Happy Thanksgiving and HOOK'EM HORNS!!!!!!!!!!

The Horns will be taking on the Aggies in a Thanksgiving night smack down. The Horns are favored by 35 in the game and have a lot to prove this weekend. Not only have the Aggies beat us the last 2 years in a row, but the BCS will be watching this game and we need to WIN and win BIG. It's all about the "STYLE" points so we can keep our #2 ranking in the BCS polls. A loss by BOTH Oklahoma vs. Ok. State and Texas Tech vs. Baylor would be GREAT too, but I'm not holding my breath.

For those of you who are a bit confused here's the Cliffs Notes version:

* If all 3 teams (Texas, Texas Tech & Oklahoma) win there will be a 3-way tie in the Big 12 South and it will come down to who is ranked higher in the BCS poll Sunday night to determine the winner of the Conference, because that's how the Big 12 South rolls.

(The BCS rules are way more complicated and I'm not sure I understand how that WHOLE system works, but currently Texas is #2, OK.
is #3 and Tech is #7)

* If by chance Tech loses (crossing fingers) and there's a 2 way tie between Texas & Oklahoma, Texas would be the conference champion because they beat Oklahoma in their head to head match up.

* If Oklahoma loses and there's a 2 way tie between Texas & Tech, Tech would be the conference champion because they beat Texas in their head to head match up.
(We cannot have that!!)

* If Texas loses (they better not!) and there's a 2 way time between Tech & Oklahoma, Oklahoma would be the conference champion because they completely annihilated Tech in their head to head match up.

See there...it's COMPLICATED!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all....love you!!!

HOOK'EM!!!!! OHHH...I cannot forget my BOYS!!! GO COWBOYS!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I will be making the 85 mile drive to my cousins house for Turkey. This drive which on a normal day would take me about an hour and half or so. The first time I drove there for Thanksgiving, it took me over four hours. See, there are not many different routes I can take, matter of fact, there are only three, all of which end up at the same place at some point, and you never know…but the traffic in L.A. on Thanksgiving is worse than morning traffic on a normal day!!! It is very stressful and I am so not looking forward to the drive, but am keeping positive thoughts and praying that the traffic will not be bad this time! We plan on spending the night and then tomorrow we are going to the the Sawdust Festival - should be fun!!

Wishing you and your families a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!!!!

BFL ~ Week 13!

Here we go ! Good Luck to all!!! I haven’t won in the BFL…yet…but am in 2nd place in my pool at work (its who ever has the most wins at the end of the season) and I just found out that the guy who is in first has his 6 year old son make the picks!!! No fair!! Good Luck to all!!!

Tennessee @ Detroit
Seattle @Dallas
Arizona @ Philadelphia
San Francisco @ Buffalo
Baltimore@ Cincinnati
Indianapolis@ Cleveland
Carolina @ Green Bay
Miami @ St. Louis
New Orleans@ Tampa Bay
NY Giants @ Washington
Atlanta @ San Diego
Denver @ NY Jets
Pittsburgh@ New England
Kansas City @ Oakland
Chicago @ Minnesota

Monday Night
Jacksonville @ Houston
Total points: 46

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

How Much Faith Do We Have?

For the past few days I have been pondering about faith in God, and how much faith do I really place in God.  How much faith do I have that God will hear me?  Then I started wondering about examples of faith in the Bible and I found a perfect example in Mark
.

I love Mark 5:25-34!

(25) A woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years (26) had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse. (27) Having heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His robe. (28) For she said, “If I can just touch His robes, I’ll be made well!” (29) Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was cured of her affliction.
(30) At once Jesus realized in Himself that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My robes?”
(31) His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
(32) So He was looking around to see who had done this. (33) Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came with fear and trembling, fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth. (34) “Daughter,” He said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be free from your affliction.”

Here we have a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years hears of Jesus and tracks him down. Why…? She believes He can heal her.

Now, I don't know about you, but this is a BIG deal. Her faith is phenomenal. Why? She had most likely been to doctor after doctor, who were all too happy to take her money - even though NONE had healed her.  Now she has found herself probably broke and still as sick as ever, and without hope.

