As the youngest in the family, my daddy had a plethora of 'crappy' jobs to do around the house. My grandparents converted their pasture into a trailer park- or rather, my daddy (at age 14) dug sewer lines all over with a shovel that people could hook into. One day he got the dreaded phone call from his mamma that the sewage lines were plugged. He knew what he had to do. He reached the pipe- it had been crushed. As he was straddling the pipe and trying to pull it out of the ground it suddenly broke free and popped straight up...smacked him right in the mouth. Nasty.
Ezra loves the bath. He gets so excited when I take him in the bathroom to bathe him. He kicks and giggles and I love to watch him. I love to watch him all the time. I could just stare at him all day. I love to watch him pick up little bits of food and put them in his mouth- he's so cute.
When I was in elementary school I was scared of everything- especially getting in trouble. In 5th grade we had a folder we were to keep several assignments in and then turn in the whole thing at the end of the term. My teacher told us that it was a large chunk of our grade- if we didn't turn it in on time it would be a 0. The day it was to be turned in I forgot it at home. I was too shy to ask to call home- so I did the only thing I could think of. I waited for our class to transition into a different subject so I could get down beside my desk and act like I was looking for another book. When our teacher told us to get out a new book I slid down beside my desk, closed my eyes and said a prayer. "Please let momma bring my folder." I got back up in my seat and felt a weight lifted off. I knew my prayer would be answered. Within the hour I happened to look up and I saw in the window my momma. I had never been so happy to see her in all my little life. She had my folder! My name is Vanessa Nicolaysen and I know Heavenly Father answers prayers.
3 comments:
Ok, I'm trying one more time to leave a comment. I can't seem to remember my username and password! All of our kids hated school, but Nessa most of all. She is her daddy made over. I used to feel so sorry for poor Connie Sirratt in first and second AND third AND fourth grade when she would cry and want her mother. I never cried at school. It was just----school. However, her daddy had to swig Pepto Bismol every morning before he could face school. That was his mom's cure all-they called it "pink medicine". To this day certain types of lights remind him of school and he gets the stomach problem. He's 61. Vanessa was the sweetest little girl-most of the time-and she gained a testimony of prayer early in her life. I'm going to enlarge upon this comment if I can SIGN IN!!
Well, for Heaven's sake, I did it the very first time. I have written it down, but I'll lose it. I want to say that it wasn't a common occurrence for me to immediately begin making beds when I got back from taking the kids to school. I usually cleaned up my mammoth breakfast messes and custom made sack lunch messes first. That took a while, believe me. Many's the time I made egg salad for lunchtime sandwiches and whipped up a batch of cookies for their lunches as well. Since I was under a time limit, I didn't have the opportunity to "clean as you go". So the kitchen was pretty much reaching critical pig when I walked in the house. Then I would start the laundry and perhaps go down to my brother's house to go walking while it was still relatively cool. Perhaps THEN I would beard the lions in their dens and try to make order out of chaos by making beds, picking up dirty laundry, etc. The day in question was unusual in that I went immediately into the girls' bedroom, immediately saw the folder and immediately decided to take it up to the school in case she needed it. Let me say here that it also wasn't common practice for me to protect my children from the consequences of their forgetfulness. But I knew of Vanessa's deep seated fears. AND, unbeknownst to me, a sweet little Child of God was praying fervently for help. She had been taught that Heavenly Father answers prayers. Heavenly Father answers the prayers of mothers and children. This I know. In this case, His answer was in the affirmative. We were both in tune enough that I was open to the Spirit's promptings and actually followed them. Whew! I'm so thankful that I didn't crush a little girl's faith that day. I've done plenty of crushing of their little feelings in my lifetime of motherhood. Oh, it's so hard to live with the guilt sometimes.
What smacked daddy in the mouth WASN'T the sewer pipe, its contents smacked him in the mouth. And it wasn't liquid contents. He never had any gloves or boots wear to do all this nasty work. I've estimated that he dug a trench at least 1/4 mile long. By himself. No gloves. He used a sharpshooter spade because he was having to dig through red clay. Ok, it's after 2:00a.m. I'm reeling from fatigue.
Oh, we've had such a happy life! If only Alexandria were alive and happy, my joy would be complete. As it is, as much as I love my children and grandchildren, a very special someone is always missing. My joy, my darling happy girl.
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