SkyWatch Friday

This picture is from last Friday when I was taking KLS to school. The sunrise was beautiful so KLS grabbed my camera and leaned across me and took a picture outside my van window. If you double click the picture you can see a larger view.
Click the SkyWatch Button above to see views of skies from all over the world or to post one of your own. We have a lot of fun and there are lots of beautiful photos. Come join the fun!

New Computer!!

Hubby got his new computer today!!!! WooHoo!!! (That's him not me. lol) Just kidding. Now I just have to wait for him to get it all set up and then download his stuff off this laptop and I'll finally have my own computer!! This is so cool and exciting! I'll download my pictures after he gets his stuff off and hopefully be back up and running again soon!

Memory Lane

Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!

This is a picture of my mom and 3 of her brothers and sisters. There's one more, but we don't know where he is. Maybe he's the one taking the picture. Mom is the one in the plaid coat. To her left is her older sister, to the right is her little sister and brother. They believe this was taken in about 1948 which would have made mom about 14 or 15. She says she remembers her dad buying her that plaid coat. Isn't it just the cutest thing!?!

I decided to change my Retro Wednesday and join E from Scottsville on this instead. Same pictures just linking in with her. Click above and come on and join the fun!

Behind!

I know I'm behind in reading everyone's blog right now. Hopefully, I'll catch up when we get this computer thing straightened out here at home. I'm missing everyone! I've read a few but not many. Maybe I'll get a few read at lunch today.

Anyway, I need to get ready for work now. Have a great day!

A Little Bit of This and That!

Hubby's computer has been shipped and we're expecting as early as Wednesday!!! I'm not sure who's more excited; him or me! He's excited because he gets a new computer and I'm excited because for the first time I'll have my own. Woohoo!! No more having to wait my turn. Am I selfish or what ?!? I hope not!

We moved everything around in the house yesterday. The computer for the girls has been moved out into the great room and out of my bedroom. Plus we moved the buffet, the cedar chest and a desk. We moved our old computer stand out to the trash and someone stopped by last night and asked if they could have it. We said sure. Now 2 of us are happy!! hahaha

Since we did all that I got in the mood to start going through all my clothes and sorting them out to give away. I've got clothes in about 3 or 4 sizes !!! I keep going up and down! And I've got clothes I haven't worn in 3-4 years and I've got clothes people have given me that I've never worn. So I'm thinning them out. I went through a big box tonight and I have a whole big trash bag to give away. If I just keep working at it, I'll end up with some actual empty storage room in my house!! Wouldn't that be cool!?!

Hubby has been able to save all my pictures off the other computer. In fact, wouldn't you know after he took it to his office and set it up to finish copying everything on it, it started working and been working ever since!!! :)

Well I guess that's about the end of all I have to say right now. Have a good evening.

Cathy

Computer Failure

Our computer just died. I was playing a game to enter a contest and it just locked up completely. I turned if off and then back on, but it stayed locked up. Hubby finally got it opened in safe mode. So now he is in the process of trying to get all our files off of it and saved on other media. Then he's going to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall windows and see if that will work, if not it's a new hard drive for us.

Good thing I was in the process of getting a laptop computer for myself. Hubby has one and that's what I'm using right now. We've decided he's going to get the new one because it has some features he wants and I don't really care too much about. Then I'm getting this one. I can't wait to have a computer that has only what I put on it and nothing else. The one that just died has all 4 of us downloading stuff and it gets bogged down and now dies. The girls will get a computer that their dad has in his office. He just upgraded it for them. So it'll just have their stuff and that should work for them.

Yea! No more all 4 of us fighting over the computer. Hubby's new one will be here within 2 weeks. Then this is mine and the girls' computer will move out to the livingroom and I get my bedroom back to just hubby and me. Woohoo!!!! Life is good.

Sara - I'll post my Project 365 pictures whenever and if ever hubby can get the pics off the hard drive. I had already downloaded most of them from my camera.

