Morning to Night and somewhere in the Middle: January 2008

Thursday, January 24, 2008

I realize...

I realize that Duluth is not dealing with as cold of temps as they are further up north on the Iron Range or in Alaska, but most of those people don't have a newspaper route that causes them to be outside for 2 hours in the middle of the night. I get out of my car about 80-90 times a day. There isn't much time for a warm up when your opening the door every minute. Now, I've learned how to keep somewhat warm-it's called 4 pairs of pants and running. However the problem with running while wearing 4 pairs of pants and 3 shirts plus a winter jacket and all the accessories (hat, mittens, scarf, ear headband) is that you sweat! And sweating in 35 degree's below zero weather is none to pleasant. I'm anxiously awaiting spring when sweating in 40 degree's above 0 doesn't cause me to go into hypothermia when I change.

Things on the home front have been good. Luke just got his report card and it was good-no major problem area's. His language arts slipped a little so we struck a reading deal. He has to read for half an hour everyday to earn his computer time. If you can log an extra hour he gets another half hour and so on and so forth. He thought it was a great idea, we'll see. Kirsten's report card hasn't come home yet (don't worry she's not hiding it, the teacher had an emergency with her own son over the weekend).

I'm anxiously awaiting next weekend (Feb 1-3). I'll be going on another scrapbooking retreat with some of the same girls from last time plus a few that I've not met yet. I'm really excited as I feel that I need this weekend off more than ever. I can't wait to lounge around and not have any obligations to anything or anyone.

This weekend I will be serving at our church's food shelf called Fruit of the Vine. It's the 3rd largest food shelf in Duluth, serving around 400-500 families a month. Last weekend we had a free medical clinic with a doctor, nurses to check blood pressure, glucose, prescription medication lists, people were on hand to pray with those that wanted it, a chiropractor, also a message therapist, and several other things going on. I loved being able to help out. It never fails to amaze me to watch God work as you reach out to his people. Our church is dedicated to the Kingdom work. We do all sorts of things to reach out to the needy, the poor, the unchurched, the spiritually hungry.

I've learned so much about the person that God created me to be. I love being vulnerable in the presence of the Holy Spirit. God has dissected things in my past and put healing on issue's that I had been harboring all the way back to my youngest years. I've come full circle in the past year. I continue to find more passion for God's work and I'm filled with compassion for God's people, regardless of where they've come from or there present circumstances. I'm able to see people the way that God does and I've even experienced some heartbreak in a way that showed me the way God's heart breaks for his people. I really feel that God is leading me to take on a small group leader roll of some sort. I can't yet see what kind of small group he wants for me, but I do know it's down the road quit a ways. I would like to start a scrapbooking group of some sort but I'm not sure how God would want it used for his purpose, so I continue to pray for direction for that. I also believe that I will lead a small group in a home setting as well but again through prayer I know God will reveal that in time. I'm able to hear God speak to me. It's an amazing feeling to know that your not making choices blindly but that God is guiding you through every bit of life. I continue to pray for more understanding, knowledge, more compassion, gifts of healing, discernment, and anything else he wants to pour into me.

On another note, Scott and I are joining a new fitness facility today called Snap Fitness. Were really looking forward to it. I'm excited to see Scott really take a step towards wanting to be healthier before it becomes a big issue. I'm also just excited to have something else to do with him. We've grown so much in our relationship over the past year. It seems that we have more understanding for each other's needs and were generally just more in tune with one another. I love him more deeply than ever before. God- 1,387,456/ me- 0 :)

I've put in a few random pictures for you to look at.

This is Luke making his invention. In fourth grade all the students have to come up with and make an invention to be judged. It can be something completely new or a better version of something already available that improves on the design. Luke made a "Food Carrier" He put a screw with a hook in the bottom of a basket for hanging bananas and the basket hold apples and oranges. There is 4 other hooks on the outside rim for holding bags of onions, garlic, peppers etc... All the classes in the school get to vote and the top 20 go to the area judging show. Luke's was chosen! I was floored since we only put it together the day before it was due (talk about last minute! 8) Anyways, the judging event is on Feb 1rst.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Don't worry I'm still here!

I haven't stopped blogging, I was just missing in action from the Internet for a short time-what a busy month December is for us! I have lots to share so here goes...

