Happy 49th Birthday, Ken, and 70th, Dad! :)

Happy 49th Birthday, Ken! :)

Celebrate the Gift of LIFE!!

I'm so glad you were born. :) (Since Ken was born on his dad's 21st birthday, Dad says he [himself] became a man and a father the same day. Funny thing is every year, Ken asks Dad, "So how old are you now?" and every year Dad replies, "21 years older than you!" lol Ken can never remember Dad's age.)

People are always saying to me, "I hope you know just how wonderful your husband is." I realize it every day and shake my head that I am so blessed. :) There's just so much wonderful about you people can't help but notice. Easy going. Conscientious. Peacemaker. Available to help. Ready to laugh. Always have a song. Loaddds of love. For God, for wife, for family, for friends. (I'll say the rest where the world can't hear. :)) God wrapped it all up in the awesome package of YOU! I hope you have a day that makes you feel as SPECIAL as you are. I hope you have many, many many MORE! I love you. Happy Birthday!!

And...

Happy 70th Birthday, Dad!!

Celebrate the Gift of LIFE!

Wow, the big 7-0! I'm thankful God has given you so many years. I'm appreciate your wise counsel, your faithful prayers, your unconditional love, your consistent walk with the Lord. I'm happy for the song in your heart--as long as it's a song! lol ;) I hope somehow in all the stuff going on today (call to Mom revealed it's already been a doozy), you know what a special blessing you are to the world, your friends, your family. Happy Birthday, and MANY more!

Hail!

While sitting at my desk working yesterday, I heard this pinging sound on our roof and thought, "What in the world is that?!" It was not rain. It couldn't be snow. Sometimes hoardes of birds land on our roof (what's up there anyway?!) and we hear all those little feet hitting the roof, but this sounded different than that too. So I dashed to the door and saw this (ok, so you hafta get the big picture to see what I saw):

And this is what the floor of our porch looked like:

It lasted all of 45 seconds? TN blizzard. lol All gone by the time Ken returned home. My photos were the only proof.

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Just shortly before Thanksgiving, Ken found out that he would not have to work the Friday after Thanksgiving, so Thanksgiving morning found us going "over the river and through the woods" (although not to Grandmother's house!) to Charlotte, NC. We smelled all the glorious aromas of the Thanksgiving meal as soon as they opened the door. Yum! Everything was perfectly delicious and fully enjoyed.

Thursday evening and the better part of Friday was taken up with scrapbooking. I think I'm finally on the homestretch of scrapbooking our formal wedding pictures--I've been working on this for a year already! (In my defense, however, I only work on it when we all get together to scrapbook.) I couldn't find the embellishments I wanted (even though I bought 5 or 6 packets that weren't the right thing!), so I decided only to decorate with paper. No glitter, foil, brads, stickers, etc. It's been fun being creative.

No, we (Ken & I) did not go shopping. We have been there done that before, and we didn't find it either fun or conducive to the holyday spirit! lol In the space of perhaps two hours the year we went out, like three times someone gave my shoe a "flat tire," someone was vigorously yanking my cart trying to take it for themselves, and several someones were caught red-handed trying to steal things out of my cart! (We finally covered our treasures with our jackets until we could get through checkout.) And the fun didn't stop there! Twice in the parking lot, while we were jammed amongst the exit traffic, someone backed into our car. One man walked right by my window, hopped in and revved his pickup, put it in reverse and * BAM! * right into the side of our car. I barely had time to holler, "He's gonna hit us!" Not that it helped any. Then he had the nerve to get out and say, "Sorry, I didn't see you." So, no, we didn't go shoppin'!

Since we were only an hour from my dad's brother, Dan, and his wife, Anna, we spent most of the day Saturday with them. You can't find people any better with whom to visit. They are so full of praise to the Lord and testimonies of God's goodness that the blessing just spills all over you too! We took our laptop to show them lots (prolly too many!) pictures of the extended family. Eventually there were just too many babies to keep track of and everyone started blurring together. lol But they did enjoy seeing everybody. Oh yeh, their daughter, Cheri, stopped in for a while too, so she got to see most of the photos we shared too.

From there Aunt Anna asked Uncle Dan to sing a song together that their son, David, composed, "A Blessing in Disguise." Wow, what a song! He needs to get it recorded and promoted. People will be blessed.

Uncle Dan

Aunt Anna

"A blessing in disguise" was the topic the right on through supper and sitting around the table afterwards. One testimony shared was the account of how God worked through my car breaking down to bless me with a husband! :) (You just never know what lurks beneath a hood! lol) Telling that story is always fun. :)

Interesting tidbit: Uncle Dan told me my dad's nickname when he was little was "Skippy." I had never heard that before.

The trip back home on Sunday was miserably long. Somehow it seems that every time we are away for Thanksgiving, that Sunday is cold, dreary and rainy. To make matters worse, we got snarled in traffic due to a 500-foot construction zone and inched along the interstate during the last two hours of daylight. Since it was through the most winding stretch of the mountains and there were looney bins out there, the slow-go may have been yet another blessing in disguise. Above all, we arrived home safely. God protected us every mile! :)

Beautiful "Great Snowy Mountains"

I'm a mite tardy (yeh, riiight!) in posting this, but I still wanted to show you this. We topped the hill on the way home from church a couple Sundays ago and gasped at the sheer beauty of the snow-capped peaks of the Great Smokies in the distance. (This is where I like snow: in the distance!) So we went home, got the camera, and drove around all over the place trying to get good pictures! lol Somehow we never found the right spot, but here's one photo in which you can see the snow atop the mountains. (You might want to click on the picture to get the larger version otherwise you might think we can't tell haze and clouds from snow.) Enjoy!

Another Sprout on the Family Tree!!

