Too Much News

Well, I've not done a good job of posting this week, mainly because we went out of town Monday night and drove back Tuesday night and I've been trying to catch up ever since. JJ's granddaddy passed away and we drove to a town about 3 hours to be with the family. Everyone was doing surprisingly well and the service was a good one. We found out several things about granddaddy that we didn't know and it was great to look through some pictures and listen to stories about him. It turns out that he played football for Texas A&M and was apparently really good. That's one of those things you'd think you would know about someone, but he was very quiet and did not share a lot about his life.

It's funny how different families respond differently to grief. JJ and his brothers decided to go golfing the morning of the funeral because their granddaddy taught them how to golf on the course there in town. My mother-in-law and her sister always get their nails done when they get together so all the girls headed to the salon while the guys were on the golf course. At first I felt bad going when we were "supposed to be" grieving, but then it occurred to me that sometimes self-care is a good way to deal with stress. So we all got our hair and nails done. I finally got my hair cut after months of thinking about it - over 4 inches in length. I will have to post a picture when my father-in-law e-mails them to us.

There is much more news from this week, but I'm not sure I have the energy to go into it all. Let's just say that there have been some developments on the job front already, although they may be temporary situations. We'll just keep praying that we can get some kind of stability going soon. Transition is our middle name now and it is for the birds. I can't ignore, however, how the Lord remains faithful and is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow - even when my life changes every day!

Righty or Lefty?

I found this right brain/left brain test online and thought it would be fun to try. I was pretty sure I was left brained, but was surprised at how many answers I felt like I landed pretty "middle of the road" depending on circumstances. That's why these tests are hard to take. I start getting analytical and breaking things down. In such and such a circumstance, I'm like this, that or the other. (See how left brained I am?) Anyway, here are the results. Feel free to take it and come back to tell us all about your brain.

Oh, and if you'll notice, the percentages below add up to 108%. I'd like to think that has something to do with my intellect, but the test says it's because they measure each side separately. Whatever.

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (38%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (70%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

No Breaks for the Preacher Man

If you've been reading for very long, you've heard me mention the "Little Country Church". It's been a challenge serving there from day one because it never was a really good fit for us. I could go into a lot of detail here, but I think I'll spare you and just say that we will now no longer be going back to that church. We wanted to leave and find a place where we were better suited, but the way this all went down was still painful. We don't quite understand what happened, as the best reasons they could come up with were that JJ said "I think" too much, he spoke too softly, and I had stopped coming with him for the past few weeks. The preachers that had come in the past often did not bring their wives and so we didn't think it was a problem.

So now we're stuck in a double delimma. We need some income and we need a church home. JJ started working in a hotel last week and I really won't go into detail here. Let's just say that this job is less than ideal. We think that we'll have enough "fill in" preaching jobs to get us through the summer, but this is not ultimately what we want. We want a community. I am praying that this is one of those times when I cannot see an easy answer but the Lord is saying, just wait, I've got it solved. Beth Moore said in one of her videos from "A Heart Like His" that sometimes when we pray we feel we need to offer the Lord solutions to our problem - like he needs our help. Well, Lord, I don't have any suggestions and you don't need them anyway.

Please send a prayer up on our behalf today. JJ's situation is a little tricky because he's got to find something he can do while taking a full load of master's level courses in a town where the job market just stinks in general. Frankly, we are just tired. Tired of trying to make ends meet, tired of trying to find a church body where we "fit", tired of transition, tired of not knowing. I know we need a little perspective. All I need to do is go look at my teammate Kevin's blog and see how much people are struggling in Mwanza, Tanzania just to make it through the day. But that doesn't change my reality and that is that we still have a problem that needs solving. And just a few days ago I posted on how God is bigger than anything we face. I know this is true. It's just hard to wait.

Patience, Mary, Patience

I hope you all don't get sick of Beth Moore by the time I'm done with this study, because I have a feeling I'll be sharing quite a bit about David in the next 8 weeks or so. Last night in our group, we started talking about preparation and how many of the "heroes" in scripture had a time of growth and being with the Lord before they were called to do what they are so famous for. Obviously, David was the first one who came to mind since we're studying him. Think of how many hours he had alone with God when he was out tending those sheep. Many of the Psalms were written during this quiet time in David's life. He also got to practice his "battle skills" on the lion and the bear!

