Why Is Easter So Early This Year?

Richard Hunt, our music minister at V7PC, just passed along this fascinating information on why Easter is so early this year:

Easter is very early this year, and here is a little explanation as to why.

Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on the Roman calendar.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) than it will be this year, but that is rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will see for the rest of our lives. And only the most elderly (95 years and above) have ever seen it this early.

And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier.

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913.

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now).

The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year.

BerBible – With NKJV!

A friend of mine, Lynn Allen, has been developing some great Bible software call Berean Bible. He just released a new version that includes the New King James Version and the English Standard Version – for FREE.

By the way, I’m still working in implementing the NKJV for OneNote. Just been a bit preoccupied the past several years.

Here is a direct link for the Berean BerBible with NKJV (New King James Version ©1982).
http://www.berbible.org/download/BerBibleNkjvWinStarterKitSetup.exe
and a direct link that includes a larger selection of Bibles (ESV, NKJV, ASV, BBE, KJV, and WEB) :
http://www.berbible.org/download/BerBibleWinMaxSetup.exe
Changes since the ver 2.31 release of Oct, 2007:

• NKJV (New King James Version ©1982 from Thomas Nelson, Inc.)  available as a free download. BerBible is the only Bible freeware of its kind  to be able to offer this at no charge.  
• "Rendering" for headings, paragraph grouping, poetic indentation, and  overall verse alignment is significantly improved . 
• Public domain modules (like KJV, WEB, ASV, etc.) will compress smaller so  that their "starter-kit" will easily fit on a 1.44mb floppy. 
• There are more "tags" for the ASV, KJV, and WEB Bible modules. 
• "Divine name rendering" implemented for NKJV, ESV, ASV, KJV, and WEB with  "small-caps" to distinquish Lord and LORD 
• Several glitches were fixed related to "rendering". 
• Several bugs were fixed regarding ESV versification. 
• Advanced searching options … regular expressions and "span-near-verses". 
• Additional keyboard shortcuts, including more standard copy/paste. 
• Improved encryption and protection of publisher intellectual property.
• Some further comments:
• The "Help About" menu item should indicate a "build date" on or after Mar.  21, 2008.
• Here are "animated viewlets (slideshows)" of the versions for the desktop  PC, Pocket-PC, and Palm pda device: 
  http://www.berbible.org/viewlets/BbEsvMiniTutorial_viewlet.html
  http://www.berbible.org/viewlets/BbPpcMiniTutorial_viewlet.html
  http://www.berbible.org/viewlets/BbPalmTour_viewlet.html

Still Doing Well

It has been a good weekend of hanging close to home, going to Tae Kwon Do, and generally just enjoying being together again as a family. Maggie is still doing well.

Now, I have to dig out from being out from work this past week. I have not even recovered from our St. Louis trip, so I’m really behind now. I have some really patient customers.

Finally Home – Again

Yesterday was a good day – only two seizures. So far today – only one. Maggie’s doctor is comfortable enough in her stability to let her go home – yeah!!!

The doctors are not much further along in determining why all of this is going on, except that they are definitely originating from some deep areas in her brain, and the doctors will do some more testing, analyzing current tests, and research to find the reason. Right now, they are just happy ( as are we and Maggie ) that she is stable with new medications.

We’ll see what God will bring tomorrow and the next day, but for now we are grateful for the gift He has given today.

Thank you for your wonderful support during this time. I suspect this will be a long year….

Rob and family

Staying a Couple More Days

Maggie had about 11 seizure episodes today, so she won’t be going home until later this week. Maggie’s doctor is experimenting some more with her medicines over the next couple of days before he’s comfortable in sending her home.

Maggie is disappointed, but it has been good for her to have visitors and friends to see.

A Good Day – Almost Home

Maggie had her best day since being admitted to the hospital on Friday. If she has a good night tonight and morning, she’ll likely go home Tuesday afternoon!

We are learning more about the test results from St. Louis and the test results being done here.  The doctors are not seeing any temporal lobe seizures, which is great news. However, they are seeing some definite abnormal activity from the insula  region, which is beside the original tumor bed. This is information they were only able to glean from the MEG test we went to St. Louis for. They just don’t know what the abnormal activity is, what is causing it, and what to do about it. The result of that abnormal activity  is what Maggie ends up feeling and outwardly displaying. We don’t have an estimate on when some conclusions will be released on those tests. They are diligently working on it, though. We just have to remain patient…

The good news is that Maggie is feeling much better on her new medicine and recovering from the events that put her in the hospital on Friday. Our prayer is that the new medicine will hold until we are able to get some firm test results.

Thank you for your wonderful emails and encouragement. I can’t wait for our family to be together again on Tuesday night and to be waking up together in the same house on Wednesday morning. There is nothing like sitting together in the morning, drinking coffee, and watching Dax and Maggie help the little ones pour milk into their cereal.

Day 3 – Still At The Hospital

Yes, Maggie is still at the hospital. It has been a long, weary stay.

It has been a constant battle of getting Maggie stabilized, and then battling side-effects from medicines that often times present themselves as seizure activity and pseudo-parkinsons. Earlier today, it looked like Maggie might be able to go home, but then started having seizures again. Maggie is very weary and tired – as is the rest of us. I was talking with Dax on the way home tonight, and he said what we are all feeling – " I hate brain cancer, I hate seizures, I hate that Maggie is hurting like this, and I hate what this does to our family."

Please pray that the test results from St. Louis will come quickly ( like Monday….) and that the doctors here and there can match things up to find out what is wrong with Maggie and what they can do to help her immediately.

At this point, I’d be surprised if Maggie is home before Wednesday.

Day 2 at Hospital

Maggie woke up this morning having more seizures that lasted about an hour and 10 minutes, then stabilized. I don’t think she’ll be going home today.

At home with the kids, crashing, catching up on sleep. Kathi is at the hospital.We’ll swap up tonight.

Back To The Hospital

This morning, around 9:30, Maggie was rushed to the emergency room due to seizures that couldn’t be stopped with rescue meds. It was a frantic scene at the house with an ambulance, fire truck, and the other kids crying in disbelief about what was going on.

After admitting to the emergency room, the seizures finally stabilized around 3:00 this afternoon after several doses of adavan and other drugs. The doctors admitted Maggie to Children’s Hospital ( Colorado Springs ) for monitoring and more stabilization. Maggie will probably be here until Sunday.

We still have not gotten results from the testing done in St. Louis. The doctors are still analyzing and studying those tests.