Meea.

 November of 2007 we decided that we wanted a dog for our then 3 and 5 year old.  The Crumbley family that lived next door had the best dog, and had found out that the exact same dogs had had another litter of puppies and there were three remaining.  The neighbors left that night and picked up the runt.  We knew that we wanted to name our dog Meea after the first letter in our first names.  I talked to the owner and she said that she had named one and not the other remaining dog but that we could have our pick and she would keep the other one.  I said what did you name the one dog?  She said Mia.  (Jaw drop)

We left after dinner when Michael got home from work and both kids sat down in the floor, the lady handed our 5 year old their Mia, that was one crazy freaked out wild kinda dog that he could barely hold on to.  Our 3 year old was waiting patiently for her turn when the other nameless dog slowly came from behind her and curled up sweetly in her lap.  I said, did you say we could have either dog?  She said Yes.  I said well we want that one!  My husband said hold up!  We are going to sleep on it.  

So we left.  The next morning before he left for work my husband said I will leave it up to you. Which typically means let the kids down easily.  He left, I left to go buy a kennel and get the dog.  She was 3 pounds.  

Meea contracted Cushings disease and has been going down hill for sometime.  We were told in October that we should really put her to sleep, but she was still active and responsive and still a part of our family, she looked like Bill the cat but we couldn't just make the call on her looks.  We have spent all of the covid isolation with her.  We believe she had some sort of stroke a couple of days ago and she was no longer herself.  

We took her to the vet this morning and she left us peacefully.  I am more than thankful for our almost thirteen years with Meea.  She will forever be a precious member of our family.  

Meea August 22, 2007 - August 19, 2020

In training

I am all about mercy and grace especially in regards to "in training" individuals, however out of an abundance of frustration... I give you....my encounter.

I pulled up to a fast food establishment (I will not mention the name to protect the innocent.) I pulled into a spot to place my on line order, before I even put the vehicle in park there was a knock on my window...thus the child had seen me drive up. I roll down my window and she starts to hand me someone's order. I said I haven't placed my order yet. She continued to try to shove the order at me and said that's fine but you need to take this part of your order. I said that isn't mine she said in a very snotty tone "Are you not Jeff?" (Blank stare) No, no I am not. She walks off. I place my order and begin to wait.

Same child comes out with my order bags of food are fine but the drinks were so full that they had flooded the cup holder that they were in and I got a sticky bath ( not just drips full on looked like she had dumped one of the drinks in the holder just to be spiteful in hind sight maybe she did, but I won't go there that's on her.) I did not take the drinks, she seemed perturbed I said can you maybe wipe those off. (Dramatic eye roll and huff and off she went).

She came back with clean drinks (I'm sure she spit in them) and I said do you have straws? She said they are in the bag. I looked, no straws. At this point I am sure she is done with us. In her defense, I was kind of done with her as well. Obtain straws and off we go.

I want to say this. I was never mean to her or hateful or rude. Most people would have returned the behavior she was handing out with the same if not elevated hateful behavior and then where would that have gone? In training girl would have continued to have a bad day spiraling downward spewing her teen angst all over anyone who placed an on line order that day. All those people would then have in turn gone out in to the world with her angst all over them and spewed it all over the people that they came in to contact with and quite honestly we would have a pandemic of hatefulness and no mask in the world can do anything about that!

One lesson I learned from this is that customer service is not for everyone. I mean everyone should have to do it because maybe the general population would become way more versed in cooperation, but mainly I learned to....

Go out...Be kind!

Life lessons in games.

I have a vivid memory from my childhood.  I was a very active camp participant.  I loved my camp and enjoyed my summers because of it.  I can remember one activity in particular.  The counselors had described what we were supposed to be doing but I had either not been paying attention (likely) or they did not make it clear in order to get their point across (could also be true).  We were to only listen to one person's voice and go to them.  We were all blindfolded and when the game began it was pandemonium of all of the counselors yelling and screaming and making noise calling your name trying to get you to go to them.  I hadn't heard the part about it was a particular counselor that I was supposed to go to so when I got to the voice calling my name they took my blindfold off and said you lose.  Harsh.

Last night I played a game that involves deceiving the other players in order to win.  You are to lie at all cost.  It was unsettling to find out that people I typically trust could lie to my face. (Please understand these are all good people but dang they are good at the in game lying!)

The last round I thought I knew who was lying and who was telling the truth.  I thought that the reason that this person would not look me in the face was that they thought I was lying.  I was trying with all my might to get this player to look at me so that I could convince them that I wasn't lying.  Turns out they were.

These are weird times we are living in.  The enemy is going to use things that you trust and feel comfortable with to distract you from that which God wants for your life.  You do not want to get to the end of your life and have your blindfold removed to realize that the things you had been so adamant about being good and right were in fact...not.

God can use you to be light.  The enemy is going to try to deceive you, make you feel like you are wrong, make others think you are wrong.  Keep being the light.

Go out...Be kind.

Flip over already!

We had some pretty intense storms here last night.  Lightening flashing, rain flooding, booming thunder, it was scary.  I was thankful that my eldest had decided against going on a last minute camping trip.

I went outside this morning to walk the dog.  The skies were speckled with patchy clouds and splashes of blue.  The storms had moved on and left a trail of destruction in their wake.  All over the road and sidewalks there were debris from plants and trash that had been blown from who knows where littering the world around me.  I walked around to the back of my house and noticed an enormous crazy looking bug.  This was him.  Looks pretty dead doesn't he?

Well, he wasn't.  

