Prayer Needed!!

I just got this message from my SIL (bro's wife). Her dad is in the hospital and they're not sure what's going on...please say a prayer for him and SIL and their family.

Sister,

My dad was rushed to the hospital last night. My mom heard him fall in the kitchen. He was convulsing and gurgling. At first we thought it was a stroke, but the cat scan came back okay. Then they noticed his belly getting bigger and ran some tests and found that he was bleeding internally. They are still running more tests to see what is causing this.

I was at the hospital until 4 this morning and will be going back in a few hours. (he's having surgery)

My mom is not doing so well emotionally. She has not slept this whole time (she's still with him) nor has she eaten anything.

Could you please let your family know and have everyone pray?

Thanks,
SIL

Rejoice!

One of my co-workers gets these little "grace for the day" emails every day, and he's started to forward them to a few of us who are just as stressed and frustrated with work as he is. This is the one for today...I want to be this excited about my relationship with God!

I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Habakkuk 3:18 NIV


When a baby sees his mother's face, every part of his body wiggles, jiggles, and smiles with delight.

His source of joy is the one he loves, the one he recognizes, even at an early age, the one who loves him in return.

Growing in your relationship with God is not just an exercise in getting to know the Bible better. It is all about getting to know God better, up close and personal. He wants to be the source of your joy and delight.

Even when circumstances are anything but happy, true joy is as close as God's loving presence. Spend time talking to Him, finding comfort in His promises and contentment in His love. There is no deeper joy this side of Heaven.

Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God. -- Leon Blo

Because I love her...

here's a better picture (according to sis) of the two of us...she didn't like the one I posted from the Lake. I thought it was ok, so I'm leaving it and adding this one.

This one was taken in my backyard over the 4th of July.

More then and now fun

This "then and now" bit is kinda fun...here are some then and now of my Sis and I.


Here are us 3 kids around 1980...like my Dorothy Hamill hair cut??




This is sister at the Grand Candyon -- either '88 or '89...I can't remember which.




Looking a little better, at Sis's wedding a few years ago.




And here we are a few weeks ago...

Procrastination

I'm a HUGE procrastinator. I'm also a perfectionist, and these two things don't work too well together. See, I put off doing things because I don't have the time (or don't want to take the time) to do them right...so I just wait until I absolutely HAVE to do them.

This came back to bite me in the arse on Monday.

I had 2 doctor's appointments with about an hour in between them. My PLAN was to go to one appointment, run a couple errands, go to the next appointment, meet my SIL for lunch and then head back to work.

Everything was fine until I finished my errands early and decided to sit in my car and work on a small project while I killed some time. The weather outside was nice so I rolled down the windows and turned on the radio.

AND THEN, when it was time to leave for the doctor's office, my car was DEAD. DEAD, I say...would NOT turn over. It was only then that I thought back to about 10 months ago (that is a LONG time) when my Dad told me, after borrowing my car, that my battery was getting low and would probably need to be replaced soon. 10 months ago! And I was still driving around on my old worn out battery.

The car had been struggling to start lately. It was inevitable that it needed replacing, but I didn't have time (or whatever) to take care of it.

So, here I sat in the parking lot with a dead car and a doctor's appointment only 15 minutes later.

To make an already long and embarrassing story a little shorter, here's what happened. I called my SIL to come pick me up and take me to the doctor, where I was 30 minutes late but it worked out ok. And then to make up for the trauma of the morning, we sat in PF Changs for the next 90 minutes stuffing our bellies with yummy food. Then I realized that I should probably go take care of my car that I'd left sitting lonely in a parking lot.

SIL and I read the owner's manual to figure out how to jump start the car, and after a successful jump start (Go Girls!), I drove (and prayed that the car wouldn't die on me) directly to Sam's Club where I left the car running while I ran in to see if they had a battery for my car.

Whew! They did, and while they fixed my poor baby, I wandered around the store sipping on a cold Diet Coke and reading the backs of all the new paperbacks. By the time my car was ready, I only had an hour left of my work day, so I called my co-workers and said, "see ya tomorrow - I'm heading HOME."

So, my procrastination kinda paid off...I only worked 2.5 hours on Monday, and all it cost me was a frantic call to SIL, a yummy lunch at PF Changs and $50 for a new battery. A lot better than working on a Monday, don't ya think??

It's almost MY month!

In my family (at least according to me), birthdays are a BIG deal.

And, it's almost mine! But first, it's B's birthday.

