Happy 4th of July

Cha-Ching!!

We would like to officially thank all those who gave up their hard-earned cash this weekend in exchange for junk from our storage room. If you missed out, don't despair! We will be selling more of our junk in the weeks and months to come as we continue our quest to eliminate the non-essential. If you are into efficiency, you can just send us money and we will throw a corresponding amount of junk into the landfill, thus bypassing several steps in the normal process.

(If no one has noticed, I'm not a big fan of garage and yard sales, although I have recently become a fan of the money I can part from various fools using the pretext of a yard sale.)

The Power of the Marginal

Paul Graham has an excellent essay on why innovation comes out of people's garages and basements rather than from corporate committees. I love this stuff:

A world with outsiders and insiders implies some kind of test for distinguishing between them. And the trouble with most tests for selecting elites is that there are two ways to pass them: to be good at what they try to measure, and to be good at hacking the test itself.

One way to tell whether a field has consistent standards is the overlap between the leading practitioners and the people who teach the subject in universities. At one end of the scale you have fields like math and physics.... At the bottom are business, literature, and the visual arts, where there's almost no overlap between the teachers and the leading practitioners. It's this end that gives rise to phrases like "those who can't do, teach."

It's kind of strange when you think about it, because lord-of-the-flies schools and bureaucratic companies are both the default. There are probably a lot of people who go from one to the other and never realize the whole world doesn't work this way.

The lives of the eminent become scheduled, and that's not good for thinking. One of the great advantages of being an outsider is long, uninterrupted blocks of time.

The very skill of insiders can be a weakness. Once someone is good at something, they tend to spend all their time doing that. This kind of focus is very valuable, actually. Much of the skill of experts is the ability to ignore false trails. But focus has drawbacks: you don't learn from other fields, and when a new approach arrives, you may be the last to notice.

As well as being more comfortable working on established lines, insiders generally have a vested interest in perpetuating them.

Responsibility is an occupational disease of eminence. In principle you could avoid it, just as in principle you could avoid getting fat as you get old, but few do. I sometimes suspect that responsibility is a trap and that the most virtuous route would be to shirk it, but regardless it's certainly constraining.

The word "try" is an especially valuable component. I disagree here with Yoda, who said there is no try. There is try. It implies there's no punishment if you fail. You're driven by curiosity instead of duty. Which means the wind of procrastination will be in your favor: instead of avoiding this work, this will be what you do as a way of avoiding other work.

But the best thing of all is when people call what you're doing inappropriate. I've been hearing this word all my life and I only recently realized that it is, in fact, the sound of the homing beacon. "Inappropriate" is the null criticism. It's merely the adjective form of "I don't like it."

Good stuff.

Recovering Our Stories

I just finished The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do? by Robert W. Funk and the Jesus Seminar. I think the final paragraph says it all:

Redeeming the myths
The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar are profoundly cognizant that human beings do not live by the bread of facts alone. We live by our stories - by our myths, which is only a fancy word for story - and these fictions are supposed to make sense out of a complex universe of meaning mixed with nonsense. Myths are not true or untrue; as one Fellow puts it, they are either living or dead. Literalism in biblical interpretation in tandem with scientism has helped strangle the myths of the Christian tradition. Historical criticism like that practiced by the Jesus Seminar is intended to release the gospel stories from their literalistic burden. Exposing them to historical assessment relocates them in the realm of story and myth, so they can recover their proper function. When we move them back within that perspective, perhaps new mythmakers and storytellers will once again find voice to celebrate the simple yet enduring story of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar are, as one would expect, widely regarded in Christian circles as heretics. None have yet been burned at the stake, but it's not from want of desire on the part of evangelicals in particular. It's all about power, of course. Groups like the Jesus Seminar liberate believers from the institutional church, which, in the view of leaders of the institutional church, is a sin more serious than blasphemy.

Busy Time

Hey Cyberworld!

We have a busy weekend and will have a busy week getting for a busier weekend. This past weekend I drove down Sat am to meet my Mom and head to a bridal shower. Then Sunday met up with Ric and headed to Flint for a combined birthday party for his Mom and one of his Aunts. Got to see a lot of relatives/friends we haven't seen for awhile. (Of course, some of them we should see next month at the Vargason reunion)

This week we are trying to get organized for a yard sale we are having to start downsizing. No, we aren't having it here. I would hate to have to explain in a newspaper ad how to find our house! We are having it at Ric's sister's house in town. Much easier to find and right on the way to TC from the expressway. So...lots of fudgies can stop and buy our stuff! :-) Everyone is invited! We will have lots of books and videos and some furniture and other stuff. I may even have a set of Beach Boys tickets to sell at cost for August. I have two things scheduled ... the concert at Interlochen and a wedding in Breckenridge area. I don't think Ric and I can be in two places at one time. Oh well...it was a good thought for an anniversary present. Sorry to spoil the surprise Ric!

