She did it!

Princess had two of her closest friends spend the night on Wednesday night and then we picked up a third friend on Thursday. They all had fun and then at 1:15 we went to the salon for her hair donation. My stylist is the owner of the salon and she did a super great job on Princess. These are the pictures of before and after.

One of the things I told the girls is, "When you go through something eventful in your life, be sure to have your girlfriends with you. They can cheer you on, encourage you or lift your spirits." I so want these girls to continue to learn the true meaning and value of friendship ... that they are never alone ... that they always have each other. We celebrated friendship in a pre-teen way with going to the salon together and then going for ice cream afterwards.

Life is good!

Psalm 8:2-4

Because of Your adversaries, You have established a stronghold from the mouths of children and nursing infants, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?

Cancer

I have a precious friend who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a week or two she went from finding the lump to being diagnosed and then finding out it is now in her lymph nodes as stage 3. This past weekend she got the results back from the bone biopsy. They had to do a series of tests to determine if they could even give her chemo and one of them was the bone scan. Something showed up on the scan and so they scheduled a bone biopsy. Are you cringing with me? Sorry. Anyway, we were all praying so hard for God's Will, and yet begging Him like little children to make the bone biopsy clean so that she can have the chemo.



WooHoo!!!!! The biopsy came back negative on Friday, so she started her chemo yesterday after work. She is a doctor and will continue to work. She goes back to work on Thursday.



Her daughter is one of Princess' dearest friends. "Daughter" (as I will call her) will be with Princess on Thursday when Princess cuts her hair. Princess has been growing her hair out to donate. We will keep her ponytail for our friend. I know it takes 3-4 ponytails to make a wig, but there is a way to make a "ponytail cap" with one donation. We'll see. I can totally see my friend just using a bandana though.

New Office

We move our office this week from our home to a new, groovy office. It's actually a house that we are leasing from dear friends. It's a large home set on the banks of a beautiful creek. There is plenty of room to grow our employee base from 2 to 8 or so. We really could fit a large number of people here, but we have capped it at 8. We plan to lease the property for a year and then re-evaluate. We feel so blessed to have such a beautiful space to launch the company into this next phase of growth. The number of countries that we serve has grown to 90 countries. Surprisingly, the US is not our largest region of the world. This job is so fun and at times I wonder what I did with all of my time before I worked. Work has forced me to be very disciplined and purposeful with my time.

These are pictures of the new office. Princess will be very blessed to spend her summer here instead of in some office building, that's for sure! She can fish, explore, swim and play in her nooks of the house. The pantry has a hidden area that is very much like the wardrobe in Narnia. You pull on a section of shelving in the pantry and it opens as a door into another small room behind the pantry! Very cool.

Biggest Loser

Ok, it's been a busy week, but I have to take a minute to pontificate on last Tuesday's episode of the Biggest Loser. The whole pride thing on the Blue Team is very telling. "From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks", so says Jesus. Him being the authority on everything, I take Him at His Word. The issue of pride with the Blue team has taken a nasty root and grown. The tattoos were sad enough, but the arrogance being displayed by Roger and Dan are evidence of the attitude of their hearts.

Having said that, I do love the loyalty on the Blue Team. Good stuff. They display an excellent example of team spirit, competitiveness and loyalty.

I really want to opine about the Blue Team crying. Many people say it was over the top and embarressing. This also is very telling. Why is it in our society that we demand that men be relational with accurate verbal expressions, remember anniversaries and buy flowers, yet we stomp on men when they show emotion??? Where, oh where, is the logic?

If society wants men to be considered babies when they cry then we need to follow the logic to its bitter end. Either we encourage thoughtful communication, good verbal skills, gentle expressions of affection AND showing tender emotion ....

Or we encourage no tender emotion, no gentle expressions of affection, poor verbal skills and silence in place of thoughtful communication.

Which will be have, Society? Choose this day. This split personality man that our society has created is confusing to men and women alike. It's not a godly example and the Christian community should be ashamed for contributing to this sad World View that crying is lame and a man who buys flowers is to be celebrated.

And, as Forest Gump says, "That's all I have to say about that."

Ear Infection

Princess began having trouble hearing at the beginning of this week. By Wednesday night, she could not hear you speak to her unless you were right next to her. Thursday morning we went to the pedi and both of her ears were so infected that her eardrums could not move. The pedi asked her, "Do your ears hurt?" and she replied, "No sir." Amazing. She never runs a fever unless she has the flu and she rarely complains of pain. Ok, backtrack. She's a drama queen so if she has a papercut, it's worth a moan or two. If she jams her finger while playing basketball, you'll hear about it all day. But, if she's really sick or really hurt ... she pulls up her boot straps and deals with it. I admire her. She's my hero.

RAK

Random Acts of Kindness

I love Lysa's blog. I always get a chuckle or stab of conviction. Today is about Random Acts of Kindness. I actually prefer to think of them as SLAK ... Spirit Led Acts of Kindness. You know that internal shove you get when you have the option to let someone in front of you during high traffic times? Or how about when someone is wandering around in the parking lot looking for their car and you have the option to drive by or stop and help them find the car? You hear that a friend is having a rough time and you think, "I should send them a card..." All of these are really easy, simple ways to show kindness. By definition, the person receiving the kindness does not necessarily deserve it or else it would be a payment ... not an act of kindness.

Dictionary.com defines Kindness as:

1.
the state or quality of being kind
2.
a kind act; favor
3.
kind behavior
4.
friendly feeling; liking.

Did you notice in the 2nd definition that kindness is also called a favor? This made me look up Favor in the dictionary:

1.
something done or granted out of goodwill, rather than from justice or for remuneration; a kind act

I guess I always thought of a favor as something that needed to be repaid. I learn new things every day!

Luke 6:34-36

And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Boundaries

I drive carpool every other week. In the afternoons, it is only Princess and her friend, "M". On Friday, Princess and her friend were telling me about their time on the playground which I will get to later. One particular boy, who I will give the original name of "boy", really likes Princess. She has had a crush on him since the end of last school year. This boy's family has had some hard times lately with his parents' divorce. He has a stuttering issue as well that makes him a target of his peers. Princess accepts him just as he is and has a heart for him. It doesn't hurt anything that he also likes horses and they pretend to be horses when they play together. As the year has progressed, they have matured and play other games besides the horse game. King and I have a "no dating" rule. Crushes are not encouraged, but as part of life and maturing, they are inevitable. We have chosen to use this relationship as a teaching one.

"Boy" is providing us some great teaching material! Last week he brought a pocket knife to school and showed it to Princess on the playground, swearing her to secrecy. Being the obedient gal that she is, she told me about it rather hesitantly as she didn't want to break his trust.

