Author: triciawil

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I hit a landmark with my last post and didn’t even know it…it was my 400th post. How crazy is that?

Yesterday was a fun day – we went to a Renaissance Faire for the day. It was officially a youth group event but only two of them ended up going. I was disappointed – it is tiring planning things that they say they want to do and then no one shows up. I know it is not the activities that are important but it is still upsetting to me. Anyway, in spite of all this, it was a good day. It is very cool to go each year – and see totally different things than you saw the year before. The best part of the day was the falconer talking about birds of prey. It was very cool to see his 4 month old owl just walking about 20 feet away from me. I was also intrigued to learn that owls grow to their full size after only 45 days. So many things I did not know!

Today didn’t start out well. The change in the weather is apparently wreaking havoc inside my messed up body and I am having a flare up of my fibro. How can fall be my favorite season when it is also the season when I suffer the most? It is terribly depressing and upsetting.

On the bright side, I had lunch with my friend Kris today. We haven’t had time to get together this summer because of my maddening schedule so it was good to see her. We caught up over some great food and then parted ways so she could go watch the Phils win and I could come home and procrastinate the lengthy to do list. As usual, I’m doing my catch up now, at 10 PM. I got a meal made for a person at church who had a baby this week (and one for me) and at least started some wash…but that is only the tip of the iceberg. I feel so lazy, yet I know I’m not lazy. I am just terribly fatigued and then I get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. And this is where I am at right now…hopefully I can get a few more things accomplished before bed, for tomorrow is back to the grind.

A Word

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Last night, I was caught off guard – by a situation I was trying to convince myself and others I certainly did not care about. A loneliness and sadness over a lost friendship…that just got me sobbing. I have prayed for reconciliation in this situation, for things to return as they were, for this person to put aside what has caused this rift. And today in reading one of my favorite blogs, God gave me a word – a word I desperately needed: Scratchin’ the Surface: Max Knows and So Does God

Three Things

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I may have done this meme before…so if so, bear with me. Maybe you’ll learn something new!

Some Facts About Me:

Three names you go by?
Trish
Dish
T

Three physical things you like about yourself?
my eyes
my hands
my hair color : )

Three parts of your heritage?
irish
english
welsh

Three things you can’t stand?
fake people
mean people
chaos

Three things that scare you?
fires
tornados
other things I cannot control

Three of your favorite shows?Scott Baio is 45…
Private Practice (I think…still new but I liked the pilot & really liked the episode tonight)
The Today Show (I really struggled with this one but I watch it every morning, really enjoy the hosts…and frankly I am a news junkie)

Three movies you watch over and over again?
You’ve Got Mail
Sleepless in Seattle
Serendipity (or any other John Cusack romance, really)

Three movies you would like to watch?
Flywheel
Feast of Love (going this weekend!)
The Queen

Three of your everyday essentials?
cell phone
email
a good book (and THE good book!)

Three things you want in a relationship?
respect
love
laughter

Three physical things about the opposite gender that appeals to you?
smile
hands
shoulders

Three bad habits?
Saying yes to everything
Not writing things on my calendar & then double, triple or quadruple booking myself
Leaving the wash sit in the washer (or dryer) until it has to be rewashed

Three career you’re currently considering pursuing?
Full time youth ministry
Teaching
Lady of Leisure

Three of your favorite hobbies?
scrapbooking
photography
reading

Three places you want to go on vacation?
Hawaii
Bermuda or Jamaica…somewhere with blue water and white sandy beaches
Ireland

Three kids name you like?
Aidan
Grace
Lily

Three things you want to do before you die?
Travel to the places listed above
Marry my prince charming
Have a family

Three things that stereotypically prove you’re a girl?
I hate spiders & bugs
I don’t like to get dirty
I like to get my hair done

Fall into Reading 2007 – Yahoo!

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I’m so excited that Katrina over at Callapidder Days is hosting another reading challenge! I love looking at the lists others make and adding to my already growing list of books to read! For more folks participating (and their lists), head on over to Katrina’s!

My list, such as it is at this moment…

Fiction
Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon – the first book in her Father Tim series, coming out October 30th!

Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury. This one is just out (got it Saturday!) and is a sequel to A Thousand Tomorrows.

Between Sundays, a new novel from Karen Kingsbury (can you tell I love her books???), coming out on November 6th.

