Bliss in the back of a Chevy

Happiness is getting to ride in the back of the truck, adjusting his jaw to make all sorts of air-pockets out of his flapping lips. Just looking at how happy he is makes me want to go for a ride.

Yes I know I should be driving but one can never have enough pictures of him.

No Shy Butterfly

Let me get right in his face for a picture. In fact, I think he's even smiling for the camera. :)

Tweet

While we were in Indianapolis my aunt took a few of us out shopping, and of course we can't skip going to a green house. I got some super neat stuff there too. But while we were there she insisted we go into the depths of plants to see something. Low and behold a mother bird chose one peticular plant, set up house, and had some babies. The folks at the greenhouse have taken the birds under their wings and make sure nobody messes with them.

I've never seen wild birds so little and young before.

Home

I made it home on Sunday. The trip down was wonderful and being with the family has renewed me. My time with each one of them will never ever be enough and I miss them all terribly.

On the other hand, it felt so good to get home, see my husband, see my dog, and sleep in my bed.

Go'in for a ride

To lazy to stand up and put his head out the window. Laying down and stretching to rest his head on the door seems to be much better.

Ticks

Mom and I are staying at one of my aunt and uncles (her sister) down here in Indiana. These two have computers everywhere so here I am feeding my blog addiction.

We went way out into the country yesterday to an old cemetery that hasn't had any new graves in I think decades and decades. There are some grave stones but many grave markers are just plain rocks, no engraving, just river rocks - some of the markers were tree's, no carving, just a tree. Odd not knowing who's buried there. Apparently that's how it was done way way back in the day. My great great grandparents and a few other people are buried there, and then there were some places nearby we use to visit down the road. Anyway we got out of the car at the graveyard for I think all of 2-3 minutes tops. We were headed back to the car and mom starts hollerin about a bug on her leg. She tried to brush it off and it wouldn't come off, which means panic. My uncle had to come and pick it off, and told us it was a tick. Now I'm starting to panic. This is the critter I have taken great pains to avoid. I haven't had one on me in 18 years I think (great bonus living in Alaska). So after the one was discovered on mom we all bent over to check our legs and sure enough we all had them. I had 3-4 on me and another one showed up on my ankle 30 minutes after I had checked that very same spot. It was just yuck. None of them had time to bury their heads but they still stuck, we had to squish them to our skin or pick them off. Neither choice is good in my book. I had to check places I rather not be checking and then mom and I had to go through eachothers scalps. We wore hats, thankfully none got in our hair. I iched all day until I was finally able to twitch into the shower. That shower felt so good, I swear I'll never enter the Indiana sticks again.

My cousins family and I are going to the Newburgh fair tonight while mom and auntie are going to the class reunion. Should be fun.

TTFN

I fly out at 11pm tonight. I started packing last night and I swear I feel like I'm missing a ton of stuff. If only I knew what I'm forgeting. I guess if I don't figure it out soon, I'll just have to live without.

Valette and her hubby stayed here last night on their way through town. While I'm not sure I'll ever see my cat again, their dog was complete entertainment. I didn't think any dog could fit under my bed, (the cat didn't either) but almost immediatly after entering my bedroom Lacy shot under the bed and straight into the cats face. haha it was way funny. If Valette wasn't allergic to cats I'd get Lacy one for christmas. She totally needs one.

I was gonna post my favorite picture of Lacy, (I think it was 2/7/04 - Lacy 7) but I couldn't find it anywhere. Valette I really liked that picture, where did it go?

Anyway I gotta git, be back on the 19th.

Hail

About a week and a half ago in the middle of a beautiful spring day we had a flash hail storm. This picture was taken no longer than 20-30 seconds after the hail started. The hail only came down for about 10 - 15 minutes but it covered everything and was about the size of a pencil eraser at its smallest. At this point although hard to see, it had covered the tops of all the vehicles and was gathering fast around the yard. I took 2 shots and was just about to move in closer when my camera batteries died. Very odd time for hail considering we never had any this winter.

