Common Ground Coffee House #110

[Friend of God]

Good Morning Everybody,

Cuz of course I wanted pictures of you receiving your new belt in Karate. It was Ripley's Believe It or Not who wanted pictures of you in the kitchen. They didn't believe it. Please get yourself checked out before your URI turns into something more serious.
They'll be plenty of time to abuse kitchen products when you feel better.

Sue good to hear from you! I was beginning to think that you'd forgotten us. Maybe when you get done I'll hire you and Brent to do some refinishing around here. I'm not mechanically-inclined, I change the oil on my car with a credit card.

I brought in Country Salisbury Steak, Cheesy Smashed Potatoes, and Banana Pudding Squares for dessert. Enjoy.

Time for me to start deep-cleaning this pigsty. I can't decide whether to call in Archeologists, or an Explosives Expert.

 

[menageriekeeper]

LOL Cuz, I've needed both and it still wasn't enough so I'm bringing in the heavy artillery! Vinegar and those children who live in this house that are under the age of 18 and over the age of 7.

You should have been here for the fussing! :laugh: I had to pick up an extra yesterday and they scared the poor child half to death with their wails of woe upon hearing of my decision. Then when they found I couldn't hear them (this cold has my ears stopped up you know), they turned on each other until I threatened to stop the car on the side of the road and beat them in public. They got yesterday's assignment done.

I have the first carpet cleaned, after making a trip to Walmart for supplies. My plan in the beginning was to clean them with cleaner and then go back and rinse with vinegar. But, I found a new cleaning solution out by Woolite (well, how new it is I don't know, I haven't cleaned carpets since sometime last year) and it seems to be cleaning quite well. Might not have to do them twice.

As far as this crud goes, I'm much better if I get up and move. Right this minute, I've been working for a couple of hours and I have no fever and I didn't take anything that would have brought it down. I feel somewhat better too. Whatever this is, it is much much worse at night and first thing in the morning.

 

[annsni]

MK - Take it easy! Don't push yourself or you'll get worse again!

Just a quiet day here today. Homeschooling, chores then Bob and I will go out to eat since he's going away for the weekend on the men's retreat.

Back to school!

 

[AVL1984]

Evening all,

My, things have been very busy in here!

I am still very busy washing down ceilings, walls, woodwork and painting. I've taken everything down off the walls and shelves in the dining room and washed them.

Brent is attempting to remove a border running around the center of the room so I can paint in there and put everything back in place.

I can sure tell this house is over 100 years old by the size of the cold air ducts (which I'm sure aren't 100 years old). I've been cleaning them in each room as I paint. They are so large, I almost fell in one trying to reach down!

Now, THAT would be a picture. Me with my head stuck down in the duct with my legs waving in the air - stuck and no cell phone. I wonder if 911 ever got a call to remove someone from a cold air duct.

It looks like this place is being well taken care of in my absence. I knew you could do it!

I will stop in when I can.

Pleasant dreams all!

Sue, you should have called my little brother, Mike, who owns Ductbusters #27 in Pekin. He could have come and cleaned your ducts for you and gotten any mold if there was any at the same time.

Hope all is well there. It's 2 am here, and I'm just not sleeping. They keep adjusting and re-adjusting meds. I have a feeling I'm' going to end up in the hospital again soon These steroids have about killed me twice, and I'm not sure they won't do it yet. I wish they'd get me off of them all together. Right now that is the main objective. They just have to find the right dosage to move them down at.

Please pray for Vivian and I as we continue to pray about whether or not we should move back home to Georgia. We are both usually very upbeat people, but the events of the past few months with her employer have left us with a bad taste in our mouth.

Hope all is going well with the rest of you. Despite all that is going on here, we remember always that :godisgood: :thumbs: . Blessings and peace on all y'all.

Bro. T & Sis Viv
:type:

 

[following-Him]

Hello everyone

It is quite cold here in the UK. Colder than usual for this time of year.

I am back at uni now and have a heavy workload but I will look in when I can.

Blessings

following-Him :wavey:

 

[menageriekeeper]

Welcome to Homecoming Friday, Everyone!

It is sure to be an exciting day today! The highschool homecoming parade starts about 1 o'clock with the kids getting out of school about 11:30. At that time I will increase my child load to about 4. After the parade that number will explode to 7! Yes folks, there will be three teenage girls, 1 teenage boy and one almost teenage boy and two 9 year old girls invading the menagerie for the rest of the afternoon!

