Super Psoriasis!

I have another medical theory that is almost certainly not true (but I pretend it is so as to gain a neat conversation piece). I have mild-plaque-psoriasis. This means that at certain times of year I get patches of silvery-white scaly skin the back of my lower leg and around the elbows. It is so mild that I never seek treatment and it's hardly noticeable to me (let alone others).

But in doing some research on psoriasis I discovered that it is a non-contagious auto-immune disease. Let's take the 2nd half of that first. What 'auto-immune' means is that my body loves fighting invaders so much, that when it can't find any it turns on its own cells. Now, the theoretical upside to this is that my body is very good at protecting against bad invaders. This may be why I almost never get sick. In doing some (read... I know 1 other person with psoriasis) polling, I discovered that nobody with psoriasis gets sick very often!

Now in this season of the year where everyone is getting sick, I wish I could change the 'non-contagious' aspect of psoriasis. I feel like if I could spread my psoriasis, it'd help others not to get sick. Maybe medical experts think it is non-contagious because they simply haven't tried to spread it hard enough!

And so I'm about to end this post with the strangest line in the history of my blog. I invite people to rub my psoriasis plaques.

Medical Question #2

I just had a thought. I've always been interested in multiple personality disorder. How does that really happen? I just heard someone use the common phrase, "I've lost my mind." What if sometimes we literally loose our minds and other people stumble upon them and, therefore, pick up an extra mind/personality?

Check back tomorrow for another medical theory

Do I Eat Bugs?

Sometimes I wake up in the morning with a tickle in my throat and a need to cough. The tickle pretty much doesn't go away for about half an hour. This just started happening in the past 3 years. It seems to come in spurts (like 4 times in a week, then not at all for months). Anyways, those are the symptoms.

So, am I eating bugs? Please tell me I'm not eating bugs.

I also wonder if it has something to do with my eating habits. I could start keeping stats on what I eat and how late I eat and whether or not it corresponds to the coughing. Last night, for instance, I ate 6 mini-butterfinger bars just before bed. I also wonder if it has to do with laying on my back longer than usual (I usually sleep on my stomach). I will investigate, but maybe some readers have had common experiences :)

Delayed Thoughts

A couple Sunday's ago I had the opportunity to teach the 3rd-5th Grade Sunday School Class for one of my teachers who would be out of town. This year, they are going through the Old Testament with the Bible Story Cards, and the lesson was on Abraham offering Issac as a sacrifice.

With the teens we just wrapped up a couple weeks talking about different Bible Study Methods, and apparently I wasn't paying enough attention when I was teaching it..... or I was underestimating the 3rd-5th graders comprehension!!

Back to the Sunday School Class...we reviewed the previous lessons, memory verses, prayer, etc, and then I shared the "story" of Abraham and Issac. As we were discussing it, I got a couple questions that helped me stop and reevaluate a  little bit my own understanding of the story. The one that stuck out with me the most was "Was it hard for Issac to forgive his dad for almost killing him?"

So often we read Scripture and just read the words that are there, not reading between the lines to think about how the characters may have felt or what it would have been like to be there. Some things are hard to comprehend because we don't understand the cultures, etc, but a lot of stuff is common to human nature and reactions! Every time we read Scripture we can pull something new from it.

~Katie

#10 Know When to Quit

Way back in 2007, I was doing a series on the 10 Commandments of Blogging. For those of you who missed it, here are the first 9 Commandments:

#1 Pick a Platform
#2 Win the Name Game
#3 Find your True Colors
#4 Hit Your Target
#5 Be Consistent
#6 Comment Unto Others
#7 Think Themes
#8 Add On
#9 Track the Facts

Now, nit-picky people may have been upset that I never finished this series. Truth be told, I purposefully held out for a time such as this. The 10th Commandment for bloggers is... Oh wait, I already told you with my title!

There is a time and a place for everything. The time for blogging as we knew it seems to have ended. The place for blog-like practices seems to be facebook (or will it be twitter). If I'm serious about Commandment #9, then it inevitably leads to Commandment #10. When I blogged #9, my blog had just had it's been ever day, week & month. As I type #10, my blog is on the decline (and has been for a while).

2005: 47k hits
2006: 58k hits
2007: 62k hits
2008: 48k hits
2009: 31k hits (estimated)

In other words, my blog peaked in 2007 and is dying fairly drastically. And so, I'm retiring. Not from blogging... Just from caring! In the past I wanted readers. I wanted hits. I felt bad if I didn't post. But lately I don't care, I don't count, and I don't feel bad. The Matthew Never Knew is hardly ever new these days! From now on I'll post when I post (and Katie can do likewise).

Then again, I'm a big fan of Favre.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4....

I just wanted to let you all know that the fog post controversy swept my feet out from under me, but I was just knocked down, not out. My lack of posting has had more to do with extreme business and lack of good internet connection at home, not fear of Matthew criticizing my writing!!!

Yesterday I was busying working on getting our teens registered for Snow Camp at Circle C Ranch. For those of you who don't know what/where Circle C Ranch is (and I'm sure that is most of you) you should visit their website here. If you are involved with leading a youth group and live in the eastern United States, you should think about renting a bus and taking your teens... It is located in Western New York and there are even groups from West Virginia that attend.

Our youth group has been attending snow camp for several years, even when I was a teen member, not one of the leaders. It's always been special to me. The owners of the camp have a true passion for working with teens and have excellent programs... our group is always anxious to attend to have a lot of fun and grow  spiritually together.

On a more personal note, the founder of Circle C, Wes Aarum, is one of the key people the Lord used over the course of a couple years not long ago to help me realize I was holding out on God in a certain area of my life- trusting him with my personal relationships. Because of all that, I was able to become closer friends with Matthew, start dating him, and then get married last year.

So I think get just as excited (if not more) as the teens when it's Snow Camp time. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our group and for me personally!!

~Katie

Monstrosity

Monstrosity: Frightful Forms of Faith

The Zombie Christian
A Zombie Christian is a person who has some of the same habits as a Christian (church attendance, Bible knowledge, etc), but has actually never made a commitment to follow Christ. They are dead men walking.

The Vampire Christian
A Vampire Christian is a person who has asked that the blood save them in their sins, but they have no intention of recognizing Jesus as their Lord. They just want a little blood.

The Werewolf Christian
A Werewolf Christian is a person who is generally committed to Christ, but there is 1 area that they refuse to surrender and/or repent of. They have a secret that they hope no one will discover.

The Head-Hunter Christian
The Head-Hunter Christian is a person that claims to have a deep spiritual relationship to Christ, but has no interest in being connected to Jesus' body. They only want the head, a decapitated Jesus.