Lactase, Sand, and Grace

Well, we've been at the beach. Isn't God amazing??? His beauty, in all His creations, never ceases to amaze me. Just think, he created every tiny granule of sand spread across the shore. Amazing....


My week of "summer vacation" didn't start off very well. All I care to say is S.I.C.K. I mean deathly ill. Knocking at death's door, sick. I mean I even went to the emergency room. I only stayed 3.5 minutes, but I did go. When I got there, I decided that I could not sit there another minute so we came home with a promise to my family, that I would go to the doctor the following morning if I was not miraculously cured. I wasn't, but I did feel well enough for our trip. My dear, precious pharmacist suggested I take an OTC items to alleviate my discomfort and, if I was not likely to eat yogurt (and let me assure you I WAS NOT) , Lactase. I have now decided that Lactase is a miracle cure for any stomach issue. Try it the next time your tummy is not acting appropriately.


I LIKE the beach. I did not say LOVE. I like the sand, the shells, the wind, the waves, the birds the trees, the noise. But I do not love any of these things for too long. I like to sit on the beach late in the evening when the crowd thins. I like to be able to stare at the ocean and watch the waves roll in and out. I like to watch the shells come on shore and toss and turn like they're trying to decide if they want to stay or not. I like to watch people with their dogs. I sat there one such evening and just marveled at the beauty and the mystery of the ocean. I'm sure anyone who has been to the beach has done the same thing but it never loses it's ability to humble me. It is so big and it reminds me that I am so very small. God must be very proud of his creation. I was thinking about this and I began to think that He must be very proud of all His creations. Even those not as big as the ocean. The tiny grain of sand, the beautiful birds diving for their dinner, the shells in their many sizes and forms, the weird jellyfish thing that washed on shore in front of me, the grass waving to me from the shore, the weed from the sea that wrapped around my toe and scared me to death. Then I looked on the beach near my chair and noticed my family that had joined my solitude. They, too, must give God joy. My precious granddaughter who was making a road in the sand with her hands, my baby boy who couldn't seem to eat enough sand, my daughters in all their beauty, my son-in-law who loves his family, my husband and his playful spirit (who happens to turn 56 today). God must be proud of these creations.

On my way down to the beach this particular afternoon, I grabbed a book off the shelf. I had started this same book 2 or 3 times in the past. But this time, it hooked me. I think it was a God thing. Oh, it's not really a best seller or anything but it is a christian fiction novel someone had given me some time ago and I just threw it in the Hornet. It was all I could find at the time. I started reading it again and it was amazing. As a matter of fact, I told Liz to take it but changed my mind and told her I needed to read it again and she could have it later. The main character in the book had a similar experience to the one I mentioned above about God's love in what He created. Ironic...... My fictional friend, just like me, began wondering about God and His creations. He did not make any mistakes. I know that. So, is He proud of tiny little ole me???? If He is proud of all things, He must be, or at least, He wants me to make Him proud. Do I? That was my question. "Do I make God proud?" My answer, "No, not always." I know I have disappointed Him. I know there have been times when I screwed up. But I also know that He is still on my side. I think and believe that when I do screw up, He is ready and willing to forgive me, if I am sincere and ask. Thank you God for this grace.

My prayer there sitting on the beach was that God guide me because I DO want Him to be proud of me.

Thank you God for creating all the beauty of the world for me to enjoy and thank you for creating me....I want you to be as proud of me as you are of that beautiful vast sea.

I have been violated!!!!!

Technology is a wonderful thing. I mean that. It really is. But, sometimes we get "had". And I got had.

Lane and I had a wonderful week-end camping in the mountains. Peace and quiet. I love my Kindle. Our site was right on a beautiful creek and with the windows open in the Hornet, we could hear the soothing sounds all night. We were so far in the mountains that we had no phone service. No big deal. So on Saturday when I wanted to call and check on my parents (which I do daily) I had to use my debit card on their public phone. No problem. But later in the day when I called to check on Catherine (which I also do daily) my debit card was declined. 3 times. Hmmmm. Unusual. So, I just used our credit card to make the call.

Later on, I got out my laptop to just take a look at my bank account online. When I did this, I noticed two charges to my account. One for $75.00 and one for $74.87 at a Chevron service station somewhere in Georgia. No big deal. The bank will fix it on Monday. These things happen all the time...Right?

