Ten Months Old

Yesterday Savannah you turned ten months old.  Where has the time gone???  You are the funniest, sweetest baby ever.  You might be a little "sensitive" and a tad bit of a "diva" but I think you just like what you like and know what you want!  Nothing wrong with that!!  You are starting to cruise around things but you will not let go of what ever you are holding onto.  You crawl super fast though!  You like to play with balls, babies, your and Piper's play kitchen stuff, and blocks.  You do not particularly like to be read to but you do like to chew on books.  You really like magic wands too!  You are still a cuddle bug and are the best baby to snuggle.  Your eyes are getting bluer each day.  You still just have two teeth but you really eat most everything really well.  Speaking of eating....that is your favorite thing to do!!  You are a great eater.  so far the only thing you have ever shown any dislike for was broccoli and cheese.  You can wave bye-bye, clap your hands on command, say uh-oh and mimic funny faces pretty good.  You dance whenever you hear music and your really like things that make noise.  You love your sister to pieces and the feeling is mutual.  I hope the two of you grow up to be as close as your mommy and her sister are.  You are just a bright beam of sunshine in my life sweet Savannah!

Oh Boy!  Here is my favorite ball.

I think I will throw it to Mr. Frog.  Catch Mr. Frog!!  what??  Picture time....but I am super busy...

There...I smiled and you can see how big I am getting beside Mr. Frog...Is that enough Mimi??

What??  I don't want to do a long photo session...Please let me down to play....please!!!!

If you don't I will pitch a fit and cry and scream and kick and holler and all that stuff!!!

Then I will jump outta this chair and run away and cry some more and kick some more and scream louder....

Is it working, Mr. Frog???  Has she put down that camera yet???

Oh well, I guess a snack cures most temper tantrums!!  Or at least puts them off for a few minutes!!

The Cowboy Rides Away

Last Thursday night my friend, Debbie, called me very late.  9:30 in the pm people!!  Scared me silly.  But really, it did alarm me a little because she goes to bed early and so do I and usually I would be in the bed but I was just washing my face and brushing my teeth.  I live for the adrenalin baby!  When I answered the phone she asked me if I had plans for Saturday night.  After I checked my social book...which is nonexistent...I said nope, what's up??  Then Debbie said wonderful, miraculous words, "My husband said if I could get a friend to go with me he would pay for her ticket to go see George Strait!!!"   BAM!  Did you hear that??  I fainted again.  Now I love and I mean LOVE George Strait.  I own almost every CD he has put out and seen him sing several times.  There are no flares or flames or fireworks or light shows.  Just George and his band and his guitar.  Perfection.  He is just so cool and classy.  A real gentleman and a real cowboy too.  He waved at Debbie and me....I knew he wouldn't miss seeing us.  He closed his show with "The Cowboy Rides Away" and then he did.  So sad for all of these crazy fans.  He has a new grandson that he wants to teach to fish.  I so admire that.  I know exactly how it feels to want to be a huge chunk of little lives to teach and show how to do some things.  It was a great concert.  Really great.  What a blessing it is to have such great friends that you can share good times with and simple pleasures.

It must be my favorite

I was looking through some old cd's that I had in my car a bit ago and I came across several that my kids had burned for me.  Remember that??  When you could download music and burn it onto cd's?  Do people still do that???  Since my daughters use smart phones and ipods are everywhere (I guess...I don't have either one) I still use the old cd format for playing music in my car.  I put the cd's in my player and I found a common thread among all 8 I had them to burn.  There were some repeats of songs on each cd.  Like, "Ode To Billy Joe", I love that song.  "Son of a Preacher Man", love that one too. John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" and a few more.  But evidently my all-time favorite song is Gladys Knight and the Pips, "Midnight Train To Georgia."  It is on every single cd I had them to burn for me.  And now I know why.  Whenever I listen to this song I not only sing it to the top of my lungs I act out the whole song with complete hand motions.  Powerful words in that song I'm telling you!

I shoulda been a Pip.

rantings of a menopausal, frustrated woman

For the last several weeks I have been in a state of pure frenzy/adhd and menopause that has been to say the least....excruciating!!!!  I don't hardly sleep.  I am hot as a firecracker.  Not in the good way either.  I am gaining weight as I type.  I am ill as a hornet.  Such a pleasant female to be around I am sure.  If I wasn't already divorced I would be filing for it today!!!  One of the things that gets me super-riled up are what I affectionately call "System Workers".  You know the type....they live off the system through either welfare, child support from their children's father(s) that they were never married to and a whole host of other government supported agencies that my tax dollars support.  I on the other hand work very, very hard for a living and live month to month and never catch a break.  It drives me nuts.  I pay my bills on time, do not have an iphone nor do I drip in gold jewelry nor do I drive a brand new car.  I keep up my car insurance, my drivers' license and now I find out that my premium just went up to cover uninsured drivers.  What???  It never fails that when I am at the grocery store I am behind people that are using food stamps and yet have on designer clothes and are putting their name brand items in the back of their gas-sucking, new SUV's.  I also do not understand how they get all this money back in tax returns when I have had to pay for the last 25 years of my life???  I pay my taxes too....on time!  I raised my own children and did without at times so that I could save money.  I taught them at home to avoid preschool and seemed to have raised well-rounded, working, tax-paying citizens.  I did not have daycare vouchers, free preschool nor did I fake handicaps for my children so they could go to public school preschool for free.  I have a rickety old cell phone (not an Obama phone) that I use and pay an astronomical fee for and don't even have a data plan.  I pay for my health insurance and I still get charged a fortune for doctor visits when the lady in front of me hollers to the sweet receptionist, "Y'all can just send me a bill...I ain't got no money."  Then she walks out of the door.  Then for some reason I am asked to pay my co-pay upfront before I am forced to wait 45 minutes past my appointment time.  This country is in real trouble.  Not just financially but morally.  People are just out of control with their lifestyles and their choices and their habits.  Crime is horrendous.  Pretty soon there will be no more crimes just diseases that need to be treated by our tax payers at no cost to these criminals!  Good grief.....I am going to go take a nap and take some extra estrogen....I need it!!

