The Diaries of a Fruitcake in a Half Baked World!

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?               James 4:11-12

What happens when we judge someone in our mind? Are we trying to lift ourselves up because we are having low self-esteem? Is it because we are jealous of what the other has? Maybe someone that we look at seems to have it all together and we know that we don’t, so something has to be wrong with the person and we try to find it. Maybe you are sitting in a book store and in walks 4 women with their hair up, no make up and long skirts. What do you think? Do you look at them and judge them right there?

We judge because we don’t understand someone’s choices. Choices that make them look a certain way. Their choices have them where they are now and maybe you don’t like where you are and want what they have. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you judge someone because they wore that outfit to church and it is making all the men look at them. Maybe she is overweight and is sitting at a restaurant eating a big piece of cake. Maybe she is walking down the hallway of school holding another girls hand.

What about speaking evil about one another, brothers? By this verse saying “brothers”, James was talking to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Why do we speak evil about one another? Life is so hard when you walk out your front door. It is so hard to be around others who are talking about someone else and not join in.

It’s hard for me. I mean, I have turned my life around and have felt the Lord in my life, showing me the areas that I need to change to make me live more righteously (that means living right for God). I have been searching for holiness in my life. Sometimes it is confusing and sometimes it isn’t. I have made a decision to not get on facebook or email or anything on the computer until after I have given the Lord my time in the morning. I was noticing that my life was getting out of control and I didn’t know how to take hold of it. I realized that God was getting the last part of my day when He should have been getting the first.

Living my life, making the choices I make now, I  try to do it all out of love and wanting to do what the Lord convicts me of. There are some things I might not be convicted of that you are, but it doesn’t mean that you or I are less than what we should be. Everyone has their on convictions. Where one might have a conviction to stop drinking, I don’t because I don’t drink anymore. (I recently found out that I am allergic to alcohol and have immediate side effects.) I rarely did anyway because of the side effects I had, swelling immediately in my hands after the first sip. So, we all have different convictions.  The Lord deals with each of us differently but it all is going toward one goal: to be reconciled to Him.

I do have a hard time with being out in the world. I try to stay to myself and the reason is not because I don’t like people or think I am better but because I have a weakness and it’s called listening to gossip. I sometimes fall into it or I just stand or sit there. Sometimes I will start it by saying something I heard earlier and want to know if that person heard it. Even when I don’t say anything, it is just as bad because I am allowing it to enter where the Lord’s Spirit resides. After all is said and done, I walk away feeling like I failed miserably. So, I have been trying to not talk about anything that I have read that is the bad fall of someone else. The news I hear is always a conversational piece to break the ice when I’m with someone else. BUT like I said I am trying to stop that.

SO, if you are close to me or talk to me and I start saying something about what I have heard, please stop me. I would like to try and tell others to stop when they start but I just don’t know how. Have you been able to stop someone from going any further in their gossip about another person? If so, will you share with me?

This is my daughter on her webcam.  She doesn’t wear make up, which is surprising to me. Neither of my girls wear make up.  I am amazed, coming from the generation that I am in and being around the make up I was around, that my girls didn’t feel the need to wear it.

When I was younger I would sit and watch my Momma put on her make up and wish I would be like her when I grew up.  She did the wigs and everything. I just loved it all.  I had the magazines that showed me how to put on makeup, etc… I did wear a lot of it.  I hid behind the make up.  I didn’t want people to see who I really was underneath.

I am so blessed that my girls don’t feel the need to put make up on. That they recognize their natural beauty without all the other stuff.  It is freeing. Why do we feel we have to wear make up?  I still wear it today but it’s a habit that I have had for over 20 years. It’s part of my life. Believe me, I don’t wear it like I use to.

I think the world of glamour and beauty is what caused me to want to do it. I wanted to look like those women in the magazines. I believe that is called envy, possibly. Plus we all know that men are visual. Women attract men by the way they look. I got my man. He likes me to wear make up when we go out to special events but loves me just as much without it. I do love the way my face feels when it is clean.

