Amanda and I got up, put on pajama pants, called Nick Warkentien and went to Chick-Fil-A.  They were giving a free breakfast entree to anybody who showed up this morning in pajamas.  They were even really stringent about it.  Amanda and I had someone make a judgment call on our pants and the people behind us in line didn’t get free food because they were told they were wearing “jogging pants”.  Good thing I let Nick put on some of my ‘jamas before we left the house.

While we were there Hannah Frazelle and Maddie Allen showed up, also in pajamas.  We were done eating by then, but they joined us.

After that the three of us, Amanda, Nick and I, stopped by Circuit City because they had dropped their clearance prices a bit.  The big items still seemed a bit expensive, but Amanda and I picked up some printer cartridges for $1.75 each.  After that we stopped by Old Navy because they were having a sale.  Nick and I both got some shirts (one of which was the same print) and Amanda got a couple items.

After that we went on back to our house.  Nick and I played some Little Big Planet in an attempt to go back through some levels and get some of the items we hadn’t gotten yet.  We’re now at 100% for a few levels.

Amy had been working at The Hilton all day but she came over after work and we took a few pictures.  I want to do something more artsy, but Nick just wanted some updated pictures to show some people how big Amy’s belly has gotten.

We all lounged around in the living room after that.  Juno was on one of our many HBO channels so we stuck with that for a bit.  The ladies then went to the grocery store and, when they came back, Nick, Amy and I ate meatball sandwiches.  I think Amanda just had some cereal.

I fell asleep on the couch after that and woke up enough to say goodbye to Nick and Amy when they left around 9:30.  Yeah, I guess I was tired.

Zach Dotsey

We had a little party tonight that turned out to be pretty nice, especially given the short notice in which it was thrown together.  I sent out a little over twenty Facebook invites a couple days ago, figuring most people wouldn’t be able to make it.  I got confirmations that Nick and Amy Warkentien, Seth and Dana Holloman, Blake and Stephanie Konny and Kevin and Lauren Millard were coming.  On top of that, Amanda invited Cyra Sherburn and Jon… I forget Jon’s last name.  Seth called this evening and said that Gavin, his son, had had an ear infection and Dana was pretty worn out from taking care of him, so they ended up not coming.  Blake texted me, however, and asked if we minded them bringing another couple.  It turned out to be Josh and Beckah Asselin.  Josh I know from seeing him around church here and there.

We had a really good time.  The Millards knew the Warkentiens a little, and the Warkentiens knew the Asselins, or at least Nick knows Josh decently well as they work together.  Other than that, nobody knew anybody else, but everyone talked and got along together just peachy.  Half the women (Amanda, Amy and Lauren) were pregnant, so as you might guess, that was a popular topic.  It was a good turnout, and everyone seemed to enjoy getting to know each other.

After a while we played the Blake Game, and as much as I hate to admit it, the girls owned us guys.  I think the score was 70-something to 50-something.  We started on a second round, but in this one instead of everyone doing three or four names, some people, myself included, did a whole bunch.  In total, there were 110 names in the second Blake Game of the night.

Nick and Amy got a phone call early on in it and Cyra and Jon took the opportunity to take off.  The phone call turned out to be in regards to Nick’s sister, Missy.  Things aren’t going the best for her.  After the phone call Amy started a prayer and once it was done she started the game back up.  We all felt a bit somber but she moved us past that.

We finished the first round of the second Blake Game with a score of guys: 57, girls: 53.  We decided it would take too long to play through and people were ready to start heading home, so we just let Kevin do a few names of the second round, which is the charades round.  After that everybody still stuck around for a little bit, still chatting and hanging out.  Lauren, in particular, was enthralled by Amy’s big belly.  As you may recall, Amy is due sometime in March while Lauren is due just a couple weeks before Amanda.

Amanda touched Amy’s belly button, which she knows earns her a wet willy, but Amy wasn’t able to find Amanda’s ear beneath her hair.  Amy’s belly button extroverted itself some time ago.  Amanda’s has gotten shallower and shallower, and today when I ran my hand across her belly you could hardly tell it was there, so I expect hers will be sticking out before long too.

Everyone eventually took off, half of them logging on to Facebook as soon as thry got home to mention what a fun night they had.  I told Amanda that that’s the number one thing to do in America now after you’ve gone out- go home and post something on Facebook.  I’m guilty too; the first thing I did when everyone left was to go update my Facebook status.

I also told Amanda that in the future you’ll be issued a Facebook account along with your Social Security Number at birth.  She asked who was predicting that and I was tempted to act serious about it.

The big question of the night though is this: Who is Nikki Spade?  The answer is: I have no idea who Nikki Spade is.  All I know is that she’s apparently from Richlands but lives or has lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, not far from where Nick and Amy are from.  Amanda, Michael and Nick have all received Facebook friend requests from her, but none of them seems to know who she is and it seems to keep randomly popping up in conversations.  I was chatting with Michael, who said that Chris Flowers (also from Richlands) doesn’t know who she is either, so I thought about starting a group about it.  Michael suggested doing that very thing as I was moving my mouse to start it.  So now there’s a new Facebook group called “I have no idea who Nikki Spade is.”  Chris figures there will be 100 people on it tomorrow.

