188,000 is All You Have In You?

I love our mid-90s, high mileage cars...until they stop working. Sure enough, our gorgeous green LeSabre started smoking on the hubby's way home from work. Can I just say, getting Roadside Assistance through our phone service was a stroke of genius! We've used the service three times this year.

Oh, and I had to go meet them in the first snowstorm of the season! Very pretty, but untimely. We're not exactly sure what's wrong with the car, but I assume the antifreeze pouring out of the bottom of the car is not a good sign.

In other news, normally I go out on Black Friday and shop, but we are a little strapped and the hubby had to work. I've had a bad week of feeling whiney about finances...could be because rent is due at the end of next week. Ironically, I know He'll provide, but I just allow my emotions to run amok. Darn you emotions!

Vote for Me (and Giveaway)

The Present Professor had a contest about the worst gift received and I could use your votes for my story!
As extra incentive, I'm giving away a $5 GC to CVS and $5 GC to Starbucks to one lucky voter. Head over here ( http://presentprofessor.com/2008/11/win-a-zune/ ) and vote for my story (The Cheese Wheel That Came Too Late). Then come back here and leave a comment that you voted. Contest ends Nov. 30th, so I'll draw a name on Dec 1st. (I can only ship to Canada & the US)
Happy voting!

Give Me Your Liver Sandwich, Prune Tajine, Hammam!

Well, we're back home...hard to believe that we left only a week ago on our whirlwind trip.

I realized that in my last post about Morocco, I failed to mention the lovely country Moroccans that we sat next to on our 4 hour train ride. These studly folks (after what I'm sure was a long day) decided that taking off their shoes and propping said funky feet on the seats was the right way to end their day. Then they decided to talk to each other loudly and close the window and doors (Allah forbid they get cold). The smell in our little cab was...ripe to say the least.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is the new foods I get to try, by the second day I was itching to attempt something unusual. We hit the street market (medina) and walked around looking at jalabas and the donkey's that lumbered past with their wares. Jalabas are the native dress and (I kid you not) they are exactly like every Jedi robe you've ever seen. I couldn't help but look for light sabers or KKK members. We finally sat down for a meal in a sandwich shop. They all ordered beef kabob sandwiches (boring!) and I resolutely ordered the liver sandwich. I've never had liver and I thought the safest place for my first try of organ meat would be an unsanitary shop in Morocco. Our friends, and my hubby, were completely grossed out. I was actually disappointed when I bit into my sandwich. It was delicious...and didn't taste weird at all. They put green olives and cooked onions in it with some horseradishy mustard. It was good.

That night, our friend Mark cooked the traditional Moroccan meal of a tajine...it's what passes for their casserole/stew dish. You toss whatever you have on hand in a pot and simmer for a couple of hours. Mark made a beef prune tajine. I admit, the thought of prunes in my meal sounds, erg, yucky, but when we sat down to eat it I dug in. It was delicious! The beef and prunes sat in a mild tomato based sauce with toasted almonds over the top. We pick up the meal in yummy fresh bread.

On the last day of our trip, Amy and I went to her neighborhood hammam. For those who don't know what that is...is the bath house. Middle eastern cultures love being clean, and since hot water (and home plumbing) hasn't been common, then they go once a week (or month) to the hammam to get clean. We walk into a big tiled room and promptly stripped down to our undies. We walked deeper through three tiled rooms to a room filled with steam. You fill three buckets w/ hot, cold & warm water, sit on a bath mat, and start scrubbing the dead skin off. They say there that you aren't clean until the worms of skin come off your body. We didn't scrub that hard. Also, it's normal there to scrub the skin off your friends body. Erm, we enjoy each other at all but we weren't about to scrub each other down. It was a lot of fun sitting there, chatting it up, having everyone stare at the foreigners. All in all, a great end to the trip.

The kids did an amazing job with the grandparents...why wouldn't they when they get to eat junk food, play video games and skip school?! I'm incredibly blessed with having the parents that we do; who are willing to take our kids at the last minute.

The Cheese Wheel That Came Too Late

For the most part, my Christmas presents have been wonderful things and as I've gotten older I've realized that there's more to it than the gift received. But there were two gift snafu's that stick out to this day. There was the infamous 4th grade Christmas when I got nothing but CLOTHES. I remember crying that day.

My favorite awful gift that we like to recall in my family is the cheese gift pack. As a kid, whenever I went out with my mom around the holidays I would see these brightly colored, orderly, delicious-looking packages that held summer sausage, a multitude of cheese, mustard and crackers. I would ooh and ahh and tell my mom that I really would love one of them. Then a year passed and I forgot about the glorious cheese.
On Christmas morning my grandparents were there and they handed me a large square box. I was excited because it felt too heavy to be clothes and I was hoping for Legos or books. I ripped of the paper...
there was the cheese gift pack in all it's late (and now unwanted) glory.
"Oh...thank you?" I said to my grandparents as I screwed up my face.
They all laughed as they realized that the cheese wheel I pleaded for last year was an awful gift.

