Thursday, July 31, 2008

Billy Jarboe?

This is one of the finalists in Last Comic Standing... I think he looks just like Billy Jarboe, don't you?





Criss Angel, what a disappointment

To those of you who were smart enough NOT to stay up late last and watch Criss Angel on TV, you didn't miss a thing...
I am not a follower of this guy, but from what I have heard, he is supposed to be this great illusionist, the next Houdini... so Fred and I thought we would watch and try to figure out how he was going to escape from a building that was getting imploded in Clearwater. He had 3 1/2 minutes to get off his handcuffs and pick through 4 doors that were padlocked.
Well, you see him on the balcony pick off the handcuffs, tries to unlock the 1st door, but can't, so he kicks through a glass window... then we have to rely on the cameras inside the building (aahhaa!!) We "see" him go upstairs, tackle the 2nd door, then the 3rd, he's taking too long.
He gets to the 4th door that leads him to the roof for the waiting helicopter. The copter has to ascend at 3 1/2 minutes because the building is going down in 4 mins. Criss is running out of time!! (aahh!!!) The helicopter starts to leave, Criss is still trying to get the door open! All of a sudden, at 4mins, the camera goes out!! The building implodes (the best part of the show) and now we are all wondering "where is Criss?!"
(By now, Fred and have figured out what we watched once he went into the building was video, NOT live TV. )
You see his family running to the rubble, cameras running towards the rubble... all of a sudden, with a 'convenient' camera in the right place, you see Criss emerge from this area, not even close to the rubble, letting out a yell as if he just came out of the ground. Except, he's not all the dusty. He looks like like he took some dirt and rubbed it on his pants and 1 side of his face...

What a let down. He obviously had a back way to exit, maybe a trash shoot, and never had any intentions to reach the helicopter...
The annoying thing is that he kept saying this was NOT going to be an illusion. It was going to be a full blown stunt, like what you would see Evil Kneivel do (apparently he's a big fan).

Oh well, this did NOT make me a fan. I think David Blaine is way better. Though, honestly, I really think he has made a pact with the Devil. David does some really creepy things that a human shouldn't be able to do....

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jul/30/building-goes-angel-walks-away/?entertainment

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Mama Mia!!

No, I am not eating spaguetti....

Kelley Brown called me and invited me to a girls night out to see the movie 'Mama Mia'. First of all, I was so touched to be remembered. And I haven't had a girls outing in a while.

So tonight it was: Kelley, me, Hillary Tucker, Cindy Whitaker, Ann Wolfe, Michelle Evonosky and her mom.

The movie was great! It really celebrated friendship, the bond between mother/daughter, and true love. Yes, it was a full blown chick flick. And a musical to boot!

I especially loved the fact that Cindy laughed uncontrollably when Pierce Brosnan sang 'SOS'. She got all of us around her giggling too. See, he's not a very good singer at all.

If you are a girl, grab some friends and go see it. I don't recomend you take your guy with you. I don't think they could appreciate the movie.
Nina, you are going to LOVE this one!!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

New Orleans Mission Trip









Finally... New Orleans

I've been kinda under a cloud lately and just didn't have the energy to sit and do this, but here I am! I actually journaled during the trip so I wouldn't forget some things:

