Golf

Last night was Isaiah's last golf lesson. Instead of lessons they had a 4 hole tournament. There were 12 10 year olds in his division. Those 12 kids were split into either threesomes or foursomes.

Isaiah was part of a threesome, Zach and Nick were the other 2 boys in his group. The boys were required to walk the course and the parents had to keep score.

All the kids who participated were given trophys with their names and the year engraved on them.

Isaiah placed 3rd in his division!! Yeah Isaiah! For this being his first experience with golf I think he did awesome!!!! I am so proud of him! By the way the only girl in the division took first place! I was impressed.

Praise to the Women on my Journey

A few years ago I came across this poem by Melissa M. Bowers, I sent it out to a few special ladies in my life and forgot about it until yesterday. It is definitely worth sharing. As new people are added to our journey all the time.

Praise to the women on my journey

To the women on my journey

Who showed me the way to go and ways not to go,

Whose strength and compassion

Held up a torch of light and beckoned me to follow...

To the women on my journey

Who showed me how to live and not to live,

whose grace, success and gratitude

Lifted me into the fullness of surrender to God...

To the women on my journey

Who showed me what I am and what I am not,

Whose love, encouragement and confidence

Held me tenderly and nudged me gently...

To these women I say bless you and thank you

From the depths of my heart,

For I have been healed and set free

Through your joy and through your sacrifice.

I am grateful for the blessing you are to me.

I hope this poem speaks to the hearts of all who read it, it most certainly speaks to mine every time I read it...I hope one day to be one of those women in someone else's journey...

A NEW DOO!

We did it today! Amaris had 12 inches to spare of her hair. So she and I walked down the street to Country Clippers for the cut! Since she donated her hair to Locks for Love the cut was free, boy do I love free!

There goes the pony tail! Yes, a tear did fall from my eye, afterall this was her first hair cut! As a bonus she ws sprinkled with angel dust for some glitter and glam! I love the cut it is adorable!!

Please pray for our children

Tonight being Wednesday, we just returned from church. I was talking with a pastor this evening and he was telling me how he can't believe the number of children in our congregation who are fighting life changing illnesses. We have 2 children with serious forms of cancer, an 8 year old girl in serious condition at a local hospital not sure what is going on yet, Isaiah and his issues, and a little guy who has chrinic kidney problems. I told the pastor the devil is trying to attack our children. So, what we need to do is attack him back and take all his power away. Here is where all of you come in...pray like you have never prayed before for the children. Not just ours, but all children, Jesus had a heart for children He does not desire for His children to suffer. The devil always finds a weakness and slips in to get to us. Pray a hedge of protection all around our children we have to make sure there is not even a little crack he can sneak through.

The end of baseball season

Elijah LOVES to play ball! He had a great time learning more about the sport. Although we lost our play off game he still had a blast. I am sure we will be spending the beginning of every summer for the next 10 years at the ball field cheering him on!

Our little entepreneur

Isaiah has an addiction to Legos Star Wars building kits. He has decided he wants to buy the Imperial Star Detroyer. It cost $99.89 at Target. We have told him we can not afford to buy something that expensive. Who are you kidding, we can't even afford the little ships at $20 a pop! Isaiah has informed us that he is going to earn the money to buy it himself! He has been scooping poop for Uncle Cowboy's dog, we pay him 25 cents a pile to scoop Raven's poop, he is collecting pop cans, and doing all kinds of odd jobs. He is very resourceful, even tried to make a collection cup to charge admission fees into his room, $20 to enter....LOL! So far no one can afford to visit his room... The fuunny thing is he has his siblings paying him to do their chores and he SINGS as he works!! I love it! He has $65.92 so far! I am sure it wont be too much longer and he will begging for a ride to Target to make his purchase!

