Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

My mom turns 60 on Tuesday, October 5th.  In less than one week's time, we managed to pull off coordinating a party to celebrate on Friday, October 1st.  We told her on Thursday that we would be celebrating her birthday at my house on Friday, but we did not mention that we were inviting friends and extended family members.  Unfortunately, my dad, the worry wart, spilled the beans when they were on their way to the party.  He apparently worried all week about whether we would have enough food for everyone and what we would do about seating, as very few people have homes where they can seat 40 people.  After he made Mom mad by ruining the surprise, he had a good time himself and told her the next morning that she should not have been so worried. UGH!  Yes, she should receive sainthood just for putting up with him for 41+ years.  Despite her anger with Dad, she loved the party. 

We served barbecue (courtesy of Jonathan and Danielle) with sides of hash brown casserole (courtesy of Tara), green beans, baked beans, California Cole slaw and chips.  Cupcakes and ice cream were on hand for dessert.  YUMMY!  We did have plenty of food.  Tessa took care of more details than I can count. 

We kicked off the night with prayer and singing "Happy Birthday."

This is a former neighbor.  Barbara's daughter, Stacey, and I grew up together, and her son Patrick grew up with Jonathan. 

These are mom's nurse friends.

my Uncle Jack (mom's brother) and Aunt Janie

                                                 Mom and Tiffany

Dad and Pat (former neighbor - Barbara's husband)

Patrick, Nicole, Jacob, and Kaleigh

Karlee and Stacey

Scott (Stacey's husband)

Tara

Andy (Julia took most of the pictures, so the perspective is mostly looking up)

Jonathan

Kaleigh, Jacob, Jordan, Savannah, Wyatt, and Julia

Zach

Mom's best friend, Kim

Eric is married to my cousin, Susie

Lesley is Eric's and Susie's daughter and the same age as Julia.  She and Savannah had a good time again.

Susie and Tiffany

Joshua has been sick, and it shows in this picture.

Mom and Uncle Jack

Regan

I am so grateful that all worked out and that Mom had a great time and felt good enough to enjoy it.  Of course, I am most grateful for such a great mom!

Finally getting around to posting about Labor Day Weekend

Before Regan arrived, I left off blogging with the news that we would be taking Wyatt on an adventure tailored to his love of rocks and desire to see the inside of a cave.  On Saturday September 4th, we started our day a little later than hoped (not unusual at all here) and headed out of town to visit a quaint and fun little place.  The kids toured the cave.  Andy and I have been in this particular cave before, and we are watching our budget, so we wandered around the village while the kids were in the cave.  Zach and Savannah reported that Wyatt was intimidated by the stairs.  He came out of the cave pumped for some mining fun.

Our budding geologist mined for gems and was thrilled to take home a bag full of fancy rocks.  He was mad that I did not return to get a particularly shiny rock that he wanted, but we were a bit rushed.

Candle making and a trip to the mill followed.

We finished the day with a trip to the candy shop and questions from Wyatt about how soon we can return.

Labor Day weekend fun continued on Sunday when we joined my parents and siblings for a humongous meal.  Zach and Savannah slept over at Tiffany's, and Wyatt and Julia stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was back to work on Labor Day for me (at my part time job, which I decided to keep).

Surgery and Back to School

This is the latest in our home:

update on Mom:

On Monday the results of the scans arrived.  As usual Mom is not a usual patient.  She has a spot on her liver again. One spot is quite unusual.  Given the choice of surgery now or more chemo in hopes of surgery later, Mom chose surgery now, and her surgery should take place on August 26th.  This is a major surgery, the Whipple.  As I have said before, mention it to a medical person, and they will gasp...it is a big deal!  However, it is the only known cure, and the decision was made with prayer and comes with peace.

back to school:

Monday was also back to school day for the girls.  Classmates from preschool and kindergarten fill Julia's classroom.  A young, soft-spoken teacher leads them, and Julia's biggest excitement over the start of school was her "under desk."  No more tables in first grade.  She has her own lift top desk and it excites her as much as lockers excite middle schoolers.

School actually started today for Zach, Savannah, and Julia with a heat index that is off the charts and a 40 minute ride in an non air conditioned bus for Zach and Savannah. Wyatt went to work with me, and we enjoyed lunch out with a couple of my colleagues.

This is the rundown from today.

Zach started high school.  He talks when I pick him up from football, and it is just the two of us in the car, so I hope I get to do this often.  During English his teacher gave the stern, English teacher warning that she does not tolerate nonsense.  During her discussion on this point, Zach poised three pencils between his knuckles, messed up his hair and posed as a wolverine.  She just stopped and looked at him.  Of course, the entire class followed suit, and laughter ensued, even from the teacher.  His quest to be the class clown seems to be perfectly on track. 

