Well...its been a rather exciting week and the weekend is even more exciting!!
We are in a bible study on Monday nights at our church and we're doing this study called "Intimacy with God". And one of the questions was bringing up stuff about journaling and how it helps to get thoughts out and stuff. It totally made me think about this blog and how this is kind of my type of journaling, just online instead! :-) It's been a really good study so far, so I hope it continues to be just as awesome in the future!
I convinced Tom to paint our bedroom!!! This is just awesome news for me. The walls are currently a funky shade of blue but I'm just not loving it anymore. So as Mr. Obama would say, "I want change!" Just kidding. But it'll be good! We're going to start taping and going to be putting up a new ceiling fan tonight. I'm really excited about it all. The walls are going to be a tan tone when its all complete. I'm pretty pumped. So that begins today...I'll hope to post pictures at some point!
We have a whole weekend of awesome festivities beginning tomorrow!! Tom's parents are going to have the girls all weekend. That in itself is awesome! I love my girls to death, anyone that knows me knows that, but we all need a break every once in awhile. And then on Saturday, we're going to Valleyscare all day with the Coopers. Then on Sunday, we're going to the Vikings game with the Coopers as well. They're playing the Ravens on Sunday, so it should be good fun. Tom went to the Vikings - Packers game a few weeks ago, so this'll be his second time this year but it'll be my first this year and it'll be the Coopers very first time at NFL game!! WHhhooooooahhhh!! I'm really excited about all this. Then on Sunday evening, we'll go and pick up the girls again and start the wonderful week over again next week!! :-D
I hope you're all doing well and we hope you have a wonderful weekend!!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
The week....oofta!
Wow has this week ever been long but I can say, much of it was good! I guess I can't complain a whole lot!
I guess the biggest news we have lately is that we got a new cat!!!!!!!!! He's really cute!! He's a domestic long haired, orange and white cat. He's about 5 years old. His name is Trevor and he's just a gigantic teddy bear! He's really cuddly and always leaves his mark by filling your shirt with cat hair! :-) He has been living in a shelter for about 9 months, so he needs a good grooming and a lot of TLC. He's been a really good cat so far. And I guess maybe the best part of this is and the big question is, him and Chester have been getting along INCREDIBLY well!! It's been amazing!! They are friends already and have been playing together and sitting together on the couch and stuff. We've had good luck so far with him.
On the flip side of this wonderful news is that Julia is sick....again. She has this cold and upper respiratory infection back. We're going into our pediatrician today and hoping to get some strong meds to take care of this again. This has went on for two weeks now and its getting pretty old. Then on top of that, Kira woke up this morning with a cough that sounds very similar if not completely similar to a croup type cough. It's been the bark. So we'll see where that goes too. It's gonna be a good day, let me tell you! :-)
I am overly excited for December to come!! Not only is it Christmas AND my birthday, but its also a Chris Tomlim concert and Disney on Ice Princess Classics!!!! It's going to be a busy month! I'm going to the Chris Tomlin concert again and am SSOOO incredibly excited!! I went to a concert of his awhile back and was completely moved. It was amazing! I am so pumped to go to another one! Then that next Friday in December, I'm going to Disney on Ice Princess Classics with the Marlin girls! It's going to be me and Kira and Julia, Steph, Melissa, Sophia, Diane and Marvel!! I'm really excited about that and hope it'll be a good time!!
Well, I think thats all I have to report for now!! :-) I hope you're all doing well and hope you have a great weekend!!
I guess the biggest news we have lately is that we got a new cat!!!!!!!!! He's really cute!! He's a domestic long haired, orange and white cat. He's about 5 years old. His name is Trevor and he's just a gigantic teddy bear! He's really cuddly and always leaves his mark by filling your shirt with cat hair! :-) He has been living in a shelter for about 9 months, so he needs a good grooming and a lot of TLC. He's been a really good cat so far. And I guess maybe the best part of this is and the big question is, him and Chester have been getting along INCREDIBLY well!! It's been amazing!! They are friends already and have been playing together and sitting together on the couch and stuff. We've had good luck so far with him.
On the flip side of this wonderful news is that Julia is sick....again. She has this cold and upper respiratory infection back. We're going into our pediatrician today and hoping to get some strong meds to take care of this again. This has went on for two weeks now and its getting pretty old. Then on top of that, Kira woke up this morning with a cough that sounds very similar if not completely similar to a croup type cough. It's been the bark. So we'll see where that goes too. It's gonna be a good day, let me tell you! :-)
I am overly excited for December to come!! Not only is it Christmas AND my birthday, but its also a Chris Tomlim concert and Disney on Ice Princess Classics!!!! It's going to be a busy month! I'm going to the Chris Tomlin concert again and am SSOOO incredibly excited!! I went to a concert of his awhile back and was completely moved. It was amazing! I am so pumped to go to another one! Then that next Friday in December, I'm going to Disney on Ice Princess Classics with the Marlin girls! It's going to be me and Kira and Julia, Steph, Melissa, Sophia, Diane and Marvel!! I'm really excited about that and hope it'll be a good time!!
Well, I think thats all I have to report for now!! :-) I hope you're all doing well and hope you have a great weekend!!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
I Love Weekends!! :-)
Hey All,
So I fulfilled my duty for the week!! :-) I blogged at least twice! :-) YEA!! I really honestly hope to do more, but this is all time allows for right now.
Well, I'm continuing on my recent adventure seeking of running 5K's! I've really been out of distance running for awhile, so its been a little rough, but its gotten considerably better! I have a good friend that runs them with me which is awesome and helps tremendously! I want to really work on getting back in shape more too, so this is helping a bit! I hope to continue this in the future!
After the race, we got some free tickets to go to the Renessiance Festival. Wowzers! I was really looking forward to going and was smelling the food all morning and was getting pumped for it. Well, I ended up being a big disappointed. I aint' the kind of person that is loud and enjoys making a scene...I'm very much not a cleveage person and holy cats, there was plenty of that. I don't know, there were a lot of things that were a little nuts. But at least I have the experience behind me now and I can say I've been there now. So I did get something out of it though!! :-) Along with an awesome prime rib sandwich!! :-) I'll gladly admit the food was pretty darn good!
