Thursday, June 30, 2011

Moving Day

The changes just keep a'coming at my workplace.  Starting next week we will have some major changes, going from two pharmacists to one & all that is involved with that.
It's going to be a little weird, but I think it's going to be ok.

With all of this crazy change taking place, I got to do a little crazy thinking. 

In my 'office' (which is really just a common room with the break table behind me & everyone coming & going all the time - which is how I like it) has a computer desk in it.  I have never really loved it because I don't have any drawers & its design just lended itself to messiness. 

The pharmacists used to share an office adjacent to mine.  In it they each had a large desk with four drawers.  When my boss announced all of the changes that were going to take place I realized that one of the desks in their office would no longer be needed.  Hmmm...I want me some desk drawers!

So I asked my boss about it.  Let me tell you just one thing about my boss: he's nice.  If he can make something happen for you, he will.  Today I got my desk drawers.


The Old Desk moved away from the wall & ready to be cast aside.
See all those piles of papers & clutter?

This is Ed.  He is our main fix it man.  He was right there with a plan &
ready to help when we started talking about swapping desks.

My New to Me Desk with Four Drawers.

I'm really grateful we were able to do this little switcheroo.  It forced me (& my boss) to go through some things that needed to be dealt with.  And I'm really liking my new setup so far. 
Now it's time to go get some candy bars or something that's worth hiding in the drawers!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

I'm Needing A Nudge

Lately I've been feeling a little bit ho-hum-dee-hum.  Not unhappy.  Not depressed.  Actually I'm in a pretty good place of contentment with a lot of people/circumstances in my life.  God is good (all the time, of course) & I'm grateful that lately my prayers to recognize His goodness to me are being answered - blessing are all around, people!

So what's with the ho-hum-dee-hum?  I just feel unmotivated.  I've been staying up late.  I've been eating lots of good for me food but just as much bad for me food.  I've been working out a little bit, & I've been running not at all.  I've been starting projects & finishing nothing.  I just don't have a lot of get up & go & hit it!  I really need someone or something to light a fire under my lazy hiney & get me going.

Any volunteers?

What is your sure fire (ha!) go-to plan to get yourself motivated?  Do you set a list of goals?  Do you find someone to be accountable to?  Do you memorize verses on laziness & self-control?  Do you lecture yourself in the mirror every morning?  Or do you just give yourself a hug & be chill with the status quo?

Help, anyone?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

My Wanter Is Out Of Whack

When I was a kid we had a dog.  She was a sweetie & her name was Queenie.  She was probably a miniature Collie-Husky mix.  At least that's what she looked like.  And she was a great dog.  Except for this phase she went through where she would get out of her collar (or even harness) & dig out under the fence of our back yard.  Once she was out she wouldn't go too far but she would do some yucky stuff like get dirty diapers out of the neighbor's trash cans.  *shudder*  Yeah, other than that she was a great dog!  And I think she lived a fairly happy life in our backyard under the maple tree in her little white house.

Several years after Queenie went to the pet cemetary at the farm, my brother went to the local pound.  He found a little puppy named Abbigail that was probably a Husky-Chow mix.  She was a pretty little thing despite a case of mange that tattered her cinnamon colored coat.  After a couple days spent twisting my dad's arm Abby came to live with us.  She was our first indoor dog & she was so smart.  She was house trained in one day.  Though she struggled with the mange & some other sickness at first she quickly got healthy & gave us all a run for our money.  She could chase her tail & play for hours.  We had so much fun with her.  Then she grew up & got a little moody.  She didn't like it when we rearranged furniture.  She would pout when I went off to school & then pout some more when I came home.  She didn't like any of my friends & she even got in a couple of nips over the years.  She was a beautiful dog but she was a little hard to handle when she got old & crochety. 

And now I haven't had a dog for years.  When I bought my house I got dog fever BAD.  And it hasn't really gone away.  At first I really wanted a dog because I was a little intimidated of living alone.  I only lived there alone for about nine months before we got married but those nights were sometimes long & scary.  I definitely would have gone to the pound & got myself a puppy if I hadn't been working 14 hour days several times a week.  And to complicate matters, my yard didn't & still doesn't have a fence.  And I still don't have a dog.

