THE PIZZA MAN

I was tending my 2 grandsons (2 1/2 and almost 4) while their parents and 2 older sisters went to see the movie, "Tin Tin".  In fact the almost 4 year old was given the choice of going to see the movie or staying with Grandma and he chose to stay with Grandma. :0)  At one point I had to go to the bathroom, so used the one just off of the kitchen.  I had the door locked, but could hear the 2 1/2 year old in the kitchen.  I wondered what he was doing when all of a sudden I heard him talking.  He was saying, "I need pizza!  I need pizza!"  When I came out of the bathroom, he had the refrigerator open.  I guess he never found the pizza in there (because there wasn't any) because when I came over to him and asked him what he wanted, he said he wanted a drink of koolaid, which I gave him.  He never mentioned pizza again.

BELIEVE

Babs & StaceGhost gave me this sheet music for Christmas, so I've been playing it and trying to learn it.  I love not only the melody, but the words to the chorus. 



Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside and
Give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.....
If you just believe...
If you just believe...
Just believe...
Just believe...

A BED FOR AN AMERICAN GIRL

The week after Thanksgiving, my daughter called us and asked my husband if we would make this for our granddaughter's 8th birthday.  We got very busy and designed it, he made it, and I made the mattress, bedding, nightgown, and look very closely and you'll see an eye mask to match the nightgown.  We took it with us to Texas a week and a half later when we went for our granddaughter's birthday and baptism. 

This is for her American Girl doll. 

A SCARY DESCENT

We took another trip to Texas this last weekend to go to our granddaughters 8th birthday and her baptism.  We had to work at the Storehouse on the Thursday that we left, so just thought we'd work until it closed at 3pm and then drive to Lubbock to spend the night.  Since we had to bring in a present that we made our granddaughter so we could find a box for it, they knew we were planning on leaving that day.  They told us to go ahead and leave, so we actually were able to leave about an hour and a half earlier that we thought we would.  We stayed in Lubbock that night and drove onto Dallas the next day.  We had a great visit with our daughter and her family.  We were going to go visit my husband's mother on our way home and spend Monday night in her town, but when we called her Monday morning, she was not feeling well so we ended up just stopping by for about an hour and dropping off Christmas presents.  We had also left Dallas late that morning because we had to run by Rockler, my husband's favorite store (woodworking) so he could pick up some Christmas presents for himself from me. :0)  We didn't leave his mom's until about 3pm.  It's about a 7 1/2 hour drive home from her house. 

We were a little concerned because we started running into fog almost immediately and ran in and out of fog, some of it pretty heavy, all the way to about 2 hours from our town.  By the time we got off the state highways and onto the main interstate, it was raining, but that was better than fog.  Weather conditions got worse the further we went.  We knew we'd probably run into snow at one place that is a higher elevation and we were correct, but a few miles down the road it changed back to rain.  We could see that the fields all still had snow in them.  As we left the last town before ours, it started to snow.  This was not a good sign.  We started our ascent up the last hill before our descent down the canyon and the snow increased, turning into what I termed as a blizzard.  It was snowing really hard and the snowflakes were really big.  We passed the sign that is supposed to flash when the highway is closed, but there were no lights flashing.  Just then we looked ahead and there were about 5 highway patrols cars ahead with their lights on.  I mentioned to my husband that they must be closing the highway, but that was not the case.  As we got closer we saw a Fed Ex semi jack-knifed with the trailer laying on it's side across 2 lanes of traffic.  We had to slow down to about 20 miles an hour and go around it on the shoulder.  Once around the wreck, the snow got harder and the highway was quickly covered.  We could see directly in front of us and about 20 feet, but that's it.  We couldn't see the white line on either the center or the sides of the road.  There was a brown path (from them sanding the highway) that we followed, but all the cars were single file.  There was us, another car and 2 diesels.  The other car exited later but the 2 semi's continued to follow us.  It got harder and harder to see and by this time we had started down the canyon.  We were only doing about 40 mph (and we really shouldn't have been going that fast) and at first had the diesels right on our bumper.  Finally he pulled back - probably when he had to gear down, but he would still catch up with us every once in awhile.  The worst part was it seemed to take forever and I never thought we would get out of it!  I was leaning forward trying to help my husband see.  Every time the semi would get close to us, we thought he might try to pass us.  One time my husband tried to pull over to the right and almost immediately I heard the tires run onto the rumble strips, so I told him that was the edge of the road and not to go any further.  Finally, finally, finally the road started getting better and then finally the snow changed back to rain and the highway cleared completely and we continued to drive in the rain on down the canyon into our city.  As we looked back in our rearview mirrors, we noticed that it was ONLY us and the 2 semis that came down the mountain.  It made me wonder if they had turned on the flashing sign after we went through, because we sure didn't see anyone else as we drove into the city.  That was one of the scariest things I have experienced.  I never want to experience it again, but I am so thankful that the Lord watched over us and kept us safe and gave my husband the patience and skill to get us safely down that mountain highway. 