Then to top my day off today, Tom has been at a card party all day with the guys and Kira and Julia are with grandma and grandpa Pollard!! WOO HOO!!!!! Growing up, I wasn't a person that really enjoyed being by myself. I tended to get lonely quick. It was no good. But up until I've had kids, I've really been enjoying it more and in fact, I LOVE IT! And I've had almost the whole day to myself! I have been cleaning (cause I'm so behind on it!) and in the meantime, listening to KTIS -FM(a Christian radio station up here) and have been having tons of fun! The radio is actually still going while I'm writing this blog too! Good times! Music is a way for me to let my stress go away for awhile. It's really awesome!
I had an awesome day yesterday too which is totally fricken sweet! :-) I spent the day with Steph (Tom's brother's wife...so kind of my sister in law...kind of!) So anyways. We spent the day getting the girls pictures taken (which I have a whole different story about...goodness sakes), and then spent the day having a blast together and going shopping and just hanging out! It was really a good time. I had an awesome time! It's really been a blessing to me that not only are we family, but we've gotten to be pretty close friends too. It's really awesome! We don't get to see each other a whole lot, so when we do, we always have a good time.
Well, thats all I got for one day! :-)
I hope you're all doing well!
So I fulfilled my duty for the week!! :-) I blogged at least twice! :-) YEA!! I really honestly hope to do more, but this is all time allows for right now.
Well, I'm continuing on my recent adventure seeking of running 5K's! I've really been out of distance running for awhile, so its been a little rough, but its gotten considerably better! I have a good friend that runs them with me which is awesome and helps tremendously! I want to really work on getting back in shape more too, so this is helping a bit! I hope to continue this in the future!
After the race, we got some free tickets to go to the Renessiance Festival. Wowzers! I was really looking forward to going and was smelling the food all morning and was getting pumped for it. Well, I ended up being a big disappointed. I aint' the kind of person that is loud and enjoys making a scene...I'm very much not a cleveage person and holy cats, there was plenty of that. I don't know, there were a lot of things that were a little nuts. But at least I have the experience behind me now and I can say I've been there now. So I did get something out of it though!! :-) Along with an awesome prime rib sandwich!! :-) I'll gladly admit the food was pretty darn good!
Then to top my day off today, Tom has been at a card party all day with the guys and Kira and Julia are with grandma and grandpa Pollard!! WOO HOO!!!!! Growing up, I wasn't a person that really enjoyed being by myself. I tended to get lonely quick. It was no good. But up until I've had kids, I've really been enjoying it more and in fact, I LOVE IT! And I've had almost the whole day to myself! I have been cleaning (cause I'm so behind on it!) and in the meantime, listening to KTIS -FM(a Christian radio station up here) and have been having tons of fun! The radio is actually still going while I'm writing this blog too! Good times! Music is a way for me to let my stress go away for awhile. It's really awesome!
I had an awesome day yesterday too which is totally fricken sweet! :-) I spent the day with Steph (Tom's brother's wife...so kind of my sister in law...kind of!) So anyways. We spent the day getting the girls pictures taken (which I have a whole different story about...goodness sakes), and then spent the day having a blast together and going shopping and just hanging out! It was really a good time. I had an awesome time! It's really been a blessing to me that not only are we family, but we've gotten to be pretty close friends too. It's really awesome! We don't get to see each other a whole lot, so when we do, we always have a good time.
Well, thats all I got for one day! :-)
I hope you're all doing well!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Ooooofta! :-)
Wowzers, its been awhile since I've blogged. Its time to get moving with this again! It's really awesome and a great way to get my thoughts out and keep everyone posted on our life at the same time!
Things have been going dandy for us!! Things to have certainly seemed to calm down finally. With the medical issues we had between myself and Julia, we were quite the ball of fun for awhile. It was no good, but PRAISE GOD, we're healthy and living life to the fullest again! Now, just to continue working on paying off those medical bills.....YUCK! Luckily, we've almost hit our "major medical" point, to where we won't have to pay anymore. In the meantime, gotta love the payment plans through the hospital that are interest free! :-) Thank goodness something is working in our favor with this stuff!
Tom's car is on its last leg unfortunately. The brakes recently went out and had to be replaced. It was quite the chunk of change and its STILL not completely fixed. The air conditioning is still not working at all, the blinkers are not working at 100% (I think theres a wiring issue or something) and then there is oil leaking out of the head gasket apparently. And the breaks were on top of all of this. So we're really keeping our fingers crossed that the car will last us through the beginning of next year and I hope to get a new car shortly after. I really want a Dodge Journey, and they're really pretty affordable which is the best part. The reviews are good too which is wonderful. The space would be VERY nice and it would make traveling with family a ton of fun too! It's really an all around good deal. My biggest obstacle now is to convince Tom that this is the right thing to do! Hmm....got any tips?! :-)
Awhile ago (probably about a month and a half or so) I decided to take on a project by putting together a team for the Marathons of Hope. The Marathons of Hope is a fundraiser for cancer patients and is a great way to reach out to cancer patients and their families. Anyways, I decided to put the team together and worked hard to reach my goal of 10 people. Well, I met my goal, and in fact, I passed it! I ended up getting about 17 people to participate with me! The kicker was was the person had to be willing to spend $35 just for a registration fee. For some people, that was enough to turn them away. But I kept going and it paid off! So then we were put to a "Team Challenge" and so then I went on a mission to find a way to fundraiser for us so we could be the top fundraising team! I came up with a raffle and began to print raffle tickets like crazy. It was a great money making thing for us and it worked, but it took a lot of work! I personally had to call about 100 businesses and ask them for a donation of money, gift certificate, merchandise or whatever. I ended up having about 47 different prizes for the raffle. And sold raffle tickets to employees, patients and our families and anyone else we could think of. We sold tickets for $2 a piece and ended up raising about $600! Then there were a few other small things too that all added up and in the end, we raised about $1300!!!!!!!!! What a deal!! It was really a great feeling to be a team captain and know that all my hardwork paid off, is really a great feeling! I was pretty proud! We ended up winning the team challenge and we're now getting a plaque with our names on it and going to be posting it on a wall somewhere!! I'm really excited and hope to see it soon!
