Like Sands Through The Hourglass!

As many of you know with my job I travel to different places testing their water. Well today was no different. One of the places I go to is a daycare. I rarely see the children though. Today, however, I had to go through the playground. That playground had all sorts of toys. Swings, slides, balls, high top cars, (By the way I got stuck in one of those when I was about 14) and a sandbox. Anyway as I was walking through the playground I heard a little girl about three years old yelling at me “Hey, tug! Tug!” Tug!” I said “Hello there”. She just kept yelling “Tug!” I got closer to the sandbox, thats when I noticed “it”. A walker. A tiny little walker. The little girl, playing in the sand started bouncing up and down up and down waving at me and yelling “Tug, tug, tug!” It was then I saw that the tiny little walker belonged to her. She had only one leg. The other leg ended at the upper part of her thigh. My heart was instantly broken for her. Well I finished with the water and was coming back through the playground gate, when she started yelling again. “Tug me!” Thats when I realized she was saying “Hug me” I looked at her teacher and she said “Thats fine you can hug her”. The little girl rolled out of that sandbox and hopped on one leg all the way over to where I was, which was about 15-20 feet away. And she was very fast I might add! But she didn’t come alone, she was followed by a three year old cowgirl, and a three year old freckle faced boy. All of whom required a hug.
They all hugged me but the little girl held on. She threw her little arms around my neck and wrapped her little leg around my waist. Then she got down and hopped back over to the sandbox and started playing with the other kids. And I realized just how blessed I am. This little girl was so happy and she was spreading her joy. I wonder how long its been since I have spread any joy. How long its been since I showed anyone how happy I was with what God had blessed me with? I realized in that one little hug I had felt Gods presence. I also realized something else. That little girl was covered in sand and so was I!!!
I got in the car and was leaving and as I brushed the sand off my neck I thought about how blessed I was. A little further down the road I brushed away more sand. This happened all day. And all day I was reminded of Gods love for me.
Its funny how God uses little things to teach us lessons. Who would have thought that a little girl, a hug, and a sandbox would have shown me how blessed I am. The bible teaches about being careful of how we treat strangers they might be angels.(Hebrews 13.2) And I thought this might be the case with me, except as I was leaving I turned around and saw her pick up a hand full of sand and throw it in the little freckled faced boys’ eyes. I don’t think an angel would do that! Its funny how God works!

The things I have learned!

Well today I turned 36 years old! 36! I really never thought I would live to be this old. In middle school my science teacher (Mr. Kallam anyone remember him) told me I would die in a plane crash or with cancer by the time I was 25. But I have survived. (But I have never been on a plane either). Anyway I though I would share with you guys some things I have learned in my 36 years. Well actually when your my age it's called wisdom. Wow I'm wise! I know some of you are laughing at that! Ok ALL of you are laughing at that! But anyway, here are some things I have learned.

I have learned that acne never goes away. I got up with a BIG birthday zit this morning! Who knew? I have learned that Don can make me laugh till a beverage comes out of my nose. I have learned that life doesn't always turn out the way you think it will. I have learned that my parents (most of the time)REALLY did know best. I have learned that childhood dreams don't always come true. (I'm still waiting for the call to go to Egypt on an archeological dig.) I have learned that my kids are the heart of our home. I have learned that best friends are not always forever. I have learned to like my sister! Just kidding! I love my sister very much she IS one of my BFF's. I have learned to turn lights off when I leave a room, and not to swing on the refrigerator door! But I'm still undecided as to if the light really goes off when you close the door.

I have learned that my children did not have to be biologically mine to belong to me. I have learned my daughter has my dancing ability. And that makes us laugh. I have learned my son is a nut and he makes me laugh! I have learned Don makes everybody laugh! I have learned some people no matter what are just going to be mean. Some people are just not going to like me no matter how great I am.

I have learned black dogs tear up your garden for absolutely no reason. I have learned my children love that black dog unconditionally and any mention of the dog pound will bring instant tears.

