Joyful Transformation

I have to prove to myself that I am not going to be one of these grandparents who talk of nothing else but their grandchildren, so I am gonna...

Are you one of those people?  I am.  Lately I have been noticing that the Catholics are at mass at 6:30 in the morning when I leave the gym, and I think "that's great, I wish we had times in the morning when we could just gather together to pray".  I was especially struck Monday morning when my heart was so full of prayer for Mary's delivery.  I even shared this thought with someone at the hospital this week, but this morning.....  One of those "crazy Catholics" decided to a do a U-turn right in front of me!  What do they think they own the road!!!  I am just kidding, but I did notice that my admiration went to contempt pretty fast when they got in my way!!

PGIF!!  Praise God it is Friday and I am so excited because Terri and I are going to worship with Zoe in Birmingham tomorrow!  I really can't wait.

How great is this Mimi business.  My wonderful grandson weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long.  I can't describe how wonderful the whole experience has been.  I am exhausted, but exhilarated.  It's hard to imagine love so intense for one so small.  Thank you all for kind wishes and prayers.  God is amazing and awesome.  Praise Him for my beautiful baby Matthew.

Matthew with his beautiful mother, Mary

My baby boy with his baby boy

Matthew Lee Gossett Minutes after Birth

It is 11:15 Monday night.  We are in labor but only 1 centimeter dialated.  We should be having a baby sometime tomorrow!!  I just came home to try and sleep a little and go back early in the morning.  I am so excited.  Tomorrow I will get to see my grandson.  I took my son out to eat tonight, he said he wanted to be my baby one more day.  He is so silly.  He will always be my littel boy.  I love both my children so much, but I can't wait to love this grandson.  Update to follow.....

I mentioned earlier that I was reading John Eldridge’s “Waking the Dead”, actually I think I said I was working my way through it.  What was wrong with me?  This is a great book.  It is speaking to me right now in so many ways that I need.  Last night I was reading the chapter that said God speaks to us if we just listen.  No he didn’t mean through “The Word” he means literally.  Like he was leaving for a mission trip in 2001 and his flight was supposed to leave on Sept 11, but God was telling them to leave early so they rescheduled for the 10th….otherwise they would have been grounded and not got to go at all.  I have felt this kind of talk before, yet largely I am so busy telling God what I need to do and what He needs to do that I am afraid I haven’t been listening.  I know that I am NOT a good listener.  My brain is always in overdrive, thinking about what I need to say, what I need to do.. you get the picture.  “Be still and know that I am God” Psalms 46:10.  I think that God is speaking to me now.  I am not trying to be cute with this.  I desperately need God to speak to me in my life, I must learn to listen.  I have been trying so far today and let me tell you what happened.  I have been struggling with a certain area in my life that I am trying to resolve once and for all.  But it is a struggle.  I was praying for my daughter in law and my grandson who should be born tomorrow!! While praying this sin problem surfaced and I was very emotional and broken.  I looked up in my tears and read a snippit’ from a calendar that I had placed at the base of my computer screen.  It reads as follows:
            Satan’s tactics seem be as follows:  He will first of all oppose our breaking through to the place of a real living faith, by all means in his power.  He detest the prayer of faith, for it is an authoritative “notice to quit”.  We often have to strive and wrestle in prayer before we attain this quiet restful faith.  And until we break right through and join hands with God we have not attained to a real faith at all.  However, once we attain to a real faith, all the forces of hell are impotent to annul it.  The real battle begins when the prayer of faith has been offered.   -  James O. Fraser
 
Lord, I know and believe you and you alone can help me overcome the weaknesses in my life.  You can help me to become the person I want to be through and through.  Please give me the extra measure of strength I need to overcome.  Please continue to bless Mary and the baby.  Be with them the next two days and please Lord, let everything go well with the labor and delivery.  I love you so much.  Continue to mold and make me and most of all keep me still where I can hear You.

Today we went to Mom's for lunch.  What a treat, fresh green beans, corn, fried squash, fried okra, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and cantaloupe.  Then she had barbecue and chocolate cake with home made ice cream !!!!  I skipped those last three items and still left there stuffed.  Someone posted earlier of memories of home.  Fresh vegetables are it for me.  You know I hated vegetables as a child.  The only thing I would eat was tomatoes and fried okra.  I would never have put a green bean in my mouth.  What was I crazy????  Yes in many, many ways I was yet to learn what the truly the good things in life were.  The amazing thing about this filling lunch is that most of the food had little or no WW points!  Yes!

