Stressed spelled backwards is Dessert!!

Procrastinate, procastinated, procrastinating, procrastination.... any way you use the word, it still means "to put off, esp. habitually, doing something until a future time."

Stress... what you get when you procrastinate!!

Migraine ...a severe, recurrent headache, often debilitating. My major triggers?? Yep, stress. Oh, and chocolate. Which just stresses me out more, because I am a chocoholic.

Let's review - when you leave for work and you're driving on "E", is it better to stop and fill the gas tank and be late, or keep going and pray that you make it to work on time?? A perfect example of procrastination causing stress. When you are going on a youth retreat THIS COMING FRIDAY, and don't have laundry done, or anything even remotely ready (that's the procrastination part), well, you get the idea. Now, some months are better than others, but my calendar usually looks like I let a toddler scribble all over it. I guess I'm just a l'il bit busy... September has been no exception. In the past 10 days I have squeezed in a picnic (Labor Day), two doctor's appointments (I'm fine, thanks), a staff meeting, four days of work (albeit part-time, it is still work), a weekend out of town visiting our new grandbaby, a committee meeting at church, and a Bible Study. Whew!! And the rest of the month isn't much better.

So, after all that complaining, let me leave you with this cute l'il joke: A husband and wife were traveling through Pennsylvania and decided to stop for a bite to eat in a town called Zelionople. Now, they couldn't decide how to pronounce the name of the town, so as they ordered their food, they asked the server - "Would you please say the name of where we are - slowly?" The server looked at them oddly, then said, "Bur - ger - King."

Introducing...

My newest granddaughter was born on Tuesday, September 2, bringing my total to three grandchildren. She is beautiful (of course). Sweet Pea debuted at 4:49pm, weighing in at 6 lbs. 13 oz.; she is 20 inches long. As previously stated, I was not able to be there, but I was notified almost right away, causing everyone at the staff meeting I was attending to applaud and cheer - how cool is that? Anyway, we are headed there for a weekend visit on Friday, and I can't wait!!

Labor Day...Well Almost!

Although today is the holiday known as Labor Day, I am actually more interested in tomorrow - my daughter's "labor" day. She is pregnant with her third child, and scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning - and I can't be there. I'm feeling so, not depressed exactly - well, yeah, I guess depressed is exactly how I'm feeling. Hubby and I were blessed to be there for the births of our first grandson and our first granddaughter. Not being there this time is, according to my daughter, no big deal, but it is to me. What makes matters worse (for me) is that my counterpart (J's mom) has been there all weekend, and will probably be there tomorrow, as well. I suppose I should model "grown-up" behavior, but when your heart is involved, it is sometimes difficult. Okay, here goes - I'm glad that my daughter has a mother-in-law who cares enough about her to be there for her. Hmm, not too bad for a first try. I guess I'll have to practice a little more. That's all for now. Oh, and Happy Labor Day!

What I Did For the Rest of My Summer Vacation

Since last I blogged, I have been busy with such things as:

• taking care of my grandkitties, Mocha & Onyx, while my daughter and son-in-law were out of town for a weekend - they are so adorable, and no trouble at all (the kitties, I mean);

• helping in the kitchen at Mission Meadows camp for a week - yeah, this was a challenge since I don't do early morning real well, but it actually turned out okay. Can you say "exhausted"??

• taking a 10 mile bike ride from Bemus Point to Chautauqua Institute and back - this would be my "reward" for helping in the kitchen at Mission Meadows camp. I thought Lou liked me... instead I think he was trying to kill me!!!

• and finally, last but not least, I began training today to become a reading tutor for Peace of the City Ministries. I'll be working four days a week at Cornerstone Manor starting next week.

