A new Pet Peeve

We are enjoying the beginning to a big weekend at our house today. We are hosting my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary party at our house. All of my hubbie's side of the family (minus 3) will be here this weekend. But anyway, we just got back from Panera w/ G and G and there was this lady on the phone right beside us. We was taking customer service surveys and she spoke sooooooooo loudly. I realized as we set there that this has happened to me before. I work in a library. Now the library of today is not the library I remember as a child. Ours is quiet but nothing like it was when I was younger. We have been told to think of our library not as a library but as a community center. Anyway...on this particular day there was a program of some sort going on for kids. I was in the new part of our building shelving books and and I heard someone say hello....loudly. I tried to ignore it and go about my business but she just kept going. Everyone in the back half of our building got to hear the entire conversation that this gal had w/ the person on the other end of the phone. It pertained to someone in one's family that was having to be dealt w/ of some sort. The longer she talked the more angry I became. This part of the building is where all the computers are and I went to the end of the aisle and looked at what was going on and everyone at the computers kept glancing up at her. She meanwhile had her back turned because she was watching her children in the program. About the time I couldn't take it any longer and was on my way to ask if I could say something to her or have someone in a higher authority position say something to her, she hung up. Which brings me back to the lady sitting beside us today. So I will say my piece and move on....I don't mind you having a conversation on your phone but do all of us a favor and do one of several things...
1.) Speak quietly. If the person that you are talking to can't hear you, then get up and go outside or wait until you in your car and THEN talk to them.
2.) If your conversation is going to be lengthy, either move outside and find some sort of privacy (NOT THE PUBLIC BATHROOM, which is another whole post in and of itself) or politely ask the person on the other end if you could call them back when you are able to talk freely.
I know that you may think that your conversation is the one that might just SAVE the world but honestly we don't wanna share it w/ you. It's embarrassing for ALL involved.

Wow, I feel much much better now that, that is off my chest. I will post again I'm sure, willing to share another episode of "Deb's Gripes and Bellyachin." Stay tuned!!!

Just couldn't keep my fat nose out of it

Well, I did again....someone made my girl cry uncontrollably and just HAD to talk to them. I told her and she informed me that she gets made fun of for it. Great, just great that is EXACTLY what I was hoping...geez. What's wrong w/ me? Why can't I just let it alone and let her figure it out? I get physically sick when she gets hurt.. You know what I mean? Yep I suck at this mom of a teenager thing...can't keep my nose out of things. I asked her who said something and she told me that one of her "friends" made fun of her for it. That's what friends do now...? That hurts more than I thought it would. And of course it makes me wanna go talk to that "friend"!!! Oh my word I am hopeless!!! This is it...this is how I'm going to get my name in the paper.
PATHETIC MOTHER OF TEEN CAN'T GET HER LIFE..that's what this looks like! I never meant any harm my girl. But from here on in I'm out. Like you want, it may kill me but I'm done. Now, what I need is you all to pray w/ me. Pray that I will be a normal mother and keep my mouth closed. I feel just sick about this.

new cell phone

As of today (the 29th) I am eligible to upgrade my cell phone. I am trying to figure out which one to get. Our plan currently just has unlimited texting and some minutes but there are times that I am use the internet on my phone. With that said I am trying to figure out if I want a phone that has email and internet and then I can change our plan. Do I really need those things or are they just things that are nice to have. We have verizon and I have had NO problems none what so ever w/ them but I have to say that their selection of phones is what I was hoping for. Help I need HELP. What do you think? Do I need a phone that has email and internet? Does anyone have Verizon and can recommend one phone over another? Do you know of any plans by Verizon to bring any more new phones into the selection process? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.....Thanks.

My Daddy

I am watching a concert of Vince Gill and he is talking about his daddy. He is making me laugh and then he sang the song he wrote when his daddy passed on. And I was in tears. The song sounds like something my daddy has already written. It is played w/ the Chet Atkins finger pickin style, just like my daddy does. My daddy loves Chet Atkins. Even as I write that I realize what an understatement that is. I was home the day that it was announced that Chet had passed on. I watched as my daddy shed some of the biggest tears that I have ever seen him shed. Chet meant alot to my daddy. He will tell you that he sat and listened to Chet's records over and over when he was small. That is how he taught himself to play. Now that I am an adult I realize how big of deal it is that he taught himself. That was just the guitar. Daddy started on the mandolin as a child, later he did guitar, bass guitar, fiddle, and steel guitar. To say that I am amazed would not be completely correct. I am proud and amazed and any number of other adjectives. But I asked Daddy why the tears? He told me "for many reasons" including "I won't get to pick w/ him and tell him how he helped shape my life, and how the Lord had and is using me through the music." That folks sums up my daddy. It's all about the Lord, the music, the relationships. Without really digging you now know a huge part of what makes me, me. Daddy taught me everything about the stage, performance, how to breathe, how to feel the music, how to connect. Through all that a ton of the other things that I would need through my life came out. How to treat folks, how to live for the Lord, how to be a light, how to make people comfortable and just love them, how to share your faith w/out shoving it down folks' throats, how to stay strong in the face of extreme trial. My daddy didn't know a lot of love personally through his life and yet he is one of the most loving people you will ever meet. As all humans do, my daddy is growing older. He turns 72 this coming January. I have never thought of my dad as old and as I grow older I realize now that 72 is not old. But the past months have brought the normal changes that come w/ age. It has been strange for me. My daddy has always been the strong one compared to my momma who has had health problems from age 18 on. Maybe I am being overly dramatic about this. But it was a huge wake up call for me and I can tell you I don't like it one bit. There are many things that I can say I don't like about growing up but this may be the biggest one for me right now. This place of being of being a wife, mother and adult plus daughter and child is weird. How does one navigate this? For now I know what I will do...Pray and keep loving everyone as the Lord does. That will have to do.

