"The Cougar"

Here is a sizing reference for Sakura, or as she is known, "The Lion", or "The Cougar" (someone at work gave her that name today, after having seen this picture) That same co-worker, a few days ago, told the story of a huge cat a friend of his has. I took the information he provided, looked it up on the Internet, and found it to be a Maine Coon Cat. I never thought Sakura was "big" I just thought other cats were small. Point being, I saw the statistics on the Maine Coon Cat, and quite a few of them reminded me very much of Sakura. We do not know anything about Sakura's father; what do you think?

Time is fun when you are having flies

The principle of the Jr. High school where I served lunch for about 7 years always says "Time is fun when you are having flies." And while I am talking about him...I was able to go visit him and the school last Tuesday.

I went up to BJU for the day. A friend of mine wanted to go with me, so Jesse and I left home early and we passed by her house. Then I drove Jesse to work and continued merrily on our way to BJU. We got there around 9:30ish. I got to visit with some people at the Dining Common (that is where I worked up until I got married). It was wonderful to see people that I had know for a long time. Then for lunch I went to the Jr. High and was allowed to eat lunch there as a guest. It was great to see the 8th graders. I was quite surprised because I remembered many of them. There were some of the kids that asked me where I had been. I don't know why they didn't catch on back in May when we told them that I "was leaving and getting married". OH, well - that is Jr. High for you.

After visiting with the teachers, secretary, and principal I went to go see other friends. I parked the car, got out, and went to get my wedding pictures and my purse from the back seat. I found my wedding pictures but couldn't find my purse. While I was standing there trying for the life of me to remember where my purse was, a good friend of mine, John, walked up to say Hi. We went over to speak to his wife. I told them that I had lost my purse. As I was leaving to go back to the car John told me that as he was walking back to his office he would be praying that I find my purse. Then all of the sudden I blurted out "I left it at the Jr. High." Praise God. He answers prayer (I don't even think John had begun to pray). After getting my purse and parking in the same parking space I had been in before finding out that I had left my purse, I went to go see more friends. I showed my wedding pictures to many people. Then around 5 we started to head back to the car to leave. I don't think we actually left BJU until 5:30. We made it back to Columbia and I was able to spend a good amount of time with my little kitties and with my Honey.


We have only one more Saturday of soccer. We had tons of fun on Saturday. We won. It was sooooooo cold that most of the kids had jackets on. I did too. After coaching one game, I refereed the next game.

After soccer I went to the store and got some food. While there I decided that I didn't want to cook so I picked up a roasted chicken. It was good.

Tonight we are going to a Harvest Festival that the church is putting on. The kids can go dressed up as long as it is nice. For example, they said dressing up as Mickey Mouse and other characters like that is fine. I assume they don't want you to dress up like witches and ugly thing like that. There is going to be a dunk tank, pie in the face booth, bobbing for apples, and other things. Admission is a bag of candy. They will then distribute the candy into little bags for the kids.

Jesse and I were up and ready early for church this Sunday. Why? Well, we didn't move are clocks back. It was nice to not have to rush though.

