The Cat, a Daniel Fast & GP

August 22, 2008 at 11:02 am | In Elevation, Random Thoughts | Leave a Comment
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It feels like forever ago that I last wrote a post, so I figured I would just provide some updates today.

Madison has pretty much fully recovered from her surgery.  We brought her home the day she had the surgery and as soon as she came out of her carrier she was ready to play.  It was like the surgery never happened!  A couple days later, she finally crashed and slept for about two days.  She’s now back to her normal food and her regular self!

Eric and I have been participating in a 21 day Daniel Fast with our church.  You can listen to Pastor Furtick explain it here and read about it here.  We are on day number 5 of the fast and so far things are going pretty well.  On the fast, we can’t eat any animal products, sugar, caffeine or any foods with additives.  So far we have eaten salads, plain rice cakes with natural peanut butter, fruit, veggies, nuts and I’ve been drinking all natural herbal tea in the mornings.  On Wednesday I had my first experience in cooking dried beans.  I never knew how long of a process that was!  8 hours later, the beans turned out well and were added into a Vegetarian Chili (the recipe came from our Daniel Fast packet).  It turned out very well, however I over calculated the beans, so we have a ton of extra!

I’m also getting ready to head up to Grosse Pointe tomorrow morning.  The trip is for work, so I’ll be in our Southfield office all next week.  It will be nice to work with live people again, not just voices over the phone!  I’ll also get to see my family and attend a bridal shower for a friend of mine.  It should be a great week!

Well, that’s about all for now.  I’ll have a post up soon to tell you about my trip to Washington, D.C. last weekend!

We Are ND

August 14, 2008 at 3:12 pm | In Random Thoughts | Leave a Comment
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I still get chills everytime I hear this song and see this video.  You can’t beat a football Saturday on the Notre Dame campus.  I miss that place.

Maddy Girl

August 6, 2008 at 8:15 am | In Family | 1 Comment
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*Update Below*

This past weekend, Maddy was pretty sick.  She started throwing up on Friday and it continued through the weekend.  I took her in to see the vet on Tuesday, but by this time she had stopped throwing up and she seemed to be back to normal.  As I’ve mentioned before, she hates the vet and it really stresses her out to go there; so I hated taking her in if she was back to normal now.  Well, when we got into the room, the vet sedated her right away so they could get a good look at her.  He ended up taking her in the back to get some blood work and take an x-ray.  Well, he came back with the x-ray and it turns out she had a bunch of string-like stuff in her stomach!  It really looked like a bunch of spaghetti in there.  The vet, along with the vet we had seen the previous week, came in to talk to me about it.  They were both stumped as to what it could be.  They said that string or yarn usually does not show up as well as what is in there and that twist ties (Maddy’s favorite toy) would be shorter.  The good news was that the stuff had not gotten in to her intestines yet, but they were not able to get it out with a scope.  So this morning Eric and I dropped Maddy off for surgery.  Our poor Maddy girl.  I just pray that this event won’t effect her personality and cause her to hate the vet and other strangers more than she already does.  She will most likely stay overnight at the animal hospital, but there is a chance that we’ll be able to bring her home today.  I’ll keep you posted on her recovery.

 

*Well, I just received word that Madison is out of surgery.  Turns out she had injested about 7 or 8 hair ties and rubber bands.  I guess mom is gonna need to be more careful where she leaves her hair ties!  We get to pick her up at 4pm today.

**Maddy is now back home.  She’s wobbling around the apartment finding a place to rest.  The hair ties/rubber bands turned out to be a long drawstring (from a sweatshirt) or shoe lace (can’t really say for sure).  It was a good handful of stuff that she had in there for who knows how long!  I cant believe she ate all of that!

Tuesday Trivia

August 5, 2008 at 2:26 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | 1 Comment
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In honor of the Olympic Games in Beijing starting this Friday 8/8/08, today’s trivia is about the Olympics.

~ The original Olympic games were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece and were celebrated until AD 393.

~ A business man named Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic Games in 1859.

~ The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894.  The first of the IOCs Olympic Games were the 1896 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece.

