At Home America

I think I already told you that I signed up to be a HomeStyle Specialist for at home America. I just added a link to my website with them so you can look at what I'm selling. Colin wants me to earn the Union Station clock, it's really cool. I'm very excited about this, I hope everything goes very well. I'm going to have my "grand opening" on July 14th. I have a ton of stuff to learn before then. Well, that's all I have to say about this today. Check out the link!

This Week

This week has gone by very quickly for me. Monday started with a surprise, I didn't have to go to work, as the boys were suffering from the tummy flu. So I got to stay home in my nice clean house. I am trying to convince Ian that we enjoy the house being clean and that he can help by keeping his toys picked up. It's going pretty well so far.
Tuesday was errand day. We went to Aberdeen, had lunch at McDonald's, went to Wal-mart, the park and Top Foods for groceries. I am starting to recognize some familiar faces in Top Foods. Of course, I recognize the manager, he's our neighbor. There's a lady in the deli department that we've seen almost every time we've been in there. I think she's starting to recognize us, too, thanks to Ian. As soon as I get near the deli, he turns into this whiny, obnoxious thing, trying to get the deli worker's attention so that he might get a "sample" of ham. He starts quietly and usually ends by cupping his hands around his mouth and saying very loudly," Hey! I would like a sample. I want a sample." The whole time I am shushing him and telling him to behave and then here comes the very sweet deli lady with either a half or whole slice of ham in her properly gloved hand asking me if it's okay for Ian to have it. Of course, I say 'yes', not because my ill behaved child deserves it, but because the lady is being very nice.
Tuesday night I signed up to be a Home Show Specialist for At Home America, which is a company that sells candles and cool things to decorate your house with. As soon as I set up my web page for it, I'll post a link on here so you can look at it. You can even order off of it, if you find something you like.
Wednesday was work and we went to visit Ian's grandma and got to go swimming at Aunt Peggy's pool. Don't get too excited here, it was almost a polar bear swim. It hasn't been that hot here and I think the water was about 71 or 72 degrees. BRRRRRR!!!
Thursday, I rode into town with Colin. It made it possible to transport the yummy macaroni salad I had made for a potluck at Colin's work. We put it on ice in the cooler. After I dropped off my husband and the macaroni salad, Ian and I headed to Group Health so I could get back to my allergy shots. Unfortunately, I had been sick so long that all the allergy stuff had expired. I hadn't been in for 7 weeks. Sinusitis and tummy flu. So I had to start all over again, what a bummer!
After my shot, I went to my friend Dottie's house. You never know what's going on at Dottie's and yesterday was no exception. I got there and found out that she was just ready to go out on an errand. She invited me along so we all piled into her Suburban and headed out. I got to go along with her as she picked up some antique school desks, took her kids to swimming lessons, lunch, visited Old Navy, Linens-n-Things and a grocery store. What an afternoon! If you really want to appreciate the fun we had, you must know that we had 4 children with us. It was fun in spite of some small people's attitude's from time to time. Ian was very upset when his poor choices in Old Navy led to no new shirt for him. He begged and pleaded, but he knew why he couldn't get a shirt. He told me that he couldn't keep the "bad ideas" in the garbage long enough, they kept coming out. He did quite a bit better at Linens-n-Things and was able to have a tiny piece of candy as a reward for good behavior.
Last night when I was putting Ian to bed, I noticed he had a rash on his chest and tummy and it was still there this morning, so we're going to have the doctor look at it this afternoon. Hopefully, we can figure out what it is.

The Living Room

It's amazing how some paint and a couple of end table make my living room feel like an entirely different room. We just sat in there and enjoyed it last night. Colin said he felt like he was in someone else's house, it was very clean (no toys scattered around)and with the new paint looked so different from before.
I sat out there after everyone had gone to bed so I could have a little quiet time with God. It was so quiet and peaceful. I love my family, but one thing that it is not around here when they are up and awake, is quiet. Ian makes noise almost constantly and when he isn't, it's time to RUN, he's probably getting into trouble.
Well, enjoy the pictures. I know I'm going to enjoy my living room!

Tables

So, I have put my birthday money to good use. First, I searched on craigslist and found an oak dining table and chairs. A round table with a leaf...hooray. Then, I found end tables for my living room. I think they might be oak also and they each have a drawer. Colin is going to pick those up tonight. Wow. We're finally going to have a grown up living room, rather than just a chair and a couch. I will try to photograph all the new tables and post them soon.
We've also begun painting the inside of our house. It's really starting to feel like it's all ours. Our living room is painted dapper tan and our kitchen should be painted melted butter color(as long as we like the color after we get it up on the walls).
Thanks to my mom and mom-in-law for birthday money for me to play with! I'm having fun getting "new" furniture.