This past Friday on the playground, a group of kids surrounded "Boy" and were teasing him. Someone suggested he pretend to be a bull which he proceeded to do with gusto. He began headbutting everyone in his path, knocking my little carpool buddy off of her feet when he hit her in the stomach. The girls then told me how "Boy" makes Princess do whatever he wants her to do. He holds her wrist in a way that she can't get away and drags her places. All kinds of alarms go off in my head when I hear things like this. Then Princess told me about "Boy" and a friend making the sign of the cross in the dirt and stepping on it, then holding her wrist and trying to force her to do the same. She was greatly frustrated and wrenched away from them, using her foot to erase the cross from the dirt.

This is the point where I talked to the girls about boundaries. "Boundaries are good for you in all of your relationships. You will be a good friend to "Boy" if you tell him your boundaries and then stick to them. Tell him you are a lady and you will be treated like a lady." I went on to encourage them to involve an adult to help them if someone was violating their boundaries, in this case, "Boy". As elementary kids, this is a small problem. If this boy does not learn his boundaries and thinks he can force a girl to do what he wants ... this could have huge and devastating effects in 5 years.

At times I wish this friendship with "boy" would disappear, but I am learning to be thankful for this struggle. Princess is learning how she wants to be treated. She has a compassionate heart and I can see her as a teenager falling for some smooth talk from a hurting guy. Now is the time to teach her boundaries ... for her safety and well being. In our society, it's been pretty easy to teach virtue as there is so much material available as negative examples. What is a little harder for me is the more elusive topic of honor, respect and boundaries.

Music

I found this music while visiting another blog. I love reflective, tender instrumental music. As a visitor of my blog, do you find the music distracting? Do you prefer a quiet blog page or does music enhance your blogging experience? Comment and let me know!

Kindness

My precious friend, Katybug, nominated me for the Everyday Kindness Award. I'm a little baffled by this because Katy knows me really well. :) I humbly accept your gift and truly thank you, Katy. Can I give this award back to you? I think you are pretty nifty, too.

What does kindess mean anyway?

"Let a righteous man strike me - it is a kindness; let him rebuke me - it is oil on my head." Ps 141:5

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Gal 5:22

"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Eph 2:6-7

May I be kind in telling the truth, in allowing the Spirit to flow through me, and in resting and celebrating the incomparable riches of God's grace expressed through Christ Jesus!

The Day

What does this day hold for you? What do you have planned? What will make this day different from yesterday? Do you have great plans, normal plans?

"Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."

Do you know who said this? What was the author drawing out of the reader?

Make the most of every opportunity.

If one is very careful then, one would be highly alert to each action that they take. Every opportunity does not indicate being careful with only the opportunities that you deem important, but being careful with every single, solitary opportunity.

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Make the most of every opportunity. Imitate God.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and early loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all thse virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

Make the most of every opportunity. Imitate God. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that."

Make the most of every opportunity. Imitate God. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel...That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day."

Make the most of every opportunity. Imitate God. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Godliness with contentment is great gain. God gave us a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. Join in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.

Oh .... Mohhhmmy

We have hit the tween years. I love it and dread it. My daughter is sweet. She's an obedient gal. She really wants to please. However, I can see those teen years coming and all that those years bring with them. I have been dreading it.

Until today.

Today I listened to HomeWord with Jim Burns at OnePlace.com. This particular interview was with Susie Shellenberger, the editor of Brio magazine. The topic was, "Hearing What Your Daughter Isn't Telling You". I was humbled. I was excited. I was nervous. I was relieved. I experienced a lot of emotions while listening because for the first time I realized that I have been quite ill with Ostrich Syndrome. It's quite debilitating, this syndrome. Those affected proceed through daily life with their rears in the air and heads in the sand pretending that their "babies" are not growing up. I got a kick in the seat today and I am very grateful. Digging the sand out of my ears, I realized all over again that NOW is the time to make the teen years great. I need to truly work at my relationship with my daughter to cultivate intimacy and fun ... while she still wants to hang out with me. :)

I'm actually choosing to change my attitude about the change that is encroaching upon my daughter. Praise God that she is normal and can grow up. Praise God that she has the ability to articulate herself to me. Praise God that she can discern right from wrong (even when she doesn't make the right choice between the two). Praise God for hormones as they are part of growing up. It's all good. Change is supposed to be hard. Why was I telling myself that her growth was to be dreaded? All great character growth is ugly in the process, but the result is a blessing to behold.

So, I have chosen to embrace this eye-rolling, fashion-driven, big-sighing, please-don't-embarress-me-Mommy time and just love the whole thing. That's what love is afterall, isn't it? Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

Mine!

Basketball is fun. I love to watch these girls learn the game. I am a bit perplexed with the conundrum resulting from inate competition and being a woman of grace. This week after the game, Princess recalled that she and a girl from the other team do not like each other. After a bit of conversation, the reason was competition ... not that anyone has done anything wrong or hurtful ... Princess is just learning what good, healthy competition is. As she reasons with her relational nature, if you are at odds, there must be a relational issue and it must have to do with who you are and who I am. She still hasn't learned that you mix it up on the court and high-five the other team at the end of the game. She is great at defense and really gets into ball stealing. She's much better at offense this season, but defense is where she shines. I'm praying that our time in the Word and time on the court will bring many lessons that will bless her for the rest of her life. This picture is Princess on offense teamed up against another competitive girl on defense. Each game is filled with running and scoring. They score combined 70 - 90 points per 40 minute game. So fun.

Becky and Shauna - Welcome!

You guys get your own post! Thanks for the comments on my "New Mattress" post. For some reason I can not post back to you, so I thought I'd give you the headliner spot. :) I hope you guys visit often! Katy, thank you for inviting new friends over to my blog to play!

BTW, I plan to post pictures of my "new best friend" today. It's dreamy....

Candy Palace

My dear daughter got the entrepreneurial gene from her dad. She came up with the idea of a "shop" to sell her wares, The Candy Palace. A lemonade stand is simply not where it's at. This girl wants her customers to have a kiosk full of things from which to choose. Mostly, she just wants customers. The very fun thing is what she does with her money. She doesn't sell things for herself. All, and I repeat, all proceeds go to Makarios to bless Miss Sharla and the Haitian people in the Dominican Republic. Our friend, Sharla, started Makarios (greek for "blessed") after teaching in the DR and seeing the need of the people. It's an amazing ministry. Check out their blog.

So, on Tuesday I began cleaning her room of outgrown clothes and toys. Yes, it is Saturday and I'm still not done. Seems when you turn into a tween that you no longer enjoy the things of a pre-tween. It's actually a good thing, this purging of toys and junk. At the end of this room overhaul, there will be more things to sell in the "Candy Palace" and less stuff in her room to manage. Photos are taken Saturday morning. We'll post after pics ... later. :) And, of course, let's not forget Mommy's little helper, Dixie!

