I can't believe it! I just can't believe it! I won! I won Edwardo! Wow!
I just can't believe it! ~BubbaLou
Mums is a packrat. She likes to keep everything that she may possibly need. I jest because I can, I love her dearly. She has vision. She has hopes for fun and games, good times and stories, hugs and laughter.
Pappa Bobby and Mums got me this parachute when I was but a wee child. They got it for me to play with my friends. I can't be sure how many times it has been used, but she held on to it. For my child, her grandchild, and the friends that she would have one day.
Well, that day is today. Squeals and laughter resulted.
I have to say, she has vision! So, I take back what I said about Mums, she is not a packrat. She is a visionary!"Momsaroo, I am just one person, I can't save the rain forest!" BubbaLou protested earlier this week. She had brought home a reading assignment about the rain forest and was most distressed. We looked up ways to help save the rain forest and one of the ways was to click daily on the rain forest button. You will now find that button on my sidebar, so before you leave, please click!
BubbaLou had made posters 'to save the rain forest' in the past while at Mums house, she scattered them through the neighborhood. She knew she had done this, but still wanted to do more. I told her the posters were a great idea and that she was very smart and active to have done them. Posters work, getting the word out works! I think she believes me more now than she did the other day, I will tell you why.
BubbaLou, is a lover of animals, hers and everyone's animals. She befriends them and they love her. She has many animal friends around town that she looks forward to visiting. One little puppy named Lucky lives in Mum's neighborhood. Lucky got lost the other day, but BubbaLou and her friends Banana and Kenzer made posters and passed them out to people in the neighborhood. They were even looking in the drains down the street.
Later that night, someone who had gotten a poster, found Lucky!
Car rides home from school are always so interesting. You just never know the things that are going to come out of BubbaLou's mouth, because you have no idea what is going through her head. Let me tell ya, there is lots of stuff in that noggin of hers!
BubbaLou announced today that she has decided that when she is President of the United States of America, she is going to be changing LOTS of things.
Now, this isn't the first time BubbaLou has spoken of her aspirations to lead this wonderful country, but I thought I would probe her for her platform. I was just curious. She has not by a long shot addressed all the issues, but there are several things she feels very strongly about. Trees and animals. I think those are age appropriate!
Here is a sample of this eight year old's musings of how things should be run...
A ban on cutting down or burning trees, unless she says so.
"Next thing you know, a squirrel will be in your tree popping you in the head with acorns!"
addendum: No squirrels will be allowed to pop people in the head with acorns.
No hunting rabbits, or polar bears in the Arctic, or any other animals unless she says so.
Tight Spider Control! Only pet spiders should be allowed to live.
Extra houses should be torn down and more trees should be planted.
Oil prices should go down so you could fill your tank for $14.
She remains undecided about offshore drilling since there are lots of sea creatures that may be hurt. She is against drilling in ANWR. She is concerned about the animals.
She has decided that dollars would become dollops and that they would only be used in stores, everything else could paid by a toy brought to her.
She has the crazy notion that kids should be able to show up at school anytime they want!
And of course, NO HOMEWORK!
BubbaLou says, Vote for me and you will be on the right path!
Music in church has always meant a great deal to me over the years. I have very fond memories of being a member of the children's and youth choir at church. I still remember songs and even scripture from the songs that we sang. I have very warm and fuzzy memories of friends and teachers from my music experience at church.
I was never a soloist, nor, was I good at music at any individual level. The most humiliating moment in my life happened at a piano recital when I attempted to play "Open Arms" by Journey. If you were there, you know the horror. If you missed it, count your self spared from the piano horror of a lifetime! I took for six years, and I am terrible. I just wasn't talented. It came so easy to so many of my friends, but not for me. I really was able to play "Open Arms" because I had practiced it for so long. I had to play something a hundred times when my friends could sit down and do it probably ten times. Some of them could just do it right the first time they read the music. Not me. Imagine how my parents felt when I had to practice "Chariots of Fire." It started off with about a hundred d's.
I steer clear of most musical endeavors now. I can download my iPod and sing and dance in private or in front of BubbaLou. She just tells me to be quiet! The only place I sing with other people, is at church, in the congregation, as I worship my God. This is still where I have warm fuzzies, singing to God at church. I am just grateful that I can just show up and let those who are actually talented lead the way.
