Clean out those buckets

Where do you get your inspiration from?  I thought of this yesterday as I spoke with an office co-worker.  She was having a day of the blues and instantly without even thinking  I began to encourage her with words that were not of my own.  I know this because I am always at a loss for words.  But I have one thing that I am proud of. I have a heart that is bigger than my brain.  I have found that if someone is hurting I also hurt with them.  And from the moment I see someone in pain my only goal is to find a way to reach down and lift them up out of misery. Do I always achieve my goal.  Of course not.  It would be silly of me to think that I have a magic wand that I can just wave and make everything ok again.  But rather I hit the mark or miss it by a long shot I know that the person in need leaves the table feeling better than they did when they arrived.  Some times I think we need to crawl through the mud and get a little dirty before we can look back and see that a little dirt never hurt anyone.  No one likes to be sad or feel pain.  But I think that if we can’t climb the mountains we can’t appreciate the view from the top.  I have always said that you can’t have a testimony until we first have a test.  So that makes me think why then do we have to be put through the tests of life.  I know that God will not put any more on us than we can handle.  Very often I remind God of this when I feel like my bucket is full and running over, as if God does not know what is in there already.  And maybe my testimony is an essential key to someone else who’s bucket already over flowed and needs to know that there is a way to get through it.  Hey my bucket already broke but God sent me an even bigger bucket and he will do the same for you.  I think we often forget that we are all in this together, we all are dealing with the same problems.  No one is exempt from problems but isn’t it great to know that he sent his son to pay a debt that he didn’t owe for a debt we could never pay.  I don’t know about you, but just that alone makes me feel like all that junk I’m carrying around in my bucket isn’t that big a deal.  Lets all look through our buckets today because I’m most sure we are holding on to stuff that we can just toss out. 

 

Blessings till I post again.

Happy Saturday

I’m sitting here this morning with a cup of my favorite crème brulee coffee as my oldest cat is settling in for her nap. It’s a morning ritual that you can set a clock by.  My alarm goes off at 4am (yes even on the weekends) and I get up only to be greeted by our youngest cat who has only been awake for seconds, but that does not stop the warm reception that you receive.  She is always so happy to see you and she lets you know it too.  After I finally get settled in to my office chair Olivia takes her cue to finally go to bed and Ginger is ready to find out just how many adventures she can have, how many new games she can come up with.  Ginger has only been with us about a year and a half but this cat is always coming up with new games.  It’s funny how they both have such different personalities.  We call Olivia and old prude and let me tell you, it fits her well.  The only time Olivia will be lovey dovey is when she wants something from you, other than that you are pretty much in her way and not to be dealt with.  Ginger on the other hand Loves attention and just lives to make you smile.  Most days I like to think I am having a Ginger day, but lets be real here, we all know that we can have Olivia days too.  I try to be in a great mood 100% of the time, and I know that bar is set pretty high, but I have to give Thanks to God, because I have a very good track record for hitting that bar 90% of the time. 

 

This is the part of the day where I would be looking at weather.com to see how cold it’s gonna get today, but looking at my atomic clock its 72.2 in my office and 2.9 outside, I think I’m just gonna sip some more coffee, be thankful I am warm and motivate myself to get on with my day.

 

Blessings till I post again.

My first Blog of 2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR

With each new year people begin to make new year resolutions and according to the internet only 12% of resolutions are kept/met and here are some interesting facts from one website I visited.

Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they set small, measurable goals (lose a pound a week, rather than a vague "lose weight"). Women succeeded 10% more often when they made their goals public and enlisted help from friends.

 

Here are the top 5 New Years resolutions I found on the internet.  Most seem to be the same from year to year.

