Ouch...My Devotional Readings Spoke to My Heart and Stepped On My Toes.

Todays devotional readings really spoke to me...and stepped on my toes. 

"Without faith it is impossible to please Him." Hebrews 11:6.

The first few sentences of the updated edition of my all-time favorite devotional, My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, edited by James Reiman really hit a home run with me.... 

"Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and  narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth.  

The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life."

Wow. Powerful words. I tend to think in terms of common sense...so my prayer this morning is this: 

Lord replace my mistaken enthusiasm and  narrow-minded common sense with Your "complete revelation sense."

My second reading was from my "For I Know the Plans" devotional, which has several contributors but does not acknowledge the specific Writer for their specific days contributions.  

Todays reading is based on Luke 6:38 NIV (my favorite version of the Bible--although I still love the King James version of some passages--especially the poetic ones in Psalm and Proverbs, as well as some of the new testament Bible verses I memorized in the KJV ): 

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Again, wow. We can not outgive God. We give our loosely leveled cup of flour, and He returns it pressed down, packed in (like a compactor pressed to get more and more, and more and more),  heaping up in a mound so large it spills over the top! 

I can sometimes be stingy.  Generosity is something I need to work on. 

There are a few charities that have been speaking to my heart lately--but I've yet to open my pocketbook and support most of them. 

But it's not just our possessions we can be generous with...

From the devotional:

"... generosity is life changing. We can hold our hands open, finding ways to give abundantly. God has promised to provide for us. Perhaps He also wants you to use the resources He has blessed you with as a means of providing for someone else.  Generosity isn't restricted to wealth. Can you generously forgive? Offer mercy? Encourage others?"
(And I added be generous serving others with my time.)

My second prayer:   

Lord, open my eyes to the ways I can be generous.  Then open my heart, hands, and calendar to actually be generous. 

Just a couple of short devotional readings...but boy howdy did they speak to my heart and step on my toes. 

You Can Dress Me Up....

I'm still not released to drive yet after my knee surgery, so today my college friend Kim D  took me on my errands and appointments.  Monday's are errand and appointment rich. They are beyond full. Last week when Linda and I finished we were both pooped out. I was hoping Kim would not be equally as tired today. 

We finished the errands in record time, added a short trip to the UMHB bookstore (our alma mater). Since football season is about to start,  I wanted to check out the new t-shirts and bumper stickers to see what was available prior to our opening game this Saturday.   

We bought a few small items, but no t-shirts.  The National Championship shirts and bumper stickers were not on display. Yet. I guess they are saving them for the opening game.  

It's probably just as well, I have a National Championship t-shirt I bought after we won--but this time I didn't go crazy like I have after our previous wins.

Nope, this time I only bought one t-shirt. And because I wanted to wear it right away, and the game was won in the middle of the winter, I bought a long sleeve t-shirt. 

It's now Summer/Fall/Hellfire Hot in central Texas and still in the 100s (okay, I am embellishing--I think we've had a cool front move in this week and it's only been in the high 90s).  

So I'll be sweating this game--at least it's an evening game--the afternoon games won't start for a couple weeks. Boy howdy is the start of football season hot! Last year I started out in the shade under the Stadium overhang, and went up to claim my season seat only after halftime--before someone else thought it was a free seat. While I will miss the friends I made in the shade last year, I now have at least one good knee for the stairs leading to my seat. I will still be moving slow and chanting my reminder mantra "up with the good, down with the bad." (My fellow knee replacement recipients will understand.😉)  But I will be viewing the game and cheering in my Crusaders from my seat. #GoCru! 

Finally, after all my errands were ticked off todays list, Kim and I  enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Freddy's  before my torture.  I mean PT appointment. PT went well and steady progress is being made.

But the BEST part of the day?

It was when I broke into a total strangers car!

Yep, on one of my earlier errands when I "ran" into the Post Office to grab my mail,  my box only gave up three envelopes.  I knew that was wrong. 

I went to the counter to request the investigative assistance of the Postal Staff. They know me and just smiled--seems I missed the yellow slip saying I had an "overflow" box of mail as well. 

Since I have not been to the mailbox since before my knee surgery, overflow  mail is what I was expecting.

After retrieving my overflow mail I went to Kim's SUV and tried the hatch. 

 It started to go up, then closed and locked. 

Opps. I must not have pressed hard enough on the button.  So I tried it again.

Nothing this time.  Nada. Humph.

I tapped on the back windshield to alert  Kim to open it from inside. She was probably afraid to do so because I had scolded her for closing the hatch on me before I was out from under it at our previous stop. I had asked her to let me be in charge of the hatch. She reluctantly agreed. It's rough when you have two control freaks in the same vicinity.  