…but... she believed Jesus could heal her…So what does she do?

Keep in mind; she was not supposed to be in public, because she was considered unclean by law. She had been cut off from society and religious worship. Despite this she knows that she must get to Jesus and if she could get close enough to him. She tracks Jesus down on His way to a man’s home to heal someone else. She doesn’t need much…just to touch His clothes. This - in itself - is quite a quest, for there are people pressing in on him from all sides. An image of a “holy mosh pit” comes to mind. Sounds funny…but so true. He is being mobbed as He attempts to make His way to the man’s home. In her faith she somehow manages to reach through the throngs of people pushing and trying to get to Jesus…and…the split second her hand touches Jesus’ robe…“Who touched me?” Jesus had turned around and looked, knowing that the virtue had gone out of him.  His disciples were like, “What?!? Who touched you? Whoa, wait a second Jesus! You are in the middle of a mosh pit! We are ALL touching you! I am! He is… She is…He is…!! One guy just crowd surfed over our heads! I’m pretty sure a whole buncha people just touched you!”

…but the woman heard Jesus, and in fear knowing what had been done in her…she knew Jesus was asking about her. How she probably wondered? The moment she touched His clothes…her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body the that  healing was complete and real, she was whole again.  As she approached the Almighty, she fell down before Jesus and told Him it was her.  Jesus said, “Daughter,” He said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be free from your affliction.”

What a tremendous accounting of faith. I pray for the level of faith that woman had that day.

Tonight…as you kneel down next to your bed to say your prayers…take a moment to reflect on the FACT that on your street, in your town, in this country…in this world…SO many people are praying at the same time you are. Imagine 10 people talking to you at once. Now…imagine how overwhelming a million or more would be.

All of these voices…all of these praises, concerns, worries, requests…all pressing in on God.

Then you pray.

What about that woman who touched Jesus? An entire crowd was pressing in on Him. Therefore…I submit to you…it wasn’t her hand…it was her FAITH!!!!!

Then…you…pray.  God stops. Who touched me? You look up from your bedroom. “God? It was me.”  Your Father smiles. “My child. thy faith has made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

We need to remember to have faith like that of a child in our Heavenly Father!!! We need to step out boldly in faith in each area of our lives, and trust wholly in the Lord, for He will be right there with us through it all. I know I am going to strive to do so more so each day!!!

Blog Themes...

I am playing around with my blog themes, gonna try this one for a few days, see how it feels, how it fits…the middle picture is customizable, so that is really cool! But you have to have the picture the right size so it fits right. i have a cute Christmas theme that I will put up after Thanksgiving. Yayyy!!! Anyway, let me know what you think…whether you like it or you don’t really like, or whatever!!!!

BFL ~ Week 12!

I know this is really Week 2 for my participation…and I fully have faith that I might, maybe could win. Below my week 12 picks, if you want to participate head on over to Insta-Mom’s blog and join in the fun! I love Amazing Greis’s outlook, check it here !! My week started off sorta tough and you can read about it here…but I am thinking positive until I have reason to think otherwise!!! Well, you know what I mean…

Here goes the picks~!!

Cincinnati @ Pittsburgh
Philadelphia @ Baltimore
Houston @ Cleveland
Tampa Bay @ Detroit
Buffalo @ Kansas City
Chicago @ St. Louis
NY Jets @ Tennessee
New England @ Miami
Minnesota @ Jacksonville
San Francisco @ Dallas
Oakland @ Denver
Carolina @ Atlanta
NY Giants @ Arizona
Washington @ Seattle
Indianapolis@ San Diego

Monday Night
Green Bay @ New Orleans
Total score: 41

Woohooo!!! Go Cowboys!!!!!

What may...or may not...be wrong with me...

