Passports

The Passports are back, I make the final payment in about two weeks and then we will be in "waiting" mode until the Sail Date!!!

NO MORE!!!

There have been NO MORE visitors in our house!!! THANK THE LORD!!!

The outside of the house (i.e. the crawl space) and every pipe coming into the house has been sealed up.

There is no evidence of visitors and no more noise. May it ALWAYS stay that way!

There's a Stranger in my house...

Somebody here that I can't see!!! (got the tune to the song in your head yet?)

Well, here goes. Last Wednesday morning I woke up about 4:30am to a faint scratching sound that sounded like it was on the floor next to me. I sat up in the bed and didn't hear it again. Upon laying my head back down I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got to thinking that maybe God had woken me up to pray so pray is what I did until I fell back to sleep.

That was the end of that or so I thought. Saturday morning I was woken up by the same noise. I got up, got a flash light and started looking around under the bed...nothing. I moved some of the rubber maid containers and then I spotted some droppings from a creature like this:



Yup! That's right! So, I started looking in the guest room, under the sink in the kitchen and everywhere else. A few here, a few there. I was MORTIFIED!!!

How and Why!?!? I called my Pest Control people and they were of course closed on Saturday. I did remember that the last time the guy came to spray he gave me 3 sticky pads for rodents because he said that some of his clients were getting mice.(at that time I had none!)

I put out two pads. One in the guest room and one by the trash can in the kitchen. I sprinkled D-con on it.

Saturday night I went to bed and yes, was woken up about 4am to the scratching sound. I checked the pad in the guest room on Sunday morning and there it was...a mouse stuck to it...and yes, he was still alive. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I took it outside and disposed of him. Let me just say, the pain he felt was short and sweet!

I put another pad out and Sunday night moved the pad by the trash can into the corner cabinet by the dishwasher. Monday morning there was one stuck to it! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Yes, the same kind of death happened to it as well.

Monday morning I set up an appointment for the pest control to come out. The lady on the phone was laughing at me when I was telling her about everything and that I am losing sleep. In case you do not know, I keep a clean house and though I know this has nothing to do with it I still DO NOT like it. She told me lots of people are getting them. Also, down the street from us they are re-opening a factory and I bet mice are exiting out of there and looking for new shelter.

Monday afternoon the guy from my Pest Control came and put out some bait on the some more pads, put some poison under the house and left me some more pads. I bought some steel wool pads and tucked it into holes around all the plumbing coming into the house. (mice don't like this). I also covered an area under the crawl-space door where we saw where they were entering under the house. The wife and I vacuumed under everything and mopped to clean up the droppings.

Early Tuesday morning I was woken up to that sound again. I looked under the cabinet in the kitchen to find now, the 3rd mouse in three days stuck to it. (I don't have to tell you what happened to it.) After work I purchased some Snake Stopper and put around the house. Hey, it keeps snakes away so it sould keep mice away. I poured it all round the house. It is shorta like having to wear garlic around your neck to keep vampires away!

Last night I heard NO Sound at all and all 4 pads that are out had nothing on them this morning.

Lord, I hope ALL of them are taken care of!!! Now, if you are laughing...QUIT!!!

So the stranger in my house showed itself and hopefully is gone for good!

Has anyone else ever had this problem?

My Easter Picture!!!

Jennifer was out of town with volleyball so that is why she is not in the picture with me.

Spring is in the air

Yesterday afternoon I planted two Pink (climbing) Jasmine's by the Arbor in the front yard so they can climb that and planted some Azzela's and a purple blooming Creeping Jade plant.

The Winter here this year was SO cold and everything looked horrible so I needed a few things to spruce up the place. Now, I am by no means close to being finished but I wanted to get a start on it.

The first day of Spring is this Thursday and I am really loving the weather. The only thing I do not like is that lately we cannot get just rain; we have to get a storm with it. If you read my previous post about me sleeping through the last storm we had, you will know that a lot of people around me got storm damage to their house and hail damage to their car(s). Again, I am very thankful that I did not. Heck, the storm did not even wake me.

I hope we keep the Spring weather for a while and it doesn't turn straight to Summer. I have enjoyed having the windows open in the house and car.

Who Was That Man???

This is a picture of me from the 70's Sertoma Fundraiser that I went to in February. I just got the picture from my friends camera.

Wind, Hail and Rain!!!

--
This is what happened durning the early hours of Saturday morning.(3-4am). Do you want to know how much of this I heard when I was sleeping???...NONE!!! I didn't hear ANYTHING!!!

The way I found out about it was when I got to church for the "work-day" some friends who live up the road from me asked if I had gotten any hail damage to the car because his car did get some. I asked "what hail?" Then they told be all about the storm. I talked to my neighbor across the street and they said it did hail and the storm was bad.

Well, my praise report is that I had no hail damage or wind damage to anything. Thank you Lord for looking after me when I was passed out. And incase you are wondering...I was not drunk!!! I obviously was lacking on some sleep. Good thing a tornado didn' come through.

Did anyone else sleep through the storm?

T.G.I.F.

Finally Friday!

This weekend is going to be busy as usual.

The wife is leaving today for a Volleyball tournament and will return Sunday afternoon/evening.

After work some of us from work are meeting at a restaurant to say "Goodbye" to one of our employees. This is her last day. She and her fiance have opened a business and she needs to be in the office and meeting Clients durning the day. We are going to miss her, but I am excited for them.

Tomorrow we have a work day at the church and then I will be helping a friend move some stuff from their basement to their storage shed. (Make a little extra money for our Cruise.)

