Apparently, it burned out from all the work it was doing over the past two days. And our basement filled with 8 inches of water. And my neighbor could not find my cell phone number (I was at a meeting)…so I missed the whole thing – including the fire department coming, the heater apparently arcing, and the water being sucked out. My landlord’s wife called right after our meeting finished and left me a message on my cell phone and I was in a complete panic. Stuff is stuff but I was primarily concerned with the cats and making sure they were ok and still in the house (I hate it when people come in without my knowledge and I can’t account for them) and church stuff being damaged or ruined.

I flew home (literally) and immediately was relieved to find Norman and Ramona – terrified but ok. Nellie of course was nowhere to be found but I knew she would not ever leave the house. My neighbor came in and told me the whole story and I am thankful now that I wasn’t here. I think I would have been even more panicked to have the firemen come and tell me to leave the house because of the heater arcing and the chance of fire. This way, all was resolved (except for the mess in the basement and trying to figure out what is a loss) before I even got here. Boy, does God know me! And I know that everything happened the way it did for this reason.

I was also so glad that my friend Scott came over and brought me their dehumidifier and a heater to start trying to dry things out. I think that will work well – and we’ll see what can be salvaged and what can’t. Again, though, it’s just stuff.

Now I must do my taxes quickly, take care of some other things, and get to bed.

With all the has been going on as of late, I think it’s time to refocus. I’ve seen this over at Overwhelmed with Joy (and she found it at Brady’s Bunch).

1. The memorial yesterday. It reminded me that I am very blessed and have been blessed to work with some truly amazing people in the healthcare field, people who simply desire to improve patient care. It’s easy to get mired in the politics of business and such, but I always need to bring my focus back to why I do what I do…and this is it.

2. The baseball game was postponed. I really was looking forward to it but I knew my fibro would not stand for me sitting in the cold rain for any length of time today. And boy, is it raining! I ran errands after church and was completely and utterly soaked. I had to change clothes when I got home and actually towel off and blow dry my hair! Which brings me to my next gratitude…

3. My sump pump. In the four years I’ve lived here, I’d hear it turn on now and again but today it has run absolutely non-stop. And I just checked – no flooding. Yay, sump pump!

4. Even though I knew the weekend would be crazy, I chose to go to the scrapbook class on Friday. It was really very neat what she demonstrated but I’m not sure how I’ll incorporate it yet. The best part was that my dear friend Nan ended up coming at the last minute and it is always so nice to spend time with her. I need to figure out how to do that more often, with more regularity. We have known each other since we were five years old and I am so thankful we are still friends after all this time.

5. I’ve been working on my finances and over the past few weeks, have put some things in place to free up a little extra. Not much, but I hope at least it will help me not be in such dire financial straits each month…and maybe get a new pair of shoes or suit for work some time in the near future.

6. Time to nap today. I don’t get nearly enough sleep during the week and haven’t had the luxury of sleeping in on a weekend for some time, so it was nice to snooze this afternoon…thought I did sleep way to long and ended up not getting anything else done. The traditional Sunday afternoon nap is always a double-edged sword for me! : )

And another weekend draws to a close.

Yesterday was a long day. The memorial service was wonderful – many old friends telling stories, laughing, and sharing memories with those gathered. I’m glad that we went. What stuck me most, and saddened me most, was when his daughter said that the one thing that made her most angry in this time was that he had spent his life working against the very demon that in the end took his life – cancer. It is a terrible irony, a terrible injustice. He was only 69.

There is something to be said for being so insanely busy you cannot think straight or remember what you were doing 2 minutes before, let alone two days ago. At least the week flies by. But by the time I get home and eat dinner, my only desire is to get into my bed.

This weekend will be a hectic one. Tomorrow I have a client meeting in the afternoon and then am going to a scrapbooking class. It’s called Word Art, which is fairly intriguing for the likes of me!

The medical director from my old job passed away last week and K and I are going to go to his memorial service Saturday. It is at a wel-regarded social club and I am not yet sure at all what to expect.

On Sunday I am teaching Sunday school and then am supposed to go to my first major league baseball game. Well, that’s not entirely true – I once saw the Brewers in Milwaukee but I’ve never seen our local team, even having lived within a short commute of their playing field all my life. I’m really excited but apparently we are to get a Nor’easter???????????????????? I don’t know what will happen then. I’m not terribly keen on sitting out in the freezing rain for a few hours. I guess if the game gets called, we could use our tickets whenever they reschedule for…but if it is Monday, I’m out. We have a pastoral search meeting and I cannot certainly miss that for a baseball game…no matter how much I’d like to go. 😦

I can’t begin to thank you enough for your nice comments on my previous post. Things have been very hectic at work this week and I haven’t had any time to check in until tonight…and it was so nice to find those encouraging comments!

I am feeling a little bit better than I did then but there are some areas in my life that I really need to just give up to the Lord and stop fretting and stressing over. Tonight I caught a little bit of an interview that Anderson Cooper was doing with Sanjay Gupta on CNN about his new book, Chasing Life. I missed the beginning but from what I understood, the book examines some people in different geographic locations who live longer than others and ideas as to why this is. Dr. Gupta said that people in a certain area were predominantly seventh day adventists who strictly obey the sabbath. He joked that he sometimes thinks rest is found in changing activities – for instance, going from a neurosurgery to being on CNN (in his case!)

This really struck me, though I am not entirely sure why. Maybe it is partially because I know I have not been taking care of myself lately. I am allowing stress to get a stranglehold on me in a major part of my life and I am not sure how to rectify the situation…or if it even can be rectified. I am staying up late reading, because that is my escape and my stress relief and I enjoy it but then I pay the price when the alarm goes off (or the cat frantically jumps on me). I’m eating ridiculous things and eating all the time with little or no regard. (I am happy to say my menu planning has been going well, however, and for once I cannot say that I am completely and utterly not exercising – I quit the Y on Saturday (finally) but bought a pilates ball and have been doing some of the exercises the trainer had shown me.)

I know I have to give this thing up to God and just try to do my best to make it through. I have to pray too that he will help me to manage the day to day of it until things improve…

He is risen indeed!

I want to post something inspirational this evening but I am really just not feeling it. I had a good weekend and a lovely lunch today over at Nancy and Jerry’s house (thank you!!) but now I am just feeling blue and I haven’t a clue why. I am desiring that some things be different, and trying to figure out how to make them so. I know, this is a recurring theme with me…but I need to be honest about it, and so it comes out here.