Things I've Forgotten in the Past Week

* That I had a blog... really, truly, I forgot. So I wasn't not posting because my life is boring, or that I've been too busy, or anything else. I just forgot.

* Several days ago, on the way to work, I went in to get coffee at a little convenience store. When I came out and got in my car I thought...
"Oops - I left my keys in the car.
Oops - I left my keys in the ignition.
Oops - I left my car running."

* At work, I agreed to facilitate a training that would go Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. I didn't remember until last Friday that I would not only be out of the office, but out of the state on both Thursday and Friday.

My hair has been getting darker as I've gotten older, but there was only one thing to do after a week like mine. I went and got my blonde highlights put back in!!

A Water-Logged Tribute

It's wet, wet, wet!

The floodgates have opened and water is flowing freely all over the state.

The sun hasn't been out in days.

I've seen pictures on the news of people in boats being evacuated from their homes and they live less than 15 minutes away.

Surreal.

But that's not what today is about. Today is about Moms, (and because this is my blog) mine in particular.

I have so much to be thankful for when I think of Mom. She's my...

Best Friend
Confidant
Sounding board
Shoulder to cry on
Person to laugh with
Mentor
Prayer Partner
Example
Biggest Fan

Thanks, Mom. I love you!

Do Angels Smoke?

Tonight on my walk, as I was going down the Hill, I was awe-struck by the sunset. The sky was a myriad of pastels, and the clouds were contrasted with the darker hills far away.

I was thinking about how beautiful it was, when a car came up behind me, slowed down and the driver rolled down his window. He pointed at the sky, and said, “Behold, what the hand of God hath wrought!” He then smiled, waved his cigarette at me, and left me staring wide-eyed at his retreating car and license plate... IS4319.

Turning around to head back, I was overcome with glee at the blog fodder that had come my way!

I was close to home when I heard a car pul up behind me again, and I turned to see my Smoking Angel back for more. This time he said that he had a flower for me. Warily I said, "Um - thank you," and he said, "NO! Thank God!" He then drove away, saying out the window "Womenhood is the flower of life."

By that time I was thinking that this wasn't quite the funniest thing that had ever happened to me, and I don't know what was pumping more... my feet or my heart as I tried to get home before he came back a third time, with his next gift of verse or flower.

Just another Saturday in the life of me :)

Drama In Fake Life:

In Which Our Heroine Is Kidnapped!

I almost never remember my dreams. In fact, it's a rare occasion when I do, and I get all excited. On Sunday night I had a dream, and was thrilled that I remembered it in great detail Monday morning. The strange thing is I hadn't been watching any intense TV, movies, or reading any thrilling books. And as far as rich food, Jill and I had gone to the 99 on the way home from Craig's concert, but I would hardly call what we ate rich food... or good, for that matter, but I digress!

THE DREAM!

I'd been kidnapped, but got on a plane to get away from my abducters.

Uh - oh... One of the kidnappers followed me onto the plane, so I was still in grave danger.

We landed in Montreal (b/c that's where ALL abductees go) and I ran toward the rental car place, but alas, I had no cash.

Conversation with myself, about the dilema, as I'm running, "I don't have any cash, but if I use my debit or credit card, they'll be able to trace me to which car I rented, and know that of course I'm driving home to NH." WHAT TO DO?!?

Then, I saw the kidnapper... and I KNEW who he was! His curly hair disguise didn't fool me! NPR, I'd know you anywhere... and why were you trying to kidnap me, anyway??

Because I couldn't pay cash, and wisely wouldn't put the rental on my credit card, I pulled a move that will put me in line to be the next Jack(queline) Bauer! I hid under the table of the rental car place!

And as much as I tried to go back to sleep, I couldn't, so we'll never know if:

A) I made it back to NH safely?

B) I did make it home, how did I get a car? Or did I find another way?

C) Whether NPR ever got his hair straightened after having it curly.

Transported to Another Realm...

... is pretty much the thought that keeps coming to mind when I think about Craig's recital.

The music made me laugh!

It made me cry.

It made me worship!

It made my throat hurt, because it was so beautiful!

And combined with the beauty of the pieces, there was the overwhelming realization that kept coming... Craig CREATED this!

Wow.

You've Heard of Multi-Tasking...