Think about Moses and the years he had to spend as a shepherd before the Lord sought him out in the form of the burning bush. Those shepherding years were certainly not as thrilling as parting the Red Sea, and yet, they had to come first so that Moses would be ready for that very moment. Samuel was raised by the priest Eli - what better preparation could he have than that? And the list goes on and on. Even our Lord Jesus had quiet times to be with the Father and "refill his cup".

So what's the point? The point is something that I needed to hear and I hope it's something you can use too. JJ and I feel a bit stuck because we want to be in Africa. We felt that the Lord was calling us here for JJ to continue his education and so that we would be better prepared for the field, but sometimes it's just hard to wait. But then I think of all these great men and the times in their lives that they were waiting for bigger things. They didn't know what was coming their way. They didn't know what they were being prepared for. The truth is, neither do we. But I can trust in the Lord's perfect timing and his plan for us - that when we're ready, He's going to use us in a way that will glorify Him. And I can be looking for ways that He can use me today, even in the middle of West Texas. Now if I can just get my head out of the sand so I can respond when he calls . . .

I've Got Mail!

I added a little something new today that you probably wouldn't notice if I didn't point it out. You can now e-mail me to a new account I set up just for my blogging friends! The address is heart4tz@yahoo.com (tz is Tanzania) and you'll find the "e-mail me" button when you click on "view my complete profile". I wanted to be more accessible in case anyone wanted to send me a message that they might not want posted for the entire world to see. (Of course, this is assuming that more than 5 or 6 people read this site and I'm pretty sure that's not the case!) Anyway, e-mail me! I'm listening!

I Did Survive

Well, as you can see from my lack of posts this week, it was a busy, crazy, very full week. This was week 2 of the Doctor of Ministry students being in town, which means it was the second week of taking care of housing, food, and general class stuff. It was also moving week for our office. My boss likes to point out that "move" is a four-letter word. You would think that moving down the hall would be simple enough, but we found out that this was not the case. But you know, we survived and all is almost back to normal in our little corner of the world.

Apparently, not only did I survive, I also lost 3 lbs. these past 2 weeks. How I managed to stay away from the donuts, muffins, danish & cookies I served these past few weeks I will never know. I only have 1 more week of having to purchase and serve all the yummy foods I cannot eat. If I made it this far, I can make it one more week. I drank a lot more coffee, that's for sure (mostly decaf because caffeine dehydrates you - did you know this?) Of course, I ignore this little fact when I indulge in my daily dose of Diet Cherry Coke. A girl has to have her vices.

So here's the big picture:




Do you see that? 30 pounds! Yikes! And, I did do a tiny bit of shopping last night and found out that I am 2, count 'em 2 dress sizes down! (And the crowds go wild!) Thank you very much!

More from the Giant-Slayer

David & Goliath is such a familiar story and yet I really got so much out of it when we studied it in this Beth Moore series. Another verse that struck me was I Samuel 17:37. David is talking to King Saul, convincing him that he can take Goliath on. He has "practiced" on a lion and a bear that attacked his sheep and he says, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." This is another great "fill-in-the-blank" verse that we can draw on. I could say that the Lord who delivered me from unemployment will deliver me from job stress. Or the Lord who delivered me from the dilemma of what ministry our family should be involved in will deliver me from the uncertainty of the decisions we need to make in that very ministry! How would you fill in these blanks?

My God is SO BIG!

Last Monday night, I started the Beth Moore study "A Heart Like His" about the life of King David. I only know 2 of the ladies there since it's at a church that I don't usually attend (one girl is a friend that JJ goes to school with and one is my neighbor that I invited to come along), but I'm looking forward to getting to know other ladies in the group.

My favorite lesson this week was the lesson on David and Goliath. One verse jumped out at me. I Samuel 17:45 says, "David said to the Philistine, 'You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.'" You know what I thought when I read this? I thought of the obstacles facing me this week and jotted down this sentence in the margin of my workbook: "Satan, you come against me with a stressful move (we're moving offices tomorrow), 20 men who will need my attention (Doctor of Ministry students who are starting classes this week), a continental breakfast that I'm doing for 3 weeks in a row, and the fear of failure - BUT I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty! Beth puts it this way: "measure the size of your obstacle against the size of your God". Well, when you put it that way, the score is obstacle, itty-bitty microscopic crumb vs. my move-a-mountain, resurrected Lord of all creation. No contest!

