wrong, but is it okay to mix the Passover food with my other play food and use it for pretend meals?

Incidentally, the fake food is kept with our other toys that we have to entertain our young guests when they visit or I babysit. I didn't want you to think that I sit around having pretend tea parties with the cats...or do I?????????

Guittard Baking Chips

2008-09-23T20:12:00.004-05:00

This is not a newsflash to those that know me, but I love to Grocery Shop. My dad is and was the same way, so it is possible that it is genetic, although I haven't seen any research on the subject. Not only do I like using coupons, finding great deals, and getting groceries in general, I get fascinated while shopping with all of the different products that are available. If left to my own devices, I could spend hours just looking at what there is to buy...wait a minute, I do spend hours...I could spend more hours.... Therefore, I need to limit my mental wandering, so I try to only get thoroughly distracted by one new product each time I am out. I like to find something that I haven't seen before and then come home and research it a bit and find out about the brand, company, etc. Now, the logical thing would be to actually purchase the product too, but usually I just window shop these items at least at first.

My find last week were these beautiful Mint Baking Chips by Guittard. Giant Eagle has little sections that are mingled in here and there of "fancy" products in their store. This is where I found these and was instantly drawn to them by their fun sea green color. I am a big mint fan, so I really debated about buying them, but I convinced myself that I haven't been baking enough lately to warrant another bag of baking chips in my cupboard, but that doesn't mean that I won't change my mind... If you want to read about Guittard and all of their yummy (or so I imagine) products, just click on Guittard anywhere in this post.

House/Basement Update:

I talked to Mr. Concrete Man today and he has concluded that he really cannot fit our house into his schedule comfortably before winter. He thought that he could get to it in about a month, but is worried about the cooperation of the weather, so would rather not try it. We want to stick with him, so we will be first on his schedule once the ground thaws and dries out in the spring. I thought that postponing the basement would really upset me, but I feel pretty at peace with it and am seeing the benefits of being able to get a lot more prepared for the whole thing. We now have to get a hold of Mr. House Lifter (who we found out could do it before winter) to see if he is still okay with waiting until spring. We also need to check with Mr. Plumbing & Heating about the same thing and see if we should look into putting in our new Heat Pump before the basement is done to get some cost savings this winter....decisions, decisions.

Foster Care/Adoption Update:

Due to a previous engagement already set up before we started our classes, we had to miss this weeks and will have to make it up sometime in the future. I completed our first homework with getting copies of our Marriage Certificate, Auto Insurance, SS Cards, Driver's Licenses and Pet Vaccinations.

Why My Mind Has Been Wandering Overtime - Part 2

2008-09-16T22:20:00.003-05:00

It is way past my bedtime, so I am going to sum up this post a little. Over the last several years, my husband and I have really felt a heart for adopting children. We currently do not have any children and we both independently started to feel that adoption might be the way we create our family. It kind of surprised us both at first, but God has a funny way of doing that. Since that time, we both also felt that we should focus more on older children and/or sibling groups as it is so heart wrenching to see siblings split up or any child try and grow up without love and nurturing and there always seems to be such a high demand for infants. We have been very open with our families and friends over the last few years on our intentions (that is also why we bought such a large house for just the 2 of us), but we have been kind of slow in getting it done. There has always been something that has hindered moving forward, but that just confirmed to me that it wasn't the right time yet. We were, however, feeling that 2008 was the year to make this happen and it appears that we were on the right track as God has been giving us a pretty clear road map on this venture. It is hard to argue with the following:

Daniel & I talking at the end of 2007 and deciding that we should pursue adoption in 2008.
Out of the blue in the fall of 2007, my hair stylist (who doesn't attend my church) said, "Hey, I hear that someone at your church is going to be starting a Bible Study on Adoption and I thought that you might be interested." Sure enough, next Sunday it was announced and we felt that we better sign right up. It lasted a few months and we met some lovely people in the process (Hello lady whose name is spelled the same forwards and backwards! )
As soon as this was over, my husband was approached at work by a co-worker who handed him a brochure on some informational classes that were being held about 30 minutes away on Adoption. They started that very week and so we signed up for those and gained tons of information.
We had 2 older vehicles, the newest being a 1995 Taurus with 135,000 miles on it, and we decided when that gave up on us later on, we should probably look into a more family friendly car...possibly a mini van. Without warning in February of this year, the Taurus just quit. So, mini van shopping we went, and a mini van we purchased.
We finished the informational classes and thought that it would be nice to talk to some couples that might have adopted in our area to help us decide what county/agency to go through and that very next Sunday we ran into someone that introduced herself to us at church on Sunday and we stumbled onto the topic of adoption and she told us about another couple that had just started fostering a sibling group and gave us contact information.
This couple met with us right away and gave us a wonderful recommendation to a local Foster Care Agency that we didn't even know existed. Guess where it is located....the same Building Complex that my husband works in!
We talked to a few other people to get some ideas of other options available and we were leaning to the one above, but not entirely sure.
Then the whole basement thing (see previous post) came about and I really wanted to put the Fostering/Adoption thing on hold and that week a email was sent out to our church congregation from the above agency saying that they were really in need of Foster Parents and they were going to have an informational meeting the following week. So, we went.
After the meeting, we both immediately thought that this was the agency for us, but we might put off the licensing classes until after the basement and guess what? The classes were actually going to start in a week and it seemed like the thing to do so we just got home from our first class!

So, I didn't appear to shorten my story much at all, but that is the other reason that my mind is wandering overtime and I am probably going to have lots to say about it in the future.

Note: Our intention is still to adopt, but we have found out that children (other than infants) that are removed from their homes go directly into Foster Homes and are not eligible for adoption for up to 2 years to give their biological parents time to reform. Then, if the children become eligible for adoption, the Foster Family would have the first opportunity to adopt them, so it sounds like Fostering is where we want to begin.

Second Note: We talked to Mr. Concrete Man today and he is feeling pretty hesitant about attempting the basement yet this year. He said that Mr. House Lifter is thinking about it and they will decide by the end of the week.....

Why My Mind Has Been Wandering Overtime - Part 1

2008-09-13T19:40:00.002-05:00

Pre-Preliminary Information: We purchased a large old farmhouse about 7 years ago. Parts of it had been re-done and other parts had not. We purchased it with the intention of growing into it and never, ever moving again! We have put in a new septic system, converted our water system to using our pond for our water source, roofed the house and garage, and several other things like this over the last 7 years, but haven't really had a chance to do much to the aesthetics or living area of the home.

Preliminary Information: The house has a full, but unfinished basement that is full of your typical bugs, dirt, boxes of junk, laundry area, etc. The walls are starting to deteriorate and there is a large crack going around almost the entirety of the basement at ground level (not all of the basement is underground). Sometimes when it is especially wet out, water seeps through the cracks and leaves mud on the walls and there is one part where the crack is big enough that you can see directly outside and I believe the cats coax little mousey creatures in to play....

Original Plan: We have always had the intention of finishing the basement and using it for living area and just generally making it a lovely place to be, but the options started dwindling when taking into account the structural problems down there with the walls.

Interesting Idea: We had a friend of ours (also a contractor) come and take a look and one of his suggestions was to actually lift the house, tear out the basement, and re pour a whole new basement. Are you insane? Is that really possible? Turns out it is and he steered us in the direction of those that can make it happen.

Logistics: Turns out we need to have someone lift the house, have someone excavate the basement and then pour the new basement, someone to redo the plumbing & electrical in the basement, along with various other odds and ends. And that is all before we actually finish the basement with drywall, flooring, etc. etc.

Further Complications: We decided that this would also be the perfect time get a new furnace since ours has just been limping along since we moved in and while we are at it, tear out the chimney that we would no longer need and use the space to try and fix the airflow to the upstairs so that we can actually get the second story of the house at a comfortable temperature year round. So, we need someone for Heating and Cooling too. Oh, and we have a large deck that goes around half of the house that we will need to tear out. I really want to replace it with a pretty composite deck, but that will have to wait for a few years until we recover from this.

Current Plan: We have been getting estimates, going over figures, praying, pondering, deciding, and we finally decided last night to go for it. We are going to finish our basement in a very complicated and round about way.

Current Hurdles: We have talked to Mr. House Lifter and Mr. Concrete Man and they are conferencing this weekend on whether it is feasible at all to attempt this still this year...
Did I mention that we will have to be out of our house (with our 2 cats) while this is being done and it may take up to a month and we don't have a plan for that right now?

This is partly why my mind has been wandering more lately. I will keep you posted!

Potato Solution?

2008-09-05T21:13:00.006-05:00

I might have found my next Wish List item. These canisters have captured my attention and I am debating on whether I might really need them. I never cook with fresh garlic (although maybe I should), so I could skip the littlest one, but they look so cute in a set of three.

My biggest interest is the one for Potatoes. I love having potatoes on hand, but every time I buy some, I find myself aimlessly wandering through my house holding my bag of potatoes trying to figure out where to store them. I know that "they" say that potatoes will stay best in a cool, dark, and dry environment, but I don't have someplace that meets all of those criterion. The basement is usually dark and mostly cool, but definitely not dry. The kitchen is never dark (although I could put them in a bag), a little cool, but dry...the office upstairs....well now I am just getting goofy, but you get my point. It's a problem. The end result is I choose someplace and I usually forget about the potatoes and when I go to search them out, they have turned into a whole new vegetable complete with extensive root system and far too many eyes looking at me, so they go directly in the trash.

Could these stylish looking canisters be the answer. I could keep them on the kitchen counter, it would be mostly cool, it would be dark, and it would be dry...however it doesn't look like it holds too many and I wouldn't want to waste any... I could just buy individual potatoes, but they are so much cheaper in the 5 and 10 pound and bigger bags, but that really doesn't matter if you are always wasting them....

Just thought I would give you a glimpse on how my mind wanders!

Uncharted Waters

2008-08-30T22:33:00.002-05:00

You may notice a new little addition on the right hand side of my blog...the option to subscribe to my blog via email. I got inspired earlier tonight and thought that might be a nice feature, but I realized that there were a lot of technicalities involved in offering this option that I don't necessarily understand. Normally that would deter me as I like to be pretty educated on anything I do, but I guess I was feeling adventurous and decided to just shut my eyes and give it a go.

So, if anyone would like to get an email telling you anytime I update my blog, feel free to subscribe on the right and please let me know if anything seems wacky. And for you seasoned bloggers that might stop in, any words of wisdom or do's and don'ts when using Feedburner would be greatly appreciated.

Showers of Terror

2008-08-21T12:25:00.005-05:00

You know how when you are away from home for awhile, you start looking forward to sleeping in your own bed? Well, when I am visiting my family, all I can think about is getting home to my own shower (and I don't even like my shower that much!)

Disclaimer: I think that everyone should set up their own house in the way that they like and with things that they like, so I don't have any intention of complaining about the showers in person...unless I break a hip!

My Parent's Shower

My parent's have a bathtub converted to a shower and the shower itself is fine, it is the shower head that makes things difficult. It cannot be adjusted, so the water sprays at one height and one height only. I am assuming that this particular height hits the average person at a convenient spot, but it does not work so well for short people. If I step into the shower at the front, the water goes right over my head. I could stand in there fully clothed and not get wet. If I move towards the middle of the shower, I am suddenly assaulted by water spraying in my mouth, nose, and eyes. I stumble backwards and by the time I am on my tip toes and my heels are resting on the back of the tub, I can see again and the water is pretty much hitting me in the neck. It is not impossible, but definitely a difficult shower experience. And just for an added kick in the butt, when you step out of the shower, you are instantly hit with a blast of cold air by the air conditioning vent. It is one of those special vents that even though you think you are turning it off, you are really just re-directing the air so your only choice is which part of your body you want to succumb to this. You'd think that this would only happen a few months out of the year, but unless there is snow on the ground, my mom probably has the air conditioner running!

