Pre-Feast Preperations

So tonight I made

Sweet Potatoe Casserole
Pecan Pie
Ho Ho Cake
Deviled Eggs

Jodi made
Two Pie Crusts
Apple Pie

Pat peeled the apples.

Yeah. And washed the dishes like 5 times!!! All between about 8:15 and 10:00. I was a busy girl!!!

OH...and in other news -- I was really sick this fall and in the ER 4 times overnight in the hospital one night. After a 40% discount they gave me, I still owed the hospital $13,000. I found out today that they wrote off my entire bill. What a blessing!!!

John

So I have to tell you....I have the most wonderful set of friends!!! It really is kind of like our own little family here. The members: Ben and Tiffany McPherson (my neighbors until Saturday), John and Pat Colpitt (John lived across the hall from Ben in college), Jodi Waterhouse (Pat's fiance, and they went to high school together), Jeremy Herriman (co-work of Ben in the summers during college), and a couple others but those are the main ones. We hang out together a lot, and take turns cooking Sunday dinners, although Tiff and I are the main ones who do the work and dishes. LOL Sooo....I decided to blog about my friends. I am so blessed to have them in my life, and since I am going to be (hopefully) blogging more, I thought you might like to get to know our little family better.

I'll start with John, since he is my best guy friend here. (No, I'm not interested in dating John. Yes, I used to think I was....back in the summer. But I'm not now. For the record.)

John is from New Hampshire. He graduated from BJU in 2004 (pretty sure....the same year Mark did) with a degree in Interpretative Speech. Let me tell you, he is VERY GOOD at all things speechy. He can hear a comedy skit and repeat it almost word-for-word, and usually funnier. LOL John eat, sleeps and breathes football.....even on the off season he's keeping up with stats and watching past games. He makes the Packers fans look like wimps. LOL

Pretty much, John has been like my brother, especially during the past month or so. The day after Josh and I broke up, John and I went to lunch. Oh -- we work together and used to have the same schedule (until about two weeks ago) so on payday, we used to go to lunch....fun-ness! So I was trying HARD not to cry, and John was TOTALLY sweet and let me hold his arm on the way back from lunch. It was really nice!! Saturday night when I had to leave my car in the WM parking lot, he came and rescued me (this is probably the third time he has rescued me......once or twice when my battery died, too) Then, when I was all upset that night (we were at Ben and Tiff's watching a movie) he gave me a hug and said it was going to be ok and stuff like that. And on Monday when I went to take my car to the shop, John came and picked me up. After the car got all fixed again, he was like "See. You wasted a perfectly good emotional break-down for nothing." LOL Anyways, the past few weeks have been pretty traumatic, with the move and the break-up and all that. John has just really been a great friend....always there when I needed him, and willing to listen to me whine about my life. Last night, he told me that he's always there to talk, and one of his shoulders is mostly dry if I needed to cry on it. LOL What a great guy!!! And ladies, he's single...LMK if you want his number. LOL

Maybe next time I will blog about Tiffany. She's like my sister.....everyone loves Tiff. And we cook together and stuff.

Tragedy!!!

Ugh!! MY life seems like an unfortunate set of circumstances right now. The weekend was CRAZY!!! To start with, I realized on Saturday that I only have one week to pack and get moved out of my apartment. And it's a holiday weekend. And all of my people with trucks are working or won't return my calls. UGH!! AND THEN I was at WM on Saturday and my car broke down. UGH!! That, of course drove me to hysterics (yes, the first thing I do in a crisis is cry!!). I was so afraid that I was going to have to pay bundles of cash to get my car fixed. Then on Sunday, I could NOT stop crying all during church...and I tried....really I did!!! Plus, I'm feeling realy homesick (not gonna be able to go home for Christmas.....booo hooo!!) so that didn't help either.

So anyways, I'm just working on getting packed up and cleaned up a little at a time. I'm hoping to get Friday off work, but we'll have to see what happens with that one. It's up in the air right now.

