K-Daddy Taking on Jeffrey

You may have heard the commercial where the guy is running around the parking lot of a sports restaurant after losing a bet about which team would win a game on the tv. What the loser didn't realize it was a previously played game showing on the sports classic channel. The guy has to run around the parking lot in cold weather without a shirt on.

Jeffrey came into the office about 15 minutes ago all excited because TN and Vanderbilt are playing on tv. Dad was surprised they would be playing on a Monday morning, but he realized it's a replay. Dad asked Jeffrey who he was for--Tennessee.

It's kind of funny to watch them watching a game that's being replayed and Jeffrey thinks it's live.

Sunday Highlights on a Monday Morning

Highlights from Sunday:

1. Attending church with Mary and her family and then having them for lunch at my parents.
2. Hearing Andrew sing Because He Lives at church last night, and then he, Greg, and my dad sang When He Reached Down His Hand for Me. It was rather impromptu although they had sung it before church. After Andrew sang Greg, who was playing for him, said "Andrew needs the memory of singing with his grandfather. They need to sing together."
3. I was talking about growing popcorn this year. Jeffrey jerked around and said, "That's impoppable, I mean impossible." It was funny, and he can laugh at himself quite well.

Day After Christmas

It's not quite Black Friday, but Molly and I left at 7:45 for the 9:00 opening of The Container Store. We were getting wrapping paper, bags, and ribbons for 50% off. I wish we had this store in west MI. From there it was off for a coffee at Starbucks and then to Swoozie's. They had a tent sale going so in addition to their Christmas stuff at 50% off there was quite a bit of other things for 40% off.

I bought three birthday gifts there and paid with my Discover card. Mary called while we were in the parking lot and said that she wanted some things I had told her about. I went back to get her items and gave my Discover card to pay for them. The clerk said, "We don't take Discover." I had to go out to Molly to get a card from her as I didn't have my purse with me with other cards so I got the receipt from the other bag I had purchased for them to re-run Molly's card for. The guy who had checked me out said, "Oh no, I just ran a Discover card." They were all really glad and somewhat surprised that I took the other receipt back.

I admit the thought crossed my mind that "Who would know?", "It's their fault," "The clerk should have know they don't take Discover,", etc., but it was the right thing to do.

However, wouldn't it have been good customer service to say, "Thanks for being honest, let us give you one of these free" after all I was buying six of the same thing?

Merry Christmas to all

Up at 8:04 to the sound of children waiting to open presents. They opened while the three adults watched. They offered for me to open one, but I opted to save them for tomorrow.

Went for breakfast at Waffle House. That's got to be one of the different traditions in Atlanta, but the place was crowded. My brother's typical order: 2 eggs over easy with spray, sausage patted down, toast dry, and all that smothered in butter. I think after the first time 8 years ago it just wasn't funny anymore. When my brother started talking about someone at my work, I actually dropped my glass of sweet tea and it went all over my sister-in-law. It was funny that it seemed to shake me up so much I dropped the glass!

This afternoon Mark, JM, and I went to see Valkery. None of us were that excited by it. Unfortunately, I needed a nap so I struggled to stay awake for the first 45 minutes or so. The funny part was on the drive there. Dad, your driving 15 mph over the speed limit. Dad, you're teaching me really bad driving habits.

All my gifts are wrapped and under the tree. Our Christmas is tomorrow with the family.

So Merry Christmas to all.

A Christmas Miracle

It's a miracle--a true Christmas miracle I'm telling you.

I made it to Atlanta (albeit about an hour late), and my luggage made it as well!!!

I took Marta to a station closest to my brother's. I called them when we were leaving the stop just before that. Lauren called me back and said they were there. I didn't know how long it was between stops. I got off the train, dragged my two bags up the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, and saw their van pull off just as I got to the top of the stairs!!! Wow, tough crowd--apparently if you aren't waiting at the curb they leave. I called Mark and he said, "I'll come back and get you." Apparently one of my nieces had to go to the bathroom so badly he took her to a local hotel and pulled away just as I got there. So I guess it was best that I stood there all alone at a deserted train station on Christmas Eve so she could use the bathroom!

Jeffrey has lost one front tooth and the other is apparently quite loose. I refuse to look closely as loose teeth eckle me. Molly has commented several times today that if he loses the tooth today that maybe Santa and the Tooth Fairy would bump into each other tonight. She attempted to pull it tonight, but he wanted nothing of it and apparently was quite upset before he went to bed. She was talking to him, and he said, "I don't want Santa and the Tooth Fairy to bump into each other!" He must think one could get hurt and he'd end up with the goods from only one of them, and he's probably afraid it would be the $2 from the Tooth Fairy is all he would get!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Here are some pictures of my sunroom and the way it's looked for over a week and will probably look for 2-3 more weeks. No blinds. Thankfully the neighbor can't see very far or he'd not like seeing the mess in there from across the street.

