101.5

That's what the thermometer reads. Josiah is running a fever. I hope it's a short bug. We've had a lot of friends who have been sick lately. I was praying that we would advoid it, but I guess not. I just hope that if Wes and I are going to get it, we get it tonight and get better before the weekend. This weekend is the women's retreat. Which means I need to be well and so does Wes.

istock

A couple weeks ago I decided to give istock a shot. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure how I feel about cheap, mass stock photos. Also, it's not really what I want to do with my photography, but that's another story. So I applied. About two weeks later, by application was accepted. So I've uploaded two photos this last week (all I've had time for). This morning I got a message that one of them has been accepted. So I now have my first offical stock photo available for purchase. It's one of the photos from Wes's Christmas collage. You should be able to view it at http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=2912047

More dreams...

I had another freaky dream last night...

I was laying in bed, on my back, hands on my stomach, listening to Wesly snore (loudly). I was too tired to even kick him. Then, I also started to hear something else. It was a child's laughter. (snore, snore, snore, laugh, snore) It sounded like it was coming from under the bed. Josiah? I turned my head left and right looking for the source of the sound. Then there was something on top of me. It grabbed my wrists and was pushing them down so I couldn't move my torso. It also placed pressure just above my knees so I could move my legs. I'm trying desperately to move. I asked, "Who are you? Who are you? Why are you doing this?" I awake, Wesly is still snoring, and for a few moments my wrists feel like they've been in a vise.

Later on in the night, I felt it again. It began to grip around my wrists. I screamed in my head, "Stop it!" Then it occured to me that I wasn't asleep. Of course I can't tell you if I drempt that I wasn't asleep, or if I really wasn't asleep.

Another freaky dream, drempt by Angie Smith.

Dreams... maybe

One of the Ethnos elders started a forum thread on dreams. This is what I posted in response.

I have lots of dreams, weird dreams. I have dreams that I would classify as nightmares. I have dreams from my childhood that I could tell you about in detail. Saturday night I had a frieghting dream. It verged on reality. I'm still not completely sure it was a dream...

At 2am Sunday, I awoke. I was just settling back into bed. I was quickly falling back to sleep. I was on the sleep threshold, when my visitor arrived. He was standing at the foot of my bed. He was dressed in a dark munkish type robe with the hood down. He was holding a piece of paper in his hands. He said, "Just one question. Is this a picture of Wendy, Matt, Cyndi, or Carol?" I responded with an actual verbal word, "What?" (Not because I didn't hear, but because I didn't understand.) That's when he began to move along the side of the bed. I didn't see him move, but I felt him. He had and hand on the bed and I could feel the pressure from it as he moved from the foot to the head of the bed. There he turn towards me and bent down, placing a great deal of pressure onto the bed. I could feel it, I could feel the bed move. I could feel his heat near my face. I turned my head towards him and popped my eyes open. I really think I saw something there. My face felt a strange warmth. I was wide awake again.

For about the next 3 hours I prayed. I prayed for the people he named, I prayed for people those people made me think about, I prayed for my family. I was scared, for myself, for others. When I would doze off, I would have more strange dreams that would wake me and start me again to pray. At about 5, I fell into a dreamless sleep for the next couple hours.

Now all this leaves me with questions: Was it real? Does it matter if it was or not? Was it from God? Did these people need prayer at that hour? Was it demonic? Was Satan using my fear of the bizzare to stir up fear in me? Would God use fear to spur one to prayer?

Here's the other thing. This is not the first time I've had a "visitor." I've had many. Mind you, it's been a long time. I believe this is also the first time one has spoken to me. Before college, while I was still living with my parents, I often had visitors. I could since there pressence. I could feel them on the bed. They didn't have weight as such, but I could feel them put pressure on the covers that seemed to tighten down around me. When I opened my eyes, they weren't there, the pressure would ease. I would pray hard. I was terrified for myself and the people around me.

Sunday was the first time I told anyone about these kinds of dreams. I told Wes before we got up. I think I'd kind of forgotten about them to some extent. I never told my family for fear that they would laugh at me. Now, I've told many.

So I've been praying about this. I think if it's God's doing then I'm okay with it. He has my permission (not that he needed it) to scare me to prayer at night. If it's demonic then, "Hey, get out of my dreams, Scum." I wonder if I can be more rational next time, if there is a next time. I wonder if I will be able to ask, "May I take a look at the picture?"

More mommy fun

Here's how it happened. I left Josiah upstairs playing. I came downstairs to prepare photos for posting. After 15 minutes I went to check on Josiah. He was in the bathroom. He had had an accident in his pull up and decided that he would take care of it. So his pull up is around his ankles. He's got poop up and down his legs. He's got poop on his hands because he was trying to clean up his legs. Oh joy. So we had a discussion about getting mom to help him if he has an accident. I got him cleaned up and then threw him in the tub. Thus, nap time was postponed. Now Josiah is having a short rest time. I'm pretty sure he won't nap now. But I at least needed a chance to get a shower, even if I'm not going to get a nap.

urban hike

On Sunday February 4th, Wes and I went on an urban hike with a group from Ethnos. It's kind of nice having Sunday mornings free. Things are peacefull. So here are some shots that I took on the hike. There is also a group shot that a gal took on the trail for us. I forgot to show her how to zoom. My bad.

apology

I apologize for all the lame posts lately. Would anyone like to see some pictures?

