What a day

I thought everyone was able to see my heart throbbing as I walked into the room. The first room I had gone into was empty. I wasn't sure where to go, and then an idea popped into my head. "The cafeteria". As I entered the room I saw them. They were sitting down in front of a TV. No, not all of them because there's one going for a tissue and another coming out of the restroom. Still more are at the tables. Some of those in front of the TV have no clue what is on the screen because they're talking, laughing, and pestering each other. There is a lost look on my face as I glance around me. How happy I was when someone took pity on me and showed me where to go and pointed out things I had not seen before. Then as she left me she said something like "at 10 til come pick up your children." Thus started my day. The day where I first tasted the life of a K3 teacher.

As I sat down at the teacher's desk looking over the lesson plan I mentally checking off the things I understood. All of the sudden I see something that makes my heart start throbbing again. Do these 3 year olds really know this? What will they think about me when they find out I don't know it? Agonizing thoughts rush through my brain while I finish going over the lesson plan. It's now 10 til and I walk back down the hall and step through the doorway. More children have arrived. There are more kids walking around and goofing off than watching the video. I walk up to a teacher and ask her a question. "You don't know that?" is the reply I get. confess I don't know all of it and that I feel bad since K3 kids know it. She told me to skip it if I was uncomfortably with it. Her words comforted me for the moment.
Nervousness arrived and asked to stay while my class lined up. Then I pushed Nervousness away when I saw that only three, yes only three, tres, treîs kids lined up. We're now off to the classroom zone.

Settling in was crazy. Today is "Stuffed Animal Day". Some have big ones that won't fit in their cubicles. Others have noisy ones that I need to find the off button to. They want to keep their stuffed animal by their seat so I let them as long as they don't play with them. They start coloring while I gather my wits. Look at watch, oh, it's time to say the pledge. I told the students to stand up. We said the pledge and afterwards I wanted to pray. BUT before I prayed a little boy said "Now we sing 'My Country 'tis of Thee". I swallowed hard. I get confused with the words. Don't know it all. How can K3ers know this song and I have to see the words to know how to sing it. Bravely I say "you all will have to sing it well and loud because I don't know all of it." Oh me, Oh my, those K3 students really do know that song. Meanwhile during the song the principal comes through the door. He sings with us (I mean with the children since I really am not singing 'cause I can't remember the words). He tells the students to listen to me because I'm the teacher for today since their teacher is sick. With that he leaves. The kids finish coloring. I mark down how many are here for snack and lunch. Then we're off to the bathrooms. Back in the classroom we learn about Wise Men visiting Jesus. We sing songs, read a book, and review our letters A-J. Then we jump, turn around, stomp our feet, clap our hands, count to ten and sing more songs. We learned about the jungle and about the pigmys that live it the jungle. They follow a Honey Bird to the honeycomb where the bees are. Then they build a fire and put the bees to sleep. They break open the honeycomb and scrape away the honey. But they do leave some for the Honey bird. After we learned about the pygmy's we walked down the hall to snack. Then once again back to the room for our coats and off to recess. After recess we went to the bathroom and then to the water fountain. Then back to the classroom for rest time. Everyone put their head down on the table and listened to Christmas music.
Since I also had to work at Daycare the class I was teaching combined with the other K3 class for Art.
And that was my day. :)

Jesse's birthday

Yesterday was Jesse's birthday. Poor guy he was under the weather. He took the day off work though.
He had started not feeling good Friday night. We were going to Greenville with two other couples to see the Christmas Vespers on Saturday. Jesse stayed home to rest while I went to Greenville. I was able to spend about 2 hours with Alissa. We played a game and then studied some for her finals. I was also able to purchase some gifts for Jesse. Around 5 we (my friends I came with) ate supper at one of their parents house. It was delicious. The Vespers which was an opera, Simeon, was really good. We got home around 12. Long day.

Sunday was our Christmas cantata. It was good. Jesse didn't go because he wasn't feel good.

Hopefully he will feel better soon. Right now he is resting.

Christmas season is here

I have put my Christmas cds in the car and am listening to them. The tree is up but we still need to put on the lights and decorations. We will get to them this week. Last year I bought a mailbox cover of the Christmas story and once I find it will put it on the mailbox.

Next week is our church's cantata and they are doing "The Greatest Gift" by Ron and Shelley Hamilton. Tonight the choir sang "I want a Simple Kind of Christmas" a song from the cantata. I thought they did well.

Please pray for Jesse and his work. He is getting lots of extra work thrown at him.

after Thanksgiving

I took Alissa back to BJU on Monday. But before that was Sunday. Anyway, on Sunday she went to our Sunday School class (for married couples). We've had guest before who weren't married so it cause no problem. We are studing about raising children. The services were good.
On Monday we went to a semi-empty parking lot and Alissa practiced driving. She is doing well in my estimation. I showed her where I work and then off to Greenville we went. The road up and back were good.

I do have to say that it seemed a little lonely at home when Jesse and I got back on Monday.

Thankfulness

1. I am thankful for God.
2. I am thankful for Jesus, my Saviour.
3. I am thankful for godly parents.
4. I am thankful for a wonderful, godly husband.
5. I am thankful for my siblings.
6. I am thankful for my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
7. I am thankful for my in-law relatives (be it married in on my side or on Jesse's side).
8. I am thankful for a wonderful church.
9. I am thankful for a bed, house, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc.
10. I am thankful for the garbage truck.
11. I am thankful for the mail person (in our case it would be mail lady).
12. I am thankful that Jesse has a job he loves.
13. I am thankful for my friends at church.
14. I am thankful for my cats.

I am thankful for many things. I just wanted to list a few here but this list is not inclusive.

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

I started working on the meal on Wednesday. The mashed potatoes and the gravy were all that I got done for the meal. While making them I also made sloppy joes for supper Wed. night. Then on Thurs. I got the Cornish hens all washed and seasoned (salt and pepper) and got them into the oven. While they were cooking I made more gravy (didn't think there was enough), made the stuffing (or is it called dressing?), corn, peas, and rolls. We had a wonderful delicious meal. About 3 or more hours later I all of the sudden remembered "I FORGOT THE CRANBERRY SAUCE!" Oh well, we'll have it tonight with leftovers.


Happy belated Thanksgiving.

Trip to Greenville and back

On Tuesday I dropped Jesse off at work and then headed on up to Greenville. Right away even before getting on the interstate we all (on my side of the road) had to cram into 2 lanes instead of 3 because of a fender bender. Ok, so I will give them some credit... the front left light was smashed. After get passed that little time waster I was on my way again. In Columbia it was all cloudy but as I kept traveling to Greenville the sky started getting blue and pretty. (Now "pretty sky" is very subjective here with Jesse and me. For me "pretty sky" is blue and clear. For Jesse "pretty sky" is cloudy and stormy.)

I made it to Greenville is ok time. Normally it takes about 1 1/2 hours but this time it took closer to 2 b/c I was driving slower. I used cruse control the whole time and it was FUN.

