Still Around

Where in the world have I been? Seriously, not a clue. I looked at the date of my last post and it's like the time has just disappeared. Alien abduction? I don't know, I can neither confirm nor deny. I know I have very little spare time for myself, but I'm not sure whether that means I'm simply bad at time management or if I'm just as swamped as I feel...dead tired by the end of every day. But it's a good kind of tired, the kind that puts me to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow...with my last thoughts praising God for how blessed I am.

Let me try to play a little catch up, quickly, because it's late and it's time for me to call it a night. Yup, shocker there.

I got a great review at work, nothing but extremely kind things said about me and my job performance and a pretty decent raise. Much appreciated...very much appreciated. As much as I appreciated the raise, I was more thankful for the kind words said about me.

Y'all know we have three dogs. Recently when I'd came home from work, I let them out. When I went to let them back in, only the little dachshund was in my back yard. Some one had been in my back yard and removed the locks from both of my gates. That's scary enough, but all I could think of was my dogs were loose. Charlie and I searched for 3 hours, till way after dark. It was a terrible night. Rocky is our oldest, nearly 14 years old and I'm surprised that he didn't tire out before he got off of our street. But he didn't. We couldn't find them anywhere. Charlie asked me around 8 p.m. if I'd prayed, which surprised me coming from Charlie, so we prayed together. The next morning I left for work early so I could search for them, but nothing. Rocky had his collar with his tag on, but Porter didn't because he gets ear mites and we were treating him for them...which causes him to shake his head and the rattling the tags keeps me awake. That morning at work, I got a call on my cell phone from a woman who'd found our dogs around 8 p.m. the night before. Apparently she houses rescue animals and someone on her street, about 2 miles from my house, asked if she knew where the dogs belonged and she took them in for the night. The phone number on the tags was our old number, I'd forgotten to have new tags made, so she had to call the city to try to find my number. I don't know how the city has my cell number, but I'm so glad they did. So, got my dogs home safe and all new tags on all of them. I'm so thankful she and my dogs were led to one another. Never underestimate the power of prayer, seriously within minutes of praying, she found them.

I bought a new car! Well, nearly new. It's a 2007 Kia Spectra EX 4 door with 9,000 miles on it. I love this car. I filled it up for the first time this past Friday and I got 31 mpg driving to work which is all city! Yup, love this car. I was getting 13 miles to the gallon with my old car. I took advantage of the AirCheck program the government has where it will give you a voucher for $3,000 to use if you trade a car in that is 10 years old or older. They're trying to get all the older vehicles off the road, and they got mine off! The cars are 'retired', and the dealership isn't allowed to resell them. Charlie and I test drove a few 2008's that came basic, with no power anything, because even with the $3,000 I couldn't afford all the extras. But when I started researching cars with great gas mileage I was drawn to Kia. Then I find out that their 'standard' is fully loaded and it has 8 air bags! So, we test drove and fell in love with this car. Funny, I've never had a ticket in my entire life, not even a parking ticket, but now every time I look at the speedometer, I'm going at least 10 miles faster than I thought I was and I keep looking in my mirrors to see if there is a red light chasing me. This car has so much power and pickup it's crazy. I really do love this car.

Casey came home last Friday. He looks like he's full grown. He'll be 19 in July, but he looks like a man instead of my little boy...my baby. I've enjoyed every minute of his being home so far. The boys made me a video of them for Mother's Day. It's really personal, and though I'd love to put it up on my blog, I'm not sure how they'd feel about it, I'll have to ask. It made me cry, Charlie just sat and talked to the camera, it was amazing. He said things that I thought went unnoticed, things he appreciated and had made a difference in his life. This is something that I will keep until the very last day of my life. For Mother's Day we started off going to my favorite church, The Potter's House, and afterwards we saw the movie Iron Man. I love Robert Downy Jr., and he didn't disappoint me. After the movie we went to eat at Cheddars and had such a good time. My kids are the best company. They're funny, they're smart and they're mine.

Hope all my mom buddies had a great Mother's Day. Kids are the greatest blessing, I'm so thankful for mine.