Thursday Letters & Day 1

Dear Misto Lady,

I know you really like your mistos on random days after you eat your lunch, but for one you could be a little friendlier and two I know it's you leaving your straw trash 2 feet from the trash can on our counter and on the ground today. Could you please consider picking up after yourself. After all you are a grown up and even though it's my job to keep the place clean...it doesn't necessarily mean you should litter.

Sincerely,

Irritated Ritas Manager

Dear Mystery Shopper,

First of all I want to say thank you for giving me my complete 100%. I've truly been worried about you. Asking myself all sorts of questions. What if you don't let me offer a sample? What if I can't easily offer you any add-ons? However, I do want to say that I know I usually look younger than I am...but 17?? Hmm. I'm sure I'll appreciate looking younger someday, but for now I would have preferred the early 20s at least.

Sincerely,

A slightly happier Rita's manager

Dear Jetta,

You really are a great little car. Even if sometimes I say things that sounds mean when all your little lights blink at me and beep at me. Deep down inside I really do love you. (Although sometimes I do wish you were taller. You know to make up for my lack of height). I'm glad your feeling better and that you didn't cost us the remainder of our income for the next few months.

Hugs & Kisses,

Your Driver

Dear Extended Warranty,

First I would like to apologize. Really I am sorry I was so frustrated with you for the past 2 years. But can you blame me? We paid a lot for you considering our current position and you never covered anything. I suppose you knew all along you would come in handy. Today you showed your true worth. You showed that catalytic converter and it's labor who is boss. I even did a little dance leaving the shop because of you--who does that?!?

Love,

A Very Pleased and Apologetic Wife (and her hubby)

Dear School Districts,

We are awaiting your call. Seriously. Any day now. I know it may seem early to you, but you know "The early bird gets the worm". {We are the worms, you're the bird...better eat us up before some other bird gets to us}

From,

2 Teachers slightly tired of living in the Unknown

Now onto my 90 Day Bible. Today was seriously a crazy day. My car went in to get inspected so I had to be driven to work and get picked up by my hubby. So that extended the day. We were supposed to go to small group but didn't make it because we had to pick up my car and we got stuck in construction traffic. When we finally got home I realized that I had yet to read my Bible for Day 1. 

Seriously? I can't fail yet. I haven't even started. I even began to justify myself that I've read Genesis plenty of times. But even I know that's a terrible excuse. So while the boys were watching a mish-mash of Phillies, Flyers, and the NFL Draft, I pulled out my Bible and dug in. 16 chapters later, I'm glad I did it. Creation, Adam & Eve, The Fall, Cain and Abel, Noah & The Flood, The Sons of Noah, Tower of Babel, Abram, Lot, and finally Hagar and Ishmael. I thought about reading more tonight, but I want to make sure I HAVE to read tomorrow. I told Greg about my "plan". His response wasn't quite what I had thought. I thought maybe he'd join in. Not.so.much. His comment..."Isn't that just reading, for reading's sake?" Ohhh well. I'm going on my own. Maybe he'll join me sooner or later. (even if it does take me longer than 90 days)

Regret & Non-Wordless Wednesday

Days ago...okay weeks ago. A month is probably more accurate, I was literally at 90 posts and I was so excited to simply meet 100 posts. Here I am. Writing post 99. Very upset with myself that I was literally unable to continue for the past month. Sooo hopefully I shall do better in the next week and months to come. Today was a VERRY slow day at Ritas. With the temps in the low 60s here, with practically complete cloud cover and rain, I had 4 customers--so I had lots of time to think.

In past years, I've tried to read the Bible in a year. Seems like it's something I could do, but within the first few months I fell behind. Normally one would just try to catch up, but I didn't. So I don't remember if it happened yesterday or today, but I thought I would try it to read the Bible from cover to cover, beginning to end, in 90 days. I know, I know I could be crazy. But hear me out. It's a shorter goal. More reading to do at a time, BUT less time to fall off schedule. Plus it gives you 2 days of non-reading. I was happy to find a schedule online for FREE so I don't actually have to buy the book. I could have made up my own schedule, but I like when it's someone else's list to follow. It seems more--important.

I hope to post a little bit each day on my thoughts on what I've read. If your up for joining me I'd love the extra support and company. :D  And of course I'll throw in some other stuff along the way. **In the back of my head I'm thinking of my next sewing project to embark on--I'm thinking something for my nieces.

Here's a little picture from the race this past weekend. I loved the contrast and the fact that the building was super weathered from being on the New Jersey oceanfront for 70-80 years.

I.O.U.

I owe you a post. It feels like it's been forever. I actually wrote a couple other posts but opted not to post them simply because they were written by a girl in a HUGE life funk. So while I'm trying to get past it here are some pictures to catch you up on the past week.

