On a more serious note...

I teach a group of adult ladies in Sunday school each Sunday. There are around 25 members in the class and we run about 18-20 each Sunday. When I first started teaching this class a couple of years ago there was one lady that came sporadically. She is about my mothers’ age, and is a very striking woman with a butch peppered gray haircut. She scared me to death when she came. She is a true “Maxine” and has no problem saying what she thinks in an assertive, finger pointing, gruff kind of way. Honestly, I avoided her at all cost. Then one Sunday I found out that her son had died about 5 years ago. I softened and wasn’t quite so scared. Then this past summer her daughter died and now it is just her and her husband. It was then that I reached out to her to try in some feeble way to try to comfort her, to give her words of encouragement. Since then I have gotten to know her little by little. What I have found out is that we are kindred spirits! She makes me laugh and she makes me cry. She is trying to deal with her life right now, I don’t have any answers for her and I don’t try to give her any. I just pray for her daily and give her lots of hugs and encouragement. When I found out that she also collects “Maxine” stuff I went through my collection and picked out two pieces to give her. I was so excited to give her the pieces. They weren’t unique or anything, just duplicates I had. When I got to church that Sunday, she had also picked out one of her collection to give me. I was blown away by her generosity. She gave me a numbered collector’s piece. I treasure it! It sits on my desk right under my monitor to remind me of this special friend that God has put in my life.
Last Thursday night we had our Christmas party and in true fashion she was “grumpy” about it, said she wouldn’t come, didn’t like Christmas because of all the commercialism and probably this year, Christmas without her beloved daughter. Well, she was one of the first to arrive. She told us her husband told her to get out of the house and do something fun. After dinner the ten of us sat around visiting and she spoke up and said, “I don’t know what to do”. It seems another class member calls her at least once a week to “cheer her up”. She knows that the lady’s intentions are good and she wouldn’t hurt her feelings for the world but the calls leave her more depressed than ever. There was a lot of chatter around the table and I just sat there listening and thinking. Finally, I said you know what you ought to do? Next Sunday when we have our prayer requests and praise time you should tell us that you are doing well and that you had a great week. She frowned, pointed her finger at me and said, “I can’t lie!” I said, “Well, think about it, I’m sure you have moments that are better and times when you can laugh and don’t hurt quite as much. That’s okay! Maybe if she thinks you are moving forward then she won’t feel the need to call you as frequently. Just think about it.”

So that brings me to today. At the end of the class she broke in and said, “I just want to say one thing. I had a really good time at the party Thursday night; it was a lot of fun, good food and laughter.” I and the others told her that we were happy that her husband had kicked her out of the house.

She is a precious new friend. She can come across a little gruff, but she has a heart of gold. I was so proud of her and hope the phone calls stop.
You see, she is doing great! Yes, she still misses her children, yes, she still asks God why, yes she is still hurting. But, I think the difference here is that she isn’t blaming God, she is just trying to accept her “story” God has planned for her. Perfectly, no, but none of us can do that. The only one that can do that died on the cross for our sins many years ago and it is because of God’s love for us and manifested through His Son that we can even begin to try.

Poop Happens

So, I'm all snuggly in bed about 11:30 last night, just about to fall asleep and I hear bloppp....bloppp...etc. It took me a minute to register the sound and I came out of the bed screaming NOOOOO in my head! Went right to the source of the sound...my toilet. Sure enough big air bubbles coming pretty steady. I grabbed my robe and ran down the hall to Samuels room and asked if he or Phillip (his friend) if they had recently flushed the toilet. I checked and it was doing the same thing. NOOOO, it's too late! I have to get up early. NOOOOO!
Oh, well, might as well get it over with....I asked the two strapping young men to get shovels and I would show them exactly where to dig. Warm clothes were put on and out we go, 11:30 at night. The septic tank sits in the front of the "island" (circle drive). I explained to the guys what I was looking for and they put the shovels into the ground. Wow, they exclaimed this thing isn't that deep. No, no, it's not thank goodness. I had crow bar in hand and looked around to see if my sh..oh I mean poop stick was where I put it a couple of years ago and yes, there it was tucked under an azalea. Within minutes, they had found the trap and cleared the area of all dirt. Of course, I repaid them with stories of past experiences doing this, that were much more "colorful". Phillip being a kid from the city was getting quite an education on "sewer in the country" (septic tanks) I told them to step back and I popped the trap off. Sure enough, even by the light of the yard light I could see that toilet paper & such were trapped. This is where the "stick" comes in handy!
The exciting part of this little job happens when the sh stick loosens things up and all the contents of the lines in the house and the 50 or so feet come rushing down to freedom. From experience, I've learned that you get that trap on fast. And I mean fast! I stood there until everything quieted down, told the guys they were done for the night and took a quick peek to see if we were....good to go.
All that gets dirty on me is one hand and then it's mostly dirt. Unlike the experience where I didn't know what the "rumble" sound meant and didn't get the trap on until old faithful hit me. Though that time Andrew said he had never seen me move so fast. *sigh* :) Who lives like this? I need to move in town so I can have city sewer. The neighbors must wonder about me! *makes note that I might need to call the honey wagon*.....Just saved myself 150.00 and got another great story! :)

Fifteen Books I've Read

RULES: DON'T TAKE TOO LONG TO THINK ABOUT IT. FIFTEEN BOOKS YOU'VE READ THAT WILL ALWAYS STICK WITH YOU. FIRST FIFTEEN YOU CAN RECALL IN no more THAN 15 MINUTES. TAG 15 FRIENDS, INCLUDING ME BECAUSE I'M INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT BOOKS MY FRIENDS VALUE.

1.Where the Red Fern Grows (that one's for Jeff)
2. Savage Sam - Fred Gipson
3. The Home Place - Fred Gipson
4. Hound Dog Man - Fred Gipson
5. Don't Waste Your Life - John Piper
6. The Best Man - Maggie Osborne
7. All Creatures Great & Small (all of them)
8. Narnia (all of then)
9. Hobbit
10. Lord of the Rings (all of them)
11. Twilight Series
12. At Home at Mitford (all of them)
13. All of Janette Oke's books'
14. Bible
15. Marriage to a Difficult Man - Johnathan Edwards

Oh, this is too easy...I could go on and on...
These were off the top of my head! How's that Jeff?!

April Fool's Day

I have more fun with this holiday....

I take phone messages for my boss. I'm sure there are people that think I screen his calls for him and that is somewhat true. But anyway, He was on the phone and I took him a couple of new calls to return when he got off the phone.
The second one read Mr. Lyon - (Phone number)
Got your name from Mr. Behr and want to talk to you about locating my corners.
Please call

In a few minutes he came in and asked me where that message came from. I told him I took it. I said why, did the number not work and he said oh yeah it worked but it was a recording. I said really! What did it say....Smiling he said....Tulsa Zoo!

We all laughed and laughed. He is such a good sport. I'm thankful that I have a boss with such a great sense of humor!

Latest Update

I'm still pretty new to this but hope to update regularly.