Last Monday was the band golf tournament and it wiped me out! I spent the entire weekend preparing for it. Then, the morning of, I didn't get the help I had asked for so ended up working a lot harder than necessary. We only ended up with 27 golfers and only made around $1,000 for the band. I had managed to drum up way over $1,000 in raffle prizes! We could have just sold raffle tickets at the band banquet and probably made a heck of a lot more money with 400% less work for me!

 I just don't understand people who say they will do something and just plain don't. I especially don't understand people who insist they are going to do something and then just plain don't. I had originally laid it right on the line as to what things I would do to help and what things I wouldn't do. Unfortunately, my name was on the flyers that had gone out. When I saw that lots of things were not getting done I felt obligated to pick up the slack.

 I'm sure my biggest mistake of all was not taking it to the Lord in the first place. A long time ago I had offered to help the band director put on a golf tournament if I was provided with a minimum of five hard-working parents to help. When the booster club president went to the band director with the idea of putting on a tournament my name was mentioned. So, since my offer had already been on the table, I didn't stop to pray about it. Big mistake! Shame on me!

Then last Wednesday was the first day of Vacation Bible School. My friend does day care and we are providing them with a once a week VBS. I was not able to spend as much time as I wanted getting ready for it.

I spent half the day Tuesday and got up early Wednesday to work on getting the supplies ready to go. I handed my mouth to God and told Him that it was His to use. It came out fine. We were a little short on supplies, but made do. God is going to have to take care of the quantity of kids. I was told to plan on no more than 12, so ordered some things out of a mail order catalog that came by the dozen. We had 14 on Wednesday.

It is God's VBS and He will handle all the details. I asked the kids to raise their hands if they didn't own a Bible. Five or six need Bibles. I used to have some Bibles I got through a mail order company that I gave to my Sunday School students that needed one. When I got home I realized I had given them to a friend whose class needed Bibles.

So, there I was, up a creek without a paddle. How was I going to find Bibles for all the kids and not have to spend the exorbitant price asked by the Christian book stores?

(Now that is a sore subject with me! Exactly how does any publisher, author, or store justify getting profit off of God's Word?)

Then I remembered I had seen Bibles at the local dollar store a while back. Usually that store has a rotating stock and the chances of finding more there were slim to none. That's in human terms, of course. God made sure that store would have Bibles in stock for the day I went in there looking for them! YIPPEEEEEE!!! Bibles for a dollar!!

Bible, anyone?

While I was spending so much time getting ready for the golf tournament I let things slide around the house. I inadvertently let some plants die. The house was embarrassingly messy. The kitchen was piled high with dirty dishes.

I was supposed to go to my in-laws' house through the weekend, but had to let my husband go by himself. I had too many things I would have had to do in order to leave for that long. I might have made myself sick trying.

My husband is helping them build a patio in their back yard. By staying home I was able to get a lot done. However, I never got this updated last week. By the time things settled down to a dull roar it was Thursday night. I figured it was so late in the week I would wait until today. Besides, the wonderful story of Casey's car accident was on there. It's a good one and deserves to be shared!

I need to put together a "how to do a golf tournament" notebook and then I am totally done with booster clubs. Well, almost totally done. I'm helping to train the new scrip coordinator. The last one is working long hours, so I am helping the new one to learn how to do it. She is catching on really well! That means I shouldn't ever have to be involved in it again!

I am noticing that the booster clubs that I used to help are having difficulty getting parental help. Without the booster clubs those organizations are toast! That is really sad!

I've been having printer problems. It all started when I got Windows 98. My old printer began acting up and I've had difficulty printing out detailed documents and pictures. Plus, it seemed my printer knew when I was in a hurry and would make sure those were the times it would mess up. I wasted a lot of paper printing and reprinting pages and pages of stuff.

Last week for Vacation Bible School I printed out bookmarks and ended up having to do them one at a time because even two on a page was too many. Today my husband and I found a good buy at Costco. It is a Lexmark Z65... it is quiet and it is fast! The printer sits on a shelf that is against the wall to the bedroom. The old one would make chunk chunk chunk sounds and rattle the wall. This one is almost silent! Plus, there is a TV in this room and my husband would always turn up the volume when I was printing something. Hooray! Quiet printer/quiet TV!