I have a prayer request for you as well. A dear relative of mine passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was really brave and they did all they could to help him. He is now healthy and living cancer free! Just please play for his wife and sons and family members that are able to be there with them. They live quite a ways away so we're not able to be there but they'll definately be in our hearts.
Well, I don't have much else to report right now!! My long term plan is to blog at LEAST once a week...hopefully more!
Hope you're all doing well!
Things have been going dandy for us!! Things to have certainly seemed to calm down finally. With the medical issues we had between myself and Julia, we were quite the ball of fun for awhile. It was no good, but PRAISE GOD, we're healthy and living life to the fullest again! Now, just to continue working on paying off those medical bills.....YUCK! Luckily, we've almost hit our "major medical" point, to where we won't have to pay anymore. In the meantime, gotta love the payment plans through the hospital that are interest free! :-) Thank goodness something is working in our favor with this stuff!
Tom's car is on its last leg unfortunately. The brakes recently went out and had to be replaced. It was quite the chunk of change and its STILL not completely fixed. The air conditioning is still not working at all, the blinkers are not working at 100% (I think theres a wiring issue or something) and then there is oil leaking out of the head gasket apparently. And the breaks were on top of all of this. So we're really keeping our fingers crossed that the car will last us through the beginning of next year and I hope to get a new car shortly after. I really want a Dodge Journey, and they're really pretty affordable which is the best part. The reviews are good too which is wonderful. The space would be VERY nice and it would make traveling with family a ton of fun too! It's really an all around good deal. My biggest obstacle now is to convince Tom that this is the right thing to do! Hmm....got any tips?! :-)
Awhile ago (probably about a month and a half or so) I decided to take on a project by putting together a team for the Marathons of Hope. The Marathons of Hope is a fundraiser for cancer patients and is a great way to reach out to cancer patients and their families. Anyways, I decided to put the team together and worked hard to reach my goal of 10 people. Well, I met my goal, and in fact, I passed it! I ended up getting about 17 people to participate with me! The kicker was was the person had to be willing to spend $35 just for a registration fee. For some people, that was enough to turn them away. But I kept going and it paid off! So then we were put to a "Team Challenge" and so then I went on a mission to find a way to fundraiser for us so we could be the top fundraising team! I came up with a raffle and began to print raffle tickets like crazy. It was a great money making thing for us and it worked, but it took a lot of work! I personally had to call about 100 businesses and ask them for a donation of money, gift certificate, merchandise or whatever. I ended up having about 47 different prizes for the raffle. And sold raffle tickets to employees, patients and our families and anyone else we could think of. We sold tickets for $2 a piece and ended up raising about $600! Then there were a few other small things too that all added up and in the end, we raised about $1300!!!!!!!!! What a deal!! It was really a great feeling to be a team captain and know that all my hardwork paid off, is really a great feeling! I was pretty proud! We ended up winning the team challenge and we're now getting a plaque with our names on it and going to be posting it on a wall somewhere!! I'm really excited and hope to see it soon!
I have a prayer request for you as well. A dear relative of mine passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was really brave and they did all they could to help him. He is now healthy and living cancer free! Just please play for his wife and sons and family members that are able to be there with them. They live quite a ways away so we're not able to be there but they'll definately be in our hearts.
Well, I don't have much else to report right now!! My long term plan is to blog at LEAST once a week...hopefully more!
Hope you're all doing well!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
All is well...
Hey all,
I am happy to repost after the last blog posting that things have gotten considerably better for us!!! PRAISE GOD!! As most of you know, Julia was sick for quite some time. After a few pediatricians couldn't figure it out, off to Childrens we went. OOffta was that ever a rollercoaster ride. Through being on 5 different meds of all kinds, she is doing wonderfully!! We go back to Childrens on July 13th to hopefully get a clean bill of health! :-D Yea!!
This summer has so much fun in store for me, I'm so pumped!! First off, we found an AWESOME babysitter that loves Kira and Julia and is very reasonably priced and thats willing to watch the girls pretty often for us!! YEA for being able to go out without the girls sometimes!! WOOT WOOT! Then next Saturday the 12th, we're going to the Twins game with some of our very best friends! It's faith and family night at the dome and Jars of Clay is also going to be there! Free concert for buying the tickets...I think thats pretty awesome! Then a few weeks after that, we're going camping, once again with the same group of people! We're going up to Mille Lacs and going to have a BLAST!!!!!!!!! We've been to the resort before and had a great time, they have a ton of stuff for campers to use including lots of water stuff and this awesome white sand beach! Then a few months go by and I'm going to a concert on October 3rd with Dana and going to see Michael W. Smith, Matthew West and Phil Stacey at the XCel energy Center! I'm super excited for that!
Hope you're all doing well!! I just wanted to post a quick update and how things are going for us!
God Bless You All!!
I am happy to repost after the last blog posting that things have gotten considerably better for us!!! PRAISE GOD!! As most of you know, Julia was sick for quite some time. After a few pediatricians couldn't figure it out, off to Childrens we went. OOffta was that ever a rollercoaster ride. Through being on 5 different meds of all kinds, she is doing wonderfully!! We go back to Childrens on July 13th to hopefully get a clean bill of health! :-D Yea!!
This summer has so much fun in store for me, I'm so pumped!! First off, we found an AWESOME babysitter that loves Kira and Julia and is very reasonably priced and thats willing to watch the girls pretty often for us!! YEA for being able to go out without the girls sometimes!! WOOT WOOT! Then next Saturday the 12th, we're going to the Twins game with some of our very best friends! It's faith and family night at the dome and Jars of Clay is also going to be there! Free concert for buying the tickets...I think thats pretty awesome! Then a few weeks after that, we're going camping, once again with the same group of people! We're going up to Mille Lacs and going to have a BLAST!!!!!!!!! We've been to the resort before and had a great time, they have a ton of stuff for campers to use including lots of water stuff and this awesome white sand beach! Then a few months go by and I'm going to a concert on October 3rd with Dana and going to see Michael W. Smith, Matthew West and Phil Stacey at the XCel energy Center! I'm super excited for that!
