It's a Quiz

One of my favorite bloggers, Misfit in Paradise, tagged me with this task. The task is to answer 10 questions presented to me, then tag 5 other people to answer 10 new questions. Sadly, I don't really have 5 other blogger friends, but I may (or may not) tag a few people in Facebook (since this will end up there as well).

1. (My old standby) You can invite 3 people to dinner. They can be from the past, present, or future. Who are they? C.S. Lewis, Axel Rose, Jesus

2. Why did you start a blog? (Blatantly stolen from Strawberry Jam Anne) I like to write, but I am usually too lazy. I thought a blog might require writing in small enough chunks that I would actually do it. And I crack myself up sometimes, and wanted to share it.

3. Monkeys, llamas, or horses? Yes.

4. Comedies or poignant dramas? Definitely comedies. I'm too much of a crier.

5. Do you have siblings? What kind (brothers, sisters, evil aliens)? If yes, where do you fit in the lineup? I am the youngest of three siblings (by 7 years). If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably already know that my oldest sister passed away last December after a year and a half fight with lung cancer. She was a incredible person. My "middle" sister is one of the most compassionate, kind, and sweetest (and goofiest) people I've ever met.

6. Besides me, who is your favorite author? What book? C.S. Lewis - Perelandra

7. Are you a Gleek? Unfortunately.

8. Do you have any You Tube subscriptions? If yes, what? RhettandLink (great internetainers), Pomplamoose (very inventive musicians)

9. Inside? Outside? Country? City? Summer - inside, winter - outside, country - living, city - vacationing.

10. Paper, plastic, or bring your own? Bring our own.

A Promised Post

I promised a couple of weeks ago that I would post some more of the things that were shared at my sister's funeral. Don't worry! This isn't going to be a "downer". Hopefully the words will encourage you.

The following are excerpts from what my sister's friend Nancy shared.

----------

Life is about two things: relationships and memories.

Relationships:

• Teresa was the master craftsman of relationships & handy as a shirt pocket!
• She never met a stranger. At F.O.R. (Friends of the River), Teresa was the "meeter & greeter". For example, she would walk in to our breakfasts, look around and head directly to the new faces. She had the ability to make everyone feel special.
  
• In order to get to know someone, you have to spend time with them - Teresa loved people - All people and she loved spending time with them. She transcended circles and was comfortable with folks from all walks of life.
• You always knew exactly where you stood with her, because she would tell you!
• With her big smile, bright eyes and bubbly spirit, she would light up a room and make you feel right at home.

Memories:

• We met Teresa and Neal when Vanessa brought them to one of the F.O.R. Organizing Committee meetings in early 2006. She was a handpicked "worker-bee". Teresa had a passion for the river and was F.O.R.'s most devoted volunteer with her "can-do" positive attitude. Teresa was "Friends of the River".
• Travis (Teresa's son) purchased a new car on-line from Iraq and it was delivered to Teresa and Neal's house. Teresa drove it at least once a week to keep the battery charged. We typically rode together to yoga and one Tuesday she picked me up in Travis' car... This car is a HOT, good-looking car, a real "Man's Machine" ---RUMMMMM, RUMMMM! I jumped in and away we went...it felt like we were really moving and she looked at me and said, "and we're only going 35!" We laughed! Well, we pulled up for class and our yoga teacher ran out of the building because she heard the RUMMMM, RUMMMM. Teresa said, "Hop in, let's go for a ride" and away we went. We headed down 521 and you would have thought we were teenagers..."young and dumb" all over again. We laughed till our sides hurt with tears streaming down our faces! What a great memory!
• Teresa would occasionally call me when we were both driving to work and she would always start the conversation singing one of her songs; depending on the day it was either "Marvelous Monday", "Terrific Tuesday"...or her "Fabulous Friday" song.
• Every morning she prayed for Travis' safety, peace for F.O.R., and for her family. Among other things, she asked God to help her be a blessing to someone that day.
• Teresa was the ultimate peace-maker. she tried to make everything okay!
• We've lost a mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend, but we've gained a guardian angel.

----------

Here's a link to a nice tribute that F.O.R. did for Teresa.

Well, now that you've read what others had to say about my sister, maybe next time I'll share my thoughts.

My Sister

Most of you know that my sister Teresa was diagnosed with lung cancer about a year and a half ago. In fact, I posted several updates on my blog about her status, including some letters from her.

After her first round of chemo, things looked pretty good, and it seemed that she might have beaten the odds. Sadly, the cancer came back with a vengeance, and on December 20th, she passed away quietly in the early hours of the morning with her loved ones by her side.

