My fall to the Bean!!!

I am sure many good things come from the bean, and I am confident that many people cannot live without the beans much coveted juice. The bean juice according to me is evil, it is bitter, it leaves a foul taste in the mouth, and it is just plain forbidden to pass through my lips. The bean that I am speaking of is the Coffee bean. Now don't get me wrong, coffee has it's qualities too, such as the essence while it is brewing, the dance of warm and changing hues as you mingle it with cream and sugar, and the stamina boost that is a gift to the weary and somewhat of a drug to coffee loyalists. As a young adult I dappled with the idea of becoming a coffee drinker because it smelled so good. Why does the bean tempt with scent and torment with taste? Why! can someone just please tell me why? Oh that's right it is evil, deceitful, and sneaky, yes that is why. The bean proved its sneakiness a couple weeks ago when it tried to weasel its way back into my mouth. I will share this story to make the public aware that they must stand guard against the bean, for it can take you at any moment! On a lovely and already sweaty Arizona morning I drove up to the Mc Donald's drive thru to pick up the work crews breakfast and the ordering went kinda like this:


Speaker Girl:Hello Welcome to Mc Donald's. Would you like to try an Iced Mocha today?

Me(aka Coffee Hater): No thank you (blah blah blah placing my order blah)

Speaker Girl: Will that be all for you?

Me(mind thoughts).... Did she say Iced Mocha maybe ice makes it taste better.
No you better not Laura don't you do it!! But I am so tired.

Speaker Girl: Will that be all for you Mam?

Me(mind thoughts).... Did she just call me Mam? Seriously? Am I so tired
I look old enough to be a Mam!

Me(aka Coffee Hater Traitor) Actually Miss I think I WILL take one of those Iced Mocha's.


As I was pulling away with our breakfast and the bean juice laced with ice my adorable little punk sister in law who was sitting in the back seat slurping on a berry smoothie and reading her Bible pauses and looks at me through the rear view mirror with a puzzled look on her face and says "You don't Drink Coffee!". In response to this I simply said " Your father drove me to drink!". Let me explain my response, my father in law was boss that week and he likes to work hard, everyone else seemed used to it , but I was a bit sleep deprived and I thought coffee would help. So my human nature was to blame my shame on someone else. Sorry Dad. So now you see how easy it is to succumb to the bean. And for your information, I have kicked the bean, I kicked it the day I left Arizona and have not touched it since....... yet temptation still lingers.

Cokes! Cokes! Cokes! ........ What?....... I said Cokes!

My husband and I just arrived home from a trip to Arizona. This trip was made to help his family work on remodeling the inside of a home into a new church building. Construction is tiring and most of us last week had our own forms of coping with the long hours and the sometimes monotonous work. I even picked up somewhat of an addiction myself to help get me through the day, but that story will be included in my next post. My father in law Mr. Byerly is loyal to only one form of soda, he is loyal to Coca-Cola and Coca- Cola alone, none other can suffice. Mr. Byerly prefers his Coca-Cola on ice and straight from the fountain. What! Pepsi you say? Nooooo Mr. Byerly laughs in the face of Pepsi scoffs at it even. Please see below for an example of his dislike just so you know this is one of Mr. Byerly's favorite jokes and I just substituted his name into it, he might like to say the below but would never lol.

WAITRESS: Mr. Byerly we don't carry Coca-Cola, is Pepsi alright Sir?

MR. BYERLY:Pepsi huh? ALL YOU HAVE IS PEPSI!!!

WAITRESS: Yes Sir will that be alright?

MR. BYERLY: Will paying tonights bill with MONOPOLY MONEY be alright!

WAITRESS: How about we just get you some water.

MR. BYERLY: Is it bottled?


