summary of the latest adventures including pink flowers, lanterns, cucumbers, girly movies, and FIRE!!!

Dear readers,

Well it seems like it is high time for an update isn't it?!  By the way, winter is over. almost 5 months later. In case you wanted to know.

It has been a busy life. Let me see what I can remember...

The 1st week in March I went to England with my beloved mom. More stories and pictures to come!

The 1st Friday night in April I went to see Captain America 2 with friends. At an IMAX 3D theater! Except I was just now told that it was not a true IMAX... the real ones have huge wrap-around screens that you have to lean back to take in. Apparently. Well I was still pretty wowed by my "faux" IMAX experience, especially by the countdown numbers that zoomed up through my skull. Oww it hurt! I had to close my eyes. And the movie was great too!

That same weekend and following week we wrapped up an intense project at work, which meant the end of 10-hour days and working 2-3 hours 2 nights a week.  What relief and I am still thanking God!

The 3rd weekend in April was Easter weekend, I believe. With Good Friday off, I headed down to Tennessee on Thursday to spend the weekend with my cousin of cousins Hannah Holder. We had such a good time... relaxing, exploring Knoxville, walking to our supper, watching most of Wives and Daughters (still one hour left to go! how have I ever been able to keep living in the interim??) and driving down dogwood-decorated streets, actually they were laden with redbud and azaleas too. Knoxville is quite the pink place. Very pretty!

The 1st weekend in May I flew down to Texas to join in the graduation festivities for brother Derek! Enjoyed chauffeuring my mom all over and giggling over stuff with her. Ask her about my makeup driving advisories. Heh heh :)  and of course a great chance to hang out with sisters Melinda and Carolyn! We five had some of the best times ever just hanging around talking and reminiscing... and singing a little concert in the campus chapel (and Derek and Carolyn are quite the pianists too!) and having a crazy cookout with Derek's buddies and their families, great conversation topics like how to burp and how to get a job if you car breaks down back in the day. And which of one family's kids was the sweetest. And how you can see all the stars in both hemispheres by standing on the equator. It's amazing the knowledge that springs like a fount as the campfire dies and the stars wheel overhead and you become less and less able to not laugh! hahaha :)

So that brings up to the first week in May, when one of my good friends (Lis) has been in town, plus another good friend (Anila) graduating, so we have been up to all kinds of shenanigans...

Wednesday night was game night with my Bible study group, and I finally had a chance to try out the riddle I learned in N.Z. WITHOUT using the answer as the first line. Lis then proceeded to recount how she imagined I had told it with the punchline first... it was so dead on that I almost fell to the floor laughing. Then Anila showed me how to rub cucumber slices on one's face for refreshment. So I started doing that and apparently I was getting into it enough that THEY almost fell to the floor laughing. And then we did play some actual games too.

Thursday night we girls went down to the lake to set off some of those floating lanterns in honor of Anila's graduation. The first two went off splendidly! once we stood in the shelter of a house to get out of the wedding. We were so excited. Then there was mine... I did not hold the top up enough, so the side got singed as the fire was building to lift-off... then I got nervous and let go too soon... it wobbled its way up... seemed to be coming down... wafted back up... down... went along... finally we saw it pretty definitely going down, way far along. By this time we were picturing Warsaw in flames. However we were unable to find the lantern or a fire for that matter, and since that was not the headline in the next day's news I think we may have very fortunately and blessedly escaped going to jail for unintentional pyromania.

Friday night three of us (Stacey, Lis and myself) decided we should have a sleepover! so we did, in a big living room with 2 full couches and an air mattress. We found Tangled on TV. and then we put in Bride & Prejudice (best movie EVER!!). When that finished, we started giggling our way to sleep around 3:00am... and were popping up around 8:30 or 9:00am to go our ways seeing friends, attending graduation, etc. What fun, you NEVER get too old for sleepovers! At least I pray I never do.

I hope that gives you an idea of some of the adventures lately. And I promise to post here again much sooner! Since I know this blog is the main source of inspiration, hope and joy to all 2 or 3 of you. heehee :)

love,
Sharon

snow day in the "country"

Dear readers,

Today was Sunday, so of course I got up at a decent hour, and was just about ready to hop in the shower when Stacey came out and told me church had been canceled. I was kind of surprised. We had had church a couple weeks ago when the blizzard had begun to set in with nice thick heavy snow. But OK. Snow day! The first thing to do was try to get a little more sleep. But as Anna from Frozen would say (maybe she is rubbing off on me after seeing her in the theater for the 3rd time, heh heh), "The sky's awake, so I'm awake!" So I got up and set my pinto beans to soak and made myself pumpkin custard oatmeal, and had a relaxing time reading the Bible for a while, and then got my financial matters all straightened up and my desk cleaned off and the trash and recycling ready to go out... really quite productive! 

I was going to have lunch with Stacey's family so I took the trash out on the way. I lifted up the one trash bin lid, that one was almost full, so I just put one bag in there. Then I lifted the lid of the other to pop in the 2nd bag... I stared at what looked like the leg of the goat. No, 2 legs. No my goodness, there was a horn and the whole body in fact... Was it dead? Or had it crawled in there to escape the cold for some reason? Well even if it had, it was pretty stiff. How disturbing to touch something that used to be romping and living. Ok well I could fit both trash bags in the other bin after all.

I have to admit I was just a little sad to discover they had plowed our driveway already. I was expecting to get some good fun out of escaping the drive. Once inside town I passed 3 state troopers in a row. Was not sure what they would be doing all together unless there was a drug bust, wouldn't it be better to split up and spread out to help people if necessary in this interesting weather. Not that I would tell law enforcement what to do of course!

Later when I got home I went out to the little neighborhood loop across the way for a little walk. There are like 3 houses on it. It was not that well plowed, so I guess I should not have been surprised when a plow truck came along, when I was on my second lap. I figured one or two times around and he would be done and I could finish my walk in peace... but he just kept going around and around and around! I know I should not get upset at a snowplow but seriously. :)

Well let's see how bad the windchills get and how wildly the snow blocks up the roads tomorrow. Would love to be stuck at home!

love,

Sharon

winter wonderland

Dear readers,

I promised snow pictures and here are some! All except the first picture were taken on that magical Sunday before the blizzard hit.

I would love to add captions... maybe later....

love,
Sharon

returning any moment!

Dear readers,

As one of you kindly informed me, I have not updated this blog for way too long. I promise I am going to do it soon. I would like to share some pictures of the big dump of snow we had, and our blizzard, it was quite the adventure!

Apart from that, life continues as normal. Work and friends... seeing movies with friends, visiting friends, making new friends... in fact I am off to meet a 2-year-old and then off to check up on a slightly laid-up friend, hence the reason I will have to post the snow pictures a bit later.

I hope you are all having a splendid Saturday!

love,
Sharon