curt??? is that you????

i called d this afternoon to check on her latest labs. unexpectedly a man answered the phone, "hello?".
awkward silence...
"curt??? is that you???"
"yeah..."
"oh, weren't you off last friday???"
"uh, no; but, i wished i was..."
unison laughing...
curt gets every other friday off work, and i thought he was working today; so, i wasn't expecting him to answer but was glad he did. i miss curt telephone conversations. he's a real conversationalist, and he didn't let me down today:DDD
after a little small talk i asked him what d was doing.
"oh, she's out and about," he replied. "i just got off the phone with her; i called her on her cell. she told me she was buying cheese, she'd be home soon, we are heading to the beach, that we are having a FAMILY DRUM CIRCLE next week, and then she said, 'gotta go, bye.'"
he started cracking up, "a family drum circle!!!"
as he was laughing, i was lamenting the fact that i didn't get to go have wine and cheese with them on the beach:`(
EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A BEACH TO GO TO TO DRINK WINE AND EAT CHEESE!!! (
then i wondered to myself if it would be against the law to go set at the riverfront with my friends and have wine and cheese...
WAIT A MINUTE!!! MOST OF MY FRIENDS ARE EN ROUTE TO FLORIDA FOR SPRING BREAK:[[[
back to my conversation with my second favorite guy in my world...
"she's so funny," he adds.
"cheese???" i say. "won't it get gritty on the beach:?"
laughter...
a few more humorous remarks about the drum circle and speculation on both of our parts...
"i called d to see if she'd gotten back the rest of her test results."
"are you talking about the 'labcorps' tests?"
"yeah."
"no, she hasn't said anything about those; i don't think they are back, yet."
"well, i was just checking... oh, yeah, and i was going to ask her if she had seen where 'kristen from australia' had gotten in on our blogger comment banter."
curt: "huh???"
i told him that the storm warning sirens had gone off here at about 1:30 this morning; and while i was up, i got on line and saw where kristen had commented about our crazy conversation from dana's blog from yesterday.
"i saw where she was from australia and figured she hit on d's thinking d's from melbourne, australia instead of florida."
small talk about dana's beautician, ceramic flutes, a large instrument store in west melbourne, and the drum circle (which curt was looking forward to until i reminded him d said a 'FAMILY' drum circle... ROTFLMAO!!!
finally, i said, "i better let you go... don't let the sand get in your cheese:D" (i meant it literally: curt took if figuratively:/)
"oh, i've got to tell you this," he added... "last night dana said she had sand in her clam..." (the conversation was going nowhere, quickly!!!
i cracked up!!!
he waited a few seconds (for affect)... "she was eating clam chowder last night; and found a grain of sand in it." she said, "i've got sand in my clam!!!"
"d trying to make a pearl???" i replied.
curt busted!!!
we laughed...
then said our good-byes as will was calling needing a ride home from school.

i love the beach.
i love wine on the beach.
i love wine.
i'm pretty sure i'd love wine on the riverfront...
i love, love, love curt/curt conversations!!!
i love laughing:D

wheweeee!!! what a morning...

ALREADY!!!


(i know a guilty pleasure, whodathunkit???)

for some reason, i could not go to sleep last night. so, i slipped out of the bed (john and maggie never skipped a beat with their snoring, respectively). i thought all i needed was a glass of milk.
well, i drank my milk and was still wide awake. it was about 11:30. i turned on the tv, but nothing was on that i wanted to see. further, i really didn't feel like starting a new book. so, i grabbed the wii guitar and started playing guitar hero III.
i played for a really long time and figured it was probably 2 or 2:30... WRONG!!! it was 3:56 according to the microwave clock. i turned everything off and tiptoed back in to my bedroom and slid quietly into bed. with maggie and john still snoring in tandem, they were none the wiser.
however, since i'd given up my original space of 1/4 of my bed, both of my sleeping partners had spread out and left me only about 1/8 of the bed. really, i thought i was going to have to put my pillow on the night stand and beg, borrow, and plead for some covers;[

it was bad; it was REALLY bad...

finally, i guess i went to sleep, and john's alarm went off at 5:15. i recall him getting out of the bed and heading to the kitchen to make coffee. i guess i fell back to sleep because the next thing i heard was maggie whining at the edge of the bed.
normally, john takes her out to potty before he leaves for work. but, evidently he didn't this morning. hence, i got up threw on a sweatshirt and house shoes and out we went. maggie went straight out squatted and hurried back to the steps to get her treat.
my cat, mia, was sitting by the front door, which she always does when i go outside. she has gone out the door 2 times in 6 years and both times she stopped just as soon as she realized she was out of her comfort zone. not this morning, however, she decided to get under the wicker furniture. so, there i was (yes, it was still pitch outside) trying to get my hands on my black cat who was trying very hard to blend in with the darkness of the pre-dawn hour.
not to worry, i got her back in where she belonged. she must have known that i wasn't happy with her because i could not get her off me, which made for a very, very unhappy maggie who thinks i'm hers. what a zoo it is around here!!!
but, it has calmed down a bit. i got katherine to school and returned home. maggie is asleep on one side of the electric blanket. mia, unbeknownst to maggie, is curled up on the other, and i'm in the middle. it is, however, time for a long nap after only 1 1/2 hours sleep... i'm beat:b

i love wii gh III, and i'm getting pretty darn good at it, too!!!
i love all my darling animals... no, really i do:D
i love that i can take a nap.
thank you, God, that mia didn't run any farther than the front porch.

