Two Weeks

I am really excited. Two weeks from today I will be getting on a plane. I only have to wait TWO more weeks!!

I am looking forward to meeting everyone.

I am looking forward to the adventure of going to a new place.


So if anybody has great travel advice let me hear it!

If anybody has great Oklahoma advice PLEASE let me hear it!

If anyone has anything that they think they would like me to bring them from California, Please let me know!

Friends and Laughing

I got to spend the weekend with one of my favoritest bestest friends in the world. She came up to the smoke zone, sniffling and coughing just to see me. She says she has missed me. I know that I have missed her. I haven't seen her for almost 2 months but we have had to go up to a year in the past without getting to see eachother.

Lenore and I met in 1982. She is the most amazing person. I am so blessed to have her in my life. We have stood up for each other at weddings, comforted each other at the passing of grandparents, celebrated the birth of children. It was fun sitting around and laughing about the cars we have owned and what we had done in them. We talked about when we went to see Bon Jovi, in 1988. We laughed about some ex-boyfriends both ours and her mothers and the fact that my mom never dated. Mostly we just laughed and laughed and laughed. Lenore and I seem to be able to pick up like we saw each other yesterday. Like no time has passed.

Do you have friends that are like that?
Do you have friends that are closer than family?
Do you have friends that make you laugh and laugh?

The Fence

This last January we had a big storm and it blew down about 100 feet of wooden fence. No one has been in a real hurry to fix it. That is the side of the house with the "good" neighbors. The time has come though to get it fixed. I personally am tired of looking at orange plastic temp fence.

Craig has been getting estimates for all kinds of fencing. Mel and Craig haven't been able to agree on what kind of fencing to get. Craig wanted to replace it with wood. Mel wants chain link. Craig wants the privacy that wood offers and Mel wants the price break that chain link offers. Ben the next door neighbor doesn't care which product is used "Just let me know what I owe Ya".

My personal opinion is that I prefer wood. I am a fat chick that likes to not be stared at in my bathing suit when I go swimming. I am not real fond of chain link but if you get the kind with the slats I will be somewhat satisfied.

This got me to thinking about the fence that I have erected around my heart. Is this fence made of wood so that nobody can guess what is in there? Are there slats in the Chain Link so if you stand there with your face pressed to it and one eye at an opening you can see little pieces of who I am but never the whole picture? Or is the fence that surrounds my heart Chain Link open for all to see everything but still a blockade so that you can't touch it or hurt it?

A Wooden Fence can't withstand the wind.
A Chain Link Fence with Slats only shows you part of the picture.
A Chain Link Fence lets you see the picture but you can't participate in it.

Through the years of dealing with garbage that had been filling my life, I hope that if there is still a fence around my heart it is a Chain Link one that is only 3 feet high. But most of all I pray that it continues to get smaller everyday and that people around me not only can see Christ in me but can feel him and desire him also!

Hope and Her New Dream

Once a year I become the only girl in my household. My daughter goes to camp at Alliance Redwoods. This is where she asked Jesus into her heart last year.

It has been a hard couple of weeks with Hope. She has decided that she wants to follow a path in her life that her father doesn't support. I personally am not real pleased with it either but I handle things differently than Craig. Craig is one that just says no. I am one that wants her to try and find out for herself that it isn't as wonderful as she thought it would be. My sweet little girl wants to be an actress. I am not sure where this desire has come from. I think that she likes Zac Ephron a little too much and thinks that if she is an actress then they can get married. How many little girls do you know that want to be actresses?

I think what bothers me the most about her announcement is that in the last month I have noticed that she is drifting further and further away from her youth group and her desire to be involved. She is shy and has decided that her brother is the chosen favorite child. Which is the furthest thing from the truth. Hope is one of the few people that I never tire of being with. To be perfectly honest if you lined up the people in my house and said to me that I had to pick someone, take them and leave forever. I choose Hope. She is such a special soul.

