The Web--Not All Its Cracked Up To Be.

I used to think that the web was a glorious thing. You could find anything you wanted and get information on anything out there.

That is until I started trying to get information on Boitin Germany!

This is the town/village that our daughter will be calling home for the next year and we would like to know a little bit more about the area. What better way than searching the web. Not so much in this case. We will have to wait for reports back from the host family with answers to our questions via email. I suppose that is better than snail mail but at this point Im impatient.

Lets hope they answer quickly.

Little things=Joy

My favorite quote from The Jerk is as follows:
Steve Martin: The new phone book is here!! The new phone book is here!!
Mr. Artunian: I wish I could get that excited over nothing.
Steve: Nothing! Are you kidding? Page 73...Johnson. Mavin. R. I'm SOMEBODY now! Millions of people look at this book everyday. This is the kind of spontaneous publicity, your name in print, that makes people. Im in print. Things are going to start happening to me now.

When I was in sixth grade I sat across from Jeff Jones. Jeff was probably the biggest Steve Martin fan I have ever known. He also is the one who introduced me to The Jerk and the above quote. It is one that has always stuck in my head. I love Steve Martin, probably not as much as Jeff but still I have become quite the fan thanks to that initial introduction.

Today I received the new Janet Evanovich book in the mail. Yes number 15 is now in my hands and I, like Steve Martin began jumping around the office. "the new book is here, the new book is here!"

My name will not be in print, I will not be getting free publicity, and things probably wont start happening to me now that I have the book, but hey, lets face it when the phone book comes out those things don't happen to me either but it doesn't stop me from dancing around my living room shouting to my husband that the new phone book is here. Its the little things in life that give me joy.

Bears, Oh my!

My daughter recently went camping in Yellowstone. We warned her to look out for bears. What was I thinking, I should have just gotten her this Smith and Wesson Survival kit.

The following was taken from "10 things that will not end well" By Cracked.com:

Close Range Bear Survival Kit from Smith & Wesson

The Thing:

After some rather extensive research, the folks at Smith & Wesson discovered that most bears prefer to do their attacking at close range. How close? Well, the kit contains a short barrel revolver because "[a] longer barrel would make it more difficult to use in such a confined place and at point blank range, accuracy isn't that much of an issue."

But don't let the size fool you. The gun is so powerful that they claim merely firing it on the range will make your hand sore. Just make sure to find a range where they let you walk up within a few feet of the target, and pretend that it's attacking you.

Why It Will End Badly:

The product description readily admits that by the time you get your gun out of your rubber ducky colored lunchbox, the bear's going to be so close that gangland execution is your only option. Just make sure to aim carefully as the bear makes a crunchy pretzel sound with whichever of your extremities it has in its mouth.

The kit also includes a whistle, some mylar blankets and a saw. We have to assume that you amputate your gnawed off limbs with the saw because you just fought a grizzly bear at close range with a pistol and a whistle, and you use the blanket to stay warm as you wait for help while slowly bleeding to death. Most helpful of all, while you wait, you can read the book that comes with the kit: Bear Attacks of the Century and think to yourself "Man, my bear totally did that to me too."

On second thought maybe I should just be glad that she is a bright teenager and also didn't encounter any bears.

Spring Reading--one week to go

The last week of the Spring Reading and I am out of books! Yes I did it, I have read all the books that I put on my list.


I was worried that I had too many books on the list at the beginning but clearly I was wrong. I have read all of the book that I put on the list plus I added 2 and there is still one week left to go.

Yeah Me!!

I must admit that I didn't write reviews for all of them. The last 5 are still rambling around in my head.

I will try to write some short reviews for them and post them up.

Congrats to all the rest of the "spring readers" for all the reading that was accomplished. Librarians, publishers, and authors around the world are very proud.

Dadadum Charge!

Normally at church we have "Ms. Emily".

Ms. Emily is a lovely little electronic hymnal that for all practical purposes works great. However we also have a beautiful pipe organ in one of the two churches that my husband serves and it is a shame that we don't have an organist to play it on a regular basis.

Luckily for us, during the tourist season the opera house is open and the person who usually plays for the shows has been known to come and play for us as well. It is a real treat.

This year one of our favorite organists is back in town. He is a great person and has become a friend of the congregation. This will be his third year playing with us and it is definitely good to have him back in our midst.

The only bad thing about having a real organist again as opposed to "Ms Emily" is that they are just that, real. Not only do we have to adjust to the human quality but I have to adjust to having someone around to harass me. I guess the later is good cause he harasses just about everybody..all in a good way.

There are things that Ms. Emily can't do that our real organist can do such as play the doxology. When we use Ms. Emily we have to sing it acappella.

