Thursday, May 31, 2007

news

My brother was asked to be a pall-bearer for Crissa. He was so much closer to her than anyone in our family, since he and her father were best friends growing up. I just sat and cried last night when I thought of my baby brother carrying the tiny casket of the little girl we all held in our arms as a baby. It's still just so mind-numbing.


Here is the latest from our local news on Crissa (link available if you click on the title of this post):

The parents of an 11-year-old girl who died after being pulled out of Lake Hartwell on Memorial Day said that their daughter did know how to swim.

The girl’s parents said that Crissa Powell must have panicked when she couldn’t feel the bottom of the lake after she jumped off a dock.

She was under water for about 10 minutes before witnesses were able to locate her and pull her out.

Two medical students performed CPR to keep the girl alive until she could be taken to the hospital, but she was taken off life support on Tuesday evening and died.

Her parents, Crystal and Nye Powell said that they kept a lock of their daughter's hair and a card with her handprints on it.

Crystal Powell said that she was with her daughter when she died.

"They moved her over in the bed a little bit so that I could get in with her and tell her goodbye. I waited there with her for a while," Crystal Powell said.

The Powells also thanked the witnesses who tried to save their daughter.

Crissa Powell was a fifth-grader at Berea Elementary School in Greenville County. She turned 11 earlier this month.

The school announced plans to plant a tree on school grounds in her honor.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Update

Crissa's battle for life has ended.

She was determined to be brain-dead, and her parents made the heart-wrenching decision to pull the plug this afternoon.

Not long after I wrote earlier today, Crissa went to be with the Lord.

Please continue to keep her family in your prayers. They are all completely devastated.

My brother went to see her today. It must have been right before.

It's hard to imagine that the little girl I once held as a baby has passed away before any of us. 11 years is not long enough on this earth.

Note: Pic is of Crissa (in the purple) and her sister a couple of Halloween's ago.

post-weekend

I got my NordicTrack today... in all its fragmented glory. Every possible piece is separate from each other. Wow...this is going to be an ordeal just to put it together. I hope it only needs a Phillips head (just kidding - I do have more tools than that)!

We have our first Furman Lakeside band rehearsal tonight. I'm excited to have a semi-obligatory ensemble to play in during the summer. Don't get me wrong, I love the band I play in year-round. It's just nice to not HAVE to go unless I want to. Concerts in the summer are done in a week, with no further obligation unless you want to do the next one. The year-round concerts require a month or more of rehearsal attendance to be able to play.

Since we were off yesterday, I've been trying to play catch-up again today. I think our sales department is making up for it too LOL.

Oh, I finally bought a little half-gigabyte flash drive for work. I can stop emailing important documents to myself and just save them on that instead. I swear I've heard them called "jump drives" before too. That's what I went looking for when I went shopping. Maybe not!

No new news on Crissa. Things are, thankfully, no worse, but sadly, no better. Please continue to keep praying for her. She needs all she can get.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Prayers needed

A little friend of mine was in an accident today. The whole situation has actually made the news, too.

Our childhood friend's (mine and my brother) oldest daughter (only 11 years young) was rescued from a local lake earlier today. She was climbing up a pier ladder and either jumped or was knocked off. No one is really sure, but she cannot swim, and she's a very obedient little girl, and she wouldn't have done something she wasn't supposed to do. The other girl with her turned for a moment, turned back, and she was gone. She immediately started screaming for help, but she was not found for around 5 or more minutes, only 9 feet from where she fell in.

Some people nearby were nurses-in-training, and performing CPR until EMS arrived. They said she was blue and had so faint a pulse that EMS couldn't even shock her. Brain damage has already been mentioned and partly confirmed. That is, if she even pulls through.

I think of her little face and cannot imagine it being blue. It's almost unreal.

I was ok until I saw her school picture pop up on TV when I turned to the news earlier. Then I just cried.

The last time I saw them all was on Halloween. I even got a cute picture of the girls I had always planned to copy and send over to their mom and dad.

