A post in which I talk about my health

Listening to people talk about their health problems never really excited me. I tried to avoid those conversations as much as possible. I never understood why people would volunteer that much personal information to someone. Until recently.

I've been having stomach problems. And I feel the need to talk about it with people. I finally went to the doctor today and we won't know what it is for a few weeks but here is the list of things I have worried it might be:

- Stress!
- Lactose Intolerance
- Ulcers
- A sign that I shouldn't marry Ben
- Stomach Flu
- Irritable Bowel syndrome

My dad finally convinced me to stop worrying about what it MIGHT be and just go to the doctor and find out what it really is.

In all of this I have come to think that people talk about their health problems for several reasons. One is to let you know what they are going through. Life isn't easy for them and you should know that. Another is to explain why they aren't active or excited about something. They are sick and please understand that being sick takes all their energy. And the final and probably most likely reason is that they are scared. They want to tell someone what they are going through and that person to respond with "Oh that? Not a big deal at all. I had that and it cleared up in 2 days." They want someone to tell them that while it isn't fun, their illness will go away. Because being sick can be scary.

So to all you people who talk about your health problems with strangers... I get it.

I forgot to blog about this...

Here are a couple things that have happened this month that didn't make any sense:

1. The news coverage of the election results being interrupted by the announcement of Britney Spears filing for divorce. Obviously this is more important than announcing who will be running our country.

2. That the only parents in my apartment building are also the only people in my apartment building who smoke pot. There may be a link there....

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Overheard

"My wife and I started reading the Great Divorce together, but then we decided that it probably wasn't the best book to read the first year of marriage."

Oh Snap! A post in which my man lays the smack down Baptist style

Ben and I have been praying about a church to join once we are married and move away from my home church. It seems like we may have found one. The only problem is that it isn't Baptist - I don't even think that they have a baptismal! But in spite of their obvious lack of doctrinal understanding, they seem to be a friendly church with a heart for biblical teaching and serving their community, so I can overlook some differences (Just please don't tell my family).

This past Sunday we decided to check out the twenty something Sunday school class to get a better feel for the church. It was a small class with only about 10-15 people in it and most of them were of newly married couples. There was one other couple there that were visiting for the first time. They seemed like nice-down-to-earth people that I could see Ben and I spending time with.

As we were studying Ephesians 2, someone brought up the lack of unity in the universal church. They made a few ignorant statements about how Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants all hate each other. Not necessarily true but I could overlook his gross generalizations until Mr. Tactful said, "And well, everyone just hates Baptists." This led to some nice awkward silence until Mr. New Couple spoke up and said, "Actually my wife and I are Baptist and this is the first non-Baptist church we have ever gone to." After that we just kind of sat there not really sure what to say, but sure that the new couple would not be coming back. Ben broke the pregnant silence with, "Yeah my fiancee goes to a Baptist church and I grew up Baptist so I hope everyone doesn't hate Baptists...." Oh, Snap!

Ben later went on to set Mr. Tactful straight on a couple other misstatements he made. Don't you be messin' with my man. You think you know a little bit about church history? Just watch out because one misstep and he'll set you straight so fast you won't even know what hit you. Newb.

This is just one more reason why I am so excited to marry this man!

Note: Growing up as a Baptist I never hated people in different denominations, I just didn't think they were Christians. It wasn't until about High School that I realized Methodists and Presbyterians loved Christ. In college I figured out that Lutherans, Catholics and Penecostals also could get into Heaven. This past year I've come to understand that the Orthodox Church isn't some crazy cult, but that they really are trying to follow Christ. Crazy huh? It's like I just found out there are a whole lot more people who love God than I thought. This is GREAT!

Corn Maze

A couple weeks ago Ben and I and some friends went to a corn maze. If you've never experienced a corn maze, I am guessing it's for one of two reasons:

1. You don't live where they grow corn. To you I say - I am sorry your life sucks so bad. Sure, you may live in the mountains or by the ocean or in a desert, but it can't be that great because you don't have any corn and without corn, you don't have corn mazes. This is why I think Ohio is a great place to live. It's cheap, it has corn mazes, and it's not Indiana. I mean, I guess Indiana isn't soo bad, but all they have is corn and basketball and smelly Gary, Indiana. Sure, Ohio rivers may catch on fire now and then, but that's minor to all the great things about it - like corn mazes.

2. You just have never gone. To you I say - What are you waiting for? Fun awaits you! Well not right now, they are all closed now. But next fall - fun awaits you!

This is a picture of Ben and Chris sliding through the mud in the corn maze. If you are going to a corn maze, make sure that you go right after 2 days of rain. Corn mazes are only fun if they are super muddy. How muddy you get directly correlates to the quality of flashlight you have. These pictures explain how this works:

Nick and Beth got pretty muddy because their flashlight wasn't so hot. Which you can see by the lack of flash light beam on their face.


I stayed pretty clean (see how clean I look?) because my flashlight rocked, but Ben got muddy because I kept running off with the rockin' flashlight.

Chris and Casey got really muddy because Chris wouldn't let Casey use the flashlight since they "had to conserve the batteries", which is probably why she is trying to throw him to the corn.

In this maze you had to find mailboxes that had pieces of the map. Once you had all the map pieces, you could find your way out. It really was a lot of fun. Except for that time when Nick and Beth found some map pieces on the ground and tried to cheat. Ben, Chris and I took care of it though and wadded up the ill-gotten map pieces and threw them in the corn.

We eventually found all the pieces and made it out of the maze. At the end we split up to see who could find the last mailbox and the way out the fastest. Ben and I won!

This is kinda strange, but oh-so-funny!

She might spit in my water...

I have such a great roommate. Let me tell you how great she is.

The other day I was brushing my teeth and I noticed that the tooth brush felt different. Almost new. I looked at it and admired the nice, new green bristles and slowly, I realized that I didn't own a green tooth brush. I owned a blue tooth brush. Amberly owned a green tooth brush! I had brushed my teeth with her toothbrush!

So the next morning Amberly woke up to a note on the mirror explaining that I used her toothbrush and that she wouldn't have one that morning. She went to school with only mouthwash to get rid of the morning breath. And she didn't get mad at me, she actually laughed! She's so great!

I bought her a new toothbrush and wrote my name on mine. I can tell the difference now. Can you?