Scars

I believe this applies to those scars that are hidden inside us too.

 And we must never forget the scars that the Savior carries for us...

 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. 

John 20:27

~Blessings & Love~

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Catching up

Now that summer has officially come to an end up here in the northern woods, I am once again turning my attention back to this blog.
We have had our share of weird weather here in Northern Michigan, but over all it was a pretty decent summer.
I am really not a fan of summer myself, but we had a pretty busy and fun time visiting with friends and family and going to some of our favorite places, as well as finding a couple new ones along the way!
It’s funny how many times either Jeff or I would snap a picture and say: “Hey, that would be nice for a blog post.”
So, here are a few snapshots from the past couple of months or so…


This baby gosling struggled to follow its family at the hotel where we stayed for Sam’s bridal shower last June.


Three things that a person with vertigo should never do:


1. Walk in the sand  along the edge of a wave while trying not to fall over onto the people sunbathing on the windy shoreline of Lake Michigan! (*note…I was tempting fate by wearing a wig that day!)


2. Walking out on a long pier to stand at the edge of a lighthouse, while looking up into the sky to get a close-up of a seagull that stayed suspended in midair just over my head….
while speedboats sail surprisingly close by…


3. walking along a very precarious looking swinging bridge in a little park we found!

Some new friends I met…



This little guy stopped what he was doing to pose for me.



I asked this lady if I could take her picture…She was concerned about the  can of soda ruining the shot because it was not befitting the period. We chatted for a bit, and I almost got talked into volunteering for the next festival.


Here are a few more characters in period costumes. The stew that the woman was cooking smelled wonderful!

I spent a lot of time rubbing the noses and shooing flies from these guys…They actually seemed like they hated to see me leave. I did chat with one of the ladies who works for their owner before getting permission to get closer to the horses. Isn’t that carriage lovely?

Here’s a few more carriages.


Imagine my surprise when I knelt down to get a better shot of this young wolf….

When she jumped up and ran straight for me…I never did get that close-up, as it was kinda hard to do with a wolf licking my face and wanting a belly rub! I chatted with her owner and learned the wolf’s name is Gala-la-ni` and she is a 9 month old mixed timber wolf and Alaskan grey wolf.


And I will wrap this part of my post  up with our little hike through Hartwick Pines National forest last Saturday…

where we paid a visit to our favorite little chapel in the pines.

There’s more to share with you, things that I did not get a picture of, but are worth writing about here.

 There was the day my friend Ellen stopped by and we went for a walk together around the neighborhood. I think I settled her concern for my health on that walk, as I insisted that we go for a much longer walk than what she is normally used to, and she was surprised to find that she needed to pick up her pace a little to keep up, and by the time we got back to my house…I was not the least bit winded! I had to apologize to her for the extended distance and increased pace…but since I got most of my strength back after so long without it…Well, it’s pretty wonderful to be able to feel that freedom again!

And I recently had the sweetest surprise lunch date with my friend Deb…She called me with a plan to grab lunch and head to the lake together…Unfortunately, a severe storm started up just as we were leaving, and we had to turn around and eat our lunch here…but it turned out to be a blessed time of fellowship with a friend whom I adore, but because of her own health problems recently, we had not seen one another since before I was diagnosed. Before she left, I hugged her and thanked her for taking me out into a dangerous storm…LOL!

My best friend Brenda whom I have mentioned on here a time or two also came up from Ohio with her three teen-aged daughters…We had a wonderful visit, and I learned that her oldest girl, 17 years old was running in two cancer races in my honor …I am very honored indeed!

Also, our neighbor who lives in Arizona but owns the little cabin next door is here for a visit.  She was surprised to learn that I had been through cancer surgery and treatment. I explained how sorry I was that I did not call her to let her know, but at the time it was very difficult to break the news to people. She understood, and then surprised me with another big hug…She said she was even more happy to see me now, I replied that I was happy to still be here to see her too!
I also want to share with you another huge blessing…
As you may or may not know, I have played The Sims PC game for a number of years…Last year around this time I prayed whether or not the Lord wanted me to continue spending time playing that game. I was lead to Google the words Christian Simmers and immediately I found a site that looked like it had been designed especially for me…I could not believe that it had existed for such a long time and I had never known about it until then!
Since then I have forged some very close friendships especially with a small group of other Christian women, and I have been creating sim houses and stories etc..on the site. These ladies, like all of you have walked right along beside me through this whole cancer journey, and have held me in their prayers along with you. I am continually surprised at the way the Lord brings us all together.
I even met one of my favorite game modders (someone who writes code for creating special affects in a game) She is a fellow Michigander…A very sweet and generous Christian lady of whom I have admired her work for many years now. And she is now a good friend of mine as well.
Each of the administrators of that site have wonderful testimonies of how God is using them to minister to others through a computer game…Without them, there is a whole group of people who may never hear the Word of God…people from all over the world who play this popular game. I have seen them in action…It is a good ministry that I am honored to be associated with. And while I am very cautious about who or what I get involved with online…I feel very safe there as the administrators do not tolerate anything that is less than God honoring on the site…In fact, I was amazed at just how quickly they were able to isolate a problem poster and shut them down from posting further.  Our youngest member is only 12 years old from Romania, and we all watch out for her like a bunch of over protective mothers and grandmothers…her mother is a single mom who works a lot, and the girl spends most of her time online on our site where she knows she is loved and adored!

