Always Be Prepared!!!

I wish my feet were this cute!

This time tomorrow (hopefully), I'll have a nice pretty check mark next to skydiving on my bucket list. Personally, I think the odds that I will actually do it are pretty good, considering the fact that I'm extremely experienced at free falling for several feet without a parachute, any training, or intentionally doing so. Therefore, it just goes to reason that I should be even better at falling intentionally from a plane with a parachute. Right? Granted, there are doubters out there who think that I'll make like a big fat chicken and back track all the way home, but I'm pretty determined not to give them that satisfaction. The most hurtful thing is that they are judging my skydiving ability off of my snow skiing ability and that's just..... Well that's just wrong. The fact that someone would laugh so hard at just the thought, that they actually had to sit down.... Well, that's just wrong too. I know anything can happen (and usually does with me), but I'm expecting this to be a positive experience. Even with my ubber positive outlook, I've decided to go ahead and prepare for the worst but hope for the best. I plan on NOT wearing my favorite pair of jeans, or any other items of clothing that I don't want cut off of me (been there, done that).Most importantly, I spent my lunch hour lounging in the spa chair at the local pedicure place. I got my toes painted a pretty pink because nothing would be more embarrassing than ending up in the hospital with a broken leg and toes that haven't been properly maintained. Yes, I believe in the whole boy scout motto.... Be prepared, so sister I am!!!!

Salute To All of the American Hero's

It was a hot summer day in Oklahoma!!! My daughter and I sat in the front yard under a shade tree praying for a cool breeze. My lawn was filled with clothes, stuffed animals, odds and ends of a young single woman's life. In a few weeks my daughter would be leaving home... again. After 2 years of college, and one year of grappling with with what she wanted to do with her life, she had made a decision. Late one night as we chatted in the living room she asked.... "What would you think about me joining the Navy?" The question hit me in the gut like a pile of bricks, but I never blinked an eye. My little blond haired, blue-eyed, girlie girl wanted to join the Navy. When she moved out of her apartment she hauled all of her belongings home and began sorting what would be kept and what would be sold. Nearly everything she owned was put in the yard sale and a few precious childhood mementos were tucked into totes and stored in the basement. It all seemed so final... Because it was. A few days after she left for boot camp my husband arrived home to a package addressed to us. Inside the box we found all of the clothes she had worn when she left, her wallet, everything. She was officially owned, lock, stock and barrel by the US Military. Looking into that box was like looking into a casket. The person she once was, would be forever buried beneath obligations, duties, discipline, and a love for her country. Not a bad thing, but simply a difficult thing for a parent to grasp. She has been in the Navy now for over 6 years.I have watched as she struggled to develop close friendships only to see those friends move away. I've listened to the fatigue in her voice from getting little to no sleep at all. I've sat at home and prayed when I knew she was sailing in dangerous waters, during dangerous times. Time and again I've thought of the day we sat out front as one by one all of her earthy possessions were sold.She has seen things and done things that she never dreamed she would see and do. She has been fortunate not to have been in the heat of the battles going on around the world, but ever present, is the awareness that at any second of any day that could change. We take so much for granted here in the US. If we really had a clue how fortunate we are, we would live our lives in a completely different way. This spring when she returned to the US from deployment we were able to spend some time with her. One afternoon while in San Diego, we visited a veterans memorial. While looking at the pictures and reading the stories she said something I will never forget....

"You know Mom I've always wondered what would drive a person to the point that they would be willing to lay down their life for their country; It's something I never understood. After being to all of the different places I've been, and seeing all of the things I've seen, I can say that I totally get it now. We live in the greatest nation on earth and it's absolutely worth laying down your life for."

In that moment I knew for a fact that my daughter had was no longer the person she used to be... She was officially an American Hero! Today while your going about your daily business, getting your latte, sorting your mail... Take a minute to say a prayer for those who make it possible for you to go about your business. Say a prayer for those who have sacrificed their lives of comfort and ease to keep us safe. Say a prayer of thanks for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for your freedom. We are a nation with freedoms, but those freedoms DO NOT come free!!!

Yes, Hero's do ride elephants!

 

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

As a woman, I like to joke around about my husband. Men are funny, the way they look at things, the clues they miss...is funny. It's humorous watching my man try to figure me out. After 29 years in December he still hasn't given up. I'd like to think I make it easy for him since I'm a pretty verbal person. I don't keep things to myself when maybe I should. I'm ready and willing to express my feelings and thoughts at any given moment (not in a bad way) and if you need any clarification I'll be happy to provide that too. I like to 

think that I'm an open book. The fact is my book tends to read like and Edgar Allan Poe novel.... A tad of unraveling still to do and not something just everyone enjoys reading. I feel like I have him figured out, but I'm sure I'm missing a few clues as well. But seriously he is the sweetest guy a girl could have and here are just a couple of reasons why. He has Mondays off, so he is home alone all day. Monday he emailed me and wanted to know how to clean the oven. No kidding!!! Out of the blue he wants to know how to clean the oven. Now that is sweet! Last night he knew my back was killing me and so he emailed me to tell me he thought I should go home and take a hot bubble bath, then sit in the massage chair while he got dinner. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I don't give him nearly the amount of credit he deserves.... Especially given how he has cared for me and worried 

over me the last 11 months. So here's to you honey... Just giving credit where credit is due. I love you and I appreciate the great guy you are.

