This week has just flown by. I can't believe it. So crazy. I'll share a pic of my darling new granddaughter, and then some bullet points 'cause things have just been too crazy to make anything coherent out of all of it.

Charity Mae

• Look at all that dark hair. It's almost long enough for her momma to put a barrette in.
• I did manage to get a new technician and a new sales clerk hired in the past couple of weeks.
• I cannot describe the stress I'm under as I try to get these people trained, make up new forms for new programs, and do my normal duties while trying to prepare for vacation.
• Stress is not good for diabetics, but I don't know how to control it.
• I am relieved, however, that we have finally managed to hire some (hopefully) decent people.
• Church is going good.
• I have finally joined the church I've been attending the past 6 months.
• They voted on my membership, along with four others, at the business meeting Wednesday night.
• This church is like night and day from the one I just left.
• It's growing, and has tremendous outreach ministries.
• It's also HEAVILY into supporting missionaries, including several from our own church.
• We leave for Texas in two weeks.
• I need to call and change our reservations with both the car rental place and the motel.
• John has decided he would rather pick the car up a couple days earlier than park our truck at the airport.
• I still think it's less stress to park at the airport.
• The airport is an hour away from us.
• He thinks one of the pros of picking up the rental and driving our truck back home is that we can leave really early in the morning on Saturday if we want.
• I have to agree that is a pretty good pro.
• We will be spending two nights at my sister's house.
• My sweet little nephew is giving up his room for John and I to sleep in.
• Thanks, Courtland.
• I don't think I've seen my sister since my daughter's (the new mommy) wedding.
• That was nearly two years ago.
• I'm also exciting about getting to hear my BIL preach on Sunday.
• I've never really heard him preach a regular sermon.
• He did perform an evangelical musical at my church here in Iowa once.
• He has an awesome singing voice.
• Maybe I'll get lucky and get to hear Courtland preach Sunday night, too.
• I need to get home and get my house cleaned.
• We are hosting the pastor's intern and a missionary for supper Tuesday night.
• Mostly, I need to dust and clean the floors.
• I also have to bake cookies for next week's vacation bible school.
• Did I mention that I really like being involved in an active church?
• Tonight we are taking John's folks out to the mexican restaurant in town for Father's Day.
• Mexican food - YUM!
• This will probably be our last dinner out until we leave for Texas.
• Unless he decides to take us out for our anniversary.
• We will have been married 15 years come Wednesday.
• I can't believe it's been 15 years already.
• I could keep up the bullet thing for a long time.
• Guess I'll sign off for now.

Almost exactly 24 hours after they started her percossin (sp?) drip, D#1 delivered a healthy little baby. She weighed 6 lbs. 3 oz. and is 17 3/4" long. After all that trouble, her APGAR was a 9. D#1 says she looks just like her daddy, only she's tiny.

Thanks for your prayers, and thank God for our beautiful new grandbaby. Thank God that our darling daughter came through 30 hours of labor in shining color as well. When I was hanging up the phone from her, I heard her asking for Coke and anything chocolate, Ha! That's my girl!

Daughter No. 1 went into labor last night. She called first around 10:30 or 11 p.m. to tell us they were headed to the hospital, then again around 1 a.m. to tell us she was definitely in labor. No word since then, but I realize it hasn't yet been 12 hours, and many women go much longer than that. We are expecting Granddaughter No. 2 to arrive today.

Daughter No. 2 called us Saturday to let us know that their grandfather passed away earlier that morning. My heart truly goes out to their mother and stepfather at the loss of his dad. Grandpa lived with them for many years, nearly as long as D#2 can remember. They took care of him during a time when many other families would have sent their loved one to a nursing home, and he was a big part of the kids' life.

I've noticed often during my lifetime where God gives a life to a family just as he's taking one home.

Please pray for the following:

• A safe and healthy delivery of our new granddaughter
• Travel mercies for D#2 and GD#1 as they fly home for the funeral and a visit. The visit was planned before the funeral and they will stay for a month. We'll get to see them when we go down on vacation in a few weeks.
• Strength for their mom and stepdad and the rest of the stepdad's family as they prepare for the funeral.
• And don't forget travel mercies for my mom and brother as they head home from Thailand later this week, and for safety and protection for their missions group during the remainder of their stay.

As of yesterday, I only have one teenager. Our middle daughter turned 20 yesterday. It was a bittersweet birthday for her because she found out her grandfather on her stepfather's side will probably die in the next day or so. Please pray for their family.

I noticed I have a little "LIFE" flag next to my name when I leave comments now, but I haven't seen anyone else with one. I KNOW I'm not the only person who has a lifetime Xanga account, so am I just the only one who didn't turn it off in my settings?

No time to elaborate this morning, but I had a horribly stressful day at work yesterday. Things are seeming to pile up on me, John's putting pressure on me to find another employee for the store ("hire a monkey" he tells me), and I'm starting to freak out about it. Depression is starting to set in, too, which doesn't help things at all. Add to that the stress of planning a vacation, the fact that we aren't able to go to our son's wedding due to timing issues, and I'm a mess.

Please remember to keep Mom and David in your prayers. They are in Thailand this week on a mission trip.

Sugar levels are doing much better, though not where they should be yet. Working on it.

This coming week, I could use prayer for keeping those sugar levels under control, that the meds stop wreaking havoc on my innerds, and that the interviews we have scheduled for Wednesday go well. Also, pray for my kids who live in Texas. They are in an area that is flooding very badly. There have been 6 deaths reported in their area already due to the flooding.

