Sunny Glorious Days

These last few days have been so beautiful! I love spring! It is hard for me to believe that we might get a snowstorm like they say.......around the 17th. I know it could happen and I love snow....but with this beautiful weather I just want it to stay warm now.

Right now I am reading a book that I would highly recommend to everybody. It's called You Were Born for This by Bruce Wilkinson. I love his books and this one is so fantastic.

A friend I have from the shelter is in contact with me again. I am so excited about it. She had been in years ago and we'd kept in contact for several years, faithfully. Sometimes it would go 3 months til she'd reply, she was so busy with her Pentecostal church. She was a secretary and worked there during the week. She got along well with her foster mom. Then suddenly all communication stopped. I finally sent her a Christmas card and it came back with no forwarding address. I thought she was gone for good. Then about 2 weeks ago I got a letter with a picture of her. She looks the same. She is expecting her first child. I sure hope I can see her soon. She lives in York. God is so good! Can't believe I get to correspond with her again. I missed her so bad!

Another exciting thing is that I am in contact with another girl from the shelter that I had not seen for years or written to for years. She is also a dear friend. She just had her 3rd child. I text her and I've tried to visit her the last 3 months but it just didn't work out, every time I tried she had other plans. Now that she had her baby maybe I will get there soon.

Weeks just fly by. This weather makes it fly faster. On Saturday I was really happy because I was able to hang my wash out and it smelled so good. My whole closet smelled like the outside for the next two days.

Today I reserved my spot at Harvey Cedars Beach Resort for a week in July. I sure can't wait. I love that place and I believe God has some good things in store for my friends and I that week! Bring it on, Father!:)

I would like to go on a week's mission trip this year sometime with my sister. She is interested in Honduras maybe but the thing is I only have 1 week of paid vacation reserved for that and if I go that far I want to spend 2 weeks to make it worth the ticket! I have pray and see what God works out there!

My boss asked me the other day if I'm happy with my job and the pay, etc. I said I sure am, that I feel like I get treated here better than any other job I've had! She said but I haven't been here for 9 years yet! LOL! True, but so far I like it. I get get salary and I'm not sure what it is per hour because there is overtime figured in. But she said she's pretty sure I get ___ an hour and she wants me to be getting____ an hour so she called the paycheck guy. So I just got a raise! I think that God is so good again! I feel so taken care of at this place. I love the children and the job is just exactly what I have always wanted. They give me paid vacation which this is the first time in my life I have that. The pay is good. Praise Jesus!

Well, typing just doesn't go as fast when you're talking on the phone at the same time, which I have been the whole time. So if anything doesn't make sense, credit it to my poor ability to multi-task! LOL!

Valentine's Day & Spas

Last Sunday was a fun day for me. I had a Valentine's Party with a total of 12 guests, well, that included the hostess so technically it as the hostess and 11 guests! I wanted to have 12 place settings so I did! I had fun making the food and I asked several folks to help bring things. When I started making the food, boy was I glad some folks were bringing things, because it was alot of work! I had cheeseburger soup, poppyseed sandwiches, wienners in crescent rolls, crackers and cheese, strawberry danish dessert, chocolate chip cookie dough icecream, and heart shaped cupcakes that I decorated with pink icing and red sprinkles! Oh, and sparkling grape juice. I decorated with the water goblets, the wine goblets, paper plates that were decorated in Valentine's hearts, and I put party favors at each place (a Valentine gift bag with candy in it). I had a rose wrapped around the wine goblets. I had tea lites on the table, lit up nicely. So we had a good time eating. I had an 8' table and also a round table. One guest came when we were just finishing up so we stayed at the table and waited for her to eat. While we did that, we built up eachother's self-esteem! I passed a toilet paper roll around and told them to take some, that we are building up eachother's self esteem. So most took alot, some in the teens and some one girl in the 30's! Then after they took some I said they have to count the squares and say that many nice things about the person on their right! Most made it through! Even though I said they don't have to go above 7! Then we moved into the living room and played "Now you have it now you don't" with gifts, everyone had brought one. I ended up with a nice plaque and some perfume and lotion. Then our guest speaker was Rhonda Hurst and she had an inspiring message for us young ladies! After that we just hung out and talked.

I was away every blessed day this week! What a rat race! Friday night I was at a Pampered Chef party at my aunt's house. That was the first one I was at. It was fun. I actually booked a party.

