What BUGS Me

This little critter was sitting on my can of OFF DEET spray! His antennae did not show up in the picture but they were very cute. Do not know what this fellow is unless he is a GREEN cricket. He hung around a long time before hopping off on the patio floor.

I think Scout had him for a snack. Oh well on to what bugs me:

• waiting for pictures to upload on this blog (I tried timing it...I think it was OVER A MINUTE and y'all know how BUSY I am)

• unwanted telephone calls-- we are registered (twice now) for the DO NOT CALL registry so why are these people calling us?

• which brings up phone book listings....I finally got the Hartsville Phone book to list us as Donna and Curtis Chapman so people who know me and not my husband can find me. That lasted one year. Now we are "M Chapman" and no one can find us but Dr. Mac Chapman's friends who don't know he is listed as R Chapman (For Raymond McIntosh his real full name) I did not take this lying down....I called every number in the phone book to get this corrected, even the governor's omnibudsman's office....this year we are listed as...M Chapman.....grrrrrrr

• library on line catalog....tells you a book is in the consortium but that you have to see a librarian to order it.....why can't we just LINK to the other library and order it ourselves? Come on Polaris you can figure this one out.

• blog readers who lurk, and don't comment (who are the 34 readers who read this trash yesterday??? well, okay 32....I know Gabby did and my college friend Linda.

Well, I have to go run and I can't think of any more BUGS for the time being so I'll sign off.

OOps one more....ministers who want to hear your story and then don't acknowledge you sent it to them.

Oh, and daughters who write you on Facebook.....instead of emailing you. (I better quit while I have one reader left)

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More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

Can you guess what this is about?

It is about our Septic Tank and Drain Fields.....NOT WORKING. We had clues before we left for Texas....the shower burbling after a shower....kinda like it had indigestion....but no regurgitation. Things went down hill Monday. Crap comes up in kitchen sink. Not REAL crap, thankfully, just greasy water with flecks of pipe scum. Of course, we are having dinner guests in 4 hours when this occurs.

Fortunately our new best friend, Willie Evans, and his team get on site and start digging. Hubs took pictures while I cooked. (We had water; just couldn't wash dishes etc...) I guess this is the hole into the septic tank.

The worker looking into tank....I am sure he has a gas mask on you just can't see it.

This is the root ball that was blocking all operations.

I wish hubs had taken a BEFORE picture....we had a veritable Garden of Eden on top of our septic tank and drain fields. No one told this city girl used to city sewage that planting ANYTHING on top of septic tanks or drain fields is a big NO NO.

I also wish I had an after picture....Garden of Eden is a Wasteland (Get IT???) Most of the plants are gone.....we still need at least two of the 50 foot pine trees removed....and we will save up for that expense since we just emptied "repairs" and Miscellaneous" and a few other categories in our budget to fund this excavation.

I must tell you, the honey wagon that came to empty the septic tank was labeled "YESTERDAY"S MEALS ON WHEELS" LOL (Another missed photo op)

Last a
couple of other"housekeeping" matters (that's what they called them at school conferences).

If you aren't reading Stuff Christians Like (http://stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com/) drop by and check it out. I heard the author on Chris Fabry live one day this week and liked what I heard. And now I like what he has written. Today's post on Sunday School Teachers is a Must Read.

Books I've been reading: The Cradle by Patrick Sommerville (interesting); Dune Road by Jane Green (not so good, didn't finish) and tah dah my FAVORITE The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder by Rebecca Wells Author of The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisters. (Can hardly put down.)

What are y'all reading?

Now on to the deep stuff, evil laugh,

Sewing With Rita

Yesterday, my good friend and fellow quilter, Rita came over to help me with some quilting issues. I wanted to learn how to piece a "pineapple block". She came and printed the pattern on tissue paper using my printer and then taught me how to piece it.

We had a great time. We chatted and sewed and pressed and chatted while we worked. (Oh, and I threw in a little lunch to keep her working :)

These are the two blocks we completed. Aren't they beautimus?? Now only 80 or so to go and I'll have a quilt. (Maybe I can trick her into coming back!?)

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Telling My Story

Our new minister of music, Tim Cotten, has a blurb in our newly designed Worship Folder asking members to email "their story" to him. So, I laid the folder by my computer as a reminder to do so. Then I thought.....why not tell it on my blog and email him an invitation to read it. So here we go....

