John Wayne and Jesus

Previously, I posted about a dream I had.  My dreams pale in comparison to the dreams Rick has.  Rick’s dreams are sometimes very vivid and detailed.  He can recite word for word what happened, who was there, what everyone was doing and saying.  Last year he had two dreams that stand out among the rest.

The first is his John Wayne dream.  Rick is a big fan.  Rick has often said if he could talk to anyone dead or alive, it would be John Wayne.  He can almost recite word for word some of John’s movies, especially The Sons of Katie Elder.  It is Rick’s favorite.  Here is his dream.

Rick is spending the day with John Wayne.  John asks Rick if he wants to go with him to his ranch in Colorado to check on his cattle and horses.  Apparently, Dean Martin told John the Feds were coming around collecting back taxes on their movie The Sons of Katie Elder and they had already taken Dean’s horses.  John was afraid they would take his cattle and horses so he and Rick flew up to the ranch (with John as the pilot of his own jet plane) to check things out.  Everything is okay at the ranch and all his animals are still there.  Then Rick says to John, “My wife wants to know why you walk so prissy.” (I have said to Rick in the past that I thought John Wayne had a prissy walk.) John tells Rick it is because he spent so many years riding horses in the movies that it messed up his hip.  The dream ends. 

The second dream Rick had was his dream about Jesus.  This one was really special.  Here is what he dreamed.

Rick is standing outside a building.  There’s a man sitting up against the building.  Rick goes over to talk to him.  He is dressed in a robe with a hood and his hair is long and brown.  The man has only one leg. 

Rick asks the man, “What happened to your leg?”  The man answers, “Rick, you know I was nailed to the cross.”  With that the man stands up on two legs and Rick realizes he is talking to Jesus.  (We know that Jesus died with both of his legs so we are not sure of the significance of this.)  Jesus says to Rick, “Tell everyone that I am coming soon and they must tell everyone they know.” 

The scene switches to inside the building.  There is a big revival going on, bigger than a Billy Graham revival meeting.  Thousands of people are coming down to accept Jesus as their savior.  The person preaching the revival is Greg Hutchinson.  (Greg is a friend of ours who is the youth pastor at the church we went to when we lived in Lewisville, Texas.)  Rick sees people there at the revival that he knows from his home town, some of them are deceased, the most important one being his mother who passed away in 2000.

The scene switches again to Rick’s family home in Gorman, Texas.  At the house he sees his mother again and several other people he knows, who are also deceased.  He doesn’t talk to any of them, but he sees their faces clearly.  The dream ends.

When Rick woke up from his dream, his pillow was wet with tears.  He told me the dream was so real and he didn’t want it to end.  A few days later Rick called Greg and told him about the dream.  He thought maybe the dream was a message for Greg.  Rick and Greg talked about the dream and what it could possibly mean.  Rick asked Greg if he really could have been talking to Jesus.  Greg says, “Yes, it is possible.”

I believe God does talk to us through our dreams.  Acts 2:17 references Joel 2:28 (important enough to be in the Bible twice) which says,

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17 NIV

You can’t get any clearer than that.  There are many instances in the Bible where God has given man warnings, instruction and knowledge of future events via dreams.  Sometimes God sends his angels to do this.  Sometimes the dreams are clear, but sometimes they need to be interpreted by someone else.  Either way, the Bible shows that God used dreams as a way to get his message through.  If He did it back then, I don’t see why He wouldn’t do it today.

I don’t know if God was speaking to Rick in this dream, but I do know truth when I see it.  Jesus told Rick that He is coming and He is coming soon.

Will you tell someone?

~ P

Dream a Little Dream

Have you ever seen the movie Inception?  It came out in theaters back in July, 2010.  I’ve seen it three times and this last time was just a few days ago.  I think I’m finally beginning to understand that movie!  If you haven’t seen it, it’s the one where Leonardo DiCaprio and friends enter a person’s dream to steal secrets.  It’s a far out theory and was kind of confusing the first time I saw it.  Dreams can be confusing too.  They can also be funny, weird and strange.

My dreams are all over the place.  One minute I’m here, the next minute I’m there.  I can’t tell you who is in the dream with me because I can’t see their faces.  And when I wake up, I only remember the dream for a few seconds before it vanishes into the land of forgotten dreams.  Sometimes all I get from a dream is a feeling.  I’ll wake up frightened and sometimes even sobbing, thankful that I was only dreaming.  Other times I wake up wondering where in the heck that dream came from!

