Perfect and Prestine

Both words that came out of our Grants Manager's mouth today regarding our applications. You can't ask for more than that!

Answer: Wheeeeeeeee

Question: What did the snail say when he took a ride on the turtle's back?

I feel like I have been on the back of maybe a panther. It seems I have a couple of times a year that things start feeling like they are spiraling out of control, I seem to be in one of them.

I spent the 8th-11th in Springfield at the LIHEAP conference. Lots of big changes coming. I volunteered to help with one of them and when I started getting emails on it last week, realized I am one of 5 in the state that will serve as a focus group. It will be a project where my LIHEAP world and my IT world combine, so though it is another thing on my plate, I am looking very forward to the end result.

I start classes again on the 30th. Right now I have 4 students, I have been hoping for at least 6, we shall see. We also decided last week we would seek accreditation for the classes, which means I may have a few more hoops to jump through over the next few months. I doubt if we can get it done for this group of students but it would be nice if down the road it could happen. I can't imagine what it would do for our clients to have a little college credit under them.

Our Grants Manager is spending most of the week with us next week, monitoring files, making sure we all know how to do our jobs and aren't doing anything contrary to our grant. For the last 4 months, our program has been number 1 in the state in several areas. Eventhough we get along great with Art, I know his job is to find something. My job is to make sure there is nothing to find. It is still nerve racking. Last year, I had a denied application that was missing one form it needed in it. I fixed it and it was marked corrected before the visit was over but I still liked to died over it. I will be happier next Thursday.

Today, we went and bought a new sofa and loveseat. I hate spending money. I fret over it, and now, eventhough I love what we got, I am second guessing whether or not we should have done it. It was even on sale, so I should be happy and I will love it once it gets here, I just freak out a little in the "adjusting" phase.

Here is a stock picture; we don't have anyplace for the regular recliner so we didn't get it and ours is a tweedy brown (think Chrissy with brown specks) It should be here in 4-6 weeks.



Robert is gone every night right now, between musical and church. His favorite time of year though. I haven't been down to watch practice, I try not to go too much so I get the full effect. He has practice Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Awana on Wednesday, helps with sets on Friday and church on Sunday. I don't know what he feels like he is riding, but in his "spare" time this week, he has put something or other new on his transmission, built a new tv stand for the basement, helped Nana burn some brush, and has done several loads of laundry for me. He and Jacob went to Effingham tonight for supper and to run around after practice. I had told Andrew I bet they would be home by 9, he walked in the door about a quarter til. I kinda gave him a hard time about it and he informed me they had both had long days, it was good to go but it was good to come home too. Yes, I have a stepford child. Don't ask me how he got that way, I was usually pulling in the drive as the clock struck 12. He is way better than I was at that age. All joking aside, he is a really good kid and I just thank the Lord that he is.

Andrew is doing great with his new schedule, he is really settling in and liking his job. I LOVE how much time he has been at home. He is getting some much needed projects done, little things we needed to do before we start on bigger projects. I am still up in the air about when to start on the kitchen. Part of me wanted to do it in April but I am having supper for the cast on Saturday between the matinee and the evening performance and I don't want to run a risk of my kitchen being torn up. I am also planning a Pampered Chef party sometime in May and would like to have at least some things finished by then. June is going to be another crazy month so if we do it, it has to be finished before the 27th of May....who knows, it doesn't look bad right now, just not the way I want it. We shall see, I may shoot to have it done by Christmas, no I'm not joking.

Well, that is the family update. I feel guilty for neglecting my blog so much lately, I really miss just writing down what is going on and I know some of our family relies on it to know what's up with us (sorry Andrew, LOL).

P.S. Thanks to those friends of mine who think our lives are exciting. Chaotic is sometimes the first word that comes to mind but you help me remember that we really do have lots to be thankful for. :-)

Blogger meets another Blogger

So, I thought it would be neat to have the titles the same on these. If you read Sarah Sez, you will see the same title under two of her blogs, I'm not sure if anyone else follows BOTH of our blogs. Sarah is our "mutual" friend; anyway, as far as the blogs are concerned. I found out my husband is a "mutual" friend too, which is just plain funny.

