Really Confessional Thursdays

Today, at my prophetic ministry class, I had a huge revelation. But I'll have to begin by telling you about our new house before I get to the revelation...trust me, you'll get it in the end.

So I just realized that I haven't told you about our new house. Right now we live in a larger town about 45 minutes from the farm I grew up on. But right now my husband works in the itty bitty town where I went to high school(for those of you who aren't acquainted with this little blog, my life just went to the far end of crazy since we moved from where I thought I would spend the rest of most of my life, South Dakota, back to my hometown of all places, North Dakota, oh and by the way, we moved to South Dakota from Mississippi, which is of course my dream climate, and we moved to Mississippi from Minneapolis, where I went to college - got that straight??).

So the house we've been living in since we moved here last fall is an older, beautiful home in the old historic district of town. It has all the old woodwork, and I could go on and on, I just love our house, and our neighborhood.

The only problem is that we are not able to purchase the house like we thought we were going to when we moved in.

So, we've been looking for a new place. And while in the midst of all of this househunting, I got a revelation from G-d that we would be living out of town, like way out. Which, me being a city girl at heart, I was a little flipped out about at first, but I eventually embraced that.

The only thing I didn't know is that G-d meant wayyy out, like way out. So we found a house in a town 55 minutes from Minot, which is where we live now. Hubby loves the thought of how he will be closer to work, but for me, I'm now going to have quite a commute every week to keep the lifestyle I have here in Minot. And all my friends are here, my life is pretty much here in Minot. I do a lot of work out of the courthouse here and Kaydn Rye loves his activities at the YMCA here, and I could go on and on.

But getting past that, we put an offer on the perfect house 55 minutes away from Minot, in a little town called Kenmare. I fell in love with the house and the land it sits on.

The only problem - once we were about a month into the contract to buy it, the seller then refused to sell us the house, despite our contract. He even paid us money to get out of the contract. Crazy. Just crazy. The guy's insane. But whatever, we just moved on.

I just couldn't believe that we were not supposed to move into that house. I thought I felt G-d writing in huge letters on the side of the house when I first saw it, "THIS IS YOUR HOUSE!!!"

And it was so crazy how I even found the house. I had found a different house in Kenmare, while I was online on a real estate web site. Everytime I'd see this house online, I'd say to myself, "Man, I wish I could move that house to Minot." I eventually told hubby about it, and he was like, "We gotta go see that house." I thought he was insane. But after mulling over it for awhile, I found myself meeting the realtor at the house for a tour. It was like something out of the twilight zone that I was looking at a house in this town truly in the middle of nowhere.

So when I got to the house, I ended up hating it. Really. I did not like it. But I was there with my friend Jen (names have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty) and we ended up just driving around Kenmare for a little while. On the way out of town I spotted a for sale sign by this house nestled on a wooded lot on the edge of town. Jen and I just looked at each other and I immediately called the listing realtor. We went through the house and I knew that it was mine. We placed an offer, we were going to get a great deal on it, and then all of a sudden we found ourselves in this strange situation with a seller who was refusing to sell the house to us.

So the day we knew we had lost the house, hubby ended up calling the realtor to see if he had any other listings. The realtor said he had actually just received a new listing on a comparable house in Kenmare.

The next day I went to look at the house and we now have a contract on that house. It's a turn of the century home that is absolutely beautiful.

But in the midst of all of this, I could not understand why in the world we had to go through all of the crap on the first house. I loved that house, it fit our family and it was the perfect price for us. So what in the heck was the point of all that?? I laid awake at night wondering what in the world the point of that whole side trail was all about.

But tonight I figured it out.

In the midst of the first contract going sour, I kept pushing it and pushing it, trying to make it work with the seller. I just could not let go of that house. And I thought I had heard so clearly from G-d about that house. And really, if I ever have any doubt about which direction G-d has in mind for us, I have always just kept pressing and pressing what I think is the best for us, knowing that if it wasn't, G-d would just keep shutting doors and open a new one. Which is exactly what happened here. Doors kept closing but I would not let go until there were absolutely no more doors to close.

