We are holding a slumber party for Darly's birthday...
What time do we tell them to come over... and what time do we send them home????
As a kid I think we might have started things at like 5 or 6 and went home before noon...but things get foggy when you get older. So since I know lots of you have gone down this path before, I decided to ask you to share your wisdom with me.
Thanks! :D
Friday, March 31, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
I HATE this time of year! WARNING very RANTY!!!
I figured I should update you all on what's going on in my life because I've been blowing you off for so long. Okay, here's the deal...
Today is March 27th...
April 1st is fiscal year end for LLL in my Area. I'm the Financial Coordinator, so that means I have to start bugging/nagging/begging women for over 40 groups to send in their financial paperwork (our version of what money they got and what money they spent.) In previous years it has been allowed to have until June 1st to turn in the paperwork...but it has ALWAYS drove me absolutely buggy to allow them to wait that long...AND they would usually forget about it and give me some lame excuse for not getting it done by June. (Oh, I thought it was due July 1st and my family is more important that LLL and we're taking our vacation...blah, blah, blah!) What the hey? You've had all of April & May to get this done! So no more! This year I'm laying down the law and they have 2 weeks to get it done. If they have been using the handy dandy spreadsheet that I wrote and sent out to them, all they should have to do is email me a copy of it. If not they should have been keeping track of everything on ledger paper (like our Leader Handbooks tells them to) and they can just transfer the numbers to the form and send that in!
April 1st is also when we collect dues for the Leaders. This money goes to pay for all the stuff we mail out to them. USUALLY, the Leaders use this opportunity to decide to retire instead of paying dues. AND they would wait until June to tell me that as well. The problem with that is that 1/2 of the dues goes to our division and is based on the number we report to them April 1st. If a Leader decides to retire and lets us know in June...we've already forked out the money to the division for her and we have to eat it. Well, no more on that too. April 15th is the due date for that as well. We may still have to eat it if they choose to retire, but we'll know sooner. I need to add to the one note that they should let me know by April 1st if they are retiring this year so we don't have to eat it. Yeah, you guys give me such good ideas! :D
So I've been getting all the paperwork ready to send out to the Leaders and let them know about our change in plans. I've also been setting up a dreaded PayPal account so we can accept credit card payments. I hate PayPal because they're a bunch of lying dogs. They promised me back in June that they could take our Federal tax ID number any time and here in March they still don't accept it and want MY social security number on the account. BALONY! So now I get to wait until we accumulate $500 in our account to get the money, but I don't care. I'm not putting my SSN on the account because it is NOT my money.
Then on a personal note:
April 15th is Darly's birthday. She wants a slumber party and a family party.
April 16th is Easter. Darly is still doing the Easter Bunny thing.
I've talked Darly into holding her slumber party on the weekend after Easter as most of her friends might be busy celebrating Easter on her birthday and not be able to come to a party. whew and ack as I've only put off her birthday for a week.
DH & I are still in negotiations on what Darly can have for her Birthday present.
And to top it all off, while I was working on getting all the LLL paperwork ready to send out, my dog decides to vomit at my feet!
Today is March 27th...
April 1st is fiscal year end for LLL in my Area. I'm the Financial Coordinator, so that means I have to start bugging/nagging/begging women for over 40 groups to send in their financial paperwork (our version of what money they got and what money they spent.) In previous years it has been allowed to have until June 1st to turn in the paperwork...but it has ALWAYS drove me absolutely buggy to allow them to wait that long...AND they would usually forget about it and give me some lame excuse for not getting it done by June. (Oh, I thought it was due July 1st and my family is more important that LLL and we're taking our vacation...blah, blah, blah!) What the hey? You've had all of April & May to get this done! So no more! This year I'm laying down the law and they have 2 weeks to get it done. If they have been using the handy dandy spreadsheet that I wrote and sent out to them, all they should have to do is email me a copy of it. If not they should have been keeping track of everything on ledger paper (like our Leader Handbooks tells them to) and they can just transfer the numbers to the form and send that in!
April 1st is also when we collect dues for the Leaders. This money goes to pay for all the stuff we mail out to them. USUALLY, the Leaders use this opportunity to decide to retire instead of paying dues. AND they would wait until June to tell me that as well. The problem with that is that 1/2 of the dues goes to our division and is based on the number we report to them April 1st. If a Leader decides to retire and lets us know in June...we've already forked out the money to the division for her and we have to eat it. Well, no more on that too. April 15th is the due date for that as well. We may still have to eat it if they choose to retire, but we'll know sooner. I need to add to the one note that they should let me know by April 1st if they are retiring this year so we don't have to eat it. Yeah, you guys give me such good ideas! :D
So I've been getting all the paperwork ready to send out to the Leaders and let them know about our change in plans. I've also been setting up a dreaded PayPal account so we can accept credit card payments. I hate PayPal because they're a bunch of lying dogs. They promised me back in June that they could take our Federal tax ID number any time and here in March they still don't accept it and want MY social security number on the account. BALONY! So now I get to wait until we accumulate $500 in our account to get the money, but I don't care. I'm not putting my SSN on the account because it is NOT my money.
Then on a personal note:
April 15th is Darly's birthday. She wants a slumber party and a family party.
April 16th is Easter. Darly is still doing the Easter Bunny thing.
I've talked Darly into holding her slumber party on the weekend after Easter as most of her friends might be busy celebrating Easter on her birthday and not be able to come to a party. whew and ack as I've only put off her birthday for a week.
DH & I are still in negotiations on what Darly can have for her Birthday present.
