This place is a bee hive!

My printers are both cranking, my desk piled with colored papers, photos ready to be cropped, talking on the phone, pressing out letters to be applied to a bulletin board---whew! All this while listening to the radio! Yes, I am a producer today! The photographs are being printed for scrapbooking tonight over at Victory Lutheran. Some of the other items are intended for putting together a bulletin board, abandoned in the Fellowship Hall after the preschool moved to the new classroom building. We are having Mission Festival this week at church, focusing on our LWMS "Befriend a Mission" program and the missionaries "assigned" for us to adopt. How did we ever get these things done before computers and the Internet????

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I really would like a nap before heading over to Victory because of staying up too late to watch the football game and then a wonderful movie, "Freedom Writers" starring Hillary Swank. Such an incredible movie (note to Kim----get that one next!). It came on a second time at some point during the night because I woke up and heard the movie in about the same place it was when I turned it on the first time around! Either I had seen this in the theater the first time or rented it, somehow, "Freedom Writers" became an instant hit for me. An English teacher tackling the inner city school kids, at first rebellious and wretched, wins them over while introducing them to literature and journal writing. Good, good movie! But now, I am sleepy!

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The football game was enjoyable, and came down to the crunch, with the Jags losing to the Eagles by one point in the last ten seconds. As I was talking with Suzanne on the phone, giving her the play-by-play. I related the final seconds of the game, counting a total of eight hands touching the ball, making it look more like basketball than football!! Whoo hoo!

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Even though we talked on the phone and Facebook chatted for nearly two hours last night, we had words leftover. We met to have breakfast this a.m. in Middleburg, after she dropped Daniel off at school. Suzanne had never ever been to the Black Creek Cafe so I introduced her to it over waffles with strawberries! She thinks John might like this place because it has good, home-cookin', including advertised menu items such a "Framer's Special" or "Redneck Special"! Waffles are good enough for me, or at least, the half I ate!

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Each of us had banking business to take care so we parted company, with me heading back to Orange Park and her to the Middleburg branch of the same bank! The skies looked quite threatening and it was not long before I was driving along in the rain---again! No thunder and lightning, just a heavy, steady rain. By the time I pulled in at home, it had pretty much let up so I had time to get my soda case from the car without getting drenched. Rain---the great equalizer!

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Connie, The Palace maintenance lady, sought me out to see if I wanted to join her sister and her for a show at the Thrasher-Horne starring Vicki Lawrence. What I did decide to do was throw it out to the neighbors to see if a group would like to go en mass. Jessica, the official title-bearer of Social Team leader, thought it sounded like a good idea so I will put it in the newsletter this weekend. Hopefully Connie will be patient and wait to buy her tickets until we know who and how many from here will be going.

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I printed a mess of photos from the Alaskan Cruise, and, yes, I am a bit behind in my scrapbooking! Oh, they are so pretty and such nice people went on that trip with us. It will make for some lovely pages, to be sure. Also, I was putting stuff together about our mission in Apacheland, AZ, which is where one of our missionaries serves. Considered to be a World Mission, I put together a nice array of photos snitched from the website and a brief write up about the mission for use on the bulletin board. Using my long neglected Sizzix tool for stamping out letters, I was busy doing that, as well, to enhance the presentation for the bulletin board.

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Justin and I talked on the phone at some length while I was working, him catching me up on all the fun in his life, including feeling good about being back in class again. Sadly he missed out on the one class he really wanted but he is sort of chummy with the professor, her pet, from the sounds of it, so he might get in yet! He said he would take a folding chair to sit in, just to be in the class. Love the enthusiasm!

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Tomorrow I have a meeting at church for Long-Term planning and then we will getting some things ready for the pot luck function for Mission Festival on Sunday. I am quite excited about the event, hopefully we will have some guests from Christ Lutheran come up and join our worship and meal. Janet is our spit-fire organizer and will see to it that all things are ready for the feast and festival!

One or two lonely boats

As the rain comes rolling across the river from Mandarin, the third or fourth shower today, two smalls boats are bobbing in the water, its fishers most likely bracing for yet another soaking. One vessel is straight out from my window while the other just down from the basin, neither incredibly far from land. The rains have been soft in nature, not the pounding drops that hurt when they hit. Unless, of course, if one were on a jet ski, and trying to outrun the rain. That stings like crazy when it hits the body, like insect bites all over the face, arms and exposed body. It has been a long time since I experienced that but the painful memory is fresh enough!