My In-Law's Shower

My in laws also have a bathtub/shower, but thankfully, the shower head is entirely movable and can be positioned any way that you would like. However, I found out in my first shower there several years ago that the limit on the hot water is about 10 minutes...not something that you want to be surprised with. Now 10 minutes maybe plenty of time for most people, but for a girl that wants to shave her legs and wash her hair, it can get kind of dicey, so some serious planning needs to be involved. I get every toiletry, towel, and accessory that I need for my shower opened, positioned and ready for my sprint and when I turn the water on, the little military voice in my head screams "GO! GO! GO!" There is actually one more unfortunate thing to add to this scenario. I am not sure what the bottom of their bathtub is made out of, but it is the slipperiest surface I have ever been on and I grew up in the ice storms of Michigan! I have to take tiny cautious steps whenever I turn, move, or breath and it is miraculous that i have stayed upright so far!

I think that this is enough for now, but if I had to continue, I might mention that the Shower Curtain in my sister's bathroom despises me. We have a fight every time I am there and I usually end up wearing the plastic thing before I am out of the shower with a few stray metal shower rings in my hair....

Grocery Shopping

2008-08-07T21:18:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a big grocery shopping trip and as many of you know, I find oodles of fun in that. I hit Target, Giant Eagle, Kroger, and Meijer and was gone about 4 1/2 hours total (they are about 30 miles away from my house). It went well with the exception of always feeling pressed for time and that I need to hurry (I usually just put that on myself)

Good: Finding things on clearance
Better: Finding things on clearance for at least 75% off!
Best: Finding things on clearance for at least 75% off that I can also use a coupon on!

Good: Finding those tearpads of coupons around the store
Better: Finding tearpads of coupons for items that I actually want
Best: Finding tearpads of coupons for items that I want that are $1.00 off!
Bad: Finding an empty cardboard backing from a tearpad letting me know that there used to be coupons, but they have all been taken.

Good: Coupons printing out at the check-out from the magic coupon machine
Better: Coupons printing out that are for FREE items
Best: Coupons printing out at the checkout and having the person ahead of you give you theirs because they don't care about coupons (this rarely happens, but it is great!)
Bad: Thinking a coupon is printing out, but it turns out to be an advertisement for a new Credit Card.

Best Clearance Find of the day

75% of infant/toddler clothing at Meijer making each piece 99 cents. My nephew is going to score a couple of new outfits.

Things that I got for free with coupons
Pasta Roni
AMP
Oscar Mayer Fast Franks
Colgate Toothbrushes
Softsoap
Dr. Pepper

Best check-out coupon
Free SoBe water on my next visit from Giant Eagle.

It really is tons of fun!

Mini Vacation

2008-08-04T10:28:00.003-05:00

My husband and I just got back from a last minute Mini-Vacation with my in-laws. We were gone for 4 1/2 days and went to The Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, visited some friends in Canada, St. Clair - Michigan, and Frankenmuth with a brief stop at Cabellas on the way home since my in-law's had never been there (My mother-in-law's first comment "Look at those fighting bears!"). It was a hoot as most trips with either set of our parents are. Here are a few highlights:

Tastiest Treat : The hot turkey sandwich at Sign of the Beefcarver in Dearborn, MI

Most Fun: Teasing my mother-in-law constantly. She seems to get just as big a kick out of it as I do.

Best Overheard Conversation: Walking by a young couple at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth with a baby sleeping in a stroller.

Mother - "The baby smells like bacon."
Father (leaning over and sniffing the baby)
"Why does the baby smell like bacon?"

I really wanted to stick around and find out the answer, but it seemed kind of rude.

Biggest Surprise: I purchased something that cost more than $5! I bought a Spring Coat and I love it. Everyone was shocked and it is possible I was under the influence of some kind of vacation drug, but either way, I now have a Spring Coat that is not hopelessly out of style.

Biggest Non-Surprise: 7 Year Aged Sharp Cheddar Cheese does not do anything for me. Well actually, it kind of repulsed me.

Most Interesting Trivia: Seeing a list of all of Heinz's 57 Varieties at the Heinz Museum in Greenfield Village. (It was even more fascinating as the little house it was in was air-conditioned and I was way over-heated at this time. I suddenly wanted to learn all that I could possibly learn about Heinz and was willing to spend hours doing it)

Best Investment: Once you purchased a $2 drink at Greenfield Village, you could have it refilled for free all day long at any place serving drink. You didn't even need to keep your cup, just the receipt. I think that I drank more lemonade that day than I have in my entire life!

Happy Birthday Acorn!

2008-07-25T16:05:00.003-05:00

Guess who turned 6 yesterday?

Stupid for the Summer

2008-07-18T22:01:00.002-05:00

As my sister will be the first to tell you, I get all of my information on Current Events, Pop Culture, Life in General, etc., from The Ellen Degeneres Show. It is one of the few shows that I regularly watch and it keeps me "in the know" on a variety of things. I didn't realize how much I was picking up until I started hearing myself say time and time again, "On Ellen the other day....", "Well Ellen said...", "They were on Ellen and ...", "When I was watching Ellen..."

I actually record the show each day and watch them when I have a chance. Sometimes I have an all day Ellen marathon when I have a pile of ironing to get done, and other days I am just getting a few snippets dependent on how long I can stay on the Elliptical. Either way, the sad news is, I have finally caught up on all my recorded episodes and now there are only re-runs until Fall . Not only am I going to miss the show, but I fear that I am now going to be stupid for the summer. So, let me apologize in advance for my lack of smarts from here on out. I promise, it will get better in a month or two...

What I Brought Back from my In-Laws House

2008-07-10T21:35:00.002-05:00

This will be a re-occuring column each time we visit the in-laws. I always come home with a fascinating array of "Stuff" that my mother-in-law has waiting for me. I am trying to de-clutter my house, so I am always hoping that whatever I take home is disposable or has a specific place or purpose to go to. Here is what came home with us this time:

Coupons! - I never refuse coupons. Ever since we've been married, my mother-in-law has saved me the coupons that come in her Sunday newspaper and any others that she stumbles on. I love coupons and am always glad to get whatever she has collected for me. *****Five Stars for coupons.

Food - When we are packing up to go, it is inevitable that my mother-in-law will start rummaging through the fridge trying to get anything into our cooler that she can. I think that it is sweet and usually it keeps me from having to cook for the next few days. This visit we returned with:

2 Ears of Cooked Corn
BBQ Spare Ribs
Roast Beef
Cheesy Potatoes
Package of Turkey Lunch meat
Custard topping
Leftover Papa Johns pizza
Leftover Papa John's bread sticks
A lovingly packed Ziploc with the Papa Johns dipping sauces and the jalapeno pepper that they put in the pizza box!

Beauty Supplies: A decorative bag of Neutragena Sunblock and Sunless Tanner and Body Wash. I thought maybe she was trying to tell me that I was looking a little too pale, but in fact she was just rummaging through her bathroom cupboards and found it. Knowing how often those bathroom cupboards get cleaned out, I decided to check the expiration dates and alas it was 2003. So, those became disposable as soon as we got home.

A Large Bag of Paperwork and Files - Things that were unearthed in the office that were from my husband's childhood and schooling. This was not my favorite thing to take, but it did make me feel good to know that I would be helping clear out their office, so they came home with me. I am still sorting through them and looking forward to the day to have them properly distributed.

A Box of Books - Much to my husband's dismay, we have become the middlemen in a thriving Book Exchange between my mother and my mother-in-law. They both love to read and when they found out about that years ago, my mother offered to loan my mother-in-law some books. My mom is a church librarian and has access to lots of books. So, we took some books to my mother-in-law, and on our next trip she gave back what she was finished with and we returned them to my mom next time we saw her and so on and so on. This thriving enterprise has grown to boxes of books now so each visit to our families we are either delivering a box of books or returning a box of books. I think it is sweet. My husband thinks it is silly.

Shhhhhh......

2008-07-03T23:27:00.002-05:00

It is 12:30 in the morning and it is way past my bedtime. I am, however, still up ironing. I am starting to get loopy, so I thought that I would take a quick blog break! Almost the entirety of our closet was in my ironing basket, so I figured I needed to take desperate measures and here I am watching Sitcom reruns, ironing, and eating Reeses Pieces.

Cats, Sleep, & Bathing

2008-06-29T22:20:00.002-05:00

Have you ever seen a cat be in a deep sleep and then suddenly wake up and start ferociously bathing? I wonder why that is?

Are they sleep bathing?
Does their dirt suddenly wake them up?
Is it possible that I have been hallucinating?

Confession

2008-06-23T19:36:00.002-05:00

Refrigerated rolls and baked goods frighten me.

You know, those tubes where you have to start at a corner and unroll the outer wrapper and sometime before you get to the end it is supposed to "pop" and release the dough. I am not a big fan of the element of surprise, especially when I am cooking and herein lies the problem. I never know when the tube is going to pop. Is it going to be right when I start to unwrap it, is it going to happen halfway through the unwrapping, is it going to wait until the very last moment when I am pulling the last bit of wrapper off, or heaven forbid, is it not going to pop at all and I have to resort to the dreaded spoon method. If it comes to this point, all bets are off. That thing could blow at any minute. It may or may not wait until I am pressing on the seam with my spoon. It is like a little biscuit grenade sitting on my counter. It's at this point that I just want to give in and forget rolls for dinner, but I know that it is too late. It is going to pop sometime whether I use the rolls now or not and it isn't going to be any better waiting for it to pop in the garbage or the yard or any other place that I might throw it.

So, I get the spoon, find the seam, apply the pressure and viola', the tube opens and I finally have my dinner rolls...this may not come as a surprise to anyone, but I despise the game of Operation. It is the same idea as above except you don't even get the reward of enjoying rolls afterwards!

Checking In

2008-06-17T18:22:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to report that now that I have met Gracie in person, I was entirely wrong about how adorable she would be. Her cute level is off the charts and cannot even be pinned down with words!!

Proud Aunt!

2008-06-03T14:53:00.002-05:00

My first niece, Gracelyn Jennifer arrived on June 2nd at 10:46 a.m.

She was 7lbs 3 oz
20 inches long
Perfectly healthy

I don't want to post pictures without permission, but imagine the most adorable thing that you can think of and then add about a cup of cuteness and you might come close to what she looks like!

I will be meeting Gracie in person in a couple of days and I can't wait. Sure wish I didn't need to pack, however. Packing is basically one of my least favorite things to do!!!!

Hi

2008-05-23T18:31:00.003-05:00

Just thought I would pop in and let everyone know that I am still here and my mind is still wandering. In fact, it has been wandering more than usual, which doesn't make concentrating very easy.

Biggest news of the day:
I choked on a bite of Frosted Flakes this morning and after gasping for breath, spewing out frosted flakes, belching a lot and having tears running down my face, I blew my nose only to be surprised by a few Frosted Flakes coming out there too! Pretty disgusting!

Zippity Do Dah

2007-10-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

Guess what was on my deck this morning when I opened the blinds...

2 adorable bluebirds!

Don't Let This Happen To You!

2007-10-07T21:54:00.000-05:00

As a public service announcement to the part of the population that wears dresses, please be careful to pay attention when you are putting them on over your head. There is a slight chance that you could accidentally put your head through an armhole and wind up in an unfortunate situation. It is probably obvious that I am speaking from experience, but I am pleased to report that this incident had a quick and happy ending. Now, in re-reading the above sentences, I am getting a very comical picture in my head and I realize that I didn't mention that this dress was a tank dress and did not have sleeves. Nonetheless, I was still stuck and it was still comical and I still needed to get my husband and explain that I was in a bit of a pickle. No explanation was really necessary, the visual said it all. So, he patiently rescued me and I am here to tell about it.