The revelation about all this??

G-d blatantly told me that He is bringing me to a level of communication with Him - one in which I must take the time to hear His voice rather than just wait for Him to close door upon door. G-d now expects me not to operate in self-will but to listen, listen, listen.

So I have my listening ears on.

BEST OF THE WEEK

Image via WikipediaSo I've been doing some random wandering around the world of the Internet and have realized that I will never be able to keep up with all the good content out there. So I have devised a way to solve that problem. Every week, once a week, I will post a BEST OF THE WEEK, where everyone can post a link to their own best post from the week. I am way too random to commit to posting on any specific day of the week, so I guess BEST OF THE WEEK will show up on whatever day of the week it shows up. And if you come across a great blog post somewhere else besides your own, post that too. So here it is for this week....

What Kind of Transformer Are You??

So, more than a year after the movie came out, we are still in the midst of Transformer fever. If you're not familiar with the Transformers, it's probably because you have girls and have spent a little too much time at Hannah Montana concerts. (See Tranformers movie site - this is actually the movie site for the sequel coming out in 2009)

It was just recently that hubby let Kaydn Rye watch the movie, against my wishes of course. While the movie has no sex, no swearing, and is for the most good clean fun, it is A LOT of shooting and bombs and whatever else people and alien robots alike use to destroy each other. But Kaydn thinks this movie is, like, the best thing since Dora.

But anyway, so everyday we play superheros and transformers. And about every five minutes Kaydn Rye asks, "Mom, What kind of transformer are you?" I don't know why he asks, because he has already decided who each of us are.

And if you aren't familiar with all the crazy characters, check out Transformer Characters because I know how interested you are in cartoon robots. But you must know, the Autobots are the good guys, and the Decepticons are the bad guys. Optimus Prime is the leader of the good guys and Megatron is the evil arch nemesis.

So here's who everybody is in our magical world of alien robotics.

Well, Gertie, the shih' tzu is Jazz, the little gray Autobot.



Kaydn Rye, of course, is Ocktimus Prime, otherwise known as Optimus Prime, he is our leader.



Hubby is Ironhide, the Autobots' weapons specialist and a manly man of an alien robot.



There is also one other Autobot, Bumblebee - the guardian - but he is apparently too sacred to even be imitated.

And I, believe it or not, am Megatron. Yeah, I know, I'm the evil, gnarling Decepticon who tries to rid earth of all its human inhabitants. Oh, and I also steal candy from babies.



But I will tell you this, if I truly was Megatron, I would not have gone down so easily in the end of the movie. Sorry for ruining the ending for you, but if I really was Megatron, Kaydn Rye can attest to how truly nasty Megatron would be.

(Yeah, I know, I need to think of something better to do with my time.)

Bikini Models and Accounting, oh my!

Tonight I am writing to you without a functioning pointer finger. Note to self - burning plastic really burns.
But like a true blogging hero, I'm pressing on....

So today, not counting the searing plastic adhered to my fingers, it was a good day. As you may know, the business has been a nightmare for the last, oh, I'd say month and a half. And for the sake of all that is sane, I've had to really step back and rethink the recovery biz. (If you're confused about the recovery biz, see What is it that you do again?) And today was really the first day in probably a month and a half that I actually sat at my desk and completed a normal work day. And of course, with slacking at work for over a month, the first thing that needed to be done was the dreaded ACCOUNTING! Oh the horror.

But, despite the horrors of the accounting of a judgment recovery business, bikinis have brought me back from the dark side.



I'll explain. Last Friday, which was the first Friday in a long time that we didn't have anything going on or something to do, I ended up watching hours upon hours of that new TLC show Ashley Paige:Bikini or Bust.

For those of you who are above watching hours upon hours of a show about a bikini designer trying to keep her bikini business afloat, you probably don't know what I'm talking about.