Some of you may not know that I have had a rash on my arms and face/neck for quite some time now, actually several months. Most people don’t even notice it until I point it out. I went to my regular Dr. who prescribed a ointment to control itching and suggested that I see a Dermatologist – it made sense to me, so I made an appointment with her referral, who is supposedly the dermatologist of choice here in the SCV, so I felt confident that soon my rash troubles would be a thing of the past. So my appointment was at 7:30AM on the first day of school, so I had Hayley with me. So the dermatologist looked at my rash, and asked me questions, she decided that she would do a “punch biopsy” on my arm where the rash was. So I was like, OK…let’s do it. They have to give me a shot of lidocane (?) to numb the area that they are going to “punch”. So what is a punch biopsy you may be asking yourself? Its where they punch this needle/scalpel looking thing into the infected area and take a “plug” of skin (all layers of skin) to test. Well, after a week or so they came back and informed me that there was nothing abnormal in the tissue that perhaps it was an allergic reaction to something. I was like…OK, allergic to what???? And they said that they weren’t sure, that maybe I could go and see an allergist. I was like gee…thanks…for nothing… 

So, off I went to find an allergist (sans the $200 the insurance wouldn’t cover for the dermatologist fee). Before I looked online for an allergist, I decided to give my primary care Dr a call and see what she thought and if she had any recommendations for a good allergist - you know since she did such a great job of the referral on the Dermatologist and all. She referred me to an Allergist, and I called and made my appointment and in a couple of days I found myself sitting in the waiting room of Dr. Strick, the allergist. While I am waiting, a gentleman walked in that was sneezing and wheezing and sniffling his head off, and I thought “Oh, poor guy”, he could barely breathe and I kind of felt sorry for him. And as I sat there listening to this man, I started feeling and congested and hot…what is this?? Was I sympathizing with John Doe with the runny nose??? I think I was… its kind of weird. Anyway, they finally called me in to see the Dr. and off I went. I explained my symptoms, and he took a look at the rash, and we talked about it and he gave me a prescription for some lotion to put on the rash (which is reallllly working – so…SCORE!!! ), and then he handed me an lab order for about seventy thousand and one blood tests. Oh, alright, it was really only about 5 or six, but with the amount of blood that the lab drew it felt like seventy thousand and one. The lab is conveniently located on the same campus as the Allergist so I went right over to have the blood drawn. The girl who was doing the blood draw was really nice, and as she prepared the needle and everything, I explained to her that they almost always have to use the butterfly thingy on me because my veins are small. Do you think she listened? Yeah…uhhh…no…She also ignored me when I showed her where the best vein is to draw blood. So she stuck me…twice…and got nothing…she walked away and came back with the butterfly one! Guess what?? She got the vials and vials of blood needed for the seventy thousand tests, from exactly where I suggested…go figure…. 

