THIS WAS WROTE MAY 2016 ..... BUT POSTED APRIL 2017
One of my goals for 2016 is to reconnect …. Often we think about travel, to accomplish this, but for some of us logistic’s, jobs, time and finances …. make it near on impossible to do this. And if we can travel, there normally is the “coin toss” which way to go …. and no matter which direction we head in, there is always someone were not going to see. So …. like in the “good old days” when horse & wagon were the common mode of travel and letter writing was how people communicated …. I have decided to …. with a modern twist (using my computer) to generate a letter at least every few months …. and hopefully going to reach out to reconnect with those who I care about. I have been writing letters to friends and family anyway so this endeavor is broadening my spectrum of connections.
The last several years have brought a lot of changes to our life here in Kentucky and I am sure in your life too. As I have begun to think on how time flies and realized we will have been here in Kentucky 22 years this year I was a bit stunned when I began to think on how quickly this has happened. So to begin with I am going to just re-introduce us and what’s been happening here ….. May 31st is our 22nd anniversary on our arrival here and it truly seems like only last week ….. July 17th of this year marks 22 years at our house we live in. December of this year (2016) will mark 15 years we have been the owners of this house (and the bank for at least a few more years LOL) ….
For those of you have heard about the recent “tree saga” at our place …. and some of you I have sent pictures to …. We had this wonderful HUGE tree in our back yard that sat approximately 3 to 4 ft. from the corner of our garage and about 12 ft. from our house, towering about 6 to 7 story’s high …. it was 4 Hackberry trees that had grown together. One tree had covered our immediate “back courtyard area” near the house for years. Several years ago one of the trees began to lean precariously after a week of frozen ice covered branches, over our dining room area and our electric lines that ran into the house. We had to call some tree cutter people and have it brought down safely. Then we move forward to this winter and early spring and I had notice the one that leaned over the garage looked like it was hanging a mite closer to the garage roof, …. Sometimes you can look at something TOO MUCH and convince yourself of anything …. so after staring for a time at the tree over the garage, I decided I was imagining things ….. BUT …. you know when it is not your imagination and it’s God trying to tell you HEY LOOK!! you keep hearing this still small voice saying “the tree IS leaning and it’s not your imagination” …. So I grabbed my camera and decided to take some pictures that’s when God had me walk around the tree and discovered the bend was totally rotted out and was not going to hold much longer. …. Along with this find came the split between the other two trees that I seen. YIKES!! So again I contacted the tree people, Pikes Tree Service is owned by Christians and I have had opportunity to get to know Steve the owner. He pretty much came to the same conclusion I did …. the tree was coming apart and needed to come down …. then the waiting began …. first we had to figure in the $750.00 it was going to cost then, the weather factor ….. lots of rain and wind … which neither of these conditions was favorable to bring in a large crane and a lift truck needed to do the job. Finally 3 weeks and lots of lessons in patience, fear and prayer came into our lives. God held the tree together through several bad wind storms, and the rain ceased and down came the tree with Pike’s Tree Service’s help. The tree is the kind it will try and grow it’s self back so we had the stumps left about 10 to 12 foot high …. they are already growing an “umbrella” shaped “bush” at the top. It’s amazing the lessons God can teach you about things you thought you had long since overcome through times like the “Tree Saga”. I think the greatest lesson that came out of it was the lesson about FEAR. I tend to be pretty fearless …. i.e. things don’t bother me much in the realm of “fear” … I don’t worry over a lot of things some people find needful to worry about …. I tend to take the “hey sa-ra, sa-ra” … “Don’t worry be happy approach” and “it is what it is now get over it!” stand on things … So when I started “tree watching” this tiny spark of fear got in unaware into my heart … SIGH … I found myself dwelling on the “possibilities” and “what if’s” ….. This all happened in about 24 hours ….. We had some cold weather too, so it was needful to build a wood fire …. which required SOMEONE …. to go out under the LEANING CRACKED TREE … where we had some wood cut up and ready … and load up the wheel borrow and bring it into the house …. ALL THE WHILE THE WIND WAS BLOWING FAIRLY STEADY AND STONG ….. and Sigh; our tree was swaying in the wind …. I was mumbling a lot under my breathe … I just didn’t realize HOW LOUD I WAS MUMBLING … LOL … but hubby heard …. and was quick to remind me of all the times I had given him one of those “PEPPY WIFE TALKS” …. you know …. the kinds where you think your being all sweet as sugar and SO POSITIVE it’s just dripping off your lips??? but your hubby feels like your talking through fangs and it’s really slobber dripping and not sweetness??? ….. WELL ANYWAY …. (he must have heard me at some point in time …. and something sunk in …. cause …. I had one of my peppy wife talks handed back to me …. (I think he actually was gloating at the prospect of being able to remind me ….. ) “SO … what about all that positive talk you tell me about praying then speaking the word and confessing what you want and not what you see?”!!! ……. whew …. kind of rattles you to hear this back at you …. BUT IT WORKED!! I
#1) I had a couple more weeks to conquer fear and prove God was totally able to answer prayer with that tree. ….
