Prayer Request and Chain

Well I have been praying for Stellan over at Mckmama, you can follow my link off Noodles Nest on the side bar to read about him.

In the mean time one of the baby's in my own church is very sick and was rushed to CHKD. Please uplift Baby Hannah and her family. They are good friends of mine too. Here is her link: http://jennturnage.blogspot.com/


Thanks for your prayers.

Oh where oh where did the TomTom go!

The new TomTom GPS that my mom received for Christmas went missing. We discovered this as we were getting ready to head to over to Virginia Beach to the Cheesecake Factory and to the Boardwalk Christmas lights. We backtracked to our business where was the last place she remembered having it in her hands. No TomTom. We went back home and searched and searched and searched, no TomTom. I prayed that it would show up but no TomTom. We finally went and picked up my sister and her family who were already mad we were late because we couldn't find our TomTom, she was doubly mad because she gave it to my mom for Christmas. My mom is now in tears and then my brother in law said he didn't want to go because he said my mom would ruin their night because she was upset. She did eventually calm down but still no TomTom. She worried and worried but tried not to show it. When we got home we went back to our business and looked all over her desk. No TomTom. I was beginning to think that she accidentally left the car unlocked this afternoon and someone took it. We came back home, looked all over the computer, her room, no TomTom. Then I told her to pick up the bag I had from Sunday School and lo and behold there was Betsy, the TomTom. How did Betsy get there since we do know the route to church, she has only driven it for 55 years? I know, I rode with her today to save gas and she slammed her brakes on two times and things went flying. I have to assume that the TomTom dropped in my bag then because I had no reason to have the TomTom in my Sunday School bag. I don't need GPS to teach preschoolers. Well sometimes I need some serious help but never what a GPS can help me with unless I may neeed to find one of the munchkins. ( It has happened during a presentation, she went and sat with her aunt and I did not know it, really scared me.) Well anyways despite the upset, TomTom was found and my prayer was answered but in God's time not mine. Thank you.

Very productive day

What I accomplished between 9AM and 2 PM..... washed four loads of laundry, made carmelitas ( recipe later), made pasta salad, grits casserole, hashbrown casserole, sausage balls, chopped summer sausage, ummh lots of it for sandwiches, tomatoes and onion, wrapped six gifts and colored my hair. Wow, no wonder I am tired. Is it worth it. At he moment it is but now that I am exhausted from all my work and our family party, I really don't think so. The good thing is that I do not have to make breakfast tomorrow , I just have to reheat. So maybe tomorrow I will be thankful I did all that today. In the mean time, I must remember that Christmas is not for baking and running ragged it is about the birth of our Saviour. The Saviour that redeemed us on the cross 33 years later. Thank You Jesus and Happy Birthday.

One must remember the employees at the store want to go home too

OK, When you are shopping this Christmas Eve, please remember that the employees of the business want to go home too.
Now here is my rant....

This evening I was closing down the registers but had not flipped our closed sign yet. My employee was heading there to do that and to lock the door three minutes after technical closing time. This lady barged through the door asking what time do we close. I said, now. She pleaded please don't close before I can run next door ( we have a organic grocery store beside us) and buy something. The niceness in my agreed provided that she hurried but I also told her I had plans and needed to leave. The meanness in me was wondering what kind of audacity this woman had asking me to stay open after I told her we were closing and wait for her to shop at another store. Well she was back in no time because the other store closed on her which is really what I should have done. People think because we are a Christian business that we can be walked all over and it gets really old. She had a special order in which I had to then go to the back of the store to get and bring back up . Needless to say this was on my time and I was perturbed. I was also perturbed that her special order had been in the store since December 3 and she waits til the 23rd after closing to come get it. I told her the total. She looks at me and then says here is my coupon. I was perturbed again because she could have handed it to me all along. Then she wants the coupon back because she wants to make sure my total agrees with the total she had calculated and had written on her coupon. My patience is getting very low now. The totals matched. Oh we are not done. She then goes searching and searching for her money while I patiently and impatiently wait. She then decides to use her credit card because she wants to keep her cash. I ring her out. Then she stops and says, " Do you have some pretty paper that you can wrap this in for me?" That was the last draw . I know I have paper and I can wrap for a small charge but we are now into 15 minutes of my time and I am late for a Christmas party. I looked at her and said, " no I do not have any paper at this time to wrap for you but behind you I have some beautiful gift bags that YOU can buy and wrap yourself. " Oh, I was fit to be tied. She asked what my name was. I think she is going to call the manager and complain that I was impatient on my time. Ohhhh, if she only knows that I am the manager! HEEEHEEE!

