And now i'm 33...

So, my birthday was on Friday. I was 33 on the 3rd... seeing as how i didn't really care when i turned 3 on the 3rd, i'm considering this my "cool" birthday... double-digit cool.

Bourne Ultimatum opened on my birthday, and that's where i would have been except that months and months ago Mom invited me and Cindy to a Women of Faith conference in Ft. Wayne. So, thursday night cindy and i took the train to indiana, along with scores of Cubs fans returning home after the afternoon game. many of them were drunk. and many of tehm continued drinking because until Aug 1, it was allowed on the train. so, not only was train very very crowded, it was very very loud and unusually annoying. then friday afternoon we drove with my aunts barb and beth to ft wayne for the opening sessions of the conference. we spent the night in a Motel 6 that didn't smell TOO horrendous, relatively speaking to other Motels i've experienced, and all day saturday were more sessions. i wasn't really excited about going, but i'm really glad now that i went. it was very good, and the ladies who spoke were great. very funny but also very moving and deep. and funny. did i mention funny? http://www.womenoffaith.com/conferences/ftwayne/

and if you haven't heard sandi patti recently (i hadn't), MAN, is she worth a listen-to. especially when she sings with her husband, as she did Friday night as a special treat. now, if you've never heard her husband (i hadn't), you'd be thinking "great... she's gonna sing with her hubby, whoo hoo..." (i was). so she sings a verse solo. brief musical interlude. second verse, hubby. mouth opens, and- one of the the most gorgeous male voices i've ever heard cascades through the arena. the man is literally an opera singer. their english/italian duet was an incredible live music experience. the last note faded and all that i could do was whimper a little tiny squeaky "wow" before i jumped to my feet with the rest of the place. true talent expressed with true feeling. truly special.

cindy and i came home on the train this evening, and we will BOTH be going to WORK tomorrow morning!!!! I know!!! praise the Lord!!! Cindy is starting a 25/hr/wk job at an early learning center as their kitchen coordinator. it's a preschool run by a sister Mennonite church called REba Place in evanston. I will be starting a new assignment through the temp agency i've been working with. it's full time in evanston and listed as "indefinite" so they anticipate more than 6 weeks. this is the FIRST time in more than a YEAR that we will BOTH be earning consistent paychecks at the same time!!!! WHOOOO-HOOOOO.

that's a good birthday present. thanks, God. We were able to pay rent in full last week thanks to a handfull of miscellaneous jobs brought to us by our church members, including one large painting job and much childcare and cleaning. I am looking forward to being able to put some of my paychecks back into the church. (no, we we're tithing during these last months... something i've kinda struggled with, but hey, we had to ask for money FROM the deacons, can't really tithe it right back...)

it's supposed to be (forgive my crassness here) BUTT hot this week. and God has even comethrough there- we're watering plants and doing some cleaning for a church family who's on vacation for the next 4 weeks, and have been told to please feel free to camp out at their house if we need to. it's a nice house with central air and is half a block from the lake. needless to say, i think we'll be doing some of that "camping" this week. our window AC unit do tend to suck up the electricity mightily. their house even on the thermostat "away" settings is cooler than ours by far.

i had a very nice time this afternoon with family, Grandma and Grandpa, aunt JoAnn, mom and dad, and Rod, Michelle, Kirsten and Kira. aunt dove joined us for lunch at a chinese place and then most of the rest of us headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's... cindy and i actually took Kira over while rod and michelle took Kirsten school shopping! she's starting kindergarten!!! wow! while over there we played games and looked at pics from cousins Jason, Yvette, Jaiya and Nadia's visit to indiana last week. (J's were in town last week from Charlotte NC and left early friday morning, and cindy and i got there late late thursday night, so we missed them! but, they are the cousins we visited in NC just a few weeks ago, so at least we've seen them recently.) we also wathced a DVD of home video that Jason's left with Grandma- Jaiya in their swimming pool showing off, and then a GREAT dance performance featuring Yvette, JAiya, and Nadia in the kitchen. it was wonderful! then michelle and the girls dropped us off at the airport to catch the train back to "Heh-CAUGH-oo" as Kira says Chicago.

I slept on the train. it was nice. and there was not a single drunk Cubs fan. that was even nicer.

i'm sleeping on the couch tonight, right under the AC in the family room. hee hee.


This message has been brought to you by the letters "M", "L", and "E", and the number 87.

Behold, the power of Prayer.

Careful what you wish for...
two weeks ago tomorrow, i was despondent and didn't have any idea where we'd get money for rent, let alone enough money to live on otherwise. no job prospects at all. so a friend (and deacon) at church asked if she could speak on our behalf at church the next day (we were with our cousins in north carolina) and ask for prayer for us, that we would have work, and to ask people to keep us in mind for any jobs they might need done.

Well, God's laughing quietly to himeself now.
we have more work than we have hours to get it done, and our own apartment to completely clean by next Saturday evening besides (we have out of town company coming to stay).

