What's Up?

I have a bunch of stuff running through my head right now and I don't know what to write down! I guess I'll start off with the biggie: Neal and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary on Saturday! Well, I guess we actually celebrated on Friday because we were too busy on Saturday, but our anniversary was Saturday. Seventeen years ago we were married in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was supposed to be a beautiful outdoors ceremony on the beach, but unfortunately it rained and it was cold! We were able to have the rehearsal outdoors, but we ended up having the ceremony in the hotel conference room. It was still beautiful, and different, and I loved it!

Friday night we went out to dinner at a Japanese steak house. Just the two of us. It was nice. Then, we did the most romantic thing.....we went shopping for a new microwave! Oh yeah, we're soooo romantic! Oh, we did something even better than that though. Before we went to the restaurant, I had to drop off a prescription at CVS. When we passed the card section I heard Neal mutter "oh, cards." I said "what was that?" He said he hadn't gotten me a card yet. Well, I could have gotten all offended and said "you must not love me!" But I knew something he didn't know...I hadn't gotten him a card either. So, after I dropped off the prescription we swung back by the card section and I told him to pick out a card he liked for me and I would pick out a card I liked for him and then we'd swap them. We looked through the cards and laughed and shared a few, and then we each found one that we thought was perfect. Then we stood in the middle of the aisle and traded. I stood there crying while I read the most beautiful card, and he thought the card I picked out was just wonderful, too. Then we hugged and kissed in the aisle. Then we put our cards back and left. LOL!!! It was hilarious! The only down side is that I won't have that card to look at 30 years from now, but the memory will be priceless!

So, why did we have to look for a microwave, you ask? On Thursday I was thawing some sausage and all of a sudden my microwave stopped running and started humming and it said "F6" in the message box. I tried unplugging it and plugging it back, but to no avail. Neal checked out the manual and made a phone call, but found out it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Now here comes the frustrating part. Did you know it's virtually impossible to find an over the stove microwave in stock in the store? They have to order it! Best Buy told us they wouldn't have it in until March 28th! HUH??? Fortunately some friends of ours had an extra sitting in their house and we're borrowing it until the one one we ordered from Home Depot comes in (same microwave as Best Buy...same price...7 to 10 days).

Saturday Ben had his first basketball game in the playoffs. His team came in last place in the regular season, and the first team we played was the 2nd place team. They'd only lost one game....until Saturday! That's right people...our little red team won the game! By one (O-N-E) point! What an exciting game!!! Now we play #1 team on Thursday. Ben said "they haven't lost any games -- yet!" That's my boy!

Beth had Word of Life Teens Involved on Saturday. Word of Life is a youth program that we have at our church, and Teens Involved is a competition of area teens. They have singing, drama, instrumentals, puppets, creative writing, etc. It was an all day event. Beth was in our youth choir and she wrote a gospel tract and entered it. Now she'll be going to regional competition in April for both choir and her tract. Fortunately, it is also at our church, so we don't have far to drive. Some of the churches will be coming from several hours away.

Saturday night my in-laws invited us over for dinner. It was nice to have two dinners prepared for our anniversary! She made steak, salad, fried potatoes, and other yummy goodness. We had a nice visit. Neal's younger sister, Jessica was in town, so his entire family was there.

Sunday we had a great morning at church. Our pastor is back from India, safe and sound. We had communion Sunday morning, so that was nice. Sunday afternoon I took a nap and when I woke up Jessica was playing the Wii with the kids. She stayed a few hours and we had a good visit.

That's about it. I'm getting ready to head home. We've got to wash the dog tonight and I need to give my two guys hair cuts!

Have a great week!

To Da Mooooon!!!!

For those of you who've been asleep for the last few days and did not go out after dark last night, we had a Total Lunar Eclipse! If you missed it, don't despair...there will be another one in December of 2010!

Now, please do not laugh at my photography skills. I really don't think my Sony Cyber-shot was made to take pictures of items 238,857 miles away...at night. And in case you're wondering how I know how far away the moon is, I asked my new favorite website: WikiAnswers.

