I have the best Boyfriend

Let me first mention that my parents are coming into town for a visit tonight. They will be staying from tonight until Monday. As I got ready for my usual cleaning ritual before the parents get here I started to have immense pain in my lower back. I decided to ignore it and press on. That was yesterday. Today I was in so much pain that I tried to do work, quite doing work, took a bubble bath, and finally decided to call my PCP and ended up at an urgent care. As I was in so much pain James decided that he would clean for me! He did such a good job and is trying really hard to keep me comfortable until my pain pill kicks in. He ordered Chinese, cleaned the whole apartment, walked Rocky, and even drove with me to the pharmacy. I gotta love a man who will do all that!

Knock on the Door

The past two weeks have been a complete and total blur. I answered my door two weeks ago to a guy selling magazines. However, he never even got his sales pitch out. All he could say was "Hi my names is James, and you're amazingly beautiful." I just about drooped dead. He told me he was going around meeting people in the neighborhood. I just kept thinking that this guy better live in Houston and be single. We stood outside my apartment talking for three hours that day and have not left each others side since, unless it was forced for work and such. James and I have been together for over two weeks now and loving every minute of it.


James decided that he wants to settle down and get his life a little more straight. We have spent the last week in Dallas and he is moving back to Houston with me tomorrow. We have decided that we are going to move to Dallas in a few weeks because I can do my work from Dallas and it will be easier for him to get a job there.

Church Questioning and Answers

Over the past few weeks I have had a lot of questions come to me about my church choice. These came from me and from a few friends. Why am I Baptist? Can a woman be a minister? What about infant baptism as a Chaplain?

For a while I thought about these questions on my own and talk with my mom about my conclusions. First off I am Baptist because I like the church, the pastor, the mission, and the singles group. Second I had not seen a woman do anything in the church service so I had no clue if women were even allowed to do anything in the service. Third I need to ask my pastor about infant baptism and if it is not possible for me to do I probably need a new denomination.

Now today I had a few questions asked at church. I joined the choir last week and had to go to a different service today. Yes, I can be a woman and do things in service and even be a minister. Another answer can up to be yes as well. I can do infant baptism as a Baptist Hospital Chaplain. I have now come to the conclusion that I am in the right place for me. Maybe I will someday feel the need to change denominations, but for now I am happy as a Texas Baptist.

Proud of the Saints, but Peyton Manning is my MVP

As a person living in Houston, Texas, I have become friends with many people from New Orleans. I have watch Saints games, and been supportive of my friends. Tonight as a support for them I cheered on the Saints against the Colts. I just hope that the Win tonight brings about some good change on mind in New Orleans.

However, as proud of the Saints as I am Peyton Manning will always be my MVP. Why is this since I am a die hard Steelers fan and this year have been cheering for the Saints with my friends? About 7 years ago Peyton Manning befriended a young teenage girl with terminal brain cancer. This girl was sweet, loving, fun, and well one of the most amazing people everyone who ever meet her knew. Her name was Allison and she was/is my cousin. Allison and her family love the Colts, epically Paton! During her last year and a half alive Peyton agreed to meet Allison and he became a friend of hers. This never astonished me, since I knew what an inspirational person Allison was. He encouraged Allison to keep fight for the rest of her life. Allison died in September 2004. So to tonight Peyton Manning may not have been named MVP at the Superbowl, but he will always be MVP in my book for what he did for Allison.

Beliefs, are they right or wrong?

Tonight I set out for a friends dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and I found myself in the mist of a conversation on beliefs. This I must say was not my fault totally, but I also did not stop it. A man who is in the older singles class and I have started to become friends and he finally decided to ask me what Seminary was like. I probably started this off wrong with saying I went to a school of Theology. I also came straight out and told him it was probably more liberal than he would expect since I was Methodist when I went to seminary. At this point he looked straight at me and ask how liberal. Again not being able to keep my mouth shut I told him about some of the classes I took like Biomedical Pastoral Ethics. Hahaha, I was digging a hole. He asked about situations I had been given in my pastoral care classes and I could only think of the one I loved the most. It was a situation where I was placed as a pastor of a church that was somewhat conservative in their thinking about homosexuality and a homosexual couple came to me asking to baptise their adopted child. I just completely dug that hole to China. He asked about my feeling about homosexual people being allowed in church and I said it was a good thing. Than he asked me about child baptism. I told him I agreed with it and that I was raised in a denomination where it was done. I guess I might as well have just dug the hole thought the ozone layer and now I am out in space. He then told me I was wrong and that he thought he could change my mind. Yeah Right!!!!! I guess you could say I might not be baptist anymore if my thoughts get out.

Sinus Infection from .......

So nothing to interesting has been going on in my life because I have literally locked myself in the new apartment. I seem to think that by staying inside my sinus infection will go away. To date this has not worked, but neither have the two antibiotics I have been on this past month. I have come to decided this is all to blame on the fact that I am allergic to Cipro or that fact that my insurance will not pay for anything but urgent care, and well we all know urgent care. Now I am not saying that urgent care is not a good place to go, but come on two antibiotics and a month of a sinus infection and I am still suffering. Also can I just say I am eating almost nothing now because I am too tired from not being able to sleep. Sorry to fuss, but I am just so tired right now.

To Apply or Not to Apply

As most of you know I have been out of the ministry now for almost 6 months. In this time I have struggled to find a job, stay on my feet, keep living my life normally, and finally found a job. Now I am at a strange turning point. I am wanting to be back in ministry. I am still healing from the scars of this past year, but feel like God is telling me I need to go back into ministry. I am doing ministry in a couple different ways right now as a representative on the single adult board at my church, co-coordinating Third Thursday Westend Food Pantry, and just little things I am doing in everyday life.

However, In all of this I have felt so many things missing. I still desire to be a hospital chaplain, I desire to work with children, and I miss being in ministry all the time. I decided to check out a few things on the ACPE (association for clinical pastoral education) and saw that there are a lot of opening for next year. I talked to my pastor for a moment before church and he said to use him as my denominational reference since he will be the one licensing me for ministry. So the big question is: do I apply or not?