Shopping for Upstairs

This morning I took Wonder Woman with me to Garden Ridge to shop for the upstairs of the Birdhouse. Wonder Woman has raised four boys. She has a job that is emotionally intense every day. She has a several ministries where she spends alot of her time. I don't know how she does it all. Not only all that, she always signs up to help me with my projects. Wonder Woman is on the upstairs team for the BirdHouse mission trip. She is a woman with taste and I always ask her to buy the pretties: the rugs, the curtains, etc. Wonder Woman spent 5 days in the hospital a short time ago and she is not quite back up to speed. But, she made it through the shopping trip, moving a little slow, but accomplishing her task nonetheless.

Wonder Woman, I am so grateful to have you on my team!

So, we filled up these two shopping carts at Garden Ridge. I have not been to Garden Ridge in a couple years. They are a shell of their former selves, but they still have some great bargains. We got everything we needed except the large pieces of furniture all in one place, and that makes Wonder Woman and me, happy.

We got bedding for 4 beds, everything for two bathrooms, including shower curtain and towels. We got 4 lamps, curtains, some other stuff and of course, two birds.

We save all of this decorative stuff for the last day of the trip and when we put it out, it makes the house a home!

Normal Girl and Wonder Woman

Green and Purple

I made four more bracelets tonight using the metal focal pieces from the garage sale. That's it. I was watching season 1 of Lost. I like watching it all in a row without commercials.

Normal Girl

Your Recommendations?

I have been told by Normal Girl to shop for a new computer. I can use one but I don't want to be responsible for this choice. Neither does she, the slacker. What should I buy?

Imaginina

Can All Your Stuff Fit in This Room?

I went down to Grace Centers of Hope tonight with a small advance team to gather a bit more info for the mission trip. We wanted to do some more measuring, and talk to the men that live in the house. Our objective is to encourage the guys that live there, and that won't happen if we change their living spaces so much that they don't like them. It is a big challenge. Jerry lives in this room. It is 8'x8'.

Try to imagine it. You sleep in a room that is 8'x8'. Everything that you own is in that space. Everything. You share this room with another adult. Right outside your 8' space is another person and all you want is a little privacy.

Maybe you will join with me in thanking God tonight for all that you have. Think about all of the things you own. Could you fit them all in an 8'x8' space with your bed? And if you are like me, you have a list of other things that you want. And you will get them. And you will have space for them.

One of the things that strikes me when I am at GCH is how hugely God has blessed me. No matter what kind of stuff is going on in my life that I think is hard, He has blessed me with way more than I need.

So, if you join me in thanking God today, would you please pray for Jerry too? Thank you...

Normal Girl

First Bracelet

Here is my first bracelet using the metal components I got at the garage sale. Click on the pic to make it bigger.

Remember these? I did not exactly finish it over the weekend as I planned. But tonight, I took a break from a very exciting assignment on research methodology....yeah....and made the first bracelet from the pile of these garage sale focals. What do you think? Would you wear it?

Stay tuned, more to come.

Normal Girl

Bracelet Story #4

I offered this bracelet as a class at the Sonoma Bead Festival in 2006. I love everything about it....the colors....the strands of seed beads, the four lampwork beads and they way they line up in a row when the bracelet is worn. I even like the little charms of different metals. Do you know that nobody signed up for my class? I know, unbelievable. So now, I am the only person who owns a bracelet like this. Too bad for all of those people, they had their chance.

Normal Girl

Shop Till You Land

Here's What I Think....what better place is there to shop than Sky Mall??? I brought home a catalog from one of my last flights because I really want to show you some cool things you can get.

How Star Trek is this? I didn't know these existed. You put your DVD into the "screenless" player and put on these hip glasses and watch your movie. Inside the glasses. What if you are far sighted? Check out the guy watching a movie. Would you wear these in public?

I love multi tasking!

