Busy Busy Busy

Allow me to give you a quick update on what’s been happening over the last month:

So yeah, things got hectic. About a month ago (end of June) I was on the missions trip with Ignite! (http://www.parkviewcommunity.org/Ignite) and we went to Cedar Rapids for a week to help out with the reconstruction efforts after the flood of 2008. (A lot of peeps need a lot of help still…help out if you can!) It was great, but it was crazy. On top of that, my wife was babysitting for the first VBS my church has done in memory. So all that week, my wife is juggling both kids by herself, (one got really sick that week, too! Yay!) and she’s watching like 14 other kids. Did I mention the A/C wasn’t working? Yeah. She had a blast. 🙂

So that was that week. Then, her dad comes in town, for a family reunion. This was crazy, and I won’t get into it, because it’s simply too much to discuss. Needless to say, I came home from my trip to a very, very, very stressed out wife, with no energy, time, or patience.

So yeah, we worked through that, and then comes the next two weeks. Her dad was in town (until last tuesday) and we tried to spend as much time with him as we could, as he’s only around this area once a year, if that. So, we did things constantly. We went out to lunch, dinner, events in-between, and all sorts of touristy stuff, because he’s from San Antonio, TX. (Although, he’s originally from the area, so he knows his way around a Portillo’s…)

Anyway, on top of all of that, both of our kids had swimming lessons every day this same two weeks. So it would literally be wake up, get the kids ready, go to work, come home, do something with Otakumom’s Dad/family, quickly change for swim class, do that, then quickly change for dinner, then do that, then feel bad that we have to put the kids to bed, so we can’t do the other thing that’s happening after dinner with Otakumom’s dad.

So yeah. Finally we get to this week, where we spend a good, but tear-filled Monday saying goodbye to my wife’s dad, and we now have to dig out of the nastiness we live in, because we haven’t been home long enough to clean (just to kind of eat once in a while, and let the kids play for a bit), and dishes are UP TO HERE, and yeah… it’s a pit. So we start to dig out. Oh yeah, laundry. That was fun. We’re still behind on laundry.

Anyway, (there will be a lot of “anyway”s here, by the way,) I’m trying to readjust back to the work schedule (after the trip) and also get things ready for the report on the missions trip that takes up a service at church. I have three videos to complete, including interviews with a handful of students who went on the trip, and an audio recording of the parable of the good Samaritan read by another student that needs to be paired up with pictures of the devastation from the flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids, IA.

So yeah, my work schedule wasn’t exactly relaxing either. And any of you who use email at work know how crazy that gets when it’s neglected for a week… yeah.

ANYWAY, now we’re finally here. And we’re planning a garage sale this weekend (315 N. Ardmore Avenue in Villa Park! Doors open around 11am on Friday and close around 6pm on Sunday! The first 100 customers get a free strange look from Otakudad!)

So we’re prepping for that, on top of normal life (which includes mowing the lawn, keeping the kids clean and fed, shopping for food and necessities, paying bills, etc…adult stuff.)

So, to put it mildly, life has been INSANE. But, by the grace of God, we are surviving, and the kids are alive and well. OtakuMom is still stressed as all get-out, but she’s getting by too.

The point of all of this? I don’t know when I’ll be able to write something of substance for a bit. I really haven’t had much time to mediate on anything spiritual or ruminate on the meaning of anything. If I get a half hour or an hour, I spend it watching TV online or something. Yeah, real edifying, but…with things crazy as they are, dumb entertainment value goes up exponentially. 🙂

So, thanks for checking in, and I promise that when I get a chance, I will write. But I cannot guarantee when that will be. But you will know. I’ll let ya know.

Pray for my family and our well-being, spiritually, physically, and mentally. We’re doing fine, but we’re on a thin wire. God is supporting us though, so I’m not concerned.

Thanks for any prayer, and let me know in the comments, if there’s anything I can pray for you!!!!

Book Review: “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan

So, I’ve been reading Francis Chan’s book, “Crazy Love” for quite some time now.  I’ll be honest, I read the first 80% of it within a week or so, and then the last 20% took me forever to finish.  Part of that was life getting hectic, and I don’t know what the rest was.

