Snowballs

Now some of us call these things Hawaiian Shaved Ice, none the less I think "Snowballs" are a better name. These things are wonderful, I have had them in the past but never have I explored the options or had them with the frequency I have this year. I am sad I did not have time to have one today but I was able to facilitate Lillian having one, and I must admit it looked delicious. If you have yet to experience a snowball, I encourage you to take the short drive out to the corner of Airway and Harshman. In the parking lot of the shopping center you will find the mecca of sweet, icy, frosty goodness. Don't let cost be a deterrent either, a medium, which is enough to satisfy this addict, is only $1.75. I know what a wonderful deal, I might just have to stop and get one tomorrow. If I do I will keep you up to date on the flavor, cause there are lots of flavors..teehee

Working is Boring

Well I am not sure how much longer I can keep this blog up. Now that I work so much each day there is little else that goes on in my life. I get up, play with the dog, shower, go to work, sleep. That is the extent of my day. Granted I have not experienced a weekend yet, I anticipate much sleeping. There doesn't seem to be much going on during the weekends, and if there is I am somehow left out of it. Tomorrow is Wednesday, and the only thing exciting I can think about for Wednesday is the Lee's Chicken special. I know I am a dork, but when days become run of the mill like they have now, it is the little things that get you excited. I think things would be better at work if I was not totally alone. I mean I sit there for the better part of 8 hours in total solitude. I am also looking for a second job, something part time with a low stress level. If anyone has any leads let me know. I am just looking for something that will help me get back to a good situation since I have been making just peanuts while I have been a missionary. I need to rebuild my savings, so that I can have this cushion again. Well that is all I have for now.

Post Op

Well first off Super Summer went well, I did not feel I was as productive this year as I was last year. I also must say that I have learned more from last year so making the videos was much easier than last year. Maybe I was as productive it just seemed easier. I am happy to be finished though, it was a great week but it was lots of work for me.

Next if any of you have been keeping up on this thing you know I had surgery last week on Friday. I am happy to report that the surgery went super well. I feel many times better than when I went in for the surgery. I have a few stitches and a cool screw in a cup but overall I feel wonderful. Lillian took me to the surgery and bless her heart she ended up getting herself into more than even I knew she would. She ended up being my official caretaker for the day. I had no idea this surgery involved all this, the way the doctor made it sound I thought I could drive myself and take myself home. I could not have been more wrong. Coming out of surgery I was not even allowed to sign any of the paper work concerning my release from the hospital, Lillian had to sign it as I was considered highly medicated and not able to make decisions on my own. If it wasn't already clear to all those people out there that read this thing, Lillian might be quite possibly the most awesome friend ever, she consistently exceeds the bounds of what can be expected from a friendship. Yay for her.

I start working full time at my job today and well goodbye social life and hello working life. At least I will be getting 3 day weekends through the summer, that is pretty exciting. That also means I will be working four, ten hour days. Pray I can make this work. Other than that my job is going well, I seem to be getting along with everyone pretty well and the work is not too bad. Well that is my update for today, if anything else comes up I will be sure to tell you.

Busy Week

This week I have been and will continue to be working at a camp for the Baptists in Ohio called Super Summer. It is a discipleship camp for youth and I get to make all the movies and videos for the camp. I really enjoy making them and I really get to devote some serious time to them and to the development of my skills. There is much fun had at Super Summer it just always ends up in a long day for me.

On top of that I was unable to get out of working at my new job this week. So I have been working the video side of Super Summer during the day and working at the factory at night, so those long days just got a whole lot longer.

To add further complications, my doctor decided to schedule my surgery this week. I will have worked a good 40 hours at Super Summer this week, 20 hours at the factory, and now I get to go under the knife on Friday. I don't know that I have ever had such a busy weekend in my whole life. I also fear that I will need a ride to the hospital on Friday and I have not made arrangements for one yet. I am calling my doctor tomorrow to see if I need to have someone bring me or not, I hope that I can just drive myself.

I can truly say at this point that my life is NOT boring, in fact I am having trouble keeping up with it at most times right now. Tonight is the last night for the factory until next week, which is when I start full time here. WOOHOO. So this should all start to settle down soon, and please pray for my surgery that all goes well, thanks

ROADTRIP....Destination....Arkansas???

As many of you know Lillian, Parsnip, and I packed up and headed to Arkansas to visit with Lillian's family this past week. I was excited to get some time off and to get out of the state, but for some reason I was a bit nervous about meeting her parents. I also knew that her folks didn't know about Parsnip and I was not sure of what their response would be, would they be overwhelmed with joy or was I about to witness a Magee Family Fight.

The drive to Tennessee wasn't bad at all in fact it was quite enjoyable. Tennessee was where we met up with Lillian's parents at her aunt's house. Lillian's folks took to Parsnip immediately, Parsnip worked her charm like she has on so many other people (myself included) so much so that Lillian's mom wanted to carry Parsnip inside the house.

This is where I met her grandpa too, I don't know if I could go into all the details of this man that reminded me of my own grandpa who passed away around 4 years ago. There was a point when he was talking about his late wife that was just so sweet and he reminded me of my own grandpa so much that I actually cried. Seeing this cute old man made me miss my grandpa like I haven't missed him in years. I miss Lillian's Grandpa a lot now too. This man had some of the best one liners ever told, I wish I had a tape recorder the whole time we were together cause he was SOO funny.