* It took us 13 hours to get 60 people to New Orleans. Didn't make too many stops, I guess the big bus could only go so fast...
* The job we went there to do was a house. The lady who owned it bought it after Katrina to fix it up and rent it out, it was divided into 3 apts. Well, she and her dad (co-owner) hired a contractor to fix it up, only to have them take off with their money. Then, her dad died last year and she was left all alone. We were the first group of people to show up and help her.
* On Wednesday, after some of our adults spent time talking with her, she accepted the Lord as her Savior. Fred said in our SS class "if it took our church to send 60 people all the way to New Orleans, sweat pounds off for 5 days and be almost too sore to move every night just to have her come to know the Lord, then it was worth it".
* My job was to help with the food. We cooked breakfast and dinner for ourselves and brought lunch to the work site. The good thing about this job, we had time after lunch to do whatever we wanted, so we went out to lunch after driving through the 9th ward one day. :)
* I planned on spending maybe one day at the work site, but there was NO WAY I could have made it. The work was very hard and the heat was unbearable! Tons of credit to the ones who worked it!
* The place we stayed in was like a "mission" church. Homeless people can come there and get whatever they need:clothes, food, assistance. We were told to always keep the front doors locked so they wouldn't come in while we were there. Met some interesting people...
* A bunch of the crew went to Cafe Dumont on Tuesday night. I skipped out and crashed in bed. Too bad, cuz they got to see the family from "Little people, big world". I guess they were filming.
* Our stove started smoking on Wed. morning. So, no eggs & bacon. We had bagels instead... the good news was the problem was a $25 cord. Had spaguetti for dinner!
* On the way to Wed. night worship at another church, we are crossing an intersection and a guy on a motorcycle decides to run his red light and crosses right in front of us. We slammed on the breaks, and he thanks us by giving us a one finger salute! agh!
* Our only CDL bus driver hurt his back at the work site. We had to take him to the ER, where he spent the whole day and part of Thur. He was finally admitted, only to be told (on Fri.) he may need surgery on his back. He's had surgery on his back before. He was going to have to wait until Monday for a shot in his back to allow him to fly home. We called the church and a new driver was flown to us on Friday night.
* The praise band got permission to play in Jackson Square, and after watching them, we had some time on Thursday to go out to dinner. The Gumbo Shop, it was pretty good.
* The kids, for the most part, behaved great. There was some drama with some girls, the middle school boys were obnoxiously loud, but for having that many people in a very small area, it went well. The place we stayed at comfortably holds 40 people. There were 60 of us... 1 shower for every 10 people. We had a few plumbing problems, but we survived.
* I really enjoyed getting to know more folks from church. They were all very nice. And my hope was that Andy would connect more with the youth group. I guess it worked, the night before we left, he asked "when is youth camp?" The timing stunk, since we now didn't have the funds to send him. (I begged him back in Jan. to sign up, but nooo!) So I told him he had to speak with the youth pastor and see if he could work something out. It came back we only had to come up with $100, so we made Andy pay half. He is now in Tenn. at youth camp...
* I would sign up to go again in a heart beat. Even though there was little sleep, my hands and feet were completely swollen from the heat & humidity, and my poor husband hurt from every inch of his body. It was worth it.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Home

We are heading out in about 8 hours. I am ready for my own bed, my own kitchen, my own couch. It's been really nice visiting with Tom & Rachel, but I miss home. Looked at some property while we were here... may be making a purchase. I will miss seeing so many trees. Life around Mt Pleasant is definitely slower. The town's name suits it.
As soon as I get home, I will post some pics of New Orleans and our time with the other Nassars... see ya soon!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Smile

I don't know how to post the video directly to here, so here's the link to Freddy's blog.
Go see it, it will make you smile, and we all could use that....

http://blog.divide-by-0.com/

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

apply directly to the forehead

Have you seen that comercial for the headache medicine 'head on'? I was up last night with the dumb headache and I was reaching desperate levels today. So while we were out today, we stopped at a Walmart and bought some. I can't believe how it works! Within 15 minutes, I started to feel relief. Of course, I also went and laid down for a couple of hours, but I know the medicine was a big help.

On another update, Freddy got the job in Austin. He called this morning and talked to Fred. I started crying but had to compose myself when Fred said "here, talk to mom". I can't believe Freddy is going to be 1,168.32 miles from us. (I checked). He starts work on Aug. 4th, and has signed a lease with an efficiency apt. It's happening all too fast.

He will need to have a second job to help him get on his feet. At least that will keep him busy. He has a friend that lives nearby so he won't be COMPLETELY alone. But I won't be able to help him get his apt. all set up, can't bring him food when he needs it... AAARRRGGG!!!
I don't think I'm ready!

I am thinking of having a going away party for him and people can bring walmart gift cards. That way he will have money for food at least...

Have I asked for prayer lately??

Monday, July 21, 2008

hot in here!


Andy is at home by himself while we are in Tx. He called yesterday to tell us the air in the house is not working since Sunday. Fred put in a call to the air people and hopefully they will be able to come over and see what's going on. Not a good thing to happen while we are so far away... Freddy is in Austin trying to get a job. Steph is in Orlando with a new car. Boy, we leave town and the Nassar family goes beserk!
I have had one of my 'great' headaches since Sunday night... Not exactly the vacation I was hoping. :(

We have been looking at land to POSSIBLY purchase. Saw one that was supposed to be "waterfront". It was stretching it a bit. Then we saw 26 acres of hay meadow. That was nice, but do we need that much and do we want to spend that much money? I don't know...

