Just call me mee-maw!

I drove to downtown Orlando yesterday for the second opinion on my arm.

I went there praying to God I would finally get some answers and a plan of attack.

So I get there and they take some x-rays themselves of my elbow and then bring me to the room to wait.

The doctor's office is in a high rise overlooking downtown Orlando. I'm watching the rain fall and seeing the courthouse where the Casey Anthony trial is in progress and just thinking that girl is guilty guilty guilty.

Yeah, she doesn't want me on that jury.

I'm brought back as the doctor enters the room. He sits down and looks over my MRI results on the computer that I have brought with me.

Then he says the "A" word that no 27 year old wants to hear.

"ARTHRITIS"

Yes, you heard correctly.

I'm thinking to myself, doctor say what????

He then gave me an injection in my elbow that hurt like fire to help with the inflammation but he numbed the area before he gave me the shot and so it was bearable. Oh my heavens, later in the evening when it wore off, I was in tears from the pain from the shot. The pain just shot straight down my arm. I think it was Cortisone? Anyone else ever experience this?

I just wanted to shoot my arm off.

So he ordered me to go in for more blood work to hopefully determine where the arthritis might be stemming from and wants me to go to physical therapy.

He said this arthritis could very well be an on-going issue with me.

Really, Doc??? I'm too young for this mess. But I'm so praying that it's not!!

The pain has eased up some today but boy do I still feel the effects of that shot.

Signing off for now and making sure my dentures are still in.

Mee-Maw

Wordless Wednesday- The Case of the Phantom hand.

A few of us girls had a Twitter meet-up this past Saturday. Had a chance to meet with these fabulous ladies and it was such a GREAT time. Great conversation, food, and shopping. Doesn't get better than that.

But we looked at this picture and we can't stop laughing at it.

Notice anything???? LOL

Hope to see these ladies again real soon.

20 years of sisterhood.

My Mom is always reminding me how excited my brother and I were the day my sister was born (I try to remember that on the days I want to strangle her, ha… Oh I kid). I was seven years old and our brother was nine years old when my sister Danielle came long. We still want to strangle each other sometimes but 20 years later, I’m still glad she was born (even though she made me the middle child)… Ha!!

God could not have put two people who are more different to be sisters. That has caused us to be butt heads a lot. Words have been said that I wish I could have taken back. I’ve talked when I should have listened more. I’ve judged when it wasn’t my place. I haven’t always been the best sister. But at the end of the day there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for each other.

We’ve fought fiercely and we’ve loved fiercely.

We are night and day but yet our differences are where we draw our strengths from one another. There is no other person that can make me want to strangle her one minute and can make me laugh like no other in the next. I only feel comfortable saying that because I know she’d say the exact same thing about me, ha.

Danielle, for 20 years God has allowed us to be sisters. It’s been filled with ups and downs, tears and laughter. I wouldn’t trade those 20 years for anything. The ups far outweigh the downs. I consider it one of my greatest joys to be your sister.

I love you so very much. Happy 20th birthday!!!

Thoughts on life, love, and laughter.

My friend Lianna gave me this for my birthday.

It's a cute book filled with some great wisdom.

Just wanted to share a few of my favorites with you.

*She believed she could so she did.

*That little voice in your head that says, GO BUY SHOES, that's the one to listen to.

*Follow your heart. It knows the way.

*Hope for the best. Plan for the worst. Snack in between.

*It’s often the bend in the road that makes life worth the drive.

*See the good all around you, even if you have to squint.

*Let it be.

*I take it one day at a time, but sometimes several of them attach me at once.

*Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken.

*The stuff that wears on the nerves polishes the soul.

*The tide always turns.

*That which does not kill me makes me want to eat a cookie.

*Dream no small dream.

*“Seize the day!” does not necessarily have to include the morning part of the day.

*Laugh louder.

*The best way out is always through.

*Hang in there. Even the worst weeks have Fridays in them.

*Never stop being curious.

*When the chips are down, bring on the cheese dip!

*Faith is hope on fire.

*She listened to her heart and that made all the difference.

*Dreams have no expiration date.

*Through love, through friendship, a heart lives more than one life.

*Some days are hopscotch kind of days, some days are getting-nailed-at-dodgeball kind of days.

I know, I know... That was more than a few... HA!!

With that said, have a hopscotch kind of a day :)

When you had a bad day...

I got some wonderful feedback from my blog post yesterday in the comments, through email, and on Twitter. Thank you. I’m beginning to realize that if my words can resonate with at least even ONE person, then it’s SO worth writing.

Again, thank you! :)

I had a very interesting thing happen yesterday.

