The trip (part 1)

The following is from the travelogue I kept over the last week. Since it's a bit long, I'll post it in pieces. So, here goes. . .

Part 1
I’m sitting in BWI (Baltimore airport) waiting on my friend’s flight to arrive. And it’s been quite an adventure already! We’re headed for Silver Spring, MD to attend a women’s conference hosted by Iyanla Vanzant and I’ve got to admit I’m a little nervous about the whole thing.

You see, I’m not a good traveler. Nope, not at all. The fact that I’m willing to travel to the San Antonio Siesta Fiesta speaks volumes to my desire to fellowship with y’all.

My day started off late—a traffic jam in St. Louis. It was raining. I managed to make it to the airport only ½ hour later than I planned. Whew, I thought!! I checked my bag curbside with a wonderfully helpful American Airlines employee. And I thought I was set.

I headed to the security check point and realized I didn’t have my driver’s license which I had used curbside to check in. And of course, I panicked. I went through my purse, my computer case, my pockets. No driver’s license. I retraced my steps and went back to the curbside check-in. No driver’s license. Luckily, my AA buddy was still there checking people in.

Now I’m really panicking. I think he saw my rising level of anxiety, so he stopped and helped me. We went back into the terminal to the American counter and he tried to get me through to my flight, which was quickly approaching. The best they could do was without any picture ID was to go through a full-security check. Now, I don’t know about you, but I didn't “fancy” that at all. All kinds of invasive images flashed in my mind.

After calling my husband, who had turned around in stuck, rush hour traffic, I started to fully realize the gravity of this. I was NOT going to make my flight, which in essence meant no conference.

Just about that time, an airport police officer materialized with my license in hand. Can you say total relief!! I thanked him, the AA employees and quickly called my hubby, who by this time was not too happy with me, I bet. But to his credit he didn’t say a word. I think he sensed at that point I was in meltdown mode.

The rest of the first leg of my trip including the security at the airport was uneventful. I arrived at BWI (Baltimore, MD) without a hitch.

But, the story continues. . . more later!!

While I've been gone. . .

I hope you all have been blogging away--reading, writing and commenting. I just got back late Monday night from a very intense conference. So, hang on I've got some interesting things to post about my trip. Check back, later. Right now, I'm relaxing and enjoying my time at home.

~Cheryl

Twenty-five Years and Counting

Twenty-five years ago today my hubby and I walked down the isle at the First Church of the Nazarene in Chicago Heights, Illinois and exchanged vows. Since that time our household has grown. We added Matthew in 1988, Sammie in 1991, and Andrew in 1992. Oh and I can't forget my furkid, Payton who joined us in 2004.

Bill and I had a simple celebration today, which is quite appropriate if you know anything about us. We have so little time alone together that those moments we do, we treasure. It was wonderful!! We spent the afternoon going out to lunch and talking like crazy about us--no kids, no jobs, no worries, just us. Oh my, the memories. Time seemed to stand still for just a little while today.

When I think back to that "day" twenty-five years ago images flood back--walking down the isle with my dad, the music, Bill in his tux, our vows, the minister--my childhood pastor who flew back to do the wedding, lots and lots of picture taking, smiling until my face hurt so much I couldn't smile anymore, a simple reception, a decorated car that broke down on our drive back to ISU (Bloomington/Normal), and a late departure to our honeymoon where we saw Bob Hope. I could go on and on but I'm sure you're already a little bored by now.

I guess the only thing I really need to say is that I love Bill even more today than I did twenty-five years ago when we exchanged our vows. Honestly, I didn't think that was possible, but I'm here today to attest, my Siestas that it is.

What's our secret? It's really quite simple. We simply remember the three "C's"--Communication, Christ, and Compassion.

So here's to the next twenty-five years. We will continue our journey together with Christ firmly planted in the center. Who could ask for anything more?

Getting Sentimental

I'm in a very sentimental mood right now. Maybe because it's my 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow or perhaps because I'm flying to Maryland to attend a conference facilitated by Iyanla Vanzant, one of the life coaches from the show Starting Over at the end of the week. Regardless, this clip came to mind.

For those of you that don't know already, Starting Over was one of my favorite shows. During its third season, the show ran a two-week couples' bootcamp before beginning the regular season.

The following very, very short clip is from the end of the couples graduation ceremony. Listen closely to the words spoken by Iyanla. Oh my! This chokes me up every time.

With a heart overflowing with love,
~Cheryl

Check out this video: Starting Over - Couples Graduation

It's a Hard Day's Night

Sometimes being a mom is hard. No, I take that back. Sometimes being a mom is harder than usual. It's hard all the time. Come on girls can I get an amen? Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I don't love being a mom and that I've been blessed with three healthy kids, it's just that at times it can be a challenge.

