Never, EVER, assume! AKA - Object lesson

Everyone has heard that you should never assume anything.

I just want to give you quick proof that this is very good advice - in a purely hypothetical setting, of course.

If you assume, that once you and your children get home from dropping one of the vehicles off at a service center, that you can outrun the children to the closest bathroom, you would be wrong.

If you assume that maybe if you bring everything in from the car, that the child that made it to the closest bathroom would be done by the time you got inside, you would be wrong again.

If, when you screech out the words, 'You are still in there?' to the child in the preferred bathroom, you assume that they won't giggle at your predicament, then, you would be wrong.

If, in your panic as you realize that said child is still in the bathroom and that you will not trip running up the stairs to the next closest bathroom, you would, again, be wrong.

If, in the midst of finally getting to go to the restroom and your phone rings and the caller i.d. shows it is the daughter from the preferred bathroom, and you assume it is her calling you to gloat over getting the closest bathroom, you would, believe it or not, be mistaken.

If you ever find yourself in this predicament - please, please do NOT make that final assumption above. Because, chances are, if you answer that phone call and make a comment about 'talking while peeing' because you assumed it was your child on the other end, it could possibly be someone saying that they just found a cell phone and called the contact listed as "mom" in it to hopefully find out who it belonged to. This person could also be calling from the car service center that you just dropped the car off at. The same place you have to go BACK to in a short while.

So, you see, assumption is bad!! Purely hypothetical situation, of course.

Merry Christmas!

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What would your sign say?

Do you ever wish people could wear some kind of sign that gives everyone kind of a heads up on things you need to know about them? Or vice versa?

For example, I often wonder if I walked around with a sign that said, "ADD. OCD. Depression. Low self esteem. Slightly neurotic," if it would make people be more conscientious with their words and actions, or if it would scare them off or make them decide I was not worth getting to know?

What if the signs said only positive things? "Devoted wife and mother. Desire to be Christ-like. Persistent." Would that then make people want to get to know me? Would they be disappointed if they chose to get to know me based on my sign, and then saw all of the "bad" traits later?

What if it were that everyone wore a sign? Would you greet the person with the sign that said "Addict" or "Murderer" the same way as you would the people whose signs said "Clean and Sober" or "Protective of loved ones?"

What if the signs had positives on one side and negatives on the other? Would you want to only show one side, or would you show both sides?



Some days, I wish I had a sign so that people would know that I have ADD and would therefore not sit and click their pen next to me. They would know that I struggle with self esteem issues and depression and they would not say things in a joking manner that keeps me up crying at night. They would know that I am a little OCD and would not do things willy nilly without a list to check off. Other days, I wish I had my other sign so that people would know that I take my family and my faith seriously.

Then there are days that I wish that other people wore signs so that I could figure out what in the world is going on in people's heads sometimes.


However, one of my favorite things to do is to try to figure out what makes people "click." I love to people watch and find out about them. So, I think the signs would take away from that.

Also, I know that to God, I might as well be wearing a sign since he knows my true heart and spirit. He is the one whose opinion matters most, and that is what I need to remember.

So, my question to you is:

If you could know, beforehand, what would be on the front and back of peoples signs, would you choose to do so?

Would you want to wear a sign?

What would each side of your sign say?

If God made your sign, would it say the same thing as if you made it yourself?

See, I can post a happy post. . . .

No deep and pondering thoughts this post, just some pics to let you guys get to know us a little better.

We are all a little silly and we love to have fun.

Here is M. on the podium at her state gymnastics meet last year. Don't you love the beautiful smile?

Here she is while up at the cabin

And here she is at her 5th grade graduation:

Here is a very excited M. She found a chocolate chip cookie the same size as her head:

She is not the only silly one. Here is her sister, J.

The girls together:

Unfortunately, this strangeness does not limit itself to the children:

The lazy man's way to mow grass on a very steep hill:

At the aquarium:

On your mark:

Get set:

GO!!

We also like to take silly pictures of things other than each other.