She was much loved by everyone who knew her. My mom asked if I wanted to speak at the

funeral, but I knew that I couldn't do it. It turns out, I didn't need to. Two of her friends shared their reflections on Teresa and her life. They did a fantastic job. I couldn't have added one thing.

Below is what the owner of the company that she worked at for 15+ years had to say. I'll try to post the other one in the future. If you have a couple of minutes, whether you knew Teresa or not, read the transcript below and get just a glimpse of who my wonderful sister was.

----------

My name is Anthony Alexander and if I were to be introduced to you by Teresa, she would introduce me as her Boss. But if you ever spent any time at my office you would quickly figure out that Teresa was really the Boss at Brazos Fasteners. The rest of us just got out of the way and did what we were told.

When Susan called the other day and told me that the family wanted someone from the office to speak here to today my immediate response was NO WAY. You see I am the guy who can't make it through an episode of Biggest Loser without crying. But then I got to thinking about what Teresa would do if I were asked to speak at someone else's funeral. I would walk into my office like I have done for the past 17 years and say Teresa I need your help and like million times before she would stop what she was doing and immediately come to my rescue. She would pull up a chair to my desk and Say in her Teresa way “Here I am boss what can do to help?” I would explain what I needed and she would, without even a breath of thought, convince me that I could do it, and she would help me make it be the best speech ever. We would spend the next however long helping me write the perfect words on paper all the while she would be convincing me that I would be able to get up and deliver those words like the most eloquent orator of all Time! And when it came time to deliver she would be while standing in the back

of the audience gleaming with pride and cheering every me on with her smile.

When Teresa and I first meet I was a Skinny little 19yr old kid with a wife and and kid, scared out of my mind as to how I was going to make ends meet. After 17yrs with her by my side giving me every ounce of energy she could give. She helped create a thriving business, not to mention put a little weight on me. I would like to share with you a piece of Teresa through my eyes. You see, Teresa’s desk and mine were about five feet apart so as you can imagine I got to see a lot.

The one thing that I saw everyday from Teresa and the one thing that stood out the most was LOVE. No one I have ever met in my life knew how to Love more than Teresa. And to be honest, it scared me to death. I am much more reserved when it comes to all of the lovey-dovey stuff and when this fireball from Sweeny Texas came into my life, boy was I in for a real live roller coaster ride. I watched her love every customer, every vendor, every employee, the mailman, the ups man, and she not only genuinely loved them, she Hugged Them TOO!!! And it did not take her long to start huggin me! That took me a long time to get used to. But when

I got used to all the ickyness of huggin, I realized that is what made her so special. When you hugged Teresa it was like no other. She had a way of holding on just long enough, where you could almost feel her heart.

The four people that I enjoyed watching her hug the most were her son Travis and my three children. Every time the four of them came into our office I watched Teresa wrap them up in her octopus arms and deposit a little piece of her heart into their soul.

Teresa is going to be missed . We will never be able to replace her, nor would we begin to try. But she will always be with us. Take it from me, I have a lot of experience, if you were one of the lucky people that got to experience a “Teresa Hug” then she left a piece of her inside of you!

----------

Thanks for everyone's kind words and continued prayer for my family.

Would You Believe $1?

So we had a huge, gi-normous church-wide garage sale on Saturday. When I say there was a LOT of stuff, it is only because I am at loss of how to really describe it adequately. You know the old saying, "Everything but the kitchen sink?"...we had TWO sinks. It was awesome.

One of my goals was that at 2:00ish, when it was officially over, was to be down to a small enough amount of stuff that it could be taken in one trip to Goodwill. And, I am happy to say, we did it! If you were there all day (which some were), you would have heard the "language" of the event change as the day progressed. I've created a timeline below for your reading enjoyment.

----

7:30 AM - "We officially start at 8:00, so we'll still be bringing some great stuff out for the next little bit, ma'm."

9:00 AM - "Anything in particular you are looking for?"

11:00 AM - "Are you interested in that? We'll make you a great deal..."

1:00 PM - "Just make us an offer, we'd love for you to have it..."

1:30 PM - "Everything must go! Everything must go!"

2:00 PM - "Take a box, fill it up. Anything you can fit in that box is yours for $1."

2:15 PM - "Take a box, fill it up. It's yours. Make a donation if you would like."

2:25 PM - "Ma'm, I'll move the orange cones so you can pull you car over here by this table and I will put everything on it in your trunk."

2:40 PM - "How much, you ask? Tell you what...how about $2...unless you load it yourself, then its free."

2:55 PM - "You can take any item you'd like, as long as you also take a couple that you don't."

----

We had a great time, raised some money, and made some new friends. It was a lot of work..and fun!

Starbucks vs. Chik-fil-A - And the winner is...