I asked my daughter why she doesn’t wear make up and she said that she knows that when she wears it, it clogs her pores and she wants her face clean. She doesn’t want to have big pores when she is older.  That is one thing that both my Mom and I have had a problem with, bigger pores. My Mom’s has shrunk some with age, as well as her height (Love you Momma) and I am using cleaning products to try and help with that issue.

Mally Beauty has a product that minimizes the pore appearance, which I bought and it does work: Perfect Prep Poreless Primer. It has a silky feeling and you don’t even know it is on.

If you haven’t thought about it, possibly wearing make up is second nature to you, think about it and let me know why you wear make up or don’t wear it. I would love to hear the different responses I will get.

Growing up, I saw the way people treated their animals. Some let them inside the home and some didn’t allow the animals inside but had them outside for guarding purposes. A close family member at one time mentioned that animals didn’t have feelings so they just treated them however they wanted to.

I have seen on the local news how pet owners treat their animals, whether it be chaining them to a tree or leaving them out in the winter months or having them trained to attack other animals, which is illegal. I’m here to tell you that animals do have feelings! Looking at those examples, humans treat other humans the same way. People have been chained to something to work or stand guard, people have been left outside in the winter months, people have been trained to do bad things to others. Are we really that much different? read More >

First of all this was one movie that I really didn’t know much about because I didn’t watch any previews or trailer clips. If you haven’t heard of it, click on the video above and watch the preview.

I must say that I think this is the best movie I have seen that can touch everyone, no matter what you like.  For instance, there are Star Trek fans but others won’t go watch it if they aren’t interested in Star Trek or never watched it as a kid or adult. You might be lost in that film if you don’t know who James T. Kirk is or Spock. But with this film, WOW!  The graphics and story line keep you from falling asleep even though it is a long movie.

It is in 3D and I was told from many on my Facebook when I asked about it, that 3D is the way to go! Well, some people might get motion sickness because of the action and movement that is in this film. If you don’t get motion sickness, then you should be fine and it would be one heck of a movie to watch in 3D!  In my family I have some that get motion sickness, so we didn’t watch it in 3D and we went to the 9 pm showing. We were in our car at 11:50 going home, so it is about a 2-1/2 hour movie.

I don’t want to say too much about the movie. The video above says all you need to know, to go and see it.  I have noticed that in previews, whatever you see is usually the only best parts of the movie but with this one, there is so much more that is good that isn’t in the preview.

Leaving last night I thought that James Cameron is smart! Who wouldn’t want to watch a film and be happy for the man, who is in the wheelchair, to be able to run again? This movie is perfect for everyone. There is hardly any cursing, that I can remember, and there isn’t any nudity scenes.

So, out of all the movies I have scene this year for 2009, Avatar is the best, hands down! Go see it!!

I remember seeing the previews to this movie and thinking I want to see it! It just came out on rentals and last night while I was laying in bed feeling sick as a dog, I decided to watch this movie called, UP.

First, I have to say that the cartoon characters or would they even be called cartoon, maybe vector? Anyway, these characters are awesome! The facial expressions of Ellie makes you think you are really looking at a child and recognizing each thought as it comes across her face.

It is something how we are put together with the people in our life.  We don’t mistakenly come across someone’s site or bump into them.  I believe everything happens for a reason and if you are here reading this, it was meant for you to get to know me and my writings! If you comment, then it was meant for me to get to know you, otherwise I wouldn’t know who is reading. I couldn’t help but be reminded of, when little Carl met Ellie, how I met my husband.  I didn’t meet him in an old run down abadoned home like the beginning of their story but I did meet him at a gas station at 3 am on my Junior Prom night!  You don’t “just happen” to be somewhere and meet someone that will change the course of the rest of your life. I think it is a divine intervention! At least with my case it was.