I called Alissa to say that I might not make it to her class but I did. I made it by about 5 minutes. :)

Jesse called telling me to be careful driving back because it had begun sleeting. He was also worried that I had been driving through it but I told him that it was a blue pretty (my pretty) sky.

I got to go to two of Alissa's classes. I know both her teacher. Had one in fact in school and the other I met when I was in Elementary school.

We ate at the Dining Common. I called my former supervisor and asked her if there was someone who would like to take me to lunch. So one of my former coworkers let me in on her visitors card. Saved about $5 or so.

After lunch Alissa had to meet with some people so I went on my merry way. I visited the people at the Jr. High where I worked for 7 years serving food. And then I called on of my teachers who was also my advisor, supervisor, teacher, and a friend in school.

I then had to go meet Alissa at a predestinated place. Just right before 4 we started on our way to Columbia.

The trip started off well. We saw around 3 or so accident, well, the aftermath of the accident. Then about an hour down the road it started raining. The sky turned dark. I drove around 50 and 60 mph in the 65 and 70 mph zones. Cars were passing by me but I felt safer driving slower and staying on the right.

We had to stop and pick up Jesse's suits and pants. We then went home unloaded her stuff and went to pick Jesse up. Then we all headed off to the Tue. night Thanksgiving service.

Praise the Lord we had a safe trip.

Saturday and Sunday

We went to Goodyear on Saturday to get the oil changed. They were recommended by a mechanic from church. I think many people from church go there. We were told that there was going to be a 45 minute wait so we went for a walk. Jesse put on his weights but mine were here at home. It was a nice walk and a nice time just being together. We met 2 people from the church on our walk. When we came back to Goodyear (35 minutes later) the car was done and waiting for us. What a pleasant surprise.

Sunday (today, or yesterday considering the time) we had a good church service. Not to say that we normally don't have a good one. Anyway the preacher spoke on the "what, who, where, why, when of Thanksgiving". The text was out of Ps. 118 O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever. This is paraphrased and not quoted.

The evening service we had a service of praise. There were about 10ish people who gave a testimony of Thanksgiving unto God. Some things were of this year but others were of stuff from the past. The testimonies were the message. It was so wonderful to see the blessings of the Lord that has come from trials.

My sister will be here for a week. I'm not sure if I will write any while she is here.

So if not... Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

shopping

Friday night after work Jesse and I went out to S & K and got some new suits, pants, ties, and shirts. In total he got 54 outfits. If you count the little handkerchief thing that goes in the suit pocket then he got 108 outfits. (he he he).
After that we went to Ross' and found a dress from me. I wore it today at church and got complements. Jesse's grandma was very kind in offering to pay for the clothes.

We were also going to go to the grocery store and get stuff for Thanksgiving. We're planning on have our own Thanksgiving here alone with Alissa. Instead of a turkey we might do Cornish hens. I hope I (we) do a good (or should I say decent) job with the meal.

what Chapel was about

Since next week is Thanksgiving, I had a Thanksgiving theme.

I talked a little about Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and how it is different than how we do Thanksgiving. We don't eat the exact same food also we do eat with the same people. Some are with close family, others extended family, while even others are with friends.
One thing is the same though and that is the "Thankful" part of Thanksgiving.

Next I explained to them that Thanksgiving was an "American" holiday. And I told them a little of what I remembered of Thanksgiving while growing up.

Finally I had a little story about an ugly pumpkin. The moral of the story was that you shouldn't judge people from how they look but by how they are inside.

I enjoyed it but am glad that it is over with.

I feel like Lucy

Yes, Lucy as from "I love Lucy".

Today I spoke in the kindergarten chapel. I was suppose to take 15 minutes. I got there early ... like 15 minute early. The kindergartners were seated early and did a little Christmas practicing. Hence I was introduced early and had practically 5-8 minutes extra then what I was told I would have. Well, with that I ended early. I will tell what I spoke on in the next post.

Now onto why I feel like Lucy.

After chapel I went to pick up my paycheck at the day care. Then off to the bank to deposit. I check things out at the ATM and went off to WalMart. Zip through WalMart and was the first in the "under 20 items" line. Got all my groceries in the cart and checked my purse for my card. Uhoh... where is it? Look look look. Maybe it is out in the car. "I'll be back I promise". As I run out to the car, I call Jesse. Can't fine card in car. Ummm, I left it in the ATM. Drive to bank. No card. Go into bank. "Did anyone drop off a card?"

I am told that there might be a possibility that it is in the ATM and so-and-so can get it. If it is not in the ATM then they will cancel my card. Yeah, they found my card in the ATM. Off to WalMart again and get my groceries. I told the cashier what happened and she told me that she thought I might have had to go farther than my car.

Well it ended alright (doesn't Lucy end up well too?) but I don't want to experience that again. Next time I will be more careful at the ATM.

Voting ballots and Florda

So, what is up with the voting ballots and Florida? First there was the recounting of the votes for days, or even months on end when Bush and Gore were running against each other. Now there is a rare stamp in a sealed ballot box in Florida. I wonder what next is going to happen when voting occures in Florida again.

Changing the blog around

I thought I would go for a major overhaul on the blog. Well, I don't know how all you other bloggers do it when you change your blog around but I lost all my "extra" items I had on my blog. After both Jesse and I fiddled with the blog, he found a cached version of my blog from about a month ago. From there I was able to copy and paste what I needed. Then I got to play around with the colors. That was fun!! I don't know if I am done with the remaking of my blog, as it was quite frustrating but quite enjoyable all at the same time.

soccer has ended

We had a good game. Everyone on my team was there. I wanted to take a picture of the whole team together BUT I forgot the camera. boohoo. Anyway, I brought doughnuts for snack and a parent brought the juice.

I think we played well. One boy on my team stopped the ball two times with his hands (inside the lines). We called hand ball both times. The first time it was on the side away from the parents. I told him that he is not suppose to touch the ball with is hand. The second time he stopped the ball was right in front of all the parents. I not sure who all did it but I think mostly the dads booed when he touched the ball. I again told him he wasn't suppose to do that. He walked away and then I noticed that he was starting to cry. I hugged him and let him know what a good player he was. He's really the best player the team's got. His mom came over and told him to get playing again. I tried to encourage him by telling him that I REALLY need you. The next time we had a thow-in I had him do it. After that he did fine.

We had award (trophy's) after the game. Every single kid gets a trophy's for playing. I gave them a "surprise" for learning the verse. A little squishy soccer ball, big gum ball, 4 sport chocolate balls, and 2 tutsi lollipops.

After the awards were handed out we went into the snack shop area and had our doughnuts and juice. Practically all the parents came up and thanked me for coaching their children. I enjoyed it. BUT I am glad that next week we don't have soccer.

I am alive

It has been a long time since I have written anything. I don't write much since I have a hard time thinking of what to write. Anyway, to give some updates.

I feel like I'm working full time right now but I don't mind. A friend of mine had an operation and has been out since October 10 until after Thanksgiving. (that is suppose to be 6 weeks). They thought it was cancer but when the test came back it was OK. Praise God.
I'm working with the little babies. I requested that since I think I would go crazy with the older kids.

