Sunday musings

It's Sunday evening, a beautiful day. The sun is shining, it's not too hot and there is a very pleasant breeze blowing. But unfortunately, I'm not feeling well enough to enjoy it. All day my poor intestines have been crampy and unhappy. So I'm staying home trying to cheerfully enjoy the solitude. Andy went bowling with church people. He was tired, too, but couldn't stay home because he loves bowling so much. He's not sure he'll be able to bowl because of his finger, but knowing him, he'll find a way to have fun. His finger is healing nicely, thanks to all who've asked about it. It still looks pretty bad, but much better. He won't let me take another picture of it, however.A couple of weeks ago, after a wedding at the church, there were a lot of big beautiful bouquets left over. So one of the girls in the office took all the good flowers and made several beautiful arrangements, one of which I took home to enjoy.

I think I figured out the name of the flower I was unsure of. I've concluded it's veronica, white icicle. What do you think?
You've heard about food prices going up. I was interested to see what the price of flour was since Meggan mentioned on her blog several weeks ago about the drastic jump in prices. I thought Whole Foods was a more upscale food store with higher prices, but after some comparative shopping, I've changed my mind. Shop Rite had unbleached bread flour King Arthur's brand for $4.99 for 5 pounds; and Whole Foods had the very same flour for $3.19. Hmmm. I think I'll stick with Whole Foods.

Last night we went to a party for Tommy's 30th birthday. (Everyone's turning 30!) I made a Greek summer salad to take along. He loves this salad, but Dawn doesn't. So I won points with Tommy by making it and bringing it to his party. His mom hosted the party at her house.
Yesterday I treated myself by getting a pedicure. When I was telling Andy's mom that I was going out, I told her I was going to get a pedigree!!! We all laughed till our sides hurt over that slip. I really should have done it earlier in the season because my feet are in sandals all summer. It was so relaxing and now my feet look good. Ahhhhh!
Andy worked on the front porch. The concrete truck came on Thursday and poured the concrete for the footings. Then a load of blocks was delivered on Friday. He started laying the blocks, but it was so hot and humid on Saturday, he couldn't work outside all day. Besides he had to come in the house to get cleaned up to go to Tommy's party. But progress is being made.











And lastly, I wanted to share a few thoughts from the message this morning. Pastor Mark was preaching from Ephesians 4:31-32 about forgiveness. A great message to hear, but difficult to practice consistently. He referenced Luke 6:32-36 where Jesus is telling his disciples to love their enemies. He says that our reward will be great if we love, do good, and lend to sinners without expecting to get anything back. Why? Because God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked! Isn't that a stunning statement? God is kind to those who treat him contemptibly, and he is our example. He has forgiven us much, in fact, everything. So how can we not do the same toward others. Of course, we cannot in our own strength, for "apart from Me, you can do nothing." But I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

I'm so grateful for God's saving grace in the past, for the future, and in the present to help me live for His glory.

Off Target

Maybe it's just me. Does anyone else feel this frustration every time they shop at Target?


The T stores have really not been around that long. I remember the first time I ever shopped in one. Yes, even back then it was a memorable experience. I couldn't find what I went into the store for, so I went looking for a sales associate. And I couldn't find one of those either. I wandered up to the service desk and there they all were, laughing and hanging out together in the front of the store. Hmmm. I made a mental note to myself then that this was not a place I wanted to spend my time in, because if I went shopping there, I would be spending a lot of time there. (and time to me is precious)

So this summer we had a lot of weddings and bridal showers to go to - in fact, 2 bridal showers and 3 weddings. And guess what! They were all registered at Target. As Charlie Brown says after Lucy pulls the football away...

So off I went to T again. Surely by now, things have changed and shopping will be better. How hard could this be? Unfortunately, time had dulled the pain and I was in for a rude awakening.

You know when you first go into the store, you have to access the bridal registry and get a printout of what the bride has registered for. So I confidently went to the computer and touched the screen to get it to turn on. Nothing happened. I touched it again. Still nothing. I moved to another computer monitor and touched it. Nothing...etc. etc. etc. There were 3 computers there, I touched them all, then started over. Sigh. So I turned to the attendant at the service desk to tell her it wasn't working and she calmly said that they were down. (She couldn't have told me while she was watching me move from screen to screen?) She also informed me that all the T stores had the same problem, so my just driving to another store would be fruitless. I mentioned that I had a bridal shower to go to the next day and she told me: "Oh, just buy something cheap and put it in a pretty bag." What???? She really did say that to me. I smiled and nodded politely and walked out of the store.

Then I got the brilliant idea to check if I could access the bridal registries online. And ta-da! I could. So in another brilliant move, I ordered all wedding and shower gifts online. Now I wouldn't have to go back to that blankety-blank store.

