Peace at Last

I am alone. I am seldom alone. Sean is at work, Lizzie spent the night at my mom's house, Jake is not home yet, and I am alone.

It is so funny how quiet being alone can be. We are a loud family. I don't even really know why, we are loud in almost everything we do, even walking. When Jake has his ipod on he paces the 1st floor, that kid is eventually going to wear a path into the stained concrete. When I am in my bed at night, and he is pacing, I can hear each step he takes.My bedroom is on the second floor. See, what I mean by loud family?

I am love this quiet. If the washer was not running, their would be no noise at all. I am going to go get in the sauna and then head to my quiet bed. aaaaaaahhhhhhhh I hope you are feeling as peaceful as I am at this moment.

Road Block

Look at that pitiful little face - ears back, tail tucked between her legs - poor Chica! These are the stairs she uses to get on and off of our bed. This is one of our cats, Milo, resting right there on top of her little stairs. Three of our four cats do this, I honestly believe it is no accident. I do not think they just happen to pick this spot, I believe it is on purpose. I think they relish in watching Chica's distress as she circles, whining, and whimpering and continuing to return to the stairs over and over again, but won't actually get on them. Feline Roadblock - very affective!

I can't look at this picture and not think of my own road blocks. How easily am I swayed from what I desire to do as soon as an obstacle pops up in my way? Am I determined enough to keep pushing my way through or to even find an alternate route? I think for me sometimes if it seems too hard I just give in and don't push through. I have learned in the past few years that it all depends on how badly I want it. If I have a big enough "why", a big enough reason, NOTHING will stand in my way. I might get sidetracked, I might do a few circles and whimper a bit about the road block, but I will pursue and seek a way to accomplish my goal, if I want it bad enough.

Chica knows I will come to her rescue. She knows eventually, after watching until my amusement is satisfied, that I will shoo the cat and she can get on the bed. Or I will just pick her up, cuddle her a bit until her little chihuahua body quits shaking and set her on the bed. In a similar way, I know that my Heavenly Father always comes to my rescue. He may shoo the obstacle away, or He may provide a different set of stairs, or sometimes He simply lifts me in His arms and holds me close until I feel comforted and loved and then He gently places me where I wanted to go in the first place.

Yes, when God places a desire or passion in my heart, I do my best to pursue it and follow it, no matter what obstacles are in my way. The greatest part is that He never expects me to battle my obstacles alone, He is always beside me, in front of me and/or behind me to help me see it through. I am so grateful and it makes the journey so much more fun!

Plain Freaky

OK - Remember when I wrote my some-what sarcastic letter to Frontier Airlines apologizing for thinking my camera was stolen while in their care? Well, I never actually contacted Frontier about the camera. I was intending to contact them, but then found my camera. Since this was the only avenue I had actually said anything about the theft, I just wrote that half joking letter on here - my blog. For your benefit, my faithful 5 or 6 people that actually read this. Well, so someone please tell me how this letter showed up in my email yesterday, please, cuz it seems kinda creepy - nice, but creepy:


Hello Michelle Grabbe,

Thanks for you note. We’re mainly glad that you found your camera!

We appreciate you flying on Frontier and would ask for your consideration of flying Frontier Airlines on your next air travel trip.


Kind Regards,

Doug Skelton
Customer Relations
Frontier Airlines, Inc.


FRONTIER AIRLINESIntroducing AirFairs. The fair way to fly from "a whole different animal."CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any file attachments from your computer.

G is for Grandma

Sean's mom on the Carousel this past week at the Houston Zoo.

My mom and my oldest daughter, Reagan a few months back.

My mom helping with the "Princess Tea Party" we had with Lizzie and Laura.

Jake and Sean's mom, Mona last week - still at the zoo. Grandmas are such special people in our lives. I miss mine very much!

Lizzie as Uncle Fester

Have you seen the Adam's Family Movie? Uncle Fester sleeps in a bed that looks similar to this! While we were in Houston, Sean's sis was kind enough to give Sean and I her bed and she slept with Lizzie on a blow up mattress. Well, it got a hole one night. It didn't seem to bother Lizzie much, she just snored away!

This room was wall to wall mattress. Kelli and Liz had one bed, Jake and the dog, Charlie, had the other. Lizzie was thrilled, she thought it was a slumber party every single night!

Please Forgive me, Frontier

Dear Frontier Airlines,

I am asking your forgiveness for making false accusations. I truly believed someone had stolen my camera. I admit it, I jumped to conclusions. Yes, I also slandered you by telling everyone my camera had been stolen while in your care. For this, I apologize.

Imagine my surprise when I finally unpacked - yes, it has been two days since I arrived home, but who is counting? So, as I was getting to the VERY bottom of my bag, there was something shining up at me. On close inspection I realized it was my beloved camera!! I am very happy to be reunited with my precious electronic device.

Thanks for understanding that I jumped to conclusions and am a slow unpacker!

Your faithful Customer - Michele

Sardines

Since Sean and I were driving down to Houston when the conference was over, we rented a car. You know when you rent a car, you never know what kind of car you will get. We were blessed with a Kia. It was WELL used, at the end of the week we had put 900 miles on it. While at the conference everything is within walking distance, so only a few people had cars. One night we went off in search of Tex-Mex - a true slice of heaven to this TX girl. Anyway, we fit nine people inside that Kia! It was amazing, and funny, and we felt like sardines, but I am still laughing right now today just thinking about it!

Since Sean's family lives in Houston, well La Porte to be exact, they met us when we got into Ft Worth and stole Jake and Lizzie for the weekend. That was really nice because the kids were not stuck in the hotel room or at meetings and Sean and I could really concentrate on what we were there for and not worry about entertaining the kids. Then Saturday we drove down to Houston and joined them. I might get a Kia sometime in my life - 900 driving miles = 28 gallons of gas!! Unbelievable.