HP Pavilion m8300f Media Center Desktop PC

That title was purely so I'll get more google hits. I've only had a few, and I've learned that the more specific I am, the higher I am on a google search!

I am typing my 1st blog on my new computer, and I love it!!! I actually bought my computer Tuesday night and couldn't get it to work to save my life. The machine wouldn't power up. It was very frustrating (to say the least) and after multiple phone calls with HP, I took it back to Circuit City this morning and got a new one!!! I really love the "media" emphasis of this computer, so if I could get it to work I knew I wanted it. I traded it out, and this one started up with no problems whatsoever.

It will be interesting to see what Vista problems I come across. Please tell me any to be on the lookout for, but so far I've had a very positive experience. I couldn't get the internet to work, and all I had to do was get Microsoft to "find the problem for me". Loved it! And even though the first HP computer was a lemon, I would definitely buy an HP again and shop at Circuit City again. They gave me no problems returning the computer. I'm off to download my first photos onto my computer. I'm going to have fun creating my new digital filing system!!!

Day 1 of the Marriage Challenges (Interesting Twist)

Last night I told Dan I had taken up these "challenges". I read to him the one on Revive Our Hearts, and he told me he didn't want me to do it. The part specifically he was referring to was not saying anything negative to him. He said if he does something stupid, I'll have to be negative when I talk to him. So we scratched that part of it. I will still try to not say anything negative about him to other people. And the thing I want to say positive about him right now is that I think that was pretty cool. I love that he wants to be held accountable, and doesn't want my encouraging to glide over anything he should be held to.

I also did the rest of Day 1. The hardest part was looking him in the eye and thanking him for choosing me above all women. It was good for us. When I told him I was in his corner, he said, "That just made me feel really good." I don't know that I'll update every day, but last night's was pretty profound, so there ya go!

And in full disclosure: It's a little easier for me to not "worry" about Valentine's Day because I already know I have a present coming and it's some sort of jewelry. Dan went a little overboard at Christmas, and this one item didn't make it in time. I had already gotten plenty and told him to save it for Valentine's Day.

5 Weird Things About Me

I was tagged quite a while back by Steph, and since I see how fun it is when people "take up" the meme tag, I'm going back and doing it even though it's been so long!

1. I've actually spent all this time trying to think of which 5 things to write. Don't worry-I don't deny that I'm weird. I just didn't know how to narrow it down!

2. I have fallen in love with blogging. After a year of wrestling with it, being suspicious of it, and hating that people can't be automatically notified when we post (which is untrue), I jumped in. What I love more than writing is learning the ins and outs of it-the "behind the scenes" stuff. And I love trying to figure out who from Columbia, MO, has read my blog. I may never know!

3. I have absence seizures. That alone is weird, obviously. But to make matters trickier (weirder), they are usually found in children AND outgrown by adulthood. Mine were diagnosed at the age of 18 (we tracked symptoms back to age 16). I've been to 4 neurologists since I've been diagnosed, and they all agree they're "absence", but no one knows why.

4. I just started liking cheesecake a few years ago, and I hate fruity toppings on it.

5. The longest I've ever lived in the same home was my 4 years of high school. In my married life the longest I've lived in one place was 18 months, and that's because we owned the house! I have no planned moves in the next 13 months, so maybe where I'm living now will break my record! I'd really love to break my record from high school, but one year at a time!

5a. I just read over my post, and all but one paragraph ends with an exclamation point.

Oh, I forgot to say the "tag" part. Since I just did a meme, I don't want to call anyone out, but I would LOVE anyone to tell us 5 weird things about them!

Valentine's Day...Not Just for Women Anymore?

Here's a strange idea: instead of wondering what our husbands are going to do for us for V-day, we spend our time thinking about what romantic thing we are going to do for them. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, that's the creative idea proposed by Stephanie. Jump over and read her blog that gives a logical and inspiring explanation as to why we should help our husbands out this Valentine's season and not waste our energy expecting them to make our wildest dreams come true. She extends a "No expectations while you love on your man challenge!"

