Happy 4th of July!! This heat is something else, but we're handling it just fine! :-) I can't complain because I'll gladly take this heat over below zero weather.
We were blessed last week to be a part of a special couples wedding! My cousin Mike and his beautiful wife Emily, got married! They asked Tom and I to be their host and hostess for their wedding. We felt very honored that they asked. They had an absolute beautiful wedding. They had a big wedding reception and dance too and the girls were dancing machines!! It was so fun to watch them (especially Julia) dance and have a great time. They were absolutely exhausted by the end of the night. We have a lot of pictures and videos to always have that memory. And I'm so not a dress person, but I managed to find something I enjoyed wearing and had a great time with it. And its the first time in a long time that Tom wore a tie! He looked amazing - it was so nice!
Today is the 4th and while we didn't have a ton on our agenda for the day, we decided to go to the 4th of July parade down in Chanhassen. It is always a really big parade so its takes awhile. And with it being 99 degrees outside, made it feel crazy hot. The girls had a blast though so thats all that matters. We had Dan, Gina and Isaac joining us too for a fun time which made it more enjoyable too. We're going to be topping the night off with some awesome fireworks with some great friends. Can't wait! The girls are very excited too. We'll have to post pictures too.
We hope you've all had a very happy 4th of July and are enjoying this heat. We have been and will for years to come!
Take Care!!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Happy 4th of July! (a few days early!)
It's crazy to think June is just about over, isn't it?! It has been such a busy summer for us, but been a great one to say the least.
The school year ended on a positive note for Kira. We are so proud of her! She is already missing her friends like crazy even though she still sees them every few weeks (there are SO many summer birthdays in her class) at birthday parties. It's a goood time for all. She did great in school and we're really looking forward to another fun year ahead. She was always such a reader when she was really little, now she's even more of a reading machine and has been getting into more chapter books instead of the cute sight word books that she looked at before. Her passion for reading and writing was amazing. I'm not going to lie, I'm able to share an emptyness from her kindergarten class too. I felt so incredibly blessed to be able to volunteer in her classroom once a week throughout the entire school year! It was such a great time and it really did a lot for me. I initially struggled with the idea of public schools in the Twin Cities area because of the high rates of bullying and the fact that Kira was already super shy. I was worried for her because I've seen how mean kids are now days. It gave me an overall peace to be able to meet more staff and be a part of her kindergarten experience. I built a fun relationship with the kids that I'll always have with me. I also have a brand new appreciation for kindergarten teachers....holy cow - I could never do that job!! Thats some tough work but her teacher was amazing.
It has been really fun this summer - we've spent a lot of time at the local city pool. It's really fun and the girls are enjoying it VERY much. It is one of the zero depth entry pools and even has a little slide in it and all sorts of fountains too. It's right down their alley. I can't wait for more fun memories at the pool! :-)
I've also starting reading a book that I'd love to share with whomever might be interested. It's called, "Choosing to See", by Mary Beth Chapman. This is a book written by Steven Curtis Chapman's (the Christian musician) wife. I have never been so emotionally tied to a book in my life. It has literally brought me to tears, but its such an uplifting story that I can't put down either. It has truely taught me a lot about truely being the hands and feet of Jesus cause they are just a shining example for the rest of us. It has really been a fun time for me to read the book. I haven't been much of a reader but when I find a good book that really catches me, I give it a whirl and wa-la! :-) But seriously, I would love to encourage all of you to check it out. It's a really great book. And I'll be honest, its a pretty quick read, so check it out! :-)
I would also like to take this moment to remember a special person in our lives that recently went home to be with the Lord. Tom's grandpa passed away about 2 weeks ago. It was a little harder for us because when we met back a long time ago, between the two of us, we had 3 grandpa's to share memories with and to grow close to. Throughout the past 13 years, they've slowly passed away and recently we lost Tom's grandpa William, our final grandpa. We shared a lot of memories with our grandpa's, and we're very fortunate to have had such great memories that we're able to share with our family now. We miss you Grandpa Francis, Grandpa Pollard, and Grandpa Beiser!!
We have had a great summer so far. We hope you're all doing well too!
Take Care!!
The school year ended on a positive note for Kira. We are so proud of her! She is already missing her friends like crazy even though she still sees them every few weeks (there are SO many summer birthdays in her class) at birthday parties. It's a goood time for all. She did great in school and we're really looking forward to another fun year ahead. She was always such a reader when she was really little, now she's even more of a reading machine and has been getting into more chapter books instead of the cute sight word books that she looked at before. Her passion for reading and writing was amazing. I'm not going to lie, I'm able to share an emptyness from her kindergarten class too. I felt so incredibly blessed to be able to volunteer in her classroom once a week throughout the entire school year! It was such a great time and it really did a lot for me. I initially struggled with the idea of public schools in the Twin Cities area because of the high rates of bullying and the fact that Kira was already super shy. I was worried for her because I've seen how mean kids are now days. It gave me an overall peace to be able to meet more staff and be a part of her kindergarten experience. I built a fun relationship with the kids that I'll always have with me. I also have a brand new appreciation for kindergarten teachers....holy cow - I could never do that job!! Thats some tough work but her teacher was amazing.
