Archive for June, 2007
June 30th, 2007 -- Posted in Ramblings |
What a whirlwind we have been in. (I love it!) Lots to focus on and keep us busy this month. It is unbelievable that the month of June is gone. And where???
We are so excited about this move. Much of the packing was done when we listed the house, but there is still a good bit to do. The utilities are on in the new place and cable/internet is scheduled for the upcoming week. Still some furniture shopping to do. I’m determined to enjoy it. There is so much out there, and little of it is impressing me.
Happy thoughts and prayers our way! 
June 29th, 2007 -- Posted in Southern Reading Challenge |
What a wonderful book! I love Fannie Flagg and Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven
is just another great read. There is no way to write a review without being a spoiler so please forgive me.
Fannie Flagg returns readers to a small community first introduced in Standing in the Rainbow. Elmwood Springs is a town where everyone knows everyone…and their business. The focus of the book is Aunt Elner. She is as curious as three year old and lives life one day at a time. Aunt Elner appreciates people for who they are and impacts many lives, including those who think she is totally off her rocker. After being stung by bees and falling off a ladder while picking figs, Aunt Elner takes a journey to Heaven where she meets her sister Ida, Ginger Rogers, and her hero, Thomas Edison. The Creators take the form of Neighbor Dorothy and her husband Raymond. (They like to be familiar faces to the new arrivals.) Surprised, but not shocked, Aunt Elner takes her death very well and is excited about learning life’s mysteries. Much to her disappointment, it was not her “time” and she had to return to Earth where she brought advice for the rest: Good things are coming and life is what you make it. Should be simple enough really, but us Earthly beings like to take the drivers seat when we should scoot over and enjoy the ride. Those who were informed of her adventure questioned her sanity, but they were curious.
Aunt Elner takes each day as it comes, even if that day is seemingly her last. Her death impacted all the lives she had touched. People who met her didn’t forget her, or what she taught them. I don’t think people realize how many lives they touch or that they have the ability to make or break the day for another. On the other hand they have the ability to allow someone else to make or break their own day. If there is a moral to be learned in this book, I think it is the impact we have on others and ourself. We get so caught up in the self that we do not stop to enjoy what we are working so hard for.
From Fannie Flagg’s website:
Reading Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven is like taking an antidote to the almost constant stream of bad news that surrounds us in our modern world. Tot voices something we all feel: “I always try to put on a happy face, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep up a good attitude…..Nostradamus, CNN, all the papers, according to them, we are on the brink of total annihilation at any second.” How did this novel make you feel about the state of the world today?
Elmwood Springs is a town that we can all relate to. Each character can represent someone in your own life. That is what is so attractive about this work. In a comment Maggie mentioned that this was called the feel good book of the year. It is deserving of the title, but I think it is also a book for self-reflection. My favorite quote is “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” If we go through life trying to control everything, or blindly working to achieve our goals, we miss out on much of the good that life does have to offer. Much of the world is success driven. There is nothing wrong with success or pursuing it…but in the pursuit take in the world around or it is going to pass you by, making the pursuit pointless.
On top of the simplicity of life, Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven deals with relationships, conflict, and secrets. Anyone who reads can find something familiar. It is a quick read filled with wit and humor. Much enjoyed….
***I’m flat out exhausted. This will probably be edited and added to after much sleep and thought.
June 27th, 2007 -- Posted in Private |
Let’s talk about “God things” and life. I have spent the last 48 hours searching for houses for us to lease. (We just aren’t ready to buy again.) I have been in some very interesting places. There was one that advertised as a 5 BR 2 BA w/ full downstairs and second kitchen. Unfortunately rose colored glasses were not given out at the beginning of the house tour. Scary. The lizard downstairs was cute, but we have enough pets. 
Another advertised as a 3/2 with a mother-in-law apartment downstairs. Beautiful hardwood floors and I loved the built in cabinets in the dining room. Small master bedroom, and tiny bedroom downstairs. We went upstairs and it had the most adorable banister and sitting area…with a claw foot tub and toilet. Exactly what they were thinking on that old house update I don’t know. There was another “bedroom” upstairs, but we couldn’t get past the hall bathroom. There’s just something to be said for walls. We looked at SO many houses and narrowed it to two. One was in the school zone we wanted and in a great neighborhood. It had the size and yard we wanted, but it also had a list of applicants. The owner wasn’t ready to make a decision. The other was a small house about 15 minutes out near water. Great backyard with privacy fence. Not in a familiar school district and a little further out than we want to be right now, we declined. The house hunt seemed hopeless, but we had to have faith that there was something out there for us. I had written down the number of a realtor but no other note so I called and it turned out that there was a house available for rent, but they had someone interested if all factors fell into place. He also wasn’t too excited we had pets, but was willing to meet me first. (If I had remembered his ad that said no indoor pets I wouldn’t have called.) I went to the realtor to go look at it, but when I got to the company he had just received the call that the other couple wanted it. However, he knew of someone who had a house. It wasn’t advertised, but he checked and she wanted to show it to me. When we drove up I knew it was it. It is better than the others we looked at and it is in a great school district. Fenced yard, bedrooms, baths, bonus room…considerably cheaper. I am SO happy!
Today I haven’t really worried about the fact that I haven’t found a high school position. It has been frustrating me. I checked my email tonight and received something asking if I was still interested in a position. YES! We’re praying this is the one…join us
You know, the doors are opening and we are walking through them. Our opinion…definite God thing.
