On the road....

I am currently in the Charlotte NC airport and I even managed to score one of the rocking chairs near an outlet. I have 2 hours+ before my flight to JAX. I left Michigan this morning. Soo, the celebration of life service was yesterday. It was not a traditional service in the way we might have expected, but it was as Steve had requested. It was not without sadness of course....but my niece did an amazing job continually focusing things on happy memories. It was a day with some challenges. I had offered to organize and prepare etc. the food for the reception afterward and thankfully another lady was involved too. It was a lot of work , but I'm very glad I did it. Today I'm tired and I really wonder if my feet have it in them to walk all the way down to concourse b to Bo'Jangles chicken. :) My favorite thing at the charlotte airport. I don't know...I think the rocking chair might win out. I did see some noteworthy things on this first half of my trip. Michigan is in the midst of a beautiful fall. The trees are SO much prettier there than in Salisbury. It was crisp and beautiful. I saw a house made out of stone. Very interesting...round stones.....an old house made out of old stones. I saw deer eating apples in my mom's backyard. I saw me running through the Philly airport to make my flight. Yes, I did make it with about 1 minute to spare. I saw balloons being released in honor of my nephew in law. I saw my brother and his family rally around my niece in a wonderful fashion. Things I always wonder about when I travel. Do people REALLY want to share their phone conversations with me????? I'd be just as happy without that honor. Why do roller bags ALWAYS tip over backwards? WOuld it have been rude to have told the annoyingly perky flight attendant, that she was in fact ANNOYINGLY PERKY? (I did not. ) Have you ever noticed that when you travel, either all people look completely unfamiliar, or they all look like you know them from somewhere. I wonder WHY the lady I just saw, was pushing an empty baby stroller and was wearing black pants that looked like a wet suit...or perhaps liquid rubber, sprayed on. Whatever...I don't know where the baby went AND the rubber pants look on the mom was definately not a good look. I think I could make a career out of this. Sitting in the airport writing random things about people who walk by. Could be a market for it....as long I was didn't sucumb to total rudeness which is alway possible. Ok...that's it....ttyl

a song for the day...

OK...by now if you haven't figured it out I am extremely lazy and extremely side track able...i can get off on a tangent as easy as breath. BUT....today I am doing some cleaning and I decided to let myself just be my own happy scattered mess....do a little of this, a little of that...a little of whatever. THis is NOT good practice because you end up getting nothing done, but i think it will be ok today. NOW...in this cleaning, I made a discovery...well, actually, not a discovery, but I decided to do something about a problem. Many people worry about dust bunnies under their beds? That doesn't even cross my radar. MY problem is the dust bunnies on my ceiling!!!!! Yes, it's true. I have one of those icky popcorn finish ceilings and well...let me put it this way....one really doesn't need to go to the Carlsbad caverns to see stalagtites and stalagmites, cause, baby, I've got 'em here. So they inspired a bit of a song....just imagine a country tune.....

Dust bunnies on the ceiling, ai'nt no problem for me at all....
Dust bunnies on the ceiling, ya really can't see them if you're small
Dust bunnies on the ceiling make me wonder every day....
How'd they ever get up there, what will make them go away....

Oh dust bunnies on the ceiling.....they make it look like the paint is peeling...
but if you consider them a work of art....you'll accept they never will depart.....


Not my best effort, but mildly amusing.

Tuesday....Oct 6???

Yes, I am still here. Trying to stay on track is more than a notion for me. The good news is this...God is in His heaven which means all is right with the world. In my world, things are ok, but it occurred to me yesterday that I had lost track of part of my original goal....yes, the money moratorium was half, but that was prompted by me realizing that I have everything I need HERE in my house to do some significant transformation. So...I will attempt to make that my focus...AGAIN. I got a good start on my kitchen window view.....but to me the fun part is the part I've forgotten about or ignored.....I have STUFF, I have creativity, I have resources......that is what I need to focus on.....so.....what was that saying?????????? Oh yes.....press on. :)

BORING....

