Good Morning!
Not to alarm anyone, but you only have 7 shopping days left.
😯
And then it’s CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!
🙂
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Quote of the Day
“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.”
Dr. Seuss
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Music you say? Don’t mind if I do.
Don’t worry, I’m taking it easy on your eardrums today.
😉
Wandering Views 
Since my wife’s birthday is on Christmas, I only go shopping once a year. I will soon get to see the new stuff that has been invented this year.
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I have a confession to make. I, Kimberley Lora, do not have my Christmas shopping completed yet. I can’t believe it either. There was a time in my life that everything would have been bought AND wrapped (very prettily) by the end of October.
In the good news department, I attended my first vestry meeting in two months. For the first time EVER we were able to give some of our staf a raise and give all of our staff a Christmas bonus.
One of the men on the vestry with me said he has had some really bad jobs in his lifetime but he always got a Christmas bonus. I will be receiving a Christmas bonus today as well. I told Cal I have never, not even once, received a bonus that was the wrong size or color. He laughed.
I have a busy day ahead, I have a team meeting and don’t have the agenda yet and our team Christmas party. This is where I will be tonight:
http://www.lulubuffett.com/index-live.php
For any of you that like Jimmy Buffet, this is his sister’s place. He has been known to occassionally pop in and entertain the crowd.
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I like Marty, but not Rudolph. Gene Autry didn’t even like Rudolph. His wife put him up to it.
I have never, ever, gotten a Chrismas bonus. I used to give a department store gift card to my secretaries.
My dad worked at a steel plant – electrician-. they always gaave him a turkey.
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I have never known anyone named Lora. I’ve known several Laura’s. I think it’s a pretty name.
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The only Christmas “bonus” I ever got was a ham or a turkey (employee choice). Never money.
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Then you will be interested in knowing, Cheryl, that thanks to the overwhelming success of 50 Shades of Gray, employees at the publishing house all got 5k bonuses this year.
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Good Morning, Y’all!
Just thought I’d check in…hope all are well.
Might start making my mother’s famous date bread today…
I’ll be glad when exams are finished.
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Talk about dirty money. 😦 I wouldn’t know whether it was OK to spend it, or whether I needed just to give it away.
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Currently reading another book by Randy Alcorn. This one is Money, Possessions, and Eternity or some such thing. Anyway, I only get through about two paragraphs a day so still early in the book. He comments on Luke 1:9 saying that God tells us to use worldly wealth (the mammon of unrighteosness) for eternity. Money is neither good nor evil, it is a gift from God to be used for His purposes. That may be ministry or paying the rent but not to worry about what it has done before, that is not our concern. Ours is to use it for His glory. Interesting considering the debate about whether gambling money can be donated to churches, etc.
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Ahem, I believe that was Luke 11.
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That’s a fantastic book, Mumsee. I’ve used it several times while teaching classes on money. It convicts me every time I open it but it also has freed me to give away money and things and to invest in young people– even when it did not seem to make “good” financial sense.
Highly recommended, Money, Possessions and Eternity by Randy Alcorn.
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Emily called in sick today. She is feeling really lousy, & has a fever. She also has a rambunctious toddler. So Auntie Chrissy & I are still “on Forrest duty”, so to speak. After breakfast (which we’re having kind of late today), Forrest will be “helping” Auntie string popcorn for the Christmas tree. 🙂
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What is a, how-you-say, Christmas “bonus”? 😉
I’ve never had a cash bonus in my life, either, the whole concept is just pretty amazing to me.
We used to get a big box of fresh fruit from the newspaper when we were under our former, more generous owners. (Actually made an awesome gift for a local soup kitchen since there was no way I’d ever eat that much fruit before it went bad.)
Then it changed to a box of Sees candy, which was nice, too.
Then that changed (under the new owners) to … nothing.
Oh well. 🙂 We’re employed, and that is a blessing, especially in this economy.
Speaking of which, my editor wanted me to look into a story yesterday, my first day back to work, about some local heavy metal “horror” band that supposedly had stirred up some outrage over a send-up video it released about a current movie that’s popular. It would be a “fun” story, he said.
Not.
I watched the video and was so turned off and disgusted — it was really generally pretty vile, both in language & images — that I suggested to him that we might not want to give these guys any publicity (the editor hadn’t watched it but I think he figured I was just being too prissy about it all; I wasn’t).
Anyway, after poking around a bit more, I decided it was a faux “controversy” mostly being generated & spun by the band, likely in hopes of getting some publicity. The editor didn’t press the issue and I found something else to work on.
Looks like a chilly, rainy day for us today.
