The last one!

This is it. The last time I am doing one of these stupid addictive leagues!

For you new folks...This is kind of like Fantasy Football with celebrities. It is now scored hourly and out of selected magazines.

What would you do?

What would you do if you found a $100.00 bill on the ground? OK I'm going to assume that you looked for the owner standing nearby and found none so it is your to do with as you wish.

Not enough? What about a bag with $500.00 inside?

Yes this is interactive...so let me hear your thoughts.

Sleep is GOOD!

So after running many, many errands yesterday after work I resolved myself to curling up with a blanket and watching some long overdue TV programs that had been saved but not watched. I needed the down time.

So after catching up with some reading, feasting on dinner and settling in for the night I turned on the TV.

I promptly fell asleep by 9:00pm and did not rise again. I had not set the ole alarm clock because I was not prepared to be down for the count quite that early.

I awoke just after 10:30 this morning simply because the bladder could not wait a second longer!

I didn't have much planned out of the house today but I feel as though I missed half the day. I don't really have much to say but thought I would check in anyway.

No the divorce is not final. Big Red is dragging his feet and refusing to sign the papers until AFTER the house is refinanced into just his own name....Uhhhh no that won't work for me. I won't sign off on refinancing into just his name until the divorce is final....Wow he may have to break down and get a lawyer after all because I'm not budging on this one.

My King...

Whenever I start to get down I remember this. I own this on DVD and watching it either on the computer or TV always lifts me up. When I listen to the attributes and then I stop and think that He loves me, He calls me His friend, He died for me....

Nothing else matters at that point.

Snow snow everywhere...

Have you noticed yet that snow isn't as much fun as a grown-up? I know I have covered some of my exploits as a child in the snow before with the shovel and here with the forts. But I can look back to when:

• I thought it was fun to be the one to scrape the snow off the car in the morning
• As long as the snow wasn't yellow I didn't care how clean it was to eat
• We used to pluck icicles off the eaves spout and sword fight.
• I didn't care if my feet got wet in my boots or that my gloves could be wrung out for an entire glass of water.
• Bad weather meant playing in the snow not driving along trying to remember if the car insurance bill has been paid this month
• I didn't worry about milk in the fridge or food in the cupboard as long as we had hot chocolate when I came inside

One of the thrills I get working with children is seeing them explore snow. I recently met a child who was afraid to step into the snow as an almost 3 year old. Odd I thought until I remembered that he had lived in Texas until a few months ago. I had seen it flurry but not ever actually accumulate on the ground. Once he figured it out the look on his face was priceless. He was thrilled!

Anybody up for a snowball fight?

Dreaming of warmer days

It is so cold here I am actually missing the warmth of Jamaica. The warmth that I thought would give me a heat stroke but warm nonetheless.

I continue to miss the camaraderie that we formed as a team down there. I still see almost everyone on the team weekly but it is just not the same.

I miss starting my day praying with 9 other women.

I miss not needing to worry about the everyday stuff of life and just serving the children and the people at the Children's home.

I miss the closeness I felt with those people.

I miss the "What happens in Jamaica stays in Jamaica" moments that were SO funny and not at all like the kinds of things that would happen in Vegas.

I still laugh when I think of one of my roommates screaming as she sprayed the bugs on the wall with the pesticide just to have all the little tiny ants come flying back at her hair. She was next in the shower no questions asked.

Maybe someday I will get to go back.

Trying2hide tattoo

Well it is official. The tattoo is done. Trying2hide is among the tattooed community!

I witnessed the event and I must say she took it like a trooper. I am sure she will have better pictures but I snatched the outline that the artist used to make this scan.

The outline is black and the words are "blood red" as the tattoo guy said.

It symbolizes the Trinity and the words are various names of God.

This one can make you think.

If you watch this video and really listen to the words of this song it should touch your heart. As a church body we tend to present ourselves as perfect. We have a hard time looking past the "Scarlett letter" on someones jacket. We have a hard time looking past the sin to see the sinner.

