PIC 'N JAZZ

I added a new pick taken a week or two ago while I was driving through historic Lemont, IL. Kind of a cool "old" looking church.

Chicago Jazz Fest this weekend!! Hoping to make it down sometime.

Later...

CREDIT CARD & ATM MACHINES

Ok - something that I've noticed lately that I don't like very much. Think of all the places you insert an ATM or credit card into - places like the gas station pump, ATM machine, ticket machine @ the movie theatre, grocery store credit card slider, etc...

Have you ever noticed that each one accepts your card differently? For some, the black stripe has to be on top. For others, the bottom. Some of them require the card to be inserted with the black stripe on the bottom and on the left side.

My plea to all ATM, credit card machines: SIMPLIFY IT AND MAKE THEM ALL THE SAME! FOR THE SAKE OF SANITY!!!

AMAZING STORIES...

It is absolutely amazing what people are able to live through. Tonight, Amanda has been watching a show on TLC called Amazing Medical Stories. In between the numerous, “Oh my Lord's!” and “Holy crapola's!” I put my book down and walked over to see what was so entertaining.

One guy named Mark Tatum had contracted a rear fungus disease in his face and was given the option of dying or having his eyes, nose and upper teeth completely removed. Here is a pic of him (tell the little ones to step away from the computer). He now uses a prosthetic face when going out in public. Amazing story…

Another story was about a college-aged girl who was innocently hanging up a poster in her dorm room at college. She lost her balance, fell off of the chair that she was standing on and fell out of the dorm room window. She hit an iron fence and became stuck hanging upside down, completely impaled, on the sharp spikes at the end of the fence. The spikes had gone completely through her. Amazingly, the spikes missed all of her vital organs and were pierced through fatty tissue (see, fat isn't all that bad...) In fact, doctors told her that had the fence not "caught" her, she would have died from falling injuries.

The real sad part was that she was hanging up an ‘N Sync poster. Just kidding…

Sweet dreams.

PRAY FOR DIANE

Diana Phillips, who is the sister of one of my closest friends - Abe, is in the hospital in Scottsdale, AZ with renal failure (kidney failure). She will be undergoing an MRI tomorrow which will determine their approach to dealing with this. She is facing dialysis and/or surgery. Please pray that the doctors will have wisdom in dealing with this and that God's healing ability will continue to take place in her body. I will keep you posted.

On another note, we got our new sign at The Orchard (Orchard Valley Community Church) this past week. You can check it out here. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the logo, etc... My friend, Myron Netterlund designed the logo. His work can be seen here.

I am working with a web designer on our church website. Our site is going to be great! Her work is amazing and it's really incredible how we connected. I'll share more about that later.

Happy Monday and thanks for your prayers for Diana.