Since last I blogged, several things have come to pass -

1. We celebrated my Mom's 80th birthday with a surprise party - the surprise being that the weather was anything but October-like. We actually had the party outside at my sister's house. What a gorgeous day, and I think Mom was very pleased.




2. My daughter and son-in-law were able to come for a visit the following weekend, so my parents were able to meet the newest little one, SweetPea. During this visit, my Mom's church also held their annual fall bazaar, so we enjoyed the delicious chicken barbeque they had as well as purchasing some of the bazaar offerings.




3. My amazing husband and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. When the kids left for home on Saturday evening, we decided to go to the Sat. evening worship service at our church. We spent all of Sunday at Niagara Falls and had a wonderful time, finishing up with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. It's so nice to be able to spend time with the one you love.

I believe that's all for now....more in another week or two :)

Happy First Sunday in October

By now it should be obvious that I don't blog every day...or every other day...or even every other week - well, you get the idea. My life has been extremely hectic lately and I can't figure out why. I love my part time job, which accounts for 12 hours a week (well, 12 hours on the clock... many more than that off the clock), and I volunteer at the HUB on Friday evenings [check out their website: http://www.thehubsite.com/], which accounts for another 4 1/2 - 5 hours. Worship on Sunday mornings is another 3 or so. Grand total: 19 1/2 - 20 hours a week. My coming week is just as busy! Monday morning my l'il pup gets groomed, we stop to visit my parents afterwards, I have work and a staff meeting. Tuesday is even busier - Ladies' Bible Study in the morning, fingerprinting (for work, not because I committed a crime), work, and an informational meeting in the evening about a small group program especially for women. Wednesday is craft day with my best friend, followed by work, and a "take-out" dinner from the church which my parents take back to their house for me. Thursday is a special day - it's my Mom's 80th birthday!! Obviously we'll spend part of the day with her; not sure what the plans are yet. And Friday - a morning doctor's appointment, grocery shopping (my favorite thing in the whole world - NOT), dinner and the HUB. Okay, maybe I'll just go to bed now.....

Tutoring??

So, have I mentioned that I'm a reading tutor for the Ephraim Initiative through Peace of the City Ministries? My schedule is Monday - Thursday, three hours a day. One of my students is an adorable little girl, age 6. My first "job" was to get to know her, so we played a word game which involved categories of cards (think "rummy"). Unfortunately, one of the categories was food. I knew I'd lost control when she began telling me ALL of her favorite foods - quite an extensive list, I might add. I thought I'd finally drawn her back into the game, and we had each taken a couple of turns when, all of a sudden, she put her cards down and said, "I hope we have pizza for a snack today! I really, really, really like pizza!!" This is going to be an interesting year.

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.