mel=car broken into this weekend....tough stuff comes with lesson

I wrote this late Sunday Night....

Happy Sunday... well Monday to you all. I write this to you as a reminder to not be like me! :) I have this habit of practically living out of my car. Need a change of clothes? Taken care of. Need to pull off youth group or Sunday school in less than 5 minutes, I have object lessons and materials for games at hand. Thirsty, I likely have water in my trunk. Hungry, I may be able to score you a granola bar. Need a costume for something... ok you get the point. So anyway, I had been telling myself that I would clean my car out today, like vacum, wipe down, all that fun stuff that I haven't done since before Christmas.

This Sunday morning was planned out to go so well... but it was a little bit of a rough go for several reasons this morning... but whatever life goes on....we will fix the problems for next week.

Went to the country club with my Lodi Family and got a call as we were leaving... "Mel, where are you and when can you get back to church?.... Your car has been broken into."
The passenger side bashed in and they took my red bag. I had been using this red tote as my briefcase. Of course yesterday I was paying bills and 2 credit card statements were in it, my paycheck was in it, a personal check and my calendar (just filled it out!!!) and a few other things. I should mention that the red bag... stinking cute! Anyway I have spent the day getting account numbers changed, talking to insurance people, vacumming mass amounts of glass, laughing (you have to have a little sense of humor in it) and all that fun stuff.

The moral of all of this writing and rambling and possibly just venting a little bit is this....
This is the second time in a year and a half that my car has been broken into. The first time they stole an empty fanny pack that I used when I would go bike riding. This time this bag. In a way the stuff wasn't worth anything to those people, only me...now I have to replace those things and pay a deductable to have my window fixed....

DON'T LEAVE STUFF IN YOUR CAR!! I should have taken 2 extra minutes this morning to throw the bag in my office... but I was in a hurry.... I even thought about it this morning. Sometimes we have to help people to not be tempted... I don't want the third time to be a charm and I want to stop feeling like I am being violated by people taking stuff that belongs to me.
All in all, it was a good day though. I went and visted a friend in Meadow Vista and tonight folks... JACK BAUER!! That's right... season 6 of 24 started tonight and thats one heck of a happy way to end a Sunday that started a little less than par!

I have learned from this. See I have been wanting to organize a few things that have become unorgainized. I have been wanting to get a few things out of my car and was going to do it before my drive tonight. I had some plans to take care of some things that I hadn't had time or made time for lately. Taking the bag out of my car, I was in too much of a hurry. When you think of these things, do them. Take time to clean up something in your life if you need to. Today in church we talked about Revealing our hurts so God could heal them. Sometimes we need to clean stuff up in our mind or heart or life so that there is room in it for something or someone else. Sometimes we need to clean things up so we can give our all to something. Sometimes we need help cleaning it up (thanks to my dear friends and co-workers who helped me make phone calls and cleaned up a whole lot of really fun shatter proof glass), sometimes we need to be broken before we can be cleaned out and healed.

As I was running into church this morning, a little girl was trying to keep up with me. She was trying to be sweet and as soon as I opened my car door she told me that I looked really pretty this morning. She just wanted my undivided attention but my mind was too cluttered to stop and give her my all. The whole time I was walking to the main doors I was thinking about how I needed to slow down and talk to her more than I did, but it was too late, I had things to do inside the church. Slow down, take the bag into your office and take the long route to the church building listening to someone who maybe doesn't usually get listened to. Enjoy each day but know its ok if you can't fit everything into 12 hours.

Well I am falling asleep, I hope you can see where I am coming from... its just something I thought I would share.

I hope you all have a great day off of school and work and if you do have to work... have a fabulous one!
Love, Mel

All Grown Up

Do you ever have moments that you all of a sudden feel a lot older or that you wonder where the years have gone? I am young to some, old to others and confused at times where I am with it all. I turn 25 this summer... it seems like a big number to me, I am fine with turning 25, doesn't scare me, but there will be a big ole party this year!! (3 of us turn 25 within 3 weeks!) Ok back to the point of all of this...

My friend David and I went to school from Kindergarten until 12th grade together. We were the only two that went to the same highschool we went to. We have a lot of memories from my oldest brother breaking their garage door window while babysitting, to my getting a pencil stuck in his cheek, to teachers we loved, teachers we couldn't stand and our projects... oh our projects. We made some of the most creative history projects. Made a video for a CNN contest and more. These projects would be intense. We spent hours upon hours on them. David got married a year or two ago (I apologize, weddings are starting to blend together) to Erin. I remember my mom telling me about 7 months ago that they were expecting. Then in November they had their Baby boy!!! While I was home I went to visit David. The strangest feeling came over me as he opened the door at his parents house holding a new born! WOW! My friend, that I knew in Kindergarten has a child on his shoulder and it's his!!! Now I used to make my guy friends play with baby dolls in Kindergarten but this was so different.