If I truly look at myself I can freely admit that I am a sinner. I continue to sin despite my best efforts to not sin. We are a sinful people. Period. When I (or anyone else) look at a person and judge them for their sins then we are going against the very concept of Grace and Mercy that we welcomed when we became Christians.

As Christians we are called to hold each other accountable. But to hold each other accountable is to do so in love not in judgement. I think that is where a lot of us get caught up in the wrong attitude.

I for one am not perfect. I make mistakes. I do the wrong thing sometimes. But I try...I try to be more like Christ with my thoughts and actions. I hope that I have the right words when I see a friend stumble.

I had dinner with a friend last night. "T" and I have chosen to hold each other accountable as we walk out our faith in everyday life. You see we bonded on the trip to Jamaica. She was one of my roommates and we always ended up sitting next to each other on the airplanes. We got to know each other very well. We seem to have found a balance of being able to lovingly hold each other accountable without being judgemental. I think this is one of those people I will still have in my life 25 years from now. At least I hope so.

Ode to a toy store

I can not imagine working in a toy store anytime but especially at Christmas time. But in a salute to my friend who works in the land of misfit toys I am posting this:

Some of the many reasons I was fired from working at the local toy store...

Every time you're passed over for a promotion, you stick your head in an Easy Bake Oven and threaten to "end it all."

You got caught adding a garage to your house using embezzled Lego bricks.

You went overboard with your GI Joe Militia display by adding the Tonka truck full of fertilizer.

Cross-dressing the Ken and Barbie dolls and telling kids they're the new "Jerry Springer" edition.

The "My Little Taxidermy Kit" (with starter squirrel) is not selling.

Impromptu demonstrations of why Malibu Ken is not anatomically correct.

Got caught doing your Dolly Parton impression with basketballs again.

Jaws of life needed to pull your knees out of your chest after you jackknifed a Big Wheel.

Your sales display, "Barbie's Struggle for Survival in Post-Nuclear Holocaust Malibu" was not exactly an overwhelming success.

Regardless of the question, you answer, "Bite me, kid -- I'm on break."

One4jc is MIA?!

As some of you may have guessed I finally received my Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD tin. I have been busy watching the movies and picking apart the newest feature of Superman Returns.

Also I have been busy attending Church as this is a city wide Week of Prayer. We have been going through Revelation 2 and discovering what it says about how God viewed the churches of the day and what he might say today to us.

Well and of course we have spent time every night in Prayer for the city.

And I had to call for help yesterday when the battery in my car decided to not cooperate any longer with the rest of the engine. So $80 later, a big thank you to the brother in law and frozen fingers have brought me to today. I'll check in again soon.

Wow another year already?

Happy Birthday to me......

I can't believe it has been another year already. I remember thinking 1 year ago that all this would be behind me before another year rolled around.

Big Red is asking for another rewrite on the divorce paperwork. I said no.

It costs me every time he gets a burr in his butt and wants to change the wording on it. If he wants it changed he had better hire his own lawyer to do it because I am not budging anymore! He has been informed that if this gets ugly he will be responsible for ALL my lawyer fees since I have been more than accommodating during this whole process.

Good Grief! Just sign the paperwork for crying out loud!

I know I am healing...

I know God is working on my heart when I can hear songs like this one and look forward to the future. I know God has someone picked out for me and that Big Red was just a bump on the broken road. I know I will not be alone for the rest of my life even though at times it feels like it. I have wonderful friends and family but sometimes I just miss a "man hug". To feel the strong loving arms wrapped around me. Right now God is the only one in my life...Big Red legally still is but in my heart I am no longer married. I will behave as though I am until the divorce is final because God still calls it adultery until the lines are signed. I haven't come this far to throw it all away.

Even with the steps I make every day toward healing it still is hard. It doesn't hurt as much but it gets harder and harder to walk this out in a Christian way.

Terrifying I tell ya...

