WALL-E

P and I saw this last week. I actually didn't fall asleep, which is a first for me since I always fall asleep during a movie at home and in the theater. It's really cute and has a great message for kids and grown ups.





WALL-E reminds me a lot of Perry. Who would be content in this world to build towers out of garbage and collect random objects. WALL-E is also afraid of unpredictable loud noises.

Why God?

This falls under the catagory of, I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to question God, and hopefully he doesn't mind if I'm just mad at him right now. Katie Reider (see link on right) passed away this morning. See full story here. (warning read while listening to her beautiful voice and you are guarenteed to fall the heck apart.) Just as it just didn't seem fair that Rachel was taken so soon, it just doesn't seem fair that Katie was taken too soon. She had done way more living than Rachel and had 2 babies. Not to mention truly blessed by God with a beautiful voice, and extremely talented. Story from the local paper.


The very first time I heard Katie sing was at church. The Vineyard was recording it's very first worship CD, and she wrote and sang a song on it. It was also my recording debut (I was in the audience.....you can hear me I swear...) for some reason I think they called it the "grape jam" not sure why probably because VCC is wierd. I remember I e-mailed Dave, he was then associate pastor or worship leader then, and asked him who she was cause her voice was amazing and that song was the coolest I'd ever heard. He said she was a young girl who came a very talented family, and don't be surprised if she did great things some day. I think that may have been 1994 or 1995? A few years later she and her dad performed as part of a play at church, he acting as a crazy lounge singer (again my church is crazy) and she singing the most amazing version of silent night I had ever heard.

She made a name for herself locally in the 10 years that followed. She has a huge fan base in Cincinnati and Columbus, along with little pockets of people all over the US, and 4 albums can be found on Itunes. She had an amazing voice I own a lot of her songs, and was amazing to see live I saw her only twice in concert once with her brother Robbie. When she became sick I started following her story and linking others. I was certain she'd pull through, I'm sure she gave it all she had. It just stinks for the Reider family......Katie's mom Gaile just passed away almost a year ago. I will be praying for her family, as most of them have had an impact on my whole life. Her dad Rob I watched on the Bob Braun show with my dad when I was a kid. Katie and her beautiful music. Gaile speaking at womens events at church helped me grow spiritually. Robbie the best worship leader in the whole world......worship music helped me grow more than anything else. Amazing family....they don't deserve so much tragedy. Sorry God maybe I'll find a way not to be mad tomorrow but right now....still mad!

I've lost my Mind.....literally

Ok so my weekends activities included going to dinner and my former boss's house in Indiana with a couple of my co-workers. It was lovely and we had a good time talking about how wack many of my co-workers are. Sorry folks if you actually read my blog, which I don't think you do, but the majority of you are straight crazy. So while at said grill-out/dinner to-do, I was telling a story about some of my previous employment. And couldn't remember when this employment was, as in COULD NOT REMEMBER YEAR, TIMEFRAME, NOTHING.....it was a little scary. So yesterday we went to another grill-out, this one was with the fam, at a previous co-workers house (Kings Island Peeps for those who know my life) and again we were doing a little bit of "remember when" and there was a lot of people whose names I couldn't remember......Decided on the way home....sweet Jesus, I must be dying. Seriously people, I have a mind like a steel trap, I remember faces, names, people I may have briefly ran into in 10th grade and spoke two words to. I'll see someone like that at the grocery store and I'll be like that's so and so and they used to do such and such.....for real.

So it's now time for what I'd like to call Operation Brain Stretch! AKA Sexton's Read! Perry's reading a chapter book about WALL-E, so far he's completed 3 pages...not bad for one day. Ron's reading some book about Zombie Wars....stimulating I'm sure. And I'm reading a book about......ready........HOW KORN FOUND JESUS.....that's right you heard me. It was either that or a book by Fannie Flagg, which I've read a few of her books back in the day. Ron wanted me to get a book he would read. He said he might read this one, so there ya go.

So as part of the Korn tribute I offer you a list of some of my favorite Korn tunes, for you listening enjoyment. Be patient with Shoots and Ladders cause it's got some wicked bagpipes at the beginning that are awesome....but then he kicks up midway through....by far my favorite!


SeeqPod - Playable Search
My brother will be so proud!
Oh and we must never forget.....

If you listen to none of the Korn tunes you must listen to that one, with Amy Lee freakin amazing!

Summer Fun....

