I just love finding my old friends!

Once again, the long arms of the Internet have reached out and embraced me, this time from somewhere in MN, from a high school classmate. This young lady, yes, I said young lady, contacted me via Facebook and we have been busily catching up on each other's news and who knows who, etc. after all these years. Love it!!!

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Earlier at Office Max (oh, my, did I do it big time today!) I saw another lady I knew from Sprint and she was astounded that after all these years, possibly thirteen of them, I still recalled her name! And, I remembered her as being a Christian woman. She was blown away, and could not believe how different I look than when I worked with her. Not only my hair and no Coke-bottle glasses, but my "shape" is different. Yes, I must admit that now I am much shorter than when I worked at Sprint! She is lovely as ever and works part-time as a life coach, giving me her business card so I can look her up. Oh, oh, now she has opened the door because her e-mail address is on the card!!!

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As I was checking out, which took a long time since they seemed to be quite shorthanded today, I saw another lady who used to work with Joanne in her office. Lorrie is now with the same office that my neighbor is in, and it was so good to catch up with her, too. I asked her to come up some time and she said she would, especially if there is a shuttle launch coming up. Once I left my doors unlocked so her husband, daughter and she could come in to watch the shuttle go up. Not sure where I was but they came over and enjoyed the view. Might be more fun if I am home next time!!

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Perhaps I have not mentioned it lately but I am yet waiting to get the repair disc from the computer repair guy as my laptop died all by itself since he delivered it to me three weeks ago. Two days later after not being touched or even looked at, the screen was again indicating a corrupted file. I have called and called, left messages and even offered to come to the office to pick up the disc. Well, I replaced the laptop with a new one today! Justin and I had talked about it a couple times already and he recommended one he thought would serve me well. My plan was to get one at Wal*Mart but here Office Max had an even better one for the same money. Sadly, oh so sadly, I settled for a white one, as if it makes a difference, getting the last one in stock. I did allow myself to be talked into a carrying bag for it and free retractable mouse accessory. For my CHRISTmas list, I can add a cooling device, though I find that idea repulsive, so the fan will not overheat.

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Since the laptop is so tiny, weighing less than 3 pounds, it will also work for me to use in bed if I so desire. I could use the other one, too, but it was quite a lot heavier and made my feet fall back to sleep even after sleeping all night long! I must turn my office upside down to locate my Microsoft Office disc because Justin says he does not have it....( I think he does but his room is too messy to locate it!) But I should talk, I cannot see the top of my desk either! Normally my word processing is done on this desktop machine but should I ever choose to write something on the little guy, I want to be able to read it. The guy at the store said XP was being phased out, is this true?

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A little bit more trouble occurred when I saw they had the pretty papers out for the "holiday" newsletters which I took the liberty of picking up. The paper is less than the envelopes but I include my letters in the cards so no need. So close I came to leaving the store without buying any paper!!!! When I got home with the ink cartridges, which is what I went there for, I printed the rest of the pamphlets for the preschool. I must use the church stapler to put them together because mine will not reach all the way across to the center of the folded page. I also addressed the first batch of Joanne's cards and must ask her for the rest of the addresses so I can finish up. I think a dinner is in order!

I found a couple more pictures......

This photo was taken when Lynn and Lisa lived on Eighth Street. Lisa is perched on the wooden spoil and is posing with my niece, Tina, whom I also babysat at times. Tina is the daughter of Marian, my former spouse's sister. Both of these little girls are now mamas themselves. Lisa has two sons, Gabe and Manny, while Tina has two daughters, Maya and Rayna. Tina just celebrated her 40th birthday but Justin and I were in WI and had to miss her surprise party. I have her present in my freezer however; a couple dozen poppyseed-filled doughnuts, something from Manitowoc for which she longs! Perhaps next Saturday I will run down to Palm Coast to deliver them and take Maya a birthday present, too, as she turned 3 in August.