Soccer and Pictures

Ok face it - until soccer season is done here at the churches youth league you will be hearing about soccer after every Saturday. Why? Because I love soccer! I am so happy to be able to help out with soccer and more importantly that Jesse encourages me in it. I talked to Jesse's Grandma about it because I was feeling a little discourage. Not with soccer but the other coaches. When I volunteered to coach we had a meeting that same day with all the coaches. The person in charged is actually the PE teacher for the school or the Coach as most people call him. Well, I will just refer to him as Head Coach. Anyway he mentioned that we could have a team verse, prayer time with the team, and practically whatever we wanted to do. This is an outreach to the church kids and some other kids that find out about it.
So I wrote up a Bible Verse. Thanks to Mom I have watched her write up songs and Bible Verses all the time I was growing up so I knew how to do it so it would look good. Next I wrote up a little cheer "We are the Hawks" not much but these are 4-5 year olds. I repeat the verse and the cheer every game before and after. I have looked at the other coaches and it seems that all they care about is playing, playing, and winning. Jesse's Grandma really helped me when she told me "You keep doing what you are doing. Let the other coaches do what they want but you take good care of you team."
So I decided that I would do just that. Oh, and what an excitement to me when after our game we said our verse and then Benjamin took the cheer out and said "I want to hold it" I didn't even have to say we were going to say it he took over and did it. I was actually thinking of not saying it. But we shouted out our cheer and everyone was very happy. I love these little kids and I am always telling them how good they are.
Another thing that happen, was that Benjamin fell and skinned his knee. Well, I took him to the sidelines and started to wipe off his knee with water. One of the parents helps me in the game so I just let him take over. Benjamin's mother came on over and after a few seconds she said "Coach you go back to game I take care of Benjamin" I was called "Coach". I really wasn't expecting that but it felt great.
Then I had this little girl who didn't want to play. I put her in anyway because her mom told me to make her play. One time when the ball was very close to out goal I told her to keep the ball from going into the goal. You should have seen her. She was hopping back and forth between two cones. One cone was the goal cone the other cone was the sideline cone. But she was very enthusiastic about keeping the ball from passing her. She did need to be over between the two goal cones but before I could move her the other team scored. I did praise her for doing such a good job. After that it seemed like her heart was in the game more.

Ok, I mentioned pictures in the title and I promise you the pictures do go with soccer. We had team pictures this Saturday. Our t-shirts are green ... lime green. I would rather have had a darker color of green but hey it was a free shirt. Umm free yea I suppose I did pay for it by giving up my Saturday mornings BUT I would not trade that time for anything. Oh yes back to the pictures. So Head Coach comes up to me and ask if it would be ok if we could let another team use two of our shirts because two kids from another team but same color shirt forgot theirs. Some parents standing with me said that it would be fine. We went over to stand in line. Two boys surrendered their shirts and the other team was able to get a team picture and the two girls were able to get their individual pictures done. Meanwhile I had one parent talking to me saying that those girls should have to have their pictures done in the shirts they brought because our team had all their team shirts. I mentioned to him that I had called all my team to make sure that everyone would have their team shirt. Then he went on about that the other coach should have .... But he then repented about what he said and told me he was sorry he had such a bad attitude about it. Meanwhile I was thinking along the same lines about the other team and those shirts. But it all turned out well. The boys got their shirts back and we had our individual pictures done. I stood behind the photographer and made silly faces to get the kids to smile/laugh. Then we all got together for a team picture. It was a great experience that I don't want to experience again but will if I coach next year. (Hint hint Jesse) lol.

Expensive Hobbies

Some people draw, some garden, still other cook or sew. Me? Why did I have to like the expensive hobbies? <( I like A. Electronics, and B. Flight, so my hobbies are Building Computers ($300 at least), Building Servo Robots ($500 at least) and a new hobby that I discovered to be reasonably affordable a few days ago, building RC Helicopters ($75 at least) The only problem with my "newly discovered" hobby is that now Corene will probably start seeing little flying things all over the house. Hey, maybe I'll even invent a little kitten helicopter that straps to the back. Hmmmmmmmm...

For real the 23rd post

Well, it isn't my 23rd post but it is THE 23rd post. So I thought I would post the 23rd post right now. Then I would comment on my 5th sentence to see what it says about me. Now that I am trying to write something nothing comes. I do love my husband and we love our kitty cats. Cute as cute can be are these adorable creatures God created.

Ok, now to comment on my 5th sentence. As you can see it says "I do love my husband and we love our kitty cats. "
MMMM, I suppose that would say about me that our house abound in love.


Well, I had fun with this one!!

Tomoyo

These pictures are of Tomoyo some time ago before Jesse and I got married.




"No one around, I am safe"











"WHAT! how dare you take my picture!"











