T.J. Maxx, Shopping Carts & Total Embarrassment

So you guys, I am getting better with my health challenges and I go shopping at T. J. Maxx last week.  PLEASE DO NOT SCROLL DOWN BEFORE YOU READ--SPOILER ALERT!

By the way, if you are able to go shopping, please remember to thank God for it.  It has been several months since I have been able to shop.

So, I find a great buy on a large wicker basket that will BARELY fit in to the shopping cart and does NOT want to come out when I get to the cash register.  Just kidding they don't really have cash registers anymore but you know what I mean.

So the checker reaches over the counter and scans it and I proceed to pay for my purchase and start out the door knowing that I was not strong enough to carry the basket all the way to the car.

So, (have I used that word before?) I get outside the store and the cart wheels lock up.  I remember trying to get the basket out of the cart at the check out counter and decide I only wanted to punish my back with that chore ONE time--and that being when I start to unload it at my car.

SO, I decided not to try to change carts and just try best I can with the contrary one--may I say VERY contrary one--may I just say the very most contrary cart I have ever tried to push in my life?!

SOOOOOO, here I am pushing as hard as this old body would let me push--(Just imagine an old grey haired lady, bent over, barely able to walk, pushing with all her might--not a pretty sight).

What I did learn was that IF I PUSHED the cart the opposite way of the way I wanted to go, that I could inch it there--every once in a while it would give just a little and then I would be running (ha ha) to catch up to it.

I did notice that cars were starting to stop and their occupants were looking at me with these really weird looks--people going to their cars would stop dead still in their tracks with their mouths gaping.

All the time I'm thinking--Oh, my physical therapist is really gonna believe this story!

Okay, okay, SO finally I get to my car, unlock it, and the panic horn starts to go off (man, I really need to get that little problem fixed)--and of course that brings more stares--

I proceed to tug, pull, twist and cuss the wicker basket out of that cart--just kidding, I did not cuss.

When I finally get the basket lifted just slightly out of the basket, I stop in midair with it and see this, which I am sure you have already figured out by now--but remember, it's been a while since I've been shopping and these things are new in our area AND I am totally unobservant in my old age and did not see it before I put the basket in.

IF THIS SHOPPING CART IS REMOVED 

FROM THE STORE

THE WHEELS WILL LOCK UP!

I wish someone would help me figure out a moral to this story--surely, surely there is some redeeming value in here somewhere.  

Have a great week.

Love,

Dianne

I went back later in the week--when checking out the clerk asked me--"didn't I help you a few days ago?" She, IN FACT, did not.

But my paranoid self tells me that all the checkers rushed over to the front door to look at this crazy woman trying to defy the laws of gravity and every rule of physics there ever was.

Laws of gravity?  Did I really just say that?  LOL

And then the manager came rushing over and said real concerned like, "ma'm (spelling) can I help you out with anything?"

I think I just figured out the moral.

Don't show your face in that store ever again or at least go in disguise.

Oh, the reason the wheels lock up??  The owner of the shopping center doesn't want to pay the high premium for insurance--lots of people suing these days when a buggy damages their car, I guess.

Panic horn?  really--what are those things called--?  Maybe security alert--I don't know--

© ALL ART, PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT PROPERTY OF ELIZABETH DIANNE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 2008-2014

Annie Sloan, Texture Tuesday, & Some Good News

My husband came home from the grocery store the other day with white tulips in hand. There's not many things prettier than white tulips to me.

The first picture is textured with Kim Klassen's Just A Touch 2, soft mode at 14%.

The 2nd an 5th picture contains a peek at some of our work the past few weeks (mostly my husband's) that involved Annie Sloan chalk paint.   Just a  couple more weeks before the big reveal--well, big to us--We hired a decorator (a very good friend of ours)--someone we knew could pull off what I really wanted to accomplish.  In other words, she can read my mind and knows what I want but don't know how to totally put together.

We have lived in our present house for eight years but it has never felt like home to me.  After retirement, relocating to another state, four moves, building a house that we sub-contracted ourselves, I was worn out when we moved here and didn't spend much time placing things--I just kinda threw things on the wall.

And because I have a little bit of decorating abilities, it was presentable to most people.  Nothing felt like it had been in the same place for more than a week or two, though, to me.

And I love a house that looks lived in, enjoyed for years on end--where things look like they might have been in the same spot for many, many years.  Our friend is really helping us capture this wish of mine.  And this wish of my husband's just because he loves me and knows it is a wish of mine.

We have purchased a few new items but most of this has been blood, sweat, and tears and lots and lots of paint--

I will have a post about using Annie Sloan paint soon.  I feel like we learned a few things that might help someone else who is thinking about trying it.

Now on to more important things--so much more important things--In my last post, I wrote about praying for my friend who was on a ventilator.  I joined a 24 round the clock, day in, day out, prayer vigil for her.  My time slot to pray was from 10:30 to 11:00p.m. at night.

In just a few days time, this became such a wonderful time spent alone with God.

She was taken off the ventilator yesterday.  Thank God!

Thank you so much to those of you who joined me in praying for her.  I appreciate your prayers more than you will ever know.

Love & Prayers,
Dianne

© ALL ART, PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT PROPERTY OF ELIZABETH DIANNE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 2008-2014

Prayer For A Friend

I have a dear friend who is fighting cancer.

 Due to some complications with chemo, she is on a ventilator.

 I chose to take a shift on a 24 hour prayer chain for her.

I just came off my 30 minute shift which easily expanded to 45.

There is no distance, time, or space where the Holy Spirit is concerned.

So following the lead of the Godly woman who formed this chain, I read, sang and prayed for my friend through His power.

Many tears were shed as God touched my heart again and again.

Last night as I went to sleep with her beautiful name upon my lips in prayer, I tried to think what it must be like--lying there--cognizant, yet sedated somewhat, knowing I was on a ventilator.

I prayed for her to have a peace beyond comprehension.

And as I drifted off to sleep while still in prayer, I feel that God not only answered my prayer for her but touched me also.

I awoke this morning feeling better than I have felt in two months.

I do believe my God is working a miracle in her and in me.

Tonight as I was praying for her this is the verse that I seemed to come back to--Jeremiah 17:14.

I pray that this verse will minister to you tonight wherever you are and whatever need you have.

Love and prayers,
Dianne

© ALL ART, PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT PROPERTY OF ELIZABETH DIANNE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 2008-2014

A Purple Peek

Here is a small peek at the room we painted eggplant--it's in one of our bathrooms and I am really loving it.

The room is almost finished except for a shower curtain.  I will show you the whole thing when we get it completed.

I love the way the eggplant color brought out all the purple in this picture that was already in there.  The walls were a sea foam green before and strongly emphasized the green in the picture.

The color itself was quite pretty but the fixtures are gray and the gray and green looked too much the same--actually looked like someone had tried to match it and missed--not attractive at all.  The strong purple calms down the gray and makes it look more creamy--more neutral.

I have lots more to show you but it is going to be a while.  We have several things going in several rooms and none of it completed.

We're looking forward to having it all done but a lot of the fun comes from the process and the hard work that it requires.

Hope you are having a great week.

Love,
Dianne

© ALL ART, PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT PROPERTY OF ELIZABETH DIANNE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 2008-2014

Unspeakable Blessings!

My son, Chris, holds his daughter and sister in Christ, Noelle, after he baptized her this morning.

I didn't get to make the trip to Tulsa because of the health situation but thank God for technology.  I got to see it by video moments afterwards.  How great is our God!