And I guess all the big celebrities wear this lady's wonderful bikinis, but I had never even heard of her.

In the show, she can barely afford to feed all her crazy rescued dogs let alone pay her rent for her office space.

In the one episode, her expenses are uncontrollable, she has no money to do the expansion of her business that she needs to really bring it out of porerty, and she can't pay any of the huge stack of bills that she's stuffed in a drawer. She ends up realizing that she needs a new sense of direction and a renewed sense of purpose in her business, so she pays money (that she probably doesn't have) to visit a life coach.

This life coach ends up just listening to all that's going wrong with the business and all that Ashley needs to do but has been putting off to grow her business. This life coach simply says, "Well, tomorrow do this, this and this, and I'll see you next week," and Ashley goes on her merry way.

She finishes her assigned tasks, and life is great again.

And as I was watching this, I was like, this is what I need to do with my business. I just need to keep it simple, do one thing at a time, and I'll get through this.

I was just so encouraged that I'm not the only one in the world working my tail off to build a business that I don't have the capitol to build. It's like running yourself in a circle that takes you right back to the place you started, month after month after month.

But today was my day for a new start. And you know, it's not that anyone magically donated a million dollars to my cause, so none of my business problems flew away, but after seeing that show, I thought, "Wow, I am so encouraged that there is someone else out there right now who is building a business that really can't be built without an act of G-d." It was great.

You Can Hypnotize Me, But I Won't Cluck Like a Chicken....

Yesterday we went to the Fair, again, and we ended up seeing a hypnosis show. Of course, I couldn't remember the names of the guy and the lady who put on the show for the life of me, but I am now inspired to self-hypnotize. Yeah, you read right.

So before this hypnosis lady starts knocking people out like nobody's business, she says that hypnosis is perfect for a little pick me up in the middle of the day (for those who had a little too much fun during the fair), since an hour's worth of hypnotic sleep is equivalent to 6 or 7 hours worth of regular sleep. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??!!

I was like, I am all over that. Teach me how I can go from needing atleast eight hours of sleep a night to only an hour. Can you imagine what you could do with your life if you only needded an hour of sleep a night?? Oh my word, I could solve world hunger, bring world peace and become president of the United Nations, oh and of course, most importantly, I could blog twice a day!!!

But anyway, at the show, the lady asks for volunteers to go up front, on the stage, to be hypnotized. Of course, I would never go make a fool of myself in front of hundreds of people, but there were even people in the audience who were hypnotized.

But that hypnosis lady had me at "Hypnotic sleep is equivalent to 7 hours of regular sleep." I was hooked, and I thought, "I bet I can hypnotize myself."

So I went online and found a site designated to learning how to self-hypnotize. I know, crazy right. There are actually quite a few sites out there. See .

But on this site, it talks about how you can get to the "alpha state." This alpha brain wave state is what supposedly bridges the gap to the unconscious material located in our subconscious mind, which apparently is supposed to allow us to reprogram our subconscious mind and tap into our true creative potential.

I don't know about you, but while creative potential is great and wonderful, sleeping an hour a night is what I'm all about. We'll see how long it takes me to finally get around to actually trying to hypnotize myself. I'll let you know how it goes. And I don't know, but right now I think it might be a better idea to just let my conscious mind have the forefront. I'm thinking that bad things could happen once my subconscious mind starts taking over.

Really Confessional Thursdays

an apple-gathering
Originally uploaded by ***passiflora***

Revelatory Thursday is happening on Friday this week I guess. Yesterday we went to the Fair, and needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot of computer time. I did end up taking some time off from the fair to go to my prophecy class, taught by my mentor in growing in the prophetic gifting.
During discussion, she proceeded to tell us about a dream that she had. In our class, dream interpretation has been a big part of learning to hear what G-d tells all of us on a daily basis. (See Dream Interpretation)

The dream begins with her on a pathway, kind of like the yellow brick road, which she knows will eventually lead to the throne of G-d. While on the path, she is carrying a basket. As she looks around her, there are fruit trees surrounding the path, and as she goes down the path she discerns that she must fill the basket before she reaches the throne of G-d. But as she walks down the path, the fruit trees get further and further away from the path, so ends up having to venture further and furher away from the path to continue filling her basket.

