Smorgasbord of thoughts (for lack of a better title for this one...)

This past week (since my last blog) has pretty much gone by in a blur. It seems like the older I get, the faster each day, week, year, decade...(Ahhhh)... goes by. Is it that way for you too? Sometimes I feel like I'm still in the past week trying to catch up and catch my breath and get myself to where I physically am in the next week. Like I'm a hamster running on a wheel, only my wheel is spinning faster and I'm not running at a matched pace...which means I'm tumbling over...and over...and over frantically kicking and flailing trying to get back up again. (Did you get that mental picture?) Since we've gotten back home from being away for Christmas, I've still not been able to get myself reorganized and back into my groove. For whatever reason, it sure is taking me a long time this time. I always have a hard time coming back to my home after being at my real home...did all those "homes" make sense?? Anyway...it usually takes me only a day or so and then I'm fine again, wrapped back up into my life here not having much time to be homesick for AR. However this time, I wasn't ready to come back down here, and to ice that cake, the temp. here has been 80 degrees every stinkin' day! There's something terribly not right about 80 degrees in January! Do you agree? Most people here, though, think its just great. That's the reason many of them are here (snowbirds as we call them-here for the winter, back up north for the summer). Having only two weeks to wear my cute sweaters and my cute jacket were not near enough. I think that has been part of my problem; a clothing issue. (Totally ridiculous, I know...only another "clothes lover" would understand.) Today though, my sun has shown a little brighter. The high here was 60! Whoo-pee!!! I got to wear one of those new sweatsuits I was telling you about that I bought in Branson. Made me so happy. ;-) Ahhh, the little things...

Last week I started two new Bible studies at church. Yes, I said two! And yes, I do need that many! :) I go to one on Tuesday morning...we're studying "Bad Girls of the Bible and What You Can Learn From Them" and then the other one is on Wednesday night. It's a Beth Moore called "A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place". I normally wouldn't have chosen to take two at one time but I had already committed to going to the Tuesday morning class when I found out that the Beth Moore class was starting on Wednesday night. I can't pass up a Beth Moore study; they're always so awesome and I learn so much from her. At the class Wednesday night, I saw another lady there who is also from Arkansas. Warren actually...only 30 minutes from my home town. I met her and her husband last year. They hadn't lived here long then and they were just getting involved with our church. We were both floored and excited that we'd found each other and we were from the same area. It made me feel not quite so isolated down here, and it did for her as well. She and I were talking after class and she was wanting to know about our Christmas and if we'd gone back to AR. She and her family didn't get to go back this year but her parents came down here for week. I felt really sorry for her because she's having a hard time with being here and misses AR and her old house terribly. When she asked me how I was handling being here and if I felt that way, it actually made me feel better talking to her. I had been really homesick and just sort of down the past week, just as she has felt the entire time they've been here. Once I started talking with her about it and identifying with her feelings and hurts, I started telling her the good things that have come out of us being here and in encouraging her, I made myself feel better. Would you call that reverse psychology or maybe upside down psychology??? I don't know. But I told her how much being here has strengthened my marriage and how much we love our church and how immediately we'd plugged ourselves in to several ministries within the church and that we'd made many Christian friends who've become our extended family and it doesn't make it quite as hard anymore. In talking to her I started realizing how blessed we've been since moving here and how many opportunities we've had to do things and see things that we'd never have gotten to see or do otherwise. If I get nothing else out of being here, just the realization of all the things I used to take for granted alone will be enough. So I guess having a little pep talk with yourself (or through someone else) every once in a while is helpful to bring you out of your slums! Or it was for me anyway.