Thanks for all the good thoughts, prayers and talks from family and friends. Ric and I are working on things and it looks promising ahead. We really need our house to sell and that would be a BIG obstacle out of our way. (anybody want to buy a house a couple miles past the middle of nowhere?! -- we just reduced the price)

Hey...one of my favorite songs lately...time to go sing...Live like you were dieing.

Global Warming?

Thanks to Al Gore, everyone is convinced the world is going to end in a couple years. First, take a deep breath and relax. Then read this.

Bottom line: yes the earth is getting warmer. No, human activity is not contributing to it in any substantial way. No, there isn't a lot we can do about it, and why would we want to? We just came out of a mini ice age. Do we really want more years without summer?

Global warming is about politics. Period. Never forget that.

My Days Are Numbered

I just sent the following e-mail to my PHB:

After 7+ years at Munson Medical Center, I've decided it is time to move on. With everything in the queue, I wanted to give you as much notice as possible. My last day will be Friday, September 22, 2006 (end of pay period 20).

This decision should in no way be taken as dissatisfaction with the people I have had the privilege to work with and for while at Munson. It is simply a reflection of the fact that I have been in the IT field for 22 years, and it has become obvious to me over the last year that it is time to do something completely different. So my wife and I have decided that we will be relocating to Arcosanti (http://www.arcosanti.org/) in Mayer, Arizona to live and work.

There was more administrative blah blah blah, but this is the important part. We'll probably end up living in a cardboard box in some Phoenix ghetto, but at least it will be something different.

Fred's At It Again

Fred Reed once again demonstrates what a waste of time a college education is becoming. If your little tad wants to go into one of the hard sciences or math, go for it. If they want to pursue a degree in the social sciences or Diversity Studies, then you would be better off flushing $40,000 down the toilet.

What Do I Believe

One of the comments to my previous post asks: "and what do you believe Ric? " Fair enough question, but the answer is going to be somewhat long-winded. I know that will come as a shock to the regulars here. It won't be real organized, but then most of what I post isn't.

Man seems to have an innate need to be religious. Every culture that has existed had a deity. The author of the site I previously linked to explains it as a transference: everyone is born dependent on an all-powerful, all-knowing being called a parent. Once we become old enough to realize our parents are far from all-powerful and all-knowing, we simply transfer our "worship" to a convenient deity. Christians would argue that God made humans with a desire to know the creator. Others argue that humans just love to anthropomorphize everything. We need a god to animate the universe for the same reason we mistake our cat's scent-marking behavior for affection; we can't conceive of a universe (or a pet) that is indifferent to us. But regardless of the source, it is there. I have become acutely aware of this over the last year when I have been questioning my own beliefs. My rational mind gave up on religion a long time ago, but some part of me keeps screaming, "There has to be a god!!" Not being a neuro-biologist, I have no idea what is going on, but I'm starting to feel like Sybil.

One other point: I am not so foolish as to believe that Christianity is so superior to every other belief system that I would have chosen it over whatever dominated in my place of birth. If I had been born in India, I would almost certainly be Hindu; if in Turkey, almost certainly Muslim; if in Salt Lake City, almost certainly Mormon. I was born in a country where Christianity is the dominant religion and into a family with an evangelical bent, so that is where I landed. It wasn't the result of years of comparative study or prayer or a vision from God like Paul. It was the default. It was what was right there in front of me. Like anything that you don't work too hard for, I'm not exactly pulling out all the stops to keep my evangelicalism.

With all that as introduction, what do I believe?

I believe Jesus was a historical person. He was, like many others at the time, an itinerant preacher who seemed to deliberately say and do outrageous things to shock and offend people, especially the religious elites. He was a bit of a party animal that liked his wine. And no, it wasn't grape juice; it was deliberately fermented wine. A little thought makes this obvious. Jesus was repeatedly accused by the religious elites of being a drunkard. No one accuses someone of being a drunkard for consuming inordinate amounts of Welch's. His first miracle, in fact, was to provide additional alcohol for a wedding party to keep things rolling. And at some point in the second or third year of his preaching, he took some sort of action against the temple that resulted in him being put to death.

