Return

It's Monday, and with that is a Return to lots of things.

Return.... of Craig to the USA. I've been calling him every hour, since I'm not sure when he actually gets home. Maybe he's back already and just hasn't turned his phone on yet. I'm so anxious to hear his voice. Thank you to all my friends who prayed for his safe travels and for blessings on the mission trip.

Return...from a fun weekend in Dallas. Mom and I spent time with Carolyn in Dallas this weekend. We tore up the town and had SO much fun. We were introduced to YogurtLand - OMG is all I can say about it. It was so good, and I loved that we could make our own creation and just pay by the ounce. Pistachio with toasted almonds was my favorite, although toasted coconut was a close second. We also saw Eat, Pray, Love and enjoyed it thoroughly. Carolyn had the pleasure of hosting Elizabeth Gilbert at the DMA and shared that Elizabeth was by far, one of her favorite authors to work with. The movie followed pretty closely the book - that is something that usually doesn't happen. In the picture below, we have just finished eating a wonderful breakfast of omelettes prepared by a chef at their apartment building.

And this is a picture of the dash of Carolyn's car as we drove around Dallas Saturday. 117 degrees??? C'mon! I'm sure that isn't entirely accurate, but it sure felt like it!

Return...from the land of the Armyworms!  OK, last week was a nightmare, courtesy of those little squiggly guys with army hats and flack jackets. We were warned on Monday, but they didn't arrive until Tuesday morning. Once here, they invaded rather quickly. After much searching, and with the help of Uncle Lee, we found a 60 gallon sprayer in Mineola. Rick brought it back to Athens Monday night where we quickly discovered that the height of the sprayer arms wouldn't clear the flower vases on the memorials. So we started the laborious process of removing the flower vases. Lee to the rescue... at about 10pm he and Rick headed over to Red Dot and had the shop build a piece that attached to the sprayer to raise the arms high enough. Success! Armando started spaying Wednesday morning while Sammy put back into place the vases I had lowered the night before. Wednesday is spent searching for a replacement pump, all the while the Army continues to invade and attack our precious turf. Finally, Thursday arrives and all problems are resolved. We spray.  The major blessing in all of this is that there was not a funeral last week. A funeral, while providing much needed revenue, would have been a mess with Armyworms climbing all over the feet of our guests!

Return...of Rick from prison! Rick spent Saturday with the men at the Beto Unit. He came back sharing some wonderful updates and stories of hope and renewal amongst the men that he met with. We are looking forward to another Kairos weekend at Beto in November.

Return to the projects I've been putting off...Every Monday I feel a return in motivation to tackle the projects I've been putting off at work. Once again, that is how I felt this morning. Refreshed and ready to tackle several things.  Fast forward...It's 5:15pm now on Monday, and that motivation has slowly slipped away. It's starting to look like I'm going to have to wait until next Monday to feel the motivation again.

I'm ready for the weekend!  :)

Nothing really.

I've been distracted as of late. Got back from vacation (anniversary trip) and fell into a funk. I always do after a vacation... it's just hard for me to come back to reality after a fabulous trip with Rick.
And I have absolutely nothing to say right now, nothing that is notable. I think it's ok to be quiet - I guess that's just my moment right now.

But for the sake of writing, here's a little bit of what I've been up to lately.

1. Exercise - I've changed up my schedule and am going to the gym at lunch these days. It seems to work my schedule better. Thanks to family for accomodating my lunch-time schedule change.
2. Thanksgiving Journal - Turned my favorite new journal into a Thanksgiving Journal, writing one thing every night that I'm thankful for. It's kinda cool.
3. Lists - Made a list of a few things in my life that I'm not real pleased with. I'm taking charge of the list by tackling 2 of them to begin with. That would be: Exercise (see above) and Developing the Cremains Garden we need at Oaklawn.
4. Scrubbed the shower - Because I always feel better about life when I scrub the shower. Wierd, I know.
5. Reading a "just for fun book" - A modern twist on Sherlock Holmes - not finished with it, tonight maybe. I took it from the stack of library books at my folks house. Wonder if they've missed it yet?
6. Mourned the death of a friend and spiritual mentor. God bless the legacy Royce Riley left behind.

That's all for now.

Completely Random Thoughts

I've not posted lately, because I haven't had a single minute to sit and "think" about what I want to share! So this morning, I decided to post some random thoughts, as that's how my life has been lately. 1. Top of the list. Remembering the victims and the heroes today. I can't get my mind around it, still, after 8 years. 2. The shuttle didn't land yesterday due to weather. Trying for another attempt today. I wouldn't have been able to watch it yesterday due to a meeting, but I can tonight. Yipee! 3. I've been reading this book by Richard Stearnes, CEO of WorldVision. It is totally rocking my world. I'm being challenged to really look deeply into the issues surrounding poverty and accept responsibility for fighting for equality and justice. If 100 jetliners crashed today (sorry for the reference to 9/11) and killed 26,000 people, don't you think America would do something? We wouldn't rest until it was prevented from happening again. But then tomorrow, it happens all over again. Well, it is happening. Yesterday more than 26,000 children died of preventable causes related to poverty. And tomorrow it will happen all over again. And many of us think it's just terrible, then turn the page in our newspaper to read about something else. Why? I think it's because it's not OUR children. OUR children got their vaccines, drink clean water, have enough to eat. But here's the thing: Equality. These other children didn't get the chance to have their vaccines, drink clean water and have enough to eat. It's not their fault. Don't you agree that God's heart breaks for each of them, just as much as if it was our own child? It's our job, as over 2000 verses in the Bible advocate, to fight for justice and equality, to feed the poor, to take care of those that have not. As you can see, I'm feeling passionate about this. I want to do something. You know the story of the starfish, right? http://www.starrbrite.com/starfish.html Even if it is small, I can make a difference. You can too. 4. Sorry about the deep thoughts. No I'm not. 5. Having lunch with my good friend Stacy today. Since we moved from the Lake area, I don't see her as much. 6. Since we moved from the Lake area to Athens, we don't have to drive 30 miles to work everyday. That's great! But do you know that this week, and all of next week, I have to drive to the Lake area for one meeting or another every day? Not a biggie, just didn't suspect that much traveling. Rick actually drove over there 3 times in one day this week! 7. Found $100 cash that was lost! It belongs to a dear friend, and I think we made her day when we told her! 8. Ok, here's something random. Last night, I watched Nancy Drew, the movie. Very cute! Makes me want to start wearing my penny loafers again. And then this morning, I had a notification that Nancy Drew was following me on Twitter. How weird is that??? 9. Dog needs a bath and haircut. Like I said, random is the word of the day. 10. Ladies, put your makeup in the freezer overnight to kill the thousands of germs that live on it! Learned that on GMA today!