Today however was a perfect example of getting used to the human quality. When our summer organist is not playing for us he has been known to play for the Detroit Red Wings as well as for the Fox Theater with the Roxettes. Today the doxology went rather quickly and you could almost here the crowd in the background shout "CHARGE" when we were done.

Im sure as the summer goes on Detroit will get used to the fact that the Stanley Cup will reside with the Pens and we will get used to the qualities of a "real" organist (at least for a little while).

Bouncey, Bouncey, Bouncey....

Babies Bounce.

Rubber Balls Bounce.

Sadly, computers don't bounce.

I was sitting in the recliner with the laptop in my lap when I heard the hubby come home. Knowing that we would have groceries to unload I gently sat the plugged-in laptop to the side and lowered the foot portion on the recliner.

Like a rock being shot from a 5-year-old's slingshot the laptop flew from its location next to me and landed with a thud onto the hard wood floor.

After hauling in the groceries I called my friend the local computer expert and explained that I now had just a white screen and asked if there was anything I could do.

"Not to worry" he informed me. My computer was just "hung up". We tried several things and unfortunately the computer is still hung up.

I personally think it is suffering from "shaken computer syndrome" or "SCS" and is in a permanent vegetative state. This is a very rare condition for a MAC. Most of the time you see "SCS" with PCs after a frustrated user has had all that they can handle and the text support team in India has not been able to help them. That is when the PC user results to shaking the computer in hopes of making the connection work better.

Alas either way. I have decided to order a new Mac and let the old one rest in peace. My new Macbook Pro should be here any day now and is coming with a free Ipod touch. Woohoo.

The Apple people must have heard about my poor little laptop and felt sorry for me and are running this really cool special just for me. Isn't that nice of them? Thanks Apple.

Shhh...honey your snoring!

This morning at 5am, it started.

At first I thought it was raining outside.

Then the sound got louder....I tapped my hubby...."shh your snoring"

Ok so I knew my sweetness wasn't snoring and that instead it was the sweet sound of the first cattle drive of the summer coming down main street. Yep, right down main street which is also the highway.

When we first moved here we thought that the cattle drives were cool and fun to watch. Now I just wish they were a little quieter when I am trying to sleep.

When we are driving through them (not with them) I still like to look at all the cows and enjoy seeing the babies. It almost makes me wish I had a horse and could ride along. Then I remember what time in the morning they start and all I want to do is snuggle deep within my blankets and go back to sleep. Move em at night and Im your gal.

Note to those who are walking downtown today: beware while crossing the street.

One Hour of Pain

To many, Memorial Day is a day to take flowers up to the cemetery in an effort to remember loved ones who are no longer with us.

To the retail world it is a another opportunity to offer an exciting sale.

I have to admit that this year I am grateful for the annual Memorial day sale. It turns out that the kid is in need of many new things in her wardrobe prior to going to Germany for the year.

Let me say that the kid hates to shop. This is probably the most puzzling thing for me. As a kid my earliest and most fun memory of my mom is of riding the escalator at the clothing store in my home town. So when I take my kid shopping it just doesn't make sense to me that she doesn't enjoy this activity or look forward to it.

Looking forward to it or not it has to be done and it is best just to find a way to make it work for everyone involved.

We decided to break down the items that she needs and get them in several small shopping trips instead of one large trip. Im not sure if this is such a good idea because I think it means that I get to have several trips with a grumpy child instead of just one. Is one hour of pain several times better than several hours all at once?

We went to two stores and were able to get the items that we were searching for without too much attitude. She even managed to be supportive while I tried on some clothes.

She may not like shopping but I think she is beginning to realize that growing up means that you can't wear the samething for ever. Which means SHOPPING and you might as well make the best of it.

I can actually say we had a good time and no ones life was in danger hopefully the next trips will go as smoothly as this one.

Warning

Now that the warm weather is here there are a couple of things that you should remember.

1. If you are wearing sandals your toenails look prettier with a coat of nail polish.

2. When wearing shorts for the first time it is best not to scare the world with your ghostly white legs. Start out in the privacy of your own backyard.

3. Remember when working in the yard (or if you happen to be a construction worker and are working on a roof) it is best not to forget to put sunscreen on your ears. Burnt ears hurt.

4. If you are hiking watch for ticks (right kid?) and if you happen to sit down on the trail for a break watch out that you dont sit down on an ants nest. Trust me you will regret it.

5. Remember that sunscreen and bug repellent are your friends. If God wanted you to be red and itchy from bug bites he would have made you that way to begin with.

