All About The Little Things

"The world may change every day, but don't ever let

the world change who you are inside."

-- A.S.

"Cheer up. You're too stressed to be blessed.

Wait! That's not what I meant."

-- Adrienne

"Super-fantastical."

... about everything.

-- M.D.

"Bep, I pretty much love you."

-- Joshy Woshy

"You're a trip, okay?"

-- M. Karr

"Idiot. Why do you say things like that?!"

-- The college bound boy

"Let's cram into the car and have a good cry, you guys!"

-- Mackenzie

"God is not deaf, and his arms are never short."

-- Kwon

"You WERE my friend, but I just don't know."

-- Carolyn

"Will you eskimo kiss me when you

get married, baby?"

-- The lady who loves me just cuz.

"There's a wild side to you. I know there is!"

-- The world's most amazing boss.

"You forgot the outside trash, genius.

Are you serious?!!"

-- Gribble

"You're dumb. I'm just faking it; I gotta fit in with this family."

-- Kenna

"Take a deep breath, and just relax ... "

-- A.S.

"You got jokes. Yeah, you got jokes." 

-- Devante

"Oh, is that right?"

-- MWK

"Don't make me hurt you!"

-- J. Brown

"We're stronger here together, than we could ever be alone."

-- Buble

"You make me smile. Just smile ... yeah."

"You sound like a bomb about to go off, with
that heart monitor beeping like that."
-- Lana

* There's a lot more, maybe I'll post them someday. *

-- smiles

Hold On, I Promise It'll Be Alright

This week? Mucho Craziness.

I can't tell you how many twists and turns the past five days of my life has had; some very unexpected. But I'm sitting here in my PJs in the middle of the day, Michael Buble pumping through my headphones and just letting it run deep into my soul like something good. Music ... ah, music has healing powers. * smiles *

Thursday found me sitting cross legged in a waiting room full of old people giving me funny looks, which I ignored as I flipped mindlessly through a Parenting Magazine. I found this kind of ironic, since the OBGYN office was about a 1/2 a mile up the road. I didn't really see the point of having Mommy Magazines in the Cardio-Vascular center, but it was more interesting than people watching for once.

Thirty minutes later, my brain was racing to decipher just what the doctor was saying. He was super nice, which won him points. We could overlook the fact that I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but I hear Indian people make super-terrific doctors so yeah, we overlook the fact that I had to work twice as hard at the whole comprehension thing. * winks *

An hour later, a nurse was hooking me up to a heart monitor. Aka my nemesis for the next two weeks, the delight of friends watching me "Eww! Oww. Gosh. Golly!" my way through the last week. She pulled this little booklet out and started explaining how it worked. I smiled up at her and said, "Yeah? It's just like the last one almost."

Secretly, I'm a pro at working these things now. It's all in a days work, ya'll. Stick it on, listen to it beep every other minute or so and holler bloody murder when you pull the little stickers off. * smiles *

My coworkers are suddenly big fans of randomly poking me in my side and then freaking out when they accidently pull one of the cords. This has been the source of many many  laughs in the past two days. Yeah, Carolyn? Haha.

The biggest thing I've come away from this week is, friends are super important. They love and encourage you and help you through all your most dificult days. But more importantly, YOU have to be there for THEM when their life has suddenly turned upside down and they don't know where else to turn.

In so saying, I've got some of the best God ever made! * much love & hugs *

On a side note, the world might end tonight. Did you hear that? I wouldn't do much of anything different, but it's made me think about it quite alot. Because of that, Mackenzie and I discussed Theology and end times last night for a good little while at work. It was a pretty amazing conversation. Mackenzie and I are Baptist and Charles is Non-Denominational so it was really interesting to discuss our views and beliefs.

The guys wanted to go to Keglers after work, drink sodas randomly and bowl our fingers off which I might have done if the world was gonna end. But the family was waiting up and as much as people are totally freaking out about this whole thing, I'm pretty confident time will keep ticking for awhile. * smiles *

Real Solid Stuff

Sometimes it feels like a big IDK is stamped in Bold Letters on everything I do. Life is just overwhelming right now, which is a big reason why I haven't blogged very much.

At times it feels like all this crazy stuff is a big tidal wave crashing over my head and I'm just drowning. But I'm telling myself that it won't be like this forever and someday I'll look back and think of how I wasted these days overlooking the little things that bring smiles and just stressing out, sweating the small stuff.

So there's a shot of honesty, because I know you love it when I'm insanely honest and all. * winks *

We have the ABC quartet at our church tonight, so my sister and I drove over to the lake to grab Pizza for dinner. Because well, Pizza is just a real good thing and I haven't met a person yet who didn't absolutely adore the stuff. So I run in to Papa Johns and pay for the pizzas and the guy brings over this huge stack of pizzas and I'm thinking, "Oh. My. Lanta. Are you even kidding me?"

