Nonstop

We have had a very busy 3 weeks!

The first week Michael was gone and we had the saga of the refrigerator and the motorcycle, along with the busy Saturday before Rachel and her boys arrived!

The second week started with Rachel's arrival and ended on another busy Saturday. We usually volunteer with Angel Food Ministries the 3rd Saturday, but I decided that I needed a break.

The next day, Sunday, was amazing. Amazingly busy. Amazingly incredible. Our church had been invited to the church down the road for a Sunday afternoon service. To show you exactly how incredible this was, let me give you a little history.

Jenkins Chapel Missionary Baptist Church is tiny. I am a little wider through the shoulders than many women, but not by much. The front door to the church was too narrow for me to walk through without turning sideways. They appeared to be the original front doors. Once inside, there are about 10-12 rows of pews with a center aisle. Our pastor was the 2ND white man in the history of the church to preach. The first white man to preach from their pulpit spoke there in January of 2009.

The service was incredible. We were squeezed as tightly into the pews as we could possibly squeeze. The acoustics were amazing. Our choir did not need mics and the sound just resonated throughout the room! We had a totally different choir too. I have no idea where our usual choir went, but this choir was energized and full of life. Same people, different sound! Afterward, they fed us a wonderful meal. Let me tell you... those ladies can COOK! And the fellowship. Beautiful!

Of course, this was after our normal Sunday morning services and before our usual Sunday night activities and service. So, it made for a very long day, but I would not have missed it. The best part... The folks from Jenkins Chapel are coming in April to do a service at our church!!!

After that Sunday was over, I was looking forward to relaxing a bit. Nope! Instead I got busy on cleaning the house and taking care of some other things. Then Thursday, I babysat for a friend of mine.

Friday rolled around. Time for another busy weekend. But this time, I was gonna have some fun! We left around 8:45 am to head to Greenville, SC for the Extraordinary Women Conference. Just me and 10 other ladies! No husbands, no children. After a long drive, we got into the hotel and had dinner with just enough time to make it to the place where the conference was being held.

Chonda Pierce is hilarious! And Newsong is amazingly talented!!! If you ever have the opportunity to see either in person, I would highly recommend it!

On Saturday, I headed home with a friend of mine. I didn't want to take another full day away from home and she wanted to be at church Sunday when her husband preached. (our pastor was out of town)

Sunday was pretty quiet, but today (Monday) has been hectic again. A different friend is moving this week and so I helped load the U-Haul this morning. The house she is moving into is still being worked on - floors, painting, etc. This afternoon, I showed up to see what I could do to help clean the place as the people working on the house did the finishing touches. Tomorrow will be more of the same.

And somewhere in all of this, I really need to vacuum my living room... before Thursday and Friday when we will be having another benefit for the woman who needs the lung transplant.

Stellan

I want to share with you a little boy named Stellan. He is just a few months old, but he has been through some amazing things in his short life.

Stellan was not yet born when an ultrasound showed something wrong with his heart. Doctors predicted that he would die within a couple of weeks of that ultrasound. Later, the doctors revised that prediction to say he would not live until he was old enough to be born at full term. Then the prediction came that he would not survive the labor and delivery process and if he did, he would not live long after birth.

God was working though. When Stellan was born, there was no sign of the heart condition that caused doctors to predict his imminent death.

Right now though, Stellan is in the hospital with the very same heart condition. Basically his heart rate is too high and his heart is enlarged.

If you would like to visit his mom's blog, just go to www.mycharmingkids.net.

Please pray for Stellan and his family.

Invaded!!!

Today this van pulled up in my driveway...

I said, "I think we have company!"

N responded, with a little jump and a clap, "COMPANY!"

Aunt Rachel and her boys are here to stay. At least for a few days.

We are excited to see them and wish Spring Break lasted a couple more weeks instead of just one.

a trip, the refrigerator, the motorcycle, and a busy Saturday

Let's start at the beginning. . . And I will warn you... this is a long post!

The Trip

Michael spent last week in Connecticut for a Leadership Training Course. He left Sunday afternoon and arrived back home very late Friday night. He had arranged his flight home so that he would be home on Saturday for a benefit motorcycle ride that would be taking place Saturday morning.

The Refrigerator

Monday morning, I had an appointment for a repair man to come to our house to look at our ice maker. The ice maker had quit working about 2 weeks earlier. I had resorted to making ice the old fashioned way. You know. . .fill an ice tray, wait for it to freeze, dump it into a container, and then repeat. Over and over and over.

So, bright and early, and actually on time(!), the repair men show up. After taking about a 5 minute look, they determine that my freezer is not as cold as it should be. The temperature is about 14 degrees when it should be about 8-10 degrees at the warmest. Their assessment was it would cost about $400 to fix. Their recommendation was that a new refrigerator be purchased instead.

And so it was. Before the men had pulled out of the driveway, they were on the phone and asking to come back in to measure the space available. By 3 o'clock that afternoon, I had a new refrigerator in my kitchen.

The only problem was that the ice maker was not hooked up. It needed a part. . . I didn't find that out until later.

The part finally arrived on Thursday and was installed later that morning. However, Tuesday and Wednesday, my kitchen was in shambles waiting for the fridge to be pulled out and put back again.

Thursday was a great day because I finally got my kitchen cleaned! YAY!!

The Motorcycle

Michael was so excited to order a new (and comfortable) seat for his motorcycle. He placed the order in February and waited (im)patiently for it to arrive. He estimated that it would arrive sometime near the 14th of March.

It actually came on the 10th. I opened the box to see if I could understand the instructions well enough to put the seat on his motorcycle to surprise him when he returned from Connecticut.

