Some Updates and Links for You

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted any updates on here. Things have been rather busy, can you tell? Busy is good, but it can also be tiring – I’m sure you all know what I mean.

Charlie’s fire pit has returned to his back yard – As you may recall, my neighbor Charlie has a fire pit and earlier this year when he moved in, he would sit outside and smoke cigars and drink wine while sitting out at the fire pit all by his lonesome. The fire pit disappeared over the summer, and quite frankly so did Charlie. He was scarce to be found and rumor has it that he has a lake house. I assume the fire pit accompanied Charlie at the lake, but now that the weather has cooled off, the fire pit has returned and so has Charlie. He’s already had it burning strong one night this week. The man wastes no time!

Blue – My car, Blue, is at the shop being repaired this week. When I first took her in for an estimate, it looked like she might be totaled, but alas, she is not, and she is being repaired as I type. I will be driving that turquoise accident magnet again before long. In the mean time, I am driving a silver Volkswagen Jetta, which is one of the cars I have always wanted. It’s been a lot of fun driving the Jetta and I’m hoping it takes a few more days before Blue is retuned to me – no offense, Blue!

This week and next is our United Way campaign at work. You may recall that last year, Erika helped me bake and decorate an award winning cake. Tomorrow is this year’s cake contest and I will spend this evening decorating my cake for the contest. I baked it this morning while I was getting ready for work. So, it should be ready to go this evening when I get home. I just hope it turns out like I’ve got it pictured in my mind.

For those of you wondering, my college roommate, Melissa, finished her 3-day 60-mile walk for breast cancer. You can read about her adventures here (day one), here (day two) and here (day three). I’m really proud of her for making it the entire three days and 60 miles! I’m not sure I could have done it.

My friend Kimberly and her husband Gary spent a few days in India recently and they helped convert a lot of souls to Christ while they were there, which is no small feat! These two are living in Malaysia for a few months and Kimberly always has something interesting to write about on her blog. I especially loved this post about a recent dining experience she and Gary had. Right now she is trying to encourage Gary to write a blog of his own. Check out this post and then send Gary and email with some word of encouragement.

My friend Caroline and her Hero Hubs, Mark, recently had their Canon stolen. You can read about how it came to be stolen here. They are asking friends to email Canon, asking Canon to donate a new camera to them. Here’s Caroline’s post to Canon. Read it and send Canon an email. These two are doing great work for the Lord and extra money for a nice camera is hard to come by.

Speaking of people in the mission field, Allison and Barton have been in Peru now for over a year, which is hard to believe because it seems just like yesterday that they moved from the States. You can read about their work in Peru here.

How is it that I came to know so many people in the mission field? Is this a sign of being old?

My foot has not been getting any better and so I am having surgery on Thursday, December 2. Hopefully the surgery will correct the problem and I will be able to walk without pain in a few months time.

I suppose that’s it for now, or at least all I can think of at the moment. As always, thanks for your comments. It’s always nice to hear what you have to say! Have a good day!

I’m Headed to France

Have you heard I’m going to France? It’s true. On July 18, 2011, I plan to be in Lyon, France ready to take in the final week of the 2011 le Tour de France.

On October 19, the 2011 route for le Tour was announced and I have been brimming over with excitement ever since. The final details of my trip were made available to me last week and I have been so eager to share them with you. For all the details, click here.

I’m planning to arrive in Lyon, France on Sunday, July 17; then, on Monday, July 18, I will meet up with the group from Custom Getaways to start our journey on the last week of le Tour de France. I went ahead and booked the VIP trip because let’s face it, it’s not like I can just pick up and go to France any ole time. The VIP trip affords me access to the cyclists along with other amenities that I otherwise wouldn’t have and I want to make sure that I don’t waste away any opportunities I have to have the best experience ever.

The Tour heads into the Alps the week I am there and we will even be in Italy for two days! The final mountain stage is on L’Alpe d’Huez and I am thrilled about this. When Tony first began grooming me to be a cycling fan, he talked repeatedly of L’Alpe D’Huez and how awesome it is and now I get to experience it for myself.

After L’Alpe D’Huez, there will be a Time Trial in Grenoble and then I’ll wrap up the week in Paris and on Sunday evening after the Tour is over and the maillot jaune has been handed out to the winner, we will celebrate with a dinner cruise on the Seine! Jackie will be flying to Paris the next day and we will spend the week eating bread and cheese and doing all things Parisian. Ya’ll this is going to be the trip of a lifetime! I am excited beyond words.