It has been really fun this summer - we've spent a lot of time at the local city pool. It's really fun and the girls are enjoying it VERY much. It is one of the zero depth entry pools and even has a little slide in it and all sorts of fountains too. It's right down their alley. I can't wait for more fun memories at the pool! :-)
I've also starting reading a book that I'd love to share with whomever might be interested. It's called, "Choosing to See", by Mary Beth Chapman. This is a book written by Steven Curtis Chapman's (the Christian musician) wife. I have never been so emotionally tied to a book in my life. It has literally brought me to tears, but its such an uplifting story that I can't put down either. It has truely taught me a lot about truely being the hands and feet of Jesus cause they are just a shining example for the rest of us. It has really been a fun time for me to read the book. I haven't been much of a reader but when I find a good book that really catches me, I give it a whirl and wa-la! :-) But seriously, I would love to encourage all of you to check it out. It's a really great book. And I'll be honest, its a pretty quick read, so check it out! :-)
I would also like to take this moment to remember a special person in our lives that recently went home to be with the Lord. Tom's grandpa passed away about 2 weeks ago. It was a little harder for us because when we met back a long time ago, between the two of us, we had 3 grandpa's to share memories with and to grow close to. Throughout the past 13 years, they've slowly passed away and recently we lost Tom's grandpa William, our final grandpa. We shared a lot of memories with our grandpa's, and we're very fortunate to have had such great memories that we're able to share with our family now. We miss you Grandpa Francis, Grandpa Pollard, and Grandpa Beiser!!
We have had a great summer so far. We hope you're all doing well too!
Take Care!!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Trusting in God
I'm learning....learning about Trust....learning about Trust in God. As a family, we've been through some trials, and through it all I've grown closer to God and after the last "trial" I've been doing a lot of self searching to find out what God is trying to teach me about trust.
When I recieved some not so great news yesterday about my health, the first thing that came to mind after I got into my car from my doctors appt was to trust in God and he will make things better. The verse from Proverbs came to mind, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understandings; in all ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." While I thought in this instance, trust God, its not always that easy. It's hard to give completely control over to God sometimes. I sometimes just NEED to know what is going on so I can work on fixing it, but sometimes thats not the plan. I was never in control from the beginning, it was God all along. I truely believe that God is using these instances to teach me about Trust in HIM.
We have been through a lot as a family. We've been through a lot of what other people have, but had a little more than some people too (sick children, job loss more than once, medical issues which has required 4 surgeries in the last 3 years, major house problems, car problems, and the list goes on). Sometimes I feel our "luck" isn't very good and that often times we have a dark cloud thats following us. But I know God uses these trials and tough times for good. God never gives us more than we can handle and even sometimes thats a hard concept to put our hands around. I can openly admit, I have personally been through a lot and wonder what God is trying to teach us but we continue to worship God and are even closer to him today than we've ever been.
I have a story from yesterday that I would love to share with everyone. I was at a doctors appt yesterday and recieved some news I wasn't quite expecting to hear. I made calls to my husband and my sister to get all my feelings and emotions out and then had a little quiet time with God as I was on my way to the park. I prayed to God for everything to be okay and to hold me and my family close. I ended my prayer and took a deep breath and pulled myself back together and turned the radio on (I always have the radio pre-set to 98.5 KTIS, a Christian radio station up here), and the song was "I'll be an angel by your side" by Francesca Battistelli. I listened to the song and knew that was God speaking to me telling me that no matter what he's right by my side and that I needed to give it all to Him. This meant a lot to me to hear this and made me feel a little better. I had finished with my CT scan and as a family, we were heading to Tom's softball game. At this point, it was about 6pm and we hadn't heard results from the scan yet like we had been told. It was a real bummer because this was potenitally life changing news. Tom and I kind of stewed about it in the car and our conversation came to a hault and Tom reached over to turn on the radio for the rest of our drive and on the radio was the song. "While I'm Waiting". It was God teaching us to trust again. It was God teaching us that even through the waiting, He's in control and we can trust that He's there for us.
Tom and I have grown so close to God over the years. We've used times of trial for good. Even though we don't know it at the time, we have always looked back on all our trials and thought, wow - God is good isn't he?! Not knowing what God's plans are is a hard concept to grasp but we can know with God in control, everything will be just fine, we just have to TRUST.
When I recieved some not so great news yesterday about my health, the first thing that came to mind after I got into my car from my doctors appt was to trust in God and he will make things better. The verse from Proverbs came to mind, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understandings; in all ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." While I thought in this instance, trust God, its not always that easy. It's hard to give completely control over to God sometimes. I sometimes just NEED to know what is going on so I can work on fixing it, but sometimes thats not the plan. I was never in control from the beginning, it was God all along. I truely believe that God is using these instances to teach me about Trust in HIM.
We have been through a lot as a family. We've been through a lot of what other people have, but had a little more than some people too (sick children, job loss more than once, medical issues which has required 4 surgeries in the last 3 years, major house problems, car problems, and the list goes on). Sometimes I feel our "luck" isn't very good and that often times we have a dark cloud thats following us. But I know God uses these trials and tough times for good. God never gives us more than we can handle and even sometimes thats a hard concept to put our hands around. I can openly admit, I have personally been through a lot and wonder what God is trying to teach us but we continue to worship God and are even closer to him today than we've ever been.
