Hurricanes, golf, and no sleep

Quite a bit has happened in the past 10 days or so. First of all, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ike visit us... yes, right here in southern IN/ Louisville, KY. We didn't get any rain... just a whole lot of wind. Gusts were officially measured up to 75 mph. Over 400,000 people in the area were without power for up to 7 days, and there are still a few people that don't have power yet. Thankfully, we didn't lose power or have any damage to our property. It makes me VERY thankful that I don't live in Houston where the storm hit! Here are couple pictures of some of the damage.
This WAS a metal shed
Part of the awning down... it looks like pick-up sticks
A HUGE tree fell over... fortunately there is NOT a house underneath it!

The following Wednesday, Chris and I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity GIVEN to us for FREE: tickets to the Ryder Cup international golf tournament practice. If you don't know, the Ryder Cup is 12 of the best players from USA vs. the 12 best European players. It is only held every 2 years, and alternates being hosted in the USA and Europe. This year it was held at the Valhalla Country Club right here in Louisville! Here is a picture of us in front of a Ryder Cup statue:

We were privileged to see all 24 players up close, and Chris got 10 autographs while we were there. I'm not really into golf much, but it was fun to spend the day together outside in the beautiful weather. Of course, it's also cool to say that we got to go! :-)

On a quite different note, if you are reading this Tuesday night, please pray for me! I'm going in for a sleep study at 7:30pm. I have had sleep issues for as long as I can remember... having trouble falling asleep, waking up multiple times during the night, and nightmares. The last few months things have been getting worse... struggling to stay awake while driving to/from work, struggling to stay awake AT work, being incredibly tired all the time, etc. I finally broke down and went to the doctor, and she went ahead and scheduled the sleep study. SO - all that to say, please pray that the doctors will be able to figure out what is wrong (besides the fact that I'm messed up in the head... we already knew that!):-) and that they will be able to fix it WITHOUT putting me on sleep medication! I appreciate it!

That's about all the new and exciting stuff for right now, except that my SIL is due for my nephew to join us in this world any day now! :-) Can't wait to meet him!

Bat's Game

OK - I'm a little behind in my blogging again, so I'll post each event separately (so you don't have to read FOREVER!) Fri, May 16, Chris got us tickets to the Louisville Bats Game. This is the minor league team for the Cincinatti Reds, and the mascot is Bats - like the animal - not like the Louisville Slugger bats (which is what I originally thought!) :-) Just wanted to clarify that for you! The game ended up being a double header that night, due to another game being rained out earlier in the week. The Bats played the Scranton Yankees (NY Yankees minor league team.) Chris' boss has season tickets, and we can just sign up for them and get them free. It's a cheap weekend date for us! (You may be seeing a few posts about games in July... we have tickets for 4 games!)

Anyway, our friend (and bus captain) J.R. came with us, bringing his girlfriend, Abby (now fiancee as of Sunday May 25th!) We are enjoying getting to know this couple better, and are super excited about their engagement and upcoming marriage. Here's some pics:

Louisville Slugger Field
Chris&I and the field
Chris, Heather, Abby & JR Chris and I
Chris and I in the cool glove chairs in the lobby!

By the way, the Bats won the first game, and then they had fireworks between the games. Abby was still living in our college dorm, so she had a curfew, so we left before the second game ended. :-) It was a good night of fun with good friends!

Busy, busy, busy...

Wow - our lives have been busy the past couple weeks. So - here's the rundown of what has been happening here, and I have just linked words to pics so I don't have to download them...

The first week of April, D (the little one I take care of) was in Cincinnati, OH, for pre-surgical testing. Thanks to all of you who prayed for him. Thankfully, he does not require throat reconstruction surgery. He only needs his tonsils/adenoids removed, and some minor eye surgery to correct a muscle condition resulting from prematurity. This condition causes his left eye to drift in toward his nose when looking at things close to him. Other than that, things are going pretty well for him. His mom is hoping to get her doctor to authorize him for nursing at least through the surgeries, and hopefully for another 4 months until he can get his feeding tube out and recover from surgery. We'll see...

