Forever friends....

I have friends, you have friends, we all do.  The friends I have made since I've become an adult have been some of the most rewarding friendships I could have ever asked for....truly God sent.  I'm sure you feel the same way.  There is just something about having that one person you can confide in, other than your significant other, who in MY life is my very best friend, that makes life.....well....special !

But, this is about the friendships we make as children.  I can remember those too....can you?  I can remember running the streets with my friends until we couldn't see the pavement anymore because it had gotten too dark; the way my skin felt sticky from being out in the damp, summer air for hours on end.  I can remember my Mom being furious with me for making toast and using up all the butter while she was at work...."I buy REAL butter," she said, "NOT margarine!"  Now that I'm a Mom, I know why she got so mad at me for making the whole neighborhood toast and jelly for snacks and using up all of her "real butter".....that stuff is expensive!

Anyhoo, I digress....

So, today I did a favor for our good friends Selena and Jarad.  I picked up their cutie patootie son, Asher, from preschool. He's in Addie Kate's class and they have become fast friends.  So I brought him home after school and they had a supercalifragilisticexpialidociously long playdate today.  We wrapped up the playdate by playing in front yard, the two of them driving around in Addie Kate's hooptie! 

The pictures say it all...I hope and pray that their friendship stands the test of time....but for now....the memory making is priceless!



Asher and Addie Kate




Enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon !




Chillin' like villians !




I think he enjoyed being chauffeured!




"Stopping for snacks at the store"









Too cute!

 



Best Good Friends !



What forgiveness looks like....

After our.... ahem...challenging day yesterday, I was getting ready for bed.  My head was splitting open with one of the worst headaches I've had in a really long time.  So much to do, so little time to do it.  And ...BONUS !!!!

...the hubster is out-of-town....AGAIN !!!

Anyhoo...I digress....

So, as I'm preparing to go to bed, it's about 10:45 and I'm finally cleaning the kitchen.  Dishes are piled up from breakfast, lunch AND dinner, and I'm navigating through all of the clutter to find my bedroom....I see this little postcard.  What could it be?

It's a little love note...  a precious little momento from the heart of my nine-year-old son.  No doubt he was moved to write it because of how I handled all of his "little" mistakes yesterday. 

Folks, don't kid yourselves....quiet time to reflect is such a good thing.  Mom's out there take my advice....sit in the mess of your house and take this time when something goes wrong.  The dishes can wait, the dust will be there later, trust me...the vacuuum cleaner won't hold a grudge.  But that time I took yesterday to heed my husband's words before he left to go out-of-town was invaluable.  "Don't stay mad," he said. 

That was God speaking through him.  And those words spoke to me ALL DAY as I reflected on all that had happened....and that continued to happen on and off all day......yesterday was no picnic!

Anyhoo...before I get too long winded, I just wanted to share this precious postcard with you....it touched my heart....I hope it touches yours too!

                                                        Makes it all worth it !

Don't worry kids...money grows on trees!

Auuuuggggh !  If it's not one thing it's another! 
I swear the epitaph on my tombstone is going to read ...

"I knew this would happen!"

BTW... I stole that one from a friend!  It seems like when it rains it pours!  No sooner than I wreck our mini-van and cost us an arm and a leg in repairs, everything under the sun hits at one time!  Are you familiar with how that seems to work?  Murphy's Law they call it. I liken it to wiping your beehinie on a wagon wheel...the poo just keeps on coming back around!  Sorry...again...very blunt.  I couldn't help myself!

So...cha ching ! In the previous pics, not sure if you noticed my precious son was wearing a darling tuque that his dad brought back from his recent business travels to Toronto.  30 US Dollars to be exact. Pretty pricey for a knitted cap that he'll wear in sunny Florida, what, twice a year?  Anyhoo...I digress...

So, our son, who has been told countless times to keep his things picked up because there is a puppy in the house, leaves his tuque out and following the natural order of things, yup, you guessed it....the tuque is now being processed through our puppy's digestive tract.  That was $30 bucks well spent!

Next, when the hubster and my sweet son come in from a morning out at breakfast this a.m. I show my loving husband the gift he so had so thoughtfully purchased for our son, or shall I say, what was left of it.  He was pretty steamed, but counters me and says...."Oh that's nothing...wait till Jagger tells you what else has happened."

Now, I'm on hold with the insurance company, dealing with a big mess for Frank's parent's....WHOLE 'NOTHER BLOG! and I beg my husband to tell me what happened.  He's holding out...."Nope," he says, "I'll just let Jagger show you."  Now my first thought is that they have done something to the rental car that we are driving while mine is being repaired, you know, from MY latest screw-up!  Nope...that's not it.  When I finally get finished dealing with the in-laws crisis, I go back to our son's room and ask him what has happened that his father just can't bring himself to tell me about.  It is at this point that my sweet child pulls out his 3-week-old, $220 iPod Touch that he received for his birthday....and the screen is cracked.  He had taken it upon himself to remove the $20 rubber protective cover I had purchased for it and decided to carry it around in his pocket "Sans Souci " because nothing is ever going to happen to it..."Mom's crazy for buying that rubber thingy to protect it...why would she do a silly thing like that????"

Famous last words.....

After all of the dust settled and I had time to reflect on this situation, I realize that God is giving ME the same opportunity to show kindness and understanding to my child, that my husband had shown me just one short week ago!  Isn't that AMAZING how our God works?  I will admit, my reaction was a bit less controlled than my husband's...but I do see the big picture!  I see how He is growing me...shaping me....molding ME.....

Colossians 3:13 (The Message)

 "^12-14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. "

He's not giving up on me, HIS child...no matter how many times I mess up...and I'm not giving up on my sweet child....no matter what!

