#1. The first Kleverkathy Couple’s Caribbean Cruise is set to sail October 24 – 31, 2010! We are gonna have a blast! Why do I mention this? Because I’m going to do it again! This time we are taking seven couples, next time I’d like to take double that or more! So… I am going to begin working on the next one tentatively for let’s say, June 2012! Stay tuned. In the meantime if you have travel needs, might I recommend Aleece Rothandler with Omega World Travel, 703-359-8888. She has been a great travel agent and I look forward to working with her in the future. (shoot me! I’m a marketer!)

#2. Please pray with/for me today as I have a phone interview at 11:30 this morning. Typically I don’t share these types of things with a lot of people because there is always the chance I won’t get it but… I have given it over to God so no matter what happens, I believe Him for His will and I am not worried about it! Getting this job would catapult me into the next phase of my life, but if it is not the Lord’s will, I’ll wait. It is a Department of the Army job and the transition would be almost seamless. I’m excited!

#3. Here is my health update. I had the ultrasound of my heart and carotid arteries Friday, no results yet. Getting to the most important specialist – the neurologist – is the problem! It is apparent I am not myself because any other time I would have raised the roof until I got that appointment! Here’s where we stand.

Friday I went to the office to ask why I hadn’t gotten my appt. After sitting there for 6 -7 full minutes while she was on the phone, finally she finishes and I explain that this is the third time I have been here about my neurology appt! She immediately gave me a print out that said a referral to an off post doctor was approved the day before! What!? I asked, if I hadn’t come in, would nobody had continued the process, made me an appt and called me? She assured me they would. So she picked up the phone to call to make my appt right then. It’s 4:30 by now and they are closed! She told me she will fax all my info to them and it would be waiting for them when they get to work Monday.

Monday… (tapping my toes). Finally, half way through the day, I call and she tells me… (wait for it!) there is only ONE neurologist in Columbus (the second largest city in Georgia! ) and the earliest he can see me is September 15th!!! OMG! So she tells me, she put herself in my shoes and she went ahead and called a neurologist in Opelika (25 miles away) and is waiting to hear from them. How magnanimous of her, don’t you think!

Here’s the thing, my first attack was Sunday, August 1st. My MRI was Tuesday, August 3rd. My second attack was Monday, August 9th and today it is Tuesday, August 17th and I am NO closer to an answer than I was Saturday, July 31st before this began! I have been advised on more than one occasion to fake an attack just to go to an off post hospital and maybe I will get quick results. That is not really me but… the thought of it is becoming more appealing. Daily I have at least the symptoms that scare me into thinking, another attack is coming on. I pray through it and it doesn’t overtake me but I am still worried. Today is it! I will have an appointment with the neurologist by close of business! I still have the joy of the Lord and I am still blessed! In the words of Hezekiah Walker: I know God favored me because my enemies did try, but couldn’t triumph over me! Yes they did try but couldn’t triumph over me. I’m still here, I’m still alive, I’m still blessed, on my way to my destiny, because the favor of God is on my life!

The last two months of my life have been trying to say the least! In efforts to not have a woe is me party right here at kleverkathy.com, I won’t bore you with ALL the details, I’ll just say, I honestly don’t know how I have maintained this far! Everyday seems to bring more hurt and pain and worry but… God is so good and He is handling this! He’s got this! It is amazing how we screw things up by leaning and depending on a person/people and invariably, the one/s you think you can count on, lets you down, but my great God never lets us down, does He!

So… my health has been one of the biggest surprises! I have now lost 25 pounds (it’s been hard! Excuse me for patting my own self on the back) and have conformed to a healthier lifestyle of eating and exercising. However, wouldn’t you know, I have been afflicted with attacks that have me and the doctors puzzled. Today I have an x-ray on my Carotid arteries and an ultrasound of my heart and am waiting for the most important appointment, a visit to the neurologist. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared and felt alone and sad, but I’d also be lying if I didn’t say, I know God is able! My sickness is on the cross. He left it there when he died for me! I can’t sing a sad song because I have seen the miracles and wonders He performs and as His child, I’m standing in line for the next one!

I am so grateful to all who have lifted me up in prayer. Here’s your flowers:
Angie, you got the first balling rolling! Thank you girlfriend! I love, love, love my brother Tom for making things happen when I can’t make them happen. He is a mover and shaker! (truth be told, he would make a great leader of a city, state or country! Lord just give me that!) I love you Karolann for being a true nurturer, always there willing to do whatever needs to be done! Kourtney, Kendall and Ali are the joy and strength of my life! Your concern and random “I love you” is what having children are all about. Karen, when I say go, I’m gonna step back and let you lose to do your thing! ROTFL! Daddy and Buzzy thank you for your ongoing prayers.  I know your anointing will get them to Him!  Bishop Fonzer, without your daily personal encouragements, I’d probably be wandering through my days with no real sense of what to do. Thank you. Lillian, thank you for telling me what to do and staying on top of me while I do it! Your concern is appreciated. Kim, you were the first to say, yea… that’s pretty scary! Lol. I smile about that because it is so true, I’m scared! Miss Betty, you have been a true mother-in-law through this. I look forward to your daily calls checking on me. Thank you and I love you! Karlissa, Kelsey, Kandance and Korbyn, thank you my sweet nieces. Wesley, thanks for calling and checking. Cece and AJ thanks for helping me through that first episode. My little Jaime and Amber, thank you for being there for me over and over and taking me home from the hospital both times and to my doctor appointments! Traci, Renee and Staci thank you for your love and concern.  Henry, Bobby and Jesse, thank you.  Master Kaiden Jay there are no words to say how much I love you and love hearing, “get better. I love you”! Grandmother loves it! The best medicine I could have!