And to top it all off, while I was working on getting all the LLL paperwork ready to send out, my dog decides to vomit at my feet!
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Questions about my Memory
I noticed that quite a few of my commenters had some questions about my trip to Korea. So I thought it might make a great post to answer them here for you...
ON WITH THE SHOW!...
Kimmy asked: I never knew you could "check out" furniture and dishes. Like a library. How fun. Well, the furniture might not be so fun. Did you get to pick it out?
Not really, Kimmy. You are allowed so many pieces of furniture based on your family size. So since we were a family of 3 we got one full sized bed and one twin sized bed, a small dining room table with 3 chairs (not 4!), a couch & a side chair & a end table. I don't remember if we got dressers or not, but that would have been one per person. And no you don't pick them out, they just go into the warehouse and pull the items out...no they don't match. And our delivery forman was apparently very pampered as he felt it extra necessary to complain the entire time about having to do his job. For the most part Korean workers don't complain like that, but this guy worked for the base and spent most of his time on his wide backside. We didn't hear a peep out of our packers.
okay this isn't really a question, but I had to comment:Libragirl said...
Ok...that was a stressful read Next time I'm in Seoul (probably a week from never, unless you know a single guy) I will make sure not to travel in rush hour and to make sure the taxi can drive on the base and just everything.
Well, Libragirl, one of the biggest problems with driving in Korea is that they haven't been driving as long as we have in America (and I don't think that they have any kind of driver's education!) and they don't understand the concept of waiting your turn. So they'll go anywhere to try to get where they are going (sidewalks, medians, etc...) and this causes many accidents...which slows up traffic. Usually a AAFES taxi can go on base. But the guy we got was only authorized to go on the base in Seoul, not the base in Osan. The AAFES taxis were trained and employed by the Bases. They were not allowed to drive like normal Korean drivers and if they did we could report them, and they would loose their jobs. If you didn't mind putting your life into the hands of a Korean driver, you could take a Korean taxi to get just to the base gate...it was much cheaper. I never did though!
Barbara said...
Traveling far is so hard, even harder with babies. Did the stint in Osan have a lasting impact on your life?
Actually, I'm still working on putting this behind me. I have a really hard time with letting go of things (always have) but I'm working on focusing on the good. There was a lot to deal with for that tour and it put a huge stress on my marriage that I only just recently started working on repairing. But we are all getting there. Darly doesn't remember too much and I'm suprised when she mentions something from those days.
Okay, anyone else? :D
update: Kimmy asked "was it expensive to rent?"
I'm assuming that you meant rent the furniture & dishes. No the AF provides them free, they also pay the rent on the apartment. If you meant renting the TV, that was a different place on base. I don't remember how much they charged to rent the TVs but it was by the day (no week or monthly rental) and for the amount of time that we needed the TV (3 months) it was cheaper to buy it and keep it.
In case you're wondering where my TT is... I decided to put it off again until next week, because I just remembered that it's April 1st in 9 days and I've got a ton of stuff to get done...so I shouldn't be here blogging at all! I should be working. Bad Renee! Bad Renee, Get back to WORK!
ON WITH THE SHOW!...
Kimmy asked: I never knew you could "check out" furniture and dishes. Like a library. How fun. Well, the furniture might not be so fun. Did you get to pick it out?
Not really, Kimmy. You are allowed so many pieces of furniture based on your family size. So since we were a family of 3 we got one full sized bed and one twin sized bed, a small dining room table with 3 chairs (not 4!), a couch & a side chair & a end table. I don't remember if we got dressers or not, but that would have been one per person. And no you don't pick them out, they just go into the warehouse and pull the items out...no they don't match. And our delivery forman was apparently very pampered as he felt it extra necessary to complain the entire time about having to do his job. For the most part Korean workers don't complain like that, but this guy worked for the base and spent most of his time on his wide backside. We didn't hear a peep out of our packers.
okay this isn't really a question, but I had to comment:Libragirl said...
Ok...that was a stressful read Next time I'm in Seoul (probably a week from never, unless you know a single guy) I will make sure not to travel in rush hour and to make sure the taxi can drive on the base and just everything.
Well, Libragirl, one of the biggest problems with driving in Korea is that they haven't been driving as long as we have in America (and I don't think that they have any kind of driver's education!) and they don't understand the concept of waiting your turn. So they'll go anywhere to try to get where they are going (sidewalks, medians, etc...) and this causes many accidents...which slows up traffic. Usually a AAFES taxi can go on base. But the guy we got was only authorized to go on the base in Seoul, not the base in Osan. The AAFES taxis were trained and employed by the Bases. They were not allowed to drive like normal Korean drivers and if they did we could report them, and they would loose their jobs. If you didn't mind putting your life into the hands of a Korean driver, you could take a Korean taxi to get just to the base gate...it was much cheaper. I never did though!
Barbara said...
Traveling far is so hard, even harder with babies. Did the stint in Osan have a lasting impact on your life?
Actually, I'm still working on putting this behind me. I have a really hard time with letting go of things (always have) but I'm working on focusing on the good. There was a lot to deal with for that tour and it put a huge stress on my marriage that I only just recently started working on repairing. But we are all getting there. Darly doesn't remember too much and I'm suprised when she mentions something from those days.
Okay, anyone else? :D
update: Kimmy asked "was it expensive to rent?"
I'm assuming that you meant rent the furniture & dishes. No the AF provides them free, they also pay the rent on the apartment. If you meant renting the TV, that was a different place on base. I don't remember how much they charged to rent the TVs but it was by the day (no week or monthly rental) and for the amount of time that we needed the TV (3 months) it was cheaper to buy it and keep it.
