PICTURE MESSAGING!

How it has taken 4 months into the third generation of iPhones to accomplish this, in lieu of the vast array of other things this “phone” can do, I can’t quite figure out. Every cheap piece of junk on the planet can send a picture message! And only now, do I get to experience the exceedingly gratifying pleasure that every 7 year old with a cell phone has been experiencing, of being able to send all my friends pictures of every minutely cute, interesting, weird, nuerotic, hilarious, ridiculous thing I come across directly to their cell phones, and the glory of now viewing equally inane pictures in return!

And blogging from my phone turns out to be equally exciting!

Oh here is a picture from apple picking too…

http://www.jesusbranded.com/miserable-comfort

I like these t-shirts, and every once in a while, I buy one…But I also read the designer’s blog. I liked todays…it seems to follow closely with some things I have been studying.

Do you truly believe and live like you know the Lord loves you? Or do you still live like you have to earn His love with your works…

“My Son, be strong in the GRACE that is in Christ Jesus.” 2Tim 2:1 (emph. mine)

Be strong in grace…strength in unmerited favor. I know I’ve read the verse several times, but last week I READ it for the first time.  There is strength in Grace??? To find strength in grace is to find trust in knowing that the Lord has bestowed love and favor on us that is no result of our actions then or now….that when the accuser stands in your head, you can take strength from the knowledge that Jesus’s love for you is not merit-based, performance-based, or built up/torn down by you – it is beyond you, and unwarranted. 

“My Son, be strong in the GRACE that is in Christ Jesus.”

Back in 2005, my boss brought in a treat on St. Patrick’s day. (on top of the green sprinkled donuts and green/brown halfmoons). He called me into his office, and handed me a dixie cup.  It was full, brimming with a perfectly mint green shade of creamy liquid.  “Umm, what is this?” I asked disdainfully peering at the green contents of the cup I now held in my hand. A slight sniff, and the smell of mint wafted into my nostrils… “It’s mint.” My boss, apalled at my never having tasted the drink, proclaimed enthusiastically, “IT’S MINT MILK!” Mint milk? omg, ew. Really?? Really? It sounded atrocious, although I’m not sure why. But the thought of having mint flavored milk (never bother to think of strawberry or chocolate milk or other flavored milks, and I’d never had a Shamrock Shake from McDonald’s either) seemed to  be among the odder concoctions. Plus, it was green.  With much trepidation, preparing for the worst of all outcomes, I slowly raise my cup to my lips and took a sip.  And thus began my love affair with St. Patrick’s Day mint milk in a glass jar from Byrne Dairy.

So every year, I write the words “mint milk” on my calendar, and as March 17th approaches, I begin to plot out my morning. (If you have ever tried to go get mint milk, you will find that you have to arrive rather early in the morning to get it, because it sells out very quickly). As today approached, I plotted out the nearest Byrne Dairy, and figured my schedule. I’d be at the gym by 5:30, and on the way to Byrne Dairy on Midler by 6:30 – that would be early enough that it won’t be sold out by then.  And if they aren’t open at 6:30, I can stop by around 7:15 on my way to work and see if they have it then.  And how many would I buy? One bottle for me, and one to share at work? Two bottles for me? Can I drink that much milk, because I don’t want to waste it? What if I only buy one and I have to share and I only get one cup of it? Oh, the questions!!! The decisions!!!

So this morning, as I drove from the gym, my excitement began to grow. Mint Milk day!!! Hopefully Byrne Dairy was open! As I approach the store, driving up Midler, I can see the Byrne Dairy truck in the parking lot. Yes! There’s my milk! And I was early! Surely I got there before everyone else, so I could buy as many bottles as I wanted!! I park my car and run inside, scanning for the green delight as I walk toward the register. The Byrne Dairy man was putting away yogurts in the cases from the truck. “Oh, maybe they already have the whole shipment stocked in back. No worries, its early!” I approached the register, and asked if the woman behind the counter, Do you have any mint milk?

No. We are all out.

All out??? My brain could not even process this statement. How could they be all out at 6:30 am?? Did I miss some fanatical rush of Irish Mint Milk lovers that showed up at 6:15 and cleared out the store before I got there?? I was in a fog of confusion. Then the woman spoke again, We ran out yesterday. Yesterday?? They had it yesterday? I asked a few unintelligable questions, and learned that they had had the precious drink since March 9th, and the truck that came Saturday sold out already.

The disappointment was overwhelming as I trudged out of the store. No mint milk. Not even a cup, much less a whole bottle. They ran out. It was in the store for 8 days and I had no knowledge of it. I had missed the only opportunity the whole entire year to drink the smooth, sweet, cool milk, that was colored the perfect corrolating shade of mint….. my hopes were dashed at 6:33 in the morning.

Except after C,

Unless pronounced A,

As in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh’”

Education is forfeit for reinforcing such rules!

Sound a feisty reveille while eyeing the schools!

Neither will our heirs be agreeing to deceptions

Once seeing, herein, these sufficient exceptions:

We were seized by a feeling

For fleeing on the ceiling

To a leisurely meal

With Keith, Sheila, and Neil

We drank Madeira, so foreign, in steins

Along with a surfeit of weird blueish wines

Being foolish, took codeine, ate ancient proteins

Therein guaranteeing these ogreish scenes

Wherein we’re canoeing to a new sovereign state

While deicing a kaleidoscope on a hot jadeite plate

And kneeing obeisance to an overseeing king

Our plebeian lips kissed his counterfeit ring.