"And I thought hiding between these two chairs was clever"









"You mean you can see me under here?"











"Alright! Take my picture" grrrr






Tomoyo is our little "rat"
But we don't tell her that.
We wouldn't want to hurt the cat.
Ok enough with rhyming.

Actually she doesn't really look like a rat in real life but each time we try to take a picture of her it turns out to look like a ...ummm... rat.


The cutest rat in history. Wait, that's not a rat it is a cat!








Sakura found Tomoyo and brought her to Jesse. Jesse adopted her but she never did really warm up to him. Oh yea, she does sort of warm up when he is gone for a long time ie. when he "lost" them when moving and then when he "found" them 4 days later she rub around his legs. But it is only at times like that. Also when we come home after a long time she is more loving to him.
Actually synonyms for Tomoyo would be "shy" and "loyal". Shy to humans and loyal to the cat (Sakura) who saved her. She is warming up to us. For instance she sleeps on the floor in the bedroom and she does make herself more promonant during the evening.

Ok, the next segment will be of Rascal or Itsuki I haven't made up my mind.

Sakura

This is our oldest cat, Sakura

A Siamese that Jesse got out of the engine of a car when she was just a few weeks old. Oh, that was about four years ago.
Now with four years and about 20 more pounds she is now affectionately called "The Lion". A name given to her by some college students.

DON'T MESS WITH ME!



Some aggravating things about her (to me) are:
1. She gets under the kitchen counters to hide.
2. She opens the laundry door (where there is a big hole that the kittens might escape through as I mentioned on Friday .)

Ah, resting, peace and quiet.



Oh did I mention that those two things are remedied? Yes, first I finally was able to clean out the cat hair and then store kitchen stuff under the counter. Now she doesn't have room to go under. he he he I am so smart! :) The second thing was remedied by the laundry door falling down and making a loud noise. It scared her and she hasn't done it since!! .

EXCUSE ME, LEAVE ME ALONE

Some wonderful things I think about her are:
1. She likes me to pet her whenever I sit down. She runs up to me and wants me to scratch her back. A few months ago that area was a "if you touch my back I WILL bite YOU".
2. She loves to sleep by me. That is so special because she IS really Jesse's cat but then she started wanting to be more with me and that made me feel wanted by her.

I love Jesse's bookbag.
Please let me sleep.

She is reverting back to her kitten years after being around our little kittens for about a month now. It is so funny to see her try to do things they do.

Well, that is about Sakura. Later I will write about Tomoyo.

Been tagged

Thanks Tammy!

5 Things I Plan to Do Before I Die:
1. Show Jesse where I grew up (Mexico)
2. Memorize the whole books of Obediah, James, I Peter, II Peter, and Philipians. (I have 1 chapter in each except II Peter practically down)
3. Post pictures about my kittens and cats (right Rebecca?)
4. Learn English Signlanguage (honestly it is different from Spanish Signlanguage which I know quite well).
5. Collect something other than elephants (I have practically around 50 or so stuffed, breakable, and jewlery)

5 Things I Can Do:
1. Play soccer
2. Type (Thanks to Dad for teaching me)
3. Read a 300 page book in one or two days
4. Roller Blade (but I can't roller skate - always fall down)
5. Whistle (like the corn man's metal whistle - that's in Mexico too)

5 Things I Can’t Do:
1. Drive a bus
2. Speak pig latin
3. Watch a scary part in a video without covering my eyes and peeking through my fingers
4. Fish
5. Hunt

5 Things That Attracted Me to My Husband:
1. His eyebrows that went up about 2 feet the first time we met
2. His caring for his grandma
3. How he respected me
4. That he called my dad to ask if he could date me (from Columbia, SC to Mexico)
5. How he was / is kind to everyone

5 Things I Say the Most:
1. "I see"
2. "I luvvu" (means I love you - I only say it to Jesse though)
3. "I'm going to kill those cats!"
4. "I mean..."
5. "I don't know" (especially if someone just told me something factual)

5 Celebrity Crushes: (or people I wanted to be like)
1. Jorge Campos (the Mexican soccer golie for the World Cup)
2. Ronny Howard (as Opie and and Winthrop Paroo)
3. Jorge Campos (I wanted to be a good goalie)
4. Jonathan Crombie who played Gilbert on Anna of Green Gables
5. Oh did I say Jorge Campos?

