Wow! Me... posting... twice in one week!!! Can you believe it?

Here
are some more pictures of my precious Valerie... growing a bit
older.  My friend, in my previous post, mentioned something to the
fact that -- don't you just wish you could go back and give them a big
hug just one more time!  Awwwww -- YES!!!!!   As much as
I did hug and hug and kiss on them... I never got my fill -- but I do
have most wonderful memories of their littleness and their sweet
loveable persons.

Here's Val ----------

First Birthday!


Ellie and her in the bath -- about 14 months old


about 21 months old

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!!

Much love,

~me

Hi! 
Thanks for all your prayer and support and notes!!  Surgery went
well and I am recovering fine. I have very little pain now, only when I
over extend or something.  By the end of the week, there should be
no pain at all!! YEA! And now, I am done... with the reconstruction at
least.  Now just dr visits for the next 3 years every 3 months or so and yearly tests.
YEA, again!!!



Not much has happened, so I don't have much to update with.  I did
have a pampered chef party on Thursday -- it was a $455 party!  So
I got $90 in free stuff!



My second born, Valerie, turns 13 at in 25 days!  I thought for
the next few posts I'd share some of her growing up with you!

February 24, 1993
This is just hours after Valerie was born.  That's Elizabeth holding her.  Ellie is about 21 months there.

Here she is at 6 months!  Isn't she a cutie pie?!!! She had
several of those hemagiomas (abnormally dense collections of dilated
small blood vessels) on her person like the one on her chest - a very tiny one on the tip of her
nose - one on her back that was shaped like a heart at one time, one on
her eyelid and one more on her stomach.

Well that's about it for now. Much love to you all!!!
~me

I hope everyone had a spiffy weekend.  Ours was quiet -- I like it that way. 

I just read a good reminder: "...Never
allow anything to obscure the life that 'is hidden with Christ in God'.
Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in
Him."  I think I let a hurried lifestyle disturb my
relationship more often than I would like.  I need to print that
out and put in places I can see as a reminder to me!!  Especially
across my calendar....

I have surgery on Friday-- or
at least I am scheduled for surgery.  My shingles have subsided,
although I still have some lingering pain, but now I have a sore throat
and feel so run down -- I'm praying that I will feel better by Friday
so I don't have to cancel.  I've been waiting for this surgery
since September, so I'd hate to have to postpone it. Yet, I don't want
to be foolish/impatient either (concerning my health).  Please join me in prayer if you think about it!! 

Disneyland was covered in tulips -- it was so very colorful!!!



Here is a good picture of how windy it was -- look at Julie's hair in the center of the picture!

We always celebrate the girls birthday's at Disneyland when we have
passes, but because we have the cheap passes, we don't get to go during
the summer time when Gracie's birthday is -- so we "celebrated" her
birthday today.



Ellie and I in Space Mountain




Gracie fell and hurt her foot so each of the girls took a turn carrying her on the way back to the shuttle.

This picture is funny because Minnie is walking (very fast I might add)
and my girls are running along side of her and I am running backwards
trying to take the picture!  You can just barely see Julie -- She
jumped at just the right moment and is just to the left in the
picture between Valerie and Minnie's ear!

Well you all have a good week!!
~me

Hello! How's everyone's week going?

To update you all -- I did end up breaking out in shingles on Saturday
morning - it's turned out to be a pretty bad case of them (probably the
worst I've had or there abouts). My oncologist ended up wanting
to see me to check all my blood levels, so I did get my CT results back
-- everything negative! WHOOT! WHOOT! Praise God! All my
blood levels were good, too, so they just put me on a very HIGH dose of
antiviral. That was Monday afternoon, so this morning I think I
am feeling less pain than I have, so hopefully that means the meds are
working!

We had our monthly Girls Night Out last night -- very fun. We
played Gestures -- fun game, especially with a large group! Good
friends -- good fellowship!

We have been excited that both 24 and A.I. (american idol) are back on. These are two of our fav shows!

This weekend we had a sermon on God's sovereignty .... wow! It
is so good to hear how He is sovereign over and over until we are
actually walking in that truth daily in every situation.

Love to you all!

