After Midnight

After Midnight - isn't that a song? Once again, it's after midnight (today is Monday, Dec. 29th) and I'm still up. Does this happen when you get older? Both my parents are usually up after midnight, but my older-than-me husband goes to bed usually around 8:00 every night. Guess it's in the genes and not age. Or, it could be because I drink sweet iced tea all day long.......

I've been playing around with Photoshop Elements the past couple of nights trying to figure out a way to put watermarks on my photos so they won't be stolen off the internet. I've been following a website (Blissfully Domestic)that just happened to have a tutorial on how to put watermarks on your photos. How awesome is that? So, I've been playing around with it tonight. Some of the instructions I couldn't figure out - like how to bevel the watermark or import a logo - but I got enough to be able to watermark my photos. I may have to buy a program that does it for you so that I can watermark several hundred at a time. Can you see the watermarks on the pictures I've uploaded?

Saturday, I started cleaning the house and decluttering again. How do I accumulate so many things? I just don't know. One room we never got to was the bathroom, so that's the room I tackled. I organized my jewelry, which I have a ton of - all costume, of course. I'm not into the real stuff. I've got my diamond engagement ring, diamond eternity ring that Vance gave me for our 25th anniversary and a diamond ring that my mother gave me that was given to her by my brother Earl. She gave it to me last Christmas because I took care of Earl when he had cancer and she said she knew he would have wanted me to have it. I cried like a baby when she gave it to me, but I don't wear it much. Just for special occasions, which are very few and far between in my life. I'm not the type of person who likes to flash expensive jewelry around. I like being able to have more of something rather than spend a fortune and only have one.

Yesterday (since it's already after midnight) I went to church. It was pretty cool what Mrs. Sandi did. Pastor Sammy is out of the hospital (after having triple by-pass surgery). She called him on the phone and put him on speaker, so we could all tell him we loved and missed him and he told us that he was so thankful for his church family, he loved us and he hoped to see us next Sunday. He sounded really good.

Judy and Jamie brought their new baby, Jaden, to church for the second time. She's one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen. Wish I had taken my camera. I never think to use my cell phone camera and I've always got it with me. Crystal and Jarrett and their little girl, Abbigayle, was there, too. She's a doll baby. They just got back from a trip to Alaska. A place I'd love to go. I'd just like to go anywhere new where I could take pictures.

Well, I guess I better try and get some sleep. I've got to take Mama to the doctor around 10:30 this morning. She's already called a half dozen times to make sure I don't forget. Then, I'm going to come home and start on one of the bedrooms. Penny is bringing back the bed I loaned her, so I need to set up that bedroom. I'll be off until Jan. 5th, so I hope to get a lot done around the house.

After church, I ate, watched a little TV with Vance, then took a five hour nap. Maybe that's why I can't go to sleep.......Ya think???

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!! Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

It sure is strange waking up whenever you want to wake up on Christmas Day, not having any place to rush off to. Just because it was one of my traditions when the kids were young, I stayed up till 3:00 A.M. I used to stay up practically all night wrapping presents and putting toys together. Vance would help with bicycles and such, but I put together the other stuff after he went to bed. I might or might not get to bed. If I did, it was usually for maybe an hour, then the kids would wake us up and want to open presents. I was just as excited as they were so it never bothered me that I didn't sleep. Hey, it was a tradition that I loved. So, last night, I waited until the last minute - after midnight - to wrap the few presents that I had bought for Hope and Trent and Vance. Vance had already given me my present earlier. It was an Espresso/Cappuccino maker. Since the store closed right before he got there, he couldn't buy any espresso; so I used regular coffee and made a cup. You can't use regular size coffee cups; they have to be very shallow. While we were doing the home makeover earlier this year, we gave away all my shallow coffee cups. But, I did have my green depression glass coffee cups and they were the perfect size. I made a cup of coffee and went to make the frothy milk topping and the cup was the wrong size again. You're really supposed to use a cold, stainless steel cup. Guess I'll have to see if I can find one of those and buy some more coffee cups. I don't want to take the chance of breaking my depression glass cups. They were my grandmother Lightsey's. While making the frothy milk, I sprayed milk all over the place. I didn't realize that it was just air that made it frothy and I pulled it away before shutting off the machine. Milk everywhere. It was really funny. I got the hang of it today and made a cafe mocha. Pretty good stuff.

I slept till about 7:30, then got up and got a shower. Vance, Michelle and Fox called to wish us a Merry Christmas. I showed Vance the video of Fox wishing everybody a Merry Christmas. It is soooo cute! Vance loved it as much as I did. Not too many things make him smile, but that sure did.

Chad, Tabitha and the kids came over and brought brunch around 10:30. Tabitha made a hashbrown, sausage, egg and cheese casserole. It was really good. Afterwards, we let the kids open their presents. I was so proud of Trent and Hope. They told everybody the real reason we celebrated Christmas - that it was Jesus' birthday and we got presents because it was our birthday, too, if we believed in Jesus and were born again. I thought that was precious. After they left, I curled up on the couch and slept for about five hours. Not your typical way to spend Christmas, but I needed the rest. Vance worked in the yard. Basically, it was just another day to us. But I did think about the story of Jesus' birth and how much we have to be thankful for.

I called Mama and wished her a Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas. Yes, today is her 78th birthday. She's not feeling very well since she had the colonoscopy on Tuesday. Her refrigerator went out and Chip and Angie came over and went and got the extra one Penny had and replaced hers. Angie went to her house and brought Mama leftover food from yesterday when we were all together at their house, plus chicken and rice. I offered to come over, but she said she wanted to take a nap and didn't want me to come. I told her I was off tomorrow, so I'd come check on her.

Penny called and wished me a Merry Christmas. She had a wonderful Christmas. Mikey bought her a big screen TV, plus all kinds of other stuff. But, she said she hasn't even been able to watch TV because they got Guitar Hero and a Wii and they've been playing games all day. I told her I'd have to come over and play baseball with her. We both used to play softball together, so that ought to be fun. Especially if we can get Tiffaney to play with us. I've always wished that the three of us could have played softball together. Maybe this way, we finally can. It'll be fun......

Vance and I watched some John Wayne movies that we've seen a dozen times, but we both still love John Wayne. It's after midnight and I'm playing around with photos I took the past couple of days. I'm still real upset that I've lost the Book of Our Lives when I switched to Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 from 3.0. I lost a lot of my creative albums. I've looked everywhere that I can think to look and just can't recover it. I really wanted to add pages, but 6.0 doesn't have the same creative ability that 3.0 did. With 6.0, you create and have to send to Kodak and buy your creation. Sorry, but I like to do my own work. I've got the binder machine and want to do it myself. I've also got Printshop Deluxe Version 22, but it is not as user friendly at the very old one I used to have. I also have a problem with it that I don't know how to fix. When I try to upload a photo into the project I'm working on, it automatically puts a picture of yellow flowers in place of the picture I'm trying to upload. I've tried deleting the flowers, but it still pops up every single time. So, that program is virtually useless to me. I think I will try to uninstall it and re-install it and see if that helps. I've got several days off so I can work on it along with other projects around the house.

It's 1:00am, so I think I'll work on my photos for a little while before going to bed. Goodnight and God bless.................

Happy Monday

On the way to work, one of the guys called to see if I was going to be at work this morning. I said I was on my way. He told me to meet them in the break room as soon as I got there. So, I did, along with Kim and John. They guys had taken up money and gave us gift certificates. That was so cool and very appreciated.

More curves were thrown to us with the timekeeping system, but we will work through this. I'm very confident that we will be able to make this work. I've decided to start looking at things with a more positive attitude instead of complaining. It will make life so much easier.

We had a great weekend. Vance, Michelle and Fox came in on Friday. I worked till 6:30 and then went to the motel to pick up Michelle. We went to Books-A-Million and got coffee in their coffee shop - Peppermint Bark. It was scrumptious! I was glad I got a medium one instead of a small one. It was that good. Made me wish I'd gotten a large. We walked next door to Toys R Us and she helped me shop for all the kids. We got some good deals. I was so glad she was with me. I really don't like shopping and I'm so out of touch with the little kids. She really helped me, cause she's around those ages nearly everyday.