Cathy

Beautiful Nature Trail Geocache

I went geocaching Thursday night with a couple of friends. We went searching at a quiet nature trail in our small town. Turns out there were actually 2 hidden there. We eventually found both, but not without some effort. At one point all of us had our GPS's out trying to get the coordinates right. If anybody had been around and seen us they probably would have thought we were a bunch of dorks (my friend said we were geeky on her blog). By the way you can go here if you want to check out her side of the story, also with pictures. We ended up walking about 3 miles up and down a trail (I think because I'm not that great with the GPS) and we crossed a creek a couple of times and climbed a fairly steep hill (I thought for a minute I was with my brother on his Appalachian Trail hike! lol).

Anyway, this was a beautiful nature trail. I've lived in or near this town my whole life but had never been out here on this trail until just a couple weeks ago when hubby and I tried to find this geocache but ran out of time and had to leave. I think that's one of the things I love most about geocaching. It takes me places I've never taken the time to explore before. Like a few weeks ago when for the first time we went to the old Pioneer Cemetery in our town to find a cache and also checked out the war memorial in our town to find one. So if you've never tried geocaching, it may give you the opportunity and incentive to check out things you've never taken time for before. There's a button on my sidebar that will take you to their website where you can look up some geocaches in your area.

This is my friend "T" with the 2nd geocache find. It was an ammo box filled with all kinds of goodies. We added a couple of things to the treasure.

These next 2 pictures are of the creek we crossed a couple of times. Isn't it beautiful?

Here's some of the treasure that was hidden inside the first cache we found.

Not all caches are this big or have a lot of things inside them, some are very small and just have a log inside for you to note your find on. If they are like this, you can take a treasure and then leave a different treasure. We didn't take anything, but we did leave some little items.

I think hubby and I might go out today and try to enjoy the great weather and find a couple more. As you can see from the button on the sidebar, we are now up to 16 finds!!

Have a great day everyone and I'll talk to you later.

Cathy

SkyWatch Friday

Tuesday night before our Ladies Bible Study someone came in and told us there was a rainbow outside. My daughter grabbed my camera and here's her picture. Click on the SkyWatch button above to view skies from all over the world.

THE EIGHT MEME

Sarah had this meme on her blog yesterday and Mama Belle had it today and offered it to anyone stumped for a post. That would be me. So let's see where this goes.

THE EIGHT MEME

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to ...

1. Going on the end of year school trip with KJS to Mackinac Island.
2. Getting a new laptop computer (maybe this weekend).
3. Taking the girls to Kings Island and Cedar Point this summer a lot. We have season's passes this year.
4. Summer time.
5. Having the house to myself for 3 or 4 days while hubby is out of town and the girls are both at camp. I've never been by myself for that long before. I'll have to post later and let you know if I like it.
6. Going to Niagara Falls with my hubby in July while the girls are on a mission's trip with their youth group.
7. Going with my girls to see the musical my daughter's high school is performing this weekend. "Footloose"
8. Retirement

8 Things I Did Yesterday ...

1. Took KJS out for breakfast before school.
2. Drove KJS to school.
3. Went to work.
4. Took a 15 minute nap when I got home.
5. Went to Bible study (Esther).
6. Ate a terrific supper that a couple of the ladies brought to Bible Study. Yummy!
7. Wrote a blog post.
8. Sat up until after midnight talking with my hubby!

8 Things I Wish I Could Do ...

1. Lose weight.
2. Go to Hawaii.
3. Go back to Disney World (maybe next year)
4. Own a christian book store.
5. Have an inground swimming pool that I could enclose in the winter so I could swim year round (hey then maybe number 1 would come true!)

6. Buy my daughter a car and pay for her college so she wouldn't have to take out student loans and be in debt forever.
7. Be a better christian example in front of my girls.
8. Retire!

8 Shows I Enjoy ...

1. Survivor
2. House Hunter
3. Extreme Makeover - Home Edition
4. Jon & Kate + 8
5. JAG (repeats)
6. Paula Dean

7. Reba (repeats)
8. Tool Time (repeats)

As Mama Belle said, "Stumped for a blog post? Here you go. You're welcome."

