Exhaustion

That would be the word of the afternoon yesterday. At about 3:30 yesterday I crashed. I couldn't do anything but lie down on the couch and sleep... for an hour! Then it took me forever to snap out of a confused fog. I hate it when that happens. That ruins napping for me.

Yesterday went really well regarding my list. Dogs got bathed finally! I love how soft they are and how good they smell after a bath. They behaved so great with our friends last night! Well, after they greeted the first guests. They went a little crazy with them, but then we put on their Halti's and everything was golden.

We played a new game last night called "The game of Things." It was fun! Of course games like that are always more fun once you resort to elementary school thoughts. It was great to have people over at our house again. Sometimes I get stuck in this homebody rut and forget how fun it is to entertain. It was a much enjoyed night of laughter! Even my cucumber salsa (thanks Nicole) went over well!

Interrupted

I did not excell at completing my list yesterday. But I have a few really valid reasons (read: excuses).

1. Mom and Dad came home from Canada and we had lunch
2. My work schedule changed
3. I got stuck at Quickshop and then chatted with Barb @ PLP for awhile
4. Aaron had softball games at 6:30 & 7:30
5. We ate dinner with his folks
6. Our company isn't coming until Sunday now

I got 5.5 tasks completed. Not horrible but not quite my best. P90X kept getting pushed further and further back because it was my Yoga day and that workout is an hour and a half long. I didn't have a chunk of time like that.

So around 4:15 yesterday I decided to take Aaron a soda from Quickshop. He sounded tired and I thought that'd help, plus I needed to return some tupperware to Barb. So I pull up to the gas station and go grab a soda for him and a slushie for me. Then I got in line. *All very normal so far* I'm standing in line with two drinks that are making my finger painfully numb (if that makes any sense). And I'm standing there. Nothing is moving. Not even the cashiers. Apparently, someone wanted a gas receipt that hadn't printed out or something so they had to reboot the "system". Come to find out... it wasn't rebooting. The entire gas station, pumps and cash registers, were stuck. I kept standing there hoping that things would get moving again soon and not wanting to be that person who throws a fit about something no one can do anything about. No such luck. I think I stood there about 10 minutes before I asked if I could just give them exact change. I finally asked because one of the cashiers picked up the phone to call someone (I assumed tech support) and it was not looking good. At this point my fingers were so numb that I couldn't even feel the coins in my change pocket. It was a very unique experience. I just felt sorry for everyone who had started pumping gas or was waiting to pay for gas. I have a feeling they were there for awhile.

It was a beautiful night for softball last night! What a gorgeous sunset! I started snapping shots once I figured out that mom had her camera. One of those is going into the state fair. The guys won their last game of the season after coming back from behind. I love watching church league games. The crowd is much more pleasant to sit with than some other leagues.

One thing I finally did get to was cleaning the bathtub (that was the half completed task, I didn't get the whole bathroom). I found this new great scrubby sponge that works wonderful! It has a foam handle on it that makes it much easier to grip while scrubbing. We have such hard water here that the soap scum is pretty bad, especially when you put off cleaning the tub like I do. So here is my magic combo that got it clean within 10 minutes yesterday. Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch tub and shower scrubber by 3M and Clorox disinfecting bathroom cleaner! Usually I'd finish it off with a rinse of Jet Dry but I ran out of time yesterday.

Alright, I'd better get on with today and a new list!

BOSTON

So, I went to Boston this weekend. Not only did I go, but 4 other people also traveled there (well, 4 that I know personally and that have any relevance to this post, but probably hundreds of other people also went to Boston.) Why Boston? 1) Wonderful Jen Campbell lives there 2)Best city EVER. And who is Jen Campbell, you say? Well, Jen is one of 6 girls that was a freshman on 2CO (read: Second Center Olson) the same year I was. I'm sure you are beyond intrigued at this point, right? Of course! Jen Campbell, Laura (Scott) Goley, Jessica Cuthbert, Katie Clum, Melissa (Cairns) Reed, and Tressa (Ribaudo) Weber were six lowlyfreshman at Taylor University starting the fall of 2002. We stayed close through the 4 years at TU and now meet up once a year at one of our houses. This year was Jen's turn. Lucky for us, she lives in Bo-town.

