Today was a very productive day!

Today was a very productive day, indeed! I'd committed to going to the Ladies Group breakfast weeks ago, and I was so glad I went! It was a very nice breakfast, with way too much good food! If there is such a thing as too much good food! This was the Ladies Group's big effort to grow the group once again. It has dwindled down in size dramatically over the past few years, and the handful of ladies that remain faithful, are struggling committing to do everything! So, they opened it up to a Saturday morning, and with success, had a fair number in attendance! They went over the list of things the group wished to acheive this year, and asked for volunteers. I volunteered not only to participate in the church picnic planning and gift baskets, but also offered to "chair" that activity. Oh, why not? It sounds like fun!

I told John before I left this morning, I had two goals for the day: renew the sandbox (aka catbox!) and clean the garage. This didn't include the medical technician that showed up at 7:30 to give John and I our pre-insurance physicals, and the obvious, leave at 9:00 to go to the breakfast! I liked the technician. When taking our blood pressures, he stated John's was 106/57 and mine was 138/89, noting mine was border line for hyper-tenison. He said, "Obviously, she does a better job taking care of you, than you do of her!" I liked that guy!

On my way home from the breakfast, I made a stop at our friend Pat's Nursery. I was disappointed not to see Pat in the office, behind the cash register, not only because I missed seeing him, but also because his brothers don't offer up the "Buddy discount" that Pat always gives to me, for the electrician services John has given him in the past. When I went to the back lot to get my yard of dirt, the guy in the backhoe was loaded and waiting for me. As I pulled in, he came towards me and my truck, but I waived..."Wait a minute" so I could jump out, and line the bed of the truck with the tarp I had purchased just for this reason. When I was in the back of the truck, 4 workers jumped out of a truck on the lot, and said "We'll get it!" So they took over the lining of the bed with the tarp, and lining up the backhoe. As I stepped down, I saw our old friend Pat sitting in the truck that led the workers. Good ol' Pat! He inquired as to what type of project I had John working on this morning, and I informed him we were renewing the dirt in the sand box, aka CAT BOX in the backyard. He laughed, and said, "Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about!" John and I agreed, if it weren't our cats in the sandbox, it would be the neighborhood cats using it as a litter box! We raked it all out, and loaded it up with more than enough new sand! We also put a plywood lid over the top, to keep the cats out of the new fresh sand! We had plenty of additional sand to fill in some "pot holes" in the backyard. John laid down a warning to Callie, that she better stop digging craters in the backyard!

After that project was done, I moved into the garage! I was tired of hitting the bicycles in the garage with my truck doors, everytime we got out of it. I was tired of running into the handle of the wagon, every time I walked past it! I was tired of the MESS in the garage! I gave it a very thorough cleaning, and even went through some of the boxes that have been stacked on the shelves since we moved into our house three years ago! I used the empty boxes to pile up all the junk that has been accumulating on the shelves over these few years! I finished painting the legs on our "chow box" that we use for camping, and when John came out to help me put everything back in the garage, we decided if we stored it in the garage with the legs on it, we could put things underneath it, like the wagon, and Daniel's pedal car. I cleaned out the old mix-matched plastic dishes I'd had in the chow box, and refilled it with the new set of matching plastic plates, bowls tumblers and juice cups I'd purchased a few weeks ago at Wal-Mart for a few dollars. I was a little disappointed in myself that I did not remember to take a picture of the very cool Gator theme painted chow box before we put it back into the garage! The upside to that is, I will take a picture of it next weekend, when John and I go camping by ourselves! I asked Daniel to pick up all the screws and nuts, ans whatever else was on the floor, from the basket I used to have sitting on the water heater. One day, I was in the back corner, when I hit the basket filled with all the little bits that had accumulated on John's dresser, the bits went everywhere! John, being an electrician, brings home those extra screws, nuts and wire nuts, and who knows what else those odd looking things are, and they often end up sitting on his dresser. Now and then, I provide a can or basket to clear them off.. and that was the source of the disaster in the back corner of the garage! Daniel was more interested in sitting on the floor, going through all these pieces, than picking them up. Finally, after an hour, I told him he was fired, and I'd do it myself. I found in a small bag he had in his room at bedtime, he kept a spring toggle screw for himself. He found that one particularly entertaining! I'm happy to report, the garage is all put back together, and after trash day on Tuesday, it will be very roomy once again!

After dinner, and kids' baths, I came back here to the office, where I was able to go over the hymns I'd be playing in church tomorrow for pre-service, and also began working on the audition piece I'd ordered, for my audition with the director of the JU Orchestra. It came in the mail today, so I figured I'd better get started now! I'm no dummy, I ordered a piece I'd played in high school, although, although I didn't realize it's a more difficult arrangement. No better time than the present to get started on that now! I still need to prepare for the Sunday School lesson in the morning, but that won't be too difficult.

All in all, I think it's been a very productive day. I thank God for a beautiful, warm day, allowing me the motivation to do all that I needed to achive. Tomorrow's goal is to do this week's laundry, and maybe rake the backyard. It's full of leaves, and it looks so nice with the full sandbox. I want the whole yard to look nice to show off the new sandbox!