Small Steps Toward Stupid

I was reading my blog subscriptions the other day in one of my free moments and came across some blog award nominees and I was looking through the list and thought this blog called Stuff Christians Like sounded interesting.  So I clicked it and was kind of skimming through (it really sounds like something my hubby would write) but anyways, I love the tongue in cheek way of looking at serious matters and so I continued reading.  Then I came across this post.  You should totally go read it.  Some of the best food for thought I’ve come across in awhile….

It also brought back to mind this devotion at Proverbs 31 Ministries the other day called Power to Overcome. 

…The first time I tasted this diet drink I didn't think it was all that yummy. BUT it promised to save me calories so I decided it was worth the slightly strange chemical taste.

In short time, as it grew familiar, I began to like the taste.
Wasn't long before I was flat out addicted – wanting, even needing to have my beloved drink daily or I grew headachy and irritable. Sad thing is, it didn't help me lose weight at all. But that didn't matter because now I loved the diet drink. Furthermore, I was convinced if I gave it up, I'd not only get headaches but I'd gain more weight. I was enslaved in a way…

…What helped me give up the diet cola? I found a different, healthier beverage I really liked and developed my taste for it. I was willing to give up that because I now had this. It's the same way with sin.

What can help us overcome the sins we love, but hate loving? A surpassing love. A greater love that carries with it no hate, no guilt, and no shame. A love that actually delivers the many, many benefits it promises…

…When we catch hold of that love - when we read of it regularly, drink it in, and see it at work in our lives and in its glory - we cannot help but love Him back with all our heart, soul and mind. And in that state of all encompassing love, sin pales in comparison. Its power grows feeble. It no longer tastes as good…

Small steps toward stupid.  Great thoughts.  I need to go back and re-read both posts again myself. 

Scripture that the devotional referenced is 2 Peter 1:3, but I think the verses all the way through ten are all right on point:

^{2 Peter 1:3-10}

³According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

⁴Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

⁵And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

⁶And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

⁷And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

⁸For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

¹⁰Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Verse 10 especially, if we give diligence, we will not fall, and then, we’ll find ourselves making small steps toward wisdom instead of stupid.  Easy to say.  Much harder to accomplish. 

Finally, Bro. P, at church, told us this little tale a few weeks ago, that really made an excellent point.  I’m not quoting verbatim, but here’s the general idea:

A man is stranded on a desert island and manages to survive alone there for fifteen years.  When he is finally rescued, and the plane is lifting off the island, the rescuers point to a little hut on the beach. 

“What’s that?” they ask. 

“Oh, that’s my church,” replied the man. 

As the helicopter went higher, they saw another little building over the hill. 

"And what’s that building?” they asked. 

“Well,” the man answered, “that’s where I USED to go to church,”

Moral of the story, well…I’m not going to say it…you can draw your own conclusions!  LOL!

And to end on a light note, here’s a church sign I passed the other day. 

He will bring you THREW it? 

Really?

Well. Okay.

Thursday Thirteen (random picture edition)

Thirteen Random Pictures from the Crazy Lady in November/December:

1. November. Driving home. Ahhhhhh.....fall. Pretty colors.

2. Old barn. Thought it looked kinda cool....and a little lonely...sitting out there in the middle of the field by itself.

3 & 4. My delightful finds at the thrift store at the end of November. Wooohoo. Best part? Half price sale....if I remember correctly I wound up paying a buck fifty each. Both are fisher price and one is the little people house that makes sounds. Munchkin is getting these for Christmas. I'll probably buy her a couple of little people to go with it. They looked like new after I took the clorox wipes to them.

5. Me with the two big babies on my lap. Nappy time....

6. Fun with mirrors....

7. "Take my picture and die."

8. Things I didn't actually intentionally capture....
1. Hey, it's what was in the sideview mirror again....out the front winshield this time....
2. Buckle up reminder.
3. Driver obviously missed the reminder.
4. The doorhandle that sliced the finger, requiring first aid
5. Lovely first aid.

9. They upgraded....and apparently found someone a little less smarty pants to do the lettering.

10a. Is that a cat climbing the wall there?

