God is SO good!

We had some excitement today. Our neighbor came over and asked if I had noticed the police cars on the street. I had noticed one car, but once outside, I saw several police cars. Rakey spoke to one of the officers and was told that our part of the block needed to be evacuated. There was a man in a house a few doors down, who had barricaded himself in with several firearms. Georgia, our neighbor, said she almost asked the cops if they realized this is trash day, but was glad she hadn't. The more I thought about that, the funnier it became. I'm glad I didn't talk to the police - I probably would have asked!

SO, I was in the middle of a mail merge and needed mailing labels anyway; I picked up my laptop & my purse, put on flip flops and walked out. It was a bit surreal walking out the front door in shorts and tee shirt seeing two SWAT team members in full gear with rifles drawn peering around the oleanders across the street. I waved to them, got in my car and high-tailed out of here!

As soon as I left the block, I felt burdened by the desperation the man must have been feeling. I pulled over in the shade and called another prayer warrior. We prayed until we felt release. Then I went about my rat killing (not actual rats - running errands around town).

Later, I called the police department and asked if I could go home. They said no, not yet. I sent out an urgent prayer request. I went to my friend Darlynna's house and afterwhile, we heard on the news that the standoff had ended. The man had fallen asleep! The police robot, who looked remarkably like Number Johnny Five, entered the house through the front window and the police could see on remote video that he was sleeping. No one was injured. The man was transported to the hospital for evaluation.

Isn't our God good? Who can fall asleep with the police and SWAT team outside your house without supernatural intervention?

STILL not gonna steal my joy!

P.S. The washer is still waiting for repair. The service person is scheduled to come on July 9th. I have a sweet friend that loves to do laundry so she invited to me to her house to wash clothes. I know! LOVES to do laundry! She told me that as she folds the laundry, she prays over each piece. Isn't that the sweetest? As she folds the t-shirts, she prays for strength for her husband and that his shoulders will be strong enough to bear the weight of his responsibilities. As she pairs the socks, she prays that the path will be straight and that they walk in the way of the Lord. The when she folds the underwear, for her sons, she prayed for chastity and for her husband, she prays that he be kept from temptation.

When I came home, I began doing the same with our laundry.

Finally! An update!

I started Bible College last week. I expected it to be "school" as I remembered it. I went prepared with something salty, something sweet and something with caffeine. I couldn't believe how quickly the time went by! Our one smoker finally asked for a break. I love it! It's going to be a lot of work, but I love it!

I expected support from friends. Silly me! I told my "best" friend. She scoffed and told me that she thought my timing was poor because I'm just restarting my jewelry business. Hmmm... supportive? I think not. Could it be that she is my up-line and let her own selfishness speak?

I have to remember that I'm living for an audience of one. Just in case anyone thinks by that I mean,"I'm self-centered and I don't care what anybody else thinks," that's not it. What I mean is that I want to please God and if someone doesn't like it, I don't care! If you haven't tried it, BELIEVE ME it isn't the same thing! Nah, don't believe me, try it. It's one of those things that's simple but not easy.

We went to a 4th of July / Birthday party yesterday for one of our friends. She doesn't tell her age, but she is a great grandmother. The party was at her house. It rained so it was much cooler than originally expected. Everything was great! Good company. Good food. Great music...

What do you do when children are rude and their parents do nothing or just don't notice? In the living room was limited space and very limited seating. On of the guests had been asked to sing a couple of songs and everyone crowded in. There were three children of different parents sitting in prime spots - comfy chair and comfy sofa - playing games on their phones or whatever. Headphones on! Either tell them to sit on the floor and let some of the elder folks sit down or go outside and let some of the elder folks sit down! I held my tongue but it wasn't easy! Overall though, it was a very nice evening and I'm glad we went.

These days, it seems that whatever friends home we go to, they have a grand or baby grand piano. I suppose we have room for a piano but then we would need to learn to play. This probably would be bad timing for that. : D

trying to steal my joy...

