Love getting good news

It was a lovely day but not a pool type one. Already I am missing my friends. How I dislike thinking of them as being only seasonal, you know? Often these folks do not make use of the rest of The Club facilities but the pool alone is their draw. I might have to do something about this, see if I can get them, or some of them anyway, involved in other social activities. 

I was so glad to have my friend, Judy C., call me to ask me to lunch today. (When I got out of the shower, I saw my friend, Brenda, had asked me to lunch, too. We made plans for next Tuesday, instead) After I accepted, I asked what she was hungry for and she suggested Pengree's. Of course! I enjoy the country fried steak there and it is enough for two meals for me. We had a good visit, made some plans for Reformation coming up next month (the dinner, that is) and other stuff.

She helped to keep my mind busy as I was going to the eye doctor this afternoon and I was concerned about what he would tell me. The plan was to have a full exam with an added feature of an optic scan. I believe it is like the ones I had prior to my LASIK procedure in 2000. I sat in front of four different pieces of equipment before the doctor saw me. 

                                 

He remembered me from St. Johns (his son was in Justin's class) and was so friendly. Toward the end of the exam he dilated my eyes and then left the room. When alone in the room, I could view the monitor and saw many places where it said "normal". Yes! At the end of the exam, he reported he could see nothing amiss inside the eye, the flashes might be from stress, especially now that they are dissipating in frequency, and might even be considered an optical migraine. I don't even need to get glasses unless I want to sharpen my vision. What great news! I do have to get some sunglasses, though, upon his recommendation. He did not say wrap-around ones, though!!

                                

I had to wear the little plastic ones from the eye doctor in order to drive, because of the dilation. I took River Road for my route just to be on the safer side. I got there before Justin got home from work, and when he did get in, he said he could not hug me because his 'hunter's musk' was too profound to do so. That's my boy! After his shower, though, he came in and gave me a big hug, so glad to hear my news from the eye doctor. He was more concerned than was I, it seems.

For our dinner, we had leftovers, taking care of the foam boxes lined up in the fridge, plus the remains of my sloppy joes. Justin ate the second half of my burger from Johnny Angel's as well, and I had my food from lunch. I was quite exhausted, my eyes taking a while to recover after the dilation. 

We watched a segment of "Duck Dynasty" via Justin's computer, and then "Jeopardy!", retiring to the living room to watch Greg Gutfeld hosting "The O'Reilly Factor", watching half of it together. We both decided to go to our rooms for the night, as I had to get up early for a road trip to W. Melbourne for a mission rally. Justin showed me how to set the alarm using Siri to do so. I like having another 'person' to boss around!

I am most thankful to the Lord for the good reports from the eye doctor. Surely I expected to have to get some glasses (I should have asked about contacts) or have to use eye drops or something. Looking forward to a good, sound sleep tonight and hope my alarm does the trick in the morning!

Battling in the trenches

The day started out on such a pleasant note, talking with Mom on my drive to Victory and then enjoying Bible class with my other church family. Fran, from GS, joined us today as she does not care to take the long detour around our damaged Matthews Bridge. I had let Pastor know she was coming and had made copies of a few pages for her to do her homework for the class. 

Rita made chocolate breakfast cake for us to enjoy with our study. Stephanie left me a present, as she told me she had some treasures for me. They are ceramic Italian flowers, Capodimonte porcelin, a set of two. She is in the process of sorting through things from her parent's home, and I inherited these. Yesterday I got a set of glasses and today, some flowers!

                                             

The ladies were going to lunch and asked me to go along, though they didn't know where they were going. While they brainstormed, I came up with Johnny Angels Diner, my old trivia place. They were in agreement and away we went. For once, I joined them. We had seven of us in our group, including Stephanie, who is still on furlough. She is making good use of her time off, just like she had planned to do 'when she has time'...

On the way home I got a phone call from the lady at the eye doctor's office. I had made an appointment Monday and had to give them insurance info even though my insurance covers little. She called to tell me that my policy covers nothing regarding vision, and besides that, my policy expired. What?? 

When I got home I dug through papers on my desk in search of a letter or something, and looked in my bank account to see if they were still being paid. They were not, and had not been since March. I left a message with the insurance company for a call back and I am waiting to hear what the deal is. I would think for something like this, a letter would go out. And, as I told Justin, I HAVE cleaned my desk off since March! The eye doctor's office told me they have self-payer discounts which is good. 

