Yard Sale

“Cardboard sign says yard sale, real estate sign says sold, family picnic table holds all that it can hold. On the grass and on the sidewalk, there must be half the town.  Ain't it funny how a broken home can bring the prices down.  They're sortin’ through what's left of you and me, paying yard sale  prices for each golden memory.”  Sammy Kershaw

Hearing this song made me thing of a yard sale I had MANY years ago after my divorce. Y’all know  I do lots of things before I think, so this was no different.  Remember the wedding pictures?  No groom?  The missing groom of course is going to be the blunt of this one too.   So hold on, it’s gonna be an eight second ride or a 15 minute read.

You see, the groom was a cowboy which meant I had lots of Wrangler jeans, Roper boots in every color and a dad gum $500 Stetson hat that I wore to leave in after the wedding.  Well from this previous sentence I don’t have to tell you all this stuff was put in the yard sale.  Yep, that $500 Stetson hat SOLD…right there on the front lawn of my friend’s house $50 and all those
 boots…GONE!  Just like that my entire married life…leaving in a bag.

While I’m standing there bagging up all those things from my closet, of course it brought back lots of memories, some good and some bad.  The hardest thing was these people I didn’t even know was about to be wearing MY clothes and MY $300 Stetson hat that I loved.  I wonder how many of these things I’ve passed on the street and didn’t even know they were mine from a previous life.

Writing this I’m trying to think if I have anything left that I didn’t put in that yard sale from this time in my life.  I can only think of one think and that’s the dang wedding dress.  Now why in the world would I keep it?  For sure I’m never going to fit in it again, I don’t have a daughter that would ever wear it again, so why is it still hanging in my closet?  To answer that question, I have no idea, other than I loved my dress.  It was a most beautiful, off the shoulder, size 2 dress that I paid entirely too much for, but I loved it.  Every now and then I get it out just to see if I can fit in it, but as we all know, it ain’t happening in this life time.  I did use the train to make my daughter in law the veil for her wedding.  I hesitated a few days since my marriage didn’t last, but thankfully it didn’t jinx her, they have been married 15 years this year. YEAH!!! The spell is broken. LOL

LESSON TODAY: If life hasn’t dealt you the best cards in the deck, don’t dwell on it, put the crap in a yard sale and sell it at yard sale prices.  Life ain’t always fair, and things don’t work out the way we planned, but there’s no use to dwell on the past.  Any way you’re not living there anymore so go ahead, bag it all up, let it go and start living in the present.  After all, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.  So go ahead and live it to the fullest.


   LOVE TO ALL,
Sweet Southern Sass

God & My Girlfriend's

I know he was made just for me, two hearts that fit perfectly, he gives me love-more than enough.  But way before he came along there was somebody else making me strong.  There is no doubt I'd be nothing
without God and my girlfriends."  Reba McEntire

This idea was given to me by one of my best friends this past weekend while at a Sweetheart Ball.  I've posted before there are six of us ladies that have been best friends for 40 years.  Three of us were at the ball this weekend and had the most wonderful time.  While we were talking about this song, she said you know two things for sure we can count on is God and our girlfriends or "Birds" in our case.  Keep in mind she's married and she can count on her husband but there's just a difference in counting on your husband and counting on your girlfriends.

In my mind, a husband makes a vow for better or worse, rich or poor, and whatever the rest is, but a girlfriend doesn't make any vows, doesn't put anything in writing or sign a license...we just are there for each other through thick and thin, better or worse  but more importantly during the good and bad.   We're always there making the other stronger, lifting each other up and over and over we're there for each other.

The six of us through our 40 years of friendship have been single, married, divorced, had children but together we're all standing strong through these sad and happy times.   All of us haven't been divorced and all of us haven't had children, but for sure at one time or another we have been single and married.  I may have been at more than one wedding for one of us, but who's counting.  I've been to two of my own.  LOL  The most joyous occasions of course we've had fun and many laughs, but then there are the sad times when parents have been lost, and yes those were hard times, but the girlfriends were there first and the last to leave.

These ladies I talked about above are my BEST friends, but I have other partners in crime that I love as well.  They are the Thelma to my Louise or the Louise to my Thelma whichever it may be, the cream to my coffee and the sugar in my sweet tea.  LOL, that's  a lotta craziness up in these friendships but I don't know any other way to describe these girlfriends of mine.  We go to a lot of concerts, Nashville is a given every ear and there are lots of stuff in between.  Most of these ladies are co-workers or former co-workers so needless to say there are lots of stories we can tell... good and bad.  But as ya'll know, whatever happens wherever we are, stays where we are or was or will be.

