Three of the Best

The following list of people are writers who's work I admire...drumroll please....

1. Frank Peretti - This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness
2. Jason Cupp - The "Moutain Dew" story among many others
3. Miss Naomi - for sharing her most recent short story with us and the poetry from the graveyard photography

My love is good, but it's getting to where I think I've heard nearly all of his stories. His latest story is one that he likes to tell of his dad and his dad's roomate during a hospital stay. Without telling the story, I will say that it has something to do with the verse that says if your hand causes you to sin, then cut it off...if it is your eye, then pluck it out. Want more? Maybe my husband can update His blog soon or maybe you could ask Scott to tell the story.

Miss Naomi amazes me! The art and wisdom that she has will take her far in life! I am curious to know what the future holds for this young lady. She is very intelligent and has a gift for choosing words and a fine-tuned artistic eye...whether she's painting a picture with words through her stories, or taking photographs or sketching, her eyes are keen to the details and it enthralls the viewer/reader to notice the beauty of the work.

Frank Peretti...what can be said? He is good. His books on spiritual warfare have opened my eyes more to the spiritual realm. Though I like him as an author, there are some books of his that I do not like and struggled through reading them. Overall, I place him among the top three of who I like to read. :)

:( My Head Hurts ):

Jason has moved up in the world. He started out programming in BASIC and back then, he had to even create his own pixelated alphabet, graphics, etc. Now he is on to much greater things! Last night, he had to do trigonometry involving converting degrees to radians to figure the precise placement of numbers on an analog clock that he created in C#.

So...all this learning of his made me jealous. (I was already jealous that his IQ is 2 points higher than mine!) My husband is learning C# and doing a mighty fine job at it. I've been struggling my way through some things I created in Access for record-keeping at the church. With the end of my job quickly approaching, I decided that I would be more marketable if I could add Visual Basic to my list of qualifications. I already new some basic things, but I have now learned all about classes, properties and variables and all about methods and stuff! So, honey, if you are reading....I'm working on increasing my knowledge and someday we'll have to retake those IQ tests.

Today I learned about the "fundamentals" of pragramming. No, it was not fun and I got a bad headache from all the knowledge. My husband tried explainging things to me and just as I started grasping it, he changed his approach and completely confused the bejingles out of me. He went to the church for awhile and by the time he got back, I had figured it out but I still had the headache.

The sad thing is that I have not used my 'imagination' to figure out how I can use this knowledge...the only idea I have come up with is something that applies to my current job (which, if not mentioned above, lasts for only five more work days). I guess that I could create the program and try to sell it, but I don't know how much the program would be worth and they already have their own programmers who get paid to do this sort of thing. Does anyone know anything about patenting programs and selling them? I would be interested in learning about the process and costs involved. Also, if anyone has any Visual Basic or .NET programming books that you are not using, I would love to borrow them.

Ok...so Now Scratch that Last Post

My sister called me tonight. It was really weird. I got off the phone with her and told Jason I couldn't believe how great her voice sounded. It was "clean" if that makes any sense. She came over tonight and picked up some Aveeno Oatmeal bath stuff. She is having an allergic reaction to the detergent Mom is using to do their laundry. So, she says that she hadn't been sleeping good the last few nights because of this reaction and that's what caused Jason and I to fear the worst. She showed me her back and it looked awful (broken out with scratches all over). I gave her some Benadryl spray. She was going to take an oatmeal bath, so hopefully that helps her get better. I am so confused, but I know that she has hives and is broken out for a reason. I guess today, I don't think she is using...Last night it was almost undeniable as bad as she looked. So...I don't have a clue how she's really doing and I don't think anyone will ever really be able to know. Please continue to lift her up in prayer and God will take care of her.

Again...to follow up with this morning's post...here are the lyrics to Jars of Clay's song He

Dont try to reach me, I'm already dead
The pain when it grips me, for things that I've done

Well I try to make you proud, but for crying out loud
Just give me a chance to hide away
Exhaustion takes over, will this someday be over?

Chorus:

Fearful tears are running down
The pain you've laid dont speak a sound
Don't take my heart away from me
And they think I fell down

Daddy, don't you love me?
Then why do you hit me?
And momma don't you love me
Then why do you hurt me?
Well I try to make you proud, but for crying out loud
Just give me a chance to hide away
Exhaustion takes over, will this someday be over?

[chorus]

A teardrop falls from up in the heavens
Drowning the sorrow of angels on high
For the least of the helpless, the hopeless, the loveless
My Jesus, His children, He holds in His eyes

Scratch That Last Post

I actually got to see my sister last night. She looked awful. She had something in her system. She looked about half as bad as she looked when we took her to the hospital. I can't handle situations like this week after week. It is physically and emotionally exhausting me.