5. Be a Yes man (Based on some movie I have not seen)

4. Break the Habit

3. Spend more time with loved ones

2. Tame the bulge

1. Go Back to School.

 

Number one did surprise me, not that I am surprised that people want to go back to school, just that it was the number one resolution.  I have to think that this study was a bit skewed because at the end of the article there was a bunch of information and prices for going back to school. But I have to think that numbers 2 – 4 are very accurate because of all the websites I visited they were always on the list and mostly in the top 5. 

Here are the top 5 Children New Year resolutions.

5. Have Fun

4. Work Hard

3. Reach your Dream

2. Give Back

1. Appreciate Today

I am not sure if children really complied this list or not, but if so I think we can really learn a lot from them.  Instead of setting goals aimed mostly at ourselves they set goals that should be in our top 5 things to do not in a year but daily.  I really like number one Appreciate today.  I think I achieve that 90% of the time.  I am very positive and tend to see the glass as running over for most parts and this does tend to drive most people around me crazy because true there isn’t always gold at the end of that rainbow but that does not stop me from pointing out the good in the bad.  But yes like every body else in this crazy world I do have my days where that gold can be on both ends of the rainbow and I would not give a hoot.  But thank God those days are very FEW and FAAAAAAR Between.  Any day that I can get out of bed and kiss my beautiful wife and tell her I love her is the best day of my life.  No matter how good or bad things go I can always be grateful that the lord sent me the best gift that I have and will ever have.  The love and patient of my wife.  I’ve said it before and so I’ll say it again.  Life is good  (NAAA GREAT!!!!!)

Blessings till I post again.

Merry Christmas!!!

What a wonderful Morning,  The snow covered ground. My 2 cats have shared their love with me and have gone back to bed dreaming about who knows what.  I’m eager to see what Christmas 2010 has in store for me today.  I have already started my morning out with my usual routines. Exercise, Internet, Coffee.  So anything else that can be added to this day is just an added bonus.  I love days like that, Where you get that feeling of accomplishment out of the way before the rest of the world has a chance to even get their head’s off their pillows.  Then you find yourself sitting around saying now what?  Oh I see dust better get that cleaned up.  Opps I see a spot on the counter top I must have missed get out that wash cloth.  Wonder if there is any Laundry to be done?  Yep sure enough.  By the time you finally do something that is foreign to me and sit down you think ok so now it’s 7am, most of the world is up now and I’m still trying to find things to do.  So instead of looking for things to do I’ll just sit here and delete some old emails. Maybe, just maybe watch some TV and just think about how blessed my life is.  How lucky I am that God gave me such a wonder wife. Such a great job, and a family that thinks I’m just as weird as I think they are.  Life is so good, and just think after we reach that finish line IT GETS BETTER!

Blessings till I post again.

If that Isn’t Love

He left the splendor of Heaven, Knowing his destiny. Those 2 lines from probably my favorite gospel song always makes me ponder just how important my life is to God.  The Bible and many of my favorite Gospel songs are full of indications that God is just crazy in love with us.  Just to think that when he came to earth he knew his destiny was to give up his life to pave the way to salvation.  Paying the price for a guilty sinner like me.  I try to understand how anyone could love me that much that he would be willing to die for my sins.  How many times have we looked in the mirror and placed judgment on ourselves saying such hurtful things like you are ugly, you don’t deserve to be loved.  I’m sure the list goes on and on.  You could probably add more to my list I am sure we have all been there.  But the truth of the matter is that it does not matter what we think.  God the creator made you and me and he decides what we are worth.  We don’t get a vote.  I was listening to someone on TV last night and they said something to the fact that he is the potter and we are the clay.  The pot does not get to tell the potter what the pot is worth.  The potter tells the pot what it is worth.  How true is that and just think how many times we try to put a price on our life.  Sometimes we think we are the best thing since sliced bread and other times we are beating ourselves up.  I have never been a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, but I think I will make a New Life Resolution.  I want to stop putting worth on my life and accept that Jesus loves me so much and I am priceless.  How rude of me to try to insult what the Lord has made.  I know that God does not make Junk and he see’s more in me that I will ever see in myself.  So Today when you look in the mirror don’t insult the potter,  You compliment that clay and thank God that he picked that mud up and made someone in his own likeness. 

to end where I began… It Had to be Love.

