So, here are a few pics from the tournament this weekend. We had a good time, even though it was COLD! Yes, it was cold enough for us to be this bundled up!
I know I already posted about something serious today, but I want to just leave you with some verses that are very much helping me this week, so maybe they will be exactly what someone else needs to hear. No commentary from me on these.
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths."
Sorry for the multiple posts in one day. Just wanted to get these up while I was thinking about it! Happy almost weekend!
By the way, the first pic is from Saturday, and it really was cold - I had a t-shirt, fleece thing and sweatshirt (not to mention the gloves and scarf). The second two were from Sunday afternoon. I just realized that seeing what I had on compared to what everyone is wearing in the other two made me look like a complete idiot. :)
So I just spent the past hour writing a completly heart flet blog and there were techincal difficulites with pleonast so it is now 1:00 am and the next blog will have to wait till I get inspired again.
Thanks. I was there yesterday morning. Blake and Abby are still sick. Blake now has a sinus infection and Ab just can't stop coughing. I appreciate you checking in on us. I hope you have a good week. (Wednesday we will be at Pruitt and Lobit with my family).
Yeah, I had felt like I was getting a cold all morning. I took a nap thinking that would help but I woke up with aches and pains. I'm feeling better today though, thanks for noticing!
Joshua is supposed to start kindergarten next yeat, yet he would miss a lot in the fall and winter because of family plans. I'm not worried about his learning so much as I was about school mandating his class days and what not. I didn't know if we would have a problem with the state if he missed too much of kindergarten class.
Putting Vicks on Abby's feet works but for some reason it doesn't seem to help Blake. By the way, I love that scripture from Proverbs. It would have worked well with the sermon from yesterday morning.
Thanks for the offer to help. Gerald is off this week and Lindsey is around so hopefully they will tote and fetch for me. They are probably getting tired of my demands. I'm still itchy but it's getting better moving from my head to my legs now.
Thanks for your prayers. I went Sunday to an urgent care clinic. I go in the morning to see my doctor (or one in the office that can see me). I'm on Prednisone, atarax, and antibiotic. I use alot of ice to try to not scratch.
Hey, I want you to know you are in our prayers as well. You are so sweet and happy and optimistic. I know these events test all of that. But, alas, Happiness is the Lord!
You have more important things on your mind. I'm praying and I know God will always prevail. Glad you used paper plates. I love using paper plates too.
So, I've had "compassion" on my mind the last few days. I'm not exactly sure why, but I've been thinking about it a lot. I think it's probably because of all the compassion and kindness shown to me over the years. So, in true Valerie form, I looked it up in the "dictionary" (a.k.a. www.dictionary.com). The definition that is listed as coming from the American Heritage Dictionary is this:
"Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it."
Reading the definition confirmed the connotation I always assumed went with this word. But what if it's more than that. I got to thinking about how we know when to show compassion. My initial thought was when we see someone going through some tough situations are the times we really need to show compassion. Then I decided that I don't think that's good enough.
I know I've quoted these verses before on here, but I seem to be gravitating back to them often these days. Colossians 3:12-14 says (in the New American Standard Version), "12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity."
We're to put on a "heart of compassion." What if we don't know when someone is going through a hard time? There are things that, if we get to know our brethren like we should, we will know about. However, some situations are very personal in nature, and while they may be made known one day, they can't necessarily be made known when someone is going through the worst of it. If we have a heart of compassion, wouldn't we show our brethren (and those in the world around us), that we may not be aware of their specific sufferings, but that we know this world can be one of suffering? Can't we show them that we have compassion for them, regardless of what they are going through?
I'm constantly aware of the blessings in my life in the form of friends and family. I'm also constantly aware that they would take anything that causese suffering out of my life for me if they could, even when they don't know what I'm working through. I've been thinking a lot about whether I am passing that on to others.