On a good note though...

Last night, I got off work on time and made it to the church early. The people who normally show up didn't come, so it ended up being just me and my love and my Lord. The Lord was with us. It was such a sweet prayer time that in some ways I felt like I was rambling just because I didn't want it to end. I love those quiet moments of prayer. Don't get me wrong...I love the power of God, but I also love the stillness.

I was awake most of the night with a Jars of Clay song in my head...does anyone know which song this is?

Darkness takes over
Will this some day be over
...
I try to make you proud
but for crying out loud
just give me a chance to hide away

Is this the same song as "This is the one thing...the one thing...the one thing that I know..."?

At any rate, enjoy life today!

Seven Days and Counting

Howdy!

I have seven work days left with my employer! :) Things are going pretty good. My trainee is so hard on herself, but she knows what she's doing. I will be doing more of her work today so that hopefully she can complete the rest of the week's work on her own.

I haven't talked to my sister this week. I have wanted to call her, but things are so busy. She and her husband are doing marriage counseling with a minister in Rushville. The man who is counseling her is a great guy! When my sister was a teenager, he was her youth leader. He is one of the only people I know of who have ever really made a huge impact with how she views herself and her walk with God. I'm not sure if they will continue coming to our church or if they will go to the church of this pastor. Either way, I see God's blessing. If they decide to go back there, my sister has multitudes of Christian friends there.

My most recent job update...

I did not get the job at the hospital...they hired someone who was already doing that exact same job at a hospital in Indianapolis.

I have an interview a week from Saturday at a trucking company outside of Rushville. Carla's sister and brother-in-law are good friends with one of the owners of the company. I think God can really bless this one and my husband approves of location/drive/etc. I am hoping for at least a few days home with Shepard before my next job starts, so maybe if you could lift that up to the Lord, I'd be greatful.

Thank you for all your comments, prayers and thoughts through this difficult time! You guys are the best family anyone could ask for! :)

God Is Faithful

I was writing a really long blog and decided to delete it because the details were too much...

so...

my sister is home. she and her husband are completely moved out of their house. anything found along the way that could be harmful was thrown away. my sister is doing good. she's crying her way through things and living minute-by-minute. when she takes this medicine the doctor gave her to deal with withdrawals, it causes her to have withdrawal symptons that did not exist before taking the medicine. she is ready to overcome this on her own. i talked to her about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and told her i know people who have overcome various addictions through the power of God.

she's considering it. please continue to lift her up in prayer. i want God to make her sick at the thought of medication. i want God to pour out wisdom into her life...to make the right decisions now that she gets to start over.

i really need to get to work, so i'll thank you in advance for your prayers on this and i thank you so much for your prayers all week! my sister is alive and that is enough to praise the Lord about!

My Brother-in-Law

My brother-in-law was one of the four who got baptised last Sunday. He was so excited and had a big smile on his face. I thank God that my brother-in-law knows Jesus and wants to serve Him. He has been through so much these past few years. He and my sister will celebrate their second wedding anniversary in March. Through those two years, he has stood by her side while she fought for custody of her son. In the end, her addiction to prescription medication became obvious and because of it, she lost the battle for her son. Brian stood by her side while she was in jail. He interceded for her and believed God for her complete healing and deliverance from the addiction.

And now is probably the hardest part of all of it. She has been out of jail for two or three weeks. Last Wednesday night, my sister had a wreck that totalled their vehicle, but no one was injured. Praise the Lord that no one was injured. Then Saturday morning, Brian was awakened at 4:00 a.m. to the sound of my sister throwing things and demolishing their house. He knew then that the addiction had overtaken her and that Saturday would be one of the hardest days of their marriage. My sister ended up spending Saturday night in intensive care and was transferred to the stress center for rehab/detox around 6:00 pm last night.

My brother-in-law loves my sister so much. My heart is broken and the images of how my sister looked on Saturday still haunt me. Please pray that God will wipe away the images from my mind. I have had an awful stomach ache for three days now. I am amazed at the love that my brother-in-law has for my sister. He has seen her like this time and time again and continues to love. I still love her and now I love her more than I had known before. This is a very difficult time for my family. Please pray for all of us, especially my brother-in-law and my mom - Bryan and Janet. I covet your prayers.

Google Trends

I found this quite interesting...



Google has a new feature that allows you to research trends in comparing various searches. The search above is comparing Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. I found it stunning that every time there was a surge in Christianity, that the Judaism and Hinduism lines also rose. Christianity is the top line (green) and Judaism and Hinduism are the bottom two.

To do a search like this yourself, go to google.com/trends and type in the things you want to compare separated by commas.