Fanie & Rose (Stence) Blignaut have another SON! Abigail, Daniel, Liliva, Elisha, Kezia and Kihannah have a LITTLE BROTHER! Becky has another GRANDSON--18 grandbabies (and Great-Pappy & Grammy Cooley watching over Baby Rose in heaven)! The little guy is still waiting for his name! Update: His name is Lemuel, meaning "belongs to God," and is thought by many to be another name/nickname for Solomon. The only Biblical references to Lemuel are in Proverbs 31:1 and 4.

Thank You, God, for watching over Mommy and Baby Lemuel Josiah!

Baby Lemuel Josiah arrived today, Wed, Nov 12, 10:0 AM. He weighs 9 pounds and is 21.5 inches long.

CONGRATULATIONS,

Rose & Fanie!

Abigail, Daniel, Liliva, Elisha, Kezia and Kihannah!!

WELCOME, LEMUEL JOSIAH BLIGNAUT!

Another Sprout on the Family Tree!!

Tony Lee & Juanita (Melhorn) Cooley have a SON! Ashley and Kristan have a little brother. Andy & Joy Cooley have a GRANDSON. And the little guy does NOT yet have a name! Well, actually he has too many names and Daddy & Mommy are still trying to decide which one they want to keep. (update: His name is Christopher Lee.)

Thank You, God, for watching over Mom and Baby Christopher Lee!

Christopher Lee arrived yesterday, Fri, Oct 24, 8:41 pm. He weighed 7.5 pounds and is 21 inches long.

CONGRATULATIONS,

Tony & Juanita, Ashley and Kristan!!

WELCOME, CHRISTOPHER LEE!

* blush *

I confess, I cheated and sneaked (no, not snuck!) 3 (update: now 5) posts in here labeled with the dates when I should have posted them! Now, I'm current. Yay! :)

What goes up must come down...

Thank God for His continued guidance!

Another celebration of Life!

Knock on wood...

Celebrating a Family Mile Marker

I haven't figured out if blogging is work or play. lol Some days after I have been on the computer alllllll day, I think about posting on my blog and it feels like more work. Then other days I think about posting and it feels like I shouldn't shirk my work to play on my blog. I do enjoy keeping up with you all through your blogs (and FaceBook too, I might add!!), so I'll try to do better on my blog.

Celebrating a Family MileMarker

My husband Ken's parents, Ken & Donna Young, were married on October 11, 1958, which being interpreted is, FIFTY years ago--a Golden Anniversary! Instead of letting them have a second honeymoon (jk), the family coordinated a weekend getaway in a mountain cabin near the little town of Ellijay (north of Atlanta, GA) to celebrate their 50-year milestone.

I have to put this note in here. :) Shortly after Ken & I started dating, my Uncle Jim & Aunt Georgine came to visit with us for a Cooley family event. When I introduced Ken to them, Uncle Jim said, "I used to go to school with a Ken Young. He played trumpet in a trumpet trio which I accompanied on the piano, and I stood up for him at his wedding, but I have no idea where he is now." Sure enough, Uncle Jim and Ken's parents attended school together and Uncle Jim was in their wedding all those years ago! What a coincidence! Small world...

My sister-in-law, Christine, is far more a shutterbug than I am, and she happily (I think!) agreed to share her pictures with the rest of the family. She did a fabulous job taking pictures as well as chronicling the weekend, so be sure to see these posts on her blog to see what a wonderful weekend and celebration we had!

Anniversary Weekend - Check out the awesome accommodations at Rivers Bend cabin! Ken & I stayed in the Bear room. My favorite feature of the cabin was the front porch. The most un-favorite feature was the driveway. Wayyyyy too steep.

Congratulations... Celebrating 50 Years Together! - photos of the celebrities :)

Anniversary Dinner - The GPS system took us round Robin Hood's barn and all his fields and back 40's to reach the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant. Most of the route was on a one-lane dirt road. We wondered how in the world a restaurant so far out in the boonies could even manage to stay in business. When we finally arrived, however, we discovered a much better route to get back to the cabin--on main roads, no less! Back at the cabin, I really enjoyed listening to the family conversation as Dad & Mom Young opened their cards and reminisced about the people who had sent them anniversary greetings.

More Weekend Fun - I think every household brought a bag/box full of games. We didn't play half of them, but we did have a great time playing the ones we played.

Family Photos - Best of all, it was just fun being together... and when you have the entire family together, you better get snappin'! We were so happy that Mom's sister and husband, Don & Lois White, were able to be with us for the weekend. (Uncle Don is Ken's hero!)

Wow, just doing this post, I feel this sentiment all over again: What a heritage!

Congratulations and thank you, Dad & Mom Young!

Knock on wood...

A picture's worth a thousand words... but this time "a thousand words" will have to do.

Maybe we should never have named our cars because since we named them, they seem to have taken on personalities of their own.

Our newer car, Repeat, came equipped with an alarm system which is designed, of course, to deter car theft. Well, this alarm is apparently multi-purpose or thinks it needs to see a little more action.

At random times, the horn has sounded its intermittent beep when apparently nothing has been anywhere near to it. We dash to the door, grab the remote and poke it to turn off the alarm. Then a week or so ago, we were driving down the road "just minding our own business," as Jeff Allen would say, when suddenly the horn started blaring. We were almost to a convenience store, so we pulled onto the edge of the parking area and turned off the engine, but the horn kept blaring. Ken did a fast restart so we could move to a much larger shopping center parking lot a little ways down the road and the horn stopped. * sigh * No rhyme or reason why it started or stopped, but whatever!

I have no idea who coined the phrase, "knock on wood," but we all know what it means, and I should've done it recently after responding, "Not much," to LaDonna's "What's been happening?"

It was either that night or the following night that at 4:10 AM, the car horn started blaring... and I don't mean the normal, intermittent beep, beep, beep. Oh, no! It was constant blaring. Ken grabbed the keys (keyring) and dashed to the front porch where he pushed repeatedly on the remote, waving it around from one angle to another as the horn continued hollering.

