Long Hours

It's that time of year. The time when the IRS governs your thoughts and the dreaded visit to the Income Tax Office is one that must be done, no matter how you feel about what the government is doing with your money. I work at Lenawee Christian School during the day (40 hours per week), then work at Tax Pro Filers at the Adrian Mall nearly every evening and sometimes on Saturday. This makes for long hours but it sure helps me when it comes to paying the dreaded gas bills that happen to come during the winter months. This winter has been one of the highest heat bills that I can remember and it has to do with our irregular snow patterns and extreme cold. I enjoy working at TPF very much. I have learned so much in the two years that I have worked there. I have no desire to do taxes but I do all of the preliminary work, filling out the paperwork at the front desk, answering phones with a multitude of questions, greeting guests, making sure you have everything you need and the list goes on. During the busy season, I put in 70+ hours per week, but I can say this much, "I'm sure not looking for things to pass my time". It will all come to a screeching halt on April 15th. The rewards are so good at TPF. Just helping people get a refund brings joy to me. When we have to tell someone, "I'm sorry, you owe $7,137 to the IRS" (I did that today), it brings sorrow, but for the most part, it is rewarding. I love it when I say, "Your refund is, '$12,993". I marvel at how people manage their finances. The thing that I find so interesting about my job is the variety of personalities and the ability to witness (my boss is a Christian and so is everyone I work with). Today, I had a lady come in and sit and talk to me while we were getting her things together and she had been hit with a lot of unfortunate circumstances in her life. One son was killed three years ago by falling out of a tree stand and putting a branch through his stomach. Another son was in a car accident 36 years ago and is a parapalegic. Her husband died and she has physical problems. I was able to witness to her and that brought joy to me. We have dealt with a LOT of older people this year who do not normally have to file. Because of the Bush stimulus package, they have to file in order to get the bonus stimulus package and this has allowed us to see a lot of older people and it brings them joy to see that they will get 'free' money. They deserve it!!! Someday, when I am old and feeble, I trust someone takes a few minutes to 'make my day' by just sitting and chatting with me, because you all know that I love to visit and talk with people.

HAPPY EASTER

Happy Easter to everyone who reads my blog today. Sure is COLD to be Easter but at least our snowstorm is behind us. Another one's coming this week but only up to three inches, as opposed to the foot of snow we received Friday night and Saturday morning.

I love Easter! It speaks of new life, the resurrection, everything is so fresh and new at Easter (at least it is supposed to be weatherwise), and I love Easter Sunday services. Ours was so good today. The church was nearly filled to capacity (only 3 under our limit for the fire code) and it was nice to see people in church that do not normally go to church. What an awesome opportunity to give the gospel message but on a beautiful Easter Sunday morning, when they are in their new clothes, attending service, perhaps out of duty, but nevertheless they are in church.

The Bible study tonight was on what God does that amazes us and what we do not expect Him to do. Sure makes you stop and think when you try to voice what you do NOT expect God to do. It was a good day today.

I enjoyed having all of my children home this weekend. The grandkids were able to play together and they all loved coming to "Mamaw's house" or if you are Jaxon, it is "MEEEMAW's house". I know you are going to find this hard to believe, but I had Ryan here all weekend, with a camera, and I don't think he even took the camera out of the bag. Can you believe it? I am a bit frustrated with myself for not remembering the camera. Even Debbie (Steve's sister) was here from South Carolina and I didn't get one picture. I guess I am getting old and my memory's failing.

I trust your Easter was a memorable one and that you have the RISEN Saviour dwelling in your heart.

March 17, 1978 - Our St. Patrick's Day Wedding

It was 30 years ago today that I married my best friend, Steven Keith Watters. I often felt like my marriage was 'made in Heaven' as I felt like I was so fortunate to have had Steve as my life's companion. Looking back at the wedding pictures, I have to chuckle at the dresses and tuxedos that we thought were 'just the thing' for the occassion. Everything was green, quite appropriate for St. Patrick's Day. We were married at Steve's church in Adrian, Michigan. His grandpa, Rev. Donald Baughey and my dad, Rev. Ernest Plemmons performed the ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony (I thought it was anyway) and I'll never forget the special effects that we had for our special day. One thing in particular that I remember is walking around the altar to light the unity candle and my dress catching on the candleabra and the candleabra tipping toward me with lit candles on it. My dad nearly had a heart attack in trying to catch it. I ripped my dress, which was a real heartbreaker, since I had spent many hours, days and weeks making it. Steve chose my bouquet and nearly every year thereafter, gave me a bouquet of flowers on our anniversary that resembled my bouquet with multi-colored flowers.

