Monthly Archives: October 2006

Oct 20 2006

prayer for aj

I received this email from my mother, regarding my brother, AJ:

Just wanted you to know… AJ said about a week ago his vision was funny in one eye. When I talked to him last night, I encouraged him to go to the infirmary. He did that this morning, and the dr. said he probably had a TIA (transient ischemic attack), which is a mini-stroke. He ordered a CAT scan, which AJ is waiting to hear when that will be, to rule out a tumor.

Sounds like time to get on our knees!

If you could just keep my brother in your prayers we would appreciate it! He’ll find out more on Monday. (For a recent picture of him, go here.)

EDIT: AJ just informed me that he has an appointment for a CT scan on Monday at 1:30pm.

Oct 19 2006

messages in the dust

Originally published on October 19th, 2006 at Onward & Upward 

These past few weeks have been very difficult for me. On top of recurring headaches and the beginning of a cold, I have been very busy at work and just overall stressed and tired. I have practically crashed every evening without doing anything around the house, or even going grocery shopping.

Our small apartment is looking a little worse for the wear, as evidenced by my desire to lay down every evening instead of cleaning. My not-so-tidy husband isn’t bothered by the mess as much as I am, but it drives me nuts. My perfectionist tendencies want my home to look like a picture from a magazine.

A few years ago, I was visiting my dear friend Beth at her old house before she and her husband moved to Texas. As I was walking through the house, I spotted a small inscription written in the dust on a small table: “I (heart) Stu”. At the time, I thought it was so sweet and I wondered about the smile on her husband’s face when he saw her little note.

But now, I see it in a different light. Perhaps Beth could have been a Super Wife and kept their house Super Clean all the time. However, there would be no dust to leave special little “I love you” messages. So perhaps some dust isn’t all bad. Often the beauties of life are made up of the seemingly “imperfections”.

Thank you, Beth, for the little dust message that you inadvertantly left with me. :-) And no one please misunderstand me about Beth’s housecleaning abilities – she is a wonderful housekeeper, and her home is warm and inviting. And if you’re like me – tired and frustrated about not achieving perfection, I challenge you to reevaluate what really is the important thing in life, and go from there! :-)

Oct 18 2006

vanity, thy name is CAT

“Vanity. Thy name is CAT.
‘Am I too thin or way too fat?
What about my fur? Oh, no! What’s that?
Do I detect an unsightly mat?
Better go ask for a brush-and-pat…’”
- Anonymous

That poem was on today’s page of my cat page-a-day calendar, and it made me laugh. I wish I had some kitty pictures to post, seeing as how I haven’t posted any in a while. Let’s see…

Here are some pictures I snapped before we moved the couch from under the window. We tried laying the back cushions down to keep the kitties from smooshing them, but it was a fruitless effort on our part.

I think my cats are ready to move. Lewis has taken to wandering about the apartment meowing for no reason. I think he’s probably bored. Think about it – they’ve been in the same two rooms for the past 18 months, with a few brief excursions to the vet and to Orlando. I keep telling them about the townhouse, with stairs (!!!) that they can run up and down, and perhaps a little puppy to play with (I mean, after all, we’re getting a playmate for them, that’s the whole purpose, right?). I think a little change of scenery would do well for them. They don’t seem to believe me, but then again, cats in general aren’t too big on change.

Also, speaking of cats, yesterday was the birthday of Misty, the first cat I ever had. She would have been 13. Yes, I know, I still remember my past cats on their birthdays. I’m weird.

Yesterday, I discovered this new thing called LibraryThing where you can catalog all your books, among other things. I put a little widget on my sidebar of three random books from our collection. (Now keep in mind, when a man and woman become one, so do their books so don’t start to wonder at the wide variety of my library, like “Artificial Intelligence With Lisp” or “Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess”, hehe.) I haven’t finished cataloging all the books yet, but I’m pretty close. I think my days as a student worker in Zondervan Library all came back as a I happily typed in ISBN numbers. You can see my whole library here. So yeah, I stayed awake way too late last night working on that! I was also having too much fun playing this game that Paul downloaded. Way too much fun. *yawn*

Okay my jobs are piling up, I need to go. I am super happy that Becky blogged!

Oct 13 2006

on to a new subject

Okay I’m bored of talking about migraines. Right now I want to hear more about Becky’s baby but I suppose I’ll have to be patient! :-) I’ll entertain myself in the meantime by writing in here.

Since I can’t think of anything interesting to say, I will do a quiz thing that I’ve been saving for a while now.

—————————————

IF A MOVIE WAS MADE OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here’s how it works:

Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
Put it on shuffle.
Press play.
For every question type the song that’s playing.
When you go to a new question press the next button.
Ready…go!

Opening Credits: “Diverse City”, by Toby Mac (hmm what does this say about me?)

Waking Up: “Even Angels Cry”, by Jars of Clay (what a way to start the day!)

Falling In Love: “Sing”, by Jars of Clay (hooray! an actual love song… and it’s sweet too… I’ve never really listened to the words before…)

Fight Scene: “Children of the Revolution”, from Moulin Rouge sountrack

Breaking Up: “Beautiful”, by Creed (now as I listen to the lyrics, it’s ironically appropriate)

Make-up: “How You Remind Me”, by Nickelback

Secret love: “Because We Can”, from Moulin Rouge Sountrack (I really hate this song… but it is an appropriate sountrack for a secret love!)

Life’s Okay: “I Say A Little Prayer”, from My Best Friend’s Wedding Soundtrack

Mental Breakdown: “Gotta Go”, by TobyMac

Driving: “Wasting My Time”, by Default

Flashbacks: “All Things New”, by Steven Curtis Chapman

Happy Dance: “Only One”, by Lifehouse

Regretting: “Art in Me”, by Jars of Clay (I have a lot of Jars of Clay songs on my computer here at work)

Long Night: “A Parting”, by Madison Greene (applicable style of music for a long night!)

Final Battle: “Men In Black”, by Will Smith (hmm… not so much)

Death Scene: “The One I’m Waiting For”, by Relient K

Ending Credits: “Photograph”, by Nickelback

I’m not going to tag anyone, but feel free to play along! I’d love to see what other people get. :-)