Thanksgiving Wrap Up

The family all met up in Maryland for Thanksgiving this year. To ease the stress for my Aunt & Uncle my immediate family stayed in a hotel a few miles away. I shared a room with my parents (they got the bed and I got the pull out couch) and my brother's family (left) got to share a king sized bed. As you can see the boys are getting so big. The oldest turned 5 on Nov 1 and the youngest will be 3 in Feb. They grow so fast. The one nice thing is that the boys always recognize me. I haven't seen them since the end of July, but D was the first to take my hand and draw pictures for Auntie Kristy! He even wrote out my Christmas list for me, Santa and all. We had fun just being together and eating. There was lots of eating to be done. I stayed an extra two days with N&P at my aunt & uncle's house after the rest of the fam left. I got to spend the day napping and reading. Heaven if you ask me. That last day really helped me to come down from all of the busyness of the holiday. Also, O'Malley was so happy when I got home. She's been all over my lap and spent the last two night curled up on my stomach at bedtime :)

To Hold Or Not To Hold?

So I thought I would try to get another mother daughter pic last night even though I was looking pretty rough. Something tells me that self portraits are not the way to go. What do you think?

A week later...

The once glowing tree outside my office is now naked. Most of the leaves came off in the nasty storm we had this week. On the bright side, the tree in my backyard is sporting nice yellow leaves. As for me, it just the norm. I have potluck this week and will be running between churches. Unfortunatlly, until they can get a youth leader this will be standard practice. I am heading down to MS on Sunday to visit E&J's new church. As E is aware, I'm having a bit of a hard time with the fact that she is not just switching churches but denominations. But I understand why she is doing what she is and am trying to be supportive nonetheless. Work is ramping up with all of the '08 Planning. Sometimes I wonder if it is even worth it as no one here usaully bothers to ask me and just spends anyway. It's pretty hard to hold back paying something if we've already committed to it. Also, the proposed office move next summer is leaving things in the air expense-wise.

Deep Thoughts Inspired By O’Malley Jane

All this week I have made it a point to wake up on time and have a morning devotional. This consists of a selection of chapters from the Bible (2 Kings 1-3 today) that go along with a reading in the HMS Richards’ Bible in a Year book while listening to the SoundScapes channel on TV and having O’Malley contentedly purring on my lap. This last part is a treat. O’Malley is very finicky about when she will and won’t sit on my lap or nap with me. There are times that I make this decision for her, but she quickly shows her distaste of being forced to do anything. This got me to thinking. I love O’Malley like no one else. I hate being away from her for even a night. I’m sure that those of you with spouses and/or children of any kind know what I mean. And I know that O’Malley cares for her momma. She likes to be in the same room as me even if she is no where near me in that room. While this is good, I would still like more from her. I would love it if she would sleep next to me every night and curl up on my lap or play the entire time I’m home. I must admit it’s been hard for me that she only sleeps on the bed when I pull her up for Sabbath naps and even then, I have to force her on the bed but once there she is ready to cuddle. So back to the thinking: This must be how God feels about us. He loves us more than we could ever love Him. He wants us to spend time with Him, but we want it on our terms. We like to spend our time our way. Sure we’ll come up in His lap for church and other worship events, but after all that lap sitting we get up, stretch our legs and run off to do our own thing forgetting that He is still there waiting for us, wanting us. Even when we have the best intentions, we somehow manage to hurt Him with are carelessness. (I relate this to how O'Malley forgets how much her claws hurt when we are playing and then I have to stop playing because she has torn a chunk of flesh from my finger. She doesn't mean to hurt me, it's just a part of her nature like sin is a part of ours.) While God doesn’t want to force us to spend time with Him, there are times that He puts situations in our life that remind us that we WANT to be with Him. Now, if only I could stop being selfish and place my will in God’s hands daily. I want to want a close relationship with God but I am horrible with follow through in all of the relationships in my life. Being a visual person, I wrestle with His intangibility--not hearing God and not being able to see the path that He sees for me. I can't just call Him up and ask for advice like I can with my friends and family. I can't hug Him to show my appreciation and care. I pray every day that God will make me want to be the person He wants me to be and show me how to do it.

Lookin' Smart

So I picked up something new today. Can you guess what it is? It's a obvious as the glasses on my face. Oops, I gave it away :) These new glasses do more than make me look smart. They are specifically for night driving and for when my eyes are tired from the computer or TV. They will hopefully correct my astigmatism enough to stop those crazy bad migraines that follow my weekly Doctor Who, Torchwood, and SciFi Friday marathons on Sundays. Because, really, what good is a Sunday without some British sci-fi? Brilliant!

Positively Glowing

I think it is safe to assume that fall has come to Memphis. The days are shorter and the nights are cooler. The view from my office window usually boasts nothing more interesting than a yellow generator, satellite dish, AC unit, and the neighboring building. Most of the non-evergreen trees in my view are sporting dried up red and brown leaves. But today I couldn't help noticing that one tree has gone from dull green to a radiant orange-red-gold. Every time I look up, I smile. Now all I can think about is curling up with O'Malley and some hot cocoa in front of a fire...