What a whirl wind week!

What a lot of 'w's in that title! I just glanced up and noticed a slow moving barge on the river, which is really quite pretty at night. They look like a stack of Christmas presents all lit up as they float along. It might not be a barge, might be a only tug, but still is brightly lit. So far I have not seen the moon rise and I hope the clouds are not concealing it. Last night when I came home from dinner the rooms were so bright, it was almost as though I left a light on or something. The Outreach meeting turned out to be a true delight with more people than usual and plans being made right along for future efforts.

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Judy J. and I met after the meeting to enjoy a stromboli at Aron's, dining el fresco until the management began their clean up. I added the balance of my dinner to the rest of the boxes in the fridge. What a week of foam boxes! Justin looked them over today and found none of them appealing so he 'suggested' that I eat at home tomorrow and get some of them eaten up. Yes, dear.....

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We have two members in the hospital right now but Bonnie was expecting to go home this afternoon. Sue was moved to CCU overnight as she was not doing well after her surgery. She had a colonoscopy the day before I had mine and found a growth which had been surgically removed. The doctors seemed to think they 'got' all of the cancer but her future treatment has not yet been determined since she is quite weak. Her daughter is keeping close tabs on Sue, even staying in the room with her mom, except for the CCU situation. Poor Sue has really been through it these past few years and I pray she heals quickly after this bout.

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Justin and I very much enjoyed the Bible study yesterday although at first he flinched when he saw what we were studying. The topic is still our adoption as sons by our heavenly Father, but the discussion was about the many faces the devil wears. Justin said, "Oh, no! You're going to hold this over me...." What? The picture on the page showed a family sitting in the dark, surrounding a TV, totally mesmerized by what they were looking at. Over the TV was a devil mask dangling like a puppet. It was not really as 'bad' a picture/story as Justin thought it was going be, about TV watching or video game playing or other distractions. More, the lesson was how the devil disguises himself in an attractive way, attractive devices, rather than scary like the mask over the TV. No one is afraid of pretty, which the devil banks on...Good lesson.

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We met Paul and Emily at Bahama Breeze for lunch, again on the veranda. There were not so many lovebugs as there were the week before. Because I so enjoyed my Cuban bread on Tuesday night at The Columbia I decided to have a Cuban sandwich. It was delicious but only half of it was eaten, with Justin taking the rest of it home with him. He ate chicken with sweet potatoes and ate my fish chowder, which came with my sandwich. It stunk, if you ask me! Ew! Good thing he liked it. Paul, Emily, and Sarah are going to the Concert on the Green with me Sunday, and we'll be meeting the rest of the church peoples there. Can't wait to hear the cannons during the 1812 Overture!!!! More tomorrow, I am tired as can be, waking up around 6:00 a.m. today, tooooooo early!

I should have done this earlier today

For some reason I find myself extremely tired tonight. And all goofed up on what day it is today as I got myself situated in the family room to watch "Selling New York"....but it's only Wednesday today! Now I must do this again tomorrow night after the Outreach meeting. How did I get so confused?? Now must I go to a Home???

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Suzanne and I met for dinner at Panera as usual but we both ate lighter meals than normal. She had been at a baseball game in the afternoon, right from work with her boss and other staff members. Nice! She had eaten at work, they did a bbq and shared dishes before going to the ball park, all within walking distance. Cool! It was good to sit and talk before heading to choir. We had a good rehearsal singing from the Supplement and our choir anthems, but not so much with the LAPPY. Some of us have an 'issue' with using it, except that some of the songs have been used by our choir in the past in the form of sheet music. Somehow it's different that way....

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Today I was still giddy with excitement about seeing my friends last night and then had a chance to 'chat' on Facebook with Judy before going to get my hair cut. I had met Judy R. on that trip, even though we had communicated via e-mail prior to meeting the first time at the Women's Leadership Conference. We spoke there in passing but really connected on the cruise a few days after the Conference. And the rest is history! The cruise, retracing the steps of St. Paul, was organized by Pastor Jim Humann from the Seattle area, with the majority of the group coming from the west coast area and the Midwest, and then, me! I traveled alone but met up with some of the gang at the airport in New York City. I told the Hulses last night about how my cab driver from the airport to the hotel in NYC clipped a bus with the side view mirror, but said, "That's not too bad" and kept right on going. He gave me a stern lecture about going to Turkey 'alone' but I assured him I would not be alone, others were meeting me and a group was going, but he was quite concerned for my safety. Except when he was driving, that is!