I have a story from yesterday that I would love to share with everyone. I was at a doctors appt yesterday and recieved some news I wasn't quite expecting to hear. I made calls to my husband and my sister to get all my feelings and emotions out and then had a little quiet time with God as I was on my way to the park. I prayed to God for everything to be okay and to hold me and my family close. I ended my prayer and took a deep breath and pulled myself back together and turned the radio on (I always have the radio pre-set to 98.5 KTIS, a Christian radio station up here), and the song was "I'll be an angel by your side" by Francesca Battistelli. I listened to the song and knew that was God speaking to me telling me that no matter what he's right by my side and that I needed to give it all to Him. This meant a lot to me to hear this and made me feel a little better. I had finished with my CT scan and as a family, we were heading to Tom's softball game. At this point, it was about 6pm and we hadn't heard results from the scan yet like we had been told. It was a real bummer because this was potenitally life changing news. Tom and I kind of stewed about it in the car and our conversation came to a hault and Tom reached over to turn on the radio for the rest of our drive and on the radio was the song. "While I'm Waiting". It was God teaching us to trust again. It was God teaching us that even through the waiting, He's in control and we can trust that He's there for us.
Tom and I have grown so close to God over the years. We've used times of trial for good. Even though we don't know it at the time, we have always looked back on all our trials and thought, wow - God is good isn't he?! Not knowing what God's plans are is a hard concept to grasp but we can know with God in control, everything will be just fine, we just have to TRUST.
Monday, September 19, 2011
So we're on to new adventures...new beginnings and a new "normal". ahhh, life is good! :-)
Things are still going well with Kira and kindergarten! The more time that goes by the more she is loving it. She has really been enjoying music and phy. ed! Thats my girl! :-) I would love her to gain a passion for music - those were some of the best memories from school for me.
She is also still in soccer which she is still enjoying. I think she gets tired out pretty fast but that comes with running up and down the soccer field for an hour. She's slowly getting more and more open with the other players too which really helps.
Julia is still doing well with me at home. It has been VERY different without Kira at home during the day. It's ssoooo quiet! :-) It has been an absolute pleasure being able to spend some time with just me and Julia. I love it. But unfortunately, it has led to some seperation issues. All in good time that'll get better though.
I'm very excited for my first opportunity to volunteer at Kira's school!! I love volunteer opportunities and helping making a difference in the lives of those around me. I'm also excited to get to meet more of the school staff too. I think I'll feel much more comfortable and confident with the setting once I know more of the staff personally and develop that relationship. The event is a "Flyer Fun Run", and its for all the grades K-6 and the kids raise money for the school and run around a track and enjoy themselves. It's a great event and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!! This will also be the first time Julia has ever been left with a babysitter all by herself. We absolutely adore the girls that babysit for us so I'm sure Julia will adapt quick!
Thanks for checking in to the blog!! I've been much better at keeping it updated and just having frequent posts. Eventually I'd like to learn how to add pictures to it too. Good times ahead!! :-) Maybe i'll shoot for that for the next blog! :-)
Adios!
Things are still going well with Kira and kindergarten! The more time that goes by the more she is loving it. She has really been enjoying music and phy. ed! Thats my girl! :-) I would love her to gain a passion for music - those were some of the best memories from school for me.
She is also still in soccer which she is still enjoying. I think she gets tired out pretty fast but that comes with running up and down the soccer field for an hour. She's slowly getting more and more open with the other players too which really helps.
Julia is still doing well with me at home. It has been VERY different without Kira at home during the day. It's ssoooo quiet! :-) It has been an absolute pleasure being able to spend some time with just me and Julia. I love it. But unfortunately, it has led to some seperation issues. All in good time that'll get better though.
I'm very excited for my first opportunity to volunteer at Kira's school!! I love volunteer opportunities and helping making a difference in the lives of those around me. I'm also excited to get to meet more of the school staff too. I think I'll feel much more comfortable and confident with the setting once I know more of the staff personally and develop that relationship. The event is a "Flyer Fun Run", and its for all the grades K-6 and the kids raise money for the school and run around a track and enjoy themselves. It's a great event and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!! This will also be the first time Julia has ever been left with a babysitter all by herself. We absolutely adore the girls that babysit for us so I'm sure Julia will adapt quick!
Thanks for checking in to the blog!! I've been much better at keeping it updated and just having frequent posts. Eventually I'd like to learn how to add pictures to it too. Good times ahead!! :-) Maybe i'll shoot for that for the next blog! :-)
Adios!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
My new theme song..."I will survive"
We've survived the first week of kindergarten!! Yay!! Kira has been loving kindergarten and been making a few new friends already. What a relief that things have started off on a good note. She has been coming home absolutely exhausted which has sure been interesting. She is throwing some pretty nasty tantrums that she never had done before but I know she's wiped out and is just getting used to the "new" schedule and the new "normal". All in good time, it'll get better. :-)
She has come home with some funny things to say and it almost feels like she is just maturing even after the first week. She came home on the first day and said, "Mommy, I have two new best friends!" So I said, "Oh, thats great Kira - what are their names?" And she replied, "I can't remember." Oh the little details! :-) She has been having fun and later this week came home and talked about playing with Abby and Jessica. Otherwise she has really enjoyed her teacher, music class, gym class, some of the lunches - ya know, its a pretty wide variety. We're off to a good start! And crazy enough, we already have conferences in a few weeks for her! I'm guessing its more of a this is what we're working on and what you can work on at home kind of thing. How much can they really tell us at this point. :-)
I knew this kindergarten transition was going to be a tough one for me too. Holy moly, I had no idea how much I would miss her!! When she comes home, I just want to sit down and talk and work on school stuff with her and she just wants to play with her toys and play outside and be a 5 year old. It's a little nuts! My rollercoaster started the night before. I knew I was letting go of my little girl into the world of school now and that was a little tough. I definately shed some tears the night before. But the day of kindergarten when we dropped her off, I only had a few tears! She showed us through her actions that she was totally ready for this. It really helped me emotionally to see that. The second day is when Kira had her melt down. This was the first day that I've left her at the door and said, "Okay Kira, thats the bell, you need to go into your classroom now". And she knew what that was and she knew how to get there but she wanted mommy to help her. I resisted and a music teacher ended up helping her and another little boy to their classroom. Then on day 3, that was the first day that she rode the bus. I did good then too but I have to admit, I was a bit nervous of her getting on and off the bus and finding the right door to go out of and stuff. Then on day 4, Kira just ran right into school and didn't look back! She was used to it and ready to go in all by herself (and William - her friend from preschool that goes to the same school). This was pretty emotional for me. I called Tom right away and was just overcome by emotions. I called Tom right away and said "Tom - she did SO good this morning!" She wasn't scared, she didn't look nervous, she looked happy and excited and just ran herself in! It was really a very heart-warming feeling and made me feel good.
