Every Girl Needs a Pony

So today was crazy. I don't know if it was me or just a weird day for my kids, but there was yelling. I'm just gonna be honest. It took all of the Jesus in me not to pick up J & E by the throat. I didn't. Just had thoughts of it. Thankfully my hubby came home early and I was able to get away to run a few errands.

One of my errands involved a situation in which my insurance company almost cost me over $500. Wanna hear about it? If not, just skip down to the paragraph before the picture.  But I'll try to make it short. A few weeks ago we were at Kohls and Eli slung the door open to get out, like I've said a million times NOT to do, and hit the brand new red cadillac mini suv next to us. No dent, but about an inch long deep scratch. It definitely took the paint off. I had to leave a note.

Well, she called me up and said her hubby looked at it and they were going to need it fixed. Ok, no problem. I told her to take it to a repair shop owned by a friend of my family and she did. She called me and told me the amount and it was something over $500. So, I called my insurance company and they said an adjuster would be calling me to get some info. So this lady calls from the insurance company, but didn't seem to be an adjuster. She asked me a few questions about the incident, asked me who to make the check to and where to send it, then asked for the lady's phone number who needed the repair. I answered her questions and told her to make the check out to the repair shop and send it straight to them. She said no problem and there was nothing further for me to do. Awesome. Taken care of.

So this morning the repair shop calls me up and says the job is done and asked me what I wanted to do about the payment. I told them the insurance company was sending them a check and gave them the phone number to call the insurance company to find out what the deal was. They called me back and said the insurance company said they mailed the check directly to me on Monday the 28th. That was 4 days ago. I hadn't checked my mail in a couple days so I figured it was in the mailbox and since I knew the repair shop people personally, I asked them to go ahead and let them be on their way with their vehicle and that if I didn't have the check I would just pay them myself and deposit the check when I got it. No biggie.

Something just didn't seem right though. I called my insurance company myself and they said they would check and call me back. So I get to the repair shop to write them a check and I'm chatting with them about how weird this all is. They told me the guy that picked up the car/truck/whatever had his checkbook in hand when he came to get it. Interesting. They of course told him I was taking care of it since they had already spoken to me and knew the situation, so he put his checkbook away and left. Well while I'm sitting there talking with them about all of this, my insurance company calls me and it just so happens that they sent the check TO THE LADY WHOSE CAR IS BEING REPAIRED.

MHM.

My repair shop friends told me not to worry, and they would just wait to hear from me while I got it all straightened out. Thank God for favor. I called the lady up and left her a detailed message to call me back. She called me about 5 minutes later and said that she already received the check and she thought it was weird that the repair shop told her it was taken care of.  So they knew they had the check before they picked up the car.

NO FURTHER COMMENT ON THIS LADY FROM ME.

I am however very unhappy with my insurance company. Am I not the customer here? Did I not tell them where to send the check? And if they decided they needed to send it elsewhere shouldn't they have called me to let me know?

That was way long and the END of that story.  I'm not talking about it anymore because it stresses me out.

At this point I still had several more errands to run, but the hubby called and said he had to go back to work, so I had to stop and go straight home. He got home around 6ish, so I finally got to go finish my errands.  Enough business talk.  LOOK what we got Lena for Christmas! She's gonna LOVE THIS!

All the while still thinking almost every moment of my friends in China.  I can't wait to see Lily!

And I'll end on that note. 

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Step by Step

Yes, I am blogging at 6:18 AM.  Our dear friends are on their way to China as I write this.  I've been singing "Step by Step" by NKOTB since the wee hours of the morning.  Thanks Anna:)  This has literally been a step-by-step process for these guys, and they are finally taking the last steps to get to this baby girl.  Lily doesn't even know it yet, but one of the BEST things that will ever happen to her is happening right now.  My heart is leaping with excitement for all of them!  God has worked things out so perfectly...

Isn't she beautiful???

Please pray for all of them over the next 16 days!  They are on the most challenging, exciting, joyful, and life-changing adventure of their lives...

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This has been such an amazing day! Worship this morning was awesome, and Dayne really brought the Word! All I can say is WOW. If you missed it, get the cd!

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Superman

This was Jason's birthday gift from the kids, for those of you who didn't catch this on facebook...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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Happy Holiday

I have to say, this has been one of the most enjoyable Thanksgivings I have ever had. I don't know if it's because I'm just so thankful to have my hubby home for more than 1 day, or the fact that we didn't have to go shuffling the kids around everywhere, but I have loved every minute of it!