We are 5 years and 2 days apart in age. So, on Saturday, B turns 38, and on Monday (Labor Day) I turn 33.

When I was a kid, I thought Labor Day was to celebrate moms' giving birth...I really did...because I was born on Labor Day in 1974. Every few years my birthday falls on the holiday again, and it's perfectly fine with me if the entire nation helps me celebrate.

This weekend will start the festivities. I'm taking B to a yummy restaurant for lunch on Saturday, then we'll go to his parents house for dinner -- for his favorite (biscuits and gravy) and my favorite (chocolate cake). We'll hang out with my SIL and BIL and nieces and the 'Rents and eat fatty food and open presents...woo hoo!! Presents for ME! Sunday we'll work on recovering from all the food on Saturday so that we can go out to yummy dinner (where, I don't know...you Wichitans give me some suggestions) on Monday.

Then, as per my rule, I will remain the Queen for the rest of September...since it's my birthday month. We'll see how well that goes over with the hubby.

Y'know, if I'm going to get older, I might as well take advantage of whatever I can get!

Then and Now

I've been wanting to post this for a while, but I had to drag myself down to use my scanner before I could.

When Shell was here visiting this summer, we busted out the old photo albums and had some laughs at how we looked in college. It seems like it was yesterday, but it was over 10 years ago! We're getting old, girl! =)

Although, I think we look WAY better now that then...what do ya'll think?

THEN





NOW

Ain't that nice?

Last week Jenni awarded me my very first blog award! And she thinks I'm nice! Maybe that means that my efforts to be a nicer person are paying off? Thanks Jenni!

Here's what it's all about:

"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award."

So, here's who I think deserves this award:

Terri at The Ruddell Times
Niki at My Journey
Chelf at Chelf Space
Shell at SkyBluePink
Jana (my sister!) at Life as I know it
Terry at Road Rage (really, she's very nice, even though Rage is in her title! LOL)

Thanks, girls, for being such great blog buddies! I look forward to reading your blogs every day! There are a lot of other blogs that could and should be on this list...I pretty much don't read a blog that's flat out cruel...but I also can't post all 50 blogs from my bloglines on here, can I? =)

Have a great day everyone!

Something to do with coffee??

I cringed inwardly a little as I drove up to the Starbucks drive thru this morning...there were 4 cars in front of me just waiting to place their order. I pulled in behind the suburban in front of me, and sat there thinking for a second. Should I back up and go inside? That might be faster...but I didn't really want to get out of my car.

So, I sat there and waited my turn. I could see the guy in the Surburban through his side mirror. We kind of smiled at each other as we sat in line. About 10 minutes later, I finally made it to the window to pick up my Grande nonfat peppermint latte (yum!!).

The whole reason I ran through Starbucks today was because I got my gift card from my credit card points in the mail yesterday....but, I didn't need my gift card. When I got to the window, the girl told me that the guy in front of me had paid for my drink. What?? Why does this keep happening to me? Remember this?

Is it something to do with coffee? Do I look like I need my coffee so bad that people offer to pay for me?

I KNOW it has something to do with the Midwest. This NEVER happened to me in CA. Again, I was so surprised that I started thanking the Starbucks girl...because I couldn't thank Mr. Suburban - he was already long gone.

As I drove away, I thought that I should have paid for the college girl in the car behind me - she probably could have used a free coffee. Why didn't I think of that when I was still at the window??

So, Mr. Suburban - thank you so much for giving me a little treat this morning...I promise pass on your kindness soon!

Great deals!

Have any of you ever shopped at The Discover Shoppe? It's affiliated with Youthville, and the first time I heard of it was on one of my new favorite shows, A Side Order of Life.

A Side Order of Life is a GREAT new show...I've laughed and cried a bunch already, and I've only watched 3 episodes! It's a great show for those of us in our 30's...it's clean (for the most part), practical, realistic (for the most part), and my TiVO records it for me every week.

Anyway, Jenny, the main character in the show donates a handbag to The Discover Shoppe...a store that I didn't know was a real thing...until today when I was running errands at lunch, and I saw one. It's a high end resale shop. The store was filled with clothes from Ann Taylor, Talbots, Eddie Bauer, Calvin Klein, and on and on.

I walked out of there with a pair of Eddie Bauer khakis, that will be great for work, for $2.25!! And they're in great shape! Can you believe it? Look and see if you have one near you, and then go shopping!

Short Fairy Tale

Once upon a time,

a guy asked a girl, "Will you marry me?"

