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Showing posts from June, 2012

Don't expect this from me!

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Although I really needed to do some writing for work today, I really wanted a weekend more since no one is going to read what I write this weekend. This blog included, I'm sure. Rakia and I had a planning session for a couple of hours to get some things planned and reserved for our trip. It's going to be A-W-E-S-O-M-E. As in more and more awesome by the moment. As in beat what went down in Branson by a million times over. That wouldn't take much since it involved me watching Contagion  by myself. Speaking of the movies, I went to the movies with Jenny and Ashley today. That's all I'm going to say about that. But, on my vacation, I don't plan spending time on the internet, so I won't be doing videos like this. For that, I believe you will be thankful. I'll just post tons and tons of pictures when I get back. I wish I could paste in a picture of their rafting that I was able to see online. She was so posing for the photographer while rafting throug

We all need to head north for the summer

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I'm too hot and tired to blog. This is what I get for getting out of the house. I went walking 30 minutes at the church without the air on, went out to eat, got home and am just hot and unenthusiastic (guess the word my mom always used "unenthused" is not actually a word or just flat out spelled wrong) about blogging. This is why I'm glad I don't have to get out of the house during the day. Especially since it's over 100. Evidently the cats my in neighborhood think my house is a cooler locale to be. They've made my backyard their haven the past couple of days. Why? I have no idea. Maybe everyone else ran them off. I wouldn't mind if they wanted to hang out here, but it drives me nuts when they shoot off all scared. Especially the mother cat who is actually Spot (as in Spot in the Pot - the palm tree pot). She's been showing up here off and on for years. Her kittens are much prettier than her. One did let me pet it when I kind of snuck up on it.

Help me plan my Northwest vacation!

Finally, I have the right idea about something. While the population of all of Texas is roasting away in 100+ heat, my friend and I are going on a trip to the northwest where the high will be at least 30 degrees cooler. Based on this fact alone, Rakia has already decided she may not return to Texas in a few weeks. This has me worried about being able to fit thicker clothes in my 1 suitcase I plan on taking. But, not that worried. At first, we were going to completely wing it. Now, we've decided we need to do some planning. But, we're also kind of clueless about the area and how to navigate it. Here is where I'm looking for advice and feedback: What activities are a must in the following cities? Seattle Portland Vancouver Victoria Any places in between We're flying into Seattle and will most likely get a rental car at some point, especially if we decide to go down to Portland for the day. What's the best ways to get around? What do we have to have

A Lesson in TMI

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I don't think that I am going to use Paige's posts all week, but part of the reason why she wanted to make video posts is so that she can share them. The child needs a lesson in rambling and sharing too much information. You'll get what I'm talking about right off the bat. I really, really wonder about her sometimes.  

Paige presents...

You are in for a treat! Paige is on another vacation and is doing her daily emails. I had told her to journal about camp every day, but she did part of the first day and quit because she was too busy. Anyway, I'll post the email I got at midnight last night today. She emailed me right after, and called me today, about how she can do a video because it takes her too long to type. I had to give her my You Tube log-in so that she can upload them. She said I was the only person who would know how to do that. I informed my parents they are about to go to video. Neither knew how they were ever going to be able to figure out to watch. Dad, Mom, it's a link. You'll click on it. Dad thinks Paige needs to become a columnist. I wanted to say, some people think I should too, but thank heavens you've never read my blog. Mom was annoyed, "(huff) I was going to make a book." "Oh my goodness you sound like Grandmother." "And you sure are gripe-y.&qu

Life Won’t Ever Be Perfect, but It Can Be Good

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In Making Sense When Life Doesn’t Cecil Murphey helps readers accept,  adapt and flourish when the trials of life throw them off track. Life is like cleaning the house—no matter how hard you work to clean up the mess, tomorrow the clutter and disorder will reappear, and it will just need cleaning again. In Making Sense When Life Doesn’t: The Secrets of Thriving in Tough Times (Summerside Press, April 2012, ISBN 978-1609362249, $14.99) best-selling author Cecil Murphey writes that while life’s messiness is unavoidable, it’s how a person chooses to respond to the mess that matters. None of us wants to be an expert on messes, but Murphey has walked through many hard times himself, including the tragic loss of his son-in-law in a fire that destroyed his home and everything in it. In his career as a writer, pastor and missionary, he’s been a witness to what tragedy and change have done in the lives of countless others. Combined, these experiences allow him to share the secrets of

Running the race

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"Running the Race" was our topic in class this morning. In this week's video, the kids end up just getting the summary part of the lesson done. As a class, we tend to be ADD and have a hard time getting everything in, so we had to save the second more entertaining part for next week. They prefer that I script them, but next week will be unscripted. The four that were in class have a full week to decide what they're going to discuss next week. They do love getting to the video each week and want to know what we're going to do. So, please watch and share. See if you can figure out when I kick someone in the course of the video.