Last night we went to see Spiderman 2.  Good movie, a little slow in places but good story, made you think about the whole "choices" in life thing.  The scary thing is I got in my car to go to church this morning and there was the most intricate spider web around my gas pedal.  Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.  I wonder which of my senses would be greatly enhanced if I were to become a super hero.  I had lasik surgery so I now I see pretty well, I have always had an overdeveloped sense of hearing, truly heard a fly in distress from losing a wing, a glass of diet coke has awaken me from the noise of the fizz, scary stuff.  My sense of smell is pretty strong too!  Can't stand too many candles, most perfumes, etc.  I obviously like to taste things or I wouldn't be counting the points if you know what I mean.  That leaves what?  Touch.  I guess I do avoid this more than the other senses.  I am not a real touchy, feely person, hugs are effort for me, unless it is immediate family.  But how would you use an enhanced sense of touch as a super hero?  I don't really know.  Perhaps I will waddle down the stairs and ponder that point as I take my nap.  It must be short, have a WWF meeting at 5:00 (no silly, Women Working in Faith).  Later.

I am all caught up on my Bible reading!!!  O.K. I had a little help.  The majority of the text was in Isaiah so I listened going to and fro to tennis.  But, I am caught up! 

I had a strange dilema this afternoon.  My husband was going to mow at his mother's house (about 4 hours worth) and I had nothing planned!  First day this week!  I couldn't decide what to do; go ride the Sea Doo, go swimming, sit on the deck and read, what do I do?  I ended up going to Wal-Mart and buying blinds for the baby's room.  I ran into my daughter-in-law and her mother while there.  Her mother is going to walk her through Wal-Mart hoping she will go into labor on her own.  If not they plan to try and induce her on Tuesday.  Man, it is getting close.  Last time I checked I wasn't old enough to be a granny (or MiMi as I think I will be called).  I think I have been in a little bit of denial about this whole thing but it is gonna happen and it is gonna happen soon.  I truly am excited.  I am going to be holding my grandson in less than a week!!  Please say a little prayer for Mary and the baby if you get a chance.  I think I am going to find something to do with my free time besides blog....

Last night I played tennis in Huntsville (yes AGAIN).  I was playing mixed doubles with a partner I have not played with before.  I may have mentioned that this is my first year to play tennis, but I am not that bad.  Have some good shots, just gotta work on the consistency issues.  Well, my partner is of Oriental descent (sorry couldn’t tell you which country of origin) and English is his second language.  Now, I have noticed having an Italian sister-in-law that the one thing people don’t pick up when they learn English as a second language is the art of tact.  Now I am not saying they are rude, not at all, but things they say are very matter-of-fact and if you are sensitive may hurt your feelings.  (Fortunately I am a middle child with two brothers, no sensitivity left in this old gal).  Well my esteemed partner decided to tell me everything I was doing wrong.  Now that could be a long discourse and quite interesting if HE were doing everything right, but such was not the case.  The guy we were playing against had perfected the backhand slice to a trick shot.  He put so much spin on the ball it would jump two feet away from where it landed, it just takes a couple of times to read this ball.  My partner kept telling me“Must keep eye on ball.” Well duh!  Did he think I was watching my shoe laces??  I missed a second serve and he told me the problem was “I not look at ball when I hit it”.  Well, I took this all with a grain of salt.  I knew I did not drive to Huntsville to not have fun.  So I had fun.  When it was his serve he double faulted about three times, must have took eye off ball!!!

There are things we know, there are things we can see others doing that we know are detrimental to their success, but most of the time our criticism whether constructive or not will not be appreciated when we have obvious flaws in our own lives.  Where do we reach that place of humility it takes to reach someone else?  Our lives will never be good enough.  Sure if they know Jesus we can point to Him, but what if they don’t know Him?  What if we are trying to tell them about His saving love and all they can see is our screw ups?  I think this is the number one reason I don’t reach out to more people.  They see ME!  They know I am a mess.  They don’t know that God loves me anyway, and He will love them too!  How do I tell them???

I thought it would be a wonderful idea to make a blog site for our women’s group at church, as a tool for communication and encouragement.  I set the sight up and have sent out invitations for team members to join.  So far we have had an enthusiastic response.  I am truly excited about doing this.
 