I just don't believe these. Anyone tried them? Just because I put these straps under the refrigerator, it makes it light enough for two women to lift? I get there is physics involved, but I still am not buying it.

This is my favorite gizmo. The 5 in 1 emergency tool looks pretty handy. But what I want to know is, when that thing is floating around the bottom of my purse colliding with who knows what, what happens when the button to the automatic glass breaker gets pushed by accident? All of my car and house windows could be broken in the first week I own this tool.

The person who needs this has bigger focus problems than the Human Pin Ball!!

And then I found out that the reason this catalog always has the coolest things, is that the President of Sky Mall is Christina Aguilera!

Feel free to order any of these things, the 800 number is right there for you!

Normal Girl

Weekend Project

I grabbed these metal pieces at the Divine Design garage sale a couple weeks ago. Like them! And I want to do something with them. So....

Today, I made some beads that I hope will work with them. Here is a sneak peak into the kiln. The beads will come out tomorrow and I can see what they look like and if they will go with the metal pieces. Stay tuned.

Normal Girl

Hanging with the Girls

I went with a group of women from church to Grace Centers of Hope tonight. Sometimes we go on a Friday night and spend a couple hours with the women residents. They are on lockdown on Friday nights. That is a night that invites trouble for people with addiction issues. So, tonight, we took bead soup. The girls there are like all girls. They love digging through the bead soup and making bracelets

Could you resist homemade chocolate cake? I had a crumb. It was fabulous. Every morsel was gone when we were finished.

While some of us were playing with bead soup and making bracelets, the rest were playing Apples to Apples.

This is Nevaeh (the little one). Spell her name backwards. When we first started going to GCH, she was a newborn. Now she is walking like a pro. She had an ear infection tonight, but showed off her walking skills for us anyway.

Some of the Moms wanted to make bracelets but were having a hard time wrangling kids at the same time. Story time with Miss Kathy kept them occupied.

That is one way to keep a curious baby contained......

We have started to develop relationships with some of the women at GCH. It is great to watch their progression as they get themselves together and come closer to graduation. What do you say to a woman who had her two kids living in a car because she had to leave her husband due to abuse, and was herself drinking and doing drugs....who now is clean, healthy and happy and working to pay for the house they live in???? Praise God!

Normal Girl

We are on a Mission

I have been painting shirts tonight....one for each member of my mission trip team. The mission trip is June 23-26. We are going to a rescue mission called Grace Centers of Hope, about an hour away. We are going to work inside a house where four graduates of the program live. They lived in the mission for a year, learned to get and keep a job, to keep their finances, they gained skills, and learned to rely on Jesus. They have graduated from that program and now live in a house where they pay rent with money earned at a job.

They are holding it together. They don't have much. They keep what they own in boxes. Their furniture is broken down and leftover from somebody's 1870's or 80s home. They don't have lamps or art. And they have worked for every single thing they have. They have come far and have amazing stories to tell.

We will go into that house and give them new carpet, paint all of the walls, bring in new furniture, and hang new curtains and some art. We will do everything we can to leave their home a place that feels like a home, a sanctuary.

There will be much encouragement that week... for the house residents, for the staff at GCH, and for us. To those of you who bought bird jewelry, you have done a really good thing. Your contribution will make a big difference in the lives of four men who are still working hard to make those lives into something they can be proud of. Thank you!

If you have not seen it yet, go to my mission trip blog and see the pics of the house: www.divinedesignbirdhouse.blogspot.com.

Here's what I think. God has put each of us on this earth to do His work. He called each of us to this. He called me to lead the team, He called team members to paint and hang curtains, He might have called you to buy jewelry or pray for the mission trip. I am glad to be in this with you.

Normal Girl

Home is the Shopper, Home from the Streets

I'm home from the Big Apple. HPB and I packed alot of stuff into the time we had there, even today before we went to the airport, we went to one of our fav stores. Unfortunately, the most notable thing that happened today was me falling on my face right in the middle of the street. Spaz. But, we did get to ABC and here are just a few things I liked there:

Cute paper covered frames, embellished with vintage flowers and ribbons and buttons.