I never did say anything about Perry and Daddy's adventures at Summer Camp. Let me post one picture to entice you to return tomorrow cause I gotta take off to work!

Precious child. Sorry I wasn't there. Well maybe just sorry I wasn't there during the day for the fun, except for the part about climbing cardiac hill to go swimming, or the part about the food that is less than desirable. More about camp later!

Grouchy People.....GEEZ!

Ok so heres the thing, the more challenging my job becomes the more I love it, don't know why but it's true. Management can be completely jacked up on many different levels, I can end up on register for 3 hours, but I still love the challenge of my work. Maybe it's because there was so much about Life insurance that was way way way too challenging and I didn't understand half the crap I did, now I have control over a lot of stuff, and understand completely 100% of what I do, strange how that can make a difference. And for the most part I can make the most unhappy customer happy and satified, doesn't take much. A few people are like oh this place is so jacked they'll be closed in a year......bahaha....NOT..I see the inner circle of this crazy nonsense you call IKEA. IKEA has brand recognition, people will travel for hours to shop at IKEA, and buy a muffin tin with the IKEA logo on it. You can piss off 100 people, but you have 200 more that don't care what it is if it says IKEA they will buy it and spend a lot of money to do so. So heres what I say to my grouchy co-workers.......SHUT UP.....already, I'm having fun!

I'm saying that now, but the changes that are coming in the next month, I may change my mind. Lets just say theres a good possibility some crazy personalities are about to colide and it may not be very pretty. I intend to hang in there but I suspect there a a good number of folks who will not hang in there. Stay tuned!

Lets be real folks, in the infinite words of my homegirl Kristi, my life is straight busted. Or more importantly the admin. area of your beloved IKEA is busted! It's feeling the ripple effect of Leesa's departure, see blog below because apparently you people either forgot to pray or God needs her elsewhere. I'm so over that....just get shit figured out and leave me alone so I can make happy formerly pissed off customers! So on with bigger and happier things. Looking forward to the Beth Moore simulcast....go here and click on Beth Moore if you are interested. (then e-mail me and tell me you are going cause as of now I'm going by myself, no pressure) It's worth every penny, I've been before, as well have done 3 of her bible studies and in 2 days your life will be changed, she's amazing!

Beth Moore Live- Check that out for more details.

Up for a Challenge?

Ok I have some three dimensional items I'd like to challenge the postal system with. Oh you better believe a little something will be showing up in Mrs. Moo Mail's mail box, but I got 3 others that need to get some art too. So heres the rules. To accept this challenge you have to:

1. Enjoy something funky showing up in your mailbox
2. Be willing to challenge the postal system yourself
3. Be able to take a picture of the item upon arrival and e-mail me a photo

Any takers? If so e-mail me your address. Yoda0419@gmail.com

Unleashed....

Good Lord.....to say the Holy Spirit was unleashed at SOS would be the understatement of the Summer!!! This was my 3rd year serving on the prayer team.....ok need I remind you that my blog is all about being honest. Which could very well mean a little bit of a background story. I've been a Christian for 30 years, over these many I've seen a lot of stuff, and there are a lot of come to Jesus stories. I went to Ichthus many years as a teenager and they'd always do an altar call at least one of the nights. Then I went to Ichthus as a grown up, and was a youth leader.....Altar Call night came, and I was moved by the number of kids who went forward, until one of the kids in my group said...."most people just go forward for the free stuff....." DO WHAT? The thought had never occured to me, I was scarred. And now I've scarred many of you. I do believe in that moment I became suspicious of every rotten teenager I encountered, and decided teenagers were not my gift. So that was like 12 or 13 years ago.......I stayed away from teenagers for 10 years, I think I needed to mature a little and grow spiritually myself. 3 years ago I volunteered for the first time for SOS, I joined the prayer team for one night. I figured I don't really have to like teenagers to pray for them, if anything I can make a difference by praying for them. So I jumped in, and fought through my sinicalness, and did just fine. Not to mention had a blast and decided I'd go for every night the next year. So the next year I did one night of security and the rest prayer, slowly my fear of teenagers began to dimenish. Now this year, seems I've learned how to hear Gods voice, and how to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit better than I ever have before. Either that or the power of the Holy Spirit was super powerful this year....which it could be both. Seriously the HG shows up year after year.....this year....it was off the hook. Kids were praying for the gift of healing and immediately using it, I'm for real, we saw it happen. I was way more comfortable praying for folks this year and watching to see what was happening. I love that the Vineyard (Karin Maney-trains most everyone how to pray) teaches us that it's ok to ask while praying what they are feeling....or to share tentitively what we feel God is saying. It's so awesome to get and give feedback! Seriously I can't wait till next year, and if you have a teenager plan now. If you sign up in March you get a discount. Check out the Art and Faith blog link on the right. For a photographers perspective, and Stacie's first SOS. Oh and check out the Vineyard website for video of todays service which was an awesome recap of SOS great video footage. Just click on this weeks message.

