Yes – I got a parking ticket yesterday. This was my first ticket ever. I’ve never had a speeding ticket or anything before. Mainly because I’ve just never gotten caught. I do speed on the interstate pretty much all the time. Mainly because I’m always running late to work and because I’m just as in a hurry to get back from work.

Anyway – I got my ticket at church. Yes I said church. I was there to help with Vacation Bible School and made the mistake of parking in front of the church. My “follow the rules” son informed me when I parked the car that there was a sign in front of the car next to me that said “2 Hr Parking”. I told him that it wasn’t in front of my car and that they never watch those things anyway.

Well, my “follow the rules” son also informed me when we got back in the car 3 hours later that there was a ticket on our car. Boy did I look stupid. The only consolation was that some of the other cars around us had them too.

I’m heading back to the church on Friday for 3 hours again. Not sure where I’m going to park. I may have to excuse myself and move the car in between helping the groups of kids with their crafts. I certainly don’t want to end up in jail for spending too much time at church. LOL!

We have plans to leave this Saturday to go to the lake house for a week. I’ve really been looking forward to it. I love to relax up there and enjoy watching the lake. There is so much activity between the ducks, blue herons, people jet skiing, boating, fishing, and water skiing. I could just sit for hours and take it all in. I love to take walks up there. It just seems so peaceful.

Todd’s Mom, our babysitter when I work, is off on a trip to Ireland so we decided that Todd would take the week off of work and we would head up to the lake. This way we wouldn’t have to find someone to watch Evan and we could spend some time together as a family. I will still go to work on Tuesday and Thursday with a much longer drive than usual. This will give Todd and Evan some father and son time on those days.

As we get closer to our time away we are finding that we might be spending less time at the lake than we thought. Monday we have plans to visit some friends in Indiana. One of my college roommates has a couple of kids and Evan loves playing with them. We will spend the day with them. My Dad called several days ago and asked us to come to spend time on Wednesday with him and Fran and Fran’s family. They are all coming up to their house and we have only met her two boys so we will be meeting everyone else. So we are now driving back home to spend the day with them on Wednesday. Todd recently found out that he has a meeting on Friday morning back home at Evan’s school.

Oh – and did I mention that they have a neighborhood garage sale up there on Saturday that we might get involved in. LOL!

I’m sure we will have a great time. Any time spent with my two best guys is always a great time.

My mother-in-law gave me a book to read that was written by Joyce who was one of her classmates growing up. It is a story mainly about Craig, her son, who has Down Syndrome. They also have another son, Kerry, who they adopted a few years after they had Craig.

This is a straightforward book written about their experiences with Craig. I found it interesting to see how they worked through their challenges with their son. They had him segregated for a few years and then decided that it was important to mainstream him with other students not like him. They wanted Craig not to be closed up in his own world but to experience the world as it is. It was also important to them to have others be around someone with Down Syndrome so that they might understand them better and realize they are just like them in a lot of ways.

Joyce and her husband Bill moved frequently because of his job transfers and in each town had to start all over with getting the school systems to setup programs that would include kids with Down Syndrome. They were amazed at how quickly Craig blossomed when placed in a mainstreamed school system.

I could relate to this book in some ways because our son Evan, is kind of at the opposite end of the spectrum. He is highly gifted and sometimes, like Craig, doesn’t always fit the mold. He is in a lot of ways a special needs student. Gifted kids tend to be way ahead of their classmates intellectually but maybe behind their classmates socially and/or emotionally. This imbalance is sometimes hard to deal with. We realize that we, like Joyce and Bill, will have to push for his needs to be met. In our case we are helping to develop an enrichment program at Evan’s school. There are other kids there that are gifted as well and just like those kids that are slow learners, they have needs that need met too.

“Down (Syndrome) But Not Out” is not a world class novel. However, it is insightful and interesting. I enjoyed learning more about what it means to have Down Syndrome and what the parents have to go through to be advocates for their Down Syndrome child.