Lauren, my niece, is 11 also. I can't imagine that happening to her.

She's just too young.

Please put Chrissa in your prayers tonight.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Aww

I'm so mean - I haven't posted in 16 days. My fault! Yeah, I've been busy... who hasn't?

Supposedly, if the tracking is correct, my new NordicTrack will be in my living room by the end of the week. Yay!

Work is going fine. Normal work status. :)

Concert band is wrapping up this week, well, practice at least. We have one more concert in a couple of weeks. I have Furman University Lakeside band rehearsals starting next week. We only have five concerts, and the rehearsals are in the same week as the concerts, so it's not a huge commitment. Plus, Josh is FINALLY getting a car of his own again, so I won't have to worry about whether I have a ride somewhere. -happy sigh-

I'm listening to not-so-calm music on my pod. I think I'm going to switch LOL. Not impressed with angry rock today. This is not normal!

Ahh - now our accounting system is down at work. Not cool. Makes my job harder. :( This kind of blows the "i'm not working today" plan out of the water.

Band Funding

Nice news - I just heard that funding for our local music programs has been increased by our school board. Considering that for a long time, the funding has been cut, it's a wonderful change.

I'm glad to see that the board is aware of how important arts (of all types) are in our schools.

Yay!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Quiz 4

Ok, I wouldn't make fun of anyone's pet, but the comedian part is pretty accurate.


Take the What Type of Friend Are You? quiz.

Quiz 3

Well, there wasn't a pic for band geek. This was as close to that as possible. LOL - Oh yeah, and I don't want to kill anyone.


Take the What High School Stereotype Are You? quiz.

Quiz 2


What type of Fae are you?

Weekend Wrap-up

Picture is of my Mom walking my niece.



I had another concert this past Friday night. It went pretty well. Most of our pieces sounded better in the auditorium we were in that night (a high school auditorium) vs. our normal concert hall (a college auditorium). At least schools get the good ones, though. Kids need to hear how music is supposed to sound without carpet and bland walls absorbing or bouncing their sound all over the hall.

I kind of put myself in a pickle, though. Well, no one else knew, but I did. We played with the high school kids and one of them was asking all of us what kind of flutes we all have. She came to me (I have the oldest and most generic flute out of everyone, as I am not as concerned with having a good flute as I am with my piccolo), and I told her it was my "bad one," when actually, it's my only one. I have had it since 11th grade (15 years). It needs some work, but it has a beautiful upper and middle register. The lower register, though, needs some serious work. However, I betrayed my good old flute and told them I had another. I'd love to have another one, but this one is just fine, and I'd rather have a Burkhart piccolo, as you well know by know if you've read any of my music posts. Oh well. Next time, I just might admit that this is my only flute LOL. Shame on me today.

Hubby was at work, so Danielle came over and we went to OTB for Cinco de Mayo (NOT the Mexican Independence Day, by the way... look it up if you don't believe me). No, I'm not Mexican, but neither was ANYONE else there except a waitress and a bartender. We got a drink right away since a bartender was walking around getting orders, but we waited for a table for over an hour. We went up three times to see how far up the list we'd moved. We ended up finishing our drinks and getting our food to go b/c they kept upping the time on us. So, we took our food home and watched Buffy reruns! We still had a great time. Forgot to bring my camera. Dangit.

Oh, I bought a NordicTrack last week. I don't think I have covered that here yet. It's a little expensive, but it pays for itself by the time I add up all the monthly fitness club fees I have had to waste over the past year with only having one family car. Besides, I will be able to work out much more by having something so handy. Even if I can only work out a small amount at a time, I will still build up more time faster since I can keep coming back to it any time of the day I want. Wear myself out for five minutes, take a rest, do some laundry, drink some H20, come back and work it out again. It makes so much more sense than to wear myself out for ten minutes at the club, try to do some weights while still worn out from the cardio, then give up and go home, not getting another chance at it later. Besides, whatever I have spent on exercise equipment is pocket change if it means I will be healthier.

