I guess since it is Sunday, I'll give a little sermon. It's no secret that I have been through the gamut of spirituality. I've seen the Sunday Christian, and I've lived the Pentecostal, hands raised, hallelujah dancing, praise the Lord, falling down holy than thou. I've lived religious legalistics and I've been burnt by them too.

There are some that will say, "Amen sista! I know what you are talking about." Others, "Don't judge us all because of your experience." And then others, who just may decide to never speak to me again, because religion scares the holy living crap out of them.

First, I'm not here to judge. Someone once told me, "It's my job to love them. God's job to do what He will with them." That was the best thing I had ever heard.

I used to get so confused on how this man over here could believe he was a servant of God and his opinions and interpretations differed so much from a man over there, that believed he too was a man of God. That confusion led me to put down man's interpretations and start listening to God, or at least I hope. What I'm being shown, what I have been shown over the last 3 years is, that it's all about your relationship with God. It's my job to love and to pray. Not my job to condemn and judge.

You see, I believe God has put us where we are for reasons, even if it's only for a split second.

Now that is out of the way. Let's talk about faith. My cousins had their second child this week. Birth is a miracle. But my cousins, have a dd who is about a year and half. She's the only one who has survived outside of the womb with the type of disease she has. It was a rough road, and many times it looked as if she would die. But my cousins had faith in their God and they knew God had something special in mind for their daughter, even if it was only for a split second. If she would have died, they knew God was in control.

Due to dd #1's problems, and the fact that my cousin had miscarriages prior to her first pregnancy, her second pregnancy was monitored very closely. They even rented a doplar so they could keep a close eye on the baby. (Cousin is a nurse) Every thing looked good, and then she went in to labor. They decided to try a vbac-again it all looked good. The she started bleeding and not just a little, so they were forced to do an emergency c-section to save both mother and daughter.

That's all I'll say, if you would like to read her story, the journal, or view pictures you may visit their caring bridge site here. In this you'll see their faith, and their trials, as well as their tears.

What does all this have to do with me? Besides the fact that I'm praising God for all being as it should-not much.

However, many would see their story and say, "I can't believe after all they'd been through, that a loving God would allow them to go through more."

The thing is, that I believe God doesn't give us anymore than what we can handle. And my cousin's faith is tremendous, yes they are human too, but they believe. Strongly and because of the strength of their faith, wonderful things have happened. You can't imagine the number of people all around the world who have met God, through their testimony, including my aunt, my cousin's mother.

Now you should know, that I don't make this statement lightly: I believe God doesn't give us anymore than what we can handle.

I knew there was a strong possibility that my faith could be tested after I very firmly made that statement. And it has. I won't go into many details. Just know that my family is going through some trials, and we could very much use your prayers.

The least of our problems occurred this morning.

Front tire.



Back tire


It's one of those unbelievable things. And in case you're wondering, yes it was the only one on the block that it happened to. And-this vehicle, our work vehicle, is usually up in the drive. In fact, it's always in the drive except this night. So who did we piss off? Besides the 11 year old neighbor boy across the street that shot my son with a BB gun and told my 10 year old dd to suck his f-in balls, there was only one other, and he's 15. A 15 year old dh asked to quit smoking and cursing in front of our home.

So what do you do? First you file a police report, but with no proof, there's not much to do, except spend money you don't have, because you have to spend the money to continue working. Shortly after the officer left our home-I mean not even 10-15 minutes-grandma, who I knew many years ago and haven't seen in just as long, just so happened to have been out for a morning stroll. *rolls eyes* She pretended like we were long lost friends. She told us her darling grandson had been out of town for a few days, but when one of the neighborhood kids spoke up saying that she saw him only yesterday afternoon, grandma tried to tell us another story, dh called him on it. She said she was leaving, dh said have a nice day, she called dh an a-hole. Dh-"Mwwwwwah"

I have the sheriff's office on speed dial.

We'll go on with our day and do the best to make the most of it. And of course, spread the love.

Have a wonderful day, don't take it for granted. Share a smile or two, and love those around you.

