Took a Week Off from ME for a Happier Thanksgiving

My personality, left to its own demise, is a get-it-done-right-now personality or lead others to do it with a strong arm. I am a high “D” in most aspects of my life-and if any of you don’t know what that is, here is a quick excerpt from Indy Smallbiz.

General Characteristics – High D’s are direct, decisive and very self confident. 

Communicating with a High D – They don’t like a bunch of detail, so you must be brief, direct and to the point.

Positive Characteristics of High D – They are good leaders and are great in crises. They consistently set and achieve goals. They are task orientated and can provide direction and push a group toward decisions. They are also willing to speak out and give their opinion, and they always see the big picture.

Weaknesses – They come off as blunt, direct and brash. 

Blunt. I’ve been called that a time or two. Ouch.

Each time my parents have visited in the past, I’ve had to go through a decompression time with Biceps. I talk through all the ways I failed to show unconditional love to my family, failed as a self-professed Christian and have inadvertently hurt someone with my words.

I try to justify my harsh responses when someone pushed me too far.

However, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45

Meaning, when I spew out awful things, it’s because my heart has been focused on awful things.

Yikes. That stings a mite.

Why is it so easy for me to focus on the negatives, when I have SO many positives in my life. Here is my list of positives that will become a cheat sheet for me next year:

1. Amazing, Godly parents and in-laws who are still in love.
2. A wonderful older brother who married a beautiful woman whom he loves and is faithful to.
3. A giving second older brother who would kick anyone’s butt that ever messed with me.
4. A younger brother who chose an awesome woman to marry, who works hard and understands my weirdness.
5. A hot husband who puts God first, me second, our families third, the cats fourth and everything else after that.
6. My health and the ability to wake up every morning and move around on my own two feet.
7. A God who has forgiven me, my stupid mess of a life and who loves me more than I can imagine.
8. The list goes on and on. You get the idea.

What is your cheat sheet for next year?

Veterans Day in 3 Pictures

Yesterday, I enjoyed the Veteran’s Day Parade in downtown Tulsa. Several people I knew were participating in the parade and my friends and I enjoyed waving our flags from the sidelines, gathering our candy (for the kids…) and honoring our heroes.

However, one participant stood out more than all the others.

The parade route was an hour long. This man walked the entire thing.

As I watched him slowly walk by, the pride on his face was evident. Tears were in my eyes and I couldn’t help myself as they fell onto my cheeks. And then he looked straight at me.

“Thank you!”, I shouted to him. I don’t know if he could hear me over the rumble of motorcycles, the shriners in tiny Mustangs and the diesel trucks pulling floats.

Thank you-Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Bill, Uncle Ron, Jacob Smith, Sam Bieber, Andrew Vasey and everyone else that have sacrificed your bodies, time with your families and yourselves in order for me to have my freedom. And so that I can stand on the sidelines of a parade and root for you. Thank you.

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.