Friday Faves 5 & Saturday 9

Thanking God for another week of life! Thanks to Susanne and Sam for the memes. 

Links are on the left.

1.Church was good, and we went out to eat at Chilis with my son and his family. 

2. Thankful for a day to rest and catch up with my Bible study on Monday.

3. Thankful for another good day at Physical therapy and that I have good insurance.

Now I need to make dental and eye appointments.

4. Thankful that in spite of a sore back, hubby and I were still able to go to the movies to see Chosen, season 5, part 1. We went on senior day, so the theater was not very busy and the price was only $7.00. Also, that the theater has the reclining seats with a table. I took in my seat cushion and a blanket because the theater is always cold. We go back next Wednesday for part 2.

5.Thankful to see how happy my grands were to get a new puppy on Wednesday. We got to meet her on Thursday and have dinner with my son and his family. They lost their sweet Rey last September. Rey was our Minnies mom. Minnie will meet Daisy once she is settled in. Coco was happy to see us too!

 

 Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

 

1) In this week's song, Lainey Wilson longs to hit the open road. What do you yearn for this morning?  

2) She says her heart runs on dreams and gasoline. What fuels you? My hope is in the Lord, I am just passing through and I want to make the most of my time with my family and friends. Physically, I need rest. Spiritually, the Word of God is my fuel.

3) Lainey sings that her heart has been "drug through the mud." The correct past tense of "drag" is "dragged," but in parts of our country, "drug" is sometimes used. Can you think of any other grammatically incorrect song lyrics? This question made me think of my daughter when was young. There was a song that had the words glory, glory, glory to the King of kings. My daughter was saying boring instead of glory. She was young and that is what she heard. We still laugh at that.

4) She tells us her truck could benefit from being dusted off and shined up. Could your vehicle use a little TLC? The outside is not too bad, but the inside needs some care.

5) Before making it big in country music, Lainey supported herself by doing odd jobs, including appearing as a Hannah Montana impersonator for kids' parties. What's the most unusual job you've held? This question brought up a lot of memories. Sorry it is so long.

Each job I had bring back a memory. One summer I worked at a toy store when I was 14. My mom was the head manager of that store and 8 others. I learned so much that summer. I bought a bike at the end of the summer with a banana seat. I was a kid at heart, and it was a dream job. 

When I was 15, I was a candy striper. Another learning experience and thought it to be so interesting until a man decided to show me his scar from his groin to his upper chest. I didn't see any private parts, but that scar is still etched in my mind.

In my senior year of college, I worked under a social worker, and she gave me 4 cases to manage. My eyes were opened to the reality of sad life experiences. It touched a part of me that I kept pushed down-feelings. 

When I was in my early 20's I was a day camp counselor for the summer. It was a federally funded program for underprivileged kids. My sister got hired too for a long 6 weeks. We learned a lot about life that we did not know from these kids. I failed at double Dutch jump rope, but I could skate like a pro and the kids wanted to skate with me. 

I have shared a few things about my job at the post office. I threw mail into cases and got moved to a sit-down job after I got hurt. I was now working in the Nixie section. This is where the troubled mail ended up for many reasons, undeliverable mail, insufficient postage, damaged mail and so on. There were no computers back then, so we had to go to these giant "yellow pages" to look up addresses. For instance, a letter had a name and address and city, but no states. I had to go through lots of books to check for Louisville. There were 13 and I just looked an now there are 14. I had to check the street for every city to determine the state.  Another time we got a lot of wet and fire damaged mail from a plane that had crashed at an airport in a nearby city in 1986. The damaged mail went to several main facilities to be processed because there was a lot of mail. It was a lot of work. We had mail everywhere drying out. We had to separate the readable mail from the mail we could work with. We were not allowed to open any mail. That had to be sent to the dead letter office in San Franciso where they were the only place in California to do that. A lot of mail got sent there. There were other interesting things I saw. People sending nude pictures that ended up torn or the mail did not stay closed because it was not properly sealed or should have been sent in a package and not a thin envelope. Many people tried to send sand from the beach to addresses in the Midwest. Those got messes up in the conveyers belts and made a big mess that showed up processing big time. Same thing with people trying to send coins in letters. There were other things like people sending ashes came through the mail. Where they cremated remains! I could tell you many stories like that, but this is already too long. In 1989 I got moved to the marketing department to work on computers and learned so much more! I retired in 2011.