Camp Grandma-Grandpa

Can I tell you about the week I just had? It was fantastic, crazy, wonderful, exhausting... our grandkids stayed with us for a whole week! It all started with an innocent phone call on Saturday, August 2nd. My 4 year old grandson, Superman, was telling me that he was wearing his 2 year old sister's sleeping bag/backpack. When my daughter got on the phone, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I'd invited the two little ones to come visit - for the whole week - a four hour drive away from their parents. Arrangements were made for the next day and so we met our daughter, son-in-law and prospective house guests at Presque Isle in Erie, PA to make the "pick-up". We spent a little time at the beach, then at Waldemeer Park before the 1 1/2 hour drive back to our home. Now, I could bore you with every little detail of the week - but I won't. I will say that we were very busy every day with one adventure or another. One day we visited my parents (aka "SuperGrandpa" and "SuperGrandma"), another day we went to Chestnut Ridge Park for a picnic lunch and to play on the playground. We also found time to paint a whole bunch of rocks the kids had found at the beach on Sunday. We went to the Erie County Fair aka America's Fair, which was, without a doubt, one of the bigger highlights for Superman and Ladybug. We also found time to play at the school playground, ride scooters, and fly a very cool VeggieTales kite. Oh, and I can't forget to mention wonderful Aunt Holly and Uncle Munchkin (we adults call him Tony) who took the kids for an evening - dinner, playground and a movie (Shrek) with popcorn! The day finally came that we had to return our two little sweethearts to their "rightful owners", so we set our course for Meadville, PA yesterday and turned them over to their loving parents. Camp Grandma-Grandpa had finally come to an end. For this year. But there's always next summer!!

"Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children. " - Proverbs 17:6

I Hate Computers

Well, I've been trying to upload pictures to my computer for the last three hours now, and I am not having any luck. The Easy Share program doesn't want to open - at all. I put my little SD card into the slot on my computer tower and it automatically transfers the pix to the Easy Share program; well, that's what it's supposed to do. Today it transferred the pix and then.... IT DID NOTHING. Nada. Zilch. So, I clicked on the Easy Share icon on my desktop, and waited. Not just a few seconds, not even a few minutes. It still hasn't opened and it's been, well, a long time - a very, very long time. I hate computers.

My July...So Far

I spent the first week of July at Pine Springs Camp in southwestern Pennsylvania helping to watch my two grandchildren, ages 4 & 2, while my daughter & son-in-law directed a special middle school youth camp. It was called "Mission Ex", and the kids did mission projects in Johnstown, PA during the day and returned to camp around dinner time. My daughter also brought another young lady, Laura, to help watch Superman and Ladybug. As it turned out, we spent every morning after breakfast at Chrysallis, the craft cabin. We (Laura, Ladybug, Superman and myself) all did a LOT of coloring and painting, but we also did some other fun things. Ladybug & I collected some pinecones, so one morning she made a caterpillar with her pinecones and pompoms. Another morning we painted rocks we had picked up at the playground. Superman wanted to make a picture frame, and in fact made two - one with pompoms and the other with puzzle pieces. One morning Superman announced that he wanted to make a musical instrument. So, he and Ladybug made shoebox drums that day. I think their favorite project was probably the beaded necklaces they made the last day. I was surprised that they both sat and strung the beads for as long as they did. From my standpoint that craft was a huge success! We would walk back to our cabin with our treasures just in time for Lisa to pick us up for lunch. The afternoons were usually swim time and the kids both looked forward to that. I'm convinced that Ladybug has grown fins! When it came time to leave, the kids wanted to stay - what else is new? - The ride home was punctuated with comments Ladybug and Superman were saying to each other. My personal favorites?
Ladybug: You're a Bossyhead!
Superman: You're a Chicken Nugget!
and
Superman: We are inappropiate
Ladybug: Yes, we are!

Our church has VBS every year and this year it was Power Lab. The Friday before VBS I was talking with the Children's Pastor who said that a few people had kind of bailed, so they were short Crew Leaders (an adult who shepherds a crew of kids from place to place). Of course I volunteered to help, and I'm glad I did. The kids in my crew were awesome, and we all had a good time. I did miss the closing on Friday, because Holly & I left for the Sisters & Daughters Retreat that day.

So, we left here on Friday morning and went to Washington, PA to pick up my other daughter, then we headed for Sugarcreek, OH, in the heart of Amish country, for a long weekend with hubby's sisters and their daughters. We laughed, we cried, we ate, we shopped.... It was a fantastic weekend, and it was over too soon.