Saturday morning, Tabitha called around 8:40 and woke me up. What's with me sleeping late on Saturdays? That's just not like me. She and Chad were going to garage sales and she wanted to drop some stuff off at our house. I hurriedly dressed. They came over and after they left, I mopped the floors. That about did me in. I just don't get enough exercise. Had to make potato salad to take to Chip and Angie's. While I was in the shower, Vance, Michelle and Fox came over. It just blesses my heart to see Fox walking again. Michelle said Fox described his entire accident from start to finish while they were driving. And he didn't leave out a single thing. He's so smart. While we were riding over to Chip's, Fox kept asking "Where's PawPaw?" I told him he was golfing, but would meet us at Chip's. And Vance got there about 30 minutes after we did. We had good food and everybody got to see Fox walk. Mia is walking now. She's Angie made over. Tonya said she looks just like Angie's baby picture. I'll upload all the pictures later. (It's midnight now, so I better not get started or I'll never go to bed.) Even Aunt Margurete, Uncle Bobby and their daughter Diane and her husband, two sons and daughter came. It was so good to see them. They all wanted to see Fox, cause they and their churches have been praying for him.

We came home and Fox took a nap before we had to go to Skip and Brenda's. Fox wanted me to ride with him, so we let Vance carry the presents and food. I mixed up this candy mixture of caramel corn, peanuts, dark chocolate M&M's and chocolate-dipped peppermint sticks. Vance sampled it and said "Mom, this is wicked (or something to that effect), meaning it was good. I had mixed the caramel corn and peanuts together from a recipe I got from SouthernPlate.com I think it was. Then, Fran gave me a bag of dark chocolate (my favorite) M&M's, so I just mixed them in. It kinda tastes like a chocolate Payday. It's so good. See photos to get a better idea.

We had a great time at Skip and Brenda's. Grandma Rosie has been sick (she actually had a mild stroke). She and Grandpa Mac came and she got to hold the youngest great-grandchild. It was so good seeing her. Last time I saw her was in the hospital and she didn't even know who I was. She knew all of us Saturday.

Sunday, we had a great program at church. 0ur youth and younger kids put it on and did a fabulous job. Tina and Kayla are great with the kids.

Okay, I'm getting sleepy, so I'll close for now. Goodnight and God Bless..........

What a Day!

Mrs. Sandi called after Pastor Sammy went to the doctor this morning. They are planning on doing open heart surgery (triple by-pass) on him on Friday. We're still praying for a miracle to happen before the surgery. Please pray for him.

Our new timekeeping system was supposed to be downloaded overnight and it was, but it still doesn't work. Kim and I spent the morning working on entering info in one field of the account number because of an email we got this morning. Why we had to do it, we don't have a clue. It seems nobody in Pensacola or anywhere else has even tried to enter time, because when Kim called the guy in charge, he didn't know there were any problems. What a mess!

We (Kim, Jeff and I) got on a conference call with Mark in Pensacola and tried to make sense of what was going on. We thought we had it figured out, but after lunch we found out what we had done was wrong and the system should fill in that field automatically. All the work we did was for nothing.

When I talked to Jimmy, the Substation supervisor, he had not even heard that there were going to be changes made. They just have not communicated to anybody! Usually, when we are going to change the system, we work dual systems - the regular one and then a test system. We enter time on both and see what bugs are left in the new version. We usually do that for several months before it is changed. Not this time. There has been no testing at all that we can see. None of the timekeepers were kept in the loop. We were the very last to find out and only through other people. We didn't received any of the emails. Now, it seems the supervisors didn't get those emails either.

Jimmy had called early and invited Beth and me to lunch. He wanted to show his appreciation for all we do for him during the year. We decided on Red Lobster and all met there at 11:30. Had a great lunch. Jimmy and Vance went to school together and we talked about Vance. Jimmy said that Vance was very, very smart in school. Never had to study. I said "That's where the boys get their brains from; definitely not me." What is even funnier is that Jimmy and I lived about three doors down from one another and probably played together when I was in the 2nd through the 5th grade. I don't remember any of the kids from the neighborhood (too many years have passed), but I know that we all played together. Small world, isn't it?

Got back to work and decided to try to enter a timesheet since Mark said everything should be working. WRONG!!!! The account numbers still are not valid. Boy, this is putting me way behind. I had hoped to take a day off this week and take my niece, Natalie, shopping. That's not gonna happen. I may not even be able to take off the day after Christmas. But, I'm glad I have the week after Christmas off because the timekeeping system will be down that entire week. I would have just been sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs unless I could find something to do. I pray that the system is working tomorrow.

I had an appointment with Marsha after work to get my hair colored. That's the one thing I do for myself every 5-6 weeks. I used to color my hair myself, but now I let Marsha do it.

Okay, it's after midnight and I read an article today that says people who don't get enough sleep cannot lose weight. I'm sure that is one of my problems, cause I sure don't get much sleep.

Goodnight and God bless...

Christmas Is Getting Closer

Did my husband do good or what? Check out these roses that he sent me for our 38th anniversary. He's such a sweetheart. He may act tough, but he's a teddy bear underneath.

Saturday, I slept till around 10:15. Just wasn't feeling very good. I managed to do a little cleaning, but that was all. I took Dayquil and that was a mistake. At least, I think that's what caused me not to sleep last night. I took one around 4:00 and went and got supper. Watched a couple of Christmas movies on TV and made an ornament. I could not go to sleep until around 4:00 this morning. Got up at 7:00 and got ready for church. You just don't know what to wear these days. One day, it's freezing and the next, it's in the 70's. I wore a jacket and that was too much. I think it got up into the 70's today. I also think that's why so many of us are getting sick. But, that's Florida weather for you. I carry three different coats around in my car from light-weight to heavy - just in case the weather changes. And, in case someone else forgets theirs and it gets cold. Ya just never know!

We had a very good service today. During Praise and Worship, someone came up and got saved. I wasn't there last week, but Pastor Sammy said that six people got saved last Sunday morning. Praise the Lord! That's what it's all about.

One of our preemie babies was in church today. Little Jacob and his parents were there. He is adorable! He cooed through the whole service. It was so precious. Just another miracle that God has performed in our midst. And, I got an email from Sierra - Cameron now weighs over 3 lbs. He still has a way to go, but he's getting there.

I stopped by Sonic and got a burger. Came home, ate and waited for Tabitha to bring the kids over. She had to go to work and Chad wasn't off yet. They came in and Hope wanted to make an ornament. We looked in their pictures in my photo files and I let them pick the one they wanted on their ornament. I printed them out and let them pick out the stickers they wanted. I was going to let them put the ornaments together themselves, but they took off outside with the dogs. So, I did the ornaments and Chad came in and helped.

Chad and I talked about his job. The worst part is standing all day. He said he likes it when it's busy, but the other workers would rather it be slow so they can just stand around and talk. He's not one to just stand around, so he is always asking the manager what he can do. He'll sweep the floors or do anything to keep busy. Let me tell you how God worked all this out. Chad used to work with the manager many years ago, but had not talked to him until about six months ago. He ran into him in a store and the guy and his wife had just had a baby. When we really started praying for Chad to get a job, out of the blue, the guy called to let Chad know that they and his wife were expecting another baby. He asked what Chad was doing and Chad told him he was looking for a job. The guy told him to go online, fill out an application and come in. Chad did and was hired. They are even telling him that if he takes a food class, that he can become a manager himself. I think they really see something in Chad. Coincidence? No, it's a God thing. And, get this, Kim dreamed that Chad owned his own Firehouse Subs right after he got the job. Who knows? Anything can happen with God's help.

After the kids left, I sat down in the chair and fell asleep. I slept past the Bible Study party. I totally forgot about it. I guess I just needed the rest, but I sure would have liked to have been around all those other people. It's always fun just fellowshipping together. And I'm sure the food was great.

Vance and I had breakfast for supper. He's still not feeling good, so he took some Nyquil and went to bed around 7:00. I think I'll stay away from the Nyquil/Dayquil. I'd probably be up all night again.

Fox is Walking!!!

You've got to check out Vance's blog (just click on the link on the left of my blog) and see the video of Fox walking. It made me cry - a very happy cry. I just thank the Lord for being able to see that. I thought it hurt really bad when something bad happened to your own child, but it hurts just as much when it's your grandchild. Right now, my heart is so full of joy. Thanks, Michelle, for videoing him. I can't wait to see you guys next weekend. I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your family. Give them all my love.

Boy, today was a busy day. I didn't think I would get through with my timesheets, but I did - without having to work overtime. Even with a lot of interruptions. Starting next week, we will be trying out new timesheets and new time entry codes, all without any training. I think it's going to be harder on the guys. Me, I can probably figure it out, but it's going to slow down their production time. And, so many of them are on vacation, so they will be hit with it as soon as they get back, and it goes into effect Jan. 1, I think. If not, then this next pay period is the real thing.