This picture, although blurry, shows the beautiful colors of the moon last night.


And here's another shot, taken with the same setting, but the colors didn't come through nearly as vibrant.


The kids and I had fun watching the eclipse after church last night. Neal was in bed in a self-induced Nyquil coma. He said at one point a noise woke him up and he said "oh, good, the Navy shot down that satellite." Ahhhh, Nyquil...

Tagged!

I got tagged in an email from a friend, so I'll tag here. Anyone who wants to do it, go at it! If you do, be sure and tell me!

Tag You Are It!

If you opened it, you have to do it. Then, send it back to the person who
sent it to you and the rest of your friends!

Two names you go by:
1. Teresa 2. Mommy

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Gray sweatshirt
2. Blue jeans

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Go camping
2. Watch the night sky

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. Find a firebox and logs that will fit my mantle!
2. A night out with my husband!

Two Pets that you have or have had:
1. Suzi, the St. Bernard
2. Symon, the Siamese

Two things you did last night: (I was sick with the stomach flu yesterday)
1. Ate ice chips while lounging in bed.
2. Drooled on my pillow in between trips to the bathroom.

Two things you ate today:
1. Orange/Vanilla ice cream for breakfast
2. About 5 bites of steak and some sauteed squash

Two people you last talked to:
1. Neal
2. Beth

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Church
2. Watching Beth perform in choir

Longest trips taken:
1. Disney World
2. Grand Canyon

Your favorite holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Easter

Two favorite beverages:
1. Sweet Tea
2. Iced Mocha

TAG, YOU'RE IT!

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14th

St. Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

Spend too much money on candy, roses and cards day

Not a day for frugal people!

Actually I love Valentine's Day. Neal and I just don't do anything for each other anymore. We did for many years and then one year we decided we weren't going to do it any longer. Our anniversary is February 23rd. We will be married 17 years next week, btw. Anyway, money has never been overly plentiful around here and trying to buy gifts and cards and dinner for each other two weeks in a row got difficult...especially after the kids came along. So one year we decided we were going to do for others on Valentine's Day and not ourselves. So we started inviting people over for dinner who didn't have family (like widows or widowers). Last year we were invited to another family's house, which was very nice too. :o) This year we've had a crazy week this week, and we ended up being invited to my in-laws house tonight, so that's where we're going. We did buy the kids gifts (although they don't know it yet). We're not cheap...really. We just don't like to spend money on a day just because "Hallmark" and the florist tells us we need to. So, we don't!

Now next week...that's another story! ;o)

You Don't Look Like Mommy

That's what Ben said to me a little while ago when I was working at my desk here at work. I said "is that a bad thing?" He had a funny look on his face and said "noooo." I said "what then?" He said "you look pretty, you just don't look the same as you do at home."

I'm wearing a long sleeve dark red blouse, black skirt, hose and black pumps. I have make-up on, and my hair, well, is my hair. What do I normally look like: this time of year at home I would have on jeans and a sweater, about half of my make-up and my hair would be, well, my hair. LOL

I guess that was his way of saying I looked pretty in a different sort of way. :o)

There is POWER

Yaaah! The power came back on around 1:00 today. Too late to avoid the cold shower again this morning, but early enough that the house will be nice and warm when I get home from work tonight!

I took Beth and Ben over to Neal's cousin's house this morning for showers and a warm breakfast. They were very happy to have heat and warm water! It was a nice break for me, as well.

I brought both kids to work with me, but my friend Colleen will be picking them up shortly. I asked her if they could spend the rest of the afternoon with them. I figured the kids needed a break from "work," and I didn't know when the power was going to come back on when I asked.

Oh, I just remembered...we'll get to watch "Biggest Loser" tonight. That's the only "must see tv" show for us right now. At least until "24" comes back on.

Thanks for all the prayers. I don't think we lost any food. Neal said a few things felt a little squishy in the freezer, but not bad. Good thing this happened this week and not last week when it was 70 degrees and we were at the park!