He ran down the steps to the car, tried to unlock the door, but the remote nor the keys would unlock it. He hurried to the front passenger door and tried again and was finally unable to unlock with the key. Now remember, the horn is blaring constantly all this time at 4:10 AM! He reached across to insert the key into the ignition, started the car then turned it off. No change. He stretched across to unlock the driver's door manually, then jumped out and ran around the back of the car to get in on the driver's side. He started the car again, put it in reverse, back into park, turned off the engine. No change. By this time, of course, lights were coming on in houses around us--one neighbor even came out on her front porch poking her remote at her car! lol

Robe and slippers notwithstanding, Ken suddenly decided he had to get the car out of the community, so he started the engine again and took off... well, as fast as you can take off trying not to break the 10 MPH speed limit within the community and get ousted! Also as fast as you can take off and wobble over 5-6 diagonal speed bumps. We both thought that if he drove a little way and turned off and restarted the engine, the horn might stop like it had before. (Can you tell we've accumulated a MicroSoft repair mentality?!) So he drove to the nearest parking area, tried off/on. No change. Drove onto main highway to get away from residential area, horn blaring, but thankfully not encountering much traffic--duh, it's 4:20 AM!

A sudden inspiration hit him that maybe someone would be on duty at the Buick dealer down the road, so he headed there with mixed emotions. Hoping someone would be there and yet not really wanting to interact with anyone because of being attired in robe and slippers! He turned off the main highway into the dealership, then turned left to enter the dealership, and * whew!! * the horn stopped. Like a kid who knows he's on the brink of consequence. Incredibly relieved, he made a U-turn toward home.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I listened to him driving/blaring out of the community, praying the landlord wouldn't run these peasants off her land and figured he would drive somewhere to do the off/on bit before coming back in about three minutes. As three minutes became five, ten, then fifteen, I changed my prayers to keep Ken calm and rational, not to encounter a policeman--he didn't have his driver's license with him, and desperation for the horn to please stop its yelling. Realizing that things were obviously not going well, I decided I needed to go find him and at least offer moral support. I scurried around, dressing, then grabbing clothes, belt and shoes for Ken, cell phone, keys and purse for me, writing him a note to call my cell phone if he should come home and find me gone. My hand was on the doorknob when I heard a car door slam. He was home!! It was 4:40 AM.

You can only imagine the state of mind he was in recounting to me what had happened. Wearily, he dragged himself to bed, praying, pleading, begging that we wouldn't have a Repeat performance!

No less than twenty minutes later, just shortly after 5:00 AM, what to our wondering ears should we hear? You got it: our constantly blaring horn! To our credit, in just a very few minutes, Ken was dressed (I hadn't undressed--a name like Faith was lost on me at this point!), had grabbed up wallet, keys, etc, and we both had dashed out to the car, hopped in, and raced through the 10 MPH zone and over the 5-6 diagonal speed bumps, and reached the nearby local Lowe's-to-Walmart parking lot. We tried the off/on routine several times, driving around the empty parking lot between each attempt, again to no avail. Suddenly, as mysteriously as it had started, it stopped.

Since the remote was useless to lock, unlock, open the trunk, etc, we decided it needed a new battery, so I entered Walmart to purchase a replacement. New battery in place, the remote worked except that it didn't emit a "chirp" when we locked the car. Hey, we weren't about to complain. You gotta be kidding! We also weren't about to return home. What guarantee was there that the horn wouldn't start blaring again?! So we parked in a proper parking spot over in the Lowe's territory and reclined our seats to doze there until a "decent" hour. If we were in for an encore, we wanted it to be at least after daylight had come!

Thankfully, we have had no further occurrences! * KNOCK ON WOOD!! *

Another celebration of Life!

I remember how many years I heard "older people" saying they couldn't believe they were already such and such an age, i.e., "How could I be this old already?!" And I specifically remember thinking, "Good grief, how can you be that old and not feel it?!" Yep, you got it, now I'm saying it!

I don't recall the event that aggravated me, but I remember animatedly, loudly, tearfully expressing my aggravation to my dad about my name being Faith, "I hate my name! Why did you name me this awful name?! Why didn't you name me a pretty name?" Dad called me into his study, sat me on his lap, and said, "I want to tell you a story." I was somewhere around 6-8 years old.

Dad explained that Mom and Andy (next older sibling) both very nearly died when Andy was born. (Mom was a severe Type 1 diabetic along with various other health problems.) Because of that the doctor made it plain to Mom and Dad that they were not to have any more children.

Five years later, however (ha! don't you love all of us howevers?!), they found out that they were going to have another baby! The doctor was very upset and insisted that they should not let this baby be born. Mom could die; the baby could die; both Mom and baby could die--lots of sad scenarios. Dad might be left to raise three or even four children by himself. They were to go home and think about what the doctor had said and be ready to discuss this at the next appointment. Mom and Dad said they didn't need to think about it. They would pray about this situation and trust God that both Mom and baby would be safe, but even if both weren't, then God would give them the grace and strength to face and get through a difficult experience.

While they were waiting for the baby to be born, the doctor again and again pressured them not to let this baby be born, but they prayed and prayed and asked everybody they knew to pray too. When the baby--a girl!--was born, they had a name picked out to name her, but when he held her in his arms, he said, "She's only here by faith. We must name her Faith!"

Well, that explained why Brother Fred Watson always called me "the Faith child" and "the miracle girl"! I had been so annoyed that he always called me that and fussed over me. Now, it was great. (Bro Watson and Dad were doing some evangelistic work together back then. Actually, when I was born, Bro Watson made it to the hospital and saw me before my dad did!)

As I key this, I still sense the awe I felt that day Dad told me his story. That was ME?! I was that baby?! What a wonderful story! What a wonderful name! :)

Dad continued that the doctor said I probably wouldn't live long, but they would keep an eye on me to help me all they could. With each subsequent appointment, he couldn't believe I was healthy and thriving. It was because of faith! The devil had tried to keep me from being born, but God gave me life! God surely had a special plan for my life. When I reached my first birthday, they rejoiced again that the devil's plan had been defeated and faith in God had brought LIFE! Every birthday of my life should be a celebration of that defeat and our victory by faith.

