a gift from a boy!!

i LOVE the boys in my Sunday School class!!!
they're the best 3, 4, 5 year olds in the world!!

one gave me flowers a couple weeks ago. yesterday one gave me a paper doll he made.

this isn't your ordinary paper doll. this is a paper doll made especially for ME.

my friend facebooked me the other day saying, "J was making a paper doll & saying he could put a mustache on it because ms. dorothy likes mustaches."

he met me at the door to the church yesterday morning & gave me the paper doll. it's adorable!!! & it has a mustache!!! when i told him it was so cute, he said, "it's for you to keep"

---my new Bible bookmark!!!!



i showed it to the rest of my class & he said, "it has a mustache because you like guys with mustaches."

someone else said, "the mustache is his hair!!" (the kids in my class are so smart!!!)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, i guess i like bald guys with toupees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(naked ones, dressed only in slippers, with teddy bear tattoos on their stomachs!!!!!!)

i did it!!!!

i finally changed up the wall decorations in the dining room!!
after it being the same way for ?? 20 years????

i looked all over my computer for pictures of the dining room -- i KNOW i've taken some, but this was the only one i could find!!!

if you look waaaaaaaaaaaaay over there--you can see the wall i'm talking about. it had the cow pictures on it.

here's what it looks like now!!!!




and i even replaced the 23 year old mini blind. the bottom was broken & it was driving me crazy. plus i was tired of the "mini blind look."

not sure i like this, but i'm gonna try it out for awhile.

and i just couldn't get rid of the cow pictures, so they're now on the window seat where the "God's love is enough" sign used to sit!

i like the change.

but i'll bet it doesn't stay like this for another 23 years!!!!!!

linking to funky junk

missing my mom this mother's day

i lost my mom 13 1/2 years ago. you never really get over losing someone you love.
my mother in law adopted me 27 years ago. the nicest thing she ever said to me was when my mom died, "i'll be your mom now." i told her, "you've already been my mom for a long long time!"

she's in the hospital now, has been for the past month. (that's why i haven't been posting very much.) we almost lost her a couple times, but the Lord has seen fit to let us have her a little while longer. i got to spend an hour with her today. telling her how beautiful she is & how i love to see her smile. made me really sad for my own mom.

but today's not a day to be all sad & weepy! God gave us all mothers -- & i was blessed enough to have two!!!

this is one of my most prized possessions -- it's me when i was 2 (on the left), my mom when she was 2 (in the middle), & my daughter when she was 2 (on the right)!!!



happy mother's day!!!!!

white won!

some people went for color -- red, turquoise
some people said stain it
some people said white

i went with WHITE!!!!

it looks so "virgin islandy"!!!!

i just need to finish painting the bottom.



and i can do any color cushions.

i'm lovin' it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it went from this:

to this:

to this!!!!

it's perfect!!! well, it will be when i get that bottom painted!!!!

linking to: funky junk

an article about ME in the wall street journal!!!!

i'm a marketing assistant for a financial advisor firm. but i have another title.

office mom.

i work with 11 guys & 1 girl. most of them are young enough to be my kids. that makes me the "office mom". 2 of them even call me "mom". and we're "due" to have 6 more in the next couple months!!!! i'm the one they come to when they don't want to go to the "office dad" (our boss!)! i'm the one they come to for band-aids, aspirin, advice. they come to me with holes in their pants that they want fixed! ("can you fix this.....?") (said in a whiney childlike voice!) i've been known to provide raman noodles to "starving" boys. for his last birthday, i gave one of them "a month's worth of surprise dinners" -- a bag of canned goods with the labels removed!!!!!

one of "my boys" left this on my desk a few weeks ago.

i died laughing!!!!!
there was a whole article about ME in the wall street journal!!!!!

what's nice is, my daughter has an "office mom" at her job at DBU. she listens to her when she won't listen to me. it's the same with "my boys" -- they'll even admit it!!!




i just hope they remember that this weekend is mother's day.

wesley, jonathan......don't forget your moms!!!!

flowers from a boy.....

.....and his sisters & brother!!!

aren't these pretty??

they're from a little boy in my sunday school class. and he painted me a picture too (but that's private!!!)

just because it's been a rough month. (april. so glad it's over.)

how sweet!!!

