Oh Little Town of Chiang Mai

I have officially entered the Christmas Season with a big smile on my face and lots of holiday cheer. I admit that normally I get annoyed with people that play Christmas music and put of decorations and trees before it is even December, but I have now joined their ranks. Today I played Christmas music all afternoon and put up Christmas lights with A and Y. Tomorrow I am picking up my Christmas tree and I can't wait to put it up. Tomorrow night A, Y, Michelle and I are decorating the tree, watching You've Got Mail and eating Christmas food. It will be fun!

Here are some photos of the Christmas lights we put up today.







And here is my 2008 Family Christmas photo, with and without the flash.

Speechless

Read this article if you haven't heard about it yet, it left me speechless.

Walmart Worker Dies

This is why I have never gone shopping on Black Friday. This is why I am happy to currently be in a country where Thanksgiving and Christmas are not widely celebrated. This is so sad.

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!

That song has been running through my head repeatedly for the past four hours because my roommate was humming it earlier...

I have started walking with Aon and Ya, some of yesterday's pictures were from our walk. There is a beautiful place not far from where I live and we have been walking there and back. It is about a 5 kilometer walk which I believe is about 3 miles. It is an easy walk on completely flat ground and I really enjoy it. Yesterday we took the dogs and by the end of it, I had to carry Gracie because she was just too tired. I guess 5 kilometers is pretty far when your legs are only two inches long and your hips are bad. Anyway, all of that was to set you up for me complaining that today my legs are killing me. The front of my shins are so sore! I would expect the back of the legs to be sore but not the front. It is weird. Stairs are very difficult and since The Centre is 8 levels, it takes awhile to get downstairs from my office. I have done this walk several times before and I have never been sore before so I am not sure what is causing it. Maybe I walked funny yesterday or something... Ever had the front of your legs hurt?

Yesterday was quite a day. I woke up super early after only sleeping about two hours and went walking with Aon and Ya. After that, I drove across town and picked up my friend, Michelle. She moved in with me yesterday so we brought all of her stuff over and got her settled. Then I went grocery shopping with A and Y to buy ingredients for my Thanksgiving tacos. It is amazing how difficult it is to find the makings for tacos here! After a couple hours and a couple stores, we went home with everything except sour cream. We then proceeded to make homemade salsa. I had never made it before, A and Y had never even tasted it before. It took so long to chop everything up small enough and mix it all together but it was totally worth it! Near the end of making it, Aon handed me a chili pepper, told me it wasn't spicy and asked me to try it. I stuck it in my mouth and immediately started experiencing intense pain. My lips were on fire, my tongue and throat were burning, my nose was running, my face was bright red and I was sweating. You should know that usually I can handle pretty spicy stuff but this was the spiciest I had ever tasted. As I was jumping up and down in pain, I could hear Ya yelling at Aon that she gave me the wrong wrong chili pepper and that it is the bigger ones that are not spicy. It took about 30 minutes before the pain went away and I could laugh about the situation. And luckily, I had wonderful tacos and salsa to eat to wash that chili pepper down! Altogether, it was a great Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for!

Snapshots of My Day

Happy Thanksgiving! Click on the photos to see them bigger.

Chaos

I mentioned the political problems in my earlier post and at the time I was feeling relatively distance from what was occurring in Bangkok. However, I just read an article on CNN that stated the following:

"...Protesters wearing yellow shirts in Chiang Mai pulled a 60-year-old man from his car and shot and killed him late Wednesday, Reuters journalist John Sanlin told CNN. Anti-government protesters typically wear yellow shirts, he said..."

And now I am feeling a little less safe. Here is the link for the full article: Thai PM Rejects Calls....

Here are a couple more links giving a bit more background:

Descent into Chaos
Thailand's Political Crisis

Check them out and please be praying!

Thanksgiving Tacos

I have to start this post by squeezing a little bit of sympathy out of you with the following statement. My heart hurts today knowing that tomorrow will be my first Thanksgiving in 29 years without family. I am trying not to think about it too much because if Thanksgiving is hard, imagine how I will feel on Christmas!

However if I can't be with family tomorrow, I will be with the next best thing: Aon and Ya. My closest friends on this side of the world, my Thai family.


