Online Dating

Anyone who hasn't heard of Pat Hetic has to watch this video, by Daniel Gardner. If you go to his site, you can see more of his videos. They're great.

Finally updating...

This is my first post from my new laptop!! I got it Thursday night. I love it!! :D It's wonderful, and I love having a laptop. And it's so much better than my old computer! I've been transferring files, downloading stuff, and ripping music to this computer. I love it. :D I named her Ezri, after a character from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I love my new computer! I thought of something that would be rather amusing to try...It would be fun to get pictures of my laptop and carry them in my purse, then when I meet someone, I can say, "Do you want to see pictures of my baby?" and pull out my laptop pictures. :grin: That would be too much fun.

It's been an interesting adjustment, trying to get used to the keyboard and touchpad on the laptop. The touchpad is very sensitive, and sometimes I click things twice without meaning to, or click places without trying, or accidently move the cursor around and click things with my hand while I'm typing. Then there have been a few times I kept trying to click the right key and it just wouldn't work, no matter how many times I tapped it...then I realized I was tapping my right finger on the pad instead of clicking the button. The keyboard is different as well, but I like it. And it's nice being able to move around and sit on my bed or on the floor or at the desk...I love having a laptop!

I've been getting plenty of rest and taking things easy, trying not to do too much. I think I am getting well though. Overall, I'm feeling better than I was and feel up to do more.

I've also been working on backing up files from an old computer we have, then I'm going to wipe the hard drive and reinstall things and see what I can do with it. It will be good to keep around in case we ever need it.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year so far!

Merry Christmas!!

Whether you're grinchy or jolly ,
naughty or nice ,
dreaming of snowflakes ,
or covered in ice,
may God grant you this Christmas
joy and good cheer
and fill you with gladness
throughout the new year!
Merry Christmas and God bless!!

Survey thing

I got tagged for this a while back by Bonnie, so here's my response!


A - Available/Single? Who's asking? :P
B - Best Friend? I've found a lot of trouble before revolving around this question...
C - Cake or Pie? Pie. Cake doesn't produce the same fascinating results when smacked in a person's face.
D - Drink Of Choice? Dr. Pepper! Coke's good too. And Café Mochas from Starbucks are really, really good.
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? My computer
F - Favorite Color? Green, when it's not blue
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Worms, though I'd prefer gummy worms to regular ones.
H - Hair Style? Curly and kinda messy
I - Indulgence? Chocolate!
J - January Or February? January! My birthday's in January. :grin:
K - Kids & Their Names? 12. I haven't named them yet. Though it's getting tiring just referring to them by numbers. Thing one, thing two, and the like get rather old. Okay, okay, I don't have any kids. :P
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Chocolate!! Oh, well, I suppose some would say that's not exactly a necessity...More seriously, prayer, God's Word, and Christian fellowship.
M - Marriage Date? Tomorrow sounds nice. Of course, a groom would be nice as well, so tomorrow might not work out.
N- Number Of Siblings? 6. What? Don't the dog and cat count?
O - Oranges Or Apples? :sigh: Haven't you learned by now that you can't compare the two?
P - Phobias/Fears? Fingernail files. Touch me with one and I'll hit you.
Q - Favorite Quote? I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
R - Reason to Smile? I'm getting a laptop soon, I've made some absolutely wonderfully fabulous friendships this past year, it's the Christmas season, I have a piece of cake in front of me waiting to be eaten, I have a stuffed otter sitting on top of my monitor, and I got a sweet e-card from a friend today telling me to get well.
S - Season? Christmas
T - Tag Three People? Beka, Mama, and Melissa.
U - Unknown Fact About Me? I can be a bit crazy at times. Oh, you already knew that? Hmm...I can bend my toes back more than 98% of other people can bend back their own toes.
V - Vegetable you don't like? Cabbage...at least, I didn't like it last time I tried it, when I was little. But I just discovered that after years of supposed hatred toward pickles, I actually like them, so who knows what might be possible.
W - Worst Habit? Worrying too much about how others might perceive me.
X - X-rays You've Had? I've had x-rays to my arm/hand/wrist various times. I think I had one done on my foot once, and I must have had one when I broke my collarbone when I was little.
Y - Your Favorite Food? Chocolate!
Z - Zodiac Sign? Capricorn. I'm not even sure how I know that, because I really don't care.

Lite Brite

This brings back memories! I remember having a Lite Brite when I was little and loving to play with it. Now you can play online! :)

Grace to You

There's something else I wanted to share after my reading of Galatians. It's not a new thought of mine, really, but something I've been turning over in my mind for a while.

I find it interesting to compare the opening addresses and closing notes in each of Paul's letters. He will often start by naming himself, and a coauthor if applicable, say who the letter is written to, then follow with blessings, thanks, and encouragement toward those people, all the while praising God. Take for example 1 Corinthians chapter 1:


Verse 1:
"Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,"

Paul states who is writing the letter.


Verse 2:
"To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:"

A very specific mention of the recipients.


Verses 3-9:
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Blessings, thanks, and encouragement to the people, as well as praise of God.


His letters will often end with blessings, admonitions, greetings to fellow laborers, and an occasional request for prayer.