I started reading the books that my friend Courtney recommended...See "Must Reads" at right...I bought the first one, Twilight, Thursday night and since that night, I've been totally engulfed in them! I've read every spare moment I've had...stopping only to feed a mouth, wipe a behind, go through the bath-time routine, and sleep a few hours. I took the book to bed with me on Thursday night and naturally I got to a really good part and couldn't stop reading even though I had to prop my eyes open with toothpicks. I was so close to the end that I had to keep reading. When I was done I thought to myself, man, it's probably close to midnight, I've got to get to sleep. I rolled over to set the alarm and the clock read 2:30 AM!!!!! "Oh, crap" I thought..."I've got to be up in 4 hours!!!" But it was worth it. I'm now about half-way through the third novel. It's funny, reading is a new thing for me. Not that I COULDN'T read or didn't read well (((Deana-I know you were about to make a joke out of that!!)))) I'm a good reader but I had absolutely no desire at all to. I hated reading and thought it was a colossal waste of my time. Now, I love it. I'd rather be reading...especially Nicholas Sparks books, however I think now these Stephenie Meyer books have passed him up in my author race...than doing anything else. I've been surprised how fast I've been able to get through these thick books. Deana still tells her class of her teacher friend (me) who took a whole year to get through to get through one elementary level chapter book! -actually I think she's stretched it to three years now. And you know, it might have actually taken me three years to finish it, now that I think about it. Anyway, if you've not read these books by Stephenie Meyer, go get the first one and start reading it!!!! One little caution to you...don't judge the book based on what the back cover says, or where it's located in the book store or library. (Easy there, it IS PG rated!! That's not what I'm getting at!) I wish I could tell you more about the story line but anything I say about it will not do it justice. Just know that based on reading the back of the book, I would have never had any desire what so ever to read it~so ignore it. With that being said...go get the book!!! Book(S) rather! ~you'll need all three! Trust me, once you finish the first you'll not be able to wait to get the next one. Same thing after the second book...you'll want to start the third immediately. Unfortunately the fourth book in the sequel doesn't come out until this fall. So we'll have to wait a little longer for that one. Movie producers will begin production of Twilight, the movie, in February. I wasn't able to find a date of its expected release. Hopefully by the end of next year.

One funny story before I go...This afternoon Emma and I went to wal-mart on our weekly grocery shopping trip. I didn't get to the store till late and we had to nearly run down every isle grabbing what was on my list and chunking it into the cart. Naturally they had like three checkout lanes open and each one had ten people waiting to check out. Ugghh! So frustrating as I stood there checking my watch knowing that if that cashier didn't move a little faster I was going to be late picking up Taylor from school. So I'm quite agitated at this point, to say the least. As we're standing there at the back of the line, an older couple gets in line behind us. They made their annoyance at the lines known immediately and the "wife" kept trying to flag down employees as they passed asking them to open up the lane she was standing next to. It was amusing. The man was certainly from up north by his fast talking yankee accent and the woman was Hispanic with a heavy Spanish accent. Can you picture them? But that's not it. It wasn't long until they'd caught sight of Emma's big eyes staring at their aggressive behavior. I was standing at the front of the cart anxiously waiting my turn to load down the conveyor belt. This gave them plenty of room to move in closer to her and strike up a conversation, complementing her on her "beautiful eyes and curls." Normally whenever a stranger speaks to her, she ducks her head and either smiles or looks down. I have to make her speak a "hello" to people. Well, by the time we left the store she was calling them her "new friends". ha! She did her usual, dropped head reaction at first but they just kept talking to her and all of a sudden she lifted that head and started talking. Ten minutes later, she is STILL talking their ears off jumping from one subject to the next. She told them that her birthday was coming up on Sunday and that she's having a party with "aw of huh fwinds comeen." She asked them to come as well. She showed them the party invitations we'd picked up in the store and told them all about Dora, who was on them. Apparently they don't have any children around because they didn't know who Dora was. Anyway, I just knew that they HAD to be beginning to get annoyed at her constant jabbering but I couldn't seem to find a good time to cut in and cut her off. I was getting embarrassed at all she was talking about...nothing that was to be embarrassed about but nearly each story she told I had to clear up their confusion in some way, explaining further what she was talking about. The poor man kept saying in his fast accent..."What, What...What was that sweet haht?" Anyway, I thought she was finally winding down as I was almost done checking out and then I hear something come out of her mouth that just mortified me...she's still talking about Dora and she happily says "And Boots has a tail coming out of his butt!" I gasped and said "Emma!...Emma..." but she wasn't listening to me. The man was looking puzzled and confused at his wife (wondering if he really heard her right) and his wife says "Wat deed she sey?!" and he says (with his head cocked to the side, with a slightly confused but amused look on his face) "Iee think she said Boots...has a...tail...coming out... of his.....BUTT! Huh!" Emma noticed that they didn't think they heard her right so, of course, she ignored my scolds and confirms it by saying it again. They just laughed with their eyebrows raised and shaking their heads. I just covered my eyes with my free hand, and shook my head. I was beet red, I know. Luckily, the cashier handed me my receipt just then and I took off. All the while I'm practically running out of the store she's yelling at the top of her lungs "BYE! BYE! BYE!" I looked back to see them still laughing and waving goodbye to her. Oh well, at least she put them in a better mood and maybe made their time in line a little less aggravating. ~I don't know, though.