It is in church, where so many wonderfully talented musicians have touched my life. Ministers of music and choir teachers have always held a special place in my heart. They taught me songs about my Jesus, they showed me how to sing with the body of Christ, they carried me through times when I was very sad or very glad. What an awesome place they have in the body of Christ. They touch people who they know and who they have never met. They bring everyone who is present before the throne of God in worship. They instill hope and passion into our faith through song.
It is because they touch us in such ways, they probably don't even realize the impact they have on our lives. The impact that God purposed them to have. We don't ever realize what we really mean to people we don't even know. It boggles my mind when I think about it, the way our lives touch others, however briefly, seeds are planted, and impressions are made.
Our church's minister of music, Simeon Nix, just followed a new call to heaven. This coming just three months after our pastor and his son followed their call to heaven. We have heavy hearts, but they are still uplifted and full of hope and purpose, because we know, that someday, we will see them again and hear them all sing again, but for now, they want us to keep singing.
When we loose one of these wonderful people on Earth, we can at least look forward to their music in heaven. Their earthly music lifted to God is only a foreshadowing of that music they will make in heaven. I can only imagine how wonderful it will be.
Our family has been going through some stressful times the last month. It has been overwhelming with the abnormal-literally. I haven't known quite what to make of it,nor, how to put my normal positive spin on it, so I have been abnormally quiet.
It all came together this morning as I was making yummy blueberry pancakes since the second day of school was cancelled for a "Storm Day." I had my last two blueberry pancakes cooking and had put the finishing touches on my own plate of hot blueberry pancakes when I grabbed something out of the cabinet and realized it was covered with black liquid. Then in that same hundredth of a second that won Michael Phlelps a gold medal, I realized the entire cabinet was covered in black liquid that came from an overturned bottle of soy sauce.
It had covered my box of Stevia. That stuff cost too much to be infused with the taste of soy sauce. I immediately set to work cleaning. It dripped on the coffee pot, it dripped on the counter, it dripped on the floor, and then down the front of my gown. I am not sure how many paper towels I used to clean this mess, but I sure was glad I wasn't out. I cleaned and cleaned as my pancakes sat there getting cold.
It was during this massive clean up, I realized, this is how my life has been lately. I have been up to my knees in soy sauce! But not just me, everyone in the family is standing on soy sauce. Our friends have even been standing in soy sauce. So what to do, what to do?
While I was cleaning out my cabinets, I was able to save what was inside most of the time, but the boxes had to go. Very few things had to be completely tossed out. My cabinet is now clean and is less cluttered-at least that one shelf. Maybe, just maybe, that is what God needs us to let him do.
So I will let God clean this mess up! I will let him go through, and box by box, either wipe off the bottom or throw the box away. He will have the shelves in our souls cleansed and straightened, clear of even the lingering smell of soy sauce. He can find all the drips and stains of our hurts and fears and wash them away completely. He will take the abnormal and make it normal again, giving us ways to cope and overcome. He will put the top on tight so now new spills of soy sauce don't occur and he will always have plenty of paper towels.
You better check the bottoms of your shoes, you might just be standing in soy sauce!
Saturdays are always so interesting, you just never know what adventures lay ahead when you take that first step out of bed in the morning. Our wee little family tends to live a little spontaneously, so the opportunities for adventure are vast!
Saturday morning started off with hungry tummies and in an effort to fill them, we all voted to head for Mimi's for breakfast. We stopped at two estate/yard sales on the way. One guy had stuff we recognized from an estate sale a couple of weeks ago, he had just changed houses and put higher prices on them. The second one we stopped at had great stuff with pretty good prices. I picked up a pretty wooden vanity bench with plans to recover the cushion. Popsaroo wanted to know where I was going to put it. Like I knew?! That was trivial.
We got back in the car and called Mums to see what good stuff might be at the church yard sale she was at. It had been going on since six and most of the good stuff was gone, but she had found a couple of picnic baskets she could use to carry food to people. She had taken drinks out there in a big wash tub, but she was finished, so she was going to join us at Mimi's for breakfast.
Once we were fat as ticks, I went with Mums to find that last yard sale, I loaded my bench in her van since it fit better and she has materials to recover it with. We found the yard sale and Mums found some stuff she liked at "end of the yard sale day prices." So we loaded up a small rocker, a little shelf, a sewing table that folds, a old telephone, some teacups, and a picnic basket. We stopped at a moving sale and only found a little wicker wall shelf.
We made a few stops after that looking for normal stuff at normal stores. We went by Ole Time Pottery to look for XL twin sheets. We found the cutest wicker dresser and armoir at rock bottom prices. I decided that BubbaLou was in need for real furniture, and once again we loaded up the dresser and armoir, and like a bunch of hillbillies got it all in the van.