... but have you heard of Multi-Injuring?? It's the newest big thing! This happened while my old computer was being laid to rest, and before my new one came in... so if you've heard this saga, feel free to skip. If you haven't, enjoy! :)

You know Dick VanDyke in "Mary Poppins" and how he plays all those instruments at the same time? I felt like him, except with injuries several Friday nights ago.

I woke up in the middle of the night with my back hurting VERY badly! Sometimes when my back hurts, it effects my stomach as well, so not only was I in excruciating pain, but I was also nauseous. I tried to massage my back for a bit, but it didn't help, so I decided to get my pain meds. Only thing is, they were out in my car.

So here I was, wrapped in my bathrobe, out at my car at 2:30 in the morning, digging in the dark through my bag to find my ibuprofen. Imagine my relief when I found it! But, because it was late and I didn't want to wake up Evan and Jill with slamming car doors, I tried to close it quietly. I succeeded in closing it quietly, but I also succeeded in closing my thumb in the door as well. Haven't done that in years, and the pain was beyond intense!

As I stumbled into my apartment with tears streaming down my face, I thought about that whole thing of "if you're in pain, hurt something else, and it will take your mind off the original pain." And I thought very angry thoughts to the person who first said that, because it's not true. All that happens is that there are now three things that hurt instead of just two!

I was standing in the kitchen trying to pour a glass of water with which to take the pills, and my back was spazzing, my stomach was threatening to expel all of it's contents and my thumb was throbbing. On the microwave the time glowed 2:38 & I remember thinking, "I don't think I've ever cried at 2:38 in the morning before."

My queasy stomach finally won out, and I went running to the bathroom. After finishing in there, I grabbed my ice pack and went back to bed with ice on my back, a less upset stomach and a still-throbbing thumb.

When I woke up (later) Saturday morning, and was putting on my makeup, I saw that in my stomach's vigor of expelling all the contents from the night before, I had broken all the blood vessels underneath my eyes! And that just made me laugh out loud!

So, Dick Van Dyke - eat your heart out! I'm well on the way to being just like you... only different!

A Question to Ponder...

Today I saw a poster that said (in effect) "Drink lots of coffee, but do it in your own mug, not styrofoam, because styrofoam cups can sit in landfills for 500 years."

And I began to wonder... "How long ago was styrofoam invented?? Surely it hasn't been around for that long!" Being the resourceful female that I am, I Googled the subject, and the results are as follows:

Styrofoam was invented in the 1940's!

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? If something has only been around for roughly 60 years, how does this poster-maker know it will sit in a landfill for 500!?!?!?

What do you think??

Happy Resurrection Day!!

Not a word was heard at the tomb that day
Just shuffling soldiers feet as they guarded the grave.
One day, two days, three days had passed
Could it be that Jesus had breathed His last?

Could it be that His Father had forsaken Him?
Turned His back on His Son, despising our sin?
All hell seemed to whisper, "Just forget Him, He's dead,"
Then the Father looked down at His Son and said,

"Arise My Love, Arise My Love
The grave no longer has a hold on You
No more death's sting, no more suffering
Arise, Arise, My Love!"

The earth trembled and tomb began to shake
and like lightning from Heaven, the stone rolled away
And like dead men the guards stood there in fright
As the power of Love displayed it's might

And suddenly a melody filled the air
Riding wings of love, it was everywhere.
The words all creation had been longing to hear
The sweet sound of VICTORY so loud and clear!

"Arise My Love, Arise My Love
The grave no longer has a hold on You
No more death's sting, no more suffering
Arise, Arise, My Love!"

Sin, where are your shackles?
Death, where is your sting?
Hell hath been defeated!
The grave could not hold my King!

"Arise My Love, Arise My Love
The grave no longer has a hold on You
No more death's sting, no more suffering
Arise... Arise...Arise!"

"Oh no - Wrangler ate her kittens!!"

Was the first thought of my sleep fogged brain this morning, when I got up and saw the basket void of kittens!

But, no, cats do not eat their young as so many in the animal kingdom do. Wrangler had just cleverly hidden them in a cupboard that she accessed by crawling underneath the stove. Do the joys of owning felines ever end??

