It's the End of the World As We Know It...

....and I don't believe it for a minute!

With all this rapture stuff out there saying that supposedly tomorrow Jesus will rapture his church and the world will go into tribulation, I felt like I needed to put my 2 cents out there.

First of all, this Harold Camping person is an idiot.  If you follow him and like him, I apologize for that statement, but to me it's the truth.  He has claimed to figure out when the rapture is going to happen based on scripture interpretation and numerology.  Okay, so he did that.  What about the fact the Bible clearly says in Matthew 24:36 & 42:  “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father...Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."?  So since Harold Camping knows when the rapture will be, then I guess he's God?  We are warned in the Bible of false prophets.

As a Christian, this kind of stuff infuriates me.  When Sunday comes along and everything is just fine, then what?  He will look like an idiot and give Christianity a black eye.  CNN had a great blog post relating to this.  Read it here.

I read an article on MSNBC.com written back in January about this.  Of all the things and people interviewed in this article, what bothered me the most was this line:

"If May 21 passes and I'm still here, that means I wasn't saved. Does that mean God's word is inaccurate or untrue? Not at all," Warden said.

Once you ask Jesus into your heart and accept Him as your Savior, you are saved.  Forever.  And ever.  Until the end of time.  Basically, once saved always saved.  My heart breaks for this man if he truly believes what he said.  No where in the Bible does it say you have to keep getting saved again in order to be truly saved.

Okay, so what if the rapture does indeed happen tomorrow?  I know without a shadow of a doubt that myself, my girls, my husband, my friends and my family are all going to the same place – Heaven.  So if Jesus came Saturday to take us up to paradise, here is what I would do:

1.   Stand in line and have my judgment for what I did and didn’t do during my time on Earth.

2.   Find my grandpa and give him the biggest hug I’ve ever given him.

3.   Attend the family reunions that would be taking place and meeting relatives that went before my time.

4.   Help the girls find their friends, who would be there somewhere with their families.

5.   Get my comfy chair and my never-ending supply of Diet Coke (yes, I think Heaven would have it) and sit in the edge of Heaven and watch and pray for the people left behind.

In all seriousness, if Jesus did come back tomorrow, where would you be?  I know some people put no stock in religion.  It’s a MAJOR part of my life and I truly hurt for those who I know would not be joining me.  I hope with all the media going on about Harold Camping that people do start reading their Bible and going to church.  It will be an amazing day when we all go to Heaven and see the Father on His throne in all His glory.  I hope you’re with me J

There Once Was A Man

There once was a man born on June 4, 1926 and was the second youngest in this family.
And married his sweetheart after dating six weeks and was married to for 61 years.

There once was a man who was a Army Veteran who proudly served in World War 2 recovering things from Hitler's hideout.

Hot Springs, Arkansas 1945

There once was a man who was the father of Richard, Linda, Pam and Albert.
And a pet or two.
And grandpa to Lee, Scot, Michael, Melissa, Brian, Mandy, Christi, Alvin, Maddie and Morgan.
And great-grandpa to Christopher, Jacob, Sam, Ansley, Parker, Joseph, Jacob, Sara, Claire and Allie (and after his death, Luke, Olivia, Rylan, Eliza, Mason, Ava, Addison and Anna Kate).

There once was a man who not only was an insurance man but a Southern Baptist Minister.

There once was a man who loved his family with all his heart.
Who took his grandkids fishing.
And to auctions.
And hunting.
And the lake.
And to church.

There once was a man who like to sing "Pretty Good".

There once was a man who suffered from Parkinson's Disease for over 20 years.
And refused to let it consume him.

There once was a man who loved the Lord with all his heart and opened his eyes to Heaven on May 5, 2005.

My grandpa was a remarkable man who I dearly loved and cherished.  I miss him everyday.  I still haven't gotten over his death.  I know without a doubt I will see him again one day.  Every time I hear an old hymn at church, I have to choke back tears.  The memories of spending weeks of the summer with him and my grandma (who celebrated her 88th birthday yesterday!) will stay with me forever - going to church, walking around the Mingo Wildlife reserve, eating at Taco Bell (LOL - inside joke), dinners at Hickory Log and so forth.

My grandparents and I on my wedding day, May 18, 2002

On our annual visit grandpa's grave - July 2010

Most people are celebrating Cinco de Mayo today, but for me, today I am wishing my grandpa a happy 6th Heaven birthday.

p.s.  Mom, I know you are reading this and I'm sorry for making you cry - I know you are :)

Best Friends Forever

While I was at my mom's house over Spring Break a few weeks ago, I came across a movie I've been wanting to see, but hadn't - Sex and the City 2.  While watching it, I got to thinking about the relationships I have with my friends.

