Remembering

Yea, I know, I haven't written in forever. Been a little hesitant to. So much going on, but also so much I don't really want 'out there'. But today I just wanted to remember.

42 years ago yesterday, on Friday the 13th, my mom & grandma were hit by a drunk driver. Grandma died instantly. Mom died 42 years ago today. The drunk driver got a 2 week suspension on her license. Thankfully the laws have gotten much tougher over the years. There's not much to say, I just thought I'd put a remembrance out there. Even after 42 years I still miss her, although I don't remember much about her. But I do know that that day has affected every aspect of my life every day since then. I've been told I'm a lot like her. I guess that helps me know who she was. And I'd like to think we'd be pretty good friends as adults. God has a plan - He was in control that day and He's still in control today. Of that I'm certain. And thankful.

So, here's remembering you, Mom.

Love,

Julie

Yea, right

Alright. I guess since I haven't posted in forever and nobody has noticed, I just thought I'd post nothing and see if nobody notices nothing?? Fun times, with Erin's wedding coming up really soon. Can't wait - she's so happy! Can wait - she's moving on! Finally got some stuff done I've been trying to get done all summer ie: the Prayer study I've been working on for months. I think it looks good - thank you, God!

Well - there it is - nothing much. Did you notice?

Procratinating From My List and Summer Hasn't Even Started Yet!

I've got so much to do, yet I'm bored right now.  That's because I don't know where to start with what I have to do, so I don't do anything.  Sounds productive, doesn't it :)  What is it I should be doing?  Well, I could be

• Making Erin's wedding veil
• Finishing up Erin's wedding blanket (it's in the final stages - yahoo!)
• Finishing up the kids' coloring book program for the wedding - 2 more pages maybe?
• Writing my Bible Study lessons for this summer - it starts next week and I haven't written anything yet, although I do have the outline done.
• Writing the study guide for prayer for next fall.  This needs to be six lessons for the whole church to do.  Still a little intimidated by the subject matter - I'm certainly not the expert here!  Thanks to Carmen & Rosie for helping me!
• Sorting through all the baby toys in my toy box.  It's overflowing and time to get some of the infant stuff out.  Lara's no longer an infant!
• Getting the rest of my gardening supplies from the store so I can finish my flower projects.  I hate it when I run out of supplies and can't finish what I started!  I'm terrible at getting back at the project later, although I know I must.

I'm sure there's more that should be on the list, but that's enough there already to keep me busy for the rest of the summer!  Now if I can only get going on it!

So, just a short post today, but now you'll know what my summer's going to be like.  Give me a call and take me away from this list sometime - Please!  Coffee?  Lunch?  The beach?  Anywhere Northwest flies??  I'm up for anything!

Blessings...

OK, so I haven't posted in a long time.  But then again, nothing all that interesting has been going on - just the same ole', same ole' stuff.  Although the weather did cooperate this week and let me get the bulbs planted that have been sitting in my garage for a couple of months now.  I order them online and they're supposed to be shipped at my 'appropriate' planting time.  Evidently the bulb company doesn't realize you can't plant flowers in April in Michigan!  Someone should tell them that!

Tonight some of us got together for prayer.  Group prayer - it's always a good thing!  Especially when you're blessed to be in the presence of such prayer warriors.  God really does move mountains!

Tomorrow I get to get up really early to catch the Amtrak train to Chicago.  Then I get to help Erin move out of her apartment and move home for the summer.  I'm so ready to have her home, even if it is for just a few short months.  And I'm sure these months will just fly by!  There's quite a few wedding plans we need to really get moving on now that she'll be home.  I know she'll want to rest for a few days, but I'd like to be able to check some items off my list!  It's an exciting, busy, emotional, etc. time for me - hopefully I'm keeping the stress off her, but I suppose I can't take it all from her, although I wish I could.  I just want her day to be the most special, beautiful, wonderful day that she could ever imagine.  I know the ultimate goal is for her and Matt to be married, and she says she doesn't care about all the little things, but I still want the best for her - her best, God's best.  My mother's heart will never change, I guess!

Well, that's it for now - just a quick post so I don't forget this is here.  Have a wonderful day and don't forget the One that gave you that day!

Scarey Thoughts and Fun Times

I just did something scarey - I put a link to this blog on my facebook page.  Ugh!  What if someone actually checks it out!!!  That's part of the irony of me - I love expressing myself, but I'm terrified to expess myself - someone might actually find out what's in my head!  Is it possible to be an introverted extrovert?  Or am I an extroverted introvert?? I don't know.  Something to pounder when you can't sleep at night.

