Saturday, May 30, 2009

Saturday's Song - By Your Side

This song I picked out for this week is another favorite from the first time I heard it.
It is a wonderful reminder that He is always by our side. We may be searching for fulfilment in other areas of our life trying to take care of everything ourselves when if we would just realize...He is there for us always, we just need to call out to Him.

By Your Side
Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

(Chorus 2x)

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

(Chorus 2x)


Saturday, May 23, 2009

Saturday's Song - In The Hands of God

Well this was a totally unplanned song but since it has been stuck in my head all Friday evening, I went in search of it.

I figured it was a Newsboys song because I could just hear their voices singing it and I don't even know if I heard it earlier on the radio today or what but the chorus has been rolling and rolling through my head so I need to do this one this week. I don't even have this song or cd, I had to go onto iTunes through the store and look it up because I was even unsure of the title. Guess now I'll be looking to find the cd to add to my collection because while on there I listened to the other songs on the album and it is a good one.

It is another one about trusting in God. I know He is trying to tell me something.

In The Hands of God
Newsboys from the In The Hands of God Album


We have raised our hopes and our cities high
We have followed fragile dreams
But only One could take the measure of our goals
And we've stumbled over the trials of life
And we've wrestled the unseen
But only One can calm the storm inside our souls

In the hands of God we will fall
Rest for the restless, and the weary
Hope for the sinner
In the hands of God we stand tall
Hands that are mighty to deliver
Giving us freedom

When our strength gave way to the weight of guilt
'Til we strained for every breath
Only One could lift our shame and make us well
And when all is finished and we face
The fearsome power of death
Only One has overcome the gates of hell

You're amazing
You're amazing, You are
And we praise You, Lord
For what Your hands have done

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Saturday's Song - We Fall Down

Wow, I made it two weekends in a row with the Saturday's Song.

This song has been out for a while but the first time I heard it, and just about any other time I hear it, come across the radio the spirit really moves me and the tears start to flow. The words say it all and I never get tired of hearing it.

We Fall Down
Chris Tomlin from the Passion: Live Worship from the 268 Generation Album

We fall down
We lay our crowns
At the feet of Jesus
The greatness of
Your Mercy and love
At the feet of Jesus
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
Is the lamb
We fall down
We lay our crowns
At the feet of Jesus
The greatness of
Mercy and love
At the feet of Jesus
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
Is the lamb
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
And we cry holy, holy, holy
Is the lamb

This is just a video I found that I'm sure is used in many churches worship service due to the way it is presented.

Monday, May 11, 2009

This being sick is getting OLD

What is the deal....since we don't have insurance (haven't since last November when I was laid off) I've tried to stay healthy to avoid going to any doctors and racking up any bills. But shoot this year hasn't started off too good in the healthy category of living. I was sick back at the end of February first of March for a few weeks battling a sinus infection and I managed to kick it all on my own with the help of Mucinex and Sudafed (even though it took me longer than if I had gone to the doctor for antibiotics).

Then we come back from Maui and within a week I started coughing. It was weird. I didn't have any sore throat, stuffy nose, post-nasal drip, nothing but a little tickling cough. Then within a couple of days I was coughing up stuff (but nothing green, so I knew there wasn't an infection of any kind). So I started taking Sudafed again and Mucinex, sucking on cough drops and cough syrup trying to get over it. I was going to job interviews because I felt okay physically just this stinking cough. (Oh yeah, my sister was the unlucky one by catching this while we were in Maui and had to deal with it there but she was able to kick it on her own so I figured I could too, I'm just glad it waited for me until we got home.) By a week and half of battling the cough, I could feel myself getting more tired and wearing down a little more. Scott kept saying I needed to go to the doctor but I really didn't want to fork out any money to do so. I told him I would if I started to get really bad. I had been using a vaporizer and taking hot, steamy showers to break anything up but I still didn't have a tightening in my chest or feel like I had any congestion going on. I'm prone to getting bronchitis so I figured that is where I was at and I also knew if I waited too long it could go into pneumonia but I also figured my lungs would hurt if that was the case. I had been coughing so much my sides hurt like I had just done a ton of crunches but not in my back where my lungs were.