A little update

I was able to talk to our care coordinator last night on the phone. Isn't it funny how that happens? As soon as we get to the place where we can wait, that is when we get somewhere.
Here is the plan so far, understand we are very early in the developing stage of things. Dr. Dunn wants to see Isaiah on July 17 in the Shriners Hospital, but she has ordered some tests to be done prior to our visit with her. These tests were unfamiliar to the radiology department at Shriners, so the director of radiology is trying to find the facility where the tests can be done. When that is figured out and set up, we will be getting our appointments. Right now we will either have to go up Thursday and Friday the week before, then see her on Tuesday. Or, we will have to go Sunday and have tests done on Monday (my preferred plan) then see her on Tuseday and come home with a plan for what will happen next. The problem is we don't have any idea what this test entails, whether it is inpatient or out, whether it requires him to be put to sleep or stay awake. Or even where we have to go to have it done. So, even though we do have a little more information we still have more questions than answers at this point.

We are getting ready for our big sale. Scott doesn't think I can pull it off, so now I have been challenged and must rise up and do more than pull it off. Please pray that I can knock his socks off with my success! I also have to decide how to advertise, should I say it is a fundraiser for Isaiah or not?? Well, the heat is on now! So, we will see how it all goes.

Another crazy weekend

So it is Monday again!!! How does time fly by like this? Friday Joy (the best baby sitter in the world) came over to watch the kids so Scott and I could go to a Kindergarten activity for church. You know what is so very sad? I can't remember the last time Scott and I were out on a "date". We finally have time away and we spend it at church with other people's children and then we went to Wal Mart...Someday we might get some real time together...
Saturday brought a visit from Madison's mother, they decorated cookies together. Then our niece had a birthday, Scott and some of the kids went to the party and I and some of the kids stayed home.
Sunday we had church and Sunday school, then we had church again in the evening (as usual). We had a special children's service. But something really cool happened to me after church. I did an object lesson during the service. I don't know if any of you normally help out in children's ministry but there are more times than not that I wonder if my lesson landed and made an impression on the children. Last night on the way out to the car after service I was walking out at the same time as 2 little girls that normally come to church they had brought a visitor last night. Their friend was excitedly telling the mother of the group my ENTIRE object lesson, she told me "that was so cool how you did that and I never knew the only way to get to heaven was through the cross...."I wanted to cry!! If my lesson only made a difference with that one child I did a good job.
My goofy son, Dominique, has said all along that he did not want to go to camp. They were leaving this morning at 8 for camp and what does my boy do?? He pulled me out of Sunday school yesterday, and told me,"mom I changed my mind I really want to got o camp is there any way you can make it possible? PLEASE?" Well you know the first thing I thought was there was a girl going that he likes, but after some investigation I learned that was not the case. So after some major praying we were able to find enough money to pay for the week and Pastor Tommy approved. So we did laundry between churches and the boy is off and running again. Please pray that God will grab a hold of his heart stronger than ever before and he will come home on fire! As a good pastor friend of ours says, I pray he gets totally messed up by Jesus!!
So now it is Monday and I am learning how to patiently wait for the call from Doc Dunn. I know she has a difficult job making the best plan for Isaiah. I think I am finally at a place where I can breathe and understand that she is forming a plan and sometimes great plans take time. I will keep you all posted as we learn more.

Garage is clean and ready!

It is Friday afternoon. All summer Scott is allowed to "flex" his time at work. Which means he works late 4 days a week and then gets off every Friday at 11am. Today's project was cleaning the garage out to get ready for the BIG sale. After lunch Scott and all the kids worked very hard at cleaning the entire garage. It looks fantastic!!
Scott stopped at HyVee on his way home from work and bought hamburger and buns, we had a Bar B Q for lunch, that was a fun change for a Friday. Isaiah has been craving cheese burgers all week. So Scott surprised us all with a Bar B Q! What a guy!!

