Saturday, May 31, 2008

It's Baaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!

Well, ladies, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But, "it" has finally come. The season that the majority of us dread all year long. The season when you have to suck it up and just go for it! The time when we can no longer hide behind those winter clothes! This change of year can cause heart palpitations, stomach aches, anxiety attacks, headaches and sometimes breathing difficulties for the female gender. Yes, once again, it's here. And it's called summer!

It's not so bad to pull those shorts and tank tops out once again, but it's that damn bathing suit that sends us in a tailspin! Well, today, I took one for the team! Yes, I ventured out into the abyss! I went to the "scary" place! (And in front of my boyfriend, no less!) I actually left the safety of my bathroom mirror and walked (well, tiptoed) through the pearly gates of my neighborhood pool!

Still able to wear a bikini (or so I think!), I took the risk of a lifetime. I not only went to the water filled cement hole, I actually took my cover-up off! There I was. Half naked in front of total strangers, in all my glory! (Well, I don't know if I'd call it glory!)

And, guess what? I survived! (despite 3rd degree burns!) And, you can too! Just go for it! Come on, every woman at the pool or on the beach feels the same way! Be the brave one! Be that first one in and the rest will follow! We girls gotta stick together!

Oh yeah, and do you think men will ever understand the anxiety we feel about wearing bathing suits in public? It blows my mind that they seem to care less about what they look like! They just let it all "hang out" for all to see and it doesn't bother them in the least! But, if we're carrying an extra 5-10 lbs, we freak out! And dare we show ourselves on those "bloated" days?!

Oh, for the record, George (my BF) did tell me I was the best looking woman there and even said I looked "hot"! Not sure if he was referring to the sweat all over my body (it was 85 degrees!), but God love him! And, please, let's not mention the fact that he does wear glasses and he's just a little, teeny bit prejudiced! No, that's just a technicality!

I must admit, it wasn't as bad as I built it up to be. Look, I don't kid myself. I'll be 44 in a couple of days! I know I'm not 20 anymore, but I must say, not too bad for a gal my age (and whose given birth 4 times, too!)! Seriously, though, noone laughed at me, pointed at me or even stared (except for those two guys!)! Hmmmm? I think I'm going back tomorrow. And maybe even the day after that.

Hey, ya think summer's not so bad after all?...........Nah! I'm already watching the calendar for October! I miss my sweaters!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

What's Your Excuse?!

The next time you feel like GOD can't use you,
just remember...
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer... AND Lazarus was dead!
So, now, what's your excuse?
And you might want to be careful who you judge!

Friday, May 23, 2008

15 Words Of Wisdom

1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

2. Dear God, I have a problem, it' s Me.

3. Growing old is inevitable ... growing UP is optional.

4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.

5. Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.

6. Do the math .... count your blessings.

7. Faith is the ability to not panic.

8. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.

9. If you worry, you didn't pray. If you pray, don't worry.

10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.

11. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.

12. The most important things in your house are the people.

13. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

15 . He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Calling All Cowardly Teenage Boys!

The crisis center was vandalized last night. I got a phonecall this morning at 7am from a cop telling me that some teenagers "hit" us with some graffiti. So, because of these punks, not only was I awakened from a deep sleep, I've now got to add to my never ending list of things to do this week, "paint front door".

When you work with women everyday, it's not like you've got a man to call and ask, "can you mow the grass" or "change the a/c filter" or "paint the door". So, we girls have to take care of it! No worries, though. For the past three weeks, the guy who usually takes care of our lawn hasn't shown up. The yard was starting to look like a jungle! Sarah (my valuable assistant!) took it upon herself and came in on her day off (Friday) to mow. After two hours (she still wasn't done!), some guy drove by, felt sorry for her and came back with his own mower to finish the job!

Anyway, when I got to the center this morning to assess the damage, I quickly figured out why the cop didn't want to tell me what was written on our door. It was profanity, of course. I won't tell you exactly what it said, only that it was ordering us to do something.

