16 - finals time

ryan is taking a final at this very moment. then tomorrow he will take his last final, and be done with this semester. it was a very busy, challenging semester for him. 4 4-hour classes, each with its own lab. besides being in classes all day long, his time was bogged with various projects such as writing computer programs, physics quizes, designing maps, surveying the Texas A&M CC campus, and creating original maps with that survey information.

i think i got to spend a total of 14 hours with him this entire semester. we're glad for it to be over. next semester will be less frantic, but must begin with ryan going on a pre-semester field camp for 5 days. his absense will be over and done with quickly instead of spanning the entire semester.

I WENT TO MEXICO again on saturday. it was a one day trip, leaving at 7am and returning at 9pm. we went to the orphanage to throw a Christmas party for the children and workers there. the children made gingerbread houses, which they promptly ate upon completion. some of the older girls sat around with me and taught me "Silent Night" in spanish. we also sang Feliz Navidad and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. it was a lot of fun. before we left, a college aged girl named Edith told me i need to learn more songs in spanish before i come back. we all agreed.

next we went to a village that is in the city dump. about 200 people live there. we distributed a grocery bag with bags of beans, rice, sugar, and bottles of cooking oil, as well as clothes, shoes, and candy. many people asked to receive prayer, and were very moved by the Lord. we were in and out in about 45 minutes, as we needed to hit the road for the return trip. but the plan for the next trip will be to stay there for a few hours, bring more food and clothes, give a teaching, and pray for everyone who asks.

i was awefully sick the days before the trip, and right after it. but by grace, i was perfectly fine on saturday for the entire day. and grace was abundant over me, because yet again, someone sponsered my way for the trip. i am very thankful to the Lord, who is showing me his faithfulness, and teaching me to excercise my own extent of faithfulness.

10 - diet results

well, i feel like i had a really successful strict fruits/vegatables cleanse diet last week. my skin is "glowing" (according to a friend), i had rediculous energy and creativity, and i lost about 5 pounds.
however, along with those 5 pounds, i also lost most of my beneficial bacteria throughout my digetstive tract due to the first day's milk of magnesia flush. i fail to take any probiotics which would replace my needed internal flora, and became suceptable to harmful bacteria infections.
i had even thought "i hope i don't get any kind of infection because i didn't take those probiotics", even though i had a bottle of them in my own pantry.
on monday, i wanted to eat an avacado which i had already cut in half a few days beforehand. for some reason, i thought it was a good idea to let it sit out on the counter, so it could ripen up. later on that night, i was feeling kind of sick. nauseated, crampy, bad tummy ache. and pretty much all day yesterday was spent sleeping on the couch until about 2, then moping around the rest of the day. i had not eaten anything until ryan came home and made me some soup. i still couldn't eat the noodles or chicken bits, but enjoyed the broth and veggies. he also brought home some 7up, which has been an all time remedy for stomach infections at the crozier house.
altogether, the soup and soda helped a lot last night, and still today. i feel better today, but still have the pain in my insides and muscles with some nausea. other suggestions have been offered to help me in my situation. i appreciate any comments/tips.

6 - lookin for work

this past summer, i applied to 21 school teaching jobs. i heard back from a private baptist school, who would have paid just under 20k for the year. expecting a better offer, i turned them down. i was not hired for any teaching job at all, nor any of the other 20 bank/office/admin/sales jobs i applied for.
we tried to start up an at-home bussiness building lawn ornaments, but i have still been searching and applying for jobs left and right. i'd guess that i've submitted another 20-30 applications since october. i'd been feeling frustrated and depressed about not having an income and having to live off of savings.
i was praying about a few days ago, and felt like the Lord was telling me to relax. he showed me how i've always had exactly what i've needed including jobs. he reminded me of most of the jobs that i've had, and how they came at the right time, to fit my needs. in fact, he told me that even if i'd applied to more teaching jobs this summer, it wouldn't have mattered. i'd been afraid i'd missed out on his plan by not applying to every single one, but realized i am in his will by not having a job. he is testing faith right now. i have to believe that he will take care of us. so instead of demanding a job, i am just praying for insight as to know what my next steps should be.
i'm sure that when the time is right, i'll get a job that will provide what we need. and that opportunities will come that will provide more of what we need.

