Carolyn's Random Thoughts

Really.  Just haven't been in a bloggy mood.  I hang out on facebook alot, so you can catch news there.

Rest in peace Mickey.  You'll be terribly missed.

Go read this.  You won't regret it.  I promise.

I got this from Juli's blog.  It looked easy enough, so I thought I’d share it with you.  All you need to do is paste it into your own blog and highlight the items below that you have done.  Then let me know you are posting it, so I can check out your list as well.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity [I don't know; I think we can always give more]
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (hiking)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (from the beach)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (I sponsor one through Compassion International)
16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagra Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (but it's on my want to list!!)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted 
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square 
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (but I'm working on it now!)

86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life 
90. Sat on a jury (I never get chosen — my husband’s the Judge)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Remember way back when... I posted I had applied to go on a trip for Compassion?  Well, they left today for the Domincan Republic.  It was the trip to Uganda in February that led me to sponsoring Upendo.  So I'll be reading every last post this week.  Why don't you read as well?

Sorry.  We've had a busy and stressed October.  Charles has had a major bout of depression, and while we've turned the corner on that, he's about to head to his mom's for a week of destressing, so I'm coming up on a single parent week.  A little stressful for me, since he's the kid wrangler normally in our arrangement.  But we'll survive.  The only outstanding issue is me to find someone to watch the kids Wednesday so I don't have to miss my Disciple 1 class. 

I had extra bread that was getting stale this morning (I overshopped on a deal) so I channeled Martha this morning and made homemade french toast.  I could use a little more practice but it was tasty.  I've put dinner in the crockpot (homemade vegetable soup that I froze), emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it with breakfast dishes, and now I'm getting in some well deserved computer time.  Still on the list this morning is to pick up the newspaper(s) for coupons, shower, hit church, and a little grocery shopping.

Great deal alert -- $20 in free gas money.  Go here, and read all about it!  I'm trying hard to ramp up my refunding again.  With all the Wachovia/Wells Fargo stuff, medical bills, and growing boys (especially the smaller one who has holes in the knees of all his jeans!), money is at a premium right now.

Connor's soccer team won their game yesterday 7-1.  Woot!  His season finishes up this week, but due to rain outs, we have THREE more games... Thursday at 5pm, Saturday at 11:30 am, and Sunday at 4:00 pm.  All by myself.  Youch!

A shout out or two... Drama Mama, remember in your christmas letter a few years ago, when you talked about how you were simplifying your life?  I think I get it now... this disciple class has really been a gift so far.  Perhaps we'll have time to talk at the Thanksgiving gathering about it... to all of you who have added me as your friend on Facebook, thank you for making me feel loved... and please keep my extended family in your prayers on Monday.  A beloved family member is having surgery on Monday, and we are very hopeful it will be positively life changing.

Sorry to leave you hanging almost a month.  Maybe November will be better?

I could shoot mine tonite.  Best advice I got was to calm down, so I'll leave my note to my neighbor here, instead of shoved up her... you get the idea.  Somehow, I doubt she reads blogs.  If she does, well, perhaps she'll get the message?

Dear Law-breaking beloved neighbor,

Thank you so much for you bitchy friendly arrival to my door tonite, calmly demanding my husband drag me out of bed so we could all fight talk.  I would LOVE to do what you asked, and deal with our differences neighborly-like, except you don't think I have any right to comment when your kids and pets break the law and interfere with my ability to enjoy MY property and the public property (ie the road).  I also HATE confrontation... make a note of it for next time, will you?  I really didn't want to call animal control on your rat terrier, but when you WEREN"T HOME, and he chased my children and snarled after them when they were walking home from the bus or over to another neighbors house, I have an issue.  City ordinances say all dogs must be on a leash, or controlled on YOUR property.  So I caved to my dog hating husband and called.  Thank you for letting me know my 7 year old told you who called... we've already had a discussion about sharing our business with the neighbors.

If you don't care that your dog tried to bite my child while he was in the road walking home from school, then in my opinion we have nothing to discuss.  There was no one home to discuss it with in fact.  We have tried the neighborly way with you, and that canine escape artist still gets out to taunt us.  And when I turn to go back in my house rather than confront, please do NOT stick your foot in my door to prevent me from shutting it and leaving you to discuss it with the dog hater.  When I ask you to remove your foot from my door, please do it the first time.  It prevents me from screaming obscenities at you and upsetting myself.  Plus, you let the cat out, who we had to chase into the yard.  And for the record, the state of my house is absolutely NONE of your business.  It goes back to those neighborly relations you asked for. You will be proud that I resisted the urge to call 911 and ask for help removing a trespasser. 

In summary, my only wish is that I can enjoy my property and come and go in the neighborhood sans your yippy little dog.  As you asked my husband, feel free to call the police if my 7 year old or 12 year old are performing illegal acts.  I'm sure the cops have nothing better to do than come arrest my 7 year old for forgetting his bike helmet while riding his scooter.  And if they choose to have a talk with me, I'll be glad to know my child is being unsafe, and we will correct the situation.  We want our children to be law abiding citizens.  Unlike some of our neighbors.... 