I was brought up in Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Church in Washington, DC. At the time it was purported to be the largest Methodist Church in the USA and was built by funds from all other Methodist churches to be the National Methodist Church. I went to Sunday School, MYF, and completed confirmation classes taught by our minister Dr. Latch, before being baptised. I was sprinkled as a baby, just for the record.

Hubs was brought up in Bethlehem United Methodist Church in downtown Byrdtown and we joined not long after we married.

We had twins, Todd and Wayne, in 1967. Shortly after birth Todd was exposed to a virus and suffered brain damage in his occipital lobe leaving him visually impaired.

In 1971, our minister, Mr. Harmon, arranged for our church to have a Lay Witness Mission. We weren't familiar with the term but the church bought into it. I think about 30 lay people came and stayed with church members for the weekend. Joe and Louise McBride and their son George stayed with us.

The weekend has many components one of them being having a "Neighborhood Coffee"....our neighbor, Mary Louise Byrd, a retired first grade teacher invited us to hers. Mrs. Byrd was my image of a godly woman (white hair, in a bun, speaks softly, goes to church etc...) She gave her testimony at that coffee. In college she went to a tent revival and realized "her righteousness was as filthy rags" and she needed a Savior.

Ah, Ha, moment as Oprah would say. I had been under conviction for some time that I needed to be saved But....my intellectual, cosmopolitan, Washington DC self did not recognize the term Saved and thought it to be a hold over from Elmer Gantry. But that image was hard to reconcile with Mary Louise Byrd AND THE WORD OF GOD THAT SAYS "ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Saturday night as we sat around my breakfast room table with our guests, Joe and Louise McBride. I confessed to them that I was afraid to give my life to God. He might put cancer on me or send me to Africa.....who knew. They wisely pointed me to scripture, specifically "he who has the faith as a mustard seed".....I'd seen mustard seed jewelry (it was a 50's thing) and I knew I didn't have THAT much faith.

BUT God....Joe and Louise had just returned from a trip to Israel and guess what they brought back...real....uncommercial mustard seeds....and yep they are tee tiny....like grain of pepper and Yep I had that much faith!

We bowed and prayed. The next day I went to the altar and not long after got baptized By immersion. And the rest, as they say, is His Story.

Colonel Ashton Gandy and Tim

Now that I am no longer working at the Society Hill Library (I will explain in another post)Hubs and I decided we needed to go visit our dear friend, the Colonel. When I called to see if it was a good day and time for a visit, the Colonel said,

"Of course, come on; you are bringing Scout aren't you?"

The Colonel and I met at the library but became closer friends after I invited him to keep Scout when we drove across country a few years back. Scout did a trial visit for a weekend.

Scout enjoyed herself.
Tim the resident Rat Terrier not so much.
In the Colonel's words, "while Tim was deciding whether to get in my lap or not....Scout was already in it."

As you see, not much has changed!


Tim and Scout are the same age. They are both SUPPOSED to be full blooded rat terriers.

The Colonel has decided MAYBE Tim is not quite full blooded but he is definitely family.

This is their normal position :) Scout was in hubs lap straight across from Tim :)

I wish I'd have taken a picture of the outside of the house. It is a huge antebellum house where the Colonel's family has lived since before the Civil War. There were slave cabins in back.

He told us he is going to the State Museum to get his Civil War memorabilia appraised this week. That includes the ownership papers for the slaves his grandfather owned.

Sadly the house is in "decline". The Colonel and Tim confine themselves mostly to the room shown. It is air conditioned.....there is a fan.

The Colonel is having guests for his birthday August 6th. A lady friend from the nursing home in Fayetteville, NC is being driven down to spend the day. He met her while serving in Germany after World War II. She was teaching the American Soldiers' children. The Colonel talks to her every night between 6:30 and 7:30 PM.

From 8 to 8:45 PM he talks to another lady friend.

I asked if he had invited both for his birthday bash.

"Do you think I'm insane?" he quipped. "I learned my lesson back in Panama in 1948 when I invited two ladies I was seeing to the base picnic."

Being a bachelor for all these years hasn't been for naught. :)

By the way, he will be taking his guests to Miriam's Kitchen for lunch. He does not take guests to Johnny's truck stop although he purchases his lunch there every day and brings it home.

Why does he bring it home? "I am parsimonious!" "I don't want to pay for tea and tip a waitress."

Tim is going to have one heck of an inheritance......Scout will have to get in line to see him then. LOL.

