New Books. I love new books. Actually, I like old books and used books. I just like books. I wonder why? I can remember getting the Scholastic Book Order when I was in grade school and picking out many dollars worth of books. And that is when most paperbacks sold for 75 cents. My mom usually limited me to one or two at a time so it's not like I didn't ever get books. We even went to the library when I was growing up. I now have many, many, many shelves full of books. All kinds of books: fiction, non-fiction, reference, picture/coffee table, you name it I probably have that kind of book. I don't think it makes me any smarter. I just have more useless knowledge floating around in my head. :D It's that random thing again. I say all of this partly because of the Book Fair at school and also because I received our new book for Book Club today. WooHoo!!! It's not very long so I should be able to plow through it this next week while I'm off. I'll keep you posted. :D

It's turned out to be a lovely evening. It started out as a very dark, very rainy Tuesday. It's still kind of chilly though. Those 70 degree days really make me forget that it is really still March. Of course, tomorrow, it will be April. My goodness how time flies! But it is not supposed to be very warm for the next two weeks. Of course, it's going to be chilly; next week is our Spring Break. Oh well, there's always summer to play outside.

DeWayne is on midnights this week. I love it when he's on this shift because he always has supper ready or almost finished when I get home from working out. All I have to do is sit down and eat. It's nice not to have to get home and then try to figure out what to fix for us to eat. He's a good guy, I think I'll keep him. :D

I'm really looking forward to being off next week. I'm going to paint the downstairs bathroom and clean my laundry room. That's my goal anyway. I also want to go to Evansville and hang out with Evan one day. Probably on Tuesday because she only has one class. Not sure yet. I'm also looking forward to sleeping past 5:30 a.m. 

One of my friends at school asked my when I was going to blog again. I didn't even know she was reading. You know who you are and thanks for keeping up with all my randomness. :D

More later this week. 

The laundry is done (well, all but the folding). Evan is packed and Dane is packing up. It's time for everyone to head back to their places - school and work. Soon it will be the quiet house again. Don't get me wrong, I like the quiet time and I like the uninterrupted time with DeWayne, but I do miss Dane and Evan when they are not here. I also miss having their friends here too. Jackie and Angela were here last night watching a movie and this was after we had spent the afternoon in Carbondale shopping together. I'm just glad that even though they are all grown up they still like to come here and hang out. 

Dane bought a dirt bike this weekend. We have always had 4-wheelers (or 3-wheelers) but we have never owned a motorcycle. DeWayne was the wildest 3-wheeler rider ever seen; racing, mudding, whatever just always riding so when Dane said he was buying a dirt bike we weren't thrilled but we couldn't say a whole lot. He bought a helmet too (thank goodness). His buddies all have dirt bikes, so he has a lot of friends to ride with.  I'll just keep praying for his safety while he rides. :D

My book group decided to read The Priest. It's a book about Moses and Aaron written in fiction. It is one I haven't read so I am excited to read it. I ordered our group's books from Amazon. They will be here on Tuesday. Yay! I'll keep you posted about how good the book is. Our group continues to grow. I said something about book group today at church and one of my Lisa friends said she would like to join too. So, yeehaw! The more the merrier especially when everyone loves to get together and have fun! 

I'm getting ready to paint my living room. Probably not until Summer, but I like to be prepared. :D I am looking at colors and painting techniques. I am thinking about an orange color with a red wash. I will try it first on a piece of board to see if I like it. I've got to paint the upstairs bathroom too. There are many things that I want to do to our house. We haven't really done anything to the inside since we've moved in here (1996). So some things are a little outdated.  

This is the last week of March. Thursday is mine and DeWayne's anniversary. We've been married for 26 years (more of less :D) I have to work late at the Book Fair. It's the First Grade Art and Music Show at my school. It will be a very busy, late night. Can't wait! 

I'll try to post more than once this week! 

Finally Friday

It is finally Friday. I am so glad. It's been a long week. The Book Fair arrived on Monday and I have sold books all week long. I love the Book Fair but it is exhausting. Along with the Book Fair I had book group here last night. 

I love my book group. They are the funniest women I know (all of them). There were 10, including me. Darla, Brigette, Lisa G., Lisa O., Jaime, Brenda, Wendy, Terah,  and JeriLyn. I laughed until my stomach hurt. Everyone really like the book The Rain. Since the meeting was here I was the facilitator. Fun, Fun! I really enjoy listening to what everyone thinks about the books we are reading. I am learning so much about my friends and their views. I'm glad these people are my friends. 