When I thanked him, I said

"What would I have done if you weren't here?"

and he evenly replied

"You would have been this way when I got home and there probably wouldn't have been any dinner ready!"

New Shoes

2007-08-03T22:39:00.001-05:00

I don't have very many pairs of shoes and I rarely shop for shoes, so that information helps this story make a little bit more sense.

I was out for a day of grocery shopping this week and made my usual stop at Target (my favorite place to shop) to browse a little and thought that I would venture over to the shoe section to see if I could find some black open-toed heels for my brother's wedding next month. (I am a bridesmaid and I need to find my shoes ASAP).

I didn't find anything I wanted in the first aisle, so I peeked down the next one and was instantly excited to see tons of 75% off signs! I started to peruse the clearanced summer shoes and suddenly I saw them...

an angelic chorus started to sing,
the heavens opened and
a bright, beautiful light beamed down
on THE pair of shoes - -

not the ones for the wedding, but the allusive pair that I have been imagining ever since I bought a brown sundress months and months ago. I have never even worn the dress yet (partly for lack of opportunity and partly for lack of shoes). These were the shoes that I had always envisioned going with my dress and here they were in Target on the 75% off rack.

They were brown, open toed high heeled dress sandals with an air of "I will probably trip and kill myself" impracticality. I slipped one on and it fit like a glove. I looked at the price tag and saw $4.48 and I was beside myself. Not only was that amazingly cheap, I had a $5 Target Giftcard burning a hole in my pocket.

This was my first stop of the day, so the rest of the morning and afternoon, all I could do was think about when I would get home and be able to wear my new shoes. I even had a fleeting thought of putting them on right then and finishing out my grocery shopping in my jeans and high heeled sandals, but I decided I would need to practice in them before I went prancing around in public.

I finally arrived home, got the perishables put away and whipped out my new shoes. A quick check in the closet showed that they matched the dress perfectly and within seconds I was taking care of the rest of the groceries in my new high heels. I felt so adorable and grown up and after about 3 minutes, I realized that my feet were beginning to hurt and after about 4 minutes it became kind of excruciating, and after about 5 minutes I was ready to call an ambulance. How could this be??? I examined the situation and it appears that all five toes on each foot wants to go through the open toe area when the shoe really only accommodates 2-3 toes peeking out per foot.

This is ridiculous and what is even more ridiculous is that I continue to try them on almost every day, taking a little walk around the house, admiring them in the mirror, envisioning them with the dress and I still plan on wearing them someday even though the longest I have survived was that original 5 minutes....

Maybe I should buy shoes more often and then situations like this wouldn't be so traumatic!

For the Love of the Amish

2007-07-27T14:58:00.000-05:00

Background Information:

I travel quite a bit.

I get sleepy and bored when I drive.

My car only has a cassette deck, not a CD player.

Someone suggested Books On Tape.

I tried one, but the narrator annoyed me.

I tried another and found out narrators make a big difference!!

Obsessiveness and fear of a bad narrator compelled me to search and only get books narrated by the good narrator.

This choice led me to several different books and authors and then to Beverly Lewis who writes fictional books based on the Amish and Amish community.

Obsessiveness and enjoying this author led me to only getting books by Beverly Lewis.

Possible Problem: the good narrator only narrated some of Beverly Lewis' books and so I had to ditch the good narrator or ditch Beverly Lewis.

Decided to be a risk taker and stayed with Lewis...good choice

I have started listening to the books during household chores too and I am on the last Beverly Lewis book.

I was making the bed and I was instructed to turn Tape 4 over to the other side and I did and I heard gibberish! Non-intelligible gibberish. I fast forwarded, rewound, listened to more gibberish and then the tape just stopped. I looked it over and decided that there appeared to be a jumbling of the tape ribbon all the way at the end of the spool... How daring did I want to be...I felt energized....should I.... Moments later I had mounds and mounds of ribbon on the table in front of me, two cats wanting in on the action and a plan. I flattened the curled up ribbon and started re-rolling the ribbon. After what seemed like hours, I came to the end and there was still a flip in the ribbon. So, I either did not rewind carefully and allowed the ribbon to flip, or the little bit of ribbon on the other side actually had a problem too. I opted for the later and pulled out that side and sure enough, right at the end, there was another ribbon problem. I flattened again, re-fed the ribbon in, said a little prayer, put the tape in the recorder and viola!!! I had an English speaking narrator and I can get back to what is going on in Bird In Hand, PA.
Life is good!

Incidentally, I am also a wiz at untangling fishing line.
Every once in a while being methodical and obsessive pays off!

Short Lived Victory

2007-07-01T17:28:00.000-05:00

Warning: This post may be a tad bit on the gross side.

I woke up this morning to the sound of a cat throwing up. I quickly went to investigate and there was a disturbed looking Roscoe under the dining room table, but no vomit to be found. I went on into the kitchen and there it was. It was highly disgusting, yet I was still a bit excited. We have a household rule for humans and pets alike:

If you are going to throw up and can't get to an appropriate container, always throw up on the linoleum.

Daniel and I have mastered this rule, but the cats haven't. In fact, only once in what seems like a million instances has either cat ever chosen the linoleum (over carpet) and that time it wasn't as beneficial as I had hoped, because although she was on the linoleum, Acorn aimed most of the vomit down the air vent.

So, this was a huge milestone and Roscoe was praised highly. The clean up is so much easier on linoleum! However, as my title indicates, the victory was short lived. Only minutes later I heard Roscoe start to moan and I found him looking pretty sick again. I started to encourage him to make his way to the kitchen, but he got a crazed look in his eye and decided to try and outrun the vomit, which actually resulted in a large trail of vomit encircling our bed. It was at this time that I decided to get Daniel's help, who was still sleeping in the aforementioned bed, and he quickly complied. In the middle of this clean up, Roscoe started to moan again and I looked over to see him perched over my shoes. I grabbed the shoes, Daniel gave Roscoe a firm shove towards the bathroom and we had a 50% linoleum success.

So, I am still calling it a victory, but hoping that Roscoe is going to be feeling better very quickly!

Poor Roscoe

2007-06-14T20:02:00.000-05:00

As you can probably imagine, vet day is not the best day for a cat. Today was Roscoe's appointment to get his annual shots and it went something like this:

Normal day until 6:00 p.m.

Jenny tries to coax Roscoe into the carrier and Daniel finally has to do it when reasoning with Roscoe won't work.

Roscoe is taken out and put in the backseat of our car, shaking like a leaf and howling.

The carrier is covered with a towel to try and calm Roscoe and works a little.

Halfway to the vet, we make a turn and I hear a funny noise. Daniel and I happen to look in the backseat and see the cat carrier didn't take the turn so well and has landed upside down on the opposite side of the seat.

Carrier is righted with extreme apologies from everyone involved (and a few chuckles from Daniel, I might add).

We arrive at the vet, are taken right in, and Roscoe has to be extracted from the Carrier.

The vet does the exam, says Roscoe is fine, gives him a shot (Roscoe actually handled it all like a pro, minus the shedding of large amounts of fur!)

We travel home with me in the back seat, securing the Carrier.

We arrive home, release Roscoe, give him some Sympathetic treats.

Acorn comes up to Roscoe, decides that he smells like Vet and starts hissing continually and slapping him upside the head!!!

Poor Roscoe, tomorrow is bound to be a better day!

A Quick Hello

2007-06-05T21:50:00.001-05:00

Things have been busy around here, but I thought that I would try and post a quick entry.

I was driving into town the other day and I got behind a very slow moving vehicle. Now mind you, I am all for obeying the speed limit and don't intentionally speed (besides that one time I had to use the bathroom VERY badly), so I didn't want the car to exceed 35 mph, but I really would have appreciated it if they might have tried going above 25. I did my best not to tailgate, but oh were they slow. The sad part is, I looked up and saw that they had a Bumper Sticker that said

Don't drive any faster than your guardian angels can fly.

From that point on, all I could think was...those poor, poor Guardian Angels. I am still feeling bad for them today!

Honeysuckle Stinks

2007-05-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

I am sorry to those of you that love the scent of honeysuckle or have fond childhood memories of it's sweet smell, but to me it stinks. I have trouble with floral smells in the first place. Although I am not allergic to any flowers, certain scents give me headaches, stuff up my nose and just give me a general feeling of yuckiness. The worst offenders have been Easter Lillies and Honeysuckle. Guess what grows around our house...yep, tulips, just kidding, honeysuckle! Nuts.

I burnt myself on my iron this afternoon...on the bottom of my leg. Believe me, that takes a bit of talent. I always try to be so careful when I am carrying the iron (my iron has this special feature, which has just turned out to be an annoyance, where you have to turn the iron upside down to fill it with water, so I just take it to the sink to do it.) as irons are hot and I would rather not get burned. I had made it safely back to the ironing board and was plugging in the iron and I am not sure what happened, but I got tangled up in the cord and the next thing I know, I see the ironing board tipping over and the iron coming straight for me. Another unfortunate piece of information is that the outlet I was using is located behind our Lazy Boy, so I was in between our sofa and the Lazy Boy leaning over to plug it in. There are not a lot of escape routes from this area, so, I jumped as best I could and the iron landed on the floor after hitting my leg. It could have been much worse, so I am grateful that my only injuries are a medium sized triangular burn (top of the iron) on my shin and a smaller triangular burn by my ankle (bottom of the iron).

Mother For a Day...Or Two...Or Three

2007-05-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I have been away babysitting my 2 nephews, ages 5 and 2. I was in charge for 3 days and 3 nights and we all survived, but I know that it was God's grace. I spent a lot of time running around like a crazy woman, but we all had clothes on when we were out in public, we stayed relatively clean and fed, and there was plenty of fun (there was some "un-fun" too, but let's not dwell on that). Here are some of my favorite things from my adventure:

Wonder Pets! I borrowed a new DVD from the library and it turned out to be a hit. We must have watched it a zillion times and I have to admit, I enjoyed it quite a bit too. The downside is that I can't get all of those cute little songs out of my head.

Little Zachary (age 2) singing. He was adorable. His favorite songs: Jesus Loves Me, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and John Deere

Jonathan's (age 5) imagination and conversation. It was amazing. I was especially humored when I was driving him to Pre-School and I made a wrong turn. Before I had even realized that I had done it, he said, "Uh Oh, Aunt Jenny, I think we have a problem. This is not the right way" and of course, he was right.

Zach's conversations with himself and his stuffed animals for about 2 hours every night after he went to bed. He would talk, sing, laugh. You name it, he did it and then eventually went to sleep.

Jonathan asking me to play "Which hole did I put the wormie in" ...not my favorite game.

I could go on and on....

Today's Observations

2007-04-21T22:21:00.000-05:00

Air Mail - is what you get when you leave your mail on the trunk of your car and drive away.

Ridiculously Childlike - is what you get when you drive by a Miniature Horse farm and see the tiniest colts ever running around with their moms. I must pet them!!!!

Slightly More Obsessive - is what you get when you are already a bit obsessive and purchase a vacuum that has a red light that goes on when there is more dirt to vacuum up and a green light when all is clean.

Shy - is what you get when you are trying to decide if you should contact the Miniature Horse Farm and see if they will let you meet their ponies.

Exhausted & Satisfied - is what you get when you totally clean out your closet.

Organizational Dilemma

2007-04-18T08:15:00.000-05:00

Background: I love to organize and to be organized. There are always a ton of organizational projects around the house that I want to tackle.

Current Project: Gather and organize all the keepsakes, mementos, and cards scattered throughout the house. And by "current project", I mean that I have been thinking about it for the last several months.

Solution: While shopping at Meijer, of all places, I spotted the perfect solution...a 2 drawer wooden filing cabinet in the exact shade of our bedroom set. I could file all of my keepsakes, keep them close at hand and it could double as a bedside stand. They actually only had the Display Model left, but that didn't deter me and Mr. Friendly Meijer Employee sold it to me. This was also many months ago.

