HAPPY WEEKEND! ! ! !

Happy Weekend, everybody!!! That's about as focused and organized as my thoughts are at the moment, so everyone reading this post, be prepared for sudden topic changes and detours to chase rabbit thoughts wherever they may roam. I don't really have any purpose for this post except for the purpose of random bloggery, I suppose. That sounds kind of nefarious, doesn't it? Tee hee........

I did just visit Meow from Australia, and you may remember from your geography studies that their seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are the opposite of ours here in the Northern Hemisphere. Which means they are experiencing the latter end of their Fall, moving into their Winter. I always thought it was the strangest thing, that Christmas is the hottest time of the year for them. Utterly foreign to me, lifetime resident of the Midsouth, USA. She talks about it being cold dreary there, and it's absolutely gorgeous here today, after more than a week of storms and rain every day. It's 75 degrees and sunny, with just a light breeze. It's best we enjoy it now, for tomorrow, we roast. :-) That's not far off the mark, either. In the next few weeks it will probably heat up and dry up around here. I just moved all my houseplants outside for the summer, so I hope we don't have any late frost. I really think all that's gone for the summer, though. Meow had a really neat list about Noah's Ark that she gave me permission to reprint here, so here it is:

" The woodpecker might have to go....."


Everything I Need To Know About Life I Learned From Noah's Ark...

1. Don't miss the boat.

2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.

3. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

4. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old someone may ask you to do something really big.

5. Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

6. Build your future on high ground.

7. For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

8. Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

9. When you're stressed, float a while.

10. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

11. No matter the storm, there's always a rainbow following.

*************************************************************************************

Well, friends, that's all I have for now. I'm going out for the evening, and I'll be back later tonight. According to how tired I am, I may post again, or not. Cheers!!

Me Me Me Me Me............

BooMama has tagged me to do a meme and explained how to pronounce it all at the same time! I have pronounced it every way I could think of, but I wasn't sure if I had it right, or even where the word came from. Meme's are all about........me me me me me....Get it? I finally did. :-)

Anyway, here's mine, BooMama and anybody else who might care.

I AM.....

1. I am.....Frank and Jessie Lue's daughter, Sue's, Ducky's, Donna's and Cecil's sister, Lamar's wife, Jessica's
Mama, a friend to many and a child of God.

2. I want.....The best for my family and friends, and especially for Jessica.

3. I wish..... All my family and friends were prepared to meet the Lord.

4. I hate.....For anyone or any animal to be hungry, abused, unwanted or unloved.

5. I miss.....My Mama and Daddy, and my brother in law, Jerry, who have gone on to be with the Lord, and all
the good times we had when all the family was together.

6. I hear.....Music in my head constantly........and it usually makes it's way out of my mouth constantly, too.

7. I wonder.....If anybody reading this thinks I'm as boring and goofy as I feel like I am as I type this. :-)

8. I regret.....Almost nothing. I try not to worry about what is behind me that I can't change.

9. I am not.....A domestic goddess. If you want something cooked, I'm your girl. Want it cleaned----Next!!

10. I dance.....Almost every Saturday night at a family country dance, and every chance I get in between.

11. I sing.....Constantly. If I'm not singing out loud, I'm usually singing silently along with the music I hear in my
head. (See #6.)

12. I cry.....Very easily, and very often. I cry at church, when someone else is hurt, and when someone gives me
a card or gift or compliment, sincerely from their heart.

13. I am not always.....As confident as I appear to be. I put up a good front, though. ;-)

14. I make.....A pretty good friend, I think!

15. I write.....Pretty much like I talk. And I write in my head all. the. time.

16. I confuse.....Probably most everyone who comes in contact with me. Heck, I even confuse myself. :-)

17. I need.....Time to myself, or I get very cranky and hard(er) to live with. Just ask Lamar or Jessica.

18. I should.....Spend more time reading my Bible, cleaning my house, and lose weight.

19. I start.....A lot of projects, and finish most of them.

20. I finish.....Almost every book I start, even if it's boring. Just a quirk of mine, I guess.

Okay, BooMama, there they are, big as life and twice as ugly, LOL. :-)