I love watching Sex and the City (SATC).  I've now seen both movies and every episode even though I tended to skip over Samantha's same-gendered relationship phase.  Charlotte was always and will always be my favorite character on the show.  Miranda was too whiny and Carrie, well, she eventually married Big, right?

Watching the dynamics of those 4 always left me envious.  Not of their single, carefree ways in New York City (even though it was fun to watch) but of their friendship.  They were always there for each other, through marriages, divorce, babies, Big leaving Carrie at the altar, whatever was going on at that time.

I've never had a super-tight group of friends like that.  Yes, I have my close friends, but not a cohesive group like that.  I tend to have a large group of friends but few I could call my BFF.

There was my elementary school BFF, J.S.
Then my high school BFF, A.L. in MO and M.F. in GA
And my college BFF, L.P.

Some of my current close friends have a group like that.  One I can think of in particular has 3 other girls she's been friends with for over 10 years and even though we're good friends, she'll always have that super-tight group.  The irony is that no matter how bad I want to have a set of friends like that, I won't.  It's just not in me.  I work better with a few super-close friends and a large group of other friends.  My friends and I run in the same circles, have kids the same age, but I can't ever see myself as part of a SATC-type group.  I love to have lots of friends and few close ones.  Right now I have my husband, sister and 2 others I consider to be super-close friends.  Sure, I'll could call some of them my "BFF" but do they think of me the same?  Who knows?

I watch my oldest daughter, A.  I get furious when I see some of her friends go off and do things without her, but then, it doesn't bother her one bit.  A hardly notices.  She has a few close friends and is, in general, friends with everyone.  Sound familiar?

My Tuesday 10...On Thursday

This has been a crazy, busy week since we are heading into our busy season at work (ice cream, not taxes) so forgive me,  I didn't get a top 10 posted on Tuesday.

Better late than never, right?

This week's Tuesday 10:

10 Things That Exist Now That Didn't When I Was a Kid

10.  Cell Phones
9.  Ipods
8.  DVD Players
7.  DVD Players IN THE CAR (man, those 8 hour rides to Missouri would have better with these)
6.  HDTV
5.  Global Warming (well, maybe, but no one talked about it)
4.  Satellite radio (LOVE me some XM Radio on long trips)
3.  CDs (now they are going out of style - we had cassette tapes!)
2.  Digital Cameras
1.  the Internet

I only wonder what Allie's list would look like if she writes one when she's 30...

A Fine Alabama (or Auburn) Education

This past week the girls were out of school on Winter Break, so we made our usual school-is-out trek to my parents' house.  My parents live in Alabama and I just LOVE it when I can point out something that shows Georgians are smarter (hehe...).

I often see signs and such that proudly show off the fine education people in Alabama receive.  For instance, there's a sign at a tobacco shop outside of the town my parents live in.  They spell tobacco, tabacco.

So now I formally present two fine examples of an Alabama (or Auburn) education:

Exhibit A --------->

We now spell "pioneers" "pioneenrs".

(Picture taken over Thanksgiving at Noccalula Falls in Gadsen, Alabama)

Exhibit B --------->

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a new spelling for the word "poison".

(Picture taken this past weekend at the Birmingham Zoo in Birmingham, Alabama)

Let's throw in a bonus.  This is not a misspelling, but an actual donut shop (I find the name of it hilarious).

OMG!  Donuts!

(Picture taken this past weekend in downtown Anniston, Alabama)

I hope everyone that reads this knows I am only teasing Alabama and Auburn fans.  We Georgia fans and alumni take our fair share from other schools.  I wouldn't dish it unless I could take it.  GO DAWGS!

My Tuesday 10 - Husband Edition

Wow - I haven't blogged in 2 weeks!  Time just gets away from you.  In honor of my husband Ben's birthday tomorrow, my Tuesday 10 is about him :)

My Top 10 Things I Love About My Husband...

(of course, in no particular order)

10.  The way he is with our girls - watching a daddy and his daughters would melt anyone's heart
9.  The way he can look at me and tell something's wrong even when I try to pretend it's all okay
8.  The fact he's a big sports nut - our most fun times have been at Georgia football games
7.  His red hair
6.  He works hard to provide for us
5.  He's my best friend who I can tell anything to
4.  He keeps me grounded
3.  His intelligence (sometimes he's too smart for his own good ;)
2.  His smile when we walks through the door after work
1.  He picked me :)

Happy (Early) Birthday Sweetie!

Facebook Can Be EVIL

I am a Facebook addict.  I admit it.  I currently have over 700 Facebook friends and actively manage 3 Facebook Business Pages.  Facebook (from here on known as FB) can be great - it reconnects you with friends, keeps you in touch with your out-of-town family and can keep you in touch with your friends and plan stuff.  For business, it's great - free advertising!