A tiny froggy that M. found:

M.'s hair curling in the humidity:

Apparently silliness is contagious. Here is our BB curling up with the bear skin rug at the cabin:

And poor BB trying to figure out how she is going to sleep with those two hooligans sleeping under her:

So, I know this was not a very exciting post, but my last several posts have been so serious and verbose, so just wanted to lighten things up some.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

As always, let me know you were here.

Is it a tradition for you to trim your butt?

There is a story that I read somewhere that goes something like this:

A woman is teaching her daughter how to make a roast. She gets out the roast and proceeds to slice the end off of it and throw it out. The daughter asks her mother why she threw part of the meat away. Her mom told her that was what you were supposed to do. The daughter asked why again. The mom said that she did not know, that she did it because HER mom did that. They then called the grandmother and asked her the reason. She said that she did it because HER mom always did that when she was making a roast. They then called the great-grandmother and asked her why she always cut the end off of her roasts before cooking them. The grandmother's response? 'Because my pan was too small.'

At church recently, we were discussing about what do we do because of tradition and what do we do because it is what God wants us to do. I believe so many of us have developed not only our sense of right and wrong, but our entire belief system on what we learned from our parents.

While this is okay for small children, as one matures, we need to learn to think for ourselves. With this growth, we also need to learn WHY we think what we think and to be able to defend and support it. I believe that any religion out there has the goal of reaching out to others to try to teach them about God/Jesus/Allah/Buddha, etc. I cannot think of any religion off hand that encourages people to completely avoid others and to not ever try to spread the word. In order to successfully do this, you must have some ammunition. You must have some ready answers and to be able to support your words.

If someone asks you what religion you are, you can give a simple answer. What, if after that, they ask what your religion believes in? That answer, while a little more in depth, would not be too difficult. Then, what if they ask you WHY you believe that? Could you answer that? How would you answer that?

We talked about visiting other churches with your friends. I think it helps you to start asking questions when you are exposed to other beliefs. It makes you see that there are different sets of beliefs out there, and while we may never know this side of heaven which religion is the closest to being right, it will help you make an informed decision if you actively search for info.

Hopefully no one picks a religion because it seems easier than others. It is not supposed to be easy. I mean, Adam and Eve were the only people in the world at one point and they only had 1 rule. They had an intimate relationship with God and they blew it, so we cannot expect to not fail.

I hope that the girls that I teach on Sunday's will at some point question their beliefs. I hope that when it happens, their parents realize what a sign of maturity it is and will allow them to make this journey. I also hope that they understand that all differences may not be salvation issues. Some differences are due to different core beliefs and other are just matters of preference or tradition. That is something I hope these young ladies, and everyone else as well, realize as they spiritually mature. I also hope that they realize that people can agree to disagree and still respect each other's beliefs.

If you are still reading, I really appreciate you listening to your ramblings. I would love any feedback any of you may have, positive or negative. My only request is that no one bashes any one else's comments.

So, do you "trim your butt" because your pan is too small, or because that is how you're parents did it? (In other words, do you believe what you believe because you looked for the answers, or because you followed what your parent's did?)

Thank you for reading!

Come back and visit again.

I do hope to get a more "fun" entry up soon.

Why do my eyes keep leaking?

I have decided that I need a tear duct transplant, mine are obviously defective. They leak all of the time, when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m angry, when I’m frustrated, etc. It seems to be my default response, and frankly, I’m tired of it.
Lest you think I am exaggerating, let me tell you about the strange things that I have cried about in the last week:


1) I was talking with a friend who was concerned about some struggles their child was having. She started crying. So, I cried because she was crying.

2) I was talking with a teacher friend at school about a mutual child we were concerned about. I cried because he showed empathy and concern.

3) My mom’s closest sister is not doing well. I cried because she was sick, I cried because my mom was sad, AND I cried because my mom pulled on some crazy inner strength and was dealing with it very well.