easters gone by...

easter memories 
my first easter memory is of me coming through the front door at my mamaw's and papaw's house, my mamaw telling me the easter bunny had been there and had left me something in their back yard, then running through the kitchen to the back door of their house and seeing a big, stuffed easter duck peaking out from behind an oak tree in their back yard. 
it was in that very back yard, where i remember years of my aunt and uncle, mary ann and steve, hiding easter eggs for me and my cousin, neel. they hid them over and over again until the brightly colored eggs were mushy. 
at home, the easter bunny always brought me my easter loot in the same big easter basket; it was naturally light brown with a little pink and green woven around the outside of the base and along the large looped handle. upon the bright green, plastic, easter grass lining the bottom of the basket usually sat a large, plush, floppy-eared bunny and lay copious amounts of reese's eggs, peeps, a rather large, hollow, chocolate rabbit with a candy eye, and malted milk, speckled robin eggs. 
when i got older, i remember a year, the long eared one bought me a box of chocolates in the shape of an egg and a lionel richie album (now that was tight;). 
my senior year in high school marked my last visit by the easter bunny.  last by not least, he totally outdid himself. he brought me a a lanz, navy, linen dress with a pristine, white collar... just like the one i had fallen in love with at the fashion tree (my favorite little boutique).
even though the easter bunny stopped visiting me, i continued to receive surprises. the first year john and i were married, he surprised me with the most beautiful, flavia snow globe. inside the globe was a little wagon holding floppy-eared rabbit. it played the dance of the sugar plum fairies. i LOVED it and still do.  it's one of my favorite things ever!
then came easters with katherine... her hand-painted easter basket always filled with her favorite candies, all the failed attempts to get her picture made with the easter bunny at the mall (lol, she's still deathly afraid of the easter bunny), all dyed eggs, all the pretty dresses with hair bows to match,  all the chocolate messes...
~@~
all those easters past leading up to today...
although my katherine is now a freshman in high school, the rabbit continued to deliver. this morning katherine elizabeth awoke to her basket filled with candy and dvd's she wanted.  today our family was happy, healthy, and together.
today was good! i hope yours was, too.
thank you, God, for giving us two easters to celebrate... the resurrection of your Son and the one with the easter bunny, both of which bring us great joy:D
love and God's blessings, dani xxx

one more day of much ado about...

Easter eve...

though i will continue to blog, this is my last official "blog for lent". this is the one thing (of the many well-intentioned others) that i have done faithfully throughout this lenten season; and, it has been a good thing that i have enjoyed and has brought me closer to God as each day i have counted my blessings!!!
one might think that i took an easier course (the road most traveled; if you will...) but, that's not really the case. you see of all my fellow bloggers' lives, i feel sure that i live the most mundane...
for, i have an auto-immune disease called "anticardiolipin (antiphospholipid antibody) syndrome". it is a something that i have battled since katherine was born in 1992. the disease in and of itself can be controlled with coumadin (a blood thinner); however, as with any auto-immune diseases there are other complications... one of mine is chronic fatigue. a problem, if not medicated, that causes me to sleep all but about 4 hours a day and, if medicated, all but about 8 hours. so, there's not a lot of time in "my day" for things to move, shake, nor be worthy of recording. but,what i have learned (or maybe just remembered) through my blogging is this:
it really is all about quality not quantity!!!
and i have been abundantly blessed with quality!!! i am actually tearing up as i type this... and, i am not a crier:'I...

thank you, God, for an incredible quality of life.
thank you for having this outlet to reconnect with friends, stay more closely connected with others, and get to know others...
thank you for dying on the cross for me that i may have eternal life with YOU:D
thank you for keeping me on task throughout this lenten season and pointing out to me my many, many blessings!!!

it's been a GOoD friday...