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Due to the inclement weather I decided to not go downstairs for water aerobics, which I wonder are taking place at all. Nope, there are no people in the pool and now, of course, the sun is peeking out. If there is a rainbow, I cannot see it. The shuttle launch was scuttled once more, and I say that is what they get for scheduling it in the middle of the night anyway! This time was a leaking valve so it is good to stop the count down until all mechanicals are in good working order. Tomorrow at 12:22 a.m. is the next attempt so I might be up to watch it. Especially if I take another 5-6 hour nap like I did two weeks ago!

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Maggie O. is staying at Ellen's off and on to help take care of the pets while she is away, and this late afternoon friend Michelle will be returning from the hospital to also stay at Ellen's. She broke her leg and needs to be in a living situation without steps to deal with. I called our neighbor, Patti, to see if she has an extra wheel chair that Michelle can borrow to get herself from the car to the condo so Maggie is going to get that chair from Patti when the time comes. We are blessed here with such great neighbors!

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Maggie was leaving here when I came home from choir rehearsal last evening and I hollered for her to come to my place on the way out so I could give her the frozen yogurt I had bought by mistake. Justin figured it was Joanne's because I would not buy this normally. We each had a bowl of it, and he liked it, I did not. He did not want the yogurt, though, so I offered the carton to Maggie, who loves frozen yogurt. My favorite flavor, too---Mint Chocolate Chip. I also returned a borrowed movie to Maggie, the one about Cole Porter.

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Speaking of movies, Dee and I, we discovered separately, have been growing our library of DVDs recently. She and I compared notes at lunch the other day and are going to share with each other. Martie and I are going to have movie night or movie day, shooting for at least once a week which will also be great fun. Many of my friends are out of work, or have reduced funds due to cutbacks so it is no problem to come up here, for free, to watch movies instead of going to dinner and a movie.....I can cook! The one I am so looking forward to watching is called "Grey Gardens", an HBO movie about the eccentric relatives of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. It was recommended to me by the waitress at Aron's Pizza who just raved about it. It stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange and looks pretty cute. I must get some popcorn!

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Dee likes the period movies such as "The Duchess", "The Queen" and "The Other Boleyn Sister", plus she likes romantic comedies. Some of those are part of my collection, the comedies, plus a couple not so comedic, like "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Ordinary People". That might be a good one to watch alone since it such a tear jerker. I am wishing I had saved some of those address labels to mark my DVD boxes with so I do not forget to whom I loaned them. Dee, I believe, has "27 Dresses" which is good one to watch with a group, ooohhh, I am getting so excited about this!!!! She said she watches her movies after 11:00 pm so we cannot count her in on the movie nights, and she does not do other things while viewing, while I must. I explained to her that I had a hard time at the movies because I like to do more than one thing at once, such as look at a catalog, sort mail, or use the computer. Baby steps, baby steps.....

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When I was talking with Suzanne this a.m., who just got offered and accepted a new job, I saw Brillion, WI on Fox News. The reporter was talking to a man and the caption read: Snow throwers are bread and butter of Ariens Company. I do not know what the big story was because my attention was elsewhere but I did see Brillion and snow throwers! Not snow blowers, throwers. Speaking of which, it is now thundering and lightning, no more sun peeking through. Rumor has it this will be the fate today, storms coming and going, which might mean no to our outing tonight with The Palace peoples.

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When Wally came to get the yet sick laptop from me yesterday, I told him how I had to again manually turn off the computer after waiting more than an hour for it to go through its shutdown process. He said that turning computers off and on is the hardest on a machine than anything else we do and so if I can leave it powered up all the time, with sufficient circulation, it should be fine. It seems to be a waste of electricity to leave it on but if that is what it takes to keep it alive, its life support, as it were, I will do it! Not the desk top, however, because it sounds like a jet engine when it runs due its large fan, and I would not tolerate that racket if I am not using it. I have a thing about noises sometimes.

I forgot to mention something

Something sort of fun happened to me last night at La Nap....As I arrived, I heard a voice call to me, "Hi, friend!" but for the life of me, I could not see where Martie's voice was coming from. I headed across the parking lot, thinking that once I got up on the porch I could spot her. And I did! She was just down the lot from my car, facing the opposite direction.

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As Martie made her way to the porch, two women came walking along the sidewalk toward me, having already been "served", if you know what I mean. One had a to-go cup in her hand, claiming it was coffee, and giggling. She came up to me, threw her arms around me, and complimented my outfit up and down. She just gushed about how cute I looked with my earings matching my shirt and then my little orange shoes to tie the outfit together. And then she threw her arms around me once more before they made their way to a car. Martie and I greeted one another, as I explained to her that I had never seen that woman before in my life. Martie said she thought we must have known each other but I said I had no clue. "I'll have what she's having......."

I hope no one killed themselves overnight!

