Friday, August 29, 2008

NEW NAME

OK. Maybe someone can help me. I want to rename my blog. The Swinney's is just such a boring title. So please if some of you creative minds could give me some suggestions on what I may rename this place I come to journal. Thanks.....Lisa

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

If you could have seen my throat.....

I finally saw the doctor and she suspected that I have mono. They called with the test results today and the mono was negative. I have had the worst sore throat I have ever had. Really!! The glands in my neck are swollen.....they are really tender too. I have had a sore throat on and off since July 4th. I noticed the swollen glands last Thursday. Since then the symptoms have gotten much worse. I also have lingual tonsillitis and pharyngitis ( that means my throat is yucky and hurts real bad!) Erin and Samuel have run a fever this week with sore throats. Pray for our family to get well. I hope the kids and Dave don't come down with this. I go for my recheck on Tuesday and hopefully everything will still be negative and I will be totally better. I am still resting alot cause I'm still so tired and get out of breath so easily. I'll post again later about something more exciting than my ailments!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Piano That Almost Wasn't

Daves sister called us last week and said they had a piano they wanted to give us. The only thing we had to do was drive to Prattville and pick it up. Abby will begin piano lessons in September, so this was great timing to be getting a piano. If you know me and Dave, you know there has got to be an interesting story about our trip to get the piano. We left home in Daves truck and went to get the trailer from Bradley. Then we went to get Ricky's truck and swap the trailer from Daves truck to Ricky's. (Daves truck is only reliable for around town kinda trips). Then we went to Mama's to drop the kids off and get rope from Daddy. (Abby was running fever and feeling really bad, but that's another story..) So finally Dave and I were off to pick up the piano. We had a nice safe trip there and arrived to meet Carolyn and George at around 5:00. We loaded everything and had a nice time visiting with them and then we were headed back home. We had been on the road for about 10 minutes and then it happened. I felt a BIG bump and the look on Daves face and the fact that he screamed like a girl...(his words, not mine) made me think the piano had just fallen off the trailer onto a passing car. They had also given us 3 big old folding tables. We stacked the tables on top of the spare tire. Big mistake....about 10 minutes into the ride the tire came off and we actually ran over the tire....it was traumatic. We quickly pulled over and Dave ran down the street to get the tire. Meanwhile I was freaking out and checking for damage on the piano. Dave comes back with the tire and he is as white as a ghost! This whole thing really FREAKED him out. So we made it to get the kids and then home. The next morning we had lined up some guys to help us move it into the house. We uncovered it and realized the front let was BROKEN!!! So then we decided to leave it on the trailer until we found out if we could have it fixed. The estimate was over $400 dollars. We couldn't do that so we decided to attempt to fix it ourselves. So we moved it into our living room where it is propped up while the glue sets!!



All of that started Friday a week ago and we moved it in yesterday. So we are glad that saga is over. Now we just hope we can fix the leg and it tunes up properly. These are some photos of the damage.
Our piano looks like it has a bandage on its poor little leg. Isn't it pitiful!
Dave "The Handy Man" Swinney fixed this piano leg for less than $10. Thats about $390 less than our estimate!!

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Power of the Cross

This is my favorite song. Read the words and go to this link and listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwzt9jRUPNg

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev'ry bitter thought,
Ev'ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
"Finished!" the vict'ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Brain Test

I did this test I found at http://heartofservice.blogspot.com. Isn't this interesting........its fun, you can try it here http://mindmedia.com/braintest.html these are my results....

Lisa, you are mildly left-hemisphere dominant while showing a slight preference for auditory processing. This overall combination seems to indicate a well-working blend of logic and judgment and organization, with sufficient intuition, perception and creativity to balance that dominance.
You will at times experience conflict between how you feel and what you think which will generally be resolved in favor of what you think. You will find yourself interested in the practical applications of whatever material you have learned or whatever situation you face and will retain the ability to refine whatever knowledge you possess or aspects of whatever position you are in.
By and large, you will orient yourself toward intellectual activities and structure. Though not rigid, you will schedule yourself, plan, and focus on routine and continuity of operations, rather than on changes and disruptions
When changes or disruptions occur, you are likely to consider first how to ensure that such disruptions do The same balance is reflected in your sensory preference. You will tend to be reflective and measured in your interaction style. For the most part, you will be considered objective without being cold and goal-oriented while retaining the capacity to listen to others.
Preferentially you learn by listening and maintaining significant internal dialogues with yourself. Nevertheless, you have sufficient visualization capabilities to benefit from using graphs, charts, doodles, or even body movement to enhance your comprehension and memory.
To the extent that you are even implicitly aware of your hemispheric dominance and sensory style, you will feel most comfortable in those arenas which emphasize verbal skills and logic. Teaching, law, and science are those that stand out among the professions, along with technical sales and management.

So does this surprise anyone who knows me? The only thing that surprised me was that I thought I would have been way more of a visual learner......show me and I can do it!!

June 13

22 Years I wrote this blog post several years ago. I have added to it each year.  It's good to remember...... 1st year (1998-1999) o...