A Boy, Pajamas and a Little Imagination

                

    A little boy       

      

    A little boy in his pajamas

A little boy in pajamas and a little imagination

This costume was really fun to make!

Unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting so this is the only picture that i could use.

Expiration Dates and Thankfulness

How often do you check the expiration date on the groceries you buy and store in your pantry? I check them when I buy them and as I want to use them. Some things have a grace period, usually seven to ten days after the sell by date. And you can freeze many of the products and they can last for months or up to a year.

Now how often do you remember to check when your vehicle registration expires? Well I thought about ours every now and then throughout the year. I knew it was in October and I even remember saying we need to get it done in the beginning of the month. Well that thought came and went as most of the information that enters my head. LOL

We were giving some friends a ride home from AWANA when I started to tell them about an unmarked police car waiting behind a vehicle and a red light with their light flashing. I was saying how nervous I would be if that were me. Dawn was saying something about expired registration and I immediately got an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. It took me a minute to realize that October was over in two days, and one of those days was a Sarurday.

I came up with a plan to leave work early on Friday and pray really hard that our van passed the inspection process. So I left work at 2:00 and headed home to get Kenny and Justin to go to the DMV, I was about ten minutes from home when I passed an officer who had just finished with a traffic stop
and was waiting to pull back out onto the road. I noticed there were no cars behind me and that the officer fell in behind me. I thought to myself “boy it's a good thing that I have one more day left to register the van or I would be getting pulled over." Me and my big stinking head! No sooner did I finish that though I hear a wooooop. Yup that was his siren, I looked up and he motioned me to the side of the road. I pulled off into a parking lot again being
thankful of the one more day I had and the fact that I was on my way to the DMV. The officer is walking up to the van and I figured he was going to remind me that my tag expires tomorrow. Now our window button broke so we have to use needle nose pliers to open it. He is at the window and I am grabbing for the pliers. I am a little anxious now because I have no idea what he is going to think I am doing with pliers. He stepped back and I could see his whole body breath a deep sigh when he realized what I was doing. He stated his name and said I pulled you over because your tags expired on the 15th.

My heart stopped and I replied. "It did! I thought it was the 31st that they expired! I was absolutely flabbergasted. He asked for my license and registration. I pulled out the registration and insurance and then reached in to my purse for my wallet. It was not there so I looked on the floor thinking it had fallen out. I got a sickly felling when I still did not find it and felt the color draining from my body. I turned to him and said, “I’m sorry but I don't have my license with me. He makes sure I own the van and then tells me to say in the van and sit tight.

My mind is going a mile a minute now because of everything that just happened and I told myself to stay calm and not to cry. He came back with a mandatory court appearance ticket and my heart sank. This is my third time getting pulled over in three years. He then proceeded to tell me that I needed to go set up a court dated by a certain day and if I went right to DMV and had proof that I did indeed register my van today and provided my license he would dismiss the charges. About a $200 Ticket, let’s just say I was relieved beyond belief.

We arrived at the DMV and made it through the inspection line and passed everything. We had a $10 late fee but heck I’d rather pay $10 more than $200 more. We are now driving legally :) whew!!

I got to thinking about expireation dates and how everything we have expires. As I stated above the food we buy expires, the clothes we wear expires do to wear and tear, out bank cards expire, credit cards expire, coupons expire and many other items expire for one reason or another.

Can you think of something that does not ever expire? I can only think of one, the love of God. Gods love will never expire it is everlasting. When you accept Jesus as your savior He will forgive you of your sins, whether it is getting pulled over for expired tags or committing a murder; if you truly accept Jesus into your heart and truly repent of your sins He will wipe your slate clean. God’s love is unconditional. I am so thankful that no matter what I have done or do God will always love me.