I have spent the last few days with my friends, Shirley and Tina, on our annual fall trip.  This year we returned to Atlanta, one of our favorite places to visit and shop.  I had learned about the Country Living Fair that is sponsored by Country Living magazine, and it sounded like just the sort of event the three of us like the best.  So, plans were made and off we went for 4 days of fun, frivolity and friendship.  Since the event was held at Stone Mountain, we stayed in a new place for us, Tucker, which is nearby.

We arrived in Atlanta and managed to do some shopping in the area of our motel before bedtime.  We intended to get up early, so as to be in line for tickets to the Fair, before the majority of people arrived.  When I checked in, one of the ladies at the motel handed me a ticket and said that another lady had checked in and one of the people in her group could not come.  She had given the ticket to her and told her to give it to someone when they checked in.  And she gave it to me!  Wow!  That was like an extra $20 in my pocket!

We did get in line early and were able to walk right in when the gates were opened.  It was an excellent fair.  There were lots of good vendors there with amazing wares!  We had the most fun looking and seeing all the new things and the old things and the new-to-us old things!  The fair is at Stone Mountain Park and the vendors were set up along a paved path winding through the woods.  It still was a help to have my cane, though.  The foliage was beautiful and the weather could not have been nicer.  Cool, a little breeze…just perfect!  We shopped until about an hour before they closed…but our feet had walked all they wanted to for that day!  Really didn’t buy very much…just a few little treasures we couldn’t leave behind!

Aren’t these the most gorgeous pumpkins?  They were everywhere!  So festive!

Though we had no problem getting there, getting out of there was a different story!  It could have been the driver…it could have been the navigator…it even could have been the passenger with opinions in the back seat…WHATEVER…we could not find our way out.  When we finally did, after asking a policeman and a park worker, trouble continued to follow.  We found the road out, but one of us wanted to go see what was in Stone Mountain Village.  So, we went that way.  Wrong decision.  In case you care…there is nothing there…nothing.  And even though there was nothing there, and seemingly only 2 roads…we still managed to get turned around.  Really, I do not even remember how we got back on the right highway, but we finally made it back to the motel and ordered in Chinese food.  Looooooong day.  Good day.

Saturday, we had tickets to return to the Country Living Fair…but, we decided we’d seen enough and besides, we wanted to visit some of our favorite places.  (There is NEVER enough time for us to get in all we want to when we travel…we just always run out of time.)  I will admit to being a little OCD about some things…and one of them is knowing where I am going and how to get there.  And, even though I was never a boy scout, I do believe in the motto, BE PREPARED.  So, I had printed out explicit directions to and from anywhere we could possibly have thought of going.  And, since Shirley had told me of a great place in Alpharetta she had heard of on several blogs, I had directions there as well.  Our plans were to go to Roswell and Alpharetta and visit our favorite shops and then visit the new place.  We dressed and got into the car and I handed the directions to the friend seated to my right.  All I asked her and her friend in the backseat to do is read and watch the road signs.  While I, as the driver, was dealing with all those crazy drivers going 90 miles an hour on 8 lane highways, and trying to merge from this road to that road and switch lanes because the lane I’m in suddenly and unexpectedly turns into an exit lane and trying to keep my wits about me when someone blows the horn at me for no good reason that I could tell!  I thought it was more than a fair plan of action.  And, that’s all I’ll say about that.  However…we ended up on a toll road going in the wrong direction when I was told to take the wrong exit.  I was cool…I didn’t mind wasting 50 cents to go the wrong way.  Heck!  I didn’t even mind wasting 50 cents again to try and get back to where I was when I was led down the wrong path.  And, that, dear friends, is how I ended up in Buckhead.  At a traffic light.  Staring right at a TJMaxx, one of our favorite places to go hunting.  So, to prevent myself from screaming unkind words, or from tearing my hair out by the roots, I instead suggested we take a little sanity break at TJM.  And that suited everyone!  We managed to stay in the store for 3 hours.  We also filled up 3 carts.  Sanity comes at a price!  We had fun.  But, we had to get it in gear if we were going to hit all the places on our list.  I used the navigation on my phone and found the way to the new store and it was a fairly easy trip there.