As far as the New Testament goes, that's pretty much all I take away from it. The letters don't do much for me, and Revelation should be relegated back to the status it had in the early church: probably not inspired, but may have some useful bits. In my opinion, the Christian church, especially in North America, spends way too much time fantasizing about the bad guys taking it in the ass, with the cult of Tim LaHaye just being the most recent example. Anybody remember Hal Lindsey? He's still around, even though pretty much everything he predicted in the 1970's didn't happen. I seem to recall the Bible having something to say about prophets whose prophesies don't pan out....

The Old Testament has always been a problem for me for several reasons. First, I haven't accepted the first eleven chapters of Genesis as literal since shortly after high school. Second, it's pretty clear that most of the books were not written by who the church teaches wrote them, nor were they written when the church teaches they were written. Places and place names used in the "books of Moses" either didn't exist until centuries later, or existed, but were not called by that name until centuries later. Third, God makes a lot of promises to Israel. Those promises were not made to the church. 2 Chronicles 7:14 was not written to the United States, no matter how many times the church choir sings it on the Fourth of July. In other words, the Old Testament has some good stories and can be an interesting jumping off point for studying the actual history of Babylon or Assyria, but not much else.

What I would like to see from the modern church:

First, some honesty. Stop denying the evidence from archeology, geology, biology, paleontology, cosmology, linguistics, ice cores, oil drilling, plate tectonics, and so on and so forth. Stop lying to the largely uneducated laypeople about the evidence for taking every word of the Bible literally. The earth is not 6,000 years old. There was not a universal flood. Evolution happened and is still happening. Moses did not write the Pentateuch. The Gospels are not first-hand accounts. Deal with it.

Second, less emphasis on the afterlife and more on what is going on around us. Just one small example: 27,000 children a day die from starvation. What are the churches doing to address that? It's wonderful that the average congregation will spend 20%, 25%, even 30% of what hits the offering plate to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, but it would be nice if they could take along a bag of rice as well. Every North American church's web site is obsessed with building buildings. Show me anywhere in the gospels where the church is commanded to build physical buildings. The Old Testament prophets repeatedly slammed Israel for ignoring and exploiting the poor. What exactly do you call it when we purchase cheap tennis shoes made by and eight-year-old working for $2/day? Jesus told the rich man in the gospels to sell all he had and give it to the poor. Do you not realize that the poorest families in Kalkaska county live at a level of luxury unimaginable by kings in the first century? What is all the real estate owned by all the churches in North America worth? Billions? Trillions? "Christians" sit in their board meetings arguing about whether or not to install air conditioning while 27,000 children die every day. I'm sure God is very pleased.

Third, a little humility. No church, denomination, sect, or cult has a corner on the truth. God seems to have a hard time speaking clearly, which has resulted in a fragmentation of Christendom that staggers the imagination. Maybe we need to spend a little less time building fortresses and firing cannon at each other, and a little more time taking a long hard look at exactly what we believe and why and how many people we are willing to send to hell while we argue about it. Start with eschatology, keeping in mind my comments on the book of Revelation above.

And I'm sure that is quite enough for now.

Back by Popular Demand

It's been a crazy couple of months, so blogging had to take a back seat. But if you are looking for controversy, here ya go:

If you believe in God, then don't read this. Unless you want that particular notion removed from your brain. You have been warned. If you want to read the meat of the book, then read this. But if you are going to read it, I would recommend reading the entire thing. A strong reader should be able to get through all the material in 6-8 hours.

Enjoy!

More of the same

What a difference in the weather from last weekend. Last weekend it was in the high 80's (low 90's Mon), this weekend it may have gotten to the low 70's (and cold rain) We went to another couple open houses today. At the first one(Lacee's), we fought the rain part of the time we were there. Luckily they had a big open sided tent set up. Great back yard they had....beautiful! Next we went to another of our "honorary nieces" -- Casey. This is the one that is moving all the way to California next Sat :-( I will really miss her! We wish her luck there and hope she keeps in touch.

Tomorrow I'll be busy at the church ... I got talked into substituting for two different people in the nursery ... so, I'll be in there for Sunday school and evening service. The regular service is when we present the gradutates with their Bibles and quilts, so I"m glad I don't have to cover the nursery then.