What I didn’t know is that when I post to that sight it shows up under my profile.  I know I can circumvent this by setting up a third blog…..(talk about an addiction).  The only reason I would want to do this is my post for the women’s group will sometimes be very specific; like our Wednesday camp that I wrote about last night.  I am also trying to figure out how to put a link list on the church blog site.  I have just got to quit using my working hours to do this.
 
Anyway, the point for today is only this, if something means something to you and helps you grow in your spiritual walk, share it.  Communication is one of the key ingredients missing in our church families today.  If something excites you, it will probably excite others as well.  Most importantly, as stated in Philippians Chapter 3:  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Yesterday was one of those busy, busy, busy days.  I had loans closing that were not quite “clear to close”.  Loans that were falling apart, a new lender I was trying to interface the credit reports with and a processor who was on vacation.  That was just work, then I had a tennis lesson at 4:30 in Decatur (30 minutes away) and a church activity at 6:30 back in Cullman (25 minutes from Decatur, don’t ask).  Well when I left yesterday the loan that was closing seemed to be going off without a hitch (please don’t tell me this morning that did not occur!!) I had no solutions to the loans that were falling apart, and still no love from the new lender vs. credit bureau. BUT the good news, the guys who have lessons after me didn’t show up, I got 30 extra minutes for FREE!!!  I got back to my office LATE to change clothes and go bowling, but had no socks; I am not going to wear rented shoes with no socks!  I headed over to the Bowling Alley to find only Terri there.  Evidently summer is just too busy a time to try and plan Ladies Night Out.  Nobody else showed up!  (Well we found out later Sharon came shortly after 7:00, we must have just missed her).  This is still under the heading of good news for me, because I couldn’t bowl anyway without any socks and Terri and I went and had a lovely chicken finger salad at the Allsteak.  Good food, good friend, no rented shoes…. What more can a girl ask for???
 
I can’t help but think as I write this about Mike Cope’s post about choosing happiness.  We could have wailed and whined because nobody showed up, we could have pitched a fit and refused to plan any more activities…. But we chose to have a good time anyway.  We chose to be happy and enjoy the evening.  I have often times not made this choice.  I have made myself miserable worrying and griping about things over which I have no control.  I hope that by writing this down I can remind myself that I do have a choice, and to choose the better things.

I think I am going to have to curb my blog surfing.  It seems to be getting in the way of the rest of my life.  I am behind on my daily Bible reading, but I know what is going on at the Shannon Oaks Church, I haven’t finished a novel since May, but I now have 39 blogs in my favorites. I forget to check the market daily (and it greatly impacts my job, interest rates and such) yet I check hourly to see what Mike Cope has written and who has responded to it.  I played “Subservient Chicken”, I want to go see “Anchorman”, I read everyone that is listed as someone the blogger reads.    I read of these lives, pray for their families, their hurts, their friends at other churches that are hurting, and think for the most part it has made my life richer and fuller.  Yet I am struggling getting on track with my Bible reading.  I am not really that far behind, just 5 or 6 days.  I am not talking about my Bible/religious studies.  I am reading Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy, studying Mike Cope’s Righteousness Inside Out with my Ladies Group and I am still working on John Eldridge’s Waking the Dead.  But our Church started this program “hooked on the word” this year.  We as a church committed to read the Bible through in one year.  I had completed this last year with my Bible CDs so wanted to do it a little differently this year.  I purchased the Daily NIV Chronological Bible and have been following it.  I have always wanted to read the prophets, Psalms, and such in the period in which they were happening.  It does open my eyes to what small glimpses of actual history we have in the OT.  But I do so hate getting behind, perhaps if I could read it on my computer screen….. but no, I have tried that too.  I just need discipline and I can do it. Maybe I will have to know less about what is going on in Blogdom for awhile. 

 Dear Lord, I am so encouraged by this family of believers I have found in this special way.  I pray that you will bless and encourage all of them as we are blessed and encouraged by each other.  I pray that you will not allow anything on this earth to keep us too occupied to be filled with your Spirit and to be about your business

Yesterday was one of those rare five star***** days.  My friend Terri and I went to worship with the Crossbridge church in Birmingham.  First of all, an hour in the car with her is a treat in and of itself.  We have a wonderful time just talking.  But the worship service was awesome.  This is truly a group of people who love God and effectively express that love and praise to Him during their time together.  What a blessing to have been there.  I will be going back.  I of course missed being with my church family, and I continue to pray that we can work through a lot of tradition and resistance to change where our worship time will provide the same feeling of being truly in the presence of God.
 
