Happy Birthday, Ahn!

Ahn, the sweet Vietanamese lady that married my #2 brother, turns 23 today (at least by American standards, I'm told). She has learned a lot in the 3 years she's been in this country. I love her because she's funny and whitty. Even when she didn't speak English very well at all, her sense of humor shined through and won the hearts of her American in-laws. I know my sister and I consider her another sister in the family. She's truly been a blessing to us. And hey, she's got to have a good sense of humor to put up with my quirky brother. I love you both!

On a completely different note, I had another episode with acid reflux last night. This time it came up my nose - my left nostril is still burning in spite of my efforts to rinse it out after I emptied the contents of my stomach. That was at 4 a.m.

Happy Birthday, Micah!

Today, The Boy becomes a man chronologically, but he will always be my son, no matter how old he gets. I am so thankful to his Dad for making these kids a part of my life, giving me children where I otherwise might not have had any. They have been a joy in spite of any pain they may have caused.

The ring-bearer at our wedding. He's 3 here and that's his sister, Shannon, with her arm around his neck, back when they acted like they loved each other.

Cheerleading about age 12.

 Acting silly at the train station in St. Louis in 2002.

Not quite awake at Christmas a few years ago.

With his dad at Great Grandma's house. I think he was 13 here.

With his niece, my grandbaby, two years ago.

With his girlfriend when they visited us last summer. They are still together.

His senior pictures, with his first true love, the skateboard. Ha!

I kissed hubby before leaving the house today, wishing him a happy Valentines day. "Happy greeting card company day to you," he says. I look at him quizzically. "Well that's what it is," he defends, "a day invented by the greeting card companies to supplement slow sales between Christmas and Mother's Day."

As I promised, the photo of the Slim Jim bouquet I made for my hubby:

I was in the store when he came in, so I followed him to see his reaction, thinking I was all proud of myself for being so creative. His comment, "Great, lots of fat."

"What did you say," I asked, honestly not having heard his comment. He repeats it. "Fine, take them back, throw them away, I'm sorry that I tried to get you something you like." I'm starting to cry, truly upset that he couldn't see the effort. As I'm walking away, he's calling out behind me, "I appreciate the effort." Yeah, whatever. I am truly upset over what a big jackass he can be. I leave the store in a huff, on my way to pick up donuts for the training session we have this morning.

When I get back from the store, there is a computer-printed card on my desk, obviously made in Publisher or Word. In it, he has typed up "Valentines if 1 day a year. You are 365. I have 365 days open on my calendar for a Valentine. Can I pencil you in?" and he handwrites, "I love you even if you do try to keep me fat and happy - John."

So maybe he does have a tiny little romantic bone in his body, I think. I ask him how much of that saying did he write and how much was a ready-made greeting. About half, he says, "I wrote the beginning." Ok, that's the part I think is romantic (at least for him).

I've been married to him for nearly 15 years. I should know better. I guess one can always hope that tiny little romantic bone that gets lost in all that honest, logical crap that makes up the majority of my husband will show it's tiny self every now and then.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I gave the hubby a card, a Snickers heart and a dozen Slim Jim's (sorta). He loves Tabasco Slim Jim's, and I've been planning for at least a week now to buy a dozen of them from the convenience store across the street from our store and put them in a vase. I went by last night to buy them, and they only had 10 of the Tabasco-flavored ones left. He likes them spicy, and they had some samples of "hot" ones on the counter, so I taped a few of them together to make them longer. They kind of work because they droop over the lip of the vase a bit. I put them on his desk at work when I left last night. I'll post a pic of them later this morning if I manage to get in early enough to do so.

It's snowing!

We got 3-4 inches last night and are expecting another 2-3 today. I just spent 45 minutes shoveling the walks (with John's help). That is GREAT exercise, and really, I don't mind it because it doesn't feel like I'm exercising. Just the same, I'm ready for SPRING! I also think we'll look at the price of a snow blower at the end of winter, when they go on clearance. It would help get the job done faster, but then the exercise element won't be there either, so who knows. I kinda like the exercise that doesn't really feel like exercise.

I let John take his shower first. It helps if I cool down (yes, even after shoveling snow, I have to cool down) before I get in the shower. Elsewise, I'll still be sweating when I get out of the shower.

At least we didn't get 8 feet of snow like they did in New York.

I am considering giving up something for lent. I am ashamed to admit that I have not been very good about sticking to daily devotionals lately, not since I quit teaching Sunday school actually. Our Sunday school lessons had a week's worth of devotionals built in to prepare for the week's lesson. I left the quarterly teacher's guide at the church when I left, thinking it would be there in case someone else decided to pick up teaching the class.

But this morning, I did get up and do my devotional before jumping on Xanga. During today's devotional, it talked about fasting as a means of separating yourself from the things that separate you from God. I have a few things that get in the way of my relationship with God, and unfortunately, Xanga is one of them. On the other hand, Xanga does provide me a means of staying in touch with other Christians. But is that an excuse for the voyeurism I do on other people's lives?

So, with Lent approaching next week, I am considering giving up Xanga for Lent. I'm also considering, as an alternative, giving up take-out food during that period and putting the money I save from it toward a charity or a mission of some sort. Both will be very hard for me to do. The thought of giving up Xanga all together makes me very sad, but then I think if it is separating me from God, I should give it up.

Too bad it isn't possible to give up work for six weeks - HA!

In all seriousness though, I would like your prayers as I struggle with this decision. I have a week to decide what I'm going to do. I feel led to give something up for Lent (even though I'm not Catholic).

I'm heading into work early on a Saturday. I have GOT to get the bookwork for 2006 caught up and turned in to the accountant so he can do our taxes. We are required to have Schedule Ks to the shareholders by March 15 and in order to do that he needs to get the taxes figured and in order to do that, I need to make sure everything is entered into the computer so I can make him a copy of the file.

On top of that, our new point-of-sale program that we started using last year does some weird things to help reconcile cell phone sales. Problem with it is I haven't learned how to use that portion properly so there is lots to clean up on the Quickbook side of things. YIKES!!!

John also wants me to go with him to the Knoxville store sometime this weekend to work on some maintenance issues he needs another set of hands for. I'm hoping the guys at the Oskaloosa store today can handle things up front without my help. That would require that we not get too busy at one time today. I pray that folks come in at an easy steady pace instead of in a herds like they normally tend to do. If it's nice and easy, the employee will stay busy up front and not have time to come interrupt me, while he won't be so busy he'll need to call for assistance. We don't want customers walking because they have to wait, either.

Enough yacking - off to work!

Great. Xanga is crapped out again. I've tried commenting on someone's site and it won't let me. It now is also not letting read the rest of my SIR.