2013? Where is the year going?

Goodness! I didn't realize I haven't posted this year at all yet! Guess I've been busy!

I'm sure a lot has happened that I won't remember to post about.
E is still adjusting since he had his Thyroid removed in January. He had a couple of other surgeries in January also, and it's taking him a while to get back to normal, or adjust to a new normal.

I did finally go to the hand doc yesterday. Got a shot in my wrist. Talk about an ice pick feeling! It's a little sore today. Doc said it would be for a couple of days but should get better in a few and hopefully the shot will last for 6 months to a year. Then I'll get another one. As long as they keep working, I can avoid surgery. I have something called STT Arthritis. I haven't googled it yet. The STT are the first letters of the three bones in the joint.

Other than that and needing to get more exercise and lose weight, I'm doing pretty well. Still working for the two attorneys. I love my jobs. I could not have found better bosses.

I'm still working on organizing craft stuff, but at least I have things to a workable level now. I can make a card without taking lots of time to find what I need to do it. Things are getting better. Also, one of my best friends that I craft with frequently just moved 1.3 miles from me instead of 12+. I'm so happy to have her closer so we can "play" together more often. Of course, it will take her a little time to get her craft room unpacked and set up, but then it will be great fun! Her mom is here now too, instead of just visiting. Sweet lady. I'm so happy for them to have found a great house and settling in.

We went to a family reunion for my dad's side of the family last weekend. It was great to see so many people I haven't seen in a long time and meet some family and friends I haven't before. Working on updating the family tree online. My cousin has done a lot of work on it and we added a bunch at the reunion. I'm going to look through my calendars and records and see if I can add more info. At least I can look online to see what is missing and contact family to get the info needed. It's nice to keep in touch and know what's going on with everyone, and see how the family is growing with the new births.

In April, I went to a church ladies retreat about being prepared spiritually, physically, and mentally for disasters. It was very timely with the West explosion and the Boston bombing, and now the tornados. I have my notes in an email. If you would like a copy, let me know and I will send them to you. There is also a great book by Dr. Paul Williams, When All Plans Fail, about being prepared. I went with some of the same people from the retreat to the Austin Disaster Relief Network dinner in May. He was the speaker. He's been all over the world helping out after disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, so he's had lots of experience to write the book. You can get it on Amazon. Please be prepared to help your family and friends in case of disaster. You never know when something like the recent events will happen to you.

I think I'll end on that important note, and put on my calendar to post again soon.
Blessings,
Lori

Me, again...

Once again, it's been a while since I've posted. I just can't seem to remember to do it unless it's on my calendar and the last time it popped up, I didn't get around to doing it. It's been a busy couple of months with doc appointments for E. Trying to regulate his diabetes and take care of his eyes. Having cataract surgery in December, and maybe thyroid surgery to remove a growth. We'll find out Monday after meeting with the ENT. Always something.
After I get through December, I think I'll see the hand surgeon about my wrist. The physical therapy helped me get the strength back, but I still have that ice pick in my wrist feeling a certain way I move it. Not fun.

All in all, I'm still counting my blessings. Just had Thanksgiving and there is so much to be thankful for. We had a nice, relaxing dinner at Jerry and Jill's, got to visit a bit with Dennis, and spent some time with Josie (granddaughter). She's growing up so fast, getting so tall.

Amy and Mikey are coming to visit for a few days before Christmas and will be here for Christmas morning. Our first Christmas morning with him and he'll be 5 in January. It's been a long time since I saw a child wake up to Christmas morning. Should be fun. I'll have the camera ready!

Some friends are getting married. Two weddings coming up. One is this weekend! I love weddings. This will be the first one I've been to at our "new" church. I've got to stop calling it that since we've been there over two years now. We love our church family.

I'm on the ladies' retreat planning commitee for the second year in a row. Didn't take long to jump in with both feet. I've made lots of new friends and really enjoy all the church things we do.