Definition

Maturity: The ability to control our impulses, to think beyond the moment, and consider how our words and our actions will affect ourselves and others before we act

Starting Over

After getting it back and plugged in I started the looong process of trying to get back to something that resembled the old. Before I could start anything else I had to go to my display settings and make it look sorta like it did before, but the desktop picture I had is gone so it still doesn't look right.

Called the internet company and got the settings to get online and check email.

Set Outlook Express up with my 2 email addresses again, checked email, added a few addresses back into my address book.

Downloaded all three messenger programs.

*tried to block out the thought of dealing with Quicken*

Went to find everyone's blogs including mine and it hit me I was in Internet Explorer and not Firefox - yikes! (I am now addicted to firefox and could never go back to Internet Explorer, many thanks to my super smart sister-in-law for setting me straight there).

Download Firefox.

Find my blog and all the others, read and bookmarked.

*tried to block out the thought of dealing with Quicken some more*

Install Printer Software.

Found TV Guide, signed in & bookmarked.

Found Alaska Newspapers & bookmarked.

Found Indiana Newspapers & bookmarked.

Found car insurance website & bookmarked.

Found Banking website & bookmarked.

*Remember I needed to re-install Norton System Works (to go with the 4 spyware and one other virus protection programs the tech installed on the new hard-drive)*

Tear my house apart looking for Norton 2004. After 30 minutes of searching I find 2003 in the crawl space, I swear I gave that away last summer - strange. After an hour and a half of searching, I find Family Tree Software and Quicken, ug. Still can't find Norton 2004.

Install the dreaded Quicken.

Spend until 2:30 am (3½ hours) loading checking account, mortgage,loans, creditcard, & bills into Quicken while pulling my hair out, and I haven't even reconciled yet.

Go to bed.

Today...

Find my Microsoft Works & Money 2000 disk - hiss, boo, and wish I had Microsoft Office - Which I had before but technically shouldn't have (having to go back to Microsoft Works Word Processor after having Microsoft Word makes me cringe).

Install Microsoft Works & Money 2000.

Go in search of Norton again and find Microsoft office 2000, HOOORRAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Install Microsoft Office 2000 and have MS Word once again. All is right in my world of word processing again.

Install Win-Zip

Find Norton 2004 in the same cabinet I've looked in over 50 times since last night, durf.

Installed Norton System Works

Installed Family Tree Maker

Installed GIF Movie Gear

*Still need to install adobe photoshop elements but, when I borrowed it from dad I left the cd in his computer and took the case. Grr - Will have to wait till I go in on Thursday now to get it.

Installed Norton Go Back - This is an added feature of System Works but has to be installed separately, so I never did it when I bought and installed Norton the first time. It could have saved me a ton of trouble. Grrr

*Avoided opening Quicken and reconciling the checkbook all day, bonus*

Back

Well I got my computer back. The tech was not able to recover one single thing off my old hard-drive, so here I sit in front of a stranger. My old faithful friend which I worked so hard to build and mold to fit me is gone, a blank PC given to replace it. Stupid doesn't begin to describe how I feel. I knew I should have been backing up my computer but it was more something like a nagging thought I just blew off, now it is like a fog horn blowing in my head... YOU IDIOT!!!!

Just some recent things I was using, that I can remember losing...
* Everything in Quicken - will have to start all over
* around 750-800 pictures
* over 1000 names and personal info in my family tree (will have to completely start over here too)
* All email and mailing addresses along with birthdays and anniversary's
* All my digital art it took me so long to make
* Bookmarks
* A TON of programs collected here and there
* Around 500 songs
* A large handful of resumes I kept for others, including mine (Thankfully I have a few printed copies)
* Recipe's
* A ton of bible study material I worked so hard to collect

Each day since it happened I remember one more thing I lost. Then comes the sinking feeling in my heart. Then the thought of how stupid I was.

Anniversary

Marty pointed that out to me this weekend while we were in Homer walking the docks in the harbor that its been a year since we quit. I don't know how I could have forgotten, March 17th of last year was the last day I had a cigarette.