Soccer has begun and will end this Saturday. I had 8 players on my team but one broke BOTH arms. She got to one practice and one game. I had everyone memorize I Corinthians 10:31 and told them to learn it and they would get a surprise on the last day of soccer. Ummm, what is the suprise? I am still thinking, got any ideas these are 4-6 year olds. 5 boys and 2 girls.

Pastor Kelley passed away Oct. 28th. He had CJD. You can read what I posted about him and CJD here. There was a viewing, a Celebration service, and a graveside service. The viewing was from 4-8pm. The line was practically 2 hours long the entire time. The Celebration service lasted for 2 hours. They canceled both school and day care. The graveside service was in TN since that is where he had already gotten plots for both he and his wife.

AWANAS. I am having a blast being in Sparkies. I am on the GREEN team. Yeah that's my favorate color. (I actually asked if I could be on the green team.) I get the hispanic bus kids when they come since I am the only one that can talk to them well. Today I just talked about John 3:16 and what it means. I didn't get that far into the verse because the attention span is NOT that big. Two of the 4 boys almost learned all of John 3:16. The reason I was doing this paticular verse is that I was following the Spark's Gate test.

It is getting colder here BUT I heard that it is suppose to be getting warmer the next few days. Wahhhhhh. I don't want to be hot anymore.

Oh yeah

I forgot. I better let you know or else someone I know will be disappointed.

This post is to inform you that my wonderful husband downloaded and installed KDE on our computer. This post and the last two post were written using KDE's internet page. (or something like that).

Now KDE is part of LINX. Don't ask me any questions about it. All I know (and I am not really sure if I am right about this) is that LINX is suppose to be better then Microsoft.

I am told that I can not use Microsoft internet (or whatever type of internet or computer thing) anymore.

Anyway... I don't see much of a difference.

crazy people

Along the road home are some railroad tracks that run parralle to the road. We don't have to cross them. We were at a stoplight when I noticed that the railroad bars (or whatever they are called) were down. Now correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it wrong to deliberatly go through the bars. I saw 4-8 cars go from our side of the tracks to the other side of the tracks while the railroad bars were down. I call that an I d 10 t problem. I am glad that there weren't any accidents (at least I didn't see or hear of any).


SOME PEOPLE!!!!

We have a car...

After are little (or should I say big) water incident with the car, Jesse has declared that he does not like rain. Well, I don't really think he means exactly that but puddles of water mean something different to us now.

People at church helped us out a lot. We were given rides to church (we were in the midst of our revival services). One nice thing that happened was that we got to meet a nice, older couple from our church. Actually, they have been sitting on the other side of the pew all this time but we had never talked to them. We were introduced to them when I asked a friend for a ride to church. This couple live right outside of our housing development (2 blocks from our house). They gave us a ride to church every night.

We went to the Saturn dealership and looked around the lot. The vehicle that we chose was Chevrolet. We really wanted to stay with a Saturn but the ones in our budget were not good. We also wanted to upgrade since we had to get another vehicle. So it has 4 doors, 7 seating capacity (4 of which are captian chairs), and OH did I say it is a van, a 2003 Chevrolet Venture.

Update on our car

Our car is totaled. The water got into the engine, transmission, electrical system, etc. So Jesse and I are needing to see about another vehicle. Dad, Mom, my siblings and their families all came down to go to the zoo and other places yesterday. We were just about done with the zoo when Jesse called me about the car being totaled. Dad, Mom, and I went to the car and took all our stuff home. It was a HUGE blessing that they were here. I possibly would have been able to find someone else to help me but it was nice to get it over with.

Today at 9:30, a friend, is going to take me to Jesse's work and then take both of us to the insurance place.

Flash flood?

Yesterday Jesse worked all day. I took him to work and then went and picked him up from work after church. It was raining hard and I mean hard. We had the windshield wipers going at full speed.

To make a long story short - the car got stalled in water when we "hit" a wall of water. Water came into the passengers side about 1 or 2 inches. Jesse climbed out of the passengers side window (I grabbed his work phone before he made it all the way out, it's notorious of getting lost or something) and started pushing the car. 2 guys came and helped Jesse push the car while I steered it to higher ground and out of the busy highway. Only that car stopped to help us.

We sat there for a long while and in the mean time Dad called. It was nice to talk to him during this time. I was praying the whole time. We finally had to call for a tow truck and we also were trying to find some one to take us home. After racking our brains and call some people to no avail, Jesse shouted out one of his coworkers name. He called him and the coworker "B" came with his wife and their truck. They are letting us use their 2nd vehicle for as long as we need it. We would like to give it back ASPA.

I called every family member up that knew about our predicament (Jesse's grandma, aunt, and Dad).

I am glad we were not hurt and that we are fine.

Family gathering

We had a family reunion Saturday. Dad (Grandpa) and Mom (Grandma), my siblings, and my nieces and nephews. Oh and of course myself. Jesse had to work both Saturday and Sunday so he wasn't able to come. Instead Dad, Mom, Robert, and Alissa came to see us. It was a very nice visit but unfortunately Jesse had to work until 7pm so he wasn't with them for long. Everyone got to see where Jesse works and then we went to the house. Mom, Alissa, and I had already made supper. I had planned to have a chicken and rice casserolel but we changed it to something else that I had never heard of. Mom and Alissa called it Hawaiian Stacki upies. I possibly spelled it wrong. Anyway it consisted of: (Mom please correct me if I don't have this right)

Rice
cut up chicken
gravy
cheese
pineapple chunks
raisins
tomatoes chunks
celery diced
nuts
coconut

You place everything is separate bowls and then people go and fill up their plate starting with the rice and then chicken. They put what they want on it. I believe there might be more that can go on this but I can't remember. All I know is that it was very good.

Alissa stayed the night with me and we stayed up until 3AM talking. I took Jesse to work by 9:00. Around 11 Alissa and I left to go to Greenville where the reunion was going to take place.
We stopped at a near by parking lot and I gave Alissa the chance to drive a little. She did an excellent job. I had her park in a parking spot away from all the cars. She parked the car better than many people at least that is what I think.
We got to Greenville shortly after 1 and then I drove Mom and Alissa to the eye doctor. After everything was taken care off we went of to see the wizard. No ... I mean to the reunion. My 6 1/2 niece came up to me and said "I am almost as tall as you and I am only 6 1/2". Well, how am I suppose to take that. She wanted me to give her a piggyback ride too. She's about 6 inches or so below my shoulders - I am 5 ft. 2 1/2 in.

We visited, ate, and then went out side to take pictures.
I had to leave early (6:30) to pick up Jesse from work. But really didn't leave until 7pm. While on my way home he called to tell me someone had driven him home.

It was nice to be with family.

Update on Pastor Kelley

In a few weeks he will be resigning from our church and moving to Charleston in order to receive the care he needs. The CJD is progressing and he needs daily care. Please pray for him, his wife, family, and the church. He is loved by everyone.

