One, Big Happy Family-the Power of Prayer

See this happy family? See that cool girl in red, wearing her big brother’s jacket because she was freezing to death but insisted on wearing that red dress no matter what? The girl with the immovable, poofy bangs protruding from her forehead? Yep, that’s me.

(Usually we were a much happier group. I think the cold froze our smiles off. Or it’s more likely we just sat through one of the most boring sermons at my Grandma’s church and were starving, tired and cold.)

Anywho-when I was about this age, while I sat in youth group one Wednesday night, sporting my sweet Guess jeans and a bright pink Guess T-shirt, my youth pastor told all of us to begin praying for our future spouses NOW.

And so, being the rule follower that I was, I did. I started off asking God for a hot guy. Then, I added to that a Godly guy. Before long, my list had grown to 42 things that I wanted in my man.

And ladies, this was what I was praying for all those years, unbeknownst to me. (If you ever had any doubt about the power of prayer-this is some smoking hot evidence that prayer really works.)

Here are a few things from the Spousal Prayer list of an 11 year old:

1. Brown hair, blue eyes and good-looking
2. Can skateboard (what?!)
3. Looks good at the beach
4. Likes to exercise
5. Hot body
6. Has ridden a bull
7. Encourages me to be me
8. Loves God, loves his family, loves my family and his family loves me
9. Wants kids
10. Likes cats
11. Is a musician, can play an instrument, likes to sing
12. Is a virgin
13. Raised in a Godly home

(It seems the “body portion” was very important to me at that age. Oh wait, it’s still important now.)

There were 42 things total and this man fulfilled my list-and then some. God is so good to a weird little girl and her 11 year-old dreams.

But, let’s take a look at #8 and #13 in particular.

At one point in my life, I dealt with a boyfriend whose family didn’t like me. It was awkward and awful. However, when I met Biceps’ family, they were easy to be around and instantly gave me a nickname-”peel-eater” (for eating the peels on my sweet potatoes-genius, I know).

The “mother-in-law syndrome”-that I thought was inevitable in a marriage-was nowhere to be found between us.

This beautiful woman (on the left) raised her children with God’s wisdom, honors her husband and honors the Lord with her life. Without her knowing it, she answered my prayers-particulary #8 and #13. And I love her for that-and for so much more.

Today is her birthday and I wish I could be there to celebrate with her. Instead, I will say a prayer of thanks that I married into such a wonderful family. And another prayer of thanks for the hot man God blessed me with.

Happy Birthday, Connie. You are an amazing woman of God. And by the way, great job at pro-creating. You made a good one-a real good one (see #1, 3, 4, 5).

Free “Bachelor” Bingo

Monday nights are “Family Nights” at the Greiman homestead. I make a pot of soup, broil up some bread and invite our relations over for an easy dinner and exciting conversation. But the main conversation as of right now is: “The Bachelor”.
I decided to make things a little more interesting by creating “Bachelor Bingo” cards. It makes for watching obviously scripted reality television even more fun.

The concept was simple and the family loved taking our nights to a whole new level. With a few highlighters and my printed bingo cards, the stage was set for a night hilarity.

Here’s how to make these for yourself, whether it’s The Bachelor you are watching, or any other ridiculous reality show you might enjoy.

First, I wrote out any sayings, scenes, ridiculous date ideas or anything else involving the Bachelor out on a little scratch pad.

Then I typed it up in a document. If you are running low on ideas, you are welcome to use my list (just please give credit where credit is due!).

I found this website, Print-Bingo.com that lets you print out randomized bingo cards for free.

Pay dirt.
(I am not getting paid to review this site, received no kickbacks, and no free stuff thrown my way. I wish they would, though. Geesh. What a bunch of tightwads….)

I clicked on the, “I’ve read enough. Let me generate bingo cards” button.

Next, I clicked on, “Custom bingo cards with your own word or phrase lists.”

Lastly, I clicked the option, “Create custom bingo cards.”

That got me to this page. I chose a “free” center square with “The Rose” as the square’s contents. I made a few more choices on this page before I copied and pasted my lists into the 5 columns offered.

I chose to keep my list private, and chose the output type as “Bingo Card”.

After clicking the “submit” button, and then on the next page clicking on, “Click here to get your first set of custom bingo cards”. This is what was generated, which I just printed off.

The list was completely random-which you can choose to do, or you can make column headers and make categories for each column.

I liked the randomness, as did the family. It kept them guessing throughout the entire show. I can’t wait to play again tonight!

Because I will crush them, just like I did last week. Prepare yourselves, family, for a beatdown.

I am missing “it”.

With change comes remembrance-at least for most, but usually not me. My memory is unpredictable-at best-and I have three theories about the why behind that:
#1-My mother dropped me on my head when I was an infant.
#2-My brothers convinced me to hold my breath until I passed out, doing permanent damage.
#3-I was born in an Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Need I say more?

With my faulty memory comes the need to reminisce via digital photos of bygone years. Today, as I scoured through old photos, I realized I was missing “it”.

And, here is what “it” is to me:
An excitement about life-a hopefulness for the future-a knowing that there is something amazing right around the corner.

This photo was taken shortly after selling one of our commercial properties, the Denver House.

Biceps and I were on our way to Europe for an entire month-just the two of us. I had my old manual camera-because, “By gawd, I wasn’t switching over to that new fangled digital type of photography”.

We had our backpacks, our passports, plenty of spending money and a plan.

Life was exciting. For the first time, we had more than enough in our bank accounts. Buying a car that wasn’t 15 years or more old was becoming a reality. We knew we could take on the world.

But before traipsing off to Europe, we chose to spend two weeks with both sets of our parents. We toodled around, checking out leaves, eating amazing food and just being a family.

It seemed like life was more exciting then-for all of us. But honestly, the only thing that has changed since then was my perception of life.

I was more excited about life at that time.

We still had issues. We lived in a part of town we desperately wanted to leave. We weren’t certain of Biceps’ band making it. My parent’s were seeing the end to their teaching careers and didn’t know what was next. The list goes on.

So, what I am going to do today is capture who this girl was and…

…transport her into this girl-who could stand to laugh more, to lean on God more and to realize life is what it’s going to be. And, I’d better get on board with joy.

I don’t want to miss “it” as I’m looking forward to the next “it”. Have you ever felt the same way-as if your excitement about life was missing? I’d love to hear about what you are doing to get it back.
Let’s inspire one another.

To dream a little dream-Pennsylvania

Biceps and I have a dream that has been formulating over the past year. We lease a coach (like the one we typically tour in) that houses 12 people, complete with toilet, shower and sinks.

Since both of us have our CDL and are used to driving 45′ Prevost’s, we would take our families throughout the east coast for a fall leaf tour.
We would pay for everything-their airfare to get to us, the food each time we eat out, any horrible souvenirs they must have-everything. And we would drive wherever we wanted to go.

 

It would look a little something like this.

 

Except with a few of these weirdos on board…

 

…along with several more from this side.

 

We would be sipping coffee as we pass by this type of landscape, talking of what we will eat for lunch…

 

…which of course would naturally progress into what we are having for dinner.

 

My dad would talk about the, “Beauty of God’s creation”-one of his favorite things to say.
And Bicep’s dad would be curious about “how fast can a bus go?”.

 

No matter what, we’d be together, drinking coffee and making memories. At least, that’s how it happens in my dream-world. What’s your dream?