"Live like no one else... so that later... you can live like no one else." ~Dave Ramsey

Just got back from a 5 day road trip to Nevada with mom for a relative's high school graduation. It was blissfully COLD!! Quite unusual, really for the weather to be that cold in June -- it rained and snowed in the mountains, and on Friday the high was 62. I was in weather heaven!

I love that area of the country... small town-ish but near cosmopolitan areas... my favorite combo.

Mom & I listened to the "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey on the audio book that I downloaded on itunes... Good Stuff.

I read "The Shack" by Wm Young. Highly recommend it.
Don't live in Expectation. Live in Relationship... and love naturally puts someone else's needs above your own. Deep stuff. Interesting ideas... I read it with my filter on and it has some interesting things to think about regarding God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit... and how it happens that these terrible, awful, hideous things happen in this world.

Found an awesome used Craft Book for $20 --- one of the "different bits arrive every month" kinds of things in a huge binder... Senior Craft Class Fodder for a long time to come
:-)

Ate Basque Food Family style... Yum!! Saw relatives I've not seen in ages... also very fun!!



This is cousin Pat, me and "Big Neil" -- who, the last time I saw him he was probably a sophomore in high school... yikes!

Work in May was pretty insane... the girls had 3 concerts over two consecutive weekends, then there were Outside Auditions, Move-Up Auditions & Getting Ready to depart for Carnegie Hall, which is the tour they're on right now. I kinda kept up, but we've also been recruiting new Board of Director members like crazy, and we now have 14 board members (from the 8 that were there when I started in April of 2007...!), and lots of new stuff happening.

I'm excited that I've been asked if I would like to be a section leader in my chorus, which is something I've been wanting to do since joining the chorus (back in the early 90's!)... and my quartet is going really well, too!

The craft class has also been going well... and to pick up some extra money I'm going to start singing for the seniors again ~ maybe every other month or so. "Gazelle Intensity" is how Dave Ramsey describes doing things to get the emergency fund up to what it needs to be as fast as possible, then keeping up that intense pace to find extra ways to make money to pay off bills and get debt free asap. I'm not quite ready to sell stuff -- but taking on some money-making-musical endeavors sounds like a good plan!

The economy scares me... but I have to just keep reminding myself that I'm not in control, and I trust the one who is. I'm thankful, oh so thankful, that I have a job, and that we did have 13 new girls join at auditions in May... I think being in a smaller organization is a good place to be right now.

We finally got the too-big-table out of the dining area and now have the treadmill set up... not much more time for excuses! I'm going to quit the gym membership (the extra $31 a month doesn't need to be spent), and follow the example of one of the moms at work... she's lost about 40 lbs in the last 3 to 4 months by just coming in the door and getting on the treadmill for 45 minutes. She's not passing Go and she's not collecting $200!! That and lots of raw food (salads), makes a difference.

I have a relative who has asked to be taken off the ventilator... please send some good thoughts and prayers for his family... it is just really really sad. I don't know if I'll be able to go on another road trip so quickly... :-(