Anyway, in the few days that he was gone, I was able to visit 2 of my good friends here. I spent over 5 hours at my friend, Beth's house. She is such a blessing to me. Her hubby, Luke, was teasing me when he came home... asking me if I was working on another calendar. I printed out the date pages for the family photo calendars at their house since we didn't have ink in our printer. (We now have ink for our printer... we've gone without it since we lived in MD)! I worked on it for several hours I think 3 or 4 different days, so now it's a standing joke that I only visit when I have to work on the computer. It was nice change to be able to spend a few hours visiting and not having anything else to do.

Tuesday of that week, I stayed home all day waiting for an overnight package that was supposed to arrive at 10:30am. Apparently all the FedEx planes coming here from Memphis were grounded due to severe thunder storms. Chris called them around noon, and the person he spoke to assured him that the packages were being trucked here, and would get there sometime in the afternoon. When the package STILL wasn't here by 6pm, Chris called again, only to be informed that the earlier person had misinformed him, and the package would be here 10:30 am the NEXT day! I did get a bunch of stamping done, though! It's just difficult to be waiting all day, and thinking of all these things that you could do if you could just run down to the ___!!

Wednesday, the package showed up at 10:15 am! YEAH! I then went and visited another friend who had been having a difficult time the past few months. I was glad to be a blessing, and amazed at how I could share with her what God has been doing in my heart & life through IVF, even though her circumstances are completely different - God's word still applies! :-) (DUH!)

I then got to take Chris' package to him and we ate lunch together. That's always a nice surprise. He got a new watch... it's REALLY nice! He was going to resell it on Ebay, but he liked it so much that I told him that he really should keep it. It's not very often that Chris finds something that he REALLY likes/wants, so I was glad that he found that and I believe he is keeping it. Now, if only he could have waited until his birthday... :-)

I also joined the gym again! My chiropractor finally OK'd me to do cardio workouts again, as long as I don't over do it! I'm excited to be able to be active again!

The Friday night of that week, I was at the gym just getting ready to work out when Chris called me. After he asked me about 20 questions, he asked me if I could get changed back into my normal clothes so that we could meet Jeremy, Misha, Tommy & Corey Frazor for dinner! They are close friends of ours that travel in evangelism, and we don't get to see them very often. However, they manage to travel through Louisville every once in a while, so they usually call and we meet up for a meal or something. Anyway, we were able to meet them for supper and then they came over to see our house for a little bit. Although the time was WAY too SHORT, we enjoyed seeing them again. Last time we saw them they came through on Chris' birthday last August. They are great "iron-sharpeneth-iron" type friends, and they are also the type of friends that no matter how long it's been since you've seen them, you pick up the friendship like you saw them yesterday! What a blessing to have friends like that!

The following week (the 7th - 10th) our church hosted the Revival Fires conference. With that, the choir sang every night for the services, so it was a busy week! I was busting my tail just to get home from work and then rush off to church in order to sing and attend the services. It was a blessing, though.

Early that Friday morning (the 11th) Chris and I headed north. We stopped in Indianapolis to visit some friends of ours... Jeff & Colleen McQueary (and kids, Cole & Sage). We were able to enjoy breakfast with them before our friends, Steve & Joy Francis met up with us. They came over from Cincinnati, and we left one of our vehicles at the McQueary's house. Steve, Joy, Chris and I then drove up to Chicago for an overnight "double date." Steve is a big Chicago Bulls fan, so for his birthday, Joy bought him tickets to a Bulls game (vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers). Well, they bought the tickets in October... and put them in a safe place. So safe, in fact, that they couldn't find them for that weekend! We all decided to go ahead and go up there anyway.

For lunch, we went to a Brazilian steakhouse called Brazazz. It's all you can eat - meat! It was SO DELICIOUS! They had little discs sitting beside each plate. One side is orange and says, "Yes, Please." The other side is black and says, "No, thank you." The waiters, all dressed in authentic Brazilian outfits, come around with these long skewers of all different kinds of meat (and roasted pineapple). If you want some, they cut you a slice and lay it over toward you. You then take a little pair of tongs, and put it on your plate. Joy is a missionary kid and she grew up in Brazil, so she was talking to the waiters in Portugese and stuff. It was pretty cool. I felt like I didn't have to eat for about 3 days after that! We enjoyed it immensely!

