A little break.....

Let's just call this a forced break!  Unless I can type one handed, I'll be out for a little while.  

I'm having shoulder surgery tomorrow so of course I'm freaking out today! doing all those last minute things today that I should have already done!  

Maybe my sister will do an update. ....I'll have to teach her to blog!  :)  

Say a little prayer for me tomorrow.  Thanks!

It Is MONDAY!

That was to remind myself of how much I have to do before Wednesday when I'm having shoulder surgery!  So I'm blogging.  I wonder if that means I'm a procrastinator??  I do have laundry going and I DID buy a few groceries and blew the leaves off the back deck right into the pool!  Started the pool cleaner going and now I'm going to dust and vacumn.  Whew, I'm tired!

Friday night and Saturday morning, we had a women's retreat and it was fun!

There were door prizes.

Lots of eating!

If you ever thought Christian women don't have fun........just check out our fashion show! 

There were four teams and four fashions....I wish I had gotten close up pictures of all four!  They were just a hoot!  There was lots of laughter!  Good medicine!

Our friend Veronica says we are really a peculiar people!

Veronica needed to get her picture with a model to show her friends!

Some of the ladies spent the night, but I splept at home.  Saturday we started with a great breakfast, devotion, took care of a little business and then got back to the games!

We had a great time and got to know each other better at the same time!

Now I'd better get busy! 

Guest Blogging at Mercy Uganda

I hope you'll go over to Mercy Uganda's blog and read about the banquet held last night.  The picture above is Veronica Nakyewe, director of Comforter Pregnancy Center in Uganda.  Her story is incredible and you will be glad you visited!

For some reason, again Mercy Uganda's not updating on my sidebar.  To keep up with what's going on there, just click on their link several times a week!  :)  You know you want to!  

Odd stuff Tuesday....

Very random stuff!

We had a very exciting weekend!  A new mailbox!  We were in L*wes  looking at door hardware and I saw this mailbox.  Our old mailbox was really ready for the mailbox cemetery, so here we are with a brand new one.  The only problem was that Sunday morning we didn't have a newspaper.  Apparently, the carrier puts a sticker on the boxes of people who get the paper.  It makes me wonder how my brother ever remembered who got the paper when he was a paper boy on a bicycle years ago, when it came on parchment paper!

Not only did he have to remember who got the paper, but he had to go each week and collect the money for the paper!  My how things have changed.

Sunday afternoon was a baby shower for my good friend, Sharon's daughter.  This will be son #2 and as you can see son #1 wasn't so keen on having his picture taken.  I think he was sick in general of the whole these aren't my presents thing.

I've been busy getting things ready for Thanksgiving.  I bought all my paper products (yes, we use paper on Thanksgiving!) and did a little extra fall decorating.  I'll have to post pictures of that later.  I've also been cleaning because I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do after next Wednesday when I have shoulder surgery.

It was a nice weekend and I can't believe it is Tuesday night already! 

Go on over....

For some reason on my sidebar Mercy Uganda isn't updating.....but there IS a new post on that site.  So run over to see what  is going on in Uganda!

This is such an exciting ministry, involving lots of areas of service.  These are people so in need, and yet so happy and excited about the gospel of Jesus Christ!

I hope you will become followers of this site as exciting things are coming in the future.  We look forward to what God is doing in Uganda and across the world!

I hope some of you will follow Mercy Uganda or put this site on your sidebar.  We are working on a button for the site.  Well, actually, a sweet young woman who is a former member of our church is working on the button.  She is a web designer and really good. I would encourage you to visit her blog too!

There will soon be a post up on this little girl on Mercy Uganda.

Learning to trust.......the hard way.

 UPDATE!  My son finally got a call yesterday from cardiology.  They said they will see him, but their earliest appointment is Nov. 9.  He asked if it was his lack of insurance was the reason this was taking so long and she said oh, no!  I still believe that was the driving issue and we just kept on being the squeaky wheel long enough until they finally got the grease can out! 

Thanks for being so supportive!  


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I'm warning you, if you don't want to hear some serious venting, stop reading now!

It has been a week since David spent the day in the ER finally being diagnosed with having SVT.  If you remember, I said at the time, this will work out.

I know it will, but it is very frustrating!  Not having insurance was a major hold up, but in addition to that the  ER staff didn't fill out the discharge papers correctly and didn't refer him to the cardiologist.  So all week, we have been trying to get an appointment to no avail!

With a lot of prayer, I have kept my cool under circumstances that make me want to scream!  Yesterday, we decided just to take his paperwork and go back to the ER.  The nurse there was so nice and helpful.  She called and explained the situation to cardiology, they still tried to say no, but she finally filled out the paperwork correctly, faxed it to them and asked them to make him an appointment.

