Coveted Prayers

Another UPDATE:
Well I am now nestled into the recliner in my mom's hospital room. Tonight is my night to stay with her and help care for her through the night. It is so wonderful to be able to serve my mother for a change. She has been extremely groggy from the morphine and anesthesia. She has also acquired some significant nausea. Thankfully the new round of nurses is much better than the first and very helpful in getting us what we need, which is a blessing! It will be a restless night I am sure, but somehow I enjoy this time with her in her time of need. I don't even mind the lack of sleep. Thank you all for your prayers and comfort.

UPDATE:
Mom is in surgery as I type. She got the news before surgery that they will be unable to do the elective plastic surgery because her blood counts were so low from all the problems she has had the past couple of weeks and months. She was very disappointed, but handled it with grace. It should take about an hour and then she will recover in the hospital for 2 days. I am staying with her tonight and Tiffany tomorrow. Please pray that her blood counts would improve and her pain would be minimal as it is still major surgery.

Please be praying for my mom. She is going in for a planned hysterectomy tomorrow that is pretty invasive due to her fibroids and cysts. In addition she is having plastic surgery to remove lots of unwanted skin from losing a lot of weight. All that makes it a 5 hour surgery!!! My sister, Dad and I will be up there (and not quite sure if my brother will be up there too). She is more than ready as her problems have worsened as the weeks have drawn closer. I think the thing we are all most nervous about is the recovery. It is one of the most painful recoveries from what we hear. Please pray for the Dr.s' that the Lord would grant them wisdom and steady hands. That the nurses would be gentle and kind as they tend to her needs. That the family can be of help to her and care for her as she has faithfully cared for us over the years. Thank you in advance for your prayers! They are coveted.

Getting the Best To Say the Least!

Ok, I have to admit, I really like the style and quality of the Pottery Barn Brand. There are not many of their items I don't like and I have yet to find any of their items with poor quality. That being said, we just can't afford it. Here are my tips on scouting out good deals and these are also ways you may be able to save on other great brands!

1. I skim through ebay nearly every day for deals and cheap used or new items, usually for specific items. Here's the hint. Change up your search words, ie: Pottery Barn Valance is sometimes misspelled by the sellers as Pottery Barn Valence! These actually end up being easy items to snag, because most people won't misspell the word in their search. Also someone may use different title words for the same thing, ie: Pillow Cover or Pillow Sham.

2. This is BIG! I just discovered this huge way to save, today! I had been searching for just the right chair cushions for our dining room chairs and wouldn't you know it the ones I like are made by Pottery Barn! Soooo, I saw that they were on clearance on their site for $15 each which is probably not bad for them, but add on tax and shipping and wowzer! That's $70+ for four cushions. So I gave their company a call to check on the shipping rates and see about giving me a cheaper rate and wouldn't you know it the customer service rep said that today they were giving those same cushions to their customers who call in, for 1/2 of the clearance price, PLUS FREE SHIPPING!!! Can you believe it!? Talk about cheap, I couldn't find these used for that cheap! The Rep. told me that they have deals you wouldn't believe for call-in customers.

So before ordering online, give the company a ring and see if they will work with you on the price. No matter who it is :)

HOPE!

Well I finally had my annual checkup, which I have been waiting for since the beginning of the year to talk with my Dr. about my ongoings and all the recent developments. I found out that everything looks...well...normal! However, my Dr. diagnosed me with Adenomyosis (still having trouble spelling that out). It's basically endometreosis of the uterus. Cure? He told me a hysterectomy. Should it cause my infertility? He says no.

So I decided to research the condition myself and found this out:

1. It does cause infertility
2. There is a form of natural treatment

This is wonderful news. In reading the research on it, it all started to make sense. All these symptoms I have had that we thought weren't related, in fact are! Symptoms of adenomyosis are:

1. Infertility
2. High estrogen
2. Low Progesterone which inhibits ovulation
3. thyroid symptoms like: hair loss, weight gain, difficulty loosing weight, lack of energy (even though the thyroid tests normal!)
4. PAINFUL Cramps all the time
5. Pelvic Discomfort
6. Breast Tenderness
7. LONG menses
8. irregular menses

Many of these symptoms kept making me think I was pregnant every month.

Basically what happens is I develop high amounts of estrogen from xenoestrogens ("foreign" estrogen) in my environment. This causes the progesterone to go down and inhibits the body from ovulating. So no matter how hard we try...no baby :( This also messes with the other hormones and chemicals in the body. Because of all these things my endometrium tissue cells have embedded into the muscle of the uterus and causes severe pain during menses and even throughout the month. I hoping to be able to detox my body of all the excess estrogen and then start using a NATURAL progesterone to get everything where it should be. It is hard to believe that I found all this out in a matter of minutes and my Dr. told me the only treatment was a hysterectomy. Stay tuned to see how it all goes :)

Want a kitty?