The instructions were simple. Take off the old seat. No problems there. Install the bracket. Easy enough. Put the new seat on the bike and screw the 2 screws into the bracket. Sounds simple, right?

Nope! The instructions said that the screws on the bracket were 6mm hex head cap screws. So, I got out the 6mm hex key. (a.k.a. Allen Wrench) It was too big. I tried the 5mm hex key. Still too big. My next option was a 4 mm hex key. I thought surely this would be the one to work. Once again, I had the wrong size. Except this time it was too small.

So, Tuesday and Wednesday, the box and the seat sat out in my living room. The box was not small.

I went by a friend's house on Thursday morning with the seat and borrowed the correct size hex key. 4.5 mm. I didn't even know they made 4.5 mm hex keys.

Once I got back to the house, I was able to take the bracket off of the seat and install it on the motorcycle. Then came the seat. I aligned the front correctly and pushed it forward and down as the instructions had said.

The holes did not line up. They were about a half inch off. I called my friend to ask that her husband stop by to help me. He couldn't make it move quite far enough forward.

I worked on it off and on throughout the day, but I put a call into another member of our church who was organizing the benefit ride. I thought that since he knew more about motorcycles than I did, so maybe he could figure out where I was going wrong.

Ken stopped by Friday morning and managed to get the seat to within a quarter inch of where it needed to be. But still not quite close enough.

Friday night, after Michael came back home, he worked on it for a while longer. I am glad that we spent the 2 days prior trying to get the seat into position. Otherwise, Michael may not have have had the new seat for the ride.

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early. Ok, maybe not so early... About 9:30, we went to an auto parts store to buy some heavy duty zip ties. One of the screws had been stripped in all the efforts to force the seat into place.

So, Michael rode on Saturday with his seat held on only by body weight and 4 zip ties.

Did I happen to mention that the seat was designed specifically for the motorcycle that Michael has??

A Busy Saturday

As I mentioned under the motorcycle post, Saturday started fairly early. I got up around 8am to pick N up from her friend's house. She had spent the night there because she had not seen her friend in "forever!" (N's words, not mine)

After that, came the trip to the auto parts store. On the way there, we stopped by the church to allow Michael to register for the motorcycle ride. A woman in our community needs a lung transplant and has been required to have at least $15,000 before her name can be placed on the transplant list. The motorcycle ride was a fundraising effort for her.

With the weather, only 8 men showed up to ride. It was cold and supposed to rain, but N decided that she wanted to ride too. However, we still raised over $500 to help this woman. $160 of that was from the 8 men who registered to ride since there was a $20 registration donation.

After the motorcycle ride came nap time for A. N had gone home with a friend and I headed over to N's friend's house as well. I wanted to help my friend Cari prepare for her daughter's birthday party that afternoon. We did some last minute cleaning - washing dishes, sweeping and wiping down the tables. Then we got to decorating! Once people began to show up for the party, I left to get Michael & A. I ended up collapsing on our bed and taking an hour long nap. It was wonderful! We headed back to Cari's house to drop off clothes for N and found that the food had just come off of the grill. We were invited to stay and eat, so we had a great dinner, though not what we had originally planned. The party was also a sleepover for the girls, so after we ate, we left the clothes and headed out.

It was a LONG, but productive week. And now, I get to focus on next week! Rachel & her boys are coming!!!

Home again

YAY!!! Michael is home & I have computer access again!

Be prepared for a few posts to get caught up with all of the fun & exciting things from this past week!

Overheard

N: (at dinner last night) "Look! I have a naked hot dog!" (she was eating a corn dog)

A: "I can't wear this dress! It doesn't come to my knees!!" (barely understandable through the tears)

A: (a few minutes later) I don't want to wear a dress. I want to wear clothes. (wearing a tank top & shorts)

Ode to a Blender

Ode to a Blender

Oh blender, my blender
How do I love thee?

I use thee each morning
(and noon and night too).

I make new concoctions
Juice and fruit smoothies.

Dear Husband always uses
oranges and milk,

And something to give
a bit of tartness.

I love my new blender.
I enjoy how it mixes,

And crushes,
and stirs.

The food processor's waiting
Impatiently maybe,

But until I am ready,
I'll keep enjoying my slushies!





(can you tell I like my new blender?!?)

After almost 12 years of marriage...

Michael (and the girls) got me the 2nd best birthday gift EVER!! Last year took the #1 spot with Michael giving me the "go ahead" to buy my digital camera.


So, may I introduce my new toys?

Not only is it a blender, it also has the food processor attachment as well. I have been requesting a blender & food processor for about 10 years now...





And after dinner, Michael made dessert. It was very yummy, but I couldn't finish, so I made popsicles with the leftover smoothies!

We went to Olive Garden for lunch after church. The timing really worked well. We live about half an hour from Olive Garden and we left the church at 11am. We arrived just in time. There were about 3-4 families and couples waiting ahead of us. About 5 minutes after we were seated, the wait time jumped from 10 minutes to about half an hour and it just kept growing. After a very filling lunch, we headed over to Best Buy to look for a macro lens for my camera. They did not have the one I was looking for, but I do know of a more specialized camera shop in the next town over that would carry it.

Anyway, we came home after the stop at Best Buy and I was able to take a nice long nap and then fix a yummy steak dinner. (If you have never tried the Angel Food ministries, let me know & I will tell you all about it!) After that came the smoothies Michael made. Then, hugs & kisses and bedtime for 2 very well behaved girls.

I love my Michael & my girls!!! They really made it a very special day for me.