Yesterday, today and tomorrow… I have to make some hard decisions. Decisions that I know will hurt me deeply but are necessary. Right now I am marking time but soon, I gotta move on! I ALMOST welcome the hardship and pain that will come along with my decisions just so looking back and knowing that I made it will be that much sweeter! Can you imagine the power of my testimony? And I will tell of His goodness!

Do you all know my favorite song? It is by Rev. Richard White, and it says: You been waiting on a blessing and it seems it just won’t come, doors are shut, things are rough, it seems that you’re all done, but the devil is a liar and a deceiver too, God Is Not Through Blessing You! I am holding on to that! I am encouraged and hopeful and I realize through all of this, God has an awesome assignment waiting for me on the other side! Stay tuned! The Best Is Yet To Come!

As far as my living to be healthy, I have lost approx. 16 pounds and still going! I have 21 more pounds I’d like to lose by the end of October. My personal trainer who is married to a military man had to follow her husband to a new assignment in South Carolina. Additionally she is now 7 months pregnant and our time together would have come to an end sooner than later. However, she left me moderately equipped to continue on my own. But…as good as she was, I want more! I have decided to hire another trainer for just a few weeks. She refers to herself as “super trainer extraordinaire”! I can’t repeat what others call her! Lol. What I know is, she is tough! I would like one more round of working with a trainer, especially one that is going to push me beyond my limits and make me mad and glad at the same time!

I can tell you, I feel better, (hopefully) look better, have more energy and display more confidence! I wish there was a magic pill to make the weight melt off and tighten up all my loose, sagging, jiggly parts! But to achieve a permanent place in the Diva Hall of Fame, I must work and work hard! Lean cuisine, water, treadmill, elliptical, ball, weights, bands, etc! And I won’t stop until I reach my goal! Pray with me!

Now for my BIG news! Remember all my sad stories regarding my wedding pictures? You remember, me not getting my pictures and then not getting my refund? Well, if you recall, I did finally get my money back and I bought a 50 inch flat panel TV that I lovingly refer to as my wedding pictures. The recovery of my refund came when I inboxed my photographer’s wife on Facebook. You know the saying: Behind every great man there’s a great woman? Well, behind my photographer was a great woman who took me seriously, handled the situation and refunded my money! But there’s more! Last week I got an inbox from her requesting my address. She said she had a gift for me. Yesterday I received a package.  My wedding album! Oh my goodness! It is beautiful! Absolutely gorgeous! Amazingly, his work is exquisite! I am so pleased! More than pleased! Of course I would have preferred it on time but it still brings me joy today!

Here is the lesson I learned. I could have gone to more extreme measures and did ugly things to recoup my losses. But I didn’t. In the end I am just as pleased with my pictures now as I would have been then! Maybe even more so! I am so appreciative and will cherish each and every photo and… my 50 inch flat panel TV! Ain’t God Good!

Holla back!

This is the front of my photo album.

P.S. – anointedphotography.com

P.P.S. – My Anniversary is July 14th….and now I have pictures to prove it!

Although I don’t monitor my account everyday online, I do monitor it often and I always know what is going on with my account/s! Yesterday, as soon as I got off of work, May 19th, I went into the bank and made a cash deposit of the monies I needed to cover my unexpected emergencies. The teller gave me a receipt with my balance on it and all was good! Just so you have this straight: my account was in the black when I checked it online, when I went into the bank and after my deposit! When I left the bank there was MORE than enough money to cover everything that would be coming out of my account and more! This morning I go online to check my account and of course my account is in the black but I have two overdraft charges. (heavy sigh…) Of course I call and today on May 20th, they tell me that my overdraft charges were due to two transactions that posted to my account on the 18th. But here’s the thing, there was absolutely no way I could have known that! Seriously??? Although there is a place online that tells me what transactions are in hold and what transactions are being processed, neither of these transactions were either place for me to see. I told Jerri, my CSR that I was in the black online, in the black when I walked into the bank and even deeper in the black after I made my deposit and walked out of the bank. And basically what she was told me was: “no you weren’t, but it’s not your fault for not knowing!” I was in the red the day before on the 18th but they kept it a secret from me! I didn’t know because it didn’t appear online, my teller didn’t know because she is just a person positioned to take my money and withhold the truth from me without empowerment to be a “real” CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE! So although my account never visually went in the red, Wachovia bank has taken 70 of my hard earned innocent dollars hostage and refuse to give them back because it secretly went in the red!