My French software (not Rosetta Stone – couldn’t afford that) arrived last week and I will soon get to work brushing up on my French; so, please bare with me if I start practicing on you!

My plans are to take my computer with me on the trip so that I can blog daily and keep you updated on all the goings on while I’m away. I’m thinking about getting one of the wireless cards that plug into a USB port through my cell phone provider. Does anyone have one of these? Do you like it? I’ve got to do some research on these and make sure they work internationally but that’s one of the options I’m looking at since I don’t know how great the service will be in the various cities in France and Italy.

So, that’s the latest news on my trip. I am super excited and really looking forward to the adventure and also looking forward to sharing it with you!

Then Sings My Soul - Book Review

In case you didn’t know, there less than 46 days left until Christmas. I put a countdown to Christmas counter way down at the bottom of the blog and forgot to mention it until now. So, if you ever need to know how many shopping days are left, just check back here and look at the bottom of the page and you’ll know!

Speaking of Christmas, leads us to Christmas shopping. Have you started yours yet? A few years ago for Christmas, I gave my grandmother the book Then Sings My Soul 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories. My grandmother liked to read and she also liked old gospel hymns and when I saw the book in the store, I knew it would be a good choice for her Christmas present. Since that time a second edition was published and now the author, Robert J. Morgan, has come out with a special edition which includes 150 Christmas, Easter and All-time favorite hymns.

If you have never seen or heard of this series of books, allow me to tell you a little bit about them. Obviously, each book contains 150 hymns. The hymn, along with it’s music is on one side of the page and on the other side is the story of how the hymn was written or the story behind the hymn – how it came to be.

The special edition, as stated, includes some of the most beloved Christmas hymns including The First Noel, Hark The Herald Angels Sing,, Away in a Manger, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. The book also has a selection of patriotic songs and their stories, including The Star Spangled Banner, and America, the Beautiful. To complete the 150 hymns, the special edition has the stories of some of the most beloved hymns like Abide with Me, Jesus Loves Me, and Rock of Ages and it also has the hymn and story of one of my most favorite songs, There is a Balm in Gilead.

The book is in paperback form and I really like the way it looks which was another reason I was drawn to it when I bought the original copy for my grandmother all those years ago. The sides of the pages look like they are torn or made from handmade paper which to me gives the book a really classic and unique feel and look. It is one of my favorite features about the book. Then Sings My Soul is 310 pages and includes three indexes – one alphabetical by title, the second alphabetical by the first line of the song and the third alphabetical by the author/songwriter – so that you can easily find the song for which you are looking.

Then Sings My Soul is a great book for anyone who loves hymns. The list price is $19.99, but it can be found on Amazon for less than $15. Buy it for the music lover on your Christmas list!

This book review was written in coordination with my association with BookSneeze. All reviews are my own opinion. I was not paid for this review, but did receive a free copy of the book.

Concession Stand Review – Goldsmith Schiffman Field

This post was supposed to have appeared last Friday, but with the latest car accident, it was postponed until today. Another concession stand review should be up later in the week – two for the price of one!

Friday, October 29 was the last football game of the regular season and I covered the Columbia vs. Madison County game that was played just one mile from my house at Goldsmith Schiffman Field (GSF). I haven’t had many good experiences at the GSF concession stand and last Friday was no exception.

I left my house at 6:30 in order to get to the stadium at 6:32. Ha! That’s funny to me for some reason. I found a prime parking spot at the corner of the street which made it easy for me to make my escape to the newsroom after the game.

I had eaten a snack of deviled eggs (I was on a deviled egg kick last week. I think I ate a dozen or more!) before I left for the game and decided I would finally have some nachos for a change. I love nachos, but they are messy and not always a good option when working at a game. After I got set up (had my own room again – yay!) I headed down to the concession stand to see what they had to offer.