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Oh, wait. I did get a turkey once at my first (rather short-lived) newspaper job.
I redeemed it from the grocery store — after the company laid off several of us, turkey certificates still in hand, right before Christmas. 🙂 That was a fun holiday.
But we got our free turkeys. And I found a new job by mid January.
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I’m hearing that this is a good program, on PBS tonight, about the origins of religious liberty in the U.S.:
http://www.pbs.org/programs/first-freedom/
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Mumsee (9): Alcorn’s book is the best that I have ever read on that subject matter.
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Glad to hear such good reports on the book. Randy Alcorn is a favorite of mine, so I was fairly confident it would be good, and it seems so as far as I am in it.
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That is not meant to mean I am in the book. It means as far as I have read so far….
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I just watched the craziest thing for a city-dweller like myself. I watched a hawk come out of nowhere, chase a sparrow for about 30 feet, knock it down, grab it, bite it, and fly away with it, all inside of 10 seconds. Crazy!
😯
An older woman up the street yelled “Did he get it?”
I said “Yep.”
She said “Oh. That was crazy.”
I said “Yep.”
Pretty amazing to see.
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You people do know that is how they eat, right? Not like they go fly through the grocery store for their chicken…
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Yes Mumsee.
🙄
I’d just never watched one eat before, ‘cept on the picture box. Us city folk don’t see that sorta stuff often.
😆
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I got a bonus at my first job. It was a check for $4.65. It was supposed to be $5, but since they wrote a check they took taxes out of it. My next job was $10 cash. Mostly I have gotten turkeys or ham. On the only factory job I had, we got profit sharing bonuses. One year it was close to $500!
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Ah, AJ, the things you miss in a city. Here along the Mighty Mississippi, I get to see eagles swoop down and catch fish. Of course, I have to watch for dear around here. They can do a lot of damage to the front of a car.
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It is pretty cool though. I like to sit out on the deck and watch them. Usually they miss, but they keep at it.
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NEED TO PROOF READ!!! I see a lot of deer on the road; a lot of dear at home (and a lot of Deere in the fields).
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Around here the hawks go through the fly-through at Speedy Raptors.
Actually, when I lived in Nashville, I saw hawks all the time, and did see them snatch prey a time or two. Yes, I lived in the city. One time one went up over the roof of my house with something in its talons; my hunch was he caught a chipmunk that had been hanging out in my bakyard (and sure enough, I didn’t see the chipmunk anymore). Another time I was in my living room and heard a crash and saw a flash of white filling my front window. I went out the front door and there lay a mortally wounded robin. I wondered about the flash of white, until a white hawk wheeled and flew over the house a minute later. Apparently the hawk saw the window in time to avoid it, or saw its prey crash and then avoided it himself. But I’ve often thought that if I had been looking at the window at that moment, it would have been a breathtakingly beautiful sight, because just the glimpse I saw out of the corner of my eye, I’m guessing that the hewk’s wingspan probalby pretty much filled up that large window, and its prey would have been right in front of it.
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My hubby and I saw “The Hobbit” this morning. There are some additions (as is always the case), some of them made up, some of them bringing in stuff from other Tolkien books or “expanding” on something in the story, and some of them just changing the story line a little. We both thought it went a bit far in making the number of “close calls” greater than even in the book; the scenes of everyone in the trees with the orcs and wargs below was modified way too much, and we didn’t like that. There are too many battle scenes for my taste. But overall it was well done and well worth seeing, and I don’t really think they “dragged it out” too long, as was my fear when they decided to make one book into three movies. Well, I’d cut a battle scene or two, and shorten a chase scene or two, but it didn’t seem long, and it remained interesting. I hope the next one has fewer orcs, though. . . .
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I just finished reading Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly. Not a fun read but very interesting. I thought I knew a good bit about the issue and the era, but I learned lots of things.
I knew Kennedy was a “womanizer”, but I didn’t know how much. And that MLK and LBJ were also. I didn’t know that Jackie was a chain smoker. I knew that the press protected them, but not the extent. O’Reilly gives lots of background and an afterward. Marina Oswald was married only a short time the second time. She had one, I had previously said two, children after Oswald.
An interesting book.
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Following the advice of many on this site, I finally watched The Shawshank Redemption all the way through to the end. There were enjoyable scenes and my children watched with me. We all stared down at the jigsaw puzzle during the intense scenes and didn’t look at each other . . .
Now, does some want to explain to me why they liked this movie so much? In this genre, I much prefer The Green Mile or even The Birdman of Alcatraz. How was he redeemed if by the end of the story, our hero fell victim to the same theft as the other thieves in the prison?
