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!

Hey Ric, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Mark 2:16-17

When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?" And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Matthew 5:40-42

If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to Him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

Matthew 11:18-19

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon!" The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say "Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.

Luke 6:34-38

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure - pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return.

Acts 4:32-35

And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.

Per capital income in Kalkaska County: $9,526
Conservative estimate of average Sunday attendance at a certain Baptist church: 100
Total annual congregational income: $952,600
Approximate annual budget of said Baptist church: $100,000

Huh.

Guess What?!

Yesterday Nestina went to work with Ric to hang out so they could take care of some things after he got out. And guess what that ended up to be? A lip piercing! (Not Ric!) This should be interesting now for her to try to find a job before she goes on her trip in mid May. I'm not sure how she expects to get money to pay for gas/etc to drive to North Carolina, plus the fee to get her real drivers license back, plus Dr's appt(s), counseling appts, and going out with friends, etc. This money tree at the Frost is getting pretty bare!

Happy March

Happy March to you all. I can't believe it is March already, this year is flying by so far.

This past Saturday, after working til 2pm, I came home and we all headed over to find Shanty Creek/Schuss to watch the slush cup. It was a great day out ... cold, but the sun was shining. We got there just before things began, so we didn't have great spots to watch. Ric, being the tallest could see part of the water at first. Near the end, some of the crowds left and we had better viewing. This is the first time we went to see the slush cup. For those who have never heard of it ... basically you snowboard or ski (without poles) down the hill to a long pool of water (warmed to a nice 65 they said) and try to get all away across the water "hazard". It was fun to watch the ones that took a nose dive or sank near the end (not enough speed coming in) It was great to see somebody make it all the way across. Quite a few made it across without too much mishap. The clothes/and props were kinda cute too.

Sunday after I got home from church we finally moved the desk I bought from work that has been sitting in the kitchen/dining area to it's new place. Ric gets the new desk .. lots of space for the lap top and a place to work. I also decided to rearrange the living area downstairs while we were moving other things. We found a problem ... hopefully not major. The corner where we had the TV cabinet has mold/discoloration on the cement block near the floor. It affected about 3 or 4 rows high. We scrubbed it with bleach water and turned a fan on it for a few hours to get it really dry. That corner will now be open (until I move things again!) and we can keep an eye on it. We are really hoping we don't have mold problems with our new house!!!! (Especially with all of Ric's allergies)

Today I'm off since I worked Saturday. Getting some things done around the house. I offered to take Nestina to Kalkaska to pick up/turn in applications, but she said she isn't feeling too well. She really needs to get a job. It really bothers me that she won't go get a job, but until it hurts her monetarily, it may not happen. We will see. She is suppose to moving down to North Carolina the end of May/first of June. She will be moving in with her two brothers and her Mom. She has an European Contiki Vacations trip planned (graduation gift) for May 12-22 and then planning on getting things together to move. Her brother Adam is suppose to be taking a bus up to help her with packing and driving down. It will be nice to see him again ... he will be staying here until they leave....much easier to help with the packing and such at all hours of the day.

Time to find some lunch. Thanks for listening to a bit of our life/and grumblings.

Plowed snow, shoveled snow, dug the truck out of snow when it got stuck, plowed snow, plowed snow, shoveled snow, plowed snow.

There, now you are all caught up.

Anybody want a house? Cheap? I'll even throw in a plow truck.

Anyway, here is a perfect example of the difference between religion and science (and why science works and religion... well, not so much). See, there was a theory. It exactly matched what was observed on earth. Then we got better instruments and were able to watch the same process in the far more extreme environment of space. The theory said what was happening was impossible. That leads to one of two responses: either ignore the data or modify the theory. This being science, the theory was modified, tested, modified some more, tested some more, etc. until the theory could account for all the data.

Religion? Well, lets see, shall we?

Religion: There is strong evidence of a world-wide flood.
Science: No, there is evidence of repeated localized flooding that can be perfectly explained by processes we see active today. There is zero evidence (and a great deal of counter-evidence) for a global-wide flood.
Religion: Um, er, uh, goddidit, then hid the evidence to test our faith.

Religion: The Bible accurately describes the locations of ancient, Palestinian cities.
Science: Yes, several ancient cities are where the Bible locates them. However, the oldest levels of many of them are a century or more too young for Joshua to have conquered them. Several others existed as a collection of a half-dozen mud houses, not the walled cities conquered in glorious combat between armies of hundreds of thousands as described in Joshua.
Religion: Um, er, uh, all archaeologists are in league with Satan and only exist to test our faith.

Religion: The universe is six thousand years old.
Science: Whole libraries could be filled with the evidence against this, but here is one data point: Joshua is described as conquering a city called Jericho. Unlike the other cities Joshua was supposed to have conquered, Jericho actually existed as a walled city at the time. The problem for you is that Jericho is too old; a thousand years older than the six-thousand-year-old earth it is sitting on.
Religion: Um, er, uh all dating methods are flawed. We know this because they don't agree with the three-thousand-year-old scribblings of nomadic shepherds. It's all just a test of our faith.

I could continue, but it's just too easy.