In the past twenty-four hours, the enemy has tried to steal my overwhelming joy and I keep laughing at him... it began with our sweet dogs, Tinkle & Lady Poops-a-lot, making certain the the carpet was not clean for our daughters' visit. I have a favorite pair of shoes that is getting a little worn, and I picked up a second pair on sale a couple of weeks ago. They've been worn once. Daisy was over on the floor chewing away on something and when I saw that it was a pair of flip-flops, I told her NO and replaced the flip-flops with one of her chewy bones. Apparently, the rawhide doesn't have quite enough of that good leather flavor, so a few minutes later I notice her happily chewing away on my new pair of shoes! I took them away from her and replaced them with her chewy AGAIN! This morning, I was packing up my jewelry for Allie's show and I heard crunching. Hmmm. Daisy was chewing on the windowsill. I made our bed, fresh and pretty with all the pillows. I changed the sheets on Natasha's bed. Took the down blanket out of the dry cleaner wrap and laid it on the bed and noticed a large tan-colored stain on the white blanket! Bravely I smelled the spot; surprisingly it smelled good... and then I recognized the scent of the diffuser from the back of my car. It must have spilled on the clean blanket. No problem! It was time for me to get dressed for the jewelry show. I had chosen my outfit last night. I went and put it on and noticed that I needed a camisole. No problem! They were in the washer - my fourth load of laundry of the day. Hmmm... I don't remember a soak in this cycle... I went to check the laundry. The washer has died. Oh well, no time to call the repair guy. Got to the jewelry show. Everything went well. I only forgot my phone and my datebook. Fortunately, I'm just restarting my business so I knew my schedule. It all worked out and my joy is still mine! Whooooo hooooo! Thank you Lord!

One bite at a time

I realized in the last few days that I have been looking at losing weight as a big deal - which it is. I know there are many benefits awaiting me. But when I think of how much I have to lose, how long will it take, what a commitment, etc., it finally dawned on me that I need to look at it as I would other goals. Break it down! So, I have decided that I will lose five pounds. I KNOW I can do that! Then when I lose five pounds, I'll lose five pounds. Brilliant! Yes? Thank you Lord! I know this inspiration came from you!

Here we go! The other thing that will help me with this is our new puppy, Daisy. She is a terrier/pug mix. Constant motion, boundless energy, excellent walking companion... okay, excellent is an exaggeration, but this morning she sat when I said sit! Yippee! That's a first! Hey, don't be critical! She's a puppy.

Wish me thin!

oh THAT's what I wanted to hear!

I was invited to a Bible Study Friday. What a treasure! This group was started over 30 years ago as a mens group. Now everyone is welcome, but I love being around the wise elderly people. They meet at a local coffee house called "The He-brew."
One of the younger men makes lunch for everyone for $5.

So, we were talking about how we came to know the Lord and get Baptized in the Holy Spirit. My friend Darlenna said something about me being Jewish and I told the story about the kid at the grocery store... The guy that makes lunch said, "I guess it's 'cause now you've got the whole Grandma thing going on."

I smiled at him but I was crying inside... in fact, my bottom lip is still sticking out...

You look just like...

I'm still chuckling to myself. When I went to the grocery store, the checker said,"Oh my goodness! You look just like that famous actress!"
I looked around, saw no one else and said,"Me?"
He said,"Yes! Oh I can't remember her name! She's Jewish, she's really funny and calls everybody meshugunah."
I still have no idea who he was referring to and it is the first time in my life anyone has ever said I looked Jewish! When you grow up blonde and blue, I don't think anyone considers it a possibility!

It's a ponderment!

Yes, I made that word up, but I couldn't think of another that suited my mood. The King of Siam (movie version) comes to mind. He used 'wonderment', which does fit, but because I'm wondering about some things not because of their wondrous nature.

Anyway, I've had a few comments on my tweets that aren't so positive and I knew I couldn't sort it out for myself in 140 characters or less.

First of all, let me say that my posts and tweets are really for my own amusement, venting or whatever, and yes they are public. I've always felt the public at large had the right to my opinion, if they choose to read it. And if someone is offended, I'm sorry but I didn't force anyone to read it.

How would that be done? There are a lot of things a person can force another to do, but reading is not one of them. Picture someone attempting force reading. "Rats! She closed her eyes AGAIN! She's never going to read this, is she?! Okay! Get the wet noodle!"

I have found that as I've gotten older, I care less and less about being acceptable to other people. (pop pop pop) I hear those bubbles bursting! I used to be such a people pleaser but now I find that when I'm true to myself, it means I'm being true to God. I'm "performing" this life for an audience of One. Period. And NO apologies.

I may go into more detail at another time, but for now, I'll quote my sweet husband. When he and I were talking about getting married, and the compromises involved, he asked if I could accept it if he never embraced my particular version of faith. I said,"Yes, of course!" and thought 'I'll convince him how wrong he is one of these days.' At the time I was a member of a Religious Science Church and thoroughly, with ever fiber of my being believed what I had learned there. After all, I had many, many years invested and 7 years of classes, testing and licensing. He was, after all, a born-again Christian and there was all that guilt and sin and other unloving things. Nope, not for me. Buuuuuut... also in the deepest part of my heart, I had this longing for Jesus. Where did that come from? And where on earth did it fit into what I believed? So when I prayed aloud, I would tag on a silent, "In Jesus name I pray." A safety clause, I thought. One day, I came to find out that Jesus was much more than a safety clause.