the easter flowers along my driveway are budding and about to bloom. the weather is beautiful. and, i have had an awesome afternoon with katherine, hannah, and their "peasants" (barrett, jacob, and chase). my girls always crack me up calling the boys their peasants!!!
this afternoon, i took the jeep to the car-wash and ran back home to grab something before heading to school. and dawn had come by and left katherine a good friday/easter gift at my back door. we are totally blessed with great friends, and dawn is one of the greatest!!!
after getting what i needed from home, i headed to county to pick up the masses. everyone piled into the jeep, the radio volume went UP, and total chaos commenced; off to b-dubs we went. the restaurant was packed because of the ncaa tournament... that and i guess there were a lot of people off for the holiday.
after eating, the girls and their peasants wanted to go to best buy. an hour later we left. i didn't think i needed anything from best buy (and i didn't); but, i carried out a sack with 6 movies and an american idol bundle!!! go figure??? john is out of town for the weekend; so, i guess i figured i needed entertainment to fill the void:D
i headed back to henderson with all 5 intact and in tow. i took them to the dq for ice cream then dropped off the boys. kat, hannah, and i came home and jammied up (in flannels and hoodies, of course!!!)... LIFE IS GOOD!!!
thank you, God, for the easter flowers!!!
i love spring days like today.
i love dawn!!!
i love piling kids in the jeep for a play-date:D
i love entertainment.
i love getting jammied up for a girl party!!!

inspired by GOD through his servant, matt...

i was looking around earlier today at different blog sites in my network and ended up on dirtbucket's site. i cannot tell you the way i felt after having read his post other than maybe inspired, motivated, blessed, and wowed??? there really is no word nor words in the english language to describe the feeling i get when i'm touched by God directly nor indirectly; but i was touched by what dirtbucket had to say!!!

i have taken the liberty of putting a link to his blog with my other blog links (i hope you don't mind, matt:)

the following excerpt comes from the book of john chapter I:

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent,[c] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.(niv)

to me the above verses epitomize what matt was saying in his blog.

and further, something i realized when i was saved is this.... something john touches on in 12-13... although i was raised by family who spoke of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, just knowing what my family believed, what the Bible said, and what the preacher preached did not make me a "child of GOD"!!! as far as i'm concerned that's the biggest fallacy of all. in my most honest opinion, it's that fallacy that makes the road much wider than the gates; and it's that fallacy that will keep many who believe they are believers from being allowed into heaven!!!

thank you God for opening my eyes to the fact that...

it didn't matter that i was born into a Christian minded family, that it was my devout, Christian grandmommie's wish that i, too, become a devout Christian, nor that i went to a building of worship 3 days a week to "worship" and volunteer. what mattered was the day i was born of GOD nine years ago!!! that day i called out to HIM in desperation. and, He answered my call and allowed a very, very flawed and empty me to be born again unto HIM and filled up with HIM and become a child of HIS!!!

it wasn't until that time that i even knew what it was to worship GOD. before, i'd just been going through the motions.

it was a feeling of shock and awe; it was a feeling of being so full of unconditional love i thought i was going to burst; it was a most blissful feeling of humbleness; and most importantly a feeling of knowing that HE was my Father and i was HIS child and nothing of this world could change that. it was PEACE in EVERY sense of the word!!!

my name is dani berrong; and i am a Jesus freak:D
thank you, GOD, for using matt to remind me of that!!!
my GOD, the only GOD, is an awesome GOD!!! and i thank HIM for reigning me in just when i may not realize it but i need HIM most!!!
and i love HIM even more than r's love, love, love!!!

tornados, ice storms, snow, now flooding...

tuesday and wednesday...

when i say the last two days have run together, i mean it!!! they have literally RUN together. from 7am yesterday morning until 7am this morning (wednesday), we have received between 6 and 8 inches of rain in our area, which has caused major flooding, a state of emergency for neighboring evansville, and another day out of school for the students of henderson county as well as those around us.

to say that the weather in this area has been crazy since the first of the year, would be an absolute understatement!!! in january, we started with two weeks of tornado watches and warnings because the temperatures were so warm. however, our temperatures quickly dropped (due to the cold fronts that moved through causing sever weather), and we had several weeks of ice (to the tune of 2 to 4 inches at a time). then came the snow!!!

the kids here actually would have had 1 of 2 event-free, no-interruption weeks at school last week (had there not been a bomb threat...:/). it seemed as though weather-wise we might be out of the woods other than the april showers that we always get.

NOT 2 B!!!

for, it started to rain; and, it rained and rained and rained and rained some more... causing not only the last two days to run together but just about everything else in town (as well as the county)!!!

thank you, God, everyone is safe!!!

i love weather... in moderation, PLEASE!!! i love the heroes that get out and help those who are trapped and are in need of rescue!!! and i love sump-pumps:D

lucky in kentucky...

st. patrick's day marks three major events in my life...



march 17, 1990 - the day john and i officially got engaged... THE RING!!!

march 17, 1992 - the day katherine elizabeth was conceived... THE BABY!!!

march 17, 2000 - the day john and i renewed our wedding vows... 10 YEARS!!!



john just came in from work. when john walked into the room donning a green shirt. i inquired, "did you mean to wear a green shirt, today, or did it just happen that way?"



he replied, "what are you talking about?"



