Thinks By Me

As I claimed a few weeks ago, that would be me risking my life to face my incredible fear of height. Well, and maybe to impress you a little. It's me on Jacob's Ladder on the Alpine Tower, Baby.

It's about time for me to get a new purse. After all, I get one new one every season, carry it with everything, get sick of it just in time for the weather to change and get a new one. I never keep them and I don't carry them again. Neither do I spend much on them. TJ Maxx is usually my go-to place for cheap, chic handbags. But now there's something better - FREE! Handbag Planet.com is giving away these really cute purses. This is the one I covet. Is it really coveting if you only want it from a web site and not another person? Perhaps it is. I'll have to look into that. Until I do, I covet this one. Go enter for your own at Handbag Planet or even take pity and win for me. So I don't have to covet from you. Yeah, I like that idea.

Thanks to my good friend, Polly for recommending them to me, these are my all-time three favorite books. They are the only books I ever remember reading more than once. I just re-read them and finished the third one last night, under Brainy Boy's jealous gaze. I actually had to rush through the last few pages because he was trying to snatch it out of my hand. Of the three, the Giver is my #1 favorite because it makes me think about what it would have been like if God hadn't given us a free will. If you try one out, the only rule is that the Messenger needs to go last. Between the other two, it doesn't matter which you read first.

This weekend, Little Chic and I went to a local Christian ranch and did all sorts of camp-y stuff. Besides the trail ride on the horses, the 55-foot Alpine Tower was definitely the experience of the weekend. I will brag a bit and say that I was the only non-kid who made it to the top of the tower via the most difficult moving path, Jacob's Ladder. Here's Little Chic showing me how it's done. My own proof is on Girlfriend's camera. Perhaps I'll post my own feat when she sends me the picture. We also rode the 45-foot Alpine swing, which took much less effort and a lot more courage for those of us who are terrified of heights. For those who didn't get the thrill of the tower, we also did the typical camp stuff like making stuff in the craft cottage, taking a moonlit hayride and eating S'mores around the camp fire. Oh, and not being able to sleep in the cabin with 9 other people snoring, getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and whi...

It's nice to have talented friends with cameras! These pics were taken during our LittleChurch Group today (small group from church) by my overachiever girlfriend who hosted the group, fixed some of the food and then took family pics of everybody that was there. Somehow she found time to convert one into black & white. And she even has to work tomorrow.

Brainy Boy started at the middle school for 7th grade this year. Let me tell ya, it's a whole different world over there! Among the myriad of changes including a variety of teachers' expectations, locker combinations and starting school at 7:30 a.m., a new awareness of physical appearance has also come into existence. The most recent problem occurred this morning while getting ready for school. From the bathroom I hear.... "Ma, can you do something about my eyebrows? They're fusing together." If that's the hardest problem I get, I'm in great shape.

My sweet girl is turning 11 today. It's hard to grasp that she is in 6th grade. I remember being that age and I think of myself being SO much older at that stage than she is! She has been commenting all week to everyone that we see that "nothing special is happening on Thursday." It behooves us all to ask why that is, just to see the satisfaction on her face when she gets to "remind" us all that it's her birthday. As if we could forget. We'll be going to dinner tonight where we will coyly inform the waitress that it's "somebody's" birthday and Little Chic can act like she doesn't really want anybody to know. And she'll be thrilled when they bring her a special dessert and sing the restaurant theme song to her in front of everybody. But only on the inside. She'll act like she can't imagine HOW in the world these strangers know it's her birthday and that it's just so embarrassing. I love that about her. T...

This guy, Harry Brown, is my uncle, although at only 10 years older than me, he was more of an older brother when I was growing up. He is having surgery today for a large cancerous tumor and we're asking for mercy from God for a good outcome and prognosis. At Number 9 out of 10 children, he is dearly loved by his kids and his wife, Ela, lots of siblings, nieces, nephews and extended family. Some of his family members are with him today as well as a few close friends who are waiting anxiously to hear the results of his surgery. I wish I could be there. I'm asking you to remember him too, and think of us all today as we are praying for a miracle.

Janet, who blogs over at Across the Page gave me an award today! Believe me. It's been AGES since I've won anything. And I haven't even been attentive to Ya'll. I don't fancy myself creative, but I do like creations of all sorts. So "Awwww, Thanks, Janet!"

We trekked out for an annual camping trip with friends last week. We usually make several trips a summer to the Adirondack forest, but time was seemingly short this summer--so we settled for one lone trip.We spent the first night in Muh Main Man's hunting cabin near Long Lake and then proceeded to our camp site on the water at Cranberry Lake where our buddies were waiting for us. DogSpot even had a friend as our camping partners brought along their dog as well. We spent six days chillin' in the boat, cooking over the camp stove, making S'mores around the campfire at night...all the usual thrills of being in the outdoors without technology and the responsibilities of home life. It was suprising that more than a few of the trees have already begun to change colors. I'm sure that's due to the fact that nights are reguarly in the 40s and we had two nights in the 30-degree range. Fortunately our camper is a bit more insulated than tents would be, so we fared fairly w...

Here are a couple more pics that I took as I progressed through the finishing touches of the kids bedrooms. It's scary that I actually painted these canvases for Brainy Boy's walls! Who knew I was so geometrically gifted ?! For Little Chic's room, we started with a light tan wall and added chocolate brown and fuschia accents, like this wavy frame I painted around the wall calendar. She drew the shape and I painted it on the wall. This was the door frame and some color blocks in progress. If I say so myself, I did a fantabulous job not getting paint on any woodwork, ceilings or carpet--without taping. You'd think I'd done this a few times. We scattered color blocks of various sizes in brown and fuschia by order of Little Chic's design. Luckily, we are all pretty happy with the results.

