SO HE WOULDN’T BE LATE FOR SWIM PRACTICE!!!
This chicken was hanging out by the stop sign as we were leaving the Natatorium this evening. Weird place for a Rooster!! Thanks, Diane, for snapping the shot with my cell phone.
After lots of discussion and debate, Ryan and I decided that we DID need the chair I mentioned in my last post. We went back today and bought it. Doesn’t it go so well with the pillow Ryan bought me for Christmas?
I overheard some friends last night talking about the great deal they had gotten on a dining table and chairs recently. I was only half listening to the conversation, but as we are planning on buying new furniture when we move, I had to ask where they were talking about. They had gone to World Market.
Today, as Ryan and I were having lunch, I suggested that we go by and check them out. After about five minutes in the store, we found a table marked down 75% from about $450. Even though we don’t need furniture until later this summer, we decided this was too good of an offer to pass up. By the time we paid for it, they had taken another $10 off, and we ended up paying $110.95 for a good quality, beautiful, sturdy table that will last us a long time.
We spent the rest of the day driving to other furniture stores and two other World Markets to try to find chairs to go with it, as the first store was out of the matching chairs. When we found the matching ones, they weren’t quite what we wanted. I think we’ve decided to go with some leather chairs from Ikea that we found a few weeks ago. However, we did find this this tweed accent chair that we might have to go back and get tomorrow…It’s marked down $100 from regular price!!! We’ve broken into the furniture buying thing, and I hope we can control the temptation to jump on every good deal we see. Oh well.
(Oh, and another comical note … It turns out we bought the same table as our friends who gave me the idea to go there in the first place!! Turns out they are the ones who bought the last of the chairs!)
Here’s our new table:
Here’s our new table next to the old one:
Last week I noticed that my car was beginning to wobble. My car has been VERY good to me over the years, but it is 13 years old, and I live in constant fear that it will break down at any time. So, I wasn’t surprised when this wobbling started on Wednesday. I walked around my car several times over the next couple of days and checked the tires. One looked a little low, but not enough to explain the wobbling. I tried letting go of the steering wheel, but the car kept going straight, so it certainly wasn’t the alignment. We decided over the weekend to take it in, but we don’t do Monday mornings well around here, so we opted to wait another day.
So, Monday morning when I backed up, I heard a horrible grinding sound. I pulled back up into my space and got out of the car. I walked around several times, but couldn’t see anything under the car that I could have run over and nothing seemed to be dragging the ground. I was perplexed. As I was getting back into the car, I glanced at my back tire. It looked as though something were caught in the rim. Turned out to be part if my tire! Part of the tread had gotten caught on the rim, and, as I was backing up, it had just begun to peel off like a banana! Needless to say, I did not drive myself to work. I called my precious friend, Diane, instead, and she rescued me.
We plan to take off the bad tire tonight and replace it with the spare so we can drive the car in to get new tires tomorrow. I hate that we will have to spend money on this car, as we are hoping to replace it before the end of the year. However, this cannot be put off any longer.
As many of you know, Ryan and I are planning to move into a rental house at the end of the summer. We’ll hit our six year anniversary in June, and we’ve spent our entire marriage living with hand-me-down furniture from our parents, other family, and friends. We’ve only purchased one new piece of furniture, and that’s the TV stand we bought this passed year (thanks Darren and Lindsey for helping haul it!). We’ve decided that, after 6 years, we’re going to actually commit to a STYLE when we move.
Our decision to find a style has resulted in three weekends spent window shopping all over the place. We’ve been to Ikea in Round Rock and Frisco, three different room stores, two different Crate & Barrels, and plenty of other places in search of our perfect style. After looking at high end, middle of the road, and cheap stuff, we seem to have decided on our favorite store. What’s out favorite? Why, it’s Crate&Barrell, the same place we got our TV stand from!! They are not the cheapest place, but we think they will give us style, comfort, and quality for a pretty reasonable price.
Here’s are pictures of some of the things we’ve fallen in love with.
A sleeper sofa.
A cool, comfy chair that reclines.
