The List

Die with your eyes shut and your heart open.
I just finished watching a great movie - The Bucket List. Now, I love a good movie - and this has to be it for me. This is the best movie that I have seen in a long time. I knew I would have a good cry with this one as soon as it started - but it was so worth it!! Rent it or better yet - buy it!! Start working on your Bucket List. This one is almost as good as The Ultimate Gift. If you haven't seen - find it - watch it.

What is a PIP anyway??

A big thanks to Sharon/Technonana!! I LOVE music, and I have just had so much fun with this playlist. Then I find out today - that I can just play the playlist solo - just to hear all of the great music. So after updating the list AGAIN - I am always thinking of new "favorite" songs - I am listening. I have decided that in another life I would like to be a PIP!!! I went on youtube to find a great PIP video, and after laughing at this all over again - well, just enjoy!!

OH - you can stop the playlist by clicking on the little square button on the top left.

Get Busy

I just got this devotional in an email....

Faith does not isolate us from sadness
Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name. His anger lasts for a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:4-5 NLT

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid.
John 14:27 NLT

Truly, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy when you see me again. It will be like a woman experiencing the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives place to joy because she has brought a new person into the world. You have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.
John 16:20-22 NLT

Bond of understanding

There is an immediate bond of understanding between people who have suffered similar hardships or losses. Parents who have lost children, widows and widowers, and families of terminal-disease patients, all find comfort and encouragement in the presence of those who have known similar pain. Paul urges believers to see opportunities for giving comfort as both a way to share the comfort of God and to use their own experiences of sorrow for good. We rarely know why suffering or trials enter our lives, but we can know that God wants to do through our sorrow.

Updating from Collin

After months of my Mommy being just way too busy - I have decided to update my blog all by myself. If you want to see what I have been doing since February just go to MY BLOG!!!

Here We Go Again!!

I have decided that every 12 years or so it would just be easier to move than to start remodeling, replacing, repairing the current house. We are getting ready to recarpet the 4 bedrooms upstairs and replace the hall - bedroom entry with wood. Do you realize that to do this everything has to come out of each room?? AND that would include the closet floors!?!?! Now, I don't know about you - but there are boxes and THINGS in the backs of our closets (except for Kelly's) that no one has seen since the movers put them there. The box of World Book Encyclopedias that were almost new when we moved here. A HUGE box of David's parents tax records (and Marie Bishop saved every SINGLE receipt that she ever received and then some!!) from 1981 forward. So most of yesterday was spent shredding - what a step back in time. Do you know that they could fill up their car and this was a big Buick car - for $13.00 !?! I realized that Marie would have LOVED shopping online - because she LOVED catalog shopping. I am so sure that those genes were passed on to me somehow, even tho we were not blood related!! So now, our closet is cleaned out - and no one wants encyclopedias!! It's my office upstairs that I am worried about now. I have to get that done tomorrow. Lots of boxing of books and trying to thin out and simplify my life one more time. Kaiti's room is cleaned out, ready to be dismantled and painted a blue color that's more suitable for a baby boy. I even splurged and bought MYSELF a new ladder today. If I can get the border removed and the room painted by the end of the week, then hopefully the carpet is in the first of next week. The wood is scheduled for the end of next week, and it will be done before the girls and Collin get here. That is absolutely it for the inside of the house except for bedding, windows, etc. I am so looking forward to getting into the Beth Moore study here, and the Priscilla Shirer study at church this week. So that's it for now - a weekend of cleaning out, throwing away and getting ready. About the time this is done, it will be time to move Kelly to Charleston. Hmmmm.....Here we go again.

Growing Old

Just got this in an email from a precious "old" friend - it is definitely worth posting!!

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body!! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt..

And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don't agonize over those things for long. I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I have become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio.

I am entitled to a treat, be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60's and 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

I will walk the beach in a swimsuit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They too, will get old.

I know that I am sometimes forgetful. But, there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not be broken when you lose a loved one or when a child suffers, or even when someone's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect. I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day if I feel like it.

Tagged?? What's Tagged??

OK - I have been tagged!! I wasn't sure what that meant, but have now figured it all out - thanks Technonana!! Sooooo - here goes!

What was I doing 10 years ago?
Let's see 10 years ago - 1998. I was driving into Tampa everyday teaching at a private school for students with varying disabilities. This was a great job, with great co-workers and great parents, and some of the best students I have ever taught. I am still in touch with several of them who are away at college now. Harrison - I love you!! Kaiti was in 11th grade, and Kelly was a 6th grader. This was the year of looking at colleges, and lots of debate trips. David and I were working with the high school youth at our church and with Chrysalis, and our Emmaus community. We had a house full of teenagers here 24/7. David's Mom had just been moved to a nursing home here so that we could care for her. That was a big life change for all of us - but exactly what God wanted us to be doing.