From there, we went to the John Hancock Building, and went up to the Observatory. We had fun with some of the photo ops (Window washers, & construction workers)! Of course, Chris and Steve were being silly. It was pretty cool. When we got on the elevators to go down, Chris and I were by the doors that would open when we got to the bottom. Just before the doors opened, we stood really close to the doors and made funny faces. The doors opened, and there was a man and his family sitting on the floor facing us, waiting for the rest of the family. He cracked up laughing when he saw us, and we were laughing hysterically! I wish we could have gotten a picture of his face when he saw us... Priceless!

From there, we wandered down Michigan Ave. for a little bit. I was extremely tired and not wearing the best shoes for walking, so I'm afraid I wasn't super good company! I tried not to complain, though! It was really cold and windy, too, so not a GREAT day to be wandering outside in the city. Chris had a little fun in the Disney Store... I think he'd make a GREAT Pirate! On the way back to the car, we had to stop and take some more silly pictures with a statue of a man with an umbrella hailing a cab in front of the Four Seasons Hotel. The placard on the statue said, "Allow Me!" Chris took a little too much liberty with that statement, see the pics here and here! Joy figured she could get up close, too, but not that close! :-)

We left after that and headed down to the United Center to see if we could get tickets to the game... again! We did, and got pretty good seats! It ended up being a good game... the Bulls actually WON! The highlight of the game, though, **insert sarcasm**was the Swinging Seniors!
Actually, Chris and Steve both got free T-shirts, and since the Bulls scored 100 points and won, we all got free Big Macs! Chris also got a free coffee at Dunkin' Donuts since his character won the race on the JumboTron! All in all, it was a good game (even though I was so tired, I almost fell asleep!) We even got to see a BUNCH of dunks, and Joy even managed to get a great picture of one of them!

The next morning we got up and went to Navy Pier. It was rainy, so we stayed indoors. We left around noon and headed back to Indianapolis to go our separate ways. Jeff & Colleen had an all-nighter youth activity Friday night, so we didn't get to see them. However, we did stop at the Edinburg outlets on the way home, and Chris let me get two pairs of shoes. I really needed them... the only real shoes I had were a pair of black, ankle high boots, and brown clogs. I got these two pairs of shoes for a really good deal:

I love them! I wear skirts or skorts most of the time, and they look really cute with them. Chris found some really nice basketball shorts, too, that he needed. It was a profitable stop! :-)

Oh, yeah...I mentioned here that I got new sunglasses... here's a pic of my new shades!

That Saturday night, we arrived home, bundled up, and headed out again to enjoy Thunder over Louisville. Thunder is the 5th largest fireworks display in the world, according to the travel channel. We missed most of the air show, since we didn't get home until after 7pm, but the planes were flying right over our house! We joined a bunch of our college kids and friends of ours to watch the fireworks. It was very cold out, but we were pretty well dressed for the weather. The only thing that we didn't like is that we were so far away, we could see the fireworks alright, but we didn't get the full affect with the sounds and vibrations of the fireworks as well. We enjoy that part, too! The other thing is that we had 4 or 5 rude kids that put their chairs up in front of us... so we moved to see around them. They then moved again, partially blocking our view. I was highly frustrated at this point. Then, on top of all of that, right in the middle of the show, 2 of the girls stood up right in front of us so we couldn't see at all. I had had enough, so I loudly said, "There are people behind you who would like to SEE the fireworks!" They turned around and gave me nasty looks, but I didn't care! People should be more considerate of those around them! You can see my pics of Thunder here.

Since then, it has pretty much been life back to normal for us. Chris let me buy these vases for our living room (I've been waiting to buy them since we bought our house last July, and they went on sale this week, so Chris let me get them):

It's hard to tell in the picture, but our paint color is beige, and the vases are red, but not as dark as they appear in the picture. I LOVE them, and they fit perfectly in those niches. I'm finally almost ready with the family photo wall, too, just waiting for pictures from a couple of family members still. I'll post pics when I get them up, too.