I wrote this post for a great contest going on over at The Present Professor http://presentprofessor.com/2008/11/win-a-zune/ . Happy gifting!

Hey, Your Cow's in that Roundabout

Here we are in nutty, exotic, quasi-sunny Fes, Morocco! After roughly 30 hours of travel we made it here. Here's the flights:

Denver-Memphis

Memphis-Nashville (drop off kids)

Nashville-Atlanta

Atlanta-Madrid

Madrid-Casablanca

And THEN, you hop on a train for fours hours to get to Fes...easy, right.

It's really good to be here and see our friends, to love on them and (hopefully) bring a little familiar love and encouragement to them. Being here makes me wish I were in Turkey...it's been 2 years since I've gone there.

Wondering about the title. While on the train I kept watching the scenery go by and I noticed that people graze their sheep and cows wherever there's something to graze. This includes the middle of a busy roundabout. I also noticed what appeared to be rows of cactus that they were growing for some unknown purpose. We saw a shoving match while waiting for the train to Fes and drank a can of lychee juice. In my opinion, that's the hardest part of travel. When you're going quickly from place to place, it's hard to pick up anything close to a meal. Thank God for granola bars and gum!

We leave Thursday, so I'll post again if anything interesting occurs.

Stay Tuned...

...as I will be next blogging from the foreign and fun shores of Fes, Morrocco!!

Ta Da, Last Minute Man!

As if our week's haven't been crazy enough, it looks like He might be sending us to Morocco next week...as in leaving this Saturday.

Did I mention the hubby is currently out hunting?

So, yeah, kinda crazy.

I was in the bathroom yesterday and I asked/whined God why He was asking us to go to Morocco. Why couldn't He send someone else?

Then He said, "You doink, who else can fly at the last minute like you all can?!"

Oh yeah.

Also, I was reading James 2:15-17 which says, " If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

Why wouldn't He send us and how awful of me to not want to give our missionaries some loving!

I should say we're not 100% sure we're supposed to go, so stay tuned!

Non-Scrapbooking Scrapbooking Weekend

Yes, my friends, it's that glorious time of year when I head into the mountains and hang in a scrapbooking cabin with 10 loverly ladies. Ironically enough, I don't scrapbook and I've spent the last 3 years of this weekend to do NOTHING. And by nothing I meaning bathing, reading, watching movies, contesting and whatever other chicanery requires me to relax.

I love this weekend too because the majority of these ladies are people who I don't know well, and I love seeing into who they are more. It causes me to see outside of my usual people bubble and appreciate the broader spectrum of ladies.

If you've read my previous posts you know this is very timely for me...I needed to destress. Oh yeah, NO ELK meat! Argh!

The Answer

God came through today!! I got a call early in the day that someone wanted to meet with me. When I met with this person she told me that she and her hubby and been lifting us up and had felt that they were to give us money for rent. It was exactly what we needed! It covered the day late fee and everything!



Also, another praise, what that this scenario gave my mom and I the opportunity to connect and really talk through some things. I now know that I can call her to pray over situations like this.



Thank you to all of you who prayed for peace for me...I felt much stronger faith-wise this week than I've felt in a long time.

When Is It a Need?

Here it is, the end of D-day for rent...and we don't have it.
Does that mean He doesn't care? No
Now my question is: When is it necessary for rent to be paid? Is He going to wait until we get eviction notice to provide it?
What about the electric bill? When do those need to be paid?
Is eviction something that He'll allow us to go through?
These are something of the questions I'm pondering tonight...I'm still at peace (miraculously) with our current situation...I'd love to have an answer though.

We Love to Move it, Move it

The Mom Salon and Mcdonald's are trying to find out what families would do with one minute to move it!
It's hard to think of doing this for just one minute, but we like to crank up the music (Imagination Movers, Newsboys, Night At the Roxbury) and groove ourselves silly in our living room. I love dancing with them because they think every move they do is cool and don't know enough yet to think I'm a dork (wonder how long that will last).
Now, if we could only talk the hubby into showing us his cool moves.

Livin On the Edge

Just a quick update on my prayer request from a couple of days ago:

Highs: I was given an anonymous gift of $100 on Sunday! praise God!
My son's tuition is covered for this month!

That leaves us with much still needed to cover rent tomorrow, but I had an amazing day of peace and sweet time with God. We've made Tuesdays unofficial No Electronics Day and I'm a lot calmer and God focused when I'm not flipping on all the distractions (yet here I am on the computer after the kids are asleep). Cheater.

Stay tuned to see how He provides!

How Many Giveaway Wins?

So here are the stats for me from the Bloggy Giveaways:

1,268 giveaways entered
5 wins

That means that my odds of winning are 1 in every 254 contests...not the odds I was hoping for.

BUT let's take the number of wins that I've had in the last year.

221 wins / 12 months = 18 wins per month

Not too shabby, but I do shudder to think how much time I've spent sitting at this computer!

