just so ya know...

So I changed the settings on the comments section so that you don't have to have any sort of user name to post a comment. Seems like that would make it easier for more people to comment.

Life in the Stoves household is alright at the moment...Joyful had to go to the doctor today. Her foot/ankle (fankle? anoot?) area has been bugging her for some time now...it started hurting a couple weeks before we did the marathon and hasn't stopped. She went to our regular doctor a while back and he said to rest it and see what happened, so she did and it still hurts. So she went to Nebraska Orthopaedic to have an actual foot doctor look at her fankle. He said he thinks she may have a stress fracture, but the x-rays were inconclusive. She had to go back today to have a bone scan done, which she didn't like because it involved getting a shot which she really hates. But it sounds like they used a really little needle and the nurse lady was nice. We're still waiting to hear back from the doctor to see what he thinks is wrong. We're hoping whatever it is, it's something concrete and conclusive...no more of this, "well give it some time to rest" nonsense.

Does it hurt?

So tonight, Joyful and I got matching tattoos. She made up a cool 26.2 design (being the artistic person that she is) to commemorate us doing our first marathon. She got hers on her hip, and I got mine on my calf. I thought it was appropriate to put it on my right calf since it was my right heel that I broke a year and a half ago...that calf muscle still isn't the same size as my left one. For those who live in Lincoln, we got them done at Iron Brush (www.ironbrush.com), and Kevin Chasek was the tattoo artist that did them. He was very friendly and did great work. As the title of this post says, Does it hurt? Well, they are poking you repeatedly with a needle. They say that your body kicks in some endorphins and makes the pain go away...that's more or less true. The thing with this tattoo is that it's not very big, so, for me anyways, by the time the endorphins started to kick in, he was basically done. The one I've got on my right upper arm is a little bigger, and I don't recall it hurting as much as this one...but it's not like it was ever unbearable or anything like that...just kind of an annoying pain. They say that tattoos are addictive...I don't know about that, but I suppose I am up to 2 of them now. The only other one I plan on ever getting is someday when Joyful and I have a kid, I want to get his/her handprint put on my left upper arm...

Song...

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

Today at church we had the pleasure of having the York Choir join us for worship. It's always nice to listen to them, but I like when they come to Heartlands, they also do stuff with worship. It must be what it feels like to go to a big Southern church with a choir. There was Derek up there leading songs with the choir behind him...great stuff. I love being able to worship our God in song...song can be such an emotional way to express yourself...strong memories are tied to song. The choir did this long medly with some readings intersperced to guide our thoughts before the Lord's Supper. One of the songs they sang (don't remember which one) made me choke up because it was a song we always sang at Bellevue and it's one where it starts out with just the women singing and it reminded me of standing next to my mom and listening to her sing. We also sang big, loud praise songs like Days of Elijah and you could sing for joy because of God's greatness...what a wonderful gift God gave us in song.

I like shoes...

So here's some thoughts that went through my head today for whatever reason...I was wearing these very hip and cool brown shoes I've got and I was thinking to myself, "man, these are cool shoes...I've got some cool shoes". That got me to wondering exactly how many pairs of shoes I own...so when I got home from grocery shopping with Joyful I counted, and I've got about 20 pairs of shoes and sandles, which made me think that I've got a lot of shoes for a guy, which made me think of the times in the past when people have accused me of being metrosexual just because I like shoes and I use product in my hair and actually use lotion when my skin's dry and I have the ability to dress myself to where I look nice. That made me want to look up the word "metrosexual" in the dictionary to see exactly what I was being accused of and here's what I found:

Definition:
a heterosexual male who has a strong aesthetic sense and inordinate interest in appearance and style, similar to that of homosexual males

Now I don't know that I would say I have an inordinate interest in appearance and style, but I do like to look nice...I don't know that there's any point in any of this, but now that I actually have people telling me they read my blog I felt compelled to give you something new to read. Hope you enjoyed...I bet I'll find some sweet shoes when Joyful and I are in Europe.

unfortunate reason for an update...

So I'm home from work sick today. I started getting a cough a couple days ago, and yesterday I had a really bad cough, which made me get a monster of a head ache, and my body was super achey and weak. I toughed it out at both jobs, but this morning I didn't think I could do it, so I called in sick. I don't know the last time I called in sick.

On a happier note...Joyful and I have all our hotels booked for our Europe trip, as well as our plane tickets and train tickets...so that's exciting! I'm really looking forward to seeing new things and places with Joyful...I can't even fathom how many pictures we'll take! But hey, it's a once in a lifetime kind of trip...

Hope you're all doing well and aren't catching whatever this is that's going around.