I know I just talked about my book addiction in a recent post but does it count when I’ve won a book and didn’t go out and buy it? LOL!

Katrina from Callapidder Days has had several book giveaways. I just found her blog a few weeks ago and decided to enter her latest giveaway. She gave away 12 books and I won “Kaleidoscope Eyes” by Karen Ball. I’m excited to get my new book and add it to my collection. Thanks Katrina!

I have a serious topic today that I’m hoping I’ll get a good response on… forgiveness. What does forgiveness mean to you? I have been harboring unforgiveness towards a family member for years now and I so want to forgive her but sometimes don’t know how or exactly what forgiving her means.

She has hurt me and several others over the years and very deeply hurt my Mom. I think the emotional pain she inflicted on my Mom is the hardest thing for me to move past. Even when my Mom was dying she made no effort to resolve any issues with her. At my Mom’s funeral she stood outside the church while it sprinkled rain until the service started, not wanting to be with the rest of my family. Several of us have been ignored in her presence for years. Now that my Mom is gone she has started to be more friendly to my Dad but refuses to join in any family get togethers. I can honestly say that I don’t know what she has against us. To this day I don’t know what any of us did to hurt her and so that makes it even harder to move forward. Back when all of this started my parents went to talk to her and tried to figure out what the issues were and get them resolved but she wasn’t willing to work towards that. My parents were more confused when they got back from that meeting than before they went.

I know that forgiving someone doesn’t mean that what they did was okay. But how do you forgive someone who continues to bring you emotional pain? I know that she will continue to haunt me.

I have been praying about his a lot lately. I have been asking God to help me forgive her even though I’m not sure what that looks like. I have been “listening” to things around me for insight as to what I’m supposed to do. I requested an audio CD from Family Life that talks about forgiveness. Many of their examples deal with things that have an end or a one time incident. One of the things they mention about forgiveness is to take the person you are wanting to forgive out of your court of judgment and handing them over to God’s court of judgment. Another thing that touched me was from a couple’s devotional that Todd and I share. It mentioned that while Jesus was dying on the cross he asked his Father to forgive his persecutors because they didn’t know what they were doing.

I know that the Bible says that we cannot be forgiven if we don’t forgive others first. I really want to move past this and to forgive. I know I cannot forget. How do I get where I need to be with this? I can tell you this – if I ever heard the words “Please forgive me” come out of her mouth I wouldn’t need anything more. I do know, however, that will never happen. Is this my pride getting in the way? What does forgiveness mean to you?

I mentioned last week that I have about 50 books that I've bought over the years and never read. I'm starting to work on that pile of books and the first one I read was "Same Kind Of Different As Me" by Ron Hall & Denver Moore. I have to say this is one of the best books I've ever read. I looked out on Amazon and every single one of the 62 reviews gave it a 5 star rating. I am not normally a really emotional person but this book chocked me up so much that my dog thought something was seriously wrong with me. I mainly was sniffling a lot and she kept getting in my face wondering what the problem was. Some of the reason it got to me so much was the fact that there was a part in the book that touched on an experience I've had myself. I don't want to elaborate on that because for those of you that know me it might tell too much about the book. All it seems that I can tell you without disclosing too much is what it says on the cover: "A modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together." This is a true story of faith and love and of lots of God moments. It is funny at times and one of those books you cannot put down. It is life changing! I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone no matter what type of books you like to read.

I just wanted to wish a Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers out there. I know I am very blessed to have a wonderful father. My Dad has always been a very quiet, patient, live by example person that has had a huge positive influence on my life. His main passion is golf although he likes to do a lot of things. He loves to sing and has sang in the church choirs both in Florida and Ohio, at our wedding and other people’s also, and likes to sing in the variety shows that are put on in his retirement community. He keeps busy socially and seems much younger than his 75 years. After my Mom’s death in 2004, he got remarried in March of this year to a wonderful lady named Fran who I’ve really enjoyed getting to know. She has really been a blessing to our family – Dad has been so happy since he met her and they have so much in common. I’ve very thankful that they have each other.

