Wow! I got a lot done yesterday! I cleaned out my crafts closet and the guest room that it is in. I found all sorts of interesting things that I've been looking for! Apparently, when I had company come over I would scoop up the pile of things on my desk in the family room and pile them up in the crafts closet.

I still didn't get all those things put away in their correct places, but that is what I will do next. At least I have them out in the open where I can remember that it needs to be done.

I find it funny how I manage to fill in the vacant bedroom when one of my sons moves out.  Where did I keep all that stuff when all the bedrooms were occupied???  I guess that is one of life's mysteries.  It is up there with the mystery of where did all the socks go?  You know, the socks that go in the laundry and only one of a pair comes out...I do have a funny story to tell about mystery socks.  A lot of years ago, in our previous house, my washing machine was in the kitchen.  I had a container on top of it where I put the single, mismatched socks.  I had about ten socks that had been in that container for over a year.  I finally got tired of looking at them and threw them away.Can you guess what happened?  The very next (I kid you not!  the very NEXT) time I washed clothes I found most of those missing socks!  Nobody had cleaned out their bedrooms and I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to unearth missing socks!  The only other explanation was that those were the socks I threw away and they came back to haunt me!  Isn't that strange?

I have some friends who gave me the cutest idea.  Well, it's cute if you like those beautiful Betta fish.  (They are the ones that you can only have one in a container because they fight each other.)Anyway, you take a nice clear vase and put a plant in the top, one that likes to grow with its roots in the water.  You can put some marbles or such in the bottom of the vase.  The Betta swims around among the roots of the plant!  It is really pretty!

I already had a plant in a glass.  I found the perfect vase and today I go get my fish!  I needed to go get more little goldfish for my pond outside, so can take care of both at the same time!

I have bruises on the outside of both my knees.  I announced the raffle and bingo on the fundraiser we had for the band last Saturday.  It was a bus ride to Laughlin, Nevada.  I had to stand in the aisle and brace my knees against the two front seats.  My back hurts some, too, because of the lurching of the bus.  I had to keep repositioning myself.  I would have rather just have been a passenger.  After all, I paid the same amount of money as all the rest of them.

 I wasn't going to volunteer, but there wasn't anyone else stepping forward.  I've done raffles before and am able to keep everyone entertained and laughing, soooooo.... it was one of my last times to help the band so I did it.

I don't gamble so I walked to the outlet mall they have there and spent a long time in there.  I used my nifty bag with wheels to tote my stuff.  I didn't buy much, but had taken my Bible and a few other things to keep me busy.

There are benches along the Colorado River in Laughlin, but it was hot.  So, I sat on a bench in the air-conditioned mall and read my Bible and prayed.

My husband and I were in contact with each other.  We bought some walkie-talkies that reach five miles (in an open area).  They worked great there.  We met for dinner and then it was time to go home!

 I have to tell you how God blessed me with the walkie-talkies.  We had some that only went two miles and everyone in the world was on those frequencies.  So, I saw the better ones on sale for $90.00.  I figured they would come in handy a lot and were cheaper than two cell phones.  So, I went to the store and found a package marked for $40.00 because it had been previously opened!  They were brand new!  WOW!  Now that was exciting!

They have lots of frequencies and lots of privacy sub-channels.  We didn't hear anyone else the whole time we were there!  Marvelous!  God is GOOOOD!

Then I beat myself up some more yesterday.  I hung my son's senior pictures and his band pictures.  I had to move one of the hangers I had placed in the wall.  As I was tugging on it to pull it out I didn't realize it was biting into my fingers.  Apparently I had sunk it into a stud and it didn't want to come out.  When I went to get pliers, I looked at my hand and blood was dripping down my fingers.

I had already cut my finger while I was cleaning the glass for one of the frames.  I've got to learn to be nicer to myself, don't I?

OK, time to finish hanging the clothes and to go shopping.  If I don't go now I will hit lunch traffic.  I'll be back later to finish the Bible study.

Link to the 6/4/02 Bible study.

I started to work on this yesterday, went outside to pull a few weeds, and ended up never coming back.
My youngest is graduating high school on the 18th and I have family coming to stay here for the occasion. I decided to give everything a good cleaning on the inside and am also working on making things look decent outside.

Normally I spray the weeds with Round Up but I've been concentrating on spraying Diazinon to kill off the fleas and ticks. I don't like to mix chemicals so have held off on the weed killer. Boy, you hold off for one day around here and it becomes a weed jungle! I was going to just pull a few weeds along a flower bed yesterday and ended up moving right along into my garden and all around the back yard. I cut suckers off the trees, cleaned off the patio, brushed the dogs, hung laundry, and more!

