For My Dad

Growing up, we had a poster of the Hobbit in our garage. I have always known that my Dad has loved the Hobbit as well as the Lord of the Rings books. He even has Bilbo Baggins' birthday in his outlook. I have never read any of the books. Not for any reason mind you, but just haven't. Well, last week when we were waiting for his surgery to end, my brother and I got into this conversation about the books. We reminisced about the poster, and my Dad's love for this series. Well, my brother admitted to having several of his own copies, an annotated version of the book with commentary, and now the prequel that J.R. Tolkein's son has finished. This all got my curiosity up. So when I finished my last book, I have been patiently waiting to get my hands on a copy of this book. I want to read it, while I can discuss it with my family since they all love it so much. So for the next week of so, I am off to read in the land of Hobbits, fairies, and whatever other mystical friend may come my way...........will let you know when I am done if I will read the Lord of the Rings.

Tuesday's Treasure

Happy Birthday GG!!! This is my Grandma, my kid's GG, this week she turned 89. She is the Grandma that rocks! We went camping as children with her, and her way cool motor home. We had sleep overs in the backyard underneath my Grandfather's pitch tent from the army. She came to every event, big or small, and most of all she loves us unconditionally. I am so blessed that we have her in our lives and in my children's lives. Of course knowing her roots, dinner was Spaghetti, with homemade french bread. Dessert was made by Missy (with some help) but is my Grandma's favorite and something she was good at baking, brownies! I wish I could say that my passion for cooking came from her, but that comes from the other side. My passion for painted nails, is ALL her!!! I have RARELY seen her natural nail color ~ always saucy and usually red, it is her signature color.

Right of Passage

Today Bubba got his Bunk Beds. Now, when I grew up, my older brother had bunk beds that had belonged to my Dad. It was a right of passage per say to have the Bunk Beds (AKA: space ship, airplane, boat, pirate ship, club house, Star Wars X wing fighters, and anything else our imaginations turned them into). Bubba was so excited to receive his, and to start the fun. Although his are not family heirlooms, they are well built and a thing he has been looking forward to. So to kick off the first night, his Sister is planning to "sleep over" in his room, and get the summer sleep overs started. I know that this is just the beginning of many memories to come.

Now, a side note, to build the bunk beds, we had to find all of the parts, and in exchange got a cleaner garage, a clean closet under the stairs, and a cleaner craft closet. 4 hours of cleaning and 2 1/2 hours of building the bed, not a bad exchange, and Mr. C. did most of the cleaning and obsessing this time!

Living out Faith Cont.......

The great news is.....My Dad is home! He actually was released late yesterday afternoon and had a salmon dinner waiting for him and my Mom when they walked in the door (white wine was in the frig for my Mom, because she DESERVED it!). They changed his medicines, and he is under surveillance, but he was able to sleep in his own bed (not exactly following doctors orders), and rest at home.

I was just reading a friends blog, and she rocked me a little. She is wrestling with her own issues, but the truth is the same. I have learned through this process that I have said countless times that I have trust in God to take care of the situation, but when it came to MY family, MY Dad, did I really find God trustworthy? Did I really truly believe that God was going to do the best despite my prayers and wants. Now in this situation, it is easy to walk away and say "Hey, thanks for answering God" and move on, but what I want to do is HONOR God with my actions in how He blessed our family. I need to continue to believe that God is trustworthy even if He doesn't answer the prayers the way I want Him to.

The truth is, we are entering a time of life where our parents are going to have more health issues. My last surviving grandparent will no longer be with us (she turns 89 today!). My Dad's heart, although supposedly fixed, might develop further complications. We all have our time. I want to honor God with my reaction when the prayers don't go the way I want, but rather when God calls my loved ones home. We were challenged on Sunday to honor God with our lives and our decisions. I want to be found honoring to Him, who is forever faithful and trustworthy.

