Friday, April 29, 2005

 

So here it is. Too bright? I had to get rid of the grey for a while; after all, it IS spring! =)

"Find contentment by enjoying the present season rather than frolicking in dreams of the next."

feeling...

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

 

Wow. 5 days since I've blogged. We're preparing for our church's annual card party, which will take place next Thursday evening. We've got a lot to do yet, but I'm confident that everything will fall into place. This year we're serving taco salad as well as chicken salad, in honor of Cinco de Mayo. We'll find out how open-minded these people are, won't we?? They say change is good...

My boss is off to Paris tomorrow for her two-week orientation before she starts her new job. She'll be missed. Needless to say, today wasn't one of the happiest days at work. Such is life...

I'm working on a new look for my blog; I figured it's time to lose the grey and put in some spring/summer colors! 'Tis another reason why I've not been blogging since it takes me forever to make the little graphics I'll be using. I'm guessing you'll see something new by Saturday evening. (Gives you something to look forward to, eh?) =)

I plan to go visiting blogs by the weekend too; seems like lately I get home from work and before I know it the evening has slipped away. One good thing though, is that I've been reading more. I guess we have to give up one thing to do another. Some things you just can't multi-task at. So I hope you're all enjoying this week; it's been a bit chilly here but it sure beats the snow we had over the weekend!

I thought the quote on my desk calendar was perfect for today, so I'm sharing it with you. Take care.

"Survival in a rapidly changing world requires adjusting to change and embracing the new opportunities it presents."

feeling...

Friday, April 22, 2005

 

From this week's Monday Madness...

From the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night, how many different digital/electronic devices do you use on any given day? Please consider listing them, as it would be interesting to see what everyone comes up with!
Daily, and in this order (more or less):

~alarm clock
~television
~coffee maker
~blow dryer
~curling iron
~remote starter (in the cold weather)
~remote car door opener
~radio
~copy machine
~computer
~monitor
~printer
~microwave
~stove/oven

...and not always daily, but frequently:

~digital camera
~cell phone
~dvd player
~cd player
~pda
~external hard drive
~'Dazzle' card reader
~electronic dictionary
~pencil sharpener

That's all I can think of right now.

"Survival in a rapidly changing world requires adjusting to change and embracing the new opportunities it presents."

feeling...

Thursday, April 21, 2005

 

First, let me thank you for your comments on my last post. Second, let me explain to you why I (and several other members of our diocese) am a bit worried about the future of our church. I also want to make it clear that I am not judging our new pope, nor am I judging our new bishop. I am just expressing my concern because from what I understand (and there is proof), these leaders are very conservative. Our diocese, unlike most others, has moved ahead quite fast in the past 25 years. Some say we are too liberal and too modern. We have women administering parishes. We have women preaching. We have women in many other leadership roles. In my opinion, they are doing a more than adequate job; matter of fact, the ones I've been fortunate enough to come in contact with are doing an awesome job. Our lay ministers play a very important role in our diocese as well. Our diocese has 108 parishes. We have 60 priests that are not retired. We have 20+ retired priests who do Masses on a very regular basis. These retired men I'm talking about are in their 70's and 80's. We rely on them much more often than we should have to. Every single parish in our diocese is clustered with at least one other parish. This means that almost every priest is taking on the sacramental minister role for at least two parishes, not just one. Some of them are saying 4 (and more) Masses per weekend. The women are allowed to preach because the priests get 'burned out.' (This is not my term; it is one I've heard many priests use.) We need to keep moving forward in order to survive. We have been asked (as members of our diocese) if we would be open to Word Services rather than Masses every other weekend. There is just not enough priests to go around.

About priests and marriage: In the 1200's (I believe that is accurate), priests were allowed to marry. According to my sources (people with masters degrees in theology), the Catholic church put a stop to it because they were worried about how they were going to support the wives and children of the priests. And yes, because the priests then would not be able to focus totally on their duties. I personally don't agree with this, but make no mistake; I do respect your opinion and thoughts as well. And I appreciate your input. I have said how I feel and why I feel the way I do, and let me just say one more time that I did not intend to criticize our pope or our bishop. I am keeping an open mind. I do, however, believe that some things need to change in order to keep our church alive.

(I feel now that I probably just should have kept my mouth shut. I was doing so good about not getting into controversial topics.)

feeling...

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

 

A new boss, a new bishop and a new pope.......the future is very uncertain. I will say no more. Pray for us.

This week has been very weird. Our boss's last day is next Wednesday; she's trying to prepare to leave, and at the same time, still be present to her current position, the woman that's going to fill in until mid-July is trying to familiarize herself with everything, and the staff is stressing out because things seem to be so uncertain right now. Lots of changes are taking place in our diocese and I feel we need to keep our heads up and our attitudes positive. I just pray that the women in leadership roles are allowed to continue their ministry to the church. Time will tell.