In case you're wondering where my TT is... I decided to put it off again until next week, because I just remembered that it's April 1st in 9 days and I've got a ton of stuff to get done...so I shouldn't be here blogging at all! I should be working. Bad Renee! Bad Renee, Get back to WORK!
Monday, March 20, 2006
Monday Memories: Arriving in Korea
It was June 1999. Darly was 13 1/2 months old and we were being sent to Korea. The movers came and packed up our house. We had two sets of movers come. One came to pack up the stuff we could take with us to Korea, the other set packed up the stuff we had to leave behind in storage (and hoped like crazy that we would actually get to see again!)
The packers who did our going with us stuff broke one of my pyrax mixing bowls. The packers who did our staying behind stuff tried to pack a decorated brick (a wedding gift from my maid of honor) on top of my china!!! She tried to claim that she thought the brick (that she was holding) was ceramic. What an idiot!!! BTW: I still don't know where that stupid brick is and we've been back more than 4 years!
So after packing up all we owned we drove our Ford Explorer from Cheyenne WY to Seattle WA. As we were driving through WY it snowed in June! I figure it was just trying to show us one last time what we were leaving. We arrived outside of Salt Lake City Utah sometime during the night and got a hotel room. It is a totally odd feeling to spend your entire life East of the Rocky Mountains and wake up one morning with the Mountains on the WRONG side of you!
The rest of the trip to Seattle was pretty non-eventful as it is totally flat from Salt Lake to Washington. We stopped in Roslyn WA to see the city where they filmed one of DH's & my favorite TV shows NORTHERN EXPOSURE. Very cool there! I would love to go back once Darly is old enough to be throughly bored with it. ;o)
We get to Seattle and have to locate the Korean counselate because Darly & I still needed Visas. That was fun but we made it about 15minutes before they were to close. Thank goodness for our military clearance as what would have normally taken all day to get took just minutes...stamp, stamp! No charge. You're done. My passport says Fee: Gratis
Then we drive to Tacoma to stay at the AF base there for the night. Because we have a child now, we have to stay in the Temporary Lodging Facility (previous to dd we could stay in Visiting Quarters which are much nicer!) and the building they put us in was condemned/ scheduled to be torn down the following week...but the new TLF wasn't quite ready yet. I was able to wash our clothes and DH got his hair cut...unfortunately the gal gave him a Marine cut and he looked totally goofy...so much for a good impression with his new boss in a few days!
I think at this point you should be pulling out a map of Washington. (I keep an atalas by my computer for just such occasions...but any map finder will work) You'll notice that Tacoma & Seattle are about an hour or so apart.
We then had to figure out how to drop our Explorer off at the port in Tacoma and get ourselves to the airport in Seattle. We figured (rightly) that it would be cheaper to rent a car at the Seattle airport, drive to the port and then drive ourselves to back to the airport. That meant that we had to get up at 6am, drive the Explorer to Seattle. Rent the car from the airport and drive both vehicles to the port back in Tacoma. Drop off the Explorer and then drive back to the airport in Seattle. You should have seen us trying to explain our plan to the car rental agent...ha ha. You would have thought we were trying to take his car to Korea with us!
So we get the Explorer all taken care of and drive back to the airport and return the rental car (which was a subcompact and we had our knees in our face for the drive back to the airport because we had a ton of luggage! We were going to be at least a month without our stuff from home.)
Check in at the airport went fairly smoothly and then we go to our gate to wait for our flight to LA. DH decides to call his mom because we had over an hour to wait. I decided to nurse Darly. The gate agent sees us sitting there when the flight was cancelled and calls me over. She puts us on another flight, but we had to leave NOW to get to the gate about 10 over because they were boarding NOW. DH is still on the phone and I'm in a stress induced panic! He won't get off the phone!
Finally we are running to our gate and DH is asking "Why didn't you tell me?" I did but he was busying listening to his mom and not me! GRRR! They held the plane for us and we got on. We got to see the top of Mt Rainier from the plane...so cool!
We arrive at LAX very late in the evening. Our flight for Korea was scheduled to leave at around 1am... but we were not given clear instructions on how to find our connecting flight. We had landed at the domestic terminal and had to find our way to the international terminal and then find out that our flight wasn't on Alaskan Air like our tickets said but after going to around 4 different check in desks at 3 different terminals, it's on a Korean carrier that is subbed out by Alaskan Air! GRRR! We spent most of our time outside in the heat dragging all of our bags trying to find our connecting flight. Can we say over stressed!!!
Finally we get checked in and go to our gate with still lots of time until boarding. I tried to nap...ha! They announce early boarding for business travelers and those traveling with small children. We learned our first lesson about Koreans. They do not understand waiting their turn! We did not get to board early.
Our flight to Seoul was 14 hours. I don't sleep on airplanes...just can't. At some point in the flight they announce that they are serving food. Our choices were fish or beef, both were korean style. When they get to us all that's left is fish. We were hungry and had the fish against our better judgement. We would regret that later!
We arrived in Seoul sometime in the early morning. And then had the fun task of figuring out where we were supposed to go. Some of the signs were in english, but they were one word. We just followed the crowd and luckily were not told to go somewhere else. I think that all the customs clearance stuff took us about 2 hours...it's so hard to remember with no sleep.