On Lisa's birthday I wrote about her sitting at the old clunky type writer in our office, honing her clerical skills for what was to become her future employment in an accounting firm. The desk next to her was our first piece of furniture purchased from my bro-in-law's sister, Nancy, in Milwaukee, when she decided to sell everything she owned and buy gold! This was in 1974 and does that not sound familiar? The cycle is repeating. But anyway, we paid $5.00 for this desk and it served us well for at least 20 years or more. Even used to hold Mom's sewing machine when she came to winter with us. I am not sure what became of it though. Hmmm.....The typewriter may have come from her, too, now that I think of it because I doubt we would have gone in search of a relic, after having been trained on IBM Selectrics in high school. Anyway, this was fun to find the picture of Lisa using the typewriter all those many years ago!

Let's see if I do my best work in the dark

Or, if I am always in the dark. Or here's one: I am prettier in the dark. How about: "blackness, blackness bringing me down, come and light a candle in the old heart of mine...." It is as black as pitch out there and I am thinking about poor Suzanne having to drive to work in what appears to be the middle of the night. In a few weeks, it will be darker yet as we fall back an hour. Am I thinking correctly about that? Correct me, if I am mistaken about this. I do know we fall back, but will it be darker yet at 6:44 a.m.?

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Sunday began with tears as I wrote on Facebook about singing, in my head, the hymn "Children of the Heavenly Father" which was our closing song for worship. The night ended the same way with the Jaguars taking a royal beating, 41-0. It was just an awful display, awful! Joanne was here to watch with me, the first time she has watched this season and this is the way it ended up! Ugh! On the bright side, we did enjoy our supper of Newton hot dogs on Publix rolls. Jo brought Cape Cod chips to have with the hot dogs and two slices of cheesecake for dessert, but we were too full to eat dessert! Guess what I am having for breakfast today...

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Not only did Joanne bring her potato chips and cheesecake, she also came bearing a huge box of envelopes and a shopping bag of CHRISTmas cards---let me re-type that to "holiday cards" as they are fairly generic in nature. She has asked me to help her out with hand addressing them, plus her monthly mailings. Yikes! I have a ton of other stuff to take care of before the end of the month including working at church this week (one week down, one to go!), a booklet for the preschool open house on the 22nd, a Luther display for the 25th, the two newsletters....I had made a personal promise to have my desk cleaned off before Linda J. gets here but now I am having to rethink that a bit!

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Worship and Bible study were very nice yesterday, as we begin our Stewardship series. The Bible study was about spending "good" time with the family, biological family and church family, in the Word. Take advantage of formal opportunities plus the ones had around the kitchen table or before going to sleep at night. I am glad Justin and I get our time together attending Bible study at Victory before his class on Thursdays. The Sunday School children sang at the beginning of the service and did a wonderful job, nice and loud. Suzanne is doing a good job having the kids memorize their songs so they are not reading off a sheet of paper up front. Our choir sang, "Where Your Treasure Is" and so did First German's choir, which I find very cool!

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I am going to be swamped the next few weeks with some huge projects before me. Besides doing Joanne's envelopes, I am making a pamphlet for the preschool open house, doing a Lutherland display for the Reformation Service on the 25th, and working this week yet in the church office. I told someone that I have to figure out a way to fill out the envelopes from my recliner or bed so I can keep my feet up. Sitting in the desk chair all day results in swollen ankle, on my "bad" knee side. Boy, I miss that swimming pool! My body really liked the workouts gotten in the pool all season long. Our temps have been lovely recently, although some are murmuring about them. Stop it! Just stop it! Sometimes it is all about me!

What day is it today?

That was the second thing I thought as I got up this a.m. The first thing was, "Who is this on the phone and why don't I know their name?" Someone really named their daughter Miley. It was a call about something ordered yesterday and there was a question on it. Obviously they are not into time, or are not into time zones but it was about time I got up anyway. I am pleased they were hard at it on a Saturday morning!