But, it is now finished, and I have much to say about it.  However, I will first remind everyone what I mean when I say the word “review”.  It’s not meant to be objective in any way.  This is entirely subjective (which, I believe, is the point of reviews…you find someone you tend to agree with, and then trust their opinions on various media suggestions) and moreso, is definitely very much about where my head and heart are right now.  So, as with everything I say, take this with a grain of salt, a swig of your favorite beverage, and hopefully a munch of something tasty.  That said, here we go:

“Crazy Love” is definitely the most interesting book I’ve read in the last five years.  No, it’s not the most “gripping”.  It’s not very exciting at all, actually.  Mostly, I have a hard time reading non-fiction.  So, if it doesn’t have a story and characters and twists, and whatever…it doesn’t get read (all the way, at least).  But, Crazy Love called to me in the bookstore.  No joke, I believe God placed this book in my hands.

Francis Chan has a simple premise here-that we’re not living as we should.  That we’re not living the lives we profess.  That we are sapping our own vitality here, and potentially endangering our very souls by doing so.

See, Pastor Chan (of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California) believes that we need to be sold out for Jesus.  And we, as Christians nod in agreement, and say “Of course, man!  Amen!”  But Francis doesn’t let us off the hook there.  He says, “Well?  How about it then?  Where is your faith?  Where are you walking where only God can catch you if you fall?”

Book Review: "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan

So, I’ve been reading Francis Chan’s book, “Crazy Love” for quite some time now.  I’ll be honest, I read the first 80% of it within a week or so, and then the last 20% took me forever to finish.  Part of that was life getting hectic, and I don’t know what the rest was.

But, it is now finished, and I have much to say about it.  However, I will first remind everyone what I mean when I say the word “review”.  It’s not meant to be objective in any way.  This is entirely subjective (which, I believe, is the point of reviews…you find someone you tend to agree with, and then trust their opinions on various media suggestions) and moreso, is definitely very much about where my head and heart are right now.  So, as with everything I say, take this with a grain of salt, a swig of your favorite beverage, and hopefully a munch of something tasty.  That said, here we go:

“Crazy Love” is definitely the most interesting book I’ve read in the last five years.  No, it’s not the most “gripping”.  It’s not very exciting at all, actually.  Mostly, I have a hard time reading non-fiction.  So, if it doesn’t have a story and characters and twists, and whatever…it doesn’t get read (all the way, at least).  But, Crazy Love called to me in the bookstore.  No joke, I believe God placed this book in my hands.

Francis Chan has a simple premise here-that we’re not living as we should.  That we’re not living the lives we profess.  That we are sapping our own vitality here, and potentially endangering our very souls by doing so.

See, Pastor Chan (of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California) believes that we need to be sold out for Jesus.  And we, as Christians nod in agreement, and say “Of course, man!  Amen!”  But Francis doesn’t let us off the hook there.  He says, “Well?  How about it then?  Where is your faith?  Where are you walking where only God can catch you if you fall?”

Confess, Re-Dedicate, Pray, Repeat.

Here’s the deal.  I’m going to lay it out for you all right now, and in the open for all to see.  Because it’s what needs to happen.  Frankly, it needs to happen for everyone that calls themselves sons or daughters of God.  It needs to happen before you go to youth group, before you go to church, before you go to bible study, or really we should do it again and again, before we lay down before bed, and before we get up out of bed for our days to begin, and probably throughout our day as well…

So what the heck am I talking about.  I’m talking about confession, re-dedication, and prayer.  I hate talking like this, but I’m going to add one more preface here:  This isn’t about being public so people will see me.  And it’s not about “earning God” because nothing I can do is worthy of God.  And anything in public that I do, is probably worth even that little bit less.  But it’s late at night, my wife is in bed, and I’ve got no one to share with.  So it’s going to be you.  Sorry about that. 🙂

So yeah, let’s start with confession.

The 411 On OtakuDad

 

Image Copyright Doug Savage - 2006 - http://www.savagechickens.com

Well, it’s been an interesting week/month/year/whatever.  

The basic life stuff is that I work, I have two kids, and a wife who works and takes call hours at a hospital.  All in all, that’s pretty busy.  Add to that the volunteer work I do with the church and various time commitments from family, friends, etc, and it’s a busy an hectic schedule.

