Memorial Day 2010

We had hamburgers, corn on the cob, potato salad, macaroni salad, and watermelon for dinner. It was too hot to cook out on the grill so we did our cooking in the house. The hamburgers were a microwavable kind from HEB and the salads came from the deli, so the only actual cooking was the corn and that didn't take long.

We were going to sit on the patio and eat, but hordes of flies thought they had been invited, so we brought everything back inside and ate in the dining room.

I didn't have to go in to work today, but tomorrow will be exceptionally busy.

Sunday night - May 30, 2010

Sis and I went to church early to finish setting up for the potluck after church. Some of the people who usually do this were out of town. Sis stayed and helped me instead of going to her own church today.

We had done a good bit of it yesterday. This morning we made sure the air conditioning was working, made the coffee and tea, received the potluck dishes as the members dropped them off on their way to the morning service, cut the desserts and arranged them on plates, etc. We didn't go upstairs to the service. I went up a couple of times to see how near finished the service was. Then we put all the hot things out on the table and uncovered them at the last minute.

There were quite a few more people there than usual, since it was the pastor's last Sunday with us. We ended up having to set up an extra table to seat everybody.

Afterward as we were clearing up and most of the people had already left, we got a phone call that one of our members who is in a nursing home had just died. The pastor immediately went to meet with the family. Later in the afternoon she called me and said there will be a memorial service at the church at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Of course the office is closed tomorrow for Memorial Day, so this leaves a lot to do fast.

I spent an hour or more on the telephone calling all the members to notify them of both the death and the arrangements and calling the custodian to tell him what was needed for the service.

The pastor will email me the information for the funeral bulletin, so I think I will end up doing that on my computer here at home. I don't think there will be time to wait and do it Tuesday morning as there are other meetings and things going on then.

So that's how my day has gone. I'm a little tired right now, but at least I don't have to get up and go in to work tomorrow morning...unless something unexpected happens before then. I sure hope it doesn't.

It was another hot day and as I talked to different ones on the phone, three of them were having trouble with their air conditioners. We had to have a part replaced on ours earlier this week. I guess this extremely hot weather is hard on them.

Friday, May 28, 2010

It is finally cooling down in our house. After the a/c went out last night it got up to 90 degrees inside. This afternoon the repairman came out and it didn't take him long to discover the problem. A part had to be replaced on the outside part of the air conditioner. He said it would probably take about 4 hours to get the house cooled down to it's normal settings, but we can sure tell the difference already. Precious and Calvin seem much more comfortable too.

It is 91 outdoors right now.

New Microwave

Thursday, May 20, 2010

There must be a lot of pollen in the air this morning. As soon as I opened the door to let Precious out, I started sneezing and my nose started getting stuffed up. It has been hot and muggy and is expected to be in the high 80's the rest of the week.

The mobile food pantry was in the church parking lot yesterday morning and it drew the biggest number so far. 142 families came to get food. We probably will go back to the regular indoor one until fall though, because the food bank insists that during the summer they will only provide food to families with children under 18. That's all well and good for those families, but it leaves out the elderly who are low income and count on that food to supplement their low income.

There was a story on the news last night. A city bus driver was driving his bus down the street after dark and saw something up ahead. He couldn't immediately see whether it was an animal or trash or what but luckily he slowed down. There was a 14-month-old baby sitting in the middle of the street. When he stopped and got out, the father heard the noise and ran out and grabbed the baby and ran back inside with never a thank you or any other comments. I think Child Protective Services is checking on the case as they have had calls there before and there seems to be a family drug and alcohol background too. It could have been a disastrous ending.

Sunday - New microwave

After church this morning we went to Bud Jones for lunch. I had a large chef salad. I brought part of it home and had it for supper tonight.

Then we went to an appliance store and bought a new 1200 watt microwave.

We went on to Wal-Mart. I didn't get anything there but Sis got some yarn and fabric.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I slept later than usual this morning. It was nearly 6:30 when I woke up. Then I had to take my monthly dose of Boniva and wait an hour before eating breakfast.

About 7:30 I went to the grocery store and picked up pet food and supplies. Later, we went to the bank, then to the library for their book sale. I bought a church cookbook and one of the Frugal Gourmet cookbooks. I also bought a Beverly Lewis book, "The Englisher". After stopping at the beauty shop that sells some of Sis's craft items, we went to IHOP for brunch. I ordered the spinach-tomato omelet with a dish of fresh fruit and it was delicious. From there we went to the Polish-American Club where they were having a rummage sale. Sis bought a bsg of spools of thread for 50 cents. I didn't buy anything. We went on to the temp office so that she could turn in her time sheet for the week. There were a few more places we could have gone, but I was tired by then so we came back home.

