God at work...

God has perfect timing for many things... today my son came into my work to ask for gas money to check on a job (it was already in his bank account). The customer that came in behind him said something like "that sounds like good news" & I said something back about my son may have a job and that he would be a good worker. He asked me about the job (shoveling manure) and he said he was an employment staffer and had some construction jobs. It turned out that you have to be 18 for the construction jobs, but my son's friend down the street needs a job badly (baby due in one month) and the customer gave me his card for him! Timing is really good these days!

Son may have a job!!

There is a huge difference in our two boys. One didn't ever work at anything worth a darn. I remember a friend at church offered to have him help him do some work at his place for $5 an hour, but the older boy didn't do even $5 worth of work in over 5 hours! The younger son, on the other hand, has done a couple odd jobs for people and works his behind off. Today he got a call back about a job working at a stable...mucking out stables and grooming horses. I hope & pray he gets the message! When I see some of his friends today at work, I will tell them to get him to go home and call or come up here to get the number if he doesn't have it. I pray he gets this job, he will be so good at it!

Birthdays

This Sunday, my "grandson" celebrates his 9th birthday. It always seems odd to me to have a grandson (and almost 6 month old granddaughter) because 10 years ago (at 37) I was single and had no hopes of even being married! No, my husband was never married before and had no children either. After trying a few years for kids of our own, we took MAPP classes to either adopt or become foster parents. We did both. The first foster child to live with us was a teenage boy. Long story verrrrrry short, we adopted him and his brother a year later. They have an older sister (about 10 years older than they are) and she now has two kids. Since we "unofficially" adopted her also, we "unofficially" have two grandkids! She is married to a wonderful guy that takes care of her well. We have fun "complaining" and laughing at the little things that our husbands do that drive us nuts, but are easy to put up with just because we love them so much. I can't really write any of these in the blog--my hubby may read it! And in reality, I know I have many things that drive him nuts that he puts up with because for some incredible reason, he actually loves me back.

Back to the grandson...he is doing so well in school! He did start off his year of 1st grade being a little slow in reading, but now he is on a third grade level and the majority of things he wants for his birthday are books! (Something about a Magic Tree House?) He also passed up many things and asked if he & mom could go back to the Dollar Tree to pick up some more army men...I love kids that are low maintenance!

We have had lots of fun with him over the last few years. In a way, I feel blessed that I missed the fun of potty training and many other things with kids. In other ways, I missed having my own baby to hold and care for. I wish we had all three of these kids when they were little or could wipe away the horrible childhood they had. There is so much potential in all of them, but not easy to convince them to do things (like one of the boys to finish high school!). Actually both boys have come to us in the past month and apologized for all they put us through while they were living with us. (Another very long story that isn't quite done yet.)

I know I am rambling on...Hopefully make some sense! I do know I am looking forward to the birthday party Sunday for my grandson... Grandson. It's a wonderful word for a wonderful boy. And to think I thought I'd never have the pleasure! God is so good!

Using time...

One of the jobs I have now entails waiting for customers to come in…there are slow times where all we do is search the web and there are more very busy times where customers are 3 to 4 deep at each window. Right now is a slow time.  I’ve been surfing the web, checking out names, like J.L. Lewis-on the PGA tour, to see how he is doing.  Today is not his best day, but I know he will rally tomorrow. I have faith in him.  I know his wife has faith in him. I moved to Las Vegas the first time JL started the tour so Dawn wouldn’t be alone with Cole & Sherry when JL was gone (they were only 2 and 5).  She knew he would do well on the tour and she was right! If anyone wants to know what JL is really like, he is the most laid back person I have ever met. We didn’t talk much, his time with Dawn & the kids were precious like they should be.  One of the first days I was out there, he did say something like “By the way, if George Straight calls, tell him…”  I don’t remember what I was to tell him now, but I remember asking if it was George Straight the country singer & JL just smiled and said “yah.”  Welcome to Las Vegas!

Smiles come at odd times

Months ago, I was trying to save pennies. I purchased “wanna be” soap pretending to be Irish Spring at the Family Dollar Store. When my sweetie first used it, I couldn’t remember if he liked it or not, and thought he did. He may have, but it was a different story this morning. Looking forward to “Irish Spring”, he used the “wanna be”. Like most things, it was nothing like the original. He came out of the shower complaining….

