Pizza Hut Patience

So first I am going to tell you a story, and then I will tell you what I learned from it.

So Derrick left last night for another trip to New Mexico to film for Ranch Hand Horizons. He is coming back on the 6th and I am leaving with my family on vacation on the 5th. So basically, we won't see each other for 2 whole weeks!! Definitely a record for our marriage. His birthday is on the 6th, so we decided to sorta kinda celebrate it the night before he left. Our special treat celebration meal is sometimes Pizza Hut and since we don't live in a big town with too many choices, Pizza Hut it was. I rented a movie online at Redbox and then ordered a pizza online from Pizza Hut. The computer told me estimated pick up time was 6:46. So....I waited a few minutes and then started my journey to the town 10-15 minutes away to pick up the movie and pizza. By the time I got to Pizza Hut, it was about 6:53...already a few minutes late. I got right up to the counter and paid, but my pizza "wasn't quite ready, it'll be about 3-4 more minutes." Ok, no problem...I'll get it fresh out of the oven...cool. Well after I paid, the place turned into a zoo and apparently the poor guy working the register was new because he couldn't figure anything out. He didn't know where the ranch dip was, he couldn't find straws, he couldn't figure out how to charge two attitudey boys for their wing dip sauce, the pizzas he was reading out weren't actually in the order that people had come in the door, etc etc. Poor place...they were a mess. I waited (about 15 minutes) and they finally called my name, I grabbed the pizza, and headed out the door - only to get in my car and check the pizza just in case. Sure enough, it wasn't even close to right. It was thin crust with half mushroom and half beef. We had ordered thick crust with pepperoni, mushroom, beef, and canadian bacon (don't judge! :) My initial thought was that I probably had someone else's pizza so I didn't want to drive off with it. I reentered the zoo and told them I had the wrong pizza. The poor little guy working the register said "oh no, i'm so sorry...I, personally, will take care of it right away. I will make it and it'll only be about 5 more minutes! We have 2 new cooks and they must have made it wrong." (TOTALLY wrong). On any other day, I probably would have taken the pizza gratefully and left, but it was Derrick's birthday pizza and I didn't want to settle for something he just kind of liked, so I agreed. The "5 more minutes" turned into about 20-25 more minutes as I sat there. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that my phone battery had died on my drive over there so I had no iPhone to entertain me. So I watched two misbehaving boys disobediently begging their nonchalant dad for money so they could shoot something on the video arcade. Anyways, the poor fella (Pizza Hut guy) offered me a drink while I waited which I gratefully accepted. I then brought the drink liter we had bought back in and put it in the cooler so I could grab a cold one later when I left. After I was IN Pizza Hut for about 45 minutes, I finally got the correct pizza....and he offered for me to take the incorrect one as well as an apology. I got home at 7:40 to a husband who said "I was waiting til 7:42 and if you weren't home, I was coming to find you!" (since my phone had died and he couldn't get in touch with me and I had been gone FAR longer than I should have been).

So.....what was I thinking through all of this you ask...
First of all, I have recently started a Bible study with a group of ladies entitled "A Woman's Heart - God's Dwelling Place" by Beth Moore. This past Monday, we focused on the children of Israel as they left the slavery situation of Egypt and headed towards God's promised land. While they were in the wilderness between the two places, they turned into expert complainers! God was providing all of their needs, yet they lost all faith, and chose to be whiny babies and blame all of their uncomfortable circumstances on God and on Moses. The Bible is very clear that God HATED their grumblings. He actually got pretty ticked off about it as He had chosen to love them and protect them along the way. One of the ladies in the study leaned over to me during the discussion time and said "you know, I never really thought about it before....but I guess complaining really is a sin." And that, my friends, is where this blog is going.

I had 2 ways to react on crazy Pizza Hut night. The easy one of course was to be disgusted and let the whole world know how disgusted I was. I feel like that's the fairly natural reaction as your body is agitated, your patience is tried, your mind is calling the employees inefficient idiots, and you can think of 38,792 other things you'd rather be doing at that moment.
The 2nd way to react is to see the employees as mutual human beings who are trying their best, but aren't capable of making pizzas bake in 2.5 minutes. They have to make money to survive in this world, they are working at Pizza Hut to provide for their families, and they don't need a ticked off lady making their jobs more stressful or less fun than it already is.

