One of those days...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Yeah, even the cat is looking skeptical at this point.

Some days you get out of bed and tackle the day.

And some days, you trip over your own feet and smack into the door before you can even open it.

Ice pack, please.

Some days, you look in the mirror and think, that'll do.

And some days, you look in the mirror and think, oy, I'm overdue for a haircut.

Some days,  the flu shot is over and done.

And some days, you wonder why your arm aches and then you remember...oh, yeah. Flu shot.

Some days you  whip up a  fantastic meal that the family loves.

And some days you forget about the pot on the stove with the costly beef roast and the hard-to-come-by noodles...and find yourself wondering who's burning stuff outside...guess the stove  wasn't turned down as low as I thought...

Maybe two -thirds of the pot was salvageable.  With a slightly smokey flavor.  Of course, it's for my Sweet Baboo's birthday dinner.  Need to plan some hearty sides, I think.

Gonna take me a minute to get the pan clean, though.

And then...some days you scroll down face book and see lots of fun things.

And some days, friends post links to pages that each request prayer for a different youngster in end stage cancer.

Kinda puts things in perspective.

Lord, I thank you that I had a door to run into.  That I have the opportunity to get that immunization that will hopefully ward off nastiness.  That I have a Sweet Babboo to cook dinner for, and kids who will come and sit at the table with us.  That I have pans to cook in and hot water to clean them.  That I have friends who care about folks.  That I have a real bed to sleep in tonight.  Let me never forget to thank you for all my blessings.  And be the Comforter and the Healer to those who are desperately in need of both tonight.  Amen. 

Ten Years at Beer Lahai Roi

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

For some oddball reason I was reading old blog posts over the weekend and I had a bit of a revelation...ten years ago TODAY was the first Beer Lahai Roi post.

So I thought I needed to do some kind of commemorative post.

Some of those old posts are really lame.  I mean, really lame.

But some of them are good.  Like, I don't actually remember writing them so it's like reading someone else's  work.  And I get smacked upside the head, figuratively speaking, all over again with a revelation that I still haven't implemented.

Ten years...lotsa room to grow yet.

Just for grins...here's the first image I posted:

Which was from the first Bible study-ish post, on using a four color pen marking system.

Hard to believe it's been ten years.

Tell you what, if I get 10 comments on this post, I'll do a giveaway.  Cause, you know, I have to have enough to make drawing worthwhile. 

Dunno what that will be...maybe a book, maybe something else.  We'll see what strikes my fancy.

If you've been around with me from the beginning...or if you just found the blog recently...thanks so much for stopping by!

Ten years.  Wow.

On the Other Side...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

My crazy husband snapped this photo from the choir on Sunday during first service in the high school that we have been renovating for over a year. He reasoned that everyone was looking at our pastors and no one would pay attention to the guy in the back row of the choir.

We made it.  We had enough clean bathrooms; enough classrooms were painted and ready and the stage in the kids' sanctuary was good enough for a temp mobile set.  The theater was pretty much packed out all three services, with folks in overflow rooms during first and second.

It didn't go off without a hitch, but the hitches were, by and large, minor.  We're home. This is what church will look like for the next 3 -4 months, while work continues on converting the gym into a sanctuary that will hold around 1500 and we can finally drop back to just two services.

The staff was given two days off this week...Monday and today...to recuperate.

Me, I'm doing laundry.  So. Much. Laundry.

Gonna be a while before we really settle into something we could call normal; I'm still not sure that I'm going to stay in my current office or if I'm going to get moved elsewhere.  Go with the flow...lol...

But the problem with going an extended period without being able to get to the 'new post' page is that I have so many ideas for blog posts at odd moments...and then get frustrated that I don't remember them when I finally do get to sit down.  Hoping that we'll get something closer to a predictable routine going forward...and I can get those random thoughts transcribed. ;-)

Thinkin' about music...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I've been mulling over some exhortation I received at the songwriter's retreat I went to last fall; the fact that I need to be more current in my listening choices might have been brought up at one point.