*************************************************************************************
Now, in other news, Jessica received several honors and awards Tuesday night at her school awards presentation. She won the Sr. English, Psychology and Child Development awards, and several others. She was recognized as an Arkansas Scholar, but we won't know exactly what that scholarship entails until next Monday night when we go to that awards presentation. She has the rest of this week and a few half-days next week, then she will be out of school. Graduation is May 19th. She is wound tighter than a 3 day clock. She is so excited to be out of school, but I've told her she'd better remember and soak up all these memories, because after graduation, nothing will ever be the same again for her. She and most of her friends will go their separate ways, with promises to ALWAYS keep in touch, but that rarely happens. Never again will all the people in her class be in the same place at the same time. It's a milestone in her life. She's happy to be moving on to college to begin a new chapter in her life, but I don't think she truly realizes how sad it's going to be at the same time, as they all say their goodbyes. These kids have been together for 13 years, from kindergarten through graduation, and some of them have been together even longer, playing together even before going into kindergarten. I am weepy over it now, and I think it's really going to hit some of them hard when it really sinks in that they won't see each other this fall when school starts back. I'll be so proud of Jessica and all her friends, but I'll be crying buckets, I know I will..........*Sniff......Sniffle.....Sooooooob!*

Moving on........It's been storming every day and night here since last Tuesday, I think it was. It's run all together now, it's stormed so much. Our electricity has went off and back on and flickered several times just today, which as we all know, means the computer has to reboot and on mine, anyway, Scan disk has to run. And all the digital clocks have to be reset, and the clock on the microwave. After I reset everything twice, I just let them blink for the rest of the day and evening. It gets aggravating after the first time or eight, I tell you. I need to go to Jonesboro tomorrow on the Senior Citizens van and get a few things, so I hope it isn't storming then. I'm not scared of storms, but I absolutely despise getting wet. I'd rather fall in water over my head than get sprinkled on.

Family, I heard from Bill on Tuesday, and talked to him again on Wednesday night before the storms knocked him off the computer. Polly's surgery on her leg didn't take, and she is worse than before she had it done. As soon as she completely heals up from the last surgery, they are going to do a bypass using either a vein harvested from her other leg, or a plastic or nylon artificial vein. They haven't set a date, they're just saying when she is healed from the other surgery. She is scared to death this time, Bill said, and he and the rest of the family are worried about this surgery, too. Please be praying for Polly and Bill, and all their family if you would. I'll keep everybody posted as I get the updates from Bill.

That said, I am going to wind up this post and get in the bed. It's after 3 am and I need to get at least a couple hours of sleep before I go to Jonesboro. Hope everyone has a great Thursday!!

Welcome, New Blogger Friends.......

Hello, blogger friends. It always seems to be the wee hours of the morning when I get around to posting lately. Remember how I said in the last post that Jeana's blog had been hijacked by Turkish twits? Well, a friend of hers un-hijacked it and fixed it for her, so I will be changing her link back to her new blog. I'm so glad she got it fixed. It would make me physically ill if mine got permanently wiped or deleted, I know. When I accidentally changed templates and wiped out all my links and doohickeys in my sidebar, I cried a few real tears and was nauseous. I don't even want to think deleting my whole blog...shudder...ugh!

I haven't really said anything about it, but I have added a few new links to blogger friends in the sidebar, there. That's what the Welcome bouquet is for, to honor my new friends. Be sure to visit Connie & Rob, Diane,
Dick & Huggy, Glen & Jenn, Green Eyes, Nature Girl, Brenda and Sue. Green Eyes is from Newfoundland, Canada, and is on a roadtrip to take one of her children to have a new wheelchair fitted, but she will be back soon. I check every day to see if she's back yet. I miss her and her sweet comments here on my blog. Jenn of Glen & Jenn is KAIT Channel 8's Ryan Vaughan's sister from Nashville, Tennessee. He's our local ABC affiliate's weather man. Glen & Jenn have some nice pics. Dick and his cuddly Russian Blue kitty are from Washington state, but they travel a lot in their RV and blog about their travels. Dick posts some beautiful photos on his blog of his travels and local scenery. Sue is from California and has some great photos, too. Brenda is from Tennessee and is just getting started. Connie & Rob are from St. Louis, Missouri and have some outstanding pics. Nature Girl is from Ontario, Canada and has some nice photos of her garden and backyard pond, among others. Diane is from Medina, Minnesota, and has some great Christian insight. I will be adding others from time to time, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. :-)