Kindred Spirit

Anne of Green Gables had her kindred spirit, and this is one of mine. We have been friends for 27 years, and counting. Last week, before the chaos, my friend came to San Diego because she was being the supportive wife of a husband attending a conference. Well, okay let's be real, I am only 2 hours away and she normally lives in New Orleans. That and the fact that I haven't seen her baby yet. Then there is the reason of who WOULDN'T want to go to San Diego in the summer? HELLO!!!!

So I drove down, and left my kiddos with Nana. They were going to the movies, swim lessons, and dinner with their dad. I had an entire day to just focus on my friend. Her hotel was amazing, her baby delightful, and the food was good too. We chatted, laughed, discussed real issues and at the end of the day, we both wanted more. I love my dear friend, and can't wait to see her again. I hear some Beignets calling my name from the Cafe DuMonde.

Hubba Hubba

So even though we were having chaos at home, there was some fun to our weekend. Mr. C. was the best man in our friend's wedding. Saturday night he got dressed in his finest clothes, and stood by our friend. Now, it was HOT outside (111 at 5pm) but look at my man, he is HOT even with air conditioning on!!! I was so proud of him. He did a fantastic toast, and was a great support and friend through this whole time. I was proud to be his arm candy for the evening! By the way, I LOVE his orange tie!

Living out Faith

The past four days, I have had the challenge of living out my faith. What do I really believe God is capable of, and do I really seek HIS peace and comfort in ALL situations. Living it, and saying it are TWO completely different things.

Last Thursday my Mom called early in the morning to inform me that my Dad was back in the hospital with a reoccurring heart issue. Okay, I thought, we will get through this. By Thursday afternoon, they were arranging him to be transported to Los Angeles where the specialists are and were planning for surgery Friday morning. Friday, my Mom and I drive to L.A. and wait, all day. NOTHING happens, except for my education in what the computer numbers mean on my Dad's heart, and finished a book. Surgery was postponed due to the lateness in the day and the doctors being tired. You don't want tired docs doing surgery on a heart! It was a long day, and a long drive home.

The weekend went by with nothing new to report, except that the doctors were pretty sure that surgery would happen on Monday morning. AHA, the family was there, and they wheeled my Dad away to go play what sounds like Galactica on his heart and fix it. While we were waiting (Mom, brother and I) we had to pray. I had to realize that saying I believe God has my Dad in HIS hands and putting him there was a stretch. I had to prepare myself that the worst could happen, and be actually comfortable with the fact that God was in control. It is much easier to say than to actually do.

My Dad is out of surgery, but the stretching continues..........they now don't want to release him because of his blood pressure being too high. What does this mean? I don't really know, what the ramifications will be, but I know that I am on my knees practicing living out my faith instead of just blurting it out from my mouth. Not only is my Dad in the care of one of the best surgeons in the nation, but he is in God's hands which are so much bigger and stronger. He is where he needs to be for the best care.

Tuesday's Treasure

My treasure this morning is my Bible. This morning I got a sad e-mail followed by several phone calls from a friend in distress. However, I was reminded once again that God is good, and as I opened my Bible, there were HIS words of comfort, HIS words of healing, and HIS words of encouragement I am planning to pass along. This morning I did nothing extraordinary, I just opened to Proverbs, and HE did the rest. I love our amazing God that gives us what we need when we don't know ourselves what that is, or what to ask for. I truly was at a loss, and now I feel a comfort.

Well Done.........

Well done my good and faithful servant...... Matthew 25:21a

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed .........2 Timothy 2:15a

These are the verses that stuck out at me, while watching the Michael Jackson memorial. Mind you, not one of the reverends actually said them, but their message was there and this is what came to mind.

Martin Luther King III said it the best and his message applies to all of us. Now mind you I am paraphrasing here! His message was actually from his father. The meaning was that if you are a street sweeper, be the best street sweeper you can be. If you are a gardener, be the best gardener you can be. For we all are not called to be the shining stars that get all of the attention. There have to be the people behind the scenes that make the shining stars that much more brighter. Our call though is from our Father, to be the best at what He has called us to be. Whatever that call maybe, whether it is a shining star, or a behind the scenes person, our goal should be the best that is possible for us to be. THEN when we are done with our job here on Earth, we will be judged on the job that we did. Did we do the job to the best of our ability?