It was at this moment, I had a Beverly Hillbilly's moment. I could hear the music and everything. I have to admit, although I do come from Tennessee, I have not experienced a Beverly Hillbilly's moment before. There is a first thing for everything.
We had a tin washtub, a plastic barrel, a pitcher, a rocking chair, a bench, two shelves, a bag of old clothes, several bags and decorative tins, a dresser, an little armoir, several beach umbrellas, a sewing table, an extension cord, some plant stands, an old telephone, a bath rug, a dog leash and travel dog bowl, three picnic baskets, and critters.
I forgot to mention the critters, didn't I. Yes, ants had swarmed under the tin washtub. We found them when we had to make room for the wicker furniture and had to dump the water out of the tin washtub so we could turn it on it's side. Yes, it really had water in it. I also did the ant dance as I was trying to kill and remove the swarm of ants off the washtub and off me. It was quite the site!
On the drive home, all that stuff made music as it would bump into each other...Hillbilly, that is!
BubbaLou got a hankering for a caramel apple tonight. She came to me asking where she could get one. "At the Savannah Candy store!" I replied!
He brought 4 shiny apples home and 2 bags of caramels. We only used 1 bag.
One bag only made 3 apples(large delicious)! The first two were perfect, the last one was a bit spooky! Popsaroo ate that one, said it had, "Character."
BubbaLou took a big bite, and maybe 9 more and she was full. We put hers in the fridge for tomorrow. Popsaroo and I ate ours, except for the cores and Thomas the dog got those!
Mom, I'm ready for my midnight snack! ~BubbaLou
Have you ever had moments when you walk around the corner and just catch yourself catching your breath as you swell up with a patriotic love and pride for your country? Well, I kept having those when I was on vacation in Savannah and at Fort Sumter! It was so cool. We didn't get to make it there for the 4th of July like we had originally planned, but we didn't have to! We didn't get to see fireworks in these historic places, but we got to hear the flags beating in the wind on the hill of Fort Sumter. A very cool moment, indeed!
We saw the flags that actually flew over the fort during the battles. This was the Union flag, it got knocked down and you can see the nail holes in it where they nailed it back up.
This was the first Confederate flag. Looks a little different from the final flag. But this flew during battle when they ruled the fort. These flags are looking a little threadbare, huh?
Random wrought iron on buildings.
Good luck dolphins on down spouts.
All seeing eyes on the side of the post office.
An Irish feathered silly creature.
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was open for any one that wanted to enter and see that the inside was just as beautiful as the outside.
We definitely wanted to see the inside, so in we went, camera in hand. We were struck with a feeling of awe and reverence as we came into this church. You could not look anywhere and not see art of some sort or another created to glorify our Lord.
It was truly worth stopping for.
There was stain glass everywhere. I was having trouble getting get pictures of it, but I finally used a longer exposure and got several pics.
The detail and colors were fantastic, you could just sit and stare at it for very long periods of time. Of course it left you in a very contemplative and prayerful mood.
I have very fond memories of the stain glass in my own church growing up. I got married in front of that stain glass in our chapel, and am sorry that the building has been removed. I wonder what they did with the stain glass.
I also remember the stain glass of Jesus over the baptistery in the newer building. I would stare at that stain glass through who knows how many sermons. I think it easier to pray sometimes that way.
This was a good chance to tell BubbaLou about other churches. She was a bit overwhelmed.
We won't mention the holy water incident. She is Baptist, not Catholic, she didn't know. When Baptist see water, they think immersion.....It was only her hands. I should have been watching, but Popsaroo saw this one and he well, freaked out. He told me and I pulled her to the side and whispered in her ear, and all was well. Jesus loves the little children.
Did I tell you that we met a nun as we were entering the sanctuary, we did. She asked us if there were any public bathrooms. Hmmm. I would have thought she would have had a free pass to find a bathroom anywhere in that building.
I wish I could have gotten pics of all the glass. But it was all around! I took a little video, but my skills are not so good, and you may get dizzy, but I will post it anyway. BubbaLou also had questions about the candles. At least she asked me this time, I had to put the camera up to answer her questions. She has a habit of sticking her finger in the wax. This was top priority so that interdenominational relations would not be placed into turmoil!
 | My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Royal Highness Carmen the Pertinacious of Oxbridge by Camford Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
