Office Holiday Cheer!

I've been decorating my office for the holidays. I decided to get crafty and create penguins and snowmen with all of my coworkers' picture. It mostly looks like I missed my calling as a elementary school teacher but I can't help it. Everyone has been oooing and ahhhing. Check it out!

Fun Dollar Store Stickers!

A REAL CHRISTMAS TREE!!! It smells divine!

Noone can enter or leave without some Christmas Spirit!




This is my craft project for the season. Here are all my coworkers in my division in snowmen and penguins!Funny thing is: I have mechanics in my division :) They are getting a kick out of their faces on the wall in the belly of a penguin!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Reflections

The more I grow this year the more I realize that I don't have a clue. Part of me thinks that your late twenties are the balance for your late teens and early twenties. When I was 19, veils of small town, small church, and small thinking were ripped away and I was left with amazing awe and wonder. Things were not what I had been taught. Inconsistencies that were taught became highlighted and life had a whole new form. No longer did I look to parents for guidance but all I could see were their faults and failures. A sense of "I know better than they" came over me and no one within my family had validity. I was on to BIGGER and BETTER while they stayed in their ruts.

How youth misleads us?

I have many things that I think I would have loved to done different but then again... how can you progress in life if you live in the regression of thought?

I am knocking on the door to 30. Yikes! Something that I am coming to appreciate a lot about this age is the sense of family and relationship that has been growing in my heart. I deeply want to know my family and be known by them. Despite all the lost years, these new times have been amazing. My priorities are swirling closer and closer to home. I still have an intense longing for adventures and new things but my sense of home or at least the sense of needing a home life is growing more and more.

Yesterday we buried my Uncle Harry. His life and battle with cancer still weigh heavy on my heart today. In my late twenties, a sudden realization of mortality and the mortality of those I love the most has settled on me. As I'm standing there with my Dad and my brothers, a premature grief overwhelmed me with thoughts... this will be one of us one day.

I'm not totally sure what the purpose of this post is if not only for a sounding board for my heart but I hope that someone could see the writing on the wall. Life is but a fleeting breath. There is not a single second that is promised. Love with passion. Lay all your cards on the table. Seek wisdom. Dig down deep. Embrace while you have the chance.

Boo Boos

Just when you think you have heard it all:

My coworker is a wonderful single gal. She's smart, funny, BUT has the worst possible taste in men. I can't blame it all on her. She seriously emits an odor that attracts every low life in a 3 mile radius.

Example:

A bunch of us go to eat at a local bistro. As we are walking out the door, we pass a booth with 3 men deep on each side. The guy on the end gives her the elevator eyes and says " Hey Boo". She turns and does the awkward smile thing trying to figure out if she knew him. THEN he starts GRUNTING... yes folks... GRUNTING!

I whip around and say "Do you even know him? Do people really use 'BOO'? I thought it was from Saturday Night Live."

WHAT THE JUNK?

This is the kind of attention she gets. She kind of laughs it off but literally these bottom feeders find her wherever we go.

So, yesterday while I was talking on the phone a guy from another department comes in. He sees her at the front and starts doing the limp foot drag walk thing. I spotted trouble. They are talking down from me (keep in mind I'm on the phone explaining a computer process) and I hear snippets of their conversation.

"Why won't you date me?"
"Can I have your number?"

So she gives him her work number and points to me " you'll have to ask her "

"Can she go out with me?"

ME: "I don't know you" (in my best ghetto voice)

"You need to get to know me"

I get back in my phone conversation but overhear her say: "I thought you were married. Are you married?"

"Well(high pitched and then pause)... um.... I'm legally separated."

This is the moment my hand instantly comes up. I did the ghetto hand wave that translates to... you needs to get to steppin'.

I had my own grunting moment. I get off the phone finally after Mr. Legally Separated has sauntered out... not looking in my direction of course.

Then my inner Pentecostal preacher voice rose to the fore front.

"LEGALLY SEPARATION?... The only legal separation is called DIVORCE!"

Shock & awe overwhelmed me for the rest of the day. I've heard of such happenings but to experience it right before my eyes & ears... Priceless!

Share any experiences of this kind. My shelter was shattered, how about you?

*if I could add sound I would have TLC's "I don't want no scrub" playing. *

Every Single Girl's Nightmare

Whoever invented the bouquet toss hates her friends! As a single lady, nothing makes my blood run cold as the bouquet toss. I cannot STAND this stupid lets make all the singles that bought you presents and sat through the sappy everyone should be in love ceremony and put them on display for all to see and feel sorry for them but make it all better if they catch the stupid flowers that are often silk or dinky compared to the real bouquet that is kept for posterity.

Yes I am bitter about this process.