Well we are more than ready to find a home for one or two of the kittens we have left. They are both female and we can get them "fixed" and vaccinated for $11 each if you would like. We did manage to find a home for two boy kittens with some dear friends, but unfortunately a mean ole tomcat got a hold of them :( Our friends felt so bad. We would like to find homes that the kittens would be allowed indoors at least overnight, especially since they are still so young and vulnerable.

We have put an official end to the problem of over population (at least at our house)as we "fixed" our two adult cats today. It's so funny to see them so calm and quiet. And boy were they hungry when they came home!

Here are their photo opps:



Kitty #1 has the neatest coloring. Grey back, black face, white paws and whiskers :)
She is very feisty and playful and puts up well with kids.


Kitty#2 is solid grey with medium to long hair. She is very sweet and calm. She will play and get into things, but prefers to be cuddled. She does put up with the boys handling her, but I can tell she doesn't prefer them messing with her.

Coupon Giveaway Over At Rochele's!

Go on over here at check out this great coupon giveaway!

A Hard Week

It has been a rough 7 days for me and I am glad things are getting better. I am still ever struggling (beyond the normal) with my female stuff and got bad enough to call my doc as I was under tremendous pain to the point that it took Lortab and Ibprofen to get it under control. Of course they decided I needed a pregnancy test and to no shock of ours it was negative. After almost two years of this I no longer expect a positive result. I am not sure if that is good or bad, but I guess a part of me has come to terms with the fact that I may never have a little one again. Thankfully my checkup is real soon so I will get to talk some more with the doc about it and hopefully he won't suggest a fertility specialist again, but try to figure it out for himself. On top of all that chaos I had to have my tooth crowned which was basically a lot of grinding, sanding, stabbing, filling my mouth full of caulk-like substances and druelling on myself :( What did I get out of it? A horrible looking temporary crown on my front tooth. Seriously I feel like I have a snaggle tooth! In 2 1/2 weeks I get a lovely looking tooth that I am assured will look even better than my original tooth. Thankfully I have a great dentist who doesn't mind the fact that I am a big baby when it comes to getting shots in my mouth. So that was my seven days. Thankfully I am feeling better and hoping it will stay that way so I can catch up on housework and maybe rip up some carpet while Ryan is at work. There's hardwood under these nasty carpets!

Rosetta Stone Giveaway!

My friend Jennifer is having a giveaway for Rosetta Stone and this is what she has to say:

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post.

Sounds great huh?!

A Mom's Week

We had a busy weekend. Friday just happened to be my grocery day and we tried to fit in as much as we could into my day with the van. We decided it is time to give two of the kittens to some friends of ours, as they are now into EVERYTHING! So I loaded them up on our way to drop off Ryan. We stopped on by our friends, Gabe and Brandy for what was suppose to be a quick lunch and donating the kitties to them. Well you now how it goes when you have good friends, a shot time turns into several hours of fellowshipping and eating good homemade food. And when I say homemade I mean they even raise their own eggs and grind their own wheat! After leaving there I got a portion of my shopping done and then it was already time to pick up Ryan from work. While in Knoxville, we decided to stop by and get my craigslist mother's day gift that Ryan and the boys wanted to get me. I got a huge creative memories tote bag FULL of albums, cutters, papers, pens and more from a lady who didn't want them anymore. I talked her down to $50 from $100 which in my opinion is a steal for everything I got. Not to mention there were a few items I will sell on EBay and possibly make back the full price! Ryan laughed when I told him that and said, "you are definitely not like the normal woman who would request jewelry and such."

As for Saturday, Ryan's Co. Picnic was at Dollywood and I managed to talk him in to getting season passes at a huge discount since our tickets were free and then we just pay the remainder to upgrade them. He's so great to put up with me! I am excited to get to go more since we will not have any type of vacation this year. I forgot to take my camera, so sorry no pics of our fun there. But, I am so proud of Joseph who rode the carousel, flying bees, pigs and ducks! He is getting much more brave. The highlight as usual was the ride on the read coal train through the smokies. I promise it is a real, full size train! Rider beware though. You get a light sprinkling of coal dust all over you.

Sunday we enjoyed the day over at Mom and Dad's after we got out of church. Just a relaxing, non-rainy day.

