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Friday, December 5, 2008

I Can Do Anything

Just so you know, this is a VERY long post. I guess I'm just feeling chatty. So, as a warning, this is big - hehehe. But you know you wanna read it - hehehe. Cause I'm just so entertaining - LMBO!

OK, and now for the Aunt Shirley story. hehehe. So, Aunt Shirley is my Mom (Lyn)'s Mom (Ida)'s sister. So that makes her my great aunt. How old is she? hmmmm, like 70 or so. At least that. Grandma Ida is 78, hmmm, 70 is about right. Anyway.

Aunt Shirley's husband died about 6 months ago, so for this Thanksgiving, she decided to go to Washington State with her daughter, Cheryl and son-in law Terry. On the way home, they stopped at a gas station about an hour from Florence (home) and got gas. They got done, pulled out of the gas station, barely got back up to speed (35 mph) on Highway 99 (just this side of Junction City) (4 lane highway). Aunt Shirley got up from the front to go to bed, and stumbled, fell against the unlocked door, and it came open. Out she went. Thump. Boom. Crash.

It's the kind of motor home that when you open the door, stairs come out. She fell out backwards!!! So, she hit the stairs, and then the road. Good thing the stairs were there, or she may have been ran over. Also good thing that he was in the outside lane, so that when she fell out, there were no cars there to run her over. Holy cow!

Once they noticed that she had fallen out, Terry slowly slowed down (he didn't want to run her over), and Cheryl jumped from the (slowly) moving motor home before it got completely stopped, and got almost as hurt as Aunt Shirley. So, Aunt Shirley ended up with a huge know on her head where she landed (they used frozen french fries as an ice pack) bruises on her body, a bangded up ear, and a tiny missing patch of hair. Amazing. It could have been SO much worse.

Here's a picture of Aunt Shirley's ear with a week's worth of healing. Poor Aunt Shirley. Morale of the story is: LOCK THE MOTOR HOME DOOR when you're traveling. Goodness!

And, happier news - hehehe - my dad, the logger, was at work the other day, and were moving equipment to a new show (job site).

Lets see if I can explain what he does. OK, cutters come in, and cut down trees. But not all of them. They always leave some "straggler" trees. Then, my dad is in charge of extracting the trees. And it's not like farm land. No flat areas. Imagine the side of a STEEP hill (mountain, more like it)

Anyway, so they're at a new show, and the cutters have been in already, and he's getting ready to get his crew doing their job, and he sees, in the "straggler" trees, 4 PERFECT Christmas trees. Now, they were in the path of what would probably be the "road" anyway, so he cut the down, and brought them home for us!!!

There's one for my mom and dad, one for Captain America and I at the cabin at Baker, one for my sister's in-laws, and one for my friend, Maren. We're SO excited! Do you know how much a real Christmas tree goes for? Like $25 bucks, at the cheapest. That's insane! FREE is a much better price :) And they're not really Charlie Brown, either. Sometimes when you get trees from the woods, they're pretty Charlie Brown-ish. I'll post some good pics when we decorate the tree on Saturday :)

My dad brought the 4 trees home on the flatbed truck.

Jimmy wasn't so sure about being put up on the flatbed. But he was a good sport. Papa kept trying to drop the tree on him, and it was kinda freaking him out - LOL! Maybe he'll leave the tree alone this year - hehehe.

Another view of our 4 trees. My mom's camera actually did good pictures, considering it was pitch black outside :)

My dad, untie-ing the tree

See, it's a very pretty tree, don't ya think?


And, the little boys, watching the tree fun. Look at Joe (kid in the orange). Hehehehe, he went to the public library wearing that outfit. Ha! Tie dyed shirt, white undershirt, orange shirt (and in that order), then those jammie pants, with too short sweat pants over those, so that there was a jammie pant cuff at the bottom. Yeah, he's a classy dresser. I almost made him change, then I decided, who cares if he clashes. He piced out his outfit himself, and he was quite proud of it. Who am I to be the destroyer of fashion - hehehe.