"it's st. patrick's day," i said.



"oh, yeah, it is isn't it..." (omgosh!!! where did i find him???)



"do you know the significance of the day?" i continued.



"hmmm... i can't even remember what i did yesterday??? (which is true unless he wants to remember what he did yesterday)" he added.



i reminded him of the "significance". (dani shakes head, rolls eyes, smirks...:/)



"O... yeah..." he replied.



it's a really good thing i love, love, love john as much as i do!!!

~i'm just sayin'...



i love my romantic devil.

i love, love, love my katherine.

i love my engagement ring.

i love memories of st. patrick's days gone by...

"has anyone ever told you you look like ashley judd???"

sunday

yesterday, in an email, shannon randomly asked if anyone had ever told me that i resemble ashley judd. lol, the answer was "yes", however, it was 5 years, 30 lbs, and a short hair-cut ago!!!

this morning, i remembered a site link someone sent to me a long time ago involving a picture upload and face recognition. i thought i'd see who i resemble these days. so, i used the most recent picture i have of myself (from early last fall).

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

ashley's still there... bless her heart. she is aging MUCH better than i am. and a few others... try it if you like; it's kind of fun and interesting;D

anyway, i went on to tell shannon that for years mary ann mcclure (my mimi) insisted that i looked like shirley temple. i was a huge st fan when i was a little girl and still am!!! however, when she would tell me that, i always laughed because i thought she meant i looked like "little" shirley temple just because i had curly hair and a full face.

however, it was not until i was in college and a movie came on the tv entitled, the bachelor and the bobby-soxer, that i finally realized what mimi was talking about (resemblance-wise)!!! omgosh, as i told shannon, the resemblance was uncanny or so i thought!!! see for yourself:




(temple in the bachelor and the bobby-soxer)

yes, it was the hair and the full face (because i have both)... but, i immediately saw what she saw!!!

as i said, earlier, ashley has aged much better than i; but i do really hope that i age differently that shirley temple (black) has because i don't think i look any more like her as she did as a middle-aged woman than i did as a little girl with full face and curls...

i love random questions and thoughts.
i love being 30 lbs. lighter...
i love playing on the computer with cool programs.
i love my mimi and miss her so much since she has moved.
i love shirley temple.

sec tournament and many "grateful dawgs"...

friday



(outside the georgia dome)

(downtown atlanta looked like a war zone)


at our house the sec tournament is a really, really big deal; actually every type tournament and car race is a really big deal!!! i have seen john kicked back on the couch, with headphones around his neck, the radio blaring, the tv on with sound as well as closed caption, with remote in hand changing the channel among three or four channels so as not to miss out on any said sport (dana once said that she believed he would watch piss ants race if someone painted numbers on their backs)!!!

BUT, THE SEC TOURNAMENT IS A REALLY, REALLY BIG DEAL!!!

so, last night we sat in the den awaiting the uk/ga game when a tornado hit the georgia dome where the tournament was being held. john had thought about getting someone to go to atlanta with him to the tournament (but didn't; thank you, GOD!!!). the last time he had thought about going was a few years ago. you may remember it or not; but that particular year was the one that an inmate overtook, killed, and stole a deputy's gun. he went into a court room, shot and killed the judge and his transcriptionist, and went on the run through atlanta. no one knew where he was just that he was armed and dangerous. i thanked GOd john decided not to go that year either.

(^^^moral of the story, imo, it's best to watch the tournament on tv!!! and, if you hear that john's planning on going but decides not to, you may definitely want to watch it from the comfort of your couch as well:D)

saturday




i hadn't talked to dawn since monday, so, i decided to call her this morning. she thought i'd read the paper and was calling about the death of danny thomason, the son of a dear friend of my mother's and the owner of grateful dawgs training and boarding as well as paws (a local pet store from which i get all maggie's necessities). i hadn't heard; what horrible news!!!
danny was a beloved, only child of carl and bonnie. he had a heart of gold as he would take in strays, care for them, and call them his own. danny was only 47; all i can say is he lived a life unfinished. please pray for his mom and dad; as i'm sure they are devastated by their loss...

article about danny:

"Dear Annie: This is for the woman who complained about the mother's dogs climbing on the table and eating from the plates. A fellow trainer shared an effective cure with me. Each time you sit down to eat, have a towel or small bed positioned near the table and periodically toss a scrap onto it for the dog. Within a few days, the dog will automatically go to its towel (or bed) when you sit down, since that's where the treat shows up.

-- Danny Thomason, Grateful Dawgs Training

Dear Danny Thomason: Our readers will appreciate the useful tip. Thanks.

Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to anniesmailboxattbi.com, or write to: Annie's Mailbox, P.O. Box 118190, Chicago, IL 60611; (C) Creators Syndicate



i love john.
i love that i had him at home with me last night.
i love the kind, caring soul of danny thomason.
i love bonnie thomason.

bio-boards...

thursday




katherine has a bio board due tomorrow for the novel, i never promised you a rose garden. bio-boards (poster boards decorated and labelled with information about a particular person, place, thing, book, etc...) have been a "new thing" for katherine and me this year. those of you who are younger may have a lot of experience with these; but the boards were definitely after my time in high school.


{random: however, i did read the novel my junior year. evidently, that was the first year (1986) these particular paperbacks were used. the first person's name on the library card in the back of the book is curt hamilton, and the date stamped beside his name is march 3, 1986. how funny is that???
i remember that curt sat in the back of my row (i was in the front); we were seated alphabetically. i was d, curt was h, and jan johnston (j) sat directly across from me in the front of the third row... of cathy crick's honors english III class.}


further, i helped katherine a little bit. she had to come up with and draw a picture of the main character, deborah blau (who was anything but...), and ten more illustrations of things that describe her:

1. she had an horrific surgery at the age of five in which a tumor on one of her ovaries was removed.
2. she was jewish and was mocked and made fun of from an early age.
3. deborah had extreme fear of and distrust for the medical community due to the surgery she'd endured.
4. at nine after having been mistreated at camp for being jewish and different, deborah created a pretend world, yr, of her own where she could go to escape her terrifying real world.
5. deborah's parents were very wealthy thus were able to provide their disturbed daughter with the best psychiatric care.
6. she was institutionalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
7. she practiced self-mutilation and attempted suicide.
8. she was very lonely in the hospital.
9. dr. fried, a female psychiatrist, was put on her case and was able to help deborah.
10. deborah began to heal, was able to get her g.e.d., and finally leave the hospital and live with her fears in the real world.

voila!!! bio-board #6, for the year... COMPLETE!!!



(bio-board with maisey getting in on the action!!!)

thank you, God, there are real places and doctors that can help those affected by mental illness!!!
i love doing projects with kat.
i love memories from high school.
i love that i had the opportunity to have mrs. crick as a teacher (1986 was the last year she taught at hchs).

just "before"and "tuckered" no "after" this time...

(before)

wednesday

i only have a "before" picture of maggie because after her hair-cut and shower she was just a little too wound up to get a picture taken. the whole purpose of taking the "before" picture was to show that after a good hair-cut maggie looks like she's lost at least 20% of her body weight.
hence, my thought was how awesome it would be if i could go get a hair-cut and a shower and look 30 lbs lighter:D
oh, well, maybe an "after" shot next time because it's not going to happen tonight given that, after, she ran off the wet like a craaaaaaaaaaaaazy puppy-dogger!!!
and, since, she's been curled up sound asleep on my electric blanket (on high).



(tuckered)

i love giving maggs a cut and shower.
i love how snuggly she is after she winds down.
i love that she and i have an electric blanket to keep us warm.
thank you, God, we haven't gotten electricuted thus far!!!

fox 7's randy moore...

tuesday



(Dani Berrong, Randy Moore, and Dana Niemeier)

it was almost 7 and time for american idol; so, i turned the station to cable 8 (aka fox 7). i caught the last five minutes or so of the local news. randy moore is the anchor of fox 7. he is also the husband of ann moore (see blog link) who has been battling pancreatic cancer since late last spring and doing a great job of it with God at her side. she is a true inspiration.
when i saw randy's face, it reminded me of a conversation i'd had recently.
moreover, the conversation was about how, many times, the person actually going through an illness sees the unfairness for his/her loved ones rather than for himself/herself. the fear and challenge of witnessing the battle takes its toll, too. and, many times we forget to pray for those affected by the situation.
randy moore is in the picture above with me and d. the picture was taken in melbourne some nine or ten months before randy and ann began their battle against her cancer. the randy moore in the picture is not the randy moore i saw on the news tonight. ann needs prayers... so does randy. i guess today's blog is a special request that you add these two as well as those who love them to your list tonight. thank you, God, for prayers!!!
i love praying.
i love cancer battles that are won.
i love the picture i have of d, me, and randy at a much more carefree time in his life.

spring forward, a bomb threat, and politics...

sunday and monday

the last couple of days have just kind of run together. that usually happens when i return home after being out of town. i'm usually very tired and thus sleep a lot... (random thought: it's always funny to me that first split second that i awake and am like, "ok, where am i???") my tiredness hasn't been helped either by the fact that we lost an hour due to daylight savings time. it's so early this year!!! but, i do like having the extra hour of light in the evening.
hence, it must have been that extra hour of light on sunday night that made me totally glitch as a parent. oj came over for dinner and brought the movie life as a house. i guess i thought it was earlier than it was when we started watching. regardless, it went off at midnight; katherine was still awake.
as the adage goes, "one thing leads to another"... kat and i didn't awake on time monday morning. tardiness was inevitable... so, i told her to take her time. a little after 8 kat received a text message from her bf telling her he had been put on a bus and was headed to kmart's parking lot. he said he thought there had been a fire or something. i turned on the local news... NOTHING.
however, jason soon texted her back and said there'd been a bomb threat phoned in to the school. a few minutes later my friend dawn called. she told me that she was listening to the local radio station and that henderson only had one k-9 unit and had called neighboring e'ville for help to sweep the school for a bomb and/or bombs. long story~~~short... there were no bombs, however, before that was established, many parents picked their kids up from the buses. it all turned into a real fiasco!!!
i just thank you, GOD, that no one was hurt!!!