Nothing else really new .... still no talk .... not too busy at the travel agency. Ric can breathe thru his nose! can't really smell yet and he thinks he has a sinus infection again! He has his follow up appt with the surgeon this coming week. It will interesting to see what he has to say.

I noticed the comment on the last post asking about Ric posting. He can't access the site at work and was having problems with Zandros on his computer at home. I"m not sure if he can access and post now and choses not to or can't access it yet. Keep on bugging him if you want him back! I"m getting tired of seeing just my posts too!

Busy Weekend

Good Morning World!

We had a busy weekend. Saturday began with high school graduation. Ric, I and our niece Courtney headed to the school about 40 minutes early. It was kinda pleasant in the gym until it started to fill up....then it seemed like the air got sucked out. It was kinda fun trying to find the graduates after the ceremony outside to take some pics....we never did find all of them we wanted to. Headed back to the Hurd's to drop off Courtney so she could take off for work and we headed to the first of the open houses. Paula's was at the Mill Pond park....beautiful day for an outside gathering.

Sunday afternoon was another open house ... one of Courtney's friends(Kai) and one of the kids we consider like another niece to us. (this is the only open house so far we didn't stay long enough to get any graduation cake!) Ric had some shopping to do in TC and we had to get his Dad's birthday present at the nursery.....so we hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Got part of the shopping done, then had to head to Barker Creek before they closed for the day to pick out an apple tree. We got a really knowledgable guy to help us. Then loaded it up in the vehicle and headed to Ric's parents before they got home from church to "hide it behind the house" We got it put behind the house, watered good and then took off before we got caught in the yard. After getting home and trying to lay down for a nap, began to wonder if the tree got put in line of the bedroom window, decided too late to worry about it since they should be home in about 15min or so. We found out later when Don went to get ready for bed, he saw something out his window and called Shirley in to check it out, then had to go outside to see what it was for sure. Busted!!! :-) Oh well....it was a surprise, it was just sooner than we planned!

Monday (Memorial Day) we had a picnic at the Moser's with a bunch of people. The picnic gathering was double duty party for us....we also got cake/ice cream for Don's birthday and sang to him there. It was the weekend for birthdays...Don's was Friday, Denise's Sat and Mon was Zachary and Marge. I did get Zachary with his sister's help to give him his birthday spankings! We had another open house to hit ... great meatballs at this one! Another of our honorary "nieces" -- Mandy -- she went on the cruise last March with Courtney and had a blast. We have a couple more next Saturday . The weekend after is when Casey (another honorary niece) moves to California ... we will be so sad to see her go, but excited for her.

Other happenings this weekend....Nestina and her brother Adam headed to North Carolina sometime Sunday and called Ric Monday to say they got there okay. I hope all goes well with that move. In one house, will now be Mom and all her kids -- 2 boys and a girl. Good luck! I'm praying things here in Michigan may get back to what they should be. Of course, Ric is helping out in another crisis with his niece/nephew and sister's problems, but I will try to not let that sidetrack us.

Time to hit the shower and get ready for work....glad it is only a four day week! Hope everyone had a great weekend and didn't get too sunburned!

"Tears in Heaven"

This month is the 14th anniversary of my Dad and my Godfather's deaths. Dad died on May 20th, Uncle Leo May 25th. Today after work while I was heading to TC, I was channel surfing on the radio. I found a good song and stopped. Then the next song was Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton I knew my Uncle was saying HI! This is the song that was played at his funeral. Every time I hear it -- I think of Leo -- sometimes smiling and with tears in my eyes. Him and my Dad were the jokers of the family. Also the "best polka dancers" -- if you danced with them -- you had to hold on for dear life -- they went so fast some of their partners feet would off the floor!

Other news in our life. Nestina came back from her European trip. She apparantely was a little disappointed in Venice, Italy but fell in love with some place in Germany (I believe it was Germany -- I haven't heard the story of her trip from her yet) Her brother Adam took a LONG INTERESTING bus trip up here from North Carolina. They will be packing her jeep up and heading down by Memorial Day.

Ric had surgery this past Tuesday to remove a bunch of polyps inside his nose. He has been having major problems for the past six months. Sinus infections and not being able to breathe thru his nose. The Dr said there were more polyps than he expected, but the surgery went fine. His nose is still a bit swollen today and sore, but the bloody drainage is slowing down finally. This should help him alot. Maybe he will even get his sense of smell back. Of course that can be a bad thing sometimes! :-)

Work has been work. Nothing much new there. Slow days most of the time.