In the movie "Julie and Julia", the blogger, Julie, is having a particularly rough time of it making a recipe from Julia Child's book. As she throws herself across the bed in frustration, her husband asks her what is the worst thing that can happen if she does not write a posting to her blog? Will people take poison and kill themselves because she did not write about her failed attempt at aspic? At that point, Justin gave me the knowing nudge with his elbow because even though I do not get daily comments, people do go in search of my posting and I hear about it if I miss a day! And I missed yesterday! While I did write on the Comments page, I failed to post, making it a lost "Day....in the Life of Kim!"

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Facebook buys me some time, I will give you that, but for those who do not read and participate on Facebook, it is like I did die overnight. I am fine, however, was quite occupied yesterday (yippee!) and worked on other things besides my favorite thing of writing for the blogsite. Please excuse me!

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My day was rich with friends and other contacts, ending late with a chat with my friend, Suzanne, online, of course. Sadly, earlier this late spring/early summer, she had been laid off from her job, and after some struggles and searching, found a job in insurance. Suzanne studied like nuts, took the State exam and passed, is now an officially licensed insurance agent. But the job connected with the license stunk to high heaven and was taking a toll on her spirit. Humbly, she quit the job and continued searching. Job opportunities, some great, some not so much, dribble drabbled in and she was able to sign-on for some "contract" work at a couple places, since Suzanne is skilled in computer programs and accounting, especially in regard to TV and radio stations. Today she begins a 90-day contract job with a major investment/insurance firm doing some intense accounting work, but in the meantime, has been contacted to work full-time at a local TV station, in her field!!! We have a good and gracious God, we surely do! Now, if only Miss Betty could find something like this....

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The school kids around here are all back in session now, except for the private school students, and I am guessing that even Olivia has gone back to Knoxville without us getting a chance for a decent farewell. Thankfully we have Facebook, text messaging, e-mail, and all those marvelous communication devices to keep in touch. When we had lunch a couple weeks ago, Sandi said she was going to send me a plane ticket so I could fly up there to spend some time in the mountains. She does not need to send me a ticket, I will come on my own, perhaps before it starts to get too cold! There are so many neat shopping areas, antiques, quaint places to see and experience, plus my friend, Judy H. lives in Knoxville and I have long threatened her with a visit! We shall see, we shall see!

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My Tuesday morning was divided between Wal*Mart, Great Hang Ups and Koko's. I had called in my refill for a scrip so despite only needing to pick up one thing, I still had a cart in front of me! Oh, no!!! I did get my baby aspirin which is recommended for people my age, actually low-dose aspirin, for thinning the blood. Not a good idea for someone who is already a chilly willy! Since I was working on a mailing and ran out of envelopes, I stocked up on them as well. ( By the way, the Humane Society had provided me with address labels and I really liked having them, so I hope some other charity sends me more before the next mailing goes out!) It is really quite rare to mail stuff these days, which might account for the drop in business the Post Office is experiencing. No shortage of catalogs and magazines coming in, however, as I had quite the stack when I got the mail last night. My neighbor was there as I opened my stuffed box and she was amazed at the amount of mail I had----until I explained that I do not come every day!

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After my one-bag trip to Wal*Mart, I headed over to see the ladies at Hang Ups. Since Ellen has gone out to San Fran., I decided I would make sure her bill was paid, as I had picked the items up a couple weeks ago already. Dee had done some "repairs" to photographs Ellen had, did some miraculous things with them, in my opinion. Ellen was a little, more than a little, brittle in recent weeks, so I held off in giving her the retouched photos, for fear of causing a set-back. Now, she is away for an indefinite period of time, I did not want to leave her bill outstanding. I know she is good for it, will just wait for her to get back and we can settle it up.

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Dee also did some tinkering on a photo of Timmy for me, which had begun fading. It was a digital picture printed on a home-printer and light causes those type to fade over time. She did a remarkable job but was not satisfied with the results. The photo is the one I refer to as his "immigrant" look, the day he dressed himself for Lisa's wedding. Kerry had given the photo to me in a sunflower frame and the photo will have be re-sized to fit in the frame. Dee can do amazing things with people's pictures, even help us lose weight or remove braces from graduation photos!

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Martie and I had dinner at La Napolera on Kingsley Avenue after she was done working last night and we talked for hours! I even got to see Twila and her friend who were dining before going to their Embroidery Guild meeting. The strawberry margarita was so delicious and my taco salad was good. I only made a small dent in it but sent the remainder home for Ernie. He does not care that it looks like a dog's dinner! Alpo, anyone? It was nearly 9:00 when I got home again, and met my other neighbors at the mailbox. They were just coming back from The Club, they went without me, boo hoo hoo!