Date Night

I haven't posted about Date Night in about a year. We still date once a week. This school year we have a date on Tuesday nights as Monday is our big homework day. At Princess' school, every day is a big homework day, but Monday has been our whopper. So, our sweet friend and babysitter, Jamie, comes on Tuesdays to hang with Princess while we escape for a couple of hours.

Oh the fun! We always go out to eat and then do something fairly practical like an errand that is more fun to do together than separately. Really the whole idea is just hanging out together and laughing and talking. That can happen at Target or Home Depot or a great restaurant. Last night we went to a new restaurant, Mimi's Cafe. We ordered the Corn Chowder (yum!), with the Tuscan Chicken as a main entree and their S'mores for dessert. Wow! It was all very good and the dessert was rich! I could only eat the top later of chocolate and marshmallows.

After dinner, we passed by Barnes and Noble, aka The Library at our house. We all three love to read and when Princess was little we just bought books to read instead of checking them out at the library. I was paralyzed all the time and couldn't make it to the library. We figured that the books were an invaluable investment in Princess. Consequently, for years Princess referred to Barnes and Noble as "The Library". :)

Much to my dismay, we passed by The Library and headed to Best Buy where I got a new earbud for my cell phone and a cable for the TV to watch The Biggest Loser. Woo-hoo! Go 'Bama Boys and the Black Team. :) I am actually rooting for almost everyone at this point.

I took a personality profile test as part of our Life Group at church. This test is annoying to take, but it is spot on! I found out new things about myself and confirmed others. Our Life Group consists of 6 couples ranging in age from upper 30's (me) to early 60's. We are indeed a fun bunch, if I do say so myself. We met last week for instruction/interpretation on the profile along with 4 other Life Groups. We were the rowdy group as we have all become good friends in the two years that we have been meeting. We know so much about each other, but sharing our profiles has taken us to a new level of fun/relationship. About my profile: If you look at the sample profile, you will see on page 3 the different personality types. If you stack the levels on top of each other like you would layer bricks when building a house, the foundational layer is the core of who you are. The 2nd layer (from the bottom) is your next strongest aspect of your personality. It goes on until you reach the top. Each aspet/type of the personality has a percentage. I'm foundationally a Dreamer at 89%. Next, I am a Persister at 89%. Then I am a Harmonizer at 59% and then an Energizer at 59%. My least strong characteristics are Achiever at 30% and Catalyzer at like 20%.

This is Princess in an episode. She is number 15. If you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it, you will see her blank stare, pale face and brown circles under her eyes. We are learning that this is a classic Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis episode for her. This was right before half time. She ate a snack bar during half time and was better the second half of the basketball game.

The school called about 11:00 this morning saying Princess was in the nurse's office. The description was pretty classic although this was her first time in the nurses' office with an episode. The nurse on duty today is the same one that attended me during a whopping Hypo episode in Mom's Prayer last year. This is the same nurse that warned me of the requirement to call an ambulance if I or Princess has an episode (bad idea, btw). It has been good to "grow" together and allow others to see these episodes and how we cope.

I am in and out of episodes myself today, so I couldn't go up to school. Her daddy went to attend to her and I'm sure that was special. King has helped me with innumerable episodes over the past 8 years ... you'd think I'd be copacetic with him going instead of myself. I was later, but my initial reaction was a mommy reaction. My baby was not well and it didn't matter if I was paralyzed ... I was going to be by her side. Silly gal that I am, I eventually saw logic and stayed home. She is out of her episode and should be taking a Latin test about now.

Just Thinking

This is the title of Ravi Zacharias' excellent articles. Dr. Zacharias is an in-depth Christian apologist and one that I enjoy very much. Don't get me wrong, I'm a true blonde and Dr. Zacharias gets over my head in a hurry at times, but I would rather tread "water" in 12 feet of truth than wade in the shallow end with no challenges.

I just finished his autobiography, "Walking from east to west: God in the shadows". It is wonderful and enlightening and heart-wrenching. I highly recommend it!

Basketball

I love my new camera, but it is very hard to get good action shots. This is the best one of Princess at her game on Saturday. She is guarding one of her friends. They were on the same team last year and her mom is one of my very dear friends. These games are fun for the kids, but also for the adults as we get 45 minutes to chat and catch up while the kids play their games. Princess' games have been very exciting. They won by a few points this time instead of clobbering the other team. Between the two teams, they scored 76 points! It was a high scoring, fast moving, ball stealing game!

New Mattress

Have you ever had a bed/mattress just cave in on you all of a sudden? We have had 3 different mattresses (not counting the one we had for a day and sent back) in our 15 years of marriage. We started out with a waterbed (dating myself) and then the next bed was an "amazing" new bed, the Select Comfort bed.

Pardon me while I pull out my soap box for a moment... (scraping sound)


SelectComfort is just a glorified air mattress. We had one of the first beds and let me tell you, if you didn't pay attention to barometric pressure changes before, you certainly did after you started sleeping on an air mattress every night. ANYtime the pressure changed, so did the mattress. You could set it to what you thought was comfortable, but it could change in the middle of the night. We had the early one with out the famous "sleep number". I'm sure you are getting a hint of this, but I can not communicate how much I hated that Select Comfort bed. Finally one night in late January of 1998, I told King, "Last night was a very special night!" "oh really", says King, "Why?" "Well", says the Queen, "Last night was the laaaast night we are sleeping on this bed!"

(scraping sound) Ok. Soapbox put away.

We slept in the Guest bedroom for a couple of weeks until we found our current, lovely, soft, wonderful Sterns and Foster. That was 10 years ago. All of a sudden, about a month ago, we realized that the mattress has a sink hole on each side where our hips are! This is distressing. I love this mattress. It's near and dear to my heart. It's been such a faithful friend. Alas, we realized that all good things must pass on and our beloved mattress was history.

Enter the new mattress. We had toyed with the idea of a foam mattress for a few years and King has done some mighty fine research, but we weren't ready to do anything about it becaaauuuuse ... the Sterns and Foster rocks! Sadly, it turns out that his research was worthwhile. He had warned me that when the S&F died that we would upgrade to a king-size bed and probably try a foam mattress.

I was skeptical.

Most of my paralysis episodes are during the day. However! If I get too hot at night, BOOM. I'm paralyzed. This is highly inconvenient as I can hardly speak and I can not move, thus there is no way to tell anyone that I need help breathing ... especially a deep-sleeping hubby on my right. Have I said I was skeptical of the foam?? I am skeptical of the foam heating my core body temperature to such heights as to incur sudden and complete internal combustion.

King promises that the foam toppers at Target, Walmart, etc are not made to "breathe", but the foam beds ARE made to "breathe". Who ever heard of foam breathing? I thought that was something only non-inanimate objects did.