We got our lawn treated by company called Weed Man. The weather has been mostly beautiful lately, so I've been able to take D to the park, and the sunshine has also helped our grass to grow like crazy. Chris hasn't been able to mow it yet, so it's almost a jungle out there! Seriously, some of the grass is almost 2 feet tall! He was going to mow Sunday afternoon, but couldn't get the mower started. :-( He was rather frustrated, to say the least! Here's some pics:

Well, my hubby is home, and I think I've pretty much filled you in on everything recent that I can think of, so I gotta go! Hope you all are doing well!

Oh, wait, one more thing... another niece or nephew is on the way in our family... this makes the 3rd one that is expected this year! Two of my brothers & their wives are expecting babies, and we just found out that one of Chris' sisters is expecting a baby, too!

Our weekend

On Saturday, we were thrilled to have April and Scott over to our house for a cookout. April is a former student of Chris' - she was in 10th grade, I think, when we moved away from Northland. We had hamburgers on the grill, along with the fixin's, Sun Chips (my favorite), baked beans, Macintosh apples with caramel dip, and Happy Harvest Mix. Chris and I had never met Scott before, though I know one of his older brothers through a friend. We had a great time of fellowship just talking for a couple of hours, then played the game RAGE (which practically no one outside of my family has ever even heard of until we teach them!) April won the game, much to Scott's chagrin! We had a fun time, and are glad that they moved down here. We are hoping to get together with them on a semi-regular basis at least!

Sundays are always good days at our church. We just LOVE it! God has been so good to us, allowing us to be a part of Shawnee.

I was quite disappointed with the Sunday afternoon Packers vs. Vikings game... although I do HAVE to admit that Brett Favre just might be good! :-) The Vikes better kick it up a notch here... they are kind of stinking it up right now!

Chris is looking forward to MNF tonight... we almost got tickets to go to the game, but some people have to work for a living! :-) We have some other stuff going on, too, that kept us from going. In case you're not up to speed on Monday Night Football... the Patriots are playing the Cincinatti Bengals in Cinci tonight. Oh, well, maybe next time... (if there is one!)

I also got to talk to my brother, Steve, for a little while last night. It's been over 2 months since I last talked to him, so it was good to catch up. Steve and Kathryn stay VERY busy!

That's pretty much the update from the Mitchells. We are so thankful for all that God has given us... especially for friends that are Godly and are willing to pray for us! Thank you, God, for all that you have given us!