I did get all the gifts and everything was fine...until one of the weddings was canceled and they gave me back the gifts I had already given them. I was happy to be able to take 2 gifts back to get some money back. And I had already forgotten about all the grief I get when I go there.

So...I take my gifts, along with a printout that I had done when I ordered the gifts. I took these to the service desk and explained my situation. They told me they couldn't take them back. What???? I needed the bar code printout, but I could get that from the computer where you get the registries from. So I went to the computer monitor and guess what! It didn't work. I moved to another computer...same thing. I asked for help, and the service desk attendant couldn't get it to work either. He had to call a manager to come over. I was able to get to the items I wanted to return, but the computer wouldn't print. The manager couldn't get it to print either and had to (gasp) manually write down numbers of the products I wanted to return. Then the service desk could take my items, enter their numbers into the cash register and give me my money back. (I hope...it went on my credit card.) Why couldn't they just scan the items and give me my money back? I don't understand and believe me when I say, "I'm NEVER buying another gift from their registries again." No, NEVER. I may have to take up quilting or something to give at weddings and showers. Or maybe just get something I want to give them, instead of what they registered for.

That time I was in the store 50 minutes. And I was only returning 2 gifts.

Well, that is my saga. Sad but true. If I can help someone else avoid the same misery I endured, it will have been worth it.

Productivity Plus

Andy and I worked our buns off today. Andy did more digging on the front porch foundations, then rented a jack hammer to get rid of some of the concrete from the old porch. He had called for a foundation inspection and the building inspector came out today and passed us. So now we can go on to the next step, which is pouring the concrete for the footers.

While Andy was working away outside, I worked inside. When he got hot, I got him a headband to keep the sweat from running into his eyes. When I got hot, I turned the a.c. to cooler! What a life!

I made a loaf of bread and cooked our favorite spaghetti sauce all day. The recipe is from my mother-in-law who got it from her mother-in-law. It's good on spaghetti and for making pizza. I'm tempted to try Meggan's recipe for pizza. It sounded sooooo good.

Every year or so, I feel the need to get down on my hands and knees and scrub the kitchen floor. Normally, it doesn't require a lot of work, but because the tiles have little grooves in them, dirt can accumulate. So today was the day.
It's so clean now and I'm happy it's done. I also cleaned my 2 bathrooms, dusted all the furniture in the house and vacuumed every room. I had cleaned the front glass on the storm door early this morning, but had to clean it again because Andy leaned against it while he was up on the porch with the jack hammer. He left a big beautiful glob of sweat right in the middle of the door - lovely!

After Andy returned the jack hammer, he borrowed a transit from a builder friend and did some measuring. I'm not sure what you use a transit for, but he sure looked like he knew what he was doing. That's his dad helping him.
On a brighter note, I took a turn about the yard this afternoon to check on the plants and was happy to see the crape myrtle bush I had bought a couple of months ago in full bloom.
I am happy to report that I think we've won the war with the chipmunks. I haven't seen the little critters around for a while and there has been no activity around their holes.

Next time I post I will tell you my Target story.

On Friday night Andy & I were invited to the Malliets' for dinner. They have been friends of ours now for quite a few years. Their youngest daughter will be getting married on 8/8/08 and Andy will be performing the marriage ceremony. They served grilled mahi mahi, grilled asparagus, grilled pineapple, potato salad, and peach cobbler. Yum! Then they taught us a new game: 5 Crowns. I'd like to look into getting that game. I won, by the way!

On Saturday morning, Andy had organized another bike trip with some people from church. They started from the church at 6:00 AM and were back by 8:15. I think they went about 35-40 miles. I didn't do anything so energetic, but went to a Ladies' Coffee Connection at a friend's house. There were about 6 other women there and we ate brunch, drank coffee and chatted about women stuff. It was quite enjoyable.

Andy spent the afternoon digging for the foundation of our new front porch. There has been some question about what our new front porch will look like. I really can't say, but I took some pictures of the drawings that will give an idea anyway.

Front View

& Side View

A young friend of ours, Jeremiah, turned 30 this last week and his family had a surprise birthday party for him. We were invited, as were a number of other church families, so we had a good time of visiting and "hanging out."
The Day of Rest - ahhhh! After morning church, Andy and I had our usual omelet and waffle brunch, then I curled up on the couch with a book. However, that made me sleepy, so I went to bed and slept for an hour. We had a good thunder and lightning storm with over 1/2 inch of rain, so it was a good background for sleeping.

I don't know what I'll do the rest of the day. Any ideas?

New Jersey Happenings

I finally have some time to blog, so here goes.

Nothing much of interest happened last week, just the usual: work, come home, make & eat dinner, relax a little, water the flowers, go to bed and start over the next day. On Saturday, we went to a wedding - the daughter of a family at our church. We only went to the wedding ceremony and not the reception because Andy had to be at church in the evening for worship team rehearsal.

