Wishing it were June

Now that the auction is over the stage is mine. We started rehearsals on the stage today for our Spring program on May 18th. That's when you really find out how much work there still is to do and it feels pretty overwhelming. Also, this coming Friday I'm taking the middle school to a choral festival all day long and there are still some things to do to prepare for that - like buy new chorus folders, label every piece of music, etc.

Destiny has apparently inherited her mommy's allergies. These past few weeks her eyes are all puffy and itchy, her nose runs like a water faucet, and she sneezes constantly. Today was especially bad. I am completely unfamiliar with allergies. I have never had a problem with them myself, and I don't recall our children having them until they became adults. Any advice would be appreciated.

Handbag Tag

This evening I got "tagged" by my blogging friend Dianne. Apparently the game is called Handbag Tag. When you get tagged you need to show your purse and it's contents and, if necessary, what you needed to clean out in order to make it presentable.

I just cleaned a bunch of papers out of mine last evening, so I'm showing it all. I am the original "bag lady", believe me. I have never figured out how to survive with a small purse. I'm afraid I am known for my big, serviceable handbags in which I carry almost everything but the kitchen sink.

The list of contents is VERY long.

-An envelope of tithe money
-deposit slips
-a ziplock baggie of rarely used store cards
-a coupon for Provident Bookstore
-2 ziplock baggies of family pictures
-mirror
-comb
-hairspray
-chapstick
-lipstick
-floss
-a pill bottle of Tylenol and ibuprofen
-a cuticle thing
-nail polish
-nail clipper
-hand cream
-sweet breath drops
-cough drops
-my gum
-Destiny's gum
-a pocket knife
-four pens
-calculator
-check book
-daytimer
-wallet
-driving glasses
-2 wipies
-2 letters for Ray from his girlfriend
-a pitch pipe
-a guitar capo (just in case one of my students would have forgotten his)
-keys
-a $100 check for my school from the church where my school worship team sang this morning
-cell phone
-stupid little toys that Destiny won as prizes yesterday

That's all folks. I can help you out with just about anything you need. Just don't ask me to wash your dishes!

And now I tag my sister Rose and my daughter Miki.

My "purse", actually, more like "carry-along luggage"!!

Everything but the kitchen sink!

The Rabbit Head

THE RABBIT HEAD

In the 1990's our family was "blessed" with an ongoing parade of teenage drivers. We discovered that VW Rabbits were just the ticket for us. They could be bought for just a few hundred bucks and Dick knew how to fix whatever ailed them. Teenage driver accidents became quite common place for us. But not to worry - there was probably another Rabbit just around the corner, and most likely it needed a part that Dick had salvaged from one of the previously wrecked Rabbits. We probably could have opened our own Rabbit parts store. A few times we even made money on them. After having made only one payment for collision insurance, one of our guys would wreck the poor thing, and lo and behold, the insurance payment would be more than we had just paid for it!

One morning in September 1996 I was hurriedly getting ready to leave for school, when I remembered I needed to run to the basement to get a frozen lunch from the freezer to take with me. I ran down the basement stairs, yanked the freezer door open, and *#%?!~^*#@*! I found myself on the floor in front of the open freezer door, realizing that something tremendously heavy had fallen onto my head. I was dazed and couldn't even think what to do. There was this huge thing on the floor in front of me. I never knew that freezer motors were inside the freezer, but that's the only thing I could imagine it was. I started to cry out for help, and began crawling toward the stairs. I heard Sam come pounding down the stairs to the kitchen above me yelling, "Mom, what's wrong??!!" He helped me to get up the stairs to the kitchen table so I could call Dick.

Poor Dick. As soon as I managed to tell him that something big had just fallen onto my head when I yanked the freezer door open, he immediately knew what a terrible thing he had just done the evening before. He had been replacing the stove pipe for our coal stove, which was a very dirty, dusty job. There had been a cylinder head from a Rabbit down there and he had decided to move it away from the dirty job he was doing. SO he put it on top of the upright freezer, never imagining that it would come falling down on someone.

He took me to the doctor's office where they determined that I was not having a concussion, but I did need several stitches. They advised me to take the day off from school, which I had no problem obeying. I had a MAJOR head ache!

A few years later I needed to obtain a few years of my medical history in order to qualify for a cheaper premium on my life insurance. My doctor's office got everything copied for me, and during a break in my schedule one day, I went to pick them up. As I got back into my car I took a quick glance at the first page. The very first entry was dated September 27, 1996. The first sentence read:

"Was trying to get something out of the freezer in the basement and a head from a rabbit which weighs about 25 pounds fell out on her head."