I will spare you most of the details as they involve hundreds of memories, ridiculous giggling and heart to heart conversations. However, I will share highlights!

Highlight 1

Dunkin Donuts- They all laughed at me, but you have to understand, I don't have one here in Hutch or Wichita. Therefore, it is a highlight! (Yes, that is a giant inflatable iced coffee that I am so convincingly drinking)

Highlight 2

Boston in the Rain

Yep, we trekked from the T to Quincy Market, to the North End, back to Quincy Market and back to the T all in the rain. And it was wonderful! We had a strange man tell us a horrible mushroom joke underneath an awning (he was a fun-gi),

we had some slipping and falling mishaps, we had awesome cannoli, found my brother-in-law's Israeli twin selling zipper purses, and had many laughs.

Highlight 3 (and the mother of all highlights)

Whale Watching- yes, that's right. In that picture is a humpback whale that I could have touched ... had I not been on a tall boat held back

by a guard rail. Famous last words of our tour guide Joanne, "I encourage you to go on a whale watch again. You're just going to have to lower your standards because this doesn't usually happen." We had two humpback whales, 747 and Basin, playing around our boat and following us as we drifted. The would stick their "noses" out of the water and turn circles, roll over and show us their belly, swim all around us and just generally check us out. IT WAS AMAZING. Jess and I even got spit on by a blowhole. You would have thought that we had just met *fill in amazing band or musician here*, we were giddy! To quote Jess, " People wanted to be us!" It was that cool. Sadly my camera died right as the whales started hanging out with us. Go figure, the photographer's camera dies. If you look in that picture the white spots are the whale's flipper fins (I've forgotten the accurate name but they were about 12 ft long). It's "nose" is at the very bottom - which was about 5 ft. from me. And it's dorsal fin and blowhole are above the water. They were so huge and graceful and AWESOME!!! What a testimony to God's creative genius and majesty!

So in a nutshell, that was the trip. We got to eat some amazing seafood, revisit old memories, catch up on each other's lives and just have good ol' girl time. What a blessing!

On my way home I had a 3 hour layover at DFW. Usually this would be tragically dull but I got to hang out with my dear friends the Rosses. They only moved away from Hutch a week and a half ago but it felt like much longer since I had seen them. It also was a definite highlight! They showed me their apartment, houses their looking at, took me to the Four Seasons Country Club, and took me to Chipotle! I couldn't have asked for a better time.

Well, 3 things didn't get done today. Talking to my pastor, bathing the dogs, and picking out pictures. However, 3 things that I forgot to put on the list did get done: picking up dog poop so Aaron could mow, weeding and pruning my garden, and showering. I think I had a pretty productive day! I even got in a couple of episodes of Dick Van Dyke.

I tried to make homemade potato chips this evening with supper. The first batch I let go too long and successfully tested our smoke alarm. They looked like pumpernickel chips. So I tried again and they turned out much better. I'm not a big fan of the recipe though. It's easy but just doesn't quite get them right. I sliced the potatoes into thin slices, coated a cookie sheet with melted butter, put the potato slices on and coated them with butter. Then cooked for 15 min. @ 500 degrees. The crisp ones tasted burned and the good tasting ones were soggy. So next time, new recipe.

We had some leftover vidalia onion burgers in the freezer that sounded good for dinner. Aaron likes to use our charcoal grill, and I agree, it makes food taste better. So I tried to get it started before he got home so it'd be ready. Well.... easier said than done. Charcoal, check. Lighter fluid, check. Lighter, check. I doused the charcoal with the fluid and lit it. Worked great! But only for 2 minutes. Tried again with more lighter fluid. Not only did it work but it singed the hair off 2 of my fingers and gave me a decent burn on one of my knuckles. I was annoyed at this point and it was hot outside, aside from playing with fire. You'd think the fire would know that. But no, it still went out. Try 3 went better... I got a little smarter about the fluid and placement of the lighter. I closed the lid to try to break some of the breeze that was coming through. It worked. Thank goodness!!! I can't say I'm a fan of hair on my fingers but burning it off would not be my first choice.

