Even A GRATEFUL Heart Can Get You a Speeding Ticket

I posted this Facebook status update (copied below) shortly before the events of this blog took place:

"Every time I think life is at maximum difficulty, there is something else that gets thrown in our mix to shake things back up and God proves life could always get harder.

I am trying to live the life Joel Osteen states we can live in his book, "Make Every Day a Friday." He reminds me to say THANK YOU for the house we live in, despite the fact that so many things have broken or fallen apart since we bought it... THANK YOU for the two beautiful boys we have rather than complain about the fact that we sleep 4-5 hours a night and take them to the doctor's office multiple times a week... THANK YOU for the jobs we have that we love doing, even though we work all hours of the day when we aren't with our kids... and THANK YOU for the friends and family we have, even though we might not get to see them enough in person to tell them.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. I know I am blessed."

This afternoon, as I was driving home, I was thinking about this post I had written shortly before leaving work, when I passed a church in Perrysburg with a sign that read, "A greatful heart is the key to joy."  Three thoughts struck me as I read the sign:

1. Dang it, I want that key to joy!!!
2. God put that sign there to reassure my Facebook post.
3. I was GRATEFUL I knew the correct spelling of the word GRATEFUL and wondered if the church had misspelled it on purpose when.......

          I got pulled over for speeding.

As the cop made his slow stroll toward my minivan, I tried to keep it together.  However, I lost the inner battle with my emotions and the tears started flowing.  (I blame it on my extreme fatigue and challenging week.) When Mr. Cop asked me why I was speeding, I made no mention of the ironic events I had seriously been pondering OR the grateful heart I was trying to have.  Instead I just cried, choked out my phone number, and told him I didn't know the speed limit. After checking my license, he asked if I still lived in Toledo.  I informed him we had recently moved here.

I'd like to say that the cop had a genuine concern for my tears and gave me a warning, but he did not.

I got the big blue bill.

As he gave me the ticket, he muttered, "Drive carefully", without making eye contact, and sent me on my blubbering way.  I am fairly certain he felt awkward since I was sobbing (the flood gate had burst), but I don't blame him.  There is probably a sign in his Perrysburg office that reads, "If you give every mother who cries a warning, we'll never make any money in this town"... so I forgive him.  He was just doing his job.

At first I was angry and sad.  I don't really care a lot about the ticket.  The money can always be justified by statements like:

• "Think of all the times I haven't got caught speeding!" 
• "It's the first ticket I've gotten in almost ten years." 
• "Dominic doesn't care. In fact, he won $200 dollars at work today which should cover it."
• "This shouldn't put too big of a dent in my insurance."  
• and the always encouraging, "At least we don't have a car payment!"

I think I was just angry and sad because it's embarrassing to get a ticket... and because I had just posted that life can always get harder.

So that brings me back to my grateful heart, which if you recall is supposed to be the key to JOY.

Here goes:
I am GRATEFUL to be an able-bodied citizen who can operate a motor vehicle... even if it is sometimes at too fast of a pace.
I am GRATEFUL to have a car to drive that allowed me to get pulled over.
I am GRATEFUL that our society has police officers who keep us safe from others... including ourselves. 
I am GRATEFUL that at the end of the day I can smile about this whole thing and know that it's not that big of a deal.

Top 5: What I "LIKE" About Facebook

As all (or at least almost all) of you know, I am a Facebook junky.  It took me a while to jump on the bandwagon, so I am not going to act like I was there from the start.  I even remember visiting a good college friend in Columbus post-college who was on her Facebook site and I was just surprised that she liked it.  It seemed so streamlined and boring, with very little color compared to my at-the-time obsession with MySpace.  Ahhhhhh, MySpace, that was so "early 2000s".  I have come a long way since that day in that apartment.  I started with trying out Facebook "incognito" about 5 years ago and have since opened myself up to my friends and family members (still no students - current or former and my security walls are still high) and I am now sitting at 716 friends and counting and I probably haven't signed onto MySpace since before my wedding, over four years ago.   Therefore, I would like to take a minute and dedicate this "Top 5" post to Facebook, the world-dominating website.

 

In no particular order, here are the things I "like" most about Mark Zuckerberg's social-global network:

1. No matter what time of day it is, someone is ALWAYS going to "like" or comment on something I do on Facebook, whether it is a picture post or status update.

2. Every single time I feel like I am alone in the world and make the feeling public by posting about it, dozens of people comment enough to reassure me that I am not.  Praise God I am not a TOTAL weirdo!

3. Facebook has allowed me to become super lazy about Googling or researching.  (I guess I need to consider this when I am talking to my students about research!)  Whenever I want a review on something, I go to the people I trust the most - mainly my MOM friends.  It's like my own personal GMA segment on Mom-tested items.  Does anyone know what I am talking about?  I also like to hear from all of my friends and family members.  It's very interesting to get a variety of opinions about a topic!

