Where to begin?

Alright, so...things have been busy here lately!

First off, I'm just now finally getting over being sick (or so I keep telling myself), and thus beginning to have a renewed desire to actually get out of bed in the mornings more than an hour before I have to leave for work in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I haven't been very successful in that endevor as of yet this week, but I still have two more days before the weekend to try to get it down!

Work itself has been...interesting. I'm on the phones taking incoming calls about everything from serious billing disputes (those are always fun...especially if you have to tell the customer the charges are actually legit because they really did just go over their minutes by that much!) to simple troubleshooting questions. About the middle of last week, after being on the edge of depression for most of the week, I stopped and actually had a rather interesting and encouraging thought after one of my calls. "My goodness," I realized, "I'm actually enjoying this job! A lot!" It was even putting me in a better mood! Praise God for a job that's good for me!

Now, let's see, what else? My cousin is working the same place I am, and we're even on the same shift right now. She's the kind of person who's really, really smart, and could do just about anything she wanted to do with her life, but seems to prefer living a little on the airhead side of things. She's gotten into a lot of stuff that I don't even know the half of that really aren't good for her, and she's always got dark circles under her eyes and always looks a little thinner every time I see her. I'm worried about her, and trying to reach out to her, but it's all in baby steps, you know? If y'all could keep her in your prayers it would mean the world to me. Her name is Emma.

Life at home is much the same as usual. Difficult financially, mostly. Especially since dad missed three days of work again just before his week of vacation last week because there are a couple of bone spurs on some of his lower vertibrae pinching a couple of nerves to the point that there were acutally tears in his eyes every time he tried to walk for a few days. It's still hurting him, and the only thing that brought the inflammation down over the ten days he was out (three missed + seven vacation) were the anti-inflammatories and the pain pills. So, prayers for him would be appreciated too, as well as continued prayers for our financial situation. It seems like every time we even get semi-close to making some headway something else goes wrong...

Now, I know there's something else I'm forgetting. Oh yes, I remember now. Last weekend I got a call from one of the older gentlemen from my church who just happens to be on the nominating committee. He informed me that my name had come up as a suggestion to fill one of the open deacon positions, and that I had been "almost unanimously approved". He asked me if I would do it, I said I'd love to, and now it appears that I'm going to be a deacon! Yikes! I have no idea what I'll be doing yet, but it should be interesting to find out! (and what's funny is that I'll actually become an official member of the church on the same day they "install" me as a deacon.)

Anywho, this update is getting far too long, and it's already after 1:30 in the a.m. here, so I'm going to wrap this up in favor of going to bed and actually getting some sleep tonight! God bless and keep you all! Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to keep in prayer!