Debbie From Long Beach

2009-05-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, totally messed up. I meant for this to go on my CLK Church blog. what the heck did I do?!

2009-05-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will be meeting with what I hope to be new members of the Kids Team!! The room has been painted and coming together nicely. My extraordinary husband with a servant's heart so big, I'm surprised it doesn't pop out of his chest, has been working VERY hard on the room!! Exciting times!!

Here's a few pics!

ONE MORE WEEK

2008-08-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

FUNDRAISER AT OUR HOUSE FOR P-DIDDY

I just feel horrible how the cost of gas is affecting so many, especially P-Diddy. You must read this heartbreaking story, then you'll understand why we are holding a fundraiser!

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Sean "Diddy" Combs wants you to know celebrities are feeling the rise in gas prices, too, and wants his "Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters" to help him out.

"Gas prices are too __________ high," he says in his latest YouTube video. "As you know, I do have my own jet, but I've been having to fly back and forth to L.A. pursuing my acting career . Now, if I'm flying back and forth twice a month, that's like $200,000, $250,00 round trip. _____ that. I'm back on American Airlines."

The hip-hop mogul recorded the video blog in an unspecified airport while walking through the terminal and getting on a plane.

Diddy made a plea for some free oil.

"Give a shout out to all my Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters and all the brothers and sisters in all the countries that have oil — if you could please send me some oil for my jet, I would truly appreciate it," Diddy says, showing his commercial jet boarding pass to the camera.

Taking a stab at the upcoming political election, Diddy wants to make sure politicians understand his frustration.

"Can you believe this? I'm actually flying commercial — that's how high gas prices are. I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening — proof gas prices are too high. Tell whoever the next president is, we need to bring gas prices down. ... I can't believe I'm flying commercial. ... Even your boy is affected by gas prices."

Does this just break your heart or what?

2008-07-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

WHY DO OLD PEOPLE TALK TO ME????????

I'm in K-Mart this afternoon and in the femine product aisle - there is an old lady there looking at 'male protection' - I can't seem to type THAT word - and something to help her out - again, I can't actually type it out!! She's got a couple tubes in one hand and boxes in the other, reading and studying intently. Her basket is in the middle of the aisle and I can't get around her. I say excuse me several times and she's so intensely studying these products she doesn't even hear me. Finally she sees me and proceeds to ask me -

"Excuse me young lady, do you know which one of these feel better for the man? I want him to be comfortable." OH MY GOSH. I kind of froze, seriously, I didn't say a word, I couldn't move, I couldn't blink. Then she asks me, "Have you used one of these lub.....t's before, is one brand better than the other?" Then I started laughing. I apologized for laughing and she started laughing and said, "Oh honey, I know I'm old at 82 years but I'm dating a 75-year-old so things still work."

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - PLUG MY EARS!!!!!!!!! At this point I'm laughing so hard I had to walk away. I backed up out of the aisle, laughing and waving good-bye at her.

Maybe she's dating the old guy that commented on my big hiney (see below).

I'm going to start hiding from old people - the scare me!!

2008-07-25T05:33:00.000-07:00

GREG LAURIE'S SORROW -

Greg Laurie's son, Christopher, died in a car accident yesterday. I have listened to Greg's sermons a lot and know many people who came to know the Lord through his ministry.

As I was reading about Christopher this morning my heart became heavy for his wife, a woman I have never met and probably will never meet - but since yesterday I can't get her off my mind. Christopher was only 33 years old, he has an adorable red haired little girl and his wife is currently pregnant with their second child due in November. I cannot even imagine what this young mother is experiencing.

Please keep this family in your prayers.

www.harvest.org

2008-07-23T12:07:00.001-07:00

MY BIG HINEY!

Okay, so this morning I took a walk - I'm trying to walk again, be healthier, etc. Plus, my doctor told me to! Anyway, I walked from my house, around the golf course, back up, a decent distance - when I'm on my way home and there's an old man sitting in his little motorized scooter of a wheelchair and he says to me..."Hey there young lady, if you want to get rid of your big hiney you better double time your steps."

OH MY GOSH - so I tell him I've walked around the golf course as well as several blocks and I'm actually in "cool down" mode on my way home. Then he says, "well, if you say so." Like he didn't believe me.

I suddenly got a burst of energy, pushed him in his wheelchair to El Dorado Park and proceeded to push him in the lake!

Okay, that's not true - but does anybody want to go TP'ing with me tonight!!! :o)

2008-07-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

THE LONG BEACH BUZZ!!

Apparently Long Beach and the surrounding towns can't live without their Starbucks. There are 26 stores in a very small mile radius and none of those Starbucks are closing. Check out the list below of those stores closing - if it's listed more than once, then another store in that town is closing.

ALHAMBRA CA
ANAHEIM CA
ATWATER CA
BAKER CA
BENICIA CA
BERKELEY CA
BREA CA
BREA CA
BRENTWOOD CA
CASTAIC CA
CATHEDRAL CITY
CHULA VISTA CA
CHULA VISTA CA
CONCORD CA
CORONA CA
CORONA CA
EL MONTE CA
ELK GROVE CA
EMERYVILLE CA
EXETER CA
FONTANA CA
FONTANA CA
FRESNO CA
FRESNO CA
GONZALES CA
HAYWARD CA
HEMET CA
HEMET CA
HOLLISTER CA
HUNTINGTON PARK CA
JACKSON CA
LA MIRADA CA
LAGUNA BEACH CA
LAKE ARROWHEAD
LAKE FOREST CA
LINCOLN CA
LODI CA
LOS ANGELES CA
LOS ANGELES CA
MAMMOTH LAKES CA
MIRA LOMA CA
MISSION VIEJO CA
MISSION VIEJO CA
MODESTO CA
MONTCLAIR CA
MONTEREY PARK CA
MORENO VALLEY CA
NORWALK
ONTARIO CA
ONTARIO CA
ONTARIO CA
RANCHO CUCAMONGA CA
RANCHO MIRAGE CA
REDDING CA
REDDING CA
RIVERSIDE CA
RIVERSIDE CA
SACRAMENTO CA
SACRAMENTO CA
SACRAMENTO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN DIEGO CA
SAN FRANCISCO CA
SAN FRANCISCO CA
SAN JOSE CA
SANTA ANA CA
SANTA CLARITA CA
SANTA MONICA CA
SANTA ROSA CA
SIMI VALLEY CA
SOUTHGATE CA
TAHOE CITY CA
TUSTIN CA
TUSTIN CA
UPLAND CA
VICTORVILLE CA
VICTORVILLE

What does that say about Long Beach/surroundings....we are on a constant caffeine buzz?!

I'm waiting for some transcription work to download and had a few minutes to kill....I knew you just couldn't live without this information!! :o)

2008-07-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

MY HUSBAND THE MOVIE DORK......

This is get to know my husband week, I guess, since I really don't have anything else to blog about! "The much anticipated" Batman movie opens tonight. Darren and one of his BFF's Glenn Garvin are going to one of the midnight shows tonight. Darren loves to do that and does it all the time. Thankfully he has Glenn, as most of his friends have the attitude of, "yeah, I'll see it when the crowds go down," his friends and his wife!! I went up to Edwards to get their tickets just now and holy cow...NINE theaters have sold out and the tenth is very close. They have even sold tickets for a couple of the 3:20 a.m. shows. I'm sure the tenth screen will sell out by late afternoon as there was a line. Yes, a line at noon on a Thursday. Who knew??!!

Enjoy boys - and don't wake me up when you get home!! :o)

2008-07-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

MY HANDY DANDY HUSBAND!!

I have the handiest husband on the planet. The guy can do anything...seriously. And if he can't do it, then he'll investigate, read, watch, trial and error until he does know how to do it. He has the patience of Job, which is good, yet at the same time can make some projects last ffffooooorrrrrrrreeeevvvvveeeeeeerrrr!! Case in point - "The Hackett House!" The 'flipper' - or as I call it, the "slow roll over!" Gosh, it's been like two years since we sold it and I'm still rubbing it in!! :o)

Anyway, back to my post - I'm VERY thankful he's so handy as he's saved us lots of money through the years when we didn't have to call a handyman. He actually enjoys this too. There are times he's been Bob the Builder and others where he's been Tim the Tool Man!! Thankfully more Bob than Tim!

Here's a couple of his projects - today he's installing a new attic fan. We don't have central air, so this really helps cool the house down. I was standing on the attic ladder and asked him to turn around and as he did he cut his finger..oops.

Here is Simon helping to cut the wood to secure the fan.

Here is something cool he did for me. I have these super duper Shure earphones I used for transcribing. Darren being Darren, he got me the kind that rockstars use to only hear what they need to. You never know when my boyfriend Jon Bon Jovi will be coming by to perform!! They are great because I hear everything the physicians and speakers are saying, but I can't hear a bloomin' thing outside of that. He has come home, talked to me from behind, dropped off his keys, etc. on the area in the office where we leave that kind of stuff, turned the TV on, etc., and I didn't know he was home. The UPS guy just knows now to bang hard on the door or come around to my office window! So, Darren installed a little camera in the front of the house and I pull up a screen that is of our front yard/porch. I can see what's going on at all times. It's great! Here is what it looks like on the computer screen.

Here's a close up of the D-Link window. I love it!

Again, we don't have central air and sometimes the office can get pretty warm by mid afternoon and that's when I start to pooter out. I'm usually up by 5:00 a.m. working, which is my preferred time, so by 1:00 p.m., my eyes start to get a little heavy and with the warm room, it's hard to stay focused. The Gisberts gave us a window unit a couple years ago, brand new, that we haven't used because it didn't fit any window, so Darren came up with a way to cool the room. He put it in the attic, venting to the outside vent, and then plugged it to where the cool air shoots down to the office.

Here is the little vent that is right above the desk. It works perfectly. In fact, if I shut the door within 30 minutes it's almost cold in here! Of course now that he's made the room more comfortable, he's probably going to expect me to produce more lines/more money!!

How do I turn the airconditioner on you ask?? No, I do not crawl up the ladder to the attic, don't be silly, remember who this blog is about - Darren - he hooked it up to a wireless control box that sits on the desk. I can turn it on and off from here.

Don't I just have the handiest of husbands!!

2008-07-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

LANCE BASS ON "DANCING WITH STARS" - WITH A MALE PARTNER.........

I just read that and UGH!!! I think I'm going to stop watching TV all together. Darren and I didn't have TV for the first 12 years of our marriage..seriously. Now, we have movies galore and rent TV series on Netflix, so we sort of had it. We purchased and connected an antenna back in January so we could host one of the Super Bowl parties...Life Center actually cancelled church and encouraged parties!! Since we paid the money to have the antenna, it's staying up. But I'm about ready to chuck the whole TV. I haven't missed TV and I'm not one that can get sucked in for hours at a time. I can watch a 30 minute program and be done and walk away. Darren on the other hand...well, the house can be burning down around him and he wouldn't notice!

We have the internet connected to the TV, so I've been watching a lot of TV shows that are POD casts, all cooking shows of course....several from cable shows, but the POD casts are free. Even the History Channel and Discovery and similar channels now have free programs on-line, which is what Darren likes.

But last night I looked at the TV Guide...choices were Baby Borrowers; Wife Swap; repeat of Swingers.....and then I read this about Lance Bass having a male dance partner because DWTS wants to show they support everyone.

I'm kind of sounding all 'churchy' huh?! But seriously, what's up with TV these days?

2008-06-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

UNANSWERED PRAYERS FOLLOWED BY A GIFT

I've been humming the Garth Brooks song "Unanswered Prayers" since the end of last week. Darren and I have been praying pretty diligently about something for the past two months and we found out Friday it wasn't going to happen. I cried, Darren took it in stride, as he always does. Now, because Darren is so private, I can't share the details of our prayers, but will say it's something we both wanted and asked God for. He says to ask, right? Of course, we also prayed for His will in our lives, whatever that is - but then I'd end my prayer with, "but what I want is..." So I told the Lord over the weekend I was kind of mad at him. Do you think that's okay?? I told him to let me be mad for a day and then I'll 'get over it.' I know God is in control and I want him to be in control, but I was disappointed and quite honestly a little mad that our prayers were unanswered - or at least not answered in the way we had hoped. I don't know why I keep sing the Garth Brooks song because it's nothing like the lyrics - not pining over an old flame at a football game!!

So I've been feeling pretty blue for the last few days. Simon, my cat, must have sensed something because this morning he brought me a gift.

A little bird. He was standing on the front porch meowing like crazy. I thought he was hurt, so I open the door and he comes right in, marches to the door of my office and plops down. I still don't notice my gift. I sit back down and he starts meowing again, loud. I spin around in my chair and there he is, with his dead bird. I turned back around at my desk to finish a job I was working on and he just kept meowing. I guess I wasn't acknowledging the gift like I was supposed to. I went over and pet him and he pushed the bird toward me. Okay, it's gross, I know, and I hate that he kills things - I keep telling him he's a lover and not a killer, although I took away his love at six months old!! Anyway, I thought it was so sweet. I picked it up and threw it in our back yard and he goes back out, picks it up and brings it back in and puts it by my chair. I thanked him, asked him to please take it outside, which he did and proceeded to eat it.

For those of you who aren't animals lovers will think I'm completely twisted to love my gift from my pet. For those of you who do love animals, hopefully you'll get it and won't think I'm a loon!!

2008-06-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

ANOTHER GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Friday night was putz around the house night. We actually had a date night on Thursday...finally got to see Made of Honor - predictable, but cute. Saturday morning we had rehearsal and cast party for the Father's Day play at church. Saturday afternoon I worked some and then Saturday night was BRAD PAISLEY!!! We went with Dave and Wendy Smith and enjoyed dinner together first at the Irvine Spectrum, then over to the Verizon Theater for a real treat. He was awesome, quite the entertainer. Man can that guy play guitar. I think he was having more fun doing the instrumentals than singing. He had a great stage set up that had something to go along with every song he did. He was very entertaining and engaged the crowd throughout the night. He is someone I would pay to see again and again. I liked it most when they put his head on the big screens...he has the most beautiful eyes. Wendy and I were caught gazing at him a few times!! :o)

I kind of felt like I was back at the state fair back home. Country music certainly brings out the beer drinkers, big hat, boot wearing, huge belt buckle guys. You know the type, their noise level goes up a notch with every beer!!! Actually the crowd was pretty tame compared those midwestern concert goers!!