In other news I got my wig busted. All the gay men at work love it so that means I must look fabulous (well only one gay man...but whatever)
Here's the before and after. Picture #1 is at the Mugrages 50th Anniversary party with Weezer who also has a fabulous new haircut. She is always making crazy faces for pictures....but I look good.....kind of....Picture #2 is my best attempt at putting your arm out and taking a self portrait after many hours working at IKEA. Excuse the blemish, and the multiple chins.....I am far more fabulous in person! Oh and picture #1 I am sporting a grown up frilly shirt....as in not a t-shirt which is what I usually wear but a non-t-shirt sort of shirt with ruffles and poofy sleeves....I know...I was looking like a girl everyone was shocked. It's not everyday folks are still together after 50 years, had to represent.
While we are on the subject of life and fabulous people....best transition really.....my fabulous boss Leesa is quitting IKEA....taking a job at Honda, I'm sure it's better....or not....how could it be IKEA is awesome. It's possibly management screwed up and didn't treat her right or something, I didn't ask for the details cause honestly I like not knowing. However if you are the praying type.....how about you pray they offer her loads of money to stay or something.....we have about 6 days to keep her there so get to praying people. She's the best boss I've ever had, and IKEA is stupid for letting her go. Everyone she's in charge of is pretty much super sad and frustrated she's leaving, she is definately NOT replaceable. There are some changes in life that are just no fun, and if we could make them not happen we'd go to great length......so pray people!

Did you say Dancing Cows?

That's right people...it's time for SOS. Oh and this year 820 smelly teenagers, add in 1500 volunteers, and you got yourself some straight up nasty bathrooms. God bless the VCC custodial staff, cause teenagers are gross! Gross however they live in this F'd up world so God definately needs to pour out some blessings on them. But before he did that Family Force 5 show'd up and got things started in a super loud and off the hook way......had never heard them, had heard of them cause I know a few teenagers so their name got thrown around in a few conversations. They rolled up on stage and I was like HOLD UP, these boys got some talent. Loud talent.....whole lot of screaming....but talented, and I loved it, made me shake my booty! Oh and they had some dancing cows! Which was amazing and went right along with the cow theme Stacie started for the summer!


That's just a sampling, I stuck it out for an hour of that craziness....yeah I'll need that to be my next full album download!
Tonight the Holy Spirit show'd up in a huge way and I was blessed and blown away at my lack of fear to pray for folks and just allow the HG to speak through me, I prayed for a lot of kids tonight. Send up some words that God will continue to use me, and my peeps to love on some kids till Friday!

Tidbits of my Life.....

So as expected IKEA cut hours. Shouldn't last long since the new catalogue comes out in late July I believe. So I'm going to enjoy the time off since it is summer and not complain. However, I am broke people so if you want me to do anything....which you should cause I ain't working so I can kick it with my peeps. Try and make sure it's free fun then you won't feel guilty for not paying my way. Just sayin!

Super important fact of the day. I SCORED 100% ON "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT" ON GUITAR HERO. This is big news people....why you might asks? Because my homeslice Connie, who just had a baby the other day (place image here).....by the way...has been playing GH2 for longer than me, scores usually 98 or 99 on every song she plays has yet to get 100%. I am rarely if ever an over achiever...if anything I am usually an under achiever....not this time people it's on now!

Cute quote of the week: As said by my 11 year old to his Daddy while mommy was at work. "Daddy, I know why you love Mama so much.......because she's so beautiful!"

Ok I'm losing sunlite....I'll say something important tomorrow.

Moo Mail!

About a month ago, Stacie gave a shout out to some peeps in regards to a mail art challenge. She collected address's for anyone who cared to partake in this activity. Stacie and I took a Mail Art class a few years ago where we sent and recieved all sorts of fun art via the mail. It was fun to recieve 3 dimensional art pieces from all over the world, some from England and Austrailia. So I took the challenge and prepared a flipflop, and threw it in the post.