(Obviously I was having a bad hair day! lol)

So my birthdays have always been a day of rejoicing. I've never tried to hide a birthday. I've never tried to hide how many birthdays I've had. Why would I? Every one has been a gift from God!

In an email from my big brother, Tim, today he said,

• I am thinking of the day, nearly 48 years ago, when I came home from school and PRESTO! There was a baby lying on the couch! My new sister! I don’t remember knowing there was a baby coming. You just showed up!
  
  I was a proud big brother. Somehow, probably with money from Mom and Dad, I bought you a little pink squeezy, squeaky teddy bear, that I thought you liked better than all your other toys. It was my gift to you!
  
  You have added joy to our family! Happy Birthday Again!

Isn't he an awesome big brother?!! :) I responded that he has told me that before (altho I enjoy hearing it every time he tells me!) and I have long wondered, "How did the family experience 9 months of a pregnant mother and a very bright 9 year old never have a clue that a baby was ready to be born—especially with all the prayer they were requesting!" That amazes me.

He sent a message back:

• People just did not talk about pregnancy in those days. Mom was sick and in the hospital different times. I don’t know how it happened that I did not realize what was happening, but I’m glad Mom and Dad had the faith to risk all.

Wow. What a heritage we have. What a legacy of faith. (no pun intended! lol)

For some months I have been wishing for an mp3 player. Guess what Ken's parents' gift was? :) I'm not an earphones person, so Ken complemented their gift with a nifty little speaker.

Most years since Ken & I have been married, we have been at a Chinese restaurant for my birthday meal. The last 11 years have been at Mandarin House in Knoxville. I seriously considered getting out of the rut this year, but when push came to shove... we ended up at Mandarin House. Tasty but, yeah, a little boring.

Just as we were preparing to leave, however, we heard music start and could not resist hanging around for a little while--it was a man playing a steel drum! We love the sounds from this instrument. (Several years ago we were privileged to watch a group of steel drummers in Opryland Hotel. That was unbelivable!! Since then we have purchased several "Carribean" CD's just to hear steel drums.)

Celebrate YOUR GIFT of LIFE! :)

Thank God for His continued guidance!

The last couple weeks were very topsy-turvy. At the last minute, we changed our plans about staying home for Ken's week off. We had a list of companies lined up where Ken was going to apply, houses we were going to look at (outside only at this point), and communities we were going to scout.

Late Saturday night, I decided to check the company website for the company for which Ken works. Aha! They had just posted three jobs! I whispered to Ken to come see what I had discovered, and while we sat there in the dining room discussing if and how this might change our week, we heard Ken's mom come from the bedroom to the living room. Something she had eaten for supper wasn't agreeing with her and she wasn't feeling well. We decided to talk with her and get her advice.

A few minutes later, Dad shuffled out and sat in his recliner. He was suffering with a pain in his side (which was later diagnosed as shingles--oww!!) So we heard his input too. :) As a result, we changed plans again and decided to pursue these other positions within the company and in the Charlotte, NC, area.

Incredibly, Ken was able to make some connections and contact the Charlotte supervisor. Through a series of glitches, however, the interview didn't happen until Friday. Everything seemed very positive. The supervisor said he would let Ken know by the end of the following week. The only negative we saw was an adjustment to a different shift, 1:30-10:00 pm, but since we are night owls, we didn't think it would prove terribly difficult.

The week went by with no word. On the next Monday, Ken talked with the "big boss" here in Knoxville and he offered to find out what was happening. Surprise! They had hired someone else because Ken had said he preferred day shift. No matter that Ken had told him the 1:30 shift was very workable and even the 2:30-11:00 pm shift was okay.

Well, I know I said it before, but we have prayed that God would open and close doors, so, although we are shaking our heads at the apparent confusion, we aren't questioning a thing. We're thanking God for giving us clear guidance. Again.

What goes up must come down...

I first thought to title this post "Up, Up and Away!" --serious cliche notwithstanding--but basically we saw these hot air balloons briefly sailing above us and then showering all around us.

Our stay-cation plans abruptly changed and we packed up and went to visit Ken's parents for a week while Ken did one last job application "blitz" for 2008. When we arrived, Mom was excitedly telling us about a hot air balloon they had watched come down (intentionally) the evening before. Hot air balloon fest was for the whole weekend and a contest was on that evening, and would we like to go on a hot air balloon chase? You betcha!

We piled in their van and took off. Close to Anderson we started seeing the balloons wafting close by and this one landed in a parking lot just to our left, so we darted in there and watched the process from landing to pack-up.

Letting the air out of the balloon and pulling the panels straight.

Folding and bundling.

All folded and bundled, ready to be placed in the canvas bag.

Placing in the big canvas tote.

The trailer that transports the paraphernalia.

Just as that balloon was being packed into the trailer, we noticed lotsa balloons off to the west. Mom asked a few nearby spectators where they were located and off we dashed again.

We found a place to park near the airport and two balloons appeared to be ready to land... and then swooshed upward and floated away. Mom took this photo. I think it's postcard perfect. And then the chase was on again!

As we were stopped at this traffic light, just ahead of us, a balloon landed in the middle of the road and the pilots (is that what they are called?) were firing up in spurts trying to get out of the way as traffic swerved around them. After five or six "hops" they were across the lane and finally up over the curb. Mom was thankful we weren't closer... I was disappointed we weren't! lol

Finally we spotted shopping center parking lots on both sides of the road where the balloons were coming down seemingly all at once. The sky was falling! lol A lot of balloons were in the lot to the left, but rather than taking up our time to make a left turn, we hurried into the lot on the right, jumped out, and scurried to the edge of the lot/grass where they were landing. So exciting!! I hardly knew where to look because they were everywhere!

