BSF and some sneaky grief

A friend of mine invited me to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship).  I’ve heard wonderful things about it. And I’ve even been to an intro meeting before, but I’ve never joined. 

I know several women IRL that go to BSF there.  I also know Donna, who goes there as well. Donna found me and sat with me through the lecture part.  *clang* (that sound you hear is my worlds colliding!)

After the lecture, I went to find my friend that invited me. She works in the children’s area, so to say hi to her meant going to the childrens’ wing of the building.  We used to belong to the church where the meeting is held when our kids were very small.  As a matter of fact, hubs and I met and married there as well.  So we have a leeetle bit of history with those walls.

So I chatted with Donna as we headed to the childrens area. I told her that Bub went to mother’s day out in that  childrens area.  As a matter of fact, when I picked him up from what would turn out to be his last day of MDO, I noticed something odd about him. That started the wheel rolling to get his diagnosis. His last classroom there was ‘the last room on the left’.

My friend was working in… the last room on the left.

The walls have been painted in some new funky colors so it doesn’t exactly look like it used to.  But it still felt very odd.  I talked to my friend outside her room for a minute and then she had to go.  It was hard for me to talk to her without choking up. I was standing in the exact spot where our lives began to cave in.  How do you just stand there thinking about that? 

But I did.  With tears in my eyes.  And a bit of a quivering voice.

And then I walked out and came on home.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Cor 4:7.

Yes.. I *heart* this verse.  : )

that’s so random!

 

1. When was the last time you craved a food--what was it, and did you cave?  i have been craving cinnamon rolls for-evah.  Not yet.  : )

2. M & M's or Skittles?  I like M&M’s better, but since I can’t do milk, I have to settle for Skittles.

3. Have you ever read the Bible completely through?  Yes. It took me three years, but I was so pleased to have done it!

4. How long does it take you to really wake up in the morning?  Most days about 5 minutes.  Other days a bit longer. 

5. Have you ever been on a cruise? If not, would you like to? Nope.  I might like to, but hubs gets green just looking at a boat. My chances in that area are pretty slim, so I might as well not get my hopes up.

6. Who is your favorite actress?  Gosh, I have no idea.  Meryl Streep is very versatile. I watched the end of Steel Magnolias the other day.. (what was I thinking??? *sniff sniff*) and remembered how much I like Julia Roberts. I’ll read everybody else’s answers to this and go ‘oh yeah’ so I’m not even gonna try hard to think of anybody.  I’m just not that into that sort of thing.

7. ______ is something that I will just never understand.  Mean girls.  Computers.  Texting while driving.  Or just plain ole texting. I could go on and on with this one. I guess there’s a lot I don’t understand. LOL

8. How much of a technology junkie are you? See #7.  Um… I have to relearn how to text every time I have to do it. My husband has to teach me every little thing I do online, but I must have learned a little bit since I have a blog and I’m on Twitter..sometimes.

9. Do you enjoy selecting greeting cards for people, or is it more of a cultural "have to" for you?  Depends. We like picking cards for my husband’s family. It’s a big deal with all of them and the funnier the better!

10. When was the last time you got a new style/haircut?  I had long hair during the time Bub was sick and when we found out we were nearing the end I cut most of it off. I kept that short look since the spring of ‘02.  I’ve finally decided to grow it out a bit.  My bangs are out of style and I’ve been trying to want to change that up some.  Don’t know how well that’s gonna go though.  Been thinking about giving up and going short again because basically it boils down to me being lazy and I can dry short hair much faster than longer hair. I guess that just about screams “you’re old and you just don’t care anymore” when it’s all about getting it dry and moving on with my day, huh?!

11. What do you enjoy shopping for most?  Fun things. Not groceries or clothes or washing machines.  But I don’t even know how to describe fun things. Scrapbooking supplies are fun to shop for.  Books.. hooray for Half Price Books. CD’s are fun to buy too.  I heart Mardels.  I like buying things for other people. Example.. I bought a friend a nightlight that looks like a teapot at Kirklands recently.  She did a tea party for my baby shower for Miss Boo.

12. What's the last thing you think of before you leave the house?  Did you potty? Do you have your shoes on.  I’ve headed out to the garage in sock feet/barefooted before. Ooops!