So, Carl always wanted adventure!  Don’t we all remember a time when we wanted an adventure?  To watch this movie and see Carl grow old and not achieving his adventure with the love of his life beside him brought tears to my eyes.  Then life knocks at the door introducing Russell, the little over weight boy scout, who was trying to earn his last badge by helping a Senior Citizen.  How many of us help Seniors out today without something in return?  One day we will be a senior citizen and I hope that I am approached by someone young for their help.  It will make me feel like I am still here to do something in my life. Even though I am old and can’t get around a room without a cane that has tennis balls on the bottom legs.  These days it seems like they are treated with an air of “You don’t know what your talking about” kind of like how it was for us as parents when our children are becoming the age that everything we say or do is wrong and they are right. Seniors might be completely gray and look like q-tips as you are driving behind them but they are still young at heart, not ready to give in to being old or treated that way.  They still want to feel important, not feel as if they are a burden to society.  Especially in this fast paced one we live in now.

I would encourage everyone to sit down with their family or just by yourself like I was last night and watch this movie.  It will make you laugh, cry and want to call your Grandparents to tell them you love them or make you cry harder cause you miss them and can only say it to yourself! Then again, it might help you to learn to have patience with the elderly when you see them walking slowly across the pedestrian walk way in front of Wal-Mart or when you are behind them on the road and they are going slowly!  They aren’t going slow to get on your nerves. They might be having a hard time seeing or they might just be nervous in the fast pace race we are all running.  We could probably learn a few things from our elderly, like to slow down and enjoy life.  There are so many of our senior citizens that are like toddlers, spending most of their time in daycare, which is retirement homes.

This movie will also remind you of what your dreams were and if you are still young, go for it because you aren’t getting any younger. Time goes by and it seems it is going by faster every year. If you are thinking you are too old, help someone else achieve it. Or better yet, still try if the desire is there to achieve your dreams.  UP shows you that you are never too old and it is wonderful having someone beside you to share it, no matter who it is.

Life is still going on and there are people out there that are going through what you went through and it would be nice to have a mentor to help them get through the hard times. That mentor could be you! No matter what your age! So if you “run into someone” or if someone knocks on your door like our boy scout Russell did, give them the time of day. You wanted it at one time, remember that?

So many life lessons. Rent UP today!

What a wonderful movie!  I am by no means a cook and my husband would waste no time admitting that fact but one thing I learned from this movie, is that I am much like Julia Child.  Watching her trying to find something to do with her life while her husband worked was exactly what I have done.  Her passion was right in front of her and it didn’t click until after trying to become a hat maker, a bridge player and I am sure much more that we don’t know about.  The one thing she loved was eating French food.  She wanted to learn how to cook french style but there wasn’t any cook book teaching in english.  So, she took french language classes thinking she would be able to read the cook book and eat french cuisine. After a time, she decided to go to a french cooking school.

Some movies make you wish you never watched them and wasted the 2 hours of your life on nonsense.  This movie was a definite joy and made me look back on my life and see where I am now.  We all have a passion for something and it could be staring us right in the face. Mine is writing.  I don’t have a problem putting words on paper. It comes fairly easy and I love coming up with ideas that would possibly get the attention of the reader.

Watching Julie write every day for a year was inspiring.  To actually follow through on something that took a year, especially cooking recipes that don’t look easy to make, that was awesome.  She was faithful in her posting on her blog and it took months but she started to get readers and comments, which are hard to get.  That is what I plan on doing, being faithful to my Diaries of a Fruitcake and to my readers.

This movie is one to see.  I watched it off of Netflix.  The name, Julie & Julia.

I don’t know about you but I am thinking about doing the black friday shopping for the first time in my life.  I have been reading the articles in the local paper here and it is starting to kind of scare me.  Hearing about people who are crazy enough to snatch a little elmo doll out of a child’s hand and then that same man being beaten in the parking lot for his actions.  It sounds like crazy animals and long lines.  Are you brave to shop early?  If so, let me hear of your experiences with Black Friday!