That's all for now. I have to iron clothes for tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Mouse

Ok, I just love this. Sad, though...



MOUSE TRAP

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain? The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning:
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me."" I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray.

"Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital , and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

REMEMBER,
EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY;
OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

quiz 1





Take the Villain quiz.

Ha

I was perusing IMDB earlier and I found out that I share a birthday with the following peeps:

Johnny Carson
Ang Lee
Ryan Reynolds
Cat Deeley
Doug Flutie
Sam Raimi
Weird Al Yankovic
Nancy Grace
Martin Luther King III
Dwight Yoakam

Yup, that's all I have to write about. :)

Taking a break from sorting music. Going back now.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Drifted

Well, it's official. My mind has drifted for good LOL. Today has been my slow day at work. I have been finished with my required tasks since 10AM. Since then, I haven't really done much of anything except keep my customers in check. And about the time I say that, here comes the big boss over to say hi! Luckily, the power of the alt-tab combo works fast.

I have felt blah all day. I don't really know what's wrong with me, other than maybe it's near girl time. That usually doesn't affect me, though. Maybe I still have baby fever. Maybe I am sick of someone here at work. Who knows... If I had a "happy pill", I'd be taking it right now.

In a couple of weeks. I think Josh and I are going to go to Reedy River and go on a picnic. We talked about it once before and decided it would be fun to do again. We haven't done so in awhile. I think it would be nice. :)

I accidentally kicked Lucy in the head this morning. I felt so bad! I was half-asleep and turning over in the bed. I barely remembered that she was at the foot of the bed. I felt my foot hit something soft and I heard a bell jingle. I knew right away what I did. Of course, she jumped off the bed and I only saw her when I left. Bad Mommy… poor piddy.

We’re going out to the Golden Corral tonight. It’s kind of like a Ryan’s steakhouse, for those of you unaware. A steak buffet is like heaven for my hubby. The buffet might need its last rites when he’s done.

Oh, I am half done with the music sorting. Josh and I did a lot when Rusty was still playing Star Wars. Josh had the whole floor covered with about 40-50 different pieces of sheet music. I think there was a total of about 800 or so sheets of music he dealt with. Yikes… thank goodness for hubbies. Especially mine!

Songs of the Day:
The Diary of Jane: Breaking Benjamin
Leaves the Pieces: The Wreckers
Apparently, I’m not in any certain music mood -LOL.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Refresh

Well, it's a new week. I spring-cleaned all weekend. I even got our new steam cleaner out and clean 1/3 of our living room. That is mainly the high traffic areas due to "Mr. I work with raw rubber and get it on my shoes and track it on our beige carpet and don't bother to take off my work boots." Well, from now on, he has to, according to me. The other night, he knocked on the door wanting to be let in since he had his hands full with groceries. I peeked through the door and took his groceries, tell him to take his shoes off before he came in. I'm hoping to make this a trend LOL. Cleaning solution is expensive!

I also went with my Mom to my sister-in-law's candle party. I love those things, but I always spend more than I intend. I meant to spend only $20 but ended up spending $37. The good thing, though, is that I am set for a LONG time. I bought all tealights, so I'm happy for quite some time!

My hubby has company over today. I'm so glad I cleaned. He and his best friend, Rusty, are playing the Star Wars computer game (oh yeah, that was another tax $ purchase. It was only $20!!).

It's probably a good thing that he has company. I have music to organize before Thursday. Not only am I in the band, but I am also the librarian... a bad one at the moment. I have a lot of our music at home that I need to organize and bring back to our library. Luckily, the pieces we need for Thursday are already done and ready to use... well, except for the Patriotic folders, which is a task in itself. I don't even know what goes in those right now. I have to email my conductor to find out.