When we went to Texas at Thanksgiving, we drove back in high winds and sandstorms all the way.  This time it was fog and blizzards.  I think we're going to stay home for awhile...:0)

I KNOW MY FATHER LIVES AND LOVES ME TOO....

There is a children's song that says:
"I know my Father lives and loves me too
The Spirit whispers this to me and tells me it is true,
And tells me it is true."

So lastly, to end my month of Gratitude, I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and the knowledge that He knows me personally and cares about me.  I recently read a book called, Divine Signatures by Gerald Lund.  In this book he writes about the blessings that the Lord gives us and that some of them are so tailored to us and our circumstances that it was as if the Lord signed His signature to it.  When this happens, it is a tender mercy to us to affirm that the Lord knows who we are and what we are going through.  I've had a few of these in my life.  

Sometimes we might have to sing the children's song above to ourselves, or at least say the words over and over to remind ourselves that the Lord does love us.  When we are going through a trial it is particularly hard to remember that the Lord loves us.  We even may "curse God" and wonder why He is putting us through this.  But next time this happens to you, stop and very carefully look around and listen.  You might find some things in your life at that time with the Lord's signature on them; proof to you that He does indeed know what you're going through, and proof to you that He also does indeed love you very much. 

I know this, and I'm very thankful for that knowledge.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

Today I'm thankful for "favorite things".  We love to have our favorite things around us.  We even get a little OCD about our favorite things.  I thought I'd just make a list of my favorite things and just let you wonder about why they are my favs.  :0)  Some may be repeat subjects from past gratitude posts:
- my piano
- hoodie jackets
- jeans
- mens white quarter socks
- my Dallas Cowboy t-shirt
- my stuffed weird animal collection
- my bed
- pumpkin cookies
- Nutella spread
- my truck - Ford F150
- the scriptures
- blue malva shampoo
- jergens lotion
- Harry Potter
- any other good book
- my kitchenaid mixer (red)
- spiral notebooks
- Pentel pens
- New Mexican food
- dark chocolate
- my husband
- my children
- my grandchildren
- road trips
- fall (the season)
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, THIS LAND IS MY LAND.....

Today I'm thankful for living in this great country! I never realized exactly how priviledged we are to live in the US until I lived in and visited other countries. I also never realized how that we have a more varigated landscape than other countries. Foreigners have never seen things like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, etc. I heard a story yesterday about a man who was visiting another state and he met a man from that state. The man who lived in the state asked the visitor what he had seen during his visit. He mentioned a national landmark and the man who lived there said he had never been there. The visiting man could hardly believe that this man who had lived in this state all his life had never been to the national landmark. The man asked the visitor what state he was from and he told him. The man said that he had been to that visitor's state and had gone to a national landmark there. The visitor ashamedly replied that he had never been to that landmark in his own state. It makes me think of all the places in my own state that I haven't been to yet. It also makes me think of people who always want to go visit another country, but I wonder how much of this country they have seen? My husband and I have traveled around to a lot of places but there is so much more of this US that we would like to see, I hope we do.
 "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine