Joyful Transformation

I think I forgot to mention that I leave today for the beach. I am going with my son, daughter-in-law and my sweet grandson. So you all have a great week. Maybe I will come back rested, refreshed and full of stories.

Last night I had just sat down at church and one of our sweet ladies came up and sat beside me. She said “Can you lead the closing prayer?” I immediately said “tonight?”
She said “NO! at the ladies day on September 30th” oh…..

I was mildly disappointed. I thought maybe things had changed since I had been there on Wednesday night.


BTW- I am on the courts this morning, just in case you needed me! Ha!

I don’t know if I have mentioned that we have hired a new minister. Randy and Celia have been gone for over a year now. I am sure God has been preparing the man coming in as well as preparing our hearts to be receptive to a new family.

It is an exciting and yet unusual experience. I have exchanged email with him but have yet to meet him or hear him speak. (It seems that everyone I meet and get to know lately I make first contact with on the internet.) I guess the days of preachers “trying out” have ended. I can see the positives in that, and yet at the same time I wonder if others feel as “left-out” of the decision as I do. I know that we appoint our leaders to make the tough decisions and I am glad they are there to make them. But you all know that I am a little bit of a control freak…..

But the only thing that I like more than control is change, so this year is sure to make me ecstatic. We have a new building, new deacons, a new youth minister and now a new preaching minister all in the same year. Not to mention the way my life has changed by having triplet grandchildren.

Speaking of change, we kept the babies last night. (You know I changed a bunch of diapers.) They are so sweet and so wonderful. But it is a real challenge. This morning when I was getting ready for work both of the girls were fussy. I picked one of them up and she was smiling and goo-ing at me. But the other sweet girl wanted her attention too and was verbalizing her demands. It is hard to ever enjoy the “moments” of mother-hood (grandmother-hood) when there is always one more baby waiting for your attention. I told Diana this morning that she has been triply blessed, but understand that many times she feels triply stressed!

Think of someone who needs your prayers today, it is a great gift that we all can give.

Dallas Willard reminded me of a nursery rhyme this morning.

Pussy cat, pussy cat
Where have you been?
I have been to London
To see the Queen.

Pussy cat, pussy cat
What did you see there?
I saw a little mouse
Under her chair.


So what do we see? The one on the throne or the trivial things going on underneath?

I just looked at Bloglines and 64 people have post that I have not read....which caused me to wonder, how many people are in my Bloglines.....114!!

I am going to be busy reading today, so I won't have time to post, and in my spare time I may be analyzing my Blogline account to see if I can't trim it down some.

So I leave you with a thought for today...

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves to be like other people.

Arthur Schopenhauer

I had a great long weekend. I arrived home around 8:40 last night. (Of course I had to go see my babies first!) First some negative highlights;

• We checked in....and our room was dirty (unmade beds, used towels, etc.) So we called the front desk they moved us to the 20th floor (did you know heat rises?)
• We called the front desk, ice machine didn't work
• Internet Access was $10.00 a day...(took my lap top but that is the reason I didn't post)
• No free breakfast at our hotel
• Gas was over $70.00 for one way
• Tempatures were over 100 degrees courts were even hotter!
• We were a little late for the mandatory Captain's meeting (dilly-dallying)
• I missed my babies and my Baby!

Some of the great things that happened

• We got to play 6 tennis matches in three days
• We won....one time
• We had some great food!
• We laughed....alot
• I WON a tennis racket at the party!!
• The band at the party was great!!
• We danced at the party like we didn't have to get up and play tennis at 8:00 a.m.
• My team bought my dinner and gave me a gift card for tennis stuff!!
• Got to know my partner better and formed a great friendship!
• Afternoon naps!

All in all just what I needed.....a weekend away, having fun.....and of course I was thinking about you guys the whole time!!

Gone to Mobile, y'all have a great weekend!!

Today is my Mother’s birthday. I wrote a little about her last year. She is a very special lady. Being the youngest of ten children, she has always tried to take care of everyone else. I have cousins and aunts and uncles that would have had a real hard time dealing with many things in their lives if not for my Mom (and my Dad). They are always ready to lend a hand. Now they are going to need some help themselves. I know that her family will step up to the plate (especially me!). Happy Birthday Mom!






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Tomorrow I leave for Mobile for the State Tennis Tournament. I remember leaving on this trip two years ago. Many things have changed in my life since then. I carry a different load of cares than I did then. I have not yet spent more than one day apart from the triplets. I dread missing them, but I do need to get away and just play hard!