Which kinda made me ponder.. what are my favorite cds?   In this day and age of playlists, thinking in terms of CD's is kind of archaic, but we have a 5-disc changer and I wondered...if I were going to put my 5 favorite cd's in, what would they be?

Here's the list that I think it would be...it could change at some point, but my current five faves are, in no particular order:

Whiteheart,  Freedom
Solomon's Wish, Wise Man's Tragedy
Rita Springer, Effortless
Iona, Beyond These Shores
Morningstar Ministries, Fly Me Like The Wind


 Every one of those CDs has stuff on it that touches my heart.  And, yeah, it's all, um, not very current.  But it's still good stuff.

Just outta curiosity, if you could put your five faves in the cd changer to enjoy for an evening...what would they be?

Hello again!

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Just a quick little blurb.  As I supposed you noticed, I've kinda suspended the New Beginnings study; I'm going to pick back up with that in January.  I'm going to do a little Advent Exploration that occurred to me, in honor of the season, and I'll be doing that on Sundays.

We are very, very slowly getting things moved around. There's just too much that needs doing and not enough hours in a day.  I am absolutely loving our new space, but there's still a lot of 'What are we going to do with this?' left in the rooms that we had to move everything in to.  We are not traveling for Christmas this year;  My Sweet Babboo doesn't have enough vacation days left, so we're going to get a fresh Christmas tree, which means we've got another week before we put it up.  But I"ve still got to get on with the internal moving party...

I've already put our little trees up in the new rooms...this is the first year to put up the vintage aluminum tree that found its way to my house a few years back.  It's glittering away in the sunroom and makes me smile every time I see it from the kitchen window. My grandmother had a similar...although I remember it being much nicer...tree.

Thought it would be fun to take the annual Christmas Card photo around it.  Ha ha and ha.  There are goofy people in the family who just didn't get the whole sentimental retro cool vibe.   Sigh.    We did eventually get a usable one...

I've laughed at the number of folks who've left comments on FB and the sewing blog along the lines of 'Love that tree!  My grandma had one!'

Makes me wonder if they only sold the trees to grandmas...lol...

So have a blessed Advent and I'll try to get by here a little more often now! :-)

A Mystery in the House

Wednesday night, after teaching my middle school girls and then going to the high school to finish up last minute costume tweaks while waiting on the Flute Player to be released from rehearsal,  I came home and caught up on email and blog posts and whatnot, then finally headed to bed around 12:30 AM.  Happened to think that I should feed the cat, whom I hadn't seen all evening but figured she was asleep on the foot of the bed upstairs.

Imagine my surprise when I looked up from pouring her food in her bowl and happened to glance at the cat carrier, which has been sitting in the dinette since we moved it off of the porch, and saw that she was looking at me out of it. Locked in.

Now, the latch for the door actually has to be pinched together to secure or release it...i.e., she couldn't just have gone in and had it swing shut behind her.  Someone locked her in.

The Actor was upstairs most of the evening, and said she'd been in his window most all day.  But he had gone outside for a half an hour or so to work at mowing the back yard.  He couldn't remember if he'd seen her after he came back in or not.  Neither he nor My Sweet Baboo admit to any knowledge of how the kitty got locked in her carrier.  The Flute Player had gone straight upstairs after we got home from the rehearsal; she was cleared.

So...how did the cat get locked up?

Hm....


UPDATE LATER IN THE DAY....

The mystery is solved.  Under direct questioning, the Flute Player admitted to putting the cat in the carrier before we left the house on Wednesday; she said the cat was bothering her (THAT'S a mystery in itself!), so she locked her up and then forgot to let her out.  

I'd just assumed she was still free when we left.

So the lesson learned here is...never assume...
  

WIP

Progressing along with the update; I think I've got the basics down; it'll probably be a while before I get all the links back.  I've edited them a bit; a number of bloggers that I had linked have all but stopped posting; if/when they pick back up I'll reactivate their links.  I have a few more that I'm reading but I just haven't managed to link 'em up yet.

I'm not sure why the timestamp is overwriting my name; I can't find anywhere to adjust that.  I may have to look at the actual html for that...sigh.    Ah.  Found it.  Fixed it.  Now I'm happier.