It turned out this place, Queen of Hearts Antiques and Interiors, was huge!  And we could tell it was just the sort of place we loved to spend time and money.  We went in and turned to the right down a narrow aisle through the vendor’s booths.  Shirley and Tina were ahead of me.  I had to step back to let 2 ladies into the booth we were walking past.  I didn’t, however, catch up with S and T, because one of the women who passed in front of me looked vaguely familiar.  I asked her what her name was and she told me it was Cherilyn.  I just stared.  Then she said that I looked familiar to her.  I told her my name was Tonja.  She then knew who I was, as well.  I had run into my first cousin whom I had not seen in 27 years!

We hugged and talked and hugged again.  Our dads were brothers.  Her mom was the one who always got the family together for reunions, and the last one she had was when Ian was about 2…he is 29 now.  That was actually the last time I have seen any of my cousins or aunts and uncles on my Pop’s side. I just recently made contact with another cousin, Margie, online.  Cherilyn and I exchanged contact information and caught up on the family that we knew about.  She works at this store 3 days a week and has a wonderful booth there, too.  What a serendipitous meeting!

This is what I know for sure.  We can make plans and leave home with all intentions to go to a certain place at a certain time…but if it is not in God’s plans…it will never happen. No matter how carefully we have planned our itinerary.  No matter how many directions we have printed out.  I totally believe that God orchestrated our whole morning…the going off at the wrong exit, the time spent in TJM, the finding the correct roads…just so that I would walk down that narrow aisle at exactly the same time as my cousin.  He is just that way.  Those of us who trust Him as our Lord and Savior are His children.  And, He delights in treating us to unexpected ‘good things’.  There’s no other way to explain it.  We even discovered we had been at the same place at the same time twice in the past few years!  But, we didn’t meet.  This was the appointed time.  How wonderful to touch base with some of my Pop’s family again.  What a blessed day this truly was!

We finished our shopping there (and we found some wonderful treasures) and reluctantly left to try to make time for our other stops.  (Next time we come here, we will allow a whole day!) (This is one of Cherilyn’s booths…great ‘stuff’!)

We made our way to Roswell and the delightful little Canton Street.  Finishing there, we attempted to find one more shop.  We got to the right exit, and we found the right road, and we decided they must have moved the store.  We did see a Cheesecake Factory, though, and decided this was a good place for dinner.  And, it was.  AND…we did not even get any cheesecake!!!  Hard to believe, I know!  As we made our way back to the interstate and on to our motel, we drove right past the shop we had been looking for all along….closed now, of course!

Up early on Sunday morning and on to the puzzle of trying to fit 3 ladies and all the treasures they could find into the Pilot.  That job was delegated to Tina and Shirl…my job was to stand guard and make sure I knew the way to get out of Tucker and back to Dothan.  The puzzle fit together and the navigation was correct and we pulled back into Dothan early evening.

Shirley still had a two hour drive ahead of her to get back to Moultrie.  And she made it safely.  (Pic below on Canton Street, Roswell)

What a trip!  Wonderful time spent with the friends who know me best and love me anyway!  Oh, how important it is to have people like this in your life.  I hope you do.  I know I have been blessed in this regard.  So, that’s it…until we gather together again in the spring for our next getaway!

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; …”  Psalm 126:2a

This new phase of my life called ‘POST CATARACT SURGERY’ is causing me much grief and unrest!  Really, I accept the fact that I had to have the surgery.  It’s one of the unpleasant things one has to deal with as we accrue more mileage on the body.  So, it HAD to be done, and I know that.  I am still not liking the results of it, however.  The surgery itself went well and all is well and as it should be, according to my doctor.  However… I do not like the way it has changed my eyes…for the worse.  WAIT…that is not entirely true.  It has definitely made my distance vision much better!  I can drive without glasses and see the TV across the room without glasses.  That’s a wonderful thing!  But, before the surgery, I had enough near vision that I could see my telephone or read the instructions on a box of cake mix…if I had to…without them on.

