I wish each of you a happy and blessed new year. 

me.

So much has been going on around the hacienda, I cannot even begin to catch you up on everything, so I will just highlight the important stuff …

Chrisi is getting married in less than 8 weeks.

Richard is back home, not for a visit, but permanately … I can not tell you how happy that makes his wife.

Mini no longer lives with us, she has a new home and we wish her well.

Our new pastor is not quite right, but we love him and his family.

My computer is still not working, I have hijacked Anna’s but it won’t read my camera card, thus no pictures for now.

Last weekend Richard and I took an unplanned, last minute road trip to see Thad & family in Tennessee.  We had a great time.  It was a short visit but so worth the drive.  We had not seen them since March and I was in need of an Emma Joy fix. 

Emma Joy is the proud new owner of a chihuahua puppy.  She calls the puppy her shhawaawaa, I love it, hearing her say that makes me smile.  Her shhawaawaa’s official name is Cookie Ostrich.  No clue why, but that’s the name she picked so that’s the pups name.

But the funniest thing Emma Joy said this weekend was this … she is 100% convinced that her Nana Joy, my mom, is Dolly Parton.  If you didn’t know my mom, you probably won’t think that is the least bit funny, if you did know her, you probably just either laughed out loud or spit drink on your computer.  There is a logical reason for her thinking Dolly is her Nana.  Each month every child under the age of (I think this is right) 5 receives a free book in the mail from a foundation that Dolly Parton supports called Imagination Library.  They are really nice books and they all have a small, itty bitty, picture of Dolly on the inside cover.  Over the past few years Emma Joy has heard endless tales of how much her Nana loved to read and if she were still here on earth with us, she would buy her books and read to her every single day.  Thus, in the 3 year old brain logic, Emma Joy equates books to Nana and to Dolly, thus … Nana must be Dolly.  Makes complete sense to me!  I do however get tickled every time I think about my mom being confused with Dolly.

I am off to bake some chiken enchiladas for our new contemporary worship service at Mt. Wesley, it’s called Flood and it starts at 5:00 this evening with dinner to follow.  If you aren’t busy, come on out an join us, we’d love to have ya.

me.

me.

I’d do it all over again …

Happy Anniversary Richard, I love you.

me.

Monday night was the only night this past week that I was home and I was actually productive, getting some much needed laundry done along with a few other things that I had been neglecting … can you say orange slime in my toilet? 

On Tuesday night, Cathy and I met with our soon to be new pastor Scott, his wife Windy and their children for a dinner/get up to date meeting.  I think we are all on or around the same page for Scott and Windy to begin their ministry at our church come July.  I should point out that we are still protesting mr. preacher man and Anita leaving.  I think Eric and Scott would make great co pastors!  Although Eric keeps trying to explain to me that God has a different plan and as stubborn as I am, I am not qualified to argue with God. 

Wednesday night was church as normal.  I was home by 9 pm or so and thought it was going to be an early night, but I was incorrect.  Anna’s car was attacked by a deer on her way home.  The deer jumped and landed square on the hood of her car while she was driving home on our road.  Thankfully, she was not hurt but the deer nor the car fared so well.  We are now waiting on the insurance adjuster to show up and determine what will be done to her car. 

Thursday accidentally turned in to a vacation day for me.  We started out the day taking care of some insurance stuff for Anna and I eventually just ended up calling the boss and asking if I could take a vacation day. 

Thursday & Friday evenings were spend at the church house doing landscaping and planting flowers.  It was a project that Cathy suggested and it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.  We were blessed with plenty of stuff to plant, all donated except the potting soil and round up along with plenty of help for labor.  Our new church house now has it’s make up on and is looking exceptionally lovely. 

One really nice added bonus to the workdays at church was that I got to spend some quality time with people that I don’t normally get to hang out with very often … and Roger grilled us all hot dogs Friday night so none of us had to cook.  That may have been my favorite part of the workdays.  I have heard a nasty rumor that someone coaxed their sister in to taking a horrendous picture of me with my fanny in the air, but I refuse to believe that said person would ever think of doing such a thing! 

Today was once again spent at the church house.  I went to help with the vbs yard sale but Bobbi and Judy had that under control so we ended up finishing up the flowers, putting out mulch, sowing grass and spreading hay.  My fore head is sunburned. 

And tonight … the best mother in law in the universe fixed me lasagna for dinner.  All I can say is, life is good and I am so very blessed.