Pastor's 15th church anniversary

Today the church celebrated Pastor's 15 years at this church. I realized that I never told you his name which is by the way Dr. Bob Kelley.
The church service was different than normal. They had a "burning the note" ceremony also.
There were 3 dignitaries that attended the service in order to honor Pastor. They did this all on their own and contacted the church to tell them that they wanted to do this for Pastor's anniversary service. One presented the Order of the Palmetto for patriotism which is South Carolina's highest civilian award. Another one presented a flag that had flown over the State House. All 3 spoke high praises of Pastor Kelley and mentioned that he would often give them advice both when asked for it and also when they didn't want it. :)

The assistant pastor preached on integrity from Psalm 26:1-2 and 11-12. He talked about Pastor living day to day with integrity. Every aspect of our life should be the same both in church, at walmart, on the road, and in our homes.

After the sermon we had a reception in honor of Pastor. We had cheese balls, crackers, miniature chix nuggets, ham quiche, cocktail wienies, croissants, sandwich meats and cheese, variety of fruit and veggies, cream puffs, miniature chocolate muffins, brownies, cake, lemonade, and tea. There might have been more but I either don't remember or didn't see it. Pastor and his family sat at one table. There was a line of people going by to talk to Pastor during the whole meal. (I wonder if he got to eat?)

As I get information about Pastor I will pass it along.

Pray for our Pastor

Our pastor and our church is in need of prayer. After numerous trips to the Mayo Clinic, Pastor has been diagnosed with classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CJD is a rare, degenerative, invariably fatal brain disorder. Typically, onset of symptoms occurs about age 60, and about 90 percent of patients die within 1 year. There is no known treatment that can cure or control CJD. Current treatment is aimed at alleviating symptoms and making the patient as comfortable as possible as the disease progresses.
We know that the Lord is in control and if it is His wish He can heal him.

Working late, Oh and blogging late too

Ok, before anyone comments about the hour this blog was written I will confess it. Yes I know it is past 1:00 AM.

This week has been busy. Well, especially for Jesse. He has practically been working nonstop from Wednesday morning to Friday midnight. (or would you say Saturday since midnight is actually the next day.) He has Saturday (today) and Sunday to rest up before he goes back to work Monday - Friday of the next week, the total of 12 days straight. Poor guy.

I have been working off and on at the day care. Some days I like it but other days I am tired of it. I don't think I could be a full time or even part time. Last week I didn't work at all but this week I worked everyday from 3-6 except for Wed and Thurs when I came in at 11am and 12:30.

Anyway, tonight after my work I went to pick Jesse up from work. He was still working along with a coworker, "D". I read a book while I was waiting for him to finish. Around 8 or so "D" orders pizza for the 3 of us. We sat around the table talking and eating. Some time later I picked up my cup only for it to slip from my grasp and spill on the table. We cleaned up the mess and "D" checks the time 10:45. Jesse and "D" continue to work while I finish reading my book. After finishing my book 12:00 I checked the time and calculated what time it would be in different parts of the country. I decided to call up Grandma and Grandpa in California hoping it wouldn't be too late at 9ish. We had a nice time talking and actually after talking a few minutes Jesse and "D" were done working so Grandma got to talk to me all the way home.

Vacation Bible School

Just wanted to say that I will be helping out with VBS. Actually it is Hispanic VBS. I will be teaching the 4-6 year olds with the help of 2 other people. We are doing the life of Daniel.

June 11

June 11 was our anniversary. We went to TN close to Gatlinburg for the weekend (Sat-Tues). It was very nice and relaxing. On Sunday (11th), the church we went to have a wedding during the sermon. The sermon was "The Covenant of Marriage" and the wedding was the illustration for the 3rd point of the message. The entire wedding just included the wedding march, vows, and the "I do's". So it took maybe 5 or so minutes.
Monday we went to Dollywood. It was nice and we did lots of walking. I think we went on 5 or so rides. Maybe more but it did seem like we had to walk a mile to get to each ride.
Tuesday we came home and it was so nice to be back. Our kitties didn't want to leave our side because they were afraid we would leave again.

Prayer request

One of Jesse's friends, Josh Chandler, was in an accident a week or so ago. Please pray for him as he is in the hospital. There is a blog that has been set up by another one of Josh's friends. http://chandlerupdate.blogspot.com/ I will also be adding it to my links.

Graduations

Last Thursday (May 25th) I went to a friend's (David) high school graduation. David is the grandson of the lady that introduced Jesse to me (or was it that I was introduced to Jesse). Who knows.
Jesse wanted to go to but couldn't get off work so I went for both of us. All of us were amazed that during one of the speeches given by a retiring teacher the words "my Savior Jesus Christ" were mentioned. And that was not just one time but TWO times. Oh, by the way this is a public school. After graduation we all went out to eat at Crazy China Buffet. That is where David wanted to go. I was ready to pay for my part of the meal but David's father told me that he would pay for it. He was really impressed that I had come to the graduation. I suppose he didn't realize how much Jesse and I think of his boys. They are really nice kids.

Today I went to another high school graduation. This time it is for a young lady I work with sometimes at the day care. She will be going away soon to PCC. The graduation was held at our church. It was a very nice ceremony. They asked the parents to stand as their son or daughter's name was called and stay standing as they crossed the stage. They also asked that no separate clapping or other noise indicators be made until all the graduates had crossed the stage. I would say that about 25% or so did not heed the announcements. The funny thing I think is that the Commencement Speaker had just finished challenging the graduates to "grow up" and be mature adults. He said that there are 5 different types of adults.
1. the infant adult (they want everyone to do things for them. They are the whiners when things don't go their way)
2. the toddler adult (they have very short attention spans and go from one hobby to another quite often. )
3. the 10 year-old adult (they dedicate themselves to on area and become experts in that area but forget about everything else. they are very unbalanced)
4. the teen adult (they fall prey to peer pressure and won't stand up for what they know is right if it is the unpopular idea)
5. the mature adult (they are balanced and controlled)

Anyway so after all the graduates had crossed the stage the president (or someone else) commented to the commencement speaker "Mr. so and so I believe we have many 'teen adults' in the audience." Boy you should have heard the clapping of all the disgruntled people that were annoyed with those who don't listen.

Next week Jesse and I will be going back to where spent our honeymoon in TN. We will leave Saturday morning and come back Tuesday evening.

Summer is here.

Summer equals hot and humid. Hot is fine but humid ... Uggh. At the daycare we aren't going outside in the afternoons anymore except for snack. We are outside about 10-20 minutes and that is enough for me. I am still subbing. I was asked if I would work 3-6 in the baby, 1 yr old, or 2 yr old rooms. I declined but said that I would be willing to sub anytime. Over time I have been in every room at every time so I am pretty versatile. What do I like best? ummmm, NAP TIME! Yes nap time is the best time because that's when I can read a book and get paid for working! I've made many friends (or just very good acquaintances) that I wouldn't have made if I wasn't working at the day care.

FUNNY STORIES

Once when I was in the 2 yr old room during the morning we sat down to have Bible time. We sang some songs, I told a Bible story, sang another song or two, and then I prayed. During the prayer I said something about "help us to be good while we are at day care". I was later informed that "This isn't day care it's school!"