So today was my appointment to go back and get the results. Yay!!!!! I am thinking that I would get a prescription for some magical wonder drug that would rid me of this blasted rash forever. Wooohooo!!! Well….That’s what I get for thinking. But while I was waiting on the Dr. to come in there was this man who had come in to get his allergy shot, and he is standing there while the nurse is preparing and he looked over at me and smiled, and then he raised his sleeve and made this gosh awful look on his face and the nurse said “ohhh, I havent even gotten near you yet…” and then she gave him the shot and his face was so contorted I couldn’t help but snicker. The man opened his eyes and looked over at me and said “ohhh…I didn’t see you there…it’s not that bad at all…I promise….and we all had a good chuckle… Anway…so Dr. Strick finally came in and closed the door and began to calmly inform me that there were some “abnormalities” in my blood work. And I looked at him and said “okayyy”, in the tone that suggested he continue with the news of his findings, meanwhile this is the conversation I had in my head … “What??? Abnormalities? WHAT abnormalities…uhmm, wait…this doesn’t sound normal at all… are you sure doc, are you really really sure???? Am I going to die- just tell me pleaseeeeeee…abnormalities.realllyyyy???” So he continues and tells me that my thyroid antibodies are elevated, whatever that means (something thyroidal - is that a word??)….I was not so much surprised about that result. And he also explained to me that my ANA (Antinuclear Antibodies) could be positive for Lupus (or something like that), that Lupus typically presents with a rash, but that my rash is not typical of someone who has Lupus, and there are other things that could be the matter that could cause a false positive in the ANA results. Fun, huh? So, he asked my permission to share his findings with Dr. Wells and pass this information over to her so that she could refer me if needed to specialist. I of course said that this was fine. When I left the office, I was fine for about 2.3 minutes….then it sank in…Antibodies, Lupus, autoimmmune?? I just started to cry…I wanted to talk to someone, and nobody was available… :-(( I wanted to cry more because I still have NO idea what is wrong with me. So, within half an hour I received a call from Dr. Wells’s office giving me the names of her referrals to an Endocrinologist and a Rheumatologist. I immediately called both of those Drs offices and neither one of them can see me until like April in 2029 or thereabouts…what is that?? What if I was like really really sick??? What if I really am really really sick and just don’t know????. So I called back my regular Dr. to see if they could refer me to anyone else, and they said NO to check my insurance to see what other Drs I can go see. So I asked her to fax me over my blood test results and logged onto my Blue Cross account and looked for Drs in my area, then I remembered there is this Medical Group called Facey…so I went to Facey.com and found my own referrals (thank the Lord for PPOs)…I will be seeing the Rheumatologist on December 4th, and the Endocrinologist on Dec 16th…just in time for Christmas and I’d say that that is way better than waiting 20+ years, huh? So, I still do not have any more of an idea of why I have this rash, why I am tired, why my joints are achy. I am hoping it’s something that can be either controlled or fixed by medication…I am positive it isn’t something that is horrible or untreatable, it seems like they would have been telling me to come in NOW or something…right??? Yeah, that’s what I am praying for….
On the upside, I do know that God is in control, and has a plan, and that everything will be OK. I just want to know…ya know??

Blogger Football League!

Ok y’all, I am new to this…I ran across this from Insta-mom’s blog that I stumbled upon and thought I would jump right on in the fun! I have a pool at work, but this seems so much more fun!! Thanks for letting me join…uhmm…at the last minute!!! :-) Here goes….

NY JETS @ NEW ENGLAND

DETROIT @ CAROLINA

DENVER @ ATLANTA

MINNESOTA @ TAMPA BAY

BALTIMORE @ NY GIANTS

OAKLAND @ MIAMI

NEW ORLEANS @ KANSAS CITY

PHILADELPHIA @ CININNATI

CHICAGO @ GREEN BAY

HOUSTON @ INDIANAPOLIS

ST LOUIS @ SAN FRANCISCO

ARIZONA @ SEATTLE

TENNESSEE @ JACKSONVILLE

SAN DIEGO @ PITTSBURGH

DALLAS @ WASHINGTON

MONDAY NIGHT GAME
CLEVELAND @ BUFFALO

TIEBREAKER: 39

Good Luck All!!!!!!

Jesus is my Friend!

There really isn’t anything else I can say about this…except…well…amen!!! ENJOY!!!! (you have to watch the entire thing…) it cracks me up!

State of Fear

I have a post in mind that I would like to write about, however, the thoughts are not quite sorted out in my head yet…so in lieu of the aforementioned post, I decided to pay respect to a wonderfully talented writer who passed away on November 4th: Michael Crichton. I had only in the past couple of years discovered his writings, and they are amazing!!! So, in honor of his life, I am reposting my review of his book, State of Fear (which I highly recommend)…enjoy, and keep Mr. Crichton’s family in your prayers.

***********************************************************************************

Michael Crichton is of course well know for his techno-thrillers “The Andromeda Strain” and Jurassic Park”, plus several other novels and non-fiction works, and you might even be a fan of his show ER…But “State of Fear” is a little bit different.

State of Fear is a book with an agenda, even though in its final words, the author denies having one. Its premise is that everything we are told about global warming is either grossly inaccurate, highly debatable or just plain made up!

Its hero – or rather most omnipresent in the cast of characters – is Peter Evans, a young attorney in a firm dealing with multimillionare philanthropist and major environmental charity of which he is the principal benefactor.

One of their most celebrated causes is the lawsuit being brought by the Pacific island nation of Vanatu, one of the world’s lowest-lying territories, against the United States for its contribution to the global warming that will cause sea levels to rise and submerge them.