When she finally reaches the throne of G-d, her basket is full and she is absolutely beaming because she feels she has brought a more than sufficient offering to G-d.

But instead, G-d is weeping, fully in tears. And the dream ends.

The interpretation?

In her dream she had wandered off the path that G-d had laid out for her life on earth in her pursuit of her overwhelming desire to please G-d with outward things. And while good works are wonderfully great, we can often lose sight of G-d trying to please Him with all our good works and deeds that really are often just an attempt at making us feel better about ourselves. If she had come to G-d with her basket empty, once she reached Him it would have been overflowing with the simplicity of her merely following G-d's path for her and with the fruits of the spirit that would flow through her simply because she loved and sought G-d completely.

Conclusion?

Trying to earn our way to G-d apart from the simple love of G-d and His Son, while it not only brings guilt, condemnation and depression to our spirit, it also grieves the heart of G-d.

My Vacuum Sucks!!!

Despite any thoughts otherwise, we just made it to our sixth anniversary. Actually, my mother at one time had said, "I don't think you two are going to make it. Really. I don't."
Yeah, I know, you can sure call her up for a good pep talk.

So anyway, I again forgot our anniversary for probably the second year in a row. And of course, hubby has been a real jerk lately, which really just made me want to forget, so this year it wasn't my fault.

And my anniversary present, well, it was a vacuum. Now, I know what you may be thinking, but I was all about it, man. I have needed a new vacuum since, I don't know, the existence of time. I swear, for someone who actually gets down on hands and knees to check for fuzz most days, it's an act of G-d that I lasted so long with that piece of junk. Seriously, toward the end there, I was actually having to go behind the already vacuumed area on my hands and knees searching out the fuzz for disposal. I know, insane isn't it? But for someone with a fuzz phobia, the fuzz is definitely a big deal.

And oh my word, you will not believe the joy that came to my soul when I saw that vacuum. I immediately opened the box and proceeded to vacuum my entire house, on a Saturday night. And when I saw my brand new carpet lines, it was like carpet cleaning heaven.

But it was just then that I realized that since we moved in to this house last year, I don't think I've really achieved true carpet lines in the carpet. How unabashadly depressing is that, a whole year without carpet lines.

But my new carpet lines, oh they were great. If I could have permanent carpet lines in my carpet, I think I would be a little happier person.



So what am I doing with my old vacuum? Well I'm not taking it DisneyLand. I think I'll try this....

Give Me Candy and Give It To Me NOW

Today was the North Dakota State Fair Parade, which went by pretty much a block from our house, so on a Saturday, I woke myself up at the crack of dawn so that we could be sitting on the sidewalk at the exact moment the parade went by, and of course, we were still late, but whatever, Kaydn Rye had a great time. The parade, in all of its North Dakota splendor and flavor, was full of the usual combines, horses, tractors and other miscellaneous farm equipmenet.



The state fair grounds are about two blocks from our house, and I love it. I LOVE the Fair. Since we have moved back here to North Dakota I have been getting re-acquainted with all of those wonderful places from my childhood (for those of you who aren't acquainted with this little blog, my life just went to the far end of crazy since we moved from where I thought I would spend the rest of most of my life, South Dakota, back to my hometown of all places, North Dakota, oh and by the way, we moved to South Dakota from Mississippi, which is of course my dream climate). Not that my childhood was so great, but I loved, I mean absolutely LOVED the fair. We usually went for just one day, and it was the greatest day of the summer. But I always remember, at the end of our day at the fair, walking what seemed like five miles to where our car was parked, usually around midnight, screaming the whole time because of the terrible leg ache I'd have at the end of the day.

