Updates Galore!

I figured it was time for some updates since I’m sure you’re wondering about this or that and well, there’s not all that much else to write about these days, so here you go…

The 7th Annual Liz Hurley Ribbon Run is coming up on October 16. Last year Jackie and I walked in the Ribbon Run and I am planning to do it again this year. I haven’t talked with Jackie about it so I’m not sure if she is planning to come along or not. I plan to walk again this year because I can’t do much running with my feet the way they are or else I’ll be in pain for days afterwards. The cost to sign-up is $20 and you can do that here. Let me know if you sign up!

Speaking of breast cancer fundraising, my college roommate, Melissa is raising money to participate in a three day 60-mile walk in honor of her sister who was diagnosed with and beat breast cancer. If you would like to donate, check out her blog here.

I haven’t seen much of Charlie the neighbor lately. Apparently (or so I heard and may have mentioned here) he has a lake house and is gone every weekend to that little getaway of his. He does manage to make it home during the week where he will proceed to mow his lawn, but not the weed eating. This is really strange, especially considering he has taken time to water the front lawn. You’d think that someone who spent time water the yard would also want it to look nice and would therefore edge/weed eat; but not Charlie. I think Charlie has a lady friend too. I have seen a woman come over from time to time and they usually end up leaving together – I assume for a hot date (at least someone in the neighborhood has a hot date). This past week, the lady came over and Charlie came out wearing a hat that looked like a chicken. I guess it was some sort of inside joke because she was laughing up a storm. I saw all of this take place because I was walking outside to go pick my brother up from work. I assure you I am not keeping watch out the window.

I just read that there was a home invasion at gunpoint a few streets over from mine. That’s kind of scary!

The bug situation at work is getting a little better. Thanks to all the bug traps the bug folks put out, the population seems to be decreasing. I’ve only had one bug fall on my head in the past couple of weeks; so, that’s an improvement. They were supposed to have fumigated our offices over the weekend but that ended up not happening because some people had to work over the weekend and others complained. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to seeing how many bugs were going to be lying around; maybe they will do it another time.

My friend Kimberly has now moved to Malaysia! Keep her in your prayers as she and her husband spend the next six months there. I’m sure she will be posting updates on her blog so check it out from time to time. I have no doubt her humor will shine through!

An official congrats to my dear friend Candy who is pregnant with bambino number three!

This past Friday I worked my first high school football game of the 2010 season. I was out at New Hope and OH MY WORD it was hot in the press box – I mean sweltering. The air was stagnant and I was sweating like nobody’s business. Being a connoisseur of concession stands, I ate a hot dog before the game and popcorn at the half. I love concession stand food, in case you didn’t know that. I’m not sure why, but it is so yummy! I was thinking about concession stands throughout the game and after I got home and I decided that I’m going to rank the concession stands of the stadiums I visit this season and post the reviews here. I know you are probably going to be waiting with baited breath to hear about what I ate and what each stand had to offer. If I can get around to it, I’ll post the first review up here today or tomorrow. Maybe in the weeks ahead I can take some photos of the menu and prices. I am actually going to really enjoy this – see how sad my life has become!

College football season starts on Thursday! I really don’t even have the words to describe how happy this makes me.

Yesterday was our first full day of worship in our new church building and it was a really good day! We had 649 people in attendance and the overflow area was full and we had to bring in more chairs! It was awesome! After months of not having individual Bible classes (we all met together), we were finally able to get together in a small Bible class environment, which was also very uplifting. I am so thankful that we have this new building – it already feels like home.

I’m officially registered for the 2011 Tour de France trip:

Hello Natasha,
Pursuant to our previous correspondence, we have charged your credit card $500 as deposit toward your 2011 Tour de France trip.
You will receive a separate email shortly to keep for your records showing the transaction on your credit card.
As we get closer to the official Tour de France announcement in October, we will keep you posted about our trip line up and you will have priority once our packages are published.
In the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
We look forward to having you along next summer!!
Sincerely,
Geraldine

Can you believe it?! I’m so excited!

Thanks to all of you who have left comments recently. I love to read what you have to say. I was looking at my profile not to long ago and noticed it had over 600 views. Who are all these people reading my profile and why don’t they comment? I want to know who they are because I didn’t even think 600 people knew about this little corner of the web.

