Queenies Little Kingdom

I’m one of those people….you know the ones who don’t sleep well? Yea, that’s me! That’s my big whine when I complain about having to get up early and go to school. I don’t get enough sleep. Last night, I went to bed around 10:00pm. By 11:00 I was thinking I am so sleepy….but my husband had come to bed and instantly zonked out. So, what’s the big deal? HE WAS SNORING!!!

I almost recorded the noises he was blasting through his head cavity! Dude was snorting, honking & even whistling….WITH HIS NOSE!!! It was like something out of a comedy movie. Except, I wasn’t laughing! Clearly, he was having some sinus/head cold issues….so I carried on with my mission of trying to fall asleep! Afterall, I had school to look forward to! 🙂

I tossed. I turned. I prayed. I thought. I tossed to the other side. Then repeated the process until after 2:00am! It was madness!

I’ve shared before that when I can’t sleep, my mind starts to wander. Really wander! Satan takes it upon himself to turn my brain into his playground. Every scary thought or fear comes to the forefront of my mind and I start dwelling on it. Then, I realize what’s happening and capture my thoughts and give them to Christ. Back and forth this goes on. Sorry, Lord!

I wonder how many other people go through this? I know I’m not special in my unique abilities to stay up all night when I need to be resting up for a work day. But how many of you are like me in that satan takes his jabs at you when you are tired and weak? Does he play with your thoughts and fill you with unmentionable fear? Paralyzing you into his game? If so, what do you do? How do you combat him?

Here’s what I do to defeat the enemy when he prowls around.

–Pray
–Quote scripture
–Rebuke him & the thoughts he’s filling me with
–Pray more
–Speak positive to my mind and thinking
–Trust God

Tonight is Friday night…..we’re going to a friends for dinner and more car repairs. I have a hunch that by 9:30pm I’ll be using toothpicks to hold my eyes open. Cause…you know, I don’t HAVE to get up at 6:30am the next day! Darn it!
Have a great weekend, friends!

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Cor. 10:5

This week has been a little rowdy! That’s just how I roll, ya know? I’ve been too busy to blog! Monday morning started off with a bang! No, with smoke! In the middle of morning road-rage traffic….my car broke down! I wasn’t driving or even in it, Ally was. 🙁

Poor kid! She dropped Gates and I off at school, then took off for intern at 911. When she pulled away from the curb, I looked at her….as I listened to the “funny” sound my car was making and prayed, “God, please take care of her and my car!”. I made it into the building just in time to get her call on my cell.

“MOM!!! YOUR CAR IS ON FIRE!!!”

There’s nothing more frustrating than being away from your kids when something is going wrong in their lives. You just feel helpless! In my case, I was inside the school building and she was down the street! {I had no car…she was in mine!!} I called hubby who was still home with Sweetboy preparing to leave for his big move-in. Luckily, he was there in a flash to rescue her.

They brought the car home and put stuff in the radiator only to find it wasn’t going to hold. Cracked radiators don’t usually do much more than leak….everywhere! So depressing! Seriously!

Thankfully, my favorite friend ever at JCHS (Betsy) gave us a ride home from school and offerred her “mechanic” hubby’s services (if needed). Can you say, “Wanna come over for dinner?”. That evening the hubby’s worked on replacing my $270 radiator in record time. God bless them both! They rock! While under the hood, they found I need a new water pump too. Gosh, I’m glad they know stuff! So, next to be repaired is that.

The best part? I was going to take off work that day and help Gavin move to IU. I’m more than thankful that God directed my steps otherwise. It would have been really crummy to be loaded with STUFF and broke down 2 hours away from home! Bleh!

Friends are such a blessing! I can’t even express my thankfulness for Pat and Betsy! God bless you guys! 🙂

Oh, have you heard about HGTV’s Great Fall Fix-Up Sweepstake? Good, now go and enter quick! Who couldn’t use $75,000 big ones to do a little fixing up?

It’s been a busy weekend at my house. My oldest is leaving for college and his first apartment. My nerves…they are a shakin! Much of my free time was spent organizing and packing. Who am I kidding? I didn’t have any free time. It was pack, clean, move boxes…step over stuff, make food, sneak in a bathroom break. Repeat. All weekend! I don’t want to admit this but…..I’m sorta glad to see Monday get here.

Sick! Those words are painful to even admit!

All of this obviously play a part in my psychological well being. Kid moving. Tons of stuff to pack. People wanting to be fed. Oh and did I mention that we had tickets to the Colts game on Sunday? Of course, one more thing to our list on the busiest weekend ever. Maybe this would be a good time to throw in a sinus infection and a little PMS!! Great combination.

It was a set-up! Satan style! 🙁

I self medicated my sinus infection with a nasal spray and allergy pill (both of which I have taken in the past). I also had an infection of another sort going on and used a medication late Saturday night for that. Somehow, my body didn’t take kindly to either set of medications. Because before we even left home, I was barking at my family a bit harshly. Passionately! Ok, I was feeling C R A Z Y !! I knew I wasn’t feeling normal.

I should’ve stayed home. Really! Hindsight, 20/20!

The game was a disaster. The Colts were playing hard but coming up short against San Francisco. We cheered them on anyway. Behind us there were a couple of guys having a good time. That’s cool! I was there for fun too. But they were getting increasingly louder and crazier through the game. Then they started inviting their “friends” down to the good seats once people around us started leaving. Again, that’s cool! Except they kept yelling out for a certain, “DAVID”! David staggered down finally and made his drunken appearance known to all. He was the friend that everyone in that age group has…..the one they all laugh at when he’s drunk because he gets into big trouble! You know that friend, right? That was David!