They work for Americans who have given them the day off to celebrate. I work for Thai people which means it is just like any other day. I will be leaving early though to celebrate with my "family". I asked A and Y what they want for dinner and they said tacos. So, tomorrow I will be cooking Thanksgiving tacos and I am sure it will feel very festive. What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

P.S. Please pray for Thailand. I'm not sure what those of you outside of Thailand are hearing, but there is a lot of major political stuff happening right now. I am not going to attempt to tell you about it now because I don't quite understand it fully myself and I am still asking questions and researching. But please pray for our government and the people of Thailand. Please pray specifically for peace and safety. Thanks!

Human Bones

This scares me: ye Churchyard.

Jewelry made of actual human bones. I just don't know what to say about it except that it scares me...

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night...

I know that this is a lame excuse for a post today but it is 8:19pm and I am exhausted so I am going to bed.

"I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly. The sun has gone to bed and so must I..."

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A glimpse at my day:

• woke up at 4:45am
• drove in the dark to PMI
• loaded up trucks with gifts
• road in the back of a Song Teaw (taxi truck with the bed turned into seats) for two and a half hours on a winding road up the mountain
• got incredibly sunburned
• met wonderful people
• reconnected with people I haven't seen in a year
• spoke a lot of Thai
• taught English
• prayed a lot
• got chills from the Holy Spirit
• watched people be healed
• saw 40 people accept Christ for the first time
• took over 1000 photos
• helped dedicate a new Children's Home
• walked out to the middle of a river so that I could get good pictures of baptisms
• got wet in the river and it was totally worth it
• ate amazing Thai food
• laughed a lot
• remembered my purpose in life
• thanked God
  
• spent another two and a half hours in the back of a Song Teaw down the winding road from the mountain
• watched someone throw up repeatedly from car sickness
• drove home
• got sick myself from sun poisoning
• applied a lot of aloe vera gel
• had one of the best days of my life
  

Attithan

This post is going to be short because I just got back from a three hour walk with Aon and Ya and I really need to take a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow I have to wake up at 4:45am because I am going to Samoeng, which is a local hill tribe village. I am going to take pictures for a relief project with a local ministry and although it will be fun, it will also be exhausting! Last year they hired me to take pictures and you can view a small portion of them here. Anyway, all of that to explain that I'm not going to write much because I need to go to bed.

And yet I haven't even gotten to the main part of my post yet...

I wanted to ask you all to pray for a friend of mine. She is very very dear to me and needs some help from our Heavenly Father right now. She is one of the strongest people I know and yet life drags us all down sometimes. I'm not going to give you her name or details because I want to protect her privacy. Please pray for peace, strength, rest and healing in her life. I know that it is sometimes hard to pray for people that you don't know, especially if you don't know what they specifically need prayer for. However, I strongly believe that if you ask God to guide your prayers, he will. So that is what I ask of you today. Thank you.

By the way, "attithan" is the Thai word for "prayer."

Flasher

Quote of the day:

"Jen, let me play a Madonna song while you flash us."

I'm tempted to just leave it at that for comedic purposes but I feel the need to explain it in order to keep my title of "missionary". Tonight I was at youth group and we hosted a really great band from Singapore called "Giants Must Fall." I was taking pictures at the event and at one point I went outside to where some of the kids were selling drinks and took some photos there.

One of the boys, Alex, pipes up above the noise, "Jen, let me play a Madonna song while you flash us."

At this point, every person outside starts laughing hysterically except for Alex. I had a momentary thought that I probably shouldn't encourage this at a church event but it was just too funny to pass up. A moment later, Alex realized what he said and through laughter tried to explain that he meant the flashes from my camera.

About ten minutes later, I had one of the male leaders of the group go outside and explain to Alex that he was in trouble for his inappropriate comments to a female leader. The whole thing was hilarious and made my night!

Once Upon A Time...Happily Ever After

Most of you know that I love movies, pretty much all movies. But there is a special place in my heart for a certain type of movie. Movies on the Disney Channel. Movies that are made for television. Movies that start with "Once upon a time" and end with "happily ever after." Movies where the underdog wins and the boy gets the girl. Movies that teach you an important life lesson. Movies with catchy tunes and people dancing around singing them. Movies that don't even go near the subject of sex and are free of bad language. Movies that are family friendly.

