The Spring Out Of Spring Break

The week following Spring Break was really overwhelming and a bit stressful.  I had planned to get caught up on homework over Spring Break, plus do the extra work assigned over break, plus I was hoping to get a bit ahead to help with my stress.  However very little of that happened since I was in Canada the 2nd half and the few days prior I was a bit of an emotional wreck with the news of Wayne's death.   So Coming back to all that work to get done, plus classes, plus upcoming assignments, readings, and projects - that all piled on stress and overwhelmment.   And to top it off, actually this was one of the bigger struggles, was the emotional stress.  Just the reality and processing that Wayne was dead and all that, it was miserable.   However God showed up and showed again the power of prayer.  I had asked two people to pray for my stress and overwhelmment over lunch Tuesday and I spent time in His word and with Him.  After reading His word, there was an obvious peace and change, though I was still overwhelmed.   I went into my afternoon class, which has brought stress and lots of overwhelming moments in the past, overwhelmed and I walked out completely at peace!  God is so Good!  

It has been really hard, yet just this week I am finally getting caught up.   But, that doesn't mean I don't have work to do :).   I still have several big projects coming up, including a final project due at the end of April which is basically 3-5 big projects combined.  I need to start digging into that.  

I did talk with my supervisor yesterday at work and they do want me to work over summer which is exciting!  On the down side, as a student-worker, they are only allowed to give me 25 hours a week - I had requested 30-40 (and I currently get 15 hours a week).    She also mentioned something about being able to schedule the 25 hours say in morning or afternoons and finding another job in the off time to fill the extra desired hours.    I could just find another job all together, except I really would like to stay at this job, as I really enjoy it.   Yes I don't get paid much, but I feel that the enjoyment of it is worth so much more.  I look at my dad for example, as he just switched jobs recently.  I believe he took a decent pay cut in accepting his new job, but they way he enjoys it brings me excitement and joy and life, and I can only imagine what it dose for him.  So, yes I would like to have a higher paying job, but enjoyment and fulfillment in it is a much higher priority to me.   If God will allow it, He will provide where there is lack.  

Spring Break: Pricey, Painful, & Invaluable

Oh my, where to begin? I am quite behind on my blog updates as life has been extremely overwhelming and packed full the past few weeks - I hope to get to that though in a future post.   This post is planned to be focused on my Spring Break.   I usually refrain from making posts terrible long, but since a lot happened in this time, it may be a bit longer than usual.  

Spring Break.   Spring break was two weeks ago.  Spring Break did not go as planned.   Spring Break was expensive.  Spring Break was painful.  Spring Break: let’s dive in!   I had thoughts a long while ago to join my two cousins (that I live with) on our Young Group’s missions trip down to Mexico over Spring Break.  However through thinking and praying about it, I had decided against going.  I was worried that I would feel too overwhelmed with homework and required readings over that time.   I am glad that I decided not to go.   For the past six or so months I have been trying to figure out a time to head out to Fort Wayne, Indiana to spend time with relatives out there.  Each time I have tried to go, God has stopped it or told me not to go.  And even though I have not wanted to follow His lead each time, each time He has worked it for something much better.   The weekend going into Spring Break I had decided to ask if it would be a good time for me to come, since I had the time off.  I had requested the week off work (including the Monday after) prior to declining the Missions trip, as I thought I would be in Mexico.  After I decided not to go, my work Okayed my request off work.  So I kept it as some rest and catch up time, or so I thought I would.  

Anyways prior to asking my aunt if I could come I felt that still small voice saying, “no”.   But I really wanted to ask.   Yet I heard, “no, why would you ask if you are not going to go?”  But since I had already made up my mind, I asked.   And what do you know, they came back with the answer I was looking for.  The offered that Thursday through Sunday I could stay with them during Spring Break!   Yeah I was excited.  But I didn’t have peace.   All throughout the weekend prior to the week of Spring Break, I felt that still small voice tell me over, and over, and over again to tell my aunt I am not coming.  I did not like it at all.   I knew that if it was God, He had something better – He always does – but I had finally made a plan I have been waiting for for a long time!   No way was I going to stop that.   But God remained persistently gentle.    He kept pressing on me to contact my aunt.  Sunday night, I think, I contacted my aunt and told her that I wasn’t having peace about coming and I felt that God may be saying no, but that as I really want to come, I would continue to pray about it.  She completely understood and that gave me peace too. 

