Yet another update

So it is Friday - the big girls spent the night in order to keep Katie safe from their colds. Which, by the way, are getting worse every minute. All plans for any fun stuff today are officially cancelled. A trip to the doctor, earlier rather than later I hope, will be our outing for the day. They need to be still and quiet today. Feisty in particular sounds really horrible - which I know from very first hand because she crawled into my bed at midnight, followed quickly by her sister, who was awakened by Feisty's crying in the middle of the night. Both are croaking pretty badly. We can't get them in to the doctor until 4:00 - they want to do RSV test on all 3 of the others - Kristen tells me they will not like this test at all!

The biggest problem this creates is that I need to go to Maizie's funeral at 1:00. The aunt who is taking care of Emma would normally be glad to take Katie, too, so that Kristen can be with the sick big girls. But we want to keep Emma from Katie's remaining germs.

Oh, my. Flexible is indeed the proper word for the year!!

(If any of this makes no sense to you whatsoever, like you came in on the middle of a soap opera episode, please page down and read the last post or two).

Thanks for your often and continual prayers!

Quick Catch-Up

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: Emma was clear - no RSV, so she went back home with her aunt. Katie spent most of the day in the hospital - I was there most of the time, holding her so Kristen could get some things done and some rest. She went home at around 3:00 and we're keeping the big girls, since they have colds and they shouldn't be near the babes. Emma is staying with her aunt until Katie is well, so she doesn't pass the germs on to her. My word for the year, flexible, is getting a real workout!


PRAYER REQUEST UPDATE: Katie was admitted to the hospital around noon today with RSV (http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/infectionsguide/preventing_rsv.html). This is a serious issue for preemies. Emma was with her aunt all day today and now has been taken to the emergency room with the beginnings of the same type of cough and raspiness. Please pray for all of us! I have the bigger girls here tonight.


I needs lots of time to show you the beautiful shots of our week-end in the hills. I just wanted to catch you all up on a few things.

Maizie went home to Jesus and Joe on Monday morning. The funeral will be Friday afternoon at the funeral home. Her son who lives here is not a believer; in fact, he's quite anti anything Christian. He took a shine to my dad, the retired pastor who visited her, and has asked him to officiate at the service. It will be a small funeral, because most who knew her are already there waiting for her.

Lauren's mom and dad were on the news last night - they have already been to the state legislature to encourage passing of a law requiring carbon monoxide detectors in homes and apartments, just as smoke detectors are required. This bill was up for passage last year and failed. Six people have died in Colorado recently of CO poisoning. A skating rink in Greeley was closed down earlier this week when fumes were detected - apparently from a faulty zomboni. Scary stuff. A family of 4 was found dead in a huge luxury home in Aspen - they had won a week-end stay at this home in some sort of society contest in Denver. I don't know who the sixth person was.

Kristen will start school again Tuesday, so my schedule will rev up again with the babies every morning. The month has flown.

Kev and Sema are having a wonderful time with her family. We had an e-mail yesterday, which is always a treat. He's been keeping close tabs on the Super Bowl news, the Nuggets basketball scores, and the hiring of the new coach for the Broncos. Isn't it amazing what the Internet can do? Here's an exerpt from his message:

"Well we just got back from "shamba" which means farm really. It's their plot of land in a town called Kilifi near the beach. The beach was just a few minutes' walk away. It was so nice and peaceful, compared to Mombasa where it's loud, unbearably hot, and all that. I like both, but Dad, you would love it there in the countryside. I took lots of video. There are literally millions of palm trees there. This week we are actually going to a place called Watamu, a little town a couple hours away where (Sema's) dad has purchased us four acres of land. It's the first time we get to see that. Actually it was our wedding present. . . Wow, time is flying by. We hope to stay in a hotel for a night this week. Imagine at shamba we had to stay in a tent for 4 nights. and the mosquitoes, my goodness. I had to cover myself in bugspray every night. Other than that it was quite nice. Nothing to do but go to the beach and read. I also got stung by a jellyfish . . . "

I'm thankful they took lots of bug spray, because malaria is a real concern over there. Please pray as they come home next week on the 23rd that their flights will go more smoothly! I always wonder what they will do with that property that they own on the coast of Kenya!

