life is good

here i am, again! last 2 weeks have gone by sooooooo fast!
this is a long blog entry, so sorry. remember, i'm new at this, i'm OLD, & give me a break, okay?

the top secret project was a surprise party for my dear friend, holly, who turned 50 on 1/15. holly's husband, steve, had wanted to have one for her but didn't have time to do the planning. randee & gail to the rescue. steve is a neonatal pulmonary care specialist at children's & is also on the teaching staff at osu, so he's a busy, busy guy. i don't usually (i mean, i never) like to do things in such a short amount of time but holly is special & deserving of our best effort. so, 100 handmade invitations(thanks, ruthie! for coming to my rescue & helping!) & lots of quick planning resulted in a very special evening.
holly & her family went to dinner last friday night & while they were gone, gail, her daughter shayna & i went in & turned holly's dining room & kitchen & great room into a dessert buffet attended by 50 ladies. i got there first & gail had said the key was hidden in the lantern on the back porch. i found the lantern, but no key. i looked around & around (in the rain!) but to no avail. finally, 1/2 hour later, gail & shayna got there. gail said "here it is, just where i said, in the lantern" & proceeded to remove the key from the back light fixture attached to the house. she's from virginia & boston & that's what she calls the outdoor light, i guess. that was at 7 pm & they were due home by 8:45. we had to work really fast. the fact that we were doing this at holly's own house made it so much fun. when she walked in, gail, sarah & i were standing in the kitchen & said we were there to serve them dessert. (that only surprised her a little since the four of us are very close & we comprise the servant's team for community bible study, the inter-denominational bible study that is our life's work at the moment.) then, everyone yelled surprise & as you can see by the photo below she was shocked! it was a major outpouring of love for her.
holly is the teaching director for the community bible study columbus northeast day class & 96 women & 40 children call her blessed! if she was turning 50 & 1 week next week (which she is!) & the right thing to do would be throw her another party, i would!!!!!! but, i'm so glad, no party is required for that ;)

okay, now on to other things -

i've lost 4 1/2 lbs. without being on the treadmill in 2 weeks. when i get the time, i have to either find my good walking shoes (i hope i didn't leave them at lizards thicket) or buy new ones.

my beautiful italian friend, barbara, has offered to help us with planning our trip to italy. she & her husband, tom, have been there many times. yeah! we need their help!

a word of advice! - if you are planning on having your roof replaced - leave town while they are doing it!!!!!!!!!!!! oy vay! my head is killing me! pound, pound, pound all day long. the stipling was even falling off the ceilings (as well as the pictures off the walls!) . weather permitting, they'll start replacing the siding after this.

the plan (again, i'm the only one really enthusiastic about this!) is to sell our 2 houses & buy a newer one. i really, really love this house but would really, really love one with a larger, more open kitchen & entertaining area. having new siding, new roof, & 2 new bathrooms should help to sell this one. i know the first thing we need to do is CLEAN, CLEAR & DE-CLUTTER!
neither one of us are very good at letting things go but GO they must!

it's kind of funny to even think of selling our house with the front yard the mess that it is! i'm confident, however, that shelly will, as usual, do a fantastic job of transforming, once again, an ugly duckling of a front yard into a beautiful lawn, as he has the rest of the yard! shelly may have fooled some people into thinking he's all about "BUDS & WHOPPERS" but i know he's so much more. in fact, he's all that & a bag of chips! (when i was working as a nurse at st. angela's nursing home, that was one of the expressions i heard frequently. that was over 10 years ago, but it stuck with me as one of the craziest but most meaningful expressions the nursing assistants ever expressed. however, the MOST meaningful one was expressed by a gal very angry with me when i told her she couldn't leave her soft drink cup in a resident's room. i would share it with you, but it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. okay, i'll share it with you. she said "don't you be kinging me!" what did she mean? if you have any idea, please let me know. but back to "all that & a bag of chips" - shelly is that!)

what else do i have to share? henry is totally obsessed with the wiggles. he calls them "choo-choo chugga chugga" if there is a sound, he can make it. he's the absolute king of sounds.
& has no interest in words or names. i, personally, think it's a sign of genius!

and now, it is time to close this ridiculously long entry. i hope i get better at this blog stuff.

love,
miranda