My little Autistic friend

About a month ago I started working on a new cd project for a woman who is in the 3 Degrees Band Tournament. I've only heard her stuff a couple times, and it seems pretty cool. Maybe not my exact taste, but it's decent quality, so that's always a good thing.
The second time she came in to check on things she brought her little boy along. It didn't dawn on me at first, but Guy had told me about this lady before and about her son being autistic. They connected on that point because Guy also has a son who has autism, but is now much older.
This little guy is so fun, I guess he's more on the "savant" side of the autism or however you'd say that. When someone gives him a piano or any instrument he'll just start playing music and he's only about 7 or something.
The first time he came in I gave him this little car/bus that I keep sitting on my desk for times when kids come in. I didn't realize until the next week that he actually accidentally brought it home with him. He walked in the second time and said, "Here's your bus" or something like that.. and "Thanks."
So, yesterday they were in and he keeps saying really fast "Vision Van Gogh, Vision Van Stop" ... LOL... and then the best was "Vision Van Be Careful"... that made me crack up!
Today, they picked up a poster and he kept saying "This is what I'm saying, I'm NOT Going!" Apparently it's from ICE AGE, the first one. His mom was telling him to say something nice if he wanted to talk to me, and whispered something in his ear. He comes over to me and says "You're pretty" and then repeats the Ice Age line again. It was so funny, he's such a cute kid. When he was leaving I said "Good bye, have a good day" and he says "Good bye!! BYE LISA"

okay, I should be working, but I didn't want to forget to post this! It was quick! :)

Bird Flu Hits FL

Tee hee... this was funny to me today! :)
Have a nice weekend everyone..

p.s. for those of you that may have bad eyes, they're PLASTIC flamingos.

(p.s.s. more Cali pics soon to come)

Cali... Easter... Life and Breath

Wow... it's hard to know what all to write... this is random, so I guess I can write whatever... and so here we go... we'll go in order of events..

San Diego, California...
I went to this beautiful place with my roomie Ang, and stayed with her Gr. Aunt and Uncle, which were very "great" but not as in "old"... as in super fun and accomodating and just awesome!
It was so relaxing and wonderful and beautiful and fun... We took the aunt and uncle to Triple Espresso the first day, cuz my really cool friend who's got connections hooked us up with tickets for down there. Thanks man! (though you'll never read this anyways! ha!, but if you happen to, I demand a comment.. tee hee) The second day we went to the beach.. La Jolla (pronounced la hoya)... it was nice, but the temp. was cooler so we didn't even bring out suits. No worries tho, it was nice to be at the beach. This was the day my digi cam got dropped in the sand, DOH! As you can read in my previous posts I was mad, but now it is working again. So, I unfortunately didn't get to take any cool pics at this place down the coast from La Jolla, called Children's Pool. It actually is not for children anymore... it's a little cove and a clan of Seals took it over. It's really cool to see, but the seals are pretty ugly actually... that might sound mean, but they are kinda cute too, if that makes any sense.
Next day, we went to Sea World, saw a Sea Lion show, Dolphin Show, and of course SHAMU or for those of you living under a rug, the Killer Whale (orca) show. The coolest thing (besides Shamu) was this Dolphin interaction site. You could feed and pet the dolphins... it was soo cool. I loved it... i didn't buy fish because we just stood next to a kid who was feeding one and then got to pet it... it was like I said, the coolest thing! I would love to get in a wet suit and have even closer interaction. That was $40 though, and didn't really have the time/cash for that this time around. It would totally be worth it to me though.
The last full day we went back to the beach again, but a different one, Ocean Beach. It was actually (in my opinion) way better.. the openness and ocean feel was awesome. Not to mention that it was finally all bright and sunny... we had the suits on and finally got some good rays to bask in. I also found some cool shells and rocks.
All in all... good times... if we had longer, we might have gone to San Diego Zoo, but walking two days in a row didn't really thrill us, it takes way more out of you than you realize.