I will be realy glad to get into my new place. I went and looked at it again yesterday. It will be SO NICE to have a diswasher and washer/dryer there (as soon as I buy a set....) too. Plus I'm gonna have a roommie for a while...maybe until June or so, and I'm looking forward to that, too. Well, mostly looking forward. I really prefer to live alone, but my friend Elena was looking for a place....and she was kind of in the same situation I was when I moved here.....so I offered. It will be nice to have some help with the bills. Plus that way, I can get some bedroom furniture and better living room furniture. And I can pay off the doctor bills from when I was sick a few months ago. Ugh!! I'm looking at about $1500 worth. Crazyness. I was sick in September and my insurance started in October. C'est la vie, I guess.....

Pirates!!!

SO guess what I did on Tuesday. Can you guess? NO? Ok...Tiffany and I went to see the BJU production of Pirates of Penzance (thanks for the ticket, Tiff!!). It's a Gilbert and Sullivan musical, and SOOOO FUNNY!!! Basically, the plot is about Frederic, who was supposed to be apprenticed to a PILOT. BUT his nursery-maid misunderstood and apprenticed him to a PIRATE instead. The story starts on Frederic's 21st birthday. He tells the pirate band that he is leaving them. However, by some twist of fate, it turns out that Frederick was born on leap day so instead of being 21, he's actually only 5 (and a quarter!!). The pirates are all soft-hearted, so they refuse to attack anyone who is weaker than them. They also cry every time someone tells the pirates that they are an orphan. So, every ship they capture is somehow manned only by orphans. LOL Anyways, it's a really funny story!! If you want the whole plot, you can go to the Wiki ((here))

The guest artists were The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. I have to tell you, they did a FABULOUS JOB!!! The choreograph was great, and some of the things they did was soooo funny!! My favorite in the second half. The pirates were singing and they ended up all doing a kick line. Then, for the last chorus of the song, they got some glittery top hats and added that to the act. And the Major General came out at one point with a night cap, nightgown, and doggie slippers on his feet. That was too funny, also!! There are some great pictures ((here)) if you want to see them.

And in other news, I went to WM and got some really pretty yarn for the next two babies coming to our family. The yarn for Molly is white with blue and sea foam green and ballet blue (for those stampers reading this....for anyone else, kind of a medium shade of blue). I've started on that one, and it's trurning out realy pretty. The yarn for Baby McMillen (or Bobby Jo as he/she is being called right now) is light green with some blue flecks. It's a realy soft, fuzzy kind of bulky yarn. I can't wait to work with it.

Anyways, I'm gonna go work on my baby blanket. Have a happy day!!

Gas

I paid $1.65 for gas last night. Wowzers!!

Weekend and Some News

So I have had a fabulous weekend so far!! Last night, I had a girl's night with Stephanie. We went to supper at Fuddruckers (I do love some yummy, juicy hamburgers!!!). It has been a long time since I went out for dinner, so that was just really nice. Then, we went back to her house and sat in the hot tub for a while. It's been a long time since I've gotten to do something like that, and it was just a great time to relax. I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with Stephanie lately. She got married in March, and she and Hugh work kind of opposite schedules, so it's hard to get together with her.

Today was equally nice. Tiffany and I went to Gaffney, SC, and went to the outlet mall. I have been needing some new fall-ish shirts and pants. I got three really cute shirts, but unfortunately the pants I found just didn't fit right. But, I got some really good deals so it's all good. Tiffany and I actually got shirts alike. But don't worry, we're not going to probably wear them on the same day. LOL Oh -- we also went to Aldi. Holy sticker shock, Batman!! I spent $103!!! BUT It's been a while since I've really had my kitchen stocked the way it should be. Plus, I was getting some stuff for Thanksgiving dinner, like pecans and such-like that are a little on the pricey side. UGH!! Money has been a little tight, but things are starting to get better. Mostly, I've been subsisting on cheap food...which isn't always good-for-you-food.

Anyways, I really like hanging out with Tiffany....it's like having a sister here.

Oh -- and while I was at the mall, I got a text from Mark. It's a picture of Krystina wearing a shirt that says "bun in the oven". LOL Yeah -- Mark and Krystina are going to have a baby!! She is due around July 13 or so. Yay for another niece/nephew. I really love being an Aunt. I am so excited about this!! It made me cry. Mark said that I shouldn't cry, but I assured him that it was ok to cry because I was so happy.