But my sister's family does.  She's a pound puppy.  And we all love her to pieces.  Her name is Coco & Brennan has taught her to chase deer so she is a garden guard dog!  Any time I get a real jones-n' for a puppy of my own I go down to Beth & Brennan's house & have a romp with Coco. 

Coco says hi to all of you PharmGirl readers!

Coco goes along for all of our adventures - hiking in the woods, bike rides,
walks & runs along the country roads where they live outside of town.
Coco even came to the farm with us to celebrate Memorial Day.
Maddie & Coco are great friends.  They get their cuddle on whenever possible.
Coco even gets rides in the red wagon.
And she even looks good in black & white!
I think I might have to go down to the country tonight & get my Coco fix! 

Are you wanting a pet these days?  Or do you already have one?  Or do you have one that you wished you didn't anymore? heehee...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Our Annual Yard Sale

I consider myself super blessed because I have some friends who are yard sale junkies.  Every year they get together & have a big yard sale Saturday.  This is the second year I've been able to get in on the action.  I have always loved putting on a good yard sale but it is utterly exhausting doing it yourself.  Plus our house has a very stinky location.  Autumn's house is The Spot, if you know what I mean.

Saturday morning we were supposed to be at Autumn's house by about 6:15 to get things set up.  When I got up at about 5:30 *yawn* there was some thunder storm action going on.  We had a quick phone conference & decided to try to be set up by 8 instead of 7.  I finished getting myself together & then headed out to pick up a tanker cup of coffee & the requisite donut breakfast for me & Mike.  I had a tractor tire.  They are the grand poobah of all donuts.  Mike had a couple of Bavarian filled donuts.  I did not try to talk him into giving me a bite of one of those.  *shudder*  Whoever thought pudding should go in a donut?
 
YUM.

Thankfully the Lord answered our prayers & cleared the rain up.  The sky was cloudy & ominous & more than once we felt a sprinkle or two but mostly this was the scene in Autumn's driveway all.morning.long.  Yee to the haw, people! 

See those Dodge Ram wheels in the front right corner? 
They are still available!  Let us hook you up!
 I have never been part of a yard sale that was quite so busy for so very long.  Usually the sales wind down around noon.  We still had a few folks dropping by at 3 p.m.  We had one big rain scare that had us hauling the totes out.  We scooped all the rain affective stuff back into the totes quick as can be.  Then the bad clouds blew over & we had it all back out.  It took about 10 minutes all told.  We are like a well-oiled yard sale-ing machine!

Will made a killing selling water.  I think he earned about $2 off of me alone!

Abby & Jess took a moment to model some puppy Halloween outfits. 

Autumn, Abby, April, & PharmGirl
Yeah, my yard sale-ing friends are sisters (can't ya tell?).  We had such a good time all together on Saturday & we made a decent haul.  I made more at this sale than I think I ever have before.  We were kinda thinking that maybe we needed to schedule a fall sale.  I gotta tell you, I'm in...I still have some stuff to unload & I have tons of masking tape left so I can make many a price tag!

Have you had a yard sale this summer?  Was it a doozey?

Monday, June 20, 2011

Change is good, right?

For whatever reason, resistance to change seems to be built into our human nature.  Or at least it's alive and well in my nature.  There are some changes that I have learned to appreciate, like the changing in the seasons.  As much as I detest winter I don't think I'd be perfectly happy living somewhere that didn't have all four seasons.  It would be fine with me if the warmer seasons took up a disproportionate part of the calendar, but I would still want the change.  And I enjoy the change of pace that I regularly have with my work.  I know that I will usually work the same shift with the same guys.  I know that the day will start out working in the lab with the drugs, the drugs will be delivered, the returns will be dealt with, & then we will prepare for the next day's work.  But with all of that planned activity there are all sorts of monkey wrenches that can get thrown in.  Sometimes our supply chain gets interrupted.  This time last year we had major shortages because of two of the world's largest reactors were shut down.  Then there was the volcano in Iceland that erupted & shut down all of Europe's airports.  Every day we had a puzzle to solve to see how many doses we could supply out of our store of radioactive material.  It wasn't fun exactly but it was definitely not boring!  Another monkey wrench that can get thrown into the day's schedule is an unscheduled dose for one of our customers.  That almost always puts me on the road to make the delivery.  So when I clock in I'm just not quite sure what the day holds.  And that kind of change I like.

