Prayer is the key to heaven, but Faith unlocks the door….

Prayer is the key to heaven,
but faith unlocks the door.
Words are so easily spoken.
Prayer without faith
is like a boat without an oar.
Have faith when you speak
to the Master that’s all He asks you for.
Prayer is the key to heaven,
but faith unlocks the door.

Lyrics by Don Gibson

 

Facebook…=\

I deactivated my Facebook account today. I have been wanting to do this for awhile. It just sucks me in and next thing I know I am rushing around trying to finish things I should have had done earlier. My goal is to go for a whole week…=) That doesn’t really sound like such a grand goal but it is baby steps.

I do have so many friends, that live in other states, that I keep up with and now I will miss out on their daily activities. As much as I love my friends, should I be so concerned with tracking their activities? I am not one of those stat people who try to see how many contacts they can amass. I actually know, IRL, 95% of my 306 acquaintances.

We shall see…

I miss the days when people actually chatted on the phone. Everything is texting and facebooking. My life is so complicated right now, the last thing I need is to be tethered to my cell phone and desk.

I have set some tasks before me that I would like to accomplish before I decide if I will reactivate FB.

Here goes…=)

Allergies…

I have never been one to suffer from allergies. When I thought of allergies, I always thought of how miserable my husband and son are when allergy season begins. We discovered my son was allergic to life. We knew he had some allergies to the different seasons but we had no idea the extent of his allergies. The doctors decided that he should be tested after picking up a neighbors cat and having an anaphylactic reaction to the cat. He is allergic to every tree, grass, various molds, nuts, now dogs, and chicken. I mean seriously, who is allergic to chicken? He looked up at the allergist and told her that he would just have a pet chicken then and eat the cat. =) He was 8 years old at the time.

In dealing with him, I have learned a lot about allergies. I learned that Virginia has the highest rate of adult onset of allergies. This is due to our location. Virginia is where the Northern trees and grasses converge with the Southern trees and grasses. That is how she explained it. You can go your entire life never having had an allergic reaction and wake up one day deathly allergic to something you have eaten or been exposed to all along. This was me.

When we were dating and newly married, we would go out for dinner and depending on where we went, I would come home sick. I now know that was an allergy to anything with MSG and a variety of spices. We found out about the cayenne pepper while eating at a Chinese place one day. It started out slow, half way through our meal, I started itching. By the time we left the restaurant, I felt like I had a thousand mosquito bites.  We were one block up from the Walmart. By the time we hit the light at the Walmart, I was breaking out in hives. We stopped to grab some benedryl. Randy dropped my sister and I off in the front.The reaction was progressing pretty fast. By the time we walked into the Walmart, my throat was starting to close up and I was clawing at my face. The itching was indescribable.  We find the benedryl and I am unable to get it open. I am barely getting any oxygen at this point. The Pharmacist is watching us as Peaches is frantically trying to get the box open. He offers to call 911 but I said no…=) That is typical me. I knew we were down to bare seconds before I was completely unable to breathe. She finally got it open and I drank half the bottle.  I had to let it trickle down my throat and held the liquid in my mouth until it started to work. I could feel it  working when my throat loosened a little. It was a mere couple of minutes before I could finally breathe freely and was only wheezing slightly at this point. It took 2 hours at least before the hives and itching stopped.

Guess who got tested next…=)?

Traffic

Living in Northern Virginia, traffic is a way of life. There are no ways to avoid the mess unless you are agoraphobic.  Sitting in traffic is just the way we live around here.

The summers make the traffic worse. If I95 is backed up, everything dumps onto Route 1. Route 1 happened to be where I was sitting on Saturday. It was not pretty because it was a 3 mile back up. Then it cleared for a few miles and bam…right back in the thick of  going 2-5 miles or stopped completely.

We (my daughter and I) were sitting in a 2 mile back up at this point, when she spotted a bill board. She laughed and told me I needed to take a picture of that one! I did! I had the camera with me and thought, I will take a picture of something interesting as we move and stop. When we were able to move forward again, I snapped. A picture that is…=)

  Here is the bill board. She didn’t realize that Ruffles is a brand of potato chip. We don’t buy Ruffles. I prefer them because they are saltier. My husband doesn’t do salt. We usually end up with Wavy Lays. I also prefer the wavy chips because I am a scooper, not a dipper, dunker, dabber or scraper. I scoop! Lots! I am going to need to purchase her a bag of plain Rrrrufffles with rrridgges!

Ahhh, traffic is moving…slightly. We  stopped next to a building that I have long admired. I love the mural on the front of the building. They are an eye specialty shop. Glasses, Lasik etc. The mural on the front of the building is filled with lots of faces.

I love the mural, but it struck me funny that a place offers LASIK and BOTOX.

Things that make me smile….=)

My friends, Sheri and Tressa , posted a list of things that make them smile. I decided that I should do the same. It is some what short because I am slightly brain dead at the moment but I will add to the list as I smile…=)

 

*My husband’s grin. =)

*My children staying up past bedtime talking about life in general. Astounding for 3 teenagers.

*Amazing Grace

*God smacking me on the back of the head when I need it.

*Colleen’s smile.

*Charlie’s humor.

*Robbie’s freckles.

*Khan chasing Cleo.

*Cleo’s soft fur.

*Loki singing.

*Maxi trying to corner me. Her little feather tail waddling across the room.

*Hearing all the children that come over once a week, laughing hysterically and storming the barricades.

*Mud day!

*Having a visiting child say when he gets married his kids will do all the things he got to do at my house!

*Walking in the rain.

*Watching lightening storms.

*Cooking for friends and family.

*Reading a passage of scripture and knowing it was put there for me.

*Talking to my friends and sharing God’s blessing on our lives.

*The smell of a newborn baby.

*Bacon