I really enjoyed my day! And posting my list for the world to see really helped me get it done! Thanks!

New Direction

• Every morning I have my coffee and establish my LIST. You know, the list of things to accomplish for that day. I don't know if it's the coffee talking or my Morning Optimism but my list never quite gets done... ok, rarely gets completely done.

For instance, Today's List:

• Spend some quality time with God - check
• Read book for study @ 7:45 - check
• Do P90-X workout - half check (still have to do abs)
• Report and pay sales tax for this quarter
• Meet with clients (11:15, 12:30, 4:30)
• Take tomatoes to client
• Water garden and plants - half check
• Pick pictures to enter for KS state fair
• Unpack from this weekend
• Put away laundry
• Talk to pastor about service ideas
• Vacuum
• Bathe dogs
• Make dinner

Looking at it I'm thinking.... NO way that can all happen. So I will probably get overwhelmed at about 1:00 and lay on the couch and watch the Dick Van Dyke show (thank you Netflix). Then I will talk myself out of doing any other work until 5 when I feel like I have to get dinner together. This is where you come in! Yes, I'm talking to you.

You are my accountability. I'm going to tell you what I'd like to do in a day and once I get to the end I'll let you know how it went. At least that's the plan right now. Feel free to send me loving notes if I'm slacking.... loving notes.

So here goes my social experiment! See you tonight!

I fought the computer and the computer won

Good use of a blog: Venting when there's no one around to vent to!

I am a personal trainer and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA. Therefore I have to attain continued education credits. So I registered for a webinar today. It was about how to train athletes in heat and humidity(very applicable considering the summer we're having). I registered a couple days ago, paid my fee and thought all was well! Au contraire (forgive me if my spelling is lacking).

The webinar was scheduled for 1:00pm. I was ready to go at 12:45. Signed in and eating some leftover pizza until it began. I should mention that this was my first ever webinar and I was nervous about messing something up. I kept looking at the clock. 12:56. 12:59. 1:03? It hadn't started. I figured I goofed somehow and connected over the phone to cut my losses. My wonderful cell phone requires you to turn on speaker before you dial so I had to turn my earpiece sound WAY UP and sit bent over with my ear an inch from the phone so I could write and eat (there's a statement about my priorities). So as I'm listening, eating, and writing I am getting more and more irritated that it didn't work on my computer. So then I email the webinar host, Greg, to ask if there is anything I can do. After 3 emails he asks for my phone number so he can call me. After 20 minutes on the phone he gives me the number for tech support, a free webinar pass, many apologies for my missing this webinar, and the promise of an email with the recorded webinar for me to watch. Very nice guy!

Then I call tech support....phone tree... awesome. I get through the phone tree without too much trouble, phew! I don't remember my rep's name, but she had an accent and our connection was breaking up.... which I thought ironic for tech support. So it was a little difficult to hear/understand all she was saying. First we tried again what I'd done 5 times already...it didn't work. Shocker! Then she had me download some software. Still wasn't working. Then I tried it in another browser, still no good. ** a good piece of information for you to know would be that I am on a wireless network** She kept saying that it is not recommended to attend webinars on a wireless network. I'm unsavvy enough to not really know how to change back to an ethernet connection so I said I couldn't really help her much there. Anyhow, after 45 minutes she got the ok from her superior to tell me she couldn't help me. Great! So now I'm all alone, trying to troubleshoot this ridiculous computer that won't let me attend a webinar. So I'm unplugging cables and replugging them and generally just hoping that if I touch enough cables and plugs, they'll feel loved and want to work for me. (You might be able to see where this is headed).

Next phone call goes to Cox (our internet provider). I got an awesome tech support guy on the phone. As I was talking with him my ethernet magically connected! Hooray Jeremy! Apparently, I had plugged something in right and the modem just needed a second to catch up. I was incredibly happy and appreciative of Jeremy's helpful attitude, so I thanked him and hung up.