If I missed anything you are just dying to know about, let me know in the comments and I’ll post an update. Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Oh How Funny Garbage Can Be

The Tide, being a dog and all, will sometimes get into trouble and it often involves garbage. I don’t know what it is about garbage that is so appealing to my dog. I assume it’s the leftover food that gets thrown away because she is after all starving, or at least she thinks so. When I’m cleaning up the kitchen she loves to lick the garbage bag – maybe it’s the scented order repelling bags that taste so good. I hope to never find out.

Last week I came in from work and guess what? The Tide had decided she was going to go to town on the garbage. I don’t have a can at my house, but hang the bag on a cabinet by the kitchen sink. I don’t know if the bag had fallen down or if she got it down, but in any case, as soon as I walked in I knew she had been in it. There was a trail of garbage from the entrance of my house to the kitchen. I know for a fact there was left over taco meat, mushroom soup and a bag of cooked rice, all of which had been eaten. I’m sure there was a lot more there that she consumed, but I don’t even want to think about it. Needless to say, she didn’t get any dog food that night; I figured she had had enough food for one day. I should have taken a picture of her mess, but priority number one was getting it cleaned up.

One night this week I cooked a bag of rice again. I ate half and put the other half in my lunch for the next day. I went outside to take out some recycling and when I came back in she had that bag out of the garbage. I guess she really likes rice these days. I keep hoping she’ll break herself of this nasty little habit of hers, but I really don’t think she will. Do you think they have garbage anonymous for dogs?

Speaking of garbage, as you may know, I went to Holiday World in July with Jackie and her family. While I was there, my brother stayed at my house and looked after The Tide and ate all my food. This is not really much of an exaggeration. Of course, I told him he could eat whatever he wanted and bought some things he liked so he could have those as well. In the days following my return from Holiday World, this happened and so I really didn’t feel like cooking very much and wanted something fast to eat and every time I went to get something it was gone. I wanted a hot dog – all gone. How about pizza – all gone. It seemed like all the convenient foods in my house were gone.

The pizza was really puzzling to me because I never saw the pizza boxes in the garbage and couldn’t figure out what might have been done with them. Personally I would have put them with the recycling, but my brother… not so much.

I have a small garbage can, and I mean small that sits by my fridge. It’s red and quite cute, but I never use it. I don’t keep a bag in it and have never really found it to be useful because of how small it is, but I keep it there because it was a gift and it’s also where I sit my lunch sack each afternoon when I get home from work.

I would like to preface the rest of the story by saying that I clean my house every weekend, but when I vacuum, sweep, and mop the kitchen, I don’t always move that small garbage can. Most often I do, but if I’m in a hurry, I’ll just go around it and quite honestly in those weeks following my brother’s stint as a house sitter I probably didn’t clean very much at all because all I felt like doing was a whole lot of nothing. So, a couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning house and moved that small garbage can. I picked it up and thought it seemed awfully heavy, or at least heavier than it normally does. I opened it up and voila – the pizza box was folded up inside along with some empty soda cans and some other paper items. Luckily there wasn’t anything perishable and stinky in there. It gave me a good laugh though because for the longest time I wondered where on earth my brother could have but those pizza boxes.

By the way, when I was a little girl, I was fascinated with the garbage man. I would always run to the window when I heard them coming down the street. I thought it was so cool to ride on the back of the garbage truck and decided that when I grew up I wanted to be a garbage man – yes a garbage man, not a garbage woman. Years later, when in high school, I took a trip to the incinerator as part of a trip for my leadership group. It was mesmerizing! I loved every minute of it. I don’t know what it is about me and garbage, but clearly we’ve had a long past and as long as The Tide is around, we’ll probably have a long future.

Tuesday Movie Review - The Other Guys

This past Saturday, my friend Maria and I went to see Will Ferrell’s latest movie, The Other Guys and it was actually rather funny. I love Will Ferrell and think he is an absolute riot but lately some of his movies haven’t been as funny or entertaining as his older stuff and so I was hesitant about going thinking that this one might not meet my expectations. So, when Maria wanted to go see a movie and I looked at what was showing, this was really the only thing that I thought I might want to see so we pressed our luck and went to the 8:00 showing.