summer school

We are almost through week #2 of summer school. This week the kids all decided to work solo. It is fun to see how each one finds information and then creates their own project to show what they have learned. Last week Madison and Elijah "traveled" to Hawaii, and Isaiah and Amaris "traveled" to California. We also work on math and writing. The kids all have set fantastic reading goals for the summer reading program up at our school.
This week Isaiah is going to South Carolina, Elijah is going to Florida he plans on camping with Mickey Mouse, in his searching he found an actual camp ground that features Disney characters and tons of fun activities planned all week long. (I would love to go there for 'real'!) Amaris is going to Louisiana, and Madison is going to Alabama. We have all the projects on display in the play room. I hope to "visit as many of the states as we can this summer.
We also have created our own countries complete with Flag, motto, location, shape of land form, people who live there, customs and festivals, country president, (Pastor Lori we have a new title for you, Madison has elected you to be president of her country!) they each even wrote their countries song! How fun!!

cut the hair or wait???

Amaris has never had a haircut. She has been wanting to cut her hair for a while now. She wants to be like her big sister in the worst way! We decided about 6 months ago that she can cut her hair when she has 10 inches of hair from where she wants it cut. You need at least 10 inches in order to donate your hair to locks for love. Well, Amaris now has 12 inches to work with. If we cut her hair it will be about to her shoulders. I don't know what to do.....I suppose we will call the shop down the street and see about an appointment. Her hair will grow back and if she can be a blessing to a child who has no hair then I think the time is right. I will post before and after pics when we do it!

need a new/old car

Scott and I have been talking about trying to find a different car. It is a little confusing. I drive the 8 passenger van since I always have all the kids with me. Scott drives an old car that is great for getting him back and forth to work and running around town. But would not be good for long road trips. Dominique drives Scott's old pick up that geyts terrible gas mileage. In the fall he will be driving into town at least 5 days a week for classes at Grand view College, so he really needs something that will do better on gas.
Since we will be traveling up to the hospital more frequently we were thinking that if we trade the truck in on a used car that would travel long distances well, then Dominique could drive the car Scott has right now. Problem.....We are not used to having a car payment, so would be difficult to get used to that! I don't know what we will end up doing. I guess I am just thinking it through in writting.

I can't believe I missed it!!!!!!

Can you believe this?? How long have I been waiting for the call from the doctor? I was sure we would hear by the end of last week. As you all know I talked to the care coordinator on Friday and was told there is no plan as of yet. "BE PATIENT ANGELA!" Has been ringing through my head.
Well, Saturday, Elijah's baseball coach called and told us we were in the playoffs and would have a game Monday night. Our plan: Eat an early dinner, have Dominique stay home and watch the 2 youngest, Scott take Isaiah to his golf lesson, Madison and I would take Elijah to his game. Well, we had some pretty good thunderstorm action this afternoon, Elijah is terrified of thunder. I was sure they would call off the game. The rain stopped in the nick of time and we played, in the muddy mess of the field, it almost looked like quick sand.
So, I get to the ball field and Scott calls on my cell phone to find out if we were playing, my cell phone starts beeping, I couldn't get clicked over in time. when I got off with Scott I had a message. from guess who???
The doctor. YEP! and I missed it! She said she will call me back tomorrow either before or during her clinic. I can't believe I missed it! Now I have to wait longer...Can you hear me whine? I called my walking buddy and cancelled our morning walk. I am not missing another call!
I will update after the call.

Dominique is home...well, sort of...

Today Dominique returned from his vacation with Tommy and family. He had a ton of fun. I hope to hear more about the trip in the days to come.

Being Sunday it was kind of crazy with Father's Day and awards night at church tonight. When Dominique walked in the door Elijah "dashed right over to him and squeezed him really hard" as promised! Elijah always has a hard time when Dominique is not home with us, he misses him very much. It was nice to have the family back together again. Then 25 minutes after his return, my handsome 17 year old boy says, "Mom, can I go into town to hang out with my friends?"

