S-C-O-R-E!!!!

This morning I was in the bathroom. My husband walked into the room and asked me to throw something in the trash for him. It was a plastic bag rolled up into a ball. He threw it at me with the intention of my catching it and putting it in the trash for him. Instead it bounced off of my head, flew into the air and landed right into the trash can! I know he couldn't do it again if he tried, but it was a shot that would have made his son proud. A true three-pointer! Wonder if the Laker's could use his services?

How Time Flies....

My daughter and grandson have come and gone. They were able to spend a week, but it sure felt like a much shorter visit. When I picked them up at the airport, I was afraid that my grandson wouldn't remember me or that he wouldn't be happy to see me. After all, I'm not Grandpa. When he came down the escalator he broke into a big grin and gave me a heart-melting hug. From there we went to lunch with my son and his girlfriend. He was excited to see both of them. Then we went to see Grandpa at work. He walked right in and when he saw grandpa he half screamed and half laughed. How he loves his grandpa! It never ceases to bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart.

The first weekend they were here we went camping. The weather was less than cooperative. In fact, for So. Cal it was freezing.



My grandson was bundled up like this much of the weekend. At some points I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, hooded zippered sweatshirt, and a fleece jacket. I looked like the Michelin Man. My daughter was heard grumbling on more than one occasion something along the lines of, "Are you kidding me? If I had wanted weather like this I would have stayed in 'that other state'!" My grandson didn't really seem to care. He would play and play until his little face and hands were red from the cold. We spent the weekend with some friends and, in spite of Mother Nature, I think a good time was had by all.

After camping, we spent one morning at the zoo. My grandson really isn't that impressed with the zoo. I think it's that he has to be lifted up to see into most of the cages. He would rather just walk and look at things that don't require him to be confined. He enjoys the petting zoo and the sky cups.



Here he is with me in front of the stinky flamingos. Why do they smell so bad anyway?

That afternoon, he got to visit with one of his great-grandpas and his great-grandma. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling very well. Our first clue was when he fell asleep in his stroller at the zoo. Our second clue was when he wouldn't eat a french fry. His uncle (who loves him more than words) was kind enough to share a cold/virus thing with him. He started running a fever and became 'clingy boy.' The only person who was capable of loving him and providing for his needs was his mommy. While it was too cute, we all felt sorry for him. By the next day he was feeling better. Just suffering from a little head congestion and the visit continued.

Thursday came much too fast and it was time to go to the airport. Of course, we had to stop by and pick grandpa up at work to go with us. This required another visit with the helicopters. My grandson walks through the entire aviation facility like he owns the place. He visits with everyone and sits in the helicopters and leads his proud grandpa all around.



"These are my controls Grandpa."




"Someday I'll be tall enough to fly this all by myself."




"Hurry, hurry Grandpa. There's more helicopters over here." "I'll need to sit in each one of them."

After spending a few minutes in the hangar, we were off to the airport. Once we put them on the plane we began the countdown to the next visit. Today we are at 37 days. I instructed him that he needs to be able to say Grandma and Grandpa next time. Next visit: Disneyland and a 2nd Birthday Party!

A Message I Needed To Hear

Anyone who is a Christian and has attended church for any period of time will know what I am talking about. It's THE Speech. The one that every pastor has to give from time to time. It's the message that we all need to hear. It's the message, that even though you don't want to hear it, God has planned to use to speak directly to you. We had that message yesterday. It's title was "Mastering Your Money. God's Blueprint for Living and Giving." 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

With the economy the way it is Pastor Charlie had to give the speech. Our giving is down and our finances at church are in serious trouble. With soaring gas and food prices, people just aren't giving like they should. Before I go any further, let me make it abundantly clear that this blog is not to make anyone feel like they are not giving to the Lord. How much you give is between you and Him. This blog is about me and how the message touched me.

I've shared many times about the fact that I'm not working right now. It's a choice we made based on many factors, not the least being we felt the Holy Spirit was leading me to quit. I've also shared about how we have been fine. We haven't touched savings and we have not really changed our lifestyle. We have started to look at purchases as wants versus needs and have adjusted our spending accordingly. Through it all, God has faithfully provided a day of overtime or a great sale.

Recently, I've noticed that when it came time to write out our tithe check I was allowing my mind to wander and to think about all the things that I could DO with that check or all the things I could BUY with that check. I believe what the bible says about giving, but I wasn't following scripture. I was allowing my fears about the current economy to cloud my thinking and to make me less than a cheerful giver.

Pastor Charlie's message wasn't threatening nor was it designed to make you feel bad. It was probably one of the best "we need money" messages I've ever heard. He truly explained why we should WANT to give.

