Nothing much

For some strange reason we haven't gotten much work done on the house lately. It might be due to the fact that Phillip (this is Jacquelyn writing) has been working over 100 hours a week for the past month or so. We haven't accomplished much more than tearing out the closet in the master bedroom and bringing the floor up to the same level as the rest of the house. As usual nothing is as easy as it seems but I won't bore you with the details.

Meanwhile I have been keeping myself busy by planting a garden and moving dirt so that we can have a nice patio under our tree. Phillip did manage to build a huge picnic table and once he finishes the benches we will be dining "al fresco" until winter.

Traffic Problems...

Oops.... My sweet little wife posted house stuff on the wrong blog! For a history of our little foray into construction, check out my other blog here.

For those of you who have commented on the last blog my wife posted...

"Steve? Is that you?"

This Old House

This Old House

Hopefully I'm doing this right. I have decided to take over Phillilp's blog and as his wife, I don't think he will mind.

Here is the long awaited update on the house and family situation:

December 20th: our little daughter Eliannah Danielle was born and we brought her home to live with her brothers in the RV.


December 21st - 23rd: Phillip took stock of what he needed to do and set to work re-aquainting himself with our old house and what needed to be taken care of next.

December 26- 30: Phillip and my dad left me at my mom's house and "got after it" as he would say. They worked out some problems with the footings, re-leveled the house and made sure the walls were plumb (there was some problem with a bowed out wall when the floor was leveled).

January 1st-6: I returned home with the boys and tried to keep out of Phillip's way as he and my dad worked on replacing the beams in the floor. By the end of this week not only were the floor beams in place but they had put insulation in the floor!

Lets see ... the details are foggy but since then the kitchen extension has been framed and the one wall of the kitchen was reframed, making it ready for french or sliding doors (a small change but totally worth the extra effort).

Foregive me for bragging but I must say I am amazed at how much my husband has learned and accomplished since we bought this house. It is insane how far we have come. I am also blown away by how many of our friends had given up their Saturdays (and other days) to slave away in on our house. God has really blessed us and humbled me personally by surrounding us with all that we need when we need it and showing us his grace when we grow impatient at the progress (or lack there of).

Wheatgrass juice

Ok... I tried it. I'm waiting for all of those wonderful things to begin happening to me... I plan on playing frisbee with the guys at work today, so if I rock, I'll say it was the Wheatgrass.

Daily Dose of Sarcasm

Ok, so a friend at work sent me a link detailing 40 benefits to eating/drinking wheatgrass juice. I couldn't resist. I had to reply with a few snide remarks to a number of these reasons listed:

2 Chlorophyll is the first product of light and, therefore, contains more light energy than any other element.
Light energy? Is this one of those nutrients required by the FDA?

4 Chlorophyll is the basis of all plant life.
Too bad I’m not a plant.

5 Wheatgrass is high in oxygen like all green plants that contain chlorophyll. The brain and all body tissues function at an optimal level in a highly-oxygenated environment.
I guess this is important for those of us who would rather not breathe.

7 Dr. Bernard Jensen says that it only takes minutes to digest wheatgrass juice and uses up very little body energy.
Yeah? Alcohol takes only a few seconds to get into your system. Maybe a wheatgrass & vodka would speed up the absorption of both!

11 Chlorophyll can be extracted from many plants, but wheatgrass is superior because it has been found to have over 100 elements needed by man. If grown in organic soil, it absorbs 92 of the known 102 minerals from the soil.
Wait… isn’t chlorophyll in ALL plants (see #4)

12 Wheatgrass has what is called the grass-juice factor, which has been shown to keep herbivorous animals alive indefinitely.
I’m sorry… what?! Indefinitely? The paper that this factoid was derived from was written in 1941… where are these animals now?

13 Dr. Ann Wigmore has been helping people get well from chronic disorders for 30 years using wheatgrass.

Oh… well if SHE’s been doing it for over 30 years without being sued for fraud, then it must really work! What if I said my grandmother has been using mayonnaise to as a skin moisturizer for 50 years! Does that make it a good idea?

16 Liquid chlorophyll washes drug deposits from the body.

Someone should inform Tom Sizemore. (same response to #17 and #18)

21 Wheatgrass Juice cures acne and even removes scars after it has been ingested for seven to eight months. The diet must be improved at the same time.
How about just improving your diet?

22 Wheatgrass juice acts as a detergent in the body and is used as a body deodorant.
Yeah, but my armpits have been irreversibly stained green.

25 Gargle Wheatgrass Juice for a sore throat.
But… I don’t want a sore throat.

33 Wheatgrass implants (enemas) are great for healing and detoxifying the colon walls. The implants also heal and cleanse the internal organs. After an enema, wait 20 minutes, then implant 4 ounces of wheatgrass juice. Retain for 20 minutes.
Oh boy… I’m not even going to touch this one. I’ll just take their word for it…

35 Dr. Birscher, a research scientist, called chlorophyll "concentrated sun power."…
I’m sorry, but doesn’t the sun cause skin cancer? Isn’t it a huge ball of gas perpetually undergoing atomic destruction and emitting harmful radiation? Do I really want to concentrate this stuff and then drink it?

37 Wheatgrass juice can dissolve the scars that are formed in the lungs from breathing acid gasses. The effect of carbon monoxide is minimized since chlorophyll increases hemoglobin production.
Ok. So next time I huff off of my car battery, I’ll be sure to have a bottle of this around. As for the carbon monoxide business, what good does it do me to have more hemoglobin if all the red-cells are being deprived of oxygen?

Taskforce Ronin - Operation Colored Pencils

Ok, I don't know if this mission had an official operational code name, but it is neat to see this video (25MB) from a co-worker who is in northern Iraq right now.

The company I work for, CafeFX, is one of the companies that is supporting this effort. Me and one of my co-workers stuffed box after box with plastic bags full of school supplies. When I watched this video it nearly brought me to tears. Looking into all those brown eyes I couldn't help but think about my own blue-eyed boys.

We are truly blessed to live in America. But it isn't enough to be blessed and live here. We need to reach out and help - specifically as the body of Christ.

Hopefully this is for real...

Briah “Head” Welch from the popular rock group, Korn, has quit the band after a recent conversion. It’s pretty cool that MTV is covering the story. Hopefully God will use this guy in some pretty powerful ways. I’m adding this guy to my prayer list.

Sometimes new believers have the best concepts of God – so simple and child-like: "This is the book of life right here," he said, pulling a Bible from his back pocket. "It's not about religion, it's not about this church, it's not about me. It's about the book of life and everybody needs to be taught this. It's crazy, it's gonna do stuff like this, like change a guy in a rock band."