I get the fun of the comeuppance, but I don’t seem how he was redeemed.
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AJ. I’ve seen cats do something similar. The suburbs can be pretty wild too. 🙂
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Today I watched a raven pick up something about the size of a golf ball and fly away. He dropped it from his beak, grabbed it with it’s talons and then transferred it back to his beak, all while flying gracefully. I love watching the wildlife!
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hmm, either its or his, probably his.
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Ahhhh, it’s been quite a day. If you’ve been over to the prayer thread today, you know some of what I’m talking about, and there has been more work-related news since I posted this morning. However, instead of mentioning specifics, why don’t we just go with a lovely video of O Little Town of Bethlehem that shares the gospel in pictures. I hope you find this as soothing as I do.
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I have just started reading Agenda 21. The first thing I did was check to see if there really a UN Agenda 21. There is. Reid, Pilosi and Kerry are in favor of it. Strangely the Tea Party and Huffington Post are united against it.
The war on poverty didn’t work in the US, it certainly won’t work worldwide.
That, like Law of the Sea will only deminish national soverignty.
Back to the book.
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About the Mayan calendar end of the world thing; when exactly does the chaos and destruction start? I need time to eat an entire cheesecake and to call everyone I’ve ever wanted to cuss out.
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I need time…to call everyone I’ve ever wanted to cuss out.
LOL, KBells! I needed a good laugh today! There were a number of people who were on my list of people I wanted to cuss out today. 😯 Thank you! 😀
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6 arrows, my husband’s boss is on my list too.
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Don’t start cussing yet. You may wake up Saturday morning wishing you hadn’t.
😆
It starts on Dec 21, BTW.
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Finish the book yet, Chas? I looked it up also.
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Chas, can I still have the cheesecake?
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Against all tradition, we have set up the tree. No ornaments yet though.
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YAY! Our son just told us he was unofficially engaged! She is a sweet Godly girl who makes him happier than I’ve ever seen him! I’m sharing this with you guys, because I’m very excited and I’m not allowed to tell anyone that might know someone who knows them!!!!
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Where is everyone? I need someone to celebrate with me!
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YAY!!!!!!!!!!!
How’s that?
🙂
Congrats to your son, his betrothed, and the family.
My internet is acting up.
Good night.
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Kare2012! CONGRATULATIONS TO YOUR SON!! And blessings to all of you!
What a beautiful gift, to find a Godly mate. Truly something to celebrate! I’m excited for all of you! 🙂
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Congratulations Kare!!! What an incredible blessing when the Lord brings into the lives of our children a helpmate who is in love with our Lord Jesus and follows in His ways….and completes our children in a way our Lord has intended… Oh young love…any talk of a wedding date?
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Thanks everyone!
No date yet – he’s still saving up for an engagement ring but he couldn’t wait to tell us. We’re looking forward to getting to know her better in the coming months!
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Kare, congratulation to your son.
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Kbells- You’re too late. The Mayans didn’t account for leap years, so the end of the world would have been months ago according to their calendar. But go ahead and eat your cheesecake.
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And Congrats, Kare2012. I look forward to the day my son finds Miss Right. He’ll be 29 in a few weeks, so we’re beginning to think one of my nephews will have to carry on the family name.
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Well, I’m late to the party I see. Cheesecake and cussing. Sounds like you guys have really been having a fun time here tonight.
Kare, congratulations to your son & his girl! 🙂
I took the dogs on a nice, brisk walk in the cool wind tonight — the rain has stopped for now — and it was a good de-stresser (things at work are still really grim).
Although Tess did roll in something foul — we were going by a yard and before I knew it she was down in the grass rolling around. I knew it would probably be something that smelled bad, dogs love awful smelling things. So I sprayed some fru-fru dog hydrating formula on her when we got home, hoping that’ll at least overpower whatever it was!
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I suppose if the skunk smell is all out, Tess has to have something new to replace it. 😉
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Yes. The bath surely ruined things for her last week.
She decided she needed a do-over.
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Soooo… the good thing about insomnia is that, in the last two hours since I’ve been up, I got my Christmas letter done! I wasn’t sure I was even going to write one this year, but after lying in bed for 50 minutes after waking up, and deciding I wasn’t going to be falling back to sleep anytime soon, I just got up and wrote! Now we’ll see if I can get the cards signed and the envelopes addressed and in the mail so the people on our list who live farther away in the country can actually get our card before Christmas!
Hmmm…pictures of the kids, too…I’ve been such a procrastinator this year!
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