Oh, Heaven Let Your Light Shine Down...

This picture has no editing in the colors - it was just darkened and look at the colors shining on them!! :)

Looking at this picture I thought of God and Heaven and then these lyrics to the song "Shine" by Collective Soul.

Songwriter: Ed Roland

Give me a word
Give me a sign
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find
Lay me on the ground
Fly me in the sky
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find
Oh, heaven let your light shine down

Love is in the water
Love is in the air
Show me where to look
Tell me will love be there
Teach me how to speak
Teach me how to share
Teach me where to go
Tell me will love be there
Oh, heaven let your light shine down

I'm gonna let it shine
I'm gonna let it shine
Heaven send a light, let it shine on me
Hey Yeah
Hey Yeah
Heaven send a light, let it shine on me
It's gonna shine on
Shine on Me
Its gonna shine on

Well come on and shine

The "Super-Center" Time Warp

These days I do my grocery shopping in the morning.  The days of waiting for my husband to get home in order to have the luxury of food shopping alone is rare these days.  I am DONE by the time he gets home and it is a miracle I get something semi-edible (it is debatable) on the table every night.  The thought of going BACK out, well, it makes me want to be shot.  With Cinderella in school, taking one child to the grocery store doesn't seem as daunting.  And it isn't.  One child is a cake walk.  When I think back to the days of taking a two year old and a teeny,tiny newborn shopping I shudder.  I had Sleeping Beauty in the infant carrier/car seat that didn't seem to fit right in the top of the shopping cart no matter how much I sweat, frammed (it's a word to me, rhymes with rammed) and fussed with it.  If I put her and her carrier in the big part, I'd have no room for the groceries and where would I trap put Cinderella?  Sleeping Beauty was too small to even sit up so that was out.  Going to a grocery store with two small children strikes fear in the hearts of mothers everywhere.  There simply isn't enough room for the baby, the car seat, the diaper bag, the snacks, toys and the toddler and the food - the main reason for the whole fiasco! 

Eventually I learned Cinderella was trust worthy and she held on to the end of the shopping cart.  She had to ask permission before she was allowed to let go and wander.  By wander, I mean hold on to some other part of the cart.  Some days she'd sit in the big part but after many flat sandwiches were eaten I gave up on that.  I still don't think I've yet to make it home without the bread smashed and at least one egg broken.  What is up with that?

Those days are behind me now and I barely miss them.  When I do miss those days, I remember how hot and sweaty and anxiety-ridden I felt and I am quickly over it.


Now Sleeping Beauty and I will come back home for a little bit after we drop Cinderella off at school and eat breakfast and get laundry going.  On the days we have to grocery shop, I will get my coupons together, make a list and do some quick chores around the house.  Sometimes I have to print the coupons out and then cut them.  All the while Sleeping Beauty is eating breakfast, destroying the house and generally making my life unbearable.  Inevitably there will be a mess by this time and it takes a few more minutes of my attention.  Many times I give up and deal with it later.  More times than not, I can't bring myself to deal with it most of the day.  Then we load up and off we go.


I have often joked about "Super-centers" being a great big time warp.  You go in and get a few things, walk around and look at stuff you have no business looking at, let alone buying.  Then you wait in THE line for 15 years.  Yes, the ONE LINE.  There is rarely more that one lane open.  Finally, after all that time you pay and then leave.  Ever notice how you can go in for laundry detergent and leave with everything BUT the laundry detergent?!  And yet you seem to spend over $100 a trip! 


Sleeping Beauty and I were sucked into this time warp a couple of weeks ago.  I had a lot to do that day and we had a morning like I just mentioned earlier.  I talked to the King of the Crazies on the way to the Super-center at it was after 8:30 AM.  We didn't have to buy a lot.  It wasn't a big trip.  


But...


When we left the store and I looked at my watch it was after 11!!  


