SUMMER DAY 29, Sat June 27

First, an update on Larry's dad.

The hospital released him at about 5:30 tonight. There's really not anything that can be done other than giving him a transfusion, wait for the bleeding to stop & sending him on his way. It'll happen again, but thankfully he survived it this time. Unfortunately, this is his life now. He will go back & forth between the bleeding issue & heart issues for the rest of his life. Sadly, one day, one of these 2 things will take his life. We are not giving up hope for him to seek Jesus and place his faith in Him. At this point, the damage is already done to his body and there is no turning back the clock, so to speak. Thank you for the prayers. Please continue to lift them up for him.

Larry got up & was out the door by 9:30 this morning. He had to run an errand, then he went to my dad's house to fix a squeaky belt on his truck, then went to the town where his dad was hospitalized & stayed there with him the rest of the day til he was released. He drove him home & got him settled before driving back home tonight. So it's really just been the kids & I all day.

Today has blessedly uneventful. It was a great day of balance between quiet, restful, relaxing time and getting things accomplished and spending time with the kids. I love days like that!

Savannah is out of town with her girlfriends this week. We'll go pick her up on Wednesday. She calls to check in every night & seems to be having a lot of fun. They've had a lot of late evening swimming, yummy foods, trips to stores & places that are foreign to her....but she loves it! We're crossing our fingers that we can convince her friends to come to our house before the summer is over & stay a couple days!

I'm headed to the shower now but I'll leave you with this sweet picture. (Mom--you'll recognize these!) The kids stayed with my parents last week on the day that I took Larry to play golf. Mom is an avid crafter/sewer. While he was there, Samuel created 2 sleeping bags for this stuffed bunnies (that he sleeps with every night). Last night, I went in to turn out lamps & make sure everyone was covered up & found this laying beside him. Sweet!

Book Review: The Wackiest Wildest Weirdest Animals in the World by Jack Hanna

Yesterday the UPS man dropped off a package on my front porch. I was excited to tear into it & find this book. The shiny, colorful hardback was well received by my whole family. We were all anxious to read through the book and watch the DVD of bloopers from Jack Hanna's wildlife TV show. Neither the book or the DVD left us disappointed!

Each double page spread includes vivid, crisp pictures of a different animal and all sorts of interesting information about it. Did you know that a sloth only poops once a week? Did you know that a baboon's bright red bottom is actually a thick callous (read: seat-cushion!) and not bare skin? Did you know that a hyena "laughs" when it's afraid...and that is a warning signal to RUN! I bet you didn't know that a platypus is venomous! These were some of my kids' favorite details.

The DVD was about 20 minutes long and included vintage clips from the show's early years as well as more recent ones. It was very funny to watch.

All in all, I was quite pleased with this book! I am a Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger. You can find out more about that here: http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

Follow-up on Larry's dad

I sent this update to a few friends last night when we got home, so keep in mind all the "todays" & "tomorrows" used refer to yesterday & today.

We went to see Larry's dad this evening. When we got there, he was being transfused w/ his 2nd bag of plasma & I think they were going to bring in a 3rd when that one emptied. His BP was 144/100! Larry told me in the car on the way back that your BP can rise like that when you have a very low blood volume b/c your heart's having to work really hard to move that little bit of blood around. That's why they were giving him the plasma to boost the blood volume til his body remakes it. His pulse was also way up for the same reason.

Apparently he woke up at 5-something this morning & bled a ton when he went to the bathroom. He was feeling rough & he said he'd thrown up last night, so he called Larry's mom (who lives down the road--they're divorced but still really good friends). She was a nurse for a long time so she knows her stuff medically speaking. She came to check on him & he asked to be taken to the hospital. She took him in & stayed with him til she had to go to work. His mother (Larry's grandmother) came up & stayed w/ him after that.

Anyway, there are no big changes. They're doing a scope (upper GI) test in the morning to see if they can locate the bleed site. If they can't (and I doubt they will--sounds like it's a lower GI tract bleed) they may do a colonoscopy to see if they can find it that way. I suspect it'll be the same issue as last time. They will locate all sorts of bleeding areas, but all too high up for them to do anything about, they'll send him home & take him off the blood thinner for a while until he starts having other problems w/ his heart & then they'll put him back on the med and the whole cycle will start again.