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Then Sunday morning was the big production. Our church only had one service that for Father's Day and Marcus, our music pastor, put together and directed a great play by the kids, "Father Knows Best." The kids did so great. Sonya and I was the comedy relief team. We were joggers going through the park (the location of the play!) who did nothing but talk about food. Wasn't much of a stretch for us. We padded ourselves so that we had huge honkin boodies!! or is it booties?! Here we are with our 'energy drink' - Starbucks Frappicino, Vanilla flavored!

Darren played Mr. Adams, the Park Ranger. Here he is singing..wish I had a video of this because I love to hear me some Darren singing!! The picture below is Mr. Adams leading Kalena to Jesus. It was precious.

Here the joggers are eating from the forbidden fruit tree. The kids were singing their big finale song and we were posing for a picture! :o) You'd think the play was all about us!! Such the divas!

This picture here is of Simon..just for fun. I took this today. He was sleeping so weird, his bottom half on the lower fence, his middle section draped over the block fence - which is several inches above the wooden fence - and then his head and front paws hanging over the block fence. It was so funny looking, but of course I woke him when I opened the side door. He's a huge cat with lots of fat and fur, but so pretty!

Check out my new Longaberger basket! This has now become my special basket. The kids play was all about apples in the park...stay away from the apples. So they filled a bunch of baskets with apples that some ladies in our church prepared by poking holes in them and inserting gummy bear worms. So cute. So people brought baskets from home to use for the play as the kids distributed apples throughout the congregation during a song. As we were cleaning up the sanctuary this lone basket was not claimed and one of the ladies knowing I collect and love Longaberger thought it might be mine. It wasn't, it actually belonged to Marcus and Shauna, our music pastor and his wife. They told me just to take it home. I kept telling them it's $140 basket, "do you know this is a Longaberger basket...do you know this sells for $140..." Then I said, "do you know this is a special basket." And Shauna said to me, "But you are more special and we want you to know that, so take that basket home as a reminder that we think you are special." I cried. She said it a little more eloquently than I am putting here, it was very sweet what she said. I felt so silly taking it home, but they insisted. Then Marcus said, "It's been sitting up on a shelf forever...we have like two or three more packed away somewhere." Suddenly that guilt went away and I thought I should just take the other ones too! :o) Okay, not really. Anyway...what a blessing they were to me!

I felt loved and I did feel special Sunday afternoon! I need to do more things like that - a surprise blessing to someone. I just hope Jesus never lays it on my heart to give away any of my baskets or over priced Coach, Dooney, Prada and Kate Spade purses I have in my closet. :o) haha!!

2008-06-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

MY DATE WITH ACTOR COLIN FIRTH

Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that you couldn't shake it?? The other night I had a dream about Colin Firth - I love this guy. I saw one of those enormous life size stand ups of him at the movies the other night advertising Mama Mia, so I guess that's why I dreamt of him.

In my dream I still lived at home and after the date he came into the house. After my parents went to bed we snuck into my bedroom. Now, all we did was kiss, seriously. I guess my dream skipped a little, because the next thing that happened was we woke up and he was in his underwear. My mom got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and that's when I woke up from the dream. But my heart was racing, I was sooooo nervous and even though I was awake, I was laying there trying to figure out how I was going to get Colin out of the house without getting caught. My parents driveway goes from the side of the house around to the back, which is where their bedroom is. I'm seriously laying there thinking how they will hear his car leave. Again, I'm awake, but it felt so real and I was all anxious. Then I rolled over and there was Darren with his back to me and I thought it was still Colin, so I sat up really fast to get him out of my bed. It was so strange.

Then I started laughing hysterically at myself once I came to my senses.

Ever have that happen to you???

2008-06-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

SUNDAY FUN DAY!!

Before I get into my Sunday...take a look at these pictures of Darren golfing, in Palos Verdes at the Trump Golf Course. These were taken last week. PLEASE - next time he talks about his stressful job, or how busy he is, ask him how the view of the Pacific Ocean was from the golf course!! :o)

Tough day at the office!!

Yesterday was the first Sunday that Darren and I didn't have any responsibilities at church - it was wonderful!! We actually got to ride together, attend together, leave together - quite a treat for us since we both are involved in different ministries. Of course, that didn't keep one of our pastor's calling at 9am needing help with the projector. I guess they looked for him at church, didn't seem, so called. Apparently Darren is the only one who can fix things??!! I don't think so, but I'll let this one go......

We decided to visit another church and went to Mariner's Church in Irvine/Newport Beach. Below is their 'courtyard.' They have a big campus with lots going on. It really was electrifying. Darren always invisioned LC doing something like this, an outside courtyard type behind the church, but all his hard work was poo-poo'd. But I'll let this one go...... Anyway, it looked big and a bit overwhelming at first, but once we got down the stairs and started looking around, it's clear that even though it's a big church, there are plenty of relationships and it felt very personal.

Darren took some pictures of inside the sanctuary. This is the choir and they were awesome. I liked that they not only sang with the congregation during the praise and worship, but they really had a presence and helped lead it in a way I haven't really experienced it before. It was beautiful.

Here is their Praise and Worship Team - did an awesome job.

Then Darren and I went out for lunch in Newport Beach - sat in an open courtyard area. It was really a beautiful day and we enjoyed lunching outside.

Then home for a nice Sunday afternoon nap and on to California Adventure. Daniel, Rhonda (Cherryholmes) new husband debuted last night as Prince Charming in the Electrical Parade. So we went to watch. Daniel didn't want us cheering for him or whistling, or clapping...he was so nervous and he didn't want us messing him up. That was very difficult for me - he totally took away my fun!! :o) As we saw Cinderella coming around the corner Pam told me to refrain myself! Darn it!! Here we are front and center on the front line - not letting anyone get by us!!

It's kind of hard to see Daniel - but he's the Prince there at the front of the float.

Another pic...not so great, but now you know who to look for when you are there. He works Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

So that was our Sunday. It's been a while since I've had a Sunday so relaxing and good like that. I thoroughly enjoyed my day and being with Darren, no responsibilities!!! Hmmmmm, maybe we should rethink this whole being involved in church thing!! :o) Hope you all had a nice weekend!!

2008-06-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

CATCH UP TIME!!!

Okay so I've got a couple months of catch up to do. It's amazing how blogs keep you connected. I was getting phone calls and e-mails wondering if everything was okay because I hadn't blogged. Last night my friend Donna Gisbert calls to remind me that I have one!! So here I am....

Some of these pics are from March, but I have been requested by a few people to please post some pics of a wedding I went to, so I am. I had planned to put a lot more pics up on each of these topics, but in separate posts. But since I'm doing this all at once, things are kind of abbreviated.

So here goes..........Starting now and going backwards.....

Here is Little Emma Platt opening her present from me and Darren. I went to Gymboree and roamed that store for over an hour. Oh my gosh that place has cute clothes. Even for one year old's, matching purses, hair things, socks, shoes, bracelets, so fun. I finally ended up with this, a cute pair of denim shorts and a pink top. Of course Emma preferred the bow that was on the box, but me and Jenny had fun with the outfit!

This was at Emma's one year birthday party and Glenn and Robin Garvin dedicated her. Robin brought Georgie and explained why we dedicate babies and then Glenn talked a few minutes and prayed over the family. I was honored to be a part of this. Glenn was so right when he said that when Jenny and Darrenn welcomed Emma into their family, we all felt like she was our baby too. We all had been praying for a long time for this to happen, so it seemed a little extra special celebrating her.

Here is the Platt Family again during the dedication. I'm not sure what Emma is saying here...Please don't take me tall man!! :o) Anyway, it was a great day and as always Jenny planned the perfect fun filled party!

Ooops...this is out of order...anyway....the next weekend was Mother's Day weekend and that meant the Pan Am Fiesta in Lakewood. Our church hosted a booth again this year and I was in charge of it, with the help of Holly and Mark Deojay it was a great success. I was really proud of our booth! We didn't win first place for the best decorated booth, the Girl Scouts did, undeservedly so might I add...but I'm not bitter, I'm just not buying anymore of their cookies!! ;o)

This is Cooper, our mascot. God Bless all those who wore him that weekend. Our music pastor, Marcus, was a great sport and wore it the last two hours of the weekend, after several people had sweated inside it...totally gross. We had a polaroid camera and took instant shots and kids and families with Cooper. That is a huge draw to our booth and we get to send them home with a great picture and memory from our church!

This year we did a backyard theme...basically trying to let people know that Life Center is in their backyard. So we made our booth a backyard. Darren built the fence that we placed inside the booth and instead of having kids do a craft this year, I had them put their handprints up on the fence and it was so cool. We have complete families who put their prints up there. The kids loved it.

We displayed the booth in our church foyer for the two weeks following and we actually some families visit our church because of the booth! How cool is that. I started crying when I saw two little girls showing their parents where their handprints were, this was a visiting family, and when they walked in and saw the display they got all excited.

I think this pic is funny...Dan and Mark came to help Darren set everything up and they were being neighborly!!

Here we are early Saturday morning...my birthday, May 10th!! I spent the entire weekend from early morning Saturday to about 7pm Sunday doing the Pan Am thing, so I kind of missed my birthday. Darren did go get dinner from Lucille's about 8:30 or 9:00p.m. Saturday, but I was so stinkin' pooped, I barely had the energy to eat. I did, of course, then headed off to bed. Anyway....the booth is cool, huh! We had a corner booth this year so we spread out as far as we could. We figured we just keep going until the city peeps told us not to. They never did!!!

Okay, so a couple weeks before that, April 20th, it was Darren's 39th birthday. His birthday fell on a Sunday, so we all went out to Roundtable for lunch after church and celebrated. He got gift cards to where else, Best Buy, so he was happy. I made cupcakes, so we had pizza and cupcakes! Then that night I fixed dinner for everybody who comes to our home fellowship and we had another birthday dinner for him. Next year is the big 4-0, so I must start saving for the party now because he wants me to either rent out a Best Buy or Fry's or he wants his party on top of an aircraft carrier!!

Darren took me to the Griffith Observatory a few weeks ago to watch the sunset and then hang out to see all the city lights of L.A. I love that place, it's so beautiful. I want to go back and hike around there. This is Darren getting a close up shot of the moon from the massive telescope.

Then we participated in Lakewood Volunteer Day. I was a site captain and got to wear an incredibly bright green shirt and give everybody orders..I LOVED IT!! It became the joke of the day..."The Green Shirt Has Spoken." We cleaned an older lady's home who does not have the finances or the physical ability herself to do it. She doesn't have family either, so we became her family for a day. This is the before shot of her back yard.

This is the group shot before we started working. Notice how clean we are now! We were pretty gross when it was done. But it was really great to be there helping her.

An after shot...we totally cleared out her backyard.

After working all morning, we went to a rec center, "the Airplane Park" on Woodruff and the city served everyone lunch and had raffles, gave our prizes and stuff. It was fun. I won a five pound bag of Starbucks coffee. I'm not a big Starbucks fan and I drink one cup a day..that's going to last me some time. I even gave a couple pounds away. Then I got some coupons to It's a Grind! Yes, now we are talking! That's my coffee of choice!!

Here are some pics from the wedding of March 8th. This is the bride and groom, Rhonda and Daniel. Darren and I were in charge of getting some things from the church to the reception as well as taking Rhonda and Daniel's things to their room at the hotel (where the reception was held). I'm sure the Cherryholmes will never give Darren the keys to anything again...later in the evening Darren and Dan ran some flowers and things to the couple's room and short sheeted their bed. I'm surprised they didn't do more.

This is the church. It's beautiful, isn't it. It sits on a bluff right on the water and it was so clear that day. Perfect day for a wedding. We all kept commenting about how in the world do people listen to their pastor, you just want to gaze out the huge picture windows.

Some of our fellow table dwellers!! Lori and Alvin!

I love this picture of Dan and Terri.

Me and Darren - Darren did something he's never done before..at least not with me. He danced. That good ole Assembly of God boy danced. The song he chose to dance to was a song sort of like Shout, where basically everybody was just jumping up and down. I guess he figured he could handle that!! It was cute, and felt really foreign considering Darren and I have never danced together. We have slow danced a couple of times, but that's it. I love to dance, so this was a real treat for me! :o)

Michelle and Tim - we had fun taking pictures of them because Darren was trying to get it right because of the lighting, flash, low flash, all that and Michelle kept posing for us!! I'm totally not making fun of you Michelle - it was cute!! :o)

The table...they had beautiful table settings.

Okay, so there you go. For those of you who have been nagging, now STOP IT!!! :o)

Until next time...

2008-03-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

I REALLY WANT TO DO THIS

Rocket Planned for Space Tourism

I read this story today about a California aerospace company that plans to make a rocket capable of suborbital flights going 37 miles ABOVE the earth!! 4-1/2 minutes of weightlessness to float before returning to earth. Can you imagine the view from 37 miles up. I have until 2010 to save $200,000 for the ride! That's two years - plenty of time to save that much money!! :o) SpaceShip Two will be flown by two pilots and can carry up to six passengers (at $200,000 a piece) - anybody want to join me??

2008-03-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

SO HAPPY TO BE HOME!!!

