Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Memorial Day

yesterday was the first time i have gone to the local memorial day parade. for as small as a town as i live in the parade is huge and draws people from all over the state. the princess kitty and hubby marched with her soccer team and the silent prince and i met up with two members of my church who were watching in order to see their vietnam vet march.

i was asked to to the invocation at the ceremony afterwards. (i almost did the invocation and the benediction, but the other pastor was there.)

i always find this task somewhat daunting, not because i'm out in public, but because i really want what i say to be meaningful.

this was my prayer:

Let us pray.
Oh God as we gather to celebrate this beautiful day, to enjoy a parade, and spend time with family and friends may we also pause to remember...

As we gather to remember all those we have died serving this country let us also be reminded of your steadfast love, your wondrous spirit, and your abundant gifts of grace and freedom.

As we gather to remember let us also gather in gratitude for all those who have fallen and in gratitude of the promise that you do not leave any of us behind, but collect us up into your arms.

As we gather to remember their sacrifice let us also remember your sacrifice so that we are encouraged to be generous towards others with our gifts.

As we gather to remember let us also gather to forget war and look to you for true and lasting peace.

We pray this in your holy name. Amen.

God's peace y'all and many thanks to all those who have served in the military and those who are serving now.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

am i really that warped?


every year when we go to the obx (outer banks, nc for those of you who don't know) for vacation i buy hubby a t-shirt to memorialize the trip. )i usually make him buy me jewelry).


last year i bought him a t-shirt he has yet to wear. i had forgotten all about it until today when i was looking for a nice big baggy t-shirt to walk in and opened his closet to steal one and there it was. (i can also say that later on when he saw me in it he didn't even accuse me of stealing like he usually does.)


pirates are a big theme at the obx. i have one of those oval shaped bumper stickers with a jolly rogers and the statement that "Women who behave rarely make history." on my car. and i have a baseball hat with the jolly roger on it too which i usually wear to walk in as well.


the t-shirt has a pirate/jolly roger theme. i think it's hysterical. in fact when i was shopping with my sister-in-law, slick, she and i were in hysterics when we saw it.


on the back it has a skull and crossbone and it saws: "Hi. I'm Roger. I'll be flogging you today."


hubby didn't get it neither did the people i work with. i think they are pretty smart people with good senses of humor. in fact when i married hubby i told my mother-in-law that i was going to laugh for the rest of my life because hubby is that funny.


the only conclusion i can come to is that slick and i just have terribly warped senses of humor.


ah well, at least i am in good company.


God's peace y'all

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

of mexican food, coffee, chocolate, and bullet-proof glass

it's been too long since i have blogged. i finished my detox, what seems like weeks ago. in fact it was only a little over a week ago. hubby rewarded me by taking me out to lunch for mexican food. i had chicken with pipian sauce, refried beans and spanish rice with a mango margarita. i walked an extra mile that day and tried to eat sensibly the rest of the day. but i also got to have a cup of coffee again and chocolate... oh how i missed coffee and chocolate!

of course the next day i attended a special lunch at the highschool where i was served pasta, salad with lots of dressing on it (i'm now used to having my salads naked), and a homemade chocolate chip ice cream sandwich.


the lunch was given by the special ed department at the highschool because we have kids from one of their programs come to the church to work 3 times a week to give them experience in order to transition into the workforce after they graduate. the food was all made by them and i didn't want to offend anyone by not eating. i especially didn't want to offend any of them by not eating the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich.

then that night we had a dinner at church for the kids that are being confirmed this coming sunday. i made lasagna and since i haven't had any of my lasagna in years i decided i would eat a nice piece of it and walk it off the next day.

friday hubby and i drove to philly for what is called a "beef and beer." had i blogged about the end of the detox previously and then our trip this post would have been titled: "of beef and beer and bullet-proof glass."

first of all the trip was horrendous. it should have taken 3 1/2 hours to get there, but 3 1/2 hours into the trip and we were about half-way there from the bumper to bumper traffic that kept us going an average of 30 miles per hour. i felt like kissing the ground when we finally arrived.

the purpose of the trip was to go to a fund raiser for my future godchild who is going to be adopted by friends of ours (and also the silent prince's godparents). since it costs an incredible amount of money to adopt they decided to have a beef and beer which is basically a party where you buy tickets to eat pasta (though they do sometimes have some sort of beef) and drink beer. you also have autions and raffles and dancing.


by the time we finally got there all that was left to eat of dinner was some lukewarm stuffed shells and lots of dessert. i had a stuffed shell and a piece of cheesecake and something that tasted like a peanut butter kandy kake made by tastykake (another philly tradition).

still we had a great time and i even danced the twist with the mother of the mother-to-be. i was disappointed though not to be given my jack rabbit flash trophy after wards.

we hung out with the parents of our godchild after the party for a bit before sending them on their way home and us driving to our hotel. this is the part of the post that deals with the bullet-proof glass, which is what the people working at the hotel were standing behind when we went to check in.

now i grew up in philly and still love it despite the fact that this time last year it had the highest murder rate in the country. i lived in newark, nj the year it was rated the most violent city in america... but the fact that i had to hand my driver's license to a guy behind bullet-proof glass in order to check in to a hotel kinda freaked me out a little.

it got worse from there. the only ammenity in the hotel room was the tv remote unless you count the bottle opener that was crewed on to the back of the bathroom door and, ok, the shampoo and soaps they left for us in the bathroom.

it was midnight by the time we got there and we wound up staying up much too late. since there was no alarm clock hubby set his phone to go off at 7am. at 9am when we both woke up hubby said he was going to pull on his clothes and grab some coffee from the continential breakfast in the lobby.

he walked out of the room at 9:08 and returned at 9:09 to say that breakfast was over and the only thing left were crumbs on the counter. i told him to throw his things in the suitcase so that we could get the hell out of there and find a wawa for coffee and donuts.
the trip home was far better than the trip there even with the 30 minute wait over the george washington bridge. and of course i gained back all the weight i had lost, but that's ok. i'm still eating healthy, walking almost every day, and i feel great!
keep happy thoughts going for the wonderful parents of my soon-to-be godchild.
God's peace y'all



Saturday, May 03, 2008

is it still a detox if...

i am doped up on allergy meds and cough drops?

the coughing started friday and hasn't stopped. when i checked the pollen forecast for my area it looked more like the government's warning system telling us that terrorists had attacked and we were all going to die horrible deaths.

i'm sure my throat looks as though terrorists have already been there. it now hurts to talk and has felt this way all day. this doesn't bode well for me since sundays are the one day i have to talk and the fact that i have been sucking on ricola drops like my life depended on them doesn't help.

i only have 2 days left on the detox. when i woke up yesterday i decided not to walk even though i had gotten up to 3 miles a day. i was exhausted and misreable from not really sleeping the night before. last night was worse though. in between waking myself up from coughing the princess kitty couldn't sleep and made sure i knew that twice during the night and the silent prince chimed in at least once that he wasn't happy.

i want to feel better by tuesday when hubby says he will take me out for mexican food to celebrate the end of the detox. but as i said before... am i still detoxing if i've replaced my daily salad and 8 glasses of water with benedryl, robitussin, and nyQuil just to get me through my day? and if i am really no longer detoxing because of all the crap i am taking... can't i just go have a bowl of ice cream to numb my throat?

guess i'll just suck on another ricola.

God's peace y'all

"and vivian followed."

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