~me

EDIT-------

I was visiting country_sunshine's xanga and she had "this week's photo challenge" which was "making everyday kitchen objects into art. Food can be included." 
I was thinking that the only art in my kitchen is the self-making kind
- messes left on the counter, drips in the refrig, etc-- which made me
think of a funny from years ago.  Our dishwasher broke, and we got
a new one.  Steve swept under it before we put the new one in --
GROSS, I tell you!!  So he took a picture of it.  At the time
the kids were little and we were really into the I Spy book series and
we thought it looked like one of those, so we made up one to it... here
it is:

--------END EDIT


FuzzyDi is right... enough time off!!
You're so funny!! Thanks all of you who missed me and left notes. 
It's so nice to be loved!! *sniff*

Haven't heard anything re:CT scan, but that's good news.  What I don't
want is a call asking me to come in to discuss the results -- No news
is good news.


Well, this week has been a very busy one -- I know -- I know -- I say
that every time, but life just seems to be in fast motion lately for me
and my body is not keeping up with it.

I got sick last week with a
cold -- but not a stuffy nose one; more like in my throat and in the
back of my nose and my ears - very clogged ears!  So Monday and
Tuesday I spent with a very bad sinus headache.  Wednesday I
started in with a migraine, which that lasted until today. 
Finally, tonight it is gone, I hope, for good. BUT...

...now I have excruciating shingle pain.  It hasn't broke out yet and I'm on an antiviral so hopefully if it does, it
won't be horribly bad, but the pain.... oh, the pain!  It's on the
outside of my left hip and down the side and front of my leg so it
hurts to wear pants; it hurts to walk, sit, lie down, etc, etc, etc....
For those of you who have never had shingles, before you break out with
them your skin feels extremely sensitive to the touch - I would liken
it to having a bad burn- so any clothing that touches it, etc,
hurts.  Also the muscle or the nerves to the muscle involved ache
and stiffen.  And I have flu like symptoms - sore throat, minor
fever, etc.  So, basically... it stinks!  It only concerns me
because when I get to this point it means that my immune system is in a
free fall.  I don't want to end up with some other cancer!  I
gotta get my immune system up and running good -- but I gotta be
healthy for that -- catch 22!

********END WHINING SESSION
Thank you for listening**********

So now do you see why I haven't been posting... I mean, who really wants to hear all of that!!!



I wish I had some wonderful thing to post for you all, but nah, nothing
comes to mind.  So I will just quiet up now and wait for something
more interesting to say!!



Love to you all!

~me

I wanted to let everyone know that my stomach ache/heartburn thingie went away! Yeah!  No trip to the doctor. 

My parents came down for Christmas and we dropped them off yesterday in
Los Angeles as they were going to meet up with friends from Nevada and
go to the Rose Parade.  It is supposed to RAIN RAIN RAIN
tomorrow.  First time in over 50 years -- and my dad has a walking
cast and walks with a walker as he fractured and dislocated his ankle
the Sunday before Christmas.  They are seated 10 rows up in these
bleachers that they need to walk 4 1/2 blocks to get to.  The
travel group they are with told him that he couldn't bring his walker
because there was no where to store it -- HA!  He's has to take it
because he can't walk 4 1/2 blocks without it... 
-- YIKES! I can't image how it's going to work out. I can't image how
he's going to get up and down these narrow bleachers in the
RAIN...  I'll be interested in hearing from them how it turns out!

I took down the decorations today -- but the tree is still very much
alive, so we took off all the ornaments, but kept on the lights -- I
think we'll keep it up for another week -- we'll just think of it as a
gigantic house plant with lights!

Here are some pictures from last night:

These two pictures are of the older kids who spent the later part of the evening out side.  We were
lucky it didn't rain last night as it had predicted. My hubby started a
fire in the fire pit -- you can see it going in the background of the above picture -- that
took off the chill a bit!

Most of the gang (the rest are in the kitchen to the right of the
picture) counting down the last seconds!  Everyone with poppers in
hand -- I think I bought a thing that had 60 poppers -- so you can
imagine the amount of confetti and popping going off!

Love to you all !
~me

Hello all!!
Ya know -- I thought having 5 weeks off schooling that I would be on
xanga all the time checking up on you all, but there just hasn't been
too many moments.  So, sorry I haven't been around.

My parents come in tomorrow morning and my brother comes in tomorrow night.  Looking forward to a happy time!

I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas!  Keep Christ first in all of your celebrations!!!

~me