Anyway. King promises that we can send the mattress back if we don't like it. I'm still skeptical. I acquiesed to go to the mattress store and completely embarress myself by laying down on beds in full view of all of God's creation. Have you ever noticed that mattress stores are made almost entirely of glass? Why is it that everyone walking and driving by must see all the silly folks laying on mattresses? I think it's weird. I think they should make mattress stores like the nooks for the home theater spots in fancy electronic stores ... dark, velvety and quiet.

Ok, back to the mattress test. He takes me to lay down on two different foam mattresses. The first one is a "side sleeper's dream" foam mattress. The other one is for "back sleepers". I made the mistake of laying on the side sleeper mattress first.

Friends, let me just tell you that I did not care who was driving by or walking past me while I layed on my new best friend. That mattress was Valentine's Day in a box. Oh. My. Goodness. I was in love. I felt obligated to lay on the back sleeper bed and endured it for about 5 minutes and then I went back to the side sleeper mattress and caressed it so lovingly that I almost crooned to it.

The best part of my new best friend, is that (he? she? it?) it costs less than half of what they sell them for in the glassy mattress stores! I'm even more in love! I got a wonderful call today. The shipping freight company called and they are delivering my beloved new mattress on Wednesday.

I shall have to take pictures of its arrival and then croon to my new best friend...

Software delivered

Finally, software was delivered Wednesday afternoon. Today King took my place up at Princess' school for lunch and recess duty. Toward the end of recess, a boy was pushed from the top of playground equipment and fell, causing a seizure and concussion. King was the one to call 9-1-1 and direct rescue personnel to the child. I am really glad he was there and not me. He's so calm in a crisis. The boy will be fine, we hope.

Another biggie ... it looks like we will sign a lease for office space this week! We are hopeful that God will continue to lead us in good decisions. The office looks great and is small enough for us now and will allow us to grow a bit this next year. It will be weird to have a real office and to hire employees. Neither of us is terribly excited about it because of the changes that it will bring, but it seems to be the right time and the right thing to do. Change is always hard for me. The good thing is that I should be able to maintain my home office. I spent the day in my sleep shirt and fuzzy slipper socks. Not exactly office attire, but I have been quite sick today and dressing for success took on a different meaning today.

Dixie is doing great. You can tell she feels oh, so much better! :) Pictures to come after her bath tomorrow.

Dixie's Surgery

The poor old girl lost 7 teeth yesterday. One tooth was so rotten that it fell out as they were cleaning. I should have taken a picture of her teeth before they were cleaned. Ugh. I started to upload a picture from the web, but it's too gross. Let me just say that instead of having white teeth, hers were grey and yellow. She had abcesses under several teeth. It's no wonder she had such terrible breath. I can't believe how much she's changed. She doesn't even have any smell to her mouth today and her teeth are white!!

She has slept alot today and she makes little piglet grunting sounds when she sleeps. Her nose also whistles when she breathes. I guess it's all the swelling still. She's pretty cute and we are glad she is feeling better!

Surgery

Our little Dixie is having oral surgery Tuesday the 29th. We rescued her in July when she was 8 years old and her teeth were awful. Simply awful. Her mouth is so infected that you can smell it with her mouth closed. Her gums are infected and she may have abcesses all the way to the bone. Poor little thing. Hopefully they won't have to pull all of her teeth, but we want a healthy mouth, so the poor little old lady may come back to us tomorrow mostly toothless. We hope she comes through the surgery well and has a healthy mouth again soon!

Symbol of Life

This is a symbol of how our life is currently. There are too many things to do. Not enough time to do them. Too many projects to finish. Not enough time to do them. We planted some rose bushes in late summer/early autumn. Somehow we never got the potting soil put away and it sat in the same spot long enough for this to happen...

On our Girl Trip to see my Granny, Bonnie, Princess and myself stopped by a pond to take pictures with the Canadian geese. They are beautiful birds.

The trip was a fast one and it was good on several levels. I am so glad that I went as Granny did not know our names. I could tell she knew me as someone that she loves, but her mind is really deteriorating and has changed since I saw her New Years.

I am just tired all over since the trip. I know that my body interprets a trip of any kind as "STRESS" and stress not only makes me tired, but it produces migraines and paralysis. I've had a few episodes since I got back as well as a couple of migraines. King has a major software release due today and we are not going to make it. ACK! We are praying that he can make it by tomorrow. So many things are coming together right now and we have so much required of us. Good thing that God is Almighty and the Great Provider.

Random

I leave today to go see my Granny. My sweet friend, Bonnie, will go with us (Princess and myself). It will be a quick trip. 6.5 hours one way. We will see Granny tonight and for a while in the morning, then leave to drive home.

I was able to walk on the treadmill this morning and even increased my speed. I was almost jogging, but I couldn't jog because it would make my knee pop worse. So, I just walked reeeeally fast. :)

I am still having a lot of Hypo episodes. We've had a lot of cool, rainy weather and I'm convinced that the Barometric pressure has something to do with my episodes. The cold will trigger an episode as well. I can't even take Dixie out to go potty without it triggering an episode. It's the weirdest thing. The only thing that I have noticed is I have an episode after a flat line followed by an uptick on the pressure chart. I can't even say for certain that the flat/uptick has anything to do with the episodes. It's something to watch.

JUST WHAT IS BAROMETRIC PRESSURE?

Gravity pulling the air toward the earth causes it to exert a pressure that is measured by a barometer. If the barometer is rising, the air is exerting higher pressure on the ground, which implies it is sinking, clearing out the clouds. If the barometer falls, the air exerts less pressure, which can imply it is rising, leading to cloud formation and precipitation.

"Poppy" Knee

My right knee has decided it needs more attention. Yesterday I noticed that my right knee makes a distinct "pop" when I bend it. The really icky part is that I can feel it pop inside of my knee at the same time. This is not like the normal "pop" I hear when I bend down and stand back up. This is, "Hey, I'm wearing out down here!"

Good thing is there is no pain involved. It just makes me squeemish when I step with my right leg a little too deep and hear/feel that ... pop. Pray with me that this is nothing but a tired body that is ready for heaven. I already have surgery scheduled for my dog next week and King's hip is in need of some help as well. Oh, won't it be nice when Jesus hands us that new body!

Random Things

Tomorrow: I pack to go to see my Granny
Feeling: Wistful as she is going downhill fast and may not know who I am when I get there
Happy Because: I have the ability to go to see Granny
Today I: have to work
Laundry: Love to wash, like to fold, hate to put away
Something I know: Jesus loves me ... little ole me
Currently reading: Praying Successfully by Charles Spurgeon
Wanting: To sell the company ... or at least hire some help
Favorite gadget: Our new coffee pot (that also makes a mean cup of Peppermint Tea)
Thankful that: I have a husband and daughter who love me
Wondering why: It's so hard to learn good grammar!

