Soybeans and more

Random:

I ate soybeans today at work for the first time and liked them! Imagine that!!

Those little pods are hairy, too.

Does anyone know where I can download that cute little calendar page icon I used to have on my page?

the end.

And, P.S.

there are new pictures up of the day that it snowed and I ventured out into the cold.

(I know, you're surprised...but it was just so darn pretty!)

Winter has arrived.

So it would seem that winter has finally arrived to western Pennsylvania.
Actually, it's been winter for a while now. Temperatures below freezing, ice, sleet, hail.
However, I would contest that this week has seen the best accumulation of snow yet this season.

It's cold. It's snowy. It makes your cheeks red and your fingers ache. It's winter.


My poor chair. All covered in snow.
This is where I sit in the spring when it's nice out.
I read books here, talk on the phone, feel the sunshine on my face and the breeze in my hair.
Little piece of heaven right here. Covered in snow.

Sigh.

Winter is pretty, I have to give it that.
At least the sky is blue and the wind doesn't take your breath away.
Small miracles. Thank you Jesus.

I'd like you to meet someone very special...

His name is Derrick.

He's a gorgeous, soulful-eyed, little 8 year old boy in Uganda, Africa. He a World Vision child that I recently began to sponsor back in October.

Let me tell you, I feel in love with this little man the first time I saw his picture on the World Vision table. His cute little expression, his big eyes, the seriousness....he is ready to take on the world and I love it.

He just recently had a birthday and I wanted to hop on a plane to Africa, hug him and tell him loved he is from afar.

I am loving sponsoring this guy. I get to write emails, send cards and birthday celebration games. It's so exciting. I get a progress report once a year and when he is able, he will write me back.

If you haven't heard of World Vision and the amazing work they do for children across the globe, I'd encourage you to take a few minutes to check it out. To sponsor a child it costs $35/month. If you can't afford that on a monthly basis, you should take a look at the "gift catalog". You can buy a one time gift for a village, such as a share in a new well they need to dig, a brick for their school house, or a gift of a goat and two chickens for a family.

It's a beautiful thing to share and well worth the effort to impact these little lives for the better. I just love it. I hope you'll check it out and consider sponsoring a child. :)

Wowzers

I just did the math and I am amazed and slightly disgusted.

In the past four years I've been living at my apartment, I have paid *about* $23,000 in rent!

I could have put a down payment on a tiny house, bought a car with no loan, adopted a small child from a foreign country, you get the idea. There are LOTS of things you can do with $23,000.

(!!!)

I need to find somewhere free to live.

Oh dear.

So, it has somehow managed to become *today* (that being January 20th, 2009 - in case you didn't know our new President [i think] is getting sworn in today...i could be wrong) without me ever closing my little brown eyes once. And I wasn't at work. Sigh.

What was I *doing* all night you ask?

Well, I watched tv until the thought of watching more pointless (not very entertaining) entertainment made me want to vomit all over my nice furniture.

Then I moved to the kitchen, where I proceeded to eat half of the fridge over the course of the (very) long night. Thank goodness for those lovely Italian genes that permit me to eat 6 large pancakes as PART of my midnight snack. Oh yes, sorry, I forgot the butter and peanut butter I smeared all over them before dousing them in pancake syrup....heavenly.

Then, I laid on my newly-re-covered-pretend-down-comforter-because-I'm-allergic-bed-covering that is YELLOW which reminds me of settling down in nice fluffy yellow-ness.

--contented sigh here--

I know, I know, that means nothing to some of you. Sorry. Suffice it to say, I enjoy laying on my soft yellow comforter....AND read an entire....let me check...563 page book in approx five hours, maybe less. Eh. It was ok. But not because the book isn't fabulous, it was, but because I feel icky being up all night when I'm not at work.

After book, I ate, again and then proceeded to check for updates on all the sites I read. I can't BELIEVE you all did not ALL post new posts between midnight and 4am. Come on! What were you doing people!?! Ahem, I digress. I forgive you all by the way.