Then we unveiled their sleight-of-hand trick

Deifying a heifer, with effect atheistic

And falling from the heights with a loud seismic crunch

We reignited the nonpareils we had heisted for lunch.

So I before E

Except after C

Unless pronounced A?

False decreeing, I say!

I was let go from my job the week of Christmas, in a very surprising turn of events. I didn’t see it coming at all, and was rather floored by the whole thing. What about my bills? what about Christmas? what about rent? what about my responsibilities? How could I all of the sudden not have a job in this rotten economy!! I was instantly overwhelmed!

As the initial shock began to subside, I began to plan. I pulled up my budget, my bank account, and my bills. I looked at what I had for money, and began to figure out what it was I was going to need to do to make sure I paid everything. I also filed for unemployment. 

Unemployment, it turns out, was going to pay me a bit less than I was making. It wasn’t a drastically less amount – it would make things very very tight none the less. But it looked like I was going to be okay with it. So I planned away and budgeted everything to the last dime…. I had money for all my bills, rent, and gas. Food would have to be an as needed thing cuz after I budgeted I didn’t have the extra to grocery shop. So on paper I knew it would be tight, but that I’d make it. 

I worried a little, and would voice my worries here and there, yet, I felt no impending sense of panic and doom. I knew that God would provide. I just knew that He would take care of me and help me make ends meet through this whole thing. “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, or God’s seed begging for bread” It just kept going through my head like that, with an underlying ….. ummm, confidence? faith? I’m not sure the word for the feeling…

Unemployment didn’t kick in right away….It actually took the entire month of January to kick in. So for the whole month, I had absolutely no income. I had a paycheck and a half left from work (I was able to work until Jan 1).  And I had some Christmas money from my dad that I was saving for an emergency. 

Here is where I lose track of exactly just what happened. Unemployment kicked in on Feb 1. I made it through January with no income. I was not late on a single bill or payment. I actually had a little money to spend on some “fun” things. Where did the money come from? How did I pay a month’s worth of bills on no income? I can tell you a few things – my uncle randomly bought my snowmobile helmet off me, Joe and the Paddocks helped me out with food….. The rest? all I can do is attribute it to the Lord’s provision, because I honestly have no recollection how I made it through the month. 

So on the job hunt…. Sheree had told me to apply at Transaver, that they were always looking for her and Bethany’s friends to work there (there reputation is stellar and they are much appreciated from what I’ve seen and heard). So she was talking to her supervisor, and her supervisor told me to send over my resume, and they got me in for an interview. 

The interview went well, and the job seemed good. But the pay was not going to be enough for me to live on. I was really disappointed. Well, I was told I’d hear back in the next week or so, but I didn’t hear anything for almost two weeks. I figured they interview went bad, and was bummed. I prayed though, and asked the Lord about where to work. And I told the Lord I’d go wherever, I just needed to make enough money to pay my bills. 

Then I got a phone call from the CEO of Transaver, and was asked to come in for another interview. Hmmm. So I did. As it turns out, my qualifications didn’t meet the position I had applied for, but they fit another position they had. The position sounded great – I was instantly excited about the work, and what it entailed. I had to come in for a third interview to meet a couple other people, but it all sounded promising. So I had the third interview, and it just kept sounding better, and I was really starting to want the job by now. The subject of payment came up, and they gave me a range. I hate discussing payment, its so awkward. Anyways, it was a little lower than what I was looking for, but I had decided in my head that I would take the job because it wasn’t bad, and a job is a job, and I knew I’d like the work. They  told me they’d get back to me by Tuesday with an offer. 

Tuesday rolls around, and I get a phone call. They offered me the job, AND offered to pay me more MORE than they range they had told me. I couldn’t believe it!!! Not only did the Lord just provide me with a job, but with enough compensation and benefits that I didn’t even have to worry about it!!! I still am in shock over it!

The Lord is so good, and He takes such good care of His children. He has not let me want for any thing throughout my joblessness, and has provided for me not only a good job, but enough money to make ends meet and then some. I cannot thank or praise Him enough. He has NEVER let me down and NEVER left me unprovided for or uncared for. My heart is in awe of His provision.

my pupster

I don’t have a lot to say but I do love my pupster, and took the opportunity to take some pics of her and this is one of my favorites. 

This post is to only address the feeling that surrounds the Thanksgiving Holiday. What are the sights, sounds, colors, feelings, and thoughts that mean Thanksgiving to you? 

Here is what I think of when I think of Thanksgiving: my mom baking the Wednesday before, the house full of the smells of apple pie, pumpkin rolls, and candied yams. getting yelled at to get out of my room and come set the table A pumpkin spice latte, with whip cream – the perfect embodiment of the warmth of company, and the satisfying fall flavors that accompany all things pumpkin. all the Donohue cousins standing around the dessert table, completely preoccupied with the sugary feast that leaves us all with no option but to try one of everything. pumpkins on the stairs and leaves blowing through the chilly, gray air that smells of snowfall and the pending onslaught of late winter. the random bowl or brown bag that would get filled with everyone’s names, so we could pick who our Christmas person was going to be, and secretly all telling each other even though all the “adults” said to keep it a secret…

So please, please go ahead and comment – long or short, you choose – I can’t wait to see what you have to say about the Holiday Around the Corner.

Here’s a few pics for ya: