More Than A Song

I’ve taken quite a few pictures this past week, maybe a few more than normal. So I’m using some of them today since I’ve racked my brain and am coming up dry on something to write!
We went to Jackson last weekend to go out to eat; Don took me out and son D joined us along with Stacy & Tim. We went to a small Italian place that I’ve never been to before but Stacy had eaten there and she was right, it was really good!
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We are having gorgeous weather right now in the South; beautiful sunshine and fairly warm, almost spring-like! I should be out walking but I never really want to go by myself. I SO need to be cleaning house today but I think I’m going to shuck it all and go shopping instead! It will leave me with more to do tomorrow. We are giving a dinner party and marriage blessing this weekend and I’ll be working on food for that. I might also need to go help decorate for that as well. Maybe I’ll remember to take pictures this time!
Hope you have a great day and that it’s nice where you are!
“It’s a beautiful day for a neighbor would you be mine!”

Sunday my pastor read from Genesis 33, when Jacob and Esau reunited after being estranged for so many years. There was forgiveness and restoration and he sort of landed on verse 10, which I don’t remember reading before or haven’t read it from the NIV. It goes this way………..”No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably”. Esau forgave Jacob and received him and his gifts. He went on to talk about love and forgiveness and how when we forgive, other people see the face of God. And that forgiveness is unlimited; we should forgive because we have been forgiven greatly. It was a good reminder for me.
It also reminded me of a line from the musical Les Mis, my all time favorite. Now it’s been running around in my head all week so I’ll pass it along to you! Toward the end of the show Valjean is singing with Fantine and Eponine and they sing: “And remember the truth that once was spoken, to love another person is to see the face of God”.

I love to watch and was glad when they finally got around to “real” singing! But none of the guys really blew me away last night, so disappointing. And I want Chris Sligh to do so well but he’ll have to step it up. Phil Stacey started out shaky but ended pretty good. I thought Blake did the best, surprisingly! He can really sing; now if he gets back to the beat boxing I might not like it so much but from what I’m reading online, the consensus is that he did the best last night. I think I know who will be some of the ones with the lowest votes, from a site I found a couple of seasons ago. But I won’t give it away in case you like to be surprised!
I’d heard the judges say a few weeks ago that the girls had a lot of talent this year so I’m hoping that they’ll be more impressive tonight!
Chris Sligh is a christian and his song last night was a Mute Math one I believe….my son has some of their music but I don’t know a lot of their stuff. I think Melinda is a christian too and I was impressed with her voice in the Memphis auditions so I hope she does well tonight.
Enjoy your tv viewing!

I have the internet blues today; haven’t been able to get connected much today and if I do, it’s sporadic and very s.l.o.w! I hope to get around and visit your blogs to comment and all that fun stuff but it might take a while. Our provider (high speed from our cable company) has an 800 number, so you never know where in the world you might be calling but I haven’t had much luck getting through to them. So hubby called the local cable/tech guy directly, he kindly left us his cell phone last time he was here and told us to call anytime, so we did. Said he’d be here at 1, it’s now close to 5 and I still haven’t seen him! I finally reached the 800 #, after pressing zero about 91 times in a row, got transferred around to different people and got told something different each time. This seems to be the normal routine but I still don’t like it……D asked again today if I wanted to change to bellsouth and some days I think it just might be better than this high tech cable service that is supposed to be so good!

“The tables are empty, the dance floor’s deserted.”

It can’t be Monday again! Here’s what I’m tentatively having this week.

Monday……Corn & sausage chowder
Tuesday……Grilled salmon, broccoli
Wednesday..church supper
Thursday…..Oven Ranch chicken, roasted veggies
Friday……..Veggie quesadillas, rice
Saturday…..Party! (We are giving a dinner party/marriage blessing for a girl getting married, the daughter of a friend, so we’ll have fun party food!)

Go on over to Laura’s place for more Monday menus….plus she has great organizing ideas as well! Have a good week.

A niece of mine sent me this video today and I just loved it! I’ve watched it several times and that dog is just so cute and smart…..plus I also love music from Grease!
So for your viewing enjoyment:

Now that was cute!

