HMM 5

I've been looking for hidden Mickey's all weekend. I have taken my camera with me whenever I've been out the house, just in case I spotted one. It just wasn't happening, then yesterday afternoon I was organizing my scrapbook paraphernalia trying to get ready to actually scrap something and there it was a page full of circles, two pages actually and there was one right in the middle of the paper. Can you spot it?

Now that I'm looking at the picture there is probably more than one....

Have a Magical Hidden Mickey Moment!

Can you spring clean in August?

With Jim starting his own blog this month it lead to all of the photography equipment that we own being in out in the house all the time and we I had to rethink some space issues.

It doesn't help that I am totally captivated by the A&E show Hoarders. Not only does it captivate me, it utterly freaks me out that I could turn into one of these people if I don't get a grip on the crap in my house. Now, I don't think I would ever get to the point where the counselor is asking me "Could there be any rotting food in this room?" (because there are are bugs everywhere) and I deny it vehemently and there is a freaking rotting pumpkin at my feet in the living room!!!!!! I don't think that could happen but I can talk myself into keeping things that are completely unnecessary in my life. So... the clean out began today!

Cleaning out the hall closet to make room for the camera equipment which led to cleaning out the bedroom closet to make room for the stuff from the hall closet which led to me making Jenna clean out her stuffed animals which led to her cleaning out her shoes which led to me filling my car with things to go to the thrift store where I will have to sort though and price them to put out the sales floor which will lead to me taking things off the floor to make room for the things that I brought to the store. All the sudden I feel like singing The Circe of Life.

Time for bed where I am sure that I will dream of black plastic garbage bags full of my own belongings coming over the seats of my van and suffocating me while I'm driving to the thrift store.

Some things couldn't make the cut..

In my new office I had to eliminate some of my personal items in order to actually have space for me and whatever prospective students I might meet. Although, I now have walls and a door the space itself did not grow at all.

The above piece of cherished photography was given to me on my 33rd birthday. My beautiful daughter was about 71/2 months old at the time and my husband not only took the photos...he picked out her outfit, got her dressed, called my mom to come and assist him at the park, took the photos, edited the photo choices, matted the whole thing himself and then wrapped it and brought it on vacation with us so that I could get for my birthday. It holds a special place in my heart but it will no longer hold a place in my office. It will now get a coveted space in the play/multi-purpose room along with some of the other treasured memorabilia.

Below is a Jenna's latest head shot for her Lyric auditions. It was probably time for the baby pictures to come home before prospects started asking me "Are those pictures of your granddaughter?"

The 60 days is finally over...

We're moving back to our newly remodeled offices tomorrow!!! If you follow my blog you will know that we were banished to a multipurpose room back in April and then they began what was supposed to be a 60 day remodel. Well, 120 days later, we are finally moving back in. We don't have any of the new furniture for the foyer and the waiting area but they swear that it is coming.

Here's a reminder of where we started. Then the progress.

And this is where we are today.

new reception area

My office with walls and a door. Yea!!

Look for pictures later this week of me in this office with the door closed actually getting some of my work done without the song and dance of being in the multipurpose room.

Don't forget to visit my husband's new blog this week-- he's giving away t-shirts.

Fork in the road....

This is where I'm headed. Do you take the steps to change some of your life or do you let things stay pretty much status quo?

Does Disney have a Saturday Chore Fairy?

This is Saturday...When the gardener calls in sick, is unavailable, does not work for you and tells you to quit bothering him then you resort to doing the work yourself. Of course this is the area of the house that no one can see--so the neighbors won't even get to appreciate my hard work. I probably need to start working on the sections they can see before they start calling the nieghborhood association to report me. Such is life

BEFORE

AFTER

It's all about Perspective...

With thoughts of Back To School

I often find myself torn..

Do I want her to stay home,

just so I don't have to face the fight of each morn?

I find thoughts of her seeing her friends - a joy.

She had to sit behind a really gross boy.

I find the challenge of a tough math class to be a good sign.

She thinks math is the subject sent by Satan to mess with her mind.

I get excited about new pencils, pens, notebooks, and such.

She wants to use the same stuff as last year because a trip to Target is just too much.

She thinks a locker to herself is just great.

I think she needs a buddy to help keep her locker straight.

I think she will soon get into the routine and things will be fine and dandy.

She thinks if given the chance she will be glad to stay home in her pajamas watch T.V.,

eat popcorn, and candy.

Back to School.

HMM 3&4

I am so buried in work today that I thought this would be the perfect time for a HMM installment. Not much time to write so I will take the lazy way out.

I would love to see any that ya'll might come across.

Have a Hidden Mickey Magical Day!

Is 40 somethng too old for Children's Church?

I'm thinking that maybe I need to go back to children's church. Do you ever think that maybe Big Church, as we used to call it back in the day, is a little overrated? Today our "the senior pastor is out town again fill in pastor" was our Elementary Pastor, Dave Mowry, and I'm sure that some a lot of the congregation stayed home. I like to hear some of our other pastors preach so Jenna and I got up and went to church, it was Sunday after all. I am so glad that we did. I might have to go to Children's Church next week to hear what else he has to say.

Oh my goodness, God might as well have just whacked me on the head with a hammer and said audibly "Hey--you --the blonde (He knows I'm not really blonde but He's willing to go along with the illusion)--with the jaw clenched --and tightest grip ever to be held on the control stick that is your life.--yea, you!! LISTEN!!" And then Pastor Dave preached just to me, some you may have been in attendance but he really was preaching just to me.

A sermon titled Inconceivable --really? For a pragmatic, cynical, control freak such as myself this title is more than I can handle, let alone the sermon and scripture (John 11:45-57) to go with it. "If I just snuck out now, would anyone even notice?" But I stayed put with my legs crossed, my arms folded, and my hands firmly gripping every plan, detail, well-balanced, event that is my life.