Had not planned on taking a lunch, but Daddy needed his medicine. It was better to get it at lunch in case I got bogged down at the end of the day. He's not been feeling very well - sore throat and coughing - so he needed more than just his regular prescriptions. I guess it's my fault that he's gotten sick. I haven't taken him in for a flu shot, but when I was at the pharmacy, one of the pharmacists said she would never take another flu shot as long as she lived. She got sick from taking it and said she knew several others working there who also got sick. I've read that the vaccination is not a live virus, but evidently it is. Personally, I'll never take one unless it's administered against my will. It's just a gamble as to which strain of flu comes around and the national news even said last year, they gave out the wrong shots because they were expecting one type of flu when another one actually came around. To me, its a waste of time and money. I'll just load up on Vitamin C and take my chances. I'd rather go the natural route. The FDA is pushing drugs through way too fast and killing way too many people as far as I'm concerned. Give me a drug that has been tested for years and has a track record; not one that go pushed through by some lobbyists and hasn't been tested long enough. Look how many drugs are being pulled off the shelves because they kill people. Okay, I'm going to get off my soap box now.

After work, I came home and then went to the Ladies Mininstry Christmas Party. There were 11 of us. We had a lot of fun and I ate too much. I'm still miserable. I don't usually eat much food. I ate a salad, pasta primivera and cake for dessert. I never, ever eat that much. It would have been a salad or pasta and no cake, but not all of that. You just get caught up in the moment and eat. Not a good thing where I'm concerned. I'll probably have to sleep sitting up to keep from having the acid reflux problem. There are times like this when I wish I was bulimic, but God made sure I couldn't make myself throw up. I just don't have that gag reflex. If I did, I'd probably be skinny or dead. Instead, I'm miserable..........

It's after midnight and I think I'm going to try to go to bed and see how long I can stay there. Goodnight and God bless.............

Sick Today

It seems everybody around me has been sick. I was hoping and praying that it would just pass me over, but it didn't. I've had a sore throat and sneezing for several days and last night my head started getting stopped up. This morning, I woke up and would have been able to go to work except the stopped up head created some balance problems. My equalibrium was off, so I was afraid to drive. I let work know and went back to bed until around 1:00. Feeling a little better tonight.

I really need to clean my house. It is a mess!! I just feel so inadequate right now. I can't seem to get anything done around here.

My mother-in-law will be getting out of Healthsouth this weekend. My sister-in-law and niece will be here on Friday to stay for 10 days to help out. It will be great to see them. They live in South Carolina and we don't get to see each other very often. I wish they would move back here.

Tomorrow is mine and Vance's 38th wedding anniversary. I haven't bought him a thing -not even a card. Had planned on doing that today, but I didn't get out of the house. What do you get a man you've been married to for 38 years whose only interest is golf? I've bought him as much golf stuff as he could possibly have. Maybe I can find him a warm sweater tomorrow at lunch. I guess I'll have to take a lunch and go shopping tomorrow and just work late tomorrow and Friday. We're starting a new timekeeping program next week and we've got to tweak the fine points before then. I sure hope I don't have to go in on Saturday. Why couldn't they have waited until the first of the year?

It's almost midnight and I guess I better get to bed. Goodnight and God bless.......

18 Days Till Christmas

Christmas will be here before you know it. I was just reading some blogs and read Cristy Jordan's blog www.southernplate.com which led me to read another blog mainly for quilters, but it's pretty cool for scrapbookers, too. Wish I could remember the name........ Check out Southernplate and you can find it. Cristy just won an award from this blog. Anyway, there was a quote that really caught my eye. It said "There was only one Christmas; the rest are anniversaries." I never really thought of it that way, but it's true, isn't it?

Hang on a second. I've got to get up and dance. Okay, I'm back and out of breath. Whew! But, I just cannot sit still when I hear the song "Shackles" - take the shackles off my feet so I can dance......... I'm sitting here listening to Mandisa "True Beauty". Love it!

Yesterday (Saturday - well, actually it was two days ago since it's after midnight) was a pretty busy day for me. Started off sleeping late, until my mother called and woke me up around 10:30. Never could get back to sleep. My house is a wreck, but I just don't seem to have the energy or time to straighten it up. I went and found my little silver Christmas tree that I bought last year to put my vintage mercury ornaments on. Fran had brought a bunch of ornaments that she had left over last year from Holly Fair and she was selling them for $1.00 each. I bought a bunch and that's what I decorated the tree with. It's cute, but I had planned on pulling out my big tree after I rearranged the living room. Didn't have time to do it because I needed to eat something and wanted to go to Dazzle Wear and check out their big sale before I picked up Swayde. I did got to DW and bought a cute little jacket and a red Christmas shirt. They were having a pretty good sale and I had a $5.00 off coupon that I had gotten in the mail.

Then, I went to Sonic and got a grilled cheese sandwich and tea and ate it on the way to Penny's. I sat around with her for about 30 minutes before Tabitha called to tell me they were on their way to the school for Hope's concert. We met them there. The "Sandbox Singers" were so cute. I'll upload pictures later - tomorrow maybe. We were there from 4:30-7:00, then we went to Popeye's and ate. There were seven of us. We decided to go look at Christmas lights. I took Trent with me and Swayde and we followed Chad, Tabitha, Lee (her cousin) and Hope. We went to South Port and saw a few good displays, then to the Country Club near my house. Not as many people are putting up lights this year. I guess because of the economy. We met at my house and I gave Trent back. Vance came out to see what the dogs were barking at. I took Swayde back to his house and sat with him until Penny came home from her office Christmas party. I wish I had taken my camera in. She looked gorgeous. The dress she had on was just like the one Marilyn Monroe wore in that famous picture where she steps on an exhaust grate and the wind blows her dress up. Except, Penny's dress was black, where Marilyn's was white. And Penny's hair is dark where Marilyn was blonde. My sister looked good! She said she got a lot of compliments from the doctors. None of them even knew she had a good figure. Those scrubs leave a lot to be desired. They definitely don't do anything for your looks. Makes me want to lose some of this weight I'm carrying around. Though I would never look as good as Penny. She's just a natural beauty. So is Tiffaney. You can see that in the picture at the top of this blog. There are a lot of beautiful women in our families - Penny, Tiffaney, Angie, Tonya, Katie, Brenda, Stacy, Jodi, Robbie, Natalie, Michelle, Tabitha, just to name a few.I hope I didn't leave anybody out. I was glad Penny had fun. She deserves it. Swayde and I had fun, too. He's a good kid. He and Trent really enjoyed spending time together.

I came home and Vance had chili cooking in the crock pot. Yummy!

Went to church this morning. Pastor Sammy was back. Yeah! He's been out sick for so long. He was in the hospital in quaranteen for 3 weeks with a bad infection. If anybody went to see him, they had to scrub up and put on masks (he said they all dressed in the same Halloween costume. He's so funny.) We had a great service. I got him to pray for my ears because that dizziness was coming back. He prayed for that and the pre-diabetic condition I have. He talked to me about that and told me some things to do - mainly a low-carb diet. Carbs are not my friends, but I sure do love them. I would rather eat carbs than anything else on earth. Anything sweet is my downfall, especially sweet tea. After all, I'm a true Southern girl. We just can't live without sweet tea. I guess I'll go to the health food store tomorrow and buy some Stevia and make my own tea. Bye-bye Sonic...... :(

I went to see Mama after church. She's been bugging me for weeks to bring the title to her car so she can sign it over to me. She won't ever drive again, though she has been able to get off two of her inhalers since she quit smoking. She is doing so much better. I visited with her about two and a half hours. Penny came by to get her grocery list and went and bought her groceries. Thank you, Penny, for helping out. And Aunt Margurete, I appreciate you more than you will know for all you do for Mama.

I took a nap after eating a bowl of Vance's famous chili. It was good. Got up and went back to church to help decorate the Christmas tree. We had a lot of help this year, so we finished at 9:00 instead of the usual 10:00. It looks beautiful. Will post a picture later.

Chad starts his new job (Thank You Lord) on Tuesday. I may have to chip in and pick up Hope on the days that Chad and Tabitha's schedules overlap. I'll just schedule my lunch for 2:00 in the afternoon. That won't be a problem.

It's way past time for me to be in bed. It's 12:45 a.m. I've got to get up and go to work in a few hours. Goodnight and God bless.............

21 Days Till Christmas

Okay, how many of you out there are ready for Christmas? I'm sure there are plenty who are. Not me. I haven't even decided if I'm going to put up a tree. I probably will, but I don't know when I can slow down long enough to get it done. I'm one of those procrastinators who will put everything off until the last minute. I thrive on pressure! I used to wait until Christmas Eve to buy the presents and then stay up all (and I do mean ALL) night wrapping and putting things together. I loved it! Well, now the extended families get together up to a week before Christmas. That just ruined all my fun! But, I'll still wait until the very last minute. That's just the way I am and I'm too old to change. So, for those of you like me, you've only got 21 days before Christmas. Better get out there and get to shopping! Or, do like me and wait until the last minute. There are some pretty good deals on Christmas Eve. You get a whole lot more for your money, believe me.

