Looking forward to Easter

So I'm totally looking forward to Easter coming up soon. Why you might ask....well other than the celebration of Christ rising from the dead - it's because my church - OPC - has a Saturday service. Why might that be exciting for me? Because I actually get to go to big people church!!! Not that I don't love the kids and helping lead then to God through worship. I miss being in the service and hearing the awesome songs they pick and hearing Pastor Bob speak. I can get the messages from Bob on iTunes at anytime. But it is not the same. There is no music just the message. Now for some that would be great and they love it. But I'm all about the music too. To me the experience is just not complete without the music.

It probably has something to do with how I think God talks to me. He has used quite a few songs in my past to get a message across to me. Could be because he knows I hear it there. Could be because he has used other methods that I didn't hear or get. Could just be that I'm pulling this out of my butt and the two don't connect.

And now I've been sidetracked by Girl Scout issues. This is what happens when you are too nice and too willing to help.....I volunteered to be the cookie mom for my youngest daughter's troop. Thinking no big deal my mom did it for me. Well I later found out my mom wasn't just troop cookie mom, but service unit leader AND cookie cupboard for booth sales. WOW! And I thought that wasn't that hard. LOL! So I have 19 girls in the troop and 5 needed reminder calls on when money was due.....the day after it was due. I have received 4 of the 5's money. The last one I spoke to was the girl we had to call her parents to pick up their cookies. So no big surprise that I'd have to call to get the money right? The sad thing is that they live less than a block from the school to drop off the money in the office. How hard is that???? Evidently too hard as I still don't have it yet. My paperwork is due tomorrow at the latest. What to do? What to do? I can fill out paper work and have the Girl Scout Council go after them for the money. I can submit my paperwork paid in full and wait until they pay.......Yeah right. Or I can wait another day for it to be sent in and turn in my paperwork at the last minute to my unit leader. At this point I'm thinking option A......but I'm leaving it up to my troop leader to make the final decision. And this is just the end of my frustration with the whole cookie mom business for this troop. God grant me patience to not strangle someone!

Well its now time to get ready for work and eat something before I go. Have a great day!

Back to your regularly scheduled programming......

So things are good. Getting over a cold but still good. The dr. called and even though it was abnormal it was a good abnormal. I go back in three months vs. seeing him for another biopsy. *does a happy dance* This has to be short as I really need to get to bed but I needed to update of course. :) Oh new photo - one I took yes and not one my kids took (hence the tongue sticking out! haha).

He repairs, He repairs

This is the email I just sent out to family and friends regarding something that has been going on in my life. But thanks to Frank Weller at SLCC for giving us the whole meal for those of us who braved the snow and showed up to hear him preach.

Hi everyone,

As many of you may or may not know I have been dealing with a medical problem for a year and a half now. I was diagnosed with cervical dysplasia and have had two surgeries in the past year to remove the abnormal cells. My last surgery was in August and my first of three rechecks was on November 12th. I have to have 3 clear rechecks before being able to go back to seeing my Dr. only once or twice a year. As luck would have it – this recheck too came back with abnormalities. However my Dr. said I tested negative for HPV. What this means, well we aren’t really sure yet. He is having the pathologist look at the results from my last surgery (a LEEP surgery) to compare with the new results. Once he has heard back from the pathologist then he will let me know. And from there we will know what my options are and if another surgery is in my future or what.

This has not only been a mental and physical strain but a financial one as well. We meet my deductible with the first surgery in February and then meet my out of pocket expenses with the second surgery. So if I am to have another surgery in this upcoming year it will most likely be a repeat of the same. Which of course adds to my mental strain and frustration about this whole situation.