Prayer Need

UPDATE: Thank you for you thoughts and prayers in these times for my Mom. After a much longer wait than expected, we got the news that the test was clear. NO CANCER! Praise be to God. What a huge weight that was lifted.

My dear mother, who is near and dear to me has had a lot of health dealings the last several years. After many years of dealing with fibroid tumors in her uterus, her Dr. has decided they need to go. She is scheduled for a full hysterectomy this summer. As the weeks pass by she has noticed more problems arising and her Dr. decided to test her for uterine cancer. We are all staying positive about it and patiently (as we can) waiting for the results of the biopsy. I request prayers for:

-her, that the test would come back clear (Lord willing) and she we stay on schedule for her previous plans for surgery.
-that the Lord would continue to help her as she has recently quit smoking and it would help to improve her health
-for the family that we could be an encouragement and help to her in her time of need.
-that the Lord would give us all peace in His will

Thank you!

Thanks Rochelle!

I have been wanting to have a spiffy template for my blog for some time now and thanks to Rochelle who pointed out where I could get a FREE one, I now am the proud owner of one :)

Oh Warm Weather, You Are A Wonderful Welcome!

This past weekend was gorgeous here in East TN and we enjoyed soaking in each minute of it. Saturday we grabbed some food and had ourselves a picnic at our favorite park. We played on all the playground equipment, the sandbox, and on the soccer field. We discovered that Thomas has a love for bugs as he took to a caterpillar he found. The caterpillar didn't even mind Thomas' oreo face. The boys didn't take to well to kicking the soccer ball around. They were very frustrated that it took them more than one kick to get the ball in the net while Mommy and Daddy gave one big kick. We tried encouraging them to keep trying, but they gave up almost from the start. I did manage to get some shots of the boys even through their frustration, as moms do best. I hope that they can learn to persevere through struggles and be content with their abilities or hardships. For now I want them to enjoy just being kids and enjoying these sweet times. I managed to leave sun burnt (is this really the month of April?), but it wasn't too bad and finally my white legs look less ghostly. What is one thing I learned? Ryan doesn't like it when I kick he ball and it hits him in the face/neck, oops!











Thomas cheers on "Team Joseph & Thomas", he yells!

I am loving this weather. It is so nice to be able to open the windows and it seems to make the house seem so much bigger, brighter and sweeter smelling. I have been struggling with lack of energy lately though. I wake up exhausted and ready for a nap despite the fact that we are going to be a lot earlier and I've been trying to be more active. I don't know what it is, but I am ready for it to go. Anyone else deal with this same thing?

Hittin' Pins

My oldest nephew, Ethan, turned the big 10 over the weekend and we joined the festivities at Family Bowl in Knoxville. I did learn several things through the fun.

1. ALWAYS bring a pair of socks for everyone when going to the bowling alley. We were wearing sandals and I had brought socks for the boys, but not myself, ewww!

2. Wii bowling is a poor representation of my skills. Wii bowling I am nearly a pro, real bowling I stink and hate to say it, but I love the gutter guards :)

3. My boys who act crazy at home and dance 24/7 (it seems) will not dance in public and instead stand there starring at the other children acting crazy.

4. You should always take one parent per child. I fore-went this rule and paid the stressful price and caught Joseph dancing all the way down in front of everyones lanes and Thomas was awefully interested in the bowling balls in the return caddy.

5. Kids will play for hours with glow sticks, so there is no need to spend the money on them to bowl.

6. Never pick your own bowling ball and always steal someone elses.

7. Don't expect to get good pictures in a dark bowling alley with strobe lights and disco balls.

8. I stink at real bowling, did I say that already? If so, I need to make that clear.

9. People (like my brother and sister-in-law) who hold babies while bowling should be considered cheaters, because the baby acts as a counterweight and they do much better.

10. Cut your nails very short before you bowl to prevent your nail from being ripped off your finger, believe me, trim those nails!

11. Help your children, under five, roll the ball hard enough to avoid the ball getting stuck nearly half a dozen times.

Here's the picture of our fun at the bowling alley. I really did have a great time and love doing these new things with the boys.

What I Hear From the Top Bunk

Joseph: "Here lay down and put this over your belly."
Thomas: "okay"
Joseph: "Ok, now we'll just pull the blanket down, like this...and...here's your baby!"