 Plus, this one has a second paper tray! So many times I've put in mailing labels or card stock and forgotten to take it out. I printed out four pages of email on mailing labels once. What a waste of money! I'm having some problems with it, however. I had the same problem with my old one so it could be something in my computer. When I print out spreadsheets it has a ghostly print out on part of one of the pages. The printer is not matching up with what it already began printing. I've emailed Lexmark. I hope they have an answer. In the meantime, it is a lot better on the other things than the old printer! Good! I have things to print for Vacation Bible School.

Whew! I finally caught up with my email. I didn't read it for a week and must have had 300 pieces to wade through. I belong to some mailing lists that send me good stuff. As a matter of fact, the ones that stand out to me are the ones I forward to anyone signing up for the Clarion Call mailing list.

I keep thinking I am going to get caught up with things and be able to devote more time to the Clarion Call and it just doesn't happen. It seems there is always something coming up or going on. I've been taking care of our neighbor's dogs while they are on vacation. I think I take things way too seriously. All they asked was that I let the little dogs out of the house a couple of times during the day and feed them once. I go over there and play with them. I open the doors and windows and let the house cool down at night and in the morning. My husband is feeding the outdoor dogs. I've ended up going out there and petting them, too.

They have one dog that is chained up for some reason. That poor thing had clumps of fur hanging all over it. I've been taking my dog brushes over there and brushing it a couple times a day. Good grief! What am I doing? I'm spending more time with their dogs than my own! I think I have too much compassion. I feel sorry for the animals that don't have their own humans home with them. No wonder people like to ask me to watch their animals!

My back is bugging me. I don't know exactly what I did to it. Maybe it was hunching over the neighbor's dog while I brushed it. I didn't want to sit down because it was all dirt back there. All I know is I have to move slowly so I don't hurt it worse. Well, I need to finish this and get it online. I need to go get the Vacation Bible School crafts ready. We are going to be flowers and I have to make a sample flower-face. I sure have been chatty this week. I guess I've missed you. What else could it be?

I made a drastic change last week. I got my hair cut. I've had it long for many years. I decided it was time to make a change and get a style that was a little more my age. I've had the same hair stylist for a long time and I trust her judgment. I told her the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted shorter hair. So, the end result is actually pretty funny in that, instead of making me look my age, it makes me look younger! Well, gravity is still doing a number on my face, but the hair style is cute rather than hmmmmm.... what word am I looking for? It is cute rather than dignified. She suggested I get it highlighted so I did. That camouflages the gray hairs. I wasn't sure if I was totally happy with it, but my husband likes it and I've been getting lots of compliments. If the people that have to look at it like it, what more can I ask?

This Tuesday my father-in-law will be having surgery because of his rectal cancer. I would still covet your prayers.

I have to laugh. In my last welcome message I commented how I finally got caught up on my email. Well, I haven't spent much time reading it since and I am way behind again. I feel bad because some of it is mail I need to answer.

Some people must think I took a trip to the moon. It's amazing how my time just disappears. If I spend some dedicated time on any project then everything else doesn't just sit there waiting for me... it multiplies itself faster than it would normally!

That golf tournament I did is still taking time. I made a how-to manual for golf tournaments. That took many hours. I finally finished it and have been putting together all the stuff I brought home from it and will be delivering it all to the school.

In two weeks we are going to go to Alaska on a cruise. I've been gathering information about the places we stop so we can save money by giving ourselves our own tours. I'm also interested in the history of the cities we will visit. I've printed out maps and all sorts of interesting stuff. I've even learned a lot about the entire state of Alaska.

I'm really really looking forward to that vacation! I need a time to shut down and relax. No phones, no doorbells, no problems, no cleaning, no cooking.... ahhhhh, I can't wait! From what I've seen in pictures God has some beautiful property up there and I 'm going to get every ounce of enjoyment out of it that I can!

Well, I better get going with this week's Bible study or another week will slip on by! I need to go sew some binding on a rug for my mom as I'm going to go visit her this afternoon. My uncle is visiting and I haven't seen him in a long long time.

By the way, if you have written to me recently, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I'm going to be slogging through my email the next couple of days. Be patient... I'm coming!