eight weeks away...

My sweet Melissa is getting married in eight weeks. Eight short weeks, folks! A little less, even, because it was eight weeks from this last Saturday, when we went looking at wedding dresses. She found one she likes, and I did my best not to embarrass her by getting all sappy and teary-eyed on her there.

The bridesmaids found their dresses already...kind of a royal navy blue (is that a color?) with a smallish diamond-shaped rhinestone accent where the bodice and the skirt come together. They're so classy! They could easily wear them to another wedding...they do NOT look like a typical are-you-kidding-me bridesmaid dress. Have you seen 27 Dresses? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. These are not those. LOL.

But anyway, I took pictures of her modeling The Dress, but I can't post them...her honey can't see the dress until the day of. You'll have to take my word for it. I just have to say. She is going to knock his socks off. She'll be one beautiful bride!

And then when that wedding is done, I still have two more of my kids' weddings in the next year to look forward to. The fun never ends at our house.

new digs!

I found a new background that's perfect! It's like a home remodel. What do ya think? It just goes along with our whole "new house on the blog block" theme.

And just for an update, the carpeting is out. The base for the dining room floor and living room floor are in. New carpeting, tile, and laminate flooring are in the (hopefully near) future. Depends on the finances.

This is like the most exciting thing we've done to our house since we painted over the baby poop brown siding with a lovely slate blue paint, and put white shutters on outside. I know, I know. I'm easily pleased. It's part of my charm. LOL

New floors, new walls, new ceilings in places, and eventually most of the bathroom and kitchen will be redone. It'll be a long process, but so worth it.

We'll take out the tub and the tub surround and put in a tub length shower. There are some very nice looking ones...I'd like to build in a bench at one end. Here's an example, kind of...

The bathroom vanity that John made us will go in, along with a new sink and countertop. I like the sinks that sit on top of the counter...have you seen them? Vessel sinks, they call them. Like this.

Trendy, but very cool.

Lots and lots of work!!!

quoted from John Fischer

I love what John Fischer had to say today in The Fischtank:

Through eyes of those who know better
by John Fischer

It was a day when commitment to family and belief in God won out over the incessant rumble of the public's and the media's infatuation with setting up and tearing down celebrity.

Anyone who saw Michael Jackson's memorial service yesterday now has a whole lot of new information to add to what has been communicated to us up until now about the man. For two hours, we saw him, not through the eyes of critics, pundits, and self-righteous moralists, but through the eyes of friends and family close enough to know what they were talking about.

And here's what I found out about the man through them:

That he liked to laugh.
That he loved his family, deeply.
That his family loved him.
That he loved the world and believed he could make a significant impact on it by bringing diverse people together through his music.
That his work was inspired by the love of God.
That he had a lot of "know" when it came to his understanding of human nature.
That God has a purpose for everyone and Michael completed his.
That he saw everything with his heart.
That he was fragile.
That he made us love each other.
That he believed he had a God-given responsibility to give himself to his music and his fans.
That he gave all that had been given to him.
That he likes eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on the floor with a friend… out of the bucket.
That his favorite song was "Smile when your heart is aching."
That his heart was aching most of the time.

But by far, the most important thing I found out about Michael came through the eyes of his 11-year-old daughter who believes that her daddy has been the best father anyone could imagine.

That was all I needed to know.

…and I laid my mantle on the ground, and felt the rain come pouring down—the rain of my religion, falling down like weeping from the sky.

Thank you, John.

the never-ending trap

I did it again. I promised myself I wouldn't do it anymore, but I did it anyway. I started checking out books from the library again.

I can reserve them online. It's like shopping, but you don't have to pay. They send you an email and tell you when they are ready, and you just go get them. It's addicting.

I don't know why I do it. I don't have time to read them. I check them out. I bring them home. They sit there in a box until they are overdue, and then I bring them back.

I have to pay the overdue fines if I want to pick up the next batch of reserved books. So I guess it isn't free, really.

Yesterday was the worst, though. I was hurrying, trying to pick up my books before I went home for the day. And you know how when you're in a hurry, things just seem to go wrong? Well, yesterday was no exception.

I emptied out one of several tote bags I had in the car with me before I went in to the library. The first library stop I made, that is. (I can use my library card from the rural library system where I live at the suburban library system branches, too.) Double the fines, double the fun!

So anyway, I dropped my keys into the side pocket and went in to fetch my books. I took the bag because I knew there were about fifteen books I had on hold. You can always tell what is going on in my life by just looking at my library books. Right now, I have lots of remodeling and decorating books in my bag.

If you should happen to see any books on demolition in my bag, that means I've completely lost it, and someone should notify my honey before I figure out how to completely level the house.

But I digress. When I got done checking out my own books at the self check-out, I pulled my keys out of the side pocket of the tote with my left hand, put them into the right hand, and got ready to go back out the door. As I was walking to the door, it slowly dawned on me that something was just not quite right.

Maybe it was the way my fingers stuck together a little on the hand that fished out the keys, or maybe it was the smell of fragrant dark chocolate that was wafting up from the keys. Either way, it made me look at my hand. There was warm, mooshy melted dark chocolate all over the keys and all over my hands.

Are you kidding me?! I have to open the library door without getting warm moosh all over it for the next person. I have to keep it from getting on my clothes. And I don't want to make a scene, even though a hissy fit is only about THAT far off! *holding thumb and fingers up together*

Wait. Never mind the library door! What was I thinking? I had to get the key in the lock and open the car door without making a chocolate mess everywhere! Little #s and @s and %s were flying in a little floating banner before my eyes. Grr!!! No tissue, no purse, because of course...I left it all in the car to be more EFFICIENT. And efficiently, I stuck my keys right into a dark chocolate Hershey's kiss that melted in the hot car all day long in the side pocket of my bag!

I managed to get into the car, and sat there trying to figure out how many people would be able to see me if I just licked off my keys and my fingers. I hate to waste lovely melted chocolate!! Reluctantly, I fished for tissue instead, and spent the next ten minutes or so wiping melty, messy chocolate goo off my keys and my hands.

Melted chocolate is one of my weaknesses, though. I have to tell ya, I did try the chocolate that was smeared on the plastic tag on my keychain, but it tasted lousy. Must have been in the bag for a while. LOL.

So that was my adventure in booklending yesterday. The other library was uneventful, thank goodness. I don't think I could have stood any more excitement last night.