Back to Lillian's parents, if you ever wondered why Lillian is such an amazing, wonderful, loving, sweet, caring person well I now have an answer for you; her parents are the same way. They made me feel so welcome in their house, not once do I recall feeling awkward or uncomfortable. They were funny and fun to be around, and best of all they loved our dog. I can hardly express how thankful I am for their hospitality towards me that week.

Now you may be saying is the trip over now, do we drive home? Of course not!! Lillian decides to push on to Arkadelphia, which is where her friends are and college from which she graduated. We pick up her friend Lana on the way there, and once again I wasn't sure how much fun I would have while Lillian was being nostalgic. This leg of the trip also surpassed any expectation I had for it. I had a wonderful time with Lillian, her friends, and ex professors. Now because we had no where to sleep and hotels just cost so much money I decide to go ahead and drive all the way back to Ohio that night. We left Little Rock around 11pm, I had a little 2 hour nap in a Wal-Mart Parking lot and we arrived back in Dayton around 1pm I think. Lillian slept for a good portion of this driving trip but I am glad she got some good rest, and I have no regrets about the trip at all.

Thanks Lillian, Wiley and Doris Magee for a great week (wow was that corny)

Parsnip Poo

Today like normal I get up and take Parsnip out to the bathroom where she quickly does her business and returns inside. I then usually get my stuff together and get my shower. I leave Parsnip to roam the room as she please and hope that she doesn't get into too much mischief. I get back downstairs from my shower and I walk into my room with the distinct aroma of Parsnip poo. If you haven't had the pleasure of smelling her pungent poop consider yourself lucky. Never have I known a dog so little to create such a stink. I scan my room in search of the little gift my puppy has left me, and no where can it be found. I am worried cause I really don't want poo in my shoe. Upon further examination I locate the still warm feces, where you might ask? I would happily respond, on the hearth of the fireplace. Yes this means this little puppy had to jump up and make a special trip up there to take care of her business. Is this puppy mad at me? I know dogs do mean things like that when they are upset with you. I try to spend as much time with her as I can, but recently with both jobs that has been kinda tough. Well I will get to make up with her next week.....yay!

I Got A Screw Loose

I was running a bit late for my doctor's appointment this morning, and I was driving Lillian's Sentra there as my van was being used to help Robin move out. I had underestimated how much gas it would take for me to get to all the places I needed to go today and so I was putting the Sentra to the test of fuel efficiency. I returned Lillian's car to her with no more than fumes left in the tank, my apologies for that, I hope that you can forgive me.

Anyway back to the doctor. I go in for my x-ray and all seems to be going well. I have been walking around for a while and everything seems to be going great. The Doctor walks in and opens up my x-rays and sees that I have broken the long pin in my ankle into two pieces. I must admit my first reaction was one of shear terror, there is no way this could be a good thing. Turns out I was right, it wasn't a good thing, but to my relief it isn't a bad thing either. He explained to me that this kind of thing is fairly common and all it means is that I get to keep an extra piece of metal in me forever. If the screw were to ever cause me any medical problems they would take it out, so just one more thing to make my ankle bionic.

He continued the exam and was pressing and rubbing on my ankle to see if it was sore. I am used to the joke "when ever I do this it hurts" and the doctor responds "stop doing that". The case is not so with my doctor, he is rubbing my ankle right over where all my pins and other metallic bits are, and when I tell him that it is tender and hurts quite a bit he tells me to rub it even when it hurts, every day. I don't know that I can do this, willfully cause myself pain just so I can desensitize the area. I don't think so, just don't ever kick me in the ankle unless you want to see a grown man cry.

So I will be scheduling my appointment for my next surgery sometime this week, and I will be going in for the actual procedure in two weeks, I must admit I am very relieved to have most of this ordeal done with. Glory be to God who has made such an awesome creation that can actually repair itself and for having doctor's who are smart enough to help it along.

Appointment

Well tomorrow at 9am in the morning I will be in my doctor's office once more. I am hoping this time he will have news for me that will consist of taking this big screw out of my leg. Hard to believe I have been walking on it for almost 3 weeks now. There is still some serious discomfort, and when I spend any amount of time on my feet there is serious swelling that goes on. I am going to ask my doctor about this and hopefully it is pretty normal. I will have an update on that stuff as soon as I can.

My term at Crosswalk is coming to an end very soon (at the end of this week). There are parts I will miss, there are parts I won't miss. I will miss all the relationships I have been so blessed to make, what an impact you all have had on me. While I am not really going anywhere, I know it will not be the same. I will have to make much more of an effort to keep in touch with everyone. So, if you want to keep in touch with me, please do, I am still always available to help you in any way I can,whether it be an emergency or just to talk; holla at me. I hope to have more up tomorrow.

Poll Results

I must admit the response I had to this poll was quite different than what I expected, and I cannot promise that I will do exactly what the poll results say. Here you go, this is how you felt about me getting my ears pierced.

Just your ears, why not pierce your tongue too? 16 votes 48%
What are you nuts? 13 votes 39%
Sure go for it!! 3 votes 9%
Do you really think I care? 1 vote 3%

if you have any further personal opinions on the matter please leave a comment or if you have an idea for a new poll leave it in the comments as well.