This is a case that Crichton says was actually announced in the real world (at the 2002 Sustainable Earth Summit in Johannesburg) but never filed. The reason, he postulates, is what the team of lawyers working on it in his “work of fiction” find out: that there is no evidence whatsoever.

Not just NO evidence that the US is primarily to blame, but no real evidence of any measurable rise in sea levels. In fact, the more the lawyers look into it, the more they find the whole received body of opinion is based on questionable deductions and predictions.

What the environmental lobby really needs in order to win not just this case, but he whole body of public opinion is “proof”, or at least the sort of proof that generates headlines: Major “natural” catastrophes related to sudden climate change. Like say…an iceberg the size of Texas splitting away from the Antarctic ice shelf, flash floods in the tinder dry southwestern US or a giant tsunami originating in the Pacific, but swamping California on the day of their major conference.

The scientific evidence is well presented with numerous graphs and references, but more can be said. The climate has never been constant — always either warming or cooling on all time scales (year-to year, decadal, millennial, and over millions of years) -independent of any human influence. While the observed pre-1940 warming is real and mostly natural (a recovery from the preceding Little Ice Age that terminated around 1850), the cooling from 1940 to 1975 is certainly not a greenhouse effect. The warming data reported during the past 25 years from surface stations (almost all of them on land) are likely contaminated by urban effects; we don’t see such warming in the atmospheric record of weather balloons or from weather satellites that cover the whole globe (including the 70% of oceans) on a regular basis. The most we can assign to human greenhouse effects would lead to a temperature rise by 2100 of a measly 0.8 degrees C. [The so-called scientific consensus claims that if climate is currently warming at 0.08 degC per decade, then temperatures will "increase between 4 degrees F and 10 degrees F by the end of this century" -- with all sorts of dire consequences. This remarkable demonstration of poor arithmetic assumes further that all of the current increase is due to human influences rather than natural ones -- and also ignores the fact that greenhouse theory predicts a less-than-proportional temperature increase with increasing carbon dioxide. My own considered estimate for 2100 is about one degree F --- based not on climate models but on the observational evidence.]

There is much more evidence backing up Crichtons message, not only is the current warming well below even the lowest limits given by the IPCC, but the IPCC claim in its 2001 report that the 20th century was the warmest in 1000 years has turned out to be complete fiction – based on mishandled data and faulty methodolgy. Hmmm…

So what could be more natural than for an extremist ecological group — an extrapolation of the more militant elements in organizations such as Greenpeace — to lend a hand? With high technology — acquired with misappropriated funds — from missiles and Ethernet cables to sonic cavitators used in mining, they set out to cause mayhem with the forces of nature. Attempts to prevent this by Evans, an intellectual polymath Rambo with top-level government security agency links, and a few attractive and resourceful females — for the movie roles of course — lead them into perilous Antarctic crevasses, forest fires and eventually the dinner table of resurgent Solomon Islands cannibals.

At one time or another Evans nearly loses his toes to frostbite and faces death by poisoning from the bite of a tiny Australian octopus, deliberately applied in his own living room. Ripping yarns, indeed, but a sermon is never far away, albeit cleverly interspersed among the action.

In the books of his fellow phenomenon Tom Clancy the real hero — the reason most fans buy the books — is the military hardware, all those bad boy toys with incomprehensible acronyms and the similarly designated organizations and command structures that possess them.

In Crichton’s books, the real hero is hard science. From The Andromeda Strain on he has been at his best when weaving his action stories around a framework of believable scientific fact. How many people do not believe we will one day — soon? — clone dinosaurs from their blood sucked by mosquitoes trapped in amber? In this book his research appears formidable, indeed, backed up by copious footnote references and appendices (over 20 pages). He paints a convincing picture of a large part of humanity callous to real global problems and arrogant in the assumption of our influence on a planet that in reality has always been in permanent, often violent, flux.

State of Fear is the state Crichton believes the government likes to keep us in so that we may be more easily governed. Remember that most everything Crichton writes gets made into a movie…and as we all know…Hollywood doesn’t lie…