Silly me, I thought maybe he missed us as much as we did him, I know he missed us but unfortunately for me, he missed his friends more, I think. Anyway, we compromised, he went to church with us then went to his friends house with a generous curfew of midnight. Maybe he will squeeze a little family time in later this week...LOL

Daddy's Hands

I found this poem on the internet the other day, I thought it was so sweet so I saved it for Father's Day:

Daddy's Hands

"Walk a little slower, Daddy"

Said a little child so small.

"I'm following in your footsteps,

And I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,

Sometimes they're hard to see;

So walk a little slower, Daddy,

For you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up,

You're what I want to be;

Then I will have a little child

Who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,

And know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy,

For I must follow you.

You know, as I read this poem I think of our Heavenly Father, how He wants to lead us and we should have the heart of a child and want to follow Him too. This poem really spoke to me this week as my heart has been a little sore. I am thankful that something so small as a poem could bring me back to where I should be.

DATE IS SET FOR THE SALE

Well, we have decided our sale will be during the Runnells Razzle Dazzle Days celebration. July 6 and 7. I hope to have a ton of bargains to satisfy many shoppers. Remember, if you are not shopping for garage sale deals make sure you stiop by and satisfy any craving you may have. I will be baking my rear-end off and selling lots of goodies. Please tell all your friends and family to come on out to Runnells, all the money we make on our sale will be put into the account we have established in Isaiah's name at the Great Western Bank of Runnells. We are hoping for great sales so we can have a good start on saving to help pay for all of our trips up to the hospital. Thank you to all for your prayers and support!!!
We love you all!

ELIJAH AND DAD

SO, I WAS OUT AT THE MALL LAST NIGHT AND SCOTT HAD ISAIAH AND ELIJAH AT GOLF LESSONS. IT WAS ABOUT 90 DEGREES OUTSIDE. MY CELL PHONE RINGS AND MY WONDERFUL HUBBY CALLS ME AND SAYS, "I THINK I MAY HAVE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE" MY HEART BEGAN TO BEAT A LITTLE HARDER, "WHY WHAT DID YOU DO?" I TOOK THE BOYS IN TO BUY A DRINK, ISAIAH CHOSE LEMONADE," I AM THINKING SOOOOO.....HE SAYS "BUT BY THE TIME I REALIZED WHAT ELIJAH CHOSE IT WAS ALMOST GONE..." WHAT DID HE CHOOSE? UMMMM A POWERADE, DID YOU KNOW POWERADE IS LIKE GATORADE WITH AN ENERGY BOOSTER?

NICE!!!!!!!!!!! FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW MY BOY ELIJAH, YOU KNOW HE IS NOT THE ONE OF MY KIDS WHO SHOULD EVER HAVE ANYTHING LIKE THIS!

WE HAD AN INTERESTING NIGHT TO SAY THE LEAST!

HAPPY 87TH BIRTHDAY GRAMMA

THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN ON CHRISTMAS DAY THIS YEAR. MY GRAMMA IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING WOMAN OF GOD. I LOVE HER SO MUCH AND HOPE SHE HAS A WONDERFUL DAY!

Still no call

It is officially the end of the week and still no call. Dr. Dunn told us she would call by the end of the week with a plan. So, today I think I will be making a call up to her office.
I took the kids Father's Day shopping last night. I am not a shopper, especially when I have kids with me. I have no idea how it happened, but, I have kids who LOVE to shop!! I am very much a "Know what I want, where I am going to get it, buy it and get out" kind of girl. These crazy kids wanted to window shop, and lollygag all throught the mall...I thought I wold never get them to decide and get get done!
I love the way they all arrived at their choices, one changed his mind every time someone saw something new. He had about 12 mind changes. Finally we all reached agreements and made our purchases and were on our way home! Now the key is to keep it a secret until Sunday.