After another 40 minutes on the road with Terri (she readily admits the rules of the road do NOT apply to her), I had to change clothes and head to Huntsville for a tennis match.  This time it was just me and my ZOE CD. but I had a great time singing along.  After losing several tight matches this summer I finally WON!!  I know it’s not all about winning, but it sure feels better than losing.  Our team won the overall match as well!  I am still having a great day.  I drove the hour back home with Isaiah.  Well he wasn’t there personally but someone was reading to me on CD. 
 I spent the rest of the evening sitting on my deck and watching the lake and then I watched a movie with my husband.  Master and Commander Far Side of the World, quite the epic adventure, but good.  Not great pursuits on this day, nothing earth shattering, and yet I ended the day feeling full and content.  God has blessed my life in so many ways.  I pray my life will be a blessing to Him

When do we reach the age that we worry about “wasting” a sunny day?  I HAVE to go to a wedding shower today.  I really DON’T want to go.  But, God has blessed me with a cloudy day, so somehow it is not quite so bad. 
 
You know as children we never thought about sunny summer days, that is just what we expected.  But as an adult I think that I have to enjoy everyone of those sunny days to its fullest potential.  Especially the weekends, you must not waste these days.  I am sometimes even glad when it rains on Saturday or Sunday, because I can be lazy and read without feeling guilty for “wasting” the day.  I don’t know where this mind set comes from but it is deeply ingrained in my life.
 
Perhaps this longing for the light is a longing to be in the presence of God.  He IS the way, the truth and the light…. Perhaps, that is why we sing of heaven as the land of cloudless day.  Maybe it is just with the passing of time we know that we are not promised tomorrow and we want to enjoy the sun for today.  Whatever the reason, I thank God for sunny days, but today I will praise Him for this glorious cloudy day, since I must SHOWER!!!

My friend Terri likes rules.  Me; not so much.  I prefer guidelines.  I want to be able to push the limits and not be considered out of bounds.  Rules are for other people, I can usually decide what is best for me.  Yes I am somewhat of a rebel without a cause.  The funny thing is we both (Terri and I) are on Weight Watchers with our different philosophies as the reason.  She likes the rules, checking things off, yada yada yada…  I like the guidelines, I can eat anything I want yes even pasta just so I count the points.  She likes the meetings and hoop-lah, just give me the plan, I will make it work my way.
 I am very much the same in my spiritual life.  I think Jesus came to put away all those rules that nobody could keep anyway.  I think He wanted us to love Him, and to love each other like He loves us.  Sure there are very important guidelines we have go to stay within, but I don’t think the book of Acts or any of the rest of the epistles were meant as “how to” books for church.  I Corinthians 13 is the pinnacle of the New Testament.  Give God your heart, love, love, love and everything else will fall into place.   Maybe that is why I continually want to stretch my comfort zone.  I am not happy settled into the rules.  I want to be different, to be changing, growing evolving.  I pray for myself that I don’t push change for the sake of change, but that I always consider what God would want from me, and let His Spirit guide my life.  I will also try to stay “in bounds

Keith Donna & Bruce

I ran across this picture, just loose in my closet last night.  The gorgeous blonde in the picture is of course me.  My little brother Bruce is hanging on, and my big brother Keith is looking quite the gentleman on the other side of Bruce.  I was amazed as I thought about where we were.  My parents were living in Michigan (early 60’s auto boom) in a 10X50 mobile home.  Three children, two bedrooms one bath 500 square feet!!!  How did they do it?  This occurred to me because we are trying to get my son and his wife ready to bring their baby home in a couple of weeks (due date July 30).  I keep thinking, “They don’t have enough room”.  But you know what?  They will get by.  They have a lot more room and only one baby coming home.  They will learn to get rid of stuff that clutters their house.  They will simplify.
 
There was a lot of love in that little trailer we lived in as kids.  I remember one night after we had pulled it back to Alabama and was living next to my papa’s pasture; a cow woke me up bellowing.  Now if you have never heard a cow truly bellow you don’t know what I am talking about, but my 5 year old self was scared to death. Now with all the wisdom that a 5 year old possesses I crawled into the baby bed with my younger brother.  I don’t know how or why that was going to keep me safe, but I wasn’t going on the top bunk with my older brother. Just climbing up there in the dark was scarier than that awful noise.  Can’t you just picture us all three in the same bedroom? 
 