Now, here I was, just one stop later requesting that she open the hatch. She must have been thinking, Will that crazy girl make up her mind?!

While I waited for Kim to open the hatch, I noticed the parking lot had a huge hole that I had not noticed earlier when I retrieved my walker from her cargo hold. I marveled at my ability to miss that fall trap--even as I acknowledged I was totally blind to it. I'm usually more attuned to fall hazards and my general surroundings. 

Then the little lady I was behind in the line inside the Post Office hopped out of Kim's SUV. How sweet! Kim got to visit with one of her friends while I was inside. Kim must have been distracted. That's why it was taking her so long to open the hatch.

And Kim hopped out of her SUV.

That's when I started cracking up laughing.

Then, and only then, did I put it all together. 

Kim's SUV was two parking spaces down! 

Thankfully the little lady whose SUV I was breaking into was also laughing and not pointing her Smith & Wesson or Ruger at me. 

Yep...You can dress me up, but you can't take me anywhere--especially if you park sort of next to a vehicle that looks sort of like yours!

Wishing We Had Some Of This Bygone Rain Now.

This entry popped up in my Facebook memories from 9 years ago.  I had just returned from visiting Mama and I was complaining about the rain. LOL. These days, with a month of greater than 100F days, all I want is some of that drated rain. Never satisfied. 

July 29, 2013

Home again safe and sound after a week in the Non-Sunshine State. Non because it rained daily the two weeks before I arrived, and the daily monsoons continued during the week I was there. 

It rained so much, both of the trucks a friend has were molding because they couldn't dry out. Mama's driveway was home to a school of pan-sized catfish. At mid-day the skeeters were so thick, their wingspan obliterated the sun when it peeked out of the clouds. Mama's garden-that-used-to-be-pond was a pond once more. In a frantic attempt to find a dry place, a cute little  wet tree frog jumped (multiple times) inside my SUV--the last time I sat it down and explained to him I wasn't being mean--I was showing him "Tough Love" for his own good--he would dehydrate and die in the Texas draught. I think our little talk finally sank in--at least I haven't seen the little stow-a-way. Yet. 

But the worst part of their darkness was the fact that they have not been converted to the Better Way--it's hit-or-miss on places that carry Diet Dr Pepper.  

Many of the grocery stores don't even carry it fully loaded.  You can't count on it being at convenience stores--there's not even an empty slot to give an impression of hope that "one day" it might be stocked. Even Wal-Mart, which has everything, frequently has fewer than two rows of the liquid gold.  I beat up children and the original LOLs (Little Old Ladies) on delivery day. I cultivated relationships with the DDP vendors to obtain my fix. All but one lone fast food chain were dumbstruck when I inquired if they supplied the stuff. The only lone shining light leading the way to convert the Heathens to the light of DDP was Sonic. Their sign was a beacon that drew me quicker than an open door drew the black cloud of skeeters hovering outside every door--waiting for their chance to gain entry into a dry space. 

Do you know how many meals you can eat daily at Sonic before they start to charge you rental space? Six. The three main meals, plus your mid-morning snack, mid-afternoon snack, and midnight snack.  My servers, Sally Jo, Jasper Dale, and The Twins (Lovey-Lu and Dovey-Lu) became my newest and dearest BFFs. I tipped them in mosquito repellent and rain gear. We became so close, Sally Jo is naming her first born after me. I hope it's a girl.

Keep Me on Your Prayer Request

Okay. So I've kept this under wraps for fear of jinxing it...

I'm getting ready for my third date with a very nice  young man. A friend called me a cougar but I really don't think that fits.

I met "EL" (his initials) at a clinic a few months back and we hit it off from the get go. We sat there for over an hour-and-a-half talking and getting to know each other. Actually, HE asked almost  all the questions--and he LISTENED to everything I said. He is very smart and attentive.  I  can not tell you how refreshing it is to be heard. And understood. Since he's medical he also "gets" my irreverently morbid sense of humor.  😉  The fact that he is 23 years my junior doesn't even give me cause for concern. At least not anymore.  Well kinda. Okay, so I am having a few qualms--but nothing bad enough to cancel our date.

Our second date occured about a month later (the drawback of  seeing a doctor--you have to work dates around his schedule). Again it was just about perfect. I decided he's my "one." At soon to be 63 (late November😉)  I had stopped looking for my "one." The only dates I saw were in the produce isle at HEB.  I was fine with winding down my life with just my FurKids, Friends, and extended Family. I enjoy my peace and quite--and not being  accountable to/for other people. Singlehood suits me. 

The fact that he's married does brother me--but I'm so sure he's MY one--so I'm not going to let that one detail stop me from continuing this relationship.

Don't judge. Just keep reading with an open heart and I think you will end up agreeing with me.  He's MY one.