Memories

Memories

too sweet to be forgotten

to painful to be rewound

salt rubbed in a wound

ripples in a pond

poured from an aching destiny

that reached too far beyond

limits set before our time

horizon unto dawn

now hold to us the chains that bind

restrain all our desires

restricts the passion far beneath

the surface of our smile

and guides us past the boundaries

brings relief in lieu

The hardship meant to torment us

For all we say and do

Whispers of Love

It floats upon the breeze

Like a feather in the wind

It sings the sweetest song

It fills my heart again

A whisper quiet spoken

A look, a gentle sigh

Speak volumes to the emptiness

Felt so deep inside

Abundance of sweet caresses

Memories of kisses dear

Forever my heart has treasured

The one who wiped my tears

No Buttons To Push

Have you ever felt like your head was going to pop off and just explode into a million pieces? I feel like that sometimes, not often but every now and then... Usually when I can't get something to work like I think it should. I have a bad habit of bringing out the big guns when I feel like that and things usually end up in much worse shape then when I started working on them. Today I received my replacement phone for the one that I flipped out of my sports bra and shattered the screen. I was very emotionally attached to my phone and it to me. I had my kindle downloaded onto it which contained about a million books. I could text like a wiz, even when driving (although that was done for strict emergencies such as possible homicide alerts... Long story). When I placed my claim online they said they had no pretty purple Blackberry Curves in stock and they were replacing my phone with a Blackberry Storm (which is a touch screen). Immediately my heart began to palpitate because I was pretty attached to my phone... We had bonded. I knew I was going to have to go through the whole "getting to know your phone" thing... AGAIN! I held it together because I had no other options then to purchase a new phone which given the whole Dave Ramsey budget envelope diabolical and considering how frugal I am (LOL) I just didn't want to spend the money on a new phone. I think I should be given some credit here because they also said they were sending me, not a pretty purple phone, but the standard black phone. Hey!! Color matters! So I get my new phone and proceed trying to learn it. Hate, hate, hate, the touch keypad!!! I don't want to touch anything I want to push buttons... It helps me when I'm driving. How the heck am I suppose to know what letter I'm typing if I can't feel where I am on the keyboard? Geeze!!! Then there was the whole transferring contacts issue which just made my blood pressure go up and my brain hurt. At five o'clock I rushed to the Verizon store fully expecting to see the scrawny guy who gave me attitude when I tried to fix my tracking ball with a sledge hammer. Seriously? You wanna give a woman with a sledge hammer attitude? I was pleasantly surprised to see a cute little blue eyed girl behind the counter just waiting to assist me. When she asked if she could help me, tears welled up in my eyes and I said please, please, please. I explained that I needed everything transferred over to my new phone and blah, blah, blah. She smiled, took my phones, disappeared for about 30 minutes and TADA, new phone working, contacts in place. I seriously wanted to hurdle the counter and give her a big hug but I felt that might be a little inappropriate and slightly obvious. So I thanked her graciously and headed home. I had already warned my husband that I would be intently trying to master my phone that evening so he didn't have any great expectations of chitchat or canoodling. I'm working on getting the kindle downloaded and my books moved over but I think it's something I can handle. The keyboard touch thing is getting on my nerves due to the fact that I'm more of a button pusher instead of a toucher (yeah, toucher isn't exactly a word but I just made it one),but with a little practice I think I'll get used to it. I don't mind embracing change except when it slows me down. So if you text me and I don't reply or I say something really weird, or weirder than usual, I'm blaming it on the touch screen. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Redeemed

The urgency rises and against all constraint begins to take control. No rhyme or reason, no logic, wisdom or wit can contain the yearning to be more. More than what I was, more than who I am, more than what I've become. Bewilderment occupies my imagination, an intricate maze of emotion encapsulates my heart. Distracted by

the burning, enraptured with the joy of endless possibilities to fill the eternal void. No amount of vision, nor deliberate amount of intent, can prepare the heart for abandoned direction at a time when strength is spent. Yet the standard must be followed, the road must not be bent, to accomodate desire of carnal nature in the lives of upright kin. At one with he who chastens, the careless mislead lone. He reckons moral transgression, with tender love and care. He rectifies the ruin, of shattered self esteem, and restores to me the confidence of one who is redeemed.