Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Oh, girl! Oh, girl!

D and I are sponsoring 4 kids now! I got on World Vision today, spent a lot of time hunting through the site, and here's what happened:

Ever is 8 and lives in Honduras. He has a sister as well as D's birthday.

Luis is 10 and lives near Mexico City. He has a brother.

Thilini is turning 6 on May 9 and lives in Sri Lanka. She has a father and brother.

Yande is 4 and lives in Senegal. She has 4 brothers and 4 sisters (cool). And her birthday's on mine. Yande is the only one not in good health, and as the littlest, I may find myself playing favorites. :)

Looks like I have a birthday card to send tomorrow too - IF I can figure out how to do so. I may need to wait until we get their pictures in the mail. I've already seen them online, but can't copy them. I attempted sending those pictures online to our 4 parents and Lisa - there were only 3 slots availiable for email addresses, so nobody feel offended.

When we get these pictures, we'll also get info on how to do the penpal thing with 'em.

I also am wanting to figure out if I can re-connect with Adonech, who my grandparents sponsored when I was a kid upon my puppy-dog-eyes request.

We're hoping for a couple more. We still have some questions about the budget to get answered. We're workin' on it.

Worry about Nothing. Pray about Everything.

I was gonna put this up yesterday, and just got distracted.

Yesterday was the 3rd of our women's study "Is Your Mouth Save?" I love it! Particularly, I suppose, because it's so applicable to me right now. I've been having the hardest time with being positive, and not sarcastic, and a few other things I'd never publicly admit to.

But in this study, we're going into detail about the effect of what we say and how we say it. And part of what's so great about it is that it's presented in common speech instead of something that sounds all intellectual (and thus useless).

Anyhow, one of my friends yesterday said that she knows someone who lives by, "Worry about nothing. Pray about everything." I absolutely love that! It was exactly what I needed to hear at this point in my life. I latched onto it instantly and started applying. You wouldn't believe! I took a nap a few hours later, and for the first time in several weeks didn't have any bad dreams. After just a few hours of hard-core applying that! I'm sure it'll take a while to get the hang of, but I already feel so much better.

Horror!

Dad, this is for you. It disturbs me, too.
hawli

Just an Update

I don't seem to have much to say, but since it's been a few days, I'll update ya:
I've re-connected with an AIM friend who lives in Alaska. I added a link to their blog on the right side (Andrea and James). That's fun.

Last night (Mon) I had a PADS shift. It truly was nuts the whole night - argument after argument, and always loud ones. I was so happy to see David come to the door. 3 hours of that is plenty.

Tonight we have plans to do laundry, take a walk, and also, Tuesday nights are our Read the Bible nights, at or near 9:00. I've got 4 hours before David gets home to review the budget and do my homework for tomorrow morning's class.

For weeks now, I've been having nightmares. If anybody has any brilliant ideas on how to stop them, I'll listen. (It's not the Keppra, it started before that.)

Molly barfed on the tree skirt. But whaddaya expect when you leave your tree up 'till April and feed your cat tortilla chips? In case you're wondering, it IS our first tree together. And we didn't get to have Christmas as my 12th day of the flu fell on Christmas day. It's only still up b/c I'm trying to get our first Christmas in somehow. And if that sounds either pitiful or pathetic, then either way, you're right. I agree.

Looks like I still need to tell you about Thursday night and Friday night...We have a couple of newbies in our housegroup - Nate and Cristine. Looks like we'll be hanging out together some. I got into like a 30+ min conversation with Cristine. I love having new friends!

Friday we had Chris over for dinner before he and David went to the Men's Game Night at church. I loved having extra conversation at dinner. Once again, it's nice to have friends!

Oh, and I managed to drag David out to eat twice this weekend! Go me! And yes, I'll admit that it takes quite a man to put up with me. There. I said it.

So much for me having nothing to say. bye y'all.

Spaghetti Sauce

Ok, this is hands-down the best spaghetti sauce either of us has ever had. It makes enough for 1 lb. pasta. Y'all gotta try it:

1. Cook 3 tbs. olive oil and 3 minced garlic cloves in a medium saucepan for 1-2 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown.


2. Add a 28 oz can crushed tomatoes and a 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes. Simmer 15-20 minutes until it thickens some.


3. Turn off the heat and stir in 1/4 tsp sugar, some salt, and 3 tbs minced fresh basil (yeah, fresh!).

It happened to make me wonder; anybody know how to make tomato basil soup? Or think they have a brainstorm that might send me in the right direction? Thanks.

Summer Lunch Program

Hey Y'all,

I told Joe I'd do "as much as 50%" of the leading of the Summer Lunch program. He's good with that. So now I'm just waiting to see how that's going to play out. I'll at least be involved.

I just taped up a box of specific things Mark requested, so I'm off to the P.O.

hawli

Neur. Appt.

I said I'd update:

The neur went well. I'll be taking my last Depakote in 11 weeks. I start taking a new and safer med, Keppra, tonight. I had been hoping to entirely get off the meds, and it was a close call. David made the call for me.

The EEG was clear, but he said that's very common - so it doesn't mean much.

Anyway, the goal was to ditch the Depakote and that'll be complete in a few months. So things are pretty good. I am disappointed about taking a new med, but we did/are accomplishing the main goal.

Thanks for your prayers!

Sugar Dumplin'

Here Mom and Dad:

• I put a link to his new blog on the right side of this one.