By the by - thanks to all for the warm welcome back to the blogosphere! It's been such fun to check the responses! To answer the question posed, I will now describe the minicats that now reside in my apartment. One is black and white (surprise!! That seems to be a Jones special. All of The Cuteness' kittens were a variation of that, as have been the kittens that Evan and Jill's cats have had) and the other one is all gray with a white head. So very cute!

Hurray for having a COMPUTER again!!

I'M BACK!!! Thanks to DJ's expertise, I have a laptop and am back in the business of blogging. I've sure missed it... more than I thought I would.

And how fun is it that I have a great story to come back with???

I went to bed on Monday night, but at midnight I was awoken by a cat who had something to prove. Wrangler wanted to set the record straight once and for all, declaring herself a female in a way that can’t be mistaken. There on the floor of my room, with myself as midwife and witness, at 12:54 am, Wrangler brought forth one small kitten into this world. (I will not be making any observations as to the gender of said kitten, as we all know how well the last guess turned out!)

I waitied for over an hour for more kittens to come, but Wrangler decided that one was enough, and was she ever proud! She purred loud enough I was surprised that the cops weren’t called for a noise violation!

So, last night I came home, exhausted from the midwifery of the night before and wanting to turn in early. That was not to be, because wonder of wonders, Wrangler (or -ah) had decided that after waiting 20 hours, it was time to grace the world with another one of her offspring! Yup - you heard me correctly! At 10:40 last night, she had another kitten.

I have a feeling that for the next couple weeks I will be constantly staring at her stomach, trying to decide whether she might produce another kitten for the heck of it!

And that's how I've re-entered the blogging world... Catch you all around :)

Call the National Enquirer!

So - even though I was sad when The Cuteness died, I was kind of relieved, because she had become a very mean, very fertile kitten making machine. I was so excited when her tenth kitten turned out to be a boy, and decided to keep him.
Wrangler has been a great cat. He's snuggly, unlike his mother. Nice, unlike his mother. Doesn't scratch people the minute he lays eyes on them, unlike his mother. A boy, unlike his mother... the attributes go on and on.
He's quite a sociable cat, so he spends alot of time over at Evan and Jill's, playing with the kids and his sisters from The Cuteness' previous batches. He'd spent so much time over there lately, that I hadn't seen him in a couple days.
I was babysitting a few nights ago, and called for Wrangler to come snuggle. As he walked toward me, I noticed that his tummy was becoming rather large. When he got up on my lap, and I began rubbing his belly, I noticed that he had additions that boy kitties shouldn't have. I looked closer and saw something MOVE inside him!

Aaaaaugh - my beloved boy kitty is PREGNANT!!

It took me a day or two to like him/her again. I had been so utterly happy that I didn't have to deal with kittens any more, and this just really messed with my mind. I mean, he's been a boy for almost a year. I can't just drop everything and think of him as a girl at the drop of a hat! And plus, there's the problem of a name! I loved the name Wrangler, so have had to think of feminine forms of the word:

~Wranglerette
~Wranglerina
~Wranglertoria
~La Wrangler
and my personal favorite... Wranglah! A feminine ending, with a New England flare!

So - there you have it. The saga of the he/she cat.

(once again, my thanks to E&J for the use of their computer)

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles...

This tale was too priceless to not blog about, so here I am at Evan & Jill's computer...

I got hit hard with the cold-thing that's been going around. Started this weekend, and on Monday I felt like I'd been the casualty of a hit-and-run with a semi! Tuesday was some better, and I was able to drag myself out of bed for part of the day.
Today I went into work, but because of the two missed days, had to get there exceptionally early to prep for the class I needed to train today. At a little after 10 this morning, having already been at work for four hours, I was crashing badly. I sent my class to break and went back to my desk, not knowing how I was going to make it through the rest of the day.
I went back into class on faith that I'd make it through as much of the day as I needed to. Somewhere between 10:30 & 11:30, I became aware of a breath of fresh life that was coming my way. There really isn't any way to describe it, but I felt different... it was almost like a sugar high, and I was expecting to come crashing down, but I never crashed. I made it through the rest of the day, and even got to leave a bit before my scheduled 4:30.
When I drove in to the driveway at home, Jed & Chloe were getting the mail and Jill was watching from the front porch. I couldn't wait to tell them about how much better I was feeling. As I told Jill about the sweet life that had poured over me during the morning, she asked what time it had been. I told her sometime between 10:30 & 11:30. In awe she said, "That's when the kids and I were praying for you!"
God bless the faith of little children! I think that it's a pretty awesome God that looks after us!!

