Go See Noelle In Theaters If It's Near You! Opens December 7th!

T’is the season! Every time I leave my desk to walk somewhere, I’m hummin’ away – all kinds of sacred and secular holiday songs. They’re stuck in my head and they make me happy – so out they come! The boss says there’s nothing wrong with that! Can you tell I work for a great company (www.onholdconcepts.com)?

I do keep quiet at my desk, though, because I share an office with another copywriter, a man who was in the music industry for twenty years and --believe me -- he doesn’t need to hear me sing or I’d get a raspberry award or something. It’s good that God doesn’t care how we sound, just as long as praises to Him are always on either our lips or on our hearts. A less lesser (false) god (like Simon Cowell, for sure) would send me straight to hell (do not pass go, do not collect $200) for the way I sing, probably!

“Dammit Jim, I’m a writer, not a singer!” (Neither was Lee Marvin or Jimmy Durante or Rod Stewart sang/sing very well either but it never stopped them, so I’m not letting it stop me, either!) Actually, I’d rather be a writer than a singer, so what am I grousing about? hee hee hee

I had a dream about De and about Dad last night. I don’t remember much about either dream, but Dad passed away eight years ago today, so the Dad dream fits.

Dad never lets me get past this date without sending him a hello and several apologies for the fact that we so seldom saw eye-to-eye on anything. (Thank God I’m forgiven for all past misdeeds!) Dad and I pretty good were friends the last decade of his life, and that’s good… but I still have regrets that I wasn’t more compassionate and understanding of where he was coming from for a lot more years than I was. He had a hard row to hoe his entire life and that made our rows harder to how than they would otherwise have been. I’ve always compared him to Warner Bros.’ Tazmanian Devil or King Kong. He was always keeping things stirred up and it drove this peaceable type absolutely bonkers. I wasn’t given the gift of enjoying being off-balance and liking it. I like roller coaster rides, but not when it’s part and parcel of daily life! But I have to say, in a way I benefitted from it – because today not a whole lot can shake me up! That’s why I can say with all sincerity that God always turns trials into eventual triumphs. He never wastes a hurt.
He’s just amazing!

Jackie and I are going to make an offer in the place we found in Puyallup. We are praying it will be accepted, because we can’t offer full price. There is about $20K worth of stuff we need to do to it to make it right on both levels (upper and lower, where each of us will live) so we’re offering that much less, so we can stay within our budget. Please keep this offer in your prayers. We both pretty much have our hearts set on this place, even though we “shouldn’t.” We just haven’t seen anything this perfect in all the looking Jackie has been doing. It’s a dream home… that’s within our grasp. We just need agreement from God!

And if we don’t get it, He has a better plan! We both know that, so we’re trying not to set our hearts on this place… but it’s hard not to!

Rick will list my condo for sale right away if the offer (contingent on selling my condo) is accepted. The sellers have already agreed to this in principle; we just have to find out if they’ll accept the lesser offer. The place has been on the market six months, so we’re hopeful… but maybe it’s been listed for six months because the seller won’t come down on it. If that’s the case, we’re sunk…