My Storage Wars Take 2

This morning I broke my 9:00 Saturday rule and was up before 8. I was just awake by then. I guess I had just slept enough. I think I'm finally catching up on some lost sleep or something because I've been getting up before my alarm lately. Strange. Anyway. When I signed in at the last storage unit auction, I got my name on the mailing list to get information about upcoming auctions, evidently. I received a personal invitation to the auction this morning on four units. I still enjoy seeing what Alan and Ton find on Auction Hunters , I'm still looking for Storage Wars Texas , but I don't think I'm going to get into the auction thing myself. A) I'm too tight with my money and B) what am I going to do with the JUNK in the unit if I buy it? More than ever, I'm convinced I'm not going to find a packed unit with trash bags full of stuff with dollar bills scattered throughout. I'm not going to find a gold coin collection in a tackle box, and I'm no

Why I wouldn't let my kids watch ABC Family

I don't like silence so much. Silence distracts me. I need noise to concentrate most of the time. I know this sounds backwards, but it's true. Anyone that's ever shared an office with me knows that if I'm trying to concentrate the earbuds to the iPod were close by. It's not unusual for the TV to be on all night long because I fall asleep with it on most nights. If I can't go to sleep, I turn the TV on. There's really no need when I'm here alone to put the earbuds in. I do turn on iTunes, but am so sick and tired of all the same songs. I am looking forward to the new Maroon 5 release to come out Tuesday for a little variety. I've tried Spotify, but end up listening to the same thing over and over there too. I'm over it. In fact, I'm kind of getting a little anxious now with nothing playing and listening to the tapping of my keyboard as I type. Since I've grown tired of music, I have gotten to where I play entire seasons of TV shows

Are you under any Glamorous Illusions?

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An interview with Lisa T. Bergren, Author of Glamorous Illusions Glamorous Illusions , the first release in Lisa Bergren’s new Grand Tour series, is a beautiful exploration of the covenant connection between God the Father and His children. Through the story of Cora Kensington, Bergren takes her audience on a European adventure of forgiveness, spiritual awareness, and self-discovery. A person often identifies themself by their family, profession, or circumstances. However, as Christians, what would happen if we began to better understand our true identity in Christ? It is this spiritual journey that author Bergren guides readers through in Glamorous Illusions . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Q: Why do you think it is so difficult for us as Christians to remember our first, true identity? We’re so absorbed in how our contemporary culture identifies us—by looks, career, family, wealth, faith—that we forget that our primary identity is a child of God.

Why I'm a terrible, yet wonderful aunt

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When Paige was about a year and a half old, I moved back in with my parents for about 6 months. At the time, I lived in a 'hood. Every time my friend Sammy came over to my house, the cops would be making a visit when he left. He used to tell me, "I used to live in the 'hood, so I can tell you you're living in it." One night, I came home to find the police looking for gun shells in my front yard. The final straw came when my presumably drugged out neighbor came over one night to tell me that her side of the duplex had been broken into during broad daylight (on Halloween). Whatever the circumstances may have actually been, I decided that was enough. All that really doesn't have anything to with the point of my story other than to explain why I was living with my parents. I felt a need to justify that since I was in my mid-twenties at the time. Anyway, during that time, little Paigey was over at my parents quite a bit while her mom was in night school class

Good Morning Corinth!

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It took us three takes, one time I stopped and told the kids to stop giving one word answers after I told them their questions ahead of time. They were supposed to read over and study the text. My coaching of "make the answers more than one word" worked for one certain person. You'll know who was listening when you watch... Good Morning Corinth!

Introducing Hope Springs - You Could Win a Kindle Fire!