I'm finding now to be one of those times. With three (yes, count them) teens, it's like an old episode of "Saved by the Bell" here. There are times where I wish for the "good old days" when they were little. And then I read blogs like Jennyhope's and I change my mind. Hey, I gotta get my beauty sleep now; those wrinkles are getting any lighter, are they?

Why am I pondering all this right now? Well, we've hit even another milestone in our household. Our youngest, Andrew who's a sophmore in high school went to his first teen-age girl birthday party.

Now I've suspected something was going on for a while. He's developed the habit of showering twice a day. Sammie has taken to calling him "bathroom boy." Yes, they share a bathroom. Bad planning on my part, I know, but I digress.

So, I guess my baby is growing up. Although I'm not quite sure I'm ready for this, I don't really don't have any choice do I?

As I went to pick Andrew up tonight from the party, he must have hugged four or five girls before he left. Oh my, talk about a "hard" day's night!!! Do I have more challenges to face? From the look of things, you bet your life!!

A Mom's Perspecitve

Okay, this is just stinkin' hilarious!! Whether you're a mom or not, I think you can probably relate to it. Enjoy!!

Confessions of an Ipod Addict

Since I've been coming clean here in cyberspace, I might as well add another confession. I love my Ipod. Yes, that's right! I said Ipod. This forty something working mom is addicted to her Ipod!

Honestly, I never gave the Ipod "craze" even a second thought until Sammie and Andrew got Ipods for Christmas. Shortly after that my mom was hospitalized and I headed up to Chicago. Knowing I'd be facing many long hours in the hospital, Sammie offered to lend me her Ipod. It was at that moment my love began.

Now before you think I rushed right out a bought myself one, you need to know my budget wouldn't allow that. Instead, I waited patiently for my birthday and then dropped about a gazillion hints that I wanted one. Not wanting another "snow cone machine" repeat (don't ask. . really it's a sad story) my hubby took the bait and bought me my the coveted magic music machine.

Since that day, we've been inseparable. I almost always have my Ipod with me. I have it with me in the car, where I can listen with one of those adapter thingys. I have it with me when I'm in church (hey, you never know when you may get a really bum sermon. . .j/k Pastor Ray). But the point is, I keep my Ipod with me, like a security blanket.

I'm getting ready to travel to Maryland for a conference at the end of the month. I know while I'm there I'll need to leave many of my creature comforts in the hotel, including my watch and my cell phone. However, I'm NOT, I repeat NOT giving up my Ipod. Now Ipods aren't on the "no-no" list for the conference, but even if they were, I'd still find a way to sneak mine in. Can you say "break the rules 101?"

Now before you get all high and mighty on me, you need to know WHY I love my Ipod so much. I love it because it provides immediate access to praise and worship music, which of course connects me to my real love--Jesus.

So I may be addicted to my Ipod, but as long as it brings me closer to my sweet LORD (hey isn't that part of a song?) I won't be entering any twelve step program.

Gettin' my praise on,
~Cheryl

Oh no, not another one!!

I am now officially old. How, you might ask do I know? It's really quite simple. My second born child, Sammie got her driver's license today. Can you say, "Oh no, not another one?"

There's part of me that celebrates with her. After all this is quite an achievement. I remember the day I got my driver's license. It's one of those milestones in a young person's life.

Yet, there's another part of me that's mourning just a bit. . . . mourning the passage of time. I know I've been doing a lot of this lately. But just where did all the time go? I certainly don't feel old enough to have two children with driver's licenses. But, here I sit with exactly that.

So, as I take a deep breath, I'm going to choose the former. I'm going to celebrate. Life marches on (get the band reference here?) whether I want it to or not. Why not just enjoy the journey?

As for Sammie? Well, she' tickled pink. And although I don't have quite her enthusiasm I am going to enjoy sleeping in late tomorrow morning as she drives her brother and herself to school.

Hum. . on second thought this second driver thing may not be such a bad idea after all.

Homecoming

Why is it when you "come home" things are never quite the way you remember them? Right now I'm in Bloominton/Normal Illinois at homecoming, or what's left of homecoming. The festivities are winding down.

What's interesting is that no matter how often I travel here I always notice something that's changed. I wonder if that's the same for you?

Bill and I stopped by the mall where we met some 26 years ago. It's not there. No, that's not quite right. The building we worked in is there, but the rest of the mall is gone. Torn down and replaced by an outside set of strip mall stores. The store we worked in, Montgomery Ward is long since gone. In fact, I don't know if they even exist anywhere in the the USA anymore.