That's what I've been lately....just plain boring. Why?? Just so overwhelmed with school, church, planning, Salvation Army, personal stuff....not bad...I'M FINE. Just my mind is pretty full with getting through each day right now....and it is hard to look to other things. My current project is playing up, or finding or discovering the best features of my house. HA! No, I'm serious...so the one I started last weekend was the view out of my kitchen window and that is what i am still working on. Got the monster bush pretty much chopped down, but I need some extra hand to help move my swing so I hope I can get that taken care of in the next couple of weeks....I think my "easily correctable" will be a few minutes of attention to my side porch....I think a little rearranging and a little attention will make it someplace I can actually sit. This IS the perfect weather for it....ok...so there are a couple of little projects...I think I can do that. Maybe I'll draft some help for the side porch....might be fun.......we'll see.

did you know?????

did you know it IS possible to use a leaf blower in the house. WHY would someone WANT to do that??? I think I may hold a record for destroying vacuum cleaners....either that or they just break really easily. SO...............i was NOT delighted to see that my little 4 legged friend, Remy had totally shredded a basket of pinecones all over my living room carpet. I was extremely irritated and sweeping with a broom only does so much and I did NOT want to destroy my vacuum...SOOOOO....leaf blower to the rescue. Sort of.....yes, it did help, but it is kind of hard to direct the blowing aspect of it...:) I don't think i will do this on a regular basis, but I did blow off a little steam and sort of made things better. Funny, huh???

got er done...

Yup..."i done good" worked hard at the gym, did grocery shopping, went to church and did a little work, went to post office, came home...worked on chopping that dumb bush down which took a couple of hours, talked to my friends the Peipons via skype, cooked a turkey and now I AM POOPED. Supposed to go hear a concert tonight....snzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A busy day today...

Many things on my plate.....lets see if I can accomplish ANY of it.....first, gym, 2nd buy some stamps, 3rd chop down a bush...there is more....but if i can get those done, I'll feel it is a good accomplishment.....We'll see.

:)

First happy thing: Got to meet my little friend today at school. Can't tell you a lot on here, but the bottom line is her mom is serving in a far away very dangerous place. This little girl is new to our school and told her dad she wanted to learn to play guitar. He contacted me. I didn't really have anyone I could suggest he go to for lessons, and then...duh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could take part of my planning time here and meet with her here!!!! So we did. It was dandy. We played some guitar...her mom plays guitar she told me....we talked about dogs and brothers and visits to Maine. It was the best 1/2 hour I've spent at school in a long, long time. She is soooo quiet and I can't tell you what it was worth to see her smile. We will meet every few days. A good start. BTW...thanks for the suggestion, Lord. ALL good things come from You.

phil 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

In case you hadn't noticed, I can get bogged down looking at negatives. So, as I was pondering things yesterday, this verse came to me. It's still dark out right now, so I can't take the pictures I want to take, but I am going to take you on a little tour of things I love...not love like a person, but things that are very happy and that I enjoy. Stay tuned. AND I'm convicted that I need to get off my butt and do some things for some other folks....so you can stay tuned for that. The first thing is scheduled for this morning at school and for the first time in FOREVER, I'm excited about going to school...in fact I could hardly sleep I was so excited. How crazy is that? Soooooo.......PRESS ON!

:(

You know, without Christ and His understanding and direction and the power of the Holy Spirit, Satan would win. I guess that's a duh....because that is why Christ came...to overcome Satan and death and to provide His righteousness for us to satisify a Holy God.. Good thing, huh? I messed up big this weekend. I'm not going into any details yet it was a mess up of epic sized proportion....enough to make me want to just slink off somewhere and give up. God doesn't let us give up though. If anyone wants us to give up, it's Satan. So, I'm not giving in. I'm taking care of damage control. I learned something extremely important about myself this weekend and now it is time to ......yup, you guessed it....press on. So...that is all I have to say for today. 10 classes to teach....makes for a full day. Where WAS that fog delay this morning???? Tsk, tsk...

Friday....progress....

