An Exciting Week

One of the perks of being church secretary is to take home all the left over carnations from Mother's Day.  These are only a few, but they made a nice bouquet that I have enjoyed all week in my kitchen.

 On Monday evening, we took our couch and love seat to a new home.  I had sent out an email to all our singles friends to ask if anyone wanted or needed new furniture.  One woman replied that her stuff was in very bad condition and she wanted it.  So Andy got a couple of guys to help him take our furniture over to her house.  She was so appreciative and we were happy to "bless" her, as she put it. 

A few weeks ago, we received an advertisement from a furniture store that they were having a 50% off sale.  I mentioned to Andy that the cushions on our couch and love seat were thread bare and I didn't know how much longer they would last because of all the action they see.  He surprised me by saying he thought we should go check out the furniture store and see if anything would work.  So as much as we love to shop (note the sarcasm!), off we went.  We ended up buying a new sofa and love seat.  I plan to blog about that in more detail later.  Those 2 pieces arrived on Tuesday and we have enjoyed them immensely.

You never know how a week will turn out and what we thought was going to be typical, was anything but!

On Thursday, we were working quietly in our offices, when all of a sudden, J ran into the office, saying something that I couldn't understand, but obviously in a panic.  Then the fire alarms started blaring, Andy ran out to the lobby to see what was going on, then came back to the office to tell me and the other secretary to evacuate the building.  It was not a fire, thankfully, but in the process of cleaning up, J had thrown a toy up to a box on the shelf in the coat room.  But on the way to the box, the toy hit the sprinkler head and broke the glass shield.  That activated the sprinkler and water started pouring out.  Andy and J couldn't figure out how to shut off the water although they tried until the fire company got there.  So the water was pouring out of the sprinkler head for approximately 10 full minutes (maybe more) before the firemen shut it off.  There was 2-3 inches of water all over the floor in the church lobby.  It seeped through the wall into the office area, too.  That started a whole list of things Andy needed to do.  He ran home to get our shop vac to start vacuuming up all that water.  He had to call the church's insurance company to report the accident.  He had to call a damage specialist to come check out the damage.  It was very intense and exhausting for him.

 A lot of damage was done and walls had to be torn out and carpets shampooed and cleaned.  Meetings and youth groups had to be canceled for several days.  We were able to have church today but workers will be back tomorrow to continue the repair work.

On Friday, Andy and I went over to Cairn University for me to be involved in graduation rehearsal.  Then back again on Saturday morning for the graduation ceremony.  That was pretty exciting.  I actually got choked up when they started the Pomp & Circumstance music.  Then walking across the platform for my diploma, I got weak kneed and shaky.  It seemed so unreal, but exciting at the same time.

I was so happy for the privilege to take part in the classes I had.  I was very blessed by my professor who taught the 2 classes.  He was so knowledgeable and I learned so much from him and the work he assigned to us.  Of course, I especially liked him because he gave me good grades!  I really wasn't expecting to do so well.  I thought going into this experience that I'd be happy if I got a B but thought I'd probably get C's.  I guess all my angst over my papers caused me to work extra hard which in the long run, made the effort all worth while.  He gave me A's in all my papers and even in 4 of them gave me 100%.  I was shocked but very pleased, to say the least.  Tommy says he is a difficult professor and my A's are even more valuable - thanks, Tommy.  :)

 Christy and Amy weren't able to see me graduate because they had previous commitments, but Dawn, Tommy, Kira and Andy were there for me. 

My crazy cap...It kept wanting to fall off.  I should have pinned it somehow, but I didn't have the problem as long as I stood still and didn't know it was going to give me a problem until too late.

 This is funny because I was in line behind the biggest guy, I think, in the whole graduating class...then there's little old me!

I'm graduated!  Happy, happy.

 Kira's happy too!

We celebrated by going out to eat afterwards before we went home.