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Later in August of 2007, a group from church plus my sis-in-law, Nancy and sister, Lynn, flew to Seattle for a cruise. We were cruising to Alaska and the others had flown in from Jacksonville. We came from Milwaukee since I had been up there for my mom-in-law's funeral a week or so before the cruise. How do we get from the airport to our hotel???? We were going to meet Jim Humann, my host from the previous cruise for dinner, so they offered to come to the airport to pick the three of us and take us to the hotel. Nice!!! Jim's wife was a classmate of my sister, Kerry's, at MLHS, which was cool. So, I had spent time with Jim and Beth for over two weeks between NYC and the cruise, and now we met again in Seattle!

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Facebook has allowed me to stay in contact with many who were on that trip with me and the memories of that time together are so wonderful. This summer I am hoping to catch up with Vicki, Jim's daughter, who lives in Rhinelander either when I am up in WI or when she comes down here in July to see friends south of Orlando. Neither is exactly next door, but, like with the Hulses, we can make it work!

I do not think I can sleep tonight...

.....after such a fun evening!! It was just AWESOME meeting up with the Hulses in St. Augustine for dinner at The Columbia. AWESOME!! They have a time share south of Daytona Beach and are on vacation from the St. Louis area this week. Naturally, I was running just the tiniest bit late and could kick myself for going 'the long way' instead of jumping on the freeway. As it turned out I was only about 10 minutes late. They were already seated when I came in and I found them with little trouble. It was wonderful to see Cynthia and Lynnette again, and meet Cynthia's hubby, Les, for the first time. Hopefully not my last time! Lynnette brought a friend along to keep her company and her name is Leslie. Les and Leslie---easy enough to remember. We, and I use that term loosely as I talked my head off, talked about everything. Like we never missed a beat. Les told me that after the two ladies came home from the cruise in 2007 he heard all about me....I said, "What???" and he immediately came back with, "...all good, all good..." Whew!

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I think it came up when we talked about how at the Athens airport the two young girls, Lynnette and Becky, were wanting to take in the night life on Mykonos, which was actually several days into the trip, and Cynthia said they could. but only if I went along! Wow! They had really just met me but Cynthia felt confident enough to set them free with me in charge. After she got to know me, she changed her mind about that! As it turned out no one went back to the island that night, to my knowledge, so I was not put to the test. I think the girls would have had their hands full with me if we had gone back over as even Justin had to coerce me back onto the bus in 2006. It's VERY difficult to leave Mykonos but it helped that Santorini was only a day away.

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Judy and Kim on the cruise ship (sorry, but I have no photos on this computer of Cynthia or Lynnette...)

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Back to the dinner tonight, after we shared that little story, Les shared about them talking about me...Lynnette then piped up and said that Kim and the Ruserts made that cruise special for Becky and her, and no sweeter or kinder words were ever spoken. Thanks so much, Hulses, for making my night so special and for the great revisit of memories from our cruise. I was so excited about our fun time tonight that I tried calling Judy R. to tell her but got the answering machine instead. I left such a long, excited message that I ran out of time...imagine that!

Kim and Judy at her home in Winona in the spring of 2008. Friends forever!!!

Scrambling down memory lane...

This is what happens when you have good intentions of cleaning out a closet!!!! You can click on the photos to make them larger, if you dare...

If and when I ever finish writing my book about Timmy and our lives, I want this photo on the cover. I think you can see why....Look at how that light plays across his concerned face. Cropped out of the photo is his uncle Harvey and for some reason, Timmy is not in a car seat. For room, perhaps? I just do not remember, but Justin thinks this was the time that Harvey sneezed in the car and scared Timmy so badly that he cried and cried.

This photo was taken on Lisa's wedding day, and she, looking like a princess, is surrounded by her cousins including Timmy, Dusty, Alayna, Danny, Jamie and Justin. The three in suits were part of the wedding party, sort of like zoot suits. They did not wear the fedoras or the chains until after the service was completed, out of respect. They did look dashing though.

In my younger days, I hired myself out to stand up for people's weddings, often as Matron of Honor. My friends and family liked to pair me with very tall guys, and this was no exception. It appears as though I am having a delightful time for a change, in the Grand March.