10b. why, no.....that's a coon!

10c. Dude, what are ya'll gawkin at. I'm just checking the caulkin on yar winda's here. Yep, looks like you're up for some repairs pretty soon if you want to save sum money on yar heat bill.

10d. No, wait....don't call animal control. Noooooooo......11. Replaced the dead flowers (again). Don't these look beautiful? I had to get the kind you don't have to water. LOL. These will last forever. Ain't that great?
12. awwwww.

13.....well, maybe I'll get to it later. I'm really tired and its 11:30. *sigh* Again.

Later.

Friday Funny

Today's Forecast

As seen on a church sign this morning:
FORECAST: THE SON WILL SHINE FOREVER!

My personal forecast for today:
Sonshine today with a few clouds expected. Possibly some short thunderstorms later this evening clearing up around 9:30.

As I was driving I got to thinking (yeah I know, that's about as dangerous as me reading while I'm driving...LOL)....anyways, so I was thinking about how cloudy days are best for photography b/c it shows a more balanced and even subject as it diffuses the strong light and shadows created by the sun. And if you think about it, if the clouds are the trials or rough moments in your day, they diffuse the light of the son (which could almost be a bad thing) but if someone was taking a portrait of your life, they would get the best picture on a day that had clouds b/c it would show a more balanced and true image. And even the rainy days are beautiful in their own way. I don't know. Just some random thoughts. I suppose whoever put up that church sign would be glad to know it is provoking thought processes in random folks who happen by.

So I had some REALLY weird dreams last night. I mean like, STRANGE. I haven't had a whole lot of dreams that I have remembered enough to talk about lately, but last night. EESH. I don't remember all, but there are fragments of a couple of dreams that stuck with me.

In one little fragment I remember holding up my cell phone and discovering that it was a cell phone with an eyelash curler built into it and I was so psyched b/c I'd had it for awhile and never realized it. Must have been b/c I went into the verizon store yesterday with KC when he was inquiring about the cost of a new phone. LOL. Although I'm not sure where the eyelash curler part came from. ROFL!

Then the other dream was grossly weird. Like I said fragments. I and some other people were in my grandma's old front yard where I grew up at.....there were puppies running around the yard....one of my friends picked up this piece of puppy poo and broke it open and there was a gross little worm inside it and she said yep, they have worms......i looked around the yard and see lots of poo that is squirmy.....i'm really discusted at this point. Scene changes....I'm in some sort of room giving birth to pit bull puppies for a girl at work (like I'm some sort of surrogate mom) and after about 7 puppies are born, I realize that there are worms coming out with them and I'm super discusted....there were eight puppies in all.....the girl at work who raises puppies takes me to her vet to find out why I'm giving birth to puppies and worms.....the vet has no clue and I'm trying to figure out why I'm seeing a vet in the first place since I'm not a dog.....I guess somehow everything must have worked out okay b/c next thing I remember is being fine and being with the puppies and the girl at work being ecstatic over having 8 puppies b/c they were the really expensive kind (worth 2000 each) and she tried to give me one as payment for having them, but I didn't want a pit bull even though they were cute as puppies, so I told her she could sell them and then just give me the profit from one of them.

Okay....so yeah. REALLY weird. And gross. And I have no clue what all that was about. Yuck. I remember sort of waking up a little and thinking....ew this has to be a dream! Oh well. I'm really glad it was a dream. I don't really want to think about the logistics involved in the process of getting 8 puppies inside me, much less HAVING 8 puppies and ones with worms, no less. EW! I'll laugh about this later....at this point I'm still too grossed out.