We have our appointments made for Monday to get our Pass Port information filed and mailed. I am glad I called them back yesterday because when I first called no one told me that you had to HAVE an appointment; they only told me what time they were opened. We would have gotten there for them to tell us that they couldn't see us. Thank you Lord!

Have a great weekend!!!

Vacation Time is here...

So, with our tax return this year Jennifer and I have been talking and we decided to just BLOW it!!! Since we have no children yet and there is really nothing that the money HAS to be applied to, not saying I couldn't find something to put it to, we have decided to do the following:



It is a 5-Night Caribbean-Western Cruise leaving from Mobile Alabama! We will be visiting Cozumel, Mexico and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

I got my pass-port picture taken yesterday, the Wife is going today and then we have to go on Monday to the license office and send off for the pass-port. Lead time right now is 4wks so we are still in good shape.

I am excited and CAN'T WAIT...BUT, I am going to have to!!!

Employee Power Trip...

Okay, the story that I am about to tell DID happen to me this Saturday.

The wife was gone to Atlanta for a Volleyball tournament. I decided to head to the Galleria to kill some time. It is a good thing I did. I found a few things that had great sale prices on them.

Before I left I was heading through Sears to the car and decided to stop by the guys department. I found a pair of pants that were on sale for $14.99...orginally $36.00. Since they are 100% cotton I needed to try them on. I headed to the dressing room in the guys department and it was closed due to painting and remodeling. I went to the customer service desk and the lady told me to go to the childrens depart. and change.

I headed over there and that dressing room was closed also due to painting. Now, I understand remodeling, but come on. You cannot close every dressing room at the same time. So I continue over to the ladies depart.

There is a lady cashier and a guy behind her bagging. I ask him where I can try these pants on because the guys dressing room is closed as well as the childrens. He told me I could go to the one behind me.

When entering the dressing room I could here a couple of ladies talking behind the closed doors but I kept heading to the opened door at the end without saying a word.

Once in there with pants almost off I hear a knock on the door and a
-Lady saying,- "Sir, you cannot be in here, you have to leave."
-Me,- What, where do you want me to go? I have to try on these pants and the guys dept. is closed as well as the childrens dept.
-Lady,- I don't care, you have to get out.
-Me,- I am not leaving until I try on these pants!
-Lady,- I am going to call security.
-Me,- Call security...and while you are at it, call the Manager, this is ridiculious!

So, by this time the ladies that had been talking in the other stalls were very quiet as I continued to try on the pants. I guess they were like me and was waiting for Barney 5 to show up in the dressing room.

After trying them on I left the dressing room and the employee was standing there glaring at me. I glared back and kept walking.

If the pants had not been such a great price I would have not wasted my time with the crap and would have left. But you can't beat a pair of Structure brand pants, 100% cotton, for $14.99. And by the way, it is a good thing I tried them on because I had to get a different size.

Church Sign...

I was on my way to church last night and I passed this other church with their sign out front having the following saying:

God still parts the water...Have Faith!!!

The Bible says to have Faith as a Mustard Seed! Do you know why? The mustard seed is the smallest seed known but when it sprouts and blooms it turns into one of the biggest plants. Though it is small, it knows it's destiny!

So remember, God STILL parts the water for you...Have Faith!!!

Updates...

--
-Keep Amanda Barnes in your prayers. She is currently fighting some infections and it is still up in the air about a Pelvic surgery? Pray for peace over the family also.

-My father-in-law who was in the motorcyle accident is doing good. He had surgery on his left arm where they put a plate and screws and had surgery on his right hand where they did the same. Pray that he will have peace and be able to relax so he will heal. He is upset because all he can do is sit there and have people wait on him. Though it sounds fun, I think we do not realize how much we use parts of our body until we can't. I was thinking yesterday that we really are "Fearfully and Wonderfully" made by a loving creator!!!

-The Chamber is going great. I can't believe that we are already into our third month. Time is going by so quickly.

-No new news on running for City Council. I have a meeting Monday with a current council member to ask some questions, etc.

-The bride is busy as usual with teaching and volleyball.

-I am ready for the high everyday to be 75-80 degrees; enough with this cold weather!!!

-Don't forget to set your clocks AHEAD one hour this Saturday night; unless you are one who actually waits until the 2am or 4am the Sunday of to do that; which if you are..you are CRAZY!!!

Why Go To Church?

--Just wanted to share and email that I received:


A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and
complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've
gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard
something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember
a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are
wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor"
column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until
someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has
cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the
entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this ...
They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work.
If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.
Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be
spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to
something! Faith sees the invisible , believes the incredible and
receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual
nourishment!

Beautiful Weekend!

--
The weather here this weekend was so beautiful. The sun was shining and the breeze was just right.

Friday night the wife and I had just settled down on the couch to watch a movie when her mom called and said that Jennifer's dad was in an accident on his motorcycle.

A car crossed in front of him from the other side of the road. She had a turning lane but did not have the arrow signal; she was suppose to yield, but didn't.

He was taken to the hospital via ambulance where we meet them. He broke his arm in two places, which they are on their way this morning to see another doctor about putting a plate and screws in his arm. He hurt his other hand and scratched his chin. Praise the Lord that this is the only thing that happened.

On Saturday I worked in the yard some and just tried to relax as much as possible and enjoy the weather.

After church on Sunday I went for a 44mile bike ride. Now, I had not planned on wanting to go that far but once we got out there and got to 20 miles the only choice was to go forward. All I will say is I found out real quick that I had been lacking on riding these past couple of months and that I am a little sore this morning.

Today's high here in Alabama is suppose to be 79 degrees. Of course, in the morning it is suppose to be 45 and not get any warmer than 55. That's Alabama weather for you!