BUT, NOW… all my close vision is gone…and it’s driving me crazy!  This is normal and not a poor result of my surgery, by the way)It is also making me crazy that I have to try to keep up with a pair of readers so that when one of a million things that I need to look at in a day pops up, I can decipher what it is.  I tried putting the glasses on my head…but my head must be wonky or something…they just won’t stay.  Now, I see people all the time who walk around, go shopping, drive a car, go swimming, dance, play, eat …you know, all the important things in life…with a pair of glasses or sun glasses poised ‘just so’ on their heads…looking ever so cute!  And, they never budge!  But mine slip down around my neck or fall off the back of my head and slide down my back!

I’ve tried using those ‘hang ’em around your neck’ strings…but no.  They flap and flop and and bounce around on the area that is my ‘boobage’ and for all the world it looks as if they are on a trampoline.  Plus, Little Levi thinks they are hanging there purely for his entertainment and amusement!.  I’ve taken them and stuck them into my cleavage and hoped for the best.  No. No, they didn’t go anywhere, but I was most uncomfortable!  I know what I’m doing…whining!  Don’t you hate to hear a grown up whine?  It’s much worse than a child whining and that’s enough to make your hair curl.  That’s why I am not ever going to speak about this again.  Or, I promise to try really hard not to.

So, what’s a girl to do?  Let me just tell you.    I have worn glasses all my life and I never minded so much.  It is much easier than this on and off and on and off game I have to play now.  I got my doctor to give me a prescription for glasses that has the reader part at the bottom and just a touch of correction at the top.  Then last week, I went to the eye glasses factory to get them made.  And, here’s where the drama starts.

They advertise that they will have your glasses in an hour.  They have a lab and technicians right there.  And, it looks…to me, at least…as if it is well stocked.  Or, if it’s not…it should be!  I know that some folks, like my boys in their younger days, do have to have special lens ordered due to the severity of their prescription.  I get that.  But in MY case, they had to order the lens…because I needed anti-glare lenses.  Now, I have always gotten anti-glare lens…it cuts down on glare when you are in a setting with fluorescent lights.  But, now I need them because of the halo I see around lights when I drive at night.  Which is a normal occurrence after cataract surgery as well as a normal part of aging.

But, it was going to take 2 weeks to get my lens in.  2 weeks!!!!  Not acceptable.  I asked if I could have them shipped overnight.  They said they would try.  (I am going on a trip this week…Thur-Sun…and I wanted to have them so I wouldn’t lose my ever-lovin’ mind and act all ill and stuff in front of my friends).  So, I told them I would wait while they called and checked.  (Because I had another option to get them).  They called and they called and they called.   “Sorry, we can’t get them to answer,”  they said,  “We will call you as soon as we get in touch and get an answer.”  So, I made sure M. got my number and I got hers and she promised to call me as soon as she could.  And, she called me later in the afternoon to say that she didn’t make contact but would try first thing the next morning.  I told her that would be fine.  And, she did.  She called the next morning and said that the glasses would be ready on Tuesday!  I thanked her and told her how much I appreciated her efficiency.

And, I was all set to go pick up my glasses on Tuesday.  Yea!  All was working out just fine!  My youngest came home this weekend, with a special friend, and I went to Publix to pick up some goodies for them, because what they cook is always better than what I cook.  As I was walking into the store, I heard someone call my name.  I turned around and there was M.  She asked if the store had called me, because she had been off.  I told her they had not.  I sensed some bad news was coming and I was not going to like it.  She said that the maker of the anti-glare lens had called and could not get my lens here in time for me to have them before my trip.  It was still going to be two weeks!!!