I was going to go grocery shopping but ended up missing my morning opportunity to avoid traffic. I took advantage of the cool air of morning to work in the yard instead. I have to go to the store today. The iguana is out of greens and the cats are out of canned cat food. My older cat has been following me around and bugging me. He isn't happy that there are only kibbles to eat. He thinks I am dumb I guess. You ought to see the look on his face when I put the bowl down and there isn't any canned food in it.

He has developed some clever tricks over the years. He stands up on his back legs next to my computer chair and pats my arm. If I ignore him then he grabs my arm with his paw and pulls on it. If I continue to ignore him then he jumps up in my lap and proceeds to snuggle up next to me like a baby in my arms. Then he reaches up and pats my face with his paw. The whole time he is trying to get me to get up and open a can of food. To a casual observer it looks like my cat really really loves me! Funny!

Oops, here he comes again! Hi, Reeboks, what do you want???

So, today I have to do all the things I didn't do yesterday. I have to grocery shop. I have to go to the post office and mail off my slippers to Minnetonka Moccasins. They guarantee their product and my slippers died. In the meantime I am going barefoot all the time and it hurts my foot on my tile floor. I have one of those Plantar's Warts on the bottom of my foot. I've had it frozen off twice, burned off once, and cut out once and it just keeps growing back. I'm putting off trying to have it removed again until I can't stand it any more.

Then, at 11:30, I have to go meet my husband for lunch. He is a teacher and is taking his teacher's assistants to lunch at the on-campus restaurant (it is a hands-on restaurant class for students and serves food to the staff) and he invited me, too. I have to wrap their gifts and take them with me.

The rest of the day I need to do basic cleaning around here. The dust bunnies are getting too aggressive and need to be destroyed!

I was mean to myself again this week already. I was using my hot glue gun and.... not hard to guess what I did, is it? I was in a tight space, in an awkward corner, was getting tired, and OUCH, OUCH OUCH! I gave myself blisters on three fingers!

Plus, today I am a little sore from all the bending, squatting, and stretching I did yesterday in the yard. (I'm sorry, Reeboks, I don't have any canned cat food yet! Go away!) Oh it is so much fun getting old! Tee hee. When I typed getting old, the "g" jumped away from "getting" and it turned into "gettin gold!" I like that much better! All righty then, from now on I am not getting old, I'm gettin' gold!!! YIPPEE!

I had to come back and add this part after I came back from shopping so you could share in this with me. I try to be a thrifty shopper. I shop with coupons and stock up when things are on sale. I usually don't have to buy anything at full price if I am diligent.

Since I haven't been so diligent lately I inadvertently let the supply of canned cat food, coffee, and Noxzema run out. Glory Hallelujah! The store that I do most of my grocery shopping had unadvertised specials on.... THAT'S RIGHT, canned cat food, coffee, and Noxzema!! Oh God is sooooooo GOOD!

Besides that, the greens I bought for the iguana were on sale! He eats so much that I have to buy them whether they are on sale or not. Thank You, Lord!

I've been working on and praying over a project that God gave me to do. You know how different denominations have belief statements? He is having me put together one that will not cause division. Oh, my, it is not easy! Think about it. Every belief statement is pretty much a statement that separates each denomination from another. They separate people into separate belief camps and each has their own "truth" about God's Word.

What kind of statement would God want me to make that would enable me to be able to teach and share the Word? Basically, it has to be a belief statement that would be acceptable to anyone except an atheist. I don't even know at this point if it is possible to do, but He has me working on it.

I got the neatest music the other day. I bought a CD of native American flute music played on wooden flutes. It is hauntingly beautiful. I got one that was flute only and now I want to get more that include other instruments. It is perfect for when I am reading my Bible. When I listen to Christian music I stop to listen. Even when I listen to Christian instrumental music I try to sing along on the ones I know.

I've been putting up some native American style baskets, pictures, rugs, etc. in our camper. The colors of the camper interior are brown and black. It wasn't my choice of colors, but that is the way it came. My neighbor had a yard sale and was selling some dream catchers she had made. That started my "decorating scheme."

On our trip to Colorado last summer I found a lot of different Indian-style things that had a history attached to them. There were some beautiful traditions and ceremonies they had. I can see God in a lot of their beliefs and stories. I could go on and on, but will end with this thought to ponder:

Imagine living as the Indians did, only knowing the one true living God. Your dances would be to Him. He would be your provision. Your stories would center around Him. You would be tied to Him completely.

Link to the 6/11/02 Bible study.

I've got company coming Monday and Tuesday. Casey graduates Tuesday night. I like to have a clean house so I've been trying to get it done. What is bad is I won't have an extra bedroom for hiding purposes. Hiding my messes, that is.