Can you see the little pink lampshade in there? This is just a neat hangy think. It is a small pink lampshade hanging from ribbons, covered in tulle and flowers. I saw a similar one with a wire lampshade that I really liked. It was $600, that is why it is not hanging in Girl World right now.

Chandeliers are super trendy right now. Not the stuffy chandeliers in ballrooms, but colorful, funky chandeliers. Check out this room. I really liked the simple wire formed chandeliers (look at the very left side....$3000) with a light bulb or two.

I think I can make some of those glass tear drops. I can hang them from my fake, cheapo IKEA chandelier or make jewelry with them. Are those flowers or mermaid tails on the right side at the bottom?

Loved these charm bracelets with vintage everyday stuff. See the pencil and key and scrabble tile? I am thinking about offering a round robin charm bracelet event. Those who participate in the round robin are mailed the bracelets of all event participants. You hook a charm on each then mail them to the next person. At the end, we all have a cool charm bracelet that our new round robin friends have helped to make. Think about it. More details later.

It is great to go away, but great to come home again,

Normal Girl

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

I want to share my day with you. This morning, HPB and I ate at the Cafe Metro and sat in the front window people watching. It was raining. Did you know that 40% of people walking the streets of NY on a rainy day have a broken umbrella? You know when one side is broken and just hangs there?

Inside Grand Central Station. We were looking for a bookstore to buy a map. Interesting how we thought we would show up and just know where we wanted to go without a map. Yeah.

We did some trend shopping and some shopping for us. Inside this tiny, messy store, I found a piece of the most fabulous fabric. You may see it in Girl World some day soon. You could hardly move inside this store, but the man was really nice. Actually, we met alot of really nice, helpful New Yorkers today. Not sure why they get such a bad rap.

When it started pouring hard, we went inside Lord & Taylor and had lunch in a cafe on the 6th floor. HPB says she saw the BeeGees when she was in high school and the floor they had on stage is now on the wall in this cafe. Those squares of color flashed in a very disco way.

We kept on shopping and it kept on pouring. I did not have an umbrella and I was soaking wet. By the time we were loaded with stuff and tired, it was raining really hard and we could not get a taxi. I was having my own personal wet t-shirt contest and still could not get a taxi. So, we resorted to the subway. Neither of us is a subway pro, but we asked for help from some nice people and we made it.

During the day, I watched a new kind of shopping experience. HPB had a list of thing her sister, the Weasel wanted from NYC. She would find the stuff, take a pic of it on her phone, then Weasel would call and say buy or don't buy. We bought her several yards of fabric and a pile of purse handles. This is what happens to your shopping bags in the rain when they are full of the Weasel's purchases. Weasel, we said so many nice things about you as we were riding the subway clutching these bags to our chest as the handles and bottoms broke. Good thing we love you.

Tonight's show was the featured activity of the week. Most exciting for me and not quite so exciting for HPB was Gypsy. Patti Lupone is starring in it as Mama Rose. Man, can she sing! She was incredible! It was worth every penny and then some.

The HPB risked life and limb getting a couple iPhone shots of Patti. She nearly gotted tossed out for taking them, but she survived. That is Patti sitting on the step. The man that plays Herbie is the same really foxy guy (1970s reference) that play the boyfriend and husband of Valerie Bertinelli on One Day at a Time, Boyd Gaines. Boyd and Patti are both nominated for Tonys.


One of the reasons I like this musical alot is that it was one of my first big roles in musical theater. I played Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee in a local production when I was around 20 years old. Not Broadway, just Center Avenue, but what a blast!

Home tomorrow,

Normal Girl

I Heart New York!

Hello from New York City! The Human Pin Ball and I are here for three days.