 

6) In addition to singing, Lainey has acted, appearing in 5 episodes of the series Yellowstone. Are you a fan of the show? I have not seen it. 

 

7) She loves Southern comfort food like mac and cheese and biscuits and gravy. What's on the menu at your place this weekend? I do not know yet. We usually go out to lunch after church on Sundays.

 

8) In 2022, when this song was on the charts, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Have you ever been to Scotland? No

 

9) Random question – Let's pretend you're back in Kindergarten. Which of these would young you prefer: a toy kitchen set, kid-sized gardening tools, or a mini trampoline? Mini trampoline! in 1960 we had to wear dresses but that did not stop me from being competitive with the boys! At least I had a parachute when I jumped out of the swing!

Friday Fav Five and Saturday 9

1. Thankful for 8 hours of sleep! I have not been sleeping well, but I woke up and was thankful for a good nights sleep! I need to get myself to bed earlier. It is hard because I am a night owl and always have been for as long as I can remember. I also have ADHD and it is hard to wind down. But in spite of the lack of sleep many days, I function well for the most part. 

2. Thankful for being able to go to the December Women's Bible study. I met some new women and had some great Mexican hot chocolate and sugar cookies. They also had Mexican bread. The study has been on the women that walked with Jesus.

3. Thankful that my husband and I started watching The Chosen together. The first episodes speak of Mary Magdalene, and we spoke of at my Bible study on Monday.

4. Thankful for the Advent study I am working on with Illustrated Faith. It is called Come and Carol.

Each day we listen to a song and read a verse. Then we can journal with some of the graphics we got or use some from our craft stash.

5. Thankful that my grandkids are having fun with Shepherd on a Search. I do this instead of Elf on a Shelf. You can read about it here. The older grands got gloves to wear when they were at Disneyland last night. 

Saturday 9: Wildest Dreams (2014)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, a tall, handsome man asks Taylor Swift to drive away with him to escape the crowds. Where were you headed when you most recently got behind the wheel? 

Hobby Lobby.

2) She sings about memories of a romance that just "follow you around." Is anyone special on your mind this morning? (It doesn't have to be a romantic partner.) 

My grandkids.

3) The lyrics reference sunset. Now that it gets dark earlier, do you find yourself watching the sun set more often? 

No, I am usually busy doing something.

4) The video for this song takes place on a movie set. Swift said it was inspired by tales of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton embarking on a love affair while co-starring in Cleopatra. Elizabeth and Richard fell in love in Rome, while this video was filmed outside of Gaborone, Botswana. In your wildest dreams, which of these exotic locales would you rather visit: Rome or Gaborone? 

Rome

 

5) In homage to Elizabeth Taylor, Swift went from blonde to brunette for the video. Do you have an appointment with a stylist between now and year end? 

No, I color my own hair and I bought two boxes yesterday because it was on sale.

6) Both Taylors (Swift and Elizabeth) often wore the color purple. What color dominates your wardrobe? 

Black. It goes with a lot of things.

 

7) In the video, Taylor Swift's leading man is Scott Eastwood, son of Clint. Though not as famous as his dad, Scott works steadily and has more than 30 TV and movie credits. Can you think of another second-generation performer who followed his or her parent into show business? 

Michael Douglas who followed his dad, Kirk Douglas.

8) In 2014, when "Wildest Dreams" topped the charts, Paul McCartney had to reschedule tour dates so he could recover from a bout with the flu. How are you feeling this morning? Any coughs, sneezes, sniffles? 

No, but I did have some a few days ago because of the Santa Ana winds were around.

9) Random question: How many different zip codes have you lived in throughout your life?

5, 92707, 92701, 92703,  92882, 92879. I know lots of 3 digit zips for California and states. I worked for the post office and sorted mail for 12 years. I had to memorize over a 1000 zips for southern CA. I learned many northern zips too. I also learned many states. Most were the zips for main postal centers.

For instance. 931 goes to Santa Barbara CA. But the cities around Santa Barbara have 930 as the first 3 digits. The last two digit key to specific areas in a city, depending on how large a city is. My hometown had 7 and Manhattan NY has 43. Every time I pass a city, I say that first 3 digit code out of habit.

