The energizer bunny has nothing on me; these past few weeks I've worked harder than the auto correct feature on Kevin Moody's cell phone. Just in case you don't engage in text conversations with him, I'll give you an idea: "Dis is gon be uh crazy game. Did u c dat? I had fun wit u." That's my brother-in-law. Kevin, you know I only pick on you because I love you. A lot!!!
Speaking of brothers, I had Friday, Aug. 24th off work for a recording session. Jay was supposed to have left for Houston by the middle of that week, but that didn't happen. You may remember the last post when I counted 94 days until I'd see him again, and that thought made me sad. Who would have thought that I'd get to see him just FOUR days later! God knows I'm impatient and looked out for me, obviously : D
I left for Dillon that Thursday after work and was ECSTATIC to have a night of family fun before Jay left- just the four of us. It was like old times except no studying for spelling tests, creating last minute science projects, or agonizing over math homework. These days definitely come with their perks.
One of our games during this evening-o-fun was Disney Scene It- love this one! I kept getting extremely confused about the instructions (imagine that). We were about a fourth of the way through the game when Jay made a startling observation: I was reading the instructions for the ESPN Scene it game, and not the Disney one...
Whoops.
One of my parting "gifts" for Jay was ironically the return of many of his t-shirts that I found packed in various bags of mine. There is something about your brother's oversized tees that provide greater comfort and satisfaction than your own.
Happy clothes hunting, Jay. I'm sure I will have accumulated more by the next time you're home. If you're lucky one of these may be in a box under the Christmas tree.
We said farewell to Jay the next morning. The November countdown is on!!!
I have still been on a cleaning/organizing discovery kick. I use the word discovery, because there are boxes upon boxes in my attic of old assignments, artwork, etc., from Campbell's Kindergarten through college and beyond.
Here are a few special items that I found in my most recent attic escapade:
I've always loved the scene in Sleeping Beauty where the fairies make a cake- so much so that I tried to recreate it on a Birthday picture for Jay. I'm guessing this was his 5th or 6th Birthday.
I found this next page from a coloring book and loved it! You can barely see "$10.50" in the top corner. My coloring is no joke; it is serious business. One of my many Katharine & Joy stories is the time I decided we needed to sell the pages out of our coloring books. After all, these were not only shaded very artistically but were also colored inside the lines. Luxuries like this come at a steep price.
I loved the back of this page, too...a blonde haired girl spending time at the recording studio- sound familiar? I call it the premonition painting.
Want to fill your tummy for less money? I have a two piece "square deal" from your local KFC. It only expired in May of 1993. The great grandchicken of that meal are probably in Heaven by now.
And we must not forget AJAX- for all your tragic toilet needs. This coupon of fun expired in December of 1993. Use at your own risk.
Below is a darling portrait of my dear father. He is only selling for $4.00, bless his heart. Perhaps because there was no color, or no smile on his face- HAHA!
Then there were the countless signs I made on my mother's old, boxy Apple computer in the library.
These prompted me to later post a most threatening decree:
I'm pretty sure this was directed toward Jay.
Shakespeare, beware of this story I wrote in first grade entitled, "If Grandmas Could Fly."
If my grandma could fly, I would get on her back. I would bring my Amy Grant tape, and we would "lisen" to it when we were flying. Grandma might bump into an airplane, get lost, fall down, never get up, get stuck in a cloud, fall asleep, and somebody might shoot her trying to shoot a bird. All this would happen if grandma's could fly.
Oh, what I'd give to go back to those afternoons in the library where my biggest worry was how many oxen I had on Oregon Trail and whether or not my passengers had dysentery...
On any given Sunday I would pass notes to my mom in church. About 99% of the time there was a motive involved, such as lunch at Golden Corral or the right to ask a friend over to play. I'm pretty sure this next drawing was me bribing her with piano practice.
Then there is this calendar from June of 1993, highlighting my social to-do's, which consisted of:
Sunday School/ Church
A piano delivery- I started playing that year!
Piano lessons on Tuesdays at 10:00
SNICK on Nickelodeon Saturday nights
GA's and Unsolved Mysteries every Wednesday night
and...(Heaven knows) Hellen Kellar's Birthday lunch on the 29th. ?????? I won't even ask.
Isn't it hilarious to see how we spend our time now versus almost two decades ago?
I'm sure there will be much more to come as I continue my attic discovery. I'll be sure to share it.
Other things I've been up to lately include Ryan's family reunion. Because he was at a Bachelor party in Charleston that weekend, I went for both of us and spoke on his behalf (what else is new)?
I love these boys!
It seems like just yesterday when we were on our cruise in 2006...
We all know that family reunions mean GOOD EATING!!! I probably ate five of those watermelon cookies before I got back to the table.
I also got to catch up with Karen and James. We went for a walk, played Battledome, and- again- Disney Scene It : ) It was a fun evening, and this time I understood the directions.
