Heaven Is For Real

Her breaths are stable, steady. It's the best hope we have to hold onto right now. Grandma had a difficult night. The infection made it's way into her blood. Slowly pacing it's way through her body, weakening her. Such a sick little lady. And I stood there, helpless, wishing and praying I could make her feel better. Her arm so swollen from a blood clot it was twice the size of mine. All the hand wrinkles smoothed into the touch of a child. So soft.

And yet, I was talking to my mom this evening and she told me my Uncle John had found a book on Grandma's nightstand she had been reading before she got so sick. He took it with him and gave it to my mom. The name of it - "Heaven Is For Real."

A four year old boy recovering from a burst appendix witnessed the beauty of Heaven and shared events he couldn't have otherwise known. A beautiful true story.

While I've been so distraught over how much her life has deteriorated these last 6 months, she's comforting me from her hospital bed and doesn't even know it. A grandma to the core.


"I'm not crying because I feel so sorry for you...I'm crying for me."

Gathering Strength

Tonight was tough. I tried so hard to keep the walls of strength up and I lost it. I wanted to be so strong for my Grandma. Be the energy that she can ride through this infection. I collapsed for a moment and had to ride Bo's strength. And he stayed strong for me, kept me standing.

My thankfulness for him is immeasurable. There's a nurturing nature in me that wants to be everyone else's rock but today was difficult.

My grandma is strong lady though. One breath at a time she'll fight.

And that's the icing on the cake

Some days you're the pigeon...and other days your the statue. Today, I am the statue with a FLOCK of birds resting on my head. Hours of research and preparation - for 16 minutes of near death drowning. It was apparent as I walked into the Tax Appraisal office and 10 board members looked me in the face, I was sunk.

Their no mercy attitudes and fancy appraisal software made my presentation with public record data fall flat. It's dang near impossible to challenge those house values when they use a multitude of factors to assign classifications and values.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Rickners.

All I Feel Like Sharing

I was swirling around alot of ideas for a blog post tonight, playing around on a few websites, thinking.

But I got stuck on a friend's Facebook post -

"If your bible is worn out and falling apart, chances are your life is staying together." - Rev Run

Life's a beach and we played in the sand

Welp, much anticipated Mexico concluded today. We've returned from the Riviera Maya with tans and a little bit of sand covering all of our clothes. Heather and Matt made their vows official (amid a small hurricane) and we enjoyed many drinks with fruit garnishes. Sigh...over so soon.

To Our Kids

Not long ago, I started a second blog. A collection of letters - the memories I don't want to forget to share with my kids. I wish the stories of my parents and grandparents would have been written down. History is such a vital vein of who we are and unknowingly become. I want my kids to relate to us, understand that they were planned for and appreciate the lives they will have.

One day, they will arrive. Until then, I write.

I just saw the commercial for google chrome. They totally ripped off my idea.

Unwanted Visitors

The game Mouse Trap was cute when I was 7 and everything was made of plastic.

At 25, I don't enjoy a yucky varmint bumming real estate off us. We had noticed a cookie left upstairs in the game room mysteriously disappear not too long ago. Naturally, we blamed it on the dogs. Sneaks. Well, this morning Bo noticed a cup of sunflower seed shells left on the coffee table knocked over onto the floor. Huh? Dogs hadn't been upstairs since he left it there. Then, Bo hears something upstairs, I had heard something upstairs - a mouse. It had to be.

Being as intolerant as I am of critters, I immediately bought out Walmart's supply of rat catchers. We set two of them in the garage and actually already caught one. The best outcome one be one rat chillin' in the garage during the day, then climbing up through the wall at night. I hope. We have these outlet plug type plates in the dry wall upstairs where you run wires through the back of the wall when you mount a flat screen. We hadn't gotten around to mounting everything and assume the rodent is climbing through that hole up to the game room. Has to be.

So, traps will be set tonight in anticipation of his arrival.

Worst part is, our guard dogs aren't alerting us to the intruder! They better not be in cahoots with each other - traitors.

Best part is, my husband's studliness increases and he disposed of the trapped rat like a champ. As far as I'm concerned, he's worth his weight in gold for saving me from the tiny terror.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem

Please, oh please, week hurry up. In the past 3 months I have been in:

Las Vegas, NV
Austin, TX
New York City, NY
Sacramento, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
Casper, WY
Denver, CO
Tallahassee, FL
Charlotte, NC
Richmond, VA

But of all the traveling, I've got one more place to go - MEXICO.

There's a poolside chair and a umbrella/fruit stuffed drink waiting for me. I've updated my passport, bought some new dresses, lost some weight, booked a flight and I'm soon kissing Weatherford goodbye. Great friends and sunshine, here we come.

Shedding the Heavy Coat

There are nights of content and there are nights of guilt. Lots of questioning my strength and doubting my courage. How did I get to that point? Where did I absorb so much denial? Bubble clusters and spider diagrams can't explain alot. So for now, I trust the process.