A table that converts to a desk.
An extension table that will serve lots of guests and well as potential tutoring students.
A cabinet to store party stuff, dishes, etc., that folds out on top to create a larger surface for a buffet.
More cool storage for dishes.
It’s been too long since my last post. You’d think that with three days off of work last week due to the Swine flu that I would have had time to post. Here’s a few interesting items from the three weeks since my last post.
This is the Ethiopian restaurant Ryan and I went to with some friends last weekend. We decided almost two years ago that we were going to get together with these two other couples and eat foreign cuisine once a month. We went out for Indian, had a great time, and didn’t every schedule another food date until now. This time we scheduled the next location and date while we were still sitting at the table at Queen of Sheba. Next month is Texas de Brazil for “beef on a sword” according to the men!
We ordered sort of a sampler of a few different items and they brought it all out on a large tray for us to share. The food is served with a crepe-like bread and you tear it off in small pieces and use it to pick up the food. The entrees were pretty good, but, unfortunately, most of us didn’t care for the flavor of the bread. I think I would eat here again, but use a more traditional fork so as to enjoy the flavors of the meats and vegetables without the acidic flavor of the bread.
The week following our food adventure will most likely go down as one of the biggest over-reactions in public school history. In the wake of the Swine flu scare, just as reports are coming out that it’s not as bad as they thought, my school district decided to close for a week. Don’t get me wrong, I like to have time off work as much as anyone, but this seemed a bit extreme. We’re worried about the kids getting sick, so we’re going to close schools so that the kids go hang out at the malls and movie theaters instead? It only got worse when our district decided mid-week to RE-open, but excuse the absences of students who couldn’t make it since many families had to take their kids out of town to find child care. At the high school level, this simply meant two more days off. I had to go to work, but less than a third of my kids showed up. So how much instruction do YOU think happened?
At any rate, I did get three days at home. I spent two days with my friend Bethany (check out her blog on my side bar). On Wednesday, I made wash clothes and burp clothes to post on my Etsy site. (Which I will do as soon as we have a sunny day on which I can take better pictures).
Here’s an up-close shot of my crafts. The burp clothes are made from a large pre-fold cotton diaper that I ordered from here. I washed them hot to shrink them up and then stitched a band of flannel down the center. The wash cloth/baby wipe is flannel and terry cloth. I stitched the two right sides together, turned it right side out and then top stitched around the edge to give it a nice shape.
Here’s the STACK I made of each.
On May 9th, I graduated from the BTCL program at Denton Bible. According to Pastor Tom Nelson, I now have the right to be entrusted with leadership in the church. WOW! I am starting to feel the burden of responsibility. I hope to comment more on this experience in a later post, but, for now, here’s a picture of the women in my small group whom I have come to know and love dearly over the past two years.
There are so many big events coming up in my life that I am finding it difficult to focus on the here and now. Here’s a list of what’s coming up:
With all of these fun things to look forward to, you can see how I might be struggling! In the mean time, I am trying not to rush through everything and to make the most of the gift of time that God gives me each day.
Every group has one … the awkward guy who’s always around. You try to include him, but sometimes his quirks make it difficult to know what to say or do when he’s around.
Ours was a Letter Carrier by day, Country Guitar Player by night. No matter where he went, he always had a guitar, usually in his lap, almost as if it was some sort of security blanket. If he wasn’t playing his guitar, he was chewing on a drinking straw, a habit formed years ago when he gave up smoking. At Sunday lunches, he would quietly listen to the conversations, and occasionally jump in if it turned to music, but was lost amidst the usual talk of technology.
He loved the Lord, he loved his church, and he loved to play his guitars. During Bible study, his comments weren’t the most profound, but were often childlike and thoughtful. Sometimes his prayer requests would go on with lengthy detail, but oh how he cared about people! Our Sunday worship music took on a country twang each week. I’m not sure he knew how to play any other style. But, he was dedicated, dependable, present.
We lost him this week. In the middle of the day, while he was doing his job, the Lord saw fit to take him home. And now, where our quirky, dependable friend used to be, there is an empty seat. And we are all left wondering, did we love him like he loved us?