Just look at all the musicals out there just waiting for me. If I could see a Broadway musical everyday, I would. I came mainly to go to the Stationery Show. So, I spent the day at the Jacob Javitz Center. It was a good show. I saw lots of cool stuff.

After the show, we went to the 1/2 price tickets place off Times Square, because if we are here and it is night, we are sitting in a show. It is simple. But, before the show, we ate dinner at Bobby Flay's restaurant Bar Americain. Put it on your list. Go there. Don't forget. It is some of the best food I have ever eaten. And, there was a pineapple cilantro candle burning in the restroom that I wanted to drink, it smelled so good. When you go, have the Fries Americain. It is what they are famous for.

Then off we went to Rent. Rent is closing this summer so we felt compelled to see it in case we never get the chance again. I don't think I will be around in 30 years when the do the revival. And we got 1/2 price tickets. On stage, it is earthier. There is one set and everything happens on it. The music to this show is great.
La Vie Boehm. Reminds me of my college days when I was a dance major and we danced around the cafeteria.

The weirdest thing I saw today was a guy with a sign: I want money for beer. I was in the taxi and I asked the driver, "did that sign say I want money for beer?" He laughed his head off and said, "you have to hand it to the guy, he is very honest about how he is spending the money you give him." Then I closed my eyes again.

Tomorrow night, the main attraction...Patti LuPone in Gypsy!

Trend Shopping tomorrow!

Normal Girl

We've Got Spirit, How 'Bout You?

The reason we are all together in Kansas City is a graduation. So, we thought it only fitting to represent! All 4 sibs, graduates of Bay City Central....... Mom and Dad are too, but we were shortsighted and did not get shirts for them.

Here is the grad, Sequoia Niece #1. Graduation is such a happy time. I hope she is having the time of her life!

Normal (old) Girl

Play Ball!

The family has gathered in Kansas City for the graduation of Niece 1. Niece 1 is an amazing softball pitcher and has a softball scholarship to college. Look who showed up tonight as we were setting up for the party. You don't know my sister, the Smelliado, but you might know Jennie Finch. If not, go here:http://admin.usasoftball.com/bios.asp?uid=773 You will need to know her for your summer olympics viewing enjoyment. Note the Smelliado on her tippy toes because Jennie is 6'1".

Normal Girl

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

You know that saying about how you can tell alot about a person by her trash? This is my trash today:

The cute town where I live is very concerned with appearances. Guess that is why the town is cute. But, they ignore things like trash. Like people hide their dirty laundry, we hide out trash. I am allowed to put out one trash can each week. If I have more trash than that, I have to pay more for its removal or take it to the dump and pay for that, or keep it. One weekend each spring, the city lets us throw away anything we want to at no extra charge. Oh yeah, it's a party. Big Trash Day! Or as some folks call it, Trash Amnesty Day.

On that weekend, people from all over will come trolling the streets for free trash. I have done it too. We got some great furniture for our mission trip last year by trolling the streets on trash day. I am in mourning this year because I will miss it. I am headed to Kansas City tomorrow for the graduation festivities of Niece 1. In fact, I put my trash out a day early and will probably get fined for it. This city is all about the fines. They don't like the way I shovel my sidewalks...FINE. They don't like the way I cut my grass....FINE. I have an overnight guest and she parks on the street...FINE. OK, so the town is a little hoity. And maybe a little toity around the edges. But, it's cute.

Since I made you look at my trash, I feel like I should give you something pretty to wipe that vision from your head. Picture my trash all gone and just these pretty flowers in my yard. Until Tooey and Chewey get them.

I lied. This one was in the greenhouse where we bought flowers for Mom for Mother's Day on Sunday afternoon. I coveted it, but the Woodwards LOVE daisies. It was too expensive to give it to them for dinner.

The rest belong to me. Apple Blossoms....

Dogwood........

Geraniums....woodchucks hate 'em, hahahahaha!!

Happy Trash Day!

