Street Dancers Perform?

My husband and I decided to spend a quiet day at the beach on Sunday after church. We walked down Main Street, ate lunch and then headed to the pier and sat down on a bench overlooking the ocean. We were spending some much needed alone time, watching the surfers, talking and just hanging out. A team of street dancers walked up and told everyone who was sitting around to please hang out because they would be performing shortly.

We both love watching any type of dance...but especially street dancing (it takes us back to the 80's, you know OLD SCHOOL). They began their preparation to perform. They stretched, did hand stands to strengthen their arms, several hard balancing moves, more stretches and then put on protective padding. This continued for about 30 minutes. We could tell that they were very talented as one of them ran up the side of a pole and did a back flip off of it.


The crowd was becoming restless with anticipation. Finally they were ready to perform. A lifeguard pulled up at the exact moment they were going to start and asked them for their permit to perform. They didn't have one...they scrambled around nervously for a while, but...it was over. We all walked away feeling let down. Sitting their waiting through all of their preparation for NOTHING!

Do you think God sometimes feels the same way? He begins to shape and mold us, using the hard times in our life to help us grow. Years and years of preparation. Getting us ready for all the blessings He intends for us. He waits patiently, day by day, trial by trial, as we slowly began to take shape. Finally when we're almost there...we become discouraged and quit. We feel that we don't have a permit to perform the way that God wants us to. We don't feel qualified. We are fearful and forget that he has been stretching us through hard times, strengthening us through his word and supplying us with protective padding through prayer and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Don't stop before you achieve your ultimate purpose! He is waiting with loving anticipation...for us to be stretched enough to be able to display our GIFTS to the world.

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." Psalm 143:8, 10

Elijah's Surgery...Oh Mickey You're So Fine!

It was dark out as the alarm buzzed in my ear, my first thought was...my phone's buzzing I need to see where it is before it stops! Then I realized that Anthony had set his phone alarm for me since I lost my phone and ALL my numbers on Sunday. Who gets up at 5:00a.m.? I jumped out of bed, surgery day...I practically dragged Elijah off the bed by his arms, he is the worst kid to wake up! Ponytail, sweats, throw on a little makeup and then out the door.

What are all these people doing out and about at this time of the morning...traffic at 5:45am? Arriving at the surgery center, wow, only five minutes late...a new record for me! We get inside, of course we are the first one's there (1st surgery scheduled), she squeezed us in and I'm sure no one else would ever request a 7:30 surgery on purpose.

I look for the most comfortable fluffy couch and sit down preparing for a long wait. We get taken back rather quickly, I look over at Elijah, "Are you nervous?" "No, I've watched those surgery shows on t.v." The nurses are very nice and thorough. They go through everything in detail and even tell him that several people will be asking him the same questions over and over again to verify everything.

Dr. Bayati comes in to mark his foot. She looks more like a fashion model than a Dr. She is young, shoulder length brown hair, pulled back away from her face with a leopard print headband. She is wearing a stylish black button down cardigan, black top and super cute dark True Religion jeans with tall pointy boots. I had to take a second look because I swear she looked like she just stepped off of a Vogue magazine add. I think Elijah thought her name was Dr. Hottie! Don't worry, she did change into her scrubs and no they weren't designer (I checked...hahaha). The anesthesiologist came in and got him all hooked up, I requested an extra dose of anti-nausea medicine (don't want him losing it in my car...mama would be throwing up right along with him from the smell).

I headed back out front to wait...yay no one had taken my comfy couch! There were quite a few older ladies waiting and an older husband and wife. Just as I sit down, they call the husband back for his procedure, he jumps up and heads towards the open door. His wife yells out, "HEY, wait a minute, aren't you forgetting something?" We all turned to look and see what he had left. She sat upright at the edge of her seat, hands on her hips, staring at him. He quickly turned around and shuffled over to her, leaned down, smiled and gave her a big kiss, then heads back. We all start laughing, she grinned and with a New York accent said, "Oh that's nothin, he forgot to kiss me on our weddin day! He just started headin down the aisle to get congratulated for gettin married! I had to yell out, GET BACK HERE AND KISS ME!"

I don't know if you're supposed to be quiet, in a surgery center, but we all burst out in loud, boisterous laughter. We could just picture her yelling at her poor nervous new husband. I told her, "At least he's consistent!" The lady behind the glass looked sternly at us. I'm sure she thought, "What is the matter with this rowdy group?"

I was so entertained that I lost track of time and before I knew it, Dr. Hottie came out to tell me it went well and he should be ready shortly. I knew they would have trouble waking him up...it was about another 45 minutes. They wheeled him out to the car, helped him inside and seat belted him in. He kept saying, "Hey, where are we...Hey, my foots numb...Hey those nurses were super nice...Hey I'm hungry. I stopped and got him some french toast sticks (thinking the bread would be okay on his stomach). We finally pull into the driveway, I quickly gather up all his things and my paperwork, get out of the car and rush around to help him out. As I open the door, he is loudly singing, "Hey Mickey you're so fine you're so fine you blow my mind, HEY MICKEY...HEY MICKEY!" I was laughing so hard! How does he even know that old school song?

So the theme of today is...Hey Mickey by Toni Basil...now sing the first verse and you'll have it stuck in your head all day!