Sunday was busy with church in the morning. The message was excellent on worship. What is worship? The title was: Idol worship or idle worship. We were challenged that our whole life should be an act of worship, not just something we do on Sundays. One definition that was given was: worship is loving the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength - in every circumstance.

After church Tommy and Dawn came over to eat our usual Sunday brunch of waffles & omelets. They stayed all afternoon; Tommy did some studying and brought along a surfboard to work on, as well. For those of you who don't know, he has a side business of repairing surfboards for a shop in Cherry Hill.

Dawn was involved in organizing a Christian Artists Night at church on Sunday night. It went well, was interesting and enjoyable, and was well attended. I have pictures of her singing, but the lighting was bad and the picture didn't turn out well at all. So you'll have to use your imagination. Most of you have seen and heard her sing, so that shouldn't be too hard.

Yesterday was fun. Amy came down to visit. She brought along her 2 children, 2 adult dogs, and 3 puppies. It was quite an adventure for her, since Joanna is only 3 1/2 weeks old. You can read all about it from her perspective on her blog. We had a good time together. We took the 2 dogs to a young woman in our church who does dog grooming in her home. I always had her do them for me when we had them. She does a very nice job and is cheaper than taking them to the groomer. Then Andy gave the puppies their vaccination shot. They are sure cute at this age, but I'm glad Amy has them now and we don't! She has a much better set-up for keeping them than we did.
We had a good time holding Joanna and playing with Chase (or watching him play - he's so happy pushing his little cars and trucks around) and visiting with Amy.

Say "cheese."

We finally got some rain last night - 1/2 inch - so we won't have to water tonight. That saves us about an hour of time. I think we're going to get a lot more yet. Then the next thing you know, we'll have to cut the grass again! But that's ok; I'd rather have green grass than a brown, crunchy lawn.

The township approved our front porch plans, so Andy will be starting work on that in earnest soon. (Saturday, I hope)

Front Porch, Gardening, Andy's Finger

Andy and I were home today, working around the house. While it was still cool this morning, I trimmed up the weeping cherry tree in the front yard. It was becoming hazardous trying to get out of our driveway because the tree was blocking the view of the street. I much prefer a weeping cherry to weep, but felt it was better to be safe. So I gave the poor tree a "haircut."
Does anyone know the name of this perennial? A friend gave it to me several years ago but didn't know the name of it. It likes the shade.
When it started getting hot, I came into the house and cleaned the bathrooms, dusted the furniture, vacuumed and did laundry. I didn't really feel like doing it, but I did manage to get it done.

Andy started working on the front porch. We received notice from the township that they needed a little more detail on the tops of the columns for the porch, so Andy took care of that this morning. Because of hearing from the township, we figured it wouldn't be too long now that we would be given the go-ahead for the work. So Andy started demolition on the existing landing of the porch. He took off the wrought iron railing, then dug out the bushes.
His little finger is healing quite nicely. If you're not too squeamish, I'm including a picture of it for you. He did not cut it off, thankfully, basically just chewed up the skin and flesh quite a bit. He went to the doctor again yesterday morning for a check up and was told it was progressing as it should. I think it looks a lot better than it did 5 days ago, although I never did see it when it was first injured.

A Little Drama

Today was an exciting day. I was quietly doing my work at the office, when I got a call from Andy. He had run home to cut a piece of wood for someone who was doing a job at the church for him. He told me he needed me to come home right away and drive him to the hospital. He had been working with his table saw and inadvertently allowed his pinky to go with the wood into the saw. He butchered the finger pretty good. I took him to the emergency ward. After examining him, they shot the wound with novacain, then said he needed to go to a hand surgeon. The hand surgeon said the wound would heal better on its own than if he tried to do plastic surgery on it. So he is back home with a prescription for pain medication and a sizeable bandage on his hand.

Andy says he feels really foolish because he's been working with this table saw for over 20 years and never had an accident - until today! Thankfully, it wasn't worse than his little finger.

This evening after supper we walked around our "back 40" and surveyed our "kingdom." I took some pictures along the way.

Andy's dad put in a small garden this spring - 4 tomato plants and some pole limas.


I'm excited about having fresh garden tomatoes soon, but I don't know who's going to eat the limas. Maybe my mother will come visit if I serve her lima beans!

Last fall we decided to move the butterfly bush to a different spot. We chopped up the roots pretty bad and were afraid it might not make it. So I have been babying it along and am happy to report that it is doing well. Here is one of its blooms:
Here is a hydrangea that Andy gave me several years ago. It has such a pretty flower and don't the leaves look healthy?A final note: we are still battling the chipmunks. Andy thought that he was seeing less of them since he put out the rat poison. However, this morning I happened to look out onto our deck and saw one sitting up looking all around so cute-like. Grrr! Maybe there are a few less, but there were so many to begin with. They are still digging their holes and letting us know they're alive and well. Stay tuned for our next line of attack.