Judging by the speed and angle this one was coming down, we were pretty sure this one would land right in front of us.

A gust of wind blew this balloon into another one just landing.

I love the designs and vibrant colors. They are so beautiful!

This one I mentioned earlier DID land right by us. I waited and waited to get a shot of the fire. No go. Finally, as we were walking away, I heard the whoosh and got this picture. :)

Have you googled Sarah Palin today?

I imagine "Sarah Palin" will be the most googled phrase today... and maybe for longer than today! Reportedly, McCain said to be prepared for "an unconventional choice." He wasn't kidding!

Of all the articles I read about her today, this article at RealClearPolitics (posted to the web June 4, 2008 and purporting that Palin would be the ideal VP choice) was most interesting. Some people are fussing that we don't have enough time before the elections to get to know her, but from everything I've read in a little over an hour, it doesn't take much time because she has a clear stand on many issues. Some would say it doesn't take much time because she hasn't much experience, which in some ways is true, but I'm pretty impressed with how much she has accomplished in such a short time. More than can be said for somebody else!

One comment I saw elsewhere made me chuckle. Someone who has been viewing the news today said that McCain must have made a great pick or the Dems wouldn't be so all-out furious.

Now you see it... Now you don't!

When we moved into our mobile home 7 years ago, we inherited a varied collection of flowers and bushes. Now don't get me wrong, We love to drive by other people's houses and ooh and aah over their beautiful flower gardens. We just don't want those gardens where we have to take care of them! Neither Ken nor I enjoy working in the dirt, with plants, however you want to describe it! Several times when visitors have remarked about one or another of them we have urged, "Would you like to have it, because we would like to get rid of it!" and some have said they would love to have this or that plant but never actually took us up on our offer. One time a friend was going to take us up on it, but she ended up weeding everything and then it looked so nice she wanted to leave it for us.

Some time ago we got into a discussion at church about yardwork, and I blurted, "I wish I knew someone who would come pull all the stuff out at our place and cart it away without charging us an arm and a leg." Pastor Bentz assured us he would. We discussed it further and he agreed to come do it "sometime."

Today was "sometime!"

This bush had gotten so big we could hardly pass by it on the sidewalk. Several of the top branches had been cut down when I snapped this picture, but there was so much sawdust flying in the air, I stepped back inside the house, and then,

Now you see it, ...

Crazy me. I got distracted and didn't take any more pictures while they were working! They used chain saw, lopper (sp?), chain hitched to van, pickax... what else?! It was quite the operation. They cleared out every shrub, bush, vine, flowering plant, and edging too...

The edging was great material for a "lake effect"--not to mention how many times people have stumbled over it, us included. During and after a hard rain, the stepping stones were veritable islands in a lake. Now the water can run down the hill instead of puddling!

I should also have gotten a picture of the loaded van. I was sure some of the brush wasn't going to fit, but Bro Bentz got it all in there somehow. There was barely room for them to ride home.

...Now you don't!

Whew! The cleared look is wonderful!! Now it's mow. Weedeat. Done!

* I'll get an updated pic tomorrow.

I went for WHAT?

Somebody's birthday is upon us... so this evening I trekked to Big Lots! to see what I could find for a birthday gift.

I have two Fiskars paper punches, and I really enjoy using them, so when I saw these neato paper punches (imitations of Fiskars to be sure, but not in price, cuz these were a mere $3 each!), I couldn't resist getting them. (Click on the picture to get a closer look.)

On a clearance shelf was a bin of ties. Ken has fun wearing ties, which is a bit of a switch for me since nearly all of the 23 years I had my dad, he didn't wear a tie (personal conviction), and my brothers wear conservative to very conservative ties. We've looked for an Easter tie but haven't found one we liked. I thought this one was pretty nifty--reminds me of the hand-painted Ukrainian eggs. At 30% off of $5.19, I couldn't get outta the store without it!

Surprise! I found Herr's potato chips in TN! I had to buy a couple bags just to enjoy the back home flavor. Yummmm...

Found some stamper markers and more nameplates for Tab's school in South Africa.

Asked an employee to reach a couple paint-by-number kits from way up high.

Snatched up 5 rolls of plain brown wrapping paper for $.70 each for the books I'll send out on Paperback Swap.

And came back home with no birthday gift! Go figure.

Blessed are they who having nothing to say...

...shut up! :) (Yes, I've used that line before, but it's true!)

No, I can't accurately report that I've shut up for three whole weeks (I already know you already knew that), but you should probably be glad only Ken had to listen to me! lol

One benefit of not much happening is it isn't hard to catch up on blogging! Oh, it also saves money (read: locksmith).

Which reminds me of our highlight of the past three weeks!! After a second lock-out that happened due to our doorknob flying off and jangling down the front steps but from which we were able to rescue ourselves by reassembling the pieces inside the doorknob and getting it back on the door, we bought a new knob at Walmart for a measly $12. (Something in me wants to diagram that sentence! lol) We've had trouble with the old door knob for years, but nothing drastic enough happened to motivate us to investigate how much a new one would cost because we didn't realize that even we could install a new one! If only we had known, we could have been enjoying our new door knob long already.

Just under the highlight of a new doorknob is a jumble of

• working;
• keeping up with and fussing about 08 election news;
• ranting against all the Chinese propaganda of Olympic proportions (literally!) spued out through the Olympic venue;
• following Michael Phelps' Olympic gold medal quest (Ken is also from Baltimore, so he was very interested... and wishing a little bit that we still lived in Baltimore);
• being stirred up again to pursue making a move to SC (or GA?) which means checking out the availability of jobs, houses, churches, etc. and deciding to sacrifice our "stay-cation" (stay-at-home vacation) for gallivanting to various companies in sundry places. (We will appreciate any prayers for this situation to be resolved and finished!)