A Mug Wrap Sis made today

We had heavy rain and flooding in the city and surrounding area today. Some areas got 8 to 10inches of rain and lots of roads and even Interstate 90 were closed down for awhile.

There were some high water rescues and a 16-year-old boy was swept away and hasn't been found. They searched for him for seven hours before quitting for the night. This partiucular incident wasn't directly caused by the rains though. He and some friends went swimming this morning and he got pulled under and swept away in the rushing waters.

I worked this morning and it was raining pretty hard when I left work. I was glad I only had a few blocks to drive. Sis had further to go and she had more trouble than I did, but we both did get home safely. I'm wondering ow the roof at the church fared with all this rain. The situation is getting worse and worse.

The rain has stopped for now, but more is expected over the weekend.

Sis has been working on the mug wraps after seeing the one that someone else made. Here is one she finished tonight.

Rainy Day

It is a very rainy day here...9:40 a.m. and looks like it is barely daylight. I woke up to thunder and lightning. Precious wasn't a bit eager to go outside this morning, but she finally did and came back inside very quickly.

There was a joint meeting of three committees at church yesterday evening and after much discussion, they voted unanimously to sell the parsonage and put our next pastor on a housing allowance. Hopefully they will be able to get enough from the sale to replace the roof on the church. It is in very bad condition.

Starting in June we will be sharing a pastor with two other churches, and sharing the cost of his salary. It will be interesting to see how it works out. There are a lot of pro's and con's, but in our current situation we have to try something different.

It's getting darker and darker. I think I'd better shut down this computer before a violent storm hits. It looks awful outside.

My right jaw is very tender this morning. I wonder if it could be my teeth causing it.

I went to the doctor after work this afternoon and got prescriptions for my blood pressure medication and Boniva. I'll get them filled tomorrow or the next day. I wasn't totally out of meds yet but close.

We had some more of the olive cheese pasta for supper and some leftover dried lima beans.

Monday, May 10, 2010

I tried a new recipe for supper tonight...called Olive Cheese Pasta

I cooked some spaghetti and made the sauce as follows:

1 (8 oz.) pkg cream cheese
1/3 cup green olives, chopped
2/3 cup almonds, chopped
2 tblsp juice from the green olives.

The original recipe called for much more olives and almonds, but I cut it back and it tasted great.

I put the 1/3 cup of olives and 2/3 cup of almonds in the food processor and chopped them up, then stirred them and the juice into the cream cheese in a separate bowl. I warmed it a bit in the microwave, then let it sit on the warming tray until we were ready to eat. I stirred it into the bowl of cooked spaghetti when we were ready to eat. We both enjoyed it. There is some leftover for another meal. It might even taste good as a cold spaghetti salad.

We had some leftover peas and some pickled beets in the refrigerator, so we had that for supper too.

Sun, May 8, 2010

This picture of Calvin was taken Saturday, May 7th.



This picture of me was taken after I got home from church this morning.


The pastor gave each of the ladies a periwinkle plant for Mother's Day.

We went to Snogas for lunch. I had the turkey plate.

May 6, 2010 - 8:45 p.m.

I just took this picture with my webcam at 8:45 p.m. Calvin, looking very regal as he sat on end of my desk.

Before I left for work this morning I put some dried lima beans in the crockpot with a leftover pork chop. Tonight I baked a skillet of cornbread to have with them. It was very good.

I went to the bank and then got groceries after I got off work this afternoon.

The Chronological Bible I ordered through e-bay came today.

May 5, 2010

Sis took this picture of Calvin tonight.

Today was Junior's birthday. We talked to him and Kathy tonight.

Catch-Up Time

Friday, Apr 30, 2010
I got my hair done this afternoon.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

For breakfast we ate at Bud Jones. We ate at Pizza Hut for supper and brought home what we couldn't eat there.

Sis got a new computer from Best Buy today. We will set it up tomorrow.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
We didn't eat out tonight. We had the leftover pizza from last night for lunch today and then worked on setting up the new computer. We got everything working except the printer. It may not be compatible with Windows 7.

At 4 p.m. there was a meeting at church about getting a new pastor in June.
Jim called. He was baptized tonight.
Monday, May 3, 2010
We had pork chops and vegetables for supper.