Oh my goodness, I think these boys have learned quite a bit about having babies from observing the cat. We may have an OBGYN in the making :)

Spring Brings New Life

Lady is now a tired mama of 5 kitties. She had them a couple of weeks ago ranging in every color in the gray spectrum. In about four weeks they will be up for grabs to a good home(s). Joseph takes after me, Daddy says, as he is often found sitting and watching them nurse and petting them every now and then. Unlike Daddy, Joseph watched nearly the whole birth process and was very interested with the whole thing. Who says you can't teach biology at home or to four-year-old's for that matter. Thankfully he hasn't wondered how those kitties got in the cats belly :) Here's their day beau:







As always, we will probably keep one of these cuties and this one is so far our pick. Joseph wants to name him, "Joseph", lol.

Celebrating My Husband Being Another Year Older

Ryan turns 32 on the 15th and with his CRAZY schedule starting his newjob (yay!)along with school, we thought best to have the festivities over the weekend. I try to make something special on birthday's and let the birthday person choose their cake (even though I realllllly wanted to make a cheesecake, yum). Ryan choose a meatloaf and I decided to make my first ever twice baked potatoes...more yum and FRESH green beans. It was a delicious meal. I really like the recipe I have for rice and cheese stuffed meatloaf. I don't know why everyone makes so much fun of meatloaf, it is so yummy. He choose a chocolate cake with white icing, not bad when betty crocker lends a hand. We also enjoyed the opening of presents, presents and more presents (which were shorts, pajama pants, burts bees shaving stuff, mouse pads (one of which looks like a mini projector screen--its for a laptop and retracts for portability) and a lantern. Boy was it a fun day.

Another of Gina's Great Giveaways!

A fellow blogger friend is havinga giveaway for DVD from The History Channel. If you are interested in these great DVDs go on over and check it out

The past two months we have had the opportunity to travel down to GA to visit Ryan's side of the family. It seems in these times (after being in the family for more than 5 years) that Ryan's brother's wife, Teresa, and I have grown closer. There is a uniqueness in being wives of brothers that has brought us together. As many people may know, marriage is difficult and add to that, that Ryan is from a divorced family...well that has been more difficult than I ever imagined. I never expected the many trials that come divorce and even more shocked how they follow through into adulthood and NEVER go away. Anywho, back to Teresa, well she is one of the more God-centered women I know. She never judged me for my difficulties with breastfeeding as many other women have. She never judged me for wearing makeup when other women do. She never judged me for my lack of knowledge of the scriptures. She never judged me for for being me. She has always been accepting of me and even more so understanding. It was such a sweet time sharing together (even tears at times) during this last trip down there. I love the fact that we can be honest with one another and not fear offending one another. I love the fact that she doesn't hold things against me, cause I know there has been plenty she could :) And what makes it all so great...she is 16 years older than me...which means she's been there done that. She's learned from many more experiences than I have and can share with me her life lessons. We also came to the realization that our husbands (being brothers 11 years apart) are alike in many ways and some of their traits have been a result of the divorce. You see, Ryan was 5 when his parents divorced and John would have been 16. Because of the age differences during the divorce, Ryan and his brother were sort of separated as his brother went to live with their Dad for a short while. Although separated they both have similarities in how they were affected--this was Teresa and I's realization this past visit as I shared my heart and she shared her past. I am so thankful to have someone I can talk to about my struggles without it turning to gossip or disrespecting our husbands. What a blessing she has been to me.

Great Giveaway Over at Gina's Blog

A blog friend is giving away the Exergen Temperal Thermometer. Go check it out!

The Good and the Bad News

First of all, the good news is....drum roll, please....Ryan got a job! He interviewed, assessed, assessed some more and had his final interview today that came with a job offer, yay! Now for the bad news. He will be taking a significant pay decrease and the insurance is twice as much as we did have (like more than $5 less an hour). I know, I know...we are to be thankful for the position and opportunity to work, but we do have to think hard and long about several things. 1) Will the schedule work with his schooling?, 2)Can we afford the insurance and still pay our bills?, 3)Can we afford the decrease in pay from his last job. Let me remind everyone that until the end of May his old company is paying for his insurance in full and we are getting unemployment, so it's not like we are comparing no income to having income. It is somewhat like a gamble. Do we take the job and make it work or take a gamble and continue to look for work as we take in unemployment and free insurance? Well Ryan is on his way home and I am sure we will be talking long and hard about it. Along with praying :) We were hoping for something a little more clear cut as to whether it would be a fit, but no such case. The job is at BRINKS home security working in their customer call center. Also no more having saturdays off :( He will be working tues-sat. I will miss the saturdays off as that is usually when we have family parties/get togethers/events and such. So sorry the news wasn't a grand slam of happiness, but with our economy right now, that's about as good as it gets out there.