My desk also yielded a paper statement from ATT, complete with late fees for me not paying it. Huh....I no longer have that DSL service here and yet,  I am being billed. Erin, from church, works for ATT and was instrumental in getting my new service hooked up in July. She could view the statement but was not able to do anything about it. She gave me a phone number to call, but I tried the LIVE chat first. 

Kendrick was able to view my problem, apologized multiple times for the error, but he also gave me a phone number to call. At the end of the chat, Kendrick told me this will be resolved, not to worry, and "I hope I will get customers like you the whole day." Now, isn't that nice? And, we were only typing to each other!

I got John on the phone, no hold time, and he was also most gracious and aplogetic. He saw the problem, saw the note where I had called at the end of July to make sure the other service was disconnected, and all that stuff. A credit was issued and a check will be coming in the mail. I let Terri T. and Erin know of the good service I got, even though it took some doing. 

Fashion Show at The Club

Here is a photo of Nancy W. and me, with me holding the rose given to me by the waiter, hidden in my to-go box. What a sweetheart! Nancy brought me a set of glasses, eight in the set, as she is cleaning out her mother's home and has a bounty of glassware to get rid of. Though the box was as light as a feather, my neighbor, Maureen, in her 70's, insisted on carrying that box home for me. Did I ever feel silly, and touched at the same time.

My photo taking with the phone leaves something to be desired, as I tried to capture Nancy with her friend, Lisa. We were right by the curtain which hid the models from us. The fashions were from Coldwater Creek and they were all lovely outfits, in my opinion. There was a professional photographer taking pictures of the models, and of the group. At the end of the event as we sat around talking, he came up behind me, touched my shoulder and said, "Thank you for your smiles..." I posed for one photo that I know of, but there must be others! How nice of him to say that...

Across the table from me were Jacquie's two lady friends, Lucy and Kitty. Unfortunately, my friend was sick and had to back out at the last minute so I tried my best to be a good hostess for the two ladies. There were four others at our table, including Marlena's mom, Margie. 

Because this fundraiser for The Quigley House was so well received, people had to be added in to make tables of 10 instead of the original 8. Marlena told me that the lady working out the seating wanted Margie at Ms. Kim's table, because 'she is not crabby...' Not sure the other ladies are crabby either but I have shared meals with Margie a couple times in the past, so she was comfortable sitting with us. 

Thinking of traveling

...but not really. Actually, I am thinking about the trips taken in the past, some of which brought such wonderful folks into my life. Friday night I heard from my friend, Judy R., whom I had gotten to know on the cruise in 2007. Linda and I met her briefly, in passing, at the Women's Leadership Conference a few days prior to the cruise, but we really hit it off once we met in the airport!

Anyway, Judy asked me to go with them on a trip to England and Scotland next July, with the same host who took us on St. Paul's 2nd missionary journey tour. Judy and Jerry were at their son's home in Janesville, and he had asked her, "Is Kim coming along?" How sweet is that? I had met him and his family at Judy's a few years ago, ate dinner around her table with her dear ones. 

It was so thoughtful of her to ask me but I respectfully declined. That is the same month as the Worship Conference which I am planning to attend plus visit with my people so no, thanks, I will pass. It has not really been my heart's desire to visit these countries, though my niece just loves loves loves this part of the world. She spent a semester studying abroad as a history major, living in Scotland and seeing other parts of Europe in a whirlwind tour. Her photos are amazing but they do not match the scenery in Italy or Greece! Nor the climate...

The bluffs along the Mississippi in LaCrosse, WI where the LWMS Convention was held in June

Linda was telling about the Mission Festival they had at FG on Sunday, how nice it was. Their guest preacher was a man we had met at the LWMS Convention, ate lunch with and got to sit in on his presentation as regards missions in China. Judy R. served as hostess to Marcus and his wife, being long-time friends with this family. Her son-in-law also works for FOC as a recruiter. I think I mentioned before having met three of Judy's four children so far...and her good friend, Marcus! He seemed to remember meeting Linda at the Convention and at lunch, but then, he meets so many folks in his work. She forgot to mention to him how Judy made him slam on the brakes when she spotted Linda and me in the parking ramp, and she leapt from the car!!!!

This Saturday morning a carload of ladies from GS and Victory are driving to W. Melbourne for the Fall Rally of the LWMS. We have to leave at 6:30 to get there in time to have a bite to eat and get registered. I am looking forward to our time together with my fellow passengers and the other folks at the Rally. Hoping no one will leap from any cars this time!