So yesterday I feel like I didn't get anything done although I barely sat down to breathe even once. I did oodles of laundry. I washed up all those old clothes from the munchkin's first home (if you can call it a home), folded them, and packed them in bags to donate to the consignment shop for foster parents in town, then loaded them in the car and headed off to meet KC for lunch (just for the fun of it, since I was off). Ate lunch with him, ran some errands, headed back toward our town and went by the consignment shop.......it was closed. Go figure. SO I go back home and unload the clothes back into the garage. Then I did the other laundry and tidied up the house stuff. Paid the bills, spot mopped the sticky spots on the floor, washed the bath rugs and shower curtains, put away the few things I bought at walmart (like the new "over the door" shoe hanger for the munchkin's room) and then reorganized all her stuff so it's not such a crazy mess, cleaned up that play stove and put it away, re hung the shower curtains, watered the flowers......etc. By that time, it was getting close to time to pick her up from school.....so I still didn't get any scrapping done (although I was able to get pictures printed, so now I have them ready to put in her book....that's SOME progress I guess).

Then, as you already saw from my previous vent....errr....post, we went to the friends' boys' ball game and then back home to get the munchkin in bed.

And today it's back at work. Ahhhhh. When's my next day "off"?????

Oh yeah, and I don't know how it happened, but somehow I've gotten back hooked on the Doctor Pepper! Hey......what can I say? I'm a pepper for life! *sigh* It just tastes sooooo good.......

Blah Blah BLAH!

I so totally do not love rainy days. I'm totally dragging today. I'm sitting here at my desk, its very overcast and sleepylooking out the window and I'm stuffing envelopes. Zzzzz. Can it get any worse than that? Okay, yeah, it can, but for now, trying to keep my eyes at least half open under the ten pound weights in my eyelids is feeling pretty rough. *Sigh*

Well....things are moving right along. Yesterday....

I BOUGHT A HONDA PILOT! WOOOHOOOO!!!!

And of course, I absolutely LOVE it! Its very sweet. Fun drive, much better than a minivan, although it's really gonna take some getting used to....way different to have a vehicle that can haul 8 people comfortably vs 5. Feels like a bus in comparison. But I like it. I'm gonna get a picture soon. Go figure that it would rain the day after I get it so the nice detail work they did on it before I drove it off the lot is muddied up. *sigh*

Anyways, after I left work to go to the bank and get all that loan stuff wrapped up yesterday, I went in to get my TB test checked and my physical. (Let me tell ya, that was SO much fun....can you HEAR the sarcasm in my voice? LOL) The good news is I'm healthy. Yay! TB test was negative (although that was pretty much a given) and the paperwork is filled out ready to turn in.....

and speaking of paperwork, our fingerprints are back! Yay again! We're not criminals. LOL...another given. So now we have to make another appointment to finish going over the application and then she'll turn it all in. I'm not sure if we have to have the beds and all ready to go before the next visit...hopefully not. I'm hoping we'll have a few weeks to get that ready while the licensing is going through. If we do, then we are going to be in a super frenzy for the next week to get all that done. Yow.

Saw a church sign the other day that made me laugh....
"If things are going wrong...don't go with them!"
Too true. And on the church sign thing, remember that kooky church sign that had weird coded messages or something? Its been completely boring and predictable lately. Ya know, the "Welcome Bro Whats-his-face Speaking this Sunday"....kinda stuff. BO-ring. LOL. Maybe that guy got replaced....b/c he was arrested for passing secret messages or something. LOL. Then again, he was really old, so maybe he died. Ooh, now there is a morbid thought! Sorry, shouldn't laugh. So I'm not LOL'ing. LOL. Yes, I'm weird. Sorry.

Not a whole lot besides all that going on. Today is voting day. YUCK. So that means I have to take some time off again to go all the way back home to my...whatever that word is....the place where I have to vote. District? Whatever. The last time I voted, I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go....it was so retarded....I stood in line at THREE different places...the first one said, sorry, you're at the wrong place, it doesn't matter what you were told, go to this one. So I go there....and they say the same thing, only go to spot number three. It took me like 3 hours to finally get a vote in. I was ready to cry by the end of it. Needless to say, if I go there tonight and they say I'm in the wrong place....well.....too bad. LOL. Tonight is choir practice, too. *sigh* Now that our classes are over, choir practice is back on Tuesday nights. Oh well.