I will be updating if I decide to venture out.

It’s a cold Saturday morning and I decided that my girls and I would go and see a chic flick.  I suggested “Love Happens” with Jennifer Aniston! I thought it would be a nice romantic movie, something that girls would love to watch without a man falling asleep next to them. My oldest was like…NOOOOO..but she gave in and decided to sit next to me and watch the movie.  Looking at the empty seats, she counted herself, me and my youngest daughter and another woman.  So, there were 4 of us in this little area at the noon showing.  I guess she was trying to make a point?!

It was a touching movie. I wouldn’t call it a romantic movie though it does have some great ideas for sparking the dying flame in your relationship. There are a lot of things we can do that are free and crazy that show you care enough about the person. To make them live life and put a smile on their face. This movie is about a man who deals with the loss of his spouse by writing a book to help others. But does he really deal with HIS loss?  He is going to different cities and doing a week seminar to help others take the first step, of many, in recovery. I personally haven’t really experienced the death of a loved one that was really close to me, like a child, parent or spouse.  I have lost my dog and went through the grieving process, with a tear or two, here and there.  I really can’t imagine losing someone so close to me but I know it will eventually happen, like it does for so many of us.

It was interesting that the movie pointed out fear.

That we allow fear to stop us when we lose someone.  He brought up that some stop doing things that make us who we are.  They die to self.  For example: Do you still take the elevator or taxi? Do you stop working in a certain field? Do you stop attending certain events or stop going to a store that you frequented with your loved one?  It hurts because they aren’t there or the last time you did a certain thing, like ride in an elevator, was with them.

I don’t know what type of books or help is out there for those who have lost a loved one but I would like to hear from you and what has helped you cope.

For the last day of 2008, while my husband and teenage son were on the first row, in the end zone watching Vanderbilt play against Boston College in the Music City Bowl, I took my teenage girls to a movie. We decided to watch Marley & Me in the Governors Square Mall off Wilma Rudolph Blvd. I had heard that the ending was sad, so I didn’t really want to go see this one but we did.

I was pleasantly surprised by a crazy, insane dog that liked to tear up the house and eat the furniture, even the floor! It made me think, “This dog is special. Not all animals are like this.”

They got their ‘clearance puppy’ as the next step after their marriage, instead of babies. It reminded me of my husband and I when we got married. Our first addition to the Agnew clan was Cocoa, a deer chihuahua. With long legs and big ears, she looked like a rat as a baby but grew into her own. She was so faithful and loyal but not very obedient, which led to her death. She was 8 years old.

We had left on my Grandpa’s tractor to go fishing, (this is in Alabama) and Cocoa was in the fenced-in yard but somehow got out to try and follow us (so we assume, we didn’t see her). When we got back she was hiding in some bushes. We had thought she got hit by a car and took her to the Vet immediately. As we were waiting for the results of the x-rays, I was looking through her coat and saw teeth marks and that is when we realized she was attacked by a big dog, according to the markings. The Vet gave us some pain medicine for her but she died the next morning in our arms. It was very hard to let go of our first addition to our family. Because of my experience, I could associate with the characters and their feelings with their “baby”.

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So you had a bad day! As you drive home you notice that your taken deep breaths a lot and sighing.  You decide when you get home you are going to have a big glass of red wine or maybe you’re a beer person and want a couple of beers. You can understand how people become alcoholics, no pun intended!

Maybe you just want to close yourself off to the world and have a long bubble bath.  No matter what it is that you decide to do to calm your nerves, the one thing that remains a fact is that you are stressing out because of your boss!

I decided to write about this subject because it is something that doesn’t seem to be addressed that often.  I never knew that sites existed to help those who have the big bad boss syndrome.  Not until my friend called me and told me to check out a site that shows we aren’t alone! read More >