So I was reading in out Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader (a gift for Eric from his brother…go figure), and I found this list of bad headlines.  I think I’ll have to use some of these in class when I talk about misplaced modifiers.  And mostly…they’re just funny!

• Infertility Unlikely to be Passed On
• Summer Schools Boost Scrores
• Study Finds Sex, Pregnancy Link
• State Says Cost of Saving Money Too High
• Elizabeth Dole Had No Choice but to Run as a Woman
• Montezuma Mourns Banker Slain in Attack with Flowers
• New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Tests Group
• Deer and Turkey Hunt for Disabled People

Of course there were others, but these were my favorites!  Anyway, it wasn’t too terribly busy of a weekend.  Went shopping with Mom & Karen on Friday.  Mom bought shoes; I found some new clothes!  My brother-in-law came over on Friday night, and we watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (Ryan hadn’t seen it).  Saturday was just a filler day.  I worked around the house, didn’t go anywhere, washed the new clothes I got on Friday so I could wear my new dress to church on Sunday.  Sunday was church.  We had Communion in the evening, and the orchestra played, so we were there at 5:30.  Then after the service we went out with 2 couples from our small group.  Very fun evening!  We sat outside at Chipotle until 10:30…good times.

Let’s see…yesterday…I cleaned up the kitchen and wrote in the morning.  Then I had lunch, went and picked up Karen and we went shopping for a baby gift for a couple in our small group from church.   Everyone pitched in some money and we got to spend it!  It was fun, too!  We bought a hamper from their registry and then filled it with little things and diapers and such.  Their baby was born in May, but we’ve not really seen much of them, so we’re just now getting to this.  Oh well!  It turned out cute anyway!

After I dropped Karen off, I ran to Walmart and then went home.  I put the gift together and took pictures to send to the girls who contributed.  Then Eric came home and wanted to go biking.  So we did.  We went to a trail we’d never been to before, and it was gravel (it eventually leads to the trail that starts in London at the Senior Center).  It’s about 6 miles long, but we only did three before we turned around.  I’d already walked in the morning, and gravel is MUCH harder to ride on than pavement…so we wore out pretty quickly.  We picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner and ate when we got back.  Then we just hung out for the evening.  It was kind of a bummer of an evening though.  There was nothing good on tv, and what we watched was just bad news after bad story after bad news.  It was kind of depressing.

Anyway, I think my mom may come up here for a while today, but I’m not sure.  I think that’s all!

Gee…I’m behind this morning.  Everyone had long posts to catch up on.  Don’t worry, though, mine will be short!

Yesterday, I made a “movie” to see if I could using the pictures we took at Holly’s first birthday party.  It turned out really cute, and I even added a soundtrack (Girls Just Want to Have Fun, of course!).  Then I cleaned up the kitchen and emptied the dishwasher.  Then lunch and then Eric came home (at 12:45!).  He was bored at work and figured he could waste time much better at home!  So he played on the computers and I ironed, talked to my mom, and worked on my writing for the afternoon. After dinner, he had orchestra rehearsal (which they had to stay late for…grrr!), so I worked on some skits for drama since we didn’t have rehearsal last night.  Then I watched America’s Got Talent (a default choice…not my normal viewing) and we went to bed. 

Today, I’m probably going to run some errands.  I don’t have much cleaning to do since I had to clean for my in-laws on Friday and then we were gone most of the time until yesterday.  The house stays clean when you aren’t there!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written!  Oh well…with holidays and traveling and such, there probably haven’t been too many people to read an entry. 

Last Friday, I went shopping for the foodstuffs I would need for dinners that night.  I had to make a dinner for a couple because they’d had a baby, but I also had to have a dinner planned because my in-laws were coming that night.  So I ran errands in the morning and cleaned in the afternoon.  Then I made and dropped off the first meal, chatted and played with the baby for a few minutes, came home and worked on our meal, then ate when my in-laws arrived.  It was fun to sit and chat with them. Saturday wasn’t too exciting…laundry and real grocery shopping.  Eric worked a bit, then had to go to the church for the first of the 3 patriotic services of the weekend.  We just vegged out when he got home. 

Sunday we had church, and I had a ministry meeting.  Then we had dinner, relaxed for a bit and then packed to leave for the farm.  We stayed there until yesterday afternoon.  It rained most of the time we were there. We pretty much had the house to ourselves on Sunday because the farm folks were busy for a while, so just tried to keep the rain from pouring in the open windows (they don’t have air conditioning).  Monday, my mother-in-law had to work, so we went with Alan over to hang some ceiling fans for Grandma Powell.  Then we got back and Ryan (the other brother-in-law) had arrived to spend the holiday as well.  We went out for pizza and bowling that night (but the bowling alley was closed), then came home.  Tuesday we woke up to a steady downpour, so the cookout got moved inside (at least the eating part).  Both sets of grandparents came for dinner, and then we all sat around and chatted for a while.  Then we loaded up and came home and relaxed for the evening here. 

It’s good to be home again.  I don’t really have much planned for the day.  I’m out of the habit of thinking of things to do right now.  So hopefully…I’ll think of something!

Yesterday I returned a couple of things I bought on Tuesday, cashed a check, and then used the cash to buy what I needed for supper (when I pay cash, the purchases don’t come out of the budget!).  Then I went home and cleaned my refrigerator.  I figured out how to remove the shelves and drawers and really cleaned it!  I should do that more often…but I doubt I will!  I was tempted to get a manicure yesterday, but when I thought of it, I already had milk in my car needed to be put in the fridge.  And once I got home, I didn’t feel like going out again!  So maybe today…we’ll see.

