Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, & my 100th post!

I hope everybody has a good Christmas! And that you all get what you wanted under the tree. Even if you didn't, there is always those nice gift cards and you can buy what you wanted.

This is my 100th post! I think it is a good number to end the year. Most of you had your 100th post many months ago. Some of you joined us recently, and aren't quite there yet.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

See you all next year!

the heartbeat

Today I had a doctor appointment and Dust met me there. I wasn't sure if we would be able to hear the baby's heartbeat. I thought it might be a little early still. If not, I thought it was a good idea if Dust came just so he could see the office and meet my doctor.

Dust may have been a little uncomfortable. There was another man in the waiting room though. The nurse told me that there was a good chance that we would hear the heartbeat because I had a small build. Apparently it is easier to hear the heartbeat on smaller women. I was so excited and glad that Dust was there. Dust met my doctor and we talked a bit. She brought over the Doppler radio looking thing over and placed the device over my belly. I was worried for a little bit because she had a hard time finding the heartbeat. "There's the baby," she said. "It was moving around on me." The heartbeat sounded like a helicopter noise at a distant. Dust's coworker told him that it would sound like a helicopter and he was right. How cool!

That experience made my pregnancy seem more real now. I really do have a baby living inside of me!

"fear of rejection"

I bet the title "fear of rejection" may sound a bit weird because you immediately think of what a guy fears when he asks a girl out. I think the title can also be applied to what I am writing. It has to do with making new friends. I have a hard time asking someone to do something on the weekends with Dust and I because of a fear of rejection. Here is a story that happened to me that will illustrate my point.

A few years ago, a man Dust knew invited him to some event that he had tickets for. I thought it would be nice if I asked the woman relative of this man to do something. She said yes at first and I got excited to get to know her better. We were going to go to a movie. Later she asked if her sister could come. Of course I said yes. I did think it would be nice to get to know her too. A few days later, she asked if her best friend could come and also her sister's best friend. I couldn't really say no. I was hurt that they each wanted to bring their best friend. I thought the point of the whole night was to get to know each other better. I can't really get to know you if you have your best friend there.

Another story. Dust and I invited a couple to go out to eat with us. We paid for their meal as a gesture of kindness. We seemed to get along great. The conversation seemed to flow naturally. A few weeks later, I invited them over to our house. We played some games and talked. Since I had initiated two outings, I decided to wait for them to ask us to do something. That call or invite never came. I was really hurt. I don't know what happened.

I was thinking about all of this today because of some thoughts I had after Sunday School. We talked about the two conversations that happen when you are talking to someone.

the surface: whatever it is that our mouths are saying.
the heart: does it communicate that you like or dislike the person?

I realized that if I dislike someone, it does show up in the way that I communicate with that person. When I talked with the people in the above stories after the events happened, I communicated to them that I did not like them. I feel so bad about that now. They probably had no clue why I wasn't being that friendly with them. They probably think that I am stuck up. Maybe the moral of this story should be: if someone hurts you, let them know about it. I have a hard time telling someone that I was hurt by something that they did or did not do.

crazy weekends

Drew's sister graduates college tomorrow with her MBA. We will be going to the ceremony. Drew's parents will also be there, so it will be nice to see them also. We will have to miss Crazy and Jimbabwe's party. How sad. Hope everyone has a good time!

We are going to try to make church on Sunday. I need to turn in my Christmas cards! Hopefully we can rest that afternoon. The following weekend will be busy also with Christmas! We are attempting again to spend time with both sets of family. We will be the traveling fools.

Pride & Prejudice

I saw the new movie of Pride & Prejudice last night and I loved it! The previews looked good and I am always up for a romantic movie. I went into the movie knowing nothing about the characters or the plot. Can you believe that I have never read the book or even seen a different movie version of it?

I thought about what the book Blue Like Jazz said about Pride & Prejudice. "You will know the heart of a woman if you read Pride & Prejudice." I thought about how Elizabeth fell in love with Mr. Darcy. She had some major grieviences with him and some things he did. Because Mr. Darcy loved Elizabeth so much he corrected the wrongs that he made. He brought Mr. Bingley and her sister Jane back together. He also saved Elizabeth's family from shame by finding Lydia who had run off with that soldier guy. Mr. Darcy even paid for their quick wedding. After doing all of that, how can Elizabeth not love Mr. Darcy? Actions definitely speak louder than words.

I'm losing it!

I just went to make me some Ramen noodles. Yes, I really do like eating Ramen for a snack at night. I put the noodles in the bowl but forgot one important part--the water. I walked away from the microwave and went to check my email. Dust asked me what was that smell? I opened the microwave door to stir my noodles and noticed that it had no water. I laughed and added the water. The water got all brown and I thought, "I haven't put the seasoning in yet." I burned the noodles! The bowl reaked of the burn smell. I was so mad! Dust said that it wasn't a big deal because I only wasted 15 cents.

My second attempt at Ramen is now in the microwave. I should go check on it. My lack of sleep is really messing me up.

Busy weekend

Friday night we went to Buca's on the Plaza to eat with the young married's group at our church. We met at the church and carpooled. Our reservation was at 8:30 pm, so we walked around the Plaza first. We went into Gap and Barnes & Noble. Our waiter at Buca's was really energetic and made it fun. I was amazed at how long the hallways went back in the restaurant. I actually got lost on the way back from the restroom. I had the chicken parmegiano (sp?) and it was really good. Dust and I had the leftovers on Saturday.

On Saturday, we went to Wal-Mart to buy some mouse traps. I didn't mention this earlier, but my cat Autum did catch a mouse and ate it whole. I was so grossed out! Our cat has been prowling around the stove and our living room couch. So, we think there has to be more mice. We caught up on our tv shows Lost and Martha Stewart Apprentice. I also put up our Christmas tree and decorated it. After that we watched, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." It was the original "Rat Race" movie. It was too long and I got bored with it.

Sunday, we went to Sunday School and church. After lunch, I made an appetizer and a dessert for our home group party. My mini cheese balls turned out ok. My dessert was Oreo Rocky Road bars. I was worried that they wouldn't turn out. Everyone seemed to like them at the party though. We sat around and ate. After eating, we played the game Outburst with boys against the girls. Unfortunately the boys won, but not by much.

"the napper"

My brother is just one of those types of people that love to take naps. He will take a nap anywhere. As you can see, he found a spot between a table and the couch at my great-aunt's house on Thanksgiving. And he doesn't just take cat naps. They are usually several hours long.

When my brother was elementary school age, he thought it would be fun to take a nap behind the Christmas tree. My mother couldn't find him and got scared and started yelling around the house. My brother didn't hear her. I finally found him up against the wall hidden behind the Christmas tree upstairs.

I don't know where his fascination with odd napping places came from. I guess it is just his adventurous spirit oozing out into sleeping. If I feel like napping somewhere different, I just go to the guest bedroom.

"I will never be the same again"

This is the praise/worship song that ran through my head a few weeks ago. "I will never be the same again, I can never return, I've closed the door." I had confirmed what I suspected--I am pregnant. Two lines appeared on the pregnancy test. Dust and I are thrilled!

We just told our families over Thanksgiving. My parents and brother were totally shocked. I had lead them to believe that it might be awhile before we had kids. I was able to tell my grandparents that they will now be great-grandparents. This is the first grandchild on both sides of our families. This baby will be spoiled!

I am starting my seventh week of pregnancy. I haven't had any morning sickness so far. The baby is due July 15th. We will know whether it is a boy or a girl in January.

So, did I surprise or shock anyone?

non-accommodating individuals

I have been thinking about some of the things that we discussed in Sunday School. We talked about how single people can fall into the trap of being self absorbed and non-accomodating to other people's schedules. Parents have to cater their schedules to take care of their children. Having children takes the focus off of you and onto your child. What got me thinking was some married couples that I know that seem very non-accomodating. Usually in marriage one learns that there is give and take in the relationship. If you love your spouse, you will let them plan an evening to do what they enjoy doing.

I have noticed a pattern in the life of one of my relatives. He hardly ever agrees to something that his spouse wants to do. I can't imagine being that way. If Dust was excited about going someplace, I would make sure that we would be able to do it. When they went on a vacation, the wife told the husband all the places that she wanted to stop at. She wanted him to find them on the map and make sure that they stopped. He didn't even try to locate the places and kept on driving because he wanted to make good time. She was very dissappointed. So, it is possible to be a selfish individual and be married with kids. Maybe the wife needs to do a better job at making her husband realize how selfish he is.

Both of the spouses I am talking about tend to be on the complaining side. They hardly ever have anything nice to say about any meal that you fix for them. If you put grits in front of him, he will say I hate grits. They complain if they don't get to eat at exactly noon for lunch and around five-o-clock for dinner. If the majority of the family wants to watch a tv show and she wants to sit and visit, the family will try to accommodate her.

One of my biggest pet peaves is selfish acting people. If I am around someone being totally selfish, I get so disgusted that I want to puke. I would love to tell them to grow up because they are acting like a child.

another mouse??

Today I noticed my cat sitting outside the door leading into the garage. She never sits in that spot. It got me thinking that she must be smelling a mouse on the other side. I decided to open the door and let her go out into the garage. She started pacing around the trash bags. There was obviously something behind there. Dust moved the bags around to make room for Autum to get behind them. She guarded the trash bags. Maybe the mouse was actually inside the garbage bag like last time. I kept checking on her hoping to find a dead mouse. Nothing.

I decided to turn off the light in the garage. I thought that a mouse would be more likely to come out in the dark. I checked on Autum again and no dead mouse in sight.

