Today had the potential to be a difficult day, but so far so good. ;-)

Thanks for the chat this morning, Carmel. :-) Thanks for the email this afternoon, Joyce. :-)

I even got rid of the noisy cricket that was driving me crazy this morning with his chirping.... lol. Actually, once I located the lil guy, a patron who was in the library goes "Do you want me to get rid of that for you?" Sure! So the lil guy has a new home in the grass outside. Oh great... he's likely to be back! LOL! She thinks that there is a Chinese or Korean superstition regarding crickets so she didn't want to kill it. ;-)

~~~

Currently playing: Life Is ~ Sarah Kelly (great voice!)

Spammed

Arrgghhh.... my comments got spammed.

I still want to allow anonymous posting, since not everyone who reads is a Blogspot member, and I want them to be able to post. So I've added word verification for posting, which is a bit of a nuisance, but will hopefully stop the spam. If it doesn't, I may have to turn off the anonymous comment posting. Blah.....

Don't people have better things to do?

~~~
Edit: I took the word verification off because some people couldn't post with it on, and I got spammed again, right away. So I've left it off, but disabled anonymous posting. Sorry... I know that most of you have accounts, those that don't can comment in the Tag Board I guess. ;-)

2nd Edit: Still getting spammed... grrr... Will leave it as is for now.

Back to school... summer is gone again...

The first day back to school, and now the weather gets nice again... lol. Isn't that always the way. :-P

Sheldon is in grade 11 this year. Man... it's hard to believe. Every summer seems to go so fast, and every year... before I know it my baby will be graduating. Yikes.

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the whole "empty nest" thing is sad -- letting your children go is tough. Life changes so much, and you miss them so much, even while you are excited for them. And yet... at the same time, reaching that stage in life is.... liberating (good word, Joyce). I love my kids beyond words -- they have been my life -- but in the natural progression of life, as each child grows up, I become more comfortable with that time when they will have all left home and made their own lives. And while I certainly don't want the next years to go quickly, in a sense I do look forward to it. To what life holds in store. This probably doesn't make much sense to alot of you (as most of you reading this are much younger than me or don't have older kids), and it's kind of hard to explain.

Anyway........

Last year around this time, I had alot going on, alot of uncertainty and confusion and pain, especially for several months. During that time a friend from church got cancer and died very shortly after, and there were just so many other things... The past few days have really brought alot of those memories up, and I'm working through some of that. I'm okay -- I am in a much better place now -- I just have some difficult moments now and then. But life is good. :-)

Okay, so something less depressing..... lol. Gonna see my girl next Monday! :-D

Chantelle is going to Regina for the Labour Day weekend, to spend time with some friends from Winnipeg that she hasn't seen for a year. Labour Day weekend is the traditional Saskatchewan Roughriders/Winnipeg Blue Bombers football game, and her friends are going and invited her to join them. She has very little time so she won't be able to make it home, but Sheldon and I are going to go down on Monday and hang out with her for the afternoon before she heads back to Calgary. Should be fun! :-) (and then it's only a few months till Christmas and she comes home for a longer visit! Woohoo!)

Yikes! Christmas!!!!! O.O

~~~

Currently playing: Everything Changes ~ Staind

Thought of the Day

Yesterday's "thought of the day" in my inbox:

For every step you take toward God, God takes two steps toward you; and if you come to God walking, God comes to you running.
~ James Martin

Blah... kind of a bad day, on various levels. Wishing I didn't have to be at work today.

~~

ETA: No worries, I'm fine. Just one of those days. ;-)

What is REAL?

An excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit:

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

~~~~

One of my favorite children's books. It was an excerpt in a book I was reading a few days ago. This is a quote from that same book:

"... we find that we are most 'real' in connectedness to others. At the core of our beings -- our innermost selves -- we long to feel special, understood, cared about. Loving and being loved makes us feel recognized, that we matter, that we're real."

I've been thinking alot about that recently, having had a recent exchange with a good friend on the topic, and including the above in a group email yesterday. Yesterday was again a reminder of just how much my friends mean to me, and how -- even though so many of them I know only through the medium of cyberspace -- they are the friends who are Real. They are the ones who have allowed me to be Real. Allowed me to be me... not who I think people want me to be or expect me to be. They are the ones who accept me for who I am, and don't "put me in a box". They are the friends who have taught me to trust, and with whom I have grown in so many ways. They are the friends that I know I can turn to when I need a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on or someone to pray for me, and they are the friends I can laugh and be silly with. And they know that I am here for them in the same way. Always...

And all but two of these friends I met in the same place. Is there a purpose in that? I believe so. :-)

To my friends: Josh, Alan, Amy, Carrie, Carmel, Trish, Christy, Ruthie, Sherry, Susanna, John, Matt, Dallas, Shauna, Lana, Joyce....

You have each touched my life in ways you will never know, and I am a better person for having known you. Some of you I've met {and you were just as Real in person ;-) }, others.... not yet. But maybe one day. :-)

Okay, enough sappiness for one day... lol. Have a good one. Much love to you all!

~*~*~
Currently playing: Wherever You Will Go ~ The Calling

Got it!

Yup... the Todd Agnew CD arrived today! :-D

That's all for now... lol.

EDITED:

First listen, still not through the whole CD yet. But I have to say that I think "Always There" is going to be my always-makes-me-cry song of the album, just like "Still Here Waiting" and "Wait for Your Rain" were on the last album.....

My favorite is still "My Jesus". Love that song.