A Walk Down Transparency Lane

Oh-so-brave Melodee posted pictures of her drivers licenses, what weight she claimed to be on said licenses, and what her actual weight was at the time. While I have a selective memory and choose not to remember the poundage of each of these precious moments, I decided it would be fun to post a similar reminiscence of my licenses from many different states. Actually, some of these go back to high school, and while I cannot find my license from back then, I do have my activity ticket photos. So join me in my journey down memory lane. . .

This first photo is of me in the fall of '90 when I was a junior. I had never in your wildest imagination been what you call a "bean pole", but this is the year that I started putting on more weight. It got progressively worse as the year went on. So near the end of that school year, I decided it was time to put a stop to that and I started doing aerobics tapes at home and did the Slim Fast thing. I wouldn't recommend it as I've heard it's not very healthy, but it worked for me at the time, because as you can see, I'm quite a bit slimmer in my senior activity card picture. (BTW, you can also see why I've never cut my hair short again. This is THE most unfortunate haircut of my entire life.)

Although it is a bit fuzzy, I promise, this really is me. I can hardly believe I was ever THAT skinny. I think around 120 - 125 lbs. JJ says I look too skinny. I'm inclined to disagree. I don't know if I'll ever be there again, but how realistic is it to be able to get back to what I weighed in high school? I'm not putting that kind of pressure on myself. I set my goal at 130. If I get there and I'm happy with how I look, hey, it's just a number, right?
I stayed right around this weight for several years. But then I got married. (No blaming here, just the facts, ma'm.)



This is my driver's license photo from the state of Maryland, where we moved in 1999. Love those giant spectacles.









This is from my Missouri license in 2002, I think. (Correct me if I'm wrong here, mom.) I'm still surprised at how thin my face looks, even though you're able to see the beginnings of a double chin. I think I must be carrying my weight outside the boundaries of this pic, because on my license I have listed 170 lbs. I think that was pretty accurate.







This is where things start getting scary. This is my Kansas license from 2003, I think. Love those bangs, and now there's no doubt about that double chin goin' on. It says I weigh 130 lbs., but I'm thinkin' that was left over from my info. I gave them on my previous KS license because 1) there's no way that I'm 130, and 2) there's no way I would have fibbed THAT BIG.



Folks, this is when telling the truth is NOT fun. This is my most recent, Washington state license. (No, I haven't gotten a TX license yet. So sue me.) And now I'm not tellin' the weight because that hits just a little too close to home! I mean, I'm all for transparency, but there's a limit, OK?

I will survive

My glorious, handsome, oh-so-sexy husband decided to share this little gem with me today. I definitely think you guys should watch this video.

(Can you tell that JJ wrote this himself? Of course I think he's handsome and oh-so-sexy, but doesn't this post make more sense knowing he wrote it?)

Good Morning, America!

I found out this week that Good Morning America has been doing stories on LA Weightloss. So Wednesday, when JJ and I went to weigh in, one of the girls came up to us and asked if she could submit our names to possibly appear on the show! They are specifically looking for couples who are doing the program together. Would that not be the coolest? I must not get my hopes up. (But it would be a neat experience, wouldn't it?)

Speaking of weight loss, Melodee at The Amazing Shrinking Mom is hilarious. If you have ever battled with emotional eating, you need to read this entry. Not only is she a very gifted writer, she also has this uncanny ability to tell the TRUTH!

Show and Tell

As long as I'm sharing pictures, I'll post another. This is my latest mosaic, a picture frame I made for a recent graduate. After I finished, I wished I had used yellow grout instead of sand colored. I think it would have made it "pop". But overall, I'd say it turned out pretty well and the girl I gave it to seemed to like it, so I'd call it a sucess. Now, what will be my next project?

I Do Exist!

OK, I finally got the pictures back from the disposable camera that I was using and, as expected, many of them did not turn out well. I did manage to salvage a few. But the pictures I was most excited about did not get printed out at all. JJ and I took some "progress pictures" every couple of weeks to chart our weight loss and his came out but mine didn't. (Hey, I smell something fishy here. . .)

Anyway, since I do finally have some pictures to share, I thought I'd include a pic from JJ's birthday dinner at Red Robin. This was taken at the end of March, so we've lost several pounds since then, but I'll post it so that those of you who do not know me will now have a face with a name. (Interesting how after I've gone on and on about our weight loss the first picture I post is of JJ eating his birthday sundae! But hey, if you can't have a few bites of ice cream on your birthday, when can you?)