Another father I’m proud of is my husband, Todd. Evan is one lucky little boy to have him as his father. He is a great role model for Evan. He is an honest, loving, Christ-filled person who is so giving of himself. He not only models what a great father is but he models what a great husband is as well. I’m glad that Evan sees a healthy relationship between his Mom and Dad so that when it comes time for him to get married he will know what role he needs to play and it will be a natural thing for him.

I know there are a lot of great fathers in this world. And so to all of you “Happy Father’s Day!”.

Today I made it to 200 miles so far this year in the Fitness Challenge. I know it doesn't sound like much but I've been working hard to walk when I can. If you want to join the Fitness Challenge click here.

I have this addiction to books. I tend to buy them and collect them but don’t often get them read. I love to go to bookstores or look on Amazon and see what is rated good. I’ve also noticed people recommending books on their blogs so that gets me interested too. We have free 2-day shipping on Amazon since we paid upfront for the year. It just makes it too easy to click the button and then the cute guys with the brown shirt, shorts, and socks bring them right to my door.

I’ve decided to take action on this addiction. I am now just keeping a list of books when I see ones that interest me.

I also have the problem of having magazines to read. I get People (weekly), Guideposts, Positive Thinking, and Today’s Christian Woman. I can never just skim through a magazine. I have to read every page. So as you can see this can cause me to get behind on my book reading. I was, about a month ago, 6 weeks behind on my People magazines.

So – here’s the plan. I’m trying to get caught up with my magazines before starting a new book and I’ve done pretty well over the last few weeks. I also took some time yesterday to “inventory” the books I have at home. I have around 50 books that I have never read. Yes – all of the librarians are weeping at this point. I think I’m also going to quit getting People magazine when my subscription is up in February. I can always pick up one every once in awhile from the grocery or even read them while getting my hair done, and also save some money for … books.

I’m going to start by reading “The Same Kind of Different As Me”. This was highly recommended on a blog that I read. I think I’ll start reviewing the books I read so other people with book addictions like me will go crazy when I give a book a 5 star rating.

This is the 4th year that Todd and I have helped with Cub Scout day camp. Every year, I hate to say, we really don’t look forward to this adventure. This year was no exception. It’s hot, dirty, and kids seem to get on each other’s nerves. Didn’t I mention before that I’m not a kid person? I guess when you have a kid you end up being a kid person whether you like it or not. I can handle a few kids at a time but when you get a group of them I just want to run and hide.

Yesterday was our pack’s first day. Day camp was all week but since our kids were in school through Tuesday we didn’t start camp until Wednesday. Todd and I never help on the same days. Since I’m “part-time” I help on the days I don’t work and Todd takes off work to help on the other days.

I went yesterday and I have to admit that I really wasn’t looking forward to it. However, it really turned out to be a nice day. They did things differently this year. Usually our pack stays together as a group. This year they divided the kids up by rank. This meant that we had one Wolf and the rest were Webelos. I knew that Ben, the Wolf, would probably not feel comfortable going with a group of kids he didn’t know and I knew his parents probably wouldn’t want that either. I called his Mom and told her the situation. We decided it was best that I stay with Ben and the other 7 yr olds while the other adult volunteer stay with the older boys. I didn’t hover over Ben but was there so he would know that if he needed anything I would be there for him. I helped keep track of all of the kids along with another lady volunteer who was very nice. We ended up eating lunch with the rest of the pack at my request. This way Ben could be with his older brother for awhile and I could eat lunch with Evan.

I have to admit that I was exhausted when I got home. It’s not like I was that busy all day but I guess being out in the sun and keeping track of kids just wore me out. I did get a sunburn on the back of my legs because I wasn’t smart enough to put on sunscreen when I would be outside for 8 hrs. I did make sure the boys had it on though. I guess that is a mother thing. Take care of them and forgot yourself. LOL!

Today was Todd’s day and he was dreading it this morning. Of course, he got the 90 degree day while I got the 75 degree day. Can’t blame him a bit for not looking forward to that. I did get an email from him though that things were going well.