Hope you're all doing well!! I just wanted to post a quick update and how things are going for us!
God Bless You All!!
Monday, May 4, 2009
I'll Praise You in this Storm
I thought that title, kind of summed up what we've been through the last few weeks. Even in the midst of our complete chaos and having a considerable amount of bad luck, we still praised God and knew he was still right beside us and guiding is in all we did.
Sometimes its so hard to see the good of things when things seem to go completely nuts. But I know through Tom and I's experiences in the past, that ya know. Everything seems to ALWAYS work out for the best for us. Lately, its just so hard to see the good in all of this because of the timing, which was really horrible, but we're beginning to see the positive effects of everything! So I'll tell ya about them:
Back about a month ago, we found out Julia had torticollis. (see webmd.com if you don't know what it is) But the diagnosis from the beginning wasn't great by any means. And if you've ever heard anything like this, hearing something is wrong with your precious baby girl, is one of the most heart breaking experiences. I cried many tears and prayed many prayers. We were then went to physical therapy and they said we'd have to come back every week until at LEAST the end of July, so the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't even the least bit visible yet. We were told at the end of our first appointment that they thought she would probably need a helmet to help fix this problem, and that she would need to wear this helmet 23 1/2 hours a day until she's at least a year old. So thinking about this right, is the idea that went through my head, was that there was going to be no doing her hair with barretts or putting her hair in ponytails or anything until she's able to not have to wear this helmet anymore. It was not a good feeling of her having a helmet that covered her entire head. Not to mention the strange looks that people get that have these types of helmets. People automatically assume the worst and assume your kid has mental problems, and not realize that its just so your kid has a good head shape. You see what I'm saying with all this. So this wasn't what we wanted to do and we were also told on top of it, that these helmets are NOT comfortable for little kids and many babies that get them this little struggle with them for quite sometime because they don't understand in the least that they're actually helping aside from their complete uncomfortableness. So we sent out prayer requests for our little Julia to help her with her neck muscles and for her head to take the appropriate shape and for a quick, smooth, recovery. And by golly...we went back 2 and a half weeks later for our next physical therapy appointment, and she had made a crazy amount of progress!! Her head shape improved by 1mm, which is big in her head!!!!!!!! AND...with the improvement of her head shape, there was improvement in the tightness of the muscle, so they don't think she's going to need a helmet anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was the most recent news for us and let me tell you, it was the best news I had heard in a long time! We were very excited and overjoyed at this! The power of prayer is amazing and God works wonders.....and can do it quickly!!!!!!! YEA!!
Secondly, I found out two Thursdays ago that my job was going to be kind of cut from my work. This was VERY disappointing. I'll admit, I haven't cried that hard in a long time. I have never honestly loved my job so much. I LOVE going to work and really do enjoy what I do. And I'm the Employee Activity Committee leader and our Corporate Volunteer Council Representative for our clinic, so I felt not only was I going to be forced away from something I really enjoy, I was being taken away from my other enjoyments about my job too. It just led me to be very sad and a bit frustrated. THANKFULLY, they offered to keep me on and help me find a day that I could work with them, so I could keep my job. After talking with Tom and trying to decide, we figured it out between our two work schedules and New Horizon how it would work out. Tom's boss is seriously probably one the best bosses I've ever met. He's great and really appreciates everything about Tom and is willing to help us out in our situation. He's just wonderful. So anyways, we decided that I'm going to work on Mondays, during the day shift. The nice thing about this is, is that no more evening shifts for me!! At first that was a big disappointing, because it has worked out really well for us in the past, for the most part. But we looked at the situation further and better and realized that ya know, this really is going to work out better anyway. We're going to have more time together as a family....we're going to be able to make plans on evenings now where we were pretty restricted before because of my work schedule...we're going to be able to join leagues of sorts (kickball and fall softball!) through our church, and ya know I think thats it. And it probably doesn't sound great, but it really is!
Lastly, would be my health. Thats no completely up to par yet, but we've came a long ways! It started on Feb 11th when I went into the local urgent care for some real severe back pain. It turned out it was a galbladder attack and later on that day around 2pm, I was in surgery getting my galbladder out. A few weeks later, the SAME pain was back. It felt the exact same and I didn't know what to think other than the fact that I REALLY REALLY REALLY needed something for the pain and wanted this fixed...now. They thought it was pleursy because it hurt to breathe too, then with pain medicine, it went away for a few weeks. Well...you guessed it. It came back yet, one more time. And in and amongst this whole thing, they've begun to realize that was liver was getting out of control and my liver enzyme tests were completely out of wack and very abnormal. I started feeling the effects of my liver being out of wack because I was feeling VERY exhausted and my urine was becoming VERY dark (from the billirbin that was backing up from my liver). Then a few Thursdays ago, I got the pain uncontrollably again, when I was at home alone with the girls. I couldn't breathe but made it to my phone and called Tom to come get me very quickly. At this point I ventured into the emergency room and went under extensive testing and ended up having even higher liver enzyme tests, so they confirmed I had a small case of Hepatitis A. Well, I wish I could say that was it. But it continued. I came back to the local doctors office for a follow-up to double check my liver once more with Dr. Sczublewski (crazy enough, it is Joe Sczublewski's nephew...the teacher from Albert Lea!) Anyways, the liver enzymes ended up being about 4 times higher than what they were the day before. This just showed that things were backing up and that there was probably a blockage somewhere. So I got a call around 10:30pm on Thursday, telling me I was going to go in for an ERCP on Friday at noon. I was put completely under with general anesthesia, and from beginning to end, it took around 3 hours. Then the recovery process and getting back in the groove. Well, that was just two weeks ago. And here I am today!!! I had my liver retested again, and thankfully, my liver enzzymes have came down a little, they are still very high, so my liver isn't quite functioning up to par completely yet, but we're on the mend!! They expect it to come back down to normal within a month or so. I'm going back in at the end of this week for most testing to recheck the labs, so we got our fingers crossed that things continue to move in the right direction. But through all this, it has made me stronger and learn not only how wonderful of a husband Tom is, but made me really learn to depend on my faith more to get me through all of this. I didn't understand why all this was happening to me. And all this happening when I have a 3 month old daughter, and just about a 3 year old daughter! As if I didn't have enough on my plate. :-)
Thankfully, our problems and struggles, have really began to come to at least a little bit of a close. They're tapering down at least. I'm overjoyed to say I think things are working out better and we're really starting to see the good side of things through all the chaos. We have wonderful family that has helped us get through the past few weeks. My sister came and got the girls and has done more than her share for us, but has helped us tremendously, and Tom's parents took the girls the last surgery of mine and took them for the whole weekend so I could re-cooperate and my parents have been very good for support on the phone to reassure me that things were going to be fine and will all work out...eventually. I know Dana took time to care and talk to me through all this, which helped me a ton. Sometimes talking to someone just helped more than anything. Talking to Kira just wasn't doing it anymore, but she could give me a very big laugh and gave me some great hugs along the way.
