Oh the trials...

During these weeks with mom post chemo, I have to say I'm faced with many hardships. Oh sure, some would say they are of an emotional type, seeing someone you love not feeling well and the scariness of what this all really means. I completely disagree. Oh that's tough, no doubt, but the trials I'm talking about are of a completely different kind. I'm a list girl, so I figure I'll make a quick list of the top five gems:

5. Hours of flipping through mindless television, afternoon programming is not what I once thought it was.
4. Being told "no", A LOT. How about some peaches? No. poptart? No. orange juice? No. frozen yogurt? Funny, but No.
3. Moving to the porch to sit because it's a change of scenery. It's the same view people, just different furniture.
2. M*A*S*H- Seriously, it's an oddly depressing yet weirdly funny show, and it's on ALL afternoon long. Mom loves it.
1. Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup. The stuff is orange, and I'm surprised every single time mom thinks it might just be the one thing she can get down. GROSS.

Genius Kitteh, Reads Upside Down

I'm a hero!

When choosing between personal desires and the right thing to do, I chose the right thing to do.
When faced with discomfort and slight hysteria, I persevered.
When what I really wanted to do was scream like a little girl, I kept my focus.
When the easy road was a life of captivity and darkness, I chose to give freedom.

I saved a life today. The lizard is no longer trapped in the garage, but once again tasting the sweetness of the great outdoors.

New low....

This morning I made an appointment to get my oil changed. (This is not the low, by the way). Yes, I prefer making an appointment. I don't have to drive over that giant hole in the ground which I DID see a terrible clip from America's Funniest Home videos of someone completley driving into the hole. My fear has been validated.

So the low is this: I asked if Saturn has wireless internet. I will now get to enjoy feasting on free coffee and doughnuts while working ever so diligently on school work. I'd say that's a step in the right direction for technology!

Scheduling Kitteh

I think I can squeeze you in....Monday say 6:00-6:30??

Fun conversation.....

Disclaimer: company name is Blast-it-All

Me: Dialing number.
Them:(monotone voice answers) Good afternoon, Blast-it-All
Me: AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Them: silence
Me: Oh, um yes, this is Cindy with ______ I'm calling to place an order.
Them: silence
Me: (soft chuckling) Don't you ever chuckle that you get to say "Good afternoon blast-it-all" when you answer the phone???
Them: (unamused grunt)
Me: Right, ok I'd like to order......

Grandma burn # 283

Mom: I think we need to play some cards.

Cindy: Oh let me sleep for just a bit. I need some extra energy so I can beat you guys.

Grandma: It's gonna take more than energy.

Ohhhhh Grandma!!!

marriage, men and game

So here we all sat yesterday, enjoying our afternoon. The "we" there is the sweet blessing of three generations of women under one roof supporting my mom as she goes through this crummy week and encouraging her to know that there are bright days ahead. This blessing of female solidarity is NOT what I'm writing about. Instead, I would like to tell a little story about what took place in the afternoon. I sat at my computer, playing around checking email and the like when I noticed that my Grandma was talking with my Grandpa on the phone and my mom was video chatting with my dad. Both my mom and my grandma were talking with their men. Now granted they are both married and have been for a total of something like eight-five years combined. Of course they would be talking with their fellas, but I have to admit....I was a little annoyed. Why is it that marriage seems to be the ultimate reward in life for women. If you're godly enough, keep a good enough house, have just enough spunk mixed with enough holly homemaker tendencies that you'll land yourself a man and enter into the sacred hall of marriagedom with all the other godly, holly homemaker types who have also achieved this ultimate victory. I started filtering through the possibilities of men I know, wondering if any are truly marriage material, wondering if any are interested in me, wondering if I'll be granted this sort of extreme privilege of matrimony someday.

I wish I could say this post will end with sharing about the blessings of the single life and how I'm patiently waiting and wanting the life that God has intended for me, but alas it does not. I do seek the life that God would want for me, and I am trying desperately to wait patiently if God has a fella in mind that He would like for me to love and honor and respect all the days of my life. Until then, however, I simply sit here at my computer writing a post about how my mom and grandma both have more game than I do!

Total Annihilation!

There I was, having just returned home from work, standing next to the sink about to clean up the few remaining plates and prepare dinner. I looked down and saw a giant wing flap against the side of the drain. It was a wasp! Thankfully it was next to the drain and I suddenly began the ancient Chinese water torture, except it wasn't a slow agonizing trickle but rather an attempt to drown the creature by pummeling it with wave after wave of rushing water from the water sprayer. I can not tell you how long I continued to spray the disgusting creature with water, but I assure it seemed like a lifetime. Time after time it would begin to flap its wings and desperately attempt to crawl out from the drain area and seek freedom. I applauded its resilience while simultaneously cursing its indestructible qualities.