I'm not changing my blog into a political soapbox, but today, since the Democrats' convention has started, I've been fussing about election stuff and nonsense. I can't really pin down when I started being somewhat interested in politics. Perhaps an accumulation of experiences drew me in:

• attending Memorial Day and Labor Day parades with my dad and listening to all the speeches;


• shaking hands with Bob Dole when he visited the campus of KCCBS;


• shaking hands with Ronald Reagan at a campaign rally in Kansas City;


• the thrill of casting my first vote (back when they had those massive lever machines--you pulled that lever to cast your vote and felt like you had just changed the world!);


• meeting and campaigning in Dallas for U.S. Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) when he ran for his first term, introducing him to residents via knocking on doors for literature distribution as well as working in his phone banks (he won in a HUGE upset and then was reelected 8 times before he retired!);


• working the polls several years in both Dallas and Baltimore


• keeping my students in Taiwan abreast of daily American news (actually, my interest probably fueled this flow of information rather than the other way around!);


• shaking hands with Pat Robertson at a Dallas campaign rally--my friend and I stole front row seats to qualify for that privilege (Robertson didn't win, of course);


• attending the historic "Rally for Life" in DC;


• teaching American Government to a lively group of 9th and 10th graders (we spent the first part of every class listening to and discussing the latest news coming in from Desert Storm). Ok, I'll end my list with that.

So what raised my ire today? I'm so glad you asked! :)

1. Tonight's news mentioned this month's Rasmussen poll that revealed an all-time low approval rating of 9% for Congress (which is Democrat controlled) and a tie for an all-time high for a poor rating, 52%... and yet 45% of the American public can hardly wait to resolve such incompetency with what else but Democrats for President and Vice President!

2. Did you catch that the Democratic convention is hosted by a pastor, opened and closed with a Christian prayer, pledges allegiance to the American flag including the phrase, "under God," traipses a traditional family across the stage, and features a children's choir all while they meet precisely to promote candidates who want to remove Christianity from American culture, silence Christian prayer, remove "under God" from the pledge, dismantle traditional marriage and family and promote unnatural, unintelligent unions instead, and continue the slaughter of millions of unborn children as well as some who have miraculously managed to survive the horror of abortion? No worries about separating Church and State--an issue they totally misunderstand*--while "core values" voting Americans might be paying attention! Wolves in sheeps' clothing indeed. Pulling the wool over many Americans' eyes. Dear God, help us!

Blessed are they who having nothing to say shut up. Umm, that was about the last three weeks, not today! :)

* Separation of Church and State does not mean separation of faith and politics.

The mind is a wonderful thing...

It forgets some very important stuff sometimes and then hangs on to some of the weirdest minutiae, e.g.:

My lunch plate "inspired" this post.

I was probably 17 when this happened, but I never eat an English muffin without remembering this episode. One morning I was leaving for school and running late (of course). Mom, insisting that I eat something for breakfast regardless of the time, toasted an English muffin for me, spread it with butter and topped it thickly with peanut butter just like I like it. Yum!

I came out of my bedroom, my left arm and hand wrapped around a stack of books and holding my keys, popped into the kitchen to gobble the first half of the muffin, then grabbed the second half and dashed off. Between the breezeway and the garage of the Beavertown parsonage, was a jalousy door which was a little heavy to move. Carefully balancing my stack of books with one hand and verrrrry carefully holding my peanut-buttered muffin in my other hand, I contorted my pinky finger and palm to fit around the door knob and managed to unlatch the door.

With my pinky finger still on top of the knob, I stepped back, then jerked my arm to swing open the door. When I did, faster than the door could swing, the peanut butter on my muffin fwooped right offa the muffin and onto the floor--still in a circle!! Actually, it was sorta awesome (I hadn't realized until then that peanut butter could do such a feat!) but at the moment, I was late, so it was only aggravating. I hollered to Mom for help, and she came with a rag, pushed me out the door and cleaned up the mess.

Waaaaaaah!

In the hubbub of being locked out and being shellshocked for shelling out the down payment on the locksmith, I forgot...

Last Tuesday evening, suffering pizza withdrawal, Ken suggested we go to CiCi's Pizza for supper on Wednesday. On Wednesday, mouths watering (and, unknowingly, sans house key!), we headed out for CiCi's.

When we turned into the parking lot, our mouths dropped open. The restaurant is closed! The papers posted on the doors state that their 10-year lease here has expired, they may reopen in another location in Blount County and until then enjoy pizza at their Knoxville location.

* sigh * Cheap pizza isn't cheap pizza if we have to drive to Knoxville for it!

Locked out

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you may remember the hullabaloo we endured over the keys to Pete and Repeat. As a result, we have ended up with four sets of keys. Ken carries keys only for Repeat, I carry keys only for Pete, and we have a set of Pete keys on a ring and a set of Repeat keys on another ring. Whenever we go on a trip, we drive Repeat. Ken leaves his regular set of keys (which are Pete's) in his bureau and grabs the extra set of Repeat.

Due to Pete needing serviced, Ken drove Repeat to work this week. There's no house key on that set, but I work from my home office, so I let him in when he comes home. No problem... yet.

We shopped for groceries the other night and came home to discover that only Ken had keys and the keys were only Repeat's keys. We were locked out! We tried various methods we thought might grant us entrance. Nope! A locksmith was our only recourse.

Thankfully I had my cell phone with me (although it would have been far better if I had had my keys!). We called Pastor Bentz and asked him if he would look up a locksmith in the phone book for us and give us the number.

We called the locksmith who showed up at our door about 10 minutes later. A squirt of WD-40, a few strokes with a tool, a little twist, and the door swung open. Whew!

"Thank you soooo much!! How much do we owe you?"

Do you know how much a locksmith costs? Well, we didn't buy the locksmith, but we surely made at least a downpayment!! $71.01!

P.S. You betcha, there's a house key on that ring now!

Crazy, Mixed-up Vacation (Cont'd)

The rest of the story. (Yep, this is going to be TMI [too much information] for most everybody, but hey, this isn't required reading! lol If you prefer not to read the entire post, at least don't miss our story about Elisha. It's at the beginning of the post.)

