I need a title

I need help coming up with a title for this photo.  I'm going for something involving a man leading another man  across the bridge into fatherhood. 

Baby Foot

Welcome to the world, baby boy Blount. 

Remodel 6/22/16

I didn't get to far today as I really just HAD to do some of my regular office work for a change.

 Got this far on the wall today..... 2 more walls to go... floor and ceiling. 

 Part of what we are decorating around. 

 What my shoes and legs look like now.   and Journey... our center piece and focal point. 

Remodeling is very hard work

I have been planning a remodel of our office space for a long time.  The idea has changed repeatedly over the several years I have wanted to do this.  Because of the "final design" I am glad that I didn't do it to start with as my final has changed considerably. 

We got advice from several people who do this either for a living or just have a great deal of knowledge on the subject and all assured us that this was a project that was really no big deal as projects go.  I believed them.      We can get in there and do this in a long weekend, they said.... hahaha and I believed them.  

But, I guess considering that we really only have rudimentary knowledge of what we are doing and youtube videos we aren't doing too badly.  The people who have looked at it so far have told us we are doing a great job.  (The professional and knowledgeable people, not just random people.0)

Here are shots of so far......

Update at the end of today HOPEFULLY will include finished north wall.. (the blue one in this last shot)  primer and maybe first coat on east wall... and all the trash in the room cleaned up so that after the north wall is done I can tear down ceiling tile and scrape up the floor to be ready to put down floor by the weekend.  I'm going to be really, really proud of myself when I get this done!!!  If I can keep this 50 something body moving long enough to do it.  Wish me luck

Im Not OK and I hope that is OK

Something happened this week that I was not prepared for. Well, two things happened that I wasn't prepared for.  The first one was loosing another friend and mentor.  The second one of them was not being prepared, or at the very least, making it appear to the outside world that I was prepared. 

I have spent most of my life being prepared.

Believe it or not, my calling in life is to be a cheerleader.  Yeah, I know I am so not a cheerleader. 

BUT!!!!!

I have done the best I can to make sure everyone around me was OK. 

What are your hopes and dreams? What's on your bucket list?  I will do my best to make sure you do or have all of those things that matter to you so much.  Just tell me what those things are, and I am ON IT.

I have tried to support people through many toils and trials of life.  I have tried to help find answers, and make viable plans and generally figure things out.

I have been prepared to help people through transitions of life, anywhere from moving to the next grade, through graduation, through people being mean, or failing to understand.

I have tried to help those around me cope with the loss of a parent, grand parent, best friend, place to live, job, no matter how close I personally was to any of those things, myself, their feelings and reactions came first. 

I have tried to be that ROCK during health crises, and career changes, and business transitions no matter what was in my own head and heart. 

I reassure people that life is going to go on one way or another, and that is ok. 

Before you say anything, don't get me wrong, none of this applies to technology or learning new processes for myself.  Yes I know I whine and cry and freak out when I don't know how to do something immediately, but I try to help YOU believe that even if I cant do it YOU CAN!!!!!

And I freak out because something has come up that I wasn't prepared for and I'm not good at not being prepared.

What I am talking about is all those relationship kind of things and self esteem and belief in the world around you kind of things. 

Maybe, I'm just tired, maybe its 2 funeral in a week, maybe its life that finally caught up on me. I've never in my life said I cant deal with your stuff right now because I cant cope with it. Give me a break.  So, believe me, this is really not easy in any way.

But recently, out of the blue, I had to realize that I have hit the end of an era, the turning a page.  The End.

This loss, even though he was not in any way related, I didn't spend that much time with him, has switched on something that I'm not sure is good. 

Today, a part of my world ended.  Or at least I REALIZED that it was at an end. 

I have been on people around me the last few days to decide what they want out of life.  I have told them over and over that even though I make a lot of decisions and just offer them out there, this is one decision that I cannot make for anyone else.  But, I also have a few decisions to make.  This one particular area of my world, has come to an end.  It can either start over, or just go away, but it will not be the same. For me, this business, not like the other business,  its just a part of the business, it isn't a way of life, the way it was for them.  I will have employees to do the job, for them, it was part of who they were.  All of my mentors and those I relied on to teach me are gone.  And I'm not OK with that. 

Nope, today, believe it or not, I'm not OK.  So before I inflict anymore of my NOT OKness on anyone else around me I am going to change my course, take a Sabbath, hide in a closet or maybe under the bed.

Normally, my Not ok times are limited to locking my self in the bathroom for 20-30 minutes to cry in the shower where no one notices or I just limit my exposure to people so I don't take up anyone else's time by being out of sorts. But today, My phone is off, Facebook is not on my computer (except for posting this) the doors are locked, the lights are already turned off in the front of my house and I am going to take the advice of an Antebellum Southern Lady,  I am "taking to my bed".  My dogs are all 4 on the bed snuggled up with me, I have a book in my hand and an Italian soda on the night stand. I have that pile of really soft tissues beside me that we brought home from our most recent hospital stay, sorry they may be all gone soon, and I am just going to hide for awhile. 

No one needs to check on me, or sit with me or in any other way be around, I am fine.  I wouldn't even know what to do with that. 

Monday morning at 5 am when the alarm goes off, I will be back on deck.  I will be the "ME" everyone else expects me to be, but for the rest of today, and tomorrow I am going to not be OK.