I was going to show you this picture on my anniversary post, but there is a reason to show it now. This is my anniversary gift, which we found as we were visiting our favorite shop in Estes Park. They carry lovely paintings and photography. This caught my eye immediately - these watches are made in British Columbia and the bands are various types of wood. Just beautiful. Mine is sandalwood, I believe.




Please don't look too closely at the age spots on the hand! I took a shot from the other angle to show you the incredibly ugly ganglian cyst that I've been sporting for several months.




I keep waiting for it to disappear, as it did once before. But it just keeps getting bigger instead. I Googled it and learned that one way to get rid of it is to smash it with the old family Bible. Seriously. My friend (the one who just lost Lauren) told me recently that her grandmother got rid of hers when her grandfather did just that. The doctor even mentioned the old fashioned remedy! I think I'll pass! I don't have an old family Bible and I don't think my leather one would do the trick - maybe The Message would be heavy enough - but it sounds a bit too painful!

Modern methods are two - surgery, which I'd like to avoid, or aspiration of the gunk inside. I went in Tuesday with high hopes for aspiration. Often the cyst will return when this is done. Well, true to form, every time I have something done, it turns out to be a bit on the weird side. I don't want to gross you out with details, but suffice it to say the young doctor just about had a heart attack, I think, when the syringe began to fill with blood instead of gelatinous gook. He tried a different spot, after pressing on it very hard to stop the bleeding, with a bit more success. But not enough. I still have a large cyst, now with two needle holes in it. He was quite shocked and distressed, saying that I must have a vein over the top of it instead of underneath it. He wants to see me again in a week, but I don't really see what good that will do. My wonderful retirement insurance, pre-old-enough-to-have-Medicare-insurance, has such a high deductible that I don't really want to go the surgery route. But I really don't like having this ugly thing on my wrist either, and it does get in the way of my watch!

Could you pray for little Katie today? She has a nasty cold and Kristen just told me she spiked a temp during the night. She'll take her to the doctor today. We had hoped to avoid another trip over there.

I'll close this morning with this adorable picture of Feisty and her leaf-filled snowman that she made yesterday afternoon with what was left of Monday's snow.

400 Posts - How Can it Be?

The dawn of a new year -- 2009. We're off to a roaring start.

I have never had a "word for the year", as I have been reading that several of you have. I think it's a great thing to hear a word from the Lord and make it yours for the year. I didn't really ask the Lord for this word, but it came into my consciousness with no doubt that it is to be my word for the year - or really for the rest of my life: flexible. Flexibility is rather the story of my life. My plans have to change in a heartbeat, it seems.

Not only do I need this attribute in my personal daily life, but I need it in my body - I need to be in better shape so that when I get down on the floor with the little ones, I don't have to go through such gyrations to get back up.

I decided to do a word search for this word in The Word. I really didn't expect to find it. I checked The Message, and there it was:

Matthew 12:3-8 (The Message)

3-5 Jesus said, "Really? Didn't you ever read what David and his companions did when they were hungry, how they entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? And didn't you ever read in God's Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and it's not held against them?

6-8 "There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—'I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual'—you wouldn't be nitpicking like this. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he's in charge."

I want that more than ever this year - Him to be in charge. So I will work this year at not being so set in my ways, so inflexible, so sure that I am right.

This is my 400th post. I have no contest to offer. I'm sorry! Some of you reach your 400th post long before this - I have been blogging for 2 1/2 years. Some of you post every day - I don't know how you do it. Any way you look at it, that's a lot of words and a lot of pictures. And a lot of new friends and a lot of fun.

Hang on to your hats - this is going to be a wild ride - no rhyme or reason, no theme, just lots of catching up. I know - I'm supposed to be telling you about our anniversary trip to Estes Park. That will be next - don't worry. I know you're worried!

The twins will have two parties - it doesn't make any difference to them that their first one is tomorrow, 4 days after their actual birthday. Then next week-end we hope to have an open house for all our church friends who have been so supportive during this amazing year.

Kev and Sema wanted us to wait till they got home to celebrate, but Kristen is going out of town that week-end, so we'll just have to have a third party, won't we? Speaking of Kev and Sema - the phone rang at 2:00 a.m. the other night (morning?). Remember awhile back when the riots were going on in Kenya, and some of you dear friends sent money to Sema to send to her family? The kids have used their spending money for food and transportation since they've been there - sharing with the rest of the family. Things are much higher than they were 6 years ago when they were last there, and they were out of the money they had taken. The phone was breaking in and out, so I asked him to hang up and e-mail me.