Renee

Update, no sooner than I pushed publish on this blog, I walked outside to visit with dh, and there was the boy's mamma. I asked her if I needed to call the sheriff, she said no. I then explained that we were told to have no contact with them whatsoever without a sheriff officer, and they've come down to our home twice. And from the conversation-it's obvious they don't know what the boy was doing last night. At first she said he was with her all night, then she turned around and said "I just don't think he'd do something like this, yes he's mouthy, but IF I find out he did do it...." then "He just didn't have time..." So, was he with you or not? He obviously wasn't out of town, like grandma had tried to tell us he was. *rolls eyes*

Tomorrow is Fiction Friday @ Romance Roundtable, check it out. We have a bit of everything, including a few contest finalist. You'll even find one of my excerpts there, if you're curious about my manuscript.

Here's the link: Fiction Friday

Renee

I'm trying to garner up my courage and work on revisions. I'd much rather be writing. After a summer of quietude, Loki has decided to bombard me with scenes, and not just on one piece. I have four currently that I'm working on, or that I'd like to be. And it hasn't been easy to find the balance.

I have two series. One is a Scottish/English border story-and let me tell you, when I first thought that I would begin writing, a border story was far from the picture. The second series is an American West, again, I never thought I'd go there. I had even told one of my cps that there was no appeal for me to write a story with my home state as a backdrop. I guess Loki heard me and decided to change my mind.

So far, both series tend to be flowing somewhat smoothly, other than the fact that Loki likes to flit around at times and he only seems to appear once I've tucked the covers beneath my chin. I've started keeping note cards and pencils within reach, and luckily I can somewhat write in the dark.

I printed off four progress charts, one for my revision, and three for my works in progress. I'm going to take some time today and consider a feasible goal for each piece. I already know I want Hellion's Haven completed by the end of September-polish and all. I'm way over my original deadline, but then again I didn't know what I was asking of myself. Now, I pray I do.

Not sure how it'll all work out. But I'll let you know my progress. I'll even try to find a good progress meter. For now, here are my four working titles.

1. Hellion's Haven-revisions
2. The Guardian's Angel
3. Cherish Me
4. Loving Justice

I'm blogging at

Gluten story for the week:

On Saturday, I attended my local writer's meeting. I was excited because Barbara Baldwin and Mark Bouton were going to be speaking about query letters and synopsis, as well as getting that agent, and publishing your books.

I was very careful about what I ate. I wanted to make sure that nothing kept me from leaving the meeting, especially the awful pain and immediate need to use the restroom.

I wasn't even in the room five minutes and I had to leave. Thinking it wasn't a bad episode, I returned to the meeting room, 45 minutes later I quietly left once again. I thought it would be too rude to gather my stuff and leave all together, so I returned.

All was well. It wasn't a horrible episode by any means, but I couldn't figure out what had caused the incident. At least until later, when my eye started burning horribly, it was like I had dipped my finger in habanero pepper sauce and then touched my eye. My eye was on fire, flushing with water didn't work. When I used the Visine, it did work but it took a while for the pain to ease and my eyesight to come back. Yeah, I had lost sight in the one eye.

I had done something that day I don't do on an everyday basis; I wore mascara. I've had problems with mascara before, but didn't have a clue as to why it burnt my eyes like it did. It was also rare that I would react that way. AND, I never would have related intestinal issues with my mascara.

I began to research. Sure enough, the brand of mascara I had applied to my lashes was the culprit. Wheat germ oil was an ingredient. Who would have thought, not me.

I learn something new everyday. I'll be a heck of a lot more careful in the future with everything and anything.

Now, let's move on to the topic of my weight. I'm obsessive compulsive. I weigh myself everyday, sometimes every time I use the restroom. Ok, most of the time. I had mentioned before that for some reason I weigh less on Saturday that I do any other day, making me think it'd be nice to use that as my weigh-in weight. Then I thought that might be cheating.

8-23-08 = 177.0 lbs
8-27-08 = 179.0 lbs

I'm still walking almost every night. I'm still skating on the weekends with Mr. Scott and the kids. I haven't added any other regime in yet, although I know I need to. I'm a firm believer in strength training, and with the muffin top forming over my waistband as I lose weight, it is more vital than ever that I do something about or I risk keeping the muffin top. And that's not something I wish to do.

Have a wonderful productive day!

Renee

when your lawn mower breaks and you let the grass grow so high you need a bushwacker to mow it down.

Seriously, our mower bit the dust about a month ago, or should I say it decided to turn on whomever was mowing the lawn at the time. The last time my son used it, he could have used a few stitches. The last time I used it, I needed a new pair of sunglasses.