Another time in the same room during inside playtime the kids were playing with baby dolls and tools. One little boy came up to me "Miss Corene can you help me take my baby to the Dr."
I affirmed that I could and went over to see what was going on. I asked him "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting my bag ready."
"What are you putting in your bag?"
His answer: "my makeup."

Again in the same room we were lining up to go outside for snack. My "helper" which happened to be one of the main morning teachers said that we should start teaching the boys to be gentlemen. We told the girl to line up and told the boys that they needed to wait for the girls to go first. We had to tell some of the boys to sit down repeatedly as we were trying to accomplish this task the first day. Some of the boys weren't very happy about being last as you can see with one little boy's comment.
"I'm gonna be a girl."

Computer update

I will try to write fast and send this off as it seems as the computer is being good.
Jesse ran Scandisk and defragmenter. Nothing worked. Right now I am learning patience and working with what I got. Sometime in the near future Jesse will salvage what he can from this computer and build me another computer. There is a driver that is not compatible with the motherboard and this is causing the computer to shut down unexpectedly.

Two weeks ago we were invited to help surprise a friend of ours. He was down in SC from Northland Bible College doing his student teaching. He wasn't able to go home (GA) for spring break so he was feeling down. We really got him good and had a wonderful time. There were 4 couples, a single guy, and then our friend.

Computer problems and birthdays

My computer is going caput. Right now I am using Jesse work laptop which uses a wireless connection. My computer will not stay on for long and then restarts itself. I have had a hard time checking my e-mail and sending e-mail. Jesse is running ScanDisk on the computer and it is running veeeeeery sloooooow. The computer might be out of comission for a day or so. Or until we get new parts for the computer. I might have to make more use of this laptop to blog and do e-mail until then.

March 30, April 14, and April 19 are birthdays to 3 very special people.
My nephew Victor turned 4 on March 30th. I am telling on myself right now because I can't believe that ME who has graduated from a University did this. I sent Victor's birthday card off so that it would get to him a day or so befor his birthday. "Hey," I thought, "I'm doing good here." Well, the next day guess what I saw in my mailbox!? Victor's birthday card. I had addressed it wrong. ugggg. Anyway I got it sent again ADDRESSED CORRECTLY this time. Happy Birthday Victor.

April 14th is my Daddy's birthday. He, as most of you know, is a missionary in Mexico. Ummm along with the family of course. He and Mom have lived in Mexico for 25 years. I also sent him a birthday card but unfortunatly I sent it late. "sigh" Happy Birthday Daddy.

My brother Robert celebrated his 22 birthday on April 19th. He is taller than I am. Actually everyone in the family except for nieces and nephews are taller than I am. Robert helps Mom and Dad with the ministry in Mexico and does a very fine job of it too. I did not forget to send Robert a card but I did send it late. "sigh" Happy Birthday Robert.

A week a DayCare

I am working all this week at the DayCare. One of the teachers is on vacation so I am doing her room. I have 4 or 5 one year olds to take care of. It is quite interesting. We go outside to play and I have to make sure that one boy does not do anything "fun". Yes, I said "fun". You see in his eyes I don't let him play because he wants to do what others do - play on the playground slides. Practically all the other 1 yrs olds and all the 2-3 yr olds get to play on the slides. But he and a girl can't because their mothers or grandmothers are afraid that they might get hurt.

I don't understand it because he has been in the room for 3 months and has not learned how to go up the steps and down the slides which are appropriate for his age group. He did go up and down 2 times with me there watching him. By-the-way he did fine. After that I tried to get him envolved with other activites - like playing in dirt? ha ha

They eat lunch there and are learning to use the spoon. Some just dig in with their hands others are doing ok with the spoon - sometimes. One boy was told to use his spoon so he picked up his spoon with his left hand and continued to use his right hand to stuff food in his mouth. Lovely. Oh, and it is really nice cleaning them up too.

I love nap time best of all. I can read during nap time and after they are asleep I will eat.

I thought this was cute

I received this in e-mail just today. Thought it was a cute joke.


I was talking to a 5th-grader the other day about some of the animals around our area. Subject came to cattle, steers and bulls. I mentioned, "At bullfights in Mexico, matadors wave bright red capes at the bulls."
She asked, "Doesn't that make them angry so they will charge?"
"You're right. Evidently bulls don't like bright red."
I thought my agreeing with her conclusion would end that subject, but she thought a bit and said, "I think it is really chickens that don't like bright red."
"So what does that have to do with red capes at bullfights?" I queried.
"Well," she replied, "I think the bulls just get really mad that they are being treated like a chicken."
Conversation ended.

Learning new things at work

Friday, March 31 I went in to work at 10:30. I hadn't been told where I was going to work. It ended up that I was in one of the 2 year old rooms. I had 8 kids to watch. Hey, I thought, this shouldn't be bad. HA! Famous last words, right? Well, first of all I had to get them all cleaned up for lunch which is at 11. They pottied and diapers were changed. But during that time two boys decided that they needed to take off their shoes. And no matter what, they would not put them on again. Uggg. Shoes on and now to put the lunch shirts on. The same two boys gave fits over which shirt I gave them but they had to wear the one I gave them. We lined up and went to lunch. As I went in I told the other teacher that I was having trouble. That settled that problem quite nicely. For lunch they had "breakfast". Yes, waffles, sausage, boiled eggs, jelly and applesauce for dessert. One little girl ate somewhere between 4-6 little sausage patties. We are talking about 2 year olds! Most did not eat their eggs but the rest was ok. We (the teachers) have to write down how much they eat. Except of the jelly each item is counted and recorded as a 1/4. So if they ate the two halves of waffles, 1 sausage and the applesauce then it is recorded as 3/4. It still sort of baffles me because what if they only eat 1 half of the waffle, half of 1 sausage, two bites of eggs, and all the applesauce. It couldn't be 3/4 because they didn't finish all of 3 things. Would it be that half of the waffle and half of the sausage equals 1? Ugggg. Confusing if you ask me. I had to ask the other teacher how to write everything down. After they ate they got wet washcloths to clean up and their lunch shirts taken off. Oh, by the way, the lunch shirt is like 3 to 4 sizes bigger then they are.
We went out to play a little and then by 11:30 (I think) we were in again to potty/diapered and put down for a nap. They were suppose to be on their cots by 12 but I think we didn't make it. They are to be on their cots until 2:30. Around 2 I saw that two girls that use the potty were awake. I told them to go potty and then go back and lay down. I did that because I didn't want them to have an accident. Well, boohoo, my plan didn't work because one already had an accident. I had to get her changed and get the cot sanitized and so on and so forth. After that I had no major incidents. But there were MANY first here. One nice thing is that this was the room that I am normally in when I work afternoons with the 2 year olds. So I know where everything is. I say that because....

