Pretty for her Prince...

My sister came into town for a few days. A few days being monday morning to wednesday around 2pm. In and out. We laughed a lot. We tend to do that...

Anyways, we were getting all of her stuff ready to go. Packing her suitcase, she's fixing her hair, just kind of hopping around. Fatty, what's going on?! Well, she says, I'm going to see Munch in Houston because we are flying home together and I want to look nice when I see him. How sweet is that? They've been together for years but it was still kind of cute for her to want to be pretty for her husband...

Surprise! It's a Pinata!!!!

Saturday night we found out it was one of our cg girls' birthday. She turned 20. Carla finds out about it while she's at my house. Court comes over and we all three decide we are going to throw this girl a surprise party. We head over to a store and buy little trinkets, party hats, ice cream, and "the most obnoxious pinata ever." We swing by Taco Bell because we are about eat off our hands before going over to her house and decorating it. Then its game time. I'm in charge of hanging stuff. (I'm the shortest girl of the group...) I'm doing great until its time to hang the pinata. Hmm. No random tree branch in the living room. What can I hang this on? And what am I going to hang this with? We had ribbon, tissue paper, scotch tape, and streamers. Well, my dad didn't raise no fool. I got a really long piece of ribbon. Then I doubled it. Tied it. Doubled it and tied it to the pinata. Then I hung it, ever so delicately, on the ceiling fan. Which thankfully, did not fall out of the ceiling when I hung that marvelous paper-covered, the-good-kind-of-chocolate-filled monstrosity.

It was marvelous. We were wearing the party hats, turned off all the lights, and waited with a candle lit half gallon of Starbucks ice cream. She came in, we all started singing, giggling, and proceeded to gorge ourselves on chocolate and cake. Did I say it was marvelous? Well, it was marvelous. I love party planning AND loving on people and that night I got to do both!

Something in the Water...

When I was little we lived in Oklahoma. On ten acres of land, 5 of which was a vineyard. We had horses, a goose, ducks, dogs, as well as two little girls running around. We moved there when I was three, and my sister was two. We moved back to Texas when I was eleven. Time will play a part in this story as I tell it. Come to think of it, time seems to play a part in a lot of life...

We lived outside a small town called Tuttle. It had a bank, dairy farm, school and not much else. My sister and I had loads of adventures playing all over the place at our house. Two little girls with vivid imaginations... Building snowmen, learning what living in Tornado Alley meant. One of my favorite/most terrifying memories was watching a twister slowly form and begin to touch the ground a few miles down the way. Oklahoma is flat so you could see for miles and miles...

We'd run around and every time we got hot or needed something to drink, to the water hose we went. Mom was big on us drinking our water. She tried to train us to appreciate good ol' water, but I didn't like the taste of it. So I rebelled and didn't drink as much. My sister however, drank it all the time...

One day my sister got sick. Time went by. She stayed sick. I remember lots of nights waking up to hearing her throw up. My dad telling me to go back to my room as he held her up because she didn't have the strength to sit up and vomit in the toilet. I'd go back, but I'd lay there with my hand on the bedroom wall that was also the back wall of the bathroom. She slept on the bottom bunk of our bunk bed so she could hopefully make it to the bathroom if she got sick. I started sleeping on the floor just so she knew I was close and she could touch me if she needed me.

It got bad. We didn't have insurance but my mom took my sister to the doctors anyway. They could not figure out what was going on. She had these bumps all over her. She couldn't keep much down and was getting more and more sick. Then I started getting bumpy and sick. I wasn't as bad as she was, but it was miserable. Where you are exhausted and weak and throwing up stomach acid that burns your throat.

My parents were getting frantic. We were both getting more sick as time went by. My mom thought something was in the water. No, the doctors said; that couldn't be it. She kept saying she wanted to have them test it. Nope, no need, they said. So my mom talked to a private lab in Tulsa and sent a sample of our well water to them. In the meantime, she started giving us bottled water...

The results came back a few weeks later. The water was almost pure manure and rust. Apparently the dairy plant up the river wasn't disposing of their waste properly. My mom immediately had a reverse osmosis water system put in and from then on out all we drank was filtered water.

My sister and I got better, but it took a toll on our bodies. There's not really a way to tell exactly how much heavy metal poisoning we absorbed. Five years of that stuff. If God leads me to fall in love one day, I will let him know of possible faulty plumbing. That way he can make an educated decision about sharing his heart with me.

This is not a doom and gloom story. On the contrary, I believe God had, and still has, plans for those two little girls. We're not quite as little anymore. And He didn't go anywhere no matter how sick we got. There's something amazing about faithfulness and loyalty from the Healer of a broken world. Even when you're a little girl.

So...If we go out to eat and I ask if they have filtered or bottled water to drink, now you know why. I'm not a water snob. Just learned from my experiences...

Random Acts of Wow...

Today has been quite a day. I didn't win the lotto. I didn't get a promotion. BUT. I got so much more...

A friend loved her birthday present...
A friend told me I was important to him and had meaning in his life...
A friend keeps telling me what she sees Him doing in me...
Wendy's gave me two extra bacon hamburgers with my order...
A friend told me he's praying for me...
A straight shot makes me feel safe...
A friend called to check on me...
I had the opportunity to talk about my church...
A card from my sis today said she knew I was having a tough go of it lately, but was with me...
A friend of mine said I'd be a good mom...
A text had nothing but well wishes and love...

And the icing on a cake? Dumb and Dumber was on tv tonight. Seriously though, while I can not wait to get this month over with, I wouldn't change any of it. Yeah, there have been dangerously dark times where I've fallen. But in the midst of it, there are little pinpoints of light coming from Him and those He's put around me. Other times He shines through to where I'm almost blinded by the amazing turn of events in my life. Thank you for being a part of that. I'd hope that I've come through it gracefully, but I know I've got a lot to learn. I kind of hope I never "make it" spiritually. I want to always have a bit of a surprise factor in the ways He moves in my life and in the lives of those around I love...

Enemy at the Gate...

A few days ago my roomie met our guardian. She came upstairs to my room a little frazzled. Let me describe him. He's not the most handsome, or the tallest, and he certainly doesn't say much. I say hello when I see him. He just kind of looks at me and goes on his way. Which is fine. I seriously could talk to a rock. Oh? Did I mention he just happens to be an opossum? He hangs out on our fence. Mostly the red gate.

I kind of like him. I guess I've always got a soft spot in my heart for "mutts." You know, the animals that look like they've been beaten with an ugly stick. Last night we named him Gabriël. I don't know, maybe he is something He sent to protect us. He almost scared my roomie away from her own house so clearly he's an effective deterrent.