NY Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox Game Pics 09-15-2007

Boston Trip

This past weekend, Chris and I took a whirlwind trip to Boston, specifically to go to the NY Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park. Now, Chris has been giving me all this hype about the city of Boston itself and how they kept the historical sites, as well as about Fenway Park, and there's just no other ballpark like it! We bought tickets to the game back in June, and planned the weekend.
We flew out on Friday afternoon. Our plane tickets had us going from here to Detroit, then to Buffalo, NY, then arriving in Boston at about 9pm that night. When we got to the gate, we asked the lady there why we hadn't been able to check in for the flight from Detroit to Buffalo. She told us that Detroit was awful about overbooking flights, and that we probably wouldn't even be able to get on that flight. Then she offered to switch us over to a non-stop flight from here to Boston on Delta (we were booked on Northwest.) We snatched that offer up quickly, and though we had to wait in the airport for 2 more hours to get on that flight, we arrived in Boston 3 hours earlier, too! What a blessing that was!
When we got to Boston, we were shuttled to our hotel, which had a restaurant attached to it. We went downstairs and ate, then spent the rest of the evening in our room watching the Yankees/Red Sox game on TV (which the Red Sox lost!) :-{
The next morning we slept in a little bit, got up in time to get the continental breakfast (which had a LOT of choices; that was nice!), and headed out to the city. We walked a few blocks to the T station. We eventually got downtown, but only after the bus driver on the bus we had to take (since they were doing some construction or something on the T tracks) missed his turn and got lost! Fortunately, there was an older man who knew where we were and how to get back to where we were going, and he directed the bus driver to our stop! (Never a dull moment...)
It was raining a little bit when we got downtown, but we continued on our way. We stopped at Faneuil Hall, where there is a statue of Samuel Adams. We walked through Quincy Market, which is famous for its cobblestone streets and shops. When we got to the end of Quincy Market, we bought tickets for a trolley tour that would take an hour ride by the most famous historical sites. You could get off at any stop and site see what you wanted, then just catch the next trolley. The guides on the trolleys were HILARIOUS! They did a great job! We started in Boston's Historic North End, right by Christopher Columbus Park. We got off at the first stop, and went through the Paul Revere Mall to the Old North Church, then backtracked until we found The Freedom Trail. We followed Freedom Trail to Paul Revere's house, and took a tour of that, then headed back to the trolley stop.
Our next stop was the USS Constitution... America's oldest commissioned Navy ship. It was AMAZING! Chris got busted by one of the Navy sailors stationed on the ship for picking up the 25 pound cannon balls! The ship was really neat, and the Navy sailors did a great job as "tour guides."
From there we headed back toward Government Center, and went to see the Old State House. The Old State House balcony is where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time. Just in front of the Old State House is the exact spot of the Boston Massacre. While the Declaration of Independence was being read, a British soldier started firing shots randomly into the crowd, killing one man. This incident is known as the Boston Massacre.
At that point, we headed back to the T and rode down to Fenway Park. (The weather had cleared up by then, too, and it turned out to be a beautiful day!) It was REALLY cool to be there, especially since Chris LOVES it so much. He was so proud to take me around "his" city (he grew up just outside of Boston, then moved to NH when he was 12), and especially to show me Fenway Park. I had on my Red Sox jersey for the occasion... which is why Chris gave it to me for my birthday. I figured you can't go to Fenway Park and not have the gear! We had great seats, and before the game went over and touched the Green Monster. Chris even autographed it! We had a group of older gentlemen sitting next to us, and one of them went around with us and took a bunch of pictures of us for us. He was so sweet!
The game itself was AWESOME! I've been to 11 ballparks now, and I have NEVER seen a crowd like that! They were standing cheering in the 1st inning when the pitcher had a pitch count of 3-2 with 2 outs! IT ROCKED! It was kind of funny... they pack you in like sardines there. Because the park is so old, the seats are very small ~ no personal space there! We had a GREAT time. Of course, it was much better since the Red Sox won 10-1! Before the top of the 8th inning, they do a karaoke rendition of the song "Sweet Caroline." It was hilarious... the WHOLE crowd sings along! Of course, that song always makes me think of my newest sis-in-law whose name is Caroline. (As a matter of fact, I heard that song in the grocery store today!)
We stayed long enough after the game that the security guys asked us to leave. Chris got a handful of Fenway Park dirt, which we brought home. I thought he was going to get busted for that, too, but the security guard right there was super nice. While we were talking to him, Jorge Posada walked RIGHT past us (we were standing right next to the vistors dugout.)
After the game, we headed back to Quincy Market to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. At that particular store (and that store ONLY) you can get a Build-a-Bear Wally the Green Monster (the Red Sox mascot). We got in just in time to get one made! So, now I have 2 Wallys... one little one from the ballpark, and one big one from Build-a-Bear. :-)
At that point, I was very tired, and it was late, so we went to bed.
In the morning we got to the airport and went to check-in on Northwest, only to be told that we didn't have any reservations under our names. Chris was pretty upset, and (this is the abbreviated version) after having a customer service rep hang up on him, we finally got the issue solved... our first flight was on US Airways, the 2nd two were on Northwest. We got everything straightened out and went through security. Chris ran into a little problem there, too. Since we were bringing back souvenirs, I had rearranged some things in our suitcases which we carried on. In the rearranging process, I forgot that you are only allowed ONE bag of travel sized toiletries per person... and I had put both of our toiletry bags in Chris' suitcase. They pulled it off the line for a more specific search. We also had squished my teddy bear in there on top of everything, and Chris warned the TSA lady to be careful when opening the suitcase that it would "blow up." That phrase was NOT THE GREATEST CHOICE OF WORDS IN AN AIRPORT SECURITY LINE!!!!! You should have seen the look she gave him! I quickly stated, "Chris, that's a poor choice of words!" He explained what he meant, and she laughed. I could just see Chris getting arrested or something! YIKES!
After all of that drama, we had no more mishaps along the way from Boston to Buffalo, to Detroit, to here! We had a LONG layover in Detroit, and a few gates down from ours, they had a HUGE screen TV. Since it was Sunday afternoon, the Packers/Giants game was on. We were cracking up at the other people watching the game... and cheering as if they were in their living room at home (or actually at the game!) It was VERY entertaining, and made the time pass a lot more quickly!
We finally made it home... 7 hours after our first flight left... just in time to watch the Yankees/Red Sox game AND the Patriots/Chargers game on TV! Chris was so happy... except the Red Sox lost AGAIN!
Well, that's the story of our weekend! I'll try to post some pictures... if not tonight, at least next week. I have several days off next week! YEAH!

