I just set up mobile blogging with my phone so I'm trying it out! It is amazing what they can do with technology. . . what will they come up with next? :)

Top 10 Reasons

I know you all are itching to hear something from me and I feel bad about not doing it more often. I'm constantly thinking of things I can blog about, but never seem to find the time to get them done. Since I have a free evening (holy cow, how did that happen, you ask? You'll find out momentarily), here are the top 10 reasons I haven't been blogging as much as I have wanted to. It will also give you a good idea of what I've been doing lately!
In no particular order:

1. I'm still working at K-Bobs! Of course you already knew this, but it is one very good reason I've not been able to have much time to myself. Things are going well there, other than one thing. For lack of a better description there is a "family" of "regulars" that are total jerks. Actually jerk is a nice term for them. They come in AT LEAST 4 times a week and chew out every server they get, except for Kelly who, I quote, "Is the only one who can actually get it right!" So when I manage to see them coming I run to the host station and beg them to not give the jerks to me. I will bribe, I will pay good money to not have them in my section. Seriously. Other than that, I usually look forward to going into work, which is nice!

2. We're refinancing our house. Still. Since we've started the Dave Ramsey Plan, we decided to refinance the house to get some extra cash to pay off and down some debt. I'm glad that back at the end of February I decided to jump on it instantly, because we are still waiting to sign the final papers. To spare you from some really boring details, we've had to jump through some stupid red tape, but everything should be coming together sometime this week. Although that's like the 20th time we've heard that... so I'm not getting my hopes up. :)

3. Like I said a minute ago, we started the Dave Ramsey Plan! We planned on going to the weekly classes offered, but decided with our nutty schedule that would never work, so after some discussion with my parents we chose to make a small but worthwhile investment in the whole set to be able to do it all at home on our own time. We're starting on the 4th week, but have been at it about 5 weeks now and it has been totally awesome. If you find yourself with the opportunity to take the class, I would highly recommend it. So far we've saved $1,100 and we're budgeting monthly for things like car repairs, tires, home repairs, Christmas, clothing and putting extra on debt. We've also cut up all our credit cards! Added bonus? You laugh clear through it!

4. Family Kneads is in demand. Most of the time I'm having to book appointments 2 weeks out. It really is a good problem to have, but gets somewhat frustrating when new clients want to get in right this very moment despite the fact that it's Friday night and their back has been hurting since Sunday night. Helllooo?! Grrr....

5. On a not so great note, we've had almost constant sickness in our house since the end of February starting with Bailey's eye infection, then to bronchitis, double ear infections, and sinus infections. Stick in 3 weeks of my major, hard-core sinus infection and two days of the flu for me. On to projectile vomiting and diarrhea from Bailey (who has always been able to puke from her toes) and then from Jerome hours later, we think from food poisoning from a place I vow for the second -and final time- to never go to again. I'm even ashamed to mention where the food was from. Anyway... Next was Bailey's two days of 103 fever. At this point we really thought that was the end. DJ even managed to stay away from all of it! Then, last Friday night Bailey started acting a little feverish and Jerome started getting this nasty green goo coming out of his eyes and his nose. OH MY GOSH. Oh yeah, I have to add that while DJ was staying home with the kids today from Easter Sunday, he started feeling bad. He's currently in bed with a 104.2 fever. Awesome. NOT! Please pray I don't get it. I don't have time to get it.

6. I started a new job! I know what you're thinking, "this girl's an idiot!" Yes, I think I am. However, it is only to do the bookkeeping for the financial secretary at church for about 7 more weeks while she is on vacation. It is only one day a week for about 6 to 7 hours. It doesn't pay too bad, so that's one more way to pay down some debt.

7. Counseling. We've taken a break since our Pastor went on vacation for a couple weeks, but we are getting ready to get started again. Things are going great with DJ and I, by the way. Of course marriage takes work. A lot of work every single day, but the rewards are so great and we are closer than we've ever been. That's not to say there aren't any problems at all, but there are a ton less and we're managing to work through them without major turmoil. Yay!

8. We've started a new workout program. Sorta. We kinda weenied out during the first week because I had some super late nights at work and we were getting super tired. We were planning on getting going again tomorrow morning, but with DJ's lovely sickness and needing to take the kids to the doctor early tomorrow morning, I'm thinking it won't happen. It's called P90X and it's an awesome work out. Full with warm up, cool down and a nice heavy sweat in the middle! I'm psyched about it... as soon as we get started for real, that is. :)

9. I'm a mom! Yeah, I have two kids and a husband that create dirty laundry, dirty floors, dirty dishes, dirty toilets and dirty diapers (well, DJ doesn't create those, but you get the point). So I'm constantly trying to catch up on all of that. DJ's really been a super good sport about cooking dinner and cleaning and has really helped me out a lot. I'm so thankful for a husband that's willing to be mister mom for a while!

10. We're looking into, and seriously considering homeschooling. I've been doing some research and talking to people about it and I've really been feeling like God's been working on my heart about it. I've always wanted to send my kids to public school, but I'm realizing that may not be the best for our family. I'm not a fanatic and I believe the choice is purely personal, but we are definitely leaning that direction. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to see everything move forward. After all, Bailey will be starting kindergarten, not this fall, but next! Can you believe it!? We have decided that if/when I start homeschooling that my working is really not practical, so we are praying that if God wants us to do this, that he provides the situation where we can afford for me to stay home completely or just do a few massages a week to help out. I know how stressed out I can get and I want my full attention to be on the kids' education. And to all you skeptics out there, I promise, my kids won't turn out weird. Promise.