American Idol HartsVegas Style

Hubs and I went to his Class of 1957's SEVENTIETH Birthday Bash last night.
(I should have taken my camera to record this momentous occassion.)

About fifty (counting spouses and significant others....yep these old people have those) were there. There were 116 in their graduating class. They read the list of those deceased (about 50 I'd say) and the list of those who rent regrets (maybe 10).

One of their former teachers/coaches, Ray Petty stopped in to say hi. (He looked better than any of the men there.)

ANYWAY, on our way home we saw a crowd at Burry Park and the sign saying Hartsville's American Idol so we stopped.

I have to say, Hartsville's got talent! We stayed about an hour and a half and heard about 10 contestants. (The MC had few dance breaks for the audience.....Cuban Shuffle....new Macarena??? )

All the contestants we heard were good; some were great. Cecily Brown who sang Whitney Houston was terrific! A Mandesa-like performer was decent tho she went acapella which is probably not a great choice. Fifteen year old from Darlington blasted Amazing Grace.

Oh, yeah, there were three judges who will remain nameless because their names were not announced while we were there.

And Vendors.....Southern Candy Kitchen....snow cones etc.... Shirley's....turkey legs.....

The best thing was the nice crowd seated on blankets with families. Kids running around in the grass. Teens dancing on the pavers. A nice mix of both black and white citizens of H'ville.

AND that's what I love about HARTSVILLE.

Audrey III

This is our lovely plant Audrey III. Make no mistake it is ONE plant. Our son came over to pick tomatoes and cucumbers while we were in Texas and said, "What the heck is that thing in the garden.....the world's largest squash plant?

See her reaching for the grass in our hereto for English Garden. What a plant! I had never seen Little of Horrors but I knew it involved a plant named Audrey. So I checked out the video from our local library. Steve Martin, John Belushi, John Candy...... and great 60's style music. What was not to like.....uh, besides Audrey II.

Fortunately Audrey III is a pumpkin plant! We hope that all the foliage and blooms and no pumpkins as yet does NOT mean the seeds were planted on "bloom days." (Old folk lore has it if you plant on bloom days.....that's what you get....blooms.....no fruit.) Should a pumpkin appear you will read about it here first.....then the National Inquirer.

Evidently the watermelon were planted on the right day.....we have several expanding in the garden as I write. We may have to hack Audrey back if she encroaches on the watermelons. A certain Gabby girl and her daddy are BIG watermelon lovers.

I did get invited to our neighbors to pick peas Wednesday night. I came home and shelled them remembering all the FUN times our family had sitting around shelling. Tonight we ate those suckers with piles of fresh sliced (and peeled) home grown tomatoes and a few okra on top to round out the feast.

What summer vegetable to you love the most and how do you like it prepared?

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Something to Blog About

Some of you maybe noticed I didn't blog for two days.....nothing to blog about.

I heard an interesting concept on the Chris Fabry radio program today(Moody Radio Network).

Living a Balanced Life vs a Life of Rhythm (go to Chris' website: ChrisFabrylive.org to listen and get the name of the author of the book etc...if this interests you and you want to know more.)

Two of my blogging cohorts, Mary and Gabby have blogged this week about their lives and knowing what is right for them and this resonated with me as well.

The author said that he doesn't know where the concept"the balanced life" came from.
In his research he couldn't find the origin of the term or the theory. He thinks it may be a yuppie idea.

Hmmmm...I never thought about the fact that there isn't a "Thou Shall Be Balanced" commandment. Maybe because I am a Libra (no I don't really think that means anything) I like the idea of balance.....

He purports that there are times when life cannot and will not be balanced and to expect it to be or to strive to balance it will drive you crazy.

Like when.....like when you have a new baby, or when someone in your family is in the hospital, or it is exam time, or wedding time etc..... get the idea??? Ya gotta give up balance during those times and go with the flow.

He says there is a rhythm to life: God says in Genesis how he put the moon and the stars in place and we know there is a rhythm to the seasons, the tides, the year etc.... and if we pay attention to where we are in our life cycle we will be better able to live in sync with God and our situation.

A peach farmer called in to the program. He said there is definitely a cycle to his family' life and it is based on his crop. Fall is a slow unwinding season, things start picking up in Winter and Spring and it all culminates in Harvest time when they all work 7 days for as long as it takes to pick and sell the peaches. He said every one who knows them knows.....don't bother them, or expect them to do vbs, or have guests etc... during harvest time.