So, my plate was pretty full.  Over the last couple months, I’ve been stressed.  (Just having a 2 year old will do that, by the way…)  Money’s tight, time is tighter, the kids are rebellious, and the parents (me and my wife) had no time to themselves or each other.  It was getting rough.  And during this time, I started to feel some pressure in my chest.  And occasionally (but rarely) I would feel a little dizzy.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  The pressure was nearly constant.  The dizziness had happened for three days in a row.  It was getting a little freaky.  There’s a history of heart-related deaths in my family, so I figured it wasn’t worth waiting for anymore.  I’d get myself checked out.

So, on Monday, I went to the doctor.  The doctor scheduled some tests, and I’ve been doing those throughout the week.  I’ve had an EKG, an echo-cardiogram, a chest x-ray, I’ve had multiple blood tests, urine sample tests, stress tests, isotope injections* (to check the blood flow), and all sorts of needles, forms, questions, and much more… Point being, a lot of stuff going on this week.

So, while I haven’t gotten the results of the most important tests, heart-wise, I know a couple things, because I did get the chest x-ray results back.  First off, I have pneumonia.  Walking pneumonia.  (As opposed to bed-ridden stuff.)  I had a bad day about two weeks ago, where I nearly fainted in church and felt really weakened, etc.  My kids went through a day of this too, so I didn’t think much more of it than simply something I got from my kids.  It was a 24 hour-thing, so again, when it was done, I thought it was done.

 

Not mine, but an x-ray of the lungs with pneumonia...

 

 

On top of all of this, I quit smoking just two and a half months ago.  So the idea of me coughing and hacking up a lung seemed par for the course.  And I’ve got terrible allergies that are year-round, so not feeling 100% is also pretty normal for me.  Point being, the chest pressure never crossed my mind in that capacity.  So I’m hoping that when test results come back later this week, it is confirmed that nothing is going on heart-wise (well, other than the normal thump-thump kind of business) and that the pressure/pain was all due to this pneumonia.

However, another thing showed up on the chest x-ray.  While the pneumonia was primarily in my left, lower lobe of my lungs, the right side showed my lymph nodes to be enlarged.  This could be many things, ranging from nothing, to sarcoidosis, to possibly cancer.  For this reason, I’m going to get a CT-scan (don’t ask…I don’t know what that really is) after the pneumonia is cleared up (after 10 days of horse-pill-sized antibiotics).

So, needless to say, things are a bit scary, but then again, there’s nothing to be particularly afraid of yet.  Nothing is confirmed, and it could be that the x-ray showed something that really was nothing, and that the CT scan would confirm as such.  But it’s still unnerving.  So, yeah.  Life’s been odd.  I’ve definitely had an emotional and stressful week.  In fact, I haven’t even had a chance to tell my parents all of this, because the two times I tried to call (I didn’t want to call before I had SOMETHING as a diagnosis, and yesterday was the first day I had actual results, so…yeah) no one was home to pick up.

So I feel a little bad putting this out on the web and all, but I wanted people to know why I haven’t been writing, or gaming as much.  I’m fine.  I can move around and do stuff, and I’ve got a little cough.  But I’ve been seeing doctors, getting all sorts and sizes of needles shoved into me, all sorts of samples taken out of me…and yeah.  I’ve been tired.  And the normal family/job/church/etc responsibilities don’t stop because you’re sick.  In fact, it just makes it harder, because less money is coming in, because you miss work to take said tests.  

So, the main point other than informing you all, is that I’d really appreciate your prayer.  Of course, if you don’t believe in prayer, that’s fine.  But those of you that believe in my God, I’d really like it if some people would be praying for me.  While I don’t want to go anywhere, and I don’t want to ever leave my family behind, I don’t personally care much what the results are of all these tests.  But I would like to be sure that they’re accurate.  That the doctors and specialists looking at the test results interpret everything correctly, and of course, that any viable option for treatment is considered.  And most of all, for peace for me and my family, regardless of the results.  

Mostly, I’ve been the one the most upset about all of this.  I’m starting to realize though, that the only thing I’m certain of at this point is that I have pneumonia, which WILL clear up soon. 🙂  So that’s excellent news.  I’m hoping everything else comes out 5×5, but yeah.  Who knows. 

As always, thanks for reading.  Thanks for your patience in waiting for new posts, and I assure you that when I get a real chance to game substantially, there will be writing accompanying it.  Thanks for your prayers, thanks for your emotional support.  In short, thanks!

-OtakuDad 

*Yes, for the next 40 hours or so, I AM radioactive.  Fear me! 🙂