We borrowed a mower from my brother which was like driving a Mercedes Benz after running around in a Ford Festiva that you had to push start-I called it the Pebbles and Bam Bam car.

For some reason, we weren't able to attack the backyard, or maybe everyone was too afraid they'd never be found again, who knows. Anyway it was left unmowed. I knew things were getting bad when you couldn't see the dogs while they were doing their daily constitutional thing. Did I mention I have Great Danes?

In true Renee fashion, I put my foot down and gave him the look. I didn't care how, what, or where, I was going to have a lawn mower by the end of the week. And so I got one. A $20.00 dollar mower. I can't figure out if he was being considerate or trying to get me off his back, for some reason I think it was the later.

The grass was up to my thighs in some places. It took me an hour and a half to do a thirty minute job. And in typical Renee fashion, my mind began to wonder.

1. How can a yard with no grass have so much grass?
2. I hope I don't murder any little creatures that might have taken up residence.
3. Was that a snake?
4. What ever possessed us to have large dogs?
5. And my oldest dd wondered where all her underthings went. (Her terrier loves to carry them around)
6. Why didn't I let the kids come out here with the go-cart and flatten some of this down first?
7. Oh yeah, the king kong size piles of poo.
9. I think we better get the beasts back on Science Diet.
10. I better have lost a few pounds.
11. This better be sugar worthy. ;)

No, don't laugh! Don't you dare. But it was fun.

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

I apologize for not checking in last week. One of the symptoms of Celiac disease is missed menses. Since I've been gluten free, my body has decided to make up for the last 11 years of missed cycles. TMI, I know.



Fact or Fiction: Beef takes three days to move through your system.

Well I guess that depends on a multitude of factors, like your digestive system, as well as how the beef was cooked. If your digestive system is unhealthy, like mine, then yes, it can take days to digest. If it is healthy, then not quite as long.

I found this interesting, it come from Dr. Stanley Bass: Sequential Eating. But before I share this, I believe he is considering digestion time as the approximate time it takes for food to move from mouth to exiting stomach.

Animal proteins
Egg yolk - 30 min. digestion time
Whole egg - 45 min.
Fish - cod, scrod, flounder, sole seafood - 30 min. digestion time
Fish - salmon, salmon trout, herring, (more fatty fish) - 45 min. to 60 digestion time
Chicken - 1½ to 2 hours digestion time (without skin)
Turkey - 2 to 2 ¼ hours digestion time (without skin)
Beef, lamb - 3 to 4 hours digestion time
Pork - 4½ to 5 hours digestion time

(Editor's notes
Note1: raw animal proteins have much faster digestion times than the above times for cooked/heated animal proteins.
Note2: The digestion times given are under an ideal situation of eating only one food, chewing well, and having efficient digestion, as is the case e.g. after a fast. They are digestion times for optimally healthy persons, with good eating habits. The digestion times are to a large part derived from Dr. Gian-Cursio's and Dr. Bass' practices.
Digestion times are much longer on a conventional diet, and for persons with non-optimized digestive systems, or persons lacking in energy, and for meals with many ingredients put together haphazardly = not in the optimum sequential order.)


Now I don't go out on a limb and follow every quack doctor suggested diet that comes across my computer, but I did find it interesting. What got me thinking about this was that my mom had told me when she did Weight Watchers that almost nobody ate beef three days before weigh-in.

So how long does it take for actual food to move from mouth to excretion? Again, that depends on the food and the digestive tract. For a healthy tract, anywhere from 14-18 hours. For the average person I believe it takes 24 hours, which is too long. When you add beef, or I guess any animal protein it takes much longer. If your small intestine is damaged like mine is, it could take even longer.

I'm not an expert, not even close. So I suggest if you're curious about the topic that you should do your own research. There are many schools of thought out there. What I do know is that for me, I think I'll back off on the animal proteins just a bit. I want to do everything I can to heal the damage that has been done.

Now why the big lecture? Well, in July I celebrated my birthday, all I wanted was a nice thick medium rare steak, I'm not much of a beef eater, but I do like my steaks. Any way on my birthday, mil had a stroke, so I spent the better part of the day in the ER, from there things got hectic. When I was in Tulsa, mom took me out for my steak dinner. That was Friday, this is obviously Wednesday and I'm pretty sure it's still in my system, fermenting! TMI?