That is not even the worst part. The worst part is that Cass has her first date tonight! Her fella, Dale, is invited to eat pizza here before the game. All the better to threaten and intimdate him, before he leaves with my daughter. The game is at 7. The dance is after. They will return to my house to change into their fancy duds in between. That way I can make sure my precious is still a happy camper. (poor Dale has NO idea what he has let himself in for) Curfew is midnight.

Poor kids, Dale is almost 17, Cass is 15 and I and his mother had a very nice chat last night! And they thought they were to old for parental involvement.

Anyhoo, I have about 5 more minutes to swallow my breakfast, before I run through the morning chores. There is no junk food in my house and I doubt the high and middle schoolers will have eaten before they get here.

This crazy URI still hasn't completely let go of me. If I dare lay down I get miserable. I've been awake since before 5 because I got to where I couldn't breathe. Then, about 30-40 minutes later, it mostly disappears. I feel just sick enough now to know that I'm not well.

But, today will be fun and is for me the beginning of the holidays! Sick or not I'm going to have fun!

Ya'll have a good day!

Oh yeah, I brought in a batch of fresh cinnamon rolls. Enjoy!

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

Good morning all,

I finally broke down and bought a scoring tool and some "DIF" for removing the border. They must have used super glue to put it up!!!

I wrenched my back somehow a couple of days ago...probably trying to get out of one of the ducts. LOL

So instead of working, I spent the morning typing up The Prodigal Post from Vern for October. I have emailed it to the ones of you that I have addys for. Now all I have to do is print out about 400 pages, fold them, put them in envelopes, put the "from" address and the "to" address labels on, stamp them and get them mailed to the prisoners. At least I can do all of that sitting down...

I have decided that Dale can by supper tonight since it's Friday. LOL This is the last Friday night Brent will be home before basketball season starts. Next Thursday and Friday, he will be in Louisville, KY for a two-day tournament. The 18th and 19th, he will be in St. Clair, MO for another two-day tournament.

One of our BB members is being deployed to Iraq before Thanksgiving. Let's hold him up in prayer along with all the other troops who are away from home fighting for us.

I must get busy if I want to get these devotionals in the mail today.

I'm glad to 'see' all of you again and will pop back in when I can.

God Bless you all!

 

[menageriekeeper]

Ahhhhh! Finally a moment of calm! What a busy day!

We're finally winding down. Well some of us at least. Chris, Cade and T are about to start a Halo 3 marathon that will probably go on till the wee hours (can't imagine the thrill myself). Cass is off on her date. They'll be back to change in about an hour. Jenna is off with her friend picking up clothes so they can do the spend the night at my house. I have such homebody children. They were supposed to stay at the friend's house. They should get back here pretty soon.

Everyone has been fed all the pizza they can eat off the country china and the cat has claimed the one of the boxes. Crazy cat loves to sleep on pizza boxes! My house, so far has stayed nearly in order. I find myself with, get this, not a single thing to do at the moment! I think I will kick back and watch TV for a bit.

Ya'll have a good evening!

 

[webdog]

I've never been here before...you guys serve Starbucks? I'll take a venti redeye...

 

[menageriekeeper]

Not only do we serve Star Ducks, but all our coffees are calorie free! Can't beat that!

 

[webdog]

Star Ducks? Is that some kind of Save-a-lot off brand?

 

[Dan Todd]

Good day to all!

I've had a sick computer for the past three weeks or so.

I purchased a new computer (laptop) from Best Buy. I took advantage of the Geek Squad to set up the new computer, wireless router, etc. While he was here - he figured out what was wrong with the old computer. When he removed the firewall that come "free" with Roadrunner - the email and internet started working again. So much for "free" virus and firewall software from Roadrunner - it cost nearly $300 to get the old machine up and running. Of course, over half of the was for hardware to allow me to have the old machine hooked to the wireless router - plus and additional 1 gig of RAM - the machine now works faster.

Update on Jared Fisher (Guitar25) - Jared was transferred to an educational facility after about four weeks in the original hospital. He is now at Strong Memorial, Rochester, NY - home of the University of Rochester Medical and Dental Schools.

