TIS THE SEASON


starting a few days early... ran into this commercial. good good memories!

Litter Bug


okay, if i post this- you are so not allowed to jump down my throat.

i just so happened to be talking to a friend of mine about this very topic and was telling her about this- thought of the cartoon that i'm about to reference- and thanks to youtube, i can relive my childhood and poke fun at myself in one fell swoop!

so, i am one of those gals that doesn't typically break the law... and i mean like really big things. but it's in the really small things that i find a thrill big enough to evoke a tiny rush. like running a stop sign when i am in a residential... it makes me laugh like a little school girl. or running a red light on a desereted street at 2 in the morning. and... when i was younger... and i say this honestly that i am NOT like this anymore... but i used to think it was funny to litter.

BEFORE YOU FREAK OUT- LET ME CLARIFY!!!

no, i didn't walk around dropping trash wherever i went- BUT- sometimes, if i did drop something on the ground... i thought it was funny. i don't know why! okay!? and yes, there is that one time in high school when we went on a school trip up to Utah State University and i had driven my little POS up there and my friends in my car had made a huge mess and we cleaned it all up, stuffed it in a shopping bag and then i quickly peeled out of the parking lot as the bag remained on the ground next to where i was parked... and i giggled uncontrollably for like 15 minutes. yes, insane. yes, it's horrible. yes, i will be punished.

so it was then that i was reminded of this one disney cartoon about this bear named Humphrey and all his furry forest friends who are commissoned by the forrest ranger to clean up the garbage and they sing this song...





and then it goes on to show how Humphrey tried to cheat the system and ended up doing the In The Bag song all by himself.

so it's been my observation, that because of my horrible conduct in my younger years, that when i get to heaven they are going to hand me my stick and a sack and send me back down to earth where i will have to clean up all the garbage before i am let in through the pearly gates!

don't worry about me though... i'll just be walking around singing
"first you stick it on the stick, then you put it in the bag...bump bump"

RAISE YOUR HAND

this would be so cool if this post were about one of my favorite work-out songs by Bon Jovi: Raise Your Hand, don't you think? but it's not.

rewind your clocks, if you will, all the way back to the year 1995 when i was an impressionable young lass in my early teens... sad that it doesn't feel that long ago... but it is.

okay, so now that we are back in the days of plaid shirts, salt n peppa and the movie braveheart i will proceed to tell you about a moment in my life that has made a forever impression.

the summer of 1995 was all about classic skating, raging waters and Youth Conference (put on by my church... for all youth ages 14-18). youth conference typically consisted of carting all of us to some remote location (this year it was Bear Lake in Idaho) and send us through a series of activities and games that not only help us bond with each other but help us explore our testimonies and faith.

so on that hot july-ish day i found myself, along with my other youth cohorts, standing in front of what looked like a massive spider's web made out of string. not sure what to expect, we waited as the leader explained that each of us would be placed onto the string and, without talking, expected to follow it along all the way to the end destination. easy, right? well, sure it would have been, except they threw a wrench in the game and blindfolded all of us.

before we set out on our journey, they gave us one last instruction.

"if ever you feel lost or get stuck, all you have to do is raise your hand and someone will come and help you."

so we started. it seemed easy at first, the string was making one long straight line, all i had to do was walk slowly and i felt like i was in control. but just like i had anticipated, i hit a snag. there were several strings intersecting at one point. what to do? slowly i traced my fingers along the knot in the middle, hoping to figure this out; i picked one string and off i went. before i knew it i ran right into a tree...

cool peg, real cool.

so i turned around and headed back to the knot, picked a new string and ended back at the beginning.

ooookay... so this isn't going as smoothly as i thought.

i got turned around, came to the knot and found a new way and off i went again. this time i could hear people off in the distance... was i really far away?

okay, okay... i will swallow my pride and raise my hand.

i didn't have to wait long before i heard foot steps coming to my aid. gently someone took my hand and slowly guided me back to the original string.

awesome, thanks.

i put my hand down and continued on my journey. twice more i felt like i got stuck and so i raised my hand, was steered in the right direction and sent on my way. at last i reached the end. i was able to take off my blindfold, but told to remain quiet as there were a few others still on their journey.

how interesting it was to watch these other kids go through the same problems that i had experienced. one girl seemed to be in such a hard spot and was moving from one string to the other string and back again over and over again. i felt like i knew her pain!

finally, everyone finished and we were taken to the shady part of the grass. we were asked how we felt going through this experience. in typical teenager fashion we answered something to the tune of... frustrated.

then the leader told us that there was only one among us who had raised their hand the whole time and been led through the coarse straight-away.

oh. my. gosh. what? i could have done that? but it didn't even occur to me that i could do that. i thought we were only supposed to use the hand-raise thinger when i really needed it! duh!

and then the light-bulb came on! as i am sure they intended it to.

how many times does it take a peggy to realize that this life is so much easier if i go to Heavenly Father, instead of trying to do it all on her own? how many times does that same peggy "raise her hand" for help and then when it's given she says a quick 'thank you' puts her hand back down and carries on until the next knot on the string?

oh peggy, peggy, peggy... when will you learn silly girl??

and here i am again, i have found that next knot- boy is it a HUGE one and i have found that the only thing getting me through this whole ordeal is that i am constantly raising my hand! i haven't put it down... i'm too scared of what would happen if i do. i have no more mental capacity to run into another tree or get lost out in the boonies for a time. i have no interest in going backward either.

so i sit here, hand in the air, and even if i can't feel it every moment of every day, i know that i am being gently guided back to the right string... and for freak's sake... i will NOT put my hand down even then!