Oh, and of course there was the rides. I went on all of them. I loved hanging upside down, it was great. But now, I can't even go on the swings at the park without barfing.

So anyway, today was the parade, and I don't think Kaydn Rye has ever been so hyped up on sugar in his life. I just do not let him eat that way, ever. I usually end up eating toast and M&Ms for lunch, but his lunch is always fruit, a vegetable and some kind of protein. I knew he'd eventually ask me why he has fruit and vegetables while I have M&Ms, and when the time came I simple replied, "Well, mommies can eat M&Ms for lunch, but big boys eat fruit and vegetables."
And that was the last of that discussion.

But today, at the parade, in addition to the normal suckers, gumdrops and tootsie rolls, people were handing out those frozen sugar-water pop things and VAULT, you know that crazy energy drink thing that I guess is supposed to be one better than Mountain Dew. Yeah, people were handing this stuff out, to children, at a parade. Have these people absolutely lost their minds??

Kaydn Rye was so fascinated by the frozen sugar-water things that he actually chased down a lady on a float, almost got himself run over, and begged for one while the float continued down the road. But with the VAULT, he took one look at the can and said, "Here you go Daddy."

Don't you come at me with that thing...and other musings of the day

Today I sent Gertie to the dog groomer - her arch nemesis.

Before -



After -



I think I'll pop her a zoloft and she should be alright.

And I had to wake up at 7:30 in the morning to rid my house of the abominable snow dog of the prairie. And because of my sheer exhaustion I left Kaydn Rye out in the backyard to splash all of the water of the pool, the water that took me an hour to fill with buckets of warm water since the water out of the hose was apparently too cold. I figure, can't a three-year-old fend for himself in the backyard for 15 minutes. But in the aftermath of my nap, after Kaydn Rye had alreayd opened the gate to the backyard [his cage], I realized he had ended up playing in the front yard for all the world to kidnap him. But the most petrifying realization - I had not cleaned up the Gertie poop in the backyard...dun dun dun....I'm hoping that I won't find any of Gertie's magical little treats on the bottom of any flip flops in the morning when I finally get around to getting out of bed.

Really Confessional Thursdays

Today is Revelatory Thursday, and I have a little bit of a different topic today, which is why I've kind of been putting off writing. And while I want Thursdays to be a day when I can discuss some of the heavier parts of life, I don't want to get weighed down in all the heaviness of life. So I thought I'd dedicate a day to it and be able to move on during the rest of the week to all of life's other aspects and idiosyncracies.

Lately I've been reading a lot about the struggles that go along with motherhood and I thought today I'd share my story.

When I became pregnant, hubby and I had been married, what, two years (I'm terrible with time and dates - so don't ask me to remember your birthday, when Pearl Harbor was attacked or when I had my first kiss, I wouldn't remember it to save my life), and we were living in Mississippi at the time, where hubby had just taken a promotion with his company. I had two semesters of college left at the time, and I was extremely involved in my college life. I was going to work my way into the FBI, and life was going to be great.

So, one day, while I was home in NoDak visiting my family actually, I realized that I had been feeling a little funny. I was in the bathroom, I think, brushing my teeth at my parents' house one morning and it just kind of hit me. I looked up, and with my eyes as big as a frisbee, I thought, "Oh, my word, what if I'm pregnant?"

I ended up taking oh, I'd say three pregnancy tests (the most advanced piece of technology you'll ever pee on for you commercial buffs) before I finally realized that G-d wasn't going to make the pregnancy test magically show up negative. They were all as positive as positive was gonna get.

In those first three months I couldn't help but hope I would miscarry at some point.
But when that didn't happen, I then thought about adoption, but my hubby, who still baffles me at times with what comes out of his mouth, proceeded to fight me every step of the way on that and was pretty much ready to divorce me over the situation.

And once Kaydn Rye was born, I felt like, I guess like I couldn't feel. I just could not feel anything for him. I remember thinking, who is this strange being in my home, and why is he screaming?