I have extra things that are fun to look at and a few other things that are antiques, or memorabilia all over the house. I enjoy looking at things. It keeps life interesting. I don't get company very often, but when I do I like to have things clean because they might decide to pick things up to look at them. It takes longer to vacuum and dust when I have extra stuff sitting around, but it is worth it to me.

We have a couple different patio-type areas to sit outside. Not knowing where we might end up, I clean them all. Plus, if we are outside, our dogs will be wanting to be loved, so I had to wash the two of them. I've noticed a few fleas on them, so I also sprayed the yard and treated them with flea stuff.

My cats, too have bee scratching some lately, so I am treating the house and the both of them for fleas before my company comes. We had a big flea problem last summer. The fleas were everywhere! It was awful! I need to start now so that doesn't happen again.
I guess one of the reasons I end up with so much cleaning to do is that it doesn't take any time at all for my husband and son to mess up the house. It isn't just that they leave things lying around, they leave hand prints everywhere and stuff drops off their shoes as they walk. They don't do it on purpose, but they are walking mess-makers. You know Pigpen on the Charlie Brown cartoon? That's kind of like it is.

Plus, I've been working on some other major volunteer projects. The good news about that is my school-related volunteer hours will drop dramatically once I pass on the things I am working on now to upcoming volunteer parents.

I'm working on this part Sunday night so I can get it online Monday morning. I think I'm done for now. I need to go finish vacuuming so I can put the vacuum away. Plus, I am spraying the carpet with flea spray and need to do it while I still have all the windows and doors open so the smell dissipates.

See you tomorrow morning!

Good morning! Whew! I've been putting things away and cleaning. I had to sit down and take a break because I mopped myself into this corner! Pretty smart, huh? I'm stuck here until the floor dries.

Ick, I have sticky goo under my fingernails. I found a couple of globs of stuff on the tile while I was mopping and scraped them up. If someone made a tool that worked like fingernails do, he would make a fortune. God made the niftiest tools when He made fingernails! They don't cause damage to things while they are scraping off labels, or spills off the stove, or a speck off of my glasses.

I sometimes ponder the wonderful way God put the body together. Two eyes, set in such a way we have 3D vision. Two ears for stereo. I could go on and on. Yet, no two people are put together exactly the same! Awesome!

OK, this is a short intro this week. The floor is almost dry.

Link to the 6/17/02 Bible study.

WOW WOW WOW! I've got a testimony to share with you! This has been one heck of a week!

On Tuesday, June 18th, the day of his high school graduation, my youngest son, Casey, had picked up his friend, Justin, and they were headed to school for graduation practice at 7:30AM. A 45 yr old man rolled his 87 Toyota Celica through a stop sign directly in front of Casey. The guy died shortly after. The passenger was in critical condition. It wiped out the Celica and blew out almost all their windows. Our Toyota pickup that Casey was driving was totaled.

Casey called me on someone's cell phone. When I got there I saw three big fire trucks and six or more Highway Patrol cars. They said, because of the fatality, they had to treat it like a crime scene until crime had been ruled out. My husband and Justin's mom were already there. They both work together at the high school.

Casey said he saw the guy coming and didn't see him look for oncoming traffic, so figured he would stop, then look. Casey covered his brake and then slammed on them when he saw the guy wasn't stopping.

Casey was the first one to go try to help the men. He and Justin had to kick their way out of our, now destroyed, Toyota pickup. The other car leaked gas all over so Casey tried to revive them to get them out in case of fire. He ran back up hill to yell at the looky-lou's to call 911.

He ran back and shook the guys. The driver had blood coming out of mouth and the passenger was making snoring sounds. He took the driver's pulse and found a weak one. I have to say Casey has a really level head on his shoulders. I can't imagine being in such an awful accident and being in charge of getting help for the other car!

Casey has a few small chips in his teeth from hitting the steering wheel. We didn't have air bags. Think about it. How do you hit the steering wheel hard enough to chip your teeth and not lose teeth, bite your lip, or even feel any pain afterwards? God put an angel for an airbag! He let the teeth get chipped, where the chips can't be seen, to prove that He was there!!!!!! GLORY ! PLUS, God provided Casey with a witness to say that Casey was not at fault! Halleluiah!

Justin went to the hospital because he was feeling worse than Casey. His mom talked to the paramedics there and asked questions of the investigating police officer (who was deemed "hot" by both Casey and Justin.... she was cute, I have to say myself). Anyway, the passenger only knew the driver for a week. He had been picked up by the driver to get a ride to work. The car is owned by someone else and isn't insured. The passenger had been drinking  beer that morning and had more that he was going to drink at work. The passenger code blued twice while they were there and was revived by the doctors.