Preparations: I purchased hanging file folders, gathered all of my keepsakes, and visualized my finished project...many months ago.

Action: Finally, this week, I prepared my first folder and went to place it in my filing cabinet...and it didn't fit. That didn't seem right. The folder was just a wee bit too short to fit on the file drawer grooves. The filing cabinet was obviously too small for Legal Folders, so what was the problem. Maybe it was fluke...nope, still didn't fit. Maybe it was a defective folder...nope, maybe it was a defective box of folders...nope. Maybe if I stared at it long enough, tried it over and over again, threatened to cry...nope.

Research: There isn't a folder size in between Letter and Legal size is there? Well, apparently there is, it is called an A4 sized folder and it is used...in Europe!! What? Now, I am not 100% sure that this is what I am dealing with, but all evidence points in that direction. So, now what?

Solution: Well, you would think I would just buy some A4 Sized Hanging File Folders, but guess what? They are not readily available in the U.S. A lot of googling and heartache taught me that these folders are not easy to come by here (and incidentally are called Suspension Folders in Europe). I have found one online retailer in the US that sells them (not too cheap!) and then there is Ebay, but there will be the extra shipping to get them over to the States....so

Dilemma: What do I do? Do I:

A. Go ahead and spend a small fortune on A4 Folders and continue on with my plan?
B. Just use this Filing Cabinet for other types of storage and keep my eyes open for another suitable filing cabinet in the future.
C. Get rid of the Filing Cabinet all together and start over.
D. Any other suggestions???

#1 Food

2007-03-30T21:53:00.000-05:00

It is probably not any surprise that Food is #1 on my list. I don't think I have ever eaten so much in my life. The options were endless.

Included in your package were:

The Windjammer Cafe which was a Buffet open for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and various snack times. There was a huge variety of food offered at each time and it was constantly changing.

The Main Dining Room - also open for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner. This was more formal and you ordered off of a menu. The Dinner was especially amazing with several courses and far too much food for me to eat, but I gave it a wonderful effort and I always found room for dessert (why have I not been introduced to Baked Alaska before now!!)

Room Service - 24 hours a day

Cafe Promenade - a little cafe open 24 hours a day with pizza, different sandwiches, and desserts

Frozen Yogurt Machine - offering vanilla, chocolate, and swirl cones. My husband managed to have at least one cone each day and usually more than that.

There was also a Midnight Buffet up by the pool on one night, a Gala Buffet at midnight in the Dining Room one night (this is what the above pictures are from), and chocolate mints on your bed every night.

If you feel the need to spend extra money on food, because the above just isn't doing it for you, you can choose from the following:

Portofino's - a more upscale, reservation required restaurant that charges an additional $20 per person

Johnny Rockets - eating there incurs a $3.95 charge per person

Ben & Jerry's - ice cream and special coffee drinks for a charge

There were snacks to be purchased in the shops on board and of course, the mini bar in your refrigerator which charged like $3 for a Snickers bar or something like that.

All in all, it was a fun, delicious experience that I hope to repeat as often as possible...

#2 Crew

2007-03-24T18:16:00.000-05:00

I believe that the statistics for this ship were:

3500 Passengers
1500 Crew

There were crew everywhere and everyone that we encountered were exceptionally nice. It felt extremely genuine and it made it hard for me to believe that they do this week in and week out. I was told that most of the crew were on board for 6 months at a time and then had a 2 month vacation. As with almost everything in life, I became very curious and wanted to know more about Crew life on board and Crew life at home.

Our Stateroom attendant was Henry Smith and he was as attentive and pleasant as could be. You already saw his wonderful towel animals that he left each evening and our room was always kept in perfect order. We would run into him in the hall quite often and it was always very pleasant to chat with him.

Our waiter's name was Jafar and he was from Tunisia. He was excellent. I cannot imagine a better waiter. I know that this sounds silly, but he made you feel like royalty. I almost started feeling guilty having such amazing service.

Our assistant waiter was from Trinidad and her name was Ishyta. She was just as pleasant and very pretty.

Tipping was recommended and encouraged at the end of your cruise for the above people and we tipped what the Cruise Line suggested (since we didn't have any previous knowledge to know what to do), but I wish that we could have tipped them 10 times that much.

#3 Drinks

2007-03-17T21:45:00.000-05:00

Now, neither my husband or I drink, for many reasons (one being we are far too cheap) so we didn't partake in this particular perk, but let me just say that the amount of alcohol served on the cruise was amazing. You had to pay extra for any drink (including soda), which made how many drinks were consumed even more fascinating.

There were a plethora of bars on the ship and in addition, drinks were offered at every show, event, and port. You never had to search anyone out to prepare one for you - -the waiters, bartenders, and wandering drink givers seemed to appear out of thin air.

It is probably not surprising that the pool area seemed to have all of the above times 10. There were drinks on the way to the pool, drinks around the pool, drinks in the pool (I saw one girl accidentally dunk her drink under the water...), drinks when thinking about going to the pool...

With the above information, it is equally fascinating that I only saw one person that was actually drunk (that I know of) and I felt sorry for him. He obviously wasn't at his best and thankfully he had someone with him as he was out on deck and I didn't want him to accidentally take a wrong turn into the ocean.

#4 Cleavage

2007-03-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

The ship was teeming with cleavage. I am not exaggerating. Everywhere you looked, cleavage was staring back. Maybe it is because I am short and my eye level is a bit lower than others, but I was surprised at how prevalent this trend was.

Now, there was a wide variety of cleavage. It ranged anywhere from the tasteful little peeking cleavage to the "hello, my shirt is just an accessory" cleavage. The latter is what I saw the most of and I am actually surprised that my poor little eyes didn't self destruct with all that they saw.

#5 Photographers

2007-03-09T17:12:00.000-05:00

It appears that every cruise ship has its own group of Paparazzi ready to stalk each guest. I am not kidding, there was a photographer asking you to stand still and smile around every corner...in the dining room, getting off the ship, getting on the ship, at the pool, at the Mayan Ruins, and the list goes on and on.

Now, you were not required to have your picture taken each time, but it sure felt like it. However, Daniel and I became pretty adept at scooting past them before they could catch us. I am a bit on the small side and occasionally nimble, which worked to my advantage.

It was nice, however, that they did not hound you to purchase the pictures each time. Instead, they put up thousands of new photographs each night in a lobby area and once you found yours (or someone else's that you particularly liked, I suppose) you could purchase the photo for $19.95! I actually liked some of our photos, but I am far to cheap to shell out $20 for a picture!

#6 Wildlife

2007-03-05T21:38:00.000-05:00

It is probably no surprise that I was beside myself with excitement every evening to see what new creation Henry (our Stateroom Attendant) had left us. The elephant was my favorite.

#7 Fashion Statements

2007-03-01T19:42:00.000-05:00

Oh, the fashion both on and off the ship...it was amazing. I must say that pretty much anything went and one moment I was staring in awe on how someone could put together such an adorable outfit and the next, I was shaking my head in pity on the things people think are wearable.

Little children running around in matching Cruise Clothes - adorable
Middle aged women pacing the decks in matching (matching each other) velour sweat outfits - way not so adorable.

And let me just add a personal note to the older gentleman in the pink shimmery Speedo sprawled out in his lounge chair - Ewwwww!

#8 Water

2007-02-27T07:52:00.000-05:00

Now, this would seem like a given, but we actually saw a lot more water than we anticipated. We had booked the cheapest room available, which was interior, but we were pleasantly surprised to be placed in a lovely room with an oceanview. We had our own little porthole that offered us a great view of the ocean on sea days and the tops of tender boats on port days! As a little aside, when it was announced that we would be tendering at 2 of the ports that we were stopping in, I assumed that they meant we would be exchanging money, but that was pretty far off. What tendering means is that the Ship actually doesn't dock at the port, but instead anchors a distance away and then shuttle boats (or tender boats) take passengers to and from shore. You learn something new every day!

#9 Accents

2007-02-24T22:55:00.000-05:00

The ship was a buzz with accents! I think that I must have heard accents from every corner of the world while listening to both the crew and the other passengers. It was fascinating. I don't know if it is just me or not, but whenever I hear someone talk with any kind of accent, I instantly think that they are interesting and intelligent. Now, logic would tell me that my speaking voice would also have an accent to those that aren't from the US, but that is so hard for me to imagine...me with an accent...is it possible then that others thought me interesting and intelligent...I seriously doubt it.

#10 Hand Sanitizer

2007-02-23T22:31:00.000-05:00

It seemed like everywhere you turned, you were staring at a portable hand sanitizer. They had crew members stationed outside every eating establishment at hand sanitizer stations like this, strongly advising guests to use the hand sanitizer before entering. I know that there is plenty of controversy over anti-bacterial products and hand sanitizers, but I was glad for the opportunity to make things just a bit safer.

On a lighter note, it was very amusing to observe everybody in front of you as they took their turn at the station. The dispenser was "touchless" so all you had to do was pass your hand underneath it and the magic eye would catch you and dispense a squirt in your hand. More than half of the people, however, didn't pick up on the "touchless" feature and thought that they needed to push some sort of button on the bottom of the dispenser to get their squirt and usually they were far too busy talking to really notice what was going on. So, they would stick their hand underneath the dispenser, hit the bottom of it with their open palm a few times, and walk away with their squirt of sanitizer, never realizing that they didn't do it correctly and looked silly in the process. Good times...Good times.

Cruise News

2007-02-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

I am sorry that I haven't been posting, but I have been on my first cruise. Let me first say that besides some hassles with our hotel the night before departure (being abandoned by the hotel shuttle, an unfortunate taxi ride and throwing up before bed) and a long day at the airport on the way home (what do you mean you can't get any gas to the engine...) the vacation was great. I highly recommend a cruise and am thankful to the people that recommended it to me. We will definitely go again when our Vacation Budget replenishes itself .

My next 10 posts will be:
The Top 10 Things I Saw, Heard, or Experienced On Our Cruise

Lessons Learned

2007-01-29T22:40:00.000-05:00

Today I learned:

Comfort food still comforts - pasta with butter and salt
Eating 2 Pringles at one time instead of 1 tastes better.
You can't use Royal Caribbean's Transportation service to the Cruise Dock if you fly in the night before.
I don't think I have "cruise clothes"

Strange, But True

2007-01-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

I like vacations...but I really dislike packing, unpacking, and planning for vacation. It sounds odd, but that is pretty much just the way I am and I am learning there is not much I can do about it. Daniel and I are taking the big step and going on a cruise soon and I am in the throes of trying to get it put together. We never really had any interest in a cruise before, but we went on the River Barge trip with Daniel's parents this past summer and enjoyed it so much, we started thinking about trying a larger body of water.

So, we chose Royal Caribbean after they were highly recommended by almost everyone we asked and we finally chose a specific cruise and got it booked. Now, however, I am trying to work out airfare and a hotel for one night and travel insurance (do we need that?), and transportation and what to bring, and a cat sitter, and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Why is it so stressful?

It is probably because I am me and I feel that I need to do everything as frugal as possible, which takes extra work. I usually do it out of necessity to stay within our budget, but I will have to be honest, if money wasn't an option, I would probably feel I should still scout for the best price anyway. Then, I feel like I need to become knowledgeable on what I am doing and so I spend time researching everything, which is partly helpful and partly overwhelming. Then, I always feel like there is a time crunch, but again, I could probably have a year to plan and still feel like there were some sort of time limitations. So, that is where I am...looking forward to getting this planning done so that I can look forward to vacation.

Catalinas

2007-01-10T21:45:00.000-05:00

I did a little bit of grocery shopping today (one of my favorite activities) and let me just say how much I love those little coupons that spit out by the register when you are checking out. It is always like a wonderful surprise. You never know what you are going to get or how many and how I love to watch them just print and print and print. At one point in time, someone noticed that these coupons were printed or managed by a company named Catalina (I think) and so these little register coupons have been affectionately dubbed "Catalinas" by those people that love their coupons and care about these things.