I've been organizing my craft stuff for the last few days. Since I was off Wednesday last week, I had a long weekend to work on things. I'd really like to clean out the guest room closet and build some shelves and a workspace in there. Make that corner my craft area so that I can walk in there and make a card easily without having to run all over the house looking for things I need. I think the only rooms in the house that don't have craft stuff in them are the bathrooms and the kitchen. I certainly get my exercise moving stuff around to find what I need. It takes a long time to get anything done that way.
Some of my crafty friends have been encouraging me to get my space built and organized. I'm hoping to do that over the Christmas break. I hope it's long enough! I'll have to really focus, so I probably won't be on Facebook or blogging much that week! Then I have to get busy on a couple of scrapbooks!

Another blessing! I'm an aunt again. May nephew and his wife just had their second baby boy on Sunday. I went to see them yesterday at the hospital. They are all fine. Baby is adorable. Mommy is beautiful. Daddy is tired.

I'm looking forward to the family Christmas party/gift exchange. Always so much fun.

Well, I'm sure I've left out something, but it's late and I'm tired, so this will have to do until next time.

Love and hugs,
Lori

Surprises! Not always great ones....

Interesting that something popped up that led me to my blog page the very day that I have a reminder on my calendar to post. I seem to forget if I don't put a reminder on my calendar. Busy, busy, busy, all the time. I joined a new craft group at church making memory boxes for moms who have lost their babies. One of the ladies is a nurse at the hospital and takes them there to give out. They are much appreciated by the moms. I have some ideas to make them a little more special. There are only a few of us in the group and new ideas seem to be appreciated. We came up with several this week when we got together. The boxes are big enough for a few photographs, the footprints and handprints, cards they get in the hospital and at home, and the clothes they wear in the photos. The nurse takes the photos for them. They are black and white so you can't see that the babies are kind of blue. It's sad but very special to the families. My niece is getting married in two weeks and I'm planning to make a beach themed guest book for people to sign and leave a short message if they want to. I've asked a friend to help me with it. She is so creative. I'll be working on that Friday and Saturday. No time before then. I have something to do every evening this week. Money University on Monday night for 4 weeks. Hope that will help me figure out how to survive and thrive on our income. Tuesday is our monthly Young Living Essential Oils business meeting. I really would like to grow that business by helping people to understand the benefits of using the oils and other products to be healthier in this age of so many chemicals and medications. We start a new ladies Bible study this Wednesday at church. I really enjoy those studies, so adding that to my calendar for several weeks. This has been a bad car week for me. Petey was in the shop last Saturday and then Thursday on my way home, he overheated. I was saying many prayers all the way to the first car repair place I could find. They couldn't really find anything wrong with it, put in more coolant and I drove home. We took it to our regular repair place yesterday afternoon. Just picked it up a while ago. If anything else goes wrong any time soon, we'll be parking it and being a one car family for a while. I've been thinking about riding the train to and from work again anyway. I also need the exercise of walking the 17 blocks to my office in the mornings, 4 blocks to the other office at lunch time and 21 blocks back to the train in the afternoon. It's cooling off a bit....maybe... so I should be able to do it without melting too much. I don't really care if I get sweaty on the way home, but don't want to be that way first thing at work. Not that I see anyone. Rarely see either boss. They leave me work to do and I do it. Well, another project for today is in the works, so guess I'd better get to it. Another one of my nieces is bringing some bags of my sister's clothes (Tina, the one who died January 1st) over so I can help go through them. I took three bags to Safe Place for Battered Women back in January. That's the plan for most of the rest too. I just want to be sure we don't overlook something that might have gotten thrown in the bags, and keep a few of the special things. Until next time, prayers all is well with you. Blessings, Lori

Life and death got in the way....

Oh, my gosh! It's been ages since I posted. So much has happened since then that I probably can't remember it all. The biggest and most heartbreaking event is that my mother died on March 26th, just a few days before my birthday on the 31st. It was a busy time after that getting things ready for her memorial and then later having a small family event at the family cemetery out of town. Besides that, I've been doing a lot of stuff at church. I'm on the committee to plan the ladies retreat for February. It's the second year I've been on the committee. It's fun, but there sure is a lot of planning that goes into a retreat for over 100 women. I went to a really great Beth Moore conference recently. She's very interesting and inspiring. If you get a chance to attend one of her events, go! We haven't taken any vacations really this summer. We did go to the Valley for a few days for our Anniversary in July. Even went to the beach for a short time. Will have to plan for longer next time. I did swim, but not for long. I will be better about posting to this blog. Guess I'll have to put it on my calendar for at least once a month! Hope all is well with you! Blessings, Lori