Oh yeah, and talking about library. We went to the library today for a VERY fun after school thing they were doing there. Our school district has "early release" every Thursday. School gets out an hour early. So, the library has "GAMING" every Thursday, from 2:30 -5:00 pm. They set up 2 Wii systems, and let the kids play games. My boys had a BLAST! Jacob rode the bus home with a friend who lived near the library, then walked over. I brought the other kids up a bit later.

They really did have a good time. They played some Rabbit game. They let me play a few rounds with them. Hehehehe. In one game, the shook up soda, then drank it, then had burping contests. Who thinks up this stuff? LOL! But, the boys liked it. The one I played was some fart (we say flatch - hehehe) racing thing. That's what propelled our rabbits. Weird. I wasn't very good. I was last every time. I guess I need to refine my Wii skills - hehehe. I was thinking that it would be a fun Christmas present for my kids next year.

This really is turning into a Gi-normous blog post. Hehehe. I went to book group tonight. I almost didn't go, and was 30 minutes late, but still went. I'd actually read the book, so I figured I ought to go. I put the little kids to bed, and my mom watched the big ones.

We read 'The Giver", by Lois Lowry. It's a novel, set in the future, that at first appears to be a utopian society, but the longer it goes on, the more "problems" we see with their society. It really was a good book, and gave us lots to discuss. There's a reason why man has "free agency" or the ability to choose for himself. When you take away all choice, you take away, well, everything. The ability to choose is what makes us who we are. This society was devoid of feelings, devoid of love, devoid of emotion. SO not how it was meant to be.

Some of the girls talked about how "blessed" they felt, and how they had never known war, or poverty, or the bad things in life. How they felt removed from it all. You know, I do feel "blessed" for the things that I have, but I didn't really relate to those girls. My life is anything but stable. Yes, I have a husband who I love, and 5 loving children, but I have no "home". My husband is training to become a soldier (yeah, not so safe). We're poor (yeah, not really a good way to sugar coat that one - too much debt, house in Chicago going into forclosure because it won't sell). Most of them have husbands with stable jobs, nice homes, nice things, spending money. I guess sometimes I feel a bit more "in" (rather than removed from) the hardships of life than them. And I don't even have it bad. I know that there are SO many more who have it worse than I do.

But you know what. As much as I would like to trade it all away some days, I don't really think I would. I know that each experience I have teaches me something important. I don't always see the benefit immediately, but I know that it's for a purpose. I know that these seemingly hard lessons now will pay off someday. Maybe I'll need the experience to help someone else. Maybe I'll have to do something even bigger, harder, that this will be preparing me for. I don't know. But one lesson that that book drove home to me, is that without the pain, without the trials, without the hard time, we can't appreciate the good, the joy, the happy times. I know this is true. The saying "Opposition in all things" is SO true. We can't truly know the sweet without the bitter.

SO, this is getting quite lengthy, but remember, our trials are here to teach us something, to make us stronger, to make us better people. We all have trails. Try and learn from yours, and make yourself better because of it. I know we all can :)

OK, that's enough of that - heheheh. Are you still awake and reading?

On to WordArt, the REAL reason you are all here. This WordArt request is from Linda. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.




FONTS:
Anything - Viceroy JF
All rest - Triac 71

16 comments:

Stephanie said...

Wow, Bethany!!! What a moving post!!! Those words came at a time when I really needed to hear them... God does really work in mysterious ways!!!

I'm the person who started on the post on DST and I meant every word I said!!! I don't just come on here for the word art... I just really and truly love reading what you write! You are very talented and have a wonderful gift of expressing yourself!!! I feel like I could walk up to you and chat with your in real life like an old friend!!! You are amazing!! Please keep writing!!!

Sorry this turned into a novel!!! Just wanted to let you know that you have at least one fan.. LOL

Lisa said...

Me too! Me too! I love to read your posts! You have a way of uplifting me. You seem to find the good in everything. Thank you for sharing your life w/ us!!!

one cute blog said...

