Christmas Music

I have this thing about Christmas music. I am either in the mood or NOT. I can be in the mall and hear "I'll be home for Christmas" and want to run crying from the store. My heart just can't take it some days. My twin sister has sent me a text message when she has heard the same song and we both will start crying when we hear it because it's both our favorite Christmas song - it's a "twin" thing.

This holiday season I was at the Galleria mall(on one of my adventures out) and there was this "Hawiian" Christmas song and I laughed outloud when I heard it in the store the first time because it seemed so odd. Needless to say, I have now heard it three times. Today I was looking for a sport coat for Nick for the Christmas party and just about to go into Sears and behold there was "the song" coming over the loud speaker. I laughed again to myself. If I had had a hoola skirt I could have done a dance. Now that would have been a sight for sore eyes. People would have been running screaming from the stores! Oh and Aloha and Merry Christmas by the way!

It is the holidays that bring out the best and the worst in people I think. What we put ourselves through to "make the holidays" work. It is a very tiring and often reflective time for me.

I think of my previous post about the pieces of puzzles that don't fit. Mashing peoples busy lives and personalities into rooms and situations over the holidays is like putting those pieces down and forcing them into a puzzle. Is this what the craziness is all about? I ponder the simpleness that used to be in our lives, but back in the day, was the business of then just a different magnitude than it is now. And why do we strive so hard to "make all the pieces fit", when we don't have the shapes to fit in the holes we think they should place neatly in.

Age maybe changes your perspective on all of it. The excitement of a child, to the sense of forcing ourselves to enjoy what we need to take notice of.

I sat today at the dinner table when the kids were eating and I soaked in the moment of the tiny faces enjoying their spaghetti. The simple part of me yearns for that part of my life. Where is that piece of the puzzle? Has that piece been misplaced?

To Pieces

I find that I am always having to be busy. I just cannot sit idle. Even when we watch TV at night, I must be doing something. Nick is just happy to be chillin but although I can sit, I believe it's the ADD undiagnosed in me that just runs the motor beyond it's limit.

I love putting puzzles together. It requires alot of concentration and there is something about it that sooths the savage beast. I was pondering the other night why I can sit and put a puzzle together with my mind racing. I guess it's kinda like when I sew, it's my stress reliever. I love to see things come together. With sewing I am creating and with a puzzle, I am creating too.

The initial part of getting the border set is the trick. I have a method to doing it and I will usually then hit a wall, but once I start to see the big picture coming along, it's exciting and of course the finished product. Much like sewing. I have to often get up, walk away and come back but it's always fun to pick it back up again.

I am picky with what puzzles I chose to put together. They have to "hit" me just right in the store before I will buy it. It took me 3 stores to finally pick the one I just finished doing. Why, who knows, maybe its the time in my life when I am searching for the pieces of life to fall into place, my job, my purpose, the intricate pieces that have been hangin out there like that one piece that I insist will fit in that place when it really belongs somewhere totally different.

WHAT IN THE WORLD

I love when the "blog" moment arrives! And it came right at the end of our workout at the fitness center at the apartment complex tonight.

Nick was patiently waiting on me to finish my 20 minutes on the stationary bike and I noticed that this guy on the treadmill ahead and over to the right (he was oriental) was cookin at a good clip and suddenly did these hand gestures that was something right out of a kung fu movie. He did it briefly and then stopped all the while maintaining his clip on the treadmill.

I guess I must have been tired but it struck my funnybone and when he did it the second and third time, I had to keep from laughing right out loud. My mind instantly went to the coincidence of me not being able to order a favorite green tea we were introduced to while we were in PA in October because the website was all in a foreign language.

The minute Nick and I got in the car, I said - soooo, what did you think of that little scene in there? He said, well maybe it's an oriental work-out of some sort. I just busted out laughin and said, I thought it was a green tea overload! (Guess you had to be there.)