I grew up in a family where service was modeled. Dad was always doing stuff for other people, and mom was giving blood regularly. I’ve always been willing to jump in and help others, but, before yesterday, had never given blood myself.
I’ve often had opportunities to give blood, but, quite honestly, I didn’t weigh enough. Every when the high school hosted a blood drive, my kids would ask me why I didn’t donate, and I was quite honest with them. I’m only about 5 feet tall, and REALLY I didn’t weigh enough to meet the requirements to give.
Time passed, and I got married and started cooking for my husband. There are a few things that I make well, like DESSERT, and so, the weight crept up. For most of the passed 6 years, it’s been FEAR, not weight that has kept me form giving. I was always scared that I would pass out.
So, yesterday, with my precious friend, Diane, by my side, I gave blood for the first time. The guy that drew it was so nice. He really helped to make me comfortable with the whole thing. He and Diane and I laughed, and, before I knew it, 600 grams of my blood was no longer in my body. Surprisingly, I was still alert and felt fine. So, I drank some juice, ate some cookies, sat for about 10 minutes, and then walked back to my classroom to finish the day. I made sure to sit for the duration and drink lots of water.
After school I ran a few errands: bank, fabric store, grocery store; and then it was on to home group. I ate a big dinner, as I’d been told to. Everything was still fine.
The last thing I remember was reading a passage from Ephesians about the good works God prepared us to do. I began reflecting on the wonder of the human body and how amazing it was that it could be fine without that pint of blood I’d seen earlier. In fact, it looked like a lot of blood relative to the size of my body. I don’t know if I psyched myself out or it was really the blood loss, but that’s when my head started spinning. I thought about telling the group (about 15 of my church friends), but I didn’t want to interrupt the discussion. So, I drank some water, put the bottle back on the floor, and then sat back in my chair, trying to relax.
Next thing I remember was hearing Vicki asking over and over, “Hope, are you OK?” She had an arm around me. I felt like I was coming out of a deep sleep, hearing voices in a dream. It was very surreal. I’ve never passed out before in my life. It took me a few minutes to realize what had happened. Poor Husband didn’t even know yet that I had given blood, so he was quite freaked out until someone clued him in.
We considered going to the ER, but after talking to my mom and Lori’s mom, both nurses, it was decided that I would just go home and rest for the duration of the weekend. I am under strict orders from MOM to eat red meat, take iron, rest (possibly stay home from work on Monday), and to NEVER give blood again. Turns out I really AM too small!
I want to thank all my sweet friends who helped out last night. God’s hand was so present, and I am grateful. Even to the point that He made sure we were crammed in close enough together for discussion that when I passed out, the nearest thing for my head to land on was sweet Vicki’s shoulder! I will be OK, but I have certainly learned my lesson!
Last night we watched the movie “Expelled” with some friends. It’s Ben Stein’s take on how the scientific community is losing its freedom as certain ideas seem to be forced on those who expect to advance in the scientific community. Specifically, Mr. Stein is addressing the issue of Intelligent Design versus Darwinian Evolution and how anyone that suggests there is any Intelligence behind creation is pretty much written off by scientists. That’s the point of the movie, but I was most struck by one particular argument made by an evolutionist atheist.
During an interview with Mr. Stein, this atheist made a statement that went something like this, “It’s time that religion was put in it’s place…a thing that people do for fun that doesn’t really affect the rest of their life.”
I was totally shocked by this. There are people out that that really think that what I put all my faith in is “just for fun”!! The Bible says that the Word will be foolishness to those who don’t believe, so I am not surprised when people don’t believe or understand my faith in Christ, but to think that it’s all “just for fun”? This really hits hard.
As believers, we are called to be salt and light to the world. We are not to conform to the world. We are to be different. If people think that it’s all “just for fun”, then we are not living as we should be. I know that I am guilty, too, but I would challenge us all to live in such a way that others would know that our LIVES are all about our belief in Christ and not something we do on the weekends “just for fun”.