I've also had the wonderful opportunity to meet a few parents of kids that are in Kira's class too! The parents are such wonderful people and we've all been there for each other and each others kids now. It's really been nice! It's been great for me too because I was a bit nervous as to how this huge public school was really going to work out for us. I've ever stepped up for a volunteer opportunity at the end of September which I"m pretty excited about too. I plan on volunteering a lot and getting involved so I can get to know more of the staff.
Thank you all very much for your prayers!! It has been a very big rollercoaster ride for me, not to mention Julia (she's been missing her "da-doe"... :-(
We're surviving though and getting a few more weeks into it will make it even smoother. I'm excited to see what the school year has in store for us!!
Have a great weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!
She has come home with some funny things to say and it almost feels like she is just maturing even after the first week. She came home on the first day and said, "Mommy, I have two new best friends!" So I said, "Oh, thats great Kira - what are their names?" And she replied, "I can't remember." Oh the little details! :-) She has been having fun and later this week came home and talked about playing with Abby and Jessica. Otherwise she has really enjoyed her teacher, music class, gym class, some of the lunches - ya know, its a pretty wide variety. We're off to a good start! And crazy enough, we already have conferences in a few weeks for her! I'm guessing its more of a this is what we're working on and what you can work on at home kind of thing. How much can they really tell us at this point. :-)
I knew this kindergarten transition was going to be a tough one for me too. Holy moly, I had no idea how much I would miss her!! When she comes home, I just want to sit down and talk and work on school stuff with her and she just wants to play with her toys and play outside and be a 5 year old. It's a little nuts! My rollercoaster started the night before. I knew I was letting go of my little girl into the world of school now and that was a little tough. I definately shed some tears the night before. But the day of kindergarten when we dropped her off, I only had a few tears! She showed us through her actions that she was totally ready for this. It really helped me emotionally to see that. The second day is when Kira had her melt down. This was the first day that I've left her at the door and said, "Okay Kira, thats the bell, you need to go into your classroom now". And she knew what that was and she knew how to get there but she wanted mommy to help her. I resisted and a music teacher ended up helping her and another little boy to their classroom. Then on day 3, that was the first day that she rode the bus. I did good then too but I have to admit, I was a bit nervous of her getting on and off the bus and finding the right door to go out of and stuff. Then on day 4, Kira just ran right into school and didn't look back! She was used to it and ready to go in all by herself (and William - her friend from preschool that goes to the same school). This was pretty emotional for me. I called Tom right away and was just overcome by emotions. I called Tom right away and said "Tom - she did SO good this morning!" She wasn't scared, she didn't look nervous, she looked happy and excited and just ran herself in! It was really a very heart-warming feeling and made me feel good.
I've also had the wonderful opportunity to meet a few parents of kids that are in Kira's class too! The parents are such wonderful people and we've all been there for each other and each others kids now. It's really been nice! It's been great for me too because I was a bit nervous as to how this huge public school was really going to work out for us. I've ever stepped up for a volunteer opportunity at the end of September which I"m pretty excited about too. I plan on volunteering a lot and getting involved so I can get to know more of the staff.
Thank you all very much for your prayers!! It has been a very big rollercoaster ride for me, not to mention Julia (she's been missing her "da-doe"... :-(
We're surviving though and getting a few more weeks into it will make it even smoother. I'm excited to see what the school year has in store for us!!
Have a great weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
New beginnings...
We're beginning the journey of having a kindergartener on Tuesday!! I can't believe its already just 2 days away!! I have a lot of mixed emotions with it. I'm SO happy and VERY proud of her! She has done awesome in preschool and is ready to take on "big girl school". She is very excited.
I will be honest and say that I'm excited for her but very nervous and sad at the same time. We had a chance to meet her teacher a few times and she seems awesome - so thats a very reassuring feeling. What is seeming to make it harder for me too is that I've had such a wonderful privledge of staying home with the girls for the last 5 years and now I won't have that anymore (well...with both girls home...Julia will still be home with me). She is going to all day kindergarten, so we're going to seriously miss her everyday! It's going to be a rough day on Tuesday but we'll manage. Tom and I both took the day off on Tuesday. Lets hope we can both hold it together.
I can't believe the fall weather is here!! Today it was in the upper 60's!! It's crazy! But it feels
I can't believe the fall weather is here!! Today it was in the upper 60's!! It's crazy! But it feels
great. I have been loving having the windows open and the fresh area flowing through our house,
its a wonderful feeling.