These are my warm weather suggestions. You can follow them or while taking a hike without your sunscreen you can take a break and sit down in the middle of an ants nest and end up with a sunburn and ant bites just dont come complaining to me.

Beads, Pretty Beads, and Prayers

Who says I didn't learn anything useful while my husband was attending seminary?

One year while at seminary during Lent I took on the discipline of doing the Anglican Rosary. Through Lent I found it a very calming discipline but didn't really care for the exact prayers that were in the booklet that came with my rosary beads. Thanks to one of my husbands classmates and one of their professors I was able to write my own rosary using prayers from the prayer book that reflected more of what I needed. It was a good Lenten year for me.

Why, you might ask, am I telling you all of this. Well, my rosary prayer became important to me in times of stress. When my life is stressful I usually know it because I can't sleep. This happened when we were in seminary towards the end. The stress of seminary ending and not knowing where we were going to be going. With seminary ending that meant we had to be out of the dorms and again not knowing where we were going was a TAD stressful. As the sleepless nights began, my hubby's classmate suggested that I try using my rosary at bedtime. Woohoo! I was finally able to sleep.

Lately I have once again not been able to sleep. There is nothing like being awake at 2:30 only to finally fall back to sleep after hearing the kid's alarm go off at 6am. Needless to say this week I have been a little tired and have had meetings every night.

Last night I got out the rosary. I slept much better. Did wake up twice but both times the rosary had slipped out of my hand. Picked the beads back up and was out like a light.

Not sure what is keeping me from sleeping, just glad the lessons that I learned from seminary still work.

Size Doesn't Matter

Think back. Remember when your children were too small to bathe in the tub so you gave them a bath in the kitchen sink? Then when they did get big enough to graduate to the tub you didn't turn your back for a second cause they were so small you could lose them in the tub? Or how about how when your kid was little you used to put 2-3 kids in the bath at the same time with room to spare? It saved on water and moped your floor at the same time.

Well last night my daughter decided to prove that she is no longer that small.

While I was working on the computer I heard a weird sound from the bathroom. I went to investigate.

I found my daughter in the tub with her head up one end of the shower wall and her feet about halfway up the other wall. Apparently the noise I had heard was her slipping in the tub. Luckily she is fine. She did dislodge the faucet slightly but was able to put it back, lets hope it holds for awhile.

Nothing like seeing your child literally hanging outside of the tub to reassure you that she is growing up. Gives you a new perspective to see your child sprawled out in the tub looking like Goldilocks in Baby Bear's bed.

She is definitely not my baby anymore. At least not in size.
So go ahead grow-up, prove it even if you have to (but please be careful). Cause in my heart you will always be my baby.

While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky

The premise: Molly and Robin Snow, sisters who are incredibly close yet incredibly different, are in the prime of life. Robin has always been the hardworking star, an elite marathoner in peak condition even training for the upcoming Olympic trials. She relies on Molly in countless ways, though Molly must also maintain long hours at the family business, a plant and tree nursery. When Robin suffers a massive heart attack, the roles are reversed, and Molly finds herself having to be the one in the spotlight, speaking up on behalf of her sister. Though the doctors don't expect Robin to recover, her mother is not willing to accept such a grim prognosis. As she tries to deny Robin's fate, the discovery of a lifetime of secrets comes tumbling forward.

Ms. Delinsky does a great job with a delicate subject. She develops her characters well and shows the family conflict with the dilemma of having a loved-one on life support as well as dealing with the secrets that emerge from Robin's closet as they try to do what is best for Robin. Myself, as a daughter and sister-in-law I could fully imagine what Molly and her family must have been going through. How do you know what someone so young would want, and how do you deal with the grief. It also gave me a chance to ponder things I had not quite gotten around to thinking about.

I discovered Molly and Robin's grandmother having Alzheimer's and the way the family reacts to her and her "sprites" made me really ponder our elderly and my close relationship with my own grandparents as well. It also gave the book another dimension that without it would really have been lacking.

I don't have a sister but it has been my observation that sisters have one of the most interesting relationships in the family dynamic. They love each other beyond belief, would do anything for one another but in most families there also comes a level of rivalry as well. This fictional family is no different. Through the whole book it is very apparent that Molly is Robin's champion. She does everything for Robin and as Robin lays in the hospital it is Molly who tries to put forth "what Robin would want".

Molly as the younger sister deals with growing up, a lot of guilt and basically learns her way through the entire novel. (For example on page 211)David smiled sadly. "that's the dilemma with family. When it comes to our parents, we're always children. At what point do we grow up? They raise us to function as individuals, but when do they allow us to act independently?" Its hard to get someone to take you seriously when they still view you as a child.

