Praise God!

I only know one family that lives in the New Orleans area. A couple that I knew in high school and college from my parents congregation. They were also at A&M during the time I was there. I had not talked to them in years but kinda kept in touch with them through friends at my parents church. Anyway, I got to worrying about them, so I looked up their e-mail address on their church web site and sent them a note, not expecting to hear from them since there is no electricity in the area. I got an e-mail back from D, they are all okay! He works for the electric company in La and they moved him to an office in Little Rock, Ark and of course he is swamped with work trying to get everyone's electricity back on (he works with the computers) so I didn't get a long note but enough to know that he and his family are safe. He did not mention what condition his house was in, just that the family was safe. He is a great Christian guy and he KNOWS that is what is important. I just wanted to share this with you guys in blogland. I am so thankful and happy that my friends are okay!

Way to go Granny and Papa

I just got an e-mail from my Mom (yes, she has figured out how to use her computer and the internet!) She said that she got a call from the church secretary early this morning that there were some hurricane refugees being sheltered at the Bible Chair at Lamar University (in Beaumont,TX) and that they needed some help. So my parents rounded up some donations from fellow Christians and my Dad smoked up some sausage for their dinner. They took bedding and other supplies down to the Bible Chair as well as the food for dinner. Mom was saying how good it felt to actually be able to do something for these poor folks instead of just sitting around watching the news saying "I wish there was something I could do!" I just thought I would share this with my blog friends. I am very proud of my parents. I thank the Lord that he gave me such good parents, who continue to be good examples for me and my family.

Hurricane Victims!

Just wanted to send out a prayer request for all the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Having grown up on the Texas coast, I am well versed in the danger they bring, with the high winds and rising water. My heart is heavy for the people in the SuperDome, the news says many of them are sick, old and have no place else to go. I can't imagine how uncomfortable they must all be, especially with no A/C and two holes in the roof. Let's all just pray that the damage is minimal and that most can return home soon. Also that cool heads will rule and people will practice patience and goodwill towards each other. Blessings to all of you whatever your situation is right now!

MICK HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!

Rejoice with me, I have managed to pass most of that awful stone! Dr. says I may have a rough weekend ahead as I get rid of the rest of it but the worst should be over soon! I feel bruised and battered but very happy. More news when I feel a bit better! Thanks to all who prayed for me, I know that helped tremendously!

Ahhhhhhh, a little relief!

Things are going better today after a perfectly horrible couple of days. No unfortunately, Mick is still in residence but the stent going from my kidney to my bladder is not. It was just getting progressively more painful with every passing day, so I went to my doctor today and he agreed to remove the stent. It is possible that I could end up in major pain like I had at the beginning but it is not likely. I am looking forward to being able to sleep through the night without having to pee every half hour. I am not walking bow legged anymore. It was one of those things where the cure was as bad or worse than the disease. Dr. says that sometimes removing the stent will jar kidney stone and make you pass it. Here's hoping and praying for that scenerio! Otherwise we are scheduled to blast that Mick to kingdom come on Monday the 29th. Other good news for today, I had my pre-op bloodwork done and the guy got it on the first try (instead of 6th like the last guy) Bless his heart, I almost kissed him! Things are not perfect, I still have a big kidney stone, still have a lot of pain and am still tired but I am so grateful and thankful to be rid of that stent. Thank you Lord for relieving some of my pain! I know I am incredibly blessed and am sorry that sometimes I let the pain and circumstances of life blind me to the fact that I am so extremely blessed.

Add to 7 lists

I forgot a couple of things on the 7 list

Aparently something I cannot do is PASS A KIDNEY STONE without medical intervention.

Celebrity crushes: Mick Jagger (NOT) ( there is a reason that I named my kidney stone after him!)

Ya'll have a good evening, only 6 more days till this stone goes away, Praise The Lord!

7 things

Can't think of anything to blog about today so I thought I would do the "7 things" that I saw on Sandy's blog.
these are not listed in order of importance.