I remember finishing a paper on the "Divine Comedy" by Dante for school one day while nursing at my computer. I just somehow melded Kaydn Rye into my life, without any kind of love in my heart.

But the revelation came one day while I was talking to a friend that I hadn't seen in quite a while. They had moved away, and you know how that goes.

I hadn't really told anyone about how I felt about Kaydn Rye or about how I felt really numbed to my life and to this thing in my house, but we somehow ended up talking about it anyway.

She then proceeded to tell me all about how she went through the same exact thing, which was even weirder for her since their pregnancy was planned.

But what was even crazier was that she told me that she continuously prayed about it, for, I don't know, quite awhile, and very gradually G-d answered her prayer, until one day she was sitting in her rocking chair with her son and it just smacked her in the face that she loved this child and that she was going to nurture it.

It was like the bonding that's supposed to happen in the delivery room magically happened in her rocking chair that day.

And you know what, as time went on I soon experienced the same love and nurturing spirit. And it sounds funny, but it was like I woke up one day and realized Kaydn was this little person, not a creature, and that I had already, without even giving myself permission, loved him and given him pieces of myself that I wouldn't come to understand until just recently.

That is how G-d changes hearts, even the hearts of those who somehow seem unchangeable. And I'm sure there were people praying for me that I will never know, and G-d answered those prayers without me even having any knowledge of it.

The whole world wonders, "So where's my PRIZE?!"

I just found out that apparently my little man is in need of validation, he needs a prize, a trophy, a sign that he is the winner.

It all began when I made the mistake of fully explaining how the Kid's Showdeo works (see This is how we do it...in North Dakota anyway). I told him about all the events he'd be in during the day and that the winner gets a prize.
That's when the BUZZER went off - EH! WRONG!!

Don't ever tell a three-year-old about the all great prizes he can win while competing against five-year-olds in a stick pony race. WHAT WAS I THINKING??

This is how we do it...in North Dakota anyway doesn't tell the full story behind the prize meltdown, but after his first event, which was the stick pony race, which of course he did not win. I think when the start buzzer went off he was still gawking around until I screamed, "RUNN KAYDN, RUNN." It was like something out of Forrest Gump.


Once he started runnning, he was Forrest Gump in cowboy boots, but unlike Forrest Gump, it just didn't work out in the end.

So once he makes it to finish line he says to me with a shrugged shoulder, "Where's my prize now?"

So now that you know that, last week probably, I'm cleaning up Kaydn Rye's room when I look on one of his little corner shelves and there sits one of the little piano recital trophies I have sitting on my piano. I thought it probably ended up there after hubby caught Kaydn playing with it and took it away from him, and as usual, he probably just set it wherever was convenient for him at the time and went about the rest of his day.

But today, again, while I was picking up, I found the trophy on the shelf again. I asked Kaydn Rye, "So why does mommy's piano trophy keep popping up on your shelf?"

He said, with his usual head tilt and shoulder shrug, "Well, I was playing pano and needed a prize."

Who Are the Bad Guys...Islamic Jihadists?

Image by Andrew Seidl via Flickr

I introduced Kaydn Rye to the world of politics and terrorism the other day. It began as we were walking into Wal-Mart, our home away from home. As we proceed into Wal-Mart we see a lady and a man in army gear loading something into their car in the parking lot. We live near an Air Force Base, so it's not uncommon to see airforce men and women in their gear. Now keep in mind, the only real experience Kaydn Rye has had up until then with the military is playing with the huge bag of "army men" my mother gave him, apparently because she wants to further instill his male patterned violence.

Anyway, so he sees these "army people," and says, "Those are the bad guys. They try to shoot me with their guns."

I had to jump on that one right away and quickly said, "No, they are not the bad guys, they are the good guys. They protect us from he bad guys, okay?"

He asks, "Well then who are the bad guys?"

I say, "Well the bad guys are the terrorists."

"Who are the terrists," Kaydn Rye asks.

