Didn't get another walk in today like I should have, but I did spend a little time outside sweating at mom's pulling weeds before we had a little cookout.  The weather was great - warm and bright.  After getting back to town I got to catch dinner w/ Eggs, so that was awesome.  A great way to spend a free day off of work.

Today I filled in for the youth pastor and led our last video in the series for Jesus is.  I really adore the young adults in our youth group.  Their smiles are infectious and they're attentive and respectful.  I have been working on processing the grave photos I took at St Anthony's in Geistown and want to get through a good bit before I go back for the last round of photos to cover the whole cemetery.  With the nice weather I'm sure a desire to go take a drive to Carrolltown to photograph more there isn't far off either.

Yes, I napped again late this afternoon, don't judge me.  It was enough for the excedrin tension to alleviate my aching head and give me the motivation to go for my first legit walk of the summer.  I'd say around an hour and saffy is wiped out.  My work here is done.

I started this morning with plans to simply clean up after the dogs out back which spread into filling three garbage bags with weeds that were growing along and outside the fence line.  From there I realized I needed to cut back the rose bushes, so I filled two old dog food bags with clipped back thorned branches.  This past winter was so cold, that is all I can attribute it to, but I really feared my rose bushes bit it.  Instead they started growing anew from near the ground, leaving the rest looking dead.

Don't worry, I granted myself a nap this afternoon as a bit of a reward.  Time to vacuum before I park myself for the evening.

Spent a couple of days with all over aches, head feels too heavy to be held up by my neck.  Had my second chiro appt yesterday after which I felt a little looser.  Yep, gotta return again next week.  In the evening the youth group had the first pool party of the year and I'm glad I went.  Just being in the water moving a bit helped loosen me up further.  Tonight I have a massage, so I'm hoping I'm nearing comfort.

 

I really should try to get my rear over to UPJ and swim this summer too.  I wonder if their schedule will have anything outside of work hours.  If I want to get training for a 5k this fall but keep fighting an aching knee I will need to do something to get in shape.

The near 90s are a faint memory already.  I came home Friday needing to turn the heat back on just so Saffy and I wouldn't still be cold under the comforter taking a nap.  I had left work a bit early to get to a chiropractor appointment, so we managed our nap with a large portion of the evening left.  I haven't been to a chiro in a few years since my last visit resulted in a near instantaneous migraine.  Different doctor this time, entertainingly enough in the building where my old primary care physician was.  He gave me a few exercises and did his best to get my hips back into alignment.  I need to go back next week.  Hopefully this will only take a couple of visits.

I probably didn't help things today since my first action of the day was to head out to help at the church where I stood for a couple of hours on pavement and concrete.  My lower back feels a little stiff right now, but I think it's from the standing not the adjustment.  The church was giving away coupons to get free oil changes, how fun is that?  So I was holding a sign to lure folks in for a majority of the time.  I spent some time back at the house and then headed back out to help out at a church in Moxham w/ a community meal.  Wasn't there super long.  Good thing too since I'm already thinking about climbing in bed for the night.

It was almost 90 degrees today when I came home from work.  Don't mistake this for complaining, but it was freezing less than a month ago.  meh.

I ALMOST forgot to point out that my little gift to myself arrived yesterday... a new lens for my camera.  I've been itching for a very long time to get something that has a little more range.  I now am the proud owner of a 18-180mm  f/3.5-6.3 Zuiko.  This upped me a great deal from the 14-42mm.  I could have gotten it a little cheaper if I had rocked w/ the fixed f stop, but decided to splurge so I can keep growing into it.  I LOVE the zoom capacity.  It is a bit bigger and heavier than the other lens, but it does still fit into the existing carrying case I have.  Now I'll just wait for the birds to come visit on the back porch.

Happy Mother's day to all!  I did make the trip down to visit with my dear Mum today after church and youth.  How spoiled am I that I go planning to bring her some dinner and she has T-bones there to make for me?  That's not how it's suppose to work at all.  The lawn got her first full mow today whilest I was away, thus making it officially summer in my mind.

