follow-up to last post

Go to this website, http://www.komen.org/bse/ (the Susan G. Komen foundation), to get all the information you need to do breast self-exams. I used to have a shower hanger with pictures and info, but that was lost many moons ago. I know OB-GYNs have them for free in their offices; it's time I had one of these again!

I just watched this movie...

...and I was so touched by it. Try to catch it on a re-run; it's worth it! I have been duly reminded to do my self-exams in the shower. That's how this lady caught her cancer!


http://www.lifetimetv.com/movies/originals/whyiworelipstick.php?currSection=synopsis

what do you support?

????????????????

The month of October is national breast cancer awareness month. I'm sure this fact has not escaped anyone...it's like all of retail has gone pink, which is fine by me! I personally haven't lost anyone to breast cancer (we're a big heart disease family; if I'm gonna go, it will probably be cardiovascular in nature!). I love it when I buy something I need anyway and some of those proceeds go to benefit breast cancer cure research. But it's such a passive way to support the cause.

When I think about causes, within the space of a few seconds, I start to get dizzy. One could literally devote her entire life helping to support very good causes. I think of the March of Dimes, who my mother-in-law supports. I think of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. I think of autism, leukemia, AIDS, literacy, the environment...I even think of land mines!

Just today I was reflecting on a situation (I might post about it later) and I started to get overwhelmed thinking of all the things that need to be done, that SHOULD be done, to help in this particular situation. When I thought of how limited I was, as one human being, and all the constraints on my time anyway...well, it just makes me pretty darn sad. And then I thought, well, since I am just one person, I should probably do the work of one person, and that's better than not working, not helping at all!

But I wonder...should we each just go ahead and "pick" a cause? Perhaps the one closest to home, so to speak? Should we give where we can and call it good enough? Does anyone else have issues with an overdeveloped sense of guilt and civic responsibility??? :)

My first meme

Susan "tagged" me for this "meme" (I'm still pretty fresh to the blogosphere, so I feel a tad awkward using such bloggie vernacular...), but I thought it was so fun, I wanted to play along! (And Susan, aren't you so proud of me for learning how to link?!?)

All you do is go here and then choose the 5 quotes that best represent who you are and what you believe. Then if you have time, you write about 1 of them.

Here are mine!

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts. ~Mark Twain

If it were not for hope, the heart would break. ~Thomas Fuller

Many things have fallen only to rise higher. ~Seneca

Happiness is a way of praying. ~Jose Raul Bernardo

My friends are my estate. ~Emily Dickinson

NO WAY

I was just doing a search on Jonathan Crombie (yummy Gilbert Blythe in all the "Anne" movies...) when I happened across his bio on IMDb.com. Okay, you are NOT going to believe this. His mom's name? Shirley Ann. SHIRLEY ANN.

It's no joke that truth is stranger than fiction.

The blogging is out of control, people

So apparently one blog wasn't good enough for me. Now I have two. Let your eye wander over to the column on the right...there you'll see the header, "My Other Blog" and 'neath it, a link that will take you to "This Girl's Books." There I have given my explanation for the blogging madness. And there you will discover that there is, indeed, method to my madness. (She's not entirely ready for the straitjacket, folks.)

Capturing Indiana's autumn, attempt #1

We had a lovely drive in the countryside today and I shot these pix. Admit it, even Indiana is pretty in the fall! (And we're still 2 weeks out from our color peak, so more to come!)

ugh, ugh, ugh

do you ever walk in on a conversation and get that uber-creepy and unsettling feeling that the discussion you just interrupted was about YOU??? That just happened to me, and sadly, I think it's still going on, just out of my earshot.

Color me filled with dismay. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Happy!

My issue of this came in the mail yesterday. (I know, I know, shallow reading material, but girlfriend here is a diva at her core and Glamour is a must! Even though every single cover features the word "sex" at least once, and this annoys me to no end. Honestly, it's the same, recycled, grab-your-attention line that just gets a word or two changed out every month!)

















Anyway, aforementioned magazine had an ad for this inside, with a smelly strip that I promptly opened and took a generous sniff of.















I don't think I've smelled this fragrance in a long time, and I don't remember it ever smelling THIS GOOD! Golly, I hope Clinique has a gift with purchase sometime soon, so I can justify buying my little friend here. Otherwise, it's going on the Christmas list! (Adam, are you reading this honey???)

I just found this...

in my draft archive and I can't believe I forgot to finish it and post it! Anyway, here 'tis:

Maria
This is my beloved friend and spiritual mentor, Maria.














She's married to this guy. He is Pastor Mario, and together they lead our sister church, Zoar, in Guatemala City. (Aren't they so cute?)















Do you ever instantly fall in love with someone? I did with Maria. Let's just say that after I got off the plane to Guatemala (those of you who know me just shuddered in revulsion at the mood you're picturing me in...), I was a zombie from all the Xanax and lack of sleep and basically, just wanted my mom and my bed. But Maria was the first one to greet me, and in her I instantly saw a mother, someone who already loved me. How could she already love me, you ask? This is how: she has been praying for me for 2 solid years and I just met her in March.

Words can't express the magnitude of the gentle wisdom that she imparted to me while I was with her. Her faith in God is palpable. You're with her for 5 minutes and you feel like a stronger believer because of her strength.