On the flip side, it can be bad for you.

I think FB is an enabler.  We get to see into our other friends' lives - what they are doing, where they are going, what they have recently gotten.  We can get green with envy or we can portray ourselves as doing better than we are to present a good face.  Other times, I think people post things to throw it in other people's faces.

FB is rampant with cliques (yes, grown women do have cliques...even in their 30's and 40's) posting on each other's walls about what is going down that night for "Girl's Night" or just one or two friends posting about "had a blast this morning!"  or "can't wait to do it again!".  If you happen to be that one friend that was not included, this can quite frankly piss you off.

I will admit I do get jealous when I see that friends of mine have gotten together without me.  Sometimes I would have been able to go, sometimes not, but we all just want to be included.

Then there are times FB can make you feel like a third (or fourth or fifth) wheel.  Friends will comment on stuff you were at or involved in to each other and it would be like you were not even there.  I could go on forever about me and A lately feeling like third wheels, but that's another post for another day.

I've seen this happen to people I know and it's happened to me.  For all the glory FB gets, there's this downside that no one talks about.  It can make a person feel horrible.  Guilty.  Depressed.  Left out.  I do my best not to let the little things get to me, but as a human woman (hormones and all) it does get to you no matter how you try not to let it. And yes, I was inspired to write this post after seeing something posted on FB.

My Tuesday 10

I love to eat.  I go to Weight Watchers because I love to eat.

I present My Tuesday 10...

10 Favorite Restaurants (in no particular order)

1.  Cheddar's (Pooler or Macon, GA)
2.  Spanky's (Savannah/Brunswick/Tybee Island, GA)
3.  Ruth Chris Steakhouse (Savannah/Atlanta, GA)
4.  Barberito's (Statesboro mainly)
5.  Mellow Mushroom (Statesboro or Athens, GA)
6.  Rafferty's (Athens, GA)
7.  Hickory Log (Dexter, MO)
8.  Lambert's Cafe (Sikeston, MO)
9.  Truett's (Atlanta, GA)
10.  Happy Joe's (Muscatine or Iowa City, IA - haven't been there in years, but was my favorite as a child).

Diary of a Former School Bus Rider

Today, as most days, I get stuck behind a school bus on my way to pick A up from school.  The school bus - ugh!  Seeing a school bus, no matter where I am, makes me cringe.  Seeing a school bus always invokes painful memories of being made fun, picked on and taunted.

In Jackson, Missouri if your mom did not stay home all day, if you did not lived close enough to walk or had an older sibling pick you up, you rode the bus.  Everyone rode the bus.  This was the thing I dreaded most from 6th grade until I was a freshman (my sophomore year got better - I had friends with drivers licenses :)  I remember at least one day a week I would come home and cry after getting off the bus.

See, I was the fat girl on the bus.  Looking back, I was not big at all by today's standards, but I seemed to always be the biggest girl.  As like a majority of them, middle school boys can be mean - very mean.  I was always the target of fat jokes and the such.  I vividly remember buying a candy bar (okay, I know) from someone selling them for a club fundraiser and these 2 boys - Travis and Mark - started up.  It took everything I had to act like I couldn't hear them and try not to cry.  These are the same 2 who taunted me for a week after falling down on the way to the piano in the 6th grade Talent Show (I went on to play a perfect "Fur Elise" by Beethoven with a room full of happy applause, thank you very much :)  

I'm sure everyone has those moments from school they can't forget no matter how hard they try.  We aren't perfect.  We've made fun of people and have had people make fun of us.  I think this just helped me develop a thick skin for that kind of ridicule.  It's funny though, once we got past 9th grade (which was located at our junior high/middle school) everything stopped.

The 2 boys?  I don't know what happened with one - he just kinda faded into ordinary.  The other, he started dating a girl 2 years older than us, "fell in love", they ran off from their parents bound for Vegas to get married (he was 16, she 18) but got apprehended by the cops somewhere in Colorado (I think it was...) after their parents alerted the police.  They broke up a year later.

I'm thankful that A goes to a school that they only way you would ride a school bus, is on the way to a field trip.

Ben

Yesterday my husband calls me to make fun of me for 1.  creating a blog, and 2.  posting it to Facebook.  I asked him, "If I did a post about how great of a husband you are, would you still make fun of me?"  His reply, "I would "like" it on Facebook."

Soooo.....

This is a post about how great my husband is.  He's a great friend, listener and father.  He cooks a mean steak.  He know how to make me feel better.  He loves me at my best and at my worst.  He's been with my since I was 18 and is my best friend.

So sweetie, are you going to make fun of me now????  Love you!