The weather has been unseasonably warm these past few days, but has returned to 'normal' this afternoon. We went from 82 degrees yesterday to 48 degrees today and it will drop to 33 tonight. That's Michigan! And that's spring! =)

Y'all have a great day and a great week! I'm going to take a nap and then go grocery shopping. Tonight we'll watch the second episode of "Revelations." Have you seen the first episode? I believe tonight will determine whether we continue to watch it. "Amazing Race" is getting interesting. I just don't want Rob and Amber to win. He is an A** with a capitall A and capital S's!!!

Right now I'm feeling...

Sunday, April 17, 2005

 

What a world of difference it makes when you clean your mouse!!! It's amazing how much lint you can pull outta there. Just wanted to share!! =) Have an awesome Sunday evening!

feeling...

Saturday, April 16, 2005

 

I'm working on some May calendars so they can be up for your taking before May gets here. Can you even believe it's going to be MAY already??? I also made a couple of adoptables if anyone is interested. (Look under 'blog buddies.' You can also have them without any names at all.) I want to make more of those too, but today we're going to spend some time at my sister's house working on our scrapbooks. I'm not sure how long we can stay because my daughter wants to go to a play at her school; I think it starts at 7. Well, if we can get 8 hours of quality scrapbooking time in, I'll be very happy.

Thanks for all your comments on my previous post. Sometimes I just need to write down what is on my mind; whether it be good, bad, sad, positive, negative, or controversial.

It's a beautiful sunny day! I love spring!! Let's all enjoy our weekend! =)

feeling...

Friday, April 15, 2005

 

This week started out like any other; actually, it didn't because we decided to take a bus trip with our church on Monday. I should have just gone to work. Not only did I come home with a massive headache (due to the diesel smell from the bus) but I put myself a day behind on work; not a good week to decide to do that! So Tuesday was my Monday. It was a very busy day at work because I realized I had to get 4 days worth of work done in only 3 days. Since we're losing our current boss (and friend) soon (1 1/2 weeks to be exact), we've been meeting with the woman who will be supervising until our next 'permanent' boss comes in mid-July. Wednesday morning we had another staff meeting and we had to discuss one of my co-workers' new hours. Sitting there listening to my boss and her try to decide exactly what she should get paid for and what she should not get paid for was exhausting! I kept my mouth shut for the most part, but it is clear to me that some people will just continue to get away with (excuse the expression) 'screwing' their employee out of money that they don't really earn. I know; I'm a bit of an idealist, but in my heart I'd still like to hang onto the possibility of justice being done. So that meeting lasted about 2 hours (2 hours that I didn't really have to give up). The day went on as usual. I left work, went to clean a house, came back to work for an hour and a half, then had to stay for a meeting with the new bishop. I got home that evening at 8:30. The meeting with the bishop went well, but I'm not sure why I was asked to be there. He is making it his goal to visit every single parish in the diocese before the end of April, basically to collect information from the people. (From what I hear, things are going to change big-time here in our diocese......) *sigh*

Yesterday I had to clean a house after work as well, and got home at 6:00. Today I'm off (thank God), but we have a few things to do before I can actually relax for the weekend. My husband's mom is not doing well; she's in a nursing home and has been in and out of the hospital this past couple of weeks, his aunt is in the hospital with heart problems and refuses to let them do open-heart surgery on her. (She's 83 years old.) And I just got a phone call from his sister; his uncle just passed away. We're also trying to work on a project that we originally started a year ago but for reasons beyond my control, got delayed until now. (I may go into more detail at a later time if all goes well.)

I had to write these few things down to get them off my chest. If you've read this far, thanks for continuing to read my blog. I don't expect any advice or sympathy; I just wanted to get this out.

Meanwhile, let's try to enjoy every day of our precious lives!! I plan to get some photos for the 26 Things April 2005 later today. I always enjoy doing that. And I miss my computer!! I need to spend some quality time with it this weekend....

feeling...

Thursday, April 14, 2005

 

Where has this week GONE??? It's been a busy busy week; I'll tell you all about it later tonight. For now, it's off to work I go! Have a beautiful day!! =)

Sunday, April 10, 2005

 

I decided that since I do run Monday Madness, maybe I should play, eh? Below you'll find my answers for this week's and last week's questions....

But first I wanted to share some links with you. It's getting harder and harder to find sites that offer tutorials, adoptables, etc. for free, and without signing up for membership. Ever since I started drawing my own graphics and creating clocks, calendars and such, and offering them for your taking for merely a link back, I decided that I would never charge money for my things, or require membership to access my site. I still feel that way; granted, some of my stuff may not be as good as those who DO charge, but some of it's not too shabby either (in my humble opinion). I went searching for sites similar to mine, in that they have an 'adoptables' section, and after an hour and a half, and viewing well over 60 sites, these are the only sites I've found that offer adoptables for free, and no membership required. Of course it goes without saying (or it should anyway) that a link back to their site is kind courtesy and proper etiquette. Have fun looking around these talented people's sites:

~ pixel manor ~ the doodle den ~ country pixel ~ indigo moons ~ jaymanda ~ sleepless designs

And now for the Madness of Monday!!

