http://www.pandora.com/
cool - just type in the name of your favorite song/singer and bam you have your own "radio" station. The sound is pretty good, better than some of the iTunes stations I've been listening to.
Many thanks to my cousin
Lara for sharing! Presently listing to my Jeremy Camp station :)
Good Things
The past couple of days have been a whirl of happenings. Sunday night my parents left to go back home and an hour later we got a call from Dan's father that Steve's father was in a coma. I started praying the second I heard Dan's voice lower, I just knew it was about Grampa Bambrick and it broke my heart. We'd been praying that he would accept Jesus as his Savior before he passed but he went into the coma and never came out. He passed Sunday night. Our only hope is that something got through to him in those last days. Hope, hope to see him in heaven. Hope is a good thing.
Thursday the kids and I will attend the funeral, Steve and Joanne have been through so much lately I think they're just running on fumes, they're just too busy to realize it. I am hoping I can be of some use while we're there, at least bringing the kids with me should help cheer up Andrew and Alyssa. Joanne said Steve was surprised and happy that we could come down. We're family, family supports each other.
So, tonight I'm doing work getting ready for my second interview with Drexel. I'm presenting them with a new home page design, a postcard design and maybe an email and information sheet design as well. We have been praying that God's leading will be very clear on this job. It's a mystery to me how He works... every once in a while I like to think I get it and I'm making the right and logical decision and then He throws in something else.
I'm learning to give the control over, but I have to learn it over and over and over every single day. I'd like to think I'd get better at it, but I don't - all I can do is pray - I'm hopeless with out His help. There's something horribly horribly wonderful about not being in control. I don't have to make this decision, it's not up to me ... it's like that saying that I've heard since I was a teenager "I'll do my best and let God do the rest". I don't think I really knew the full implications of that until now... it always sounded trite and fake, but stepping up and actually doing it... no way, that's the real stuff the hard stuff, the gritty stuff living up to promises involves.
Marshall's Birthday
Saturday Marshall turned 5!
What a big day for fake teeth :D
These were the most disgusting teeth we'd ever seen, so we bought them and stuck them in our mouths.
Mom and Dad flew in from VT for the weekend and we partied all day Saturday. By 1pm we had Fitzpatricks, Aunt Joie, Uncle Fitz and Christiana, in the house and we were eating lunch outside on the side porch in 55 degree weather! 4pm and Aunt Joie & Uncle Fitz had to hit the road. They left behind two delicious apple pies and some very heavy cards! Turns out the cards had quarters taped on the inside of them in the shape of the number 5 (Marshall) and 8 (Rianne) - very cool
Sue, Luke and Wesley showed up for the cake phase of the party and we went into present mode. Luke and Wes gave Marshall a Spiderman action figure and a Spiderman towel set. Grandma, Grampa, Mom, Dad and Ri gave Marshall a Spiderman bike, complete with training wheels, Christiana gave him a set of super cool magnetic toys and Andrew and Alyssa gave him a GOLD Deisel 10 with a new Thomas movie and a Bob and Larry kite! Quite a haul for a 5th Birthday.
Bird Flu Pandemic
Isn't it great! Today on Oprah (shut-up) they had a guy that consults with the UN, the White House, the CDC and a bunch of other top level agencies and he said it's coming. Evidently the bird flu is starting to mutate in Turkey and if it mutates so that it can pass from human to human we're going to end up with a pandemic similar to the one back in
1918So Oprah asked this guy... what can we do? He talked about getting a special kind of
mask that creates a seal around your mouth and nose and then admitted that he didn't have enough of them to last the whole term of the pandemic - 9-18 months. Oh and gloves, cause if you get the masks the outside of the mask gets contaminated and then if you take it off and touch it w/o washing your hands you'll end up rubbing it in your eyes, nose or mouth.
Oh and the people who are going to be the most affected by this virus are people between the ages of
20 and 40's especially vulnerable will be pregnant women. I imagine the hundreds of thousands of people who watch Oprah are searching the internet tonight searching for the face masks and gloves they need to protect their families.
So, I did a little research - if we assume one mask per day per family member for 2 years (the longest estimated length of the pandemic) with 4 family members that's 2,920 masks. I did a quick google search and after reading a back order note (resulting from the Oprah show) found that I could buy that many N95 rated masks for $1,138.80. I'm sure all the people on my street are also asking about our town's chlorine supply and if we'll have enough to last a whole two years. Good grief.