I had such a good day today. Didn't get caught up on my work, but I'll get there if I have to bring work home every night next week.

God is really moving in our internet prayer group. When Ruth left the church, the prayer requests started coming to me. Was I ready to take over a prayer group? No way! Me, of such short, simple prayers? I sure didn't think so. Isn't it funny how God uses the ones who feel least equipped to do something for the kingdom? Ya reckon it's because you will have to rely totally on Him to get the job done? In my case, that is truly what is happening. I thought it would be a temporary position and I could pass it on to someone else. I tried to get Kim to take it. She prays such anointed prayers and she has a much better memory than I do. Especially for scripture. She can read something and remember where it is in the Bible and usually can quote the scripture verbatim. Not me. I've tried to memorize scripture, but it just doesn't happen for me. I tried for six months to memorize Psalm 91 and the only part I can remember is 91:11 - and He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. Sometimes, bits and pieces of the whole chapter will come back to my mind, but certainly not in any order. You ask me what the preacher's message was the same day he preached it and I'll have to go look at my notes. We all have gifts in the church and I know for sure mine is not being a teacher. As a matter of fact, I took one of those giftability surveys today, but got to the last page and it wouldn't give me my answer. The web page was down. Of course, I could probably take it every day and come up with something different. Just depends on how I feel about myself when I take the test.

Enough about me and my memory problems. With prayer, that is going to change, too. I'm declaring right now that I have a sound mind and I will start remembering scripture. Back to the prayer group. We are seeing people being healed of cancer; on their deathbeds with heart and lung problems and God is restoring their health. Babies are being touched. I think the devil is trying to kill the babies before they are even born because there are so many women giving birth prematurely or having miscarriages. People send me the prayer requests/praise reports and I send them out to the intercessors. It started out with just our church intercessors, but it is expanding all over the U.S. There are people out there who just love to pray for others and they have joined us and they pray and they send requests to us and we pray for them. I get calls all the time. I stop what I'm doing and type up the request and send it out. (Maybe I need to get a Blackberry so I can have access to my email all the time.)My sweet sister-in-law Brenda is a member of our group even though she goes to another church, and she keeps us informed on my mother-in-law's condition. We know that prayer is what turned her around so quickly. The doctor's believe she got encephalitis (an infection on her brain). It caused her brain to swell and she had a stroke. Mac called Brenda and Brenda got her to the hospital. They started giving her antibiotics and it brought down the swelling. At first, she didn't know anybody but Brenda. She didn't know Mac or me when we were visiting her. She would just smile at us with that sweet smile of hers. By the next night, her mind came back and she made the nurse call Mac so she could talk to him. Now, she even knows the names of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I think her memory is sharper than mine! But, you see, that's the power of prayer. Even the doctors were amazed that she is recovering so quickly. See what prayer can do? God is ready to answer if we will just ask. No, sometimes His answers are not what we want; but I guarantee they are the right answers. Only He knows the future and what we need.

Kim and I were talking today about why some people don't get healed. She found a scripture in the Bible (the best place to go for answers) that says even the righteous will lose their lives (or something like that. I told you I can't remember very well.) We talked about it and I truly believe my brother Earl was healed of cancer the same night he gave his heart to Jesus. I witnessed it with my own eyes. When we walked in the church, he was walking with a cane, his skin was jaundiced, he could hardly speak without slurring his words. But after he said the sinner's prayer with the evangelist, he just fell to the floor (was slain in the Spirit for you non-Pentacostals). His Nurse Practioner, who was the first to find the cancer, was there and she held him in her lap and prayed over him until he came around. When he was just laying there, we began to see his skin turn from yellow to pink, like a baby's skin. When he started to get up, I went to hand him his cane and he said "I don't need that." He got up by himself. The evangelist came back over to him and said "Son, what just happened to you?" Earl said "Jesus healed me." Then they walked back and forth across the front of the church several times. Earl did not limp at all. I believe he could have taken off running at that point. His words were clear and he was one happy man. He and Jennifer sat up all night reading the Bible. But, a few days later, he began to slip away quickly and in less than two weeks, he had gone on to be with the Lord. Why have I told you all this? Because I believe that God looked into his future and saw things that Earl would not have been able to handle, so He took him home to be with Him to keep him from having to face the future. Do I wish that Earl was still here with us? You bet I do. I miss him every single day and he's been gone for a little over 10 years now. Would I ask him to leave the presence of God and come back? Not on your life! But, I do plan on seeing him again one day. How I look forward to that first hug. You just don't know.......

A friend of mine is also in our prayer group because her church won't allow one. They believe it is just a gossip group. I beg to differ. I see people getting healed, not talked about in a negative way. We are very discerning about what goes into the prayer requests. There are things that people have told me that will never be shared with anyone but God. If I have to, I will just type "unspoken request" because God knows what we need before we even ask Him. I only go into detail when the person asks me to share the details. I'm really excited about what God is doing.

Here's an example of a praise report: My son, Chad, has been without a job since August. He was working in the plumbing business and construction is down, so there are no jobs. What once was a booming business is just falling apart right now. (I believe that is going to turn around, too, because God's people are praying like they have never prayed before.) Anyway, we have been praying for Chad a job. Tabitha was the only one working, but God always provided their needs. They never went begging for bread. As a matter of fact, they even have helped feed others during their own time of need. That's what God tells us to do: give out of your own need and He will bless you. Today, Chad got a job. Praise the Lord! And, he's signed up to go to the college and get his GED. I see greater things in his future. It was spoken over him when he was in the 6th grade that once he graduated (key word there), he would own his own business and become a millionnaire. I have held on to that word all these years and believe that it will soon come to pass. Who knows, he may invent something that will instantly promote him to millionnaire status. You never know what God has in mind.

Well, it's almost midnight and I'm getting very sleepy. I have to get up a little earlier tomorrow cause I've got to wash my hair. This time of the year, my scalp gets flaky and has to be washed a little more often.

I will be out in the field tomorrow observing the line/service crews do their jobs. It was on my performance plan and the time to get it accomplished is the end of this year. Gotta do it tomorrow, because I plan to take a few days off after Christmas. First time in years!!! I'm excited. With holidays and weekends, I can stretch five days of vacation into 12 days off. Woo Hoo!!! I know I will pay for it when I go back, but I'll face that next year. :)

Goodnight and God bless...............He sure is blessing me!!!!

Back to Work Tomorrow

It sure has been nice having off for four days. Even though I spent most of the time on the couch trying to keep the dizzy spells from coming back.

We had a very untraditional Thanksgiving this year. My mother-in-law is in the hospital recovering from encephelitis. Which is really weird, because my aunt had the same thing last Thanksgiving. My MIL is doing fine. We thank the Lord for her quick recovery. It took months for my aunt to recover, but she's fine, too.

So, our Thanksgiving was celebrated at my MIL and FIL's house. Mac is recovering from hip replacement surgery, so we went to him. This year, 10 members of the family were out of town visiting the wive's families. My kids were among them. Brenda decided to order our meal from PoFolks instead of everybody cooking and bringing dishes (to tell you the truth, the best cooks were out of town). We did have some very special guests this year. Troy and Stacy's boys, Michael and Corey, brought their girlfriends. And our nephew, Chris, brought his wife and two children. We haven't seen Chris in eight years. Had never met his wife and kids. He has a boy, Colin, who is three and reminds me so much of Chris when he was that age. And, they have a little one month old little girl named Elijah. She is so precious. But, she has acid reflux really bad and stops breathing. She has some sort of monitor attached to her chest to go off if she does stop breathing. Please pray for her that she will be totally healed of this problem.

Friday, I slept late. That's very unusual for me. But those dizzy spells seem to be trying to come back. I think I know why. Last week, I ate a lot of salty stuff (nachos, tostitos)and that is what caused my last big episode - salty fries from McD's. I was on the floor of my bathroom throwing up for over five hours. After being picked up from Cato's by Vance, where the problem started. I spent an hour in their bathroom so dizzy I couldn't open my eyes without throwing up. I spent most of the day Friday on the couch, until Daddy called needing some groceries. I got dressed and went to the store and spent about an hour with him looking at paperwork that we need to fill out for his medicine.

Saturday morning, Vance went to play golf with Troy. Again, I slept late. Got up and moved to the couch and stayed there till after Vance got home. Because I slept so much, I couldn't go to bed until around 3:00 this morning. When I tried to get up to get ready for church, I almost fell down. My balance was off really bad this morning. So, I called and left a message for Karen that I wouldn't be there, and I fell back asleep. Kim called around 10:00. She had gotten to church and didn't see my car, so she called to see if I was okay. She is so sweet. I went back to sleep and slept till around 1:00. I'm feeling better now. No more salt for me, that's for sure!