We love Christmas in our family and opening the presents was a hoot! Evidently Kerry got a funny coffee mug, although I believe she was still in high school in this photo. Jill and I have matching glasses, I see, big ole' googly eyes! I am wearing my wedding watch around my neck on my Queen's Way blouse. If I had not gotten rid of it, that blouse would still be wearable as they last forever!!!

What is with the pink poly pantsuit???? Oh, my goodness! "What Not To Wear" would have a field day with that one, for sure! Jill is watching me open something and I am wondering if it is perhaps the year she gave me a ceramic ET figure. I still have it, in a box ready for a yard sale. Sorry, Jill.....still love his eyes, though. Different glasses in this picture, upgraded to aviator frames now to go with the pantsuit!

Awwwww, so sweet! Lori and Kim, obviously different races, posed together in the snow. We usually had these knit caps, made, I think, by the next door neighbor or by Auntie Dale. Mom might remember, or Lynn does. I say this is winter but it just might be May or early June, hard to tell in WI..... I do not know why I am so much darker than Lori in this photo, though.

Kerry in her mini-skirt and me in my maxi-dress which either Mom, Lynn, or Lori sewed for me, as we posed in front of the tree. I am probably still in high school in this picture which means Kerry was at First German as I left MLHS before she got there. I remember hearing that one of the teachers, upon hearing her last name, said, "Oh, no, not another one....!" Kerry was the last Lahaie girl for a while until Lisa got there and had her father's last name for safe keeping! It was pretty hard for anyone NOT to know she was one of us!!!

"I could care less about flowers...."

Late in the evenings, I have discovered something on TV that I watch on occasion, perhaps you have heard about it, "Everybody Loves Raymond". It gets on my nerves so I do not make a habit of it and sometimes it seems like the same program every time, lots of whining and hollering. BUT, on occasion, something hits me. There is an obnoxious mother/mother-in-law who lives across the street from her son and his family. Just like Kramer on "Seinfeld", she comes and goes freely, there is never a locked door, it seems. Even finds the couple in their bedroom, which is weird enough.

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Tonight 'Marie' was all upset about getting a gift from the couple, fruit of the month club membership. Oh, she was in a tizzy wondering how in the world they would ever eat all that fruit and then to find out it keeps coming month after month after month....It reminded me of when Justin and I were giving his grandparents flowers of the month for Christmas. They would get different bulbs to plant in the provided basket with dirt in it, during the winter months. Since Arno was a retired farmer, I thought it would be a kick for him to plant the bulbs and tend them as they produced spring flowers. They would have beautiful flowering plants to grace their kitchen during the winter months and then in the summer, when the bulbs quit coming, they could then plant them outside or give them away, whatever. And only one basket came for the entire 6 months so they did not have to deal with a mess of containers. Seemed like a good idea to me, to us...

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Well, one day in late October, I got a phone call from my mom-in-law, and she asked, "You know how you get us those flowers every year for Christmas?" Yes, of course, I do. "Well," she went on, "I could care less about flowers..." What??!!?? Aside from that being a terrible thing to say, I was astounded. Who does not like flowers??? I said that I was sure Arno appreciated being able to be a farmer yet, even if it was flowers on the table, and she brushed it off, like, 'he doesn't really care'. What she was actually getting at was this coming year for Christmas, what she really wanted were gift certificates for area restaurants, in particular, Subway Sandwiches. It seems Arno was not strong enough any longer to do much cooking for them (she had sort of given up on that old 'making meals' thing) and Arno, who was older than she, just could not do it either. But really, was there not a better way to say it than "I could care less about flowers....."? So ,when Marie, on the TV show, was so upset about the fruit coming every month, it brought back the horror of spring flowers growing in the middle of winter!

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They could never throw anything away so the bulbs had to be divvied out equitably to the kids living in the area for their own planting, instead of just tossing 'em. So, stop the madness! Harv and Barb were here shortly after this conversation and we had quite the chuckle over it, and every now and then we'll say, "I could care less about flowers..." Please, in the future, tell us, me, if you do not like our gift, but be diplomatic about it. I personally would say something like, "This year for Christmas, Arno and I want restaurant gift certificates because it is easier for us to stop for lunch than make it...." There, that was nice, soft 'no', as they say in the customer service business. A soft no goes a lot further than a karate chop!