Now in the case of Michael Jackson, he was obviously called to be a shining star. He in the entertainment industry was one of the best, and if judged on whether or not he did his job well, then I think it is safe to say, based on that standard, he would be praised for the job he did. What I don't know is if he was saved. If at the end of the day he will hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. For no one can judge someone else's heart.

However, as the laziness of summer settles upon us, I need to remember my calling. I need to remember what God has asked of me. Then I need to evaluate if I am going to be found lacking, or if I am truly being the servant God has asked me to be. Then I wonder if it all boils down to what Paul said:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. I Corinthians 9:24

Guess I need to go get my running shoes on, and tackle the laundry that is waiting for me.

Tuesday's Treasure

Last week's anniversary was kind of a flop as far as our plans went. We regrouped, took care of our terribly sick little one, and laughed that this is what life is. We can't always count on our plans to come through with kids in the mix. However, my wonderful, thoughtful, and very loving husband, did indeed buy me (okay us) a present and had it wrapped that night. These are the pictures from my (yeah right, our) new point and shoot camera. It is so much fun, so small, and is a joy and easy to use! The best feature as you can clearly see, is that this one goes in the water up to 10 feet submerged. We had a blast playing with it and taking video of the kids swimming under water on the 4th of July. Thanks Babe, love our new toy!!!

God Bless our Boys who Serve

Yesterday our youngest brother (of 8) went to "work". He was assigned the duty, from his National Guard commanding officers, the task of being part of the fly over crew. So he got us all tickets to the Angels game, and with tears in our eyes we got a glimpse of his job, while "playing". After the National Anthem was done being sung, from across the stadium, came 2 Black Hawk choppers flying over. The second helicopter held our brother leaning out of the helicopter looking dangerous (taking pictures actually!). They flew threw the stadium with cheers, screaming and clapping in support of the real work that they actually do. The entire stadium went nuts with the pride being shown to what these men / boys do. My kids were screaming at the top of their lungs, with their cousins, for their Uncle Jeff who they are so incredibly proud of, at such a young age. We thought at that point they were done, but WAIT there was more, they came around and circle the stadium at an angle that would have made me sick, and the cheering got louder, if you can believe that. The crowd was really going nuts now. Then we watched as they flew off into the sunset and it was magical.

At the top of the 6th inning the announcers once again gave honor to these men, and brought them to the top of the Angel's dugout. There they stood (ours is second from the left partially facing the field), waving. If the crowd went nuts the first two times, it was unexpected the amount of support they received during the time when the bodies had faces. There they stood, both crews in their camo uniforms representing one of our branches. Again, for me the tears flowed as it did for most of the military families we were sitting with. These weren't just any men on top of the dugout, who we were giving honor to, they were OUR men. Men in our family, who we are on this journey with, no matter what may be asked of them. 40 thousand attendees were paying honor and giving their thanks to OUR boys, and you couldn't help but be proud of them.

God Bless America indeed. God, please bless these men and boys who are so willing to do a job that so few actually can do.

It brought home the meaning of today, and was an amazing way to start the celebrating of what today means for our family. Happy 4th to all of you and your families as you celebrate today.

14

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary. It seems like time has just flown by. There are lots of laughs, many comfortable moments, and rarely the fight. We have endured many different things on our roller coaster of life, but we have always done them together, holding hands, as a team. Years ago I took my Mom's advice and married my best friend. I guess this just proves that Mom's really do know best! I love you Babe! By the way this is us on vacation last week.

Do you want to know the big plans for today???? Nursing Bubba back to health as he woke up with throw up! Poor little guy has had a really rough day. Just another dip in the roller coaster we call life.