Losing my mind

It is official. I am losing my mind.
Summer school is not getting off the to the start I had in my mind. I guess I thought the kids loved each other enough to be able to handle working in teams and making the projects fun. I have one team who absolutely can not get along to save any one's life! The other team is doing better today, now that I got the smarty-pants know-it-all attitude in check.
The there is the fact that Dominique is in VA with some friends and I am missing him and jealous. I did talk to him this morning and he is having a blast! It is raining there today so they have to change the plans they had for today. I am anxious for him to come home. I don't like it when my family is not all together. I know, I should get used to it because he will graduate next year....that is a whole other can of worms I would rather keep covered for now thank you very much!
I have gotten back to my walking, we have decided the earlier we walk the better because it has been getting rather humid out in the afternoon. I still have yet to see any positive results from all this walking. A friend told me today at least I am exercising my heart...well I think I'd rather see some action in the old southern hemisphere...at least then I'd feel like all the sweat is paying off in some way!
This has been a tough week for me, the anniversary of my dad's death is always a hard time for me, who ever said time heals all things must not have ever lost their DAD. There are certain seasons of my life when I feel it more deeply, like when I had my babies and he wasn't there to hold them. And times like now, when we are going through so much with Isaiah. I know you are not supposed to question God and His plans, but I often wonder about His timing in taking my dad.
I have said a million times I am terrible at the waiting game. We are in the waiting game for Isaiah's doctors to call us with a plan, I am seriously going to lose my mind waiting. I have gone over every possible situation. I keep thinking, we need money to pay for all this, we need child care for who knows how long, we need to remember to pack pillows and cushions for Isaiah this time, we need so many things, but I can't plan any of them until we have the plan....I feel like I am on the verge of tears all the time, I have to hold it together for the kids and it is getting more and more difficult not knowing what we are going to do. At least if I knew, then my imagination could stop...
God is in control I know, but a mother's heart sometimes has a hard time remembering that...
Pray that I will remember that daily as we wait.

Summer school

It is funny, every summer I teach summer school here at home to the kids. This summer our main focus is on geography. The kids also participate in the summer reading program at the school. We have a ton of fun with that! But yesterday was our first day working here at home. They all worked really hard all morning. After lunch I have them read for 1 hour then the day is all about fun. After reading yesterday Elijah begged me to do math. Mommy I really want to do math I love math. So now I guess I need to find some good math workbooks or something for him. He just makes me laugh because most kids don't even want to think about learning while on break from school, my kids want more more more!

Last game for Elijah

Last night was an exciting night for Elijah. He had his last base ball game. We have had so much fun watching him play this year. They won (by forfiet) the other team only had 6 players but both coaches decided to play the game anyway. The boys all had fun. Elijah got a good hit. but with the next batter he got out at 3rd base.
Scott had to miss the last game because Isaiah had golf lessons and then they played 4 holes before coming home. Isaiah loves golf, and he seems to be learning quickly. This has been a great thing for him and Scott to share.

Plans are coming together.

We have been trying for at least a year to find the right place for Madison as far as school goes. We were able to form a team of people last November to help us in the process. It has been slow and quite frustrating at times, but last night the last 2 pieces finally fell into place. We have a meeting this Wednesday and then the final meeting will be on June 26.
yesterday I spoke to the director of SE for the SEP district and explained everything about Isaiah and told her I really want to focus on Madison right now and make sure everything for her is in place before we have to go back to the hospital with Isaiah. I know that it is not fair to the other kids that everything focuses on Isaiah when we have to go up to the hospital but, that can't be helped. So, right now when I can, I want Madison to be a priority and then I will be comfortable that all of her needs are being met while we are gone with him.