Then I decided to finish reading someone's blog from her first post to where I started reading her blog. I accomplished that goal and read approx 2 years of very enjoyable blogage, where I learned much about raising MSC*.

*that would be "Many Small Children" of which I plan to have someday.

Now, I am here. Writing because it is 6:30am exactly and it is still to early to call someone if you are trying to be polite. Which I am, because I for one hate being woken up myself.

I am still over 12 hours away from the I've-been-up-for-24-hours-mark and I am barely even tired. I could draw blood, reset IVs and give a coherent hand off report for at least another few hours. :)

Let me just say that I am a silly duck. Very silly. I HATE staying up all night when I am forced to. I LOVE staying up all night when I decide to. (and oh yes, that could *lovingly* be referred to as evil wicked sin otherwise known as rebellion in my little heart...not something I try to foster but...eh..I am a sinful human) Tonight, last night, I was forced to, because I did not force my body out of bed before 6pm. (MORE rebellion!) Granted, I did not go to bed until 10am. My body has a little rule that I should be familiar with by now. I need 8 hours of sleep. Count em. Eight hours. Anything less and I am semi-incoherent and need at least five LOUD alarms to wake me up. Silly, I know, but true.

YET, time after time when getting off of night shift, I convince myself to "fool" my body, stay up late (in the morning after getting home from night shift) and then wake up early so that I can go back to bed by 10pm that night and sleep the entire night. I can count on one hand (finger) that the above scenario has actually worked. Since then, I've just been lying to myself. But it's hard. There really is no good way to get my body back on a day shift from working a night shift then to just be miserable for a few days and try to be polite, nice, welcoming, etc to others while I adjust. (Think going through jet jag every two weeks without ever getting to leave the time zone)

While I love my job, I'll be glad for the day that I can trade all these night shifts in. They send me for a loop.

And I am not really that miserable when I'm adjusting, I just feel this way right now since I've been hanging out all night doing nothing. Because the lovely thing is, I am awake enough that I can't sleep, yet tired enough that I didn't even hold up the book I read all night most of the time. It and I laid on my bed. I was using almost NO energy and yet I was still ravenous! crazy.

crazy crazy crazy

and now I have this urge to go sew a multi-colored striped quilt!

Do I know how to make a quilt? Do I have all the fabric necessary for this image in my head? Do I have a child to put under said quilt that I would make? Do I have to time to make this quilt and STILL get my house clean (because I'm still working on that last pile)?

No.

Does that stop me from wanting to try it anyway?

Never.

Some Finished Christmas Presents!!

WHOO!!
I finally finished all my Christmas presents!

I thought you might like to see them, so I took pictures.

:)

of course. lol.

Here they are....if you are a lucky person, they might be coming to your door soon!



<----- Tote bag numero uno! (spanish for you)

<--- Tote bag nombre deux (french for you)

















<---- Tote bag zahl drei (german for you)



















<---- Nice warm scarf for a special someone in NC.


(.....love you Chels!)













<--- Yup....very warm, my nose confirms it!


















<--- Me so very stinkin' happy that Christmas presents are DONE!








P.S....well, except for one, but Kinko's will take care of that one.

:)

Baby Crying Stories

Ok, so there are other blogs I read of Christian families who have had medical problems with their family, namely with their small children. They have blogs and they have written about their family's entire struggle with illness. I know several blogs like this.

Everyone thinks I am crazy to read all these sad blogs and cry all the time, but I know better. My tears are not useless silly tears. They are tears of sadness, amazement, and sometimes joy, but mainly, they are tears of worship for our Father. The faith that these families present forth on their blogs is nothing short of amazing. It humbles me and encourages me to read these proclamations of faith when in dire situations. It reminds me how fragile we are and how fleeting our life here on earth is. It teaches me about the One I love, the Lord....and for that, I wouldn't trade any of those tears.

Here are some of the blogs I read.

