Happy Birthday Grandpa Tom!

Happy Birthday To The Worlds Greatest Grandpa!

I can't tell you how much I love this man.

He has been more than a Grandfather to me.

He has been a true father.

I can honestly say he is a hero in my eyes.

When it rains.....it pours

This has been the hardest week of my life.

My oldest daughter Chante, stepped on a piece of glass at Christmas time. She had an in office procedure done to remove it, and he did get a piece that was an inch long. Well, to make a long story short, there must be a piece that broke off because she is having surgery tomorrow! She will be non weight bearing for 15 days! He stressed how important it will be to keep her off that foot, because I guess if she steps down on it, she will tear the stitches and it will take an additional 2 months to heal.

Last Saturday, Monica fell out of the back of a pick-up truck and injured her elbow. They don't think she broke anything but there "MIGHT" be damage to the growth plate so they treated it as if it was a break. She has a splint and wrap on it now and will go in TOMORROW for another set of x-rays and a re-wrap.

I have started my new job and worked a whole 2 days before I needed to request time off because of my children and their doctor appointments! Tax season is upon us and it is only going to get worse.

I am so thankful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father doesn't give us anything we can't handle! I am glad he has so much confidence in me because I sure don't. With me working now, the girls are going to be forced to work together and get along. I hope they see the blessings this will bring them.

My Grandma Lucille

As I am sitting here wondering what it is that I want to talk about tonight a thought hit me. I love the idea of journals but hate to write in them because all my journal entries are the same. I complain a lot, and I hate to go back days, weeks, months or even years later and read complaint after complaint. So I started to think, I need to be more like Nephi. He never complained, even after all he went through and all that his brothers did to him. Then I was reminded....my Grandma Lucille never complained either. She didn't always have the easiest life, who does right? Yet, I never heard her complain. When I was a young adult and thought I knew it all, she never said a word. She let me learn from the school of hard knocks, (I think mostly because she knew how stubborn I was and that I would just have done the opposite of whatever it was she wanted me to anyway) but when I needed her to pick me up and dust me off, she was always right there.

I was living with her and Grandpa just out of high school. Things were going well for me, I had just started working for Exxon Oil as a Secretary/Data Entry Clerk and was just beginning to pay off some debt that I occurred. Then an old friend got ahold of me and we began to hang out again. She wasn't the best influence in my life and Grandma and Grandpa both tried to warn me about it. They sat me down one night and tried to get me to see the big picture and get me to plan out what direction I wanted my life to go in. But, being young and stupid and full of worldly knowledge, I blew off the talk, after all I was having much too much fun cruising "the avenue" with my long lost friend in my super hot, super cool Chevy Camero!

It didn't take long before my friend convinced me that we should move into a place of our own. She had to very young children and couldn't afford to rent a place by herself. So we decided to split the living costs and rent our own place. I knew that Grandma and Grandpa were not going to be happy with my decision. Long story short, I moved out like a thief in the night, and my life changed forever. I often wonder if I would have been more mature back then and realized how lucky I was to have 2 grandparents that loved me and had so much knowledge that they wanted to share with me, how different would my life have turned out? But that is that, and this is this, and we are where we are today.

So, tonight as I am writing this and thinking about my Grandma, I am making it my 2009 New Years Resolution to not complain so much this year. I will look for the beauty in all things and in all people. I will look for the positive in the challenges that come my way. I will remember my Grandma Lucille and how she never complained.