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My people up north are all traveling today. Yes, another birthday! My great-nephew, Bryson, is celebrating his second birthday so Mom, Lynn, Jill, and Danny are in the southern part of the state for his party. Lisa and her family had to go up north (for those of us in Florida, WI is already up north, but in WI, there is really an "up north"!) for a funeral on Noah's side of the family. Her boys will get to meet another great-grandma while up there. I am not sure what Alayna is doing today, the day after her big birthday, perhaps working at the library---shhhh!

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Last night, instead of Brenda N. coming over for dinner and a movie, Joanne came instead. She is incredibly swamped in her real estate office, can scarcely see over the stacks of work she has. As part of a nation-wide group she is part of, Joanne has a personal coach who commanded her to take Saturday off or she would fly from San Diego just to beat up Joanne! I told Jo to tell Grace, "bring it on!". Grace likely needs a vacation, too! Today she is going to pamper herself a bit, get some grooming done and spend the day on the beach. She lives on the beach, but can not really enjoy it like she should. Today is a perfect day for beach enjoyment!

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Joanne also asked me to help her out with some stuff that is bearing down on her. She does monthly mailings, and as part of the national group she works with, must not do mass-produced address labels. Handwritten ones, only. That is where I come in! I can just sit and address these envelopes for her all day long and into the night without leaving my home. At my leisure, until crunch time comes, of course. It was sooo very hot yesterday, with the heat indexes over 100 degrees, and we discussed CHRISTmas cards! I have helped Joanne in the past when I lived on the lake, did mailings, wrote ads for TV and print, that type of thing. This work-from-home-scheme is legit! Oh, and Brenda could not make it because she got worn out setting things up for a yard sale at her church which is today. Know that feeling!

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The weather for those of us who appreciate it is perfectly lovely today, high of 91 above zero (Linda J. said it was chilly and might see snow flurries today where she lives....) so after Martie is done working, we are heading to the beach! The thunder storms are not expected until evening so we will just head out and see what happens. Maybe find a place on the beach to enjoy some lunch/dinner and take it easy. It will be about 3:30 or so by the time we get down to the beach anyway, just in time to grab a bite and a margarita! Our original plans for this weekend were to attend an LWMS Rally in Orlando but Martie could not get anyone to take her place in the office. I did not want to drive down to Orlando and back by myself, so no representatives from Jacksonville this time---my fault!

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Instead of putting on my swimsuit this a.m., I got dressed. As I sit here, I am just dripping in perspiration as the sun beams in on my face. Earlier I complained on Facebook that my tan was fading already but today might take care of that! When I was taking the antibiotic for the kidney infection, I disregarded the warnings about sun sitting and went out to the pool. Joanne felt it would be okay since I was already so tanned, but sure enough, I did peel a bit from my face. Mainly my forehead and around my nose, nowhere else. This I consider no big deal and was well worth it, although I probably added to dustiness of my house by shedding yet more skin!

What? Two nieces with birthdays in the same week?

Today, my niece, Alayna, became a legal adult. She can now vote! This young lady is a senior at the local public high school, serves as an officer for her class, is in the church choir and attends Bible study with her Aunt Lynn, Grandma K, and friend, Linda J, whom we share. Alayna also works at the public library. How does she do it? She is fired up by Starbucks! Happy birthday, Sweetheart!

Justin is brushing his cousins' gorgeous hair. She has the best head of hair I have ever seen although I have never styled it like Justin did!

Here is Alayna as a little girl, sitting on Justin's lap. Because I did not live in Manitowoc when she was born or growing up, I have fewer pictures of her than I have of Lisa. Sorry, sweetheart! But the ones I have do show my Justin in them, too, so that might make up for it. This was taken at Grandma K's house, when she lived in the duplex, so at least 12 years ago.

Now that her hair is all brushed, it is time to make some toast.

