In My Arms

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.




Knowing clouds will rage in....Storms will race in....But you will be safe in my arms....Rains will pour down....Waves will crash around

Psalm 69:29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.

The suffering and pain are unjust. Oh.. that we could take the pain away.

But Jon I know you are conscious of God. You are commendable.

But you will be safe in my arms

Jon ..you are safe in His arms.

Bob & Lori's Anniversary Palooza

This is the story of Bob and Lori's most excellent wedding anniversary palooza.

Prior to the departure they invested in an I-Zoom to make the the whole toll process more efficient so they could reach their destination in a more timely manner.

....and they wanted to ZOOM!

They loaded up the Honda

...course it wasn't sunny like this ...the Michiana gray perma-cloud was present (this is an old picture).

They have two favorite restaurants in the Chicagoland area. One of them is the Cheesecake Factory. Being mindful that dessert is inevitable, c'mon...duh..Cheesecake Factory...they split an order of the most delicious Thai Chicken Pasta.

In response to the holiday season, the restaurant offered a special peppermint cheesecake so they ordered it. No it didn't look like this...it was white with red peppermint sprinkled througout it and topped with whip cream....but you get the idea....just picture it white.

After gorging themselves at the Cheesecake Factory...the hopped back into the Honda (remember...this car) and left for Gurnee (pronounced GUR-KNEE with the accent on "knee" by the locals, or so I'm told.)

They shopped at






for several hours before heading back to the Schaumberg area to spend the night at the Quality Inn (see pict. below)



Ok....let me fast forward to the next morning....

The "Oldly-Weds) rose early the next morning. Their goal was to find an Einstein's Bagle shop for breakfast. Bob got directions at the hotels front desk to the nearest Einsteins and they left. However, they got lost and ended up back at the hotel for further instructions. With the help from the front desk they succeeded and found the Einsteins!

Bob and Lori love Einstein's and were elated to find one. As they savored their delicious coffee and bagle they gazed into each other eyes and remembered the Quality Inn....aahhhh I mean, the remarked on how good the bagles and coffee were. Momentarily they contemplated opening a franchise but the remembered they didn't have that kind of money so they just went back to gazing into each others eyes.

Their goals for Saturday were to go to the IKEA down the road and then make their way from the Schaumberg area to downtown Chicago. But when they came out of IKEA the wind had picked up considerably it had began to rain.

Lori already was fighting a cold.....and neither Bob nor Lori are big fans of cold or rain and since Woodfield Mall was right across the street from IKEA they decided inside shopping was the best option.

besides....the mall had Christmas decorations and thats primarily why they were going downtown anyway.....

Lori tried on fur coats at MACY'Sbut just couldn't find one that she felt was right for her! She wanted chinchilla anyway and didn't have any.

After roaming the mall for a while they decided they wanted Mexican for lunch and made their way to the border (border of the mall parking lot, to be exact) and had lunch at

They finished up their Mexican Fiesta and hopped back in the Honda yes...its still this Honda....(Bob and Lori are Dave Ramsey groupies...they can't get a new car cuz they're doing the debt snowball...hmmm snowball, winter...how ironic) They headed back home.

This was the most excellent story of Bob and Lori's 26th wedding anniversary celebration.

26 years and counting

I married my best friend 26 years ago today. Happy Anniversary Lori!

You are my everything. I love you!

The Clapper Plus

Around the holidays the advertisements for those really strange gifts always surface on tv. You know, the Ronco adds, the Chia pets, and the Clapper.

Last week I saw a commercial for the Clapper Plus. How would you make clapping your hands new and improved? The Clapper people did (or at least they think so) The 'plus' in the Clapper Plus was a remote.


The premise for the remote was to be able to use the clapper technology without having to clap. In the first mini vignette they show a room with a baby sleeping. Of course you don't want to clap loudly to shut the lights off when a baby is sleeping so you can use your clapper remote to turn them off. The second selling point had an actress attaching the clapper remote to the wall just outside a room. The benefit was that you don't have to enter the room to turn the lights on.



HELLO! Have the people at the Clapper heard of a light switch!

distant

1Samuel 28
6 Saul prayed to God, but God didn't answer—neither by dream nor by sign nor by prophet.

What is making you feel distant from God? The economy, the holidays....noise? Do the lyric's of this song by Burlap to Cashmere "Is anybody out there" resonate with you?

Sometimes while I'm driving
Trying to find my song
Looking for the answers
And where I do belong
Finally the children are
Bringin' me back home

Is there anybody out there
Does anybody care
Are the people really there
Is there anybody seeking
Does anybody see
Or are they deaf and dumb like me

Is the government going to rescue you? Are situations beyond your control dictating your life? Are you floundering in hopelessness? Is anybody seeking?

I don't know why I rush to watch the news every morning. It's like watching the movie "Ground Hog Day" as every morning it's the same thing over and over. Yesterday I saw that GM is proposing the layoff of 30,000 people, yet the new administration taking office in January is proposing a stimulous package that creates 2 million jobs. How do you find joy in a climate like this? Is there anybody seeking?

Advent. I looked up some definitions: Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming") is a season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, The arrival, coming, or discovery of something, especially something extremely important.

God knows our needs. He knows tomorrows stock market results. He knows the future of GM.

Christmas is coming. Jesus' birthday. The arrival of something extremely important. Joy restored. Joy sustained. Hope found.

Is there anybody out there
Does anybody care
Are the people really there
Is there anybody seekin'
Does anybody see
That he died upon a tree

Do you feel distanced from God? He opened the door. Is anybody seeking>

Throwing in the towel

Hand towels similar to these...






...are available at the front desk when you walk into the gym.

They aren't large by any means. They work well for wiping the sweat from your brow but not really meant for anything else. I always grab one or two when I walk in as I like to have one for standing on when I get out of the shower and one for my work out.

I completed my workout this morning and headed for the locker room. A creature of habit, I always turn the shower on for it to warm up and then open my locker and gym bag to get all my toiletries and towel out and then get ready to take my shower.

I took everything out of my bag that was there and then stepped into the shower. I finished showering and opened the curtain. I always hang my bath towel on the hook next to the shower....

....but today there was no towel!

My first thought was I must have forgotten to get it out of my bag. So what choice did I have but to step out the shower, soaking wet, and go over to my locker.

NO TOWEL to be found! That's what I get for throwing stuff together in a rush last night. What to do....what to do!

Then I saw the two little white towels I'd grabbed from the front desk. I grabbed one of them and frantically began to pat myself dry. I couldn't reach the middle of my back and was trying to whip this little towel on my back to get it dry. It didn't take long for the first towel to become completely saturated with water. I grabbed the second towel and continued to 'pat dry' the best I could.

The second hand towel got drenched quickly as well and I still wasn't completely dry.

Options...options...I could stand under the hand blow dryer but wouldn't that be weird if someone came in the locker room. There are paper towels....no way too abrasive...hmmmmmm... (they really should put a stack of those hand towels in the locker room too). Looked as if I was going to be as dry as I was going to be so I just got dressed. Unfortunately my clothes had to absorb some of the wetness that still covered me. I guess it could have been worse. I could have not picked up any hand towels today. That would have not been fun.

Note to self. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR GYM BAG FOR A TOWEL BEFORE LEAVING THE HOUSE!