Nice weekend again

Last weekend we had a great weekend on the river with our best friends. We spent it at my in-laws' little one bedroom cabin. Its a great little getaway, just to cook out and visit.

This weekend the hubby & I spent it at my in-laws' bigger four bedroom cabin on the other side of the river with our young adults' class from church...and a few strays too. Keith & a few other went fishing today and the rest of us just hung out. Last night we had some good food, courtesy of the hubby and his should-have-been-brother. We also had some great music from some of our strays. They are some very talented brothers & I expect to hear them on the radio someday.

Also on the music note (ha ha...I'm so funny), the hubby's cousin & I got to sing together a little. It's something we try to do but don't have much time for. He's an amazing singer & I love singing with him. He's always been like a brother to me, so it's a lot of fun. And we actually don't sound terrible together.

This time of year is a great time up at the river, so we spend a lot of time up there. We're skipping next weekend though so we can go up to St. Louis and visit another cousin & his wife. Yay for another great weekend!

Things I remember...again

I did one of these blogs a few months ago and ever since I've been thinking of things I left out that are important. Some are sad and some are happy, but all are very vivid in my mind. Enjoy...

1. Singing badly to old songs all night with my boyfriend (now husband) when we first started dating and knowing that I had just released all of the inhibitions I had

2. Seeing my Ya-ya in the hospital, knowing that it was the last time I would see her alive

3. Playing Sardines in the mall in New Hampshire

4. Watching my Pearl dog "chasing" planes out of our back yard

5. Taking 2 hour lunches with Jalynn to go eat in LR and go shopping

6. Slapping a girl when I was in the 6th grade

7. Playing with Barbies and GI Joe at my Maw-maw's house with my cousin

8. My Pop teaching me how to drive when I had no interest in it

9. Pop & Ya-ya's chicken houses

10. Riding the 3-wheeler with my friend Justin when we were kids

11. Laying on the beach on Grand Turk island

12. Cutting Allyson's hair and my instructor "fixing it" by completely chopping it off

13. My aunt trying to make me learn tree and flower names

14. My dad getting my birthday confused one year and giving me my present a whole month early

15. Moore family vacations...

That's all for today. I'm pooped after a long day. More to come...

Revelation of the Day

I was researching some stuff today for the adoption process that we have been looking into and slowing creeping toward and found something interesting. I found a website for adoption funding (www.cafaadopt.org) that had some great stuff on it. I found an article called "Should Christians Fund Adoptions?" Now I didn't read it because I wanted someone to fund my adoption (would be nice...) but it caught my attention. Here's a little of what I found there.
God speaks of taking care of orphans and widows throughout the Old Testament.
Psalm 10:14 - God is the helper of the orphans
Psalm 10:18 - God will vindicate the orphan and oppressed
Deuteronomy 27:19 - "Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the fatherless"

Then the author, B. Alan Keener, goes on to bring up a New Testament verse, just to show that the command continues throughout the new law. James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." I have heard this verse used countless times to show that we should take care of our widows. I have heard it used a couple of times by the sponsors from the Children's Home. But I have never really looked at that verse as it being a direct command to care for orphans, as well as widows. My husband and his friend have talked about this verse a lot in the last few months and I still never thought about it like that. I think maybe God was trying to get me to see that all along.
I have always wanted to adopt, because my mother is adopted, and I love the idea of helping someone by showing them a loving, God-fearing home, when they may never get that otherwise. But now I feel more compelled than ever to do so. I feel that we should get our butts in gear and get this going. We have questions about finances because it is incredibly expensive. But I know that the money will find its way somehow, as long as we focus on what's important.

Reflection

Today has been a crazy day full of bad news. A lot of people I love are hurting very badly today. In twelve hours, I heard about 5 deaths in this immediate area. Five. There was a very bad helicopter crash last night of the Air Evac team in this area. My friend's grandpa passed away yesterday. And my friend's son committed suicide. So many people are hurting and sad and it hurts me that I have no idea what to do.

I've been surrounded by death since I was young. I grew up with older grandparents in a community full of older people. The first death I remember was when I was four. I think I started going to funerals before that. I have no clue how many funerals and visitations I've been to in my thirty years. I know that when someone dies, the best thing you can do for them is be there. You can take food and paper goods to make the time easier on them. You can take them flowers to make their house appear cheery. But you can do nothing to take the pain away. I've done these things for a long time. But what do you do when someone commits suicide? I'm not sure that there is anything you can do to make that time easier. I'm completely at a loss.

But I'm taking this time to do some reflecting on my own life. That may sound selfish but I'm trying to be better. I know now that I've been through all the funerals and death so that I can help other people. Maybe that's what God's purpose has been for me all along. I don't believe God only has one purpose for us, but maybe that's a big part of mine. I always feel obligated to do something when someone dies, whether I knew them well or not. Maybe that's the Holy Spirit guiding me into my purpose.

So now I have to figure out my purpose in this time. I'm praying that God will guide me toward what I'm supposed to do right now and that He will be a comfort and strength to so many people that are in pain.

I love Lucy!

I was watching "I Love Lucy" this morning & decided to look up Lucille Ball (for the millionth time) on www.imdb.com, my favorite website. Which also led to several of my other favorite redheads. Here's some of my favorite redhead quotes.

Lucille Ball

"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."

"I'm not funny. What am I is brave."

"Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead."

"A man who correctly guesses a woman's age may be smart, but he's not very bright."

Bette Midler

"I try not to drink too much, because when I'm drunk, I bite."

"If somebody makes me laugh, I'm his slave for life."

Carol Burnett

"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me."

Sophia Loren

"A woman's dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view."

Julia Roberts

"I'm too tall to be a girl, I never had enough dresses to be a lady, I wouldn't call myself a woman. I'd say I'm somewhere between a chick and a broad."

Out last night...

But it wasn't last night. It was last weekend but I haven't written about it or shown pictures yet. Some friends & my hubby & I went out to a piano bar last weekend and had a blast. It's my new favorite place to go. It's nice just to relax and sing really badly to crazy songs. Going out isn't a typical thing for the hubby & me so it was nice just to get out. These are a few pictures from the night. Enjoy!

Lyrics = Life

I'm a music freak. I love almost every genre of music. It is an art form that many take for granted. I love listening to music but I also love the poetry of it. Here's a few I've been thinking about this week.

Sugarland has a song on their Love on the Inside album called Take Me As I Am. Here's my favorite part: "I know these corners, I know these streets. Curbside prophets, they're yelling at me. He can save my soul for a drink and a dollar. Yea, they're yelling about my tattoos but we all live with the scars we chose. They might hurt like hell but they all make us stronger."

Miranda Lambert's new single, Only Prettier, starts out like this: "Well I've been saved by the grace of southern charm. I got a mouth like a sailor and yours is more like a hallmark card. If you wanna pick a fight, I'm gonna have to say good night. I don't have to be hateful, I can just say bless your heart."

From one of my all-time favorites, James Taylor, Fire and Rain: "I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. But I always thought that I'd see you again."

Gotta love Your Song, Elton John: "And you can tell everybody that this is your song. It might be quite simple but now that it's done. I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind, that I put down in words how wonderful life is when you're in the world."

And let's close out this blog with my favorite diva, Bette Midler. You gotta have Friends!

"Oh you got to have friends, the feeling's oh so strong. You got to have friends to make that day last long. Had some friends but they're gone, something came and took them away. And from the dusk to the dawn, here's where I will stay. Standin' at the end of the road, boys, waiting on my new friends to come, I don't care if I'm hungry or cold, I gotta get me some of the them."

Limo rides and cruises

I drive 45 minutes to work. Not through a city with tons of gruelling traffic but from the country through a city, past several rural "towns", to a small town to work in my office. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for driving so far when I could get a job 15 minutes from my house. This is why I drive.

This is my office family, minus one. (She's on maternity leave, one of my oldest friends, and consequently the reason I work with these people) And, yes, you aren't seeing things...we are standing in front of a limo. My boss is a super nice guy who feels the need to do nice things for us. I think he may be insane, but it works out well for us so we don't complain. At the beginning of this week, my boss, Dr. E, decided to close the office Thursday afternoon and take us to the movies and to dinner. So we cancelled our patients and were surprised by a limo picking us up. He footed the bill for the entire excursion.

For the last two years (the year before I started and this past year) at Christmas, he gave his entire staff a cruise. This is one of the reasons I wanted a job here so bad before I started. Fortunately, I got it and got to join them on the cruise this year.

For some people it would be torture to be sentenced to spend time with their coworkers outside of work, but not me. I love the people I work with. We get on each other's nerves occasionally but we can all look past those times. We have great professional relationships and great personal relationships.

I still can't believe that I'm able to work with such great people and that I am get rewards for working hard. I've never worked anywhere that the boss did anything more than buying us lunch on our birthday, if we were lucky enough to get that. Don't get me wrong, I've worked for some very nice, benevolent people but they weren't that gracious with their employees. But now I have that and it's amazing! Just another one of God's blessings on me....

The fruits of my labor

I think I'm going crazy. Well, my husband thinks so anyway. Here's some pictures of what I have done in the last week and a half. I wish I had taken "before" pictures.

Last weekend was when we scrubbed the house and then I cleaned out the laundry room.
















Saturday, the pantry closet was calling. So I pulled out all our crap and cleaned the shelves and threw away junk and rearranged.





















And today I've been working on our closet. I've gone through all of my clothes and pulled out everything I can't wear so I can consign it. Not gonna mess with my hubby's stuff though...he may kill me. These are the hangers of everything I can't wear anymore.
















So that's what I've been up to. Back to work tomorrow....

Cleaning....

I hate to clean. With an intense passion. I HATE CLEANING. However, I feel very accomplished today. Last night we had a big cookout/planning meeting for our Young Adults' Class from church so we had to get the house in order. So Saturday, my hubby, our housemate, and I started cleaning. We started with the kitchen, bathrooms, and living room. Sunday we continued in the kitchen and did all the floors. We also prepared all the food for the cookout. This morning I got up and cleaned...no wait, I scrubbed our laundry room. I got rid of a bunch of crap we had sitting around in there, threw away some old clothes, and cleaned the floor. It looks like a whole new room. You can walk in there and jump in a circle and not step on anything nasty. You can actually stand to fold the clothes in the laundry room. So I continued my cleaning spree with catching up ALL of the laundry. I also did the dishes from last night and picked up our bedroom. Whew! I'm exhausted. I need another day off before I go back to work tomorrow. But I'm so glad I had today off work!