You cannot sit around eating and watching TV all day! There are chores to attend to.....teamwork, people, teamwork!

Alayna is flanked by her two cousins, Justin and Dustin, and her by her dear friend, Grandma K!

Kerry and Alayna share a chuckle at Lori's house this summer at Dusty's graduation party.
Alayna and Justin are wallflowers at Lynn's surprise birthday party last year in September.
Here is Alayna in her prom dress from last spring. She is a vision of beauty in yellow, her favorite color! Justin did not fix her hair for this event....
Alayna and her mama, Kerry, taken at Time Out at one of our family gatherings. Look at that child's, excuse me, now adult, gorgeous hair. How much you want to bet she will never spike her hair when she is old like me!

Friday's observations

My friend, Jami, wrote her blog last night declaring that she was exceptionally grumpy but writing anyway. While I am not normally grumpy, I do have my moments, you know? (I am the only one allowed to use the "you know" at the end of a sentence!) So, today while at home and later while taking care of errands I made some observations of my own----

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The obvious report which boggled my brain was the announcement out of Oslo. Later on, Fox News showed the entire footage of a car chase, actually a truck chase, taking place in Dallas, TX. Why? What was so interesting about that? It was not even all high-speed, more like a Sunday afternoon ride in the country with a trail of squad cars trying to keep up. Finally, a police truck got positioned in front of the run away truck and caused it to run off the road. What did this driver do? Left a gas station after filling up with out paying for the gas. All these police cars and the helicopter used a good deal of fuel themselves. Really, ten police cars?

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I was annoyed by the sound of the A/C turning on when it is set up to 81 degrees. That just is not right to have it turn on when I am not even hot, it should be matter of personal comfort and not numbers. Of course, it was quite hot today with the heat indexes reaching about 105 degrees. Further, the painters are trying everything to get the paint splashes and such cleaned up, today using a huge pressure washer. I was so jealous of him, getting to use a P/W all afternoon, but the racket was awful.

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I went off on a quest for the best price for Diet Coke and found it at CVS drug store. Also secured some Junior Mints for my movie watching tonight, as I am expecting Brenda N. to come over. Seinfeld reference: "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint, it's delicious. It's very refreshing." "My Life In Ruins" came out on DVD this week so off I went to secure that. Justin and I had gone to see that when it first came out in the theaters and he has been counting the days until it was released for home use. I so 'cited!

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Before I headed for home, I stopped at the bank, rather, the credit union, to deposit my check. Being Friday and having Monday a bank holiday, the lines were considerable. No sweat for me, I am a good waiter, but sadly I had to watch those others around me who were also waiting. Along side of me was a slim lady with long blond hair, her arm draped out the window with a cigarette hanging from her fingers. In the backseat of her car were two car seats, thankfully empty. As I pulled forward, the lady in the car next to me was in a PT Cruiser, a grizzled grey haired lady, complete with a cigarette hanging off her lips! Ew! The car next to her also had a woman smoking a long cigarette. Where do the people get the money for such expenditures?

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At the Blockbuster store a poor mama was in there with a group of kids, possibly not all her own, hopefully not all her own. As the cashier was ringing me up, we heard this rather pronounced crash from the back of the store. She spoke to her co-worker about a table being knocked over and he said, "I heard it...." From under a display toward the front of the store came a little boy crawling, peeking from beneath the black tablecloth. That would have been a huge mess to clean up if it went over! Oh, he was such a cutie pie! I could have just scooped him up and kissed his little cheeks!!!!

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Huh, what do you know? I am out of things to be grumpy about!

What a busy week it has been!

