Welcome to my Sunday Morning

This past Saturday night I had set my alarm for 3:30 am in order to be awake to take my neighbor John and his children to the Islip Airport for their 6am flight to California Sunday morning. They were going on a cruise to Alaska from there.

This was no problem for me since I am a morning person and am my sharpest and nicest in the early hours. I love mornings.

I drove to John's house and got there at 3:45. The kids were excited and were showing me some of their new clothes and sneakers they got for the trip. We all loaded ourselves and the luggage into John's 8 seater minivan and left to pick up their pastor and pastor's wife, Jay and Lena (not their real names to protect the guilty), they were going on the cruise as well.

Jay and Lena are not morning people at all. In fact, I used to be close friends with Lena years ago and although we grew apart, I still vividly remember how she could not wake up before 10am on any given day. Their church services start at 11am each Sunday just to accommodate her.

Jay and Lena have a daughter, Lisa. Lisa works for me as a receptionist. She is supposed to be at work at 9am to start answering the phones. She can only get there at 9:30am, no earlier because she cannot get up before then. Up until 11am she is dragging herself around, we don't talk to her much until after 11 when she gets perky and is a wonderful person to be around. There have been many meetings with the firm's partners to discuss terminating Lisa because of her tardiness, but she honestly is the best receptionist that ever worked there, so we keep her and answer the phones ourselves until she drags herself in. She's that good.

So at 4:45am we all leave Jay and Lena's house and head out for the airport. We get there at 5am, one hour before their flight is scheduled to leave, hey whatever, it I were on the flight I would have been there hours ago. After we say our goodbyes, I get into the driver's seat and proceed to drive back to John's house to pick up my SUV. I can't wait to get back to the comfort of my bed. It's 5:30 and I get into my house, take off my shoes and grab my cellphone. As I am pressing the off button I think to myself, "I don't want anyone to bother me because I want to sleep real late this morning...maybe until 8" when it goes off.

It's John. "Theresa, this is an emergency. The plane is about to board and Jay forgot his passport. He absolutely needs his passport to go on the cruise. Can you drive to his house, wake up Lisa so she can let you in, get his passport from his file cabinet and get it over to the airport ASAP?" "Sure", I say and off I went. All I can think of is how Lena must feel. She's kinda high strung and easily upset. Knowing her I'm sure she was yelling at Jay right then and I'm sure she's creating a big scene at the terminal.

I got to their house in record time and started beeping my horn in the driveway. I found a screwdriver on the porch and used the handle to start banging on the window of Lisa's bedroom and the side of the house and front screen door. The dogs were barking and going crazy inside. I started screaming, "LISA, LISA, OPEN THE DOOR, IT'S AN EMERGENCY", to no avail. About 10 minutes of this and Lisa comes to the door yelling at me, "THERESA. THEY'RE NOT HERE!!!!" I scream, "JUST LET ME IN, I NEED TO GET YOUR DAD'S PASSPORT". "I CAN'T OPEN THE DOOR", she yells back. "Lisa, I know you're half asleep right now but understand that your parent's can't go on the cruise if I don't get the passport RIGHT NOW, so OPEN THE DOOR" finally she opens the door, I hand her my cellphone so she can listen to her mom try to get her to calm down and I make a mad dash to the file cabinet. All the time she is yelling at me and being very nasty. She was even cursing at me, but she looked like she was sleep walking while she was doing all this.

I find the passport, yank my cellphone out of her hands and run down the driveway and get to the airport by 5:50am. Jay is waiting outside for me so as I screech to a stop, I roll down the passenger's side window and hand it off to him.

Now you would think that Jay would yell something like, "Thanks T" as he's running back into the airport to make the best use out of the precious seconds he has.....but NO!!! He slowly leans over the passenger's side window rests on his elbows and starts talking, very slowing, "Theresa,..... my angel ....
of .....mercy,.....thank......" I abruptly interrupt him with, "JAY, GET YOUR ASS INTO THE AIRPORT" as I stretch out my arm back and forth like a crazy woman, pointing the way to him. I'm sure I committed some violation of the 10 commandments with that comment to the pastor, but what the heck?

Later on that evening I got a call from John and I wasn't about to answer it. Hey, you can't blame me, he could have been calling to ask me to fax something somewhere or even worse. But he left a pleasant voice mail message telling me that Jay got into the plane 30 seconds before they shut the door. And they are on the ship and having a blast.

Today I went to work and met up with Lisa. She could not stop apologizing to me for being nasty. I kept telling her I understand, that I know some people are cranky in the morning, but she was really upset and thought that I was mad at her. When it was time for her to leave work she meekly came into my office and apologized again, this time with tears in her eyes. I told her to stop it, don't mention it again and forget about it. This is what makes a good story to tell your kids someday....the time I yelled and screamed at my boss like a lunatic while she was trying to do my parents a big favor.

Now that I think about it, she did get to work earlier than usual, hmmmm, maybe there is a happy ending for ME after all.

