Saturday, July 31, 2010

PICTURES FROM OUR TRIP TO SLC


It was a rainy day when we took these.  The next to the last picture is the glass fountain in the Conference Center.  The picture of downtown is from our hotel window.

MORE FAMILY


I seriously need to take more pictures at family gatherings. :0+

ADMIT IT, I GOT THE BEST PICTURE :0)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

GETTING A 5 YEAR OLD TO GO TO SLEEP

The first night of our Dallas trip, when we were in Amarillo,  my 5 year old granddaughter didn't want to go to sleep because she was so excited to be going to Dallas.  She was talking 90 miles a minute.  She told us about some tv show or something where some woman had said to someone in a car that she had to go to the bathroom.  They said they didn't want to stop.  She said, "I pee when I sneeze!"  The 5 year old thought that was so funny and kept saying it over and over.  (Ah, bathroom humor....)  Finally I said to everyone: "Ok, we're all going to go to sleep and we're not going to say anything to "5 Year Old" even if she keeps talking, because we have to get up early."  We all (except the 5 year old) turned over to try to go to sleep.  She kept talking and finally stopped.  There was silence for a few seconds and then she sneezed and said, "Oops, I peed!"
I can't tell you the amount of self control it took for all 3 of us to not say a word.  I guess it worked though, because - since we didn't comment or laugh - she quit talking and went to sleep. The next day the 12 year old said, "I had to cover my face with my pillow to keep from laughing!"   We all did.  :0)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

ANTI-BACTERIAL

While we were swimming in our hotel this weekend, my 5 year old granddaughter had to go to the bathroom.  I took her and my 6 year old granddaughter to the swimming pool bathroom.  The 5 year old had problems pulling up her wet swimming suit, so I went in to help.  I was wearing my sun glasses, and as I bent over to pull up her suit, my sun glasses fell off and fell into the toliet, which hadn't been flushed.  The 5 year old and I both cried, "Oh no!!"  The 6 year old said, "What happened?"  I said, "My sun glasses fell into the toliet!"  She cried, "Throw them away!! Throw them away!!"  She was horrified that I did not throw them away, but picked them up and went to the sink and washed them with soap and water and then put them back on. :0)

OUT OF THE MOUTHS' OF BABES....

Last weekend I went to Dallas with one of my daughters and my 2 granddaughters to visit my oldest daughter and her family.  One day we went swimming in the motel swimming pool where we were staying.  I was playing with 2 of my granddaughters - a 5 year old and a 6 year old.  They had taken their arm "floaties" off and the 6 year old was holding them under her armpits to try to float with them that way.  The 5 year old said, "Oh look, now you have arms like Grandma's!"  :0+

