Hey Hey!  😀

Merry Christmas! Don’t forget….Jesus is the reason for the season. I will admit that I forgot the reason this year. It took seeing this to bring things back into focus:

Luke 2:8-14

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

See verse 10? That is my favorite verse in the Bible. To ALL people. I take solace in that verse. Not just white, not just black, rich, poor, male, female, good, or bad….ALL people. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. With all of the unfortunate run-ins I’ve had this year, I have to keep reminding myself that Jesus is equal opportunity, and we all should do our best to be as well. Yes, it’s definitely easier said than done, but it doesn’t hurt to give it the ole college try. :-).

Even if you’re rolling your eyes because you’re a non-believer, shut up and be blessed anyway, ok? Enjoy your day….I hope it’s filled with love, and that all your wishes come true.

😉

A Letter To Emily

 

Dear Emily,
I hear that you are being bullied by a girl at school. I am so sorry that this is happening to you. No one deserves to be bullied!

Please understand that she is probably jealous because you are everything she wants to be: cute, smart, and kind. Maybe there are some terrible things happening in her life that are beyond her control and she is acting out as a result. You never know…maybe someone is bullying HER. Regardless, NONE OF IT IS YOUR FAULT.

Make no mistake….I am not making excuses for her, or saying that this is okay. This girl is a sick, twisted, ugly, evil piece of work and she needs to be called out for her actions.

All I ask of you is that you stay on the right track in school. Keep doing what you’re doing….you are GREAT at it! Do NOT give in to peer pressure. All these stupid girls and guys out there that think it’s not cool to be smart and take the mickey out of you are in for a big surprise when they get older. Never forget that Karma is always around the corner, waiting to strike back at those that do wrong.

Keep your eyes on your prize my beautiful girl. You have so many people around you that love you so much and will do whatever it takes to help you succeed. Please do not hesitate to ask for their help whenever you need it. I PROMISE you that things will get better.
Don’t give up!

 

😉

 

 

Journey to a New Normal

Hey Hey 😀

Since my mother died, my family and I have had a new normal thrust upon us. While I can’t speak for them, I know that it has been a very trying transition for me. Each day I learn something new about myself. I miss her terribly, but I can feel myself slowly climbing out of the shadows of depression. It still hurts, and I know it will for a long time to come.

I didn’t realize how much she was a part of my routine until she was gone. All the phone calls, e-mails, and visits (all of my vacation days were spent going back home to see her), GONE. Just like that. When I tell people I’m lost without her, I’m not kidding. This new normal is evil, bitter, dull and cold. But I’m finding my way through it inch by terrible inch.

For example, Mother’s Day is coming. I live in the United Kingdom, and they celebrate it earlier than the United States (FYI…the dates this year are as follows: UK = March 30th, US = May 11th). Because of this, I always had to buy an extra card and wait until May to send it, and PRAY that I didn’t lose it before the time came because I am terribly unorganized. Since she died a four days before Mother’s Day 2013, I ended up putting her last card in the casket with her. It breaks my heart to have to stop because it was something I enjoyed doing for her.

But then I had a lightbulb moment: Why do I have to stop? There HAS to be a better way. She wouldn’t want me to give up something that I enjoy! So this year I am going to start a new tradition in which I give a card and gift to another mother, or mother figure, in my life.

This year it will go to a woman in my small group at church. She is one of the kindest women I’ve ever met. She has been going through some tough times lately, so I’m hoping that this will lift her spirits and let her know that she is truly a blessing to me and everyone around her.

I feel that this is a great way to celebrate my mother’s life by doing something nice for someone else.  I think she would have been proud.

😉

Bonus Fact

If I’m in a store and “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson comes on, I have to dance.

It’s the law.

😉

11 Facts About Me

Hey hey  😀

I posted this on Facebook, so I might as well make it a blog entry for the WordPress Community!

1.  I hate the word “suture”.   It freaks me out.  I hate the definition, and I don’t like what it looks like. I’m freaking out right now.

2.  I write lists.  Lots of lists.  I even have a list of lists I want to write.  Most of said lists are written on….

3. ….envelopes!!!!   My mother used to write things on the backs of old envelopes (recipes, scriptures, shopping lists, etc.) and I noticed that I do it too.   In fact….

4. When my mother died, I put her last Mother’s Day card in the casket with her. I wrote a list of promises in it, but I ended up writing the rest of it on the back of the envelope because I remembered a few more things after I sealed it!
I think she would have appreciated it though.