Easter and a breath of life felt...
I wanted to take some time to just follow up from the post I made about my sharing in the church service a couple weeks ago. In my post I was really struggling with feeling like I was still in the midst of dying and having a lot of heavy feelings around the whole sharing thing. I had a good day off after that and time to reflect some. After that, I slowly made a transition back into my normal routine and then took off for California. I hadn't thought a lot about it for awhile until someone mentioned it yesterday. Not to mention that Dave reviewed all that we had been going through as a church body in the text, etc. It was a great service, a time to be affirmed that in whatever place I am, it's okay and to remember that ultimately there is hope and LIFE. I am not sure exactly where I am at, but I do feel that life is here and that it has been... but sometimes it's a little blurry and hard to see.
And on that note, my sister just started a blog. (welcome to blogland, sis!) You see, we've both had our own experiences (well, duh), and I find her words so insightful. She's just another one of us who is trying to figure out Life and going through things that are hard, yet seeking with all her might, her God who has loved her from the first day. Why is that concept so hard to grasp and understand?
One more quick thing... on my trip I bought and almost finished reading the book "Blue Like Jazz"... many of my friends are or have read this book... In one of the last chapters it talks about the idea of when you are broght to the point of not understanding and you are at a place of wonder... that is where you can experience the awe and worship of God. I'm not giving this point justice, but if you haven't picked this book up, I'd encourage you to do so.

I think I've rambled on these random things long enough... you know, there not so much random as in that they came out of no-where, but maybe random in being put together in one post. :) okay... later my blogland friends!

I have so much to catch up on, but here are a couple fun pics...


p.s. Yay for my camera... maybe it just needed to be jostled around in traveling and a little warm action in the car yesterday becauase it is working fine now. Woo hoo... (knock on wood)

Home

Well, I'm back, safe and sound... and still on Cali time. It's only 10:48 out there. I'd be just getting ready for bed. Which I just did now here, and should be sleeping because I am going to work tomorrow morning. Silly, I know, but I only have so many vaca. days, and still planning to go to Belize with the youth again this june.
Anyways...
I'm not sure why I'm posting this, other than to procrastinate going to bed and to just let ya'll know I'm back. The unfortunate thing is that it may take a while for me to get pics on here. It was SOOO sad... so the second day, we went to the beach and before we left I had a nice young man take our picture. When I gave him the camera, he DROPPED IT! He was so appologetic, and it was an accident, but DANG! It worked for about 3 or 4 more pictures, but then when I turned it on about twenty minutes later the screen said "Lens Error"... CRAP, that can't be good. I tried to turn it off and the lens shutter wouldn't even close. I was so annoyed the rest of the day. (BIG SIGH) I bought a dumb disposable one for the rest of the time, but it just ain't the same. It was so sweet though, as you'll soon learn more, we stayed with Angela's relatives and her Great Uncle let me use his digital camera one of the days. But, it'll be a little while until he can send them to me. He's retired, but helps out at a church with folk's who need help with their taxes. Needless to say, it's a bit of a busy time. SO.... hopefully I'll be posting back sooner than later, with good news from National Camera Exchange!!! (oh please, God!!!)

Long awaited, much anticipated... vacation

Well, like I said in my story that I shared last week... God always has perfect timing. Little did I know when I planned a trip to San Diego, it would be even more than just a vacation from work. Of course, I'm not running away from my situation, but a vacation from stress never hurt anyone!
It's really nice too, cuz it has been pretty easy going a pace at work, not anything huge I'm leaving for Georgia. She'll thank me later... except I also timed it just right because our favorite client is going to be at the office next week. I think he might not be there as much, I think he's trusting us a bit more lately. If you don't know who that is, or anything about him, well, you've missed out. I deleted the old blogs about him too, just for precautionary reasons. Although, I did save them to my hard drive. :) Anyways...

SAN DIEGO, or bust, baby! I'm ready.... set...
GO!!

(p.s. the title of my blog is the beginning of a line in a John Reuben song... can anyone finish it?? okay, I know... who listens to him anymore? I don't, but i would smile if anyone can humor me. :) )
p.s.s. you can expect to see some pictures of San Diego as well... can't wait to really take advantage of my new or not so new anymore... digital cam!


i just added this for fun. i took it while driving in my car... i know... hazard, but nobody was around... it's in the back roads of champlin/dayton/maple grove

Dying to Live... felt like dying

Breathe peace, Breath your peace on us...
So we might breath you deep...