So our next task is to get from the airport in Seoul to the air base in Osan. We were told to look for an AAFES taxi. We find one and ask if he can take us to Osan. He says he can. We load up. Our stuff does not all fit in the trunk of the cab, so we have no leg room again. The drive to Osan is a blur. I remember lots of waiting in non-moving traffic (it was morning rushour in Seoul...avoid it at all costs!) and finally long stretches of rice fields. I think the total drive might have taken 2 & 1/2 hours...totally normal for Seoul in rushhour (I found out later).
We get to the Osan gate and the guard comes to check our IDs. DH & I are fine...the taxi however does not have clearance to drive on the base. The guard gives our driver a dirty look and instructs him to take us to the taxi stand near the gate to drop us off with another taxi because he is going to have to leave the base ASAP. So we load all of our stuff into a smaller taxi and drive to the lodging building. The driver unloads all of our stuff right beside the road and leaves us as he wants his next fare. DH goes in to get our lodging and finds that we are too early to check into our room! So we had to wait an hour or so for check in. Then take another taxi to our room.
Finally we get to our room and it was before 10am. I tried to call to get us something to eat but they weren't open yet. But the guy was really nice and took our order and promised to deliver it as soon as he was up and going. It came about 1/2 an hour later.
DH, Darly & I slept the rest of the day.
The next day DH goes to check in and finds out that we were expected to check in with housing the previous day to get our furniture. Ahhh we were "dead to the world" yesterday. Oh well. Perturbed, she gets all of our stuff ready for us. And we go to our apartment for the next 20 months. It took us a few minutes to figure out where our apartment was. But we found it and met our downstairs neighbor too.
We moved in the following day with borrowed furniture and borrowed dishes (the AF has these items at all their bases to check out for transerferring families.) DH got a TV from one of his co-workers because they make you rent TV's. We had to wait for our stuff to come for 3 months and our apartment had no drapes or carpet...so we bought those...only to find that the AF had finally decided to provide carpet and vertical blinds but it would take another 3 months to get them.
and this is on my radio now...
Aaron Shust - My Savior My God
From the album Anything Worth Saying
I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior
I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior
That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior
Chorus (2x’s)
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior’s always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be
Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior
That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior
Chorus (2x’s)
(Instrumental)
Chorus: (2x’s)
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
Label: Brash Music
Other Monday Memories friends:
Lazy Daisy
Kimmy
Ladybugcrossing
Libragirl
Rowan
Barbara
The packers who did our going with us stuff broke one of my pyrax mixing bowls. The packers who did our staying behind stuff tried to pack a decorated brick (a wedding gift from my maid of honor) on top of my china!!! She tried to claim that she thought the brick (that she was holding) was ceramic. What an idiot!!! BTW: I still don't know where that stupid brick is and we've been back more than 4 years!
So after packing up all we owned we drove our Ford Explorer from Cheyenne WY to Seattle WA. As we were driving through WY it snowed in June! I figure it was just trying to show us one last time what we were leaving. We arrived outside of Salt Lake City Utah sometime during the night and got a hotel room. It is a totally odd feeling to spend your entire life East of the Rocky Mountains and wake up one morning with the Mountains on the WRONG side of you!
The rest of the trip to Seattle was pretty non-eventful as it is totally flat from Salt Lake to Washington. We stopped in Roslyn WA to see the city where they filmed one of DH's & my favorite TV shows NORTHERN EXPOSURE. Very cool there! I would love to go back once Darly is old enough to be throughly bored with it. ;o)
We get to Seattle and have to locate the Korean counselate because Darly & I still needed Visas. That was fun but we made it about 15minutes before they were to close. Thank goodness for our military clearance as what would have normally taken all day to get took just minutes...stamp, stamp! No charge. You're done. My passport says Fee: Gratis
Then we drive to Tacoma to stay at the AF base there for the night. Because we have a child now, we have to stay in the Temporary Lodging Facility (previous to dd we could stay in Visiting Quarters which are much nicer!) and the building they put us in was condemned/ scheduled to be torn down the following week...but the new TLF wasn't quite ready yet. I was able to wash our clothes and DH got his hair cut...unfortunately the gal gave him a Marine cut and he looked totally goofy...so much for a good impression with his new boss in a few days!
I think at this point you should be pulling out a map of Washington. (I keep an atalas by my computer for just such occasions...but any map finder will work) You'll notice that Tacoma & Seattle are about an hour or so apart.
We then had to figure out how to drop our Explorer off at the port in Tacoma and get ourselves to the airport in Seattle. We figured (rightly) that it would be cheaper to rent a car at the Seattle airport, drive to the port and then drive ourselves to back to the airport. That meant that we had to get up at 6am, drive the Explorer to Seattle. Rent the car from the airport and drive both vehicles to the port back in Tacoma. Drop off the Explorer and then drive back to the airport in Seattle. You should have seen us trying to explain our plan to the car rental agent...ha ha. You would have thought we were trying to take his car to Korea with us!
So we get the Explorer all taken care of and drive back to the airport and return the rental car (which was a subcompact and we had our knees in our face for the drive back to the airport because we had a ton of luggage! We were going to be at least a month without our stuff from home.)
Check in at the airport went fairly smoothly and then we go to our gate to wait for our flight to LA. DH decides to call his mom because we had over an hour to wait. I decided to nurse Darly. The gate agent sees us sitting there when the flight was cancelled and calls me over. She puts us on another flight, but we had to leave NOW to get to the gate about 10 over because they were boarding NOW. DH is still on the phone and I'm in a stress induced panic! He won't get off the phone!