Well, that is about all for today…I hope to be doing more updates now that everything is slowing down around here…I will be back with another update after I see my oncologist this Friday.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are…
~NEVER FORSAKEN~

UPDATE!

There was something abnormal in my brain, but they are not too concerned about it...It does not appear to be cancer related. Doctor will discuss it with me in detail on my next appointment with him in three weeks.

He is not worried, and so we are not worried either. Hopefully this will answer why my balance is off.

Thank you for your continued prayers...I have been calmer than I thought I would be these last couple days...Now I am just curious about what is going on inside my brain...Maybe my brother was right, and I was dropped off by aliens as a baby...He said they would return for me again some day?

 

Thank you all for your encouragement...and above all else...Thank the Lord for carrying me through yet another new door...the door that led into the MRI scan.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Still Waiting…

I’m still waiting for the results from the brain MRI I had last week.
It wasn’t exactly the greatest experience…getting the scan.
There was a series of blunders throughout. (I won’t get into the details on here)…Let’s just say I’m glad it’s all over. I have my regular appointment on Friday for the Herceptin infusion, and the doctor will likely go over the scan with me.

I got a CD with the images on it to keep…I looked at it, and I probably shouldn’t have because of course I thought I saw something strange on it!

Lord, help me not to have such an imagination…but that is how the Lord made me, I guess…So in order not to drive myself (and everybody around me) crazy, I will just leave it up to God and the experts in the field of reading MRI’s.

We had a fun week with Sarah and Josh and their two dogs staying with us while they got an electrical problem worked out at their house…They returned to their own home late last night and I miss them already!

The last time I went to the oncologist I met and was able to counsel a woman who was there for her first chemo…She and her husband were very scared, but I am happy to report that she is doing well, and I was blessed to have been able to offer her some comfort during that most difficult time. I will likely see her again on Friday.
It was also a sad day that day as I  met another woman who was there with her 21 year old daughter. Her daughter told me that her mother had been in remission from breast cancer for thirteen years, and  now it had returned and was in her spine. She is still a young woman, and I can only imagine what she must be going through. Her daughter seemed very loving and supportive…Her Mother’s name is Rosemary…My prayers go out to her.
I’ve been taking so many pictures, and am having a hard time deciding which ones to share with you all…We’ve been keeping busy throughout the summer, and having lots of fun. Even though the picture I am sharing with you today is not one of my best…I like it because I just got done watching a bunch of TV shows about sharks for ‘Shark Week’…

Da…dum…


…Dadum…Dadum * (theme music from ‘Jaws’)*
 

Do you see the shark in the sky? (I sure hope you do, otherwise I might be going crazy!)
I took this picture on our way home from Indiana last month…while we were watching some pretty scary looking wall clouds forming overhead!

And here are a couple of my favorites from our trip back to the city park and zoo in Lafayette:

1.   But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  Isaiah 40:31  -

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are…
~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

 

We watched  Molly, our daughter’s Chihuahua last month while she went to Vegas…

She came with a lot of luggage and a lot of rules such as:

• Do not touch her, there, there, or there…
• Do not touch her toys…
• Do not touch her food…
• Do not touch her bed or her tent, which the bed is inside of….etc..etc..

By the time we returned her to her Mommy, I was able to touch her anywhere, play with her toys, her food, her bed and whatever else was on the list.

She tried to nip me once early on, but I just simply got up and walked away leaving her on the couch by herself for the night…I didn’t even look back at her.

The next morning she was begging for my attention, even placing her little body underneath my hand as if to say that it was alright to pet her anywhere I wanted to, just so long as I never left her by herself like that again! She stayed near me for the remainder of her time with us.

Molly is staring at the vacuum that I had just finished using. (Yes, that is how much dog hair I vacuum up at one time!)

Molly and I are playing…

She is a blur for most of the pictures because she is so fast!

 

Where did it go?

Got it!

 

What cha doing, Grandma?

Finally, it’s time for a nap.

 

Molly loves my favorite blanket…maybe because she feels well-hidden in it?

Buddy watches Molly from a safe distance…He and I went outside and played with the stick Shortly after, but not before I played a game of hide and seek with the dogs…I laughed so hard watching them from my hiding place while they ran around in circles looking for me…I nearly wet my pants when Buddy ran right past me…I couldn’t stop giggling, so Molly found me!

Lord willing, I’ll be back with some more updates from the past month…

In the meantime, could you please pray for a clear MRI next Tuesday, Aug.12…My doctor does not believe there is anything wrong, but wants to do this test before figuring out why my balance is still off…He says it is probably just me….or my inner ear more specifically.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~

and remember, we are…

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Honored

"Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 5:16

Our new Son In Law co-owns a bowling alley.
Because of my diagnosis of breast cancer, he was inspired to do something really good last month by beginning a league to raise money for breast cancer research. The proceeds will be donated to their local YWCA in Lafayette, Indiana. Casey was interviewed by the local news station and told them it was in my honor.


And now for the rest of the story...

SAM & CASEY'S WEDDING YESTERDAY:

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 


WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY, CASEY...WE ARE HONORED TO HAVE YOU!

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~