A HAPPY PLATE

Yesterday was my first session with a new counselor.

I am a firm believer in counseling and not only when you are

crazy, which I may be but that is another blog...

The whole story of why I decided I needed to go to counseling

is also another blog.

Today I want to talk about Happy Plates.

As I left the counselors' office in Houma I decided to try

and get some Target action.

I find that I have been shying away from those things that

I love to do, one being shopping.

Yesterday I decide to tackle Target.

I decide to take my time, get it all in. Go in all the departments.

I don't need anything, I just want to see what is new out

in the world I have shied away from.

I find these two cute little plates.

They obviously are for little children.

However, the minute I put them in my hand a big smile

comes to my face. They immediately put me in a happy mood.

I think of how much the babies would have loved these

plates when they were little.

Shoot I think how fun it would be that when I made a

"Happy Plate" which I always do, by the way...

that this cute little monkey or bird would be there to

greet me. I carry them around the store.

I want them because they, just by carrying them change

my perspective, my thoughts.

I also walk and put them back a few times.

I am freaking 47 years old! Do I really need a silly

plate to put me in a good mood....

In the end,

monkey and birdie make their way home with me.

For $1.79 a piece I am happy to look at them.

Happiness, no where can be bought for under 4 dollars.

After all the counselor and I spoke of in the first hour

we were together, she told me one thing that really stuck

with me.

"From listening to your life story, I can tell no matter

where your life leads you, you will make it a good thing."

A compliment when I don't feel it.

Yet, my happy plates do make me realize

that I am going to be happy,

because happiness is a choice.

Happiness comes by hard work and making a conscious decision

that no matter what, we can be happy.

I ate chicken fettucini in my monkey happy plate last night.

It served the purpose I needed.

I smiled big when I made a

HAPPY PLATE

Wynonna Judd said it perfectly on Oprah

I am trying to follow the last season of Oprah faithfully.

I have been a fan of Oprah since it went nationwide in 1986.

I remember the first telecast, baby boy was a real baby

and my friend, Lisa Ortego was over visiting.

First show and I was sold.

If you know me or follow lilbitofmyworld, you will

know that I always say if Oprah would know me

Gail's friendship with her would take a back seat to ours.

Yesterday I tune in to watch the Judd's.

I am intrigued by Wynonna Judd. I always have been.

While Ashley and Naomi have always seemed "fake" to me.

Wynonna always seemed like the wayward child,

the black sheep.

On this day Oprah asks her all the hard questions and she answers.

She then says something that sounds like me.

She explains how people are always asking her why her life is

an open book? Why does she feel the need to tell the stories of

her life that are tragic? Does she do it for attention, does she

do it for the fame of it? She says she simply does it

because she sees herself as a teacher. "If something I go through

can help someone else, if in my life others can see themselves and

that they can be okay, that they are not alone, then my life

has not been for nothing."

Well, well Wynonna, we have that in common.

I do not write this blog or speak so openly about my life

for fame, glamour, or attention.

I don't like pity or sympathy.

However, I love the fact that something I may write or share

with others will bring us closer together.

I continue to do this because I want others to know that if

they experience things such as I have, they are not alone.

Very few days go by that someone does not tell me

they read something that touched them on the blog

or have said something that they have thought but didn't

know how to express it.

I want my life to be a human one and I want people to know

that yes, it is okay to have all those both positive and negative

emotions we have. We all have them just most people tend not

to share it with others.

So my life is an open book.

I continue to share good and bad because it is who I am

and in sharing who I am it makes us all closer.

I am just a little girl from Golden Meadow, Louisiana

who was given the gift of gab, the use of words

and I plan on continuing to use it until I am no longer

a part of this world, yet I hope my legacy lives on forever....

Lilliana from Galliano, who was really from Golden Meadow

who talked way too much....

who talked too much about feelings and life to the point

that I made a few uncomfortable but always tried to keep

it real the good and bad...

that is me.... a "lilbitofmyworld"

Time to stop playing hooky...

No wasn't playing hooky...

Loved too many TES lovies last week with Upper Respiratory Infections

and got myself a good case of it.

Going back to work today after missing two days.

Always hard going back when everyone else has been working.

Feels as though life has gone on without you

and you are walking into some foreign place.

Not to mention two days behind on work!!

Yet after today, all will be well again and things

will move as though you were not gone.

Such is the way when you are a school nurse.

Thankfully, I have this wonderful staff and nurses

who are able to cover for me when I am out...

Looking forward to getting back into the groove,

Froggy voice and all!

The Devil does exist in my world...

In my world, the devil exists.

I have conversations with others often about how I believe

and often find myself trying to explain why I believe in God

with all the tragedy in the world.

Well, I believe in my God because I know the devil exists and

I know that God and the belief in him, conquers all.