I received a phone call at work yesterday from a client wanting to speak with an attorney. The thing is I was having a hard time hearing him. Finally I was like “Sir, can you please speak up, I can’t hear you very well.”

Then he came back with. “OKAY. IS THIS BETTER????? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???????” And with a very angry voice. I then proceeded to say very kindly “You don’t have to scream into my ear, I was just having difficulty hearing you.

You know what I wanted to say though? “SIR, DID YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE A HEARING DEVICE AND I HAVE DIFFICULTY HEARING?????? HOW ABOUT THAT??????

In response to me though he said “I’m having a bad day and I just need to speak to my attorney. He didn’t say I’m sorry, but oh well.

After I hung up the phone with him though…. I drew a couple of conclusions. You just never know someone’s circumstance. There was no way of him knowing I had a hearing device, and there was absolutely no way of me knowing what kind of a day he was having.

For one split second I wanted to shed a tear thinking how dare he…. But the next logical thing to do….

Pray for him. Pray for his day. And pray for him I did.

I know what it’s like to have a bad day. Don’t we all? I very easily could have lashed back but I think God teaches us when to guard the tongue.

God’s always teaching us, isn’t he???

And maybe, just maybe, when you had a bad day… there’s somebody on the other side praying for you.

Search for significance.

We’re all in search of significance.

Whether it be in the title we hold at our jobs. Trying to measure up to the neighbor next door. What kind of car we drive. What kind of clothes we have. How much money we have. How many friends we have. Whether we have the white-picket fence with the husband and the kids to go with it. Looking for significance in our relationships, and truth be told, even looking for significance in the blog and twitter world, or even in the FB statuses we put out there to send the message, “Hey, I’m significant.”

Y’all, I have been struggling fiercely with the blogging lately. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written a blog post and deleted it, or published and then maybe didn’t get a lot of comments and deleted the post all together, thinking to myself maybe it wasn’t significant and not what people wanted to read.

That.Is.Crazy and all together just flat out stupid.

I don’t know how I let myself get to that place. I didn’t ever want to get to that place.

Sometimes I guess I feel like the odd man out because I have no significant other to write about, no cute kids to blog about, no cute house of my own to show you.

I guess it’s easy to think that there’s no significance to your life when compared with others. But I have to do a heart check and know how dishonoring to God it is to even think like this…. Because God thinks of each and every one of us as significant.

Each day written and ordained by him is significant. Each season of our life is significant.

When I think of the word significant I think of importance, value, worth…

Don’t we get it???? This is how God sees us… We are important to him. He sees the value and worth in us, even when we can’t see it in ourselves.

Our significance isn’t found in people or meaningless stuff. Or how many people comment on our blog or our follower count on Twitter, etc.

Good grief, when we get to heaven… do you think we’re going to be tweeting away to all our followers, blogging, or be on Facebook for that matter? NO. I think we’ll be enthralled with far greater things.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first to say I LOVE all this stuff.

But I think the ways in which we find our significance (raising my hand) is so screwed up.

Father's Day

Father's Day is always a little bitter sweet because I can't tell you the last time I've spent a Father's Day with my real father.

I just wanted to take this time to honor my real father.

This is the last picture I have of him and he HATES the camera and refuses to look. I really did try.

And I also wanted to honor my Mom's husband.

He is a great, great man. My Mom is blessed to have found him and I am blessed to have him in my life as a father figure.

And lastly want to give a Father's Day shout-out to my brother.

I could not be more proud of the amazing man, husband, provider, and father he has turned out to be.

John 3:1 - "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"

Authentic friendship.

Last night my BFF and her hubby had me over for dinner.

This is Melissa and her husband Ben.

It did my heart good.

I was in their wedding which was in Vegas. SO fun.

I always ask them, when are we going back to Vegas? Ha!

No sooner I walked into the house we were sitting down for dinner and then we just spent a couple of hours just hanging out and talking. Wish I would have gotten pictures.

Dinner was yummy, and the company even better.

It’s always a wonderful thing when you can get along great with the husband as well. He always makes me feel welcome and he’s just an all around great guy.

It will be nice when God blesses me with someone. I see lots of double dates in our future.

The cool thing… and I’ve talked about Mel on the blog lots, but we’re actually cousins. But NEVER once do we rarely use the word “cousin.” But our relationship is so much more than sharing the same blood. I can't even describe it. I call her my BFF and never once does cousin come into the equation. She knows the good, bad, and the ugly. She knows she can be real with me and vice versa.

As she’s moved on to a new season in her life in marriage, our relationship has not changed. I’m so glad God brought Ben into her life to love her and cherish her and to do life with her. And good thing he knows that marrying her is like a package deal, I’m included, ha!

