Not Feeling Well . . . UGH!

So, what's been happening around here?  Not a lot, that's for sure!  This past week has not been the greatest.  I had been feeling like something was coming on, a cold or whatnot.  You know how you can just "feel" something coming on?  As it turns out, I woke up Thursday morning and my ENTIRE body hurt!  I could hardly move and felt like a wet noodle.  I have so much to do at work every day, that I really don't want to call in sick, but I didn't have a choice on Thursday. I managed to take a shower, wash my hair and started putting my make-up on.  I got as far as putting eyeshadow on when I gave up.  I had to walk down stairs for something, and just walking back up completely wiped me out.  (Mind you, because we have a tri-level, it's only eight stairs.)  That was it.  I thought about the 40 mile drive into work, and the way I was feeling, I didn't think I was even capable of driving that far safely.   So, I set my alarm for 7:30, so I could call in and did that and went back to bed.  

I woke up at 7:30 and called in and went back to bed.  I woke up around 10 a.m. and went to lay down under the blankets on the couch.  I slept there until about 4 p.m., then spent a few minutes on the computer and went to bed.  I woke up Friday morning feeling a little better, so it was off to work I went! 

I thought I was much better, but once I started walking around the greenhouse, I realized that I was still pretty weak.  Fortunately, I didn't have to go from my office to the greenhouse and back and forth too much like I usually do, so I was able to make it through the day.  I got all my salescalls made, but then the main copier/printer took a dump on us.  It kept jamming and wouldn't print, etc.  Of course, that was RIGHT at the time that I needed to print all kinds of reports so that I could do my Saturday work.  ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was NOT a happy camper!  I could have been done and out of there by 4:30 (mind you, I start at 7:30 a.m.), but with all the problems, it was 6 p.m. before I finally left.  I couldn't get the main printer to work, so had to figure out how to switch printers so it would print on an OLD dot matrix green bar printer.  I was quite frustrated and ready to cry.  I didn't feel good and just wanted to be home, in bed.  The problem was the program I use and the fact that it's not easy to tell it to print somewhere else.  It's kind of a DOS program, so it's not like windows where you get to "choose" your printer.  It's hard to explain, but suffice it to say that after an hour of trying to print and going back and forth to the printer to find nothing printing, it finally worked!  YEA!  Praise God!   

The best part about it printing on the big green bar paper was that the print was larger than if it had printed on the original printer on 8-1/2x11 paper.  Normally, I enlarge it to print on 17x22 paper, which is the size of two regular sheets of paper put together.  I thought for sure it was going to print as small as 8-1/2x11, but it printed it MUCH bigger!  Yea!  Again, Praise God!   I was finally able to leave and go home to bed.  

Today, I went in at 6 a.m. like I always do on Saturdays, and discovered that the greenhouse crew had already done a bunch of my work!  How awesome is THAT?!  Thank you, Jesus!  I was still feeling kind of weak and not myself, so it was great to have a lot of my work done for me.  I LOVE our greenhouse crew, as they are really the BEST!  They had some extra time so they did some of my work for me, because they had a preliminary report of what had to be put out for the drivers.  I still had a bunch of work to do today, but not as much as I would have.  That was a good thing, because I was still moving pretty slow and not feeling quite normal yet.  

I managed to get everything done today, with my helper of the day, Patrick.  (Normally, I have Megan helping me, but she was off today.)  He's a GREAT kid (in high school), who has really matured since starting to work with us.  He was kind of a doofus when he first started, but like I said, he has really matured and turned into a GREAT worker!   He was a BIG help to me with the larger plants we had to sleeve, and with the 104 Jerusalem Cherries that had to be sleeved up (one person was off today, so I said I would take care of the Cherries).   

At about 8:00, the phone rang, but I couldn't run to the other side of the greenhouse in time to answer it.  When I went to check the voice mail, after all my greenhouse work was done, it turns out it was a customer wanting 36 of the Jerusalem Cherries!   So, back up to the greenhouse, I went.  I was exhausted by this point, and one of the greenhouse crew offered to take care of them, so I didn't have to sleeve up another 36 cherries.  Thank you Lord!  

