My legs are very sore today!  It turns out that the “couple of hours” of work that Chris (the lady who heads up the painting) needed done took me about 4 hours total.  The VBS set for our church is huge (floor to ceiling) and so I was working on 4×8 sheets of cardboard that needed to have the outline of pedestals traced onto them.  Evenutally they’ll be painted to look like a stone fence on the stage, but the tracing had to be done first.  So I stood, leaning over a table, tracing this pattern a total of 56 times!

Actually, I really enjoy helping out this way.  It’s fun to chat with Chris and others at the church, and I know it’s something that I can do that doesn’t require me taking small children to the potty during VBS!  And except for the fact that for the rest of the day my knees just ached and today, I’m a tad bit sore…it was a good time.  Tomorrow, I’ll go back and actually do some painting, I think.  Should be fun.

Anyway, that adventure kept me from Xanga yesterday, so hopefully today I’ll have more opportunity to comment.  I’m working on the laundry (again!).  I’ll probably also clean the kitchen.  I’m going out to lunch with Jen, a friend from church who is scheduled to have her baby induced on Thursday night, because right now she’s just sitting at home thinking about the coming birth.  I thought it might be helpful to distract her a bit!  Other than that, I don’t know what’s on the agenda…but the days surely do seem to fill themselves!

Wow…I’m late today!  Hope you’ve been able to fill your time without my update!

The weekend was busier than I’d expected.  Eric and I went to the mall for dinner on Friday night and wandered around, then we went home and watched a Netflix movie that we had.  Saturday, I finished my book-binding project (IT WORKED!) and exercised.  It was the community yard sale weekend here, and there were just TONS of people around.  Eric had to go into work for a bit, so I went with him and wandered around the Lennox shopping plaza while he did his run.  Then we met some friends to see the Da Vinci Code (it wasn’t horrible; it could’ve been better if they’d stayed closer to the book near the end) and went to Cap City Diner with them for dinner afterwards.  Then Eric finished his run at work and we went home and crashed!  Sunday was also very busy. Church in the morning.  Mom and Dad came over for a bit in the afternoon, and we walked over to see the outside of the house that Karen & Erik are interested in right now.  Shortly after they left, it was time to go to church again (4:30) for a final rehearsal for the praise & worship night that we put together.  That got done late and Eric had a throbbing headache when we finished, so we did not go out with either group who invited us for ice cream.  Instead we went home, relaxed and ate a late supper before going to bed.   Yep…it was crazy!

I’m off now to help paint VBS sets at the church for a bit.  I may run some errands later today, but we’ll see! 

Yesterday, I cleaned the loft.  I filed all the old bills that were stacked around the room.  I shredded a bunch of stuff, and I cleaned up the pieces of technology that Eric leaves lying around.  He always whines a bit when I clean the loft, but it must be done occasionally.  And I never throw anything away…just put it where it goes!

I did run some errands.  And I was much annoyed when I realized that the brand new bag of chocolate chips I bought tastes stale.  They shouldn’t be, but they don’t have a good flavor at all.  In the afternoon, I also made an angel food cake to take to my accountability group today.  That made Eric happy (angel food cake is his favorite!).  I baked the batter in 2 9-in. loaf pans.  He ate half of one of the loaves last night!

Karen and I had fun in Cedarville, but it was a VERY tiring night.  We were a bit late for our meeting, but that’s just how it goes when we have to come down on a work night (for Karen) by 7:00.  We met at my mom’s house, and Deb brought the girls and Chris with her, which really worked out well.  So it was fun to see everyone; Karen and I stayed and chatted until almost 9:30…I was very tired when I got up today!

A few weeks ago, my mom gave me a 10 volume set of books that we had growing up.  I loved those books; they had great stories and the best pictures.  Unfortunately, the love (along with their age) had started to show, and a number of them were breaking at the binding.  Two of them had come completely away from their covers. 

But  (dum duh-dum dahhhh—that’s a trumpet blaring), my library training came to the rescue!

I actually have the ability to fix the books myself (for significanly less than it would have cost to have them rebound at a bindery)!  We got book binding tape and a special glue on Monday night, and I went to work on them yesterday afternoon.  And today…they are good as new.  (Except for the two really bad ones…I needed a different type of tape which I ordered online yesterday…so I’ll fix them next week I hope).

