Worth the Effort

I went to dinner with those girls last night and you know what? I had a really good time! They were all very nice.

The two women's groups were represented. Both leaders were really great. They've already invited me to join in on holiday get togethers and knitting parties!

One group meets at the mall down the street from where I live. The other group meets fairly close to where I work. Both do identical studies and told me that it is totally cool if I go to one group one week and the other the next. I liked that they were so flexible. I also liked that both groups do social stuff together. That definitley helps build a network.

The leader of the group that meets in the mall lives in Abington. That's pretty far from Church of the Saviour. Though she is a member of COS she also attends another church that is closer to where she lives. I asked her what church and she told me. I just smiled and said, "Oh, I'm familiar with your church." So, she asked me how and I said "I know your church youth pastor." So she asked me how I knew him and I told her "Because I dated him." It was pretty funny. Small world!

Really Good Blog

I've been meaning to post this blog for some time now. It belongs to a guy I used to know in Chicago. I don't think I ever talked to him, but he used to teach at Metro from time to time. He was just an amazingly gifted speaker and would make an extra effort to get to Metro when I knew Rob was going to teach that night.

Right now he is studying in Israel and has a blog where he writes about what he is learning. It is really fascinating stuff. If you have ever had an interest in cultural perspectives on what Jesus taught you need to read this. Even if you have not ever thought about it, you need to read it.

http://dustoftherabbiyeshua.blogspot.com

Bible Studies

I mentioned that I have decided to start attending Church of the Saviour. Unfortunately, I have been getting exhauseted by Sunday evening and then not able to make it to Sunday evening services for the 20-30 somethings.

I really want to get involved. I miss it. So, I contacted a couple small group leaders to find out more about their small groups. Both responded positively. One even meets at the Plymouth Meeting Mall, that will probably be where I end up going... it's right down the street. Both groups are not having Bible studies this week. Instead they are both meeting together for dinner at the Fox and Hound in King of Prussia and invited me to join them. I told them I would.

I'm a little nervous but that is to be expected. I will be there. I already told them to look for a blonde walking with a cane that way they'll know it's me!

Owen the Hippo

My mom sent this too me. It was so sweet I had to post it here.

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.


The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.


"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Still Going...

I am now officially down 10 pounds! Progress is being made!

Jump Start

So much for the jump start. I let my car run for about 2 hours then turned it off but it did not start up again! This time the entire office worked together and we found someone with jumper cabels. My car got running and I immediately took it to a shop. It just needed a new battery.

Car problems suck! At least it is solved for right now.

Car Troubles... Again

It is my lunch hour. I went out to my car so I can go down to the Wawa to get something. Wouldn't you know my car won't start!?!

I am pretty sure it is just the battery (just the battery) because it will not do anything! I asked and could not find anyone who has jumper cabels. Well, the warehouse tried but turned out that one of their clasps/grippers/claws fell off of the cabels so I called my insurance company!

Praise God I had roadside assistance!! I didn't think I did but I called and asked and I did! It even covers battery recharging! I love Geico!

Someone was sent within a half hour. My car is currently in the parking lot running for a while. The guy told me it needs to run for at least 30 minutes. I really hope it works. The guys up front were warned to let me know if they see a red Neon leave the parking lot that did not come in!

I let Jamie borrow my car this weekend and I don't think that was a really good idea. I told her to have it back to me by 5:15 on Sunday night so I could go to church. She did not return until after mindnight. She said she would put gas in my car, it was half empty. She even smoked in my car and left apple cores behind! I don't care if it is your sister's car, you need to treat it better than your own. Now the battery died! Makes me wonder what she did to it, doesn't it you?

Spoons Revisited

As I mentioned in prior posts, I have not been doing all that well in regards to the MS. For the past week I have been getting really dizzy and need to lie down pretty often. I have also been getting worn out rather quickly.

This afternoon, for example, I went shopping with my mom. She wanted to get a new chair and asked me to go too. Of course I went! After the first stop I was done. We got back in the car and all I could think was "I do not have enough spoons left". I did not say anything to Mom though. I wanted her to find her chair. So, we continued the search.

After two more stores we found the chair and returned home at which point I could barely make it inside. I just needed to find a bed or a couch or a floor... anywhere I could just lie down and rest. After a couple hours I was fine but by that point it was too late to make it to church.

Just not enough spoons to make it through the day.

At least in my case, the MS allows me days with unlimited amounts of spoons. I don't think I have been treasuring those as much as I should... or at least as much as I could.