I was on the phone with my brother, telling him about it. He startd laughing hysterically and said, "I'll tell you exactly what's going on here! A group of teenage boys are coming after you, Vik, for telling their girlfriends not to have sex with them!" He went on. "If I was a teenager and you were coming to my school teaching abstinence, I'd form a group of my own and make sure you knew how unhappy you were making us! I can picture it now. Some girl you spoke to went home, told her boyfriend, "I'm not having sex with you anymore". He said, "Who told you that?!" She gave him your name and where you work and well, you now have graffiti on your door! You don't mess with teen boys and their hormones, sis! When I was a teen, if you convinced my girlfriend to be abstinent, I would have made sure to bust out some windows too!" (lucky me, now, I have two men in my life, my brother and my boyfriend, who think they're comedienes. I hope they don't quit their day jobs!) Yeah, that's my brother, Robbie. He's a real riot. The sad thing is, he's not kidding! And I know he'd be the leader of the pack!

It's unfortunate, but it goes with the territory. Our center's location isn't the best so these things happen from time to time. But, our work continues. We'll still be open come Monday morning, God willing. We'll still be there for the mom who needs diapers or formula or the teen who thinks she's pregnant.

And, to those teenage boys. It'll take a lot more than graffiti to get me to keep my mouth shut! So, get over your big, bad, horny selves! (and that includes you too, little brother!)

Friday, May 16, 2008

The "List"


Don't throw up, ok?! I'm about to write another blog about George and me. But, this one's different. I'm not going to talk about how in love I am with this man or how wonderful he is. I'm not going to tell you he's perfect, because he's not and neither am I (although I will tell you, he's perfect for me and vice versa!). I'm not going to go on and on about how much I love being with him or bore you with details of how long we talk on the phone, how many text messages we send throughout the day or how many love letters we write. I'm not even going to tell you there's no doubt in our minds that God sent us to one another. Or that we feel like kids in love! No, I'm not going to do that. Honestly, I'm not!! Seriously, I'm really not!

One night while the girls were visiting their father, I was having one of my "sessions" with God. I was experiencing one of those great times of worship and prayer. I began to ask God about my future and many other things. It was a very special time. All of a sudden, the Lord impressed upon me to get out a sheet of paper and make "a list". It would be a list of all the qualities I would want in a man. It came as a surprise to me how easy it was to write. The pen flowed. I asked God to help me. I told Him since He already knew who this man was, I needed Him to inspire me what to write. I wanted to make sure I'd know him when I met him. There is no doubt that God helped me make that list. When I was finished, I realized this was a very detailed list. I even put down his height! Hey, I was detemined to get it right this time!

Anyway, I put the date at the top of the page and put it away in a drawer. I literally forgot about it. One night when George and I were on a date, I mentioned to him that I had to sing at an event coming up. He looked at me and said, "Wait, you sing?" "Yes, why?" His eyes watered. He told me I might think what he was about to say was weird, but that two years earlier he had made a list of what he was looking for in a woman. He said, "I even asked God to let her be a singer". He told me the more time he spent with me, he became more convinced that I was indeed the woman from his list. He said he never knew her name until he met me. Now it was my turn to cry. I was stunned. I could hardly speak. I looked at George and said, "That's not weird at all. I have a list, too. And you're him." Now, we were crying together.

When I got home, I rushed to my bedroom and pulled the list from my drawer. I stared at it in disbelief as I checked everything off. I hadn't realized until I was holding it in my hands that it had been written only two weeks before I met George.

God knew George was on his way to me. And He knew that I needed to know, without a doubt, that he was the "one". That's why He inspired me to write the list.

I feel incredibly blessed to have found George. We've both waited a long time for this! And we're enjoying this journey together, hand in hand, side by side, wherever it takes us. We believe we'll go places that we've only dreamed about!