We got what was on my list - nothing more - but probably a few items less as I ALWAYS, without fail, forget something.  And it is always an important something.  Remember, laundry detergent?! (Sigh.)  We looked at the clearance Halloween stuff, the new Christmas displays, the fish and then the dog toys, the kid toys and princess row, books and cute baby clothes.  I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY WE WERE GONE ALL MORNING!!


I just kept getting sucked in farther and farther.  I would think of "one more thing" I wanted to look at and then my little helper, Sleeping Beauty, would ask to see something else, on the other side of the store.  Some days I am amazed I ever get anything done!


:o)  The Super-center time warp.  Am I right, people?

Here are a couple of pictures from back in the day:

I guess it was all worth it.  :o)

Valentine's Day 2008:
Cinderella was almost three and Sleeping Beauty was four months old.

Prayers Please

Please pray for a friend of ours who will be having her third baby in the next day or so.  Pray she and her little girl come through healthy.

Please also pray for B and K (my friends I posted about a couple of weeks ago.)  They are going through what may even be a harder time than when they lost their daughter.  I am trying to be there for them and I am praying all the time.  This is when they need their friends and family more than ever.

Thank you!  I am thankful for friends who will pray when I ask them to.

Amusement Parks: The Rides Are Only PART of the Amusement

Truly a reality TV show could be filmed daily at amusement parks.  I never realized the name  "Amusement Park" could be so literal until last year's October trip to Walt Disney World with my husband and kids.  A woman, clearly not an American, was wearing spandex pants.  And she wasn't exercising or on her way to the gym.  But that is not the worst part.  When she bent over to attend to her children, the material went see-through and we were all treated to a Halloween G-String.  The pants were pretty much nonexistent.  As in INVISIBLE!   Yes, at a family place.  The look on our faces was priceless I am sure!


The Happiest Place On Earth.


The Land of Rated G Movies...


And I had to shield the eyes of my then four year old and two year old daughters.


Wow.


Since then my husband and I have been to Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL and this past weekend we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando without the girls.  We take a yearly weekend trip sometime in November for our anniversary.  I guess I had a memory lapse or something because it wasn't until later in our day at Islands of Adventure on Saturday that I realized the general population could be rating's gold for a reality show.  I didn't (read: could NOT) get pictures of everything that we saw after that point in time that was horribly wrong but here are some:

This dude was clearly not from here.  Acid washed jeans?!  Hello, 1986.  Black and white zebra sunglasses?  I had those in 1987.  Really.  Maybe that's where they went!!

 

He reminded us of the character Christian from the movie "Clueless."

Just thought it was funny her bags and/or camera needed to be kept warm. 

Harry Potter fanatics:  More on this in another post.  

It was ca-razzzzy!

This boy is in a straight up dress/cape!!  If it was from the Harry Potter collection it truly looked more like a dress.  Poor kid.  He thought he was rockin' the look of wizardry. 

Santa Claus apparently vacations in Downtown Disney.  Later, he ate lunch at the T-Rex restaurant right near us.  I really wanted to climb into his lap and start rattling off my Christmas list.  ;o)

It's Super Boy!!

We also saw some teenaged boys (about 17 years old) in air brushed "Toy Story" t-shirts.  Now you KNOW they weren't from here!  They'd be beat up in no time.  They wouldn't stop staring and I just could NOT take a picture with them looking at me!

Faces blurred to protect those completely lacking any style:

No, no.  That's not a sweater under the tank top.  
Though I wish it were.

 And, not just one purse man bag, but TWO.  One was hot pink with fringe!  These two weren't Americans either though that is hardly an excuse.  I also think he was wearing "jams."  Anyone remember jams?!

I told my husband that he had probably seen the "Friends" episode where Joey has the "man bag."  You remember, right?  He was thinking, "Amerrrrican men wear-a the pursssse."  (It isn't as funny if you don't hear me saying it.)

