Just after we moved to Reno 11 years ago, I broke the small bone in my left foot that connects my little toe to my ankle. That break resulted in surgery and I still have two pins holding those bones together.
Well, graceful woman that I am, I managed to break the exact same bone, but this time in my right foot, the beginning of this week. At this point the foot is still too swollen to cast and the jury is out about surgery or not because of the placement of the fracture. So I'm in a splint with instructions to keep the foot elevated (thus greatly limiting computer access) and to bear no weight on it for 6 weeks.
On Wednesday we plan to take another set of x-rays and either cast or schedule surgery (depending on what the x-rays reveal about current healing) at that point.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Recovering from our Relaxation!
You know that feeling of "I need a vacation to recover from my vacation?" Well, that's pretty much how I've been feeling since Sunday night! Wow, am I ever exhausted!!!
I did get a chance to use the Random.org website last night to select winners for each prize and will be emailing contest sponsors and winners later this evening to connect you with each other. I'll be posting a winner's list by tomorrow evening. Sometimes my emails don't seem to get where they are supposed to go, so if you don't get a winner's email from me, be sure to check the winner's list announcement and email me right away if you think you have missed a notification! Any prizes that remain unclaimed by Friday may be redrawn for new winners.
In addition to the 11 gifts offered through specific drawings this past Weekend, I also drew names for about ten more of you who will be receiving emails from me offering you a copy of the small book Childless: The Hurt and the Hope, by Beth Spring. This is an older title, now out of print, but a very helpful, compact resource for anyone dealing with inferitlity. If you receive this email offer from me, you are welcome to accept it for yourself or to give me the name and address of a friend you feel it might bless and I will send it to them on your behalf.
Thank you for your patience as I recover from such a whirlwind weekend! I'm still working my way back through all the wonderful comments and feedback and will be addressing some of your individual questions in future blog posts. :)
I did get a chance to use the Random.org website last night to select winners for each prize and will be emailing contest sponsors and winners later this evening to connect you with each other. I'll be posting a winner's list by tomorrow evening. Sometimes my emails don't seem to get where they are supposed to go, so if you don't get a winner's email from me, be sure to check the winner's list announcement and email me right away if you think you have missed a notification! Any prizes that remain unclaimed by Friday may be redrawn for new winners.
In addition to the 11 gifts offered through specific drawings this past Weekend, I also drew names for about ten more of you who will be receiving emails from me offering you a copy of the small book Childless: The Hurt and the Hope, by Beth Spring. This is an older title, now out of print, but a very helpful, compact resource for anyone dealing with inferitlity. If you receive this email offer from me, you are welcome to accept it for yourself or to give me the name and address of a friend you feel it might bless and I will send it to them on your behalf.
Thank you for your patience as I recover from such a whirlwind weekend! I'm still working my way back through all the wonderful comments and feedback and will be addressing some of your individual questions in future blog posts. :)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Thank You
With this post we conclude our Virtual Spa Weekend, but I hope this will not be the last time you visit me here at InnerBeautyGirlz! I will be spending the next few days going back through all your wonderful comments, taking note of questions and suggestions you have posted to gather ideas for future posts, and will continue striving to provide you discount codes, quality beauty information, devotional reflections and additional give-aways from time to time. If you haven't done so yet, please take the time to either "follow" me using the Goggle link on the right-hand side bar, or sign up for my email list in the mailing list box also to the right.
Thank you so much for joining me, for all the great participation and comments (about 300 of them!), for helping spread the word and share the joy with friends, and for making this a memorable Weekend! Thank you also to our many amazing guest bloggers and to all the Weekend sponsors who have so generously donated gifts for our give-aways. Don't forget that any comment on any non-prize thread through our whole Weekend enters you for last Wednesday's "early-bird" prize from Gurrlie Girl Christin jewelry. :)
I will accept contest entries for about three more hours then I will be selecting and contacting prize winners over the next few days. All prize winners should be posted by about Wednesday and contest sponsors will work with you directly to get your prizes to you. If you know any young women who would enjoy similar tips designed especially for them, please pass along my Girlz and Teens Inner Beauty link at Mineralz.blogspot.com where I'm currently offering a teen beauty book give-away through this week. :)
I would like to leave you with the following thoughts from 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 in The Message:
Thank you so much for joining me, for all the great participation and comments (about 300 of them!), for helping spread the word and share the joy with friends, and for making this a memorable Weekend! Thank you also to our many amazing guest bloggers and to all the Weekend sponsors who have so generously donated gifts for our give-aways. Don't forget that any comment on any non-prize thread through our whole Weekend enters you for last Wednesday's "early-bird" prize from Gurrlie Girl Christin jewelry. :)
I will accept contest entries for about three more hours then I will be selecting and contacting prize winners over the next few days. All prize winners should be posted by about Wednesday and contest sponsors will work with you directly to get your prizes to you. If you know any young women who would enjoy similar tips designed especially for them, please pass along my Girlz and Teens Inner Beauty link at Mineralz.blogspot.com where I'm currently offering a teen beauty book give-away through this week. :)
I would like to leave you with the following thoughts from 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 in The Message:
Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.- Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.