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Another thing that made me chuckle was when I had my colonoscopy. Prior to the actual 'event' I had to do some more medical questionnaire stuff and give them, somehow or another, a urine sample. Since I had not had anything to eat or drink after midnight, this was a good trick. I asked the nurse what they needed it for and the nurse said they had to do a pregnancy test. What? Any female who comes in for a procedure and is between the ages of 11 and 55 gets tested, unless they had a hysterectomy. I told her I have been single since fall of 2003 but she said they still have to do the test. So, I tested negative on two tests that day! Both of which are good things to fail!

Gotta love this music...

....as I am listening to the open tones to the movie, an involuntary smile crossed my face. Much to my joy and delight, I am able to see "Godfather III", a movie I had not seen in many many years. The beginning scenes are recaps of "G-Father I & II" to catch people up on what took place prior to this final of the series. Now, scenes from 'Italia' when Michael was hiding out...Earlier today I watched a segment of Rick Steve's Europe which took place in Milano and the Lake Como regions of Italia. It has just been a powerful past few days of Italian sites, beginning with "Letters to Juliette" movie on Thursday. Wow! And, now, I get to see this movie, at least most of it, tonight!

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The early part of my day began with a hurried readying for a funeral service for one of our elderly members, Dave Gorman. Judy J. was going to ride with me but she was feeling poorly this a.m. Since I knew Judy and Mike were also going, I called them to hitch a ride. No sense in taking two cars to Ponte Vedra. They were leaving earlier than I had planned on leaving so I had to hustle to get myself to dress and get out the door. I did pretty well pulling myself together and congratulated myself on finding their house on the first attempt. Usually when I go there I end up getting turned around but in the light of day, no sweat! Only four of us from church were there, counting Pastor and Mike, who conducted the service. There was no singing, except for just prior to the event beginning, a recorded song was played, "I Can Only Imagine". There were hymns printed in the folder but were to be read for our private meditation. I guess we had no piano or organ player to do this for us. The readings were excellent and the liturgy was, of course, comforting and touching, with familiar verses about there being no more hunger, thirst, or tears in heaven.

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There was a brief interment service complete with taps being played and the folding presentation of the flag to the family in thanks for his military service. The family had only 8 members which made me feel kinda sad. I thought of the words in Pete's sermon at Timmy's funeral. He said how if Timmy had lived to be 105 years old, our church would have only a handful of people in it, but instead, at age 5, it was standing room only with overflow in the fellowship hall. Pete was right, only eight people in this man's family at the funeral. Dave, when he was well enough to attend church, would like it if I sat behind him to sing because he liked my voice. I envy the singing he is enjoying now in the heavenly realms with the Lord and with his wife, Emmy....

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Last night I slept in a clean bed, freshly remade after washing my sheets and the two blankets from the bottom of my bed. For a little while, my room seemed clean with the bed cleared off!!! When I went to bed, I put the books and periodicals back on the 'passenger side' to make it seem more homey. Ha! Earlier in evening a few of us 'attended' a wedding taking place at The Club. Hugh had the binoculars out and could keep tabs on the comings and goings. He always laments that we attend so many weddings but never get any cake. I just heard a cheer go up from outside which means another ceremony just wrapped up. I hope we did not miss all the fun...but I will bet that we did, since normally the gang does not gather until just before 7:00 pm.

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There are no other plans for tonight unless the phone rings and when I go outside later, I will record the rest of this movie for later. Oh, there is Enzo the baker, still at it, making cakes! This is so fun to watch, but I will not allow it to keep me in the house. It was a lovely day today, in the high 80's and lots of boat activity, much of it in the basin. I saw fishers casting their nets but I cannot tell if they are catching something or not. No sign of the manatees today but the boats may have scared them. Tomorrow is Pentecost and confirmation day at Good Shepherd, with two girls being confirmed. One is the pastor's daughter, Anna, and the other belongs to the preschool teacher, Kim. The choir is singing "Take My Life" to a different melody than usual, including an a capella part. We are so daring!

"Life is about the messy bits..."