Sincerely,

Me

Sorry it doesn't have a more interesting title... I'm suffering through some serious psoatic nerve issues in my back/leg today, and am feeling pretty miserable.  I'm so ready for congress to decide if/when they are going to do something about the financial crisis, and we are seeing more gas shortages here in Winston-Salem.  I still have 1/2 a tank, but it's starting to worry me.

We figured out what the denial from Social Security was – only a denial for SSI, which is temporary support while they process your claim.  I can see that benefit being denied.  We’ve had yet MORE paperwork to fill out on the disability process.

Our Disciple bible study talked about wonder last night.  There are now five of us taking the class.  We read parts of Genesis, Job, and a lot of Psalms this week.  A good portion of our discussion was around free-will vs. pre-determination, observation of the Sabbath, and our relationship to God.  I’m starting to feel more comfortable with the conversations, and to feel like I have something to contribute.  We had quite the chuckle as a group over Job telling God to “… gird your loins like a man…”  I am moved by some of my personal reflections, about being both a speck of dust but also God’s amazing creation in his likeness.  I was not totally prepared for this week’s lesson and briefly pondered not going last night.  I decided that nothing had changed from my original thought that I needed to make time for this class, and that I would go, prepared or not.  I can say that I got more out of this week than last, so that supports my instinct to go no matter what.  Next week’s lesson has the keyword “sin”.

I’m back on my “part time job” of being a frugal deal hunter.  I’ve been rolling register rewards like everyone else at Walgreens, stocking up on cold medicine and oral hygiene stuff.  I had two pretty great moments in the past two weeks.  For the first one, I got a loaf of bread, Food Lion’s On-the-go-Bistro Mac & Cheese, FL Crisp Crunch cereal, and a 2 liter of Mountain Dew… for a total of $0.03 out-of-pocket.  I used several free item coupons to make that happen.  The 2 liter was a filler to keep them from owing me.  Tuesday’s success involved a gift card I won by attending our United Way presentation at work.  It was a $10 Papa John’s card.  I combined that with a B1G1F coupon out of my 2009 Entertainment Book, and got two large one topping pizzas for $2.81, including tax!   I’m also restocking air fresheners, Gatorade, and deodorants.  I need to catch a toilet paper deal, so if anyone knows of one…  The Entertainment book has been very helpful so far; I already used the “get a $25 gift card…” one for CVS, and mentioned trading some of my sporting goods stores c/o to someone who wasn’t going to use her CVS one.  I brought my book to fellowship last night.  She didn’t bring me the one in her book (she says that will be next week), but brought me a $25 g.c. mailer from CVS.  Free $$!  I read blogs like Crystal’s, and others, when they talk about knowing the Lord will provide.  I can honestly say as I’ve started the Disciple class, and tried to center myself on doing the right thing now, and worry about tomorrow tomorrow, I am seeing HIM provide for my needs.  Wachovia has started an enhanced prescription drug benefit program for diabetics, which will take many of our Rx co-pays down, some to $0, for diabetes related medication.

Speaking of HIM, I received a ray of sunshine in my mailbox last week in the form of a letter from Upendo.  She is doing well.  I know now she has an older brother, and she attends church every Sunday afternoon.  I had started to worry a little bit about the letters slowing down, but this one was dated 7/30, so I think simply it’s taking longer for letters to come and go.  This letter responded to one I wrote in May.  She still has letters from 6/20, 7/7, 7/10, 8/4, 8/29, and 9/17 to receive.    I am still waiting for my first response from Birri.   My very first letter to her was on 7/14.   I’ve written three more times to her.  I found a deal for free photo printing that I will take advantage of to print some photos to send to both girls.   Some of the postings on Compassion’s blog talk about a pecking order for the children in the centers – kids who gets letters AND photos are viewed as more lucky/blessed.

There is a good article out on MSNBC about the current crisis in the financial industry.  It touches on a subject familiar to frugal wannabes – the idea of living within your means.

On a (sarcastically) humorous note, we mailed some paperwork for Charles’ disability application to social security last Friday, so they should have gotten the medical release paperwork on Monday.  Imagine my surprise to get a notification from Medicare on Wednesday telling us they had been notified his SSI application had been denied.  Wow, isn’t our government amazing, that they can get his medical records, review them, and make a decision in 48 hours?!  I knew this was going to be a long haul but geez….

I had my first class discussion for the Disciple bible study last night.  There are four of us taking the class.  Our lesson was on authority.  We talked about the structure of the bible, it’s purpose, the writers, and looked at various types of writing styles and then on several passages about God’s authority.  This week’s lesson is on wonder.

Duncan and I are going camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend.  We are headed to Damascus, VA so that several of the boys can ride the Virginia Creeper Trail.  Duncan & I are taking responsibility for preparing the evening meal, grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetable beef soup.  Then we are having eggs, bacon & English muffins for breakfast.  Yum!  He has had a tough time with the transition to middle school, so I am hoping some one on one time with me during the day Saturday will help put him more at ease with life in general.

On a very sad note, I learned yesterday that an internet friend from South Africa passed away from cancer.  Our group hadn’t heard from Lesley, so Cathy mailed a letter, and we got a note back from her parents.   Lesley had such a beautiful spirit… she will be missed very much.