Day 98

Today was Sunday - 

and the weather was just about perfect. We had sunny skies, low humidity, and the temperature was around 80-85. Just great. On the other hand, I got an email from Wade - he said it was cooling down there too - the temperature was around 100 degrees! Just a slightly  different perspective. 
We played our last handbell music for the summer at church this morning. We had 4 pre-teens join us playing various instruments. Then the Seekers & Singers II (grades 2-4) sang along with us while we played " 'Dem Bones" It was a fun piece. Jaide played a washboard with a wooden spoon. I had my hand bells plus a cow bell. There were whistles, bells, and other percussion instruments too. A fun piece to play. I am glad for the time off, but will be anxious to start up again with the handbell choir in the fall. 
Lunch today was meatball sandwiches, spaghetti, salad, broccoli w/cheese, squash, and for dessert blueberry pie with ice cream. It was a good time with Jason, Peggy, Jaide & Jared. 

All of them were outside later in the afternoon playing and enjoying the sunshine and beautiful weather. I went out for my 20 minutes to try and soak up some Vitamin D. I'm really not sure how long I should sit there to gain any benefit. But I will keep doing this every mid-day for as long as I can to see if it will actually help. 

My dinner tonight was a chicken cordon bleu cutlet and a salad. I'll probably have a strawberry smoothie later this evening as a nice, cooling treat. Then I will head off to bed and read more. 
I have a lot to do tomorrow and need to be up early to go to the post office when it opens up. Plus I'm looking forward to skyping with Mr. Wide later in the morning. Later in the afternoon I will be bowling with Jaide & Jared & Peggy. This will be our second year of "Kids Bowl Free". 

Day 97

Today was a different type of Saturday. I wonder if all my days are shape-shifting into different flavors? I had a meeting at 9:00 this morning. All the Wednesday night teachers got together to discuss curriculum, themes, plans, and expectations for the Seekers & Singers II that will begin on September 7th. This group, (Michelle, Charlotte, Ron, Tracey and myself) has been the teaching staff for the past 2 years and we seem to work together very well. Our thoughts and goals seem to be on the same path and our meetings go smoothly and quickly. We got almost everything done and were finished by 11:30. Well..... we were probably REALLY finished by 11:00 but we sat and talked for a while. 
I was home by noon and bought tickets for E-E-E-EEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Mystery Palace!! That will happen in October and I'm looking forward to that. Then I worked on my Bible study for about an hour. 
Later, I went outside to take in some 'vitamins'. I am vitamin D-deficient - my body is unable to absorb it in pill form, my doctor wanted to do shots - but they don't do that anymore in the United States, so I went outside in shorts and a short sleeve shirt and sat for 20 minutes in the sun. I set my phone alarm to let me know when I was done. I am hesitant about doing that because one of my medications causes me to burn very quickly, but I figure I either get rickets - or I burn a little. However tonight I don't see any burning on my skin so I'm guessing I'm okay. I think I will try to do this everyday for 20 minutes and see how my next blood test goes. 
Then I did my long walk today on the treadmill. Make no mistake - I am slow, but I actually walked 3.5 miles in about 90 minutes today. I watched two episodes of Desperate Housewives while I walked and I am very pleased with myself. I won't do that everyday, but maybe once a week I'll go a little longer. At least I know I can finish a 5K walk if I wanted, but again, it would be very, very slow. 
I ran to Kroger for a few groceries for tomorrow's big meal and on the way home I found the culprit that caused our power outage yesterday:

Going north on Old Mill just past the intersection and through the curve. 

Going south on Old Mill - past the church and going into the curve and over the bridge. 

In the second picture you can see how the tree is pointing towards the street. Well, this was a much taller tree and when it fell the top of the tree crossed over the street and pulled down the power lines that were on the other side. It actually happened about 30 minutes after the thunderstorms had passed. So the ground must have just given way and the tree was uprooted. The power lines are not finished yet - there are some draped over other trees to keep them off the ground. But at least, we have power. 
I've made some turkey meatballs tonight for tomorrow's dinner. Now I'm just resting and relaxing in the living room. Dishes are done, clothes for tomorrow are picked out. I'll probably get my Kindle and do some reading. I am currently reading a book by Tim LaHaye called "The Edge of Apocalypse".  