The guy sets the pizza on the countertop and grins at me. "Must be havin' a wicked party tonight, yeahhhh?"

I smile weakly | oddly and nod. "Yeah, some party ..."

God, I didn't just lie. I'm just flippin' over all these pizzas, my mama's got me trippin.

So he helps me carry Pizza Overload out to the PT where my sister is sitting pretty behind the wheel. She exchanges glances with Pizza guy before he heads inside. We're thinkin he probably would love an invitation but we're laughing because if only he knew ... yeah man, you can come to our little partaaaay. * winks *

Pizza secure, I slide into the passenger seat and buckle up. We pull out with zero problems, then ... not 3 miles down the road, we take a left turn and pizza boxes give up the ghost and sprout wings. I kid ... sort of.

I unbuckle, not freaking out or anything at all 'cause we've only got a bunch of hungry people at our house dreaming about yummy round stuff in square boxes. I'm thinking how in the world???

So I remain unbuckled -- please don't tell the cops, cause you love me and know I would look less than fantastic behind bars and I'm basically still being honest here -- half in my seat and half in the back seat holding all pizza boxes and my cellphone.

It suddenly occurs to me that it's probably not only illegal to be unbuckled, but to not exactly be in my seat when my sister is driving. So I make like laffy taffy here and hold said pizza boxes in place while still watching where my sister's going and watching the spedometer, etc.

And btw, it's also raining buckets outside and I'm just loving that fact so much that I just want to grab my rainboots and get all soaky wet and everything. * smiles *

He Ain't Comin' Back, No He Aint.

I'm cleaning the dining room yesterday and this lady walks up to the condiment bar mumbling away. I ignore her for awhile, and then she looks at me kind of funny so I do a quick double-take and think, "Oh my lanta! Was she talking to me the whole time?"

So I'm on the verge of feeling like an idiot when I decide to ask her how she's doing today. She shakes her head and says, "Well ... I'm terrible. My husband doesn't understand me, never has. Wish I'd never married the old bag."

Well this is where I get off, ya'll. I go from 60 to 2 in three seconds, dead halt style. "God, really? Why do I always open my mouth with all the wrong people, huh?" The only choice I have now is say something, anything ... but it had better be good.

"Oh? Well I'm sorry to hear you're having a rough day." Idiot. That would be the WRONG thing to say -- mentally smacking my forehead here like duhhhh.

"Well I should've married Tony. He's a real fine man, if you know what I mean. Played the banjo down at the Paramount Theatre, ya know. Up on the stage he did." She began naming all these songs he could play, restating what a good looking man he was.

Out of curiosity, I wondered aloud ... "So you didn't marry Tony, hmm?"

She turned around from randomly digging through the ketchup and glared at me. "No! His (bleep) father had him cremated, so it's not like he's coming back to life."

I inwardly gasped, and had another little talk with God like I sometimes do. "Dear God, why? What am I gonna say to that? This woman's a real nutcase, if you know what I mean."

Thankfully, she continued. "And the man I got now never does anything, doesn't work ..."

"Well at least you love him right? That always helps, I'm sure." Another idiotic thing to say apparently, because I really had no idea what she was going to say next ..

"Oh heck no. I don't love anybody no more, loving's dumb. Specially with this guy I've got now, just a waste of time it is."

And after calling me back over and pulling out an old newspaper clipping she carries around of him, she finally wandered out. And I went over and gave Jake a good shaking for leaving me stranded when I kept giving him a help me | I need you look.

So it's official, I'm no Oprah. Yeah ...

Oh You Think So, Hmm?

I'm sitting in the breakroom at work, typing as fast as my little fingers will allow. I've got a lot of places I' ve got to be. Or rather, one place to be and a lot of thins to do! I'm just tired, and didn't feel like driving anywhere just yet. Can you imagine that?
So I brought my computer with me, in hopes of getting some of my school work done via our NEW! WiFi which I actually haven't used until just now. But as luck would have it, all my school passwords and access codes just happen to be at home. A lot of good that's doing me, yes? * winks *

Anyways, it's been a pretty good day. Better than I had expected considering ... and we did 112 cars today for lunch. I was thrilled beyond words, because I didn't really think we were going to do so hot. By 12:45 I still hadn't felt that crazy throbbing in my head like I sometimes do when we're insanely slammed in drive-thru so I was thinking, "Yeah, this isn't going to happen today. Not even close to 120."