Windy Weekend

It was a cold and blustery day...

Well, it was blustery anyway. Sunday, that is.

After the 11:00 worship service, we ran some errands: Kroger, Sams and Walmart. $250 worth of groceries...some shelf, some refrigerator, some freezer.

Get home: no power.

Not good.

It went out around 1:00 yesterday afternoon and is not back on yet (I'm at work right now). We're hoping it will come back on tonight!

The winds were so strong yesterday that they actually blew most of the wooden columns off of our porch. We were not home as we were buying the expensive food mentioned above. Fortunately my in-laws were home and saw this happen. They recruited some help and were able to jack the porch roof up and get the columns back in place. They screwed them into the roof, so hopefully the wind will not do that again. We had a little damage to our vinyl siding, but other than that we think everything is fine. We're very thankful!

Last night Neal's cousin brought over one of his generators, so we have our refrigerator running and one light. We had coffee this morning. Yaah!

I'll be working here tomorrow from noon to 7:00. Our primary is tomorrow and it's going to be quite busy. If I have a chance I'll update our situation.

Take care and stay warm!

Day at the Park

Tuesday was a gorgeous day! Temps in the 70's here! Sunny...beautiful! The slight breeze kept us from actually getting hot! So, we played hookie Tuesday afternoon and went to the park. We packed the soccer ball, volleyball, baseball, basketball, tennis balls, baseball bat, ball gloves, and tennis racquets (water and of course, chocolate chip cookies). Oh, and we took our dog, Suzi along with us. Unfortunately she's not a dog we can just let loose and she'll run along by our side. Oh, she'd run along by our side ... for about 3 seconds as she whizzed past us on the way to her next destination! So, she was on a leash, and she did a lot of whining and pooping. What is it with that anyway? Do they hold some back so that when they smell something good they can poop on it? Is that a way of saying "I like this place?" If so, I wish she'd like the park a little less! She pooped three times while we were there! At least Ben got to find out that he likes living in an area where we have lots of land and he doesn't have to scoop poop all the time!

We started out playing soccer. Phew...nothing like running around a soccer field to find out how out of shape you are! Our rule was, if you got the ball past the goalie, you were the new goalie. At first I didn't think I'd want to be the goalie, but after running on the field for 10 seconds I realized goalie was a good idea!

After playing soccer for 20 to 30 minutes we moved on to baseball. I LOVE playing baseball! Ben was a pretty good pitcher, and fortunately I can hit just about anything that doesn't hit me, so we did all right. Unfortunately, I am not a good pitcher, so Ben didn't have as much luck hitting the ball. He did get a few hits in after he convinced me to throw it to him overhand. After we batted, we passed the ball around in a triangle. Our rules were this: if you dropped the ball you got a point (points are bad). The first person to get to 10 lost. Then the final two went to "sudden death." (picture Ann from The Weakest Link saying that.) Ben and I were the ones to always go to "sudden death." I have to brag here a minute and tell you that I did not drop even one ball until the final "sudden death." And then it was just like it dropped out of my glove. I was like "huh?" The kids thought it was funny.

After baseball we made our way to the basketball courts. Beth wasn't interested so Ben and I goofed around shooting the ball and then we got serious and played a game of HORSE....and he seriously beat me!

After basketball, the kids and Suzi played on the playground. Suzi discovered the slide and after she was dragged down slid down a few times she loved it! Too bad I can't get the video feature to work on here or I'd share that!

We had a great afternoon, that went by way too quickly!

The Blue Ridge Mountains were kind of hazy on Tuesday, but you can still get an idea of the beauty that surrounds us.


Here's Ben seeing what it would be like to have a dog in the city. (Perri -- I thought Jacob might enjoy this picture since he seems to like the word pictured here. ;o)

Here's Suzi after she did her first "deed." She's a happy dog!

This is one of Suzi's first trips down the slide. She really did start to enjoy going down it. Now if I could just get her to walk across the bridge near our house!

