Company's Coming!

I know all of you dedicated readers (yeah, right) have been eagerly awaiting a new post. I don't know how much time I'll have to post in the next week or so because I'm getting ready for company!

Sarah and I had company over Sunday night too when Sarah made some delicious food and the Heim family came over to play a game (we ended up playing Scattergories).

Now we get to clean again because my Aunt Louise and her schnauzer Chara are coming on Friday to stay with us until the next Thursday so my aunt can attend the NANC Conference in Indianapolis. It looks as if Sarah and I will also be babysitting the Dutton kids from Monday-Wednesday, too while Mark & Laurie are at the NANC Conference.

It's also getting crazy at school starting to prepare for Grandparents' Day on Friday, October 6!!

So this next week I'll be having company!

Weekend Craziness

This weekend was a busy one.

Friday night we met two ladies from church and rode with them down to Indianapolis so Sarah could participate in her first 5K race (3 miles). It was one of the features of this Irish Festival going on that weekend. So while they ran I looked around at the booths and listened to all kinds of Irish bands playing. Sarah did really well, placing 14 of 34 in her age group and running the 3 miles in about 26 minutes. We didn't get home until after 11:00 p.m.

Then Saturday morning we got up to go tailgating with some more friends from church at the Purdue football game! Sarah had to work later so she didn't get a ticket to the game, but my friends got me a ticket so I was able to enjoy watching my first college football game. Although I think it is actually easier to pay attention to the game when you are watching it on TV as there are so many distractions at a "live" football game!! It was a beautiful, hot day.


And, oh yes, the main reason we went to that particular game was that the half-time presentation was by all the area high school's marching bands playing with Purdue's marching band. So our Faith Christian marching band was right there on the field, too. If you look closely in these pictures you can see their maroon t-shirts on the FAR side of the field!So Friday and Saturday were pretty busy.
Then Sunday night I had a friend over to watch the first episode of the new Amazing Race!
It was a very fun weekend!

Resetting the Clocks

Lately we've had quite a few thunderstorms that have caused the power to blink off at home, causing a thousand and one clocks to start flashing "reset me!" "reset me!" (you didn't know I had that many clocks at home, did you? I didn't either). We had a doozy of a storm on Tuesday night between 8 and 9; the power went out at least twice, and the lightning was just awesome! But anyway, it seems that just the time I get around to finally setting the clocks, the power will blink off again--and there goes all that work down the drain! In fact, I don't think I've even reset the clock in my bathroom yet. It's probably still flashing at this very moment.

Okay, spiritual application. Even though it's a pain to have to reset clocks when the electricity goes out, it is a good idea to check them and make sure that they are all running at the right time (or even a few minutes fast). It was a good reminder to me to do the same kind of "reset" in my spiritual life. The beginning of the school year is a good time to "reset the clocks" and begin afresh with personal Bible reading and prayer and setting new goals. It's also not a good idea to be stuck in the "flashing 12:00" mode where I am stuck in limbo. I need to be moving forward with a purpose, on track, sync'ed (sp?) up with my Master.

9-11

5 years ago today...we remember.

Livin' With My Sister

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when my sister moved in with me last month. I mean, I've been living by myself for 6 years now, how hard was it going to be to change that??

There were some things I was looking forward to...namely, another person to help pay those house payments! So more income for ME is always a good thing! :) I was also looking forwad to having some accountability at home: someone to help keep me accountable to make sure I'm having my devotions, not watching too much TV, and eating right and exercising. And also I was looking forward to having someone else around to go along with me to various events and to help share in my activities.

But there were some concerns I had...namely, how much will I have to sacrifice with someone else in the house--wanting to watch her own TV programs or eat her own type of food? Or how much am I going to have to be the "big sister" and remind her to get her oil changed, check her antifreeze, pitch in around the house, or pay the rent? Will she want to be totally on her own and never want to be around me at all?

Some of the things I was expecting from a roommate have pros and cons, of course. I wanted an incentive to have more people over and be hospitable and do more with reaching out and getting to know others. But since that area is a stretch for me, having a people person such as Sarah who LOVES those kinds of activities may be a bit of an area of growth. Plus I've learned a lot about myself in the last few years--how I work, what the habits I naturally fall into are, what I like and don't like. And are those habits bad or good? Is it all right to enjoy a Saturday lazily cleaning the house and maybe taking a break for a few hours to read a book or watch TV if I really enjoy that, or do I need to be out going somewhere and doing something?

I tend to be an old-fashioned, stick-to-the-schedule, I-always-do-it-this-way-what's-wrong-with-that? type of person. Sarah's the spontaneous, let's-go-shopping-right-now-even-though-it's-9:00-p.m. type. So that's good for me; I should be spontaneous every once in a while. It's okay to have change, but it's not always my favorite thing. I guess where I'm at right now with that is, Is it okay that I feel that way and don't want to go out driving in the middle of the night or is that something I should be trying to work on and not live by my feelings? Is it okay for me to want to stay home and spend some time with this new dog that I got since I really do enjoy that?

But, overall, I can say that things have turned out even better than I had expected. I had remembered us as being pretty different in our likes and dislikes, but we actually do have a lot in common. We do like a lot of the same types of food (although I'm not a big fan of Chinese and that's Sarah's favorite). We both like to eat healthy (although we both have our own areas of splurging!) and I've discovered (thanks to Sarah) that I'm a fan of tuna with relish. I've also discovered (from Sarah) what a great idea peanut butter and banana on a BAGEL is! We both pitch in and clean on our days off. Sarah's been a great help in loading and running the dishwasher, doing laundry, and occasionally vacuuming. One thing that I thought might bother her is my messy coffeetable, but she leaves stuff around the living room TOO so it's all good!! We love to watch movies together since we have a lot of the same taste there. And she has encouraged me to do Tae Bo with her, too, which is a good stretch for me. And Sarah has a great love for people and has a real heart for wanting to reach out to others. I love her taste in decorating, too. She has really grown up into a lovely young adult and I look forward to having her around to get to know better.

It's great to know that we can always be growing and changing, and I've had lots of new opportunities this past year with both the puppy (trying to be more scheduled) and with my great sis!

Rules of Thumb

Three rules I have discovered in the past 3 days:

1) Always use your mirrors when backing out of the garage.

2) Be extremely cautious when setting a glass of orange juice somewhere that your puppy can spill it on your laptop.

3) No matter how late you are running, always put your puppy outside first thing in the morning. Period.

*sigh* It's been an interesting three days...