Sunday evening we visited with Rose (niece) & Fanie and family. Abigail is Daddy’s girl.

When we visit, we try to bring little goodies for the children. This time we gave each of the girls a little puzzle game (the object is to get two tiny balls in a certain spot in a maze). You can see Liliva concentrating on her game—she mastered it! For the boys, we brought each one a “sticky foot.” Too bad we didn’t have sticky feet for the girls too—they were a big hit! Kezia is experimenting with stretching the “string” attached to a sticky foot.

Daniel’s sticky foot boomeranged and hooked around his ear!

The boys were nice enough to share their sticky feet with the girls. Liliva wasn’t quite sure what to think of such a peculiar toy, but she got the hang of it.

Elisha certainly got into the swing of things with his sticky foot.

His foot dropped off the ceiling and splatted right on his face! “Take a picture!” he laughed. Gladly!

Uh oh! Elisha accidentally let go of the “string” on his sticky foot and it stayed on the ceiling. “Uncle Ken, will you get it for me?” Sure.

Elisha got a kick out of the foot sticking on the ceiling… and looking at Uncle Ken so pitifully that Uncle Ken would get up and retrieve the foot. Again. And again. And again. Finally Uncle Ken told him, “If you let go of the string again and your foot sticks up there, you will have to wait a while for me to get it. I can’t keep getting up and down to pull your foot down.”

Elisha winged the foot to the ceiling… to the floor… to the ceiling… to the floor… to the ceiling. Uh oh! There was that irresistibly pitiful look again. Uncle Ken sympathetically reminded him he would have to wait a while. After the group of us had continued our conversation for several minutes, Elisha came and stood in front of Ken, put an arm on each of Ken’s legs, looked imploringly into Ken’s eyes and said, “Grandpa, will you get my foot?”

We laughed so hard!! I guess as long as Ken was getting up and down, he was Uncle Ken. Once he got too old for that, he was Grandpa! Once we regained our composure, Kezia and Elisha tried to pull Grampa up from the couch so he could get the foot off the ceiling.

Our little buddy, Elisha. Every time we are with him he gives us so many laughs!

Quiet, sweet Liliva. Lotsa love wrapped up in this little gal!

We also gave the kids a story mat. I forget the name of the company that makes it, but it is for Bible stories and the company also makes action figures to go with the mat. I happened to see the mat on a clearance shelf at Wal-Mart… sans action figures. I figured they could still have fun telling stories with it. They weren’t quite sure about that, so Ken demonstrated by telling of the boy with the lunch of loaves and fishes. That was all they needed to get started!

Abigail is quite the young artist! She started drawing and cutting out Jesus, the disciples, the lunch, the baskets of leftovers… soon she was retelling the story. Before long, she had drawn and cut out an impressive outlay of figures and accessories for a number of stories.

While we were eating a snack, Rose was explaining to the children that I am Grandma Becky's sister. Abigail had only pondered that for several seconds when you could see that a light had turned on in her head. Glowing, she announced, "Well then you are Grandma Faith!"

As the children were settling down, the adults started into serious conversation, sharing our hearts with each other about a number of things. Who knew time could fly by so fast?! One by one the kiddos curled up and went to sleep. (They didn’t want to miss anything by going to bed.) We knew it was getting late and we were staying too long even though we only get to talk like this about once a year, but we were still surprised when Fanie said, “I need to leave for work in about five minutes!” Yikes! We had talked until almost 4:30 AM. (I think they have forgiven us for a sleepless night.)

A few minutes after Fanie left, we said our goodbyes to Rose and left to return to Tim’s.

Before we had traveled very far, Ken mentioned that he wasn’t feeling so good and needed a pit stop. Thankfully Denny’s is open 24 hours! We still have no idea why Montezuma was seeking revenge against Ken… but wow, did he ever attack. Ken was very sick all through Monday. Tab called asking if we wanted her to buy us a couple whoopie pies—you betcha!!—but Ken was too sick to eat his (he couldn’t keep down anything he ate). You know you’re really suffering when you’re too sick to eat a whoopie pie!

Andy offered to share his cable internet service with me, for which I was grateful. Several projects had been left in limbo when I had closed up shop on Friday, so I had told the clients that I was going to be on vacation but that I would complete the work and email it to them. They were gracious and said that they could wait until I returned from vacation, but I really wanted to have these jobs behind me when I got back home because other jobs would be waiting then.

Technology is great when it works. No matter what I did, I could only download about half of my emails and couldn’t send anything. I tried several more times throughout the week to no avail and finally gave up (for more than one reason).

Happily Ken improved as the day progressed Tuesday. We decided he had been perhaps too tired or overstressed or something since he hadn’t eaten anything different from the rest of us.

Tuesday evening found most of the gang at Andy & Joy’s for some family time together. Ken and Tony, and later Tim Jr and Tab too enjoyed playing several games of Carroms. Talk about entertaining. Oh, my! Andy got in the mix too sometime. (I think he took Tim Jr’s place after Tim went home.)

Ken ready for action! You can tell what Tony thinks is going to happen.

Kristan is Grandpa Andy’s flying angel. He taught Kristan how to “fly” when she was just a little thing and she can still fly high!

Joy (she and Becky’s Rhoda are the flutists in the family) purchased a small pan flute some time ago and brought it out Friday evening. I bought one very similar to this one several years ago from the Ecuadorians who were playing during the “Festival of Nations” at Dollywood. On the way home in the car, I toyed with it, trying to play “Jesus Loves Me.” I thought I had managed a fair-to-middlin’ job for an amateur, so I grinned at Ken and said, “Not bad, huh?” To which he replied, “Were you playing a song?!” * sigh *

Joy toyed with it for a while, and we actually recognized what she was playing: Jesus Loves Me!

Alicia wanted to play in the worst way, but it wasn’t happening.

