The Time I Stole From Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - A Confession

I tell my kids I love them every single day. I tell them I love them. I tell them there is nothing they could ever say or do to make me stop loving them. I tell each of them they are my favorite all the time. They know, without a doubt that I love them.

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but whatever. It's not like when they're older they will be lying down on a sofa complaining that their mom told them they loved them too much.

When my oldest daughter was still an only child I was watching some kind of Entertainment News show and they were featuring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. One of the twins said that during red carpet events they are usually holding hands. If one of them were to get scared or need some encouragement the other one would squeeze her sister's hand three times and it meant I Love You.

I thought it was really sweet so I totally stole the idea and adopted this practice. We squeeze each other's hands three times when we need a little encouragement or want to tell the other person they are loved; during a quiet moment, in the middle of a large noisy crowd.  The vibe of the triple squeeze even works as a "I'm totally with you on this" kinda feeling.

We've continued this little tradition and taught it to my younger kiddies who came along later. It really warms my heart when I see them squeeze each other's hands.

So to Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - Thank you. I am very happy I assumed your tradition and taught it to my children. I hope they continue the tradition and teach it to theirs.

Be Prepared

I don't remember if I wrote about this before so if I have, forgive me. You'll have to endure it again because it's on my mind right now.

When I was about 6 or so I was at Sunday School. It was my job this particular day to take the offerings from my Sunday School class and take it to the Sunday School office. Most kids threw a few quarters in the basket but this particular day one kid put $2 in the basket. On my way to the office, I stole the $2 and just turned in the change. When I was about 30 I had a crisis of conscience and  put $2 in an envelope and a little note apologizing for stealing so long ago. I didn't sign the note though. I never identified myself ........(until now, mwahahahaha! just kidding).

A few years later when I was about 10 I distinctly remember another life lesson. I don't remember if it was at church or school but seeing most of the time both took place at the same address, I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyhow, the story was about being prepared, handling a crisis and trusting God to bring you out of it. There was a woman who had the worst string of bad luck over the course of a few years, like Job x 10 bad. She lost her job. Her house burned down. Her dog was hit by a car. Her grandpa died. Her dad died. She was in a car crash. Then one day something truly awful happened and she was devastated. She had no idea how she was going to see her way out of such grief and how to figure out a way to rebuild her life. One morning it all became clear. God was preparing her. All the trials she had endured in her life, all the lessons she learned from getting through them prepared her to deal with the worst tragedy she'd ever faced. She at that moment felt a bit of peace. She knew that God was showing her how to deal with tragedy, how to work through adversity and how to be strong. God was telling her to trust Him. He would, once again, show her a way to endure her troubles.

This story has haunted me from the moment I heard it. Whenever anything tragic happens I'm constantly going through a list of all the unfortunate things that have happened in my life (not that there are a lot, but everyone has bad experiences, right?) and all the moments in my life I consider turning points and thinking two things; 1) Is this what God has been preparing me for? and 2) If this isn't what God was preparing me for, whatever's coming in the future will be worse than the tragedy or happening at hand.

Last week I hit a milestone. One day last week was exactly a year ago that my marriage ended. It was a shit day, I tell you. But there was a really great positive that came out of all of it; I made it. I made it through the year. I am not where I want to be yet, but compared to a year ago, life is so much better today. I finally got a job. I have truly amazing friends. I've gone on a few dates, including an extra few dates with the same person. Life is getting better.

So, is this what God was preparing me for? Or is there more in store for me? I was talking to a friend of mine the other night about this. Was God preparing me for this event or is God preparing me for a future event. My friend's answer was simple; BOTH.

Dang it.

Earthquake - a confession

A new person started in my office not too long ago. Today she and I got lunch together. She just moved here from a place that doesn't have earthquakes. They have hurricanes, but they don't have earthquakes. Hurricanes don't scare her, but earthquakes do.

She asked me if I'd ever felt an earthquake. Of course I have. I've lived in California all my life.

The biggest earthquake I've ever been in was 5.9 (or 6.1 depending on who you ask). I didn't feel it.

It was my 17th birthday, October 1, 1987.

I was in my bathroom. I was running late, of course.


It was my birthday so I made sure that I looked extra special in my blue eye shadow and jet black eye liner. I also had to make sure that I had enough mousse and gel to get the sides of my hair feathered and poofy at just the right height. I was drying my hair; hair dryer in one hand, giant can of aquanet in the other.

I heard the front door of the house open and my friend call my name. She was picking me up to drive me to school. A combination of her startling me and me running late caused me to drop my aquanet and hair dryer. I bent down to pick them up and CRASH! I hit my forehead on the doorknob to the bathroom. (Picture Sylvester the Cat with little Tweetie Pies flying in circles around his head after getting hit with a frying pan.)

I shook it off, grabbed my stuff and got into my friend's car. When we were about a block away from the school the earthquake hit. Maybe I felt it, I don't know. I certainly didn't recognize it as an earthquake. Maybe I thought we took a turn too quickly. Maybe I thought the steering in my friend's Celica wasn't working properly. Point is, I had no idea we had just experienced an earthquake.

A few minutes after I got to my first class the fire alarm sounded. We all marched out to the fields and hung out. I had no idea why. I asked someone. They told me it was because the fire department had to check the buildings. I asked why. I kept getting puzzling looks. I guess they all assumed I had felt the earthquake. Finally someone told me we had just had an earthquake, a big one. It all made sense.

About this time I noticed my head was a bit poundy feeling. I touched my head and it felt a little puffy. I grabbed my covergirl compact and looked at my forehead. I had a big welt on it; a big welt in the shape of a doorknob. I got a giant doorknob shaped goose egg on my forehead from when I hit my head on the door.

Confession - I was so embarassed about how I had gotten the bump on my forehead that for the rest of the day I told everyone I fell when the earthquake hit.