Our office manager came in and was having problems connecting to our server, so the computer problems continued.   She WAS able to make some copies, though, so that was a good thing!  We have the copier/printer scheduled for service first thing Monday morning, so by the time I go in on Tuesday, it should be back to normal.  Now, for the other computer problems.  Not only could Sandra not connect to the server, but I discovered I could not, either.  That meant that I couldn't get to the forms I needed to use for my reports from the last week of sales.  Taught me a lesson . . . keep a back-up copy of your forms on your own computer!   So, I already know that Tuesday is going to be messed up.  I can only pray that they have the problems with the server figured out so that we can connect to it again!  I hand-wrote some of the information I need to put on my report, so some of it is done, but still, it's going to screw up  my day.  Oh well.  It is what it is and I'll be happy to have everything working properly again come Tuesday morning!    Makes me glad that I'm off on Mondays and won't have to deal with the problems and they'll all be magically fixed by the time I come in at 7:30 on Tuesday! 

So, that's what's up around here in the last few days.  I'm still feeling icky, and need to get to bed.  I had to go over to my mother's house for her birthday after work and bring her her present, but that is another story!  Trust me, it's a pretty cool story, as her gift was pretty special!  I'll write about that tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it.  Right now, it's time for bed.  I'm pretty happy right now, that church doesn't start until 10 a.m. tomorrow, so I don't have to get up early.   

Hope you enjoyed the journey through "normal" life here!  LOL 

Peace to all! 

Julie

NEW roof!

I'm guessing you're wondering about the title to this blog post!  Didn't we just get a new roof a couple months ago?  You're absolutely correct.  We just got a new roof in August.  This time, it's our CHURCH that's getting a new roof!   Our church has been working on raising funds to pay for the new roof, and it was finally time!   We were able to save a BOATLOAD of money by doing the tear-off ourselves.  The church had FOUR layers on it, so it was a LOT of work and lots of folks were needed to pitch in and help.  Fortunately, we have a contractor on our Worship Team who was in charge of the tear-off and made sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do and keep everyone safe.

So, Monday dawned bright and beautiful and lots of folks gathered at the church at 7 a.m. to start on the tear off.  We couldn't ask for better weather, as the temps were in the 60's all day.    Seeing as I'm off on Mondays I went to help out, and spent most of my time taking pictures.   I took a total of 152 throughout the day!  WOW!  Who'd have thought you could take that many pictures of a roof being torn off?!  LOL  I must say, even I was surprised at how many I ended up taking.  It sure didn't seem like that many when I was taking them.   Don't worry, I'm not going to post all 152 pictures!  I'll just post the 80 or so that I posted on Facebook . . . Just KIDDING!  I'll just post a few here for everyone to see what an AWESOME church family we have and what an impressive job everyone did!

            Our Church!










The shingles in the corner are ones that were sliding over from the other side where the guys were removing them, but the roof was in really BAD shape.  We had water coming into the church in numerous places, and there was just no way to patch it any more.  A new roof was the only solution.

This is our Pastor!  Pastor Will.  He had a smile on his face all day long and certainly did not mind all the hard work.  I never saw him stop!  We are truly blessed to have such an awesome, inspiring Pastor at our church!  

From this point, behind the church, you can see how high the roof really is.  It's got quite a pitch on it, too, which is evident from the way the guys are using ladders and harnesses while they're up there.  

This is from the front of the church.  

I just think this is a cool picture, of the shingles being tossed off the roof . . . 

I have LOTS more pictures that I will put in an album here for anyone that wants to see them.  I've been waiting on this post and wanting to get it out there, so I'm going to leave it as is and move on, so I can post some other stuff.

Julie

God or job? What a decision!

So, my daughter, Erica, has been looking for another part-time job.  She applied for one in town, at a local restaurant, and was interviewed and GOT the job!  She told the woman interviewing her that she couldn't work until noon on Sundays because of Church, and that she couldn't work Wednesday evenings, because she volunteers at Awana.   The woman interviewing her told her that it would "not be fair" to the other staff to have her not start until noon on Sundays and to not work Wednesday nights, and that the only way she could offer her the job was without those restrictions.

Now, Erica REALLY needs the extra money, so she told the woman "OK."   Later that night, she told me that she made a decision, and she thought I might think wasn't "smart."  She told me about the job offer and how she accepted it, but then it had been bothering her all day.  She said that she has decided that she has to turn down the job because she doesn't want to miss church on Sundays and doesn't want to miss Awana on Wednesdays.  She stood there in the kitchen, with this look on her face, like, OK, tell me how dumb I am . . . when I just HUGGED her!

All I could do was tell her how proud I was of her and her decision!  She basically had to make a choice between God and a job, and she chose God!  I know that this decision will propel her to the awesome things God has planned for her!

What really bothers me about all this is that this restaurant manager wanted my 18 year old daughter to make a choice between God and a job.  That's just WRONG on so many levels!  My daughter made the right choice, and can be proud of STANDING UP FOR JESUS to this employer!  I can guaranty you that we will NEVER eat at that restaurant again.  I'm so awesomely proud of Erica.  My heart swells every time I think of the decision she made.