My five favorite snacks. White chocolate turtles from Market Street Sweets in Charleston, homemade ChexMix, vanilla walnut fudge, nachos from Taco Bell, layered Mexican dip - I can make a meal out of this!!

Five things on my to do list today: this list is a carryover from yesterday - life just doesn't always turn out as planned - pack up Kelly's bedroom, start packing guest room for new carpet, buy paint for guest room/nursery, get flowers for cemetery, bank for Kelly, get by church to pick up new Bible study book, check at Joann's for new light and fabric for chair, call Guillermo to set up a tutoring - I know I said that I wasn't gong to work this summer, but Guillo is such an incredible little boy and I have so much fun with him - mail water samples and other packages off today, buy plants to replace the ones that I lost in the ongoing slug war-order the hammock stand - FINALLY, look at highchairs - is there any of today left???

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: I would plan a great trip somewhere extraordinary for my mom, my sister and myself. I would buy water treatment systems for Water Missions to set up in Africa - specifically locating them near the orphanages. I would fund research for the cause and cure of autism. I would set up private programs for educating children with autism. Fund research for developing a better treatment for migraine headaches and a cure/prevention for ovarian cancer. Do I still have money - figure out a way to reach out to single, pregnant women - provide education, medical treatment, housing, etc. Start a foundation for students who need academic help, but are not qualifying for help through the public school system. If there is any money left - how about that house on the beach for Camp KaKa.

Five jobs that I've had: organist - pianist for funeral home, church organist, department store salesgirl, teacher of autistic students Kent State Lab School, LD, EH, BD middle school teacher, Reading Resource teacher, LD Resource teacher, admissions testing, business owner-Magnum Opus Education Center

Five bad habits of mine: shopping, NOT exercising, putting on my makeup in the car - I really like that little light up mirror, reading the obituaries first everyday, procrastinating about way too many things in life

Five places I've lived: Sumter, SC. Statesboro, GA, Charleston, SC, Kent, OH, Hudson, OH, Hollywod, FL, Tampa, FL, Summerville, SC, Tampa, FL

Five random things people wouldn't know about me: I fell into a manhole in highschool - let's not even go there!! I love music - love to feel it, play it - would have written movie scores in another life. I could sit on the beach with a book from early morning until sunset - If you know me, you already know that. Sitting on the beach and reading Beach Music, - by Pat Conroy the week after we moved from Charleston was probably one of the most cathartic experiences of my life. I had an "afro" in college and my Mama paid someone to take it out - of course this ruined my hair!! My sister reminded me last weekend, that we were part of a bomb scare (we created the scare) at the old Dairy Queen at Windy Hill Beach - this had to be the summer of 1968 or 69. I really accepted Christ for my own at a Billy Graham movie right after my Daddy died when I was 14. And, this one is just for John and Cheryl - when I am really in a pinch, I still get store-bought food, and fancy it up in my own dishes and take it like I made it!?!?! Remember that night???

Five cds that I'd have to take on a desert island: Rich Mullins - Ragamuffin, Soundtrack from Prince of Tides, Beach Music Anthology - this is a 3 cd set - sorry bout that, worship cd that I made of my favorites, Alabama - Shagging on the Boulevard - is that the greatest!!! somewhere I would hope to find washed up on the beach Lynard Synard's greatest hit

People that I want to get to know better.........You've been tagged Annette at Annie's Eyes, Jean, my precious friend who I pray for daily - take a break and do this - it was really fun!! My kindred spirits - Kerry and Cheryl and Chris - how have we all changed over the years??

Out of Africa

David and team got in from Uganda arond 1:30am Tuesday morning. Thanks to each of you for your prayers for all of them and the people that they ministered with and to. More to follow on the incredible way that God worked through this team.

Mama, MeMe, MeMaw, Steel Magnolia, friend...