~ The U.S. has hosted 4 Summer Olympic Games and 4 Winter Olympic Games.  The first Games to be held in the States were the 1904 Summer Games.  They were originally to be held in Chicago, but were moved to St. Louis to coincide with the World’s Fair.

~ The Olympic Rings, five intertwined rings, represent the unity of the five inhabited continents (with the Americas regarded as one continent).  The colors of the rings – white, red, blue, green, yellow and black – were chosen such that each nation has at least one of these colors in its national flag.

Awakening

August 4, 2008 at 10:22 pm | In Elevation | Leave a Comment
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Last year, on Mother’s Day Eric and I went to Elevation for the normal Sunday service.  To our surprise, Elevation was holding spontaneous baptisms that day.  Pastor Furtick preached for about 20 minutes on baptism and eliminated any possible excuse or reason that would keep people who needed to be baptized from getting baptized.  I had been baptized as an infant but hadn’t been baptized since I had been saved in 2004.  I knew during that service that God was calling me to take the plunge and publicly proclaim that Jesus is my Savior.  Elevation staff and volunteers had everything needed to make people comfortable that day.  Everyone who was getting baptized received a tshirt, shorts, underwear, flip flops and hair ties.  (After the baptism, people were led to the locker room which, for the women anyway, was filled with hair dryers, mousse, hair gel, hair spray, makeup, deodorant, feminine products, etc.)  It was so awesome to feel so loved and encouraged making my way on to the stage to be baptized.  Pastor Furtick baptized me on the stage of Providence High School and as soon as I was lifted out of the water I heard an eruption of cheers and excitement.  Elevation truly makes this a special and celebratory day for those being baptized.  On that Sunday and the following Sunday, Elevation baptized 388 people!

The church hired a professional photographer to take pictures of everyone being baptized and then they sent them in the mail.  Below is mine:

Yesterday I had the privilege to be on the other end of this event.  We held spontaneous baptisms at both the Providence and Butler locations.  Eric and I went to help get things set up at the Butler campus on Saturday which included doing a run through of the next day’s events and getting all of the bags filled with shorts, tshirts, underwear, flip flops and hair ties.  I can’t even explain in words how amazing the day was.  God showed up in a mighty way!  As Pastor Furtick instructed those who wanted to get baptized to make their way to the restrooms to get changed, we had a tunnel of volunteers in teal shirts cheering, clapping, hollering and just making excited noise for everyone walking out.  It was so amazing to see the crowd of people walk through the auditorium doors.  I was so overcome with joy I just cried.  God touched every one of their hearts that day and gave them courage to take the plunge.  Just amazing.  Between our two campuses yesterday, 629 people were baptized.  All the glory to God!

The Scallen Medal

August 2, 2008 at 9:21 pm | In Family | Leave a Comment
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When I graduated from college, one of the best gifts I received was the Scallen medal from my dad.  What is the Scallen medal you ask?  Well, let me fill you in…

My great grandfather served as the athletic director at the University of Detroit for many years.  During his time there, he created the Scallen medal which was given to the school athlete with the highest grade point average.  This was a coveted medal at the school and the men who received it treasured the award.  It is no longer awarded at the school but the medal and it’s history is displayed in the school archives.

When my great grandfather passed away, my dad found the dies for the medal among his belongings.  About eight or nine years ago, we were celebrating my grandpa’s 80th birthday on a summer weekend at our cottage in Marine City.  For the occasion, my dad had a medal made for my grandpa for his birthday.  Later that year, at our Thanksgiving dinner, my dad had another medal made for my great uncle.  Since then, my dad has been a one man “committee” handing out the medals to Scallens who “impress the committee.”  He usually passes them out at special events, such as college graduations.

A few years ago, at another Thanksgiving gathering, I nomited myself as vice chairperson of “the committee” and awarded the Scallen medal to my dad (how else would he get one?).  Along with some help from my mom, I had a special medal made for him – a medal coated with the Notre Dame gold paint (the same paint they use on the helmets before each game day).

The Scallen medal is a special and unique tradition our family has and, as vice chairperson, I can now ensure that it will be passed on to future generations.

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