7 things I want to do before I die
1. share the gospel with as many people as possible
2. go to Hawaii (hopefully in Feb. for our anniversary)
3. go to Ireland
4. own a metallic blue Lexus RX330
5. skydive
6. see my daughter baptized, married and have children of her own (in that order)
7. pass this kidney stone!!!!!!

7 things I can do
1. sign language
2. cook
3. sew
4. carry a tune
5. listen
6. teach Bible class
7. love unconditionally (most of the time)

7 things I cannot do
1. skydive
2. lose weight
3. keep my house uncluttered for any length of time
4. swim well ( dog paddle alot)
5. paint and or draw ( can copy pretty well but not creative)
6. accessorize my house
7.turn my back on my Lord and my family

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1. sense of humor
2. compassion
3. beard
4. strawberry blonde hair
5. ability to laugh at self
6. Christian man
7. unselfishness
they all describe my darling hubby to a T

7 things I say
1. "oh my"
2. "what did I just tell you?"
3. "I know it was an accident"
4. "you did WHAT?"
5. " hurry, we are going to be late"
6. "I Love You"
7. "we'll see"

7 celebrity crushes
this is hard because I generally find celebrities unattractive because of their lifestyles but I will put down the men I think are physically attractive
1. Mark Consuello ( Kelly Ripa's hubby)
2. Sean Connery (younger version)
3. Pierce Bronson
4. Patrick Steward (star trek)
5. James Denton (desperate housewives)
6. Viggo Mortenson ( aragorn LOTR)
7. Harrison Ford

7 people I want to do this
first seven people to read this blog who have not already done it. Leave me a comment so I can go read it

My Mom got a new computer!

My Mom finally took the big step of buying herself a computer. Actually, she gave us her credit card number and had my husband (our resident computer nerd) buy her one over the internet. Surprisingly, she got it after only a few days, not the two weeks the company said it would take. The first day she got it, it sat on the table. My Dad said "let's open it". Mom says"no way". Day two, she worked up enough nerve to open the boxes and put it on the table. They hooked up all the cables and wires but she refused to plug it in. My brother (who lives in town) told her that he would try to come by and help her get it set up, but that he might not make it over for a day or two so to plug it in and see what happens. Nope, she would not plug it in. Third day, she decides that she will plug it in but the monitor won't come on. So she calls technical support and after a 10 minute wait gets someone in India, they help her figure out that a cable is in the wrong spot and they get it to working. She wants to connect to the internet but feels overwhelmed, after several hours, she braves it and establishes an internet connection and gets her very first e-mail account ( at 68 years of age). Day four, she tries all day to connect to the internet again but can't manage to get it to work, she finally calls me at 8 pm and my wonderful hubby walks her through it all and somehow they get her connected again. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Bless her heart, she is finally in the 21st century! She has drug her heels and has had a few panic attacks along the way but by golly she is here now! Way to go Mama!!! So far she has only called us about 6 times in three days so maybe her phone bill won't be too bad either! I am picking at her a little bit but seriously I am proud of her for overcoming her fears of the internet. Of course, the woman who called her at 4:30 am this morning and greeted her with "I heard you bought a new Dell Computer" did nothing to alleviate those fears. My Mom asked her if she realized that it was 4:30 in the morning and the woman said "Oh, I am sorry I thought this was my cousin"and promptly hung up on her. That is a bunch of bull, no one except Dell knew she bought a computer so it had to be someone at Dell who messed up on the time zones. (calling from India, maybe!) I think I have convinced her they are not spying on her through the internet but we will see. By the way that scum Mick Jagged is still in the house! Aughhhhhhhhh

Bootstrap pulling time!