Finally we are running to our gate and DH is asking "Why didn't you tell me?" I did but he was busying listening to his mom and not me! GRRR! They held the plane for us and we got on. We got to see the top of Mt Rainier from the plane...so cool!
We arrive at LAX very late in the evening. Our flight for Korea was scheduled to leave at around 1am... but we were not given clear instructions on how to find our connecting flight. We had landed at the domestic terminal and had to find our way to the international terminal and then find out that our flight wasn't on Alaskan Air like our tickets said but after going to around 4 different check in desks at 3 different terminals, it's on a Korean carrier that is subbed out by Alaskan Air! GRRR! We spent most of our time outside in the heat dragging all of our bags trying to find our connecting flight. Can we say over stressed!!!
Finally we get checked in and go to our gate with still lots of time until boarding. I tried to nap...ha! They announce early boarding for business travelers and those traveling with small children. We learned our first lesson about Koreans. They do not understand waiting their turn! We did not get to board early.
Our flight to Seoul was 14 hours. I don't sleep on airplanes...just can't. At some point in the flight they announce that they are serving food. Our choices were fish or beef, both were korean style. When they get to us all that's left is fish. We were hungry and had the fish against our better judgement. We would regret that later!
We arrived in Seoul sometime in the early morning. And then had the fun task of figuring out where we were supposed to go. Some of the signs were in english, but they were one word. We just followed the crowd and luckily were not told to go somewhere else. I think that all the customs clearance stuff took us about 2 hours...it's so hard to remember with no sleep.
So our next task is to get from the airport in Seoul to the air base in Osan. We were told to look for an AAFES taxi. We find one and ask if he can take us to Osan. He says he can. We load up. Our stuff does not all fit in the trunk of the cab, so we have no leg room again. The drive to Osan is a blur. I remember lots of waiting in non-moving traffic (it was morning rushour in Seoul...avoid it at all costs!) and finally long stretches of rice fields. I think the total drive might have taken 2 & 1/2 hours...totally normal for Seoul in rushhour (I found out later).
We get to the Osan gate and the guard comes to check our IDs. DH & I are fine...the taxi however does not have clearance to drive on the base. The guard gives our driver a dirty look and instructs him to take us to the taxi stand near the gate to drop us off with another taxi because he is going to have to leave the base ASAP. So we load all of our stuff into a smaller taxi and drive to the lodging building. The driver unloads all of our stuff right beside the road and leaves us as he wants his next fare. DH goes in to get our lodging and finds that we are too early to check into our room! So we had to wait an hour or so for check in. Then take another taxi to our room.
Finally we get to our room and it was before 10am. I tried to call to get us something to eat but they weren't open yet. But the guy was really nice and took our order and promised to deliver it as soon as he was up and going. It came about 1/2 an hour later.
DH, Darly & I slept the rest of the day.
The next day DH goes to check in and finds out that we were expected to check in with housing the previous day to get our furniture. Ahhh we were "dead to the world" yesterday. Oh well. Perturbed, she gets all of our stuff ready for us. And we go to our apartment for the next 20 months. It took us a few minutes to figure out where our apartment was. But we found it and met our downstairs neighbor too.
We moved in the following day with borrowed furniture and borrowed dishes (the AF has these items at all their bases to check out for transerferring families.) DH got a TV from one of his co-workers because they make you rent TV's. We had to wait for our stuff to come for 3 months and our apartment had no drapes or carpet...so we bought those...only to find that the AF had finally decided to provide carpet and vertical blinds but it would take another 3 months to get them.
and this is on my radio now...
Aaron Shust - My Savior My God
From the album Anything Worth Saying
I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior
I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior
That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior
Chorus (2x’s)
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior’s always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be
Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior
That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior
Chorus (2x’s)
(Instrumental)
Chorus: (2x’s)
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
Label: Brash Music
Other Monday Memories friends:
Lazy Daisy
Kimmy
Ladybugcrossing
Libragirl
Rowan
Barbara
Thursday, March 16, 2006
cookin' with gas now....
okay, this post has nothing to do with cooking or gas either.
I've finally gotten DSL. Yay! I'm not in the dark ages anymore.
I'm not entirely sure that it's much faster in all places yet. And there are still a few places that it seems to not want to work at all...but maybe that's just the bugs of just having installed it 4 hours ago.
At any rate, it is up and running. I shudda asked about turning my computer off at night. I'm guessing that would mean shutting down the dsl and then restarting it...hummm... I should probably check out the FAQ page before turning in tonight.
I was able to view a video online just a minute ago that teaches how to cast on for knitting. It came up quickly and I could see it without all the stops that I was getting before on dial up...so that's a cool thing.
Maybe it's just blogger that is slowing things down for me. hee hee
Oh well, I hope this doesn't turn me into a computer potato. :o)
UPDATE: Well since I didn't find anything on my server's website that said I shouldn't turn off my computer last night, I did and left the DSL on as the only way to shut if off is to unplug it.
This morning I turned on my computer and guess what? NO DSL!! I tried unplugging it a few times, but it didn't work. So I called up my provider. The lady that I got was really nice and funny. She had me unplug it again and then had me totally unplug it and take it to a different phone jack (in case my phone jack that was working just fine for the phone call to her was bad!) So I ran upstairs and used that jack...nope it didn't work. So they ran a line check, while leaving me on hold forever! I started cleaning my bathroom and got a total shock when she came back on the line.
Turns out there was a problem on their end and she had to send someone out to my neighborhood to replace a card or something...apparently (I'm totally speculating here) my brand new DSL sent the card over the edge.