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Diane, a financial counselor whom I love, came by this a.m., and she loves my home. She referred to it as a sanctuary and a haven, and I am forced to agree! In our years of working together, we always met at her office so this was a first for her. The view from the "back" is lovely, too, and that just blew her away, looking at the river on the front and the pools with Italian cypress framing them, from the back. In a few minutes I am meeting Martie at Dairy Queen to do a hand-off of some artwork to hang in Island Realty as Martie is Art Guild chairperson for this change-out. After that, the nice computer man is coming back to take the laptop back in because the repair did not hold. I hope this will not cost me anymore money!

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This red framed piece, a watercolor, is going to hang at Island Realty. Perhaps someone will have mercy on it and buy it!

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After Wally comes for the laptop I must concentrate then on the newsletter for church, with an expectation of a submission from the preschool yet. I am ahead of schedule somewhat and rather like the feeling of breathing a bit easier. The other newsletter went out in the mail and e-mail yesterday so now the focus will be on the Flock Talk and Palace Press. Cannot get enough words, you know?

God's abundant provision of grace!

.....sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord! We are not finishing our study of "Come, Worship Christ" as I had advertised in the newsletter all summer long (someone should have told me differently, right?) but instead are studying Psalms. The same type of study actually since we sing the Psalms, too. The Bible study, titled, "The Gospel in Psalms", was written by one of the seminary professors, a Hebrew expert, we were told this morning. We met in the Fellowship Hall once again after all these years, since the classrooms have been moved into the official structure!

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We had a nice turnout of ladies, no men joining us today. This particular study does not go Psalm by Psalm but rather goes forth and back between the Old and New Testaments, showing how the Gospel was pointed out and fulfilled. I was touched by several of the verses we read including Ps. 36:3 which says: "The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good." For some reason that just struck me, because that is how we are, our sinful nature, our inclination. On the other hand, Romans 5:17 shows us: "...how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." Wow, good stuff, good stuff!

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We did all end up eating at Longhorn, even Twila, who had to leave in the middle of the study for a doctor appointment, yet made it back for the all important lunch. She called me when she finished up so I put in her order, which was delivered to the table only moments before she walked in the door. THAT is good customer service, Patty! When I say "all", I should mention that Ethel did not come with us, but the rest of the class was there. Someday we must entice Pastor to join us again, he came once when they first moved here, and that was the last time. Mondays are generally busier days for him, so I guess he is excused!

I did take a moment to pop into the preschool classroom as the kids were finishing their lunches. Kindergarten does not actually begin until tomorrow, as I guess there is some sort of staggered start date for kindergarten. I am not sure I will get back over there to do the photography so they might have to go without, unless Twila Sr. takes her camera along. I am as excited as Mario is for the first day of school!

Monday with a lot of firsts!

The folks up north are not doing this yet, as far as I am aware, but down here, all the kids and teachers are back to school today! Students of all ages, including this 53-year-old returning to Monday Morning Bible Study after being off all summer long. Our new classroom building will soon be bustling with our first ever kindergarten class being conducted with the precious preschool right next door. Sarah, the goddaughter of Justin and mine, starts pre-k today and her cousin, Chloe, is in the 3-4 classroom. Mario, Twila's great-grand, is in the kindergarten while his little brother, Arsen, and a foster sibling, are in the preschool classroom. Whew!! Twila Squared has her hands full with three little ones all in this age group!

This is a photo of the ready kindergarten classroom, primarily furnished with fixtures and supplies from a private school that went out of business in Orange Park

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I like the advertisement for high-end cars showing on TV here, "Lower your payments, not your standards....". I read something over the weekend about a man driving through the parking lot of the local high school (pick one!) and seeing all the high-end or relatively nice cars parked there, either they belong to their parents' or are the students' cars. He then drove through the Staff Parking lot and saw the lesser end type of cars parked there, some in tough condition, not a whole lot of pick-ups trucks sitting there either, as compared to the student lot. Hmmm...There is a housing community just before our church property with a sign out front that declares: "You deserve to live here!". I pray God that I do NOT get what I deserve!

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My soda tastes especially delicious this a.m., perhaps because I am now incorporating water into my daily routine, taken internally, not only in the pool! My upstairs neighbor, Jessica, told me Sunday that I should drink at least seven (7!!!!) bottles of water, which I believe to be overkill, to hydrate my discs. What does she know, she only has her master's degree in physical therapy! And she is pregnant to boot! There is going to be a prince or princess in The Palace!