But there's a different kind of change that's coming to our little pharmacy on July 1st.  The location in the Big City has lost some of their business to a competitor.  We have lost some business as well just by having customers run fewer tests.  The Decision Makers have decided that the best way to handle this situation is to shift some of our business to the Big City location & make our location more of a satellite.  Acutally the official terminology is 'hub & spoke'.  They are the hub, we are the spoke (I don't know why, but that hub & spoke stuff triggers a SheDaisy song in my mind, "You got the bucket baby, I got the chicken...").  Ahem...where was I?  Ok, the Big City location will be dispensing our first run of doses, one of our drivers will go pick them up, & then we will deliver them.  One of our pharmacists will no longer be needed so he will be relocating to the Big City.  The other pharmacist & I will come in, get things going & then dispense our second run from this location.  That whole process is familiar to me because it is what we do when we have a pharmacist on vacation.  But it will be strange doing it all the time.  There are still a lot of questions in my mind about how other tasks will break down - things that are inherent parts of my job like returns processing & billing.  At this point it is most likely that the Big City location will handle all of that so that our customers can receive just one invoice.  This is not my favorite part of my job but one that I take very seriously because there should be no errors in billing.  It might be a bit hard to let go of the control.  And it concerns me that a part of my workload is going to disappear.  At this point there has been no discussion of staff changes or cutbacks.  That is encouraging.  My boss also mentioned that he would like for me to be trained as our location's Radiation Safety Officer.  This is something I would love to do.  However, he is already trained for it so there is no guarantee that his boss will think it necessary. 

It's kind of interesting.  It's kind of an easy thing to worry about - is this the beginning of the end for our location?  What if I have to work full time in retail pharmacy?!  That has crossed my mind multiple times.  But I'm constantly reassured that the Lord provided this job for me.  If it goes away it will be because He allowed it & because He has a better place for me to be.  It's all good with change when the Lord is the One orchestrating it!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

What We've Been Up To

Part of what has kept me offline recently is a big project Mike is working on. 

It was something he promised his dad as a gift for last Father's Day.

It just got finished last night.

That's what I call working at a fast pace *grin*

I'm still working through some pics to make sure that I have a complete start to finish kind of report for you. 

As always, Michael did a fabulous job. 

More to come!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Successes & Failures