 

Blessings till I post again.

What are you Thinking.

I never know what I am going to write about until I sit down and my fingers start hitting the keys.  Much like my ever day life.  I never know what I am thinking until I hear the words coming out of my mouth.  Many times Sheila will say to me what are you thinking about. And like many men I say oh nothing.  If only she knew how true that is.  Ok there may be a rare occasion where I actually have a thought running through my brain but that’s not very often.  The wheels are spinning but the hamster’s dead.  LOL.    But seriously, many times I don’t have anything on my mind.  I come from a long line of what I call speak thinkers.  My Mother suffers from this much worse than I.  Many times after I have said something, even I say to myself “wow that made no sense”.  But I guess that is just what makes me who I am.  I wish I were a lot more like my Dad. He runs a thought carefully through his brain, really giving it as much thought as any one person can.  Once he speaks his thoughts they actually make sense (most of the time). One thing I do get from my Dad is being quiet.  I love to listen to what people are saying.  Often times I say to myself what the heck?  Did that person just say that?  Did they mean it?  Do they have any idea what they are saying?  But then it occurs to me that maybe they are just speak thinking and right now they are saying to themselves, What the heck did I Just say?

 

But I guess I do possess another quality that the other speak thinkers out there may or may not do.  I go sailing down memory lane.  I think I do that when there is nothing good playing on my brain so my body goes into autopilot and plays and oldie but goodie memory.  Sure it may not be Lucy and Ethyl stuffing Chocolates in their mouth, Or Andy and Barney trying to catch someone running an illegal still. But memories are far more valuable than silver or gold.  They are not something you can buy or sell but they are priceless.

Grateful

I woke up this morning with an attitude of just being grateful.  Yes I woke up with a headache and a runny nose, But thank God I am alive.  Many times I forget to be grateful for all the blessings in my life.  And then you wake up feeling miserable and that’s when you sit down, get quiet and reflect on the more important things in life.  If I had woke up feeling fine this morning I would have just went about my normal morning routines and not given another thought about being grateful.  So I’m thankful this morning that I woke up feeling yucky.  I probably am the last person you would expect to be thankful to be feeling miserable. But I know that God sometimes has to hit me on the back of the head and say SIT DOWN, BE STILL and let me take the wheel.   See we all know that we have to have God in our life and we know that we can’t do anything without him.  But sometimes we get to comfortable and set in our ways that we slowly start doing it on our own and before you know it we are in over our head.  But the good news is that when we get in to deep and we know we can’t dig our way out.  God is standing on the side line with his arm stretched out towards us.  And he does not scold us for messing up.  He just wraps us in his arms and smothers us with his love.  So lord, I thank you this morning for my headache and stuffy nose.  We had a good morning.

 

Blessings till I post again.

much to do about nothing

Well it has been a while since I have posted.  Sheila and I have been busy doing a facelift to our office.  I am back at my work office for a month and we thought it would be a great time to get new carpet and paint the room while we were at it.  Other than that I have been going through stuff that we don’t need any longer and trying to get some more organized.  The next project I need to tackle is covering the strawberries before they come in.  The birds are already trying to steak a claim at them.

 

Blessings till I post again.

Enter Spring

I am so excited that Spring has arrived.  I am so ready to be out side working in the yard once again.  My mind is so full of ideas that I know will not come to pass because I will either forget or something else will come along.  but that’s just the way I am.  So full of intentions, hopes, dreams.  But so little time to act on them.   Now I am not saying I am a slacker and never accomplish anything.  I think my life is pretty well balanced for the most part.  I have many flaws just like the next guy. I just hope that at the end of the day I did my part to bring happiness to at least one life. Helped to put a smile on one face.  Just make a difference.  I’m 35 years old now but one thing that has never changed in my life is that I want to make a difference. 