(^^^looks more like a crest white strip commercial to me...^^^)

on a lighter note, i heard something very funny later on cnn. it was something that made me think i had totally misunderstood the lead-in to the story. basically what i thought i heard was that hillary clinton had made the comment that if obama would agree to run as her vice president there'd be no stopping them. HA!!! i heard right. and, obama's reply was equally as funny in saying that the candidate in second place had no business asking the candidate currently in first place to take a lesser role... that being said and not impressed by either, i don't care who the democratic candidate turns out to be.
i love an extra hour of sunlight.
i love dinner and a good movie (life as a house was excellent!!!).
i love preparedness.
i love being entertained by political nonsense.

hindsight...

saturday




the back story…

writing in retrospect puts a whole different spin on the last week. my previous blogs have been rather light and airy, a facade of sorts. I say “of sorts” because under the circumstances things have been good.
i think it is ok to say, now that we know that d is out of the woods (so to speak), that things for her, curt, and her friends have been kind of scary.

while waiting in the parking lot for kat to get out of school last friday, d called. she sounded a little harried in her introductory chit-chat. her tone turned to what i recognized as fear as she told me her dermatologist had told her he wanted her to be tested for dermatomyositis (a scary autoimmune disease)...
further, she was sitting in the parking lot of the lab where her doctor had sent her to draw blood for a battery of tests he’d ordered. being 14 hours away from a loved one in need is horrible. i felt absolutely helpless (not that i'm all that and a bag of chips, et. al.; but, i'm just sayin'...). so, i went home called john to see if he minded that i fly to d’s for the week.
the rest up until wednesday is well history (aforerecorded^^^).

ps... happy birthday, grandmommie, up to where you are!!!





friday

i awoke friday morning. the first thing i did was call katherine to see what the weather was like... as i was worried about flying in to evansville later that night. at 10 am there was not much more than a dusting she said. yay!!! maybe the weather wasn't going to be as bad as originally thought.
i walked through the house; there sat dana in her boot camp attire (all nike'd up... she'd gone to work out five hours previously). she was on the phone with curt. when she hung up she proclaimed that we were going to meet curt and his harris peasants for lunch where the burritos "are bigger than your head"...
so, off to get a diet coke i went. upon my return dana informed me that her boot camp instructor had extended an invitation for me to join them earlier to which she replied that her friend, dani, was not exactly the boot camp type of person... rotflmao!!! d knows me well, huh??? that was the understatement of the year!!!
lunch was great yellow rice and black beans in a bowl... curt and his peasants were entertaining as well.
so, then it was time to get back to d's, check my flight, pack, shower, and leave:'( everything looked like it was a go. we waited for my little sweet-pea to get home from school, which he did right on time.
we arrived at the airport with an hour to spare. hugs and kisses... off i went. i got checked in and decided to have a drink before boarding, pulled up a bar stool, and ordered a spicy bloody mary (it sounded good (and healthy;)i hadn't had one since mexico last year, yum!!!) the bar maid asked what kind of vodka i preferred. honestly, i don't know the difference; so, i said, "absolute." she pulled out the bottle and informed me all she had was 100 proof was that ok???
"sure," i said, "what's the difference???"
"most of the time it's like 80 proof..." she replied.
i laughed and told her to just fill the shot glass 4/5's full...
she looked at me like... "huh???"
i was like, "never mind, just kidding."
she didn't get it. most people don't get me. that's not necessarily a bad thing...
the drink was good as was the flight to atlanta as was the flight to evansville. other than a few slick spots, the drive home was good too. i was soooooooooooooo tired, showered, and went to bed.
thank you, GOD, for getting me home safely!!!