Day 96

Have you ever had one of those days when nothing goes according to how you had planned it? Well, today was MY day for that. It wasn't bad, but the day had a mind of its own and I just went along for the ride. 
I actually got to sleep in until 7:30 which was great. Angel did not wake me at all during the night to go outside and I was surprised to have slept in that late. 
I fed the dogs, had breakfast, and then began the first day of my new Bible study. It's about David, and I needed to read background stories on Samuel, Saul, and Jonathan - so it was more reading than normal. From about 10:00 until 11:00 I skyped with Wade. We were having some really nasty thunderstorms and I told him we might lose power which would cut our skype session short. We did not lose power during that, but at 11:30 we actually did lose all our power. It was very puzzling though because the storms had passed and the sun was shining. 
I decided to go to the nail salon and do some shopping at Walmart since we had no power at home anyway. When I got to the nail salon - there was a wedding party there getting mani-pedi's and they were backed up. I decided to wait anyway. It took quite a while but it's done now. 
At Wal-mart I bought a bunch of kids' toys, treats, and snacks that I will be sending to Wade. He needed some fun hand-outs for kids and this should take care of him for quite a while. 
When I got home at 3:30 - the power was still out! I had a bowl of baked beans for lunch. I just opened the fridge and grabbed! Then I sat in my recliner with a book and took a nap. I love times when the house is so quiet and I can just sit there and close my eyes. That feels so restful to me. After that I went outside and sat in Wade's lawn chair and enjoyed the cool breezes under the trees. 
By 5:30 we still had no power so I took Jaide and Jared out to dinner. They both had coupons for a free meal and drink at Bob Evans so we went there. 

 Jared chose chocolate chip pancakes and sausage. I love how they made a happy face for him. 

Jaide had macaroni and cheese with corn. That's some of my favorite food too! I had salmon, baked potato and sliced tomatoes. 
After that we drove to the reservoir and drove past the ducks, geese, swans, and cranes. It's always crowded and so much fun to see them all - they walk right alongside the car. I have to go really, really slow so they will move away. There were a few baby geese along with their mamas and those are so cute. We didn't get out because we were getting lightning and thunder. More storms were coming. We stopped at Coldstone Creamery for a final treat before heading home. I asked them to cross their fingers that we would have power when we got home. And we did - hooray!! But I learned that it had just come back on around 7:30 or so. If we had stayed home and had our usual Friday night, we would have had burgers & a movie. So this was totally different. 
I finally got on my treadmill at 9:00 and got in 45 minutes. And here I am with a strawberry smoothie (luckily my milk and frozen strawberries survived 7 hours of no power) and I'm watching a little tv before I head off to bed. 
So today did not turn out how I expected, but it still turned out just fine. 

Day 95

Another hot day this Thursday. 

I didn't sleep a lot last night because Angel kept waking me to go outside. Appar-ently she has doggie flu and her tummy is not very settled. She has been asking to go outside most of the day - Peggy & Jared let the girls out when I was gone during the day. Right now Angel is sleeping and hopefully this episode of flu is past her now. 

I had a new Bible Study start this morning. It's another Beth Moore study and we're studying about David. It promises to be great and I am so looking forward to it. 
This afternoon I had a doctor's appointment. Originally it was to discuss blood test results. So I have some good news and bad news. My cholesterol is down 25 points from my last visit. My weight is down 7 pounds. My blood pressure is great. My thyroid level is steady so the pills I am taking are the correct strength. But, I am still having problems with Vitamin D absorbtion and he has asked me to increase my dosage for another 3 months and have it rechecked. Because of some of the medicines I take, I can't really be out in the sunlight - which is a GREAT source of vitamin D. The concern is since I already have osteoporosis - this is not a great thing to be deficient in Vitamin D. But we'll just have to wait and see how the next 3 months go. 
I also showed him my knee cap. Back on Day 38 (April 13) I mentioned that I fell in the church parking lot and for 1 1/2 - 2 weeks afterwards I could not bend my leg. I spent most of the time with my leg straight and elevated, and kept myself oblivious and happy with some leftover pain pills from previous injuries. Well, when I went to the doctor today I mentioned this strange lump on my kneecap. After he examined it, he told me that I had indeed fractured it when I fell. As it healed, it grew some calcium buildup and now is a bone spur on my knee cap. I can walk just fine, I can manage stairs pretty well, but I cannot kneel or put any weight on that knee. So I am not able to do any housework that required me to kneel!! Aw - darn!! - I'm just broken up about that!! Someday I may have to have surgery and may have to deal with arthritis in that knee, but I am functional now and that's good enough for me. The doctor was very surprised that I was able to even get up and walk after fracturing my knee. He asked me how I got back up after I fell. I had no answer except that I guess I just did it because I had to. I also had Jaide & Jared with me and I didn't want to freak them out. 

I posted Wade's blog tonight. Part of it was a tear-jerker and even after reading it a bunch of times - it's still very sentimental. Perhaps I'll have to find something to post that makes Wade cry!! ha-ha. I actually have something saved, but I'm not ready to share it yet............
Tomorrow is Friday and that means SKYPE!!!! I can't wait to talk with Wade. 

