COMMON GROUND COFFEE HOUSE #79

Hey Cindi, I seem to remember a 'teacher shortage' until right at the end of school the last few years. We have MANY P/S teachers in our church and they don't want to even THINK of working with kids during the summer when school isn't even out yet. Can't blame 'em tho. I sent out a HELP NEEDED note this afternoon.

It seems the rain has stopped. It's still 65° too. We're expecting a nice week ahead with high's near 80 each day. That's good for me! The kids can play outside a lot.

Tonight is the spring concert for ages 4- 5th grade. They're doing a take off of American Idol called American Ideal. Jim has to 'tape it' but I'm not going. The choirs are opened to all the local school kids and every grandmother and neighbor within 25 miles comes to film their grandchild. I had to stand in the back two years ago and Nick's not even IN the choir.

Yawn..... got some more chores to do! At least my kids don't arrive until 10:15 tomorrow so I can sleep LATE.

 

We've got every window opened and ceiling fans going. After the rain, it's almost muggy here.

The mosquitoes are BAD. Nick's had 3 bites. One on his hand did nothing. One on his leg was gone in 3 days and one of his face is almost gone after 2 days.

Keep warm Sue and sleep well! I just took aspirin and sinus meds hoping to sleep well tonight!

Diane

 

Morning all:

Vivian and I washed two of the cars Saturday, but only got the inside AND outside of the Sonata done. The Lunina only got the outside done, and by the time it was cleaned the water was black. That car was COVERED literally with mildew and mold in spots. It's back to being silver again without any spots on it! The Sonata is back to being it's beautiful white self and the birdies better NOT bomb it again! (YOU HEAR ME BLACKBIRD?????!!!!! This means YOU TOO!! )

As we were finishing up the Sonata, the wind started blowing harder and harder, the sky became darker and darker, and not more than 100 feet from us lightening hit the field. That was it! We were finished whether we were finished or not! Got both cars back around to the front and went in and watched the HUGE drops of rain and the gigantic flashes of spiderwebbed lightening! Knocked out the cable three different times and cut the electricity twice! Just a few miles North of us they got pea to baseball sized hail!

Saturday night the childrens and youth minister called and asked if I would preach Sunday in his stead. His wife received at least one unit of blood. They discovered in the emergency room that she was anemic (maybe it was a blessing in disguise that she broke her foot so that they could find this out) and needed blood, but were afraid to give it to her during surgery. They waited to see if she would "perk up", which she didn't...and they gave her blood and Doug wanted to be there by her side...I can totally relate to that since I was the one receiving the six units of blood back on October 8th-10th last year.

Sunday was a day of "substitutes". I was substituting for the substitute for the pastor, and our SS teacher was substituted for by his wife and he had to substitute for Kay who was in the hospital. There were two substitute ushers for the offering...and the list went on and on! But, the Lord blessed and all went on pretty much without a hitch... Praise the Lord for His Goodness!

This morning it's cold! 42 degrees and I had to turn the heater on. It's only supposed to get to 70 or so today. I look forward to opening the windows later on.

Ya'll take care, and I'll catch ya later in the day! God bless.

T

 

Well I'm so thankful I can take Sudaphed (generic). It's the only thing I can take for sinus / allergies that doesn't make me feel weird! I took it and some aspirin before bed and again this morning. I'm stopped up but no headache this morning.

My first kids will be here around 10:15 and hopefully Dad will pick them up before 4:00. Last week was too much on the baby, staying 14 hour days. I ache from lifting him so much!

It's only 50 here this morning but is supposed to be almost 80 all week!

Have a great day!
Diane

 

Front porch wreath nest report:

Only one purple finch remains in the nest.
I suspect she will fly today, day 23 (Monday,
16 May '05) since
the hatching. I haven't seen mother purple
finch all week-end. But i saw a male
purple finch in the back yard going in and out
of a hanging plant. Second next for the same
couple?

Checked that plant. 2 purple finch eggs so far

[ May 16, 2005, 09:01 AM: Message edited by: Ed Edwards ]

 

ED, isn't it marvellous to watch God's creatures doing what they do best? I love to spend time in our woods observing the wildlife where they live.

Cheers,

Jim

 

That's so cool Ed!

We had little birds to next in my hanging plants last year and the year before. Both times they raised 2 or 3 families in the same nest, so you may yet get another nestful on your door, unless the birds decided it was to noisey there.

No hanging plants yet here so I probably won't get baby birds this year.

Good news this morning! The termite guy came and decided that while the bugs I saw really were termites that they couldn't have come from where I thought they were coming AND there was no sign of termites anywhere in the house! I did have a little activity in just one of the bait stations, but that isn't terribly unusual.

I'm down in my back today, so will be mostly stuck here at the computer. Feels like someone is jabbing a knife right between my shoulder blades. Haven't had a bad spell like this in a long time and hope this one doesn't last long, I have too much to do!

 

That's good news about your swarmers Cindi. People don't realize just how much damage termites can do!

Ed, that's neat about the birds. They'll return year after year now if you clean out the nests when they're empty.

Diane

 

It is amazing how fast these birds work. I put the hanging flower basket out last Monday. I was concerned about it because the wind was so strong, but left it there and now there is a nest with eggs, just a week later.

One of the rose bushes that I planted is doing well, the other one looks a little sick. I decided to prune it back some. I did give it food and water when I planted it.

Yes, we are having fun watching God's creatures.

I have been on the phone booking our next cruise. It will be next year. We have already had our cruise for this year. Now I have to book travel arrangements for Ed's mother's birthday party...waiting for his children to decide if they are going to fly with us or drive.

