Desires

I went with Wonder Woman tonight to a Beth Moore simulcast. I try to go to the Beth Moore events whenever I can because she always speaks to my current issue. Of course it is not a coincidence, but every time? I don't ever know what her topic is until she starts speaking, and there it is. My. Stuff. Every. Time.

We sang with the very cute Travis Cottrell and his band and then Beth began to talk about my stuff. In front of everyone. Even funnier, is that The Human PinBall gave me the very same talk just last week. HPB, are you now working with Beth Moore to fix my stuff?

The topic tonight is about delighting in God and He will give me the desires of my heart. I am still pretty confused by it all, but tomorrow is another day and another chance for Beth to explain it all to me.

I am definitely interested, and excited to go back tomorrow and see how to get my stuff fixed!

Normal Girl

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I decided to go camping last night, in my backyard. It lasted an hour. I did manage to have a campfire, loved it.

And make hobo pies. I had a reuben, it was great! I took a book to read and I was settled in and comfy.

And then I remembered why I can't go camping in my backyard. The child across the street was hitting the flagpole with a baseball bat over and over and over. The neighbors next door let the dog out and he came to stand next to me and bark like he was possessed, without ceasing, for 20 minutes. Oh yeah, and sleeping with the raccoons?

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

Normal Girl

Who am I Again?

Yes, that is supposed to be me at the bottom the envelope. Whenever we go to Grace Centers for Girl's Night In, the ladies all write a thank you note. I love that, it is a great life lesson we should all remember. And, at least the name of the church is getting closer. We have been called Calvary Road, Mount Calvary and all kinds of things. My name has also had several incarnations, but this last one??????? Is there any explanation for why my name is now Kill? Not to mention that the woman writing it has a PhD?

I don't know whether to laugh or give her a SASE,

Normal Kill Girl

Backpacking to Pontiac

Two weeks ago, we made an announcement in church that we would like to fill backpacks to take to the kids at Grace Centers of Hope. I put tags on a board with the kid's names and ages, and people could select a tag and go shopping. There are only 25 kids there right now, so the tags I put on the board went at the speed of light. It was encouraging.

The deadline to return the full backpacks was yesterday. Tonight, I went to church to collect the backpacks, to check that we had one for each child, and make sure everything on the list was inside each backpack.

It was overwhelming. In the best possible way. Just looking through those backpacks touched me very much. I could tell that people took time to plan and shop, and thought about the kids when they were assembling. The results of every one was amazing. Some of those backpacks are really stuffed. I gave a dollar limit, so that means people did some good bargain shopping.

Some wrote notes to their kids. Some put in extra special touches like hair clips, lip gloss, stickers, and gum. The backpacks matched the folders that matched the pencils. The backpacks are a kid's back to school dream. In a place and economy where people are very conscious of jobs and money, these 25 volunteers really came through, above and beyond the agreed upon project. It did my heart a world of good to know that the people in my congregation are willing to live what they believe And 25 kids, who live in a mission and have very little they can call their own, are going back to school with everything they need.

God is an amazing God. I can hardly wait to deliver the backpacks to the kids!

Normal Girl

Normal Girl Movie Review

I usually go to one movie a year. So, I pick carefully. I love movies, but I am almost always perturbed when I leave. First, they might as well hold a gun to my head and ask me to empty my pockets. It would be nearly the same as charging me $9.50. Ludicrous. And, the American public has become so rude at the movies. I think it is because we can now watch movies so readily at home that we forget where we are, and to be on our best behavior when watching a movie in the theater.

This summer, I have been to a record three movies. The first movie I spent a fortune to see, a kid behind me pulled on the back of my chair trying to launch me out of it through the whole movie. The second movie I saw, the kid and his Mother next to me carried on a running conversation about everything from the characters to what might happen next to remembering to pick up the brother at 9:30, from the title scene to the credits. In normal voice, not whispers. During the movie I saw tonight, a woman sitting directly behind me did not turn off her phone. It is one thing to forget and your phone rings. It is entirely another to leave the phone on and take calls. I could hear her and her husband on the other end of the phone conversing.