#2) I was able to learn that God has to down size your pride once in a while a bit to get it back in line with His Word and His will.
#3) I also learned that sometimes even when your being right it can be wrong … like a wrong motive, a wrong emotion, a wrong feeling …. Sometimes pride can mask it’s self in
something we know for a fact .. and we become so proud of the fact that we really know;
that it becomes the stumbling block that can take us down.
Today is Monday May 9th … it is 8:59PM …. God has blessed us in so many ways with wonderful friends and extended family …. Years ago I had met a lady named Doris … I just thought the world of her … we had met at a bible study then over the years had went different ways and then reconnected at another bible study …. several weeks ago she had called me, she owned a tablet with Facebook on it and we had been connecting through that for some time … she had lost her Facebook account and couldn’t quite figure out how to get it up again …. so she stopped by my office …. I decided to stop by her house and see if I could help her out. ….. Doris is 85 years young. I ended up going back to her place that Saturday and have stopped by several times since. She is such a sweet person and so wonderful to sit and talk to and with about the Lord. Doris was married to my daughter-in-law’s great uncle. I was there this evening from about 6 to 8 PM and it only seemed like a few minutes. ….. I also have reconnected with another friend Meredith, she lives in New York we text often and It seems so good to reconnect with old friends too even if they are about 650 miles away.
My job as an apartment Manager (14 years at it … as of June 4th 2016) … is sometimes very taxing in the people department. I sometimes feel I work in a “FishBowl” … my office is blessed with lots of windows which isn’t a bad thing, …… I guess …. I can keep a good eye on whats going on most of the time ….. but …. it’s not real private either. …. then …. T H E PEOPLE …. they call them tenant’s …. lots of people!
There are 48 units at the property that I manage, that’s 48 households …. 48 different lives of families unfolding on a daily basis around me ….. 48 possible soap opera’s … 48 different drama’s playing out on life’s big screen daily ….. sometimes reaching my office on a first person basis but more frequently happening via 2nd and 3rd party “messengers” (or gossips … if you want more clarity how I identify these messengers) Then you add all the people who just stop by to put in an application or pick one up, then all those who call looking for an apartment. …. Put that with all the different personalities and those who suffer from various stages and degrees of mental illness, depression, anger, and elderly memory loss from various reasons and all kinds of malady’s that happen in one’s life and it’s a melting pot of a great novel …. (for those who love drama!!) BUT …. inside of all of it …. is the “Great COMMISSION” Go ye therefore teaching all nations ….. This small community here on planet Earth is my “nations” It is a mission field all in it’s own tiny corner. It’s a place to live before others your testimony or lack of one. It’s a place to witness God’s goodness and to share about Him. It is a place of ministry and a place to demonstrate God’s love. Easy? ABSOLUTELY NOT by no means!! and some days it seems downright impossible …. BUT …. After years of studying King David’s life and the concept God called him a man after His own heart …. I have come to a conclusion that David lived, worked and played in continual remembrance of all God’s goodness and spent a lot of time in praise & worship; not worrying about tomorrow or if he was living right. He just chose to live full throttle in life loving it and embracing God in thanksgiving. So King David has been my role model and “go to” when I need reminding about whom I serve. With all life's up’s and down’s I try to embrace each day as a gift from God to me and praise Him in all things.
