It's Not Just a Catholic Thing

Every year at this time I go through the inner struggle of what I will give up for the lent season. Lent is a Catholic ritual of fasting from Ash Wednesday until Resurrection Sunday. Essentially it is a little over 6 weeks of fasting from a given item. While it is traditionally a Catholic thing I like the concept behind lent. As believers I think fasting is a healthy form of spiritual discipline. Fasting is willing abstaining from something which gives fleshly pleasure for the purpose of focusing intentionally on God and his provision for us.

With all that said, in years past I have given up sweet tea, soft drinks, desserts and the list goes on. I may have one or two weak moments in that time period but for the most part it goes fairly well. This year I really wanted a challenge. It had to be something realistic but something that would be difficult at the same time. Fasting from facebook, my iPhone, music were really all out of the question. When I took a look at my check register and where I spend the most unnecessary money the choice was clear. This year, starting tomorrow WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25th I am officially fasting from all FAST FOOD. Wow, that hurt to type.

There are several big opportunities coming my way so I hope to use this time to focus on intentionally praying through those decisions. I also have Amy's wedding coming up in May so lets just be honest....I hope to see some weight loss from this fast as well. The reason I am posting this on my blog is because now I have openly given each of you free reign to hold me accountable.

Mission Accomplished

Today is "winter break" for our students....otherwise known as Mardi Gras break we just don't call it that at a Baptist College. I had yesterday day off but staff didn't have FAT TUESDAY off so I decided today would be as good a day as any to get those 2008 taxes done. Though I hate the process of filing taxes I get giddy as I watch the number go up and up on my return as I work through turbo tax. Nothing makes the lower income class cheer like getting a check back after taxes. In fact, we quickly forget all the times we felt like we weren't getting paid enough or the times where we ate ramen noodles the last week leading up to pay day. PRAISE THE LORD FOR TAX RETURNS and the bazillion things I already have in mind to spend it on :)

DECLARING MY LOYALTY

I will admit that I am 100% addicted to American Idol. I love every part of the experience. I am even that ridiculous fan who votes for two hours after the show. I can honestly say that my vote may not have counted in the presidential election but it mattered this week in American Idol. The three contestants I was pulling for all made it to the top 12. I love Alexis Grace....single mom, I love Michael Sarvers....oil worker and dad, but I really love Danny Gokey. From his very first audition I was sold! I will loyally follow him and vote him through this entire season. So everyone raise your glass with me, make a toast and declare our loyalty to Danny Gokey this season.

A Taste of Louisiana

Wow! What a phenomenal weekend of taking in all things Louisiana. I can honestly say that I have embraced my life as a Louisianian. Friday night we had a fish fry at the Warren's house. I feel the need to give Dr. Wade Warren mad props because not only was the fish fried to be incredibly tasty...he also caught each and every one of them. The evening got even better with a friendly game of WIZARD. I was introduced to the game Wizard by Brad Duffy...the self proclaimed King of Wizard. I was able to quickly dethrone Brad the first time we played. That game was quickly chalked up to beginners luck until I smoked him again on the rematch this Friday night. Fun times were had by all...or at least by me!

On Saturday night I went to Crooked Creek with Billy and Elizabeth to eat the first batch of crawfish for the season. Again, I can honestly say that it was the best seasoned crawfish I have ever eaten. I put away my 5lbs with little effort. We also had some crawfish gravy and rice that was delicious. Even though my feet have been swollen for two days now because of the salt intake it was well worth it. Dinner was followed up with Elizabeth's homemade king cake and chocolate covered strawberries. Life doesn't get much better.