Call me a little weird, but I'm always on the look out for something new to eat.  I get bored easily & I've always been taught that a healthy diet embraces wide variety.  And I don't think I'm too awful picky.  There are just a few things I don't like.  For example, I am not a fan of coconut, bananas, papaya, ham (or essentially all pork products), ground hamburger, peaches...
Ok, so maybe I'm a little picky.
But I have been trying to broaden my palate lately.  Poor Mike gets dragged along.  Most of the time he isn't kicking or screaming.  And most of the time I don't try to coerce him into trying something he doesn't want to.  Most of the time...
Anyway, a couple of successes I have had recently are discovering that I love, love, love pistachios!  I had never had them before when recently a friend shared some with me.  It was love at first bite *grin*  And I like the fact that you have to pop them out of their shells.  Then you have to work to eat a whole fistful at once.  No, I don't usually snack a fistful at a time, do you? *blush*
And they make a good driving snack!
 I love yogurt.  This is something I didn't discover until college because my mom doesn't like yogurt so it never occurred to her to introduce us to it.  Now I eat it almost every day.  It's good stuff.  Recently I tried Greek style yogurt.  It's a little different.  I think the honey helps me like it.  Without the honey, no deal.  But it's packed with protein & those good bacteria bugs so it will probably become a regular resident in our fridgie.
Now for my not so success-full stories.  This past Saturday I dragged my carcass popped out of bed bright & early to hit the farmers market.  I may or may not have shoved a baseball cap over my bedhead.  I may or may not have ducked & hid when I saw some people I know.  But I know that I absolutely did pick up some farm fresh eggs, local honey, a leek, & a baby bok choy. 
Am I weird, because I kind of liked that I had to wash the wet dirt off of my produce.  It made me feel like it had been picked just that morning.
Who knew leeks had such beautiful flowers?
And here are the brief tales (I promise) of my failures:
*I used the honey to make granola bars.  I got local honey with the hopes that it would help relieve some of Mike's allergy symptoms.  This honey tastes totally different than any honey I've ever had.  It's not totally unpleasant but it didn't jive well with the granola bars.  Huh. 
*The baby bok choy was a limp noodle mess by the time I was hoping to use it.  Grrr. 
*The leek was actually kind of fun to chop down & find a recipe for.  I was going to make Garlic & Leek Mashed Potatoes.  Things were going great - I had the potatoes on to cook.  I had the garlic & leek simmering in some chicken broth & I had some milk set aside with just a touch of vinegar to make a substitute for buttermilk.  At just the right time I added the 'buttermilk' & some butter to the leeks & garlic.  What ensued was nothing short of sickening.  The milk curdled & turned into this awful snotty mess & it started to smell bad & all I could do was keep stirring in horror!  Then I checked the date on our milk & it was expired.  Then I checked the smell of our milk & it was definitely spoiled.  Yep, I added vinegar to sour milk so it was double rotted!  Ugh.  It was gross.  Super gross.  Ugh.  La La La La La Laaaa!  It's time for a subject change.

Kudos to Mike for dumping that mess out for me so I could wash the saucepan.  Otherwise the whole deal would have gone into the trash!

I won't be checking out the farmer's market with my bedhead under a baseball cap this weekend because I'll be co-hosting a yard sale with my friends Autumn, Abby, & April (yep, they are sisters!).  If you are local, come by!  We've got lots of great junk valuables to sell!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Tickling the Ivories

Recently Caleb & Madison had a piano recital.  It was an excellent chance for them to display the skills they are developing.  When we walked in I was surprised & happy to see that not only were Caleb & Maddie going to play for us but there were also 8 other students, one of whom was their grandma (their dad's mom).  She is an inspiration - always learning something new.

Each student had one solo piece & then they all played in a duet.  All of the students except Caleb & Maddie played their duet with the teacher.  Caleb & Maddie got to play together.

Doesn't Caleb look thrilled?
Maddie was nervous all day but she did a great job!

Their duet
As I was sitting in the pretty little country church listening to the piano players flow & stumble through their pieces, I did a little looking around.  I was filled with gratitude when I realized how many of our family came to support Caleb & Maddie.  That's one thing you can say about our family - we show up for each other every time we possibly can.  And that's part of what makes my family so very, very wonderful.

Of course Dad & Mom were there.

And the G's (Great Pa & Great Ma)

My Momma aka Grandma In Town

And even Aunt Ruth & Uncle Allan
It was a good time of entertainment & a great time of fellowship as a family.  And no, Caleb & I aren't confessing how many cookies we ate at the reception that followed *grin*

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Hiya!

Just popping in for a quick moment to let you know that I have not been abducted by aliens, I have not been living under a rock, & I am not in the hospital or dead.

And even though I haven't been hanging around here at the blog, I have been thinking about it.  Like, a lot.  And making notes & reading other blogs & dreaming of ways to improve this little space.  I've been thinking about  things like adding some pages, creating a regular feature or two, & maybe even hosting a linky party (which is terrifying to me because what if NO ONE LINKS UP!). 

