From Mom

I know a lot of you are wondering about my mom. Instead of trying to explain it I'm just going to copy an email that she sent out. Thank you for your prayers!


Dear Friends and family !!

Again THANK YOU for you prayers today !! We again could very much sense the power of prayer in operation !! PRAISE THE LORD for the GOOD report !!!!! The cancer was contained in the lump; the margin that he took around it was clear, and both lymph nodes they took out were cancer free !! I had tears of joy, I was so relieved !! Those bottled up emotions had to be released, I guess !!Although I thought I was fairly calm inside !!?? Because of the type of cancer , I am to call the Cancer Center here in T Bay tomorrow and have an appointment set up to find out about the treatment, or next step. He wants me to see them before we leave for PA. He said I will definitely need Radiation, and in some cases women prefer to just have the mastectomy done on that side !??? HE said it is a "low stage cancer". The type is " Invasive Ductile Carcinoma , or known also as D.C.I.S I am not sure the spelling is all right on that; I plan to go on line and read what I can about it, later,but wanted to email you all first !! :) This type can be hard to follow,or can be unpredictable, . HE said yes they got all the cancer as far as they can tell, but with this kind, ( as all kinds, right ??), it could move to other places in the breast and try to start something again!?!?! (I feel very uneducated trying to explain it!!) He used such big words; I am anxious to talk to the people at the Cancer Center, and hear it explained further !! HE feels we will be OK, for being away for Aug., except I may have to cut it a little short at Sabrina's, the end of Aug ?? ( I had hoped to stay a while longer than Ken felt he could be there) But Sabrina, and I are agreed that we will rejoice in the positive results and see how it all pans out. I want to give the Lord praise for many answered prayers!!!! For sensing His Presence, (more like carrying me/us,) leading us, giving us peace !! I believe we do not really know the awesomeness of His AMAZING Grace, till we are in that place where we need it so desperately!! He really is true to His promises !!! WE CAN TRUST HIM !!! I am not sure I explained it all very well, but like I said I want to do more research on it !! Take care , Sondra

Yum or yuck?

Most of you probably do not know this about me, but eggs are not one of my favorite foods. As a kid I think eggs were the one thing mom didn't make me eat. As an adult I don't mind them as much. Especially if they are scrambled with lots of cheese. The one way I still do not like them is hard boiled. For some reason, I have been hungry for hard boiled eggs. I don't even like them in chicken salad or anything, but lately I've been craving them. The other day I finally gave in (though sure I must be out of my mind) and asked my grandma how to hard boil an egg. (Shows how often I've done it!) That night we had hard boiled eggs on our salad. With each bite something in my brain would scream "you don't like these things!" and yet they somehow tasted good to me. Weird. Today I was at a store that sells lots of homemade foods. I paid $1.60 for four pickled eggs. What is wrong with me?! I must admit I have always liked pickled eggs better than just plain hard boiled, but I spent more on these 4 purple eggs than it would have cost me for a whole dozen! At least it wasn't a box of ice cream.

Good Morning

Good Thursday morning to you all. I'm not usually on the computer at this time of day, but Isaiah decided to sleep in this morning so I thought I'd take advantage of it and visit with you all. I really should be cleaning or sleeping or doing any of the million things that are very hard to do with a 20 month old running around, but I don't feel like doing those things so here I am.

Speaking of doing things, have you ever heard of http://www.flylady.net/? I don't consider myself the most unorganized person in the world, but getting things organized and keeping them that way is a constant goal/desire for me. I heard the Fly Lady on the radio the other day and found her interesting. To be honest with you I really haven't spent much time on her web site, but I did pick up some things from her radio program that I thought were interesting and helpful, or just good reminders:

• Put on good shoes right away in the morning. (Especially if you're pregnant!)


• Spending just 15 minutes a day in one area or room can accomplish a lot.


• If you don't know where to start getting organized, start at the kitchen sink. A clean sink will make you feel good and give you energy to start on other areas.

I've been trying the 15 minute thing and I'm always amazed at what I can accomplish in 15 minutes. I'm starting to feel the need to get the house in tip top shape by the time this baby arrives.

My due date is 5 weeks from today. Jeremy is telling me I'm going to go early with this one, but I'm trying not to listen too much because I don't want to get my hopes up. I don't remember feeling very miserable with Isaiah. I'm sure I had my moments, but over all I felt pretty good. This week I feel miserable. I shouldn't even say that because I'm trying to be positive, but that's how I feel. I'm sure the hot, humid weather isn't helping anything. We've had a beautiful summer up until about a week ago. I think the heat really zaps my energy.

