Marching along through the year

2nd:

We started our month with a good-bye. Byron and Connie were heading home today. Try as she might Brittney was unsuccessful at convincing Nana and Bee-Paw to stay just a little bit longer. She has Wednesday off from school and was hoping they would stay so she could spend all day with them. But they had to get home. It is always hard saying good-bye to them, their visits are always to short.

5th:

I worked a half day today. I am getting behind at my desk and the good doctor noticed. He said that I could work some extra hours to get caught up, so I took him up on his offer.

As soon as I got home I was planning on working on the teen groups itinerary for the year. We have a planning session with the church board scheduled for Saturday. Thankfully the planning session has been postponed, so my Thursday afternoon was unexpectedly freed up. With this unplanned free time on my hands I have become a bit antsy. I thought it would be nice to take advantage of this time and take a family outing to the movies. It is $5.00 movies Monday-Thursdays so we headed out to the mall-after I snuck in a little nap of course.

We got to the mall and bought our tickets but we had some time to burn before we could go inside. So we walked around the mall some and eventually ended up sitting down in the food court. Once I sat down I realized I was not feeling so well. But movie time rolled around before we knew it and we headed for the theatre. We went to see "Taken". This was a really good movie-Daddy's hold tight to your baby girls, there are some very scary people out there! Dave had to use the restroom after the movie so I decided to do the same. Brittney wanted to wait outside the restrooms for us....I was having none of that after that movie. I made her come in with me. Peranoid? Ummm, maybe...

6th:

I woke up today not feeling well at all. I spent the entire day resting on the sofa watching movies and trying not to do much of anything. 4:30p.m. finally rolled around and I needed to get in the shower. We have plans to take the teens to "Youth Quake Live" tonight.
Dave knew I was not feeling well and he offered to take the teens while I stayed home and rested. I took him up on his offer.

7th:

I am feeling much better today. I have some arrands to run. Courtney got in early this morning from school for her summer break. Brittney, Courtney and I headed out to take care of the errands. Once we got back I worked some in the computer room, we have been trying to get this room organized into an office/scrapbooking room. We are almost there.

8th:

I was back in bed again today. I got up and made breakfast for everyone but that was the extent of my energy. Every muscle in my body feels like I have just completed the 5K run and I am wiped out. I went back to bed after everyone left for church. I slept until 12:30p.m. Dave would not let me do anything today. He made stay on the sofa. This is the weirdest feeling.

9th:

I woke up this morning to get ready for work and I realized I couldn't do it! I called out of work sick today! I have been working for Dr. Spring for 2 years and have never called out sick. He called to check up on me around 4:30p.m. this afternoon. I was beginning to feel a little better. I'm planning on going to work tomorrow.

Tonight happend to be the first night for a new bible study that Dave and I decided to join called "First Place 4 Health". We were invited to ride with another couple from church that has also joined this study. This would give there son Austin and our Brittney a chance to hang out together at our house while we were at the study. I was not sure I was up to this tonight but I don't want to miss the very first class.

14th:

Today the womens ministry is hosting a "Holy Scrappers" party from 10:00-3:00p.m. I wasn't sure if I would be up to this today. I am feeling much better, so I packed up my scrapbook stuff and headed for the church. We had a great time. I got to catch up with my good friend "Lisa Thurman". She is the one that got Brittney and I started on scrapbooking 5 years ago. She is my Creative Memories consultant. I had given her name to the womens ministry leader but I didn't think she would actually contact Lisa. It was very nice seeing Lisa again, and I enjoyed getting into my scrapbooking again. I have been wanting to work on my scrapbooks but something else always takes priority. I hope this is fresh new start to my scrapbooking endeavors.

Once I got home Brittney wanted to go to the "Round Robin" down the road and do some shopping. I knew the store would be closing over the next 30 minutes so we went. We did some shopping and she made out like a bandit. She got two new outfits. I found a new pant suite that actually fit me....so I have a new church outfit for tomorrow.

Today has been a good day! Today is Courtney's last full day with us. She is heading back to Trevecca tomorrow. It seems like her visit was so short this time.

15th:

Today we followed the usual routine. We started our day getting up early and getting ready for church. Today was different only in the fact that we had to load Courtney's bags into the car before we left for church. We headed to sunday school, then church. We did not get tied up to long with everyone wanting to say their good-byes to Courtney.

We treated Courtney to lunch at Arby's before her long trip back to Tennessee. We did not want to send the girl on her way back to Nashville on an empty stomach. We had our last meal together, then took Courtney on to 103rd street to catch her ride with Danielle back to Trevecca. We will be seeing you soon Munchkin!