ANYWAY.....
Last Thursday evening, Andrew and I had a "date night". Some of the girls at Head Start had invited me to come see "Ben Glenn--The Chalk Guy". Robert had musical practice so we saw it as a perfect opportunity to hit Little Mexico for supper and then out for some entertainment. (Who by the way, was fantastic! he has ADHD AND Dyslexia, so we could relate in a big way!)

The first thing on the program for the evening was handing out awards to some wonderful daycare workers who are continuing their education. While we were sitting there, listening to the names being called, a very familiar name came out of Jackie Swango's mouth: "Amber McReaken". I instantly looked at Andrew and said "I'm gonna get to meet Amber!"-- I leaned down to the girls I work with, who were sitting in front of me and said "this is a friend I have never met". Only through the internet.....

Amber and I started "stalking" each others blogs probably at least a year ago. This summer, we friended each other on facebook. One day on facebook, Amber asked for her friends to post how we met. I made the statement I felt like I knew her but we had never met. She then told me she had worked with Andrew at Olney, small world! Andrew remembered her immediately, especially since some of the time they were there, Andrew was over the TLE and Amber's good friend, also an Amber, worked for him. How cool was all of that??

Anyway, I spent most of the next day explaining my statements and my excitement from the night before. I still think the internet makes the world a much smaller place and times like last Thursday night even make it a good thing!

Happenings in Our Corner of the World

Every year I think life can't go any faster, every year it does. I absolutely can't believe there is less than a week left in February. I don't even know if we can count "change" as change in our house because it seems it happens so often. The latest (and greatest) is that Andrew went back to days. Yeah, I no longer have to worry about the things that go bump in the night. Needless to say, I have slept so well lately that I have been almost hyper.

Andrew works three twelves then has three days off. Which means we can start projects again! The ugly bathroom and the kitchen are both vying for our attention--I don't know which one will win out but one or the other, I hope, will be finished by May. Probably the kitchen, as long as my tub is in by next September.

Robert is on the crunch schedule--get up, go to school, come home, homework, chores, supper, play practice, bed, rinse and repeat. He loves it, he's nuts.

And me... I'm gearing up for March. Grand Prix is the 6th, LIHEAP conference is the 8th-11th, and I start my next round of computer classes on the 30th. I was hoping to be teaching XP instead of Vista, there seems to be some problem with Toshiba in coming up with a downgrade CD. I ordered the class computers RIGHT as Vista was coming out. Six months later, Toshiba saw the writing on the wall and came out with a downgrade CD, unfortunately it is for the model number after mine. Now I am really up in the air, it might actually be easier to upgrade to Windows 7. I get nervous when all my ducks aren't in a row, right now my ducks aren't even all in the same building as MASS has one of them trying to get to Toshiba to do what we want. Why can't anything just be easy???

On the truck front, Robert's fuel pump went out a couple of weeks ago, in fact, it was the first week Andrew was working days, because for the first time since he got his license, Robert had to walk to school (oh the HORROR!!)) Anyway, some weird thing nobody can explain with the push rod happened and the logical solution was to put in a racing fuel pump. So now, you have to be a boarderline NASCAR driver when you drive his truck. The first thing you do when you get in is open the little safety cap and flip the toggle switch to turn on the fuel pump. I am seeing a 5 point harness in his future too. Oh well, that's life. I told him I wanted him to go one week without telling me something his truck needs.. He was supposed to start last Saturday, I have been restarting the countdown daily.....I've come to the conclusion, it will never happen.

That's life in a nutshell, for now. I am starting to plan for vacation, hopefully memorial day weekend and the week beyond. Of course, in general "luck of my guys", I was dragging them to Memphis and Nashville. They neither one was very excited about going to Graceland, but they were going anyway. Yesterday, I went on the Graceland website. It just so happens that there is a 1,000+ car show there Memorial day weekend. Greeeeaaaattt. Our 3 hours at Graceland just turned into all day. I am learning to be more into the cars though and there seems to be plenty of other things at Graceland to see and do, it will still be fun and it will make the guys happy about going to visit Elvis.