The girl said......."No"

And she lived happily ever after and went shopping, drank
martinis with friends, always had a clean house, never had to
cook, had a closet full of shoes and handbags, stayed skinny,
and was never farted on.

The End


It's true, girls...that's all I have to say...it's TRUE!! Of course, I still go shopping and have the occasional martini with the girls, and I have a TON of shoes and bags, and I rarely cook (see my previous post), and even though I weigh a little more than when we got married, B still thinks I'm beautiful and sexy...and well, I wouldn't give him up for anything!

Thanks to my SIL for making me smile by sending this to me.

Yummy Dinner

I cooked last night! That's a pretty amazing feat, in and of itself. I don't dislike cooking, but I can satisfy my hunger pains with cereal or popcorn or a sandwich just as easily as with a home cooked meal. And it's faster, with less clean up, and less brain work.

But, even though I don't cook nearly as much as before I got married, I have a bad habit of collecting recipes. See, I find recipes all over the place - online, in the paper, in a magazine - and they sound so good, so I clip them out or print them, and then they get thrown into my "recipe cupboard", oftentimes never to be seen again.

Every once in a while I'll sort through the mess and put the really interesting recipes on top of the stack, thinking maybe, one day, I'll actually make one of them.

And last night I finally did! I made Thai Chicken Stir Fry with Spicy Peanut Sauce, and it was SOOOO good. This recipe I found on Cooks.com (I think), and it looked yummy for many reasons -- it's simple, most of the ingredients I already had at home (I had to go buy broccoli), and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Thai food.

B wandered into the kitchen and almost fell over when I told him I was going to cook. He looked at the recipe, pointed at BROCCOLI and said NO, just like a 3 year old. I told him he could pick it out, but I was putting it in.

The dish was delicious, even B said so as he sat munching on it without broccoli. Here's the recipe, give it a try if you want to.

THAI CHICKEN STIR-FRY WITH SPICY PEANUT SAUCE

2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned & cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. water
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
3 to 4 c. sliced broccoli or spinach

In a small bowl, blend peanut butter, water, soy sauce and sugar; set aside. In a wok or large skillet, heat oil over high heat. Add garlic and pepper; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add chicken, stir-fry until firm and white, about 5 minutes. Add broccoli or spinach, stir-fry until bright green, about 3 minutes. Stir in peanut butter mixture. Cook, stirring constantly until sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes. Serves 4.

I made the recipe exactly as it says up above, but I think I'll change it a little bit next time. I think it made more sauce than I needed, and it wasn't as spicy as I'd like. I would probably add some chili sauce to the sauce and not use all of it in the pan. Also, I served it over rice, but I bet it would be great over noodles, too.

Enjoy! I sure did!

BadAss Marine

This is AMAZING...that's all I can say.

They should use this for recruiting. I would sign up!

Jenni, this makes me SOOOO proud of our USMC, and my hubby and your son! Tell him for me!

Ultimatum

We went to see Bourne Ultimatum this weekend. I thought it was AWESOME!! It wasn't until I met B that I could appreciate a good action flick. Now, I love them. Of course, I'm pretty particular about which action flicks I see. I want to see car chases and suspense and a mystery to solve. I DON'T want to see tons of blood and gore or extended graphic fight scenes. One of my favorite movies is The Italian Job...I love to see the minis racing around. I also love Ronin for the car chases also. But, movies like Gangs of New York? SO not my favorite!

Anyway, we went to see Bourne on Saturday night after trying yet another "Mexican" restaurant in town (I don't know why I keep trying...Kansas has NO CLUE what real mexican food is). B ordered his typical carnitas at dinner, and after we got in the car, I noticed the most disgusting thing.

The boy (I mean, 37 year old man!) had a chunk of pork between his lower lip and his teeth, y'know, like a hunk of nasty ass chew! He just kept it there, and then he started TRYING to talk like The Godfather (his favorite movie character).


This is what I had to listen to on the drive to the theater...

(Ya gotta picture Marlon Brando as you read these)

I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.

Never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking.

Do you spend time with your family?

Oh, but it didn't stop there. I WARNED B I was going to blog about this, he just laughed at me. I tried to squeeze the pork into his mouth and make him swallow it, no dice. And as usual, we sat on the aisle in the theater, so he felt the need to pretend to all passers-by that he was The Godfather. I even tried an ultimatum of my own -- I told him he would get no action if he didn't get rid of it...but who am I kidding? I'm usually the one asking for it, so he knew that that threat wouldn't stick. Oh well.

