songs from childhood

Are you tired of chasing pretty rainbows?
Are you tired of spinning 'round and 'round?
Wrap up all the shattered dreams of your life,
And at the feet of Jesus lay them down.

Give them all. Give them all.
Give them all to Jesus.
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts,
and broken toys.
Give them all. Give them all.
Give them all to Jesus.
And he will turn your sorrows into joys.

I will serve thee because I love thee.
You have given life to me.
I was nothing before you found me.
You have given life to me.
Heartache, broken pieces, ruined lives are why you died on Calvary.
Your touch, was what I longed for.
You have given life to me.

Some days I feel like a worthy vessel. Other days I'm just a lump of clay.
But either way I'm in the Potter's hands, and that's pretty cool.

Terms & Conditions, Licenses & Agreements, and other such whatnot

We had to replenish the brain of our computer last December. It was not a fun time, as we all too quickly realized that our new "brain" did not like our printer, scanner, or my work software. The first two after numerous attempts and countless hours, I was finally successful in downloading and installing driver updates to make the things work. Half of my software for work would install correctly, and the other half not only refused to install correctly; it also refused to UNINSTALL! After much frustration and grinding of teeth, I called tech support only to discover they no longer offer help on CS2, as CS3 & CS4 has now come out. The nice guy did give me a link to a website that told me how to manually uninstall the crazy software, but after talking to someone at church (thanks for not charging me, Jack!), I felt comfortable in my decision that following its advice and DELETING part of my new hard drive's files was NOT the practical thing to do. So I followed Jack's advice and bought a software upgrade instead of the whole version.
This does not make sense to me. If something is not installed successfully on my computer, then how will an upgrade work correctly? It does not make sense to me, but I'm thankful I followed his advice, for it WORKED!!!!! But I did have to download more drivers and upgrades for graphic cards and memory chips, etc and whatnot. GRRRR!!!!
And that's where the rub comes in. For every piece of software, download, or upgrade, there's this little box you check saying that you have read and are in agreement with policies, the licenses, the conditions, and such and such. I used to just check it and click yes, until I discovered the hard way that McAffee Antivirus Protection had a clause in their agreement that they have the right to charge your credit card every year unless you call them or write them a certified letter 90 DAYS BEFORE YOUR ACCOUNT EXPIRES telling them you do not want to renew their services. One of the best protection plans we've ever used, but that one just rubbed me the wrong way, especially as the computer that had their service had been dead and obsolete for six months.
So now I tried to at least skim parts of the things. Today for the last two I simply clicked the box. After all, what can an agreement for a graphic card (which I don't even know what looks like) that comes pre-installed on the computer say that I will have a problem with?
But then again, maybe I signed away the right to eat chocolate around my computer, or create dinosaurs with the color green, or gave the right to someone to come in and inspect for dust bunnies around the computer vents. You just never know.
So if they come in and take me away, you can rest assured it probably had something to do with that stupid little License & Agreement box I checked before I downloaded an update today.

We once had a tree with a V.

Now it's a mess.

And it split the dog's fence line.

But on a different note: farm-raised rabbits cooked in a crock-pot with french onion soup smells like a roast cooking, but had the texture of very dried chicken. The taste wasn't bad, but I liked the leftovers better. It was chopped up and heated in BBQ sauce (the Kraft kind that's tomato based, not the vinegar NC stuff) and it not only added moisture to it, but it tasted great! I bet if I brought some over to your house, you'd never know it was rabbit!

a new experience

One of Bobby's sisters brought him three freshly frozen rabbits for Christmas. So we're branching out into new territory tonight and trying one. He's in the crockpot now. Just in case I don't like the way he's cooked, I've spent the last few minutes on-line researching rabbit recipes. He smells okay, but I'm just not sure how I feel about eating a distant relative of Thumper.

Three steps forward, two steps back

Some resolutions are, well, resolute. I'm cooking, doing an okay job at keeping up with household chores, and am well into one of the projects for the month.
Other resolutions are, well, dissolving. Lose 4 pounds? Hmmm. I've thought about exercising the last five days, but as of yet it that item hasn't made it past the laundry basket, the Christmas decorations, the painting, etc.
My devotions are not devoted. I've kept up to date (WHOO HOO!) with the church's in-depth 3 year Bible reading program so far, and am keeping up with the teens' memory verses, but haven't kept my dare to my siblings or Mom for the LoveDare devotional (you can find them at Sam's Club for $9 fellow Fireproof fans!), and I fear my cynical demon has roared his head yet again. I don't mean to be sacrilegious, but obviously the Bible was not written by a woman. I mean, come on...did anyone even suggest pulling Zacharias out of the temple by that rope the priests had to wear? Did people sign to him because he couldn't talk like Hudson was quiet around Pastor Mike after his voice surgery, or was he deaf as well? Was he aggravated about the whole naming issue? I mean, if I was given the opportunity to have a child, and then told his name had to be Brad (no offense to any Brads out there) I would be a little bit miffed. Note, emphasis on little bit; I do think the thrill of having my own flesh and blood would override such minor irritations. And when John went to the wilderness, did he grow up there, or just hang out there in his teenage/young adult years? Can't you hear those old women talking? Well, I don't know what Lizzy's thinking lettin' that boy dress like that and roam around? They indulge him just way too much, but you know how those priest's kids are!
I recognize that we're not given a whole lot of details because that's not the emphasis of the story...BUT...if we can be told about Jezzy puttin' on make-up before being pushed and devoured by dogs, with only her hands left (like my cat eating moles), or a young woman being cut up into 12 pieces by her father and mailed to the governors of the country and the ensuing outrage, couldn't we have a few more details on what things were like?
And just for the record, I grudgingly agree with my Dad that when I get to heaven I will know the things that God deems important and the trivial remainder won't matter to me in the least. And yes, I would probably be more like Old Zach with 101 questions for the angel instead of like Mary who jubilantly and quickly believed and rejoiced. Yes. He must definitely increase!

dogs & breakfast

What is it about dogs & breakfast time?

Daisy & Abner (our first dogs) brought about Flopsy & Mopsy's (our rabbits) heart attacks during breakfast.

Oreo (a former cat) would always leave half of her breakfast (squirrels, moles, and mice) on the doorstep for Bobby to see before breakfast.

And now....

the mole game with Lucy & Linus...right outside the kitchen window...you guessed it....during breakfast.

I've yet to venture outside and see whether the birds in the yard succeeded in distracting the dogs away before the mole's death, or if they pestered him to death. Maybe Bobby will give me a report after his afternoon excursion. That's not something I care to see if I don't have to.

Not yet panic

You know how your adrenaline rushes right before a deadline and the work load and time factor don't seem to be matching up? Bobby calls this stress and I consider it motivation. Well, for some reason it struck today. I feel like I need to tackle all my January projects immediately and furiously, as if the month is almost over. And technically, there's only 29 days left, so I do need to be busy. Yet the thought struck me as I was driving home, Don't you know it's only Jan 2! HELLOOOOO! Maybe I just need a Dr. Pepper and a chocolate chip cookie. Hey, that's only about 400 calories, right? Wouldn't it be cool if I finished January and actually had half of February's projects done as well? Yeah, I know....keep dreaming. If that happened, I think the world might actually stop spinning, and we certainly don't want that to happen!

And speaking of our spinning earth, what did you think about them delaying the clock and fireworks of 2009 by one second because the earth has slowed down in its gravitational spin this year? Kind of reinforces the whole concept of time being relative, you know? Unfortunately, I don't think neither my husband nor my choir director would buy into that philosophy. And seeing as how time is only relative to what I can get done, I think I better get something done today besides paid work and blogging...ugh.