Last I left you we were going to go to Bentleyville. However something big and huge happened the next day on Dec. 13th that I'll remember forever. I had been listening to a radio station that would normally play all oldies rock/pop stuff bat Christmas time they play 24/7 Christmas music. For the 12 days of Christmas (or in this case, the first 12 days in Dec.) they played games to get you qualified for a grand prize drawing. Now, as some of you may know, I like to play games and I can get a little competitive. So on Mon. the 11th one of their games was a trivia question. In order to win you first needed the answer and to be caller 5. The question was: "What is the name of the magician in the movie Frosty the Snowman". Now I knew, that I knew the answer but couldn't quit remember, but a quick yahoo search confirmed that it is of course Professor Hinckle. I dialed figuring there was no way I'd get through, but the phone rang and I had won because caller 5 didn't have the right answer. At the time I was just excited that I had won because it was fun to play. I didn't even know what I had won other than the qualifying for the drawing, which I quickly dismissed and went on with my day. So 4:06pm on Wed. the 13th I turned on the radio, because I wanted to hear the person win. The drawing wasn't until 5:00 but I didn't want to miss listening. About 10 seconds after switching on the radio the phone rang. The conversation went something like this:

"Is Gretchen there?"

"This is"

"Please hold..."

I got switched to hold with the same music that was currently playing on the radio-The Little Drummer Boy. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was on hold with the radio station. My hands started to sweat, there was instant shaking in my body and my mind was going about 20,000 miles an hour-"why would the radio station be calling me?" "there's no way I could have won, the drawing isn't for another hour" (by this time I'm pacing and feeling some butterflies) "maybe there calling because I didn't pick up my other prize yet" "that's dumb, why would they do that" (I hate having conversation's with myself) "(I was doing the math in my head, 3 qualifiers on air for 12 days plus any number of qualifiers in the local sponsoring stores= any body's guess as to the number of entries)"why would they put me on hold on air?" (if you've ever called a radio station you would know the difference between the office putting you on hold and the on air putting you on hold) I could tell that the "someone" was waiting for the song to end, I waited with lots of anticipation. The rest went something like this:

"Hi, who's this?"

"Gretchen...?"

"Gretchen, guess what?"

"what? (somewhat hesitantly)"

"Santa Claus has chosen you to be our grand prize double cash shopping spree winner!"

by the time the word "chosen" was spoken: "OH, MY GOSH! THAT'S INCREDIBLE! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"

"We hope this helps make your Christmas an extra good one."

"Oh my gosh, you have no idea..." (lots of crying, shaking thank yous-you get the picture)

I couldn't believe that I had won this amazing prize. God had been looking out for us, because at the time it looked like buying anymore presents was out, as our finances were on the rocks (all ok now).

The prize was $2000! 4 $250 gift cards to spend at the 4 local stores that sponsored the contest and $1000 cash! WOW!!!!!!

So about a week later after calming down and receiving the gift cards (the cash was to come later) Scott and I went shopping. We both got new winter jackets. We got a beautiful pine coffee table. I got arch supports for my feet. I also got an alpaca fleece pullover, and a sweatshirt. We spent 3 certificates in an hour. It was really fun picking things out without batting an eye, $200 dollars for a jacket? ok-get it. 75$ for a sweater-sure! 250$ for a table-no problem-great idea! We had to spend the money in the stores so it was really fun. The stores were Duluth Pack, which sells all things outdoor related plus The North Face brand (which is what my jacket is). Columbia clothing downtown, which sells mostly men's Ralph Lauren, Polo, Columbia (that's where Scott got his jacket and my alpaca fleece-boy did we feel out of our league in that store). Unpainted Sawmill Furniture, which of course sells all natural wood furniture (obviously where the coffee table came from). And The Good Feet store, which sells arch supports to correct your arch's and to help with problem pain issues, such as your back, neck, knees, feet etc... (I got a pair of supports and found out that one of my arch's is flatter than the other and is the reason for many of my pains). I'll take pic's of some of our fun stuff when my batteries recharge. With the cash, we were able to get new cell phones, and finish our Christmas shopping. It was a lot of fun and I'm extremely grateful!

Here are a few pictures from Bentleyville. More topics to come in the week.

Waiting in line for the bus from the parking lot (the other girl is Jocelyn, our friend-in case your wondering, she's one month YOUNGER than Luke who is 10)