I'm Still Here!

I know I've been "missing in action" the past few days and I appreciate the people who have contacted me making sure that everything is all right, but I promise I have some good excuses as to where I've been! First of all, I've been devoting just about all of my computer time trying to finish my 2011 Year in Review family slideshow that I make at the end of each year as a way to document what my family's been up to throughout the past year. This past Monday I opened my slideshow to put the finishing touches on it, and I was dismayed to find out that someehow the timing had gotten all messed up. Ugh! VERY frustrating, to say the least! SO, I've been furiously trying to do damage control and get my slideshow fixed so that I can still finish it up and get it ready to mail to my other family members so that they can still watch it by Christmas. I spent a good 6 – 8 hours on Monday alone fixing my slideshow, as well as several hours yesterday. I think I've pretty much gotten it back on track and I'm almost ready to say, "It's as good as it's going to get!"

I've also been extremely busy this week with a doctor's appointment, Christmas shopping, visits from friends, book club, etc. Then today my sister Laura went into labor and my mom and I spent a huge chunk of the day at the hospital with my sister. Laura's baby is my 17th niece/nephew, so you'd think that births/deliveries would be "old hat" by now, but since Laura is pretty much my only sister to have a baby here locally (except for one of my sisters who had a C-section in November of 2005) I've been anxiously awaiting her baby's arrival so that I could hopefully be at the delivery (so long as Laura didn't go into labor in the middle of the night). I've been praying the past few weeks asking the Lord to make things happen in a timeframe to where both my mom and I could be present for the delivery. The Lord always comes through for me and I was able to be there. It was so exciting! I don't have time to write about the whole experience tonight, but I will make a blog post about it very soon, so stay tuned!!

I hope all of you are well and I promise to write more soon!

Toy Conspiracy

I've been doing a lot of Christmas shopping lately and toys sure are getting cheap! And when I say cheap I don't mean inexpensive; I mean poorly made! I'm only 27, but the toys I remember playing with in the 80's and 90's were so much better quality than a lot of the toys that are around today. A lot of times it's the same toy, but they are made much more cheaply these days and aren't as nice.

Then there are the updated versions of things. Take board games, for example. Sure, you can still buy some of the more classic games like Monopoly, Life, Clue, Candy Land, Mouse Trap, etc. These games are still around and they're basically the same games, but lots of them have updated rules or they look different as the look the game boards/pictures have been modernized. I like things to stay with same! For example, when I bought Guess Who? for one of my nephews last year it was sad to see that many of the classic characters didn't look the same, or they had different names and things like that. I suppose it's good to keep things current and fresh so that today's kids will still enjoy them, but it still sad. Why can't they just leave well enough alone?

Lots of the popular toys in this day and age require batteries since they have screens or sound effects or things like that. These tech-y toys are neat, don't get me wrong, but I just like the classic toys that I played with when I was a kid.

While I don't encourage hoarding, I would suggest that parents hold on to some of their kids toys for when they are adults. My mom has hung on to some of the toys my sisters and I had growing up and they are some of my nieces and nephews favorite toys to play with. (I wish my mom wouldn't have gotten rid of quite so much, or it would be nice to go back in time and "save" some of the things I got rid of as I aged. What can I say, I'm sentimental!

The Stockings Were Hung…

My sister Kristin sent me some pictures last week so that I could see how she'd decorated different parts of her house for Christmas. When I saw the homemade snowman stockings that she'd made hanging on her mantle I knew I had to make a post about it on my blog. Kristin is my dream girl! She's extremely talented and is pretty much a "Jack of all trades" as she is so good at so many different things. The snowman stockings are her own creations that she designed all by herself.

"The Mansion"

Last December my mom read the book The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke to me and we decided to read it again this year since it kind of has a Christmas-like feel to it. It's actually not at all about Christmas, but the reason I think it has a Christmas feel to it is because it's very similar to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in some important ways. The premise of the book is that the main character, John Weightman, dreams one night that he dies and meets a group of people traveling to the heavenly city to receive the mansions that they've earned in their life. The mansions are large and beautiful and John expectantly waits for his. Everyone else in the group has been shown to their mansions and John asks the guide, "When are we going to get to my mansion?" He figured that surely his mansion must be just as nice, if not nicer than all of the mansions he'd seen thus far.

Long story short,  John's "mansion" turned out to be nothing more than a lowly shack. He was sure there must be some sort of mistake, after all, in his earthly life he'd had the best of the best of everything. After questioning his guide he finds out that he certainly had had his mansion in life, but since he'd been so stingy and unwilling to share his wealth with others in life, the mansion he'd "earned" was nothing more than shack. (This is a sweet book with an important message, so I hope I'm explaining it well.)

This is a short passage from the book. (To put things into context, it's when John finds out that he only qualifies for a shack because of the way he lived his life on earth.

“But how have I failed so wretchedly,” he asked, “in all the purpose of my life? What could I have done better? What is it that counts here?”

“Only that which is truly given,” answered the bell-like voice. “Only that good which is done for the love of doing it. Only those plans in which the welfare of others is the master thought. Only those labors in which the sacrifice is greater than the reward. Only those gifts in which the giver forgets himself.”The sentiment expressed in The Mansion reminds me of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 6:2-4, where it says, "Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sonud a trumpet before thee, as they that the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."

(As a side note, sometimes I wonder what type of mansion some people in the world like Oprah, for example, will receive since they tend to be so open/vocal about all of the good they do. Not that I'm trying to judge, but it's interesting to speculate about.)

The part of the book that I especially relate to is the paralyzed woman who receive a mansion. This is a direct quote from the book, "—a paralyzed woman who had lain for thirty years upon her bed, helpless but not hopeless, succeeding by a miracle of courage in her single aim, never to complain, but always to impart a bit of joy and peace to everyone who came near her." (I haven't been paralyzed 30 years yet, but I DO try to spread joy to all those I come into contact with.)

This post is just a little food for thought to remember this holiday season (and always).

Maiden Voyage I & II

I recently wrote about getting my new wheelchair, but I realized I haven't followed up on how I'm liking it. I only use my wheelchai when I actually go out in public, but when I stay at home (like I do most days) I opt to sit in my recliner since it's much more comfortable.

Anyway, I took my wheelchair out on its maiden voyage when I went to church last Sunday. As soon as I got in it I started noticing things that didn't feel quite right. I also noticed differences when I was actually riding in the van, too. In my old wheelchair I fit so snugly, which is what I like so that my body feels as supported as possible. Since my new wheelchair is an inch wider I felt myself being jostled around quite a bit more, especially while in the van. So the next day I had my mom call Larry (the man that adjusts my wheelchair) and he came a few days later to make some adjustments.

I took my wheelchair out again this past weekend for another test spin. The adjustments Larry made helped a lot, so round two felt even more comfortable than the first. The thing for all of you "normal" people to realize about wheelchairs is that it takes a lot of tweaking and adjusting to get just the right fit. Wheelchairs are definitely not "one-size-fits-all" and need to be adjusted depending on a person's limitations and specific needs, so it's nice that they are relatively customizable and adjustable.

The best part about my new wheelchair is the beautiful red coat of paint! My old wheelchair was a dark blue, so I'm glad I decided to go with "candy red" when I picked the color of my new wheelchair. Now she matches my bright red minivan!

I'm going to give myself a few more weeks to get used to my new wheelchair just to make sure I'm completely satisfied/comfortable, but as soon as I get to that point I'm going to donate my old wheelchair. There are so many disabled people in the world (especially in third world countries and in other places around the world with a high poverty level and I know that there's someone out there who's life will dramatically change for the better when they get my old chair! Click here to check out an extremely inspiring video!