Clay Balls

I read this on a team post on Sparkpeople today. I wanted to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy it.

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away! It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy, but we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person. There is a treasure in each one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth. May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them. I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with each of you. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

HAPPY EASTER

One of my most vivid Easter memories is from a time long ago. I must have been about 4, and the only one awake early on Easter morning. I remember the Easter Bunny came knocking on our door. I was watching cartoons, it was quiet and everyone but me asleep. I heard that quiet knock on the front door, I peeked out the window and no one there. Then the knock came from the washroom door, I went out to that room and looked. Again, no one there. Back to the living room and again the knock on the door. No one. Back to the other room, No one. Somewhere through here after many, many minutes of this I pulled open the curtains and saw NOTHING! Nothing there, no one there and the knocking stopped. Now, 50 years later this memory still with me and to this day I am almost positive it was the Easter Bunny, well him or my Uncle Rob. I wonder if my mom remembers this? I am still talking about it 50 years later I am sure I must have driven her and dad nuts with it when it happened.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE.

Some kind of record??

If you had a vehicle that something or someone had run into 4 ,yes, four times in five years would you think that would be some kind of record? Yes, I'm talking about the Aztec, my 5 year old blue Pontiac Aztec, the same one I bought brand new off the show room floor without one mile on it five years ago. The same one that a deer ran into less than a month later, a huge buck, that deer who had his antlers stuck in the grill and took the grill with him actually. That time I didn't even have the payment book yet. What about a year later to the day when my favorite son in law, Bo, hit another deer with it, while they were home on vacation. Or better yet how about the time in October, 2006 when I was stopped at a red light and someone hit me from behind. I am still seeing the doctors and chiropractor for that one, the car is fine or should I say was fine? Then we come to today, probably the best one yet, the fourth time someone or something runs into the car. Today, again, I am parked, just parked. I am not even in the car thankfully. I am too busy looking for brown clogs to replace my old ones in the shoe store. I come out to find two guys looking at my car and walking away, to an older man sitting in a red pickup truck that is parked close by in front of me actually. Hes writing something and I am not paying attention, I am going to get a haircut. All of a sudden, I open my car door and the two guys start hollering, the old guy gets out of the truck with his note. Come to find out, he is writing the note to me...it says I hit your car while backing up..this is a true story people. Now, to make it better if you know our plaza, there are two lanes of parking , he is in the front one, I am parked behind him and to the right. All he had to do was pull out, no backing up, no turning to the right, just go ahead and to the left..So how does it come about that he backed in to the front drivers side of my car? this is a true story, and I came home to a message already from his insurance company with a claim number. Thankfully, he didn't just take off and leave, alhtough I wonder if he may have if it wasn't for the two men who were there and apparently saw it all.

I came home with much blonder hair than I left with too.

A Touching Story

I received this story in an email this morning. I wanted to share it here with you all. Have tissues handy, it brought real tears to my eyes.


It's wonderful to know that there is a beautiful soul out there who works in the dead letter office. Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month.The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words: Dear God,Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had. Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith,' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note: Dear Meredith,Abbey arrived safely in heaven.Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog.Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love. Love,

Three years

Well, today is 3 years since my first heart attack, that first scary time when I had no idea what was happening and just spent the worst night of my life pacing the floor, vomiting and headachey. I remember the next morning when my hubby got home and we went to the emergency room. I was miserable, and in pain almost everywhere, then the trip to a major hospital on the helicopter. That first ride down I barely remember, but do remember thinking the door wasn't shut all the way and I had to hold it closed. LOL, the mind does funny things. I barely remember them wheeling me across the tarmac and into that ER. 7 days later they allowed me to wake up. 3 months later, we were back with it happening all over again, but at least that time in June they found the tumor that was causing it. And removed my adrenal gland. I quit smoking that first time, so its 3 years today since my last cigarette too. Hoorah! for that, I cannot believe how much betterI feel and how much more energy I have now. I had to start walking to rebuild my strength.. The second time I was in the hospital for a month, not allowed out of bed for most of it. Thus started my love affair with cardio. Its funny how things work out, I have more energy now than when I was twenty. I feel better now too, and it took me over 50 years to learn that I love to be active, I love aerobics, walking and even jogging sometimes. There are not enough hours in the day to do everything that I want to be doing.

A GOOD DAY

Well, we came home antlerless, but had a heck of a good day. We walked about 3miles all total, up hill, through snow, over plowed roads, etc. Found elk poop, and elk tracks but no elk, no antlers. Oh well, had fun and enjoyed the hell out of the day with my favorite sister. she tends to hide from the camera, so isn't much fun that way, but may have something we can post if I get those pictures on here. We actually rode around a bit too and explored part of the area, found some places we may try walking when it warms up a bit. This day off sure went fast. too fast.

Proper Attire?

Hmmm, lets see. What does one wear when going elk antler hunting? It is warming up nicely, we now have a high of 31. I think a nice warm pair of snow pants would be awesome, however, I do not own a pair. It may show up on a wish list soon though, and this may be the time to find a pair cheap. May have to look if I get out shopping. I imagine my sister has some nice warm clothes, she does this often. Me? I'm going to settle for long underwear, velour workout suit, and maybe a large pair of sweat pants over top. Oh yeah, this is going to be fun!

Are ya nuts?

25 degrees here this morning, about 9 inches of fairly new snow. We are hiking today, are we nuts? You betcha! My sister is coming up today and the plan is to go hiking looking for elk antlers. It is coming up on the time of year when they start to lose them. I really wish one of them would walk up to me and just drop them at my feet. Or lose them on the clothesline in the backyard while grabbing a snack on the way through. that would be the ideal situation, I would see them hanging on the clothesline and voila! I'd have my antlers. The elk and deer were certainly here last night, you can see all the tracks in the backyard. The sun is out, so if we give it time to warm up a bit, it may not be bad. One of the places I think we are going to walk is up through the church lot by their pavilion. I actually saw one of them little buggers run up through there the other day. Just not to sure the minister is going to like looking out and seeing us hiking through there on a Sunday morning. I really may suggest we wait until afternoon to go up through there, there are enough other places we can walk till then. We've been talking about walking this for a long time, so I am glad that we are going to finally do this. There are two different roads I would like to see what is there but don't want to go that far by myself, so this should be interesting. Going to take the new little camera and hope it holds the pictures, may do it without the memory card. think it has built in memory which should be good for a few pics anyways. Check back later to see what we have!