Noah Steven - Crowned in Peace - Adrienne and Jason are Noah's parents. He has a sister named Emily. Noah was sick for most of his life and spent almost all of it in Denver Children's Hospital. According to his mom, he received his miracle- He's cuddling with Jesus now.

Confessions of a CF Husband - Nate and Tricia have only been married for a few years, but have spent their fair share of time in the hospital. Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis and almost died last year due to complications from her pregnancy with little miss Gwyneth. Gwyneth herself was born at 24 weeks and had a slim chance of survival. Due to some pretty amazing miracles, Tricia received her much needed double lung transplant and Gwyneth just turned one.

MckMama and the crew - This is a beautiful family that is made up of MckMama, Prince Charming, Big Mac, MckNuggest, Small Fry and MckMuffin. MckMuffin was given a fatal pretnatal diagnosis when he was 24 weeks along. By 32 weeks, he his heart was enlarged. His parents were told numerous times that he would die. However, this family plead the blood of Jesus and told thousands of people their story. All those people prayed and their prayers were answered. MckMuffin was born right on time with absolutely no heart complications at all. In fact, he's a perfectly beautiful HEALTHY little newborn who gets the occasional bout of RSV. So normal, it's amazing.

Audrey Caroline - This woman's name is Angie and her husband Todd, is one of the members of
the band Selah. Angie and Todd were told at their 20 week ultrasound that little Audrey would not survive outside of the womb. They decided not to abort the pregnancy and to spend all the time Jesus would give them with Audrey that they could. They loved this beautiful little girl for 2 1/2 hours before Jesus took her home.

It's an amazing story in itself, but today I read one of the first posts that Angie posted when she found out about Audrey. I want you to read it. Read it and pay attention to what Angie tells the doctor...I think it will amaze and encourage you.

Enjoy.

Abby Riggs

Hi all.

So, I know you are used to me finding all the saddest stories of sick little kids on the internet, reading their blog for months and then telling you all about it! Well, I'm glad you are used to me because I have another precious little girl I want you all to pray for. :)

Her name is Abby and she was adopted when she was six months old into this amazing Christian family of two parents and seven children. She was diagnosed in July 2008 with Leukemia. Her parents and siblings are all beautiful and it is beautiful to read their blog and hear the faith in their "voice" over the internet. They are amazing.

Abby is a cutie, but she has several things working against her. She has a VERY aggressive type of Leukemia, she has a genetic condition which makes her four times more likely not to survive the first year of treatment and she is entering into the most dangerous part of her chemo tomorrow on January 14th. It will take 60 days and a lot of Jesus for this part of treatment to be over. Unfortunately, if she survives, she might even have to do this part of chemo over again.

So, now that you know all about her, please take a second and pray for her.
Here is the link to her family's blog if you want to read more about this amazing family.

Picture Update

Here are some new pictures for you all!
I took all if not most of these in Cleveland at a lovely hotel and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Some pictures are beautiful simply because of the artists work in them. I don't take any credit at all for those. :)

Enjoy!

Mumble Jumble

I honestly have so many thoughts running through my head right now, I don't know what to write about. Thoughts and ideas racing through my gray matter....but just not enough will power to sort through them and write. Although, when I do have time and focus, I think it will be good.

I just finished reading the Ragamuffin Gospel last night. It has changed how I think about the Lord, in a good way. I've really been blessed with being able to relate better to Jesus, how He feels about me and just our relationship in general. Some really great sweet times with Him have followed and I am enjoying His greater presence in my life. It's just....sweet. beautiful. life changing. gorgeous. immense. I love Him.

I am also almost done reading through the entire Old Testament for the first time. That has really blessed me as well. Although I've read most of, if not all of, the New Testament, I'm excited to start reading through that as well. Uh, I've been thinking about all the great stuff in there for months and now I can finally sink into it, instead of just skipping ahead every now and then.

