first thing in the morning, on my way to the cooooolllldddd north. be back in the land of dan'l boone late saturday... if I don't get back to ya'll by then~

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

update...

apryl doesn't have a brain tumor... it's either an inner ear infection or MS. so prayers would still be appreciated.

grandpa is out of the hospital and doing fine :-) apparently it was a one-time thing that should be over with now. YAY!

I'm counting down the hours until wednesday.... not because I want to go to michigan, but because I'm ready for a break from work. YAY for me!

I spent all day saturday babysitting. tiffany pulled out a bunch of pictures from when she was a baby. makes me feel sooooo incredibly old.... seriously, I've been babysitting her (and her siblings) since she was a couple weeks old. she was telling me this weekend about her BOYFRIEND. all about how she went to the 5th grade dance last year with a boy named eric, who isn't exactly hott but is kinda cute in an 11-year-old way, and how they're dating now, and her mom thinks he's a nice boy so she's okay with them dating, and all kinds of other stuff. wtf?!?!! we won't mention how old I was when I started dating, but let me tell you, it wasn't anywhere near 11. I was 13 when this child was born... and I remember it like yesterday. so unreal. it was good to spend some time with the youngest (he's 2), since I haven't had as much opportunity to take care of him. he's so adorable and sweet... and in love with Cars (*trucks!*)

I ate mexican food yesterday. at jalapeños. it's been a really long time. SOOOOO good. church was busy as always, but I must say, the praise band ROCKED yesterday. so awesome. I was impressed.

and now for a story to tell you a little about my morning:


So… they’re working on replacing the roof right now… directly over our heads. we’ve been hearing really loud bangs all day long, sounding like they’re about to fall through the roof on top of us. A couple minutes ago, there was a really loud bang right over top of me, and the cover for the fluorescent light directly over my head (the big ones with 3 long bulb in them) came off three of the 4 hinges holding it up. It was dangling about 1-2 feet over my head by one little hook-thingey. Scared me to DEATH!! I think I jumped about a foot out of my chair, and flung my arms up in the air (like that would have really helped… apparently my reflexes are a little slow) If that hook hadn’t held, I would now be on the way to the hospital with a concussion and huge gash running down the middle of my head. Yay for worker’s comp!

Needless to say, I’m a little jumpy now. especially since they’re still making really loud bangs. right over my head. hopefully the actual bulbs don’t fall out… that could really be fun.

I can’t ever say my life has no excitement.

like last night when I burned my lip with a match. but that was my fault.


please don't ask how I burned myself on the lip with a match. just know that it hurt.

I've been having a lot of bad luck lately, it seems. last week I was baking *hello dolly* (the special hindman/kinnell 7-layer bars) and my pyrex dish collapsed in the oven. I'll be cleaning out glass for a very long time. and burned sweetened condensed milk. about ruined the pumpkin bread, too.

this has been a long post. so I'll go now. if I don't post again before then, HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey y'all...

just dropping in to say hey. cuz that's about all that's going on. the kids had their christmas program last night at church... so cute. lots of good food at the potluck :-D

so I'm helping *teach* a class at church on wednesday nights starting in january... that should be interesting. well, actually I'm co-teaching with jennifer walz. I'm hoping she'll take all the harder ones.... although I think I've been *stuck* with the week on sanctification. that should be fun. good methodists for ya ;-P

okay. back to work now. lata.

good times, bad news....

interesting weekend. friday night, dinner with the parentals at cheddars (mm!). don't really remember what I did after that. hm.

saturday, cantata dress rehearsal in the morning. got my hair cut in the afternoon (YAY!!!!!). Saturday night, over to Bethany & JR's to play balderdash with them, ryan & amanda... CRAZY times. sometimes I forget how weird my friends are. and then we make up random definitions about hatchet axes, tree sloths, hockey-esque, and african tribal dances. great times, LOTS of laughing (and bad spelling, too...) it's nice having so many friends around again. now if we can just talk the midget into moving back up...................

sunday, church in the morning, lunch at mom & dad's. oh yeah, and there was the waffle house for breakfast. it's also nice having good friends at church to go out and eat breakfast with between services :-) (even if I am the youngest.....)

cantata last night... if I do say so myself, it was excellent. the cantata itself was beautiful, we didn't screw up all the hard parts, and the other instruments were fabulous. we had a harp, flutes, clarinets, oboe, and bassoon to add to our wonderful pianist, Maria. afterwards, our awesome hispanic congregation fixed us dinner (and no, they aren't awesome simply because they're good cooks) I haven't eaten that good of mexican food in... well, maybe ever. SOOOOO good. the salsa was to die for.

but then there was the bad news... I found out (friday night? or saturday) that the mom of the kids I've babysat for pretty much all their lives (she babysat me when I was little, too... their family is really close to ours) has abnormal spots on her brain. this is especially scary since her dad died of a brain tumor while I was in high school. they're all pretty much scared to death (for good reason!!!) I can't imagine what she's going through.... if you think about it, please pray for her. for her whole family. her kids are 11, 9 & I think 3. I don't think they've said anything to them yet, though... not until they know something definitive. she's waiting to see a neurologist to find out what's actually for sure wrong.

other bad news, my grandpa was admitted to the hospital last night. they think he's bleeding internally (his intestines, maybe?) last I knew they were waiting for the doctor to come in to find out the test results. my grandma doesn't do well on her own, so I would appreciate prayers for them as well. my uncle should have just gotten there from kansas city to help out, so at least someone will be there for them.

anyway, that was my weekend. crazy times.

good morning.

my weekend was filled with sickness and choir practice. and church. that's pretty much it. although getting the new phone was pretty much awesome. it's always fun to have a new toy :-) although I learned that it is a lot more time-consuming to IM that way. but still totally cool. and the fact that it was free makes my world an infinitely happier place.

my coworker Charles keeps *informing* me every time Terry's phone rings. like I'm deaf and can't hear it? like I'm supposed to answer it? I don't know the answers to all the crazy customer questions about prebills and prepays and all that jazz.

coworker L. quit last week. it's much calmer now. new sub-department already forming - yay.

we're having a *practice-run* for our cantata tonight at the Kentucky Methodist Children's Home (I almost typed *menthodist* - is that like mentholated methodists?) It should be fun. we're not having the fancy orchestra there, though, but it will still be good. I'm sure the kids will enjoy it.

I heard someone on the radio yesterday morning say that when you have a cold, it feels like there is a fuzzy sock wrapped around your brain that you have to try to fight through to think about anything or figure out what's going on. That's how I feel today.

My fuzzy sock and I will go back to work now. Adieu.