You see, Mr. Byerly is loyal to Coca-Cola in the utmost ...... as well as bottled water, but that is another issue all together. Mr. Byerly actually prefers to call Coca-Cola by the shorter nickname Coke. During our time at the construction site we had multiple instances of having to run out and get some supplies. Right before one of these runs to Home Depot or Ace Hardware we heard a strange and foreign cry from another room. This is what we heard "Gooks Gooks Gooks!". In response my mother in law Sharon, my sister in law Joycelin, and I searched out the sound and found Mr. Byerly at the end of this strange yodle, and because we did not understand his strange choice of words we asked him what he meant by "Gooks Gooks Gooks" and he responded more clearly this time "I said Cokes, get us Cokes while your out!". I joked about this that day and said that he had developed some form of Tourettes Syndrome that causes him to shout out the word Cokes when he can no longer cope with us. Poor guy he is just trying to survive just like the rest of us. Mr. Byerly needs Cokes just like some of us need gum, hard candy,Mountain Dew, 5 Hour Energy, Emergen C (That one is my mother in laws), or Coffee...... Gross awful coffee that we never touch, that we hate, that bitter nastiness that leaves your mouth feeling dirty the stuff you would never touch unless you were working construction for a week with your family..... Oh the shame!

"It's Like Cotton Candy"

I had come upon a blogging block and I had no clue as to what I should blog about next. And alas, inspiration came to me in the form of a text message that my sister Joycelin sent me. The text message was actually a picture message of the Arizona sky. Not just any sky, this was a sky flavored with just enough pink to tinge the clouds a tasty cotton candy color. Joycelin captioned the photo "It's Like Cotton Candy". Cotton Candy we all know is a substance of airy threaded sugar and it just doesn't have much substance, also it is not known as a nourishing food source. Joycelin's picture message title clearly described to me how some Christians live their lives today. Sadly a lot of Christians are living a Cotton Candy Christianity, they take the nourishment out of the word of God, color it and fill it with sugary content and sweet things that they wish to consume. Let's not be a Cotton Candy Christian! Let us not lack faith and substance in our decisions and study, and let us live by the entire word of God. Let us feed upon it daily so that we may grow strong from its full nourishment, let us not melt away like spun sugar when our Faith is tested! I was originally going to write about the origin of cotton candy and fun facts but the above words seemed more important today. This week a friend died suddenly. Death makes you think just how fragile life is, we truly are as a shadow in this world. We never know when our Lord will call us home, it may be tonight, or in a week, or maybe even in one year. My point is that you must make sure you have Faith in the Lord and that your substance is in Him because all else in life is delicate and will fade away.

PS: I love you Joycelin thank you for having such a sweet spirit God will use you in so many ways.

Car Lines, No Ummm Truck Lines, Oh that's it Pickup Lines!

I have been married to the most amazing man for 1 year 7 months 1 week and 6 days as of today. I couldn't calculate minutes so I left those out, it was taking to long and by the time I figured it out I would have had to recalculate the whole weeks, days , minutes thing again. Anyways back to my point. I have known this man through happiness, trials, disappointments and just plain silly times. He is a funny, kind, loving, honest, true to oneself, Christ honoring man and I love him entirely and wholeheartedly for all of his attributes. Oh and did I mention handsome! Ok ok, I know he has a little less hair than most and when I turn out the light at night he pretty much always glows in the dark, but he has enthralling blue eyes that can capture your mind with a glance, an ever inviting smile and amazing hind quarters to boot!! Sorry about that last one mom Byerly but I couldn't leave out one of my favorite features. I guess what I am telling you all is that I have it made. I am one of few blessed woman that is loved by such a gift from God. I would never want to abandon that love. So it struck me kinda funny today when I received two pickup lines during my grocery shopping trip at good old Walmart today. The first character and lesser disturbing of the two strolled up to me with a 2 year old strapped in his cart (probably one of his many many many children) and said to me "I would sure like to know what kind of gum you are chewing because your lips make it look delicious". I then proceeded to tell him it was Orbitz new Peach flavored gum and sped off with insane shopping cart velocity. After the first encounter I considered possibly never chewing gum again. Then came character number two who approached me in the ice cream aisle. Come on people the ice cream aisle,is no aisle safe or sacred!!! This man was a Walmart employee and his exact wording was " Hello my name is John and I watch you the whole time you are here and I know every time you come to shop and I think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen". Can anyone say STALKER!! This man almost provoked me to abandon my cart and run, but before I could run, speak or wipe the dumb look off my face he ran away from me first. So the lesson today my readers, is that my husband is a charming man and he never used pickup lines such as the above. And for this reason my friends and loved ones, he has won my heart. So for you men who may be reading this lets go over some lines that should not be used for impressing that lovely ( preferrably unmarried) lady that has caught your eye:

1: I am a raindrop and I am falling for you. ( My Answer: Please evaporate fast!!)