Normal Girl

Tooey and Chewey

Meet Toothsome W. Chuck and Chewsome W. Chuck. Tooey and Chewey are this year's woodchuck babies. They have been born fifth generation backyard dwellers. At my house. Chewey is a little wet, it is raining here today. In honor of Tooie and Chewey, I raise the question: what do these things have in common?

They are all home decor in the burrow. Yes even the flag. And the pole. Someday, I am going to dig into that burrow and find everything I have been missing for the last 5 years. I have been considering re-instituting the woodchuck relocation program. I have run out of other ways to chase them away. Humans and woodchucks do not coexist well. They dig holes big enough for you to break your leg in, they can open the trash can and spread the trash all over the yard, and they can and will chew through 4 inch wood posts in your house, garage or deck. And when they do, you will find them strolling across the shelves in your garage, pushing all your stuff off. I can tell you with authority, things that do not work to get rid of woodchucks and their huge holey borrows in your yard:

1. Mothballs. They scoff at mothballs.

2. Filling in the burrows. They dig so fast that by the time you put the shovel away and walk in the back door, they have opened up that burrow hole again.

3. Shooting. My brother in law sat in the bathroom window many days with a pellet gun waiting to ping them. The woodchucks knew it. I could hear them in the burrow laughing and telling jokes about him.

4. Ammonia. Not only did they not avoid the ammonia rags, they took them into the burrow.

5. Flooding. I stuck a garden hose into the burrow and turned it on full blast. I let it run for three hours before I turned it off. The burrow is so huge that three hours of water did not fill it. I never saw any of that water come out. I waas afraid I would cave the backyard in.

6. Trapping. This does work temporarily, but not without problems. It is not so bad to put a trap full of woodchuck in the car to take it away. But, what do you do with a trap full of skunk? Yeah.

Come over if you have a large dog. He would have a blast chasing Tooey and Chewey.

Normal Girl

God in the Movies

My class. See me up there? At the top? The old one?

I am taking a break from homework. My summer class started yesterday and is already at full speed. Usually, they limit the number of students in online classes and now I know why. There are 20 people in my class. I am used to having 8-10. We have 5 posting assignments for the week. I am supposed to read all of the posts, responses, questions, etc. That means I will have about 1000 posts to read. This week. My computer is way too slow for this kind of activity! On the good side, I sure will get alot of different POVs this semester.

OK, Here's What I Think about God in the movies. Sometimes you read an ad or a review for a movie that says it has an underlying Christian message, or maybe just something related to God. Case in point.....The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first Narnia movie. I read things like Aslan was supposed to represent God. Yeah. OK. Maybe I can see it, but it is a stretch, and if I had not read that, that connection would have never crossed my mind. Niece 3 asked me to explain the connection and I had a hard time. Would someone explain it to me, please?

Let me introduce you to three of my favorite Christian movies and the important messages they have for all of us:

Mr. Holland's Opus. I want to be Mr. Holland. Glenn Holland is a composer with a wife and baby on the way and he decides he needs to take up a steadier career. God leads him to the local high school to become a music teacher. It takes him awhile to figure it out, but he eventually loves it. Before he learns to balance it all, he shorts his wife, his deaf son, and the symphony he knows he has inside him. He eventually learns to balance all the parts of his life and teaches high school music for 30 years. In the end, the dumb principal decides to axe all art classes and Mr Holland is without a job. He realizes that this life he never would have chosen for himself if not desperate, is the perfect life for him. On his last day, an auditorium full of his past students gives him standing ovations, and an orchestra of musicians of all ages debuts his finished symphony. What better way to go through life than to follow God's lead even if you don't necessarily think it is a good path for you. He has a life for you that has more in it than you could even dream. Mr. Holland was able to see a big room full of people who credited him for changing their lives. What more could you want in life?