Movies that are made for children warm my 29.5 year old heart and continually put a smile on my face. I watch them over and over again until I can quote them and sing along to the soundtrack and I never seem to grow tired of them.

However, I have finally met my match. Last night I couldn't sleep so I woke up in the middle of the night and turned the television on. I watched a movie called Picture This starring Ashley Tisdale of High School Musical fame. I'd like to state that I am a huge fan of High School Musical. I have the DVDs and Soundtracks and pretty much know them by heart, and I'm not ashamed to admit any of that. So, I had high hopes for Picture This and those hopes were ruthlessly crushed. Maybe it was because it was the middle of the night and I wanted to be sleeping. Maybe it is one of those movies that is best when watched with others. Maybe the acting was just really bad. This movie was, in my opinion, really dumb. I actually strruggled to get through it, which is difficult because I am usually pretty easy to please. I have only ever walked away from one movie because of how stupid it was and I was repeatedly tempted to walk away from Picture This. I sit here now, 14 hours later, and wonder who put forth the money to pay for this movie. I am dumbfounded.

And yet, the boringness (is that a word?) was just what I needed to be able to climb into bed and fall fast asleep. Thanks Ashley!

It Must Be The Weather Change

My Thai friends hold strongly to the belief that with the weather change comes sickness. I realize that there is some truth in this but I had never heard it exclaimed so many times before moving here. Whenever anybody gets sick, someone says "it must be the weather change." Sometimes it makes me laugh because the weather always seems to be hot or hotter and that change doesn't seem like it could cause sickness.

Yesterday I started coughing. Last night I started sneezing. This morning, as I dragged myself out of bed coughing and sneezing, I said aloud, "it must be the weather change." And I meant it. Two weeks ago it was hot and last week it was cold. This week is hot again and I am convinced that the changes in weather is causing my sickness, as well as the sicknesses of the handful of friends I ran into today who were also coughing and sneezing.

Thanks a lot Mr. Weather!

P.S. I somehow made it back to Thailand without bringing any cold medicine with me. Anyone want to send me a supply of Dayquil and Nyquil? I will love you forever!!

"Your standing films will time and test themselves."

"Your films will stand the test of time."

Anybody know what that quote is from?

I mentioned on Facebook a couple months ago that I had gotten a new tattoo and ever since then, people have been asking to see it. Honestly, I've just been too lazy to take a picture up until today.

Thought maybe I'd show all three of my tattoos on here and let you know what they mean.

I got this one about ten years ago in the small of my back. I think it is pretty self explanatory. It is fading quite a bit and desperately needs touched up but I never see it, so I leave it alone.



This one I got a year later and it is placed directly underneath the cross. It is the Chinese symbol for "servant" and meant a lot because I always thought someday I'd end up serving in China. This one has also faded a lot and needs redone but again, I never see it.



Here is the two of them together.



This is my newest one that I got a couple months ago. After Tiffany died, Tam and I had charms engraved with her initials that we put on our charm bracelets. The charms were angel wings and after that we always associated angel wings with Tiffany. I took the actual charm into the tattoo shop and they copied it onto my foot.




I know tattoos are kind of a touchy subject with some people but I absolutely love mine! I have never regretted getting any of them and am definitely open to more. They are a way of expressing my personality and who cares what they look like when I am old and gray! :) I have to say that the angel wing is my favorite because it is the first one that I actually see every day and it holds such a special meaning.

So, there you go. Sorry it took me so long to put up pictures!

It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary

I was eating with Aon and Ya and they were speaking in Thai to each other and I responded to something one of them said. At that moment Ya looked at Aon and said, "Jen's Thai is getting too good, we can't complain about her anymore when she is with us." This of course was also said in Thai but I understood every word. I attempted to act offended but instead just burst in laughter and they both joined me. They spent the next few minutes trying to convince me that they don't really complain about me. I thought the whole situation was pretty funny! I really love those girls!

Thank you God for blessing me with such amazing friends!

Chan Rak Wendy!