She also gives some great links on Revive Our Hearts that will help you direct your mind and heart to show love towards your husbands. They are the 30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge and 31-Days of Praying for Your Husband. If you're going to take up the "no expectations while you love on your man challenge", either (or both) of these will probably be extremely beneficial! If you've read my anniversary post, you know that I think it would be just fine for Dan to only think of me for Valentine's Day and every other day of the year! But I am up for the challenge and plan on doing everything I can this month to encourage my husband.

4 Things

My little boy is sick this morning, and after wrestling with whether or not to take him, my husband & I opted for leaving him at home. We really wrestled for a while because we thought he was down to just the cough. We made the right decision because a few minutes ago his nose started running dark yellow. Yuck. So we're at home while Dan and Sam are at church (since Dan had to miss last week because of work, who got to go was an easy call). With one child gone and one child dragging again, what better thing for me to do, but blog!!! Stephanie tagged me, so here goes...

4 Jobs I've Had:
1. Admin asst. for Abstinence By Choice
2. Deductions Specialist for Delimex
3. AP/AR Administrator for IT
4. Journeyman for IMB

4 Movies Watched Over and Over:
1. Legally Blonde
2. Grease (just being honest)
3. Dave
4. Little Women

4 TV Shows I Watch:
1. The Biggest Loser
2. Chuck
3. Monk
4. Psych

4 Places I've Lived:
1. Istambul, Turkey
2. Arkadelphia, AR
3. San Pablo City, Philippines (this utube video shows my city PERFECTLY!!)
4. Guam

4 Places I've Been:
1. Mombasa, Kenya
2. Hong Kong, China (my favorite city in the world)
3. Chiang Mai, Thailand
4. Paris, France

4 People Who Email me Regularly:
1. Stephanie
2. Gindi
3. Dan (he's gone a lot)
4. Avenue

4 Favorite Things to Eat:
1. Fajitas from On the Border (we're going there for lunch TODAY!)
2. Cashew Chicken
3. Poppyseed Chicken
4. Brownie Bottom Pie (desserts are food, right?)

4 Places I'd Rather Be:
1. Church
2. Dallas-I really want to be caring for my Grandmother right now
3. No children allowed-ville
4. If it were fall, I could say the East Coast, but since it's winter-EVERYONE should be in San Diego. It's 56 degrees right now, and this is a "cold" and rainy day.

4 Things I Look forward to This Year:
1. Living with 2 potty trained children (I DREAD the potty trainING, though)
2. Big "family trip" to both Kansas and Texas (I know, I can't even believe I feel this way)
3. Getting my new bedroom furniture and computer (aren't I a lucky girl?)
4. Timothy learning to swim, Lord willing

4 People to Tag:
1. Jill-because I know I'll love whatever she's watching on tv
2. Christi-because she gets to look forward to things this year
3. Natasha-because I think the answers may be new info for me
4. Dena-because I miss reading her blogs, and this will hopefully be the impetus to write one

Latest about IA (Individual Augmentee)

You may understand this post a little better if you read the first blog I wrote about IA. For a less biased explanation, you can go to Wikipedia, which was just updated in December 2007.

The Navy is trying to rectify the fact that sailors are being sent to Iraq with no warning. An article came out in the Navy Times on Tuesday explaining what they hope to implement. The article is very informative, but here's the new plan in a nutshell: When a sailor comes up for his 3 years of shore duty, he will be given shore duty orders with the condition that his 1st year of the 3 he goes IA. Then when he returns, he will go to shore duty for 2 years, and then on to his sea duty rotation. And my understanding is that if he opts out of the IA/shore duty, he will be given another sea duty tour (that part isn't actually in the article, but that's what I've been told). The goal of this is to make IA more "volunteer" basis, instead of "voluntold" (which is often how it is now).

If it wasn't clear in my last post back in October, I'm fairly outraged by how this system is being handled, and it is good to see the Navy trying to bring some order to something that isn't pleasant for anyone. What I think I didn't totally realize until I read this article a few minutes ago is how close to home it may get. This article states that officials have identified the top 10 ratings most likely to be asked to take on an individual augmentee assignment. Dan's rating of fire controlman is one of them. Ironically, Dan's rate has been critically manned for years, which has limited our options every time we've moved. "Critically manned" means the Navy doesn't feel like they have enough of them, but this article even uses Dan's rate as an example saying, the head of personnel and allocation at Fleet Forces Command "must provide sailors in critical ratings, such as fire controlman, to both the fleet and the IA arena." Crazy stuff!

