Please pray for my Pop! His PSA is steadily rising which means that the prostate cancer has returned. He will have a PET scan tomorrow which will scan his entire body to see if there is any cancer anywhere other than the prostate. He went in for a second biopsy a couple of months ago and that was negative which was really strange. If tomorrow's PET is negative he will be scheduled for cryo-salvage surgery and if the PET is positive I guess they'll do chemo or something else.
In the meantime, he just got a great big project to work on which will be really good to keep his mind occupied!
Thank you all in advance, it means so much to know that others are praying for him!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tupperware! I just wasn't busy enough...
Ha! I guess that I thought I wasn't busy enough so I decided to add Tupperware to my list of income opportunities! Please feel free to view my website and buy online: http://my.tupperware.com/TANash You may also purchase product from me in the traditional manner, ie parties & catalog but I saw this internet thing as a really great chance to make a few dollars and get a good discount on some terrific products! I LOVE TUPPERWARE! I also discovered a bunch of new products that I just "had to have"! My Tupperware email address is: TANash@my2.tupperware.com and my new home email address is: TANash1961@att.net.
I will try to do parties periodically on Sunday afternoons but being that Sundays are the only days that I have off from both my jobs, they will be few and far between. My main job at Manheim is located in a 16 floor building and after nearly five years of service here, I have to say I know quite a few folks and many want to buy buy buy! The Holiday Season is also upon us and I think I'll be able to recoup my startup & fun "extra sample" costs by mid October.
On the Trader Joe's front, they've asked me if I'd like to write an order! of course I'd like to write an order for the store! As of this week I will be ordering coffee and tea for the Sandy Springs store. Yay! Most of you already know about my past full time employment with TJ's and be assured that I have ABSOLUTELY NO DESIRE to go full time with them again! The job is just too hard on an "old person's" body! A couple of evenings and an 8 hour Saturday shift is more than enough to recover from each week. Though it's sometimes hard on my body, it's mostly been a bunch of fun and they put away retirement money for you for free! At the end of each year they put a percentage of your year's salary into an American Funds account and I don't have to do anything to get the money but continue my employment with them. This alone is incentive to stick around and play along! Only 5 more years until I am fully vested... Since there were 15 or so years between my previous employment with TJ's I had to start over. That's okay, one must play by the rules...
I will try to do parties periodically on Sunday afternoons but being that Sundays are the only days that I have off from both my jobs, they will be few and far between. My main job at Manheim is located in a 16 floor building and after nearly five years of service here, I have to say I know quite a few folks and many want to buy buy buy! The Holiday Season is also upon us and I think I'll be able to recoup my startup & fun "extra sample" costs by mid October.
On the Trader Joe's front, they've asked me if I'd like to write an order! of course I'd like to write an order for the store! As of this week I will be ordering coffee and tea for the Sandy Springs store. Yay! Most of you already know about my past full time employment with TJ's and be assured that I have ABSOLUTELY NO DESIRE to go full time with them again! The job is just too hard on an "old person's" body! A couple of evenings and an 8 hour Saturday shift is more than enough to recover from each week. Though it's sometimes hard on my body, it's mostly been a bunch of fun and they put away retirement money for you for free! At the end of each year they put a percentage of your year's salary into an American Funds account and I don't have to do anything to get the money but continue my employment with them. This alone is incentive to stick around and play along! Only 5 more years until I am fully vested... Since there were 15 or so years between my previous employment with TJ's I had to start over. That's okay, one must play by the rules...
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Uncle Maynard is Good...
I just returned from Holmes County where I spent the weekend at Maynard and Betty's house. Maynard is feeling pretty well now and is really glad that the surgery is behind him. He still needs prayer as they would like to do chemotherapy but his red cell count is too low. They will not do chemo until his red count is up. There is no explanation for this and they are trying to get to the bottom of it before they move forward.
Mom and I went up because Deb, Hannah and Isaac were in town from California and it's much cheaper for us to pop up to Ohio for a visit than to try to get to California. It's cheaper for me anyway; Mom flies for FREE! It was really nice to see all of them and visit with everyone over a long weekend. Mom stayed a couple of days longer than me and will be coming home tomorrow.