Yesterday I was in a 1 year old room. I came in at 10:30 and did practically the same thing with them. But ... first of all they don't really know how to fed themselves and second I didn't know where anything was in the room. I had 5 kids. After they were cleaned up I put their lunch shirts on. They can eat by themselves if you let them grab their food with their hands and shove the whole hand in their mouth. Which means that we had to go around to everyone and "help" them spoon the food into their mouths. The menu was chicken nuggets, black-eyed beans, mash potatoes and gravy, and applesauce. Again I was baffled by the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 deal. It is so hard because when do you say they ate everything of one item. I suppose I need to just work these shifts more often but them I can only work them if the regulars are out.
After they ate we went outside for about 10 minutes and them back inside to get ready for nap time. I practically ripped the room apart (not really) to look for everything, diapers, wipes etc.
I finally got everyone down for a nap with the last one falling asleep at 12:40 and the first one waking up at 1:50. When they are awake I have to make sure they don't get off their cots and that they don't make loud noises. At 2:30 I woke them and diapered them. Put up the cots and then walked the kids over to the next room (at 3pm both 1 year-old rooms are together). I took the trash out and then went down to the 2 year old room. I have been subbing on Mondays from 3-6 for this semester. I was already "stress?" or just plain tired because of doing "new" things in the 1 year old room. I hoped that everything would turn out OK for the afternoon. The first thing I heard from the Morning Teacher was "T" had big boy pants on but he really isn't ready for them so you need to take him to the bathroom quite often. Also he has 1 change of clothes and under no circumstance are you to put a pull-up on him.
Oh, goodie.
We went outside to play. To make a long story short. I had to change "T"'s outfit 2 times and another boy's outfit 1 time. I had to sanitize 4 books and I just wanted to cry out of exhaustions and frustration.
My supervisor jokingly said that I really did earned my pay that day.

I really do enjoy what I am doing but ... could we just spread learning new things at work so it doesn't hit me bam, bam one right after another?

Oh goodie

Last week was Bible Conference at Bob Jones University. Jesse and I so wanted to go but because of things happening at Jesse's work we couldn't go. I especially wanted to go Thursday and Friday night because Thurs. night is the Alumni reception and Fri. is normally a fun service.
We didn't go on Thurs. because Jesse had to go to work early (6:00AM) Fri. and we wouldn't get back until about 1 or 2 AM. Jesse also tutors someone Friday at 7PM so that day was out too. Well... Thurs. night the guy Jesse tutors called and said that he couldn't meet on Friday... which meant that WE COULD GO TO GREENVILLE!!!!
We didn't make it there on time so we had to sit in Stratton Hall and watch the service on a screen. It wasn't the same. :(
The closing speaker was Ian Paisley. I had told Jesse that he is very hard to understand since he has an Irish accent. I was amazed to listen to him speak and be able to understand him perfectly well.
We did get to see many of my/our friends and had a wonderful time catching up with them.

Saturday bright and early we got up and Jesse took me to the church parking lot. I got into a church van and traveled some 45ish minutes to a Daycare Seminar. There we all "took" 6 classes and learned a lot. I even got to implement some of what I learned today at work!!! :)
The last "class" was about discipline and it was interesting to listen to the speaker.

I work every day this week and with being paid for Saturday I will have worked 38 1/2 hours this month.

Ramblings and catching up part 2

March has been a busy month. I have worked practically every other day and we have had almost every weekend full of errands or stuff that we did.
We went to a couples retreat, the 10th and 11th, which was held at the DoubleTree Biltmore Hotel in North Carolina. Very nice hotel by-the-way. Guy and Cookie Altizer were the speakers. I believe there were about 30+ couples. Oh and we were the most recent married couple as on the 11th we were married 9 months. The next were married Thanksgiving weekend of 2004. There was also a couple that had been married over 50 years.
After the couples retreat ended we went sightseeing, by car. We parked after awhile and walked around for about 20 or so minutes and then headed back to Columbia, SC. Jesse had to go into work at 8:00 PM.

On Tuesday night, the 14th I told Jesse that my right ear was starting to feel full. Like when you fly and your ears need to pop. Well within an hour my ear started hurting like everything. I was suppose to work on Wednesday but with how my ear hurt, Jesse called the D/C supervisor and told her I couldn't work. We went to the Dr. and were told that it was a very bad ear infection. It only hurts now when there is loud sounds. I also can only hear half of what I can hear in my left ear. BUT it is getting better. Praise God. Oh yeah, I couldn't work Thursday either and the Dr. told me not to go back to work until at least Monday but after Wednesday I would be fine. I had been scheduled to work from Wed. - Fri. so I felt really bad about having to say I couldn't work. On Wed and Thurs I was not able to sleep and then Fri I slept all day since my ear wasn't hurting as bad.

I am going to a D/C child care seminar on Saturday. I will try to talk about it some time next week.

Ramblings and catching up part 1

Time has past since the last post. Ummm, almost a month. A lot has happened but it will be hard to place a time frame on it and to remember.

To get started let me tell you a funny story and it is true, honest. Rascal is very jealous about this matter of petting the cats. She has to be petted anytime any of the cat are being petted. So I am on the bed folding the laundry. Rascal comes bounding into the room and jumps up on the bed. She looks at me and then come up to my hand (which is folding something) wanting to be petted. I pet her a little bit and then continue folding clothes. Well, that was not enough for her. She started to climb up to my shoulder where she know I would hold her up. Then she looked around the room as if to say "I rule - No one is to be petted except me". I soon put that to a stop and put her down. Anyway today she is mad at me, so I think, because I picked up Sakura (heavy cat) and Jesse petted her. During this time Rascal just sat there looking at us. When I went to pet her she ran away upstairs.

There is this sign - ugggg- Jesse says I have been really dwelling on it. I suppose I have but this sign makes me SOOOOOOOOOO mad, disgusted, annoyed, etc. You ask me what this sign is? Sure I'll tell you - been dying to tell you.
Single Christian
(###) ###-####
local call
What I think is so bad about this sign is that it seems (to me) that it is being promoted by a christian organization. Who knows who can call up and who knows who is answering. I get a pit in my stomach when I see that sign. I do wonder if someone else disagreed with it because I have seen the same signs but instead of "Single Christian" it just says "Single". Well, enough about that.

Work has been going well, for both of us. I have heard from a coworker that this summer there will be a full time and/or part time job opening up at the DayCare. She told me "Just to warn you, you will be asked if you want to come on full time". She started naming some benefits of working full time and then she asked me "If you could work with me and Sher would you work full time". I thought about it and then said no. "Aw come on, don't you like us?" "I like you all but I don't want to work full time." I don't know if this prediction will come to pass. I really enjoy being a sub. I mean, I get to be with all the ages from 0-5 years old and if I go full time then I will be stuck somewhat with the same age group.
Jesse really is enjoying his job. When Jesse was younger he told his grandma "I hope I get a job that means to me what you job meant to you." Interpretation: Grandma you loved your job so much that it was like playing to you. I want a job that I love so much that I feel like I am playing also. He told me the other day that he enjoys the days that there are computer problems, firewall problems, etc because it is so much fun fixing the problems. Isn't it great to have jobs that we all enjoy?

Praise

Thank you all for praying for my friend Kim.
She went for a biopsy and it came back negative.
So for now she is Cancer Free!!!!