Do you like the ceiling color?

Another Storm

Talk about depressing. This is from the chief meteorologist at one of the local tv stations:

They just keep comin’. This is HPCs forecast probabilities for the Tuesday PM/Tuesday Night storm. Looks like another solid 4-8″ or 5-10″ band, with mixed precipitation on the southern edge from GRR south. We’re already at 40.5″ of snow for the month in GRR, the 3rd highest amount of snow ever in the month of December (average is 18″). Muskegon is up to 55.6″ for the month. Muskegon still has a long way to go to reach their monthly record of 102.4″ in Jan 1982. I remember that month…we had blizzards three weekends in a row in January. This is also on track to be the cloudiest month EVER! We’ve had only 6 hours and 43 min. of sunshine this whole month. That’s 3.5% of possible sunshine. The cloudiest month ever in GRR was Nov. 1992 with 5.1% of possible sunshine.

Some shots of the snow that we got over the weekend. This is in front of Renae's home. The bucket is there to give some perspective to depth.

Shopping the weekend before Christmas

How to know how long it will take to shop on the Saturday before Christmas:

Step 1: Figure out how long you think your shopping will take.
Step 2: Refigure how long you think will take for the maximum amount of time you think it will take.
Step 3: Double that figure. This is how long it will take you.
Step 4. Multiply Step 1 by 1.5--this is how long it will take to find a parking place.

Snow Day

More and more snow today. There's no church, but Glenn and Renae got out to get me. I'll be staying at there house tonight. There was a drift in my driveway that is up to my thigh. Thankfully Glenn brought a shovel and shoveled out a path for me. I had started shoveling but went in to put on snow pants.

All afternoon looking out the window I can see only about 50-75 yards. It's nice to be tucked in under an afghan and watching football today.

Herman Miller Lock-In

It appears I'll be living at Marketplace until the spring thaw.

At the last minute I was going to go to another facility to the Herman Miller for the Home holiday lunch. A co-worker was going with me and I was going to drive. I went out to clean off the car which really wasn't too bad because of the wind and it being powdery snow today.

I backed out and then couldn't go forward and then I couldn't go backwards either. I tried manuevering back and forth until I finally did get into a parking space. At this point until the parking lot is plowed my low sitting Fit is going nowhere.

The plan is that we will all leave together and make sure everyone can get going. If I can't, my four-wheel drive friends will come get me.

No Snow Days in Business

Today is definitely a snow day. Go to bed wanting and expecting that early morning phone call—No school today. That has never happened at Herman Miller. So I got up about 6:15, left my house at 7:05 and arrived at work just before 7:30.

It is snowing hard, blowing hard, and whipping around hard. Surprisingly driving was ok although it scares me when I’m passing drivers on a morning like this. I was doing about 35 and one car was holding up an entire line of cars going about 15. I’d still be trying to get to work if I’d stayed in that line.

We are getting 1-2” every hour and it’s expected to continue until mid to late afternoon. We should get over 13”.

So much for Christmas shopping at lunchtime today when the store I want to go to has everything 50% off.

Thankful Thursday

1. I have a support system that has helped me get through this past week. Family and friends who are still checking to see how things are going.
2. Yesterday a person in HR told me about how hard she is taking one of her co-workers being let go. It was good for me to hear that from her.
3. Renae has a real God-outlook on her future. This comes from the first and last two paragraphs of a paper she turned in the day after her termination to her Leadership professor in her MBA program:

Based on my leadership profile, my faith rests in God that He knows what is best for me and that any plan He has for me is greater then what I would choose for myself. Although I do not understand the why of everything, He has always taken care of me. Wherever this new road takes me, I will be relying on and trusting in Him to guide my path, today, tomorrow, for the next five years and beyond for my entire “dash”.
...
In all that I have gone through I have and will maintain my integrity for what I know to be the right thing to do. I have an open slate to start again from scratch, a huge opportunity to suceed or fail and I plan in the next 5 years to make the best of it!

4. Becky, my friend and MK director, has been very good about helping me through a busy MK couple of weeks and understands when I say no to MK activities.
5. In the midst of a sad week I found a file I kept of Jeffreyisms from last August on our trip to Nashville. It, and he, made me smile, then and now.
6. Sunday’s sermon from Revelation 12, an unusual passage for Advent, talking about being lifted up on eagle’s wings. Todd said maybe you were lifted up on eagle’s wings last week or you will need to be this week. Yes, to both.