This morning when I got up at "9:30" (unusual for me but wonderful), I decided to take another look at my bank account. You know, just to be sure. Guess what? There had been 5 other such transactions in Georgia. Fortunately this is an account only I use so I immediately transferred what little money was left in my account to another account.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????????? I have my cards all in my possession. Now I am extremely worried.

As we head down the hill back to civilization and my phone regains it's service, I noticed I have a voicemail from the bank informing me of strange activity on my account so I call them. They immediately put a block on this account and explain that it looks like someone has managed to create a duplicate card to my account.

I have continued to check my account throughout the day and guess what??? My new "friends" are still at it. They are headed south through Georgia just living it up on my money (well, now nobody's money because they have managed to now get my account well overdrawn since I moved what little money was left in there) .....Scumbags.

So here is what it looks like I will have to do tomorrow: Be at bank at 9:00, file police report, go to school office and have account info changed. Oh, and I am due a deduction for my car payment tonight at midnight. Won't they be happy with me when they see the account has closed. Great!!!!! The "Y" won't get their money. They, too, will be happy with me.

Some of the charges were at Wal-Mart's Murphy gas stations. Wal-Mart has cameras so maybe they can look at videos and get tag numbers and stuff. So Wal-Mart, I'm counting on you to catch these scumbags.

One of my questions is this, If they are going to hack someone's account, why not let it be someone with a lot of money? I am a lowly paid North Carolina public school teacher. I don't make a lot of money. I guess that is kinda ugly. I don't want this to happen to anyone.

Now, will I continue to let my debit card be my lifeline? I don't know. Do I have a choice? I guess not.

What I do know is that I have been violated and I do not like it......

On Turning "50"

Well, I made it. I turned fifty this week. I had a terrible time over the past couple months getting ready for this big occasion. I have done a lot of thinking about the last 50 years. How the heck did I get to be fifty years old?????? I asked my mom this recently and her comment was, "What if you had a daughter turning 50?" Hmmm..I had no response to that.

What have I done for the past 50 years? I remember having babies and being grade mother at West School. I remember making cupcakes and going to dance, scouts, soccer practice, piano lessons, church meetings, Bible School, field trips, etc. But what have I really done? Have I done anything really remarkable? I don't know...Maybe. Then I have asked myself these past couple months, "Will I do anything remarkable in the next 50 years? I hope so. I do have a few ideas. I want to go to Guatemala next year with my Blanket Circle friends. But, I have one major issue that God will have to handle: my fear of flying. I have flown before but the thoughts of getting on an airplane terrifies me. So, I figure if God wants me to go to Guatemala, he we alleviate this fear. We'll see what happens. I have always wanted to go on a mission trip. In my early teens I envisioned myself as a missionary in some third world country nursing, or teaching or something. Maybe it's not to late to fulfill that dream.

Erik Erikson, a renowned psychologist as you know, says that at this stage of life called "Middle Adulthood" work is most crucial. Hmmm. interesting. He also says that middle-age is when we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work (mission trip?)and with issues surrounding our family (agree). He also said that middle adulthood is when we can expect to "be in charge," the role we've longer envied. (Yep, I want to be in control.)



While thinking about the 50th anniversary of my birth, I made a mental list of things that happen when you turn 50 and I will share some of them: (I don't know if Erickson would agree, but DON'T CARE....)


1.) Your vision starts to go.


2.) Your hips hurt.


3.) 9:00p.m. is to late to get a phone call.


4.) 9:00p.m. is late enough to be up at night.


5.) You get up earlier.


5.) You get a stupid AARP card in the mail.


6.) Your grand children wear you out in about 30 minutes.

7.) You wear sunscreen.


8.) Your hair gets thinner and duller (But I have a daughter to take care of this.)


9.) The fat, ugly lady behind the counter at Belk's asks you if you get the Senior Citizen's discount. By gosh, the next time she asks me that I am going to say YES......


10.) You take blood pressure medicine.


11.) Strange spots start growing on your body...hmmmm

12.) Waitresses call you "sweetie". (I hate that.)

13.) You go to Cracker Barrel and like it. Hmmmm.