And I have been living life.  It's been exceedingly life-ful lately.  And that is a good thing; it just takes up a lot of time!  My plan is to be back here on a regular basis soon.  Until then, ciao!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

What's On My Nightstand

A while back I told you all about a book I was just getting into, "The Help".  At that point I couldn't really make an informed recommendation because I hadn't finished the book yet.  Since I have convictions about what I feel the Lord would have me to read & I know some of you do to, I don't take making recommendations lightly.  None of us has oodles of time to sit around & waste on a bad book, whether the story itself is disappointing or the content is just too colorful, if you know what I mean.

That being said, I can wholeheartedly recommend "The Help."  My goodness, did it ever make me think!  In really such a short span of time our country has made some major strides as far as discrimination & integration go.  And I never really thought so before, but I think we still have progress to make.  It might not be so much with black people & white people anymore.  I think it's gotten more complicated than that.  We have so many 'minority groups.'  You can't classify just by race anymore.  There are belief systems, sexual orientations, financial classes, educational distinctions, tall/short, fat/thin, red headed with freckles, & so many others.  It just really made me pray that I would learn to show the love of Christ to anyone & everyone that I interact with.  After all, every person is a person that Jesus loves. 

Let me just put one caveat on the book: there is one section that would not be appropriate for young readers.  Definitely preview it before you give it to a teenager to read.  It's not a gratuitous scene; it actually is telling the story of an attack that two of the ladies endure.  Just something to be forewarned about.

And if you're not convinced that "The Help" is a good read, I'll tell you one more little thing.  My friend Autumn borrowed the book on a Friday night & by Monday morning she emailed me to tell me she was done with it, she loved it, & could her coworker borrow it? 

So now that I've finished that book up, I'm on to something new.  And this time it's a bit of a change of pace.  It's actually a type of book that I've never read before so we will see how it goes. 


I could absolutely get consumed (ha!) by the topic of food & nutrition.  I am just like everybody else, I want to lose some weight.  I want to feel good.  I want to be healthy.  I want all of my blood test numbers to fall into the right ranges.  So I tend to obsess about food & exercise.  I read food blogs.  When I get the chance, I watch the Food Network.  I work out almost every day.  I talk to other people about what they eat & how they work out.  And I know I'm not alone.  It cracks me up that one of my friends on facebook has an album entitled "Stuff We Eat" where he chronicles his wife's culinary masterpieces.  I use the iphone app Instagram & more than half of the pics on there are pics of food (mine & the folks that I follow).  Why do we love The Pioneer Woman?  Mostly because she is real & great but also because she cooks!  And anytime the topic of diet or nutrition or exercise comes up, everyone has something to say.

I decided that since I had read about & heard about this title several times recently that I would go to the library & see if it was available.  They had it, I checked it out, & now I'm going to read it.

It's supposed to contain a health plan that is based on the Bible & proven by science.  I guess we'll see.  I'll let you know what I find out!

As always, if you have any thoughts about my thoughts, please share!  And let me know if there is a book out there that you think I should put on my nightstand.

Just so there's no confusion, these are just my thoughts & opinions.  I have not been given these books to review & I have not been compensated in any way.  Over & out.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

My Culinary Miscabobble

I had myself all prepared to post a fabulous write up on a homemade granola bar recipe.

I took lots of pics.  I even used natural light (which I have read enough about on other blogs to figure out that it must be important).  I got the idea to make homemade granola bars from one of Alicia's recent posts.  She was discussing her goal of purchasing less processed food & it made sense to me, too.  This was the second time for me to use this recipe but I have been adding lots of personal tweaks. 

In case you didn't know 'personal tweaks' is synonymous for 'reasons the recipe can fail.'

And that's what happened.
I don't think I'm being prideful by saying that the granola bars look good.  And they smelled good.  And they even taste pretty good.  So I won't call this a complete failure.  But I did keep going back for bite after bite trying to figure out what was off.  Once I had totally wrecked my sensible eating for the day by snagging way too many evaluation bites, I think I have it at least partially figured out.  When I get it all straight we will revisit this recipe with another post that will celebrate it's wonderfulness!