I say, "They are the Islamic Jihadists who want to totally annihilate us because we live in the greatest country in the world and because we love Jesus."

That was apparently all he needed to know about the subject, because the whys abruptly stopped and we proceeded to stock up on all our food for the next two weeks, courtesy of the freedom provided by our trusty Air Force men and women.

Really Confessional Thursdays

Image via Wikipedia

The tomb Absalom supposedly built near Jerusalem before his death.




You know how I said that my professional life (that's what I call my life at the courthouse enforcing civil money judgments) has, really, for the first time that I can remember, become insanely distressing. I have actually worked very minimally for the last three weeks just to re-evaluate things. And with us moving next month, I've really just come to the conclusion that besides the basics of the monthly accounting and the work that I have left on the cases that are currently ongoing, my professional self will have to pull up a chair, put up her feet and read a good book with a cup of fruit punch. Therefore, all the deadbeat debtors will just have to wait for me to collect their money. And I think I'm beginning to be okay with that. I'm in the beginning stages.

So anyway, work has been severely distressing and the key to a successful judgment recovery business is staying under the radar, which is sometimes hard to do when debtors hire attorneys and spend all the money they have to get out of paying their debts. And I definitely have not been under the radar lately, everyone has just been coming at me and it can just be overwhelming. And while I've come up against some really crazy attorneys, they don't scare me, but the one that's currently trying to make my life really miserable, is getting to me a little.

But here is the revelation what G-d gave me that is just insanely wonderfully wonderful. So I've been reading the bible in chronological order since I finally got a chronological bible, and I've been in 2 Samuel, which chronicles King David in exile from his son, Absalom. David is fleeing from his son and a possible assasination attempt on his life, and this is after David has sucesfully navigated his way away from Saul's insane attempts to kill him.

So while David is on his way, he comes across a man named Shimei who pelts him, calls him a scoundrel and curses him. David, totally overwhelmed, says (in the Kate translation), "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, that this guy is cursing me too. How much worse can this get?

But amazingly, while the guy is still pelting him, David then tells his fellow travelers, "Leave the man alone; let him curse me,, for the Lord has apparently told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."

So, it hit me - all of this distress, all of the crap that has happened - is happening because G-d will render a blessing to compensate for it.

And that was all that I needed to here from G-d about the matter. I know everything will be all right even during a time when things could go really wrong, and that's all I need to know.

And David's story...well, Absalom dies trying to take over David's kingdom, and out of David's family line eventually hails Yahushua, the Savior of the world.

This is how we do it.....here in North Dakota anyway

We're back from our little mini-vacation to the lake. Here in North Dakota, if you want to get away for the weekend you either hit a rodeo or you hit the lake. We of course do both. One weekend we do a little rodeoing and the next we go fishing at the lake. The weekend before last was spent at the Blaisdell rodeo, Blaisdell being population 25 in a good census year. Its biggest attraction is a rodeo arena that people flock to a mere two days out of the year.

Kaydn Rye did the Kid's Showdeo, which for those of you non-rodeoing types consists of events in two age groups - 7 and under and 8 and over. Here's Kaydn Rye in the stick pony race. (He's the one in the green John Deere sweatshirt.)



Here's Kaydn Rye in the pull-the-ribbon-off-the-goat-race.



And here's Kaydn Rye in the calf scramble, where the children all race to be the first to corner and tackle a calf and be the first to grab the ribbon of it's tail without getting smacked in the face with a hoof. (Kaydn Rye is the little one in the green sweatshirt trying to keep up with all the big kids.)



Rodeo is definitely a unique lifestyle and one that has been bred into my family for generations, and of course, Kaydn Rye proudly carries on the tradition.

My brother, the little rancher that he is, of course took the title of All Around Cowboy during the showdeo. Here's him comin home after a winning time around the barrels.



Here's a picture of my dad in the Ranch rodeo, which is a separate rodeo that consists of team events that relate to actual ranching, like roping certain numbered cattle in a herd and herding some of them into a separate pen, just like you'd do when you're separating cattle in the corrals. And of course, in the background is North Dakot's claim to fame, the blue horizon that goes on forever.