I had a great time with Erin & Matt this weekend.  I miss my little girl when she's gone and love it when she's home.  But I'm also so proud of the woman she's become and I know she'll have a great, blessed, life with Matt as they follow God's lead.  You never where God's gonna lead you, but ya gotta love the ride!  Matt's family came for a visit, too.  I think they had a good time.  We did.  You can tell a lot about a person by his family, so I guess Matt's gonna do alright!  It was really busy though, with Erin & Matt coming home Thursday, doing wedding planning stuff Friday, Matt's mom, dad, brother & sister here Saturday til Sunday, and my family here for dinner Sunday (there were 29 here for dinner - just your average meal for the Miller family!), and Erin & Matt staying until today.  Busy, but good times.  And perfect weather for Easter.  The kids could play outside and not just run though the house all the time.  By kids I mean the nieces, nephews, & grandkids under 8 and brothers, sisters and son over 20!  Sometimes it's hard to figure out who's who.  As I said - fun times!

Well, that's enough for tonight.  It's getting late (or early if you look at my clock), so I'd better try and get some actual sleep.  I guess.

Have a blessed week!

Just Another Thursday

There are times when I feel really productive.  And times, like now, when I feel like I'm never going to actually get anything done.  The 'list' keeps growing and few things are getting crossed off.  So, what do I do?  I go online and post something here instead of finishing up what I should be doing.  Oh well,  I guess I'm human after all (as if my kids didn't already know that - they've reminded me of it many times!

What I should be doing - cleaning, getting the rest of the groceries for this weekend, cleaning, putting away the groceries I picked up yesterday, cleaning, producing the HUB Happenings so I don't have to do it when my company's here, cleaning, getting the rest of the addresses for the wedding guest list, cleaning, writing goals and objectives for the Go Team, cleaning, filling the plastic easter eggs for the kids' hunt on Sunday, and cleaning.  I really don't have THAT much cleaning to do, I just don't like to do what I DO have to do.  So, I procrastinate.  In all fairness, though, I only have 10 minutes until I need to leave for a doctor's appointment (something funky going on with my feet - but you probably didn't want to know that;), and I hate being in the middle of something and then not having time to finish it.  So, I just don't start!  But I know I'll get it all done before my guests get here.

Speaking of guests - there's supposed to be anywhere from 27 to 33 here for Easter dinner this Sunday.  Matt's parents and brother are coming from Ohio, so that'll be nice.  I just hope my family doesn't scare them away - so many people - so little space! 

The best part of this weekend tho is the fact that it's Easter!  Today is Maundy Thursday -- the time when my Savior, Jesus Christ, put himself through un-imaginable pain and agony just for me!  Satan sure thought he had him but then on Sunday He won!  Just for me!  He put Satan in his place by overcoming all evil when he rose from the dead.  I love the celebration we get to do because of what He did.  And, we don't have to buy other people presents to celebrate it!  I just pray that I can be this enthusiastic when speaking with anyone about Easter.  Everyone needs to know why it's such a great celebration!  Thank you, Lord!

Well, I've taken up my 10 minutes, so I've got to get going.  If you're reading this - and actually read to the end - know that this weekend is for you, too!  God's blessings on you and have a super celebration!

Frustrations & Smiles

Have I ever told you how much I love technology? Really, I do. But it frustrates the heck out of me, too! My wonderful computer decided last week to crash AGAIN in such a way that I needed to reboot AGAIN and then reinstall all of my programs AGAIN. Doing this once in a lifetime is frustrating enough - doing it twice in two months is enough to give you grey hair (if you have any left after pulling it all out!)! I might, if I'm lucky, and if I run programs all day long every day, have things reinstalled by this weekend. And it's only Monday!!! I am forever grateful and thankful for Andrew, though. If I didn't have his expertise I'd probably have spent hundreds of dollars replacing my laptop by now. Granted, he doesn't always put my computer on top priority, so it's not always the fastest, but he does put up with a lot when it comes to my computers! Sometimes I think I'd be better off if I was more computer illiterate - then I'd probably just leave the thing alone and only use it for emails and games. Not needing it for working and creating things would make life easier. Duller, but easier.

Enough of venting about a machine. Even without it I was able to create some pretty cool documents recently (I just needed to practice my patience with my old laptop) for the HUB. And I was able to do old fashioned research to put together a workshop on Spiritual Gifts. I think it went pretty well - at least no one walked out on me! JR was pumped and wants me to do it every other month or something! I don't think so - twice a year would be enough for me! But it is so rewarding to be able to use some of the knowledge and gifts God has given me to help others in His kingdom do His work. I really feel I'm supposed to be writing another program for the church to use next fall (like the Top Ten one I wrote for last fall), but I'm still not hearing what God wants it to be on. I just know He wants something different - not the same old, same old. Keep praying with me about it, ok? I want it to be what God wants it to be, not what I want it to be, or even what JR wants it to be.

