Peaceful Day!

Today was one of those rare peaceful days. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to accomplish today but just did not feel rush or pulled in different directions today. I like days like this.

We did errands this morning going to about 3 different places to get the things we needed and then were home by about 12:30. We had leftovers for lunch and then darling daughter went to neighbors house to play. I was able to get some laundry and cleaning done around the house. Did some reading on the blogs. Chatted with my Mom on IM. Not quite as good as hearing her voice but still great to be able to communicate with her.

What can I say, it was just a nice, peaceful day! Thank you Lord for a day to recharge my batteries and feel content. Thank you for my A/C working during this hot weather we are having too. I hope this finds you all having a blessed week!

Finally got my rug replaced!

Don't remember if I blogged about this or not but I bought a rug from a store (that shall remain nameless--it is a big ball of gas in the night sky) and after about two weeks it started to come unraveled at the edge. The lady I bought it from told me that I had an unconditional 30 day warranty on it, so I call up the customer service department to arrange an exchange.

Well, of course nothing is ever as simple as they make it sound...I could not just bring it back, they had to send out someone to see the damage. So I had to wait for someone to come out and tell me that "yep it was coming unraveled" and "yes, they would give me a new one". He said it would be a month or more because they had to make the rug at the factory. This was around the end of March or the beginning of April. He told me they would call me when it came in and bring out the new one. Really nice, professional guy--I believed him (Silly Me!)

Fast forward to June and still no rug. So hubby calls and they tell him that it is waiting for us at the warehouse and has been there for some time. So I load up the rug to go exchange it (what happened to delivering it to me?) and I get there today and of course no one knows where it is. Finally after about 20 minutes (of my 8 year old feigning death because she is "soooooo hungry!") They locate (or so we think) the rug on the showroom floor so off we go, the warehouse guy carring the old rug and me and my 8 yr old following him thru the warehouse into the back door of the store. The rug showman does not know where the rug is, so after another 10 minutes, they finally locate it. It takes 4 men, 30 minutes to find a rug that I spotted the minute we got on the showroom floor.

Oh well, All's well that ends well. I have a new rug which does not appear to have any damage or unraveling edges. Hopefully, this one will last a long time, because it was not cheap! I still like this particular furniture store but they need to work on their customer service! In this particular case, it is "All about Me" because I paid for the rug! :0)

After all, it IS all about me, RIGHT?

I just finished reading a blog in which a preacher was complaining about flying and basically said some rather unkind things about overweight people on airplanes. Being a both vertically and horizontally challenged person (i.e. short and fat!) I guess I could take offense about what he had to say but really it just got me thinking about some other things.

It is all about me, right?

Most of the things that we get upset about are things that we feel we have been inconvienced by. I get upset because the guy in the car in front of me does not merge like he is supposed to but stops in the middle of the road. The unjustness of that guy making me slow down or "gasp" even wait for him.

What about the person in the "fast" check out line with 11 items when they should only have 10! The person counting out pennies to pay their bill, when I am ready to go with my money in hand? How dare they inconvience me!

How dare that overweight person brush my shoulder as they pass by me in the airplane on the way to squeeze their 250 lb body into a restroom made for a 100 lb body! (never mind, that my shoulders extend into the aisle--it is all about me!)

Where in the world did we come up with this idea that we are the most important person in the world? That our time is more valuable than anyone elses, that our needs are more pressing!

It did not come from Jesus Christ! He stressed over and over to us through his teachings that we were to be servants.

Even the disciples had trouble with this concept. Remember James and John wanting to sit on either side of Christ in his Kingdom. The other disciples got upset over their request and this is what Jesus told them:

Mark 10:
⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

I am as guilty as anyone regarding these things. I see this characteristic in my child and I want to change it in both of us. So I pray, "Lord please help me to put others first and to teach my child to put others first!"

Mostly, I pray, "Lord help me remember...It is not about me......IT'S ABOUT YOU!"

Praise The Lord!

I survived Vacation Bible School. We even managed without our team leader today. Kuddos to Lynette for taking over as team leader. We wrapped over 900 (don't have an exact count) "pigs in a blanket" today! Every year we make these and we wrap little smokies until our fingers bleed (well almost) and then because each child only gets two of them, my daughter always wants me to make them for her at home. The last thing I want to do is make any more "Pigs In A Blanket"!!!!!!! YUCK!!!!