Well it's now working...YAY! And everything is going fine and fast except for blogger...that's slow. I don't know what's up with that.
I've finally gotten DSL. Yay! I'm not in the dark ages anymore.
I'm not entirely sure that it's much faster in all places yet. And there are still a few places that it seems to not want to work at all...but maybe that's just the bugs of just having installed it 4 hours ago.
At any rate, it is up and running. I shudda asked about turning my computer off at night. I'm guessing that would mean shutting down the dsl and then restarting it...hummm... I should probably check out the FAQ page before turning in tonight.
I was able to view a video online just a minute ago that teaches how to cast on for knitting. It came up quickly and I could see it without all the stops that I was getting before on dial up...so that's a cool thing.
Maybe it's just blogger that is slowing things down for me. hee hee
Oh well, I hope this doesn't turn me into a computer potato. :o)
UPDATE: Well since I didn't find anything on my server's website that said I shouldn't turn off my computer last night, I did and left the DSL on as the only way to shut if off is to unplug it.
This morning I turned on my computer and guess what? NO DSL!! I tried unplugging it a few times, but it didn't work. So I called up my provider. The lady that I got was really nice and funny. She had me unplug it again and then had me totally unplug it and take it to a different phone jack (in case my phone jack that was working just fine for the phone call to her was bad!) So I ran upstairs and used that jack...nope it didn't work. So they ran a line check, while leaving me on hold forever! I started cleaning my bathroom and got a total shock when she came back on the line.
Turns out there was a problem on their end and she had to send someone out to my neighborhood to replace a card or something...apparently (I'm totally speculating here) my brand new DSL sent the card over the edge.
Well it's now working...YAY! And everything is going fine and fast except for blogger...that's slow. I don't know what's up with that.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Oh Pooh!
I've done it again. I am such a procrastinator and it's catching up to me now.
I put off balancing the check books since December, but that turned out okay for me. Two of the books balanced perfectly and the third one was off by just a penny. Yay! I don't mind a missing penny.
But where I've really messed up is that Wednesday is the deadline for my homeschooling group's newsletter and I'm in charge of planning our field trips. I thought I was all that and a bag of chips because I had picked out 3 trips in January and had made the initial contacts on them by email...all three said that I had to call to reserve the trips though, darn it! Why can't they do these things by email? So I of course called them right away...NOT! And now I've got to call them all tomorrow morning so that Darly & I can go to the museum tomorrow and have fun.
Wish me luck!
I put off balancing the check books since December, but that turned out okay for me. Two of the books balanced perfectly and the third one was off by just a penny. Yay! I don't mind a missing penny.
But where I've really messed up is that Wednesday is the deadline for my homeschooling group's newsletter and I'm in charge of planning our field trips. I thought I was all that and a bag of chips because I had picked out 3 trips in January and had made the initial contacts on them by email...all three said that I had to call to reserve the trips though, darn it! Why can't they do these things by email? So I of course called them right away...NOT! And now I've got to call them all tomorrow morning so that Darly & I can go to the museum tomorrow and have fun.
Wish me luck!
Monday Memories: March of Dimes
I got to thinking about this the other day and thought it might be a fun story to share with you. This is about the very first time that I participated in the March of Dimes Walk America.
I was in High School, my Senior year (84-85). I am not exactally sure how I got involved in doing this, but it was decided that a whole group of my friends were going to do the walk together.
Back then the walk was 10 miles long and this one was routed threw some pretty fancy homes in Tampa. The walk started at the University of Tampa's stadium. So we get there "too darned early in the morning" (probably 9am) to go walking threw some pretty fancy neighborhoods. Thinking on my feet, I brought my tape player and some tapes for us to listen to on our way.
So my friends & I were walking along, having a great time talking and listening to our "great tunes." I brought my Berlin "Pleasure Victim" & Missing Persons "Spring Session" tapes. We took a few breaks beneath trees in people's yards and might have stopped at a fast food restraunt to have some lunch too, or at least a shake. I'm sure there was some singing involved too.
Anyway when we finally made it back to the UofT's stadium...there was NOBODY there! No food, no music, no water, the bathrooms were locked up and there was nothing to do. Humph! Some welcome we got for finishing walking 10 miles for charity! I suppose that part of the problem was that it was about 2pm when we finally finished the walk.
I don't remember how we were supposed to be getting home that day, but my ex-boyfriend's mother was there to get him and offered to drive the rest of us back...so all of us pilled into her little 2 door car... I think there were 8 people total in her car that holds like 5. I was in someone's lap. But we all made it home. And it was a fun time.
So fun in fact that I've done Walk America at least 4 times since then. Of course it has never taken me that long to finish it again...but it's never been that fun either. :D
I was in High School, my Senior year (84-85). I am not exactally sure how I got involved in doing this, but it was decided that a whole group of my friends were going to do the walk together.
Back then the walk was 10 miles long and this one was routed threw some pretty fancy homes in Tampa. The walk started at the University of Tampa's stadium. So we get there "too darned early in the morning" (probably 9am) to go walking threw some pretty fancy neighborhoods. Thinking on my feet, I brought my tape player and some tapes for us to listen to on our way.
So my friends & I were walking along, having a great time talking and listening to our "great tunes." I brought my Berlin "Pleasure Victim" & Missing Persons "Spring Session" tapes. We took a few breaks beneath trees in people's yards and might have stopped at a fast food restraunt to have some lunch too, or at least a shake. I'm sure there was some singing involved too.
