It's ALWAYS the bananas!

You know......it never ceases to amaze me. No matter how long one of these young baggers has been bagging the groceries at whatever store...they always seem to go hard on the bananas.

You see, I am pretty anal when it comes to loading my grocery cart when I shop. All the cold items go to one side, as to keep eachother cool, and boxed goods in one section....and so on. Now I am just as anal when I load the groceries to the conveyor belt from the basket. I keep the cold items together, the canned foods in a group and I always load the bread and fruit LAST on the belt so that they get bagged last and place nicely into the basket last. So last night I had purchased all the regular fruits, veggies and goods plus the things I will need for Thanksgiving...like a 13 lb turkey and some raspberries and so on. The turkey was the first thing I placed on the belt to get bagged. It all seemed to go as planned and I placed the bananas on the belt next to the bread. It was like watching them traveling slowing down the dreaded plank on a pirate ship! As I got caught up in swiping my card the correct direction and on the right side, I happened to glance up at the time the bagger had in one hand the huge turkey and in the other hand he was placing the bananas and raspberries in the bottom corner of the basket and it was like slow motion as he plopped the the turkey right down on top of the freakin banana bag!!! I gasped....I swallowed and those of you who know me will understand the sarcasim building up inside me.....I said to the poor boy, "Your kidding me. You have got to be joking." "Huh?" he mummbled. "You just smashed my bananas with that big ole turkey you nut!" "What?", he said. "Just take the bananas over to the produce area and get me a new bunch and we will call it even.", I requested. He looked at the checker like he needed permission to do it and I said, "JUST GO!" He scurried off and came back with what appeared to be a new bag of bananas and I placed them on top and proceeded to the car. I was still so shocked by such a display of ignorance I was mummbling to myself all the way thru the parking lot. A lady pulled in and parked next to me and got out while I was loading the goods into the back of my SUV and I looked at her and said, "Dont let them pack your bananas under your turkey like they did mine!" She looked at me and lit a smoke and went into how her son used to be a bagger at the naval base up the road and how he was always so careful with the fruit! "Yeah, well, not here!" So as I drove home I could not stop coming up with alternate things I should have said to that stupid stupid boy. I think next time I will calmly say, "Someday......when your older...and your buying your own groceries.......and the grocery store is really the last place you want to be at 8:00 at night....that day you may understand why all those people who complained about their fruit getting smashed were so mad and irritated. I hope that day, that your bananas get mutilated to a point that they fester and explode on you with rotten banana gobs all over you when you are wearing your nicest suit!" Upon getting home I found my happy son and husband playing. Husband bounded to his feet to help me with the groceries as I filled his mind full of the colorful adventure I had just had. My husband was opening the bag of bananas and looking at them funny. I had just told him the part where I sent the stupid bag boy to fetch me a new bunch of bananas. He said,"Looks like he gave you back the same banans but smashed them up a little more for you baby. It's probably what he felt you deserved for being so mean to him.", he said laughing! "WHAT A TWIT!!!" I had full intentions of taking them back up to the store this morning, but I decided I would let them ripen and use them for a more positive purpose...banana bread. As a christian woman I should take a nice hot loaf of banana bread up to the nice boy who dumped the turkey on the bananas.......but I dont think I am feeling that good about it yet.

DEER Camp!

Well.........everyone is doing it. I have not done much of this blogging-but I see that it can be quite rewarding and time consuming....(time is something I find myself having a lot of these days!)