Funny the things we take for granted.

Shopping

Mom and I went Christmas shoppping yesterday!

I can officially say that I have completed my holiday shopping! Whoo hoo!

I got Jamie's boyfriend, Kenn, the most rediculous present but he really wanted it! It is a Darth Vader helmut that has a voice changer in it. It's a kid's toy that, as I described to Trista, fits grown up kids too. I also got him a light sabor. He should like them. It's funny because he does not strike you as a Star Wars dork but I guess he is.

For my mom, I bought a bunch of massage type stuff... neck massager, foot pillow, massaging slippers... it's Mom's spa at home!! She should appreciate them.

Harry Potter

Okay, I need to talk about that Harry Potter movie.

In my opinion those books are too long and have too much going on in them to condense it into 90 minutes! It is just not fair to the plot.

"The Goblet of Fire" was very well done and the director did very well with the time he had with a few exceptions. Not so much time and flourishes needed to be spent on the visiting schools' arrivals, the dragon fight did not need to be as embelashed as it was and the dance did not need to have as much of a focus as it did. I did not need to see the kids dancing to that many songs when Harry's life was in jeopardy.

I don't want to get "Trekky" about this but they really should have added the part with Fudge and the Dementors' Kiss at the end. That is key to why, in book five, the wizzarding community does not believe Harry's assertion that Voldemort has returned. Also, they should have mentioned that Rita was an Animigus because that becomes important later in the series. The director did very well at making her obnoxious though.

The Quidich Match where the death eaters showed up was very well done.

If you have read the books, you should see the movie. If you have not read the books, do not waste your time. Too much had to be cut out for the movie to make much sense to you.

Philly Pictures

This is a rather large game piece Lola and I found at the Municipal Building in Philadelphia.


And this is a large clothes pin statue we found in front of another building. Not really sure what the significance is.

Lola in the City

Lola came down to my house on Friday night!

On Saturday morning, we went into Philadelphia to have breakfast with a friend of hers who was in town. That was fun. He was a pretty nice guy. I was glad to see that he is another "protector" for Laura. We all know she can use all she can get! :o)

After breakfast I took her around some parts of Center City. I took her to the Love sculpture that I found one day. We also found a LARGE clothes pin statue. Pictures were, of course, taken of that. I will post them later. I also took her over to the Municipal building because they have VERY large game pieces scattered around. Lola took a pcture of me standing on a "Sorry" game piece (at least we think it was Sorry). I will post that picture later too. There were checkers, dominoes, Monopoly pieces like the top hat, the iron and the wheelbarrow, and chess pieces! It was fun! It was like Alice in Wonderland!!

I had her listening to Gary Allan on the way into the city (and on the way out I guess too) but I don't think she minded too terribly much.

After our city excursion we returned to Plymouth Meeting where we went shopping and saw the new Harry Potter. Harry Potter will be on another post. For shopping we went to Old Navy, where I got some presents for Jamie, and Best Buy. We ended up leaving the Plymouth Meeting Best Buy and went to King of Prussia because KOP has a larger one. Parking there was HORRIBLE! We ended up parking behind the movie theater and even saw a couple rats running around. Okay, only I saw the rats but they really did run in front of us!

Still Losing

I am now up to 9 pounds lost!
Not too bad in 3 weeks.

I have much more to post but will do so when I have more time.

Stress

I am glad I waited a couple days to write this.

I have been so overly stressed at work! The guy I work with is a really great guy. He is very nice and tries really hard to be stressful, but let's face it, he's still a guy and, as such, does not think things through completely. My appologies to any men who may be offended by my statement but just admit it. I'm right.

I really like to be busy and I really enjoy learning new things but lately it has been wearing on me. Oley, the guy I work for, has given me about a hundred thinngs to work on. I love that I can be of use and that I can learn to do these things for him like ordering new shirts, designing logos, calling vendors, shipping items to reps, updating contact information, preparing for seminars, creating reports. I really do love all of that. It keeps me busy. BUT my problem lies in that I have many many things to do, all of them are incredibly time consuming and I am forced to decide which takes priority. Sounds like a good plan, except every single one of the things I have is supposed to be my first priority!!

I finally had to make a list of everything I had to do. It came to 28 items. I took it to Oley and told him that I am happy to do everything on my list but I am not able to do everything at once.

It was bad. I came to tears a couple times.