The Sweetness Of God

I am a very routined woman.  You can practically set your watch by the order of the things I do in the morning.  But as of late I do not sleep much.  I wake up earlier and earlier everyday.  Today it was 3:57 a.m.  Yay for menopause!!  Anyway, yesterday morning I got up earlier and I got ready and did all my normal things so when I sat down at the kitchen table for my morning devotional time I knew I had extra time to read and study.  The house was quiet and I was essentially alone with God...and coffee.  I love reading the daily selections in "Our Daily Bread".  They are always so touching and cut straight to the point.  I picked mine up and turned the page to Wednesday.  I keep the little book in my Bible and it fell open to the day I needed.  Wednesday.  The title of that day was "The Trail of Tears".  It went on to describe the horrible treatment of the Cherokee nation by the US government.  So sad.  But the point of the story was that God sees our hurts.  Our trials.  Our secret pains.  When I read it and the scripture reference which was in Revelation where God (Himself) will wipe away my tears.  There will be no more pain, heartache, hurt feelings.  And that is just what had happened....my feelings had gotten hurt.  On Sunday I spoke with a family member who promised to do something for me on Monday.  I t was a wonderful offer and I was so grateful for it.  I went to work Monday, had a quick after school appointment and came on home.  When I got home the favor had not been done as promised.  I was so upset because I knew.  Sometimes you just know....you know?  That I had been forgotten.  And it hurt....badly.  So I did the task myself and I pitied myself quite a bit.  When i was finished I even cried and said out loud, "God does anyone ever think about me???"  How pitiful (and selfish) is that.  Well the day went on and so did the next day.  I then asked my family member if they had forgot about what they promised and they smiled and said they sure did...sorry 'bout that! Well that hurt too!!  So to read that devotional yesterday morning was like a hug from God.  He saw.  He watched and He remembers.  He will never forget me no matter what.  After I read this I just wept with all kinds of emotions but with such a thankful heart.  I moved my Bible and then the little daily bread book fell out.  the new one that started in March.  I looked at the one I was holding and it was from last quarter.  I thought I had gotten rid of it since I picked up the new one.  I have even been reading the new one.  But God had placed this one in the right spot and left it folded to the right day of the week.  I usually don't look at the date just the day.  The date was December 12, 2012.  I will keep that page in my Bible as a reminder that God does see me.  Hear me.  Love me....and one day there will be no more tears.

Not Impressed

Last night I hurried home from church so I could watch "The Bible" on the History Channel.  I have read several reviews and many friends were going to watch because there has been a lot of talk about how good it was going to be.  Well, I was not impressed at all.  Neither was my friend Kelley.  We texted throughout the whole show.  The problems I had with the show were from funny ones to some that were serious issues. First of all, who knew all this time that Noah was Scottish???  The accent was hilarious considering the girl who portrayed one of his daughters in law was of middle eastern accent.  Speaking of accents, the whole show was either in British or at the very least Eastern European accents.  But in their defense I suppose hearing Moses yell, "Hey y'all come on up here to this here mountain top and hep me these ding-dang rocks!"  Nope, that would not have cut it either.  But when  this show is lined up against the actual scripture it fell short.  Just a few things:

The Israelites crossed over the Red Sea on dry land.  Not through dark rain from the sides of the water being held back.

Where was the Glory of God shining on Moses' face when he came down from the mountain???  This Moses at best looked half crazy most of the time and was not very humble at all.

Salmon and Caleb (the 2 spies Joshua sent) did not fight their way into or out of Jericho.  When they left Rahabs' they hid for three days and were not found out.

Speaking of fighting ...Those two angels in the beginning with Abraham were hilarious.  First of all the real Angels did not do any kind of Bruce Lee or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon moves in the Bible.

There were several other little discrepancies in the illustrations but all in all...not impressed.  But what did I expect from Hollywood.  They seem to feel the need to add drama and effects to everything.  Funny thing is the Bible is chock full of drama, violence and all kinds of behavior.  God hides none of his followers faults.  He uses the broken and the fallen....even to this day.