At this point in time I try to re-log on to my webinar. It might have worked.... had the webinar not been over. So now I have no idea if all that trouble was for anything. And now I will have to try another webinar someday to see if it works. And now I feel just fried enough to not want to do any packing at all for the trip I'm leaving for tomorrow morning. I just want to sit, and bemoan my wreck of an experience with webinars, and eat as many M&M's as it takes to make me happy.

(but I won't because come tomorrow morning I'm off to Boston and I might be more bummed if I'm not packed)

Spaghetti Squash is Awesome

After my breakdown about squash bugs this morning, I decided to cook the squash that I've been able to salvage thus far. And..... delish! (Many thanks to a helpful website for some usefull guidance.) So as an up-note to the day, the squash bug hasn't beat me... just beat up my squash a little.

Stupid Squash Bug

I grew spaghetti squash in my garden this year. I was sooo excited! I even grew butternut squash too! I love how quickly it grew and how big it got! It was so fulfilling to watch it grow almost on a daily basis. And now.... now that it is midway into the summer.... squash bugs. No one warned me that I could lose everything due to an evil little bug. I don't even know what this dasterdly bug looks like, but I've seen what he can do... and it's not pretty. So now my spaghetti squash looks sickly and I'm going to have to pull it up. I'll save as many squash as I can but I'm still sad. Cut down in it's prime.... my poor little spaghetti squash. And now I'm beginning to worry about my butternut! Surely that evil insect will be content to ruin one plant right?!?! OH no.... poor Butternut! Please stay healthy! Oh the heartaches of gardening!

Consider This...

Matthew 10:32-33 NASB

"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven."

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 NASB

"each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

As I live life* in front of this world do I confess or acknowledge Christ? Do the people I see everyday as well as those I run into once hear me acknowledge Christ? When I die and go to Heaven, will Christ say, "My Father, this is Tressa." I want to announce Christ as my Lord and Savior because then, when I meet Him in heaven He will announce me to The Father. What a cool introduction! We serve a HOLY and PERFECT God who cannot tolerate even the slightest sin and He sent His HOLY and PERFECT Son to suffer and die for us, a dirty, rotten, sinning people. So that He can adopt us. What LOVE!

As I live is my work such that when tested by fire it will stand as a testimony to God? Am I living in God's power and glory so that what I accomplish here will be used to glorify God in heaven? Or as the verse says, am I saved but only as one narrowly escaping through flames? I don't want it to be a close call. I want everything I do, say and think to praise my Father in heaven and to be used to glorify Him when I get there. I don't want there to be any doubt or any narrowly escaping through flames.

Do I live this? How can I ensure that I do? Only by God's grace and the power of His Holy Spirit and divine Word. Praise Him!

*I began to type "my life" and caught myself. Nothing about this life is mine. God gave me this body, God gives me breath, God enables my body to move, God allows my brain to function. God provides the air that he designed my body to breathe and the water he designed my body to need. There is nothing about this life that I own or control.

Nicknames

I was thinking this morning about camp and how much meaning a name can have. When you work at Camp Squanto you are dubbed with a "camp name". Mine was Miss Roboto. My maiden name was Ribaudo and thus the Styx song sounded much like that so there you have it. Roboto or Robo became my name and it has so many memories with it. Sometimes I wish someone would call me that now just because of all the wonderful memories tied with it. I can still hear specific people's voices saying that nickname, which is really cool but also makes me miss people like crazy! (necessary shout out to all of my fellow camp squanto staffers... love you all).

Then I was thinking about all of the different nicknames I've had and the memories tied to each of those. It's so cool how you become branded at different times in life by different people and it becomes something you cherish.

I've been:

Pumps- short for pumpkin, called that by my dad

Tressy- wonderful memories of a camp friend, Katelyn Billings

Treehead - not such a wonderful name but memories none the less, Chris Browning

Tress - commonly called this by many friends

Tressy-poo - classic Katy Mann, college friend and co-sufferer of A & P

Roboto/Robo - Squanto, as referenced before

Crazylegs - soccer coach and wonderful friend, Johnny Jackman

T.J.J.B. - Mr. Short, a high school teacher

T.J. Raaar - Stephanie Craddock, middle school