I was a little embarrassed, but it was mostly just hilarious. And, would you believe that as we left that theater 2 hours later, he WAS STILL SUCKING ON THAT PORK?? Gross!

Only from my husband.

At last the movie was great (the best of the three, I think), and we had a great time with each other. And, oh yeah? He still got his action...I can't resist him! =)

Another Buddy Comes to Town!

In March, 8 of my Buddies came to visit me here in the great state of Kansas. There are 10 of us all together, so 2 didn't get to come.

But Suzy made up for it and came to visit me this week with her 2 adorable kids. She has a wedding to go to in MO this weekend and then she's heading to IN to visit our Buddy, Hermy...but first, she came to KS to see me.

I have to say that she is my hero. She drove up to my house on Monday night, after missing her exit and ending up quite a bit south of town, with a loaded down rental mini van, her 2 kids and all their stuff. As I helped her unload, I was amazed that she had been able to navigate the airport and car rental place with the kids, their car seats, the stroller, and their luggage. I think I would have had a melt down! When it's my turn, she's going to have to give me lessons.

Suzy and her kids were pretty tired on Monday night, as was I since I had just gotten back from the lake the day before, so we ordered pizza and called it a night. I had to work Tuesday, so I left Suzy to learn her way around town and try to stay cool (these 100+ days are getting to us!) until I could join her in the evening.

We decided to just cook dinner and hang out at home, but we had to make a run to the store first. We left Suzy's 3 year old daughter with B to play with the trains while we ran to the store. They had a blast while we were gone! Of course, I wasn't surprised...B is a kid MAGNET!

We fixed dinner and sat down for some yummy summertime sweet corn and chicken and a good chat. After dinner, we decided to take a walk around our lake in search of lightening bugs. Suzy's daughter kept asking B to go with us, but he wasn't up for the girl chatter so he stayed home. That didn't stop Lil Suz from asking every few minutes where B was. It was so cute! The lightening bugs didn't make an appearance, but the mosquitoes sure did even though we were drenched in bug spray. My feet still itch! Yuck!

Since we'd gone to bed early the night before, we wanted to stay up and visit some more, so after the kids had baths and went to bed, we headed downstairs to play on our blogs and catch up. Suzy is a new blogger, so I had to teach her a few of the tricks I've learned...I expect to see a blogging explosion now, Suzy!

Before we knew it, it was almost 1am, and I was ready to sleep. While I snoozed, Suz had a rough night with the kids and didn't end up getting much sleep at all. But still, she got up at 6am, got the car loaded while the kiddies slept, and we hit the road at the same time...with both vehicles pointed straight to Starbucks for some much needed caffeine.

Even though our visit was so short, we had a great time, and we both mentioned how nice it was to have some one-on-one time with each other. With a group of 10 Buddies, one-on-one time is hard to come by, but it's just as important as the group time we spend together.

Suz is off for the rest of her vacation, and I'm back at work...but we'll see each other in only 7 weeks for our Annual Buddy Weekend...bring on the shopping and eating and laughing all over again! =)

Blackout

It rained last night. Big fat drops that came sideways at our house and hit the windows so hard that I thought the glass would break. It started right after we went to bed...figures.

I don't like storms very much. The idea is cool, but they freak me out (that's the California girl in me coming out). We really needed the rain though. Even with all the rain we got in the late spring and early summer, we need more already. My flowers have been wilting in the 100 degree heat, and brown spots have been showing up in our lawn.

As I turned off the light last night, I knew that I wouldn't get much sleep...I didn't realize exactly how little sleep it would be.

About 1am, I woke up because I was getting warm. B was up and walking around our room. Groggily, I sat up and asked him what was going on. He said that the power had just gone out. We could see constant flashes of lightening and hear thunder roaring outside. I laid back down and tried to get comfortable in our warm room.

I was just drifting off again when B sat straight up in bed, and said, "@#$^$# @#$@%$." (I can't bring myself to type what actually came out of his mouth)

I asked him what was wrong (because the curse words didn't actually tell me what was wrong). He goes, "The sump pump won't come on if the power is out." I said, "I know, that's why I told you 4 MONTHS AGO that we needed to get a back up pump installed."

"Well, that doesn't help us now, does it?" he yelled back at me. DUH! I know that...that's why I told you 4 MONTHS AGO we needed something else...but it would have done no good to say I told you so right then.

We jumped out of bed, rummaged around for candles and a lighter, and headed downstairs to see if our basement was flooding. B looked at it and said it looked fine for "a while." What's a while? I asked, but he just glared at me and went back upstairs.