As I sat in church this morning and prayed at communion, yes we braved the snowy roads in Lansing to attend church where we were, I prayed for peace of mind. I can’t do anything about what my body will do but I can stop worrying about it. I have asked that God take my worries and mental frustration about this away many times over the past year. I’ve asked for His will to be done many times and this month has been a trial on my patience and peace. It seems that some small thing will cause me to get mad, be upset or get worried all over again. This month it was that it took the lab a month the get the results back, after being told 7 – 10 days was typical. To find out on Wednesday from my Dr. that the results were faxed over Saturday. But they were found on the fax at 3:12 p.m. Monday when I called to inquire if the results were back yet. To then have to wait until Wednesday for the results because my Dr. was working in the hospital on Tuesday. And of course evidently no one else in the office could read them or interpret what they said to tell me what the results were.

But this morning I had one of those “Aha!” moments. After communion was over we sang “The glory of it all” by David Crowder. There was one spot in particular that really hit me – “And after all falls apart, He repairs, He repairs”. Of course after having prayed for my medical situation as well as my Dr. and the pathologist and for peace of mind. It was one of those “let go and let God” moments to use a phrase from Pastor Bob. I will be fine no matter what happens because it is God’s will for my life. But a little prayer never hurt any situation.

Love to all,
In HIS service,
Jennifer

Here is the video of The Glory of it all in this link if the embed is not working again.

So how'd it go......

you might be asking yourself after finding out I was leading the worship portion of the Discovery Planet class on Sunday? Well aside from the fact that my voice is out of whack from allergies - yes in November, darn global warming! It went well. We have a clean up song and luckily I didn't have to sing that one in this class - just play a "follow me" game with clapping. I did better and was more creative second service than first but it was fun. I wasn't leading the whole shebang - which was a BIG relief for me. But still its nervewracking to be on mic for the first time all by yourself. I knew the songs which helped tons and the kids seemed to really have fun. A lot of the other people told me I did a good job. Which is always nice to hear.

But my big ego boost for the day wasn't from leading. It was from the small group leader looking at me crazy when I said I had kids - 3 of them. A little background - on the worship team I am the oldest besides the room leaders. Everyone else is in middle or high school and one in college. Now I'm only 27, but one of the guys in high school was flabbergasted when I said I was that old. He told me he'd thought I was his age. Then I stunned him with the whole I have 3 kids thing on Sunday as well. :D But that goes back to my making the small group leader look crazy. She commented on my being all sparkly - it works, the kids know who I am when I have it on! I told her how there is a Kindergarten girl who goes to my girls school and always sees me and I am known as the glitter lady. Not Becca's mom, not the lady with the girls in our small group, not the half mile club lady - but the "glitter lady". Our small group leader in DP looked and me and said 'girls? you can't have kids yet!?!?!'. I said 'yeah one in here and 2 in Cosmic blast'. She asked how old I was and when I said 27 she was like 'noooo'. She then told me that she would have put my age at 19 or 20. :D So when I told this to my fellow worship team member it threw him for a loop too. Like I said he thought I was his age. Evidently I don't look as old as I am. hehehe The funny thing is that I had to bring my kids with me to one practice and I wonder if they thought they were my neices or little sisters if they didn't think I had kids. I had one of the girls comment on my name tag which has my last name on it - both of them as it is hypenated. She thought it was a long last name and asked how to pronounce it. Didn't want ot stun them all with the fact that I'm older, married and have kids all at once. LOL

Needless to say it made me feel good to know that not only do I still feel like I am a teenager but I look like one when I do. It just makes me giggle that people thought the girls were not mine - trust me there are days that I wish someone else would claim them because they are being brats. But they are mine and I love them and they are the big reason that I am doing what I am doing on the worship team. This way when they start singing one of their songs from class I can sing along now. ;) Just to embarass them cuz thats what us moms do best right?

WOW

This was sent to me in an email because of the well, because of the power the message has. Enjoy!

Fun you say.......

