I Love My CUDS Mailbox

There have been times over the last 4 years that I wondered if this day would ever come, but at last, it's here.

When I arrive on campus on Tuesdays I always stop on the first floor to check my mailbox before heading up two more floors to my first class of the day. I'm a little on the short side but because of the alphabetical arrangement of names my mailbox is the 2nd from the top. Needless to say I can't see in the box so I reach my hand up there and pray I can reach anything that has happened my way. There's always an Update with news from the Div School and once in awhile another piece of paper with some information I may or may not need.

Tuesday was no exception. I reached in, pulled out my Update and there was another piece of paper in there. This one was one I definitely needed and had long awaited.

MY LAST CLASS SCHEDULE.

Yes, you heard me correctly. The class schedule for next semester was in our boxes. This will be the last time I will fill out a class request for the next semester. My first reaction was a resounding YES YES YES but then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was my LAST class schedule. I'm not sure I'm ready for this. This is not the feeling you get in your Junior year when selecting your classes for your Senior year. That is an exciting time for sure. You get to leave high school and head into new adventures.

In a way, this is sort of my last adventure. I do not plan to get my DMin so this is my last big educational stop. Oh, I'm sure there will be seminars here and there and training classes now and again I will attend but nothing will compare to Campbell.

I think I have enjoyed these past 4 years as much as anything in my life but with the last semester ahead of me, I am going to try to soak in all I can in the next 193 days left (yes I'm counting).

So, I ask you, God, please help me make the most of the days ahead.

But, I have 4 more weeks and tons of writing to do before the end of this semester so I might better focus on today.

Just When I Need Him Most

Just when I need Him, Jesus is near,
Just when I falter, just when I fear;
Ready to help me, ready to cheer,
Just when I need Him most.

That's the song that I thought of late this afternoon after I finished, what I thought was going to be, an easy task. I read an article this week about the drought and how bugs were finding refuge indoors. No sooner than I got through reading the article did I find a baby roach in the kitchen. I was sick. I hate those critters. I know God made roaches just like he made flowers, but he had to have another task for them than for crawling around in my kitchen.

David and I had to do a funeral this morning and then there was lunch at the church following the graveside service, so I decided to bomb the house. Not literally, of course, but with one of those Raid Roach Bombs. Actually, I used 3.

I yanked everything out of the cabinets and covered it up, moved my plants outside, and set off the bombs as I set out for the funeral.

When I got home, I knew the task of putting everything back in the cabinets awaited me, but what I didn't know is that it takes 4 times as long to put things back. Especially if I wash everything, sort through spices, wash down cabinets, sweep and mop the floors and throw away unnecessary "stuff".

Anyway, when I was returning the non-perishables back to the cabinet, I found a package of Batherpy ... Bathe away your sore muscles, aches and pains. Now, don't ask me why Batherapy was in the kitchen cabinet for I fear I can't answer that question, but it did come at a great time. I had reached the last task of the whole bombing adventure and I was sore and aching.

While the water was filling the tub, this song came to my mind. Just When I Need Him Most. Isn't it wonderful how Jesus is always near and just when we need him, he's right there, ready and willing to soothe away our aches and pains?

Gone To The Dogs

It's Wednesday and that means lots of things for those of us in the ministry. For me as the youth minister and minister of music it is an especially long day.

Since this is the 3rd Wednesday, our supper menu is Taco Salad and the youth are responsible for the meal. I went shopping, picked up one of my youth and came home to brown the hamburger meat and make the brownies. In the midst of all this, I was working on homework for class tomorrow. As the hamburger browned and the brownies were coming out of the oven with others waiting to go in, I began to clean up.

I know folks that lived during the Depression and they are as much a stickler for saving things and not wasting as I am about making sure the lights are off when you leave a room and cleaning your mess as you make it.

Everything was back in its place and you couldn't tell I had made 4 pans of brownies and browned 15 pounds of hamburger. The dishes were washed and put up and I could leave the kitchen, after turning off the lights, proud.

I left for church around 4:30 p.m. I guided the young people in getting things together for the supper: making the tea, getting the salad put out, the sauces, the cheese, the sour cream, etc. then it was time for Discipleship Training after which we had a regular scheduled quarterly business meeting. (yippee) After the business meeting, we had choir rehearsal until 9:00 p.m.