Anyway, this is all probably a random rambling to anyone reading it, but I wondered this week what this world might be like if we all treated everyone in our lives as if this might be the worst day of his or her life, giving them the benefit of the doubt, showing our love and support, and generally showing compassion, whether we think they might "need" it or not. (wow - that was a long sentence - hooray run-ons!) Honestly, I can't think of a time in my life (happy or sad) that I still didn't need the compassion and love of others. :)
Anyway, just some random thoughts. I'll try to post a couple of pics later from our College Station trip this weekend. Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!
So, we took a trip to College Station this weekend, but, in true Valerie form, not before a little drama in Houston!
I get off at noon on Fridays, and this past week, I was going to go grab some lunch and return a couple of things to White House/Black Market. I manage to get about a mile from my office. I pulled up to a light, noticed a strange "catch" as I was breaking, then realized when the light turned green that my car wasn't going anywhere. It didn't die, the transmission just decided to not work anymore, so my car was in drive, my engine would rev, and I would go nowhere. Fabulous. I figure out that this is not going to be a "reboot" type of problem that will be fixed by turning off the car and turning it back on. I'm the first car at the light, thankfully in the right hand lane. I decided I should move it out of the way so here is pushing car by myself incident #1. :) I had to push it with the driver's side door open, while steering it around the corner. Thankfully, there was a Shell station right at the corner, so I was just going to turn the corner, and keep turning to get it into the Shell station. I have it around the corner and I'm starting to turn it into the station when I notice my feet are slipping, so I look down and guess what? Transmission fluid. Ack! So, a guy that was about to pull out of the Shell station jumps out and helps me get it the rest of the way out of the street. He informs me that I'm leaking oil, to which I respond, "Actually, it's transmission fluid."
Let me just stop here for a second. I almost laughed out loud when I had to say that. Despite what was going on, it could have been so much worse (like if I was on the highway or my car was a lot harder to push or something). I'll be honest, though, it felt kinda good to know at least a little about what I was facing. It always cracks me up when random guys think they know more about things like cars than I do, just because I'm female. Hehehe.
So we get the car into the Shell station, pushed up against the curb by the sign, so it's out of the way. I thank the nice man who helped me, and he leaves after making sure I don't need anything else. It's about this time that I have a chance to stop and think for a minute and realize I had the transmission system flushed about a week ago. Hmmm... I look at the front of my car for the first time and realize there is transmission fluid coming out of the hood and underneath. Fabulous. I figure I can either call Mac Haik Chevrolet (where I bought my car and where I can get free towing, since we office in a building owned by Mac Haik), or I can call AAA and wait 2 hours for a tow truck, or I can call the place the did the system flush and see what they say. So, I call the other place. I explain what happened, and they cheerfully volunteer to send out a tow truck on their nickel. Good call, guys. :) He tells me he'll have the driver call me directly and I can ride with him to the shop, where they will give me a ride home. Works for me (so much for running errands). :)
The driver calls and finds out where I am, then tells me he'll be there in 20-30 minutes. Of course, I'm thinking, "Yeah, right. See you in a couple of hours." I decide that I can still walk across the street and grab something to eat, so I figure I should let the gas station employee know what is going on. I walk inside to let him know I have a tow truck on the way and what happened. His abrupt response is along the lines of, "What number pump are you blocking?" Wow - okay. I told him I wasn't blocking anything, I'd managed to get the car over to the side out of the way. He tells me I can't leave it there, it's blocking the driveway (which it wasn't). Okay. "Well, I can't drive it, so what would you like me to do? I'm really sorry for the inconvenience." He replies, "Move it over there" while pointing toward the car wash (that isn't functioning). I mention that I don't have anyone with me, but that I will try to move it by myself. Here's pushing car by myself incident #2. About the last 10 feet or so, a couple of guys that were filling up their cars run over to help me. We get it over by the car wash, and I thanked the nice guys who helped. The response I got from that was them asking if I needed gas. Um, no. Don't you think I would have pushed it over to the pump if that was the case. Yeah.