Such a sense of accomplishment I am enjoying today! Earlier in the church office I made Mike C. laugh as I did a little victory dance upon the successful photocopying of the service folder for this Sunday. One down, one to go! When I arrived at the office this a.m. I was faced with making corrections (rats!) to the work I did on Wednesday after I thought I might have had been error free. Nope, there were boo boos but mostly because of the "adjusting" being done to a synod template, to incorporate it into our service. We are having three weeks of stewardship focus, this first week about how we are God's children, His heirs. One of the readings is the Prodigal Son, a story I find to be poignant. The closing hymn is "Children of the Heavenly Father", and when I read that I said aloud, "Oh, oh...." Pastor then remembered that this hymn is a trigger one for me but I told him it was fine, in fact, perfect for the message it delivers. We cannot worry about the tears being shed, as long as the message is delivered. Here is some history of the hymn: "Shortly before writing this hymn, Katharina Sandell and her fa­ther were on a boat trip, when he fell over board and drowned before her eyes. It is thought this tragedy gave birth to the lyrics."

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Here is a stanza of the hymn she wrote:

Though He giveth or He taketh,

God His children ne’er forsaketh;

His the loving purpose solely

To preserve them pure and holy.

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Okay, let us move on----I made the changes to the service folder and got it printed off. Mike C. had to help me figure out how to make the two-sided copies as it has been over two years since I have done this and I just plain forgot how to do it. Once he showed me, it came back, at least a bit anyway. You would think one never forget how to do the things we once did with our eyes closed, like memorizing the nation's area codes or making copies. But somehow, we do!

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Upon finishing my task, I headed toward home, stopping first at the cemetery to check on the bouquet I had put there two Sundays ago. It had pretty much been toasted in the sun and blown apart by the wind, so I carried it to the trash bin on the corner. As I strolled back, along came Corey, one of the guys who works there. He was feeling poorly and was considering going home at noon, where his son was already home with the same malady. He still had time to chat, asking about Justin and how things are going. We also discussed the football game from the other night and he is a Viking fan, so the conversation was a bit........'nuff said! Corey told me that the guys were going to be laying some pipe underground to try and dry the ground around Timmy's spot, and I told him there seemed to be rust on the markers in that area. He said it was from water sitting there. He is going to have the guys lift the marble bench as it is settling into the ground and also pull the marker up a bit, too, as it was sinking again. Draining the area will certainly help with the softness of the ground.

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I had some leftovers from Longhorn for lunch, leftovers from Monday, not Wednesday, when I met Martie there for lunch before working at church. The manager told me he was going to give me an apron because I am there so often. Martie took my leftover chix home with her for Ernie, since I already had a mess of leftovers to use up. Last night Justin and I had dinner together as he was hungry for some Koko's. He played some with my phone, downloading my perfect "Phantom of the Opera" ring tone, which he assured me was a one-time charge. He had better be correct about that! Now that I think about it, he ate all his dinner, or at least, did not have a to-go box when he left. I had to get going to make it to choir on time so off we went our separate ways. It was great to have dinner with him, but it had only been a week or so since we last ate together.

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Oh, and I totally freaked him that morning! When I was at Art Guild Tuesday night, I set my phone to quiet so it would not ring during the meeting, but did not set it for loud again the next morning. It seems my boy was trying and trying and trying to reach me, and I was not answering. Finally I happened to look at my e-mail and saw a message from him. "R u ok". Text lingo from him wondering if I was okay. Why shouldn't I be? Here he had been trying to reach me for nearly three hours via phone, text messages, finally resorting to sending an e-mail and google chat. He was freaked that something was wrong. When I finally answered his call, he said, "There you are!" like I was a naughty child. I told him now he knows what it feels like to be a mama...and he agreed. Justin said he knew I was not at aquarobics for three hours.....and if he had not been in Aberdeen he was thinking of coming over to check on me. Wow! And all he was wanting to ask me was if I had seen the beautiful way the sun was breaking through the clouds onto the river! Yes, I had and mentioned it on Facebook earlier, probably about the time he started calling me! I love that kid!

Here are some of God's children, having their lunch in the kindergarten classroom. Mario is looking at something on the bulletin board while Wesley drinks his juice. He loves to eat!