The neat thing was he said after they stop all outside activity during that season, they then reevaluate the things they were involved in the past year. Do they want to do scouts again? Sing in the choir? Teach a Bible Study?

I like this concept and hope it is interesting to you also. Any comments?

America is "The Melting Pot"

On our final night in Texas, we decided to go to The Melting Pot. Our daughter, Gabby and hr hubs had been to the one in Charlotte, NC recently and thought the dessert was way better than the food. So.....

We choose to order only dessert. We debated between the large and the small size. Server recommenced we get the small and then order a second batch if that wasn't enough. Wise girl!

Small was more than enough chocolate for one sitting.

She kindly offered to take a picture of us after I took her picture.I wish the part of the table showed where they heat the fondue. It was at the front left corner recessed into the table.

This is the view in front of our table. Wine used for decor.

This is the pot (actually a double boiler type deal sitting over another pot which is on the heat surface.)

You will notice that half the chocolate and half the dippers are gone! I forgot to take pictures until we had snarfed up a lot of the food but this is what the dippers are. The tall cylindrical thing is a marshmallow rolled in cinnamon. There was one rolled in chocolate but it disappeared :).

As the restaurant critic I am (not), I give this experience two stars. The dessert cost $13.00; you could make it at home with some melted chocolate chips (use the microwave) some pecans, a few marshmallows, a couple rice crispy treats, 4 strawberries, a tiny piece of cheese cake and a tiny piece of pound cake.

There you go! But for a special occasion, maybe! (Personally I'd rather have a cake from Cold Stone Creamery).

This is the mall where the restaurant was.....a little Vegas looking don't you think?

We did go into the DSW Shoe Warehouse since I need new running shoes. (Now more than ever with ten pounds to lose.)

How's this for a Texas size shoe store?

I found plenty I liked BUT alas those $69 running shoes wiped out my shoe budget for the year.

As we headed into Hartsville at 6 am Sunday morning....the Lord welcomed us home with this beautiful sun rise :) God is Good....All the Time!

Out Takes from the Woodlands

Hard to beat sitting poolside surfing the net on a lap top!

Or floating around to pool......this is our friend Glen.  Bobbie paid me big bucks NOT to publish my picture of her in a bathing suit.  (I CAN be bought!)


This is just a sample of the entertainment available at The Pavilion...an outdoor concert stadium right here in the Woodlands.  Wish Rod Steward had been here when we were! 
This is just a SMALL portion of Cindy and Arts closet.  I like it so much I dreamed Curtis made me one..... don't you love the shoe cubbies and the double hung rods (the ceiling is at least ten feet so there is more room on top not shown.)
This is only a third of their bathroom.  There is a HUGE walk in glass shower behind where my hand towel hangs and another whole sink set up for Art and a separate area for the commode. Sweet.....as my grandson Connor would say :)

I will have at least one more post on the Woodlands after we get home and I can download my pictures onto my PC.  In the meantime, pray for safe travel for us as we drive all night to get home.  

Free as a Bird

What the heck is this about?????

Freebird.....a have it your way burrito icon has migrated south from Aggieville (Texas A&M) for those non-Texans in the readership.
Having met the manager at Kinkos the day of the Grand Opening and been gifted with two free lunches....we tried it out this week.

There were "kids" sitting in lounge chairs in front of the restaurant at 9 AM that day when we went to Kinkos.  The manager, who was getting stuff done at Kinkos, explained.....the first 25 in line would get a YEAR'S WORTH OF FREE BURITOS.  No wonder they lined up at 3 AM.
How cool is this drink station?
Your burrito comes wrapped in foil, so creative patrons make things from the foil and leave them sitting around to be admired.  So cool!
I choose Raspberry Tea for my beverage.....they have the beer, George, but I didn't, couldn't, wouldn't imbibe......even though I am not a deacon (nor could be since our church doesn't allow women deacons). Ah hem!


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Consignment Shopping Texas Style

I love a good consignment shop and this one is the best I've ever been in!  Stylish clothes, not outdated, and good prices.
There was really only one draw back; I am not a size four, six, or eight.
There was plenty of Texas Size Jewelry.....one size fits all.
I loved the leather and silver belt (I had to hang it on top of the yellow top and necklace to get a picture of it.....it certainly wouldn't go around MY waist.
The shoes were fashionable and hardly worn.
How about those shorts on the right.....they might fit Cindy (my hostess) or my Barbie doll.
 But if you are the right size.....come on out....there are bargains to be had.