Renovating Again

You know your sunroom is too drab when a coat of primer is an improvement over the paneling that's up!

The New Testament on CD

Last week I posted about getting a CD of the New Testament at the dolloar store. There's a reason it was at the dollar store and not full price at a major retailer.

I'm now in the middle of Mark listening or trying to every morning on the way to work. A man read Matthew and a woman is reading Mark. I have no idea why these people were chosen, but they aren't very good readers. I went to Christian schools and church all my life, but they say Bible names different than I've ever heard, and the woman always says onto instead of unto and today it was pinneth instead of pineth. The man kept talking about a se-pull-KER. The woman also will start a line and then start over.

So it's still hard to stay focused, but now I tune back in when I hear a mistake.

Belated Thankful Thursday

Somehow Thankful Thursday got missed again.

1. I'm thankful I got to work with Renae for four years. She's fun to work with as she is helpful, shares ideas, and isn't afraid to help someone else do well. She gets fulfillment helping others grow and be successful.
2. I'm really thankful for a support system for me. I've had family and friends rally around me. I know many are praying for me as Renae's job loss has hit me really hard.
3. I'm thankful today is the last day of the work week and I have nothing planned for tomorrow. That's very unusual to have a free day.

The 2008 Layoffs

Three hours ago I walked my best friend apart from family to her car. She lost her job after 22 years of service to a good company.

Today is not a good day.

Wednesday at Work

Got this message from a student in the course I finished last week. She works for a Herman Miller supplier and has heard from others at Herman Miller as well so she understands what the mood here today:


HI Rhoda.......how is it going for you and your co-workers/friends? Everyone at Herman Miller continues to be in my prayers and thoughts often throughout the day.

That was really encouraging to me even though I feel ok about my position.

Someone asked if west Michigan is really that bad. All three office furniture manufacturers have announced layoffs--several 100 at each business. Yesterday a Chevrolet dealer shut it doors. Other businesses are closing or laying off.

However, the restaurants are full, the mall is busy, etc. I get mixed signals.

My Shot Up Nerves

This is a very tough week at work. Everyone seems to be reading into any thing that happens. So far I've heard:

--We think this e-mail means someone on our team is going to be cut.
--My work team leader cancelled a meeting with me tomorrow. I think I'll be gone.
--My computer isn't working correctly. I wonder if they've changed my permissions prematurely.
--My work team leader was acting strangely when he let someone go in the last round of layoffs a year ago, and he's acting strangely again.

I am scared for people I know and for my very close friend in particular. I've been thinking yesterday and today that "my nerves are just all shot up."

Then today I read a blog post about how Christians are supposed to be people of peace and yet they are worried and anxious.

So from now on this is what I choose:

Isaiah 26:3
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.

Glue

I think I inherited my Grandma Hemmer's lack of ability to glue gene. It seems that when something would break and she would attempt to glue it the piece never quite got stuck back on straight or there would be a glue glob--at least that's what I remember.

Over the weekend I had to glue some ornaments that broke. I used dollar store super glue which may be my mistake. It holds but it's messy. For much of Saturday I was trying to get the excess glue that had dried on my fingers off. And yes, I had to detach the glue container from my finger.

This morning I had to glue something else. I tried to quick wipe off some excess glue from my finger with a kleenex, and yes I had tissue dried to my finger almost instantaneously. So today I will be picking glue and kleenex of a few of my fingers.

Thanksgiving Question Answers

The answers to the Thanksgiving trivia post:

1. 1 day/4 lbs.
2. Gimbel's
3. Massasoit
4. FDR
5. October
6. Separatists--my source said Puritans, but I disagree.
7. True
8. After Thomas Jefferson. Ben Franklin didn't like it that Jefferson shot down his idea of having the turkey be our national emblem that he named it Tom Turkey.
9. 1621.

Job Cuts

Last month my company announced job cuts. They offered a very nice package for anyone willing to take a voluntary separation. It’s worked well for people who are nearing retirement anyway, but it really wasn’t worth it for someone (me) whose been with the company only four years.

Tomorrow is the last day for those who were granted the voluntary separation. By the end of the week the additional 150-200 people who will be terminated will be notified. Speculation is Wednesday and Thursday for that.

Many people have asked me what it’s like at work these weeks. The mood is happy for those who opted for the voluntary separation but also ominous as we all know that some we know will be let go. It’s kind of funny the “signs” people look for—getting invited to a meeting for next week or not getting copied in on an e-mail for something next week or later.