And I am not alone. This summer, Human PinBall had her foot stomped on and broken at the movies.

OK, crabfest over. That is why I wait for DVD or iTunes.

Tonight I saw Julie and Julia. I give it two thumbs up and highly recommend it if you have not seen it already. I laughed all the way through it, it could not have been more fun. Meryl Streep was Julia Child and I was so glad since the last thing I saw her in was Mama Mia. Don't get me started! I do not know how they made a 5'6" actress look onscreen like she was 6'2". But they did. I looked to see if it was the camera angle or what, but I guess it must have been done in post production, they made her tall. I need one of those cameras. They must have had a height limit to be in the movie with her. Stanley Tucci played her husband, he is 5'8", and he was much shorter than Meryl on screen. The other women in the movie looked like pixies.

I remember Julia Child as kind of a joke. Remember Dan Ackroyd doing her on Saturday Night Live? That was in there. She was a person that the media kind of made fun of because of her eccentricities. But, the movie portrayed her as witty and loving.

The movie has a running story about a girl who did a blog that turned into a book. She worked one year to make everything in Julia Child's cookbook and wrote about it. So, of course, I am ready now to write a book. If you have any ideas for topics I might write about, will you please share? All I need is a topic and I am off and running....er writing.

The last movie I saw was Star Trek (loved it!) and I left wanting to become a movie costume designer. Do you think I might be looking for something to do with my life? Yeah.

I should have been an actress, then I could have had several lives instead of one,

Normal Girl

Make it Work

Project Runway season 6 started tonight and promises to have a full line up of crazy people. I will especially be watching the guy who went to school to be a neurosurgeon and then decided he would rather be a designer. And maybe the former drug addict who was sobbing by 20 minutes into the show. And I am sad that the girl I picked to be most entertaining got kicked off already tonight. She said that when she designs a garment, she just asks the fabric what she should do with it and then she listens to what the fabric has to say. Yeah.

Tonight's challenge was to design an outfit for the red carpet. One guy said he does not discriminate any carpet colors. How can you not watch this show? It is a hoot a minute! So, my new favorite girl got herself kicked off by designing a pair of denim shorts and a shirt. When they asked her exactly what red carpet event she designed for, she told them....the VMA's in 2080 and my girl is going to accept her award there and go straight to accept her nobel Peace Prize on the same night.

I have no idea how they could argue with that logic! You just can't trust Nina Garcia and Michael Kors. Oh yeah, and guest judge Lindsey Lohan. Seems like that explanation and outfit would have been right up her alley.

The guy who won the challenge tonight had made a huge deal out of acting like he knew nothing, had no training and could not sew. He did not even know what smocking is. He won. I think he was psyching out the rest of the crazy people, and it worked.

This show is a sitcom, right?

Normal Girl

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Look who I got today. It appears there is a never ending stream of wildlife in the city.

He is moving out today,

Normal Girl

You Just Thought We Were Finished

I could not resist. This video raises some questions for me:

- Really?

- Does this girl deserve the Academy Award?

- Does this girl need a padded room?

- Why is Maury still on TV?

It makes me feel downright normal!

Normal Girl

The Pickle Payoff

My souvenir. Need I say more?

Normal Girl

Pickle Festival

I so wanted you to feel the excitement.

They guy at the booth is a sort of a cousin. We share the same great great grandfather. Then our lines go through different sons. He is from F.D. who was a giant of a man. Just huge. He was a pillar (no pun intended) of the community, owned the grocery store in town and had 9 children. Mine is Louis, who was puny and raised a couple of alcoholic sons. Nice.

Ah family.....

Normal Girl

Are We Done Yet?

Are you sick of this yet? This makes #6 in the last two weeks. She was heavy and agitated, poor old girl. Or not, I am just assuming she is the Momma, I did not check. She was heavy. I barely got her in the car. She struggled in the trap all the way to the deportation station. Sad for her, happy for me.