4) The strangest – I cried because I saw a young lady, around 18 – 22 years old, walking with an elderly lady holding on to her arm, going into QuikTrip gas station. We walked in behind these women and stood close to them at the Slushie area. The young lady proceeded to read each and every flavor to the older lady, telling her the ingredients in each, as well as explaining what each different machine did; made drinks, icees, shakes, smoothies, coffee, etc. She let her pick out what she wanted and made it for her. As we stood next to each other getting lids, I told the young lady that seeing them together was one of the most heartwarming things I had seen. She thanked me and told me it was her great aunt. I then proceeded to tell her that she looked just like my aunt (see above) that was not doing so good. This girl then proceeded to tell me that she was so sorry and then gave me a hug. As soon as that happened, I started crying all over her. Of course, my children pick this exact time to come around the corner and see their overly emotional mom wrapped in the arms of a complete stranger and crying on her. The girls, knowing me the way that they do, just waited until we were done and we left. You know that you cry too much when something like this doesn’t even faze your children. J

So, while some of these were normal things to cry about, the QuikTrip thing is just ridiculous.


While I know some of you will say that this just means that I care about people, I seriously still think that I have got to get it under control. It is hard to ever deal with anything when all you can do is stand there and blubber. Imagine you wanting to confront someone who has been disrespectful to your children. How effective can you be while crying? Have you ever tried to be professional while crying? It doesn’t work.


Any suggestions on how to “toughen up?” Or at least enough to contain my crying until I am in a more appropriate place?


On another note, a couple of weeks ago, we sung this song at church:



I have heard this song before, but it never grabbed me until we sung it at church. We sing acapella (without instruments) at our church, and to me, that makes the songs much more powerful. It is just a room full of people singing with nothing else to focus on except the words. I personally like to close my eyes when we sing because then it feels like it is just me and God.

I encourage you to listen to this song and really pay attention to the words.

Oh, guess what I did when we sung it at church?

I cried. Big shocker there, huh?


Sign the guestbook and let me know you were here. If I don’t get a lot of signatures, I may just cry. Of course, if I get a lot of signatures, I will definitely cry. So, I will probably end up crying no matter what you do, but you can at least make it a happy cry. J

Hey - remember me??

Wow, it has been a long time. Not sure if anyone still visits or not, but if so, I’m glad you’re here.


I kind of took a blogging break over the summer. I enjoyed my wonderful kiddos and my sweet hubby. Each summer I realize how little time I have left with my kids at home. J. is going into 10th grade this year and M. is starting 6th grade – Junior High!! I cannot believe they are that old. Nor can I believe that I am old enough to have children that old. I still believe that I am a decade younger than I am. It is always a big shock when I realize that I will be turning 40 in January instead of 30.


While we did not do anything extravagant this summer, we did get to spend some quality time together. We had day hours at the gym, which let us have the evenings all together, which will not happen during the school year.


Since I tend to be verbose, here is the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of our summer:

- J. got to go to church camp in Arkansas
- The girls got to gymnastics camp and train with the GA Gym Dawgs. They loved it!
- We got to spend some time at our family’s cabin in the mountains – our favorite place
- Vacation Bible School
- Anniversary trip with hubby to Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Cherokee
- Starting on the orthodontic road with M.
- My baby girl turning 12
- Drivers Ed. For J.
- J. getting a boot on her foot for tearing up a ligament/tendon and bone bruising
- Went to funerals for 3 different people
- NOT GIVING IN TO THE DEPRESSION MONSTER!!


The depression monster really tried to get me this summer as I had a lot of things hitting me all at once from many different locations. I really worked hard into not giving in, but it took everything in my power. While normally I have a very low sense of self worth, I was actually quite proud of myself for being able to hold it together this time. I have never had some of the things happen to me before that I had to deal with over the summer; nor have I ever been treated the way I was by some this summer. I got hurt very deeply while dealing with some stresses at my jobs as well as a lot of changes going on at church and at home. There were many nights that I cried myself to sleep, and many days that I hid in the bathroom and cried. There were many times that I could not stop thinking on all of the things that were going on. However, I NEVER gave up hope! This was due to many factors – good friends, good family, and a great God. I remembered all of the wonderful things my “online” friends and my “church” friends, and my “work” friends and my family have said to me along the way. I also remembered the promises that my Father in Heaven made me about never forsaking me and that if He led me to it, He would lead me through it.