Dane will be home tomorrow. Evan came home today. Yay!! We will all be together this weekend. Dane is very glad to have a weekend off. I might even have to cook something. :D

 

Sunday again but this time no laundry. I got all my laundry finished yesterday and my mom even folded it!!! I love my mom. She came out yesterday and helped me clean my house. She washed all the glass in my curio cabinets and the windows in my living room. Jim washed the windows on the outside. My living room is very sparkly now! I love it. I cleaned Dane and Evan's bathroom while she cleaned. I started at the ceiling and worked my way down. I washed the walls, I scrubbed the toilet and the tub. And I scrubbed their sinks and floor. It is very sparkly too. Yeah! Now all I have left to clean is my bedroom and my bathroom. I'll do it this week. Then during Spring Break maybe I can get to the downstairs. It really needs to be cleaned too. I'm going to try to paint the bathroom downstairs during Spring Break. That was supposed to be my Christmas Break project but I put it off. Now I have to do it soon. I'm ready to repaint our whole house. I have ideas what I want; I just have to get motivated and buy the paint and then do it. DeWayne doesn't like to paint but he will tape off the trim very neatly for me. Then I don't make as big of a mess. :D

The weather has been very nice today. All the yellow things that I love are blooming. I also saw some tulips this morning too. They are orange. Yellow and orange, my two favorite colors!! 

Dane's crew got rained out yesterday so he drove home for a couple of hours. He hadn't been home in almost 3 weeks so he was ready to see us and we were ready to see him. Evan came home for a couple of hours too. She wanted to see her brother. It turned in to an impromptu party with mom and Jim, Dane, Evan, DeWayne and me. We had an early supper together. It was nice to just be together. 

Church was really good this morning. Jeff has been talking about self-control for the last two weeks. Every problem we have in our society can be traced to the lack of self-control. It's sad to see people who blame all their problems on something or someone else when the problem is of their making by choice. Many things would be solved if everyone took responsibility for their own actions and  practiced self control. I could go on forever about this, but I'll quit now! :D

Truly Geeky!

Well, today I went to a Technology Showcase at John A. Logan College in Carterville. I found out how truly geeky I really am. I chose to go to all the Apple workshops to see what the new products are. I also went to a workshop on wikis. I had a REALLY good time. I just bought my MacBook last fall and I would love to upgrade my system and my iLife suite. The new iPhoto stuff is really cool, the new iMovie stuff is really cool, the new Pages and Keynote are really cool, the new garage band stuff is really cool! Some of the things I can do with my computer and some things I need the update for. I will probably update but just not today! :D The workshop on wikis was ok.  I have a wikispace that I use for school. (You can check it out: http://westsidetechtips.wikispaces.com) It's is the "working on" stage. I kind of quit working on it for awhile. I need to get back on it. I was making it for a resource for the teachers at my school. The little details of the day were fun and exciting. I guess that's what makes me a nerd, a geek, whatever!

DeWayne caught fish again today. We ate them for supper. We were out of fish batter so we experimented with different mixtures of cornmeal and spices. They were really good. I really like crappie!

It's Grey's Anatomy night so I better get this posted. 

More tomorrow!

Rambling

Well, I've been informed that our nice days are coming to an end. Tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy and cold (again)! Oh well, what is Spring for anyway but a constant change in the weather. 

Tomorrow I am headed to John A. Logan to a Technology Showcase. It's an annual event where all us "Geeks" can get together and learn something new. It is usually pretty good. There is always something new to learn. Several of our teachers are going this year. I hope they also learn something. 

DeWayne and I have been enjoying the nice evening sitting on our dock in lawn chairs. He fished while I read. He caught several blue gill and crappie with a few bass too. He's outside cleaning them now. I love fresh fish. Maybe that will be supper tomorrow night! The clouds are starting to roll in and the temperature is dropping a little. I had to put my sweatshirt on right before I came in. I sometimes wish that our weather here was like this year round. I just like this weather. Sunny, cool, warm in the sun, no humidity, very nice!

Sickness didn't take over this time. (I said on Monday that I was feeling a little sick.) It must have passed me this time. Yay! I have too much to do to be sick. I really must get ready for book group next week. I now have only one week. I have to clean and put some things away. I guess that's what Saturday is going to be for. :D

I am almost finished with Numbers and John. I decided to read Numbers in The Message. It is much easier to understand. A few years ago I bought the entire Old Testament in The Message. Some of the Old Testament books are more readable in that translation. I'm reading the other books in my regular quiet time Bible (The New King James Version). This isn't even the version I use all the time either. I was raised reading the New International Version. (I got my first copy in High School.) I use the Holman Christian Standard version on Sunday mornings. It is similar to the NIV and I really like it too. I keep several Bibles close so I can check the way verses read in different translations. Sometimes the language doesn't make sense to me so I check it out in another version. I'm thankful that I have the resources available to me to be able to do that. 