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This morning I put on a dress that I remember a sweet lady complimenting me on. She has experienced her permanent transformation, but I can never wear this dress without thinking of her. Memorials don’t have to be in the cemetery. I can’t get a sense of a person my gazing at a headstone any more than I can by just closing my eyes and remembering. Today I am remembering my friend Angie, just where I am.

I wrote the following several years ago when I had my daughter's puppy in the house (he later adopted me...yes it is Hooch). He has long since moved outside..... I found it in my Word archives...thought you might enjoy.
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I love dogs. They are affectionate animals that do not hesitate to show you how much they love you and how happy they are to see you. My goal for my life is to be more like a dog.

Oh, I know that you immediately think of the growling biting dog, but he is just a bit misunderstood. I think of my puppy. He greets me at the door every night with the greatest enthusiasm. He usually brings a gift for me in his mouth. Yes, sometimes he just wants me to throw it for him, but still it is for me. After this he immediately starts biting at my shoes. Two thoughts come to mind, either he knows that with my shoes off I won’t leave again, or he just knows that I hate to wear shoes. I personally prefer the latter because he also likes to grab my bra when I take it off. Yes, I hate to wear those also.

When I walk into another room, he follows me. If it is at all possible he sits where he is touching me. He sleeps under my side of the bed and licks between my toes. Yes I know that my dog loves me, and he loves being with me.

This is how I want to be more like a dog. It seems the hardest thing for us to do in our lives is to show the people we care about the most that we do indeed care for them. We have trouble admitting that we just want to be near them to touch them to do something to make them more comfortable. Sometime in our early teens this natural instinct is conditioned out of us. There are several cultures where people do not loose this instinct. They care for each other; they kiss, hug and slap each other on the back. We Americans really miss the boat here.

My goal for my life is to treat people the way I would if I were a dog. This of course means that we approach strangers cautiously; we cower away and avoid people that mistreat us. But the people who care for us, the people who make our lives easier and worth living, these are the ones to whom I will strive to demonstrate my love. I will let them know when I simply want to be near them... whether for comfort or just because....

This is how I can be more like a Dog……

Today is my big brother's birthday!
Happy Birthday Keith! He has reached the big 5-0!!
I am too young to have a brother who is 50!
I am very proud of my brother. He is a true servant of God. Not only has he served his country in the Air Force, he is a faithful husband, a good dad, and a deacon in his church. I love him and all his family very much!

We kept the babies again last night. I had them until about 1:30 today. Sometimes when I am trying to keep up with three little bird mouths...I don't feel so young!

Thank you for your prayers for my mother, and for me. God is taking care of me in ways that I did not even dare to ask. Mom’s surgery has been postponed. Her EKG showed some irregularities and they wanted her to see a cardiologist before the surgery. The surgery takes over 3 hours, so I am grateful that they are making sure her heart is up for it. I don’t know if I mentioned that I was scheduled to leave town Wednesday for the State Tennis tournament. I did not realize the huge amount of stress I was under thinking about leaving her until she told me it had been postponed. I honestly felt like someone had lifted a heavy load off of my back. So thank you for your prayers, please continue them for both of us.

Wow! God is so Good!!

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Why is this post HUGE today???? Crazy blogwarts....

My Mom is having back surgery on Monday. She has a condition called Spinal Stenosis which I had never heard of, but it seems is the number one reason for surgery in people over the age of 60! Anyway she called yesterday and asked me to have her added to our prayer list at church. I don’t think she knows about Blog Church, but I would love for you all to pray for her as well.

The odd thing is that for years my Mom would NEVER ask for prayers for herself. Somehow it seems that whole generation (at least locally) seemed to think it was a sign of weaknesses to admit that…you were weak! Hello! We are all weak. We either believe in the power of prayer or we don’t! My Mom is one of the best people I know, but I think she helped mess me up a little with this kind of thinking. Maybe I have helped to teach her a little in this area. I know that the last 10 years have been transforming to me in the way I pray and the way I ask others to pray for me. God loves it when we humble ourselves and admit that we are totally reliant on him. And I have felt the strength of having others pray for me, and a unity in Spirit when I am involved in praying for someone else.

So to let you know, you honor me when you ask me to pray for you. I am honored that you would pray for me. I KNOW that God heard you all praying for the health of the triplets and Diana. It has been AMAZING how he has blessed them in ways better than I even knew to ask.

Thank you Lord, for giving us the gift of prayer.

If you have not heard it yet (where have you been?)

Today is Terri's Birthday!!

Hop over to her site and wish her a happy one!

