Does anyone else feel like this?

After four days of snow on the ground, kids playing, and playing and playing and playing, does anyone else feel like this:

SNOW 2010

Wow!  We haven’t seen snow like this in years.  We have all loved this snow.  Some of my favorite memories of this snow:

1.  When it first started snowing on Friday,  it was so beautiful and it’s always fun to see the  joy and excitement in the kids’ faces when they see the snow

2.  Sledding in our neighborhood.  We went to “Hollingbourne Hill” and saw lots of friends there.  Jerel brought his old fashioned sled and it worked the best of anything!!  One time, Jerel got on his belly, then Christopher on top , then Luke on the very top. They made it all the way down–even over the speed bump.

3.  Taking naps, reading books, watching movies, playing the wii.  It’s always fun to stay in PJs for a while.  We’ve been having Mario Kart Time Trials for the different races….. I’m the only one in the house who hasn’t won a championship yet.

4.  FOOD!  Something about snow makes us all want to eat.  We made a cake today–with homemade chocolate icing.  It’s so yummy—everyone is happy when there’s a cake around!

5.  CHURCH!!  Church was cancelled today so we decided to have our own church service here.  We had the best soloists anywhere! Bailey and Christopher sang a song for us ‘Beautiful One’  it was awesome–they  learned that song from their time at Connection Church.  We read the Bible story of David being anointed as king.  David was the youngest brother and he was out tending sheep-yet he was chosen over all the other brothers. We talked about 1 Samuel 16:7…. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  We had an awesome discussion about this with Bailey and Christopher.   Who says you need a church building?  :)

6.  SNOW FORT—-Around 5:00 today, the kids decided to go into the front yard and build something.  Christopher had the idea of a snow fort-the original idea was to build a wall but it turned into so much more——this snow was awesome for this because we could pick up hugh slabs of snow/ice pretty easily.  All 3 kids (and me too!) worked really hard for the next hour. We definitely got our workout for the day— it turned into a fort/igloo.  The kids are so proud of it—we have big plans tomorrow to play in it. I wish this picture was better—-the fort goes almost all the way around.   Our hard work was rewarded when Jerel came home with McDonalds for the kids and Qdoba for me and him.  The snow fort will definitely be a memory for a long time!

DANA

My sister, Dana, is visiting this week from Hawaii!  My kids are so excited to see Dana and we have so much fun together.  This week will be filled with FUN–that’s just how Dana is.  I’ll blog about her visit after she leaves!

Friends

My 9 yr. old daughter, Bailey, has a lot of friends.  It comes natural to her–to make friends, to relate to a lot of different people, to introduce people, to include people.  I love seeing that in her.  She has one friend in particular that she totally loves!  They met on the school bus in kindergarten and it turned out that we lived about 10 houses from each other and had never met!!  Now, they are in 4th grade and they are BFFs!  This friend invited Bailey over last week for her birthday dinner.  The girl’s mom made dinner , then they had cupcakes and made marshmellow kabobs.  Last year, they went to the circus together , and for Bailey’s birthday-the two of them went on a horse-back trail ride.

This friendship got me thinking about my friendships in the past.  When I was in elementary school, I (like Bailey) had a lot of friends.  But there was one (Nancy) who I just clicked with.  We didn’t have a ton in common except that we enjoyed being together.  She was a horse-rider, had lots of dogs, very sporty– when I would go home with her after school—it was always an adventure.  She was a “walker” because she lived “near” the school—I say “near” because to me, near is like a few houses.  But her house was actually a quick walk/jog through a few neighborhoods, hopping a few fences along the way.  (I was NOT a fence-jumping kid)—but something about that was so fun to me.  We wouldn’t be allowed to walk that far from school today–but this was back in the 70s.  One thing we did when we were little (like 1st/2nd grade) was get under her bed and read books with flashlights.    We went to different junior highs and while I did go to her wedding many years later, we eventually lost touch with each other.

I have been blessed with so many friends in my life.  I have been thinking through a lot of my friendships lately–like the ones way back through elementary school, junior and senior high, UNC-CH, Raleigh, UNC-G, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Meck, and Huntersville, Connection Church, Northstone.    God has put so many people in my life to encourage me and to live life with.  I am very thankful to God for each and every one of you!!

Do you have a favorite memory of one of your friendships from your past?  Have fun remembering…

Happy Birthday Luke!!

