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/

Busy

I've been on the computer twice in the last week for about 5 minutes both times, so I feel a bit out of the loop, but I'm catching up. As you know, I started my job last Tuesday. I had four training shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I go in anywhere between 4 and 5, depending on the day and get out of there anywhere between 9 and 10. All the people I work with are super nice and friendly (well, all the ones I've met so far... they have a lot of people on staff), and they have a great set-up. You can tell that it is a chain, but in some ways it is a good thing. Everything is organized and done in a universal uniform fashion. I like things to be lined out, so this has been right up my alley! I was worried about everything coming back to me, but it has been like second nature. I took a few of my own tables on Wednesday and I've been doing more and more on my own since then. I pretty much took all the tables in my section on Saturday night and handled it well! So far things are going great! All the people that trained me were great and easy to get along with and all were pleased with me, so I feel good about the whole thing. On top of everything the servers are making an average of $80 a night on the weeknights and $100 on the weekends! I can handle that! I thought I was busy before...

Regardless of Who Wins

I finally got an email that gives me some perspective and hope after all of this mugslinging and nastiness! Hope it can do the same for you!

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my primary citizenship will still be in this order - (1) the Kingdom of God, (2) America, not vice-versa.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the tomb will still be empty.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the cross, not the government, will still be our salvation.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our children will still be more concerned with whether or not we spend time with them than with who is President.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my neighbor will still be my neighbor, and loving him/her will still be the second greatest commandment. (Do you know the first?)
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, "Jesus Is Lord" will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.
True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control.
How did you score?

Must See!

Sunday afternoon DJ and I left the kids with Amie and Papa and we headed to Pueblo to go see the movie Fireproof. We'd heard from a couple of friends the movie was great so we thought we should go check it out. I am so glad we took the time and didn't wait until it came out on video! It is by the same people that made the football movie Facing the Giants. Both movies are Christian and they focus completely on God and salvation. If you haven't seen Facing the Giants, I would go rent that one as well. Fireproof is about a married couple with a rocky relationship on the verge of divorce. It's got some funny parts and some tear-jerkers. It is an awesome movie, I hope all of you will make it a point to go on a date and see it with your hubbys and maybe some friends. You won't regret it!

Current Events

The last couple of weeks since Di's wedding have been pretty eventful. I think you all know the story about DJ's chin (Whit I know you do...) but I'll recap.
Thursday night Whitney was over and I was giving my kids a bath so that they'd be sqeaky clean for Di's wedding. DJ was out fiddling around in his garage. So as we were talking in the bath room with the door shut, DJ comes to the door and asks if I can talk to him. That moment I knew he had yet another power tool accident. I gave Whitney a significant glance and met DJ in the kitchen. He was holding his chin with a paper towel, with silly grin on his face. Anyway, he'd been working with his lathe and the 18" 4x4 had flown off and slashed his chin open. At that point, I took a moment to panic, then organized my mind to take care of business. Whitney and I pulled the kids out of the bathtub while DJ cleaned up. I called my mom to have her come over to put the kids to bed (it was 8pm) and we headed out the door with Whitney to drop her off and run over to the ER. It was quite hillarious, looking back, but somewhat stressful at the time! A $150 co-pay, 4 hours and 9 stitches later, we were home and examining the wood wondering how on earth his face wasn't demolished! Anyway, God was looking out for him. Now we just hope God is looking out for our pocketbook... we haven't received the bill yet....
Next.
The Saturday after Di's wedding DJ had let me sleep in. He had to head out the door to go to work at 9, so he came in at 8:30 to get me up. He crawled in to cuddle up behind me and Bailey and Jerome came in to join us so DJ lifted Bailey up on the bed, then Jerome. We were teasing both kids, then Jerome tried to get down, so we both grabbed one arm and pulled him back on the bed. Suddlenly he let out a loud cry so we knew something wasn't good. We let him settle down but every time he moved just a bit he started bawling. We thought maybe he'd snap out of it so I got up and fixed my hair and put on makeup, but he wouldn't let me put him down, so we stared getting worried. In the mean time he's still crying at the drop of a hat. So again, I call my mother to help me out since DJ's boss wouldn't let him take time off to take his son to the ER! Goodness gracious...he was ticked! My mom called my dad and he offered to take Bailey off our hands and finally DJ's boss called back to say he could take the time off. (Good thing... they were about to get an earfull from the mama! Just kidding, but it crossed my mind!) So I loaded Jerome, DJ and my mom in the car and headed to Pueblo to the Urgent Care. Anyway, to make a long story even longer, we got right in and it was just what they call Nursemaid's Elbow. Which is a fancy term for a dislocated elbow. The doc popped it right back into place and immediately he was a changed boy. All better, with sucker in hand we walked out the door. So... one sucker, a happy boy and only $10 later we were outa there! Thank you God for Urgent Cares, Thank you!