So, you want to know my weight? I'm not happy with it, especially since I've added exercise into my regime. Yeah, I know muscle weighs more than fat, so why do I feel so crappy about gaining 2 1/2 pounds? I think it's because we put too much stock in numbers and not the positive life style change.

Weight=182

I've set a definite goal though, by September 26-that's a little over 5 weeks-I'd like to be below 170, if not 165. I guess that's not so definite, is it, but more round about. ;)

Have a great day!!!

Renee

Like many of us, my mother has a hobby. Her hobby is collecting dolls. These aren't your typical Barbies either. These dolls are a tad bigger, and quite a bit more pricier than your Wal-Mart Barbie. I have a few dolls-no Ellowynes-that my mother has given me or I have won through online conferences etc. The hobby is actually growing on me, and I'm actually considering buying Prudence, one of Ellowyne's friends.


We went to Tulsa to attend a Wilde about Ellowyne conference, where others like my mother, love to play with their dolls. Meet Ellowyne- http://www.wildeimagination.com/default.aspx?skinid=2

At the beginning of the conference, those who attended walked around and gave each other little tokens of their talents. One lady came up to me with several pairs of panties in her hand. I, confused as I was had no idea they were panties, but I thought my mother's Matt could pay tribute to Michael Phelps, so I dressed him in a pair of blue trunks-um panties. Hey, they fit.

My mother made these tiny bags and t-shirts to give away to each of the conference attendees.




Meet Patricia Seaton, she's a repaint artist who owns Elegant Touch.


Patricia, kindly flew in from Colorado to teach these gals how to repaint their dolls.


This is one of her dolls, which I very quickly fell in love with.


My mother fell in love with this one. Her name is Bay, and is currently residing at my mother's house.


Another gorgeous one.


This is my mother's finished product. Of course, I knew hers would look the best, she's one of those talented perfectionists.


In case you all are wondering, yes, I did do some painting myself. And, in case you were wondering a little more, yes, she taught us how to paint nipples. And no, that's not what I was working on, if you look a bit closer you'll see one eyebrow isn't complete. By the way, I was using a toothpick to paint with.





Would you look at all that gluten? *grins*

I usually pay a bit more attention when someone is teaching, especially when it is a unique opportunity. However, I have a phobia of bats and not for one of those silly reasons that make people roll their eyes at you. For some reason, I attract mosquitoes and therefore attract bats. I have had more than one bat rip a few strands of hair out of my head as they're feeding on the true blood suckers.

While I was in Tulsa, my mom and I shared one night with a lady who rescues and rehabilitates bats. I can't remember what kind of bat she was holding. I was too freaked out to pay attention. Right after I took this picture, he opened his mouth and showed his tiny teeth. I backed up rather quickly, careful not to knock down any of the other curious observers.

What I do know is that she had six of these little bats who are solitary, so they lived in their own little tents. They also had to be hand feed. From what I understand, they were of different ages and most didn't know how to fend for themselves. After they leave her care they move on to another lady who will enhance their rehabilitation by allowing them to learn how to use their wings and find their own food, after that is accomplished they will then be released back into the wild.

Now these next two, I believe are called the big brown bats. They live together, although the female was a bit irritated and kept kicking the male out of his pouch-the poor guy. The picture was a bit blurry because he was moving around too much for my satisfaction and she was screeching at him for trying to climb back inside the pouch.



What was interesting about them *shivers* if you held them up to your ear and rubbed them, they purred like kittens. I didn't touch them, but I wasn't about to pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity. With them remaining in their pouches, their caretaker rubbed them and then held the pouch up to my ear. At first they only vibrated, but then an amazing thing happened and they began to purr, it wasn't anything you could hear unless it was up to your ear. Their clicking you could hear if you were in close proximity, their screeching you could hear across the room, but their purring could only be heard if you leaned your head against their pouch. As freaked out as I was, it was amazing.

Later I'll share my reason for going to Tulsa.

Renee

I'm in Tulsa. That's right Tulsa Oklahoma. I don't know much about Tulsa, other than it's in Oklahoma and almost due south of Topeka.

I paid quite a bit attention to the scenery on the drive down. My current work in progress is set in Kansas. I realize things have changed over the last 100 years or so, but I was still trying to get a mindset of the terrain and what might have been. For one thing there wouldn't have been any paved highways or Sonics.