Well, by this time the office staff is not real happy with us and isn't rushing around to make us an appointment.  Oh, and let me say, I told them we would pay cash for the office visit.

But the final straw for me was when my husband mentioned that he had had an echocardiogram there in June and that they made him pay the entire part allowable by our insurance.  We then found out that we only were supposed to pay $89.00......so do you think they have sent us a check?????   That would be NO.

This is what I call the business of medicine.  Where money is more important that help.  Especially when they could probably just use the money we've already paid!  No, I understand that won't happen.  I also am not sure the doctors ever hear this kind of thing. 

Can you tell yet that I'm frustrated???

Since, I am trusting God with this, I know whatever His will is will happen.  But it's hard to wait, especially when it's the well being of someone you love, your child.  

Oh, yes, and he can't return to work until he has a note from a cardiologist.

Whirlwinds

Do you ever just feel like putting a cereal box over your head and pretending life isn't a whirlwind???  Oh, by the way, that's my dear friend Mary Grace who will kill me for using this picture, but it best describes how I feel!  Anyway, don't you think she looks cute with a cereal box on her head???

The past few days have been like a movie in fast forward.  Mama's sick,  so Friday I was off to take her to get a chest x ray so we'd be sure she didn't have pneumonia with the weekend coming.  As we were driving, I got a phone call from my son's dad saying he had been taken to the ER from his job and they thought he was having a stroke!

That was the longest x ray appointment!  I got mama back home and flew off to the hospital across town (we live in a small town).  Thankfully by the time I arrived, they had him stable.  They actually had the crash cart and were fixing to shock his heart to get it back in to normal rhythmn.   The doctor in the ER said he has SVT (Supraventricular tachacardia) or episodes of the heart beating way to fast.  Any of you who read MckMama's blog will know that's what her baby Stellan has.  I don't think David's is anywhere near that bad.

They found a medication that reverted  his heart into a normal rhythmn.  
As he was being discharged, the hospital doctor said he has to see a cardiologist sooner rather than later.
He doesn't have insurance!  But that will all work out.

Oh, yea, he can't go back to work until he gets clearance from a cardiologist, so he'll have no money and no insurance.  What a combination! But that will all work out.

The weekend went by so fast I can't recall much of it except we did have a wonderful church service.

There was a funny little thing that happened at church....without explaining or getting into theology, our denomination baptizes infants.  We were having the baptism of a 2 and 4 year old.  After the questions had all been asked and answered by the parents and the preacher was actually baptizing them, the little girl,2, was fine with it.....but when he poured water on the 4 year old boy's head, the little boy said Hey you got water on my clothes.  To which without a pause, the preacher said You oughta see what the Baptists do!  I thought I would roll out of my pew.

 Before I knew it the days were blowing by and it is already Tuesday!  So today my younger brother had his second complete hip replacement.  He did fine, but tonight he is in a LOT of pain. 

It's good to catch up with you all and please pray David gets the right doctor and gets this under control!
Thanks guys!

Let's take a trip down guilt memory lane....

Lately, I've been taking several trips down memory lane.  I do that daily every once in a while thinking maybe I should have done something differently while parenting my children.  

I started the whole parenting process very young and although I loved my babies dearly and did the best I knew how, I can look back and see lots of mistakes!
 

No, I didn't break his arm!  :)

I feel like I've talked about this picture before, but I went back a long way and couldn't find it, so if you've heard this story, just hop on to the next blog!  NOT REALLY.....stay!

In this particular picture, it was the first day of spring break.  Paul had just gone to the doctor, was on antibiotics  and was supposed to be resting!  Instead, he was outside climbing a tree and fell.

I was inside covered in flour with my hair in pigtails and short overalls on, making a mess  biscuits when David, who must have been in kindergarten ran in saying Paul's hurt real bad.  When Paul came in it was evident he was indeed hurt.  His arm was at an odd angle and he was obviously in pain.

His dad was working the evening shift and his ride picked him up about then....so I called my MIL and off we went to the emergency room.  There must have been a passle of broken bones that day, we waited hours for the orthopedic doctor with Paul sitting in a wheelchair in agony for all those hours.  I was so frantic and his daddy kept calling telling me what to tell the doctors.  I finally told him I would find a nurse if he wanted to tell someone what to do, but I needed to stay with Paul.  Looking back, I know he was sick with worry and that was his only thing to do since he couldn't get away from work and to the hospital.

My mom ran to my house and got me some presentable clothing and I washed the flour off as best I could and changed clothes in the bathroom.