Nothing new on the sale of our house/property. We did have somebody look at it in April, but nothing more since. Ric said this is his last winter up here, so I'm praying the place sells by fall. No idea where to after that .... tune in later and find out! Probably someplace with dry heat...not humid heat according to Ric. (Mom suggested Las Vegas! I'm sure company would love a free place to stay while visiting Vegas)

Thanks for those that posted a comment on the last entry. I enjoy seeing who is reading our blog --- even if I don't know you -- I like to see hits from different parts of the US and the world.

Have a great holiday weekend. We have high school graduation and some open houses Sat and a picnic/birthday party on Monday. I hope to have time to clean the house and get the paperwork caught up sometime. Oh well...there is always another day!

Tell us who you are and where you are from

Hi Everyone!

I'm just plain curious. We have a live traffic map of the world and can see the last 100 hits on our blog. Some cities I can figure out who they are, most I'm clueless. I don't know if the ones that hit more than once are people we know or just strangers that like to check out our blog.

Would you take a few minutes and post a comment? Tell me your name and where you are from. I'm really curious about the one south of Minnesota, west of Tennesee that doesn't show up with a city/state. I've seen it before and just wondered who is over there that the map doesn't come through with your city and state. We have had foreign hits ... one from Spain in the last 50 visitors. You can post as anyomous...you don't have to have a blogger account...just post as anyomous and tell me Hi and your info.

Thanks to all of you out there ... here in Michigan -- Livonia, Climax, Williamsburg, Grand Rapids, Atlanta, Bancroft and other places like Buffalo NY, San Francisco, Sarasota FL, Charlotte NC, Malta OH, Nashville TN, York PA, Kohler WI, St Paul MN and Guilford Ct. Send me a comment ... I'd love to hear from you all even if just a quick HI!

Leaving on a jet plane

Unfortunately I'm not the one traveling today :-(

Nestina is flying out tonite to London, England. She is doing a 11 day European trip with Contiki Vacations. This tour company only takes 18-35yr old clients. She will be visiting 7 countries during this time. She will be flying home from Paris on 22May. I wish I would have known about this company when I was younger. They have alot of neat escorted trips. (Anybody want to book a trip -- just call me and I'll arrange it for you!)


I have somebody new sharing my bed. Deep dark eyes, lean, lots of hair, great teeth and loves the outdoors. His name is Jake. I'm taking care of him for a former coworker that is out of town. For those of you with your jaw on the ground and ready to tell everyone about Jake ..... he is a black/white dog! Gotcha! :-)

Homefront news

Well, it is done. Our house and most of the property is up for sale. (Yeah, we haven't even got the house completed yet!) Then last night, Ric sold his truck and plow and bought a new Durango. I guess this will truly be the last winter at our place -- or pay somebody else to plow to our house.

Work has been dead, plus I don't feel like working with all the stuff that is happening in my life. I feel so lost and alone and no motivation to continue on.

Time to get signed into work ... more later in the neverending saga of life.

2 Weddings, 1 funeral and a surgery

Hi All! This will be a lengthy post since nobody has posted much this month.

I went to a funeral of a young guy right after Easter. He was the brother of one of Ric's soccer girls and the grandson of a close couple at church. It was overwhelming to see the turn out for the funeral ... basically filled the funeral home, the porch and front lawn. This family means alot to the community and they all came together to show their support for them. It is tough to know just what to say, but a hug does wonders. My prayers are still with them and my shoulder is hear to cry on and my ears are hear to listen.

Don (Ric's Dad) came home from Florida and finally had his surgery that didn't end up happening last year before they left for Florida. He ended up having a double hernia surgery this past Wed. Everything went well and he is home and doing good. (I'm hoping he didn't overdo it for the Trout Festival!)

Now on to the weddings.....two Sat in a row...one downstate, one upstate. Both were girls in our wedding ...one the flowergirl, the other the junior bridesmaid.