The Election

Ok...so if you know me you know that I am not a quiet keep my opinion to myself person. I am a news junkie in general, have been ever since 9-11. I was raised democrat and my mom would tell you that she still is on most things. My dad on the other hand would call himself an independent. They both loathe the republican party for their own reasons. As I have grown older and had kids my interest in government of course changed. I first look at the moral stance of people. If it doesn't align with what the Lord says is right and true then I am not for it. I know, I know that doesn't meant that the republicans have the whole platform on moral issues but for the most part that is where I have landed. This election is no exception. To be honest when all this started I was disappointed that the man that I felt had the same views as I did, didn't make it. I kinda felt left out after the primaries. To say I was not excited about this election would be an understatement, other than I knew I didn't want Obama. His stance on moral issues didn't go with mine, his associations with certain people didn't help his case either. Everything that I read that he had said or written made me think of 2 things...he thought he was smarter than most folks and he had poor judgement on his associations. I am a preacher's kid. I have had folks tell my dad that what he said from the pulpit was wrong and that they would never be back. So when Obama TRIED to make us believe that he had spent 20 yrs as a friend of Rev. Wrong and he had never heard him say such incredibly things....I knew right then that the man was not someone that my kids could look up to or believe in. Obama in my view has just continued down hill from there. The democrats of now are not the democrats that my folks were raised with. Their ideas sound more like socialism than I am at all comfortable with. And that coupled with this passive, if we just talk to them and play nice and ignore the threat it will go away, way of thinking is more than I can stomach. He wants to cut defense spending. What? Now? In the middle of the fight for our very lives? (Btw..here is an excellent article that explains a lot...read the comments too..some of them are eye-opening as well...http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obamas_civilian_national_secur.html )



I don't want income redistribution, it's wrong and that's NOT what America is all about. The bottom line for me are his ideas of socialism. Ideas that have been done in Cuba and Russia and look how well they have worked there? These are just my thoughts. I don't presume to be an expert but I do dig and research as much as possible to help me make my decisions. I read a lot of things, conservative, liberal, independent, libertarian, etc. I want all the info in front of me when I make a decision. I am not naive to think that just one person has all the right ideas but this is earth and we aren't given perfection. So I look things over and decide who believes like I do. I pray a lot and read my Bible to get God's words in my heart and mind. I listen to those of faith that I trust and hear what they are saying. For me it isn't hard for me to decide. I just wanted to say my piece and now...I have.

Restore CC videos

I wanted u all to see these, so I am sending the links to the videos cause I can't get it to upload on to my post. The first is a music video by our worship minister, youth minister and several more folks from our worship arts team. We are going to 2 services on Sept. 14. This was a way to let people know that and to let folks know that it is never to late to check out Restore. By the way it is really funny!!!!!! Check these out. The second is all about our Kids City program. It is the BEST and in the video you get to see both of my kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sagwn8qhF2g

http://vimeo.com/1649397

Enjoy...let me know if the links don't work. I love you all. Deb

Our Dave Ramsey journey

I am sure that this may not surprise most of you out there but, this Dave Ramsey stuff is weird. I haven't found it to be hard just yet cause we are still in the process of figuring it all out. We are working on our cash flow thing and the folks in our class have some great ideas. As it turns out I have been doing some thing right all along. Instead of doing this every month , it is much easier for us to do it every 2 weeks before a paycheck. We just didn't know that we could do it that way. We were both relieved to find out that it worked for others that had been doing it for awhile now. But now the hard work begins. We are starting to carve off the fat in our spending habits and so far it hasn't been entirely hard. We are starting the envelopes this coming Friday. I am actually looking forward to it. I work best within some boundaries. I don't think that we will struggle with putting our grocery money in envelopes because for now it is the only thing we have in envelopes. There is no extra money for anything else right now and that is a very motivating factor to get started on our snowball as soon as possible. We are both jazzed about the thought of not being in debt. One of the guys that leads our group asked us how we thought it would feel to be out of debt. And we both answered at the same time that we had no idea, cause we have never been that way and have no idea how it feels, but that we were looking forward to finding out what it will feel like. I know that it is NOT going to be easy but we are both sooooo sick of the worry and stress that we are ready to do something serious about it. Again any suggestions you may have that you found to be helpful on your journey we would love to hear them.

On another note..... I am really enjoying the Olympics. The other night when our swimmers beat France we were both screaming at the tv. We had both been sitting down and when Jason Lezak caught up with the french guy we both stood up and held our breath. They showed that we had won we both were screaming and high-fiving. My son who had been in bed 2 floors up came downstairs asking what was wrong. It was something else!!! I was thrilled for those guys and to do it with the President in the audience would have been the icing on the cake. Anyway we are really enjoying watching most all of the games. We even watched fencing and loved it. We are such sport junkies anyway so we are loving this. Until the next time I think of something that I just gotta tell you about.....