We went to Headland on Wednesday night to have dinner with my Mama's aunts and cousins.  Total of 35 people.  We really enjoyed seeing everyone and spending some time with them, and the kids had a blast running all over the place with their cousins.  It was a great night.

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. My Mama came over early and we cooked together, which I loved, Jessi and Eli were sneaking random bites here and there, and Lena was just so excited and literally running all over the house the whole time. It's like she knew it was Thanksgiving. Then my dad, brother, sister, and niece came over. I only had 2 cooking mishaps, but I don't even care!  It's Thanksgiving!

1st mishap: The Pumpkin Pies.
I cooked them first so I could get them out of the way and the oven free for the sweet potatoes, Jason's mashed potato bake, and the turkey. I didn't get started until 7am, so I was in a bit of a bind with the clock. I really needed the oven before the pies were done, so I just took them out early and ended up having to put them back in while we ate for a lot longer. But they turned out great anyway, so it was good.

Mishap #2: The Turkey
Yes, the turkey. After all the "no baggie" drama, I actually found the baggie while I was trussing the turkey. Now, what all that other junk was that I pulled out the night before, I don't know. I'm just glad I found it before I baked the turkey.  I seasoned that baby and in the oven she went. After the amount of time I thought was right, I inserted the thermometer into the meaty part of the thigh to be sure it was completely done, and it read 190, which was actually about 30 degrees higher than I wanted, so I took her out and let her rest while we finished up.

Beautiful right?  I thought she was PERFECT!  But when I started carving (that's why she's on a towel btw), the breast was fine, but the legs and thighs were NOT.  I still have no idea why.  I guess I need a new thermometer, because it really did read 190 at the thigh, and it was not touching the bone.  So, I had to put her back in the oven and we had to wait a little while longer for her to cook.  But it turned out okay.

We sat at the table and ate, and just enjoyed the rest of the day doing nothing but sitting around.  Then, my Mama stayed home with Lena while she napped, and me, Jason, Jessi, and Eli went to the movies to see Tangled.  It was really cute.  We ended up sitting with my aunt and cousins and their kids (the ones we saw Wednesday night) who happened to be there too!

When we got home, Jacque, the lady who half raised me and was my godmother, was there!  I was so glad to see her on Thanksgiving!  I usually don't get to see her because she always has big plans with her family.  We talked about black Friday sales and I thought about joining her at 4am this morning.  HA!  I am SO not a fan of early morning black Friday shopping.  I usually make sure we have everything we need before Thanksgiving so I don't have to leave the house that day for ANYTHING.  But she brought some sale papers over and I looked through them and saw a few things that were on the kids' Christmas lists, so I told her I would call her if I decided to go.  Well, 4am came, and there was NO WAY I was getting out of the bed for shopping.  I did get up around 8am and decided to get ready and go see if there was anything left.

It really wasn't bad at all!  I found several of the things I went for, which were the main things on our list for the kids, got great deals on them, and not once did anyone try to fight me!  Traffic was no biggie either because I just went a different route.  Did I mention I did NOT have to get up at 4am and still got the deals I wanted?

Now, it's time to start getting things ready for Christmas!  I absolutely LOVE this time of year!

Oh yeah, and tomorrow is Saturday!  Which means I get to have my hubby home for 2 more days!  I'm so excited!  I don't even know what to think!   I am SO THANKFUL!

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First Time for Everything!

Ok, so we're having Thanksgiving at my home, which I am VERY excited about! I absolutely LOVE being the hostess of any event! I can't really explain why, but it just makes me happy. Mama is coming over in the morning to cook with me and Jason. I'm SO ready! My Granny always made such a big deal about Thanksgiving. We were always in the kitchen with her from early in the morning until about noon when everything finally came together and was ready to serve. I will never have a single Thanksgiving that I do not think of her. She's why I love this holiday SO MUCH!

So I'm preparing for all the cooking that's taking place in my kitchen tomorrow, and that starts tonight with brining my turkey. I was so excited to see that our new Publix carries fresh turkeys! Yay! I've been waiting for this moment ALL DAY! So I open up this guy and prepare to take out the innards in the cute little baggie they always come in, and LO, NO BAGGIE. Gross. WHAT am I supposed to do??? I certainly am NOT sticking my hand in there. Oh. My. Goodness. This fresh turkey has fresh innards. EWWWWWWWW!