Last night I dreamed my car was stolen.  As soon as I woke up, I got out of bed to write down what I could remember.  I don't normally do this, but this time the dream was very clear in my mind.  This is my dream:

I am living in an apartment complex. I leave the apartment to go to work.  I have one of those big shopping bags in my hand.  I can’t find my car.  I calmly walk up and down the parking area several times looking for my car.  I walk to the building next to mine to catch a ride to work with a friend.  My friend also goes looking for my car but can’t find it either.
 

I call the police and they say there is a problem because the state of Georgia said I had registered the car in 16 different states.  I ask the police how they know I used to live in Georgia and they tell me they can see everything about my car in every state I lived in using the VIN number.  I explain about Rick being a construction worker and we have lived in all those states because of his job.  I hang up and wait for them to call me back.

 

Scene change.  It’s Thanksgiving.  We are having a big feast.  I am with another lady.  I think (more like feel) she is my mother-in-law but I can’t see her face.  (She reminds me of Jamie Lee Curtis.)  I tell her I was invited to another Thanksgiving dinner.  She says we should go and only eat a little.  I go for the mash potatoes first and put two big spoonfuls on my plate with gravy.  My mother-in-law gives me a funny look as she sees all the mash potatoes on my plate.  We look for a place to sit down.  There are rows and rows of tables with people sitting at them.  We stand there looking at everyone.

 

The dream ends and I wake up.

This is a pretty weird dream, even for me.  There's almost nothing that's right.  I don’t live in an apartment.  I don’t have a job.  My car was not stolen. While I have lived in 16 different states, my car has been registered in only two, Illinois and Texas, and not at the same time.  It’s not Thanksgiving.  My mother-in-law looked nothing like Jamie Lee Curtis when she went to heaven in 2000.  And while I have sometimes been known to eat mashed potatoes, they would not be the first thing I put on my plate and I would never take two big spoonfuls.  I don’t like them that much.  But I would put gravy on them for sure.

So what is this dream trying to tell me?  Be careful with my car?  I might lose something?  I should get a job?  Don’t eat too much?  I believe there is always some truth in what you dream.  I'll be careful with my car and leave it at that.

In the next few days, I will post about two dreams Rick had last year that I think you will enjoy.  For now I will toss this dream in with the other nonsensical dreams I’ve had.  But there is one question I would like answered.  What was in that shopping bag?  Any ideas?

  

Sweet dreams,

  

~ P

Alouette

Have you seen and heard the latest Target commercial that uses the French children’s song Alouette?  As soon as the commercial started to play, I began singing along and I knew all the words!  This amazed me!  When had I learned this song?  I imagine it was sometime back in early childhood, but I can’t say when or where. 

I went online and looked up the song on Wikipedia.  There it gave the translation of the words I had learned so many years ago.

Alouette, gentille Alouette
Lark, nice lark

Alouette, je te plumerai
Lark, I shall pluck you

Je te plumerai la tête
I shall pluck your head

(Je te plumerai la tête)
(I shall pluck your head)

Et la tête
And your head

(Et la tête)
(And your head)

Alouette
Lark

(Alouette)
(Lark)

O-o-o-oh
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette, je te plumerai

The song continues with verses about plucking feathers from the lark’s beak, neck, back, wings, feet and tail.  Pretty gruesome.  Doesn’t sound like a children’s song to me!   But it does have a catchy melody. 

The fact that I could remember all the words to this song makes me wonder what else I have forgotten that I used to know.  What other songs, poems, stories, people, places, etc. are in there just waiting for a trigger to be pulled so it can be released?  Only time will tell.

Au Revoir,

~ P

Change Is Good

It’s time for a change.  I’ve changed several things about my blog—the design, the colors, the fonts, my picture, the blog description, and the URL (web address); but the most important change I made is the name.  I just didn’t think the title “At Home With My Thoughts” fit anymore.  Oh, I’m still at home and I still have thoughts, but I just didn’t think it was me.

A while back I came up with a title for a book should I ever write one.  I thought it was important to nail down the book’s title to set the direction of the book.  I’ve heard said that you should write what you know.  So the title of the book was going to be “Memoirs of an EXTRA Ordinary Woman” and it would be a story about my life. 

(Sidebar—I came up with that title one night while trying to go to sleep.    Did you notice that the main words spelled out MEOW? You all know how much I love cats!!)

So here I was with this fantastic book title and no book.  I really think writing a book is going to be a bucket list item that I will take to the grave.  And that’s okay.  So I thought the next best thing to do with the title was to use it as the name of my blog.  I believe “Memoirs of an EXTRA Ordinary Woman” fits me better.  I can be ordinary and even extra ordinary at times, but I can also be extraordinary.  My blog contains stories from my life about me and the people I know, so it is like my life story only told in short stories.  I like it, I like it a lot!