Well, I tried... but the nice guy at Parable wouldn't sell me the Todd Agnew CD a day early... lol. Perfectly understandable, he had concerns about the store being sued. I didn't really expect to get it, but thought it would be worth a try. ;-) So instead, I prepaid it and they will mail it out. Unfortunately it cost me an extra $5.50 (!!!) just to get it mailed out. Now, another CD I would have just waited until I was in Saskatoon again, although it could be awhile. But I really wanted this one. Should be here in a couple of days. Yay! :-)

After a few glitches, Sheldon has his car. We took Robbie's car to S'toon yesterday and his dad picked up his car and brought it back , so it was here when we got home last night. Well, technically it was in the garage cuz the brake pads needed to be replaced -- and he freaked when we got home and it wasn't here -- but he was able to pick it up, go cruising for a bit, and all is well. He's a happy camper. ;-)

So we went to S'toon to get some clothes, etc. for Sheldon. What does he come home with? One pair of jeans and a belt.... lol. He couldn't find anything else he liked. I tried... dragging him around to several places, but nothing interested him. He said he'd get something another time. Okay, whatever works... haha. Silly boy.

I got a few things for myself -- jeans, two pair of pants, couple of long sleeved t-shirts, a pair of shoes. I needed new pants quite badly. Some of my old ones don't fit, but some of them are just old and out of style. It was time for something new.

Chantelle called last night and we chatted for awhile. She always makes me laugh. She was telling me how she'd gone to Safeway on her way home from work to get the ingredients for this salad she wanted to make, plus some fruit, etc. She got off the C-train near her house and was walking home, and was thinking about how hungry she was, and all of sudden she realized that she'd left her bag of groceries on the C-train!!! LOL. Poor kid. Fortunately only about $9.00 worth of stuff, but still.... that's enough when you're on a tight budget, plus she needed that food for supper. She said she hoped someone who really needed that food found it. ;-)

Someone just returned a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to the library. Everyone keeps telling me that the ending is sad and that they cried. Oh no..... :'( I'm only about halfway through, I haven't been spending enough time on it. But I'm sort of trying to make it last, too. It's always so long till the next one!

Well, I'm at work so I should get something done. ;-)

~~~~

Current weather: Cloudy, rainy, cool. (blech)
Currently playing: Numb ~ Linkin Park (on Launchcast)

Okay, so the new Todd Agnew CD comes out on August 16. Yay! Trouble is, Sheldon and I are going to Saskatoon on the 15th!!! That day works out for us to go do some shopping for clothes, etc. for school, cuz he's not working and it's my usual day off. Blah... Maybe I can convince the nice staff at Parable to sell it to me a day earlier. They did once before when I was in a day or two before a release. I forget what CD it was, but I had asked if I could pay for it and have it mailed out to me since I was from out of town (they charge $3.50 shipping), and the guy goes "Well... we're not supposed to do this... but don't tell anyone... " and he slipped me a copy. ;-) If I tell them what a HUGE Todd Agnew fan I am, do you think that would help? LOL

Oh, and I have a number of gift certificates to use up at Parable. I'll have to figure out what else I want to get. There hasn't been alot in Christian music that has really caught my interest lately. We shall see... I might wait and use them another time.

Anyway, back to work... ;-)

~~~~

Currently playing on Launchcast: Holy Is the Lord ~ Chris Tomlin

New SCC single for Chronicles of Narnia

Check out the new single from Steven Curtis Chapman for the Chronicles of Narnia movie:

mms://66.186.0.101/allaccess/stevremb.wma

Good stuff!

Okay, fine.... I'll see what I can come up with.... lol. My life just lacks any kind of excitement. :-P

The Homecoming weekend in town seemed to go well. I didn't attend the festivities, other than the fireworks on Saturday night. They were awesome!!! The guy that did them is a professional who has been in many competitions, and it was just excellent.

I skipped the school reunion, too. I felt bad the next day when I got an email from an old friend (who only lives an hour away but that I've only seen 3 times in the last 25 years). She had come down for the reunion, and was very disappointed because the few people that she really wanted to see weren't there. I think she was quite hurt. And she went on to say that I need to give her a call when I'm in Saskatoon or maybe she needs to come down again because she really would like to see me, etc. Which is nice.... but on the other hand, I've been here all along and she's known how to get in touch with me. So why now? Just because a reunion sparked a temporary need to get in touch? Don't get me wrong, it would be good to see her, but I think it's just a passing thing, you know? Maybe I shouldn't be so cynical... :-P

Sheldon has been busy trying to locate a vehicle to buy. It's hard to find something that is decent and will be reliable within a reasonable price range. (Thankfully his uncle is a mechanic and can check out potential purchases for him.) If he can find something reasonable, he will need to take out a loan -- his dad is willing to co-sign for his first one, as he did for Robbie. Sheldon is very organized and efficient and has been checking things out quite thoroughly as far as what it will cost him for loan payments, insurance, gas, etc., and what he can expect to earn at his job once he goes back to school in the fall. Right now he has quite a few hours, but that will be cut back once school starts. He's already put some money away, and overall he's done quite well... I'm pleased with his initiative in handling it.

Speaking of co-signing.... Chantelle called last night. She's been talking for some time of going to school this fall, and has been tossing around a number of ideas. She is looking at going to Mount Royal College and taking a course in Reflexology Therapy. The classes are 2 evenings/week + Saturday mornings, which would work well because it would allow her to keep her current job (which she loves). She's applied for a student line of credit, but as she has no credit rating she needs a co-signer -- thus the call last night.

I agreed to co-sign for her -- which is kind of scary for me. At this point in my life I have no debts, and hope not to have any. I don't make alot, but it is enough to make ends meet. I have every confidence that she will find work when she is done and will be able to pay off her loan just fine, but still.... there is just that niggling "what if....." thought rolling around in the back of my mind. However... I will trust that it will all be fine. :-)

Have had to learn alot about trust in the last few years. God has been very good, and has provided some amazing people in my life, who have helped in ways they probably will never realize. Know that you are appreciated beyond words. :-)

~~~~~

Currently reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince