I got up EARLY this morning… before 6am early.  I had to be dressed, made up, hair brushed and reasonably coherent by 8:30am.  Oh, and I had to be across town at the local TV station by that time, too.

A local morning show had me (and my book) on as a guest today.  After anxious hours picking clothes, planning hair and doing makeup I arrived at the station all ready to go!

I signed in at reception.  Sat down on the couch.   I waited.  And waited and then waiting some more.

Finally this cute, young girl taps me on the shoulder and says… ‘ are you the one with the God, Girlfriend something  book?’  I nod and she motions for me to follow.

We wind through an office filled with cubicles and the noise of early morning office chatter.

And  there it is – the SIGN that reads ‘On Air’ – whoa!  I thought I’d at least get to ask someone how my makeup looked or if my hair was working. Let’s not EVEN talk about  my dreams of a makeup artist with a snazzy apron on to hold all her brushes & magic wands.   But nope, none of that — we were walking through the door and smack up in the middle of the studio.

Mystery girl (since I still don’t know her name, title, anything) directs me to a sofa and then hands me a microphone to clip on my blouse.  I run the wire under and attach.  And then I wait.

A few minutes pass. we go to commercial break and one of the two hosts walks over, sits across from me and asks me a couple of simple question…. and then it’s “4 seconds” and we go live.

We chat for about 2 minutes and I’m done.

I got up early, did my makeup, fixed my hair and put on cute clothes…. I even put bronzer on my arms for this?

But I’m blessed — I manage to say ‘Jesus Christ is the foundation for all relationships’ and I was pretty thrilled to put that out there.

So — how was your day?

Bitty Baby Ben is growing!

He’s three months old today!  Three whole months.  I can’t believe it.

We spend every Thursday together and it’s a day I just love!  We look at each other.  I make all manner of goofy faces and strange noises and Ben coos, gurgles and smiles at me.  I’ll pretty much do anything to get a grin from this little guy.

It’s so strange this grandparent thing.  It’s like a do-over for parents, but with only the good stuff.  It’s the giggles and grins without late night feedings and colic. It’s the joy of a baby without the pressure of parenting.  This is pretty great thing, this grandparenting.  I’m looking forward to more time with this adorable guy!

My nest is officially empty — at least until Christmas break.  Baby girl headed off to college loaded down with new bedding, towels, rugs, and all manner of great dorm room organizers and accessories.  Everything matches — including the plastic tubs she packed.

After watching her transition, I’ve decided that I need an Empty Nest Shower.  This is a lot like a wedding shower except I’m older, wiser and  know the value of good towels, high thread count sheets and fancy paper plates.

In fact, I believe I’ll take a stand against buying wedding gifts.  Seriously, do those young married people need all that new stuff?  Well, maybe they do but they’re young, they can live on love, Ramen Noodles and hand-me-down furniture.  We’re older and can’t handle the fat and sodium in Ramen Noodles.   We NEED new furniture since ours has lived through baby spit up, toddler accidents (koolaid and otherwise), kids and cereal, teens and popcorn, pets, and so much more.

Of course we don’t want to discourage the engaged young couple. Let’s just send a card that reads:

God Bless your marriage!  Love much, Live Simply and Embrace Life.  We’ll be sending you a gift on your 25th wedding anniversary.  Please don’t forget to send us another one of those too cute ‘Save the Date’ cards so we won’t forget.

So let’s make a commitment to the Empty Nesters Need New Stuff Shower — aka ENNSS. Let’s start a movement.  We’ve survived babies, toddlers, and teens.  We’ve sacrificed our sanity and our sofas to years of motherhood.  We NEED some NEW STUFF.   It has to start somewhere.  Really it does.

Can we start with me?

I’m sitting in the Orlando airport waiting to fly home.  It’s been a long two weeks and an amazing two cruises.  I have a blast onboard working with the guests, but I’m wiped out when I’ make it home.  And then there is re-entry and I’m not even talking about the room stewards and constant food – this is re-entry from the high energy social contact, incredible Christian music and speakers to my everyday life…which isn’t constant high energy, it’s fun, but I don’t operate at cruise level all the time.  I can’t, it would kill me. 

It’s still a shock to my system not to have that constant interaction with people.  I miss the noise of the cruise and the ‘aha’ moments when I finally put a name with a face!  I miss the connections but I’m thankful for the joy of coming together for just a few days and I’m thankful for a job that allows me to travel and to connect to people. 

I’m always a little sad when cruise season is over (we don’t cruise again until November 2011) but I’m also ready for the break. I need to recharge.  I’m excited to be speaking at two different churches in March.  I’m thrilled that my schedule now allows me to spend hours in the Word – studying, absorbing, memorizing, and enjoying. I’m excited about what the Lord has in store for me this year. 

I feel as if I’m the EDGE of something new and I’m thrilled and a little nervous.  No matter what I’m doing, cruising, writing, or speaking—my desire is to be in the CENTER of God’ will.

And I’m also a little sad that I won’t have a room steward cleaning up my room twice a day and leaving me cute towel animals. 

Can’t  wait to share this journey with you.

Today I’m heading out on  my second cruise in as many weeks – it’s a wild adventure, this life I lead.  The Lord allows me to work an incredible job filled with incredible people and I get to do some of it on the high seas! 

I have SO MUCH news to share, but I want time to process it before I bust out and tell y’all all these happenings.  But I did want to touch base with everyone before I headed out again – so here are some of the highlights:

I just saw a picture (via text message) of my grandbabe – she or he is growing so fast!  I think she’s the size of a ….. I don’t know…. maybe a tangerine?

I signed a new book contract before I left home last week – and the book is due on March 1st.  I’m so glad that it’s written – this is the Girlfriends, God & Grace book (and more on that later).

We’ve decided to go to Yellowstone National Park in June – and we are BEYOND excited.

gIRL has some incredibly exciting stuff on the horizon.  (more later)

My speaking schedule is filling up – so blessed that the Lord allows me to speak to women’s groups all over! 

So that’s my nutshell update – and I will be back soon to get details for the 6 people who just might be interested in my life.

Now, it’s time to board the ship and get my cruise on!  Looking forward to this one.

Black & Decker surgery is what I like to call dental implants,  Drills with various bits, ratchets, and screws sound much more Black & Decker than dentist like.  For those of you who don’t remember, and really why would you?   I had a bone graph done  in August and had to wait several months for it to ‘take.’

Don’t really know what ‘take’ means but I’m assuming it means mesh together or something like that.  So after four months of fattening up my super skinny jaw bone (the ONLY skinny I get is a jaw bone, seriously?) it was time to get the implants started.

My dentist or rather periodontics doc explained that this step would be much easier than the bone graph so I didn’t really think much about it until a couple of nights before when I googled it.  Word from the wise – do NOT google any procedure you are scheduled to have.  This is when I realized that they would need to drill two holes in my jaw bone – now, let’s review that DRILL HOLES in my JAW!

I considered whether teeth were really all that important and couldn’t I just be happy with a set that I can remove at the end of the day?  I decided I didn’t want to put my teeth in a cup at night and I would go on with the surgery…. or procedure as they like to call it.

I showed up and was immediately led back to the lovely room with all the dentist stuff – all manner of sharp, metal things he uses in my mouth.

We started off with three shots that deadened the whole left side of my head…. but sadly there was this one, itty, bitty, miniscule spot that still had feeling and I wasn’t about to let Dentist Dude anywhere near my mouth with a drill until that spot was DEAD as the rest of my head.  Two or three (at this point whose counting) shots later and I’m good.  I can’t feel the left side of my head, my tongue feels huge and my throat feels numb…. but all is good.  Time to move forward.

My Dentist Dude is really wonderful.  Nice guy, loves Sonic ice but advices against chewing it (not that I admitted to that little fault), and plays some great oldies music.  He also loves to explain stuff in dental code which I quickly translate.  He said something like this – we’re going to create a pilot and then enlarge it slowly to accept the titanium posts which we will insert very carefully.

This is what he did – drilled a pilot hole in my jaw bone.  Increased the size of the hole by using bigger and bigger drill bits until he got the hole to the correct size.  Then he used a ratchet to screw in a titanium screw and put a metal cap on it.  Then he did the second one…. oh my!

Throughout the process he stopped to ask ‘Are you okay?’ and my response was ‘Ugh’ with a nod.  I have a drill, a sucking vacuum pipe and a hose stuck in my mouth – how am I supposed to answer?  But at least he cared enough to ask.

There were also many warnings ‘Okay, lots of water coming’ to which I would nod and not notice a thing!  My whole head was numb , I wouldn’t have noticed a garden hose in my mouth.

All of that and  six stitches later I was good to go.

Now I’m home on day two and I look like I’m storing nuts in my cheek. The Novocain wore off (and I was sad)  but  I have pain pills and two additional screws in my head.

Life is good – and if you read my earlier post you know I’m going to be a Grand mom!!  And life is really wonderful!

I didn’t mean to get out on Black Friday. It was an accident.  And it wasn’t mine.  My sweet husband left his ID badge at home and since he drives onto an airport his ID is imperative.  

By 7:30am I’d met him and was heading back home.  To get home I have to drive right by a shopping area complete with a Target, Books A Million, and tons of other stores … and by right by I mean over the interstate and across two major roads in the opposite direction of our house, but it’s as close to ‘right by’ as you get in rural Alabama.

Since I was ‘right by’ Target I decided to stop by and check out all the Black Friday hoopla.  I’d missed the 4am madness so it was fairly quiet.  I roamed around the store looking for the SALES that brought everyone out at 4am.   I heard about TVs for rock bottom prices, but I didn’t need one of those and they were out anyway. 

After some roaming, I decided maybe I should look at the sale paper to see the deals.  Sadly, Target didn’t have any additional sale papers.  I tried to use the browser on my phone and I found the ads… but couldn’t figure out how to make it big enough for the human eye to read.  And yes, I have phone issues… and I need an app for that.

I didn’t know what was on sale,  so I couldn’t figure out what I needed to buy.

Read that statement again….. did you re-read it? 

I didn’t know what was on sale so I didn’t know what I wanted to WANT.  How crazy is this? 

Maybe y’all are different, but I realized that I am the prime candidate for the retail industry – show me bright shiny pictures of all the great stuff and I’ll want it and I’ll go out looking for it. 

I left Target without buying ONE SINGLE THING… on Black Friday. 

And I think I may have learned a little bit along the way.

I hadn’t studied the sale papers so I didn’t know what to want and so I didn’t want it.  

Eye-opening for me.

Deer hunting season opened this past week.    I don’t hunt.  It’s not that I’m against hunting. I’m not. 

My husband loves to hunt.  I love my husband, but I still don’t like to hunt.

I don’t hunt because it involves getting up before the sun and going into the woods.  I only get up before the sun if the reward is a great bargain.  I do not consider a deer to be a great bargain.

I don’t hunt because it’s COLD during hunting season. When it’s cold I like to sit by the fire and whine about how cold it is.  Whining is not allowed during hunting.

And that’s another reason I don’t like to hunt – you have to be quiet.  Even after you shoot a deer…wait, let me use the appropriate vernacular …. harvest a deer  you still have to be quiet.  I don’t get it. You don’t celebrate your success.  You are just quiet.  Not my thing. I like to jump and shout gloating when I find a great bargain.  Apparently, jumping and shouting are not acceptable hunting behavior.

I don’t like to hunt because it requires sitting very quiet in a shooting house or climbing up in a tree, which is just CRAZINESS, and sitting in a tree stand. A tree stand is just a fancy name for some contraption that is not much more than an chair you strap to a tree – way high up in the tree. 

When you’re hunting you have to be careful about smells and my husband puts some icky scent on his shoes.  Apparently deer are attracted to icky scent.  I don’t know why.  It’s a mystery to me.

I like to shop.  I get to sleep in and still go shopping.  I get to talk when I shop.  I am warm when I shop.  I can buy coffee and drink it very loudly!  I smell good when I shop. 

And when I harvest a bargain…. I shout, twitter, yell, tell everyone within hearing distance.  I celebrate the harvest!

And that’s why I don’t like to hunt – no celebration. 