I think that I am going to start a ritual. I am going to encourage Autum to go out in the garage on week nights and hunt for varmin. I am always going to make sure that she comes out of the garage though. I had a cat die once when it climbed up and hid underneath/inside our family car. We started the car and left for church. The cat couldn't hold on from wherever she was underneath the car and we ran over her. We had only driven down the street from our house. Very sad.

the little varmint

This morning was trash pick-up day. I always put the garbage out in the garage until pick-up day so it doesn't stink the house up. Also, because Dust has a sensitive nose and I will hear complaining if I don't. I picked the sack up and took it through the living room because I had decided to go out the front door. I should have just pushed the garage door open and gone through that way. I placed the sack on the linoleum entryway and went to get my coat. I thought I heard the trash move and just figured it was settling. I picked up the sack and opened the front door! Aack! There was a mouse! I screamed and opened the screen door and it bolted out the door. It all happened so fast! I can only assume that the mouse came from the garbage sack. It must have ate a hole out of the sack somewhere or climbed through the top hole.

I put the sack at the end of my drive-way. When I was going back into the house, I saw the mouse outside. It was drowning in our sea of leaves trying to make it to the surface. It pressed up against the outside wall of the house. It wanted back in! No way! I was worried when I opened the garage door to leave for work. I thought the mouse might try to run back in. There might be other mice in our garage!

How funny that gigi is having a mouse experience also.

Thanksgiving and Macy's parade

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week! After the snow today, though, I am getting in the mood for the holidays. My favorite part of Thanksgiving as a child, and also now, is the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade.

My brother and I loved getting up and watching the parade. I got excited when the Garfield balloon came on the tv screen and I ran and got my Garfield stuffed animals. Other balloons that I liked were Underdog, Snoopy, and most recently SpongeBob. There was a float that had a turkey with eyes that blinked that I always liked. They always highlighted a musical and the performance was boring for a child. During the commercials we would turn the oven light on and watch the turkey. It seems like every year there is a group of kids with white pants and colored gloves that do hand movements. Maybe they were in the happy hands club? : )

Once Santa ended the parade, I knew it was close to time to eat the turkey! It also meant that the Lions football game would be on. My brother would put his Lions jersey and blow-up helmet on and the screaming would begin.

the elderly

I have been thinking about something that I have known for a long time. Elderly people seem to love to talk to me. I have been in buffet lines at restaurants and an elderly person in front of me will turn around and say something to me. Dust has the same thing happen to him. Maybe we have nonassuming friendly faces. Another thing is that I have no problem talking to elderly people. I can usually have a conversation with them and not have any awkward silent moments. I have known some people my age and younger that just don't like or want to talk to people their grandparents' age.

My parents conduct some of the church services at a retirement home that is associated with my church denomination. My brother leads the song service and my father and brother both play trumpet specials. My mother plays the piano. When I was in high school and college I would go and help greet the elderly as they come in the chapel. Again the elderly women and men loved to talk to me and I loved talking to them also. They all had great stories. Occasionally, some of the women wanted me to sit with them. The chapel was connected at the end of the hall of the retirement building. I would sometimes help push them back to their room in their wheelchair.

I almost connect better with people that are older than me. I always have made friends with people that are older than me. Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade. Maybe I should just realize that God created my personality and that I can minister to the elderly.

feeling old

On Wednesday night, the adult classes were combined with the youth revival service. Our Pastor was joking with us about our age, but he told us that we needed to sit near the back so the youth could have the front pews. The lights were turned out which is a very youth type of thing to do. It did help in focusing your worship though because there was no being distracted by watching people around you. Throughout the service, I just kept feeling old. I have been out of youth group for a long time now. The two people leading worship had to be younger than me. The speaker for the night had to be younger than me also. That is when you know you are old--if the minister for the evening is younger than you. My age group and younger is now the responsible adults in charge of things! That is scary! I know I have been responsible with my life, but that is somehow different than being the "role model in charge."

loser!

Has anyone else typed in the wrong letters for the word verification? I don't know what my problem is! Dust was posting comments just a while ago, and he missed two of the word verifications. The q, p, i, and t are hard for me to pick out. If an r and n are close together it almost looks like an m. I feel like such a loser when I got those wrong. Why do they swirl the letters real close together? Is that really necessary? The point of the whole thing is for a person to manually enter letters to keep spam away. Why make it so difficult for the person? Maybe I need to go back to Kindergarten. Or get better glasses.

hotdogs

For lunch on Saturday, Dust and I tried out the new hotdog place next to the guy's coffee house. It had a cute mom and pop type restaurant feel to it. Besides the huge cutting edge flat screen tv hung on the wall. The vienna beef hotdogs were quality tasting. I did think it was a little overpriced-$3.25 for an average sized hot dog with chili on it. Chips did come with it and drinks were $1.29 extra. I was still hungry after I left the restaurant. I am glad that we tried it out though.

Being at the hotdog restaurant reminded me of my first job. It was at a German hotdog restaurant-the brats were actually imported from Germany. You definately got your money's worth there. The toppings and chili were loaded on heavily that you definately had to eat it with a fork. I worked there with my best friend and we had a blast. On Saturday late afternoons we ran the whole place and locked up by ourselves! Scary! I ran the cash register and took orders and my best friend cooked and made the dogs. We had the same guy customer every Saturday afternoon. He would come in and stare at the menu for ten minutes or longer. We tried not to burst out laughing because he always ordered the same thing! A Heineken beer and a corn dog of all things!

heaters and dirt

Today we had maintenance done on our heater. I was available to be home to let the repairman inside. The repairman came to the door and asked me if Dust was home yet. I told him it was easier for me to be home than Dust. Dust had previously planned on leaving work. He probably thought oh, great I have to explain all of this to a woman. I tried to listen real carefully to everything he told me. He wasn't condescending or anything and didn't make me feel stupid. I got the impression that he wanted me to watch what he was doing. It's hard to know whether standing by a repairman makes them nervous or annoyed. I went back upstairs when he ran the vacuum through the heater. I wrote down everything he told me on a piece of paper so I wouldn't forget to tell Dust.

While we were watching for the heater to kick on, he started cleaning the unit with a rag. I was so embarrassed with how dirty it was. I made a comment about how I needed to clean it better. He said it is hard because the washer and dryer is so close to it. The lint that you find in the lint trap will blow out and cling to the heater. There was a sticker on the unit that was about to fall off and he asked if he could tear it off. Another embarrassing moment. He had to check some numbers or cables or something outside the house and when he came back in he said he didn't want to get the carpet dirty because he had stepped outside. I really didn't care. He stayed on the linoleum entryway and gave me the paperwork. I picked up on the fact that he was a neat freak. I usually don't worry about how clean the house is because I generally think that men, especially repairmen, don't mind dirt. Guess I was wrong this time.

bad attitude

I have been struggling with a bad attitude about things. It has been going on for many months now. I come from a family of complainers so it comes easily to me. I am annoyed by complainers, yet I am one myself. Sometimes certain complaining can be funny, though.

Over the summer I got an attitude whenever I found out that I had to bring a side dish to any event. For some reason every event at the church requires you to bring a side dish. I decided that my side dishes would always be potato chips and cookies. : ) I hate making any type of food to bring to any event. I just got finished making a double chocolate mousse dessert for Dust's work Halloween party tomorrow. When I made it, it didn't look like there was enough. So I went to the grocery store to buy another packet of jell-o pudding filling. I thought I had enough cool whip. After putting the mousse in the bowl, it still didn't fill the bowl up. So, we decided to go back to the grocery store for some more cool whip to top the mousse with. It looks presentable now. So much hassle and agony over a stupid dessert. I remembered again why I don't like to make dishes. I feel so inept in the cooking department. And the creative department..

Comedian

A couple of weeks ago, Dust and I watched the documentary Comedian with Jerry Seinfeld. It was interesting to see what a comedian goes through when preparing for a show. Apparently, it is not a good idea to start out with new material. Most everyone agreed that you should start your routine with an old joke that is known to get laughs. Once the crowd is warmed up, then you can bring in new material.

Some of the comedians interviewed were: Colin Quinn, Orny Adams, Bill Cosby, and Jay Leno. It was cool hearing some of them talk in a bar or a casual environment. It felt like you were hanging out with them.

I was surprised that Jerry Seinfeld was nervous at several of his shows. This was taped when he had just come back into the comedy scene after leaving his sitcom. He started getting his feet wet again in some clubs in New York. We got to see him go through the process of being comfortable doing routines close to an hour.

I was able to see one of Seinfeld's "long" shows in person a couple years ago when he was in the area. I laughed so hard that I cried! I had tears streaming down my face the whole time. It was definately worth the money I spent for the ticket.

"the inner lives of men"

I have been reading the book "for women only" by Shaunti Feldhahn. On the cover it says, "what you need to know about the inner lives of men." Our home group hosts gave a copy of the book to every woman. Dust has been intrigued to see what a woman author knows about men. The author surveyed and interviewed all types of men.

I knew that men needed to be respected, but I didn't realize it was that important. 74% of men surveyed would rather be alone and unloved than inadequate and disrespected when forced to choose between the two. I would much definately want to be loved! One man surveyed said that at a minimum, he wants his wife to be supportive of him in public. Men complained about how painful it was to be criticized by their wife in public. Dust told me that there are some teasing that he doesn't mind. He doesn't want me to stop joking around with him.

When wives ask their husbands if they have done a certain task around the house, husbands hear, "I don't trust you." It is no wonder men hate being nagged. Procrastinating on a home task can be a sign that he's about to emotionally or physically crash. We (women) assume that he's choosing not to help.

I found it interesting that most men feel like imposters. They think they are just one mess up from being found out that they really don't know what they are doing. This is in regards to their jobs and being a husband or father. I guess most men aren't as confident as they appear to be. Affirmation is everything to a man. They need to feel appreciated.