Day 94

Yuck! It's hot here. Okay - so it's not as hot as Iraq, but I'm a sissy and for me - it was HOT!! The temperature got up around 95 or so and with the humidity figured in it felt like over 100 degrees. That's plenty hot and I hope that it cools down soon.  
I didn't do a whole lot today - a little shopping, went to the gas station and to the post office. 
I took some pictures of the house because I needed to make a map with directions for my Spiritual Leadership Class - they will be meeting here in two weeks and I need to bring the map to tomorrow night's class. So here are some pictures I took of the house. It looks cool and green, but see paragraph #1 - it was HOT!!

View from across the street

Looking north.....

And looking south.....

Our one-of-a-kind mailbox -
no one will take a baseball bat to this........

These huge stones were hauled up from below by our strong-man, Jason

The horseshoe pits are behind those trees.

I did some vacuuming and laundry today. Then tonight was Summer Kids. We had about 35 kids there tonight. I think they had a good time. I know I did. 

Day 93

Yesterday was another birthday in our family so I thought I would talk a little about the birthday girl. Jaide is now 11 years old.

 I first met Jaide about four years ago after they moved here from Washington. On that first day, I took her shopping with me at Walmart and I was amazed at just how much she talked, but not just that, but how she was so comfortable to open up to me - a stranger. She has a bubbly personality that will be a great asset to her when she becomes an adult. 

She is very passionate about animals and hopes to become a veterinarian or a scientist when she grows up. 
She loves to come and help me out with cooking and baking and she is very good at it. 

She is a very sweet, little girl........ young lady. 

Happy Birthday, Jaide!

Oh man! Today was another hot day. It was also the last day of school for Jaide & Jared. They both had field days and I'm very glad that I didn't participate because it would just have been too hot for me. 

Instead I went to work at Hannah House and took care of balancing the accounts, paying the bills, making a deposit and visiting the water company. There are now three mothers living at Hannah House and I briefly met the two new women this morning. There sure is a lot more activity when there are more residents. I didn't see Selena - I left before she arrived.

I did a little bit of shopping after that, but then spent the afternoon at home relaxing and trying to cool off. 
Tonight I had a Weight Watcher meeting. Pastor Joy and another woman, Tamara (from church) go to the meetings too. This was the first week of the program for Tamara and I. Pastor Joy said she would embarrass herself if we lost weight. Well, we both did - and she did this goofy, over-exaggerated happy dance there in front of everybody. Not just once, but two times! Funny, funny. So I would say, yes, she did embarrass herself. I lost 5.4 pounds this first week. I don't expect that big of a loss again. My first week on a diet is always pretty big. 
I am now watching "2012" on Netflix. I think a good disaster movie is always a great choice for entertainment.  I will fix myself a strawberry smoothie later tonight. 
Wade is fine - I think he's feeling a little better - I know that he did some running today - so I know that he feels well enough to run. He did say that the food in the DFAC was acceptable tonight and he actually ate some of it.   

Day 92

This morning I spent a wonderful 40 minutes skyping with Wade. It was great. I always enjoy my time that I spend with him. He is fine - a little homesick, but then again he's feeling a little touch of stomach flu or something and he thinks that is contributing to him missing home more. He does have some activities coming up this week that will enhance his Friday post. I can't wait! 
I worked on homework for my Spiritual Leadership Class. One of the chapters I had to read was on time management. This was especially meant for me this morning. I seem to have so many activities and responsibilities - I tend to overextend myself and that is so frustrating and stressful for me. 
No matter your status, occupation, or stage in life, we are all given the same amount of time. Why is it some people seem to have more?? It's all in the management. Not taking on everything new that is offered, but to be selective and open to the Lord's leading on what to commit to:
"God has a plan for each person that is uniquely suited to that individual. Unlike people, God never piles on more than someone can handle. God never overbooks people. God never drives his servants to the point of breakdown. God never burns people out. God never gives people tasks that are beyond the strength or ability he provides........... The key for overworked leaders is to examine each of their current responsibilities to determine whether they had inadvertently assumed ownership for things God has not intended them to carry."  [Spiritual Leadership, Henry & Richard Blackaby] Why do people get burnt out, overworked, overbooked? They're not following God's agenda. In an attempt to be a pleasing person, to be liked, to be appreciated, oftentimes people take on too much.  
And my message - to me - is to back up, slow down, examine my priorities and ask God what His agenda is for me. I need to be brave enough to say no to people unless I truly believe that God is leading me into it. I need to fulfill my commitments, but also to be selective on upcoming offers. My goal is to be in God's will. 


"Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is."                                              Ephesians 5:17-17