4. It's fascinating and heart-warming for me to see people ranging from my family members to former teachers to coworkers to high school buddies to sorority sisters all converse and/or even debate about anything and everything I ask questions or random polls about.  It's a room full of people that will never ever be in a room together anywhere else! 

5. My "Facebook Family" is always there to give me a HUGE hug and a ton of support whenever I need it.  There are people on my wall (oh, excuse me, TIMELINE!!!) that I rarely ever talked to in high school due to our "social class differences" (i.e. far more popular than me) and family members from around the nation that I have only ever met a handful of times.  Some of these people have been my greatest supporters over the course of the past few years.  Other people who I love dearly and would not get to catch up with nearly enough without Facebook are also huge parts of my life simply BECAUSE of this website.

Thank you, Mr. Zuckerberg.  I'll be honest with you; I watched The Social Network once and it confused me.  (Possibly because I had a hard time accepting that Justin Timberlake was playing the role Sean Parker.) I still don't know who to believe in this crazy story about the creation of Facebook, and frankly I don't care.  All I know is that it has truly changed my life and my attitude and it continues to do so every single day.  That's what matters to me, and I sure LIKE that an awful lot.

Techie Tuesdays: My Top 10 Most Used iPad/iPhone Apps

This week, I decided to knock out a quick "Top 10" list of apps that I use the most on my iPhone and iPad.  I am throwing them all into one blog post, because many of these are used universally and therefore I am probably not going to introduce you to much (or anything) that is new, exciting, and unique.  However, I wanted to pay homage to these apps because I truly use almost all of them every single day.  Please note that all of these (and so far all of the apps I've covered) are FREE!  Free is always good! :-)
OK, here we go.  I will alphabetize them so they are all considered equal!

1. Blogger (Social Networking)

Of course I had to give a shout-out to Blogger on my Blog! I still prefer to type on my laptop (I haven't used my laptop all year as much as I've used it since I started blogging. I just can't type fast on my iPad or iPhone and I have yet to invest in a keyboard for my iPad!)  Although you can't do nearly as much on the Blogger app as you can do on the actual website, it's still good for starting a draft, uploading pics, and editing posts.




2. Email (Business/Social Networking)

One of the best aspects of the Email system on iPads and iPhones is that you can get all of your messages sent to the same location, so you don't have to worry about checking your work/personal/family accounts.  I've been able to stay on top of my emails a lot more since getting an iPhone, because now I check them and delete them as they come in.  Before I was checking my email rarely and would just be bogged down and overwhelmed with all of the messages waiting for me to look through them.





3. Facebook (Social Networking)
Since SmartPhones came out, I have felt as though using Facebook is as easy as text-messaging.  I get updates on notifications, and I check them as often as I check my texts.  I know a lot of people think I am on Facebook all of the time, but I am not sure how many of them understand how little time I actually spend on it.  I can accomplish so much in such a short amount of time with the Facebook app.





4. Groupon  (Shopping/Dining/Entertainment)

If you aren't getting your "Group" on, then you need to start.  Groupon is a website and app that allows you to either use your Facebook account or create a new account and receive great-deal discounts on gift cards from local, national, and international businesses.  These deals vary daily, but they are usually about 50% off of the regular price.  I will use a popular local Groupon as an example.  Nagoya Japanese Steakhouse is one of the most popular Groupons around our area.  When it is available, they offer a 50 dollar gift card for $25.  What a great deal!  The only catch is that so many people need to buy the Groupon for the deal to be on.  I have only seen a deal get canceled a couple of times, and that was toward the earlier days of Groupon.  There are many pluses for using Groupon.  For starters, it's a great way to try new places for the first time.

BTW - If you do NOT currently have a Groupon account, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me and I will "refer" you! If I refer you and you create an account, I will get ten dollars to use on their site!

Now I should clarify that I don't use the app to PURCHASE my actual Groupons.  One of the best things about Groupon for me, as a Discover Card user, is that if I log into "ShopDiscover" and buy a Groupon I get 15% cash back on that purchase.  I will go back to my Nagoya example for this.  Since I spent $25 in order to get a $50 gift card to Nagoya, but I bought it through ShopDiscover I actually got $3.75 off of that purchase, making it really $21.75 for a $50 gift card.  However, then I take my Discover Rewards dollars (that $3.75) and increase them through their cashback bonus program, so that $3.75 becomes even more... up to twice as much (or $7.50!) This may seem complex, but really it isn't.  I love saving money!

NOTE:  I do not want to encourage anyone to open a credit card for these types of perks.  I only have one credit card (this Discover one) and I even consider letting that one go after going through Financial Peace with Dave Ramsay a couple of years ago.

Please purchase items responsibly!

