Is everyone addicted to something?

Sometimes it feels like everyone has an addiction to something. Hi my name is Tammy and Im a nose spray addict. Yes this is true, I'm not kidding. I panic if I don't have it with me. I would go to about any extreme to get it. I've tried to stop. I've tried the saline stuff and felt like I'd drown before finding relief. To everyone who tells me to just stop I tell them that I will move in with them the first few days and I promise you will be looking for a 24 hour Walgreens to buy my nose junk for me. Needless to say I lose my cherub like demeanor when I can't breath.
Now on to the serious stuff. I am the daughter & ex-wife of an addict and/or alcoholic. There have been times that I wondered if I was so miserable to be around that people had to use just to be around me. I mean I don't have to use to be around me and I'm around me most of the day. I have learned through countless hours of counseling, reading, listening to tapes, researching online, enabling groups, and talking to addicts and doctors that addiction is truly a disease. Just like diabetes or even my epilepsy.  It has to be managed and maintained. An addict can't simply stop because they are upsetting you. I've learned that you can't take things personal. An addict doesn't make a conscience decision to use just to make you mad. Most of the time you are nowhere in the decision at all. These people have been handed a lemon. You just gotta hope they don't make spiked lemonade with them.
I coined a phrase several years ago that I want to share. "Some people are assholes by chemical and some are assholes by nature. The chemical assholes  can stop drinking , smoking or popping but the nature assholes will always be just that. "  My dad is and always will  be the most amazing man in my eyes. He has 24 years clean under his belt and has been an awesome. He has spent everyday since Aug 31, 1988 making up for his mistakes. I am so proud of him.
Have a little compassion when dealing with this disease and remember that it is a disease. Until next time~safe picking

A lemon scented Christmas

So many cleaning supplies are lemon scented. They are designed to clean up something messy and leave a fresh lemony smell. So I guess lemons aren't always bad.

This time of year lots of people are reflecting over past Christmases and what their favorite holiday memories are.

I too, have a favorite childhood memory of Christmas. It was a pair of socks that made my Christmas when I was 16 years old. The socks weren't mine but my dads. See, my dad WAS an alcoholic. For some strange reason when he came home and had been drinking he always took his socks off then put his shoes back on his bare feet. I guess that's where I get my dislike of anything on my feet is from him. I only wear shoes when I'm forced to.

I will never forget that Christmas eve, which is when we opened our gifts, that he came home and had his socks on. Those socks were THE best Christmas gift I have ever received, and still are.That was the first of many wonderful Christmases with my dad. He was been sober now for 26 years and I couldn't be prouder of him. As a matter of fact, I would fight anyone that mistreated him or broke his heart.


In my previous post "Is everyone addicted to something" I talk about a phrase I coined. "some people are asses by nature and some people are asses by chemical" The nature asses can't stop drinking anything to be tolerable. So, like those scented cleaning supplies, not everything that smells like a lemon has to be bad.

I love you daddy!
Until next time- safe picking
Tammy
12.18.2012

I know Jesus turned water into wine, but what can He do with a lemon?

World English Dictionary

faith (feɪθ)
— n
1.	strong or unshakeable belief in something, esp without proof or evidence
2.	a specific system of religious beliefs
3.	Christianity trust in God and in his actions and promises
4.	a conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion, esp when this is not based on reason
5.	complete confidence or trust in a person, remedy, etc I was saved as a small child and baptized shortly after. But it was years later when I truly learned the meaning of Faith. About 5 years ago I was on a ski trip with my husband and sitting in a hotel room flipping through the channels. I came across Frederick Price's sermon on Faith. After just a few moments I was on the floor sobbing like a little child counting my many blessings. See, 7 yrs prior to that, I was in the darkest place I had ever been in my life. I had about 5 life changing blows in a 6 month span. I was tired and honestly didn't care if I lived or died. I met a man at my new job who changed me forever. His biblical intelligence was more than anyone I had ever met and still to this day have met. He introduced me to a book titled "How Faith Works" by Frederick Price. The principal of the book is based on Mark 11:22 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly[a] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. I learned how to pray and ask God for what I needed, but more importantly how to have Faith that He had me covered. I was praying for God to simply take care of me, give me the wisdom to know which path He was leading me and for a Godly man to come into my life. So when I was sitting in that hotel room all those years later and Dr. Price was preaching on Faith, I was overwhelmed with the realization that He had answered all my prayers. I had gotten my happy ending. I never had been without. I has married to an amazing man. He had taken all my lemons and turned them into the most beautiful blessings a girl could ask for. I also learned patience. Our schedule and God doesn't always match. What I think is the best thing for me sometimes is the worst. I now just pray for His will to be done and to have the sight to see it so I don't miss my blessing. There is an old church story about a church  that gathers to pray for rain for their small town that is in the middle of a draught. When the congregation shows up the preacher asked why they didn't have umbrellas if they really had faith that God was going to answer their prayers. God has a plan for each of us. No matter when things are going great or we are in the middle of a life tragedy, He's got this. You just have to have FAITH! Until next time- Safe picking Tammy 12.6.2012