Reminds me of my YW lesson a few weeks ago when we were talking about dealing with change and how we'd never learn if things didn't change and we didn't have trials. If life were easy, it wouldn't be hard.

GREAT post!!! And what a scary thing for your aunt to go through. I'm glad she's okay.

Tracy said...

Bethany, I am sorry that you are facing so much difficulty right now, and I am impressed by how well you are handling it. I just want to let you know that at one of those difficult experiences of yours helped me enormously when I later had the same experience and you were there to talk to me.

Linda White said...

teedoff64Great post and so true. Thanks for sharing your life and helping others with your learned (sometimes the hard way)wisdom. Thanks also for the wordart.
Linda W

Linda White said...

Not sure what the first part of my comments are! Please ignore that part :-)

Anonymous said...

I agree with the previous writers. You are an inspiration to me -- and I'm old enough to be your grandmother. My hope and prayer is that more people would turn to God. We need positive attitudes and you are a prime example. Keep the faith!

CSA Brent said...

Sweetie Pie

You rock! I loved the post and couldn't agree more. I believe I heard a talk roughly on this last Sunday. Or was thinking the same thing recently. But at any rate, the challenges in life make us stronger. It isn't always fun, but if we endure, it is always for the better. I love you...keep up the great work, my inspiration!

Crissie said...

You are such an inspiration to so many. The ability to find joy and express gratitude through your trials is your living testimony of God's goodness. I love to read your posts as they are always so positive :) Thank you for all that you do for so many of us!

Anonymous said...

Raving Rabbits is an awesome Wii game - it's one of the only ones I can actually join in on and not be a total loser!
Thanks so much for the WA!

Anonymous said...

Raving Rabbits is an awesome Wii game - it's one of the only ones I can actually join in on and not be a total loser!
Thanks so much for the WA!

Rose said...

I'm sure I've seen a tv show about loggers like your dad, they use zip lines and stuff to pull the trees out and if you're a newbie apparently it can be quite dangerous! My dad used to cut down a Christmas tree if he saw a good one when he was out hunting but they were always charlie brownish. Yours looks beautiful, can't wait to see it decorated. Also, my three year old likes to dress himself as well, and he has the same kind of fashion sense and has now decided he needs to wear two shirts every day. I used to insist he change and fight with him to have him wear something matching but now I don't care, if anyone says or thinks anything, well, they don't have to fight with him and I'm just happy he's doing it himself! One of those "mom" things that we want our kids to look all "together" when we take them out. They are only young once! (This long comment is your punishment for a long post lol) Anyways, thanks for the word art, I'm a mother of two and I love it!

lisat said...

I just stumbled across your blog. I have to say it is getting added to my blogger reader. I hope your aunt is feeling better. I about had a heart attack while reading of her accident. Thank God that he sent the angels down to protect her from what could have been horrible.

Simply Sarah said...

Thank you Bethany for sharing so much with us today(yesterday). I am glad your aunt wasn't hurt more...it definitely could of been worse. You are very lucky to have a dad that thinks to bring home a tree (and one for everyone else), rather than just leaving it.

Your post really got to me. I grew up poor... and I mean poor. The school would buy my sister and I socks and shoes because ours had huge wholes and it was winter in wyoming. My mom got into drugs and sold our stuff for drugs and we didnt have food, heat, or a place to live at times. I used to be very embarressed by this but now I have come to realize that it is for the experience that I am to share with others. I volunteer as a way to help those who need help and to give back because so many gave to me. Granted, life isn't perfect yet... not sure it is going to get there but I have my husband and my two boys... great online friends and even a few IRL friends. Do I really need more?

Rubypat said...

Love the word art - how many of us mothers have to tackle ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to get things done!I love the way you approach life - no, it isn't easy at the momnent, but you are doing a great job of seeing the good things in life, of making the best of things, of being glad for charity shops where you can get a bargain! It is about being contented with what we have, and where we are. There's no happiness in life without that.

Roseytoes Designs said...

ok so i am so addicted to your word art!! if we had any money to spend this christmas id be buying all of your word art up!! lol
see you on brownie scraps :)