Ramblings!

Finished it! The book I mentioned recently... uh, let's see. It's The Complete Guide to the Bible by Stephen Miller. It had 510 pages, but the writing was big and it had colorful pictures throughout! I read the last half of it while walking the elliptical here in the house. It made the time pass quickly and I got through that book much faster than if I'd merely read a few pages each evening. As the name implies (sort of), it's a summary of each book along with certain facts concerning the teachings of the book. I didn't always agree with the author as his interpretation was a bit different than I was used to, but overall it was a nice read. Now I can read some of the new books that I've been getting lately in the mail. I think I'm only waiting on one that I ordered a few days ago.

Today I went to Wal-mart. I had time to spare, needed a lot of stuff for the family party next Saturday and I was in one of those browsing-at-leisure moods so I left home around 11 AM. I'd eaten an early lunch since I'd only had carrot, broccoli and beet juice for breakfast. I made a quick stop at my workplace and then was at Wal-mart around 11:30ish. I noticed gas was $1.55 ($1.52 with Walmart shopping card) .. not cheap enough so I thought I'd get it elsewhere later. When I came out of Wal-mart two-and-a-half hours later (yes!), gas dropped 6 cents so with the Wal-mart shopping card, I paid $1.46/gallon. I filled up my car.

I looked at many many items and bought 39. No, I didn't count them. It was printed on the end of my receipt in rather big writing. I enjoyed looking around and actually marking most everything off my list. I ran into an old high school classmate's mom and talked to Mrs. Evans for a few minutes. It was good seeing her.

Last night Andrew and Will went to play basketball, but Will sprained his ankle after about 30 minutes of play. When Andrew dropped off Will, Michael came over and said in a matter-of-fact way, "So, Dad, you hurt your ankle again, huh?" He then acted as if he were going to massage it, but Will stopped him before he did that. Michael was helping to get off the other tennis shoe and said, "Let's see if this baby can walk." Since Steph didn't have an ice pack or ice, Will used a bag of frozen greenbeans or stir fry to ice his ankle.

Sunday night we went to Michael's church Christmas program. Michael really sang out and seemed to enjoy the program. He asked me Tuesday, "Did you like my play?" He was still talking about various aspects of it. It was about a spelling bee, but very Christmasy, of course. The contestants spelled various names and descriptions of Jesus.

Andrew's friend, Al, was over here Wednesday night. He had graduation rehearsal on Thursday morning, and Southeastern is quite a ways from his home in Lynchburg, VA so he asked to stay here. We ate supper at Andrew's parents' house since Al loves FIL's barbeque. We talked a good while and then Andrew and Al went to the basement to play pool. We watched some of Al's scuba diving video from his trip to Aruba.

Yesterday we got 2.75 inches of rain. Since Andrew wasn't working, we went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch and then rode over to the old mall and walked around for a bit. Went by Goody's since it's going out of business. We didn't buy anything there. I found a purse at Sears that Andrew got me for Christmas. Very no-nonsense, smallish, black purse -- my style! I saw my friend Denise for about 15 minutes. She works at Victoria's Secret and I happened to see her as we were passing that store. I had not seen her in literally months so it was great talking to her for a few minutes.

I sent off my Christmas cards on Monday. I didn't do as many this year ... 39, I think. I have gotten a few in the mail this week. I really enjoy going to the mailbox this time of year and seeing pictures especially!

Last night I wrote "Hey, Christian! Remember this?" on my other blog. I discussed some of these things with Al while he was in town. I'm trying to find out why Christian Zionists blindly support a group of people who are oppressive and murderers when God is so clearly not that way. In fact, He sternly addresses Israel in the Old Testament and one example is in Isaiah 1. Here are just a few of those verses.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

I think I've rambled enough for now. Oh, I absolutely loved Survivor last night! Andrew watched it tonight on the internet, and I watched the last 20 minutes again. I'll post this now.