Then take this the closing of 2 Corinthians:

"Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen."

He's closing out his letter to them with encouraging notes and blessings, and has an obvious love for these people. I've been thinking for a while now about what we can learn from this, and wondering how, as Christians, we could follow this example.

Often today, relationships are so shallow, and people seem to lack a genuine care for one another. Such encouragement is rare. Part of that is because people don't take the time to get to know someone well enough to know how the person needs to be encouraged. If you don't know what someone is going through, how will you know in what way to encourage him? We should be there for one another, bear one another's burdens, and be an encouragement and support to each other. How can we effectively do so if we don't take the time to stop and truly get to know someone? I think it is also good to let people know how much we appreciate them, and let them know you are praying for them and thank God for them.

Those are just some thoughts I had while comparing these passages, and I mull this over from time to time. What can we learn from this, and how can we apply it to our relationships?

In the words of Paul, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Galatians

Being kept up late last night with my cold and asthma, I decided to get a bit of reading done. Sunday night, I was skipping around a bit in the New Testament, trying to decide what book to read next. I read a bit of Galatians and a bit of Philippians, then last night decided to go with Galatians. But this time, instead of continuing where I left off, I thought I'd start over and read all of Galatians straight through. It amazed me how much more I got out of it that way rather than skipping around reading a chapter at a time!

When you mentally break it up into sections, where it's divided up in your Bible, you can lose a lot of the context. When Galatians was written, there weren't chapters and section dividers. It was written as one long letter, and that's how it should be viewed. Too often, I think, verses are taken out of context and the overall picture seems to be lost. It's good to divide the Word and break it apart while studying it, but we need to take care not to look past the context and the big picture; don't get so wrapped up in the trees that you lose sight of the forest as a whole. You'll get lost much easier that way.

Bribes

I've had this cold for a week and a day now, and it just doesn't want to go away! I keep asking it to leave, but it seems quite content to stay. :sigh: It will let me think it's leaving, then announce its presence again, letting me know it hasn't gone anywhere. Today I did wake up not feeling so tired and run down, but the cold seems to have moved to my respiratory system now, which isn't good. I'm rather susceptible to respiratory infections and bronchitis, so I'm hoping and praying I won't get either of those!

This afternoon, I had a brilliant plan for getting rid of my cold: I could bribe it with chocolate! Few can resist the lures of chocolate, so my plan seemed sure to work. I would offer to eat chocolate if only my cold would go away. I proceeded to eat a nice, big piece of chocolate, all for the sake of my cold, you know, telling my cold how mighty obliged I would be if it would leave me in peace once it had its chocolate. But alas, it was to no avail. It would seem that my cold is one of those odd creatures that actually doesn't like chocoate, so my brilliant plan did no good, and the cold is still here. The chocolate made me happy though, so it wasn't completely in vain.

Odd Phone Calls

Several weeks ago, I got a call on my cell phone for someone asking if Toffee was here...I didn't have any toffee lying about, so I told them no. Just now, I got a call asking for ATM! I don't know if she was asking for someone called ATM, if she wanted to know if there was an ATM here, or if she thought I was an ATM, but it was rather odd.

And look, two posts in less than 24 hours! That hasn't happened in a while. We're not going to that Christmas ball after all, because it's just too short notice for getting together costumes and all. We're planning for the spring ball though! My hand is improving a lot too. I'm able to use it a lot more now. It's such a relief to have it healing on its own!

Christmas is Quickly Approaching!

updating...

i'm rebelling against the rules of grammar and not using any capitalization for this post. in fact, i haven't been using capitalization much today in what i type. i find it rather amusing.

actually, i do have a better reason than just the fact that it's fun. you see, i have these odd ways of injuring myself...i don't get hurt doing things one would naturally see as all that dangerous. i get hurt in weird ways, or doing something rather everyday. last wednesday night, i was sitting here at my desk(which is actually a plastic table), and i had a movie on. i noticed the screen was dusty, so i grasped the edge of the desk and leaned over to wipe off the dust. the desk shocked my hand, leaving my fingers numb, then in a lot of pain, and left it sore all the way up my arm. i certainly didn't think it would still be giving me trouble almost a week later, but it is. sometimes it isn't bothering me much, but if i turn my hand or arm just the wrong way, it sends shooting pains and leaves it sore for a while. it's rather odd, really. i never thought a static shock like that could cause this! i think it must be a problem with the nerves. ice helps the pain, and i'm hoping it will improve soon if i take things easy. oh, and as for the lack of capitalization, i'm mainly typing this one-handed, and don't feel like bothering with the capitals. i can use my right hand some, but it's currently wrapped in a bandage and taking a rest.

this link might be of interest to some of you houston area people who enjoy dancing: conroe christmas ball we're planning on attending, and i'm quite excited!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a fabulous day! We all have so much to be thankful for. :)
"...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." - Ephesians 5:20

Spreading Joy in Life...

I really want to try this. It would be so cool!