16th:

Monday it was back to work. Things are getting back to normal again. Dr. Spring ordered us more uniforms for work and I was hoping they would come in today. One of the shirts we were getting is a kind of green color (Seafoam green)and would work well for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.

Yeah! They did come in. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Tonight was week two of our bible study. We headed out to the Chaney's. Dave and I are enjoying the fellowship! I lost a pound this week!!! How awesome is that I wasn't even trying. This bible study is great. It gives you a personal study to do each day as well as encourages prayer time and we have to log all of the food that we eat each day. We also have to record what kind of exercise we did each day. I'll be honest, I haven't started the excercise part yet. But I will get there, I am just truly enjoying the bible study part tremendously.

17th: St. Patrick's Day!

I put on my seafoam green shirt for work and painted my finger nails green (thanks to Brittney-it's good to have a teenage daughter). I also wore my clover earrings. My co-worker,Gina, wore a "Kiss me I'm Irish" necklace. The Doc was happy to see us dressed in the spirit of the holiday. This is something we should all appreciate. Because our country is the melting pot of the world we are able to celebrate an Irish holiday even if we're not Irish.

20th:

Dave had his 6 month follow up with Dr. Heekin for his new knee. We saw Erin (Dr. Heekin's PA- Dr. Heekin was fishing in the Key's today so he was not available for Dave's appointment). Erin was very pleased with the amount of bend Dave has in his knee. She said that everything was looking fantastic!

Dave had let Erin know that he has been having some problems with his hip now. She did some orthopedic tests on his hip then ordered an x-ray. The x-ray was not able to show her what she wanted to see. She wants Dave to get an MRI done. That will have to wait until we have medical insurance again. Other than the hip he is doing great and she recommended walking for excercise-so the hip problem is not going to slow him down.

21st:

Today is the day we take the teens to Epcot. This is the reward for the great job the winning team did during our MTV phase (Making Teens Victorious). The team members that lost had to work for their ticket to Epcot by doing chores for the members of the congregation that agreed to be the loosers "redeemers". In total we had 10 participants that went on our Epcot trip. What a great time we had. We started our day leaving the church in the church van at 6:00a.m. Those who have teenagers know that getting them up this early in the morning is always a challenge. They were a sleepy bunch for the first hour. At 7:00 a.m. we stopped at "Cracker Barrel" for a hearty breakfast. This woke everyone up and got the livliness into them. They were so well behaved. I never have a moments hesitation in doing anything with this group-they are awesome! We stopped once more for gas and ice for our cooler about 30 minutes out from Epcot.

As soon as we got to Epcot we hit the rides. We all enjoyed rides like "Reimagined! Spaceship Earth(this is the ride inside the big dome that Epcot is famous for)", "Mission Space" and "Test Track". We spent the first two hours on the rides then we made our way into the countries. We saw Mexico then as we ventured into Norway everyone was getting hungry. We bought our lunches and gathered in an eating area and enjoyed talking about our favorite parts of the park so far. Everyone was having a great time. Once we finished eating we went to the 360 circle vision film of China then slowly made our way around Germany, Italy, The American Adventure and finally to Japan. We walked through alot of gift shops and took in lots of interesting sights. In Japan we stopped for "Matsuriza". These were Japanese Taiko drummers. The camera's were flashing. The show was awesome. While still in Japan we decided to venture into the gift shop were we saw oysters being opened to expose the pearls inside. This kept everyones attention for quite a while.

From Japan we went onto Morocco and then France! Of course we stopped in France. It was time for a little desert! Many of the group picked up a French delicacy of some sort, from chocolate mouse, a Napolean to something I can't pronounce. I tried the vegetable quiche, I will never enjoy quiche again. Nothing could match the real deal! After France we saw the United Kingdom and then Canada. Once we reached this end of the park it was going on 7:00 p.m. The weather was cooling down and a cool breeze was kicking up. Of course many of us did not bring jackets with us into the park, so we were freezing. We headed for the rides on this end of the park, but discovered the rides were all shutting down. So we talked over our options and we all agreed to find a good seat for the fireworks display that would be starting in about an hour. Everyone was tired and ready to just sit down for a while and relax and talk over the fun they all had today. We ended the evening with an awesome fireworks display. The ride home was just as quiet as the trip down. Everyone was exhausted! But the day was fantastic. I really do love each and every one of these kids!

23rd:

Today was my usual workday, and tonight is our bible study-yeah! I look forward to this each week. I enjoyed my bible study each day and my prayer time has definately improved. I did record my food this week-that part was not looking good. It turned out I lost a little more than a pound again this week. I was not feeling so good today however. I feel like I am getting sick again. Let's hope not-I don't have time to be sick!