The Last of the Mohicans. Daniel Day-Lewis in a breechcloth should be enough here. It is. Hmm. Hawkeye is a man living far from his home. He is a white man, taken in by the Mohican indians. In the movie, Hawkeye rescues two women from the Huron and the English (the bad guys) and does everything he can to deliver them to their father. Thus, he and his Mohican father and brother have been forced into particpating in the French and Indian war, fighting on the side of the Americans. This is not Hawkeye's war and he could easily melt into the forest to a quiet life. Oh, he wants to. But, he does the right thing, holding true to the beliefs taught him by his father. Here is our lesson; we live in a place that is not our home. We could easily hide at home where things are comfy and we don't have to get involved in other people's messes. But, God has called us to love one another and that involves getting out of the house, getting our hands dirty, and giving up some comforts. We don't have to do it in a breechcloth, but it was nice that Daniel Day-Lewis did.

Singing in the Rain. God designed us to sing and dance in every situation. In the rain. In a cake. With people we like. With people that drive us crazy. Life is a song cue. Sing it up! Dance till you drop! Plus, I just remembered that I once danced in a show with Donald O'Connor! Isn't that some kind of sign?

Tell me your favorite Christian movies!

Normal Girl

Inspiration Can Be Anyplace

Even in the parking lot at Michaels.

I never know when inspiration will present itself. One day, I was pulling into a parking place at Michaels and looked to my left to see this. Cool colors are usually my favs. These cars parked in a row made a palette I liked: silver, green, blue and turquoise. I was glad the car owners were inside the store and could not see me taking pictures of their cars like I am stalking them or casing the joint.

When I got home, I combined the cool colors of the cars with the circle shape of the wheels and made a bracelet. That big focal piece is an earring tht I bought with the intention of working it into something else. As soon as I started thinking about using the cars as inspiration, I knew this wheelie looking earring would be great as a bracelet focal piece.

Here's what I think....pay attention to the things around you. You never know what will come of it.

Normal Girl

And The Lie is.....

#2 is a big fat hairy lie. But, I am glad to know that I could impersonate an athlete. The closest I ever got to softball was playing on an intramural team in high school. We did win because I was on the team with all of the girls that lived on farms.

This is not the experimental plane I built (two of us worked on it for 10 years), but it looks just like it. It took me on trips all over the country, including a trip over the ocean to the Bahamas.

The tv thing? I can only say I am glad that is in the past!

Fun game, right?

Normal Girl

I'm Playing This Game!

While Normal Girl is having heart failure about tuition going up $40 a credit hour, here are my three things:

• every day I wear pink lace


• I love children so much that I run a summer camp


• I love sleepovers

Who made up this dumb game?

Imaginina

My Teacher Made Me Lie

My summer class starts on Monday and I have been doing homework all week. Because my classes are online, the instructors usually have us do some kind of ice breaker so we can get to know each other a bit. This semester we are doing "two truths and a lie." We say three things about ourselves and the others guess which one is a lie. You have probably played this before. Take a guess at mine:

1. I flew all over the US in a plane I built myself
2. I was an alternate for the Olympic Women's softball team right after college
3. I have been on several tv programs

I will fess up to the lie on Saturday.

Normal Girl

Peevish

This has been rolling around my mind today. Pet Peeves. I know you have one, more than one probably. I have said that phrase more than once.

I am developing a critical way of thinking in my student-ness. So, I broke this down. Pet. What is a pet? Something dependent on your care. You love it, you feed it, you make sure it grows up and lives with you a long time. You cuddle it. You carry photos of it. Some of us spend alot of time and money nurturing pets.

Peeve. A source of annoyance or something that irritates you.

Put them together.

Here's what I think. Why would we want to nurture, cuddle, feed, and love something that annoys and irritates??

Just think about it.

Normal Girl

Time to Purge

I have found something at which I really overachieve. The junk drawer. This is my kitchen junk drawer today. Right now, it can't open all the way and can't shut all the way either. Time to dump it. I hate all that great junk to just go to the trash. See anything in there you want?