Oh! Wait! Back to what my darling husband said to me. I asked the same question back to him, if he would be all right if I was never able to embrace faith in his particular way. He said,"Well, I will be sad that you aren't with me in Heaven, but yes, I can accept that." Period. NEVER another word about it and believe me, he is not short of them. He has an incredible vocabulary, (as does my eldest sister) and he can ask questions of people many times in many different ways until he gets them to say what they were trying not to say. (He is an excellent lawyer!)

I have mulled that sentence over in my mind countless times. Okay, backing up a bit again... my beliefs were all inclusive. "This" is for me and whatever those people want to belive is fine, too. They're just calling my God by another name, aren't they? And their Savior is okay too. Buddha, Mohammed, etc., but I chose Jesus because He resonates with me.

I used to set my alarm every day for 4:54 AM to wake up in time to watch Joyce Meyer at 5:00 AM. On this particular morning, Joyce was talking to me. She talked about MY beliefs, MY all inclusive beliefs, and how different people call God by different names. I was right there! Wow! I couldn't believe Joyce Meyer "got" me! I was thrilled! Then she stopped and looked through the camera, through my TV screen and into my eyes and said,"But I choose to follow THE ONE that rose from the grave and is alive today."

Gulp...

Oh Lord! Forgive me! I knew not what I was doing! In that moment, I understood. I called our church later that morning and asked to be baptized.

Humph! This was going to be short... sorry! ; D

Tweeting

I haven't been posting as often as I'd like. I confess. Like many others, well millions of others, I've been using Twitter. It allows me to post a sentence or so and be done which is really all I have the attention span for most of the time anyway. So I may begin doing that here, as well.

Wish I had it on video!

I was sitting in the family room, eating my supper while my sweet husband worked late, and the natives began to get restless. Daisy, our pup, decided it was time to run laps around the family room at full speed. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! There she goes, bless her heart!

One of the cats joined in. They were going so fast, I couldn't tell which cat it was, but I assumed it was Milo, our younger cat. Then I noticed the cat looked darker. Hmmm... Curious that a speeding cat would suddenly look darker.

Finally, Daisy ran up onto the back of the couch and collapsed, panting, followed by Romeo, who, in consummate cat fashion, acted casual. Even shot me a,"what?" look. That was when I figured out that those two cats had been running a relay while poor little Daisy ran the entire course by herself.

I laughed myself silly!

On the upside, she did sleep really well that night.

Dear Ndugu...

A few years ago, Rakey and I saw the Jack Nicholson movie, "About Schmidt." The movie was not all that memorable but when Schmidt needed to get something off his chest, he would write it all to his adopted-by-mail son, Ndugu. Since then, Ndugu has become part of the fabric of our conversations. Since the cats and dogs live in the home of an attorney, they often threaten suits against one another and us. Today was no exception...

Spring!

Yippee! Spring is here! We'd better seize it while it's here, because here in West Texas, it usually only lasts about two weeks. Today I planted geraniums and a couple of little green plants in pots on the front porch. Next, I'll be planting some caladiums for little bursts of color in the shade under the trees. I also put out a couple of sweet potato vines. Beautiful bright green leaves!

All the bulbs from last year are coming up. I had planted them so late, we only had greenery last year, so I'm really excited to see what comes up. The peonies are 4-6" tall already and we have a lot of iris spikes! All this is for beauty - what I'm really excited about this year is that we're starting a vegetable garden.

We have our seed starters and a lot of different vegetables to sprout. I even found some local Texas sweet onion starters! Yum! All that is left to find is another tomato variety. We only have Roma tomato starters.

I confess - it's not all about me

I have to confess - I follow several blogs. Most of them, I don't actually read; I subscribe to see the pictures. They are from sister paper artists (we're all women so 'fellow' just seemed inappropriate!) and I like to see what color combinations they're using, new techniques, imaginative layouts, etc.

There is one that I read every single time. It is: Paper, Ink, Scissors & Stamps. http://debneerman.blogspot.com/ The author is Deb and I have written to her and asked when her book is going to be published! She has a hilarious way of saying everything. Even my sweet husband knows that when I start laughing hysterically, he had better hit pause because I'm going to read yet another Sheila story.