Sunday was a good day. Randy and Celia came to visit the church that they left a year ago. I wish Randy would have been able to speak when he came back, but such was not to be. It is strange to see people who were once such a big part of your life and to realize they are not really part of your life at all anymore. Randy and I used to have hour long discussions every couple of weeks. Celia and I were just getting to that “closer” level in our friendship. When I think about it I am sad and I miss them. The strange trick of this life is how you can get so busy you don’t think about it…

I saw a poster in the gym the other day of one of the local school’s championship football team. One name jumped out at me from the poster. It was the son of one of my long lost friends. She is the one I have talked about before who was closer than a sister and then chose to value other people and things more than she valued our friendship. Yes, I have long ago forgiven (REALLY!) but I feel a sharp pain when I have a reminder of her. I don’t know exactly what the pain is, but I think it is regret. But again life goes on and most days I don’t think about her at all.

If we dwell on the past and the friends that were once such an important part of our lives, I suppose that we would be useless as a functioning human being. God grants us peace in that he lets us forget, or push things to the back of our minds. I don’t think you ever stop loving and caring for these friends that have for one reason or the other left your life, but God’s endless grace gives us the courage to get out and make new friends. Sometimes we forget to praise him for the gift of forgetting

Well it was a weekend of character building. We did not win in our bracket on Saturday. It was a hard fought battle, we lost the first set after it went to tie-break 7-6. We won the second set 6-1, but then had to play a 10 point tie-break which we lost 10-8. I was feeling really down about this match because I was sure that we were the better team. But then yesterday I saw Maria Sharapova blow a 5-1 lead in the deciding set to lose 7-5. In tennis on any given day someone else can step us and counter every good shot that you make. Being sure that you are better is not a good strategy.

I guess the same thing could be said in life. We must realize that we can be weak, and the things that we think we have mastered might come up and overtake us if we are not anticipating the possibility.

They say you learn a lot more from your losses than you do from your wins, but all I really learned is that I don’t like to lose!

Today is my baby brother’s birthday and my parent’s 56th wedding anniversary! June was always a big month at our house with this day and my Mom and older brother also have a June birthday. It is a good thing they didn’t all want a “month long” celebration!

There are few people in this world I feel as close to as I do to my baby brother. It is odd that we can go for months without talking, but the bond never really grows weaker. He "gets" me... that is rare! Sometimes I guess blood is thicker than water.

Happy Birthday Bruce! I love you lots!

I think they could feel it. I could see fear in their eyes. Even after a rain delay and a change of venue the fear was written in their very movement…..or it may have just been an injury. But at any rate after we played three points last night the other team had to retire because of an injury to one of their players. So we advance to the semi-finals without much of a fight.

My partner and I decided to play a match of singles to help us prepare for the state tournament. Here is where I truly felt all of your well wishes plus the positive thinking tips I got from Paul yesterday. Normally I lose to this girl, but I won a hard fought match 6-3, 7-5! All my shots were getting in and the more I would sweat the better I played. Hopefully I can continue this trend in the cool town of Mobile.

So thanks for your support, I will try and continue to do you proud!

I am playing in my first "tennis tournament" that is not a state championship starting tonight. I am excited about playing. Wish me luck?

Yesterday Diana was upset because she had not been able to take a shower since Monday. When the babies were sleeping she knew that she needed to sleep too. When she would think she might have time one or more of them would wake up crying. I can remember it being hard to make time for personal hygiene with one baby…..

The babies are doing great and are now sleeping from their 10:00 p.m. feeding until 5:00 a.m. I am not sure they realize what a blessing that is!

I just wanted to take a moment this morning to say thank you. Thank you for all the prayers that were lifted up for these sweet babies even before they arrived. Thank you to those of you locally who have donated gas money when they were driving, groceries, prepared meals, gift cards for meals, diapers & wipes and especially cookies!

Somebody asked me last night wouldn’t it be easier when they could sit up and do this or that and I said no, it is as easy now as it is ever going to be. Sadly, I believe that it the truth. It has not been easy. It is not going to get easier. We still covet your prayers for their continued good health and Diana and Joe’s sanity. Also if you have a spare minute maybe pray that I will be able to keep up with the challenges that are in front of me.

One thing I have learned, people assume that once you get babies home you don’t really need anything other than diapers and wipes, but just an hour to be able to go to Wal-Mart or to go outside and play with the dogs can be a great gift. I help as much as I can, but I do have to maintain a full time job and I know that many times I let her down when she is counting on me.

God has been so good to us. I praise him when I look at these beautiful babies and realize the obstacles that they have overcome. Thank you God; and thank you to those of you who have been the hands of God for us.