Earlier this week, I learned that when I am stressed I become very sensitive and start taking things personally. One rep emailed me something that just told me what his color coding meant. That was great, except that he sent that to me last week and I had not had a chance to update his changes because I saw something else as priority. I wrote him back to tell him that and asked if it needed to be updated right away (I knew it didn't). After I sent it I saw that he had also sent me another email in which he made changes to his original changes and he was just aprising me of them. I felt very small so I had to appologize for being so sensitive. That's when I realized what stress does to me!

For the past couple days I have been trying to figure out how to create a price report through our new database system that we just switched over to. I know how to do it in the old system but it is not so easy in the new one. I have to first create the program through Crystal Reports. A few weeks ago I went to a training on Crystal Reports but it did not help too much. It was the first time I ever saw it so nothing was making sense to me. Oley is under the impression that it is easy to do but that is because he has not even looked at the program. He also thought (and still thinks) that it should be easy because I went to the training. What he is not understanding is I did not get Crystal Reports even installed on my computer until this past Monday, over 2 weeks after I went to the training. Plus, it is very confusing. I compare it to having one Spanish class and being expected to read and comprehend "Don Quixote".

I have spent all day yesterday and most of today reading books on Crystal Reports and the help features on the program. Honestly, I am still lost. But, I know I am not alone. Steph, the office manager and the girl to whom I answer, was also at the training and is just as lost and she saw the program before going to the training. That makes me feel better.

Since I am so lost reading the book (that, incedentally, does not have diagrams) I ordered "Crystal Reports for Dummies". Can't wait til that one comes in!

After I vented to Steph and my sister about my work situation I feel much better. Plus, it helped to realize how sensitive I was becoming! That is insane! No one was trying to hurt my feelings or tell me I was doing a bad job. I just took it that way.

It is always good to learn more about yourself.

Just Weak

I do not have much strength at all. This has been going on for about 6 weeks now. This weekend it got really bad, so bad I could not stand up long enough to do anything, let alone walk across the room. I felt so lazy just lying on the couch but I could not do anything about it. When I was strong enough to walk I would wear myself out by the time I reached the otehr side of the room. It really was not too much fun.

I wanted to go get a new toothbrush. Couldn't do it because I couldn't walk around the store. I wanted to go to church. Couldn't do it because I couldn't walk to my car.

Oh, well. These are just things that are part of having MS. It's the wonderful unpredictibility of the disease that keeps us on our toes (figuritively, obviously not literally).

I really hope I am feeling stronger this weekend. I'd like to go shopping!!!

On the plus side, my insurance has kicked in!! It has been over 2 years since I had health insurance so now I can go see some doctors!

I made an appointments with two doctors from the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. One is to discuss the chronic bleeding and pain and will be on December 29. The other is for a neurologist who specializes in MS!! How exciting! That one will be on March 20.

Hopefully, he will put me on one of the A-B-C drugs... but NOT Avonex so just one of the B-C drugs. Avonex is the one that had me so sick and put me in a wheelchair in college. Betaseron was a good one. That is just a subcutaneous injection and is done every other day. Copaxone is also sub-cue but is done everyday. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. The Avonex is intermuscular and really hurts! But that is just done once a week. Other than the extreme weekness that came from that one, the only downfall with the intermuscular injection was that I could not give it to myself. After a couple weeks, I was able to give myself the Betaseron. Hopefully we can do that one again.

So, there is something to look forward to! I am going to be able to see a doctor in a few months!

Jamie suggested I call to get an emergency appointment but I don't want that because I know they will just put me on some form of steroids (prednisone... the oral form or salumedral...the form given through an IV) and I can't do that to myself because there are too many side effects. I just need to wait it out. That is what I'd rather do, even if it means missing out on life at the moment.

The Baby Wagon!

This is the picture I wanted to post! It is Gage pulling the babies in the baby wagon.

It's Carrie

This is Carrie walking down the aisle. I really thought I was posting another picture but here is Carrie!

Fortunate

I was thinking about the directions my life has taken, not just recently but my whole life. I came to the conclusion that I am very fortunate to have had the experiences I did and continue to have.

I was able to go to a very prestigious private school for high school where I learned more than I ever learned in college. In fact, my high school courses were much more challenging than any course I took in college. I did not even take AP classes!

My high school was not just great for the academics it offered. It was there that I gained a love and passion for Bible doctrine and learning all I can about what I believe as a Christian. I remember sitting in Mr. Clemmer's Bible Doctrine class, a class all 9th graders are required to take, and was completely fixated on the topic. I wanted to learn more! When I told my dad how much I loved it he told me I was crazy because, having gone to seminary, he found doctrine completely boring. I never understood why better understanding what Christianity teaches is boring. Justification, Sanctification, Redemption, Free Will, Predestination, etc! Then in 12th grade we were required to take Apologetics so we could explain to others what we believed and were taught to defend it. I even was fortunate enough to take a Disciplship class, where a teacher mentored me and 4 other girls and encouraged us in our faith.