We see "baby step" improvements in Jared nearly every day. But you know what they say about hospitals - if you aren't sick when you get there - you will be before you leave. Jared has had five infections during the six weeks of hospital stay. All the infections seem to be under control. Jared is moving both arms and legs - and moves about in the chair when they sit him in it.

Soon he will be going to a rehab facility. There is a good one in Rochester - and since my brother lives in a Rocherster subburb - my sister has a place to stay while Jared remains in the Rochester area.

Thank you for your prayers on Jared's behalf - I'm sorry that my machine broke down and I could not keep you up to date.

Oh - by the way - I got bored of being retired - so I've gone back to work.

Dan - retired - but still working - and it feels good!

 

[palagislandgirl]

Good morning all,
Yeah, it's actually below 60 degrees!!!!! Now if half the pollen in the air would go away I might feel alot better (oh well, I can't have everything!) Well, since it is Saturday that only means one thing around here-SOCCER!!!!!!!!!! The first game is at 10:30 and then we have a couple of more. I think that we are going to go shopping with the oldest neice which was her birthday gift. That is all dependent on how dad feels though. He was planning on going last night and hopefully he feels better. I had better go, I am leaving some biscuits- we have ham, egg and cheese; sausage; sausage, egg and cheese or just plain biscuits. Y'all enjoy!
:godisgood:

 

[Helen]

HI folks, it's been a few days!

palagislandgirl, your pollen problem should be disappearing soon, now. We had our first frost last night after a good soaking rain yesterday. Clear today, so the air here is crystal. Come on up!

Dan, I was not in Coffee Shop most of the summer and did not know about Jared. What happened? I'm glad he is improving, but improving from what? ITM, I certainly understand the frustration about the computers -- probably everyone here does, one way or another. Glad to have you back on board.

webdog, welcome to the zoo!

menageriekeeper, you bring back so many memories of our kids and homecomings and senior proms and learning to obey curfews....God bless you!

Sue, take it easy, will you, please? YOU ARE NOT 25 ANYMORE!

We knew it was going to rain so two days ago we got the pansies and bulbs in, so the garden is gardened, and that's done. Compost is caught up, so that's done. Got a little weeding and deadheading to do, but that's easy. All five horses were grazing in the same area peaceable yesterday for the first time since Cookie arrived last week, so that's done.

Neighbor asked us if we wanted the pears on his tree and yes, we did, so we got a bucket of them and I cut and syruped and froze about half the bucket last night, so that's on the way.

We both have speaking engagements in Los Angeles at Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel's creation science group (several hundred people) next weekend, and the material is about ready.

And I even had a nap yesterday. This feels weird! I'm STAYING caught up. Something is drastically wrong....

I make our own chocolate sauce by the pint -- Barry loves chocolate milk and the cows only give the white stuff -- and Chris got into it when I forgot to lock the fridge. He thought it was wonderful. Chocolate from one end of him to another! All we could do was laugh. Barry tackled Chris while I tackled the kitchen and we got things in order in about half an hour! Today is his 23 birthday. He sort of helped himself to the treats.... (for those who don't know, Chris is our profoundly retarded adult son with the perfectly healthy and always hungry body! He had encephalitis when he was three and his IQ today measures less than 20, which is considered unmeasureable -- but he still has total personality and a very active food-hunting nature!)

God bless you all. It's quarter to eight here and I need to get out of my pj's and into the overalls and go out and feed and groom the beasties. They sort of expect it. But this morning Gina is taking care of Chris for us so then I can shower and go back to bed or do anything I want for a few hours! How lovely is that!

 

[menageriekeeper]

Good Morning Everyone!

Dale had Cass back before curfew! I think I might like this boy.

Today things should slow down a bit. I could have slept in longer but Hairwolf the cat woke me up twice this morning by climbing up on me to sleep. I left her there for a while and then decided I was awake and there was coffee to make.

Chris has a karate class in an hour. Jenna's friend should be leaving here pretty soon. Cass is recovering. T and I will probably do some shopping later this pm and other than that, I plan on watching football and sewing today.

 

[annsni]

Mmmmm - These biscuits are good! Thanks palagislandgirl!

