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.

Christmas passages

Sunday night the Youth Pastor/Assistant Pastor preached. Pastor Kelley asked him to expound on the Christmas story in a different light. He did just that. He started out saying that he was going to read two really familiar Christmas passages and then have us turn to an unfamiliar Christmas passage.

"Please turn in your Bibles to the very familiar Christmas passage, Numbers 22:5"

He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me:

"Next please turn to an equally familiar Christmas passage, Daniel 2:24"
Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.

"Finally we will turn to a very unfamiliar Christmas passage, Matthew 2:1-12"
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,...

He then asked us why we thought he read the first two passages and how they connect to the 3rd passage he read. Do you all know?


He said that it was the only two places in the Old Testament that "wise men" were mentioned. Balaam was considered the first wise man and Daniel saved the wise men from losing their lives.

The Wise Men who came to see Jesus were the same type of "wise men" as those mentioned above. They most likely were part of a king's court somewhat as "counselors".
These Wise Men in Matthew 2 teach us some things that we need to have in our own lives. Are we "wise men and women"?

First, they passed down some good traditions. Like gifts, giving your best, worshiping the King, and such. We need to pass good wholesome traditions down to our children and grandchildren. Going to church, reading the Bible, tithing, etc.

Second, they kept the Bible in the proper perspective. These were gentiles. The only part of the Scriptures that they most likely had were the prophecies of Balaam and Daniel. Balaam prophesied in Numbers 24:17 (about Jesus being born)
...there shall come a Star out of Jacob...

And Daniel about when Jesus would BE born.

They knew these two prophesies and had taken them into heart. These Gentiles knew that a King of the Jews would be born and they knew when He would be born. They were looking for the Star. The priest and scribes in Jerusalem also knew the Scriptures but they weren't looking. When Herod asked them where "Christ should be born" they replied "In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel."

They knew where it was to happen and they could have very well known when it would happen but they didn't go check it out. Instead these Wise Men came ALL THE WAY FROM THE EAST because they knew when but they didn't know exactly where in Israel. They went to Jerusalem because that was the capital of Israel.

I don't remember the last point but it had to do with that they worshiped Jesus even though He didn't look like a "real" king. Mary and Joseph were poor so their house more than likely wasn't very big. Not all the Wise Men fit in the house at once (never in the Bible does it say that there were only 3 Wise Men). They also did not take away any portion of the gifts they brought. They gave EVERYTHING they brought to this new King. Do we worship the King of kings as we ought to?

We need to set and establish good wholesome traditions.
We need to place the Bible in Its proper place in our lives.
We need to know what the Bible says.
We need to worship Jesus with the worship that He is worthy of.

ARE WE WISE MEN AND WOMEN? if not now then we need to start working on it.

Volcanos vs. People

So volcanos are worse than people. Do cars count in with people? Or is that a separate category?

work

I have told the Day Care that I am "not available" to sub while Jesse is off of work for Christmas break. I think they are only closed the Friday before Christmas, the Monday after Christmas, and one or two days for New Years but I am not sure.
I was asked last week to work Thursday (15), Friday(16), and Wednesday (21). Then on Friday (16) I was asked if I could work Monday (19). I said "yes". While leaving work on Monday I was asked "Do you have any morning plans for tomorrow?" (actually this is what she normally asked me either morning plans or afternoon plans.) I sort of smiled and I told her that sometimes I want to reply something like "sleep in". I told her that I could work.
Anyway, I was only suppose to work from 8:00 AM - 12:30 PM. About 9:30ish I was asked if I could come back to work at 3 and then leave when the numbers when down in my room to under 6 babies.
I agreed to work. I love working with the little babies and little kids. Recently I have been with the babies. We have two that are learning to walk. One walks better then the other but they still don't walk good enough to go to the next room.

