Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

I used to be a HUGE pokemon fan 10-11 years ago or so.  I watched the cartoons, played the games with LW, knew the whole poke-rap, tried the card game and even created a Pokemon website (rated #2 in the search engines!).  Then, like most games, the sequels were much the same as the original, the cartoon became repetitive and I lost interest.

Until, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. LW and I rent games from Gamefly and I thought I’d give this a try since it wasn’t the same old “catch them all” thing.  I mean, you do catch them all, but you don’t need to level them to get them to evolve, you can just catch them all in the open.  FUN!

I fell in love with this game and spent 40 hours playing it.  The story line was wonderful, original and down right fun!  I loved catching pokemon with the “styler” rather than a poke-battle, though using the poke assists helped give it a battle feel. But you didn’t need to use the poke assists, and could just circle it up til the pokemon was yours!  

I loved that once you used a pokemon it would return to it’s home, and some pokemon had moves specifically used for working your way through puzzles.  They moved over “Cut” to break down trees standing in your way, and added moves like “Teleport” that would port you to the beginning of a dungeon.  

The partner pokemon were precious.  They were the only pokemon that would stay with you, and you received them as quest rewards.  You could change them out and use them when their gauge gets full.  There were so many cute ones, I don’t think I could choose a favorite, so I used them all!  I would just change one out whenever I happened by Chicole Village.  

A couple of annoyances were there, but not enough to keep me from playing:
1)I would have LOVED to pick up more than one quest at a time, since some sent you to the same area (over and over again… grrrrr Almia Castle)
2)I would have enjoyed holding on to a pokemon until a quest was complete. (ie: When doing quests where you have to break carts or melt ice boulders, it was necessary to catch a pokemon for each item).  BLEH.  Especially annoying when near Almia Castle and the only pokemon available was Ninetales.

Overall, this was a game I completely enjoyed, and I haven’t found one like that since I played Lego:Batman on the Wii. I would grant it 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who used to love Pokemon and would like to visit the world again, but in a fresh way.

Current Project: Cross-Stitch

It’s called “Christ at Hearts Door.” My mom had a picture of this hanging up in our house while I was growing up, and I always thought it interesting that the door had no knob. My mom explained it was because Jesus would knock, but we had to let Him in. She would also say, “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He’ll never do what He’s not invited to do.” From a young age I understood that God would speak to us, but we had to let Him in to do His work. 

This is what it should look like when finished:

Christ at Hearts Door - Preview

This is how far along I am currently:

Current Progress

When I was looking for a project that would take some time to do, and I stumbled across this, all those memories flooded back and it’s been a joy to work on it.  I hope to complete it in a month or two depending how much time I find to work on it!

Wii Fit and my Weight Loss

28 days ago I picked up a Wii Fit for my Wii.  I had read the stories of people losing weight, having fun working out, and generally just having a blast playing the balance games.  I’ve been eating well (or better than I had been) for a while but didn’t see any progress, so I hoped the Wii Fit would help me too.

My journey began at 304 pounds.  I have PCOS which has made weight loss hard on diet alone.  I’ve tried the Dr. Atkins diet and others with no progress.  Then I found a book by an endocrinologist that changed the way I viewed food.  The pure science behind what we eat and how it affects it our body just amazed me.  It was very similar to Dr. Atkins, but I was allowed to eat 15 carbs at every meal and 7 at each snack.  I felt better, had energy, and learned more importantly to eat in balance.

I’ve taken this information and combined it with 35-50 mintues a day (sometimes every other day) on my Wii Fit.

In 28 days I have lost 6 pounds!  I can only thank God for placing the information before me that I needed to finally make some progress. He has been such a help to me in seeing my body and my health for what it really is… a way to glorify Him.

I have decided to keep track of my progress and post pictures as I continue this journey.  I hope to inspire others who are searching for ways to lose weight, or even those who were like myself and questioned whether the Wii Fit could help them.

Journal Entry – Glorifying God in my body

As I was reading “Future Grace” by John Piper, I ran across this paragraph.  ”Our bodies fit into that same category of physical things that God created for a reason. He is not going to back out on His plan to glorify Himself through human beings and human bodies. So in I Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  Why does God go to all the trouble to dirty His hands, as it were, with our decaying, sin-stained flesh, in order to reestablish it as a resurrection body and clothe it with immortality? Answer: Because His Son paid the price of death so that the Father’s purpose for the material universe would be fulfilled, namely, that He would be glorified in it, including our bodies forever and ever.  … God will not disregard or dishonor the work of His Son.”