Now I am taking my aching out of shape self to bed.  Sweet dreams.

me.

more to come … stay tuned!

Actually, the last month has been a bit busy for me.  We had our first official week at the campground our summer home over Easter and with the exception of the down pour of rain on Good Friday it was a beautiful, fun, relaxing week spent with some of my favorite people on earth.  I spent lots of time with my front porch friends, reading books, sitting by the fire and taking naps.  I did manage to make it to work on time everyday, to son rise service & Easter services at the church house. 

While at the campground, we celebrated Anna’s 20th birthday and Anna & Christopher’s one year dating anniversary.  Bless Jimmy, I think he still isn’t sure which day was anniversary day and which day was birthday.  I think he told Anna happy birthday every day for 4 days just to be on the safe side.  You gotta love some Jimmy Brown!  I should also brag on Christopher a bit, he did a superbjob in the gifting area for anniversary and birthday.  I was also very excited to partake of the strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing that Cat drove all the way home to make special for Anna’s birthday. 

Son rise service on Easter morning was absolutely beautiful.  Eric did the service out side & just as he was giving the message, the sun came up over the mountain behind him.  As much as I am not a morning person, the sight of God’s creation made getting up at 4:45 more than worth the effort.

Speaking of the church house, I mentioned in my last post, if you can remember that far back, that we have a new pastor.   His name is Scott, his wife’s name is Windy and they will officially become our pastoral family on July 10, 2011.  I am ultra excited.  I truly believe that they are the family that God chose for our church and I am looking forward to see what the future holds.  I have asked mr. preacher man on several occasions (when he is unmercifully making fun of me for some unknown reason) if June is not here yet?  I don’t really mean that, I wish we could just keep Eric and Scott come join with us.  Scott & Windy will be coming to us from the big ole city of Charlotte, although I think they may already be country folk at heart, so hopefully it won’t be too big of an adjustment.  I need to check and see how they feel about rodeo’s, weenieroast and camp fires.  Those questions were not included on my list of 40 that I wrote down for the interview.  Speaking of those questions, they gladly answered them all!  (bless um, they must be good people).  I have to be honest here and say that I am nearly as excited about Windy’s singing ability as I am about Scott being our pastor.  Man oh man can that girl sing.  She sounds almost as good as me.  Fine, that’s a lie, she actually can sing, unlike me, but it was worth a try.  I have not yet told Scott about my obsession with proper grammar, after 7 plus years Eric still pays me no attention concerning grammar other than to purposely use improper grammar every chance he gets.   I would like to invite any of you who don’t have a church to come join us.   July would be a great time to check out Mt. Wesley.  It can be a new beginning for all of us, we’d love to have you!

On the home front, Richard is working all the time.  I am not watching NCIS reruns, I have read a couple of really good books.   Chrisi is still engaged & making wedding plans.  She has also started her second interim position teaching elementary school until the end of the school year (can I just say how incredibly proud of her I am) Anna finished her sophomore year of college today and it’s safe to say we are all glad her exams are now over.  Jacks leg is almost completely healed and the hair is finally growing back over the cuts on his leg.   Dozer hasn’t eaten any more soap and courtesy of Christopher we have now added a guinea pig to the mix at our petting zoo … her name is Tilley.  Sadie and Tulsa think she is their puppy, Dozer pays her no attention.   Dad escaped to Tennessee for a week, but is now safely back home building a rock fortress at his house, maybe to keep me out?  Bentley has officially been deemed insane by the vet, but that is an entire blog post all its own … let’s just say bless him for now and move along.  Emma Joy is nearly an adult and has apparently taken up barn work as her new favorite hobby, she gets to the barn in her mini, which I find delightfully funny.  Thad says keeping up with her when she’s driving her mini is way too much exercise … better him than me!  Our garden is planted, I have a new bigger/better planter bed this year, but again, that is an entire post of its own and I will hopefully get to that sometime this weekend.

Wheeewww!  I am worn out now!  I shall aim to do better in posting but with our crazy schedule, who knows.  I hope you had a wonderful April and are enjoying May so far.  Leave me a comment and let me know you’re still alive, I’ve missed you!

me.

So far, it’s been a really good week.  As you are aware mr. preacher man is leaving us but we now have a new pastor.  He will be here in July.  I can’t wait to tell y’all all about him and his family, but I think I might ought to ask them if that’s ok before I expose him to the blog life he has unknowingly volunteered himself for.  I hope he will be as good a sport as mr. preacher man is.  However, I cannot refer to our new pastor as mr. preacher man, that will just always be erics name, so I am thinking we will have to find a new name for him … I’m thinking mp2, whatta y’all think?  I am up for suggestions. 