Home as in my 'original' home! My Illinois home! After the worst experience I've ever had at LAX (or any airport for that matter) early Tuesday morning, a very bumpy flight due to bad weather, a rough few hour drive from St. Louis to my parents' home in Southern Illinois, again, due to bad weather....I finally made it home!!! So happy!! We did stop at Cracker Barrel after we got out of St. Louis and on the Illinois side of the Mississippi - chicken and dumplins, fried okra, sweet glazed corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and sweet tea!! HEAVEN!!!

Tuesday night was spent inside because of the heavy duty downpours of rain and toronados flying around. It's been a long time since I've sat around the TV watching the weather and preparing for a toronado. It's flooding like crazy around here. Loving every minute of it! That is one of the things I miss most about the midwest, the change of seasons, so I like the cold rains and even though I'm terrified of high winds, I like the thunderstorms!

I got to go to school and pick up one of my nieces and one of my nephews. That is one of my favorite things to do when I'm home. When they saw me in the car they ran and smiled all the way to me....I'm loved by Olivia and Bryce. Seriously, these two are really good at loving their Aunt Debbie!! They are both 13, just a few days apart...Bryce belongs to my sister and Olivia belongs to my brother. We had so much fun hanging out. Then my two older nieces made time for me too...which is huge considering they are 16 and have quite the social lives. My sister came over for dinner with us and the kids, always great to catch up with her. That's me, Bryce, and Oliva from earlier today at the top!

Tomorrow is mom/dad/debbie day. We are heading to the mall to do some shopping, lunch out, basically bumming around. Then tomorrow night I'm heading to Benton, about 20 miles away, to spend the evening with my BFF Margaret. She was my BFF all through high school and college. We both were each other's maids of honor - so I can't wait to see her, her husband and boys.

Poor Darren called me and said, "did you already forget about me?" How cute is that?! I get so busy when I'm home that I don't check in - only at night before I head to bed!! It's good that he misses me!! :o)

Speaking of...probably should head to bed! Even though it's 11:30 here, for my body it's only 9:30, but my crazy aggravating dad likes to 'check' the fire alarm every morning about 6:00am!!! Read my previous post about my prankster father and you'll get it!

Donna G - my dad asked about you....wanted to know "how's my friend Donna doing?" I told him you were still the same Donna we know and love!!

2008-02-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

SWEETHEART DANCE 2008!

I don't have kids to post like so many of you do, but I love all my nieces and nephews as if they were my own....so here's one of my girls!! This is Sophie. She's 14 or maybe 15 - it's hard to keep count after they hit 13. She's off to the Sweetheart Dance at school. She had a date, but I didn't ask if I could post the guy's pic too, so I'm playing it safe and just showing her off.

Sweetheart back home is actually a Sadie Hawkins dance..the girls ask the boys. Of course we had our girlfriends ask first - "Debbie is thinking of asking you, would you go if she did!" How guys do that on a regular basis I don't know! I remember one particular dance, I think it was my junior year and I was with my BFF Margaret. I went with a guy named Neal and she went with John. We tended to collect every momento and we were both eyeing the table number in the center of the table. Now mind you, it was probably a piece of colored heavy paper folded in half with a number in fancy writing - but darn it, we wanted that for our bulletin boards and scrap books. We ended up tearing it in half. I bet if I look hard enough at my parents house, I'd find that table number. It's fun looking back!

Don't let her beauty fool you - she's quite the ornery one!!

2008-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

A NEW WAY TO WEIGH YOURSELF....GUARANTEED WEIGHT LOSS!!

My good friend Kim Short sent this to me and I thought it was pretty funny!! I'm thinking I like this new way!

2008-02-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

MINISTER TO COUPLES: SEX EVERYDAY!!!

I saw this article and it really struck me as funny.....
(Rhonda - do you think Bruce might preach on this any time soon??!!)

-----------------------------

MINISTER TO COUPLES: SEX EVERYDAY!!

YBOR CITY, Florida (AP) -- A southwest Florida church issued a challenge for its married members: Hanky panky every day.

Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth issued the 30-day sex challenge to take on high divorce rates.

"And that's no different for people who attend church," Wirth said Sunday. "Sometimes life gets in the way. Our jobs get in the way."

The challenge doesn't extend to unwed congregants, however.

-----------------------------

I'm glad to see that they didn't offer this to the ENTIRE congregation - only wedded congregants!

Do I dare ask if any of you are up to the challenge??!! :o)

2008-02-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

ICE ICE BABY

My family's currently buried under two inches of ice. Illinois got hit pretty hard in the last few days. I love ice storms - they are so pretty, talk about glistening. Of course they are pretty dangerous, which is why the whole town pretty much shuts down!

When that happens it's warm brownie, hot chocolate, and yahtzee time. That's what we used to do ALL day when we were home from school during ice storms. And pray that the electric lines don't break and we lose electricity!! Brrrrrrr.

It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but the trees and streets are covered in a thick layer of ice.

2008-02-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

THE 'HOW TO' FOR TODAY.....

Google is our home page when we log on and everyday there are a couple "How To's" - how to bake the perfect cherry pie...how to sew this and that....all sorts of how to's. The How To for today was "How To Get Pregnant." Infertility issues have been our problem for the 12+ years we've been married, but I thought, hey, maybe I'll learn something new.......

So I click........

"How To Get Pregnant"
STOP ALL CONTRACEPTION

Oh man.............so THAT'S our problem!!!!!!!!! :o) So I wasn't supposed to take a birth control pill the same time I was taking a fertility pill??

I couldn't help but crack up. I just think that's hysterical!!

2008-02-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

PRETTY PICTURE OF HOME!!

It snowed last week in my little town of DuQuoin, Illinois. Mom and dad always send me pictures of it knowing how much I miss the midwestern winters. We have lots of pictures throughout the years of us standing in the yard, sometimes the snow was only at our ankles, sometimes to our knees and higher!!! We didn't always know how many inches fell, because our gauge was how we looked when we stood in it. My weirdo dad actually offered to pose naked in the front yard for a picture once the snow stopped falling to see how much they got - I passed on that one thank you very much!! (you should thank me too!!!!)

My parents live across the street from the Illiois State Fairgrounds, which is acres and acres of beauty. Here is a picture of a cute little bridge at the fairgrounds. We've taken many pictures there. When we had snow days from school we all headed to the fairgrounds for an entire day of sledding!! So many memories - so much fun!!

2008-01-31T10:31:00.000-08:00

WHAT'S UP YOU ASK....NOT MUCH!!

First, a fun pic! Simon has decided he likes my office chair. He will circle it until I get up, just as soon as I stand up he jumpes up in it and gets comfortable. So because he's so spoiled and I respond to his every request as cat owners do - I push the chair back away from the desk. If I push too fast or accidentally spin it he let's me know by lifting his head and meowing. Jeez - talk about living like a king!! So here he is relaxing!

Now I must sit back down and transcribe from a dining room chair! Which actually I prefer! Because of the straight back, lack of arms, and harder seat I have better typing posture. Of course it drives Darren crazy that I do this, so we only do it when he's not at home!!! :o) Darren never checks my blog, so shhhhhhhhhh. But it's kind of fun having my cat for company during the day. I've asked for his help on medical terms, but so far he just raises one eyelid and closes it back up, much too busy to help me.

I'M TOTALLY OBSESSED WITH GROCERIES!!! Christy Platt posted on her blog a while back about The Grocery Game. So I went to the link and now I've become obsessed, possessed, you name it. From that site I've found links to other helpful sites, sites with coupons, how to's, etc. We looked over our spending last year and boy did we waste a lot of money. I found myself going to the grocery store about every other day spending $40 here, $50 there and then major shopping too, trips to Target - not good. So one of the things I wanted to focus on regarding our finances this year was how I handle the grocery shopping. I wanted to be a better steward with that. It takes time, but I don't mind. I actually feel like I'm doing something productive for my household. I'm actually going today after 1pm to Albertsons because they are having an eight hour sale that starts then and I have coupons for some of the products - I'm pumped to find out how much I've saved!! Here's a few pics of my coupon binder.

I have made categories - non-perishables, dairy, frozen foods, produce, etc. SO COOL!! I guess I've become a grocery geek!! This is way easier than fumbling through an envelop full of coupons. Then as I put things in my basket, I pull from the sleeve and put it in the pocket up front. I'll have my list on a post it on the inside. Can you tell I'm very impressed with myself!! :o)

My island is coming in very handy for this. I can totally spread out and make a plan!! Darren mistakingly threw out this weeks ads and messed up my organized piles - well, let's say he'll never do that again!!! :o)

Back to work for a bit and then off the grocery store!!

UPDATE: Grocery total: $142.87 minus club savings of $89.07 minus coupons $19.85 equals $33.95. Plus I earned a coupon for free 12 pack of soda and a free loaf of fresh french bread from the bakery!! I ROCK!!! :o)

2008-01-15T09:31:00.000-08:00

BUSY WEEKEND....

Friday night started with a sleep over for nine teenagers!! Janae and Wendy asked if they could have a sleep over at the house and I ALWAYS say yes...as long as I get to hang with them then they can come!! We talked first kisses - I was the youngest to get my first kiss! Scarey! Painted toe nails getting ready for the winter formal that was the following day! Ate pizza, brownies, cookies, candy, chips and dip, tortilla chips and yummy melted cheese, hostess snacks....then about 10:00pm ordered more pizza because they were still hungry!! We talked guys, of course, purses, clothes, hair, and yes, we did talk a bit about other people - but we were nice!! I think that's why I love having those girls over - we had such a great time just hanging out, listening to music and eating!! We didn't talk bills, lack of money to pay our bills, we didn't talk weight or how much fat that twinkie had in it! We didn't talk husbands and how they drive us crazy. We didn't talk work or about the stresses of it all. So, I'm going to have an adult sleep over and we are going to talk boys, hair, purses, do nails, etc. No grown up talk!! Anybody want to come?? Here are a few picks of our lazy night!

Saturday I spent doing errands, running around, had to be up at church for a skit rehearsal we did on Sunday night - which was really fun!! Wish I had pics to post. Then Sunday we attended church with our friends David and Keri Simmons who some of you might remember used to attend Life Center. They now attend a great little church down town Long Beach that is an Angelican church. It's certainly quite different than what we are used to, but I did enjoy it. I love the church and its feel. There was something that was just really comforting about that little church. Iain got baptized Sunday morning and we were asked to be his god parents. We met with their pastor before the service and he explained to us all of our responsibilities as a god parent and wow - pretty heavy stuff!! That is not something we practice in our faith, but I wish we did. It was such an honor to stand up on that platform with him and be with David and Keri that day and know that they invited us - US - into their lives the way they did. We spent the day at their house having a celebration in honor of Iain.

Saturday afternoon I went by Kimberly Deojay's to see how pretty she looked in her winter formal dress - look how tall her boyfriend is!! Mark, her dad, asked me to stay as they prayed a blessing over the couple before they headed out, which I gladly did. Isn't she so pretty and so grown up - when did that happen?!

So I had a great weekend - what felt like a family filled weekend!! Hung out with my girls from church, got to pray with parents for my teenage friend Kim, and then stood up as godparents for Iain - I had a GREAT weekend!! I love being a part of my surrogate families out here!

2008-01-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

HELLO AGAIN - I HAVE RETURNED TO THE WORLD OF BLOGGING!!

I'm sure some of you have probably stopped checking my blog since I haven't posted in like three years! I have been keeping up on my reading of the blogs, just not very good at posting on mine. Just some highlights below!!

Of course the pictures aren't in order and when I try to rearrange I lose them, or they get turned upside down, etc. So I gave up...you'll just have to see things out of order!! I didn't bother asking people if I can post their picture, so if you see yourself here, hey, do you mind??!!

The first picture is from New Year's Eve - I actually cropped myself out of this one, but it didn't stick....anyway, these are some of my favorite peeps! Wendy, Leah and Greg!! We went to the Kennedys for a non party New Year's Eve party!!

We had our first California Christmas this year. Darren's parents came out for the holidays instead of us going home. This is Barry and Chris, aka Mom and Dad Williams at the beach in Santa Monica on Christmas morning. While I stayed home and cooked Christmas dinner, Darren took his parents all over Los Angeles to see the sites on Christmas morning/day. It was great because nobody was on the road, they actually got around the city and saw lots of things!! More than they would have seen had it been a regular day. I missed being home with my family - that was tough as it was the first year EVER being away from them during Christmas. But since we stayed home to be with Darren's family this year, next year we are just staying in DuQuoin - my little home town in Illinois. Trying to trade off - so next year my parents get us all to themselves!! Although after a few days my dad may tell me to go visit the in-laws!!! :o)

This is Darren carving our Christmas turkey - isn't it just so pretty. It was so big it barely fit on my platter - there wasn't even any room on it to decorate it with parlsey pieces or any kinds of pretties!!! I wanted that Norman Rockwell painting look of us sitting around the table while the turkey is being carved...didn't quite make it. Plus, it was later in the evening on Christmas night, we were all in our comfy clothes, not exaclty picture perfect!!

Here's Mom and Dad Williams again at the Getty Villa in Malibu. We spent part of the day down there and then went to Gladstones on the beach in Malibu for some fish. It was a really gorgeous day and the Villa is just beautiful. I love going there. We are sitting outside the restaurant for dinner and as we were watching the sunset it got REALLY cold. We kind of rushed through dinner because they were too cold to sit outside. Me, well I was in direct setting of the sun, so it was right on me and I was actually warm. I wanted to stay for some coffee and watch the sun go down completely...wimps!! :o)

We took his parents to see The Glory of Christmas....Darren couldn't refuse a picture. He got caught and was told to put his camera away!! Here's one illegal shot.

This is our youth pastor, Pastor Matt and his now wife Danielle. They got married on January 5th and even though the weather caused them to move the wedding inside, it was still a very sweet wedding and fun reception. They are honeymooning in Hawaii. Kyle, his best man, gave a great toast, it was so neat to see two men and how close their friendship is. Kyle couldn't make it through his speech without tears and Matt was trying to hold it together as well. Me, well of course I was crying right along with them!!