I knew we were staying too long again when Mrs. Claus (Alicia) made an appearance in the kitchen! (The kids were playing with a box of dress-up clothes.)

Grandma Joy loves being with her little ladies, Kristan and Ashley.

Wednesday Ken was back on his feet and finally able to eat his whoopie pie! Happy day!

Also we were able to stick to our plan to hear Tabitha speak at the Sunbury God’s Missionary Church about the mission work in which she is involved in South Africa. We let Tab drive our car to the meeting for old time’s sake. (She had been with us when we test drove Pete all those years ago. We didn’t have anyone to test the back seat when we test drove Repeat! She also drove for us several times back when we traveled from TN to PA and back together.)

Here’s Tab and Abigail standing by Tab’s missions display. Somewhere I have a picture of Tab and Abigail from when Rose & Fanie visited us in TN when Abigail was just a wee thing, but I couldn’t put my hands on it tonight! : (

We really enjoyed hearing all she had to say about the mission, school, hostel, South African culture and what God is doing there and how He is using her to be blessed and be a blessing there. Near the end of the meeting, she particularly focused on the various languages spoken among the children at the school and demonstrated various sounds from two or three of the languages. She steered clear, however, of Afrikaans. That was because Rose & Fanie and family attended the meeting too! Tab admitted that she was a little nervous speaking about South Africa, its culture and languages with a South African sitting in the audience, but Fanie said she did a very good job. : )

I love this line-up: Rose, Kezia Faith, Liliva, Daniel, Kihannah, Abigail, Fanie and Elisha! : )

Another version of the line-up—okay, crooked line-up.

Check out this line-up: Tabitha brought these glasses to us as souvenirs. The glasses feature the “Big Five”: rhino, water buffalo, cheetah, elephant, and lion.

I thought I was going to elude Montezuma, but throughout the day Wednesday I had a hunch he was stalking me. By the time service was over, I wasn’t feeling so well, but we had two stops we really wanted to make. First was the house Tim Jr & Amy bought and are remodeling. (The word remodeling certainly doesn’t do justice to what they are actually doing to the house!) I had no idea Tim Jr was so widely talented!! He’s not just about computers and music. What an awesome deck he designed and built! What a beautiful kitchen is in the making! (They were able to purchase a $400 dishwasher for only $150—that inspired me to get watching our local Lowe’s/Home Depot/HH Gregg. Ours has never worked properly. It’s just a big drying rack with a door. Guess what’s on my birthday list!) What a superbly nice house they are going to have when they are finally finished!

From there we went to Wal-Mart where Tim Jr helped us select a wireless router and we looked for several things Tab still needed to find before she returned to South Africa. Then we dropped Tim Jr off at his house, drove around Penn View campus to see several projects in progress (it was close to midnight by this time, so we didn’t see much!), and dropped Tab off at Andy & Joy’s house (where she was staying so we could have a bed). By the time Ken & I reached Tim’s, we were both feeling pretty sick. Perhaps I should rephrase that. It wasn’t pretty!

Most of the day Thursday we barely moved. So much for the visiting we had hoped to do with some friends who live in Penns Creek and others who were in town for annual conference. We did manage to reach the front porch and sit on the glider and swing. That was somewhat relaxing although it brought back memories of Ken saying, “Why don’t we just move 1000 miles away and start all over?!” * shudder * (We moved to TN after that statement eleven years ago.)

By Friday, we were improving. I called Shrawder’s to order ham and cheese subs—something we always look forward to when we are in Penns Creek—for our lunch (to go along with a bag of Martin’s Kettle Cooked Chips). Yum! The girl who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about, and, for the life of me, I couldn’t think of the word hoagies! Have I been out of PA so long?

We had so hoped to attend Penns Creek camp meeting for the one evening service we could, but we didn’t think we should venture too far away from the house yet. Friday evening the whole gang of us met at Andy’s again for another family time. More Carroms, more dress-up for the kids, more just enjoying talking, playing and being together. Tim Jr set up our wireless router so it would be ready to go (hopefully!) when we got home.

Saturday we packed up, left Tim’s about 1:30 and headed to Andy’s to complete the last of the sewing projects Joy had been working on for me and to say our goodbyes to them. Joy wasn’t feeling well, but, bless her heart, she kept sewing until the job was done since we were leaving that day.

We stopped at the IGA in Middleburg to pick up several packages of fresh sausage (sausage isn’t the same when you leave PA—understatement!) and several whoopie pies (unheard of in TN). The real ones were gone. We had to settle for the chocolate with peanut butter and banana with vanilla variations.

We didn’t hit the road early enough to travel much in daylight. Ken is always happy to see this sign, although this time he expressed feeling a little confusion since MD hasn’t been his home now for 11 years and his parents moved from MD to SC last year.

The picture we took of the welcome to WV was just a blur of reflectors and lights.

Once we hit VA, the trip seems never ending! We stayed in VA overnight and didn’t check out of the motel until the check-out deadline. I finally downloaded the rest of my emails!

Was this ever a welcome sign to see! Only 2 more hours to go.

We arrived home about 7 PM. Since the temp and humidity was still miserable and Ken was starting to feel not good again, we waited until later to unload. I connected the wireless router and booted up... it works!!! Thank you, Tim Jr! :)

Ken pushed himself to go to work Monday, but crashed when he came home at the end of the day. On Tuesday his supervisor sent him home at noon. Basically, he dragged himself through the rest of the week. (Yes, the past tense of drag is dragged, not drug! Funny, but I have had several former students tell me that when they hear people use drug as the past tense, they remember us talking about that in class and correct it, at least mentally [as well as sneaked being the past tense of sneak, not snuck]. Heh, small wonder! How many times did they hear me rant about drug and snuck?! Sadly, dictionaries are actually including—next step is accepting—these substandard words.)

Whew, we are actually glad vacation and recuperation is over! The normal routine sounds pretty good right now. : )