Now some may say, well she didn't know you closed at 7. We have closed at 7 for years. We are not in a shopping center that has late hours. We are the latest closing store usually. If I told you that we are closing, why would you ask me to stay open for you to shop elsewhere while I just sit and wait on you. Oh that was rude. Then once you are in there , you proceed not to hurry even after the employee explained to you that she had to be somewhere and that we were closed. Then have the audacity to want me to wrap your present after we were closed knowing I was in a hurry. Technically I did not lie to her. Yes we had paper but no I was not going to wrap her present on my time under these circumstances . So technically it was not available at this time. ARRRRGH! I really am usually very polite and helpful but this lady was pushing it.

While I am on my soapbox. We ran a free gift with $35 purchase promotion. When we go to our conventions we receive tons of pre-release books that we can not sell. I took the books and added candy, snacks and a coupon off your next visit. Remember folks this is free, ok. The number of people that were perturbed that my snacks and goodies blocked the back of the book so they could not read the synopsis was unbelievable. One lady even went and took the bags apart to see the synopsis. I was quite peeved. Did they not understand this was free? I did not have to give them the choice of books. I could have just grabbed a bag and threw it in there bag. These people were choosy and picky over something that was free. One woman said she noticed that there was a coupon in there and she was planning on buying $35 and wanted to know if I would go ahead and give her the bag so she could get the coupon out of it and use it towards her $35 purchase. Needless to say that was a big No and I explained it was on a next purchase. She said well this is my next purchase. I explained yes but the bag does not belong to you yet it belongs to me until you pay the $35 purchase. I was just trying to do something nice and reward people for spending $35. WOW! It was unbelievable.

I am done ranting and will try to get my Christmas spirit back.

Christmas play pictures

Christmas through the eyes of a child.... Including the collie dog in the right corner. And yes we have sheperhesses and only one shepherd. What can you do when you have mostly girls, you improvise.

No time to explain them now but I have to post some cute pictures of the kids I teach at church and their Christmas play. Now realize out of 10 kids, 7 are under 5. I was exhausted. My nephew is the one wearing the yellow tie and he was also Joseph. It was a great Sunday even though the

the preacher ended early and cut our Christmas party real short. I mean real short, we had just sat them down to have snacks. Needless to say they were packed up and sent home.

Well I am late for work.

PS... Thanks to Jen over at
http://www.jennturnage.blogspot.com/ for letting me steal her photos. I was so busy helping direct that I did not get any photos. Her son was the wiseman in the yellow hat. He is also wearing the Christmas sweater on the back right in the singing photo. Oh yeah, her baby, Hannah was baby Jesus.

Kids say the darnest things...

I was driving to Wal-mart, yes my once or twice a year visit, with my nephew. I was planning our church Christmas party for this Sunday. I was asked to bring sandwiches in Christmas shapes. I asked my five year old nephew what kind of sandwich he thought the kids would like. He said, " Peanut Butter." I said," How about peanut butter and jelly." His response, " OK.... noooo it has to be peanut butter and jellyfish jelly sandwiches." Of course, my mouth dropped . I had to figure this one out. I repeated, " peanut butter and jellyfish jelly sandwiches." He said , " Yep, that is what Sponge Bob eats." I had to call my co-coordinator and tell her that. After her laughter, she asked if any kids had peanut allergies. I told her my group didn't have peanut allergies but I was not sure about jellyfish jelly allergies. Doesn't that sound quite tasty... Peanut Butter and Jellyfish Jelly Sandwiches.

YAYYYY!

YAYYYYY! Michelle won the Biggest Loser. You go girl!

Another dippy moment....

Well I could have labeled another blond moment but I think dippy sounds better for me now.

I took a shower this morning, like I do every morning. I was in a hurry though. I did all my necessary things to be clean for the day . So I thought. I got all lotioned up and was smelling good. I was getting dressed and in a good mood but low on time. I had five minutes to leave and still had to blow-dry my hair. Yep that was the problem, I wet my hair down but I did not wash it. I have to wash my hair daily because it looks very oily if I don't. What was I to do with five minutes left. Well I dried it enough, through some baby powder on it to absorb the oil, brushed it and went on. Nobody knew but me and now all of you. I could not be late to go rewash it and take the chance of my nephew crying at lunch because he thought I was not coming. His needs were greater than mine. I was ontime and he was happy. Needless to say I washed it as soon as I came home.