Then on to Sunday and an early morning start. Billy, Elizabeth, Bailey, Thad and I headed to New Orleans to take in a couple of Mardi Gras parades. The two we got to see were a little disappointing after getting to experience much grander parades during my time in New Orleans but it was still fun. We got some beads and a stuffed dolphin for Bailey so we felt accomplished. We polished off the day with a fantabulous meal at Ralph and Kakoos. Fried pickles, gator bites, soft shell crabs, cajun potatoes, fish, hushpuppies...my mouth is still watering. We did manage to save a little room for dessert at Cafe DuMonde. You can't go to New Orleans without taking in some beignets and initiating new members to the powered sugar club. Thad was a good sport and what made it even better was that Billy ended up with more sugar on himself than he got on Thad.

It was a fabulous and exhausting weekend. Gotta love Louisiana culture and getting to experience it with great friends!

Clumsy or Unconscious Suicide?

So I am not really sure what is going on in my life these days. I have had a number of spills this past week and I don't know if I am being clumsy and careless or if I am unconsciously trying to kill myself. Before you get worried I am just kidding....it just sounds funny.On Wednesday morning of last week I fell in the shower but made a graceful recovery before I hurt myself. When I went to leave for work I couldn't find my keys and when I opened the door they were in the outside of the door where they had been all night. SCARY! Luckily no one let themselves in nor did they take off with my car. Then later that evening I was wearing my "big girl boots" as Angie calls them and I took a head over hills spill down the stairs. I made the split second decision to jam my arm in the rail to catch myself and stopped before going too far down the stairs but definitely had a sore shoulder the next few days.

After recovering from these spills I fell again flat on my face on the concrete behind my apartment just yesterday when I took Matti out for a potty break. I was relieved when I realized no one saw me, especially since my skirt flew up over my head. Just call me grace.

KNOCK ON WOOD...but I haven't injured anything but my pride in these falls. I really am wondering if there is something wrong with my equilibrium.

Rough Start

So we had a rough start to our Monday this week. As if Monday's aren't hard enough when the alarm goes off we (really Matti) decided to make this a Monday we won't soon forget. For those of you who have been in our lives since Matti joined my world almost two years ago you know that we have had our fair share of health concerns. The most reoccurring problem we have are allergies. Life would be grand if we could figure out what those allergies are but we tend to learn the hard way.

Whenever Matti has had an allergic reaction one of her eyes will usually start swelling up. With each reaction it has gotten a little worse but this Sunday we made a HUGE jump in the severity of the swelling. I came home from watching the SuperBowl with friends only to find a slight swollen eyed Matti. I gave her some benadryl and headed off to bed. I set my alarm for midnight to wake up and check on her. At midnight the swelling was a little worse but I wasn't too worried.

This is the midnight shot. Doesn't she look pitiful?

I went back to bed and reset the alarm. At 3am I wake up with Matti on top of me working overtime to wake me up. I honestly thought it must be morning and time for us to get up when I realized it was still really dark. I looked at the clock and could tell Matti was having trouble breathing....more so than normal for a smashed nose boxer. I put my hand on her face and could feel the swelling had gotten really bad. I was dreading turning on the light. When I got up this is what I found...

the Matti from midnight had now affectionately become "Bruiser" at 3am. Her eyes were almost completely swollen shut, her muzzle was beet red and she was struggling to breath. I very calmly gave her an epi shot to make sure her airway didn't close. The vet had given me this for a "worse case scenario" allergy and I quickly assessed this was IT! After an hour she wasn't getting any better so off to the doggy ER we went.

Many of you just saw $$$$ signs flash before you eyes didn't you? Yeah, me too! I couldn't let my baby suffer and I didn't know if we could wait it out until our vet opened at 8am. After a 4am visit to the vet, an IV of steroids and another shot we were on our way back home. The vet told me to continue giving her 75mg (3 capsules) of benadryl every 8 hours for the next 24 hours. I had one drunk pup on my hands.

We didn't get off that easy though. Before leaving the animal ER I found out that Matti has a heart murmur. This explains so many things about her behavior for a long time. For example she gets incredibly winded when playing with other dogs and take a long time to cool down. Poor girl! We will just have to continue to monitor the situation and pray it doesn't get worse. I am banking on lots and lots of good years with my Matti!