Yes, my kids will get by.  They really don’t appreciate how good they have it.  I guess none of us do.  One of my spiritual goals has been to simplify.  Get rid of the clutter that does not help me grow or mature.  Some days I do better than others.  Old habits are hard to break.  Today I will do better!!

Yesterday I had a shock. I was reading the local newspaper, and a name in the obituaries caught my eye. Now I am not an avid reader of the obit section, I don’t think I am quite that old, but this name caught my eye, because it was the same name as I guy I knew in school. I opened the paper thinking surely it was his dad (he was a Jr.) but no, it was him. Forty-seven years old, dead of a heart attack. Now people my age and older (like him) are not supposed to die unless it is a tragic accident. Yet this is the second person in that age group who has died from heart attacks in the last two years. Both of them were good friends of mine at one time or other in my life.

This hit me harder than I was expecting. We kind of “went together” in Junior High School. That meant we went to church together a few times and held hands at baseball games, you know a serious Junior High relationship. He introduced me to the Baptist religion that kind of sang/shouted their sermons. I was scared out of my mind, but it was his dad doing the preaching. He would go to my mild mannered country Church of Christ and never complained about it. In those days he claimed to be an atheist, or at best an agnostic. Of course he grew up to be a preacher. He had actually sang at a funeral the day he died. We should never take to seriously the declarations of the young, but encourage them to research their belief system. He probably never shared his unbelief with his parents, maybe with no one but me. I remember telling him that he was crazy, of course he believed in God, just look around you. I am greatly relieved that he found his way.

Life is fleeting. We are here today and tomorrow just a memory. I pray that I will be the kind of memory I want to be. I pray for the family of Junior Rodgers, who lost him way too soon. I thank God for all the people in my life that I have known for a long time, or a short time, especially those that share faith in Him.

Hooch

The other morning I was leaving for the gym around 5:00 a.m. As I was driving down our little road I saw something off to my right. My little dog was standing in front of the neighbor’s house with a large bag of Cheetos in his mouth. Now picture Benji; the bag was almost as big as him. It did cover up his whole face. Hooch is a Yorkie-Pug mix that came out looking like Benji with big eyes and a clipped tail. He was so proud of his conquest. I kept wondering how he and my other dog Shelby were gaining weight when they never eat all their dog food, but now I guess I know. We live on a lake and most of the people on our road are just weekenders. So I guess Hooch and Shelby think they have squatters rights, after all these people don’t live here, I guess they don’t need that bag of Cheetos. I often complain about the fact that these people come in and act like they own everything! They park in the middle of the road; they walk in the middle of the road and look at you like you are crazy when you try to drive past them. Well EXCUSE Me!!!!

But then I wonder; do my dogs have had more interaction with these people than I do? I haven’t met any of them, don’t know anything about them. Even though Hooch and Shelby are just poachers, they have at least made the effort. I think sometimes I am like the expert in the law in Luke 10, I just want to know “who is my neighbor”? I mean, surely these weekend people don’t count, do they? I have so much trouble staying busy with my life that I hardly interact with people who don’t do the things I do; my church, tennis, work, work-out, family. Sure if I saw them in a ditch I would stop and help them (I think). But is that where my duty ends as a Christian? Should I at least let them see Christ living in me? This is a struggle for me. I don’t know what the answer is or will be but I know that it is something God is putting on my heart to work on.

We have these neat little hooks in the gym where I work out where everyone hangs their keys. In another place they would be coat hooks, but here you come in with your towel, your water, and your keys; everything else you leave in the car. As I left the gym on Friday, I grabbed my keys and proceeded to my car. The battery has been getting weak on my opener for a while, but I have not taken the time to change it (that is a husband job; isn’t it?). Well I clicked and clicked and nothing was happening. I got right beside the door and clicked and this is when I decided the battery must be totally dead and I would just have to open it the old fashion way, with the key. Well as I grabbed the key something didn’t look right, it was not even the right brand of key (G.M. of course). Oops, I had grabbed the wrong keys, possibly I had been blinking someone else’s lights for the last few minutes, and may have even left their car unlocked; but no real damage. I dashed back into the gym will a muttered comment about using the right keys and corrected my mistake. I felt pretty stupid until I got to the office and found out that Josh had made the same error at his gym. Whew, I hate to be the only one.

