Ten months later! Oh my!

Well well well well well, how do you like them apples?  I would say I'm doing pretty good here blogging wouldn't you?  I mean I am SURE I am setting a record: one blog a YEAR!  HA! HA!  I wasn't even sure how to get back on this thing and had to ask Jessie for help!  But anyway, here I am and I really am going to TRY to do better!  I do think it's a lot of fun and it's a great way to stay "in the loop"! 
So, I got an I-phone a little more than a year ago mainly so that texting with my Australian daughter, Lisa, would be cheaper.  Well, she has been state side since Christmas and I no longer need the 'cheaper' version of texting.  Soooo, I decided that I had ONE year to make this I-phone thing work for me ( because I do have a 2 year contract with the phone company I have to honor)or I would need to let the internet go 'cause I can't justify 'throwing away' $30 per month.  (Dave Ramsy would NOT like that!)  Hey, I WONDER if Dave Ramsey has an I-phone?!! Anyway, I'll tell you what is reeeally reeeeeally weird: going on a mission trip and having your 10 year old grandson 'download' apps for me and show ME how to do it! (Thanks CAMDEN!)  I mean that boy was whizzing through everything and he was so excited and proud to be showing me how to manuver as well!  THEN my 4 year old grandson proudly showed me HIS skills playing all sorts of the cool games that Camden down-loaded.  I mean seriously people, these boys are AMAZING! (Way to go PIERSON!) And... I'm NOT!  And then there was Mr. JACKSON soon to be 9 year old grandson entertaining himself for hours on (I think) his dad's I-Pad manuvering 22 men in different positions really FAST in a game of you guessed it: FOOTBALL! It's CRAAAAZY! I thought I was supposed to be teaching them, but they teach ME! But.... exciting too!  Do you ever wonder what the 'world' will come up with when our kids (or grandkids as the case may be!) are grown that THEY have to learn from scratch?  So, anyway I am GOING to get savey with my I-phone and save the $30 some where else!  Yay me!  OOOOOH! I have it: I can quit exercising at Curves!  Ha! Ha!  NOT!
While I have your attention directed to my mission trip let me tell you something else quite funny.  I acquired the most GINORMOUS cankles you have EVER seen. (of course I have only known what cankles are for about 6 months!) I mean seriously people if you had seen my ankles you would have thought the body that was attached to those feet was at least 300 pounds. Too bad I don't know how to put pictures on my blog yet (where aaaaare those boys when you need them!) or you would get the biggest LAUGH of your (and might I add GASP)life if you could actually SEE how BIG they were! They were awful! Now I know I have gained weight (another blog story for sure!)BUT...That is NOT why they were so swollen.  In case you are wondering (and even if you aren't!) my feet were so swollen because my area of service on this fantastic mission trip was to be number one sidekick and bottle washer to the chief cook my oldest daughter, Haley!  Friends, we cooked 3 full blown delicious meals for 4 1/2 days.  We were literally on our feet for 15+ hours each day.  It was a GREAT experience and so much fun to work with Haley (not to mention enjoy the boys)but we literally watched our ankles grow bigger by the day!! I think I actually looked deformed!  I am happy to report that mine have gone down by about 2/3's and I am looking much better in only a day and a half.  I am hoping to use my "deformed" feet to get out of jury duty tomorrow (gonna practise limping real well after I get done with this and dig out my grungiest slippers!)  Well, not really! Anyway my friends (thank you to my 2 faithful followers!)life really IS good, cankles and all! 

Okay! As I've been praying about this blogging thing I've decided that my main goal is to share the dailies of my life in a  fun and happy way.  In an effort to show that life (as a christian) can be FUN  [why is it that as Christians we so often think we have to be gloomy?  What a terrible 'testimony' of our faith] and we can laugh along the way in spite of our challenges, infirmities or just our own 'sorry selves' ( often I am my own worst enemy!)  I am going to share very randomly.  I don't have anything out of the ordinary going on in my life that would necessarily be my 'claim to fame' (not having 8 babies at once ( thaaaat one would really be hard to explain to my family since I am single!) or swimming the English Channel without arms and legs (oh my!)  but I DO have a lot going on!  When I blog ( I think this is the correct term (as opposed to write!) (help me out here young people) I want to 'blog' like I think.  I believe this could be somewhat challenging (writing like I think) but it's the style God is leading me to choose and I think it will make for a FUN and easy read!  I know my 'style' will continue to develop as I move along in this great adventure.  Don't you just find it amaaaazing that I can be typing in the privacy of my home at 4 in the morning and the entire WORLD can be privy of my life at the touch of a button?  And WHAT a LIFE!  So... I am starting to get reeeeeally sleepy. Winding this entry up would probably be a good thing since my alarm will STILL go off in a few hours!  My deepest thought for this posting ( aren't you soooo proud of me using my newly acquired on-line lingo?: posting, entry, blogging etc.) ( I know I am!) (sort of makes me feel PROUD) ( but not the bad kind of proud talked about in the bible!) So, back to my deepest thought... can I eeeeven tell you how niiiice it is to walk into my bathrooms with bare feet and not leave the bathrooms with DIRTY feet?!!  My house had been 'under construction' for almost a year.  I jack hammered up my ancient tile floors months ago ( amazon women!) ( this makes for a good story-the jack hammer was soooo heavy Greg had to carry it in there (the bathrooms) for me but when I turned it on I was able to hang on for dear life and guide it through its journey! (or did IT guide me ha! ha!) and I have been walking on dirt ever since!  Hmmmm.... usually one enters the bathroom and comes out cleaner - not so much here!   Anyway the tile man (or should I say slate man) 'floated out' my floors in preparation for laying the slate in a few weeks so NOW I actually HAVE a floor in my bathrooms (altho' concrete!)  and I can enter with bare feet and come out with STILL clean feet!   YAAAY!  Thank You GOD! :)  [I love how Julie (my wonderful older sister) ends all of her correspondence with Julie Joy! Or just Joy! or Joy Julie! I'm going to come up with some cute and catchy like that too ~ just give me time! ] Well have a great day all!
Onward! Laura

Here we go!

Well, I'm really excited about blogging and I couldn't be doing it if it weren't for my wonderful daughter Jessie! I'm very technologically challenged and Jessie has sacrificed her own time (and her own blogging) to help me. So a BIG thanks to Jessie. Not going to say much tonight because it is late but Jessie and I have had a GREAT time in Fort Worth looking at venues for Lisa's wedding!!! Being able to relax and play today was also really fun. More to come.....