These are opportunities that I wish for every high school student and are huge contributors to my passion for seeing high school youth prepared.

After my four years were up, I moved on to college and was very fortunate to be able to attend my first choice school, Greenville College. It was my first choice school because it had a CCM major, a major that was unique to them at the time. I was, of course, going to be the next Amy Grant and knew that I needed to go to Greenville to accomplish this goal. After a few music classes my first semester I realized that music is not what I wanted to do with my life. It was something I enjoyed and did not like making work out of it so that I dreaded it.

Point is, at Greenville, I made about the greatest friends anyone could ever have! I am so fortunate enough to know that I can still contact any one of them and they would be happy to hear from me and we could pick up right where we left off. Also, most of us are still in communication, even if that communication is through blogging (see Val, Jodie, Sarita, Lola, Brian and Gravity Well) and AIM. We had the best times of our lives there. Whether it was Radio shows, meals in the DC, Spanish house living rooms, first all nighters, trips to Pokey, declaring yourself saved for Steve Thompson, 2nd Tenney, the Crack House, snack names, "hiding" rock stars, 2nd Joy, 4th Marston, claiming freshmen, suprise parties, frosting obsessions, silly books that never were written or friendly dictatorships, great memories were made that will be cherished forever. I am very fortunate to have them.

Then, I had the opportunity to move to Chicago. Here I learned to live on my own and have reponsibilities. I learned to venture out on my own. I learned to navigate through a large city. I learned to try something new. I learned that life is full of disappointments as much as it is filled with happiness. It is up to me to find the happiness and make the most of the disappointments. I learned to love Lou Malnotti's pizza. I learned to find a home on my own. I learned to make friends. I learned to find a church. I learned to get involved. I learned to grow up. I learned to make very difficult choices.

I miss Chicago very much and really wish I was back there but I know I am where I need to be now. In fact, I am very fortunate to be where I am. I have a family who loves me and I have a great job at a wonderful company. In fact, I am very fortunate to have the parents I do because they were always supportive of me, even when I did not feel like they were. They allowed me to experience all that I did and never asked me not to go to Chicago, though they missed me, and never asked me to come home when they saw me struggling, because they knew I was where I wanted to be.

I have to keep reminding myself that for each of these phases in my life, I was there for about a year before things started to meld and I felt I belonged. It is very difficult to go through changes but they are necessary and I know good things will come of it. It is just a testing period in my life. There is something for me here.

"Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance in fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything." James 1:2-4

Progress

I lost 6 pounds this week!!!

6 down 44 to go. I can do it. I know I can.

Surprises

Yesterday I found out that Chris Thompson got married!

I had a great group of friends in college. Chris was one of them. He was such a funny guy who never really seemed to take anything seriously. I thought for sure he was going to be the last to get married. Guess I was wrong. Now there are a few of us left who are still single. Most of them married eachother which is really neat. However, I have not been able to attend any of the weddings so far. I was really hoping to see someone get married.

So this goes out to Jodie, Sarah H., Laura and Steve: LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GETTING MARRIED!!

I am very happy for Chris. I could not stop smiling for him after I heard that Lola's "Funk Soul Bruva" was married. Hey, now that I am thinking about it, didn't I claim Chris when he was a Sophmore? I think he was one of my Sophmores.

I claimed 3 freshmen (Mike, Jeremy K., and Nate, because he went to my high school), 2 sophmores (Chris and Matt Jacobs) and 2 Juniors (Terry and I think Marc* was the other one I claimed). Those were good times. I forgot about that. If you knew me in college, it kind of made sense. Kind of.

God Strikes Again

Well, I have been home all summer not being able to find a church home. Every church I tried did not have anything that fit my needs as a single woman in her late 20's in need of a social network.

Well, on Friday I went out on a limb and contacted Church of the Saviour.

I did not want to go to this church for NUMEROUS reasons, one of them being I was afraid of who I would run into since it is a church very closely affliated with my high school. In fact, my graduation ceremony was held at the church.

