Surprise at the Supercenter

So, you'll never guess what just happened to me at the Walmart Supercenter. 

I ran into a fellow blogger!

source

Yep.

I was tooling down the aisle, minding my own business

 when suddenly,

I ran smack dab into one of my favorite bloggers

Lynn @Blue Skies 

I was so excited.

I gave her a most enthusiastic  hello

and one of my signature dopey grins. 

She gave me a slightly less enthusiastic hello right back. 

All in the two and half seconds it took me to remember
 that Lynn @ Blue Skies  lives...
 in California.

And this is Georgia. 

Well, oops.

So glad I didn't go in for the hug. 

Instead, I skedaddled right on by,

leaving the poor, befuddled doppelganger to wonder 

why she just couldn't place the gregarious blonde with the dopey grin

at the Walmart Supercenter. 

She probably wondered about it all the way home.  

Or maybe she did recognize me. 

Maybe she reads my blog. 

In which case, she probably noticed how much thinner I look in person.

Let that be a lesson to you. 

When you start greeting bi-coastal blogger apparitions in the local supercenter,

You might be spending too much time in Blog Land. 

Just a little fun for a Saturday afternoon.
Does that kind of thing ever happen to you?

Please say yes. 

Bloggadoodle for a Dreary Day

Driving along on this dreary day,  I noticed something.

Is is just me, 

or does this creepy old silo

kind of look like it's growing 

a beard?

And doesn't  this one

Look just a little bit like 

a Chia Pet?

I report.

You decide.

By the way, I'm heading back to my little classroom tomorrow after a four week hiatus. I just hope that my students remember something that I taught them before Christmas.

My name, for example, would be nice...

An Empty Nest

Look at the treasure that Duchess found

 in her garden this week.

an empty nest...

Just like my nest this morning.

I don't mind saying that I'm sad.
And I'm kind of scared.

So I went to God's garden to find another treasure.

You will keep in perfect peace,

him whose mind is stayed on You,

because he trusts in You.

Isaiah 26: 3

Trust.
It's the Hebrew batach,
about which Gesenius's lexicon says,
"to confide in; to set ones hope and confidence in... "
I think, sometimes, we lack the confidence 
because we fail to confide.
 
So I'm confiding my fears in Him this morning...
For his eye is on the sparrow...

Have a Sunday filled with perfect peace.

****
Sharing this this week at a new meme called
Inspiration Friday
at
Southern in my Heart.
Come see what's inpiring others!

Turn out the lights...The party's over

Whew! 

Thanks so much for helping me celebrate my 100th post! I had a great time and enjoyed meeting new bloggers and hearing from friends, old and new.

To be honest, I kind of feel the way that I do after I throw a real house party. You know... when you say your good-byes and then plop down to nibble all the left over party food that you were too polite to snarf up in front of people…

Stop pretending. You know you do it.

So I thought I'd rest my yakker with a little bloggadoodle discovered on the 30 mile country commute this week. I've said a hundred times that you can't travel 20 minutes in any direction without something to make you smile.

A little photo essay...

Road work ahead....

 okie dokie...

Closer...

Closer...

 

 

Begin road work...

 

...And end road work.

 

 

Seriously?

So I stopped Ebenezer and got out

to find the invisible road work.

 

Following the arrows...

 

 

I don't believe them.

 

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice...

Slow down, honey, I'm taking a picture

I am a firm believer that you can not travel twenty miles in any direction without seeing a something that makes you smile.

That's why I carry the shiny red Kodak at all times.

I was delighted to accidentally capture that

While I was trying to capture this

Sunflowers might be the happiest flowers of all.

They always look as if they have their heads together...
giggling.

Now, if you venture just a little more, say thirty minutes down the road...

You might get the full out belly laugh.

Let's get a little closer...

Yep. It's moving day.

No need for one of those fancy dancy moving trucks around here.

We just plop the mattress and box springs

 on the top of a compact car...

and we hold on...

Welcome to Georgia!

Why do I have the feeling that the one with his hand over his face is the teenaged son?

What made you laugh this week?

Nothing? Go take a drive.

Trash Talking: Caption This Picture

My daughters tease me that I'll take a picture of just about anything.

They're just about right.

But if I didn't, how in the world would I be able to show you the treasures I discover in the Hood?

Like this one

Can you imagine the conversation that took place that morning?

Hey...you can't throw that away!

I paid an arm and a leg for it...

or...

Has anybody seen Aunt Myrtle?

You'll be glad to know that I resisted the urge to bring this baby home. I did, however, contemplate the possibilities...

Just a little bloggadoodle to kick off the week.
So, how would you caption that picture?

Mr. Right

Miss Whimsy had her college orientation this weekend. Her nervousness is slowly being replaced by excitement about The Great College Adventure. She's excited about new friends, new adventures, a new room to decorate (oh, I'll yak allll about that)... the whole collegiate shebang.

Her father reminds her to be excited about

all that new learning and life preparation

in the College of Engineering.

Her mother reminds her about

all those potential son-in-law candidates

in the College of Engineering.

