Spring Break

I spent my spring break in San Diego.  The men in my house went snowboarding,

but I headed even further west to learn, think and fill my noggin with new stuff for children's pastors. 

It was beautiful weather there, so sometimes I must admit, it was hard to go inside as I was walking between the different seminars offered.

Sometimes I just wanted to kick off my shoes and walk through the green, green grass.  (It's so GREEN in San Diego already!)  But I resisted.

Sometimes a really tall guy would stand outside the room where our general sessions were held holding up this sign.  I guess he got tired at this point and thought he'd let the sign speak for itself.

Sometimes I had to stop and take pics of the beautiful flowers that were everywhere on the resort.  Look at the color...wowza!

It was a great week of networking, learning and introspection for me.  But I must say, I'm glad to be back in the routine of my days.

My Little Girl

Saturday I sang at the Ladies' Tea at our church.  The theme was kind of valentiny even though it was actually after Valentine's Day.  So in the spirit of love, I sang a silly little song that my dad sang to me when I was a little girl-before I sang the serious song.

I told the ladies a little about my Dad. He loved music. Driving together, he'd say something like, "Listen to this song I wrote." and off he'd burst into song.

He was a huge jokester, and sometimes I knew that he really didn't "write" the songs he was singing to me, but sometimes he fooled me. 

So Saturday, right before the tea began, I stepped to the hallway, called my mom and asked if he actually wrote the song that I was going to sing.  She thought it was pretty funny that I was going to sing this song at the tea.  She said, "no, honey, he didn't write that one."  So I returned to my seat, and 2 seconds later, she called me and said, "but go ahead and tell them he did!"  My Dad wasn't the only jokester in the fam!

So here is the little song:
My little girl, she got sleepy,
So she went upstairs to bed.
She laid her glass eye on the mantle,
She placed her peg leg 'neath the bad.
She put her false teeth on the dresser,
and her false hair in the chair.
My little girl, I could love you,
But you're so scattered everywhere!

I love that my Dad loved to laugh, and passed that down to me! I'm proud to be his little girl!

What did we ever do without these fancy phones?

I love my Smart Phone.  I'm pretty much attached to it all the time. I thought I was pretty smart at Christmas time.  I was about half way through moving my regular dishes up high and my Christmas dishes down low in the cabinet when the thought hit me...I'm never going to remember where all these things were.

See that was/is a really big deal for me because I agonized with just the perfect way to organize my dishes because, ahem, I have too many a few more than I probably need; so to make them all fit takes skill!

I snapped this pic before I moved another thing...so I would remember where everything was after Christmas when the big put up (Christmas dishes) put down (regular dishes) had to happen.  And then you know what? That sweet guy that I'm married to, I'm just going to have to start calling him Mr. Wonderful, executed the big put up/put down for me, and remembered where everything went on his own!

I did pull out my snappy photo to show him though! Didn't want it to go to waste!

What to do...what to do?

I came to my office at church today. and THIS is sitting on my desk.  From Christmas Eve.  Sigh. What to do...what to do?

It's on my desk because I gave these away to the kids during my Children's Sermon at the Christmas Eve service.  I don't know WHAT to do with them.  My first instinct is to chunk them!

or...I could take them to the grocery store and drop them in people's purses when they're not looking.

or...I could put them in a drawer in the Youth Pastor's desk.

or...I could put them in an envelope and mail to my sister. (I say that because once she cleaned out her desk at work and put all the stray paper clips, lint, etc in an envelope and mailed it to our other sister...hahahaha!!!)

or...I could "bedazzle" the top of our Office Manager's phone handle.

or...I could give them to our Pastor's wife to use as shoe jewelry.

There's a story here....she was in a walking boot for awhile, so I gave her some bling for it!  Pretty cute!

or...I could take them to the game room and let the kids use them as checkers, or any playing pieces.  That's a great idea actually! They are always losing game pieces!

Got anymore ideas for me? Do you want them? Send me your address and I'll put them in an envelope and mail them to you.

Cookies and a Sneak and the Fitter-right Inner

This is my favorite platter right now.  In the theme of fall, and the love I have for it, it's a fitter-right-inner.  (That's a real word.)

So I made yummy chocolate chip cookies for the youth auction last night and presented them on my leaf plate. that I love. that screams FALL!

...and here's the sneaky snake in my house who tried to eat the cookies off my beautiful leaf plate before they even got to the youth auction.  But I couldn't get too angry with him, he makes me laugh too much!

You know, I just love fall!

I have decided that fall is my favorite time of year.  I may have said this before.  I may have written this before.  I've found myself saying this over and over to whomever will listen this fall season.  So pardon my repetitiveness if you have been on the receiving end of my, "you know, I just love fall" spiel.

I love the leaves, the graceful way they fall to the ground and when you pile them up they transform into kid magnets! Who doesn't love to dive into a pile of leaves?
I love the pumpkins, so many shapes and sizes and their colors...ya gotta be strong to sport orange!
I love the smells, cider on the stove, sweet potato pie in the oven...
I love the sounds, crunching leaves and acorns and twigs as you take a walk.
I love the preparations you make because fall signals that winter is just around the corner.  There's getting the fireplace ready, and freshening the sweaters, and opening the trunk with the heavy quilts, and finding the soup recipes and dreaming of the cozy nights with all the family under the same roof together.
I love how the mornings are crisp, and the days are shorter; we spend more time at home during fall.
I love football games with hot chocolate and looking at the cheerleaders and being thankful I get to wear more clothes than they do!

Since I'm in Texas, most of our pretty colors we see only in books, but that's ok.  Because for a few weeks, we get to experience the great weather, the here-and-there bursts of color, there's nothing like fall. 

Thanks God...You know, I just love fall!

Poor Squirrel

I've been at home today waiting on the repairmen to fix our internet/tv/link to the outside world.  We had a storm in our area on Saturday that decided to visit our front door.  Well, not exactly the front door, but we sustained some damage from a lightning strike.  It was quite an experience, and I have a whole new respect for lightning and it's power.  We can get the sprinkler system replaced, get new wiring and equipment for the electronics...but the sad little squirrel in the pic suffered the most. 

Notice the acorn still in his mouth.  He really gave his all for a good meal!  I'm sure there are life lessons or sermon illustrations that could be gleaned from this experience and visual...but I gotta go! We have internet access for the first time in 3 days!  Woohoo!