Immerse Austin and church retreats

On Feb 3rd, I went to Immerse Austin at Riverbend Church with some long-time friends, and some new friends. We saw Mandisa, Lysa Terkeurst, and Anita Renfro. Great show! I remember several things from it. I'll share a couple from Lysa's talk here now. She has 5 children. Two boys she adopted from Africa, and three daughters who are younger than the boys. The kids are older now, but when the youngest was 4, they all went to Walmart. A woman stopped in the aisle and looked them over and said, "Different fathers." Lysa didn't know what to say. Her 4 year old put her hands on her hips and looking up at the woman said, "Let me 'splain it to you. When my mommy was pregnant with my brothers, she drank chocolate milk." I don't remember if the woman said anything after that because everyone was laughing so hard. Gotta love the way kids look at life. It never occurred to the child that those were not her biological brothers.

The other story that Lysa told really stuck with me. She said that one Christmas they wanted to make it very special and make sure the kids knew it was all about Jesus and not the presents. A couple of weeks before Christmas, she and her husband decided they would have a nice breakfast before gifts. They would set a place at the table for Jesus and put a box in the middle of the table. Everyone would share what their gift to Jesus would be for that year. Then they would write it on a paper and put it in the box. Lysa thought about her gift. She started out with, "I'm not going to yell at my kids this year." That wasn't going well in those two weeks before Christmas, so she decided to change it to, "I'm not going to yell at my kids this year, so much." On Christmas morning, her husband went first to share his gift. I don't recall the exact words, but it went something like this: "I'm going to look for someone each day to share my time, money, or encouragement with, so that at the end of the year, I will know that 365 people have been affected by the love of Christ." Lysa thougth to herself that she couldn't bring HER crappy gift to this party, so she immediately said, "Me too!" Then all of the children said, "Me too!" Every evening at dinner they would share who they had affected that day. It brought the family closer together and affected many people. I think she said they kept doing it after the year because it had become a habit. A very good one! I like the idea, and plan to do it myself! I should keep a journal so I'll know how I'm doing. Will be neat to read later to remember the people affected.

I left Riverbend about 9:15, just before the crowd, so I could beat the traffic and head for the ECW retreat at Wellspring between Wimberley and Blanco. It was drizzling. Not nice traveling weather! About a mile before I turned off on the road to Wellspring, I got into some rain that was really hard! I could barely see the road, so I was creeping along. No one else was on the road out there at that time of night. The last vehicle in front of me had turned off miles before that. Just before I turned off on the road to Wellspring, the rain let up. When I turned on the road, it was bone dry for the several (about 3 or 4) miles, then just after I crossed the low bridge, it started to pour again. I drove really slow along the gravel road. It was still pouring when I pulled up to the conference center about 11:00. All the way there I had been praying that I would get there safely and that there would be no water over the bridge. Those prayers were answered! Then when I got there and it was pouring, I prayed for 10 minutes of no rain so I could get to the house and unload the car. Thankfully, that prayer was answered and we had 30 minutes before the storm got bad again. There was a 3 foot wide river of water running down the gravel road in front of the house I was staying in with two of my friends. They didn't know what time I was going to get there, so they took the room with the two twin beds and gave me the room with the full size bed. They are really sweet friends. I've been really restless the last few months with my hip bothering me, so the extra room to roll over was really nice. The whole retreat was really nice. I got to reconnect with some friends I haven't seen in a while and make some new friends. It was great to be with my ECW "sisters" and get some comfort from them after losing my sister. Wellspring is such a spiritual place too, so that was also comforting. They call it the Holy Hill. I love going there.