My favorite for beautiful, beautiful cards is: Amazing Paper Grace. http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/ I love Becca's creations! The card she made for 2/7/09 was perfect! You should go look at it.

Getting easier...

Last Sunday night, our little dog died in her sleep and we're both doing better with it. I've gotten calls and e-cards from many people - thank you!

This week I heard a few things relating to this. My friend Peggy told me that she believes, as does our Pastor, Mark, that our sweet pets go to Heaven. I'm not sure but I like thinking that they do! I would think Heaven would be just a touch less... heavenly without them.

and there was something else, but

Highs and lows

Thursday was a wonderful day! My sweet husband legally adopted my darling adult daughter! I have wanted this to happen but it had to come from him... and it did! The night before Natasha and Chris married in Las Vegas, Rakey asked her to be his daughter. So many happy tears! The paper work took awhile and last Thursday, we went to court and got the official "okey dokey" from the judge. I really didn't expect it to be an emotional moment, but it was. So sweet... Very touching.

He spent all weekend asking the same people over and over again, "Did you know that I have a daughter?" He loves her so much! Just like a Dad ought to.

Thursday before going to court, I dropped Texielou off at the vet - she appeared drunk, but I knew she'd been laying off the booze* for quite awhile, so we figured that it must be her sugar out of control. It was! She was in insulin shock. She had her insulin shot and then her pancreas decided to make a contribution and oh-oh! Too much insulin for a little dog! We left her in the hospital over the weekend and early Sunday morning she died in her sleep.

We loved her with all our hearts and she loved us even more. She gave us "movie kisses" when just a single lick wouldn't do, she could put anyone to sleep whether they wanted to or not, she always had happy tail when we got home even if only gone for a minute, and when she went to the vets' office, she would try to reassure all the other animals that they'd be okay. She was a friend to all and never met a stranger.

A saying on a pillow sums it up for me... I want to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am."





* I don't want to hear from any animal rights people - of course, I was joking!

Not feeling pressured (I'm lying!)!

For the new year, I decided that I want to incorporate more art in my everyday life. Not a resolution, just a decision. A choice! So why do I feel so pressured?! No one but me is doing it, so I need to let it go!

I joined a year-long online workshop, called,"A Life Well Crafted."
I joined a 3-month workshop, called,"Get Organized and Be Inspired."
I joined a 6-week Watercolor Journaling workshop through one of my online groups.
And I joined an ATC texture/technique workshop, which I had better drop.
I still have house projects going on - I need to finish putting on the kitchen cabinet hardware, hang an entire wall of photos, finish cleaning out the garage, hang towel racks in the master bath, and stain the kitchen plaster. Those are just the basics! That doesn't include the projects I have yet to begin!

Whew! I think I feel a little less pressure just writing it down.

Let the demolition begin!

So the contract was signed. Down payment was paid. And the contractor and crew showed up. Things started off so well! Our driveway was filled with wood and power tools and a trailer. How exciting!

On the other hand, Rakey's health was on a steady decline. It appeared that we had gotten into this almost accessible house just in time. I was spending more and more time helping him and caring for him. I was really unable to concentrate at work and it wasn't brain surgery! So I quit my job to stay home and take care of Rakey as needed and to keep an eye on the contractor and crew.

VERY good decision! There were constant questions and things that could not be answered over the phone and a stream of what seemed like ants in and out of the house. The kitchen was gutted and the new design was evolving in a sketch on the wall. The ceiling was raised and vaulted (because it felt very confined in there!) and the cabinet discussion was an ongoing dialogue. How deep? How many? How high? How low? Do you really want them THAT high? That deep? and so on...

The wall treatment... The color of the walls in the kitchen were a cross between tomato soup and terra cotta. I had fallen in love with the color combination I'd created in our D Street house and I wanted to do it again. Kind of a golden-sunshiny-tan. Okay, it's peanut butter and honey. Sounds completely awful, doesn't it? I love it! Oh and please learn from my mistake! If you're going to do it yourself, pick a color and stop looking at other colors, shades and variations! The end result came out perfectly as I'd envisioned but it was a loooooooong bumpy road!

One day, someone dropped something and took a chunk out of our tile floor... that we did not intend to replace! And oops! A ceiling support fell and dented our 3 week old refrigerator! And one of the ceiling supports on the other end of the room wouldn't budge, so they forced it. Great it went up and it fit... right through the wall to the dining room.

Minor inconveniences or a glimpse into the future of this project? Read on and you decide!