• He doesn't know what the bldg he lives in used to be.


• The orangey pictures were taken this morning when it was windy. It was so windy he watched a chopper try to land at least 5 times "and it finally just left." His room and face were today, too.


• Mom, he did add your new im name.


• While talking to me he was also talking to Jordan and playing vid games.


• He had a shift starting at 11:30 PM if I understand right.


• B/c it rained, his feet didn't get muddy on the way back from the shower - fascinating, I know.


• Their shower stalls are 100m from his door. He hasn't seen a flushing john since Baghdad.


• The chowhall is "a cardboard box with a bunch of food in it." I asked him where the kitchen was and he doesn't know! He couldn't tell me if it was even on one side of the chowhall or not. He said it has folding tables and chairs and seats about 100. Buffet style.


• Iraqi men are the kitchen crew. (He doesn't seem intent on being nice to them though. That's a punch in the gut to me.)

The first of my "total of 4" women's Bible studies was this morning. The little series is called "Is Your Mouth Saved?" and basically talks about the impact of the words we say - good and bad. This morning was not very concrete - it was one of those "good to discuss" topics, but not good to decide much on I think. We were trying to understand to what extent we can follow that "name it and claim it" concept. No one seemed to go whole-heartedly with it. But there are certain things we know for facts - like that we are a new creation. Makes sense to declare that clear-cut stuff as true at least!
Anyway, it was a good make-you-think discussion.

Tomorrow (Thurs) is the neur appt. I'll up-date by Friday. Oh boy oh boy.

I Have IM Now - Add Me!

It's Tues morn. I talked to Mark. Here's the update for the Parental Unit:

• went to gym


• went to chow - can't do that at any time


• comp is in his room on his bed


• found camel spider in his laptop bag this morning


• gave me a list of stuff to mail him which I'll put in the mail by tomorrow


• had a burrito, egg roll, and ice cream for dinner - said they didn't have lettuce available tonight, but better than those heat and eat meals


• he thinks it's funny i'm posting the im conversations (but we know Mom - sheesh) :P


• he's looking at 2 other army jobs to do when he's back stateside, until his time's up - first, guitarist in a jazz band (has audition offered at Ft. Stewart). the second is chaplain assistant.


• the whole conversation involved trying to help each other change our im icons and backgrounds.


• found out his google page is in russian


• he thinks i'm weird 'cause i'm buying organics


• He says if you wanna see what happened where he's at today, go to: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,264987,00.html


• Except, you may have to copy and paste that into your browser b/c of how the blog works. He said he went there after the fact. They took a recovery tank out there to fix a broken tank.


• He said he's read the whole Bible 5X - not like since he's been there, but I was impressed.


• He said "I just killed an ant the size of this word: asldkfjaslkdfj;sdlfjla;sdjf;alsdfj;laskd. I think I got that right. "I actually rode him for a minute before my weight crushed him."


• As I type at 12:30, he's watching a movie on his comp called "Blood Diamond."

Mom, we've both got your new im name on our buddy lists. We also made fun of you for it. That's REALLY cheesey.

I have an im too now. My name is Homemakr4Handsom. I'm on AOL's AIM - just like David. So add my name to your lists, folks!

MPfreedomfighter

Hey Family Types,

I was gonna do a big Easter tell-all, but no cigar. I got up at 1:00. David'll come home in an hour and a half.

So here's what I'll tell instead:

I got an e-mail from Mark this morning saying what his i.m. name was. It's MPfreedomfighter. He's on AOL's AIM i.m. I added it to our list and a few seconds later, he logged on! So, I talked to him for like an hour this morning (Mon). Here's the scoop:

• He saw a small camel spider attack and eat a roach yesterday.


• He's now on the bottom bunk and surrounded it with sheets for privacy and dust protection. His bunk is 6 inches from the door of their building (30 guys).


• He says between 6-9 am our time is when to catch him on i.m.


• He sleeps on missions because he's getting 4-6 hours a night in bed. He says on missions he usually does that or searches vehicles. But yesterday he did word search puzzles for 3 hours.


• He said after that bat landed on his pillow (y'all got the e-mail?), he took the case of and shook the dust out before he slept on it. It's an amusing picture.


• The biggest camel spider he's seen was like 3 1/2 inches including the legs.


• He might get moved up to specialist soon. That means more pay and he does want the promotion. They said they might go ahead and give him a waiver.


• He likes David's "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" icon.


• When I asked him if he did anything for Easter, he said "yeah, I woke up, went out on mission, came back, and went to chow. That was my Easter."


• The last time he was able to go to a church service was Nov-Dec and he says he's looking forward to it.


• Part of our conversation ended with, "Ok, we'll see who's laughing when I get home and I have a hard, small stomach unlike some sis's I know."

When Bored...

She figured it out when we finally put one under her chin.

Photos Available

Hey y'all,
Upon a Mom-request, I've now put more pictures up on Flickr. There're some of David and I and a few others, too. It's too bad we don't have candids. But who would take them?

There's not much going on this week. I got my hair cut yesterday, but it's almost imperceptible (which is what I wanted). Friday night is a Good Friday service at church. Just click on Our Church's Site if you want to see somethin' about it. And I'm hoping to go get a drink or something with a friend from church, but no plans yet.

I feel like nothing big is even possibly going to happen until the 12th when I have that doctor's appt! So, I guess that's about it.

It'll interest at least a few of you that I'm cooking and going for a walk today. Hm. Ok, bye!