My question I kept asking was: “what could I have done differently?” Their response: “nothing, you had no way of knowing the transactions had gone through on the 18th”. That is what Jerri told me when I called the Wachovia customer service line and the same thing Nenee Marquez told me when I called the Wells Fargo/Wachovia Headquarter office and asked for Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf. Of course she wouldn’t let me talk to him but I tried!

Here’s the other thing, if I had just been careless and if the emergencies had not arisen, my fault… I guess, but even then, how can I know if it doesn’t show up for me online nor for my teller inside the institution poised to care for my monies in the appropriate manner. And check this out… Wachovia does their debits before their credits. Here’s a great example of what I’m speaking about: if you have $10.00 in your account and you make a $1,000,000.00 (one million dollar) deposit Friday after 2:00 pm, on Monday morning if a check for $10.50 comes in, your account will go into the red/negative briefly and you WILL be charged overdraft fees, even though you still have $999,999.50 in your account! What in the world!!!

I’m hurt. I have been a great Wachovia customer! I have tried to make them my warm and fuzzy financial institution since coming to GA however, I’m not stupid. I did open another account months ago and will now be forced to make them my new warm and fuzzy. It’s all good! To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1. My time with Wachovia is just about over. I will reroute my direct deposit, settle up with them and say goodbye. I’m just saying….

Holla back!

I go to the gym at least three times a week and do weights, ab exercises and the treadmill at home 5 – 6 times a week. My trainer is phenomenal! However, she is PCSing (leaving with her husband for an Army reassignment) the end of May. I have her until then and hope to know what I am doing and can continue to train myself when she leaves. I can remember when I first started training with her. I was so self conscious about people watching me trying to mimic her instructions and do the exercises without looking totally stupid. She assured me, most people start off like that but after a while, they don’t care. Tuesday when I was there doing my training, my closest co-worker was in the same room doing his thing. For the entire time I was in there I didn’t notice him at all! Not until the next day at work did I know he was in that room! Why? Because I was in the zone!!! I no longer care who is in the room or who sees me doing what! I have a goal and even if I feel like I’ve gotten off track, I keep going. I want to start running but I have to really work and work to build up my stamina! Currently I run about 2 good minutes and need oxygen!

My goals:
1. To be thin enough to see the bones in my chest right below my neck.
2. To have Angela Bassett arms.
3. To be able to do 10 one hand pushups like Demi Moore did in the movie GI Jane.
4. To do at least a mini marathon sometime in 2011.
5. To RUN a mile without the thought of stopping or needing to stop.

I do feel much better about myself even though I am no where close to my goal… YET but just moving and sweating thrills me! I love to sweat! Last Saturday morning I did my first Zumba class!!! Can somebody say Amen?! Talk about a workout! I haven’t gone since, lol, due to schedule conflicts but I will! I won’t give up! I’ll keep you posted! I do need cheerleaders. I love support and challenges so if you wanna scream “you go girl” I’ll take it! If you want to join me, I’d love to have you! If you just want to watch, stay tuned! I plan to be as sexy as possible by my cruise sail date, October 24, 2010!

On a serious note…I’m always thinking. Today I have just three random questions, all to do with Christianity. Some of these might actual be questions that really need to be full fledge posts but for now, we’ll just make them questions.

1. As a Christian, is it ever alright to cuss? I went to see Tyler Perry’s new movie and I know from hearing him talk, he is a Christian and tries to make God the central point of the positive messages conveyed in his movies. But in this one, he did cuss quite a bit. Cool? Not cool?  What about a person that is a professional actor and that is their one and only job. Most scripts today call for some cussing. Is that alright? Does a multi-million dollar Christian have the same requirements as a regular Christian?  (Ok, many of you who read this may be cussers whether it is: habitual, chronic, social, for entertainment purposes only or part of your normal daily conversation/talk. I guess I am not talking to you but more the ones who think it is not Christianly to cuss.)

2. As many of you know, I grew up old school. And let me start off by saying, I am proud of the nuts and bolts of my character stemming from traditions and old school. With that said… if I am at a party/gathering and they are doing the electric slide – no bumping and grinding, no pelvic gyrations, no nasty dancing, etc – as an old school, Pentecostal Christian who was raised not to dance, can I join in and take three steps left, three steps right, three to the back, with a front dip, a back dip and then swirl around (something like that.  smile) without jeopardizing God’s pleasure with me? (Can some old school folk that were raised like me weigh in on this one?)

3. Disclaimer: I am asking this question because it came up in conversation having NOTHING to do with me, my father or anyone in my family AND recently I heard the same discussion question on talk radio. What is the pastor’s wife place in the church? Should she be allowed free reign? Should every pastor’s wife be co-pastor/associate pastor/assistant pastor just because she is married to the man called by God? Should the pastor’s wife be held to a higher standard and expected to carry herself in a different manner than the other sisters in the church? And lastly, what happens when the pastor’s wife isn’t friendly, engages in cliques, causes dissension in the church, runs members away, turns the unconditional love the people had for the pastor into conditional love and destroys his livelihood all because she is, first and foremost, his wife and he refuses to do anything about her behaviors?

Holla back!