Care to fill in any of these with your own answers?

Never take for granted that your body works

When you are able to roll out of bed in the morning, Thank Jesus.
When you are able to walk to the bathroom, Thank Jesus.
When you can take a deep breath, Thank Jesus.
When you can swivel around to hear what someone said to you, Thank Jesus.
When you can run back into the house for something that you forgot, Thank Jesus.
When you agree to do something for someone else, Thank Jesus that you will be able to keep that commitment.

Not everyone is able to roll out of bed, walk to the bathroom, take a deep breath, swivel around, run anywhere, or keep commitments. Sometimes the body just doesn't respond. Praise God for the little things that you expect from life because you may not always have them.

I am laying in bed this morning in Hypo episodes. First thing this morning I did most of the things listed above. I even worked out on the treadmill, but life can change in a matter of minutes. It reminds me of Who is in control and how He expects us to praise Him in every detail of life ... to be mindful of Him in every moment.

Acts 17
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man[f] he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist."

I made it!!

I weighed 136.6 this morning!! I'm so excited as that is the exact weight I made it to in the autumn of last year. It's the lowest weight I have had since I started gaining weight with my neuromuscular disease. I began to have full body paralysis in the summer of 2000. At that time, I had lost my baby weight (50 lbs!!) and was back down to my normal weight of 125 or so. Weight wasn't a huge issue for me back then, so I don't know the exact 120 number. Then I began this whole long journey with Periodic Paralysis. In the beginning, I mostly had Hyper episodes which had to be aborted using sugar. Straight sugar. I ate sugar cubes to stop the attack. Well, when you do this 5-10 times per day and you lay around paralyzed, you are going to gain weight. It's simple consumption/consequences. Over time those sugar cubes and paralysis add up, let-me-tell-you. I got up to 170 in March of 2007. That's when I began to feel better paralysis-wise and could "fast". What I mean by fasting is when my body has used up it's immediate source of fuel (the previous meal) and begins to be hungry again. While I was so sick with PP, the first sign that I was hungry was full body paralysis episode ... not a stomach growl. I couldn't let myself get hungry because then I would be paralyzed. Trying to live a normal life of carpool, mommyhood and wife, homemaker, chef and chief family organizer ... there's really no time for paralysis. So, in order to avoid paralysis, I had to avoid hunger which means I had to eat every two hours. I began to take a medication called Avandia, which helps my body use insulin properly and thereby allowed me to "fast" without episodes. Halleluia! It was a breakthrough. I am still on Avandia and doing great. I have lost 33.5 pounds and I am so grateful. My goal is 130, but if I can, I'd like to be back at 125 or so.

It is taking a lot of work to lose weight. For instance, last night I wanted to eat chocolate chip cookie dough, Rocky Road ice cream, and a big cheeeeesy pizza. I did not. I instead had lentil soup with rice and for my snack I had some almonds with blueberries. I'm glad I made that choice and was rewarded when I stepped on the scales. I was able to work out again this morning, having only missed Sunday morning since I was sick on Sunday. I worked out Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday. Not bad for a paralytic!

No Workout, Just sick

I wanted to work out before church this morning, but I just didn't feel like it was the right thing to do. Turns out, that hunch was right. A couple of hours later, I was on the couch with big Hypo episodes. (Last night I had so many Hypo episodes that I had to just go to sleep.) This morning I started with hypo episodes, then I got a migraine and a stomach bug. I'm not a happy camper. :( One great thing is that I am reading Charles Spurgeon's book on prayer. I think it's called Praying Successfully. It's very, very good.

My weight is down a bit more (137.2). Down is a good direction. :) I'm not feeling my best and it makes no sense, but what I want for dinner is a nice, big, cheeeeesy pizza! I will instead, eat rice. :) 136, here I come...

Good Progress

I was able to walk on the treadmill again this morning. That makes 3 mornings in a row and I was able to do my 35 minutes. I did lunges for the last five minutes. Typically, I walk about 3.4 miles per hour and I kept the pace the same while doing the lunges. I didn't realize it would increase my heartrate the way that it did. It turned out well and I hope it worked my inner thighs.

Weight-wise, I made it back down to 137.8. I set a goal for a pound a week, but I didn't figure on fluctuating so much. I thought I'd be at 135.6 today. I'm two pounds from that, but will keep working hard.

Ephesians 1

I try to memorize scripture while I am on the treadmill. This does more than one thing:
1. I hide God's word in my heart.
2. I'm changing more than my body while I am on the treadmill
3. It reminds me what I'm after. My purpose is not this broken body and making it "hot". I'm after an eternal goal of sanctification. (I obviously need to be reminded because I forget this goal frequently!)

I have been reading Ephesians through for a month or so. I will skip around some mornings and just read the last couple of chapters or the middle one or just the first. The last few mornings, I have been meditating on this series of verses: 11-14. Yesterday I could only get verse 11 memorized. It is so full of meaning and rabbit trails! Your mind can go in so many directions. This morning I confirmed verse 11 and moved on to verses 12 and 13, with a stab at memorizing verse 14 as well.

"11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory."

When you read this, what do you think about God's plan for you? What is "the purpose of His will"? What does it mean for us to "be for the praise of His glory"? What does it mean to you to be "included into Christ"? What is the benefit of being "included into Christ"? Who guarantees your inheritance? If your inheritance is guaranteed, can it be revoked? Did you catch the last verse ... "the redemption of those who are God's possession"! Wow. To be possessed by God is unspeakable. What does it look like for you to be possessed by God?

These are some of the questions I ask myself as I am sweating along on the treamill. It makes 35 minutes go by very fast. :)

Up a Pound

Darn brownies. :) Isn't this little guy cute? Looks like me yesterday, licking the brownie bowl. I am back to 138.4, however I was able to work out on the treadmill again this morning. That's two days in a row. I'm not sure how my muscles will respond as I can not over tax them without injury. I haven't had an episode, so that's good. It is, however, cold and rainy ... prime conditions for a whopping Hypo episode.

Down a pound

Well, I am down another pound (to 137.4), but I ate two brownies tonight. I fixed dinner for a friend and it's never good when there is dessert left over. ;) Tomorrow is a new day. One other bright spot is that I'm able to walk/run on the treadmill for 35 minutes now. Cool!

Princess has a 4 day holiday over the weekend. Not sure what we will do. Probably just veg.

My Princess and "Dixie" asleep at Nana and Papa's house on Christmas.