And of course, here's a pic of Kaydn Rye, my brother Jedd and me.

Taking a Holiday

Sorry everyone that Revelatory Thursdays didn't show up last week, I forgot to post and let the world know that due to the holiday, it would not make an appearance. I'm just trying to get caught up from a full weekend at the lake....

What is it that you DO again??... Judgment Recovery??

So you wouldn't even believe the week I've had. I'm laughing right now because it's just been too crazy and off the wall to even think about without that laugh, you know the one, where you sit and smile for awhile while you think about it, before you finally have to laugh or tears will eventually start to roll down your face, yeah, that's the laugh.

And you know, in my younger days, not that I'm so old right now, but after all that's happened in my mere 26 years, I feel like I've lived an entire lifetime. How am I going to feel at 65? Anyway, like I was saying, in my younger days, I lived pretty much from crisis to crisis to crisis, always in crisis mode, but I now refuse to live just to make it through the day so I can face another crisis tomorrow. So, really, I am not a crisis participater.

But the crisis has been at work, not that there really is a separate "at" with my work, I work from home for pete's sake. But before I discuss any kind of work crisis, I should probably tell everyone what exactly it is that I do. People ask me all the time, "What is it that you do again?"

So here it is, I have a judgment recovery and locate business, which means I enforce small claims and civil money judgments. And if you are like most, you are still sitting in your chair, wondering what it is that I do.

Here's some clarification. The process starts when somebody sues somebody in small claims or civil court. Often times, months, years, sometimes 10 years go by and the creditor still hasn't seen a dime of their money. What do they do? They call me.

They then transfer the judgment to me and it becomes my judgment. From there, I track the debtor down, which is no small feat in itself. I use PI databases, phone calls to friends and family, surveillance, dumpster diving - yep - dumpster diving. Your trash is technically fair game once it's on the curb.

And it usually goes something like this - sometime in the middle of the night before garbage pick up day, usually around 1 or 2 in the morning - I load up my own trash, some white bags and some black bags, into my truck and I head on over to the person in question's property. From there, I frantically load all their trash into the back of the truck on my nice blue and white tarp, and frantically dump all my trash into their trash cans, with the debtor none the wiser. If my husband comes along to drive the get away truck, you'll usually find him driving off with my butt only half way in the passenger seat once the deed is accomplished. The next day, I wip out my tarp in the garage and unload the garbage onto the tarp while I search for anything that isn't Tuesday's leftover fried chicken, discarded moldy leftovers from the fridge, kleenexes or any other un-savory piece of trash. And believe me, this is not for the faint of heart, especially for those of you who like me can barely function in public restrooms. But for some seriously strange reason, it's extremely exhilarating. The thought of finding something that will put the pieces of the puzzle together will fuel the search through anyone's garbage, no matter how un-savory.

So, on to another topic, once the debtor is officially located, I then find out who they know, where they work, where they bank, what they have, what they own, you name it, I dig for it. Sometimes I end up dragging the debtor into court with all of their financial records, they just love that.

So, that's about the jist of it. I find 'em, find their money, and take it. It's usually not that simple, which is why people don't do it on their own. And actually, people in my profession often find themselves in ugly legal battles over people's money, so it is definitely not for the faint of heart. And to be perfectly honest, now there are tons of little at-home courses you can take on how to get your own judgment recovery business started, but really, the courses are usually just enough information to get you into some serious legal troubles and they rarely tell you about how much money it takes to get started and how much money is often required to go after other people's money. It's a risky business, and Kaydn Rye is gradually coming to an age in which he often wonders why we're following people, why we're going through people's trash and why we're so secretive about where we live. So it'll be interesting to see what he ends up telling his friends on the playground about what I do.

But you know, for right now, I think I'm going to spare you the stresses of the last few weeks and just end it at that.