…A bit of a response after reading the comments and the post over at ASBO Jesus.
My wife and I got to go get an ultrasound yesterday. It was our first experience, our first child, and we were…… overwhelmed.
Honestly, I think we both thought, it’s no big deal and we probably won’t be able to see anything other than a blob that supposedly looks like a half-formed child. Apparently, ultrasounds have either gotten really good over the last few years, or our experience was atypical.
What we got was a little baby that waved little stubs of arms at us and did a little Irish jig with a heartbeat around 166 bpm.
It was a surreal experience. I am assuming that surreal quality continues at least till our fifth or sixth night of no sleep after the baby is born?
I kinda feel like this guys looks today… not quite right or even all there. It has been one of those weeks where a lot of things have gone wrong. It’s not the events that bother me though. It’s the resources or lack of resources that usually gets to me in the long run.
Both cars breaking down on the same day… I accidentally slept in for an appointment I had… and a deal gone sour on an old car I sold earlier this week.
Through it all, I am feeling better now, it’s just me being weary of problems that come my way.
So I am sorry I haven’t posted too much lately. More coming soon.
~William
I go through many phases of blogging and alternating through ideas. I am not exactly sure what causes this, but I know that it does happen. I end up writing every day for a month, then I end up going 5 weeks without publishing. I guess I get so busy with other things, writing takes a back seat.
So, here’s the latest. My health is doing very well for the first time in several years. I am feeling a little better every week at this point so that is good.
I’ve been doing some painting but in reality Becca is doing even more so I am taking a bit of a back seat as she has been doing so much painting lately.
We looked at a house recently, but then looked a little bit more at debt and decided to wait a bit longer.
We alternate on finances so after the last six months of Becca doing the finances, I am taking the lead for a bit. This basically means that I have set up the database system that will track all our debt, bills and income in real time in openoffice base. 
All in all, we are doing better than I thought. We have about 10 debts left, but all of it is hospital bills, taxes and a school loan.
I have also recently taken a bit of a back seat with Sunday Morning speaking responsibilities lately. My attention will be focused more on small groups, invitation, discipleship and creative media endeavors.
I’ve put together some other sites, but really haven’t made anything from them as of yet. I may decide to automate the Thornville-Ohio site on news and info and see what happens while still incorporating some regular content every now and then.
The animals are all doing well. Dugal is growing. He is getting big. We had a hard time figuring out why he wouldn’t eat, then realized that he wanted to eat out in the open with us as opposed to being in his kennel and eating. Go figure. Once we got that figured out, the problem may be getting him to stop eating long enough to play more… maybe not.
Becca got a raise of around .50 at work recently so that will help. We may also try to sell some of her paintings and see what they will bring.
Anyway, that is a roundabout update with most everything… I think.
Each day we passed the house. Lonely, cold and dark it stood on top of the hill leading into the village where we lived. As far as anyone knew, nobody lived there. The grass always seemed to be cut. The landscaping always seemed to have been trimmed and upkept over the course of each year that went by. I guess it could have been done by the village for appearance.
The large brick home stood two and a half stories tall, and overlooked the road going into the village. A large yard and a cast iron fence bordered the street with an ivy that traced along the ground beside the crumbling steps leading to the front door. Once beautiful woodwork adorned the front porch while curtain-less windows gaped out at the occasional passerby who would make their way along the worn brick sidewalk in front of the house.
Over the years the house became more and more dilapidated. The shutters began to fall off. The roof started to collapse inward and nobody really seemed to care.
For me it was hard. It was a beautiful old home that maybe once had held dreams and a family that cared for it. The walls had maybe once held family pictures and drawings and paintings done by small hands out of love. Someone had saved and bought the house for the sake of making a home out of it. Children had been raised.
Years had passed. One day soon someone may notice and either it would be torn down or restored to it’s former glory. Somehow it spoke to me of how we often treat ourselves too. We live our lives with dreams, with hopes and great expectations and somehow years pass, and we fall into disrepair both spiritually and physically. Our regrets turn to fears and we sometimes look on the younger generation who has this future hope jealousy wishing for the years back.
I am hoping for restoration for this house. We have the time that is left. We have a dream that yet need fulfilled and we have the hand of the Architect to hold our own. Let us live the dreams this house was made for.
It seems some of my roles at the church will soon be changing. I will be moving to more production-based work for the service and more small groups.
… I am actually supporting a presidential candidate for a change. I am one of those people who usually hates politics and for the most part, would rather not waste one hour of my life to go and vote half-heartedly for someone not worth voting for.
It may have changed this year. For the first time I have decided to endorse one particular candidate for president. Mike Huckabee. Why? Because of the faith that drives him forward. I share that same faith and belief and believe that when it comes to doing the right things for our country and others, we have no better choice politically than Mike Huckabee for president.
I am not out to convince others of this fact or some political agenda, but I have a hope that this country can move back into a positive direction and with an example of a firm committed Christian at the helm, I think the difference will be more in the lives of our fellow countrymen and through a few good men, God will be glorified.
Yes, it looks different yet again. I am not sure if I am happy with the header yet, but you may have noticed other things look different.
In fact, they may even look similar to this site below that I used to write and had developed the theme/layout and header image for.
It looks like that site is now dead. It exists, but no longer functions as an active blog anymore. It’s kinda like a ghost town type of element going on there. The ads still exist, but there is no new content.
So, I took some of the good elements from that blog, the content and the colors and reincorporated them here.
While I’ve been battling this strange conglomeration of symptoms for so long, could it be so simple as this? Apparently Cell Phones have been linked to insomnia, headaches, and confusion.
The study, funded by mobile phone companies, suggests radiation from the handset can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion.
It may also cut our amount of deep sleep – interfering with the body’s ability to refresh itself.
The study was carried out by Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US.
So here’s the crux of the matter for me. I live almost directly underneath a cell phone tower now. Will that affect me? I don’t know, but over the last few days I have been so tired I forgot to plug my phone in at night in it’s usual spot… my bedside table.
Maybe it’s why I’ve been feeling better lately?
The doctor seems to think that it is stress, and reading a little more in the article there was this tidbit.
Researcher Professor Bengt Arnetz said: “The study strongly suggests that mobile phone use is associated with specific changes in the areas of the brain responsible for activating and coordinating the stress system.”
Another theory is that radiation may disrupt production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body’s internal rhythms.
I could go along with this and self diagnose all day. Maybe the cell phone is a part of what I’ve been going through… maybe not. But it probably wouldn’t hurt to turn off the cell phone and use my voicemail just a bit more than I used to.