The movie is about two guys, played by Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, who are detectives at a New York City Police Department. They never get to go out on calls but accidentally stumble upon a big case. I won’t tell much more than that for fear of giving it all away.

Going in to the movie, I expected there wouldn’t be much of a plot, if at all, but that was another pleasant surprise – there was a plot and it made sense! The plot wasn’t a far stretch and it was understandable as well.

The movie provided me a lot of laughs and I enjoyed it. It opened on August 6 and has been in the top five grossing movies each week. The night we saw it the theater was packed; so, it would seem that people enjoy it and are passing the word on to their friends. It’s obviously not a movie that you will need to put a lot of thought in to, but it was good to just go and relax and have a few laughs with a friend.

We're Opening The Doors - For Real!

It’s a very exciting time at the church I attend. As you may know, our new church building has been under construction for the last nine months or so and we are finally ready to move in! If you are new to this site, you can read about the progress here, here and here. We’ve had a couple of evening services in the fellowship hall/worship area which was ready a couple or three months ago, but now the classroom and office wing is also open and we will have our first full day of worship at our new facility this Sunday!

Last night we had a member orientation so that everyone would know where their classrooms are and be able to help visitors find their way around and afterwards we had a singing service. I spent a few hours at the building on Saturday decorating my classroom and helping get things ready for last night. Here are some photos of the new building:

This is the toddler nursery - the beds are to the right

This is the cradle roll classroom for babies

The baby nursery

This is my classroom, the toddler classroom

for 18 month - 3 year olds

I love this - it's a bathroom between the older toddler

and Pre-K/K class.

The toilet is teeny and so cute I think.

It seems I've been feturing a lot of toilets lately.

The hospitality room

The foyer

This room will be where I spend my Sunday morning Bible class time - the Ladies' Class.

Most all the adult classrooms look like this.

This is unfinished space upstairs which will eventually become more classrooms.

In keeping with the found packs of cigarettes from the previous church building posts,

this sign is posted by the door in the unfinished space.

I'd better not find any cigarette boxes lying around now.

One of the upstairs children's classrooms.

This one is for 3rd and 4th grade.

The youth room

More of the youth room - I assume a fridge is going in to the right

The resource room - in need of resources - they obviously haven't been moved yet.

The library - the books haven't been moved either

The elevator

There are two of these flower arrnagements on the stage -

the arrangement was made by my cousin, Jan, didn't she do a lovely job?

Check this out - this large TV is hidden behind

the communion table. It shows what is on the screen

behind the pulpit so that whoever is on stage will know where

they are in a song, sermon, etc.

This is the flooring between the two buildings.

Last, but not least, the elder's conference room

We are so blessed to have this new facility. I wasn’t sure how I would like it because I am quite sentimental and sometimes unsure about change, but after watching this building go up and seeing it through various phases of construction and now seeing how beautiful it looks, I am very excited and looking forward to worshipping here. As I mentioned, our first service is this Sunday, August 29th. If you live in the Huntsville area, come by for a visit, we would love to have you. The address is 1640 Winchester Road. Worship starts at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday with Bible class to follow at 10:15 and Sunday evening we will meet at 5:00 p.m. Here’s a link to the web site which has directions and additional information.

Hope you can join us!

Yet Another Photography Class

As you may know, I bought a nice camera last year which came with free photography classes at Wolf Camera. While the classes were taught by the lovely Farley Vaughn, they were far from informative and 97% of the information covered in those classes was stuff I already knew. So, the search began to find a “real” photography class and as a result, I attempted another run at a photography class last night.

I had searched around on the internets for photography classes in Huntsville and came across this web site. The photographer, Robert Shuffert, is a landscape photographer and so I emailed him a while back asking him what topics he covered to try and figure out if the class would be informative or a complete waste of my time. He emailed back and said that yes, he would be covering the topics I had mentioned, which were primarily aperture, ISO and shutter speed, all of which seem to be a source of confusion for me. So, after debating on whether or not to go for a couple of months, I decided to bite the bullet and take his class. It was only $25 and I figured I could fork over that amount of money and hopefully get something out of it; plus, it comes with his book of photography tips and highlights as he calls it.