Charlie took Casey to the doctor to get checked. His knee and ankle were sore. Both boys' x-rays came out clean! Praise God!! That night both Casey and Justin got to graduate with their class! I almost lost it at the graduation as I was thinking how close we had come to not being able to watch Casey graduate!

(Update as of November 2004:  I've been reading the depositions of everyone and have gathered more information.  The driver of the car had no driver's license, the car was not registered nor was it insured, and the witness (a man in the car behind the guy who pulled out in front of my son) verifies that the guy didn't stop at the stop sign.  The passenger's beer cans broke in the accident.  You aren't allowed to have alcohol in the front area of your car, only in the trunk.

Our insurance company hired a lawyer for us.  Our lawyer is not doing everything he should.  When he forgets to mail me things I request and when he forgets to tell me that the trial has been postponed then I am sure he is forgetting other things as well!

A woman who works at our lawyer's office made the comment that the only reason we are being sued because of this accident is because the driver died.  Had he lived he would have been in jail for having the beer in his car.

So, the widow and the passenger have retained the same lawyer which is pretty tacky on the lawyer's part.  It reveals him to be an "ambulance chaser".   Our insurance company has already offered them some money to try to make them go away.  They turned it down because they are going for the maximum amount on our insurance policy which is $100,000 per person.  So, at this time, it appears that it will go to court.  May God's will be done!)

(Update as of January 2005:  The trial begins February 7th.  They are telling me that it will last a minimum of two weeks.  My poor son will be not able to work during that time.  This whole thing is just awful.  I was doing a search through local court records and found an interesting thing.  The lawyer who initiated the lawsuit got a registration violation ticket and a speeding ticket exactly four months prior to my son's accident.  He's going to be standing in front of the jury trying to convince them that my son was speeding, which he wasn't, and he was guilty of speeding himself!  I sure don't want to be around when he comes face to face with the Lord and hears, "So, you are the one who gave my precious children so much grief....")

(Update as of February 2005:  The case was settled out of court.  Our insurance company paid some money to get everyone to go away.  It wasn't a lot of money, under the circumstances, but it was not money that we owed.  The experts found Casey innocent of everything.  Technically we should have been the ones to sue, but they had nothing.  Plus they suffered immensely due to the driver's choices to run the stop sign and to not provide for his family.)

Then, let's add more blessings to the list. So, we got cut down to one vehicle... the big truck which has the camper on it. Our neighbor loaned us a van. Since we didn't use our rental car coverage on our insurance, they are paying us $10 per day until we get our settlement check!

Then.... it only took State Farm 2 days to come up with a settlement value and it is almost $3,500 more than the blue book value!! Wow!!!

Let's add more blessings... Charlie and I didn't know what kind of vehicle to buy. We knew we wanted something big, because we are tired of seeing small cars destroyed in accidents and bigger is more comfortable... not that we are getting old or anything and need comfort!

We knew we didn't want something brand new. We can't afford it and Charlie will mess it up as he will be driving it. Charlie does side jobs sometimes and would be hauling tools and wood, and, of course, golf clubs. We also wanted to fit a minimum of 4 generous sized people in it comfortably.

So, that kind of narrowed it down to a pickup truck with a full back seat or a large SUV. We went to a used car sale and checked out some different vehicles, but were still vague as to what we wanted. Charlie leaned toward pickup and I leaned toward SUV.

So, yesterday, we drifted on over toward the auto center to take a look at used cars. We figured if someone turned in a vehicle to buy another then they were happy with the one they turned in. We test drove a used Ford Explorer, but it was a tad on the small side. It might have been fun, though. We never had a 4 wheel drive before. So, we told the guy we were going to keep looking as we preferred something a bit larger.

Here's the cool part. There was a family there who was signing papers to buy a brand new Chevrolet Suburban (I think that's what they are called) and they were trading in a '99 Ford Expedition. We got to look at the car while it was still dirty from the old owners. We checked the ash tray... non-smokers. We checked the engine.... had fluids and looked good. The inside wasn't really messy and the outside only had a few scratches. We got to talk to the previous owner. We could tell that they took good care of it, which would have been more difficult to determine after the dealership cleaned it up. The price was reasonable compared to the ones we had already looked at, so we bought it.

I just knew that, with everything else He was doing, God would show us clearly what vehicle we should buy. He did! He did! He did!

Then, the dealership loaned us a vehicle to drive until they got ours ready, for free! God is just pouring blessing on top of blessing!

Link to the 6/24/02 Bible study.