Texas Thankfulness #1

Recently someone told me they just wish I could be happy about living in Texas. And while there are times I am certainly not happy, there were times when I was also not happy in New Hampshire. Or Indiana. Or North Carolina. But where in the Bible does it say we are called to be happy? We are told to be content, joyful, thankful. Some days I do want to see mountains and hills so bad it hurts. I’m going to miss the fall foliage enough to make me cry. And when winter rolls around (or does it even come to Texas?), I will stomp my feet when it is 80 degrees outside. When all is said and done – yes! – I want out of Texas. But that does not mean God has not given me much to be thankful for here. And just to prove it, every week until Thanksgiving, I am going to write on one of them.

My church. Some of you may remember when I first moved to Indiana. My family visited at least a dozen churches before we settled with the first one we visited. (Isn’t that how it always works?) When I moved down here, I prayed hard that I would not have to do that. I prayed the Lord would lead me to the right church right away. For visiting churches is trying as a family – I did not want to do it alone. Even going to church alone is difficult some Sundays.

So, I did my research. (Isn’t the internet great?) And kept returning to a particular one. It is 40 miles away, but off I went. And loved it. The preaching is wonderful, the doctrine and theology where mine own is, and two of the first four Sundays I visited the choir sang hymns I know and love from my church in New Hampshire. I knew God had led me wanted me to be a part of.

Of course, it takes three years to say hello. That seems especially so in a church – and even more especially so when you are single. And even more – more – especially so when you are thirty and single, for it seems people look at you and wonder what’s wrong that no man has ever given you the time of day. (Did I mention I have two heads?) But, I take just as much blame on myself. I’m very sensitive about forever being the new kid on the block. I’m shy in many ways, and I never want to intrude into a conversation lest I be a bother. All the same, I have found friends there. People always ask how I am doing. I know this family of Christ here would be by my side if I needed them. And isn’t that what members of the same body do?

When life gives you lemons...

...make lemonade!

Lately, my life has been one thing after another. And it looks like it is only going to get worse. All those charts we photocopied back in the spring? Papers that piled taller than I am? Well, now they have to all be scanned into the computer. By October 13.

Since returning from South Dakota, my life has been a whirlwind. One thing after another. Never a break. I feel like I haven't rested a moment. And there doesn't seem to be an end to it. Yet even in the midst of all this, God gives good news.

In April, my dearest friend Allyson is to have her fifth child!!!!! Will it be a girl? Or yet another boy? Well, her little girl Violet told her, "Mama, we can't have any more brothers until we have just as many sisters."

Happy Birthday, Katey!!!


It's hard to believe the baby girl who made me a big sister is 28 years old! (And she still loves cats.)

The Lord works in mysterious ways, and He put me out of town at a great moment. The problem is now I really wish I had not returned.

It seems the very day I left, the state decided to show up for our six year audit. They sent this mousy little woman who doesn't seem to have any clue about what she is doing. To support this theory, she is still in our office after a week and a half. Of course we're all terrified of her, but its more than the fact that she's from the state. If you say something to her, she jumps a mile. I've only ever met one other state auditor, but I get the impression this one is odd.

Then the day I returned to Texas, my boss got a letter - well, a book - in the mail concerning the audit we had to massively collect last March/April. Bad news. One million dollars worth of bad news. He's going to fight it. This is a five step appeal process. You make the first appeal and if that doesn't work, go to step two. That should take a grand total of oneand half years. If that doesn't work, he's hired an attorney and we'll go to court. But, that will take five years. So much for that "speedy trial" our Constitution proudly proclaims. Of course, I don't think the Founding Fathers ever dreamed of Medicare or government funded health care either.

So, this is what I jumped back into. The only comfort I had was every single co-worker I've seen/talked to says one thing: "Melissa, we are SOOOO glad to have you back. You can't EVER leave again." That's what they think.

Today I started a weekly tutoring job. Just for an hour or hour and a half one day a week for now. It's the daughter of one of the nurses I work with. She's just started at a local community college and has some learning struggles. So I poured over very basic algebra equations this evening. I think some people wonder why in the world I've decided to pile on one more thing. Some of it is I need distractions from other problems in my life. But, truly, its because I love it. I love to sit with a student and teach them. I love to watch them grasp negative and positive numbers. I love to watch them understand like terms. Their eyes light up, they are so proud of themselves, and I feel like I've accomplished something - even if it is a very small something.