So the husband left for the ranch to go deer hunting this morning and he is meeting his dad there. I really wanted to go, but, the idea of taking our almost 2 year old son quite frankly wears me out! When we go out there I am in constant life saver mode! If its not the ranch cows wanting to lick him all over its the rattle snakes buzzing and hissing the child into a full out hunt! We have cactus, ants, cow poop that is still steaming with freshness and then we have the "old" travel trailer. The husband thinks its necessary to prop the door open to this death trap each time we go out there even though we dont use it! Of course the curious child climbs up inside EVERY time I turn my back and goes exploring. Upon chasing after him I have come to realize that I could never bring myself to sleep or even sit in this thing they call "the guys trailer". Mouse crap EVERYWHERE! On the counter, on the table, on the couch! Thats just what we see, we dont really see the mouse urine do we, but we know all living creatures that drink water, PEE! So there has to be gooey pee everywhere too! Then there is a pile of fur on the floor neatly arranged in a perfect circle around the cleanly eaten carcass of a mouse. The ants did a nice job of cleaning the fur and meat off the skeleton-but come on-clean up after yourself and sweep the kitchen! Nasty! Why we leave this open I do not know! My husband still tries to tell me that there are not mice in the trailers! RIGHT! He just never sees them because he can sleep through the little things crawling all over him and picking the steak out of his teeth while he slumbers away in happieness dreaming about the "big buck" and what knives he wants to buy on e-bay! Yes I hate mice! But I love my son and husband-so we all go to the ranch together at times and we have since gotten a new trailer! But, the "old" one still remains-propped open for all to explore! A storage of sorts for mold, mildew and rotting mouse carcasses!

Yes, he left this morning decked out like G.I. Joe in his camo and packing binoculars, monoculars, scopes, rifles and nonreflective sun glasses! He was wearing rather light weight camo pants and shirt and I said, "Aren't those a little light for the weather we have today? Your going to be cold." He replies, "No these are just to travel in."

"Oh, so your going to stop by the autoshop and get your truck wrapped in camo too I bet. So you can sneak up real stealth like into camp as to not be noticed by the animals you stalk!"

He just smiled at me like he does when I act funny-I think he knows I find it funny but cute that he is so geared out when he goes hunting!

I just love him!

Valentine's Day

Oh what a day to be single-right? I didnt have to worry about what to buy someone on this "Manufacturer's Holiday." No really-I dont feel depressed today like I would have most times in the past. Being single for me has been a real blessing. I have learned who I am, and what I mean to God as a healthy individual. Im glad to be single. God tells us that in order to be happy as a couple, we must first be happy with ourselves. For most of my life-I never allowed myself to know who I am-Diana-without a boyfriend! I like who I am-God created me the way I am and I bring Him pleasure! That is enough for me.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you and may God's hands hold your heart close to His!

D

My First Blog

My life today finds me in a comfortable and loving place. Gods arms are wrapped around me, and He whispers words that soothe and calm my spirit.

This is how each day begins for me. I feel that in order to live my life the way God has intended, I must start each day fresh and open to His guidance. Living my life before God means that I understand and believe that He has created me for His pleasure. Just like the pleasure I feel when I watch my son playing, eating, crawling and even sleeping. God feels the same pleasure when he watchs us, His children, living our lives day in and day out. I go about my days making constant efforts to bring pleasure to my Father. He created me the way I am, and that is good to Him. So why should I go about my life trying to fight the person or traits that I have. The things about me that I might change need to be seen as challenges given to me by my Father. He wants me to accept and learn that I am pleasing to him the way I am, and to make the best of what He has blessed me with. This means that I respect my body, my mind and my soul. I take in the best nutrition, exercise and spend time studying and learning more about the One who created me.

Many people believe that following God means that the "fun" in life stops because God's ways are not "fun". I have experienced some "fun" times in my life when I was not living a close relationship to God. But let me tell you, in the past 6 months of my life I have made a constant effort to deepen my relationship to God and He has blessed me in ways I thought were impossible. I have had more "fun" in the past few months than I have in my whole life of 31 years! In the past 2 months alone I have had 3 days that I have added to my all time list of Top 10 days of my Life! I cannot beat myself up and regret the way I have lived my past, rather I must look back and learn from the choices I made and learn from why I made those choices. EVERYTHING in our lives is a learning opportunity. First we have to see it that way! For many years I allowed myself to live as a victim to my past. The choices I made were based on the bad things I was going through because that is what I expected to keep happening to me! I finally figured out that there is more in store for me in my life, but I had to make the very hard decision to start THINKING a different way. This meant I had to evaluate who I was compared to who I knew I could be. I had to created in my mind and on paper a list of attributes that I wanted to posess. The next step was figuring out how to attain these character traits. The first thing I had to do was to emerse myself once again in the Blood of Christ and regain a ritual of study and worship. I had to make decisions about where I was living my life and the kind of people I was surrounded with. This was a difficult step. Making this step took courage-and after a few months of battle in my heart and mind, I took that step. Since that day.......my life has changed!