Saturday, March 24, 2007

adventures in the new old house

we knew when we moved Easy St. (yes literally) that we would need to do some updating to our 1974 home. we loved the layout and the space. the quiet older neighborhood with even older trees. the feeling that the cleavers lived close by.

wallpaper updates, no problem. new paint, not my favorite, but no problem. kitchen counters, current ones are not totally awful, i can live with them for a while. master bathroom, definite update material, but functional and who really sees it but us. AND THEN......

the carpet seemed a little moist, we discovered the drain pan was leaking and so our sometime update has become a NOW repair and update. so Jim the tool man taylor, hammer in hand, is armpit deep in destruction, i mean demolition, of all the tile surfaces in our bathroom. he'll tear it apart and we'll pay the nice man bruce to put it back together.

then comes the hard part, choosing what i want it to look like! some dear friends have given us a significant amount of beautiful travertine tile. not enough for the whole job, but a nice start. i have to pick countertop for the vanity, tile for the floor and coordinating tile for the travertine shortage. all within the ever looming budget. should be fun. a little daunting. i need to find my inner interior decorator. this is why we built a new house the first time!!!

so the journey begins...lots of banging, crashing, breaking tile noises, and now he's laughing...maybe i should go supervise. nah, i'm going shopping...

peace!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Delight....

So this morning I'm awake at 4am and my brain won't go back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a while, I turn on the light and decide to spend some time with God. Being the super-spiritual person that I am, with the detailed study plan for all Bible reading that I do, I use the very scientific F-L-O-P method. You know the one, you flop open your Bible and read where it lands....ANYWAY. This morning, it fell to Psalm 35:4

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."

I've read this verse a million or so times and the first part really sticks out to me today. Delight yourself in the Lord...hmmm...delight myself.....delight. What does delight really mean? So I looked it up.

de·light
–noun

1.
a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; joy; rapture: She takes great delight in her job.

2.
something that gives great pleasure: The dance was a delight to see.
–verb (used with object)

3.
to give great pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment to; please highly: The show delighted everyone.
–verb (used without object)

4.
to have great pleasure; take pleasure (fol. by in or an infinitive): She delights in going for long walks in the country.

happiness, gladness, delectation. Pleasure, enjoyment, delight, joy refer to the feeling of being pleased and happy. Pleasure is the general term: to take pleasure in beautiful scenery. Enjoyment is a quiet sense of well-being and pleasurable satisfaction: enjoyment at sitting in the shade on a warm day. Delight is a high degree of pleasure, usually leading to active expression of it: delight at receiving a hoped-for letter. Joy is a feeling of delight so deep and so lasting that one radiates happiness and expresses it spontaneously: joy at unexpected good news.

Here is my version now of Psalm 35:4

"Have a high degree of pleasure in the Lord, usually leading to active expression of it with a joy so deep and so lasting that one radiates happiness and expresses it spontaneously and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Hope it blesses you as much as it did me, even at, now 5:30 in the morning!

Have a delightful day!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

I had no idea...

after learning the soundtrack to Man of LaMancha, and singing it for most of my childhood, and even singing along last night during the stage production, I was in for quite a shock!!!

i thought i knew the story, but the soundtrack alone leaves out some detail...like crazy people in prison, much sensuality and gang rape and ritual cleansing by the church for crimes against it. wow, i was dreaming the impossible dream and fighting the unbeatable fo and i think it's a good thing that's where it stopped for me at 10 years of age.

i've could have been scarred for life!!!

the production was very good, i cried, i laughed, i boo'd, i fell in love, i saw redemption...it was a good night!
peace.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

I, Don Quixote,....

i have fond memories of the Man of LaMancha. i had the record album as a kid (you know, the big, black cd looking thing with grooves in it) and i memorized the entire soundtrack. I used to sing it around the house, i brought home a statue on Don for my room, i dreamed of being Dulcinea, it was awesome. And tonight....it's LIVE!!!

i'm going to see the stage production and i'm so excited. nice treat for a tuesday night. and as mom says, "once we get that sangria squirrel drunk, it will be an awesome performance regardless!"

so here's to don, dulcinea and a rocking sangria squirrel!!!

peace.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

So March on in...

this year is passing so quickly already. i'll still need to finish unpacking. i still need to clean out the garage. i still need to detail my car from the many dog rides during the move.

however, i've been looking through things that i've moved with me to my new office and i found a list of things that i've collected through the years. some are good reminders, some are funny....hope you enjoy them!

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
Bill Cosby

“In order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.”
David Ben Gurion

“I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.”
Pablo Picasso

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch you words; they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”
Frank Outlaw

“…choose today whom you will serve..But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15

“Not even a sparrow, worth less than a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it…you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.”
Matt 10:29-31

“It is amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit.”
Anonymous

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind you own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that you daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
I Thess 4:11-12

“Stir into flame the gift that is you.”
2 Timothy 1:6

Sing like no one can hear you, Love like you’ve never been loved, Dance like no one is watching.

“I ran up the door, closed the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers, turned off my bed and jumped into the light...all because you kissed me goodnight.”

"They may see the good you do as self serving, Continue to do good.
They may see your generosity as grandstanding, Continue to be generous.
They may see your warm and caring nature as a weakness, Continue to be warm and caring. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway."
Mother Teresa

Scintillate, Scintillate asteroid manikin. (Twinkle, twinkle little star)

Missiles of ligneous or petrous consistency have the potential of fracturing my gaseous structure, but appellations will eternal remain innocuous. (Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me)

peace.