Sharing our Life

As of about 6:00 p.m. tonight (Saturday) - "Judy just called and the news is all good. The surgery was officially 6 hours long. He is off the ventilator, so breathing on his own. His vital signs are stable and his lab results are already improving. He may be out of the operating room but he isn't out of the woods. (He is in great hands though - His) Let's keep praying."

Thanks for your prayers for Brady. Here are a couple of updates: Subject: Update from Jeff on Brady at 11:00am "Surgery room just called and said the liver is in and they are getting ready to unclamp it. Going good so far, but still have a ways to go." As of 12noon - the new liver is in and working. They are watching it for proper function over time. Let's keep on praying and saying a word of prayer for the family of the Donor. 2 others in Omaha were blessed by this donor." Subject: Brady's Surgery is almost over! (about 1:00 p.m.) "Jeff called to say that they have talked with the doctors and they are closing Brady up! PTL Now we can continue to pray for his recovery and a specific prayer that he doesn't develop infections. That is a critical element now."

I should have been blogging about this for the past couple of weeks and for some reason I just didn't think of it. Now I'm thinking of it, so I will blog it! Our former Sunday school teachers in Topeka have a son, Brady, who many years ago (I'm not sure of all the details) had a liver transplant. Over the last couple of years and especially over the last few weeks, his body is rejecting the liver. He is in surgery right now (Saturday, January 31) getting a new liver. I just want to blog some of the updates so you know what's been going on and can pray. I'll start with the oldest update I received and if you scroll down to the end, that'll be the most recent update. I know this family will appreciate your prayers! On 1/17/09- Most recent news: an interdisciplinary team of doctors, (cardiologists, psychiatrists, neuropsych, liver specialists, surgeons) social workers, a transplant coordinator, and a few others will be meeting Wednesday (1/22) in order to de...

In ELO (the homeschool coop classes) this semester, the Kindergarten class is learning about bugs. On Wednesday they were learning about ants (because there were a lot of teachers out, Jaelyn was also in the same class). After the teacher shared some information with them about ants, they got to 'make' their own and then eat it too (hey, at least it wasn't chocolate covered ants!). So here are a couple of pictures of Jaelyn and Eric with their ant craft/snack!

Eric and Jaelyn got to go on a field trip to a bakery today. They showed them how donuts were made, the big mixer to mix the dough, the oven, and how they decorate the cookies and cupcakes. They went with the homeschool group and had a great time. They ended the field trip with a yummy cupcake! Here are some pictures of the event. If you see any pictures you want, let me know and I'll email it to you.

If you know anyone looking for a house in Omaha, Nebraska, send them here !!!

We sang this song in church yesterday and for me it was and is a good reminder to be thankful for everything. In a previous post, I mentioned that sometimes I'm not very thankful even though God has blessed me abundantly. This was good reinforcement to remember that! I tried to find the words to download, but couldn't (so instead I went the VeggieTales route :) ). I come before You today, and there's just one thing that I want to say; Thank You, Lord; thank You, Lord. For all You've given to me, for all the blessings that I cannot see; Thank You, Lord; thank You, Lord. With a grateful heart, with a song of praise, with an outstretched arm, I will bless Your name, Thank You, Lord; I just want to thank You, Lord. For all You've done in my life. You took my darkness and gave me Your light; Thank You, Lord; thank You, Lord. You took my sin and my shame; You took my sickness and healed all my pain; Thank You, Lord; thank You, Lord.

We think we are close to putting a For Sale sign in the yard for our house in Omaha. It seems like our property management company isn't all too eager to assist as they know we would prefer to sell it vs rent it. We were communicating more with her than our realtor so not much was getting done. Supposedly, the house was cleaned (according to the property management company). But when our realtor went to look at it, she said it looks like a high school kid was just trying to earn a little extra money and didn't do a very good job (that's not a slam against high school students as I'm sure many would have done a fine job). So, we finally told our realtor to do what she needs to do to get it done. We told her this on Wednesday. On Thursday, we had an estimate to get the house cleaned, vent covers replaced, 2 washers and a dryer hauled away, garage swept, baseboards wiped down, cupboards wiped down, etc. It was only $220 to have that all done. I'm hopeful that it all oc...

Really, truly, I have led a very blessed life! I have done absolutely nothing to deserve it and unfortunately I don't always give credit to the One who deserves the credit. I've been blessed with a great family, great friends, a great husband, great kids, good health. I am provided for beyond my needs and for oh so many of my wants. Why is it that sometimes while you are being so blessed, you still complain and look at the negative. As many of you may know, our house in Omaha is just a sore spot with me. It drains our money, it robs me of joy, it robs me of contentment. It is a constant reminder of the irresponsible way we used to be with our money (that's a whole ' nother story - in a nutshell, we had to take a 2 nd mortgage to pay off credit cards and then we unexpectedly had to move within a couple of months and there was no way anyone was going to buy the house for what the mortgage was - so we were stuck!) Now, all in all, the Omaha house hasn't been that muc...