Blankets for Ethiopia

Some of you know that for years I have dreamed of adopting children from another country. I really like Ethiopia and enjoy reading about others' adventures as they have adopted in Ethiopia. One such story is Mary, from Owlhaven. She's a Christian, homeschooling mom of 10: 4 biological, 2 from Korea, 4 from Ethiopia. Some of her children are pictured left on Christmas morning. Her blog is so inspirational. Just this month, she decided to tie a ribbon on her Ethiopian Adoption Blog, but you can still read her archives there. Her daily blog is on WordPress. She is the oldest of 8 kids and some of her family is taking a month long missionary trip to Ethiopia soon. The nurses there have asked for baby blankets among other things as the women come to the hospital with nothing ... not even a blanket for their baby. If you would like to wrap a newborn, drop by Mary's blog to find out more!

Blueberries

We found these delicious dried blueberries at Sams Club on Saturday. Oh, dear, they are so yummy. I also bought some chopped dates. Blueberries, dates and almonds make a very delectable snack, I must say. I've done some research and this article incorporates several of the scientific studies that I've discovered regarding blueberries. I am also doing this Flat Belly Diet sans the book. I don't think I need to pay $30 to get the goody out of adding some new ideas to my eats, thankyouverymuch. I do like the encouragement to drastically cut down my sodium intake for the next few days. In researching this diet, I found great things about monounsaturated fats. Turns out that this new info is very easy to incorporate into our new eating style. King is on board. I'll let you read about the results as we go along. Oh, I forgot to add, I lost another pound! 138.8!

Yesterday we started Princess' Upward Basketball Games. She is on a very athletic team this year and did very well herself. I'll have to video a bit next week and post some. They are keeping score this year and won 34 to 16.

I've had a lot of hypo episodes this week and as you can see from the 2nd graph from the top, the barometer has really been bouncing.

My goal has been to lose a pound a week. Remember my post about date night on Tuesday night? Well, I loved that meal, but let me tell ya ... I gained about 4-5 pounds that night. I am not kidding. My weight was at 137.8 and my lowest weight in the mornings since was 141.something. I was weighing as much as 145 at times this week. So, while I loved that meal, it reminded me that free night is free, but not STUPID. :) With much work since, I am back down to 139.8 this morning. I'm off to work on the treadmill before church. I really want to lose a pound a week ... not gain f-i-v-e!

More Episodes and a new "diet"

Episodes and Migraines. That is what my week has been like. Today I really hit my body hard with slow release and liquid potassium and Advil with Excedrine. Eventually I got my K+ up high enough to keep episodes away, but I never really got rid of my headache.

Julia was here all day today (my housekeeper) and what a transformation. This afternoon I packed all the Christmas stuff away and undressed the Christmas tree. It's sad to pack it all away. This has been a sweet holiday season.

I love the things I learn every day. Most of them are very useful. I learned about the Flat Belly Diet from prevention.com. I don't like the term "diet" because that denotes a temporary solution. The Flat Belly Diet is a great way to eat every day. David and I are going to start tomorrow. I have to read up on it some more tonight. David also ordered a book stand for our treadmill. I'm so excited as it is hard to hold my bible while I am walking really fast or jogging. My eyeballs bounce around every time I take a step!

More Episodes

Last night was date night and for those health buffs among us, that also translates into "free night". We had appetizers, dinner and dessert at a steak restaurant. Yum. Yum.

This morning, Princess awoke sick. She stayed home from school, but is feeling very well. I think school is in her future tomorrow.

After I returned from carpool (drove the other family to school and got Princess' homework), I had a low episode around 8:30am. King helped me to bed and I took 60 meq of slow release as well as drinking 35-40 meq of liquid K+. I slept for two hours and was still sluggish when I woke. Now it is 3:00 and I feel very well. Almost strong. Almost. I have no idea what is going on! Still documenting and watching things.

Biggest Loser Update: I've been eating high sodium the past couple of days. Wow, the scales do not lie. I need to drink more water. I've had 40 oz so far today. Only 30 more to go. Gee ... I read that I need to drink half of my weight in oz of water. Does that make sense? So take your weight, divide by two and that's how many oz of water to drink a day. I am going. to. wash. a. way.

As far as the TBL show last night ... i was so sorry Curtis and Mallory were sent home! I really liked them and thought they showed such a great marriage. They were such a great example. I was blown AWAY by their progress! I'm so happy for them. I think the teams voted wisely in that Curtis and Mallory were strong enough to go home, but the yellow team is obviously not strong enough. I hope the yellow guy (forgot his name) learned from losing to temptation. Honestly, that's what we all do. He just had to do it on national TV.

Barometric Pressure

So, I quit having episodes yesterday around noon. Then I had another one this morning. I was weak when I woke at 5:30a and had my official episode around 8:10a. It's 11:57 and I feel great. This is the barometric pressure for yesterday, today and the week...

Health

I know some of you who read this blog must wonder why I blog about such mundane things as I do. It's really just a way for me to document life. I can already glean good information about my health from months gone by. I told King that I need to be very purposeful about blogging health changes, new research info (like the glycemic post), and my health in response to diet and exercise. As I go forward, each thing I learn helps me prevent episodes.

For instance. Yesterday afternoon we were in Target shopping for a "rollie chair" for Princess' room to go with her new desk. I felt a hypokalemic episode coming on. I told King, "I'll bet the barometric pressure is changing." Sure enough, when we got home we looked it up and just as I had my episode, the barometer had bottomed out and was beginning to rise. As it rose, I felt better. Here is what it looked like in the picture on the left. The barometric Pressure is the second graph from the top. See how it dips Sunday afternoon and starts rising toward midnight? It's not back up to where it was on Sunday noon, but it is still rising somewhat. I have been having hypokalemic episodes since 4:30 p.m. yesterday. It's gotta have something to do with the pressure ... either the change upward, downward or the rate of change. This is one of those things to chart and blog about.

The Biggest Loser

We watched this show for the first time on New Year's Night. I love people stories and that's what this is all about. I look forward to watching these brave people over the next few weeks. Who is your favorite, if you watch, and why are they your favorite? I'm not sure I have a favorite yet. I'll be working along side them. I have been working hard at my eats the whole time we were on our trip and especially after I got home. As I posted already, I didn't gain any over Christmas. The other good news is that I have lost two pounds since coming home! Anyone who is working on weight/health issues has tricks. My main "trick" is eating 6 times a day and tricking myself with a no calorie/no fat drink when I am "hungry". Sometimes I just want something sweet, so hot tea or decaf coffee is just the key. My SIL also introduced me to Fat-free half and half. Yum!

Low Glycemic Foods

The glycemic index is a numerical index given to a carbohydrate-rich food that is based on the average increase in blood glucose levels occurring after the food is eaten. Basically, it's how long the food burns. Low GI foods burn longer and that's what I need for two reasons: 1) I don't get hungry as often, making losing weight easier, and 2) it releases glucose slowly in my system. A slow glucose release lowers my insulin levels and insulin levels are critical to the position of potassium in the muscle cell. Thankfully, I really like most of the low GI foods. Here's a list...

Glycemic Index Foods

Fruit:
Grapefruit Low 25
Apricots (dried) Low 31
Apples Low 38
Pears Low 38
Peaches Low 42
Oranges Low 44
Grapes Low 46
Kiwi fruit Low 53
Bananas Low 54
Pineapple Medium 66

Pasta:
Spaghetti, protein enriched Low 27
Fettuccine Low 32

Root Crop:
Carrots, cooked Low 39
Yam Low 51
Sweet potato Low 54
Potato, boiled Medium 56
Potato, new Medium 57

Vegetables and Beans:
Artichoke Low 15
Asparagus Low 15
Broccoli Low 15
Cauliflower Low 15
Celery Low 15
Cucumber Low 15
Green beans Low 15
Lettuce, all varieties Low 15
Low-fat yogurt, artificially sweetened Low 15
Peppers, all varieties Low 15
Snow peas Low 15
Spinach Low 15
Young summer squash Low 15
Tomatoes Low 15
Zucchini Low 15
Chickpeas Low 33
Black-eyed beans Low 41

Dairy Foods:
Yogurt low- fat (sweetened) Low 14
Milk, chocolate Low 24
Milk, whole Low 27
Milk, Fat-free Low 32
Milk ,skimmed Low 32
Milk, semi-skimmed Low 34
*Ice-cream (low- fat) Low 50
*Ice-cream Medium 61

Cereal Grains:
Rice, instant Low 46
Rice, wild Medium 57

Breads:
Multi grain bread Low 48
Whole grain Low 50
White bread High 71
White rolls High 73

Juices:
Apple juice Low 41
Pineapple juice Low 46
Grapefruit juice Low 48
Orange juice Low 52

Other:Cake, angel Medium 67

Only Three Little Pounds

That's all I gained over my Christmas vacation! I'm pumped! I really need to officially weigh in the morning to know exactly how much I gained. I'll update in the morning. And another tiny, yet significant "yee-haw" is that I did NOT eat the mini Snickers bar that was laying on my cabinet. I tossed it aside and grabbed a grapefruit. I think I will just go throw it in the trash can while I'm thinking of it...

King and I had such a wonderful talk on the way home from our trip. We talked about our goals for this next year. I'm very excited for 2008! I can't believe it's just around the corner.

There's much laundry and unpacking and football parties to prep for over the next couple of days. I'd better get going. Happy New Year!

UPDATE: Just as I suspected, I always weigh less first thing in the morning. I did not gain anything on my trip!! I left weighing 139.6 and I weighed 139.6 this morning. That is very rewarding!

I'm still sick, but better. We are at my parents' house now. We had a gargantuan birthday party this morning to celebrate everyone's birthday that wasn't celebrated throughout the year. Seems that I'm not the only one who is tardy about mailing presents.

We've also been surrounded by extended family which is fun. Tomorrow my mom's extended family will come over for a Christmas party and "White Elephant" gift exchange.

My granny came over with everyone last night and evidently the excitement of seeing my brothers, myself and our kids was a little much for her and she had an alzheimer's episode during the night. She's really changed in the past 6-9 months since I saw her last. Her face structure has even changed. She's looking like the 91 year-old that she is, but it's still hard to watch. She's always been such a picture of unconditional love and sweetness and energy. It's hard to watch her struggle for thoughts and be so feeble. They said she falls every week or so now. But, the great thing is that she is still with us and still "Granny" for the most part.

doctor, doctor, tell me what to do!

I'm sick. I left home well, or so I thought. However, on Christmas eve I started in with a sore throat and icky feeling. 24 hours later, I had lost my voice and had lots evidence of bronchitis, if you know what I mean. I went to the doctor today and yes, I have bronchitis, fever and an ugly throat. I'm drinking Airborne, got a shot of steroids and am on an antibiotic.

As far as eats go, I took a 24 hour free day from part of Christmas to part of today. I thorougly enjoyed it! Delicious chocolate pie, my fav foods ... yum! I'm back to being good. Hubby has encouraged me to keep eating the chocolate pie as I have no idea when I'll get to eat a Nana Chocolate Pie again. We'll see. Right now, being sick is a pretty good reason to just be good on the eats. I feel kind of rotten anyway.

We had snow last night and I forgot to take a picture. It's mostly all gone today. It was just enough to cover the ground, but was a beautiful gift from God on Christmas night. :)

Our Savior Reigns!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm enjoying our family time at hubby's folks. They are so generous and fun. I finally got to play a game of "42" (a domino game). There are so many good sweets and the meals are filled with everyone's favorite dish. I've done really well on eats so far. Bear with me while I write out what I've eaten ... it keeps me accountable in this scrumptious environment!

Yesterday:
banana
container of grapefruit chunks with g-fruit juice
large green salad with taco meat, a TBSP of guac and 2 TBSP cheese
2 iced cookies
boiled egg
coffee, decaf with splenda and some 2% milk
sandwich with turkey meat and mustard, 3/4 tsp dip with 4 finger size crackers
1/2 cup of cooked beans (jalepeno beans from Cooper's BBQ)

Today:
Banana

Yea, Baby!

I'm down to 139 lbs this morning! It feels good to be back in the 130's!! My trick? I threw away all the Christmas candy and goodies that we've been given. Just dumped 'em in the trash. I felt bad because my friends worked hard to make those for me, but I certainly don't need the temptation and there's no way that I need the calories. So, if you are reading this and you are one of my sweet friends who dropped goodies off in my front porch ... my deepest apologies. Please extend mercy.

Boy, does it feel good to have such quick results. One week and down six pounds!!

Your Friend and Mine

Mr. and Mrs. Banana! Look at these spotted little darlings! Do they look edible? Yea, verily, I tell ye. They are not only edible, they are delicious! I almost threw them away and then I thought, "Well, I'll just peel one and see how it looks..." Oh, dear. The warm smell of the tropics hit me as I made the first long peel down the side of the banana. Then I tasted it and I was like smooth, banana goodness to my sore throat. Oh dear. How did I go 35 years not eating, smelling or touching this very nice and likable fruit?! Thirty-five years I have missed out on these delectable, nutritious delights. Ya know what happened after 35 years, don't you? I went to the caribbean and ate the bananas from the local islands and I was hooked.
Do you recognize Mr. And Mrs. Banana's downstair neighbor family? It's the Grapefruit Clan. Nice ones, those Grapefruit. They seem a bit tart when you first meet them, but their sweetness gives way soon after. This clan is originally from Texas and we're proud to have them at our house for a time. I'm sorry to say their family members keep disappearing one by one. It's a bit disturbing.

I did find out some intersting tidbits about the Grapefruit Clan. Did you know that Grapefruit's properties reduce insulin levels and encourage weight loss? Yep. It's not just a fad diet anymore, there is research to prove that grapefruit reduces insulin and insulin regulates fat metabolism. So, ya heard it here first.