For I have now remembered why office work burned me out five years ago. It's because you accomplish nothing. You finished the billing for this month? Well, guess what? You get to do it again next month. Printed off a hundred nurse's notes? It won't take them long to go through those. Tore down a dead chart? There are two live ones to build and take its place. And you spent four exhausting, tense weeks gathering a tower of information that is seven feet tall when stacked? Well, in six months you'll spend another four exhausting, tense weeks pulling together more information because the government didn't like what you sent them. And you already know that no matter how carefully you gather that information, in another four to six months you'll spend another four weeks piling up more information. So, in the end, there are no goals - no mountains to climb. Nothing is ever accomplished. You reach the peak, only to find another to climb. It never ends.

Sometimes we say life is a vicious circle. But it isn't really. It has a start and it has a finish. For those of us who are Christians, it even has a goal: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We fall short of that goal, yes, but at least we always have something to strive for. And, in the end, we will hear a "Well done, my good and faithful servant." I think that's why I like to read. A book starts and ends. It's why I like to write. You start with "Once upon a time..." and end with "Happily Ever After". There even comes a point when you just have to stop editing it to pieces. And its why I loved the hour and a half I spent this evening, even though some may call me crazy to go from work to work. But teaching kids is rewarding. Because although we should never stop learning, many lessons are learned but once. (Remember when you learned to ride a bike? Have you ever forgotten?) And right now when I'm faced with things I can't see the end of, I need a goal that is a joy to accomplish. Now if only Christ would come back soon...

Without an internet connection at the “cabin” in South Dakota, I couldn’t post a daily activity log of my vacation with my family. So, you get it all at once…

September 8

Left Texas before the sun rose – YEA!!!! Saw my first glance of the Rockies as I flew into Denver. Then boarded a plane to South Dakota. As my first set of flights were cancelled two weeks ago, the best flights I could get arrived just after nine. Which means I got to wait…and wait….and wait…until my family arrived around three. But I didn’t much care. My family, mountains, cool breezes – everything Texas doesn’t have and I love. Hooray!

Drove an hour northwest to the Deadwood area. Found Lost Miner’s Cabin, up among the hills and ponderosas easily enough. Picked out the beds we wanted, ran to the local grocery store and just lay around. After being up for nearly twenty hours, went to bed!!!

September 9

First stop: Mt. Rushmore. A breathtakingly beautiful day! The blue skies are gorgeous here. And the landscape reminds me of New Hampshire at times – sheer rock walls they’ve blasted to make roads, hills, white birches, rocks everywhere. But the northwest has a landscape unique to itself. The mountains – or Black Hills – are truly black with ponderosas covering them and yet many of the hills are topped with huge rocks. The hills roll, yet the landscape stretches out before you like the plains. It’s hard to describe, but it’s truly lovely. On the way, we saw deer along the road.

“Those are friendly deer,” Abby remarked.

“Really?” someone asked. “How can you tell? Did they wave at you?”

Mt. Rushmore is amazing. I took enough pictures from every angle to fill an album. We walked the trail, had lots of fun, ate ice cream, and raced up the stairs. (Caleb beat us all, but it’s hardly fair when he can take three steps at a time.) God’s creation is these hills is truly lovely.

Second stop: Jewel Cave National Park. Dad, Sally, Grace, Abby and Caleb went on the Lantern Tour, which enters the Historic Entrance of Jewel Cave and includes some crawling as one’s only light source is the lantern in one’s hand. Mom, Jenny and I went on the scenic tour. This one included 723 stairs and some truly beautiful sites of cave formations, each one intricately made by their Creator. It’s astounding to think of the detail God put into even the creation we cannot see on a daily basis. I don’t think I would care to be a cave explorer, but there are all kinds of things to discover down there. Like a large cavern in Jewel Cave that can only be reached by over a half mile of very narrow tunnels to be crawled through (a mere six inches in height in some places). The first person to ever enter this cavern shown his head lamp around the cavern larger than a football field and claimed, “Wow, this is a big room.”

The person behind him pulled himself from the tunnel, glanced around and replied, “Duh.”

Therefore, the name of this cavern is The Big Duh.

September 10

Stop of the day: Wyoming. After all, we can’t be a half hour from the state line and not visit. Or search for my potential husband (family joke) – whom we did not find.