Here it is, 30 years later, Steve is in Heaven and I am left with lots of happy memories of my dear husband. God was so good to me in allowing me to have a man who loved me for who I was. I feel like I was one of God's spoiled children, because he gave me a special gift when he gave me Steve. I'll always be thankful for having known him and will look forward to spending eternity in Heaven with him.



Thanks for letting me share some of my special pictures in this blog. It is part of the healing process after losing a loved one to look at pictures. Difficult!!! But it sure helps...

Women of Worth Baby Shower

On Monday evening, March 3, 2008, the local chapter of Women of Worth had a baby shower for two of our ladies, Lou Ann Donovan and Tanjala Mayle. This was the fifth child for each of these ladies and many times it is so easy to just pass down items from child to child. Since both of these ladies were starting from scratch, as they were not prepared for another addition to their family, we decided to have a baby shower for them and they received many nice items. The ladies were so happy for them and it was a blessing to share in the joy of these new little ones.

Sarah Lou Donovan was born January 10, 2008 and weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz.

BORN ONE DAY APART

Tannon Mayle was born January 9, 2008 and weighed in at 9 lb. 5 oz.

What beautiful little ones these dear 'Women of Worth Sisters' (no blood relatives) have. Born a day apart, we will enjoy watching them grow up together. Our ladies had so much fun during this special evening. We had a 'children's type meal' for the ladies. Macaroni and Cheese, Hot Dogs and Sloppy Joes, Cookies and Cupcakes and more. The cupcakes were a real hit with the decorations to match for a baby shower. Kara and I had so much fun making these and experimenting with the different variations with the frosting and baby decorations. We are not professionals, by any means, but it was fun.

Congratulations to Tanjala and Lou Ann and a special thank you to all of the ladies who made this a very special evening.

ANOTHER SNOW DAY

Can you believe it? Another snow day. This has been the strangest winter with our unusual snow storms, which usually carried ice and snow together. Last night on my way home from work I saw people in 4 X 4 sliding sideways and they were not driving like idiots. Just creeping along in front of me and they were struggling. I was so thankful to get home safely but was concerned about getting into my driveway as the drive had drifted so high. 7 inches on the ground of snow and sleet. Messy for sure! I have such a long driveway that I wouldn't dare try to get out of it until it is plowed out or I will be sitting in a drift somewhere and they I may have to shovel. :-) So, I think I will see what I can get done here today. Happy snow day!

Ready or not, here comes the SNOW

As I was leaving work tonight, I had to clean off my car, which was covered with snow. As I am sitting in the car, waiting for a little heat to start working in the car, I decided to listen to my voice mail. It just happened to be Ryan's voice on the other end, telling me that he was wondering how I was doing. He just had to let me know that it is in the 80's in Florida today, where they are at for their choir tour this week, and he is walking around with his sleeves rolled up. He didn't have to rub it in, but he certainly did. I think he takes after his uncle Ernie, who loves to call me and give me weather reports from North Carolina, especially when it is storming here. We have several inches of snow predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Time will tell. I certianly would love to have a snow day tomorrow. I hope to get that 5:30 phone call to let me know that school is cancelled. Now, that doesn't mean I can roll over and go back to sleep. It means getting up, turning on the lights, getting my eyes adjusted to the bright lights of the computer, and starting the school cancelling process. I maintain and operate the Honeywell Instant Alert System, where I type the information into the computer, call a phone number, record my message over the telephone, click a button on the computer and my voice goes to around 1000 telephones, cell phones, e-mails, pagers, etc. It is an amazing process and works well for closing or delaying school. Then I change the school website information. After all of that, I make a very important decision... Do I go back to bed or stay up? Decisions! Decisions! I am techinically supposed to go in to work, even if the roads are bad, because secretaries at Lenawee Christian School do not have snow days as an option. But lately I have been exhausted and I have decided that if it is too bad for teachers and students to travel, then it is too bad for secretaries too. So, who knows! I may just decide to sleep in, IF we have a snow day tomorrow.