Jamie's (my flowegirl) was April 22nd. It went well and had a few different things and a surprise. Her flowergirl wore the dress Jamie wore in my wedding. (I'm surprised she kept it all this time) Jamie's dad is deceased and they did a couple special things at the wedding/reception. At the wedding, they had a candle on the unity candle table with Jim's picture on it. After the kids lit their unity candle, Jamie lit the candle with her Dad's picture on it. At the reception hall, they had a "memory table" with pictures (and name cards) of those special people in their lives that had died. Jamie's Dad and Grandpa were at the front of the table. The surprise for Jamie was great! The kids used Jamie's parent's wedding rings. Jamie knew about using her Dad's ring to give to Josh, but didn't know that she was getting her Mom's ring. We wondered why when she starting to cry when he put the ring on her finger... we found out later why it was so special.

Yesterday, my cousin Sara got married. It was a gorgeous wedding. Sara looked so special in her dress. The surprise at her wedding ended up being about her parents. Rob came into the "girls room" looking for Barb. He got down on one knee and gave her a ring and asked her to marry him (again). I guess he said he didn't do it right the first time! There went the girls' makeup! Touch up time! Mom and I missed it since we were taking pictures of the guys. I'm looking forward to seeing somebody's pictures of that special moment. The wedding and reception went well ... only one light moment during the ceremony. Adam was repeating his vows after the minister and repeat them he did ... even when he said "I took Sara to be my lawful wedded husband!" They got it corrected, but it lightened the moment for a minute or two. Aunt Barb was well enough to get out on the dance floor and do the alligator for most of the song. (I of course, had to be out there with her also since Ric wasn't there to do it with her) (Boy, does one of my knees hurt today!)

Last, but not least: I want to thank all of my family for being there for me. I love you and not sure what I would do without you all. I also want to thank two special couples from church that have been there for me from the beginning of this mess. Thanks Kim and Matt and Tammi and Tom. And thanks to the others at the church that are now praying for things in my life. I appreciate you all.

I hope everyone out there in cyberworld has a great week. I am going to try to. Hope you hear from you with a comment here, a phone call, an email or snail mail.

Love, Debbie :-)

fyi

Ric
I STILL LOVE YOU!!!!

Debbie

Happy Birthdays

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
Grandpa Vargason and Courtney Hurd

Courtney turned the big 18 today! We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow so her grandparents could be here (they were in Flint for Grandpa V's birthday get together) I hope it all goes well...we will have lots of food and some great cheesecake since Courtney is not a big fan of regular cake.

I just got back from visiting with my Mom. Friday I headed down to Mt Pleasant to meet her and 8 other ladies to see Tom Jones in concert. We had about 1/2 of our group that have never seen him before. Mom got us GREAT seats....we were to the right side of center stage ... tables right at the stage. I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to! He put on a great concert. We headed back to Birch Run to drop off some of the riders and I headed to Mom's. I was soo tired I forgo going with them to the Exit for a piece of pie! I dropped my stuff in the bedroom, got ready for bed, and hit the pillow and was out before Mom came home. I did not hear her come in at all. I usually don't fall asleep that fast, but haven't been sleeping too well lately and stressed out, so it must have caught up with me finally.

We had a nice visit when she got up, then headed to Culver's for lunch (so I could try the frozen custard that is talked about so much!), then I headed back up north. I still had shopping to do for the party in TC, so alot of driving in the past two days. I still have to make some stuff tonite to be ready for the party before I can relax for the night. I was also debating about heading to Kalkaska and Courtney's house to clean up some tonite. I think I'll wait and go in the morning before church and do some then.

More later....for those that are still reading this. I know Ric isn't too active anymore on the blog for some reason... send him an email or post a comment and he'll get it.

Happy April Fool's Day

Good day everyone out in cyberland. Did anyone pull any good April Fool's Jokes (or have one pulled on you?!) I am alone and had to work today (alone), so no good jokes. Ric and Nestina loaded up the truck with most of her stuff and headed out this morning for North Carolina to drop it all off (plus the cat) at her brother's place. Ric called around 5p and they were just heading out of Ohio .... Ohio must be one of the longest states to get thru. They didn't get as early a start as Ric wanted, but that was okay ... at least he got about 3 1/2hrs sleep before attempting a 14-15hr roadtrip. They should be down there around 10-11p, maybe unload tonite or wait til tomorrow, relax more tomorrow and head out first thing Monday morning to head home.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers this past week and a half. They were (and are) greatly appreciated. God does answer our prayers! I'm not sure what I would have done this past week and a half without my friends and my Mom. Thanks everybody!!!

Well, time to turn up the radio and start to clean up the mess upstairs left by muddy tracks and packing and no cleaning in a long time. You should see the dust bunnies and the cat hair ... I think I saw a baby Gabriel earlier!