thursday

my alarm went off at 7; i hit snooze but was awake when d came to the door a few minutes later drinking her barium cocktail out of a MARTINI GLASS!!! i cracked up... i guess it really is all about presentation.
i got dressed and off we went to melbourne imaging for d's c-scan. as we sat in the waiting room we basically just made small talk about american idol, coffee with d's friend jen after her tests, and the hairstyles on "saved by the bell" (which was on the tv in the waiting room)... i assured d that the tests were going to go well as the first part of her blood work had. her name was called, she handed me her purse, and back for the scan she went.
after just about 5 minutes, i looked up and saw curt walking through the door. he sat down next to me. i asked him if he knew that the guy that played screech went on to be a porn star. he asked if i'd seen the movie where the tall girl played a stripper. the next thing i knew screech came out to wrestle in mario lopez's wrestling uniform (which was just a little too big for him). curt pointed at the screen and said, "well, just look at him. after being emasculated for all those years on sbtb, it's no wonder the guy became a porn star!!!"
i looked back at the tv and with a kind of "darn the luck", sidewards smirk, nodded in agreement...
i then heard curt say, "oh!!!"
i turned around; and there stood d. she started laughing at us... loudly. we were both like "is everything ok???" (in unison)
she said, "yeah, the scan was clean!!!"
YES!!! THANK YOU, GOD!!!
it was time to start celebrating.
first, coffee with jen (and bagels for the boys).
second, shopping.
third, wine at d's.
fourth, american idol, skewers, and more wine at d's.
at one point during ai, d asked me if ryan asked paula if she needed a catheter??? i told her i didn't know that i couldn't even feel my lips...
life is GOOD!!!



wednesday

when d got home from work, she came in and said, "let's go to panera and get a salad." so, i got ready, and off we went. when we walked in she said she needed to make sure to get the boys some cinnamon crunch bagels. we stood in line, she ordered hers, i ordered mine, and we sat down and ate. the salad was good; the conversation/company was better. time flies by when you're having fun.
the boys got home from school.
sam saw our panera glasses and asked if we'd gone there. d said yes and that she'd meant to get him and will some bagels but had forgotten.
"awe!!!" sam said as he sat at the table doing his math homework.
as soon as he finished, he walked over to d, gave her a hug, and thanked her for thinking of will and him at panera.
"it would have even been better if you'd remembered our bagels," he continued.
have i said ,yet, that i love that kid???
wednesday is youth night; so, d and i dropped will off at church and went to the mall to go shopping. d and sam needed winter clothes as they were supposed to fly to new york on saturday for the national pizza show. i don't know if you've ever shopped for winter clothes in florida; but there's not exactly a lot from which to choose. but, we tried regardless, lol, and were basically successful. i don't think they will freeze;)
i love that d's scans were clear!!!
i love uneventful flights home.
i love that d had a martini glass out of which to drink her barium cocktail.
i love that d has a husband like curt because he's the best!!!
i love celebrating with best friends!!!
i love shopping with d.
i love that d was able to find warm clothes for sam and her.

"bf" posters, diet coke, and correct climate...

monday

well, i made it out of evansville regional and was on my way to melbourne via atlanta!!! i got to the atlanta airport with 3 hours to spare... i bought a diet coke, a south beach diet bar, and a month's service of airport wifi... heaven forbid i have 2 rather lengthy layovers without internet service, lol!!!
so, i sat down with my carry-on, my laptop, diet bar, diet coke, and proceeded to check my email. i had one from dawn that i answered. i closed my laptop and partook of my "breakfast". afterwards, i opened my computer to do a little surfing and found that my wifi was no longer working. ISH!!! (my new favorite blogger cuss word:D)
hence, i pulled out a book of sudoku and worked a couple of puzzles. time passed quickly; and, i happened to notice that there was no one sitting in the concourse area out of which i was supposed to fly. I walked over and looked at the flight information board to see that my flight to melbourne had been cancelled!!! there it was in bold, white letters highlighted red and blinking, "CANCELLED". WORD!!! i thought to myself... what next???
thus, i went up to the delta counter and inquired about the cancellation. a really nice lady informed me that the flight had been cancelled due to "maintenance issues" and the next flight wouldn't be leaving for another 3 hours and 15 minutes. nice!!!
further, i would no longer be leaving out of concourse "c" but out of concourse "t" ("out in egypt" were her next words; i think...). guahhhh... off to egypt i went. not being physically fit is a real *#$%& sometimes. my butt was dragging. thank you, God, for suitcases on wheels!!!
finally, after a few hours of terminal cnn, ha, i boarded the plane and made it to melbourne (i was really beginning to wonder???) as i made it around the corner in the airport, i saw them... d and sam!!! d was standing right next to my little sweet-pea who was holding a poster that read, "best friend"!!! now, how awesome was that !?!?!?!?!!! seeing the two of them standing there waiting was well worth all the ish it took to finally reach my destination after 3 days of trying:D!!!
it was awesome seeing will then curt getting home from school and work, respectively...
we sat down for dinner, and d asked who wanted to say the blessing. sam did.
"thank you, GOD, for food, drink, family, housing, animals, shelter, and correct climate... amen"
will: isn't housing the same as shelter???
curt: what kind of climate??? no, will, they are not necessarily the same...
sam: "correct" climate... i learned about it in school today!!!
dani: LMAO!!!
i love flying from e'ville to my final destination.
i love wifi... when it works.
i love dawn for being a bff, always being concerned, and ALL the other things she does (she IS a God send)!!!
i love nice informants.
i love suitcases with wheels.
i love d and my sweet-pea with a home-made sign just for me!!!
and, i love my will and curt, too;o)
oh, yeah... and i really love me some correct climate!!!




