If you could care less about my gallbladder you can stop reading now

but for those of you who are nosey, or bored continue on! :) If you remember I posted about my gallbladder trouble here about a month ago. Since then, i went for an ultrasound which revealed no stones and a perfectly normal looking gallbladder. Next step was a HIDA scan which showed that my gb was functioning at about 11% instead of the normal persons 45%. I went to the surgeon who apparently is not to excited about removing a perfectly normal GB that just happens to be sluggish. He advised me that it may be sluggish because I am a stressed person. Who me? You've got to be kidding, or it could be that I had a virus. Whatever! He told me to continue to eat low fat and come back in about 2-3 months if I still had problems. Have you ever heard of a surgeon who did not want to cut you?
Well, I have kept on with the low fat diet and have lost 18 lbs. Sad thing is I guess I needed to lose that and about 25 more because no one has really noticed. I have been pain free for about 10 days so I got brave tonight and ate meatballs and sure enough that nagging pain is up under my rib and shoulder blade.
Funny thing is in January I made this promise to myself to really clean up my diet and eat right. Be careful what you wish for!
As for me, you'll find me in the kitchen trying to figure out a low fat version of fried chicken and macaroni and cheese!

Supper ideas

If you don't feel like cooking after a long day, just suggest something you know everyone hates like, oh I don't know, chicken stir fry, and whaa laa, your husand will offer to buy Zaxby's!

$2.99

That's what I paid for this 100% cashmere sweater from Lands End that I scored at the Goodwill today. After buying Easter clothes for Leslie and Virginia that's all I could afford!

A good read

I just finished this fantastic book, Go Home and Tell about a missionary to China. Bertha Smith was a dynamo! She went to China in the early 1900's and was absolutely fearless! Talk about faith, she was a firm believer in boldly approaching God to ask for what you need. She recounts stories miraculous answers to prayers, including protection during the communist takeover of China, to exorcisms of demons, and includes many stories about faith healing. When she returned to the US, she was so sad to see so many American believers with such little faith.
If you want a faith building book to read, spend a rainy weekend curled up with this one!

Faith

Hebrews 11 defines faith as having confidence in what you cannot actually see with your eyes, but believing and hoping for what you know God can and do. This great chapter goes on the give review of great Old Testament saints who for various reasons demonstrated great faith.
To be honest, I feel like for the most part I've got really weak faith. Sometimes I think, God's gonna do what He wants, so does my praying really make a difference? Other times, I think, those kind of miracles were for the Old Testament people, and since we have the actual Bible we are never really going to see those wild and crazy things they did.

God has really confronted me and my issue of lack of faith. I've committed myself to really studying Hebrews 11 this next 30 days. Can I really trust God to save me, yet believe that He never really does amazing things any more, like cure cancer or provide things in the "nick of time"? I have thought alot about that lately. What makes us content with a Christian journey that doesn't expect supernatural displays of power as a normal event? Or is it that He is always working, performing supernatural acts, and I'm just not noticing. Maybe a little of both?

Like the official in the book of Mark, I have faith, but want so much more! So I say with him, " Lord I believe, help my unbelief!"

Pretend you won the lottery...(which is pretty impossible since we never play)

How would you spend it? (and you are not allowed to pay off any debt).....
Wayne said- "I would tithe (OK Wayne, you are obviously the spiritual one in the family!) then buy a camper with a big slide out."
Leslie said-"I'd buy front row seats to the Jonas Brothers concert."
Virginia said-" I'd buy a big dog."
I said "I'd take the family to Hawaii for a 2 week vacation."

How would you spend your lottery winnings?

car wash politics

If you are 15 and own a white car, keeping it clean is very important, especially when you live down a dirt road.

If you are the kid sister, and ever want to ride along in above mentioned car, you may have to wash tires.


If you are a sweet doggy, and promise not to lick the windows, you might just get to ride shotgun .