I watched an old movie yesterday while working on the prep for my drama group.  It was called the Singing Nun.  It was pretty cheesy, but hey…when you just need a light background thing…old movies work.  The other night, Singing in the Rain was on.  And I do like that movie a lot.  But I only watched bits of it while I was waiting for dinner to cook or something.  Anyway…old movies can be a good time!

So I spent the whole day shopping.  In the morning, I went to Garden Ridge, found the paintings I’d been thinking about getting, then decided not to buy them and got some other things instead.  After lunch, I ran up to Sawmill and spent a good long time in Hobby Lobby before deciding on some things there, then over to Kohl’s where I also found a couple of things.  I did run to Target, too, but I didn’t see exactly what I wanted, so I didn’t buy anything!

When I got home, Eric was already there.  I cleaned up the house a bit and tested my decorative choices in their (probable) future homes.  I wanted to make sure I had what I was looking for, and I also need Eric’s help to hang them on the walls…he likes it done right!  So right now they’re all leaning against a wall…but at least I like them against the colors we chose!

Some of the girls from our small group came over last night for our first bible study meeting. We had a good time, I thought.  It was also helpful to get some immediate feedback on my decoration choices!  They left about nine, and then I goofed around a bit before heading to bed! 

Today, I need to return a couple of the things that I got yesterday: a candle I bought wasn’t the right size, and one of the decorations was broken, which I didn’t notice until I got home. I will probably also clean the refrigerator, and I have some work to do on the computer (send out a newsletter and such).  And then we have church stuff tonight.  So…it should be fun!

So my kitchen looks much better now, and is fully functional again.  I realized when I was cleaning yesterday that I had never even deep cleaned one set of counters after we finished painting because we had kept some of the paint and brushes and such out for touching up and the final details.   Then when Eric started the lights, I figured there was no point trying to clean until the entire job was done and all the cutting of drywall and running of wires was finished.  So yesterday I cleaned ALL of my counters again, washed and/or cleaned the appliances that I keep on my counters, and put all the decorations I have so far in their proper places.  Maybe today I’ll run to a couple of places and see if I can find decorations to go on the walls and such now.  And one of these days, I’ll take Eric to Lowe’s to get the ceiling lights I want to replace the cheap-o ones we have now.  Such fun, such fun.

Eric came home early yesterday because he was bored, and “you can’t do nothing for that long”!  So he worked on his computers yesterday and had a marvelous time.  I worked in my office for a while in the afternoon, and then made supper.  Eric requested soup, and I realized after I’d started (I was actually on my way to the grocery to get something I needed for the requested soup) that I’d had soup at lunch, too!  Oh well…it still tasted very good.  And it’s an easy recipe which is always good!

Today, I may do that running around, but I definitely have to clean up my house.  Some of the girls from small group are coming over tonight for our first “official” bible study of the summer.  It only took us half the summer to get it going…oh well!  There’s also a baby shower at the church tonight which I won’t really get to because of the bible study.  So I may drop off the gift sometime this afternoon.  OH…and I realized this morning that my refrigerator must be cleaned out sometime soon.  So maybe I’ll do that today.

The undercabinet lights are done!  My kitchen can now be put back together.  YEA!!!!

That was Eric’s project for last week, so he felt compelled to finish it on Saturday.  I wasn’t about to discourage that!  I didn’t have much to do on Saturday, though, so I did some light cleaning, wrote for a while and even did some reading.  Then Eric & I went to Battelle-Darby Metro Park for some exercise.  After we got home and cleaned up, we went out on a date.  He needed a new DVD-rom drive for his old computer, so we drove up to MicroCenter and bought that, ate at Baja Fresh, and then drove to the Lenox and saw Cars.  It was pretty predictable, but not bad at all.  I laughed a lot.  I really did like the soundtrack, too.

Sunday was an early day because we needed to be at church on time for the orchestra rehearsal.  It was the end of VBS, so the service wasn’t exactly normal.  I sat near the front so that Eric could sit with me which was very loud because the brass instruments were right in front of me!  In fact, Mandy accidently hit Pastor in the shoulder (he was trying unsuccessfully to sneak by) with the slide of her trombone…it was kind of funny!  The afternoon was very quiet.  Eric played on his computers, and I read the newspaper, cleaned up the kitchen, wrote some more, surfed the net, played some yahoo games, and read a book.  Then I wanted to just watch tv around supper time, but there was NOTHING worth watching on last night.  So we just goofed around some more before going to bed.

Today…the kitchen is definitely going to get taken care of. 

Not that exciting of a day yesterday…geez, I guess that’s been the theme of this week.  I wrote in the morning (which was productive), and then I had lunch, ran to Meijers, cleaned the bathrooms, cleaned up the kitchen, and swept and mopped the kitchen floor (and the bathroom floors).  Eric came home and played on the computer a bit.  Later he finished one section of the lighting in the kitchen, but we needed some wire for him to do the last section.  So we ran to Home Depot to buy that (and a grill cover for the new grill), so maybe he’ll finish that job tonight. I did an entire puzzle last evening.  It wasn’t very big, or hard really, so don’t be too impressed.  But it’s always fun to finish them.

The rain was just crazy yesterday!  I guess the ground really needed it, and my veggies had a wonderful time playing in the rain, but it was unbelievable how long it just poured!  This morning it rained a bit, just as I was leaving for my walk, so I ended up coming back to walk on my treadmill.  It’s supposed to be hot and muggy for the rest of the day and maybe rain hard again this evening.  We’ll see, though…most of the time I think the weathermen make their forecasts up!

I did the laundry yesterday.  I even folded it all and put it away.  I didn’t wash the ironing clothes, though because they were very small loads.  I may do that today.  I think I’m also going to clean the bathrooms (*sigh*), and I may just move Eric’s stuff and clean the kitchen.  He’ll mess it up again as soon as he starts working on the undercabinet lighting again, but I don’t really care…I’m tired of my floors looking so bad!