Yeah, ok. Enough for now

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Drifting

My mind is really random today. Not entirely sure why, other than the fact that I'm a little tired. I didn't get much sleep last night. Oh well, no big.

I have band practice tonight, so I won't get home until near 9:30. The only disadvantage to this is that I probably don't get to eat since I'm getting home so late. I hate eating late b/c it causes acid reflux and I really shouldn't let food sit on my stomach when I go to bed. However, we did have our OTB day (as indicated in previous post) and I had my fill of cheese dip as expected. Happy tummy.

I am anticipating a seat move today at work. I have heard rumors. I am prepared (well, about as much as I can be without having "where's my item" issues) to move, but we have to be hush-hush, b/c seat moves usually come with account moves as well. That would be the hush part. I really hope I do not lose the accounts I have right now. I have worked hard to get them where they are, and to give them away to someone who might screw them up again will tick me off. As of right now, who knows what will happen?

30 minutes later...

Woo-hoo! No account switches. The seat move is happening, but I am not moving! I was one of the lucky few. Plus, I still have the same boss. Yay! Such a huge sigh of relief right now. Same boss, same seat, same customers. Whew. Now, we who are not moving get to watch everyone else's accounts while they trek across the department.

2 hours later...

I am annoyed with these crazy people moving their crap all around the department. I am SO glad I am not moving.

Must concentrate - 19 minutes left.

anti potty-humor

We are up to our elbows... in water. Our toilet overflowed!! And no, we have no plunger. We are about to in a moment, when Josh comes back from an emergency Wally-World trip for that and some Draino. I woke Josh up from his semi-nap yelling about it while throwing towels everywhere on the floor. I'm basically doing this to keep my mind off of why I wanted to go into the bathroom in the first place LOL.

In the meantime, I'm watching the last hour of the movie Hostage.

In all, I had an ok day at work. It wasn't bad, just not the party scene you'd imagine work being. One of my accounts surprised me by actually paying us (highlight of the day LOL). I froze my butt off all day, though.

Oh, the pids like their waterfall. Well, they didn't hiss at it or run away. Lucy still drinks with her paw, even though there is a lovely waterfall. Bless her little heart.

I am having a craving for spicy food. Luckily, two co-workers and I are taking our bi-weekly trip to a Mexican restaurant called On the Border tomorrow, so I'll get my fill of spicy cheese dip. :)
11:40PM

10 minutes later...

Potty fixed.

Going to bed.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Dizzy Girl

Ooo - I have a nice case of vertigo today. If you want to get a natural high or need an excuse to be a klutz, you should be me today. It started off with a little car sickness earlier today and has not stopped. Luckily, I have drugs. :)

On to the day's events so far...

I forgot to recharge my iPod last night, so it is on its last leg of battery power. Oh yeah, I forgot to say before that my sweet hubby re-bought me a new iPod for Valentine's Day. It's red! It's so purty. Plus, he had a sweet message engraved on the back for me.

I also forgot to turn off the iron this morning. I was worried about it all day until I could go home at lunch and check it. However, apparently I have a new-fangled iron, because that bad boy was plugged in, but stone-cold when I checked it. Hooray for technology that realizes I am not at home and have helpless pids.

I am setting up Macy and Lucy's water recirculator tonight when I get home. I forgot to do it last night. Macy's used to it, but I hope Lucy doesn't think that her water bowl is mad at her. I'm sure she'll love it, though. She usually doesn't lap up water, rather she cups her paw and drinks from it. It's so cute!

Oh, I made chicken and dumplings on Sunday night. I am so proud of myself! I don't know how healthy it is (is it?), but it was good! Actually, that probably means that it's NOT good LOL. Who cares? That was some good stuff! Plus, I actually made something from scratch (well, almost totally from scratch - I bought the dumplings since I didn't have time to make dough). I even used my own chicken broth and -gulp- used a whole chicken. Josh didn't understand why I wanted a whole chicken, but I wanted to do everything myself. Though, next time, I might take advantage of the times and buy a pre-cut-up chicken, bless my heart. Cutting it up took almost as long as making the dang meal.

