My Collection

I have many collections from 100+ Teddy Bears, to Music, to Red English Phone boxes, I also like to collect thoughts and poems. So I thought today I would share some of my collection.

"Today I'll concentrate on the things I like most about myself and forget about what I don't like."

"Today I'll forget about what I want to become happier and will think about what I can do to help others become happier."

"Time is not measured by the years you live but by the deeds you do and the joy you give." Helen Steiner Rice.

"Memory is the power to gather roses in the winter."

"A Friend is a Present you give yourself." Robert Louise Stevenson

"Don't put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow." Mark Twain

"God's promises are Beautiful."

"Memories are treasures that time cannot destroy."

"Some People come into our lives and quickly go.
Some stay for a while and leave footprints in our hearts
and we are never ever the same."

"Today I'll be glad I'm different from the world and I'll realize that People will respect me if I live up to my beliefs."

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier.
Not that the nature of the thing has changed but...
That our ability to do has increased."

"In the Temple there are no hands of time...
only hands for Eternity." K J Williams 1995

This is only a small portion of the collection, I have a little book that I have used since I was a teenager to collect them in and it is the best thing I ever did as a teen, because now when I get discouraged or down all I have to do is grab this book and read it has always lifted me up.

I hope that I have lifted some one today by letting them see some of my collection, I will post more later from it as I feel the need.

If I Had a Million Dollars

I was just going through some prompts I gave to my Activity Day Girls with their journals and found this one.

If I had a Million dollars I think I would probably try to give it all away, I'm not sure that my life would be any better if I had the money. The saying "money is the root of all evil" is so true. But if I decided to keep it, here is what I would do with the money.

1st I would buy a bigger house- this little place is just too small for my growing girls, the new one would have at least 2 bathrooms and a bedroom for both of my wonderful girls.
2nd I would buy a new car for both my hubby and me and maybe even one for the girls to use when they learn to drive.
3rd I would put some into savings for the girl's education.
Then with what ever was left over I would travel the world, I have seen some of it but not enough of it.

This is what I would do if I ever had a Million dollars, I know that will never happen but I can dream right?

Things I have learned in the 2 months since I turn 39

-If you are on vacation enjoy it, once you get home all heck may break lose.
-If you have a lead foot you will get caught, and if you are a CDL holder it's hard to get out of but not impossible.
-When it rains it makes the road slick, watch out!
-Don't assume that the DMV and the State Police are able to communicate with each other.
-Don't take your car for granted, especially if you only have 1.
-If a child pukes on your bus one day and tells you the next day he is still sick, he will puke on your bus again.
-When the bank says you don't have any money believe them.
-Watch out for mad fathers that think you have lost their child.
-Car bought "as is" should be left where the are.
-When you think you have some money saved you don't, especially if you have children.
-Free education is not free.

I will continue to add to this over the remaining year, because I know the Sh*t has not finished hitting the fan.

If it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all.

OK the car broke down again this past weekend, so I asked my brother Ben (he's a mechanic) to take it home for the week and see if he could fix it. Well the good news is that it broke down on him on the way home. So he left it on the side of the interstate, all the way off the road and in the grass. This was on Monday night about 9pm. He went back out the next morning to pick it up and take it to his shop. Here's the bad news, the car was not there! Yes you read that right the car was gone! So he had to get to work and was wondering who to call to find out where it was. When he went to lunch just about 1/4 of a mile from work he was looking out the window and saw my car sitting in a lot behind the restaurant. He walked over and found out that it was going to cost $200 if he got it that day if not they would tack on $35 a day. They would not take a credit card so he had to go to the bank and get cash. After getting the car we find out that the tags where missing by now my stress level was so up that my blood pressure was up too. The next day we find out that the State Police towed it because they said that it was not registered correctly, but it was I have the reg paper in the glove box and tags on the car. They pulled my tags and destroyed them, so hubby and the Trooper go to the DMV and explain what had happen so we didn't have to pay for new tags, but we where still out the $200. So I called the Sargent over the Trooper and told him that we wanted our money back. He tried to tell me that it was my fault for not having it registered right, but I found out that the DMV had sent out a memo to the State Police telling them that there was an error in the computer and some registrations had not be updated correctly. He called me back and told be the the towing company would work with me on a refund. So I called them and they said yes they would give us $70, I told them that was unexceptable. Then I call the State Police back and told them that someone between them and the DVM owed me money and I was getting it some how. I finially got a call about 20 minutes later from the Sgt. and he told me that he was a the towing company and they where going to give me the full refund but it was going to be a check. I tried to fight that since my Brother paid them in cash I felt he should get cask back but no deal so we had to take the check. After that I realised that I forgot to ask them where my screws where. When the Trooper took the tags off he did not put the screws back in the car so me are 4 srews short. But my mom says I shouldn't ask the trooper for 4 screws because I might not like what I get.