My visits home are always filled with amazement at what my almost 86 year old mother is up to. So just a little blog about what we did with our precious time together last weekend. Because of my leisurely drive through the backroads of SC, I was a little later than I thought getting to Mama's on Thursday night. I had suggested that we go out to dinner when I got there, but no - a big pot of homemade soup was ready and hot when I got in. She was already working on plans to take one of her best lady friends to the doctor the next morning - cancelling her own appointment if that's what she needed to do. She headed out to pick up Miss Margaret and I headed out to run some local errands. We met up and had a great lunch at at 4 Seasons - nothing but fresh, fresh fruits and vegetables and homecooked food!! Local shopping, seeing and talking to some old friends filled the rest of the day. I had finally talked to the local cable company to try and get Mama switched from dial-up internet access to high speed. She does all of her banking, email, IM with dial-up - so that ties up her phone line which bothers all of us, not to mention how very, very SLLLLOOOOOWWWWW this all is. Hopefully, even tho she doesn't think it's necessary - it is all being hooked up today. I thought that we were going to sleep in a little on Saturday - that WAS the plan. I got up around 8, went to check on Mama and the bed was made and she was gone!?! I walked through the house looking for her - and then I heard it - the sound. The sound of a lawnmower running away!!! I threw up the kitchen blinds and there she was mowing away in the backyard!!!! Thank goodness I already had a cup of coffee in hand and sleep pants on with a t-shirt. I had to wrestle the lawn mower away from her!! And then, when I asked her why she wouldn't let my brother take care of the yard - this is what she said. "Kathy, your brother is 65 years old - he has no business out in this heat doing yardwork!!" Does anyone out there even believe this!?!?! I finished up - THANK GOODNESS it was early enough to be a little cooler than 100 degrees outside!! Took in the Farmers' Market looking for some local, untainted tomatoes - but didn't have any luck. Now, across the street from Mama is one of her closest friends - Miss Pauline. In the past two years, Miss Pauline has been very ill and is now dealing with her health problems and Alzheimer's. At least twice every week, Mama goes over to visit Miss Pauline and spends an hour or so massaging her feet and legs. According to her daughter and caregiver, this precious time that these two friends spend together is the only time that her mother is completely calm and relaxed. I had the privilege of being able to go visit Miss Pauline with Mama Saturday afternoon. She was on the sofa waiting - towel and lotion ready. We talked and visited while Mama took care of Miss Pauline - rubbing and massaging her tiny feet and legs. The change in Miss Pauline was immediate and evident when Mama came in and got to work. I listened over and over this past weekend to the words of Tim Russert on fatherhood - the lessons and legacy of Big Russ. Well, Miss Pearl, is leaving a legacy of her own - as a sister, aunt, neighbor, friend, woman of faith, grandmother and mother.

4 Months Old!!

They Just Don't Make Them Like They Used To!!

I got up Friday morning, got a shower and needed to blow dry my hair. I asked Mom where I would find a hair dryer. OK - under the sink, in fact, she thinks the hair dryer belongs to me. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT - what I found under the sink was a blow dryer that I had in COLLEGE!!! Does anyone out there realize just how long ago that was??? This was probably back at the beginning of little blow dryers!!! What a hoot!! David is ALWAYS complaining that things just aren't made like they used to be - do you know how many dryers we have gone through in our household of three females over the past 25 years??? This one is still blowing!?!?! So, I dry my hair and decide to get a photo of this so that the story is believable. Next day - time to dry my hair - start to work and all of a sudden fire is coming out of the bottom, I get the feeling of being electrocuted, and the dryer dies. After I finally get the "fire" out - I realize that my hand is hurting and I have a black spot where the wires were on my hand. CRAZY!! Just another crazy day in paradise or in my life. But really, thirty years for a hair dryer - unbelievable!!

Traveling On....

Friday was such an incredible treat!! I left Kaiti, Collin, and Kelly behind and headed out for Wilmington. About a year ago - I had the pleasure of "meeting" an incredible woman online through this thing called blogging and Beth Moore's blog. We were able to meet last December and share a Christmas hug and lunch together. Yesterday, we met again for lunch in her "neck of the woods". Lunch on the water, in the sunshine - smelling and feeling the salt air - talking, catching up, laughing, getting to know each other even better - life is good!!! Then back on the road again - I decided to take Highway 17 most of the way to Mom's house. It is so much more fun than taking a boring ride down I-95 - just lanes of traffic going north and south. 17 winds close to the coast and through numerous little towns. And THEN - you hit Myrtle Beach - woa!! Now, that was exciting!! Just a week earlier - there was very little traffic and not much going on. Not even a wait at a good restaurant. Well, a week later - schools are out -and it was just plain crazy there!! Don't they call this the Redneck Riviera!?! Anyway - it looked like an invasion from New Jersey to me!?! So on through MB, then Surfside, then Garden City and finally the traffic is thinning out. A couple of quick stops at some favorite shops that I needed to revisit, a couple of special books for a very special little baby boy, the ever important "arrogantly shabby" t-shirt from Pawleys and I was headed home. So I punch "home" into the GPS so that I can avoid the interstate again - off of 17, and onto some backroads - now I mean BACKROADS here!! I love the GPS - for someone as ADD as I am - this is a real source of entertainment. You have to remember that it is summertime here in the south - 100+ degrees outside - and acres and acres of tobacco fields on both sides of the little road - as far as you can see. No one in sight - just too hot too work in the middle of the afternoon. Then out of nowhere comes this beautiful farm - a daylily farm!!! I couldn't believe it - the bright flowers in every color!! I wish that I had taken time to stop and get some photos - but I didn't. I was too ready to get home, and make it without getting a speeding ticket. But the beauty of the daylilies stuck with me, and was a true little gift and surprise from God - a little sercy in the middle of a hot afternoon. So after touring most of the farmland in the middle of the state, I arrived home. This is a wonderful way to end my little vacation - spending time with my mom, the Steel Magnolia - who, by the way, turns 86 on July 14 - if anyone would like to send her birthday wishes - tpearl227@aol.com She would LOVE it!! Time to eat some fresh veggies, get some REAL barbecue and hash, and see the rest of the family. You CAN go home again....oh, and the shopping is great, too!!

