WOOHOOOOOO! Lord of the Rings rocked tonight!!!!! 11 for 11 wins. Simply fabulous. Here’s to our “friends” PJ, Fran, Philippa, Howard, Annie, Liv, Ian and the Hobbits on a fantastic evening!!! Something tells me the LOTR post Oscar parties will be quite the festivities…

Okay. Enough of the jumping up and down and cheering for my favorite fantastical trilogy. Peter Jackson deserved all he received tonight.

And the LOTR fan put her head on her pillow, closed her eyes and sighed, a gentle smile crossed her lips as her mind drifted to off to the lands of Lothlorien and Rivendell…

Sitting: On my brand-spankin’-new furniture from Nebraska Furniture Mart… and loving it! We picked out a beautiful, comfortable Broyhill sofa (in a color and texture that’s like a brownish Weimaraner) and a gorgeous chocolate leather chair and cubed ottoman. Aside from two oak bookshelves, this is our first furniture purchase. For a little perspective… We’ve been married five and half years — for three of those years, our sofa was a daybed; for the past two it’s been hand-me-downs from my folks. (In other words, our dues have been paid and we know how blessed we are to have good stuff finally!)

Losing: The CNN home theatre. Darn that Ken Watanabe pick. I think a win for him would be a HUGE surprise on Sunday night. Ah well… I don’t have room for a home theatre anyways (that is, unless the Extreme Home Makeover folks come on over to our street).

Chewing: Necco’s Sweethearts… I’ve finished off the orange and yellows, and now in my craving for sugar, I’m working on the rest of the bag.

Driving: To Omaha tonight to pick up our friend Bryonie for the weekend! Charity and I met Bry about 10 years ago at Horn Creek Camp in Colorado… It should be a great weekend of catching up and showing her around Lincoln.

Believing: Despite the discouragment of swollen fingers and a very sore left heel, this truth: NOT crushed, NOT in despair, NOT forsaken, NOT destroyed (2 Cor 4.9).

Over the past week there have been several mornings where I wake up and don’t want to get out of bed. It’s not the normal O to loll around in my comfy covers a few minutes more attitude, rather I feel sore and achy physically and down in the dumps in spirit. Alas, the aches and pains in my hands and feet, and sometimes in wrists and ankles, have continued and I oftentimes feel like 60 year old woman first thing in the morning.

All this to say that I finally meet with a rheumatologist on Tuesday. My sed rate is still elevated (at 29, down from 52) and my ANA is abnormal at 2.4 (normal is 1.0). The rheumatoid factor still shows negative, which is good but could also be misleading. The long and short of it is that I have an “undifferentiated connective tissue disorder” — it’s a fancy way of saying, We Don’t Know Exactly What’s Wrong with You! but you pretty much have arthritis. Arthritis is inflammation of the joints and I definitely have that. There was no bone/joint damage on my xrays, though, so apparently we’ve caught the arthritis pretty early. At this point we’re choosing to treat the symptoms… Alleve twice a day should do that. As to a specific diagnosis, the wait-and-see approach will have to suffice for now.

I am not posting this stuff on my blog lightly. This all REALLY SUCKS. I already have insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). I definitely don’t welcome more physical dilemmas in my life — and I don’t enjoy the emotional weight that comes along with them. I am a worrier by nature, currently fighting hard to shake anxiety from my daily regimen, so another potentially heavy diagnosis doesn’t do me any good. I spent a good part of Tuesday being weepy, believing myself to be the unluckiest tool this side of the Mississippi, doomed to a life of medical paraphernalia. But guess what? Life is so much more than a disease (or two) and this is my life. There is a way to get out of bed in the morning without feeling so blue, and that is by turning to the word of God for comfort and guidance… My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Often weak in body, definitely weak in spirit — grace sure has miles to go in me! But as odd as it sounds, as backwards as this may seem, I’m looking forward to the ways trusting in God’s grace will change me.

One more thing that makes a girl feel good? Red roses from the love of her life. Not too shabby, eh?

Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of King
Best Director: Peter Jackson
Best Actor: Sean Penn
Best Actress: Charlize Theron
Best Supporting Actor: Ken Watanabe
Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger
Best Screenplay (original): Lost in Translation
Best Screenplay (adaptation): Mystic River
Cinematography: Cold Mountain
Film Editing: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Art Direction: Seabiscuit
Costume Design: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Makeup: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sound Mixing: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sound Editing: Finding Nemo
Original Song: “Into the West,” The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Original Score: Cold Mountain
Best Animated Feature Film: Finding Nemo
Best Foreign Language Film: Zelary
Best Documentary Feature: Capturing the Friedmans
Best Documentary Short Subject: Chernobyl Heart
Best Animated Short Film: Boundin’
Best Live Action Short Film: Most (The Bridge)

CNN is giving away a home theater system if you are the lucky guesser who fills out the Oscar ballot correctly. I suppose film fanatics might have educated guesses about the award winners, but I’d have to be the luckiest guesser alive to win this thing. I did see all five best picture nominees — and yet, who’s to say my tastes align with those of the academy? Correct ballot or no, the best part about next Sunday night is Who is there, What they’re wearing, and What they say in their speeches. T-minus seven days and counting…

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings,
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light. (Ps 36:7-9)

Every once in awhile I like to create my own words or phrases. But the oddest thing happened this morning — I created a “word” in a dream.

In my dream, I was involved in creating a weekly variety show at our high school and a girl came up to me and said there would be a few UnsatisfActs in the program. She explained that the UnsatisfActs could be speeches or skits expressing dissatisfaction with a person or event. We’d have the chance to read the speech or skit prior to the variety show and make sure they were appropriate.

Then I woke up and laughed at myself. My guess is that UnsatisfAct came from my CineMinistry comment left on my neighbors’ blog last night. Hehe.

When someone calls, introduces themselves, asks how are you, Mrs. Tredway?, then says,

Boy, it sure it nice to finally talk to someone with a friendly voice…

…hang up the stinkin’ phone. You know who buys things from telemarketers? People-pleasers. [Internal voice] Hmm… This guy sounds like he’s had a rough day, so I can listen to him just a little longer. Plus, disabled veterans suffering from agent orange, attention deficit disorder and eczema MUST need my support, right? [End internal voice] The people-pleasing days are over. Boundary lines have been drawn. And my name is on the Do Not Call registry. So, even though your charity may be legit (yeah right), a phone call is not going to convince me to write a check. Hang up the phone!

I went searching for a photo of my little brother to put in the new Zion Church pictorial directory… and truthfully I had a tough time finding a good picture! It’s not because Andrew isn’t photogenic; the problem is that he always hams it up for the pictures I take! And though I love to tease him, it would just be cruel to put a really silly picture in the directory.

Someday I’ll make a slideshow entirely composed of fun Andrew pics. It’ll have the shot of him in a freezing river in northern California, looking somewhat like a overgrown otter. And maybe I’ll throw in the amusing picture where his facial expression accidentally looks demonic (always entertaining). And perhaps I’d include the cutest picture ever, when Andrew (age 4 or so) allowed his big sister to dress him up as a butterfly, complete with a black leotard and paper wings. Enjoyment guaranteed. But for now, on this lovely Monday, lift your glass to Nooneebischooni, the kid who can always make me laugh.

If I could take one phrase out of the American vernacular, it would be the one dealing with “sugar shock.” I just read a movie review that described the film (“50 First Dates”) as too sweet… enough to send you into sugar shock, “pass the insulin.” Stupid, stupid, stupid. I also had a professor at Covenant once use this phrase; then, after class, he pulled me over and apologized. Now really, I didn’t need the apology — it didn’t hurt my feelings in the slightest. But because he apologized, I began to think of the dumb phrase as somehow being offensive to diabetics. In all actuality, it is a stupid saying that DOESN’T MAKE SENSE and is only slightly offensive. Sugar doesn’t send people into “shock” (and it sure as hell doesn’t send a non-diabetic into shock) — if there is way too much sugar combined with the worrisome presence of a byproduct called ketones, a diabetic could go into a coma due to ketoacidosis. So why is the phrased used? Who knows… I guess it just gets passed on by those who don’t realize how lame it is.

I just don’t this this spin-off is going to make it. The summaries I’ve read so far sound like Joey is doomed for failure…