Donna posted a picture of Lenny on her blog of him dancing like crazy. We have those pics too, but ours are fuzzy. I guess he was just boogying down too fast!! Here is an adorable picture of these two at our table.

This is Matt at his bachelor party - He's putting on a show of some sort. Of course, I can't get the picture to turn back the right way, so tilt your head and you can see it better!! :o) Darren had a great time with these guys. I actually wanted to go too - but I wasn't allowed!!

Back to New Year's Eve - we first went to the Platts for a Pajama Party. This is Darren, Jenny, Dylan and Emma - aren't they just the cutest family ever!! Emma fits right in - you can tell she is her mother and father. The girl was held by everybody, but she just played along and didn't get irritated at all. She's quite the social butterfly!

This is Michele and Jenny singing to a game - looked like fun. I've played it with my nieces and I kept laughing too hard to score anything!!

So that's pretty much been it for the past month, we had company after Christmas. Darren's cousin and his wife from Champaign Illinois came out for the Rose Bowl. They are both Illini alumni. They stayed a week with us. I'm just now taking down my tree - today!!

Um...what else?? I'm no longer working with my friend Dave at his Remax office. I am back at home doing medical transcription. Real estate wasn't my thing, so I'm back doing what I do and know best!!!

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

2007-11-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

WHO EXACTLY IS DEBBIE WILLIAMS???

I was bored this evening and was checking out MySpace pages and blogs of some friends, googling, etc. So I decided to google Debbie Williams. Who is she you ask??

Well, Debbie's a....
*Painter of portraits.
*Certified hypnotist.
*Teacher of belly dancing.
*Realtor in O'Fallon, MO.
*Author, speaker, and organizing strategist who offers tools to help put your life in order in Houston, TX.
*TV Reporter in Pensacola, FL.
*Accounts Payable Specialist at the University of New England.
*Vice-President of an advertising company in Macon, GA.
*Teacher of pottery/clay in Phildelphia, PA.
*Playwright in NY.
*School counselor in North Carolina.
*Principal at an elementary school in Texas.

She's also someone who is suing the state of Kentucky over flood zones.

She's married...
*Jeff.
*Brandon.
*Clark.
*Bob.
*Jim.
*Miles.
*and, oh yeah...Darren.

How fun would it be to be a different Debbie Williams every day?! Although belly dancer...I'm thinking a big fat NO!!! But I would like to be a TV reporter, an author, a public speaker, and paint. Maybe I could make that a reality show - switching lives with a person who has your name. Hmmmmm.................

2007-11-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

THE LITTLE THINGS....

Darren is still out of town so today, Saturday, was spent me cleaning the house from top to bottom. I like Darren to come home to a clean house. Not just clean - but deep down clean and in order.

This morning I started cleaning our plantation shutters. We didn't close our windows for a day or two after the fires started and I didn't realize how much gunk had crept in the house and stuck to them. I couldn't just just do a dust over, I had to clean them with a degreaser type cleaner. They look beautiful again - white and clean, but boy was I cursing those fires this morning. I had to do more than dust, which slowed me down in my day. But then I got hit in the head and heart with a HUGE knock, that I'm sure came from the Lord. I immediately thought of all the people whose clean up is not dusting, but picking up the pieces of their lives. I had dust over my table that sits close to the windows where others no longer have a table to sit at, a dining room, or a window to bother cleaning. After my initial punch in the gut feeling, as I worked throughout the day around the house I couldn't get the fires and the people out of my head. I was really burdened for these people I did not know, so all day long I prayed for them.

Then as I was moving about my house things that I have looked at a thousand times I looked at as though it was the first time today and thanked the Lord for 'the little things.' Those little things that cannot be replaced. I went through a cookbook and found a soup recipe my mom had handwritten for me. I know the recipe by heart, and I even have it on a recipe card in my recipe box, but I will never throw that handwritten one away. I have a little bear that is about three inches tall that held a small charm Darren got me for Valentine's Day four years ago. That bear probably cost him $2, but it held my gold gift and I still display the little stuffed bear. I used one of my favorite spoons tonight while making dinner. I sat on the couch and read, covered in my favorite blue throw that a friend got us as a wedding gift 12 years ago this month. As I sit here at the desk, I'm looking at a softball that Darren got hit with a couple years ago while playing - fractured his left orbital rim; the guys on the team all signed it - Darrenn Platt signed it "Eye Nose you'll feel better soon." A painful, but good memory now. On the same shelf is our Academy Award that we won at the Platt's Oscar party last year. When I go to bed tonight I will be sleeping in sheets and under a comforter that Darren picked out for our newly remodeled bedroom. I just kept thinking, if I lost my home to fire, I could not replace those items, those memories.

So today I am very thankful that God let me see my house and my 'stuff' in a way that made me appreciate my life and my home even more. I didn't spend my day complaining any more about cleaning it...I was thankful for every room I walked in, every piece of clothing and towel I folded, every dish I washed.

I still feel heavy hearted and I will continue to pray for those people who were affected by the fire. Now, go walk through your house and look at all your 'little things,' for the first time...again!

2007-10-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

MY HUBBY IS COLD!!!

Darren left very early yesterday morning for Detroit. I'm so jealous - it's getting down in the low 40's with rain...and it may even get down to the 30s. I love love love cold weather. We packed his long sleeve shirts - something he doesn't wear much out here. And he took his really great black leather jacket that he looks SOOOOOOOOOOOO good in - another item he rarely wears out here. I should totally be there - enjoying the cold weather and looking at my handsome hubby in his black jacket.....ahhhhhhh Heaven!! :o)

Although I must say I was feeling a little guilty leading up to his trip - I was actually looking forward to some down time alone. The past couple months have been so stinkin' busy that I was looking forward to not worrying about laundry, ironing his shirts, sleeping through a peaceful night (without the snoring and teeth grinding!), and being able to eat a bowl of cereal for dinner!!! I was talking to my friend Teena Sunday night at our church's fall festival and she said she understood what I was talking about and she too has had those same feelings - so I felt less guilty!!! It's so funny how we can love our spouses sooooooooooo much, but have those moments where we just want some peace and quiet!! But I do miss him and by Wednesday I will really miss him. He's not coming home until 10pm Sunday - the weekends are the worst - I will REALLY MISS HIM then. The Bee Movie opens Friday, anybody want to loan me their kids that night and I'll take them to the movies?!

For now I'm enjoying my down time. Last night I didn't turn on the TV, the radio - nothing. It was totally peaceful and wonderful! I cleaned out the pantry! Tonight after youth I'm cleaning out the magazine racks which is a huge job since I re-read all the mags and go through them!! For some reason I just can't pitch magazines!

Anyway, tonight I think I'll have a can of soup in a plastic bowl!! Easy to fix, easy to clean!! :o)

2007-10-23T21:02:00.001-07:00

OUR DANCING LESSONS....

Darren and I are going to Mexico in a few weeks and thought that we would take some dance lessons. We videotapes ourselves to see what we need to do to improve. Let me know what you think. Are we ready for Mexico???

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

2007-10-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

MEOW AND MY SHADOW!!!

Okay, so not much to report right now - busy at work, been busy doing lots of work for Disney transcribing - but that's about it. But I figured I needed to update my blog so here I am! I was reading this newspaper from Britain on line and saw this article about babies that look like cats - so I thought I'd post some of the pics. How fun are these??!!

2007-09-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

WANNA SEE MY NEW STUFF??

When we were on vacation last month we were shopping and I told Darren I wanted a little china tea pot and sugar/creamer set to put in my little curio. I don't have much in there now, so I just wanted a little something. As we were looking around he asked me how many people were in my bunko group. I tell him 12. The next thing I know he's up at the register asking the sales clerk if they have 12 saucer/dessert plates. They didn't, but they found them at other stores and shipped them to us. So my wonderful husband bought me not only the tea pot, sugar, and creamer, but 12 sets of dessert dishes. According to Royal Dutton, this pattern is THE most popular, so you may recognize it.

Last weekend it was my turn to host bunko, so instead of the usual three games, we played two games and then we had tea and dessert!! Here's a picture of the group enjoying my gift! It was really fun. This was the first bunko I hosted since our remodel, so the theme was kitchen. I had everybody bring a recipe and while we enjoyed tea and dessert we exchanged recipes. I can't wait to try them all!

Here's a close up - the plate is pretty small, not even big enough for a piece of pie, but I guess when you are drinking from a tea cup - holding up your pinky of course - you are to eat lemon scones in small bite sizes! You could go hungry being all proper!! :o)

Then last night Darren bought me a new car!! I didn't ask for it - in fact, it was tough giving up my Mazda. I loved my little blue Mazda. But Darren got a deal he just couldn't pass up. Now that he works for Polk, we don't have to only drive Nissan, Suzuki is a client of his, so that's what we got! Since they are a client, Polk employees get a discount on their vehicles on top of whatever sale they may be having. So we took advantage of it. It had 10 miles on it when we drove it out of the lot. And it has that yummy new car smell!! No McDonald's french fries in this baby!! It seats seven, so now I can tote lots of peeps around!

It has a sun/moon roof - I've never had that before, kind of fun! Let me know if you know where a drive in theater is - perfect for a drive-in!! It has a navigation system already built in and a year of free satellite radio. So now I can drive anywhere without getting lost - I have a horrible sense of direction. In St. Louis I always just looked up until I saw the arch, then I knew where I was. Unfortunately, L.A. has yet to build me a big monument to help guide me!! But now they don't have to!

Isn't it pretty?

Darren took it to work today. I have to drive over to Burbank this morning and I didn't want to drive it in traffic just yet. I'd like to have a better feel of it first. Plus, Darren is learning all the bells and whistles, where things are and I need an orientation before I start driving it!!

I love new stuff!! :o)

2007-09-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

HOW CUTE ARE MY NIECES???

It was homecoming this past weekend in my little town of DuQuoin, Illinois. I used to love homecoming in high school. The week leading up to homecoming was filled with building our big floats, parties, cruising from the Dairy Queen to Food Park about 100 times, TP'ing, bon fires, and just hanging out with friends!! So fun! Back then teachers wouldn't give homework so we could enjoy Spirit Week and be out every night! I can't remember if it was my junior or senior year but my bestest friend Margaret and I sang "Oh Mickey You're So Fine," until we were practically hoarse!! I'm pretty sure we were obnoxious about it, but at the time we probably thought we were just so cool!!

This is my niece Kayla - she is 16 and my sister's daughter. She has a lot of my characteristics - poor girl! She has my laugh, my smart mouth, and sense of humor. My sister's always telling me things she says and does that are me! I think the dress is a bit short and a bit low cut, but she does look pretty.

This is my brother's second - the middle child!! Sophie is so quick witted that it's hard to keep up with her. Her and I just badger each other when we are together, but we have so much fun. Even with me and my dad together trying to out wit her - we just can't do it!! How cute is she?!

This is MacKenzie, my brother's oldest. She's also 16 and very much a girl's girl!! Her myspace is filled with lots of pictures of herself posing and being all cute!!

Here are the two sisters together!!

Sophie is a freshman and MacKenzie (and Kayla) is a junior. Man how time flies. I remember when each of them were born. It's amazing how fast they've grown up. It was strange the first time I had an 'adult' conversation with them. I can't wait to see them when I'm home next!!

2007-09-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

LOVIN' THESE COOL EVENINGS AND NICE BREEZES IN THE DAY!!

HOPE IT RAINS AND GETS EVEN COLDER - I'M READY FOR A POT OF CHILI!!!

That's all...just that!!!

2007-09-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

AIN'T WE FANCY??!!

Last weekend our friends, the Cherryholmes, hosted an engagement party at our house for their daughter Rhonda and her fiance Daniel. I love doing these kinds of things - in fact, if you took my 'get to know me quiz' you learned that as an adult I would love to be a chef and cater fancy parties for rich people (because they have the big houses and cool kitchens)!!! Unfortunately I can't cook like a chef and I don't have the creativity, but I like to try!! Pam let me get pretty involved in planning and I even convinced them to cater only part of the food and let met cook up the rest. Our friend Wendy helped, and Pam and me we outcooked the caterers! We got more compliments on our items!! Yes, it was fun going, "oh, that one was me!!" :o) How snotty am I?! Pretty snotty!!

Anyway, the pictures below are some highlights - they are out of order and I got frustrated trying to maneuver them around, so excuse the poor display!

Okay, so the picture is of Rhonda and Daniel, but we had a dessert spread laid out on our coffee table in the family room - check out the baby bundts. Pam and I searched the world over for baby bundt pans, because we wanted pretty little bundts! We could only do four or six at a time, then we decorated them, I shaved carrots to line the platter for the carrot cake ones, we decorated with raspberries and would you believe only about three or four were eaten. Cheesecake - everybody wanted cheesecake. We kept having to clean the platters, reload more cheesecake and decorate again and again (Greg Cherryholmes is quite the artist!!). It was fun, but darn it, I wanted someone to eat a bundt cake!!

Here is one of the pictures of our back yard. We hung white lights and it looked great with the Tiffany colored tableclothes and white roses!

This is the front food table. We put some of our appetizers on this one. I don't know if you can see the frames, but I put in the frames what meal Rhonda and Daniel shared on their first date and the night they got engaged. Kind of fun food facts about them!

The two above pictures were taken aftewards. That's me in the kitchen, I'm working on something there - or I'm crying from exhaustion!!! :o) The table with all the left over items - what belongs to who?! I was hoping one of the crystal vases would get 'accidentally' left behind, but no such luck!

Since the party wasn't really about me I should include a picture of the happy couple!! This is the end of the evening and they are opening up their gifts and cards. By the smile on their faces I'd say they liked the cash!!

Okay, this one is for fun! I know that Dave looks at my blog every once in a while and so do his girls, Lori and Michelle - but look at his plate - apparently the dessert/salad sized plates just weren't big enough!!!

Another view of outside - wish we had better pictures - it really was a romantic feeling evening!!

