Are you a slugabed?

Today's word of the day: slugabed \SLUHG-uh-bed\, noun: One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard.

Just this morning my sweet hubby asked me if I was getting enough sleep. Let me give you a little background here... See we've been married now for 23 years and he knows my sleep habits well. When we were first married I longed to sleep in until noon on Saturday while he was up early ready to go enjoy the weekend. He didn't quite understand that I was enjoying my weekend - sleeping. When I was growing up, my brothers used to have to drag me out of bed on Christmas morning. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't wait to see what Santa left me, but why did I have to get up at 5am?! I loved to sleep till at least noon- 1pm on the weekends when I was a teenager. I stayed up on Friday night to watch The Midnight Special (yes I am dating myself here) which didn't come on until - well Midnight. So I was up late which justified me sleeping late. Right? This drove my parents crazy.

But that's not the way things are now. I am actually waking up before the alarm goes off. I explained to my hubby that I wake up and can't fall back asleep so I get up. He started to laugh and I knew where he was going next. He said he remembered when I would set the alarm about 20 minutes before I had to get up just so I could hit the snooze button a few times before I actually got up. Come on now, I know there are those of you out there who have done this. I even know there are those of you (and me) who have set our clocks in the car 10 to 15 minutes fast just so we would not be late for work or church or where ever else we had to be. I told him, "Well I guess I'm just getting old. I can't lay in the bed all day anymore. Or maybe I've finally grown up."

Whatever the reason I have found this to be one of my favorite times of the day. I actually enjoy seeing the sun come up as I look out in my backyard. The house is quiet and still. There is no ESPN or Hannah Montana on the TV. I start my coffee and look out my kitchen window to see the mockingbirds. If you have not heard one of these birds in the morning outside your bedroom window, count your blessings. They are obnoxiously loud. Anyway, this is one of the sweet little gifts God has given me lately - the quiet time, not the mockingbirds. Uninterrupted quiet time. Time for me to just be say "Good Morning Lord".

So are you a slugabed?

Where's Jim?

It's Monday morning, Labor Day 2008. Weatherman Jim Cantore is in Houma, LA. This means the storm is not coming here. Early this week, rumors where floating around that Jim was in town. Those of us who live on the Coast know if Jim's in town, it's not because he's enjoying the eye candy on the beach. He's on the job. In several cases hurricanes have been known to hook a turn to the east in the last few hours before coming inland. This would have put us receiving the worst of the storm.


The winds are very gusty here. It's raining sideways. Funny thing, I see birds occasionally flying around. This gives me hope it's not going to get too bad. Even the birds have enough since to take cover if the weather's going to get rough. Hopefully we will not loose power. We've made the necessary preparation - batteries, water, candles, peanut butter, etc., oh and diet Coke for the man of the house - to get by for a few days. Looks like this storm will make just enough of a mess in the yard for the children to spend their extra day off tomorrow from school. Here's a picture from a few years ago, the children were cleaning up the mess from another storm.

Uninvited Guest for Labor Day

Well we have been watching the weather channel over the past few days. Looks like we may have an uninvited guest to our Labor Day holiday. His name is Gustav. He's a tropical storm but may grow into a hurricane in the next day or two. He's near Jamaica and could be in the Gulf by the weekend.
The panic mode as already kicked in. Some of the shelves at the stores are empty. We still have several days to prepare so things should be restocked before the storm hits. Unfortunately, some who live in that panic mode tend to take more than they need and those of us who wait until the last minute are left with the AAA batteries - the ones that work the remote, not that the cable will be on once the wind picks up. Anyway, we've decided to ride this one out. Good luck to those who are getting the heck out of Dodge. Drive safe. Have patience in the traffic. Enjoy your "vacation". We'll hold down the fort here at home.

Fill-n-Friday

1. Dancing to Journey's greatest hits while cleaning house makes me think of good times in high school.

2. The last time I rode a bike I nearly ran out of gas. I'm out of practice!

3. When I drive I like to sing along to High School Musical with my daughter.

4. I saw a turtle standing on his hind legs "communicating" with another turtle in the front yard. That made for an interesting conversation on the way to school.