Retro Wednesday

This is another picture of my mom's mom and dad. (Remember the one with them sitting on the hood of the car) This is the same couple. Grandpa loved to sing southern gospel music better than about anything. He was a bass singer. He also played this guitar, however I don't remember him playing it. He was injured in a corn picker accident and had all 4 fingers of his left hand cut off down to the first knuckle, so he could no longer play. He gave his guitar to my mom and she took lessons (as an adult) and learned to play. She and my dad sang in a quarter with my grandpa and my aunt and mom would play this guitar. My mom now has peripheral neuropathy and can no longer play the guitar. She passed it down to my brother, who gave it to his son (who is 15) and is playing the guitar now (very awesomely I might add). He plays christian rock, but it's still music for the Lord! I'm sure grandpa may not like the music, but I know he'd love the message and be so proud that he has a great grandson playing his old guitar for the Lord!

Offices, Skies and Magnolia Blossoms

Just some random pictures and/or thoughts today.

This is a picture of my old office after everything was moved out. Soon they will be moving dispatch in her for the next 3 or 4 months while they totally gut and remodel the communications center!

This is the sergeant's office where I am not residing during the daytime. Not a bad office but it's upstairs so I'm getting a lot of exercise. I'll let you know later if that's a good thing or a bad thing. :)

This is what the sky looked like on the way home this evening. I just loved this cloud so I grabbed my camera and took a shot through the windshield while I was driving. I know, I know, not a smart thing to do. Thank you Lord for protecting me even in my stupidity.

This is a magnolia blossom. There's only one on the tree right now so I had to get a picture when I came home from work.

This is another magnolia bush we have. It has quite a few buds and blooms but they are smaller than the other one.

Project 365

Sara at make music from your heart is running Project 365 for us. She says it's never too late to join. So head on over to Sara's and check out other Project 365 posts and join us in the fun!!! As you'll see, I didn't get pictures everyday this week. But Sara still lets me play along! Thanks Sara.

SUNDAY - This is what happens when you always make them pose for pictures! lol

This is them before they got too crazy! Easter Sunday after church and with their Easter Baskets. See even teenagers love getting Easter Baskets and new clothes.

THURSDAY - Thursday was a beautiful day here. I couldn't resist stepping out the back door and taking a picture of the beautiful blue skies.

Friday - It was getting late and I hadn't taken a picture for the day. I tried to grab one and this is all I got. Again, this comes from making them pose for too many pictures I guess!!!

SATURDAY - We had lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Cincinnati. The girls loved the chairs at this table, so while we were waiting I had them run over and I snapped a picture.

SkyWatch Friday

I just stepped out the back door and this is what it looks like right now! I just love blue skies, how about you?

Click on the SkyWatch Button above to visit other skies all over the world and to post a photo yourself.

New Office

Yesterday I moved out of my office at work. Now mind you it's just a temporary move. No, I'm not retiring! "sighhhh" Just changing offices. As you may or may not remember, I work for a police department and have for many, many, many years. Try 32!!! Yikes! But you gotta remember I was only 5 years old when I started there. :)

Any way, back to my move. Our communications center is being remodeled this summer and my office is the only other office in the building that has a window that opens into the lobby. Unfortunately, when you dispatch, you have to be able to talk to the people that walk in the police department. I mean, if you don't, who will?!? So they will be cramming the whole communications center into my little office. I feel sorry for them because that's a lot of equipment and not much room to put it. It's gonna be so nice for them when it's done, but the next few months will be hard. But it'll be worth it for them. They are taking 3 big rooms and totally gutting them and making 1 really big room for the communications center. It's going to be so nice!! I worked in communications for more than 20 years and it's definitely time for them to get this nice new center.

So, now back to my move. I will temporarily be sharing an office with one of the Sergeants. He works from midnight until 8am and then I'll come in at 9am and use the office until 5pm. The nice thing about this is the office is upstairs and about as far away as you can get (and still be in the building) from the construction. Things are cramped and we're trying to get organized so we can both work there. (He just moved into this office yesterday too because his old office is being taken over permanently by this remodel).

It's kinda fun to get to work in a new area. It just makes things seem different for awhile.Plus since it is upstairs, I'm hoping I'll get back into a little better shape because of running up and down stairs all day. I hope at the end of the 3 months I can run up the stairs without breathing hard. That's my goal!!!