You may have heard the old saying that "life is like an onion; it has many layers", well so does this book. The relationship between mothers and daughters, a grandmother and granddaughter, brother and sister, husband and wife are all very different layers that ultimately make up the whole. How do each learn to deal with letting go and when to do so? Just because someone isn't capable of carrying on a conversation with you does that mean that the love stops? Do you stop sitting by their bed or visiting and talking with them?

Ultimately during the hard times it is then that we need our families and close friends nearby. The ones that will point out what we are doing right or wrong and help to be our guide.

Overall the book raises some good questions about the secrets we keep in our life, our families, how the past affects our futures, how what we say or what we don't say can leave us hurting years down the road. Face it we all have secrets in the closets but isn't it better when the secrets are out in the open and we know what we are dealing with?

grab a potato peeler

What do you do when you have done your job as a farmer so well that you have more crops then your planned for? When it will cost you more to harvest those extra crops, ship them to the processing plant, and pay to have them processed than you will gross on the product?

Well you could just bury the crop and get on with your next planting or you could take the opportunity to bless the communities around you.

Fortunately for me I live in a community near a farmer who has a heart and a surplus of potatoes. This farmer had a great year. He harvested his expected amount which he sent off to the processing plant in Idaho for processing and to be sold, however he also had 21 tons of surplus potatoes that he has been giving away in the neighboring communities.

I am now in pocession of two wonderful bags of great tasting red spuds.
Thanks Farmer Guy.

Tuesday Teaser (a day late)

I thought that since I was doing the "Spring Reading Thing" I would also try to do the "Teaser Tuesday" that Miz B and Kim have been kind enough to introduce me to.

Here is the way it works: you get a sneak peak into what Im reading by viewing 2 sentences from my current book. The deal is you are to let the book fall open and then pick two sentences somewhere between line 7 and 12 on that page.

This week's teaser comes from the book While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky, page 150:

The problem, Molly realized, was her guilt. Robin could have none of this. Even if they inserted a tube straight to her stomach, she couldn't enjoy food.

The book Borrower by Alice Mattison

A novel about two women who meet at the playground when Deborah loans Toby a book called Trolley Girl. That is about as good as it gets.

The book is a book inside a book which causes a lot of confusion going back and forth between present day and the past. Through the whole book you follow the mundane lives of the two women through just about everything and all of their adult lives.

I was expecting to find a book full of friendship and the joy of two of women who were sharing their lives. Instead I found two characters who were whining and dull and without depth or passion. I also found the plot challenging to keep up with. One minute you are dealing with a certain time frame and the next instant you are 10 years ahead without any warning. Then out-of-the-blue a character from the borrowed book ends up in the present without any explanation.

I spent 277 pages waiting to get to page 278 so that I could start a different book. If you still feel that you need to read this book, I would recommend borrowing it from the library.

AWOL

Ok technically the Rev is not AWOL, I know where he is and when he will be back and yes both the Bishop and I have approved these little jaunts but he was gone last week, was home for Sunday and Monday and has been gone ever since to Omaha.

A wise person once told me that you need to be gone for someone to miss you. Rev, you can come home your absence has been felt. We miss you.

I recently asked an Army wife how she handles having her hubby gone for 6weeks at a time. She said that the family dog helps fills up the empty space in the bed.

Eureka...that's it. I need to get a dog.

There is a great Neufundlander up in VC that maybe would like to come home with me. hmmmm... come to think about it though I think the Neufi might take up more room in the bed than the Rev. Rev is shaped more like a doberman or a greyhound, sleek and lean.

Good thing Rev will be home soon, I don't think our marriage or the cats would survive a dog.

Tuesday Teaser

I thought that since I was doing the "Spring Reading Thing" I would also try to do the "Teaser Tuesday" that Miz B and Kim have been kind enough to introduce me to.

Here is the way it works: you get a sneak peak into what Im reading by viewing 2 sentences from my current book. The deal is you are to let the book fall open and then pick two sentences somewhere between line 7 and 12 on that page.

This week's teaser comes from the book The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison, page 120.

By the way, said Gregory, I know perfectly well what you've been up to all this time, and I think it's truly stupid. Just thought you ought to know.

The Noticer By Andy Andrews

"Sometimes all a person needs is a little perspective."

Perspective is defined as a specific point of view in understanding or judging things or events, esp. one that shows them in their true relations to one another. For example I have a friend whose kids are always borrowing her work gloves. On the one hand this is good because they are doing work, however the gloves need to be returned so that she can use them. To ensure that her gloves were returned she wrote three letters "MOM" on the fingers of her gloves so that when her kids were wearing the gloves they would look down and remember that they were wearing mom's gloves. One day as she was wearing the gloves her youngest child said "mom, why do your gloves say WOW". Its all in how you look at things. From his view point the gloves said "wow" when from were she stood they said "mom".