The moment I walked in this morning, Billy started talking big about bringing in 120 cars and all that Billy-Billy nonsense that you've just gotta love. I grinned and said, "Don't stress me, Billy-Billy. My numbers are gonna drop if you psych me out there."

Robyn checked numbers at 12:27 and we'd already done 47 cars. We looked at each other and laughed, we figured we were pretty much rocking it out to a tune our Billy was gonna love. Yeah ... * smiles *

And everybody had a lot of fun in drive-thru this afternoon when all the craziness died down, too. It was pretty much fantastic. Especially because the guys in the back are forever dyin' of thirst and asking us to get them something to drink, so ... when Aaron asked for a drink like 2 minutes after we'd already given him one, I waited until he wasn't looking and then handed him an unsweet tea.

Sidenote, he HATES | loathes | despises Unsweet Tea -- I mean, there's not really anything to it anyway.

So I waited until he went to drink it, caught the look on his face then busted out laughing when Rico said, "Oh no man! FRONT crew, ya'll in trouble. This aint goin' down real good."

He came back with this crazy disgusted look on his face and told us we'd be sorry. Funny, I'm still not sorry and yeah, I'm still cracking up when I'm on headset and somebody orders an unsweet tea. * winks *

Anyways, I'm off to church for like the first time in a month. It's been crazy, but I'm glad I finally get to make it. * smiles *

Blessings

We pray for Blessings, we pray for peace

Comfort for family, Protection while we sleep.

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your Mighty Hand to ease our suffering.

All the while You hear each spoken need,

Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things.

 

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights,

Are what it takes to know You are near?

What if trials of this life

Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear,

We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near.

We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love

As if every promise from Your Word is not enough.

And all the while You hear each desperate plea,

And long that we'd have faith to believe.

'Cause what if Your Blessings come through Raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears?

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near?

And what if trials of this life

Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win ...

We know that pain reminds this heart

That this is not our home.

It's not our Home.

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst

This world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are Your mercies in disguise?

Today, alone.

I just want to say that today, I feel ...

So incredibly good.

and a little like I should ...

Do something crazy with my whole day. 

I'm not crazy, I just realize anew that ...

My GOD is so very amazing.

And sometimes when I'm feeling down ...

He sends me little bits of goodness.

And I just can't let a good thing like that go ...

unnoticed.

A Whole Lot Of Nothin' Going On

So I can tell I've been missed, but life's had one too many many distractions for me of late. * smiles *

• Joshua lost his first baby tooth and this makes me kind of happy | kind of sad. My baby's growing up, I feel like I'm repeating myself a little here ... but * sniff *  Btw, he really does look adorable though whenever he gives me one of those dimpled smiles and there's something missing up front.

• I've been sick a lot lately with my heart stuff which hasn't been real fun. Wednesday was particularly rough, but I've got a lot of Chick-fil-A Moms that are the absolute best. So Robyn got me on break, made me eat something and wind down for a good while. That helped alot, and so did Kwon coming back there and giving me a big hug and praying with me in Korean. It was beautiful and comforting, if that makes any sense at all. * smiles *

• That day, I dropped a record of three shakes and thought to myself "You've seriously got to be kidding me." haha.
• On a side-note, I've almost hit 50-11 deer so far this week. Some dark night soon, one of us is gonna wind up pretty unlucky if you know I'm saying. * winks *
• One of my bestest walked across the platform and received her college diploma last night. I missed it which made me really sad and kinda bummed to the lowest degree. I should've been there, but as things worked out -- or didn't really -- I couldn't make it. But I'm still just as proud of her from a whole other state away! This is definitely no lie.

• Picked Peter up on the way to Piano this morning, so we've got everything set up with his amazing help! It's coming together pretty nicely, now we just cross our fingers and hope the wind doesn't do something we're not going to be appreciative of come Sunday morning, yes?

• Still though, I'm at such a loss without my other organizing | smartical idea giving | thinking aloud partner in crime. Caleb's all grown up and working hard and well ... growing up stinks sometimes. Means we see alot less of all our bestest buddies and only imagine the days when we can all get together again and do something fun like sit around the church all afternoon drinking milkshakes and play guitar. Oh yes, and have lemon drop fights in the parking lot. People pass by and think the devil's got us or something ... idk, ya'll. * winks *

• I'm watching the minutes tick by on the clock just now and thinking, Oh my soul! The piano class isn't going to go over so well. But the way I figured it, I owe my peoples a little something for having abandoned my blog for so very long. So when I die, I may not be the most beautimous pianist in the whole wide world -- or even close to it for that matter -- but you'll have pages and pages of my life on paper to remember me for. * winks *