Mom and I went up because Deb, Hannah and Isaac were in town from California and it's much cheaper for us to pop up to Ohio for a visit than to try to get to California. It's cheaper for me anyway; Mom flies for FREE! It was really nice to see all of them and visit with everyone over a long weekend. Mom stayed a couple of days longer than me and will be coming home tomorrow.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Too dogone HUMID!!!
It's right about this time every year for the last 13 years that I say "and I moved to Georgia why?" Most of you know that the Lord had His hand completely in this move and why it was good that I was here 8 years ago (Mom's breast cancer) but I still can't stand the weather! It is just too hot and too sticky for so much of the year here in Metro Atlanta; 90+ degrees with 90+ humidity is just not my idea of a good time.
My life in the ATL has been a roller coaster to say the least but I have really had the opportunity to grow spiritually over the last 13 years. I've also been given a new ministry direction since I've been here. Everyone in the fam knows that I was blessed with a beautiful voice to use for His glory but that part of my ministry was taken away a few years back when my church decided that they really didn't have a use for a choir. We also sing mostly Rock & Roll and Alternative music during our praise & worship time and my voice is not that suited for those genres. I was so upset when the choir ended because it felt kind of like a divorce, kind of like they were telling us that we couldn't be a family anymore. I am still friends with many people in the choir but we all miss the regular Wednesday rehearsals.
I mentioned my new ministry direction at the beginning of the last paragraph, this ministry is called "Starting Point" and we are currently using the 3rd version of a curriculum for this ministry and it's now been translated into several languages and been presented to our partner churches around the world! This ministry environment is for Seekers, New Believers and Returners and is just wonderful! My church is not a church with adult Sunday School, we instead are a church of small groups! Even the kids do small groups but theirs are on Sundays. Starting Point is a taste of the small group environment but it's also a lot of learning about the Bible, and about where our beliefs come from. It is so awesome to see an adult have an Aha Moment and finally "get it"! I finished leading my 11th group a few months ago and will do another in September and wait until 2009 before I lead another.
The Lord has been making it more and more evident why He brought me here and I am content to be here and do what He asks until He moves me on to the next thing...
My life in the ATL has been a roller coaster to say the least but I have really had the opportunity to grow spiritually over the last 13 years. I've also been given a new ministry direction since I've been here. Everyone in the fam knows that I was blessed with a beautiful voice to use for His glory but that part of my ministry was taken away a few years back when my church decided that they really didn't have a use for a choir. We also sing mostly Rock & Roll and Alternative music during our praise & worship time and my voice is not that suited for those genres. I was so upset when the choir ended because it felt kind of like a divorce, kind of like they were telling us that we couldn't be a family anymore. I am still friends with many people in the choir but we all miss the regular Wednesday rehearsals.
I mentioned my new ministry direction at the beginning of the last paragraph, this ministry is called "Starting Point" and we are currently using the 3rd version of a curriculum for this ministry and it's now been translated into several languages and been presented to our partner churches around the world! This ministry environment is for Seekers, New Believers and Returners and is just wonderful! My church is not a church with adult Sunday School, we instead are a church of small groups! Even the kids do small groups but theirs are on Sundays. Starting Point is a taste of the small group environment but it's also a lot of learning about the Bible, and about where our beliefs come from. It is so awesome to see an adult have an Aha Moment and finally "get it"! I finished leading my 11th group a few months ago and will do another in September and wait until 2009 before I lead another.
The Lord has been making it more and more evident why He brought me here and I am content to be here and do what He asks until He moves me on to the next thing...
Monday, June 23, 2008
Please pray for my dad...
My dad's prostate cancer has returned. I went down to Florida on Father's day so that we could have a day of fun before he had a biopsy on Tuesday. We don't have the results yet but we are hoping that the cancer is contained in the prostate so that they can do cryosurgery and just get it out of his body!
I am telling you what, this cancer stuff really stinks! This disease took my grandma from me way too soon, my mom has been through the ringer with it and two of my cousins and two of my uncles have also had a real battle. Oh Lord, please protect and heal my family members and keep them safe.