So, I'll leave you to consider the way you react to inconvenient situations next time you are faced with one. I mean, its not like you will think about reading this blog the next time you get impatient, right? There is NO way you would think of this blog....think of this blog...think of this blog...... :)

Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

James 1:19-20
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

The Forgotten Garden

A little update on my posting a couple weeks ago about my new book, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton....oh my goodness!! Such a good book! If you're looking for a well written, complicatedly interconnected, not sure what's going to happen next, but still clean and edifying kind of book....this is a must read. Its a little slow getting started so hang in there if you choose to read it, but at some point, it takes off and I didn't want to put it down! Great story set in the early 1900s, the 1970s, and the 2000s in England and Australia (it skips back and forth between the generations to slowly reveal clues to the story to reveal the mysteries along the way). Story about love and imagination and scandal and sacrifice mixed in with some fairy tales and great old English mysteries. Great read!

The Choice is Yours...

So I have been really inspired by some people in my life lately and I'm not sure where I'm going with this except that I have a challenge to make to anyone reading this. I have some friends who are going through heartbreaking situations, but have turned them into inspiring stories of hope and love. We have some friends who after 3 years of fertility treatments finally gave up on having children and chose to start up the adoption process. 3 years....what frustration and heartache. From the outside looking in, its easy to minimize the pain, but I imagine that if you're the one trying to have a child and your body rejects the possibility time after time, that there is pain and defeat and rejection and frustration and contention between husband and wife and so much more. Well our friends chose to adopt and just recently, their prayers have been answered and they are the proudest newest parents of an infant son who made his journey home from the hospital with them as the newest member of their family.
Then, I have a friend whose dream has always been to be a mommy. Even when I knew her in college, I knew that about her. That was her destiny. They found out they were indeed going to be parents and joy abounded. Several weeks into their pregnancy, they found out that they were both carriers of cystic fibrosis and that their baby girl would have a 1 in 4 chance of having it...and sure enough, she does. After wrestling with this revelation and focusing on all the things that could go wrong, my friend came to the realization of all that can still go RIGHT and how special of a gift that they are receiving. They are already head over heels into supporting the cystic fibrosis cure cause and their whole families have jumped on board to ensure the best possible care and most possible knowledge for the soon to be born baby girl.

I think we all imagine and desire perfection. We want things to go the way we've always planned. I am totally guilty as charged as I have a lot of hopes and dreams and when some of them don't happen as planned, discontentment sets in. I don't understand why the Lord does what he does sometimes and why Satan is allowed to do what he does sometimes, but I do love it when the Lord strengthens us to adapt to unplanned circumstances, when he plants seeds of hope and love and faith and grace into our hearts and our lives so we can climb above and beyond the despair and disappointment that sometimes life brings. I know that what we see on the surface isn't always the reality in one's heart and things aren't as hunky dory as they can seem in their most recent blog posting, but I do see people who are faced with trials who react bitterly and spew their anger and hurt on everyone around them, and I see people who CHOOSE to see God's glory and gifts amongst the pain and react with love and kindness and choose to be "life makers" instead of "life dragger downers."

I rarely get angry...I'm thankful that from day to day I don't have people attacking me or hating me or creating contention with me. However, today I had a situation where someone really hurt my feelings. Someone I know and should trust well decided to spew her opinion on me that was really personal and that she had absolutely nothing to do with. It was in regards to something that I pour my life into day in and day out and she has NOTHING to do with yet went on and on about how we had made a terrible decision and how much she hated it. It wasn't necessary...at all. Yet it affected me. I became really really angry inside. I just wanted to write an email telling her how what she did was so inappropriate and how people are terribly repelled by people like her when they waltz into situations and spew their negativity rather than pointing out complimentary things. She chose negativity. After handing it all over to the Lord, I chose positivity. Even though I was angry, I let the storm brewing inside of me to calm, asked the Lord for his grace to forgive, and CHOSE to relax. Its possible...it really is. And even though I still wish I could tell her how I feel because I have a sense of justice inside of me that says people need to have an honest slap in the face every once in a while, the storm has calmed. The anger has left, and now I just feel sorry for her.

