Photo Update

I finally decided to clean out my digital camera. So here are some images from the last couple of months...

In June we worked on the puzzle Andy and Amy gave us as a wedding shower gift. It was off the registry :) I love puzzles.



Unfortunately, I always seem to lose one piece of the puzzle. Such a bummer.



As part of the Christmas in July celebration, we made Christmas cookies.



And just like last year, Timmy decorated some interesting cookies. For example:

Santa and his grill...



Skull and crossbones...



Star Wars...



And the tortuga...we like turtles.



Last week was the one year anniversary of our engagement. We spent a few days in Spring Lake, New Jersey at The Evergreen Inn. This was our room. Take note of bed, jacuzzi, fireplace, and tv. What more could we want!



Great Inn robes. Almost bought one. The Inn was really cute and our hostess Laurie was awesome!



Timmy covered in bubbles. So cute.



And no, we didn't spend our entire trip in our room. We went to the beach too.



This weekend we were in Maryland for Christin Fenton's wedding. Oh excuse me, Christin Lawrence :)



The wedding was beautiful. I cried. So happy Timmy is my boy. The reception was fun. Unfortunatley, I forgot the camera at our hotel room. So no pictures of the beautiful bride and no pictures of Timmy and me dancing. I know, bummer.

That's all the pictures I have for you. At some point I do want to blog about life. I've been thinking about all sorts of things. But that I will have to wait. I'm going to join Timmy as he works on the new puzzle. And we both have work tomorrow early in the morning. Joy :)

The "News" Strike Again

Once again proving a formidable foe to my life, I need to give a shout out to ever resident of New York & New Jersey. From a few minutes after we got onto I-95 in Maryland until the exit for the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Delaware we averaged a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour this afternoon. There were a couple of small areas of construction, though none were active or restricted traffic in any way. No accidents to speak of. No..... no real reason for traffic to be moving so slow except that apparently every resident of both New York & New Jersey were vacationing in the south and decided to drive home at the exact same time as us. Go figure. But yeah, once they were able to go back to their respective homes via the aforementioned Delaware Memorial Bridge, things cleared up and I was able to drive the actual speed limit again. Glorious. I'm done driving for a few months now. Or until tomorrow morning when I have to go to work. Whichever comes first.

The Lady Can Stay In The Water

We saw M. Night Shyamalan's latest offering "Lady in the Water" this afternoon. It didn't necessarily feel long and annoying or anything, but in the end it left me feeling like "Signs" did - "Seriously? That's it?"

Out of all of M.'s recent movies, "The Village" is still my favorite and probably the only one I'd consider watching again if I happened across it on TV or something. I think it was a clever concept and was well executed - even if I did figure out the plot twist before it was even "revealed".

Advanced Comment on this post from Luke: "I'm the only person I know who actually liked 'Unbreakable'."

(Post note: M. Night Shyamalan apparently also wrote the screenplay for "Stuart Little". That strikes me as both odd & funny.)

Unemployed No Longer

Yes, it's true. I am no longer unemployed. This week I accepted a part time position at the church. I'll be replacing Rachel T. as the church's assistant. I'll be responsible for the basic day to day running of the church. Mostly, though, my job is to make Mark's life a little easier, let him focus more on being a pastor. I was a little hesitant about applying for the job. I would hate for my relationship with Mark to be affected negatively. However, God made it clear to the both of us that this is what He wants. And I have to say, I'm excited. I'm nervous, but excited. Today was my first day and it went well. There's a lot to learn. Rachel is moving to OH in three weeks, so when Timmy and I get back from the shore, I'll be having some intense training. I am confident, however, that as with my other jobs, I will pick it up and do just fine.

Gotta go. Marti's here. Gonna watch RENT!

For My Information

I got one of those bill/not a bill things today from the anesthesia people at Crozer. They billed my insurance company, but they just wanted to let me know that the cost of putting & keeping me asleep for my grueling 45 minute tonsilectomy was a paltry $900. My goodness, how do these people even feed their families?? I guess we better just hope that they are able to keep a busy surgery schedule and make ends meet.

Such a Girl

I have to admit, I'm feeling really girlie tonight. I really miss my boy. So, what do I do? I email him about how much I miss him and how much I love him. I make myself cry a little in the process. Then I check into my old email account and read those early emails between us. We were so cute. I'd love to one day print out those emails and put them together. Maybe store them with all my old journals. Then my children's children's children can read the letters between their great grandma and great grandpa when they first started talking. I do love him.

Time for bed. In just five short hours, I'll awaken to him moving about in his closet. That's one of my favorite sounds; it means, "Timmy's home."

I know, I know...such a girl.