In the meantime, may I entertain you with a story about myself that should make you chuckle?

The first time I made the granola bars I had a new ingredient to add to my pantry.  The recipe calls for wheat germ so I bought some (and yes, I did the happy dance when I found it in Walmart; that place is huge! when looking for something new it can take HOURS).  Anyway, after I was done using it I read the entire label, twisting the jar all the way around more than once trying to determine if it needed to be stored in the refrigerator.  Something was tickling in the back of my mind that wheat germ should be refrigerated once it's opened.  However, we have a teensy fridge & real estate in that baby comes at a premium.  I wasn't going to add another jar in there unless it was necessary.  I twirled the jar a couple of times & then set it down on the counter with a huff of frustration thinking maybe I'd have to look it up on my iphone.


That's when I got a look at the lid.  Are those half inch letters big enough for you, PharmGirl?


I put the jar in the fridge.  After all, the package clearly states that it should be refrigerated after opening!

Sometimes I can be a little blonde unobservant.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Not again!

This morning I did that thing that I know I shouldn't ever do - I fell back to sleep after Mike left for work.  And the thing that always happens did not fail to happen. 
I had a weird, crazy, awful dream.
You could call it a nightmare.

*WARNING*
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE ADVERSE TO IMAGES OF SPIDERS, STOP READING NOW!
Aunt Ruth, that means you *grin*

While I should have been slumbering peacefully, I was actively dreaming.  About spiders.  I dreamt that Mike & I were in our bedroom talking, sitting on the end of our bed.  Instead of the red painted walls that our bedroom has in real life, our walls were wood paneling.  I looked up at the head of the bed, to the wall behind the headboard to see a group of no less than 30 spiders crawling around & spinning webs & jumping all over the place.  I freaked out.  Mike was calm & said why don't we just wait & see what they are going to do?  So that's what we did.  We sat on the far end of the bed & watched them. They stayed in the same general area but as we watched we could literally see them getting bigger.  That's when I came undone in my dream.  I got up from the bed & hollered & they all started moving toward us & that's when I woke up.  And yeah, I was afraid to open my eyes or move any part of my body.  It was horrible.
In order to fully share with you the experience of my horror, I spent all of my lunch hour scouring the internet for a picture of the spider that occupied my dream.  I knew eventually I would find it because I've seen this kind of spider just about everywhere.  So I searched online & definitely lost my appetite looking at pictures of spiders.  Finally I found out that it is called the Black & White Hunting Spider.  I was relieved to discover that he is totally harmless as far as poisonous biting.  However, I was horrified to discover that he is a jumper.  *shiver*cringe*shiver*

Here he is!  Have you ever seen a spider like this before?

Everyone have sweet dreams tonight!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Our Memorial Day

I love Memorial Day.  It's a holiday that is full of meaning & significance.
I have so many memories from my childhood of visiting the cemeteries with fabulous bunches of plastic flowers to place on the grave sites of family members long ago laid to rest in quiet country cemeteries.
I also remember my dad faithfully hanging out a big American flag by our front door.

Our Memorial Day celebrations look a little different now that we are all grown up.  My dad usually works (he's crazy).  My mom's family has a big cookout at the G's Farm.  The Farm is really just a little spot of land that they own out in the country.  They have a garden, orchard, & small cabin there.  You won't get bothered by things like electricity or running water.  It's rustic & quiet & wonderful.  And it offers views like this one:


 Mike has been working so much overtime over the course of the past few months so when he found out he wasn't going to be working the Saturday before Memorial Day he was very happy.  About a year ago he made up some plans for a project he would like to do for his parents.  They thought it was a great idea & have been patiently waiting for him to get a few days together so that he could get it done.  This three day holiday weekend looked like the perfect time for him to get going on it.  I was a little sad that we weren't really going to be holiday-ing together but I did manage to help him out some & also make about 53 stops to Lowe's for him before I headed to the Farm (ok, slight exaggeration).    It was worth it because the project is very close to being finished & when it's done, I'll post lots of pics & tell you all about it!