2007-09-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

My Lucy is in Kitty Heaven now.

This is Simon's mommy Lucy. I just wrote about Lucy and Simon a couple of posts ago. For the last few weeks Lucy hadn't been eating and became very lethargic. Lucy lives with Darren's parents back home in Missouri. So Grandpa Williams took her to the vet and there was nothing they could do for her. She was put down this morning. She used to follow Grandpa around all the time and liked hanging out with him at his shop - which is a big garage that Darren's dad piddles in - see my birdhouse in a previous post!! So Lucy was taken home and buried next to the shop. She turned ten in May, so being an outdoor cat who had a huge yard - acres - to roam, she actually lived a long time.

Lucy was a petite little cat who is just beautiful with cool markings. I'm surprised at how I have reacted to her death. Darren told me this morning before he left for work - as I was putting on my make up - and I burst into tears. I've been weepy all day. Even though Lucy has not lived with us for several years now, I'm still incredibly sad.

To some of you, I'm sure you are thinking I have a strange and abnormal attachment to my pets - maybe I do. But I blame that on Darren and I not having children - my mothering/nurturing side has to go somewhere and the only place is my pets. So yes, today I mourn for Lucy, my cat that Darren let me bring home with me while visiting his parents on Father's Day, 1997.

I would like to ask you cat haters out there to please leave your anti-cat comments to yourself this time. :(

A close up shot - isn't she just so pretty with her white mustache!!

2007-09-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

GIVE ME A MOMENT TO COMPLAIN.....

Take a look at this picture of the brain - see the little colored area, that's the pituitary gland. If you read a previous post, you know I have a lesion on it which has caused havoc on my body.

Here's where I'm complaining - Can you believe something so little can cause so much trouble!!! I'm sick of it and I'm wondering if I could just make a small incision in my head and laser the lesion/growth off!! I've been taking Parlodel for four months now and I've had some side affects - not sleeping as much, a crazy appetite, I can't get full. I'm hungry all the time. If I don't eat, I get headaches and shakes - it's like I haven't eaten in a week which is why I've gained like 100 pounds in three months! Everything seems to be in overdrive....and I do mean EVERYTHING!! (My husband hasn't complained yet!!) haha!!! Too much info??

Anyway...I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and he put me on another med to try to counter some of these side affects. I took them together last night and today I've been soooooo dizzy, major headache, throwing up, sweating like crazy - even though today is our first wonderfully cool day in a while, and I'm so stinkin' sleepy. I called my doctor and the pharmacist. I'm not supposed to take them together - in fact the pharmacist said, "Oh my gosh - you should NEVER do that," in this frantic tone. I'm supposed to take them at least four hours apart if not more.

So I'm just a little grumpy because I'm tired - I'm tired of dealing with it, I'm tired of taking one med to try and shrink the mass, bring prolactin levels down, and make certain organs/systems work appropriately. Then I take another pill to try to keep side affects from happening so extreme from the first pill.

I will probably be on Parlodel the rest of my life. The lesion/mass could eventually become dormant in my head, but that can take three to ten years. If that ever happens then I can go off the meds. But for now, it looks like I'm in for the long haul of med taking. YUCK!!!!! If I take the Parlodel too late at night and get up early, I'm dizzy and weird feeling all day. I hate this medication - it's running and ruining my life!! Yes, I'm a little dramatic right now - I know, but that's what I'm feeling now. Plus, it makes the blog entry much more interesting, don't you think?!

I know I shouldn't complain. There are people out there who suffer a lot more than I do from things much more serious and life threatening - I'm just having a pity party tonight and thought I'd invite you all in with me!!!

Thanks for coming!!

2007-09-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

HOT HOT HOT NIGHT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL

We went to the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night to Movie Night. Every year they host a movie night with a different theme. This year it was the history of Paramount Pictures. The orchestra played theme songs and original music from several of Paramount's biggest movies. While that was going on we were seeing clips of the movies on huge screens. Leonard Nimoy was the host for the evening and since my husband is a geek boy who likes Star Trek, he was very excited about this!!

It was a really fun night, but sooooooooooo hot. At intermission we all stood up to stretch and relax and it was actually pretty gross - we all stunk!!! :-) Thank goodness some people behind us left and we spread out - that actually helped a lot. But it was still an enjoyable evening. I love going to the Bowl - and I love sitting right in the middle and seeing the Hollywood sign right above it on the mountain side!

If you squint, you can see the Hollywood sign at a distance!!

This is us doing the picnic thing before the concert. Lots of people had the same idea, so we found a spot behind one of the buildings on the grounds. We all brought something and contributed to the meal - we had a hodge podge of food - the only way to have a meal!!! :-)

The best (and only way to me) to get to the Bowl is via the shuttles they offer. We made it home in less than an hour - that includes the trip back to the parking long, and the drive home! No traffic, no waiting for the parking lot to empty, etc. We were saying next year we are going to invite as many people as we can and fill a shuttle!! How fun would that be??!!

2007-08-30T21:59:00.001-07:00

TAKE THIS QUIZ - HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW ME!!

I'm not sure what the rule is for copying other blogs - but I'm doing just that. This quiz is floating around and I've taken it a few times on some of my friends. Now let's see how you score!!

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=070830171610-810360&

2007-08-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

My Sleeping Simon

How cute is my cat?! He has never been one to jump on the furniture, but in the last couple of weeks he's decided he likes our sofa table. He sits on the bottom and watches TV with us or as you see here, naps!

August is also Simon's birthday - but I knew if I did a special Birthday Blog for Simon like I did my parents I'd probably get razzed (DonnaG) because some of my friends don't like cats (DonnaG)!!!

When we moved to California in 2000 we had a cat, Lucy and a dog, Gracie, but had to leave them behind since we were moving from a house in MO with a big back yard to an apartment in CA. Wasn't sure where we'd end up. So Gracie went with my sister and Lucy is with Grandma and Grandpa Williams (aka Darren's parents). We hadn't taken away Lucy's woman power yet and she gave birth to a couple litters. When we were home in October of 2001 Darren surprised me by letting me bring Simon home. Simon had to have papers to fly and enter California, so Darren took care of all that. How sweet was that!! Simon was such a little fluff ball and traveled really well - except for the small bout of diarrhea on the plane coming home that Daddy took care because I was too busy laughing hysterically and gagging!! Why didn't we bring Lucy you ask?? She liked being outdoors and had adjusted to the MO weather and was very happy where she was. She's still with Grandma and Grandpa and I get to see her everytime we go home.

Simon is a cat - through and through!! Stubborn, demanding, stuck up one minute, loves me the next!! Yes, I respond to his every meow!!

This afternoon I had Simon's friend Gwenivier (sp??) over - the cat next door - and they shared an expensive can of fancy cat food in celebration of Simon's birthday!

2007-08-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

LIFE CENTER CHURCH FAMILY CAMPOUT

We headed up to Big Bear this past weekend for our annual church campout. We were really blessed with great weather - nice cool days and even cooler nights!! It was high alert for fires, but they did let us have them, so everybody got to sit around the campfire and have their smores in the evening! We did have a little rain yesterday and it was soooo cool! It was getting darker and darker, a little windier, thunder rolling. It rained a short time and then it was over, the sun came back out and it was wonderful!

I love the campouts because people come together - it's more than us passing each other in the foyer of church for a quick 'hi' on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to camp at the site because they didn't have electricity (can't sleep without my CPAP!) - so we rented a house on the other side of the lake from the camp grounds. But we did spend time at the campground during the day and evening and watched people help set up camps for the others - people sharing food - people making themselves at home at others sites - kids playing with each other - parents taking a break and going for a walk/bike ride leaving their kids with other adults and not having to worry about them. While we were all having our picnic lunches around noon on Saturday Dan and Terri got a call from Dan's mom that his dad had passed out and was on the way to the ER, his blood pressure was 60-something over nothing - the bottom number of his BP bottomed out. It was pretty serious. He asked that we pray and we all stopped what we were doing and gathered around to do just that. Then the 'family' kicked in. Pam and I told them we'd take the girls while they drove to Riverside to see his dad (who was helping family move in the Riverside area), Darren handed over our GPS, and Ron, Darren, and several others went to work on their camper, zipping it up, etc., preparing for the rain and Dan and Terri headed down the mountain. It was so awesome to see the family pull together like that. We took the girls into town and spoiled them as best we could, arcade, shopping, and junk food!! We got a call that his Dad was conscious and alert - praise the Lord. Then we get another call - he may need to stay a day or two for observation, but he's fine. Praise the Lord again. And then came another call - He's going home!! A HUGE Praise the Lord!!!!! We were so thrilled to get that call. We were in K-Mart and we stopped right there and we thanked the Lord for healing Brittany and Brooke's grandpa.

So that's why I love the campouts - our family comes together in so many ways!! Below are some fun pictures!!

This is all of us being spiritual - some of us are raising our hands in praise and some of us have our heads bowed in prayer!! Are you convinced?? :-)

Group picture of the campers!!

Here we are this morning - Sunday morning - at 'church.' Pastor George did a quick devotion - it was short and sweet, but really good! He had people share about what they were thankful for, for the weekend - it was great to hear the blessings - "laughter," "more bonding," "renewed friendships" "prayer in time of need" "helping first time RV campers set up." Very cool!

We rented a pontoon boat and spent part of the day on the lake - here's one of our sailors at the end of the day!

Captain Brooke guiding us through the waters!!

Have you ever seen a floating outhouse?? We were joking as we were coming up on it that that's what it was, then we pulled up next to it and oh my gosh - a floating outhouse!!! How fun is that??!!

Here's a group just hanging out!!

A great time had by all!!!

2007-08-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my Mother!!

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my dad since it was his birthday, Friday, the 24th is my mom's, so now it's her turn to be loved via the internet!!

While my dad contributed to my humor, silly side, I've definitely got my mom's emotions. I also inherited from her side my bra size!! You should see some of my aunts - holy cow!! :-) Too much information?? Maybe, but it's true!!

My mom was the 'song leader' at our church for years and years. We didn't grow up with music ministers or music pastors - but I guess if we did, my mom would have been one. Even at 69 her voice is still strong when she sings. People always requested her to sing. Her song of choice - as well as that of the congregation's - was a song about meeting her Master. Every time she sang that song she herself was moved. My mom has always been very passionate about her Lord Jesus. Of course I do remember a time when I was pretty young that she walked off the platform and started a "Jerico March," and over half the church joined her, singing and praying around the church. I remember sitting in my pew thinking she was a crazy woman - what the heck is she doing!!! haha!!

Mom always loved me, my brother and sister and hardly a day went by when she didn't tell us. She always let us know when she was proud of us. Now she's that way with her seven grandkids. My 22-year-old nephew always pops over for grandma to iron his shirts before he goes out. My younger nieces and and another nephew like to go spend the night and play dominos with her all night! She makes sure there's something to drink in the fridge and popsicles in the freezer and usually a candy dish full of something!

I love going home because even at 41 she still treats me like the little kid I once was - and yes, I totally take advantage of it!! I LOVE it!!! :-)

So have a great day mom! I hope when you read this you have received your gift I sent!! I Love you MUCH!!

2007-08-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

MY SUPER FUN NIGHT WITH SOME OF MY GIRLFRIENDS!!

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Tonight I went and saw Mama Mia at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with six of my friends - Pam, Carol, Renee, Missy, Teresa, and Robin - I'm sure most of you know who they are without last names and know they are a fun bunch of gals!

We started out the night complimenting each other about our great hair, great blouse, great shoes, you know, those things our husbands don't always do!! We had a GREAT time being girls. Before the show we giggled, laughed way too loud, talked inappropriately at times (that only you can do with friends!), and ate too much at dinner WITHOUT talking about how many calories or fat grams we just consumed! And Missy was taking pictures throughout the night capturing all the craziness!

On the way home Pam's Sequoia was blaring with more laughter and more inappropriate conversations!! Good thing tomorrow is Sunday - we can get our religion back!! I felt like a goofy teen again. It was great just being with girlfriends for a night of fun, food, and theater! We don't drink, so we didn't have any alcoholic beverages, but we were joking that if we did can you imagine how much more loud and obnoxious we would have been!!

Some highlights - that the girls didn't believe I would post!!
*As I was fluffing my hair in the restraunt bathroom, a girl said to me she really liked my curls and hair and then winked at me. I think she was flirting! I grabbed Robin's shoulders and followed her out and said, "I'm with her." I probably should have flashed my wedding ring - but no, I said I was with another girl!! What was I thinking??
*Robin sat next to a guy who "copped a feel" on a body part located in the upper region as she sat down. But from the looks of the guy, we think she's safe!!! :-)
*We were taking pictures of us on the elevator - not wanting other people to get on -in the mirrors. We then pushed the "open door" button so long that it started buzzing and security was heading our way - so we ran away laughing hysterically!!
*There were mirrors all over the bathroom, so we took pictures in the bathroom - weird, huh??
*The big finale was awesome and we were on our feet dancing and swaying to the music!!! In fact, for about three songs, the seven of us (and the three questionable gentlemen next to Robin!) were the only ones in the upper levels standing.
*But the best part of the evening - we all went home and . . . ("dot, dot, dot")
(if you saw the show, you'd get the dots and probably smiling about now!!)

2007-08-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE????