So last Sunday Adventureland had their Open House for parents to see how the kids worship on Sundays. Was this a big deal you ask? You bet your sweet bippy it was! It meant that not only did we need to be there on time (not a prob for me) but we also had to pay extra attention to our details that we'd do every week. Read - I wore more glitter. :D I was snagged to be in Cosmic Blast the 2/3 grade room - with awesome music. So I knew that there would be parents who know me outside of church in that room as many of my kids friends from school attend our church. After everything was said and done first service one mom approached me and said that her daughter, who is firends with my middle child in 2nd grade, said she was so proud of me on stage. The mom went on to say how good I was and that she could never have done something like that. I do have to say it takes a little bit of talent, a lot of drama and flair and confidence. I'm working on the confidence part but I've got the other stuff in spades. I just LOVE being on the stage for the kids and the songs are fun to sing along with. I have another little girl in Discovery Planet the K/1 grade room that knows me outside the church as well. She is sooooo cute - she calls me the glitter lady. :) I'm not Becca's mom (my 1st grader) or the Half Mile Club lady (my job at the school) but the glitter lady from my Sunday mornings in Discovery Planet. But after the first week or so on stage I was treated to the "I know you! You go to my church and I saw you on stage last week." Type of 'celebrity' spottings from the kids at the school.

So today I find myself with a message from Celeste the wworship leader in Discovery Planet. I'm in both quite often depending on how many people know the songs and who needs more people. The message on my machine was to ask if I'd be willing to lead the songs in Discovery Planet this Sunday. YIKES! Remember what I said about confidence? Right, working on it. So why not dive right in here, sure why not. She asked me to do this because she is in Florida at the moment and if I am understanding right will not be back by Sunday morning. Thankfully they are songs that I already know and are really easy. One of the nicer things about Discovery Planet - the songs teach themselves, meaning they explain the movements in the song. Easy right? My main problem is that with the nice weather we are having in Michigan - nice meaning NO snow yet- my allergies are still acting up. Despite having frost twice already the darn weather keeps warming back up and I am a frog literally most mornings. So we will see how well I am talking let alone singing come Saturday night in preparation for Sunday morning. I'll keep you posted on how Sunday goes.

Oh and my kitten Jack is back to his healthy obnoxious self once again. Oops forgot to give him his meds last night.....better get on that soon.

When it rains it pours.........

So things were going great for a while. Then one of my good friends tells me "I'm fighting with our mutual friend and I'm ending the friendship with her." To sum up her words that is. The mutual friend was one she dragged me into a friendship with in the first place. Who I hadn't heard from in almost a month. Unusual for her as she used to call me every day when bored to talk. So I am trying to go to bed early on that Saturday evening to get up early on Sunday for worship team in Adventureland. And she calls me - the mutual friend - again and again until I simply pray for her to leave me alone so I can sleep. It worked then I am on my way to the church and I get a call from her again....and again once I am at the church and again roughly 10 minutes before we are set to start. What she tells me upsets me so much that there is no way I could be the bubbly happy person I normally am onstage. So I found one of my fellow worship team members and asked her to pray for me. We did - it worked in 5 minutes it was off my mind and I was smiling. I still haven't talked to the friend since but she is doing worse than she was then. Sadly I think she has hit rock bottom - something I prayed that she would do because I think it is the only thing that will snap her out of her problems - or so I hope.

But the worse part all happened this week and then my kitten got sick. :( He was fine Wednesday night and playing like normal. He seemed a little sluggish on Thursday morning. Then we noticed he was throwing up, not eating and having problems going potty. I watched him all day long to see if he'd get better. He was pitiful. We ended up taking him to the animal ER in my area and they wanted $500 to do tests and x-rays on him as well as meds and their normal $75 fee just for being there. EEK! Yeah there was no way I could do that as much as I wanted to find out what was wrong with him I don't have that much money set aside for anything. So the next estimate came back at $196. Closer to my price range. However, no testing or x-rays done. Just fluids and antibiotics and the feline leukemia testing. He was negative for that. So bye-bye Christmas money to save my kitten who still isn't eating today. But he isn't vomiting either. So we have improvement! I'm praying for him to get better as he is only 3.5 months old. He's sleeping right now and not liking being cooped up in my room -but its easier to clean one room than to have him have the run of the house.