Sing For Joy

Happy New Year!

It's 2008!  Have I ever mentioned here about how I really like some numbers more than others?  It's an odd thing about me-one of the many-but it helps me remember phone numbers, addresses, even the entire account number on my credit card.   It's as if the numbers have their own personalities-the even numbers are sweet and good-the odd numbers are strong.  For example, my voice teacher in college is a sweet, sweet woman who also knows how to be strong and tell it like it is when needed.  Her phone number is a perfect match for her-a perfect combination of even and odd numbers. I never forget her phone number, even though I don't call her on a regular basis.  And my best friend from college calls me rather than information when ever she needs her number.   Man, I sure hope I don't lose my handful of readers after posting this. It may sound crazy-giving numbers personalities-but it works!  Anyway, I am excited about 2008.  It's ALL even numbers.  I graduated from High School in 86 and college in 90.  My girls were born in 96 and 98.  We got married in 92.  A favorite number is13-the day we were married, so my even number theory is thrown off with that one.   I love the feeling of any New Year and I'm excited to see what God has planned for me and my family for this coming year.

We ended 2007 with a fun trip to San Antonio.  We left right after church Sunday and stopped in a town called Fredricksburg to have a late lunch.  There is German restaurant there Joe loves.   We enjoyed our schnitzel!  We made it to San Antonio a little later and checked into a very nice room at one of the Air Force Bases there-good location and a lot cheaper than a hotel!  We had two tickets to the Spurs game for that night and hoped to get two more so that all 4 of us could go to the game, but that didn't work out.  I was disappointed, but didn't let it ruin my trip.  And, we were able to sell the two tickets we had.   We headed to the Riverwalk and saw the Christmas lights.  The girls were excited to go on a boat ride.  We met a family while standing in line for the boat who had driven 18 hours from the their home in Mexico for a vacation in San Antonio.   After our boatride, we were all hungry.   We were happy to discover Landry's had a very short wait for a table.  Rainbow Trout was the perfect thing for me to eat so late-satisfying and not too heavy.  Joe had oysters.  I won't tell you what Ellie said they look like.   We returned to our room around 11:00 and we all enjoyed sleeping in the next morning.  After breakfast, we went to the San Antonio Zoo.  The monkeys really put on a show that day.  It was 70 degrees and sunny!   We spent more time downtown that evening-eating dinner at a Mexican place in an area Joe calls "Old Town" and then back to the Riverwalk where we waited about 25 minutes for a table at the Rainforest Cafe and had dessert and coffee.  The girls bought stuffed animal monkeys and had a great time playing with them at the table and they really put on a funny show for Joe and me.    I hope to be able to add pictures to the blog again soon.  I haven't added any new pictures to the new computer yet.  We chose not to stay downtown until midnight with the girls, even though the fireworks would have been fun to watch.  But it was nice to not have to deal with traffic.  I slept through the fireworks display that both Joe and Ellie said they could hear at Midnight.   That's amazing, that I would be the one to sleep through loud noises.  Usually it's Joe who sleeps through anything.

Now we're home and the girls have a few more days off of school.  Joe and I are trying to eat better and get in better shape.   That topic also happens to be the chapter I'm on in the Bible Study I'm doing with my mentee.  Interesting timing, isn't it?  Actually it's God's perfect timing. 

Happy New Year!  Thanks for the comments and friendship in 2007.   

A vision

How many of you Moms have had this happen to you?

Today I was cooking and cleaning in the kitchen and while I was busy with my mind on many things, I had a vision of Gracie walking in the back door after getting off the bus, crying and saying she lost all her Christmas Cards.   To make this more clear, today was their last day of school and their Christmas party.  Her teacher had all the children make Christmas Cards for each child in the class and put them in a shoebox on each child's desk-much like a Valentine's Day Party.    Well, I happened to be on the other side of the house when Gracie got home, but Ellie was in the kitchen and I heard her say to her younger sister, "What's wrong?"  My exact vision came true!  Plus a little more-her hands her cut and scraped and bleeding just a little bit.  She had dropped her box of cards as she was getting on the bus, and of course it is an extremely windy day here,  so the cards went everywhere.  We live very close to the school, so after she washed her hands, we drove up to the school and I parked near where the buses line up.  Gracie saw one card in the field, and we ended up finding 18 of the 22 missing cards!  EVERY SINGLE CARD IN THE BOX BLEW AWAY.   There is a playground between her school the elementary school nearby with a fence.  Many of the cards were up against the fence.  I'm not sure why I had the vision, except that maybe I had a nicer reaction than I would have, had I not had the vision.  Maybe I would have told her she should have been more careful and put the box in her backpack and gotten frustrated with her.  Instead, I was understanding and took her to look for the cards.  The two of us running after some of the cards in the wind was quite a site.  I'm sorry I didn't take my camera!    

What I left off the last post

In the last meme I did, one of the questions was to name a random fact about myself.  I couldn't think of one worth posting at the time and I skipped over it, planning to finish it before I posted, but I forgot.  So my random fact is my very bad short term memory.  No-not really.  I will now share with you these facts-that men may or may not care to read......just as a warning....

As I approach that "time" of the month, every month, part of my PMS is to have a great urge to clean my house.  I like a clean house all the time, but I NEED a clean house during this time.  My husband enjoys this and my friends ask me to come to their homes during this time.  Dust bunnies and cobwebs and crumbs and fingerprints are no match for my PMS.

And the second strange thing that happened to me-when I nursed both my girls.   In the early days, when she would latch on, at that exact moment, I would feel a stabbing pain in my back.  If you could draw a line from the spot where they latched on straight through my body to my back, that is where I felt the stabbing pain.  After a few weeks, it ended, thankfully.  I just learned to brace myself for it.  When I nursed my second daughter, I had even forgotten about it until it happened with her, too.  I mentioned it to a few people-medical and other Moms, and no one has ever heard of it. 

Random.

What did you say?

Sadie the dog was probably very glad to see me go out the door today.  Instead of talking to her, I was on my way to have lunch and catch up on things with my good friend L. from church.  We had a great visit.  I always laugh a lot when I'm with her.  Everyone needs a friend  or two they can laugh with.  And now I don't feel the need to talk to Sadie.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy peace and quiet, but there are times when I enjoy coversations as well.    It's hard to have a conversation with Sadie.   She doesn't have a whole lot to say back.