my whale...

On Sunday evenings, the single women at my church have been doing a Bible study. Currently we are using "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge. I will admit, I loved the book at first and then there were a few chapters kinda in the middle that were just hard to deal with, and I was really hoping that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and then chapter 7 came along. It was a breath of fresh air, the light at the end of the tunnel. This chapter was simply titled "romanced".

Now what girl does not want to read a chapter titled "romanced"? That is something that every girl longs for, even if they don't want to admit it. They all long for a man to come along and sweep them off their feet and to tell them things that make them feel special and give them things that make them feel special. Come on girls...just admit it, you know I am tugging at some heart strings.

This chapter however was not a true story about how John romanced Staci or how any one man here on Earth romanced some women. If you want that kinda thing, I can recommend some movies to you, just let me know. This chapter was about how God, creator of the universe, longs to romance you (us, His creation).

Now as a science minded person, I usually look at the world with those eyes. I see details. I notice little things that make things special. I appreciate beauty in the world around me, but there was a part of the chapter that was just so special and meaningful to me...

"Every song you love, every memory you cherish, every moment that has moved you to holy tears has been given to you from the One who has been pursuing you from your first breath in order to win your heart. God's version of flowers and chocolates and candlelight dinners comes in the form of sunsets and falling stars, moonlight on lakes and cricket symphonies; warm wind, swaying trees, lush gardens, and fierce devotion."

Now isn't that something...I just loved that. They then proceeded to talk about how they had gone on vacation and John was sitting on the beach and saw a great whale just swimming through the water and when he came back and told Staci about it, she went to the beach the next evening praying that she would see a whale too. She never did, but she did see a beach full of starfish in all different colors and that was so special to her. God did not give her a whale, but He gave her something that she would love. Since then, I have not been praying for a whale (I am obviously in DFW and there are no whales in this area so that would just be ridiculous) but I have been praying that God would show me something that was meaningful to me...like the whale.

I went on a trip to Springfield, MO with my dear friend Rebekah this week and one evening while we were driving, I was looking out the car window and I saw fire flies. I immediately knew....that was my whale. They were so special. A curious (to us), tiny little BUG, and yet it meant so much to me to be able to see them the whole way back to her parents house.

I pray that all of this made sense...it was just on my heart. I also pray that if you are reading this and have never had a whale experience that you would pray for God to give you one. If you have had a whale experience please share it with me, I would love to hear (or read) about it.

randomness that is my life (part 2)...

Ok, so i said that I couldn't think of any more random things that I have witnessed, that was until today. I was with my dear friend Angela and we were driving down the highway and I mentioned to her that I had written in my blog about the random things, which included the hood of the truck flying up, and then she reminded me of a for lack of a better term situation that we happened to witness while doing a little Christmas shopping this past year.

So every year Angela and I wait until the last possible minute that we can both go shopping and that is when we do ALL of our Christmas shopping. It is something that we have done for a while now...and quite frankly it just works for us. So this past December we were doing our last minute shopping at some mall in Dallas...there are so many I can't keep them straight...and we had gone into Macy's (I believe...it could have also been Dillard's) and at this particular store we just happened to be browsing through the clothes for us. I know it was Christmas shopping, but the sales are always so good, you just have to look. And we were browsing through the dresses when I spotted it. Now understand that Angela and I have known each other for a number of years (approx. 9) and we can sometimes communicate with just the eyes. So I locked her in with my eyes and communicated to her that there was a women located fairly near us that warrented some attention, because I couldn't be the only one to see this. She was dressed atire that is traditionally worn by women of Indian decent (like women from India) and she had the head wrap on, but tucked oh so nicely in her head wrap was her cell phone. And it was not just there for storage...she was actually talking on it. She obviously had some important things to take care of and needed to use both hands, so why tie them up holding a cell phone? I honestly had to walk away, Angela on the other hand just happened to be looking at what was quite possibly the most hideous dress in the store and continued looking at it for a good while in order to keep her from laughing too hard or staring. It really was quite funny...

I don't know however if the situation was funny or our reactions that was funny...but either way, everytime we bring that up, we laugh really, really hard...

Don't worry, if I think of any more or see anymore random things...I will keep you posted.

from the mouths of babes (pt. 2)...

