Simplicity in Tradition

I have always found the simplest things to be the most enjoyable.


For instance holidays, With me being a newlywed and having both family's so close I'm lucky. Now you may think that there is a internal fight as to who's parents get to see us for Christmas like you see in the movies, but that's not so. It has always been and will always be, we go to my Husbands parents a week before Christmas for a caroling party, then Christmas eve for family time, gifts and have salmon chowder. Christmas morning is for, us with waffles and sausage for breakfast. Christmas day is for my family usually with a huge family gathering and a pot luck. Then a few days latter we have dinner at My Grandfathers with the family again. This is our tradition and it works. No one feels slighted we get to spend this time for family, with all our family. That is one of the best parts of Christmas, family. I like our tradition, It makes the holiday season easy to plan.

Merry Christmas!

Bad News/ Good News

Many of you know that I was informed mid November that I would be getting laid off December 20th, due to company restructuring. In other words, "we have had a few really bad years and can no longer keep you on full time, but have a seasonal position available for you if your willing to take a pay cut."

This was like a stab in my chest. As you know we are a two income family. Now my pay checks did not buy much, but they bought all our food, paid the cable bill, and pay for health ins. Plus any household items we need. So I came home that day and immediately revised my resume and uploaded it to Monster jobs .com. After about a week of putting in 3 to 4 applications a day, I had not heard anything. I started to worry a little, then I got a call from a retailer that they wanted to have an interview. A little ray of hope. The interview went well, but they informed me two days later that they had hired some one else.

Now I started to really worry. What would happen, how would we buy food how would we manage. Sure I would file for unemployment but it would be about half of what I normally brought home. Things were going to be tight. Then I realized that Christmas was only four weeks away. How on Earth would we do this? I have a rather large family and we typically do homemade gifts. I have been working on them since the beginning of November, but was wondering how I was going to finish them. As you can see I was worrying about too much. I then began praying that God would take away my worries and pray that he will provide. I felt much better, I still fell that way.

On Saturday My District Manager called me an offered me a promotion. He said that they did not want to loose me and he had an Area Managers position available. He said that he has been very impressed with my work and knows that I wanted to move up, So he was going to only offer this position to me. Wow! Now all I have to do is sit down with him and another District Manager and discuss the position and other odds and ends. It is only a formality. I should know more by next week but it looks like I will not be getting laid off. This will be a full time year round job. Salary not hourly but it is a steady job. My point is how strong faith, and prayer will help you past any road block in life. It may not happen in the time you think it should but it will happen in God's time.

Just my take on things.

One more time!

For some reason my post has been turned around into a racial post. If you re-read my post I did not mention any thing about race at all. I could care less what race someone is. If Mr. Obama had been pink with purple polka dots so what. As I have thought about it over the last week my biggest concern WAS experience or lack there of. But apparently the American public think he is well capable of the job. I NOW say lets see where he will take us and go from there. I believe he will try to do great things, but it will not be easy. This country is such a mess now it could only take an act of God to fix it, and maybe just maybe Mr. Obama is that act. That is my final word on this subject!

Conflicting Tohughts 2

Because some of you have asked for clarification on my last post here it is.

I did not like or dislike Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain I was conflicted. I was unsure who I wanted to win. I would now consider myself an independent, neither left or right. Personally I believe everyone should be this way, then maybe we could all get along. Yes, I do not agree with some things either candidate brought to the table. McCain I believe would have kept digging at this hole we are in, thinking it was the only way out. Obama and his views on the family upset me. If you believe in God at all you would understand my reasoning, and I'm NOT going to get into that! Most people DON'T want to here it, and I don't want to argue! Nor do I want any one who reads this blog to argue. The Bible says to love one another.

The entire point of my previous blog was;

That I WAS discouraged about the outcome but, am NOW excited for President Elect Obama! That prayer and passages from the Bible helped me come to this realization.

Conflicting Thoughts

We have a new President!

