Still no word

Orange Park is all over the national news today, starting already last night, I guess, because we have a missing child. A seven year old girl, a twin, was walking home after school with a group of kids, got into a snit with one of them, and took off ahead of the rest. She has not been seen or heard from since. Nothing good can come from this, there was no shiny balloon ride scare for this little girl, named Somer. She just vanished. Cindy from church reported that last night a visibly shaken policeman searched their property and the woods behind it for the little girl. Please, all, ask the Lord to bring this child home safely to her mom and siblings, please....

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For other news, my fingers are aching again today but not necessarily from the cold. In fact, the temps are over 70 at the moment, with Saturday looking to be in the high 80's again. I rejoice over that! Instead, I was busily addressing envelopes for Joanne last night and again today, finishing all the names on the lists for both her monthly mailings and the holiday cards. If there are names added to the list for the cards I can sort them and address the envelopes as the names are submitted to me. But, for the most part, I am done!

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Martie is coming to help me work on the Luther project for Reformation on Wednesday. Her back is giving her a fit and she is trying to get an appointment with Carol, the magical massage therapist, tomorrow at some point. Regardless of her aching back, she wants to help me out because it is better if she keeps busy---I will take her word for that and keep her busy! Besides the addressing of the envelopes, I have been busy with doing my laundry, including hanging it on the line! No, not really, but what I do have is my comforter draped over the railing in my courtyard in attempts to get the dust of it. My mattress pad is washed and dried, as are the sheets so we shall see if that helps with the dust control in this room or not. Maybe it's too much paper...

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Last night I had an Outreach meeting where only three people besides Pastor attended, with only two of us being what could be considered, producers. The other person I am sure has good intentions but really is not the type to do reaching out. But Kelly is excited to get busy with a few things so this is good, this is real good! There are others who will and do participate but cannot do night driving or meeting attending. I will be having a meeting of the Greeters in the next two weeks to go over some of the "responsibilities" of serving and can hopefully scare up a few more people to help us out. Now I am excited, too!

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Tonight is Bible study and tomorrow am taking care of the Luther presentation. We are meeting early for choir rehearsal to fine tune our anthems for Reformation when we combine with Victory's choir. Those of us who do not read music are challenged by the unfamiliar melodies and need more work to be comfortable with them. Thursday night is the Open House at Precious Lambs and the kindergarten, which reminds me, I need to print a few more brochures for the kindergarten classroom. I only made enough for the preschool the first time around. My printer has since caught its breath and is ready to produce yet a few more. Pastor said last night that he was impressed with them and are just what we need to show the non-member parents what else we offer at Good Shepherd. I love doing whatever I can, while sitting down!

Doctor, my eyes....

....have seen the years and the slow parade of fears..." My particular fear recently is I might have to give in and get reading glasses. The text on the e-mail page of this 'up-close' laptop is smaller than my desk top, which is also further from my face when I use it than is the laptop. Working on the envelopes for Joanne is like trying to read the phone book and I find myself holding the page further from my face, especially when night falls. It might be time to surrender to age on this one. While the LASIK bought me some time, the eye surgeon did tell me he could do nothing about age with the surgery taking place over 9 years ago. There are some cute fashion frames out there, off the rack-style magnifying lenses, which will make getting older fun for me!
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Oh, there is a man on TV who stole my job with the government! He is doing something with exercise, supposedly with the Dallas football cheerleaders, describing himself as being the "Fat Czar"! That was going to be my job, and with a tidy salary for my services, too! Humphf! What is one more czar added to the long list? "Jay" conducts some sort of boot camp for fitness, whipping these cheerleaders into shape. I wonder what time frame it took to get these ladies looking like that.....might look into this...... I often wondered what I would like being about 8"taller.
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Some cheese popcorn was just thrown away, a bag partially consumed. When Justin and I were coming home from WI after moving Mom, I bought a small bag of cheese popcorn at the gift shop and it was just so delicious. Sunday when I stopped to get the potatoes, I saw a bag of this type of popcorn in the deli area and took it along home with me. It fell far short of the delightful bag at the airport. Not only was the flavor lacking but the hulls simply took over my teeth. Guess I am over the hankering for this type of cheese popcorn for awhile.
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Joanne asked me to do another favor for her in my down time, and that was to research the value of some art pieces from her parent's home. They had about 25 or more pencil/ink drawings by an artist from Germany named Eberhardt. She simply wanted to know an approximate value so she could get insurance on them plus the contents of her storage unit. This artist did primarily animal and bird sketchings, making them appear more than life-like. Thanks to the Internet it did not take long to get a few estimates for her. Since the piece she left for me to price is quite small compared to some of the others, it seems if she ever wants to sell them, there will at least be a nice market for the artwork.
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Speaking of getting the right price, the other day when I spoke with my sister-in-law, Barb, they were in the process of listing their Packer tickets on e-Bay. My nephew was there to help get them listed, a pair of tickets, north end zone, for the Packer/Viking game. I was beside myself as to why they were even thinking of selling the tickets versus use them. Barb said that pairs of tickets for this game were going for $500, so say no more! As dwellers in Brown County, where the team is located, they get put into a lottery for tickets, and this was the game they drew. Jackpot! Hopefully they will see ten times the value of the purchase price, paying for their CHRISTmas expenditures. That must mean one of them has my name! I did get my envelope with the names inside and can do my shopping when I am up in WI----oops, did I just give it away???