• How about the empty battery package?
• A yellow highlighter? I don't like the yellows, so I toss them in the drawer. There are least three in there.
• Does anyone know what that big square battery goes to? I have it, but not sure what to put it in.
• That bookmark has been in there for at least three years. It says....Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous... Psalm 139: 14
• Scotch tape that is branded MJD. That is MJDesigns and they have been out of business at least 10 years.
• Hot pink glitter glue in the bottom right corner. HPB gave it to me.
• Way in the back a marker for a white board....don't have one.

How sad that the thing I was looking for when I opened the drawer is not in there. Or, maybe it was pushed off the back of the drawer and is in the cupboard below. Going to look.....

Normal Girl

Human PinBall Guest Post #3

Human Pinball here, in less than 8 hours I will be leaving the land of chopsticks and fried noodles - been here over 3 weeks - the only clean clothes I have are the ones I will put on at 5am and wear the following 28 hours. I gotta tell ya - you always scrub extra hard and extra long in the shower when you know your next one will be a day and a half later. Anyway, back on track...so I finished my last meeting at 6pm, cabbed back to the hotel - threw on some casual clothes and a pair of flip flops and headed to the MTR - ( subway ) at rush hour. ONLY a good mother would ride the subway across town to go to ToysRUs to buy her baby boy a video game - because there is not another darn thing in this town that I could buy that him that he would like more. So the good mother rides the MTR packed in like a can of sardines- getting her usual stares and even has to switch trains. Gets to ToysRUs -buys a cool GameBoy DS Game...mission accomplished.

So thought I would do a little window shopping before calling it a night. There are shops EVERYWHERE in Hong Kong - it is a shopper paradise. From the most expensive handbags & jewelry to the street vendors selling Hello Kitty ink pens and everything in between. In some parts ( the tourist area called Kowloon) they just about drive me nuts yelling for my attention. It sounds like this... "MISSY...Missy...Missy ... buy a copy handbag, buy a copy watch?" And my all time favorite - "Miss America, Miss America, copy handbags, copy watches," or "do you need a tailor?"

So I go to where the locals shop and no one yells at me but tonight was a real smorgasbord of weirdness. My first stop was Maple - a trendy young girl shop - cute stuff - lots of jewelry & accessories - great prices. I buy my older daughter clothes there almost every trip. On display in the front of the stores was a Long Shirt that immediately caught my attention....First...let me explain before I go any further... A lot of people in Asia like English words on their clothing and sometimes, well a lot of the time it just doesn't make sense. And sometimes it is bad words.... once on a transfer bus in a Chinese airport I saw a little girl that was about 8 years old - cute as a bug, her shirt had what looked to be a short paragraph from a Harlequin Romance novel on it and it had the "F" word in the paragraph 2 times....I doubt if her parents spoke a drop of English, so it wasn't like I could tap them on the shoulder and say..."hey, your baby is wearing inappropriate words... - they looked like a totally normal family...I pretty confident they had NO idea what that cute little princess shirt with flowers and crowns on it had a Fabio story on it. And I have seen lots of words that just didn't make sense. (Buttinski note from Normal Girl....I attended a gift show where alot of Asian importers were displaying, in February. I saw a wall with word signs. Among the LOVE LIFE LAUGH signs was KITCHENTOILET. They try but don't quite hit the western mark.)

But back to the long shirt... I think it wins for the strangest compilation of English words I've seen on a single piece of clothing. The first line says You Guys Rock - then it says - It's the dog's short and the dogs bullet...next line.. She's DaBomB! ... next line... Hearts Stars Anchors Charms and BLABBARD - ( Blabbard - i think that is the stuff on your butt and tops of your legs after you turn 40) and last but not least in big giant letters it says... MilkShake and Pimp Juice.... Which made me say - what they heck???? I did a double take and took a picture with my phone.