You have the choice....the choice to go to God first and choose Joy, or to handle it yourself, let Satan have his way, and hurt others in the process while drowning in a miserable life that isn't going anywhere good. What will you choose next time an obstacle stands in your way and you have the power of affecting someone else's life for good or for bad?

"...and I will give you REST."

"My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." -Exodus 33:14


Our lives have been so crazy lately and it will continue to be so crazy after this weekend that I was ridiculously excited about doing absolutely nothing this weekend!...and getting wonderful, refreshing REST. My sweet husband was heading to the swamp this weekend with one of his best friends, Matthew, for "Gatorfest 2011" so I got be home....alone! Now normally, alone isn't good as its more fun to be around people and especially around my husband; however, it had been so long since I've had my OWN time with no obligations to get anything done that I was really excited about it.


So....I collected a few of my favorite things including a highly recommended book, 3 movies, my computer, popcorn, brownie mix (yes, just the mix :) ...never actually cooked them), and ditched my least favorite thing....my alarm clock!


I read 3 chapters last night and its just getting going so no opinion created yet, but the way the author is setting it up, The Forgotten Garden looks like its going to be a great book!

I encourage you....if its been awhile since you've had your own time...make it happen! Choose to trust your husband to take care of the kids, proactively say NO to a couple of things so you can keep a weekend clear, or just put on the calendar a getaway somewhere (even if its with your husband or best friend...just  a time to REST). 


OH, and its amazing how when you're relaxed, you can get stuff done that you've been needing to do for a while but just couldn't muster up the energy to do! I finished a website I've been working on for weeks this afternoon as well as some design stuff that I've been needing to do for a long time. Rest refreshes the heart, mind, AND will!

And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." -Mark 6:31a

I LOVE fun weekends! and boy was this one a good one! Thank you Labor Day for a much needed break from the daily grind of Monday - Friday. We stayed home Friday night to get stuff done but then headed out first thing Saturday morning for College Station. When I go to CS, its like country girl goes to the city! haha We went to Gander Mountain, Cavenders, Target, Old Navy, Ross, WalMart, Chicken Express, Aggieland Lighting Center, Inspirations, Aggieland Outfitters, HEB, and JCPenney!....all in a few hours!! At 6:15 we went to the Maders to pick them up for our special night out. We headed to Lake Bryan (their first time) and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner over the water watching the sunset. Its B's birthday this week so we had cake and presents and everything.

LOVE THAT GIRL!   

Sunsets...my favorite!

And my favorite boy with my favorite sunset :)

E&B!

Silly Goose! Happy Birthday!

Then we headed to Muldoons for some "let's stay up really late" coffee!

Watch out People!

and then back to their house to play games. Buzzerweiser was the game of choice and boy did we have fun! 3:30 in the morning fun :) (thank you B for being a twin mom who can stay up til 4 and still function the next day!...and thank you girls for sleeping til at least 8:30 every day).

Yes, Rapunzel from Tangled played too :)

Around noon we had to say goodbye to the Maders and left to head to Kyle Field for some tailgating fun!

Cute girl kisses for Derrick! :) Lucky Man!

Can I just say that I LOVE this picture! Thanks B!

This week, Derrick's mom turns 50 so we wanted to have a big to do for her birthday, but since Austin JUST moved down to College Station to start up his freshman year, we didn't want him to have to drive to Boyd the weekend of the first home football game...SO, we brought the parents down to College Station where they got to have their first tailgate :) We had birthday cake, hot dogs, drinks, ladder ball, washers, pop up tent, lawn chairs...the whole shebang. We had hours to relax and observe all of the game day hullabaloo...loads of fun!

Can you believe we had buffalo hot dogs?! haha

  

  

Then, to top off the tailgate came a GREAT Aggie football game where we took home the win 46-14! I LOVE college football :) and Kyle Field is always the place to be...such an incredible experience every time! 

Team lining up for the War Hymn!

Fightin' Texas Aggie Band!

Aggie WIN! 46-14!

What wonderful memories with wonderful people!! Gig'Em!