5 People I’d like to tag:
Any who would like to do it.

Fudgy brownies

Yesterday I decided to make some brownies. We were going to some friends house for supper and to watch this special edition on the life of Albert Einstine so I thought this would be addition. I made fudgy brownies because Jesse likes them better that way. I also agree that they are good fudgy. One thing is that this recipe was really crumbly. I left them in as long as they told me to but I think they needed a little bit more time in the oven.

My 23rd post - Hey, I don't have 23 posts

I opened my big mouth and well... got caught. I thought that I would divide 23 in half (that would be 11.5) and would use that post. Creativity is good for the mind isn't it? So if you all don't mind... that is what I am going to do.

Here are the instructions:
1. Search your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (this is meant to say something about you).
4. Post that sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same

My 23 divide by 2 blog is .... scare of a life time .
The fifth sentence is "For all I knew they might just be sleeping in the big chair they always sleep in."
What does this mean aabout me. umm... That I believe cats sleep all the time? or that I wish I could sleep all the time like the cats do?
No to tag 5 people. Well, lets see...
Hey, the people who read my blogs are the people already tagged. So now what should I do.
Well I will tag Sarah and Aunt Jeannie.
Have fun

Today is special

By the way, just thought I would let you all know that today 2:00 (no it should be 2:20pm) EST Jesse and I will have been married 4 months. It's great guys. Yeaaaaaaaa.

My Daddy is braver than your Daddy

Kids normally have discussions (if you can call it that) about whose daddy / mommy / grandpa/ etc is better than whose. Well, since reading Sarah's blog this one story kept popping into my head. I really don't know all the details since I do believe I was between 3-5 years old. Maybe older but I don't know. Anyway this is what I've been remembering.

My parents are missionaries in Mexico and back when the church Dad started was young, we met in a member's apartment. There were about 50 people attending at that time. After the evening service (I think) there was a big commotion outside. A man and his wife were standing out under a thin, 5-6 foot tree. There were soldiers all around them. I don't know why or what was happening. Either the adults told the teenage girls or the girls did it on their own, but I remember being herded into a room with all the girls and we were told to be quite. They even turned off the lights out of fear but when the younger kids started crying because it was dark they turned them back on. Then I remember being allow out to the living room again. And one of the older girls took me to the window and pointed down to the commotion. There right outside the circle of soldiers (surrounding that man and wife) were a single file line of people walking out to the road to either get to their cars or to walk home. At the front of the line was my dad walking with his head held high with a confident stride. That girl pointed at my dad and said "See there, your dad is brave to be leading all the church people out through the soldiers."
This was all that I remember but again I say MY DADDY IS BRAVER THAN YOUR DADDY.

Soccer and Microwaves

First of all,
The name of this blog is Corene's Chronicles but my wonderful husband asked if he could join in this venture of blogging. So I have made him a co-blogger with me. Yeaaaaaaa! Maybe I should have named it C and J's Jots.
Ok back to the subject at hand - soccer and microwaves. As I had posted Thursday it has been raining and suppose to keep raining for sometime. On Saturday morning (at 8) we got a call saying that soccer got cancelled. UGGG. I was looking foward to it. Well, until next Saturday. Pray that it does not rain.
Now I thought you might enjoy some facts about microwaves.
Fact 1. A microwave can heat, defrost, and cook foods and beverages.
Fact 2. A microwave can be used as a timer.
Fact 3. A microwave should not be turned on with out food or beverages inside them.
Fact 4. A microwave can have a plastic food cover placed inside it by the user in order to heat food up better.
Fact 5. A microwave being used as a timer must have the power down to 0 or on some microwaves use the button timer/clock.
Fact 6. A microwave user who uses the timer without heading fact 5 and has the item mentioned in fact 4 inside of the microwave is not using good judgement.
Fact 7. The microwave user mentioned in fact 6 is highly suseptible in having a big mess to clean up and will have to buy the item mentioned in fact 4 again if not heading fact 6.