Monday I went to spend the night with my grandma’s as I was taking my car to the automotive shop in her town (about an hour and fifteen minutes away).  That particular shop has proved it’s trustworthiness to me and noticed the problems that the local shop here did not.   I took my car in a little proud that for the first time in a long time I actually had money budgeted for my car repairs!  Thanks to my dad’s advice (to budget $100 a month into car repairs) and God’s provision of a job and such, I had $182 set aside for this repair.    I was a little prideful about it, and quite happy too.   Though God quite humbled me from it when the shop called and estimated a $700 repair.   One that was painful – two that was even more painful since I had just over $1,100 in my bank account and my next paycheck would be under $80 (in two weeks) since I was out over Spring Break.   But my car needed the repair so I told them to fix it.   They got it fixed later than expected because another problem arouse while fixing two of the engine mounts.  The ball and joint from my tire to my axle that they had replaced back in January was faulty and causing more problems because it was a cheap Chinese part.  I do not blame them for this problem – neither they nor I had any idea that the cheaper part would cause these problems, and I was thankful they used a cheaper part at the time.   On the bright side, it took less time to put the mounts in, so the total cost was still just over $700.   Then again on the down side, the repairs did help but not enough.   Some transmission mounts needed to be replaced – which still didn’t fix it (they were replaced this past week) but really helped the car from shaking so much.  But it was nearly another $200.  Thankfully my dad gave me some of my college fund money early to help prevent my bank account from dropping below zero, and it did come within $10 or less of doing so.  Thank you God.  The car problems were one possible reason I figured God may have not allowed me to go to Indiana.  Well, that is until Tuesday night, on Spring Break.  

Tuesday night I was playing a good game of Rummy with my grandma, as we do most good evenings :).    As the game came to a close I took a glance at my phone that set my world into a spin.   I had one message, one from my aunt in Canada, which started, “Just letting you know that Wayne Kuepfer died of a heart attack today….” My heart broke and spilled out all over.  I didn’t know I could feel that pain at this time, nor did I ever expect nor want to hear those words.    Wayne Kuepfer was the dad a friend, an SLI classmate for two years, Janette Kuepfer; the husband of a good friend, Loretta Kuepfer; the father of five grown kids; and a friend to many, many people.  He was three months away from becoming a grandfather of twins – he was so excited about becoming a grandfather!   To me, I didn’t know him super well, but from what I did know of him, he was like a dad to me.   I had spent time to talk to him about loves, pains, confusions, questions and more.   I went to him one night at 10PM and he was just leaving for work, and he stopped what he was doing and we sat in his van for nearly an hour as he let me pour out what was on my heart, and then walk and talk me through it, give me valuable wisdom and advice, and pray with me.   I do not know a ton of people that I can do that with.  

To hear that he had died, crushed my world.   Over the next couple days, life was really heavy.   Homework that I had planned to get done, got nowhere, rest and relaxation that I had hoped to get over break was nowhere to be seen.  I didn’t know what to think, what to do, what to feel, and so on.   I felt lost and deeply pained.   Now I can’t imagine what the family felt.  Wayne was only 55, had no serious health problems that I know of that could of led to this or anything.    It was just out of the blue.   Not only that, but he was also at work when it happened.  Wayne was a truck driver for Home Hardware (a Big Canadian home and hardware company).  He was doing an overnight delivery.  So he was in a different province, sleeping in his truck when he died.   I still do not feel like it’s real.   It has been really hard, for lack of better words. 

Anyways, Thursday night I decided that I had peace and permission with God to make a trip to Canada for the weekend to support the Keupfer family and go to the funeral.   I left Friday morning at 4:00am and had little to no traffic.  My GPS took me an unusual route that didn’t take me through Chicago, which was nice, and the drive when well.  At the boarder they didn’t ask a ton of questions, though they did ask if I have had problems with immigration in the past.  I told them ‘no.  I came in January 2017 without proof that I would return and I was turned back.  Today I have proof just in case.’  I had my Student ID card along with the signed document from my work confirming my request for these days off.   The boarder guard didn’t even look at my “proof”, he let me in – Thank you God!    That was only by you God!   I made it up in about 8.5 hours – which I would say is very good for that trip.   I had asked my aunt Laura for permission to stay with them that weekend, and she was okay with it :).  Otherwise I didn’t tell anyone I was coming up.  I knew that my purpose for being in Canada was not for friends, and if I told everyone it would be too much of a stress trying to get together with all my friends in the short time I had.    I had to keep reminding myself that throughout the weekend and it really helped me have peace with not hanging out with everyone.  My purpose was for the funeral and to support the Keupfer family, not for friends.  Hopefully God will allow me sometime soon to come up to be with friends but it wasn’t for this trip.  Yes I did get so spend time with friends, but it wasn’t the main focus of the trip.   I got there on Friday, and the Funeral was on Monday.