I howled laughing the whole way back to school. I could just picture the transcriptionist who had listened to the doctor's explanation on the little tape recorder and then had faithfully typed it onto paper. What ever must she have been thinking? A rabbit head that weighed 25 pounds??? That was one BIG rabbit!! And what in the heck was it doing in this lady's freezer anyway???

For the record: we weighed it, and it weighed 33 pounds. I obviously have a very hard head.

Barbecued chicken or banquet?

There was much excitement at school today as many adults were there to prepare for our big benefit auction. Middle School students got out of classes to be able to help - how sad they must have been, ha, ha! The auction started this evening and will continue most of the day tomorrow.

We could not be there for the auction this evening, because Dick's company had their annual Spring banquet. So I had to salivate over the smell of barbecued chicken all day, then leave school without any. After school I went to get the key for the storage unit Ray will be putting his things in. (He is moving in with us tomorrow until he leaves for basic training in three weeks.) Then I went home to get dressed for the banquet.

The banquet was held at Riverside Manor near Lancaster. It was a lovely place, a delicious meal (but not as good as barbecued chicken), and there was great entertainment. There are pictures below.

Some Middle School boys prepared bags of rolls, napkins, and plastic ware to go with the chicken barbeque meals. Other boys helped at the barbeque pit, set up chairs and tables, and carried items to be auctioned out to the auction tent.

Middle School girls helped with the strawberry pies. They sang while they worked!

Ahhh. Those strawberry pies. The kitchen smelled soooo good.

When we went to pick up the key for Ray's storage unit after school, Destiny fell in love with this sweet, gentle dog. Her hair was so incredibly thick and soft and beautiful.

The beautiful, rustic dining hall at Riverside Manor.

The lovely view from the deck. The Conestoga River was quite high this evening after all the rain we've gotten these two days.

Before long the room was filled up with employees and spouses.

A view of the ceiling. Many old barn beams were used.

The entertainment for the evening was David Smith - the most amazingly talented juggler I have ever seen.

Juggling two balls and an apple. This trusting volunteer had to take a bite everytime the performer said, "Bite!" Once it was not the apple. HILARIOUS!

Putting his legs behind his head!

His final act - playing his guitar with his legs behind his head!

A good story

I don't have time to write anything this evening, but there's a short story on Anthony's blog that you'll get a good laugh out of, describing his grocery shopping experience the other day.

No time to sit today

This was one of those days that I barely had a chance to sit at the computer all day. After school it was off to Destiny's 4:00 dance class at the community center, then home to finish making the yam and creamed chicken dinner that I had started Saturday, then helping Destiny finish her bath by washing her mile-long hair, then good-bye kisses and heading out to sing at Hamilton Arms Retirement Home in Lancaster, then stopping at Provident Bookstore to pick up an order and at Savemart to stock up on the Thermasilk conditioner that I like so much and they aren't making anymore (sad face), then to Manheim to return videos that I forgot to drop off after school, then finally home to eat and watch the end of the big American Idol Gives Back show. It was really inspiring. By the end of the show they had raised $35,000,000 for needy children here in the US and around the world.

So now I'm going to make sure we have clean things to wear tomorrow (since this is the evening I usually do the laundry but didn't) and then I'm going to bed. I woke up at 3:15 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and got some school stuff done. For some reason I'm not even sleepy yet. But I will be tomorrow as soon as I sit down at my desk to study and plan the staging for the musical. I guess I'll have to do that standing up!

Getting ready for the auction

This morning I took my camera along to school to take pictures of some of the auction things that are displayed in our lobby. When I arrived I noticed that apparently our diligent school board must have had their annual work night last evening - all the flower beds were planted and beautifully mulched.

This weekend we will be having our annual benefit auction. As usual, our lobby is filling up with all kinds of interesting things that will be sold. I posted a number of pictures below. There's only one quilt on display so far. I'll have more pictures of amazingly beautiful quilts on Friday after the display is put up.

Destiny made me laugh on the way home from school today. She decided to list her favorite people. She started out with people from her class, then she went on to list EVERY person in our family, her mommy and the siblings on that side, her daddy and the siblings on that side, her daddy's biological brother and his daughter, her mommy's parents, siblings, their children. The list just grew and grew. Finally she said, "Wow, my family is LOOONG!!"

Enjoy the pictures below. Remember - they look much better after you click on them!

These lovely flowers greeted me as I drove into the school parking lot this morning.

This park bench, made from recycled plastic bags (!!) was donated to our school by Giant foods because one of our patrons is an employee of Giant foods.

An amazing creation - a working carousel of which every piece was hand carved by a local man.