Dear Wendy,

I know we have never met but my mom tells me that you are my aunt. I wanted to write and say thank you for the wonderful clothes you bought me last Christmas. It is finally cooling down in Chiang Mai and since mom keeps my hair cut short, I have been a bit chilly. I have to admit that the first few times mom tried to put the clothes on me, I ran and hid. I am ashamed to say that I also pouted quite a bit in protest. However, I am starting to get used to wearing them and they really do keep me warm. I am also the envy of every dog in the neighborhood because I am so pretty when I wear them! Thank you from the bottom of my little heart!

Here is a picture of me looking beautiful in one of the shirts today:



And here is a picture of Sammy trying his hardest to look handsome without a shirt of his own:


Mom says she is going to buy Sammy his own shirt tomorrow so I guess I will have to find something else to hold over his head.

Anyway, thanks a lot! Chan Rak Khun! (That means I love you in my native language.)

Hugs,
Gracie Sue

Tick Tock

I have a serious tick problem. I know that I have mentioned it before but I am just starting to realize how serious it is. They are everywhere. On my dogs, on me, in my bed, on my walls, everywhere. I know this makes me sound dirty but I am actually quite clean. I just cleaned my house from top to bottom, as I do every Sunday. I cleaned all my linens and clothes, wiped down the walls, cleaned the floors, washed the dogs and I still keep finding ticks. An exterminator came and sprayed my house last week to get rid of termites and apparently I need to call someone to get rid of the ticks as well. But first I am going to cut all the grass and trees in my yard so that everything is bare and then I'm gonna spray the heck out of the place. Please pray for this problem to go away, I'm really tired of it!!

This is totally random but I thought I'd also mention how much I love doing laundry. I don't love to clean in general but washing clothes is different. We don't use dryers in Thailand so I hang everything up in the sun to dry and for some reason, it is very therapeutic for me. My washing machine is pretty hard on clothes so anything delicate has to be hand washed and I love doing that as well. Maybe I have some kind of a disorder... :)

Friendly Bloggers #2

Diane Leota Davis is written by Diane (amazing, I know). I met Diane when I was a junior is high school and she was one of the leaders in my youth group. I haven't seen her in years but I enjoy reading her blog. Random fact: One of my closest friends, Jessica was roommates in college with Diane. I was friends with Jess for a couple years before seeing a picture of her and Diane together. Small world, huh?

The Olsen Family is written by my friend, Jenni. We were in the same youth group in San Jose together and became good friends. Unfortunately we lost touch after college but thanks to the wonders of the internet, we are back in touch. Jenni writes about her life, her family and her beautiful little girls. My favorite memory is of a night we went to Los Gatos with another friend named Jenn and met some guys (Jenni's beautiful and attracted all kinds of attention from boys!). The guys asked us our names and we said, "Jen, Jen and Jenn." They just stood there for a couple seconds before asking us if we were serious. That memory always makes me smile!

Lost in Translation is written by Katie Gardner. I don't even know where to start with Katie because I've only known her five years and yet I have a billion and one memories with her. Katie is like family and I can completely be myself with her. When I was getting ready to move to San Diego in 2002, I got a phone call one day from a girl that I had never met before. She said her name was Katie and she was planning on moving to San Diego with her friend Erin and she wanted to know if I was interested in getting an apartment together. I have no idea what my response was but I remember hanging up and thinking that girl was really weird for wanting to live with me when we didn't know each other. I quickly put it out of mind until a few months later when I met her. I have to admit, the first time I met her, I was scared and would never have guessed that she would soon be one of my best friends. Katie is one of the most talented and witty writers I know, so go read her blog!

Wholly Surrendered is written by Katie Gaultney. I don't actually know Katie, never met her, but she happens to be married to a very cool guy named, Bradford. Brad and I were Amor Interns together in the summer of 2002. There is something special about spending three months living in a tent on a rock quarry in Mexico that brings people together and bonds them for life. Brad and I still keep in touch and I was very excited for him when he married Katie last year. Katie's blog keeps me updated on the Gaultney family and helps me know exactly what to pray for when talking to God about them.

The Jungle - Thailand Edition is written by Kim and Cory Klein. Cory works with me at The Centre and is blessed with a wonderful wife and two beautiful daughters. Their daughters, Evie and Winnie are both really young and Kim home schools them while Cory is at The Centre. There is something about the family that absolutely amazes me. It is one thing for a single person to pick up and move across the world to follow God's call. But this is an entire family that picked up and moved across the world to follow the call and I can't help but think that they are super cool for doing so. Cory has amazing leadership skills and has improved the ministry at The Centre so much in the past year that they have been here!