If you are wondering (and even if you aren't)
Day Care needs the ratio of 1 adult : 6 babies, 1 adult : 6 under age 2, and 1 adult : 10 over age 2
There are 4 "rooms" at this Day Care.
1st: newborn to walking and eating table food
2nd: walking and eating table food to 2 years old
3rd: 2 years old to 3 years old
4th: K3 to K5 (this is only after lunch - K3 and K4, and after school K5)

Anyway, that is just a little bit about Day Care.

Have a very, Merry Christmas.

Fajitas

Finally, I understand why I never understood what people here in America meant when they said they were eating "Fajitas". I couldn't picture them and just had this big mental block when it came to "fajitas".

I hope you enjoy your French Fajitas.

"Merry Christmas" "You too"

That has been the transactions between cashiers and me lately. Yep, They can't say "Merry Christmas" but they can put on a big smile and say "You too" or "Same to you".
There is one incident that has stood out to me. I had gone into this one McDonald's and the guy at the front register kept on singing a part of a song while recieving money and giving out change. The song "Joy to the World" but that is all he sang. I suppose he couldn't say "the Lord has come".

Jesse and I worked on the blog last night. I found all these useless facts and stuff so I thought I would post one every now and then. I had such a difficult time trying to get it to look like I wanted. Actually, Jesse was the one to get it to look good. I didn't know how to do it. I am glad that he was able to help.

Jesse's birthday

Yesterday was Jesse's birthday. We celebrated it on Saturday though.
I gave Jesse some clothes and a DVD. After resting up and just enjoying being home together we headed out for the River Walk. It took us about an hour or so to go all the way from the begining of the walk to one of the two ends of the walk. I think it was about 5 miles.
After that exhilarating walk (ha ha) we went out to eat for 1. his birthday and 2. to celebrate being married 6 months.

Happy Birthday, Jesse

Rascal, to bed

For the last few nights I have said something like "Rascal let's go to bed". I believe she knows her name now because she will look at me when I say her name. I also believe she understands what I am saying because she will either follow me into the bedroom or run ahead of me. Then she jumps up on the bed and meows and meows telling me that I have not hurried fast enough for her (I suppose). After I get situated under the covers she gets on my stomach and I pet her. It is our little ritual now and she loves it. Itsuki sometimes comes and to get petted - I don't deny her the privilege but I think Rascal sometimes gets a little jealous. I try to make sure I pet both equally.

The answer to the cat puzzle

So how many cats are in this picture?


The answer is





3

Rascal and Itsuki are hugging each other. Sakura is that big lump or log in the bottom left hand corner.

This picture was not in any way, shape, or form planned by any outside human efforts. Jesse came into the bedroom and found all 3 cats sleeping like this and hurriedly took a picture of them.

How many cats are in this picture?

How many cat's are in this picture?

















I will give the answer after a substantial amount of answers come in.

If you are a sub...

does it mean you work everyday?

So far there has only been two days that I haven't worked. I could always tell them "I'm sorry I can't work today" but I don't. Well, I did once - I told them that I had to take Jesse to another dentist (a week after my dentist thrill).

I really enjoy working there. I have been three days with the baby room, 2 3/4 hours with the 2 year olds (nap time) and 4 days with the kindergarten day care. I like everywhere I have been. The baby room is in a sense more active because there is always feeding and changing diapers. But then with the 3-5 year olds there is the "peacemaking" attribute that you need to use.

I think the reason I have been asked to sub so much is that there aren't all that many subs out there. Anyway Jesse and I like it this way because I can always say NO and I get paid for doing something I like.

Christmas at our house

Well, I haven't been too good in blogging. We've been busy. Our plumbing hasn't been the best as the bathroom got stopped up and then it went into the MAIN. But my dependable plumber worked at it and got it all fixed. (I had wrote saying that the plumbing was fixed but then it got even worse. I think Jesse wants to write about it so I won't say another word about the plumbing.)

Two days after going to the dentist Jesse and I went to Harlem, Georgia for Thanksgiving. We were at Jesse's cousin's (PJ) house. After lunch, which was eaten around 2:30, Jesse's aunt
played Christmas songs while PJ sang. Others sang with her but since she has a nice voice she is always requested by Aunt Betsy to sing. I tried to sing but I couldn't see the words so it was hard to sing words that you don't really know.