Thank you Lord!

dealing with the car

No, no we don't have car problems. I just knew people would think that.
Anyway, before I started working Jesse would drive the car almost everyday to work. I would get the car when every I really needed it or when Jesse needed me to do an earrand.
Then I started subbing at the Day Care. Well, whenever I work I need the car because I normally go in later than Jesse but when I didn't work Jesse would drive the car to work.

As it turned out though, many weeks I ended up working almost every single day.
Wednesday I didn't work so Jesse drove to work. He came back after work and told me that I would have to drive him to work from now on. Our car's university parking sticker starts with the letter"Z" which means we can and ONLY can park in "Z" parking lots. Those with ummm... "M" parking stickers can park in any parking lot from "M-Z" but not the "A-L". Get it.

Well, there happened to be a "Z" parking lot across the street from where Jesse works but it is being torn down. The next closest "Z" parking lot is about 4-6 blocks away.
I think Jesse said that once you have worked for the university for more than 5+ years you can get an upgrade on your parking sticker. (Hopefully he can get really high someday - like a "D" because that parking lot is right in front of his work.

A Very Very Happy Valentine's Day to you

Just wanting to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's day.
I am heading off to work. It's naptime so I get to read while I am there. Funny though because I don't feel like I am working if I am reading but they have to have so many adults to kids.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's day!!!!

surprises and prayer request

I have and will have worked practically every day this week. The only day I didn't work was Wednesday.
Anyway, I was very much surprised to read a comment to a trip to Greenville. In that post I had said that Jesse and I sang "100 Bottles of Coke on the Wall". I read the 2nd comment which said "You didn't sing 17 labels on the greasecutter bottle?? =)"
I sat there thinking "Now who knows about that incident?"
When I worked in the Dining Comman at BJU we would use greasecutter - umm for cutting grease, clarification if you couldn't figure it out. Well, one day after we had used up a bottle of greasecutter I started to peal off the label. One label came off (as normal) but there was still a label on the bottle. We all stopped our work as I one by one took off all 17 labels that was on this ONE bottle. Hence "17 labels on the greasecutter bottle."
I clicked on the name Sarah and looked at her blog profile. And "wow" (I would like to use a French word here but don't know how to write it - I could pronounce it but it wouldn't help any right now) it happened to be a friend from BJU. Actually I have added her to my list of blogs because I am now going to be reading her blog. Thank you Sarah for finding me. (How did you do that?)

Well, my next surprise came from my wonderful husband. He is on this paper airplane crave right now. I have finally learned to "throw" a paper airplane, well, the type that he makes. There are two ways to "throw" things like balls and such. One way to throw a ball is the "non athlete style" and the other way is the "athlete style". These are politically correct ways of saying "he/she throws like a boy/girl". A while back Jesse handed me a paper airplane to throw. It went straight up and then swirl - crash landing practically behind me. Jesse threw the paper airplane and it went straight as an arrow across the room. I watched how he did it a few times and then tried it myself again. Then I told him I knew why I couldn't throw the paper airplane. The reason: I throw the airplane like an athlete but he throws it as a non athlete. But you see if you consider that airplane throwing is an athletic sport then in a sense I would be the one throwing like a non athlete because I would be throwing it wrong. Confusing! So back to the topic that lays dormant about 12 or so sentences ago: When Jesse and I got home today from work he told me "I have a surprise for you". The surprise: A paper airplane. But this one is a paper airplane that I can throw - my way!! So now I don't have to get a kink in my wrist by making sure I don't "snap" it when I throw the airplane, nor do I have to make sure that my elbow is pinned to my side so that the airplane will fly "correctly" and not swirl down to the ground behind me. I was standing a few feet from the top of the stairs and threw the airplane. I threw it at an angle and it hit the wall above the stairs. It then bounced off the wall and flipped. Then it glided all the way down the stairs (a few feet above them, mind you) and landed around the corner in the living room. Wow, what an airplane. All the others would have possibly just crash landed at the top of the stairs.

Ok, now the prayer request. I have a friend from church by the name of Kim. Please pray for her as she found out that she has cancer. She has 3 kids all younger than 10 I believe.

Work: Hers and His

Past few weeks have been sort of busy. I've been asked to sub off and on. Plus I am subbing Monday afternoons in the 2 year old room for the rest of the semester. I am enjoying it.
The second Monday that I subbed I was told by another worker "Miss K" that I need to take full control of the room because "you are the adult in the room". The first thought that went through my head was that I have hardly been in this room and didn't really know what was going on. Miss K went on to say that my helper is a teenager and should not be allowed to take over for me and that I needed to tell the kids that I was in charge. I spent about a week mulling over what she said. Meanwhile the a day or two later I saw the person I was subbing for with the kids. They were so quiet. (For me they were rambunctious and totally wild - it drained me to be with them). I went up to her and asked her how she kept the kids so quiet. Her answer "They do what they are told."
Well with what both ladies told me I continued to mull over it and to try to figure out a plan. My helper had told me the week before that we didn't need to pick up toys until 3:25 which left us 5 minutes to pick up toys and to line up for "snack". I decided that since I am "the adult" that I would change the timing around to suit me in keeping the kids under control. My helper didn't arrive until around 3:20 (I believe she's suppose to get in closer to 3:00). Well, my plan was to start picking up toys around 3:20. You should have seen her face when she came in and toys were being picked up. Well, I didn't let that bother me. Then I had every one sit down by the cubicles and I told my helper that I wanted to check for stinky diapers. Again she gave me a look of unbelief but I told her that I didn't want the kids to sit during snack like that. Then I stood in front of the kids from in middle of the room and started telling them what I expected of them. It sort of went like this.

I am Miss Corene. You are to listen to what Miss Corene says. We are going to Snack. At Snack there is no talking. Everyone is to be quiet. (I also told them that they need to listen to my helper too)

(Then I started asking yes/no questions that I had the kids answer out loud)
Are we going to be talking during Snack?
Do we eat our Snack?
Do we hit the person beside us?
Do we take Snack from the person beside us?
Do we drink our juice? etc and etc
During the whole entire time my helper was my constant echo.

After all my questions it was time to line them up. I decided on the spur of the moment that I was going to line them up girls then boys. Something that I don't think my helper has ever seen done before if I read her face correctly. Anyway I did this because the boys are always trying to be "first" and we have kids falling down in the shuffle. Surprisingly the boys and girls were very quiet. When we were leaving to go back to the room one boy rebelled about getting in line. My helper "solved" the problem by asking him if he wanted to go see the day care supervisor. I told her to go on into the room with the kids and I held the boy back to talk to him. He was scared of me because of what had been told to him but I calmed him down immediately by asking "do you want to be my little helper?" Instantly he gave me a big smile and said "Yes!". I told him the conditions - he had to obey and be quiet. If he did that he could help me pass out books. It ended up that he wasn't good (or at least that is what I was told). So I told him that during Book time he had to be good and quiet. He was very good and somewhat quiet so as a reward I let him help me pull out the next set of toys and help me dump them on the floor. Honestly I have hardly had any more problems from him. He still does disobey and sometimes is loud but all I have to do is look at him and he shapes up right away. For example: Yesterday we were outside, the boys were climbing up on top of this plastic car with a sun roof. I told them that I didn't want them to climb up on top of the car. (My reasoning was 1. I didn't want them to fall off and 2. there were younger boys who were trying to do the same thing that are weaker than the older boys). I said that if they climbed up onto the top of the car they would have to sit on the sidewalk. After a little bit they started climbing the car again. I remarked to them "remember what I said". The boy who became "my little helper" started saying "But I need to ... I don't want to sit on the sidewalk" and with that he jumped off the car. Then he told his friends "come on lets go". The boys never did climb the car again while we were outside. I felt like I had made a small accomplishment with him and I didn't even have to yell or punish him a lot.

