FRUSTRATION!!!!!!!!!!

OK, so...
Sherrie and I have tickets to go see Wicked tomorrow night in Greenville at the Peace Center.  Getting these tickets was a an amazing feat back in OCTOBER!  Totally involving Blackberry's on a church bus and people trying to help us on computers.
Fast forward and after months of anticipation and the fact that we deserve to see it because we actually read the book as opposed to people who just jumped on the bandwagon and never learned to speak any of the native languages of Oz, now the are calling for SNOW!  Not just a little but a lot of snow and ice and ick!  I am flipping out about this!
To add to the ick factor, my family all has some nasty stomach virus with what appears to be a 2 day incubation period, so I may end up dog sick at any moment in spite of my best efforts of Cloroxing everything stationary.
Stay tuned for updates but for now the excellent Wicked weekend looks to be in grave danger. BOOOO!

A Mint Chocolate Coffee House

When you get lemons you are supposed to make lemonade, right?  Well when you get a room painted in bright eye assaulting minty green you make a mint chocolate chip room.  At least that is what we are doing in our current church building.  Yes, we are trying to sell it, but a new building is still at least a year to 2 years out, so we are doing what we can to live well where we are while we are there. 
The church had an old library with the most current books being circa 1960, and everything had a few inches of dust.  The room is situated on the corner as you start to the Sunday School classes so Cynthia, Donna, Robin and I are turning into a coffee and donut greeting area for everyone.  Due to a miscommunication the room was painted a funky green color and from there we go.
Here are a couple of pics from last night.

Here is the bookcase Donna and I painted chocolatey.  The paint looked like chocolate cake batter when you stirred it us.  So yummy.  The green looks so much more muted and sagey in this picture, but in reality is it more like this:

Cynthia is doing a faux stone wall in part of the room.  It is going to be beautiful! 

She and Donna were none to pleased that I took pictures of them, and they said they wanted royalties...I'll give them 10% of what I make off this blog.  Boy they are going to get real rich!

Here is Donna.  I halfway helped with this window, but it was a beast.  You have to understand that our building is OLD, and nothing is exactly smooth or even and every surface has 18 layers of paint.  This window frame also has the most wonky chaulking ever, so painting it is disgusting and no matter how hard you try it looks buggery.  We had fun though :)

Cynthia is going to shoot me for putting this up because she will say it's a picture of her butt :P  It's not.  Those pipes she is holding onto are HOT!  and she hit her head on them and said special words :)  Bad pipes!  Very bad pipes!

Missing of course is Robin and the bar he hasn't built for us yet :P

He did replace a toilet seat and mess with door locks while we were painting, so I suppose he is off the hook for a second or two, but he better get us some boards cut for our faux window or we may have severe punishment in mind....

10 Pennies and a Piano

Our Sunday School Lesson for yesterday was on tithing.  After conversation about how "tithe" is not the same as a tie you wear around you neck and not like Alabama's "Roll Tide," I gave the girls each 10 pennies to illustrate that you give 1/10 of your earnings to God as a tithe and anything else you give to his over that is your offereing.  Well I'm not real certain they totally grasped the idea, as Elise asked if you she could just give God all of it, since the math was confusing, but Marisa had a blast with the pennies!  I had no idea a kindergartener would be so amused with all the ways she could play with pennies.

Our other Sunday School activity, which has become quite the regular occurence in our mornings together is singing around the piano.  This is involves me picking out Jesus Loves Me on the piano with my right hand as I can't read a bass cleff to play the right hand (and my playing is atrocious!) while Marisa sits on the bench next to me banging away notes to her hearts content while Elise and Donna try to sing along with us.  Seriously, if someone saw it happening they would thing is was insanity, but the girls love it! (and they are the only ones who think I can play the piano, and until their ears get old enough to know better we won't tell them any different!)

