The Toast Song

finally figured out how to post videos from youtube! watch out! YEAH TOAST!

who are you?

don't worry, i haven't left the blogging world. things have been uber busy. but an update is coming soon. i can feel it!

good friends

for about the last 4 days things have been very interesting. it's been a good time for the women's home and other people pull together in community. there is a personal side, and a community side.

monday evening our boss's husband had to be flight vac to columbia. he has a liver disease. it was so sad, especially knowing their two young children. i know it was hard for our boss to have to up and leave.

my friend has been helping take care of the kids for the last 3 years. a wonderful thing, so her husband came and took the kids. they are now "chillin'" with Ashlee and Jared. pulling together.

i got really sick last week. couldn't breath very well and was coughing something fierce! horrible. if that wasn't bad enough, i no longer have a voice! it's sometimes slightly louder than a whisper, other times hardly a whisper.

so my friends are taking care of me, making sure i'm not talking to much. making me take naps and rest my voice. one of my friends is even getting ready to come and "kitty sit" with me while watching the sound of music. even though we can't talk.

that's what friends and living in community is all about. helping your boss take care of her kids and kittens, and house, and having someone watch a movie in silence. ahhh, community.

absolutly ridiculous

this came from foxnews.com. Pastor talked about it yesterday, but this is nuts!!!! cursing is not good for you!!! IT'S SIN!!!!!!!!!!

That muttered curse word that reflexively comes out when you stub your toe could actually make it easier to bear the throbbing pain, a new study suggests.
Swearing is a common response to pain, but no previous research has connected the uttering of an expletive to the actual physical experience of pain.
"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."
Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual's tolerance to pain.
Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person's tolerance.
var adsonar_placementId="1426008",adsonar_pid="256757",adsonar_ps="-1",adsonar_zw=224;adsonar_zh=93,adsonar_jv="ads.adsonar.com";
qas_writeAd();
As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true.
The researchers enlisted 64 undergraduate volunteers and had them submerge their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice.
The experiment was then repeated with the volunteer repeating a more common word that they would use to describe a table.
Contrary to what the researcher expected, the volunteers kept their hands submerged longer while repeating the swear word.
The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body's natural "fight-or-flight" response.
Stephens and his colleagues suggest that swearing may increase aggression (seen in accelerated heart rates), which downplays weakness to appear stronger or more macho.
"Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists," Stephens said.
The results of the study are detailed in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal NeuroReport.

wishes

I WAS WISHING THAT MY WISHES WERE WHAT GOD WISHED, AND IF MY WISHES WERE NOT WHAT GOD WISHED, I WISHED THAT I COULD WISH THAT MY WISHES WOULD GO AWAY, BUT THE WISHES WERE STILL THERE. ~ELISABETH ELLIOT

ketchup showers, mud baths and other fun 4th of july activities

this post is going to be full of those "had to be there moments," but none the less, i want to put our experience into written word. this may be lenghty!

on Friday the weather was beautiful. blue skies, with pretty cotton looking clouds, and many many people excited to serve and be served. we had a blast, that is until people started leaving because they were scared of the rain. the troopers were the ones that stuck it out! we had free food, a rodeo, music, games for the kids. oh the fun!

i started out shuttling people around. i love it! ask me to do it anytime! got to go driving through fields to pick up people, and to deliver them to the fun field! many many happy, dirty, faces. well, the kids had dirty faces. the adults looked pretty clean! this day went without much incident. we were home by 9. did i mention i also helped in the food service part too? that was a lot of fun to. while we were serving, the excitement was going on at the rodeo. the bull named "Marshmallow" jumped the fence and headed for the trees, it took 2 cowboys and 10 minutes to get "Marshmallow" back in the fence. the guy announcing the rodeo said "Marshmallow ain't no fluff." we had about 12,000 people there.

onto Saturday. it rained and rained and rained. oh how we were praying it would stop! we got to the tent at 9 a.m. and it was so yucky! we were putting wood chips and straw down everywhere trying to soak up the mud, so it wasn't so messy. but to no avail. it was still as nasty as ever. it didn't prevent 6,000 people from coming though! so that was good. it seemed as if everyone was in good spirits during my shuttle hours. wet, a little muddy, but good spirits.