But I will say Wyoming is an amazing state. The landscape is incredible. Rolling hills, deep valleys, gulches, layers of red rock. And, we learned, the lowest point of the state is more than 3,000 feet above sea level. Which accounts for the COLD temperatures. Jeans and a sweatshirt. Now I can die happy.

The main purpose of the trip was to see Devil’s Tower. Now this thing is beyond words. For it’s unlike anything I have seen or probably will ever see. For one, it’s just there. Take it off the hill it sits upon, and that hill will look like any of the other hundreds in Wyoming. Yet there it sits – a huge rock formation that is almost impossible to describe. Of course, man sits around and tries to explain it. The Indians tried legends. In our more “cultured” era, we try science. Both fall short. Why can man not accept that God just said, “Let there be…”?

It was a bit rainy, but we bundled up and took off down the path that encircles the Tower. We had a lot of fun, laughs, and jokes (mostly at Abby’s expense) as we skipped, walked, climbed and ran down the path for the next hour or more. To top off the adventure, we got to see prairie dogs in a field as we left the park. They were adorable!

September 11

Where were you nine years ago on this date? I was at work in New Hampshire, watching the world as I knew it crumble around me. Today, I was in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The first stop of the day was Cabela’s. Not a store where I would do a lot of shopping but fun to visit. We found an old bookstore to haunt, which led us through the very nice downtown area. We tried to spot the statues of the corners of the Presidents, but we didn’t see them all and couldn’t name a few of the ones we did see. After lunch, we took a quick trip to the mall. Then we played putt-putt with some pirates. One brief stop to Wal-Mart and then back to the cabin for movies, games and hamburgers on the grill.

September 12

A day of rest. We slept in, studied the Bible as a family, took some walks around the area of the cabin, ate lunch, napped, played games, watched movies and a few of us took off to Deadwood to visit Mt. Moriah cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. Did some laundry, packed and dreaded tomorrow…

September 13

At the airport bright and early so my family could head on back home. But my flight doesn’t leave until after two. But I have books to read, and my laptop and an internet connection so this can be posted. And I’d honestly rather sit in an airport where the outside temperature is around 60, the sky is a lovely blue and mountains rise in the distance than suffer the 90s, billboards, flat lands, and concrete of Texas. But I can thank God for several days with my family in a beautiful place. And I can look at pictures for days to come, with tears in my eyes. May God give me grace.

A Laborious Labor Day

To me, Labor Day has always been an oxymoron. I didn’t understand it at all as a kid. Why do we not work on a day set aside for labor?

Well, most of us don’t work. I happen to be sitting in the office. And I’m not alone. The nurses are all working today. But it’s quiet. And there was no traffic this morning! Can’t beat that.

I could have taken today off, but I’m headed on vacation bright and early (well, early…it won’t be very bright at 4:30 in the morning) Wednesday morning. I’m heading to South Dakota. And I’m very excited about it. For one, I’ve never been there. It will be my first time to see the northwest part of the US. I’ve read a lot about it and seen pictures, but there’s nothing like seeing it with your own two eyes. And I love seeing places I’ve always wanted to see (like Mt. Rushmore), and I like to travel.

Secondly, my family will be there. Mom, Dad, Sally, Grace, Jenny, Abby and Caleb leave Indiana tomorrow to drive up there. We’ve rented a cabin in Deadwood (yes, of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock fame) that looks really nice from the pictures. We plan to see Mt. Rushmore, do some hiking, explore a cave and drive over to Wyoming just to say we’ve been there. Plus play games, watch movies, and do nothing of any great importance. I can’t wait!

So, I will spend my Labor Day laboring. Because I intend to spend the rest of the week doing anything but.

Today was a beautiful rainy day - the kind of day to grab a good book, curl up in a chair with a cup of hot chocolate and read.

Holding a good book is only one of the ways to use our hands. Others? Petting fluffy dogs, picking flowers, clapping for things we like, giving hugs and - most importantly - helping others. Given to us by our loving Creator, our hands are gifts to be used for blessing others.

One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado is a wonderful children's books full of colorful, whimsical pictures kids will love. So, curl up in a chair, pull a little one into your lap and read about all the great things you can do with your God given hands.

Interested in this great book? http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1400316499&title=One_Hand,_Two_Hands

This book was provided by Thomas Nelson Publishers for review.