(it was probably his mom who thought of them & bought them, but it's nice to just imagine they are from him!!!)

jury duty

monday:

so, you remember that jury summons i got a couple weeks ago??

well, i went today....they have a new system: you sit in the assembly room for hours, then a court clerk & a judge come in & they each give you a "feel good speech" telling you how honored they are that you showed up for jury duty!!!

then you wait about another hour. then they put you in groups & haul you to another assembly room. then they put you in random numerical order & haul you to a court room. then they put you in 3 lines. #'s 1-24 go into the courtroom & sit on the right. #'s 25-48 sit on the left. #'s 49 through 61 sit in the jury box. i was #51 so for the 1st time in the many times i've had a jury summons, i got to sit in the jury box!!!! it's pretty cool!!!

then the judge comes in & says "we're trying to streamline this & lessen the length of the process so rather than all the attorneys asking all of y'all a bunch of questions, you have to fill out this 8 page questionnaire. then the attorneys will review the questionnaires & choose the jurors from there." then we spend the next hour filling out the questionnaire. we turn them in by sections & the bailiff checks over each one.

about 30 minutes later the judge comes back & says, "EVERYONE is required to be here tomorrow morning at 8:45; if you are not here by 9am, we will send a sheriff in a black uniform with a gun to get you.

HOWEVER, if you receive a phone call from the court tonight by 7pm, that means that you have been dismissed or disqualified & you do not need to come in the morning!" the bailiff gives us all final instructions, parking validations for the discounted rate for today & lets us loose into rush hour traffic.

i DID NOT get a call from the court tonight. — feeling meh. :(

tuesday:

have to be downtown by 8:45 & since traffic could be light & i'll fly, or backed up liked a clogged drain & i face the chance of being late, i leave at 6:30. took longer to get from my house to i-10 down hwy. 6 than it did to fly on i-10 to downtown! drove around downtown a little while to waste time & still got to the parking garage at 7:12. made a bunch of phone calls then went into the courthouse @ 8:40.

there's only a handful of jurors -- we're thinking, "OH NO - they called all the other people & we're it." there was about 20 of us out of the 61. at 9am more showed up. at 9:30 there were a BUNCH of us -- someone asked the bailiff how many people got called. she said "NONE". 9:45 we're still waiting for 4 people. they won't do anything til those 4 people get here. we waited til 10:30 for those 4 (*insert bad word here*) people to show up! we were not happy -- especially when they didn't get yelled at, punished or anything!!! but why did WE, the ones who were ON TIME, have to be punished by not getting started? i think those 4 should have been mandatorily picked for the jury!!! but none of them were!!!!

great thing you taught us today, court system -- the next time any of these particular 61 people are called for jury duty, i'll bet they're all either late or just don't show.

except for ME -- i'll be there on time, because with MY LUCK, i'd be the one the sheriff comes with his black uniform & gun to get!! (and as long as he looks like sam elliott, i don't think i'll mind!!!!!)


well, it was a long day & even with those questionnaires, they asked tons of questions. most of the people who ended up getting picked were people who had reasons why they felt they couldn't serve on the jury for the next 2+ weeks. one lady said she was traveling next monday to england to see her husband who would be on repat from australia. she hasn't seen him in 6 months! she was the 2nd one picked!!!! she was NOT a happy juror!!!!

one guy, juror #1, looked EXACTLY EXACTLY like james brolin!!!!!!!!!!!!! people couldn't stop staring at him!!!!! (and he kept walking up & down the hall, so you couldn't miss him!!!!)

(only make his face a little thinner & his hair more darker grey & his face a little more wrinkly!!!!!)

i answered a couple questions. i guess i said the right - or wrong - answers, because i didn't get picked!!!! it would have been fun to be on a jury, but i sure didn't want to have to drive downtown & park/pay for parking for 2+ weeks!!!!!

wednesday morning one of my "office sons" came rushing into my office, said nothing, gave me the biggest bear hug ever!!!! then he said, "don't ever go on jury duty again; we need you here." then he turned & left!!!

it's nice to be needed.