Kira is off to her first sleep over tonight!! She has talked about it before with her friends at preschool but it just felt like it was so far off still. She was approached tonight by her little friend and now she's off enjoying herself. Wow! I really feel old now. It's just another part of her thats just growing up too fast. She's getting so big and I would just really prefer it to slow down. :-)
I hope you all are enjoying your summer!! Take Care!!
-The Marlins
I hope you all are enjoying your summer!! Take Care!!
-The Marlins
Monday, June 13, 2011
Hey All!
So I know I say this a lot - but really - I am really going to work hard at blogging more and keeping our family and friends posted on all our upcomings and happenings! :-)
Kira turned 5 today!!!!!!! We had a weekend full of parties, food, pictures and best of all - memories! We took a lot of pictures which I'll probably post on facebook at some point. She had her first "friends" party this year and we had a great time at that. We are very blessed by such a wonderful group of friends that have raised some amazing kids for Kira to hang out with and be friends with. I got the opportunity to meet more moms from the preschool that Kira attends, so that was really great too! Such a blessing it was!!
We were sitting on the couch last night and Tom and Kira were opening more of her birthday presents that she hadn't taken out of the package yet and her turning 5 hit me like a ton of bricks! I didn't think I'd be this way but wowzers! It really made me realize that I've spent such a great deal of time with her since day 1 being a part time stay at home mom and I know she'll be off to kindergarten in 3 months and I won't have that anymore. It's going to be a big change for me - and Julia. In fact, as I write this, I have tears rolling down my cheeks. It's such a great and amazing time for us and I'm really excited for her but goodness sakes - I'm going to miss that girl more than anything! She kept telling me, "mom, I'll be coming home after my day at kindergarten". And while I do know that of course, it's just going to be different having her gone all day at school knowing I can't pick her up and bring her home early if I want. She's going to have a great time and enjoy it SO much! She's already REALLY excited about going and is going to make so many great friends I'm sure! It's just amazing just how fast it's all happening! She's growing up SO fast!! I remember when people told me "they grow up so fast - before you know it she'll be driving and out of the house..." Boy they aren't kidding! Time flies and they do grow up as fast and they say they do!
I'm really excited for this weekend! We're bringing the girls on their very first camping experience! We're tenting it and going to take the girls fishing too! We got Kira her very own fishing pole for her birthday so she's set! We're going with a group of friends that are great and we're looking forward to a wonderful time of relaxation and fellowship!
I have been given an opportunity to work with our bible school program at our church this year!! In the past, the girls haven't been old enough to attend our bible school yet, but now Kira is!! So I decided to serve and help out with bible school this year!! I am working with registration with the kids and then floating around after that to wherever a group needs help! It really should be a great time. I pray that during this time God speaks to me and teaches me a lot both about my faith and myself.
Everything else for us has been going well!! I will post pictures of Kira's parties eventually too!
Hope you're all doing well!!
Bless your hearts!!!
So I know I say this a lot - but really - I am really going to work hard at blogging more and keeping our family and friends posted on all our upcomings and happenings! :-)
Kira turned 5 today!!!!!!! We had a weekend full of parties, food, pictures and best of all - memories! We took a lot of pictures which I'll probably post on facebook at some point. She had her first "friends" party this year and we had a great time at that. We are very blessed by such a wonderful group of friends that have raised some amazing kids for Kira to hang out with and be friends with. I got the opportunity to meet more moms from the preschool that Kira attends, so that was really great too! Such a blessing it was!!
We were sitting on the couch last night and Tom and Kira were opening more of her birthday presents that she hadn't taken out of the package yet and her turning 5 hit me like a ton of bricks! I didn't think I'd be this way but wowzers! It really made me realize that I've spent such a great deal of time with her since day 1 being a part time stay at home mom and I know she'll be off to kindergarten in 3 months and I won't have that anymore. It's going to be a big change for me - and Julia. In fact, as I write this, I have tears rolling down my cheeks. It's such a great and amazing time for us and I'm really excited for her but goodness sakes - I'm going to miss that girl more than anything! She kept telling me, "mom, I'll be coming home after my day at kindergarten". And while I do know that of course, it's just going to be different having her gone all day at school knowing I can't pick her up and bring her home early if I want. She's going to have a great time and enjoy it SO much! She's already REALLY excited about going and is going to make so many great friends I'm sure! It's just amazing just how fast it's all happening! She's growing up SO fast!! I remember when people told me "they grow up so fast - before you know it she'll be driving and out of the house..." Boy they aren't kidding! Time flies and they do grow up as fast and they say they do!
I'm really excited for this weekend! We're bringing the girls on their very first camping experience! We're tenting it and going to take the girls fishing too! We got Kira her very own fishing pole for her birthday so she's set! We're going with a group of friends that are great and we're looking forward to a wonderful time of relaxation and fellowship!
I have been given an opportunity to work with our bible school program at our church this year!! In the past, the girls haven't been old enough to attend our bible school yet, but now Kira is!! So I decided to serve and help out with bible school this year!! I am working with registration with the kids and then floating around after that to wherever a group needs help! It really should be a great time. I pray that during this time God speaks to me and teaches me a lot both about my faith and myself.
Everything else for us has been going well!! I will post pictures of Kira's parties eventually too!
Hope you're all doing well!!