the fun came when people wanted to go back to their cars. i knew this one field was where people were getting stuck, so i tried my hardest not to go down in it, but then there was this 89 year old little man who was using a cane to walk got in my van and said "Lot C please" i cringed! anything but lot C! that's where people are getting stuck! please not lot C. so he rode around with me for a few min. then to lot C we went. i thought i stopped on some solid ground, but when i tried to leave, i was stuck! did i mention i had about 15 people in the van with me. the man sitting in the bench seat behind me said "hun, i think you're stuck." i dreaded getting on the CB. that was the last thing i wanted. but i had to humble myself and get on there and i eloquently said "ummm, i think i'm stuck, i'm in lot C." the guy behind me said "hun, there ain't no thinkin' you are stuck." the men tried to tell me how to get out, but nope, didn't work. they abandoned ship and headed for the hills. (we were down in a valley). they told me the captain must go down with the ship. so i sat for 15 min and finally they came and towed me out. oh the humility! that made it 3 times i've been stuck in a ministry vehicle. ugh! we go about our day still driving soaking wet, cold people to their vehicles. one time someone asked me at the drop off point if the folks that were standing there were coming or going. i said "well, they look pretty dry, so they must just be coming." they thought that was funny. i got stuck another time in a lot, but the parking attendant helped me out with that one.

the last group of ladies that i had in the van told me they were from Hamilton/Warsaw area. i said so am i! so they started to ask me if i knew so and so, and so and so. i told them no, and the lady right behind me asked if i knew Brad Heitman. i'm sure my eyes about popped right out of my head and i said "Yes!!! he was my high school crush for some time!" she just laughed and told me he was dealing cards at a casino, and he'd gained some weight. (i was thinking, who hasn't). she proceeded to tell me that she was his adoptive mom. it was so funny! out of all the people there, his mom gets into the van. she told me she would tell him hello for me, b/c she was going to be talking to him that night, but i assured her he wouldn't remember who i was. talk about funny!

so i get to the food service tent. i had to bring the big van, and i wasn't real happy about that b/c i didn't want to get stuck again. but i took it anyway. the food line was moving smoothly, then got real slow. it had gotten colder and wetter. not fun. but we continue to serve our hearts out and making the best of any situation. the ladies told me it was time for a potty break, and i tried to get them to jump in the mud with me since we were already muddy, but they weren't so sure. then they were sure. we started jumping trying to get one another dirty, but we only ended up getting ourselves all messy. it was a blast. then we did it again in a big field. one of our families from India was here and he was laughing and laughing. i don't think women in his country do things like that. i invited his little boy to come with us, but his dad wouldn't let him (no harm in asking). we had so much fun. everyone had their pants/shorts/capris covered in mud, and some on their shirts. 10 min had gone by and it was time to get back to work. only a little bit to get the tables cleaned up before fireworks.

so to work we went. trying to get things the way they needed to be. we were standing there waiting for something to do and one of our ladies takes a step back and trips over a bag and flops into a box of nacho chips! the box split and the chips crunch. we laughed and laughed and laughed. about the time she got off the ground, the camera man was there! oh how funny! she said this is the first time she's fallen and she's been sober, at least she will know where the bruises came from (funny, sad, but true). there were many of these moments. i won't bore you with them all, b/c like i said they are the "had to be there moments."

okay, one more story then that's it. we were told to throw away some of the ketchup, so i dropped a ketchup container (about a 1/2 gal container 1/2 way full) into the trash and turned my back, as i turned my back the ketchup splashed up went all over my back, over my shoulder and into my hair. the ladies thought it was so funny! we just laughed and laughed and laughed. they helped me to get cleaned up some, but it was just way to much! our stomachs were hurting from laughing so much!

the fireworks were pretty good, and this man that was behind us was quite the jokster! he was so funny! oh, i forgot to say that i got stuck in the parking lot and 6 men's center guys had to push me out! but that was the last time i got stuck :)

the best part of the whole thing was we got to take part in making God famous! i believe that many people got to see how the church is suppose to work. i don't think i'll ever forget it! it was such a blast. hope i can help in another 20 years!

to tie you over

this is just to tie you over until i write a little more about our Charlie's Holiday. it'll be a treat! be ready for a long read too! this is DC*B's new song. new album coming this fall! soooo stoked!

Verse 1:
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Chorus 2:
He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Verse 3:
Well, I thought about You the day Stephen died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause...

Chorus 3:
Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.