Friday night I went and surprised a few friends and chatted with them for a bit.  Then we all went to Heart & Home, the connect group that I use to go to while I was in Canada, and we surprised them there as well.    It was a really good time, such a blessing to me. It was really encouraging to be with friends and such a well-connected, loving and caring group!  Friday I was up for 22 hours, I was surprised to find that I didn’t crash until the wee hours of Saturday morning. 

Saturday morning, I got up early (Praise God for a good sleep!) to go to Healing School at Koinonia – a once a month “class” that is encouraging, powerful and complete with prayer!  God blessed me that it was this weekend.  Through the two hour “class” God really worked on my heart where I have been experiencing lots of doubt the past number of months.   He challenged me to the core, and built up a powerful confidence in me!   At the end, normally anyone who needs any sort of healing will go up to the front for prayer.  However the leader told us this time that as Jesus told us to lay hands on the sick, we were not told that it always had to be someone else.   So everyone who wanted healing, laid their own hands on wherever they needed healing, and we all prayed corporately.   I had pain in my back, neck, hips, knees, and chest and since I didn’t have that many hands, I placed my hands on the two most painful areas – the left knee and the back of the neck.   We prayed and I was excited.   God worked supernatural healing then – though I didn’t know it then.  I look back now, a week and a half later, and the chest pain that someone guessed was a fracture though it was never checked for sure, that I’d had on some of my left ribs that had been very sharp pain for two weeks, was suddenly gone, just gone!   WOW GOD!   But it gets better.   The Chronic neck, upper middle and lower back, hip, and knee pains that I’ve had with some super sharp pains for many months – some for years – are now almost entirely gone!!!!!!!!!   And if that isn’t proof, I haven’t taken my pain killers nor my muscle relaxers in over a week and a half – in fact I didn’t take the muscle relaxers that Saturday nor the Friday before that – just because I forgot!!! GOD is Soooooo Goooood!!!!!!! Praise be to GOD!!!!  

After healing school was over, as everyone was getting up and chatting, I started to gather my things together and get my coat on, after chatting with a few people.   As I was doing so, a lady whom I know, but I didn’t have time to recognize and place a name with, came up and grabbed my hand and then left.   She had left a $20 bill in my hand.   I thanked God, but was struck with the thought I had no idea what it was for.  Normally when God provides, I feel like I know what it is for.    But I was struck that I had no idea what this was for, I couldn’t think of a good use for it, and saving wasn’t terribly ideal since it was a Canadian $20 bill.  So, I stuffed it in my pocket, and forgot about it.  If God brought it my way, He has a use for it.  I do not need to worry about it, I just have to let Him do that work.   And I forgot about it.   

Later, as I was leaving Healing School, I got to meet a good friend, Heather, again.  It was so energizing to re-engage in conversation with her and to just catch up.   She is like bubbles of joy, breathing God’s love and grace, on fire for God and what He is doing in The Church and the world! I love it!  She is so amazing!   Anyways as we were talking, (another lady was there too), Heather had mentioned she was going to see I Can Only Imagine with a group of girls that afternoon, and she invited the lady that was standing there to join her.    I felt God’s prompting to give this lady they $20, so I did, and it blessed her up and down.  It was so amazing, and I am thrilled that God would use me to be part of this blessing!   Anyways, Heather and I then talked for quite a while and we didn’t want to stop, but our schedules said otherwise.   

Here is a picture we took together:

I then went to the St. Jacob’s Farmer’s Market and walked around and shopped for a half an hour or so.   Then I went to the Mall and hung out with a buddy for a little over three hours.  It was such a God blessing to be there with him in person and to chat, walk and talk, and pray together!    God is good!