We've been dealing with some difficult issues right now, and our faith has just gotten stronger because of it.  Every time we move closer to God, the enemy (Satan) is doing everything he can to come between us and God and try to destroy our faith.  That's NOT going to happen!  God is GREAT and is doing GREAT things for our family, even in the midst of these storms!  The issues we've been dealing with have only made us stronger, and we know that they are not a "set-back" but a "set-up" for bigger and better things!   The gracious hand of God is upon us and we will forever be singing His praises!

God Bless You All!

Julie

MY Baptism!

I should have written this a long time ago, but I just haven't felt like writing in my blog, even though this was such an amazing event in my life, so please accept my apologies!    I'm writing this on September 7, 2012, but will write as though it was the same day.

Today dawned bright and beautiful!  It was a little chilly out, but I'm sure it only felt that way because we had gotten so used to 90 degree temperatures.  We had a beautiful church service, with Pastor Will.  I was hoping that the service would be on-line by now, so I could link to it, but it's not there yet.  

We don't have any rivers or lakes nearby, so we have to use what we have available for water baptisms.  In the winter months, we use the pool at one of the local schools.  This time, because it was warm out, we went to the house of one of our church family members who had a pool.   It may seem strange to have a water baptism in a pool, but it wasn't strange, and frankly, you have to do what you have to do, right?  

As it turned out, there were quite a few of us that were baptized that day, including my daughter, Abby!  She had kept it a secret from us, and I was thrilled to discover that she was ready to make that commitment to Jesus Christ.  How AWESOME is that?

We were all given a chance to speak before getting in the pool.  Here, I'm telling my story about my son's buddy who was killed in Afghanistan and how his service affected me and made me want to seek Jesus.  (Most of you know that story from earlier posts.)

So, I realize I look horrible in these pictures, but what can I say?  I'm the one in "color" in the picture.  Abby is standing right behind me, with her hands on her hips.

Did I mention that the water was COLD?  This picture needs NO caption!  This is Pastor Will getting into the pool.  His wife, Jen, is the lovely blonde woman in the background behind him.   I am on the ladder behind him, waiting to get in.  This did NOT give me any warm fuzzies about that water!









My teeth were chattering, and I was literally shaking from the cold water.  When Pastor Will began praying over me, I had such a warmth go through my body that I stopped shivering and just felt this amazing love.  When I went under the water, it was not cold, and I just felt so many burdens I had been carrying drain out of me.  I know that although we all have problems in this early life, Jesus was telling me  that He was holding me and taking those burdens away from me and taking them on His own back, to shoulder the burden of those things that I just cannot handle on my own any longer.  As long as I continue on this journey of knowing and loving Jesus and doing everything I can to honor Him, that He will always be there for me, by my side, holding my hand, showing me the way, comforting me and taking my burdens from me.

Coming back up . . .

It's Abby's turn!  











Brian, from our worship team, brought his guitar so we could have some music.  Quite a few of our church family came to witness the baptism, which really touched me!

It was truly a SPECTACULAR day!!!!

May God Bless and Keep all of You!

Julie

John & Sue's Wedding!

Some of you may remember me writing about my dear friend, Julie, who died of ovarian cancer two years ago.  She was one of my dearest friends and I truly miss her.   Her husband, John, is one of the nicest, sweetest men you would ever meet.  He was truly devastated when she passed away.   I don't want to go into all the details about Julie's death, because this is a HAPPY post!

John found a wonderful woman that he and Julie both knew and their friendship turned to true love and they were married today!  Sue is a wonderful lady and is quite good for John!  They make a lovely couple, and you can just feel the love between the two of them.  I'm so incredibly happy for them both!   John spent quite a few years with rodeos before he was injured in a construction accident.  He was and still is actively involved in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association and High School Rodeo, as well.  From what I know, Sue was also involved in rodeo, but I'm not sure how.  This was Sue's first wedding, which made it even more special in my eyes.  Anyway, as you've probably guessed by now, this was a "cowboy" wedding!

The bride and groom wore jeans and cowboy boots.  Sue wore a beautiful white embroidered western shirt, and her two bridesmaids wore turquoise cowboy shirts.  John and the groomsmen were wearing burgundy cowboy shirts, and of course, cowboy hats.

The minister they had for the ceremony was Sue's family minister for many years, until he retired.  According to Sue, he was quite honored to be able to come out of retirement and perform the wedding service!  His service was AWESOME!  He had an amazing sense of humor and we had quite a few chuckles through the ceremony!