Finally

So it turns out that reading this book (while laying about in a hydrocodone induced stupor last week) was time well spent. We played an eight player game last night that stretched out (painfully) to about 4 hours. But when Matt triumphantly called, "All in!" with his pocket pair of 9's and I quickly called with my pocket pair of 10's, the game came to an end with all $8,000 worth of chips resting squarely in front of me. (Okay, so that $8,000 actually equalled $25, but that doesn't sound nearly as impressive.)

What else can I say? It was glorious.

That's harsh.

I don't even know what to say.

Owned

So Missy & I taught my Mom, Brother, Sister-in-law and Grandmom how to play Texas Hold 'Em this evening. I got knocked out of the game by my grandmother. Had the ace of clubs & king of spades in the pocket. She called me with like 8 of diamonds and 6 of hearts. Flop was king, six, seven of different suits. I only had 4 chips left, so I went all in. She called. Turn was the ace of spades, making two pair - aces and kings - for me. We looked at the board and concluded that the only thing she could draw to win was a six for trip 6's. The river was a 6. Awesome. I got owned by my grandmom at the poker table. What?

O'er The Rockets' Red Glare

It's nice to know that these PA fireworks stores are doing so a good job with their restrictive sales. I have heard and seen more fireworks originating from peoples' back yards this year than any in recent memory. Even with all those stray bottle rockets and such, though, my true wonder would be reserved for last night here in the lovely hamlet of Norwood.

The yearly Independence Day fireworks display was held in the lower park last evening. Starting at about a quarter after nine, we had a nice, steady display of colorful explosions visible through our living room windows. (Watching the Wizard of Oz compete with fireworks is a delightful teaser for A.D.D., by the by.) Yet in the midst of this display, a fellow Norwoodian decided that he needed to light off some of his own products a scant 2 blocks away from the park. Thankfully, they were those really annoying sounding ones - resembling what I imagine it'd sound like if you tied a bottle rocket to a wiener dog's ear and lit it off. And so it was, there'd be 5 or 6 pops in the eastern facing windows followed by the wiener dog torture to the north.

What made the northern display even more fun, of course, was that most of the pops were followed closely by drunken cheers. (In my humble opinion, few things go together so well as explosives and alcohol.)

These additional displays continued on, increasing in frequency, for nearly an hour after the show at the park had stopped - finally prompting us to close the window around 10pm so we could actually hear the TV again. I estimate that these people must've spent several hundred dollars on their illegal explosives. But as they probably bought their beer for $10 a case, I guess the difference was a wash.

God bless America: the Land of the free and the home of the simple minded. Cheers!

Bizarre and Upsetting

Last night I had a wacky dream. I have lots of wacky dreams, but this one left me feeling very unsettled.

First of all, it was the end, as in "The End", the end times, that end. And we knew it. I was in this building that had stadium seatings. I walked up to the very top seat. It was like a pew that fit three people. Katrina and Rachel sat up there with me. The whole building was full and everyone was talking. Rachel, Katrina, and I were happy, even excited about what was getting ready to happen. We sat there and waited for what I somehow knew was "God's judgment." It almost felt like a thrill ride; it was super weird. The building had no roof and I looked up to the sky; it looked as if a storm were on its way.

And then it started. It was some sort of wave of energy or power or something. It shook us and it was scary and thrilling all at the same time. And it stopped after a minute or so. And we all smiled and looked at each other. Then the person next to me wasn't Katrina anymore; it was Kris. She told me we would know if were okay by the screen. There was this tiny little marker on the side of the pew beside me. It started at 100% and went down as this energy or power or whatever it was passed over us. In my dream I knew that that percentage went down depending on our faith and our walk with the Lord. Once you reached a certain percentage, you were no longer safe - ie, you would be condemned. The next wave came over us and I somehow knew that this wave related to how well we loved Jesus. When this wave went over us, the percentage started dropping quickly. It was frightening but then the wave stopped. We were still safe. I looked over at Rachel and said, "I guess we shouldn't have made fun of Jesus so much."

I don't remember any more waves, but I do believe they occurred. Either way, we were safe, since that percentage reflected everyone who sat in that particular pew. The next thing I remember is walking down to the floor of this building. Everyone was getting up and moving out of the building. Katrina was back and found her mother. Rachel went off to find Jon. I looked ahead and saw my mother and my stepfather. I don't remember their exact percentage but they weren't safe. And after walking around a bit, I saw Melody. From a distance she saw me and shook her head - she wasn't safe either. I woke up soon after that.

Isn't that bizarre? I have no clue where any of that came from. Nothing seems to compare accurately to what I actually believe. And Timmy was nowhere to be found, which is just odd. I don't know why I had that dream. I can usually tell if God is trying to tell me something through a dream. But I am at a loss with this one. Was it just to dream reminding me that my mother and my sister aren't safe? Was there something else that God was trying to show me? What's up with "I guess we shouldn't have made fun of Jesus so much"? Or maybe it just a weird dream?