K- My daughter the Hero!

K saved the day yesterday ( or at least the house) School is out early this week for teacher conferences and K and her little friend S were in the family room watching a video. I had just been downstairs and fixed them popcorn and a rootbeer (this is significant because I had to get the rootbeer from the 2nd fridge which is in the laundryroom). They were fine so I went upstairs to (what else) read my blogs. Not five minutes later, K is screaming for me that there is water in the hall. I fly down the stairs and there is water coming into the familyroom, masterbedroom, hall and laundryroom. The hot water hose to the washer had split and a geiser was shooting up, hitting the shelf over it and literally raining in the laundry room. I start in to turn the water off and realize that first it is hot water and second I have an expensive hearing aid on that will ruin if I go running in there. So a quick detour to remove the hearing aid and then I turned off the water. It was hot but it did not burn me.

What a mess, it was about 2 inches deep in the laundry room and running out the back door into the garage. I got ahold of my hubby ( he just loves to get my phone calls these days!) and called the insurance, they connected me with a water extraction company who came within the hour. So we started moving furniture out of the way and emptying closets ( what a job) They tore up the carpets and cut out the padding, took off baseboards to let the walls dry. They had to cut two big holes in the closet to get to the area under the stairs which was full of water. All of this in less than 5 minutes of running water. They brought in 12 fans and 2 big dehumidifyers and it is noisy and windy in my house now. I know just a little of how hurricane victims feel now.

It is our new family joke that my parents and my brother get the hurricane ( they still have no water or electricity) and I get the flood! How fair is that? The main carpet area affected is the area that we were planning to ceramic tile anyways, so maybe this will spur us on to go ahead and do it.

Today is my day to work in the workroom at school and also I have a conference with K teacher today so I guess I better get hopping. It is good to keep my mind off this mess. All we can really do right now is wait and hope it drys out with no mold forming. Hope all of my friends out there are staying dry and go check your washer hoses RIGHT now!

Prayer request regarding Rita

I heard from my parents last night and they are safely in Ark at the camp house. My mom had emailed me a day or so ago and asked me what I wanted her to save from the house when they evacuated. I wrote her back and said that was a no brainer, I wanted her to save herself and my dad! Then I suggested she take her important papers and her photo albums and leave everything else for the insurance. Nothing in that house is worth dying for, so just leave it. My brother is the Fire Chief in the town they live in so he is not able to leave. So the first prayer request is for him and his family. Then my husbands older brother lives in Houston and has decided to stay home to repair any damage that might occur. They live in the northern part of Houston area so they should not flood. His family left last night and are at my husband's parents place in Dallas. So he is prayer request number 2. I just got back from the grocery store and it is a mad house. The only problem we may have in this area is losing electricity. Our area has not flooded in the 5 years we have been here and we have had some doozy of floods in this area, so it is unlikely we would be flooded but very likely we could lose electricity. The news just reported that it looks like Rita is turning and will go in around the Tx/La border (right where my parents and brother live) that is good news for my area but not so good for my family. Please Pray! This turning of the hurricane also means that New Orleans could recieve a lot of rain which they absolutely don't need!

Survived Another Year (and Birthday!)

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, it has been a busy week. The weekend was good, hubby and I got some alone time on Friday. We hired a babysitter and went to eat seafood ( darling daughter doesn't like seafood, so it was a good time to go) Nice to be together even if he was in a quiet mood that night. Sat. was filled with errands and picking up the car from the shop, big bucks to get the A/C fixed but after spending most of the summer with subpar A/C enough was enough! Sunday was busy with church and life group activities.

Monday was good in that K went back to school and stayed there! I had my physical therapy and they did not forget me on the bike! After school was dance class and then home to hubby! He had gotten off work a little early (rare thing for him) and wrapped (?) my birthday present. Now by wrap, I mean that he wrapped the box in bubble wrap and put a plastic pink lei (the kind the kids get at parties!) on top. I might mention that he had to walk by not one but two rolls of wrapping paper to even get to the bubble wrap but hey he gets points for wrapping and remembering to get me a present. My bubble wrap present was a shredder! What a romantic guy I have! He did buy me a watch for my daughter to give me and that one actually got put in a gift bag! He had ordered pizza for supper so what more could a girl ask for?

People keep asking me if I had a good birthday! I had an okay birthday but maybe not the most memorable one I have ever had! I have a great husband, a sweet daughter, all the earthly possessions I need and many that I just want (and lots that I neither need or want!) I have family and friends that love me. I have a God who loves me best! So if my birthday was not the most exciting day of the year, so what! I am trully blessed and thankful for what I have. I still have a girls night out this weekend to celebrate with my friends so it ain't over yet!

A quick prayer request, my parents just informed me that they are evacuees from Hurricane Rita! They have a camp house in Arkansas to go to so they are more fortunate than most. Please pray that this will not be another killer storm and no more people will die!

Lesson Learned!

Darling daughter woke up this morning complaining that her stomach hurt. I did not pay much attention as her stomach hurts or she feels like she is going to throw up at least two mornings a week. Usually it is just a matter of getting woke up and dressed to get over being sick. Besides it was picture day and I had ironed her dress ( I hate to iron!) So I sent her off to school on the bus and told her that if she was still sick at school the nurse would call me. The bus left the house at 7:12 and I got the first call from the nurse at 7:55, school starts at 7:45. The nurse said she had been in the office complaining of a stomach ache but did not have fever so she sent her back to class. The second call from the nurse came at 8:05, K had vomitted (fortunately for all she made it to the restroom) so off to school I went to pick her up! I guess I should have believed her. She looked fine when I got there and the nurse even sent us off with a plastic bag to have her picture taken so she would not miss picture day. She probably could have stayed at school but school policy said she had to go home. She has not gotten sick again today and has been eating. She doesn't feel good but it doesn't seem to be a virus. Don't know what it was but hopefully it is gone now. In my defense the school nurse did not think she was sick either and she is a "trained professional" As if I don't have enough guilt in my life. Here's wishing all of you healthy happy children!

Wonderful News!

I just got a call from one of our Elder's sons. He was calling to tell me that his Dad's bypass surgery was a success. You could hear the relief in his voice. He said the doctors were all pleased and that he had seen his dad briefly in ICU and he looked good. Praise God! This Elder is one of the best people I know. He has had a rough summer in that he lost his wife of 52 years suddenly and he has been helping to take care of his terminally ill sister also.

When we first moved to this church 5 years ago, he was the first person that we really connected with. K had eye surgery within just a few weeks of us placing membership and he came to the hospital and sat with us while she had the procedure. He has a powerful love for K and he has been so patient with her. When we first came to church she was so "man shy", she would not even shake his hand but would bury her head every time he came around. He never pushed her but just kept coming back and getting down on her level to talk to her. Over the course of a couple of years, they progressed to hand shakes, then to talking and finally to big hugs. Now she loves him like he is one of her grandparents and always seeks him out at church for her hugs.

So I am so happy that this surgery went well and we can hopefully keep him around for many, many more years. Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers and keeping our Brother H. safe.

Physical Therapy

I am finally getting some physical therapy for my shoulders. They have been bothering me for awhile but kinda got put on the back burner while I was dealing with my kidney stone. Funny but shoulders don't hurt much when you have a kidney stone or maybe the pain meds just drowned them out! I like the doctor at this place, he is easy to talk to and seems to listen to me. The rest of his staff I am not so sure about but I will try not to make any lasting judgements until I give them a couple of chances to redeem themselves. One of them put me on a exercise bike, the kind that works your arms too, and told me to do it for 10 minutes. She did not set the timer, and promptly forgot about me. I did not have a watch on so I did not know how long it had been but after the second person came and did their cycling and left I got to thinking maybe I had been forgotten. The arm motion was not so bad but the seat was uncomfortable and boy is my butt sore! Things kinda went down hill from there. I think we overdid the shoulder(with the bike) so the other exercises were painful and I was in tears by the time I got to the doctor. He was upset because he had told the staff not to push me, that the idea was to loosen up my shoulder and it should cause no pain. So nobody was happy by that point! He spent time manipulating my neck and shoulders and that always feels nice and then more exercising and then we end it with the electrode therapy ( whatever they call that, where they zap your muscles) and ice down the shoulder (brrr cold!) This will be my routine for the next 4 weeks, three times a week with daily exercise routine as well. Have I meantioned that I hate to exercise! But I hate shoulder pain and not sleeping more, so wish me luck and pray this works.

Exactly, What do I believe?

I have been struggling with this one for awhile now! Life as my parents and my husband's grandparents view it is so simple. You believe what you have been taught about the church for the last 50+ years. I have been reading a lot of blogs from members of my "denomination" ( although we say we are Non denominational) and some of them are embracing things that fly in the face of my "conservative" upbringing. Even my own congregations seems to be getting wrapped up in this need to be bigger and better and more progressive. Some of the things I accept as outside my comfort zone and not spiritually or biblically incorrect but some just seem wrong. I also question, why we suddenly (or at least it seems sudden) need to make all these changes. Why is change being forced upon people who for what ever reason do not want this change? Why is it not enough that some people are hurt by these actions and are uncomfortable with them in church. It seems like the needs of the people who are uncomfortable with the changes should be equal or perhaps even more weighty than those who are just looking to change things to spice things up. I really fear that if all these changes continue to take place at this fast pace that the end result will not be one of growth but will cause people to leave the congregation . Don't get me wrong I can see the need for some changes and I am in no way as conservative as my parents and grandparents but still question what is the big rush. I have friends at church who are more conservative and friends that lean towards more liberal (although I dispise those two words) and I don't want to lose any of them over these changes. I also don't want to say one group should have more influence over the other, although if I am forced to choose then I think we should err on the side of caution. I don't think the more liberal minded people are going to leave over these things but I think the conservatives just might. I realize that I am being a little vague about all of these but just sharing what has been on my mind for awhile. So I am forced to ask myself "What Do You Really Believe? " "Is this a spiritual issue or a comfort issue?" and "What do I need to do about it?" I know that prayer and serious study time will help and I need to make a committment to do both!

So So Sad!

This is such a sad time, it is really hard not to become seriously depressed. I know that I should not watch so much T.V. or read the internet news all the time because it is affecting me so but it is like I am drawn to it. I think I keep hoping that a little good news will be thrown in but let's face it that's not what they like to report on. Poor Hubby pulled a muscle (or something) in his back this morning, so he is laid out with back pain. It is raining but fortunately my daughter has a little friend over and they are playing nicely together so it is reasonably quiet here. I think I will go read a book or something to take my mind off all the negative and try to focus on the positive for awhile. Here's wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable weekend.

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.