I am telling you what, this cancer stuff really stinks! This disease took my grandma from me way too soon, my mom has been through the ringer with it and two of my cousins and two of my uncles have also had a real battle. Oh Lord, please protect and heal my family members and keep them safe.
Pray for Uncle Maynard...
Please pray for my uncle Maynard! About 20 years ago Uncle Maynard had colon cancer with a recurrance about 5 years after that. He's been pretty clean except for an occasional benign polyp for the last 15 years. When they did his routine colonoscopy a couple of months ago there was a malignant polyp so they had to go in there and take another portion of his colon out.
The surgery was a week ago and he has had a really rough time of it. The surgery ended up being much more involved than they expected it to be. When I spoke with Aunt Betty yesterday she said that he was a bit discouraged but was doing much better than he had been doing. He is in the hospital longer than he had anticipated being there.
Please pray for a miraculous turn around so he can get home soon.
The surgery was a week ago and he has had a really rough time of it. The surgery ended up being much more involved than they expected it to be. When I spoke with Aunt Betty yesterday she said that he was a bit discouraged but was doing much better than he had been doing. He is in the hospital longer than he had anticipated being there.
Please pray for a miraculous turn around so he can get home soon.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Christmas # 2 Macedonia - Post # 2
So, here's some more on Macedonia: The point of our trip was for us to help them with all aspects of a Christmas Concert. They Celebrate Chrismas on January 7th each year so me and my team members got to celebrate Christmas twice this year! They don't have traditional Christmas carols like we do and they celebrate a whole lot differently than we do but the city of Skopje was decorated beautifully with lights and trees and stars. It was spectacular and I promise to get some pictures posted soon. The city was also plastered with posters advertising "our" concert!
It seems like everyone in Macedonia plays at least two instruments and can sing! Nikola's wife Annet actually put the music program together and was the star of the show. She also had some input regarding the set design and decoration. Since Macedonia doesn't have Christmas carols and music, the songs Annet sang were all songs that are popular here in America but translated into the Macedonian language. Annet had already done the arrangements and the band and back-up singers had been practicing for months by the time we got there.
Our time was spent making decorations, taping testamonies, arranging for Rope Trees to be made, shopping for cookies & drinks and "wrapping" hundreds of calendars and New Testaments in Macedonian to hand out at the show. Our youngest team member Kyle also did some awesome computer graphic work so we could project the words to the songs on a screen during the concert so attendees would know what was being sung. The hall that Nikola and Annet rented was in the city center and seated 650 people. They said they would be very happy if 250 showed up but on the night of the concert the house was packed and it was estimated that there were over 700 people there!!! Yay God! Needless to say, we ran out of gifts, cookies and drinks. The entire concert was very well received and Nikola said he was hoping they could do something similar for Easter. I don't know if they were able to to that or not, one thing I do know is that North Point would not be sending a team to help for that one.
On Christmas morning in Macedonia the children go door to door and knock and sing a song for gifts of fruits & nuts etc., it's very much like how folks do Halloween here in the states but they do it VERY early in the morning. I need to get the words to the particular song they sing since it's kind of wild, something about the grandmother being dead... Also, Santa comes on New Year's Eve and not at Chrstmas like he does here in America. I guess he does that so he can manage to get to all the good boys and girls houses.
One thing that was very weird for us is that there was no wrapping paper to be found at any store we went to! We still can't figure that one out! Betty & Kim found some table cloths at the Vero store and we cut them in strips and wrapped a strip around the New Testaments and rolled up the calendars and put a strip around each of those as well. One other really weird thing is that we needed to get to a hardware store to buy some dowling and lumber to make our rope Christmas trees but they were closed for inventory! We went two days in a row and they were closed. On the second attempt, we were to meet Nikola there so we had a taxi drop us there and we thought we were going to get frostbite it was so doggone cold. We waited outside the closed store, freezing our bums off for at least 20 minutes. But God had other/much better plans for our rope trees. Nikola decided to take us to his school mate/friend Ilia's shop to see if Ilia could help us and boy did he ever! Justin told Ilia what the plan was and that we wanted to make these ourselves if he could help us with tools and materials but Ilia offerred to make them! He used metal poles and then welded a ring to the top and made the bases out of wood and a way for us to bolt the poles to the bases etc. They came out looking so wonderful and he only charged us the equivalent of forty American dollars! The Lord was really with us and is the reason that the whole thing was such a success!