Skittles and Pop...and an appetizer platter

Skittles and Pop...I seriously want a shirt that says that, or a tote bag or something. 
Donna and I sold concessions for the basketball crowd Saturday morning.  One of the kids asked why we didn't seel to them the previous week.  They never miss a beat.  Totally cracks me up!  Didn't seel so much popcorn this time, but geez people were feeling the Skittles vibe...of course I ate a bag too. :)

We met up with Cynthia that evening at the funeral home.  One of our choir members father had passed away, and we went to visit and pay our respects.  Funeral homes are like a meeting of the herd to me.  Everyone I know from all sorts of places show up and it's a little overwhelming.  Note to all:  Cremate me and don't have a receiving line.  I'm thinking a simple church service and big old pot luck dinner would do just fine.

Then we were Applebee's bound (ok, so it's like the only thing in that part of Boiling Springs that isn't fast food, so yeah we went there.)  I love the big round top tall tables in the bar area!  They make me feel tall while sitting down.  Seriously I don't ever feel tall even on my tip toes.  This is an accomplishment!
The Appetizer Sampler was wonderful and the conversation and friends were way better!  I didn't get home until 11:30 which for those who know me well know this is WAY past my pumpkin hour, but it was totally worth the bags under the eyes in church Sunday for a few hours with the girls.
A lovely Saturday for sure...oh and I bought some four cheese ravioli, cooked it and tossed it with some basil pesto for lunch.  I was feeling super smart and it really was YUMMY! (Of course I have no pictures of that because I can't photograph food and I jacked the pictures I have off of the internet)  Thank you Applebee's and the people of Skittles :)

Random Pictures!

I'm cleaning the camera up and thought I would throw up some pictures from the last week or so, with snappy narration of course!

Lucy and Wilbur!

Yes these are those little kittens that showed up at Paul and Cyn's (minus O'Possum who found a great home!)  Lucy is the little gray and white girl and Wilbur is the black and white male.  He is my favorite and if I didn't live with people who hate all things 4 legged he would be living with me.  I think he is pretty much the cutest cat ever and is super michevious!  Lucy is quite the Daddy's girl and LOVES Paul.  He is such a softy :)

Lucy also loves her big brother Luke.  Here he is, never far from one of his multitude of balls.  Nobody thought he would like having the kittens around, but he seems pretty content to have his new siblings around, and they have figured out to dodge his big feet :)

However,

Tigger is not so impressed.  He has warmed up some from his initial "ignore and hiss when ignoring is impossible stance," but he still thinks Wilbur is a supreme pain in the cat nip, and after watching my mischevious little love bug, I would have to agree.  I don't esspecially warm to people following me around with their nose in my butt either.  Just sayin'...

Now that I have covered P and C's zoo, onto work place what not...

The view from the Drive Thru...it's aint that exciting.  Actually this was from a couple weeks ago.  Today it is so rainy and gloomy I have to use the flash and it just photographs my reflection.

Harriett!

Or as I like to affectionately refer to her as Henrietta.  Pretty muich the coolest CSR around...not to be confused with CSI (we have one of those sometimes too, his name is Taco...whole 'nother story.)  Anyhoo, here she is hard at word and totally oblivious to me snapping pictures of her.  :)

Check out her plants in the background.  She grows the most amazing African violets and aloe plants in the window on her credenza.  The violets are always in bloom and the aloes are always shooting off new plants, or as we call it having babies.

This is my work place pride and joy.  This is my jade plant I purchased at Lowes a few years back.  It was tiny when I first got it.  Now it is huge and I have pruned it back and have worked at using some bonsai techniques for getting the leaves to grow tighter at the top.  This little baby is tons of fun and grows really fast for a jade.  I love her.

I have two gnomes that take care of my jade plant.  This is Humphrey.  They other one is Bogart but he is considerably camera shy and not very photogenic anyway, so Humphrey gets to do the modeling.  These little dudes are just cute and if you don't have a garden to put gnomes in I seriously suggest getting them for your house (or work) plants.

