Happy birthday to Maria.
You feel more like a sister than a sister-in-law to me, girl. Hope you have a great birthday.
May is a big month for birthdays in our house. Mom's was May 8. My brother Steve (Maria's husband) was May 15. I've got two nephews with birthdays on May 22, and two other SILs with birthdays in May but I don't remember their dates. Plus, my husband's brother and SIL have an anniversary on May 11. Lots of specials days in May for us.
I know my husband loves me. Not because he wished me a Happy Mother's Day (technically, I'm not biologically anyone's mother). Nor did he get me anything for Mother's Day. He started recording Survivor for me tonight when I did not make it home by 7 p.m. THAT'S how I know he loves me. I didn't ask him. I had even spaced off that it was on tonight. but when I got home I heard it on in the living room. He started the tape in the living room and then retreated to the bedroom to watch his shows.
Two of three kids have called me to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. I am always thrilled to hear from them. For the longest time, they were not allowed to call me to wish me Happy Mother's Day because I am only their stepmom. They haven't been allowed to call their dad on Father's Day, either, so I knew it wasn't them. Now they all have cell phones and don't have to ask Mommy's permission to call Daddy or his wife. Two of them have remembered me... and that makes my heart sing with joy.
Happy Mother's Day to all other moms, stepmom, grandmas and step-grandmas, and anyone else who feels motherly over someone.
~ UPDATE ~
Third kid called me about 9:15 to wish me Happy Mother's Day. Yeay! They all three thought of me.
Grey's Anatomy was awesome tonight. They really left us on a good cliffhanger and I cannot wait to watch the 2-hour season finale tomorrow night.
I do not know when I'm going to find the time before Tuesday to watch the finale of Survivor. I don't even know who won yet. I could stay up late tonight and finish it, but that would mean I'd only get about 5 hours of sleep and I can't handle that little sleep, especially when I've got to stay awake until 10 p.m. tomorrow to see how Grey's Anatomy ends.
Only a week and a half until we leave for Texas. I'm excited yet anxious. Will explain more in the days to come.
Yesterday's appointment went well. Met the new doctor who will be responsible for my care for at least the rest of the year. She did not release me from her care. Doctors like to track at least 5 years from completion of treatment. I tried talking her into letting me go, but she wants to see me again in 6 months and then we can talk about moving to once a year and possibly sending that back to my regular doctor's care. This new doc wants a chest x-ray every year now, too, in addition to the mammogram and the blood work. She says the blood work will tell her if all is ok with my liver and kidney functions but it won't show her the lungs. Since most breast cancer spreads to those organs, if it spreads, she wants the x-ray. John and I both think it's overkill since I had no lymph node involvement, but I guess I'll play along for another 6 months.
I then went to Hobby Lobby and Mennards in search of some cheap life preserver wall hangings I can turn into cheesey awards for our upcoming company picnic. We are doing a Gilligan's Island theme this year. I had no luck. Closest thing I could find was a helm clock and they wanted $70 for it. Way too pricey. Mom is gonna do some looking for me down her way. She thinks she might have seen something I can use in one of the stores around her. I know I've seen something like this before but I'm darned if I can find it now that I need it. I may end up paper mache-ing some. We'll see what happens.
Action is needed NOW to continue saving lives with early detection of cancer. The U.S. Senate is about to eliminate mandatory insurance coverage for mammograms, collolecteral exams and other life-saving cancer screenings.
As a 5-year breast cancer survivor, I'm asking you to use the link below to contact your senators urging them to save insurance coverage for these vital cancer screenings.
Email your Senators Now
Click here to send a quick email
to your U.S. Senators Now.
Tell them to Save Mammograms
and OPPOSE S.1955.
Just some quick notes:
Just a quick update while I eat my breakfast of cornflakes and over-ripe banana...
After 4 or 5 days of non-stop rain and drizzle, we finally have a sunny day. I see the rain has moved off to the south. I know you folks down there need it as badly, if not worse, than we do. We didn't get much snow this winter, so that leaves us a bit dry in the spring.
Hubby went out mushrooming again yesterday and brought me back about a half pound of morrels. I've been thinking his spot has been drying up for years but he finally admitted that maybe it is. He's been out three or four times this past month and only found a couple of mushrooms on one previous walk. Other people are finding them by the pounds and selling them on the street corner for $10-20 a pound. I don't care to sell them, I'd just like to have enough to eat now and freeze some for later. I'd also like to get enough that I could string them up and dry them to send down to my mom.
I did get the mushrooms cut and cleaned last night before I went to bed. There was a millipede hiding in the center of one in addition to all of the other bugs that came in with the sack.
I have another baggie of about half a pound that the pastor from the church I visited on Sunday night brought by. That was really a touching gesture. He didn't stick around to chat a lot, he just dropped them by the store and said to tell us they were from Pastor Dave. It took me a bit to figure out who Pastor Dave was, but I definitely think it was a generous outreach. Morrels are prized posessions around here.
So we will be having mushrooms and steak for supper tonight. I have to take off work right away after we close so I can get it all cooked up. John will just eat a few mushrooms. He like hunting them better than eating them. I'll eat lots and lots of them and freeze the rest for later.
In other news, I've got a new girl starting at work today, and our new point-of-sale system is ready so the other girl will be training on it. I had wanted to get the POS in operation May 1, but the company didn't have our data imported into it in time for that. I am glad to have a nearly full staff. Still have one more position open to fill us up completely, but at least I can relax just a little once I get this other girl trained. Plus, I know we'll be ok while John and I are in Texas at the end of the month. Youngest child (the Boy) graduates this month.
OK, I guess that wasn't so quick afterall.