It seems like everyone in Macedonia plays at least two instruments and can sing! Nikola's wife Annet actually put the music program together and was the star of the show. She also had some input regarding the set design and decoration. Since Macedonia doesn't have Christmas carols and music, the songs Annet sang were all songs that are popular here in America but translated into the Macedonian language. Annet had already done the arrangements and the band and back-up singers had been practicing for months by the time we got there.
Our time was spent making decorations, taping testamonies, arranging for Rope Trees to be made, shopping for cookies & drinks and "wrapping" hundreds of calendars and New Testaments in Macedonian to hand out at the show. Our youngest team member Kyle also did some awesome computer graphic work so we could project the words to the songs on a screen during the concert so attendees would know what was being sung. The hall that Nikola and Annet rented was in the city center and seated 650 people. They said they would be very happy if 250 showed up but on the night of the concert the house was packed and it was estimated that there were over 700 people there!!! Yay God! Needless to say, we ran out of gifts, cookies and drinks. The entire concert was very well received and Nikola said he was hoping they could do something similar for Easter. I don't know if they were able to to that or not, one thing I do know is that North Point would not be sending a team to help for that one.
On Christmas morning in Macedonia the children go door to door and knock and sing a song for gifts of fruits & nuts etc., it's very much like how folks do Halloween here in the states but they do it VERY early in the morning. I need to get the words to the particular song they sing since it's kind of wild, something about the grandmother being dead... Also, Santa comes on New Year's Eve and not at Chrstmas like he does here in America. I guess he does that so he can manage to get to all the good boys and girls houses.
One thing that was very weird for us is that there was no wrapping paper to be found at any store we went to! We still can't figure that one out! Betty & Kim found some table cloths at the Vero store and we cut them in strips and wrapped a strip around the New Testaments and rolled up the calendars and put a strip around each of those as well. One other really weird thing is that we needed to get to a hardware store to buy some dowling and lumber to make our rope Christmas trees but they were closed for inventory! We went two days in a row and they were closed. On the second attempt, we were to meet Nikola there so we had a taxi drop us there and we thought we were going to get frostbite it was so doggone cold. We waited outside the closed store, freezing our bums off for at least 20 minutes. But God had other/much better plans for our rope trees. Nikola decided to take us to his school mate/friend Ilia's shop to see if Ilia could help us and boy did he ever! Justin told Ilia what the plan was and that we wanted to make these ourselves if he could help us with tools and materials but Ilia offerred to make them! He used metal poles and then welded a ring to the top and made the bases out of wood and a way for us to bolt the poles to the bases etc. They came out looking so wonderful and he only charged us the equivalent of forty American dollars! The Lord was really with us and is the reason that the whole thing was such a success!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Home Internet OUT!!!
Howdy Readers!
Just wanted to post an explanation for not posting about my mission trip etc. The trip was wonderful and I really do plan an extended post but there's been an awful lot going on and my internet at home has been out for two weeks! UGH, I can't really spend too much time on the blog during work hours, the bosses frown on that. I spent several hours on the phone with my ISP on Sunday and we did not get the issue resolved.
Here are some of my EXCUSES for not posting about the mission trip: #1: I wanted to get the other team member's pictures (this has been accomplised) #2: I have not been feeling too well and had sinus surgery recently #3: The flooding in my house and all that's been involved to get the mess cleaned up (there's much to be told about that in a future post as well) #4: I have been working full time at Manheim and part time at Trader Joe's so I can be debt free (the car's paid off...) and #5: my internet at home is out!
I promise to get caught up just as soon as I can. I am going to try to get my weekend chores completed tonight and Thursday since the weekend is packed with work at TJ's and a couple of leadership training ops at church. I'm too old for this...