Noting kindnesses

My friend from church, Gretchen, is a note writer of note! Clever, yes? It is what she does, and does well. Birthdays are remembered, thanks are tendered, folks are reached out to with 'thinking of you' cards, and so on. A week or so ago, I was the recipient of a number of such cards, but they were blank except for the image and passage pre-printed on them. Gretchen gave the cards to me to use for sending notes to our missionaries, the passage being the theme from our LWMS Convention this past summer. She just happened to have them in her collection. What a lovely donation to the cause---extending the Lord's blessings to our missionaries! 

Upon getting home from Bible study and lunch today, I stopped at the mailbox to see if my delivery arrived. It had! I juggled my to-go box, my soda cup, a box, and the other mail as I made my way upstairs. No spills, thankfully. I had bought a GroupOn offer from Vista Print to use for printing so I ordered more of my calling cards, address labels (guess I have to stay here now for a while), and a set of 10 note cards. I had money left after ordering the other two items so I got the notecards. The front of the card is a photo of the pools as taken from my balcony. They are wonderful! I hope they feed nicely into and out of my printer...

Another nice item came in the mail from my now Facebook friend, Karen. We had worked together years ago at Sprint, but she had taken a transfer to the Kansas City facility after I had quit there. We lost touch but reconnected these many years later via FB. Her family and she recently relocated to CA and she is presently a stay-at-home mom to her young daughter. Karen is crafty, and sent me one of the creations she made with her Stampin' Up tools. Just when I got my new calling cards, her card holder arrived in the mail. Thanks, Karen!!!

                              

Justin and I had a couple of really nice evenings this weekend. Saturday after I got home from the longest of the three days of meetings, I was worn out. He offered to make us dinner, trying a recipe his friend had used successfully. He happened to be sitting in my room late afternoon when my upstairs neighbor called, asking us to dinner. At first I declined, but then I asked Justin if he would like to go, and in true Kim form, he said, "Sure!"

In about an hour we were on our way with Dick and Debbie to Bonefish Grille, my first time there. We had to wait about an hour after arriving but our visit was so nice. After our meals were gone we just kept on talking and it was awesome. They are on the same page as regards our nation and Justin was in his absolute glory. We continued the conversations in their condo upon getting home, having some of Debbie's birthday cake for dessert. 

In the course of our conversation, Justin told about the deals he gets with his Jaguar tickets, being a season ticket holder, including pizza from Papa Johns. We also talked about scenes from the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun". Just like that plans were made to reconvene at our house Sunday night to watch the movie and enjoy pizza! 

Justin took care of getting the pizza and I arranged for our dessert, sadly not having Justin get the chocolate chip cookie pizza we had discussed the night before. Instead I served sour cream pound cake with a scoop of cherry vanilla ice cream on it. Actually, Justin served us the dessert. He excused himself from the movie, having some stuff to take care of before going to bed early. 

D and D liked the movie, based on a true story, and I let them borrow the book which follows, "A Year in the World". This book covers Francis and Ed's tour of the Mediterranean countries, eating their way around the sea and chronicling the adventure. 

Debbie and Dick had taken a cruise several years ago, hitting Barcellona and Tunisia, which prompted my mentioning of the book Mayes wrote. In that travelogue, she wrote about the very unusual foods the folks in these countries eat, and her husband tried, almost always got sick in the process! I hope Dick and Debbie get a kick out of it, having been there themselves! It's quite interesting to hear people's stories about their travel adventures and to read those who have had similar experiences. And, lived to tell about it!

"Yes, I'm from Wisconsin...How can you tell?"

Hey, y'all! Even though I live in the South and have for nearly 25 years (imagine that!), no matter what, I still get picked for having an accent. Not picked on, but picked out. The A/C guy noticed it right away and but I cannot remember exactly the words I said or how I said it (most often it is intonation giving me away, more than the use of an expression as in the article I copy/pasted below):

Have you ever been told that you have a Wisconsin accent? Did you deny such a thing even exists?

Some of us truly believe the way we speak here in the Badger State is the correct way to speak. It’s everyone else who has the accent. Sorry, but that’s just not true.

Of course, there are some things we are right about, including words which we have the authority to decide the pronunciation. For instance…it’s Green BAY not GREEN Bay. And it’s WIS-sonsin, never WES-consin. However, most of us pronounce it like Wuh-Skaaaahn-sin.