2 Corinthians 9:7 says- "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Pastor Charlie said that each of us should pray about what amount we should give and that we should cheerfully WANT to give. He says that when we drop our offering into the bag we should hold on to it for one last second and THANK God for the opportunity to give to Him. By doing this we are acknowledging that without HIM we wouldn't have anything, let alone money to put into the offering. Pastor Charlie went on to say something that I had never thought about. He said that giving should be a form of worship. I had never thought about giving as even remotely being a form of worship. By worshipping him when we give that check each Sunday we are showing him that we acknowledge all things come from Him. We are simply giving Him what is already his.

Our tithe check is always the first check that I write out on payday. All other bills are paid after we give back to the Lord. That won't change, but the attitude with which I write that check and the attitude with which it is given on Sunday certainly will. Thanks Charlie for being the vessel for the Holy Spirit to present a new perspective and for giving me a much needed attitude adjustment.

It's Not Even April Fools Day

My daughter and my grandson are coming tomorrow! We haven't seen each other since April 2nd. This is entirely too long. We are adjusting to not seeing them several times a week, like we used to, but 50 days drives me nuts. That's why I didn't find the following conversation very amusing:

Message left on cell phone from daughter: "Hi Mom, if you get this give me a call."

Me: Hi, What's up?

Her: I just got a phone call from a supervisor at JetBlue. He wanted to let me know that my flight tomorrow has been cancelled. He said that they would try and find another flight for me so I should stand by.

For the briefest of seconds I thought about going into a blind rage and getting furious. Then for another nano-second I thought about crying because if she couldn't get a flight then she couldn't go camping with us and all of our plans would be ruined. See, when you don't see your daughter or your grandson in 50 days all reason is thrown out the window. But, then I realized that she couldn't be serious. Because if she was serious she wasn't even remotely upset enough. Then I wondered if she was serious and had thoroughly adjusted to living away from us and didn't want to see us as badly as we want to see her. That made the next fraction of a second very scary. It's one thing to live in that "other state", but not missing us is unacceptable. As I really processed what she had said I clearly knew she was kidding because she said the Supervisor had told her to 'stand by'. My daughter does not 'stand by'. She is a take charge kind of person. She would have been calling all the other airlines and finding herself a flight. She would never leave it to someone else. Remember, only about 2 seconds have elapsed while all of those thoughts have run through my head.

Me: Are you serious?

Her: No, but a supervisor from JetBlue did call me to make sure that I realized my flight time had changed since I made my reservation. Wasn't that nice?

Me: Real nice.

For the record, I would have flapped my arms and flown to pick her up myself if need be.

Did I mention that I get to see my daughter and grandson tomorrow and that I am very excited?

It's All In Your Perspective

Last night when my husband was reading his devotional it was "Teach.....Your Children And.....Their Children After Them." Deuteronomy 4:9 NIV. It was sub-titled "A Grandparent's Influence." My husband came out of the bedroom chuckling. He told me to read the text. It was written by a child.

"A grandmother is a lady who has no children of her own. She likes other people's little girls and boys. A grandfather is a man grandmother. He goes for walks with boys; they talk about fishing and stuff like that. Grandmothers don't have anything to do except to be there. They are so old that they shouldn't play hard or run. It is enough if they drive us to the store where the pretend horse is, and have lots of money ready. Or if they take us for walks, they slow down for things like pretty leaves and caterpillars. They should never say 'hurry up.' Usually grandmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes. They wear glasses and funny underwear. They can take their teeth and gums off. Grandmothers don't have to be smart, only answer questions like, "Why isn't God married?" and "How come dogs chase cats?" Grandmothers don't talk baby-talk like visitors do, because it's hard to understand. When they read to us they don't skip, or mind if it's the same story over again. Everybody should have a grandmother, especially if they don't have a television, because they are the only grown-ups who have time."

Well, reading that got me to thinking. I remember my grandma's. They were old when I was little and they were "fat." They didn't move very fast and they did the silliest things. You know, OLD people things. I think that only one of them could take her teeth out, but both of them wore glasses.

I have never thought of myself as THAT kind of grandma. I see myself as young, in decent shape, not particularly fat (fluffy maybe), my teeth are my own and as for the underwear thing....they are NOT funny.



Then I thought about how my grandson probably sees me. I have taken him to the store and let him ride the horse. When we go for walks we look at the leaves and the caterpillars. I try not to say 'hurry up' because I am enjoying that particular moment with him. I wear contacts or glasses depending on my mood and the time of day. I can't wait for him to be able to communicate enough to ask me why God isn't married. I love to read to him and have been known to read the same page over and over again...if that is what he wants.

It hit me....My grandson probably thinks I'm old! I have wrinkles. The gray has been known to pop out in my hair between visits to the hairdresser. Oh my goodness. I AM old. In his eyes, I am an OLD grandmother! Hopefully, he sees me as the 'grown up who has time.' If he does, then I wouldn't trade his perspective for the world.