Yesterday, I put a package of 15 bean soup mix in the crock pot along with ham that Vance had smoked, added a few extra spices and let it cook. It wasn't done by suppertime, so we ate the ham and beans that we had cooked the night before (he cooked the ham, I warmed up a can of Southern Style pinto beans). We did eat it for supper tonight and it was pretty good. I even made cookies for Vance's sudden sweet tooth. He had me make cinnamon rolls last night. That's the most cooking I've done in ages. He's always the one to cook. I'm planning on making Pumpkin Bread for Christmas. Chad really missed it last year, so I promised to make it this year.

Penny and I talked last night and neither one of us had potato salad for Thanksgiving. That's always one of the things either Mama or I make. It's been a tradition all my life to have it for Thanksgiving and Christmas, along with everything else you can imagine. I know most people usually only eat it in the summer, but both sides of my family always had potato salad at every holiday. I guess I'll just have to make some for Christmas.

I guess I better start getting ready for bed since I have to go to work tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be busy playing catch up on timesheets. A lot of the guys will be on vacation till the end of the year, so I won't have too many to do. That's a good thing.

Well, goodnight and God Bless.............

Oh, Christmas Tree.......

Went to work this morning and couldn't find Kim. A group of us was supposed to decorate a Christmas tree. Since I couldn't find them in the building, I went to the safety meeting. Ask me what it was about and I couldn't tell you. I kept wondering where Kim and the rest of the group were. Left the meeting and ran into Kim's boss and asked him. He said he saw her with a big box going into the other building. I saw Walter and he said they were in the auditorium. Finally....... I got there just as they were finishing putting the tree branches in. I don't like that part anyway. We started adding lights and decorations. I took pictures. That's what I do best. Forget the decorating. Especially if it's a theme tree. Not my style. Give me the Grandma tree with every decoration the kids have ever made. There is a Christmas Tree auction for the Rescue Mission's Bethseda House for Women and Children. Our company has four trees that will be entered. Ours is red and silver - Company colors. After we finished with ours, we looked at the other three. One has meter seals as decorations. Very whimsical. Other one was gold. Could only see a part of it. They had it hidden behind boxes. It looked pretty elegant. The last tree was locked in a vacant office and we had to have an escort to see it. It is very, very elegant, I guess you'd call it. It is all white boas, white birds, white lights, white tulle. Certainly wouldn't look good in my house, but it will look good in a very fancy house. It looked like something out of Martha Stewart. Very pretty. I especially liked the bird's nest on top. I'm just not that talented at decorating. I've never had a theme tree in my life. Don't even know if I will put one up this year.

Last Friday, I took off early to do a photo shoot for a friend and her daughter. Actually, I remember when they both were born. Boy, I'm getting old! Marsha was born when I was a senior in high school and I used to take pictures of her daughter for her little beauty pageants. I would spend hours following her around taking pictures and she won Miss Photogenic three times with my pictures. Then, she started going to a professional, who only spent a few minutes with her and she never won again. I've found out you have to take a lot of time with little ones if you want to get that one good picture of them. Marsha and I talked about the things we used to do to get Blake to let us take pictures. I came home and found the album I had of her pictures and memories started coming back of the fun we had chasing her around. She was only between one and three when I did her pictures. So, you can imagine.

Saturday morning, Robbie called and told me her mom was in the hospital in ICU. They thought she had a stroke, but it wasn't. The doctors don't have a clue what is wrong with her. I went to visit her during visiting hours - Vance wasn't home yet from playing golf. He doesn't do well in hospitals anyway. Neither does Skip. I thank God for Brenda. She takes care of them. Rosie didn't know who I was or even Mac. She knew Brenda earlier that morning, but didn't seem to know who she was that afternoon. I got an email from Brenda late last night and Rosie was herself again and even got the nurse to let her call Mac. Prayer works. Cause we had people praying all over the world for her.

Yesterday afternoon, I took pictures of Penny's family. We had a lot of fun. They wore Santa hats that said "Naughty" (for Swayde), "Bah Humbug" (Penny), "I've Been Good" (Tiffaney and Andy). Swayde's had "Nice" on the other side and that's what I wore when Andy took pictures of me with Penny and Tiffaney. There was a lady taking pictures of her kids and she had brought a little Christmas tree. She asked if we wanted to borrow it to take some pictures. That was so sweet of her. So, we did and they turned out really good. I've got to get some props and start using them. I have a little silver tree, but the green one looked so much better. I think I'm going to wait till after Christmas and see if I can get one on sale. She just decorated one side, which was all that was needed. I was telling Kim about it today and she said they now make corner Christmas trees. It is really only half a tree and you stick it in the corner and only have to decorate one side. What will they think of next?

I worked through lunch and didn't leave the office until 6:00. I'll probably work tomorrow night and just go straight to church and maybe bring some work home. I'm way behind and time has to go in on Wednesday. On my way home, I dropped off the CD I made for Penny. I even put a picture on the front CD cover. She called me a few minutes ago and told me she really liked the pictures. I'm glad. Cause I sure do love taking them.

I told Kim today that we had to get together and do her family next. Hopefully, we will be able to do it this weekend.

Now, it's midnight and I've really got to get to bed. I'm having a problem typing, cause I'm so sleepy. Goodnight and God Bless...............

I sure do hope and pray that Fox gets his cast off tomorrow and all is well with his leg. Can't wait to see him running around all over the place again.

Thursday-My Hair Looks Great

Today is the last day I have to walk around with the straightening conditioner on my hair. But, it hasn't been too bad. My hair still looks good, not too dirty looking. Tonight, I will get to sleep in bed instead of upright on the couch.

On my way to work, I was sitting at a red light when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and it was Penny waving at me. I rolled down my window and we talked a couple of minutes before the light changed. I went to work as usual and did my usual timesheets. Things will be changing in a couple of weeks. Don't know if I'm going to like it or not. I have to think positive; not negative about this change. At least, I still have a job.

Mama called to tell me to pay her AT&T bill. Then, she had Margurete call me and give me the amount. Daddy called to remind me that he had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. Penny called to see if I knew Daddy had an appointment. She works at the office we were going to. I told her I did and I'd see her this afternoon.

I just ate a bowl of soup for lunch and didn't leave the building so that I could make up some time. I left at 3:00 and picked Daddy up. We saw the doctor and Daddy is doing great. No infection this time. He won't have to go back until August of next year unless he has problems. I was so glad to hear that, cause with my workload, it's going to get harder and harder to take off and take him to the doctor or even take myself to the doctor. I stopped by the store for him, then took him home. I went to McDonald's and got a small hamburger. Was going to go to the marina and eat, but it was getting dark. That's not a very good place to be at night, so I thought I would go check out the new library. I figured it would still be open, but I was wrong. It was closed, so I just went to the beauty shop and sat in the car for about 30 minutes. I called Angie and checked on McKinley. She's doing okay, but still has to be careful what she eats. If she knocks those scabs off her throat, she could still hemmorage. They are very careful about what they give her to eat - all soft stuff.

Marsha was cutting her sister-in-law's hair when I went in. I haven't seen Janet in years. I sat down and looked at a magazine until they finished. Marsha said my hair looked great; that I had taken very good care of it. She washed it and blew it dry. It was straight, but she put some serium on it and used the Chi on it. It looks fabulous! Yeah, I've got straight hair for at least three months. It's going to be so much easier to take care of.

Came home and chatted with Vance a little bit. Loaded the last 6 months of pictures from my computer onto 6 discs. Now, I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight and God bless..........

Internet Users Beware!

One of the girls from work came into my office to give me a warning about what has happened to her entire family and friends on Facebook. It seems her brother went in to sign up, but never got around to inviting any friends. Everybody started getting invitations from a man with her brothers name (I'll call him John Doe). Of course, when they saw John Doe, they all accepted his invitation. There wasn't a picture attached at first, so they all thought it was her brother. He started making friends with the younger friends of the family and their friends gaining access to dozens of accounts. Then, he started putting info in his profile and they realized he was not John Doe. He ended up being from Switzerland. A member of the family works at the courthouse and she was looking at his account and saw pictures of some of the younger girls there. She called over a police officer that was walking by and they started looking at the pictures and links that he had set up on porn sites. They saw pictures of the girls in their family on these porn sites. In some of them, he photoshopped himself into the picture. She asked the officer what could they do about it and he told her absolutely nothing - when you put pictures on your web pages that anybody can access, they can do anything they want to with them and you can't do a thing about it. So, please watch what you put on your pages. Especially if you or your teenager poses in scanty clothes, you may wind up on a porn site. With technology today, all they really need is a picture of your face and they can put it on somebody else's body. I think I'm going to start deleting the pictures I have on Facebook and MySpace. I would suggest you do the same. Nothing is safe anymore. One thing, I'm very careful about who I allow access to. They were, too, and look what happened to them.