*sigh* Need to hop off here. Will be back with pictures of my new hot wheels soon! *GRIN* Speaking of pictures on this blog, yes I realize I'm seriously lacking in that area and I do apologize. And speaking of posting pictures...I found a post when I was blog surfing from a foster parent that said they couldn't post pictures of foster children or talk about details on the case on their blog....which I kinda figured the case details part, but no pictures either? Thats a bummer....I'll have to ask....just to make sure. *sigh*

Well....later, ya'll!

PS thanks for your comment on the last post, Denise...its white, 2003, EX-L edition and I promise I'll get pictures soon!!!!!!

I'm PSYCHED....iTs FrIdAy

It appears that blogger is really S L O W today, so I'm going to publish this and see if it works and then I'll just come back and edit the post. I can't stand typing a whole bunch of words and then losing it. That would make my day, which has gone SO well thus far, well....it would make it less joyful. That wouldn't be good....so here goes....

Okay it gave me an error message, but it seems like it DID post....so here goes nuthin.....

YAY PEOPLE....its 4:32....only 28 minutes to go and by the time I post this, it will probably be more like 15 minutes to go.....Vacation is ALMOST HERE! WOOHOO. I have been sooo hyper today....its been a LONG time since I have been this excited over a vacation...probably since the last time we went on vacation...ROFL!!!!!

So really, I have to say it....today has been incredible. Not that I'm superstitious, but I have to knock on wood here.....its been TOO perfect. For example: I had to go to walmart at lunch and pick up a few things for our trip. I pulled into the parking lot and all the way up next to the handicap parking was an empty spot....no one had just left....it was just...WAITING on me. How cool is that? And this is FRIDAY at the SUPER walmart....you NEVER get a front row seat on Friday! Then, I get all my stuff without having one single "stupid men" incident and get in my car and run down to the gas station which has like at least one car waiting for every pump...and somebody pulls away and leaves a pump open and NO one moved over to get it....so I was able to just pull straight on in and fill'er up.....the best part? Didn't have a single "stupid men" incident. And the trend continued....I stop at Taco Bell for lunch (normally at least a 15 minute wait, but I figured that would be the TRUE test of my stroke of....blessings)....and what'dya know....pull up to the ordering thing, pull up to the window, pay and get my food in less than 3 minutes. SWEEEEET baby!!!!!! Why can't every day be just this good??? Now I'm knockin on wood....watch me go home and find the cat dead or something terrible like that. Oooh, stop it ms pessimist.....okay. Anyway.

Can you tell by this post how HYPER i am today? Eek, its bad. I have been bouncing off the walls!

So what is UP with crazy church signs?????? I've been pondering this for the last week....its that SAME church with the crazy signs I talked about a couple months ago....if they wanted my attention, they got it, but I'd never darken the door....come on now....

Last week's sign:
Side A: "DON'T BITE THE HAND"
Side B: "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST"
(what in the WORLD???)

This week's sign:
Side A: "WHERE IS THE CITY FOURSQUARE"
Side B: "NO BUDDIES IN HELL"
(this one seems to be out of this world...LOL)

Okay, so I'm thinking....this has got to be a weird way of passing secret messages. Its a conspiracy....there has to be something going on....they don't make sense in ANY way....they don't make Bible sense and they CERTAINLY don't make common sense. It would be funny to watch cars going by.....either direction....a car drives by the church and the head shakes in a puzzled manner for at least 5 minutes past it.....ROFL!!! Imagine a line up of cars that have just passed the church....a whole bunch of people shaking their heads....BWAHAHA....yeah...i have a weird imagination. ROFL!

And then there are the church signs I pass that make me go, "hey...that's smart" or "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

One a couple of weeks ago (not on the weird church):
"BE PREPARED, YOU CAN'T RETAKE THE FINAL EXAM"
(thats a good point!)

One today that made me laugh (again....not on the weird church):
"CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? -GOD"
(ROFL....)

Well....guess what?! Its 4:58.....I am SO outa here. Hopefully I'll be checking in on the HIGHSPEED INTERNET in our condo! *GRIN* Its amazing what those two words do to a person who only has dialup at home. ROFL!

Later, ya'll!!!!!