He was very much alive.  I flipped him over and off he went.  No worse for the wear just needed someone to turn him over because he couldn't do it for himself, but then with just that little bit of assistance he was fine.  I sat there watching him wander off thinking oh how very much this little scenario applies to the world right now.  

We are in the middle of a huge storm.  There is sickness.  There are people fighting for things that they believe in.  There are people fighting just because they are angry and want to fight.  You can look at this in so many different ways.  One option is to find the people you can help during this time, help can be physically or help can be listening and starting to see the world from their perspective because it is the right thing to do.   No one ever became dumber by gaining perspective.  You could look for people that can mentor or guide you through this struggle, genuinely listening to their wisdom and trying to apply it to your own walk.  Ultimately, you can think even larger and realize that in fact God is the best one to flip you over, to start you on your next path.  He is truly the only one that loves you unconditionally and knows every thing there is to know about you and he still flips you over because he believes in you.  

This is where I am finding my comfort right now.  The news is so depressing, the world is in turmoil. Everyone seems to be arguing and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.  Don't you believe it for one second.  First off turn off the news.  Secondly, go out and be the change.  

Now.  Flip over and let's make this world a better place!  Go out...Be kind! 

What are you going to be today? Fart spray or Room freshener?

I am annoyed.
I am angry.
I am enlightened, all within a period of about 5 min.

A man was looking for gloves for cleaning.  He was about 5 feet away from me and asked a man that was working there where he could find them and the worker said we don't have those.  I said to both men, are these the ones you are looking for?  Customer man completely ignored me.  I repeated myself because I realized what was going down.  He was of the persuasion that believes women to be ignorant and should only be allowed to speak in certain circumstances so I wasn't going down without a fight.  I repeated myself several times and when the worker man also realized what was going on he showed the man the gloves and all of a sudden the customer had what he needed glared at me and walks off.

Seriously?  There is a word that I would typically insert here but my mom might read this so I will simply say.  Donkey!

My mother was with me at the time so I didn't want to make a big deal out of it or embarrass her so I gathered my things and headed for the register at which point I met the antithesis to Donkey.

He was lovely!  So kind, so welcoming, so appreciative and friendly.  He was so sweet to my mama, he was so thankful for our presence.  I wanted to bake him cookies and send a note home to his mama to thank her for raising such a wonderful son!  Man number 2 completely erased the bad feeling I was having about the Donkey that I had just been subjected to.

I received the most obvious life lesson all within a period of 10 min, do you know what it was?

There are jerks out there, people who are not going to like you for something that you can do nothing about,  your gender, the color of your skin, your age,  a multitude of things, but here is the life lesson.

There are also people that appreciate you for what you are and even for what you aren't.  They appreciate the fact that you are another human and know that you have something to contribute to this world.  Do you seriously want to be the person that brings others down, or would you rather be the person that  makes people feel good about themselves?  To me this is a no brainer.

If you spray fart spray in a room that you are confined to do you not then in turn reap the torture that is the fart spray yourself?  If you spray a pleasant smelling room freshener does it not have the same effect, only with a much more pleasing end?  We are all confined to this planet until we are either planted in it or the Lord comes back.  So, what are you?  Fart spray or room freshener?

Go out...Be kind.

Boba buddy.

I had never tried boba tea.  I was extremely apprehensive because I have this thing with textures.  A friend of mine decided that she was going to take on this challenge and completely craft a boba tea beverage that would not make me hurl.  I was still apprehensive.  I had to completely psych myself out to even take my first sip by saying "You're an adult!" "you can do this" "you are an adult!!!"

She nailed it.  I will say that the boba were weird but I didn't completely hate it and now that she has assessed that she thinks with one tweak she knows my boba tea drink of choice.  She put a lot of thought into this.  She asked me questions of my likes and dislikes and went above and beyond...for me.  Why?  Because that is what friends do!

I had a woman "correct" me on Facebook.  Have no idea who the woman even was and she was in fact, wrong.  Very wrong.  I corrected her but at that point it was my word against hers and she wasn't having it.  I told a friend about it and they said, "I'll take care of it".  They went on there and laid down more proof as to why she was wrong and I was right.  It's what friends do.

I have your back, I've got you, Where are you, what do you need?  This world is weird enough any way let alone all the weirdness that we are dealing with in 2020.  We need friendships.  Lots of them. We need people who understand us and want to help us.  We also need to be that person for others.  

Learn your friends likes and dislikes.  Support them, love them, bring joy to those around you.

I will even go so far as to say, do this for not jut your friends but for random strangers around you.  Not in a creepy stalker way, but just be pleasant to be around.

Most of all.....Go out....Be kind.

Yet another disappointment.

Day 56 of quarantine.

Things are starting to open back up.  They have asked us to wear masks some are some aren't.  We still mainly eat at home, my husband is still working from home and the kids are still distance learning from home.

They have moved graduation again it must be awful for the families that have a senior, being in such limbo.  So many rites of passage that have been taken away by this stupid virus.

Today the mail came, my daughter got a 5 x 7 envelope filled with paperwork from her school.  It contained 3 awards that she had no clue she was getting.  How fun would that have been to go to a program expecting to be a spectator and then out of the blue get not one but three awards.

She received the Agape award which recognizes a boy or girl who demonstrates the love of Christ daily at school and or in their community.  She also received the discipleship award from Honors English II, and the Leadership award which is the student that is actively involved in some type of community service and or exhibit leadership qualities in or out of school.

Yet another disappointment in the world of Covid 19.  I will be glad when we are to the..Do you remember when?  Stage of this whole mess.  What life lessons will we learn?  How will it change us?

I know that I for one will be more involved.  I will absolutely and for sure...Go out...and Be kind.