Thursday's Happenings

Wow, what a day.

I'm still home ~ but I don't mind. I've been taking care of Dustin and working from home. He sleeps a great amount of time, still on his medication every four hours. I wake him up to take it and he goes back to sleep. This is aside from the time that friends visit. It was quiet yesterday and today. No one visited so he just slept and when he woke up I cooked for him and in between, got work done. He looks good to everyone and he still does things with friends but I don't think everyone realizes what pain he's still in. I'm hoping things start dissipating by the next day or two. We're still setting our alarm for every four hours, giving him his pill.

I probably made 100 personal contacts for the Unstoppable Conference today. I haven't counted but that is probably a conservative amount. In between personally contacting friends to talk to them about it, I've been drumming up scholarships from people who I thought might be willing to give one. I have had quite a number of women who need them. A lot of pastor's wives from home missions churches and so forth want to come and their churches just can't always send them nor do they have the funds. Thankfully I've had a few more come in just in the past 24 hours. Making those phone calls to say, "you're covered" is an awesome thing. :-)

I've gotten all my initiatives done plus more, being that I've been working from home. I'm even getting caught up on some projects I had on the back burner. When I'm away from the office and can't be interrupted I get loads of work done.

Larry went after work to the grocery store for some needed items for me to make dinner. When he got to the checkout he couldn't use his debit card. It was frozen by the bank. He was furious. So embarrassing. He was standing there with $30 of groceries, unable to buy them. So he called the bank - completely ticked off. It seems somewhere he bought something (they wouldn't tell us where) had their information "compromised" as they called it. Meaning a store where he got something had info stolen or something along those lines - probably customer's credit card numbers. The store owner reported it, and anybody who had just bought something there all had their cards frozen by their banks so they couldn't buy anything else! (Um, would have been nice for them to tell us...) Obviously it was for OUR benefit so that no one could charge things on our card. And that is appreciated but it would have been nice to know what happened prior to trying to buy something. So, he was so embarrassed and mad. Of course the people at the grocery had no idea of the reason why and for a man to have $1,000 something in the bank that he knows is there and not be able to buy $30 worth of groceries...is a horrible feeling. Especially with the way Larry and I like to be financially responsible with things. Well, the bottom line is this - until his new card comes in the mail, we can only use mine. We share the same bank account but our card numbers are different. Since I didn't use mine at whatever store this happened at, mine is still good. So I went back out and got the groceries. However it was too late after all this time for me to cook so we ate out. :-) And...I'm not complaining.

I have some new motivations to work out...some things that I have to get in shape for. So I have yet to do that tonight. But I will. Progress will be reported on this blog as I make some!

In other news, Pastor Tara Sloan and I are teaming up yet again to go on a new venture and change the world as we know it. We're not ready to reveal our new project but suffice it to say, we are both real excited about it. Interesting thing is, God was speaking to Tara about it before I even spoke to her. One of those "God things". We are still in the planning stages but when we unveil it...my blog readers will be the first to know! Gosh, these things make me want to burst! (Let's hurry up, Tara!!! We're both so busy we need another thing like we need to bang our heads against the wall...BUT...us destiny driven divas CAN'T HELP IT!!!)

Speaking of needing something as much as banging my head against a wall...Larry just came in here and brought me a plate of potato chips. (my greatest weakness...potato chips and chocolate. Ahhhhh! You might ask WHY he just did that if he knows it's my weakness. Well, he doesn't do it all the time. But he knows how much I like them and he most times just wants to make me happy. :-) Plus he sees me sitting here in work out clothes so he realizes I'm going to exercise before I shower and go to bed. Mmmm...these are Lays brand with ridges and when I eat them I just sit here and moan sometimes... there is nothing better than that other than Utz brand which I can't get anymore because I don't live in Maryland. I don't bring them back with me when I fly anymore because the bags burst on me too many times from the air pressure in the plane and then the chips are all smushed. (I filled a suitcase with them once and it was just nothing but a waste.) Okay, I know. Who comes back from vacation with a suitcase filled with bags of potato chips? Only me. Stop laughing.

I met an absolutely delightful lady at church last night. She was a first time visitor. She's seeking God's will for her life at this time, just praying about her future. What a story. Many years ago, her first husband wigged out and left her. If that wasn't enough, she had a wonderful second marriage to a pastor for 26 years, and then he died from colon cancer. Then she got married a third time and a year ago that man died of brain cancer. WOW. She's been through the ringer. And this lady is so sweet. (And I thought I had some problems?) She's thinking about coming to Unstoppable. I really hope she does. I taught on, "Relationships Jesus' Style" last night and she came up afterwards and said she loved it. She said she'll be back next Wed. I am really glad it blessed her. The interesting thing is, I knew there was something "special" about her just by the way she looked as I was speaking - such a warm, smiling face. The kind of person who is easy to relate to and speak to. Hearing her story afterwards was so inspiring.

Larry and I do not have much time off this weekend, only a few hours tomorrow. Tomorrow night is our Latin Festival Outreach. Then on Saturday we have a packed day with men's breakfast, life coaching and a music rehearsal for the funeral, then the funeral. I will cherish our few hours to rest tomorrow. I know I've been home all week but the thing is, (as many people probably don't realize) when you are really "working from home" in the truest sense, you are doing just that - working. It's not a day off at all, in fact sometimes you work even more than you would at the office. Because you are able to put your hand to the plow and work hard uninterrupted. It's been that kind of week for me - plowing through ministry things, taking short breaks to feed Dustin, medicate him, soothe him, then get back to work. I'm looking forward to a few hours to breathe.

Time now to work out, read my Bible, spend some quiet time and go to sleep. Maybe I'll come back and reflect on a few things from my reading and quiet time, maybe not...depends on how the mood strikes.