I got my shopping done today, but it is still setting in the living room floor as of right now. Cecil and Sue met us here and helped carry everything in, and then we played our game a while and just generally goofed off the rest of the afternoon. I'll try to get everything put up tomorrow morning. Cecil and Sue will probably be back up tomorrow for the afternoon, too. I will have to have supper cooked early tomorrow night because we have to be at an awards ceremony at 6 pm. Jessica has won another scholarship, but we won't know how much until tomorrow night. Praise the Lord for those scholarships! They are answered prayers, every one of them!

Thanks to everyone for your concern for my arthritis. I am still hurting, and it's still threatening storms. They went north of us today and tonight, but storms are still in our forecast through Thursday. If the storms are what has my arthritis so stirred up, I will sure be glad when they move on through and the weather settles down a little.

Part of the reason I am so late posting is that I have been working on a photo blog for Jessica for her graduation, and a recipe blog. I am having some difficulties with both, and it is taking some time to iron the wrinkles out, but I'm getting there slowly. When they are presentable, I'll share the addresses with everyone. I have already found out that I'll have to retype each recipe directly to the blog. I tried scanning some in and copying and pasting them, but that is a disaster. They're blurry and almost unreadable. Phooey. :-(

Heads up, zztop and other family and friends: Polly's surgery didn't take, and she is worse off than before it. She is now going to have to have the bypass on her leg, using a vein from her other leg if they can harvest one that's usable, or a plastic or nylon artificial vein if not. She has to be completely healed from the first surgery before they can do the next one, so they are waiting on that and don't know exactly when she will have this surgery. Be in prayer for Polly, Bill and all their family. Bill said Polly is worried sick about this one, and I could tell he is too. He told me he is afraid to leave her alone too long, and he has the kids and grandkids checking on her if he's gone very long. I'll pass on updates on the situation as I get them.

I am going to post this and lay these old weary bones down for the night. Have a good Tuesday, everyone. :-)

Just A Short Post..........

It's late, folks, almost 1 am, and I want to write a short post before I toddle off to bed. I am T-A-R-D, tard, tonight, and more than ready to lay my weary head down to sleep, perchance to dream. Lamar and I have to go to Walmart and a few other places tomorrow morning, and that always leaves me worn out and hurting. My arthritis has been killing me the last couple of days, even my shoulders and arms, which don't usually bother me nearly as much as my knees. I really think it has a lot to do with the stormy weather we've been having.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and let everyone know I haven't forgotten you, even though I don't have anything titillating, scintillating or hiliariously funny for this post. I have been worried about Jeana since she hasn't posted in several days now. I mentioned about 2 weeks ago that she had a new address and template for her blog, remember? Well, I just came from HolyMama!'s blog and learned why I haven't seen Jeana in a while. Her blog has been hijacked by Turkish hackers!! No kidding, I couldn't make this up! I am going to change the link in my sidebar, because she still has her old blogspot address, and she has gone back to posting on there for the present. I don't know why in the world people (And I hesitate to lump them in with people in general!) would want to spend their time being such jerks, destroying somebody's hard work like that. It's disgraceful and cowardly, at the risk of having MY blog destroyed. I really am going to have to see about saving my individual posts so that won't happen to me. Of course, I can destroy my own blog myself, with absolutely no help from Turkish hijackers! LOL ;-)

So, after fixing the link to Jeana's blog, I am going in search of the Sandman. I will try to get back to the blog tomorrow evening, if I'm not too TARD when I get done shopping. :-)

HAVE A GREAT MONDAY, EVERYONE, AND CHECK OUT JEANA'S POST ON HER TRIP TO LONDON!!

LOVE,
DIANE