But the real test of the success/failure will be when I start linking up the old series/studies, to see if I can just do one link for a whole series instead of breaking it up into page-size chunks.

But that'll be a task for another day...

The Cost of Restoration

I have mentioned from time to time about the, um, issues we've had with the sun porch that was added to the house some time before we purchased it.  First, it was a leaky roof, which we repaired as best we could, then a hail storm wrecked the repair and our insurance company paid for a new roof.  But the actual cause of the leaks wasn't the roof...it was the flashing around the skylights, which had been bent out of shape the last time the house had been re-roofed and would no longer seal.

So we spent a little extra money on new skylights.

But the water damage to the inside wall was still present, and we knew we'd have to deal with that eventually.

Early last summer, the in-wall  heat/ac unit (just like what you see in hotel rooms) died.  More research discovered that it was just about $150 more to purchase a complete new unit than it was to replace the motor in the old one.

So we ordered a new unit.

When we pulled the old unit out, we made a horrifying discovery:  it had been installed such that it tilted inside the house instead of toward the outside.  All the condensation from the unit had been running down the wall behind the wallpaper and pudding under the rug.  For years.

As we pulled paper down and carpeting back, and eventually sheet rock down, we discovered that the whole wall had rotted around the unit; the sillplate for the wall was rotted, and there was about a 6" hole rotted through the floor.

Scary.

We got a bit more money from the insurance company to cover the water damage from the leaky roof, but in post-April27-2011 Alabama, that number was figured very lean.  And we were on our own to cover the rot, and to replace the windows and sliding doors, which had all lost their seals and had moisture collecting between the panes.

So, we got estimates and borrowed against the 401k and proceeded to do what we had to do to fix things.  Not to make it fancy, but to just make it sound.


I'm not going in to detail, but we found as we continued that the same mentality that had set the AC unit in tilted backwards had pretty well built the room.  The farther the contractor went in pulling out bad stuff, the more bad stuff and incredible workarounds he found. The latest was dirt packed between the rim board and the patio slab...which had held moisture and fostered a huge worm colony and rotted out a goodly portion of the rim board.

The upshot is that we have pretty well just jacked up the roof and demolished everything under it, one wall at a time.

We've run through all the funds we had amassed for the project; now, we're down to the annual bonus check My Sweet Baboo should get this week and hoping the tax refunds are not delayed.  After that...well, we may just have to tell our contractor friend that we're going to have to put the brakes on for a while until we can get some more cash saved up.

Now, none of this was in our plans when we bought the house.  Overall, the appearance of the house was good.  The home inspector found only minor things that needed work and gave us a good report. We did what we knew to do to protect ourselves against just this sort of scenario.

But the folks who owned the house before us were very big on appearances and very blase' about sound structure.  Nobody foresaw this. But now we've got this situation and it must be fixed.

I have seen many applications from this experience; the one that struck me today as we were discussing the estimated cost to just finish what HAS to be done is this:

The cost of fixing a poorly done job is always greater than the cost of doing it right the first time.

We humans messed up our 'first time'...and couldn't pay for the restoration.  But God loves us so much that He paid that cost Himself...at a much dearer price than we will end up paying for the repair of the sunroom.

If I can trust Him for fixing my fallen humanity, I've got to trust Him for fixing the falling down porch.

Off the monitor...

because the first week showed the problem.  I've got  an electrical malfunction called 'Superior  Ve*ntrical Tachy*cardia', which means I've got an intermittent arrhythmia.  We go to talk over treatment options with a cardiologist who specializes in such things next week.  Not terribly excited about having to deal with it, but for the moment I'm delighted to be done with the electrodes and leads and straps and monitor and cell phone that dialed the monitoring crew if I bumped it a little too hard.  I finally just put it in the case backwards and that stopped it.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with 'treatment options,' but I'm very glad to be able to get dressed in the morning without worrying about having to camouflage the equipment. ;-)

Busy Thursday

Some Thursdays are almost as busy as Mondays.