Now, the above mentioned are not necessarily all that negative but I have been thinking of a few positive things that happen when you get 50:

1.) Your kids are grown and out of the house..hopefully.
2.) You have grandchildren, if you're lucky...
3.) You don't have to cook supper if you don't want to.
4.) You get to go camping with just your spouse. Well, and your dog.
5.) You get to order off the old people menu at a lot of restaurants and it's cheaper.
6.) You get to listen to what you like on the radio in the car.
7.) The phone doesn't ring after 9:00p.m. (see above)
8.) Nobody eats your flavor of ice cream. (My favorite is cherry vanilla and Lane hates it.)
9.) You get to order seasons tickets to the theatre no matter how much they cost because you know you won't miss the play because of somethings the kids have to do.
10.) You do things because you want to and not to impress others.
11.) You can ride all the way to Lancaster, S.C. to eat breakfast on Saturday morning if you want to.
12.) You can take a shower and put on your jammies at 6:00p.m. if you so desire..(tonight I desired.)
13.) You can eat dessert first if you want to because you are not trying to impress your kids with good eating habits. Heck, you can have a milk shake from Tony's and call it supper.
13.) You can clean your house and it pretty much stays that way.(Until the babes come on Friday.)
14.) You can go to Waffle House at 9:30p.m. (If you are still up. See above.)
15.) Your kids give you a surprise party..( I was totally surprised. Party had never come into my mind when thinking about turning 50. It was wonderful and beautiful. And the people there to celebrate with me are so very dear to me. Erickson says our friends are important and usually center around family and comunity activities, like church. People who love you for who you are and no other reason. It was great!!!!)

Even though 50 is not necessarily a pretty number like, say 30 0r 40, it is a good number and a good time of life. A little easier, a little more peaceful, a little slower, and a little less demanding.

So, turning 50 ain't too bad....:)

56 Squares

Last week I made the statement that I wanted to do something amazing. Not just normal everyday something, but something truly amazing. Something I don't always do, something that just blows you away. Well, I didn't. Or did I????

I look around me at all God has blessed me with; my wonderful husband, my children, my babes, my parents, my job, my friends, my church, my home, my yard and just any number of things. And I think, how amazing.

In the last two weeks I have done two things that I think are pretty amazing. First, I was asked to give my personal testimony at church. In front of the whooooooole congregation. Scary but inspiring to me. I think God gave me the words to share to inspire myself. I worked on the testimony for 4 days. Many hours. I wanted to say the right thing. I wanted to say something that might mean something to someone else. I even googled "How to give a testimony". I was serious about it. I prayed and prayed to God for words and peace and, of course, He came through. I am still remembering some of the things I said and am still inspired to grow closer to God and work to fulfill His plans for me...Amazing....

The second pretty amazing thing I did was go to a Blanket Circle. An old friend of mine invited me to her church to help make blankets to send with her church group going on a mission trip this summer to Guatemala. Remember that night of the big rain and thunder storm with the tornado threats? Well, I was in the peaceful environment of blanket making. There were ladies at one big table making quilts, others were making fleece blankets with the knotted edges and I was with the group crocheting granny squares. Absolutely amazing. And the ladies I met were undescribable. I have been crocheting since I was 5, so I can pretty much do it with my eyes closed so talking and crocheting at the same time was no problem. (Talking is never a problem for me.) We stopped every few minutes and someone would lead us in prayer for the work we were doing. It brought tears to my eyes. Just imagine, some non-Christian in
Guatemala would be touching the same blanket I was touching. My prayers and the prayers of others are in that blanket for them.!!! Amazing...

It takes 56 granny squares to make an appropriate size blanket. I am determined to make 56 squares before next month. I am making them into 56 flowers and when put together, it will look like a flower gardern (I hope). I'm calling it "God's Flower Garden". I was told the people of Guatemala like bright colors. Perfect. They will get bright, filled with love and prayer.....Amazing....

God, You are Amazing......

Growing Up Dixon

No, I was not born a Dixon. I was born a Caveny and we Cavenys LIVED in Dixon. Dixon Community, that is. A rather large community at that, down in the country.