Yesterday I went to my local grocery store and I bought about $67 worth of groceries. After all my items have passed the scanner I hand the check out girl my $10 off a $30 purchase that I got in a mailer. Great. Then I hand her an $11 off coupon that I earned there...one of those that's attached to your receipt. She says very sternly, "You can't use two coupons like this." I showed her that neither one of them stated "cannot be combined..." She kept standing there arguing with me about it. Again, I take the coupons and show her there's nothing that says I can't. Then she hits the big button for my total. I then said, wait I have one more. It was a 5% off coupon. She literally threw her hands up, looked at the screen and said, "You saved over $26 with the club savings, had $21 in coupons and now this. You are going to get over $65 worth of groceries for about $20." I go, yeah, I love when that happens. I actually got $67 worth for a mere $18!! Very exciting. When her drawer opened she slammed it shut, ripped of the receipt in such a way that it was pretty obvious she was mad. I even looked at her and said - as they do at Seattle Grace - "SERIOUSLY?" You would have thought I was taking the money directly from her pocket. Maybe I am, I don't know - maybe the more coupons used the less employees make. I'll have to check with my friend Greg who is in the grocery business. This same lady does not like me anyway. I crossed the picket lines a few years back when the grocers were on strike and she called me names and even stood in front of my basket so I couldn't get to my car. Then when they went back to work she told people who were standing in her line about me - and how that long time customer (me) forced them to get back to work. I try to stay out of her line, but unfortunately that was the only one open at that hour.

Then today I'm going for another MRI scan. I have new insurance because of Darren's job change. I don't have my new card so I hand them a piece of paper with all the pertinent info that Darren got from HR. Again, the attitude. I explained the situation and when I handed her the paper she goes, "now I'll have to re-enter all your information." Then kept looking at me. I guess she was waiting for me to say, "Oh, sorry, nevermind, I'll just write you a check for $2000, I won't bother you with my insurance." Isn't that her job?? She collects the info and enters it? I mean "SERIOUSLY."

Maybe it's the new computer age we live in, we just don't have as much people contact as we used to and it's affecting how we are with human beings. I'm just asking for a little common courtesy!! Is that too much to ask for??

2007-08-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

REMEMBER WHEN THINGS WERE SIMPLER??!!

As many of you know I'm married to a computer freak/geek!! He's constantly upgrading us to the latest and greatest things - always reading about things, and for fun he likes to take a computer apart and put it back together again!! I guess that is his adult version of Legos!

Well, I wanted to listen to my Hairspray CD the other day - I just got it, was so excited to start singing "Good Morning Baltimore" and I had to put the CD in a box, d/load it, burn, export it...something like that. I couldn't figure it out and of course I was getting mad. You see those little black boxes in the above picture - that's where it's supposed to be stored...I don't want to store it I WANT TO LISTEN TO IT RIGHT NOW!!! You are supposed to put the CD in the little white box - which I did - tap around on the keyboard and then it somewho gets to the little black boxes! Darren comes home and I told him I wanted a CD player. Needless to say this techno crazed husband of mine was flabbergasted. Why on earth would I want a CD player when we are surrounded by computers with music capabilities, etc. Whatever, I just want to hit the play button and be done. Like I said, it was a 10 step process that I have yet to understand on the computer.

This is what I want - place the CD on top, hit the play button and begin my song and dance around the house!! :-)

This is the hub of our house. It's where everything comes together. He was installing a new phone the other night so I had to take a picture while the front was off. Good thing I couldn't get to all those wires the other day - I'm thinking I might have cut a few of them!!! Do you see why I want my battery operated CD player!!!

2007-08-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

IT'S MY DADDY'S BIRTHDAY!!

Wednesday, August 8th is my Dad's 74th birthday! It's days like this that I wish I lived back in the midwest. I miss being home to do the birthday cake thing, hug and kiss him and tell him I love him. I always try to beat my two siblings and call both my parents on their birthdays first - you know, so I'll be the favorite for that day!! But it's not the same as being there.

I have a lot of my dad in me - I have his sense of humor for sure! He's quite the troublemaker and I do love causing trouble!! When he was working, he would walk into the office full of women secretaries and say a very simple statement, "Did you hear about Bob?" Then he'd walk out. By the end of the day some rumor had developed about Bob and it would come back to dad. He would say, "I didn't say anything, all I asked was did you hear about Bob?" That drove the office girls crazy. My dad worked at that place for like 30 years and he was so believable that even after all that time, he could still stir the pot! I like fibbing like that too! Dad and I both feel the same way about doing that to people - if you are that gullible, time after time after time, then you deserve to be taunted and messed with!! :-) Dad and I would walk down the mall with him holding on to my arm as if he was blind - then if someone walked up close to him and looked at him he'd 'boo' them. Then we'd crack up. Yes, we are terrible, aren't we??!! But so much fun!!!! He's a bit twisted, but that's why I love him so much!

The thing I remember most about my dad growing up was every morning before he went to work he sat on the edge of the bed and read the Bible. I can still remember what the bed spread looked like when I was a teenager and walking past the room seeing him reading. Dad, and of course my mom, made sure we were in church every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and a lot of times in between!! Both of my parents were raised in Christian homes and they made sure they raised their kids the same way - I'm very thankful for my Christian heritage. I'm thankful for my Dad's mom, my Grandma who I miss very much, but I am very thankful I spent so many summers with her, going to church and watching her read her Bible too!!

I love watching my dad interact with his seven grandkids - he loves being a grandpa. My heart aches that I have been unable to give him an eighth grand child - as I would so love to see my dad cradle my baby and draw on his tummy with a marker!! (He did that to my sister's four kids and it drove her nuts!)

My Dad is a cool dad. He's a White Castle hamburger lover, bread and cheese sandwich eater, amazing grandma, great father, and twisted old man!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy - I love you very much!!

P.S. To all of you out there who live close to your parents - go visit them often. Don't take the short distance for granted, you are so lucky!

2007-08-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

Not much going on at the Williams....so here are some pretties!!

This is one of my favorite 'bushes.' It's so bright and purple. It's been blooming nicely all summer!

My father-in-law made this beautiful bird feeder for my birthday and sent it to me! It's quite fancy and looks great in my backyard. To the right of the picture is my kitchen window so I can see the birds eat in the morning and evenings. Plus, the roof matches in the kitchen cabinets - so it flows nicely!!! Darren's dad is quite the creator/builder - show him a picture and he can build it!

Here's a picture of one of my favorite flowers in the back yard - so pretty and bright. These blog sites just don't do the colors justice.

Wider view of my pretty pink flowers!

Again - the blog doesn't show how truly beautiful this small tree is. Really pretty purple/pink flowers blooming. I can't wait until it's in full bloom!! Holly and Mark Deojay got this for me last year for my 40th birthday and guess what - it's still alive!!! :-) Unfortunately I can't say that about all the other plants I got. :-(

So when I said nothing much going on - I meant nothing is going on! Here is Simon lounging in the back. He just couldn't muster the strength to open his eyes!!

While Simon is relaxing outside, Darren is relaxing on the inside!! Can you tell by the look on his face he's wondering what the heck I'm doing taking his picture right now?!

It's been a few days so I thought I'd better throw something up on my blog, so now you see what's going on at 6:15pm on a Monday evening at our house. What am I doing you ask? Not relaxing - just threw some laundry in the washer, flipped the mattress, cooking supper, going through the mail, separating bills, etc.; getting my hair cut/colored later this evening - maybe tomorrow Darren can take a picture of me relaxing on the couch!!!

2007-07-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Life Throws You for a Loop - Thank Goodness the Lord's Holding on to the Rope!!

I have written this blog entry about a dozen times, only to take it off. I'm not good at articulating - without this being a HUGE entry that will take hours to read!! I'll try again and maybe this one I'll actually leave up! Darren and I have a testimony that I want to share!

In the middle of May Darren was flown by his company back to St. Louis (headquarters to Maritz, the company he worked for) for a meeting. A meeting he was told was a budget meeting. He was told that Thursday morning that the company was eliminating his position. So I guess in a way it was a budget meeting - they were taking him out of the budget! He had been with Maritz almost 12 years. He immediately called me and both of us felt like we had gotten punched in the stomach. We were expecting it to happen eventually, just not so quickly and not without some kind of warning. His client - Nissan/Infiniti - moved their headquarters to Tennessee, so Maritz set up shop there too. So Maritz began reworking positions, etc. Darren's position is being redistributed to a few people, some in St. Louis and some in Tennessee. Darren stayed on until June 15th. We only told four people - sorry if you are just finding this out. Darren's pretty private and didn't want a lot of questions.

Instead of a rambling entry, I'll give you the highlights and let you see how God was in control and as always, kept us in his perfect timing.

What I did: 1) Cried; 2) Upset tummy; 3) Had a brief moment of panic; 4) Worried because we would lose our insurance at the end of June. Bad timing because of my pituitary gland lesion. I'm currently still undergoing blood draws, doctor appointments, MRI scans, etc. Cobra was going to cost us almost $1000 a month. Holy Cow! 5) Worried because we still had one large remodel bill to be paid - afraid we'd totally drain our savings; 6) Worried because we still had some small items to purchase for the house; 7) Worried because what if Darren didn't get a job before his severence ran out; 8) Cut coupons (which I do anyway), said we can't do or go anywhere, no more Sunday lunches with the gang, no more movies...no more this and that; 9) Cried a little more; 10) Ate my worries away.

What Darren did: 1) Prayed about it, and left it in God's hands; 2) Told me that we will live exactly as we always have, nothing to change, we'll trust God; 3) Told me that we have been faithful our entire marriage in giving of our tithes, offerings, and missionary support, God will provide.

What God did: 1) Provided us with 3-1/2 months severence; 2) Darren had 4 weeks vacation and only used one at the time, so he got a check for 3 weeks unused vacation; 3) We received a check for about $1100 for overpayment on our escrow/tax account; 4) Our last big bill of our remodel was less than we thought it would be; 5) Darren was contacted by a headhunter BEFORE he knew about him losing his job with Maritz about a different position - it wasn't a good fit, but they had another position for him, he interviewed, he got the job; 6) There is no 60 or 90 day waiting period for medical coverage - that is pretty common - it begins August 1st! Perfect timing as I have more doc appointments/blood work a week from today!; 7) We will be receiving paychecks from Polk as well as still receiving Maritz severence for a month and a half - which allowed us to take a nice week off and enjoy ourselves (aka - shopping!!).

Yesterday was Darren's first day at Polk as a Senior Customer Development Executive. Polk is about 3 miles from our house. No more long hauls to Marina Del Ray for client meetings, commuting to Torrance. I keep telling him he's gained the gift of time as well! Darren was able to be off a couple of months with pay and not once did he look for a job. He was contacted by the headhunter, went through a series of interviews and that was that! How many people do you know that have been able to have a couple months off with pay to do with it what you want - as an adult?? I don't know many. He got to work on the house, relax, have meetings at church during the day for the Sanctuary Renovation team, etc.

I hope you see my heart and not "see how much money we have..." - I just wanted to show that God totally took care of us - even though I continued to worry and didn't completely trust him like I should. Even when we got that surprise check from the bank for over payment of escrow - you would have thought that would have been a big faith boost, huh?!

Darren has always worked in the corporate world and he was always honest and stood up for what he believes. Many times he was standing alone, but he did it! I believe God honored that. He allowed Darren to be off a couple months, regroup, gave him a job without him having to go out and hunt for one, and Darren got a nice boost in salary! Again, I'm not trying to sound like I'm bragging - just trying to show how God honored Darren's faithfulness! I'm really proud of him!!

All these things happened in God's timing!! A quick side bar on timing - My friend Pam Cherryholmes was in the area within minutes of me getting Darren's call - she wasn't supposed to be. Her son had asked her to go somewhere with him, which he usually doesn't do. She went and made her way over to the office, took me to lunch and gave me great words of wisdom and scriptures. A very calming voice for me - I was so appreciative of that! God knew what he was doing that morning 'lining everything up.'

So it seems I have rambled after all and left a LONG entry - sorry for that! But hope you were blessed by what God has done in our lives!

2007-07-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

TWO OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE!!

This is Brittany and Brooke Erichsen - two of my favorite people in the world!! They read my blog and I included their dad's name in an earlier entry and they wanted to be on it too - so here you go girlies!! Let me tell you a little something about my friends. Brittany is hysterical, always laughing and has quite the sharp tongue! Brooke is quieter, but has her funny moments! She's got the cutest little giggle. They were at my house last weekend for a graduation party, so we took a few pics. Check out Brittany's huge green earrings - those are mine that I gave to her, without asking mom - oops!! She wore them for the party and Sunday at church - we both have such great tastes!! I love these girls - two of my favorite people!

2007-07-27T12:14:00.001-07:00

MORE SAN FRANCISCO PICS!

This is Monterey - Darren took this picture and likes it - and so do I - as it shows so many different blues. The blog pic doesn't do justice.

More of Monterey and seals! I wanted to jump out in the water and swim with them! I even stood on the side of the dock making seal noises trying to get them to come to me. That's probably about the time Darren walked away!! :-)

Okay, so posting pictures is making me crazy and I'm going to stop messing with it - sorry! So don't look at my display of pics, just look at the pics themselves!!

This is one of my favorite places (see the three photos above this) in San Francisco. You need to rent the movie, "The Bachelor" with Chris O'Donnell and Renee Zellweger. It's a few years old, but it was filmed/located in SF and there's a scene in the movie where Chris and a priest are in a boat floating around in this pond and he realizes then he loves Renee - the priest says something like, "Welcome to the other side." So I made Darren kiss me in front of the pond!! It was so romantic, me telling Darren to tell me he loves me and then kiss me!! :-) We walked all the way around and it was so beautiful!

We had a really nice time, got to see Carmel, Monterey, San Francisco and a few things in between. We had about a 30 mile drive to catch the 5 on the way home and it was so pretty - so much farm land. I felt like I was driving through Illinois. Corn and cows!! Boy, I do sound like a midwesterner, huh?! Darren and I felt really blessed to be able to take a few days off and rest, explore and just be together! It's beautiful up there and I can't wait to go back!

2007-07-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

OUR SAN FRANCISCO TREAT!!!

We had a great time! I LOVE San Francisco - I love Northern California! I'm so glad we drove instead of fly, which was our original plan. We got to see and do a lot more at our leisure, which is always nice.