The Yada Yade Prayer Group Gets Decked Out. I absolutely love this series and am so excited for this installment, coming out on October 2nd!

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, because everyone in the world seems to be recommending it!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, also highly recommended by many folks.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, because I want to see what all the fuss is about.

Back on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. I am addicted to her books & am reading through them all as fast as I can! I was so excited to see this new one.

Nonfiction
3:16 The Numbers of Hope by Max Lucado

Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels. I got this at the Leadership Summit this summer but haven’t gotten very far into it as of yet.

Can’t Keep Up

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I love fall. The change of seasons, the slight chill in the air, the leaves turning beautiful colors, the sun setting earlier…and the routine. I always loved school – waiting impatiently for summer to end so I could get back to my friends, my books, my routine.

I still crave the routine fall brings. And I feel like I am almost there. We started youth officially tonight and next week my evening Bible study for women begins. Those are my two weekly evening commitments and I am eager to be started with both and get into my fall routine.

But I am still left today feeling like I can’t keep up. I don’t know how people with families do it. The wash and dishes here are neverending. Something is always in need of being dusted, wiped or vaccumed around here – not to mention the care and feeding of the furries. I know I should not be complaining but I am just so weary. I know that this is not unique, that people have this but more and it probably seems silly for me even to be saying this. I guess part of it is that the burden of all things in my life falls squarely on my shoulders and sometimes the weight is too much to bear.

I will say that my little list from the other evening is coming along ok so far.
*My alarm is waking me up a half hour earlier. Monday I jumped out of bed and got some things done before work, which was terrific. The rest of the week, I had trouble getting up but at least was awake.
*I have brought my lunch each day this week so far – but tomorrow I am offsite during the lunch hour. I imagine I might get lunch there, so technically I won’t be buying my lunch, so that is helpful.
*I am going to work on my running list tonight before I go to bed. I need to have it somewhere handy so I can have the satisfaction of crossing things off.
*I haven’t started my study (next week!) and haven’t endeavoured to start the decluttering. I did clean this week, though, because the landlord was coming – so that must count for something, right?

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So much for posting more often!

As usual, my life has been a whirlwind. Nothing too exciting is happening and some things that have been taking up a lot of my time and energy I can’t post about.

I said to my friend at work the other day that I want my life to be different. There are many things I am really content and happy with in my life – I am blessed, and I know it. But there are some other things – two in particular – that seem beyond my control and I get frustrated by my seeming lack of ability to change them. I am trying little things to try to make a difference in these areas of my life but then another problem arises and I am again discouraged. I know that things take time and I may need to start trying to just change small (very small) things one at a time and be patient.

Patience is not my thing.

So for now, here are a few things I want to try to do. Now that fall is upon us and a routine will be returning to my life (youth, Bible study, etc.), I feel like it is a good time to start implementing change. These things may sound stupid or minor to some but this list is frankly not for them! So bear with me, my loyal two or three…

*Start bringing my lunch to work four days a week
*Get up a half hour earlier each weekday
*Sort through some clutter that is affecting me more than it should by its sheer presence
*Work on my Bible study a little bit each and every day (we are doing The Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore – I can’t wait to begin!)
*Keep a running to do list out somewhere I can see it and make sure I am accomplishing the things I need to

So that is all for now…nothing much more to say or report tonight. It has been a long weekend – mostly a good one – and I need to get to bed early so I can try to get my attitude adjusted for the week ahead.

It’s a Combination of Things Really…

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This post will be very random…there is much on my mind, yet it is all sort of disjointed, so you’ll need to bear with me here.
 
*The pathology came back and my friend’s daughter’s cyst was benign. Hallelujah!  She is definitely on the mend.  She looks good, is getting around better and is getting off the heavy-duty pain meds. 
 
*I just got back from a weekend in Rhode Island.  Michelle & I took a bus trip to see Beth Moore.  She was wonderful and it was an amazing time of teaching.  Saturday afternoon, we took a mansion tour in Newport.  The Breakers was amazing;  Roseclif, not so much.  I was kind of irritated that the place did not have any of the original furniture, etc.  Plus they were rushing us because they had a wedding coming in 10 minutes.  Then off to the Brick Market, which also did not impress us.  What MOST did not impress us was the temperature dropping and the mist rolling in from the sea.  We were walking around, not dressed appropriately for this sudden change in weather, just WET.  I walked under a tree and swore it was raining but when I stepped out, it was not.  Apparently the mist was so thick that when it came in contact with the leaves, it just ran off like rain.  Interesting…but not very pleasant. 
 