May 10th … Today is my daughter in law’s birthday and it has been storming since 3PM and it’s now almost 7:30PM. Loaned my son our lawn mower, was going to stop today and pick it up but all that wet stuff pouring down kind of stopped me stopping ….. Which makes me think on all the God Moment’s I have had lately …. Saturday my son called me about 12:30PM and ask to borrow the lawn mower, Ashton had come up to work off some money he owed Grandma (that’s me) …. I had picked him up about 9AM after I had gone to the Methodist Men’s yearly yard sale. … I had made a list of garage sale items I was specifically looking for to help me focus and NOT BUY a bunch of stuff I didn’t need. I was looking for a pretty plastic table cloth for my Prayer Room Table, some small pretty saucers , a couple of children’s bibles, and some wall or table lamps. (only I had forgot I was looking for lamps that particular day and had failed to write it down …. but when I saw them it was a God Moment … OK so back to the subject of my God Moments …
#1) At the garage sale I found 2 beautiful wall lamps, a stack of pretty mismatched china
saucers, a book about Angels Among Us, and a very Spring looking plastic table cloth that just fit my table perfectly.
#2) Ashton & myself were delayed several times getting out of our place after we had cut wood and moved brush on Saturday …. In pulled Mike my maintenance man with his pick up truck …. and Mike’s brother Pete. ( I had been wondering how I was going to get the lawn mower in my car by myself ….??) Thank You Lord …. Mike graciously loaded it on the back of his truck and transported it to Scott.
#3) Coming home Friday night I had to stop @ the store … when I went to get back into my car a lady parked in the vehicle next to mine was shooting me dirty looks (an ex-tenant who is not real fond of me LOL) I had a mean moment and sat there and dawdled so she could get her eyes full ….. (it’s kind of reverse psychology LOL) …. anyway, I then proceeded to pull slowly away …. as I was heading south bound up our road which is very curvy, I met a
north bound truck passing a north bound car on a curve .. the truck was on my side of the road …. If I’d been just moments sooner we’d have hit head on in the curve, God’s timing was awesome and I was able to move over to the side on the short straight away after the curve!!
I love these Moment’s when God just touches things and wahlaaaa … prayer, unspoken prayer & unknown prayers are answered and becomes a “K-N-O-W “ that God was in it …. brief moments of gratitude and amazing seconds of time where Heaven touches Earth and the tiniest miracles occur in our daily journey here …. The most amazing thing is I don’t necessarily go around looking for them but they just keep showing up …. sometimes in the most unexpected ways and places. It’s like finding tiny gems as you take a walk along the pathway of your life.
Back to my job …… A while back I hired a young man named Shawn H. to help with the Landscaping and Curb Appeal @ my apartment complex …. my maintenance man @ that time was facing much needed major surgery and was unable to preform all the outside work that a 48 unit apartment complex with 7 buildings and about 6 acres of property require on a daily basis. ( We hire a mowing company to keep the lawns mowed) … but there were unattended flowerbeds, shrubbery and just a lot of other things that needed some tender loving care. I finally received the much needed approval to hire, so I did …. I first met Shawn @ the church I was attending from April 2015 to February 2016. He is a natural born landscaper and immediately took authority over the property; I gave him freedom to landscape as he saw the need. I now have this beautiful flowering landscaped property to drive by and pull into every day … I feel so blessed to have found this gem of a young man. …… My maintenance man "Bub" did have his surgery on April 7th, he had a plate put in his neck to help support the severely deteriorated disc. ….. I also had to hire a new maintenance person …. Had several applications and finally hired a guy named Mike S. … he’d done property maintenance in Florida for some years and had a great sense of what is required of a property maintenance person. I’m still adjusting to having someone around who knows what they are doing when it comes to paperwork ….. Bub my previous maintenance guy had workedas a contractor for 26 years and was part owner with his family of a small General Contracting / Construction company, so he was really knowledgable where it came to repairs of doors and windows and every other needed repair we had …. and he understood the “business end” of things …. BUT …. Mike came also with his family owning a small General Contracting / Construction company, so he was really knowledgable too plus he’d done property maintenance a huge PLUS!! …. and I have to say another God sent gift to our property. I’m still adjusting to having someone around who understands the finer points of property maintenance needs.