Good old "Wards" has been replaced by a Hobby Lobby. The cute and trendy outside mall has all the trappings of suburbia at its best--including a Starbucks and Cold Stone.

It's all a little disconcerting because it makes me realize just how fast my life is going by. Honestly, it doesn't seem like that long ago when I was in college at ISU. And of course, now I have two college students of my own. Oh my, where does the time go?

So, I guess the lesson learned for me, at least is that it's important to enjoy every minute along the journey. It goes by all too fast. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again. What needs to be added to that, however is: Why would you want to??

Embrace the current day. Enjoy your life now. Kiss the kids and pet the dog. You may not be able to go home again, but you can look forward to new adventures and new memories.

As for me, I'm enjoying some much needed "alone" time with my husband!! Yes, life is good.

Another confession

This is a video of the 2005 ISU Big Red Marching Machine

Okay, so you already know that I'm a phone phobic, I guess I might as well come clean about some other things. You see, I'm also a marching band geek. I love marching band. I participated in marching band all the way through high school and college. And guess what I played??? Give up? The flag!! Now don't laugh too much. I bet some of you can actually picture me marching with flag in hand. Not only was I a flag, but I was captain of flags my junior and senior years in college. Okay, have I totally proved how geeky I am now?

Why do I bring this up? Well tomorrow my hubby and I travel to Illinois State University for homecoming. I'm on the alumni band board. We'll actually have our own alumni band in the parade and in the pre-game and half-time shows.

So wish us luck. I'm sure we're going to have a blast as we connect with folks we haven't seen in ages. And while many of the alumni will be focused on the football game, I know the real reason for homecoming. It's a good excuse for a bunch of old folks to get together and play "marching band" again together. Ah, the memories.

Marching to a different drummer,
~Cheryl

Confessions of a phone phobic

It's no secret, really. I don't like the phone. In fact, it goes even deeper than that. You see I'm phone phobic. Now I've learned to work through my phobia, but it's still there under the surface just ready to rear its ugly head.

I've never really liked the phone, not even as a teenager. But this disdain for the phone has really become apparent with the proliferation of phones during the past 10 years. Think about it. How far are you right now from a phone? Probably not very far.

I have phones in my house, my office, and in my car. For Pete's sake if I don't have a phone on my person, usually someone else does. All this in our attempt to "stay connected" to each other.

I'm not sure what good old Ma Bell would think about our current use of phones. Somehow, I don't think she (or we for that matter) ever envisioned our current reliance on them. Yet, most folks would be LOST without their cell phone. If you don't believe me, just try and take them away. Once at a conference, we were asked to surrender our phones. People were in tears. You would have thought they had asked us for our first born children.

So, here's my challenge to you. Instead of calling your friend, make some time to meet her/him for coffee, or stop by their house just to say "hi." I think you'll be amazed at just how rich that face-to-face communication will be.

As for me well. . . . .

"Cheryl cannot take your call right now, please leave a comment in the section below." (beep)

Not another HOOTERS!

My best friend Melissa and I went to lunch on Saturday for a belated birthday celebration at The Blue Owl. Now I hope I didn't get your dander up too much with the title of this blog, but hey you gotta give me credit for creativeness.

The Blue Owl is the exact opposite of "the Orange Owl" place. Servers and hostesses alike wear turn of the century long prarie skirts and high cut tops. Actually, The Blue Owl is pretty famous in this neck of the woods. It's located in Kimswick, MO. . not that far from St. Louis. Folks from near and far flock to the restaurant for mouthwatering food! Paula Deen of the food network did a special on The Blue Owl at the end of September. So, yes there was quite a WAIT.

No fear, Melissa and I used the time to checked out all the quaint little shops. You see Kimswick is a shopper's delight. Everything and anything can be found there. I purchased a gorgeous handmade butterfly quilt and Melissa bought some beautiful angel wings and a very unique sculpture of a face/hand blowing a kiss. Wish I had a picture to post here of it, but alas. . I'm camera challenged!

With our stomaches full and the trunk stuffed to the brim with newly purchased treasures, we headed back home. All in all it was a wonderful day. Not because of the food or the shopping, but because of the time I got to spend with Melissa. And after all, that's what it's all about. Relationship. Celebration. Frienship. It's so cool the way God has wired us with that need to connect with each other.

Yup, life is good here in St. Louis with my BFF and me. As Beth Moore would say, "All this and Jesus too!" Who could ask for anything more?

Shekinah Glory Ministry

Love really good gospel praise and worship music? Check out Shekinah Gory Ministry Live. An indy label. . but Gospel at its best. Ever since I discovered SGM in April I can't get enough of them. Oh my!! Yes, I'm gettin' my praise on BIG TIME!! I've included just a teaser in the above clip.