4. Mint (Financial Planning and Organization)

I love Mint! I highly recommend it! This is an app (and website) that allows users to combine all of their banks, credit cards, and investment accounts into one place.  Once all of your accounts are linked, every check you write, debit card purchase you make, direct deposit or withdrawal, credit card swipe, etc. all gets filed chronologically through this site and placed into your personalized budgets.  I love how intuitive the program is.  It knows how to categorize almost everything except checks (those come up as they do on a bank statement as "Check 1234".)  This is definitely a great app for people who truly need to visualize their budgets.


6. Pandora (Music)

Pandora has taken over my musical life.  I used to buy hundreds of CDs and albums.  I have them all organized in files.  Now I rarely ever buy music.  Instead, I listen to it on Pandora or other similar music apps.  I use Pandora at home, school, and on the road.  I really like how if you pick an artist it plays music from other similar artists.  It also lets you give individual songs either thumbs UP or DOWN, and then it remembers what you like and don't like for future plays.



7. Pinterest (Crafting/Cooking/Hobbies)

Besides keeping family recipe cookbooks, I think cookbooks are quickly becoming a thing of the past.  Pinterest is my new cookbook.  I know from my job as a teacher that most learners are "visual learners", hence the success of Pinterest.  Pinterest takes pics of anything from baked goods to bedroom designs and allows users to "Pin" them onto various boards.  Each picture is linked to a URL which will take the user to the website that will instruct him or her how to make the pictured item.  What a concept!  It's a great way to keep all of your future craft/party/cooking/decorating ideas in one location.  You need an invitation to join, but anyone can invite you or you can request an invite through the website.  Let me know if you need an invitation and I will send you one!


8. Viggle (Televison)

This may be a new app for some of you.  I hadn't heard about it until last spring, when my former choir director told me about it on Facebook.  Viggle is an app that actually REWARDS people for watching television.  Basically, whenever you watch tv you can turn on Viggle and it will listen to your tv and give you points for checking in on that station.  Either it will be able to identify the show you are watching or it will try a couple of times and then let you search for it on your own.  Every morning I watch 13ABC news while I dry my hair.  I turn Viggle on and get rewarded points for simply watching the show I watch every single day!  Since 13ABC news is a local program it is not one that Viggle recognizes, so it doesn't matter that the hairdryer is going b/c it won't pick up the show anyway. I always have to type it in.  So far, I have earned a few thousand points but I have never redeemed them.  My former choir director has redeemed hers for gift cards, so it is legit.  A bonus to Viggle is that there are trivia games you can play during highly watched shows.  I like to play the Modern Family trivia game because it gets me more points!  A downfall to Viggle is that it really sucks the juice out of your battery, so don't use it if you won't be able to charge your phone during the day.  Honestly, I am not a big TV viewer but it's nice to earn something for watching the shows that I do watch!  If you are a person who watches HOURS of TV I would definitely recommend that you get this app!




9. Words with Friends

Words with Friends is a fun Scrabble-like game app where you and a friend can play either online, on Facebook, or on your phones.  Since I am an English teacher, I like fun word games.  This one in particular has me hooked because there isn't a time limit and you don't have to play every day.  Plus users can play up to ten games at once.  One thing I don't love about WWF is that there are words that are in our dictionary that are NOT accepted on WWF and then there are accepted words that don't even make sense!  Yet for the most part, this is a good mind-numbing app to play with a friend, family member, or complete stranger if that is your style.  Oddly enough, as I was typing this I just got a notification that it's my turn to make a move on one of my games.

Side Note: Although so far every app I have mentioned has been a free one, I actually just paid for the ad-free version of Words with Friends after using the ad-version for years.  I received an email two days ago letting me know that they were only charging 99cents for the ad-free version of WWF, so I bought it because the ads are slightly annoying.  Granted, I wouldn't have paid more than 99cents for the ad-free version, but I am happy with it because I use this app so much.

10. YouVersion Bible (Christian/Religious)

I like the YouVersion Bible app because once you create an account, you can flag your favorite verses and highlight passages plus make notes.  I also like the fact that you can choose which version of the Bible you want to read.  At both home group and church I have noticed an increase in people on their phones using this app.  I think it's fascinating because some people assume that anyone on their phone is texting.  HAH!  There is so much more to phones than texting.  If I am on my phone at home group or church it's either because I am using YouVersion or because I am taking notes on the NotePad app.  God is everywhere, right?  Even in our technology!


Well this concludes Lavender's list of app-obsessions.  I would love to know which apps you use on a daily basis.  If you were to select your 10 most-used apps, what would they be?  Once baby comes and BABY ESP for the iPhone comes out, I am sure that will replace one of these as one of my top ten apps.  More about that app though in a week or two.

Have a tech-fabulous week, friends!!! Learn something new and then come back and teach me about it!