The class was held at a Methodist church here in town. I arrived a few minutes early (as you now, I’m a stickler for being on time) and found a seat. I had been hoping that the class would only have three or four people in it so that we could actually take our cameras out of the bag and play around with the settings – wrong. There were 15 people in class – many arriving late Argh! – allowing Robert to pocket a cool $375 for the two hour session. Thanks to those who inconsiderately arrived late, the class didn’t start on time, which didn’t set well with me because I like for things to start on time – after all, when I promise The Tide I’m going to be home at 9:00, that’s what I mean!

While I was sitting around waiting for the late arrivals, a man walked in and asked if every one in the room was Methodist or Presbyterian because he was in need of a heeling. When I looked up at the guy, I thought he looked awfully familiar and finally about 20 minutes later I remembered where I knew him from – he also took classes at Wolf! Clearly my friends and I were not the only ones who thought the classes at Wolf were a complete waste of time.

The class began by Robert telling a couple of stories about his hiking experiences. By the way, it’s better to hike in the fall and the winter because there are less bugs and spiders about and the snakes are hibernating. Then he told a story about how he almost sat on a copperhead a couple of years ago and a couple of years before that he almost stepped on another one. At this point, I was getting really frustrated because I had come to learn some things about taking nice photographs, not hiking tips. So about 20 minutes after the class was supposed to have started, it did just that.

As far as the class goes, it was okay I guess. I don’t wish I had my $25 back, but it also wasn’t as great as I had hoped for it to be. I actually took quite a few notes and I think I came away with a little better understanding of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. There were a few other topics that he spoke about that I had some general knowledge of; so, it was nice to expand on what I already knew. The book he gave everyone had a copy of all the graphics from his presentation and descriptions of various things he went over in the class. I ended up leaving the class at 10 minutes until 9:00 because I was getting adult ADD and the information Robert was going over was just a repeat of things he had said earlier in the class. At this point I had been sitting in a chair for two hours and was ready to be home. I don’t think he had much more material to go over because like I said he was basically recapping everything he had gone over earlier.

So, generally speaking, I learned a few things, but the class was still a disappointment because I was really hoping for class that showed everyone how to change the settings on the camera, which is what I don’t really know how to do. I guess I’ll just have to learn that on my own. I bought the Nikon D3000 for Dummies book earlier this year and just haven’t had an opportunity to look through it and apply it when taking photos. Maybe I can do that this fall. Last week I received an email from Nikon that said “Nikon Photo School Coming to Your City” – when I clicked on it, the closest city was Philadelphia or something ridiculous like that. I was crushed. I really wanted that photo school to come to my city so the good folks at Nikon could show me all the magic of the camera. Oh well; the search for a really good photography class continues I suppose.

A Bouquet of Friends

I don’t really have much to write about this week, which is why there has been a lot of silence on this end of cyper space. Life has been rather routine lately – work, gym, dinner, sleep – and the weekends are spent cleaning, reading, going to church and watching the occasional movie. So, as you can tell, not very exciting. You probably do these same things so why would you want to come here to read about that?

I wanted to write a post about friends today, probably because I had my closest girlfriends over for dinner last night and they have all been on my mind and in my prayers for one reason or another recently. Even though we communicate through email on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis, it’s much better to have the face-to-face time in this crazy electronic based 21st century world we are living in.

I am extremely thankful to God who has abundantly blessed me with a plethora of friends, many who live close; others who live far away. Without friends how would we make it through the daily trials of our life? The old joke goes something like, thanks to my friends I’ve saved a ton of money in therapist bills; but, if you really stop to think about it, it’s not really that much of a joke. Friends (true friends) will and should want to be there for you in all situations, both good times and bad. They listen to your problems, cry with you through hard times and laugh with you during happy times. Friends are there to pick you up when you fall and knock you down a notch or two if you happen to need it. If you stop to think about it, the love and support we receive from our friends is actually God sending us love and support through our friends.

I wanted to take this opportunity and this outlet to thank you all for the love and support you have shown me recently. Thanks to those of you who prayed for Tony to find a new job after he was laid-off in July. A lot of you emailed and called and asked about him often. He found a job in Florida and is working there for now. Being from the Huntsville area, he would obviously like to find a job in Huntsville, but he plans to stay in Florida until an opportunity in Huntsville becomes available to him.