I am off to bed for what will hopefully be a non stormy night of rest.  I don’t know about y’all but the storm last night kept me up all night long.  Enjoy your week.

me.

I actually don’t have any really bad dirt to share, what I do have to share is this … Satan is all over me tonight.  I think it’s been a building process, like he’s been stopping by my front door and leaving little packages of aggravation, confusion and anger the last few weeks.  And then, he started showing up a little more frequently, asking if I wanted to hang out and get dinner or have coffee so we could talk things over, you know, cause he’s so good about offering advice, especially when we have our guard down a bit to begin with.  Welp, much to my dismay and his delight, today he showed up with suitcase in hand, apparently ready to take up residence in my heart.  I’m fairly certain that he used my current attitude to unlock and swing the door wide open and nestled right on up to my burning fireplace of being a complete (insert bad word) butthead today.  I have managed to hurt both Chrisi and Anna’s feelings, sent Richard a hateful text (I mean cause why should he not want to talk to me for an hour on the phone after he got up at 5 am, drove 3 hours to work and worked 14 hours, selfish man) and kicked my dog.  Ok, I didn’t really kick the dog, but I thought about it. 

I keep going back to a quote I once read in a book The Same Kind of Different As Me, it says “The more precious you become to God, the more important you become to the Devil”.  I must be one more precious soul as of late.  To be honest, I’m sure that during the last month, I have probably spent more time in prayer than at any other time in my life.  I’m not sure if that’s just because I have, hopefully, matured spiritually, if it’s simply because I feel a great need to be on my knees about things concerning our church, if I feel discombobulated because I have a huge dislike of people moving my cheese or most likely a combination of all of the above.  Either way, I seriously think, the devil is a little miffed that I have moved beyond my normal – daily obligatory prayer life – and I am really not enjoying his presence in my life at all. nada. zero. none.

I don’t know if any of the rest of you ever feel this way or not, I truly hope I am not alone, cause then I would feel like a realy putz.  I just keep telling myself “self, it’s all going to work out, God has a plan, you just have to have faith that His plan is good”  I just want that plan to be revealed to me yesterday and when it isn’t, I tend to try to be in control instead of letting God be in control.  I think it goes back to my whole control freak nature thing that our marriage counselor once mentioned, I just kind of skipped right over his comment and told him we were there to fix Richard, not me, mmkay.   Sorry, I got a bit off subject there.  Lets just suffice it to say, I’m not patient, I don’t like not being in control of everything around me and this whole day has been the complete opposite of me being in control of anything, other than my sorry attitude. 

I guess while I’m confessing, I will just step on up and do something I’ve never done in 2 years of blogging … I am going to end this post with a prayer, simply  because it just seems like the right thing to do this minute and if I don’t, then I’m not following my heart.

Dear Father in Heaven,

I fully realize I am not the only person on this earth that is struggling today.  In fact, my struggles are infinitely smaller than a majority of people who may read this.  I am so grateful for all of the good in my life, I am so thankful for my husband, my children, my family, my church family and my friends.  To say I have been blessed would be the understatement of the decade.  Lord, I just ask that you bring my focus back to you and all of my many many blessings, instead of my focus being on all of the negativity that I have selfishly allowed in to my heart and mind today.  Lord, I ask your forgiveness for my hateful words today.  Dear Lord, I ask that you surround me with the knowledge and comfort to know that your plan is the right plan and grant me the faith to fully live and believe in that knowledge.  Dear God, I ask that you bless those around me, physically and who may have happened upon this post today, with your tender mercies in what ever areas they me struggling with today.  In your holy name I pray …

me.

Speaking of Richard, he’s home.  I am happy about that.  I’m not sure how he is still awake, they worked about 45 hours in 3 days this week.  I would be in bed, asleep, but not him, he’s watching NCIS reruns. 

I have no idea what my children are doing.  Thank goodness they are adults or I would be a bit concerned about that.  I would gander a bet they are with their respective boyfriends. 

Welp, that about sums up my day.  Like I said, not one interesting detail to report.  Maybe your day was more interesting, please feel free to share, I can live vicariously thru you!

me.

Dozer ate an entire, brand new bar, of ivory soap tonight.  He is so sleeping outside.  I’m going to bed now.

goodnight.

me.