My old web address was www.athomewithmythoughts.blogspot.com and I always thought it was such a mouthful!  My new web address is www.patsmeow.blogspot.com and I think it is easier to remember (cat’s meow, pat’s meow…get it?). 

If any of you are reading my blog for the first time, I hope you will take some time to read a few posts.  I guarantee you some are ordinary, some are even extra ordinary, but some you will find to be extraordinary for sure.

=^..^=

~ P

The Pinterest Pandemic

Have you caught the bug?  I’m talking about the latest craze to hit the internet airways at my house called Pinterest.  I’ve caught it bad but I just found my cure. 

I was only contaminated for about 4 weeks and the aftereffects are a permanent indention in the cushion on my chair.  I was one of the lucky ones.  Yesterday, while I was pinning (yes pinning--there is a whole new Pinterest vocabulary that has cropped up...more on that later), I found myself wondering why am I doing this?  Pinterest is basically an individual sport.  You can sit at your computer for hours looking at lovely things, reading inspirational words and drooling over yummy recipes.  Somehow, this lonely sport appealed to me.

For those of you who are not familiar with Pinterest (especially some of you guys), it’s an online virtual bulletin board that allows you to organize all the things you find on the internet that you love and share them with other pinners like yourself.  Here is a description of Pinterest I found while browsing the boards:

Pinterest is a fun reminder of the clothes I will never buy, the home décor I will never afford,  the recipes and crafts I am too busy (or lazy) to ever make, the places I’ll probably never go, the sayings I wasn’t clever enough to think of on my own, and the photos I wish I could take credit for but can’t.

This description speaks volumes to me.  Never buy.  Can’t afford.  Lazy.  Never go.  Not clever.  Can’t take credit.  All these negatives are almost too much for me to take.  But take it I did as I sat in front of my computer unable to control myself as I looked for the next great recipe, home décor, craft, or whatever.  Help!!  I needed a Pintervention!!

Which leads me to the fact that Pinterest has spurred new vocabulary that I’m sure Webster will add to their dictionary at some future point.  Words like:

·         Pinterruption:  the disruption caused by husband and children to get your attention while you are busy on Pinterest,

·         Pinoholic:  someone who can’t stop themselves from pinning,

·         Pintervention: when family and friends get together to talk to you about your pinning addiction,

·         Pinja ‘Vu: the feeling that you have pinned this before, and

·         Pinographer: A full-time pinner.

These Pinterest spawned words (and there are many more) may seem funny at first read, but some of them have a negative implication that you shouldn’t shake off lightly.  For me, they shed a new light on Pinterest and it was one of the reasons I felt I needed to get unaddicted, and fast.

Then yesterday a couple of things happened.  First, I got a text message from Verizon saying that I had used 90% of my data allowance and I still had a week to go before my billing cycle ended and I would get my new allowance.  I have a 5GB limit before they start charging me for going over.  I didn’t realize how much data I was using looking at all that stuff on people’s boards and pinning it to mine.  I was already feeling guilty for spending so much time on the computer.  Now I felt even worse.

Then, while browsing the boards yesterday, I stumbled upon a pin that said, “Dear Pinterest, please change your terms or I’m leaving.”  This peaked my interest so I went to the site and read what the article had to say.  Many of us (or maybe it’s just me) don’t take time to read the Terms of Use section when we sign up to use sites like Pinterest.  Therein lies the problem.  Did you know that when you agree to their Terms of Use, you are saying that you have permission to pin the graphics from the original source or that you are the owner of what you are pinning?  This is fine if you pin a photo that you yourself took and uploaded it to your board, but not fine if you found this beautiful picture of a sunset and zapped it onto your board of Beautiful Skies via the Pin It button.  But wait, there’s more.

You also agree to let Pinterest use (and sell) any image you have pinned…AND if someone should have a problem with that (say the owner of the photo) you agree to take all the blame financially AND pay for their legal fees should Pinterest incur any. 

Serious stuff.  Can you say “copyright infringement?”  Here is the link to the article I read.  I have also put this and another link on my Pinterest board.  http://www.knoed.com/thewindowseat/pinterest-change-your-terms-or-were-leaving/

With that said and done, I have decided to delete all my boards from Pinterest with the exception of the one warning others of the risks they may be taking by being a Pinterest user, which may or may not ever materialize.  This has solved both of my problems with one action and has made it very easy for me to get off the Pinterest bandwagon.  I enjoyed it while I was unaware of its negative aspects, but it’s time to say goodbye to that addiction (I have others I’ll hang on to for a while longer thank you very much.  Oh chocolate, don't worry. I'll never leave you!).  From now on, anything that I find on the internet that I really like, I will bookmark the site for future reference.