How about you, what's your average? How many Bloggy wins did you have??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update: I now have 6 wins so the new average is 1 win in every 211 contests entered

Uh

Another exciting week following the road He's taking us on.
Hubby will be on leave from the airport job from Oct 20th-Nov. 22. This job is our dependable income.
He's still working as the mission's guy at our church, and that income is dependant on God moving people's hearts to give to us.
Rent is due on the 5th...tuition for preschool is due the 5th.
I fully expected God to cover all these things yesterday when we got our church pay...we got $70.
Neither of these bills are $70...needless to say I'm looking at Him saying, "Oookay."
This would all be a little less stressful if my hubby wasn't leaving today to go hunting. We really need him to kill an elk so that we can have meat for the next year.

Why do I bring all this up? Two reasons:
-I'm asking for your prayers for providence and peace in my heart.
I know when He's steering the ship it's headed to the best place for us, BUT I really don't want to move out of our house and be homeless again.
-I want you all to know of our scenario so that you can rejoice with me when He does show us how this dilemma will resolve.

How's your week? Anyone else wondering how they're going to pay their rent/mortgage?

Does This Really Warrant Applause?

Must...stop....entering!!!
In case you're out of the loop and don't know that the annual Bloggy Giveaway carnival is going on right now...current giveaway count is at 1,395!!!
I'm currently entering giveaway # 1,150...yes, I am crazy, but I figure I'm crazy for science!
I'm trying to figure out the percentage of times I win a contest, so this is always a fun way to average that out.
Granted, I haven't entered all 1,150 contests (but I've kept count and I'm at 953), but once it's all said and done I'll give you the results of my experiement.

Pre-Halloween Halloween???

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like Halloween has become a week-long event around here.
Today (a full week ahead of the day) we went to a "Harvest" costume Carnival at the christian college. Also, Old Navy was giving kids free shirts if they came in with their costumes on.
Tuesday we go to the local high school for dress-up trick or treating.
And the Big Day...they go to school in their costumes, then go to the downtown shops for candy, then they can go to the mall...ALL before it gets late enough for them to hit the neighbor houses!
If you're keeping track that's SIX events all before the actual night! Of course, it's a blessing this week since the hubby's in Nicaragua. He'll be home tomorrow, but it's been 10 days since we've seen him.

Also, I'm a hunting season single parent, so I don't see much of the hubby until Thanksgiving (elk are very elusive beasties).

Have you hit any Halloween fun yet?

Will the Real Underpants Please Stand Up?

My kids have been digging the Captain Underpants series lately...you really can't go wrong with that many poop jokes and misspelled words.

As a result of said obsession, I have 2 Capt. Underpants and 2 Super Diaper Baby's running around our house currently. Do I feel safe from wedgies, oh yes, definately.

The Sound of Silence

I did something unusual today...I sat and did nothing for 15 minutes.
I'm sure you're thinking, "That's nothing special!", but if I sit in my house I'm usually occupying my hands, mind or both while I'm doing it. I've fallen into this trap of popping in the earphones and listening to my Ipod if I'm doing something or reading or watching TV while doing something.

But I really rarely sit and let my mind not be cluttered.

What a shame it is really, with our lives being much easier than any time before us...we say we're busy because we fill it with stuff!

I'm resolving to do this "nothing" more...maybe I'll hear Him the way I used to.

Note To Self

Dear Whiney Weak Part,

What the heck is wrong with you girl?! Are you seriously going to let our emotions toss us around like that?
I mean, c'mon, has He ever failed us?
Ever????
In the last 26 years has He ever dropped the ball??
Then why the internal ball of nerves with you trying to drive the ship?
Seriously girl, do we need to have another talk?
Remember all the cool times? Let's just talk about the last week of answers since Jason has been on his leave from the airport:
-Jason needed $20 to contribute to the hunting trip...he got a $20 tip at work!
-You guys actually got some money in at the church and got paid this week!
-Someone gave you $45 that you can live on while Jason's gone.
-You have supportive friends that you're meeting with this week so that you won't lose it you silly doof!
-The friends who run the food bank called you and had staple groceries that you could have to stock your pantry.
Need I remind you of all the ways in the past that He's covered our butts?
So, let me get this straight: You're REALLY whining because it doesn't look exactly like how you would run it? OH, poor sad little finite person! You wanted to eat out and rent movies and take the kids to fun places while Jason was gone, apparently that's not part of the Plan.
Anyhoo, Whiney, read Matthew 6:25-34 for the bazillionth time, and buck up! He loves you and I've got your back.

Love you!
The Holy Spirit in You

Beans! Mwa Ha Ha Ha?

Beans and rice smell amazing...for about 3 hours...then the smell starts to really irritate you. Like a day old diaper in the trash can.
Why did my kitchen smell like B & R since 9am you ask? I'm making B & R for about 30 people tonight at church for a Missions Forum. We're being diabolical with it...each attendee will get one scoop of B&R, 2 fried corn tortillas, and water. That's it! Mwa ha ha! The reason for the skimpy eats is to help them understand that not everyone get's to eat as much as they want...also, our missionary friend's in Nicaragua basically eat B&R twice a day nearly every day.
You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!