TGIF

Plans for the weekend:

• sleep
• lay on the couch
• sleep
• watch movies
• sleep
• read
• sleep
• go to church
• come home and sleep

Thank God it's Friday!!!

Sanook Mak!

I am not afraid to admit that I am a dork, in fact I think it probably adds to my charm. Laugh at this video as much as you want, but don't you wish you had been here? It was sanook mak (very fun)! My favorite part is Aon and Ya laughing hysterically in the background!!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Today Chiang Mai has sounded like a war zone. It's after 10pm and the fireworks are still so constant that there is almost no break in the booms. I am going to attempt to sleep tonight but I'm thinking it is going to be a difficult task. Last night the fireworks continued until about 4pm.

Yet even with the loud noises, I can't help but smile because it is so beautiful outside. I was driving home on my motorbike tonight and the sky was littered with hundreds of lanterns like the ones in the pictures of yesterdays post. It looked as if the stars were suddenly a lot closer and brighter and scattered in between the lanterns were fireworks constantly be let off. I couldn't help but think about how majestic and big God is!

Aon, Ya and I decided to let off some fireworks with the neighbors after I got home. Where I grew up, we were not allowed to set off fireworks so they kinda scare me. I stayed back a little ways with my camera and oohhed and aahhed as they were set off. Our last one was supposed to shoot straight up into the sky, leaving a trail of fire behind. Instead it shot straight towards my neighbor's house, in through the open door and fizzled out in the entryway. We all stood there in complete shock for a couple seconds before running towards the house scared. Luckily, the fire went out quickly and there was no damage but it was a scary moment!

Oh, the fun of Loy Kratong!

The Beauty of Loy Katong

Singapore, here I come! Maybe...

If you've been reading my blog lately, you know that I have been stressing a lot about my dental work. It is cheaper here in Thailand than in the states, but it will still cost me over $2000 to get it done. And $2000 is something that I don't have so I've been praying for a solution to this problem.

Today I heard from a friend in Singapore who had a possible solution for me. There is a chance that I may be able to fly there and get my dental work done for free or really cheap by a friend of hers. A round trip ticket from here to Singapore is under $400 which is A LOT cheaper than $2000. If it works out, I'll probably go next week sometime. Please pray that it will work out!

Praise God for answered prayers!

P.S. Today I found pomegranates in Chiang Mai. I have to admit that I almost jumped up and down with excitement! I've looked for them for the past three years and asked several people but haven't been able to find them. Today I was just walking down the street and passed someone selling them. I taught the man how to say pomegranate (nearly impossible feat) and then bought a few. I am so excited to eat them!!!

2 Minutes

I just got home and I only have two minutes until midnight. So, here is my post for today...

Love you all!

Hero

First of all, I love that all the comments on yesterday's post were about my new boyfriend. It's good to know that people actually read what I write and think about it. For now, the boyfriend issue will have to remain a mystery...

Secondly, tonight I discovered Guitar Hero. Aon and Ya came over and the three of us decided to try and figure out the XBOX. I'd never played one before and was quite surprised to find out that the controllers are cordless. The box came with a bunch of games, most of them clearly show that a boy owned it before me, but it came with two guitar hero games and two guitars. So, we plugged it in and started playing and had a blast! Sanook mak (very fun)!!! I don't mean to brag but apparently I'm pretty good at it. :) Aon says it is because I can play a real guitar but she has never actually heard me play so she doesn't understand how bad I am. I am much better at the game than I am on my real guitar! Anyway, it was a good way to end the day because we were all feeling kinda down and serious before. There were actually tears during dinner and then hysterical laughing after. Ya said that she will probably wake Aon up in the middle of the night because she will be laughing in her sleep. I love those girls!

I am starting to ramble because I am so tired. Goodnight!

