Cell Phones, Balloons, Stolen Basses and Other Unrelated Stories

While we were waiting for our flight to Nashville to take off last Friday morning, we were seated next to a woman on her cell phone. She was the typical LOUD cell phone user, gabbing away, sharing information with those seated close to her whether they wanted to hear it or not...

As this was continuing, the flight attendant started talking to the man directly in front of Cell Phone Lady. Several people had chimed in on the conversation when CPL said, "I'm going to have to hang up, it's getting noisy in here." Les and I about fell out of our seats with laughter!


During the reception, I got in lots of hugs from my niece Hannah. Their family was headed to Charleston, SC, during the girls' Spring Break. With each hug, Hannah would say, "I wish you were going with us."

Awwww.... yeah, that was me in the puddle on the floor.


After the reception, Les and I went to Red Robin with his cousin Jonathan and his family. Of course their little girl, Morgan, wanted a pink balloon and their son, Mason, wanted a blue one. As we headed to our table, we spotted some other folks we knew. During the chitchat, Mason asked me to tie his balloon on his wrist. It was all good until we sat down, and his balloon became untied, quickly escaping to the ceiling.

In a typical child's response, Morgan began to cry. Then he told his dad, "I NEED it, quick!" His dad stood as tall as possible, and still couldn't reach. What is an almost 3 year old to do? He quickly came up with this solution, "We can go to Walmart, and buy a ladder to get it down!"


As we were boarding our flight home, we were behind a young lady. She was reading "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. Yes, reading on the jetway. She'd take 2 or 3 steps, then open her book and continue reading. A few times a gap would open up between her and the rest of the passengers boarding. I thought she seemed quite interested in her book, but with a 4+ hour flight, didn't think it was necessary to get such a head start on her reading.

I was wrong. She was seated across the aisle from me and as soon as she was buckled in, she fell asleep! Guess she knew the only reading she was going to do was while she was standing up!


And finally, Bro. Mike Rickenbaker told us an amazing story while we were in Nashville. Over the course of several years, he had three electric bass guitars stolen from the church.

Bro. Rickenbaker has been involved in prison ministry for many, many years. A prisoner started attending their services. After some time, the prisoner came to Bro. Rickenbaker and said, "I need to ask your forgiveness." This man was responsible for stealing two of the three basses, and God was dealing with him to repent of this sin. Of course the basses had been sold long ago, but Bro. Rickenbaker forgave the man. This man has now been baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost!! You just never know what will happen when someone steals from the church!