Our "third date" is fast approaching.

Monday morning we will meet before breakfast and spend the day together....just talking and walking.  Maybe gab a light lunch, and walk and talk some more. He's really into healthy stuff.  Since it's our "third date" I'm also going nightie shopping--we've already discussed  me spending the night at his place.  Don't worry, I'm going to insist on  having my own room. 

I just need something nice to wear--in case I "happen" to bump into him in the hallway after dinner that evening...or during the night. Because, you KNOW if I'm not dressed nice that's gonna happen.

When it happens, I want to be wearing something easy, breezy, and playful--while I love my UMHB t-shirts and baggy sleep pants--they just aren't what I want him to be seeing me wearing on  our first overnight. I want something new for our first overnight. 

I'll save my comfy sleepwear for the next overnight.  😉

I also haven't got a good nickname for him yet.  I started out calling him EL, for his initials. Then, because he's a doc I've been calling him DrEL (which has turned into something like "durell"--which sounds more like he's my homeboy). The other day an eppisode of "Gilligan's Island" came on, and I remembered how much I adored the classiness of "Lovey," and even though that was a girl's nickname, I've toyed with calling him "Lovey."  I'm kind of afraid that might be a little bit forward.  Even for me. What do you think?

Okay, before we go any further, you can take me off your prayer list--or at least change the reason you will be praying for me.  I am NOT sleeping over at a married mans home next week. 

I been "funnin' ya."

"Lovey" is my orthopedic surgeon.

Our third date WILL  be an all day affair--because he will be replacing my right knee. I will arrive at the hospital before breakfast. Midmorning he will fix my knee. And by lunch I'll be up and walking. 

I may stay over at his "place" (also known as the hospital at which he  has surgical privileges). 

So you can re-add me back on your prayer lists--not as a homewrecking 

cougar--but for speedy healing and pain control. 

And pray for God's wisdom and a steady hand for Dr. Lovria. 😉

Thank you! I love you all! 

2012 Facebook Memory

Ten of the eleven Border Patrol Officers we saw this weekend indicated we were okay and sent us on our way.  I'm afraid my conversations with Officers 5-9, were rather one-sided though. It seemed it was all about me--where I currently live, what I'd  done, where I'd been that day, and where I was headed. That sort of thing.  Officers 5 and 6 displayed the most interest--they even wanted to know where I was born.  I'm just glad they didn't ask the year--a girls gotta have some secrets.  

Officers 1-4 and 11 were only slightly interested, and really didn't engage us much at all.  Officer Ten was a whole different species.  I'll get to Officer Ten in a minute. 

This past weekend Bandit and I went ISO a mystery to solve. While I did not solve the "Marfa Mystery Lights," I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt:  I saw something out of the ordinary. Appropriately, it was Friday 13th.  

The lights  were not as playful in "person" as the lights I saw on the 1990s newscast--but they did play a little bit.  Most stayed around the horizon, but one ventured pretty high up in the night sky. As one light grew brighter, another dimmed. It almost appeared to be a hide-and-seek type game they were playing.  Another light jerked back and forth, and one darted faster than what appeared to be possible:they were the racier lights. I saw no rhyme or reason for any of the movements, but  I saw them--both with my naked eyes, and through the viewing telescopes. 

Could they be some sort of natural gas phenomenon as some have surmised? Absolutely. In fact, that, in reality, is probably what they are. But that theory isn't very fanciful or mysterious, and it certainly wouldn't support any tourist trade. 

Like I said, I didn't solve the mystery, but I'm pretty sure of what they are not.  I'm sure they are not mere headlights or country folk out to dupe city slickers as some have suggested.  And they couldn't be aliens because Bandit and I were not abducted. 

Speaking of aliens, that brings me back to the Border Patrol and Officer Ten. He really was a "10."  He was of German descent.  Highly intelligent, soft spoken, and sharp as a whip. He was a no nonsense kind of guy. No smiles.  No jokes.  A professional in every way. He was what you might call a lean, mean, fighting machine. It was instant attraction for me.  He barley even acknowledged my existence.   A snooty little sniff and he was on his way.  I was deeply offended. I was clearly more interested in him than he was in me--isn't that always my luck?!  But he did give me a thumbs up. 

Actually, he gave me a four paws up and sent me on my way. The dog.

The Wayward One

The News predicted the tornado would be  in Belton  between six-forty and six-forty-five pm.

So of course during that exact time frame,  in a deluge of rain, I was calling for Moggy (he decided he had had enough of TheGirls earlier today and wanted to be an Outside Kitty).  I moved from  the relative shelter of the front porch to sit in the SUV with the windows cracked, and called him a few more minutes. 