Utter Exhaustion

Today was a long day in an incredibly hot room (probably sweat off at least five pounds) after only two hours of sleep. Every part of me is tired and my brain is not quite functioning enough to pull together an interesting blog. So here is a list of randomness (is that even a word?):

• I almost hit two cows on the street today.
• Today I sang a She and Him song at the top of my lungs for Aon and Ya and they laughed hysterically. Do you think that means it was really bad? :)
• I have somehow acquired an XBOX360 and have no idea how to use it but it looks pretty sitting next to my TV.
• I miss vacuuming, the sound made when you roll over a particularly dirty spot and the lines on the carpet when you are finished.
• On second thought, I miss carpet.
• I discovered a heavenly place only a kilometer from my house and took a lot of photos. Then I lent my camera to my friend so I can't even look at them.
• One of those photos was of me and my new boyfriend.
• I love that I can pull milk and orange juice out of the cupboard when I run out in the fridge because they don't have to be refrigerated here.
  
• I am getting really tired of ticks. They are everywhere and today I pulled one out of my neck.
• When you borrow something from a friend and then keep it for two years, does that become a theft? (This one is for you Anne!)
• I often pick the color of my shirt by how hot it is outside and how defined my sweat marks will be.
• Today I sweat so much that even my jeans were soaked.
• Is 6:45pm too early to go to bed?
  

Friendly Bloggers

Today I thought I'd tell you a little about the friendly bloggers that you can find links to in my side bar. The OCD side of me insists that I start in alphabetical order by their fist names, so here goes...

Full Circle is written by my friend, Allen. Al and I met in 1995 when I moved to San Jose and started going to his church. He is seriously one of the coolest people in my life! I rarely see him (because I live on the other side of the world and life took us in different directions) but I am always completely comfortable around him and plan on having him in my life until we are both old and grey! Fun fact: Allen and my sister, Tamara were born in the same hospital a day apart, our moms remember each other.

::howDOESthisWORK:: is written by Alon (not to be confused with Allen). I met Alon in 2002 when I started working for Amor Ministries. Alon was my boss and just happened to be the coolest boss, I seriously should have gotten him a mug with "World's Best Boss" printed on it. He is one of those people that you completely respect and look up to and have a great time with. He taught me a lot!

Love People is written by Brooke. I first met Brooke when she was seven years old, I may have babysat her a few times. I got to know her better when she was in junior high and I was in college and I was one of her youth group leaders. She was super cool back then and is even more cool now! Brooke spent the month of June with me in Thailand and I am so proud of the women that she has become. She is strong, confident and loves Jesus. I feel a level of comfort with her that is usually reserved for family, so I think I will start calling her my sister. :)

Eating The Garden is written by Carrie, whom I met through my sister. Tamara and Carrie went to massage school together and very willingly invited me into their circle of friends, even though I know nothing about massage therapy. She gardens and has some pretty cool stories as well as delicious recipes!

Crystal's Randomness is written by none other than Crystal. I honestly can't remember when we first met and it feels like I've known her forever. Crystal, do you remember when we met? I have memories of her from childhood and then we reconnected when we both attended San Jose Christian College after high school. Crystal is one of my favorite people for so many reasons but it is her strength and honesty that encourages me on a daily basis. I haven't actually seen her in years but we stay connected over the internet and hopefully someday soon we will get to hang out!

I just realized that I have a total of 20 people in my list of friendly bloggers and if I were to write about all of them today, it would be overwhelming for all of us. So that is it for now, more again tomorrow!

By the way, what do you think of my blog's new look?

Termites

Last night I found a termite infestation in my house. It was absolutely disgusting! There were literally thousands of them and I was completely overwhelmed and grossed out. These pictures don't really do them justice but it was the best I could do in my moment of panic!







Boxes of stuff was completely ruined. I am SO glad that Aon and Ya were at my house when I discovered the bugs, they handle situations like this better than I do. This last picture is of them helping me clean up. :)

Not About The Elections

I am not going to write about the elections today because I am sure you have all heard enough. All I am going to say is that I am glad to be all the way over here Thailand instead of in the states. Things seemed pretty crazy.

I actually don't have much to say today but I have to write something because of NaBloPoMo. Not much of anything happened today because I stayed home with tooth pain and rested.

Just after I wrote that last paragraph, I discovered an entire generation of termites living in my home. I need to go take care of them but maybe I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow...