I know this kinda rambled, but that's how my mind is working this morning!! Have a great day!! I gotta go get ready for work!

Retro Wednesday

I absolutely love this photo! My mom is the baby, and that's her older brother and sister. It was taken on June 8, 1935 in southern, Ohio. Mom would've been 3 years old. She also has a younger sister and brother. Mom and I are both middle daughters! I think that's pretty cool too.
I am so loving these old pictures. I hope you don't mind me sharing them with you.

Easter Bonnets

Last Sunday all the ladies in our church were challenged to wear an Easter bonnet this week. And believe it or not, most of them did it. Now we are a small church (we had 45) for Easter morning. But still most of them participated.

The girls and I shopped at a Thrift Store to find one. KJS and I found one there. KLS got one from Walmart. We all had so much fun. Most of the ladies actually took theirs off during service, but then after church we took lots of pictures.

This is KLS, Hubby, KJS, Me, My Mom and My Dad
See even my dad wore a hat so he could join in the fun.

This is the lady who thought up the idea for us to wear hats.
See, her hubby joined in on the fun too. These are two of the sweetest people you could ever want to meet.
This is my Dad, my Mom and my dad's Sister. Aren't they cute?

Here's a group shot of all the ladies. Again, we have the most wonderful people in our congregation. I know being a pastor's wife is really hard in some cases, but these ladies make it so easy for me. They just love me and my family unconditionally. They are totally the greatest!!!

Here are KJS and KLS in our backyard with their Easter Baskets and Bonnets!!

Project 365

Join Sara and everyone else for Project 365 . She said it's never too late to start. This is only my 2nd week. They are on week 15. They all made me feel very welcome when I joined in last week. Don't be afraid to start. Come join us!
I know I'm going backwards on my days, but that's the way I downloaded them, or the way Blogger downloaded them.

Saturday - We all attended a friend's 12th birthday party and the girls roller skated. We cracked up at KJS cause she put her skates on the wrong feet. Anyway, when she got them on right, she had a great time.

Friday - all the ladies were challenged to wear an Easter bonnet to Church on Sunday. The girls and I went out Friday night to a Salvation Army Thrift Store trying to find one. We had so much fun. I'll blog later this week with some pictures of the ladies at church on Easter morning. This is KLS trying one out. She didn't get this one.

Thursday - I got to sit down and watch my favorite reality show!! Yeah Survivor!

Wednesday - This is how my husband relaxes. He loves working all kinds of puzzles.

Tuesday - hopefully this was the last snow for this winter. I mean for goodness sakes, it's April!! Okay God, I'll quit complaining. I know you know best.

Monday - The girls are on Spring Break and this is what KJS was doing Monday night! Sitting wrapped up on the couch watching TV!!

Sunday - Hubby and I went Geo-caching in an old Pioneer Cemetery. I've lived around here my whole life and had never gone into this cemetery before. It was really neat and really old. I may blog more about this later too.

Easter

Isn't it wonderful to serve the God of the Universe
who loves us so much that He sent His Son to suffer and die for our sins?
And then He raised that same Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead.
He did all this so that we can be reconciled to Him!
God, You are so Wonderful!!

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

Hannah Montana Movie

Two movies in one week...Wow! That's rare. We go months without going to the movies and we've gone twice in 1 week. How weird is that? Anyway....

The girls and I went to see the new Hannah Montana Movie tonight. It was pretty cute. I really enjoyed the music (which actually kinda surprised me). Of course, I love Billy Ray Cyrus so it was fun getting to watch him and listen to him sing. The two of them sang a duet together that was really good too. The story line was fun and it had a lot of the goofy stuff like her TV show does, but all in all it was a fun movie. I thought it was rather humorous that a lot of teens act like they're too cool to like Miley Cyrus, but it seemed like half my daughter's high school was there tonight. Pretty funny!

I would recommend it to anyone with young girls and even girls my daughter's ages. They had fun too (at least I think they did). Maybe they were just humoring me. lol

Anyway, it was a fun girls night out!

SkyWatch Friday

This is what the skies looked like on my way to work Monday morning. Within about 2 hours it was snowing!! I'm so ready for the snow to stop til next winter. At least it didn't accumulate. I know there were some that weren't that lucky!

