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Orlando

3/31/2011

Last year we were very blessed to be offered a timeshare in Orlando by a friend I used to work with at IBM. She and her husband work during the week and don't feel comfortable taking a whole week off, so they just use it for the weekend and it sits empty during the week. So when she called me again this year and offered it to us I said, "let me think about it OK yes!!" all in one breath. :-) We're on the 6th floor, and our bedroom is bigger then our whole camper and it has a full jacuzzi in it! And it has a lock on the door! :-) There's a family room, dining room, full kitchen and a washer and dryer and another bedroom with 2 full beds and another bathroom. I love the kitchen because it is completely uncluttered but contains everything you could need. I remember last year being impressed with how great it was to live simply, and it engendered in me such desire to downsize! I remember hearing years ago Dobson say on his program, the more stuff you own, the more it owns you because you have to do something with it. I so understand that now! I think I've become what they call a minimalist. I hope I stay that way.

Well, we have a new target. We would really like to be at the AM/FM (Association of Marriage and Family Ministries) conference in Dallas in June. SO, I just asked Tim how he feels about me sharing that on the blog and he said, "Sure - just make sure you ask people to pray!" First, we need to know this is God's direction and not just a whim of ours. Second, we need to see God's provision in many forms. We could either just go out there and come back, or hopefully, we could go out there and keep going! :-) We would really covet your prayers regarding this!

I'll leave you with some pictures of our lovely accommodations. By the way - the pictures of us in the jacuzzi - we have our bathing suits on. Just thought you should know that. :-)

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More on the tooth saga along with the Speaker-Listener Technique

3/23/2011

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OK, so the latest on my ongoing tooth saga is that they were finally able to make an impression of my tooth on Monday and I am scheduled to go back for my permanent crown 3 weeks from today. Yippee! It's been so nice to be able to eat on both sides of my mouth (I used to only be able to talk out both sides of my mouth...kidding!). While I was in the dentist chair getting worked on, the program Daytime came on the TV there in the room, and I felt a pang of nostalgia hit me hard. Our family had been interviewed in our RV on that show back in August just a couple weeks before we took off. I am still so very grateful for our 3 1/2 months we had and I'm still chomping at the bit for more! Tim and I had the opportunity to share our marriage testimony at our church's marriage 911 class last night, and it made me long again for helping marriages and families. We had prayed together on the way to the class that what we shared would be the Lord's words offering hope, and we had so many people come up to us afterward to say they really had needed to hear what we had to say. I had picked Tim up from work before we headed to the church last night, and he had such great news waiting for me - he had the privilege of leading someone to Christ yesterday! There is nothing like doing what you know you've been called to do.

One thing I've been kicking around for the past few months is to share here on our blog some of the things we would be sharing with couples and families we hope to be ministering to. So, I'm going to do that now and see what kind of feedback it generates to see if this would be effective. One of the things we shared last night (that we hadn't even planned on sharing but the people asked us to give an example of some tools we use) was a tool we have found to be critical in helping us and others communicate more successfully. It is called the Speaker-Listener technique. The basic premise is that the speaker holds an object in their hand (like a pen or a piece of paper), and while they have that object they have 'the floor' so to speak. They speak what is on their mind in short phrases (key) and the listener paraphrases back what they hear. When the speaker is done talking, they pass the object to the other person to symbolize the other person now has 'the floor'. It may sound silly or awkward, but it is actually scientifically proven (I'm not kidding!) that it improves marital satisfaction when it is used. Obviously it is not to be used for every conversation, but for those conversations that tend to escalate and never get resolved, it is a GREAT tool to use to be able to discuss a problem productively. I would recommend googling it as there are some good videos and more information on it out there. There are more parameters that I would LOVE to share (like how to use feeling statements and not attacking statements) that are also very important to keep in mind when using this tool, but this post is already way longer than I want it to be. So let me know if you have any questions, or put a comment out here if you try it and let me know how it goes!

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The Spa

3/13/2011

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OK, call me behind the times and backwards, but I've never understood the big deal about spas, especially because I had never been to one. I just figured it was like a hotel but they call it a spa and just charge you more or something. One of my very best friends for the past 25 years, Holly, had a gift card for a couple of nights at a spa in Safety Harbor, and she invited me to join her Thursday night. So, I was excited to get away, but didn't know what was really in store. Well, she picked me up Thursday around noon, and we checked in where we promptly took some pictures of our room (see below). We then donned our bathing suits, grabbed the robes from the closet, and walked down the hall to the spa. I finally got an understanding about the big deal about spas, but I don't know if I could adequately explain it! There is just this atmosphere of rest, relaxation and convenience that is incredible! I mean, here we were, walking around the hotel in robes, which is pretty much what everyone does! We went in the ladies' locker room and visited the steam room. Next to the steam room was a sauna and then a plunge pool, surrounded by about a half dozen bubble bath tubs with jets and any kind of fragrance bubble bath you could want. I had never been in a steam room, but right after we walked in I felt like I couldn't breathe! Holly instructed me to hold the towel over my face, which definitely helped, but I decided the steam room was not for me. So we went out of the locker room and jumped in one of the jacuzzi's. It was then Holly looked at me and saw that evidently I looked a little like Santa Clause because the towel I had held to my face in the steam room must have been a fairly new towel so I had a beginnings of a white beard and mustache all over my face from towel particles! We got a good laugh out of that one! We went back to the room and used the lounge chairs on our porch to relax some more, looking out over the bay. When it was time for showers, we just put our robes on taking nothing with us and walked back into the spa to the showers where you could grab as many towels as you could possibly want, jump in the shower, and use the soap, shampoo, and conditioner dispensers right there in the shower. After months of having to pack everything in a backpack and drive to the YMCA when I want to take a shower, this was a real luxury! The spa had an excerise room, a weight room, and an aerobics room, Friday morning the aerobics room was empty, so I went in there with my dance music and danced to my heart’s content. Holly and I prayed together several times during our stay, and I just felt like I experienced incredible rest. A few days ago I was struck with the thought that God was so desirous of His children getting rest that He created manna that lasted 2 days once a week so that the Israelites wouldn’t even have to gather manna (and how hard could picking manna have been?) on the Sabbath. That’s how much He loves us and wants what is best for us. I hope and pray all who are reading this will experience a full day of rest this week, whether today or sometime this week. It may not be a spa experience, but it can still be rejuvenating! :-)

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Tim & Jodie

Tim and Jodie have been married since Nov. 5, 1988. Tim is a retired Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and retired city of Tampa Firefighter. Jodie is a happily laid off IBM/AT&T 21 yr veteran employee. So I guess you can say they're both retired, but still super busy! They have four wonderful children: triplets Nathan, Nicole, and Noah born 11/16/97 and Nicholas born 5/16/99. Nathan is at Trinity College, Noah is at Florida Polytechnic University, and Nicole is at USF. Nicholas is an EDM (electronic dance music) creator and hoping to make a living from that! We love and are so proud of our kids!

Orlando

More on the tooth saga along with the Speaker-Listener Technique

The Spa

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