In some way I'm single by choice or because I prefer Yankees or Midwestern boys but somehow cant get out of the South. I love weddings and seeing friends and family take the big leap into marriage. What I resent is the insinuation that I am the weirdo in the bunch and need to be fixed with a man.

I can hear the bride's saying now: That's not at all what I mean by forcing you into the grouping of single girls (and I mean girls because 10 year olds are fighting with you for the stupid flowers).

Let me ask you this then: What does the tossing of foliage mean then?
Is it not to highlight that lucky girl to the gods of love as the next ONE to get hitched? Or to apply pressure if you are dating to that guy who is scared of commitment!

The answer is DUH!

Therefore, when you ask your "friends" to participate (and we all know you will call out the ones who try to hide) you essentially say... stinks that your single, but hey... here's some flowers to bring you luck!

Why the sudden rant?

I'm going to a wedding this weekend. I'm really PRAYING that it is as nontraditional in the flower department as possible but if not, here are the game plans I've come up with so far:

1) Have a sudden urge to go to the bathroom!

2) Claim a leg injury.

(might not work if there is dancing but I could claim an instant healing to counterbalance)

3) Ask to hold an infant right before

I'm sure one of these will work... we'll see.

When the roll is called up yonder... please Jesus...let me not be one of that number!

Today's Gone By

I often have the news on in the background at work. The recent cases of the missing baby who was found under the babysitter's bed and the balloon boy who never was on the balloon really stir up anger and dread about the condition of the American people. Who in their right mind thinks it is okay to fake a child's possible demise.

WHO DOES THAT? Who leads a nation to grieve and worry for their loved ones for no reason? How do you sleep at night knowing that people are praying for the return and safety of your son or daughter when it is all a hoax?

Between the pre-teen being set on fire and the gang rape of a junior high girl, my heart about can't take anymore of this. What has happened to American society?

After the catastrophe of John & Kate, why would anyone want to invite camera crews into their lives? Fast money is sending us into early graves.

Wisdom from Romeo & Juliet:

FRIAR LAURENCE: These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume. (Romeo and Juliet, II, vi)

FRIAR LAURENCE: The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so. (Romeo and Juliet, II, vi)


Anything obtained in rashness and with the "I HAVE TO HAVE THIS NOW" turns on you in the end. Fame & Fortune are eating our society's morality and sense of justice. I am truly disturbed to no end about the "American Way" that is programming our kids through media and through bad examples. I wonder what it would be like to wake up and have everything electronic completely dead. No cell phones. No TVs. No computers. What would our stress be like?

Bible Study this week emphasized living in the day. How can I live in my today when I am compounded with the realities of all these others? I love technology but it oftens binds our hearts to anchors of fear.

This post is not very solution based but mostly a lament on the loss of TODAY.

Questions... No Answers... Only Jesus

As I grow older, I really thought that I would have the whole life thing under way. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I really expected and found hope in that I would eventually get the hang of this whole life thing. I just knew that I would feel settled & accomplished in the coming years. I'm knocking on the door to thirty... I'm so far from where I thought life would be.

I feel more like a girl playing dressup than ever. The all powerful question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" used to be such an easy answer. No anxiety. No fear. I merely burst out... I want to be a missionary. I want to move to Africa. I want to work with kids. etc. Here today at 28.5 years... that question chills my blood and stokes my anxiety. I'm more clueless than ever. I'm being responsible. I'm paying bills. I'm working working working but somewhere in the midst of growing up I feel like a missed some life classes. The thing is... this theme is prevelant throughout my friend base. Male & female. City and country. It leads me to wonder, is my generation in a corporate identity crisis?

The exhausting back n forth in my head can lead to major overload. My inner child gets scared & confused and wants to hide under the covers. "Is it over?"

And then Jesus... He has such a way with kids. He preferred their company even when disciples tried to put "important" people in front. A new coping mechanism I've developed in the questions and stress and chaos and... is this: I picture myself in my cute stage, crawling up in Jesus' lap and resting. The great thing about embracing your inner child is that Jesus loves the little children.

There is no one else for me... None but Jesus.


None But Jesus - by Hillsong United

In the quiet, in the stillness
I know that you are God
In the secret of your presence
I know there I am restored
When you call I won’t refuse
Each new day, again I’ll choose

There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise

In the chaos, in confusion
I know you’re sovereign still
In the moment of my weakness
You give me grace to do your will
When you call I won’t delay
This my song through all my days

There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise (2)

I am yours and you are mine…

All my delight is in you Lord
All of my hope
All of my strength
All my delight is in you Lord
Forevermore (2)

There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise

"In the waning minutes I

"In the waning minutes I realized that accepting Grace of another sometimes means not trying to pay them back in any kind of satisfactory manner"