Time to get back to hanging out with DeWayne. More tomorrow!

Where have I been?

Where have I been? I can't believe a whole week has passed since I posted those pictures. Unbelievable!!! Where did last week go? Where did the first half of this month go? Sometimes I think I'm lost. I can't figure out where I'm going and how I'm going to get there. (Not really, it just seems that time goes by faster and faster!) 

My mom and dad got home from Florida Friday. I spent the evening with them Friday. I loaded video and pictures on their computers. I got to hear all the stories. I'm glad they had such a good time and made a lot of new friends from all over the country and Canada. They plan on going back again next year.

Saturday mom and I went to Evansville to hang with Evan for the morning. We did a little shopping too (of course!). It was like Christmas at Eastland Mall. I haven't seen that many people at the mall since the holidays. And most of them were carrying bags. So maybe the economy is  going to bounce back. We ate at Penn Station. I really like the sandwiches from there.  Yummy!! 

I finished my book for book group. Most everyone else has too. It's hard not to discuss it when we all get together. I'm excited that everyone likes it. I can't wait to talk about it. I like all my friends and I really like to hang out with them. 

I'm reading a pretty good book now. It's called The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. It's a story of the author's journey through breast cancer. So far it's really good. (I really do read books that aren't very good. I just don't share them here. :D)

There are so many children and adults sick at my school. I felt not great all day. I don't know if it's really sickness or just the suggestion of sickness that made me not feel good. I'll keep you posted. :D

It's Spring!

I thought I would share pictures with you of the wonderful flowers I was talking about yesterday. After I got home tonight I walked around my yard and took a few pictures of the flowers. I'm glad I did. The forsythia are getting ready to bloom and the crocus are dying out already. So I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoy the view of them out my front door. It's one of those small things that I am thankful for today!

Welcome Daylight Savings Time

Well, kinda welcome daylight savings time. I'm a little tired from missing an hour of sleep from setting my clock forward Saturday evening. I love the fact that it is 6 pm and it's still light outside! I really like that. I'll have to get used to it being dark at 5:30 am again though. 

I'm about halfway finished with my book for book club, The Rain. I've talked to several of the others and a few are where I am and most haven't started yet. Even though I had already read the book I am rereading it with the group. Mostly because it has been about 2 years since I read it the first time. I needed a refresher. It is a very good book. I like the perspective of seeing Noah and his family and their reactions to the flood, the destruction of the earth and people, and the struggles of their lives. I'm taking notes as I read so I can remember all the parts that really speak to my heart. I'm hosting book club this month. I can't decide about the food. I've debated back and forth over the choices. Appetizers? Sub sandwiches? Baked spaghetti? Home made pizza? I don't know! I want each one for a different reason. I'll try to make a decision by next week.

DeWayne caught crappie for supper. Yum!!! I love fresh fish. This is the time of year for big catches of crappie. Yay!

I can tell it's almost Spring. DeWayne is excited about going rock climbing. He's going tomorrow. I wish I was off but I better not take the day. I think I will save my last 2 personal days until May. Evan will be out of school then. 

Evan went back to school yesterday. Her classes resumed today. She had two papers due this week. Dane was home Friday and Saturday. He had to work Sunday. They are starting to work seven 10 hour shifts. So he will be going a few days (weeks) with no days off. I only really saw him for a couple of hours. He had a meeting Friday night until late and had class all day Saturday. I got to do his laundry. :) I'm missing them both already. :(

It was warm a couple of days last week and BOOM - the Easter flowers bloomed. I hadn't even noticed them up until I saw the yellow blooms. I had been watching for the crocus and all of a sudden there they were too. I love the purple and the yellow. I need to check out the forsythia. When they bloom it makes me happy to drive down my driveway. Yellow is just about one of my favorite colors! Maybe that's why we have about 10 forsythia bushes in our yard!

My car is back in service. It was acting a little squirrelly and DeWayne took it to the Saturn place last week. Seems a drain line from the sunroof was clogged and was causing my car to lose power. It's fixed now. I had been driving Dane's Tracker. I missed the smooth ride of my car but could drive 45 on the gravel if I wanted in the Tracker! It's just the right kind of weather for the sunroof. I love it!