Bless your hearts!!!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A bit crazy
What a crazy last couple of weeks huh?! The month of February for us is insanely busy, but March is looking pretty open and relaxing! Gives us something to look forward to!
Tom is employed again!! YAY!! It's a great feeling on many different aspects. He's working for a place called BSquare out of Chanhassen. He's really been enjoying his job and the people. I've also enjoyed it too because we now work about 2 blocks away from each other! So we're able to car pool and take lunch breaks together which is a great time! Thanks for all your prayers for this though! We really appreciate it! God is good!
The only news from my end is that I got a brand new washer and dryer! We upgraded to the front load washer and dryer!! They're huge and can do a lot of laundry at once. It's a great feeling to be caught up on laundry! It hasn't happened for quite some time. It's wonderful! We went to Appliance Smart looking for a chest freezer, and ended up coming home with a new washer and dryer instead. (oh yeah, and I still got the freezer too...just from a different store). It's really been great for us and we've really been enjoying it!
In the past two days, our whole family is being taken down by this upper respiratory bug. :-( We're on the mend! Disinfectant wipes are our best friend these days!!
We hope you're doing well and staying warm!!
Take Care!!
Love,
The Marlins
Tom is employed again!! YAY!! It's a great feeling on many different aspects. He's working for a place called BSquare out of Chanhassen. He's really been enjoying his job and the people. I've also enjoyed it too because we now work about 2 blocks away from each other! So we're able to car pool and take lunch breaks together which is a great time! Thanks for all your prayers for this though! We really appreciate it! God is good!
The only news from my end is that I got a brand new washer and dryer! We upgraded to the front load washer and dryer!! They're huge and can do a lot of laundry at once. It's a great feeling to be caught up on laundry! It hasn't happened for quite some time. It's wonderful! We went to Appliance Smart looking for a chest freezer, and ended up coming home with a new washer and dryer instead. (oh yeah, and I still got the freezer too...just from a different store). It's really been great for us and we've really been enjoying it!
In the past two days, our whole family is being taken down by this upper respiratory bug. :-( We're on the mend! Disinfectant wipes are our best friend these days!!
We hope you're doing well and staying warm!!
Take Care!!
Love,
The Marlins
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Welcome to our blog!!
Hey All!!
This blog has officially turned into the Marlin Family Blog!! I starting blogging awhile back but got out of it for awhile. We hope to update this blog weekly and post pictures and updates on our family!
This blog has officially turned into the Marlin Family Blog!! I starting blogging awhile back but got out of it for awhile. We hope to update this blog weekly and post pictures and updates on our family!
Life is good for us right now! Our plate is nearing it maxmium capacity lately, but we're handling things just fine! We plan on updating our blog weekly, so check back soon! In the meantime, enjoy some fun recent family pictures!
Hope you're all having a good week!!
-The Marlin's
Thursday, April 1, 2010
holy buckets...
Hey All!!
It has been awhile...oofta! :-) The everyday adventures of life have been keeping us busy and away from blogging!
Things have been good for us for a change!! Even a couple BIG *NEW* things too that we're all enjoying and loving!
First things...Julia is walking!! It sure makes me feel old when i know both girls are off doing their own thing or playing together and that they both get around just fine now. But it's a sign that they're growing up and thats a wonderful thing too!
Secondly...Kira is POTTY TRAINED!!! holy cow i never thought this day would come!! It's insane! She finally decided that she's willing to give it a try for us and she took right off. Now her favorite thing at the store is buying big girl underwear! but hey, i'll trade that anyday for buying diapers and constantly changing a diaper on either her for Julia! Now it gives me more motivation to start earlier on Julia too. I want her potty training adventure to go a little smoother than Kira's.
Thirdly...I decided to go out on a limb and buy Tom a little more expensive birthday present this year. I got him a new LCD TV. It's a lot bigger than our last 27'' tv. But it's wonderful! We LOVE it. It makes playing wii and watching TV so much more fun on a big screen! Good times! And most importantly, he loved it! i got him some smaller gifts too cause the TV really has been enjoyed by us all!
Easter is quickly coming up!! Isn't it amazing how fast spring is taking over! I love it. Our garden is VERY plentiful this year with all sorts of flowers! I can't wait for them to really take bloom and brighten up the yard. We got some new lillies that I had planted last year from our neighbor and they rooted well and are coming back up already this year too! It's so nice!
We're heading down the Marlin's for Easter this year. All of Tom's brothers and the wives and aunts and uncles and grandparents are going to be there too. It should be a good time. It's really a great family to celebrate Easter with. It's truely getting together and never forgetting and always remembering what we're really getting together for! And thats whats most important.
Well...time to sign off for now!!
Take Care!!
Have a Happy Easter!
HE IS RISEN!!!!!!!!!
It has been awhile...oofta! :-) The everyday adventures of life have been keeping us busy and away from blogging!
Things have been good for us for a change!! Even a couple BIG *NEW* things too that we're all enjoying and loving!
First things...Julia is walking!! It sure makes me feel old when i know both girls are off doing their own thing or playing together and that they both get around just fine now. But it's a sign that they're growing up and thats a wonderful thing too!
Secondly...Kira is POTTY TRAINED!!! holy cow i never thought this day would come!! It's insane! She finally decided that she's willing to give it a try for us and she took right off. Now her favorite thing at the store is buying big girl underwear! but hey, i'll trade that anyday for buying diapers and constantly changing a diaper on either her for Julia! Now it gives me more motivation to start earlier on Julia too. I want her potty training adventure to go a little smoother than Kira's.
