The Beauty of A&D

I am addicted to chapstick.  I carry it with me everywhere I go.  Actually, more specifically, I am addicted to A&D ointment.

I have been the receiver of much grief over my A&D Ointment obsession.  After all, in order to purchase this miracle ointment, you have to go to the baby diaper rash section of a drug store.  My friends refer to it as "butt paste."  BUT (pun intended) I've officially converted all of my biggest critics.  They're all using it now, too!

A&D Ointment is good for chapped skin (that's why it's good for diaper rash and chapped lips), minor cuts, and minor burns (I use it when I burn myself with the flat iron).  I actually lather up with A&D Ointment when I have a sunburn.  It's a little stinky and very slimy, but I never peel when I use it!  Seriously, it's good for virtually everything!


For those of you who may want to shy away from carrying a tube of diaper rash cream around in your purse, here's my solution.  Buy a round little travel container and it looks like Carmex.  Much more discreet.

A&D Ointment comes in a variety of sizes.  

Big tubs

And two sizes of tubes.  I have a small tube in my purse sometimes and a big tube in my bathroom.

Bottom line -- everyone needs their very own A&D Ointment!

Fine print:  I'm not a doctor.  I'm not a pharmacist.  I'm not giving you medical advice.  Go ask your doctor if you have a serious burn or cut.  I'm just telling you what works for me!

Last Call!

Okay, folks!  Last call for prayer warriors!  We're finalizing the China prayer team list, so if you'd like to be a part of God's work in my trip (which is coming SOON!),  please shoot me an email so I can add you to the this.  You don't want to miss the opportunity be a part of something this BIG!!!

Thank You, Jesus, for 3-Year-Olds

Last week I had lunch with my pastor's wife.  She is a wonderful lady and at the end of our conversation she challenged me to be more intentional about finding a small group (aka Sunday School class) to go to at least a couple of times a month.  Fellowship is something that I am lacking at my church and so I took her challenge.  My friend Courtney and her husband have a class they go to on Sunday mornings so I thought I'd play the role of the third wheel and go to their class even though it's a marrieds class and I'm (obviously) not yet married.

Courtney and Noah's 3 year old wasn't exactly cooperating with her parents this morning and so Noah was left in the kids wing trying to negotiate with Georgia a crying-free entrance into her Sunday School classroom while Courtney and I headed to class.  We were a few minutes late (no biggie) and caught up quickly on the topic of today's lesson -- marriage.

Seriously?  It's not awkward enough for me to be single going to a married folks' class, but now we're actually talking about marriage!  I literally sat on my left hand so as to not expose my marital status.  Courtney leaned over and assured me this was not the normal topic of conversation in class.  I swallowed hard and convinced myself that it was okay and that maybe I could steal a nugget of wisdom for the future.

And then, as if it wasn't painful enough, it got worse.

The class teacher split us into two groups -- guys and gals.  Guys on one side of the room.  Gals on the other.  We were to work with our same-sex group to determine what our needs were to feel loved inside of a marriage.  We were to make a list of these needs.


Lord Jesus, save me now.  

The teacher talked for what felt like an eternity about some potential marital "needs" and I swear the ceiling opened up and a spotlight lowered down just to shine on my ringless left hand.  The teacher went on to say that there are no wrong answers and that basically we shouldn't be embarrassed to write something down because, and I quote, "We're all married in here."  


What kind of bad joke is this?!  I seriously didn't know if I could make it out before tears found their way out of my eyes and down my face.  I not-so-gracefully excused myself to Courtney, picked up my bag and left the room.  I barely got to an empty office room before the tears came.  UGH!  Darn married people's class.  


Thankfully, Noah was still in the kids' wing trying to convince sweet little Georgia to go to her classroom.  I asked Georgia if I could go to Sunday School with her.  She took my hand in hers and we marched right on into that 3-year-old classroom.  And let me tell you -- I may have been the loser in the married class, but I was the coolest kid in the 3-year-old classroom!  We made fireworks with glue and glitter (I've gotta say I was a little jealous that I didn't get my own black piece of construction paper and glue stick) and then it was play time.

I was trying to convince Georgia to play with this sweet little girl who was apparently in love with me and trying to stand as close to me as possible.  (Just to help set the scene, here's your mental picture.  I'm 5'8'' and I was sitting in a chair made for a 3-year-old and this precious little girl was literally as close to me as she could possibly make herself.)  I asked Georgia which of the multitude of toys in the room she wanted to play with, but she just ignored me.  She knew my trickery.  Then I asked Rylee (my new little buddy) what she wanted to play with.  "I want to play with you."  Melted my sad little heart!  

So instead of pawning Georgia off onto another 3-year-old, she got a stack of books for us to read together and before I knew it, half the class was huddled around me and Georgia and Rylee as we read about colors and Jonah and David and loads of other fun things!  I could barely pull myself away from those sweet babies in time to get to big church.

The day started out kind of rough, but one thing's for sure.....I was thanking Jesus today for my 3-year-old friends!