Other than book fixing…I cleaned again yesterday, and wrote a bit.  Our ministries went well last night, and our Night of Praise & Worship should turn out well on Sunday night. Today, I have some errands to run, and I might work on cleaning the loft.  My mom, Deb, Karen and I are also doing a Mary Kay thing tonight in Cedarville, so that’ll fill the evening. Should be a fun day…and the sun is even shining (for now!). 

I am having trouble starting this little entry, so hopefully, I’ll think of something interesting to say!

Yesterday was not particularly interesting.  I did some writing and ran some errands.  I did find gravel, but I didn’t go to the mall.  After lunch, the sun came out, so I decided to plant my vegetables outside.  I moved the tomatoes and peppers (3 types) into bigger pots on the back patio.  I staked the tomatoes just to make sure that the rain didn’t beat them down.  Some of the peppers are looking a little sad now, so hopefully, I didn’t kill them!  But there’s still plenty of time to start over if these ones don’t make it.

After that, I cleaned up the kitchen.  I’d created a temporary shelf in the bay window so our veggies would get enough sun, so I took that down, put everything away and swept the kitchen floor.  It looks so nice now!  Then I loaded the dishwasher, worked on some stuff for drama ministry and worked on my ironing.  Karen called while I was ironing, and we chatted for a bit.  Then Eric came home!

After dinner (I broiled pork and made french onion potatoes and broccoli…very yummy!), we went up to MicroCenter on Henderson Road.  It was nice to chat during the drive. And we found exactly the connection Eric needed to finish rebuilding the computer he’d been working on.  We also splurged on a flat-screen monitor for his mom (it was on a great sale!).  Then we stopped at an art supply store to find the book repair supplies that I have been hoping to find.  They were there, so now I have a project for today!

And as for today…I think I’ll clean the guest room.  I also may run to the grocery store and work on a writing project I have started.  Tonight (since it’s Wednesday), we have ministries at the church.  This Sunday evening is a Praise & Worship night, so tonight will be our dress rehearsal for it.  It makes planning for drama easy for me!  

The sun peeked through the clouds a few times yesterday, which was very nice!  Unfortunately, I think today is just going to be gray and drizzly again.  I hope this system is going to finally pass by sometime in the very near future!  But at least it’s warming up a bit…

Yesterday I cleaned my bedroom.  I actually moved all the furniture (including the queen bed), dusted, vaccuumed, organized, washed the sheets and remade the bed.  I felt very accomplished when I was finished!  I also worked on the computer a bit and did some writing. I almost repotted the plants, but decided to wait again…however, I think the day is drawing near when I will actually get that project accomplished!

I may clean another room today (probably the spare bedroom).  I’m also thinking about doing some running around/shopping.  We’ll see.  Other than that, I guess I don’t have that much interesting to say.  If I think of anything, I’ll let you know!

Long weekend!

Saturday started fairly normally, although I actually slept in until 8:30 (which is late for me!). Then we had a fairly uneventful morning/early afternoon.  I worked around the house, cleaning some things up.  Then I was going to re-pot the vegetables that I’d started in my kitchen so that they could be outside, but I decided that it may have been to chilly yet to really leave them outside.  Yes…it will be nice to get back into the 60s and 70s again since it is May, after all.

Anyway, the veggies went back into the bay window in my kitchen, so I may work on them today or tomorrow instead.  Then I started to get ready for our weekend away; we were having dinner with my friends from college in Wadsworth and then we drove down to the farm to spend Mother’s Day with his family.  So I made cookies to take with us and started to pack some clothes.  We got everything around and left a little after 3:00.  We were about an hour north (of a 2 hour trip) when I realized that I left our church clothes hanging in our bedroom.  SO we made a quick stop at the Lodi Outlet mall to find me a decent shirt to wear (Lodi isn’t really a great outlet mall by the way) before getting to Mike & Erika’s.  We had a good time there and left for the farm about 10:30…which meant that we got to the farm about 12:30 on Sunday morning. 

Sunday we skipped sunday school and slept in, then went to church.  Then we took the entire Hogue family (except one cousin) out to dinner for Mother’s Day. I was a little concerned about taking a group of 11 out, but we went to Bob Evans (which is very fancy to Grandpa & Grandma Hogue), and we really didn’t wait that long at all!  Then we just hung out at the house for the rest of the day.  It rained pretty steadily, so we were stuck inside, and I was pretty antsy by the time it was time to go.  We almost stayed longer (we left about 7:00) to go over to the Powell get-together, but we figured it would make us very late starting for home.  So we just came home.  That was a good choice, I think.