I still enjoy 2nd hand smoke in the rare times I find myself around it but I am so glad to be with out that old habit. I smoked for about 14 years. It's starting to feel normal not having cigarettes a regular part of my day. Ruling my day. Looking back I don't know how I smoked up to 2 1/2 packs a day.

I owe it all to God. I prayed and prayed for him to help me stay strong through every part of my day - which I hadn't really done well in hundreds of previous attempts to quit smoking - He totally came through for me.

Saran-wrapped Ford?

While in down in Homer we stopped out at the airport and sitting in the parking lot was this ford. My only guess is that it was someone's idea of a joke. We sure got a good laugh out of seeing it.

Sunset in Homer

Purdy view of the volcano, Mt. St. Agustine from the Spit in Homer.

Fruit?

Avocado's considered a fruit, exactly who decided this??

Luke 21:33-36

Luke 21:33-36 (NASV)
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Cat on the prowl

I took the lizard to the vet's office for a check up on Wednesday and they had a pound cat in a display cage for, ummm an easy target. Since I came in early I had all this time, I just had to check him out. He was so sweet and just seemed to be ok with anything. So after calling Marty and getting the lizards check up outa the way, I went home with the lizard and cat in tow. He's little and about nine months old, we're thinking of calling him Toby - not sure yet. He loves Bossco and Bossco is just fascinated with him. I think Bossco and I are really trippin over the fact that this cat on his first day here has no problem crawling right up and laying down half on me and half on the dog - with out being lured in at all. Things are a bit more entertaining around here these days.

The Sign of the Fish

Its been forever since I posted. Things have gotten unexpectedly busy around here these days and the thought of posting exzuted way to much brain power. But last week I was asked by a family member if I knew where the fish came from when we saw one on a bumper in traffic. I had forgotten but have a bookmarker that explains it all and promised I would share it- so here it is a week later with a bit more than the marker provided. Sorta neat to know the story after being clueless for so many years.



The earliest followers of Jesus were persecuted and forced to worship in secret locations. They adopted a secret symbol as a means of identification between fellow Christians in a pagan world. The earliest followers of Jesus were persecuted and forced to worship in hidden locations. Often these believers would scratch the secret symbol of a fish in the ground to help them identify other Christians.

Not only was fish a common food of the day, often used and referenced by Jesus during His ministry, but the letters which make up the Greek word for "fish" (IXØ U S ) also spell out a secret message about our Lord. I-Jesus, X-Christ, Ø -God’s, U -Son, S -Savior.

Smuggling

Marty and I ran into our sister-in-law while out to breakfast Sunday morning. She is incredibly talented at "twisting" different things out of balloons and made us an angel to take to a friend in the hospital. While she was making it she warned us that the balloons are made of latex and are not allowed in the hospital - so we would have to smuggle the angel up to our friends room. No problem I thought, I'll just hide it under my coat. Well the angel was so big she just about could have worn my coat and there's no doubt the many people we walked by to get to the 3rd floor saw the huge bulge under my coat. I'm not sure why I kept going with it under my coat but I did. I really didn't want it taken away. Looking back now I feel like an idiot for trying to hide it. We made it to the 3rd floor and as I was walking past a hospital employee in a waiting room part of the angels skirt, (or tutu because it was a ballerina with wings) popped with a really loud bang. The hospital staffer just about fell out of his chair. I can with out a doubt say I wasn't the only one trying to swallow my heart back into my chest. The guy looked right at me and asked what was that!? Of course there was no hiding the fact that it came from the huge bulge in my coat. This is where I was asking myself again why I didn't just carry it in to be seen by all, how would they have known it was latex?? I told him it was a surprise balloon and just kept going as fast as I could, thank heavens my friends room was right around the corner. When I arrived my heart was pounding, it was all I could do to stop laughing. I will never try and sneak anything into a hospital again.

Gospels

Why are we given 4 stories of Jesus' life instead of only one? They're told by 4 different perspectives...

Matthew - Seems to be especially for the Jews, often pointing out the fulfillment of prophecy.
Mark - Short and vigorous record appealing to active Romans.
Luke - Literary masterpiece appealing to cultured Greeks.
John - Concentrates on things not already told.

John 20:31 - "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name"