All sorts of responses ran through my mind.  “This is ridiculous! ”  “Just cancel my order and I’ll take my business elsewhere!”  “I will tell everyone to never shop there for eyewear!”  “I am furious and about to make an ugly scene and embarrass myself and you and it’s what you deserve!”  But, none of that came out of my mouth.  Just because you think it doesn’t mean you have to say it.  And, even though thoughts may pop into your mind and you can’t always control that…you CAN control what comes OUT of your mouth and what others hear.  I looked at M., a young girl who moved here from another town to work with this company.  She is young, not yet married, and doesn’t know many people here.  I had invited her to visit our church when I found out these things about her as we were talking at the store.  What kind of witness would it be if I told her all the things that came to this sad mind.  So, I said, “That’s OK, M., you tried your best and I appreciate that.  You just call me when they come in and I’ll come and get them.”  She looked so relieved and apologised again.  We parted ways and I breathed a prayer.  “Thank-you, God, for reminding me to speak as you would speak.  Thank you for taking those words out of my mouth and putting kind ones in place.”  To be totally honest with you, my friends, that doesn’t always happen.  Sometimes I DO say things I’m sorry for and ashamed at myself for speaking.  But, I really try…with God’s help.

I finished my shopping, came home, got everything put away, and was sitting down to rest for a few minutes when my phone rang.  I answered it, and it was M.  “Mrs. Owens,” she said, “I just came in to work and your glasses are here and ready for you to pick up!  I don’t know how this happened.  They told me they couldn’t do it, but here they are.”

I went right on to the store and picked them up.  And, oh what a great difference they make!  I can just wear them and not have to change anymore!  I thanked her and spoke to the manager and praised her efficiency.  And walked out the door a happy woman.  This is great!

Now, I don’t know if this little episode in the “Life and Times of Tonja” has a true lesson in it or not.  I am no great theologian nor writer who can take a little nugget of wisdom and turn it into a meaningful devotional thought.  What I get is that God has wonderful surprises for us when we least expect it.  And, He wants us to enjoy the wonderful things He surprises us with.  I am enjoying my glasses.  But, how guilty I would have felt if I had acted unkindly toward M.  How embarrassed I would feel if those horrible words had been spoken out loud.  Just a little ‘life lesson’ that God reminded me of.

I think God must have a wonderful sense of humor.  I hope you don’t think me sacrilegious when I say that.  Because I say it with much respect.  I happen to think that a sense of humor is one of the things needed most to survive this world with the mind somewhat intact!  If we can not laugh at the funny, the absurd, the quirkiness of life…we miss a whole lot of fun!

Just look at some of the creatures He created…they are hilarious!

“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.”  Job 8:21

Well,  in my life, there are always funny coincidences.  And, sometimes, I can just imagine He is laughing with me when I ‘get it’!  Do you remember that old joke….”Wanna know how to make God laugh?”…..”Just tell Him YOUR plans!”  I’m sure we crazy humans amuse Him quite often.

“A joyful heart is good medicine…….”  Proverbs 17:22 a

Well…before we go on a trip, we always have a prayer after we get into the car.  We ask for safety for us as we travel and for others travelling as well.  And, because I believe in praying specifically, I ask Him to put His angels all around our car as we go.  (Doesn’t it make you feel safe to think of His angels travelling along with you?  It does me.)

So, as Joy and I were travelling home from Birmingham, we saw something we never thought we would see…RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR CAR!  Exactly what we had prayed for!   We both just laughed and laughed and laughed.  And, then I made her slow down so that we could get a picture.  I mean…I had no doubt at all that God had done as we asked.  But, to SEE them…that’s another story!

Yes, there they were!  Just like I had prayed for!  One is sitting upright and two were lying down.  But, I’m sure they, too, were on guard, nonetheless!

And, then I imagined God laughed and laughed and laughed.

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”  Psalm 126:2

No words are really necessary for this post.  Just seeing Adam and Levi playing, loving one another and creating beautiful memories is enough to lift me to the heights!  These faces are filed with pure joy!   Love these boys!

                       Adam, please forgive me.  I didn’t ask you first, but this pic deserves to be seen!