So, I go back in to tell him I got it over by the car wash and that I'm going to run across the street to get something to eat. He tells me that the way it is positioned now, if he gets a big delivery, they won't be able to get through and that it needs to basically be parallel parked by the curb. Have you ever tried parallel parking while you're pushing a car? Yeah. I explain to him again that I can't drive the car. He yells at me. So, I've been pretty calm up to this point and haven't really gotten upset or anything. Now I'm mad. I realize the guy has a business to run. Believe me, I didn't want to be there. I'm on the verge of tears because now I'm just ticked. I asked him (probably with a slightly more intense voice) :) what he wanted me to do, since I was trying to push a car around by myself. All he would do is yell at me to move it. Fine. I stormed out and tried to start parallel parking while pushing and steering by myself (pushing by myself incident #3). AAAAAUUUGGGH. Thankfully, there must have been a couple of guys in the store that saw what happened. They came running out and helped me. They were so sweet - kept telling me, "Don't listen to him - that guy is a jerk." One of them barely spoke English. He asked me if I needed gas. Hahaha.
So, anyway, that time, I don't think I even went back inside, I just went across the street to eat. The tow truck guy showed up exactly 20 minutes from the time he called. Wow! I found out his life story on the way back to the shop (Jeremy always laughs at me for this. I was telling him all about the driver and his family later and he just thinks I'm weird.). :)
So, the shop calls me later and lets me know it's all fixed. As it turns out, it was all due to a 45 cent clamp. Evidently they didn't reattach the line to the radiator correctly, so it was spewing fluid. They apologized over and over and over. They even thanked me. Evidently, if I'd continued trying to rev the engine or figure out what was going on, they pretty much would have been buying me a new transmission, so they really didn't mind paying for the tow truck. :)
All in all, it ended up not being that big of a deal. They were really nice about it and everything, so I just kinda had to laugh. I have fantastic luck. :) I did say a little prayer later, though, to thank God that a) that didn't happen on a highway somewhere and b) that my car is small enough that I can push it by myself if necessary. :)
Okay, you don't want to read anymore of my rambling (if you've made it this far). I just thought maybe I could provide a good laugh for anyone picturing me pushing my car or trying to parallel park my car that wouldn't drive. :)
Guess I'll have to actually get to the Aggieland part in another post! Happy Tuesday!
I did visualize and I did laugh at this, but I was also amazed at the guy's attitude. You handled it well, in spite of the burr in his saddle. Glad you're safe and were taken care of by the place that "fixed" it the first time!
Great post... I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the fact that this didn't totally devastate you, but you just took it in stride. A lot of people... a whole lot... would have let this ruin their entire weekend.
I'm imagining you in some heels pushing your car and giggling. Valerie, you did really good with that man yelling at you. I would have probably started crying the first time he told me to move it.
What an adventure. I could take Kami to the gas station and give her permission to scream and be crazy for a 20 min! You would have to come with me! Ok ok we won't be petty but I could just imagine it.
Which gas station attendant treated you this way, I need to have a little "talk" with him!! I'm so glad you are ok, but I have some pretty strong feelings about that goofy guy and the way he treated you. You handled it better than I would have :)
You are actually on to something there Val Gal! Think about when the NEW XBOX or Playstation comes out. HOw you have to camp outside the store in the cold! Perhaps, the early bird gets the XBOX720!!
I got an email from someone this week with these thoughts in it. It's been on my mind throughout the week, and I think it's so applicable to everyone! Enjoy, and have a fantastic weekend!
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.
"That laundry is not very clean", she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap"
Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the
young woman would make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a
nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:
"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?"
The husband said, "I got up early this morning and
cleaned our windows."
And so it is with life.. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look..
So true, sometimes we make assumptions about people or their intentions when we may not know the situation or their hearts at all. Thanks for posting that!
Thanks Val Gal. I need to write that down so I can show Joshua through the years... "See Joshua, Val Gal says I am smart, so don't look at me like I'm not."