No sooner did I round the corner until I almost bumped into a walking cup of McCafe' and it occurred to me....maybe this is the Pimp's Juice. He needs this caffeine buzz so he can stay awake and keep an eye on his girls... Oh but it didn't end with the walking cup of coffee...

a few feet from the "Java Who Wore Tennis Shoes" was a group of American Indians - yes I said American Indians, the kind that have feathers on their heads.... and they were playing a Simon and Garfunkle song and at that point I decided to call it a night and go back to the hotel - I was getting a little afraid I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone or Candid Camera.

USA, here I come,

HPB

Love More and Well

The girls in my small group (aka home group, bible study group, prayer group) always try to take something we learned in our weekly study and make it work in our lives. Even though it might not be easy, it is always rewarding. I am offering this week's challenge to you...placing it in your hands.

From Philippians 1:9 (The Message)
So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well.

See if you can think of a way to apply it to someone you know this week. Someone who is a pain in your behind at work? Someone who is going through a bad time and is sad? Someone you meet in the store or on the street obviously having a bad day? You know what I am talking about. This week think about loving that person much and well.

Tell us if you have a plan or tell us how it worked and if you learned anything. I hope you will find this rewarding and enjoyable and I am excited to hear your stories.

I should be applying this to Imaginina.

Normal Girl

Tell the Truth Now

Did you all notice that in our poll only two of you said that you would eat right in an attempt to reduce stress? This is not Sunday School class. You don't have to give a goody two shoes answer so that you look smart. We all know that eating right only adds stress to your life. So, if you said that you were going to eat right in an attempt to reduce stress, tell us how that worked for you. HA!

Imaginina

The Garage Sale as Sport

Divine Design is having a garage sale this weekend to make money for the mission trip. We opened up today and had a good four hours before it rained and squelched our sale. We will try again tomorrow.

The pink glitter shoes have taken on a life of their own now. Nobody has as glamorous a cashier at a garage sale as Divine Design. We are all class, baby.

I am not a hardened garage saler. I have held a couple, and run into one now and then when I see something I want. It surprised me that we had at least as many men show up as women. And, some of them were ruthless. Here's what I think.....some people just think that it is a competition.

Us: "Welcome, come on in!" 1 point for warmth

Cute Guy: "hi".....(heading directly to the loot) 1 point for advancing the game

Us: "Looking for anything special?" 1 point for helpfulness

Cute Guy: " I like this lamp. Nice." 1 point for quick selection

Us: "We have two of those, the pair are gorgeous, and just $3 a piece" 2 points for the extra sale

Cute Guy: "Oh!" 1 point for advancing the game

Us: "Great, how about both lamps for $5?" 2 points for giving a cute guy even more of a deal

Cute Guy: "How about $4?" Oh!! Loss of two points for shamelessness

Us: "No deal, $3 each is a steal, we offered you both for $5" 1 point for standing firm

Cute Guy: "OK, I will take them, thank you" 2 points for doing the right thing"

Us: "Here is a sturdy box" 2 points for not calling him a greedy mess

Note to competitors, you cannot beat a pink glitter shoe wearing, mission trip going, daughter of God at this game!

Normal Girl

I am Martha Graham and I Approve This Message

If you don't know who Martha Graham was, please don't tell me. You will just prove this hysterical ad right. I thought this ad was a joke, but it was in an expensive women's magazine, paid for by Americans for the Arts. Dancers everywhere owe a huge debt to Martha. Without her, we would all be wearing tutus and point shoes, dancing to Tchaikovsky, and there would be no variety in the dance world. She is the equivalent of Picasso, and I'll bet almost everyone has heard of him.

But, the ad made me laugh out loud and I wondered how Martha would view it? "No wonder people think Martha Graham is a snack cracker"???? At any rate, what they say is so right. Dance and music and drama and art make kids better people. There is not enough art in school.

So, thanks Martha for the arthritis in my hips, knees and feet, but thanks also for a love of dance I never could have had for pointe dancing swans, and I promise never to put a pair of pointe shoes in anything I choreograph.

Normal Girl