Quick Note

We just got back from a weekend trip to Boston... VERY fun, but I am VERY tired! I'll post more about our little jaunt later, but wanted to say hello!
And to share... Chris had the awesome opportunity to share his beliefs with his manager over lunch the other day. They got on the subject of "religion" because Chris (the manager) asked Chris (my hubby) about drinking since we were going to a baseball game this weekend. My hubby was able to tell him WHY we don't drink, then the conversation moved on to creation vs. evolution, etc.... and then they were interrupted. I'm always excited when God opens doors to witness to people because we have been faithful to allow the light of the GLORIOUS gospel of truth to shine unto all men THROUGH Christ working IN US! More about the weekend, tomorrow, hopefully! I took lots of pictures! :-) (surprise, surprise!)

Busy

Wow - it seems like there is so much that I want to blog about, but time just slips by and the posts don't get done. I guess it doesn't really matter all that much to anyone but me. I love having this blog more for a journal for myself than for other people, but I'm glad that others read it, too!

Well, as you can tell from my most recent posts, we have been busy with trying to get everything worked out with the house. We were able to get our financing finalized on Friday, and Chris went and signed everything with the finance guy today. He is bringing home a huge stack of papers for me to sign tonight, and we should be "good to go" for closing on July 16th.

I also was busy last week trying to find a dress to wear to my brother's wedding this Saturday. It's kind of hard for me to believe that my baby brother is old enough to be married (he's eight years younger than me.) Anyway, I was hoping to have lost enough weight to get into an outfit I already had, but it didn't work out that way. It's pretty close, and I probably COULD wear it, but it doesn't look GREAT yet. It is a wedding, after all, though not mine, and there will be a lot of pictures taken. I want to look nice! So, my dear husband, (in spite of the fact that he has given me about $200 for stamps in the past couple months) graciously said that I could buy a new dress if I could get one for $25.

Now, I have lost over 20 pounds, which makes shopping very awkward due to the fact that I am in between sizes. (I actually am wearing a size 12 skirt today, and it is not skin-tight! That's a huge deal!) I still am not, by any stretch, thin, so all of those super cute dresses that are made out of bias cut fabric or stretchy (show every curve ~ or in my case, bulge) fabric are not flattering to my figure. The other problem I ran into is that I found some faux wrap dresses that looked pretty good, but were both out of my price range and required some sort of tank or camisole underneath to be modest. This would have increased the spending even more, and I couldn't do that.

Well, after searching high and low, driving all over the greater Louisville metro area, and shopping til I felt like dropping, I finally found a dress. Chris wasn't sure about it, as it has a fairly busy print on it, and he says that it's "not my usual style." However, after watching TLC's What Not to Wear, I am trying to CHANGE my style a little bit to wear things that are more flattering. ANYWAY, I wore it to church yesterday as a "test run" and received MANY compliments on it. I guess that means it will be pretty decent for the wedding. I'll post a picture of it after this weekend. That pretty much took up 2 whole days to find that dress!

This past Thursday, I spent a lot of time at our new house with the home inspector (that's why I was able to take all the pictures I posted last week. After that, I went shopping dress shopping. While I was out, I took a shopping break from dresses and went into a flea market. I was thrilled to find this: I have been looking for something like this for over a year now. I saw it and it screamed "Buy me, Buy me!" It was only $3.50, and I just happened to have the cash on me (and I very RARELY carry cash!) My kitchen is decorated in coffee and gingerbread men, so this was PERFECT. You can't much beat the price, either!