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired so I am not going to do it anymore. I had promised at the end of last school year that I would help get the reading resource bookroom set up at my daughters new school. I was all ready to get in there once they opened the building ( the second week of Aug) when ol' Mick came for his unwanted (and ongoing visit). OH how I wish that man would leave!!!!! So today I decided that I was going up there and start working no matter how I felt. I put in a good two hours before I had to come home. I am pretty much wiped out but feel good that I got something done. I hope that once this is all over ( either I pass this stone or they zap it with the laser on the 29th) that the doctor can tell me what caused it and how to prevent it from ever happening again. I feel like I have wasted two weeks of my life waiting on this stupid rock to make it's painful journey. I am sick of talking about it and I know everyone is sick of hearing about it. I am going to try to take a Paul approach to this and just accept this as my "thorn in the flesh" and try to go on with life as best I can.

On a more positive note, I have a funny to tell about my 7 year old. She was misbehaving at dinner on Monday night and she had to leave the table before dinner was over (she had eaten most of her dinner so I was not starving the child) and I would not give her anything else to eat that night because she had been "willfully disobedient" So she whined and carried on most of the evening about how we were starving her and how I should give her a second chance. She went to bed that night without anything else to eat but I fixed her a big breakfast the next morning and sent her off to school on the bus. She gets off the bus in the afternoon, all smiles and as we are walking into the house she looks up at me with the big green eyes and the sweetest voice and asks "Mama, do I get to eat dinner tonight?" I could hardly keep from laughing, I said "yes, you may have dinner tonight as long as you choose to mind me" and she said "I will, I will" So, I guess that was a lessoned learned!

AH....The Sound of Silence

I got my house back! It is official, Summer is over! Darling daughter is back in school as of 7:30 this morning and the house is quiet again. Sure did not start out that way though, of all the mornings for us to oversleep. Hubby thought the alarm was set, it was, just not turned on! I had a rough night with ol' Mick and was up and down alot so when I woke up this morning and hubby was still asleep I though it must not be time to get up yet, then I realized it is awfully bright in here for 6 am. It was 6:51 am!!!!!! Major Panic attack! So everybody flew into action, I fixed DD some breakfast and DH got her up. He was a little confused and had her brush her teeth before breakfast but "no harm, no foul" She just brushed them again after she ate. We got her fed, dressed , brushed, took the traditional in front of house picture and were in the car by 7:15 and at school before 7:30. She is so big now, she was so focused on getting into her classroom, she did not even tell us bye. We called her back for last minute hugs and pictures. I hope that she has a wonderful first day of school and I pray that God blesses all the teachers at her new school with patience and knowledge for they are caring for our most precious gifts. Blessings to all of you!

Open House Tonight!

Tonight we are going to my daughters open house to meet her teacher and classmates. This is a brand new school and K will be attending 2nd grade there. We had a serious overcrowding problem at her last school and so the district opened up three new elementary schools in this area. However, we are already at capacity with this school so I don't know what the district is going to do now. I have watched this school built from the ground up and am excited to finally get to see it finished. K will have some of the same classmates but almost all the teachers are new and it is a new environment, so she has a little anxiety about starting school on Monday. Hopefully, seeing the school and meeting the teacher will put her more at ease about it all. The last two years have been great so I hope and pray this year will follow suit. Keep us in your prayers.

Mick Jagged

We decided that the kidney stone needs a name so he has been named Mick Jagged because he is trully a Rolling Stone. I thought it should be a guy because a girl would not give me this much grief and would definitely make her presence known and then get on out of there. This guy is rolling around having a good old time, oblivious to my pain. Seriously, we just thought that was a funny name! My parents have been here helping out this week but are going home tomorrow. My Dad lost a filling yesterday so he need to get on to his dentist, he says it doesn't hurt but that can change quickly. I went back to the urologist today and he is scheduling me for more surgery in a couple of weeks. There is a chance that I may still pass the silly thing but it is looking less likely all the time. Apparently it is Kidney Stone Season and they are having a run on surgery appt so it is going to take a couple of weeks to schedule me in! He said that the surgery would be a lot like the stent procedure but that he would blow the stone to bits with a laser, I asked him why he did not do that while he was in there on Friday and he said well that was an emergency proceedure and he was just trying to allieviate my pain. I am sure there were some insurance issues involved and face it, he makes more money doing two proceedures. So that is where we stand with the lovely kidney stone. I appreciate my parents help so much and I know I am still in for a few rough days but school starts here monday so maybe things will be back to semi normal and who knows maybe that silly stone will make its appearance and there will be no need for more surgery. Please keep us in your prayers.