Well, back to these "past few weeks have been sort of busy." Jesse was commissioned to build a computer for this man in our church. It turned out to be sort of a fiasco as Windows XP caused some major headache for Jesse. Jesse spent about two weeks or more working on the computer. During that time he spent around 3 or 4 days (not consecutively) up very late or should I say up very early. I believe that the latest / earliest was about 3 AM. He is now finally done with the computer. The last thing he had to fix was Internet Explorer. It wasn't working on one profile but was working on the others. While Jesse was trying to figure out what was wrong with this one profile I spoke up completely ready for Jesse to tell me that my idea wouldn't work. I said "If Internet Explorer works on these other profiles but doesn't work on this one, then why don't you take the files from this profile and copy them over to a new profile." His answer " You know if this works I ..." To make a long story short it worked!
Have a good weekend everyone.

Come hear John Bishop preach, the man who got his mind erased

This is the sign that was in front of our church in preparation for last Sunday.
Every year our church has Rev. John Bishop preach. He is a very extraordinary man. In October of 1995 he had aseptic meningitis which robbed him of all his memory. He has had to learn everything and in his words "My Donna had teach me how eat, how tie shoe, and how kiss". He told us last year that with his memory being erased he has problems with linking verbs and such. So when he preaches he will talk and we have to fill in the words that he misses. He now goes around preaching about the goodness of God. He has a ministry with is call "God is so good". His website is http://www.godissogood.net

One time (he said) a man came up to him and told him that he shouldn't thank God for this but be mad at God for putting that aseptic meningitis into him. Rev. John Bishop told that man that when he gets to heaven he will ask God not why did He do it but which hand did He use to put the illness in him. Then he would take that hand and kiss it.

He has more problems that either you or I could ever imagine having but he is happy to do the work of the Master with the talents that He has given him.

Trip to Greenville

Jesse and I went to Greenville today. We left before 9:15 and got in at 10:45 AM. Our first destination was the Dining Common on the Bob Jones University Campus but we wouldn't be meeting the people who we were eating with until 12:30. So we went into the Dining Common and talked with many of my former coworkers. I had worked there in the Dining Common from May 2002 to June 2005. We then had to wait about 30 more minutes until our friends got there. We had a wonderful time talking. After eating, Jesse and I went to the mall. Our first stop at the mall was to get our rings checked and cleaned. We have a warranty on the rings and so every 6 months we have to get them cleaned and checked in order to keep the warranty up.
After that we walked around the mall. Dillards and JC Penny's received a blessing of our presence but no monetary gain. We ate at a Chinese Restaurant (actually the sign said "Restaur" because the "ant" was burnt out). After that we drove back home. It was a wonderful day out and I loved the time spent in the car with Jesse. We talked, sang, and joked around. We had a wonderful time singing "100 bottles of Coke on the wall". Just for the fun of it I started at 50 and Jesse started at some number in the 90's and we sang together. Then when I got down to 0 I went back and sang with his numbers.

Well, we are home and the kittens are very happy to see us.

More about Christmas vacation and following

Jesse and I had to help each other with one of our Christmas presents. So, Friday (I think) before Christmas we went to the mall. I had wanted to get Jesse a drill since he didn't have one. I wasn't sure which one to buy nor if he had any preferences. We went to Sears and found out that this one drill was on Christmas Sale and was not going to be sold after Christmas.
Craftsman cordless 18.0 Volt 3/8-in Drill/Driver. Since Jesse builds computers and such he also got a cordless screwdriver. Needless to say, he was drill and screwdriver crazy the next few days. He took both of them (with out the bits in them) and "drilled" all the cats, me, and even his Grandma when we went to see her.

For my Christmas present he got me a gold plated watch. It has an oval face with regular numbers (not Roman type). It has 20 pretty cubic zirconiums divided up into sets of 5. Two sets of 5 are on each side of the face with links in between each set. It is an Eco-Drive watch so it doesn't use batteries. It uses light sources. Any light source.

On Christmas day we went to church in the morning. There was no evening service. Church was from 10-11. We then went to his Grandmas and spent the afternoon there with her. We ate at the Nursing Home with her.

Thursday after Christmas something went wrong with part of the network where Jesse works. He was "on call" during Christmas so we both went in because Jesse thought that if he needed an extra pair of hands I would come in real handy. It ended up that someone had disconnected something and that part of the network that it was affecting was out of the jurisdiction of Jesse and his coworkers. So we packed up and went home. He got on the phone to tell his Grandma about "working" during Christmas break only to find out that she was in middle of a stroke. We got back into the car and drove to the Nursing Home. It seems as though every single light that could be red was red. Good news is that it wasn't bad just a bad scare. She is doing fine now.
New Years day was passed a lot like Christmas except that we had Sunday School also.

I am still working at the Day Care (part time). They have asked me to sub Mondays from 3-6 for the rest of the semester. I could very well had said no but after talking it over with Jesse we decided that I would do it. I start Monday the 23rd.
This week I am subbing tomorrow and Thursday from 8-3 and Friday from 3-6.

Well that was a quick catch up and now I do believe I am up to date.

I really am alive. Honest

Wow, were did the time go. Many days I thought to myself "I better write something on my blog" but did I do it?
Anyway, I wanted to tell you all about the cantata that our church did. It is called "What if Jesus had not come?" The main characters are this modern family who start talking about Christmas and traditions. They begin to play a game in which they think through the life of Christ and see how things could be different if He had not come to earth.
1. The innkeeper would not have any reason for offering Joseph and Mary a place to sleep. Instead in the play he told them to go sleep with the shepherds in the field.
2. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda would forever be on his mat. In the play he said "I will always be here unless someone comes and tells me to rise up, take up your bed and walk".
3. The Samaritan woman would still be unsaved. In the play James and John take a shortcut through Samaria and meet up with the Samaritan woman. They condone her because of her 5 husbands.
4. Simon [Peter] would still be ruthless and stubborn. In the play two men are talking about Simon and one mentions how Simon's key man in his fishing business gets put into prison for something. Simon is summoned to vouch for him so he can get out of prison but instead he says "I do not know this man"
5. Barabas is crucified. And the Jews are still looking for their Messiah.

The family rejoice that Jesus did come and those events did not take place as they imagine them.


I will write more about Christmas vacation and following in other post.