I then went home for a bit and spent some time with God in prep for Wayne’s visitation that evening.    There was a visitation on Saturday, and two on Sunday, I only went to the Saturday one.   God really prepared my heart for the visitation and it was quite emotional.    There was an hour and a half to a two hour wait to go through the visitation line – there were tons of people – Wayne had a HUGE impact on TONS of people!  The second half of the waiting time, I sat next to Heather again, and we chatted away and totally had a lot of fun and learning.    God was visibly present.   Going through the line was hard, looking in the casket especially.   I still don’t fully feel the reality that Wayne is gone.  Yes he is much happier now and is living with Jesus in heaven now, but it’s hard to accept that God allowed him to go this early.   Talking with the Keupfer family was hard too.  I didn’t say much, and in truth, I didn’t know what to say, I felt at loss.   I was encouraged with talking with Loretta, her thoughts and where she was at was hard to hear but also encouraging as God was clearly shining out of her and her family!   As I was walking out, I caught up with a few friends and we chatted for a bit.   I got home late again Saturday night.

Sunday I got up early again, (Again, only by God did I get good and sufficient sleep) to go to both the 9 and 11 O’clock services and to the 8:30 corporate prayer beforehand.   It was refreshing to be reconnected with some friends and family (I haven’t been up there in 8-9 months).   And the Service and worship was really good as well.    After church I went home and tried to get some homework done, but I didn’t get far before it started to put me to sleep. I just chilled Sunday afternoon.    Sunday night I had a last minute plan change – from staying home to going to a movie with some friends.    It, again was great to be with some friends again, but even more some, I had some overwhelmingly encouraging, heart-touching, and just-what-I-needed conversations with God during the movie.    Afterwards we stayed at the theater and chatted for a while.   I got home late again on Sunday night.  

Monday wasn’t super early of a day, but I still got up in good time.  I had to pack and get ready for the funeral.   I got to Koinonia early, and there was a steady flow of people flowing in.   I was privileged to sit up front, just behind the Keupfer family and extended family, with an SLI classmate (Rosalie) and her family, which I’ve also gotten to know a little bit.   The funeral was packed – I believe it was well over 500 people though I do not know numbers for sure.  The hour and a half service consisted of worship, memories of Wayne and who he was, talks from his wife, kids, siblings, friends, and co-workers, and God all in-between it all.   It was beautiful and really hard (and funny at times).   I am thankful for Kleenexes.    They also live-streamed the service and it is on YouTube now.   After the service there were refreshments and lots of fellowship.  I ended up staying longer than I had planned and even nearly an hour after I put my coat on to go.   God spoke some powerful things into my life that weekend that may have changed my pursuit of Him and upped to the next state of what He’s been teaching – I hopefully when expound on this further down the road in future posts.  

As I left, I started with prayer and proper GPS destinations.   I was also reminded of a fuel gift card I was given 8.5 months ago when I was up in Canada.  I found it in my glove box and come to find out it still had over $30 left on it – just what I needed.    As I pulled into the same gas station and the same pump that I had used this card on 8.5 months ago, I was reminded that what God provided for so long ago, was still providing now.  Praise God!  He is so good!!  

I had an invite to stop half way through my return trip in Indiana with my relatives, but I felt God wanted me to go straight home – and I’m glad He did.  I made good time and was home before 11:00Pm, and at the boarder I had the quickest conversation with the guard I think I have ever had, no problem what so ever.  God is good!   But the trip home was really powerful and hard.  It was full of reflection and processing the day and the weekend and the past week.  It was processing more of the reality that Wayne was dead.    I cried for hours.   God spoke powerfully and directly and with peace and comfort.  He is soo Goood!   I was blessed for the whole weekend and though caused lots of sorrow and pain and stress, it was also full of peace, joy, and life.    It was just what I needed.   God is so Good!

Time With Grandma

I am on March Break this week and have no school or work.   I do have some homework, but I've been putting it off.  This past Sunday we (my aunt, uncle and my cousin Cristina) met my grandma a Pizza Ranch for supper (Bethany and Jesse are in Mexico on a missions trip).   I then went home with grandma and spent the night - I did not have small group Sunday night because everyone was on break.  The next day, Monday, I had a rheumatologist appointment in Peoria and my grandma came with me.  The doctor still wants me to get the MRI, which I will do in April, and also wants me to get some blood work done.   She mentioned that I should get some certain creams for my neck and a heat pad and an ice pack to try to help my pains.   My grandma offered me some extras she had.   I also went and got my allergy shot too.   Earlier that morning, I had taken my car into Princeville automotive to get my car worked on.  I am still at grandma's now, on Thursday.