Just some tidbits that I thought I would pass along. This is a really good book.

stream-of-consciousness-talking

Have you ever met someone who talks without hardly pausing between sentences? It is like their stream of consciousness thinking but they are speaking it. That is ok when you are brainstorming on a piece of paper, just don't say it. My brain processes things slowly when I am listening to someone. If someone is talking like that my brain goes into overload and I don't comprehend anything.

I was thinking about this recently when I was watching Gilmore Girls. I had heard a lot of good things about this show. I know several women who watch it faithfully. I just can't get into the show! I think it is because Loralei and Rory talk so fast all the time that I can't understand what's going on. It drives me crazy! They both talk to each other in a stream-of-consciousness type of way.

When someone seems to rattle on with no point in mind, I seem to loose interest. I know that a lot of women talk to each other this way. My mother talks like that and so did my grandmother. When my grandmother would talk to her sisters, they all would be talking and noone would be listening. Maybe it was my rebellion to not be a talker.

Listeners unite!

my brother the adventurer

My brother loves to travel and is constantly on the go. Does he have money for all of his adventures? Not really. Right now he only works on Tuesdays and Thursdays teaching college classes. He never ceases to amaze me. I got a call last night which woke me up out of bed. I get scared when I get calls at night. I always think the worst has happened. It was my brother on the phone and the first thing I asked was if he was ok. He was fine but needed my help in his next adventure. Apparently, the St. Louis Cardinals won their game last night and are still in the series. My brother "J" was buying some tickets to the next game online. He was going to be in my area on Wednesday and wanted to know if he could ship the tickets to my house. Of course I said yes. He was going to be visiting a friend in the prison nearby. He also wanted to spend the night Tuesday. And he is bringing his best friend along too. On Wednesday, he would visit his friend in prison, come back to my house and get the tickets, and drive to the St. Louis game. Crazy stuff! This is par for the course for my brother. I can't count the number of times he has called saying he needs to spend the night at my house and then things don't work out at the last minute. I have my house clean tonight in case he really does show up.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene???

My Dad likes to watch the History channel on tv. So does Dust. The last time we were at my parents' house there was a show on about Jesus. It mentioned the DaVinci Code book. I had no clue what the book was about. I was disgusted when I heard a lady say that she thinks Jesus had an affair with Mary Magdalene. How could she be saying this about my Lord? It seemed like blasphemy to me. The Bible never mentions that Jesus was married or had children. If He was married, that wouldn't really change my views. I do have a problem with people saying that Jesus had affairs. This lady seemed wacked out. She said that the Holy Grail is actually a person. That person is Mary Magdelene's daughter whose father was Jesus. Where do people come up with these ideas?

I don't know if I would like the DaVinci Code book if I read it. I probably should read it though just so I know what everybody is talking about.

my revelation

I had a revelation about myself last night. It came while I was watching the Apprentice. Torral had thought the "blondes" were out to get her. They all clicked together perfectly but her and Rebecca were on the outside. I think Torral must have had bad experiences in the past where she was excluded. I had a bad experience where I was excluded from a group. Because of that one bad experience, I sometimes think I am excluded from a group when maybe I'm not. If I am around the type of girls that excluded me the first time, I think that they will behave in the same manner. It is almost like a self-fulfilled prophecy. I may think certain girls are mean and out to get me and maybe after the way I behave, they will be mean back. I think I perceive things that aren't actually happening. That one bad experience has scarred my social life ever since.

Another thing I have realized is that I have an overdeveloped sense of empathy. I have too much of a good thing. I feel other people's pain as deeply as they are hurt. I am not trying to brag or toot my own horn. I feel sorry for people that maybe aren't feeling hurt. I am sad when I see someone eating alone at a restaurant. Maybe this is a gift that God gave me. God gives everyone different gifts.

Hope I didn't reveal too much of myself and scare people off. : )

self check-out lanes

I think I am getting better at using the self check-out lanes that some stores have now. I have had problems in the past where the machine would say, "unauthorized item in the bagging area." How embarrassing! It makes people around you think that you are trying to steal something. The self check-out supervisor has to come over and clear the screen.

I went to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood market Saturday and unloaded all my groceries onto the conveyor belt of the self check-out lane. I pulled my empty cart forward and started scanning my items. All my moves were very deliberate. I waited a second after putting the item in the bag before I scanned again or picked the bag up. The machine didn't have anything bad to say to me this time! I paid and left. After I had been home several hours, it dawned on me that I hadn't unpacked the toilet paper. There weren't any bags left that I hadn't unpacked. I looked in the trunk, but it was empty. I remember putting the 24 roll pack in my cart. I went through my motions. I remember putting the toilet paper on the conveyor, but I don't remember scanning it. I must have left it there. How could I have missed scanning and bagging the huge pack of toilet paper. Idiot! Well, I thought that I had the system mastered. Next time I will have to remember to actually scan and bag the items. Toilet paper is now on my grocery list again.

Crazy girl

Have you ever met someone so crazy that you can't believe that they are for real? I knew a girl that was so wacked out. She was a former co-worker of mine. All the talk about office workers recently has reminded me of her. She answered the phones at our office and our desks were positioned where we could talk to each other while we were working. A lot of the things she told me at work might not be appropriate to list on a blog. I apologize ahead of time. She should have been fired for the many things she said. She came back from lunch one day laughing and said, "I just had a quickie with my boyfriend." I died laughing because I couldn't believe that she just told me that.

She was extremely entertaining at work. There was always a big crisis in her life and the whole office had to know about it. She lied about being married in order to rent a house. The whole office heard her because she was talking to the person who was renting the house at work. She would have yelling fights with her boyfriend at work all the time. She broke up with her boyfriend while working there. She started dating another guy and told everyone that he was 1/4 black, 1/4 indian, and 1/2 white. She made a lot of racial jokes after that.

I know that I had an influence in her life. God put me there for a reason and her there for a reason. She started going to church with her mother on Sundays. Every Monday morning she asked me if I went to church on Sunday. Every Thursday morning she asked me how church was Wednesday night. She was amazed with my consistency. She didn't think Christians could be cool. She told me that I was cool. I hope I showed her that legalism isn't Christianity. I hope she still goes to church.

the office environment

I think it is fun to work in an office environment. This week's show of The Office was about the games the employees played while the boss was away. Jim and Pam invented the Dunder Company Olympics. I cracked up when I saw two employees racing with boxes of copy paper strapped to their feet. They really went all out with medals and a ceremony.

I was reminded of the fun times I had at my previous workplace while the boss and office manager were gone. We would play bowling with a masking tape ball and set various objects up in the hallway to knock down. Our company also had some big balloons with our logo on it that we all decided to blow up one day. One computer tech guy decided to put skittles in his balloon. He accidentally let go of his balloon and skittles went flying everywhere. We all tried to help pick them up before the boss got back. There was also the rubber band fights. It is fun flipping rubber bands over cubicle walls.

Similar to The Office, the majority of my previous co-workers hated their job. Several of them were major slackers. One guy watched movies and episodes of the Family Guy on his computer during the lunch hour. I don't think he asked if he could, but noone said anything. A friend of mine surfed the internet for the majority of the day. I'm not talking about the occassional blogging that we all do. She took about ten smoking breaks during the day. She also would leave when the boss was gone and walk down the street and go into stores.

Those were fun times but probably not productive times. There is no goofing around at my current workplace. It is a professional and classy environment. I also don't have any other co-workers to goof around with. Just me and my boss. I do make occassional comments though with the people that we share our office space.

"Worst day of my life, what do you think!"

This afternoon I went to the Shawnee Mission Urgent Care inside the Oak Park Mall. I found out that I have a urinary tract infection. As I was pulling out of my parking space, I hit a car. I did not see it at all. My bumper dented the driver's side door. I pulled back into my parking space. There was a circle shaped tear in my bumper. The 80-year-old lady inside the car that I hit was fine. I felt like a heel because the lady had a cane. She did not want to move her car though. She couldn't get the door open. She asked me to open it for her and I couldn't get it open either. How is this lady with a cane going to slide over to the passenger's door and get out? She asked me to call the police. I had no clue what the number was. I went back inside the Urgent Care office and they gave me the Mall security number. Security told me that the police would not come out because no one was injured and alcohol was not involved. The security also told me that we could file a police report at the station. The lady still did not want to leave the scene of the accident. I told her that we should exchange information and then call our insurance companies. As I was talking to her at her window, three separate hispanic ladies in vehicles honked and yelled at me. I was so ticked, that I yelled back, "We had a car accident." One lady rolled her eyes at me. Another lady pulled in a parking space and told me to ask the 80-year old to move her car. I said we were in an accident and we didn't want to move the cars. The only lady that was nice to me was a Chinese lady that said I'm sorry. What is wrong with these people? All this time I am thinking I do not have time for this. I need to get my prescription filled! I am in pain!

After the 80-year-old lady had called her son on my cell phone and asked him what to do, then she finally agreed to leave and go get a police report. As we walked into the police station, there was a red phone that had a sign that read, "Please pick up phone to file a police report." When I told the lady on the phone that the car accident occurred in the mall parking lot, she said that we didn't need to file a report because it was on private property. What a waste of time.

Moral of the story: Do not have a fender bender in a mall parking lot. Women shoppers have no mercy if you are blocking a lane. Do not hit old ladies.

Worlds of Fun

Saturday, Dust and I went to Worlds of Fun. Dust's work paid for the tickets and a meal. There was a buffet of brisket, beans, hot dogs, chicken, potato salad and etc. for all the employees of the company Dust works for. It was in a pavilion called Tivoli East.

I previously had a low opinion of the new ride Spinning Dragons. If the four people in the cart are of equal weight, the cart does not spin at all. So this time we tried to offset the weight distribution. Dust and t-bop sat on one side and I sat on the other. We got the cart spinning pretty good. It was nice having Dust's coworkers to talk to while waiting in line.