In The Noticer, Andy Andrews does a fabulous job of dealing with perspective and a different way of thinking. We are introduced to a character who is a simple old man in which Mr. Andrews shows us more than one way to look at a situation that his other characters are dealing with. The main character Jones, "not Mr. Jones, just Jones" is a wonderful character and has you constantly thinking. The best part about Jones is that you start to think outside of your little circle. He is the character that asks the tough questions. He also seems to know just when the next person that he is dealing with is close to or at rock bottom and will be willing to listen to those questions and see how they apply to their lives.

Some of the draw back to the book is that you get involved in the characters lives and then never get the follow through, it is all left up to your imagination as to what they did with their perspective which is both good and sometimes lonely when you want to know more about those characters lives. All of the characters are well developed and as you read the book you can actually picture them and in some cases pick them out in your own community.

When you finish the book you will be challenged to look at the mother's gloves differently: do they say "mom", the woman who gave birth to a child or do they say "wow" someone loaned me a pair of gloves that I should take care of and return better than I got them.

Missing

Rev has been gone since Thurs to Great Falls for a meeting for church.

Thursday night I was so tired I slept pretty well. However last night I woke up multiple times, rolled over and was surprised to find my king sized bed contained only me and my two cats. Then it dawned on me, oh yeah, Rev is away.

Thank goodness he will be back tonight. He will be home for three nights then gone for three nights. Hopefully I will fare better then than now.

UUUUGH!

Yesterday I spent 4 1/2 hrs on the phone with tech support. Mind you I only work 6 1/2hrs a day.

The two guys that I dealt with were quite nice but the first guy I think needs to find a different job. Though in India Im not sure that there are any other jobs besides tech support. After 3 1/2 hours and multiple times hearing him say "this is too tough", with a heavy Indian accent, he transferred me to a level 2 tech who solved my problem in an hour. At least we were not paying by the hour.

Today my desk is piled with today's work and yesterday's work since the whole time that I was on the phone with them they had control of my computer and I accomplished zip.

Im not sure which is worse, not being able to work all day or having twice as much work on my desk today.

And of course my boss can't read an invoice and has questions that I have no time to answer.

Teaser Tuesday

I thought that since I was doing the "Spring Reading Thing" I would also try to do the "Teaser Tuesday" that Miz B and Kim have been kind enough to introduce me to.

Here is the way it works: you get a sneak peak into what Im reading by viewing 2 sentences from my current book. The deal is you are to let the book fall open and then pick two sentences somewhere between line 7 and 12 on that page.

This week's teaser comes from the book The Noticer, by Andy Andrews page 48:

Walker glanced at the old man, disgusted, and said, "Why on earth would you tell me that?"
"I just think it's amazing," Jones answered, looking straight ahead, "that a person could lose everything, chasing nothing."

Surprise

We watched 3 movies this weekend. All picked out by the Rev.

Usually this is a scary thing. The Kid and I decided long ago that we would not watch more than one Rev picked movie at a time. But since he is going to be gone so much this month we decided that we would endure several of his picks in a row and then we could sit back and watch what we wanted while we is gone.

He doesn't always pick the best movies however the last three were enjoyable by all.

We watched: End Of The Spear, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, and Magnificent Seven.

If you haven't seen any of them, I would recommend all of them. This however does not mean that we will change our minds and let the Rev go back to picking movies again unsupervised. That's like letting the kid loose in the VC candy store with our credit card....a bad idea.

Blood Orange by Drusilla Campbell

I enjoyed this book immensely. The book starts off with the abduction of Bailey, the special needs child of Dana and David. Dana and David each feel responsible for the abduction and when Dana realizes that she may have "unwittingly had a part in the abduction" things really start to get intense. But the story is about more than a child being abducted. I found this book to be more about learning to deal with what life has given you and how to forgive and how nobody is perfect rather than just a simple abduction.

Each character in the book is faced with forgiveness on some level: The priest deals with forgiveness in many different ways but how does a priest deal when it affects her own family and the ones she cares about the most? David a high priced defense attorney and his associates also deal with forgiveness as they defend a man accused of murdering a child. Dana deals with forgiveness on many levels, with her marriage, her best friend, her child, her past, and ultimately her self.

The characters were well written and really come to life. The priest is a little over-the-top but it works and helps to get the point across that I believe Ms. Campbell was trying to make with forgiveness, past actions, and how to step back and assess the future.

I would definitely recommend taking the time to read this book.