Thirdly...I decided to go out on a limb and buy Tom a little more expensive birthday present this year. I got him a new LCD TV. It's a lot bigger than our last 27'' tv. But it's wonderful! We LOVE it. It makes playing wii and watching TV so much more fun on a big screen! Good times! And most importantly, he loved it! i got him some smaller gifts too cause the TV really has been enjoyed by us all!
Easter is quickly coming up!! Isn't it amazing how fast spring is taking over! I love it. Our garden is VERY plentiful this year with all sorts of flowers! I can't wait for them to really take bloom and brighten up the yard. We got some new lillies that I had planted last year from our neighbor and they rooted well and are coming back up already this year too! It's so nice!
We're heading down the Marlin's for Easter this year. All of Tom's brothers and the wives and aunts and uncles and grandparents are going to be there too. It should be a good time. It's really a great family to celebrate Easter with. It's truely getting together and never forgetting and always remembering what we're really getting together for! And thats whats most important.
Well...time to sign off for now!!
Take Care!!
Have a Happy Easter!
HE IS RISEN!!!!!!!!!
Monday, January 11, 2010
a heck of a start...
While I had great resolutions and great intentions, this new year hasn't started out the way I've wanted it too. I know things don't always work in our favor but things can truely start to turn around any day now in the positive direction...
It all started out with Tom being sick. And man was he ever sick. He had the typical flu like symptoms. Never good for anyone. Day 2 brought us Tom continuing to be sick. Day 3 brought us Tom and Kira being sick. Thats right...both of them now. And at this point I attempted to stay healthy. I worked so hard to keep sheets and blankets clean to make sure we didn't continue to pass it around our house. Day 4 came...Tom's back to good health somewhat but had absolutely no energy from being wiped out. And ALSO our furance broke. We had to call someone to come and paid them a lot of money to get this special part in and then get it fixed. Day 6 came - so far so good. We're making positive steps in the right direction. Day 7 - Yep...I got nailed with this flu bug! Day 8 - totally out of comission and spent what felt like my entire day in the bathroom. Day 9 - back to life but weak beyond belief. day 10 - well...while I'd like to say that things are starting to look great again, I had my beautiful daughter come tell me her tooth hurt and so I looked and sure enough, she has a loose tooth. Day 11 - well...thats today! I'm a little worried about the immediate future because while I'm feeling "okay", my stomach is a little on the queezy side and its rumbling...ALOT. So we'll see how this day ends!
So now onto more of a positive note...
On the flip side, we had our first volleyball game this past Wednesday!! While we didn't win all 4 of our games, we had an AWESOME time!!!!!! Our team has some close friends of ours and we had fun and managed to win 1 of the games. We were close matched teams and all the games were really close so its not like we totally got creamed but it was a great time anyway. The other team was really fun and we were all having a great time with it!
Tom is flying to Colorado on Sunday for awhile. While I'm very excited for him and very jealous at the same time (i would LOVE to go with him!), I'm nervous as to what the week is going to hold for me and the girls. I'm going to miss his help terribly and going to be both mentally and physically exhausted from my two wonderful daughters! So I need prayer to help get me through the week. Its going to be tough not having a break but I know I can do it. It'll be a great test of my patience and probably leave me stronger in the end. And I'll be trying to prepare for Julia's 1st birthday party that week as well, which may be a bit challenging. :-) We'll see!! Maybe things will go alot smoother and better than i'm predicting!
Well...I have things to get done and work to finish. I have to go call the sedation dentist to possibly check out Kira. (yeah...thats right...sedation dentist. our last dentist experience with Kira was NO GOOD!!)
Hope you're all doing well!!
It all started out with Tom being sick. And man was he ever sick. He had the typical flu like symptoms. Never good for anyone. Day 2 brought us Tom continuing to be sick. Day 3 brought us Tom and Kira being sick. Thats right...both of them now. And at this point I attempted to stay healthy. I worked so hard to keep sheets and blankets clean to make sure we didn't continue to pass it around our house. Day 4 came...Tom's back to good health somewhat but had absolutely no energy from being wiped out. And ALSO our furance broke. We had to call someone to come and paid them a lot of money to get this special part in and then get it fixed. Day 6 came - so far so good. We're making positive steps in the right direction. Day 7 - Yep...I got nailed with this flu bug! Day 8 - totally out of comission and spent what felt like my entire day in the bathroom. Day 9 - back to life but weak beyond belief. day 10 - well...while I'd like to say that things are starting to look great again, I had my beautiful daughter come tell me her tooth hurt and so I looked and sure enough, she has a loose tooth. Day 11 - well...thats today! I'm a little worried about the immediate future because while I'm feeling "okay", my stomach is a little on the queezy side and its rumbling...ALOT. So we'll see how this day ends!
So now onto more of a positive note...
On the flip side, we had our first volleyball game this past Wednesday!! While we didn't win all 4 of our games, we had an AWESOME time!!!!!! Our team has some close friends of ours and we had fun and managed to win 1 of the games. We were close matched teams and all the games were really close so its not like we totally got creamed but it was a great time anyway. The other team was really fun and we were all having a great time with it!