How many more?

Normal Girl

Raccoon B Gone

I planned to tape the raccoon relocation process, but wouldn't you know that the day I took my camera, the little bugger could not wait to run away from me. Usually, I have to coax them out of the trap, they come out and look around a bit and then head into the woods. Today, #4 had his nose out of the trap before I could get it all the way open. He was ready. Watch closely, you don't get to see much.

At least one more to go, but I am guessing there are a few more.

Normal (Davy Crockett) Girl

Old

Most days I successfully ignore the whole aging thing. And then this comes in the mail. With my name on it.

And why do they call it an association for retired people? I really don't think there is going to be comfy retirement for most people my age.

That is why I have to ignore the whole aging thing,

Normal Girl

You Can Never Have Too Many Pillows

On our last visit to Grace Centers of Hope, we played a game in the rec room and sat on the sofas. They have four pretty nice ones, covered in chambray. But, when we sat on them, we found them really uncomfortable. It was like the back cushions were missing and it was more like lying down than sitting up straight. Or maybe they are just really deep sofas.

Two sad little pillows.

So, I asked people at church to donate pillows, and two great seamstresses volunteered to cover them. We went to visit again tonight and took all the pillows.

They made the sofas super comfy and look homey. Good job everyone at CBC, the pillows look great and the women really like them!

Oh yeah, and we did bead soup with them tonight. It is always a resounding success and tons of fun.

Normal Girl

XTreme Trapping

This explains where I am in life right now.

The last four nights, something has gotten in the trap and stolen the bait without tripping the trap. GRRRR. SO, on the suggestion of the Human PinBall, I have WIRED a chicken leg to the back of the trap. See the wire? Her thought is that the coon will go in and have to fight to get the food, and spring the trap. I hope she is right because the only idea I have left is the CoonieCam and I just don't have one.

Removal of all Raccoons!

Normal Girl

Chipper

I have had a headache for two days this week. Finally, this morning, I woke up without it. And then at 8 o'clock, this began. My neighbor called French LaFrenchman, a tree cutter, to remove two trees on our property line. They have been growing in a 10" space between my fence and his garage. Weird, but they have provided nice shade on my deck for my raccoons.

So, Frenchy has parked the chipper in my yard. Not the neighbor's yard, my yard. It has been chipping constantly for hours. It goes like this: they drop a section of the trunk on the ground, it shakes everything in my house and makes me jump 2353 feet off my chair. Then they haul it to the chipper which sounds and feels like the dentist is drilling inside my skull with a jackhammer. Oh, and apparently, chipping on Frenchy's crew means you must be in constant verbal contact. They are screaming at each other at all times, LOUDLY, loudly enough to be heard over the chipper. Even the skinny little girl. Take zee tree away from me! The many nasty words are not in french. People yelling at each other has always unnerved me. I can't think, I can't hear the music, my headache is taking up permanent residence.

And they have completely messed up my trapping grounds.

Won't it be quiet when they are gone? And sunny? And, I hope coonie?

Wonder if they have insurance to cover an exploding head?

Normal Girl

Ring Ding

I have had this big honkin' disc bead sitting on my kitchen windowsill for a couple years. I liked it but did not have inspiration for it. It is so not my normal colors, but for some reason, I like it. So tonight, I made it into a ring. Like it!

What can I wear it with? I have nothing brown,

Normal Girl

One Man's Trash

This morning, I relocated my third raccoon in three days. This one is tiny, and it was hard not to feel sorry for the little bugger. Then I remembered what he will become. I don't know if I have two separate litters of babies or this one is the runt. I put him in the car and drove him to the place I have been letting them go this week. It is a little strip of grass with a picnic table a couple miles out of the city. When I got there today, I noticed that there was trash all over the place, taken out of the three trash cans. It was all fast food wrappers. Oh Oh. Is that my fault?

Better those trash cans than mine,

Normal Girl