I knew that GSF as well as the other Huntsville City School ran facilities had Pepsi products so I had brought with me a Diet Coke purchased at Propst Drugs earlier in the afternoon. So, my drink was covered. I looked over the menu and decided on nachos and a hot dog. I placed my order and wouldn’t you know it, the nacho cheese wasn’t ready. I’m not even kidding here. How can the nacho cheese not be ready 20 minutes before kick-off? So, I opted for popcorn in place of nachos. As soon as I was handed my hot dog and popcorn and not a second later, the nacho cheese was all of a sudden ready. Again, I’m not even kidding. I think it was some kind of ploy to get folks to buy more food. I went ahead and got the nachos so that I wouldn’t have to come back down and stand in line at half time because I know from experience that the halftime line at GSF is ridiculous! Even though there are four windows for taking orders, only two windows are used and I haven’t for the life of me figured out why that is.

I took my loot up to what we will call my private suite and ate the nachos first since that was what I wanted the most. The cheese that was so complicated in its getting ready process was kind of runny and didn’t have much taste. The basket ‘o chips was also not full. I felt cheated! Next I took a bite of the hot dog and one bite was all it took for me to score two points at the trash can. It was terrible. Last, but not least I ate the popcorn, which was probably the best of the three. I think I’ve mentioned before that it’s really hard to mess up popcorn.

To make matters worse, the Diet Coke I purchased earlier in the day was expired and also tasted terrible. I didn’t think I needed to look at the expiration date on a 20 oz Diet Coke before purchasing it but apparently I do. I hope I remember to check it out from now on. Shame on you, Mr. Coke Man for not properly rotating your merchandise and leaving expired items on the shelf! You ought to be ashamed! Some of us live for the ice cold taste of a Diet Coke and you ruined my moment! Ruined it! I should have walked across the street and gotten some grub from Sonic but it was cold and well, my foot (having surgery December 2 by the way).

The total for the three items was $5 – nachos ($2), popcorn ($1) and hot dog ($2). The highest priced item was $3 for chili cheese nachos. They also had candy and I think pizza, but can’t remember for sure. Needless to say, if you’re headed to a game at GSF, be sure and eat before you go.

Final Score: C-

They Say It Comes In Threes

I had a post about the concession stand prepared for today; but that will now have to wait until next week because it has happened again. My poor car, Blue, was involved in yet another car accident – the third in three months! (Read about #1 and #2 if you haven't already.) I’m beginning to think Blue is actually a magnet for car accidents.

Last night after work I went to the gym and then headed over to drop some things off at a friend’s house. As I was coming home, I was stopped at the traffic light at Russell and Pratt Avenue. When my light turned green, I started driving and out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone coming down Pratt Avenue at what seemed like 40 miles per hour and it looked as though they had no intention of stopping. I slammed on my brakes to try and prevent poor Blue from being hit again; but it was no use. The guy in the silver Reno plowed into the side of Blue and gave my unfortunate car her third injury in as many months.

Neither me nor the other driver were injured which is a blessing. I’ve had a headache since last night, but the doctor says it isn’t a concussion; so, that’s good. Needless to say I was less than thrilled about being in yet another traffic accident. I really wish I could afford a driver because I hate driving more and more every day. I really think I have a sign on my car that says, “Please pull out in front of me” or “Please hit me”. Unfortunately the sign is invisible to me and I can’t see it to get rid of it.

So, that’s the latest saga of Blue. She’ll be headed back to the shop next week. Since things supposedly come in threes, I hope that this third accident is the last one for a long while. Keep me in your prayers as I travel the roads of Madison County!

Chex Mix - My Get Together

For those of you who are regular readers, you may remember a few weeks back when I mentioned I was selected by the folks at Pssst to host a My Get Together Party for Chex Mix. I received three bags of Chex Mix (traditional, turtle, and honey nut) a cute bowl in which to serve the Chex Mix, napkins, plates and coupons to pass out to all the people who came.

I invited my American Idol gang to come over and participate in the Chex Mix sampling and they each brought other goodies as well. We had the football game on in the background while we munched away on all kinds of goodness.

I don’t know about the other girls, but my favorite of the Chex Mix varieties is the traditional. I especially love it when I happen upon a piece that’s loaded down with seasoning. The turtle and honey nut are also good if you are looking for something sweet for a snack. I prefer salty foods when I snack… well, most of the time anyway.

We had a great time catching up and I would like to send a special thank you out to the folks at Pssst for allowing me to host this party. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take any photos – it had been a long day – but I can assure you that we all had a good time and left with bellies full of goodness!

Halloween 2010

My 2010 Jack-O-Lanterns

I think this will be the last Halloween post of 2010, but I’m not making any promises. This past Sunday, as you know, was Halloween – one of my favorite holidays! Sunday afternoon I carved pumpkins in preparation for trunk-or-treat at church and the trick-or-treaters at my house.

