A Your Mama joke...

No, Im not going to tell you one...I'm here to tell you that I AM one!!

Yep, you read that right! I am now a Your Mama joke.

How does one become a Your Mama joke you may be asking. Allow me to inform you.

First thing one must do is to be in a rush back to work after lunch.

-I was heading back to work. I had gone to the house to fix a quick lunch and then run right back to work. I also was going to stop and get some things for a couple of the girls at work. So I was planning on eating my lunch in the car.

Second thing you must do is place your food in the seat beside you in the worst place possible.

-As I said I was planning on eating it in the car, so I just sat it down on top of my purse. BAD IDEA!!!

Third thing you must do is take a turn a little too fast.

-I had backed up out of the parking space at my apt. and made the turn out of the spot. Due to the turn my food started to fall down in my purse. Eww!

Fourth thing you must do is look away from the road.

-I looked over and reached to get the food off of my purse. I grab it and look back up just in time to see a Blue Nissan Frontier 4X4 in front of me.

Fifth thing you must do is hit the only car in the parking lot.

-Once I looked up all I had time to do was watch it all happen. I saw the front end of my car go under the back bumper of the truck. I back up and look at the damage. Because the truck has a chrome bumper there was hardly any damage to the truck. My car on the other hand, looks like this....

Yep...according to my boss, who was an appraiser for 10 yrs, I did about 1200-1400 hundred dollars damage!!! Can you believe that?!?!?!

I feel like such an idiot! My first wreck ever and I hit a parked car!! A PARKED CAR!!! Oh and it gets better because the truck I hit was my next door neighbors car!!! The first time I meet her and I have to tell her I hit her truck!!!

So I get back to work and call my insurance and get that ball rolling. I have full coverage and everything but its still frustrating...plus I have to come up with 500 dollars for my deductible. So some prayers for extra babysitting would be greatly appreciated!

And that ladies and gentlemen are the steps you need to follow in order to become a Your Mama joke. Please don't all rush out and try this at once. And definitely don't say where you learned all this priceless information. Just say you heard it somewhere...

And I wasn't hurt. Just my pride a bit.

Love, Nikki

Something new...

I started something new today.

Im afraid Im going to be mean and not tell you what it is but I wanted to put it out there as a form of a prayer request. I went to meet with someone today about starting a new thing in my life. I was, and still am, a little hesitant about it. Everything I had heard about it sounded great. I have bounced the idea off of a couple of dear people and they felt like it was something I should do. So I made the appointment to meet them.

All day long, I struggled with wondering if I was doing the right thing. So as I pulled up in the parking lot, I asked the Lord to let me know if this was something I should do or not do.

I go in and meet with the lady and as we are talking she asked me when I had started my current job, I told her and she asked what I had done before. I told her I had been a manager at the local Lifeway bookstore. She said, Oh I love that store! Have you read the Shack?

Well, immediately I felt a little jump in my heart because, having worked at Lifeway, I knew that that book has had some controversy around it. I told her no and that I had plans to. I also mentioned that it had been pretty controversial. She said she knew why and then specifically pointed out some people that would have a problem with it. She had been raised in the Church of Christ and knew that they wouldn't like the book. Because of how she was raised, she felt sure that most C.o.C members wouldnt like it.

Throughout this conversation I was starting to feel like okay, this lady sounds like a believer. Maybe that the Lord saying that its good.

I then here her say that she had been like minded until she did a bible study 11 years ago....My ears immediately perk up...she said that when she had done Beth Moore's A Woman's Heart, she found out about having a relationship with the Lord, not just rules.

Well, ladies, I took that as my sign. The woman knows Beth Moore. And I didn't even steer the conversation in that direction. Having just come back from hearing Beth in San Antonio, my first reaction to this was, and I quote, "Shut Up!!!" Lol!

She looks up at me kinda oddly and I tell her that I just got back from hearing Beth, etc! We get into a in depth conversation about a lot of things and totally lose track of why I was there in the beginning!

Needless to say, I feel like the Lord answered my request. Even with that answer, I still am feeling a little anxious about this new endeavor. I would welcome any and all prayers. I will keep you posted on this.

Hope you all have a great Friday!! Its a long weekend...have fun!!

Love,
Nikki

Sleepy...

I am soo sleepy...

Since getting back from Texas I don't think that I have caught up on all my rest. I fully intended on going to bed early last night because, 1) I didn't have anything to do, 2) It was raining outside and we all know that you sleep better when its raining! and 3) I was exhausted!