Tom is flying to Colorado on Sunday for awhile. While I'm very excited for him and very jealous at the same time (i would LOVE to go with him!), I'm nervous as to what the week is going to hold for me and the girls. I'm going to miss his help terribly and going to be both mentally and physically exhausted from my two wonderful daughters! So I need prayer to help get me through the week. Its going to be tough not having a break but I know I can do it. It'll be a great test of my patience and probably leave me stronger in the end. And I'll be trying to prepare for Julia's 1st birthday party that week as well, which may be a bit challenging. :-) We'll see!! Maybe things will go alot smoother and better than i'm predicting!
Well...I have things to get done and work to finish. I have to go call the sedation dentist to possibly check out Kira. (yeah...thats right...sedation dentist. our last dentist experience with Kira was NO GOOD!!)
Hope you're all doing well!!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Its been awhile...
Happy New Year!!!!!!!!
I've been slacking on my blogging...with the holidays and birthdays and get togethers, it was hard to stay on top of it! But i'm back!! :-D
How was your holidays?! If it was anything like mine, it seemed to be non-stop busy. Oofta. We spent Christmas with Tom's family a few weeks before Christmas and then with my side of the family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a great time with everyone. We were very blessed with wonderful gifts and lots of great company. We drove back home up to the Cities on Christmas Day night only to be welcomed home to a driveway FULL of snow! I had originally told Tom that I didn't want to shovel on Christmas Day but shortly after we realized just how much snow there was, we didn't have a choice. We begun our shoveling venture and our neighbor Jim, who is completely awesome, came and plowed our driveway out which led us to get to celebrate our own little family Christmas. It was a great time! Kira LOVED opening presents this year. She was much more into it. Julia on the other hand, she had no idea. She liked the paper and then that was it for her. She just wasn't into it. :-) We had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year's party too. We had a get together at our house that was filled with food, video games, board games, pop, kids, etc! We had a few close friends over and had an awesome time. I'll be honest though, i did take a nap with the girls before midnight rolled around. i'm getting too old to stay up that late! ;-)
I remember when I was young and in elementary school that the teachers would always have us make a list or pick one New Years resolution. Nowadays, it seems like people don't do that anymore but it still doesn't stop me from thinking about it. My New Years resolution this year is to lose some weight. Unfortunately, i'm still hanging onto my pregnancy weight from Julia. In the end, I would LOVE to lose 40 pounds. That would put me back at the weight I *want* to be at. I'm going to start trying alot harder to get those pounds off now that the holidays are behind us.
Another one would be to take some sort of vacation, but we'll see if that happens.
Tom and I are going to be starting our volleyball league up starting this week!!!!!! I'm very excited!! We are very blessed to have a wonderful babysitter that is going to watching the girls for us so for the first time in a few years, we'll both be able to play. I'm very excited!! it starts this Wednesday and i'm already giddy about it! :-)
We'll soon be celebrating our little Julia's 1 Year Birthday!!!!!!! I can't believe how fast time has gone!! We're going to be having a birthday party at the end of month for her!! It should be a great time!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you're all doing well!! I hope we keep in touch more!! Also, we have intentions for this blog to turn into a Katie AND TOM blog to keep family and friends in our Marlin loop! : -)
Take Care!!
I've been slacking on my blogging...with the holidays and birthdays and get togethers, it was hard to stay on top of it! But i'm back!! :-D
How was your holidays?! If it was anything like mine, it seemed to be non-stop busy. Oofta. We spent Christmas with Tom's family a few weeks before Christmas and then with my side of the family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a great time with everyone. We were very blessed with wonderful gifts and lots of great company. We drove back home up to the Cities on Christmas Day night only to be welcomed home to a driveway FULL of snow! I had originally told Tom that I didn't want to shovel on Christmas Day but shortly after we realized just how much snow there was, we didn't have a choice. We begun our shoveling venture and our neighbor Jim, who is completely awesome, came and plowed our driveway out which led us to get to celebrate our own little family Christmas. It was a great time! Kira LOVED opening presents this year. She was much more into it. Julia on the other hand, she had no idea. She liked the paper and then that was it for her. She just wasn't into it. :-) We had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year's party too. We had a get together at our house that was filled with food, video games, board games, pop, kids, etc! We had a few close friends over and had an awesome time. I'll be honest though, i did take a nap with the girls before midnight rolled around. i'm getting too old to stay up that late! ;-)
I remember when I was young and in elementary school that the teachers would always have us make a list or pick one New Years resolution. Nowadays, it seems like people don't do that anymore but it still doesn't stop me from thinking about it. My New Years resolution this year is to lose some weight. Unfortunately, i'm still hanging onto my pregnancy weight from Julia. In the end, I would LOVE to lose 40 pounds. That would put me back at the weight I *want* to be at. I'm going to start trying alot harder to get those pounds off now that the holidays are behind us.
Another one would be to take some sort of vacation, but we'll see if that happens.
Tom and I are going to be starting our volleyball league up starting this week!!!!!! I'm very excited!! We are very blessed to have a wonderful babysitter that is going to watching the girls for us so for the first time in a few years, we'll both be able to play. I'm very excited!! it starts this Wednesday and i'm already giddy about it! :-)
We'll soon be celebrating our little Julia's 1 Year Birthday!!!!!!! I can't believe how fast time has gone!! We're going to be having a birthday party at the end of month for her!! It should be a great time!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you're all doing well!! I hope we keep in touch more!! Also, we have intentions for this blog to turn into a Katie AND TOM blog to keep family and friends in our Marlin loop! : -)
Take Care!!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Ahhh!! An exciting weekend is among us....
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!!
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!!
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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