Today we had planned to have lunch with our singles group after church.  I had arranged the restaurant and organized the time, date and handled the RSVP's, not realizing that behind my back they were all planning to surprise me with a cake, gift and card for my graduation.  At 10:00, Andy told me he wasn't feeling that great, so I told him to go home and lie down, maybe he'd feel better in time for lunch.  I went to the 11:00 service by myself, then after the service, I noticed on my phone that he had tried to call me 3 times.  I quick called him but he didn't answer.  So I drove home but he wasn't there.  I could tell by looking around that he had gone to the hospital (yes, by now, I know the signs!).  I thought maybe his mom had taken him.  I also noticed on my phone that Dawn had called so I returned her call.  She was at the Emergency Room with Andy and had taken him when he couldn't get ahold of me.  Well, he has a UTI - it really came on quickly this time.  When he had gone home from church, he had started shaking with chills, took his temperature, which was over 100 degrees.  When he couldn't get me, he called Dawn who told him he needed to go to the hospital.  So that's where he is now.  They're keeping him overnight to make sure his temperature stays down and he responds to the antibiotics.

We both felt bad that we couldn't go to the party in my honor, but I haven't figured out yet how to be in two places at once.  And I really wasn't in a partying mood with Andy in the hospital.

Well, I think that's enough excitement for one week.  Let's hope for a little more boredom in our immediate future!

No More Teachers, No More Books

My classes are over and looking back, I’m so glad I committed to then persevered through this experience.  I learned a lot about the subject matter which was the best part.  The difficult part was being stretched to write the papers, putting into some kind of coherent form what I had learned.  I literally agonized over those papers, but I lived to tell about it!  I guess the agony was worth it because I did get A’s in all my papers, a couple of them even as good as 100%.  I must confess I was very surprised at that grade.  I mean, really, in my mind, 100% is perfect and the paper certainly wasn’t perfect.  But apparently, the professor was happy with my effort.

Anyway, it’s all over now but the shouting!  Graduation is May 18^th.

Meanwhile, I feel like I’ve got my life back.  On Monday after work, I took Andy’s truck and bought 10 forsythia bushes.  When Andy got home from work, we planted them along the border of our property and the neighbor’s.  I know the forsythias have passed their time for blooming this year, but I expect next year there will be a beautiful wall of yellow to enjoy.

And yesterday, Andy and I went over to the Morris Arboretum, meeting up with Christy and her kids for several hours.  It was a lovely day for a stroll through the gardens.  It was cloudy with periods of sun.  Then when we left at 2:00, it started raining while we were driving away.  So that was good timing!

 

 

There is nothing so therapeutic for the busyness of life than walking through beautiful gardens with people you love.

School, Kira & Grace

When I went to the student orientation before classes started, we were told that we needed to prioritize our studies.  That might mean cutting down on other activities in our lives.  Well, for the most part, I have concentrated on studying for my class.  I've had to forego Saturday activities because of attending classes.  In fact, I have no choice there because if even one class is missed, it's an automatic failure.  And for every 30 minutes you might be late, you get a whole letter grade lower in your final grade.  Needless to say, I am careful to get to class early and made it there even on the week I was sick.  Fortunately, I wasn't feeling my worst on the day of class, just suffering with a runny nose.

My first class is over but I still need to write the final paper which needs to be 2,500 words.  We have 2 weeks to get that in.  I'm planning to concentrate on that this weekend because I have Friday off from work.  So Friday and Saturday, and maybe Sunday afternoon will be spent inside at the computer.  I hope I can manage it without an attack of spring fever.

We have managed to fit in some grandkid time.  On Saturday, Tom & Dawn had a family wedding to attend, so asked us if we would keep Kira overnight and take her to church on Sunday morning.  She came over Saturday around noon.  I wasn't home from class until close to 2:00 pm, so Andy played with her, then put her down for a nap.  She had dinner with us, played some more, then bath time and bed again.

Here she is playing doctor with Andy.  The bracelets on his face were his medicine!

Sunday morning she let me put her hair in a pony tail while she was eating her breakfast.  She's not too keen on having her hair fixed.  I can't wait till she'll let me braid her hair, but for now, I was happy to do a little brushing and fixing.  I don't know why she's looking so sad in this picture.  It is a pose, though, since she knew I was taking it.  She was so excited to be here with us.  She kept hugging us and kissing us.  How fun to be so loved!

Sunday night we had our singles group here, women only this time.  One of the girls offered to make chili so I didn't have as much to do as usual.  I had made lemon bars on Saturday afternoon, then on Sunday, made cornbread and a salad to go with the chili.  The lemon bars were a big hit.