Just wanted to post an explanation for not posting about my mission trip etc. The trip was wonderful and I really do plan an extended post but there's been an awful lot going on and my internet at home has been out for two weeks! UGH, I can't really spend too much time on the blog during work hours, the bosses frown on that. I spent several hours on the phone with my ISP on Sunday and we did not get the issue resolved.
Here are some of my EXCUSES for not posting about the mission trip: #1: I wanted to get the other team member's pictures (this has been accomplised) #2: I have not been feeling too well and had sinus surgery recently #3: The flooding in my house and all that's been involved to get the mess cleaned up (there's much to be told about that in a future post as well) #4: I have been working full time at Manheim and part time at Trader Joe's so I can be debt free (the car's paid off...) and #5: my internet at home is out!
I promise to get caught up just as soon as I can. I am going to try to get my weekend chores completed tonight and Thursday since the weekend is packed with work at TJ's and a couple of leadership training ops at church. I'm too old for this...
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Christmas # 2 - Macedonia - Post # 1
Wow, what an experience! I've heard from so many people how a mission trip is "a life changing experience" but it took me going to Macedonia to completely understand. I'd been on a mission trip in my early 20's, we went to Mexico and did a vacation Bible school for some children and taught dental hygiene to the people of a small town. I was very young and was not as fully committed to serving our Lord as I should have been at the time.
On the afternoon of December 30 7 of us flew out of Atlanta/Hartsfield Airport on an overnight flight to Zurich. The flight was nearly empty so most of us were afforded the opportunity of two or three seats each to spread out and sleep. As per my norm, I didn't really sleep a wink on the flight. I did doze off a couple of times but the sleep was not restful at all. After a brief layover in Zurich we hopped onto an Air Macedonia flight to Skopje. This leg of the trip was uneventful but the food had much to be desired, even for airline food. Blech! When we landed in Skopje Joan and Nikola were there to pick us up. Later that afternoon, Nikola swung by the hotel and we piled into his car and a cab and drove off to RamStore which is the brand new local mall where we had a bite to eat and then went and picked up a few things for the New Year's party at the church.
The Party consisted of lots of food, some worship music with a band and they invited Ryan, our group leader up front to play drums during the worship time. There was a message and then we sat around tables and prayed in the new year. We were sort of mixed up amongst the tables and it was really wonderful even though I didn't understand the Macedonian words being prayed.
On the afternoon of December 30 7 of us flew out of Atlanta/Hartsfield Airport on an overnight flight to Zurich. The flight was nearly empty so most of us were afforded the opportunity of two or three seats each to spread out and sleep. As per my norm, I didn't really sleep a wink on the flight. I did doze off a couple of times but the sleep was not restful at all. After a brief layover in Zurich we hopped onto an Air Macedonia flight to Skopje. This leg of the trip was uneventful but the food had much to be desired, even for airline food. Blech! When we landed in Skopje Joan and Nikola were there to pick us up. Later that afternoon, Nikola swung by the hotel and we piled into his car and a cab and drove off to RamStore which is the brand new local mall where we had a bite to eat and then went and picked up a few things for the New Year's party at the church.
The Party consisted of lots of food, some worship music with a band and they invited Ryan, our group leader up front to play drums during the worship time. There was a message and then we sat around tables and prayed in the new year. We were sort of mixed up amongst the tables and it was really wonderful even though I didn't understand the Macedonian words being prayed.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Christmas #1 - Georgia & The Flood...
Christmas in Georgia was quiet but really was quite lovely. My Pop drove up from Florida a couple of days before the 25th and hung out with me. Mom came over on Christmas morning and the 3 of us celebrated together and opened gifties from each other and the ones from the California folks. I am so glad that my parents get along well and enjoy each other's company even though they haven't been married to each other for over 20 years; we had a very nice time and really enjoyed each other's company.