My prayer this week is that Jesus reminds her of who she is in him. That she remembers that she is his princess. That she remembers that she is always my Chosen One. But way before that she was His Chosen One!!

If you have extra room in your prayer list please add my peanut. I can't imagine her losing her faith at 13.

Thanks for listening to a trouble mother. I miss her already and she has only been gone 8 hours!!

Cover Charge

The Countdown Has Started

I am really getting excited! There are only four more weeks until I am on a plane. 28 Days until I land in Oklahoma. Again I am really getting excited!


I need this time away. I am tired. The whole situation with my Father In Law is wearing me out. First the amputation, then the heart attack, then the move back to rehab. I feel blessed that he is still alive. I have been spending more time at the hospital then I have at work. Then when I make it home I have 2 teenagers that seem to miss their mother.

I did get a good laugh the other day at Craig. I was sitting on our bed writing checks for bills. He wanted to know what I was doing. He told me that I had already paid bills. I laughed and informed him that I had paid his father's bills, now I was paying ours.

I would love to tie all this into something spiritual but all I can say is that I am sorry for the lag in blogging. I think that if I spend much more time in the hospital I am going to get a WIFI aircard.

My 13 year old daughter just came in my room and informed me that I have to get up and go to work in the morning. That I should really turn off the lights and go to sleep. I think I will take her advice.

Have a great weekend!!!

SIDENOTE: The President was in our town today. So the California fires that are running on the news that he is looking at are here. Yucky smoke still heavy in the air.

Pool Party

Saturday we celebrated Hope's 13th Birthday which was the 2nd. We had planned a pool party for the end of June but that was the weekend that all the fires started and the air quality was terrible. The fires are still burning but the delta breeze has helped with the air quality. So breathing is a little easier now.

All of Hope's friends showed up. We barbqued hamburgers and hotdog, had lots of chips and soda. Of course we had a birthday cake. My daughter is my mother's child in this area. Hope requested a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and chocolate frosting. I totally thought of Natalie and Kim when we cut it. I passed on the cake.

There was just one thing that really bothered me about the party.....

I blogged about it in May. Only one parent came to the door with their daughter. She was the only parent that I even really know. So all the other parents, mom's included, just pulled up and let their daughters out of the car. Seven girls and I had never met their parents. They didn't even come to the door with phone numbers in case of an emergency.

This is our pool. It is made out of concrete and plaster. There were a bunch girls that were getting rowdy in my concrete pool. What if one of them had cracked their head open when jumping in or some other injury? Amazing to me.

Really....What is going on with today's parents?

Insecurity

I thought I would share a shortcoming of mine with you. I have always been insecure. I have always worried about making other people happy, doing the right thing and being liked.

I get nervous when I am meeting new people. That cracks up my friend Leslie because she says I am really out going and easy to talk too. I of course want people to like me and worry that I am not good enough. Things have changed over the years. I don't get as tramatized as I use too. I have been known to sit in my car and talk to God for a long time before going into a gathering though.

I know that He doesn't want me to live this way. I also know that He loves me and that supercedes everybody else's opinion. I don't want insecurity to define me anymore. I have been studying Who I Am In Christ for awhile now and INSECURE isn't on the list. If you suffer from insecurity, I totally know how you feel! Here is just one of the many scripture that tells us we are important to God. If you need more don't hesitate to ask. I have them.


How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can't even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me. - Psalm 139:17-18


Tell me that isn't awesome scripture....When I wake up you are still with me! Amen

Hope everybody has a blessed weekend!

Uneasy

My Father in Law, Mel, has been moved to a rehab hospital. I know this is a good thing. Him being moved there this quickly is actually a very good thing. He appears to be highly motivated to start his rehab therapy.

When Craig and I went to the center today, I got a really uneasy feeling. There wasn't anything visually out of place there. No patients that looked abused or stranger than normal smells. The place just bothers me.