Sometimes they are obviously triggered by something that you purchased. Like if you buy a box of Fruity Tooties and you get a coupon saying next time you purchase cereal, you can get $1.00 off if you try Apple Zapples. Other times, they are just as random as can be. Today I had one print out for a free box of Kleenex Anti-Viral tissues. How nice is that. A free box of Kleenex for no particular reason. Oh how I wish that I was a Catalina programmer. I have tons of ideas. I think that there should just be a plethora of things that can print out, some could be random, some could be triggered, some could be every 100th person, etc. etc. Some could be coupons for cents off items, some could be free items, some could be winning something, and others could just say things like "My, you look delightful today!" Ah, the possibilities are endless and they all make me smile.

May you all be blessed with fun and useful Catalinas--and for those of you that send those straight to the trash, feel free to pass them my way!! :)

News Flash

2007-01-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 are exactly the same.
I almost hurt a lady at Hallmark today.
These are unrelated.

Check out the Psalms. It is true. As for the lady at Hallmark. I was just minding my own business, doing a little 2007 Calendar shopping and I decided I should surely check out all of the clearance items. As I was browsing, I started to hear this terrible noise. It wasn't loud, it was just gross. I looked around and I realized that the lady next to me was chewing a piece of gum with her mouth open. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, thinking that she might not be aware that she was doing it, so I tried to shop in other locations, but the sound of her saliva followed me everywhere. You wouldn't believe how well it carried and she seemed to have an extremely skilled knack of letting it sound disgusting. I kept trying to block it out, but it didn't work and all I could think was "I am going to hurt that woman. I really, really am" I did eventually get my calendar and leave without laying a hand on her and in all fairness, I have a tendency to get bothered by some things that aren't very loud to other people, but oh, it was so troubling.

New Year Smiles

2007-01-03T21:48:00.000-05:00

Well, 2007 has been relatively busy, but there are always time for a few smiles, like when...

My 5 year old nephew puts his little index finger up by the side of his face and says "I have an idea!!!" My favorite idea he had was to give his Aunt a great big hug!

My 2 year old nephew dancing. It is adorable. He bends his knees and takes a couple of steps in a crouch position and then shoots back up to standing and starts over. You should see it. It is adorable.

A very happy horse throwing himself down by a pond and doing a little wallowing in the dirt with his feet up in the air. How cute is that?

Mousecapades

2006-12-31T19:42:00.000-05:00

This story is over a week old, but I can't help but re-tell it. It is bound to be a classic!

It was your average December evening. I was reading the newspaper, Daniel was taking a little nap, the cats were exploring and then I heard a commotion on the basement stairs. My intuition told me it was a little tiger striped cat trying to run up the stairs while keeping hold of a mouse. Sure enough, Roscoe rounded the living room corner dangling a very perturbed mouse by one of his back legs. I alerted Daniel and we both jumped up in time to see Roscoe disappear in our bedroom. Daniel decided that there were just too many places for a little mouse to hide in our bedroom, so he said that we would have to wait for Roscoe to bring Mr. Mouse back out to the kitchen in order to catch him.

My reading was not quite as enjoyable as I tried not to be concerned thinking of all the ground the cat and mouse were covering in our bedroom. My ears perked up as I started to hear crashing in our master bathroom. I decided it was time to investigate. I cautiously approached the doorway, but was surprised to see Roscoe just sitting on the floor next to the tub. He did look slightly agitated and then he looked up....that didn't seem right. Why would he look up? Then a though struck me and I rounded the corner and looked up too. Sure enough, Mr. Mouse was on top of our shower rod, hugging it for dear life. It must have made a break for it and scampered right up our shower curtain. The earlier crashing was Roscoe throwing himself at the shower curtain and trying to climb up it himself. I know this because he continued this activity even after the mouse was transplanted to the great out of doors.

Daniel was able to supervise the mouse transport using a Swiffer floor mop and an empty Cool Whip container. The Swiffer served as a little mouse elevator, although Mr. Mouse disembarked before his final destination and we found him exploring our shampoos and soaps in our shower basket. He was then secured with the empty Cool Whip container and given his big break by being set free outside.

Roscoe spent the next 24 hours sitting on the shower ledge determined that his play thing was still somewhere in the area and I kept regretting that I didn't get the camera and take a picture of the whole thing. What a great shot that would have been!

Persistence

2006-12-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

This is a true story that may get me committed!

Recap:

I started to decorate my Christmas tree over a week ago and when I went to string the last strand of white lights, only half of it would light. To my astonishment, the following retailers were all out of white lights:

Wal-mart
Meijer
Home Depot
Lowes
Michaels
Target
Giant Eagle
Kohls

Obviously some sort of local shortage that the media hasn't picked up on.

Solution:

1. I checked both fuses in the little light plug and they were fine.
2. I started systematically taking out each bulb that wasn't lit and testing it and throwing it into a pile if it was still good.
3. When I found a dead bulb, I would change it out for a working one and put back in all the other working ones in hopes that it would light.
4. All of my extra bulbs were in different casings, so I needed to actually remove the dead bulb from it's casing to put the new bulb in it's casing to plug it into the strand.
5. When I plugged in my strand after the 3rd dead bulb was replaced, I was overjoyed to see the whole thing light. I kept staring at it in disbelief and aprox. 20 seconds later, half of it started to BLINK! Oh the shock.
6. Of course, I had no idea which was the blinker bulb and I didn't even know where the 3 replaced bulbs were now as I didn't keep track of that.
7. So, it was back to starting at the beginning and taking each bulb out one at a time and plugging a new bulb in and then waiting 20 seconds to see if it would blink.
8. I thought that all blinker bulbs had a little red tip on them, but since I didn't use any like that, that is obviously not true. But that also meant that I could not use any of my extra bulbs as test bulbs since I wouldn't know if they were blinkers or not.
9. I went to the Christmas tree and removed one of the bulbs from the working strands to be my tester.
10. On aprox. the 20th bulb, the strand stopped blinking and the world rejoiced.
11. I noticed one dead bulb on the 1/2 of the strand that originally worked so I replaced it and the second half wouldn't light up anymore.
12. I berated myself for messing things up by being fanatical and replaced the same bulb again and it all lit up.
13. I put the strand on the tree and plugged it in and the first half was dead again.
14. I counted to 100, remained calm and started at the beginning of the dead area, pulling out a bulb, testing it, putting it back in, marking my spot with a little clip, plugging it back in and when it still wouldn't light, unplugging it and repeating.
15. Halfway through while testing some of the bulbs on the back of the tree, my prim and proper cat came and sat with me and immediately passed gas and I really thought this was all some sort of bizarre punishment.
16. Somewhere around the 20th or 30th bulb, I found a dead bulb, replaced it, plugged it in and the whole strand lit!

THE END

12 Days to Go

2006-12-12T18:08:00.000-05:00

This title almost makes me panic...I have many more gifts to get, all the gifts to wrap, all the Christmas cards to do, and a tree that looks like it is missing it's pants. I started to string lights on the tree last night and of course we only have 3 strands, just enough to cover the tree and of course, only 1/2 of the last strand will light up. I got out my trusty light tester and tried everything short of removing each bulb and testing it individually. I was willing to do that, mind you, but my rational self gave my obsessive self a quick reprimand and I decided buying a new strand of lights would be more in line with staying sane....or so I thought. I stopped at Wal-Mart to get a strand or 2 and I was mortified to find out that they were out of lights!!!! How could Wal-Mart be out of Christmas lights. They had a few 20 bulb strands left and a handful of multi-colored (we are using white) and that was all. I was waiting for my husband to get home and save the day as he said he would stop at The Home Depot for me on the way home, but he was unsuccessful too!!!!!!! This cannot be. How insane is it that there are no non-twinkling white lights to be found.

Merry Christmas Thoughts:

The Yule Flip Peppermint Chip Blizzard was just as good as hoped.
Bath and Body Holiday Soaps
The Nativity Story - although not as good as I had hoped, it was still heart-warming and beautiful.
Christmas shopping with my favorite sister!
Christmas cookies and treats from our neighbors! They were delicious and also heart-warming.

Holiday Traditions

2006-12-05T07:59:00.000-05:00

Believe it or not, I have some Holiday Traditions that I am trying to break (rather unsuccessfully, I might add).

The tradition where I vow I will get the house decorated before Dec 1st, but yet it never gets done (it is December 5th and no tinsel here)
The tradition where I plan to get oodles of Christmas cookies baked in advance and then spend days decorating them, but yet they always turn into "After Christmas Cookies" (I don't even have all the ingredients yet)
The tradition where I am going to get all my gifts purchased before the first week of December, but yet I am always still struggling for ideas practically up until Christmas Eve (any good ideas for generic, but thoughtful gifts for cousins, aunts, uncles, etc?)
The tradition where I am going to be entirely selfless for the whole season, concentrating on the True Meaning of Christmas and yet I can always find the plethora of things that I do that don't fall under this tradition.
The tradition where I know that I am still going to follow the above traditions, but I won't let it bother me and yet here I am blogging and bothered...

However, I do still have those moments of joy and peace and happiness and love that can't help but make me smile, so I will try and share these regularly in case they help anyone else...things like:

My 2 year old nephew looking cherubic and saying "ho ho ho... mewwy Critma!"
An e-mail introducing the Yule Flip Peppermint Chip Blizzard. I don't even need to eat it, just thinking of it is heavenly.
Listening to my Shower Radio and suddenly hearing 3 little Chipmunks sing me Christmas carols. That Alvin!
Hearing the Salvation Army bell ringers and scrounging through my pockets for all the change that I can find.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-23T19:35:00.000-05:00

Things I am thankful for (in no particular order)

*My mother, my father, my sister, my brother-in-law, my brother, his girlfriend, my grandparents, my in-laws...
*my 2 adorable nephews that keep my heart tender
*Ellen Degeneres and her dry, witty, and hilarious sense of humor
*The Internet and its wealth of information
*Roscoe and Acorn - my 2 cats that keep me smiling
*Dark Chocolate especially when it plays around with mint
*Hot Water
*Coupons and stores that double them....I get especially thankful when they Super Double them or Triple them
*Getting my college degree
*Our laptop
*Books
*The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
*Beef Jerky
*My shower radio
*Sharpies
*Indoor Plumbing (I am listening to a book on the Amish right now)
*Turkey!
*Friends (I am scared to start naming as I forget things easily!)
*My boots
*Stargate SG-1
*Songs that can't help but make you happy(Undignified - 500 Miles - Etc)
*Ice Cream
*Ziploc Bags
*E-mail
*Budgets
*Contact Lenses
*Security
*Free Samples
*www.cuteoverload.com
*Powder Foundation
Obviously the list can go on and on. I was a little deceptive. I said that these were not in any particular order, but I did purposely save the best 2 for last...

*My husband
(I could start another whole list and why I am thankful for him, but I will save that for another day.

*My God!

Deer Season

2006-11-18T23:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I was driving along on my way to pick up some groceries and I noticed a bit of commotion by the side of the road. I slowed so as not to hit anything and saw a group of guys in their fluorescent orange hunting vests heading to their pickups. They were in good spirits probably due to the fact that they were dragging a sizable deer behind them. I honestly was glad that this was a good day for them, but I was quickly reminded of my ....I don't even know what to call it.

My heart breaks for animals in trouble, or hurt, or dead, or lost, or misunderstood. You get the picture. The funny thing is, I wasn't like that as a child (at least that I can remember) and it seemed to hit me out of the blue the last decade or so. I wasn't looking for it and I am not entirely sure what to do with it. I don't get all emotional on the outside (I was an emotional child and teenager, so I might have used up all my crying), but my heart just feels like it is being tortured.