Well she may have had to rack her brain to top that one, but oh my friends she did! I present to you what arrived in my mailbox Saturday Morning. That's right I think a plastic cow with decoupage fabric on it, lipstick, eyelashes and a NOSE RING, completely tops a flip flop! Now it's on.....I have something in mind but feel free to e-mail me any ideas you might have.

Kudo's to Stacie who was a big chicken last time to mail a wooden letter and put it in an envelope. Moomail came with no covering....just as is....it's all about pushing the postal system to it's limits one plastic object at a time!

Inducing Panic one bottle of water at a time.....

So I was hangin out at my favorite scrappin website, seeing what folks are up to. One of my peeps sends a shout out about smart plastic. So now come the PSA via me.....Apparently according the Matt on the today show, his experts stated any plastic with a #7 on it is pretty much unsafe to use EVER???? Oh and super smart people who know this stuff created this useful document. So then I've been freaking the heck out because I get attached to things that make me happy. And this bottle makes me happy. It's pink (a dark pink) looks red in the picture. It has the life is good guy on it, and it has a cool pink spash guard so that I don't end up with a face full of water everytime I drink. I use it almost everyday for tea or water. So after I saw the segment and read the documents I went and ran to my faithful friend that happens to be a water bottle. Only to find it has the dreaded #7 on the bottom. Which Mr. Waterbottle expert stated you should never use anything with #7. That's just great, no wonder I can't remember shit, and have hormone issues (don't even ask people you don't want to go there) I'm poluting my body daily with poly-something-or-other. Then I found this document, and the panic was over. Oh and the people at Nalgene, have it plastered right on their home page. Apparently Matt stirred up quite the commotion! My question is this.....Who do we believe? We have to trust educated people cause we can't all be that dang smart to know what chemicals are where. And obviously Nalgene is going to dispute it since they want you to buy their bottles. How do I get involved in these things anyways. I need to isolate myself.....heading to the basement to play guitar hero and pretend none of this happened. The hormone issues must be from some other chemical I'm polluting my body with, I'll let you know when I find out what that is. Probably has something to do with toothpaste or laundry detergent.....

Sorry....so dang Busy...

Oh my gosh, I'm busy. I'm busy with work, camping, birthday party, end of school, preparing everyone for summer camp. Just before summer camp is SOS which I am working at the whole week, and can't wait. I wish every teenager I knew would go to SOS, it's such a great experience for the kids, like no other. Ok off to work, promise to update more often, as time allows.

Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz and Colbey Calet, should hook up, or maybe they have and I juSt don't know it. This the latest full album I'd like to buy. So if you owe me a gift...this here album on the itunes would be SWEET!

The one where Dave Ramsey gets thrown under the bus.....

Sorry Dave. Not sure what happened after taking Financial Peace. We were good for many months, even paid off a student loan we were chiseling away at for over 10 years. Then we got a little extra cash flow from Mr. IRS, and all the sudden we lose our damn minds. Budgets are for smart people, apparently neither Ron or I are smart. I'm sure if you are a regular reader you've determined that considering my poor grammer and bad spelling. Ha! Not so smart, but a really quick wit! So for mothers day, after much pleading, and researching I talked the man into Guitar Hero III, because I was in a former life a Rocker chic.
I am quite good at easy songs so far, I tried moving on to Medium level, and when you add a 4th key all hell breaks lose! So I'll stick to 3 keys for a little while longer. Seriously though we either need a bigger TV or we need to put it up higher, because no one looks good with their chin to their chest playing guitar! So because of my guitar playing buzz, I unintentionally washed and dried my cellphone. Honestly am I the only one whose ever done this? I hear folks drop them in the toilet all the time.....ewwww.....but that's probably a quick wet...in out sort of thing (I hope). Apparently several gallons of water flushing through it and then a quick spin in the dryer for an hour isn't exactly the best thing for your cellphone. So headed to the phone store for a accessment of the damage...it was toast....sims card erased, and I lost all my peeps....NOOOOOO.... in this day and age, that's where everyone is, if they ain't there they don't exist. So if you are a peep of mine, and you've not sent me your digits and care to ever hear from me again. E-mail me your digits or you are lost forever. So I upgraded to a blackberry (hello Mr. IRS). Was a bit afraid to tell the man who I knew wouldn't be happy considering it was twice as much as I needed to spend, however theres a sweet rebate of $100 bones after 90 days. Predictably he was real mad...even hung up on me...yelled...was annoyed, but knew he'd lose eventually and began to research the phone I got.....SHOCK...it was a wise purchase. No one can resist cool and affordable technology, so the man had to have one for himself and scored one for an early fathers day gift. Oh and he had to get the better one, with a flash, and has video capabilities.....WHATEVER!