Whatever the case…there’s no reason to be embarrassed! At WhooNEW, we say proudly wear your Wisconsin accent like a badge of honor.

“Interesting” Chicken Booyah

Sometimes, people outside of our state think Wisconsinites are super friendly simply because of the way we say things.

For example – the way we use the word “interesting.”  Instead of saying “I don’t like that chicken booyah”, we might say, “Dat’s some interesting tasting chicken booyah, eh?”

Speaking of interesting, there’s actually some pretty hardcore research behind the language of America’s Dairyland.

The Wisconsin Englishes Project (WEP), is a group of faculty, staff, and students around Wisconsin who study our unique language patterns. WEP was formed in 2006 and the group aims to understand regional differences in English across our state – including its distinct vocabulary, pronunciations, idioms and ethnic influences, among other things.

There really is such a thing as "'Sconnie speak", dontcha know? Here are some examples…

1. Dem, Dat, Dis, & Dere

Our Wisconsin dialect has mainly been influenced by the northern and central European language family. And because of this northern European influence, we tend to drop the “th” and replace it with a “d” – creating words like dis, dat, dem, dere, dese or dose.

2. Yous Guys/Yous

Here’s one that I’m not really a fan of, but that you hear often around here, and especially at a greasy spoon dinner. No offense, but that’s probably where I’ve heard it the most! The nice waitress comes up to the table and says “what can I get for yous guys today?” A true Wisconsinite, eh? Well, so are you when you ask for a “brat” instead of bratwurst for “supper”.

3. Stop ‘N Go Lights

I’m guilty of this one for sure, and I didn’t really even know that people elsewhere say traffic lights!

Since red means stop and green means go, stop ‘n go lights are a way better name. Technically, it could be stop, slow, ‘n go, but yellow has become more of a – hurry up and get through it before it turns red – kind of light anyway.

4. Up Nort’

This is where a lot of Wisconsinites go on vacation, go camping or go to hunt and fish.  It’s also a dead give away that you live in some part of the northern Midwest. 

Up Nort’ isn’t a specific location, it’s a state of being. In Wisconsin, you can always go Up Nort’ – until you get to Lake Superior.

5. Ya Know?

This phrase enters my conversations multiple times a day. We mostly say it at the end of a sentence as a way to ask if the other person agrees or is understanding what you’re talking about. Or we might say it at the very beginning of the sentence to let someone know you’ve had a thought in your head that you’re about to share.

Other people in the country have this expression in common with us, but I’ve heard it started here – and we have a very distinct way of pronouncing it.. 

6. Bag

In Wisconsin we pronounce bag or bagel like “bay-g” or “bay-gel.” People from outside of Wisconsin will argue that you must say it with a short “a” sound so it starts the same as the word “bad”.  I’ve always said bag like “bay-g”, and I’ve been in a few in depth discussions about it with non-Wisconsinites. 

At least we don’t call it a “sack” like people from the southern U.S.

7. Real Quick

When you hear Wisconsin folks ask you for a favor and then add “real quick” or “really quick” to the end of it, we aren’t talking about speed. We’re simply trying to make it seem like the favor is no big deal.

For instance, someone might ask, “Can you stop at da store real quick before you come home? I got a meatloaf in da oven.”

8. Once/One Time

Have you ever wondered why we say “come here once” or “let me see dat one time”? It’s about sounding less aggressive or like you’re not demanding too much. It’s yet another way we get the friendly vote. 

9. Bubbler

I’ve been made fun of a time or two for asking where the bubbler is when I was outside of my home state. Most people will refer to it as the drinking or water fountain. If you’re interested to know more about this specifically, my husband has written some great insight into the real reason why we call it a ‘bubbler’ in Wisconsin and who else does too. Check it out! http://whoonew.com/2013/03/why-a-bubbler/

10. ‘N So?

You’ve probably heard this before, ‘n so? Which is simply a reduction of the phrase “Isn’t that so”? My Grandma and her sisters use this expression a lot. In fact, I think I’ve heard them say all 10 of these words and phrases!

So – dere ya go, eh? 10 silly things we say in Wisconsin!

Maybe you’ve often heard people say more silly things like “you betcha” or “oh, fer sure”? Can you think of any more expressions, pronunciations or words that are unique to our home state? Leave a comment!

We should keep this list going, ‘n so?

Hope this sets the example for my day!

Crown Him with many crowns

The Lamb upon His throne;
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing

Of Him who died for thee

And hail Him as thy matchless King

Through all eternity.