Fuzzy Friday

Every now and then my wonderful boyfriend, Capt, sends me flowers. And he sends them to me at my office. He always uses ProFlowers and every single time they are the most beautiful flowers. And every single time the flowers last for at least two weeks, sometimes three. I love flowers. I love flowers in my office. And I love that my client's visually see them and know that there is hope for them too, that after the gut-wrenching pain of a divorce, they can find peace and love like I have.
Aaaaaaaahhhhhh. Yesterday he sent me lilies and irises.

That is one of the few things that has changed in my life as I get older - new found love.

This is one of the other things that has changed in my life as I get older - allergies. I never had allergies before. Now I'm allergic to melon and pollen.

Yesterday morning my eyes started watering and turning red. Later on they got puffy. After lunch my throat got all sore and itchy. The staff were concerned about me, that's how bad it was. By 7pm (I work until 8 on Thursdays, by myself) I could hardly breathe.

So yesterday I found out I'm allergic to lilies because when I went home I felt 100% better.

The receptionist got a surprise when she came in this morning, a vase of lilies on her desk. When I came in to work this morning she thanked me. Then she and two of the secretaries came running into my office with looks of horror on their faces and wanted to know how I was going to tell Capt that he can't send me lilies anymore without hurting his feelings.

No problem. He reads my blog.

MamaC-ta

Fellow bloggers, friends, family....

Prayer is needed for one of my favorite bloggers, MamaC-ta. She, like some of us, has twins, and those of us that have been blessed with them, know the trials and tribulations that come with raising twins.

So please, for the love of all that is holy, visit her today and join me in the dilema that only those of us with twins can truly understand.

Here's the link: MamaC-ta

Robbed at Two-edged Sword Point

I remember when was in the midst of what I believed was the place that God wanted me to be. My former husband and I were in the "leadership" of a great "cutting-edge" church. We would attend what were called "Western Hemisphere Conferences" and meet other leaders from the same movement....they were so awesome and exciting.

The first conference that we attended happened to be the first one the movement set up and it was decided it would be in Montauk, Long Island, New York, not too far away. During that conference I experienced some of the most amazing touches of the Holy Spirit.

Even though the conference was 10 years ago, one experience vividly stayed with me to this day. I can't go into great detail, but a absolutely beautiful woman, about my age, had been in a horrible marriage, though she never let on. Her husband was not with her at the conference. For years I had had the sickening feeling that her husband was not the man he was trying to portray. I truly believe that he was more interested in young boys than his wife. I had even gone so far as to alert the leadership that something was going on, but I was given the brush off.

At the last night of the conference a word was given to this beautiful woman, "You have been robbed", that was it, simple and true. The word cut her like a knife and she was slain right there and then, spiritually gutted and exposed.

I had a dream about her later on that year. She was in a beautifully decorated house and me and a few of her friends went there for lunch. As we knocked on her front door, she quietly asked that we come in. As we opened the door we saw a beautiful banquet of food laid out before us and there was our friend nursing a newborn in front of the table. I watched as some of the food was still being prepared. What I saw was a powered substance being mixed with water and it becoming these elegant dishes, an "instant banquet". Her home was filled with love.

Our lives were like that, my ex and I, going from conference to conference, growing stronger together and towards the top of the triangle where God was in our relationship. Then it happened, gradually at first. Addictions entered our marriage. Alcohol (bam). Drugs (bam). Pornography (Pow). Gambling (POW). Affair(Slap). Each new addiction a physical and emotional blow to my body. The addictions happened to him, he allowed them, but it effected us both the same.

Our marriage ended. The injuries to my body and spirit healed. I moved on. And I am truly thankful that I went through it all.

Last weekend I was asked to be a part of the Women of Faith Conference in Hartford, Connecticut by being a part of the prayer team. 15,000 women attended. I felt an old familiar feeling and it felt great. A feeling like I'm in the right place again. It was such a blessing to be a part of something so much bigger than myself and my relationship with God again...if that makes any sense. I know that God used me to help many women last weekend as they came to us in the prayer room to seek Him, many of them broken, just for a little prayer.

Like my friend ten years ago, I too had been robbed of many things. God allowed me to be broken, like her, to be rebuilt, like her. But now, almost five years later, I feel like I've gained more than had been robbed, like her. I have abundant peace. I have amazing love. And I have joy. And I am starting to feel like I am in the right place in my life again.

Caution: Objects May Appear Smaller in Person

See......I own a bra that perfectly matches LooneyBin4Sure's template. (At least I didn't take a picture of me wearing it!) It was on sale for $5 and the most uncomfortable bra I ever have worn. I don't know why it came out looking so huge in the picture, but it's not.

Guess Who

Guess where I'm going on Friday and Saturday.........give up? Here.

Guess who was asked to be on the prayer panel and sit up front......give up? me.

Guess who feels so not worthy, so out of touch with praying for people and who's a little excited about getting back into the swing of things......give up? Yeah, you're right, me.

So can I get a little prayer?

Thanks.

I knew I could count on you.