Well, that's all for tonight. I'm not going to bore you with what I did today. Same ole, same ole.

I'll be busy the next couple of days. I've got to take Daddy to the doctor tomorrow, then go to the beauty shop and let Marsha wash out this straightening conditioner (Keratin Complex). Straight hair at last!

Friday, I'll work until 3:00, then meet some friends at a park and take pictures of them for their Christmas cards. I've got a photo shoot with Penny and her family Sunday afternoon. I love doing this! Hopefully, one day, that will be my job.

I'm tired now, so goodnight and God bless..................

Typical Monday

We didn't have the safety meeting this morning. I think they are going to have one tomorrow, but they aren't sure. So, I probably won't go. Sounds like they don't have an agenda.

I worked on reports all day. Trying to make sure everybody has taken their birthday off before the end of the year. If they don't take it, they lose it and I hate to see anybody lose a day off that they are entitled to. I almost lost mine last year. Normally, I take off one day the week of my birthday, but last year I got so busy I completely forgot. When I was running the reports around this time last year, I found it. Boy, was I surprised and thrilled.

For lunch, I went to Tally-Ho (the last original drive-in in town) and got a turkey club sandwich and fries. I drove down to the marina and ate. I should have stopped at half the sandwich and fries and given the rest to the seagulls, but I ate it all and was miserable all afternoon.

Had an appointment with Marsha to get my hair straightened again. I'm praying it works this time. Twice before, it didn't stay straight; but it was still easier to keep up. The worst part is that my hair will look dirty until it gets washed Thursday night. And I will have to sleep on the couch so I won't roll and put creases in it. But even with all that, it's worth it to be straight. Marsha's sister was there getting her hair done by Jason, Marsha's nephew. She is so funny. We all had a good time. It certainly wasn't boring.

Vance called just as I was about to leave and asked me to go by the store to get crackers for the chili. It's cold tonight, so chili is perfect. As I was getting ready to eat, my Aunt Rose called. She is having hip surgery tomorrow and she said she wanted me to put her on our prayer list. We talked for about 30 minutes, then I prayed for her before we hung up. I haven't talked to her since my cousin's funeral. Her son and daughter-in-law were shot to death by their son in February. It was horrible and I just have not been able to call her. I think I needed time to grieve myself, but it was easy to talk to her tonight. She sounds good and closer to the Lord than I've ever heard her. I immediately sent off a prayer request.

Now, I'm getting very sleepy, so I'm heading off to bed (ah,couch). Goodnight and God bless..............

Great Weekend in Tallahassee

I left early Saturday morning going to Tallahassee. I stopped at Sonic and got a hot latte and breakfast burrito to help me wake up. I always stop at McDonald's in Blountstown to go to the restroom and get some tea for the rest of the trip going and coming. It was so good to finally get to hug Fox after his accident. Vance showed me how to pick him up and hold him and Michelle showed me how to change his diaper if needed. Then, they left to go help their friends move. And they are moving right down the street! I just love that they have so many friends surrounding them and they are so close to their church. I've always had to drive at least 15 minutes to get to church and most of my friends are scattered all over town. While they were gone, Fox and I played with Thomas the train and watched a Thomas video. Michelle came home right as the video was over and I was trying to figure out how to start it again. She took us down the street and we got to see the new house and have lunch with everybody. I love the house and it's in walking distance of Vance and Michelle. How cool is that?! We came back to the house and Vance and Fox played trains, cars and Play Dough. We watched this crazy bird fly back and forth between the truck and Element's side mirrors for about 10 minutes. It just kept flying back and forth, back and forth. It looked like it was trying to get inside the windows. Maybe it was cold? It was just really weird. Michelle fixed some chicken/vegetable soup and cornbread. It was really good. She is so smart. She cooks stuff ahead of time and puts it in the freezer. I sometimes freeze leftovers, but I never was smart enough to cook ahead of time. We stayed up real late. While Michelle was drying her hair, Vance straightened mine, then straightened hers. It was around 1:00 am when we all finally went to bed. I love to sleep on their couch. It is so comfortable. I don't open up the bed since I'm so used to sleeping part of the night on our couch anyway. I slept so good.We got up this morning and I watched Fox while Vance and Michelle went to the first service. Michelle was in a skit. I fed Fox and we watched another video and played with his trains. He loves those trains. Michelle came home and I got ready to go to church while she got him ready. We went and Fox just lit up when he saw Vance. He loves his daddy. Vance took him and was walking around talking to people when one of the young men walked up. Fox started crying so hard. It seems Gordon put on a gorilla suit in one of the skits they did at church and it scared Fox and every time he sees Gordon, he get scared. It happened twice. The last time, his hands were literally shaking. It really did scare him. Michelle talked to Gordon's dad and said they needed to come over for supper so Gordon could play with Fox, so Fox would learn that Gordon won't hurt him. Michelle did a great job in the skit. So did everybody else. Vance put together the power point that went along with it. They are a very talented couple. The service was good. Pastor Matt is doing a series on worry - today it was about money. Good timing due to what is going on in the world today. After church, we went to Cooch's for lunch. On the way there, I asked Fox what he wanted to eat (meaning what kind of food) and he said "Lunch." I cracked up. He's so funny. I had a shrimp basket and it was so good. One thing, you get a lot of food and it's really good. Afterwards, we went home and all took a nap. I gave Fox hugs and kisses while Vance was getting him ready for his nap. I knew I would not be able to drive home if I didn't have a short nap. Michelle set an alarm for 30 minutes and woke me up. She woke Vance up to tell me goodbye. I told him how much I enjoyed the visit and sent him back to bed. They need to rest whenever they can. I loaded up my stuff and went to Target to Starbucks to get some coffee just in case that 30 minute nap wasn't enough. As I was leaving Vance's house, I got a phone call from a friend who had asked me to take family pictures last weekend, but we never were able to connect. I found out why she didn't call me back. She ran a 5-K race and went home and went to bed sick. I am so proud of her and thankful to God because a few years ago, she was on death's doorstep. Now, she's running races. God is so awesome. Anyway, we are going to get together Friday afternoon around 3:30. I'll just take off a little early that day and go take pictures. Can't think of a better way to spend the rest of my vacation. I got home a little after dark. Vance and the dogs were glad to see me. Watched the last Nascar race of the season. Jimmie Johnson won the Championship and Carl Edwards won the race and came in 2nd in the Championship. I'm not sure where Dale Jr. finished. I uploaded the pictures I took to my picasa albums. If it worked, there should be a slideshow attached to this blog. Keeping my fingers crossed.  :) Nope, it didn't work. Sorry.Goodnight and God bless................

Pray for Hope

I've just finished some work that I brought home to do, cause I'm going to the Surgery Center to be with Chad and Tabitha while Hope has dental surgery later this morning. I think it's the Rutherford curse - bad teeth. She has several that will have to be pulled, filled or capped. Please say a prayer for her for a quick recovery with no pain.

Hope is a member of the Sandbox Singers and they had their first concert tonight and I couldn't go. :( Tabitha didn't know about it until this morning, so I didn't have time to make other arrangements. It started at 5:00 (I worked till 5:20) and there were going to be other choirs there, too. I had promised to loan Steve one of my cameras so he can take some pictures of a bald eagle tomorrow, so I had to go to church. But, there will be about five more concerts between now and Christmas. Tabitha will get me a schedule. She thinks the big concert will be on the 6th, a Saturday. I'm sure I will go to some of the other ones if they fall on days that I can go.

I took lunch today and went to the marina. I sure am enjoying that little bit of peace during the day.

It started raining as I was going home. Really hard. There were ambulances, police cars and a fire truck heading south on Hwy 77 when I got into Lynn Haven. I rushed in and got the camera, extra batteries, brushed my teeth and kissed Vance goodbye and headed to the church. I got stopped and had to wait in traffic before I got to Harvest Worship Center on Hwy 390. There was an accident right before Transmitter Road and they had the road blocked. I called Karen to let her know that I'd be late. And, no, that's not where the other emergency vehicles were going - wrong direction.

Made it to church and we practiced. Had a good worship service, then I went into the Ladies Bible Study. I sure am enjoying learning about the tabernacle from Beth Moore. She is such a good teacher. She just makes the Word come alive.

Pastor Sammy is responding to treatment, but he has two different kinds of staph infections - one in his blood and one in his face. Visitors are asked to stay away and just call. His immune system is down and these infections are highly contagious. I sure don't want to catch them. Please keep him in your prayers.

