N Carolina, here I come!

Hi all! Hope you have had a good week. Mine has been busy...I put in a lot of hours at work this week since my coworker was on vacation this week. So it was just my supervisor and I and she kept me busy. It has come time for my vacation...we leave for the airport in just a few hours and get on an airplane to North Carolina, with a stop in Texas...yeehaw! I like Texas...even though I have only been in the airport in Dallas. This time we will be stopping in Houston. I am excited about this trip! I had people ask me at work why I am going to North Carolina and they suggest that I have family over there. I do not have family over there but we are just going to see some of the sights. Anyway...please remember these prayer requests...

- Pray for my great uncle (who I mentioned in a recent post). He is having issues with insurance and needs to have surgery. Pray that God's will would be done.
- Pray for safe travels while on airplane and in the car (and everywhere in between) on our trip.

Thank you for praying, and I will be praying for all of you and hope that you will be blessed in some way during the next few days. I will post when I get back to let you know we made it safely back home. Ta ta for now! (TTFN)

Band camp and fun

I hope you all had a good weekend. Friday after work, I went to my niece's band concert. She had been going to a band camp all week long and there were three bands totaling about 160 kids. I got to hear about a third of the concert which was nice. It made me think of when I was at band camp and how fun it was to be there. You were also tired because of all the hard work that you put in to it each day. There were band directors there to help you learn more musical skills to be a better musician. Of course, the kids were middle school age so some are beginners in band and some are more experienced. My niece was in the first band since she has had just one year of band thus far on trumpet. She loves to play trumpet because she loves Jazz music and wants to be in jazz band.
Saturday I got to spend with my niece since her mom had to work. I like to spend time with my niece and do something fun just the two of us. We went out to Wendy's for lunch and then on to see grandma (her great-grandma) for a while. We had a very nice visit...grandma seems to be doing better if you are wondering. We were also going to go see Evan Almighty but changed our minds. We came home until it was time for church. She sat with me in service since her class was not meeting that night. The message was so AWESOME and the topic was so true...I will have to take another post and talk about it soon. I hung out afterwards with a couple friends and went out for ice cream.
Sunday I stayed home most of the day and did some house cleaning.
Well, this is my last week of work until I go on vacation. I will post again this week before I leave. 5 days until lift off...!!!!!
TTFN

New'er' and the Old'er'

Hi, people. Hope you are all doing well. Finally, after all this time, I get a 'new' computer at work today!!! It is new to me but not brand new. I had been working on Windows 98 at work and I had problems recently with it, like I could not get on the network drives. Now I have a new and better computer that will take some getting used to. I was working on the IT guys old computer for just over a week so I could get my month-end reports done, amongst other things.
I have a couple prayer requests...
1. Please pray for my grandma who is not feeling well.
2. Please pray also for my great uncle, who has been going to the doctor for tests within the last month and may have cancer. He is not doing too well right now.

I think that is about it for now. Oh, I will say that I did enjoy the message at church this last weekend. I also enjoy any fellowship I get with my brothers and sisters in 1.3. Playing catch with a football at the park was fun.

TTFN

An unexpected guest

It's Superman...it's a plane...it's....A BIRD????? Yes, that's correct! It all happened this past Sunday night. Just my sister and I were home and we had gone out to take the dog for a walk. When we came back, I watered the tomatoes and the other plants. We were both looking for strawberries to pick and eat then went back inside the house. We sat down to watch a little tv and practice on my niece's video games. My cat had meowed (much like a crying meow) and I wondered what she was 'crying' about. We did one game and my sister had heard a noise that sounded like flapping of a bird's wings. I didn't hear it at first, but I went over to where the cat was and didn't see anything. A few minutes later, my sister went over to the same spot I was at and there on the window sill was a small bird. We figured it had flown in when we had the door open when we were watering the plants. After trying to scare the bird outside, the bird flying across the family room, calling the folks, I finally got a small plastic bag and put it over the bird. It was sitting still on the floor by a door...I assumed as soon as I put the bag over it, it would start flapping its wings. It must have been more scared of me than I was of it. It took a couple seconds but it did and I picked up the bag and ran to the front door (which my sister had open) and let the bird go free. It was an unusual situation but I am glad that the bird (which I think was a small sparrow) was released back into the outdoors. My sis and I sat back down on the couch and played a couple more races on the video games to calm down and to get more practice.
I hope you all are surviving this very WARM...ok, HOT day outside. It will be another sweltering day tomorrow as well. Try to stay cool.
TTFN

What A Glorious Fourth!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, America! The US is now 231 years young this year. The 4th of July is one of my very favorite holidays! For one, I get to play in our patriotic services at my church, GSCC. Those services happen the 4th weekend of June. It is always so...patriotic and American...with the music and all the people that come up on stage that are or have been in the military, along with their children. I think it is so cool and deserving that we should honor those in the military at least once a year. After the services, I always have at least one song stuck in my head the whole entire week (or just about).
This week (which was a busy week), I was able to go with my family to the coast on Tuesday night after work. Part of the family was already there and we met up with them in town to see the fireworks display, along with a whole bunch of other people, on the bay. Again, I sit, watching the beautiful display, humming or singing to myself God Bless America or another song of the sort. It lasts about 20 minutes but is worth it and then head back to our place. When we got back, I was on the way inside, I looked up and saw a 'gazillion' stars, including the Big Dipper, twinkling in the clear blue sky. Of course, there are a 'gazillion' more stars up there that we cannot see, but, still, it is amazing. The word I was thinking about is, 'indescribable' because it was. Wednesday we spent at our place and I got to barbecue lunch...woohoo!!! Dad took my sister and I out for a boat ride on the river (and I got sunburned on my arms, I might add). I had to head back home that night so I could go to work Thursday. Once home, I got to see another fireworks display from our deck. I then watched the works from Fort Vancouver on tv which were nice.
So, with that said, another 4th of July has come and gone. But I am anxiously awaiting next year's holiday!
Have a great weekend! TTFN

A time for celebration

Hi again! My weekend went pretty well. Friday night I stayed home and didn't do a whole lot. Saturday I spent some time cleaning house, took the dog for a walk, and watched a movie on tv. Then I got ready for church. The sermon was very good, as the lesson was taught on the question, what is Truth? Good question for us to really think about. After service, my friend Carrie and I stopped at the store to get some food to take to Amy's parents' house as we were going to have a barbecue. The barbecue was nice...it was our official last 1.3 for the year (until fall). Only a few of us wanted to play croquet (aka crochet to some of us...hehe) and I did alright. The main thing though is that we all had a good time. Amy is getting ready to leave for Alaska for a month so we celebrated her having this awesome opportunity to go up there and be a witness to the kids again (she was up there last summer at Victory Bible Camp).
Before the night was over, we all shared what God has been teaching us lately. That is a very good thing to do because it helps us grow as a group and individually to see all that He has done/taught in each other's lives. I think we should do this more often. Sunday I stayed home and worked around the house and did laundry.
Today work was quite busy as it is payroll time again. We are 'short' a day this time because of Wednesday being the 4th of July. but we will get what we need done in time.
I will post again probably on the 4th. TTFN :)