I have learned that God forgives. That no matter what I do He loves me. And that must be hard to do. I have learned that unfortunately sometimes parents outlive their children, and thats not fair. I have learned that some people I grew up with didn't have the things I had! I learned that sometimes children in the USA go to bed hungry. And thats not fair. I have learned that life isn't fair.

I have learned that good friends are hard to come by. I have learned that bad friends are a dime a dozen. I have learned that no one wants to be in trouble alone. I always wanted company when I did something wrong. I have learned that chickens and beagles ought not be in a cage together. I have learned that a snake bite DOES hurt! I have learned a three legged mouse can still run. I have learned that happiness is a choice and I choose to be happy. I have learned that weeds can take over your garden overnight. I have also learned that you can't teach a black dog to pull weeds, they only bust your watermelons.

I found a book from 7th grade with a list of questions. One of the questions was where do you hope to be at 50. My answer was "DEAD". ( the things we think at 12 years old) I have learned I don't want to be dead at 50. I have learned that I should have ask my grandpa more questions.

The hardest thing I have learned is that it's not about me. No matter how much I want it to be. I have learned that people die. I have learned that sometimes people destroy themselves no matter what you do. I have learned that tomato juice is good with crackers. I have learned spoiled tomato juice is not good with anything. I have learned that I suffer from road rage. I have learned I'm a better driver than those around me! hehe I have learned that some people will drive slow in the fast lane no matter how much you shake your fist at them. I have learned not to shake my fist at people bigger than me. I have learned it kinda hurts to be dragged across the counter at Hardee's by an angry woman.

I have learned to adjust. Adjust to the bad times and the good. To be happy with what I have and who I am. I have learned to accept others for who they are and not try and change them. I have learned I am not in control God is, and thats for the best. (Would you people want me in control of your lives? Scary thought ain't it).

I have learned I love my life and I don't think 36 is gonna be so bad.

DVD Read and Share Bible

I was recently given the opportunity to review a children's DVD. The DVD was called DVD Bible Read and Share The Jesus Series from Tommy Nelson. It is an animated series that chronicles Jesus’ life and miracles. The show started out with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as an older child. His parents took him to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. Then the show switched to Jesus as an adult and it told of the many miracles he preformed. I watched the DVD with my two children. It was a simple animation, not the computer animation that they normally watch. So I wondered if they would even be interested in it. Turns out they were! They really liked it. After it was over my son told me that the wine represented His blood and the bread represented his body.

I was really impressed with this DVD. My children truly enjoyed it and actually learned something from it. It is very nice to be able to let your children watch something on DVD that you know you can trust. To know that the language will be good is such a relief. I would highly recommend this DVD to anyone with young children.

Friendship For Grownups Review

I was recently given the opportunity to read and review a book from BookSneeze. I can honestly say that I was less than thrilled to learn the book would be non fiction because I am more of a fan of fiction. I really like suspense. When I saw the list I could choose from I chose the book Friendships for Grown-Ups by Lisa Whelchel. I remembered her as Blair on the television show The Facts of Life. After seeing someone on a show for that many years you feel like you truly know them. But that is certainly not the case. I was expecting her to be self absorbed Blair, not insecure Lisa.

Lisa writes in her book about how hard it was for her to open up and show her true self to her close friends. I’m sure that being in show business makes its hard to tell who is your friend and who is just trying to “friend” you because your a celebrity. Lisa writes about her struggles with relationships. She gives tips (from her relational experiences) on how to choose your friends. She gives her insight on how to decipher between “safe” and “unsafe” friends.

I never thought about an actress actually having trouble “making” friends. But she explained how hard it was for her to let people know the real Lisa. I was very surprised that I could relate to her and her experiences. I realized that she has many of the same struggles and insecurities in her Christian walk that I have. I throughly enjoyed reading the book (which is saying a lot for me). Since finishing the book I have recommended it to a few of my friends. And who knows, maybe since reading this I may be open to reading more non-fiction.

It was Monday ALL DAY!