Anyway when we finally made it back to the UofT's stadium...there was NOBODY there! No food, no music, no water, the bathrooms were locked up and there was nothing to do. Humph! Some welcome we got for finishing walking 10 miles for charity! I suppose that part of the problem was that it was about 2pm when we finally finished the walk.
I don't remember how we were supposed to be getting home that day, but my ex-boyfriend's mother was there to get him and offered to drive the rest of us back...so all of us pilled into her little 2 door car... I think there were 8 people total in her car that holds like 5. I was in someone's lap. But we all made it home. And it was a fun time.
So fun in fact that I've done Walk America at least 4 times since then. Of course it has never taken me that long to finish it again...but it's never been that fun either. :D
Monday, March 06, 2006
Weekend recap...
Friday night we went out to dinner at Blackeye Pea. It was a nice meal and I got my favorite...yummy. Dinner out was Darly's idea but I dont think that she factored in that going out would cut into her play time with DH and he was leaving the next day...but oh well.
Saturday morning DH was getting all his gear together to leave town. Darly & I were getting all our gear together for a cookie booth sale. We were supposed to all leave the house at the same time...but DH decided at the last minute to sweep the garage (i don't know why).
So Darly & I get to our cookie booth and set up. Lemme just say that I think cookie booths are a total waste of time!!! We sat out there in the sun, wind and eventually chill for 3 hours to sell about 50 boxes of cookies... we could have done better going door to door with a waggon and not have been as miserable. We were supposed to have another scout with us, but she never showed up (it was the same at our troop's other booth.) So we couldn't take any potty breaks.
And then some jerk started going off on the war when we asked if he wanted to buy cookies for the soldiers. I was so speachless that he would do such a rant in front of a child that I forgot to say "Her daddy is a soldier." Bummer. Then this same jerk leaves his shopping cart in a handycapped parking space.
After the sale we met up with our troop leader to balance out our account, which took time but we managed it without calculators. LOL
Darly & I were thinking Arby's for dinner, which felt good after our day. I even went all calories and got the potato cakes!!
DH called us from our airport at almost 6pm...he was still waiting to board. He started giving me all this emergency contact info. I wonder why he didn't think of that sometime in the 4 months he's known about this trip? Oh well.
He then emailed me from LAX at almost midnight with more emergency contact numbers. Gosh you would think that all heck is gonna break loose while he's gone. hummm
Sunday we went to Church. Our Pastor's father was in the hospital this week for major heart surgery and when he came out he said that he could feel our prayers. I hope that our other Pastor who is dealing with cancer can feel our prayers too.
I asked one of the familes if her dd's babysat and they do...but then it occured to me that they won't be able to babysit durring the week for me as they go to public schools...unless they are off track. Bummer. Oh well maybe when DH comes back we can use them for a weekend date night.
After Church we had our car washed (it's 1/2 price on Sundays) and they have a bunch of vacuumes to self clean out the inside. So first I have to remove my magnetic bumper stickers...or they'll get ripped off in the wash. And Darly says that she doesn't want the car vacuumed...I do and I'm doing it.
Then we went to lunch at Boston Pizza...we wait & wait & wait. Finally this guy comes over after I stare at him and I ask "Do we Have a server?" He appologizes and says that they didn't tell him that he had a table. I don't know how that works...every place that I waited tables, you knew which tables where you and if someone was at your table, you waited it. But anywhoo he did an outstanding job after that so I tipped him nicely. Lunch was yummy.
As we went back to our car, I noticed that my front license plate was not on straight anymore. I checked it and it's only held on with a plastic post that got warped in the car wash. I tried to fix it the best I could.
At home I did a little work in the garden and trimmed back a tree that I hate. I'm hoping that I trimmed it too much and it will die, but since it's a weed it will probably love the trimming and grow better. I should get some of that root stop stuff and put it throughout the tree. This tree is covered in thorns and one went through my shoes...owch!
This am i have to call up a field trip that I forgot to confirm to see if we are still able to go...yay we can. Whew, dogged that. The kids will have a good time...it's the Fire Department.
I'll also need to set up 3 more field trips this week. Oh shoot, I need to contact SIL about DN's bday party. gotta run
Saturday morning DH was getting all his gear together to leave town. Darly & I were getting all our gear together for a cookie booth sale. We were supposed to all leave the house at the same time...but DH decided at the last minute to sweep the garage (i don't know why).
So Darly & I get to our cookie booth and set up. Lemme just say that I think cookie booths are a total waste of time!!! We sat out there in the sun, wind and eventually chill for 3 hours to sell about 50 boxes of cookies... we could have done better going door to door with a waggon and not have been as miserable. We were supposed to have another scout with us, but she never showed up (it was the same at our troop's other booth.) So we couldn't take any potty breaks.
And then some jerk started going off on the war when we asked if he wanted to buy cookies for the soldiers. I was so speachless that he would do such a rant in front of a child that I forgot to say "Her daddy is a soldier." Bummer. Then this same jerk leaves his shopping cart in a handycapped parking space.
After the sale we met up with our troop leader to balance out our account, which took time but we managed it without calculators. LOL
Darly & I were thinking Arby's for dinner, which felt good after our day. I even went all calories and got the potato cakes!!
DH called us from our airport at almost 6pm...he was still waiting to board. He started giving me all this emergency contact info. I wonder why he didn't think of that sometime in the 4 months he's known about this trip? Oh well.