Saturday night, we went to a Louisville Bats game (Triple-A minor league baseball.) Chris' boss is a season ticket holder, and Chris was able to get our tickets for free. We went with our friends, John and Heidi, and had a great time. It was very ironic that the date we were able to go was also the date that the Bats were playing the Pawtucket Red Sox (farm team for the Boston Red Sox). Of course, my die hard Red Sox fan-addict husband was thrilled about that! The Red Sox actually won the game 4-1 after about an hour rain delay. Chris and I had to laugh about that... the 5 or 6 games we attended last year all had some kind of rain delay. We had a great time, though, and it was nice to get out and do something, rather than stay at home all the time. I'll have to post pictures of that another time, too.

I got new stamps yesterday... just a Gingerbread wheel that was retiring, but since my kitchen is gingerbread men, I had to get it... just in case I need more curtains, or want to make other decorative items with my dear little gingerbread men! Also, I got a set that is square decorative frames. I'm planning to use it more as a background than anything, but it, too, was retiring. When I make some cards, I'll post them.

I have a problem! I think I am allergic to my wedding ring! Now, I know that sounds crazy, but I'm totally serious. Up until November, I had worn my wedding ring every single day without removing it for any reason with no problems. The beginning of November, my finger started to break out. It gets very itchy, then gets red and little blisters begin to form. (I don't have this problem with any of my other rings, or on any other finger!) My nursing director thinks it is some kind of fungal infection from washing my hands so much and getting soap and water underneath my ring. Anyway, I was forced to stop wearing it for a while. Then when my finger healed, I would start wearing it again, and it would do it all over again. Recently, I would just wear my ring on my days off, and it was fine. Yesterday, I wore my ring all day and also when I went to bed. I took extra care to take it off and dry my finger and the under side of my ring each time I washed my hands. This morning I woke up, and my finger was itchy, red and very swollen. I took my ring off, and there were tiny blisters under where my ring was. I wish I knew what the problem was! I love my wedding ring, and I HATE not wearing it! Chris always asks me if I'm still married, even if I don't wear my ring. I told him he can't get rid of me that easily! Besides, in case anyone were to look, the big red mark on my finger should be enough evidence that I have SOME kind of ring that I wear on that finger!

Other than that, I can't think of anything major going on. Have a wonderful day. I'll post some new pictures one of these days when I get a chance! :-)

Congrats, Colts Fans!

Congratulations to all you Colts fans out there... now you can officially say that Peyton Manning is the MAN... he FINALLY won the big game!
Sorry, Jennittia, that your Bears lost... I was rooting for them.
We had a couple over from church last night to watch the game, and had a good time of fellowship over my specialty... homemade pizza. Not the exciting Super Bowl parties that we've had in the past, but it was fun, nonetheless.
My husband informed me last night that there is only 2 more weeks til baseball spring training starts, which means I will be hearing about the Red Sox non-stop until October! I don't mind the Red Sox (I'm actually becoming quite the fan), but I'm not nearly into baseball as much as football... and baseball season is SOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOONG!!

Random Thoughts...

I've been thinking about a bunch of things lately, and rather than posting several different times, I'm going to address all of my random thoughts in one post. Be prepared to read a while! :-P