The Mamba is one of my favorite rides. They were having electronic difficulties that day and we were only able to ride it once. We watched two of the carts get stuck half-way on the ride. People were sitting in them for quite a while. I wonder if they made everyone get out and walk down the steps, or if they were able to get the carts to run the rest of the ride.

After some of his coworkers left, we decided to ride some of the lame fair-type rides. It started to rain, so we decided to get under the pavilion for the Octopus ride. We thought the rain would stop but it didn't. We really didn't think this through. So here Dust and I are on the Octopus ride and the rain is pouring down. The problem with this ride is that they can only load one cart at a time. It takes forever to load and unload everybody. Our jeans were entirely soaked by the time we got off the ride. We just started laughing when we found ourselves at the top of the ride. We ran from pavilion to pavilion as we made our journey out of the park.

The killer

If you look close enough you can see that my cat Autum has just killed a grasshopper. It is funny that after the kill, she sits beside it like she is protecting it. She leaves treasures like these all around the house. I get the priviledge of disposing of the body.

I tell Dust that she is earning her keep around here by killing bugs and grasshoppers. Dust likes to tell her that she is good for nothing when he walks out the door in the morning. It is not like you are going to see him kill any bugs. : )

One thing that is annoying is all of the grasshoppers in our house. What is the deal? How embarrassing! We saw one grasshopper walking on the ceiling the other day. We joked that it had heard about the cat from the other grasshoppers.

Plaza activities

I am really starting to love the Plaza! Dust and I went to the art fair that was held there this last weekend. Talk about crowded! We went to the parking garage located near the Palace theatre and McDonald's. We got one of the last parking spaces on the 5th or 6th level, whichever one is the top. It was kinda cool being on the very top. But then I had a fear of the whole thing collapsing because of the weight.

It was our first time going to the art fair. I really enjoyed myself. I actually recognized the comic strip art that is usually in the Star magazine section of the KC Star. Dust and I took a walk down by the river and noticed that there were gondola rides. How funny and awesome at the same time!

We met Achtung BB, his college friend, and Wah-Wah there. Woogie had a tantrum when we left the Thomas the Train play set at Barnes & Noble. He did ok after we were out the door. We ate at McDonald's because of the kid friendliness. There was a couple there that was totally making out in a booth. The guy and girl were sitting in the same side of the booth. I didn't get it--they looked like they were in their twenties. Hello-find someplace else! I didn't point it out to the group we were with. I don't know if they noticed it or not. Next time I want to try one of the restaurant booths like Uno pizzeria.

Learning something new

Usually every week or so, I seem to learn a new word, disease, song, you name it. Some say you learn something new every day. Once I learn something new, it seems to pop up everywhere and I learn more about the subject. Example: On another person's blog a few days ago, celiac disease was mentioned. I had never heard of that disease and wondered what it was. Today in the newspaper, there was a big article about it. Now I know it involves an allergy to gluten. Several months ago, I learned a new song from a tv show I watched and that week the lyrics ended up on Dash's blog. I learned it was an REM song--Everybody hurts sometimes.

A lot of coincidences seem to happen to me like that. Is God making sure that I am continuing in the learning process? There was a point in my life where I thought that I would be done learning some day. I have realized now that I will never be done learning. I should probably branch out from rock songs and diseases and learn words that I can use in everyday conversations. Actually Dust helps me in that area. He taught me the words disparity and moot. How could I have gone that long in my life without ever hearing about those two words? More important than words, diseases, songs and etc. is learning more about God. Dust has also challenged me in that area also.

it's all about the marketing

I am a fan of the Apprentice with Donald Trump. In almost every challenge the candidates face, marketing is everything. It is the most important function in bringing in sales. Almost every challenge is about which team can make the most money. It still surprises me after watching many episodes, how poorly the marketing is handled. The people on the show are supposed to be very successful, yet they make the most stupidest mistakes.

Kristi had made a flyer with XXX on it advertising a fitness class and she said that it didn't occur to her that it might be thought of as pornographic. Is she naive or just trying to save her butt? Whenever a team decides to hit the streets with flyers as their marketing plan they never seem to win. You would think if the candidates had watched the show before they would know that flyers don't work.

I don't think that I could ever be a sales person though. A lot of it is because of the stereotypical car salesman image. I have a hard time trusting sales people because they are usually just in it for the money. Being the brains behind developing a marketing strategy sounds interesting though.

the mysterious black gunk

My mom was sitting in bed and noticed some black gunk on the sheets. She thought it might be a Reese's Pieces Bite that she had been eating earlier. So she took the sheets off the bed and washed them. The black stuff was still there after being washed. It didn't smell like chocolate and it was like an adhesive.

Mom noticed a spot on her leg that looked like a mole. It was new and it didn't have good borders or coloring. She tried to be observant about that sort of thing because I have had moles removed that may have turned into cancer. She made an appointment at the dermatologist.

After sitting down at the recliner, my mom noticed the black gunk all over the foot rest. She yelled for Dad to come in there and look at it. She asked him if he had seen anything like that before. He said that it looks like the stuff that is all over his boots. Mom went and looked at his boots. Sure enough it was the same thing. My dad had cracks in his boots and instead of going out and buying a new pair, he put some industrial type adhesive on it that he had found at work.
Needless to say, he is in the doghouse now.

After examining her new mole again, Mom tried to pick at it and noticed it could come off. It was the black stuff from Dad's boots! She thought of the embarrassment she would have gone through if the dermatologist had picked it off. She cancelled her appointment.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

As a child, people ask you what you want to be when you grow up. I wonder how many people actually end up doing what they said they were going to do as a child? From about 6th grade on, I had said that I wanted to work in accounting. I followed through with what I wanted to do. My mom told me that my favorite toy when I was around five years old was the desk. I do remember writing and drawing things and filing them in folders. (was I a boring child or what?) I love office work and office supplies! I took two accounting classes in high school. There were only four of us that stuck it through Accounting II.

The only problem with sticking with the same interest is that I didn't branch out into any other areas. I know nothing about history, art, music, and literature. I went through college never having to write any papers. I wasn't complaining, but it does seem wrong doesn't it? I wish I had taken a variety of classes, but then again that does get expensive. I suppose I should have taken the initiative on my own to be knowledgeable in all areas. I am just too lazy! I look up to Dust in the fact that he has taken the initiative to know a little bit about everything so he can have a conversation with anyone he meets.

Will and Grace, Dust and Golden?

Yes, I watch Will and Grace. If you think less of me because I watch it, I am sorry. I think the show is hilarious. All the characters have extreme personalities. Sometimes Will reminds me of Dust (not the gay part) and sometimes Grace reminds me of myself. Dust and I don't bicker like they do, but some of their conversations sound familiar. I am the sloppy messy one like Grace. Dust complains about smells, toothpaste all over the cap, and some dishes in the sink similar to Will. Also, Will can be a little uptight sometimes like Dust. Grace is lazy and I am embarrassed to admit that I am too. She always talks about things and never does them, which I have the same problem.

Dust and I have inside jokes about Will and Grace. We like to quote some of the lines. Example: "Oh, he thinks we do things." (Regarding Grace says she is going to do something but doesn't)

The funny thing is that noone can really understand my true messiness unless you live with me. I always have the house clean for company, so some people don't believe that I could be dirty. Hence my problem of displaying one persona when actually I am another.

Dust thinks that maybe a better comparison to us would be the Odd Couple. I have never watched an episode, but maybe I should. Apparently, Dust used to watch the show all the time.

For those of you who watch Will and Grace, I bet you won't watch it again without thinking of us.

Every day has a schedule

My MomMaw (grandmother on mom's side) loved having routines. She is in Heaven now. I wonder what her schedule is like now? Monday was her laundry day that included washing her white bed sheets. Tuesday was her hair day at the beauty shop. I think she only washed her hair once a week. She had a big ratted poof of a hairstyle. MomMaw was easy to pick out when she came to grandparents day at school. She was the black haired big poof lady. Wednesday was her shopping day at the mall. She had so many purses that she probably bought one every week. MomMaw would buy tacos at Taco Bell or beef sandwhiches at Arby's at the food court and bring them home for supper. I can't remember what she did on Thursdays and Fridays. I think she would go to SDC or Branson with her best friend. MomMaw loved bus trips and she probably left on Fridays.

I was thinking about all of this recently because I realized that I have routines also. Mondays I buy groceries and at night I call my parents. Tuesday I do laundry. I like to have my weekends free of grocery shopping and laundry. That way I can travel and have fun and not worry. If I have time after work and before church on Wednesdays I go shopping. (Wal-mart, mall, Kohls)
Dust has his routine of calling his parents on Sunday night. He likes having schedules also.

Schedules are wonderful!

weekend review

• Went to the Old Settler's Days in Olathe--very crowded. Had my second bag of kettle corn for the week. Enjoyed being with friends.
• Saw the 10 pm showing of Fantastic Four. Awesome movie!
• Caught up on the two episodes of Lost that I missed.
• Arrived at worship nite and left about 10 minutes later. Worship was over and the volleyball began.
• Watched the movie "Racing Stripes." Cute movie and it has stirred my interests in zebras.
• Great Sunday School class. The sermon..not so great.
• Enjoyed an afternoon of girl time with friends. Ate, laughed, and cried. Played Rack-O.
• Ate KFC and played Outburst! I am not much of an outburst type of person. very slow.
• Had trouble sleeping. Dust was awake at 2:45 am. I woke to his tv show Red Dwarf. Took an aspirin. 6 am--woke up to a loud noise--it was the cat's automatic water bowl out of water. I pulled the plug.