 

Blessings till I post again.

Seems Like Yesterday.

Wow, It seems like only yesterday that we moved into our house we live in now.  We have been here 7 years now and so much has changed.  The picture above was taken shortly after we moved in.  We had 5 blowers working the yard that year.  Sheila’s Dad pushed the issue for us to get a riding lawn mower with a bagger on it.  It has made our life so much easier.  What took 5 people to do now takes 1 person to do.  Sheila and I will take turns riding the mower while the other person handles the task of removing the bags to empty.  So I guess it is a 2 person job, if you want to make the task go faster.  I look back now and wonder how we were so blessed to have a family that cared so much about us to jump in and lend a hand.  They sure did not have to and we did not ask for the help.  But the help was so much appreciated.  I know that a lot of families would not have helped the kido’s out as much as our’s has. That just gives us so much more to be thankful for.   The life lessons that it taught us will not go by the wayside.  When we are blessed to have children of our own I will step up to the plate and make sure they have every chance to have long lasting memories just like the photo above.

 

Blessings till I post again.

Nice Weather

I’m so thankful for the nice weather that we have had for the past few days.  I’ve felt kind of crummy with sinus junk going on, but regardless it has been so beautiful.  

I was going through some of our pictures and found this one of me and Sheila from about 5 years ago.

 

Blessings till I post again.

Semi Lazy Day

I got up at 3:40 this morning and could not fall back to sleep. I got up and surfed the web for a while and then took a hot bath. I find it helps me to take a hot bath before I lay down and it usually does the trick. So at 6:58am I got back to bed and I slept until 9:40. I have not slept that late in I can not tell you how long. So I talked Sheila into going to Waffle House. The last time I had waffle house was on Sept 18th 2009. So I am past due for my waffle fix. After that we ran a few places and got back home. Before I knew it the time was after 2:00. Man where did the day go? They say time flys when you are having fun. Well sometimes it does when you are not too. Sometimes you get so busy doing a bunch of nothing that your whole day just slips right by you. I did get a chance today to lay down and take a much needed afternoon nap. Ginger never missing a chance to curl up with someone, nearly beat me to the bed. Olivia came in and saw that Ginger had beat her, so she left. After some time had passed Olivia came back to see if Ginger was still on her turf. Well she was, but she was fast asleep in her bed by now. So Olivia snuck in bed with me and laid next to me and fell asleep. They crack me up, They are just like 2 kids who both want our attention at ALL TIMES. But we love them. I can't wait till we do have children of our own. I plan on spoiling them rotten.

Blessings till I post again.

Good Week

Its rare in this day to be able to sit at my desk and say that I had a wonderful week. I was in a good mmod every day for an entire week. I wont say that it was all peaches and cream. I had moments of time that were hard to digest. But we all have those moments. Even in the moments I was still able to stay positive and enjoy my week. I have been working so much overtime and though the money is good, it does drain your mental and physical being. I am sure that I have not been a picnic to be around every waking min. I just pray for more good weeks than bad, more good moments than bad and more positive thinking. I pray the same for all my family, friends and even those people who may not like me.

Blessings till I post again.

Wal-Mart

We went to Wal-Mart tonight. It's been some time since we have been to wally world. But I was not let down at all. The number of rude and clueless people that seem to flock to walmart are still shopping there. Where do these people hide? I never run in to the same class of people at other stores. I will say that over the past few years I have encountered more than my fair share of rude shoppers. But am I missing something? Is there a pre-requisite to shop at walmart that you have to be an aggressive and self centered shopper? I guess this is just one of the mysteries of life that I will never understand.