Jesse and I have this tradition. Actually it was started by this lady who we call Aunt Rochelle. Last year we three and her two grandsons ate at this restaurant called "D&D's". Since it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving she mentioned that we should make it a tradition to meet there every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year sad to say, her two grandsons didn't make it, but Jesse and I plan to do something with them.

After eating at D&D's we came home and put up our Christmas tree. It is one of those that has 6-7 rows of branches with about 8 branches in each row. Needless to say it takes a long time putting up just the tree since you have to form each branch and make it look just right. We put up the lights. I put icicle lights in a "W" shape pattern. They aren't long enough to put around the tree in a circle so I had to be creative. Then I strung one strand of color lights all around the tree. Jesse got down on the floor and looked at the tree and then commented that for the kittens the tree would look plain because there are no lights under the tree for them. I laughed at him but he was dead serious. So I put a small strand of white lights all around the bottom side of the tree for the kittens. After turning on the lights on the tree I told Jesse that the tree lacked lights because it was so bottom heavy with lights that the rest of the tree looked dull and empty. My wonderful husband put another strand of lights on the tree and made it look real good.
We hadn't gotten started putting the ornaments up when the stand of the tree broke. We had to position the tree so it wouldn't fall over and run to Walmart to bye a tree stand. So far the tree is upright, in a new tree stand, with 4 strands of lights, but no ornaments. I think we will put them up tomorrow.

Dentist trip

This is the way we go to the dentist, go to the dentist, go to the dentist.
This is the way we go to the dentist so early in the morning.

Yep, that's true. Bright and early at 9 AM we went to pick up Jesse's grandma and headed out to the dentist. Our appointments started at 10. Since this was the first time visit for me there at Jesse's dentist I had to fill out a medical form. So... I filled it out with all the correct answers and checks and stuff. You see, I am a college graduate so I can read and write and answer questions "correctly". I got to this section where you check "yes" or "no" and started filling it out. I skipped one question needing to ask something about it and continued on down. Then I had to skip another question. This is when I noticed that while I was putting a "no" check for all these questions, that I had misread where the "no" and "yes" were. So instead of saying "no" to do you have cancer, do you smoke, do you have aids - I was putting "yes". Uggggg, I felt so stupid, so dumb. I went up to the receptionist and told her that I had made a mistake (hoping she would give me a new paper) but all she did was put wriggly lines though all my mistake answers and put a single solitary check on "no".

Well, there is a good note to all this.

I DON'T HAVE CAVETIES!!!!

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just got a phone call asking if I could go in to sub today at the Day Care.
Well, that sounds to me like if I have a part-time job, doesn't it?

I will be working from 11 to 6.

I AM SO HAPPY!!!! can you tell?

Day Care maybe

For some weeks or even months I have been thinking of doing something for a few hours a week.  A job maybe but I didn’t really know what I wanted or where I was thinking of heading.  Well, on Sunday there was an announcement in the church bulletin about sub needed for the school day care.  So I have filled out an application and will find out later this week or maybe next week if I have a job as a substitute day care worker.

Itsuki's surfing

No, I am not talking about surfing the web. If you recall a while back I had written all that Itsuki would or could do on the computer.
Anyway I am talking about real surfing but not the time you would do on the water.
Ok ok I can hear you all shouting GET TO THE POINT.

We have a TV table in our computer room. On top of the table is a small rectangular box about 2 inches high and about 7 by 10 in width and length.

Itsuki ran into the room and jumped up on the table. Unfortunatly she landed on the box that continued to move with Itsuki's velocity. Just as it came to the other side of the table the box and Itsuki slid to a stop. Itsuki looked at us like "good, I am safe" and then PLOP both box and Itsuki first teetered and then fell to the ground.