We stayed at The Drake, which was just remodeled this year! It was perfectly located in downtown SF. We were able to leave our car and pretty much walk everywhere. We were right in the middle of the action and I loved it! Of course we did the trolly car and buses. While on the trolly we met some people from Illinois, which always excites me. They were from Chicago, but knew the small town where I grew up in. It was fun talking with that couple for a while.

We did a ferry cruise out on the bay and here's Darren with the Golden Gate Bridge behind him. I was actually glad it was kind of cloudy/overcast with the top of the bridge covered - that's what I think SF is, so it felt like we were truly there in their true state! Notice the tourist sweatshirt!! I got one in a different color that matches!! We are such dorks!

We went to Ghirardelli Square and had the 'famous' Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae. It was a really cute area and certainly didn't lack for chocolate - obviously. I love little 'soda pop shops' like this one. I really wanted to sit at a round table and even though I lingered and stared down people who were finished, they didn't leave so we had to sit at a square table. I know that sounds silly, but I wanted to sit in the middle of the ice cream shop at a round table - I was wanting the full experience!! Again - dorky tourist!!

Here is Darren on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. We had dinner at the restaurant that sits high and overlooks it. The sun was starting to go down, so we got to see the sunset there, very cool. Darren loves golf, so this was a high for him. Plus we had to make the obligatory tourist purchase, a Pebble Beach shirt and some golf supplies!!

This is along the 17 mile drive - a beautiful drive for sure. I went even further out on the rocks - I really wanted to go out almost into the water to see if I could cross over to the large rocks actually out in the water, but I couldn't find a good way to get there. I could have sat there all day and just watched the water. It really does calm me to just sit and look and listen. I want to buy a house along this 17 mile stretch. It's perfect - beach on one side and a wooded area on the other - can't get any better than that!! I'm thinking if we could sell our house for about 12 million, then we could do it!! Know anybody who wants to a buy a house on Hackett for 12 million?! :-)

We went to the Monterey Aquarium. That was very nice. We actually enjoyed learning about the history of the building more than the fishies! We now know everything there is to know about sardines!! We can catch them, prepare them, and can them for you! This is an otter - they are currently having a focus on otters and I love otters. My first high school play was the fall of my freshmon year, I played Portly Otter in The Wind and the Willows - so otters have a special little place in my heart! Plus they are so darn cute and playful!

Here are are along the 1/101. We took the coast route up on Sunday and it was amazing. We got to see the sunset as we were making our way up! So beautiful - how can people not believe in a glorious God who can create such beauty??

I love this picture as it shows the water with the clouds hovering and the sun above the clouds - minutes before it went down. It's worth the drive up just to see a sunset.

2007-07-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

TAKING A BREAK!!!

We are currently in Carmel exploring northern California this week!! In need of a much needed break and with Darren starting his new job next week, we decided to take this week and explore! We had dinner last night on the 18th hole of Pebble Beach. Darren was very excited!! It was amazing - absolutely beautiful. I did find some properties within the famous 17 mile drive that I want, we will be going to the bank upon return to see if we can get that 25 million dollar loan!!! Today we are heading up to San Francisco for a couple days. I'll tell you more when we get back and post some of our great pictures! They aren't Dave Peeters quality, but they are beautiful!!! :-)

2007-07-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

MORE PICTURES OF OUR HOUSE!!

This is Darren's bathroom - he tiled the bathroom himself - even the shower. This was his first time and I was very impressed! He did a great job!

Darren picked out the colors and tile. When he first mentioned brown I wasn't sure, but I love this bathroom! It's a small bathroom, but now we have two and that's a good thing!

We have been trying to find pictures, or something to put on the wall, but my metrosexual husband is being picky!!

I tried the frame without pictures or glass thing. What do you think? You can't tell by the pictures, but they are different colors of gold, different textures, etc. I need to play with it a little more. I'd like to find some round frames.

This is what we did with our chest - put it in our closet! It's a great piece, but it's just too big with all the pieces in our bedroom, so we reworked the closet. It's not that bad. Maybe someday we'll have a master bedroom where we can have all our furniture out!!

A different view of our bed - in the corner you can see a picture that needs to be hung - it's a really pretty picture - can't wait to see it on my wall, it's going to go great!

A different view of our bedroom -The frame thing, too many, not enough, where should I add more??

A little darker view - sorry - I'm not too good at picture taking.

The baseboards are down now, just one more room to go - the guest bedroom. Then we'll begin the job of putting up the crown moulding. Darren is finishing up retrimming all the doors in the house. We are hosting a graduation party this Saturday so it's been our kick in the butt to get the house done as much as we can!! I've been playing in the backyard - I'll take pictures there when I'm done. Again, trying to do a Home and Gardens kind of backyard on a Wal-Mart budget, but it's not looking too bad!

2007-07-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

TOO MUCH PIZZA HUT!!!

We were busy working on the house tonight, so instead of stopping to cook (which I had a meal planned out already) I just decided to order pizza! It was easy, didn't have to stop and cook and clean up and I had a coupon. The Pizza Hut delivery girl shows up and she was talking about the progress we have made on our house and how from the outside it looks beautiful. She said, "I have been here many times over the past few months and you guys are doing a wonderful job."

OH MY GOSH!! Apparently we have ordered a little bit of Pizza Hut pizza over the past few months. So much so she has slowly seen the progress of the remodel. She remembers "when you didn't have any walls and your house was empty."

So once we are finished I'm thinking of having the Pizza Hut delivery girl over for a home cooked meal so she knows that I can cook!!!

2007-07-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

THIS MAY BE MY LAST BLOG....

...because when Darren comes home tonight he's going to kill me!! He went to see a boy movie tonight, so I decided to clean my stove. On one side of my stove top is a grill - which I love because I can cook meet the healthy way, make paninis, etc. I disconnected the burner part of the stovetop and it slipped from my damp hands. There are two pointy, prongs that fit into the gas line that gouged my knee....my bad knee. OUCH!! I couldn't grab hold of the burner and it fell to the floor. On my new hardwood floors - not redone, not resanded, not restained - new ones, courtesy of Dan Erichsen (so don't tell him!). I bend over to pick up my piece of stove top and what do I see...a chunk...a small chunk of my floor. The pointy prongs not only gouged my knee, but my floor too. I'm thinking I'll run to Target before they close and get me a kitchen rug for in front of the stove!!! What do you think??

Actually Darren doesn't get mad. He may get frustrated, but not mad. He's been putting down baseboards today...maybe I'll blame HIM!!!

UPDATE: Darren comes home, I start out with "I have to show you something, but it was an accident." I showed him and he goes, "it's going to happen, the floors' going to get wear and tear marks." Then he proceeds to show me three places where there were scratches. I don't know why I thought he would get angry - Darren doesn't do that! All is well!! Although I may still go buy another kitchen rug!!!

2007-07-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

APPARENTLY I'M OLD!!!

Last night was my first night working with Pastor Matt and the junior highers. I recently stepped down from Kids Church and since I can't not work in church, I decided to assist Matt when he asked me to come on board with the Junior Highers.

I was standing there listening to the girls talk as we were hanging out before service and they are listening to music. I asked who they are listening to, "You won't know them, it's a group for people our age." Then another says, "Yeah, for our generation." I made the mistake of asking, "Do you think I'm old?" Five girls all looked at each other with a smirk, "well, yeah, kind of." So I thought I was still young and hip, but apparently not. They named half a dozen groups and I didn't know any of them!

I did learn....
*It's cool to walk around with your friend listening to your IPOD - sharing earphones. You can't hardly walk and keep bumping into each other, but it's so cool.
*The words "my bad" are so last year.
*Swweeettt is on it's way out as well.
*Christian punk music is the best music EVER.
*Boys with long hair swept to the side - like Zac from High School Music - are so hot.
*Starbucks coffee is so 'whatever' - but "Frappicinos rock."

I also learned...
Some things never change! Girls still giggle together; boys still act like they don't care yet can't take their eyes off the girls!!

I had so much fun last night - we are having a big sleepover at my house in September to kick off the new year, I'm sure I'll learn a lot more then!!

2007-06-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

MY MISSOURI FRIEND, TINA!!

So this is my friend from St. Louis, Tina. She has just recently been posting comments on my blog - so I thought I'd introduce her to my California friends as it looks like she may be checking in frequently!

We worked together at St. Louis Children's Hospital in the Pediatric Plastic/Reconstructive Dept. I was a medical secretary at the time and she was a transcriptionist. It was back in the year of 1991 - I think. We had a great time working together (man did we know how to flirt with all the docs!!) and it's all because of me that she's a successful independent medical transcriptionist! I was supposed to get a percentage of her salary as a thank you, but I'm still waiting for that check!! We were friends during some pretty critical points in our lives - purchasing our first homes, getting married, starting new things in our jobs, etc. Tina's a blast and I'm sure if any of my California friends met her you would love her too! We go through spurts keeping in touch - but I love the fact that when we do, it's all still the same and that's what friendships are all about.
We do tend to banter - and she has quite the sarcastic tongue, so don't be surprised if you see some of that come out in our exchanges!!

Oh yeah, Tina B. mind if I post your and Tyler's picture??

2007-06-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

MY KNEE HURTS - BOO HOO

Darren's not here right now - went to see Die Hard. It's almost 10pm and I have no one to complain too - so here I am complaining to all you blog lurkers. Most of you know I don't have a knee cap in my right knee - it's just cartilage wrapped around two kite string size sutures. No protection. Well, tonight I got a burst of energy and decided about 8 o'clock to put a brick border around part of our backyard. Then I got these huge pots and planted tall blooming plants in them. I did everything I'm not supposed to do - kneel on it, bend it completely, use my legs to push or pull, etc. I had to do all those things for my backyard project and now my knee is on fire. It's burning, tingling, aching and now it doesn't want to work. When I use it too much like that it gives out and literally doesn't work. So my big ugly black brace comes back on. But I have a cute little strip along my privacy fence. I do the best I can - I'm trying to have a Home and Gardens kind of manicured yard on a Wal-Mart budget.

So thanks for listening - I like that you can't talk back to me!!! :-) If Darren were here he'd just say, "you know you're not supposed to....." which I'm sure you are saying too as you read this!!

I'm waiting for this really cool titanium knee to get approved by the FDA, then I'll be a Bionic Woman!!! They've been working on it since about 1999 and I've been following the progress periodically. How cool would that be?!

2007-06-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

MY NEW STUFF!!! So we still have some work to do, baseboards, crown moulding, etc. We are getting plantation shutters on the rest of the windows in the house. Pictures need to be hung, a few more decorative touches....... We are almost finished with our bathrooms. Darren did one of the bathrooms himself and it's VERY cool. That deserves its own blog entry all by itself!! Once the office and the bathrooms are done I'll post a few more updated pics.

This is my new dining room and dining room table. LOVE IT!!! When we put both extensions in the table it seats like 700! Sarah Matulich, if you are reading this, we'll be inviting you and Bob over for a real midwestern Sunday dinner with Darren's mom's home made rolls and all!!

Side view of our island which gives me lots of extra storage space. And I love my matching stools!

Another view of my island with my very cool new stove! I used the grill part this evening - LOVE IT!! Love the two spice drawers next to the oven!

You would think I would have taken off my shoes in another room, huh?! One that I'm taking pictures of!! :-)

This is my new china cabinet that holds china given to us by Darren's mom. That's the wine bottle holder in the corner that goes with it. We don't drink it, but we like the way it looks when it's displayed. Maybe we'll become wine collectors and spend $10,000 on a bottle - or maybe not!!!

A view looking into our new kitchen. The lighting wasn't great - but you have an idea of what it looks like.

A little brighter view of our kitchen. Love the fridge, love the dishwasher, love the microwave (which also is a convection oven!) Love IT!!

I must be a grown up, I'm excited to have a sponge drawer and my favorite part of the kitchen is my garbage disposal button - not switch, but button on the rim of the sink.

Below are pictures of our new bedroom furniture. We painted the walls too - love the color. The furniture are big pieces, so we are currently going to rework the room and do some closet work so it will open up our room more.

So that's it - some of you have e-mailed me about pictures so hope you enjoyed the quick tour of our home!

2007-06-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

WEEKEND AT THE WESTIN PALM SPRINGS!!!

We spent an extended weekend at the Westin and enjoyed some fun and sun along with a little desert heat. Unfortunately a water sprinkler or something broke under our room and we came back to our room about 10pm Saturday night to a soaked carpet. Not the entire carpet, but a huge portion. Then later in the evening the big black cockroach looking bugs decided they liked the moisture and paid us a visit! The repair guy worked on it until almost midnight, sawing, hammering and of course there were about half a dozen security guys hanging out, just because, talking, etc. They finally did move us to another room Sunday afternoon, but not before Darren and I had to talk to about three different people as the floor was still soaked and nobody was responding to us. Even Darren, who never gets frustrated or worked up was feeling that way. I told them that they say they are a luxury hotel, yet they don't respond to a guest's complaint about a soaked carpet and that I was amazed at the lack of customer service. One person tells us there are no rooms, another says there is, and yet another says no again. It wasn't even about getting a new room, just deal with the problem - hear us and respond. I asked two different people Sunday morning if the problem was fixed or if they were still working on it, were they going to suck up the water?? "I don't know." That's it. One guy said 'let me check', two hours later we were still waiting for his response. They did credit us the $40 hotel charge for our troubles. Whatever!!

But as you can see from the pictures it is a beautiful place. We spent Saturday night by the pool - the adult pool - which was really relaxing. It was perfect weather and the grounds are so beautiful to look at. We shopped - hit the outlet mall - and we have nine of our ten nieces and nephews Christmas already bought!! I love when you find that perfect give for the perfect price! Sunday we shopped more, went to a movie and hung out in our dry hotel room! Monday was a lazy day - but on the way home we decided to stop at the outlets so I could get those Waterford salt and pepper shakers I wanted Saturday but didn't get. They were already gone - bummer. I did find another pair, but they were $148 - couldn't bring myself to spend that much on salt and pepper shakers - but boy did I hold them a long time and ponder about it!!