Click on the SkyWatch Button above to see skies from all over the world!

Retro Wednesday

I love this picture. That is my Grandma and Grandpa (my mom's mom and dad) on the hood of the car. Aren't they so cute.
To see more Retro pictures go to ohAmanda's site.

Top Ten Favorite People in the Bible

Top Ten Favorite People in the Bible, not including God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Of course they are the top and none can compare.

1. Mary (the mother of Jesus) - I love her because she was so willing to do what the angel told her. I want a willing heart like hers.
2. Esther - I'm doing Beth Moore's study on her right now. She was so young and afraid, but she put her life on the line to save her people. I want to be that brave, even when I'm afraid.
3. Ruth - I love reading Ruth. She was such a sweet person and loved her mother-in-law. I want to be that sweet and loyal.
4. Daniel - Daniel stood up for God and what he believed in, even at the risk of death in a lions den. God help me to be that faithful.
5. Abraham - He was willing to pack up family and all and follow the Lord and didn't even know where he was going - I want to follow God that willing and trust Him that much to take care of me.
6. David - God says David was a man after His own heart. Even when he messed up (and he did big time), he always returned to God and desired to serve Him. I would love to hear God say I am a woman after His own heart.
7. Peter - He loved Jesus so much and was so boisterous about serving Him. Then He denied Him 3 times when the going got rough, but he then humbled himself and became a great witness and preacher for the Lord. I want to always be humble and come back to God when I fail Him (because I know I will sometimes).
8. Saul/Paul - He was completely changed when He met Christ personally. I want my life changed because of Christ.
9. Noah - He built an ark out in the desert because He was obedient to God. I want to be that obedient.
10. Job - I believe God said he was perfect and upright. Oh to hear God say something like that about me. Wouldn't that be awesome!

Project 365

Sara at Make Music From Your Heart has been doing Project 365 all year. I've been thinking about joining but never did until now. I only have pictures from 3 days. Hope that's okay Sara. I'll try to do better as a go along. Thanks for the opportunity to join in in Project 365. Here goes.

Saturday - A little girl out hunting Easter eggs at our churches 1st Community Easter Egg Hunt yesterday.

Thursday - My brother - we all got together at my mom and dads on Thursday night because my brother left on Friday for 5 months to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. I think this is so awesome. I can't wait to hear all about. Also, we'd appreciate your prayers for his safety! I'll try to blog more about this at another time or when he sends us pictures!

Wednesday - Sunset from my back yard

Family Day

Today was a good day!

* First we had our first Community Easter Egg Hunt at our church. KLS was in charge. We are a very small church but our people are very giving and very much want to do things for the community. We had about 650 eggs with candy donated. Last weekend my daughter and some of her school friends passed out close to 300 flyers to the apartments and condos in the area of our church advertising our egg hunt. We had a good group of volunteers show up today to hide the eggs and help in any other way needed. We only had 5 kids show up, but let me tell you those five kids had a ball. They got to decorate their own bags and then go out and find eggs. Let me tell you, those kids had bunches of eggs. After that they all "won" prizes and then they got free hotdogs, chips, pop and popsicles. There were even donuts left over from the volunteers that they could eat. Then we were able to tell them about our upcoming Bible School and we're hoping they had so much fun with this that they'll come to Bible School and bring their friends! We're calling this a success because it was the first time we've done one and we learned some things we need to do for the next one and we had 5 kids and about 5 visiting adults and I think they all had a good time. Can't wait to see if they come back!

* Then we ( hubby, me and both girls) loaded up and drove to Cincinnati and went to see the new movie called "Knowing" with Nicholas Cage. It was not at all what I expected. It was good, but again not what I expected. Actually, there were a few places in it where it creeped me out a bit. But still it was fun!

* Then we went Geo-caching in our town. We went to several different places and we found all of them but 1. The first place we went we didn't find the cache, but KLS and I went back later and found it that time. The second place we went, I found the cache! This was the first cache I actually found myself. I was so excited.
The next spot KLS found it (again!! lol)Then I found the next one and KJS found this one.
All in all I'd say this had been a fun family day. Hope you've had a good Saturday too!