Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sandy Update


My birthday present has gone from huggable to huge! Remember that sweet little seven-pound puppy? She is nearly seven times that size now and still growing. She has learned how to bark at strangers, and she's mostly house-trained... stay tuned.


Thursday, June 18, 2009

Follow Me on Twitter

Yesterday at work, we saw a Twitter presentation about an employee who died too young. His short messages, strung together, painted a picture of a sweet husband, a fanatic father and a praying ice cream lover. If his tweets could inspire people to be better, get creative, love God and be kinder, then I want to do the same. Follow me at www.Twitter.com/LorriVAllen and let's encourage each other!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Kindness

We all want to be kinder, right? Or maybe more accurately, we all want to be treated more kindly. I was excited to find out about The Kindness Revolution, which is taking the idea to companies and schools. The organization is looking for representatives--can you do the job?

Sunday, June 7, 2009

I'll Dance at Your Wedding

Most of my childhood summers were spent with my arthritic grandmother. I loved being with her. It was a win-win. She made me feel special, and I carried, ran errands, cleaned up. She didn't make me work too hard, though. Sometimes, she would even preface a request with the phrase, "I'll dance at your wedding." Never mind that I would do the task anyway. Never mind that we worshipped at an old-fashioned church that didn't approve of dancing. And never mind that if there were dancing at my wedding, she'd be doing well to walk to her seat.

Just the idea of my grandmother dancing, got me moving quickly to do whatever she wanted doing. The first time she said it, I remember asking, "Really, Marnie? You'd dance at my wedding?" I liked the idea of her being able to dance, and if putting her shoes in the closet or carrying the dirty clothes to the washing machine would help, I wanted to do my part.

When I finally did get married at age 33, Marnie had been dead eleven years. And there was no dancing at the ceremony or reception. But I like to think that maybe she was dancing in Heaven, with two strong, unbent legs, fulfilling a promise.