Thank You

Movie Quotes Game & Book Tag

I don’t know about you, but in my family we quote movies all the time. Tom often sing songs. For him life’s a musical. I was visiting Dust Bunny Hostage a while back and she did a post about movie quotes. This is my twist on it. Anyone who wants to participate, please do and let me know.

List at least five movie/TV quotes you’ve used in a regular conversation. Tell what movie/TV show it’s from and which character said it and how you use it. You can list more if you wish.

1. “Liar….liar!!” From the Princess Bride said by Valerie to Miracle Max. Anytime I think someone is stretching the truth.

2. “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” From the Godfather said by Clemenza. No particular reason, we say this all the time because we think it’s funny.

3. “You jump, I’ll jump Jack.” From the Gilmore Girls said by Rory. Every time Tom wants to do something adventurous I say this to him.

4. “Have fun storming the castle.” From the Princess Bride said by Valerie & Miracle Max. Anytime someone is leaving to go somewhere.

5. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” From Godfather III said by Michael.

6. "How you doing?" From Friends said by Joey. It's a fun way to greet people who love your New York accent.

I could have done this with just Godfather quotes, but I wanted to mix it up a bit.

Book Meme – I was tagged to this by Happy Baker. The rules are simple – pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages. Open the book to page 123. Find the 5^th sentence. Post the next 3 sentences.

When I did this, the closest book was a comparative study bible.

And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

If you’re looking for something fun and easy to do, pick which one you’ll like to play with or just enjoy these. Have a great weekend.

© Nadine Z. 2008

Double click on the picture above to see a larger version.

Do Not Worry

I want to share something that happened on Easter. I got a new dress and was looking for my gold necklace and tennis bracelet. I thought it would go perfectly with it. I don’t have a lot of jewelry, but what I have is very sentimental to me. I usually keep it hidden in a safe place. I had placed it in a new hiding place. Why? We were going to be gone for a week and just in case…well you understand right? It was such a good hiding place that I couldn’t remember where it was. I didn’t want to upset anyone, so I didn’t make a big deal of it. We had a good day and a wonderful meal together as a family.

Throughout the day, I kept thinking about the jewelry. After Tom went to sleep, I decided to look a bit more carefully. The more I looked, the more upset I became. I was really upset about not remembering. As some of you know my mom has Alzheimer’s. Memory deficit of any kind is very bothersome to me. I started to weep. Tom woke up, held me, and prayed for me. I was able to calm down enough to sleep.

I woke up the next day, still upset. I stood in the middle of my bedroom and asked God to help me remember. I went directly to where I hid it and there it was. I was so relieved that not only did I find it, but I remembered where it was.

Afterwards I sat down to pray. The scripture I turned to was Matthew 6:25 -

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

I was so worried, but God had it in control. It may seem trivial to be so upset about misplacing jewelry, but truth be told, I was more upset about the forgetting part. God didn’t let me stew. I would have found it eventually. My piece of mind was at stake. I’m grateful that I have such a loving God, that I seek, asked and then found what I was looking for.

Thank you Father for showing me constantly how much the little things matter to You.

© Nadine Z. 2008

A Simple Prayer Goes a Long Way

I was reading some blogs during lunch today and I happened upon an interesting story from A Daily Dose of Debbie. She had not been feeling well and her son prayed for her. It reminded of my own son.

When he was about three years old and his sister was five, I was coming down the stairs. I started to slip and grabbed the railing. My arm got caught in a funny position while my body kept going. I thought I broke my arm. I couldn't believe the pain. My son came running up the stairs. I was being very brave and tried not to panic in front of a three year old. I reassured him I was fine.

This was my son Tommy's reaction:

Tommy: "Lisa hurry up, we got to pray!"

My daughter came quickly and both of them laid hands on me. Their prayers were simple and lasted about thirty seconds, but it was enough. I looked at them and thanked them. Now mind you their faith was considerably more than mine at that moment. I was just so proud that my son sprung into action and got his sister to help.

I got up and immediately my arm felt better. There was no bruise (and I tend to bruise very easily). There was no pain or discomfort. I couldn't believe it.