Saturday I had a spa at my house. What fun! I had a good turnout. I had maybe 12 guests! We got facials and foot massages and backrubs and a good time relaxing. Saturday night I had a Bible study at my house. A very full Saturday but a fun one. This morning I was at church and to Rhonda's house for lunch and part of the afternoon. Then I went to sleep and now it's almost time to leave for the taffy pull!

I have to say something funny that happened to my handrailing at my house. One day last week I was descending the steps and was holding the house phone, talking and suddenly the phone went on down ahead of me! I lost my footing and it went flying! Of course I grabbed the railing and it cracked! Guess it didn't like this hippo's weight! So anyway I skidded down the steps on my butt! LOL! That was the bottom half (I live in a split level house!) So a few weeks ago I had a friend named Junise over. Same thing happened to her, only the rail didn't crack. Well, on Saturday she slipped and skidded again on the top stairs! Then on the landing she got her coat and hat on and started down the bottom steps. I don't think she lost her footing this time but she grabbed hold of the rail and forgot that I had told her it's split! Needless to say she slid down the rest of the way on her butt and she totally splintered the rail, totally severed it apart! Oh, my word, I lost it laughing! She tore a 1.5" hole in her jeans! I had to take her home because she doesn't drive and I am not exaggerating when I say I must have laughed full speed 10 minutes in the car! I don't know if I ever laughed that long! It made my breastbone hurt!

Well, that's all for now, gotta head to the taffy pull!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

What a glorious day! What a glorious snowfall! I am so amazed at the snow we had. We got 18" Friday night to Saturday. So Saturday we were snowbound. On Sunday we still had crummy roads but the 222 was clear and we went to church. Sunday school was canceled though. We had a fellowship meal at church. Then I was home til the evening when I went with Janice to Mel's to play volleyball. We had some good games. Some of the folks weren't there because Jolene also had a coffee shop party.

Now, having had 18" of snow over the weekend, Tuesday night into Wednesday we got another approx. 18". It's really hard to tell, because it was blizzard like conditions and such a drifting! Now it's Thursday and the roads are still crummy. I am so glad I have off! They gave me off because they canceled the surgeries for today and both of them are home. Sometimes when they are both at home I still work so this is really a treat to have off.

I started sewing a dress yesterday and I hope to finish it today. Well, I don't have anything else to say.......other than I am practicing piano more than ever now. I want so badly to learn to play chords so I have to work at that.

Well, that's all for now!

A normal week

Well, first let me talk about last weekend. I had Junise (a girl I kept in touch with from the LCYIC) overnight at my house. I had a meeting to do with Heart to Heart and we were planning to sing alot at the meeting and since Junise likes singing, I took her along. Her favorite song is, "Fill up my Cup". She asked us to sing it so we sang it 3x. Junise is a big black girl and she's very sweet. She was in the shelter when she was 19 I believe and I've kept in touch with her ever since. She wants to come over more often and go to church with me. She says she really liked my church and that my church people are more friendly than the Southerners. Now that's a compliment because the Southerners are known to be very gracious people. Soon after lunch I took her home.

The week was a pretty normal one. I have music lessons Monday nights and this time I also went to visit Grandma after the lesson, Tuesday nights is shelter, Wednesday night I was hanging out with friends, Thursday night I forget what I did and Friday night is family night. How's that for a busy week?

This week is not a whole lot better. Except, I think I am at home Thursday night as of now.

I am starting to crochet more. I really like it. I never did it on my own before but Monday night something in me clicked when Grandma did it with me and now I can actually do it on my own. I even finished a row and turned it over and started a new row all by myself. So happy with that little accomplishment! Yay! So now I can do that whenever I have spare time. I am going to try to do some every week.

Last Sunday night I heard a former co-worker talk about Haiti. She and her husband were in Haiti when the quake came. They had a very good testimony and I was really inspired to be grateful for life and know that it was as rare for Haiti to have an earthquake as it would be for PA to have one! It could happen to use too. God help us! Although we are no better than them!

Last night I was going to have a Bible study at my house but then it got changed to next Saturday. So I stayed home and scrapbooked with Sharon Martin. She stayed for the night and we scrapbooked again on Sunday.

So, I don't have anything new to say or anything really astounding. But I like normality, it's a comfort zone that I am okay with!