I appreciate all of you sticking with me and for being such an important part of my life.
Also, you friends listed over there on the right of my page? I truly love you all and send my apologies for not visiting your sites lately. I kind of removed myself from the blog world for a little while. I did miss you all dearly and hope that I will be accepted back.
Now I am going to spend my last evening with my family before school starts.

Hug your family – you never know when it will be the last chance you get.

Those left behind have it the hardest

If you have not read my last post, scroll down and read that one first.

Little Ryan was welcomed into heaven tonight by his mom Missy.

While Missy and Ryan are no longer in pain and are able to now be together without their longtime cancer companion, the rest of the family is left without their wife/mom and son/brother. They are now planning a double funeral.

Please stop and think about this for a minute. Can you even wrap your mind around that?

I beg you to stop by Ryan's site and leave this family words of encouragement.

I also ask that you get angry. Get angry at cancer. Why, with all of the advances we have made in cancer treatments, do we still have families that have to go through this? Why do our best treatments leave people with burns on their skin and poison flowing through their veins? Missy had a cancer that gets tons of research and funding. Ryan had a cancer that does not get tons of research and funding. Yet, they both had the same outcome. Cancer stinks. I loathe it and what it does to people.

The Morgan family did not deserve this. No family deserves this. Please remember them in the days to come.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ryan's site: www.superryan.blogspot.com

Why?

For my first blog in a while, I had planned on coming on here to tell you the struggles we have had over the last month and how we were dealing with them.

Instead, I come to you begging you with all of my heart to pray for the Morgan family.  Ryan is 10 years old and has been battling neuroblastoma since 2004.  He has repeatedly fought long and hard with this monster that will not leave him alone.  Last week, he was sent home on pain management as there is nothing left for them to do.  To make things worse, Ryan's mom, Missy, was diagnosed with breast cancer in August of 2007.  Last night, Missy lost her battle.  Ryan is not doing well at all.  Please, please, please, pray for Les as he lost the love of his life and is now on the verge of losing his little boy.  Pray for Heidi and Will as they lost their mother and are watching their little brother get weaker.

Any "struggles" that I was having over the last month pale in comparison to what this family is dealing with.  

To visit this family, click on the following link:

www.superryan.blogspot.com

Thanks to you all!

Mamasita

Irony, Gratefulness, and Prayer Request

First off, the irony. I wrote a lot of random things in my last post. One of those items was my wonder if my children would grow up to be strong Christian women. I also wondered how I would feel if they did NOT, would I still love them? I think I have my answer. It is a resounding YES.

The very night that I posted this, there was a crisis beginning in another family. Friday morning, things looked really bad for this family. Friday night, however, brought unimaginable heartache to two different families. I will not go into much detail here out of respect for both families. These 2 families lives will never ever be the same.

The gratefulness is for my church family. One of the families involved is an integral part of our church. There are many generations of this family that attend as well as extended family members. This morning, our entire church service was devoted to prayers for this family as well as covering scripture that reflected on grace and mercy and forgiveness. The songs chosen focused on the same themes. This family was all sitting in church. Things could have been so different. The church could have turned their back on them for having a family member that made such a grave error in judgement. The family could have hidden out at home rather than face the questioning looks and possible inappropriate words of others. Instead, they knew that they were loved and would be held up by those that love them. The church surrounded them with love and prayers. They stood firm on the scripture that states that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as well as the fact that God's grace is sufficient for ALL and that Jesus died for ALL of our sins.

Is our church perfect? No. But if myself or any of my loved ones stumble and fall far away from God, I have decided that this church is the one I want to "have my back."

My prayer request is for both of the families involved in this tragedy. Both families have many unanswered questions; questions we may never know the answer to. While most prayers are usually always with the victims in any situation, I beg of you to pray for the parties on both sides, they are all hurting and need as many prayers as you can spare.

I may never post more details about this situation, I don't know. I also know that this is quite the cryptic post. I just ask for you to love those around you. You never know when it may be the last time you see them. I ask you to always remember that everyone you see is someone's son or daughter and that they are loved. I beg you to show others the grace you would want shown to you.

Thank you for your time.

Seinfeld-esque

Did you ever watch the TV show Seinfeld? If not, it was the show about nothing. That is kind of how this post is going to be – a lot of nothings with no point whatsoever.