Hopefully we're done with bad luck but I know we learned and got stronger along the way!
I have a good story from yesterday in church that I think was totally God working in and through us. We were sitting in church yesterday noticed a new person to our left, and a new person in front of us. The man sitting beside us had a bible and looked in good spirits and he seemed friendly and was into the service, but then there was a girl in front of us that was probably in her late 20's or so, that we noticed was never singing with the songs, and when communion was offered, she didn't take that either. She just sat kind of slumped down in the pew. I didn't know what the case was here but maybe she wasn't completely comfortable in the church. And the biggest thing that rings a bell with me here is that I should say hi and welcome her or something because when we were visiting other churches and some of the other churches we tried out just weren't welcoming for us. And that was a struggle and not a great feeling. So my goal was to make sure she didn't feel that way. So in the midst of the service, I was thinking to myself that I was going to talk to her after the service and see who she was and welcome her and stuff. Well, the service got over and she snuck out really quick. So I was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to talk to her but just continued out of the santuary to keep up the girls from Sunday school. Low and behold, there she was AGAIN, right in front of us because she had a little girl that was in the nursery that morning too! I felt this was totally God giving us a second chance to welcome her to our church. We feel that God put her right in front of us in this perfect situation for a reason! So we got the opportunity to talk to her and give her my email address and talk to her a little bit and it turns out, she's going to start coming to the church playgroup and get to know us all more! She seemed very nice but I'm assuming she was pretty early in her walk with God. I'm very excited to be able to say I was able to reach out to new people just like us awhile back. It was a great feeling and I hope it made a imprint on her heart and that she'll continue coming back to Cross of Glory! We felt good with the idea that along with God's help, we may have planted a seed with her!
Well, thats all I got for now!! Monday is amongst us all and it's a beautiful day outside, so its time to close this and enjoy the beautiful outdoors!!!!
Take Care all!!
Sometimes its so hard to see the good of things when things seem to go completely nuts. But I know through Tom and I's experiences in the past, that ya know. Everything seems to ALWAYS work out for the best for us. Lately, its just so hard to see the good in all of this because of the timing, which was really horrible, but we're beginning to see the positive effects of everything! So I'll tell ya about them:
Back about a month ago, we found out Julia had torticollis. (see webmd.com if you don't know what it is) But the diagnosis from the beginning wasn't great by any means. And if you've ever heard anything like this, hearing something is wrong with your precious baby girl, is one of the most heart breaking experiences. I cried many tears and prayed many prayers. We were then went to physical therapy and they said we'd have to come back every week until at LEAST the end of July, so the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't even the least bit visible yet. We were told at the end of our first appointment that they thought she would probably need a helmet to help fix this problem, and that she would need to wear this helmet 23 1/2 hours a day until she's at least a year old. So thinking about this right, is the idea that went through my head, was that there was going to be no doing her hair with barretts or putting her hair in ponytails or anything until she's able to not have to wear this helmet anymore. It was not a good feeling of her having a helmet that covered her entire head. Not to mention the strange looks that people get that have these types of helmets. People automatically assume the worst and assume your kid has mental problems, and not realize that its just so your kid has a good head shape. You see what I'm saying with all this. So this wasn't what we wanted to do and we were also told on top of it, that these helmets are NOT comfortable for little kids and many babies that get them this little struggle with them for quite sometime because they don't understand in the least that they're actually helping aside from their complete uncomfortableness. So we sent out prayer requests for our little Julia to help her with her neck muscles and for her head to take the appropriate shape and for a quick, smooth, recovery. And by golly...we went back 2 and a half weeks later for our next physical therapy appointment, and she had made a crazy amount of progress!! Her head shape improved by 1mm, which is big in her head!!!!!!!! AND...with the improvement of her head shape, there was improvement in the tightness of the muscle, so they don't think she's going to need a helmet anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was the most recent news for us and let me tell you, it was the best news I had heard in a long time! We were very excited and overjoyed at this! The power of prayer is amazing and God works wonders.....and can do it quickly!!!!!!! YEA!!
Secondly, I found out two Thursdays ago that my job was going to be kind of cut from my work. This was VERY disappointing. I'll admit, I haven't cried that hard in a long time. I have never honestly loved my job so much. I LOVE going to work and really do enjoy what I do. And I'm the Employee Activity Committee leader and our Corporate Volunteer Council Representative for our clinic, so I felt not only was I going to be forced away from something I really enjoy, I was being taken away from my other enjoyments about my job too. It just led me to be very sad and a bit frustrated. THANKFULLY, they offered to keep me on and help me find a day that I could work with them, so I could keep my job. After talking with Tom and trying to decide, we figured it out between our two work schedules and New Horizon how it would work out. Tom's boss is seriously probably one the best bosses I've ever met. He's great and really appreciates everything about Tom and is willing to help us out in our situation. He's just wonderful. So anyways, we decided that I'm going to work on Mondays, during the day shift. The nice thing about this is, is that no more evening shifts for me!! At first that was a big disappointing, because it has worked out really well for us in the past, for the most part. But we looked at the situation further and better and realized that ya know, this really is going to work out better anyway. We're going to have more time together as a family....we're going to be able to make plans on evenings now where we were pretty restricted before because of my work schedule...we're going to be able to join leagues of sorts (kickball and fall softball!) through our church, and ya know I think thats it. And it probably doesn't sound great, but it really is!