I am currently watching a manhunt on the local news. Sure are a lot of police and helicopters hunting this suspect. Officer just shot a dog. I hope it wasn't someone's pet. They think maybe it was a warning shot. It would be a shame to kill a watch dog, but they have to protect themselves. This is not happening in our area.

Hope everyone has a great day...Got to complete the laundry.

 

I don't have as many birds at my many feeders this year as before but I'm blaming it on the children being in the yard to play. On Saturday, I was on the phone with my mother. She asked what the loud noise was in the background. It was birds and I was in my kitchen with the door open. She's at her mountain cabin and has virtually no birds at her feeders!

I've not checked to see if I have any birds nesting in my bird houses yet.

Diane

 

I see you were talking about termites, grits, and the birds while I was gone.

Call me a Yankee, but y'all can have your grits. Now if I want to wreck my carbs at breakfast, give me oatmeal, the lumpier, the better. With plenty of cinnamon and raisins, of course. Or some applesauce mixed in.

Had an interesting retreat. It turned out to be in an old hotel from the 1800's in a tiny village called Steinsville, not too far from Allentown, PA. So many staircases! and old wood floors. All the rooms were different. The brother of the deacon who was supposed to do the cooking had to step in at the last minute and do it, as he and his wife couldn't make it. It seems their son (23) got beat up in downtown Philly Friday morning in a "road rage" type of incident, and needed plastic surgery to put his nose back together! He's home and doing OK, but now he will have the legal stuff to deal with. The circumstances will prove out that the guy who hit him was in the wrong. Then, while we were there on Saturday, our pastor got a call that his wife had been rushed to the hospital in much pain, probably due to a condition they have been "watching." So he took off for home (a two hour drive). The rest of us carried on, but of course were much in prayer for the boy and the pastor's wife and their families. Very strange weekend. Still trying to process what all God is trying to tell us. The topic was leadership, and unity. Perhaps it is the enemy trying hard to keep us divided.

 

Well, ya'll....I've had my ID stolen by someone who lives a few roads over from ours...at least that's where I've traced it back to. This person has the same # address I do "129", but their road is different. I don't know if they got our credit card bill by mistake and he used it (I got to hear a voice print of the person who used it and they used the name "Joe"). I called the credit card company four times, finally got through to a live operator and had the card cancelled and a new one re-issued. I also just called the Bedford County Sheriff's Dept. They should be here soon. The credit card company and the company involved (in Massachusetts) wanted me to file a police report ASAP. So, I am. I'm confused as to why someone would be stupid enough to use a credit card for around $13.00 in purchases....it just doesn't seem right to me. Vivian is so angry right now I'm not sure she's going to be able to be civil about it. We don't know whether it was delivered to the wrong address or whether someone lifted the bill from our mailbox. Either way, it's a P.O. Box from now on. It's really got me sort of upset, too. I've got to spend a lot of time on the phone now calling people who were on auto-pay changing things over!!!! Please, just say a prayer for me and Viv that we'll be able to be a testimony through it all. Thanks.

T

 

Goodness Tony! Hope everything gets taken care of soon.

Debby, will say a prayer for those families.


And I'll ask y'all to pray for Deborah and her family. Last Thursday Hospice Care visited her at her house and said she only had a week or two to live. She's been fighting hard for a year and a half. Now she is starting to be 'not Deborah' more than she 'is Deborah' . .
We'll understand it better by and by, 'cause we sure don't understand it now!


As somebody said on the BB recently: I hate cancer!

 

That happened to us a couple years ago Tony but Jim had been running late, arriving at a hotel in Brunswick, Ga. and called on his cell to verify he was still coming. The woman asked for his card number and then when he arrived, he signed in with our real addy, etc. About 6 months later we had every penny stolen from our account when she bought computer stuff online from Goodguys.com in Oregon and had it sent to a fake addy in Brunswick. She called UPS and said no one would be home so could she pick it up. We finally got our money back but what a lot of work and it really scared us because that was all the money we had in the world. The cops tracked her to Baltimore where she was in jail for the same type thing.

Goodguys.com could have cared less. They were not helpful at all even tho their records showed this woman had started at $10,000 and kept submitting a smaller order until our bank account okayed it. Duh....

 

Well, it seemed like the Bedford County Sheriff's Dept could have cared less here, Diane. The Deputy came out (I found out he used to be the sheriff of Coffee County...one county over from 1994-1998 and left when he was defeated in his re-election effort), and he was sort of unhappy about having to take a report...but he did it after my being pushy. The thing is this, the man who's phone # is on the bill as the number the order was called in from was the phone number of a man who recently had a bunch of guns stolen from his home on Feb 16th. Seems strange that his house was unlocked and the people had free access to the guns.....I don't know and am reserving judgement. All I know is that I've had this done before, and I really don't want it again.

 

AVL1984, if that person's house number is the same as yours, the bill was probably delivered to the wrong address.

We had some one with the same last name that had the same house number, but two streets over and our mail kept getting mixed with hers. It was a mess! Even after we moved, we received her electric bills. At one time, the post office decided that Ed had moved and left no forwarding address. If it was address to me, then we received the mail, but if it was addressed to Ed, it was returned.

I'm doing a lot of bill paying on line, but not sure how safe that is.

I've been having the bills sent only by e-mail. Is anyone else doing that? Currently, they are sent by e-mail and by snail mail.

 

Thankful, I've done it both ways...but am very seriously considering getting a P.O. Box again. Seems like that would be the only "safe" choice....
We were hacked into about 18 months ago and someone got most of our personal info. It was halted quickly because I was ONLINE when the theft occurred and had an IP # to go by to find the perp. This time it was that silly use of a phone #....hmmm...some people aren't too smart.

 

Oh dear, we are just not very safe, are we?

Do you have a firewall, AVL?