Carving pumpkins is my most beloved Halloween tradition. I can remember carving pumpkins with my dad as a young child and when I moved away to this state or that, I always carried on the tradition by myself. I actually debated on whether or not to carve pumpkins this year; but, I decided not to let any sadness get in the way of my continued tradition of pumpkin carving and Sunday afternoon I got out the knife and spoon and got to work.

I was originally going to do just one pumpkin, but ended up carving both of the pumpkins I had on hand. I also usually use the pumpkin patterns you can buy at the store, but this year I decided to go old school and just carve out my own jack-o-lantern design.

After I carved the pumpkins, it was time to get ready for church and trunk-or-treat. I think I mentioned last year how weird I think trunk-or-treating is. I much prefer the old school door-to-door trick-or-treating and I feel sad that a lot of kids will never know this age old tradition. Nevertheless, trunk-or-treating can be fun for both young and old.

When church service was over, I headed outside and lit the candles in my jack-o-lanterns and set up a chair to pass out candy. It was a lot cooler out than I expected and I wished I had brought along a jacket. Trunk-or-treat started about 6:15 or so and I stayed and handed out candy for 45 minutes or maybe even an hour. There were a lot of people there; not just children from our congregation, but also people from the surrounding area neighborhoods; so, it was essential to have a lot of candy on hand. Thankfully, I was wise and only gave out two pieces of candy per child as opposed to the four of five pieces I usually give out. Otherwise I would have run out, as some people did. I always watch for kids that come back for more candy and I had to shoo away a few kids who thought they could trick me into giving them a second helping. Wrong, kiddo! I have a good memory!

My Jack-O-Lanterns and Candy Bowl

This was the set up at the car next to me - they outdid my lame set up!

Most of the kids were polite. I had a few who were not including one who as I was reaching to get some candy, said, “I want that kind,” and grabbed what he wanted and took off. I was kind of in shock considering this was a kid that I knew. There were lots of great costumes this year, and seriously, there were tons of Marios from Super Mario Brothers. Are they making a comeback? I feel old having to ask this question when this would typically be something I would know about.

Here are some of the costumes from trunk-or-treat:

This is one of the Corder boys. I don’t know which one. I think Peyton. I always get the younger two mixed up. He was a baker from “Mom’s Kitchen” and passed out free homemade cookies. They were good too!

Silas, the son of my friend Candy, came as a penguin and was adorable! He waddled over to the candy bowl and had his pick of the treats. 

Candy’s charming daughter Jane Claire was Cinderella. She was all about posing for the camera. I had to take a few different shots of her because I couldn’t find the right setting.

Sara’s son Bryson was Scooby Doo and her husband, Stephen was Shaggy. They were really cute! Sara’s oldest boy, Brayden, came as Buddy, Will Ferrell’s character from Elf, one of my all time favorite movies. Sara came as a BP oil spill clean up worker and her costume was awesome! I was actually a little jealous that I didn’t come up with something as cleaver as this! It came complete with a rescued bird too!

This Scooby doesn't look too happy; but he's cute!

Poor bird! Hope Sara gets it cleaned up!

Alison’s lovely daughter Nina was (I believe) an Egyptian princess.

After I passed out almost all of my candy, I decided to leave the festivities so I could get home and pass out candy to any kids that came by my house. I obviously loved going door-to-door as a kid and as an older kid I love to hand out the treats. It makes me laugh every time I say, “What are you supposed to be?” and “Oh, you look so scary!” or “Oh, you look so pretty!” Yep, I am definitely an adult now.

I had a couple of more bags of candy at home and opened those up for the neighborhood kids. I had my biggest crowd yet with 27 trick-or-treaters. I realize this isn’t a lot compared to some neighborhoods, but I usually average about 13 or so. I guess the word is out on the street that I pass out good candy! Ha!

The last trick-or-treater stopped by around 8:20 and I closed up shop about 8:45. I was pleasantly surprised that my jack-o-lanterns made it the whole night on the porch without getting stolen and smashed in the street like last year.

The Tide is looking for ghosts and goblins.

Pay no attention to my filthy door.

As far as Halloween’s go, this one wasn’t too bad – I even had some candy left over, which is a bonus indeed. How about you? How was your Halloween?