I made a pot roast with potatoes, carrots and pearl onions for our "Christmas Dinner" and after dinner was done Pop left us and drove up to Nashville to be with Uncle Peter and his family. I would have gone with him and Peter & Family really wanted me to go but I had way too much to do between Christmas Day and the 30th of December which is the day I left for Macedonia for my long planned mission trip. (Will post about Macedonia shortly) Last year everyone came to Atlanta for the week between Christmas and New Year's day and it was really a great time. I'm so glad that our families enjoy spending time together.
About a week before Christmas there was a drip, drip, drip coming from the ceiling in my kitchen, down the front of the cupboards and onto the countertops and into the sink. This had happened several years ago and I'd told my next door neighbor about it since I thought it might be coming from his water heater which is above my kitchen and after I told him about it the dripping stopped even though he said his water heater was fine. I thought he was joshing me and had discovered and stopped the leak. That may still be the case as that family moved out of the condo next door and my current next door neighbor moved in not too long after that incident. Long story short, I asked Oskar, the current neighbor and he told me that he'd replaced the water heater about a year ago so he really didn't think it could be that. Also, I'd turned the water to my unit off and the drip stopped and then I called the plumber. He discovered that there was a leaky valve in one of my upstairs toilets that had been leaking into the wall and floor of my place and down into the kitchen. UGH! That was $180.00 and then that same day I called the insurance company who recommended a company to come out and help with the drying of my place so that I wouldn't have a mold issue. That was a real adventure since they ripped up the flooring in the upstairs potty room and put a dehumidifier and very loud fan in there and a dehumidifier and two very large fans in the kitchen. The cats really didn't know what to think of all this. So everything still works in the house but now I have 3 giant holes in the kitchen ceiling and wall and the flooring off half the floor in the bathroom and I'm getting ready to go to Macedonia for a mission trip! To say I was a little freaked out puts it mildly but my pop had some wise advice. He reminded me that everything works in my house and told me just to try not to think about it or worry about it until I returned from my trip. As I thought about it, I'm so glad that if this had to happen it happened when I was home; thank you Lord! More on this adventure in future posts...
I made a pot roast with potatoes, carrots and pearl onions for our "Christmas Dinner" and after dinner was done Pop left us and drove up to Nashville to be with Uncle Peter and his family. I would have gone with him and Peter & Family really wanted me to go but I had way too much to do between Christmas Day and the 30th of December which is the day I left for Macedonia for my long planned mission trip. (Will post about Macedonia shortly) Last year everyone came to Atlanta for the week between Christmas and New Year's day and it was really a great time. I'm so glad that our families enjoy spending time together.
About a week before Christmas there was a drip, drip, drip coming from the ceiling in my kitchen, down the front of the cupboards and onto the countertops and into the sink. This had happened several years ago and I'd told my next door neighbor about it since I thought it might be coming from his water heater which is above my kitchen and after I told him about it the dripping stopped even though he said his water heater was fine. I thought he was joshing me and had discovered and stopped the leak. That may still be the case as that family moved out of the condo next door and my current next door neighbor moved in not too long after that incident. Long story short, I asked Oskar, the current neighbor and he told me that he'd replaced the water heater about a year ago so he really didn't think it could be that. Also, I'd turned the water to my unit off and the drip stopped and then I called the plumber. He discovered that there was a leaky valve in one of my upstairs toilets that had been leaking into the wall and floor of my place and down into the kitchen. UGH! That was $180.00 and then that same day I called the insurance company who recommended a company to come out and help with the drying of my place so that I wouldn't have a mold issue. That was a real adventure since they ripped up the flooring in the upstairs potty room and put a dehumidifier and very loud fan in there and a dehumidifier and two very large fans in the kitchen. The cats really didn't know what to think of all this. So everything still works in the house but now I have 3 giant holes in the kitchen ceiling and wall and the flooring off half the floor in the bathroom and I'm getting ready to go to Macedonia for a mission trip! To say I was a little freaked out puts it mildly but my pop had some wise advice. He reminded me that everything works in my house and told me just to try not to think about it or worry about it until I returned from my trip. As I thought about it, I'm so glad that if this had to happen it happened when I was home; thank you Lord! More on this adventure in future posts...
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