Oh well, it is over now and I am looking forward to the weekend. I have a date with my hubby tonight, don't know where we are going or what we are going to do but am happy to have a night out with him. So, I need to go clean up a little for the babysitter. Not too much, she knows I am not a neat freak but still need to pick up a little. Happy Father's Day Weekend! Blessings!

VBS Week

I was reading another blog about VBS and thought I would make that my topic today. VBS is in full swing at the church this week. This church goes all out for VBS and apparently it works because we always have a full house. We have reached the point that we have to limit the enrollment because we have more kids than we can keep up with and feed. I am not saying that we can't afford to feed them but just don't have the space in the kitchen to prepare for them. Also we would not have enough adult and teen helpers to adequately supervise them.

I have served in several roles during VBS since we moved her in 2000. The first summer I worked in Preschool doing a video. The second and third year, I did Crafts and the last three years I have been in the kitchen. It is hot in there but that seems to fit my personality the best. I feel like I am contributing but I am not right in the middle of 400 kids. That gets confusing when you can't hear so well.

The first three years I came down with pneumonia after VBS and I have not had it since I have been in the kitchen away from the kids (coincidence.....maybe, maybe not!) I am glad the kids have VBS, it gives them a church activity to do during the summer. Our church is blessed with a great Children's Ministry and they are great at keeping the kids busy during the summer. This is the activity that we open to the public (as much as we can) and so it is a great outreach program. There are several other programs in the summer that are pretty much limited to the kids in our congregation or sometimes in combination with another church or two.

Sometimes I think we go to too much trouble with the elaborate VBS and the kids would be just as happy with cookies and kool-aid and puppet shows. But maybe I need to get with the times, the kids today are used to state of the art stuff and old time-y VBS would probably bore them to tears.

So tomorrow morning we will jump right back into the swing of things and make another 100 or so home made ice cream sandwiches to go with the 250 or so we have already made (preschool just gets cookies). The kids will love it and the parents will love that they are having a good time. The rest of the week we will have pizza (weds), fruit (thurs), pigs in blankets (friday) and then snow cones and popcorn at the wrap party after VBS is over on Friday. And on Sat. we will rest!

Maybe tomorrow I will have a chance to walk through Bethlehem and see how the church has been transformed (did not even get a potty break today!) Hope your week holds many blessings for all of you. If my feet hold out and I don't catch pneumonia, I know that I will come away from VBS with countless blessings!

100th post- Funny Story!

This is my 100th post to this blog- I found this story thru Dee--Enjoy!

"A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door.

She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him.

"I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday- School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian Fish emblem on the trunk.

Naturally... I assumed you had stolen the car."

Enjoy your Saturday! Blessings!

Bronchitis!

After being sick since last wednesday, I finally went to the doctor yesterday. I have bronchitis secondary to an infection, so now I am on some good drugs and hopefully on my way to recovering soon. I can already tell a difference as I am not coughing near as much or as hard.

Today was my therapy day for the cochlear implant and Lo and Behold, my therapist has either quit or been sacked. I had a totally different therapist today who obviously had not been given any information about my case. So it was like starting over from scratch. I like the new therapist well enough (I liked the old one too!) and she seems to want to help me. She is going to prepare some material for me so that I can do most of the work from home, that will work well for me as it is hard to find babysitters during the summer.

I took lil K to buy a new dress today for a wedding she will attend with my parents while her Dad and I are in Hawaii! What is the deal with the brown stuff? Everything was either brown or white! I am not crazy about her in brown and white for a wedding was not a good thing. I ended up getting her an aqua and white striped dress but may try to find something else before the wedding or maybe she will wear something she already has (easter dress maybe!) I think I overdid it with the shopping and the therapy today, so I am ready to hit the hay! Have a good evening everybody!

The Shrine of The Mouse!

Let's face it Walt Disney was a genius! How else can you explain why rational, sane people would want to spend tons of money, to go on vacation and run themselves to death. We had a great time but seriously need a vacation to get over our vacation.