I miss her so much! Every time I hear her voice on my answering machine or over the phone, I well up in tears and get choked up, because she's my Guatemalan mama. She and Mario and their kiddos are supposed to try to come up this month, and I'm praying that it works out!

Here's a shot of me, Maria, and Dawn in Antigua, just having fun together!

prayer request

Please say a little prayer for my almost-3-year-old niece, Ada Grace, aka "Zu-Zu." She had tubes put in her ears on Friday, and although the procedure lasted only 7 minutes and was much harder on her mommy than it was on her, Ada is still feeling uncomfortable and her equilibrium is still off. Ada's had a pretty bad time of it as far as ear infections go, so we're hopeful that she'll have a much better time of it this winter. The most darling thing about our Zu-Zu is that she is such a happy child and never complains when she feels sick...this darling always has a smile on her face! Here's a couple pix of her on her first day of ballet class just a few weeks ago...

favorite places

~the way my fireplace looked last night~

~the way my bedroom looks right now~

Notice how both places are perfectly conducive to sleeping. My favorite pastime.

and another update on Barbaro!

Nope, I haven't forgotten this amazing horse. And yup, he's doing awesome!

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/oct/04/barbaro_conquers_major_hurdles/

My favorite praise and worship song

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

this is why I love John MacArthur

Here is a partial transcript from a Q&A session that John MacArthur was having with some children. A little girl asked him a question...a question that I mightily struggle with (see previous posts on TULIP, etc. -- one of these days I will have to learn how to link my posts)...and I just truly appreciated his response: honest, forthright, humble. And in his response I found some new nuggets of wisdom to tuck into my burgeoning pocket of theological thinkin's.

Question:
[A very young Child]: I listened to your sermon last Sunday, and I was wondering, why didn't God choose everybody to be saved?

John:
Kids always ask those questions. Adults don’t ask them because they’ve learned there’s no answer.

You know something, honey? I don’t know. I don’t know. But, I’ll give you a basic answer, Ok? And the basic answer--and I hope you can understand this--the basic answer is: because He got more glory for his own name by doing it the way He did it. God does what He does for His glory. And somehow, in some way, God is glorified in what He did, and that’s why He did it.

Let me tell you something else: does God ever make a mistake? Is God ever wrong? Is God loving? He is. So, whatever He does fits into his character somehow. And if it’s hard for us to understand, that’s not God’s problem; whose problem is that? That’s our problem, isn’t it? Because we just don’t have the ability to understand that.

So there are some questions you just can’t answer--that’s one of them. Ok? Thank you, honey.

You know what the Scripture says: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked”--God says that. See, that provides for me the tension. I don’t understand that question. I don’t know the answer to that, because I don’t know the mind of God. And so, it’s at this point that I trust God--I trust his character. I don’t know how God can have no pleasure in the death of the wicked and will let the wicked die. I don’t know how on the one hand God can say in Isaiah 46:10, “I do all my good pleasure” and then say, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” I don’t know that. And that’s the tension.

Let me put it to you very simply: all men born in Adam are born with the sin nature, and because they bear a sin nature, they are all damned to hell. It is our sin in Adam and the nature we bear because of that, that condemns all men to hell. As all men go to hell, God, in his marvelous grace, saves some. The rest are damned, but not simply because of the sin in Adam--primarily because of the sin of unbelief. John 3 says, “You are condemned already because you”--what?--“believe not.” Now, this is where the tension comes.

Salvation is by the elect, predestined, purpose of God. Damnation is by the unbelief of men. Now you say, “How do you resolve that?” I don’t resolve that! I can’t resolve that. But, I know God is perfect and He resolves it perfectly and that’s the best we can do with it.

So, what do we do? When we’re saved, who do we thank? God. And when men go to hell, who do we blame? Them. You say, “I don’t understand that.” That’s right. And neither do I. The implications are this: if I’ve been saved, I praise God, I rejoice, I thank him; and when I go to an unbeliever, I don’t say, “Are you elect?”--like Spurgeon said, pull up their shirt-tail and see if they have an “E” stamped on their back. I go to them and I say, “You’ll be damned by your unbelief” and I plead with them to “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” And I leave the resolution to God.

And the answer is...

As Kate correctly answered:

Gwylum, Thor, Hugine, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Gundulf, and Baldrick are the ravens in residence at the Tower of London! I love legends and myths about England, and this is one of my favorites. (Another favorite is the ghost of Anne Boleyn strolling about the Tower Green with her head tucked under her arm...)

From Wikipedia.com:

There have been at least six (there are currently eight) ravens in residence at the Tower for centuries, although the exact point in history when they arrived is unknown. Charles II ordered their removal when he discovered their droppings all over his telescope. However, they were not removed because Charles was then told of the legend that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the White Tower, the monarchy, and the entire Kingdom would fall. And Charles, during the time of the English Civil War, superstition or not, was not prepared to take the chance.

The only time ravens have been recorded absent at the Tower was in 1946, shortly after World War II, when the Kingdom was close to falling.

The ravens' wings are now clipped to prevent them from flying away.

(God save the Queen! And Mother England!)

a bit o' trivia!

Question:

Who are Gwylum, Thor, Hugine, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Gundulf, and Baldrick?

Hint: they're Brits!