Grandma and I have been working on a puzzle together and we found it strangely addictive.  At least in the sense that time flies super fast while doing it and we keep coming back to it.  Sunday night we played another great game of Rummy and in the final round she passed me by 10 points, we are pretty close generally.    Monday night we decided to play Rummy again.  It was 7pm and we decided that we would call it quits at 9pm (we easily can go 3-4 hours and not know it).  Grandma went and got the cards while I grabbed a piece of paper to record our scores on.  We both got caught up trying to find a couple pieces of the puzzle that fit.  Before we knew it, the clock met and passed 9pm and we were still working on the puzzle, the deck of cards and paper just sitting at the edge of the card table.   It was a lot of fun - we actually didn't stop at 9pm, but kept going till at least 9:30.   Tuesday night was similar, I grabbed the paper and grandma the cards and we got caught up at the card table over the puzzle again.  Though we cut the puzzle short and went and played our game of Rummy.   Wednesday night we finished up the puzzle (1,000 pieces and more shades of green than I knew existed).  We both had been working on it on and off throughout each of the days this week.  She had a good chuck started when I got there Sunday evening. 

Fundraiser

Last Friday was the Prairie Christian School (PCS) spring fundraiser. (This is the small private christian school that my cousins went to, whom I am living with, and one cousin still attends, and both their parents work there - one as a teacher, the other as the treasurer).  The format of this fundraiser was a dinner followed by a live auction.   It was quite exciting!  I have never been to a live auction, that I recall.  The auctioneers were very entertaining and fun to watch and listen too and they helped the night be all the more exciting.  There were over 120 items sold, and prices were high, people were generous in their giving.   There was items of nearly all types from gift cards, to lake days and parties, to books, games, toys, furniture, and horse back riding lessons, to beach condo-vacations, a year of dental cleaning and care, to even food.  The list goes on and on.   Some of the food items were widely known as "heavenly", such as a box of rolls that sold for $300/box, or eight dozen Springerles that sold for $125/dozen!!!!  It was a blast!  I bid on a few things, but I was out bid on all of them.  I wished I had more money to bid, because it was so much fun, I wished I could of raised my card/number on all of them.   But I had to remind myself that I am on a budget. 

I spent the evening with a friend who I got to know through my cousins.  Being with him through the night made it a lot more fun too.   

Cars' On The Mend

My car was suppose to get done yesterday, but the shop didn't give me a call like they said they would.  However I don't lay that on them.  I gave them a call this morning at 9:00 am. and found out why.  They put the two new engine mounts on but the shaking was still there.  They said it was better, but not gone.  They looked into it and talked with (or read something with) Volkswagen.   Come to find out the part they fixed back in January may be the problem.  They had ordered an off-brand part to save me money(which I was thankful for) but they are now finding out that there is a warning on it from Volkswagen to not put a cheap Chinese-made part on there or other problems will occur.  So they ordered the new part and are putting that in now.  They are now hoping that I'll have my car in a few hours.   They also said it will still be around the predicted $700 because, Praise God, it took a lot less time to put the mounts in than they had expected (a direct answer to prayer)!

CAR-sick

Prayer request:  that God would continue to provide.

Today, yet again, my car is ready to head to a shop.   Over the last 3-6 months my car has been vibrating and over time the vibration has gotten worse.  Come to find out due to breaking engine mounts, my engine is violently shaking, literally shaking back and forth under the hood.  I do not know much about cars but this isn’t good.   Between talking to my dad, a diesel mechanic, and a automotive shop, I find myself in a position that needs to get a car fixed.  I have put it off for a long time, but now it’s time to be done.   I took my car into Princeville Automotive and hand them check it out.  They got back to me with times and costs.  The two broken mounts cost me $200.  The shop said if I ordered them right then (within 20 minutes) they would arrive the next day.  So I ordered them.  Tomorrow I will take my car into the shop to have it fixed.  Thanks to good ol’ German cars, getting to the engine mounts and replacing them is a lot of work.  The shop estimated that to get to the first one it would take about 2.4 hours and about 3.5 hours for the second one.  I’m total it comes out to be about $500 in labour.  Thanks to my dad’s wonderful advice I recently started putting $100 a month into my car repair fund (or whatever I had available- last month I didn’t have $100 to put in there).  With that being said, I only have $181.53 for my car repairs.  Praise God for His continual blessing, I do have the $700 in my bank account, however I will have to pull from a lot of other areas to cover it.    

So as my adventures with my car continue, I ask for prayer that God would provide for this unexpectedly high expense.

