The grace of good friends …

About a month ago, I somehow lost all common sense. In the course of about 12 hours I completely screwed up in two gigantic ways, affecting three of my friends. In the midst of my rather large lapses in judgment, my friends Susan, Suzi and Josie, offered me such amazing grace that I am still in awe. My first moronic move happened at Sarah's spring school concert. At Sarah's school, parents are invited to come to the dress rehearsal. This is a wonderful opportunity because you can see exactly where your child is going to stand, so you will know where to sit at the concert. So of course I had it all planned out where we would sit. Off my family went (very early – remember I dealing with the same set of parents who started the registration line 9 hours before registration). I got great seats for my family.

While I was sitting there, I saw my friend Susan's mom sitting on the other side of the church. Little meddlin' me decides, "Oh I should go tell Susan's mom to come sit by us because our seats are better." You see Susan had missed the dress rehearsal so I thought her mom had just taken a random seat. So off I march (why! Why! Why Wendy!) I go and tell Susan's mom to move. She tells me "this is just where Susan told me to sit." (Of course I should have stopped here – but no) I tell her, "I think the other side is going to be much better." So off they all go – Susan's mom, dad and sister. Well low and behold, Susan had had another friend video tape the dress rehearsal and had picked out the perfect spot from which to see her son perform. No one in their family could see Alex at all from my suggested seats. I literally wanted to cry through the whole concert. It was awful. I felt SO bad. What in the world possessed me to march over there and get involved! Why, why why! If I could have found a big enough hole, I would have climbed right into it!

I spent much of the reception apologizing to Susan and her husband. Susan was amazing. There was never a flicker of frustration or anger with me. She just kept telling me it didn't matter. She was amazing. Here I made her miss her son's last preschool performance, and she had nothing but grace and love to offer me.

Nary twelve hours later, I was driving two of my co-workers, Suzi and Josie, to a work related training in Loveland, Colorado. A place I have never been before. But I assumed I sort of knew where it was, so I tucked the directions in my purse and off we drove.(Again – why! Why Wendy!) Josie had just moved here from Florida, so she didn't have a clue, and Suzy very wrongly assumed I knew what I was doing. After all, I did say I knew where I was going. So we drove and chatted, and chatted and drove and two hours later I asked Suzi to pull the directions out of my purse. When she read the directions it was like a 50 lb weight socking me in the stomach. I had driven us 170 miles in the WRONG direction! It was quickly obvious that we would not make the training. Both of them, who work A LOT of hours, had woken up at an ungodly hour on a Saturday for me to drive us on a 4 hour trip to nowhere.

I was ready for them to be frustrated. I was ready for a bit of whining. I wasn't ready for the laughter. They both just started laughing. They laughed on and off for the next two hours as I drove us back out of the mountains. Not mockingly, not in hysteria – just honest, good humored laughing. Amazing grace.

Ephesians 4:2 says, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Thank you ladies for bearing with me in love and patience.

1 John 4:12 says, "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." It is so true. Their love offered to me when it was much undeserved, exhibited the love of our Father which lives in all three of them. What great witnesses they are.

Although it held all the ingredients of a truly bad weekend, it reminded me that God has placed me amongst truly wonderful people. Thank you ladies!

It’s the stupid things that make me so happy …

I think the saying is supposed to be "it's the simple things," but today it was the stupid, silly and sweet things that made my day.

Here is my list:

1. The Grocery Game – I have been trying to have our monthly grocery bill be under $1000 a month for the last year. I actually want it to be about $500 a month, but when you buy organic meat, dairy, veggies, fruit and bread that just doesn't happen. So I had set a goal for myself to use The Grocery Game to try to save 50% off my bill. (If you are not familiar with The Grocery Game, it is a website where you log in and print out a list of the really good sales at your local store – it tell you which coupons to use and how much to buy to get the best deal.) At the bottom of your receipt at King Soopers it tells you the percentage you have saved that day. I have been hovering around 40% for about a month. It would be safe to say that I am obsessed with this little game. I feel the need to tell everyone how much I saved that week. Pete and my mom are getting rather weary of the "guess how much I saved today" game. Well today I finally did it! Right on the dot. I spent $107 and saved $106. Yippee. I am still excited 5 hours later. Of course I had to call to call my friends and my mom and ask "guess how much I saved today!"
   

   
   

2. John and Kate Plus Eight on TLC. Have you seen this show? It follows a couple (John and Kate) and their two six-year-olds and six two-year-olds. I am a reality tv sucker to begin with, but this show tops my list. After a day with my two very nice little girls who completely exhaust me, I love to watch this crazy family with all of their kids. It is complete mayhem, kids are everywhere, two or three of them are always screaming, the mom is a total control freak who is always mean to her husband, basically - it makes me feel much better about myself! J Sarah watched it one day with me and said "wow that mommy has way too many of those little babies." It's a great waste of thirty minutes of my life.
   

   
   

3. Little girl pedicures – tonight after their bath, the girls asked me to paint their toenails. We pulled out all the nail polish and carefully made our selections – although it always ends up being the same ones – glittery purple for Sarah, very bright pink for Emily, dark pink for me. I painted all of our nails on the bathroom floor. I love seeing all 30 of our painted toenails wiggling together as we wait for them to dry. Sarah makes up songs while we wait. Tonight's song went something like this. "I gotta blow, blow, blow on my toes, I gotta blow, blow, blow, blow, blow on my toes and get all the wet part oooouuuuuuttt! It was a sweet ending to a happy day.
   

So now I have shared the stupid, silly and sweet things that made my day. What makes your day end with a smile?