*My neck is killing me.  I was fine yesterday morning but when I got to work and throughout the day it got progressively worse.  I plastered myself with thermacare heat wraps and took heavy duty pain meds but that just served to make me loopy, not take away the pain.  This morning I thought I was on the mend but am getting progressively worse again throughout the day.  This is painful and irritating. It also makes driving a challenge when you can’t even turn your head for wanting to cry.  Someone at work recommended a place that does massages and they are fitting me in at 2:30 for a 15 minute chair massage.  I can’t really afford it but frankly I will do anything to try to relieve this pain.
 
*Kittyzilla survived her first boarding experience.  When I arrived to pick her up, the vet tech told me I would have to get her out of the cage myself.  I knew that meant it did not go well!  Her cage was plastered with brightly colored signs saying, “CAUTION:  AGGRESSIVE”, “CAUTION:  LUNGES” (which I found somewhat amusing) and other various things.  Upon seeing me, however, her demeanor completely changed to the kind and loving kitty I know.  We bid them adieu and hightailed it home and now all is right with her kitty world. 
 
*I can’t recall if I posted that we have a new pastor.  I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am that the search is over.  This was a ROUGH one and I shan’t participate in a such a thing again.  Now the problem is that he has to complete something before beginning and we had thought that it would be completed in time for him to start this weekend.  No dice…but I am working on.
 
*My youth are homeless again.  It is amazingly difficult to find somewhere for a youth group to meet every week when you don’t have a building.  I have one last plan in the works but if that doesn’t work out, I haven’t a clue what I will do.  And youth group starts next week!
 
*I went to see Becoming Jane last night with two of my youth & their mom (my friend).  It was good but sad.  I knew the ending was not happy, of course, going in but it was still sad. 
 
*I have another two movies from Netflix that I have probably had three months.  Which is so ridiculous!  I can’t find time in my life to watch a freaking movie???  That’s not entirely true.  I often make conscious decisions to do other things like read or watch CNN or something along those lines.  So it is more that I don’t choose to make the time.
 
That’s all the randomness I can take for now.  Ta ta!
 

Kittyzilla

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…needs to be boarded next time I venture away.  She will be one unhappy kittyzilla.  But the vet has a good point – even if she is ornery and they can’t give her the insulin either, they can at least be monitoring her and take care of her if anything goes awry because of the lack of insulin…which would not be the case at home.
 
The good news is it is not that terribly much more than the petsitting.  Slightly more for short trips but less for long (if that makes sense).

Tell God Your Plans so He Can Have a Laugh…

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…or something like that.
 
Well, I did get to see HSM2 with my youth group girls but one was conspicuously absent.  She was rushed to children’s hospital earlier in the day with a cyst on her ovary as large as a nerf football. They operated on Saturday to remove it and she is now home recuperating.  If you are of the praying persuasion, please pray for her healing and for the pathology report on the cyst to come back as benign. 
 
Last night, Trish took me to see Wicked for my birthday (yes, my birthday was in February…but Wicked was in August!!)  It was absolutely amazing.  I loved it.  I’m so glad we went!  But I didn’t get home until after midnight and now today I am just dragging.  I feel like I have been mentally & physically exhausted for weeks on end now…with no real end in sight!
 
And in the continuing saga of kittyzilla…Monday night, the last remaining petsitter came over to meet us.  She sat with Ramona, pet her, gave her treats and gave her her insulin – no problem.  I asked her to please come last night while I was at the show and try again.  She called me and said the kittyzilla had lost her mind, would not let her near her and basically wanted to bite her face off.  So, no petsitting for kittyzilla.  And this leaves me in a quandary.  I know she will be absolutely MORE ridiculous if she is boarded at the vet office when I travel.  I have a call into them right now to see how long she can go without her insulin until it causes her distress.  I know that sounds horrible but she is so terribly upset when anyone but me tries to touch her, it really doesn’t seem fair to her to put her through that.  We’ll see what the vet says and I will take whatever advice they give me.
 
Sigh.