As for me, while I may not have seen you personally, I have felt your prayers and your love, all of which have helped me cope with and put into perspective the end of my relationship with Tony. In the grand scheme of things my heartache isn’t that significant, and I am thankful to those of you who took time out of your day to pray for me, send me a note, leave a comment, or send an email. I am still working through the sadness and most days are better than others.

You may have figured out that Tony and I have made the very grown-up decision to be friends; for which I am also thankful. When I started writing today, I didn’t even think that I would end up closing with this. My main point was that I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who I may not see on a regular basis. Many years ago I taught a Bible class to a group of junior high girls and used the following analogy. Friends are like flowers. A flower on its own is nice, but when we gather a flower here and a flower there, we end up with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and aren’t more flowers lovelier than just one or two. We can never have too many friends, even if they come in the form of an ex-boyfriend. Thank you for being my friend.

The Monday Review - a Movie and a Book

A few months ago I noticed that Julia Roberts was going to be on Oprah and being a lover of all things Julia Roberts, I set the DVR to record the show. As it turns out, this particular show was about Julia’s (yes, we’re on a first name basis) upcoming movie, Eat, Pray, Love, based on the book written by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I had seen mention of this book on some blogs I read and had probably seen it in a bookstore or two, but never thought to purchase it; but, after the Oprah episode (Elizabeth Gilbert was on the show too) I went online and bought the book to read before the movie came out. Unfortunately I haven’t been in much of a reading mood over the past few months – sometimes I get in a funk like this – and didn’t pick the book up until a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know about you, but I am a strong believer that everything in life happens for a reason; each experience we have helps us to grow into the person we are meant to be. So, I think it was meant to be that I didn’t read this book until the end of my relationship with Tony. I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much if I had read it any sooner.

All I knew about the book was that the author took a trip to three countries in the period of a year and I thought, “Well, that’s cool, wonder why it sold so many copies.” Well, my friends, I now know. I’m sure every woman (and maybe some men) who has ever experienced a heartbreak can relate to Gilbert’s memoir. Gilbert took her trip around the globe after a nasty divorce to help her heal from all the emotional instability and insanity in her life. Obviously the end of my relationship was neither a divorce nor nasty, but it doesn’t make the heartache any less in my opinion because when you truly love someone and it doesn’t work out then the sadness is going to be more than you can handle some days; you're not going to recover overnight.

I tried to finish the book before the movie came out and came shy of about 100 pages in completing my goal. I finished the book on Sunday night after I saw the movie Friday with my friends, Jackie, Kendra and Sabrina. As mentioned, I found the book so relatable. There were actual phrases in the book that I have recently said myself or advice given to Gilbert that has also been given to me. I’m not sure I’ve related to a book in such a way in quite some time. It’s remarkable really how things work out. Clearly it was not meant for me to read this book until I needed it; or at least that’s how I feel.

Now, I usually rant and rave in my movie reviews when I’ve seen a movie based on a book. Typically the movie doesn’t even compare to the literary work. This movie, however, was a rarity in that it followed the book quite closely. There were a few liberties taken with the script, but nothing I don’t think fans of the book can’t live with. I think the main reason the film was so similar to the book was because Gilbert contributed to the writing of the script, which I think is admirable because a lot of times (hello, Percy Jackson) the author doesn’t do this and the film becomes a giant mess and nothing like the book, which is disappointing to the literary audience.

For those of you who have read the book, I think you will find the film is quite good. Although I’m a big fan of Julia Roberts’, I had a hard time picturing her as Gilbert; instead of her becoming Gilbert on screen, it was more like oh there’s Julia Roberts; maybe because Julia (at age 42) is a few years older than Gilbert was when she went on this journey (she was 34/35). It just seems to me like it might have been better to have an unknown play Gilbert rather than a big movie star that everyone is familiar with. Sometimes it’s hard to get past the actor and into the character – or maybe that’s just me. At any rate, overall, I thought the film was great. Of course, in my mind it was a lot lovelier but that’s because I have a crazy, vivid imagination and often get lost in books when I’m reading. I’m not so sure everyone else is like that.

So, to sum things up, if you’re looking for something to read, this book was really good and a work of non-fiction, which is sometimes hard to find. The movie was good as well and also quite enjoyable. In the ending of both, Gilbert’s heart heals and she finds love again, which is nice to know that it happens in real life, not just on the movie screen.