30 - new favorite thing

i think my new favorite thing is Butternut Squash. i had some bnut squash casserole at a thanksgiving potluck dinner at my church a week ago. i was unsure of what to expect, but i went ahead and tried it for the first time. hello! where have you been all my life?

tonight at the grocery store, we picked up a bunch of different soups, including a can of Baxter's Favourites Butternut Squash soup with Red Pepper. when we got home, Ryan was already cooking it in a pan before all the groceries were put up. i got to taste it a few times, and told him i was jealous that he got to have it. now i'm sitting here, having some tomato soup and looking up homemade bnut squash soup recipies.

http://www.britishfooddirect.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=41_131

tonight i shall ingest 5 T milk of magnesia, and follow that up with a 7 day cleansing program. i will be taking some fancy supplements and eating only certain fruits and vegetables. according to a nutritional doctor in houston, this will pretty well strip my digetion track of all unwanted leftovers. to be honest, i'm not too excited about doing all of this, but i am excited about the possible outcome at the end. after this is finished, i plan to do a parasite cleanse. oh boy, don't you know it.

29 - thanksgiving weekend

mmmmm... thanksgiving...

its 12:15 am ish, and me and the guys are watching Ong-Bock, a Thai fighting movie. i'm at ryan's family's house in tomball, houston, texas. he has 4 other brothers, ranging in ages from 8 to 18. i'm pretty tired, it's been a long day.

it was black friday. i've never gone shopping on the day after thanksgiving, except for that time in 2005... ryan said "hey you want to go to the galleria tomorrow?" he didn't really even realized that it was going to be a major crazy sale day with floods of deal hunters swarming every square foot of the whole mall. so we went, and got a sweater for me. among with giant headaches for the both of us.

so this morning i got up at about 6:30, was out the door by 7, then finally made it home sometime around 6:30pm. now i know thats just like a normal work day for many people, but it was a little more nuts than any old day at work. i'll spare you the details, but i guess i'll mention that at the end of the night, we'd all settled down to have a penochle tournament which belva and i thouroughly dominated. how does this have anything to do with anything? eh.

i like it when i get to see family. i got to see pretty much all the stanley's, and my parents. i would have liked to have seen the floods and jonas. shout out floods!

25 - to post a COMMENT or Reaction

to post a comment, just click below where is says "comments". i'd love to hear what you have to say about this blog, regarding mexico, and if my profile pic is too serious. you can also declare your "reaction" to each story by clicking the check boxes which say "read it", "liked it", and "loved it".

thanks, everyone!

i just started watching 30 Rock, Season 1 on the Netflix Watch Intstantly feature. we also watch Heroes and the Office throught this feature. Netflix should win an Oscar.

25 - went to mexico

I recently went to Matamoros, Mexico with a group of 21women and 7 men. Our ages ranged from 17 to, well, greater than 40. Throughout the trip, I was expecting the Lord to do many things in a personal way, with the team, and with the women there in Matamoros. He did not disappoint, as I was expecting there to be unity and a harmonious spirit within the team. It turns out that there was no bickering or hard feelings between anyone (that I know of), and everyone was ministered to in a special way directly from the Lord. But we didn't go all the way to Mexico to just stand there and wait for the Lord to minister to us. We went on this mission with a commission.

Read Isaiah 61:1-3 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah%2061&version=49.

That passage is the best way to describe who what when where and why we went. And why we are going back. The purpose of this trip in particular was to host a women's conference for the pastors' wives and their friends in a network of 5-7 churches in Matamoros. They are affiliated with a local orphanage, which is where we held the conference. (I will speak more about the orphanage at a later date.)

You could almost hear locks and chains breaking, and see the walls crumbling down when these women heard and received the good news of the Lord's favor. Above is a picture of the guests and hosts of the conference, at the end of the first day. Look at all of those smiles! Now that is the joy of the Lord, which cannot be pretended. There was a thousand times more joy in those women at the end of the day, than in the morning when they came in.

Below is a snapshot of what the Lord is really doing in Matamoros. During worship, everyone was asked to bow on our knees. These are women who represent the new thing that the Lord is doing for the new generation... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=29&chapter=43&version=49 (verse 19).

There is so much more to say. This is only the beginning.

24 Nov - Test

test test.

Reanna Stanley loves Ryan.









today is Monday.

http://www.pandora.com/

http://www.tamucc.edu/

http://www.google.com/.