Lastly, would be my health. Thats no completely up to par yet, but we've came a long ways! It started on Feb 11th when I went into the local urgent care for some real severe back pain. It turned out it was a galbladder attack and later on that day around 2pm, I was in surgery getting my galbladder out. A few weeks later, the SAME pain was back. It felt the exact same and I didn't know what to think other than the fact that I REALLY REALLY REALLY needed something for the pain and wanted this fixed...now. They thought it was pleursy because it hurt to breathe too, then with pain medicine, it went away for a few weeks. Well...you guessed it. It came back yet, one more time. And in and amongst this whole thing, they've begun to realize that was liver was getting out of control and my liver enzyme tests were completely out of wack and very abnormal. I started feeling the effects of my liver being out of wack because I was feeling VERY exhausted and my urine was becoming VERY dark (from the billirbin that was backing up from my liver). Then a few Thursdays ago, I got the pain uncontrollably again, when I was at home alone with the girls. I couldn't breathe but made it to my phone and called Tom to come get me very quickly. At this point I ventured into the emergency room and went under extensive testing and ended up having even higher liver enzyme tests, so they confirmed I had a small case of Hepatitis A. Well, I wish I could say that was it. But it continued. I came back to the local doctors office for a follow-up to double check my liver once more with Dr. Sczublewski (crazy enough, it is Joe Sczublewski's nephew...the teacher from Albert Lea!) Anyways, the liver enzymes ended up being about 4 times higher than what they were the day before. This just showed that things were backing up and that there was probably a blockage somewhere. So I got a call around 10:30pm on Thursday, telling me I was going to go in for an ERCP on Friday at noon. I was put completely under with general anesthesia, and from beginning to end, it took around 3 hours. Then the recovery process and getting back in the groove. Well, that was just two weeks ago. And here I am today!!! I had my liver retested again, and thankfully, my liver enzzymes have came down a little, they are still very high, so my liver isn't quite functioning up to par completely yet, but we're on the mend!! They expect it to come back down to normal within a month or so. I'm going back in at the end of this week for most testing to recheck the labs, so we got our fingers crossed that things continue to move in the right direction. But through all this, it has made me stronger and learn not only how wonderful of a husband Tom is, but made me really learn to depend on my faith more to get me through all of this. I didn't understand why all this was happening to me. And all this happening when I have a 3 month old daughter, and just about a 3 year old daughter! As if I didn't have enough on my plate. :-)
Thankfully, our problems and struggles, have really began to come to at least a little bit of a close. They're tapering down at least. I'm overjoyed to say I think things are working out better and we're really starting to see the good side of things through all the chaos. We have wonderful family that has helped us get through the past few weeks. My sister came and got the girls and has done more than her share for us, but has helped us tremendously, and Tom's parents took the girls the last surgery of mine and took them for the whole weekend so I could re-cooperate and my parents have been very good for support on the phone to reassure me that things were going to be fine and will all work out...eventually. I know Dana took time to care and talk to me through all this, which helped me a ton. Sometimes talking to someone just helped more than anything. Talking to Kira just wasn't doing it anymore, but she could give me a very big laugh and gave me some great hugs along the way.
Hopefully we're done with bad luck but I know we learned and got stronger along the way!
I have a good story from yesterday in church that I think was totally God working in and through us. We were sitting in church yesterday noticed a new person to our left, and a new person in front of us. The man sitting beside us had a bible and looked in good spirits and he seemed friendly and was into the service, but then there was a girl in front of us that was probably in her late 20's or so, that we noticed was never singing with the songs, and when communion was offered, she didn't take that either. She just sat kind of slumped down in the pew. I didn't know what the case was here but maybe she wasn't completely comfortable in the church. And the biggest thing that rings a bell with me here is that I should say hi and welcome her or something because when we were visiting other churches and some of the other churches we tried out just weren't welcoming for us. And that was a struggle and not a great feeling. So my goal was to make sure she didn't feel that way. So in the midst of the service, I was thinking to myself that I was going to talk to her after the service and see who she was and welcome her and stuff. Well, the service got over and she snuck out really quick. So I was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to talk to her but just continued out of the santuary to keep up the girls from Sunday school. Low and behold, there she was AGAIN, right in front of us because she had a little girl that was in the nursery that morning too! I felt this was totally God giving us a second chance to welcome her to our church. We feel that God put her right in front of us in this perfect situation for a reason! So we got the opportunity to talk to her and give her my email address and talk to her a little bit and it turns out, she's going to start coming to the church playgroup and get to know us all more! She seemed very nice but I'm assuming she was pretty early in her walk with God. I'm very excited to be able to say I was able to reach out to new people just like us awhile back. It was a great feeling and I hope it made a imprint on her heart and that she'll continue coming back to Cross of Glory! We felt good with the idea that along with God's help, we may have planted a seed with her!
Well, thats all I got for now!! Monday is amongst us all and it's a beautiful day outside, so its time to close this and enjoy the beautiful outdoors!!!!
Take Care all!!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Gettin back in the groove...
Wow, blogging within a few days of each other! Holy cow! :-) Just kiddin! I don't have that much news or anything to say but thought I'd blog anyway!