Clock

In our home in GA we had a clock on the mantel and then the microwave in the kitchen that we could see from the couch to always tell what time it was at any given moment. The other night we were watchin TV and I mentioned to Nick that here in the apartment, we did not have any clock in the room which was odd.

The kitchen to the apartment sits behind the wall where the TV is and the microwave is no longer in view. Nick said - OH OH OH, I am sure you will "Fix" the problem we are having of no clock and I am sure "it will cost us" "something". We laughed because I have been the queen of finding all of the shopping centers since moving here and not working yet!

I was in one of "my fiesty moods" the other night and he had several meetings after work so I decided to "fix" the problem. I hoisted the microwave off the counter, moved the pictures around and hoisted it up on top the TV stand.

I sat quietly in wait of his return.

And his reaction.

At first, he said "no, you're not serious, are you?" I smiled and chuckled. (My pic didn't come out clear and I already asked him to put it back cause man for a small appliance, it was heavy and I couldn't ask him to put it back up on the TV stand so I could retake the pic- I think you get the idea though, fuzzy pic and all).

Orphan Concert

We had the opportunity to go to a concert that was put on to benefit orphan adoption and encourage orphan adoption at our church today. It was a live broadcast and the place was packed out. Don and Diane went with us and we got there early to get the good seats. There were lots of little kids that were from different nations that had been adopted there. We sat behind this adorable little Chinese 2 year old that was precious and next to two little kids from Ethiopia. The parents all seemed pretty excited about the program and event. Steven Curtis Chapman, who runs an organization that helps support adoption of orphans was there to sing several songs along with several other speakers.

Listening to Steven sing and knowing his story of having lost one of his adoptive daughters was very moving. I told Nick tonight on the way home that his music had a different sense of purpose. When he talked about his loss, he was very moving. I was determined when I got there that there would be no tears, well that didn't happen.

He told about his tucking his girls into bed and because he was in a hurry, he got angry and ended up writing a song named Cinderella. It was beautiful.

Nick asked me out of the blue if we needed to take a year and pray about becoming parents of an orphan. "Where was I" after the concert. Wow, that's a really big question, much less a step. I guess I walked away with a sense of still being in the place in my life that I don't know what God has for me right now. Somedays I am afraid, just getting beyond coffee at 8 a.m. and others, I marvel at the fact that I can enjoy the cup and have no where to be. And then there are others when I am excited to be heading to Walmart to buy 100 calorie cupcakes!

I have a sign in my bathroom, my daughter gave me that says "Be still and know that I am God." These past few months, God has been teaching me to do just that. It's been a difficult thing for me to do. It comes at a time in my life when the cribs are gone, the toys are put up and my resume' is full.

Our Visit

I finally got the new cord for the camera that that cat chewed up so I could upload the pictures I took while we were in PA a couple weekends ago. I was fortunate enough to be at the apartment when it came there so I could tote it back to GA where the camera was. This moving stuff is crazy!

Anyway, these are pictures of our friends Paul and Les whom we met just prior to Robbie's death. He was our pastor and he never got to meet Robbie personally but was with us throughout the who time when we buried him. He did his funeral and it was the first funeral he had ever done for a child. It was shortly after Robbie's funeral that he had to perform another one for a young girl who died of a heart defect and then another for a couple who's baby was born without it's head being completely formed on the top.

We had not seen P & L for 17 years. We were able to go motorcycle riding with them (they loaned us their 2nd one) and we stayed with them while we were there.

The other pictures are of course Robbie's site. We had not been there in 17 years either. Both Nick and I were so glad to see how well the cemetery is kept up by the city of Sellersville. We thought that seeing his grave would be very difficult but it actually was more difficult going back to the church where we had so many people come to say their goodbye's and to be with us during his funeral service.

All of his toys/trinkets that had been put there on his site were gone so we went and got a little tractor and a pumpkin to put there. It is a comfort to know that although his little body is in the ground, we will see him again in Glory!