A View from the Crosswalk--blessings!

The day of crosswalk blessings started this morning when as a sweet little kinder girl was crossing with her mom she handed me a flyer advertising an event at her church.  My smile was huge!  Then when her mother came back a little later she told me that Taylor had told her that I was one of the top two people she first thought to invite.  What a little sweetie.  The event was Team Impact, those body builders that preach.......nah!  But I sure loved how her sweet little heart works.  

There is this fourth grade little boy named Hayden that walks across the street and I get the feeling he's forced to be older than he is.  He's always very respectful, friendly, and really lovingly takes care of his litte pre-k sister that sometimes walks with him.  This morning as he walked up he had his head down and said he didn't feel good at all.  Man, I just wanted to give him a big ol' hug and try to make him feel better right then and there.  But this afternoon when he came toward me he looked like a different little boy.  It did my heart good to see him back to his happy normal self.  

Carissa came across the street happily complaining (is that possible because that's what it felt like) about how she had to empty and clean out her lunch box that day because her banana got squashed in it by mistake........oh, the trials of elementary school, right!  You gotta love these guys! 

The last blessing was so subtle that I almost missed it.  I'm sure I hear it every day but for some reason it stuck out today.  It was the laughter and squeals of little children as they're being freed from the confines of schoolwork, structure, and teachers.   I love my job!  

A View from the Crosswalk--hazards!

Don't get ahead of me now.  I know that you're probably thinking that the hazards of working at a crosswalk probably involve the cars, right?  Well, while I did have a close call once with a charter bus, mostly the traffic isn't what I worry too much about.  The drivers quell at the sight of my big red stop sign, after all!  (I love power!)

Nope, it's the unexpected little things that tend to be dangerous.  Well, dangerous is probably a little dramatic but, hey, it's all relative.  Take my stop sign for instance.  The other day I was just standing there waiting, and started swinging the thing because......well, because I have a hard time being still.  There!  I said it!  Bob's always known it and now I'm admitting it too!  Anyway, there I was just swinging that stop sign to beat the band and WHAM!! the thing hit me in the knee!  Ouch!!  I limped around for a full day and I'll bet the drivers passing by tried to stop laughing for a full day!  

Another hazard at the crosswalk happens to be a harmless and unobtrusive little storm drain that I park beside.  Over the years I've learned how to handle the thing but there have been episodes.  Like dropping my stop sign in it.  Later that day Bob had to go retrieve it.  I've also dropped a flip flop down there.  It was about halfway through the afternoon session so I ended up completing that work day, walking around in the middle of the street, with one shoe off and one on.  Needless to say Bob let that one go.  Man, where's his sense of adventure??

Once when I pulled up early one morning I heard the faint but definite cry of a kitten.  Sure enough, there it was, stuck down in the storm drain.  It just so happened that that year one of the parents that drop off a child on my corner worked for the city or somebody and had a ladder on his truck.  He was kind and took the time to take the lid off and climb down into the drain to save the little kitty.  Who says firemen are the only kitten saving heroes?

So despite the fact that I risk my life every day to heroically guide these defenseless little school children across the street I will continue to do it in my humble and unassuming way, taking on the hazards of the crosswalk!      

My friend Shari and the trip to Branson!

It all started about 21 years ago when Shari and her beautiful family moved in next door to us.  What a blessing they were to our family!  Our kids played together all the time and Shari and I had a walking date just about every evening after supper.  I didn't realize how blessed I was until they moved to Iowa in 1995, right before school started. 

But, thankfully, that wasn't the end of our friendship.  We made a plan to write to each other and sure enough, we did.  We have exchanged at least one letter every week since 1995, 17 years ago.  We've visited each other a few times during those years but the letter exchange has been the focal blessing to us.  We have raised our kids together, talked (written) through family and social issues, given and taken wisdom and encouragement, and just generally loved each other through the roller coaster of life. 

So I was really happy when Shari's oldest daughter, Rachel (see The Greene Family blog to the right), contacted me and said she wanted to plan a surprise birthday trip for her mom with me and another old friend from early marriage days.  After much planning, scheming, and (let's just call it what it is) lying, the three of us made it to Branson, MO last weekend and celebrated Shari's 50th. 

It was already so much fun just to meet up with Shari and share her birthday but I had the added bonus of being able to meet her friend, Jocelyn Strobbe, and we hit it off like we'd been friends for a long time.  We spent three days talking, eating, seeing the sights, and laughing.....lots and lots of laughing! 

 So happy 50th birthday to you, my dear friend, Shari! Your next letter will be in the mail soon!

me                Shari               Jocelyn

Pilot, Airman, and now speaker!

If you don't want to read a blog that's dripping with pride then you should just stop now because this one is sopping wet!

This past weekend Bobby was presented with one of three presidential scholarships given by Southeastern Oklahoma State University.  His represented the business department and he was then invited to speak at the dinner held for recipients, their families, and alumni.

Here's Bobby's speech: 

DIY

 Well, you can't have a blog without at least one DIY post so here's mine!  I bought these cute little bedside tables at an estate sale about six months ago and have finally gotten around to refurbishing them.  At one time they were actually part of a dresser and somebody sawed out the center piece and that's how they became bedside tables, at least for me. 

So here's the progression because I know that you are just so excited to read this!!  Oh, and don't ask me for help if you want to do this project because I probably won't recommend it.  At least not the way I did it.  I have this annoying habit of pretty much always doing things the hard way and that would be true in this case also.  I found out after the fact that there is actually something called a bonding primer you can put on top of anything, including stain.  That would have saved me the stripping and sanding process but then where would the fun be in that, right?? 

The table on the left is in it's original state.  The one on the right has been stripped but not sanded.

After sanding

Here they are modeling their primer and  paint.  All that's left is the glaze.  That was definitely the tricky step but after I got the hang of it it went pretty well.

And here's the finished product.  The other one is already in my room sitting comfortably beside my bed.  I'm planning on rearranging our bedroom so afterward maybe I'll show pictures of the finished look.  I'm always ready to show off my quilt anyway!  Thanks for joining me on my little redo journey!

A View From the Crosswalk--the shoe that lights up!

When Katie, a second grader, walked across the street this morning she was so excited to show me the new little bauble she'd recently hung on her backpack.  It was a tiny pink tennis shoe that lights up.  I could just feel her joy as she showed me and relished this simple little pleasure in her 7 yr. old world. 

I've been writing my memories down recently, so I think when Katie showed me her trinket, I was prompted to remember how fun it is to be a little girl.  The happiness and pleasure in the simple things like running for no reason, swinging as high as you can while singing every song you can think of, pretending to cook and keep house in a mansion that is actually a small area of dirt and bushes, relishing the honor of cleaning erasers for the teacher by whapping them on a tree outside, chasing and being chased by the boys, waking up in the car to the sound of a parent saying, "home again, home again, jiggity jog!", and just simply growing and learning how the world works so somewhere in the impossibly distant future you can be whatever you want to be!

I love having a job where on a daily basis I can be reminded that life is really just about simple pleasures and finding joy in a tiny little shoe that lights up!