Because the service was at 1:30, and I had to work, I had called John on Thursday and told him that I wasn't sure we'd be able to make it to the service.  I could tell he was saddened at that news, but what was I to do?  I work 40 miles from home, and the wedding was another 40 miles away.  I couldn't afford to take a day off work, and I knew John knew that and understood.   I didn't want him to think that I didn't feel it important enough to be present at the service, as I desperately wanted to be there.

When I finished all my paperwork on Friday, and was able to spend some time in the greenhouse, getting things ready for Saturday, I started to believe that maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to get out of work in time to make it to the ceremony!   Saturday morning rolled around, and I was at work at 6 a.m., and things were going well.  My young helper, Megan, is AWESOME!  She's just a tiny thing, about 5'4" tall or so, and not even 100 pounds!  Like I said, just a little thing!  She's in high school and has been helping me get plants together and out out for the various routes for about five months now.  She's a quick learner, and an amazing helper!  She's learned a lot since we've been working together and we work really well together.  She's learning the plants and where they are and is always willing to run here and there to grab something for me.  So, at about 7 a.m., or so, she was able to get started helping me and we made quick work of everything we had to do.  We saved the 6" crotons ((picture here)for last, and I thought we'd have to sleeve up about 150 of them, but Mandy, who's in charge of 6" plants, asked that we use some other ones that were already sleeved up.  WAHOO!  Didn't have to ask me twice!  LOL  That saved at least 30 minutes of work!  I was actually able to get my paperwork done and leave work at 10:36 a.m.!  (The previous Saturday was atrocious, and I didn't get out of there until 2 p.m., which was why I didn't hold out much hope for today.)

So, at 10:36, I was out of there and heading home!   Yehaw!   I got home, took a record breaking quick shower, and even managed to shave my legs, put on my make-up, got dressed, did my hair and the girls and I were on our way!   We still had a 45 minute drive, but it was looking like we were going to make it! We had to drive to Merrill, WI, a town that I'd never really been to before.  It's a small town, but it's bigger than Abbotsford . . .  I took Highway 29 east to County Road 107 . . . what a TREAT!  It's an awesomely hilly road!  It's one of those county roads where the hills are such that if you speed up a bit and hit them just right, you can make your stomach drop!  I LOVE roads like that!  LOLOL  Erica was in the front seat with me, and was watching and knew what I was doing, as I'd hit the gas when we were coming up on a hill, but Abby wasn't paying attention.  Finally, after about six times of that, I hit a really GOOD one!  It was a short hill, but went down right away, where you couldn't see what was over the the other side.  (I know you know what I'm talking about!)  So, I hit that one at a good clip (I'm not going to tell you how fast I was going!), and when we went over, I know ALL of our stomachs dropped!  Abby even let out a yelp from the back seat!  That just made my day!  LOL

OK, back to the wedding.  Sorry!  This has turned out way longer than I expected!  Thanks if you're still here with me!

Here's a few pictures from the wedding . . .

The happy groom . . .   He was injured in a work accident quite a few years ago, and is disabled because of it.  From what I remember, he is lucky to be able to walk.

His lovely bride!

During the ceremony

The happy couple!

I LOVE this picture!

These are our friends, Chuck and Judy, who drove up from Milwaukee for the wedding!

And finally, a picture of me and my beautiful girls, Erica and Abby!  I LOVE this picture and am going to have it printed professionally!

I know that my dear friend, Julie, was smiling down on all of us and gave her blessings to John.  I know she worried about him being alone when she was gone.   Although I miss her dearly, one day, I will see her in heaven.  For now, on this earth, I am so very happy for John and Sue and pray that they will have a blessed and wonderful life together.  

Just some "stuff" . . . and some GREAT news!

Just wanted to let you all know a couple things.  First of all, I have found some of the most AWESOME Christian Rock Bands!  I had been listening to a Casting Crowns station on Pandora at work, and recently heard some fabulous music by other bands, including Jars of Clay, FFH and Third Day!  Now you need to remember that I am a "rocker" from way back (at least as far back as I go! LOL)  . . . 80's "hair" bands were my favorites (I saw Sammy Hagar -- long before he joined Van Halen -- in concert three times!) and still are!   Now, I like all kinds of music, and can easily go from AC/DC to Johnny Cash to Frank Sinatra to Billy Joel to Garth Brooks.   BUT, my heart belongs to good old fashioned rock and roll!  