Super Bowl XLI

(If you don't follow football, you can just ignore this whole section!) Living in Indiana, we are forced to watch the Colts play almost every Sunday. With my husband being from Boston/New Hampshire, he is a die-hard Patriots fan. (I have now become a Patriots fan by osmosis, but I still love my Minnesota Vikings...even if they STINK!) Of course, if you follow football, you will know that there is a huge rivalry between the Colts & Pats d/t Peyton Manning losing all of his playoff games to Tom Brady. That is, until this year. Yes, the Colts are a good team, and yes, Peyton Manning is a great quarterback. However, we get really tired of hearing all the accolades of Peyton Manning above all other quarterbacks in the league, especially when he hasn't won the big games up until now. Congratulations to the Colts for FINALLY winning over the Patriots! I'm still hoping the Bears will win the Super Bowl, though, because I hate seeing the Colts win because the referees won't call games fairly for both sides when teams are playing the Colts. I would admire them a lot more if they could win without the help of the referees. OK - that's my soapbox on the Super Bowl teams. By the way, Jennittia, congrats on your BEARS getting to the Super Bowl. Too bad you can't have a "house divided" in rooting for your teams in the Big Game this year! Was Rodney super disappointed? Chris was! One more soapbox here... does anyone else get tired of the emphasis the media puts on the first "African-American" coach to get to the Super Bowl? I think it's great that they have earned the achievement of going to the Super Bowl, but if "minorities" are REALLY striving for EQUALITY, why does the media make such a big deal about it? They don't do that for any other ethnic group. I'm not racist by any stretch, I just get tired of everything turning into racial divisions. If we truly don't see skin color, then why do they make it such a big deal?

TRASH TALKER

I've been reading the book "Reclaiming Surrendered Ground" by Jim Logan. It has been very convicting to me, as well as a huge encouragement to keep fighting against Satan's attacks in my life, and reclaiming the ground that I have surrendered to him by giving in to my temptations. The author reminds us that Christ has already won the victory on the cross, and that Satan is a defeated foe. Satan has NO POWER over a Christian, other than talking. Did you know that Satan is the biggest TRASH TALKER there ever was? Why do we allow Satan to invade our lives? Because we are listening to his TALK... the Father of lies puts thoughts in our heads that tempt us to doubt the goodness of God; to push aside the Bible beliefs that we know to be true. Should it surprise us that the father of lies uses lies to get us to live defeated Christian lives? It reminds me of the passage in Galatians 5:13-26 that we studied in P.O.W.E.R. groups at Northland Camp the summer of 2004. Galatians 5:24-25 states, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." In verse 24, the verb is in the past tense..."HAVE CRUCIFIED." As Christians, our flesh has been doomed to death. However, it is not dead yet. The picture is of the flesh hanging on the cross, writhing in agony and defeat, using every painful breath to TRASH TALK! THE ONLY POWER OUR FLESH OR SATAN HAS OVER US IS THE POWER WE GIVE IT BY LISTENING TO THE TRASH THAT IS SPEWING OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS!

We CAN live victorious Christian lives through the VICTORY that Christ has already won! I don't know about you, but that was a huge encouragement to me! It was also a huge conviction, as I often find myself listening to Satan's lies.

Bull's Eye Christianity

Dr. Tom Wallace preached at our church on Sunday. His message Sunday night was a huge challenge to me. He started out by giving the illustration of the bull's eye target. His challenge was to move one ring closer to being a "bull's eye Christian."

He started by saying that there is a group on the very outside of the target... those are the "multitudes." (Matthew 9:36) That is the group of people that are lost and on their way to hell. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you become part of the "multitude." (John 6). That group is then narrowed down to 5,000. (Acts 4:4).

From there, the group is cut to 120 (Acts 1:15), then to 70 (Luke 10:1). Jesus chose 12 disciples (Matthew 10:1-2), but only 3 were in the "inner circle": Peter, James, and John. (Matthew 17:1-2, Mark 14:32-33, Mark 5:21-24, 37). Lastly, out of all of Jesus Christ's followers and disciples, there was only ONE "bull's eye Christian"... the apostle John (John 13:23, 20:2, 21:7,21:20). John is the only disciple/apostle that Jesus SAYS that He LOVED. Did he love the others? Of course, He did! But John was so close, that he was in the middle of the bull's eye.

So the question is asked: Where are you? Are you way out in the multitude? the 120? the 12? the bull's eye? How do you get from being a "multitude" Christian to being a "bull's eye Christian"? It is simple. When you hear a truth from God's Word, accept and apply it to your life. Every time you do that, it draws you closer to the Lord. After continually hearing, accepting, and applying God's truth to your life, you will find yourself taking that next spiritual step, and moving closer one more "circle."

This was a huge conviction in my heart. I'm working toward becoming a "bull's eye Christian."