And, God willing, we'll put our teeth in the same jar one day. And that's alright with me.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Things I Would Love To Say Or Do, But Don't, Inspired by "The Pilot's Wife"

My sister, Brenda, has a great blog right now pertaining to the title of this blog, be sure and check it out at "A pilot's life for me". I hope she doesn't mind, but tries to remember that the greatest form of flattery is duplication or when someone thinks your ideas are so great, they "borrow" them! Cause that's exactly what I did. So, no, I didn't come up with this idea for a blog myself, it was my sister, my incredibly intelligent, creative sister! She has inspired me to write my own list:

1. I would like to say to the person sitting on the plane beside me that I know you farted because it wasn't me.

2. I would like to roll down my window at a stop light and tell the man picking his nose in the car beside me that he's disgusting and find a bathroom already!

3. I would like to be able to tell the woman at the checkout who's over 30 to STOP wearing that blue eyeshadow!

4. I would like to stop being pissed at my father for forgetting to take his $5 antibiotics and dying because of it.

5. I would like to tell my ex-husband that divorcing him was the best thing I've done for myself in a long time and to thank him for continually proving to me over and over again that I did the right thing and was right about him all along.

6. I would also like to tell my ex-husband that he's the biggest asshole I've ever met. Well, wait a minute, I already did that! Never mind.

Thanks, Brenda, this felt really good!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Happy Mother's Day!


It's Mother's Day! I'm excited to say that I decided to take a trip. It's a short one, but hey, you take what you can get! My girls said, "Mommy, can you be on a trip on Mother's Day? Shouldn't you stay home? Are Mom's supposed to be gone on Mother's Day!" Ah, the innocence of children! They just don't quite get it! And they'll never understand until they're mother's themselves!

Don't hear what I'm not saying. I love being a mom. It's the greatest accomplishment of my life. I am Teryn, Tawni, Kendra and Kolby's mother and I couldn't be more blessed. I couldn't be more proud of the daughter's I've raised. I adore my girls. All four of them. (And even my son-in-laws). I love being with all of them, individually or in a group. I enjoy our holidays together, family vacations, daily phone calls, e-mails and txt messages, but sometimes, I want to do something for me and only me! And if you think that's selfish, then, apparently, you're not a Mom!

I can remember when I was around 8 years old, my mother was going to see Elvis Presley with my Dad (yes, that's right, the "King"!). I begged her to let me go. I said, "Mommy, you won't have as much fun without me! Please take me with you. I NEED to be with you! Don't leave me here with a babysitter! PLEASE, I'm begging you! You will regret it if you don't take me! How can you leave me?" I literally meant what I said. I was convinced I was not only doing this for my benefit, but my mommy's as well. There was no way she could have as much fun without me! I noticed the guilt look on her face. Hmmm, I was getting somewhere. I kept it up. The crocodile tears, yea, that would do it. My plan was going to work. It had to! Not quite. I was shocked when she walked right out of the door. (good for you Mom!). Seems my Mom needed "me" time too!

So, Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's, especially mine! Do yourselves a favor. Take a break today. Stay in bed. Go to a spa. Get your nails done. Read a book. Take a long, hot bath without interruptions. Send the children away. Go away yourself. Have a "Sex and the City" Marathon! Do something you've been wanting to do, but haven't gotten around to! Come on, go for it! For those of you who've lost your mother's, my heart goes out to you. For those of you who still have them, call them. Let them know how much they mean to you. Give them a break for the mistakes they've made. Mom's aren't perfect, they're just women who've bore children. You never know if this could be the last Mother's Day that you get to send a card or make that phonecall. Many people I know have lost their mother's. I'm happy to say I still have mine. My daughter's still have theirs. But, one day, the reality is, we won't. They'll be gone. I'll be gone.

Yes,we Mom's need a break sometimes! My trip won't be long and God willing, I'll be back safe and sound, but, by gosh, I'm going!

And I refuse to apologize or feel guilty about it........ok, so, who am I kidding?! Of course I'll feel guilty............I'm a MOM!!! It's in our job description!