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Celebrate the release of Hope Springs with Kim Cash Tate by coming to her Author Chat Party on Facebook. Find out what readers are saying here. Grab your copy of Hope Springs and join Kim for an Author Chat Party on July 10th at 7 :00 PM CST ! During the evening Kim will be sharing the story behind her new book, posting book club questions, testing your trivia skills, and of course, there will be plenty of chatting and fun giveaways - books, gift certificates and a Kindle Fire ! (I wish I could win it!) But, wait there's more – she’ll also be giving you a sneak peak of her next book too! RSVP today and then come back on the 10th ... and bring your friends! About Hope Springs : Hope Springs is the epitome of small-town life—a place filled with quiet streets where families have been friends for generations, a place where not a lot changes . . . until now. Janelle Evans hasn’t gone back to Hope Springs for family reunions since losing her husband. But

My boring crochet project update.

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I know you all are just itching to see my latest projects (NOT) since I haven't posted any crocheting pictures lately. After my obsession for a couple of months, I took a break for a few weeks. I was working on two projects because after I started squares, I wanted to try hexagons and were working on both at once. Then, I started a baby blanket with a specific recipient in mind. There's not been a lot going on lately, so this is what you get today.   

My week in pictures

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I actually passed over the city limits of Corsicana twice this week. Once to meet up with an author at a TV interview, and tonight to meet Rakia to talk about our upcoming vacation. I went to Starbuck's twice. Tonight just because I could. One Coconut Mocha and one Salted Caramel Mocha (without the salt because they didn't have it). They better have the salt in Seattle. (And my dash is always dusty like it blows up through the vents.) Peyton was over here part of Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Here she is in front of one of the sunflower fields I saw on the way back Monday. And here she is when she got bored and took a nap on the couch on Thursday. I saw this field on the way to Dallas and stopped on the way back to get a picture. The flowers were as big as my head and over 5' from ground to top. This was a larger field, but had smaller flowers. This is the one I took Peyton to see.

The most overrated new talent show

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Earlier, I was watching part of Duets from the DVR. I think I'm watching it because I watched the first episode. Honestly, I don't know why. Has anyone else tried to watch it? The commercials sounded great. The idea sounded ok. Amateurs and superstars singing duets. Well, ok, sure, why not? What is actually is... B-O-R-I-N-G. The contestants seem like a bunch of rejects for some reason. The superstars? Robin Thicke's hair has it's own ego. Kelly Clarkson sounds like the world's biggest hick when she talks (though I usually like her songs), and I say that even though she's from Texas and Texas accents are nothing to me. John Legend is the most mellow judge ever. And Jennifer Nettles wears gold jumpsuits with wrestling belts and is just odd. And the host Quddos. What kind of name is that and have we heard of him before? If you've watched, what do you think? Hopefully there will be some other shows on soon. Or the Rangers will start playing better aga

Reason #7002

There's one person that automatically knows what that means when she sees it and is already laughing. This refers to a friend's list of all the reasons why she does not have children. She has threatened to actually start writing these reasons down. My own first reason is that I haven't had a date in ## years, but... My second reason is that I don't want the full time responsibility. My third is that I wouldn't want my children to be like me. Children climbing light poles like monkeys comes up on the list somewhere as well. This is one thing I do know. I would NOT make a good stay-at-home-working-mom. At least during the summer. I love, love, love, love, love my nieces to death. I'm just not a very effective 8 hour a day worker while   they are in my house. That's all on me, not on them. There are times I get distracted at home alone in trying to focus. Oh yeah, I need to dry those clothes. I really need to take that trash out. Etc., etc., etc. Then,

Lucy Come Home

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Today marks the release of Lucy Come Home by Dave and Neta Jackson. If you ever wanted to know more about the back story of Lucy, here's your chance! Lucy Tucker, the feisty old bag lady we all loved from Neta Jackson's  House of Hope   series, has confounded everyone. Why won't she come off the streets of Chicago? How did she ever end up there in the first place? Why did she disappear again? We didn't mean to leave you hanging, but now we can tell the whole story. It all started back in the summer of 1942 when she and a dashing young man from a traveling carnival ran away together to escape a murder charge... Oh, but you'll want to read the whole book yourself about carnivals, migrant camps, the war, and true love lost and found. {More about Lucy Come Home} Fifteen-year-old Cindy worked long days beside her migrant worker family in Michigan's sugar beet fields in the early 1940s -- the "war years" -- until she met a dashing young man

Enjoy mysteries? You'll enjoy The Corruptible!

