Easter 2009

Easter day was also Greg's birthday,

so it was fun to celebrate both together! The picture of us sitting in front of the oven with the duck tape on it is when we sealed the resurrection cookies in the "tomb". We started out the morning hunting eggs, then off to church. It was a wonderful celebration! After church we headed to my Aunt's for their annual Easter egg hunt and lunch. We also surprised G with a birthday cake. The yellow dress Lauren is wearing was made by her Great Grandma Sue. It fit perfectly and was such a special treat for Easter! Thanks Grandma Sue-we love you! Don't you think Lauren looks like her Daddy in this picture?

Spring Break

These pictures are from about a month or so ago, but I thought they were cute so I a

m

put
ting them on here! This was over spring break on a day when it was hot! I took the kids to a local park here that has some fun kid rides. My parents had some friends that were in town that wanted to see the kiddos, so they met us there and joined the kids for a train ride.

From Lauren....

This is a letter that Lauren wrote to the little girl we sponsor in Zambia. She wanted to share this letter with you.


Happy Easter! Today is the day Jesus rose from the dead.Jesus is the son of God.He died to save us from our sins so we can have eternal life in Heaven.He was buried in a tomb.Before he died he told his disciples that he would rise again in three days.Guess what?He rose again in three days !!The disciples were amazed.That's the Story of Easter.

Love,Lauren

Resurrection cookies

I don't know if you have ever done these with your kids, but they are a great way to really explain the true Easter story. My kids love to make these. They aren't the best tasting cookies, but the story behind them is what makes them great.

www.annieshomepage.com/resurrectioncookiestext.html

He is Risen!!!!

Doing well.

The bronchoscopy on Weds. went fine. The hardest part was all the crazy stuff they had to give me to numb my nose, throat, chest, trachea. It was pretty nasty stuff that I had to inhale, sniff up my nose, swallow...but I was thankful for it. I also had a shot of something to dry stuff up in my throat. I also had an IV that once the good stuff went in..I was out like a light. I wish I could buy that at the store! J/K...well not really. I know I was talking to the doctor one second and the next second I was waking up. I actually do remember coughing, but it was dream like and I could hear someone telling me to try to stop coughing. I got some pictures of it all. It is so weird to see your insides! The doctor was able to see the tears and then also found another anomaly called tracheal diverticulum. I guess it is really rare and you can either be born with it or you can develop it from sever coughing which would be consistent with my history. I have been reading up about it and it would sure explain a lot of why I get really sick, get bronchitis almost every year and can't get over things as easy as someone else. My throat was stinkin sore after for a couple days and I felt really medicated. I made G promise not to take any videos of me acting goofy, but now I kind of wish that I could have seen it. My friend said that when we came to pick up Lauren I couldn't figure out how to get the window down to talk to her and was banging all over to door, so she finally opened the door for me. I wish I could remember that. G was driving by the way. I have a follow up appt. on Weds. and we will go from there. There is a lot I still don't know, but I am thankful for great doctors and a God who is in control.

Prayer

I haven't really shared with a lot of people about the weird health stuff that is going on with me, because I don't even know exactly what is going on myself, so I have been waiting to find out more details. For the last 5 years (since I was pregnant with Brennan) I have had a lot of chest pain that feels like sharp twinges in my heart. I have had heart palpitations since college and had some weird stuff happen during and after pregnancy. I guess the palpitations I have aren't dangerous as I have had to do monitoring when I am pregnant and the doctors have determined that it is not dangerous. No one has really been able to tell me what the sharp pains are though, so I have just put it aside for the most part. This last fall though I had to go to the ER, because they were so frequent and I was afraid with Greg gone that the kids might come downstairs and find me on the floor or something. My EKG came back normal and again the doctors didn't really know what to make of it..except possibly a section of my lung close to my heart spasming from the coughing. Well a few months later my amazing asthma doctor had me get a CT scan..first one to recommend it ...and it turns out I have 3 tears in my trachea. They think I have had them for 5 years...since I started to feel the chest pain. I guess the air that is escaping out of the tears is building up in pockets around my heart and putting pressure on it which is what is giving my the pains. Sooo-here we are...3 CT scans later, a cardiothoracic surgeon and pulmonologist visit, consults from the ENT and my asthma/allergy doctor and NO ONE has ever seen a spontaneous trachea tear (where I don't know how I got it). Also-trachea perforations (from a car accident or sports injury) almost always heal on there own pretty quickly. Mine isn't. Tomorrow I am getting a scope of my trachea done where they will do some cultures and look to see what the tears look like. After that we will go from there. All the doctors I have seen have said there is no documented case like mine anywhere...possible case study and possible University visit have been mentioned. I know that the Lord is in control and even in this I can already see where His hand has been at work years prior. I will go more into detail about that later. If you could pray that the pulmonologist would be able to see the tears tomorrow ( I guess it could be difficult to see because of the anatomy of the trachea) and that if I do cough there would be no further damage (the pulmonolgist is concerned about me coughing). I have to have this done though so we can move ahead with possible treatment plans. Thanks so much and I will keep you all updated. Love, S

Joshua's Birthday Party

Joshua's birthday started out with a big J chocolate chip pancake and then it was time to get out the door at 7:30am for a busy morning. I had a doctor's appt, so I took L to a friend's to get to school, B went to my mom's house and then Joshua came with me to the doctor's. We were there for quite awhile and he was so good. Afterwards, I took him to our favorite Mexican food restaurant where they serenaded him with happy birthday while he wore the sombrero. It was great to have the alone time with him. Soccer practice was in the afternoon, so we took cupcakes there. I think I am the favorite Mom now :). We had his party yesterday evening at Chuck E. Che*se's. I had my 9th birthday there, but apparently my parents have horrible memories of that place in CA. I guess the facility was pretty nasty. They thought this was going to be payback for me. They were shocked to see how nice it was and the food was actually pretty good. Joshua had a great time with all of his friends and family. He is such a gift to us and I am just so humbled that God chose me to be his Mommy. I love that kid.

Happy 11th Anniversary!

Last year we were able to go on a week long cruise for our 10th anniversary. This year I am doing the soccer mom thing, having a garage sale and cleaning the house while Greg is on a trip to Hawaii for work. I am just going to close my eyes and pretend I am there with him. Actually, he really won't have any down time there to enjoy it really. He actually surprised me with a huge boquet of roses yesterday and a sweet card. I am seriously so amazingly blessed to have Greg in my life not only as my husband, but as my best friend. He takes me as I am even when I don't deserve it. God could not have blessed me more. Each day and year that passes I truly love him more. I love you G!

Happy 6th Birthday Joshua!

Joshua's 6th birthday was Thursday. I just adore this boy and his sweet and sensitive spirit. I will post pics from his birthday party in a little bit.