I’m on a journey.  No, not a cruise or a conference this time.  This is a different type of journey – there aren’t any boarding passes for me to lose or hotel keys to misplace.  This is a very personal journey about some of my junk. 

Junk that I need to GET OUT of my life.  Junk that is cluttering up my vision and distracting me from life in Jesus – from ABUNDANT life in Jesus.

Today I was reading through a book/ bible study I’m using on this journey and this question hit me:

Are you praying for God to remove this from your life?

Am I?  No.  I’m not.  I like it here in this comfortable place.  I don’t want to be uncomfortable.  I don’t want to do a NEW thing, I’m just going to be okay with this thing. 

As long as I don’t pray, I can just tell myself it’s no big deal.

I don’t pray about it because to pray would be admitting there is  problem.  As long as I don’t admit it, I don’t have to face it, right? 

Wrong.  Sadly, very wrong and that’s why I’m walking this thing out today, right now, in the light. 

I’ve taken up a challenge to make a change.  This first thing that I have to change is my heart.  I have this for myself as much as I know the Lord (and these sweet friends) want it for me. I have to want it even when it’s hard and when I’m sad and when I’m hurting. 

I have to want to change before the Lord can change me. 

I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I want to all the time.  I want to sometimes – mostly when I stand on the scales or have to put on two pairs of Spanx (yes it’s doable) to wear the dress that was baggy last year.

So am I praying that the Lord will fix my ‘want to.’ 

I’m praying that tomorrow I will get up and want to do this thing.  But even if I don’t, I’ll still move forward and I’ll keep praying that that Lord will change my heart and make my ways more like His. 

After all, that is the plan.

Vaughn and I just got home from a vacation in the Smoky Mountains. It’s our place to go to get away from the real world and spend some time along – just the two of us.

We’ve been visiting the Smokies for almost 20 years and the beauty of the region is still just as awe inspiring as it was the first time I laid eyes on it. Along with the amazing scenery, I just love the animals we see. We usually see deer, raccoon, squirrels, and a bunch of different types of birds. All of these are great, but these are animals I see in my back yard. I love it when I see the elusive Smoky Mountain black bear.

Let me qualify that last statement – the black bear is apparently elusive only to Vaughn and I. Seems every one we know has had a Smoky Mountain bear story – and FINALLY, last year, we had the chance to see several bears. We drove up on a big bear just grazing on a limb in the middle of the road – he continued to eat as I snapped pictures. Later we watched two young bears tussling in a valley below us. We managed to see bears on the side of the road at two different locations. It was a bear-filled week.

The chalet we stayed in as had several bear sightings and I was so excited & hopeful that I’d get to see the Momma Bear and her cubs. I waited and watched. We drove through the park and I kept my eyes opened for a side of the road bear sightings. I really wanted to see a bear. I had the camera ready. Truth be told, I had not one but three cameras and a video camera ready. I wanted a bear picture.

After days of looking and still no bear, I was sad. Sure I had some great sunrise pictures, great blue mountain pictures, but I wanted that bear picture. The biggest animal in the Smoky Mountains. The king of the all the animals of the Smokies. I wanted a black bear picture.

On our last full day, we headed into Gatlinburg for lunch. I brought along just one camera. I decided that instead of just looking for the black bear, I would take pictures of the smaller things I saw.

It was an amazing stroll. I’d seen butterflies all week, but I didn’t notice them because I was too busy looking for a bear. I am awestruck at the beauty of this creature.

The bumblebees were everywhere, but I hadn’t seen them. These fascinating creatures are amazing.

I almost missed so much looking for the black bear.

My focus was on the big sighting of the black bear and I almost missed the amazing beauty all around me.

How many times do we miss what God is doing because we’re looking so hard for the BIG HUGE GOD thing that we miss the incredible and amazing God thing? God does the HUGE and the BIG, but He is also right in the middle of the small and the incredible.

We often equate big and showy with success and accomplishment– the bigger the numbers, the bigger the success. I want to serve God in a HUGE way! I want to do God sized work for Him. I want to honor Him and glorify Him. But how much have I missed because I was looking for the black bear and missed the butterfly and the bumblebee?

What about you? Have you been looking for the black bear in your life?