Interestingly enough, it doesn't have to be real animals (Disney hasn't done well by me), or socially acceptable animals (groundhog, rat, loch ness monster), or animals at all for that matter. The same thing happens when I see children that are in distress or adults that can't fend for themselves or are being treated unfairly, etc. My sister and husband know this about me, and they are very good about letting me know in advance if a movie is going to be Jenny Friendly or not. (We all learned the hard way on what makes a movie not Jenny Friendly.) I am honestly surprised that I haven't turned into a vegetarian, but thankfully I can still enjoy a good hamburger. Please don't ask me, however, to raise the cow.

There really isn't a point to all of this, just a disclosure to the masses.

Thank you all for the prayers and suggestions on my headaches. I have had 1 1/2 headache free days and counting. I hope that everyone else is enjoying a relief too.

Roscoe

2006-11-15T07:54:00.000-05:00

Another headache over here, so I am posting today. Mouse duty went fine. Nothing new to report. The large white cat is a bit neurotic, but I suppose I am not one to talk. I plan to spend my day sleeping under the bed until tuna is served. I think that I will go harass the large white cat and eat part of a box (good source of fiber) before I start my napping. Good hunting to you all...
Roscoe

Week in Review

2006-11-13T08:39:00.000-05:00

Headaches

They prevailed for most of the week. Why do I get headaches and why are they so incapacitating? Are they migraines? Are they not? Are they sinus headaches? Are they not? Do I have a low tolerance for pain? Do I have a high tolerance for pain and these are just that bad? Why don't I go discuss this with my Dr...because when I am at the Dr, usually there are more pressing matters like kidney stones and flu and when those things are over I am so glad to be done with Drs, I don't want to start something new. I am also a bit concerned about becoming a hypochondriac...

Eye Doctor

I had one of my annual Eye Appointments this week. I am actually lucky enough to get 2 each year. One with my Vision Insurance for contact lenses and one with my Medical Insurance to check me out as I have pretty bad eyes and my grandfather was recently diagnosed with a rare, degenerative retina disease that makes me want to be cautious. This was the Medical one.
The appointment went well. They were running very behind, so I was able to catch up on all the Entertainment News (did you know that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had a baby? That People magazine is a wealth of information)

Dentist

Daniel and I both had our 6 month Dental Visit this week with a brand new dentist. It was pretty exciting. Not only were they very High-Tech, they were friendly to boot and our mouths didn't hurt afterwards! You may think that is an odd thing to note, but with our previous dentist, we were in pain until the next morning and that was just with a cleaning!!!! I got through the x-rays without gagging and we were sent home with a Goody Bag that included not only the traditional, toothbrush and toothpaste, but a couple of other fun things including a fresh baked cookie!!!! You can't beat that. They did suggest that I get a Bite Guard for at night and I have another appointment set up for a fitting, but this was just a quick topic at the end and now I am finding myself full of questions and apprehension and skepticism...do I really need a Bite Guard? Will I be able to stand a Bite Guard? Will I be able to stand the fitting? Is it worth the money?

Chiropractor

I figured I was on a roll this week so why not go to the Chiropractor too. I had my Birthday Postcard for a free adjustment and I hadn't been in months. It certainly couldn't hurt. I never know entirely how much it helps, but it sure makes you feel satisfied to hear your neck crack a gazillion times. It just makes sense that you would have to feel better after that!

Passports

Daniel and I applied for passports with the hopes that we may go on a cruise in the beginning of 2007. We tend to drag our feet on fun stuff like vacations, so we need to keep ourselves motivated and planning, but this was a good first step.

Cleaning

Plenty done with three to four times as much left to do.

Traveling

Went to MI on Saturday for the day to help out my sister and brother-in-law and have a Family Birthday Party for our nephews. Daniel got sick half-way through the day, so we had to cut the trip short.

Fun

Got to watch the original Columbo movie with Daniel on Sunday. I love watching TV with Daniel, but it doesn't happen that often. He is not a TV kind of guy, but he was sick and Columbo is actually someone that he enjoys.

On My Mind

As you can tell, always a lot.

Headaches

2006-11-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

They stink!

Confessions

2006-10-22T09:55:00.000-05:00

I like stirrup pants and still have 3 pair in my closet. I have such scrawny chicken ankles, it is like every pair of pants are bell bottoms. When stirrup pants emerged in my youth, I felt like I had been given a gold mine...pants that actually fit around my ankles. However, even if stirrup pants do decide to make a comeback (I am digging out my leggings from High School as we speak), these particular ones shouldn't. So, I have removed one pair of my stirrup pants to find a home elsewhere and now I am down to 2!

I did not go to church today and it is troubling me. My husband was out late last night and came home with an invitation to attend a play today of a kid that he has befriended in his "Star War's" evenings. Knowing that I have been doing less and less well with staying up late and actually being worth something the next day, he asked if I would like to skip church today. I wanted to say yes, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I went to bed with the intention of still going, woke up with the intention of still going, and apparently fell right back asleep with the intention of still going. I overslept by an hour and got up still with the intentions of going, but I could just not make it.

Over the course of our last transitional year, there have been many a Sunday when we have not attended a traditional Brick and Mortar church service and I have been okay with that (for one of the first times in my life) because I have felt secure in who I am and Whose I am, but I don't feel that way today. Alas, I am having one of those insecure days and I just feel bad and guilty.

Random Act of Blogging

2006-10-20T07:19:00.000-05:00

I am really getting tired of not blogging, but the time doesn't seem to be there lately. However, I decided I could post little random comments until I have time for some more true posts!

Peanut Butter M & M's are delicious!!! Not peanut M & M's, but the peanut butter ones. They are something that I definitely have trouble stopping eating.

Has anyone here ever been hypnotized? Does it really work? It always fascinates me when I see something on TV and the people really seem to be effected, but I can't help but feel skeptical. It came to mind because I saw it on the Ellen show the other day. Incidentally, Ellen DeGeneres is hilarious. She has the kind of humor that always makes me smile.

Boo!

2006-10-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't had time to post,
but I was getting tired of seeing my last entry!
Happy Autumn!!!!

One of the Best Stories Ever

2006-09-21T07:26:00.000-05:00

I was recently reminded of this story and it is such a classic, I felt I needed to share:

During the summer between my Junior and Senior years in college, I worked part time as the Secretary for the small church that my family attended. My parents were also the janitors there. One morning, my mother and I went in together to work. I went directly to the office and she went downstairs to start cleaning. Awhile later, my mom came upstairs to use the phone. As I was working, I overheard her conversation with one of our trustees. She was calling to let him know that there was a broken window in one of the Sunday School classrooms (she said that it must have been pretty windy last night) that needed to be repaired. She also happened to mention that our Pastor must have been in a hurry searching for something because all of the drawers in the Sunday School office were open and the chair was tipped over. Even using my best imaginative skills, I could not and still cannot envision Pastor Chris knocking anything over, hurry or not. The idea was ludicrous! As soon as she hung up the phone, I decided to go out on a limb..."Mom, do you think that it is possible we might have been robbed?"

She looked at me incredulously. That thought had never crossed her mind. No, she replied. She was sure we weren't robbed. I asked if anything else seemed out of place and she casually mentioned that when we had first arrived, she did check the parking lot door and found it ajar, but she just assumed that the last person leaving the day before hadn't latched it correctly. Oh my. So, I called the Pastor, who instructed me to call the police. The hardest part of the whole situation was having to explain to the Police Detective that we really were robbed, but there wasn't any evidence because my mother had cleaned everything up!!! I am not kidding, before she made that first phone call, she had righted everything in the Sunday School office, swept up the broken glass and debris and made everything all neat and tidy!

The police came and tried to dust for fingerprints on light switches, but they didn't really get anything. We discovered that we were missing some change from the Sunday School office, a gumball machine from the Youth Room and a VCR that was on a cart with a television from another Sunday School room. It was decided that the robbers (probably teenagers due to the size of the window that they came in) were probably still inside when my mom and I arrived and left quickly out the parking lot door when hearing us. The church Treasurer had been in 1/2 hour before we were and was absolutely positive he had secured the Parking Lot door.

I then became a bit fearful about going in to work each morning by myself so my dad started dropping me off on his way to work and making a quick scan of the building. About a week after the incident, he came up from checking the downstairs and sheepishly asked me if I knew if anyone had borrowed the large TV that had been on the cart with the stolen VCR. We went down together and found another broken window. Nuts, foiled again. Then, my protective father told me he had to get to work so I should lock myself in the office and call the police. I was not thrilled with this plan and probably had a bit of a panic attack that morning, but obviously we all survived. I think that I had found a butter knife and a letter opener in the desk that I was going to wield if need be. The best part of the whole story, however, was when I called the police. They were aware of the first robbery and the Detective responded, "I have to ask...has your mother been there yet this morning?" When I assured him she had not, he replied "Good, we may get something this time!" How funny is that.

Epilogue: The police did get a shoe print from the table under the broken window, but the culprits were never caught and our things never recovered. Oh well.

My Wrath

2006-09-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

I have been asked before what makes me really mad, and I am never sure what to say. I mean there is the obvious big and important things like people getting hurt, etc. etc. But when it comes to the little things that get my ire up, I don't have much of a list. In fact, all I could think of is when I can't get a jar open. That really ticks me off. But now, we have item #2...when part of a clothing drawstring burrows its way back into the item and has to be fished out.

This happened yesterday on the hood of one of Daniel's sweatshirts and I thought that I was going to spit. Trying to wheedle that thing back out really sparked my temper. You would think that such anger would make me put it aside for awhile to get a cooler head, or leave it for Daniel to figure out, but it appears that when I get angry, I get stubborn. I was determined that I was going to get that drawstring back out if I had to sit there until the sun went down. Thankfully, God took pity on me and it only took 13 minutes. I can't believe how irritated that sweatshirt made me. I wanted to yell angry things at it or throw it across the room or twist it into a big knot, but I was too afraid that I would lose the ground that I had already made, so I held tight to the burrowed drawstring and kept working. I did finally get it out and back the way that it should be, but boy were those some heated moments.

Fright

2006-09-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

I wore some really dark lipstick today just for the fun of it.
I happened to walk by the mirror later on and scared myself.
Good times.

My Evening at the ER

2006-08-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

A recounting of the events of Saturday evening by myself to myself.

It was a dark and stormy night...wait, wrong story. It was a regular sunny Saturday and I did regular Saturday things. I was noticing some annoying symptoms that made me think that I might have a bladder infection, but I thought that they would be endurable until Monday when I could see the Dr. However, Saturday afternoon they became annoyingly worse and then I suddenly got a bad pain in my the lower right portion of my back. My thought process went something like this:

Minute #1 - Huh, a pain in my back
Minute #2 - Wow, this is annoying
Minute #3 - This can't be right
Minute #4 - Okay, we have to do something about this.
Minute #5 - I have reached my pain threshold. Funny, I thought that I would last longer.

With it being the weekend and all, we needed to head to the Emergency Room to get treatment. I thought that I would put up a fuss about going, but excruciating pain takes all the fuss out of a person. We got to the ER, signed in, had a seat in the waiting area and I think that is when I started to rock back and forth. It seemed to help. There were about 4 people to be called in before me and I was convinced that they should all just let me go first. I was trying to be dignified and gracious, but I really wanted everyone to just get out of my way.

We were finally called back to the Registration Room (about 20-30 minutes after arriving) and I started feeling exceedingly ill. The rocking was being joined by shaking and then there were the sweats and the chills. When a nurse finally got to the room (about 10 minutes later) to register to us, I decided that I might need to throw up and she got me a bucket and I immediately put it to good use. Another thing I learned - when I think that I may throw up, I apparently have about 30 seconds to get someplace appropriate. I guess I did the magic thing, because they decided to let Daniel register me and they whisked me back to a Bed in Curtain Area #6.