Garage Sale/ Bake Sale

At our last check up we were given news that quite honestly blew us out of the water. We were completely unprepared to hear what we did. I can honestly say, I am good now, renewed strength came from God to my heart. Now, I am in planning mode. We are not scheduled to return to MN until late August or early September unless something changes between now and then.
It is very expensive to travel and stay while seeing doctors. We also have child care issues as my wonderful cousin Joy will be back in Springfield doing her Senior Year at CBC. I tried to convince her to do all her studies on line so she could stay here and take care of my kids...yeah, that didn't work.
If Isaiah has surgery in September as we are predicting we could be up there for quite a while. So, I am planning a garage sale and bake sale. All the money we raise will go into the account we have established in his name at The Great Western Bank of Runnells. We will use the money for expenses while up there and to pay for any medical needs and bills. I will be posting on the progress of planning the sale so please keep an eye out for details to come.
Please continue to pray for Isaiah and for our family. It is not easy to have a child in the family have to spend time in the hospital. Pray the doctors have Divine Wisdom in planning the course of treatment for Isaiah and pray for peace in my heart and in Scott's too.

we're back

We got home Wednesday night from our check up in MN. I had a ton of catching up to do. A HUGE HUGE Thank you to the best cousin in the world for taking such great care of the kids while we were gone! You are amazing!!! Sorry folks, she is my babysitter and I am not sharing!
I got Madison packed and off to Powette until Saturday. Then Dominique left this morning to go on vacation with his friend Tommy and family. He will be home on Sunday June 17. How is it he gets so lucky??
It seems so strange to me that we have begun our summer vacation. I really wish we could go on a trip this summer, but it looks like we will have to save as much money as we can as we will be traveling more frequently up to the hospital.
Next week we start a fun geography project that should take the whole summer. We signed up for the summer reading program at school and the kids got to learn all about crime scene investigating from Officer Handy. He was great and very patient with all the kids. We did fingerprinting too.
I haven't been able to walk my miles at all this week...next week will be a bearcat!!!
Isaiah started his golf lessons last night, he had a blast and after his lessons dad treated him to a round of Putt Putt. I think next week I will go to lessons too so I can take pictures.
Sam is upto his usual stuff and Amaris is quickly turning in to a couch potato I can see I am going to have to light a fire under her butt to get her moving this summer.
we are going to an Iowa Cubs game tonight compliments of BCBS. I love fun free activities to do with the kids!
Eijah will have his last baseball game of the season on Monday night. We have had a ton of fun this season and he has learned a lot!
I hope I can keep up with all these crazy kids all summer!

Nerves are building.....

I hate this part! In my head I know it is ridiculous to get so nervous and worried when we are preparing to go for Isaiah's check up. My heart feels like it will pound right out of my chest all of the time, it feels as though I can't catch my breath when I have time to sit down and think. I feel on the verge of tears every moment, and grouchy seems such a small word...
In my heart I know God will provide for us. He will provide peace, if I will let Him, courage for us to hear what ever the doctors have to say, strength to get us through from today until we are done with all the tests and appointments. See, I know all these things, I even tell others these things. So WHY WHY WHY do I still feel so sick leading up to the moment we are done? I can barely eat or sleep. Yet, I know God has a plan and I know He got us through last time and the time before and so on...I know He will be holding us up and even carrying us along the way...knowing all those things doesn't seem to help my heart remember how to beat properly, or my lungs remember the correct way to take in and release air. I guess part of my problem is the opposite of Scott's, I force myself to look ahead. I play the "what if" game in my head. I have to feel prepared for all things. I have to feel like nothing they could tell us could ever take my breath away like it has before, I never want to feel like I will pass out cold in the office again, I don't functuion well in surprise situations where I have no control. That is how I feel every time we have to go back for a check up. I never want to be shocked by a prognosis or medical plan again...so, I drive my self absolutely crazy trying to prepare to not have that happen...I guess I am just a total mess...Thank goodness I KNOW that GOD LOVES ME so much (even when I am a total mess) but better than that right now, I know GOD LOVES MY BOY TOO!! Please pray for us... we will be back Wednesday. Then we will be going back up at the end of the month to meet with the orthopedic team. we were unable to get all our appointments scheduled into one visit this time around. BUMMER!