Whooh! I hope I get over all this ditsyness soon. Have you ever done such silly things?

Blonde Moment....

One of the many reasons I color my hair blond is to match my personality. Shhh! Don't tell everyone my secrets.

I went to the Y last week and saw that they were trying to "GO GREEN!" They are using cloth towels now instead of paper towels for the members to wipe the equipment down after use. This particular day was the first day for offering the cloth towels so they still had the paper towels available for someone like me, a blond. I grabbed my paper towel and cleanser and was on the equipment thinking hard about this "GO GREEN " thing. I was thinking it is really neat that are doing this but I do not know where to get a clean towel . I saw the two buckets, one labeled clean towels and the other labeled dirty towels. I just could not comprehend where the towels were that I was supposed to use. I understood that if you took a towel and did not use it then it would go in the clean towel bucket. I also understood that if you used the towel , it would go in the dirty bucket. By the way, I did not mention that both of these buckets were like kitchen trash cans with a cover, so I could not see in them. I kept going from machine to machine thinking and thinking. I finally let it go and thought they had a lot of people that used the towels and they were out of them. On my last piece of equipment the light came on in my head.... Can you guess? DUH! You get the clean towels out of the clean towel bucket and when you are through they are considered dirty and go in the dirty towel bucket. Nobody who takes a towel will keep it clean when it's purpose is to be used. What a revelation! Really I did graduate from high school, a community college and a university .... Priceless, well I should not say priceless, the degrees cost a lot especially for me to be so ditsy sometimes. I think I over think things sometimes, I often do that with my nephew's kindergarten homework too.


Sorry if I offended any blonds who are smart. Obviously I am not one of them. I think I may have colored my hair too much and the chemicals are seeping in my brain.

I have a secret...

Shhhh!... But my secret is.... Oh my!..... There is a dozen KK doughnuts in my kitchen. Well , less than a dozen now... Shh!.... Really I have not had even one. There are six missing but I have not had a desire for even one. Can you believe it, KK doughnuts and I have not even had one? I am in shock myself.

I am off to eat some steamed spinach for my midnight snack. That is what I want, not a KK doughnut. I can not believe it, can you?

I'm so cold.....

I am so cold. It is about 33 outside which is early cold for my area. Usually it is this cold January-April here. Yes, April sometimes. I went out to our city's hollydazzle tonight. It is a real nice night of strolling, caroling, bells, crafts and hot beverages. The highlight is the fireworks around the fountain before the city tree is lit. This was one of the first years it was actually cold for a Christmas event. After that my mom and I went for our new tradition that started last year at Waffle House. It was freezing in there too. They had accidentally turned the heat off. I was sitting there in my winter coat and scarf freezing. Now I am home and can not get warm. I don't wear socks to bed but tonight may be a socks night.

Well off to find some socks and all the blankets in the house.

Pretty Tasty Chicken Chili Soup

I was reading the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens (YMCA copy) while exercising on the elliptical the other night . I never read that magazine but it had some really interesting recipes. So interesing that I had to go buy my own copy for the recipes. In the winter I make a lot of soup, I mean a lot. I also must say I never completely follow a recipe , I exchange and play with what I think may be good. A recipe is only a suggestion. This was simple and easy too.

Chicken Chili Soup

1 can garbanzo beans ( chick peas), drained
1 can northern beans , drained
2 cans chicken broth
1 can chopped tomatoes with chiles ( Rotel, I used Save-Alot brand)
1/2 pack chili seasoning
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
1 cup shredded cheese
garlic ( I use alot, others may use a little)
1 onion
olive oil
cooked or canned chicken ( as much as you want, I was in a hurry and deboned a rotisserie)

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add 1/2 packet of chili seasoning. Add chicken broth , then use the cans to add 2 cans of water. Add both cans of beans, chopped tomatoes, crushed tortilla chips and cheese. Stir and add chicken. Let cook on medium for about 30 minutes. Ohhh, I also added a little garlic and herb seasoning ( salt-free) but I add that to everything.

It was and is very tasty . It made enough for three hearty eaters for dinner and two bowls for lunch tomorrow.

Update..

Thanksgiving was not so bad. My aunt only had one outrage moment that I saw . She went ballistic over someone dropping one small smidgen of cocktail sauce on the kitchen floor. My dad rescued the day. He brought his new scooter that he has that he uses at Busch Gardens and various places. He took all the kids outside for about two hours letting them ride with him around the block if they were little and actually letting them ride it if they were older. This relieved the parents worrying about anything in the house being messed up. Yayy Dad!