I have had that swirling gut feeling lately that God has plans for me that I might not find quite as appealing as the plans that I have for myself. Not that He wouldn't know what's best just that He might need me to tweak it a little for a better fit. Well I get the feeling that he let Pastor Dave in on that secret and gave him the 3 step plan to give to me.

You might as well accept it....
1. Be open that God has an inconceivable plan, other than our agenda.
2. Ask God to begin to show you the plan, Be ready. "Am I ready?"
3. I know what you want me to do, give me the courage and opportunity to do it.

For people like me, this might as well come as a nightmare rather than a sermon, it already is my nightmare so what's the difference. Have Faith! Trust me! I have a plan! These are just fancy curse words in my world.

Then I went to see the movie Julie & Julia tonight. Hammer meet head. Julia Child was a woman who took an inconceivable idea and made it reality. Julie was a woman who took an idea that seemed inconceivable (524 recipes in 365 days) and it profoundly changed her. No mention of God here in these stories...think what could happen if the inconceivable is conceived by God for Me...pick me up off the floor now. Am I still breathing?

So if you see me walking around with kind of a lost but hopeful look on my face, I am just in my limited, controlled ruled, finite, sense of reality trying to imagine the Inconceivable possibilities that God has for me. Thanks (both sarcastically and sincerely) Pastor Dave!

HMM 2

For those of you who are looking for the little more obscure and artistic

Hidden Mickey...

This ain't Cary Grant and Sophia Loren's Houseboat.

I was reminiscing about vacation and how nice it was to have no schedules or homework, and how nice it was to just sit by this pool all day with this view...

and this view...
and oh yea...this view!!

The true epitome of an "house"boat!!!
The lengths people will go to have a house on the water:)

Great Girls + Great Moms = Great Weekend

To say that I am a pragmatic, not touchy feely, type A, kind of person would kind of be somewhat of an understatement. But I put all my insecurities aside, okay I didn't put them aside they were right out in the open for everyone to see, and planned a mother/daughter weekend for Jenna's friends and their moms.


I turned out to be a great experience. The group was made up of girls going into the 7th grade at the same Middle school and their moms. Some of us also have other connections but that was the one common thread for all of us. We would loved to have escaped to some exotic place for our little retreat but you know $$, schedules, $$, etc.. So we retreated to our little town that most us spend all of our time in. We were able to escape a bit of our "normal," even though we stayed in town. We were able to rent out the Alumni House at the campus where I work which allowed us to all stay together with the moms having beds to sleep on the girls getting to have a sleep over in the living room. This worked out really well and it was really inexpensive.


We spent our activity and meal time in one of the classrooms in the building where I work which also has a kitchen. This room was free--so again expenses kept to a minimum. One of the other moms and myself set down and put together a schedule and a menu for the weekend and then each mom took a session and presented it. We had some great learning activities with some object lessons, we had fun craft times, games, door prizes, karaoke, laughter, tears and lots of food.


This whole weekend was a huge leap for me. I don't stretch well, I don't share well, I freak out about how everyone is going to respond to any activity planned, so this was a big deal for me. I hope that I can take it as a lesson learned because I'm not sure (other that my daughter not puking her guts out) how the weekend could gone any better. Everyone seemed happy to be there and enjoyed themselves, the activities and lessons were well received by all, the door prizes were a hit, (okay only the fold up butterfly chairs were a hit but the others were graciously accepted), the food was well planned and delicious. It was as if we had done a thousand of these little retreats.


We were hoping to give our girls a sense of who they are and how they can live their best life. It was good for us moms too, to know that we all are going through the same issues. We had a great mixture of learning and fun and really the moms just used their gifts and talents to show the girls the things that they love and it went remarkably well. I would recommend this type of activity to any group of girls and moms and would be glad to share some of our itinerary ideas.

The best pictures will be yet to come from some of the other moms who did a great job documenting the weekend through photos...but here a few that I took when I had a minute to remember to grab my camera.

This is where we stayed.

Our Dining Table (just like camp)

Getting ready for a great session

Scrap booking

Tye -Dye in the foyer thanks to the remodel

All the stuff you need to make it work

Scrapbooking

Hidden Mickey Moments

Welcome to my new segment. I was trying to think of something that I could blog monthly, weekly, daily, regularly, at any given moment, and while running last night I saw this:

By the way I wasn't running with my camera, I returned to the scene to get the photo. I thought it might be fun (for me) to have a place to record the Hidden Mickeys that I come upon, and I thought I would drag all of you along with me. Through the years I have had many people send me photos of Hidden Mickeys they have found, which have included a gravy spill and flower bulbs pulled from the ground. So if you find yourself so inclined to join the fun feel free to send me your photos and I will post them here at HMM.

My wonderful husband was kind enough to design me a little logo to go with my segment. He suggested that maybe down the line we do a little give away of a logo t-shirt so watch for that in the Hidden Mickey Moments to come. So I'll sign off the only way that seems appropriate...

Have a Magical Hidden Mickey Moment!

I'm paying for this??

When I picked up Jenna from her theatre classes today this what I was greeted with...
She really freaked out her dad who had forgotten that today's class was stage make-up. And she had to go the eye doctor's office to get her glasses fixed and they were a little taken back also. The things she will do for her "art."

More on this later...

We had an awesome Mother/Daughter weekend! I don't know why It surprises how incredible, intelligent, talented, thoughtful, funny, strong, spiritual, musical...these mothers and daughters are. More details will follow in the next couple of days. But let's say it was a success and I would recommend this type of activity to any group like ours. Thanks Ladies!