I’m baking my cookies and eating them too.

1/20/11


Today the snow fell in droves. Not the gentle kind I’ve been used to seeing in recent years. An inch an hour. I’ll repeat it for dramatic affect, AN INCH AN HOUR! And it snowed for let’s say 9 hours. Cars covered, roads vanished, yards blinding white, and kids blissfully doing flips into 9 inch snow piles.

I personally like to let the sun do a little grunt work before I clean off what’s left on and around my car, but with 9 inches, the sun was even having a difficult time. I spent my day inside, cuddled up in my pj’s, unshowered and loving it. I prayed. I read. I worked on a puzzle. I did my nails. I watched The Doctors. I loved this day!

I’ve been convicted lately about my nonexistent daily prayer routine. I am a haphazard prayer. Things pop into my mind and I’ll pray for them, but I’m awful at setting aside daily time with my Savior to really pray. So, it has been my goal this week to get a routine going with this and I have to say it’s been great! I’ve been taking things to God that I usually try to handle on my own. I’ve been praying for others. I’ve been praying for those people of whom I’ve said I’ll pray for! WHAT! Actually doing what I’d said I’d do. Miraculous! And I really do mean miraculous!

So it was a miracle today when I finally did make it into regular clothes to go clean off my car and found a ticket nestled in the 9 inches piled on that I didn’t lose it!

Since I’ve been driving, 12 years now, I’ve parked my car in a spot in front of my parent’s house. It’s specially paved, not part of the road, but indeed part of our yard spot. Clearly marked in front of my spot is a sign that says No Parking This Side of Street. Great! I’m a law abiding citizen, good thing I’m parking on my yard spot and not the road. 12 YEARS I’ve been doing this. So today when I got a ticket in the amount of $789.00 for parking on the street during snow I was totally confused. This isn’t the street. This is my yard spot. Then reading further, I saw that I indeed had another ticket for $612.00 for parking on “unimproved surface- ‘No Parking This Side of Street’”. First I’m thinking he meant unapproved, but I digress. I know that sign. I live by that sign. I obey that sign! I PARK IN MY YARD SPOT!

If you aren’t so hot in math, or don’t care enough to count it, I’ll just tell you that is $1401 that I will refer to as $1,40 and 1 in tickets in one day for a car I wasn’t even driving!!!!!!!

1-4-0-1

That 1 dollar mocked me as I stood out in the cold reading my list of violations, snow seeping into my, not so equipped to handle 9 inches of snow, snow boots. For a woman who just quit her job and is hanging on for a paycheck just to pay her basic necessity bills, $140 and 1 is a slap in the face and would typically make one spit out some vulgarity fitting for the situation.

12 years. 12 years and not one ticket, not one warning, nothing and then BAM! $140 and 1!

So I cleaned off my car and shoveled thinking the whole time about how I wished I had a husband who would shovel with me and speak up for me during my COURT DATE!!!! what I would say while in front of the judge pleading my case. The tears that would inevitably come, because… well, I’m me. Did I need a lawyer? How do I go about getting a lawyer? How would I pay for that? Would I go to jail if I said all the things I really wanted to say to this police officer? Would they be able to go back in the records to see that they were indeed the ones that made us pave the yard spot so we could park there? Would I need evidence?

But in the midst of my racing, panicked mind, came that small voice. A small voice that led me to laugh, instead of cry, to shovel instead of pout, and to move my car to the deep back of our driveway instead of keeping it there in stubborn rebellion.

I was disappointed when I asked my mom what I was supposed to do and she said pray. PRAY! Well duh, but what do I DO?! I wanted to yell. The truth is she couldn’t have been more right. $1,40 and 1 is an insurmountable amount of money to me at this point in my life. Totally and completely impossible! B-U-T, through Hezekiah I have learned that He wants me to lay it all out before Him. To humble myself before Him. To show Him the odds stacked against me, so that He in His miraculous-ness could do just as huge a miracle as taking one who has no prayer life and giving her a rich and vibrant week of prayer to providing a mere $1,40 and 1.

So, instead of fretting over my court date, March 2nd @6:30, I’m laying out my tickets to God and asking Him to provide like only He can. I’m also making cookies and eating them too, cause you know, what’s a girl to do!

Overactive Imagination

Written 11/20/10 @ 11:45 pm


Fighting Peonies

I just finished “chat and chow” at Cheesecake Factory with some friends. Had Vietnamese Tacos, if you haven’t had them- you need to try ‘em. Yum! But there was even yummier conversation. I love chatting with people who come from all different stages of life and yet finding we have this common thread among us. Simply lovely.