Sunday, July 11, 2010

TENDER MERCIES

Yesterday I had to make 240 fruit skewers for a wedding of one of my ex-Seminary students.  I had 3 people that originally signed up to help me, and I had 2 more ladies come over to help too.  I had stressed about this, since the sealing was at 11am and we were supposed to do the fruit at 1pm.  I had a granddaughter's birthday party at 3:30 and had to have the fruit up to the church by 5:30.  I was borrowing some platters from a friend of mine who is a caterer, but she had 2 catering jobs Thursday and Friday.  She was supposed to call me when I could come pick up the platters.  She didn't call. Friday night I called her again.  No answer.  Saturday morning I woke up at 4am with a panic attack, wondering what I was going to do.  I decided that I'd get up early and shower and get dressed and go to the store and BUY some platters and then go on over to the wedding.  At 8:30am my friend called and said she didn't get the platters back until 10pm.  She said she was going out of town in a little bit and would drop them off at my house.  So I got up and got dressed and waited.  And waited.  And. Waited.  The wedding was at 11:00 but I needed to be there by 10:45 at the latest and it was a 30 minute drive.  I didn't make it.  She didn't show up until after 10:30.  So I missed the wedding, but I had the platters.
I decided to take advantage of being home and started on some laundry (in preparation of going on vacation in 2 days) and also started the fruit preparation early.  By the time the ladies got there, I had washed the first sets of fruit, cut the tops off the strawberries, and cut up the watermelon.  We made those 240 fruit skewers (cantaloupe, grapes, watermelon, pineapple and a strawberry on the end) in an hour and a half.  The ladies left and in another 20 minutes I had cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen with time to sit and put my feet up before my granddaughters party. 
I went to her party - a Fairy Party, where each little girl got a fairy skirt, headband, wings and magic wand, and the little boys got shorts with "leaves" stitched across the legs, and "leaf anklets" to wear, as well as wings and magic wands for them.  Tinkerbelle was there and the kids got their pictures taken with her. Everything was so cute and we had lots of fun watching the kids! I had to leave before the cake and ice cream, but I was there an hour and a half and got to see her open her presents.  I went home and changed into a skirt, took the fruit to the church, went through the reception line to congratulate the bride and groom, and went home.  My husband and I got a bite to eat, I did more laundry and we loaded the truck with all the junk we're taking on vacation (fishing gear, 2 one-man boats, canopy, lawn chairs).  Then I went back to the church, picked up my empty dishes and came home and finished the laundry. 
As I was driving home from the reception (the 2nd time) I thought to myself, "See, why do you panic?  Everything works out.  See how blessed you are?"  The Lord knows who we are, He knows what we do and what is important to us.  He blesses us with "tender mercies" over and over and over.  We just have to recognize them.
:0)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

WAIT A MINUTE, MR. POSTMAN!

I saw in some news today that the Postal Service is going to raise the price of stamps to 46 cents.  When I saw that I thought, "46 cents? What are they now?"  I got online to the Postal Service and saw that they are 44 cents now.   Since when did they go up to 44 cents?  I thought it was only 42 cents and I know I have mailed out a couple of letters in the past couple of months that only had a 42 cent stamp on them. I wondered how in the world I could have missed that and then I remembered, "Oh yeah, I've been out of the country!!!"  I guess raising the price of US stamps to 44 cents is not big news in Ireland. :0)

Monday, July 5, 2010

BYE, BYE CHEVRON

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to the Chevron not far from my house to get some gas and noticed it wasn't a Chevron anymore.  It was a Circle K gas station.  I thought, "Well, I'm on my way to Sam's Club, so I'll just stop at the other Chevron on the way.  I pulled into that Chevron and it had signs taped over the credit card slot that said, "No Debit or Credit Cards.  Cash Only".  I thought that was odd, so thought I'd drive up the hill and check out that Chevron just to make sure.  Sure enough, they had the same signs taped over their credit card slots.  So I went back down the hill and got gas at a Phillips 66 station.  I wondered if maybe their computers were down. 

Today I went shopping and needed gas again, so stopped at the Chevron and the signs were still there.  I was talking on my cell phone to Amber at the time and she told me she had heard that all the Chevrons in our town were bought up by an independent company.  I have a Chevron/Texaco card.  I used to have a Chevron Card and a Texaco Card, but they merged.  I got rid of my Diamond Shamrock card (which is now Valero, by the way.)  I really hate to see Chevron and Texaco go out of business in my area.  I liked both of those stations and was keeping my Chevron/Texaco card because I like to put my gas on one card so I can see right away how much we spend in gas a month.  Now I'm thinking maybe I should cancel it too.  Both of these Chevron stations used to be the busiest gas stations in this area. In fact the one on the way to shopping was THE busiest and a lot of times I would pull in there and it would be so full, I'd have to just go shopping and come back later and try to get a pump.  Now both stations look like they have the plague or something.  There was ONE car there getting gas, and another car pulled in and then pulled back out like I did, after seeing the signs.  I can't believe Chevron would give up a good business like that.  I wonder if they lost their lease?  Got an offer they couldn't refuse?