Go find this....

So Ashton and I planted a letterbox for Pack 969. Someone has actually found it and logged in on the letterboxing website. Very cool. Now you people GO FIND IT!

Now for the Hard Stuff

Tomorrow begins the 2 day grieving process. I've been coping fairly well, trying not to think about any of it. I created a very cool card to help with the coping process.

Gone too Soon!!!!!

Warning this blog post could suck....royally....but newsflash life sucks royally sometimes. So I've dealt with some sucky funerals in my day. Grandparents are the closest death I've dealt with, and the childhood friend I lost to suicide that was the suckiest of all. But a family members child....this could potentially suck, and suck bad! My cousin (technically 2nd cousin) Rachel lost her life in a car accident last night, I can't continue to skirt around it sorry. My attempt to busy myself with a busy Saturday to try and control my grief has now come to a screeching hault and I am faced with the reality that a beautiful 15 year old girl is no longer with us.

So I am preparing myself for a fairly crappy week. I'm not sure how it could not be.

What I did to get my mind off things today?

We had a busy busy Saturday on tap. We went and participated in the Clean Sweep....cleaning up the Miami River banks. I had mentally prepared myself that this could potentially be yucky since often this river can be rather stinky, and where we were going was near the sewage treatment plant, that to me just sounds stinky. Good news no funk smell at all. It was actually a beautiful day. And bonus, they must have had a crew of volunteers yesterday because we didn't score that much trash. I mean a stove, a fridge, an old rusty washtub and some remains of a rusted out car, and a few tires were our big finds. Oh Oh Oh, the best of all was when one of our Tiger cubs emerged from the woods with a shopping cart basket. So stinkin cute. 10 year olds rarely want to cooperate when I'd like to get a cool photo of them in the storm sewer. Thought it'd be a cool shot of all of them peeking out of the concrete circle. However no one cared to listen to me. I am fairly certain they see me as Perry's annoying mom who is always taking pictures. Like here this is a cool photo Ron caught....and then theres one of the little mud mongers red gloved hand in the shot. Right if I had photo shop I could chop his hand off as if it was never there and I am sure some software on here could do that. However if they would just care about my desire to get a decent shot this would not happen. They are precious angels who have fun together....but um they are 10 and they are dirty and they smell bad. Today required 2 showers.....2 showers for a reluctent 10 year old is no fun for anyone. So in observance of the fact my weeks going to suck....I shall end the day by consuming a banquet dinner (the suckiest of all meals) at 11:15 at night because I did not have time to eat dinner tonight.

No stink smelly 10 year olds were required for this cool shot I got.

Please pray for my family as we head into a week of mourning. Pray for my cousin Monica as she grieves the loss of her baby. My dad's side of the family is a close knit bunch, and this kind of death is going to be hard on everyone. Hug you kids a whole lot tighter tonight, and consider waiting on letting them drive.

Video Share...

OMG....this is dang funny! I love Natalie Portman!

What I'd call Perfection.....

SWITCHFOOT LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and getting lost in the woods with my favorite teenager! Well it wasn't out intentions to get lost in the woods, or be frightened by the unsuspecting man who came up behind us.

We scared the poor man with our screams more than he scared us. It was so funny! It was not our intentions to leave the cellphone in the car. Our plan was to plant the letterbox and head back to the car. So there was no reason to bring the bottle of water with us, it was a short hike. Then the trail we had never traveled before beckoned us, seriously how long could it be. It said at the beginning of the trail, some kind of loop which usually means you end up back where you started. We missed the part that it was 1.5 miles, and we weren't completely sure it was a loop??? Because we are both ding bats (me a grown up one), and neither of us have a good sense of direction. Thank Goodness for the compass on my watch, except I didn't know what direction we should be heading in. Hee Hee....Needless to say 1 mile into it, we weren't sure we would ever see our car again, and then we spied the thorny tree near the letterbox we planted, we had indeed made a full circle. Woohoo.....next time we might want to take some water....maybe a snack. We plan to explore the part we missed next week, which means we'll be lost again!