Jeff talked about being thankful for the small things of life yesterday. Hello!!! That's what I have been talking about too. He was really funny because he had a toilet seat. Anyone who has been on a mission trip outside the US knows that most places don't have a regular toilet; let alone a toilet seat. So I totally agree with the thanks for the toilet seat!!!! (and toilet paper!!!) Fresh water to brush my teeth, toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap, a running shower. The last mission trip I went on to Mexico, we had a really nice bathroom in our room. When I went on a mission trip to Mexico with my sister's church; we had outdoor bathrooms (like shower houses at the pool except there was no running water). We had to flush the toilet with a bucket of water and take a bath out of a bucket. Even in 95 degree weather; water that comes out of a bucket is COLD! And on top of that, you had to wear your bathing suit while bathing. Oh well, I was really thankful to see our motel room in Dallas on our way home!!! When you have to do without things you become very thankful for them. But in reality, we (I) need to be more thankful everyday! I need to be aware of and thankful for the small stuff so I can be thankful for the big stuff. God is such a wonderful provider of all I need. Thank you God!!!

I'm thinking about writing a book to use in the computer lab. There are not any books that are new enough for me to use to introduce my kids to the computers and the computer lab. I think I can do it. My friend Mary said she would help me if I wanted it to rhyme. (It is a children's book!) My friend Julie said I had gone over the edge. Maybe I need to step back! :) I'll keep you posted!

Got to close for the evening. More tomorrow!

Unlimited Love

I haven't posted since Sunday. Oh well. And I was going to try to post more this week. Maybe I really don't have that many important things to say. :D

InDeed just keeps me going every day. I love that it gives me exactly what I need to see, read and hear at just the right time. 

So today was also titled "Unlimited Love"; I'm not very original. I have a quote to share with you.

"God doesn't just love us; He loves us infinitely. When He forgives, He forgives completely. When He saves, He saves thoroughly. When He makes a covenant with us, it's a forever covenant. The eternal, infinite God does not express His core attributes in temporary, partial ways. He is an extreme God with an extreme love. That's good for us to know, because we question His love often. Things don't work out as we planned, and we wonder if God loves us. He doesn't give us what we asked for, so we speculate that He might be withholding His affection. When we harbor such thoughts, we are underestimating God. We are applying our finite experience to an infinite being. The result is a distorted view.  God lavishes love on us that is unlimited, amazing and free."

This really struck my heart. I love the words used - completely, thoroughly, infinitely, forever, eternal, extreme. How often do I underestimate God? How often do I harbor these shallow thoughts? I want to say not very often; but closer to the truth is quite often. I'm not very happy about it and I truly struggle with it. Perhaps as I read the Word this year and really seek God I will learn to trust Him more and more.  His amazing love will be in every view of everything I see. And even when circumstances don't meet my "agenda" I must realize that God sees the bigger picture. I get so caught up in the trivial that I miss the whole. God is complete. He is thorough. He is infinite. He is forever. He is eternal. He is extreme. My prayer is that my finite mind will start to grasp the greatness of God!

It's Sunday again. It's one of those Sunday's that I feel like I have lived before. Jackie is here hanging out with us. Dane and all his friends are in the basement hanging out. Lots of laughter and lots of noise and lots of food consumed. Seems like yesterday when they were all in high school. Now they are all grown up and usually scattered in many directions. I've missed them! I like it when they are all here. 

I got to talk and see my mom today on Skype. I really like Skype. They were freezing because it's 67 there instead of the 85 that it was yesterday. Oh well, it was only 35 here today. Wish I was in Florida!!! Maybe Spring will be here soon. 

I'm glad today was Sunday. I really like to go to church. I like being able to cook breakfast for the masses. I like being able to worship. And I like to hear what Jeff has to say. I am thankful that we have a place that we can be a part of the physical body of Christ. I am thankful for LCC. God is such a great provider. 

Last Sunday DeWayne and I went to his grandpa's house and got all the old photo albums. I have spent the whole week scanning pictures of the Whitlock and Payne families. I will use some of these pictures on the Whitlock Memories Page.  I think I have scanned a picture of Denise on every horse she has ever owned. :D  DeWayne's grandpa had the best smile; even as a young man. His grandma had the most beautiful brown eyes that crinkled when she smiled. I miss both of them. I know DeWayne and our kids do too. 

I'm hoping that I get more time to post this week. I've been falling behind on posting almost every day. More later...