We took lil K out of school early on the last day of school solely because it saved us over $500. in airfare to leave a day early! She got straight A's on her report card, I think she will be okay! We flew into Orlando on SW, it was cheap and it was a direct flight, can't get much better than that! We followed the white Mickey glove to our ride on the Magical Express (bus service) to the beautiful Port Orleans Riverside hotel. After checking in and getting some dinner at the food court (food was expensive and okay, nothing to write home about!) we returned to our room to find our luggage had been delivered safe and sound (always a good start to a vacation, when your luggage arrives in one piece.) Lil K and big K took a dip in the pool while I unpacked.

The first day was spent at Animal Kingdom, where lil K got her hair wrapped (something she had been planning for several weeks) and we rode some rides, saw some shows. Then the bottom dropped out of the sky and we got very, very wet!
Luckily it was close to closing time so we just headed back to the hotel. It cleared up and we all went swimming again after dinner.

Day two was spent at MGM, where we learned lil K is our roller coaster loving baby. She would not ride Tower of Terror but loved the roller coasters. It was at MGM that I ran into my good friend David G. who I grew up with and had not seen in several years. Talk about small worlds! Unfortunately, we did not get to visit long because we both had places to be, we had Beauty and the Beast to see and then a Hoop Dee Doo Review reservation that evening. Hoop Review was great, the food was pretty good and the show was corny but very entertaining.

Day three was spent at Magic Kingdom in the morning, a break for swimming and a short rain storm in the afternoon and then dinner at Cinderella's castle in the evening. We had a good dinner and were able to watch the fireworks from the castle windows. Lil K enjoyed the characters and big K enjoyed the fireworks and the castle. Me, I enjoyed making my people so happy. Magic Kingdom had late hours that night so we were able to enjoy the park in the cooler night air and with much shorter lines after our dinner.

Day four and five were spent at Epcot, which is my husband favorite park. It was there we ran into a second friend from college. It is really odd when you are far from home and you run into people you know. We had reservations for Rose and Crown for dinner at Epcot. It was great, we ate on the patio and had front row seats for the Illuminations show that night. Soaring at Epcot is a great ride, be sure and go early and get a fast pass to ride it (it is so popular that the fast passes run out by about 2 pm) It is a stimulator ride and you feel like you are in a glider going over all these different places, mountains, water, fields, Disney World...too cool!

The last day we were at Disney, we went to the Grand Floridian and had a character breakfast with Mary Poppins, Alice, The Mad Hatter, Tigger and Pooh. The food was pretty good and the hotel is lovely.

The first time we went to Disney in 2004, I did not get any dinner reservations or character meals. This time we did and it was well worth it. If you are going and you have younger children, it is worth it to book the reservations. The kids really get a kick out of getting the characters autographs and talking to them.

Like I said before Walt Disney is a genius. He got this notoriously stingy, cheap person to shell out big bucks to wait in long lines, get pushed around by sweaty people, eat horribly expensive so-so food and be seriously sleep deprived all week. Yet I had a great time and can't wait to go back and do it all again! Maybe there is something in the water?

We actually did not do that much damage. We limited lil K on what she could buy, so we did not end up with a bunch of cheap junk. She got her hair wrapped and her face painted and bought a couple of things with money from her grandparents but we did not buy a lot of stuff in the parks. I had bought a few things for her at the dollar store before we went, like the glow in the dark bracelets and necklaces that are so expensive in the parks, I got them for $1 and gave them to her before we went out at night. We stayed in a moderate resort but only because the cheaper ones were all booked up. You can do Disney on a budget if you try really hard. It is a really cool place to go if you can manage it. The attention to detail is just incredible. If you are not familiar with Disney theme parks and the things I have been writing about, just go to disney.com and you can find pictures of everything there.

Other than the long lines and hot weather. the only negative things that happen were that big K lost his favorite hat and I caught this awful cold! We are still hoping someone will find his hat and I am slowly getting over this cold.

Sorry for the long post but that was our trip to Disney! If I ever figure out how to post pictures maybe I can show you some of our fun times. I think I will try to make that my goal to figure out how to post pictures by the time we get back from Hawaii, because I know you will want to see those pictures!