Hi

Spring

There are yellow tulips on my desk.  Spring is just beginning. I hears a meteorologist say at the beginning of the month that even though the first day of spring is not till late in the month, by the weather they consider winter to be Dec-Feb so March 1 is the beginning of spring weather speaking.  

Um, someone should tell that to the weather then.  We have had below average temps and them had a decent snowfall on the 5th-6th.  Most of that is already melting away and should be gone quickly because this weekend we should be closer to the average temps and hit the 50s!  This makes me happy :)

I suppose I should not complain too much, last year we had an early warm up and hardly any snow at all and this year we were back to our normal snow amount which is good for the crops and lawns and all that grows.  While last year the weather was spectacular for the Super Bowl (Indy should host every year if you ask me, we know how to do it right), the early warm up robbed us of a true spring and lots of things bloomed too early or didn't grow right because we also went into a drought situation.  I am hoping this year will be much better.  

I'm also looking forward to spring because of changes I hope to make.  Its the whole new beginnings thing that is inspiring me I think.  I moved to my sister's house last summer and settled in pretty quickly but not completely. Oh, I have a routine and my bedroom is organized and lots of my belongings were sorted, purged or stored.  But, I have an entire second room next to bedroom to use as a living room that is just sitting there waiting.  I have an entire corner of books that need shelves (imagine that, me with lots of books haha) and another corner has my entertainment center and one bookcase with knick knacks, pictures and other useful things on it.  The rest of the room is empty though.  I have a couch, chair, TV and various other items to fill it up that are sitting at my Dad's in storage.  He got new furniture and offered me his old stuff (not that old, but sentimental to me since it is what my Mom picked out) After I moved, we still had sorting to do to make room for it and then it was winter and nasty out and now?  Well, its spring.  And there is room.  So I am hoping that sooner rather than later I can get the rest of my things and truly get settled.  

Music

I've been updating the music on my computer. I haven't bought much music lately but I realized I have quite a few CDs that I have not uploaded to iTunes and therefore they haven't made it to my iPhone. So far, Cd 18 is uploading. I'm noticing what a wide variety of music I have. Soundtracks, gospel, pop, country, rock. I'm not the only one right? We're talking Sinatra, Manilow, Dixie Chicks, Mercy Me, Third Day, Daughtry, and the list goes on and on. By far, the artist I have the most songs from is Mercy Me. I've been a fan since their early days when they did youth camps and conferences. I heard "I Can Only Imagine" long before it was recorded on their first album for a studio. I can't count the number of times I have been to their concerts, although that seems a strange way to say it. I appreciate the manner in which they share their music. It's not a show for us, the attendees, it's a worship experience we are invited to participate in. Anyway, once I get my CDs uploaded, it will be time to make some playlists and sync with my phone. Then I think I wil try out Goggle Play. I tried out some music I had on my work computer and they say you can add up to 20,000 songs for free. It appears to be their answer to Apple's iCloud and I kinda like the idea that I can log into my google account anywhere and get my music. Meanwhile, back to the music.

A Favorite Childhood Memory

A favorite childhood memory?    So the other day at work, we were all asked to contribute to a memory book for one of our colleagues who is preparing to have her first child. They asked us share a favorite childhood memory.  This is what I came up with...

Oh my, the stories I could tell.  I don’t know how I could even begin to choose. I suppose I will start with a funny one.  As a young child, maybe 3 or so, I spent a week with my grandparents who lived several hours away in western Kansas.  One night, we went out to dinner at a local pizza hut.  They got a pizza with lots of toppings, probably a supreme, which I didn’t like.  I’m told that I picked most of the toppings off and at the end of the meal I surveyed the table, dramatically wiped my hands cleaned and proclaimed loudly “look Grandpa, I maked a mess!” This ranks as a favorite memory because it tickled my Grandpa enough that he told that story over and over.  As the oldest grandchild, my statement was used to describe messes made by all the children in the family since.  You never know which moments will become “legendary” among family, enjoy them all and tell stories often.

Another favorite memory I have concerns my little sister.  My parents adopted her when I was 5 years old.   It was August and I remember being really excited.  My parents left me with family friends while they went to pick her up.  I have clear memories of sitting on the couch at their house and getting to hold her the very first time.  She was three months old. My Mom and Dad let me pick out her name.  This was partly to ease the transition to “big sister” from “only child” however; I think it was also to distract me from the fact that they gave away our two dogs, Peanut (a Chihuahua) and Susie (a toy poodle). To be fair to my parents, the dogs were both a little high strung to have around a new baby but that didn’t stop me from teasing my sister that we traded in the dogs for her and I still wasn’t sure if it was a good deal or not. I have learned blood doesn’t make a family, love does. 

The last favorite memory concerns a book.  It was my favorite storybook as a child, one that was read over and over.  It was one of those “Little Golden Books” called The Monster at the End of this Book and it featured Grover from Sesame Street.  I remember my Mother reading the book to me complete with dramatic voices as Grover pleaded and pleaded with the reader to stop turning the pages because of the Monster waiting on the last page.  There were no profound truths or lofty nuggets of wisdom to be found in this book.  Unless you count the idea that maybe what you are scared of sometimes is not really so scary after all. Oh, wait.   I also remember reading this book to my little sister, imitating the voices my mother used when she read it to me.  Years later, I had the privilege of reading the same story to both my niece and nephew.   I guess maybe trading the dogs in for a kid sister didn’t turn out so bad.