Ok, so it was funny the first time but then about 5 minutes later Itsuki did the very same thing. So did she have a short memory span and forget about it or did she like it so much that she tried to do it again?
who knows.

plumbing problems

I have thought of Rebecca and her fixing up the bathroom a lot this past month.
Why? you ask.
Thanks for asking!

Sometime about a month ago the toilet started not flushing properly. Basically it would overflow.

To make a long story short, Jesse fixed it and now we have a working toilet. And I have a bathroom to clean.

Itsuki

Itsuki, who is really Jesse's kitten but has made me her person, is one of the most loveable, friendly, and trusting kitten/cat I have ever seen. She lets me holdher like a little baby (back down, stomach up). Recently though, she has made Jesse her person and Rascal is taking a better liking to me.

She is our alarm clock ... at 5:00AM. She loves rubbing noses with you. All she wants is for you to touch her and to hold her. One time I was looking at recipes and she wanted me to hold her. I picked her up and held her with her right legs hanging down one side of my arm and the left legs the other side. Her head was between two of my fingers. She just sat there and "read" along with me as I flipped the pages.





There is only one way to lay down in bed acording to Itsuki. That is on your back. If she finds me or Jesse on our stomach she will push her little head against our chin and "try" to push us over. She will meow and push and meow some more. She won't give up until you turn over. The she leaps up on use and proceeds to make herself confortable.








This is possibly the first picture I took of Rascal and Itsuki. Rascal is on the left and Itsuki is on the right. Itsuki had bitten out her stickes and had to wear a collar in order for her wound to heal. I think the look cute.







This last picture is of Itsuki sleeping on the desk. She seems soooooo comfortable. (I wouldn't be.)

Rascal

OUR LITTLE RASCAL








Rascal and the other felines in our family love playing with boxes.




It is very hard to write about Rascal and not include Itsuki. Also most pictures have both kittens in them. But I will try to give each on a seperate post.

Rascal can be discribed in one word: rascal. Yup she is a rascal. Oh and yes Rascal is a female. All our kitties are female just in case you didn't realize that.

OK, back to Rascal. Jesse says that Rascal is how Sakura was when she was little. For that reason Sakura really doesn't like Rascal. Oh she tolerates her but if Rascal starts playing with her or gets too close, PLUNK, plunk plunk. Sakura doesn't hesitate in showing Rascal that she is displeased with something.
Rascal is also very curious. She will be the one to climb up on to something to examine it. And if I or Jesse comes into the room, PLOP, she jumps down from where she is and runs away. Expecially if it is in the kitchen. She has learned that the counters, kitchen table, china cabinet, and desk in the bedroom are all off limits and are all also good places to stimulate her curiousity. BUT that doesn't stop her from getting on them. She will just run and hid for a few minutes and then come back and ask forgiveness for doing wrong.

She loves to get under the covers and sleep between my legs. Oh and she also LOVES to clean everyone. She has done my entire face about 2 or 3 times. And she also makes sure Jesse's arm hairs are in perfect formation.

Recently she has been cuddling with me a lot. That is very suprizing because she doesn't like to be cuddled or held like a little baby. But lately she has taken a real liking to stuff like that. Jesse says it is possibly because she is sorry for the "bad" things she does and comes to me for forgiveness.

We bought a play mouse for Sakura before we got the kittens, but now Rascal has claimed it and so Sakura will have no use to it. Rascal will flip it up into the air and then catch it. She will bat it around and chase it. And she carries it around EVERYWHERE in her mouth.

By the way, Rascal is my kitty. All the others are Jesse's except for Tomoyo who is no ones. Jesse told me to say that Rascal is up for adoption but NO CAN DO! He would have to put me up for adoption WITH her!!!!!

Long time no post

Sorry guys and gals - we have been a little busy and lax in our posting. Not that there wasn't things to write about but ... well... time just flew.
I had a sinus infection that really put me down for a while. And Jesse has been on Safari with Theodore Roosevelt. (Arsenic and Old Lace)

Thought we should say that we are ok and still kicking.

"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. :)