After what seemed forever, a nurse came in and said the doctor was in the hospital.  They took Paul for x rays and when the doctor came in he said Paul's shoulder blade was separated from something else and that he would have to take him to the operating room to fix the arm.

The nurse came to give some shots and suddenly Paul felt fine and was o.k. and wanted to go home.  That boy never did like a shot!  My MIL, myself and a couple of nurses held him down to get the shot and after that he was in la la land.

It all worked out fine......he was in that cast a few weeks and healed up nicely.

But did I feel guilty that he was hurt???  Oh, yea.

Over the years, they had many more bumps, bruises and all the drama that comes with childhood.....and then of course, came the teen years.

I don't think I have the time or energy to go into those years right now....but if you've had a teen, you probably know anyway.

Anyhow, just remember when you start down memory lane, there could be a bump or two, along with the guilt trip detour!

Mercy Uganda

For many years, our church has had a close relationship to the people of Uganda.  Our local church is Covenant Presbyterian Church.....a member of the Presbyterian Church in America.  One of our pastors, Bob Hayes, began going to Uganda in 1992....this is a link to his website .......with Dr. Henry Krabbendam of the ACTI ...African Christian Training Institute...  They work to train pastor's in Uganda to spread the gospel in the local churches.  Be sure to click on the ACTI link on this website to see and hear Ugandan preachers and learn more about the people.

But the work is so much more than training pastors.  Even though I've never been to Uganda, I have listened with fascination and seen many pictures of the work being done there.  Many people from our church have gone as teams to minister to the people there, doing things like.....helping to build schools...working with the women to form a pregnancy resource center....meeting phsycal needs......even helping pool their own money together to help send people to a doctor or hospital.

The needs are so many in Uganda.  The schools would shock you, they are so primitive, yet children are thirsting for education and the people of Uganda are thirsting for the gospel.  

There are many needs there and one particular woman in our church  Laura Knetzer, has been led to start a ministry for women and children called Mercy Uganda .   Here is just a bit I copied off of the website so you can see what their prayer need are.......

Areas of focus are: improving conditions for safe drinking water and nutrition, providing for needs of basic hygiene, sponsorships for children in education, identify and assist with medical needs,teaching and training in issues related to pregnancy, childcare, HIV/AIDs, and literacy. 

Please visit both these websites to get an idea of what a great need there is in Uganda. As one of the visiting Ugandan preachers pointed out....if Christians don't help, Muslims will gladly step in and train them. 

This is a picture our pastor took on the most recent trip (two weeks ago).....

Please click on the picture to see how one man transported his cow!

I just clicked on the picture and it doesn't really get bigger.....this man is transporting his cow on a motorcycle.  Nobody is sure how he got him on the bike and it would have been interesting to see him get OFF the bike!  

Please check out these websites, especially Mercy Unganda.  The site is new and I'm sure there will be more pictures soon!

 

In Real Life!

Well, what an exciting day I had yesterday!  First, I clogged up my healing lungs with dust, then decided I had to have a break.  I wanted needed some new fall decorations so I wandered around in a few stores.

I needed to run to the drugstore and I drive by a car wash on the way...I happened to glance over and there was a car coming through the car wash on a tow truck....no, I'm not kidding...I wonder if you pay extra for the wash and vacumn!

On a whim, otherwise known as a God thing,  I pulled in the parking lot of T.J. M*xx, parked and was walking to the store when another car pulled up to let someone out....I thought to my self, she looks so familiar.  But living in the same town all your life, you think you know everybody.

So I continued walking when another lady joined the first lady and suddenly I said Tonja? That's right folks, right there in front of T. J. M*xx, I met in real life one of my blogger friends!  

You would have thought I was meeting a celebrity, which in a sense she is, I mean she being a blogger and all.

You know a blogger doesn't go out without a camera, so we got pictures.

Tonja and I in the first picture.

Tonja's shopping buddies.....it was actually the lady on the left that I thought looked familiar because I've seen pictures of these two friends on Tonja's blog. Ahem....they shop a lot! 

I didn't find much in the way of decorations, but I met a real treasure! 

Have fun shopping girls.

Did somebody say it is October?

Ah, we had a chill in the air this morning!  Of course, it doesn't look like that picture around here, but the mountains have such pretty autumns!  We actually don't have autumn.  We just skip in and out of summer.

We have a cute little elderly couple in our neighborhood and if it goes below 70 they have a fire in their fireplace.  Sure enough, this morning when I took the dogs out, I could smell that fire going. 

The thing is, it's only cool for 10 minutes then we're right back to summer!  I did open my doors for a little while to get the fresh air. 

That's when I was dusting.  Oh, by the way, if you're missing any dust, it's here.  I frankly think dust should be a household decoration.