Mel and I can laugh just by looking at each other, ha. We laugh over the silliest stuff. So important to have friends that can make you laugh.

Friendships are such a gift from God.

A REAL FRIEND:
Knows when to listen,
When to stop listening,

When to talk,
when to stop talking,

When to pour wine,
when to stop pouring
and just hand over the bottle.

To see yourself through the eyes of a friend is to know how special you really are.

There’s no problem that friends cannot confront, combat, plot against, ignore, make fun of, drown in chocolate sauce or run over with the car.

Through love, through friendship, a heart lives more than one life.

Our friendship doesn't get any more real than this..

She would so kill me if she knew I was posting that. Ha! Good thing she loves me.

If I could use one word to describe our friendship.

Authentic.

Stuck.

Read a blog post yesterday that I haven’t really been able to get out of my head since. I look forward to reading every single blog post of Amy’s. She had an amazing post about Squandering the Gift. Please go read. As a single person her blog really blesses me. Ironic because she’s married, but seriously, just read this post, she has amazing perspective. She always challenges me.

Anyway, I got in my car yesterday and I had a text message from Monica, one of my good friends… Along with that text came a sweet picture that I knew it was just a matter of time I’d be seeing. It was a ultrasound picture with “WE’RE HAVING A BABY.”

This is Monica and her husband Greg.

I was in her wedding almost two years ago this month! Hard to believe.

My first reaction was to be thrilled and I TRULY am. But you can’t help but feel like you’re being left behind with each and every person that is getting married, and then when you hear baby news, it’s like a double whammy. Seasons of life change, and sometimes I feel like I’m in this season all by myself.

I couldn’t think of a better word other than it just feels like you’re stuck.

It’s like everyone’s life is moving on around you, and you’re stuck in this perpetual game of waiting. But God is always an “on time” God.

I’m learning to take this time and receive it as a gift. I had never really thought of it that way until I read Amy’s post.

Lord, with each “I’m engaged announcement” I see, or “I’m pregnant” announcement I hear, please help me to not squander the gift of this season I’m in right now. It shouldn’t be a season of feeling stuck, but should be a season of great expectancy and hope that your timing is always perfect.

So, if you’re feeling stuck like I am, I encourage you... Please go read Amy’s post.

You may feel, well… not so stuck.

But with that said, have to give a BIG congrats to Monica and her husband Greg. They are going to be amazing parents!!

Mindless chit chat.

I just needed something mindless to chat about today.

I'm currently obsessed with all things Texas after getting sucked into the show Friday Night Lights.

Anyway.... I'm not a big paint on the nails kind of person. Not that I don't like it on the nails, just don't do it. My one indulgence is getting pedicures. LOVE THEM!!!

I really like OPI polish.

Was excited to see this.

Their new Texas line. You can click to enlarge picture.

I might be late to this, but how fun, right??? How awesome would it be to have the job of coming up with these names for the polishes. Love them.

I got a birthday pedicure this past weekend.

The name of the polish "My Chihuahua Bites"... LOL!! Kind of ironic since I have a Chihuahua... BUT he doesn't bite! :)

Like for real, who comes up with these names?

I'm going to do my best to try to keep these toes fancied up for summer.

Disclaimer, and just please please ignore the toe that is WAAAAAYYY longer than my big toe on my left foot. I think it has some kind of meaning or something, like you're supposed to be a princess or something.

Yeah, I'll go with that.

Texas forever!! :)

27

Today is my last day of being 26 years old.

It’s funny. You reflect on past birthdays, especially when you were younger, and there was something so magical about them and exciting,

Don’t get me wrong, birthdays are still great. But as you get older they are just well, different. The magic of them kind of goes away.

But with that said, there’s something to be said for getting older. It’s my hearts prayer that each year I get older is one more year that I’ve grown and I’m being shaped and molded into the person that God would have me to be. Although, I truly don’t think he’s ever done with that process.

Tomorrow, my birthday, I will be spending the afternoon helping feed the homeless in downtown Orlando with people from the college and career group at the church. I honestly cannot think of anything better I could be doing. I truly have been blessed with 27 wonderful years of life and I’m so fortunate. And if I can give back in some small way, then I’m all for it.

There will be a little bit of fun to be had Saturday night as the college and career are also going to be going to play putt-putt golf.

I sincerely hope that my 27th year will be one of God calling me to new places and heights. Stepping out of my comfort zone a little more. Serving him and serving others and doing him proud. I just want to love God, love people, and love well.

And if I can do all that, then I say 27 will be a success.

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Thank God for his promises!!

Casey Anthony.

You would have to be living under a rock if you haven't been keeping up with the Casey Anthony trial.

I live in the Orlando area and it's ALL we have heard about for the past three years.