My building will be shutting down in mid-February so all departments will be moving to different locations. (That adds to the sadness as people we enjoy working around will be in different buildings after the first of the year.) My department manager has designated me as the department contact for the move. I think/hope that’s a good sign I’ll be here for the move.

Monday's board question

1. Who lost $8,000 in "It's a Wonderful Life"?

2. Name the three reindeer whose names begin with "D".

3. Who kept time with the Little Drummer Boy?

Monday Miscellaneous

1. I read a blog called Stuff Christians Like occasionally. Usually it's pretty funny, but as a former high school athletic director I really liked this post on Christians and sports. From the comments I learned that God is a Crimson Tide fan. Seriously, look it up; however, apparently King James didn't realize it's Bama and not Bamah.

2. Over the weekend my friend Renae got an e-mail for one of our favorite stores that favorite customers could get 50% off their entire purchase from 3-7 that day only. Of course, we head off to the store. She bought a pair of pants. At the checkout counter as they bagged her pants I said, "Oh, there isn't the Christmas tissue paper this year?" This store always wraps your purchase in tissue paper and last year they had tissue paper with Christmas lights on it. The sales associate said, "I can put some in the bag for you, but we don't have time today to wrap the purchases."

I shook my head as I left and thought, "What wrong here. Renae gets an e-mail as a valued customer for that day only. We make the effort to go to the store, and yet the service that we have come to expect from them, an extra touch that is really nice, is deleted because they are too busy--for their valued customers?" By the way, no one was in line behind us and the s.a. didn't smile either.

3. We had a lot of snow over the weekend. There's at least a foot of snow on the ground and the good news that it's going to start snowing this afternoon through tomorrow night.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Tomorrow morning is my annual pumpkin pancake breakfast. In past years it has been the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but November was too busy for me to get it planned and excecuted. I think there will be 10.

I love pumpkin pancakes, and I like having the breakfast. I didn't know how much my friends who come like the breakfast as well. When I invited everyone of them they all said something such as, "I was thinking this week that it was about time for pumpkin pancakes again."

It's also nice when one is bringing egg casserole, one is bringing bacon, and another brings the juice.

Does anyone else want to come?

The book I began reading on Sunday (and still need to finish) challenged the reader to spend their commute time listening to the Bible on CD. Wednesday evening at the Dollar Tree I found a New Testament CD and I thought for a dollar I could do this.

Today marks the third day I’ve been listening to Matthew while I’m in the car. I have a hard time listening to it and really hearing it more than just hearing a voice talking in the background.

I’m wondering if it’s because it’s the Bible and not sports radio that I usually listen to. Maybe more things are thrown at my mind to make it wander. (Recently I read “Last week my mind wandered and it never came back..”) When I think about needing to focus on what is being read I start thinking about the need to focus on driving, etc. and there goes my mind again.

Monday's Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous from the last few days.

Reality hit this morning after I enjoyed my four days away from work. However, at 4:30 this morning I jumped in my sleep and remembered that I hadn't set the alarm for this morning as I'd turned it off for Thursday and Friday's regular wake up times.

Friday I got a new appliance for my home. Nothing fancy, but I'm looking forward to the ceramic top and not having to clean drip pans anymore!

Saturday night I was talking with a friend's son. He said, "I don't know why I'm a lot better talking one on one. I'm more intellectual, but in a group I'm more dumber."

Today at lunch I dropped off several boxes of goods at a local thrift store. Quite a few really good organizations around here have thrift stores, and I go back and forth at where to drop the stuff off. Today I opted for most convenient.

Even if it's way too early, I think there is something fun about early morning Black Friday shopping; however, at 10:00 a.m. when we were finished I realized we'd "worked" almost a full day already. No wonder I was tired.

It felt good to have a couple of days to get things done at my house. I tend to let things collect so I took care of lots of small things on Friday and Saturday.

Yesterday morning I found at that the mother of my handbell director had passed away Wednesday evening. She was older with health issues and had to be in a wheelchair. Ruth told me that her husband was reading from Mark while her mother slipped out of this world. Ruth realized that her mother probably entered heaven as Steve was reading the passage of the paralytic taking up his mat and walking.

My church has started a book table selling books at cost. I joked with my friend who is organizing it that I didn't see Purpose Driven Christmas, The Shack or the new Mrs. Osteen book. Since I had time between the rehearsal in the morning and the worship service I pulled out a book from the rack and started reading. I figure if I do that regularly I'll never had to actually buy the book. However, I did buy it after the service. It's a book on humility. I thought it would help me point out the pride in others and help them correct it. Actually it's really good and there were several parts of it I plan to share in a future post; I just don't have it with me now.

Now it's off in the snow to go home.