Thursday, January 31, 2008

Random thoughts

It's SNOWING! YAY! Yes, I am, and forever will be, a child when it comes to snow. I love it. I even love ice. It's the best evah! Sadly, it will all be gone tomorrow. :(

I took off early from work to come home and get my last comments in on the bloggy giveaway carnival over at Rocks in My Dryer http://http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/reviews/ . Well, not just because of that. I swear, by the next giveaway I'll know how to post a button and pictures so that I can play, too.

We finally got Direct TV! YAY again! This means we can actually WATCH the game AT our Superbowl party. See, without satellite or cable, we could only get one channel clearly, even with an antenna. And it was not FOX. So I think it will be a better Superbowl party overall.

I'm still waiting for a job to open up at the university, so those of you praying, keep it up. No new leads as of yet. I HATE waiting! Really. A LOT!

I'm off to take a little nappy nap.

Monday, January 21, 2008

everything you ever wanted to know about me, but were afraid to ask

O.K., so I received A question. Just as I suspected. I've already told more than anyone wanted to know. It's fine - I'm not bitter. Really. I always look like this. Really.

But, I will answer the question posed to me by http://lenadianejennings.blogspot.com/ "Okey dokey: If your house was on fire and you could save only one thing, the thing dearest to your heart, what would it be? Other than your pets and loved ones, of course. That's a given."

I thought long and hard on this one and discarded the usual suspects: photos, my Bible (which is on my PDA that I would have on me anyway), family heirlooms (we don't really have any). And what I finally came up with was my comforter. You don't understand. This is a ten-year comforter. See, my husband doesn't leave the decorating decisions up to me. He also only wants to buy something like a comforter once in his lifetime, so he must GET IT RIGHT! Over ten years ago, literally, we began looking for material. Since we had less than zero dollars at the time, it was moot really when we found the perfect fabric for the top of our comforter cover. We waited nearly three years for the material to go on clearance, and nearly missed it entirely as it was being discontinued. We bought the whole bolt, put it in the closet, and began looking for the fabric for the underside. And the trim.

I got all rebellious and bought a white down comforter for the inside off of ebay. WITHOUT EVEN CONSULTING HIM! Amazingly, we are still together. During all this time, the debate on whether I would make the cover (a professional seamstress for 10 years), or whether we would have someone else do it, because I might mess it up, waged on. Two years passed before we found the underside material. Then another year before we found the perfect cording.

Then, I moved to Oklahoma for 5 months alone while he tried to find a job here. No time (or room) for sewing during our time in the ghetto. If you'll remember, I call it that, not because of racial issues, but the fact that we were robbed THREE TIMES while we were there. We were eventually reunited and then moved out of the ghetto. Getting settled once again, I finally made the comforter cover. We have just now decided on the appropriate closure for it, so it should be complete in the next month.

To my husband's credit, he has AMAZING taste. The comforter is perfect. The top is a tapestry-like material in a forest green and moss green general swirly kind of thing, with dusty rose and deep red colored cabbage roses with individual threads of gold, here and there. Really hard to explain. The underside is a deep red iridescent fabric, stitched in a diamond pattern. The cording is the same deep red, with a burgundy twist. I'll try to figure out how to post a picture. When you see it, I think you'll be impressed.

So really, I just couldn't face going through that process again. I have actually had a fire in my home back in Texas. I grabbed my purse, the bridesmaids dresses I was working on, and the TV REMOTE! When I realized that I didn't have the TV to go with it. I took it back inside. My husband took all the computer stuff, put it on our bed, and covered it with a blanket. Apparently, we were both ENTIRELY COHERENT at 3 am when our duplex was in flames.

Perhaps it is a good thing to think about this question and plan for the worst. If anyone else has a question, I'll be happy to answer it. I'll just be here. Waiting.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Because I'm all original like that

In the interests of a) fulfilling my only New Year's Resolution - to blog more often b) complete disclosure and c) risking no questions WHATSOEVER...

I'm jumping on the "Ask me anything" bandwagon today. Now, I can't imagine that anyone might have had questions up to this point that they may have held back. And I am unabashedly open in person. TMI, anyone? But if, perchance, you might want to know my favorite curry, or my first...whatever...ask away. I will be pleased as punch to answer any question pertaining to me. I'll be more circumspect about family member questions. I'd actually like to receive birthday presents.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

What was your name again?

Long time, no type, eh friends? The holidays were such a blur. See, I’m generally a last minute kind of girl anyway. But when ICE STORM 2007 knocked out our power for four days (and others for much, much longer), the world came to a screeching halt. Not only could I not get anything accomplished that week, all the regular things I needed to do got pushed to the next week. So, in short (ha!) I did ALL of my Christmas shopping on Dec. 23rd and 24th. Needless to say, the Christmas letters didn’t get mailed.

In the aftermath of ICE STORM 2007, the scramble to get all the paperwork together to enroll and provide financial aid for my older daughter to attend ORU sucked all my remaining vacation time right out of the house. “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” Name that quote! At any rate, both girls are now attending class. An absolute miracle of the “happy dance” variety!

Now, Tulsa has faced many ice storms in the past, but ICE STORM 2007 was altogether odd. I don’t know if it was the culmination of the extended drought of the last two years, followed by the amazing rain of this past Spring/Summer, then the mild temperatures up to the point of ICE STORM 2007, or if terrorists were to blame, but not even Jack Bauer could stop the AMAZING TREE BREAKAGE across our state. It is truly amazing. The dump sites are all full and there is still a phenomenal amount of tree trimming and hauling to be done. Yippee. Welcome to Tulsa.

Good news – I had been weighing my options on attending Wednesday night church regularly because of the expense of gas and eating on the road (if you’ll remember we live an hour away from our church). I rearranged my Wednesday obligations and figured we could get a motel room on the weekends that I lead worship, do practice and counseling appts. on Saturdays, for less than I was spending to drive out on Wednesdays. That meant no getting up super early on my worship team Sundays. YAY! I hadn’t talked to the pastor yet about it ‘cuz…well…refer to previous paragraphs. There have actually been a few times when I absolutely did not have gas or money to go. That’s just not good. ANYWAY, I got a call this week that the council had voted to cover my gas and Wednesday meals! AMAZING! What a blessing! I really love these people, and I would move to the country in a heartbeat if I didn’t have to work here to put my kids in college. Maybe God will open up a door there, as well. I’ve been praying, but no breakthrough yet.

So far my only New Year’s Resolution is to post more often. We all see how well that’s going. I’ve been faithfully lurking (is that an oxymoron?), but I’ll try to comment more often, too. I still don’t know ANYTHING about making my blog look nice, post buttons, pictures, or anything else. Despite the continued filling out of blog design contest entries, I’ve not yet had the blessing of professional help. Well, not that kind anyway. So, if anyone out there might find it in her heart to make a seed faith gift of blog design, I’m most certain the Lord would bless and multiply that seed in mysterious ways.

O.K. I’m done rambling. Blame it on the four day migraine. I love you!