I am not sure what I looked like, but I guess it wasn't pretty, because in the short walk to the bed, no less than 5 people stopped us asking if I really could walk and should I be walking and was I going to make it? I hadn't even sat down before they were taking blood, putting in an IV and asking a plethora of questions. On the way back to the bed, the nice young man that was escorting me said that he had an odd question and asked me if I lived in the country. I said yes and thought to myself that there must be a terrible disease going around in the country right now. He then asked if I lived on a certain road, which was indeed the road that I live on. I was now really interested thinking that this disease must be extremely localized. He then responded with "I thought that I knew you from someplace, I passed you today when you were out getting your mail!!" Huh

I rocked in pain and agony and finally a nice female Dr. came in and said that it sounded like a kidney stone to her. A kidney stone. I hadn't thought of that. But aren't kidney stones for big burly men. Wait, my sister has had kidney stones. That doesn't bode well. I decided that I needed to throw up once again - they took longer than 30 seconds getting the bucket, so the trash can had to do. Incidentally, may I just say that my husband is an amazing guy. He was attentive and caring and helpful and loving through the whole ordeal even though he was witness to a lot of ugly stuff!

Right before they were going to administer the pain medication, the pain left as quickly as it came. Granted, I still didn't feel like running a marathon, but it felt so amazing to have the pain gone that I told Daniel I thought that we could go home now. He explained that I was still hooked up to the IV and probably should stay a bit longer. I see it in the movies all the time, you just put your coat on over your hospital gown, pull out the IV and walk out the door. However, since we were already there, we decided to stay for the CT scan and the x-ray. I was pretty sure that they weren't going to find anything, but to my surprise, they found a cyst on my left ovary, numerous kidney stones in both kidneys and a kidney stone in my bladder, which would have been the culprit causing the earlier pain as it was traveling from my kidney to the bladder. How surprising was that.

I was given instructions on collecting the stone for analyzation once it made its exit and we did finally get to go home. I didn't hold much hope that I would actually get the stone, but about 24 hours later, I was able to look at my very own kidney stone. It was teeny tiny and made me a bit irritated that it caused so much pain. I was going to take a picture of it for your viewing pleasure, but I was concerned that I would somehow drop it or lose it and we wouldn't be able to find out what are causing these things. I also had a fleeting fear that it would fall on the floor and one of the cats would get to it first and I would have to explain to my Dr that my cat ate my kidney stone. Strange and disgusting.

On a serious note, throughout our whole 3 hours or so at the ER, there was a much worse situation going on where a young woman had tragically died right after I was brought in and we could basically hear all of the efforts to save her, the telling of the family, the family arriving, etc. I cannot express to you how it hurt my heart to hear the grief that was going on and I just wanted to somehow make it better for them. Please remember them in your prayers.

Back To School

2006-08-24T07:09:00.000-05:00

Frankly, I am a bit tired of going back to school...literally. You know how some people have recurring dreams of falling or being chased or something equally disturbing? Well, I have a recurring dream of going back to school. A few times a month I go off to what I hope is peaceful slumber and instead find myself once again roaming the halls of school trying to find my class. It is exhausting and frustrating and I rarely have any fun (come to think about it, it kind of sounds like my real life school experience!)

Differences in My Dreams:

The school is always in some different environment. Once the school was in an airport with a lovely dessert buffet (guess who probably went to sleep hungry!). Once it was in a hospital where I continued to take time out to help people. Once it was on a train, and my personal favorite....once it was in a gigantic shopping mall. The thrill I had when I realized I could shop between classes. Alas, I never found my class, so I never really got to shop.

The class that I am looking for is always different and the people that I encounter are always different.

Similarities in My Dreams:

I am always looking for a class that I never entirely find and believe me I spend oodles of time looking for it.

I am always carrying around 100 pounds of books because I can't find my locker to drop them off in.

And speaking of my locker, I can never remember where it is or the combination to my lock and that frustrates me almost more than anything as my "dream self" recognizes that this is a dream and actually gets annoyed that I cannot remember my locker location from one dream to the next. I actually get upset with myself that I have to go to the office AGAIN and get my locker assignment when I have this dream so regularly and you would think that I could at least remember this one detail. What fun!

To all my teacher friends (and I am realizing that I have quite a few friends in the field of Education), I hope that the start of your school year has gone well. The children are blessed to have such caring people guiding them.

Psalm 29

2006-08-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

I love this Psalm. It is so full of wonderful word pictures and praise to God. I love that David gives such amazing and powerful representations of God and His Power and gets the reader all riled (how do you spell that??) up and then finishes with "The Lord blesses his people with peace." It is like he can't quite get it all out quick enough and then he takes a breath and finishes with peace.

Favorite Version: New Century overall, but I love the word picture in the King James version that says "the voice of the Lord, divideth the flames of fire!" Amazing

My favorite verse: Verse 3

"The Lord's voice is heard over the sea.
The glorious God thunders;
the Lord thunders over the ocean."

I love it when God's voice thunders and incidentally when He whispers too as I think that they both are equally powerful and intimate at the same time.

Myriad

2006-08-15T12:08:00.000-05:00

It's a wonderful word.
I highly recommend using it.
It rates right up there with plethora.

Duck...Swallow...

2006-08-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

It was your normal run of the mill kind of Tuesday and I was heading off to Super Double some coupons at Giant Eagle. I walked into the Produce Section and something flew past my head. How ironic, a bird was trapped in Giant Eagle. It was diving and swooping and making quite a scene in the checkout areas and the female based population seemed a bit nervous. Based on its aerodynamic acrobatics, I decided it must be a swallow. One poor woman was especially attractive to the bird as he continually tried to light on her head and then her cart and then her foot. She made it out physically unscathed, but I can't vouch for her mental state.

I felt so bad for the little thing (sadly enough, the bird, not the woman). How terrifying would it be for a bird to be trapped in a grocery store. Probably as terrifying as it would be for a human to accidentally wander into some huge enclosed Bird Sanctuary and not be able to find the way out (Don't panic Danielle, that would never happen). I wanted so badly to rescue the little thing. I tried to use my fictional telepathy to guide it out, but that didn't work. I thought about trying to be the Bird Whisperer and calming it with my voice, coaxing it to land on my shoulder and me walking it to freedom. Thankfully, I seem to have most of my mental filters in working order and I didn't say any of these things or act on them either (family experience has been showing us that those filters fade quickly after you become about 50, so I have a few good years yet), which allowed me to continue to appear normal. I said a little prayer for the desolate swallow and went on my Merry Super Doubling way.

Epilogue

My chatty cashier later told me that the "bird" had been captured and released outside of the store and that my little "swallow" turned out to be a bat! Now, the above situation would have played out a lot differently if I had known that it was a bat and it probably would have involved a lot of screaming or at least making strange scared noises since I don't scream so well and hiding in the enclosed Beer Section. Remind me sometime to tell you about my childhood bat trauma...

If Wants Were Wishes

2006-08-07T20:14:00.000-05:00

Isn't there some little rhyme that starts "If wants were wishes..." I cannot for the life of me remember what it is or where I heard it, but it has been in my head lately.

I have plenty to blog about, but little motivation

I want to blog about the Grand Ole Opry and how much fun it was and how I think that I should work there and how Brad Paisley was there and how funny Riders in the Sky were...

I want to blog about our brand new water system and the amazing water pressure that we have and how sparkly my dishes are and how wonderful the whole thing is...

I want to blog about the teeny, tiny adorable little toads that are out by our pond and how I catch them and probably petrify them, but do it anyway...

I want to blog about "putting up" sweet corn all day with Daniel's parents last Saturday and how delicious it is. ..

I want to blog about my adorable nephews and the things that they say and the things that they do...

I want to blog about "church" ...

I want to blog about this, that, and the other, but instead I am just going to go eat some ice cream...

River Barging 101

2006-07-31T20:37:00.000-05:00

My in-laws 50th wedding anniversary was last month and when we were trying to figure out what to get them for a gift, they said that they would like a trip and for us to plan it for them...and they would like us to go with them...and they would like to pay for the whole thing. We, of course, objected, but they are always sincere on things like that and then it is all over when Daniel's mom states that if I don't accept I will be "stealing her joy". She knows that I can't leave with the crime of "joy-stealer" on my record, so that is always the end. So, they decided that they would like to go on a River Barge and we went and I loved it!!!

We boarded the Barge in Nashville, TN and were on the river for 3 days heading down the Cumberland River & Tennessee rivers.

Things that I loved:

*Our adorable rooms with Organizer Closets
*Opening our curtains in the morning to see beautiful scenery going by
*The trip being all-inclusive so that the only thing that we needed cash for was alcohol...not surprisingly, I didn't need much cash!
*Seeing all of the different people sharing the ride with us (200 passengers, plus staff) - mostly seniors (surprise, surprise), but some couples our age and a handful of children.
*Getting to know the layout of the Barge and being able to roam freely 24 hours a day.
*Heading down to the Dining Room when it was quiet to check out the Guest refrigerator that was always stocked with fun sandwiches, desserts, etc. just for the taking.
*Stopping in one of the little halls to chat with the exotic birds that are residents on the Barge. Annakin the talking parrot finally spoke to me on our last day there. He asked if my name was Polly and if I could talk.
*Indulging in a cookie from the Perpetual Cookie Jar that was kept full at all times
*Talking with the staff that were exceedingly pleasant
*Playing "Barge Bingo"
*Not having to rush off to somewhere all the time and actually just having moments of sitting and doing nothing
*Sitting in the Pilot's House watching the world pass by
*Hearing some of the Crew say "Roger, roger, Cap'n" on the radio
*Seeing Alan Jackson's beautiful homestead
*Enjoying a hilarious concert by Dan, the Banjo Man. Daniel and I decided that we should learn how to play the banjo

Things that I didn't Love as Much:

*The heat - it was incredibly hot. I don't mean the "Oh, I am a bit uncomfortable" kind of hot, but the "I actually may die from this" kind of hot. So, being up on the Open Deck was not something that we did for long periods of time which canceled out Shuffleboard and lounging on the deck chairs. Even being up there for short periods of time made me sweat like a man!!!!
*Losing every game of Barge Bingo
*Not being able to meet the owner (who was a passenger and likes to blend in and was pointed out to me by another sociable passenger). I hoped that I would do something charming that would cause him to say that my family and I could take barge trips free for life.
*Realizing that I will probably never learn how to play the banjo.
*Alan Jackson not being out in the yard when we went by.
*Realizing that Alan Jackson will probably never invite me and my family over to his homestead.
*Arriving back in Nashville and knowing that our Barge trip was over.

Misc. Tidbits

We had quite the excitement one night (most of the people slept through this, but not us). Apparently a passenger became injured and needed to go to the hospital which is not as easy as usual being on a barge and all. They had to send a Motor Boat over to the shore and meet some paramedics who came back to the Barge and stabilized the woman. Then, the Captain decided that it would be better to try and get the woman off of the Barge directly onto land instead of transporting her in the motorboat, so he expertly maneuvered the huge barge as close to the shore as possible and all of the crew were able to extend a gangplank and get the woman up the steep embankment to the waiting ambulance. She ended up needing stitches in her head, and had a broken arm. Guess how it happened....she was 87 years old and after she went to bed, she saw some bugs on her ceiling so she stood on her bed to kill them and fell off. She was with a Tour Group and I heard the Tour Guide giving his other members a new rule the next morning..."no standing on your beds!"

Daniel and I decided that we should work on the River Barge for a year or so. How much fun would that be! However, we couldn't take the cats, so I guess we won't

Sisters Gone Wild - Eleventh Installment

2006-07-12T07:17:00.000-05:00

Day #4

Good-Bye luscious cinnamon rolls
Good-Bye bathroom television
Good-Bye friendly Jamaican ladies
Good-Bye special Club Level elevator key swipe
Good-Bye nice young man at Devon's Delights
Good-Bye all you inviting stores
Good-Bye fudge and caramel corn and ice cream
Good-Bye seagulls, may you always be that happy
and the list goes on....