Well,  our ‘baby’ turned five this weekend.  We had some serious Star Wars going on at our house!!   We had a Jedi-Training party on Saturday for Luke and 7 of his friends.  They were all so good—and we had such a good time.  Both sets of grandparents were able to come, so that was really special too!  Luke is growing so fast and is such a big boy now.  We played a game at dinner the night before his birthday –everyone was to say something they loved about Luke…..and all of us said something to do with being fun, funny, friendly, happy or joyful.  He has such a positive outlook on life and he loves God! Click here to see.

Here’s a picture of Luke the day before his birthday at preschool celebrating his birthday….

These are the Jedis-in-Training….

Jerel’s parents found the Jengo Fett costume (that we were unable to find for Christmas)–and he screamed for like 10 seconds when he opened it. Here he is with his outfit on and his Command Center:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!

Why do we say that?

I was driving Luke to preschool this morning and he was singing a song…actually one of our meal-time blessings–, “Oh, the Lord’s been good to me and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need like the sun and the rain and the appleseed.  The Lord’s been good to me.”  It’s one of top 3 blessings at our meals–along with the Indiana-Jones version of God is Great, God is Good….and right up there with the “real” blessings said in our own words.

So, this morning, Luke stopped singing and here is our conversation:

Luke:  ”Mom, why do we say that?”

Me:      ”Say what?”

Luke:  ”Why do we say ‘The Lord’s been good to me.’?”

Me:     “What do you mean Luke?  Of course we think God’s been good to us.”

Luke:  ” No, I mean–why don’t we say “The Lord’s been GREAT to me.”

So, then I started to cry and told him that that was the best thing I could ever hear him say.  I then had to explain that mommies have tears of joy a lot—and of course, he thought that was crazy.

But I am SO thankful that Luke has the attitude that YES, God has been GREAT to us…   To be honest, when I was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago, one of my fears was that my kids would struggle through this and I prayed that it would not affect their view of God or their love and zeal for Him and life.  So, this morning, when Luke said that, I felt such a peace that God is SO looking out for us and YES, he is GREAT to us.

I love…

Merry Christmas!   I am thinking about so many things I am thankful for—so I am calling this post “I love…” because, well–you’ll see…

(in no particular order…)

1.  I love my family!  Here is a picture of all my guys! It was taken before we went to church on Sunday.  They all wore their jackets–to dress up a bit because both boys were singing in church.  I’m a sucker for navy blazers…

2.  I love our new puppy!  We just got Molly yesterday. She is an 8-week old Goldendoodle.  So far, she is very sweet and very good!  The kids love her and so glad to finally have a pet!

3.  I love my new Merrell shoes that my mom just bought for me!  

4.   I love our Christmas tradition of decorating the Gingerbread House.  We just buy one of the kits, but we buy extra candy to go on it.  The kids absolutely love it—of course we eat some candy along the way!  Here is our one from this year—before and after…

5.  I love that Christopher drew the Nativity this year.  I told him I’m going to frame it–I’ll post that picture later —it is something I’ll treasure forever

6.   I love that Luke’s class did a Christmas Play.  Thank you to his teachers for having the patience for that!  14 four year olds!  Luke was a shepherd and it was another moment to treasure.  

7.  I love Chris Tomlin’s version of Joy to the World

8.  I love Christmas lights—I’m thankful to Jerel for talking me into adding color to ours this year!!

9.  I loved going to the Sabbaghs tonight to look at the crazy lights in their neighborhood. (crazy in a good way!)–and loved having hot chocolate and cookies with good friends!

10.  I love not having to wear my wig anymore—even though i don’t “love” my hair–I love knowing there’s WAY more important things in life than hair!!

11.  I LOVE that I have an 8 week break from my oncologist and that he says I have “no measurable disease!”

12.  I love those little Clementine oranges!

13.  I love living this life with Jerel–he is awesome and I am constantly amazed that he chose me!!

Update: 12/7/09

ZERO!!

As many of you know, I have been waiting for over a week for some results from my Oncologist.  I had a blood test (called the Circulating Tumor)– a test I haven’t had before.  This test would give us some indication as to how many cancer cells are floating around in my body and according to Dr. Boyd, it’s a more reliable test than the “Tumor Marker” test that I’ve had before.   Last time I met with Dr. Boyd, he said he wanted my # to be less than 5 and he would feel good about that.

Well, they called today (at 5:00pm) to tell me that they heard back from the test and my number is ZERO!!  We are beyond thrilled with this news.  What all it means, I’m not exactly sure, I just know that zero  is the best possible news.  I will meet with Dr. Boyd next Wednesday (Dec. 16th) to discuss all that we know right now.  I am expecting to NOT need more chemo with this good news.   I will update on Dec. 16th.  