Like I said, I contact the church and found out they have a program just like what I am looking for. The pastor invited me out so I went tonight. It seems like it will be a good fit. I saw 2 girls from high school and it was good because one was a really good friend and the other was a girl for whom I had a lot of respect. The one who was a good friend lives in Pittsburg (is that one of the burg's with an 'H'?) but was home for the weekend. The other is teaching at our old school! It was crazy.

Anyway, I think I will be attending more regularly. I didn't want to go to Willow Creek but God made me do it. Looks like he is doing the same with Church of the Saviour.

A funny thing about it is that when I was in high school this was the LARGEST church in the area and had the BEST teaching pastors. Now that I am back from having gone to Willow Creek, Church of the Saviour looks miniscule with it's 2,000+ member church! And, the pastor who spoke today was not that great... and he was one who whas there from before!

Trista and Dan

This is my sister, Trista, and my brother-in-law, Dan, on a beach in Bangladesh.

Trista has to dress in traditional clothing but Dan can wear whatever he likes.

I miss them but am happy they are doing well and are able to experience all that they are experiencing.

Lexie

This is my cousin Troy's baby Lexie. She's 4 months old in this picture but she just turned 6 months on the 3rd. She is a very sweet and happy baby. Isn't she adorable? I hope my kids are at least half this cute!

The Wedding

It's been a few days but I have a little bit of time to post about the wedding now.

It was very nice. Not nearly as formal as I was expecting. It was VERY formal by Kansas standards but pretty casual by East Coast standands.

Carrie had a "baby wagon" in her wedding! It was so cute. Her nephew was in it and so was Travis' niece, Lexie (my 2nd cousin I guess). Both were dressed in adorable little outfits. Sebastyn even had a little tux! Very cute.

The flower girl was about 9 (Sabrina) and the ring bearer was my cousin Troy's step-son, Gage, who is 8. Before the wedding the two were talking to me about how stressed they were about the ceremony. I had to ask why and they told me it was because they did not know if they should touch or not when they walked back down the aisle! How cute is that? I asked if they were embarrassed to touch and they assured me they were not it was just they thought it would be too awkward. Gage's concern was "what if she take's my arm the wrong way? Then we'd be uncomfortable the whole way down the aisle". At this I offered to help them practice in another room but they didn't want to. So, I told them not to worry about it because since Carrie said they did not have to touch they could just walk close to eachother. That is what they did.

My songs went well except for the fact that the stupid wrap I was wearing kept falling off during the first song! It was hard to keep it on holding a microphone! I was so glad I just limped up onto the stage without Abel. Can you imagine holding a cane in one hand and microphone in the other and struggling with a wrap all at the same time? By the second song I had the hang of it. Oh! I had the words to one of the songs up on the back wall because I did not know it very well. Turns out the flower girl was reading along while I sang. I was a little embarrassed by that but everyone who saw thought it was cute.

The reception was nice. Like I said, it was very very formal for a Kansas wedding but not for the East Coast. I got to dance the dollar dance with Travis. That was fun. We danced to "Itty Bitty" by Allan Jackson. About every song played was a country song. They even had some line dances. It was crazy! The DJ wore a BIG black cowboy hat and he talked so funny! Jamie and I laughed all night long. I really lost it when he said "They done put some wine out so go get you some". He was not bad to look at though until I found out he was only 20! Grandpa danced a slow song with me. That was funny too because he kept swinging his arms like he was dancing with a 5 year old. I had to keep telling him to slow down. What a funny old man. The next morning, at breakfast, Aunt Monie told me that my asking Grandpa to dance with him made his night. That made me feel good that I made a fool of myself with him.

As the reception ended I was talking with Carrie and telling he that I just LOVE Kansas! It is such a different way of life I might just want to live there. Might just want to live there... not really want to live there.

A New Culture

After the rehersal dinner on Friday, my cousin Troy and his wife (with whom Jamie, Kenn and I were staying) took us to a country bar in Wichita. It was a real live country bar... the kind I only thought existed in movies!

I learned several things about Kansas that night.

1- The drink of choice is Budweiser
2- Women, regardless of age, opt for big hair
3- Dancing goes in a circle around the dance floor
4- If there is a line dance for a particular song, and everyone else is "circle" dancing you and the 2-3 other people line dancing with you will line dance around the circle
5- When more than 4 people know the line dance everything stops and particpates
6- Cowboy hats are a good thing, regardless of the occasion... even at weddings... yeah, weddings
7- You done better believe I ain't makin' this up niether

I'm sure there is more, I just can't think of it right now.

**I would like to state, for the record, that niether one of my cousins fit this Kansas description, except for the fact that they do drink Bud and think it is the best beer on earth**