I went to bed last night not too excited about this news. Some of you this may be a surprise. Up until seven years ago I would have voted with the Democrats, but I started to change, grow up a little. My beliefs have changed dramatically in the last seven years. I think it all started with the loss of my son Richard and the realization that a prayer had been answered. But that's another blog.

So when this race started almost two years ago, I really started to pay attention. I listened to all the speeches, all the adds, all the questions being asked and their answers. I think I listened too much because I began to stress out about it, as if I could really do anything about it. That is not my place, it's not your place either. When I woke up this morning I still felt unhappy about the outcome of this election. I then realized that I would be telling my daughter who had won. Megan has been very interested in this election and had formed very strong opinions for a ten year old. Opinions I did not have, I tried not to influence her in any way. But she did not like Obama at all. She may have gotten some ideas from her Grandfather who is very outwardly opinionated, and unfortunately in my eyes a racist. (How did I ever turn out so well?) So when she asked me this morning who had won, I was hesitant to tell her. When I did she reacted unexpectedly, at first she was shocked but then finally came to terms with the news. She then proclaimed with an adult spirit " Good for Him!" God bless this child, she knows how important this is and what it means for our country.

We talked about this during breakfast and on the way to school. After I had dropped her off at school I turned up the radio. I was listening to WPER a christian radio station. Of course they were also discussing the outcome of the election. They too were a little like me, discouraged but Excited. As I listened to the DJ's I began to understand why they were excited. They were reading scripture and encouraging people to not be upset. One thing they said that completely opened my eyes was, God knew who was going to win, God put that person in place for a reason, we need to trust God and know that he is sovereign. We also need to pray for President Elect Obama, pray for his protection, and that God can use him for what he already has in place.


So now as I write this blog, I too am excited! We need a change of pace, and if Mr. Obama can bring it then I say good for Him. I'm excited that this invisible racial line has been crossed. People have for years denied that it exists, but it has. Now maybe we can move past our sins of 150 years ago and truly be, One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.


Just remember, "Nothing in ALL creation could separate us from God's love. Through the blood of His son, Jesus"


Please pray for our New President and our country. Know that God has a divine plan and all we can do is keep close to him and trust him.

I like to garden!

Yesterday I finished a four week long re-do of my gardens. It took four weeks because up until now I have only had one day off per week. Alas it is finished! It is bitter sweet, I like being in the garden with all the plants and things. I like digging in the dirt and turning something barren and lifeless into something beautiful and full of life. It is neat to see all the creatures that make my garden a home. Worms, ants, spiders, beetles, and unfortunately pests that I don't want in my garden. Most people would use a pesticide to get rid of them. I can't do that to the environment since I'm trying to make it beautiful. So I use a home made concoction of soap and water, this works well.

Gardening is also a great stress reliever, or if I'm irritated I gives me time to calm down. Many people don't know this about me but I can have a bad temper at times. I have learned that if I remove myself from the situation for a while I am able to take the time I need to calm down or get my thoughts together. I'm grateful to have a Husband that understands this, and lets me have the time I need to compose myself. Not that we argue often, I think we have had a total of 3 very heated arguments in our four years together. We do squabble, we're not this unnaturally perfect couple, we just don't disagree on much.

So on that note I did garden in frustration a few times over the last four weeks. Either because I had a disagreement with Milan or an argument with our Daughter Megan. One time in particular after a disagreement with Milan I went directly out side and started ripping out old flowers and digging out the grass to make room for the new planter bed. After about two and a half hours I felt more calm and tired. I was able to go inside and talk rationally with Milan and we both agreed that we were upset over nothing.

Once again I like to garden! It helps me to be a better wife and makes for a pretty outside space. I will miss it over the next few months of cold and gray, but I am looking forward to Spring!

Speeding Drivers

Let me start by explaining how I drive. I typically only drive the speed limit, and stay in the far right lane. Any time I go over the speed limit even if only by five mph I feel guilty, and start scolding myself like a Mom would. "Jessica Lynne slow down or you'll get a ticket."