"putt putt for the fun of it"

This last weekend, my family and I decided to play miniature golf. We thought it was the one thing that we could beat Dust at! He won at the card game Hearts the night before. I wanted to go to our usual place called "Putt Putt." Their tv commercial slogan was "putt putt for the fun of it."

We realized that my dad accidentally passed by it. When we turned around we could not find it anymore. We knew the exact location, but there was a car lot in its place. I was very sad at the loss of my childhood miniature golf course. We did know of one other course not too far away. It is called Fun Acre. It was only $2 a game. It is impossible to find that low of price anymore. The course did have some fun obstacles like the Eiffel tower thing pictured. I made a hole-in-one on two holes. Some of the other holes I didn't do as well in. I did manage to beat Dust, but my dad did better than I. It was good times with family.

Silver Dollar City

Sunset made an appearance at Silver Dollar City on Sunday. She just had to look into the hole because it said do not look in this hole. The picture inside was lame--a mountain man.

The food and the smells of S.D.C. is what brings me back every year. Cedar chips, kettle corn, big chocolate chip cookies, frozen lemonade, funnel cakes, and skillet griddles. The rides are fun too. The Wildfire roller coaster makes me dizzy. I always have trouble walking straight after getting off that ride. The grandfather's mansion is a classic that I have to do every visit. On the fire-in-the hole, I love quoting the lines, "Come in here and put on your pants." Dust and I got drenched on fire-in-the hole! That is supposed to be a tame ride with little water. My brother and his new girlfriend, and Dust were being party poopers and wouldn't get on any water rides. I wanted to experience it all! So my parents and I rode the American Plunge! We all got soaked on that one, also. Thunderation was a great roller coaster to get dried off on. We did start off the day at the Wilderness Church for Sunday morning service. We sang this little light of mine, and we all had to do the actions! There was on old song called Beulah Land that I did not know. Overall, it was a neat experience. Once I had my bag of kettle corn I was ready to leave.

"Nip it in the bud" or a story about my glasses

I am not normally a procrastinater, but when it comes to fixing problems with objects or people, I am one. I broke the nose pad off of my glasses about a month ago or more. For some reason I just never got around to fixing it. I took the other nose pad off, so my glasses wouldn't be lopsided. Noone has said anything to me about my glasses, so maybe noone noticed. Or maybe my friends did notice but didn't want to point it out. So, I have been wearing my eyeglasses without nose pads. They had been slipping a lot when I had my head down.

Today I realized that I really needed to take care of that problem. I keep hearing Barney Fife from Mayberry in my head telling me to "Nip it in the bud." Whenever I have a task to complete, I repeat, "Nip it, nip it in the bud." I decided to go to Target because I remember them having an eyeglass center in the store. I asked the lady if she had a repair kit and she showed me the little screwdriver. I asked if the kit had nose pads. She said," No, but you need them don't you, I can tell." She took my glasses and proceeded to put two new nose pads on them. She cleaned and adjusted them for me also. She was so nice as we chatted. "It is free of charge," she said. "Are you sure," I said. I thought I might have to pay something because I did not buy my glasses there. Come in any time and they can fix or adjust your glasses for free. Awesome! Target rocks!

school lunches

Do you remember what your favorite meal at the school cafeteria was? Mine was burritos. In elementary, the beef and bean burritos were awesome! They always served cheese sticks with them and I always loved them too. In Kindergarten, we had cheese sticks for snack time. (I had a full day of Kindergarten)

I remember one time the lunch lady monitor made everyone clean their plates. I had bought my lunch and that day they had peas for the veggie. I hate peas. So, when the lady wasn't looking I stuffed the peas in my milk carton.

In high school, we had the option of the pizza bar. I usually had pizza if I was buying my lunch. My friends liked to bring their lunches, so I started doing that with them. I usually did what was cool at the time, whether buying your lunch or bringing it from home. My mom would sometimes pack me chips and candy, so I became real popular with the guys when I was in elementary school. I usually couldn't eat all of it, and if someone asked I usually gave it to them.

Hymns

During the sermon last week at church, I pulled out the hymnal and looked through it. I have a problem with tuning out sermons sometimes. Especially if I have heard it before. I tried to see how many hymns that I recognized and started singing them in my head.

Why are the hymnals still in the rack behind the pew if we never use them? Do some of the senior saints still use them in the first service? The first service occasionally sings a hymn, right? I wouldn't mind singing a hymn every now and then for some variety. I did grow up on them so I don't want to totally disregard them now. My two favorite hymns are "It is well with my soul" and "Blessed Assurance." I like a lot of other ones too.

My parents occasionally go to the "Wilderness Church" at Silver Dollar City on Sunday mornings for service. I can imagine being in the log cabin church with the big window overlooking all the trees. Everyone is singing hymns out of the hymnal on the old wood pews. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. My mother said she always leaves feeling refreshed and at peace. Sounds awesome to me. I wouldn't mind experiencing that. Call me old fashioned again.

Kane

Rosebud. What does that mean? Dust and I watched Citizen Kane Tuesday night. All through the movie I wanted to know what Kane's dying words meant. I actually guessed that it was probably his sled. I don't know if it was in my subconscious somewhere or not. I remember the line Rosebud from the tv special on the top 100 quotes from movies. I don't remember if they showed the sled in the furnace or not on the tv special.

I thought the movie was excellent! Dust teased me because I used to think that "black and white" movies were boring. I love when movies give great character development. It made me think about how someone's personality could change so much. What made him become so controlling and vicious? Was it because he hadn't been in control of his life growing up? His mother didn't help him any by sending him away to boarding school. Power and riches were handed to him. When he was a young adult he thought it would be fun to run a newspaper. That "fun" that he had turned into wanting to control what mass audiences thought.

I guess the older one gets, the more set-in-their-ways they become. Especially if the person isn't married. With Kane, his two wives didn't have much of an influence on his personality. That goes against my theory. They were both pleasers or enablers so maybe that has something to do with it. It is a fictional story so maybe I shouldn't analyze it too much.

lingerie shirts

The cami or the spaghetti strap shirt has been in style for awhile now. I have seen them in stores recently in multitudes. Practically the only shirt you can buy anymore is the "lingerie" shirt as I like to call it. Does is it bother anybody else that girls and women are walking around in what looks like their underwear? Putting a jacket over it maybe helps a little, but it seems very inappropriate to me. Do women wear a bra with these shirts? I am sure there are women that do not wear a bra. Some of the cami's have a shelf bra made into the shirt. Do women wear strapless bras with these shirts? To me, the only occasion on which a woman would wear a strapless bra is with a fancy strapless gown for a wedding or the prom.

I am reminded of the Seinfeld skit where Elaine is upset about a woman wearing a bra as a top. Kramer and Jerry get into an accident because they were looking at the woman wearing a bra as a shirt walking down the street. If I remember correctly, she had a jacket on but it wasn't buttoned.

It makes me sad to see women's fashion going towards provocative. Mainly because young girls want to model after them. And a lot of girls' clothing is designed after women's styles only in a smaller size.

Where does one find the balance between wanting to be fashionable yet still wanting to have a respectable wholesome image? It takes some shopping around, but there are still stylish options out there that are not slutty. I guess one should only wear what they feel comfortable in. I have never been much of a fashionable person so missing out on the lastest thing hasn't bothered me too much. I definately wouldn't want to be a teenager right now. When I was a teenager there really wasn't that many provocative clothing out there. The cool thing was long sweaters with stirrup pants.

last one picked

Do you remember picking teams for sports in P.E. at school? The P.E. teacher would pick two people to be team captains and off started the picking. I always prayed to God to please let me not be picked last this time. It did happen on occasion, but for the most part, I was usually the last person picked. It was so embarrassing standing in the line-up while being "checked out" by the team captains. It can really affect a person's self esteem. I was always relieved when the coach decided to number off everyone in choosing teams. I wouldn't have to go through that humiliation for that day. There was one time when I was the first to be picked! But that was because my best friend was the team captain. Wow, what a thrill that was!

My elementary and junior high school P.E. experiences were always coed. That made things worse. The guys would always say, "Come in closer, Golden is up to kick," when playing kickball. That made me so mad--I wanted to kick that ball in their face! I was almost always out at first base. Guys making fun of how weak I was has really scarred me from playing any sports at all. I usually got yelled at in volleyball because I didn't go after the ball or attempt to hit it. I felt like there was so much pressure put on me.

Well, I am no athlete and I am ok with that. Sports isn't everything. Maybe they saved the best for last. : ) (Wasn't that a cheesy song?)

upscale meals

Have you ever felt the need to go to an expensive restaurant when a special occasion arises? Or if you have some extra money and you want to go out to eat. Once you are at the restaurant and look at the menu they usually don't have much of a selection. The vegetables are usually steamed or barely cooked at all. It is usually some weird vegetable like an asparagus and all the time I keep thinking that I am eating Junior Asparagus from Veggie Tales. I usually comment on how it is luke-warm and I am going to spew it out of my mouth. I prefer vegetables to be cooked not raw. The mashed potatoes usually don't come with gravy. I should be excited that I am at a classy upscale place. The atmosphere is always enjoyable but the food leaves something to be desired. The types of food and arrangement usually come across stuffy and snobbby-if you can attribute those characteristics to food.

I have realized that I would much rather eat at a mom and pop's diner than a place like J Gilberts. I want to feel like I got a good deal moneywise on my plate of food. If I don't eat anything on my plate at an upscale place, what is the point of going there? I have buyer's remorse when I spend $20-$30 on my meal alone. Does anyone know of a good diner?
(How was that for pessimistic?)

art and butts

Dust and I went to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. I usually find it hard to control my laughter when I am at any art museum. Another aspect of my humor is laughing at bare bottoms. When I see a naked butt I laugh. There was this big brass butt sculpture that looked like a bird bath. It had 3 legs coming out with 2 of them wearing red heels. I saw a lot of rears and some breasts. There was an arrangement of toys on a rug next to a tall plastic wrap looking Godzilla. Because I am interested in toys, I studied most of them. There was a naked anotomically correct boy baby doll. I had not seen a boy doll like that before. The Ken doll never had privates. He was flat in the front. I tried not to laugh because the security lady kept watching us. That really made me nervous. I can't enjoy myself when someone is watching my every move. There were too many security guards in that small museum.

