Crabby Abi's Blabbing

Archive for September, 2008

I’ve decided that a 6 hour plane ride that starts at 10:45pm, together with a 2 hours layover in Atlanta, another 2 hours in the plane to Cleveland and then 5 hours in the car driving through Pennsylvania and New York isn’t the best way to spend Day 1 of Vacation.

Alas… it is too late.

I don’t even think I can count high enough to tell you how many hours I’ve been awake. I just got my fourth or fifth wind so I thought I would post some pictures from today’s adventures.

I don’t have any of the guy on the plane sitting next to me asleep, slumped against the window with his mouth wide open. I don’t have any sound bites of the guy THREE ROWS in front of us that was snoring loud enough to keep bears awake. I don’t have any of me in Atlanta, asleep on the bench, drooling on my sweatshirt. Hm… Jon might. I’ll have to check.

We drove all the way up to Palmyra today. It’s beautiful up here. I love how green everything is. The leaves are just barely starting to show their fall colors so every once in a while we passed a tree that was construction-cone-orange. Here are my favorites from today:

Tomorrow we’re going to go to the Sacred Grove and then head back to Cleveland. Then it’s Kirtland on Saturday!

I might even qualify as queen…

I’m supposed to be packing right now.

When I got home from work I was supposed to get my lesson ready for seminary tomorrow morning. Instead, I read a book. Then I made myself stop reading to go prepare the lesson and got distracted by the dog for just one second. Or maybe it was two.

Ok – now it’s REALLY time to work on the lesson. I think I’ll practice the piano.

Peel myself from the piano to get the lesson ready. After all, I still have to pack and eat dinner. All in time to be in bed by 9. Lesson first. Let’s go.

Ellie wants to play. Ok, but just for a minute. Or 10. Could’ve been longer.

Lesson time! Get to it!

Lesson’s done. Just in time too since Jon is just getting home. Late night for him. Must pack.

What’s happening in blogland? I’m here anyway – might as well check it out.

I’m hungry… I think I’ll go have dinner now. As long as I’m packed and ready to go by the time I leave for seminary in the morning, I’ll be ok.

I hope my alarm goes off in the morning…

I LOVED this book.

I’m not really sure what made me pick this book up off the table at Barnes and Noble, but I’m so glad that I did. It might actually be my favorite book right now.

I loved the easy flow of the story. This is not a quick easy read. The pages are large, the type is small, and the margins are puny. There was little space wasted on these pages. And well worth every slow page turn.

I liked the way the club came together and how each person was unique and yet similar. Each had their own story to tell and the only thing they had in common was the club. I also like that the focus was on the store itself. Georgia was in the forefront but only because she was the store’s owner. Each other character was only focused on to the degree that was needed to add depth and character to the store.

I think Georgia was my favorite character. She did things just because they needed to be done. She also followed her heart and paid close attention to the way that she felt about things, not letting her brain get in the way; not for too long at least.

This is a story of forgiveness. Of letting go. Of being yourself and loving who you are. It was a story of gratitude and love. Love for family, for friends, for enemies.

The story could have done without the occasional “f-bomb” or other lame swear word. It held its own without them.

I give this book 5 stars and two thumbs up!

Wow. What a week.

Seminary started last Tuesday with a bang. I have the Freshmen/Sophomore class again which is awesome. I have 30 kids in my class, give or take 5 on any given day. I had to be more creative with how I set up the room because of the limited space. I could move to a bigger room but there are issues with all of the possibilities. My cabinet isn’t big enough either but I scored one from the stake center this morning, I just have to get Jon to go get it for me. Unfortunately it doesn’t lock though so we’ll be losing scriptures this year.

I don’t know how people sleep at night after having taken someone else’s scriptures. It’s like tracking mud into the temple. You feel terrible.

Anyway, so yeah, 30 kids. Thirty. Three-zero. The biggest class in the stake. Lots of names to remember, not enough supplies for everyone (yet, I’m working on it).

Something interesting happened too. Noticeably different. Last week we spent the first day getting to know each other (which took the whole 50 minutes), the second day talking about expectations that we have for each other, the third day getting to know all of the study helps that will help us learn more from our scriptures, and the last day talking about the Plan of Salvation.

Monday we were ready to really crack those spines on the fresh sets of scriptures (for the freshmen anyway) and I kid you not – there was less goofing around, less talking out of turn, less distractions as soon as those books were pulled out of their cases. All 30 kids were participating, answering questions, trying to beat Kayla ’cause she was answering them all so fast, and really looking for things. It was a completely different experience from the week before. The week before seemed like complete chaos compared to Monday.

So, the moral of the story, at least for me, is that when their books are open, their mouths are closed and the Spirit will be their guide. That’s all there is to it.

Don’t you wish that you had a check engine light on your forehead? Or maybe in a less conspicuous place like your arm? One of your friends could walk by, notice that your “engine” needs some tuning and send you to the dealer (aka the spa or just a night out) for a tuneup. Maybe the light could come in different colors – one for when your engine just needs a rest and another for when you’re sick. Then someone could make you some chicken-noodle-soup and rub your feet for you so you could get some actual rest.

Oh well… until we come with glowing lights in our arms we’ll just have to be content with Visiting Teachers! They’re probably better anyway.

My friend Vanessa has entered the Iron Cupcake competition and has submitted a DELICIOUS cupcake recipe. Go vote for her! We want her to win!

Yes, I have tried this cupcake. It’s more than awesomely fantastic!!

Here’s the link to go vote: http://mkecupcakequeen.blogspot.com/

Hers is The Vanessa Contessa (like the 4th one from the bottom of the list).

VOTE!