Loaded Sunday

Lets just start this post off by saying, WOW!  Sunday was a really fun day this past weekend!   Lots got done, it was powerful, it was engaging, it was relaxing, refreshing, not overwhelming, beautiful.

Sunday morning started off with a wonderful time of worship and quiet time, followed by a Biblical study time - not intended, but I really enjoyed it.  As I was reading though Mark 11 a couple questions came up and I wrote them down - I normally don't do this, and though I would like to more often, I struggle getting excited about hand writing.   Via a Steven Furtick podcast (Highly Recommend this Pastor - pastor of Elevation Church) I learned that the word Bethlehem means "House of Bread", Bethel means "House of God", and, the first part of both of those, Beth- means "House of".   So as I opened up to Mark 11 verse one and read the two names "Bethphage and Bethany" I was curious what they meant.  I pulled up the Blue Letter Bible app (Highly Recommend this for Biblical Studies too!) and did some Googling and used Google Translate.   I found that Bethphage means "house of unripe figs" (hmmm interesting).  I found that some scholars (who lived in the time period of when this was written) say that the town of Bethany didn't exist after the time of the apostles.   However there was a town by the name of Bethabara meaning "house of the ford, place of crossing." many versions of the New Testament use this as the site "beyond the Jordan" or "east of the Jordan".   Some say Jesus was baptized by John in Bethany, however in The Book of Mormon, Bethabara is recorded as the place of Jesus' baptism.   According to Google Translate, Bethabara is Greek for "In Bethany".   Different ancient manuscripts, of the Gospel of John use either Bethabara or Bethany for where John was Baptizing (thanks to Google, Wikipedia, The Blue Letter Bible, and other resources).

Anyway, it was a fun study - I am not sure what to get from it yet, if anything.   Then I had a great drive to church (Eastview) and got a good seat.    Worship again was great.  Then we moved into the fourth and final message on our series on Achan in Joshua 7.   This weeks sermon was on Judgement.  They posted on the screens and in the announcements, that if anyone hand any questions about God's Judgement and the why's and anything of that context, they can text it to the provided number as Pastor Mike was going to answer some in a live Q&A in the middle of the service.    Pastor Mike brought a great message on Judgement, and then part way though he paused for a break and answered some of the questions that were sent in.  I do not remember all the questions off the top of my head, and I only wrote one or two of them down, but I found it valuable and meaningful.   After a handful of questions, Mike returned to the service on judgement.   It was a really good service.   Following the service Mike transitioned it into a time of worship, prayer, and communion.   He invited people to come up for prayer and invited everyone to come up front for communion.  This was unusual, as normally the trays are passed around.  There were 4 or 5 stations up front and a handful of stations up on the balcony where the communion cups were at.   I was glad that I sat closer to the front, for it did get a bit crowded upfront (between 2 big services and one small service, Eastview has around 6,000 people).   But it did flow smoothly and surprisingly it didn't take too long.  It was a very powerful time of worship, prayer and communion.    The way that it was set up and they way that God moved was right to the heart and powerfully needed.    It was also very humbling and a great reminder of what Christ did for us.    From that the service ended.

On the way out I talked to a guy who was walking next to me.  I also met his mom who was visiting from Indiana (I don't remember where though in Indiana).  I mentioned that I have family in Fort Wayne, and found out they do as well.  (I'm realizing the benefit, joy, power and beauty of doing what I didn't really do much at Koinonia, though Pastor Steve really pushed for: to meet someone new every Sunday).   I felt that it wasn't time for me to leave yet.  So I asked God who He wanted me to talk to.  I went upstairs and a lady stuck out to me standing by one of the upstairs cafes (yeah this place has a handful of them).   I went over and started talking to her.  She just six months ago retired and is enjoying it.  She use to be and Elementary teacher and a Librarian (I think - something with a library).   Then I prayed for her and left.  It was really good.  I had a great drive home too.

When I got home, I went for a quick run with Amigo (our dog - a black lab).  It was such a nice day, a bit breezy, but it felt good.  I didn't go far - Amigo seemed sad that I turned around so early.  I am out of shape.  I enjoy running though.   I also have had a high heart rate and I feel worn out quite quickly (this has been over the last month or so) and I noticed as I started to run that my right knee was hurting to run on, so I limped as I ran (my right knee has been increasingly bothering me.  I told the doctor when I got X-Rays and the doctor came back and said my right knee is fine, but there was something irregular in my left femur.  They want to have an MRI of it - which I will likely do in April).