Count Your Blessings

Ian and I have been reading a great devotion book together each night before he goes to bed. It's called Ten minute time outs for you and your child (or really close to that). He really looks forward to it and I'm loving it, too. Yesterday the lesson was about having a good attitude no matter what and one way the little girl was able to have an "attitude of gratitude" was to have a list of things she was thankful for. So I thought it would be nice to list some of the things I am thankful for. Here they are in no particular order.
1. I am thankful for God, that He exists, that He gave us the Bible so we can know him. That He sent his son to die on the cross for my sins, so I can choose a relationship with Him. 2. I am thankful that I live in America and get to enjoy many freedoms and all the beauty of this land God created. 3. I am thankful for my family. All my family, the ones I get to see a lot, the ones I don't see often enough, the ones that love me and even the ones that disagree with me. 4. I am thankful for my husband. He makes me laugh, he works hard and does a great job at his work. I'm thankful that he mows the lawn so I don't have to. I'm thankful that sometimes he sees things exactly the way I see them and sometimes he doesn't and I get to experience a new perspective. 5. I am thankful for my son who is wild and crazy sometimes and snuggly and cuddly at other times, but who always makes life very interesting. 6. I am thankful for my house and good neighbors. After apartment dwelling, it is a welcome relief. 7. I am thankful that God made me a very creative person, there are so many fun things I want to explore and create! 8. I am thankful for friends. Old friends, not so old friends and the opportunity to make new friends. It's so fun to have friends to share your life with. 9. I am thankful for my crazy dog. She is so sweet and silly and scared us with her health so much and now, she's doing pretty good. Crazy Lucy! 10. I am thankful that I can blog my silliest thoughts on here and at least one person looks at what I wrote. My husband, he's a big fan of my blog.
Well that's a small portion of what I'm thankful for. What are you thankful for?? Why don't you share that with a few people and write it down so you can remind yourself what's so great about your life on a gloomy day.

This Week

Well, it's been an interesting week. It started with my birthday and Father's Day on Sunday. We tried to visit a new church (one down here closer to home), but ended up not being able to find it. Colin had to stop and buy a map and realized he'd been looking in the wrong town. The church is in Hoquiam and he'd been looking on the edge of Aberdeen. By the time we found the church it was already 11:15 or 11:20 and church service starts at 10:45. So we decided to wait and try the next Sunday, rather than disrupt anything.
We went to Home Depot and bought paint colors to put up around the house. I bought some yellow for the kitchen that is too light (not yellow enough for us) and a tan color for the home school room. I also got some exterior paint, but I think it's too light.
By the time we got done with that it was time for lunch so we had lunch at a very nice Chinese buffet. Everything was delicious.
We drove home after lunch, narrowly escaping a wreck as a lady pulled into our lane while we were in the lane. She just about hit our driver's side door. Colin had to get over on the shoulder and honk to get her to see us. That was scary!
Once we were home, Colin's parents came over to celebrate my birthday with presents and cake. I got some nice birthday money which I used to buy and dining room table and chairs off of craigslist.
I also got a belated and very unwelcome present for my birthday....the stomach flu. It hit at 4:15 am and lasted for a couple of days. I'm still working on feeling completely normal even today. Colin had the stomach flu Monday night and Tuesday.
Wednesday I thought I was well enough to go back to work (and I really wanted to get my table. I had planned to get it Monday, but of course, that didn't work). I was semi okay in the morning, but after I ate lunch my queasy stomach returned. It lasted all afternoon. It got better after I was in my van and put the ac on full blast. The colder I was, the better I felt.
We got the table and chairs and went to dinner to celebrate 12 yrs. since my surgery. We went to Shari's and had very mild food....omelets and toast. We only ate about a third of our food and brought the rest home.
Yesterday was school and tumbling and a little cleaning,but if I did too much, I felt woozy. We're going to try to get to the church again this Sunday and we're going to have some friends over for lunch, hopefully my energy will return.
Oh, I almost forgot. The paint that I bought for the home school room never made it to that room. We ended up putting it on our ugly dark paneling wall and it is fantastic! I'm going to see if I have a good picture for you to see the difference and for my mom, I'll take a picture of the new table and post it soon.

The Rest of The Story

Well, tomorrow is the 12th year anniversary of my surgery, so I'd better finish the story.
So there I was on the same floor as the heart patients, most of whom where in their 70's. I was feeling great now that I could breathe and swallow again. I started in one room and later was moved after the other patient went home and they needed the room. I ended up rooming with Mrs. Walden, who was in her 70's, diabetic and hard of hearing. Now if you've never had surgery you might not realize that they monitor all your fluids, incoming and outgoing. They give you this little thing called a potty hat to gather your urine(this is some of the glamorous stuff). So I had a potty hat and of course, Mrs. Walden had her own potty hat. At one point Mrs. Walden got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. My mom tried to ask her to wait a minute as my potty hat was on the toilet, but remember I said she was hard of hearing?? She was REALLY hard of hearing and didn't hear a word. We had to call the nurses station and ask them to come take care of the "potty hat situation". Even in the midst of serious stuff, there is room for humor.
I had to stay in the hospital for a week. I couldn't go home until they had given me a bone marrow test. The head nun in the hospital talked to about what the procedure was like (she'd had it done before). She was honest and told me it was painful for her and not to be afraid to cry or scream, that was normal. Needless to say, I was nervous. My doctor that came to do the test was British, so that was cool. I did see all the very large needles, which was not cool. He explained each step of the procedure as he numbed my hip deeper and deeper. Then it was time to get the sample and a bone chip. Once again, I believe prayer saw me through this, it only felt strange, not overly painful. The doctor and his assistant assured me that it was okay to cry or scream. I said I would do that when it hurt, but it never got to that point.
The doctor's tool slipped while he was trying to get a bone chip from me. He told me I had the hardest bones he'd seen, which was good, it turned out no cancer had spread to my bones, in fact the cancer was in stage 1A (that's the very first stage).
I went home a week to the day after my surgery. I was so glad to go home ,even though, really, my journey had just started. I returned many times to see the oncologist, a surgeon to put in a port for chemo and later to have it removed and the radiologist. I had chemo for 6 months and 23 doses of radiation. I had so much treatment due to the location of my tumor, near my heart. God led me through this time, it was very isolating, I could not work, attend church or be out in public much due to very low white blood cell counts. There was a chance that the chemo could have sent me into menopause and that I would have never been able to have children. It was hard, but I trusted that God had a plan and I didn't know what it was, but I needed to trust him.