But as you know, things don't always go according to plans! I got in the bed, started writing the post with all the pictures from Texas and just as I hit publish...my computer went black!

My heart stopped!!

I hit the power button to reboot and waited and prayed!

When it finally came up it said, Error: no readable hard drive found!!

I lost it!! I have sooo many stinkin' pictures of trips, people and things that I can't replace on here!! And some of other peoples!! I can't imagine if I lost all the stuff on it!!

So I started praying and calling every computer geek I know...and of course, they were all in meetings!!!

So I broke down for a minute and then called Dell. They were able to help me and got my computer started back up and Praise the Lord, I didn't lose any pictures!!

So after all that got resolved, it was like 10:30 and I was ready to crash! So I put it down and promised to update today. And here I am!! Still sleepy, its still raining and now the problem is, I can't go to bed early!! I have to babysit! Sad day!

I am excited to see my kids but I could really use an early night! I'm sure I will be fine with it after I spend time with them but Im at home now and wishing I could just crawl in the bed and sleep!! Alas I cannot! And the time has come for me to leave!

Gotta skitter!!

Ya'll......

You are not going to believe this!!! I have been on the phone with Dell Support for almost an hour trying to figure out what happened to my computer!!! As soon as I uploaded that last post with all the pics from San Antonio my computer went black...Honestly when I saw it, I thought that my hard drive had crashed!! I didn't really expect for that San Antonio post to have made it!! I was able to get some one on the phone to help me and we got it back up!! Praise the Lord!!! I sat here and cried and cried because I have soooo many pictures on this lil' ol' laptop!! From London and Scotland, Prince Edward Island, tons of the kids I used to Nanny and all the pics from San Antonio...I was soo sure that I had lost them all!! I just started praying, Please Lord, No!!
And He totally answered!! I have everything!! I am still on the phone taking care of some final stuff with Dell!

All I have to say is Praise the Lord!!!

Ah-ha San Antone!!!

I have been inspired to take up blogging again...I met so many wonderful ladies whose blogs I have read for a long time and they have kids and families and yet they still write in their blogs regularly!! And I, who have no kids, a fairly easy job, and alot of freetime, can't even right in mine more than once a month!! And so these women who lead crazy, happy, kid filled lives, have inspired me to try again! Here are some pictures from this past weekend...

Lindsee and Abby

Lindsee, Abby, and Me







Me and Patty






Georgia and me



Stephanie and me

Me and Kim

Lisa, Fran, Stephanie, Georgia, Ms Bev, Abby, Lindsee, Me and Jenny

After hangin out with all these ladies in San Antonio at the Siesta Fiesta, I feel like making a lot of changes...

Im going to attempt to write more...Whether its about my daily life, my time with all the kids I keep, my crazy road trips, or about the things that the Lord is teaching me....

I want to continue to learn to lean on Jesus more, to trust Him more...I want to continue to learn things about stories and scriptures that I have read my whole life and it feel like its the first time I have ever read them.

So here we are at the starting line again...Im ready to do this!!!

The latest and greatest....

So its been a while...thought I would drop a little note in the ol' blog. Just a lil' somethin' to kinda keep it up to date.

First of all, the Job.
Its going great! I actually am enjoying insurance. Well I guess I should say that I'm not really doing insurance, I work for an insurance company but the only part that I do with insurance is look up claim numbers. But I am enjoying the work. Its not hard nor is it boring. Its not something I want to do for the rest of my life but its a good job for deciding what you want to do next. I am enjoying being unstressed. I don't care who you ask, any job in retail is stressful. Whether you are the lowly store associate or in a management position, its stressful!! It can wear a girl out dealing with the public!! And I'm a people person!! But this job isn't stressful! Not saying its easy but no where near the stress of retail. And for once I'm not constantly worried about finances. Am I set for life? No but not having to worry about every little penny is so nice!
The people that I am working with are nice. Its a different situation for me, not being in Christian environment. Yes alot of them do go to church but at the same time alot don't. I hear them talking about getting wasted and drinking away the weekends. Ive heard more swearing since I started this job than I have ever heard. But overall, I'm working with some great people. Making new friends and learning how to stand up for myself and what I believe.

The family.
Well for the most part I would have to say that things in the family are going pretty well. An unforeseen bonus of my job is that I am getting to email and chat with my sister almost daily. She and I have been passing emails and phoning more often since I got this job. Things aren't perfect but they never will be. I have finally just realized that I can't make our relationship work, or even make a relationship with someone who doesn't want one. So as sad as it sounds, by lowering my expectations of how things should be between my sister and I, things have actually improved. I don't expect that we will ever be the very best of friends. I hope for that but I am counting anything less than that a failure. So things are better there.