Frustrating....but I'm glad that he appears to be OK this time.

Urgent Prayer Request

If you follow me on facebook, you may already know this, but I'm posting it in several locations to make sure that we get lots of prayers!

As you may remember from earlier posts on my blog, Larry's dad (Jim, 58) has a longgggg list of health problems. They are all related to his alcoholism. Pretty much all the major organ systems of his body are dangling by a fine thread. About a year ago, he found out that he has an abnormal heart rhythm. They attempted to shock his heart back into normal rhythm but it didn't work. Having an abnormal rhythm like his puts him at high risk for a stroke because blood pools in his heart & clots and then is pumped out to other parts of the body. To prevent a stroke, he was put on blood thinning medicine but they quickly learned that he was bleeding internally while taking it. Without locating the source of the bleeding pretty rapidly, he could bleed to death. So one way or the other, on the blood thinning medicine or not, he's in a very dangerous situation that could end his life.

Jim is not a believer, so even more serious than the health issues is the condition of his soul.

Today, Jim began bleeding internally. He's been hospitalized. Larry & I and our younger 2 kids are going to the hospital to see him tonight and try to see how serious of a situation he's facing. Please pray for Jim.

SUMMER DAY 27, Thur June 25

When I came home from work this afternoon, a friend of mine on Facebook had posted something about how celebrity deaths usually come in threes. He mentioned Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett & asked the question "will Michael Jackson be the 3rd?". I had no idea what he was talking about.

A quick google search answered my questions.

A few minutes later, that same friend posted that Michael Jackson had been declared dead.

Wow. I haven't enjoyed anything about MJ's life or music in years, but I have loads of memories of him before he became a weirdo. To that end, enjoy these videos of MJ's early days.



(NOTE: The little boy in the commercial above is the same kid who played Carlton Banks on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Kinda funny since Carlton's character couldn't dance worth a flip in the show.)

I can't embed this one, but if you'd like to see Beat It, go here.

Same thing with Billie Jean.

Here's Smooth Criminal:


And of course, the most iconic of all the MJ videos, Thriller! All of the ones I could find on youtube have had the embedding disabled, but this is a portion of the video....the best part, the big dance scene!

Just for fun.....

My friend Amber posted this on her blog & asked for her friends to do so as well, so here we go...........

1) What is your salad dressing of choice? light Ranch, just about any sort of vinagrette, actually just about anything BUT Thousand Island...gag!

2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Olive Garden or Red Lobster...it's a toss up.

3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it? I don't think I could eat ANYTHING for 2 solid weeks without growing tired of it. I say that assuming this question means eating nothing but that 1 food for 2 weeks....but I do have foods that I eat almost daily & don't get sick of (yogurt, fruit, etc).

4) What are your pizza toppings of choice? veggie

5) What do you like to put on your toast? butter & jelly

6) How many televisions are in your house? 1 that everyone watches all the time and 1 that only works for DVDs that goes back & forth between the 2 kids' rooms.

7) What color cell phone do you have? black...but does anyone REALLY care?

8) Are you right-handed or left-handed? right

9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Tonsils & adenoids, wisdom teeth, my children, splinters........I think that's it.

10) What is the last heavy item you lifted? the lawn mower (NOT by myself---I was helping Larry)

11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious? only by anesthesia

12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No thanks.

13) If you could change your name, what would you change it to? As a little girl, I always wanted to be a Melissa....but I'm totally OK with my own name now.

14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? No. Add another zero & I might think about it, though.

15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own? 2

16) What are your goals for the year? Wow. It's already 1/2 over & I can't think of anything in particular...but I hope that I'm 1/2 way there whatever it is!

17) Last person you talked to? my sweet husband

18) Last person you hugged? Samuel, when I tucked him in

19) Favorite Season? Winter

20) Favorite Holiday? Thanksgiving--it's the only one that society hasn't totally commercialized yet. I mean, how do you screw up being THANKFUL!?