There was a decorated platform looking thing with pillows on it. I assumed it was art and I wasn't supposed to sit down on it. If someone wasn't paying attention they could accidentally walk on it. Art can be anywhere so you really have to be observant.

It bothers me when I see a picture that looks like a kindergartner drew it. How is that art? I could do that. There was an arrangement of photos with an annoying white strip in each one. It looks like someone had problems with their camera. I know I shouldn't criticize the art. Maybe it is because I don't understand it. I know I should respect it, but it's really hard.

"it's like rain on your wedding day"

That song kept going through my head all day. "And wouldn't you know it figured." It was my fifth anniversary and boy did it rain! I was glad it wasn't my wedding day. We had no rain and plenty of heat on that wonderful day five years ago. Our anniversary was romantic in spite of the rain though. Dust and I enjoyed our dinner at George Brett's. We had never been there before, so it was a neat experience for both of us. When we stepped out of the restaurant, the rain was coming down in buckets. We did remember our umbrella and dashed into the Discovery store.

We had a reservation at 7:30 for a "Cinderella" stage coach ride. (Surreys on the Plaza) We walked over to "Surreys" early and asked if they would still be having them tonight. With the loud thunder and lightning I thought it might scare the horses. The man said it would probably clear up by 8:00 and to come back then. I was so excited to see the lighted white Cinderella coach coming down the road a little after 8. There was no rain and it seemed perfect for a ride. Our horse was named Charlie and he did not have gas. No beef-areeno for him. It was sweet of Dust to do the ride with me because I think he gets embarrassed at that sort of thing. It was fun watching the people point at us. All the little girls got excited and wanted a ride too. Dust laughed at the fact that I could have had a princess crown for $10. "Your kidding me," he said. Our "driver" Randy was kind enough to take our pictures in the coach.

My Prince Charming was there and I definately felt like Cinderella.

my sabbatical

I am going to take a sabbatical from blogging. I need some time to go over things that I have already written to make sure that I don't repeat myself. I also need to do some brainstorming.

When I looked up sabbatical in the dictionary, it referred to a sabbatical year. I definately won't go that long. What am I saying, I will probably be posting again next week or tomorrow. Other bloggers take sabbaticals but don't realize it or let anyone know. Sabbatical also comes from the Sabbath rest. Why don't you ask Dust his opinion on the Sabbath rest?

winning isn't always everything

If you know me you know that I'm not a competitive person. And you also know that my husband is very competitive. There have been a few times in my life where I have shown that I like to win.

When I was a child, my mother would take my brother and me to the Putt-Putt golf course. Not to toot my own horn, but I have a knack for putting. On each hole, I had to get a lower score than my brother. I was very ticked if I got a 5 and he got a 4. My brother was also competitive when it came to putting. He wanted to win also. My mother would say that it was a lose-lose situation for her because whoever lost would be crying on the way home. I still like to win at miniature golf but I don't cry anymore if I lose.

I also like to have the highest score in bowling but that usually doesn't happen. My average is somewhere in the 80's or 90's. I did beat my husband the first time we went bowling when we were dating. That was a fluke game. I think I scored over 100.

I enjoy playing cards and board games but it is usually for the enjoyment. It is always nice to win but it doesn't bother me if I don't. I just like the social atmosphere. There is one game that I generally want to win and that is Rack-O. The cards are numbered 1-60 and are dealt to you to put in your rack. By taking turns by drawing a card or taking from the discard pile, you have to get your numbers in chronological order. I also like word games because I am generally a good speller. Dust was saying last night that I should try out for Wheel of Fortune. The only thing is would I have enough strength to spin the wheel and are my arms long enough. : )

movie nights

I just finished watching Jersey Girl. I don't think it did too well in the box office. I did like the movie, however. I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy, but it ended up being more about the love between a father and daughter. It was a tear jerker. Ben Affleck isn't the best actor, but he did do a decent job.

It looks like Thursday nights are going to be my chick flick night. Dust and I did join Blockbuster online-so here come the chick flicks for me and the sci fi for him. In our que, we try to space it out where there is my movie, his movie, and then our movie. It has worked out great these last two weeks. He watches his sci fi on Monday or Tuesday and I watch mine on Thursday. That leaves the movie we both want to see for Friday or Saturday.

We actually have a lot of classics on our list. There are a lot of old movies that I have heard quotes on, but have never seen. The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock is our next movie. I just added the Godfather movies to our list. This is going to be a lot of fun.

"I'm not cool, that's ok, my God loves me anyway"

Have you ever heard that song play on the radio station Calvary 88.5? I laughed when I first heard it because I thought it applied to me. It helped me accept my non-coolness. The song is extremely cheesy though. "I'm not cool, I don't care, how I'm supposed to do my hair."

There are a lot of times that I just don't care if I'm cool or not. I like to be somewhat in style, but I don't care about being on the cutting edge. I think that people who make remarks about what other people are wearing are being superficial. There are definately more important things in life.

In college, I had no money so it really didn't matter if I wanted to be cool in terms of clothes & etc. I was always jealous of the girls that came back from the mall with bags of new clothes. How could they afford to go to Evangel and have tons of new clothes? Their parents must have been made of money.

I do understand that in order to be relevant to my peers that I should care about how I look. This is my continual struggle--to be relevant. Of course my apathy seeps into other areas of my life also.

There are some items that I have and love because they are tacky. Like my grandmother's gaudy turquoise dishes that are on display in my kitchen. They are so ugly that I just gotta love them.

I guess I will go back and forth from embracing my uncoolness to caring about being relevant.

my potty humor

I thought that I would devote a post to explain the background behind my bathroom humor. I like to joke that my family is anal. quite literally. The majority of my family members have issues with their bowels. I was always embarrassed when my grandmother would ask me if I had had my bowel movement for the day. She was always so concerned with that. She would always ask my brother too. So in order to not take these issues seriously, my family has to joke about it. My mom and her brother, when they were kids, would always call who got the bathroom first when opening the front door on their way back from church. They would call first, second, and make their mom say terd instead of third.

A lot of my humor was formed by my brother. He would always make me laugh by having his pants fall down. You would think since I was the oldest that I would have been more of an influence on him. He just has more of an influential type personality. Most of what I think is funny has to do with what he thinks is funny. He and my dad would typically fart and burp at the dinner table. My mom would get on to them, probably out of obligation. We all thought it was funny.

My potty humor is what makes me unique. It is so ingrained in me that I could never deny it. This is who I really am.

Golden the rocker

Last night I was reflecting on why I like the band Evanescence. I don't look like the type of person that would typically like this band. Amy Lee, who sings the vocals, really plays up the goth look. When I see someone who has the pale skin, dark hair, dark makeup thing going on I tend to get kinda scared of that person. I think of someone like that to be mad at the world and a rebel with a cause. I just described most of my previous friends. Their absurdity somehow draws me in. It makes me laugh and want to get to know them better.

As Dust and I were watching the music videos and concert, we discussed what we liked about it. Dust said that the band/music/performance has a blend of both feminine and masculine qualities. I like the way that Amy can really belt her voice. She has such a beautiful voice too, with crystal like qualities. The guitar and bass parts are really awesome too. I love the fact that they bring out a grand piano for Amy to play her "slower" songs. What other heavy rock band brings out a grand piano? (I know of two people who would know the answer to that question)

There is not one song of theirs that I don't like. I can't say that of too many other bands that I like. Most of the songs bring you along on a roller coaster ride. I believe Amy wrote most of the songs and she really pours her soul out. A lot of it has to do with her soul too. And I might add, T, I can understand the majority of the words she sings. : )

It was quite an experience seeing them live in concert. Dust and I went with BB and Wah-Wah a few years ago. There were times that I was scared being in the center of the crowd. There was one guy who had too much to drink and I was worried that he was going to fall over on me. I think I may be getting too old to go the concerts, but I will still be a fan.

I think this band would appeal to new christians or non christians who are struggling or searching for truth. (Wake me up inside, and My God, my tourniquet, return to me salvation)

This again was my 2 cents.

Happy Birthday, Dust!

This morning I gave Dust his card and gift. There are some pretty lame birthday cards out there, so I decided to make his card. When Dust read it he said, "See, you can be funny." (After all the discussions about humor lately) We like to read the "Pearls before Swine" comic strip in the Sunday paper, so I decided to make it after that. The crocodile is always trying to lure the zebra over to his house to try to eat him. He talks in a lisp, sounds like one of the guys on "Fat Albert." (I had a zebra and crocodile sticker, luckily.) My card said, Hey, zebaa neighbaa, I ba heara you ba turnba 26! Come over so I can ba eat ba you. I mean so I canba eatba cake with you ba.

I am sure Dust enjoyed listening to his new Evanescense CD on his way to work. I know I'm going to enjoy the DVD of the concert that was with it. If Dust would like to share. : )

guilt driven

Do you ever feel like you have to "put in your face time" with certain family members? We have several family members that are always asking when we are going to see them next. It's not that we don't want to see them. It's just that Dust and I are driven by guilt.

Dust and I went to his cousin's wedding Saturday night. It was an outside wedding in the 90 degree heat. Everyone sat in white chairs and the vows were exchanged under a gazebo. When the minister was speaking, sweat was dripping from his face onto his book. The whole wedding party was glistening. The bride felt really bad about everyone having to be in the heat. The D.J. annouced that there was bottled water in a cooler at the end of the table. There was a dinner reception that included BBQ. As we were going through the buffet line outside under a tent, the weather changed into gusts of wind. Paper plates, napkins, and light weight stuff went flying.