He then emailed me from LAX at almost midnight with more emergency contact numbers. Gosh you would think that all heck is gonna break loose while he's gone. hummm
Sunday we went to Church. Our Pastor's father was in the hospital this week for major heart surgery and when he came out he said that he could feel our prayers. I hope that our other Pastor who is dealing with cancer can feel our prayers too.
I asked one of the familes if her dd's babysat and they do...but then it occured to me that they won't be able to babysit durring the week for me as they go to public schools...unless they are off track. Bummer. Oh well maybe when DH comes back we can use them for a weekend date night.
After Church we had our car washed (it's 1/2 price on Sundays) and they have a bunch of vacuumes to self clean out the inside. So first I have to remove my magnetic bumper stickers...or they'll get ripped off in the wash. And Darly says that she doesn't want the car vacuumed...I do and I'm doing it.
Then we went to lunch at Boston Pizza...we wait & wait & wait. Finally this guy comes over after I stare at him and I ask "Do we Have a server?" He appologizes and says that they didn't tell him that he had a table. I don't know how that works...every place that I waited tables, you knew which tables where you and if someone was at your table, you waited it. But anywhoo he did an outstanding job after that so I tipped him nicely. Lunch was yummy.
As we went back to our car, I noticed that my front license plate was not on straight anymore. I checked it and it's only held on with a plastic post that got warped in the car wash. I tried to fix it the best I could.
At home I did a little work in the garden and trimmed back a tree that I hate. I'm hoping that I trimmed it too much and it will die, but since it's a weed it will probably love the trimming and grow better. I should get some of that root stop stuff and put it throughout the tree. This tree is covered in thorns and one went through my shoes...owch!
This am i have to call up a field trip that I forgot to confirm to see if we are still able to go...yay we can. Whew, dogged that. The kids will have a good time...it's the Fire Department.
I'll also need to set up 3 more field trips this week. Oh shoot, I need to contact SIL about DN's bday party. gotta run
Friday, March 03, 2006
Yesterday must have caught up with me...
well I posted how busy yesterday was...today wasn't all that busy...but I flubbed it up anyway!
I had to go to Church to borrow a table for the cookie booth tomorrow; go deposit some LLL checks in the bank; return some DVDs to the Library and get gas in the car...all before our Girl Scout meeting.
I figured that if we left the house by 1pm we could do all of that with some time to spare and kill it at the Library.
So I start by getting the dog to go into her bedroom and then start loading some things into the car. Darly (trying to be helpful) starts bringing some things I had ready for tomorrow, so I had her take those back into the house.
I get my stuff in the car along with the kid and off we go....
We get to the Church and get the table, no problem!
But as we are heading to the bank (about 1/2 a block from the bank) I realize that I had forgotten to endorse the checks...there were 10 of them!
So I decide that we'll go to the Library. We get there and I ask Darly where the DVDs are...at home! She thought I had them, I thought she had them...ARGH!
So I head for home, we still have time.
I run inside and grab the DVDs and endorse the checks. I also decided to put the borrowed table in the house so it's not banging around my car.
We drive back to the bank and it's busy, but for some odd reason no one is in lane 5. All the other lanes are packed...I drive right up and send my deposit...no problem.
We drive back to the Library and 2 women are blocking (not parked in, stopped across the end of the space) the parking spaces for the book drop with their humoungous SUVs while their kids drop off books. I'm behind a small car that also needs to get to the book drop off. SUV #1 leaves, but SUV #2 drives around the parking lot, giving me & small car time to zip into the parking spots.
I decide that Darly can run the books up to the book drop and then I notice that SUV #2 has circled around behind me and is sending her kid to the book drop too.
Darly returns and we are ready to go, but SUV#2 is blocking me in with a car behind her as well. She goes for another trip around the parking lot. We're outta there!
We get our gas and get to the GS meeting with time to spare.
Calgon take me away!
I had to go to Church to borrow a table for the cookie booth tomorrow; go deposit some LLL checks in the bank; return some DVDs to the Library and get gas in the car...all before our Girl Scout meeting.
I figured that if we left the house by 1pm we could do all of that with some time to spare and kill it at the Library.
So I start by getting the dog to go into her bedroom and then start loading some things into the car. Darly (trying to be helpful) starts bringing some things I had ready for tomorrow, so I had her take those back into the house.
I get my stuff in the car along with the kid and off we go....
We get to the Church and get the table, no problem!
But as we are heading to the bank (about 1/2 a block from the bank) I realize that I had forgotten to endorse the checks...there were 10 of them!
So I decide that we'll go to the Library. We get there and I ask Darly where the DVDs are...at home! She thought I had them, I thought she had them...ARGH!
So I head for home, we still have time.
I run inside and grab the DVDs and endorse the checks. I also decided to put the borrowed table in the house so it's not banging around my car.
We drive back to the bank and it's busy, but for some odd reason no one is in lane 5. All the other lanes are packed...I drive right up and send my deposit...no problem.
We drive back to the Library and 2 women are blocking (not parked in, stopped across the end of the space) the parking spaces for the book drop with their humoungous SUVs while their kids drop off books. I'm behind a small car that also needs to get to the book drop off. SUV #1 leaves, but SUV #2 drives around the parking lot, giving me & small car time to zip into the parking spots.
I decide that Darly can run the books up to the book drop and then I notice that SUV #2 has circled around behind me and is sending her kid to the book drop too.
Darly returns and we are ready to go, but SUV#2 is blocking me in with a car behind her as well. She goes for another trip around the parking lot. We're outta there!
We get our gas and get to the GS meeting with time to spare.
Calgon take me away!
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