My blog buddy Natalie did something similar to this and I really enjoyed reading it. I am going to piggyback on her idea, with a few changes. Most of these are hypothetical questions that I don’t expect an answer to in this lifetime. Others are just things that stress me out and keep me up at night.

I am doing this for 2 reasons: I haven’t had a minute to put together a coherent entry. Out of the 4 computers in our house, only one is both working and accessible right now. Of course, it is the one computer that I don’t have any of my pictures on. With all of us fighting over the computer, my turn doesn’t last long.

Anyway, here goes.

Why do people on a multi lane highway drive the same speed as the car next to them? That creates a wall in which no one can get around. Why can’t they either speed up or slow down and/or change lanes? It’s not that hard.

Why do people think it is okay for them to turn left into the school entrance that says “No left turn?”

Why are people disrespectful to my kid(s) in front of other people and then deny it? Especially when a whole room full of people can hear it?

Why do networks find it necessary to put so much language and sexual stuff in shows that otherwise would be great shows that we could watch as a family?

Why am I so talented at having things get mangled somewhere between my brain and my mouth? Things sound so different in my head.

It bothers me that I may have to take anti-depressants my entire life.

I wonder if I will ever “get it together.”

Will I ever get enough sleep so that I am not always so tired?

When we get to heaven, will we be forever the age we were when we died?

Will we recognize each other in heaven?

Why can people make decisions that affect other people without conferring with those affected?

Will I ever be happy with myself?

Why do I have so many strange quirks? Can I make them go away? I don’t want to have issues with certain sounds and textures.

Will my kids grow up to be wonderful Christian women?

If they don’t, will I still be able to show unconditional love and acceptance?

Will I ever be able to find the movie Pure Luck on DVD?

Why have they not found more cures and treatments for cancer, especially childhood cancers?

Will I ever be caught up on laundry and house cleaning?

Why do my grey hairs all grow in the same spot?

How did I get so blessed to have such great blog friends, a handful of awesome friends that I see on a regular basis, a husband who loves me as well as likes me, and two amazing kids???

How was that for a post about nothing?
Leave me some comments and let me know some of the things you ponder.

As always, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully soon I will post a blog about an actual topic. Or with some pictures. Or at least a coherent thought. If it is a good day, maybe all three will appear in the same entry. Who knows???

My "other" girls

As some of you may know, I coach a level 3 gymnastics team.  We had our state meet this weekend.  They finished 8^th in the state, out of more than 30 gyms.  YAY!!

 

While I am excited about how well that they placed, that is not the point of my entry today.  As their season comes to a close, I look back at some of my favorite memories, both of the season and of the state meet.

 

As I look back on all this time together, I have decided that I am too much of a softie to ever lead a cut-throat, unbeatable team.  What has touched me the most has not been high scores and 1^st places.  It has been watching them grow and mature and become a “team.”

 

They came in as a bunch of scared and nervous girls.  Now they are friends and supporters.  I have seen my girls hug each other when they learn a new skill.  I have heard them cheer each other on when they see one of their own struggling.  I have had them jump up and do the “stay on the beam” dance when one struggles to stay on the beam.  I have had them crawl in my lap and snuggle.  I have had them wrap around my legs when I am walking.  I have seen them holding hands with each other while they are getting instructions. 

 

I am more proud of my girls for their actions at the meet than if they would have come out in 1^st place, but without their wonderful personalities.

 

Let me tell you a couple of excerpts from the meet so that you can see what amazing young girls that I have.

 

When we were at the bars and some of the girls would get to a skill that they had been struggling with, I would hear them quietly cheer, “YES” when their teammate made their skill.  They came and sat next to me during beam because they knew that I needed to hold on to someone when the girls are doing their handstands on beam.  They let me hold their arm or leg.  (There was once that I accidentally grabbed the leg of the girl that was the timer for beam, but that is another story for another day.)  They did a modified “stay on the beam” dance with me while their teammates were doing their handstands and leaps.  They cheered their teammates loudly, they told them good job and high fived them no matter if they stuck their routines or not.  They were able to shake off a bad event and not take it with them to the next event.  They made me and their other coach so very proud and we love them dearly.