This photo was taken in 2006 by Justin when we traveled to Italy, Greece, Monacco, and points in between for his graduation trip. This is a field of sunflowers outside of Florence (Livorno) on our way to buy my beautiful chandelier! I am a woman truly outstanding in my field.....
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The title line I used was from the movie I saw with Twila and Judy J. yesterday called "Letters to Juliette". Oh, my goodness, the scenery!!! It begins in New York City and I said out loud, "I love New York!" and then the action moved to Rome and again, I said out loud, "I love Rome...". And then Tuscany, with its incredible scenery and cityscapes, and all I could do then was mourn. I am glad Twila was there with me because we saw this same scenery together when we were there in 2005. All the photos you may have seen of this region, the paintings, or the movies are not exaggerations at all, it IS just that beautiful. Like the movie, "Under the Tuscan Sun" which also takes place in obviously, Tuscany, with the ancient structures and bell towers and vineyards and olive groves and sun flowers.....

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In the movie, an elderly widow, if 65 is considered elderly, let me change that to older woman, is in search of her long-lost love from 50 years ago. She had written a letter to Juliette, of Romeo fame, and it was found by an American writer on vacation in Verona, who replied to the letter. "Clare" talked her grandson into bringing her from England back to Italy to find her Lorenzo and the three of them join forces to make her heart happy. The grandson is a rather unwilling participant in all this and behaves badly at first but eventually softens with all the talk about true love and lost ones. That is where the title line comes from, the sage Clare, in setting her grandson straight regarding life and love, it is all about the 'messy bits'!

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After the movie, which had a happy ending, we all three had to use the bathroom. Twila looked in the mirror and said, "It is good to come out of a movie and not look like heck..." since we often leave in tears after such a movie. She brought up The Bucket List and yes, that was such a rough ride, we should have had bags for our heads! It did not stop us from going to dinner at TGIF after The Bucket List, though! This time, although occasionally a tear eliciter, we looked fine and went over to Mellow Mushroom to dine el fresco. With all that delicious looking food in the movie, we wanted something Italian so we shared an order of bruschetta. My meal was the half-portion BLT on French bread (we can pretend it was Italian...). I was home again just before 8:00 so joined the gang on the sundeck for a bit. Jessica, Travis, and the new baby were out there as well as others.

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Around 8:30 pm the people started going in to eat dinner so I came in to watch "Selling New York". Wouldn't you know it but the Realtors were showing New York brownstones in this segment. Justin and I had just discussed brownstones at lunch that day so I sent him a text message to tell him about the program. He asked what the sale prices were and the one brownstone, which was multi-family, was going for just over $2 million dollars. They were all about the same width of 20 feet but sure looked wider on TV, even the agent made that remark. My bedroom is 16 feet wide so four feet more....I don't know, it sure seems as though those houses were wider than that. Guess I will have to go see for myself, or ourselves!

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One of Justin's favorite topics is winning the lottery, and all the things he wants to use his winnings for. He has even calculated the taxes he would have to pay and then begins the divvying thereof. Justin said if he won he could buy me colonoscopies, and I cannot thank him enough! He knows I am upset about all that mess and wants to make it nice for me. He said he would also pay my taxes, income and real estate, which makes me smile broadly. Perhaps I should buy such a ticket, the 'tax on the poor', as Neal Boortz refers to the lottery. Justin used to want to buy Good Shepherd a pipe organ but Pete told him he would also have to find someone to play it! Not easy to do any more, could possibly be extinct ability. Justin wants to make sure his cousin, Lisa, has central air conditioning and a security system in her home so the boys and she are safe and cool/warm. Soon it will be her and the children, since we do not yet know if the next baby is a girl or boy. Yesterday he said he wants to help his alma mater, St. Johns CDS, with their building project which is a million dollars behind, even suggesting that he could buy the entire school! I suggested he establish funds at the two churches to help people with their utility bills and he said, "Well, that's a given...." I do hope he wins!

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Bible study was grand yesterday, too, discussing how our baptism clothes us in the white robe of righteousness. One recurring passage was about Christ becoming righteousness for us. What a wonderful comfort that is, our sins are cast away, washed away, and we are His! At the end of the class I told the story of when Justin's great-aunt, Dora, died many years ago. His father and I were crying and went into his bedroom to tell him the news. Justin asked us why we were crying---Dora was wearing a beautiful white robe in heaven! From the mouths of babes! At Victory this Sunday two more kids are being baptized, coming as a result of their preschool program, one a 5 year-old and her 13 year-old stepsister. Let the heavens rejoice! Get those white robes ready!