So this is a praise! and a call out for continued prayer- that we'd have the strength to get everything done. the jobs we've got are all of a physical nature- we've spent yesterday and today cleaning and taping more woodwork than i ever want to tape again, and will return tomorrow after church to start painting the ceilings and walls in earnest (the job is in a condo of a family at our church). Another prospective job is a massive cleaning (including laundry and all the works) for a church woman who's mother died several weeks ago and has had a horrible time of it since (stresses of a 12-yr old son, taking on her mother's dog, being forced out of her aprtment buliding because of the dog by an irritable building manager bending rules to suit him, and having to settle her mother's estate and clean out her belongings.)

so, painting, cleaning- oh, and possibly helping another woman (not a church member but referred through one) pack up her "huge house" because she is suddenly moving. and, maybe another cleaning and painting job for a church guy who is in property management and will need an apartment scrubbed down and repainted to get rid of the heavy smoke residue.

i might also have another temp job at Rotary starting on August 1 and lasting for a month. oh, AND we have to finish painting the nursery we started before leaving on vacation for Sharon, the woman Cindy worked with at her in-home daycare until it closed at the end of June because Sharon is expecting her third daughter by July 31.

so, no pressure. no worries. no fatigue or anything. no irony at all, nope not at all.

i'm telling you, God is chuckling quietly to himself.

Behold, the power Prayer.

Sometimes you're the pigeon...

…sometimes you're the statue…

I'm really tired of feeling pooped on. *sigh*

I am a bright and intelligent woman. Why doesn't anyone want me to work for them?

I apologize for not writing more. My laptop screen no longer has any tension, meaning that it just flops all the way back. So to use it I have to sit somewhere I can prop the screen up. It kinda limits where and how much I use it. So that's one reason I haven't been writing as much. Another reason is that our modem died several weeks ago, and so we've been in a time of transition as Dana and Cindy get a new modem/wireless system up and running, and make my computer like it. *grin* and for a while cindy's computer didn't like it either, so internet access has been intermittent. And lastly, my mind and body have been kinda in Survival Mode lately, and not in a Waxing Eloquent Mode. It just doesn't seem kind to my very small audience to log on to write something when my brain is consumed with "must get job must get job must get job must pay rent must pay rent must pay rent must buy city sticker must buy city sticker must get job must get job God please I need a job just keep swimming just keep swimming…" (ah, if only I could be a small blue fish in a big blue ocean with no cares other than "don’t get dead.")

So, I am at a temp job today and tomorrow and am taking advantage of their internet to stay a little late and write a little bit to let my very small audience know that I am alive. I am waiting to hear from yet another job for which I went in for 2 interviews and am expecting to hear back from any day. It is difficult to feel anything other than panic when considering this position and whether I hope to get it or not and if I have a chance, etc. That's too much of an emotional roller coaster when the brain's on Survival Mode. So, I don't think about it much and when I do all I let myself say is that I think I would be good at the job and that if I'm what the job needs then God will have me get it. If not, then I won't and I've done all I can in regards to it and it's all on God. Carefully constructed indifference. Cuz the job I really wanted was Shedd. And I'm not willing to get invested in another position and go through "no thank you" again.

See, this is why I haven't written. It's terribly depressing. I love you all, and am praying for my friends and family. If you have something specific you'd like me to remember in my prayers, please leave me a comment or email me.

Staying afloat- emily

Chocolate Therapy and Scripture

Chocolate Therapy
Ben & Jerry's Original Ice Cream Flavor

Description from B&J's web site:
Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookies & Swirls of Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream

Uh-oh. Call the emotional rescue squad. Whatever wrinkle, glitch, minor upset or major mishap may be the cause of your discombobulated state, that "must-have-chocolate" mantra you're muttering calls for primal s'cream therapy of the sublimest chocolate kind.

Cost: $2.75

Scripture Therapy
God the Father's Original Sin Salvation Favor

Description from an online ESV Bible web site:
Comfort from the Holy Inspired Word of God with swirls of Comfort from the Holy Inspired Spirit of God

"For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."  ~Eph 1:15-23, ESV

Cost: absolutely free

And that's what got me through the last hour of my life.

...Melissa asked for it...

...so here it is:

It's summer, and my toenails are pretty!

Confused? Check out the comments to my May 11 post...

Sorry it's been so long.

Shedd update...

…Thanks, but no thanks.

*sigh*

I will be writing a bit more about that later, but I'm at work (my last day at the Rotary International Headquarters- very cool) and can't write more than that. But just wanted to let people know that I was not selected for the position for which I applied. I kinda' figured, but now it's official.

Thanks for all your prayers, and continue to pray for me as I pray for you! Hey- anything specific you want me to pray for, leave a comment or shoot me an email.

I'm heading to Indiana on the last train out tonight after work. Looking forward to seeing family. Not so much looking forward to losing a pet. More later. Love you all.

Even if you're not a cat person...

…please read Cindy's (sister's) entry "Garmu Efunkle Leinbach" on her blog www.zeeblebop.com.

Like our spirits needed any more depressing attacks right now. Cindy has always had an especially intense connection to animals, and having an animal around for 14 years makes its loss incredibly hard at the best of times, let alone when your spirit is already half-beaten down to dust.

Years ago I had to take my 14-yr-old cat to the vet for a life-ending visit. It was hard for me; it will be excruciating for Cindy. Please keep her in your prayers.