2: Your lips make that gum look delicious. ( My Answer: It's the glow from my Wedding Ring)

3: I work here at the only Walmart for miles and I stalk you when you visit.
( My Answer: Do you think my husband would like Rocky Road or Vanilla Ice Cream maybe I should go get him to pick one out?)

4: You must be a broom because you have swept me off my feet!
(My Answer: Where is the dust pan and more importantly where is the trash can?)

5: I am sorry I thought your name tag was Braille. (My Answer: Oh I am sorry did you need those fingers?)

6: You don't need car keys to drive me crazy. (My Answer: No but they do come in handy when running over people.)



Ladies keep sharp don't freeze like I did and remember your comebacks or ....... Just get a gun.

Tempting Taffy

My dad brought home a bag of saltwater taffy today and not shortly after the bag of ooey , sticky , wax paper swaddled dollops of goodness reached my hands I realized that I had eaten all of the blue raspberry ones. My mother and I just finished watching a doctors show on television talking about how America's children where getting too much sugar in their diets when my dad walked in with a bag of sugary delights, we then just laughed at the irony and tore open the bag to commence the nibbling. I got to thinking about the name of the candy and after looking it up I noticed there where many stories about the origin. I read them all but I don't think anyone really knows where it originated from exactly. I do know however that there is absolutely no coastal salt water in the taffy itself and that it originated in Atlantic City,New Jersey around the late 19Th century. It was commonly sold on boardwalks near Atlantic City and Island Ocean City so perhaps that is were the whole saltwater thing came from. For me it seems as if so many interesting things came from New Jersey and Pennsylvania and my fascination with these areas only grows more and more since my husband and his family are from that area. I only hope one day I can explore it myself , oh the things I would blog. I must now leave you with that final word, because I have to go finish off the green taffy and then the orange and then the ......... hmmmm I am just glad I ran this morning!

"Family Bonding"

My family right now , as I type these very words are traveling cross country from PA to AZ with a few planned stops in between. The planned stops never seem to be the problem it is the unplanned ones that are never welcome and almost always a hassel. The Byerly's started the big trip yesterday. Big trips are a part of life for them. They are always moving and always traveling wherever the construction business takes them, so no big deal right? WRONG! Road trips seem to be a tad more difficult when you are driving your 40 ft. house down the highway. My mother in law jokes about how their life is basically a version of the Robin Williams movie RV. As far as I know they have not encountered racoons in the rv or had any sewage problems and my Father in law better not be hanging from the wipers on the windshield while driving down the road. My Father in law, God bless his soul did not make it out of the departing driveway without the rv generator cutting out, this delayed them before they even started the trip. My family also has some sort of Ohio curse on them, every time they travel through Ohio they breakdown, hence the blowout that occured today and tore through the RV floor. Ohio, what did the Byerly's ever do to you? Please let us know and we will apologize, because the only offense we can think of is that we may have let our dogs out one to many times to fertilize your Ohio soil, and if that is the case we are very very sorry please drop the curse! If you are reading this please please just say a prayer for the Byerly's they need God's hand on them and the RV. I love road trips so to feel at one with my family and their newest venture I think I will watch the movie RV.

Who are you talking to?

Security blankets, cherished stuffed toys, and imaginary friends. We all have had one of these at some point. My sister had an imaginary friend , I had a stuffed monkey named BO-BO who still sits on my bed today, and my husband had a piece of poly- filling that he would rub on his face and call fluffy. Calvin and Hobbes one of my favorite cartoon strips is based upon the very fabric of a child's relationship with an imaginary being, and a child's need to make magic out of ordinary life. In this cartoon Calvin sees Hobbes as a live walking and talking tiger ,and he enjoys misadventures and deep friendship with Hobbes, while others see Hobbes as a stuffed tiger toy. I enjoy this cartoon because it reminds me of how simple life was when I was a kid. Life really is simple, what complicates it is us and our need to control everything. For a moment in every day take the time to thank God for the simplicity in your life we really do have so much to be thankful for. As a little girl my dad could do no wrong, everything he did from cleaning buildings to landscaping dazzled me. I want to be child minded again, and be fascinated with what my Heavenly Father does for me and gives to me.