I’m still on the verge of being sick.  I suppose that means I actually am sick, but I started taking medicine at the first signs and have been drinking Sunny Delight and popping vitamin C.  Right now I feel stuffy with a scratchy throat.  I really am trying to stave it off.

I should mention that the month finished out strong for work.  A couple weeks ago, as I might have mentioned, I was looking at a pretty dismal month of commission.  The last week, though not crazy busy, turned things around pretty well for me.  I think I’ve got momentum going into February too, so hopefully we can keep things going well on that front.

Zach Dotsey

Bruce, our chihuahua, was sitting against me tonight and looking at me.  It’s truly ridiculous how much I love that dog.  So I was looking at him and thinking of how much personality he has, and I asked Amanda if ten similar chihuahuas were lined up, did she think she’d be able to pick out Bruce.  She said she thought she could, and I think we could too.  I asked the same about Harvey and she said she didn’t think are ten dogs that look like Harvey.

Amanda told me this evening that Milly has moved, but she’s hitting the nerve on both sides now, so while the pain isn’t as bad in her left leg, there’s now pain in both legs.  Amanda asked why she was doing this to her and I told her it’s because our baby likes me better.

I sent out an invite to a game night at our place for tomorrow night via Facebook.  So far it looks like Nick and Amy Warkentien, Kevin and Lauren Millard and Blake and Stephanie Konny are coming.  We’ve got maybes from Seth and Dana Holloman and Michael Mercer.  I have no idea yet what we’ll play.

My throat felt a little thick last night, and tonight it felt like that even more with a little scratchiness added in.  I suppose I’m getting sick, so I went ahead and took some cold medicine.  It’s odd- I’ve never been one to get sick too often, and I work from home so I’m not even exposed to people all that much, yet this will be the second time within about two months that I’ll have been sick.  Hopefully I can go ahead and nip this one in the bud.

That’s about all for today, just a bunch of random notes.  Amanda and I watched Fringe and Scrubs, then she went to bed early.  I watched the end of a Clemson vs. Virginia Tech basketball game after she went upstairs.  Clemson, ranked #11 or #12 depending on your poll of preference, had been down big but came back and won the game 86-82.

Zach Dotsey

I saw this in my inbox first thing on Sunday and meant to post it then.  It’s from Nick Warkentien, regarding his sister, Missy.

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Missy! I had a long conversation with my mom yesterday about her condition. She’s actually not doing very well right now. She has been throwing up, having bad headaches, not able to sleep at night, she’s very depressed, and she has been hallucinating. Speculation is that she may have an infection in her brain, or possibly a small hemorrhage. She also may be dehydrated. After Christmas, her treatments were cut back to once a week (they were previously twice a week). Due to some bad weather, and maybe that she was too sick to travel some of the time, she has missed some of her appointments. She’s only had about 2 in the last month or so. They are going to increase her treatments back to twice a week. Also, they will do some other things that I’m not sure about. There is no way to know the cause of her hallucinations without a CAT scan. Money is an issue right now. Please keep praying for Missy and our family, especially my mom and dad, as they try to decide what needs to be done next, and that God would provide financially.

Love,
Nick

It was later followed up with this, by Jenni, another of Nick’s sisters, on a Facebook prayer group.

I would like to add that I just talked to Missy about 10 minutes ago and she told me that she is not able to walk or even stand today, due to severe pain in her calves. They believe the pain is caused by a mineral deficiency. My Dad is carrying her to bed or to use the restroom etc. This will probably cause complications in getting her to Lansing for her treatment tomorrow. I will give an update as soon as possible.
Jenni

Jenni posted this the next day:

Missy is feeling about the same today as far as her legs go; so she wasn’t able to go to Lansing. However, they did run a program on her for infection and that seems to have helped some of her other symptoms. Paperwork is being filed for Medicaid as well as another program that the Paw Paw hospital sent.

And then this today:

Missy was finally able to go to Lansing and get a blood treatment done yesterday, as well as some saline to get her hydrated. She still couldn’t walk at that point so Daddy carried her. Praise God she is able to walk today; Not pain-free but it’s better! She hasn’t hallucinated since Saturday when she was treated for infection. Hopefully that is what was going wrong. Right now she is being monitored very closely but if she starts to hallucinate again, she will go in for some testing (probably a CAT scan or an MRI). They’ve tried to stay away from those kinds of tests because of the radioactive fluids she’d have to drink. Her body can’t handle many more toxins right now. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…

I just wanted to put this out there.  I know that not very many people read this site, but Nick is a dear friend and the Warkentiens can use all the help and prayers possible.