Wedding Vows with a Twist

The original wedding vows, as printed in The Book of Common Prayer, start out with:

Groom: I,____, take thee,_____, to be my wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

Bride: I,_____, take thee,_____, to be my wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.

Today, I was at the funeral of my Uncle Jack.  It was a military funeral to honor his time in the US Navy during the Korean Conflict.   I knew most of what I would participate in at that portion of the service.  I was prepared for the flag ceremony, I was prepared for the gun salute, I was expecting the beautiful and kind words.  What caught me off guard and really made me think was the reading of a portion of the wedding vows.  At a funeral? 


But after the explanation, it made perfect sense in a way that I had never thought before.  I just wanted to share this idea with you.  Tell me what YOU think about this idea. 

The Groom goes first.  I Jesus Christ,  take thee,  fill in your own name,  to be my Bride, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance: and thereto I give thee my troth. 

Then His Bride answers:

I, Sherry, take the, Jesus Christ, to be my wedded Husband (and Lord and Savior), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.

If you put your own name in there and think:  I pledge my life to You, my Lord and Savior, for you to have and to hold when I am at my best or worst, no matter if I am rich or poor, when I am in ill health or the best, I will love You, and believe in your love for me.  I will cherish our relationship until death we do part, (which is impossible as You are God, and you give Me Eternal Life with you)  according to God's holy ordinance as written in His word; and thereto I give You my pledge. 

Have you pronounced your Vow as part of the Bride of Christ?  Would you take your vow this seriously?  It IS that serious. 

Today in History. 3/22/16

For months now people have kept asking me 'how this empty nest thing is."  I have had no answer to that until today.  Well, I honestly still don't have an answer either but today is the day I consider that we have started that phase of life at least somewhat. 

Spring break is over, and Malachi is back at school to finish his first semester,  Sam left last night for his 2nd weeks run of his new career.  4-5 weeks of training and then into his own truck.  Jonathan is back on the road for a few days.  So, tonight, here I sit, just me and the 4 dogs.  Three of them are laying under the table keeping my feed warm. 

Decisions, decisions, decisions for me.  Do I concentrate on reviewing the Bible Study I am teaching tomorrow night, do I go back to the office to try to finish getting things ready for our accountant to do our taxes, do I work on the tax stuff here at home, or do I go start packing up the kitchen that I need to get packed so I can start remodeling it and get a new kitchen sink in.  The world is big and open and out there with all those grand choices to make. 

Bible study and one cabinet packed up I think will be the idea for the evening. 

This is what I miss most about my boys, or young men they really are.  We talk.  Deep, thought provoking, eternal thoughts are brought up and discussed every day.  With both of them leaving on the same day I have kind of gone in to talking withdrawl. 

Sammy boy was asked a question one time when he was just 6 years old.  I asked him if he thought about things in school that maybe he wasn't supposed to be thinking about at that time.  His answer to me explains so much for both of my young men as well as myself.  "Yes, Mom, I guess I think about things that no one else is interested in, and sometimes, my brain thinks so much it totally isolates me.

I spend a lot of time feeling isolated.   

Theres a Hole in the Bucked Dear Sherry

http://www.supply.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/white-and-red-cabinets.jpg
http://www.supply.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/white-and-red-cabinets.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/103934703874508611/




http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/25360748/list/make-your-own-barn-style-door-in-any-size-you-need

Yeah, I know, none of these really has anything to do with a new sink.  But if I am going to do that part.. I might as well do the rest finally

AND ANOTHER ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!!

At the risk of sounding extremely cliché, Today is the first day of the rest of his life!!!!!

Some of us go through our childhood knowing where we want to be and what we want to do when we grow up.  Others of us have a more difficult time finding our way in life.  Five weeks of training that starts today and then one of those bright red trucks will be his home away from home. 

Its been a roller coaster since Thanksgiving, honestly.  Coming back from a year in Odessa.  Looking for options, Christmas and New Year's slowing it down and yet it has all happened so fast. 

January 11 the first day of truck driving school.  Every day, I watched him come home more and more excited.  Each day,  today I learned this and this.  Day after day, Mom, today my instructor told me I did this right and well.  I'm not positive now but I THINK on February 19 he had his last day of class. 

I was sitting at work and the phone rang.  It was for Sam.  I told them he was on his way home from his class and the person on the other end said "wait, what?  Back up.  On his way home from school?  You mean CDL school? " 
I answered, with a "Yes"
"When does he finish?" 

"Well, today is his last day of class, he takes his driving test tomorrow" 

"Have him call me if he is interested in starting a job on Monday.  We are starting orientation on Monday" 

That was the 22 of February.  Orientation was done and some time of waiting with baited breath, daily phone calls to the office and yesterday, he got word.  Your trainer has been chosen and will be ready to pick you up tomorrow. 

Final preparations were made, 3 more trips to the store to gather some last minute purchases and finally at 12:30 last night I told him we HAD to get some sleep so we could get up today and get him to El Paso to be ready to meet his "new best friend".

We chatted, we looked inside the new truck, loaded his stuff in and they let me out the gate.  I'm not really sure but his feet may just have been about 6 inches off the ground. 

See you in a few days, Son,  Cant wait to hear the stories.