Happy Birthday to me.

I wanted to post something on my actual birthday about the joys and fabulousnesses of gaining one more year of knowledge and insightful understanding of the world and the people who share this planet with me.

Yeah, I couldn't do that because life happened. It went a little something like this....

We all slept late and I took a shower so that got us starting out late. Which was a wonderful birthday surprise I must add. So, the first thing I was going to do was take my kiddos with me to my favorite breakfast spot. On the way there my hubby called and explained that I had an appointment to get new tires in less than an hour and couldn't we have an early lunch together while they put them on. I was dissappointed but how could I be upset. My precious husband had researched and paid for new tires for my vehicle. I decided it was okay I would just do breakfast with the kiddos on another day.

We then had to move our little party over to someone who could allign them. There was a misunderstanding and what could have been 15 min was 3 or 4 hours. Now, some of that time was having lunch with my little family but most of it was sitting in a tire place waiting room with two bored kids. Not exactly a Hallmark birthday moment.

We picked up a neighbor and did the Tour de Free taking all of the coupons that places had sent me for my birthday and getting the free stuff. Cupcakes, ice cream. It was fabulous.

The restaurant that I had wanted to go to for dinner with my entire family was taken over by Shriners. So we had to select a new location. I tell you all of this to say. My birthday was not what I had scripted to be "My perfect birthday" but it was a wonderful day just the same and I am blessed with a wonderful family and friends who want to help me celebrate it.

So my thought for the day today is life may not be going the way you think it should be going, but do yourself a favor and don't focus on being upset that it isn't going your way. You can't see the beautiful tapestry that is your life and God may be taking you on an even greater journey that you could never come up with for yourself. Go with the flow, be thankful for the many blessings in your life, and always remember you can't even dream as big as God can create.

Sometimes I'm inappropriate without meaning to be.

Facebook has completely rotted my brain. I think in status updates. If something funny happens I want to share it. Yesterday was no exception but what was swimming around inside my head was completely inappropriate. I couldn't post it. I would offend for sure and to be quite honest I have read some stuff on there that I then spend the day trying to get the mental picture out of my head and I was not going to infect someone with this completely inappropriate thought.

So, turn back now. I'm warning you. This is your last chance.

Here it is.... seriously. You may think less of me if you continue on.

I don't care how rich, beautiful, talented, intelligent, or fabulous you are if you don't wipe well on a hot summer day you are going to have a problem.

See. I told you it was inappropriate. All day long be observant, look around, people from all walks of life have the same problem and if they are walking a little funny you are going to say to your self I bet they would like a wet wipe.

It does have a larger point so hear me out. As you go about your day today remember that just because people are wealthy or beautiful or fabulous in any exterior way it does not make them better than you. You are special because of the things that you bring to this world. You have special gifts and talents that God gave only you and if you concern yourself with trying to be like someone else your gifts and talents will be lost. Another lesson to be learned from today's visit. WIPE WELL! Use a washcloth if you have to.

Ms. Congeniality.

Popularity. It plays such an important role in our society that pageants have given it a category. One of the pageant competitors. ( okay I don't even know what they are called pageanteers? pageantillians? ) Okay no clue. One of the people that is competing for the crown and sash K? K. Anyhoo, it is called Ms. Congeniality. They even made a movie or two about it.

My question of the day is how do you teach a child about popularity? How do you explain why the mean people are the ones with all the friends and even though your precious child is trying their very best to be kind to everyone they still end up being the last one picked?

I think this has been the hardest thing for me about parenting. I can't stand to see my children hurting and I want to take the pain away. In most cases, I am capable of fixing it. Bike wreck...I bandage. Nightmare...I cuddle. Sick...I comfort, clean up, and attempt to not vomit all over them. I'm a sympathetic vomiter what can I say. (A trick for this is put Vicks vapor rub on your upper lip then as long as the actual gag sound doesn't make you gag you're golden.) However, you can't protect them from their peers. The peer situation is always going to be an issue and my precious children are going to have to learn to deal with it.