Yeah, that one.  He wanted to look sophisticated for an audition and he got the bag from Rachel.  The world wasn't ready for Joey and his bag...  :o)


And lastly, look at the kind of crazy I married and went on the trip with!  ;o)

I am so thankful for our fun weekend away.  :o)

Two People Fell In Love

If you are new to my blogging style (I had one for three years prior to this one) you will know I am all over the place on my subjects and I love music, art and all things creative.  Just to name a few.


Songs can make any mood or any day better.  Songs can transport me back in time; back to a time when I was a little girl and dreamed of my future husband.


A time when the world was a safer place.


A time when I could see my feet sticking straight out in front of me in the backseat of our car listening to "Sherry Baby" and "Walk Like A Man."


A time when one of my greatest joys was getting a new pack of stickers at the mall.


A time when my biggest worry was who I would sit by at lunch at school in the cafeteria.


A time when my life was carefree.  


I used to listen to country music in college and then got pulled away from it once I was back home and my future husband didn't really like it.  Now I listen to Disney music and Broadway soundtracks non stop and The King of the Crazies will listen to country at work from time to time.  Some of the guys at work are all about country music.  We were talking about songs the other night and I looked up some country ones and then we watched a couple of music videos.  This one, below, is so sweet.  The King of the Crazies laughed at me because I loved it so much and I may have teared up a little bit listening to it.  (Since I have had the girls, I am a complete cry baby.)  It is funny how, or I guess why, I found this video.  My husband wanted a mushy song for a ring tone for his cell phone for me.  Don't swoon with hearts in your eyes yet.  


He didn't want the ringtone because he is romantic. 


He isn't.  


This will really only be funny to my family, his family and close friends...


He wanted a ringtone that he and the guys he works with could laugh at when it rings.  You kind of have to know him to understand.  It's funny and it makes me laugh.  :oP  Anyway, enjoy the video...


Two People Fell In Love" by Brad Paisley - I love this song, the lyrics and this video.  Please watch it.  It makes me happy.  :o)

Lyrics:


Written by Kelley Lovelace, Tim Owens, Brad Paisley


VERSE 1
A baby's born in the middle of the night in the local delivery room;
They grab his feet, smack him till he cries, he goes home the next afternoon.
Before you know it he's off to school, and then he graduates in May;
Goes out and gets a Ph.D. and then cures all sorts of things.

Wins the Nobel Prize and saves a million different lives;
The world's a better place for all he's done.
It's funny when you think about the reason he's alive
Is all because two people fell in love.

VERSE 2

Right now at a picnic shelter down by Canyon Creek
You'll find potato salad, hot dogs and baked beans.
The whole Wilson family's lined up filling their paper plates,
And they drove or've flown in here from fifteen different states

Stanley Wilson says that sixty years ago he knew
That Miss Emma Tucker was the one.
Now five generations get together every June,
All because two people fell in love.


CHORUS 1
Yeah, there ain't nothing not affected
When two hearts get connected
All that is, will be, or ever was.
Every single choice we make,
Every breath we get to take,
Is all because two people fell in love.


VERSE 3
Well, I recall a young man who was drifting aimlessly
And a young waitress who seemed lonesome as could be.
In a little café right off 14th Avenue,
With a whole lotta help from up above
We met and things sure turned around for me and you,
And all because two people fell in love.


CHORUS 2
Baby there ain't nothing not affected
When two hearts get connected
All that is, will be, or ever was.
I'm glad your dad could not resist
Your mother's charms, and you exist;
All because two people fell in love.

You know, to me it's all so clear:
Every one of us is here
All because two people fell in love.
A baby's born in the middle of the night in the local delivery room;
They grab his feet, smack him till he cries, he goes home the next afternoon.


:o)  <3


I had this post done beforehand and scheduled to post today.  Lord willing, right now my husband and I are off on an anniversary weekend getaway.  And for that, I am SO thankful.  Please say a prayer or a thousand for my mom and dad as they are watching the princesses. :o)  Thanks, Mom and Dad.  I love you!  I am also thankful for a hard working, loyal, good family man for my husband.  I wouldn't make it without him.