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I've made the decision to just read books written by men for a while. That's not completely true for a few reasons, but as far as my strictly "for fun" choices, I'm going to stick by that. No ooey-gooey romance. I want my conflict to be more than just "should I go out with this guy or not?" or "should I tell him that I love him?" As horrid as this sounds, I want murder. I want lying. I want mystery. I want crime solving or legal dilemmas. I want the male leads to not be the kind of guys you melt over. My latest read was The Corruptible  by Mark Mynheir, the second in the Ray Quinn mystery series. A book that fit all of those qualities I just mentioned. Ray Quinn is far from dreamy. He drinks too much. He only watches movies starring John Wayne. He's extremely sarcastic. He pushes the lines and bends the rules. He's an ex-cop turned private detective due to injury from being shot on the job. Think of Dr. House as a cop instead of a d

Peyton's visit to Seriously?

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Tonight, I introduce you to Peyton. She's hosting tonight's video blog.

What about Paul?

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I know I said this was going to be a Tuesday feature, but the week is a little different this week and I already have the video uploaded. This week's video from the 5th graders on Corinthians is an introduction to Paul, the writer of Corinthians. We ran out of time to get further into Paul's conversion, but this is a start. I think you'll especially enjoy the performance of one particular student. I hit stop right before the improv line of "Good deal!" was said. We kind of liked that line though I doubt that's what Paul said. The kids are not terribly excited about the videos being posted now, but they do want them shown at their senior banquet in 7 years because that would somehow be less embarrassing. I somehow doubt that. However, I'll remember that and make sure they make the video for everyone to see then. Then, they will really hate me!

We really don't need to talk

Today all of my family gathered for my Grandmother's birthday. On the two and a half hour car trip home from my aunt's house today, I checked my Klout score. I'm obsessed. Over the past five days, I have been less influential than I have been. My fractional daily decline has dropped me from 61 to 60. This annoys me greatly. Have I been less witty? Have I been anti-social? Have I been less informative? For this, I have no answer. I do know people have sort of been paying attention to me. A couple of days ago, I posted on Facebook about needing to find a Starbucks on the way to Beckville today. My uncle asked today if I found one. We went straight through and did not. When my cousin and his wife left, I commented that I hadn't even got around to talking to them today. She commented that they kept up with me on Facebook, so it didn't feel like it had been that long since we talked. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Should I be more mysteriou

The worst dating shows ever

For lack of anything else on TV paired with just the right teasers, I decided to give Fox's new TV shows a try last night. Surely  Take Me Out and  The Choice will not last. In a world where shows like The Firm and Harry's Law get cancelled for low ratings I pray that the population of America does not watch such stupidity. Let's start with Take Me Out . Any show with George Lopez should probably be off my list. Even the gutter-minded contestants of the show didn't seem to get the terribly lame attempts filth-laden innuendo he was trying to tell for laughs. As for 30 beautiful women, they were all made up with big hair, but some of them were rather strange looking. The idea is that these 30 women are looking for their dream man. They're all lined up with these lit podiums in front of them. When each decides that the guy is not for them, they hit a button and their light goes out. The guy comes down to the stage from the "Elevator of Love" to a song o

When Harry Met No One

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I've decided that Rachel has made it to the point where she no longer gets a code name on my blog to protect her in any instance. It's one of the prices you pay of being one of my friends. Besides, anyone who knows her and reads this blog is not fooled by the "Rebekah" bit. We're coming back to Rachel in a minute. Back story first. Paige will be in the 6th grade when school starts back, so that means she gets to start doing things with the youth group at church. Since her schedule is not always regular each week as to where she is, I told her that if she wanted to go to the Summer Youth Series, I would go with her as a chaperon so that she would be able to meet the bus and that she could stay with me on Tuesday nights when we got back home since it would be late. Any time she wants me to stay home, I'm still willing to coordinate with her parents to get her to the church, pick her up and let her stay. I went every summer for years as a what sometimes see

God forgets no one!

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Missionary Beth Guckenberger shares Tales of the Not Forgotten to introduce children to missions We often forget how fortunate we are, the many blessings in our lives, and the extent of human suffering around the globe. How can we teach our children to grow up with hearts for others and to be mission-minded? With the help of missionary and author Beth Guckenberger, parents and Sunday school teachers can introduce children to the wonderful things that God is accomplishing around the world through Tales of the Not Forgotten (Standard Publishing/May 1, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7847-3528-2) . Written for ages 8 and up, Tales of the Not Forgotten shares a collection of four real-life stories of children from impoverished circumstances and paints a picture of God’s dynamic movement in their lives. The first in the Storyweaver series, Guckenberger inspires readers to trust that God is weaving a story in the lives of each us, writing endings they would never imagine. She takes young