Back From FL

Well, where do I start? I had a very good time in FL! I had my boundaries stretched! I had my share of tasting wine! I decided I need to stay away from white wine if I'm going to bed soon afterwards! The night I stayed overnight at the Girdharry's since we were leaving so early in the morning.....I had some and boy was I up alot of the night. I could not sleep #1, but #2 I woke up a few times in the night! How frustrating! Then Heather's mom Rebecca said it kept her awake as well! I forgot myself once on the trip and had some again, a different kind but was white as well. Oh, how I had a hard time going to sleep! So I will stick to red wine I guess! Of course, I don't drink more than one goblet glass so it didn't make me at all dippy or anything! I don't want to get dippy either! That's where I draw the line! I was offered beer and of course I won't touch the nasty stuff! I was surprised that they bought it alot in FL and even Rebecca drank it alot! What can I say as long as they don't get tipsy, I guess I can't say anything. I sure won't touch the crap though!

I had different foods. What fun that was! Carribean food, Trinidad food, Cuban food! They tried to get me to eat sushi but I could not bring myself to do it. Raw fish, that is just too gross. I think some of my problem is that I was taught that raw meat can make you very sick and can give you parasites/worms. So why would someone eat raw meat????? I can't understand! When I see someone eating sushi, they might as well go to the fridge and pull out a raw piece of chicken meat and devour it. I am serious, it's all one and the same to me!!!!! Now if they would have offered me some sushi without any raw meat, I would have complied, I think!

We visited Dexter's cousin. My goodness, is she ever a woman of God! I was impressed with her! I had no idea she was going to be a Believer. I was not in the door long and I heard her speak in such a way that it indicated she believed. Right away I thought she's probably just a carnal Christian but the Holy Spirit said to me, "She's one of Mine"! Wow, I was all into her then! We had some good conversation and she said maybe we can be prayer partners. So I took her email and I hope to hear from her soon! It is SOOOOOOO good to get to know other Believers. You know, I think heaven is going to be like that. I think we will constantly be getting to know others up there. What fun it will be to fellowship up there where everyone's motives are 100% pure and everyone is completely honest!

Dexter's cousin made crab soup and alot of other goodies. I ate pretty much all the other Trinidad food but the crab soup I passed up on. It was green like the color of spinach green, and had crabs in it. I could not try it, I feared it would come up before it even went down! Oh, how sissy I am to try seafood!

I think I wrote about the zoo in my last blog. We had the children on the beach some and on the boardwalk. We also had them twice in the kiddie pool. The pools at the hotel were heated. Ah, it was good. The distasteful part was getting out of the pool but other than that, it was great. Never mind the cold air! Lyla fell asleep on me while in the pool. It was so cute. I never heard of a child falling asleep in water!

The last two days we went to the Florida keys. Oh, the price of the rooms we had was $1,000 a day! But we were upgraded due to a mess up on the hotel's part! So we had the luxuries for the normal room price! So cool! Anyway, the Keys are beautiful. We had alot of nice scenery on the way. They celebrate sundown every day so we want to see that. It's kinda like a fair, but much smaller and just a few trick guys performing and some "Green Dragon" type of stands.

We did some shopping but I didn't find anything. Except for a hair barrette. We spent a few hours outside on the beach at the keys. We had only to walk out of our hotel and past the pools and right there was the beach. It was glorious. I got some good shots at the scenery and Lyla fell asleep on me on the beach lounge and ah, I was there for about 3 hours maybe 4, just chilling and relaxing. What tranquility.

It's alot of work taking the kids in and out of carseats all the time. I found that some of our stops I would have preferred to stay in the van with them rather than drag them out of their seats and know I have to put them in again. What a lazy girl. I thought of my married friends and how I can understand why they wait til their husbands are home from work so they can keep the children while they go shop. It wasn't so bad, just alot of work! I should have lost weight but ha, they fed me good on this trip. Perhaps too good!

Well, this week is full now. I got back Sunday at 1AM and had all that laundry to do and lots of mail to go through and all manner of things to catch up on. I had to work Monday but they graciously gave me off today so I could recover from traveling. I think it was to give me a break from the kids but for me it was just as much and more so I could get some things done here at home!