tuesday

i must have been exhausted from monday because i didn't awake until 12:55 local time. d had to work until around 1:30, so, it wasn't that big a deal that i slept late. when she returned, we drank diet coke, ate pretzels, and watch breaking bad (i'd never seen it... interesting, lol!!!)
not much later, sam got home from school. aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeee, he came in, gave me a big hug, and told me he missed me while he was at school. so, so, so sweet that child is!!!
then, d told him to show me the his "indo" board he got for Christmas. an indo board is basically a big, oblong board that one balances and rides on a cylinder that rolls (surfing affect???)... i made a few attempts at it; but, d was pretty sure i was going to hurt myself.
so, i waited till she left to go pick up pizza for dinner and tried it out again. curt verbally told me how it was supposed to work (verbally because he's boycotted the thing after flying off it and hurting his hip, YIKES!). d returned and i got off the board but assured her i would figure out how to "indo board" before heading back to henderson;D please, God, let me be able to do it and remain in one piece!!!
i love d-conversations, diet coke, and pretzels.
i love being missed after only a few hours of elementary school.
i love toys i've yet to master.
i love that i haven't hurt myself, yet, on the aforementioned:=}

ps. does anyone know if randy jackson (american idol) and samuel l. jackson are blood brothers???

travelocity's fly and until we meet again...

saturday

the breakdown in petsmart was just the beginning of an ill-fated trip. i didn't have anyone to keep maggie; and as of 10:30 pm friday night katherine wasn't sure if she had anyone to stay with the latter part of the week. i realized i had not activated my new credit card as of march 1st, i had no cash, and john didn't either. so, much for leaving for the airport at 4 saturday morning. it just wasn't going to happen. i just kept thanking God that i had purchased trip insurance (i actually started not to buy it. i mean what could possibly go wrong with a flight leaving 15 hours later???)!!!
saturday morning i called to tell d i was NOT in route, that i was sorry, but i just couldn't get my ish together the night before; we decided we'd get together another week, soon. bummer!!!
after getting off the phone, i read the terms of my trip/cancellation insurance at travelocity. i read that i needed to call asap after missing my flight. so, i called.
"thank you for calling travelocity. this is yolanda; how may i help you?"
i told yolanda that i'd been unable to make my flight and asked her what i needed to do. i also asked her if there was any way i could just reschedule the first leg of my flight. (i still wanted to go this week, and i knew with an extra day i could make arrangements for kat and maggs.)
after a very lengthy conversation, yolanda had gotten approval from her manager to let me board the same flight on monday morning!!! perfect!!! travelocity's "fly"!!! (no pun intended:D)
since that conversation, everything's fallen into place!!! i've gotten my updated credit card activated, some cash, kat a place to stay, and someone to come to my house and tend to maggie and the cats. actually, maggie, the crazy dog, had a choice: home with my brother or a week with my bff from grade-school, amy, who offered to let her come stay the week with her:D
yay, me!!!
so, i get to go hang with the niemeiers afterall this week;D
i love that God slows me down when i get into too much of a hurry.
i love that travelocity was willing to work with me; as they didn't have to.
i love the niemeiers!!!
i love oj!!!
i love ame!!!


---------------------------------------------------------------

sunday...

on a more somber note, last night john and i went out to dinner while katherine and her bf went to the movies. i pulled my phone out of my purse at the restaurant to check the time (i don't wear a watch.) and noticed that my friend maggie mcclure had called me earlier; i had missed the call. i had a feeling i knew why she'd called but felt it was too late to return her call.
when i got up this morning, i went straight in to check the gleaner. there it was... miss emily's obituary...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emily Quinn Bennett

Emily Quinn Bennett, 93, Henderson, died at 8:50 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29, 2008, at her home.

She was a member of First United Methodist Church. She was owner of the former Quinn's Drugstore.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Edward K. Bennett, who died in 1976; her daughter, Barbara Bennett Mathews, who died in 2002; and her parents, Roy Sugg and Myrtle Mulmanstedt Quinn.

Survivors include three grandchildren, Patricia Ann Mathews of Plano, Texas, David S. Mathews of Howell, Mich., and Stephen B. Mathews of Atlanta; and two great-grandchildren, John David Mathews and Barbara Elizabeth Mathews.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Rudy-Rowland Funeral Home. The Rev. David E. Latham will officiate. Burial will be in Fernwood Cemetery.

Friends may call from 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday and until service time Friday at the funeral home.

Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to First United Methodist Church.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
miss emily, a blessing for you...

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
i love you, miss emily.
i love maggie mcclure.
i love david latham.
i love the "gaelic blessing".