Oops! Haven't posted in two months!

I have been one of those people who just does not post enough. Sorry! I have been thinking about this post a lot though. There are some things I have observed that deserve to be mentioned here.

1. People in Texas park in their driveway and on the street all the time and they have short driveways to begin with. This honestly perplex me for a long time! (I am embarrassed to admit). So why do they do it? Duh Marie! Texans don't have basements! (Which I feel is very unfortunate for them). Therefore all their crap ends up in their garage and thus absolutely no room for cars, not even one. Now, I have noticed that there is more than one garage that really needs my help. Why my help? Because when the garage door is open all I see is a heaping pile (as high as the garage itself) of stuff. Everything in the pile was just literally thrown into the pile! Oh these people need my help and do not even know it! I would absolutely LOVE to go through those piles one item at a time and decide if the item is worth pitching or saving. If it is worth saving then they can decide to do with it but it is not allowed back in the garage unless it belongs there...maybe Texans just need bigger garages or closets...The best garage I have seen though is several houses down from mine. I refer to it as "The Man Cave". I am not really sure if the wife/girlfriend/common law wife (another weird Texan thing) is allowed in the man cave but it definitely looks like a guy's place to hangout. The inside walls of the garage are painted a dark blueish gray, there is workout equipment (for building manly muscles), and get this: two camping type chairs and a nice sized t.v. On game nights you better believe the guys are out there. It cracks me up! (and yes I do believe I saw a fan out there on one of the hotter evenings.

2. Now I know I have mentioned the fences before but they also were perplexing me. Every house has a fence around the backyard and some about halfway up to the front yard. Why? I just could not see any reason except for the fact that the houses are all WAY too close to each other. My friend Lynne enlightened me. It is for safety. A random person cannot just go walking through a neighborhood and cannot even get there from a main road. You see, if the cul-de-sac is near the main road then there is a fence there also, expect for these are iron instead of wood. This also made me realize the neighborhoods are beyond confusing. And no I do not mean like the one-way roads in my parents neighborhood. Nope, these are worse! You can enter part of a neighborhood (which may actually go on for quite awhile but have different streets jutting off the main one) and go right only to find that after it turns the corner it is a cul-de-sac. So then if you try to go left you end up curving around several times and hit another cul-de-sac and then have to go down another street to get out. What?!? So robbers, I am sorry, you are out of luck if you plan to work in Texas. The homes are impossible to find and once you do find the one you want you will spend the next week trying to exit the neighborhood.

3. This one really is just beyond me...Right outside my bedroom window is the neighbor's front door. Huh?!? And right outside our front door is one of the neighbors' bedroom windows. This is because the front door of the house is on the side. This makes the front door area pitch black when you come home at night and if your neighbors like to slam there front door every time they use it (like mine do) you will be woken-up. Also, my neighbors like to leave their front door light on all night long. Now what man came up with this idea? ;) Note to self: never put your front door on the side of your house, especially if your neighbor's house is less than a stone's throw away. Also, do not put the pantry door right next to the refrigerator so you will never ever be able to fully open your refrigerator door. :(

4. My church has been without a pastor for maybe 4 or 5 months now. It was just announced today that the man our pastor search committee extended a call to will be visiting us the first Sunday in December so we can hear him preach and vote as a congregation (just a formality I think). We have had some really great speakers and our church has continued to flourish (adult/child baptisms and people joining) but it will be good to have a pastor again.

5. I am flying home on Christmas Day and staying through New Years!!! So excited! Cannot wait!! Want to see all y'all in Michigan :) (all y'all is plural for y'all).

6. Daily we have ten babies in my classroom at work. The ten enrolled in the infant are two-and-a-half months to ten months old and sometimes our twelve and thirteen month-olds who moved up come back to our room at the end of the day due to ratios. Yes, this means there are two teachers to ten kids and one teacher to four kids. It makes for a very busy day! I love all of the babies and never cease to be excited when they learn something new. My two coworkers are also wonderful, we make a great team.

7. My eyes and ears are still open to any job possibilities in Michigan or Texas. Working at the child care center has always been a temporary thing, especially since they lied to me about being able to apply for the assistant director's position after being there for 90 days. I continue to seek God's will for my next job but have not received any answers or nudgings yet.

8. Did you know there are only two Bureaus of Engraving and Printing in the U.S.? The one in Washington D.C. and one just down the road from me in Fort Worth. I went on a tour of the BEP with a friend and her sons. It was so cool! I learned a ton and would definitely go back again. This facility is making the new one hundred dollar bill and has been working on it for several years. So they had tarps up and windows closed in certain areas so we could not copy what they are doing ;) I highly recommend you checking it out if you ever find yourself in the area.

9. After getting lost too many times to mention a couple of weekends ago I went to Motorcycle Madness at one of the drag strips near here. It was definitely worth going! It made me laugh when I got up into the stands with my t-shirt and jeans on and there were guys with CarHeart (sp?) jackets on! (Don't worry I will still be freezing my butt off when I come home for Christmas). 60 degrees is the new 30 degrees for me :)

10. I have been on again off again sick after getting the Mono and upper respiratory infection. Please pray with me that good health will find me again soon.

11. Thank y'all for listening to my ramblings. I try to post sooner next time. Now don't forget to respond to my post and tell me if it was boring or um...whatever you thought.