I guess I better go to bed if I'm going to get up and be at the Surgery Center at 7:30. I need to get gas on my way. Should have stopped tonight, but I knew Vance was waiting up for me. I got detoured after I left church. I thank the Lord that several people kept stopping me and talking to me in the parking lot after church. Normally, I just leave. Had I left when I walked out of church,I probably would have been involved in a big accident on my way home. We heard emergency vehicles, several of them, while we were talking. When I got onto 231, a police officer was directing traffic down Titus Road to Deer Point Road. As I turned back onto 231, I could see about a dozen police cars, with lights flashing, in the lane I would have been driving in. God is so good to protect me like that.

Now, I better get to bed. Goodnight and God bless.............

The picture above is of Hope, so you can see who to pray for.

Thank You Veterans!

Today is Veteran's Day and I just want to thank all the veterans out there who have fought to keep our country free. Even if you didn't fight in a war, you served your country and for that I am very grateful.

These are just a few of the veterans in my family - my husband (Vance), his dad (Vance), my dad (Charlie), and two of my uncles (Clifford and Bobby). I love and appreciate all you have done for us.

I haven't posted in a few days. Have been awfully busy and just too tired to think when I was finally able to settle down. I've done a lot of puzzles on Facebook just trying to keep my mind active on something unimportant things. Too much is going on in my life right now.

Work may get even harder in the next few weeks. I've heard through the grapevine that all our account numbers and timesheets will be changing. Have we had, or even heard that we might have any training? No. I guess they will make the changes without giving us any training at all. We'll just be expected to figure it out for ourselves. I had planned on taking some vacation in December, but that may not be possible unless they will let me take off during the day and work from home at night. If they would let me do that, I'd do the timesheets and not even charge them overtime. Yeah, I know, I'm stupid.

Penny and I will be going sometime next week to pick out a burial plot for my mother. She received some money from the tobacco company settlement and she wants us to buy a lot in the same cemetery that Earl is buried in. So, we will go and do as she wishes. I don't have to worry about that with Daddy. Grandmama made sure he had a lot in their family plot. That is a blessing. I'll just have to pay for the funeral expenses with his little insurance policy.

This past weekend, I spent Saturday at home not feeling good. I passed up an opportunity to take family pictures for a friend and also going to a huge classic car show out at the beach. I did go to church on Sunday.

It has been extra busy at work cause I took off two days last week for vacation. Not to do anything; mainly just to sleep. No, I'm not lazy. I'm just tired. I feel like I'm in a state of perpetual motion all the time. Sometimes my mind is going so fast thinking of what I need to get done and where I need to go that I can't concentrate on the things going on around me. I only half listen to people. That's bad. I need to try to slow down and take time to smell the roses.

We had an awesome Ladies Ministry Meeting last night. Tabitha got to go with me. First time she's been off on a Monday in a very long time; but her boss is cutting everybody's hours back. She's looking for a 2nd and 3rd job to help out until Chad can find a job. I believe the right job is coming soon for him and she won't have to work those extra jobs.

Marsha called yesterday and changed the day I'm supposed to get my hair straightened. It was supposed to be the 22nd, but she found out one of her grandchildren's birthday party is going to be that day. She wanted to do it this Saturday, but I told her I was going to see Fox - that's way more important - so she's coming in on her off day Monday and we are going to do it then. I can't wait! It will be so much easier to deal with once it's done. Just pray that it's cold those days and doesn't rain cause I can't sweat or get my hair wet(Monday-Thursday). Otherwise, I would have had it done a long time ago.

I got my Bible Study all done tonight. Nothing like waiting till the last minute to do five day's worth of reading and answering questions. We had a good time at Praise & Worship practice tonight. Pastor Sammy is in the hospital again with pneumonia and a staph infection in his blood. They are asking that people not go visit him because the infection can be passed through the air. They don't want him to catch anything and especially don't want to pass the infection on to anybody else. Just keep him lifted up in prayer.

I need to get in bed now that it's after midnight. Goodnight and God bless..........

Thursday - What a Long Day

I'm trying very hard to eat something for breakfast since my doctor told me I had to eat in the morning to keep my pancreas doing it's job. She said if I didn't eat, I would get full-blown diabetes. So, I'm trying. I don't have time to fix anything at home, so the past two days I've been going to Sonic and getting a bacon, egg and cheese burrito and coffee. Well, a little more than coffee. It's a caramel, mocha latte. Am I canceling out the good by drinking the coffee? Will I ever get a handle on how to eat right? I crave carbs.

On my way to work, Karen called. She said I had just passed her on the road and she was supposed to call me because Mrs. Sandi couldn't get up with me. For some reason, our phones don't want to work when we are calling each other. She called me last night after church and I answered and the call ended. I tried to call back and just got voice mail. She wanted me to get the word out that Pastor Sammy was supposed to have a heart cath this morning. So, that's what I did as soon as I got to work, then I went and checked in with Kim. She had been sick last night, and was afraid she would have to go home today. By the time I got back to my office, I only got to eat half the burrito cause one of the VP's showed up at our office to meet Randy and Paul. He seems very nice and really laid back for a VP.

Mrs. Sandi called and said they couldn't do the heart cath because Pastor is allergic to the dye they put in the IVP and has to be pre-medicated before having the test. A nurse just happened to notice that on his chart and canceled the test. He will have it tomorrow instead.

Oh yeah, we had a wedding at Gulf Power yesterday. That was a first. One of the cashiers got married in the auditorium. Another of the cashiers, who is a notary, performed the ceremony - her first. She did a good job. Angela looked very pretty. Another of the girls at the office took the photos. It was a very nice ceremony. The bride and groom left to go to Olive Garden to eat lunch. I believe they are having a reception at their house on Saturday.

At lunch, I grabbed a sandwich and went to the marina to eat in peace. Can't seem to do that anymore at work. Somebody is always coming in the office.

Daddy called with a long grocery list. Carol, from church, emailed and asked if I could come to the hospital between 7:30 and 8:00 tonight to pray with others for Pastor Sammy. I told her I would be there.

I worked till 5:00, then went to the grocery store. It took about an hour to find everything, cause Daddy added new things to his list and I didn't have a clue where they were in the store. Definitely not in the logical place. Took the groceries to him and stayed with him until 7:20. Vance called to see if I was going to go straight to the hospital and I told him I would. I went there and there were 12 of us who prayed for Pastor and the man in the bed next to him. Then we left. A few of us talked in the parking lot. I called Vance around 8:30 and told him I was on my way home. He went to bed as soon as I got home. I ate lasagna and now I have indigestion and my prescription ran out yesterday and I haven't had time to get it refilled. I'll be sleeping sitting up on the couch tonight. I hate when that happens.

I'm really enjoying the Bible Study we are doing. It's by Beth Moore and it is on the tabernacle. I have read those scriptures dozens of times, but she really knows how to bring it to life. I would love to see the lampstand. I finally looked up a picture of an almond blossom and it's beautiful. The lampstand had the buds, blossoms and branches of an almond tree - all made out of solid gold. It had to be breathtaking to behold.

Well, I guess I better try to get a little sleep if I can. I think I might try to go to the car show downtown tomorrow night. It should be a big one since the Emerald Coast Cruizin' the Coast is in town. Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits was performing tonight at the Marina Civic Center. If I hadn't already seen him when we were on the Oldie's cruise several years ago, I would have wanted to go. After all, he did sing "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter." (My maiden name in case you don't know.)
Of course, if you saw the movie, it was actually written about a dog; a greyhound I believe it was. I used to have a friend who would sing the song when I walked by his house on my way home from school every afternoon. So, even though it was written about a dog, it made me feel special.

I'm going to bed now. Goodnight and God bless............Please pray for Pastor Sammy as he has his heart cath tomorrow. The picture above is Pastor Sammy and his mother, Mrs. Helen.

Felt Like Monday

I got to work today and found out my timekeeping system had been down all day yesterday, so I would not have had anything to do if I had gone to work. It was supposed to be down all day today, too; but it came back up around 9:00. Believe me, I was contemplating leaving and coming home. But, I decided to stick around and do a little filing. That's when I found out the system was back up. Kim let me know. So, it ended up being a very productive day.

I decided not to go to lunch today because I had an appointment to get my hair colored and cut at 4:15. Got a lot done while the guys were gone to lunch. I work so much better alone. It was kind of a yucky day today. It looked like it was going to rain, but it never did.

I went and got my hair colored and trimmed. Marsha and I were there alone. Everybody else left early today. I hate that she works after dark. I hung around and walked out with her so she wouldn't have to walk out alone. She's got a new grandbaby, Jon Dawson. They will call him Dawson. He's so cute. I showed her the pictures of Fox and she almost cried. It really upset her. But, she was also impressed with how happy he seemed in the pictures. She also said how handsome he was. Of course, I totally agree.