Last week's...
Where you live...

1. ...did you have to turn your clocks forward one hour this weekend? Yes, and now since then I've heard they're talking about extending daylight savings time 2 months. This would mean we'd turn our clocks forward the first week of March and we wouldn't turn them back until the end of November. I wonder if it'll happen.
2. ...what is the price of gasoline? Currently, $2.34 most places, but right near our house, because there's a fairly new gas station and one across the street that are competing, it's $2.24 both places.
3. ...which natural disasters, if any, do you have to worry about? None really. I know we do get tornadoes here but not often. Snow storms can be pretty bad at times, but no hurricanes, earthquakes, or anything like that, thank goodness.
4. ...do you have a local newspaper, and if so, do you subscribe to it? We do have a local newspaper, but we don't subscribe to it.
5. ...do you subscribe to a local cable company for television viewing? No; out here we can't get cable so we have satellite tv.
6. ...what is the speed limit on your road/street? It's 45 mph now; there didn't used to be any speed limit signs posted and people would drive 60-70, so they decided to post them. Is it working? I guess; it slows people down some, along with the fact that there's unmarked cops hiding in various places.
7. ...how far do you have to drive to the nearest post office? About 5 miles.
8. ...what is the average temperature in April? I'd say about 50-55 F.
9. ...what is the average temperature in December? Maybe 20-30 F. (Just a guess.)
10. ...are your four seasons drastically different from one another? Most of the time, and I do enjoy the different seasons!

Now for this week's.....

1. On what day of the week were you born? (If you need to find out, click here.) Sunday.
2. Were you born in the morning, afternoon, or evening? Don't know.
3. How many siblings do you have? Brothers or sisters? I have 5 sisters.
4. Do you (or did you) ever wish you were an only child? And if you ARE an only child, did you ever wish you had brothers and sisters? I can't remember ever wishing I was an only child, and of course I'm glad I'm not.
5. Did you (or do you) dream of having a big family of your own? I never dreamed of a big family, and I have one daughter. It's all good!
6. In your opinion, which is (or would be) easier to raise; boys or girls? I'd say girls, but I haven't raised boys so I've really no idea.
7. In looks, do you favor your mother or your father? This is a hard one, but I'd have to say my father....

feeling...

Saturday, April 09, 2005

 

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here! Ok, right now the temperature is in the 30's but it's going to warm up to about 65 degrees today and it's sunny! It's definitely a good day to get outside and do some yard work; maybe even throw some meat on the grill....

My 2 step-granddaughters invited me to attend a special night out with them last night. It was for mothers and special 'ladies' in the girls' life. Their mother ended up being unable to attend, due to a funeral service, but I took the girls anyway, and we had a nice time. We got our pictures taken together and they both made a frame to put their pictures in. That's what I did with my Friday evening.

Well, it's nearing the time for my boss to leave and things are settling down at work a bit. My co-worker has agreed to keep her petty b.s. to herself, rather than bother the boss about it her last couple of weeks with us. One thing I hope is that things change when the new pastoral administrator comes on board. We shall see.

Ok, I'm off to start my day! I hope the weather where you're at is as beautiful as it is here! Happy spring to you all!! =)

feeling...

Monday, April 04, 2005

 

So I don't bore you with needless chatter, I will get right to the point of this post. As I was doing a bit of blog-hopping this evening (something I don't do nearly enough of lately), I ran across a couple of interesting things:

Found at tina's blog: Fight Spam! Click Here!
Found at beth's blog: Who Links Here

And I've no idea where I found this, but it's another free counter if you're looking for one: dodocounter

One last thing.....

"Today belongs to you. It's a clean page you can cover with wonderful, creative things that will fill every moment with satisfaction."

feeling...
(I really need to make more of these things!)

Saturday, April 02, 2005

 

It's the big game tonight; Michigan State vs. North Carolina. Let's all say, "GO GREEN!!"

I'm on my way to have lunch with the co-workers. We're celebrating Sr. Honora's (my boss) birthday, which was in March. Since she's leaving the diocese by the end of April, and her calendar started filling up almost immediately after announcing her new position, today was the only day we could fit in lunch with her. Saturday wouldn't be my first choice, but I'll enjoy it anyway.

I've got my list all printed out for 26 Things April 2005. I'm trying to talk my daughter into participating in this challenge too. I hope she decides to do it; she'll realize how fun it can be, and it would be interesting to see what she comes up with for each of the words/phrases.

Upon my return home, I'll be sitting here at my trusty computer making graphics and having some fun........until the big game!

"How you feel is determined by how you think you feel. If you think you're happy you will be; if you expect good things to happen they will."

feeling...

Friday, April 01, 2005

 

Oops! It's already April 1st and I haven't changed my calendar yet. I have to go clean a couple of houses, then I'll be back to update my site. Anybody play April Fool's pranks on anyone?? Anybody play them on you recently? Feel free to share! =)

Meanwhile, have a fabulous Friday, and I'll see you around on the web soon; gotta go blog-hopping later today too. =)

feeling...