All of you reading this I'm sure have your own opinions on this.

I am currently in court reporting school and I will say I find the whole legal process fascinating. I have been glued to this trial for the most part.

Not this week but the following week I'll have opportunity to sit in on the trial.

Should be quite the experience.

Your thoughts? Have you been keeping up with the trial?

Summer Days!

We've had some beautiful summer days here in the Sunshine State.

We've really been able to enjoy the pool and love when it's time to get the boat out and spend time in the water and cookout.

This past weekend on Sunday the family was able to go out on the lake and do some tubing!!

My stepsister Christy is a pro.



So fun. I'm sure there will be plenty of more out on the lake this summer!

You see, we've always been fond of the water :) (Brother and I)

I was all about representing Oshkosh!!

I LOVE SUMMER!!!!

"Peace"

This weekend was here and gone before I knew it.

Today I am slap tired. Wore out.

I had three kids all by myself all weekend. I had my two niece’s (10 month old and 5 yo) and my sister-in-law’s sister’s little girl who is going on 4 yo. Everything went smoothly but WOW, having three kids to look after all by myself… HUMBLING. Ha!

I give props to all you Mom’s out there. What a job y'all have.

Being an Aunt is one of the greatest privileges I have in my life.



See Why??? Gah, I miss this girl already.

Hearing her say LuLu gets my Aunt heart in a puddle.

Don’t ask me what the “peace” is all about. Future hippie maybe? Who knows!!

Never a dull moment with kids :)

Can't forget about this cutie!

And let the record reflect I am not the only one wore out from the weekend, ha!

Have a good Monday!! Peace out!

Weekend plans!

This weekend I am on Aunt duty.

I am watching these sweet girls all weekend, BY MYSELF!!!!

I cannot wait to get some good quality Aunt time!!

Fantastic weekend if you ask me!!! Don't be jealous :)

Hope you have an awesome one! Happy Friday!!

RIP Blackberry.

I knew the day was coming... The day when my blackberry phone would hit the crapper.

Seriously... By the end I despised that thing.

First of all, the track ball was taped on and had it replaced multiple times. I will not miss that thing AT.ALL, the blackberry froze on me ALL the time, and the final straw, the place where you plug in the phone got all jacked up and my phone would no longer charge.

See why I am not sad to see that phone go???

But I am a proud new owner.....

I AM IN LOVE.

It's the Samsung Epic 4G. It takes incredible pictures, I've never had a phone with a good camera that I like, and has no trackball (a HUGE plus). It has so many features that I'm still trying to learn, it's kind of overwhelming.

It has touch screen and a keypad. I'm kind of going back and forth right now between the two. Me using the touchscreen, it looks like I'm typing a foreign language, ha! But I'll get used to it.

I'm so happy with my choice.

So long blackberry!!!!

Lessons from the beach.

Growing up in Florida, there’s no denying that I love the beach, as evidenced by the header on my blog, ha!!

It’s truly a place where I feel like I can take all my cares, throw them in the ocean, leave them there, and they’ll get washed away.

It is my happy place.

Exhibit A.

I know you can be anywhere and feel close to God… But for me, there’s no other place I feel closer to him than when I’m standing on the shore looking out at the waves and with the sun beating down on me and just thinking to myself that life can’t get any better than this.

Then eventually you have to come back to reality....

Simply the reality that life is not always a beach.

And when you come back, you might come back having learned a lesson or two.

Over Memorial Weekend, I attempted to surf. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination. And safe to say I probably ended up drinking gallons of salt water in my unsuccessful attempts to get up all the way on the board. I was pounded by the waves more than once.

Don’t let these relatively calms waves fool you..

There are SO many times in life when we’re just trying to get up on the board but it seems one wave or another keeps knocking us down.

I must have spent almost an hour in my attempts at surfing. I did not give up. Eventually by the end I was able to get up on my knees. I was okay with that, because I know eventually, with enough practice and perseverance I’ll be able to stand all the way up. Bethany Hamilton I am not but I can see why she’s called the soul surfer. She did NOT give up!! She had soul. That’s what I want. I want to put my whole soul into everything I do in life, and know that’s what will get me through when those waves come crashing over me.

I also attempted paddle surfing for the first time. Now doesn’t this look calm and serene? (I’m going to pretend I’m not about to show you a picture in my bathing suit, ha).

This is all about balance. It’s crazy. You have to stand just so in the middle of the board or it’s very easy to find yourself in the water. I’ve really been seeking God for balance in my life. It’s easy to let things become askew and your priorities become wacky. But when you tend to veer off track, I guess that’s why God gives you the oars, to get you back on course and restore balance, and you just pray you won’t fall in the water.