 

As I read this, it struck me.  I had always known and accepted Jesus died for me, but I took it to mean my soul.  I read and knew my body would be changed, but never associated it with God’s glory as John Piper did in this paragraph.  All of a sudden I realized, Jesus died not only for my soul, but for my body.  My imperfect body riddled with disease, aches, pains.  The body I hated because of how it looked, how it felt, what it caused me to feel.  Not only did Jesus die for it, but regardless of my feelings, God created it for me, for a purpose, for His Holy Spirit to reside in.  

 

I knew at that moment, that the hatred I held for my body was dishonoring the price Jesus paid, and dishonored the work God did for me.  I am working toward loving myself, not because I am all of a sudden at my perfect weight, or because I am no longer sick, or my disease is gone… but simply because God created me and found me worthy of redemption, and worthy of a changed glorified body, and because Jesus saw me worthy and loved me enough to die for me.  Not just my inner me, the complete me.  It gives a whole new meaning when I read verses like, “But the very hairs on your head are all numbered.” (Matt 10:30)  It’s not just because He’s omniscient, but because He loves to hold me and count them, because He created them, because now when I brush my hair I can remember, “He created even my hair to call people to see His glory, His perfection, His creativity and to give Him praise.”

 

Oh that I would see my imperfections as “light afflictions, creating in me an eternal weight of glory” (II Corinthians 4:17).  Imperfections that God allows to cause me to leave my self reliance behind, driving me further into His arms where I can rely on Him and His strength, so that I may truly, “glorify God in my body.”

A Love Letter to My Lord

Recently I’ve been working through some issues from past abuse, and one of those issues was coming to a place of greater trust in God.  Dr. Dan B. Allender stated, “For that reason, many who hate and do battle with God, trust Him more deeply than those whose complacent faith permits an abstract and motionless stance before Him. … Those who trust God most are those whose faith permits them to risk wrestling with Him over the deepest questions of life.”

In my ‘wrestling’ with God, I had often thought myself in sin because of it (and I was at times), yet God was gracious and through the times I expressed my anger, my hatred, He withstood my contempt and still followed hard after me, loving me, healing me… When I realized that though at times I was in sin, more often than not I was working out the hard questions.  ”How could You let this happen to me?” “What is the purpose of it?” “Why me?” and in dealing with those questions I had to allow myself to feel, even if it was anger or hatred.  I thought that asking those questions meant that I did not or could not trust Him.  Hearing the words, “those who hate and do battle with God trust Him more deeply…” was like a breath of fresh air.

Knowing then that I already had a basis of trust (more so than just trusting for salvation), it allowed me to give up much of my self-contempt and take a more honest look at my walk with God. Upon working through this, a love letter to God began to flow through His Spirit and my hands, and I hope it will be helpful to share with others. God is faithful, even when we cannot be.

“We have wrestled together, you and I.  I for my freedom, you for the freedom you knew was better.  O, what beauty in a heart that no longer hides in pain, but in that pain trusts God to bring from it a deeper faith, a deeper trust; who from that pain praises her Creator – not because He delivered her from pain, but because He brought it.  For without that pain, how would I have wrestled with You, how would I know how deep Your faithfulness is, how trustworthy You are?

O, the depth of love that would do the hard things of life, and be willing to not only withstand the slurs, the slings, the arrows – but after – to follow hard after those hearts shouting, ‘I love you! Return to me, come and taste, come and see that I am good, and that I have purposed good on your behalf!’

O! To the love that would not and will never let me go!  Yes, we have wrestled, you and I; and I forfeit the match. You, my Lord, my Gracious One, my Love, have won me over. My heart belongs to You, the Holy One, Faithful and True, the Lamb slain to take the sins of the world.  Help me to say with Paul, ‘my life is poured out like a drink offering’, that all I have is yours.  For without need to, You proved Yourself to me. In my rebellious, aching heart, we fought and You never thought to let me go.

Who am I that You should do so for me? I am not worthy. Yet my heart cries out with a thankfulness, a joy, a trust I’ve not known before.  You, my God, purposed it all, knowing that when my trust was finally won that you would have it completely, forever.  A fiercely loyal daughter, devoted to You, willing to do all that is asked of her.

Father, my obedience is not of my own power and resolve, so I give myself to You, poured out.  I am Yours, always, to do all that You want. Thank you for every inch of pain that brought me to this place.

I love you.”