What’s in a name?
I’ve been called by my middle name my whole life, wasn’t too much of a problem growing up (except for disliking both my names!). It was only a slight problem after I married but I got my social security card changed and went about my life and business using my middle name, maiden name and my married last name. Ever since 9/11 it’s been even more of a problem, mostly as far as travel goes. If I buy a ticket with my name I’m called by, it’s not the name on my driver’s license; my first name is still on my license but I have always signed it by my middle name. When I go through security at airports they look at it a little more closely but usually when I point out that I’ve signed it “Gail” everything is just fine. Until I was flying home from Wichita about a week or so ago. The lady checking it wouldn’t let me go through but tagged me to get checked by TSA. I’ve never had that before but they pat you down all over! Then they took everything out of my backpack and purse and wiped all that down with those swipe things they had to put in a machine, to check for explosives I guess! I am glad that they seem to be diligent about it though. One of the reasons I haven’t been buying the tickets with my first name is that all my frequent flyer accounts are in my middle name, so I would get no credit on my account for flying. So after flying 3 times out of 5 weekends in the last month, I decided I would just go and get my driver’s license changed to my middle name, so my ticket could match my license name…..that was hubby’s idea because he said that would be best to do and of course they would change it! I live in Small Town America and there are only 2 Thursdays each month that anyone is in town to issue driver’s licenses. Today was my lucky day though and they were in town! I took my social security card with me (it has my name as I use it for business and personal stuff) and took my birth certificate just in case. When it was my turn to be waited on I told the nice lady I wanted to change my name on my license and showed her my SS card. She said they don’t change it based on social security cards but I would need my birth certificate. I was glad I’d taken it, gave it to her and she looked at it and my license and said, “What’s wrong with it?” I tell her again that I want my first name taken off and my middle name put on my license and then she said, “we can’t do that”. She said I would have to change the birth certificate in order to do it……that just didn’t seem like an easy option to me! She did say that she could put my first and middle name so both would be on my license, so that will be the best I can do I suppose. I’ll probably have to resort to buying my tickets with my first name on them and not get credit for miles, unless I can find a way to change all the accounts I have with different airlines. Online there is no option for changing a name on the account so I might have to wait on the phone for long periods of time and hope I get a “real” person to talk to!
A few years ago I guess we never could have imagined that all this would become a problem.
If anyone is thinking of naming babies in the future, my advice is call them by the first name you give them and not the middle name! It might make some things just a little bit easier!

In the fall I went with Stacy to a library sale in her town, only time I’ve been to something like that but I hope to go again! She went to another one recently and I think she’s gotten some pretty good books, she might have picked better than me. I read the ones I got and a few of hers as well. But now I’ve got one that I don’t think I’m going to keep around here. The title of this particular book is Hanna’s Daughters. I didn’t find much info on Amazon about it but you can go HERE to read a bit more about it at the Barnes & Noble site. It’s a paperback book and is in pretty good condition. I’ve probably read things that I like better than this one, although some of the people reviewing it on BN sounded like they liked it; everyone likes different things I suppose. If anyone is interested in reading it, just comment or email me about it and I’ll be more than happy send it to you in the mail!
I might have to check around and see what other books I have that I could pass along or I might find another library and donate some books back somewhere. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll mail it right off to you!
“If there’s anything that you want, if there’s anything I can do, just call on me and I’ll send it along………”

Lots of little things rolling around in my head but nothing I can really get into to write about; lots of jumbled up thoughts with no direction! So this post will take many different turns……ever have days like that?
It’s been raining again and I think that makes me feel dreary sometimes and at loose ends, but I’m not sure why.

I missed doing this last week when I was out of town and it makes dinner time a little harder if I don’t have a plan! We seem to have several functions this week so it looks like I won’t be cooking as much as I normally might……but I’ll probably enjoy the time out!
Be sure to visit Laura’s place for other great menus and organizing ideas. Thanks Laura for hosting this each week.