Groovin' on a Sunday Mornin'

So....We're officially playing hookie from Church!  My husband, who has been in Canada for a week gets up and prepares a delicious breakfast for us, and is soooo sweet to leave the kitchen for me to clean, hey I don't mind....at least I didn't have to cook!  And while I'm cleaning I realize he's MIA....Jagger comes out of his room and asks me where he is, Addie Kate is looking for him....noone can seem to find him.....

After a few minutes, the love of my life and father of my precious children comes traipsing in from the garage, with a handful of CD's that he is blowing the dust off of and heading with a determined look over to the CD player.  For whatever reason, my loving husband has decided that he needs to expose our children to HIS generation of music.

Enter the Jackson Five.  YIKES !  Can you see my eyeballs popping out of my head right now? 

Any of you who know us, know that there is a 10-year age difference between the sweet hubster and myself...soooo....having said that....this isn't MY generation of music either! lol  Long story short...as I'm washing dishes and listening to "la la la la la la la la ....I love yoooooouuuuuuu!"  I look into the living room and realize why I "la la la la la" love him sooooo much.

The photo says it all.  He's piled up on Addie Kate's pink trampoline, strategically placed in our living room to get the wiggles out of our children on an "as needed" basis, with our two blessed children and our puppy Lilly...singing his heart out...on this beautiful Sunday morning!

I love my life!

The Crash Heard Round The Hammocks!

What a week!  Right now as I type, there are a million other things I should be doing....case in point!
The photo?  Ah!  I knew you'd ask!  I'll start by saying that I've officially decided to take a hiatus from Facebook, which is the biggest time sucker I've ever experienced in my life.  And what is completely baffling is that I can't even explain WHY it's such a time sucker.  There really is nothing concrete that I do on Facebook that makes me sit there for hours on end, reading about my friends and their "black-eyed peas and ham hocks supper" that was "yummo" or the silly videos posted by so many, including myself.  The only thing of value that can even justify my spending time on Facebook is the prayer requests, which I have certainly utilized myself.  I am thankful to have such a wonderful outlet to send out my own prayer requests and I covet the opportunity to pray for others as well.

Now back to the photo.  Last Tuesday was a normal day in the Golden household.  I awoke a couple of hours before the kids, turned on the computer, started my coffee and sat down to catch up on my email and everyone's "business" on Facebook.  In usual fashion, my sweet angel baby comes tootling out of her room, rubbing her eyes, crawls up on the sofa and slowly starts waking up....a few minutes after that her brother soon follows suit.  Long story short....in usual fashion, I was late getting the kids fed and dressed for Addie Kate's "nastics" class at 10:00.  So at 10:10 we are backing out of the driveway to go to "nastics" to arrive at 10:15, our usual time since I am ALWAYS LATE EVERYWHERE I GO!  By the way, this is my husband's FAVORITE of my many endearing traits......NOT!

As I'm backing out of the driveway, we are all jarred and hear a crunch!  I say, "What was that?"  No big deal, it's just a 2 ton, 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4 Dually!  Now...I realize that this was my fault...but this woman was parked in the street with the driveway completely empty....did you hear me??  The driveway was completely empty !!!!  Anyhoo, I digress!  So, I exit my vehicle, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't muttering a few choice words under my breath!  After assessing the damage to my vehicle, which as you can see by the photo is, well...significant...., I look to the dually.  I am not exaggerating when I say this, the rim, literally the hubcap is bent on this big monster of a truck.
 
Are you ready for the meat of this story???  Here it comes.  So the woman who owns the truck, hears the crunch and comes around the side of the house where she was working on the well pump and the first thing she says to me is..... "I hope it didn't bend my rear axle."

Are you serious?



Really?



.....Seriously?


So... my reply,  as God is my witness, to her is this, "Ma'am, if your rear axle is bent from my little mini van hitting your hubcap at .008 mph, then perhaps you need to buy a Ford!"  Geesh!
 
An hour later, after insurance information is taken, repair companies are contacted, and photos are taken  / YES..I immediately took photos of her bent rear axle! / we missed "nastics" and I spent the rest of my day crying my eyes out.  I had hoped to send my husband an email explaining how careless I had been and begging him for forgiveness before he Skyped us from Canada where he is on travel this week.  But....nooooooooooooooooo......he Skyped before I could get to it !  The reason?  I was too busy wasting time on friggin' Facebook!

So, I admitted my shame and stupidity to my loving husband of 18 years and his forgiveness and understanding just made me feel worse.  Oh, don't get me wrong, he was plenty upset, just very understanding that I am who I am and any anger he could direct at me over this situation is not going to change the fact that I am always going to be late wherever I go and that he is going to love me anyway.

Micah 7:18-19
 ~New International Reader's Version~

 18 Lord, who is a God like you?
      You forgive sin.
    You forgive your people
      when they do what is wrong.
    You don't stay angry forever.
      Instead, you take delight in showing
      your faithful love to them.
 19 Once again you will show loving concern for us.
      You will completely wipe out
      the evil things we've done.
     You will throw all of our sins
      into the bottom of the sea.

Thank you God for the gift of this man in my life.  I am truly blessed beyond measure  !!

Nice!

New Outlet for Mee!

Okay!  I've decided that since I am taking a hiatus from Facebook that I have to have an outlet for sharing the calamities that occur in our home on a daily basis!  I figure that since I'm not on Facebook I won't get caught up in looking at everyone's business and getting stuck for hours.  Everyone has been so sweet to say how much they would miss my updates so I felt compelled to start this blog.  I hope you enjoy reading these updates as much as I will enjoy writing them!  I will miss keeping up with everyone, but will only be away until I get my poo together....sorry for being so blunt, but...it is what it is !

Until another crisis.....

Mee !