That's all for now. I have 45-ish minutes left at work, and I need to concentrate.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Frivolity

Ok, one could look at my receipts for the weekend and have no problem whatsoever realizing that we got our taxes back. We spent a LOT of money. I am glad there was not another day in the weekend.

Here is the list of things we bought (I think it's complete):

Paper Shredder
Fireproof Lockbox
Portable File Holder
Steam Carpet Cleaner
Recirculating Waterfall station for the pids
Sneakers for me
Dress shoes for Josh
3-tier cookie rack and new cookie sheets
Clothes for Josh
1 t-shirt for me
Disney Puzzle

Here are my excuses. I feel the need to explain.

You can look at the list and see that we really did need most of that stuff. You can't blame us for needing most of it, especially the steam cleaner and the fireproof box, since we do live in an apartment. We rented a cleaner once, and it cost us about 50 bucks total for two nights. As much as the pids mess up things and as klutzy as I am, we really needed one. Fireproof box is self-explanatory. Would you trust your attached neighbors not to burn down your marriage certificate, pet's medical history, etc? No, you wouldn't. We should have gotten one a long time ago.

The paper shredder was necessary as well. Besides, it keeps me from doing what I have been doing, which was taking all of our spam mail to work and shredding it there. We plugged that bad boy up last night and shredded everything we could find. We were like kids with a new toy. When we got done shredding the pile of junk mail we had, we went after more. We even shredded credit cards (yes we can) and a newspaper. Oh yeah, we knocked out the power, too. Apparently we cannot plug in and run more than a couple things on one side of the apartment, so the shredder must have been just too darn much for our pitiful fuses.

As for the waterfall, Macy had one a long time before Lucy came along, but we didn't take good care of it. We let it get broken and unrepairable. Therefore, we technically owed Macy that item.

Portable File Holder should be self-explanatory. Besides, Josh was getting tired of having to search for our important papers every time we needed one (those that don't currently fit or deserve to be in the fireproof box are going here). This is to hold everything that would have fit in the larger fireproof box that we couldn't afford.

I have not had a new pair of sneakers since Josh and I were dating when he'd gotten me a pair for Christmas (4 or more years ago!). Besides, mine were 1/2 off since we got Josh's at the same time (gotta love Shoe Carnival's buy one get one half off sales). As for Josh's, I just love the way he looks in brown leather shoes LOL.

Disney Puzzle. Ok, whatever. It was only $10 and I have been wanting a new puzzle for a long time. Besides, this one will take FOREVER, so I won't want another for awhile. At least I didn't buy the Pooh & Friends puzzle plus the puzzle roll-it-up mat as well!

Clothes for Josh: He really needed new clothes. Besides, we put that in the tax budget. We decided we'd could afford to let him have $200 for a clothes budget. He has been wearing the same things for a long time.

My one t-shirt: Well, it was cute.

Cookie Rack & Cookie Sheets: I have alway wanted a rack that wasn't a broiler pan and didn't warp my precious cookies. As for the sheets, Josh cooked chicken one too many times on my Calphalon cookie sheets and they finally peeled apart (yeah ok, only one was Calphalon, so maybe I deserved one of them croaking). Technically, he owed me two sheets, but they came in a pack of three. That's not really my fault. They did show their future stubbornness, though, as it and the entire tribe of pissed-off cookie sheets jumped from the rack and attacked me. Grab one and they all take up for each other or something ("you ain't taking us without a fight!"). Luckily, my husband knows my fourth octave yelp and came running to help me and the poor Bed, Bath & Beyond girl who came to my rescue.

I therefore reject the term "frivolity" for the most part and insert the word "necessity."

Ok, I have written enough for now.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

M&Ms

Josh and me as M&Ms. He's wearing an iPod and I'm holding a camera. Typical us.

Other than that, though, we're a little naked!

Enjoy!