The ticker here is listed at the bottom of my page as well. It is a constant reminder of where I've been and where I want to be. This time around of weight loss doesn't seem to be as much of a struggle as it has been in the past. I'm not sure why that is other than God is good. I have certainly figured things out this time around that I didn't really figure out before. This post has more information about that. Since I'm using this blog as a type of journaling to be able to look back, I just wanted to document my progress. I'm not documenting it to get any praise or accolades; I just need to remember my progress. And, if it helps anyone else in the process, then that is an added benefit. www.my-calorie-counter.com     The webs free Calorie Counter

Just a quick update about our weekend (which was nothing too thrilling, but I wanted to make a note of it nonetheless). David made promises to the kids that as soon as they accomplished a specific goal in school, he would take them for ice cream the following weekend. Jessica's goal was to get 100% on spelling since she had been struggling with that. Well, she jumped on that and accomplished that goal almost immediately last Fall and cashed in her ice cream award several months ago. Jaelyn needed to be able to recognize her letters. She has been able to say her ABC's for a couple of years, so I assumed she knew which letters were which. Well, when we finally started going over them diligently when school started in the Fall, I found that she really had no clue which letter was which (much to my dismay). Early on, I thought she would never get them figured out. Finally, this last week, she was able to consistently recognize all of her letters when I pointed to them. She was very...

This picture isn't really how it is, but at least it looks like they are getting along??! Bo still pesters Maize and just wants to play and Maize still really wants nothing to do with it. Maize looks like she has such sad eyes (especially in the 2nd picture).

Thanks to David's uncle - some days, this sums it up! In this life I'm a woman. In my next life, I'd like to come back as a bear. When you are a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that. Before you hibernate, you are suppose to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too. When you are a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake up to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that. If you are a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. you swat away anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that. If you are a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat. YUP, GONNA BE A BEAR

1) The bandage was wound around the wound . 2) The farm was used to produce produce . 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse . 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert . 7) Since there is no time like the present , he thought it was time to present the present 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object . 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid . 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row ... 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow . 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear . 19) I had to subject the subject to a ser...

We mildly celebrated New Year's Eve with some fireworks. It's kind of new to us as in Kansas, we didn't normally have any fireworks on New Year's Eve. The kids had fun doing sparklers and chasing their parachutes. My other child (aka my husband) enjoyed holding the Roman candles in his hand as they went off (much to my dismay - I'm pretty sure I told him if you can afford to live without your hand, then go for it!). Then, last night (Saturday), we made it to SantaLand . For those of you in East Texas - it is a must see. For those of you not in East Texas, come and visit - we'll go!! I loved going after Christmas for 2 reasons: #1 - no traffic and #2 - gift shop is 1/2 off! We had a great time - the kids loved it and we are definitely making it a tradition (we went last year as well). The kids really enjoyed looking out the sunroof part of the time while driving through the park. I'll leave you with some pictures of New Year's Eve and Santa Land!...

Thanks, Kim, for sharing this. I thought it was pretty cute! Hope ya'll enjoy!

Yes - Today I may catch up on Christmas (and then maybe I can blog about New Years!). We celebrated Christmas with my immediate family on Christmas Eve day. Christmas Day and the day after were very laid back just playing games, playing with gifts, and playing in the snow. The tradition in our family is for the entire extended family to also get together. This year we got together the Saturday after Christmas. We see my mom's side of the family (she has one younger sister and one older sister who passed away 10 years ago). So, aunts, uncles, cousins are all together eat, talk, and have fun. My mom's side of the family is very close, so it's always good to see everyone. This year, we 'rented' (it didn't really cost any money) part of the church building that much of my family attends. It was great to have such a big spacious room and we had access to the gym to play basketball as well. We had a potluck lunch and then visited and then had our first annual ...

Our plan for this Christmas was to go to Nebraska to celebrate with my side of the family and then to head up to Michigan to celebrate with David's family and see some really good friends as well. Because of the situation with our tenants in Omaha, we realized that we probably wouldn't be able to do both this year. We opted to go to Nebraska for 2 reasons: #1 - my Dad's health hasn't been the best this year (although I have to say he looked really good at Christmas!) so David appeased me so we could go there and #2 - since we now have 2 dogs and my Mom and Dad are OK with us bringing them, we wouldn't have the expense of kenneling them. So, we left on the Tuesday before Christmas to head up to Nebraska. The weather forecast was predicting rain on the southern part of our trip and possible ice further north. We were blessed in that there was only rain and we had no problems with ice (if I had been blogging last year at Christmas, you would have read about the 14 hour...

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating about our Christmas! I think I'll do it in several different 'parts' so I can actually complete one post and none will be too long with so many pictures that no one will want to read it! So, our first mini-Christmas was on the Sunday before Christmas with just our family. Since we usually travel for Christmas, we open gifts here and 'Santa' comes early for the kids. Because the rest of the family is so very generous with the kids, we only do one gift from us and then we don't do a lot with Santa - just a stocking. Here are a couple of pictures from that day. More Christmas to follow!