2 miles

That's how far I walked this morning. There is something inspiring about exercising outside. I can go farther and faster when I am outside versus walking/running on the treadmill.

It seems that my migraines are here to stay until work gets less stressful and I can't see that happening until late February to March. As a result, if I'm not paralyzed then I try to exercise in the morning before the migraine pain hits. I have lost two pounds in the past two days. I'm really trying to get my water in each day and carefully watch my portions. The tricky thing is that when I have hyper episodes, I have to eat to abort them ... carbs and sugar no less! Increased eating and lying down paralyzed for 6-8 weeks will put the pounds on a gal.

I'd love for ya'll to share some low-fat crock pot recipes. Working the hours that I am, I don't have the time most days to cook, so the crock pot is my friend. If you do not want to register with blogspot in order to comment on my blog, you can just email them to me.

Stop by my SIL's blog and wish her a happy b-day today! She's amazing and deserves many blessings today!

The Big Fat Fly Swatter

Paralysis episodes really defy definition. How do I describe being totally aware of every noise, smell, sound and stimulus without being able to respond to noise, light, smell, sound or itches. How can I communicate what it is like to lay there completely unable to move ... willing my muscles to move and yet, no movement occurs? There are no words ... except maybe that it feels like being swatted with a 50 cubic foot fly swatter.

Yesterday was one of the hardest paralysis days that I have had in a year or two. I woke with trouble and by the time a couple of hours had passed, I was unable to speak without going into another episode. Today was the same until about 2:00 today. Now, I'm answering phone calls, doing support tickets and working on a spreadsheet. God really equips us for His purposes. All too often we think we have the "plan" and are working it well. Then God reaches down to remind us that all that matters is His Glorification and working His Plan.

My sweet SIL asked where I've been. Fair question. I've been working and having migraines. I have had a migraine every day, save two, since November 25th. That would be 20 days of migraines. These are directly related to my Paralysis and sometimes I get paralyzed and sometimes it's "just" a migraine. I've been getting the basics done in life, but few extras.

Princess gets new shoes today as she has outgrown most of her shoes, clothes, everything! We were reading in the Book of Nana yesterday that Princess's grandad was 6 feet tall and weighed 165 pounds in 8th grade. His son, my King, grew to his full height (5'9") in 8th grade. I have no doubt that Princess is on the same track. She is already 52" in 3rd grade. So, I said all that to explain why in the world I am going to the mall on a Saturday, on the second to last weekend before Christmas. :) We'll have to update later with our picture of our conquest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, since my migraine hadn't hit yet this morning and I had fairly normal potassium and calcium levels, I thought I'd try the treadmill. I really pushed myself and have the wobbly legs to show for it. I also now have my migraine. It started about 5 minutes after getting off the treadmill. Oh, well. At least I got to workout. Off to the mall now... praise God for Excedrin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Last UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, we made it through the mall and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There still were plenty of people though! We got our last present and found some shoes for Princess. Aunt J, you will be so proud. Princess can't wait to show you her Saucony sneaks!

You Go, Girl!

My sweet housekeeper, Julia, was telling me a beautiful story today. Her English is not great and my Spanish is not great, but the story is compelling in any language.

Julia is learning how to drive and she was at the grocery store with her 16 year old son. A woman who had been drinking came up to her and asked for a ride. Julia was a bit nervous and asked the lady to wait a moment. Julia turned aside and prayed. Julia really felt the Lord was telling her to give the woman a ride. So, they all get in the car. Julia asked the woman where she needed to go and the woman told her she is homeless. Julia just started telling this woman that she is precious to God. The woman says, "Oh, no. I'm not worth anything. I have no life. There is nothing to live for." Then the woman starts telling Julia about how she doesn't have a life. Evidently this woman has lost everything. A month ago, she really hit bottom. Her son had died and her husband left her for another woman and there was another loved one who had died. So, last month, this woman climbed one of the really tall buildings in downtown and was going to jump. Julia and the other Christians at church that morning all came out to see what was going on. There were ambulances, police, etc and everyone was looking up at this tall building where a woman was trying to commit suicide. So, Julia and all the Christians standing around there were praying for Jesus to comfort this woman and help her not jump. The situation was resolved and the woman did not jump. That was last month. This exact same woman is the one who asked for the ride and is sitting in Julia's back seat. When Julia told her that Jesus would clean her heart out and make it new, this woman's look of wonder was priceless. She was so excited to hear this truth and asked Julia for a bible. Tears were streaming down this poor woman's face at the reality that SomeOne could love her. That was yesterday. It's amazing how God uses us to change others for Him. Julia's face was radiant as she told me this story. You go, Julia!

Norway and Perfectionism

I just have to say how incredibly sweet is my God! For those of you that don't know what I do, I am in charge of customer support and sales for our company. We have been so busy since I came to work and as a result, I have not really undergone any formal training. As such, I lean mightily on the Lord to help me in all of my work. I learn quickly and can pick up on things by listening to King. Things are going well, but they are not always easy. Each time I answer the phone, I pray first. This teaches me humility and reminds me that each thing I do in life is enabled by the Lord.

I think I have mentioned that we sell software to 75 different countries and most of my telephone conversations originate in the States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the UK. I got a surprise today when I answered the phone and a gentleman from Norway was on the line! A first for me. What a nice guy. I very much enjoyed helping him and walked away from the conversation totally amazed at how tender God is to give me new experiences in such a gentle manner. I could have answered the phone to an overseas call with an angry customer. Not so.

I have done a number of new things today. This is remarkable for the simple fact that I am a perfectionist. Perfectionists (this one anyway) like to do things perfectly. Every time. New things are very tricky because it's almost impossible to do a new thing perfectly. Thus, new things are avoided until the point in time where it may be done without flaw. As a further consequence, these actions (or inactions) would lead observers to assume that the perfectionist is a procrastinator. Actually, a perfectionist does not like to procrastinate because procrastinating causes a chaotic situation of unaccomplished things "lying around" in life. This leads to frustration with the chaos and an attempt to clean things up, resulting in the inevitable ... facing the undone new items. And we are back at the beginning.

I began work in March and have "seeped" into the job that I have now. I do not keep track of my hours, I just work as much as I am able. (I work about 50 hours a week.) Each day I do some new thing. Today there have been several new things to accomplish. In the beginning of April, I was still functioning in the above pattern of perfectionism. Over the months I have learned to just do things. It doesn't matter if they are perfect or even wrong. Just try. I have learned that I really can do new things. As a result of being forced out of my comfort zone, I have learned that I can do many things I once thought were impossible.

Our sunrise this past week. Doesn't that make you want to be a poet?!

Matthew 17:2 "There he (Jesus) was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light."