21) Favorite day of the week? Sunday

22) Favorite Month? everything from late Nov to late Dec :)

23) First place you went this morning? the bathroom....just like everyone else! ha ha

24) What's the last movie you saw? I watched Yes Man last night (at home, on DVD). I watched Revolutionary Road a couple nights before. Liked Yes Man (although there is cussing/sexual stuff & some crude stuff....) but hated Revolutionary Road.

25) Do you smile often? I think so.

26) Do you always answer your phone? no

27) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? It better be an emergency!

28) If you could change your eye color what would it be? I wouldn't change them. I got my daddy's pretty blue eyes.

29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic? I assume this means other than your basic sodas. In which case, I love Ocean Water!

30) Have you ever had a pet fish? Yes, many.

31) Favorite Christmas song? - Oh Holy Night

32) What's on your wish list for your birthday? That's a long ways off......but maybe a date night w/ my hubby. We always love those!

33) Can you do push ups? There's a big difference between "can you" & "do you want to".

34) Can you do a chin up? probably not.

35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited? a little of both

36) Do you have any saved texts? no

37) Ever been in a car wreck? a couple, actually.

38) Do you have an accent? I don't hear it in myself, but I'm sure I do!

39) What is the last song to make you cry? Are you kidding me? I tear up every day!!

40) Plans tonight? sleeping is good

41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? yes & no

42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday. nothing...but tonight I had to get tea bags @ the store.

43) Have you ever been given roses? Yes.

44) Current hate right now? I don't hate anyone.

45) Met someone who changed your life? I've met a lot of someones who've changed different pieces of my life....and I'm so grateful for each one of them!

46) How did you bring in the New Year? I think you're looking at it RIGHT NOW.

47) What song represents you? It varies by the day.

48) Name three people who might complete this? I have no idea, but if you do leave me a comment w/ a link to your blog so I can go read it!

49) What were you doing 12am last night? sleeping

50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? How annoying the alarm clock's beep is.

SUMMER DAY 25-26, Tues/Wed June 23 & 24

Before I forget...check out this site. We've been really impressed with the Virtue Pack that we picked up at church a couple of weeks ago. It's a new 'pack' every month that includes a CD to listen to while driving. The story on it is similar to an Adventures in Odyssey story....a real story with Scripture & morals woven throughout. The kids have been quoting storylines frequently. There are also mealtime cards with ideas for mealtime conversations relating to the story & virtue of the month, as well as bedtime story cards and little cards you can write to your kids to encourage them. Although you could feasibly be done with the pack in 1 week's time, they only create a new one once a month.

Ok........now onto the rest of my post!

Above you will find the Bible verse that the kids & I are working on this week. You may notice a recurrent theme in these verses. Love your neighbor....a gentle word turns away wrath....do everything without arguing & complaining. My precious little *angels* have only been out of school for a few weeks & they already need these gentle reminders for their attitudes & behavior toward one another. Boy oh boy.....late August ought to be grand. (groan) But then again...maybe some of the verses they're learning will have sunk in by then. (Why yes....the Bible tells us that His word doesn't come back void.....it accomplishes its purpose......so I'm going to trust God to do His work & move these little hearts. If He doesn't, I may have to move some other part of their bodies!) ha ha!

Yesterday we went to work like we normally do on Tues/Thurs. No big news there...just the usual stuff.

Today the kids and I travelled out of town to visit my mother & father in law and Larry's grandmother (does that make her my grandmother in law?). Afterward, we met Savannah's best girlfriends in a nearby town. These are the same girlfriends I've mentioned before that moved away several years ago. They've kept in touch all these years and they still visit several times a year. It's been nearly 6 years since they left. The girls were 7 when they moved....and now they're all 13 (or nearly 13 in Savannah's case). I find it remarkable that even after all these years, they all still love each other! So cool! Anyway, Savannah went home with them & will stay for a week. Samuel, Sarah & I will go back to pick her up next Wednesday. It was late afternoon by the time we got home, so we came in & had some quiet reading time before it was time to cook dinner.

Tomorrow ought to be fun at work. If you didn't get it the first time, re-read that last sentence with a huge amount of sarcasm. It's our school-wide picnic day. In 100+ degree weather. With small children who have a hard time sitting still inside the classroom. Oh yeah. Gotta love that. Are you blowing your party noisemakers with me yet?

Oh yeah, we live a wild & crazy life over here.