Along with football stadiums packed with screaming fans, tsunamis, and NASCAR races, there is something else that belongs in this category of loud... and that's when I get together with this family : D
Here we are at Pizza Hut in Dillon- LOVE that place. I had several Birthday parties there growing up, I remember playing many a song on the old Juke Box and buying temporary tattoos and stickers, my fellow piano students and I would eat there before recitals, there was the Book-It program at East where so many reading points would earn you a free pizza, etc. I have many happy memories of Dillon Pizza Hut.
Little did I know that the following week would be so exhausting. On Tuesday I took half a day off work and went to Dillon to play the organ for Mr. Lloyd Meekins's funeral. It was a very heart felt service, and I was glad to be a part of it. Back to Columbia I went afterwards (with a pit stop at Starfire with the parents), and it was absolutely mon-sooning outside. Thank you, Hurricane Isacc and your rain bands.
The next morning I had to get up at 4:00 AM. Yes, you read that correctly. I had to be in Charleston first thing that morning for a workshop and had to pick some coworkers up on my way out of town. I say with a great degree of certainty that the only time I'd ever wake up that early again would be for the rapture. Other than that, I'll be snoozing.
I ran in Wal-Mart at 5:30 that morning on our way out of Columbia, thinking that I'd be the only customer and would therefore be in and out quickly. That wasn't in the cards for me. I got in line behind the only man in the store who was slower than a snail with a broken shell and on top of that was writing a check in the checkout line. You know what bothers me terribly? People writing checks in a store. Seriously- get a debit card. It accomplishes the SAME thing, only ten times faster!!! Rant finished.
Anyway, Jeannie and I know how to make the most of a work related trip. Here we are picking up breakfast at Chick-Fil-A just before arriving at the Charleston office.
Fortunately our speaker was awesome and breezed through our workshop. This freed up plenty of time for our most important meetings of the day at these places:
Don't you love it when sales people in clothing stores ask if you "found everything you needed" when checking out? What kind of question is that? Oh, yes ma'am, I couldn't have lived another day without these checkered socks. And odds are I really needed that owl necklace, too. Is it just me, or is that a ridiculous question?
This past Sunday was First Baptist's annual dinner on the grounds. There are few things in life I love more than this church. We are smiling for many reasons here, two of those being Jesus and fried chicken.
It was great to see sweet, awesome Hannah : ) She was home for the first time from Winthrop!
I always look so forward to Labor Day. Any day when I have a Monday off is an immense blessing. So on Sunday evening when I would usually be driving back to Columbia, or trying to nap in the passengers seat while Ryan throws things at me and turns up the radio, I had a BLAST spending some time with sweet Anna.
And we're off!
First on the agenda: dinner at one of my ABSOLUTE favorite places, Outback. Anna is so hilarious; she called the restaurant before we left to make sure they had their famous potato soup. This girl wasn't playing around; she ordered five or six more cups of soup to take home to her family. Maybe Thompson is spanish for potato, but in any event, the girl LOVES some soup.
Meet Santa Anna Claus. She comes bringing potatoes of good cheer.
After gorging ourselves at this Australian establishment we went and fooled around in Pet Smart. I'm not sure if this kitty appreciated me being in her personal space. A cat versus THEKAT.
Tweet tweet.
We topped off our evening with a trip to Target and Starbucks. Anna, I can't wait for our next trip, my love : )
One of my greatest accomplishments recently has been winning several Mario Kart races while playing against people from all over the world: China, Spain, France, etc. The internet is an amazing thing. Forget the fact that I would have to ask Siri where some of these places are on a map- winning in Mario Kart is what counts. The screen shot below will be a most impressive addition to my resume.
I will end this post on an INCREDIBLY HAPPY note!!! Remember my hard drive that died back in June? I got it back from the recovery center a couple of weeks ago and did not have high expectations at all. Well what to my wandering eyes should appear but almost ALL of my data is back!!! In fact, there is not even enough room on my new hard drive to hold all of the information. It's going to take me weeks to go through everything and decide what I want to keep on my fixed computer or leave on the backup drive, but at this point I can't even tell what, if anything, is missing. Thank you, Jesus!!!
Call me silly, but I prayed hard about this. I even had some friends praying, too. I had years of information, documents, pictures, wedding things, etc. that I had worked on and was brokenhearted at the thought of losing.
How do you measure your treasure? It's amazing how we can take things for granted until they are missing and then we suddenly have a renewed sense of appreciation. But I'll tell you one thing; I'm so thankful that I have a relationship with a Savior who promises to never leave us or forsake us- he'll never "go missing." For the Christian who has been born again, there is nothing that can be taken away from us that will ultimately matter. We are promised an eternal life in Heaven. If you don't have a personal relationship with Him and walk with Him daily, something major in your life is missing. Once you accept Him as your personal Lord and savior you can begin to understand the magnitude of his mercy and grace, and the "worst" thing that could happen to you is death here on earth and an eternal life in Heaven. Please don't choose the other path. Follow Him, and follow Him today. Do not wait.
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14