Perspective Beauty
A big thank you to Lisa Brewer Buffaloe for allowing me to repost a beautiful story from her blog at at LisaBuffaloe.blogspot.com as we start to wrap up Virtual Spa Weekend. For those feeling especially tender over infertility or loss, I do want to give a head's up that the following story includes an amazing encounter between a father and son, however I think it will be a blessing to most who wish to read it. It was a good reminder for me about seeing the beauty in this world through God's eyes. :)
When Lisa says, "Regardless of our current situations, life here on earth is temporary, and Christ followers are guaranteed a happy ending," I am reminded of another quote I recently read on Jason Mitchener's website, Forward Habit. Jason writes, "So often we treat this earth like our home. We focus on our life here like it's our eternal residence. We foolishly act like a traveler spending a week in a hotel room and using his time to put up new curtains, lay down carpeting, and pain the wall." That word picture really sticks with me and reminds me to enjoy the beauty of life while remembering that "every good and perfect gift is from above" and that true beauty and value can only be found in Jesus.
In the book Jesus Life Coach by Laurie Beth Jones, the author lays out some interesting points.
“Psychologists have documented the fact that it is not the actual events that harm us, so much as the perception of the events. In the stunning movie Life is Beautiful a father finds himself and his young son thrown into a concentration camp in Germany during World War Two. Trying to shield his son from the horror of their situation, he tells the boy that it is all a game, and the first one who gets scared, loses. Somehow he is able to continually convince the boy that none of the cruelty they are seeing is real, but only a play that is taking place. He even predicts the ending, saying at the end of the game a big tank with smiling men is going to come into the camp and declare the winner. When indeed the tank of the Americans pulls into camp, the little boy runs leaping and yelling in joy to greet it. ‘We won! We won!’ The father’s change of perception shielded the child from immense mental and emotional harm. Jesus does the same for us. When he says that ‘every tear shall be wiped away,’ he is teaching us that somehow we are in a play that is going to have a happy ending no matter what it looks like now.” Laurie Beth Jones *
Our temporary living arrangements are in an apartment on the third floor of a huge complex. If I open our blinds, it seems a thousand eyes will peer into the window. To the left of the kitchen table where I sit and type on my laptop is a patio that overlooks the parking lot. However, if you look further you can see a beautiful mountain range. No matter where I drive around town, I can see the mountains providing a visual of Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:1-4 NIV).
Regardless of our current situations, life here on earth is temporary, and Christ followers are guaranteed a happy ending. Our Heavenly Father provides the constant and consistent love and help we need.
When you look through the window of life, what do you see? Do you focus on the parking lot or do you notice the beauty of the mountains?
With the proper perspective, life truly is beautiful.
Thank You, Father for this beautiful life.
* Jesus Life Coach, Laurie Beth Jones, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN, 2004, pp 111-112.
When Lisa says, "Regardless of our current situations, life here on earth is temporary, and Christ followers are guaranteed a happy ending," I am reminded of another quote I recently read on Jason Mitchener's website, Forward Habit. Jason writes, "So often we treat this earth like our home. We focus on our life here like it's our eternal residence. We foolishly act like a traveler spending a week in a hotel room and using his time to put up new curtains, lay down carpeting, and pain the wall." That word picture really sticks with me and reminds me to enjoy the beauty of life while remembering that "every good and perfect gift is from above" and that true beauty and value can only be found in Jesus.
Lia Sophia Bracelet
In celebration of Virtual Spa Weekend, Carissa of Lia Sophia Jewelry is offering this beautiful $48 bracelet (pictured as "D" above) to one reader of InnerBeautyGirlz. You have heard the instructions all weekend - entry is as easy as leaving a comment along with a working email address or some other valid way of contacting you and you can earn extra entries for helping spread the word and coming back and telling me how you did so. Contest entries close at midnight tonight and I'll be announcing winners by Wednesday. :)
Solomon's Beloved
One of my earliest blog posts here at InnerBeautyGirlz was this video of "Solomon's Beloved" as presented by Vond Skelton. I couldn't let Virtual Spa Weekend pass without pulling it out one more time. The script starts out a little slow, but stick with it and you will soon be laughing! If you can't view it here, watch it on uTube at Solomon’s Beloved at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEmhI8FL_ZI.
Of Solomon's Beloved Vonda writes, "She’s so much fun! (And people think we Christians can’t have fun! A lot they know!)"
(If you are reading this via email and can't view the video, be sure to drop by the Inner Beauty Blog to see this funny, can't miss skit for yourself.
Of Solomon's Beloved Vonda writes, "She’s so much fun! (And people think we Christians can’t have fun! A lot they know!)"
(If you are reading this via email and can't view the video, be sure to drop by the Inner Beauty Blog to see this funny, can't miss skit for yourself.
Natural Nails
A simple, quick tip for Virtual Spa Weekend. If you are looking for a natural nail polish, give Piggy Paint a try. This orderless, non-toxic nail polish is marketed as "kid friendly" but looks great on my nails too. Their slogan is "natural as mud" and the ingredients list is amazingly simple.
Laurie Marcolla, owner of Piggy Paint, has offered InnerBeautyGirlz readers an exclusive discount of 20% off your entire purchase from her website, including sale items, by using code THANKYOU20L from now until 6/1/2009. Spend $25 and shipping is FREE!
Laurie Marcolla, owner of Piggy Paint, has offered InnerBeautyGirlz readers an exclusive discount of 20% off your entire purchase from her website, including sale items, by using code THANKYOU20L from now until 6/1/2009. Spend $25 and shipping is FREE!
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