These Cats

Corene has told you about our cats and the play cubes I bought them a couple of weeks ago. Well, I just went into the kitchen, and Rascal was curled up, not in one of the play cubes, but in an overturned cardboard box. Ugggggggh. *Old man voice* Children have no appreciation these days.

I am wondering if I should change the color of my text. What color do you all like better.
White, gray, black, red, orange, yellow, green, dark green, light green, light blue, blue, purple, or stay the same as before.

Scare of a life time!?

I couldn't find Rascal and Itsuki for a long time. Not that it should worry me at all but when I am in the kitchen cooking and I don't have one or two little kittens underfoot there must be something wrong. I mean, those kittens must really love me or the food that they think I might pass to them (which I don't by-the-way). So since they weren't following me around the kitchen I decided to go looking for them. For all I knew they might just be sleeping in the big chair they always sleep in. No not there. So I went upstairs and looked. No luck. I searched all downstairs. No luck. So now I am starting to get scared. Not because I couldn't find them in the house but because of our dryer. I know that sounds funny but let me explain. Our washer and dryer are positioned in the space under the steps. It is the perfect place for them and there is a sliding door that is in front of it. The dryer hose is messed up. We had it positioned just right but then someone (not Jesse or myself) moved it and messed up the hose. Then Sakura opened the sliding door, got on top of the dryer, fell behind the dryer (don't know how), and messed up the hose even more so now there is a BIG hole in the hose.
So naturally when I couldn't find the kittens I thought they had gone down that hole and were lost forever. Oh boohoo :(
After thinking that I went upstairs again praying that I would find them and calling out their names, which they haven't learned yet so I don't know what good it did. Well, come to think of it I think Itsuki understand that Itsuki means her because she will look at me after I say it. Back to the story, sorry. After going upstairs for the second time I came downstairs calling their names, praying, and looking for them. Then all of the sudden from the computer room I see Rascal's head peeping above the futon arm. Oh I was so happy. Seconds later Itsuki came out of the room too. I thanked God for hearing my prayers.
I normally don't let panic get ahold of me, but then maybe I am becoming like a mother and worrying about her little ones.
Yep it was a scare. Hope it won't happen again, I think I lost a few years of my life or at least some of my brown hair to white. :)

Rain, rain go away...

It has been raining (or sprinkling) yesterday and today. Oh yeah, I just checked the forcast and it is suppose to be raining, heavy rain until Friday and then cloudy or partly sunny until next Saturday. Well, at least the temp is not going go over 80 degrees (hopefully).

Rain rain go away come back another day.

Lexington's weather vs. Greenville weather

I compared the weather between Lexington (live now) and Greenville (lived before I got married). Lexington's weather vs. Greenville weather And if you're looking for colder weather Greenville has won. I sure do hope colder weather comes but then when it is winter I will be asking for wamer weather.
I suppose we could say that "The weather is better in the other season."

Deviating from the title a bit. Oh how I wish I would have had those batteries in the camera and had the camera in hand. Little Rascal looked so cute how she was sleeping. Maybe I can get Jesse to help me take some pictures. I know we have at least 2 or 3 already taken. He will have to help me post those few. Until later.

Is this intersection safe?