24th:
Sure enough I am getting sick again. I woke up this morning and I have a bad sore throat. I am going to double up on my vitamin C and try to head of this cold. I have a women's meeting at the church tonight, I really don't want to miss it-It's Salad Supper night.
I decided not go. I felt it would be better to get a good nights sleep. Maybe with some rest I can kick this. I got off of work at my usual 7:00p.m., grabbed a little dinner and hit the bed early. Let's hope this helps-I feel terrible!

25th:
Tonight is my teen class. I am not feeling any better today. I am starting to loose my voice now. I think I will just have a movie night tonight for the teens, they will enjoy the change in the routine.

The movie was a good idea. They enjoyed it and it seems to have fit in with some of the burdens that a few of the teens have been dealing with this week. God is good! It is fun to have a front row to seeing God make things happen or addressing concerns that go unspoken. One of our teens asked our class to pray for the girls at his High School because there seemed to be alot of girls pregnant and this burdened his heart. The movie we watched tonight was about abortion. We talked about the importance of being a light in the darkness for these people who may feel they have no other choice. Also to love those who have made the choice to abort their baby and are now living with the guilt of what they have done.

26th:
I don't usually work on Thursday's but I need to get caught up at my desk. I am getting so behind I'm not sure if I can get caught up-ever! Even though I am still not feeling well I went to work to accomplish what I could. Lord give me strength!

27th:
It has really hit me today. I am going to take it easy and just rest. Brittney is now sick too and today is a school holiday (thank the Lord). Both of us have slept alot of the day and we both sound like guys with our deep, raspy voices. Oh well, misery loves company. She is trying to say she got it from me but she came down with it about the same time as me so I think we both picked it up from somewhere but I couldn't tell you where.

I got an email from my sister telling me about a honey and cinnamon cure for the common cold. It couldn't hurt, I'm going to give it a try. It claims to knock out the common cold in three days! Let's hope this works!

We got to talk to Michael today. He is finally in Kuwait. I don't have to worry about people shooting at him anymore. I am so excited about his visit home, I can hardly contain myself. My baby boy will be coming home for a visit in about 4 weeks. I haven't seen him sinse July last year! Thank you Lord for keeping him safe.

28th:
Today I took the cinnamon and honey concoction again. I am feeling so much better! I have an unbelieveable amount of energy today! Brittney decided she would give it a try too, what could it hurt. I decided to straighten up the livingroom and kitchen. I cleaned up my bedroom and did some laundry...I did my bible study...finally it's time for me to get in the shower. We are taking the teens to Washington Heights again, and today is the day! If everyone shows up we should have 14 going, our church van maxes out at 15. This is going to be awesome!

Our trip to Washington Heights was such a blessing. One of my teens (Suwathi) prepared a lesson for the little kids grades pre-K to 6th grade. I prepared a lesson for the teens (7th-12th grades). The teens sat in a circle outside and I taught them a bible story. After the story they played games and won prizes. We all had a great time, unfortunately the younger kids heard us outside playing games and they wanted to check out what was going on. At one point Pastor Dalstra came out to see what we were doing because we had tied up some of the teens. But they were having such a good time he just stood in the background and watched and laughed along with us. We all had a great time!

An older couple from our church was interested in coming along. They were interested in an outreach ministry, so they brought cookies and punch for the little kids. Dave and I brought candy and bottled water for the teens. Everyone that went recieved more of a blessing than the kids that we came to minister to. The Lord touched us all. At the end of the day we scheduled our next visit with Pastor Dalstra to Washington Heights for next month. We agreed to come back on April 11th. The kids of Washington Heights informed us that we needed to come back sooner, that was to far away. They all wanted us to come back again tomorrow. We told them we couldn't but we promised them we would be back on April 11th with more games and stories and fun for them. I can not tell you how much of a blessing it is to to be able to share the love of Jesus with these kids who know nothing about the Lord. We have a mission field right here in Jacksonville.

29th:
Today we have church and Sunday School. I really sound bad today and I feel like I have gotten worse. I over did it yesterday and I am paying for it today. But the sacrifice for the Lord was well worth it so I know that he will take care of me.

30th:
It's back to work today. I am going to go in and work as long as I can. Brittney has to work tonight because she is planning on going out of town to South Carolina. She is going to spend Spring Break with some old friends-"the Powell's".

Tonight is also our First Place 4 Health bible study. This has been a very hard week for me. I think the devil is trying to knock me down. God will triumph...as I keep pressing on to the mark.

Thank you all for taking interest in what is going on in our household each month. This has been one of our busier months. Next month I will be able to share Michael's homecoming with you all. So please come back again next month to share in some photos of Michaels visit home after Iraq, as well as our Washington Heights trip, Easter and many other incredible milestones in the lives of the Jacksonville Cowan's!

Mihalo and Aloha!