The Rest.
Well I am still struggling with bible study and church. I am doing better about going to Kairos and now that my church has added a Sunday evening service I am attending church more regularly. I still miss choir and hope to get back involved with it. I am still trying to find a good fit for bible study as well. I am enjoying listening to my girl Beth Moore online and reading the blog, and I have been catching up on a lot of extra reading as well. Both fiction and non-fiction. I hadn't realized how much Id been missing reading.

So there you have it. My life for the past few months in a few short paragraphs. Kinda sad really. Soo much has been going on and my life has been sooo busy you would think that I could write a whole book on all that's been going on. I guess to sum it all up, things are good and I'm happy. I'm praying and I have my girls praying about some decisions that I'm hoping to make soon. About the future and other things. I'm trying to take it day by day and trust in the Lord. For direction and a listening heart and mind.
I will update soon. Hopefully. :-)

Up and down on a windy day....

My emotions have been up and down all day, like a leaf on the wild and crazy wind that's been blowing all day. I mean, there is actually a wind advisory until like midnight. As I am typing this there are branches hitting the side of my apt so hard that I would think the siding was coming off!! Apparently we are getting some really bad storms later tonight. Possible tornadoes and the like. I don't really think that we will but who knows... I had dinner with my friend Abby tonight and while we were setting there, a lady came in to talk to a couple who obviously knew her. She was crying from the moment she hit the door until she left. Abby and I both were like, we need to give her a hug and we didn't even know what her story was. She was just upset and hurting. Abby wanted to go by her a cookie but you never know how people will take things like that. We tried to carry on a conversation with out listening in but still its hard when you see some one crying to not look and wonder. It just kinda showed how you never know what some one is going through. One place of business can have soo many different stories going on in it with all the people there. A group of ladies meeting and having a great time, students studying with their books and laptops all over the tables, a couple of friends catching up on the latest, a counseling/accountability meeting, and the list could go on and on. Every person here on this planet has a different story, different drama that is going on in their lives. I often say that my life is such a soap opera. I have so many things, crazy things, going on in my life. With my job, my friends, my work and roommates. I sometimes feel like when people ask how things are I need to reply with do you want the quick recap or a play by play? Either way it's probably going to more than they want to know. But one thing that has been repeatedly shown to me lately, in many ways, is that God cares. And He wants the play by play, He already knows it, but He wants us to tell Him again. I have often thought that, like Shrek says, "Better out than in", telling what is going on in our lives, how we feel about things, can help us get through life. We tend to hold everything inside, unless its really great news and then we feel its okay to share with others, but the things that we need to share, need help with, we don't share. Why is that? We won't allow ourselves to think about it because it brings us down. We won't share with others because its private, possibly embarrassing and we don't want to bring them down or have them think bad of us. So what do we do? We push it down and act like it never happened. How healthy is that?! I am not trying to say that we should share every single up and down with every single person we know but I am saying that too often in today's society and more so in today's church, we won't allow our self to let go and share with others. Why? Because we fear the condemnation and judgment that the world is so quick to dish out. Even in the church, perhaps more so in the church. There is some sort of stigma in the mind of the church today, that says you have to be perfect or at least not admit to any problems. I have watched a video that Chonda Pierce recently put out and in it she talks about how in the church today we tend to brush over people's hurts. We just say, pray about it and then let go of it. Or let's sing another verse, give you a little more time to fix whatever it is, and then move on. There are issues going on in the world and church today that can not be fixed in another verse. There is some thing of a serious lack of compassion and mercy in the church today. Why else would a church member feel like it wasn't okay to share her/his problem with another Christian? We are constantly trying to fit the role that the world has of us. That we are perfect or that you have to be perfect to be a Christian? There is an old song, I can't even remember who sang it but it was called "Don't Hide the Scars" You never know what will come of sharing a trying time in your life with some one. What you went through and how you handled it could help someone going through the same thing. I am a firm believer in everything that comes your way is a learning experience. Once you learn a lesson, why would you not share what you learned with another? The Lord can use any situation. He may place a person in your life that is at the beginning of a situation that you just came out of. You could save that person a lot of pain by sharing what came of your situation. You never know.
Okay this is really long and I didn't mean for it to be. I have just really been thinking about this a lot lately. I am soo glad that God is big enough to handle all that goes on the world. He is a Hands on God, an On Time God and He cares! He wants to be apart of our lives. He wants the play by play. We just need to share it with him.