Speaking of camera shy...I tried to get a picture of Debra, but she ducked everytime, and I have a whole stinkin' memory stick full of the back of her head.  Instead of bore you with that, I'm just talking about her online so she will turn funny shades of red when she reads this :)

That's it for the randomness today!

A Yada Yada Book Review

I have been meaning to write this for some time, and I suppose today is the day.
A few years back there was a discount Christian book sale in Asheville and I did something I had never done before or since.  I bought 4 books all of the same series by and author I had never heard of.  Something about the brightly colored covers with feet of all different races showing at the bottom spoke to me.  I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, but that cover held a multitude inside.  There began my journey with the Yada Yada's and their prayer group.  I read those four books in about a 2 week span and anxiously awaited the next book to come out.  All together there are 7 books in that series and the women that Neta Jackson creates in those pages are rich with detail and lives that could very easily be someone we could all know.  The books make you want to dig deeper into your own Bible and move closer in your relationship with God as the Yada's do.

Mrs. Jackson has started a new series that is a kind of spin off from the Yada Yada Prayer Group that is the House of Hope series.  It follows the life and faith journey of a woman who has just moved to Chicago.  Along the way she crosses paths with some of the familiar Yada's and the development of this story is as rich and intriguing as the originals. 

These books have meant alot to my personal faith journey and if you are a reader of Chirstian fiction in search of something new and different, I completely suggest these two series.

For more books by Neta and her husband Dave Jackson check out their website  http://www.daveneta.com/

A here comes the Sun(day)! and adventures at the Lemon

Tomorrow is Sunday and that means the end of the long sad week.  Praise the Lord for seeing me through this one.
Miss Maxie Lou is doing much better now after a visit to Clyde Johnson.  Clyde is a friend of Robin's from his hunt club and honestly I should have just taken it to him to start with, but lessons learned.  One radiator and water pump later and she is no longer running anti freeze like a river glorious.  Happy Snappy!
Yesterday was Shirley's funeral.  It brought so many people together.  So many people loved her so very much.  There is a bit of trepidation on my part as I know that woman prayed for me for years and the idea of walking through life without those prayers is a little scary.  She was closer to God than any person I have ever known and when she prayed for you, you knew God was listening.

On my way home today I stopped by the church and walked out to her grave.  I get the feeling I am going to have to do that for a little while to make me believe that she is really gone.  Standing looking at the mound of flowers covering the ground it still felt as if I could walk across the street knock on her front door and talk for hours.  Sinking in is going to take some time.

I promise my lighter more ridiculous post will be back next week, but I needed one more day of public mourning for my dear friend.  As a prelude to insanity here is a picture from The Lemon with Sherrie.  We went after the visitation and...She

thinks that mild is greater than hot...she's WORNG!!!!  HOT is where it's at!

Further more, on a philisophical note, why does one buld a 6/8s of a wall and call one side smoking and one side non?  The smoke rises...and falls on our heads and we aren't amused.  We do not care that you want to plant flowers in the middle of your wall.  We want a full wall, or Sherrie' suggest you put the other 2/8on the floor instead of the ceiling but I think that would lead to cross smoker footsie games...very scandalous!
Keep your cancer to yourself and build a real wall!...and eat HOT salsa!  (unless you are Robin or Sherrie and then I love you anyway :)

a week of uncertainty

Sometimes you feel like you are waiting for a shoe to drop and sometimes you feel like it already has.
My car drama seems to be ongoing as I now have Maxie Lou at another mechanic (my regular mechanic I should have taken it to in the first place.)  Antifreeze is still leaking from somewhere, but not sure where and I am praying it is simple and as inexpensive as car work goes.
This along with loosing Shirley has made for a week of few meals and many tears.  I'm sinking folks, and could really use a few prayers to make it through the next few days.
The Lord is my Shepherd and I ought not fear because with him I will want for nothing that is needed.  All things scary are illuminated with light and where I have light, there will beno dark.