Zach Dotsey

Last week we started offering a new service at work.  I notified a number of people about it, and it’s been extremely popular.  It’s been so popular, in fact, that I went from not having a very good month to having a very good month because so many people have wanted it.  Once things get caught up a little I’m going to suggest it to a few more people and follow up with some who didn’t go for it yet.  In fact, the marketing strategy I used for it is one that we’re going to employ often from now on I think.

Also with work today, I met with an old client of ours who runs a bed and breakfast downtown in one of the big old Victorian houses.  Or ran, rather.  It’s yet another longtime client that I’d never met in person, and I enjoyed the meeting.  I even got a tour of the place and a little history lesson, which I really liked.  The place had all original hardwood floors and cabinets.

Amy Warkentien came over tonight for dinner and Nick joined us after he got off work to watch Lost.  After Amy arrived but before Nick did, we watched Duke lose to Wake Forest.  I had my initial annoyance about the game, but I didn’t feel too bad about the loss.  It was tied in the final seconds after Duke made a run from 13 points down.  Gerald Henderson grabbed a rebound and landed on a prone Jeff Teague, which the refs somehow called as a travel.  That gave the Demon Deacons the ball right under their own basket.  Dino Gaudio drew up an inbound play and Duke didn’t defend it, leading to a layup with 0.8 seconds left for Duke to try, unsuccessfully, to get a shot off.  Final score: 70-68.

It was a good game, and Wake’s a really good team, so there’s nothing to really be upset about.  Duke didn’t shoot particularly well (credit Wake’s defense, but there were a lot of missed open shots too), so I look forward to the rematch.  The only thing that irritated me was that the Wake Forest students, whose team is ranked #4 or #6 depending on which poll you’re looking at and were ranked #1 last week, rushed the court.  Amanda got on me for griping about it, but in the NBA game that followed the announcers there agreed with me.  I could understand if they weren’t ranked high, but at some point they should act like they belong with the big dogs.

Amanda got on me for being moody, but I told her all she had to do was let me vent for a few minutes without getting on me about it or trying to counter the things I was saying and I’d be fine, which she should know by now.  Even Amy understood it, and she’s never been around for a losing game before.

Anyhoo, Carolina was playing Florida State after that.  I watched a few minutes of it until Nick arrived.  The Seminoles were winning for a bit, but as the first half wore on the Heels took the lead and started pulling away.  We watched Lost, Nick and Amy left and I watched the last quarter or so of that game.  FSU clawed their way back in and took the lead late, but they made some boneheaded plays like letting the shot clock run out on their last possession when it was a tie game and playing abolsutely no defense while letting Ty Lawson streak from one end of the court to the other to make a lucky-ass three pointer.

It was not a good night of basketball for me.  To be honest, I was more upset about Carolina’s win than I was about Duke’s loss.  Duke’s still on top of the ACC by a game, but they’ve also got a tough schedule ahead.  There’s Miami, @Clemson, two games with Carolina and another game with Wake, plus a few other games.  I’m hoping Duke can avoid an unexpected upset (although they always happen, see: Virginia Tech vs. Wake Forest, Boston College vs. UNC), but even then the Blue Devils are probably due another loss or two.  I figure Duke will be doing really good if they can finish the ACC with only three losses.  If Duke ends up splitting with both Carolina and Wake, that will be at least three losses for Carolina and two for Wake.  If Wake can manage to lose one other game, that would put all three of them in a three-way tie for first in the ACC, and I don’t know which one would get the #1 seed for the ACC tournament.  Whoever does will definitely have an easier road though.

Whatever, there’s a lot up in the air and all kinds of things can happen.  Who knows, maybe Duke can go the rest of the ACC without a loss.  Not likely, and I would never put money on such a thing, but it’s fun to think about.

Milly’s still on Amanda’s nerve.

Zach Dotsey

I had a bit of a talk with the person I mentioned yesterday who needed some help.  They understand, but were very disappointed.  I felt particularly bad when they stated their reason for wanting my help in particular.

On a positive note, I feel pretty excited about what we’re doing for the client I met with yesterday.  We’re partnering up with them in a way we haven’t partnered up with anybody before, and it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

This is from an e-mail Justin Hauenstein sent:

lisa had an MRI saturday and we found 2 severely herniated discs in her lower back that are pushing against her spinal cord which is whats causing all her pain, and possibly what caused her infection last summer. We’re going to see a neuro-specialist next week (we’re trying for asap) to give her some cortisone shots directly into her back. Unfortunately this has been a bad week and we won’t be able to make it tonight (She’s been home for the past 2 days)…if you could keep praying for her we’d really appreciate it as always!

I hope they’re able to make some progress for Lisa.  She’s been having problems about as long as we’ve known the two of them.

Between that and Elliot Clark and Melissa Nicholson heading out to Breckenridge tomorrow to go skiing with Taylor and Esther Hutchens, it would have, for the third week in a row, been just me and Amanda and Mike and Kaitlyn Boscaljon at small group, so we canceled.  Mike expressed some frustration to me about it, so I’m going to try to address it tomorrow.

Milly’s still on Amanda’s nerve.

Zach Dotsey