I don't like today

It started yesterday. I was tired. Josiah didn't take a nap. So I didn't get a nap. I don't nap very often, but yesterday I really needed one. I was really tired when I went to bed last night. At 11, I was wide awake. At 12, I was wide awake. At 1am, I was wide awake. At 1:45am, I was wide awake. At 1:45 I turned my back to my clock and mustered everything I had into trying to relax and shut my body down. I think I was finally asleep at 2:30. 10-2:30 was not a happy time for me.

This morning I awoke at 6:30, a fairly normal time. I couldn't go back to sleep. It bit bad. Josiah and I went to Costco and Freddy's today. I'm super tired now. Maybe we will get naps. I'm so tired...

Tired

I wanted a nap today. I didn't get it. Josiah didn't want to nap so he only had a short rest time. Just long enough for me to get some reading done and a little inventory done.

Wes went out with Anthony for Valentines yesterday. First, he brought me home some flowers. So I have six plants to plant in my flower beds, pansies and prime roses.

Well, yep, I guess that's all I know. Later.

The new Smith Family rule

Rule # 367: Every time Wes leaves out his guitar, I get $5 for putting it away. This rule is effective as of today, February 13, 2007.
Total earnings from rule # 367: $5
Maybe we should make the rule retro active...

I have another head cold. My troat hurts, my sinuses are on the frits, and my head is spinning. YIPPY!

busy life

How does life get so busy? I mean it's not like we're going crazy, but it just seems like there is always something to do. Last week I was so busy with house work that I didn't even get out of the house till Thursday, when I had to for sanity sake. Thursday evening we had community group at our house and we had over night guests, Andrew and Abigail. Friday we took our guest to another friends' house. Then we ran some errands, had lunch out, came home for rest time. Saturday morning is my morning to sleep in and I actually did till 9:30. Then I read for a while. Then I started prep (or rather continued prep) for teaching Sunday. Then our weekend guests came back for another night. Sunday we hung out with our guests till shortly after noon and I spent the rest of the afternoon preping for class. Sunday evening was crazy, crafty fun. I was setting up to do the actual Bible point/memory versus part of the class when parent started showing up. So I feel like all we did is craft and no Bible, which is totally lame.

Now it is today...
Today - laundry, clean, laundry, clean, laundry (Monday is laundry day). Marriage course.
Tuesday - Maybe I will actually get Josiah to the children's museum this week. We probably have to go to the library too.
Wednesday - Valentines, try and get what I wanted to do for Wes done. (There probably isn't enough time between now and then.)
Thurday - Teaching MOPS kids. (Which means I have prep work to start on today.) Wes's mom is coming. (Which means I better finish cleanup the spare bedroom.) Community group.
Friday - Maybe go downtown (although I'm not sure I really want to, especially if it is raining). Herminutics (I so can't spell that) study (right, I have a chapter to read for that).
Saturday - Help a friend move. Talk Wes into only staying at his music thingy a couple hours so that we can have an actual night out.
Sunday - Wes has setup and lyrics at church.

Humm... listing it out, it doesn't seem like much, but in the mists of it all I have to...
cook constantly, care for my son, finish backing up my computer, get some pictures posted from Ethnos happenings, keep up with house stuff, find two minutes for myself...

Well, it's almost nine, best get started... (I need a nap.)

Google Analytics

It's pretty interesting to see who views your blog. Of course, I can't see exactly who views it, but I know where they live and how they came to be at my blog. Last week 23 people viewed my blog in a single day. Those people looked at 61 pages that day. During the past week I have had people from the local area view my blog as well as people from: Le River (my brother), Omaha, South El Monte, Lafayette, and get this - Beijing. Yesterday, 15 people looked at my blog, and viewed 26 pages. Now I'm guessing I have friends who read my blog to have much more interesting stats...

hard drive failure

One of our dual hard drives was reported as failed earlier today. I am backing up all my thousands of photos. This may take a while. I also need to back up grace academy. This may take the rest of the week...

I don't think I ever posted these...

If you weren't at the Visible Grace Auction, You most likely didn't get a chance to see my model of Grace Academy. So here it is. This is a home cluster unit. It will be the first phase of construction. The first one will sever as housing, offices, and school rooms until the admin construction phase.

During the week before the Auction, I spent 80 hours working on this model and drawings, while caring for my son. (And 20-50 hours during the weeks previous to that.) I'm not sure where those hours came from. But as Anne said Sunday, "If God wants you to do something, he'll give you the time to do it." (Okay, it may not be an exact quote, but it's close.)

URG!

Why have we been sick so much this winter? Wes is home sick again. He was home last monday/tuesday as well. I've got a touch of sore throat. Josiah is a bit stuffy. I guess this is what we get for hardly being sick at all last winter.

Who's next?

YIPPY! Our SIL in Eastern Oregon has started a blog for their family. I'm so excited. It's hard to keep in touch, but family blogs make it easier. This would be Wes's brother and family. Now, how about those Bethunes in far off Alaska?