To answer Steph's question in her comment: Yes, you understand it perfectly. We don't know for sure what Dan will be offered, but if they are able to implement this before he's up for shore duty, it seems pretty likely. Both scenarios stink, but if we can be given the choice of Dan going to the ground in Iraq or not then we'll have more options than many other sailors have had (currently there are 13,000 Navy IA). We have to count our blessings.

Good Books

I mentioned to Steph a long time ago that I was reading some really good books. She asked what they were, and since I just came to that email in my inbox, it looks as though I never answered! I would recommend these books to anyone, so I thought I would blog it. All available at Amazon.

All That You Can't Leave Behind: a rookie missionary's life in Africa by Ryan Murphy Through personal stories, cultural insights, and perspectives on the mission movement in Africa, Ryan Murphy shares what the missionary like looks like in the 21st century. The author's first book offers an entertaining bridge into the unknown lands of missions work and challenges you to make a difference in your world for God's glory.

This book is really an outflow of Ryan blogging his first year on the mission field. Here's his blog: http://www.strangersinkenya.blogspot.com/

TrueFaced: trust God and others with who you really are by Bill Thrall John Lynch and Bruce McNicol In a sincere, but misguided attempt to please God, many of us strive to "fix our sin". We soon discover that it doesn't "fix" very well or for very long. And so we try to hide it and pretend like it isn't there. But it only leads to more pretending, hiding, and despair-and nothing ever changes. We fear that God is almost never pleased. TrueFaced draws a clear distinction between two very different underlying motives: our determination to please God OR to trust him. The resulting difference from these two starting points could not be more profound. One results in a striving that never feels it has done enough to please him. The other results in a trust that experiences his full pleasure. Our motives as followers of Christ will either keep us in unresolved sin and immaturity or free us into God's astonishing dream for our lives.

What's so Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey If grace is God's love for the undeserving, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking-scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, racist, the child abuser. It loves today's AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus' day. Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What's so Amazing about Grace?

What's so Amazing About Grace was the best book I've read in a long time. It is historical, political (relevant in this election year), biographical, and love-filled all in one!!! I can't say enough good things about it.

Okay, posting the little pictures of the books was really hard for me as an extremely new blogger! This was exhausting to finish, but these books were worth the effort. If you've read any of these already or happen to in the future, please post your thoughts!

Blogging Pays Off!

My husband randomly checks my blog, and he wrote me this email earlier today after reading my Mother's Day Ideas entry:

Honey, I would like to know if you think you could get all dressed up the day before mother's day for pictures of you and the kids and then on Sunday afternoon, I take them out (or late afternoon if Sam needs her nap). What do you think?

I said yes!! AND, my fellow mom and dear friend, Christi, is going to be in town that weekend so we get to celebrate together! Show your husbands the blog of your crazy friend-it could pay off!

FREE $100 Giveaway!!!

My friend, Stephanie knows all the cool stuff! If you go to Biblical Womanhood, you can enter to win $100 to spend at The Vision Forum (a great website with unique Christian products). It's very easy to enter, so hop on over!

Slow Motion is Always Scary!

Samantha and I were upstairs earlier doing some things. On the way downstairs, Samantha tripped on the top stair and rolled all the way down. She was in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to stop her. She fell down the entire staircase and landed on the ceramic tile floor at the bottom. Those few seconds lasted forever.

She landed face down. Of course she had been crying all the way down and still was. I quickly picked her up and started comforting her. She cried into my shoulder for a while and then pulled back. That's when I saw some blood around her face, but since she had just rolled down 15 stairs I was shocked it wasn't gushing. She touched her upper lip, and when I asked her if it hurt, she gave a tearful, "yes". She then buried her head again into my shoulder and after about 2 seconds said, "Better now" and walked off to play! ("Better now" is what she always says the second after we kiss any boo boo.)

A couple of hours after that happened, the lip had puffed up some, turned slightly purple, and you could see exactly where it was "popped", but that didn't stop her from eating corn on the cob for dinner. Don't get in between this girl and her food!