It was noon there in Mombasa and Kev was hoping I could wire him some money before the money gram office closed at 3:00 in the afternoon - which was 5:00 a.m. here. I happened to have enough cash on hand, so I pulled on some clothes, went out into the cold night, and headed for the grocery store. I should have called before I did so, because it turns out there's nobody available to do a Western Union transaction until 7:00 a.m. So another e-mail to Kenya winged its way telling Kev they'd have to wait another day, because of the huge time difference. I got a message earlly the next day that they had received the money and were off to the house on the beach that her parents are building - a little tiny bit at a time. It's obviously not completed because they're sleeping in a tent. I don't suppose I'll hear from them until they get back to the city - who knows when.



This not-very-good picture of Maizie makes me happy, in spite of the tears of one of the babes (I'm not sure which!) I am so very glad that I took all of the girlies to see her several times. It not only made Maizie happy, but brought joy to all of the residents of her assisted living home. I always went at lunch time so they'd all be in the cafeteria and could enjoy seeing the girls. I only wish I'd gone more often.

After the nice visit my sis and I had with Maizie on Friday evening, I returned on Saturday afternoon. My hope to see her daughter was realized, and we had a nice long visit. But Maizie wasn't doing well that day. She was aware, though, that she was "having a very bad day." She was taken to Hospice shortly after that. I went up once more and found her to be sound asleep and much more emaciated than she was last week-end. I left a note for her family, and have not returned. It amazes me that she is still alive. What an incredibly strong person she is. I hope she goes Home soon, because this is not living. I know that Jesus and Joe are waiting with open arms.

Tuesday was to be a fun day - I was going to lunch with my two dear friends from high school - yes, high school back in Nebraska. We are blessed to be able to connect at least once or twice a year for lunch. I was just getting ready to leave the house to run some errands prior to lunch when my phone rang. It was one of my friends with some devastating news. Our other friend's stepdaughter had been found dead in her apartment in Denver - the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. What a horribly freak occurrence - what sadness. She was working on her master's degree in international studies at Denver University - the same program that Condoleeza Rice graduated from years ago. She was to leave for Israel tomorrow for an internship, working in the human rights area. Her family was a bit fearful of her going to such a troubled part of the world. She had gone back to her apartment after the holidays to study and read and get ready for her adventure. Who could ever imagine that her safe haven would become her death trap.

The funeral was today. This is the second funeral of a bright, beautiful, young person with unlimited potential I have experienced in the last 6 months (see here and here). I come away from these occasions wondering how one so young could have accomplished so much in such a short time. I also come away with hope for the future if there are others like them. I believe there are. These two articles tell what happened and a bit more about her. Please put Lauren's family on your prayer list.




On to happier subjects -- Little Miss Katie was helping me with the dishes the other night --




It brought back the memory of a picture I took about 30 years ago -- glad I could locate it! We didn't have a dishwasher in those days.



Remember the pretty little bird cafe my dad designed and built for us? He designed it specifically to keep the squirrels out. I caught this fun picture story the other day -- this fat little squirrel was really frustrated as he attempted to swipe the birds' food. He was at the back first, then came around to the front with his nose heading for the food.

Suddenly - - -

.

He kept trying and trying - his body language said it all. He was frustrated! His tail was swishing back and forth furiously.



He should have been content to do what these other two did - enjoy the bounty the birds kicked out of their restaurant.

And finally -- are you relieved? I have discovered a new author that I really like. I hope the rest of her books are as good as the first one I found. I just finished In Search of Eden by Linda Nichols. Am I the last one to find her? Check her out, if you haven't already.

One more thing - I have a song for the year. It is one of my favorites by the Gaither Vocal Band and had hoped to find their rendition on YouTube. But it's not out there by them - I found an inferior version, but don't want to put that one up. So I'll just give you the words. Great song! I live in HOPE that I can actually live up to these words.