How many blessings in our lives have we tried to obtain while using the wrong key? We just can’t understand why things want happen for us and maybe all we really need to change is the key we are trying to open up with. I spent several minutes trying to use the wrong keys to get in my car, and no matter how long I tried it never would have worked. Many people try for years to get “into” the Spirit without using the key of study, meditation, and prayer. No matter how good other things are they will never work getting us into the Spirit. Sometimes maybe we just need to look down and check our keys. We could save ourselves a lot of trouble and we could get “in” to take the ride of our lives.

I am very exhausted after my daughter-in-laws baby shower held at my house. Some how no matter how good my intentions are; I end up doing things at the last minute. I hope that my friends and family don’t judge me by the amount of dust on my furniture, I just ran out of time. Mary (my daughter-in-law) thought it was important that a lot of people be there and I am so grateful that my friends and family gave her that wish. Baby stuff is so much fun. I just can’t wait for him to be here and the real spoiling will begin.

You know we have a lot of friends that are with us through just a stage in our lives. Many come and go before you can really get attached to them. Then there are the few who have been around for a while. You sometimes drift in and out of “closeness” but they are there for you when it matters. Jane Ann has been such a friend for me. We were extremely close before and after her baby was born (eight years ago). But our relationship has changed over the last three or four years. She went back to school to be a teacher and that is great, but you know school teachers have their own little club and the rest of us are just not in it. I don’t think they do it on purpose, but they do it. Anyway her whole family has been important to me and I care about them deeply. Today her mother told me that they had 3 different showers to go to and a 50 year anniversary dinner for one of Earl’s (her husband) cousins. Also both of her sons were coming home. She asked Earl what things they should do and he said the most important things were to pick up Jack (oldest son, Doug the younger son was driving) and to come to my shower. Now Earl is not a member of the church and I don’t feel like I know him as well as the rest of the family, and yet for some reason I have made this kind of impression on him. I said all that to remind myself to remember the importance of a hug or a kind word. To never underestimate the ways that God can use us. It is very humbling to me that he cares about me and my family and makes me want to be careful to always let him be able to see Christ living in me.

O.K. I have spent my Saturday painting my son’s house. We decided to go ahead and do the walls while the furniture was out of the way. (the in-laws finished the hardwood floors last weekend). We have only finished the trim and the ceiling. I ask you, is there anything worse than painting ceilings. I think this is why God wanted us to lay prostrate rather than look up when we pray; we wouldn’t last long. My shoulders and upper back are killing me!

I realized I am not a very good painter, actually I am just an inexperienced painter. I ask my husband 1000 questions and he got really tired of it. You see he is a really good, experienced painter. He could not understand why I could not fathom the purpose or use of an angle brush. I ask him to be patient with me explaining that I am neither stupid nor lazy, just inexperienced. I told him once I got past the learning curve I would be fine, and you know what, I was.

I wonder how many people we run off by expecting them to be at our skill level. Sometimes we are so quick to criticize those who cannot do what we do, or at least try! But are we patient are we trying to lead them along? I chuckle a little when I think of Mike Cope’s post on women taking a more active role in the church. I have trouble finding women to lead prayer in a group of other women in Bible class! But how much time have we spent training our young women or providing a loving atmosphere for them to learn to pray publicly. Just like my painting, practice does make perfect (or in my case at least a little less sloppy).

Well I must go and scrape the rest of this paint off and get ready for the baby shower at my house tomorrow. I love my children, but man they can wear me out.

This morning I ask my husband David if he wanted some cereal, and he said “No, because that would make him a serial killer”. That is only funny because I was thinking the same thing when he said it. Interesting how married people and even good friends will think the same thoughts even when they are laced with sarcasm.

I told David he couldn’t be a serial killer because he was already an axe murderer. What? You say. About a month ago we were awaken by my dog barking his little head off. Now, he is not a big barker unless there is something really wrong. So I convinced David that he should get up and check it out. While he was out there I start hearing a pinging noise. He comes back in the house and says there is some kind of animal out there that Hooch (my big yorkie-pug mix) has cornered between the fence and the gas tank. (We live in the middle of nowhere on a lake, gas comes in trucks not via lines.) He is not sure what the animal is so comes in to get a flash light and turn on all the flood lights. Well unable to stand the excitement of so much going on in the middle of the night with out me, I get up and look out the window, where I see to my horror, my sweet husband chopping something with an axe. (He told me later he couldn’t find the shells for his gun, thank God, he was by a gas tank for crying out loud). The only thing I could think of was the movie “So, I Married an Axe Murderer”. Then I started laughing and couldn’t stop. Now remember it is 2:00 in the morning, David is in his underwear and chopping up some animal in my back yard. Come to find out the animal was an armadillo, and he was trying to burrow under the fence. The big bad dog had already bloodied him up some by attacking him so David couldn’t run him off; really he had no choice. He comes in the house to his sympathetic wife laughing her head off while he has armadillo guts on his underwear. This story has no moral except that your opinion of someone really changes when you see them killing something with an axe. “yes dear, whatever you want dear”