Tomorrow I will be back out there but for a shorter day. I think I will be with Evan’s group this time.

Did I mention that yesterday while I was with Ben’s group doing archery that Evan’s group was right beside us shooting BB guns? This was the only time during the day that I saw him and guess what he was doing? Yep – getting yelled at for pointing his gun the wrong direction when putting the BB’s in it. Yikes! Maybe it was best that I wasn't subjected to that all day. LOL!

A friend of mine from work told me about an amazing God moment she had yesterday. I told her it would be neat to share with others so here is her story in her words...

Have you ever felt God’s hand upon you? Have you ever felt God suddenly communicating with you and immediately answering your prayer? I had the privilege of having that experience this morning! Now, at the time of this writing, it has been almost twelve hours since my profound spiritual and emotional experience, and I’m still in awe. Our God is so wonderful and so creative in the ways that He talks to us! God talked to me this morning over the telephone, using a complete stranger to be His voice!

Before I tell you my story, I’ll give you a little background on myself. I’m a switchboard operator/receptionist for an insurance company. I have two grown sons in the Army National Guard who have already been to Iraq once, and I recently found out that they both have to go back to Iraq again this year. I didn’t take their deployment very well the first time around, and I’m taking it even harder this time. Besides deployments to Iraq, my family has recently lost a close family member, we’ve been dealing with unemployment, and various illnesses. So, not unlike every other human being that God has put on this earth, we’ve had our trials and tribulations.

This morning, amidst a stack of paperwork that needed to be entered into the computer and the endlessly ringing switchboard, I felt the need to take a minute to pray. I asked God to guide me, to show me the way. I asked Him to help me to hear him better when he speaks to me and to have the courage to do what he tells me to do.

As I recently taught my K-3rd grade Sunday school class, God answers our prayers in three ways: 1) sometimes he says “yes” 2) sometimes he says “no”, and 3) sometimes he makes us wait. I’ve experienced God answering my prayers with a “yes” many times during my life, but I’ve never received an answer from him as quickly as I did today!

I no sooner finished my prayer to Him, when my switchboard rang with a very unusual call and caller! At first the gentleman started off with a cute joke, which made me wonder if he was one of our ornery agents. He didn’t identify himself, but I assumed from the ease with which he spoke that he was a professional. Suddenly after the opening joke, he took on a very serious tone and bluntly asked me, “Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?” I was shocked and very taken aback! While I was expecting to hear some type of insurance question, instead I was asked a deeply personal question about my salvation. Although I didn’t know this man, and I didn’t understand his motives, I felt in my heart that I had to tell the truth and that I should never, ever deny my Lord out of embarrassment. I boldly told him “yes!” He then asked me if my name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I spoke my next “yes!” even more courageously! He then started witnessing to me and encouraging me, telling me that God is always present with us, even though we cannot see him physically. (When he mentioned that last part, I got shivers up and down my arms, because that was part of the lesson that I was teaching my Sunday school children just yesterday! We had been learning the story of God showing himself as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire during the night to guide the Israelites out of Egypt. I had just asked the children yesterday if they believed that God is still in our presence, even though we don’t see him physically like the Israelites did so long ago.) When this stranger mentioned this to me over the phone, I felt like it was God talking directly to me!

Next, my friend from God told me that when we seem to suffer the most, that is when God gives us the greatest blessings. I told this man that I understood suffering and loss, relating to him the situation with my boys in Iraq. My caller then asked me if both of my boys were believers. I told him that one was a believer, but sadly, the other wasn’t. He then asked the name of my son that doesn’t believe, and right then and there he prayed with me for my son’s salvation! How did he know that I needed that? I’ll tell you how…because my Heavenly Father knew that I needed that! My precious Lord answered my call for help immediately, and my whereabouts (the workplace) didn’t stop him in the least!