So I left Mike slaving away in the hot summer sun & headed over to the Farm with my potluck contributions (I tried two new recipes that I'll share with you soon!).  G-pa had fired up the grill for hamburgers & we all feasted royally.  We also took the time to celebrate Uncle Allan's & G-ma's birthdays.  I'm sad because I didn't take any pics of that...just trust me, they liked their gifts & the cakes were ah-mazing!

After we ate & birthday partied we took a long walk.  I could walk on dusty country roads forever.  I like walking on gravel & picking wildflowers along the roadside.  I love long uninterrupted conversations with Beth & Brennan & whoever else goes along.  I love piggy-backing a niece or nephew that gets too hot & tired & whiney to keep walking. 

And we had to stop at the neighbors fence row & give his horses some attention.  Whitney & Madison are big animal lovers.  Maddie loves all animals but Whitney is a horse girl.  I didn't think she would ever come away from that fence row & the two horses that were eating grass from her hand.  She was loving it!

While we were horse visiting, I tried to get some pics of the kids.  It wasn't too awful hard to get Caleb, Maddie, & Whitney to sit for a shot.  Aidan was another story entirely.  That guy has to be on the move!
Caleb

Whitney & Maddie with Lexus puppy

And Aidan - on the move!
It was a great fun day full of gnats, heat, hot sun & allergy induced sneezing. 
But it was also a day full of celebration, fellowship, laughter, hugs, & good food. 

An excellent kick off to the picnic holidays of 2011!

How did you celebrate?  Did anyone make one of those jello flag desserts? 
I've always wanted to do that!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Next Gettin' Together

I wasn't home for a full 24 hours after our camp reunion before I hit the road again.
I came home from camp on Wednesday afternoon just in time to get my hair done.
Folks, it was needing it.  I hope you didn't look close enough at that group pic on the last post to see that my part was more gray/white than it was dark brown!
When I got home from the hair fussing, I was feeling quite a bit fussy myself.  I had been going on several short nights of sleep & the old fever/sore throat/achiness had set in.  Along with the paranoia.
It was too late to see my real doctor so I took myself to an after hours clinic & let them gag me.  I had to know for sure if I was incubating a nasty Strep infection.  I was supposed to leave Thursday morning for Iowa for Erin's wedding.  Since I was a Strep Bride & I know how awful it is, I had no intention of carrying the same dread disease to my beautiful friend on her wedding day.
The test was negative.  Thank God!
So I took myself home & got to bed early.  After a good night's rest I wasn't completely good as new but the fever was gone.  I packed things up quick & hit the road!
 I met up with Roxanna & Becky about an hour up the road & we headed west together.  It is so nice to have traveling companions.  We had my little Corolla stuffed up with stuff like we were headed back to Northland for a semester of school!
We had a good full day with Erin & her family getting things ready for the wedding.  And of course we all had to get pedicures. 

The reverse French Manicure was very popular amongst us girls. 
Only Erin & her momma went with a regular paint job.
Roxanna makes the loveliest gift tags.  That girl has some talent!

Jaime, Autumn, & Roxi
The wedding day dawned bright, sunny, & WINDY!  I won't tell you what happened to me in my flowy summery dress THREE times!  Let's just say that even though 'The Barn' where the wedding took place had some beautiful grounds & flower gardens, I did not go exploring. 
The wedding day was a fun, busy, flurry of a day.  We got to see Scott & Jaime, Erin's brother & sister-in-law.  The last time I saw them was on their wedding day, years ago.  Since then they have added a daughter & son to their family.
Roxi, Becky, Bekah, Erin, & PharmGirl

Had to get a smooshed in shot!