I read in someone else’s blog how frustrated they were with their cell service. I am there. I am so fed up with dropped calls and dead areas I could scream!! I am not sure the “other” guys are going to be any better, but I am ready to give it a try. Are we just spoiled in expecting the best service possible at the lowest price? Yep, I am. It is no wonder there are more and more people with ADD. I think that if I am in the car more than 10 minutes I really need to talk to somebody. I want to be entertained. Sometimes I think the biggest tragedy of the “American” way of life is that we have forgotten how to be still and enjoy doing nothing.

Don’t get me wrong. I really do enjoy quiet, down time. Just not in the car. I want to talk on my phone, if I need or WANT to. I want to listen to my CD’s or my Bible on CD. I will be still and quiet on my deck, looking at the lake. Nah, I am not spoiled at all.

My son and his wife have been staying with us this week. She is 8 ½ months pregnant and they are refinishing their floors, so she can’t be in the house. I have truly enjoyed having them there. My son has not lived at home in several years and I miss the verbal sparring we do. He has so much of my sense of humor and unfortunately also my sarcasm. Sometimes we are ruthless to my husband. He is quite the perfectionist and neither I nor my son believe in strict adherence to the finer details in life (O.K. I am slob who flies by the seat of my pants on all occasions.) He takes it all in good humor though. He truly is a good sport.

I can’t believe I am about to me a grandparent. I am still deciding what I should be called; since I am much too young to have “grand” in my name that will limit my choices. I dreamt that he called me Mi-Mi. Of course in this dream he could talk at birth. My mother often told me I was talking at birth and have never stopped!! Maybe I should not put too much stock in a dream where a new born talks, but I do kind of like it. Does it sound goofy to you? It really doesn’t matter what he calls me, just so he calls me often. My children made good choices in their mates. I couldn’t have done better myself. My daughter in law is so good for my son. I think she is quite attached to us as well. I try to make it easy for her. I never want to be that mother-in-law that no one wants around. She is giving me the gift of my first grandchild. How could she be more special?

My son-in-law is also a great guy. He truly loves my daughter and he is a hard worker who wants to provide for her. What more could a mother ask for her children. I have been blessed by them in so many ways. I hope and strive for them to be able to say the same about me.

I am trying to learn a new tennis stroke; the backhand slice. They say it is one of the easiest shots to hit, and a natural motion. There is nothing natural about it to me. I truly feel like an old dog trying to learn new tricks. The thing is, I know if I keep at it, it will feel natural and I will wonder what the big deal was about. The funny thing is my instructor says I have the motions of the stroke perfect when I just show him my swing, but everything seems to change when the ball comes. I forget form, I forget racquet angle, I forget stepping into the ball, I just want to HIT it!!

In my effort to not be “So Serious” I still have to draw some life analogies. There are things God has asked us to do that are not natural. (i.e.: kindness, forgiveness, gentleness). However if we will just keep practicing these things they will come natural. I try so hard to work on my patience, but when the ball comes, you know the lady driving 20 mph on a road where the speed limit is 40 mph when you are late getting back from lunch, I forget form, I forget patience, I just want to get around the car. I have many things that I need to work on my form with. It doesn’t matter how good we look swinging before the ball comes, people remember the contact that we make.

Yeah, still too serious. Working on it.

What a great time we had Sunday night. There was a quick shower around 6:00 but nothing like the storm we thought we had coming our way. Actually the rain just cooled everything off to where the weather was perfect for the fireworks display. I think they were the best yet this year. We had a wonderful and assorted group of friends and family in attendance. There was a wonderful assortment of food, and lots of good fellowship. I am truly thankful for all of my friends and need to add one more resolution to my mid year list…to entertain more.

I agree with many who say we must keep our allegiance to our country in its proper perspective since we are citizens of a far greater place, but I for one am proud to be an American and know that my life is blessed by the privileges afforded me here. I think we would be remiss to fail to celebrate with our country and continue to ask that “God bless America”, just like he does us warts and all.

