Last Week

There are 4 birthdays in our family right around this time, so that seems like a good enough reason to get together to party! Last Saturday found all of us going up to Amy & Ricky's for an evening meal together. Andy and I went over to Tommy & Dawn's and picked them up. We were hoping that riding together would help distract Kira from being too unhappy in the car. It's a good hour and a half going from here to Amy's house. So the trip was spent singing to Kira...every time one song was finished, she would say, "aaa" (which means "again"). I actually got very hoarse by the time we arrived. But she didn't complain too much.

Amy had prepared a delicious tortilla soup. I brought corn chips and rolls. Christy brought a yummy salad and Dawn had made an apple spice cake. So needless to say, we ate well!It's always a lot of fun being with all the grandkids. We think they're the best anywhere!
So the 4 birthdays: Asher is January 31, Dawn is Feb. 3, Christy is Feb. 11 and I am Feb. 13. Christy brought her camera and we posed for pictures again. What a job getting 8 adults and 8 children all together and holding still long enough to get a decent picture where one person is not trying to escape, another person is looking down instead of at the camera or another person is blinking... We got some pictures that will work for framing.I'm glad we had a good time, but all too soon it was time to go home again. Again, Kira wasn't too bad in the car, but it kept me busy coming up with ideas to distract her. When I got too hoarse to sing any more, Tommy turned on the radio to a rock station which made her "dance" in her seat. She liked the fast songs.

On Sunday evening, Andy and I hosted a meeting at our house for older singles. There is a lot going on at our church right now for the 20 year olds: singles, college age and young marrieds. But a few older singles expressed a desire to have something for them, too. So since Andy and I are acquainted with several girls in their mid 30's, we felt a desire to start something for them. We met to see what they were thinking and were very touched that they really wanted to take missions trips. So they're just not wanting to have meetings, but want to reach out and minister/serve in some way. It is true that the youth groups go on trips every summer and now the seniors are also doing a missions trip at least once a year. So we'll see where this goes. We're going to open it up to all 30 & 40 year old singles for a game night at our house on Feb. 27th - mainly to see how much interest there is in having a specialized group like this.

It was not a typical week at work this week. Mid-morning on Monday, I started having some issues with my computer. Fortunately, our IT guy was in the office at the time, so I called him over to look at what was going on with my computer. Well, we experienced a complete network crash. That means I couldn't work on any of my files, and even the internet was down. I was at a loss as to knowing what to do. I use my computer for everything. So I puttered around, answered phones, but not much else until quitting time. New software had to be ordered, then shipped overnight to us. It didn't get to the office until Wednesday. Then the guys had to install it, working late into the night. They got it up and running so I could work on Thursday, but then had to shut everything down again on Friday afternoon to finish. I hope they got it all fixed, but I haven't heard. It's amazing how dependent we have become on technology. When I started working at the church 19 years ago, we had one computer but it wasn't even in my office. If I wanted to use it, I had to go into another room to use it. Now I'm on it continually.

There was a bright spot in my week, though. On Tuesday, Dawn had a doctor appointment so I watched Kira while she was gone. We played with the toys in the toy box and read several books.

She's a happy and busy little girl and I'm grateful for the chances I have to be with her.

I've been having sciatic pain for several years. It is especially painful at night and unless I take motrim pm before bed, I wake up after 4-6 hours in such pain that I have to get up and walk around and stretch. I've seen my doctor about it and had x-rays done. I've also been to the chiropractor (which didn't help at all). So yesterday I went to see a spine specialist. He looked at my x-rays and said I have spinal stenosis which is probably pinching my sciatic nerve. He gave me some medicine to try for a week and suggested I get some physical therapy. I took one of the pills this morning and it seems to be working because I have no pain. However, I am very sleepy. I lay down and rested for a half hour. It felt so good to just lie there relaxing.

Andy is getting ready to go to Guatemala this week. He is going down with a work team to the Word of Life camp. He will be the pastor on this trip, so he has been preparing lessons for daily devotionals. It will seem very odd to have him gone all week. We are so accustomed to always being together. But anyone who knows me, will know that I probably have a list made up of things I'm going to do while he's gone. And that person would be right.

Here's my list:

1. Clean bookshelves.
2. Clean kitchen cupboards.
3. Scrub kitchen floor.
4. Clean oven.
5. Clean refrigerator
6. Clean freezer.
7. Make barley/vegetable soup and carrot cake.
7. Go see Christy and family on Friday afternoon/evening.
8. Make tuna ring for Dawn and have her over on a night Tommy won't be home. (Dawn loves tuna ring, but Tommy hates fish dishes.)
9. Hmmm...what about Amy?

It may seem like a daunting list, but the jobs need to be done and I've put them off long enough. Andy being gone will be a good time to accomplish much. I'm hopeful anyway!

It's raining today. But there is still so much snow out there - in piles at the ends of driveways and in the mall parking lots. I think some of those piles are going to be there till June. Spring is not too far away now...only 6 more weeks. I'm so ready to see some pink and green.