Warning: Blogging Causes Kidney Stones!

Or at least is seems that way! Weds. morning I woke up with the most horrible pain in my right side and I am thinking too high for appendicitis, too low for gallbladder, what is this? After 4 hours in the ER, ultrasound and CT, we have found the problem: a lovely kidney stone! They send me home with lots of pain medicine and an appt with an urologist on Thurs. Thurs I see the doctor, he thinks I can pass the stone in a few weeks(?????) without surgery by just using pain meds.(So what am I supposed to do put my 7 yr old on hold for a few weeks?) I am wary but go on home. Thursday night, vomit all night long, I can't keep the pain meds down, I can't sleep, poor hubby can't sleep. Miserable night. Friday, surgery to place a stint in to alleviate the vomiting and hopefully doctor can pull out that sucker. Nothing medical is ever easy with me...they tried 6 times to place the IV, poked and dug around so much, both arms are sore. Finally got it on the last try ( that was stupid to write, of course they got it on the last try, what was I going to do say, "stick me once more just for fun!") Doc was able to pull out some of the stone, and showed it to my husband. Told him that he had learned from experience not to keep pulling if stone did not want to come out. So, what I am wondering is if he can't pull it out, how am I supposed to get it out? Anyway, they sent me on home last night. It was a much better night, I still woke up every couple of hours but I wasn't vomiting anymore and the pain was not as bad. I feel as though I have been hit by a truck (or at least what I imagine that must feel like, not ever actually enjoyed that experience). Sandy, I can definitely relate to your little boy, because it hurts to pee! I can at least understand it a little I know he is so confused. I am still on drugs so I apologize if this post is incoherent or misspelled. I know I have some rough days ahead but I have been blessed with the best family and friends. My friend Carrie, kept my little girl during the day on both Weds. and Thurs and then my friend Joy, called and asked my daughter over for a play date on Friday (at the exact time I found out I needed the day surgery) How is that for God supplying exactly what you need, when you need it! It was amazing because Joy did not even know that I was having the kidney stone problem! I can't even write this without crying because of my fantastic husband. He has been right beside me every second since I called him at work Weds. morning and told him how bad I was hurting. He is my best friend and protector. I thought he was going to slug that nurse last night because he could not get the IV going and was hurting me so badly, hubby does not get mad easily or quickly but he was not happy with that nurse. I apologize for the long post but please keep me in your prayers for a quick recovery, school starts next week so we need to get back to normal around here.

Similarity in Kids

I recently got a chuckle out of a post by my friend, TMK about her son finding some old pictures and wanting to know who the guy was with Mom and did Dad know about him. Today I am writting a comment on a blog and my 7 year old daughter wants to know "Who is Mark? ( Minister from a church we used to attend in VA) and "does Daddy know about him?" Yes. Finally she winds it all up with "Should I be concerned about this?" I assure her that neither herself or her Dad needs to worry about this but wonder where she picked up these ideas. Seems like 7 year olds should be worrying about dolls and if they can have ice cream for dessert, not whether it is wrong for Mom to write a man a note. World sure is changing! I think that my family is removed from the threat of divorce (as the only D word my husband and I know is DEATH, as in "one of us may die but there will be no divorce!") but I guess it does touch my daughter and there is some fear there. I think I will close and go kiss my husband and reassure her a little that he is the only one for me!

And so it begins...

After spending several months reading other people's blogs and hearing my husband say " you really ought to start your own" I am ready to take the plunge. I am not sure I have anything worth sharing but some people say I have a funny way of looking at life. So here we go, SPLASH !!!