In reading Debbie’s post, a fond memory came to mind. I needed to remember that today. I needed to remember the goodness of God and how a simple prayer goes a long way.

© Nadine Z. 2008

Vancouver, BC

This past weekend Tom and I had the opportunity to go to Vancouver, BC for a very short visit. It was a six hour drive and we had a great time being alone together. Life gets so busy and it was wonderful to talk and enjoy one another.

Streams Canada is based in Vancouver. They have a great intern program. Tom and I just love these young people. It was wonderful to see them again and catch up.

We went to a conference that John Paul Jackson was the speaker. He talked about the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was excellent. John Paul is the founder of Streams and Association of Bridge Churches (ABC) which our church is part of. He rode back with us because he was going to speak at our sister church in town. His message on our purpose in God was exceptional.

Sunday morning we went to a church in Vancouver that meets in a movie theater. At one point during worship, I notice this child about one or two. He’s waving hello to someone on the stage with the biggest smile on his face. I lean over to my friend Joanie and pointed him out. She told me the little boy was waving to his father, the worship leader. He stayed there in the third row just waving and smiling until the set ended. The father walked over and his young son came running to him. The father bent over and scooped him up in his arms. The son held on to his dad, placed his head on his shoulder and looked so content.

This got me to thinking. Isn’t that the way we should approach our heavenly Father? We see Him at a distance and the excitement builds. When He approaches we leap into His arms and hold on with contentment on our faces and in our hearts. That’s the way I want to approach prayer, filled with excitement that I’m going to spend time with my Father.

© Nadine Z. 2008

It's Tough Being New

There has been quite a bit of turn around at work in the last four months. I work for a doctor as most of you know. I’m the main receptionist/scheduler/pretend-a-nurse/and whatever they need person. It’s safe to say that I keep busy.

The other office staff consists of an office manager and two part time workers. One works in billing and the other is a file clerk. The lady in billing quit four months ago and they hired a very capable gal to take her place. She trained for two weeks, worked for one, and then gave her two weeks notice. Apparently she got the full time job she had interviewed for. The lady who took her place, trained for two weeks, worked for three weeks and then quit with no notice at all. The office manager hired a new gal. She took a while to catch on, but she’s been here for longer than the other two combined and is doing fine.

The file clerk worked in our office for about five years. She got into an argument with the manager and quit. She did more than file. She helped me with the overflow of phone calls, taking patients back on occasion, etc.

Enter the new gal. She’s been here about two weeks and never worked in a doctor’s office before. It’s been tough on her. I can tell she’s losing heart. I find myself asking her if she’s okay. I tell her all the time, she’ll catch on. She’s trying very hard. It’s tough being the new person. My heart goes out to her. Everything is foreign to her. She realizes how much she doesn’t know and gets flustered. I think part of the problem is she wants to be perfect at everything right away.

Nobody is born knowing how to do their jobs. There is a learning curve. So next time you have the trainee, remember to be kind, smile, encourage and be patient because of it’s tough to be new.

© Nadine Z. 2008

Editing Process

Back in January I wrote about starting the editing process on my book. You can read it about here. Before starting this process I didn’t know who Lauren (my editor) was. I’ve come to learn that she worked on some books and with people that I have respected for a long time. She has also written some books herself.

She just finished Chapter eight and we are approaching the half way mark. So how has it been? It’s been really good. She has opinions and instead of telling me, she asks questions. She’s made some great suggestions and I’m happy with the changes. She’s smart and knows what she is doing.

The best part has been her encouraging words. She’ll send an email with a chapter attached and say a few encouraging words like; my story is exciting or she’s enjoying reading it. It makes me feel better knowing that she not just doing a job, but really reading the story and engaging in it.

Everyone can use encouragement. We learned this when we do our outreaches. If you’re new to my blog you can read about our Boat Race outreach here or the one we did at the fair here.

I’m excited about this process. I’ve learned more from my mistakes than any English class I’ve taken. Have I mentioned before, that English was my worst subject in school? Isn’t that funny that God would lead me to write a book? I’m sure to give updates as I pursue this endeavor.

© Nadine Z. 2008