He was a no-show.  This would take more action on my part. But I know the drill because I've done it before. 

I left TheGirls, safe at home, while  I drove around the block.  Then, pretending I was coming home from work, I drove up and reparked. I recracked the windows and called for Moggy a few more minutes. 

Usually when Moggy is nearby he  scampers to meet me when I drive in. 

Not tonight. He was nowhere in sight.

Sometimes I have to wait a few. 

Sometimes I have to wait a few and call.  

And sometimes, I have to wait a few, call, and resort to trickery by "leaving" and "returning."

So I tried again. I pulled out.  Checking all his favorite spots as I drove around the block, again.  Then I parked. Cracked the windows. Called his name.

Moggy was not to be tricked out of whatever safe spot he found for himself. 

I envisioned swirling white cats with black markings in an apple green sky.  

I could not give up my search.  This would take drastic action.

I would drive through the cemetary--at least along the road closest me. 

As I entered the cemetary the rain slacked up to just a steady downpour. I cracked the windows a little further, drove as slow as I could, and called. 

About halfway to the back fence I heard the alarm.  

The back fence in the corner of the cemetary closest to me is the scary part of the cemetary.   Especially when I go looking for Moggy late at night. 

Not because of ghosts. 

Not because of goth-clad visitors.  

Not because of screech owls or other scary sounding animals.  

The branches of the bushes and small trees are overgrown, and as I drive past them they appear to reach inside the open SUV window grabbing for me. 

When I  heard the warning alarm I was about halfway to the back fence.  Safe from the branches.  However, I wasted no time getting to the side road on the far side of the cemetary.  (It really  is a scary corner--even in the daylight). 

As I reached the side road the rain abruptly stopped falling. The sun burst out from under the gray cloud cover, and started shining brilliantly. The tree branches were no longer shrouded in watery shadows.  

However, I did not turn back. 

I focused on the alarm.

Until that very moment I had never realized the alarm was right there at the corner of the cemetary and the laundromat.  Over the years I have heard it clearly when I lived on the UMHB Campus, Main Street, and West Belton.  The past thirty-five years I  assumed the alarm was downtown around the Courthouse. I guess I really am directionally sound challenged. 

Arriving home,  after the aborted cemetary run, I  parked,  for the fourth time, and waited for That Darn Cat. A couple neighbors came outside and we chatted.  

Still no Moggy.

Now that the sun is shinning, the rain has stopped, and I am no longer visualizing Moggy flying through the air like the witchy bike-riding Miss Gulch  in "The Wizard of Oz," or the cow in "Twister," I realized the irony of it all...

How frustrating it must be for Christ, our Good Shepherd, when He chooses  to leave the 99, in order  to go look for the wayward one.     

The Bunco Babes Rolled Again!

🎲🎲🎲Tonight was Bunco Night! 🎲🎲🎲

It was a great night of fun although we were down several regulars.  But that meant I got to meet a few  new Subs--including a couple of cute munchkins who teamed up to take the place of one of the regular players.

I have fun teasing kidos, so in typical Mary Lou style, pepper the Munchkins with Qs:  what's your name? how old are you? What's your favorite subject in school.  Then I looked them in the eyes and asked, "You know those adults who let kidos win?"

Their eyes glittered in anticipation  as their heads bobbled their "yeses!"

"Well, I'm NOT one of those adults!  If you beat me, you will win fair and square. I'm competative."

They giggled.  Nervously. 

I was serious.

Fast forward to the end of the night.  We gathered around the Head Table and counted up our wins, wipe outs, and Buncos.

"Who had the most Buncos?"

"Four!" I say confidently.

The RugRats had 5.

"Most wins?"

"Ten!"  I shouted gleefully.

The midgets also had 10--but players can only win one prize. One other, adult-sized,   player also had 10 wins.

It didn't matter though, because yet another regular player  had 11 wins!

The good news: We also get money back for second most wins. So the two of us with 10 wins had a roll off.  Which I won.  

🎲🎲🎲 😆 🎲🎲🎲

But the BEST part of the night? Besides the yummy chili, winning the money to play the next few months, and stress-free fun with  a bunch of really fun ladies  from a variety of lifestyles?

Next month Rhonda is hosting a "Brinner" (breakfast for diner--my favorite meal) 

AND we have to wear our JAMMIES!!!

My card group has had several Jammie Card Nights. I love Jammie Card Night. I've often wanted Bunco to be played in our PJs. And my wish is coming true next month!  

I'm glad Jammie Night is spilling over to Bunco.  Now if it can spill over into the rest of my life. 

Why not? People go to shopping wearing  their PJs.   All. The. Time. 

🎲💜🎲💜🎲💜🎲💜🎲💜🎲💜🎲