That Used to Be Me

After work today, Rick and I were shopping at Sam's Club, and we ran into some friends from church. After greetings, one of the group told us she just lost her job. She'd had it less than a year, but when she accepted it,  she was hopeful the position would provide job security and retirement benefits. Her position has been entirely eliminated, so she has neither at this time. My friend is a single gal - intelligent, capable and a consummate professional. She has lots more potential - humanly speaking - than I did when the same thing happened to me nearly six years ago. But, nonetheless, she's feeling pretty devastated, I'm sure.

I won't tell the story entire story again, but my experience was devastating to me as well. At the time, I was bringing home 2/3 of the family income, and we were in major financial difficulties too. The new job I was so hopeful about - and so sure were we of God's Hand in the employment when it was first offered - turned out to be a major nightmare.

And I had prayed for deliverance. When it came in the form of 'termination', I wasn't really shocked or surprised. A chain of events was put into motion - like carefully placed dominoes when they begin to fall, 'Click, click, click'. God insulated me and gave me grace to endure. He took my hand in His and led me through the valley of the shadow, and it was a dark, dark time in my life.

That was six years ago. And sometimes I'm still in the valley of the shadow, but much of the time the skies are bright, and sometimes I'm journeying in full-on sunshine. The constant is the faithful Shepherd who continues to lead.

I'm praying with good confidence for my friend, He's her Shepherd too.

Kindermusik Day with the Aggie Pride Band

Too 'yowd', he's not covering his ears, but it's what he's thinking...

Junior Color Guard, Esther

Great stuff!

Not so much...

Not Quite Facebook

Quite suddenly - mostly on a whim - I decided to go Facebook 'free'. I've deleted my FB profile and am trying to get back to blogging. I've really enjoyed keeping in touch with family and old friends through this particular social utility - I still love (most of) you :-) and I'd still love to hear from you, but my expectations aren't very high.

Facebook makes it SO easy to find out what 'friends' are up to and how they're feeling about what they're up to. Our culture seems to live moment to moment, and if you can't tell me in a few words 'how you are' and what you're doing I'd just as soon not be bothered. In fact, I've had the experience of writing a newsy-but-lengthy e-mail to a loved one only to find out it hadn't been read because it was 'too long'!

I've heard from my still-Facebooking daughter that some have asked for me...I love hearing that I'm missed. I didn't quit Facebook because I want more attention (although I DO). I just DID it...and now that it's DONE, I'll be hanging out here instead, so surprise me - stop by...or send me a long e-mail...or (shock, horror) call me on the phone..

BTW, I got new glasses this week

Our Little 'Housemate'

Rick found this little creature in the downstairs-office bathroom recently. It's the second one we've found inside in the last 2 weeks (click on the picture to enlarge, from the angle, you can't really see how menancing this thing's fangs are!)

This Solfugid(Wind spider, Sun spider, Camel spider) is pretty common in these parts. When Rick found the first one on the floor by the kid's play table we were pretty freaked out. We've always known there was the potential to find a desert critter, ie scorpion, tarantula, centipede, etc., inside. But this fellow was like nothing we'd ever seen. The one pictured above is actually smaller than the other one we found, but this one had a 'baby' with it. We released it back into the 'wild' by carrying it in a plastic cup across the street to the arroyo.

Rick sprayed with our heavy-duty commercial product we use on the rest of the storage property. But, we're not walking around barefoot in the dark anymore, just in case this guy had friends...

Follow the link for more info.
http://www.spiderzrule.com/sunspider.htm

P.S. More From the Last Post

Following up on my last post...I'm more than a little peeved-but shocked-that the so-called 'RUINED' hand towel I paid for on my vacation is NOT ruined after all...I threw it in with a load of other towels, etc. and lo-and-behold it came out nearly-perfect in C-O-L-D water. Since I was told by a 'professional' that there was no way the item would come clean, I didn't even examine it before I threw it in the dryer with the rest of the load. So the slight discoloration is now permanently 'set'. Imagine if I had first used hot water and bleach - as I would assume a hotel would do....

Remember how I said I was going to send in the hotel's 'comment' card? Well, the chain sent me a survey e-mail...and I slammed them...probably too hard...the desk clerks were actually really nice and helpful. And that was BEFORE I washed the towels...Guess I'm still not THAT sanctified!?

In Which I Narrowly Escape a Melt-Down; or A Tattle-Tale Housekeeper Gets No Tip

The road to sanctification is rutted and rocky...and sometimes a lesson must be re learned or, at least, re tested.

We've been on vacation in Bellingham this past week. I was sitting in the Las Vegas airport, waiting for our connecting flight back to El Paso, while composing most of this post. The visit was wonderful, but this post isn't about those details. It's about how God graciously helped me avoid total melt-down on our last morning.

As we were on holiday I decided to treat myself to a salon hair color - something I never do at home - it's been about three years since the last such luxury. I went to a nice place, was treated very kindly by the stylists and was quite pleased with the result.

The color was advertised as 'permanent', but after the first shower, I noticed the color bleeding on to the hotel towels. I showered every day since Friday with the same 'red' color coming off on the drying towel. Everyday the soiled linen was picked up by housekeeping, with me none the wiser about what was happening in the front office...

Long story short, when we checked out I gave my room number to the desk clerk. She stepped into a side office and immediately another woman - presumably a manager - emerged, holding a baggie with a 'red' towel wrapped inside. She informed me that because they couldn't get the hair dye out, I'd have to pay for the ruined hand towel - at a cost of $4. Further, she asked me if I'd like to take the towel with me, since I now 'owned' it. Unless you knew me back in the day, you won't believe how hard it was for me NOT to fly into an indignant fit of rage. Unbelievably and uncharacteristically, I said, 'Yes, I'll take the towel.' I even made a joke about suggesting to my hair stylist that she should pay for the ruined item.

I went back to the room and told Rick the story. I felt more upset than I let on. In fact, I realized I could have avoided the entire incident by not using the motel towel once I saw my color was washing out. I made a faulty assumption that the strong bleach and hot water used in the motel laundry would be able to wash anything out.

The other thing is that I kind of dodged the bullet. As I said, I'd showered at least 3 times and used the motel towels to dry my hair. I suspect that #1 the regular housekeeper was 'off' and someone else cleaned our room - finding the 'red' towel and alerting the manager. OR #2, the regular person just had enough of my daily abuse and decided to roll over on me to her boss...I mean, I could have owed more for all the laundry I probably ruined and the trouble I caused.

I brought home the motel's 'comment' card which I intend to complete and submit to the company office. I don't know if I'll mention the hair-dye incident - they may still have my credit card number lying around and I don't want to send up a 'red' (pun intended) flag that might prompt them to add more charges.

I do want them to consider having their webmaster look up the meaning of the word 'adjacent'...One of the reasons we chose that motel was for its close proximity to a Denny's restaurant. The website described several amenities we were interested in: reasonable (cheap) price; wireless internet, and the fact that Denny's was noted as being 'adjacent' to the property.

I hardly think a brisk, 1/4 mile walk under the freeway overpass qualifies as 'adjacent' in anyone's dictionary.

Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647