So a few weeks ago me and my fam went on vacation back to Texas. We visited friends and family, took in a Cowboy game (Go Cowboys! - that's for you, honey), and even got to take part in the Fall Fest at the church we attended when we lived in Tyler.

We stayed with my in-laws for a few days. My mom-in-law doesn't even email. My dad-in-law emails and surfs the web, etc., but he uses a cellular card to do it. I didn't want to mess with trying to install the drivers for his card or take up his laptop (after all, I brought mine with me), so I drove a couple of miles down the road to Starbucks. I even blogged about it.

I don't have AT&T Wireless, which is what Starbucks offered, so I ponied up $4 to use wireless for 2 hours. Oh, and I also bought a $4 coffee.

I thought the pricing was reasonable. It was simple, easy to get connected, and I didn't mind paying for it. I didn't even mind buying the coffee. I like Starbucks coffee. I just considered it part of the cost of having a comfortable place to sit, sip my coffee, and have access to the world wide web.

I enjoyed it so much, that two days later I went back. However, the second time I went, things were a little different.

I bought my coffee (even though it was getting a little late, I always feel like I should spend a little at a place that allows me the use of their facilities), paid my $4 to AT&T and got connected. I had been checking email, etc. for about 20 minutes when one of the young gentlemen employed by Starbucks came around to everyone and said, "We'll be closing in 5 minutes."

Hang on a second. I looked at the clock: 5 minutes until 10:00 PM. I could have sworn that the hours of service lasted until 10:30. I didn't want to waste my precious last few minutes going to the door to check so I just kept on doing what I was doing.

About 4 minutes later they turned off the lights. I decided that was my hint to leave. I packed up and headed out. As I was going out the door, the same young gentleman came right behind me to lock the door. I glanced at the glass as I came though: closing hours on Sunday? 10:30 PM.

I mentioned it to the young man.

"The posted hours are incorrect," was his only explanation. No "sorry", or "we'll get that changed".

I mentioned to him that if I had known that the store was closing 25 minutes after I had arrived I wouldn't have purchased a coffee (that I didn't really want that late) and paid for 2 hours of wi-fi when I was going to only be able to use less than a quarter of that.

He just said, "Goodnight," and closed the door.

I have to admit I was more than a little disgruntled.

Looking back, I think they just closed early on me. There was a REALLY bad thunderstorm blowing in from the west, and only about 3 customers in the store. I think they just decided to close.

And in the other corner: Chik-fil-A

Today I went to Chik-fil-A, got some breakfast (can't eat there any other time - allergic to poultry), and connected my laptop to their FREE wi-fi.

I was asked not once, not twice, but 4 times if I would like to have my "beverage refreshed", which was promptly taken care of and brought back to my table with a smile. Oh yeah, each time they asked if I wanted more ice and told me it was their pleasure whenever I thanked them for the refill.

Wow! What a difference.

So here I am, listening to All-Star United, blogging away, drinking a free refill of Dr. Pepper and appreciating Chik-fil-A.

This is the same Chik-fil-A that my wife and 3 year-old came to a few weeks ago. My son has decided that he now wants to order for himself. He ordered some chicken minis and an airplane. The gentleman behind the counter took his order with a smile.

When he brought them their food, there on the tray, was a paper airplane. My son, and probably even more so, my wife were extremely appreciative.

I really appreciate good customer service. Jesus came to serve, you know...

Back to School Bash

Today my church hosted a "Back to School Bash". We had free hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, snowcones, and drinks. There were not 1, not 2, but 3 bouncy-house-thingys for the kids. There was face painting (that was incredible, I might add) and carnival games for the kids. And let's not forget the live music from the Easy Pieces, Sheri Carr and Diane Thiel (and friends). To top it off we had a prayer booth and a dunking booth. I'll let you guess which one got the most traffic.

Zaxby's donated sweet tea and free kid's meal coupons, as well promoted the event with a special coupon good during the event. The Zaxby's chicken, "LZ", was out shaking hands with the kids and hanging out. They even put the event on their Facebook page!

Our next-door neighbors, All Star Pizza Co. also chipped in, letting us store our ice in their coolers , as well supplying some wonderful baked ziti and rolls.

But the main thrust of the afternoon was to give away backpacks with school supplies for local children. That's where Cheryl and I worked, and it was great fun. I don't know how many backpacks we had to start, but we gave them ALL away. Everyone was very excited and appreciative to receive them.

We didn't solve world hunger today, or end war, but we blessed our community, offered hope to some people that might not have had it, and possibly eased the financial burden on some families going through some tough times.

Over all, I'd say that's a good day.

A special "shout out" and "mad props" to Ali, Skye, and Elizabeth for helping take care of Nathanael (and to anybody else that chased him down). It gave me and Cheryl a chance to do something we both love: serving together. Thanks!