5. Give me football players, give me cheerleaders, give me the band. It's high school football season!

6. Next week I am looking forward to celebrating my husband's birthday.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to movie night, tomorrow my plans include a yard sale and birthday party and Sunday, I want to go to church!

Rainy Days on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...

Today is Friday - an end to the first full week of school. It rained Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, no it poured Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday. This makes the drop off and pick up times very trying. When I dropped off at the high school on Monday part of the parking lot was under water - meaning no parking for about 50 cars. Throw in the new licensed drivers who are so excited to be driving themselves to school and you have a recipe for disaster. Luckily, I was not involved in any disasters. This week has also been a sad on. I lost two friends who were both buried on Monday. My dear sweet neighbor Mrs. Lewis passed away last week. She was 86. I enjoyed sitting on her back patio visiting with her while she was soaking in her vitamin D for the day. She has such a great family and we have had the pleasure of spending a few 4th of July holidays together in our backyards with her son and his children and grandchildren. We will miss her. The other family is a classmate from high school. Donna was one of those girls that you wanted to be your friend. She had such a sweet personality. She was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer back in March/April. Her high school sweetheart who she has been married to for about 27 years tried to move heaven and earth to get her the best treatment in an effort to beat this disease. God had other plans for them. Donna's husband Cap was able to keep the family and friends posted through a CarePage network. Everyday I was drawn to read the updates as her family and friends all over the country were praying for them. This wonderful man of God unashamedly share his heart for the world to read. There were numerous accounts of things that happened that could not be explained other than it was a God at work. So many people were touched by the things Cap shared, all the while reminding us that they wanted God to be glorified throughout this season in their life. I know these two friends are in presence of God and I look forward to seeing them both again someday.

Summer's Over - School's Back On!

Outside the Aquarium in New Orleans

Summer vacation is over and the kids are back in school. Although we didn't have a "real" vacation. We did get to go to New Orleans last week with the children's group from church. We saw a 3-D movie on Bugs. Mandy saw very little, since she cover her eyes through most of it. The aquarium was spectacular. I don't think I ever get tired of going there. To be that close to some of the largest fish and watch them is so facinating to me. OK the nerds coming out. Let's move on. Now that school back in session my goal is to keep this blog up-to-date. So here's what went on today: First day of school was great for Jake & Mandy. 2nd grade is gonna be awesome. Mrs. L. has a room that is cuter than cute! She is very talented and has set up her classroom to be the place to be! 10th grade may prove to be a little more of a challenge with A & P and Spanish this fall. Since we've moved up a grade, we had to move our drop off and pick up line to a busier area. Waiting for the bell to ring today took much longer than I would have liked, probably because it was so hot and no shade to park in on O'Bryan. Allowing the high schooler to ride home with friends is nice. One less errand to run. Although I have mixed feelings about entering this season of teenage driving. Well we have one more day for this week, enjoy a short weekend packed with a birthday party and 2nd Sunday fellowship. We are also having a ground breaking Sunday night for our new sanctuary. I'm sure we'll hit the ground running on Monday.

Where have I been?

I looked at the last time I posted. Where does the time go? I'll blame it on baseball and ballet. We have been on the go since baseball season started in early Feb. Recital time is fast approaching and as if we didn't have enough games at the high school, we have the younger leagues starting - girls t-ball and softball, Mandy' s "friend-boys" playing coach pitch. It was fun going to opening day last Saturday, brought back a lot of memories when we were there with Jake.

Well as I finish this post (a few weeks later) the team is in the first round of playoffs for South State. Mandy and I stayed behind to "spring clean" the girl scout hut and other social obigations - "Friend-boy #1 and #2" were playing each other in a rematch. Dad and Papa went to see the games today - possibility our freshmen pitchers (including my baby) might get to see some action today. We have to win two to make it to the next round.

I am going to commit to being a better blogger - keeping things up-to-date for my sake as well as anyone who wants to keep up with us. I'm still learning the ropes here and hope to improve on posting some pictures. I still have some work to do in setting up my page, I tried to change a few things and lost alot of my links. But today is going to be a beautiful spring day in my corner of the world so I'm going out to enjoy the beautiful world God's has provided for us and I'll let you know how the playoffs went.