OK I find the idea of driving in the rain at times terrifying! It goes back to a time in college when my beloved cousin was driving me back to my friend's house while I was on Spring Break. She had been elected by the family to share some disturbing news with me about my Grandma's cancer. It didn't look good for Grandma. The Cuz and I had sat in an underground parking garage at a mall and discussed this over Wendy's Frosties. Being that we are both "emotional" we cried and discussed the fun times at the lake while visiting Grandma in the summer. Before we knew it we had pulled it together enough to laugh at some things.

We leave the parking garage and realize it has begun to rain...hard. Very hard.

As we are traveling down the LBJ expressway we notice that the rain has let up a bit. The traffic starts to zoom around us even though we are doing a tad above speed limit.

Then it happened.

We started spinning and hydroplaned:
hy·dro·planed, hy·dro·plan·ing, hy·dro·planes

1. To drive or ride in a hydroplane.
2. 1. To skim along on the surface of the water.
   2. To be or go out of control by skimming along the surface of a wet road. Used of a motor vehicle.

Soon we stopped... abruptly. The back of this little S-10 pickup truck was planted firmly on top of the median divider. AND we are facing in the wrong direction. The front of the truck is slightly out into the incoming traffic. This can't be good. We are stuck.

After 20 minutes or so a 6 foot 8 inch (no joke) truck driver from Galveston Texas pulls over to help. He literally lifted the back of the truck off the concrete thing and placed it on the ground. He then backed up and slowly pulled out and blocked traffic so we could turned around and get to the next exit. He followed us. The Cuz almost wet her pants. She heads for a well lit hotel parking lot. He moves on.

She calls her husband and informs him of our location and tells him she, "is never driving again and we are going to go get a room in the hotel to live."

Did I mention she is a little emotional?

He comes to check out the truck and "talks her down". We finish the rest of the route (in his truck) and the insurance company calls hers "totaled". The next day they measured the distance and we had spun for almost 3/4 of a mile. We had not hit any of the other traffic on the road. This is a miracle!

So there it is. This is why I do not like driving in the rain. And I wasn't even driving.

And this does not even cover all of the other mishaps that occur when a cousin goes south to visit her. Something always happens. EVERY TIME. Maybe trying2hide will pick up the story from her adventures in Texas.

I loved this and started watching way back when it was on Captain Kangaroo!



I can't believe she asks, "Who farted?" when she's done!

How scary would this be?

If you click here you can go to a page that is a simulated pizza order.

Go ahead.... but make sure the sound is on.

Back? OK...

Now as funny as that may be....Somehow I don't really think we are that far away from the local pizza shop having access to all these things. Now I am hoping that the conspiracy theorists don't come out of the woodwork but I am curious as to any other opinions by my loyal reader(s).

And now for the better late than never:

Christmas carols for the PSYCHOLOGICALLY CHALLENGED.

1) SCHIZOPHRENIA---- DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

2) AMNESIA-- I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

3) NARCISSISTIC-- HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING ABOUT ME

4) MANIC-- DECK THE HALLS AND WALLS AND HOUSE AND LAWN AND STREETS AND STORES AND OFFICES AND TOWNS AND CARS AND BUSES AND TRUCKS AND TREES AND FIRE HYDRANTS AND.......

5) MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER----WE THREE QUEENS DISORIENTED ARE

6) PARANOID---SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO GET ME

7) BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER---THOUGHTS OF ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE

8) FULL PERSONALITY DISORDER---YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, I'M GONNA POUT, I'M
GONNA CRY, MAYBE I'LL TELL YOU WHY!

9) OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER---JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS,JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS

10) AGORAPHOBIA---I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY, BUT WOULDN'T LEAVE MY HOUSE

11) SENILE DEMENTIA---WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND, MILES FROM MY HOUSE IN MY SLIPPERS AND ROBE

12) OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER---I SAW MOMMY KISSING SANTA CLAUS SO I BURNED DOWN THE HOUSE

13) SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER---HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS WHILE I SIT HERE AND HYPERVENTILATE

14) ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER--WE WISH YOU....HEY, LOOK! IT'S SNOWING!!!

I think I may have at least one of each of these people in my family. And sorry about all CAPS but the copy and paste was the easiest way.