1- Lose the weight-quit making excuses-Just Do IT!!
2- Improve my serve and volley in tennis
3- Inspired by Mike Cope's blog-resign my position in the critic's corner
4- Write at least one chapter in this novel I have put off all my life....

I have admitted to being an avid tennis fan. While watching the finals of Wimbledon this weekend I decided that the reason I like tennis so much is that it is one on one. Your shots, your thinking, your ability against mine. I make a move (rush the net) you counter move (lob). I was thinking that this sport was a great analogy of life, but its not really. The devil hardly ever lets us see him coming. We don’t know what shot to hit because we don’t see what is coming at us. So I think to myself what it the true sport that reflects life and I came up with Golf. You see in golf you really are only playing against yourself. Every shot reflects your ability to play. The course is like life. The fairways seem straight and narrow and it is really hard to stay on them. (At least for me and Tiger Woods, the difference being he knows how to play out of trouble). When you hit into the rough, the hazards, the traps you just have to take a penalty and lay up. In life we have to repent and thank God we have grace. Have you ever thought about “laying up” as grace? Me either, but its true, if we had to depend on our ability to hit that ball out of the bottom of the creek we would be there all day. If we had to depend on ourselves to live right, be right, do right we would truly be up a creek. So the deep thoughts from this are simple, keep it in the fairway when you can, lay up when you can’t but always keep moving toward the prize.

The 4th of July is a big deal to me. We live on a lake, right across the water from the park where they shoot fireworks every year. No not bottle rockets and roman candles, the BIG fireworks. It is the one time a year I can open my home to all my friends without fearing my husband will not be supportive. I love having people over. He is such a planner. He wants to think and plan things way in advance. I on the other hand fly by the seat of my pants all the time. In our case it is true that opposites attract. Anyway I am grateful for the one day a year we can agree that we are going to entertain. (not that we really have to do anything, just provide a nice view).

As a child I can remember going to my uncle’s pond on the 4th of July. We would cook out, make home made ice cream, eat watermelon, but most importantly spend the day in the water. I am not sure I would have let my children swim in a pond!! But we loved it. It was a new pond so not grown up or snaky. I am not sure if there were fish in it or not. I probably should be glad I don’t know. My little brother got the worst sunburn ever there one year. He had the big ole water blisters on his back. He has a much fairer complexion than I do, so he suffered greatly. As I remember he floated around on a raft all day that he was probably trying to keep it away from me. He would probably remember it as I wouldn’t let him play with me and my friends so he had to go off by himself. Either way he burned. I hated for him to be that miserable. We were not the lovey-dovey siblings, we FOUGHT and fought a lot. I screamed the words “get out of my room!!” at least once a day. But I really didn’t want to see him hurting. The funny thing is as adults he is one of my best friends. We finish each other sentences and can break into commercials from the 70’s and 80’s without hesitation. We live an ocean apart but he knows me as well as anyone. I love him and cherish the talks that we have, whether on the phone, via e-mail, or once a year in person. The kids think we are “weird” when we are together. I guess we are. Man I miss him.

There is a good side to everything though. That awful sunburn made for some great peeling. I just loved peeling those big hunks of skin off his back. I know that is gross to some, but one of the fine pleasures in life for me. Have a safe and wonderful 4th.

I cannot believe that this year is half over! I was trying to think of my New Year’s resolutions to see how I have done. I remember not making any this year but planning to do better at being healthy and more importantly more spiritual. We as a church are doing a program called “Hooked on the Word” where we commit to read the Bible thru this year. I am right on track with that. I am using a chronological Bible this time and it gives it a new flair. I think I am much healthier this year. I play tennis on average three times a week and work out at the gym three times a week. I have recently tried to stick to a low carb diet. (I know, I KNOW everyone is doing it). I am losing a lot slower than I want to but hey, I am losing.

On the spiritual front, I have been carrying some extra baggage in that area. I am doing well at cutting the cord on that. Sometimes the very thing that weighs you down the most is the thing that you think keeps you going. Knowing when to say “when” is more than just a good beer motto. Resolve is not something you do once a year and hope it works out for you, but a daily decision that must be made over and over. Eventually everything becomes easier, when we practice it daily. At least I keep telling myself that. God has been so good to me. He bears with me thru my “wanderings” and keeps me safe. I thank Him everyday for the Grace that covers me.

I wonder if we should make mid-year resolutions. I will think about what mine should be. What about you?