I don't always work on Thursdays; because  I missed most of Tuesday for the stress test, I worked all day today, had a bowl of soup and then went back to church for choir practice.

All day I've been pondering a post for today...but, while I have several topics that are percolating, none of them are quite ripe.

And I'm tired.

So, I thought I'd just leave you with a random quote from my little quote book:

"If you do something perfectly the first time, you waited too long to do it." - Rev. Wm. E. Davis (AKA 'Pastor Bill'...former senior associate pastor at our church).

Every once in a while I need to remind myself of that. 

Book Giveaway: Last call

I'll be drawing the winner tomorrow (probably late tomorrow...), so if you'd like to put your name in the hat for my extra copy of Stella's Sisters, be sure and let me know!

It's Scrabble (R) night tonight...here's hoping I draw good letters... ;)

Um, nevermind. The next Scrabble (R) party is the last Tuesday in September

I'll just quote Anne Shirley:

Tomorrow is a brand new day, with no mistakes in it! (or something like that).

I Love Summer!

Fresh fruit abounds. I snagged these beauties at a local produce market; they came from an orchard just this side of the Tennessee state line. I *could've* driven up there and probably gotten them cheaper, but I was happy to be able to swing by and pick these up whilst The Actor was at his drum lesson (drum instructor says,'Dude, you need a drum set...what practice pad did your folks get you?' I may be paraphrasing a bit...but we *did* get him an inferior practice pad, apparently. The guy at the store said there was no difference in 'em, so I got the cheap one. Sigh. Spoke to instructor later. Son was not quite giving us all context. All is well).

I don't know how I'm thinking we will eat all of these; I may need to freeze a couple of bags of peaches early next week.

But...my in-laws will be arriving for the weekend tomorrow, and Dear Father In Law really likes peach pie, so I expect I'll use a few.

These are still quite firm, although they taste really good. They'll be dead perfect once they soften just a bit.

Mmmmm.

Something new!

The broiler on our old stove died sometime in the last six months. Not sure when, but sometime back I decided to use it and it wouldn't heat up. Now, when we bought the house it came with a home warranty, and we've kept the policy up...since we have appliances/heat pumps/etc that are aging with the house. And we've had to make use of the policy a couple of times. It's been pretty much worth it.

So, we called the home warranty folks and they sent a repair man out who identified the problem as a bad(I think) circuit board and ordered a new part.

Well, since the stove is probably as old as the house, the part was no longer available. Upshot: we're getting a whole new stove (and the home warranty just paid for itself big time!)

The old stove required special reflector pans that cost something like 20 bucks each...and the old ones were looking pretty bad. The old stove had a 'self cleaning' cycle on it, but you know there was no manual left anywhere for it so I had no idea how to use it. So the oven looked pretty bad, too.

And the electric coil burners (aka 'eyes' in the South...) did not lay flat.

So...you can imagine how tickled I am. Especially since My Sweet Baboo decided it would be worthwhile to pay a bit ourselves and upgrade to a glass top model.

It's supposed to be here tomorrow...wheee!!

Not a Kitty Toy

We've tried to teach Frisco that the Christmas Tree is not a Kitty Toy.

We purchased cat repellent and sprayed it on the tree skirt; um, that didn't work.

So, basically our strategy is to shut the doors and keep her away from the tree unless there are people handy to monitor her behavior and spray her with the water bottle if she gets too inquisitive.

However, The Artist was home with her today and went upstairs without securing the doors behind him.

Oh, doesn't she look innocent? But...the evidence is there, along with several saggy tree branches.

Why the delicate ornaments did not come out of the box this year...

I can wish, can't I?

So, I am on the campus of the college that was hosting the Trumbauer competition, chaperoning the drama class and, at that particular moment early Friday afternoon, sitting in the lobby of one of the buildings making a lunch from a Star Kist Tuna lunch kit and a pack of crackers-n-cheese. My black book bag, easily the only choice for hauling stuff around for a day on campus, is on the sofa next to me, still unzipped from my foraging around for the munchables. I've got on a black turtleneck sweater and blue jeans, and I've got my beat up 'purse Bible' out, working on the lesson material for this morning's Girls Only class.