After I got inside I put on a Steven Furtick Podcast (though I didn't pay high attention this time, and you will see why here) and sat down and played some Mario Kart on Jesse's Game Cube - Jesse and I had a lot of fun playing it on Saturday.    Not long after, the Schlipf's got home from church and Jesse and Cristina joined me on Mario Kart.  We were working on unlocking some new things - which we did get a few new things unlocked.    Then Renee (my aunt) asked us to go outside after 30 minutes.   Thus we did.

We messed around at first not know what to do.  But after a bit, we settled on hitting a tennis ball, a foam ball, and a foam football with a baceball bat - we each had a bat and a ball.   Not too long later Jesse turned it into the game 500 with a small solid bat and the foam football.   We played that for quite a long while and it was a ton of fun - and a great day for it.  It has been a while since I've had that much fun outdoors!   Though on one of the turns, Cristina was it, with the bat and ball, and Jesse and I were trying to get it, I decided to prevent Jesse from getting it.  I came up behind him and gave him a big hug and didn't let go.  I had decided that when the ball was hit, I would go limp and weigh him down, for fun.  He seemed to figure something like that would happen, because when the ball was hit he decided to just fall.   As we both, in smiles and laughter, crumbled to the ground, I hit first and as he fell on top of me, one of his shoulders slammed into the left side of my chest.  I felt a sharp pain both in the front by the ribs and in the back by the spine.   It was fun though!   Yes, since then, I've had a strong pain in that area, when I move, breathe, cough, plow my nose and all the other goodies.  But we had fun!    I am very thankful for that - Thank you Renee for asking us to go outside!

Once we came in we talked a bit and messed around a bit.    Then I went downstairs and had a wonderful time with God, and then another wonderful time building.   - To stimulate and reactivate my creative juices and love for spacial building (while not having money) I decided to use what I had to build something (this was a number of weeks ago - where I had used old copy paper and tape to build tubes and build with them.  Since then since my tape ran out and it was expensive to get more, I found that I could get by with what I had.  I still have a half a roll of the plastic wrap left from Christmas.  So I used the plastic wrap as my tape, and it works great for the way I am using it.   I did go to Wal-Mart and bought 1,000 more sheets of copy paper to keep that part supplied.  Now I have invested about 1,500 sheets of copy paper into building material only using plastic wrap to hold them together.) I enjoy building with them, - though I would love to someday get another big tub of Legos or wooden blocks to build with!   I got to spend some great time building.   Then we, as a family, watched a movie called The or is it A (I'm not sure, but it is followed by) Question of Faith.   Even though it was a bit cheesy and predictable, I found it a really good movie with good messages - I cried several times through it.  

After the movie I tried to figure out what to do next.  I spent some time talking, which I enjoyed, as usual.   But I also felt a pull to go see Black Panther again - I've been wanting to see that for the past week again (I saw it in 3D with my dad last Sunday).   I asked God about it and sought wisdom on it.   I felt a peace and a freedom to go that night.  I wanted to be wise since it was past 9 O'clock and I had to leave for work Monday morning at 10:00 AM.     I knew that it was a half an hour drive to the theater each way and the movie was 2 hours and 15 minutes long.   I looked online for places, prices and times.    I found one that was an IMAX showing for $10 (as a Student) and it showed at 10:10 PM.   I talked to  both Bethany and Jesse about it and they advised against it.  However I knew I wanted to go, and I felt such a freedom and peace about going that I went.   I left knowing that God may end up taking me somewhere else and I won't watch it, but I had peace about going.   I got to the theater quite a bit late, but thank goodness for the great amount of previews they show before hand, for I got there just as the finial preview was ending and the movie was about to start.  There was at least several hundred seats in the room and I was probably one of the less than 5 people in the room - and it was a HUGE Screen.   I enjoyed it yet again.  On the way home I did some journaling too.  I headed to bed around 2:00 AM this morning and I got up just before 8:00 AM.  I had a great sleep (minus the occasional pains from rolling and moving the (what I am assuming is a) bruise from playing earlier).   I couldn't even stay focused and fully awake for prayer, that is before I went up and had a creamy caramel cappuccino hot chocolate - that helped.  I don't drink coffee much, but I have found an enjoyment for these - I've had two in the last week now.    I was awake today during work so that worked, haha.