On Feb 10th, I got to go to another church retreat at Summer's Mill in Salado. It's a beautiful place too, but not nearly as remote as Wellspring. This was my second retreat there. I am on the BOCC retreat committee this year so I was much busier than last year. The speaker, Rachel Raborn-Norris, a potter from Bryan, (Joy Pottery) was the speaker. Amazing! Her testimony and the way she shared while showing us how to make a pitcher, a pot, and a bowl on the wheel, was very inspiring. It is very interesting the way she puts it all together with the way God shapes us into vessels he can use. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, don't miss it! I could easily repeat that whole thing again! They did video tape part of it, so hopefully I will get to see it. I told Rachel she should make a DVD, but I think she likes the human contact. She is booked to speak a year in advance, 4 to 6 times each month. I don't know how she finds time to make the beautiful pottery she makes. She doesn't sell online, so the pieces are limited. Only sold at her studio and her speaking events. Yes, I bought a couple things. A beautiful Communion set. I will probably use it for crackers and dip tho. Or maybe a candy dish. It has grapes and leaves on the side of the chalice, and a couple of stalks of wheat on the plate. I also bought a mug with the same grape design. I'll probably take it to the office for my hot chocolate.
The committee bought a beautiful bowl as a gift for our leader. She loves it. I took a picture of it, but can't remember at the moment the words around the inside rim. Will have to look that up when I go through the pictures deciding what to print for the scrapbook.

Well, that's enough for now.
Blessings,
Lori

What I said at my sister's memorial service

Tina was my sister and my best friend. We talked or emailed every day. We always had fun together, especially on road trips.

Tina didn't know a stranger. Everyone became a friend if not adopted into our family. You were all family to Tina.

She was the most kind, loving and generous person I have ever known. I often said I want to be more like her. If there are lessons in all of this, some of them are probably simplify, take better care of ourselves, tell those we love every chance we get, and check frequently on anyone you know lives alone.

We always said, "I love you" to each other at the end of phone calls, emails, and in person. I'm thankful those were the last words we said to each other. I know where she is now and that I will see her again someday.

You will notice a collection of her pigs from the almost 20 years working at APD on a table out here. There are also some other items she collected. Please take them as a memento if you want.

Thank you all for your support and prayers for our family through this time, and for being such dear friends to Tina.

Afterward:
In talking with a couple after the service (I took some photos at their wedding a few years ago when I went with Tina), I realize I should have added that some of them knew me as Tina’s date because she asked me many times to go to events with her because we had so much fun together.

Some thougths about people who have died, and odd things that happen.

I have two voicemail messages from Tina still that I keep saving on my phone. I also recorded them to my computer. I hope I remember to save them every few days so that I can listen to her anytime. They are sweet reminders of things she always said to me on the phone.

My dad died in '88 and I still randomly cry about him, and also my brother who died in 2000, and my sis-in-law who died in '81 or "83.... She was one of my best friends in High School when I lived with Tina, even before she married my brother. Sometimes I can talk about any of them, and many others, and not cry, other times I just think about them and tears flow.

Something strange I haven't told a lot of people.... We were in Houston for New Year's and I woke up early that morning before the alarm went off. I don't recall the time now, I just know it was early. Then on Monday morning, I was sleeping in the guest room because I was so exhausted and E snores. I woke up really early, around 6:40 thinking someone had come into the room, but E was snoring in the other room, and I didn't see anyone. Every morning I wake up at that same time before my alarm goes off at 7:00. Only that one morning did I feel like someone was in the room. When my grandmother died, she came to Tina and sat on the foot of her bed and told her that everything was going to be alright. Tina was her favorite. I wonder now if Tina came to me that first morning after she died. Another odd thing... when my dad died, I didn't know it but when I got to the hospital I found out that it was the exact minute that I had awakened that morning, before the alarm went off. I had planned to get up and go to the hospital. I'm wondering now if Tina died at 6:40 in the morning. I didn't think about that until this morning. We'll see if I keep waking up at the same time, or if I won't now that I've figured that out. Wonder what the autopsy will say. I doubt they can pinpoint the time that close. It doesn't matter what time I go to bed, I keep waking at that same time. Well, that's plenty to digest for now.

Anyway, there will always be a connection and if you haven't read the book, Heaven Is For Real, I highly recommend it. It's one of my fav books since I read it about 6 months ago. I'm going to read it again in the next few weeks. I'm taking it with me to two church women's retreats the first two weekends in February.