It was 1980 somethin

I remember a while back, I decided that I would include in each post that I wrote, ways that I saw the Lord’s hand in my life. Well, we’ve all noticed that I haven’t quite kept up my end of that deal very well. So, before I start my next rampage, let me just say that I am so grateful that the Lord knows me personally; just like He knows everyone personally. He has a plan for me and more often than not, it looks nothing like my plan for me. Looking back at the last two years, I have come to know that the Lord’s plan is always better than mine. No matter how appealing the other road may look. It took me a long time to get passed the fact that I felt that I had to give up a lot of things that were important to me in order to move back home after I graduated, which is what I felt the Lord wanted me to do. Not to mention that I have also felt that I’ve had to give up some things since I’ve been home that I really wanted because I didn’t feel right about them. Some of you know that I tried just about everything to have things my way after graduation, even though I knew, months before, that I was fighting what I felt was right. It wasn’t until more recently that I looked back at those things that were so important to me then, and realized just how amazing being home has been. It doesn’t seem like such a sacrifice anymore. Sure, there have been a lot of hard times and a lot of rough spots, and I am nowhere near where I ever thought I would be at this point in my life. I have had to face certain things that I’ve never really had to deal with before and it has been a wonderful growing and learning experience. I am grateful that the Lord puts challenges, people and situations in my life that have helped me to become more like the person that my Heavenly Father wants me to be. My testimony in His gospel grows daily as does my faith in His timing. I have jumped over, what seem like, very high hurdles that I don’t know if I would have been able to clear, had I not come home when He prompted me to. Everything has a purpose and the Lord will never leave us alone without guidance and direction. Times are getting darker and the world needs that guidance more so now than ever. I am so grateful that the Lord has provided us with scripture and modern day prophets and apostles to help us go and do what He wishes for us to do and to give us hope when it seems like the world around us speaks nothing but sadness and despair.

Whew…I feel better :) Now, on to my post.

We have all heard the phrase, “April Showers bring May flowers,” right? Well, I think April got a little carried away. Not that I’m complaining at all. I absolutely LOVE the rain and sometimes it’s just fun to run outside and get drenched :) Due to the intense tornado season that we have had thus far, it has been raining quite a bit. Although, in all fairness to me, it may always be like this and my 5 years up in Utah made me forget how much it actually rains in Texas during the spring. Provo was a place where I wasn’t at all surprised should I wake up one morning in September and find that there is a new blanket of snow on the ground. Call me sarcastic when I say, “Awesome.” That was definitely not one of my favorite parts of Utah, although I have some mighty fun snow memories :) But, that’s totally irrelevant, so on to the next!

Let me set the stage for you:

Its lunchtime and I am heading out of the office to go lunching with Meredith and Mallory. I look out the window and what do I see? (popcorn popping on the apricot tree!...haha sorry, I couldn’t resist. Gotta love a good Primary song). It is DOWN POURING. Literally, it’s hard to see very far in front of me. And the wind is blowing like crazy, which helps. I was hungry so naturally, I didn’t want to put off lunching any further. So, I pull out my new umbrella that I bought a couple of months ago. (Side note to the story: I decided that it was about time to upgrade to a new umbrella after our first big rain storm because the one I have been using was probably purchased in the 80s or early 90s, judging by the pattern. Not to mention that I can remember my mom using it when she would walk with us to Elementary school. That sucker is old and I don’t quite know how I ended up with it, but needless to say, it has inspired conversation among a few people because it is THAT awesome looking :). Because of its age, I have often wondered if it would be there to get the job done when I needed it most, hence the investment in a new umbrella.) Anyway, I open my new purchase with anticipation and excitement of finally getting to see it in action, as I walk out to my car. Well, much to my dismay, a gust of wind blows and that sucker turned inside out and broke like…something that breaks pretty easily…like the class of the Lakers when they are losing real bad to the Mavs. *smiles* It didn’t even put up a good fight. I was little disappointed. I’m pretty sure the exact words that came out of my mouth were, “WHAAAAT?!” (said like the Minions on Despicable Me…great movie by the way) Needless to say, I was quite wet when I finally arrived at my car.

You may find yourself wondering why something as small and pointless as this would inspire a blog post. Well, for today’s blog post, I’m giving a shout out to things made in the 80s. That’s right: yellowed appliances, VHS tapes, ugly umbrellas and *thinks* HA! ME! I’m talkin' resilient, downright good workmanship stuff. They just don’t make things like they used to, as proven by my near drowning experience. What’s up with people trying to work the system and making things cheap? I want to know that the next time I buy an umbrella (which probably won’t be until my trusty ugly kicks the bucket), that it is going to last for another 30 years. This may be a little unreasonable, but the bar has been set, my friends. There’s no turning back. $10 bucks says that if I go over to my parent’s house right now and I plug in that nasty, old, yellow phone, it will still get the job done. If something is still being used and was once white, but now looks like egg yolk, that sucker was a dang good purchase. Really though, things are cheap these days and I don’t mean in price. Remember when gas was like $1.00 a gallon? Those were the days! Anyway, I really just want to say, thank you 80s for producing fantastically, durable things so I don’t have to keep buying new stuff. :) Granted, I only have a few VHS tapes left, but I think that’s mostly to do with the fact that my VHS player (which was purchased in 2005 by the way) is about dead. Shocker. I don’t know why I’m surprised though. The DVD portion of that bad boy pooped out a long time ago. On that note, can I just ignore anything that comes out after Blu-Ray? I don’t want to rebuild my collection again...

Anyway, that’s my shout out, my tribute, whatever you want to call it. 80s…I’m thankful for ya. Plus, I was born in the 80s, so you know it has to be good *teethy grin*. If you see me when I’m super old and probably look a little worn out and yellowed, just know that I stayed true to the expectation and hopefully, worked my butt off to get that way! Life wouldn’t be worth living without a little adventure and hardship and a LOT of hard work and fun. Live it up, man! And word of the wise: If you aren’t a Mavs fan yet; now would be a great time to convert. Just sayin’ :) Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours and go out and have an adventure today! XOXO