Mr Fabulous Fifty and I have been wondering if we now live in Florida. Or Guatemala. Or anywhere that it rains for 4 hours or more per day. Its an odd thing. The day can clear up. Sunshine. Blue skies. Hurry with the lawn mower while there is a break. No problem, looks all gone. Not so. Rain. Pouring rain. Blue skies were an illusion.

Maybe our address should be “Lake Texas”.

And our forecast? Rain for another week or more. I’d cry me a river but there would be no point.

We’ve been enduring record breaking rainfall in North Texas with flash flooding, soggy yards growing odd fungi and cancelled outdoor activities.

And when the news begins to include other places in Texas where we belong, we are doubly affected.

We thought we had seen too much rain in too little time until we heard about our home area: Marble Falls, Texas. Nineteen (yes, you read that right: 19) inches within a few hours. We first heard about it through Frito Lay daughter who reported a few of their trucks were swept off the roadway in this quaint hill country/lake area town. Turning to the news found devastating photos of the area.

I’m trying not to complain about the rain because we’ve been in a drought the past few years, starting out the spring at 39 inches below standard rainfall. But we can rest assured. The past two months have given us back all the missing rainfall plus more. The lakes are not only full, they are over-flowing.

Its time for some summer weather in Texas. Let the sun shine.

My blogger friend, Antique Mommy, posed a question: Have you ever won a prize? She had won a gigantic, enormous, bigger-than-a-mountain-pumpkin while an elementary student. I spent the afternoon occasionally returning to my list of prizes in a trip down the lane of memories.

Prize: Essay in Archie Comic Book. How: In 5th grade, I wrote an essay which was selected for the comic book. Living in Germany at the time meant that by the time the dollar and the letter arrived informing me of the “win”, the comic book with my prize was no longer available. I still have the letter with the Archie logo as evidence.

Prize: College Scholarship. How: In my senior year of high school, I sent in my portfolio for a sort of contest application to a university in Texas. I spent months working on the portfolio (this was before there was such a thing as AP Art), sent it in and won. Second place. Art show at the university with the other two winners. Scholarship for four years, degree in art.

Prize: Ipod. How: Another essay contest. This one online. They claim the winner was selected randomly but I doubt that. I saw many of the other submissions and quite frankly there were not many attempts at English grammar. (If u no wat i mean? Y type a hole werd win a # wud werk. U2?)

Prize: UK Lottery. Nigerian Inheritance. Daily winner for lotteries I have never entered. How: All I have to do is contact the guy on the emails. Send them a hunk of my hard earned money. They then are supposed to send me 20 gazillion dollars because some guy in Nigeria died without any family and I was selected to inherit his funds or because some guy needs to transfer lottery funds back into US Dollars through my bank account.

Looking back at my list I’m struck by the fact that my prizes were not awarded randomly. In fact, I guess when I’m in a room of people with a doorprize ticket, I will not be the one that is selected. Even if there were just two of us in a door prize room. I’m not a random-winner-of-prizes type of gal. The prizes in my life required some input on my part. Words for an essay. Artwork. My bank account.

And thankfully, the biggest prize of all wasn’t given randomly…nor from my input! Without an essay, a piece of art or my bank account I was given the Savior. And future prizes are mine in Him:

…I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

And you? Have you won a prize?

ETA: I just did a Google search for the particular Archie Comic book and found it on ebay! I’ve bid on the comic and hope to have a copy for my memory box! I can’t wait to see what the Fabulous Ten girl wrote.

When I was little, I imagined I would grow up like all other little girls. I imagined I would somehow transform from cute, tiny, little girl into long, legged, glamourous woman with no relation to the freckled faced girl that I was.

I did grow up. I became fifty years old. My children grew from babyhood to adulthood faster than I would have liked. The grown-up version of myself should be different. Right?

Yesterday, I went for a haircut. It always starts the same. I sit in the waiting area with hair style magazines on my lap as I dream of a hair style that is different in order to turn me from a cute fifty year old woman into a glamourous bombshell.

Turns out that no matter how my hair is cut, I always look the same.

I still look at myself in the mirror and see the eight year old girl with freckles, glasses on her face over a pair bright blue eyes. And with a second glance, I see my mother.

So this is me.

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:13-14