It was then that I used the one wired phone in our house to call the electric company to see what was going on. After I FINALLY got through to someone, I was told that tree branches had broken off and fallen on the power lines. The woman told me they expected power to be back on by 6am. Yeah, right, I thought...they probably won't start working on it until 6am.

Now it was really getting warm in our room, so I told B to grab his pillow so we could sleep in the basement. He followed me downstairs and then turned up his nose at the futon I was planning to sleep on. He said he'd rather sleep in the heat upstairs. Whatever...more room for me.

I laid down and tried to fall back asleep. My baby (I mean dog) Lucy came down to join me in the cool basement. She and I cuddled up and finally fell asleep. The next thing I remember is B waking me up because it was 6:40am...and you guessed it, still no power.

It was not fun to put my makeup on by candlelight this morning...good thing I only had to throw on jeans and a hat since I worked from Panera Bread today. Not to mention that the 3 cups of coffee I downed this morning did nothing to wake me up and everything to make me feel shaky and jittery...or maybe that was all the sugar I consumed in my cinnamon crunch bagel. Whatever it was, I think I'll sleep well tonight.

Our power came back on about 9am this morning, and I ran home to make sure everything came back on ok. Nothing was amiss, so that's good. But, 2 of my neighbors are out of town, so I have to go check their houses for them, too.

On the agenda for the next week is to get a plumber out to quote a back up sump pump for us...lesson learned!

My Sister, My Friend

My sis made it into the local library yesterday and emailed me all the photos we took during our visit. I had a wonderful time with her! We realized that this was the first vacation we'd had together, just the 2 of us. Sis and I have very strong personalities...and they're different from each other (big surprise!). That means that we disagree often...but we both agree that we love each other very much. And I'm so glad she's my LITTLE sis, and it was so fun to spend some quality time together.



I'm so looking forward to being an auntie to her little boy, and I'm praying that she gets to move close enough to me that I can see her and her family often. I love you Naner!

Here's sis w/ my new nephew...only a couple more months!!


This is the view from the deck of the lake house...we went out to watch the sunset and play a friendly (yeah, right!) game of Canasta.



Then sis got artistic with the camera and had me pose. We were down on the dock where we tried to hitch hike a ride on a boat.



Here's the house (and the pups on the deck) looking up from the dock. It's an awesome house with awesome views!



Here are sis's dogs, Rudy and TG (That Guy). They like hanging out on the deck, too.



After my extended weekend, I felt relaxed and ready to come back and face the world (too bad that feeling is already gone). Thanks for a great weekend, sis!

Preoccupied with 1985?

Thanks Jenni for pointing me to this video. It's GREAT...and brings back some great memories.

How could she be UNCOOL?? She's so cool!

Enjoy the video and live in the past for a few minutes...we're still SO cool!

Greetings from 1985!

I'm alive. I'm well. I'm just stuck in 1985.

I've been visiting my sister at her IL's lake house. It's gorgeous -- great views of the lake from almost every window in the house. Decks off of all 3 stories of the house where we've eaten and chatted and played cards. But, we get no cell reception, and no internet service. Therefore, we are sitting in the public library, 45 minutes from the house, with our trusty laptops catching up on the world.

If the world is falling apart, we have no idea...we don't even get local TV stations. Of course, we do get, via satellite, every possible movie channel. We've watched All the Right Moves, Grease 2, Bev Hills 90210, Devil Wears Prada, Road to Glory. We've played Canasta and Cribbage. We've eaten yummy food and drank lots of decaf coffee (sis is preggers). Oh yeah, and let's not forget that we've slept in!

It's been heaven! And it all ends tomorrow. Bummer.

We've taken some fun pictures but I'll have to post them later b/c sis doesn't have her cord for the camera.

Fun Weekend

I had a great weekend! I realize it's Wednesday, and I'm just now posting about the weekend...but it's been a busy week.

My college buddy, Shell, came out to visit last weekend. We had a blast...drinking coffee, eating good food, lots of great conversation, shopping, pedis, sitting on the deck, walks around the lake. It was great!! And since she did such an AWESOME job detailing the weekend, just check out her post here.

It was back to work on Monday after I dropped her at the airport...what a letdown after such a great weekend. Oh well...it's a short week for me since I'm heading to MO to hang w/ my sis for a few days. There's no cell service or high speed internet where we're staying, so I'll be living the old fashioned life for a while. We may get into the local library once or twice to check email, but who knows.

Have a great rest of the week...blog ya later!