Catching up with Life

Life has a way of detouring the best laden plans, hence the absence of my writing. In the past 2 months I've been spending a lot of time with my youngest daughter who's been diagnosed with Abdominal Migraines a rare form of a Migraine Variant. Basically she goes to bed with normal vitals, healthy hydrated happy child and wakes up in the middle of the night with acute onset violent vomiting for several hours. Once the episode stops she is able to rest and we can rehydrate her. We have struggled with this for one year and has had many tests and several misdiagnosis. She is now seeing the director of Neurology at Children's Hospital (they have such a wonderful caring staff). In his 25 years he has only seen this condition 50 times. Phenergan has become our choice of "management" for the episodes which sometimes are 3x a week. We use the ER for bagged fluids if needed. She continues to have a sweet loving disposition and as I lay with her on the bathroom floor wiping her head with a wet washcloth I say a prayer and ask God to heal my baby. I don't understand why but I know that these trials we face draw us closer to the Lord and we know that we are not alone. There is strength as we wait upon the Lord. We are going on 11 days now without an episode and just so happen to be on day one of our Spring Break vacation. Looking forward to relaxing together as a family.

School Auction Countdown

I have been crazy busy with our school auction. Last May I decided to sign up as Co-Chair for this grand event that will take place next Friday. It started out as a formal affair where parents could dress up and have a nice dinner while raising their paddle for a good cause, our kids! Well, things changed. With the economy and families struggling it was decided we should take it down several notches and we rescaled to a Sweet Valentine Affair which I think will be great. From running around to work, kids schedule and husband recovering from back surgery (he's doing great) my evenings and breaks and days off have been non stop auction. I can't wait until it's over! This has been quite the learning experience for me. Lots of women involved and many helping hands contributing to this event. I have been volunteering since I was in the 3rd grade, it's in my blood and I enjoy it. I get way more out of it then the ones on the receiving end. I learned many things about myself in this particular process which is always a good thing. 9 more days and then I'm looking forward to an empty calendar for a few days. Lol

Highlights 2010

As this year comes to an end I can't help but reflect on where we've been, what I learned and with a hopeful heart look forward to a bright new year for my family and all that read my blog.

1. This year I became very intimate with issues of my heart and the cardiology dept.

2. We struggled for a diagnosis for what was making my youngest daughter so ill. We were so blessed by the kindness of the staff at Children's Hospital and after many different "wrong" diagnosis we found out was was wrong and have been able to help her.

3. I watched a beautiful woman that I love find out that she had cancer and by the Grace of God witnessed a miracle of remission. Her strength, beauty and faith was an inspiration to us all.

4. My husband underwent a surgery on his back that kept us in the hospital the week of Christmas but we too had a blessing getting to come home on Christmas Eve. He is recovering well.

5. After 10 years in the making we took our twins on their twin trips. We visited London England and Savannah Georgia and loved seeing the history we studied come to life.

6. Our family got a little bigger with the addition of Dolce and DaVinci our twin Havanese puppies.

7. We put on a beautiful wedding for our daughter Brittany who was married on December 14th to a wonderful guy we just love.

8. We were able to spend time with our family in Michigan.

9. We celebrated Oregon's HUGE amazing football season

10. At the end of the year, we looked around and saw the people we love the most and love us back are the ones that humble us and make me feel so very blessed to have in our lives. Life is all about choices we each make one at a time that add up to the life that we live. Thank you for reading my blog and sharing in my life.

A New Year's toast to you: May you all have a New Year full of new beginnings, new windows of hope and love that fills your heart. Cheers!

Food Network is MIA

Today was like any other typical Sunday in my house, after I wake up I turn on the Food Network channel to listen to while I'm getting ready for church. However, today the Food network channel was MIA! Come to find out they're in a brew haha with ATT U-verse and a few other cable companies about $$. Sounds a bit like Enron to me. Scripps the company that controls Food network and HGTV along with a few other channels are battling over what else...money! Meanwhile it feels like a strike walk out with out any per diam replacement. This is the holiday season and last I checked this country is in the middle of a very bad economy. This has greed written all over it. I just want my comfort channel back! Cooking is like therapy for me. It's calming, creative and I'm always inspired by my favorite chefs. I hope they figure this out soon. Comcast is calling my name! If you would like to voice your opinion about this visit http://www.att.com/Common/iptv/files/dkpages/dk_fighting4you.html.

Operation Christmas Child

The girls and I spent the evening shopping, wrapping and filling our shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. The twins each selected a girl between the age of 5 to 9 years old. They carefully went through the store imagining what the little girl would feel like when she opened her box filled with Christmas treasures for her own and we talked about how God uses some people to help other people. They each shared their pride for being able to make this small effort and realizing what a huge impact it would make on Christmas morning. I couldn't help but feel happy that my girls understand that you don't have to be a grown up to extend help to others. If you would like to fill a shoebox go to http://www.samaritanspurse.org/ for more information.

Mother of the Bride

My life has been pretty busy with my first born daughter; soon to be a Bride in December. We are well underway with all the wedding details although there is still so much more to do. My daughter has asked me to be her Maid of Honor which of course made me tear up but has put a whole new perspective on what to wear. I want her day to be the best day of her life. The theme is old Hollywood Glamour, think Frank Sinatra and 1940's. She and I are very close and have been all her life. She is the first reason I learned what unconditional love is. She has a heart full of love and sees life with eyes of hope and wisdom. My husband is her Step Father and he's been in her life since she was 12 years old (she is now 24). He loves her as his own. She knows he would do anything for her and has come through for her so many times. Step families don't need to be hostile, it's the parents that lead the way down that path. I feel very blessed that I made the right choices in her life so that she could know the joy of having an additional parent love her. I love that girl soooo much!

The Case of The Missing Tomatoes

It's 5:30 on Sunday night and I'm looking forward to the amazing fresh vegetables that I purchased from the farmer's market yesterday. I washed the yellow carrots and green onions and sprinkled my fresh greens all over my platter. I took the pistachios out of the freezer (yes I store them in the freezer, they stay fresh longer) and I chopped up my granny smith apples when I realized I can't find the multi colored grape tomatoes I bought yesterday. I asked my husband to go out to my car to check the back seat, the trunk and even the floor mats under the front seat. No sign of them anywhere! I know my vegetable challenged twins didn't suddenly get the hankering to eat a handful of bite size tomatoes. I'm baffled! Really? Did I leave them at the berry stand when I whipped out my cash to pay for the basket of strawberries that looked like I just wanted to stand there and eat them and forget the dessert I had in mind for later. Seriously, where are my tomatoes? I handed them to the farmer, I watched her put them in the bag with my other items and I walked on my way. It's a mystery! My week was a little chaotic. We were in Toronto for 5 days for a conference I needed to attend and I managed to get in a few days of exploring with my family. Niagara Falls is amazing! What an experience that was going on this little boat right up to the edge of the bottom of the Falls. So fun! Also to speak to my distracted mind, my older daughter is getting married in December and I'm in full swing with wedding plans. Not to mention I have an employee out for a month and covering for her. So it could be possible that those lovely organic farmer's market tomatoes went home with someone else. I imagine they were delicious.