To check out some more random, hop on over to Linda’s place at 2nd Cup of Coffee.

new header... again

I loved my old header, but it was ready made.

I saw it in a few other places and that bothered me a little bit.

I went looking for something else today and found this old header I made forever ago that never saw the light of day.

It looks really cute with the background I have.

And it's custom...'cuz I made it myself... with my very limited digital scrapbooking skilz.

Ta-da!

Happy weekend everybody. And stay warm, if you're like most of us right now and in a seriously cold 'cold spell' like we are. BRRRRRR.

bugs

I hate bugs.

I always have.  And I’m sure I always will.

I remember when I was very young we went on a vacation in a VW Beatle.  By the way, we were camping… and carrying everything we needed except the tent poles, in our VW.  Um, yeah. And it was summer. And there was no such thing as air conditioning at that time. Just the roll down kind.  And what does that invite.

Bugs!

My parents used to tell a story all. the. time. of how I had a fit because a bug got in the car and they had to pull over to the side of the road and get rid of it because I was in the backseat FREAKING out.  In my defense, the bug was a wasp.  Wouldn’t you freak out?!

I few years later, we were all outside on the patio at a relative’s house, and being a little kid, I was off in another world just goofing around and not paying much attention to what was going on. And the next thing I knew, I felt something crawling up my leg! I proceeded to FREAK out and totally come unglued.  Come to find out, my dad was tickling the back of my leg with a end of a weed long blade of grass.  This was highly amusing to the grown ups.

I was not amused.  At all. 

While hubs and I dated, we attended a Bible study at a friend’s house every Thursday. One night there was a june bug in the house.  I hate those things!  The way they bob and dive. I always think it’s going to bump into me or land in my hair or something.  So I FREAKED out.  I think I hid behind a chair until they got rid of it.

Also during the summer we dated, it seemed particularly buggy.  We had lots of crickets.  And those freak me out too.  They hop all over the place. Oh yeah.. and I hate killing bugs too!  It’s so gross.. and sometimes crunchy! *shudder*  So this one summer there were lots of crickets and since I wasn’t very good at killing them, I’d throw a phone book on top of them, and we had lots of phone books.

Hubs came over one day and just rolled because the floor was littered with phone books. 

All of this to say that at least my husband knew full well what he was getting into when he married me. 

And then we had a kid.  And this is what I came home to the other day after leaving her home alone to run an errand.

You’ll never guess what’s under it!

First Random of the new year

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being a cranky-baby-hissy-fitter, how much of a complainer are you?  I would say a 4 or a five, depending on the situation.  Maybe a 2 in others.  It’s strange how big things can happen and sometimes they go right over my head, but something silly might go all over me.  I know.. strange.

2. When someone else is talking, do you listen, or are you thinking about what you're going to say in response? I try not to think about my response, as much as listen to them. But of course, at some point they expect a response, so there is a little bit of that too.

 
3. I just deleted 1062 messages from my email account. Do you have any plans for a clean sweep this month--of anything?  We already did.  Cleaned out my email box. I had kept emails from the dark ages and ppl I don’t even email anymore.  G.O.N.E.  And we did some other cleaning over the holidays. Felt so good!

And now, here are some brilliant questions from a gal named Angie at Angie's Ad Lib who graciously offered to let me borrow her brain. Please go over and see Angie because it was so nice of her to help me out. Thank you so much, Angie!
4. Tell us about your perfume. Was it a gift? What does it remind you of? Do you have a signature scent?  Soap and deodorant.  Perfumes can stir up my asthma. : (

5. What is your best organizing tip for the new year?  Keep up.

6. What is your favorite comic strip?   Peanuts, Far Side

7. Do you sleep with a fluffy or flat pillow?  We are verrrry particular about pillows at our house. Very!  We each bought two pillows at the Sleep Number Store when we bought our bed. (I’m a 45)  One of them is a memory foam pillow, which is firmer. And then there’s a very soft, squishy one also.  It’s always drama when we go to hotels to try to find pillows that ‘work’ for us both.  And there is always a lot of flipping going on… to get to the cold side. I even bought regular pillow cases to go with my flannel sheets because I can’t find a cold side on flannel. (Lands End)

8. What color is your kitchen? Why did you choose that color?  It’s yellow. So is my dining room and living room. They are connected. The decorator and I picked the color. And before you get all la-t-da on me…. she was a mom from my daughter’s school and she did decorating part time at the time and charged by the hour. I think I spent a grand total of one hour with her and did the rest on the fly, but according to things we had discussed.