One area that we passed was filled with what looked like fields of gold and I'm not talking about wheat, I'm speaking of the natural grass. I tried to imagine what it'd be like to run across the fields, minus the hay fever and the rattle snakes. You see, in one scene my heroine takes off on her own and travels south through an area that is nestled between the Flint Hills and the Ozarks, which is absolutely beautiful.

I wanted to put myself in her shoes. I know her motives and why she left and why she's out on her own, but I wanted to know how she felt as she saw her surroundings. What did she long for? What were her hopes? Her fears?

One thing I noticed on the Kansas side of the state line, there weren't very many trees to shelter under-I wonder if it was always that way. Once we crossed that line there were trees a plenty. Now my heroine doesn't cross into Oklahoma, I haven't quite decided on her destination, all I know is that it has to be a cow town with a place of ill repute. Since I'm trying to stay as historically correct as possible, I mentally jotted down a few town names, as well as a few character sketches of people we came across.

I'm not sure what to think of Tulsa, one things for sure it is a lot different than Topeka.

I remembered.

I'm pleased, very pleased with my progress. I haven't seen these numbers in years, probably close to six years if not more. 178.5!!!!!

I'm not doing anything other than working my hind end off, roller skating with the kids on the weekends, and as hot as it has been around here sitting in a sauna. But I contribute most of it to finally finding out what my body was reacting to.

Since I was a kid, I thought I was lactose intolerant because every time I ate cereal I would get real sick shortly afterwards. As I got older, I decided peanut butter was the cause of the hives that covered my body on a daily basis. With dairy out of the picture, and I was still becoming really ill, even with French toast and pancakes as well as whatever I ate for lunch, I moved on to corn, believing it was the culprit. With so many foods removed and I still felt so bad, well I just didn't even want to think about the possibilities, I didn't want to be another woman diagnosed with diverticulitis, IBS, fibro, or MS, or whatever they could loop me in just to give it a name. You see, it wasn't just the violent bouts of vomiting and late nights in the bathtub praying that God would put me out of my misery, I also had the tingling hands and feet, migraines, acid reflux, and so many more symptoms. Everyday was something new. Mr. Scott was sick of me being sick, my kids were sick of me being sick, I was sick of being sick. I was a traffic accident waiting to happen, and of course all the little symptoms just made me feel depressed.

Let me tell you, for the first time in my life I ate a bowl of cereal without getting ill. And I've added corn into my diet with no problems. Yesterday, about 20 minutes after I had lunch, I was pretty sure I had ingested something with gluten in it, 1 hour later as I sat in the bathroom with sweat pouring from my brow and my face buried in the trash can I, and...well I won't mention the rest, but I KNEW I had been glutened. I'll try and be much, much more careful. One thing is that, the longer I stay away from gluten, when I do have an incident, I know almost immediately where to look.

I was a bit disappointed on Monday, I decided to make Enchiladas, the family could have their flour tortillas, I would use corn-right before I opened the sauce I thought to check the ingredients and sure enough there was wheat in the ingredients. So, I had my enchiladas with corn tortillas and no sauce, oh well, at least I didn't get the acid reflux/heartburn that usually comes with eating spicy foods. I contribute that to being off gluten foods as well.

Who would have thought that wheat, something so natural and so good for you would be wrecking my life the way it had been for so very long? I know y'all are probably tired of hearing about it, but I can't emphasize enough, if you feel like crap all the time and you can't pinpoint the cause, it just might be a food allergy.

Have a wonderful day and a fantabulous week.

Renee

I forgot to check in for Wednesday Weigh-in, I will let you know that I was back down to 182. I dumped the ice cream as much as it pained me.

To all my friends who made it to San Francisco, I hope you had a fantabulous time. I can't wait to catch up on all your stories. I've been trying very hard not to hide my head in a hole, but I've been a bit under the weather due to my kidneys acting up. I'm thinking it's a stone and when the temperatures get as hot as they are now, it only compounds the problem.

Tomorrow, I hope to put my writer's hat back on my head. I've missed writing. It's been longer than it should be.

My goal this week is to sit down and give at least 30 minutes to revisions on Hellion's Haven and 30 minutes new writing on The Guardian's Angel.