A couple of days before going on 2 weeks of this coughing (and by now I was producing the green stuff) I finally called our local medical clinic to inquire as to how much this was all going to set us back. Since I have moved to North Idaho I have not found a regular GP and I've always gone to North Idaho Immediate Care. I generally call first to see what doctor is on call because my favorite one there (Dr. Hjeltness) I've seen for 8 years and if he had his own practice I would be one of his first patient's (I told him this too) and I always try to go in when he is there. I just about had a heart attack on the phone when the receptionist told me how much an office visit was without insurance....I figured okay $75-$100....oh NO...try $250....to just see the doc for 15 minutes...are you kidding me??? She also told me that if I thought I had bronchitis (which I was sure of it by now) they may want to do a chest x-ray and that would be another $69. She also said since I've been a patient there before they could set up a payment plan for us but 30% would be due at the visit time. So then I called a couple of local pharmacies to see how much my drugs would be....I figured I would get a Z-pack (which Dr. Hjeltness usually prescribes to me) so I tried Walgreens first, thinking they would be low $44...okay....Walmart next and they were a little better at $29....so then I thought Costco....wohoo their cost was $10 (all generic) so I knew where we would be going to get the goods.

Scott took me into the doctor and by now....I could feel a wheezing in my chest pretty badly. He listened to my chest and lungs and said...."You're in pretty bad shape", I figured as much and he couldn't believe I had been coughing for 2 weeks without coming in. I explained to him about not having insurance and I was just really trying to fight it on my own. He said he could hear it in my left lung and didn't really want to spend my money but he did need to take an x-ray to see just how much of my lung it was affecting. Thankfully, it was only showing up in the middle section of my left lung (pneumonia) and he wanted to get me started on antibiotics right away, so he gave me a shot and prescribed my Z-pack but also wanted me on a breathing treatment so he prescribed Abuterol and then prescribed a really good cough syrup Tussionex (I've had before and it is really good) but I had no idea how much those other prescriptions would cost. We lucked out a little at the clinic because they took Care Credit (which we've had for a while when we thought we'd need it for Scott's braces and I thought it was only for Dental & Veterinarian's) and they told us if we paid in full we would get 30% off the total bill...it ended up being like $374 total and only had to put $249 on our card. It was a good thing too since when we got to Costco the drugs were close to $100 for the 3 prescriptions....OUCH!! The doctor also said that if I wasn't feeling 100% better by the 10th day (last day of antibiotics that he was prescribing) to call back and he would prescribe it again because he wanted me to kick this completely not just get a little better and then be off the antibiotics and get worse again.

By the 10th day, I still wasn't feeling 100% maybe only 50-60% better so I got another prescription....I also had to get another for the Abuterol because I wasn't using it properly and I wasn't getting all of the medicine in my lungs (the real expensive drug though was the cough syrup and I could live without another prescription of that).

Scott by now is thinking I should be in the hospital because I haven't kicked it but I also know it is because I don't get a TON of rest like I should either. Some nights I lie there awake trying so hard to fall asleep but my mind won't shut off (why do I have to have insomnia now) and some nights I cough too much and can't get comfortable. So the nights that I do get REALLY good rest and I'm not coughing so much I just sleep and sleep and sleep...sometimes until 2 pm the next day. But then I'll have a day where I feel a bit better and try to do too much (because I have things to do and nothing is getting done with me trying to rest all the time) and then the next day I'm down pretty bad because I did too much the day before.

I hate having pneumonia, I've found....it is the WORST because it is really hard to get over and my immune system isn't the greatest so it is taking longer to kick. I was reading on one website that it could take a month to get rid of it (oh please God, no). Scott feels discouraged because he just wants me better so we can do things together and I want to get better because I feel guility that he works all day then comes home and has to make dinner because I don't have the energy to do it or a couple of times that I have....I'm just BEAT.

REST....REST....REST.....I'm kinda getting sick of all this rest. I want to get up and go and I have so many things to get done. I wanna go to Lewiston and see my granddaughter's recital...so I really better get RESTED and get this kicked FAST so I can. Today I did sleep MOST of the day and I felt a little better once I got up, in fact I haven't coughed as much today as I usually have, that is a good sign....hopefully tomorrow I won't have a down day because I'm feeling so much better and try to do too much.