It's Debbie time

Good Morning Everyone!
I know I very rarely blog here, but figured I would put my two cents in once in awhile. Alot of stuff is happening in our lives -- it would take forever to catch you all up. (Those that care about us) My biggest thing lately is my jealousy is taking over once again. I can't seem to help it when it rears it ugly head again and again. I"m not one to do much personal talking, so that is part of my problem....the other part is Ric doesn't like to to much personal talking either. Great couple, aren't we?! I really love him, but can't seem to do anything right when it comes to showing him that.

Ric, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the dryer is beeping at me, so gotta wrap up. I will try to post more often. Comments are appreciated if you have any helpful suggestions.

Happy Valentines Day!!

“You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” --Al Capone

I haven't been posting much lately, because there just doesn't seem to be anything going on at home or on the world scene. Other than the vice president spraying a lawyer with bird shot. That's damn funny. Unfortunately, it made Sarah Brady so happy she pissed herself. As much as I respect the necessity of shooting lawyers at every chance, Cheney should have saved a couple rounds of buckshot for Sarah and her fake-cripple husband.

It snowed.

I got my truck back and my wallet is $1,500 lighter.

I will be in my truck until 10pm plowing after work today.

Yay.

That's it. Sorry. I'll try to have a more exciting life.

I ended up taking Tuesday off work because I felt like I had been hit by a truck. But instead of staying home and taking it easy, I ended up spending the entire day plowing snow. While I was doing that, I noticed an odd sound coming from the front of the truck. Wednesday, it became a persistent hammering on the way to work. I managed to make it to the garage without the front wheels falling off. They just called me: Left front wheel bearing, left upper ball joint, left and right lower ball joints, and left and right tie rod ends. Total cost: $1,500.

We simply can't afford to live here anymore.

And just to keep things interesting, the generator shut off last night for no apparent reason. I'll try it again tonight, but I don't hold out much hope for it. We will be running on the spare generator only from the way it looks.

This sucks. I hate winter and I hate where I live.

Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'....

Winter is back with a vengeance. We were hammered with snow Saturday night with more snow and drifting Sunday. I spent seven hours in the plow truck yesterday. This morning, one of the seasonal roads we use was nearly drifted shut again. I have no place to put the snow and may have to abandon that section of road. There are other routes, but in means driving out of my way every morning to go to work. Of course, the other route is county-maintained, and they haven't done anything all weekend. Who knows when they will bother to clear it or how long it will stay cleared with all the wind we've been getting.

Tonight looks like more snow plowing. Woo hoo.

And I ask again; are we sure we want democracy everywhere? Really sure? In case you are curious, the destruction and chaos are because of these. Maybe we should only kill our soldiers establishing democracy for people with IQ over 60? This is pretty tame stuff given the anti-Semitic cartoons out there, yet I don't see Jews running around setting things on fire.

And just in time, yet another excuse to be fat. It's not just genetic, it's spreads just like the flu. Of course it doesn't, and the actual scientific work says no such thing, but I guarantee that it is just a matter of time before some side of bacon on Oprah claims she would be a size 2 super model, except she caught fat while eating at Burger King.

There are a lot of bloggers out there getting book deals. I don't think this guy is one of them, but he should be. Reading his blog almost makes me want to get back into food service. Almost.

And I need to get going.

We are back to 40 degree temps and rain on top of all the snow and ice. Fun, fun.

Microsoft is getting desperate to force people to upgrade. This is a joke, but it isn't far from the truth. Microsoft has lobbied Congress to allow it to disable all prior versions of Windows via the automatic update feature and force everyone to buy Vista. The justification is "copyright protection," otherwise known as taking ownership of your data. So far, our Congress has resisted in spite of all the money Microsoft spends on free food, free booze, and free whores for our civic-minded congress-critters. Best representatives money can buy indeed.

I finally got around to some plowing last night. I was going to do it Saturday afternoon, but my truck burned up the bearings in one of the center u-joints. This is fairly routine on a plow truck, but the timing sucked dead bunnies. Luckily, the garage was able to fix it by Monday afternoon, so I picked it up, put on the plow, and spent five hours or so moving snow around. This stuff stopped being fun a long time ago.

The up side was that I never left the house from Saturday afternoon until I drove into work Monday morning. It was sweet. I got a lot of work done, including our and Nestina's taxes, and another batch of books on E-Bay. (Hint, hint: lots of really cheap books!!!)

I also started working on another project: collecting up all the stray data I have laying around on diskettes and CD-ROM's and dumping them all into an archive on my Western Digital Passport. I only have the 60G model, but even putting all my MP3's, digital photos, a backup of every piece of data, and pretty much anything I can get my hands on into it, I haven't even filled it half-way. So far, I love this thing. I don't generally have any use for Western Digital drives; every single one I have owned has failed early in life. But I have beat this thing pretty hard and it hasn't lost one byte of data so far. Of course I have at least two other copies of every file on it, because I still don't trust Western Digital hardware. The only thing I need to make this perfect is USB 2.0 ports. My laptop only has USB 1.1, which are much slower. I can add four 2.0 ports for around a hundred bucks, which would not just make the Passport run faster, but would also give me high-speed ports for other neat-o things like a DVD burner.

Well, that's all I have for now.