For those of you who don't know, I shared a part of my story in the service this weekend. If you missed it you can go to Open Door's website and click on This Week's sermon. You can watch it on Quicktime or Window's Media Player, however it may not show up until Mon. or Tues....
Here is the text version of it... if you don't want to wait... (there were four others who shared as well, so I'd encourage you to watch it, they had great things to share as well).

• I love how God works in my life, it's never the same. And it's always in His perfect timing, even when I try and mess it up.
  
  Recently, he has been showing me the places in my life that need cleansing. I didn't know exactly how to start, so I met with the Restoration Through Prayer people here at church. Through that time of prayer and discussion I was able to uncover some feelings of bitterness that I always felt awful about.
  
  The root of those feelings formed in my adolescent years, years when my parents struggled with my sister's rebellion. In those times of battle, I was left alone praying for God to send someone to rescue me or just make the fighting stop. I never recognized the bitterness, because I felt guilty for having those feelings, when my parents and especially my mom didn't mean to neglect my needs. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a parent in that situation.
  
  The Restoration Through Prayer took place just a couple days before the "Dying to Live" sermon. Even though I was able to see and acknowledge the bitterness during that prayer time, I didn't fully know how to let it go, or still didn't know if I wanted to let it go.
  
  During the time of the first sermon I didn't feel I should rush up to bury my seed. I needed time to think about what it was I was actually doing. I wrestled with life that whole week. I knew I needed to share this with my parents, but the winds of resistance blew strong and I didn't put much effort in.
  
  As a result, Sunday morning came and I hadn't met with them, I wondered if I should still go up. As I searched my heart, I realized that it was still something I needed to do, but that in doing so, I still needed to speak to my parents.
  
  So I went up, spent some time at the cross and buried my seed. It wasn't anything magical and I didn't feel an immediate change, but it was the first hard step of death, into becoming more alive.
  
  The next step meant talking to my parents, and this time I planned it right away. Even though I knew they would listen, it was still hard.
  
  But, once I shared those feelings I felt lighter and I knew healing was taking place. It meant for me, that I had fully died to that bitterness and brought light into the dark places of my heart.

Like I said before, this is just the beginning, I know there are more things in my life that need to die, and I am excited for the new life that I believe will grow in me.Being a part of the service this weekend was exhausting, it was very different than I expected. Though I didn't really know what to expect... I didn't realize just how emotinally draining it would be. Part of me, if I'm real honest, feels like the weekend was wasted, though I shouldn't say it like that because it was an incredible time and I know God moved. But, I mean, I didn't get a whole lot done, it's that "I need a vacation from my vacation," feeling, but with the weekend. I guess I need to learn that sometimes it is okay to not get things done. I never pictured myself as a work-a-holic or a task oriented person. Maybe it's just the fact that I didn't get to choose how I spent my time, feels kind of selfish, there were things I wanted to do though. But, I couldn't have done anything different... hmmm... I'm rambling and going off on a tangent... so what else do I want to say?
It was hard.
I honestly thought the hardest part would be the actual speaking, which don't get me wrong it definitely was with fear and trembling that I shared, but the time after second service of knowing it was done was the hardest.
I was just talking to my sister today and I think that it's just that "let-down" feeling. I never knew I'd feel that way... it's not like I was performing and hoping for a good response, honestly it really didn't matter to me. Of course, I did want my friends to support me (which they did), but I wasn't really concerned with how the congregation received it. Al just kept reminding us over and over that it's not about us, it's about God and giving the glory to Him.
(ugh.. side note: I hate my loud and obnoxious neighbors and their LOUD bass... it's giving me a headache... and did last night, too! until i called the cops at 1:30AM-2:30 with time change)
Why is it that it's so hard for me (today) to feel like rejoicing for what He has done in my life, I guess it just still feels like dying. This process is still going on, and I really really just want the life to come.. <> I'm just not feeling it right now...

Dear Jesus,
I know that what you've done in me, this weekend and over the last year has been life changing... and right now I feel the enemy attacking, would you BIND his evil thwarts against me, God!