Please keep my in your prayers and thanks to those of you who have been. I really appreciate it.

Cards

Another thing I have been remiss about keeping up with is posting the cards I have done, but again I don't want to post them until they have been given to the recipients because I don't want them to be seen on here before they get them in person.


The first one is a card I did for my sister & Dad & stepmom since we were all having a Maui vacation together. All of the stamps are from DeNami and they are ones I already had on hand...I didn't buy anything new just for the card. But I also figured since I had the stamps, it would be opportune to use them for such a card. I also did one like this for my step-daughter Witney for her birthday coming up in June, but it has "Happy Birthday" on it instead of "Aloha". It is perfect for her and her personality.


The next one...I 100% lifted from this gal. I love a lot of her cards. She does a really good job and when I was looking for an idea on my Easter cards and I came across this one....I knew I had to copy it. Most of the stamps used are by Verve and the swirl inside is an Autumn Leaves. I had to create my own "background" paper of sorts on the lighter blue paper (with my Versamark stamp pad and some Pearl Ex) because I couldn't find something that would match but it was fun. I thought it would take a long time to do them (I think there were 10+ layers of cardstock) but I cut out all of my papers first and it went pretty smoothly, thankfully since I did 8 of these.


The next one I did for my stepmom's (Terry) birthday. Her favorite color is yellow so that was the only thing I was going for in this card was to incorporate that color, but I did start out by trying to match everything to the patterned background paper. The stamps I used on it are Magenta and it is a stamp line I really like and have several of their stamps but I haven't used in a long time. I colored it in with colored pencils, used my Nestabilites to cut out the scallop rectangle and a friskars border punch on the green piece. The patterend background paper is by Basic Grey.


This next one is one I threw together really quickly because it was our Anniversary and I realized I hadn't gotten a card for Scott. Since I've been trying to make all of my cards for the year, I figured I run down to my room quickly and put one together before he got home. The stamp I used is DeNami and I've always liked it but never had an opportunity to use it before. I also used my Nestabilites to do the scallop circles and I used my Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder. I put stickles on the swirls and the cardstock colors I used were the actual wedding colors we had. I think I need to make sure to put some of that paper aside in my "Wedding" box of all the papers, embellishments, etc...I've been collecting for when I FINALLY decide to scrapbook our wedding photos (come on...it's only been 8 years).


For the last one, I did a birthday card for my friend Amy (I also did one like this for my friend Nichole last November for her birthday and for my step-daughter Witney's birthday last June). I love these colors together they just "pop". The stamps I used are mostly DeNami (you can see why I label them as my favorite stamp line...I have a lot of them & use them a lot). For the background & sentiment I used some Studio G (cheapie $1) stamps. The background I used my Versamark stamp pad to get the watermark look and I created my own border around the sentiment with some decorative scissors to make the box and just traced around it.


That is all I've done, but I was pretty busy in February & March trying to get them all done before we went to Maui. I really wish I would have done my Mother's Day cards before we left but I figured I would have several weeks to get them done...I just didn't realize I'd get so sick and wouldn't have a chance to work on them after we got back. Now if I could just get better so I can do them (yes, I know Mother's Day is over and I've explained to my mother's that they haven't been done but they are okay with that and worry about my health more) and I have a couple of graduation cards to get done. Oh mercy.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Saturday's Song - While I'm Waiting

Here is another Saturday Song, it has been awhile since I have posted anything just because I've been sick, but that is another post altogether.

I have had this song running through my mind a lot lately and the first time I heard it was watching the movie "Fireproof" (which is a really good movie that I think everyone should see).
In the movie it is played during a period where the husband is waiting on his wife through a trying time in their marriage. I know we've all gone through a period of our lives when we ask God for something and we are waiting on an answer but while we are waiting we go on living, continuing to serve Him.

While I'm Waiting
John Waller from the album While I'm Waiting

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience

While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait

I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord


I am linking 2 videos this time the first one is from the movie and shows clips throughout and the second is the regular video John Waller did on this song.