We did find the yogurt pretzels that I have been looking for at other stores with no success. Having known the way that walmart is good at advertising one price only to be scanned another price I did a smart thing. My pretzels were on sale for 2.00 and I scanned them at the convient self scanner located miles apart in the store. And they rang up 2.78. So I went back and took a picture of display showing 2 bucks and when we checked out I handed my phone to the clerk and she was a bit surprised that I had thought ahead and had the info she needed to complete the transaction. No need to send earl to the back 40 to confim that I was not lying to get my product 78 cents cheaper. Gotta love the camera feature on cell phones.

Blessings till I post again.

Stuff

It was a very good day today. We had a guest speaker at Church and he was very informative. Everything about todays service made me realize just how blessed that I am. I thank God every day for all of the blessings that he has given to me and my wife. But tonight I am even more aware of the blessings that I have. Every breath that I take is a blessing. Waking up in the morning is a blessing. No matter what stuff is going on in my life there are millions of people going to bed dealing with harder stuff that I am dealing with. Praise God that I have stuff to struggle with. Since I was a child I have always been told that God will never put more on me than I can handle. On the days that go by smoothly I believe it. On the days that don't I try to believe it. I know in my mind that it is true but the enemy trys to convince me that it is not. But at the end of the day when the dust settles and I look at the big picture, I see that God was there with me and he helped me to deal with stuff. He brought me through stuff and he is ready to help me deal with tomorrows stuff to. I've said many times before and I'll say many times again that the song Through it all is probably one of my most favorite songs. Because I believe and live by the verse. " I thank him for the mountains, I thank him for the valleys, and I thank him for the storms he's brought me through, For if i never had a problem, I would not know that he could solve them, I would not know what faith in god could do" Lord... Thank you for STUFF.

Blessings till I post again.

Happy New Year

I started the new year off by going to my mother in law's house this morning and Installed the under the cabinet radio that we got her for Christmas. After we got the old one down (complete with cassette player) it took me all of 10 mins to install. I was able to use the new craftsman drill I got on Black Friday. After that we went home and I installed a new door knob on our pantry that we bought about 2 weeks ago. Keeping the momentum I told Sheila to go to Home Depot and get that Ceiling fan that we spotted right before Christmas. I told her while she was gone I would get the old fan down and tonight we would have that new fan up. So I did just that. Start to finish I did the whole job in 1 hour and 5 mins. I really impressed myself today. 5 years ago I would not have even attempted to pick up a screw driver. Well unless I was handing it off to someone.

I have not mentioned my constant struggle with my weight issue's lately. I've tried to avoid talking so much about it, but I will say that I have been following the doctors orders and I have gained 7 lbs so far. I still have 5 more to go and I will get there. It's been hard to not run to my bike and ride like a crazy man when i see the scale go up. But I think 7 lbs is a major accomplishment on my part and I thnik that I might be on the right track now.

Blessings till I post again.

Christmas

Wow, Just a few days away from Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of the year. I have not had much of a chance to really enjoy it though. I have been working so much over time because of Annual Enrollment. But That should be slowing down in a few weeks. Then might life will get back to normal. Today is the 1st Saturday I have had off in a while. But I have to work tomorrow so I am gonna enjoy my day off today. Some how in the midst of all this over time we were able to put up 5 Christmas trees and some neat decorations for the house that we have collected over the years. The cats have had a ball playing with the tree, and never seem to tire at hearing us yell at them to get out of the tree. I sound like a broken record at times, and they just look at me as if to say "as soon as you leave the room, I'm going back in the tree anyway. Why are you wasting your breath?" They are so funny. I tell Sheila all the time how lucky we are that they allow us to live here. I wouldn't trade them for the world though. Until we are blessed with children of our own, they are all we have. So I will continually be thankful for the joy that they have brought to our lives. I wish every one of you a very happy and blessed Christmas.

Blessings till I post again.

Black Friday

Once again time has slipped by without me posting. So here is the latest and greatest. Ok maybe greatest is a strong word.