Suddenly, a group of about 4 ladies enter the building, and one comes over to me and speaks.

"Excuse me...do you go to school here?"

My first reaction is regret that I won't be able to provide whatever information she is seeking.
"No, I'm sorry, I don't."

Then it hits me and my jaw drops.

"Do I go to school here? Oh, honey, you're my new best friend!"

Laughter all around...and they head off to find someone to help.

Now, I know that she didn't really LOOK at me...she probably just registered someone in jeans w/head down, studying, with a bookbag. I'm sure she was shocked to see my 50-year-old face look up to answer her question.

But it made my day just the same. If I'd've had the app for my phone, I'd've made it my Facebook status:

"I just got mistaken for a college student!"

What a hoot.

Say What?

I guess I should be surprised I had a year and a half before it happened.

Someone left a totally irrelevant and extremely judgmental comment on one of my recent posts. If it had made any sense, I possibly might have answered it.

But I went back and reread the post...I couldn't see any connection at all between what the post said and what seemed to have offended the commenter...unless it was the quote from 'The Message' translation I included (I know some folks totally trip out over modern translations). But even that was a stretch. I just couldn't see what provoked that response.

So I deleted the comment.

I'd ask my fellow faith bloggers how they deal with such things, only I don't think any of my fellow faith bloggers drop by here. Honest questions and disagreements do not bother me; but stuff that seems accusatory and inflammatory without a cause smacks of a personal agenda. And one should not post one's personal agenda on another person's blog, IMHO.

So, to avoid further flame throwing, I'm going to enable comment moderation, at least for a while, just in case the commenter comes back soon looking for a fight. I'm not going there.

I apologize for the hassle; hopefully this was a random event and I can go back to business-as-usual soon...

How Six People Name a Cat

I think most folks that come by here also read the sewing blog; I mentioned over there that we acquired a kitty last week. There was a bit of a mistake in the kitty gender at first; now we are satisfied that the cat is a boy.

(ETA again...weeks later...we were right the first time; Frisco is a girl...)

And any animal that resides with a family must have a name.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a name that satisfies six people? I thought we'd just play with the cat a bit and then we'd all see what name fits.

Ha ha and ha!

During the days of gender confusion, we picked several girly names, none of which really satisfied anyone. We were a bit relieved to decide it was a boy, after all, and something masculine would be appropriate. As The Princess said, there's a ton of good boy cat names in the world.

Trouble is, we couldn't agree on any of them.

What names were suggested, you ask?
Chicago (let's just say our family is aware of someone else who goes by that name and leave it at that?)
Oliver (too sweet)
Chester (um, that's the name of a really annoying puppet in our children's church ministry. Some members of the family objected.)
Rambo (I personally vetoed any names relating to Sylvester Stallone)
Bean (to those familiar with the Ender saga, Bean was a brilliant street urchin who was rescued and sent to the military school. Sorta fits, but, well, only the Actor and I have read those books so no one else appreciated it)
Boo (Only The Actor liked this one)

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Today at lunch, the Princess announced, "We should name this cat. Seriously!"

Personally, I didn't think Seriously was a great name. (baDUMdum)

He was being exceptionally playful at the moment, and, as we watched him bounce around, someone suggested 'Frisky'.

Nope. That's cat food.

"What about Frisco?" I asked, just for grins.

To my surprise, no one immediately objected. It was quirky enough for those who required quirkiness, short enough for those who wanted simple, and totally unrelated to anyone we knew. A quick family poll and...


Meet The Frisco Kitty:





Whew.

ETA: The Flute Player just read that entry and insisted that I correct something. After discussion, we decided that 'Frisky' suggested 'Frisco' to both of us, independently, and *she* was actually the one who brought it up to the rest of the family. I thought she was just echoing my suggestion, but she insists that she never heard me say it. So, to satisfy her little melancholy heart, I must set the record straight, lest anyone think it was I and not she who actually put the name before the family.

Whew again.