A few days ago I drove Jesse to work. Just about 5 minutes from the house is where we get on the highway. The two roads that meet at the intersection have two very different ways of splitting the traffic up. Ours is normal: and go straight / go right lane and a go left lane. The other one is, well, weird. The is an island between the two lanes: go right (which feeds into the traffic) and a go straight / go LEFT lane. Yes I said "Go LEFT". So basically you know when a car is going left if and only if it has the turning light on. And then you have to wonder considering that you see ALL the time cars romping down the interstate with a turning light on and it has no care in the world to turn either right or left.
So here I am sitting at this light. The light turns green. Car right in front of me turns. I get to the intersection. The cars on the other side of the intersection are going straight. I sit tight. Finally a car is turning left. So I start turning. I hear Jesse say "Stop" around the same time I notice that the car behind the car turning left is going straight. I stop. The other car stops. I raise my hands as to say "I'm sorry" and then motion the car to "go ahead". We manage to get to Jesse's work without any more excitement.
I still think that they could have done better at the intersection.

opps

I just noticed that I hadn't written anything on the blog for today. I thought I had. :( Well, what shall I say. Oh, yes. Jesse went to Walmart to return something and when he came back he had in his hand 3 Cat Play Cubes. They are made from the same material as wind pants. There are three holes for the cats to go in and out. Also there are 3 tasels or as Jesse say "kitten entcement mechanisms". We put them on the floor and immediatly Itsuki and Rascal started playing in them. At one point Itsuki was in one and Rascal was starting to go into that paticular one, but Itsuki ran her off.
I am trying to write but right now I have Itsuki who want to be held. Most of this I have written with one hand. Lets see how I can do this better.
Well, I got rid of her because she just published my blog. I had to go to edit post in order to finish this. By the way if anyone needs help with their computer Itsuki has become very proficient in turning off and on a computer, going on-line and off line, retrieving different files from the computer, and now publishing blogs. I don't know how she does it but she certainly has the knack. I do believe that she is teaching the other cats too because we have found them turning off a computer and going on-line. Now if she could only type....

Sunday at our Church

Our church just put up a new sign, a light up sign, at a busy intersection near the church road. But there is no electricity yet hooked up for it. Should be done during this week I think.
Anyway today was Hispanic Sunday at our church. We have a Hispanic ministry with about 66 in attendance. Pastor said that his goal was to get to 100 - I can't remember if he set a date for the goal. The Hispanic Pastor and the Assistant Pastor sang the special for the morning service. All the Hispanic church was in attendance with us. They wore earphones - someone was translating the service for them. The tonight Pastor Aguilar (Hispanic Pastor) and Daniel (Assistant Pastor) again sang a special and then preached from John 11. Pastor Aguilar can speak English but because this was "Hispanic Sunday" he preached in Spanish and Daniel translated into English.
Daniel did real well. It is hard being under that kind of pressure with everyone expecting you to translate fast.
By-the-way for those of you who possibly don't know I happen to be a missionary kid from Mexico. So I am fluent in both English and Spanish. My parents are still there in Mexico along with one of my brothers.

soccer

Today was my second Saturday as a soccer coach. I am helping out in the Grace Baptist Church Youth League. There are 3 different age groups: 4-5 year olds, 6-7 year olds, and 8-12 year olds. I am with the 4-5 year old. My teams name is the Hawks, team color is green, and team verse is I Corinthians 10:31 "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Interestingly enough, Jesse and I just noticed that the GBC Youth League's Bible verse happens to be I Corinthians 10:31 also. Honestly I did not copy the idea. I just want the kids to do their best. If they do their best and we win that is good. If they do their best and we lose that is fine also. Actually the 4-5 and the 6-7 are not really playing for scores. They are looking to teach the kids the basics. (Concidering the fact that for the 4-5 year old the refs aren't enforcing corner kicks, and are allowing the throw-ins to be "kick-ins"). Also for this younger group the coaches sometimes are their own refs. It is nice to be able to play and work with people who aren't trying to take advantage of you and that they play fair.
I have offered to ref for the 6-7 year old games if I am needed.

It is so cute to see the boys and girls play. In about the time frame of 5 minutes I had told Jesse (about 10 times) that I love helping with soccer.
Well, I can't wait until next week. :)