For those of you that haven't read my blog faithfully (and honestly why would you), I teach three year olds on Sunday mornings. They are great fun, and they have some of the greatest comments about various things. (one example can be found in a previous blog...from the mouths of babes)

This past Sunday, it was almost time for the next set of teachers to come in, so naturally it was snack time. Long live the goldfish and water. We did not have very many kids this week, in comparison to other weeks, and they had segregated themselves according to gender. The young pink loving ladies were at one table nicely eating their goldfish and sipping on their water. While at the other table were the boys, who earlier that day had pretended they were bears hiding under the table and growling at anyone who came by. The boys were also pretending that the fish were jumping in their mouths as they ate them, and actually throwing the fish at their faces.

Now while all this is going on, one of the little girls decided to talk about gum. I don't know where it came from or quite honestly what she even said about it, but the topic of discussion was gum. Then one of the boys having to input something in the conversation, stated "my parents don't let me have gum, they are afraid I will chew it." And I guess thinking no one heard him the first time proceeded to repeat this statement about 3 more times. I was standing to the side and thinking, dude it's gum, you chew it. And just then one of the other little boys speaks up and says rather loudly "It's gum, aren't you supposed to chew it?" I just giggled to myself and we moved on to the next topic, which was probably something in regards to how high their fish could jump (aka be thrown). It was just very humorous the entire situation.

the randomness that is my life...

Random: purposeless (this is the definition according to Webster's New World Dictionary)

Now, I don't know, maybe these things are completely normal, but some how I have a feeling the answer is "NO"! I always happen to see some of the most random things EVER, and some of the time people are with me, which makes me feel better about it all, because at least there is someone else there to witness and back me up on the story, however there are times that things happen or I see things and I am totally by myself. Those are the times that warrant an immediate phone call to the most likely person to believe me (Angela or my sister). Now having said that here are a few of the random things that I have witnessed...ones with an asterisk (*) beside them occurred while I was by myself.

1. (this one occured just yesterday) My friend Angela and I were driving down the access road in Abilene--if you are familiar with Abilene it was between S. 7th and Southwest Drive, very near to Betty Hardwick Center--and there was a truck that was exiting the gas station and merging onto the highway, when all of a sudden, no lie, the hood flew up! I saw it happen and said "um...that guys hood just flew up" and then I just had to laugh...had the guy never seen Tommy Boy, did he not know that if the hood was not properly closed then it could fly up blocking your view of traffic, which is never a good thing.
2. I believe it was last summer, I had gone to Chick-fil-a to get a little something to eat (because their chicken is addictive) and while I am sitting in the drive thru line (between the ordering speaker and the window) I see a family get out of their surburban or tahoe or whatever large SUV it was. Ok, so the story starts pretty normal, but wait...the family proceeds to go inside, except the mother. She stays at the SUV and begins to pull out a blanket. She then takes the blanket and lays it on the grass which is right in front of the SUV and begins to tan!*
3. One time while driving home to Abilene, at about Ranger hill, I looked over at the car next to me and there was (no lie) a parakeet walking back and forth in the back of the car (you know the part that is like a dash board but in the back of the car). Now someone expects to see a dog or even perhaps a cat back there, but a parakeet!*
4. While driving to North Dallas one day on the George Bush, there was a little bitty sports car type thing, probably a Nissan or Toyota (but not like a camry or anything like that...the sports car) and the car had a bike tied to the back of it. Almost certain the bike was bigger than the car. I seriously slowed down and got my phone out and let the sports car/SUV get in front of me so that I could snap a photo of the situation in order to show people.*

Now...I know there are more and when I started writing this blog I had a whole bunch in my brain, but these are the ones that stand out to me the most...

What is the most random thing you have ever seen?

the joy and curse of summer...

I am a teacher, and one of the joys of teaching is the few months that you have in the summer to regroup, take it easy and do nothing, and then attempt to get your mind ready to go back to work in August and teach a whole new set of kids. This may not be what the break is actually for, but that is what I like to think it is for.

Now, during the school year there are very few days in which I actually have time to clean my house, so when those days come along I have to take advantage of them...
During the summer, the story is completly different...I have too many days to actually clean my house. I start doing something and then get distracted by something else (the computer, pictures that just need me to look at them, books, making cards with my stamps) something anything that will keep me from cleaning my house. And then I think, oh why do I need to clean, no one is coming over it is just me and daisy and she doesn't care...this is just terrible.

Now, please understand that I am only writing this today, because that is what is currently happening. I should be cleaning my house (i have already vaccumed and dusted the living room and my bedroom) but here I am sitting at the computer finding anything to keep me from cleaning. I feel that I may need to rearrange my book shelf...that should keep me occupied for a while...