When I got home, every light in the house was on and there was no one to be found. My step-daughter was in her room and my husband was in our room. I went in to the bedroom with this question on my lips: "Why is every light in the house on with no one in the rooms that are lit?" I'm not sure I ever got my question answered because my husband began to tell me that when I left the house at 4:30 p.m. the back door didn't catch so the back door had been left ajar the entire time we were at the church.

We have 3 dogs: A Doberman, a Dachsund, and a sweet mix of ugly. While we were gone, the dogs enjoyed free rein of our home which included a trash can full of egg shells from the brownies and breakfast for the last 2 days, the hamburger wrappings, the coffee grounds from the week among other various and yucky things. The trash was scattered from one end to the other. There were coffee grounds all over the rug in the living room, CDs had been knocked over from a table beside my recliner, there was even trash that they had taken out to the back deck. My husband was not happy. They had to vacuum, sweep, mop, re-arrange, you name it. They even got into my step-daughter's room and played havoc in there. (not that you could tell....she's a teenager).

I guess it has finally gotten through the brains of those that live in this house with me that I hate messes. You couldn't prove it by me that the our house went to the dogs while we were gone, but I'm glad it was cleaned up before I got home.

They are too.

A Little Math Problem

"Reading Days" divided by a take-home midterm + a 1 Samuel midterm + 2 church members in the hospital + church work + a baby shower to host + 3 church members in the nursing home =


NO FOOTBALL!!!!!!! and NO TIME FOR BLOGGING.

Timothy B. Tyson was Under My Bed

I hate to clean but when I finally do get in the mood, I do it right. Today is Saturday and it was time to change the sheets on our bed. I took the sheets off, put them in the washer then decided it was time to wash the bedskirt, too. We have a king-sized bed so taking the bedskirt is no small task. But, since David was working on his sermon (it is Saturday, afterall) I decided to handle it myself.

After the skirt was off, I got on all fours to see what was hiding under our bed. Oh my goodness!

At night we let our dogs come in from outside to sleep. We have three. Earl, the Doberman, sleeps on his dog bed on the floor at the foot of our bed. Maxie, the 'I'm-not-sure' usually ends up in the bends of our knees and Pickles (I didn't pick this name), the Dachshund, sleeps under the bed. Hence, the "Oh my goodness" statement.

I use the underneath part of our bed as a storage building. Our bed is sitting on eight inch risers so it gives ample space for large storage containers of winter clothes and various other 'stuff'. I put bedding ensembles in trash bags and put them under the bed as well. It's a pack rat's dream space.

I pulled all that stuff out from under the bed and began to re-arrange. As I pulled the last article out from under the bed I found a box of books. I opened the box and was reading the titles and all of a sudden I found a book I had been looking for. It's actually one of David' books, but I had started it a long time ago and "lost" it before I finished it.

I doubt I'll get to finish it at the present time because of mid-terms coming up, but I have put it in a safe place where I can see it so as to remind me to finish it soon. So far it's a great book and even though I haven't finished it I gladly recommend it. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson.

What's hiding under your bed?

Don't You Just Love Mondays?

Monday mornings are pretty laid back at my house. My step-daughter leaves home around 7:30 for school and David leaves for the church office in time to be there by 9. By this time, I have gotten up, made the bed, taken a shower and fixed my usual breakfast which consists of a sausage, egg and cheese something; could be a bagel, could be a sandwich or maybe even a biscuit if I feel like waiting long enough for the biscuit to bake. (Don't get crazy, I don't make my own biscuits, but you still have to bake the frozen ones you get in a bag at Food Lion).

Then I get my book bag and class syllabi to see which books are going to be necessary to have close by to finish up the reading assignments for Tuesday and if I'm productive, for Thursday, too.

Today was a bit more hectic. David and I are attending Pastor's School at Campbell this week which required a whole new routine. We wanted to get off early enough to be in Dunn by 1, don't ask me why, and then be able to take our time registering and all that is necessary for tonight's program.

If you are on staff at a church or know folks who are, you know how impossible it is to enter the doors of the church on a Monday morning and expect to get anything done you had planned to do in a timely manner.

So, here it is 4:00 and we have just checked in to our room. David is rushing around, changing his pants and asking me why I'm on this stupid computer when I need to be getting ready. Rush, rush, rush. Don't you just love Mondays?