God's Amazing Provision and Sense of Humor

God never ceases to amaze me and, in this case, amuse me. We need to have our house re-roofed. Everytime it rains we have a new leak. My husband gets up on the roof and patches the leak only to have it happen someplace else the next time it rains. Our patio roof also decided to start leaking. My husband discovered that it was suffering from dry rot, so he tore the whole thing down. Now we need to not only choose a roofer, but we need to rebuild the patio before the roofer can start the project. This whole weekend was dedicated to working on putting up the patio roof. Well, God had other plans.

Rewind 8 months - I quit my job because I felt like it was what the Lord was asking me to do. We made the decision that we would try life with me not working and see how it went. I haven't had to go back to work and somehow our life style hasn't even changed. Everytime I think we may have to take money out of the bank to make ends meet, the Lord provides a few hours of overtime and the bank account remains untouched.

Fast Forward to today - My hubby is on call. The phone rang at 7:00 am. He left to supervise a search and is at this moment coming up on his 11th hour of overtime. I just spoke to him and he won't be home any time soon. The money will be a huge help in paying for the wood, that is lying all over my backyard, that will someday be a patio. I'm really not sure that my husband sees the humor in the situation, but he does believe that God answers our every petition and provides for our needs. I think that he might be questioning why the overtime couldn't have come when the patio was done, but all I know is that God is good.

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My husband hates Crows. He doesn't find them to be a particularly attractive bird and he can't stand the noise they make. Around our house they are something like a black, flying rooster. They start making their obnoxious noise as soon as the sun comes up. Sometimes we will have a couple of them in our yard and they will yell back and forth. My husband has been known to go outside and knock two shoes together or clap his hands real loud in an attempt to make them fly away. This has always made me laugh because as soon as he comes in the house they come back into the yard. One year, for his birthday, I bought him a stuffed crow. Just to bug him. He wasn't impressed and the crow quickly became a fall decoration. Well, yesterday, while working on the patio the following happened:

Him: (Walking towards the back of our property) "What is that?"

Me: "What?"

Him: "There is a huge nest in this pine tree."

Me: "What kind of a bird builds that big of a nest? Could it be an owl?"

Him: "I don't know, but it's huge! I don't see anything in it right now though."

We go back to working on the patio. Hubby is busy sawing and I glance up to that tree occasionally.

Me: "Ummmm....(barely able to contain my laughter and subsequent sarcasm) Honey, there is a bird in the nest now."

Him: "Really? What kind?"

Me: "It would be of the crow persuasion."

Him: "No way! Are you kidding? It is not staying. I'm going to knock it down."

Me: "Oh, no you're not! That wouldn't be right."

Him: "Fine! One spring! Next year if I even so much as see a crow in one of those trees I'm going to knock down each and every twig it thinks about putting up there."

Me: "Whatever."

Several minute pause.

Him: "God did this on purpose. He finds this crow's nest to be very amusing. He's up there laughing at my expense. I just know it. How can he even stand crows? What was he thinking?"

Me: Uncontrollable laughter.

How much noise do you think a nest of baby crows will make anyway?

I've Been Tagged

I read my friends blog where she's listed 10 random things about herself and because I read it I've been tagged. Well, I thought about just pretending that I didn't read it because I'm boring and don't think there are 10 random things you want to know about me, but I really like this person and she knows I read her blog, so.......

1. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so vain. Covering my grey can be really expensive. As I'm leaving the salon I know that the grey is simply regrouping to return yet again.

2. I have a weird quirk where if I open a can of anything I have to make sure that I get everything out of the can. Otherwise, I feel sorry for the bean (or whatever) that gets left behind.

3. I can't believe I'm fifty. There is so much I want to do and I know I will never have time to do it all.

4. My mom died in February and I still can't sit in the chair that she always sat in. It just creeps me out. Nothing else in the house bothers me, so I don't really know why the chair bothers me.

5. I wish I was 2 inches shorter so that I could buy pants that weren't talls. They are so hard to find and the selections are so limited.

6 I love to cook. I subscribe to three cooking magazines. My hubby is such a good sport because sometimes the recipes look and sound better than they actually taste.

7. I feed birds. Not like a little old lady sitting on a park bench or anything like that, but I put out seed, thistle, sunflower seeds, peanuts and hummingbird nectar. I love to watch the different types of birds. The blue jays are my favorite.

8. Lake Tahoe is like heaven on earth to me. Our little family spent alot of vacation time in a tiny cabin near Tahoe City. My husband and I went on our honeymoon there. It is a place that we all love. We will be going this summer for 9 days. It doesn't seem to matter how many times we go, I always get excited.

9. I am really proud of the Godly adults my children have become. My daughter is amazing. If God had moved me to another state, away from family and friends, when I was a young mother, I wouldn't have gone with such grace. My son has become an awesome Godly man. He is in school preparing to serve the Lord. I know that he is going to make a real difference in many peoples lives as he continues to seek Him.
I love you both.

10. This November my husband and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary. We are going on a cruise to Mexico. My cousin and her husband will be joining us! Fun and sun here we come.

Ok, there are some very random things that you probably didn't want to know about me. If you read this you too have been tagged!