It was a great weekend and our house was still intact from Matt and Kyle staying here! !! My recycle can had lots of soda cans in it and our fridge had lots of left over dips, slice cheese, crackers - things like that. I'm thinking there was a social gathering!!! :-)

2007-06-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

WHAT DOES YOUR DRAWING SAY ABOUT YOU???

I've seen this on other blogs so I thought I would give it a try - I'm not so sure the person they are describing below is me. My drawing a little embarrassing since Jenny Platt did hers with a baby in one arm and a mouse in the other!!

http://drawing.feedbucket.com/

The results of your analysis say:

You tend to pursue many different activities simultaneously. When misfortune does happen, it doesn't actually dishearten you all that much.
You have a peaceful mind, viewing the world with calm and serenity. To you, life is not about struggle and strife but about existence and co-existence.
You are creative, mentally active and industrious.
You have a sunny, cheerful disposition.

2007-06-07T17:01:00.001-07:00

I HAVE A BLOG?? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN??!!

I see that Lori and Donna have still been checking in even though I haven't blogged for a while! Thanks for that!

I will take pictures in the next couple of days and post them. It is nearly complete and it's so beautiful! I LOVE IT!!! We are going to have a party soon - Darren's really set on having one, I'm not so sure. People want to come see it, I know, but I guess a housewarming party after a remodel sounds like a "come look at my new stuff," kind of party.

Darren and I are still married after the reconstruction! I do believe that saying is true, "if a couple can make it through a rennovation, they can make it through anything." I didn't do well during all of it - thank goodness Darren is a very patient man!

During all the mess I found out I had a lesion on my pituitary gland. It was causing a miscommunication between my gland and the organs that it's in control of. They were talking brain surgery! YIKES!! But thankfully Jesus came through for me yet again. I'm on a medication that's actually made for people with Parkinson's. Funny thing about it - if I had Parkinson's it would help all that Parkinson's does to a body, but since I don't, it actually causes those things - dizziness, at times extreme, weakness, headaches.....so weird. But the blood work that was so off the charts high is now coming down and things are starting to work again! Hopefully as my blood work normalizes the lesion will shrink and not turn into an actual full fledged tumor.

So for a couple of weeks I was quite the mess - but again, my patient husband and my Jesus walked along side me and held my hand.

Darren and I are going away for a three day weekend - just to kick back, shop, and relax some. I'm really looking forward to it. Kyle Cherryholmes and Matt Leuht (sp?) are staying here - we may need to redo our house again when we get back!!!! :o)

Now that all my whining and complaining has died down - although I wouldn't be me if I didn't do that a little bit! - I'll get back to blogging!

Are you happy now Donna?????

2007-03-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm losing my Christianity!!!

This whole remodel is making me a crazed woman. Tuesday night Darren is boxing everything up in the family room getting ready for the dry wall guys to come in and take down our popcorn ceiling. We had a table out of snacks, bread, peanut butter, those non-perishable kinds of things. Well, he boxes all that up. Later in the evening I go looking for a snack and I open a box (a cardboard box) and there are two tomatoes that are ripe and then some. I get REALLY mad and throw them out the back door. Thank goodness the doors were wide open. "Why would you pack away tomatoes..." I'm losing it. Thank goodness Darren is a VERY patient person and doesn't explode back at me.

It's those little moments that can just set me off....does anybody relate?? Am I psycho?? Please don't answer that last question!

Then I come home today and I go into the bathroom - it's covered in pee - the toilet hasn't been flushed all day - pee in the toilet, around the toilet, WHAT IS IT WITH YOU MEN??? These are men I don't know - these are men I couldn't even speak to because only one of them can speak my language and I can't speak theirs. I was so grossed out. So I yell - and I yell loud. Nothing in particular, just a big AAAAAAHHHHH. Darren wasn't home so he was spared that little explosion.

I know a lot of people have underwent a lot more construction and time than what we are, but I'm just not coping well - I think tonight I'll put myself in a Nyquil coma (can't breath at the moment from all the ceiling dust) - and know that tomorrow is another day!! Of what I'm not sure - I can only hope a flushed toilet!!!

2007-03-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO???

You've seen on my previous post pictures of what will be a second bathroom - but this is a picture of the new toilet in our regular bathroom (which we are also redoing). Do you see anything missing?? I call Darren to ask him about the seat and lid - while the plumbers are here - he says to me, "Oh yeah, I've got to go buy that." When I told the plumbers, they were holding their faces. I told them to go ahead and laugh, it's okay!! Great! Now what do I do?? Do you know how hard it is to balance AND look at the remodel magazines?!

2007-03-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

BETCHA DIDN'T KNOW.....

I was voted a Senior Favorite my senior year - 1984 : "Most Flirtatious Girl." I didn't know I flirted - I just thought I had a lot of guy friends. My sister was bestowed the same her senior year in 1979!!
I wanted to be a TV journalist - newsreader for a "big TV station in St. Louis." Then I discovered the medical field and went that way in college.
Once, on a blind date I went bike riding - first one of the season - the guy I went with was a big time biker and tennis player. We rode WAY too much (and I was even in shape then!) . We stopped at the top of the hill and the only way I could get him to stop was to throw up - which I did!! That was the first and last date!
When I was little and into my early teen years I used to sing specials in church ALL the time. Then my dad said I sounded like a country singer holding her nose (I had a deviated septum which once fixed that nasal thing stopped!). I've never sang in public since. Although if I kept on singing, I could have become rich and famous!!!
I was once a hooker - yep, that's right. For YEARS I was one. Then I got married and Darren made me change my last name!!! I went from Debra Kay Hooker to Debra Kay Williams!! My nickname: The Hook!

So there are a few tid bits about me that you may not have known!

2007-03-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

SO GLAD FOR FOX FAITH!!

Tonight Darren and I went and saw the movie, "The Ultimate Gift."
Abigail Breslin (the adorable Oscar nominated little girl from "Little Miss Sunshine") did an amazing job. I'm so thankful for the new Fox Faith division of Fox Movies (or whatever their official name is!). It's about a grandfather trying to help his grandson - done through a series of videos after the grandfather's death. He is gifting his grandson in hopes of making him a better man. Go to the website
www.theultimategift.com and it will show you how to spend each week utilizing the gifts below. I'm actually going to start on Monday! When you go be sure to take some tissue - there will be tears. And yes, your whole family will enjoy it!


	The Gift Of Friends


	The Gift Of Giving


	The Gift Of Family


	The Gift Of Dreams


	The Gift Of Work


	The Gift Of Laughter


	The Gift Of Money


	The Gift Of Learning


	The Gift Of A Day


	The Gift Of Love


	The Gift Of Problems


	The Gift Of Gratitude

2007-03-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY CAN OPENER??

Apparently Darren is too busy to help me look!! :-)

If I blink my eyes and wiggle my nose will it all disappear??

Today the kitchen cabinets and sink will be gone! Simon decided to explore the house this morning. He crawled through a hole in the floor - I just hope he doesn't find us any gifts down there and bring them up!!!

2007-03-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

AN EMPTY SHELL......

This is the view from our kitchen to what was our living room. It will now become our new formal dining room!! We've ordered a new dining room table and china cabinet - thankfully my mom-in-law runs a furniture store. Even though we are ordering from Missouri and having it shipped - we still got a deep discount!! Yea!!!

This is the view from our family room into the torn up kitchen looking again into what was the living room. My double oven was taken away Saturday. I came home today from work and my microwave was gone as well as my stove top. I was supposed to have that for an extra few days - but we gave it away to one of the crew members - I guess he got anxious!

This is the view looking into our small dining area which will become a small sitting/office area. Walls will totally come down and an island will be placed in the middle - Wednesday I lose my kitchen cabinets, counters, and sink. I'm going to Wal-Mart tomorrow to stock up on paper plates, cups, etc. I refuse to wash dishes in the bath tub!!

So there you have it - does anyone have pity on me??!! Tonight I cooked out on my camp stove on our picnic table in the back yard. That actually was kind of nice - again, thankful for the nice weather we are having. It's pretty frustrating right now and I have my moments where I complain and whine, but then I remember that there are people who are struggling to even get into a home and we are so blessed to not only have a home, but are able to remodel and make new purchases. For that I'm VERY THANKFUL!!! So I'll stop with the whining!

2007-03-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

STARTING EARLY TODAY BECAUSE....

Last week our contractor and his crew came early - I'm in the bathroom drying my hair (bent over to dry my hair upside down!). I turn off the dryer and I hear a loud "Hello." I lift my head up and see our contractor standing there. OH MY GOSH. I did have a short robe on - but it wasn't closed. So now I'm up, showered, dressed and ready to go HOURS before they arrive!!!! :-)

Our walls are down, no washer, dryer, fridge, oven, dishwasher - we are living out of our freezer and an apartment size fridge. So glad we live in California now - we get to grill and sit out on our picnic table in the 75 degree weather!! I'll post pictures later.

2007-02-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO....DEBBIE AND DARREN AGAIN!!

We attended the annual Darrenn and Jenny Platt Academy Awards party last night. It's quite a competitive night! For all those who want to participate we turn in ballots on the Wednesday before the Oscars guessing who will win and we put them into a spread sheet. The person who gets the most correct wins the Academy Award at the end of the evening. For the third year running Darren and I have won. We won an Oscar that is 'engraved' with a gold craft marker with our names as well as some cool prizes. The Oscar gets passed from year to year to the winner. Dan and Terri Erichson won four years ago - and then us and us and us!! I'm thinking next year we should just get a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award and stop playing - give someone else a chance. We like movies, we go to movies, we rent movies, we read about movies, we listen to talk radio about movies - so we are 'educated players' in the game!!! Or maybe it's because Darren is in charge of the spreadsheet!! :-) Actually, we have two big screens, one for the Show and the other with the spreadsheet so everyone can see where they stand throughout the evening, so if we did try to cheat, we'd be found out!

I am in charge of Oscar Bingo! That makes the evening a lot of fun too! (at least I think so!) I put things in the bingo like, "Winner trips on stairs," things like that! Some people had that and everytime someone got up to accept an award they were yelling - "C'mon, I only need one more, trip, fall!!" Boy, we miss a Sunday evening church service to party and look what happens to us!! Anyway, then I buy prizes that go along with nominated movies - like for "The Illusionist" I bought a magician's hat and a bunny rabbit!! How fun is that?! Robin Garvin won that one!

So we all just hang out in comfy clothes, eat too much, and criticize everyone!! "Can you believe she's wearing THAT!!" Some of those celebs obviously didn't look in the mirror before they left the house! Us common folk could do better than some of them by shopping at our favorite store - Target!!

So I have returned our Academy Award next to our DVD collection! Oh yea, my acceptance speech, "I can't believe I won!"

2007-02-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

Is it cheating if I borrow from other blogs??!! Several bloggers have been posting "50 favorite things" list - so I'm going to do the same. I wonder how many things we all have in common out there!

1. My relationship with God.
2. Darren, my husband.
3. Simon, my cat. (okay so I'm one of those freaks who considers me a mommy to Simon!!)
4. My parents, The Hookers! (sorry, couldn't refuse!)
5. My 10 nieces and nephews.
6. Donna and Charlie - my bro. and sis.
7. Great friendships.
8. Snow, snow, and more snow!
9. Cool weather.
10. Coach purses.
11. Dishes - all kinds!
12. Bon Jovi.
13. Chicken and dumplins with fried okra.
14. Butter becan icecream.
15. Doing transcription.
16. Listening to Darren sing.
17. Kids Church.
18. My Family Room.
19. The Academy Awards - and the Annual Platt Academy Awards party!
20. Longaberger baskets.
21. Daisies.
22. Purple tulips.
23. Gardening.
24. Keith Urban.
25. It's a Grind Carmel Macchiato with whipped cream.
26. My Bunko buddies.
27. My Missionettes Class - Friends!
28. My E-group - such wise women!
29. Carnivals.
30. Every Reese Witherspoon movie.
31. Thursday nights with Darren - our picnic on the floor/movie night!!
32. Cracker Barrel.
33. Sunday lunch with friends.
34. Kitchen Gadgets.
35. Cheesy gifts from the dollar store!
36. Target.
37. Coupons and when I save over 50% at the store!
38. Iced sweet tea.
39. Spending time back home in Southern Illinois.
40. Dancing/dance music.
41. Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch).
42. Going to movies.
43. New York City.
44. Live concerts/plays/musicals.
45. Spending Sunday afternoons going through open houses.
46. Marco Island, Florida (my honeymoon destination)
47. Darren's legs!
48. Water - swimming, skiing, boating!
49. Hugs from kids at church.
50. My new appliances!

Any surprises?? That was actually pretty fun for me. If you haven't made your list yet - do it! It's not just a 'favorite' thing, but as I was thinking about it, I realized this could be a list of my many blessings as well.

2007-02-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, so everyone I know has a blog and a couple of my friends have been urging me to 'just do it' so here I am!! I don't have pictures of any cute kids and funny stories to share like they do, so you'll have to hear about my crazed cat and my hubby Darren!! I'll do my best to make this entertaining!

I'll begin with my day today! I had breakfast with my E-group - it's a "home fellowship" on-line for those of us who teach or serve in other areas of the church and can't attend a regular home fellowship. Our wonderful leader Gwen begins each Monday with a new topic, scripture, and some very thought provoking questions which we all e-mail back and forth all week pondering, responding, and learning from each other. It was great to get together and talk face to face today. Plus I love going out for breakfast! I ordered chocolate milk with my meal - which embarrasses Darren because I'm 40, not 10! But I like my chocolate milk!!

Now to the fun housework stuff! I'll be posting a lot about the trials and tribulations of remodeling that we are beginning next Monday - I'll keep you posted with pictures!

Okay friends - now it's your turn....

2007-02-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

This is a test blog - just playing around!