from "Anna Karenina"

One quick quote before I'm all done with it.
"...the joy of forgiveness, made him at once conscious, not simply of the relief of his own sufferings, but of a spiritual peace he had never experienced before. He suddenly felt that the very thing that was the source of his sufferings had become the source of his spiritual joy; that what had seemed insoluble while he was judging, blaming, and hating, had become clear and simple when he forgave and loved."

dear hot guy who brought in oxygen today,

you took my breath away.
love,
melilot

6 days til my boys are back!!! (that's less than a week!)

One week til my boys are back!!!

Happy Birthday, My Cuddyer!

(something i don't think i've ever told you - in addition to your big dimpled smile, i also love your little southern boy elvis sneer smile. you're cute. ;) )

10 days til my boys are back!!!

and yet, for all this, i actually want them back

why i am where i am

i don't like working at the nursing home. everyone knows that. but it's a job and it's fine, so i really shouldn't complain. it's just that so often i feel like i'm missing out on some great calling; like GOD could be using me somewhere else, if HE would just tell me where that else is. i've got to be meant for something bigger than this, you know?

GOD showed me again the other day what that something bigger is. signe was having a very tough morning. everything was wrong, but mostly it was the nursing assistants. 'they don't care that my legs hurt, they just move them and rush through their job and get done and it hurts so badly. they don't care!' and she started to cry.
'should we pray?'
'oh yes, please.'
and so we prayed. i stayed with her a little longer, and as i was about to go she said, 'that's how i can stand this. i know that i have good Christian people caring for me, you and your mom. it's so nice.'

and that is what i'm meant for. i'm meant, not necessarily for any big mission or any specific job, but for ministering to the people around me, wherever i am and whatever i'm doing. i'm part of GOD's plan. what could be bigger than that?

dear busy,

this is denzel washington.

he is symmetrical.

love, mel

dear usa today,

does not =

(michael cuddyer is not rocco baldelli)

just so you know

good news from my appts monday

i'm hot. the lady who was helping me pick out my glasses measured my head, and the distance from my pupils to the outside of my head is perfectly symmetrical. seeing as they say people are attracted to people with symmetrical faces, i think this explains why i didn't get the hot dentist on monday. i'm so hot he has asked to not have to treat me because of that whole dr/patient thing. my hotness flusters him. at least i'm pretty sure that's what the eye lady was saying.

someday my appointments will be over

i like getting all my yearly dr appts done at once, cuz then i don't have to worry about them anymore, but then at the same time when they all hit at once it gets a little old after a week or two

Book Review: "Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy

I get all the points. Of the three of us who started reading it over a year ago, I'm the only one to have finished it.

And if you want me to give you a one-word description of it, that would be 'tedious.' Honestly, Mr. Tolstoy, if you want to write a book about farming, horse racing, and social and political conditions in Russia in the early to mid-1800s, please do not sell it under the guise of a novel about a woman having an affair.

When he stuck to the story, it wasn't bad. There were even some fun moments and some spiritual ones. The other love story, that of Kitty and Levin, was actually sweet. Overall, though, the book was just too long and too full of pointless stuff.

I know part of that is the style of the times. It's easy to get bogged down in some parts of even my beloved "Les Miserables," but I don't know. Tolstoy's just seemed harder to get past. I think in part it was due to the fact that it was his characters discussing these other things. At least when Victor Hugo goes off on a tangent, it's from the narrator's perspective, so it's a lot easier to skim through. (And "Les Mis" is just a better story.)

I'm glad I finished it. I'm always proud of myself when I read a classic. However, if you're looking for any old classic to read, I would be far more likely to recommend "Les Miserables," "Ben-Hur," or "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." And if you're looking for a classic tragic love story to read, I would recommend "Vanity Fair," "Wuthering Heights," or "Gone With the Wind." And that's my summation.

nursing home bug update

i knew he was a player. he's been asking my boss out, too.

dear cuddy,

they said mean things about you in the paper today. i just want you to know that i don't listen to the paper (just ask punto). you're wonderful.

and you're still my boyfriend.

love,

mel

:D

hopefully this works. cuz i watched it, and then when i went back to it it said it was no longer available. hopefully that's not true. cuz it made me smile lots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M

Melilot Classic: June 30, 2007

if you were a bug...

wouldn't you learn after the first 20 swats that landing on this person's leg isn't gonna get you anywhere?

um...still no

so the nurse who asked me out, who said that he needed to find away around the Christian thing, asked me last week if he could go to church with me. i was totally taken off guard, but i said yes, because you can't say no if someone asks to go to church with you. (although i just told him where it was and that he was welcome to come. i wouldn't ride with him.) he said, 'oh, i think i know where that is. it's a big brick building, right?' yes, sweetheart, it's a big brick building. it's a church.
anyway, so about 45 minutes later, he came up to me again, and said, 'so when are we going to a movie?'
'whoa. i never said we're going to a movie.'
'but now that you know i'm a nice church boy we can go.'
'no. it doesn't work like that. sorry. we're not going to a movie.'
'ok. think about it tonight and give me your answer tomorrow.'
yeah, 'member when i said no?

"things do pile up when you've been gone 100 years"

i have a lot of catching up to do!

Psalm 119:25

"My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to THY Word!"

welcome home, army cousin!

army cousin just got home from afghanistan. all 3 of his girls (wife and two daughters) are ecstatic. his 6-year-old boisterously announced to the clerk when they went to buy decorations, 'these are for my daddy, cuz he's coming home, and we get to have him for keeps!'
hray!

what i learned from my computer fast

that i can successfully do it. that's about it. that, and that i'm too tired at 2:30 to read my Bible or pray anyway, so it was a pointless excercise.

computer fast

"There are days when I have to wonder, what is so important that I can't even find time for God?" - Shannon Looper, Baseball Chapel devotional

I have a dilemma. I want to spend time in the Word, but the best time for me to do that is when I'm home alone, so there are no distractions. I have about 2 hours of alone time a day. The problem lies in the fact that home alone time is the only time I get to be on the computer. Having dial-up, I try not to be on here when my parents are home because they don't like me tying up the phone line.
My priorities seem to be a little out of whack. I tend to come on here instead of spending time with GOD. And so, I shall now have a week-long computer fast. Sadly, it sounds kind of scary. And sadly, I know that it will be hard for me to spend time with GOD because this is my tired time of day. But it's my only alone time. I need to be using it wisely.
Kym Byrd wrote an excellent devotional on solitude for Baseball Chapel (mostly on the difference between that and loneliness) - I've quoted from it before, but here I'll quote her prayer:
" Father God, thank you for the moments of solitude that you provide for me which allow me to focus on you. Help me to rejoice in your presence and to seek after you with all my heart."

quote of the weekend

this was the first time chelleybutton has been here since last september. upon seeing my calendar, she asked, 'is this new?'

Movie Thoughts: Mamma Mia

(I agree with the reviews previously posted by Hobbitsister and Mary@... So instead of doing a review, I will just post a thought that was had by Chelleybutton.)

Chelleybutton is concerned that when my daughter gets married, she'll have 3 dads.