This week I was at a music lesson Monday night. I am going to do piano lessons again. Maybe I will be able to go back to voice eventually but for now I want to learn a little more of piano. I want to be ablet to play chords to any song. Tonight I go to the shelter. Tomorrow night I have church. They are going to review the covenant and church ideals with the applicants. Thursday night I perform in my little quartet, Friday night is family night. Saturday my cousin and aunt are here to go over some info for Karena's school project, Saturday night is a Heart to Heart meeting, Sunday is actually empty. I am going to see if Junise (girl I got to know through being at the shelter) can come and stay overnight and go to church with me. Oh, what a busy life. Seems like I am doomed to a fast paced life. I actually function the best that way though.

Well, that's all for now folks!

Work/Vacation in FLORIDA!

On the Saturday the 9th we left Pa for Florida! Can't believe I'm here! It was a grueling plane ride because we traveled from Harrisburg to Phila, 25 min. flight. Then we went to FL from Phila. That was the grueling one, I thought it would be short but it was 4 hours long flight. We had headwinds of 210 mph coming against us so that made it take alot longer. The kids were fairly good though. I was very dopey due to my motion pills. My name should have been Dopey! LOL! We got to everything with time to spare so that was a blessing.

I was so exhausted the first night and was delighted to find a bathtub with jets in my room. Delightful, and oh, so relaxing to the weary bones! We have a computer with internet, a dishwasher, a living room, a microwave, a full size refrigerater, a stove & oven, and a big screen tv. It's wonderful. My boss is treating me great. They are so thoughtful. They really could not be nicer boss's. I cannot think of anything I would change in them. Of course I would love if they were Believers, but other than that, they are great.

We had the children at a museum so far and at the beach and on the boardwalk. They love it. One morning Heather's mom got up and this morning I got up to go over and take care of the kids.

I'm looking for appointments and trying to be alert. I hope I can be a real blessing to Heather and Dexter and an ambassador for the One who lives inside me. I hope I can make them glad they took me along. We will head back on Saturday late at night.

A New Year

What will this new year bring? Only God knows. I hope and pray with all my heart that I grow and mature in the Lord. But, only through normal things. I'm not asking God to send trials!!!! I know better than that! I hope He will grow me up just through everyday circumstances!

On New Year's eve I was at Janice's house for the evening. We had a New Year's clash party and a surprise birthday bash for Mike Rutt. The clash part was so much fun. I had on a teal sort of tie-dye dress (it had some flowers tone on tone print). I put on a shirt that was pullover and was pink/orange stripe. I also wore a sage green sweater and hot pink fuzzy socks. It clashed good! Some of the other's outfits were great too. One guy wore his normal clothes and his girl cousin gave her hot pink Aeropostle hoodie to wear so that was cool! Some of the other guys looked like they reached in a goodwill bin and pulled out the first things they laid hands on! We surpised Mike! We had pizza and cake and icecream. We played musical chairs in the dark (we had glow sticks around our wrists/neck) We also did pin the tail on the donkey. Was a wonderful evening. We went outside to watch the new year come in. Most of the girls screamed. I was annoyed and thought what a dumb group this is, why can't we pray the year in or sing or something cool. I was too shy to suggest it because I didn't want to be in charge of it. I didn't want to lead out when there were guys there. Well, guess what, as soon as we got in one of the guys, who is dating, suggested we get in a circle and take turns praying. That was awesome and also whoever wanted to talk about their 2010 goals could and what they learned in '09, etc. So I decided my group isn't dumb after all!!!!!!!! I left there at 1:15AM. I didn't stay at the slumber party because I thought a whole host of girls would be there......and here there weren't many. Oh, well. Then I came home and did a few things around the house and was in bed by 2:30.

After sleeping in til 9:30 and staying in bed to do some things til noon....I got up and went to my mentor's house. I had a good time hanging out there til it was time for family night. I had fun there as well. After family night I went back to my mentor's house and went through some clothing with her.

Saturday I went to visit a widow who lives an hour away, then to a friend who had another baby, she also lives an hour away. In the evening Sharon came and we scrapbooked.

Sunday was church of course and then Vernon and a friend stopped by in the afternoon. Then I slept and then went to the youth supper and sang for some elderly folks.

Oh, and next Saturday I leave for Florida. We come home on the 14th, late. I will be babysitting while my boss is at a convention. Heather's mom will be alone too, thankfully. I hope we can do stuff with them and not be cooped up in the hotel much. I also pray the weather is nice and warm. Oh, how nice that would be, because they say this week is to be bitterly cold. It is already!

Well, that's all for now. Maybe I will have time to write when I'm in FL. We'll see!