What’s not so lovely however is coming home from that time of sweet sharing to a scratching at your window. That’s right, I came home to scratching at my window!

First of all, can I tell you how weak I feel right now? Walking from the restaurant across the parking lot (Galleria uhg! Awful parking!) to my car was the most nerve racking thing. I was freezing, thank you Missouri weather, and tired and just wanted to be here, at home, but instead I’m hiking across that parking lot ALONE! Lord knows I know having a husband won’t solve these fears I have but goodnight, it would be nice to have a man protecting me from the cool weather and possible lurkers. But I digress. I felt slightly panicked walking to my car. I don’t frequent the mall often, especially not during holiday times, for fear of being robbed. So walking alone had my little imagination creating tons of scenarios where some beastly man came at me and I, a) startled and fainted like these guys, b) gauged them with my key that was clenched in my fist, or c) screamed like mad with nothing coming out. Oh the imagination! So thankfully this little imagination of mine kept me preoccupied and I made it to my car safely releasing the clutch I had on my beloved FREE Coach bag (thanks Michelle).

Listening to my bluegrass music on the way home (my new love!), I felt relieved and no longer stressed over potential lurkers. Pulling up to my house though, my new fear (click here for that story) of popping a tire kicked into over drive and I anxiously parked and headed for bed. Fears behind me, I started taking out my earrings when I heard a scratch on my window. All the adrenaline that was not far removed from previous incidents now rushed back. The sound came again, this time seeming far more amplified. Someone was turning the lock on my window slowly. Except, there is no lock on my window, at least not from the outside. SO, at that point I was pretty grateful I lived with my parents as I rushed upstairs to tell my dad. He sprang out of his sleep saying “That sounds like a challenge.” (How great is that. Ugh I love men being heroes!) SO he skulked around the house looking for a weapon for the potential intruder, while my freshly awakened mom and I cowered inside. He left into the dark to fight returning moments later with a burp. “Peonies”, he said. I’m confused. “It’s the peonies stems scratching against your window.”

Whoops. That over active imagination will get you every time!

Your Domestic Handywoman

So, I have a confession to make. Last night I watched All American Handyman on HGTV and I really liked it. I realize this isn't a life changing announcement but I just thought I would share.

I've been in domestic mode for a few months now, friends would probably say I've been in this mode for life, but recently it's been really intense. I mean like wanting to drive a swagger wagon kind of intense. Wanting to make all things homemade intense. Wanting to crochet, knit, and sew intense. Wanting to cuddle babies all day long intense. You hear what I'm saying? 

So in watching this sweet little show I was imagining My Handyman and me being His Domestic Handywoman, you know doing all things domestic:
Oh yeah My Handyman so you can install that toilet, well I can clean it. Oh yeah My Handyman you just put together an entire kitchen in 2 hours, well I'll slave over a meal in that kitchen and then clean it all in 2 hours. Oh yeah My Handyman, you can roof a dog house, well I can... well I can't find an equivalent to roofing a dog house...none-the-less...

I so appreciated these men and their ability to do tasks in a home that I just cannot or will not do. So a big thank you to all you handymen out there and a preemptive thank you to My Future Handyman (if only in my dreams). 

-Domestic Handywoman (if only in my dreams) 

That AhHaHa

I'm really loving this blogging thing. It's helping me to document the ridiculous things that happen in my life, bringing much joy and laughter as I reread or remember to write. Such as right now, my sweet Valentine's Day consisted of a children's card reading "You're as cute as a kitten!" and a non-insured immigrant hitting my parked car. Sad right? But hilarious when you look at in the context of the rest of my life story.

You see I have had a time with cars. Let's reminisce shall we?

Car 1: Gold Beast- speedometer rarely worked and decided to stop working without warning.
Car 2: Saggy Ceiling- window would slip into the door (awful for rainy days) and caught on fire on 70.
Car 3: Blue Tempo- old school but good, traded in for...
Car 4: Maroon Malibu- week 3 of owning I tapped a brick wall, that same week I flipped it completely totalling it.
Car 5: White Cobalt- hit by a drunk driver within months of owning
Car 6: Jeep- I only had for a month or so waiting for the cobalt to get fixed.
Repeat Car 5: White Cobalt- glowing clutch in year 4 of owning, days after fixing glowing clutch I ran into a 2 foot puddle flooding out my engine $1000 and 2 months later on a snowy day the afore mentioned non-insured driver hit my parked car.

I go through cars like I go through apartments! Hahaha

So, I'm here with my bruised up car just choosing to laugh, otherwise I would be forced to cry. It's that AH! Haha