My children are at a camp this week. They go every year, and they love it. My son is really good at sports but he is also painfully shy and doesn't like to speak to people he doesn't know. So, he gets picked last. Now, if the kids would let him play he would probably be one of the first picked every time. In fact, on the playground one year there were an odd number of players and one team had one less. It was my son's team. The boys on my son's team were complaining that they had less and then one of the "popular" boys yelled at them "Yeah, but you have "my son" he's so good he counts for at least 2".

This week I too have had to deal with my own peers. During pick up and drop off when the mom's are chatting about their summer and what not apparently I am not picking up when the people I know are picking up and these moms are not friendly at all. I have tried to speak, but they don't want to talk to me. Who knows what it is as an adult. I could make some educated guesses and all are pretty petty things so I will not go there.

My point is peers are always always always going to play a role in our lives. They will have the capability of making us feel bad about ourselves or as less than. The lesson we need to learn as early on as possible is that we are only responsible for the way we treat others. If others are mean to us the way we decide to react is a flashing sign about our character.

If someone new is standing alone in a crowd do you leave the circle of friends that you are talking to to include them? If someone you don't know comes up to talk to you are you warm and inviting returning the conversation to make the person feel comfortable or are you cold and spit out a quick answer to end the conversation as soon as possible.

I keep telling my son to not be shy, to speak up. It is hard for him. It might be hard for you to, but it will always going to play a role in your life and until you learn to handle it in a way that is positive you are never going to get voted Ms. Congeniality.

Have a great day today people! Talk to a stranger, preferably one that doesn't bite. :)

Do you know what assume means?

So if you do not know the expression about the word assume ask someone else because it is just a smidge inappropriate, but it is extremely accurate.

Why do we always assume the worst? We assume that if someone doesn't talk to us they don't like us. We assume that if someone is staring at us with a horrible look on their face then they hate us. We assume that if someone has not returned our message then obviously they are mad at us for some reason and end up in a horrible state of self loathing and confusion trying to figure out what on earth we have done to make this person so upset with us.

In case your mama forgot to tell you, allow me to say it now...."It ain't all about you!"

Do not assume that the reason someone isn't talking to you is because they don't like you. Let's list a few options. 1. They could be lost in thought. 2. They could really need to go to the bathroom. 3. They may not speak English. 4. They could be blind. 5. They could be shy. 6. They could be wondering why you haven't talked to them. 7. They could be trying to figure out where they know you from. 8. They could be trying to figure out if they owe you money. 9. They could be trying to figure out if you owe them money. 10. That look, as horrible as it might be, could be the natural state of their face. Sad, isn't it.

Now, don't get me wrong. All people are not nice, you are completely right about some people but their mama didn't raise them right either and their mama did a completely horrible job and should have never had children in the first place but that is a completely different blog.

I will give you an example. A not so close friend had requested prayer for herself several times. I sent her a message explaining that I was a good listener and if she ever needed someone to just be an ear I was pretty good at it. Months later I found out that the thing she had been talking about had set the grapevine on fire and everyone was "discussing" her situation. Now, I in all honestly had any idea any of this was going on, but my guess is she assumed I was just trying to get information. Problem is I'm assuming that the reason she isn't talking to me is because she thought I was trying to get the "scoop" from her when in all actuality I was clueless and just wanted to be a friend. All this assuming is making for a very uncomfortable situation.

All you are asked to do is love others as you would love yourself. You don't have to apologize to others for not being like them. You don't have to try to be more like others in order to make yourself better. All you can do is be the best you that you know how to be. Stop trying to be like someone else and be yourself. We need more of you and not so much of that other guy. They are highly overrated and honestly the more interesting person is YOU!!!

Here's Dolly!

So the latest installment in our family summer adventures was last night. Our entire little family, without the dog, traveled downtown to see Dolly Parton in concert. Now, she has not performed in Knoxville in some 25 years so it was pretty exciting.

We had decided to go a little late so our tickets were North Nosebleed but they were fine we were in the same room as Dolly Parton all was good. It was a wonderful concert. Now, I myself am not a typical concert goer so I would just like to put out there the questions that plagued my brain whilst Ms. Dolly was performing.