My new friend (who I never learned the identity of), it turns out called the wrong number. But did he call the wrong number? I don’t believe that he did. After we discussed his original business in making the call to me, it turned out that he needed to call another agency, not mine.

I then let him in on my little secret…that I had JUST finished talking to God and asking Him for guidance when God sent this stranger to talk to me at work! After telling him this, my new friend got choked up and, although he spoke with such sureness and confidence throughout our conversation earlier, suddenly, he admitted to me that he was overwhelmed by what I related to him. He said that he felt very blessed and privileged to find out that God had used him as an instrument for me.

He then wished me well and told me that he would see me in Heaven and that we’ll know each other, because as he said, “All of God’s kids are going to see each other and know each other.”

Last Friday morning at 6:18 am I heard 2 very loud gunshots, a 20 second span of quiet, and then a couple more gunshots. I was in the bedroom getting around and was ready to go get Abby and take her outside. Todd had left that morning on a business trip around 3:45 am. I couldn’t believe how loud the gunshots were and I thought to myself that I hope someone in our neighborhood didn’t loose their mind and shoot their spouse or family member. That is an awful thing to think but it was the first thing that went through my mind in the world we live in today.

I glanced outside and looked through the windows all around the house and did not see anything so I proceeded to take Abby out about 10 minutes after I heard the gunshots.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. While I’m outside with Abby again, Todd gets a phone call from our neighbor across the street. He proceeds to tell Todd that someone shot a bullet through their mailbox posts and he wanted to tell us because he knows that “Kevin” (Evan) plays outside. He noticed the bullet holes on Saturday. When Todd tells me about the phone conversation I proceed to tell him that I know exactly when the bullet was shot through the mailbox.

Todd went outside to look at his mailbox and then came in and told me I had to go see it. The freaky thing was that whoever shot the mailbox had to be standing on our property. The bullet went through the first mailbox post and into the second post and then dropped to the ground inside the 2nd post. No doubt from the angle of the shot that the shooter was on our property. This kind of freaks me out because I’m wondering who would do this and what if I would have been out with Abby a few minutes earlier? Was this someone shooting at an animal for some reason or just out for casual target practice? We live in a pretty quiet neighborhood with not a lot of activity.

Our neighbor wanted to call the police when he found the holes but his wife wasn’t too keen on it because they are trying to sell their house and didn’t want it in the paper. Yes – our small town paper puts everything in it. No news is too insignificant to report. Todd thinks we should report it. I’m thinking to myself that there isn’t a whole lot they can do. He thinks they will analyze the bullet and be able to figure out what kind of a gun it was,etc.

By the way – if they would have shot a bit higher it would have gone right into our neighbors house. Hopefully it won’t happen again and it was just some freaky thing.