 

The rest of the season will be spent training them for the next level, learning new “fun” skills and getting them ready for their new level and new coaches. 

 

I am going to be sad to see them go, but proud to see them progress.  It is almost like having kids.  You have to give them roots before they can grow wings.  Whether these girls stay in gymnastics or not, I hope that they remember the lessons they have learned and the coaches that loved them.

 

So, obviously I do not have what it takes to make these girls be state champions that will always outscore everyone else.  That would take someone much tougher than I am.  Someone who does not get teary eyed when they are crying during conditioning.  Someone who does not think one of the best parts of practice is getting the hugs at the end of practice.  Someone who does not feel so honored when they want to come sit in my lap or lay their head on my shoulder.  Maybe one day, I will be “tougher.”  For now though, I am going to enjoy the ride and the joy that comes with it.  

As always, leave me a comment (click the word "comment" below) and let me know you were here.

Pictures, gymnastics, and more

Sorry for the delay in posting.  March and April are insane months for us.  For March, we had gym meets the first and second weekends, then a retreat from church the 3rd weekend.  In April, J. had her state gymnastics meet the first weekend.  She did awesome!  She came in 5th All Around with a score of 36.075.  (A perfect score would be a 40 - which would be a 10 on each event.)

She has had an ongoing series of knee and ankle injuries lately.  The last one being that she landing a tumbling pass on the side of her foot, with her ankle rolled under.  It had a huge knot on it and turned many beautiful Easter colors; purple, blue, yellow, and green.  The colors were nice and vivid around her ankle and faded as it extended to her toes.  She went and saw our athletic trainer here at school every day for a week and a half and he would do some kind of e-stim boot therapy on it.  We were really hoping she would heal in time to compete at state.  She was hurting afterwards, but was able to do all 4 events.

She got 5th on vault with a 9.4.  Third place on bars with a 9.175.  9th on beam with an 8.5, and 11th on floor with a 9.00.  I am so proud of her!  

I am more proud of the fact that she did so much to help herself heal quickly and kept working through the pain.  This is what makes a gymnast - not the scores, not the placings at awards.  These girls work out 18 hours a week, go to school for 35 hours a week, keep up their grades, and do their chores.  For some, they are quite active in church.   They are usually leaders among their friends.  When they are hurt, they push through it.  I can personally say that there have been times where my daughter has saran wrapped ice bags to herself so that she can still work out.  She has gone in the bathroom and thrown up for one reason or another (sinus drainage, stress, etc - nothing contagious) and then has gone back out to the floor and finished whatever skills she was working on.  She competed twice last year with a fractured shin.  She has come home from practice and has had to have had help getting up the stairs because she is hurting.  She is not a rarity in the gymnastics world by any means.  They are all this way.  We had one girl still coming to practice with a stress fracture in her spine - she thought she just had a backache.  I have seen several girls doing conditioning with ice bags saran wrapped to their knees.  I have seen girls coming in and doing just conditioning when they have a cast on.  When they fall off of the beam or bars, they get back up immediately and do the same skill again and again so that they don't develop a fear.  I have seen them get hurt in the middle of a routine, finish the routine, and then not be able to get back up afterwards.  They have a work ethic like I have never seen before in kids.  They do their homework and dinner in the car on gym days.  Yet, when they take a couple of days off, they miss being there.  Since it is not a seasonal sport, they have these hours all year long, so the literally only get days off a year, not weeks.

Anyway, enough talking.  Here are some pics from the last couple of meets.  Keep in mind that you can not use a flash, the action is quite rapid, and the lighting is flourescent.  None of which allows for optimum pictures.

Here is J. and her friend A. getting ready to compete at state.  These are two of the most amazing young ladies:

J. doing her favorite event.  

J. doing her least favorite event:

J. and A. holding the team banner.  The team came in 7th!  Yay!

M. had a meet the same weekend.  She got her first 9 on beam.  Look at those pointed toes!

M. on bars.  She is such a flexible person that she has to really focus on staying tight.  She looks so much better on bars since she has learned how to focus on that:

This pictures look a little better as the lighting was a little better.  Here is J. hitting her handstand on the bar:

Look - her heels are together!  YAY!  (Since she is pigeon toed, this is a big struggle for her.)  

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pics.  The photographer at state got some really good pics, I will post them when I get them.

My team has state meet this coming weekend.  I am so excited and nervous for them!  

The next weekend, M. has her state meet.

Then, we are done competing for a few months and will work on training for the next level.

We went to the mountains over spring break and I am working on an update that will have "prettier" pictures for those of you that are not into the gymnastics stuff.  I forget that other people have a life that does not revolve around gymnastics schedules.  

**For those of you that get email updates - I'm sure that you noticed that you only got the title of the blog and a link to get here instead of the full entry.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  There were several reasons for this.  I realized that for people that do NOT visit the actual site, you and I both were missing out on some things.   You would not get to see any pictures that I place on the blog template.  You also would not get to see my blogroll on the side.  Those sites are absolutely wonderful and I encourage you to visit them.  Also, for you guys that don't blog, something you may not know:  Bloggers LOVE for their hit counter to go up.  We also love to get comments.  We like to know you were here.  There is nothing more rewarding for a blogger than to see and read that people were here - another reason to visit my cyber-friends on the side over there.**

As usual, thank you for stopping by!

Very disturbing entry - also quite useless

This is probably the strangest and most useless blog entry that has ever been posted. As a matter of fact you may want to stop reading now, because what follows is quite disturbing.

Let me set the stage. For those of you that know me, you know that I have a LOT of hair. I also have a lot of weird issues. One of my weird issues is my wet hair touching me. So, the other day after my shower, I was blow-drying the ends of my hair so that it would not drip on me (I am cringing just typing it – ewwww.) Anyway, I was leaning far to one side so that all of my hair was hanging down in the air and not on my back. I then leaned a little forward. While blow-drying my hair, I happened to look in the mirror and noticed something quite strange and frankly downright frightening. I noticed that gravity was not my friend.

My face looked quite strange. It actually looked like it was melting. I was leaning to the left while using the dryer. The left side of my face looked like it was stretched realllllly far and the right side of my face was all bunched up at my eye. After I got over the sheer terror of realizing that was MY face, I became interested to see what would happen as I moved around. Unfortunately, I discovered that it was not just that one position. As I leaned further over and forward and backward, my face continued to morph into unrecognizability.

I knew that as you aged, your skin lost elasticity and have even noticed it around my eyes. However, NOTHING could have prepared me for what just happened. I am still in my 30’s! Not by much, but I am holding on to the 30’s with dear life. I forget quite often how old I am. I don’t think I will forget any more, though, as that image is indelibly etched in my brain.

I am still going back and forth between being mortified and morbidly fascinated. I keep finding myself in front of the mirror leaning over in different ways.

Now, I am going to be curious as to which of you go and try this when no one is looking. Let me know if you discover strange contortions of your face. If you try it and nothing changes in your face – well then PHHHHTTT. Just kidding, it will happen soon enough.

You may wonder why in the world I posted something like this. My reasons are two fold – one, it gives everyone fodder for teasing me with, as if you needed more ammunition. Two, it gave me a chance to use my new Mac book and see how well it works with blogger.

Thanks for reading this absolutely pointless entry.

Teenage epiphany

To clarify at the beginning, this is an epiphany that my teenage daughter had. NOT an epiphany that I had about teenagers. I'm still waiting on that to happen.



As you saw in my last post, J. was baptized earlier this month. Before that, she obviously had been doing a lot of thinking. One night, she came to me and said this:



'You know that phrase that you hear people say - "God is Love?' (I John 4:8) Well, you hear it a lot but don't ever think about it. If you do, it is kind of hard to make that phrase make sense. So I started thinking about it. Then I thought of that passage in the bible that says "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (I Corinthians 13) If God is love, then you could say that God equals love. So, you could go through this passage and replace the word "love" with "God." That would make the "God is love" phrase make a lot more sense. '



I was blown away! I had never thought of this in this fashion before. It got me to thinking more about it.



