update

today's update is on my quilt page. :)

while I'm waiting

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting I will serve You
While I'm waiting I will worship
While I'm waiting I will not faint
I'll be running the race even while I wait.

Several years ago this song came out for the movie Fireproof. For the longest kind of time I only associated the song with the movie's theme (marital problems and selfishness), but yesterday some of the words came to mind while I was waiting to hear a response from a friend. I am so much like a child on Christmas Eve. I think the world is going to end if Christmas morning doesn't come soon, and I can hardly focus on anything else besides what I want. But life doesn't stop. At one point this song went flitting through my mind, and I realized how appropriate it was for EVERYTHING. No matter what I'm waiting on - an e-mail, a phone call, situations, exciting events - my job to praise, serve, worship and persevere continues. It seems such an oxymoron to be waiting for something but be busy at the same time. But I'm finding that's one of the best antidotes to not worrying and becoming anxious. It re-focuses me on what is important and what I CAN do through Christ. And that is freeing, indeed.

my new jokes

During the slow elections yesterday, one of the polling places I had to inspect shared a "Joke" a voter showed them. I found it VERY funny and shared it at another precinct. The poll workers my age and older really liked it. The college kid Chief Judge stared at us like we had three heads and DIDN'T FIND IT FUNNY NOT ONE LITTLE BIT. Although, I don't think he had quite recovered from the shock that grown-ups were carrying around change when I started telling it. Either way, I'm sure he had a lot of crazy stories to tell his whipper-snapper friends when he got home. (But I was very impressed with the job he did and his seriousness and energy toward the job.)


 Look closely at the penny. Check it out slowly.  Ready?

What is its smell?


(It's just a plain cent). hahahahahahahaha





 
Think carefully.

What fruit is this?




(Oh, come on! It's a pear!) 










Don't give up! You know this!

 
What three animals are here?




(Watch out! Three copperheads!!!) 


 And last but not least...

 What four cars are here?



(Seriously! You don't see four Lincolns?)






If it makes you feel any better, both Bobby and I missed all four questions, too. :)

conversations from yesterday :)

Me: Good morning! How are you today?
Girl: Great! Guess what happens to me this week?
Me: I have NO idea! What?
Girl: I have a birthday. I turn six.
Me: Six. Wow.
Girl: And then guess what happens the next day?
Me: I don't know.
Girl: He has a birthday. (pointing to her friend)
Me: (looking to her friend) And will you turn 10?
At this he laughs hysterically and the girl gets indignant: NO! He turns six, too! Looking to him, But since I turn six the day before, I'll be six and a half when you turn 6.

Me:  Did you tell Mr. Bobby about your big week?
Mr. Bobby: What happens this week?
Br: I'm having a birthday! to BW, Then I'll be six, too! I'll be 6 AND taller than you!
BW: Well, I still be 6 LONGER.
Me: Did you know that my little sister AND my little brother are both shorter than me?
BW: Some people are just born that way. I'm 26 seconds older than my brother, so I should be WAY taller, but I'm not. It's just the way we're born.

the big question

13 years ago last night I came home from work, tired as usual. I started supper, then went to work on grading essays, knowing that report cards would be going out soon. Bobby arrived after work like he normally did. The chicken was VERY dry, and the vegetables weren't all that great, either. After supper I dumped the dishes in the sink and he watched election results while I continued to grade papers. During one of the commercials, he asked me to get my calendar and see when would be a good time to head to South Carolina and see my parents. The closest date was around Thanksgiving. That didn't thrill him. He kept wanting to know why we couldn't shift some things around and go that weekend. I kept looking at that non-shrinking stack of essays and wondering where on earth his head was.
After he realized we weren't arriving at the same destination, and he told me to look in his wheelchair pouch. There I found a ring box, and it was already sized!!!
I promptly made arrangements to visit SC that Saturday, but I wore the ring the rest of the week (even though we weren't telling my parents over the phone!) The next morning at school one of the teachers spotted it between classes, and the news spread like wildfire throughout the school. My tenth graders wanted all the details, and they were more than a tad disappointed. They were totally convinced I was the most unromantic person on the face of the earth when I told them to get out their grammar books. 
"But Miss White, HOW can you teach GRAMMAR when you're so much in love and you just got a ring?"
I don't think my answer of "I'm thrilled, but life still goes on." impressed them too much.  But that night, before Wed night church, we headed to our favorite little hole in the wall, Eldorado's (which was then on 401) to celebrate.
And my romantic husband always remembers this date, and we almost always go there to eat on November 3rd now (even though it was actually the 4th when we ate there) to remember the night he popped the question.

a snapper

While cleaning out e-mail this morning, I found a picture my sis-in-law sent after one of their summer NC visits. My niece, who wanted to throw away the worms and save them from their tortuous fate of being stuck, live, on a hook, and then swallowed by a fish, was the fortunate/unfortunate one to hook the huge snapping turtle. Everyone was excited by its size, except her. She cried. The poor thing had a hook stuck in its throat. The "poor thing" doesn't actually look that big in the photo, but you have to remember, this was taken with a camera phone with no zoom lens and from up on the pier. I don't think she'd be crying "poor thing" if she knew how dangerous these creatures can be, or had seen them demolish a baby goose. Regardless, with its heavy weight, it snapped the line before we could get it near the shore.

I'm thankful this thing is not my pet.

My new wonder drug. Took away my sinus headache and helped me breathe better, too! :)