So I am just 4 screws short but not $200, and Ben is putting the new tags on with 6 point screws so the average "Joe" can't take my tags, that means hopefully the Police can't either. Can my live get any worse?

Been there, Done That, and the State Police are at fault.

The Story

OK, I know some have been waiting to hear the story that I didn't want to tell. It is kinda of embarrassing but here goes. On the way home from vacation to the Outer Banks, NC. I had a "Traffic Collision", they are not called accidents, because accidents are something that you didn't mean to happen. I know!!! Like I got up that morning and said "I think I will run into the back of someone on my way home from vacation today!" So I will call it an accident. So we are on our way home, always a sad time, nobody wants to go home from vaction,and we really don't want to tell granddaddy (my Dad) bye, or the ocean, sand, sun, etc. We stayed around the beach about an hour that day getting a few things and had forgotten and enjoying the air one last time. we finally hit the road off the beach and had not problems it wasn't even all that busy. About 1pm we hit the biggest rain storm I have seen this year. We where in the Newport News area on I 64 West bond. the interstate is 4 lanes in that area and then its goes from 4 to 2 lanes. So you can emagine the traffic, stop go stop again go again, then anytime you have traffic like that there is oil build up on the road. So I was in the left lane, I had just merged for the second time. Traffic Opens up and the vechile in front of me moves ahead. I was about 1 car length behind and stsrt to go, then the car in front stopped suddenly and I also applied my brake but the car didn't stop untill it hit the vechile (#2) in front. I tried looking for a place to go but the right lane was blocked with cars, to the left was trees and a ditch. I tried to head for the ditch but hit the car in front before the ditch. No Airbags since I was not going very fast but enough damage that the car was undriveable.

My 1st thought after making sure everyone was ok was great now how do we get home. I was told that the vechile infront was pushed into another vechile so this one is #3. as I watched a man get out of #3 and walk back to #2 and then to my car (#1) I thought he looks familiar, but dismissed this idea from my mind because I was 3.5 hours from home at the time and didn't think I would know anyone. the police where called and as we are waiting we are trying to exchange info, when #3 hands me his I reconized the name and asked him if he was --- dad? He gave me this look like I was crazy then I told him that his son and my daughter where in the same kindergarten class and that I worked at the school. Well as we stood there talking he said that he was in a 7 seat van and it was only him and his 2 kids, and if we wanted he would be glad to make room for us and take us home since we live in the same town, what a miracle. So I told my family to only get what they really needed and we would worry about the rest of our stuff later. (thinking that I could have the car towed home and fixed). So no one was hurt in any of the vechiles and we made it home safely.

The next day I was glad we rode home with #3 because we found out that we didn't have renters on our insurance policy. Miracle number 2 happened then because our bishop had a car that we could borrow until we could get ours back or a new one. We also have the greatest neighbors in the world that loaned us their truck for a few days too. My mom took me back down on Tuesday to get the rest of our stuff out of the car and I took everything because looking at the car again that morning I thought they are going to total it. By Friday I had got the car that they where calling it a total loss and we started looking for something that weekend.

I was cited with Following too close and because I am a school bus driver and need my job I went to court over the ticket. Just let me say that the charges where dropped and I still have my job. Thank Heavenly Father for teaching me, I have had a rough year this past year and he has again taught me that I need to relie on him.

Been There, Done That and don't want to do it again.