Well, I was SUPPOSED to be at a pastor's wives meeting this morning but woke up too late. So I relaxed instead and am just sitting to a cup of tea at 11AM. What a lazy day!!

palagislandgirl, I WISH we had soccer on Saturday. All the games around here are played on Sunday so we can't do it - we don't get home from church until atleast 1:30. Oh well!!

Today is the first day of swimming lessons for the little ones. It's great - it's through the continuing education program with the school district and I'll get 6 lessons for 4 year old Joanna at $25 and 8 lessons for 6 year old Robby for $30!! It's such a deal! The only issue I have is that I have to get in the pool with Jo. Bob will usually do it because I think it will be good for his foot (and he loves to swim) but he's away on the men's retreat so I'm on my own. That's OK. It's a brand new pool and they keep it atleast 90 degrees in there.

I'll see ya'll later! Have a wonderful day.

 

[palagislandgirl]

Helen: If only I could pack my bags and come up. I would love to see your part of the country! Anywhere I could have pansys now-wait I don't like winter-think I stay here.
Ann: 99% of our games are on Saturday especially since my brother in law is on the board and has started back to church! Glad you enjoyed the biscuits.
I picked out a bedroom color now I get to add that to the ever growing list of things to be done to the bedroom I am moving into once my sis moves out. I am going to go with a color called Allegro Blue. It matches what I have already bought for that room. I had better get going-I need to grab some sinus meds and start cleaning the extra bathroom.
:godisgood:

 

[Friend of God]

Not only do we serve Star Ducks, but all our coffees are calorie free! Can't beat that!

Word of advice Webdog: My sweet Cuz will point you to where the Starbucks is, but don't ever expect her to serve you. She has developed a serious interaction disorder with preparing food products. She's the sweetest gal you'll ever want to meet, but if you ask her to prepare something for you - her arms shrink two feet. Doctors have been trying for years to figure out why this happens. :laugh:

Good Afternoon Everybody,

We got away for the weekend, and got 3 days to de-compress and recover. The weather was great, and we had a lot of fun.

Looks like everythings still standing in the CGCH. Not that my dear sisters would ever do anything amiss. Not unless they were alone or with somebody, that is.

Time to unpack, and get laundry ready to do tomorrow.

To makeup for not being here for a few days I brought in Chocolate Oreo Ice Cream Cake for everybody. Enjoy.

 

[menageriekeeper]

Ah Webdog, my Cuz, does indeed tell the truth. As an example I shall relay the story of my latest kitchen adventure.

I've been sick for two weeks now. Thought I was better, then yesterday and today happened. Decided I would cook supper early, about 4 o'clock. Sent my son into the kitchen to put on a pot of water and start the hambuger meat. Notice, at this point I am only considering cooking and Chris is doing the actual work. He fills the pot with water and turns on the burner. A flash lights up the house. Son says I might want to come there (how about that for an understatement?). T saw the flash and follows us to investigate.


You guess it. The stove heard that I was considering cooking and blew up. This is in fact why I don't cook.


T and I rebuilt the stove. It's a good thing Home Depot is open till 5 on Sunday.


Supper would have been lasgana. Would have been because the dish it was baking in broke in half as I was taking it out of the stove.


It was not meant for me to cook today!

 

[Friend of God]

It was not meant for me to cook today!

In "Cindi-Speak" that is defined as I'm not supposed to cook on days that end in "y" PERIOD. I'm concerned Cuz. Could it be that those nasty cooking utensils and ingredients are out to get you, and that's why you feel so poorly lately?

Good Morning Everybody,

It is 73 with thunderstorms today, headed for a high of 83.

The weekend was great. The Grandkids were at their dads so it was just us. I surprised my Wife with a road trip on Friday. She didn't know that I had our bags packed in the trunk. Sometimes we just go for a ride to get away, so she was none the wiser. We ended up at Sylvan Treetop Resort in Gaylord, MI. Three glorious days of using the spa, soaking up the sun, watching the fall colors thinking about turning, and just getting away from it all. They have an incredible chef and the cooking was first rate.

Today the Grandkids are back in school, and we're back down to earth.

I brought in Waffles, Eggs, Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Bacon and Country Ham. Enjoy.

Today is getting everything clean, and caught up since we "goofed off" all weekend. I'm thinking of hiring Cindi and her kids to clean for us. They can clean and I'll cook for them. Think they'll take the bait?