In Memorium

I had a really snazzy post about laundry I was planning to be my next post, but in light of current events, plans change.
Obituaries are, in my opinion the most impersonal words in a daily newspaper.  They are short, give basic details on times and places and survivors but tell very little about the person who's death they are announcing.  That does not do my friend Shirley McKinney any justice.  So before the brilliant minds at the Herald Journal have their say, I want to do my best to pay tribute to one one of the greatest women I have ever known.
Shirley McKinney was an amazing wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.  To me however, she was actually none of those things.  She was in effect simply a friend.  The difference was that Shirley was not simply a friend to anyone.  She was ever so much more and to have been loved by her was to truly know God's love embodied in a human being.
Her porch was home to many, and as a young teenager there was no more safe and wonderful place in the world.  I spent many Sunday afternoons and evenings sitting in the swing with a blanket wrapped arund my shoulders and her arms around me.  Her heart was always open, her ears always listening and even when scolding was fully warranted it came in the most gentle and loving of forms.
In the past few years I have not stayed in contact with her like I should have.  Time seems to weave us in different directions throughout the years.  One thing has never changed, I could always drive up in that drive way and know that I would be met with more love and understanding that I deserved.  Many times in my adult life when I have been confused or scared I have taken the trip in my mind back to that front porch and felt her arms around me, praying for me, comforting me.
Tonight Shirley is on a very different front porch, rejoicing with the Savior that she taught so many about.  She loved to sing, and everyone who heard her loved to hear it.  Tonight she is singing in a new choir and one of these days we can all go and join her.  Until then, we can grieve her passing but give praise for she is waiting for us with the same loving arms she met us with here on earth.

A few of my favorite things....

Over the New Years holiday I watched The Sound of Music for the thousanth time.  It is one of my favorites (as it is many people's.)  It got me to thinking, what are my "favorite things?"  What are the things that make scary moments better?  You know how much I love my photo collages, so here goes!

The Tale of Pop Corn and Radiators

Well whew, what a weekend.

First of all, Saturday morning was awesome as it involved going to Bob Burnett's and having a cup of coffee with Paul and CJ and then selling concessions for the Christian Fellowship League basketball games with Donna. 

Little kids are sooo fun to watch and we actually got to make some money for the youth's mission trip to Salkehatchie.  6 rounds of popcorn and we sold out of absolutely everything we had in stock.  Note to all those who sell concessions: blue poweraide/gatoraid is seriously popular with boys ages 5-15.  Also, popcorn machines are very strange creatures.  First of all the stupid thing is that even after you turnthe kettle off and the pop corn has been dumped the thing still cooks and smokes until you wipe it out with a paper towel.  Well now it's not the greatest angle and sticking my hand in a hot kettle with smoking popping grease is not remotely a pleasant thought.  Anyhoo I ain't in love with that thing but we made our peace and made a whole lotta popcorn.
I'm looking forward to next Saturday and making some more money with our restocked pantry!

Then begins the other part of my weekend....
When I was leaving the gym I noticed a river of antifreeze flowing from beneath the front passenger side bumper of my Maxie Lou.  She has been having some anti freeze related issues but I thought we had them fixed.  My mistake.  I got home and then kept an eye on the car for the rest of the day and didn't get out much as I had a killer headache.  The headache progressed until I spent my Sunday morning in bed instead of in a church pew (if you know me, you know I don't do this.)

I got up in the afternoon and took a jaunt down to the O'Reilly Auto Parts in Chesnee and got a recommendation on someone who could look at my radiator in a Sunday afternoon.  I went down there and Todd Greene pumped up my radiator and decided it was linking down the entirety of the crimp line (I didn't know what a crimp line was until yesterday.)  We were able to get a new radiator from O'Reilly and take it back to the shop.  Here's where things got interesting.  Once the radiator was out it was obvious that it was bent  and wharped from a car frame that was busted...not only busted but the engine cradle had come loose from the frame and was hanging down a couple inches.  So...Todd jacked up the cradle, C-clamped it to the frame and welded it back into place...then installed my new radiator.  Todd was great and let me watch everything thing he did and explained the function of every part he had to remove and install.  I really enjoyed having someone educate me.