We had a field trip yesterday with our playgroup!! We went to a farm and let the kids see, pet and feed the animals. We got to see sheep, chickens, pigs, and lots of their babies too. We also got to see lots of plants that they're starting to grow too. It was really cute to watch the kids in complete awe of these animals. It was good fun! I know it was definately the highlight of Kira's week! Unfortunately it was the day that we got snow here, and we were outside of just short bits of time and poor Julia caught a cold. It's a real bummer. She was bundled up really good and kept cozy with me but apparently that didn't do the job. :-(
This is just a little side note for me that I'm pretty excited about that I was gonna share with you! I am the Employee Activity Committee leader at the clinic I work at and we recently hosted a blood drive through Memorial Blood Centers and we had the most successful drive we've ever had!! It was a great feeling to know that we're touching lives in and outside of our clinic!! For those of you who can (I can't because I just had a c-section and gallbladder surgery) but I HIGHLY recommend you try to donate blood! There is a shortage right now and Memorial Blood Centers really needs our help! It only takes a half hour, or less and it comes with some personal satisfaction that you've done something great to save a life! Let me know if you want details on where you can donate, or if you're interested, I'm hosting another blood drive on July 1st from 9am-noon in Chanhassen, I'd LOVE to get you signed up!!!!!!!!!
We're going home this weekend and I'm super pumped!! We're going down mainly for a few bridal showers for my soon to be sister in law! Tom's brother is getting married in May and we're absolutely overjoyed for them! It should be good fun to be able to hang out with family again!!
Tom's starting softball pretty soon again, which is going to be very exciting for us! He fairly recently hurt his arm and is recooperating, so hopefully his arm is good to go by the end of April. I believe the first game is the last Sunday in April. It's a pretty competitive league and a really fun time to watch. The games are in Fridley and are usually in the evening. The team is pretty good and I'm excited to see them try to get 1st place AGAIN! :-D Come out to a game sometime! Let me know if you 're interested and I'll get you the guys schedule and you can come to some awesome games!
Well, laundry is done and I really need to catch up on that before we leave for the weekend! Have a wonderful weekend!!
Take Care!!
We had a field trip yesterday with our playgroup!! We went to a farm and let the kids see, pet and feed the animals. We got to see sheep, chickens, pigs, and lots of their babies too. We also got to see lots of plants that they're starting to grow too. It was really cute to watch the kids in complete awe of these animals. It was good fun! I know it was definately the highlight of Kira's week! Unfortunately it was the day that we got snow here, and we were outside of just short bits of time and poor Julia caught a cold. It's a real bummer. She was bundled up really good and kept cozy with me but apparently that didn't do the job. :-(
This is just a little side note for me that I'm pretty excited about that I was gonna share with you! I am the Employee Activity Committee leader at the clinic I work at and we recently hosted a blood drive through Memorial Blood Centers and we had the most successful drive we've ever had!! It was a great feeling to know that we're touching lives in and outside of our clinic!! For those of you who can (I can't because I just had a c-section and gallbladder surgery) but I HIGHLY recommend you try to donate blood! There is a shortage right now and Memorial Blood Centers really needs our help! It only takes a half hour, or less and it comes with some personal satisfaction that you've done something great to save a life! Let me know if you want details on where you can donate, or if you're interested, I'm hosting another blood drive on July 1st from 9am-noon in Chanhassen, I'd LOVE to get you signed up!!!!!!!!!
We're going home this weekend and I'm super pumped!! We're going down mainly for a few bridal showers for my soon to be sister in law! Tom's brother is getting married in May and we're absolutely overjoyed for them! It should be good fun to be able to hang out with family again!!
Tom's starting softball pretty soon again, which is going to be very exciting for us! He fairly recently hurt his arm and is recooperating, so hopefully his arm is good to go by the end of April. I believe the first game is the last Sunday in April. It's a pretty competitive league and a really fun time to watch. The games are in Fridley and are usually in the evening. The team is pretty good and I'm excited to see them try to get 1st place AGAIN! :-D Come out to a game sometime! Let me know if you 're interested and I'll get you the guys schedule and you can come to some awesome games!
Well, laundry is done and I really need to catch up on that before we leave for the weekend! Have a wonderful weekend!!
Take Care!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wow, its been awhile!! :-)
Wow, it definately has been awhile since I've blogged! This whole idea of having two kids is keeping me on my toes more than I had expected I think! :-)
-First off, things are going pretty well with us. We were blessed on January 13th with a beautiful baby girl named Julia Anne. She's been a pretty easy baby which has been a wonderful blessing. She's now 2 1/2 months old and is growing like a weed. We just had her in yesterday morning and she weighed a whopping 10 pounds 14 ounces! She's right in the 50th percentile for her weight and head size, but in the 80th percentile for her height (she sure doesn't get the height from her parents...goodness!). It's pretty fun though. I'm getting excited for the times when she's able to sit up by herself and hold her own bottle. Thats going to help me a ton. Only a few more months I'm sure! Kira has been being an awesome big sister too. She insists in helping in ways she can't. I think her ideal day would be holding Julia for hours straight and then dancing with her arms the rest of the time. It's all good though. Kira's doing awesome though!!
-More on a personal note, but I think its important and thats what I'm writing it, is the idea of birth control. I know timing is sometimes everything and when Tom and I were looking for what type of birth control we were going to use after Julia, I came across an interesting blog discussion by Gina Cooper (Gina, you're awesome!!). I quickly realized that I haven't been practicing what I've been preaching! To shed a little light on it...It was on birth control and how the most common methods (pill, IUD, depo injections, etc) that many of us were used to are not good, like, really not good, and are practically just as bad as an abortion (seriously!). OB doctors don't make us known of this when we're deciding because quite frankly, they probably don't care a ton because its just another prescription to them. I was originally planning to go with the IUD but realized that it was probably the WORST type of birth control out there, and so it took some researching and praying on Tom and I's part but we did decide and didn't go down the same road again. I'd really recommend you read Gina's blog about this. It really made us re-think things and our decision on birth control and maybe it will change your mind too or at least make you think about it a little more. It's very interesting. Many people were able to shed light on the issue through her blog and we all educated each other. David Cooper (or should I say Dr. Cooper) was able to bring us some wonderful medical insight as well.
-As many of you know, we lost our beautiful cat Leo about a year and a half ago. He was a lovey, cuddly type cat that we absolutely adored. We're coming to realize that we think Chester (our other cat) is lonely and needs a friend. So right now, we're considering getting another cat (a cat because they're incredibly easy to care for and do their own thing and they entertain each other). I've looked around at kittens online and have found some really really cute ones but when I look at them all I can think of is Leo. It really breaks my heart just thinking about getting another kitty, no little peanut can replace him, ever. I just have to remember he's probably having a ton of fun in kitty Heaven playing with other kitty friends and Rex (can't forget Rex!) So who knows what the future has to hold for us and another animal, but only time will tell!