This Black Friday there were a few items that I wanted so I decided to take my chances and head out early to get the good deals. Of course they were not all in the same place, so I had to have a game plan. I got up at 3am and picked up my mom and nephew. Stop one was Sears. We got in line at 3:50 just 10 mins before the store opened. At 4:00 on the dot the doors opened and the line quickly moved into the store. I was a bit surprised becasue Sears actually had their act together. We walked in the door and picked up the 19.2 volt cordless drill for 39.99 that I wanted and proceded to the register. WOW that was easy (shamless staples plug) Our next stop was Target who opened at 5 am. By the time we got to Target it was 4:55 am, and the crowd was wrapped around the building. We had to park in a medical plaza behind Target and walk over. Mom thought I was nuts and she said I would never get what I wanted. Never being one to listen very well I went in anyway. I headed back to the Christmas dept, where I was after a box set of Christmas trees for the front porch. You get 2 3 foot trees, 1 garland and 1 wreath. Well I got back there and true enough they were all gone. I stood there for a moment just hoping that maybe I was wrong and just didn't see them. When out of no where a Target employee pushing a skid of trees comes over. YEAAAAA they had more. I grabbed my box (which I think weighs about as much as I do) and hurried over to the mens clothing dept where I was after my 14.99 microfiber robe. Naturally they had about 60 of them. I figured no one was after that bargin but me. Well me and one other guy who like me could no decide what color to get. So Black Friday was good to me this year.

On top of all that Sheila and Her Mom went to staples (you would think I work for staples) They had laptops for 399.99 and Adah wanted to get one so she could finally get hooked up to the internet. We were not sure if they would get any or not. They walked into line and was there about 30 seconds when an employee stepped outside to hand out vouchers for the laptops. They got one and was able to sit in a warm car until the store opened. Everyone got the bargins they were hunting. But boy was I dragging for the rest of the day. Emmanuel had never experienced anything like this. I asked him if he would do it again and he said. Heck yeah I had a blast. Lets do it again next year.

Blessings till I post again

Past due blogging

Its been quite a while since I blogged and thought it was finally due.

This past week has been a blur for me. Mon - Thur I was averaging 2 1/2 hours of sleep each night because I was so congested. Every time I tried to sleep I was coughing my head off and had to end up getting up. Thus spending way to much time on facebook. I guess I was making up for the several months I neglected it.

Sheila and I went to get our physicals on Thursday so we can get the home study update on our adoption. While we were there my doctor got onto me about my weight. She said I HAVE to gain 12 pounds. I'm not gonna say I am thrilled to have to do this, but I have been told by most everyone I know that I look to thin. Being a man who once weighed 300 lbs it is hard for me to get a grasp on all this. I promised my doctor that I would do what she says and I also promised Sheila the same. It's not been easy to eat more food and not want to run down to my bike to burn off the caloris, but so far I have been good. Thursday and Friday I let myself finally enjoy eating what most would consider normal meals for the first time in about 3 years. I know its probably gonna take a few weeks or maybe a month to accomplish, but as of this morning my weight is up 1.5 lbs So I can honestly say that I have made attempts on my part to do what my doctor said. And I have the scale to back me up as well.

Blessings till I post again.

I miss you summer

For the past 2 weeks I have been in training at national city tower. My work asked for voulenteers to help out with a bail out project. I stepped up to the plate and offered my assistance. Which means for 6 weeks I'll be working in the office. The first week the weather was fairly nice. But last week I became quickly aware that maybe I was not quite ready to deal with the now freezing weather. I would enjoy this bail out training a lot more if I had some heat. I'm doing my best to tough it out. I am now in week 3 of the 6 weeks so I am half way there. Actually since today is Thursday I am really past the half way mark. I'm not sure what happened to fall this year. I think it fell (Oh what a terrible joke) but thats the best I can do at 4 am with limited sleep. I feel some r&r coming on this weekend. Oh who am I kidding, not even I believe for a second that I could sit still long enough to rest.

Blessings till I post again.