A moments notice

It’s scary how life can change in an instant…. I was so excited to get off work Wednesday evening. I cranked up the Christmas music in my car as I sped home and belted out all the words I knew. Throwing some jeans and a t-shirt on as soon as I got home, I ran upstairs to see if Connie was ready to go pick out a Christmas tree with me. On our drive to find the perfect tree, it started dumping rain. I could barely see the car in front of me. In fact, I questioned if I should pull off the road for awhile, but I slowly moved on. After looking at quite a few extremely pricy trees, we decided we’d go with our fallback. Good ol’ trusty Wal-Mart. After examining at least half of the trees there, we finally decided on one and threw it in the back of the van. When we got home, of course I had to rearrange the entire living room like 3 times until it was just right. Then we trudged down to the barn to retrieve all of the Christmas décor. That is when Connie got the call. I could only hear one side of the conversation, but that’s really all I needed to hear to understand that we wouldn’t be setting up the tree that night after all. Several worried minutes and a couple phone calls later, and we were on our way to Erlanger to check on my cousin that had been in a car accident. Besides that, we really didn’t know what had happened or how he was doing. About 30 minutes of waiting in the lobby and then we were able to go back and see how bad the damage was. To my relief, physically he looked fine. However it only took a few minutes back there to realize he wasn’t completely himself. “What happened? Who was driving? Is Gabi ok? Who’s car was it? Where are my parents? Did you call everyone that needs to know? What day is it? Where’s my phone?” After answering all the questions, it was only a few minutes before they began again. The cat scan came back showing nothing, so he was soon discharged just as confused as when he had arrived. A boy all alone… dad in Japan, mom in New Mexico, sister in Boliva, sister in Brazil, sister in Australia, and brother in England. However he wasn’t lacking family that loved him. I took him home with me ready to wake him up every couple hours to check on him and slightly relieved that I wouldn’t be going in to work the next day. By the time we got him home and were trying to put him to bed, he was getting worse. The questions never stopped as soon as finished asking the set of questions, he’d immediately start again. Finally we got him to stop asking for a couple seconds and ran out of his room so he could sleep. The next morning showed little signs of improvement. He was back to waiting several minutes before re-asking the questions. So I got him all comfy on the couch, turned the TV on, and decided that I should probably set up the tree before it died.
It’s not exactly easy or fun to set up a tree by yourself, but that’s just what I ended up doing. All the while he slept on the couch, passed out from the pain killers. When he finally did wake up from his nap, I was so relieved to discover that his memory was slowly coming back. He wasn’t asking me repeat questions any more. I’m sooo thankful that God protected them and they both walked away from the accident with only minor injuries. It was shortly after all this fiasco that I realized how much I enjoyed staying home and taking care of him. I truly can’t wait until I have my own little kidlets to take care of all the time.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart

This weekend was the first time I ventured out and did my hair with hot rollers. What a transformation that made. I was shocked at how different I looked, and because of that, how different I felt. This must be the reason why anyone alters their physical appearance. Obviously there is nothing wrong with improving your self image by doing your hair or wearing makeup. But where do you draw the line of going too far? How much is too much? Natural beauty is practically lost these days. Maybe if people worked on their inner beauty as much as their outer, this world would be a better place.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Thanks?

Thank you. Two of the easiest words anyone could say, and yet they can make such a huge impact. It's funny how people only say those words in certain situations. I was eating out at a restaurant the other day and kept thanking the waitress when she brought my drink and food and whatnot. Every time she just kind of looked at me strange, like I wasn't supposed to be thanking her. After working for so long in the food industry, I love thanking people that don't often get the thanks they deserve. Most people just assume that is what they are getting paid for. Anyways... that was my little tangent. Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect on the things we should be thankful for on an every day basis. I love how Paul puts it:

"I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." Phillipians 4:11-13

Sometimes it's hard to think that I have anything to be thankful for, but I know I always have way more than I even realize. I'm healthy. I have a wonderful family, great friends, and an amazing husband, all who love me so much! And my needs are always met. I might not have all the money in the world to do exciting things, but I have a car to take me to the Fresh Market so that I can walk around and look at all the things I'd like to buy. And that was just as much fun, if not more fun, than actually buying anything.

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."
- Buddha