Isaiah's newest backyard toy is a sandbox. Thank you to Grandpa Eldon for bringing the supplies and to Daddy for building it. The thing Isaiah enjoys the most is dumping the sand out of the sandbox. :( I found a little pile of sand and a second pile of stones across the yard from the sandbox. He had carried several little shovel loads across the yard to that one spot. Of course there are also little piles all around the sandbox. Not sure why it's so much fun to dump it out. Oh well, it keeps him happy.

Isaiah is now awake so I'd better get off. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Fun with the sprinkler

Thank you to many of you that have emailed to let us know that you were praying for my mom and our family. Mom did have surgery yesterday. They did not speak to the surgeon afterward so we don't really have any more news for now. I hope to talk to mom today and maybe get more details as to when they will find out the results. Thanks again for praying! Please keep it up.

Anna - 2 weeks old

Watching Fireworks

Updates

This update is longer overdue. Here is a run down of what's been going on around here.

• First of all, thank you to everyone that is praying for my mom. For those of you that don't know, mom is scheduled for surgery on Monday to remove a lump on her breast that has been determined to be cancer. After the surgery there will be another 1 -2 week wait for the results. The waiting is very hard.
• Good news! Little Anna came home from the hospital on Tuesday. I know Brandon and Cindy are thrilled to be home. I'll try to post a new picture when I get one.
• I have now completed 33 weeks of pregnancy. I am feeling the urge to get the house organized and cleaned. I'm so anxious to hold this little boy. It's been fun thinking about pulling out all the little baby stuff again. The second time around is just as amazing as the first for sure!
• Isaiah is a great little guy. Sure there are days when he gets into things and I don't know what to do with him, but overall he is an obedient child. He's starting to say a lot of words. Maybe I should say attempting to say a lot of words! I recognize a lot of the words, but they aren't very clear. He's also starting to recognize colors -a little bit. His favorite toys are balls. He loves them. Today I even let him play with some lemons that he thought were "balls". He also loves to be outside. Hardly a day goes by that I'm not grateful for a fenced in back yard. His other great love is books. I've read some of his books so many times I think I could repeat them by heart. I love the times when I go to check on him because things are a little too quite and I find him sitting on the floor looking at books. I shouldn't say books are his greatest love, that would be Daddy. :)
• On Sunday, July 1st (Canada Day -go figure) we went to Longs Park (I think that's what it's called??) in Lancaster to see fireworks. What a show! An orchestra played for about an hour and a half before the fireworks. Some of Jeremy's family were there as well. We enjoyed great company, great food, and a great show. Canons were set off during one part of the show. Jeremy warned Isaiah that there was going to be a loud "boom" coming. We find that if we give him warning about such things that he doesn't seem to be as scared. I think maybe we over did it this time though. Before the canons even fired Isaiah was too scared to let go of Jeremy. He kept saying "boom, boom". We wrapped a blanket around his ears and Jeremy held him. He didn't get scared when the canons actually fired and seemed to enjoy the fire works as well. Monday morning before I got him out of bed I heard him jabbering away and every once in awhile I'd hear "boom, boom". :)
• Tuesday afternoon I dropped Isaiah off at Jeremy's parents. That evening Jeremy and I went to a play. The play was "Little Shop of Horrors". It was a musical based on a horror film from the 1960's. Sounds awful doesn't it? It wasn't that bad. It would fit into the category of dark comedy. A guy Jeremy works with was one of the main characters. They kept things pretty light hearted to it was more cheesy than dark. Probably not the kind of play we'd go to just because, but since we knew one of the actors we decided to try it. (it was also free!) Overall it was pretty good. Isaiah spent the night at Jeremy's parents so we decided we should take advantage of not having to rush home. We went to Applebees and enjoyed their 1/2 price appetizers. We may do that again!
• What do you do when you have a whole day without a child to look after? I hardly knew what to do with myself on the 4th! Needless to say I didn't get near everything done that I could have, but it was a good day just the same. Jeremy's parents and his brother came for supper and to bring Isaiah home so I made bread in the morning and Jeremy made lemon meringue pies for dessert. They both turned about great.
• It's almost time to put Isaiah to bed so I'd better sign off. I will try to not allow so much time to pass before I post again. I'll try to add some pictures soon also.