Here is how that passage would read with the replacements made:

GOD is patient

GOD is kind

[GOD] does not envy

[GOD] does not boast

[GOD] is not proud

[GOD] is not rude

[GOD] is not self-seeking

[GOD] is not easily angered

[GOD] keeps no record of wrongs

GOD does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth

[GOD] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
GOD never fails



That is powerful stuff in my opinion.



If you look at this passage in The Message translation, the sentence that precedes the passages states, "So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." Again, if you replace love with "God," it is right on target again.



This has been floating around in my head for the last couple of weeks since she said it. It has really got me thinking. I wonder if this thought went through the authors head when he wrote these words?



Irregardless, it got my teenagers thought processes going in an awesome direction - there are a LOT worse things that she could be thinking about!



Thank you for stopping by and reading.



I do want to ask 2 favors from you:



1) Please visit my friends on the right sidebar over there. Many of them are going through a lot right now and some kind words would go a long way. Just don't leave me for them. They are much more talented writers than I am and lead much more exciting lives than I do. You will enjoy their sites more than mine, I promise. But remember how insecure I am and still come back and visit me, please??????



2) Leave me a comment and let me know you were here. You don't have to say anything other than "I was here." I just like to know I am not alone. Plus, it helps my insecurity issues when I look at my blog and see that I have comments posted. :-)

Marching forth on March Fourth!

What a happy, happy time! My oldest daughter, J., got baptized Wednesday night!

(As stated when M. got baptized in July, I am not wanting to start a theological debate or anything. I just want you readers to understand what baptism means to us:

The word baptize comes from the Greek word "baptizo" and literally means, "to dip, to immerse, to plunge." In addition to the literal meaning of the word, immersion is practiced because it was the practice of the church in apostolic times. Still further, only immersion conforms to the description of baptisms as given by the apostle Paul in Romans 6:3-5 where he speaks of it as a burial and resurrection.

We believe that baptism by immersion is a necessary response of faith to God’s free grace. It is not a work we do to earn God’s favor, but rather, a work God does for us."We see this as one of the steps necessary to becoming a Christian - giving your life to God.)

Okay, now back to the pictures. For those of you that are not from the same religion as us, I will have a running commentary on what is going on with each of the pictures. For those of you that were there, or know what is going on, feel free to just look at the pictures if you want.

Here is the excited Dad, waiting on J. to get ready:

Here is our good friend V.T. getting the baptistry ready. By getting it ready, I mean removing the foam rocket that had mistakenly and mysteriously landed in the baptistry earlier.




My sweet M. and our "adopted" sister B.B. She bridges J. and M. together nicely, don't you think? With her blue eyes like M. and dark hair like J., she blends right in.


Friends waiting on J. (There was a lot of waiting on J.)







Behind the scenes: J., MM., KJ., and CT:

I absolutely LOVE this picture. The kids are being led in prayer by one of our youth ministers.

Here we go!

J. realizing that the water is really cold:

Before I go any farther, I have a couple of disclaimers to throw in. When I was young, it seemed to always be the minister who did the baptizing. I have observed that more and more people are choosing to be baptized by someone who has been a big influence on them spiritually. J. and CT, the young man in the picture, have been talking a lot lately about Christianity, life as a teenager, being spiritual leaders, etc. They are not "dating" or "going out" or whatever the term is these days. J. calls him her big brother and he calls her his little sister. I didn't want any inaccurate beliefs about them to be floating around making either of them uncomfortable.



Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. Again.



Here, CT is asking J if she believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he died for her sins.






Based on her agreement and confession of her belief, she is baptized:
































Lest you think I wasn't there, here is proof. My left hand is holding on to J.'s hand.




Notice KJ's expression? J had just slipped coming up the steps. She is a true gymnast.


I LOVE this picture. I love these girls. I love this picture of these girls.




The "hugging" aftermath:









We are all so very thankful to you that were there in person, those that have prayed for any of us in the past, and those of you that will pray for us in the future.



Please continue to pray that we will be able to be good parents to our daughters and that we will raise them to be strong Christian women.



As always, leave us a note in the guestbook to let us know you were here!



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