The one thing all these girlfriends of mine and me have in common is that we all believe in God and we have him front and center in our lives.  We may not always act like it and I'm sure God and our guardian angels shake their heads and wonder what the world were they thinking.  But the one thing I know and all my girlfriends know , is there is no way any of us are or will ever be perfect, so that's why we're glad God is a forgiving God.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm running out of forgiveness times because I'm every day having to ask for it.  But from what I know, I don't think you run out of times because we all know God is always forgiving if we just ask.  And trust me... I have asked plenty of times.

I do want to throw in one more thing since I'm talking about forgiveness.   I try not to only ask or pray for things, I always, always thank him for answered prayers.  Heck, there have been many times I've thanked him for unanswered prayers.  Sometimes he may have to hit me in the head that I notice it's him, but sooner or later I will recognize that was a God wink or a knock, knock it's God and I will stop and thank him.  Yes, I'm sure ya'll are thinking this lady for real has gone crazy, but when it comes to God and how I believe, there ain't nothing crazy about what I think and how I know he's answered more prayers and protected me more times than I can count on everyone's fingers and toes.  Now ya'll figure that one out.

LESSON:   Today is if you have girlfriends like I do, whether they be your BESTEST ones or your partner in crime ones,  take time and enjoy your friendship.  Give them a call, NOT A TEXT, spend a few minutes to just catch up.  Heck if it's like me when I call one of mine, it will turn into an hour or at least many minutes.  People don't take the time these days to enjoy life, so do that soon.  Get your Thelma, Louise, partner in crime, best friends whatever you want to call them and have some fun.   One more thing... don't forget to thank God every day for waking up and especially remember to thank him for those answered prayers and if you're like me, thank him for the unanswered ones.
LOVE TO ALL... Sweet Southern Sass

Love You Long Time

OK y'all I don't have a song for this one right yet, but this idea came to me yesterday when I was on the radio with my favorite morning DJ Kathy.  Almost together we said "love you long time."  This just stuck in my head all day yesterday so here you go the reasons it stuck.

The first time I heard these words "love you long time" I had gone to a customer's house to get the paper work signed for him to get a mortgage for his house.  I knew this guy a long time so I was comfortable meeting him at his shop right there at his house.  Of course we talked about anything and everything except mortgages, but that's what I loved about my job at the time.  I treated my customer's like family and wanted them to trust me that I was doing the right thing for them.  After visiting for a while and getting the paper work signed I hugged him and started to leave.  As I was leaving I heard him say something but didn't exactly know what it was.  When I got in the car I thought to self, did he just say he loved me?  I know, what's not to love, but did he say that for real?

Long story short on this, several years later, my friend was killed in an accident.  I went to the funeral service and one of his good friends was a speaker.  Of course he told many stories that made us laugh because that's what my friend was all about.  But at the end he told the story that every time my friend left from visiting someone, he would say "love you long time."  I almost fell off the pew.  I said to self again...that's exactly what he said to me that day.   Thinking back to that visit, I believe it was the last time I saw him, so hearing those words "love you long time" made that visit even more special.  Special that he would say that to me as I left.  So my friend....Love you long time.

Y'all may not can think of someone you've loved long time, but besides my family I have several.  Three of my best guy friends I've known almost 40 years.  Two of them I see regularly, one I haven't seen since he left Georgia about 30+ years ago, but we have stayed in touch by phone all these years.   My four best friends, or the Birds as we like to call ourselves, I've known right at 40 years also.  Then there are my two best friends from high school, well we're going on 50 years knowing each other.  Crap, that makes them old.  LOL   With all this being said,  I've loved long time lots of people that have been a very big part of my life for lots of years.  Many years of special people that I will love long time.

LESSON TODAY:  Who knows where I'm going with this one, but if you are lucky enough to have friends like I've mentioned and you've loved them long time, don't let that slip away.  It's so easy to get busy with your own life and not make the time to keep your special friends long time.  You may not be able to get together with them, but with all the modern technology we have today, surely there is some way to keep in touch.  I got 'em all, tweeter (as I call it), instagram, facepage (as someone called it on TV today) and then there is the trusty phone and even better...go visit, even if it's just a few minutes.

I mentioned in the first paragraph I didn't have a song but I would find one.  Well, as promised, here you go.
This song, Love You 'Til I'm Gone , written by my friend Larry Scroggs, is perfect for this post because it says I'll do my best to love you 'til I'm gone.   Well hell's bells, is that not the same as "love you long time?"
Works for me so 'til next time...LOVE YOU LONG TIME!!!