1. Does the woman in Extreme North Nosebleed think Dolly can hear her? I mean...I can hear her or at least I could the first few times she screamed "9 to 5" in my ear! She started screaming it the very first song and was extremely persistent and overly disgusted with Dolly by the end of the concert. Dolly did finally sing the little diddy but it was the next to last song and to be quite honest either the woman left or she had passed out from screaming so much because when Dolly did finally play it I would have thought the lady would have been at least a little excited. I wouldn't know I refused to turn around. My daughter, however, shot her enough dirty glances for all of us and the man directly behind me cussed her enough to complete the lovely picture.

2. Why do people dress up like the person that is performing? Especially if the performer is the opposite sex from themselves. I don't get it. Do they think they are going to get pulled on stage? Is this the goal? or asked for their autograph? As if someone would mistake the 6 foot tall overweight MAN for Dolly? No, I will never understand this.

3. Who brings a baby to a concert? Okay, who brings a baby to a concert that your seats are in North Nosebleed? The performer is less than an inch tall and could seriously be the 6 foot man dressed up like Dolly lip synching we would never know! To beat it all it was a late concert, it started at 8 and was not over until 11. I myself was feeling to be the horrible parent for keeping my 7 and 9 year old up past bedtime, but a baby? Seriously? The poor thing screamed! It could not be consoled, probably the LOUD music! Some people need to wait to have children until they are capable of not putting themselves first. Which in some peoples cases may never happen. Just sayin'.

4. I'm not sure who they went by to measure how much room each person would need in a seat, but who ever it was needs to eat a few cheeseburgers and take some sort of growth hormone. My 7 year old daughter didn't have enough leg room for goodness sake! I passed a highly overweight man on my way up, it looked as if he seriously was stuck.

All in all it was a wonderful concert, and Dolly is an extremely talented woman playing several instruments and singing beautifully, and I am very glad to be blessed with a fun husband who likes to take us to different and extremely interesting things.

Love one another.

Why is it that we judge people on outwardly aspects instead of inwardly ones? I'm guilty of it too, I'm just curious. A person is judged for the car they drive, neighborhood they live in, clothes they wear, even food they eat. These are all things that could totally be altered easily. It seems however, that things such as personality are way lower on the scale. You can be a completely horrible person but if you are living in the best neighborhood, driving the right car, and wearing all the right things people are going to want to be around you. It reminds me of the story of the prodigal son.

As long as the son was handing out the gifts and throwing the parties people were all about being his friend, but as soon as the money ran out there was no one there to pick him up and be his friend.

Today I want you to assess your scale. What do you judge people on? You can be truthful because you are the only one that is going to know. My challenge to you today is to remember that God wants you to be a fisher of men. He wants you to love others. So today get outside your comfort zone and don't worry so much about impressing people with your appearance or lifestyle but more so impress upon them the love of Christ. This world is not your home, the things of this earth are temporary. Look for ways to show God's love to someone completely different than you today. It might not be easy, but it will at the very least give you something different to talk about at the dinner table tonight.

Have a great day!

Bloom where your planted.

Do you ever look at people around you and think random things like...their house is prettier than mine, or their wardrobe is better than mine, or I am very interested in knowing how exactly they got their hair to do that? Do you then send yourself into a downward spiral of self loathing and jealousy? Okay. Stop it. I know. It's gonna be hard but I say stop it. God made you you, he gave you the gifts he gave you and you alone. If you are incapable of making your hair do that then so be it make your hair do something else. I can guarantee you someone else is looking at you thinking Wow, look at her hair I wish I could make mine do that.

My new expression for my kids is Bloom where you're planted. Whatever your situation is be happy in it and glorify others through it. If your house is small and not decorated to the nines don't be ashamed of your little house be glad you don't have to clean a big one you have a house! If your wardrobe is 5 or 6 outfits that you aren't really happy with get some accessories pieces that make your look different or unique. If your hair is less than desirable either get it cut or learn that scarves, headbands and hats can be your friend.

My point is I just spent 15 min of my morning looking at the birthday party pictures of someone I don't even know being jealous of a woman I have never even met because I think she has it all together. She may not. Her husband might be a jerk, she might have had her house professionally cleaned 10 min before the party and it will go back to "kid normal" 15 min after the party. You just never know. Do not drown yourself in the want for someone else's circumstance. Be glorified in your own and make it work for you.

God gave you special gifts that he didn't give to anyone else. If you spend all your time trying to be better than someone else at them being themselves then who is going to be you? Have a great Monday!