I'm going to enjoy having an extra day off this week. I think I might go down to the Memorial Day program as it's honoring Desert Storm/Shield and War on Terror vets this year. At the moment, John (who is a Desert Storm vet), doesn't seem to want to go. I'd like him to go with me, but if he doesn't, he doesn't.

There was no jury trial this week (sigh) and their won't be one next week because of the Memorial Day holiday. I figure I'm probably next to get called out of the 50 or so people on the slate. The week before last they called up 20 people from which to pick 12 jurors and 2 alternates. I am juror #25, so I figure I'll get called to the box next time, even though they might kick me to the side for knowing the people involved, or it will end up being a domestic abuse case again and they'll excuse me because I was a victim's advocate for so many years. I really do want to serve on a trial.

I discovered yesterday that biscuits our not longer allowed in my menu. I've really been checking my blood sugar the past two weeks, several times a day in fact. I was doing ok (ok, not ok as far as the doctor's concerned, but ok in making progress in getting a grip on this) hovering between 250 and 275 yesterday, even after eating a biscuit for breakfast. I was in a hurry last night to eat something quickly so I could make it to church, so I ate some leftover biscuits and hamburger gravy for supper. Before eating, my sugar was 258, but when I took my sugar after I got home from church, it was 444. HOLY COW!!! No more biscuits and gravy for me. Just one more thing I like to eat that I'm having to give up so I can prolong my life.

I did start taking the glucophage again the night before last. I'm taking it at night in the hopes that I will avoid the havoc it creates on my digestive system. Diarrhea is one of the side effects and boy does it hit me hard with that stuff.

I want to cry because this is so hard to control. My husband got really mad last night, and for those of you who know him, you know he doesn't usually get mad very easily. He told me I have two choices, either I learn to control this or he can hound me about every single thing I put into my mouth. So, it's back on the meds that I hate so much. I need to schedule an appointment with the doctor, but we owe so much in medical bills now, it's a slow time of the year, and we've got a trip to Texas to pay for (to see our TWO granddaughters - one who isn't here quite yet and the 2-year-old who we haven't seen since she was 6 months old.

Please pray for me.

I worked the Knoxville store today so our guy over there could have a whole weekend off. We've been super short handed since we lost our 2nd gal in February, and no one left in the company has had a Saturday off since. The two employees I have left really do deserve a weekend off, so I'm working sales at one or the other store the next couple of weeks to let each of them have a full weekend off.

Saturday sales in Knoxville are usually pretty slow, so I had the local radio station on. They play what they call "Yesterday's Hits and Today's Favorites" but it's mostly songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I was looking over job applications, having a lunch of leftover fajitas, when Neil Diamond's "Forever in Blue Jeans" came on the radio. I immediately had to call my sister. She and I are the only two girls out of 6 kids, so even though there is nearly 11 years difference between us, we had to share a bedroom for a few years. I had an LP (that's an old-fashioned record for those of you who have know nothing other than the CD) of Neil Diamond, and that was one of the songs on it. Every night, before we'd go to bed, Ann would ask me to play that song for her. I often just played the entire side of the CD and we both went to sleep to it, but "Forever in Blue Jeans" was Ann's song. I'm so glad she was near her phone and answered, because we laughed over that memory. That bedtime song, AND, the 45 of Foreigner's "Urgent" that I would play loudly every morning to get going. At the age of 5, she would groan over that song, but I always made it up for her in the evening with "Forever in Blue Jeans." We both still love Neil Diamond.

John and I rented a Rototiller this afternoon and got our garden plot dug up. I need to get my veggies out before the end of the month or we aren't going to have any. Gonna plant tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, green onions and radishes.

Tomorrow after church we'll be cleaning the gutters before it rains again and that rain makes its way down into my basement again.

Well, I didn't get picked today. Probably better that I didn't because I would have been dismissed with cause anyway. It was a domestic abuse case. The defendant was charged with domestic abuse and child endangerment. While I think I could have made a fair assessment, they would have thrown me out due to the appearance of a conflict of interest. I was a volunteer advocate for the local domestic violence program for years. I also go to church with the arresteing officer.

Better luck next week.

Today is my first day to report to jury duty. Apparently they didn't have any jury cases last week, so today is it. I must report to the clerk's office by 9:00 a.m. Unlike so many people, I WANT to get picked for jury duty. I just hope it's not a boring case, or it's not so warm in the courtroom I want to fall asleep, or I don't have a problem with my bowels after eating today.

I believe that it is my responsibility as an American citizen to serve jury duty. Sure, our court system is not perfect, but we have one of the fairest in the world, and it can only stay that way if we step up as citizens and serve. There are lots of ways I can get out of jury duty, so I'm told, but I'm not going to do any of them. I'm afraid I may not get picked anyway because of how many people in town I know. I worked as a newspaper reporter for two years when I first came here, helping to develop an excellent repoir with the police department (cop beat was always my favorite assignment). Because of that, I know about 2/3 of the current police department. They've gotten a lot more since I left, but I still know a lot of them. I'm also a business owner, so I know a lot of people through my business. I just hope knowing someone doesn't get me excluded, but I'm afraid having them as a customer might.

I think I'd like to get picked for a civil case, kinda like The People's Court in action. That would be kinda fun, as long as I keep any smart-aleck comments (like, "Yeah, right") to myself and they don't actually escape my mouth. Those of you who know me well know that might be a difficult task for me - Ha!

Happy Birthday to Maria!!
Ya'll go by and wish her a good one.