So it really bothers me when I'm obeying the law and other drivers are speeding past or what I like to call 'pushing' me down the road. One time about a year ago I was on my way home from work and was doing my normal driving and came up on a big truck that was not going the speed limit. I moved into the left lane to pass him and a few moments later a car came speeding up on my rear. He was blinking his lights and honking his horn for me to go faster. Normally I would move over and let the law braker pass but as I was passing an 18 wheeler I couldn't do this. After I got just far enough in front of the truck the car behind me sped up and cut off the truck, just as I was going to get over. He then proceeded to speed pass telling me that I'm #1 but not in a nice way. Now I thought that was really mean seeing as I was doing nothing wrong.


It really bothers me when drivers speed through a School zone. Maybe it's because I have a kid in school, but I never did this even before I had kids. I have even seen parents of kids at my Daughters School go speeding through the school zone. Maybe they forget or just don't think that it applies to them. This really makes me mad but I just give them a scornful look and shake my head. I even had a driver try to push me off the road because I had slowed down for the school zone. There is never a cop around when you need them. I find myself saying that a lot. I try to just let it roll off my back but that is not always easy. Then I think if I were the one doing this I would have the world record in tickets.


I don't think people understand that the older your car gets the longer it takes to get up to speed. And I baby my car, I never punch the gas or floor it just so I can keep up. I let my car do what it needs to do and it takes a little longer than newer cars. Heck it's 21years old! Sometimes I feel like making a sign that says "I only do the speed limit, if you insist on breaking the law then please pass me and don't push me!" But it's to long for people to read, especially when they are speeding.


So if you see me on the road just know that I'll be doing the speed limit and staying in the far right hand lane, probably singing to one of my favorite christian Cd's! Don't forget to wave as you pass.

I DON'T LIKE SNAKES!!!!

This happened a while ago but I wanted to post it any way....


While I was watering the tropical's in the garden center (thinking about what I was going to make for dinner and things of that nature) one of the plants started to move. Or at least that was what I thought. I took a better look and saw a black snake slithering through the spath! I screamed dropped the watering wand and jumped about a foot in the air(all at the same time). The cashier asked if I was ok, I said no that I just saw a snake! She quickly ran over saying "Ooo Ooo where is it, I love snakes!" While she was asking I was trying to stay as far away from it and still turn off the water, as it was still on a spraying everywhere. I had just seen Billy(Store Manager), Marc(Assistant SM) and Frank(Department Head) a minute ago and asked her if they were still close by, they were. I scurried over to them and told them that we had a problem, (stretching out my arms to there full length in the approximate length of the snake.) a big slithering problem! They look like kids in a candy shop, Saying "Oh boy where is it!" (I don't understand why people think snakes are cool.) I unwillingly took them to it, well as close as I would get to it(about 15 feet) After about a minute of them scoping it out they then started to try and get it out. I backed up a little farther. Billy being the good country boy that he is after about five minutes of trying to find it's head reached in with a grabber and pulled it out dropping it to the floor. He then stood over top of it trying to cunningly pick it up by hand saying "alright now hold still, I'm not goin to hurt you". In one fell swoop he had it exclaiming "Wow that is a purtty big one, I'd say it's bout 4 or 5 feet." He then grabbed it's tail and escorted it out of the garden center through the parking lot and over the railing (on the other side was a 20 foot drop into a maze of ivy and over grown shrubs). Good riddens! I told him thank you and went back to watering, but with caution. I can deal with rats, mice, spiders, insects, bees, and birds they don't bother me. But I DON"T LIKE SNAKES!!! I never have I never will, they give me the heebie geebies. I still have the heebie geebies and will probably check under my covers and in the toilet for a wile until I forget (mostly).


I hope you get a chuckle out of this story as I do now looking back on the day. My reaction was quite funny if you can picture me doing this.