Memories

Oh yes, how quick we forget - or maybe we forget because it has been soooo long!?!?! Let's see Kelly is 22, so it has been 21 years since I have had a baby to take care of. Don't get me wrong - I am still taking care of her, it has just been a long time since she was a baby. So here I am - staying home with Collin while Kaiti and Kelly are at Kaiti's school trying to finish up the mountain of paperwork and moving classrooms that come with the end of the schoolyear. Monday was the 4 month check-up with shots - UGH!!! He did great this time - no fever - just slept a little more than usual and wanted to held and rocked. That's OK. Yesterday, we played, made bottles, ate, changed lots of diapers, rocked, rocked and slept. Sometime in there the laundry was getting done - do you remember how many onesies, tiny socks that get lost in the wash, burp diapers, blankets, and bibs one tiny person uses in a day!! What a blessing this little boy is for so many people!! Keep praying for his daddy, who is now CAPT. Robert Wicker. Check out those socks - just like the big boys!!

The Sweetest Times

Thirty-something years since college, dating, weddings, children, moves, working, more college, more children, more moves,funerals, high school graduations, engagements, college graduations, wedding, grandchild, law school graduation, high school graduation....It has been all of that since my sister and I have had time away together. We met at Pawleys Island Thursday evening and spent a great weekend together!! I am so thankful for this special time together. We talked, ate, shopped, took in Sex and the City with only 11 other movie-goers, shopped, sat on the beach for hours, did a book-signing, shopped, ate, slept and talked.. So I feel blessed and thankful for an incredible weekend with my sister!!!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way...

It was last Thursday.

I dropped David at the airport, Walker had already been taken to Uncle G's Bed and Biscuit, and I was on the road to Pawleys Island for a few days. Most days I enjoy driving, especially driving from Florida to the LowCountry where my spirit is at home and at peace. North up 95, then finally off to 17 through the marsh, big oaks, the smell of pluff mud and salt air. I was in great need of this trip alone to try and clear my head and heart of the sadness that has hung on since Trey's death and the tragic loss of our minister and his son. The questions that I have asked God have almost put me into a crisis of faith - not a place that I like to go. I just prayed that I would be able to come to terms with all of this over the next few days. I was hoping that being physically away from the sadness would help. Driving up 17 through Charleston - just a little further north to Pawleys - I opened the windows and the top to take in the smells that bring me home. Then it happened. A song comes on the local radio station - a song that I haven't heard in a long time. A song that defined my faith after we survived Hurricane Hugo and stood shoulder to shoulder with friends and neighbors to put our lives back together. A song that played in my mind as we lost David's Dad just days after Hugo. A song that was dedicated to our community by Ray Boltz when he performed in Charleston shortly after Hugo. As I listened, the tears came...and came...and I realized that this anchor, just like the anchor of our boat would keep me strong and would keep me from moving out and floating aimlessly and lost. It's this anchor that has brought me through 54 years of ups and downs, doubts and fears, and personal loss. It is only this anchor that I can count on holding strong when those winds and storms of tough, tough times come roaring into my life. It was this special time on Highway 17 heading to Pawleys that I felt this anchor grab hold again.

Thoughts and Prayers - June 5th

This is the first of several posts going on at one time. So pretend this one was posted last Thursday - June 5th. Today is the day that David leaves for Uganda. The trip this year is very different from the past 3 years. Due to the political unrest in Kenya, our church made the decision not to take a team to Kenya. While that decision was being made - God was very, very busy putting together a trip to Uganda that would include a medical, dental team, evangelisim AND Water Missions. Almost 60 people left - doctors, dentists, nurses, EMTs and team members. Please keep them in your prayers as they minister to the people of Jinja.