1) I have an amazing husband.
2) My son Evan means more to me than he will ever know.
3) My dog Abby is one of my best friends.
4) I miss my Mom and would give anything for one more day with her.
5) I could eat chocolate any time of the day.
6) I work part-time as a Systems Analyst.
7) I have OCD when it comes to checking my curling brush to make sure I’ve unplugged it.
8) I love to read.
9) I play the piano although I never practice anymore.
10) I don’t like messy things.
11) I love to go out to eat.
12) I had a pituitary tumor removed from the base of my brain when I was 17.
13) It took us 10 years to have Evan.
14) I was shocked when I found out we were pregnant.
15) I like to take walks.
16) Time with my family is very important to me.
17) I’m a very detailed person.
18) My favorite restaurants are Olive Garden, Panera, and Bravo.
19) I help with kids a lot even though I don’t consider myself a kid person.
20) I like to play video games.
21) I used to be a tomboy growing up and loved all kinds of sports.
22) I am easily entertained.
23) I am quiet until you get to know me.
24) I have a great sense of humor except when the joke is about me. LOL!
25) I worked at Burger King once for 2 weeks.
26) I have a BA in Computer Science from Ohio Northern University.
27) I love to sing.
28) I ate a plastic grape once when I was a kid. Never saw it again.
29) I like to watch reality TV shows such as Survivor, The Amazing Race and American Idol.
30) I’m also a Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Lost fan.
31) I love going to the beach.
32) I loved going on vacations with my family when I was a kid.
33) I help teach reading and math enrichment classes at Evan’s school.
34) I love to read blogs.
35) I love to play board games although when Evan was going through his 24 hr a day Monopoly phase I wouldn’t have said that.
36) I love to hang out with friends.
37) I have 3 friends that I worked with at my last job (over 10 yrs ago) and we still hang out together.
38) We like to play practical jokes on each other.
39) We have a great time together no matter what we are doing.
40) Any time spent with Todd is wonderful!
41) I hate pineapple and that is why my in-laws got us pineapple lamps after we got married. LOL!
42) I cannot see myself ever being without a dog. They are just too much fun to be around.
43) I’ve always wanted to have a job where I worked with dogs.
44) My dog Abby (4 lb Poodle) turns into a Pit Bull when she sees other animals.
45) I cannot remember a whole lot of details from my childhood even though I had a great one.
46) My Mom and Dad were an inspiration to me.
47) I cannot think of a time when I was embarrassed by my parents. (There goes the memory thing.)
48) I admire people who can draw. I’m not one of them.
49) I believe that your attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
50) I don’t like spiders and snakes.
51) I can remember song lyrics fairly well but nothing else.
52) I played the clarinet for a year or so but had to stop when I got braces. (YES!)
53) I rock at Guitar Hero. LOL!
54) I used to do lots of needlepoint and cross stitch but haven’t had the time to do it in years.
55) I cannot sew. I made a shirt once when I was a kid and cut a hole in it when trimming a thread.
56) I loved Math in school. I even took 4 quarters of Calculus in college.
57) I am addicted to email and have to check it several times a day.
58) I even get my email on my cell phone.
59) I’m not in a 12 step program for this addiction.
60) I love hand dipped ice cream. Chocolate peanut butter is my favorite.
61) I witnessed a childhood friend get hit by a car. I can still see the image today. They were okay.
62) I was in a 7 car pileup near Cincinnati on the interstate when I was a kid. The car was totaled but nobody was hurt.
63) I am a good driver. (I’m sure I’ll go out and have an accident now.)
64) Bad drivers are my pet peeve.
65) I like to read People, Guideposts, Positive Thinking, and Today’s Christian Women magazines.
66) I love to go to Women of Faith conferences.
67) I love going to church.
68) I hate public speaking.
69) I don’t have a lot of patience.
70) Growing up we had 3 exchange students from South America.
71) Our family went to South America when I was a freshman in High School to visit one of our exchange students.
72) I used to be able to speak Spanish muy bueno.
73) I’ve had to let a few friends go in my life. I found out they weren’t good for me. That was hard.
74) I don’t like to travel alone.
75) I don’t like to eat alone.
76) I like the familiar.
77) Todd makes me feel safe.
78) I believe in God with all my heart.
79) I am not perfect.
80) Life challenges me every day.
81) I like to meet God in those challenges.
82) I cannot do a somersault anymore without breaking my neck.
83) I love having Evan’s friends over.
84) I love seeing Evan happy.
85) When I was at my prior job I quit, worked for another company for a week, and came back.
86) I like to swim but not the part where I have to wear a bathing suit.
87) I like to play tennis but don’t know of anyone else who does.
88) I’m afraid of dying from cancer in my 60’s like my Mom and Grandma.
89) I have a brother and sister who are twins. They are 5 years older than me.
90) They were always old enough to know better. LOL!
91) I’m a perfectionist although I’m not perfect. This can be frustrating.
92) I don’t like coffee.
93) I am starting to get into hot or iced cappuccino though.
94) We host a small group from church in our house twice a month.
95) I work with computers but I don’t know how to fix your PC. I just program them.
96) I’m starting to get into Sudoku. I dream about the numbers 1-9 now.
97) I love to watch people.
98) I hate to shop.
99) I am always in a better mood when the sun is shining.
100) I love life!