WOW!!

This is such an awesome group of girls! I could only do this stuff in my dreams! :) Apparently these girls are 4th, 5th and 6th graders from Cincinnati.
Enjoy!

Unbelieveable...

This isn't much of a post about myself, but I wanted to share a few of the pictures we got from my aunt's car accident. They're pretty amazing and definitely puts perspective on getting "t-boned". The first picture is of my uncle who walked away with a broken rib and a pretty bad bruise. The picture with the hand is one looking down at the passenger seat where my aunt was sitting. It shows the distance between the center console and the armrest on the door. It's pretty unbelieveable. It's no wonder she had a broken neck, bleeding and swelling on the brain and a pelvis broken in 5 places.
I know these pictures aren't exactly fun ones to look at, but it helps me to know you all have seen them. They are sure reminders that we should never wait to tell loved ones how much they mean to us.

Lousy Friend

I feel like probably you guys are wondering where on earth I've gone. But I'm still here, in little ol Canon. I hope you all don't think I've been a lousy friend. Of course I'm sure you don't, but this very moment I have 209 new messages in my email inbox, so you guys aren't the only thing I've ignored lately.
Things have been going really well lately. About 3 weeks ago DJ and I set an appointment with our Pastor to go in and talk to him about us. We've seen him twice and things are going well. We haven't particularly solved anything but we have kind of renewed our marriage a little and changed our perspective. He's given us a couple of tools and so far we are liking each other more, so that is good :). It especially feels good to know we are working on it.
K-Bob's has been going really well. I'm still making far above minimum wage, so it feels good to be getting some not-so-extra money, but enough-to-pay-the-bills money. Every one there is really fun and easy to get along with. The kitchen staff is especially fun... we banter back and forth all night long, so it gives you something to look forward to when you go pick up your food! I'm getting 5 shifts a week and I rarely have one whole day off from everything, so I'm a bit tired and don't have time to do much of anything. Life's a whirl-wind right now.
Our Christmas was wonderful. DJ and I agreed that it has probably been the best one yet. The kids had a blast, and we had a great time talking, eating, giving gifts, sledding, and playing Wii. It was very full, though. We had 4 Christmases in 2 days. Pretty intense and by the end Bailey was asking if Santa was going to come again the day after Christmas. Didn't spoil her a bit! Ha!
DJ was good to me and got me just about everything I asked for and then some. It was very sweet. The kids got a ton of toys and I'm trying to go through their old stuff so that we can fit all the new stuff. It is a huge mess.
Anyway, I will try to give all of you a call soon. And if you'd like to call, feel free. I may not be able to talk, but if I can I'd love to chat! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

The Lord's Work

When I started my massage business I didn't dedicate it to God. I mostly dove right in and since everything fell right into place, I know that I had the Lord's blessing. I was immediately provided a reasonably priced office space, plenty of clients and the knowledge (in which I doubted at times) I needed to help people. All I knew was that I loved people, and I wanted people to be healed or at the very least feel better and be able to live their lives as pain-free and comfortably as possible.

I began in May of 2004 and have had a steady increase in clients since. And like I said, I never really verbally dedicated it to God, but I know that his hand was in everything I had done. About 6 months ago I decided that I needed to intentionally place my clients and their physical problems in His hands. I, without any particular plan, quietly prayed that God would use me and my hands to help people. And that has been what I've seen in my office. I've had the good problem of losing clients because they feel better. And I've seen clients go from struggling with their intense pain constantly to feeling 90% better 90% of the time. I've even been doing some CranioSacral work on a young stroke patient and she's responding fairly well to the treatments. I've not been the one that has changed these people's lives because I haven't acquired any new knowledge or skills. It's all God. He's so awesome!

But I've found a new passion in the massage therapy realm. Hemophiliacs! If you know one, send him my way! I know this is another area God has lead me to in order to help people. Having Jimmy as a willing participant has been a huge blessing. Plus, if it weren't for him coming to me for some tight muscles in his back, I wouldn't have even though about massage helping him beyond his back! He's not the typical hemophiliac, but he's very candid with me about his condition and has answered about every question I've been able to come up. Having known him so long we've all learned a bit about the condition, but since I've done research I feel like I had no clue what really is involved with hemophilia. Massage is typically strongly contraindicated for hemophiliacs (especially severe ones like Jimmy), but I've found quite bit of compelling research that has convinced me otherwise. Well, and the fact that Jimmy's felt better than he's felt in a long time. His ankles aren't locking up like they were and he's had more range of motion in the joints he constantly has problems with. We've not been able to to as many sessions as we'd like because of the holidays and UPS being inundated with packages, but after the first of the year, we will be able to work more consistently. Anyway, I am working on finding contacts that can hopefully help me find more hemophiliacs to work on. That part is going to be tough since it is so rare. It's a touchy area of work, but I see it as a fun challenge! I'm really excited to keep learning and to see what God can do for these guys.

Climbing For Christ

I thought you all might be interested in some information I got yesterday. Josh Caroll has been hanging out a lot with Navan Powers and I am good friends with Navan's mom and dad who go to our church. Eileen gave me a website for Josh's mission work he's doing that you can check and see their biographies and dispatches. They give periodic updates while they are gone. I ran into Josh at K-Bobs just before Thankgiving and he said he be leaving for Haiti right away and that he was really excited about it. They just left and this webite will kinda tell you what they're doing. Click on the link, then off to the right at the top you'll see a place to click on the Haiti trip.
http://climbingforchrist.org/