June 24th, 2007 -- Posted in Ramblings |
Life is like one big roller-coaster ride, with all kinds of bumps and twists and turns, and ups and downs along the way…But the problem is…most people think they are steering, and get so busy trying to control it that they miss all the fun parts.
from Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
June 23rd, 2007 -- Posted in Private |
When it rains it pours!!! We ended up with two offers on the house! We are now under contract! WOOHOO!!! We are on our way. Thank God!
June 20th, 2007 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
I have been reading Bone’s 3WW for sometime now and never take the time to participate. It isn’t much, but I’m going to make an attempt this week.
This week’s words are:
Reach
Heavily
Cheek
If you have read here before you know that we are in transition. This transition is a leap of faith for us. Doors have opened and we are taking things one step at a time. Djembe tells me that I need to have have faith and patience. I’m good on the faith, but a little short on patience. Apprehension and anxiety threaten. The three words above brought the following statement to mind:
When prospects of the future seem out of reach you must rely heavily on your faith, turning the other cheek from the oppression of anxiety. It is only then that the doors to the future will unlock and allow worry free passage. Making a transition that seems so out of reach at the beginning is like an endurance race. If you jump in with both feet, rushing to the finish, you’ve relied too heavily on speed and will never make it to the end, possibly stumbling, one cheek to the ground as you watch everyone else pass you by.
If you have time check out the poll in my sidebar to see how many web disorders you should be diagnosed with…Thanks for stopping by.
June 20th, 2007 -- Posted in Ramblings |
Check out this article on Wired.com:
Narcissistic Blog Disorder and Other Conditions of Online Kookery
The AMA recently suggested that perhaps gaming addiction should be considered as a sub-category of internet addiction. This is a step in the right direction. Clearly “internet addiction” doesn’t begin to cover the realm of bizarre and pathological behaviors the internet inspires. Herewith a list of afflictions and syndromes I feel should be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV, or perhaps the DSM IV.Ib.
Several syndromes:
Narcissistic Blog Disorder
Bookmark Loop Disorder
E-mail Gullibility Syndrome
After you scan the article answer the poll in my sidebar. (I’m really bored, can you tell?)
June 19th, 2007 -- Posted in Private |
We have been highly stressed that the house wasn’t being shown enough. Nothing against the realtors, but the market just isn’t that great and interest hasn’t been there. Not many people want to be buying a house that is 10 miles out when gas is $3/gallon. I don’t know, maybe it is just the time of year. That is a big factor I’m sure. Anyway, the girls rallied Friday and helped me get the house ready to show late that afternoon. Today we receive a call saying they want a reshow in 30 minutes. Ummmm…sure. Eeeeek! The girls rallied again and we had it ready. Turns out it was worth the effort! We had an offer. Pray that negotiations go well and we get a SOLD sign. Jem says I should have faith and patience. I have faith, but I’m a little short on patience.
pssst, in that prayer, add that I need to hear back on the interviews from last week and want the one where I did my internship. Thanks!
June 18th, 2007 -- Posted in Southern Reading Challenge |
I’m trying to get started on the southern reading challenge, but it is slow goin’. I didn’t find all three books that I chose so I picked up the Fannie Flagg book, but I haven’t started it. Instead I started John Grisham’s The Innocent Man.
I’m 100 pages in. I have this compulsion to finish each book that I start. If it is bad I always hold out hope that it will get better so I don’t put it aside. In this case, I am very close to making an exception. This book is going NOWHERE! OK, I’m ranting. It is based on a true story, so maybe I am expecting too much. It has been years since I have welcomed Grisham into my reading world. When he started writing for movies, I stopped reading. I guess I expected to pick up The Innocent Man and read the riveting writing that I was accustomed to years ago. I went on Amazon to read reader reviews, just to see if I was being to harsh. It was very helpful to me. I need to realize that fiction and nonfiction are vastly different. The purpose of this book is to expose the failings of the legal system and it certainly does so. I do think Grisham could have done a better job organizing the work and telling this story, however, it is too soon for me to be trying to review it.
If anyone is considering this work, go into with the right mindset.
The other thing that irks me, and it is my own fault for making assumption, it doesn’t take place in MS or the deep South like other Grisham works. Although, I believe the legal/judicial system portrayed in the book can be applied to Smalltown, America.
June 18th, 2007 -- Posted in Ramblings |
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, And they’re like It’s better than yours, …
Yes, this is what I awoke to.
A few days ago Tweety comes in, “Mom, come see there’s a cow!” “Yes dear, be right there.” The field next door is rarely used. We’ve lived here three years and only occasionally see the donkeys and cows. So, I didn’t think much of it and figured I would walk to the fence with her so she could pet the donkey. No, there really was a cow in the yard. She went on her merry way and I assumed the fence was fine. Yesterday, Tweety is driving us nuts because her friends are with their grandparents. We offer a suggestion telling her to get her MP3 player and go enjoy the swing set. Not five minutes later, “Why are you back inside?” “Cow by the swing set.” Oh my. Different cow and it brought friends. Later we saw the owner coaxing cows back to the pasture and he had mended the fence…or so we thought. This morning I go to sit on the patio to enjoy the peaceful sounds of nature…along with ten of our neighborly weed-eaters. Woohoo! Fertilizing and weed eating all at the same time! moo. Our across the pond neighbor managed to keep everyone corralled until the owner could herd them back in the pasture. It was good entertainment.
Oh and look! We have ducklings! This is the second set this summer. The first didn’t do so well and succumbed to survival of the fittest.
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