Toon-ful Tuesday

In chess, the you win by protecting your king, keeping it on the board. In our lives, the love of God will give us victory over any of Satan's devices or schemes.

Toon-ful Tuesday

Like a Swiss army knife, scripture is useful for many different things. We should always make sure we keep the scriptures in our heart, so that we can be ready to do good works for the Lord.

Light at the end of the tunnel...

It's been a long three years of ups and downs as far as my marriage goes. Without going into details there have been many more downs than ups. I've been ready to throw in the towel several times.

Praise God we both have continued to work through issues and problems and for the first time in a very, very long time I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...complete happiness with my sweet husband. We are continuing to work together and communication is improving and we are both laughing with each other a lot more these days. Thank you Jesus!

I've worked some long days and out of town several times lately. Last week I worked an overnight job in Tallahassee, which is 3 hours away. When I arrived home the next day, Greg was at work and this message was left for me on our bathroom mirror...made my day!

The Words I Would Say

This song has awesome lyrics! I listen to it on the radio and it sounds quite a bit different than this video (where they are singing it live) but listen to the amazing words...

Toon-ful Tuesday

Apart from Jesus, all of our plans and efforts end up like dead, dry leaves that blow away in the wind. We need to get in God's plan for our lives, and there we will find good success.

Teens & Cell Phones - are you informed?

PIR
GNOC
LMIR

Do you know what any of these acronyms stand for? Chances are your texting teen does. My teenager has a cell phone. He's had one since he was 8-yrs-old. We didn't have a home phone so everyone had a cell phone instead.

Now that he is 13 he texts constantly with friends. His phone is not off-limits and I've been known to pick it up at anytime and scroll through his messages. Thank God I have never found anything questionable on there. Prayerfully I WON'T ever find anything!

As parents to teenagers we have the obligation to stay on top of these things. We should stay informed and up-to-date on these issues such as sexting. By the way...those acronyms stand for:
Parents In Room
Get Naked on Camera
Let's Meet In Real life

Bailee is THREE

I am headed to GA to celebrate my precious Bailee's 3rd birthday. She is an angel. I love this sweet baby so much!
She and Tina came and stayed with us for a week in October. Bailee's daddy (a Marine) has been traveling a lot the last two months and he was going to be gone for the whole week so Tina decided to come to town and spend that week with friends and family.
Unfortunately I had to work a lot during that time. I worked a couple of really late nights trying to clear my schedule for Friday so I could be off and spend the whole day with my Bailee-boo before they left the next day. Friday was our day...YaYa & Bailee. I laughed so much that day. The things she says are hilarious!

She is trying to smell my flowers in my butterfly garden.

Bailee and my puppy Raven are "best friends." She calls him Ray-Ray. Here she is tickled because of one of Ray-Ray's habits...drinking out of my birdbath!
After she watched the dog drinking from the birdbath she decided she would play in it too and she proceeded to make leaf soup for my birdies.
We had the chance to visit the fair while they were in town...Bailee loved the petting zoo! (Poor bunny!)
She enjoyed the big ferris wheel until we reached the top everytime and then she snuggled close to her mommy...it was extremely windy that day and the wind was much worse the higher we went.
Her daddy is going to be out of town this weekend working so he won't be there for her birthday party. He took his little princess out for a date one night this week. She was so excited to go out with her daddy!

Trade Shows, Festivals, Conventions

During the course of my life I have worked at probably hundreds of conventions, festivals and trade shows. When I was a child/teenager my dad and step-mom set up every weekend at the flea market and at festivals around the area. It was exhausting work but lots of fun. We got to know fellow vendors who traveled around to these same events year after year. As I got older my parents purchased paints and things for me to earn money by painting children's faces.

In my 20's, I traveled one summer with my mom who worked for several years installing computer systems into funeral homes. We spent our time setting up trade show booths at Funeral Director's conventions. That was an experience! Some of the items displayed were a little too much for my young eyes to take in and it put a whole other spin on those who work with "the dead."

As I entered my 30's I was a Creative Memories Consultant for about 6 years. My mom was a CMC too - for approximately 9 years. We worked together at a number of events during that time. It was always frustrating for me trying to set up a booth. Mom likes to get dramatic and go all out...I'm into simpler, cost-effective displays. I despise using disposable items (that cost a small fortune) and then just tossing them after one event! I can't tell you how many table skirts we purchased during that time.

I wish I knew back then that you could actually purchase items - banner stands, pipe and drape setups, and table skirts - and keep these items to use from one show to the next! It would have made life so much simpler.

My dad and stepmom eventually opened several stores and got out of the flea market/festival scene. After 20-something years of running stores they closed them all a couple years ago and decided to start setting up at the flea market again every weekend. It's hard work because they have to set up and take down their products every day but the overhead is cheap compared to a brick-and-mortar store and there's no labor costs (since they do it all themselves.)

Dad just told me a couple weeks ago he is thinking about opening another store...this one will be their biggest one yet. Hmmm, I think my stepmom will probably divorce him if he continues with this plan! :-) Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens and if he opens it I'll be sure to let you all know where you can go shop.

Among the Thirsty - "I'd Need a Savior"

Here's a GREAT song to get you going this morning...LOVE LOVE LOVE this song!

Toon-ful Tuesday

Satan would try to convince us that we're not able to partake of God's blessings. But we should listen instead to Jesus, who tells us that God is happy to bless us.

Arthritis

Can you guess what these snazzy little doo-dads are?
Pretty strange looking aren't they? LOL

I see a rheumatologist regularly for my fibromyalgia. When I went to see her about 6 months ago I told her my hands/thumbs were really bothering me a lot. She took xrays of my hands and gave me some medicine to help with the pain and inflammation. She told me I have moderate to severe arthritis in my thumbs - called Basal Joint Arthritis.

When I went back to see her last week we discussed my xrays and my options - surgery (CMC Joint Arthroplasty), cortisone shots or physical therapy and wearing splints.
I chose physical therapy & splints -
I went to the physical therapist last Thursday. My insurance doesn't cover physical therapy. The PT I saw is the only hand therapist in town and he feels sorry for patients like me for two reasons 1)the pain is debilitating and our thumbs have to do 80% of the work of our hands and 2)we pay a lot for our monthly insurance and for them not to cover PT is crazy!

So this wonderful PT didn't charge me for the splints he made me AND he spent 2 hours with me going over all the things I can do at home to help this problem - paraffin wax treatments, hand exercises, and using assistive devices for buttoning, zipping, opening jars, etc. He also explained the surgery thoroughly and encouraged me to really consider having the surgery - he said everyone he has worked with that has had the surgery has come back and said "why didn't I do this sooner!?"

I left there so thankful for his time, directions and explanations! I also left there with strict orders to wear these handy dandy splints when I sleep, drive, type and write. LOL They keep my thumb from moving around and force me to use my other fingers more. I have to say though they really do the job - I've been virtually pain free since I started wearing them!