I also learned during our conversation that he has to fill a bag with stuff about himself.  He wants to include something from China.  I cautioned him to leave his things from China at home as most are breakable, and all are irreplaceable.  He then revealed that he took a bone dragon to school in sixth grade when they studied China, and it was passed around the class and returned to him broken.  As I recall, he had his heart set on that dragon when we saw it in Hong Kong, and we splurged on it despite the rather high price.  sigh

Savannah -After spending a year in classes with one of her dearest friends, Savannah learned today that they have no classes at all together this year.  Seventh grade means no more teams, so her classes are a mixture, and few of them include her closest friends.  She really likes her Bible class.  I met her teacher once when he was moonlighting at a local restaurant over the summer.  He was Zach's track coach and seems like a top-notch guy. 

It thrills us that Savannah got the same math teacher Zach had last year.  She loves Zach, and she teaches math quite well.  I told her that she survived Zach for two years, and now she gets the one who loves math.  I happened to point out that Savannah does not care for literature as much as her brother without realizing I was also speaking with her English teacher. Oops. The math teacher pointed out that Zach is better in math than he lets himself believe...hmm, kind of suspected that all along.

Julia - Julia said little about her day today.  She had some Nerds and was happy about that.

Wyatt- Wyatt did not start school today.  He starts on Tuesday.  Wyatt prays during our devotional time every day that he can return to the school of his siblings.  He also wants to return to AWANA and to take martial arts. We are working on the AWANA and martial arts, but we obviously can't return him to the school for more reasons than the tuition is out of reach.  However, I ran into the second grade teacher who had both Zach and Savannah and learned that the second grade classes have 12 or 13 students.  That would be a huge benefit to Wyatt.  The classes should remain small, so maybe next year.

a very important comparison of backpacks started Julia's day at school

Might I add that it was 10 years ago that Zach started kindergarten, and this year was the first (I am guessing the last as well) that I have ever seen my kids off to school on the first day!

Happy Independence Day!

If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

My prayer is that the people of God in the land that I love will do just that, and after a powerful sermon to start our July 4th holiday, I am convinced that this needs to start in my own home.

We began our celebration with a church service.  I love the way our church honors our military on this holiday.  It is inspiring and proud.  Our minister followed it up with one of the most powerful and necessary sermons I have heard in a while.  Don't get me wrong, our ministers deliver amazing sermons on a regular basis.

After church I learned just how much I need Andy as I tried to gather four children to leave and kept losing them.  Zach headed back to the youth building to hang out with friends when he didn't immediately find me at our normal meeting spot.  Savannah tried to find me in my class because she thought she was early.  I ducked into the bookstore and lost Wyatt in the process.  I was suffering with a runny eye after a chemical burn to both my eyes on Friday and was just impressed that I made it through the church service and my Sunday school class. Whew!

Upon our return home, I rested my eyes for a couple of hours and then we headed to my parent's home (after a stop for a much needed haircut for me).  We feasted on grilled meat, hash brown casserole and other assorted dishes before my brother Joshua pulled out his stash of fireworks.  The show was a hit, but shortly before it started I picked up an eye patch to ease the strain on my suffering left eye, so I am sure we looked like a motley crew to the neighbors with my mom's bandanna and my pirate look. Hey, sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself, right?

In order to give credit where credit is due, I must say that Julia took most of the pictures of people.  She has a good eye for photography.

I am sure that I peaked some curiosity about my eyes.  At this point they are much better, but I am still wearing only one contact which is annoying.  They tend to worsen as the day progresses, so I am hoping they are still okay when I go for orientation and paperwork at my new job today.  The story behind this issue follows.

On Friday, I went to see my eye doctor for a routine exam. I need both new contacts and new glasses, so I wanted to get that settled as I was wearing my last full pair of contacts. For contact wearers, you typically wear your contacts through the first part of the exam and then take them out and put them back in later in the exam.

I had forgotten my case, so I was given a case and directed to a sink where I could wash up and remove my contacts. When I put them in the case, I filled the case with a bottle of what I thought was solution sitting next to the sink. However, when I tried to wear my contacts again, they stung like crazy. I took them out and rinsed them in solution and then was able to wear them, but the sting was still present. I was unable to see well enough to choose glasses, so I went home ASAP and removed my contacts and soaked them in my regular solution for an hour while I napped. When I put my contacts in again, I found my vision to be foggy. On Saturday, my contacts were comfortable again, but my vision remained foggy and got worse as the day progressed. Unable to take it anymore, I raced home from my parents’ house to remove my contacts at about 9:00 that night. I still had the case given to me at the doctor’s office in my purse, so I decided to open it and see if it smelled strange. It was at that point that I realized the case had been full of alcohol. My doctor is not in again until Tuesday, and the damage is done. Saturday night was very painful. I did throw away that pair of contacts. I have one right contact left in my supply but no left one, so I guess until Tuesday when I make my way to the doctor’s office to order my glasses, I will be wearing only one contact to correct my vision.