For those of you who have not yet caught the Pinterest bug, be forewarned, be aware and beware!  The tenth commandment says we are not to covet thy neighbor’s stuff.  Don’t get so caught up in Pinterest that it leaves you desiring more than you can afford, wishing for unrealistic dreams that will never come true, and drooling all over that nice shirt you just washed.  That's where I found myself headed and it happened way too easily.  It could happen to you too.

Be Blessed,

~ P

Meatloaf Madness

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard me say this, but I hate to cook!!  I love to eat, just not my own cooking.  Now if you ask my husband Rick, he will tell you I am a good cook.  I honestly can’t tell you where that is coming from.  Maybe he’s like Mikey (he’ll eat anything), maybe he’s comparing me to other cooks in his life (mother, ex-wife) or maybe he just doesn’t want to hurt my feelings!!  All I know is when I make certain dishes, he goes on and on about how good it tastes.  Go figure.

Rick’s favorite meal is my meatloaf, an all-American comfort food.  He would eat it every day if I served it to him.  This is my recipe:

1 ½ lbs Ground Beef (80/20 mix)

1 egg
1/8 cup Cream (I don’t keep milk in the house)
2 tbs Ranch Dressing
2 tbs Worchester Sauce
2 tbs Progresso Italian Breadcrumbs
4 tbs Kraft Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
½ tsp Garlic Powder

Smoosh it all together and plop it in a baking dish.  Cook for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.  That’s it!!

I must admit here that it does smell good when it comes out of the oven.  And I guess it tastes ok (if I put a lot of brown gravy on top).  But to hear Rick moan mmm and watch him close his eyes as he takes each bite (without gravy I might add), well this is way beyond my comprehension!

I’m sure at some point in your life you have had friends or family recommend a restaurant for you to try.  They tell you how good the food is and you simply must go there to eat.  But when you do, you find the food is just not to your liking at all and can’t believe you wasted money eating there.  Rick and I have both been there.  One day I will tell you about our search for good barbeque while living in Mobile, Alabama.  Anyway, after the disappointment wears off, you begin to wonder what was so great about that food that someone would recommend you pay to eat it.  I think the answer lies in taste buds, those little taste receptors that are part of your tongue and tell you whether something is yummy or yucky!!  Everybody has them and everybody’s are different.  Your taste buds may tell you something tastes good, while mine would say it tastes bad.  That’s the answer.  It’s as simple as my meatloaf recipe.

God sure did put a lot of thought in when creating man, right down to the little taste buds in our mouths.  The Bible says in Psalm 139:14, “…I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  I guess that goes for my taste buds too!!

Be blessed and have some meatloaf tonight!!

~ P

P.S.  In case you were wondering…that is a picture of MY meatloaf.  I made two this week…one to eat and one to freeze.  To take the picture I took the frozen meatloaf, brushed off the ice crystals, set it in a clean baking dish (that’s why no greasy dish) and staged it to look good.  Looks like one of those professional pictures, doesn't it?  Well, almost.

Where Have I Been?

It’s been 547 days since my last blog post.  That’s a long time.  It was September 8, 2010 and I posted about two friends who had died only weeks apart.  I don’t know why I stopped writing since I enjoy it so much.  So let me reexamine those 547 days and see what may have been the reason I quit writing. 

We were still in Mobile Alabama in September of 2010.  The holidays were quickly approaching.  We went to my brother’s for Thanksgiving.  Then in December Rick was laid off from his job.  In January 2011 I went to San Diego to celebrate my granddaughter’s 16^th birthday and my 60^th.  In March 2011 Rick got another job, but it was only for a few weeks.  So we left Mobile for Benton Arkansas.  This was the start of our journey across the states.  In the next 12 months we traveled 4,248 miles (and that’s not counting any side trips we took while our RV was parked) looking for long term work but finding only short term jobs.  In total, Rick worked only 13 weeks in 2011.  Pretty sad.

As you can see, all this traveling around the country may have been the reason I stopped writing.  Or it may have been because Rick was home so much of the time and the presence of another person in my creative space stifled my creative juices.

Or just maybe the deaths of these two people were the reason.  That post moved me as I wrote it, after I posted it and even as I reflect on it today.  It was my opportunity to get the message of Jesus out there.  I don’t know how many people stumbled upon my blog simply by clicking on the NEXT BLOG link, but I have to believe some did.  By leaving that September 8, 2010 post up for 547 days, there’s no telling how many people might have read it.  And of those that read it, how many asked themselves the question, “Am I ready?”  I choose to believe that is the question for today and for all the tomorrows until Jesus comes again.

Blessings,

~ P