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!"