Yesterday we had a heck of a good rain storm, but at least it didn't persist all weekend as I had originally heard they were calling for.  A chunk earlier in the day was spent at the Wild one's buying way too much Pampered Chef.  After I joined Beff at a roller derby at the War Memorial.  I gotta admit, I'd love to do it, but I fear breaking a hip - my own that is.

Friday was quite the long day as I had to head to the AJ office, leaving at 5am and getting back at 9pm.  The major stink is that I had hoped to leave work early on Thursday knowing I'd have so many hours in on Friday, but I didn't get out of there until 4:55.  That's early, technically, but not what I had in mind.  The meeting went reasonably well, better than I was expecting, so I'll call it success.  Unfortunately, all of the sitting has had my back in a tissy.  I think it's related to my belief that my hip/pelvis is out of whack, as is the knee pain I've had for a few weeks now.  I guess I'm going to need to bite the bullet and actually go see a chiropractor.

Yay!  Saffy and I went for our first comfy weather walk this evening.  I don't care if it did smell like freshly cut grass (and worse still straw from people reseeding their grass) it was lovely.  More nice weather please.

This weekend seems to be the time for dropping things and smashing them in sinks.  First my most favorite coffee mugs, yep, both of them at the same time, tumbling from the cabinet above the kitchen sink and smash.  Both handles came off so in the trash they went.  Then today I managed to drop a container of eyeshadow and the powder broke apart when it hit the bathroom sink.  I have too many mugs and too much makeup anyhow... at least that's what I am telling myself.

I didn't gather as much as I would have liked, but I did get through all of my dresser drawers.  Hopefully I can get through my closet one of the nights this week.  It appears that our evenings will remain chilly for a few more days so maybe then.  Here's to hoping I can turn the heat off before June.

An agreement has been reached that tames some of my anxiety regarding my previous post.  Of course, even when things are as they should be it still stresses me out to transition between tenants.  That said, if anyone is looking the apartment is open again June 1.

Since my front lawn grows earlier than the back I was all kinds of classy today and used the weed eater to give it a first pass.  I guess I should contact the guy who mows for me to see if he's still doing so again this summer... but I'm worried he'll decide to hang it up.  Fingers crossed.  I did get this work done before a shower rolled through, which means waiting longer to rake up the clippings.  In the mean time I'll be working to clear some clothes out for a donation.  Wish me luck.

There are lots of other things I need to get to, it always seems like the weekends are a time for catch up.  When can I just have a leisurely Saturday and take a nap?

Trying to not stress out tonight.  Unexpected changes to the norm.  Trying to toss the worry aside.  I really don't want to own a house w/ a rental unit anymore.

Guess what I had for dinner tonight?  Yep... and it was delightful.  I'm a bit tired today as this young man is a pleasure to chat with, so I was up a bit later than normal last evening and up early this morning to make sure he had a hardy breakfast before taking back to the road.

My church (Oakland United Methodist) had a single, unified service this morning at 10am.  While the service was a bit shorter than normal we then had a congregation meeting regarding our building project.  I'm excited to say that as I drove there I thought I knew what option I was voting for but I and seemingly quite a few others shifted our views and we decided to take a deeper leap of faith.  We are growing and if you are here in Johnstown and seeking a place to call home, we want you to come grow with us.  I know it's creepy that I'm advertising us, and I probably don't need to as we just seem to have people crawling out of the woodwork week after week, but I do believe in the presence we have and the blessing that is coming and would love to share that with more of my friends.  After the vote we had a ground breaking under a beautiful bright sun.

Later in the afternoon I realized I needed to get on top of a Mother's Day gift as it is approaching quickly.  I know what I wanted to do, so I had to hit TJ Maxx/Ross and see if I could find part of it or if I needed to order (and pay more) online.  I did find exactly what I had in mind, which I wasn't seeing on Amazon in a cursory search, and I loved the price.  Now to get the last components and put'r together.

After I headed to the theatre to see Heaven is for Real.  I think they did a pretty good job following along with the book, which I really enjoyed a year and a half ago while on a cruise.  I'm choosing to believe it just so I can hold on to the idea of all of those animals being there.  I do plan on seeing my girls again!