By the way, not sure if I have ever mentioned that until the last 5 years or so Mel and I preferred to stay away from each other. He is kind of a womanizer and well I am kind of not. :) Just a little history. We have grown on each other the last couple years especially.

I wanted to load up his hospital bed and bring him home right then!! His doctor said that if he gets strong enough to move from the bed to the wheelchair easily that he can come home in 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks. I am praying and motivating him in that direction. I really just want him home.

I am having a really hard time finding my peace right now. I will say that it is amazing what the Lord can do to your heart when you aren't looking. I really do love the old guy. I also give all the glory to God that we didn't lose Mel last week.

I am Married to a Smuggler/ F-I-L Update

Thank you all that have been praying for my Father In Law's surgery and recovery. The procedure went well. He looks great already. It is amazing what prayer, food, nutrition and chopping off an infected part of your body can do for you. Mel is looking at 6 weeks of rehab and a prosthetic. There is a period of depression that the doctor warned him about that usually comes about 2 weeks into rehab. We are hoping that his strength will be good enough to come home in the next 3 weeks and continue with the remainder of his rehab as an outpatient. I will update you on any new developments. Thank you all again for your support.


I would like to introduce you all to my husband Craig the Smuggler! We were all at the hospital when Mel was brought to his room from recovery. We stayed awhile and then a group of us left. Craig stayed behind and talked to his dad for awhile. When Craig finally left to come home for a bit he asked his dad if he could bring him anything back. Mel wanted a milkshake. YES A MILKSHAKE!!!



Now I am pretty sure that that is not on the list of acceptable foods to eat when you have had half your leg cut off and you are diabetic. Well my wonderful husband wanting to make his father feel better brought him one of those pictured above. He smuggled it in the hospital and Mel started drinking it. They got busted by the nurse. The nurse though was wimpy and wouldn't take it away. She did have to call Jack in the box to find out how many carbs was in it to get him the right amount of insulin. The lady nurse then sent in the big man nurse and he was a little intimidating. Craig stood his ground and Mel told mannurse it was good and he would do it again. Ryan, Hope and I were laughing so hard we almost pee'd our pants.

Tomorrow we are expecting to see a DO NOT FEED THE PATIENTS sign.

If you are ever having any surgeries, let me know and I will send over the smuggler to bring you waxy choclate donuts, Starbucks, Lava Cake, etc.

Thongs--FLIP FLOPS

(UPDATED....I WAS TALKING SHOES NOT DENTAL FLOSS....LOL)


This morning I was packing a book bag and I threw in a pair of thongs.

Hope said "Mom why don't you just wear them to work?"

I said "They don't want us to wear thongs to work?"

Hope said "AAAHHHH Well that is dumb! I am never going to work!"

I love that child!

Special Day for Hope

One of my greatest blessings in my entire life is that girl that I am hugging. That is my daughter Hope. Today is her 13th Birthday! Meet my baby that is now officially a teenager!

She is my proof that God is a forgiving God. That he listens to our prayers. That he loves us no matter what we do. That he blesses even those that are undeserving. I fall on my knees everyday and thank the Lord for Hope. I know that she is a special soul that He entrusted to me....He actually entrusted Hope's sweet soul to me! Can you believe how blessed I am!!!!

Happy Birthday Peanut!!!

Give Yourself to Silence

I cut out an article from The Curves Magazine Summer 2005. It is an excerpt from Small Graces by Kent Nerburn, PHD

GIVE YOURSELF TO SILENCE

If you learn how to listen, you can hear the subtle passing of magical momments.

We all have to learn how to listen. Our spirits are harp strings, played upon by the winds and the light and the passing of the hours. We must learn to hear their music, and let them raise melodies in our hearts.

Is there a greater wisdom than this to learn? To sit in utter stillness; to give oneself over to the whisper of the trees, the play of the light upon the surface of the water, the movement of the wind against the grasses on the land?

The yogis would have us cease all movement and listen to our breath.

But is it not as worthy to sit in silence and listen to the breath of God?