Our life Lately

It has been forever since I've written. Life has been busy, like everyone else. Lot's of changes going on around here. After 7 long months of cleaning the house for showings, we have finally sold the
house, yippee!! Of course we only have 1 1/2 weeks to be out! We will be living with Mark's parents who so generously opened their home to us for a little over a month until our new house is ready.
Kaylee is sooo excited to get to see her Grammy and Papa so often!
So I am knee deep in packing and organizing all of our stuff. After living here 7 1/2 years, it will
be bittersweet to leave our home. Kaylee is getting a little sad to leave her room full of colorful squares that Mommy painted on 2 different occasions. She even asked if she could have the same paint job in her new room! I'm not that crazy!

We are thanking God for the opportunity He has given us to build a home in a great area of Cincinnati. We have been watching the whole process over the last several months. We had an idea to write scripture in each room of the house on the wooden beams according to what we hope to accomplish for the Lord there....then we prayed over each room in the house. Here are a few pictures...

Disney Pics

Our trip from last month!

Here are some photos from our trip in April to Clearwater...Disney pics still to come.
We had such a nice relaxing time to regroup after a crazy month in Cincinnati!

I have a new niece!!!!

This is my newest niece Lasea Grace Woller...born on March 31, weighing 8 lbs 1 oz!
She is so very precious and we are all Praising God for a healthy addition to our family.
Proud parents are my sister Nicki and her husband Nate! Kaylee is in love and wants to see her all the time. Here are some photos of our little "Lacey Gracey."

Psalm 139

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, If I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I Praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden form You when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are Your thoughts , O God!
How vast the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you." (1-18)

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." (23)


Life has tossed us a few curve balls this past month. It is so nice to be reminded that God
knows our every anxious thought! And that He alone has each of our days numbered. Through all the hard stuff in life, He is what makes it worth every day!

Thanking God today for good gifts, healing, and vacations! We are headed to the magical place
of Disney World this week with our precious little girl! We will post pictures soon!

Recovering

So surgery was this past Tuesday. Everything went so well. The nurses were wonderful, the doctors too! I had a very good experience overall. And my incision is amazing, no stitches, no steri strips, no dressing...just a slightly goofy looking belly button and some super glue!
Yesterday was a hard day with lots of pain. My wonderful friends and family have been taking Kay, which is a huge blessing. She seems to be more needy when I am down and out. But overall we are doing great! My mom is coming for a few days and I am soooo looking forward to her being here.
Our big prayer is that my sister would keep her baby nestled inside her until I am fully recovered so I can hop in the car and drive to Columbus as soon as she makes her debut!
Thanks for all the prayers and love! I can't wait to eat fats again...

My latest

So for 5 months now I have been dealing with a very unpleasant organ...my gall bladder. Starting around Thanksgiving time I would notice each day I felt nausea come and go. Then I noticed the bloating, painful gas, and belching. On Christmas Eve I was admitted to the hospital for a violent stomach "virus" which later we discovered was most likely a gall bladder attack. After my hospitalization I was noticing each evening I was nauseated after dinner. So I started asking my Doc friends who agreed it was gall bladder trouble. I began a 5 week long journey of a no-fat -low-fat diet. There were days I ate vegetables and chicken broth and felt as if I ate funnel cakes and elephant ears at the fair! After a Dr. visit and a surgeon appointment, I was told the testing would take a few weeks. So in the meantime I decided to try a gall bladder flush to try and salvage this God given organ!

Well, the flush took a lot out of me, both figuratively and literally! I did it on Valentine's night since Mark had a church meeting :( I ended up disoriented in the middle of the night and apparently tried to find my way back to bed after the 38th visit to the toilet that night and leaped onto what I thought was my bed! I landed quite awkwardly onto our space heater and rested there until Mark jumped out of bed to see what happened. I mumbled in a drunken like manner that I was fine just lying there for a while. I was extremely nauseated and was content to snuggle our heater for the time being. Once Mark peeled me up onto the bed we discovered in the "crash" I had gouged my knee open and was bleeding. He got me some phenergan (nausea meds) and put me back to bed for the night. In the morning I wasn't doing much better so he took me to the ER where they gave me some IV nausea meds and fluids.

The next day I had a Hida scan where they inject you with radioactive dye to test the function of the Gall bladder under radiographic images. The results showed I had 8% function left in my GB and needed it out. I just scheduled surgery for March 8th and am incredibly excited to eat fats again. My diet is so limited and I usually have to make separate meals for my family which is not so fun when you are craving every inch of fattening foods! So I have 11 days left until I get my gall bladder out and I am counting down the days!

I have caught myself really grumbling and complaining about all of this; the nausea, the diet, the inconvenience, the medical bills. I was convicted lately that this is really nothing compared to what the rest of the world suffers in hunger, disease, and all sorts of other "discomforts."
Who am I to complain of a modified diet, GI symptoms, and inconvenience. I have lived through far worse events and have seen God's hand lift me from the mire on more than one occasion. So I am patiently waiting for this journey to come to a halt so I can enjoy dates with Mark, friends over for dinner, and a variety of fattening foods once again!

Creative

It has been FOREVER since I have posted on here. We are in a new mode of life right now...attempting to sell our house! It has been a lot of work and I am finally at a place in my life where I am ready and willing to do it! We are prayerful that we may be able to sell the house and find another in time for Kindergarten next fall...but if not I am trying to figure out an back up plan.

Time seems to go so fast when you have young children. Kaylee continues to keep me busy as a bee and as she gets older I am discovering a whole new side of parenting! Which is both fun and challenging. We have been spending our afternoons reading, playing games, having tea party's, and having play dates. Usually she wakes up every morning asking "who do I get to play with today." And usually if I say "me" she gives me a sour face. But all in all we have been having tons of fun!

Some of my challenges as a mom have taken a different turn. For instance, Kaylee has been fighting me every morning on what she will wear to school and I have been struggling to get her to eat breakfast....So, I could either continue a crying screaming battle each morning OR turn it into a game. So I told her we are going to have each day represent a color and we both have to wear that color, eat that color, and read books with that color. It was an instant hit. Kay got busy to work writing each color out on a piece of paper and ordering a day for it. Then she got into her closet and found an outfit for each day to match that color. Mornings have begun happier and with (virtually) no arguments and we are having tons of fun doing it too!