Ryan and Megan Came Home This Weekend

It was so refreshing to have Ryan and Megan (his girlfriend) home this weekend. Megan had to make an emergency trip to the oral surgeon on Friday, and had some surgery again, so they came down to my house LATE Saturday evening. It was fun having them home for these few hours before they went back to school this evening. They leave Thursday (2/21/08) for their choir tour through Alabama, Florida, North and South Carolina, West Virginia, etc. I am glad Megan was able to get this problem taken care of before the big trip to the south. Now, it is back to the books and studies for the next few days. What a busy year this has been for both Ryan and Megan. They are doing well with their studies and I am very proud of them. Due to the severe ice storm, we were not able to have church this morning, so we listened to the Frankfort, Indiana Church service online, and were able to listen to the GBS choir, as they were performing. It was interesting to hear it being sung right here in the room, and right on pitch. Amazing how that happens. After practicing with the choir and knowing the words, it was fun to hear it sung in person. Megan didn't feel much like singing with her recent mouth surgery, but it was still fun. After the ice melted and they decided to head for Cincinnati, it is now back to QUIET at my house. Tomorrow begins another week... I wonder what it holds... HMMMM!!!!

Happy Valentines Day

Today is the day that I dread most throughout the year. It is a difficult day for a widow, so I always dread it. Working as a school secretary, I deliver flowers all day to students and staff. Last year I had a parent ask me why I didn't have flowers from my sweetheart. She knew that my husband was deceased, so it was like putting a knife in my heart and twisting it. A week or so ago, Jason asked me to babysit on Valentines Day, while he surprised Kara was a special date. I was so excited and have been planning ever since to make this a special day for Miss Kate. I have been looking forward to this special evening with just Katie and Mamaw. I know she loves 'dogs' (her term for corn dogs) from Culvers, so we headed straight to Culvers. I love about 2 miles from Culvers and she was asleep by the time we got there. I decided to do the 'drive-through' thing and let her sleep, hoping she would be in a good mood when she woke up. I then headed over to Grandma D's home (my dear friend who lost her husband a year and a half ago). She has a 100 pound chocolate lab, who absolutely loves Katie and Katie loves Bear. She was expecting me tonight and we were looking forward to just spending our night entertaining Katie. We let Katie watch Bambi and Robin Hood and she was entertaining to watch (who cares about the movies, it was fun watching Katie). She did great! Considering we had never tried anything like this before, we were wondering if she would be happy apart from her mommy and daddy but she did so good. When we got home, she wanted to 'play', so mamaw and Katie played ball and trucks (that sounds like a girl-thing to do, doesn't it?). She belly-laughed when we were chasing the ball together. It was refreshing to just spend the evening concentrating on my granddaughter, who will be three years old in less than two weeks. She sure is growing up. Mamaw and Katie made memories tonight that will never be forgotten. I love you, Miss Kate!

I've Been Tagged

I was tagged to do a "Meme" by Jason and Kara Watters. The rules are as follows:
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
Find Page 123.
Read the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

Anyone who knows me is probably thinking, "Cheryl reading a book? I don't think so!" I am not a reader. I just never acquired the desire to read. That is such a waste of time to me... So, I looked around and the closest book was a church hymnal (it was on the computer stand) and here is what is on page 123...

All hail King Jesus. All hail Emmanuel, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Bright Morning Star.

And thro'out eternity, I'll sing His praises, And I'll reign with Him thro'out eternity.

I'll tag:

Bogedin, Genene

Earls, Connie

Phil & Cathy Avery

Plemmons, Amber (Niece)

Plemmons, Leah (Sister-In-Law)

Have fun!

SNOW

I just got home from Findlay, Ohio. My father-in-law, mother-in-law and I met Andy & Jenn, JeNa and Jaxon, along with Jenn's dad, Wesley Craker, and my parents in Findlay for supper tonight, in honor of Andy's 25th birthday. When we hit Toledo, it seemed there was VERY little snow and just south of Toledo there was NO snow. As I was walking in my door tonight I thought, "I should go take a picture of this snow and let my family see how much snow we have." I've had my driveway plowed twice in the past two days. It has been a strange winter, that is for sure. We get a huge snowstorm and the next thing we know it is raining and you could go without a winter coat (I don't because my mother always told me I would get sick if I went without a coat before it was 60 degrees :-) We have flood warnings, then a huge arctic blast comes through, freezes everything up and the next thing we know we have another snow storm. We missed two days of school this week due to ice and snow. I'll have to admit, I am tired of snow and will be glad when I can open my windows and feel the warm breezes again.