If you really want to listen to some more check out "Yes" in my song of the week in the upper right hand column. Listen to the whole thing or you'll miss out. If you can't feel the Holy Spirit moving within you after listening to this, perhaps it's time for a spiritual check up.

Crazy for Chist,
~Cheryl

With a little help from my friend

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Laura and Me--April, 2007~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just discovered my friend, Laura's myspace page. Actually, she's more than a friend. She's actually been my Life Coach and I guess if truth be told, although I'm not in an "official" coaching/client relationship with her now, I still consider her to be my Life Coach for life or as least as long as we're both still breathing.

What is a Life Coach? Oh my, now there's a million dollar question. And I'm not sure that I really can answer, at least completely. To reduce it to mere words is to trivialize it. And frankly it's too big for that. Suffice it to say, that she's been the one to really help me dig deep through all the layers into discovering who I was created to be or as Beth Moore in Believing God might say, "I am who God says I am."

But Laura's actually done far more than that. She's kept me accountable by giving me a fast kick in the wazoo when I needed it. I've learned I won't get away with making up any "stories" or "excuses" around her. Nope, she won't have any of that "intellectualizing" either, which is very difficult, by the way for a professor (hey who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks!) Oh no, that just won't do. She's forced me in a very gentle, loving, but firm way,to be really authentic--the very thing I struggle with the most and the very thing God wants the most from me!

So here's to you, Laura for all that you are and all you are becoming. Thank you for letting the Holy Spirit guide you and for never letting me settle for anything other than His truth for my life. That our paths crossed over something so trivial as a t-shirt is nothing less than miraculous. Don't you just love it? Oh yes, God does have a very funny sense of humor. I am blessed beyond measure to count you as a friend. And as your own mentor might say, "And So It Is."

On days forgotten

Have you ever done something so totally stupid that you feel lower that low? If so, you can probably relate to how I'm feeling right about now.

You see I forgot my best friend in all the world's birthday! I know, I know. How could I forget something so important?

Now I do have a host of reasons why the days of late have slipped away from me, including the fact that I spent part of her birthday pulling the car over to the side of the road to throw up (pretty sight, huh)and then driving home and going straight to bed.

But all that really doesn't matter, because I know I've hurt her deeply, even though she'd never say a word about it. Nope, not her. It's just not in her DNA. She continues to put on a smile and go through the days even when she feels unloved and forgotten by those who love her most.

Okay, now I'm even feeling lower, but this isn't about me is it? It's about her.

I guess the part the bothers me the most is what this communicates to her--that she is something of "less" importance in my life when nothing else could be further from the truth.

Why is it that we just take for granted those we love? That we don't let them know how much they mean to us? That we let even one day, any day go by without telling them how much we love them?

I don't have an answer for that. But I can tell you I've had my wake up call. I'm going to say what I feel. Reach out even when the circumstances of the day engulf me and let those folks in my life know and I mean really know how much I love and treasure them.

So this one's for you, my dear friend Melissa. I love you despite what my recent behavior might indicate. You are the "bestest" of best friends a girl could ask for. And why in the world you chose me, an absent minded professor for a friend, I'll never quite understand. I guess that must be one of those God thangs, huh? I am so thankful and blessed beyond measure to have you in my life, even when I don't tell you so.

With much love and lots of regret for missing your "special" day.
~Cheryl

Are You Thirsty for the Real Thing?

This Sunday our pastor preached on being thirsty--just how important water is to our daily survival. He used as the scriptural illustration the woman at the well. I love this story.

It reminded me of Beth Moore's illustration on the same topic in Breaking Free. Picture this: There are two empty vases on a table. One she fills will all kinds of things that satisfy us--food, entertainment, family, church service, friendship, tv, etc. Even though the vase gets full and is overflowing, there are still spots throughout that aren't completely filled in. In the second vase she simply pours water. And of course, all the spaces are filled.

And so it is with our own lives. Often we are thirsty and we choose the wrong things to quench that thirst--to fill all the spaces. We wonder why we're still thirsty. It's simply. What we really need is living water, not all the other stuff the world tries to persuade us that satisfies.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being thirsty, tired of choosing the wrong things to drink and tired of never quite quenching that thirst.

Years ago Coke used the slogan, "Coke, it's the real thing." Well, I want the real thing, but I don't want a poor imitation, no matter what the ad says (sorry, Coke).

I want the genuine "real thing," that living water that Jesus promised the woman at the well, oh so many years ago. So bring it on LORD. Quench my thirst. All I want, all I need is You!