I gotta stay active.

Since I won't be getting too much physical activity from what ever my soon to be job will be, I figured I need to stay disciplined and on a schedule. So, me and Chris went to Wal-Mart and I purchased this....The two of us assembled it in my room, and it took about an hour and a half. It's not bad for $58.97, not bad at all. My dad has the bar and all the weight's at school just laying around that haven't been used in forever, so I won't have to purchase those. I'd say I got a pretty good deal. Once I get those weight's and my thumb heals, I will get myself into a routine, and once my body starts being sculpted like a big hunk of clay, I will be motivated by the hoards of women, and I will think to myself....."good purchase Mikey."

Church was really good today. A man from Pathway's Serbian sister church spoke. He had an awesome accent, and so many good stories, jokes, and lesson's to share. Here were some key point's from the sermon.

-Who and what we want to be in the future depends on the decisions we make today.

-The closer you are with Jesus Christ, the easier your race will be.

He talked about how we need to let go of the Good and Bad things in our past. To make new is important in starting a new Christ centered life. He talked about how the enemy can use our past to defeat us or keep us weak.

-It is better to learn how to fight a good spiritual fight, than it is to hide behind a religious comfort zone.

I really liked listening to this guy, and just like Pastor Ron, he seems very "real." I can tell he has been through so much and he is just a great guy. Amanda agreed with me too, it is nice that she takes me to church, and much appreciated, she had a really trendy watch on today too. ;-)

Football and a bon fire

I can pretty much give a picture description of the days events. It started off with a 2 1/2 hour drive to West Lafayette to watch some Purdue Boilermakers in action on their home turf. This is my dad and I in the van on our way there. We had some mediocre conversation, nothing special, but nothing boring either.

The game itself was not to bad either. In reality, I am not a huge sports fan, but I do enjoy watching some good football with my dad every now and then. Even though my eye was caught by all the hotties walking by, and I kept wondering how many people the stadium could hold...I did see some fantastic scoring catches by both teams, and had a good time.

When I get home, I find we are taking care of Dum Dum here, and she barks at me like usual. So, I give her a hard time by chasing her and just driving her crazy. It's a great stress reliever. Then, my friend Chris called me up and told me that he had brought some thick huge log's home from the golf course. So, we went over to tony and josh's and burnt it up. When I left their house, I had my dad's axe with me. I was walking through the neighborhood with an axe at like 11:30 at night. A couple of cars drove by and I was really wondering what they were thinking when they saw me........hummmmmm

I pray for

To start off my last day at Vision Scapes, I did everything as usual. Once I got in the truck and was about to pull out with the crew, my boss (Mark Nolot) came up to me and shook my hand, he thanked me for all my hard work and said Vision Scapes will miss me. It isn’t something that I have to hear from a boss, I am going to work hard regardless, but it is definitely something encouraging to hear, I am glad I got to hear it before I left. All day I kept questioning my judgment; I do this often because deep down inside I want to think that my disease doesn’t limit me in any way, shape or form. When in reality, it does in a big way, and if I don’t respect that, I will only make life in the long term that much more difficult. I know I am supposed to leave work involving physical labor because I know it is difficult on my body. I also know that God will provide me with job. I just have to look for it, and be diligent. I made several calls after I got off work. It looks like North American Van Lines is not going to fill the positions that I applied for at this time. I was turned down from East Allen County Schools as well as Fort Wayne Community Schools because of my OWI I was convicted of last year. Parkview denied me a desk job, and wouldn’t give me a reason why. I am still waiting to hear back from the housekeeping position at Pathway, (church) but even if I do get that, it is only a part time position. I suppose I could go to an employment agency……but………~ick~

Tomorrow my dad and I are going to the Purdue vs. Notre Dame game in West Lafayette. Purdue should be stomping on them Notre Dame boy’s, but it should be fun anyways. It is always interesting to see what kind of conversation my dad and I get into. He isn’t the most out spoken man in the world, but I really do respect what he says, probably more than he knows.

I got another great compliment today from a good friend. Me and this good friend went over to my buddy Chris’s house today in the evening. Me and my buddy talk and have intelligent conversations on a regular basis, which is nice. Well, after some talk of people and situations he flat out said, “Well, Mikey you have made some really huge changes in your life, not just quitting dope, but in all aspects of your life, that isn’t something most people can do very easily.” My eye brows went up, and I really felt like he was being very sincere. It was nice.

I am done tomorrow.

Tomorrow is officially my last day at Vision Scapes. I won't be too sad to leave it, I will however, miss the people, not their bad habits, but them; definitely. Today, when I was working, I thought about Young Life non-stop. I really loved being there, and I sure would love to become a part of the team. I think I am going to make a phone call tomorrow. I sure do need to find a job as well. I could sure use prayer, asking for guidance and wisdom on what I should be doing right now.