The church voted tonight to ask pastor to stay on. They didn't want to accept his resignation. Someone called the pastor in (he lives near the church) and he came by and asked everyone where they wanted the church to go and said he wasn't convinced it wasn't just talk. (That was his way of saying he'd have to think about it and pray about it.) All I can say is the church has extended the hand. If he doesn't take it, well, I guess we did the Christian thing in admitting we knew we needed to change.
We interviewed someone today for the opening at our store and I have another interview in the morning. I'm praying we find someone who will work out as good as the one we currently have. I'd like to at least have time to train someone in a little before we head to Texas at the end of the month to watch our son graduate from high school. I look forward to seeing him and our one daughter and her husband. I wonder if we'll get to see our other daughter and son-in-law and the grandbaby. I don't know if they'll be able to afford to make a trip back to Texas, but it would be nice if they could.
On a different note, one of the girls in my cancer support group has a puppy in a photo contest. Please go http://pets-place.net/FreeDogContest.html and vote for Ezekiel the Saint Bernard. He's currently in 2nd place but is many, many votes behind first place. We need a boost. Don't be tempted by some of the other cuties up there, particularly the ones in costume. Vote for Zeke - LOL!!!
Drama, drama, drama ... my life is full of drama. I'm still around, I just haven't had much time to get onto Xanga lately. I tried getting on to read some of my SIR this weekend but I didn't get very far.
Last week, everyone in our congregation received in the mail a resignation letter from our pastor along with a copy of his sermon from the previous Sunday. There's a really long story behind why he gave us this sermon, which came across to many in the congregation as him lecturing and condemning us instead of him giving us a sermon with Biblical teachings in it and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the convicting.
So, this past week I've had lots and lots of meetings and phone calls that had nothing at all to do with work. Many of these phone calls included dealing with the luncheon the church is supposed to have for pastor this coming Saturday when he graduates from the Christian college here in town with his degree in Pastoral Studies. He actually finished up his degree in December, but this school doesn't have winter commencement exercises. Some members of the church decided they didn't want to bring side dishes to go along with the meat and cake the pastor's mom is providing. So we had to figure out something different to do there. Since then, congregation members have come around to realizing that isn't the Christian way to do things.
Tonight we have a meeting at church for the congregation to vote whether to give the pastor his next month's salary and send him on his way or to allow him to finish out his notice. I'm in favor of letting him finish it out. I don't want to listen to another lecture, but I think the constitution says either the minister or the congregation may give 30 days notice and we should honor that. He gave his 30 days. His sermon yesterday was a good one. Yes, it had some conviction in it, but he allowed the Holy Spirit to do the convicting. He pointed out several scriptures in the Bible about looking forward and not following the sins of the past, the sins of our fathers. It was a good sermon.
Last night I went with a couple other congregation members to "Singspiration" at another church across town. The 5th Sunday of the month they get together to sing praises. No sermon, no Bible study, just singing and praying. Then they have a social time afterwards. There were lots of people there I knew from other places and we had a good time. It is a small church, too, just slightly larger than ours on a regular Sunday, but it was packed double its size last night with guests from other churches who came to celebrate in song as well. It was good to see people in joyous worship for a change.
Please keep me and this little church and our pastor in your prayers. I need prayer for guidance still. Before we got pastor's resignation I had decided it's probably time for me to start visiting other churches and looking for a new church home. Since pastor's resignation, I'm feeling pulled to stay to help these guys find another pastor and Sunday school teacher. I'm feeling a little pull to offer to take over the Sunday school class. The old Sunday school teacher is quite monotonous and has a hard time sticking to the subject so they will lose a lot of the Sunday school class that has been built back up if he takes the class back over once pastor leaves. I just don't know how much of my decisions are being made on my own pride (something I've struggled with and the Lord has been working on me with this past year).
There aren't any children at this church either. I am the youngest member and I am 40 years old. (Wait, I take that back,the organist's grandson has started coming. He's in his 30s, but he comes to hear this pastor. Pray for him, too, please, that he will continue to come after pastor has left.) Anyway, last night, this little church we were visiting had a couple of teenagers and a couple of small children who attended Sunday night. My heart lept at seeing children in worship again.
I'm so confused!!!
On the positive side, the printing and eBay side of the business, two things we added in the past six months, has been jumping this past week. I have another interview with someone today to see if we can fill the last two positions we have open to complete our staff. I have to get moving. I've been on here way longer than I inteded today and I've got 20 minutes to eat breakfast, throw my clothes on and get to work. Going in early to try to get a head start on a very busy week.
I woke up this morning in plenty of time to make it to Sunday school and I felt rested and refreshed, too. Maybe my problem was just that I was feeling chained to the alarm clock. I turned it off and slept as long as I wanted. Pastor looked surprised when I walked into Sunday school, but he said to me, "I knew you'd be here." I'm glad I was too because it was the biggest Sunday school class we've had at that church since I started going a year and a half ago. It was a good Sunday school class.
The sermon on the other hand was another story. Those who know what has been going on in the past at the church understand what I mean.
I just spent over an hour on the phone with one of my brothers tonight. I NEVER talk that long to my brothers but we were stirring up all kinds of bad memories from our childhood. Lots of skeletons neither of us knew the other had. Lots of answers to unexplained things on my part, too. Creepy.
All of this got stirred up because I agreed to be a witness for his petition for an annulment of his first marriage so his marriage to his new wife can be recognized by the Catholic church. Boy, that questionnaire had more than 60 questions, took more than 5 hours to answer them all and stirred up a lot of skeletons. Eeek!
I told my pastor today that I might not be in Sunday school tomorrow, though I do intend on making it to worship services. I so need a day when I do not have to wake up to an alarm clock. Please, just let me sleep until my body decides to wake up. Thankfully, the pastor understands.
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