North Pole Alaska is 99705. But just Santa Claus mail will get delivered. He has his own personal holdout at Christmas!

Saturday 9 and week recap.

My friend sent me thing picture she took and edited with the cute snowflake background. On Thursday I taught our Life group Bible journaling with a snow/snowflake theme. The Bible mentions snow 24 times.  I gave each girl a handout on the verses with about 6 of the verses highlighted. I handed out their theme bags full of goodies to work on their pages. I showed them how to use stencils and stamps on their bibles, Next month's theme will be on love and my mind is already thinking about things I want to do. The main facilitator let the Pastor of Counseling and Life groups know what I was doing. I am now an official facilitator for Bible journaling. This Sunday all the facilitators will be prayed over. Today we are going to lunch to celebrate my oldest son's birthday.

On Friday we had the grands over and they enjoyed Mexican hot chocolate and cookies. My cousin had sent cute Christmas cups with marshmallows and gingerbread cookies. Next week I will start decorating for Valentine's. We will be in the 70's for the next week. I am not ready for our winter to be over.

Saturday 9: I'm the Only One (1993)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Melissa Etheridge sings this song as though her heart is breaking. What's your favorite love song? Is it about falling in love, being in love, or losing love? I Love How You Love Me by Peaches and Herb.

You can hear it here. It was one of our love songs when we were dating in 1973/4. Also We have Only Just Begun from the Carpenters that was played at our wedding and Color My World. I also like the way the Lettermen sang it in the 60's. I found their greatest hits here. Many of the songs remind me of my parents. There was always music playing in my home. Funny how I remember the lyrics from so long ago and have such a hard time learning songs now. Music is the language of love. Music is the last sense to go.

2) "I'm the Only One" is a favorite song of American Idol contestants, having been performed four different times. If we were to have a Saturday 9 karaoke night, what song would you do? You've Got a Friend. I would sing it with my cousin Joanie.

3) A rocker at heart, Melissa Etheridge began her career in her teen years, playing with local country groups. Which do you enjoy more: country or rock? Christian and soul oldies like the Temptations, Supremes, Peaches and Herb and songs from Carole King, James Taylor, Seals and Croft, Carly Simon, The Eagles and Bread. Also groups like The Lettermen and Association, and Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. I liked the early Beatles too! My list could go on forever!

4) In 1985, Melissa sent a demo to Olivia Records, hoping for a record deal. She was rejected. Her debut CD was released in 1988 on the Island label and went gold. Tell us about a time you bounced back from professional adversity. I was a postal worker, throwing mail from 1975-86. I hurt my back and got a sit down job going through Nixie mail. That was mail that was damaged or not properly addressed. In 1987 I took a computer course in college and learned the basic of dbase, word processing and spreadsheets. In 1988 the marketing department asked me if I knew how to work on a computer and I said I knew the basics. I started working up in the administrative department to do data entry and prepare packages for mailing. My computer and typing skills were greatly improved.  I stayed there until 2010. I end up being the Vending Coordinator. I talked with my local Postmasters and officials in Headquarters. The funny thing is that I did not plan on making a career with postal service. I had a degree and planned on going into the Social/medical field. I got injured 3 times while there and they were really hard on injured people. But I was blessed to stay there until I basically forced to retire. In spite of how it ended, I am glad I got to retire young and be an active grandparent!

5) In her personal life, Melissa has faced major challenges, including breast cancer and the death of her son. She credits music with helping her heal emotionally. What gives you strength? My faith-prayer, my family and friend's encouragement. Music allows me to relax. 

6) Melissa is a vegetarian, so her diet emphasizes plant-based foods like fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables. What was your most recent meal? Would it qualify as vegetarian? Yogurt with blueberries, bananas and almonds. I am a meat lover but mostly eat chicken, fish and eggs.

7) In 1993, the year this song was popular, a massive storm dropped a record 56" of snow in Mount Le Conte, TN. Have you done much shoveling this winter? No, I live in So. Calif.

8) One of the most popular movies of 1993 was A Few Good Men, starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson, who famously said, "You can't handle the truth!" What's the most recent movie you watched? Encanto and I hope to see Redeeming Love this week.

9) Random question: Dessert is on us! Describe your perfect ice cream sundae. Vanilla ice cream, hot thick, creamy fudge, sliced bananas, whip cream, nuts and a cherry on top!