I really want to post about our New Orleans trip, just haven't had the chance to put the slide pics together, and with the headache, I can't focus too long on the computer... pray for me???

Saturday, July 19, 2008

we're back!

Well, not really. We drove from New Orleans and arrived in Mt. Pleasant Tx at 2pm today...
One thing that is bugging me, I don't have any signal with my phone. I hate feeling cut off from the kids, even though I gave them Tom's house # for any emergency. It makes me feel better to text with them throughout the day. I feel a little bit closer to them that way. :(

I have some pics I want to post about our mission trip and talk about some of the highlights, but tonight all I want is a shower and early to bed.

As wore out as I am, I will gladly go again next year.

PS
pray for Andy as he will home by himself for the next week. Specifically: WISE CHOICES.

Friday, July 11, 2008

one last post

until I get back...

Fred, Andy and I are going on a mission trip with the youth to New Orleans. We leave on Monday (at6am!). I don't know if I will post anything else till I get back. (what? no internet for a week?!)
I am getting excited about the trip. Since we are the 'newbies' and don't really know many people, we have been kinda out of the loop. We've been bugging the youth pastor for information for a couple of months, but he has had his plate full. He just returned with a group from Africa and that was all that was on his mind. But we had a meeting this past Wednesday night and got all the info. I also got some #s of the adults going in hopes that we can talk with them before we leave so we can get a better feel of how we can be used.
I knew we were going to 'build'. I thought it would be a great time to be able to 'see' the fruits of your labor. But the more I thought about it, the more I remembered how bad in shape I am! I mean, what if I couldn't handle the work? aahh!!
Well, I have been told that the lady that is in charge of the meals (we feed ourselves) needs help and I could work with her. I can, but then I started feeling: am I wimping out? don't I want to be 'out there' with the rest of them? Oh, well. Fred and I want to do whatever is needed and have no preference.
One of the things I am looking forward to is seeing Andy getting involved with the other youth and possibly developing more friendships. Also, having him come out of his comfort zone and be part of something that is not at all about him.
We are going to work on a lady's house. Apparently, her house was greatly damaged with the hurricane. A contractor came in to do repairs and did it all badly and took off with her money. So it all has to be redone. There is going to be work with sheet rock, painting inside/outside, and landscaping. Is going to be cool to look at it at the end of the week and see her house completely redone. (we pray!)
We are staying in a church right in the French Quarter. Our schedule is not to strenous and we will have an opportunity to look around, I think, towards the end of the week. Andy says he wants to try crawfish. That will be a picture I will be taking. Aren't they like 'little water roaches'? ugh!
Anyway, hoping to have some cool pics and great stories to share as soon as I get a hold of a computer.

Pray for us!!!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Free Hugs



Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal. As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.


I could use a hug today, how about you?

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Update on Bro. Chuck part 2

ok, I don't know who Evelyn has on her email list, so I am posting the latest on Bro. Chuck.
From Evelyn on Monday:

Bro. Chuck was released from Tampa General on Saturday. Getting 50 staples taken out of his knees today. Pain medication makes him drowsy and energy level just isn’t there. Still having problems with his blood levels. Really dragging by end of day. Has therapist coming to his home even on Sundays.

Please continue to pray for him and Sharr-an.
Evelyn

Welcome Freddy!

My son Freddy has started a blog. Welcome to the Blog-Side, Freddy!
Check him out, I think he's quite funny. Plus, he likes to put out movie reviews once in a while...
By the way, please pray for him, as he is now unemployed... :(


http://blog.divide-by-0.com/

I'm Back!

From where, you ask?

Well, I went to Orlando on Monday to spend a couple of days with Steph at her new "digs". She moved into a house last month. It's a very nice house, only about 4 years old. She has 1 roommate right now, the other one coming next month. Steph got to move into the master bedroom so that's what we did yesterday. She has a good size room and her own "master bath". I think what she loves the most is her walk in closet. She has a screened back porch that has a couple of rockers. We sat and rocked and watched the rain come down on the lake behind her house. Very cool!
So, we went to eat at UNOs (where she works), got to meet some of her friends/coworkers and eat some good food. Took her grocery shopping, hopefully she will stop eating out. :)
But mostly, we just hung out. I miss her and I don't know when I'll see her again.... :(
Her roommate has a little chihuahua named Delilah. She and Bella get along really well. Steph taught them a new trick, which is so fun to watch! (notice the matching little raincoats! ha!)