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My nails really need attention but they are not going to get it from me! At least not before leaving for Bible study. It will be nice be have our first Bible study since we recessed last May. Nail polishing will be a nice afternoon project, in case it rains. I have not checked the forecast to see what is happening but I did hear that "Bill" has lost some of his strength, but not without taking the life of a child in Maine on his way out. Martie and I went once to watch a hurricane go passed but that was before we were hit here over and over again in 2004. Now, the novelty alludes me!

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After the nails are done, I have envelopes to address for the "Keeping the Faith" newsletter sent to our members away from church. I might have to send Sarah's via e-mail through her mom, as Sarah is studying as an exchange student in Belgium. I could send it myself via Facebook, perhaps in the NOTES section...I shall see about how that is done. My friend, Jami, posts her blog on Facebook as well as the blogsite, and I can check that out, to see how she does it. At any rate, I must get those letters sent off while I am also working on the other newsletter for those here at home. I love this job!

A mostly fun day!

In my dream this early a.m., I was late for work, or late for something, the way dreams work. When I woke, I had this feeling like, "Oh, no! I'm late!!!" but it was just before 7:00 a.m. Whew! What a relief to not find myself already behind the 8-ball today. There was a number of things I wanted to take care of before heading to church as immediately after the meeting the gang was coming here for lunch and a social. My friend, Susie, in Manty, wanted to know where I was this morning, as she had to manage her day without my a.m. greeting. Oops! I told her I had to not log on to Facebook and run the risk of getting caught up and being late to church!

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Before leaving this a.m. I made up a list of things Justin should take care of when he was here and I believe he did them all. He was gone before I got home from the church meeting. Janet and Jim brought a birthday cake for Kathy, whose birthday was yesterday plus a card we all signed for her. I served my sloppy joes which, in my opinion, fell short of desired deliciousness, possibly because of the amount. Ketchup was added to the sloppy joe I just ate for supper which fixed it right up. In my prep, I did not use much salt because one of our members cannot have it, so this might have affected the overall taste. The pasta salad went well, a huge batch of that with some leftover. I packed up a container which Suzanne took along when she headed home. She also took the balance of the birthday cake which she really DID have to balance with her cooler plus the cake!

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After Jim and Janet left, the entire remaining group went down to the pool to recreate. Some did not bring swim attire along but enjoyed the fellowship around the pool. We had a really good chuckle when Bruce went back upstairs to get Kristi's purse and we spotted him up on the 5th floor! We could just see him opening a door and going in to get a purse at someone else's house! Oops, come down a couple floors there, Bruce. Oh, such good laughs we had, it was a great afternoon....A Special Meeting had been held after worship where a heavy topic was discussed and a matter settled, so it was good to all relax afterward and simply enjoy our time!

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As often happens on days when I have a function here, my back is a bit weary, guessing from moving chairs around, plus vacuuming like a fiend yesterday. It feels good to just sit and unwind, although the little workout in the pool was easing as well. My neighbor, Gus, came and swam with us, chatting and making the acquaintance of the church family. Normally he takes a walk in the morning, but Sundays he has to go in the afternoon when he gets home from church. And then, a welcome dip in the pool! I had gooseflesh in the pool because it was a bit "cooler" than I like air temperature-wise, high 80's.....I better just shut-up now or I will get scolded for griping about this!

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Tomorrow begins a normal routine of Monday Bible study at 10:00, most certainly followed by lunch with the usual gang. I heard through the grapevine that one of the group is growing weary of Longhorn (what??!!??) so I wonder what will happen now...Maybe she just will not come anymore. One of the charms of eating there is the ladies order from the kid's menu, less cost and smaller portions, plus we get a managers' discount off each ticket. The icing is having Patty be our server each week, knowing our likes and dislikes and such. Hmmm, we shall see, we shall see....This same lady who grows weary of Longhorn is also the same one who insisted we all go this seafood restaurant near the base because she had a coupon, but then when it was suggested to try Red Lobster after that, she refused because she "doesn't like seafood...". Funny, so funny!

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Joanne came over to get some more of her things, as well as dress for a formal event she is attending this evening. She at least got to see a few of the guests still here when she arrived. The event will introduce her to a contingent of folks from Canada, and since she is French speaking, hopes to make contact with a few potential buyers of property. Ever widening the circle, my friend Joanne! I also had the heart wrenching experience of saying "farewell" at Ashley Rose and Ellen, as they are going to San Francisco, where Ashley resides. Ellen is going out just for awhile but was suffering terribly in heart for leaving. She simply clung to me for comfort and I cried with her, without really knowing why. It does not really matter why, when someone is sobbing, you wrap them in the arms and hold on tightly, adding your own tears to theirs....