Here are a few pics of the activity last week for Little Chic's room (which she loved when she got home from camp, by the way). It's not totally complete, but every day we work on a few more details. We'll have to see how faithful I am at uploading pictures so that I can post the pretties ;) The room started out something like this... ...and it's shaping up something like this...I was a little wary about what we were gong to do with dark brown and hot pink, but it's pretty cute after all. I did put my foot down and refused to paint the walls solid pink and brown, but I bought the bedside table and painted it and also painted the top and knobs of the white dresser. The wall color is kind of a tan and today I put some brown and pink paint details on the walls. We don't have anything hung back up on the walls, but it's getting close! I was a nervous wreck when I was putting chocolate colored paint on this white dresser! I actually had to paint it twice ...

The time has been long overdue to repaint the rooms of the Short People. ::Fair Warning:: This will be the last time I refer to them as the "Short People" due to the recent advancement in the height of Brainy Boy. He is now 64.25 inches...I am 64 inches even. After the present post, they will be called "the Juniors." Any-whooo, Brainy Boy had no interest in actually helping pick out his decor or room color, other than insisting that it be something "plain." Our initial pick was gray/white/black striped bedding, but Muh Main Man has some weird psychotic allergy to black. I usually completely ignore his decorating advice, but in a moment of weakness, I let him convince me that the color scheme was too Goth. I bribed Brainy Boy to come along and pick an alternative by offering a prized lunch at Panera Bread Co. We settled for an extremely plain blue/brown plaid with a stripe of red running through it. Light blue paint completed the room. He has been ...

I first began slowing down my blog entries when I took a regular part-time job with a local school this spring. I found that the new schedule and limited time just cut into my blogging. But I missed it. The pipeline continued to dribble throughout the remainder of the school year, while I looked forward to summertime and a chance to re-indulge my passion for posting. But summer has come and I'm finding myself not taking the chance to blog. I'm not totally sure why. I think it's partly from being busy with projects that have been put off for too long and partly from reveling in the freedom that has come from not having a job for the first summer ever. And running every event through my brain as a possible blog entry just became a drag. And I haven't really missed it. I've missed YOU guys and I actually feel a little guilty sometimes for not checking in, but I haven't felt the motivation to get going. Hopefully it's not permanent (well, I'm hopin...

14 months ago, we adopted our sweet DogSpot from a humane society in Pennsylvania. She is beautiful, though admittedly unique-looking. While we were in Florida, our neighbors adopted a 4-1/2 month old puppy from a litter at a New York humane society. We could not believe our eyes when we saw a virtual twin of our own dog. Neither they, nor we could believe the similarity in our dogs! We were told, at adoption, that our dog was Jack Russell/Boxer mix (or possibly Jack Russell/Pit bull). They were told that their puppy is Boxer/Pit bull/Labrador. We brought our dog over to meet her look-alike today, and they really hit it off--it was so strange to see the two of them looking so much the same! The main difference between the two is that Molly, the neighbor's puppy, has droopy ears and DogSpot has very pointy, upright ears. Who knows, we may have to take them on the road together!

I've resorted to plagiarizing other blogs (with permission, of course) because I can't muster a few creative minutes to come up with something original. School is out, but I worked two days after in the school office. Today was a long-awaited library day and getting ready for our vacation early next week. Tonight is the middle of the All-Stars softball tournament that will take up every waking moment other than church and packing this weekend. So to prove that I'm still here, here's a survey. You can copy if it you want. With this survey, you can only use one word answers 1. Where is your cell phone? Car. 2. Your significant other? Traveling. 3. Your hair? Short. 4. Your mother? Active 5. Your father? Working 6. Your favorite thing? Family 7. Your dream last night? Weird 8. Your favorite drink? Coffee 9. Your dream/goal? Balance 10. The room you’re in? Bedroom 11. Your church? Thriving 12. Your fear? Loss 13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here 14. Where were ...

Brainy Boy started wearing glasses when he was 4 years old, so I have not seen his beautiful blue eyes unencumbered, during waking hours for 8 years. He's 12 now, and responsible enough for contacts. Today was his first day at school with them. Only the excitement of showing off his new look was enough to keep him determined during the 25-minute process to get them in. The thing is, now he looks even more like his dad, if that's possible!

Seen in the local grocery store today (when running in to buy a gallon of milk). "In cooperation with NYSEG (our electric company) we are cutting back on lights and electricity. We are sorry for any inconvenience." I have no idea what in the world they are thinking, but I'm thinking that I won't be buying anything refrigerated or frozen from there. And the lights just may be too dim for me to sign my check ;)

Th' Good - It seems that the problem with my internet service for the past two months boiled down to a conflict between my Norton antivirus firewall and my wireless router firewall. I'm going with that story although we've had two other false-fixes from the lovely Time Warner tech, so time will tell. It's probably a good sign that I did stay up and running even during a thunderstorm today. That makes us all happy because when my internet is down--well, it's not so easy to stay pretty during those times, Ya'll. Th' Bad - I can no longer blame my lack of blogging on lack of internet. I have to come up with yet another creative excuse for why my blog has become more of a task than an outlet for the last month or so. It seems that working nigh to full-time takes a toll on more than my laundry basket. I've been filling in for a sick co-worker so, sadly, you'll have to do with less of my pontificating for a bit longer--till school's out on the lo...

What a great way to spend the last 19 years! Muh Main Man is at a week-long school trip in the Catskills with Brainy Boy as part of the 6th grade Science curriculum. So Little Chic and I are taking the burden of celebrating upon ourselves ;)