A Saturday walk @ the women's retreat during my photography lesson.

My view Mondays-Fridays

My "fr-enemy". The custard machine and I have a
love-hate relationship. It's learning that I'm in charge.

Saturday we left @ 4am to drive to New Jersey for
a half marathon. [more on this to come]

Me and niece #2
**dreaming & wandering when God will grant me
one of these**

The beginning of my Prayer Journal

Women's Retreat Weekend

This weekend was awesome. I mean what could really be wrong with 30-40 women praising and learning about their Lord and Savior all while enjoying the time together. I came home from Rita's on Friday afternoon and I had to pack, make sure I got a laptop, projector, and my presentation onto a jump drive. All went reasonably well. Granted I was a little rushed and ended up packing 7 different shirts for 3 days. But at least I was prepared. I was so ready to have nothing to do with Rita's or children's ministry for 2 days. Sometimes you just need a mental break and soul/faith rejuvenation. We were on the road by our goal of 5:30, picked up dinner to go, and arrived at the retreat center by 6:30 [I think].

Friday night we had our first talk session and then stayed up really late talking and laughing and it was fabulous. Saturday we got breakfast cooked for us by a crazy-talented man, had a double talk session, lunch, and then had free time/workshop time. That's where I came into play. I had my photography lesson at 4pm.

I think I should back up a bit first. Immediately after lunch, 12:30ish, I decided to boot up my old*er* laptop and start up my powerpoint to make sure it was ready to go. So thankful that I did this because I realized that even though I checked the powerpoint presentation on my the hubby's computer, MY laptop didn't have a new enough version of powerpoint, therefore it would not open! I could feel the tears beginning to form. Not because I couldn't do my presentation then, but simply because I had put so much time and effort into it and I knew it would be a benefit for all the women to SEE what I was talking about. Not just hear it. So time to troubleshoot. Nothing that I could do on my laptop would fix the situation. Called the hubby to see if he could help (turns out he was still at a track meet)...means no help there. There was only one other person to call. My brother-in-law. He had to turn on my home computer, find my file, open it up, re-save it, and THEN get into my e-mail so he could send it to me.  While waiting patiently, I prayed that it would work because of how badly I wanted to show everyone, but I eventually found myself praying that whatever happens, that I will be okay giving my presentation regardless. Praise God, about 15-20 minutes later, I had an e-mail waiting for me. Since it was opened on a computer with different fonts, I had some editing to do, but it was there.

Our 1:00 session was all about making a prayer journal, and it is seriously an awesome idea. I have mine barely started, but as I finish some more, I will definitely post pictures so that you can see what it is and maybe you'll make one for yourself. I was thankful that I had attended this session to keep my mind off of the nerves that were beginning to form. If I had just had free time, I probably would have been a complete mess!

4:00pm came quickly or so it seemed. Probably because I wasn't feeling particularly creative due to being pre-occupied. I hooked up my computer, turned on the projector and off I went. The lesson went perfectly. When I was writing the lesson, I was so worried about what to say and that I would forget. So I typed up notes, printed them out....and looked at them twice (only because I felt like I should). I handed out my brochures at the beginning so the women could take notes on them or simply keep for future reference. We had a little Q&A, helped find things on cameras, and then took a short little walk to try to put it into practice. While I was talking it was so so ssooo cool to see all the women break out their cameras and look for the exact thing that I was talking about. My ultimate goal was to empower and encourage the women to explore their camera. They can't hurt it...and even if they think they did, it can be reset. 

Saturday night was another talk and a real life application testimony by a lady. Both of which I missed because of a complete mis-communication and explosion of the mis-communication between the hubs and I. Basically, I had to get the projector back to him so that it could be used in the children's ministry Sunday morning. We both drove to a Wa-Wa to meet...however they were different ones. Frustration and emotions exploded and I ended up having to come all the way home to drop it off. Then in tears and angry I drove back to the retreat center. A trip that was supposed to last maybe 45 minutes took basically 2.5 hours. But then I got to stay up late again and be relieved of my emotional roller-coaster by lots of women who love me and care for me.

Sunday morning--I was exhausted. You know the kind of exhaustion that overwhelms your entire body because of how emotionally drained you were at some point on the previous day. Yeppers. That was me. We sang, we worshiped, we prayed, we learned one more time (5 talks) in all and finished up the weekend with lunch and fellowship. I came home not planning on napping, but I could.not.help.myself. I slept for 2 hours and still have a headache. This thing between us has not yet been settled, but that's how things go here. We'll see what happens. For now I have a headache and need to unpack my 3 bags...yes, 3 bags for 2 days. Maybe tomorrow I'll share more about the talks with you and more about my photography lesson! Sadly I have zero pictures from this weekend.again.just like last year. oh well!