I realized after about 3 minutes of direct water that this thing was not going to die by water torture alone. I had to engage in plan B. I absolutely had to maintain direct water contact as I began to fear it would escape and become a raging creature of death out to destroy me. While holding the water sprayer with my right hand, I stretched as far over as possible to the left to grab the paper towel roll. I grabbed the paper towels and began unrolling sheet after sheet off the roll. I had gathered a sufficient enough ball of torture and stood there watching this wasp fight for its life and contemplated how to handle this final stage of execution. I had to time it perfectly because I wanted to stop the water and then kill it without too much lapse time, allowing it to escape. I quickly turned the water off with one hand while focusing all of my strength of pushing the paper towels against the sink drain and capturing the winged critter in a suffocating and dismembering death. Don't worry, I checked to make sure he was most definitely dead before I once again squished him between the deadly walls of paper towel.

I WAS VICTORIOUS!!!!!!

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Please see the latest from a favored blog of mine. This is positively hysterical!

http://danielle-everydaythoughts.blogspot.com/

Great Faith

The Mueller's set off for the United States in August 1877 aboard the Sardian…Off Newfoundland the weather turned cold and the ship's progress was seriously delayed by fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when something happened which was to revolutionize his life; George Mueller appeared beside him.

"Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon."
"It is impossible," said the captain.
"Very well, " said Mueller, "if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way--I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray."
"Mr. Mueller," he said, "do you know how dense this fog is?"
"No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life."

Mueller then knelt down and prayed simply. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him not to.

"First, you do not believe He will' and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it."
"Captain," he continued, I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone."

The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. It was the captain himself, who later told the story of this incident, and who was subsequently described by a well known evangelist as "one of the most devoted men I ever knew."

It was prayer that swept his soul free of doubt, distemper, and the after-effects of a trial by the incoming tide of peace. For this reason he could make such remarks as this entry on March 9, 1847, "The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith." And a later one, "The greater the trial, the sweeter the victory."

-Excerpt from christianadoption.com

Forecast....

Tuesday Forecast: Make coffee before I lose electricity. Charge computer and portable dvd player. Locate and arrange peanut butter, bread, water, golden girls dvds and flashlights. I can't wait for a day off work!

Free Citizenship

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. - Fourteenth Amendment

Today I experienced my very first legitimate frustration with regards to the Constitution of the United States. I firmly believe that we should uphold our Constitution with the strictest of rulings. I feel it should be a closed document, one that should never be altered.... just not today!!

We have many international students living here that are starting families. Naturally, those children automatically become US citizens. This should not be! And on top of that, I was asked to write a letter that would allow two of those students to apply for Medicaid for their child. How dare their children automatically be bestowed with all the rights and privileges of United States citizenship. I felt the injustice of how hard I work to pay for my own medical insurance only to have internationals having children on US soil, and my hard-earned money going to pay for THEIR medical costs as well. I understand poverty, and with my compassionate heart, I feel a need to take care of those within our country, but I refuse to work hard for these people who pop out their babies in the US and suddenly feel they deserve everything.

I have decided that my new stance is that in order for a baby to be granted citizenship, it needs to be born to two US citizens. If this is not the case, then they can file for citizenship like everyone else. We have an appropriate due process for average people to be given the gift of citizenship. It's not impossible. If we don't become a bit more serious about who should and should not be citizens, the very weight of citizenship and what it means will become worthless.

Email Interpretation

He wrote this:
"Ok. Yesterday I changed my other tickets for 140 per ticket"
But really meant this:
"Ok, I guess that will have to do. Seeing as how you naturally appear the type to be so incapable that you are frequently taken advantage of, I would like to help you out by letting you know that the price I was able to achieve yesterday was at least half of what you got. You don't deserve the desk you sit at, title you carry, or air you breath. It's a wonder you're able to accomplish anything from the mundane to the meaningful. With your said incapable qualities, you have cost me my precious million-dollar time which translates into research. It would appear the university has not given me any other staff in which I can deal with, so you, along with your pathetic excuse of a airline ticket exchange, will have to suffice."

Incredible

What an amazing reminder for when I feel so inept with what to say.

"And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Romans 8:26