That's about it for now.

Happy Wednesday!

All-State Pictures FINALLY!!

All-State Choir members: Front Jenna Zuber, Kiersten Kerner, Rachel Bratsch (Honors Choir) Back: Robert, Taryn Mahaffey.

The girls

Danny, Robert's roommate having an identity crisis.

Nicole Green playing at the Young composers concert. She played the piano piece

that won first place.

Why????

Second post in two days about things going on in facebook world but I had to show this to my non-facebooking family and friends.

There is this little thing going around where you go to urbandictionary.com and put your name in and post what it says. When you type in Mindy, most of them are bad, nasty or just disgusting. This is the best one--it is the whole definition:

paradoxal; contrary to common sense, yet is perhaps true. A woman that is an enigma. Hard to figure but worth the effort.

And for Andrew, this is the best, cleanest one:

The Newest breed of Penguin.

When you type in Robert, you get this......

The most incredible guy in the universe, end of story. He’s sweet, caring, and truly amazing. He isn’t concerned with himself at all, but instead he’s concerned with other people. He always knows the perfect thing to say and the right time to say it. He takes your breath away and leaves you speechless. And he has a way of making your heart melt like no one else ever will. Robert is so wonderful, it’s almost impossible to find the words to match.

along with about ten other great ego-boosting descriptions.

First off, I am not going to recommend anyone else visit urbandictionary.com. One time of seeing words I shouldn't be reading I thought was a fluke but after seeing them three times, I don't think I want to support a site like that.

I would still like to know WHY, what is it about my kid that the whole world just helps make his head bigger??

God ALWAYS knows what's best

A friend of mine asked on facebook this morning, "How do you handle extreme disappointment". It was kinda the final straw in the "God wants me to tell somebody about this" category.

It is so hard to remember, when we are wanting something, that God is doing what is best for us, even if we don't see it. This has been happening at our house over the past several years, in particular, to Andrew.

Andrew has worked for Walmart for 25 1/2 years. When we first got married and he was 27, they were promising the world on a silver platter--if you will go on the road and do remodels for a year, you can have any store you want. Well, we got married, I got pregnant, our priorities changed and he asked to come off the road. Then, the story was, you go to Pennsylvania for a year and we will give you any store you want. We were in PA for 20 months, my mom started having health problems and Andrew asked to come home. After much red tape, we got to come to Pontiac IL. We had done what we needed to do, not what Walmart wanted us to do. So began what we felt like was "punishment" for not doing the Walmart way.

A couple of good things have happened though, more valuable to me at least, than a promotion. The biggest one being getting to come home to Jasper county. I love our life here and am just glad we get to be here. Andrew is a typical male though and believes self-worth is shown in things like promotions.

For the past several years, Andrew has put in for several promotions to the marketing team. This is a group of people that are basically like district managers over different areas. The auto shop, electronics, etc. He never understood why he couldn't get one of these positions.

Last week, we understood perfectly. Throughout Walmart, many, many, many of these marketing team members jobs were cut. Just done away with. They basically have a month to scramble around and find a Walmart SOMEPLACE that needs them and then basically, there are no guarantees to what the job is, or for that matter the pay.

Andrew was thanking God last week for what he had previously seen as "unanswered prayer". It has taken literally years to understand what was going on but it was so very clear that God knows the end of each path that we take and we are still just amazed at how He protected us through this.

I grew up going through a lot of big disappointments in my life, there were so many things I had to question and now, I know to live each day to it's fullest, without regrets and try to do what God is wanting me to do. I think Robert was about 6 the first time he asked me why I did something and I said, "If I would die tonight, I don't want you to say, "I wish Mom would have...." Taking what God says isn't always easy, but it IS always right. If you are going through disappointment right now, God will show you why down the road......in His time.