“You told me that soap was Irish Spring,” he said in a semi-stern voice. “It wasn’t anything like a breath of Ireland, it was like a breath of Bulgaria!”

I love this man! I don’t intend to do these things to him…back in my single days, I would often buy the “generic” items to save money. Sometimes I still can, he doesn’t know the difference. (If he reads this, though, he may start questioning everything!). He reminds me of my grampa sometimes—when he was saying this he was smiling at his own joke, just like grampa used to do!

Plans change...

It’s funny how plans can change in an instant. Last night I decided to call my sweetie before leaving work for home. I’m glad I did. He had gone to a meeting about an hour away in a large city. He took time to make a quick stop that became not so quick when he locked his keys in the car…. I need to point out here that this is the second time in nine years this has happened, so it is a very rare occurrence. Last night he was gleefully an hour early for the meeting, so decided to pick up a canned good or two for the Food Bank (he is so precious to me). Unfortunately, he had been listening to something on the radio for a few minutes before he got out. When you take the key out of my ignition, the radio keeps on for a few minutes until you open the door. This doesn’t happen in his. Before he realized it, he locked himself out of the truck 60 miles away in a very unfamiliar place. He didn’t have my number at work with him. Thankfully for him he only had to wait one hour for me to get off of work and one hour for me to “rescue” him. J

The other time the keys were locked in the car was when he stopped to check a tire on the truck and left the dog in the front seat. Do I need to say that the dog locked him in? I think he was grateful he had his cell phone in his pocket and not in the car!

One thing I am very greatful for is a husband that says thank you. He is also extra sweet to me for a few weeks (if that is possible!) when I do extra for him...

Just a thought...

While I am sitting here, I am pondering how to start the book I need to write.  I know I’ve told others that I’ve always wanted to write a love story, but never thought I would live one. Now I do. The reason I want to write a book about it is because how much love God showed us by bringing us together from two different sides of the US through this thing called the internet and over 200 pages of email.  It is amazing to me that as hard as I was praying for red flags (cautions) to come up if the Lord had not orchestrated every move of this, there were none.  Even when the airline that was to take me on the first leg of the trip out to meet him went belly up and cancelled all its flights from where I was, it was only a test from the Lord.  When I found out, I prayed hard.  If God wanted me out there, He would have to provide the money and a very low round trip ticket.  When I told a co-worker what had happened, he handed me $200. He then talked to a travel agent friend of his and she found a ticked for $180.  This was within 2 hours of finding out about the bankruptcy of the airline. God is amazing.  He turned what could have been a red flag into a test of faith.  I think I am putting notes in this blog to remember to put them in the book…. It will be called “Grape Vines Stink Alike”….I’ll explain this later if you don’t know why!

Beginning Blog....

Starting to blog to update family & friends!

I didn't think I would ever do this, but somehow this is easier to do than sending emails to everyone. Actually, if they want to find out what is going on in the soap opera type life I have, this is a good way! For those that just happen upon this place, I will give you a little background. I don't plan on using my real name to protect the innocent & not so innocent!

In case you are wondering, NLVWJC stands for "In Love With Jesus Christ". First & foremost, I am a Christian, just passed my 30th spiritual birthday when I accepted Christ at age 17 (you do the math). There have been an extreme amount of hills, valleys & mountains I have gone through in my life as a Christian. I guess that is "Christian-ese" talk for good times, bad times & fantastic times I have experienced in life. For my 20 nieces and nephews, I may recall some of them in future posts.

Right now I am living in North Carolina, tutoring 2 days a week and working 1-5 days a week (obviously don't tutor if I work at the other job) and attempting to obtain a Master's degree at the same time, which is not easy! My husband required that I move to NC from a different state when I married him :) and I wanted out of that state!

I have been married to a wonderful man for 9 1/2 years, and am wonderfully still deeply in love with him. We have two cats and one dog that are all very spoiled! My youngest son is semi-moved out. He doesn't sleep at home often, but his furniture is in the shed! He is the subject of a very, very long story. His story hasn't come to a turning point yet, so it won't be told to outsiders until he does.

Anyway, to those who are curious about what is going on with me, give me a note, I may answer questions. I'd put down the church website (which I oversee), but I wish to remain anonymous for now. There are wild and crazy things going on here in NC & will be relating more later on. We are strongly thinking about moving this summer to a different neighborhood, but we'll see what the Lord has in store for us!