So lessons learned:
1.  If you live in Chesnee, Todd Greene is a great mechanic and builder of all things machine related.
2.  You are supposed to have your radiator flushed every 30 to 40 thousand miles.  I didn't know this cause nobody ever told me.
3.  I have an awesome brother in law who called to check on me when he found out I was having car problems.  I love him!
4.  I dont' do well on a Sunday of no church.  After Todd got me up and running I went to church, it was late and only the Rec and Fellowship Committee was still there (i was supposed to be in the meeting so I can crash.)  When I sat down between Cynthia and Robin and looked across the table at Tammy, Donnie, Nikki and Donna it was like the world lifted and I had touched home plate and was home free.  At the end of the day my friends buoy me up and I can't function without them, even for one Sunday.


So it's Monday, and I still don't feel great, but I am glad to be back at work and happy that God took care of everything I needed this weekend.

"Fear Not"

The angels said it, bill boards say it and even Jesus Christ himself said it in his preachings, but why on earth does it not stick into my head and heart.  A dear friend of mine is in the hospital right now, after having major surgery to remove a hemangioma the size of a soccer ball from her liver.  She is still in ICU in critical condition.  I know I should be praying constantly and consistently and I am trying but my head gets in the way and the fear muddles it all up.
Funny thing is, this is not a person I see everyday or even very often, but I always know she is there and the idea of her not being there scares me to emotional paralysis.  So I suppose today I am asking people to pray for Shirley McKinney, but also for me and the strength of my faith.  In so many ways Shirley was the one who taught me to pray and now more than ever I need to do it for her.

Anniversaries and Such

Of course I didn't know this until I recieved a ton of emails from higher ups and my managers scared me with a loud "Happy Anniversary." but today is indeed my anniversary with the bank.  (A least with this bank, Hometrust does deserve it's dues for those 3 months in NC.)
Anyhoo, time flies!  I would never had thought it has been 3 years.  Three years ago when I got a full time job in SC and solidified that I was in Sparkle City to stay and not returning to Asheville.  It was a scary move at the time but looking back and seeing the twists and turns taken by those I left behind in Asheville, it was the best move I could have ever made.  It took time but I now have this amazing life, with a good job, great friends and the most incredible church family.  Best of all, I have the Corbins sitting on that hill in Asheville like real life guardian angels, proud of who I am and where I am.  I have said this many times, but there have never been people more full of grace than them.  They loved me, cared for me, nursed me to health and then let me go with God. 
So three years in a job, but 3 years of so much more.
Thanks to Debra, Suzanne, Harriett, Meredith, Donna, June and of course our long lost Freddie (Baltimore has no idea what it gained.)  You guys are the best!

2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 and we rang it in BIG!!
I went out with Sherrie, Erica, Adam, Heather and David and we had a blast.  By the way I totally recommend the Black and Blue at City Range.  It was fantastic!

Saturday Amy & Trey and Ashley & Jen came to town and we went and ate lunch at the Beacon and recalled all the great times we spent their as kids with the grandparents.  The grease is thick enough to clog your pores when you walk in the door, but oh man there is nothing like a fried ham and cheese a-plenty!  I sort of think you have to be from Spartanburg to understand the romance of this place, either that or really love you some grease. 
After lunch and ice cream from the most depressed hateful ice cream server in the world, we took the $.25 tour of the city of sparkles and drove by Cleveland Park, the Carolina Panther's training camp and our grandparents old home on Alamo.


All in all it was a great start to what feels like it going to be an incredible year.  There is something in the air that feels positive and like something amazing is beginning.  It will be a big year for sure as there are many things on the horizon to look forward to, but more on that when the time comes!!

Love to all who have been and all that will be in this year we call 2010!