5.  My all time favorite sandwich is peanut butter and bacon…..

6.  ….which is a shame because I draw closer and closer to becoming a vegetarian.

7.   I used to hate sweet potato pie!  When I finally tried it, I loved it, but unfortunately it gives me terrible heartburn, so now I CAN’T eat it.  GAH!

8.  So far in my life I have never broken a bone.  Thank you Jesus!

9.  I want to be a rock star when I grow up.  I’m keeping hope alive that it will happen.   (The growing up part.)

10.  I love the smell of puppy breath. Puppy lovers know what I mean.

11.  I read about 30 comic strips a day.  I am always looking for more to add to my collection.  My favorite one right now is Zen Pencils.  Check it out.
😉

Dog, Exonerated

Hey Hey 😀

Sorry that it took so long to get back to blogging. 2013 has turned into a very very crappy year. I lost my mother in May, and I am still licking my wounds from that (and probably always will). I may write about some of it in later posts, but first I need to take a few minutes to clear up a few things.

Last year I blogged about the dog stealing our delicious roasted bellypork.  I also posted an entry about the Saturday Flood.

But I left out a vital piece of information as to WHY the kitchen flooded. The plumber had to bust through the back of my kitchen cupboards (noooo) to get to the pipe. While he was doing the repairs, he noticed a piece of meat below the broken pipe. He showed it to me and we both saw at the same time that there were claw marks in it. “You have a rat, m’love”, he said with a ‘good luck with that’ type of giggle. Whatever mate….I got your giggle right here. NOTHING about this is funny. EEEEK!

Basically, Mr. Rat was coming in out of the cold to keep warm and get something to eat. He had to push past said pipe to get up on the kitchen counter and pull the bellypork off the plate. Eventually the pipe broke and flooded the entire kitchen.

So Hubs and I came up with a plan. I plugged in some sonic pest repellers, and my husband set out some poison. For the record, I was praying that the rat would just leave, no poison required. But I was desperate….I wanted my house back!

It took about a week for the rat to eat all of the poison. After a while, the dog wasn’t chasing after it anymore. Great sign, but where was it? As they say on Law & Order, “no body, no murder”. My husband searched all over but never found it. We found a suspect hole in the back of the house, so he stuffed it with steel wool (rodents hate it) and sealed it with cement. That night, I came home from work to find a sick dog and piles of doggy vomit all over the floor. Lovely. Hubs got to cleaning them up so I could get ready for a work party. Great…time for a glass of wine to relax. I walked into the kitchen…washed my hands…walked towards the refrigerator…and found a HUGE rat lying underneath it! Let me take that back…it was a huge DEAD rat! I screamed to high heaven and pulled a Usain Bolt right out of there!!!!  Mr. Rat was probably trying to get out of the house to die but his escape route was sealed off! MWAHAHAHAHAHA….

I truly believe that God allowed the dog to get sick to keep him out of the kitchen and away from Mr. Rat. Otherwise he would’ve gotten to it and ingested the poison (and probably would’ve sat it on my lap as a gift. Eeuch). The vet told us there was a bug going around and he had treated dozens of dogs! He prescribed a course of antibiotics and the dog was back to normal after about a week. PHEW!

It made sense…..THE DOG DIDN’T DO IT! I know for a fact that I can sit a plate full of meat down at his eye level, leave the room, and return to find the plate untouched. HE KNOWS BETTER! That’s why I could never believe that it was him that swiped the meat. I felt I owed him this entry to clear his name.

I’m very sorry BabyDog….Mummy loves you…

😉

New Posts Coming Soon: A Haiku

Don’t give up on me.

New blog entries on their way.

Look out here I come!

😉

 

Daily Prompt: Million-Dollar Question

Daily Prompt: Million-Dollar Question

😉

Weekly Photo Challenge : Love

This is something I wanted to write about for a while, so I was excited as soon as I saw this week’s challenge.

This is Mr. & Mrs. Loving.

For those of you who don’t know who they are, read on (taken from Wikipedia):

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967),[1] was a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

The case was brought by Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored.” The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision held this prohibition was unconstitutional, overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S., and is remembered annually on Loving Day, June 12. It has been the subject of two movies as well as songs. In the 2010s, it again became relevant in the context of the debate about same-sex marriage in the United States.

I am so grateful to them for all that they went through.  I feel so blessed that my husband and I can live our lives together and color doesn’t matter.

If it weren’t for them, this picture of us wouldn’t exist.

Thank you for Mr. & Mrs. Loving….for everything.

😉

I Hate To Gloat, But….

😉