I got some other good news today, too. Things with my apartment situation are a little precarious. I have to be out of my current place by December 1 but I found out today that I may not be able to get into my new place by then. So, I was talking to Mrs. Parsons (a good family friend who has known me since I was like 2 -- she's like my mom here) and she said that I could stay with them if I needed to. And some people in my church have already offered to let me keep my stuff in their basement, so I'm all set for a place to go if I need it. AND I'm not sure if I will be able to go home for Christmas. I'm not sure about the money thing, and I don't even know if I'll be able to get the time off work. But Mrs. Parsons said I am welcome to come to their house for Christmas. So I really am all set for stuff like that. YAY!!!

Well, Tiffany and Ben and I are watching The Wizard of Oz, so I'm off. Have a good night!!

Well....it's been a week and a half since Josh and I broke up. And this is what I've learned

1. My brother, David, will always stick up for me.

2. Tiffany is willing to put up with my always-over-the-top over-reacting to things (e.i. - no one will ever love me again...what's wrong with me that no one wants me....yadda yadda yada.....booo hoo and blubber). It's as good as having my sister here.

3. Mom is usually almost always 99.9% of the time right (Now this I already knew....I was just reminded).

4. Doing the right thing isn't always easy, but we just need to do it anyways. God promised us that He will carry us through the difficult times. Like my favorite song "He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, and covers me where with His hand."

5. I have the mostest awesomest group of family/friends that anyone could ever have. Thanks for putting up with me, y'all!!

6. Going to chapel really isn't that bad after all. LOL Funny....it took me almost 8 years to learn that lesson. Oh - and when I went to chapel, Bob III preached. He is one of my favorite preachers. Lucky me!!

Oh...and yes, I'm doing ok. I've been keeping busy with my friends. I made yummy veggie soup for supper on Sunday night. The only real tragedy is that my toe hurts. Yeah, so Tiff and I were on campus Saturday for lunch. We stopped by the music library and my foot was hurting, so i took off my shoe and looked. Low and behold, I am missing a whole layer of skin on my baby toe. OUCHIE-WOW-WOW!! I taped it back in place (no Band-Aides at the music library) and then Ben rescued me when we got back to his work (Bellis Copy Center). The toe still hurts, but we are recovering...although at one point, I thought we might have to amputate. I'm glad we didn't though. I'm powerful attached to that toe!!

Re-Arrangements

The microwave is in the living room now. It was in the kitchen pantry, but the landlord said it would start a fire there, so I moved it to the living room. It really is a great place for microwaves -- very convenient for popcorn!!

Update

For those of you who were wondering, things are going ok since THE BREAKUP. I have had some good days and some bad days. Yesterday was bad, bad, bad!! I had a major crying breakdown when I was getting ready for work. Sometimes, I feel like I'm loosing the best thing that has EVER happened to me....and that my heart is broken and will never be quite ready. HOWEVER, I know that God is good, and that we made the right decision....no matter how hard it was to make. God will ALWAYS give us the grace to do the right thing, and help when we need it.

On the up side, I went to see Tiffany at work yesterday. She works at the Child Development Center at BJU. She has THE CUTEST class of two year olds!! They were about to go for a nature walk yesterday, so I joined them. Kid therapy is just as good as fur therapy if you know what I mean.

Other than that, I've just been trying to keep busy, and my friends have been helping me. Tiff is teaching me how to make jewelry. it's really fun. So far, I've made two necklaces. I will take pictures soon and show them to you. I want to try earrings next.

News Flash

I only paid $2.03 for gas on Friday.

In other news I (in case you haven't heard it through the grapevine or other places) Josh and I broke up on Thursday night. It was a really hard thing to do, but it had to be done. We have been talking a lot about where to go to church and what kind of church we should go to. Unfortunately, we just couldn't come to an agreement. So, we decided it's best if we not date anymore. The past three days have been really hard, but I know that the Lord will honor our decision.

I appreciate your prayers during the next couple of weeks. It's going to be really hard, but God is good. He will help me.