Sunday……….Crockpot deer steak, salad, veggie
Monday………eating at friends house to watch 24, I’m bringing homemade bread!
Tuesday……..out to eat with Sunday school class
Wednesday…church supper
Thursday…….Baked salmon, couscous, sesame green beans
Friday…………Soup, salad
Sat/Sunday….tbd

It’s only been in about the last week or so that we have gotten around to using our fireplace at home this winter. Sad I know; but here in Mississippi it doesn’t always get cold enough to use them. We have had more cold weather this year, cold for the South so I’ve felt more like building a fire. One of the reasons I don’t use my fireplace more often is that it takes a lot of work for me to get it going! Clean out all the ashes, find something to use for kindling, get everything put in, hope the wood is dry enough, keep piling logs on, etc. I love the idea of having a fire going, the look of the room with it and the crackling sounds it makes but I don’t like the effort that goes into it! I want a “push button” fireplace! Well, that’s what I call them anyway! I seem to know a lot of people that have those and it just seems so easy to go push a button and have a fire come on, what a great invention! I asked Don once about taking ours out because we weren’t using it but he thought it would be too costly to do because it goes up to the second story and there would be walls to tear out; maybe I should have asked if we could convert it to gas! But since we don’t have gas anything in the house I think that would be costly too. I think I’ll get a fire going here this afternoon, just got to psych myself up for it!
Stacy (sis) does questions of the day a lot so I’m “borrowing” this idea from her……I want to know about your fireplaces: Do you have one and use it, how often? And the big question, is yours gas or wood burning?
Anyone one else besides me think wood burning is a lot of work?
I’m off to get mine going!

Buying blue jeans has always been such a hard thing for me, just can’t find them to fit like I think they should. I usually end up trying on about 37 of them and then get none…..occasionally I’ll buy some only to get them home and decide they don’t fit right after all. A few weeks ago when I was in Charlotte visiting daughter K we went shopping one afternoon at Kohl’s. She was looking for clothes for Katelyn but I begged, pleaded sweetly asked her to help me find some jeans. She is a much better shopper than me and is usually very good at knowing what looks good on me, what style to look for, etc. E won’t usually do this as much for me/with me (she might be more indecisive than me if possible!) and I haven’t had an opportunity to shop with SK in quite some time. So I knew I better take advantage of my shopping time with Kat. I did end up having to try on quite a few jeans but I bought 2 pair! 2 pair that actually fit and feel good! They were short enough to not need hemming, boot cut (which always helps me!) and a little bit lower rise. Plus they came from Kohl’s so they were affordable at about 17 or 18 dollars, gotta love that. I’ve been wearing them almost daily since then! New jeans……now that can make you feel pretty good! Or at least it does me! Guess I need to attain to something important now.

“As long as I can have you here with me………”

I’ve given you most of it, got it by now?

…..if we just wait a while.”

A couple of weeks ago I got THE letter, that lovely kind that tells you to report for jury duty! Wonder why we all dread doing this?
I had just served on jury duty for a week in October but that was in town, local circuit court. Alas, this is federal jury duty in a neighboring town about 30+ miles away and it said “you are to report for the month of February”! The MONTH? This was something new because usually it’s just for a week. Then I see something else written at the bottom of the summons…..”Do NOT bring reading materials of any sort.” I’ve never heard of that before and that probably upset me more than anything else! I hate to be sitting around waiting and not be reading a book. I sort of resigned myself to it, knew it was a short month so that might be the best time to have it. But then a day or so ago we found out that hubby’s uncle passed away and he would be going with his mom and some family to the funeral in Kansas. He wanted me to call and check to see if I could be excused. And a very nice lady did excuse me over the phone, I just had to send in a written letter for them to give the judge. So I think I’m off this time. I guess my day will come later on and I hope it will be when nothing else is going on! (Does that ever happen?)
I’ll be flying out for a funeral for a couple of days but then I hope to get home and stay put for a bit……oh, and I’ll be reading my book as well!

I saw this over at Vader’s mom (aka Stacy) and thought it looked like something fun to do so I swiped it from her! My fridge is not all neat and pretty but I’m showing it anyway. There are some pictures, notepads and reminder notices for dentist, etc.

Maybe the most interesting or fun thing on there is the old piece of paper you see on the bottom right of the picture. It is faded and torn now and has been there for quite a few years. It was hand written by my daughter, #2 child when she was in her teens. She was just a little bit headstrong, I think she mostly put it on my fridge as a joke for me but it was just too good to pull down, even after all this time. I probably should have framed it a long time ago to give back to her eventually, like when her daughter is a teenager! Here’s a close up of it:

So, what’s on your fridge? Inquiring minds want to know!