We buried my 84 year old aunt Evelyn Caveny Graham today and one of the pastors is a fellow Dixoner. My age. We grew up together, played together, went to Bible School and 4-H together. We were Dixoners. We had similar backgrounds and similar ideas and similar hopes and dreams. There were a lot of us Dixoners. Maybe close to 50 of us around my age.

The pastor reminded me of many things I hadn't thought about in a very long time and it was as if I stepped back in time 40 years or so. Here are a few things I remember about Growing up Dixon:

1) Bible School at Dixon Presbyterian Church - you got 2 cookies and one cup grape kool-aid.
2) Near Thanksgiving time, we loaded turkeys onto a truck at Jack Hughes' turkey farm. (And he paid us.)
3) On Saturday mornings in the cool of the autumn, all the Dixoners gathered to slaughter cows or pigs. We kids got to cook chunks of meat on a stick over an open fire.
4) On Sundays we went to church. Period. Then we sat in the font yard and made ice cream and ate that with Aunt Evelyn's pound cake. (The best in Dixon.)
5) Gene Hughes' store had vanilla flavored cookies with seams in them that he put in a tiny paper bag for you.
6) You could ride you bike 3/4 of mile up to Huffman's store for a Chocolate mule. Nobody kidnapped you.
7) At 4-H we learned how to cook and sew. Even the boys.
8) Every night we sat in front of the t.v. and listened to Walter Cronkite tell us how many people had been killed in Vietnam that day.
9) In the summer, we picked apples off Grandpa John's tree and rolled the slices in sugar. We were told not to because we would get worms but we did anyway.
10) We went down to King's Creek swimming in our clothes.
11) When somebody's cow got out, everybody got excited and helped round it up.
12) When the hay was bailed, all us kids got to load it on the trailer. That night, we got to have a hayride through the dirt roads.
13) In the fall, there was always a Cooter Stew. Everybody brought their own bowl...
14) My aunt Geneva (pronounced Genever) let me thread needles for her quilting. She wouldn't let make any stitches though...She also kept "True Romance" books hidden under her sofa cushion.
15) Same aunt always made macaroni and gizzards...Yuck...
16) My uncle Bob kept a bottle of something out in his shed. Never could understand why he made so many trips out there in the evenings after work...He lived right next door.
15) We were only allowed to spend the night with cousins.
16) If you got in trouble, you had to go get your own hickory switch. ouch!!!!! I had to get quite a few in my day.
17) Uncle Harrill had me believing an old troll lived under the bridge near his house. I think maybe it still does....

These are just a few of the things that made life in Dixon so sweet.

My cousin and I were talking about this today. We looked around and asked, "How did these people get so old?" How did I get to be almost 50? How did life get so different? It was so very simple then. It was so safe and secure. We knew everybody in that 5 mile or so radius. Today I don't even know the people at the end of my street. Sad. And it is real sad that my kids will never know what I had......... Growing Up Dixon....

Life's Decisions

It is no secret that your world can suddenly and without warning, just stand still. I stood at the bedside of my brother-in-law yesterday and just thought about this. As I stood there, I was a little scared. I was scared he was going to suddenly sit up, or yell, or cray out in pain or grab me. I don't really know why I was so scared. I guess the unknown has a way of doing that to us.

My sister-in-law and her kids have major decisions to make. God be with them...How do you make those kind of decisions? I don't ever want to know. But, who is to say I want have to make them some day or that someone might have to make those decisions about me. Modern medicine has caused us to have to make those decisions. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for modern medicine. But sometimes I question it.

How do you know what is going on in the mind of someone who has had a major stroke or suffers from another illness? How do you know they won't just come out of it? Oh, the doctors tell you what they think will happen but they are not God, just educated people who have seen this over and over again.

What happened to yesteryear?

My precious baby turns 22 tomorrow. Where in the world did all the time go. It seems like she was just born week before last.

She was so cute when she was born. I remember that instant feeling of unconditional love that consumed me the moment I saw her. That love has not changed.

It hasn't been easy, raising her. Of course it's never easy rasing any child. It is a tough job. A rewarding job. Expecially when you see them grow into beautiful, smart, young women. She's not perfect, by any means, but she is great. Both my girls are. I am so lucky to have such successful young ladies to call my own.

But rally, where did the time go? I remember baking cupcakes a time or two. And going to dance lessons, and piano lessons, and scouts, and