We didn't have practice tonight; at least, not the singers. So, I watched a little TV with Vance and then ate supper. I have not watched the election results. I've been praying for our country all day. This is the first election that has bothered me.

A friend of mine that I've known since the 5th grade told me of a website to go to and I can make my own website. I bought a WebEasy 7 Professional website maker, but I just can't get it to work. I think I will try out the one she uses and see if I can make my own. Guess I better get off here and go look at it and see if it's something I can do.

Goodnight and God bless.............

Took a Day Off

I stayed up late last night, or should I say this morning? So, when it was time to go to work, I just could not get out of bed. I called and left a message for my boss and then called Kim. She's got a bad case of sinusitis. That's why she missed church yesterday. I had tried to call her yesterday, but never got her. I told her I was going back to bed and I did. I climbed back into bed and slept until around 10:00. I got up and ate low carb ice cream for breakfast. Not a good breakfast, but that's all I wanted.

I felt led to pray for our country and the outcome of the election tomorrow. It is heavy on my heart to see the right man put in office. I know that no matter who goes in, it is in God's hand and He is still in control. But, if praying can help, I sure wanted to get my prayers heard. I've been praying off and on, but I felt an urgency today. I will be glad when the election is over and we can truly see what is going to happen with our country and our lives. May God have mercy on our souls........

My phone was on charge and I had forgotten to take it off vibrate, so I didn't know that both my parents were trying to get in touch with me. With them, every thing is an emergency. I called Mama and she wanted me to come by this afternoon and pick up two checks to be deposited. I called Daddy and he wanted me to go to the Credit Union and get him some money and then take him to AmVets. So, I took a shower and went to the Credit Union. Stopped by Walgreen's and picked up Vance's prescription on the way. After leaving the Credit Union, I went to Wal-Mart just to pass some time and to get a thing of stickers to use on Fox's scrapbook. I haven't started it yet. I just got the scrapbook the other day and have not had any time to put it together. Am also waiting for more pictures from Vance, Michelle and Shannon. I've got ideas, but I'm gathering the supplies I need to go with my ideas.

Took Daddy to the AmVets and then went to Mama's. Stayed and visited with her until 6:30. I've been reading and enjoying and old friend's website. Check it out: http://wonderwomansworld.webs.com/. I've known her since first grade and we still keep in touch. She's got some good Southern recipes there.

Got a call a few minutes ago. Mrs. Sandi has taken Pastor Sammy to the hospital with heart palpations. Please pray for him whether you know him or not.

I think I'll get ready for bed now. Goodnight and God bless............

Time Changed This Morning

Time changed which meant an extra hour of sleep, right? Then why was I so sleepy this morning? I had such a hard time getting up. Took an extra long shower trying to wake up which meant I didn't have time to straighten my hair before going to church. I hate when that happens. I'm so looking forward to getting it straightened again by Marsha. Probably right before Christmas. Merry Christmas to me!

Church was really good today. We had a lot of visitors. Now that we have a van, we can go pick up people. Josh picked up about 10 people, some from the Rescue Mission. Some very sweet people. I'm so glad we got a van and can reach out to more people, especially those who have no way to go.

Tabitha and the kids followed me home and we made two fliers for Tabitha to put up at work. She's wanting to raise money for under privileged children this Christmas. A lot of them won't have Christmas because people just aren't giving to charities like they used to. I've noticed the United Way signs aren't showing even half what they usually collect by this time of the year. Don't people know it's better to give than to receive? We've got to stop thinking all about ourselves and start thinking about others who are really hurting financially right now. The Bible says to give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over. I'm proud of Tabitha. They are hurting financially right now and she and Chad are thinking about other people and what they can do to help them.

After they left, I ate a TV dinner and took a nap. Vance went to the grocery store and grilled sausage for supper. We had sausage dogs. Not bad. There is some sausage that I just can't stand, but this was pretty good. I really prefer deer sausage to any other kind, but I only get it at work. Vance won't even cook it if I bring it home. He says he doesn't like it. I grew up on deer meat, squirrel, rabbit........ I come from a long line of hunters, so we had stuff like that all the time. Mama even raised chickens and ducks.

Check out Vance's blog for an update on Fox and a few pictures. He even shows a picture of the x-ray of Fox's leg. Poor baby. But, he seems to be handling it pretty well. I'm still praying for a quick recovery so he can get out of that cast.

Well, guess I better get to bed. Gotta get up in a few hours and go to work. Bummer!
Goodnight and God bless................

Happy Birthday Mia Bella

Today is Mia Bella's first birthday. She is my brother's granddaughter; Tonya's daughter. I pray that she had a very happy first birthday.

Vance woke me up early. I was sleeping so good and I really didn't want to get up. But, I did want to vote today, so I got up and stumbled around getting ready. I left the house around 7:45 - way too early on a Saturday morning. I got there, walked right in, voted, went to Hardee's and was back at the house within 30 minutes. I worked on the pictures I took at church last night. Google just would not upload them, so I switched to Internet Explorer and zipped right through it. Been having trouble with Google a lot lately. It just runs so slow.

Around 1:00, I went to ToysRUs and bought a gift card for Swayde. Penny bought him a NintendoDS, so I got a gift card so he can buy a game. I didn't have any idea what game he would want. Love those gift cards! When I was growing up, you were considered very uncaring and unimaginative if you gave money instead of buying a present.Not anymore, thank goodness. I always loved it when Vance gave me money for Christmas. The sales in January just can't be beat and I could get so much more for my money.

I decided to ride downtown with the intention of taking pictures, but there was way too many people milling around. I remembered a conversation a couple of us had the other day about something very historical that happened right here in Panama City. I knew there was a book about it because I had seen a movie. You may not know this fact, but a man named Gideon (Clarence Gideon I think), was charged with breaking into the Bay Harbor Bar and stealing the money out of the cash box. He was a poor man and could not afford a lawyer, so he was sent to jail. While in jail, he fought to get a law passed so that a poor person would have representation by an attorney when they were charged with a crime. Attorney Fred Turner took his case and got him off. There never was any hard evidence against him in the first place. Because of this case, a person now has a right to an attorney if they can't afford one. Isn't that cool? The name of the book and movie - Gideon's Trumpet. Look it up for yourself on the internet. Fred Turner went on to be a judge here in Bay County. I decided if anybody had the book, it would be Books by the Sea Bookstore. So, I went in there and started looking around. I was looking at a book about Millville - where I went to elementary school - when I felt something touch my leg. I looked down and there was a beautiful golden retriever sniffing my jeans. She could tell I've got dogs. I bent down and petted her. Such a sweet dog. She finally got tired of me and followed somebody else that came into the store. I walked around for awhile and ran into a man who was petting the dog. We struck up a conversation about dogs and then started talking about God. This man, he later introduced himself as Jimmy, lives at the Rescue Mission and he goes to a class that Alan (from our church) teaches. I guess we must have shared about the Lord for a good 20 minutes. Then, two other guys from the Rescue Mission finished buying their books and they all left together. I talked to the lady who runs the store and tried to describe the book to her. She knew what I was talking about, but we looked all over the store and couldn't find the book. She said she could order it for me, so I left my name and phone number. I know I could get it cheaper from Amazon.com, but I'd rather support a local mom/pop bookstore that a big franchise.

Left there and went to Chad's to hang out until it was time to take the kids to Swayde's birthday party at the bowling alley. We got there and Swayde wasn't even there yet. Neil had him, so they were late. There were four kids, including Swayde, so four adults decided to play, too. Not me. I took pictures, really bad pictures. I used my Sony camera and it has a delay, so any movement causes blur. You set it on the action setting and it's too dark. So, I got a lot of blurry pictures and a few good ones. This camera is great for stationary objects, but not kids. My Canon needed to be recharged, so I couldn't use it. Hope beat the three boys. She was so excited. She would run back to me and want to know her score as soon as she bowled. Tiffaney was helping her line up the little ramp. The boys bowled without the ramp, but she can't pick up the ball. Of course, Tiffaney was beating all of us adults when she was five and she didn't use a ramp or gutter bumpers. She beat the adults today, too. They all had a lot of fun; that's what counts. Chip and Angie came after Mia's party. They said she was so cute. Wish I could have gone to her party, too; but I can't be everywhere. Wish I could - I'd be in Tallahassee, too, checking on Fox.

Michelle called while we were at the bowling alley. They are back from their visit in Orlando. She said they wrapped Fox in toilet paper and he went out as a mummy for Halloween. I bet he was the cutest mummy out there! Can't wait to see the pictures.

It was after 6:00 when we got through at the bowling alley. I took the kids home and was talking to Chad when my hubby called. He wanted me to go to Captain D's and get supper, so back across town I went.