I am so happy for David and Erin and the whole family. What a Blessing they have been given, but all of a sudden I thought to myself... wow life doesn't slow down and we are ALL GROWN UP.... I think a lot of people think starts or stops at certain times, certain era's. At my university many people would think or make you think that life didn't start until you had a ring on your finger. NOT TRUE. Others think it doesn't start until you have a certain kind of job, make a certain amount of money or are a certain age. I've got news for all of those who think that... my life has been going for over 24 years and I don't want to pretend like those didn't happen! Those have been awesome years! I look back and enjoy what I have had, I look forward to what is to come, and I love just enjoying what I have right now!!!

Above is a picture of David and his son who looks so much like him and me holding Isaac as well.

A quote from Morris

Morris is my trainer... we often see things very differently... but he said this last night and I about fell off the equipment I was using...

"Mel, A SUGAR COATED TURD IS STILL A TURD"

How true, how true.

And thats all she wrote....

night.

Wicked Hot Chocolate

Denise and Dino gave Rachel and I some "wickedly hot chocolate" lip gloss... we were checking it out... it's pretty chocolately... and wicked... imagine that...

Christmas

Oh my!

So I got back Thursday after being gone for 10 days. I finally did it... I left and I didn't call the office at all, I didn't email anyone for work, I didn't even get any church calls.... this is amazing! I am going to try it more often I think!

So I got in at about 2 on Christmas Eve. This is my 3rd Christmas since I have lived here and the first time I have been home on Christmas eve and for Christmas morning since. We went out to Aunt Linda and Uncle Dan's right away. Now this is the night we have been waiting for, for a LONG time! We decided a while back that Grandma Viv needed another dog. After Grandpa died she got a Shitzu, Bud. He died a few months ago and Gma lost a very special companion. Back in November when I was home, I asked if we should get her another one... mom thought about it and decided yes. We went searching. I searched online at the humane societies back home and mom and dad went out hunting on foot/truck... God just blessed everything in ways we couldn't imagine and brought mom to an amazing little 13 lb shitzu. (i think it is spelt different than that... but keep reading the story.. there is a reason it is being spelt like that). Gma had no idea what mom had been up to.

Christmas eve it was all happening. My parents took the dog named "new dog" or "gus" or "hey you" out to Aunt Linda's early. Then we went from youngest to oldest on gifts. The last thing gma opened was a scrapbook that mom and carole made. It was a scrapbook of "Bud" The last two pictures in it though, were pictures of the new dog. My mom put captions on them that said "aren't I sooooo cute?" and "Would you please take me home" Gma still thought that they were pictures of bud. She said oh sweetie I would if I could.... (which I thought at that point... we would have been really mean children and grandchildren if we would have put that caption of a picture of her dead dog)... anyway.... At that point I walked out from the kitchen with the dog in a basket and a big red and green thing around its neck and said "really grandma, would you really take him home?" She looked up and just started bawling. Tears were a flying in the house that night. She was soooo happy. This was one of the best Christmas' to see my grandma so filled with joy and suprise and like a little piece of her heart was reattached!

Everything was so exciting! We suggested the name "Gus" because everyone at Grace Chapel thought it was appropriate... but grandma turned up her nose in a way I have never seen a nose turned up so we took that as a NO! Instead, she ended up naming him "Gizmo" after we talked her out of "Fluffy" and "Sweetie Pie" Simply not acceptable in my books.

So let's fast forward to January 3rd. I am sitting at the Mill's Mall having a lovely lunch with myself after a pretty good shopping trip. I was talking to Rachel on the phone about "very important issues" when I heard my phone beeping. Call Waiting. Mom's Cell. Mom is teaching right now. Mom should not being calling. Hang on Rach. "Where are you?" "Gizmo's gone" "Go check the animal Shelter" And I was off. I wrapped my egg roll in my napkin, the rest of the rice and chicken away (morris wouldn't approve anyway) and walked swiftly to the car. Gizmo is no where to be found. Mom and I circled Grandma's huge neighborhood so many times. We stopped everyone we saw. The dog got out of the backyard... it was fenced, the gate was closed... that must be one skinny dog. I went to The shelter, a police station, people's yards, the dog groomer across the street... everyone.... Gizmo was gone, we knew not what to do. We went to the shelter one more time... not there. Got home and had 7 messages. One of them from over an hour before was the Riverview Police Station. "We have your dog, get it now or its going to the pound" And thats when we picked Gizmo up and thought... you are such a little Shitzu minus the zu.

I boarded my grandma's deck up like you wouldn't believe, wood, kid gates, heavy coolers full of water, muahahaha... mel will win, not Gizmo.

And with that.. here is a picture of the little runt... with a face like only a mother and close relatives could love.