I'm not saying we shouldn't do stuff to be prepared. It's wise and prudent to be prepared. I even think I'll start squirling away a couple cans of whatever we have at the back of the cupboard that we don't eat this month, I'll probably even buy an extra bag of flour or oatmeal every other week and tuck it in a dry spot in the basement. It just seems a little extreme of Oprah, given the zombie like qualities of her audience, to say on national tv "I feel kind of hopeless."!
Reminds me of that hymn -
My hope is in the Lord who gave Himself for methe author of that song lived right through the 1918 pandemic
Psalms 146:1-6
Praise ye the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.
While I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being,
Put not your trust in princes, nor the son of man, in whom there is no help,
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God;
Which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therin is: which keepeth truth for ever:
He's the guy, let's call the Captian!
We love
Monk, it's a great clean mystery program that has a great sense of humor. This evenings episode was the best EVER, I laughed I laughed so hard I cried! Dan was playing his brand new football game, you know dan and football, and he stopped playing his game to come watch Monk because I was laughing so hard.
my throat is sore from laughing... stupid cold, ok off to bed! watch
Monk when you can!!
doodly-do
so my interview with
drexel went really, really well! they clearly need my help with their site and they told me before I left that I was definitly coming back for the second round of interviews. the guy even gave me some materials to help me do a good job on the next phase of things.
the really great thing, the thing that Dan's very jealous of, is that if God gives me the job I will get free coffee. fancy coffee too, it's the
Keurig kind of coffee! Mom has one at her work, but I think she has to pay for it. Either way super good, super great!
i'm also dialing back the real estate thing, switching from being a full fledged agent to a referral agent. So, if you're looking for an agent anywhere you call me and I'll get some with good references to call you. The nice thing is I can talk to them before you do, so I know they'll treat you good. Actually have one guy who's offered me a 35% cut vs. the normal 30% to give him leads. He's quality and I had planned on sending referrals in his direction anyway so this is gravy!
I fired the navigation system and then rehired it. on my way to my interview, Friday the 13th - yeah who cares, and I think I see my exit, but I wait for the system to say something before I get over and I wait and wait and there goes the exit! So I get off the next exit and it starts up again "off route, recalculating, recalculating" so I yell at it "You're fired Cicile!" Only to start frantically pushing buttons at the next stop sign. Then it finds me and gives me directions, it only takes two minutes to get there *phew*!
i want some more california rolls...
10th Anniversary
So Friday was our 10th Anniversary party! Thank you everyone that came/called & sent flowers, it was so much fun! Dan's whole family came, with a couple of exceptions - Bethany had a game, Rachel had to work and Mark had to stay home and watch the dogs in North Carolina. They missed out on some pretty good cake and ice cream. We even had reports of whole cookies in the cookies n'cream ice cream!
We served vegetable & regular lasagna with a mexican rice and chicken dish that turned out to be my favorite, salad, bread and then Sue brought some stromboli that fit in just perfect. Tons of fun!
raw wooden spoons
My friend
Richard mentioned the other day that he thought my blog was more abstract than his blog. I guess that's because I'm a girl... or I don't have enough exciting things I've done to write about... although, well lets give it a try!
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Today I took the children to school. I was very sleepy as I spent last night in Philly celebrating my cousin
Lara's birthday. She turned the big 3-0. I picked Tim up on the way to the Etheopian restaurant and we had a good time. Ok, so we were only there till 8:30pm, but I checked out Tim's new shelves and getting into & out of his apartment was quite an adventure. So I didn't get home till around 10pm.
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Ok, I'm a failure! It's kind of a conversation for me - I talk to myself, my husband... anyone who cares to read this blog. It makes it more fun for me :)
For instance, the getting in and out of Tim's apartment! The front of his building is getting redone and he has to climb into his front door while trying not to touch, in anyway, the bricks that have just been laid. What this really means is putting one foot on a little shelf in this boulder type thing, one hand on the scaffolding another on the exposed wood beam on the building and flinging one foot up onto the floor of the entry way. THEN you have to push your body from the boulder/scaffolding side up and over the new brick so that you're standing in the entry way. Then you quickly move your feet so that you're standing on floor beams instead of the paper thin slats that run between them. I'm glad Tim is tall and strong because I wouldn't have made it up if he hadn't gotten up first and pulled me when I pushed off from the boulder!
Getting back down was even more of an adventure... Tim anchored one side of me while I hung out over the gap between the boulder and the new bricks. I had no idea I was so flexible or that my pants could tolerate so much stretching! I must say I did contemplate flinging myself on the boulder, but my shoes were all wrong :)
back to work for me - hope you're all enjoying your day!
heather