My new little neice is so cute. I took Aiden with me to Ryan's birthday party and he couldn't get over the baby's head of hair - quite different than Lara's bald head! He kept playing with Katelyn's hair. It was cute. But then, again, almost anything he does is cute! He learned all the verses and motions to "The Wheels on the Bus" song on the way home. Did you know wipers go 'wish, wish, wish'? It's so cute!

Well, enough random thoughts for tonight - or is it tomorrow? Close enough. If you're bored enough to be reading this, I hope your week is great!

Rain

Well, it's raining again.  I'm not sure why I said again, since we really have had a couple of beautiful, sunny days, but when it rains around here this 'spring' (it's technically not spring yet, but it kinda feels like it),  it really rains!  Since all the snow isn't yet melted, the rain just sits on the semi-frozen ground in ugly grey puddles.  It's not the warm run-and-splash-in-the-puddles-summer rain, but the cold-let's-get-out-of-it-as-fast-as-we-can-winter rain.  Yuk!

It tends to make you want to just crawl back in bed and stay there for a week.  Well, maybe not a week, but at least for the day.  I'm so un-motivated today.  I've got lots of things that I should get done, but I don't feel like doing any of them right now.  Thus, I'm here, writing to nobody about nothing.  Funny, huh.

There is a good side to this rain, if you really think about it.  Being early March, it could be snow and it isn't.  And, it makes  you think that maybe, just maybe, Spring isn't that far away?  I've lived in other parts of the country where there really isn't much Winter and I missed the four seasons.  Even tho Spring and Fall are really short here, I still love them both and am glad that God has designed His earth with such spendor.  And amazement.  Can you imagine - we live on a planet that circles the sun at exactly the right speed, and rotates on it's own axis at exactly the right angle to give us seasons, and days, and nights, and heat, and snow, and rain.  God really is quite the master artisan, isn't He?

Not surprising...

Yea, here I am again.  Not surprisingly, no one's looked at my post yet.  That's o.k.  It's still a place for me to use some of my 'creative juices' as they say.  Today's been a pretty typical day - nothing spectacular, nothing too exciting.  I think my physical therapist and then the radiologist that took my back x-rays were out to maime me today.  I wasn't doing too badly before I went in, but, boy, does it hurt since then!  The radiologist kept asking me if I'd injured my back or my tailbone.  Musta found something on the x-ray?  We'll see if the Doctor gets back to me when she get the report.  

Now I'm on a muscle relaxant, too.  Love the 'possible side effects' in the literature that comes from the pharmacy.  Things such as nausea, drowsiness, blurred vision, depression, numbness, etc. etc.  Really makes you want to take it, doesn't it?  My favorite tho was the line that said to be sure to tell your physician if you expect to pilot an airplane.  That's an every day occurrence for most of us, isn't it?!

Pain is an interesting thing.  It's necessary, but definitely unwelcome.  Sometimes you have a higher tolerance for pain than at other times.  Sometimes the pain is because of something you did, sometimes it's  because of something someone did to you, sometimes it's just because your body is getting older and doesn't want to work the way it did 20 years ago.  I could get philisophical or spiritual about pain, but you probably already know all those axioms.  Plus, no one's reading this anyway - so why bother?

So, I'll just ramble along randomly.  That's what this is all about anyway, isn't it.

Have a good one!

Let's Try This Out For Size

I'm not really sure what I'm doing here.  Not here-on-this-earth-here, but blogging here.  I just came to check out my daughter's life, and here I am writing my own blog!  Imagine that!  Some people would say I'm too 'old' for this stuff.  Not me.  I'm never too old to try new things, learn new things, keep up with what's new.  If we stop doing that then what is there?!  I never want to be one of 'those people' that are stuck in the past.  The past is past.  I'm thrilled with the fact that God has allowed me to live today - so I'm going to live it!

Well, if you decide to read this, or even 'follow' my blogs, I can't guarantee that I'll write very often.  And when I do write, I have no idea what it might be about.  You never know where my mind will go on any particular day at any particular time!  I usually have good intentions but, unfortuntately, good intentions doesn't get the work done for me.  I'm still waiting for those little elves to show up in the middle of the night and do my work for me!  For some reason, they always seem to skip my house :-(  

Since I didn't know I was going to write today, I'll just ramble for a few minutes, ok?  If it's not ok, then go ahead and leave my page.  It's ok - I won't be offended (unless there's some way I can find out that you did, then - who knows ;))  I woke up this morning to the glorious snow out my back window.  Now, you might think that snow in February, after all the snow we've had so far this winter, wouldn't seem 'glorious' to me - but if you saw the view out my back window you'd understand! And then, the squirrels went nuts trying to chase each other, and trying to eat my bird food.  What fun!  So, even though I haven't really accomplished anything I've set out to do yet today, and even though I really don't know what I'm doing here - I'm just glad to be here!

Happy Valentine's Day to all and be happy knowing that this is the day God has given you - do with it what He wants and it'll be a great one!

Julie