So, here I was all excited to tell you about my trip...

...and I got home to a computer which is more than dead. Wont even turn on.

So, the exciting details will have to wait until my computer is either raised from the dead, or replaced.

And PS - Melo, my favorite Starbucks drink is generally chai as well, but that day in Seattle I got a Cinnamon Dulche Latte and it was heavenly! :)

Another day in Seattle...

...and eating another round of the best Greek food I've ever tasted!! And we got coffee at the first Starbucks and watched the people at the Pike Fish Market toss fish, and, and, and...

And there she is, everyone!! It's Rachelle!! :) And how about that scarf, folks?? I got it in Cannon Beach yesterday.

I'm flying home tonight (actually leaving tomorrow morning at 1 am) and will write long and drawn out tales of all that we did once I get back to my own computer. Catch you on the down swing...

From today...

Today we drove down to the coast of Oregon and explored. There was amazing scenery! And, because the weather cooperated, I got to see Mt Hood, Mt Rainier AND Mt St Helens. We're headed back to Seattle tomorrow, so perhaps there will be a few more pictures (like ones with Rachelle in them - guess who's been behind the camera??) before I leave.

Ben & Aunt Lindsay

Guess who went to the Space Needle today?

Miss Jones Goes to Washington

Well boys and girls - I'm off.
Jill, Jed and I are leaving for Washington tomorrow. Jill & Jed will spend the weekend with her family, and I'll be with Mike, Rachelle & Ben. Can't wait!
God bless JetBlue and their $118 roundtrip tickets :)
We'll be back Monday morning... completely jet-lagged!
Until then,
Me

Window Down, Window Up!

On Thursday, it was so warm here in NH that I left work early in order to enjoy the Spring-like air! Knowing that it was HIGHLY unusual, and that we probably wouldn't have anything this warm again until July, I wanted to take full advantage of it. I rode the entire way home with my window all the way down, and it felt like a piece of Heaven! There were feelings of goodwill to all people as I happily saw that probably 90% of my fellow travellers also had their windows down. Once I reached my house, I changed and took a very l-o-n-g walk. Ahhh - it felt so good.

Then came Friday. It started relatively balmy, but dropped 30 degrees in the afternoon, and by the time evening was here, we were in the middle of a gigantic wind storm. Some of the surrounding towns still don't have power restored! Saturday was exceptionally cold, with snow squalls, and today was just as chilly. Guess we're back to being in the middle of a NH winter. Oh well - at least there was a glimpse of what's to come.

At LAST - A REAL Blonde Joke!!

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan
officer. She says she's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to
borrow $5,000.00.
The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the
loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce.
The car is parked on the street in front of the bank; she has the
title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as
collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoy
a good laugh at the blonde for using a $250,000.00 Rolls Royce as
collateral against a $5,000.00 loan. An employee of the bank then
proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it.
Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000.00 and the
interest,which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, "Miss, we are
very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out
very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we
checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles
us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000.00?"
The blonde replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my car for
two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"
FINALLY, a Smart Blonde joke!
(Thanks, Rachelle, for passing it on!)

Some Funny Google-ness

I got this from Isaac's blog... Type "(Your name) is" into Google and see what you get. I laughed a lot looking at all the things I "am." As I got further down the page it deteriorated rapidly into a whole slew of unfavorable things to say about Lindsay Lohan. (Who thankfully, I am not!)

Lindsay is 5'10" tall

Lindsay is 100% not pregnant

Lindsay is having a craving for a McDonald's happy meal

Lindsay is hot

Lindsay is used to attention - she's been working since she was 4

Lindsay is considered one of the world's most respected poets

Lindsay is currently involved in two major research projects

Lindsay is cool - she is a good listener... she's patient... she's observant... she has a great sense of humor

Lindsay is believed to have detonated a bomb, killing at least 25

Lindsay is walking home because her car wont start

Lindsay is hard at work on a third book

Lindsay is a Council vice president

Lindsay is a philosopher of sound

Lindsay is currently a professor of art and history at Spelman College

And finally....

Lindsay is a great deal like her own mother! At least they got a few right :)