Blue Culture

Eva, a medical assistant in a doctors office was taking a throat culture on Benny, a young boy of six.
"Come sweety, open wide. It's going to be a quick tickle on the back of your throat."
As Eva peered into Benny's mouth she noticed his mouth was covered in blue.
"Looks like you just ate something yummy that was blue."
Benny licked his lips. "I just had a Popsicle," he smiled.
Eva swabbed a q-tip on the back of Benny's throat and placed it in the liquid on the stand.
Minna, Benny's older sister was having a throat culture done as well. Eva quickly did Minna's and put it down next to Benny's culture.
She was about to label it when a patient came from the waiting room to ask Eva a question. She turned around to answer. The patient thanked her and left.
When Eva turned back to the culture stand she let out a gasp.
"Oh no! Now I don't know which one is Benny's culture and which is Minna's. Oh my, now I'm going to have do their cultures again. Before she threw the cultures out she lifted them to examine. She smiled when she saw the blue colored q-tip.
"This one is definitely Benny's culture! Usually I hate when kids eat before they have a culture done. Boy, am I happy he had that blue Popsicle!

A Game of Checkers

Have you ever played a game of checkers?
Have you ever lost?
Have you ever won?
Have you lost but set the board up to play and try again?
Have you ever felt that victory of making it across the board?
Have you felt that victory of 'getting passed' your opponent?
You've felt that triumph!
You've felt that pride!
The first round you may have lost.
But you've laid out your pieces.
You played, you tried again, you won!
You have grown.
You pushed past.
You have risen!
Victory!

A Trip to the Grocery Store

Imagine this scene.
 A husband and wife are coming home from a HUGE shopping trip at the SUPER Grocery Store. They are laden down with LARGE grocery bags- at least ten in each hand, huge knapsacks stuffed with groceries on their backs, and behind them they are dragging an overflowing broken "Bubby" cart. - you know those, a cloth on some thin wires with two plastic wheels. Well, as they are slowly making their way to the bus stop, they see their bus approaching. The couple starts running, the wife looses her shoe in the street, the broken Bubby cart tips over, apples and cans start rolling, cars are honking, people are running- It's quite a scene. Finally they get to the bus stop and with pulling, lifting and pushing they get on the bus. Whoops, they realized they were on the wrong bus. It was too late - the bus pulled out already. At the next bust stop they got off with all their bags, knapsacks and broken Bubby cart. After waiting and waiting their bus came. Once again they gathered all their things and got back on the bus.
"Wait! Stop the bus, we forgot a grocery bag at the bus stop," the wife yelled.
They schlepped from the bus to a train to another bus. On the fifth (or maybe it was sixth) bus, the couple sat down, arranged all their packages near them and let out a deep breath. Not even a second later a man tapped the husband on the shoulder and pointed to the corner of the broken Bubby cart. The husband and wife looked down and to their surprise they saw a river of something leaking out of the cart. The whole bus was starting to smell like Mango Crystal drink. They started unloading the whole Bubby cart all over the bus trying to get the broken bottle. It was a mess.Frozen chicken was under one seat. Fruits, vegetables, chocolate, the bus floor was covered. The wife started offering mango drink to the riders on the bus. But how were they going to clean up the mess of mango drink? The husband dug through the packages and pulled out a role of paper towel from the bottom.
"HP! WE BOUGHT PAPER TOWELS AT THE STORE!" he announced to the whole bus.
(Everyone started scrubbing)
P.S. No need to imagine this- its a true story!

WHY???

Sometimes I just don't understand. Why? Why? WHY? I ask over and over again.
Why me?
Why her?
Why not me?
Why him?
Why them?
Why now?
Why not now?
Why did this have to happen?
Why did'nt it happen?
Why  do You create pain Hashem? WHY?
Why can't everything just be perfect?
Why can we just get what we ask for?
Why struggle?
Why is it so hard?
Why do we have to work so hard?
Why Hashem? Why?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY? WHY? WHY?
Why?
What?
How?
What can we do to become closer to you Hashem?
How can we become better people?
What can we do to bring the Geulah?
How can we teach and spread your Torah?
How can we enlighten the world of your infinite greatness?
How can we take pain and become closer to You?
Hashem, Our loving and caring Father, everything that happens in this world, from the good times to the could of been better times are from You, and it's all out of your unconditional love. It's all part of a master plan, we can't even begin to understand. 
Why? I can't help but ask once more.
I have the answer.
Why, you ask?
Because Hashem cares and loves you so much!

No Apples?

Thursday night I was at my cousins, the Machlis's. Anyone that knows the name Machlis immediately thinks of the unbelievable Hachnosas Orchim they do. Every Shabbos their home is open to hundreds of guests. All walks of life enter their home and everyone feels loved and accepted. Thursday night you can imagine what goes on there. The whole house is bustling, cooking, peeling potatoes, and cleaning. There were seminary girls helping to cook. Yeshiva guys were schlepping hundreds of grocery bags into the house. The house was hectic, loud, fun, and busy. In midst of all the Shabbos preparations, one of the older Machlis children came over to me to ask me if I had an apple kugel recipe, I can make.
"Yes", I said.  "Would you like me to make it?"
"Yeah that would be amazing,you can get the apples from the back fridge."
I went to check the fridge- but there were no apples. I checked all three fridges, no apples.
I found my cousins to let them know- there were no apples!
"That's strange. I'm sure we bought. I guess there aren't any.OK, thanks anyways."
I left the Machlis's and went to visit a friend. An hour later when I came back to the Machlis's, my cousin came running over to me.
"You'll never guess what happened. Five minutes after you left we got a phone call from a neighbor we haven't spoken to in years. Basically she made an order from the grocery store. She ordered 60 potatoes, they made a mistake and instead of sending potatoes they sent 60 apples.
'I have nothing do do with these. I figured the Machlis's could use them."
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was the neighbor delivering the apples!
The apple kugles came out delicious!