Day #4 Morning

Well, there was one more place left to visit. My dad's side of the family has been vacationing in the Mackinaw area every year since before he was born (back when dinosaurs roamed and cell phones weren't invented). About 10 miles outside of Mackinaw is a little city called Carp Lake with a lovely lake named Paradise Lake and that is where everyone always stays. I have many, many fond memories of this little town which was a big part of my childhood, but I do not go every year anymore. So, Becky and I wanted to make at least a quick drive by the old stomping grounds. Much to our delight, our keen eyes had noticed a Community Garage Sale poster earlier in the trip and that was our mission for the morning. Garage Saling in Carp Lake. It was fun - Becky was a great navigator - we got some wonderful deals (good things, Danielle, not junk!) - it was terribly, terribly cold (I mean arctic. It was a wonder we didn't lose any fingers to frostbite) - and it was still fun. We made a final bathroom stop at Goldie's Cafe (a relatively new addition to Carp Lake) and picked up a gigantic cinnamon roll for the road with the help of a very funny man that worked there.

Day #4 Homeward Bound

Traveling went well. We tried not to think too much that our trip was coming to an end. We lunched at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Day #4 Homecoming

We drove into Becky's driveway in time to see the saddest picture ever...an open window with a sad little boy hugging Winnie the Pooh, laying his head on the ledge waiting for his Mamma :) Honestly he wasn't like that the whole time we were gone, he was just ready for Becky to be home at this point. There was a fun banner and balloons inside welcoming us home and there were many hugs and the like.

Sisters Gone Wild - Tenth Installment

2006-07-09T20:18:00.000-05:00

Day #3 Dinner

It was the last night of our trip and it was still raining and we weren't ready for the fun to end, so we decided to drive to Cheboygan for dinner. Becky spotted a restaurant called The Boat House and that is where we had dinner. It was right on a river there in Cheboygan and so pretty and grown up. We again ordered the same thing - a delicious chicken & pasta dish and just had a wonderful time there. I was excited that I was taking home about 5 meals worth of the delicious food, but became quickly dejected when my stomach totally rejected the meal shortly afterwards. Sometimes that happens. I kept thinking that maybe I would try it again, but then my smarts kicked in and I realized that was just stupid, but oh well.

Day #3 Evening Activities

There wasn't much daylight left when we were done, but we decided to go ahead and make a stop at that charming little shoppe known as Wal-Mart. I mean it had been days since we had seen one. We had a great time just being silly and looking at all the things there were to buy. Roscoe scored a new set of feathers out of it too. We took a few tries at the ole Stuffed Animal Machine (Walmart's is one of the best since it is only 25 cents), but came up empty-handed. You may think that is pretty normal, but we happen to have genetics on our side. Our dad is a Professional Stuffed Animal Machine Player and he has about 15 boxes of little critters to prove it. Someday, when my ship comes in, I think I will try and buy him one of his own. Anyway, I digress. As I was checking out, I noticed that my Credit Card was not in its usual spot. I did a quick once over of my purse and came up empty handed. Becky and I scoured the car, my coat, my purse, etc. and nothing. Neither of us actually remembered me putting it away after our dinner, so we headed back to the Boat House. This had the potential to be a panic situation, but between Becky and God, I felt entirely calm about it. The Boat House staff told me right away that they had it, but unfortunately no-one could figure out who had put it where since the waitress was now off for the night. So, we waited for about 10 minutes and eventually someone located it and all was well and we headed back to Mackinaw.

Day #3 More Evening Activities

We decided to stretch the evening out just a little more and went back to Devon's Delights for some ice cream. Our friend was working again and recognized us. His accent was very adorable as he said "Oh, you're back again!" We both ordered some Mint Mackinaw Fudge ice cream. Mr Ice Cream Guy said that he looked forward to seeing us again soon, but we explained that we were leaving in the morning, but we would definitely come again on our next visit to Mackinaw and he sweetly replied..."Oh, that will be nice." We finished our ice cream in the car as we spied the performers exiting from the Heroes of Rock and Roll show and we made up scenarios about what they were doing and how we might stalk them. Then, it was back to the hotel on our final night.

Sisters Gone Wild - Ninth Installment

2006-07-02T18:22:00.000-05:00

Wow, are you guys wondering if this trip will ever end?

Day #3 Afternoon

Well, Becky and I did something this afternoon that I have always wanted to do, but never have gotten up the nerve to do...Build-A-Bear (or a Moose to be more exact). My sister is good at inspiring me to take the initiative on these wild and crazy dreams of mine. We had visited the Great Lakes Bear Factory the day before and met the owners...a delightful couple getting ready to celebrate their 48th Wedding Anniversary. They recognized us when we came in this second time and catered to us quite a bit. It was loads of fun from start to finish. I made a Moose named Mackinaw (I know, I know, not original, but I like it) and Becky made an elephant named Charlie. We got to pick out their eyes (Mackinaw has green eyes), stuff them at the stuffing machine, and hug them to finish them off with love (we were not allowed to skip this step!) Then, Charlie and Mackinaw went through a Washing System (Spoiler Alert: There is really not water in there, it just looks like there is!!!!!) and then they were "dried" off and had their official Birth Certificate issued. How fun was that!!!!

The rain was pretty prolific this afternoon, so we continued with indoor activities. We stopped by a local Condominium Rental Establishment to try and get some information for future vacations for my family and then we decided that we should take at least a short jaunt over the bridge to the Upper Peninsula. It was late afternoon at this point so we didn't venture any further than St. Ignace, but it was fun to look around a little there. We again forgot about shops closing up early since it was still Pre-Season, so we didn't get to see as much we had hoped, but it was still fun.

Commercial Break

2006-06-30T12:17:00.000-05:00

I know that I haven't finished all of my Sisterly Installments, but I am having to take a slight detour. It probably appeared that I had disappeared for the last week and I feel like I have too...I have been sick. On Saturday evening, 2 hours after my in-law's 50th Wedding Anniversary Open House, a nasty unfriendly no-good virus took over my body and it was awful!!!! I stayed in Indiana until Tuesday when my amazing husband was able to get me home and then I have been finishing recovering here. Yesterday seemed to be a turning point and I feel like I am well on the road to recovery, but I am finding that I need to be cautious as I am discovering I am definitely not at 100%. Incidentally, I have decided that being sick stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sisters Gone Wild - Eighth Installment

2006-06-22T07:10:00.000-05:00

Day #3 Breakfast

Yummy cinnamon rolls of course!

Day #3 Morning Activities

Well, we started out this morning with a secret mission that I may disclose at a later time. Then, if you can believe it, there was more shopping to be done. The weather was rainy and those annoying teenagers were coming out of the woodwork, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves and the shops.

Day #3 Lunch

We decided on Anna's Country Buffet for lunch and we were the stars of the lunch hour, mostly because we were the only ones there. There was about a 4:1 ratio of waitstaff to customers so we got very personal attention. We got the feeling that this place was just not as "happening" as it was in the ol' days, but it added to the strange charm of it. There was even a little gift shop in the back and boy was it eerie. It had the "haunted" feeling and look of something that had been set up decades ago and had not been touched since, and I am really not kidding. I had the fleeting thought that I should just buy something to see if the waitresses even knew the gift shop was back there, but I couldn't bring myself to pay anything for those dusty and decrepit collectibles. While Becky was in the bathroom, the waitresses started a tirade on the internet and computers. One woman explained the virus conspiracy, stating that the computer manufacturers infected all of their computers with viruses prior to being sold so that the consumers would be forced to purchase the Virus Software in order to "get the internet". Ah, the things you learn...The food was so-so, the ambiance pretty hilarious, but laughing with my sister was the best.

Sisters Gone Wild - Seventh Installment

2006-06-15T10:06:00.000-05:00

Day #2 Theatrical performance

There is a fairly new Theater in downtown Mackinaw (you know you are getting old when fairly new actually means sometime in the last 10 years) where they feature different Stage Shows for the summer months. Heroes of Rock and Roll was on the venue when Becky and I were there and we decided that we definitely needed to take in a performance to round out our time in Mackinaw.

Being organized and a tad-bit "plan-conscious", we stopped by the theater in the afternoon to inquire about the times of the performances and the ticket cost and it was here that we were first introduced to Mildred. We really don't have any idea of her given name and I can't remember the one that Becky and I made up for her, so Mildred will have to do. She was an extremely pleasant woman, probably in her 60's, that acted like she was thrilled to see us. She told us that the show was at 7:00 p.m. and that we would love it because the guys were just "gorgeous!" We thought that she was cute and went on our merry way with a little spring in our steps.

On our way to the theater, we had a little talk about seating arrangements. Although I haven't been to many shows, I do know that there is always a chance of audience participation and the thought of it puts such a fear in me that I seriously consider skipping the show altogether. In fact, the only other show I have seen in this theater was a few years ago with my whole family and we were seated in the front row. My dad was actually selected to go on stage and it was hilarious and he did a wonderful job, but if that had been me, I wouldn't' t be alive today. So, I requested no front row seats and Becky agreed.

We walked up to the ticket counter and guess who was working? Mildred recognized us right away and seemed genuinely excited to see us. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and it had started to rain and there was a nasty wind kicking up. The ticket counter was one of those glass enclosed booths outside the theater where you have to talk through that little hole and it was extremely hard to communicate. Somehow Becky managed to get our order in and Mildred whipped out our tickets from the ol' printer and looked aghast. She said something like "I didn't want you there" and dramatically ripped the tickets into little shreds before our eyes. She started furiously pounding on the computer keyboard once again while we stood in fear and confusion. Another set of tickets were printed and she was again her smiling jovial self. She grabbed a seating chart, had us gather round and showed us that she had placed us in Second Row center. She said that those gorgeous guys like those young girls up front to look at. Now, that is rather flattering, but you can guess I was not feeling so comfortable about the whole thing.

We found our Second Row seats and were giggling like two school girls waiting for the lights to dim and suddenly we saw Mildred running down the aisles looking for someone. We assumed that she was hot on the trail of a ticket-stealer, when suddenly she saw us, got that big smile on her face again and ran right over. Now I was trembling. She came all that way to let us know personally that 2 people with front row seats had canceled and so we could move up as soon as the lights went down. She looked like she had handed us gold and I was seeing my life flash before my eyes. She again mentioned how much the guys would like us up front screaming and getting into it. I didn't have the heart to mention that I couldn't scream if my life depended on it. She left having done her good deed for the day and Becky and I were in shock.

In a an interesting twist of events, some other people procured the front row seats before we did (we were dragging our feet on the whole thing), which was fine with us. The show itself was entertaining and fun and there was a bit of audience participation, but again it was a guy that they took on stage. Elvis, however, came down and sang a sultry number to a woman in the front row and I was thanking God a zillion times over that I was snug in the second row.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our theatrical experience was topped off with some behavior problems (no, it wasn't my sister!). The actors encouraged the audience to get into things however they wanted, such as clapping, dancing in the aisles, etc. I imagine that they don't usually have many that take them up on that, but this audience happened to be about 85% children and teenagers on class trips with far too few chaperones and they didn't think twice before rushing the open area at the foot of the stage. It did hinder the view of the first couple of rows, but we would've been okay (they were having a great time), except for the fact that we had a couple of people (adults, mind you) in our row that found the need to express their ire in a very un-attractive way. There was yelling, and nasty comments, and getting theater attendants in a very juvenile way. They ended up bothering us much more than the children. However, no one could ever get a handle on the situation, so it continued throughout the show.

All in all, however, we had a good time, loved Mildred, and giggled a lot!