Anyway, Eric played on the computer a bit, while I read the newspaper and watched tv (I decided to watch the Survivor finale just for fun), and then we went to bed. 

Eric is not feeling great today, so he is staying home.  I think it’s residual exhaustion from last week.  And since he really only had Sunday off (which wasn’t terribly restful) before going back to work, I think he’s a bit worn down.  Anyway, he’s still sleeping now, so that’s good!

Of course, today is the day that I’m hosting my accountability group for lunch, so it’ll be a tad weird to have him around for that, but oh well!  Maybe we’ll get done earlier than normal (which wouldn’t be too bad since we’ve been known to talk for 3-4 hours!). 

Yesterday was a fairly productive day.  I did some computer stuff in the morning and then went shopping in the afternoon.  I also did some cleaning around the house, and I did clean out my car.  Thankfully, the rain rinsed the outside off, but the junk on the inside definitely needed to be thrown away!  So now the inside is nice again (someday I’ll do a real cleaning complete with vaccuuming and such, but this will do for now!).

It’s raining again today and I guess it’s supposed to rain periodically all weekend too.  I keep reminding myself that the ground was getting dry and needed the rain, but I really wish it could rain at night and then be sunny all day! 

Tomorrow, Eric and I are going up to spend the afternoon with my best friends from college.  We’ll have dinner with them before heading to the farm for Mother’s Day.  Then we’ll be back on Sunday night.  Boy…I guess it’s a good thing Eric is taking the day off…we’re going to be busy!

So my office is now cleaned out and “closed” for the summer.  I’ll probably go back down every so often to have lunch with my mom and to check in.  But it’s nice to have the term officially and totally done now.  Yesterday’s luncheon was okay.  It was free food, but the dept. always goes to an Italian restaurant in Fairborn, and I think their food is really bland.  I don’t think they season their sauce much at all.  And a couple of the ladies ordered meals that took a half-hour to come, so they held all of our meals until theirs were ready.  I guess I understand why…but it was still annoying.

Before lunch, I cleaned my office and threw out a ton of old papers/journals/portfolios.  I kept the binders that were still in decent shape, but the papers all went into the recyclables!  I also reorganized my bookshelves and desk.  After lunch, I stopped in at my mom’s office for a bit to say hello.  I also wanted to let her know that Eric and I are planning to be at the farm this weekend for Mother’s Day.  Actually, both Karen & I will be gone, I think, so we have to figure out another time to have a mother’s day meal or something. 

Last night, every time I looked up, Eric was taking a picture of me.  I have to admit that some of them turned out pretty good (even with someone as non-photogenic as me!).  We even went out to a metro park to take wildlife pictures too.  He’s very into the camera, which is actually kind of fun.  So I might need to start figuring out how to upload pictures to xango for  you all to see.  Maybe later…

Today, I don’t have too many plans.  I need to send out the small group newsletter and plan stuff for my drama ministry tonight.  But now that I don’t have school stuff to do…the pressure is not nearly as intense on either of those things!  I may start cleaning the house, or I might clean out my car.  And I might go shopping for a few household necessities (like coffee filters!).   So it doesn’t look that exciting, but that’s okay by me right now!

I love sunshine!  Just thought I’d share…

Yesterday, I did the laundry and I ironed (which I’d put off for over a week).  I also made reservations for our anniversary get-away, talked to Karen for a while and cleaned up the kitchen a bit.  So…I didn’t really do too much!  I still have lots of summer activities to keep me somewhat occupied.  Eric and I went shopping last night to get some accessories for our new digital camera (which he is having a marvelous time learning how to use).  But it was fun to just hang out with him, too.

I’m definitely just out of school.  I’m so tired by 8:00 in the evening and I wake up still tired.  It usually takes me a couple of weeks to really stop feeling so exhausted.  Thankfully, I can be as laid-back as I want (or as I can be…since I don’t relax that well!).  Today I’m heading back to CU to do some clean-up in my office and to take care of some last-minute class issues from the semester.  But then I’ll be totally done.  My dept. is also having a luncheon today to celebrate the end of the term, so I’ll probably go to that, as well!