-I recently went to the Chris Tomlin concert with Dana Anderson and Tim Nelson. Wow, what an experience. If you have the opportunity to go to a Chris Tomlin concert, please go, you won't regret it! I got asked because someone had a ticket that they needed someone to take because someone else had backed out at the last minute. I honestly think it meant to be and that God was trying to speak to me through worship and it was just a moment of pure awe. I've been to other Christian concerts before (DC Talk, AudioAdrenaline, etc) and they're more of showy type concerts and they're their to entertain. Chris Tomlin was all about worship. He had the words up, and everyone sang along to every one of his songs. To look around and see everyone dancing and having their hands raised and just praising God was just an awesome experience. I haven't had many opportunities like this but I haven't felt God's presence so strong in one place in my life! I was thinking about it all and taking it all in on the way home, and I just kept thinking, wow...seriously, how awesome was that...7000 people in one place, all worshipping together, and all worshipping the same wonderful gracious God! WOW! Once again, timing is sometimes everything because yesterday morning at church our pastor's sermons have been really speaking to me and led me to decide to take the next big step in my faith on Sunday. I think this worship experience was totally meant to be!! :-) I wish Tom could have gone, but he got the babysitting duty at home. He's a wonderful husband for letting me go at the last minute and a wonderful dad to his little girls!!
Well, I'm signing off. Julia is starting to get a little upset and Kira just opened the refrigerator and came in to show me that she just put ketchup in her hair (seriously!) haha :-) So its feeding time for Julia and bath time for Kira and a little craziness for mom! Ah, the wonderfulness of being a mom!
Hope you're all doing well!!
Take Care!!
-First off, things are going pretty well with us. We were blessed on January 13th with a beautiful baby girl named Julia Anne. She's been a pretty easy baby which has been a wonderful blessing. She's now 2 1/2 months old and is growing like a weed. We just had her in yesterday morning and she weighed a whopping 10 pounds 14 ounces! She's right in the 50th percentile for her weight and head size, but in the 80th percentile for her height (she sure doesn't get the height from her parents...goodness!). It's pretty fun though. I'm getting excited for the times when she's able to sit up by herself and hold her own bottle. Thats going to help me a ton. Only a few more months I'm sure! Kira has been being an awesome big sister too. She insists in helping in ways she can't. I think her ideal day would be holding Julia for hours straight and then dancing with her arms the rest of the time. It's all good though. Kira's doing awesome though!!
-More on a personal note, but I think its important and thats what I'm writing it, is the idea of birth control. I know timing is sometimes everything and when Tom and I were looking for what type of birth control we were going to use after Julia, I came across an interesting blog discussion by Gina Cooper (Gina, you're awesome!!). I quickly realized that I haven't been practicing what I've been preaching! To shed a little light on it...It was on birth control and how the most common methods (pill, IUD, depo injections, etc) that many of us were used to are not good, like, really not good, and are practically just as bad as an abortion (seriously!). OB doctors don't make us known of this when we're deciding because quite frankly, they probably don't care a ton because its just another prescription to them. I was originally planning to go with the IUD but realized that it was probably the WORST type of birth control out there, and so it took some researching and praying on Tom and I's part but we did decide and didn't go down the same road again. I'd really recommend you read Gina's blog about this. It really made us re-think things and our decision on birth control and maybe it will change your mind too or at least make you think about it a little more. It's very interesting. Many people were able to shed light on the issue through her blog and we all educated each other. David Cooper (or should I say Dr. Cooper) was able to bring us some wonderful medical insight as well.
-As many of you know, we lost our beautiful cat Leo about a year and a half ago. He was a lovey, cuddly type cat that we absolutely adored. We're coming to realize that we think Chester (our other cat) is lonely and needs a friend. So right now, we're considering getting another cat (a cat because they're incredibly easy to care for and do their own thing and they entertain each other). I've looked around at kittens online and have found some really really cute ones but when I look at them all I can think of is Leo. It really breaks my heart just thinking about getting another kitty, no little peanut can replace him, ever. I just have to remember he's probably having a ton of fun in kitty Heaven playing with other kitty friends and Rex (can't forget Rex!) So who knows what the future has to hold for us and another animal, but only time will tell!
-I recently went to the Chris Tomlin concert with Dana Anderson and Tim Nelson. Wow, what an experience. If you have the opportunity to go to a Chris Tomlin concert, please go, you won't regret it! I got asked because someone had a ticket that they needed someone to take because someone else had backed out at the last minute. I honestly think it meant to be and that God was trying to speak to me through worship and it was just a moment of pure awe. I've been to other Christian concerts before (DC Talk, AudioAdrenaline, etc) and they're more of showy type concerts and they're their to entertain. Chris Tomlin was all about worship. He had the words up, and everyone sang along to every one of his songs. To look around and see everyone dancing and having their hands raised and just praising God was just an awesome experience. I haven't had many opportunities like this but I haven't felt God's presence so strong in one place in my life! I was thinking about it all and taking it all in on the way home, and I just kept thinking, wow...seriously, how awesome was that...7000 people in one place, all worshipping together, and all worshipping the same wonderful gracious God! WOW! Once again, timing is sometimes everything because yesterday morning at church our pastor's sermons have been really speaking to me and led me to decide to take the next big step in my faith on Sunday. I think this worship experience was totally meant to be!! :-) I wish Tom could have gone, but he got the babysitting duty at home. He's a wonderful husband for letting me go at the last minute and a wonderful dad to his little girls!!
Well, I'm signing off. Julia is starting to get a little upset and Kira just opened the refrigerator and came in to show me that she just put ketchup in her hair (seriously!) haha :-) So its feeding time for Julia and bath time for Kira and a little craziness for mom! Ah, the wonderfulness of being a mom!
Hope you're all doing well!!
Take Care!!
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