9. What’s the most interesting bumper sticker you’ve seen?  I don’t like bumper stickers.

10. Do you prefer an expensive writing tool or whatever is lying around? (Are you a Montblanc or a Papermate?)  I have a Pilot pen that I loooooove. It’s not super cheap, but it’s not ridiculous either.

11. What chore doesn’t feel like a chore – you just enjoy it (at least most of the time)?  I like dusting with my swiffer dusting wand thingy.  Um… other than that my chores pretty much feel like chores. lol

12. If your parents often repeated themselves, what is something one of them said more than once?  I can’t think of anything, right off the top of my head.  But my mother in law always tells her kids to “be good, be careful, and have fun”. And they reply “never, never and always” and out the door they go.

To check on the random, hop on over to Lid’s place at 2nd Cup!

a little bit more to the story

The other day I was at a department store.  Shopping. Which is something I don’t do very much of… especially for myself. Anyway, I was looking at some winter tops. There was a lady there holding up a Christmas sweater vest kind of thing and trying to decide which green top looked the best under it. 

Now, I don’t usually just start talking to people. Not very often anyway. But on this day for whatever reason, I did.  She kept holding the sweater up to a kelly green top and then up to a green apple/lime green top. I told her I liked the lime-ish green top the best. And I also told her that we painted our daughter’s bedroom that color.

She acted surprised.  “Really?!” she said.  Yep.  Took three coats to complete it but we think it turned out really cute.

She told me that her daughter wanted her room painted that color and she told her no. And then she told me I was a good mom for painting my daughter’s room that color.  Isn’t that funny?!

I didn’t tell you the story to tell you that somebody thought I was a good mom, but I just got a kick out of that lady. She was so sweet… even before we got to the part about my mothering. lol  I told her thanks and we chit chatted some more.

I think I might have told her about this, because I was just sooo excited about it.  And I guess I still am because I keep bring it up, huh?!

But there’s a part of the story I haven’t told.  I was having lunch with a friend and she said she wouldn’t mind playing around with this project for me. So she made it for me.  She’s quite a whiz with Photoshop and all that fancy stuff.  I just told her what I thought looked good and what I thought we could tweak.  And after a few tries, we came up with this.

Thanks AM! As I’ve said before… so stinkin’ cute!

a little more Christmas fun

Before the Christmas season is completely old news, I thought I’d share a couple more highlights… or maybe I should call it some more fun stuff from those days.

The cat had a really good time.

She loves hiding under paper.  Her best side, no?!

I made this for the hubs.  Isn’t it cute???  I found a bowling pin at an antique store and spray painted it antique white and taped off to paint a red stripe.   Then I used sponge letters to spell DAD and added the stars, both in red. I touched up the edges of the D’s because they weren’t crisp enough for me. I think it turned out really cute.

I guess I should explain the reason for the gift though. He decided late last year that he needed to lose some weight.  So get ready to hate him girls.. here’s what he did!  He stopped eating snacks and started doing the Wii Sports Resort. And he did a lot of bowling on there… thus the little nod in the gift. 

But the fact that he’s lost 30 some-odd pounds by skipping snacks is pretty amazing… and a wee bit annoying at the same time.  But good for him!

And then there’s a little bit of Merry Christmas To Me!  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bunch of rubber stamps for scrapbooking with my Christmas money.  I’ve borrowed stamps and liked them, but resisted buying them for myself, but they’re a better deal than stickers.  Once it’s on the page, it’s over. So I’m going to try to use more rubber stamps. I used a couple of them on my scrapbook calendar for this year. Cute.. but I still need a little practice.  : )

We also made a gingerbread house a few days before Christmas. It turned out cute… but we kept chipping away at the icing.  Very klassy….but yummy!  We put a dot of icing on Miss Boo’s nose and a tiny red candy (and took her picture). 

Rudolph’s goofy stand in.

I’ll spare her the drama of posting that pic on the world wide webby of fun.

So that was a little more Christmas fun, but now the season is done. Happy new year y’all.