Mother's Day Ideas

The managers of the housing we live in are very good about planning events at different holidays. This question about a Mother's Day event is on their website right now: Mother’s day 2008 is just around the corner and we would like your input on what kind of event you would like to see. Do you want an event for just mothers while your children are in child care? Do you want a shopping day with or without your children? How about mothers, sons, and daughters together? Are there any places or attractions that you haven’t been to that you are dying to go? Any idea is a good idea!

I wondered what moms would think is a good Mother's Day event, as well as what they personally would want for Mother's Day, so I emailed several moms I know (mostly non-bloggers) for ideas. They came up with some great ones, and I put them all together in one email which I thought I would share...

Ideas that mom's had which included being with their kids:

1. Professional pictures made with just mom & the kids. I don't think most moms would splurge on themselves and go out and get photos of just themselves & the kids. And in my home I'm the "camera girl", so even most amateur shots don't include me.
2. Pajama brunch with a bunch of your other moms and have the kids/husbands do all the cooking while the group of moms just gather and chat, trade stories, kids tips etc.

Ideas that mom's had which involved being away from their kids:

1. Shopping (one mom asked, "will they chip in the money, too?)
2. Conference
3. Spa day (massage, manicure, pedicure)
4. "Mother's Day In"-that's my term, but basically getting a day at home w/o the kids-cleaning the house, putting pictures away in photo albums, or listening to whatever music we want, watch OUR tv shows, and stay in pjs, all in the comfort of our own home
5. Getting to eat yummy snacks that you don't usually eat in front of your kids (because they can't or too time consuming to fix).

I really liked all these ideas. I thought these moms were creative and practical! I always think Mother's Day is this weird conflict of feeling the desire to be recognized for what we do, but wanting a break from it all at the same time! I think I would love a big party where only moms are invited, and childcare is provided. We get to play, eat, & talk about anything we want (even the freedom to talk about our children if that's what comes up). Oh, to have an uninterrupted adult conversation with another mom! Without our children there, we may actually accomplish that!

So what do you think? Does an idea on this list strike your fancy or do you have another idea? Please tell us about it!

Quiet Day

On Sunday Timothy whined and complained about every single thing that happened. That is, thankfully, not the norm these days, but I let the day get to me nonetheless. We have been pretty healthy for a while, but yesterday morning Timothy woke up with a nasty cough and hot to the touch. Oh, THAT'S why he was so crabby on Sunday! His cough has been come and go, but his fever has stayed pretty consistent around 103.3. He got up a couple of times to try to play computer games with dad yesterday, but he intiated going back to the couch to lay down. He took a nap yesterday and one this morning (he hasn't taken naps for way over a year). Samantha, who copies everything her brother does, has laid on pillows today just like Bubba. It's really cute. Of course I'm keeping him on one side of the room and her on the other because if we can get through this without her catching it, we'll be doing great! As for me, I've had a pretty relaxing day, to be completely honest.

YembiYembi People

Dan and I are attending Clairemont Emmanuel Baptist Church here in San Diego, and this church has such a beautiful heart for international missions. The church financially supports about 30 missionary families that have come out directly from our church, so it is really the heartbeat of everything they do. The associate pastor is called the missions pastor, and his role is leading our church in missions of every sort. Once a month on Sunday nights is a "Missions Update", and since we started coming in September, 3 of those months there has been a missionary on furlough to tell us what's going on. Prayer requests for all our missionaries are shared, and after the missionary is done speaking (or from the beginning if no missionary is there), the church just prays. It is powerful to me, and really gets my global world view back on track. Life becomes so ego-centric, so easily!

Tonight after Missions Update, our church has started a 24-hr prayer chain for the YembiYembi people of Papua New Guinea. Some New Tribes missionaries will be presenting the gospel to these people for the first time through a series of teachings this week. I signed up for a 30-minute time slot to pray, and I have to be honest that at first I was wondering how I was going to pray that long. Once upon a time, I could easily pray that long, but I am out of practice. I feel like I need to confess that my prayers are short and the subject is often me. I'm very thankful that my church loves people here and around the world and is leading me to focus on others.

If you have a few minutes check out this stuff about the YembiYembi people, and pick one of the people in a picture to pray for:

http://bringingthesecrettalk.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yembiyembi/