Ok....so, I kind of like the idea of an "easily correctable". It makes me laugh. ANyway, I now have a beautiful mum in the wooden bucket that had formerly been a recepticle for weeks, paint cans and generic trash. It looks really nice. I even had to peek out at it last night before I went to bed...doesn't take much. :) AND I plugged up 3 money sucking holes...continuing charges on my cc's that were out dated/not used/stupid/ unrealistic etc. The total coming to.......$66.09. This was money that was being spent...going on charge cards for NOTHING. So...onward....I have more looking to do. That was only 2 cards worth. I bet there is more to find. I have taken the advice of a couple of friends and eased up a little bit in a couple of areas. And...as soon as I figure out how much I actually am bringing home each month, I like the idea of the envelope system. Then it is possible to make little purchases like an occasional book or something for Logan or the secret shop or whatever. If the money is designated in an envelope, it is ok to make that expenditure. I think that will be good. Time to go get ready for my teaching day. Got to school to find I had been booted out of my classroom.....surprise. After my inital fury, (and finding out it is just temporary) I"m fine. Would have been nice to have been given a heads up...but hey.... Got to go get some things squared away.

and.....(9/17 btw)

Ok....in addition to the money sucking holes I'm tracking down I decided to tackle an "easily correctable". At first, being crazy like I am, I decided I would fix 5 easily correctable things TODAY. Then, I decided that was stupid, so how about 1. As I was leaving for work today, I looked at the flower barrel outside my backdoor which is FILLED with grass and weeds. blah. I ALWAYS feel bad when I look at it and I look at it a lot, so I decided that would be easily correctable. I will stop on the way home tonight and pick up a mum and then this evening, I will clean that bucket out and put the mum in. That will be a happy thing that will give me pleasure when I see it and that is good.

press on....

isn't that what I claimed a couple weeks ago????? pressing on..... ok....I'm pretty overwhelmed with a lot of stuff right now....not my project stuff.....family stuff, kid stuff, work stuff, church stuff. When I get overwhelmed, I kind of get tunnel vision. So, with the concept of pressing on, I have chosen a small project to work on between now and the weekend. Money holes. Do you have any of those??? Probably not, but I have found some. I have been going through cc statements and have found recurring charges for stuff I may have signed up for years ago and I have not used or I even still receive the product or newsletter or whatever. SO......I am in hot pursuit in closing up these money sucking holes. I will try to post a total on Saturday. Wish me good hunting.

Sunday the 13th....

I'm a little wobbly with this right now.....Not unusual when I get in school. I get tired, frustrated, bored, short of time etc and what do we do when we these things happen??? Fall back into old habits. Now, that hasn't exactly happened....well...yes, it has. Let's be honest here. (sooooo hard to be honest) What did I do???? Ollies and the children's place at OC. Didn't spend much...much less than I would have before, BUT....you know, the problem is bigger/different than just the amount of $$ spent. The problem is that is entertainment or a stress relief for me. I need to find other entertainments/stress relievers. I spent $10 at the children's place...got 2 outfits and a baby present....(It's their big sale time)...anyway....i can't quite get a handle on this.....I am just rambling today...sorry about that. I will try to reorder my thoughts today and see if I can't get more focused. :(

9/11

Thanks to those who inquired about Steve and Lindsay. He is home again...he was hospitalized last week, but got out a couple of days ago. My niece is caring for him and of course the two little ones. My brother and his wife are over there quite a bit I guess...and I'm sure that is a wonderful help. We'll just keep praying. NOW...let's talk about Christmas.....is it a bad thing to pick up some Christmas presents along the way? I admit it...I went to Ollies...I wanted to buy a touch and feel book for Logan. THey didn't have any, but they did have baby genius dvd's for $2.99. Yes, this is what usually gets me in terrible trouble....if one is good, then 6 are better, right??????? So, I picked out the ones I wanted, and then put half of them back. I got him 2. That's better than what I ever would have done before. ANd I didn't get any of the stuffed animals that sing...AND I didn't get him the purple monkey named Oboe.....I may have to rethink that one. :) Time to go work on dinner. Haven't been to the store yet....making like a french bread pizza with stuff I have in the house. :) I'll be heading out to the store SOON. ttyl