The Christian music I've been listening to are all Christian Rock, so they satisfy not only my spiritual need for uplifting music, but also my baser need to just rock out!   I must say, being able to crank up the stereo or my computer speakers with rock and roll praising God and Jesus is FABULOUS!   To that end, I've recently discovered Spotify and have downloaded it to my laptop at home.  I'm not sure if you need to have Facebook for it or not, but I do, so that's neither here nor there for me.  The great thing is that you can create playlists and have them available to you anywhere as long as you have Spotify!  I downloaded Spotify to my computer at work, so now, instead of listening to a local radio station on the internet at work, I can listen to all my favorites on Spotify!    I spent the first night creating playlists with literally hundreds of songs!    There are a few artists that are not on Spotify, like Bob Seger, and I'm not sure why . . . but, as a whole, it's AWESOME!  

My new favorite band is Third Day.  I'm kind of reminded of Nickelback and Creed, which is probably why I like them so much!    For now, my most favorite new song is by FFH.  Here's the video

I don't know if it's the words, the beat, or what . . . but this song just makes my heart sing!

Now, to get to what else is going on . . . well, I'm going to be BAPTIZED on Sunday!  Our church (Abbotsford North Ridge Church) has adult water baptisms, and I've decided that it's time for me!  

So, that's all the news I have for now!  I hope you'll check out some of the music/bands I posted here and that they move you (or someone you love) as much as they do me!

Blessings to all!

Julie

A Hidden Gem of a Park!

The other day, Abby and I went to pick up a half-bushel of green beans that I had ordered from a local Mennonite farmer and I decided to take a drive to a little park that I found a week or so earlier.  I thought it might be a nice place for the kids to go swimming or have a picnic and spend the day, and the best part is that the park is only about 20 minutes away from us!   

Here's some pics I took! 

It's got a great little stream, that also has a deep area for swimming!  

Abby had fun looking for rocks to skip in the river!

The river was very pretty! 

I was trying to get a picture of the rock Abby was skipping, but I only got it after the fact. 

Another view of the river. 

We saw LOTS of frogs and minnows swimming around in the incredibly clear water! 

Not much else to report!  Things are going well, and the new roof is AWESOME!   It is such a relief to not have to worry every time it rains!   If you're in North Central Wisconsin and need any construction-type work done, please contact Central Wisconsin Construction in Colby, WI.  You'll get a GREAT deal and a GREAT family doing the work!  

Speaking of work, my job has been going well.  I really enjoy my job!  The drive to and from work isn't as bad as one would think.  Course, it would be a LOT better if diesel wasn't up to around $4.00/gallon! UGH!  Sure wish I could afford to buy a little car that gets high mileage to drive back and forth to work. I've often thought about how lucky other people are and how beautiful other areas of the country are, and then I take a good look out the window of my truck and realize how beautiful it is right HERE!    

I have gotten in the habit of taking pictures on my way to work.  It helps to make me appreciate where I live, and allows me to share the beauty of North Central Wisconsin with all of you!  

Here's a view of the Wisconsin river, just before I get off the Interstate, about 2 miles from work.  I saw a bald eagle flying overhead here just the other day!  How cool is that?!  

Some really cool storm clouds on my way home from work not too long ago. 

I had to stop at my mom's house a few days ago and snapped this picture on the way home.  This is just before you get to the Eau Pleine Reservoir.  

A view of the lake as I'm crossing the bridge.  The lake is a reservoir formed by the damming of the Wisconsin River.  The river runs through the center of the lake.  In this picture, the river is where you can just see the end of the bridge, which is really the middle of the bridge. 

This picture is from our back yard.  Those clouds were part of a storm that went south of us (sigh), at a time when we really needed the rain.  It was such a pretty sight, with those huge thunderheads that I couldn't resist!  

And just for fun . . . this is our (not spoiled) pooch, Mater!  He LOVES to sleep on his back, and this is how you will find him sleeping at least 70% of the time!  LOL  And yes, he is named after the character from the movie "Cars."  We had to come up with a name that started with "M" and Erica came up with Mater!  (You know, like Ta-Mater, without the Ta!  LOL)  


Blessings to all! 

Julie


PS, I have to share this video with you, too.  Big Bird (a/k/a Joey) my Amazon Parrot was "screaming" the other day.  I can cover him or give him some people food to shut him up, but I was busy working on my laptop, so I just ignored him.  After about 15 minutes, Mater had had enough!  He got up out of his kennel and started HOWLING at Big Bird!  This is just too funny!!!!!

It's a short -- 25 second -- video, so be sure to watch it (and ignore the mess in the living room!)