Beautiful evening sky tonight. I heard the crackle of thunder, and some lightening strikes in the far off sky through the window. SO, I went outside in the driveway and looked North. It was such a beautiful scene. Full moon, lightening half of the sky, showing the dark mean looking cloud's coming in. And the other half clear and calm looking. I felt really lucky to see such a beautiful sight. I love the should of thunder.

SMILE :-)

Wednesday= Young Life & Interview

Today I got a phone call from Alyssa Ivensen, from Wayne News Channel 15. She called and let me know that she wanted to do a follow up interview. I was thinking, "ohhh, cool, an interview would be good in a week or so, give me time to think about it..." Well, she was thinking a little more in the near future. Like this afternoon at 2:00. I got the voice mail at 10:05, and the interview was at 2. So much for planning. But, the interview went well, and I really liked what Alyssa put together. I will post it on the BLOG once I get the DVD copy of the interview.

THEN, this evening I went to the YOUNG LIFE big opening event. All these high school kid's come together, and they chatted with them for a bit.

Then they did a couple of skit's. Everyone was really into it. It was pretty darn funny too. After this it only got crazy. Earlier I helped set up some of the "Games" they had planned. First thing we had to do was empty out $150 worth of whip cream and choc. syrup. Put all of it onto a big tarp. We had frozen watermelons caked with Crisco, and some tug of war action. They kid's were completely soaked with all the sticky, inkiness you could possibly think of. They loved it, and it was great fun to watch. I would LOVE nothing more than to become a volunteer staff member of Young Life, and hopefully I can help make this happen in the near future.

my thumb really hurts

Today was kind of nasty because my THUMB HURTS LIKE CRAZY!! My mom picked up an application from Pathway (the church I attend) for a part time custodial position. I think it would be a really good part time position, I am excited to see if I will get this position, I sure hope I do. I think it is just an awesome way to be a part of my church....even if I am just cleaning windows. ALSO, it will not be as hard on my body. I won't have to deal with the extreme temperature changes and other things that are really hard on my body. I have known that I "needed" to get away from this job, I think when I had that incident yesterday, it was like the straw that broke the camels back. Enough was enough. I was really thinking about it today while I was working. What if I would have been on one of the big mowers, what if there would have been people around, like sometimes there are, and I blacked out??? OMG, that is not an option. It showed me that I must find something else. And so I have come to this. I am not going to worry about another job, I mean I am going to put all my efforts into getting one, but I am not going to be stressed or lose sleep over the fact. That only makes things worse for me, and I think it shows lack of faith. God has taken me through much much, much more difficult times than this. Just a minor stumbling block, that's all I see.

It finally rained again today. I love the rain. I love storms. Check it out.



I also got a phone call from a friend that made me feel very appreciated. I mean, I don't have low self esteem by any means, but this was just a confidence booster. A friend, who will remain unnamed called me in a very low point. I talked with her, calmed her, and gave her what guidance I could offer. We will meet on Friday to talk. It just makes me feel so good when people come to me for support and guidance. Kind of sounds like what a counselor does....... ;-) EVERYONE loves to feel appreciated.

"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."- Brennan Manning

BLACK OUT!

Something kind of scary happened today. All day I felt fine. I drank plenty of water, and ate lunch, I was in a normal routine as usual. After an average day of work, I go back to the shop and the two guys I was working with went home. I told them I would take care of the rest of the work that needed to be done. SO, I changed the blades on a couple of mowers, and then put them back on the trailer. I then backed the trailer up, unhooked it, and emptied the load of grass in the dump. I hooked the trailer back up to the truck and clocked out. As I was waiting for my mom to come pick me up, I took my empty water bottle and filled it up with water up by the office. I drank that bottle, and was filling it up again so I had some water to sip on while I waited for my mom. It was in this moment, I just blacked out. When I came too, I had a face full of dirt, 2 fingers on my left hand were scratched up, the left side of my chin was scratched up, I jammed my right thumb; I can hardly move it, and I came too with the wind knocked out of me. When I came too, I didn't know where I was, and I felt really confused. It scared the crap out of me, and I didn't even feel anything coming on.....It makes me think, "What if I was on a mower, around people when that happened?" I don't know if I should be working at Vision Scapes anymore.

When I got home, physically, it didn't get any better. (sigh) I went over to Tony's, and I was messing with his pit bull. No, it is not a mean pit, I was just laying on her, and she was eating her bone. She got defensive, and gave me a little warning bite on my nose. :-/

This is the left side of my nose, there is a matching tooth bit on the right side. Lesson learned. I have some decisions to make, this sucks, but I am pretty sure I need to get out of Vision Scapes. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!