I am getting a piano tomorrow and it is pure blessing from Jesus. About a year ago, I felt the Lord nudge me in the direction of picking up playing the piano/keyboard again. So, I've practiced more, gotten involved with worship team at church and am just trying to be faithful. BUT, it is so hard without an instrument in my house. I prefer pianos, but never thought I would get one, so I've been praying for a keyboard, either to get one or to be able to afford one. THEN, out of the blue a friend offers me a piano for free and I actually got someone to move it up into my second story apartment at a decent price. Praise the LORD! I am so excited, mostly about what's going to happen now.

I am also cleaning and reorganizing my house. I have limited work hours this month because I used my holiday time, so I'm going to have lots of time, which I LOVE! I just really needed this time to refresh after the holidays.

AND, last but not least, I have updated my sidebar "Things I love". Jesus has just been softening my heart in some old directions and some new ones over the past year and few months. I really just felt it was high time that my blog reflected that change. In this category are things that I really love, pray over, and support and I wanted to share it with you. When you have some free time, browse through these sites and ministries. It will bless you.

P.S. - new pictures will be coming soon, I just haven't had time to edit and select them, yet! (Surprise, surprise)

Change of Plans

So, change of plans. I am at work tonight instead of tomorrow night. My supervisor called me yesterday at about 6:30pm begging for people to come in to work 11pm-7am. She offered to switch me my 12 hour shift for this little measly 8 hour shift. I had slept until 12:30pm yesterday, so I figured it wouldn't be too much of a stretch. So far, it's going pretty well.

But the clean up at the house. Oh, the clean up. There are many things to do. Christmas decorations to take down, Christmas ornaments to put away and reorganize for next year, sewing projects to FINISH and then pack away, kitchen table to de-clutter, room to clean, fold, wash, reorganize, put away and then furniture to rearrange to accomodate a piano. QUICK BREATH. Goodwill stuff to take there, boxes of stuff to pack for previous roommates, fridge to clean out, food to eat. Sigh.

Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to all this. When I'm in the mood, I like to clean. I actually obsessively clean. When I get it into my head to do something, thats ALL I want to do. It can be a good thing. For instance, that's how I finished the bathroom in two days, EVEN though I "had" to paint the bathroom twice. Three times if you count the primer.

Can I also say that the book Ragamuffin Gospel is changing my life? It's so good to be reminded that Jesus LOVES us, is rooting for us and some times, it's not about you being happy, but about being HOLY. That's a good one.

All for now.

(Hopefully I will get bathroom pictures up tomorrow.)

The Bathroom Saga

Life has been chaotic lately. Actually, I think it's just my house that's chaotic, but somehow that always makes everything else seem crazy, too. SO much cleaning and organizing to do over the
next week that I'm off on vacation. I do have to go to work overnight tomorrow, but then I'm off until the next Saturday. :) Whoo.

Oh life....

I'm getting a piano and I decided to redo my bathroom with my Christmas money. I've uploaded pictures for you. I like the bathroom, but I don't think I'm in love with it. It's prettier than before. The right word would be "satisfied" and "content". I am satisfied and content with the bathroom. No more painting it. Because you know I did that twice. :)

Here you go!

The bathroom before...actually when I first moved in in 2004,
but it really didn't change that much.
I replaced the white plastic with a cute brown basket...but that's it.

The shower curtain....my first one that I ever bought actually.
It was $40 and I got it at Bed Bath and Beyond.
I used it for 5 years....so I think it was worth the money.
Although, I actually kept it turned to the opposite side most of the time
which was yellow, orange and pink thick stripes.

The redo!

The wall of pictures so you can see it.
And yes, that is a little cute $0.50 plant that I hope to keep alive.
I mean it's right beside the sink and water,
so I can't forget to water it, right? Right.

The beautiful rugs that match my shower curtain
that my mom bought me for Christmas.
Actually the towels in the picture above are from my mom, too.
I got a whole matching set of white and pink towels. Thanks Mom!

Close up of pictures.

More close ups. Do you see yourself in there anywhere?

And, some of my favorite people. :)
They are above my light switch.