The good thing about the wedding was that we got to spend some time with Dust's grandma and aunt. It had been awhile since we had seen them. We got caught up on what was going on on that side of the family. It was good to get some face time in.

stupid, stupid, stupid

Everyone has one of those friends that can be talked into doing something stupid. I was one of those friends in college. I can be manipulated very easily. Here are some examples:

My friends and I were eating at the "Joust". (the alternative to the caf) Lisa says, "Hey, A., I dare you to turn off the television." A football or some other game was on and there was a group of jocks sitting at a table, kinda watching it. I said, "Ok, sure I'll do it." I blatantly walk over to the television and turn it off. When I turned around to find my friends, they were all gone. The jocks just thought that was weird and one of them got up and turned it back on. I found my friends behind the corner laughing their heads off.

On Valentine's day, one of my friends was bored and said that I needed a perm. She had decided to color her hair and so did some of my other friends. So, of course I needed to do something with my hair also. "Ok", I said and let her give me a perm in the dorm room. Lisa freaked out when she saw Autumn giving me a perm. That in turn freaked me out worrying what it must look like. It turned out ok.

I think it was Lisa who said, "Why don't we all get dressed up in prom dresses and go to Price Chopper?" "Ok" There were six of us who scrambled around the dorm trying to find a dress to wear. We practiced our strut and tried it out in the second floor lobby. We took a picture of all of us lined up.

"Hey, A. why don't you dress up like a gangster and run around the dorm outside." "Ok, sure." Some other friends followed. We put black markings on our face and had a handkerchief around our heads. We also had flannel shirts and made guns by pointing our fingers. We ran around and tapped on the windows of the guys that we knew. Of course they thought we were all crazy.

Some friends and I had just walked out of the caf and it was pouring down rain. "Hey, let's run around the entire campus in the rain." "Ok" We ended up going into one of the piano practice rooms and Tim played for us. There were four or five of us sitting in one of those small practice rooms soaking wet.

A bright idea at around 2 am was, "Hey, let's try to sneak out of the dorm." "Ok" If anyone opened the doors after curfew, the alarms would go off. So, here I am on the first floor lobby trying to sneak out the window. "I think you can fit, A." I got paranoid the RD would come out and didn't do it.

Do I really need to say that all these events happened my freshman year? They all scream out hey, I'm a stupid freshman. Still at age 27, I can be talked into doing stupid things.

favorite and not so favorite

Actors. Actresses. You either like them or you don't like them. I know some people could care less about famous movie/t.v. stars. Dust makes fun when I have Access Hollywood on. I want to share some opinions on my favorite and not so favorite stars.

Actresses I don't care for:

>Angelina Jolie. She makes me sick. She comes across slutty. I don't like watching movies that she is in. However, I did have a change of heart when I realized how much she cares about hungry children that are dying. It was a moment when God was convicting me about what I am doing for Him. (The Wednesday night after we talked about faith vs. works. We all came to agree that if we have faith we will have works.)

>Catherine Zeta-Jones-she really doesn't have much of a personality. She seems stuck up and stuffy.

Actresses I like:

>Sandra Bullock-she seems down to earth. She seems like the girl you grew up with in high school. Maybe that's just the roles she has played.

>Kate Hudson-again a seemingly down to earth person. Funny, outgoing. Even though her style is a bit hippy.

>Renee Zellwegger-could be that I like all the roles she has been in. A bit quirky, silly, and funny.

>Jennifer Garner-she also seems down to earth. But also very cool. She has a way of acting cute.

Actors I don't care for:

>Pierce Brosnan-he isn't funny. I can't remember seeing him smile.

>Richard Gere-seems a bit creepy to me. not funny.

Actors I like:

>Johnny Depp. mysterious yet cool. quirky and funny.

>Orlando Bloom. looks better with black hair. (not the long blond elf in Lord of the Rings) He was good in Pirates and Troy.

>Jim or James Caviezel.-great in dramas. plays emotional roles well.

>Ashton Kutcher-hilarious. I am growing out of his high school type humor though.

I realize that the descriptions I gave is how they are portrayed in movies/t.v. They probably are not that way in real life. I tend to not like slutty and stuck-up roles. Funny and silly roles are a favorite of mine but I can still appreciate a good drama. This was my 2 cents.

To join, or not to join, that is the question?

Dust and I have been trying to decide whether to join Netflix or the BlockBuster online thing. I was dissappointed last week when I got out my $4.29 for a rental at Blockbuster and the checkout person said $4.61. I know it isn't much of a price increase, but it did tick me off. That event kinda prompted us to look into the online thing.

It looks like with the $9.99/month contract that you only get to have 1 rental out at a time. I really don't think that is a good option. I wouldn't want to have to wait for my next rental. I do like the idea of having 3 out at a time. There won't be any lag time, and you would probably always have a movie to watch.

What would the drawbacks be to joining Blockbuster or Netflix online? Would I be getting my money's worth or would it be cheaper to not join? Sometimes we go through a time where we don't watch many rentals. As far as the summer has gone so far, we have watched maybe 2 rentals/month. If we did join, I would feel like I would have to be constantly watching movies in order to get my money's worth.

I know Dust has talked to some people that have joined Blockbuster and some that are doing Netflix. I think he is going to ask them a few more questions, and then we will decide.

On a whim

I am usually the type of person that likes to plan outings in advance. I usually like to know my schedule for the upcoming weekend ahead of time. The plans don't have to be detailed. Just knowing who I am spending time with is enough for me. Here lately, it seems like Dust and I have been doing things on a whim. Going to the drive-in movies last Friday was a decision on the whim.

There is a process that I go through when the whims happen. At first, there is a slight grievance of the things that I had in mind of doing. I am reminded of the "you do not own your time" chapter in the Screwtape letters. "I am not the sole ownership of 24 hours" If the whim is my idea, I do not have much of a grievance. If it was not my idea, there is a bit of a feeling that I have lost "my time." After I have gotten over that, there is a bit of excitement about the possibility before me. I realize how fun and spontaneous it would be. At that moment it seems like I have done a 180 degree turn. I have an attitude of "we have got to do this or else."

This whole process sometimes takes only a few minutes. Dust must think I'm crazy for going through all these moods right after another. It really isn't pms . . . . all of the time.

toy story

Most of you know that I have a toy collection. Yes, I am one of those weird persons that never got rid of any childhood toys. My collections include Garfield, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Pound Puppies & Kitties, Cabbage Patch, troll dolls, Wizard of Oz, Sylvanian families, and much more. Now that I have kept these items so long, I just couldn't bare to get rid of them. In Sunday School when everyone named a prized belonging of theirs, I said my Garfield collection. In trying to decide what my prized possession was in a matter of minutes, I figured it had to be an item that I would be devasted to loose in a fire. Of course photos would definately be number one. There are just a lot of memories that are attached to photos and my toys.

What really makes me happy is watching other kids play with my toys. It is neat to share a memory of my past with them. (Although one toy in particular can get pretty loud-clackers) One time I found Garfield miniatures hidden behind pillows and different items around the room. I got a good laugh out of that. My brother and I used to hide the Garfield miniatures in our Christmas tree. We also used to hide the "Barrel of Monkeys" in the tree also.

Maybe I am just a kid at heart. Maybe I like the idea of toys. It is a world with no responsibilities and you can get lost for hours in a world that you create. What I do know is that I will never be too old to play with toys. I also have never been selfish with my toys. I believe that they should be played with and not kept somewhere where they can collect dust.

Music and Human Videos

I first started listening to music in 1990 when I was in 6th/7th grade. I remember my father bringing home a christian rap cassette tape. He was the youth pastor at our church at that time and I believe that he was going to use it for a service. It was a tape by Stephen Wiley. I was singing the lyrics to Dust the other day. "I'm Stephen Wiley, and I'm rated highly, and I rap to a T, come listen to me as I rap religiously." Kind of cheesy looking back at it now. Dust cringes because his roommate used to sing those lyrics to him also. "Shake this nation, as we learn the words from Genesis to Revelation."

The youth group at church tonight did some human videos that they used in their Mexico missions trip. The three songs were the typical ones that I heard close to ten years ago when human videos were popular. "This Bloods for you" by Carmen and "I'm running to the mercy seat." It sounds like these songs are still effective in ministry. The visual of Jesus being beaten for our sins transcends the language barrier. It is hard for Dust and I not to have a cynical attitude about the whole cheesy human video thing. Has there not been a decent song that is fairly new to do a human video to? This may be effective in Mexico. And human videos may be effective for people who have never heard of Jesus. There has to be something more creative out there to reach the young people of America. Sorry if I have offended anyone. I'm just throwing some ideas out there.

rude people

One of my pet peeves is people that don't give you the courtesy of a response when you talk to them. Here is an example: I walk over to a woman and try to be friendly by small talk and say something like, "Hey, I heard that (fill in the blank) is going on , wouldn't that be fun to do?" Her response is nothing. She just looks at me with a blank stare and walks away. This was an actual event that happened to me recently. She could have at least given me the courtesy of a smile or nod. That is all that I ask. What hurts me the most is knowing that this person is typically a talkative person. There have been several instances after this one where I only got a blank stare after talking to this person. They were all one on one conversations and not with a group of people standing around.

When I am spoken to, I try to at least give a nod or smile. I figure that is only the polite thing to do. I am shy and I can at least do that. I have a cousin who is more shy than me. He can hardly look at me when I talk to him. This cousin lives in Michigan and I don't see him very often. I think he has social anxiety disorder but I have been too afraid to ask. I think I have social anxiety disorder but have been to scared to go to the doctor and get checked out for it.