This picture kind of makes me sad. If you're a parent of a toddler, you'll understand one day. I can still picture my little toddler going toward the slide and wanting to climb all over it. I'd stand behind him with my hands outstretched -- just in case. Now he stands on top of it with his hands outstretched. :::sigh:::

The Teddy Bear Massacre

I just got off the phone with my brother, Bob (although I call him Robert Wayne). He was "on the road again" -- you know the song. Headed to a town in Kentucky. Anyway, it was so nice talking to him. I wasn't in a hurry and he must have been okay on his minutes, so all was well.

We were talking and he was driving through Florence, Kentucky. All of a sudden he says "There's a massacre of teddy bears! They're everywhere!" I'm thinking "huh?" Then he told me a box full of teddy bears had fallen off the back of a truck and were now scattered over the four South bound lanes of I-75. Then he saw the truck pulled over from which they had fallen. I asked him if the guy was going to try to get them. But it was too late...they were all dead.

:::moment of silence:::

Now there will be about 20 less people in Kentucky who will receive brown teddy bears with red ribbons for Valentine's Day! (Sorry Freda...it could've been you!)

Life Getting You Down?

Here are some great quotes to make you feel better:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp , some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

The Muppets Take Super Tuesday

What do the Muppets and the Democrat and Republican candidates have in common? Check out 2nd Cup of Coffee and find out! This is too funny!

A Quiz About the Queen

I couldn't figure out how to copy the link onto my blog, so click here:

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/takequiz.php?quizname=080205090445-694984&

to take a quiz about me. Let's see who knows me the best! Some of the questions are pretty hard, so don't feel too bad if you get them wrong!

If the above link doesn't work, then copy and paste it into your browser.

Post "D" Day

Headaches and nausea raged on Friday. I started the new meds Thursday night, so I really didn't expect anything too soon anyway. Around 3:00 Friday afternoon it was like somebody flipped a switch and my nausea was gone. Wow, it's amazing how different I felt. Still had a headache, but life was manageable again! Yaah! I grabbed a shower and felt even better. :o) I even played Mario Galaxy with the kids Friday night. I'm not much on playing video games (other than the Wii sports), but they enjoyed seeing me play. I guess I actually did really well, but I don't know why because I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing!

Neal had a business trip in Georgia and arrived back home at midnight last night. We were all asleep in bed when he got home. That's the first time in 17 years that I haven't been up to greet him when he got home from a business trip. I was wiped out though for some reason, but I did rouse enough to say "welcome home." Such a good wifey!

Rise and shine at 7:00 this morning. Woke up without a headache!!!

Ben had a double header today. First game at 9:00 went into double overtime. They were tied 16 to 16 and ended up losing 16 to 20. Second game at 11:00 they won 18 to 14! WooHoo!!! This was their first win. We were so excited for them. After the game, Grandpa and Grandma took us out for a pizza buffet. We had lots of fun spending time with them!

Heachache came back about 11:00, but it hasn't been unbearable today. Little bit of nausea, but not too bad.

This afternoon Neal and I took a nap. How lazy was that?!!! I think we both needed it though.

Beth took out her starter earrings today. I thought she was going to pass out. Seriously! She got real nauseaus and had to lay down. This happened to her the first time she got her ears pierced 3 years ago. That's one of the reasons we let them grow back. She couldn't handle it. I hope she starts doing better with them!

Ben got to take his first batch of rocks out of his rock tumbler today. They look really pretty. They started tumbling on Christmas day. They're not quite as shiny as we'd hoped for, but it's the first time they've ever done this. He's really excited!

I spent a couple of hours down at Mom's house earlier. She's doing well. Hopefully we'll get to work on the quilt next week....finish it up.

Now Neal and the kids are playing on the Wii. Neal and I had an activity with our Sunday school class tonight, but due to my headache and his being worn out from travel we opted to stay home with the kids.

Guess I'll go see what wii can do now!