100th Post and News To Report

This is my 100th post. Hmm.

First things first - I have to confess something I did today. I was a horrible mother. Actually, I thought I was doing a great thing and being a good mom until the incident....

I took my girls out to the park for a picnic at the park and feeding the ducks. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. We were having a super time and had a lot of fun with the ducks. We went back to the vehicle to head home for nap time. Long story short, I ended up locking Rachel in the van. I buckled Rachel in her car seat and went around to put Katie in and then realized that all the doors were locked!! I don't even remember hitting the lock button and can't for the life of me figure out why I would have done that. There was an elderly couple that was parked next to us about to enjoy a KFC picnic and they generously let me use their phone to call 911. It took about 15 minutes for someone to get there, during which time Rachel was being her independent, defiant self and decided not to answer my plea of pulling up on the button to unlock the door. A few minutes before the first cop showed up, Rachel started sweating and saying she wanted her drink. Can I just tell you that I felt like absolute slime right then! What is worse than your child asking you for something they NEED and you are helpless to do anything about it?! NOTHING! Nothing, I tell you. I was seconds away from finding a rock or something to bust out my window and get in there myself, and then one of the nicest cops ever showed up to help. Minutes later, my neighbor cop that trained my dog pulled up. That was a huge relief to see someone I knew and his reassurance was great - "We'll have Rachel out of there in just a second. Don't worry, Jill." Just the fact that he knew me and knew my daughter made me know he was going to try harder than the average stranger cop to free my kid from the clutches of heat stroke. Well, that's a little dramatic I guess, but still. After trying just about everything to get my apparent impossible lock open, they were able to figure a maneuver that worked and the doors were unlocked. At the point they finally unlocked the door, I had been staring at the pistol in my neighbor cop's holster and was toying with the thought, "I wonder what would happen if I ripped that thing from the holster and just shot my driver's side door open so I can get my kid out of there since you guys can't get my lock undone?! I won the award at camp for being the best BB Gun shooter of the whole camp. I can shoot a gun!" Then I heard the click of the door unlocking. Relief washed over me and I have never unbuckled my child faster in her life than I did today. I snatched her out of the car and of course cried the cry of complete relief. Nicest Cop Ever stayed for a second to make sure Rachel was ok and talked to her for a few minutes and then said, "I know" and walked to his car and came back with a stuffed Tigger and Eeyore for Rachel and Katie. How sweet was that? So, lesson learned today was I will figure out a way to have a spare key on the outside of my car lest this happen again. Second, there really are nice people in the world - 3 of which were ladies that came over while I was waiting on the cops with an outstretched hand holding a cell phone... again I say into cyberspace to those people THANK YOU!! And the cop going above and beyond with those stuffed animals.... that was really nice.

Some news I have is that of possible change. I haven't posted this in detail yet, but my husband is interviewing for a job in Kansas City. There is so much going on around this that it would take pages of posting to explain everything. Anyway, he's been looking for other employment opportunities inside and outside of his current company for quite a while now (months and months) and due to the fact that all his family is in KC and my step-daughter's mom's family is all there and they are thinking of moving back sometime soon, Mike thought it would be an option for us to look there as well. We've always talked about maybe moving there one of these days, but this sort of came up and one of those days became maybe sooner rather than later and I'm freaking out a little. He has had 2 phone interviews and is going up next week for a face to face interview. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it yet. I don't have a peace about this deal yet. We're praying for God to open doors or close doors according to what we should to. I'm being very specific in a dollar figure for his salary and feel like that will be a tangible way we can know if this is God's will for us. I've got to be open to the possibility, though, even though it's a nauseating idea to think about leaving the home we have here, leaving our church family, and leaving our best friends. I was actually reading in Paula Dean's magazine today about change and she put it well, so I will leave you now with this:

Sometimes changes in life can be scary, but fall is a great example of how change can be beautiful and life enhancing. If life seems tough and uncertain, take comfort in the changing leaves that tell us, it's just a season of life, just a passing phase.

PBS?

I walked into my house tonight after being gone for a little over and hour and PBS is on my TV. What in the world?! It's Monday night and if I'm not mistaken, New Orleans is playing football on TV. Am I correct? And yet my husband, the football FREAK is watching PBS?! Or wait.......is it really my husband or has his mind been taken over by nerdy aliens?

More to write about, but not tonight. My body hurts and my eyes are heavy. My alarm went off at 4:35am to remind me that, in fact, I'm still fat and my ultra skinny, toned, disgustingly fab bodied friend would be waiting on me at the class from h-e-double hocky sticks and I must be there to suffer for 55 agonizing minutes or she'd think I'm still a lazy turd. And I just gotta say that whoever invented squats and lunges should be shot!!! Oh and whoever figured out that there are such things as tricep dips and the "hover" - I have no love whatsoever for those evil, EVIL idiots!!!

Change

The thought of doing something new and different is often exciting to me. However, when the new and different thing requires me to leave people behind, then it's not so exciting. I always hesitate to leave that which is comfortable for that which could be uncomfortable.

I often jump to the conclusion before I find out how to get there.... or if the path is really leading me that way. I try so hard not to read the last page of the book because I do enjoy the thrill of the journey, but sometimes I just can't help myself. Life is that way for me, too, sometimes.

My stomach is in knots today. I keep having to remind myself over and over that God tells us in his word to be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, we are to let our requests be known to God. Then the peace that passes every understanding will be ours. I'm praying for that peace today. I need His peace today. I need to know what God is saying to me today.

Granny

My Gran has been here since Saturday for a visit with us. I just took her back home today. We had a good visit and I enjoyed my time with her. I heard the same stories several times, but still, it was nice. Rachel is right now sitting beside me asking, "Where's Granny?" Rachel loved having her here.



We did an extreme room makeover for Tanner this weekend. It is pretty dramatic what we did. I'll post pictures soon.