I know that maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but EWWWWWWW! Gag reflex is definitely kicking in. I call for Jason to come hand me a spoon so I at least can scoop out whatever is left in there after I pulled out something unrecognizable and gross. I hate this kind of stuff. The excitement over the fresh turkey and the brining is GONE. But I did it. I got them all out. I think. I HOPE. Now, for the brining! Maybe I'll be over the trauma by the morning.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

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To All My Following Friends:

Ok, so here's the deal-e-o. I had a major crash with my blog last week and so, at a complete loss for how to fix it all, I just created another blog, kendalljo. I eventually figured it all out (with some help), but I ended up with 2 blogs and just couldn't decide which one I liked. I changed the url for The Proper Pinky to theproperpinky.blogspot instead of kendalljo.blogspot, but then that was confusing and I lost several subscribers. I actually like kendalljo better, so I changed the url back and deleted the new blog.

The bottom line is, everything is exactly the same as it was before, except I changed The Proper Pinky name to kendalljo. So I hope this actually puts things back to normal. Sorry for the confusion everyone! Thanks for sticking with me:)

ps. I have my blog backed up this time...

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Mama is Always Right

I am so thankful for my Mama. She always knows exactly how to jack me up and tell me how to feel when I'm flippin' out and having a stupid pity party. She has this wonderful "snap-me-out-of-it" gift, and it works every time. I was feeling so sorry for myself today thinking that nobody understood me and that nobody even cared about how I was feeling, and blah. blah. blah. Ridiculous, I know. I have so many wonderful friends that really do love me and show it ALL THE TIME, and here I am, being stupid. Letting little things hurt my feelings. Here's the problem with that...

IT'S NOT ABOUT ME.

It really doesn't matter how people feel about me, what they do for me, how they love me, or even IF they love me. THAT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. What matters is that I love them unconditionally, NO MATTER WHAT. The enemy is so stinkin' crafty when it comes to this area of my life. He knows that he can't shake me in most any other area, but when it comes to relationships, he knows just what buttons to push. It's a battle for me, but I assure you it's a battle that I WIN. I refuse to let him rob me of being a blessing to the people I love the most just because he plants little emotional thoughts in my head when I'm stressed out and the most vulnerable.

I've made a lot of mistakes where this goes and I have given in to these emotions, but I always have to keep moving forward and trusting in Him. He loves me and that is more than enough for me. It is so unfair to put that load on anyone because even the VERY BEST of friends can't carry all of that. Only Jesus can.

I am so thankful for my Mama. She always helps me put things in perspective. I pray that I will always be that kind of Mama for my babies.

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I Can Handle This

This has been probably THE MOST STRESSFUL WEEK AND WEEKEND OF MY LIFE.  We have been going through a lot of changes in pretty much every nook and cranny of our life.  I know that God is moving us into greater things.  I can feel it.  I feel it in the pit of my stomach, and I feel it in my spirit.  God is BIG and He has BIG PLANS for us!

With big plans comes big change.  We are definitely being stretched to say the least.  The amazing thing is, I feel ZERO dread about ANYTHING that we have to do right now.  I won't frighten you with my "To do" list (believe me...it would definitely frighten you), I'll just say we are very busy, but I believe that God gives us the grace and ability to do ALL that He has called us to do right now.  And I believe that we are in exactly the right place at the right time doing exactly the RIGHT things.  I have an undeniable peace about all of that.

But even with all of this new stretching going on, it all just fades into the background because my heart can only think about one thing right now.  One of my youth girls.  Things are very difficult for her right now, and I know she has had a tough day today.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about her all day and all night.  This sweet girl is under so much stress, and I just want her to be ok.  Praying for her...

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Little Things

I am working on making this blog pleasing to the eyes, and I think it's coming along.  I still have a lot of tweaks to make, but I think it will get there eventually.  It would be awesome if I had all the time in the world to just sit here and play with my blog, but not in this house.  I just have to settle for a few minutes (or seconds)  here and there.  So if things look a little blurry, I KNOW, I just haven't had time to fix it.  I am usually working on my blog during the day, whenever I can manage to get past my home page without having to stop again (so thankful for my laptop!), or the wee hours of the night when everyone is in bed.  Honestly, I don't even know how any of my blog posts make any sense.  You have NO IDEA how many times I get interrupted.  I mean, it seriously took me forever just to write this, and I'm not even sure what it says because I literally haven't been able to read through it JUST ONCE without interruption, so I'm just going to post it and hope for the best!  Maybe I'll get to read it tonight after everyone is in the bed.  But you know, I just can't get upset about these little things, because they are just not that important when it compares to being able to be with my interrupting beautiful children all the time.  I really do love the life God has blessed me with!

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