They had super great cake.  The layered one had raspberry filling & the Texas cake was German chocolate.  No one went home without satisfying their cake craving!
A quick shot before the aisle walk!
Mr. & Mrs. Cates!
It was a beautiful, fun wedding.  I'm so very grateful that we all got to be there together. 
Time always goes by too quickly & it seemed like we hugged hello, turned around, & then hugged goodbye.  Once again, I have to praise the Lord for the friendships that He has blessed me with.  Even though there will be two of us in Indiana, one in Ohio, one in Texas, & one in Japan, I know the Lord will keep our hearts knit closely. 
Now I'm going to stay home for awhile!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Gettin' Together!

My goodness - I've enjoyed an unofficial blogging vacay!  I'm not sure why it takes me so long to get caught up after I've spent some time away, but I'm finally feeling like I'm back into the swing of my real life & that means it's time to blog!

I had such an enjoyable vacay.  I didn't actually take a whole week off from work (I am starting to feel the need to hoard those PTO days just a little bit - the year isn't even half over yet!).  I worked on Monday & then skedaddled home because I had a bunch of friends coming over for dinner.  One had traveled in from South Carolina, one from Tennessee, one from Pennsylvania, & two from Illinois.  After they arrived & Mike got scared off (TOO MANY GIRLS!!!) we enjoyed a wonderful meal together.  I actually think I pulled off a good menu with BBQ pork loin, roasted fingerling potatoes, a garden salad, & dirt pudding for dessert.  The only exception to the YUM! was some gluten free strawberry cupcakes I made for Rachel.  She said they were good but I couldn't hack them.  Yuck!

After dinner at my house, we all went up to camp where Steph lives & took over their guest quarters for a couple of days so that we had more time to talk, cry, laugh, eat, & hug each other. 
Our visits never seem long enough.
These are some of my favorite people in the whole world - Christie, Rachel, Diana, PharmGirl, Adele, & Steph
This was a bit of a bitter sweet get together.  Adele & her family have been working hard to raise support to get to the mission field of Slovakia.  Their plan is to leave in July, Lord willing.
As they have been making plans & starting to pack, there were several things that they knew they wouldn't be able to get over across the pond.  We asked Dellie for a list & then we surprised her with a "Packing Your Container" Shower.  It was fun to shop for peanut butter, ziplock bags, minced onions in bulk, & things like that.  Steph did some Etsy shopping & found her a locket that has Slovakia on it & she put our pic inside & Christie had the idea that a Kindle would be a good gift.  We all threw in together on that & really surprised Dellie.  She is crying surprised happy tears in the pic below.  They had been praying about whether or not to spend the money on a Kindle & we were able to meet that need for them. 
It was such a time of blessing.
I love it when the Lord allows me to be the part of someone's answer to prayer.  What a privilege!
Surprise, Dellie!
Christie brought her little girl, Claire.  She was tons of fun, although a bit stand-offish.  I understand, we can be an overwhelming crew!  While at our house she tried to get comfortable.  On the side of our fridge we have all of the Christmas cards pics posted in a big collage.  Claire found her family & kept walking by & pointing, saying "My Poppa!"  It was adorable.  Later after Mike came out of hiding & the girls were all getting ready to leave Christie was asking Claire to give me a hug & to thank me for dinner.  She did it with no small measure of reluctance.  Then she walked right over to Mike, held out her arms & when he picked her up she cuddled right in & even gave him a kiss! 
Now I think Mike is irresistible, but I thought it was just a condition I suffered from!  I'm going to have to keep an eye on that charmer *wink* 
Claire was well versed in the workings of the iphone.  She enjoyed swiping through my photo gallery.

Rachel's middle man, Spencer.  We almost didn't see him the whole visit because he was out having adventures on the campground with Steph's boys.

I will never be able to explain the way that the Lord works or why He does what He does.  But there is one thing I know for sure for sure.  It's that He has been so very good to me by allowing me to share in such meaningful friendships with these ladies.  At this point we have been out of college almost three times longer than we were there together & yet the Lord has preserved our relationships over time & distance.  I praise Him & thank Him for that tender mercy in my life.

*We missed you so much, Angie & Rebecca!