Andy and I left work early on Monday and drove up to get Grace for her overnight with us.  Her birthday had been several weeks ago, but I felt this was a good time to fit her in (between classes).  We have so much fun with her.  She is a delightful young lady.  Her requests of things to do with us included:  watch a movie, have ice cream, make lemon bars, go bike riding, go on a hike, play games.  I'm happy to say we fit it all in.

We borrowed a friend's bike and she and Andy rode to the church.  They rode around in the parking lot around cones that Andy set up.  They did all kinds of games using the cones, then went into the gym and rode around in there, too.

We took a hike before lunch at Laurel Acres park.  It was pretty wet, but we wore our boots and enjoyed the outdoors.  It was cold and windy, but we still had a good time together.

After lunch, we drove over to Amico Island Park and hiked around in there, too.  That is a cool place right on the Delaware River.  The tide must have been in because there was no beach at all.  Another time we had been there, there was a nice beach to walk along.

 

 Grace is a lot like her daddy and PopPop - instigating and causing "trouble."  She kept throwing the sweet gum sticker balls at Andy until he had to "take care" of her!

I mentioned to Grace that she might not have too many more years of overnights with us because she's getting older.  Then she asked how long she could keep coming over.  I told her we would keep the tradition going until she was married.  That prompted her next question:  "couldn't she still come over even then?"  Well, her husband might have something to say about that!  But I took it as a compliment to think that she's happy to be here with us.

It was a fun couple of days, but now the parties are over and I've got to put my nose to the grindstone again.

Keeping Busy

I've been busy, to say the least.  But in spite of all the homework for my class, I'm managing to fit in some grandkid time. 

 

March 5 was Grace's birthday.  I can't believe she's 12 already.  We didn't spend a lot of time with the family this time because they already had plans for the day.  So we got there in time for a yummy dinner of pizza and salad.  Grace is developing into a very sweet young lady.  I'm very proud of her and happy to have her as a grandchild.  I hope to have her over for an overnight with Andy and me, but it will have to be after my last class (the end of the month).

Then last weekend was our church's women's retreat.  I couldn't go this year because I have my class on Saturday.  But Dawn went and asked if I could babysit Kira on Friday until Tommy came home from work.  I was able to work it out that I could leave work by 12:00 noon.  I gave Kira lunch and we played for a little before I put her down for a nap.  She slept a very long time, over 2 hours, which gave me time to work on my paper that was due for class the next day.

When Tommy came and picked Kira up, I invited him to stay for dinner.  And believe it or not, he accepted! 

I'm really enjoying my class.  I'm learning a lot and enjoying the reading and writing part.  And I especially like that the prof of this class isn't giving tests, exams or quizzes.  The grade is based completely on reading, writing and class participation.  I have a reflection paper due every week (so 5 in all) with 500 words giving a summary and my thoughts of what I've read for that week.  I also had a 1,500 word paper due last week.  And the final paper needs to be 2,500 words due no later than 2 weeks after the last class.  So far 2 of my papers have been graded and I was so excited to get 2 A's!  Yahoo!

Never too old

It’s official.  I’m a university student.  I like to think I’m a life-long student – there are always opportunities for learning.  But life learning is not usually a classroom with a professor and taking tests on what’s been taught. 

So 39 years after my college classmates graduated, I’m hoping to get my diploma in May.  I only needed 5 credits to graduate – so close.  Who knew?

Tommy encouraged me to do the investigation on what it would take to graduate.  It took a while for them to find my transcripts (they must have been saved in some old dark-ages vault!). But after they did and blew off all the dust, it didn’t take that much more effort to figure out what was still required of me.

On Saturday, I went to orientation at Cairn University where incoming students were served a delicious breakfast, heard a speech from the provost and another from the director of the degree completion program.  Then a lot of time was spent giving instruction on how to do e-learning. 

This is the 21^st century and this experience will be a lot different from when I went to school.  Actually, I think it will be a lot easier.  I remember typing papers up on a typewriter and miscalculating how much room to leave for footnotes.  Then the whole page needed to be retyped.  It was really an exercise in patience and diligence to write a paper in those days.  I do not have fond memories of that.  Now we have computers which will help immensely. 

My first class begins on Feb. 23 and runs for 5 weeks – Saturdays from 9:00 – 1:00.  Then I’ll get a week off before beginning my second class which will be done in time for me to graduate in May.

So the bill has been paid, I've got my t-shirt and I'm ready to go.