I'm not gonna worry, I'm not gonna fret.
I'm not gonna speculate or contemplate on how it might have been.
I'm not gonna worry, He's got the whole things in His hands.
I won't let it haunt me, I won't let it win.
I'm not gonna ruminate or meditate on how it might have been.
I'm gonna release it, He's got the whole thing in His hands.
Maybe lately I started to resign,
But here it goes, God only knows
It might just ease mind.
I'm not gonna worry, I'm not gonna fret,
I'm just gonna wait and see and in between give thanks for what I get.
I'm not gonna worry , He's got the whole thing in His hands.

I'm not gonna worry I'm not gonna fret,
I'm not gonna speculate or contemplate what hasn't happened yet.
I'm not gonna worry, He's got the whole thing in His hands.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATE AND EMMA!!

They say I'm finally going home? What's home??

Hey, I'm not used to all this light!!

I know you! You're the one I've been with all these months!

BFF, as they say!

No, I'm not sticking out my tongue! That's a graham cracker!

Hey, let's call that doctor who said we needed physical therapy and tell him we're sitting up!

How could it possibly be a year since that unforgettable day?? What blessings you have been to us. There is so much I want to say and so many memories of this past incredible year. But your mommy has done it so well that I'm inviting everyone over to her place to catch up on your birthday story!


I can't wait to watch and see what you become!

With love from your Grandma Dawn.

Family Reunion/Christmas Part II

Christmas Eve we met in the gym for a nice dinner. It was rather a rushed affair, though, because our church service began at 6, and dinner was at 5. Kristen's musical group was in charge of the service and quite a few of us went over to the candlelit sanctuary.

After the service, we went back to the gym, gathered around the tree, and everyone opened a gift from Mom/Grandma/Great Grandma. She had such fun shopping with her daughter for everyone. It was a surprise to me - I thought only the children were receiving gifts.

Each of the ladies received a lovely heart-shaped necklace. Each of the guys received this:



Great Aunt C then got up and surprised all of the kids - she and Great Uncle R gave each and every great grand a gift card for Build-a-Bear Workshop. Wow, were they excited!

Christmas Day was interesting - we went to my folks' for dinner with my side of the family. The company all went to my SIL's and spent the day - I'm not sure what they did for dinner, to tell you the truth.

It was a big day for the twins - they sat up together on their own for the first time and played with one of their new toys.




Katie was crawling into Emma's car seat - they have developed incredibly in the last month - no physical therapy needed for tight hip muscles!




The niece who stayed with us asked me the first day they were here if I was going to make my "famous" cinnamon rolls while she was here. I tried to figure out how that could work out. Sema had been asking if I was going to make them, too, because that's a family tradition on my side - we have brunch and then a late Christmas dinner. Kristen also wanted some. Bottom line - I decided to do it, and then ended up inviting everyone over for rolls and coffee/tea/hot chocolate at 9:00 on the 26th. I wish I had some pictures, but I was too busy hostessing. I know - call me crazy! DC did!

Right after this event, we all headed out to Build-a-Bear for quite an adventure. It seems as though half the town had received gift cards for Christmas! And they were short one person, who had called in "sick." The line went throughout the entire store, then another line at the check-out. All of the parents and grandparents were there with our 11 kiddoes, so we made quite an impact!

Each child gets to pick out the shell of a animal (far more than just bears!) -- then they blow in the filling --

The children help by stepping on the pedal that operates the blower.


The next step is to put a heart inside your new friend.



Care Bear helped one of the twins get hers filled.

The next steps are picking out an outfit, naming them, registering them on the computer, and paying for them. We chose to skip the registering part because there were just too many of us and it took too long. That night after dinner we took pictures of the whole gang.


That evening we had to clean the gym and kitchen and leave them "as we found them." The twins patiently waited, serving as the holding place for all of Care Bear's and Feisty's "bears" - they each had one or two from previous birthday gifts.

One of the most fun things was watching everyone's interaction with the twins. Kristen enjoyed some relaxation as Kate and Emma were passed around.

Kristen has a great new post that will warm your heart. Please go over and check it out if you have been following her life, and if you have access to her private blog. If you don't, but would like to, please let me know and I'll ask her to invite you. She misses her old friends who haven't had a chance to join in. THANKS, TOOTS, FOR MY NEW LOOK!!

Coming soon: Anniversary Adventure