Sweet Harmony

Tuesday night of last week, I heard a cat fight outside, so I went to see which cat Tumnus was beating up and to try to break up the fight. It was another smaller cat I had never seen before, and once I chased him off, I tried to get the other to let me approach. She started to run off, then as she was about to get over the fence, she let me go over to her. I picked her up, and she was so skinny! She looked like she hadn't been fed in weeks, and she had some scratches and cuts. I took her inside and took her into my room, so she might feel safer than out in the open house, and I fed her and gave her some water. When Mama came in to see the cat, I started explaining how hungry she was and how she was getting beaten up and couldn't fend for herself...and of course all that was followed by, "Can I keep her?" So all of that resulted in the newest member of our family, whom I named Harmony.

She's such a sweet cat! She was so starved for attention at first. That night, if I would stop petting her, she would come rub up against me, and she always wanted to be near me. She still loves attention, but isn't so deprived anymore. With all of us around, she gets plenty of attention now!

Riddles in the Dark

This is a fun series of riddles I got off a message board. It has many levels, and makes you really think about things. Be sure to read the rules, and have fun! I'm currently on level 12.

Hearing Voices...

See this post at Mama's blog for a hilarious story about the things that happen when Daddy's out of town.

Websites

I've been meaning to post that Mama has a new blog now. We're getting rid of our old domain, so I set her up a blog at Blogspot. We got a new domain name as well, so hopefully we'll have a site up there soon.

Medicines

Last Wednesday, I went to the doctor for my asthma. It had gotten pretty bad, and I was barely up to doing anything because I was having such trouble with my lungs. Last fall I had gotten on one preventive inhaler, and it made me worse and made me very lethargic, and my throat got hoarse to the point I could barely talk. Because of all that, I had wanted to avoid getting on any other medicines. I wasn't sure which drug in that inhaler had caused the reaction, so didn't want to risk it by trying something else. When I went last week, he gave me a different inhaler, Singulair, a pill to take every night for my asthma, and antibiotic for bronchitis, as he could hear the wheezing in my lungs.

After a couple of days, I felt much better, and even felt great at dance Saturday. A bit later that night, I felt exhausted, then by Sunday, I felt like I had a horrible sinus infection and ear infection, a gland in my throat was getting swollen, and I was getting a migraine. Then my throat started getting scratchy. With all the medicine I was on, I was the last person in the house that should be that sick. Yesterday morning when I got up, I couldn't talk above a whisper. Up until that point, I couldn't figure out why I was so sick, but once my throat got so bad, I thought it could be the medicine. I the stopped taking the medicine and started researching it. Sinus infections, ear infections, and sore throats are some of the more common severe side effects that inhaler can cause. Those are actually mild compared to some of the worse things that can happen. Also possible effects include delusions and hallucinations. I read about one woman whose son was hurt jumping off their deck after the hallucinations because he started to believe he could fly. They don't tell you anything like that when they give out the medicine! In the papers from the pharmacy, it does mention the infections, but not the hallucinations or delusions. I'm doing a lot better than I was Sunday night, though still not fully recovered. I can see a definite change since getting off the medicine though. I certainly won't be taking that inhaler again. I am still taking the Singulair, and I'm hoping that will be enough to keep the asthma under control. I think people should be made more aware of the dangers of medicines though. I'm just glad I realized when I did that it was the medicine making me so sick. What if I hadn't known and continued taking the medicine? How much worse off would I have gotten? And I wonder just how many people out there are made worse by medicines and don't realize it. I don't think the doctor or pharmacist believed me last fall when I said it was the medicine making me worse, as they wanted to put me on a higher dosage, though they'll probably believe me now. So how common is it for drugs to be the cause of medical problems, yet not even looked at as a possible cause? Medicine can be good at times, and I don't think it should be avoided altogether, but sometimes it can cause a world of problems. I'm just glad I realized that was what made me so sick.

Advice

"If you're ever being chased by a lion, just run under a giraffe, because the lions don't like to go under giraffes, so you'll be safe."

That's an interesting tidbit of information given to me by Rachel today.

I finished reading the book Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, yesterday. It has more language than I would like, but it was well-written and had an intriguing plot. My only complaint about the writing is that the book seemed to end rather abruptly. However, the story is told in first person, and you know from the beginning how she ends up, so at least it doesn't leave you wondering.

I've decided my novel is going to be set in WWII, on the American home front. I'd like to write it in a style similar to Little Women, about the family's life at home and their joys and trials together. I'm doing research now so I can start writing come November and not have to worry about the research then.

Marriage

I got this in an email forward and thought it was great:

HOW YOU DECIDE WHOM TO MARRY?

1) You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like
sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the
chips and dip coming.
Alan, age 10

2) No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to
marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who
you're stuck with.
-- Kirsten, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

1) Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by
then.
-- Camille, age 10
2) No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get
married.
-- Freddie, age 6

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

1) You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at
the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

1) Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

1) Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know
>each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8
2) On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually
gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
- Martin, age 10

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?

1) I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the
newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
- Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

1) When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7
2) The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with
that.
- Curt, age 7
The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry
them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
-- Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

1) It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need
someone to clean up after them.
-- Mike Schaffer, age 4

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?

1) There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
--Kelvin, age 8

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

1) Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
-- Ricky, age 10