Her father reminds her to pay no attention to the wokking in her left ear...

I love to tease that we've already found Mr. Right on the Mercer University Campus.

Here he is, Jesse Mercer.

I love this statue which sits in a circle surrounded by some of his quotations. I think I would have liked Old Jesse. He and I speak the same language. He was passionate about learning, particularly as it pertained to the Word and knowledge of those in Christian service.

Every time I visit, I snap a few shots of him and his words.

 Like this  

And this

And  this one

And this

Amen!

So many others too, but of all Jessie's quotes, there is one that is my favorite. I've been told it's the most commonly shot photo on the Mercer University campus.

Mercerian readers are already grinning...

Here it is...

And, Jesse, I intend to take you at your words

come September...

****

Unwrapping this today at Chatting at the Sky. Come unwrap some other small things with me.

The Wild Adventures of Miss Whimsy

Miss Whimsy has been quite the little adventurer in the past few weeks.

First, she went with her class to Grad Bash here...

And then, she adventured with her close friends here.

Clear across the state.

Because they're kind of ready to do this...

(And I kind of know how his mommy feels...)

And then, the day after graduation...

,,,she headed out on the famous  infamous
New Orleans Mission Adventure.
Great photo, don't you think?

And we did a lot of this...

 She saw a few sights while there.

Though sight seeing wasn't the purpose.

Finally home...

So when she got a text message from her youth pastor yesterday, asking her if she would be interested in her very first chaperoning adventure.... taking a group of younger kids on their own overnight trip, I had a few questions:

When are you going?

How long will you be away?

And just How much is this going to cost?

But Miss Whimsy had just one question.

And that's what she texted back...

Are we taking that bus?

I Stand Corrected

I said that there was nothing more exhausting than herding cats in a fifth grade classroom on the next-to-the-last week of school.

I was wrong.

Apparently, there is.

And it's herding cats in a fifth grade classroom on the next to the last Friday of school...
After they have spent 45 minutes at an  AR party...

Doing this

Over and over and over and over and over ...

While Octoteacher balances the shiny red Kodak,
six pairs of eyeglasses, a hastily folded paper fan, and The Incredible Traveling Innie.

Role Reversal

Today, seniors with good attendance records were given the choice of either participating in Senior Field Day or staying home from school. We decided to let Miss Whimsy make the decision and weren't really surprised when she (and her friends) decided to take the day for their leisure.

Unfortunately, I still had the cats to herd in that 5th grade classroom. So I headed off to school, coffee mug and breakfast basket to go, and I told her that I would be home around lunchtime.

When I returned to the kitchen...

tired and hungry enough

 to pig out and wreck the diet...

I found this note on the refrigerator.

So I did...

And and I did...

And I found this...

A ginormous salad, made almost completely

with veggies from the garden...

Just waiting  for me.

She's a good kid, with such a fun spirit about her.

And she totally gets  me.

Of course, then, she asked if she could meet her friends for lunch instead of spending the day with dear old Mom.

I  felt a just  little buttered up.

But it made me laugh... 

So of course, I let her go.

 Big Sister scored a A in Sisterhood 101 this week too. When my brain is functioning, I'll yak all about it.

Herding Cats

Since the middle of last week, I have been fulfilling a 9 day teaching stint in a 5th grade language arts classroom... Yes, that's right, herding cats on the next to the last week of the school year.  I would love to stick around and yak all about it.

Unfortunately, at this point, the only thing that I can think to write is this:

I will not talk in class.

500 times. 

Saturday Morning Bloomadoodle

I wasn’t going to post this morning, but when I stopped by Southern Inspiration for her Friday Fives, I discovered that her questions were all about fresh flowers. So between that and one special request to show my bucket bouquets, I decided to whip out the bloggadoodle for a little electronic illustration.

I’m sure it seems a bit odd that a man who is so tight  that he washes out his baggies brings fresh flowers...  to a woman who hoards old napkins and uses a baby shoe box to store her recipes.

 It is.

But he brings them because he knows that I love them. And it all started that long ago day in Athens, Georgia.….

I have loved flowers from him ever since.

To be specific, I neither require nor admire an overpriced floral arrangement. Nope.
What I really like is just a bunch of flowers.

And yes, I know that most thrifters extol the virtues of the potted plant. I know this because every time I mention my love of fresh flowers, I get at least one well meaning admonition about money better spent on green plants…

  which last….

They do?

That’s the perk of a bunch of flowers. No matter how beautiful they are coming in …

They all look the same way going out.

And no one scolds you when they do.

I have that picture to bloggadoodle this morning for a simple reason.  Every time the husband brings me some flowers,  I hoard a few... which I like to repurpose like the clever little thrifter that I am.

 I’ll yak about this at a later time.

Because this bloggadoodle is about my bucket of flowers.

Which I turned into four arrangements.

(You thought I would never get here, didn't you?)

One a little traditional…

One a bit more practical

And another just a tad whimsical

And the rest, I just stuck in a bucket.

 

Well, of course!