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!

Mother's Day & Andy's Birthday

Sunday was Mother’s Day and Andy’s birthday, so we shared the holiday.  All our kids and grandkids came down to spend the day with us.  We all attended church together, then had lunch at our house.

I had prepared the meal on Saturday, so it was just a matter of heating it up and getting the table ready.  All the sons-in-law were helpful in getting the extra leaves in the table and bringing up the extra tables and chairs from the basement, while the kids played and the girls and I prepared the salads and dessert.

Doesn't Amy look like she's up to something!

Grrammy's rolls are a big hit.

The men and kids played outside after lunch - it was such a beautiful day - while the girls and I stayed at the table and chatted.  Since neither Christy or Amy will be able to attend my graduation, they talked me into modeling my cap and gown.

Happy Mother's Day - with my 3 girls!

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, School, School and a Little of Life

Studying and school have been a bit all consuming, but I'm coming down the home stretch now.  Only 2 more classes, a little reading and a major paper left to do.  In less than a month, I'll be graduating from Cairn University with a degree!  Yippee!

It seems like I've been doing nothing but concentrating on studying, but we have managed to fit in a few fun things.  One Tuesday recently we explored a new park that we hadn't been too yet.  It's a county park, but it took us a half hour to drive there from our house.  (We live in the biggest county in New Jersey.)  It was a lovely spring day, warm and sunny which made the excursion all the more enjoyable.  Crystal Lake Park was somewhat difficult to get to but when we found it, it was worth the effort.  We had to hike past a very green field, then on a well designed trail to a lake.  We were surprised that there were hills, it wasn't flat like most NJ hikes.

 

 Another fun thing we did one Friday was go up to hear Grace & Naomi sing in their choir concert.  Unfortunately, Aiden was sick, so Christy stayed home with him (and Asher & Claire).  We got there early enough to be with Grace & Naomi while they ate their supper.  I wanted to take their pictures but Naomi, silly girl, wouldn't pose.  Every time she saw me lift the camera, she made a funny face.

 It was very entertaining to watch the girls perform in their choirs.  Grace was so proper, very careful to do everything the right way and not draw attention to herself.  Naomi, on the other hand, was very animated and funny, keeping herself entertained even during long periods of musical rest.  I can't help smiling even now when I think about the differences in their personalities.  How unique and interesting each one is.


We had another dinner with our singles group.  There weren't as many who attended this time but it's spring and other activities and events are calling.  It was salad night and we had so much food, we've been eating left-overs all week.

I found this amazingly good recipe to share.  We had a coupon for Uno's and when we went, I ordered Chicken Spinoccoli.  It was so good I was wondering if I could find a recipe and make it myself...which is what I did.  Here it is:

Baked Chicken Spinoccoli

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1 cup fresh broccoli coarsely chopped

1 cup fresh spinach

2 Roma tomatoes chopped

4 oz. feta cheese

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

 

Directions

1.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Mix broccoli, spinach and tomatoes together in a bowl.  Set aside.

3.  Cover chicken breast with plastic wrap and flatten.

4.  Evenly distribute ingredients from bowl in the center of each chicken breast; sprinkle feta cheese and half of the mozzarella cheese on top of the broccoli mixture.

5.  Wrap chicken breast tightly around the filling; secure with a toothpick

6.  Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top of chicken breast.

7.  Place on a baking sheet or pan; bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until chicken is fully cooked.

8.  Serves 4.

I didn't flatten the chicken breasts enough so I couldn't roll them up.  It worked, though, to just have them flat on the pan and put the spinach, broccoli, tomatoes and cheeses on top.  Very tasty.

Well, I guess my break is over and it's back to the books.

Spring is springing!

After such a long and dreary winter, it was a special treat to see blue skies and fluffy white clouds a couple of days ago.

I guess because of cabin fever, Andy and I have been getting out and hiking.  The above pictures were taken at the Boundary Creek County Park about a week ago.  It was still chilly, but at least the sun was shining, which makes all the difference in the way a person feels about nature and life in general!

My first class is over and done.  I worked all Easter weekend on the final paper.  It was quite a sacrifice to spend Good Friday, a day off work - all day at the computer trying to pull all my thoughts together into a cohesive and understandable thesis:  how to write in 2,500 words on a subject as huge as The Triune God.  As difficult as that was, I finally finished it to my satisfaction and submitted it, then waited in nervous anticipation for the grade.

I am happy to report that I got a 100% on that paper!  Wow...I couldn't believe it.  All my hard work and hours of effort paid off.  I got an A in the course with A's in all my papers and assignments.  Needless to say, I'm very happy with that.  Now to get through this final class, only 4 weeks to go, but still a lot of work to do before graduation.

In spite of being so consumed with studying and school, we're still getting a lot of hiking in and kid time.  Last week, Amy and the kids came down in time for dinner on Monday, then stayed overnight.  We watched a movie together, Chase chose Sleeping Beauty because he wanted to see the witch turn into a dragon (is that a boy thing!).

On Tuesday morning, Dawn and Kira joined us and we all went over to the church for the kids to play in the gym. 

It was such a nice day that we thought it would be good for the kids to play outside so we drove over to Pennington Park where there was a nice playground.  They had fun but it was cold and windy.  We played there as long as we could stand it, then since it was close enough to lunch time..."Let's go to Chick-Fil-A and let the kids play inside.

 

 A fun time was had by all!  I'm so impressed with how much fun Andy is with the kids.  He's like a kid himself!  Having fun seems to come naturally to him, I often wish I could be more like that.  But when I mentioned this to him, he said there should at least be one person who acts like an adult!


Yesterday I took several hours off work and went with Dawn and Kira and Dawn's friend, Betty and her 3 kids to a Sound All Around concert in Philadelphia.  It turned out to be quite an adventure.  We parked the car and walked to where we thought the concert was, only to find out we were at the wrong address.  So we got back to the car, paid for 15 minutes parking, went a couple blocks further and parked again.  Dawn, the kids and I got out and started hurrying to get to the concert while Betty parked the car.  Dawn had 2 of Betty's kids and Kira, hurrying along, while I tried to get Betty's boy to walk a little faster.  We got further and further behind, until I finally told him to climb on my back, which he was happy to do.  We must have made quite a sight!  We got to the Kimmel Center and got directions from the ushers in the lobby that the concert was at the end of the hallway, up the stairs, turn right and go to the end of another hallway.  We did that but it was not the concert we had tickets for.  So we had to trace our steps back out.  Unfortunately, the tickets Dawn was holding did not have the address of the concert on them, but we finally figured it out that it must be at the Academy of Music.  That building was across from the Kimmel Center, so off we trudged with the 4 kids.  By the time we got in the door, we discovered we were finally at the right place but we were 30 minutes late.  Dawn was feeling frustrated, mainly because she felt responsible, but the ushers were very kind and helpful and told us that we could just wait around for the next concert which would begin at 11:15.  So that was a relief, we could still use our tickets and after coming into the city and going through all that effort, it wouldn't be a wasted trip.

We had to keep the kids occupied for 45 minutes, but being good mommies, Betty and Dawn had brought lunch and snacks.

We finally got into the concert and it was definitely worth it although by this time, the kids were tired.

Well, the sun is shining, calling my name, enough time spent on the computer.  I'm off to get some vitamin D.