Foot Prints

No not the kind that tracks mud, dirt, and leaves inside your house. Another kind of footprints. Good afternoon and come on in. Grab a red ware mug and get a cup of coffee. It is plain old DD this afternoon, and you can have a piece of Pepper Ridge farm white cake with it, if you like. (I like)lol I have the fireplace on so even though it is cold outside it is warm and so pleasant in here.

I have been doing some thinking today.(Those of you who really know me, are thinking this is scary!Betty thinking!)lol I have been thinking about footprints and the people who have left their foot prints on my life. Not my family. That is a given. Family influences make us who we are and that is wonderful. (However I sometimes wonder why my parents didn't give me their musical ability.) That is another blog. I am talking about people we have met along our journey. They probably have no idea they have even left their footprints on us. I think about two saints, from my church, who have gone onto Heaven first of all. I loved Trula Wells so much. She was a saint in my opinion long before she entered Heaven. She is the one who gave me the quote,"Betty, Remember, they have to answer for how they treat you, but YOU have to answer for how you treat them." I have tried to live by this. My whole family uses this quote. The other was LaVetta Crawford. She was loved by a whole lot of school children as well as young women(and older) in our church. She was a Sunday School teacher,( as well as an elementary school teacher,) who told me one time that seeing a sermon was as important as hearing one. They have both left deep footprints on my life.
Most of you know I worked many years in Special Education. Oh my, the kids who have left their foot prints on my life. I can look back and laugh and cry too, because I dearly loved those kids. You all have heard about my Danny, who called me a genius. How I loved that boy.

This is Danny and his sister Betsy, whom I still keep in touch with on FB. Danny has been gone a few years too, but his foot prints remain on my life.
Another student I adored was Ben. Ben was brain damaged in a car accident when he was four. I worked with him in middle school. He was my shadow and thought he knew all about me. He was so much fun. One day when he and some other students were at my house, He said," Now don't tell Heidi(my rottie) she is a D-O-G!" He had thrown a fit one time and I had been the heavy. He looked at me and said,"I love you, Betty." He left his foot print. Big time. I still tear up when I remember that day. Another foot print was left by Jon. Loved that boy and still do. He would spin my spinning wheel so hard, and say," come on  big money". There is still a pin in it, where Curtis fixed it so he could spin it and the wheel wouldn't come off. He would also tell me,"You're old Betty, old as dirt". Then he would laugh his head off! He is right too. I am.lol
Another who has left her footprint on my life is Mary. She and I worked as teaching assistants in the same class room for years. She was the mother of two special needs boys, who didn't have to work, but gave of herself every day to other peoples children.She did this even when there were lots of nights she had been up with one of them all night. We worked so well together, and she left  her footprint on my life big time.Believe me there are foot prints left by a lot more students, I just can't write about them all here, as there isn't enough room nor time.
My card group who got me through a really hard time in my life, when I don't know what I would have done with out you. Each of you have left your foot print on my life.(Looking forward to our big get away coming up soon too)lol
My old friend Charlie,(he was in his late 70's and was I am sorry to say, the town drunk, in the little community where we lived at the time, many, many years ago) He knew so much history of the area and we became friends. I would talk to him when I went to the post office every day. He actually cried when we moved. He left his footprints on my life.
My little old friend Mr Whitaker, the furniture maker from Cumberland Gap, Tn. He taught me so much about antiques. He certainly left his footprints on my life.
Foot prints. We leave them everywhere. In the sand where they wash  away. In the dirt where debris soon covers them. The ones we can't wash away are the ones people leave on us. Maybe most importantly, the ones we leave on other people. I never thought about it much before, but what kind of foot prints am I leaving on other people? NOW that SCARES me.
Thanks for coming Through My Back Door where life is good.
betty
PS: For all of you touched by Sandy, I have been and still am praying for you.
PSS: I have done so much rearranging and changing things. This is the look Boo gave me today when I walked into the bedroom where she was asleep.

Now that is a look of disgust!