So much for not much of anything happening today!

My Excitement Cannot Be Contained!

Next Episode in the Teeth Saga

I realize that I may be boring you by talking about my teeth problems every day but since it happens to be the controlling factor of the last few days of my life, that is what you get to read about.

Today I went in for yet another root canal and it was not at all a successful visit. Before giving me the Novocain, the dentist stuck one of his little tools in the there and touched the top of the tooth. It was not at all expected but I cried out and jerked my head away as far as I could while lying down in a dentist's chair. It hurt! A lot! So, he started in on the shots trying to numb my mouth. Because it was so sensitive, he used a lot of Novocain and was digging around the back of my mouth with his needle. Not fun! Next he got out his drill and started drilling the tooth. Again my reaction was unexpected as my legs both shot up in the air and I cried out even louder than the last time. To make this long story short, the dentist numbed my mouth so much that my jaw locked and he had to pry it open. I had absolutely no control over opening my mouth and yet my tooth hurt like crazy. So, he filled my mouth with antibiotics to fight the infection and told me to come back in a few days.

It is now hours later and I still can't open my mouth wide enough to eat anything or talk like a normal person. But the pain is lessening and hopefully I will be able to get some sleep and feel better tomorrow.

Please keep praying for the finances to come through to pay for all this dental work. Also, just pray that the pain will go away because the next couple weeks are really busy for me. Stuff like this always seems to show up when we are busy, doesn't it? We are having English Camp in a couple weeks and I am playing the role of Camp Director which means I have a lot to do and not enough time for pain. :)

I appreciate the prayers!

Can't Buy Me Love

I have to admit that I am a bit stressed about money right now. Usually, I am completely laid back about money so this is not a normal feeling. I have been raising support since 2002 and God always provides in every way, so why stress? Because I'm human.

This week I found out that I have about $2000 worth of dental work that needs done. And it is all stuff that needs done right away. Three root canals in the past couple days has not been fun and they are only the beginning. God, why didn't you bless me with good, strong teeth? :) But seriously, I don't have $2000 or anywhere near $2000 dollars and I'm not sure how I am going to pay for it. So, I am praying but the worry manages to leak through and bog me down anyway. Anyone have an extra $2000 laying around?

On top of that, my computer may be on it's last leg. Yesterday I noticed that the screen is falling apart. I tried to put it back together but I don't know how long it will last. Hopefully, it won't give out until I'm done paying for my teeth and have enough money for a new computer!

Last month I made a commitment to help support a couple of the Thai staff at The Centre. I prayed about it and God gave me a number. So, tomorrow I will give them support even though I am lacking funds myself. I am totally believing in the sowing and reaping concept right now! And luckily I serve an awesome God who always keeps his promises and I know he will provide for me.

Pray for me and my finances. Thanks!

Life's Like an Hourglass Glued to the Table

I have really bad teeth. Thanks to the genes mom and dad passed on, I may have dentures by the time I'm 30 (which is only a few months away). Okay, the dentures may be an exaggeration but the bad teeth is not.

When I was visiting the states over the summer, three of my teeth broke. Three! What is the chance of that? Of course I didn't visit a dentist there because they are so incredibly expensive and I waited till I came back to Thailand where it is cheaper. Yesterday I went to the dentist's office and he said, "Oh, are you here to finish the implant we started last year?" I calmly informed him that no, although I would love to have a tooth in place of the metal stud that has been sitting in my mouth for the past year, I was there for other reasons. I started to list my problems and the dentist actually laughed at me. I am pretty sure that is not proper dentist etiquette. (It was like when I had my hair cut a couple months ago and the hairdresser said I have the most bizarre hair she had ever seen. You just don't say things like that!)

Anyway, we took some x-rays and it turns out that I needed two root canals among many other fixes. So we decided to go ahead and do the first root canal yesterday. Guess what? I am among the lucky 25% of people in the world who has two roots to one tooth! Who knew I was so lucky! So, yesterday I had two root canals and today I am having a third. I am praying hard that today's tooth only has one root!

Did I mention that the Thai word for teeth is "fun"? Ironic, isn't it? Teeth are not fun!!!

*BTW, the title of this post is a line from a song that I woke up singing this morning and really has nothing to do with this post...