Everything was going smoothly until he heard the LAST CALL for beer yell. He staggered over (right behind hubby and I) to the beer vendor and buys 2 more beers. I didn’t have a good feeling…..I knew he was not in condition to take on any more beer. But, hey…who am I? I’m not his friend, they are. They just laughed and watched the spectacle. Before he could park it in his seat…..he poured his beer down my daughter’s hair and back soaking her and her seat!

That’s when the lights went out in Georgia, ya’ll!

Me, my mixture of sinus med’s & a roaring PMS monster snapped! I jumped up and YELLED!!! DUDE, SIT DOWN & BEHAVE!!! Then, I proceeded to snap at him like I was his mother and he was in BIG trouble! {Yes, I’m embarrassed about it!!} All I can say is that I wasn’t in my right mind. Maybe I don’t even have a mind. I don’t know. It was just awful! I reacted terribly! I wanted to stop myself….but I couldn’t! Have you ever had a moment where you were almost watching yourself from outside of your body? Well, that was it for me!

Poor guy, he did apologize! But me—the whole world had to see me act crazy! Plus, my kid who thinks alcohol is the devil…..was having her own little soaking wet meltdown and was crying. What could I do? It’s not a memory that I want to cling to…but I have a feeling it’s one that anyone in a 6 row radius of me and my family will laugh about for years to come! Boohoo! 🙁

Note to self: Do not mix sinus med’s & PMS!
May cause crazy behavior against innocent people & drunk dudes!

I know I’m only on day #2 of school…..but good grief, I’m so glad it’s Friday! During the school year, Friday’s are my homegirl! It’s THE day that makes my heart sing. Why? Well, because! It means I survived a whole week of early mornings, racing the snails on Hwy 50 to school (that’s less than 2 miles away from my house) and everything else that goes with getting a family through a work week! I find it exhilerating…..to pull it all off! 🙂

Today begins my love affairs with Friday again.

Hello, FRIDAY!

You never looked so good!

My weekend is set with activities. Fun stuff mixed with busy-ness! I’ll be packing up my Sweetboy for college (he leaves on Monday) then cracking the homework whip for my girls and we’ll end the weekend cheering on our favorite team EVER…THE COLTS! We have tickets to the game on Sunday! Yeehaw! Woohoo! Me so happy! 🙂

May your weekend be filled with fun & family too!

One of my favorite blogs to visit is (in)courage! The ladies who write over there are precious. Every single day you can find something that will bless you and touch your heart. Today, they are celebrating their 1 year birthday!

Happy Birthday (in)courage!

Thank you for the many devotions that direct your readers straight to Jesus Christ and His love for them. I’m so glad….you do what you do! Stop by over there and celebrate with them. For the next 30 days they will be blessing their readers with a giveaway a day! Woohoo! {I’m there, people!}

Who did it? I demand to know right now!! Who swooped in and stole summer away from me? There is no way it’s over! Right? Oh man, I’m fighting the urge to be bitter! Just when I was getting into my laze around groove…..it ends!?!

Dang!

I’m going to be mature and …suck it up and move on. How about a recap of things I’m thankful for from this past summer break? That’d be real interesting, huh? Well, probably not for you. But, I’m doing it anyway!

Summer 2010 (aka The summer that I’m so thankful I had!!)

1–My family. We were able to spend the whole summer together. That’s pretty cool for a mom with nearly grown teen kids. They were all home and glad to be there. I really like that! And them!

2–Getting paid. I passed a friend/co-worker in the hall today and she giggled and said…..”it was glorious sitting home and getting paid to do it!!”. Girlfriend, I agree! It’s much more fun to be paid during your break than not! No explanation necessary, right?

3–Bonus money. I was able to sell some of my gold for cash during the summer. I’m sorry to say that the first load I sold, the guy ripped me off. But the next pile…..I made some CHACHING!! This was very helpful in paying a few bills and buying some clothes for my kids! Wow, it was a blessing! I wish I could sell my tennis bracelet! Ally still needs a car!

4–Garage organized. It’s not perfect! But we spent a great amount of time in there and cleaned out trash and organized important to us stuff. That makes me feel so much better when I pull in now. Thanks, babe!

5–Maggie. We had to let go of our sweet black lab of 9 years. She had been a part of our family for so long. It was awful seeing her sickly. She was a great dog and we love & miss her so much! July was bittersweet. We didn’t want to see her hurting…..but letting her go stung!

6–Lunch dates. Over the course of the summer….we had several friend lunch opportunities. Not too many, just enough to hang out a while and catch up. Thanks to all our friends that called or invited us. We love you all! Betsy, Amy, Valerie….. Good times!

7–Sonic. We may have visited more than we should have. The chili-cheese fries & Strawberry limeade are ridonkulously awesome! Gates, Gavin & I…..really should stay far away from Sonic! Delicious & fattening!

8–Eclipse. Oh yea, it was worth it! Loved hanging out with my girls & son with their cool friends. They are so cool….even if I’m tagging along.

9–Ebay. We did a little buying and a little selling this summer. I like both! But, making money is my favorite! I’m about to put my tivo box and upgraded service on there (wanna buy it?).

10–Nutella. I think I may have been the only human left on earth that hadn’t made Nutella a part of her diet plan. Do not worry…it is now my staple go-to food! I love it! Yummmmmmmy!

So many great things happened this summer. We were blessed to be fed and housed (thank you Jesus). We went to movies, the lake, over to friends houses. Friends came over and partied at our house. It was busy at times….then laid back and quiet at others. I couldn’t ask for much more.

Besides a few more weeks off?!! 🙂

Oh well, back to school! Tomorrow begins a whole new year. Goodluck Ally on your last year of high school drama. Make this year count Gates. And Gavin, work hard and stay focused. I pray for each of you as you face this upcoming school year! I love you guys! Thanks for a fun summer!