Sorry, I got sidetracked for a moment. I have another example of people not giving the courtesy of a response. I went to a small college and everyone knew everybody at least by the face. Most people would say hi to anyone walking down the sidewalk. I remember several people that would not acknowledge when someone would say hi or wave to them when walking by them. How rude is that! How hard is it to say hi? or wave or nod your head?

I guess what it boils down to is that I can't stand rude or snobby people. I probably should never live on the east coast. I had a roommate in college from New Jersey. She was extremely rude and obnoxious. She told me that in Jersey you never look people in the eye when you walk by them. She told me that I would be eaten alive up there.

Ducks, Phantoms, and pizza

Dust and I have spent the majority of the last 4 days with his family. We went to a Japanese stroll garden on Friday. The landscaping was nice and it had a pagoda and a tea hunt along the pathway. There were 3 ducks that followed us around the garden by means of a pond. It cracked me up! One duck looked like he had a mohawk. The ducks knew where all the duck food dispensers were. Of course I caved in and fed them.

I got to watch Phantom of the Opera again on DVD. Still lovin' it. When we went to Wal-Mart, I just had to buy the Phantom soundtrack. I told Dust that today should be CD day where we both get to buy a CD! He agreed to buying Phantom because he could appreciate it too. But when we went to Barnes & Noble he found some books to buy instead--Sherlock Homes & a dot.com bomb book. I need not mention what the music was for the drive home. : )

A first for us was trying Papa Murphy's pizza. It had a good flavor, and in my opinion was just right.

I almost froze to death in the balcony of E.T. on Sunday am. (Dust's sister's church) It was almost the temperature of a meat locker--a side of beef would not spoil there. I prayed to God to help me get through the service. Luckily, I had brought my jean jacket. Dust's mother had Dad go out and get her sweater from the trunk of the car.

We are going to try to see some of the fireworks either from our yard or maybe walk down the street. Happy 4th!

fun times

The day that our friends Dar and Roamer will be departing approaches us soon. I would like to dedicate this post to the fun times that we have had with them. Here are some highlights in no particular order.

> Playing Apples to Apples at Dar's "Halloween" birthday party. Also playing Apples to Apples with the girls after the Christmas tea in Roamer's basement.

>Roamer wearing an old bridesmaid dress for one of the parties

>Kerry for President stickers-Election party

>roasting marshmallows in their backyard-using the fireplace thingy (forgot the word for it)

>Roamer being a wonderful hostess for the Christmas teas. I remember a lot of giggling going on during the speakers' speaches at most of the teas. (Verna, L.L., M.L.) : )

>Girls night out at Oklahoma Joe's. Fever Pitch was hilarious.

>Girls coffee night at Borders. Girls coffee nights on the last Tuesday of the month at Homer's.

>their decorated sump pump at the Love's Command X-mas party. T received it.

>playing poker with Roamer and Dar. Roamer not wanting to bid before seeing most of the cards in Texas-Hold-Em.

>being in Love's Command class with Dar and Roamer

>guys coffee night every Thursday night at Homer's

>putting socks on their furniture legs so they won't scratch in the container

Feel free to comment on your most memorable moment.

gifts vs. acts of service

Not another quiz or test...some of you are probably thinking. Yes, I took another quiz. And made Dust take it also. At our last home group, we were talking about the five love languages. I had never read the book before or taken the test. Everyone seemed to know what their love language was. Just by listening to the list, I could guess what mine would be. Gifts.

When I first heard of the book, I thought it might be another cheesy, overmarketed, gimmick. I have been somewhat skeptical of the new, cool, christian books that come out. (Dust's influence on me) I haven't read Purpose Driven Life yet, but maybe I should.

I took the love language test and sure enough gifts are my language. Dust is overly excited about that one. : ) I should have known what Dust's language would be. When he gets comfortable in his chair at night, he always asks me if I could get him a bowl, and spoon, and milk, and cereal. I am constantly doing things for him. Dust's language is acts of service. This means I have to clean, cook, and do most things for him. Well I pretty much do that anyway. Recently when he asked me to do something I replied with "yes I will do that because you need acts of service." I should at least give him a hard time about it.

Git-r-done

Dust and I were listening to Larry the cable guy do a stand-up comedy routine on tv. (not Dust's typical humor) I was reminded again that my sense of humor is that of a teenage boy. I laugh at fart jokes. This is something that I am not really proud of. I thought that maybe one day I would grow out of this phase. I can't seem to change that part of my humor, though. We watch Blue Collar tv with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Envall, and Larry the cable guy. There are times that they might get a little crude, which I don't like.

I also find the red-neck jokes humorous. Maybe it is because I grew up in southern MO. It was pretty much the norm for people to make fun of simple country folk. There are all sorts of hillbilly souvenirs that you can buy in Branson.

I often tease Dust about having a girl sense of humor. I have noticed that women seem to laugh at his jokes and think he's funny. He does a better job than I do at talking to other women. I on the other hand have a typical guy sense of humor and tend to want to laugh and talk about what the guys do. I am trying to focus on talking more girl talk. I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression if I am around other guys.

Git-r-done is a mantra that I have been using when I am at work. It motivates me to plough through my tasks and it gives me a laugh.

Phlegmatic

Since personality tests have come up over the past few weeks, I have gotten interested in taking the ones that I haven't yet. Last week I took the phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy, choleric test. I made Dust take it also. I found out that I am phlegmatic melancholy and Dust is melancholy phlegmatic.

Everyone knows what their weaknesses or bad habits are even though sometimes we like to deny it. Or we rationalize that we aren't that bad. As I read the weaknesses for phlegmatic personality it hit me hard. I kinda knew that I had those problems but seeing all of them listed before me was overwhelming. I realize that it is just the author's opinion and I shouldn't take it to heart. It doesn't necessarily mean that I am all of those things either.

I just looked up phlegmatic in the dictionary. It said pertaining to phlegm. That definately describes me! I have always had trouble with phlegm in my throat. : ) It also said having a calm, sluggish temperament, unemotional. Well the unemotional part is incorrect for my personality. Dust can tell you that I am definately emotional.

Ode to a Bobber

Hold, release and plop you go
When you will sink I do not know
You look so lonely out in the blue
The fishes below have no clue

My eyes affixed to your slight sways
In a moment you no longer lay
Furiously I try to reel on
Looking down my line is gone

Of all those owned by my father
You were his favorite little bobber
We watched for the place you would appear
But couldn't find you far or near

In the end who is the winner?
If the fish is found it will be dinner

I love your hair

I was encouraged or rather given the assignment to do my creative writing on the line, "I love your hair."

This line means several things to me. One, it is usually an ice breaker for the beginning of small talk. I will let you guys know right now that I tend to hate small talk. I know it is essential in getting to know someone, so I can't dismiss small talk altogether. It does help when you have the awkward silences with people in the elevator. I know I have used the line also with people that I didn't know so well. It can be an encouraging word to make someone's day!

I know we all told Roaming that we loved her new haircut. Those were all genuine compliments because the style looked good on her.

Two, the problem I have with the line, "I love your hair," is that in the past it has been said to me by people that are usually consumed with their looks. It reminds me of something a valley girl would say in the movie Clueless. I know I shouldn't label this line as shallow. I have received genuine compliments from people using that line. I realize now that I can't tell someone's motivation behind saying, "I love your hair." I am probably analyzing this simple statement too much. I have been around Dust too long. : )

Design and Colors

Mr. Sunrise is very talented in design and layout. I realized this again as I watched him arrange napkins at a reception Sunday night. I was just going to place them in a stack at the end of the table. He had the idea of spacing them out in rows and alternate the color in each row. It really did look nice. The shades of yellow and red looked good together. (Spain's flag colors) Vernal did an awesome job with the centerpieces, quizzes, and being the project manager. : )

Should this make me feel insecure as a woman? Since decorating tends to be a woman's thing? I know Forrest hates the men/women stereotypes. I can guess what his answer will be. Mr. Sunrise has done most of the arrangement of pictures and furniture in our house. I am quite happy with what he has done. We bought some fake fern greenery and Mr. Sunrise picked the pot to put it in and arranged it in the green styrofoam.

There is one thing that I can do that the Mr. can't. Tell colors apart. Poor Mr. Sunrise is colorblind. So at least I am needed in that department. I can tell him which colors clash and which ones go good together. The Mr. can tell you that I get excited about colors. It does make me sad though that he can't experience color with me.

The DMV

Today I actually had to step foot in the DMV. There are so many things that you can take care of online or by mail now that I haven't had to go there in person. I did our vehicle registration renewal by mail and thought that I would never have to wait in line there again. Apparantly, to reissue a title for a car requires you to be present.

We just paid off the lien on our car (my car) and we needed to get the title reissued. I have to admit that the DMV has made some changes since I was there last. The machine that gives you a ticket has been upgraded. You have to push the button for what you need done and then the machine gives you a number. I pushed "Title" and out came a number. I heard over the intercom, "Number 267 please go to station # 17." I looked down at my number and it said 269. "Awesome!" I thought to myself. The first time they call your number is to talk to you to make sure you know what you're doing and that you've got all the paperwork you need. That only took me 30 seconds. The guy told me that the second time they call my number, I can get my title taken care of.

So I sat back down and watched the new digital display of numbers. They announce and show two numbers at a time on the screen so I have to pay attention. I do get distracted though by the people walking by because I'm a people watcher. But that's a whole different blog.

I only had to wait maybe 15 minutes until my number was called. The lady that helped me was extremely nice. That doesn't happen too often; especially at the DMV. I was out of there in no time. So, to anyone out there that has to make a visit to the DMV, don't sweat it. Your wait can't be near as long as it used to be.