I also often say the devil is not the little red man with a pitch fork

that we picture in our mind. In my world he exists

in childhood cancer,

Heck he exists in all cancers,

He exists in the disease of ALS

and he exists in drug addiction. He exists in chronic pain sufferers.

Okay, so people question me, If your God exists and he is

soooo perfect and all knowing and can fix anything,

why does he allow the devil into our lives,

why doesn't he just cast the devil out like he did when he

threw him out of heaven?

Of course, I won't have the real answer until I face him in Heaven,

but I can tell you that in my world, I have my beliefs.

The devil, that devil he laughs as he comes into our comfortable,

magical lives and throws his weight around.

Why does he pick certain people, well he hates those who

believe and worship God.

Why does God allow it? I do believe that God has the power

to fix anything but I also believe that sometimes he allows

the devil to cast his poison because there is someone who

needs to find God and it is sometimes not possible until tragedy

finds them. You see, my God knows that in our world,

even if it looks like the devil wins God knows that Heaven

is the ultimate reward and even if the devil takes us from

this world, God always wins because Heaven is not a punishment.

It is the wonder that we should all seek.

So as the devil laughs at our tragedies thinking that

he will win us and our families, a strange thing happens.

We begin to praise God again, to find Him

to believe in Him. The devil may believe he is winning

but God knows that in the end, He will take us to

Heaven. Well, some ask, why would God take someone

who had never lost their way with God be punished?

I do not believe God looks at it as punishment but he

allows certain people to be afflicted because he knows

these such people are not only strong enough to handle

it but will make good of it. Sometimes the cross we bear

is not even about us but about someone else who has

strayed and because of watching the afflicted, they

find their God once again.

What brings me to this blog today?

I am pissed, pissed at the devil

This morning I am most mad at the ALS devil!

Yes he has my friend, Gina B. hanging on that cross

and suffering for us all. Yet she never looses her God

and that is what causes this blog....

I read a sign over the weekend:

THE CROSS A SIGN OF HOPE AND PROMISE

Yes as ALS sufferers carry the burden of this cross,

as drug addicts and cancer victims try and find health

as well as peace,

as chronic pain suffers play the physical and mental game

that exists with this condition, they carry

the cross for others to see.

They carry it for those who may not be strong enough

to carry it for themselves.

However the devil never wins.

When God allows the devil in he knows that he will

never win because if even the worst in the mortal world

happens and death is the end of the cross carrying,

He is calling us to His home, Heaven.

What will he say when those fighters get there,

I don't know but I hope he says something to the effect,

"You have done good, my child, now Rest in my home"

I wonder...

I have been spending much time lately thinking of my Kd

and the fact that because of Eskimo that she carries,

I will soon, if all goes well, be a grandmother.

Yesterday my thoughts were all about thinking

of a friend of mine, who after 10 years of marriage, found

herself going through an ugly divorce.

Although she had no

children and she knew the marriage

had to end, what hurt her the most was that her in-laws

from that day acted as though she had never existed.

They erased the 10 years she spent in their lives as though

it had never happened. She cried when she found out

that her ex-husband refused to allow

his parents to contact her and had them get rid of the

wedding pictures. Her ex mother in law, because

the pictures were so nice, just cut her out of the pictures and

saved the album......

I cannot understand how this happens and it makes me wonder...

I have told Kd and baby boy that I would never be able to

do this. I have told them that they must do their best

to assure that their relationship survives all the

bumps and bruises of life because I could never, never

have a life without Kd in it.

From the moment I met her, I knew she would be my

daughter-in-law and from the moment my baby boy made

this an official thing, she was part of us, part of the Riera family.

She will forever be my child, one I share with her real parents

but part of me all the same.

I could never live my life without her in it.

If ever they found themselves in a position that divorce was

evident, I would feel sorry for the next woman baby boy

would love. I would probably accept it because that is how I am,

I would love anyone my children love but

Kd, Kd will always, always be my daughter-in-law.

My life would be incomplete without her in it,

without her family in my life.

Not only does she love my son in the way I wanted for him

but she is my friend, we understand each other and have

the kind of relationship that we can talk about anything.

If she is every unhappy with me she does not hesitate

to get it cleared up and it would be the same if I was

ever unhappy with her.

I love spending time with her like I love spending time

with my babies and when I don't see her as often as I'd like

I long for her, like yesterday, I wished she would have

been off to eat gumbo with us.

I love that I can get her excited and "on board' to all these

family gathering antics I make up in my head like

pumpkin carving, which is coming up soon.

Erasing her from my life can never happen and so

I pray for their marriage and am so proud of how

they work on their relationship and how well

the get along. I love this girl as I love my babies

and forever she will be my daughter-in-law.

I am glad that I am not the type of person who

can erase years off my life as though they never existed.

I love you Kd and am honored that you will be

the mother of my grandchildren, I will never have

to worry about these children with a mother such as you.