Just wanted to blog about my day yesterday. I know most of us have a hard time on Mondays getting back into the swing of things. Well as some of you know I test water which means I work in some well houses. I go into the well house and make sure the chemicals are “balanced”. Yesterday started as normal as any other day. Don woke me up and I asked for 5 more minutes. Well I finally got up, got ready and left. (My folks own the company I work for) I stopped and picked my mom up and off we went. As a general rule we are usually done in Mt Airy and headed to Stokes County by 9AM. But not yesterday. Everything went wrong. The worst for the morning was when Mama asked me to cut a water valve off and it came off in my hand. It had rusted in two! There is nothing like Fire hydrant water pressure “removing” you from a building. When I was out of the building water was pooling every where. I was soaking wet all but my feet. So that was OK. As I was trying to make my way back into the building to “save” Mama I stepped in a pool of water so now my dry feet were soaked! Oh well! We finally got the water cut off. So at 11:00AM we were finally leaving Mt Airy headed to Sparta. Someone told us about a really good restaurant in Sparta, so I looked it up on “Gurdy”, my GPS. Gurdy said it was 10 miles away so off we went. I drove and drove and then I drove some more. Finally as hunger was overtaking me I realized Gurdy was taking me to a cafe by the same name in Independence VA! Uhh Ohh! So I turned around and drove back to Sparta. We stopped and ate lunch without incidence. Then we headed for North Wilkesboro. I’m driving down HWY 18 and as some of you know I got a ticket about a month ago. So I have been carefully monitoring my speed and road rage. As I look up in my rearview mirror I see a Highway Patrol Lady in a Tahoe behind me. So I set my cruise control. I was being so good! Well when I got to the bottom of the mountain she turned her lights on! What??? What did I do? So I woke Mama up and asked her to get the registration card out (My job is driving. Mama’s job is sleeping). I was driving a company car. The lady walks up to the car asks me how I’m doing. I say fine then she proceeds to tell the tags have expired. I give her the registration, she goes back to her vehicle and did whatever the poe poe do when they go back to their vehicles. She comes back and says “Oh your tags don’t expire till midnight tonight. The color confused me.” Then ask my age and told me to “Have a great day and drive safely and get your car inspected before tomorrow!” What? No “I’m sorry I falsely accused you of having expired tags”, no “I’m sorry” for anything. Oh well. So we head off in search of a place to get the car inspected. We soon learned that everyone else in NC were as well.

We had to get to the lab before 5PM. We were so far behind that we finally made it to the lab at 4:49. I went in to drop off my samples and was given the stink eye by the girl at the window who wasn’t happy with my late arrival. Anywho, I turned in my samples, got new sample bottles and was out of there by 5. We were in Kernersville and we were looking for an inspection station. (Is it station? Inspection store just doesn’t sound right.) We finally found one open past 5PM. I got us checked in and they told us that there were two people in front of us, we waited AN HOUR! I learned during this hour wait that the tags won’t expire until NEXT month! The Highway Patrol Lady was evidently a bit more confused than we thought! Because of her we lost half a day of work, which I now have to make up Thursday. Meanwhile Don calls to tell me the replacement phone I had ordered had come. (I dropped my new phone after having it only a week and broke the screen. I had to pay $100.00 deductible.) Anyway when UPS “made the drop” they must’ve left the phone on the ground, because my dog got the phone and chewed it up! Which is what Don had called to tell me! So now I have two broken phones. The phone company told Don I was going to have to pay another $100.00 deductible. By this time I am not happy. It was 6PM I was wet, late, and broke!

After we left the Inspection store we did one more job then it was dark. So we headed home. When I got home (at 8PM) I called my phone provider explained the situation. After being on hold for 45 minutes(during which I facebooked about my rotten day) they finally came back and told me they would send me another new phone and THEY would pay for overnight shipping. So my day actually ended on a positive note. But in the end I realized even though it was Monday ALL DAY, I was home with my family and we were together, healthy, and safe. And that made Monday a great day ALL DAY!

PS And thanks to all my friends who sent encouraging emails and Facebook posts! You’re the best!