I have a day off work but we have nothing planned for today. Well, other than I bought several frames at Michael's the other day and today I will be swapping out and moving senior pictures. I took down all the senior pictures the other day after making the decision that I will put my new picture in that location along with my children's senior pictures to help fill up the wall. The grandchildren's senior pictures I am planning to put on the ledge in the back room. At least now all the frames will be alike instead of all different sizes and shapes. The 'fun' (aka difficult and frustrating) part will be hubby won't let me do it myself and he will 'have' to do it.... grumbling and demanding I do this and that.... and he will still get it wrong. You can't believe the difficulty we had getting the other photos up.... some locations have 3 holes where he tried to line them up.... sigh. On second thought, maybe I'll just swap out the senior pictures and put them back up where they were.... the holes are still there. Yeah, I just might do that, the more I think about it.
We didn't do anything on the 4th.... it was a quiet day and I crochet'd while wating movies. I did cook lunch and dinner - had some ground chicken and just cooked it up, threw in taco seasoning and some other things, ended up making a taco salad for lunch. With the leftover meat mixture, made it into tacos for dinner. That was actually pretty good although Ijust threw stuff in it.
I felt so bad for Sheeba last night when the fireworks started at the Peoria Complex.... I'm sure that is where it was coming from. Poor baby. She heard them long before we did, and got up and slinked away with her head and tail down. I had an idea where she was going, but at first did think she was just going to the middle of the hallway to lay on the cooler tile. Nope. She made her way into my shower and curled up there. She was so scared, it broke my heart. I went in to the shower to talk with her and she just looked at me and wouldn't move. We waited until nearly 10PM when we didn't hear anymore and I went to pull her out of the shower. She would not get up on her own and I had to literally pull her out of it. She felt safe in there, and I was pulling her out. It reminded me so much of Marley as she would always go into my shower whenever she heard a loud sound. I realize it is 'fun' to see the fireworks and I realize that sound carries.... but until Marley, I never really paid much attention to it. When we had Cowboy many years ago, he would go into the corner and pee. Yes, that was totally unusual. We never really thought that much about the sound of the fireworks bothering the animals. I mean we hear about animals running off all the time because of fireworks, but it was never MY dog so really didn't think about it. And I know fireworks creates havoc with those who have PTSD. I guess it is because I grew up with them in Indiana that I just don't pay that much attention to them.
In fact, I remember one time in Tennessee my children's father had purchase a couple cherry bombs and as we were driving down the graveled road, he decided to light one and throw out the window. No one was around, right? Well, he was still driving, and he held on to it just a wee bit too long and as he dropped it, the cherry bomb exploded and it burned his hand just a bit. Not a whole lot, but enough that he knew it hurt. Funny, isn't it, how little things can bring back memories...
I have a few people I need to touch base with and probably should today. I actually started a list on Saturday as things came to mind that I needed to do. I need to touch base with my sisters, my sister-in-law, a friend, and I need to write a couple letters as well. The calls will take a couple hours for 3 of the 4 like to talk and I can easily be on the phone a minimum of 1/2 hour. For most I can just set and listen. Still need to discuss the last week of Elijah with my little sister.
I haven't had my coffee yet this morning.... well, I mean, hubby DID bring it to me early as he always does... but he made a pot of coffee yesterday instead of using the K-cups.... and it was good yesterday. He didn't remove the filter and let it set.... and he brought me that coffee again this morning.... and I can't drink it. I will definitely be getting a 'second' cup of coffee this morning. I wonder if I can blame him and this awful coffee for me deciding to take a nap this morning in here for 30 minutes while I was reading? Afterall, I didn't have anything to wake me up....
Hubby said yesterday, after we discussed churches for awhile, that "why don't we go in person to this one church next Sunday, and this other church the following Sunday". I had mentioned to my friend on Saturday who really likes this one church that we had watched it online for three weeks and just couldn't 'feel' what she said was happening in the atmosphere there. It was actually boring and the way the service goes was distracting to us. But I trust this person and value her thoughts. She mentioned that one of my friends had gone and her grown children didn't go that Sunday because a grandchild was sick. She came home and said what a wonderful service it was.... and the children said they watched it online and it was totally boring. So I'm guessing that one has to actually 'be' there' in order to experience the moving of the Spirit. Which is odd, because we can watch Jentezen Franklin and we know the Spirit is moving in some of those services cause we feel it even when we aren't there.
Speaking of Jentezen Franklin.... he didn't speak yesterday but a man - I think his name was Kelly Shackleford - from Liberty something - First Liberty perhaps - they defend religious freedoms. They ahve defended a 5 year old girl who prayed over her lunch at school and she was suspended (seriously!), they defended a baker who would not create a cake for a same sex marriage, and he named a few other cases that they were defending. They take them all the way to the Supreme Court and usually they send it back down to the state. He said they are winning 90% of their cases and many are still stuck in Appeals. It was really interesting as he talked about how they have lawyers in nearly every state who will volunteer their time to stand up for the religious freedoms of others.
But before he spoke, the worship team did a couple songs, then they had everyone stand and the Marines brought out the color guard with the USA flag, current and the first one. They played Lee Greenwood's 'I'm proud to be an American', sang a blessing over the nation 'The Lord bless you and keep you...' and then everyone sung 'God Bless America'. Yes, I was crying. It was a heartfelt and moving time. I shared the post on Facebook and hope someone would take the time and watch it. There wasn't a sermon; just this man sharing how they are fighting for our religious freedom.
Our religous freedoms are slowly being taking away from us, and if we don't stand up, we will fall. I know years ago I was told at work - although we were owned by a Catholic organization/hospital, that we could not talk about religion in the workplace. That has always been hard for me. It is the same where I'm at now, although no one 'religious' owns us. But I defy them at times..... I always pray over my lunch and if I have others eating lunch with me, they know that we have to pause and I pray - out loud - over the food before we eat, whether in the cafeteria, lunchroom, or restaurant. Even now when I meet the President's executive assistant and other coworkers for a 'team building lunch', we pray over our meal. Let them fire me.... it is my right to pray if I choose. If there is a group of us together (like 10 or so) I may just pray to myself.... and I have.... but if only 3-4 or so.... you betcha I'm going to pray out loud and make them wait to eat as well!