Until then, say a THANK YOU prayer tonight.  I told God yesterday (I’ve been praying kind of nonstop–cancer, I guess, does that to you!)—I was going down McCord Rd (my  neighbors know this) and the sun was setting-and said out loud “God, I will praise you if I get good results and I’ll praise you if I get bad results.”  I really had a strong conviction that my faith and trust in God is NOT dependent on the answers I get from him.  But I’m really happy that I get to praise him today for good results.  :)

More later.  Happy Holidays–be thankful for what you have!

In Christ,

Susan

Bailey

This post is dedicated to Bailey–she is growing up so much.  She will be 10 in a few months—and I am really enjoying this age.  She is still sweet and innocent, yet she’s funny and mature all at the same time!  Last week, she was in the Spelling Bee at her school.  She won the bee in her class first, then went to the school bee.  She’s on the back row w/ the blue shirt on.

Bailey is also very creative.  Tonight, we put all the ornaments on our tree (another post coming soon!)–and it was fun to look at all the ornaments she has made throughout the years.  She and Christopher went to the kitchen table and started making more ornaments tonight.  They pulled out a ton of art supplies–I love that!!  Last week, she made placecards for Thanksgiving to take to grandma’s house.  

This Friday is the Father/Daughter Dance at her school. It’s something Bailey and Jerel look forward to every year.  They usually go to Outback before the dance… then Jerel says that once she gets there, she and her friends always take off their shoes and just run all around!  I’ll post some pictures this weekend!

Story 3/7: All-Access Pass

On November 12, 2008, I finished 6 1/2 weeks of Radiation Treatments.  We were so excited to be DONE with chemo, surgery and radiation.  We went to Outback to celebrate and got ready to have the BEST holiday season ever- so thankful for health, family and all the blessings of life.  We told our kids that as a Celebration Surprise, we were all going to DISNEY WORLD!!!  (We had never taken the kids, and Jerel and I hadn’t gone since we were both kids).  We were all counting the days until April 3.

In mid-March, we found that I had a reoccurance of cancer and needed  further treatment–not sure what type and when.  Well, on March 31 (4 days before our BIG trip!)–we met with my oncologist.  Not only did he tell us I needed more chemo–but he said I needed to start TOMORROW!  What?  3 days before our promised trip to Orlando?  I cried and cried right there in the doctors office… I wasn’t crying because I needed more chemotherapy (which I was sad about BTW), I was crying because I didn’t want to tell our kids that we needed to postpone our trip and that it wasn’t quite time to “celebrate.”    After talking to the nurses and doctor a lot—they all agreed that I could still go.  I just had to take some meds with me… and take it kinda easy in Orlando.  So, the next day I did a full 4 hours of chemo and started packing for Orlando the next day.

On the way to Florida in the car– I read in our book that Disney is wonderful with people who have disabilities or any kind of medical condition.  So, we called my oncologist and asked him to fax a doctors note saying that I had just had chemotherapy that week.  My doctor was wonderful and within hours, we had a note.  When we got to the Magic Kingdom, we went straight to the Guest Assistance House at the main entrance.  We told them our situation and they immediately gave us a Guest Assistance Card (picture above).  This card gave us access to basically the handicapped entrance to every ride.  Yes, that means we waited in NO lines.  Our first ride was Dumbo, the flying elephants and I felt SO guilty walking right past all these people in line. (It was Spring Break–so there were LLOOOOONNGG lines everywhere!)  I felt bad because after all, we looked kinda normal.  I was worried about what people thought of us.  It made me realize that you just never know what people are going through. Things may look fine on the outside–but you just never know!  After a few rides, I began to enjoy the “no-waiting” and didn’t feel guilty anymore…after all, if anyone DID say something (which no one did)—we definitely more to say than they’d ever want to know!

The Disney People were awesome!  EVERY SINGLE employee treated us so wonderfully, never a single question asked..even when we went to Mickey’s House/Tent (where people wait literally HOURS to see Mickey)–the Disney Girl took us in a side door and we waited 5 minutes.  (Picture below!)    I told our kids that we would NEVER have this opportunity again– to experience a no-line Disney World at Spring Break.  And while we were so thankful for this all-access pass, I also told them that we never WANTED to do this again.  They agreed!

Now, the lesson learned….there’s always a lesson, right?

The ultimate all-access pass:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”  Romans 5:1