We are currently remodeling my office …. a much needed upgrade …. Our company went “high Tech” in late 2014 … I had always had a computer at my property so I was one of I believe 11 properties that did have a computer so I was blessed in that aspect. But when they went “High Tech” They hired a program writer, bought all the 180 some properties laptop computers & HP colored printers …. everything came all pre-programmed when it was delivered to my property. ….. SIGH!! the down side was …. I had had a desktop Apple/ Mac computer for some years (I also have Apple Computers at home here) ….. so …. adjusting to Microsoft again was not an easy switch for me …. matter of fact it was down right annoying to say the least …. but after over a year I am learning .. and adjusting with a lot of learned patience and prayer … LOL ……. BUT …. back to the remodeling now in process … My office has a nook that years ago i had had wired up and “wired in” as a media center area, my computer, printer, and fax machines were all there in this nook. …… It worked well for years …. till the upgrade to “High Tech” happened …. then after all the reports and paperwork became internet bound, and email friendly I was constantly running around my desk and across the room to my “new” laptop computer (cause they took my desktop one) and where the cable company had wired in the cable it didn’t reach my desk across the room. AND WIFI DOESN’T WORK WELL ON OR WITH MY COMPUTER (although my smart phone can pick it up) so …. I am hooked up directly to the cables. ….. THERE WAS THIS HUGE NEED TO GET EVERYTHING BY MY DESK SO IT WAS ACCESSIBLE … Thus the remodeling part …. I recently had the electrician we use on our property to come in and rewire everything across the room near my desk …. so for now we have a temporary set up until the counter tops we designed come in and are built into place to give me a workable station and media center that is functionable. ( our counter tops are delivered on this Thursday May 12th) …. MY DESK is a huge 3 x 6 foot heavy wooden desk with a glass top that is beautiful …. but huge and not real practical with the needed upgrades … ……. It is 9:04 PM and it’s till storming out …. and my eye’s are droopy so i am heading off to slumber land.
May 25th 2016 …. it is 8:07 PM … whew … I reread this letter and already a lot has happened 1st of all well I dealt with the week ahead I was also preparing to take a much needed “mini vacation” to Knoxville TN with some ladies from my church to a Ladies Conference. … I am going to just write and not necessarily in chronological order …. First of all My counter top was delivered by Lowes for my office …. it looked beautiful …. BUT …. sigh … not quite right …. after quick measurements we discovered that the 12 ft required to fit along my wall was fine …. BUT the counter coming off the wall counter was 2 ft too short. Then my dilemma started …. We actually didn’t pay attention to the measurements until we actually placed it in my office on Monday May 16th. It was then we realized some of the equations just won’t work. I had ordered a wooden 24” wide drawer unit and a 18” wide filing cabinet unit to fit under my counter. The 24” drawer unit was to go at the end of the counter coming out into the room …. thats when the reality of a 4 ft “L” was not going to work with a 24” drawer unit. I had told the customer service person I needed a 12FT wall counter and a 6ft out into the room piece …. she measured the outside length not the inside length …. thus the outside measurements were 4’ ft + the 2’ ft width of the other counter top was 6ft. …. but when you placed a 2ft wide cabinet under a 4ft space it left me 2ft to pull my chair under …. definitely not wide enough. So the new “Counter Saga” began …. Also on Monday May 16th I had to take Sue my stepmother and “G’pa” a 75 yr old man I help take care of … (his real name is Larry S.) to the doctor’s for back to back Dr. Appts. for both of them. Our doctor left the practice and we had been trying to get into see the new “Dr.” so cancellation was not an option. …… Lot’s of new tests were ordered for both of them so we are facing more appointments again ….. (actually I am suppose to take Sue to get blood drawn like tomorrow ….. first thing in the morning) ….. The rest of my week went wild crazy …. On Tuesday May 17th I went back over to Lowes to try and figure out the counter top situation.I had ate a late breakfast so I wasn’t hungry and by the time I hit Madison IN I was VERY HUNGRY and @ Lowes …. not a good thing …. SIGH!! …. I had so many variables threw at me my head was spinning from everything they “COULDN’T DO” for me …. and all the things they could but I didn’t want!! What got settled on more out of desperation then anything else was I decided to get the 6ft extra counter length ( the story behind this was …. “So sorry, we shorted your counter top” …. but the minimum you now can order is 6’ (even though I only wanted a 2ft section) so I “designed hastily what I wanted if I had to have a 6 footer to deal with …. (mind you my head was spinning @ this point in time) it was going to almost match up to the existing top but now I would have a “J” shaped top instead of an “L” …. Oh well “hey sa-ra sa-ra” what will be will be” …. Decided to go to the Professional Desk and complain …. I did and was nice!! NO honestly the man was so kind and he looked like he’d had a rough day too so I was truly nice!! Then I arrived back at my office and got Lowes on the computer …. where i filed a complaint!!!
Wednesday was busy … Thursday May 19th I received a call from Lowes, a guy named Scott called and said they wanted to help me solve my issues ….. HALLELUJAH!! … great timing too …. I had to be in Madison IN by 4:30 PM to pick up the van us ladies from my church, rented to go to Knoxville TN. I arrived @ Lowes @ 3PM … It went quickly … Scott cancelled my order for the 6ft counter top that I DIDN’T WANT and reordered the 2ft section I needed to begin with and they are doing it for FREE !! God is good!! Sue had to ride over with me …. the original plan was to have Lee go too and I was going take him out to eat for his Birthday …. Lee had to be in Louisville with Molly for her annual doggie eye exam for the dog team. …. (so sorry but Sue and I ate Chinese anyway) then I went on to pick up the “8 passenger van” @ the car lot …. We got a 2016 Toyota Sienna (I think that’s how you spell it) ONLY IT WON’T SEAT 8 OLDER LADIES … it would only seat 6 “older ladies” unless 2 ladies were under 50 lbs. LOL …. made a hasty call to our organizer and found out there were only 6 going in the van … another HALLELUJAH !! Parked my car in the lot and headed home. I was well on my way to getting ready for my mini-vacation to Knoxville TN on May 20th & 21st ….
We pulled out for Knoxville Friday morning @ 10:30AM .. stopped to eat in Corbin at Sonny’s BBQ … Pam our pastor’s wife said it was a tradition. I ended up being the “designated driver all the way to Knoxville TN. We arrived there about 5PM .. lots of prayer for no rain for the most part helped a lot. …. It did rain the last 90 miles into Knoxville. But God was good and it was just a nice soaking type rain … and driving was good. …. THE CONFERENCE was just too short and we seemed to on our way home before we knew it ….. It was based on a JOURNEY to Joy … there were 10 workshops to choose from and you could attend 3 …. Awesome speakers and workshops, and awesome praise & worship …. I needed the refreshing!! Before I knew it I was back in Carrollton Saturday night and headed back to Madison to return the van …. Lee rode over with me … We arrived back home about 8:30PM Saturday night. ….
Today May 25th … we are still waiting for the correct counter top to arrive. I picked out a silver oak panelling to use as a “surround” under my counter & a sliver gray wood looking baseboard to trim in … I am excited about what the totally finished office will look like. …. I am going to wind down this letter for May 2016 … so take care and may God bless you all ……
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