updates

Last I heard, the doctors caring for Hannah have been able to perform a couple of different operations, mostly going well under the circumstances. It’s my understanding that the doctors have so far only had to amputate one of her pinkie toes ~ they’re still waiting and evaluating the leg and arm with the worst burns to see if any further amputations will be necessary.

Roger has managed to come down with the flu. It has knocked him flat on his back. I took him to the doctor this morning, but as usual the military flight doc really didn’t do anything. He gave Roger some Phenergan for the nausea and some Imodium, but that’s all. He said to keep drinking watered down Gatorade, and take Tylenol or Motrin for the fever, aches and pains. <sigh> I have friends who go to civilian doctors (real doctors is what we usually call them) who have told me there are all kinds of meds out there that Roger could take that would actually HELP him. Figures. I’m not too happy with the military flight doc ~ not only was he completely un-helpful, he was over an hour late for Roger’s appointment. We are required, seriously REQUIRED, to show up for our appointment 10 to 15 minutes ahead of time. If we’re even 5 minutes late, we’re out of luck ~ our appointment is canceled for us. What I don’t understand is why it’s ok for the "doctor" to be over an hour late. Arg. I think I’m a little overly irked, so I’ll move on to another topic.

I’m having an open house this weekend ~ I’m trying to sell off the rest of my Cachet Candles inventory. Since moving back to Arkansas I just haven’t been physically able to work the business, so Roger and I have decided it’s time to call it quits. I’m going to try to sell as much as I can of the inventory I have left. I’m not really sure what I’ll do with whatever is left. As far as this weekend goes, my friend "Kathryn" (also known as Mrs. Arkanblogger) is going to help me out and play hostess. I’ll be dousing the entire house with Lysol Friday evening, and again Saturday morning before people start arriving (don’t want anyone else to catch the flu from Roger!).

Cornerstone’s choir trip to Waco was apparently quite successful. They were honored by the Youth Cue organization, and it was a huge honor. The Youth Cue organization has held 44 Festivals in 17 years, with 450 youth choirs across North America (including Canada) ~ here are Pastor Eddie’s words:

"On Saturday, our group of students was awarded the 1st ever "Spirit of Youth Cue Award", recognizing our choir team as the model of what that ministry team should look like…..And in the 17 years of its existence, no award has ever been given to a choir like the one we received."

A CD was made of the final choral performance, and when they’re ready Sawyer will receive a copy. I’m looking forward to hearing it.

pray for Hannah

This past Sunday, a young lady who is very special and dear to everyone in our homeschool co-op and the student ministries at Cornerstone was badly injured in a car accident. I don’t feel it’s necessary to go into a great deal of details ~ the short version is she was in a single car accident ~ she rolled the car that she was driving ~ and has terrible injuries and burns as a result. She was taken to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital burn unit, and has been in critical condition ever since.

Hannah, we’re praying for you and your family. I hope somehow you know how much you mean to all of us, and I pray you can feel God’s hand on you. The kids will really miss your happy bounce and smiling face this weekend, and I know there will be tons of prayers lifted up for you.

Sawyer and I haven’t been up to the hospital yet ~ we will make the trip next week. I know Hannah’s parents have been at the hospital 24 hours a day since the accident. Please include Hannah and her family in your prayers ~ Hannah will undergo a very serious operation tomorrow which could possibly result in the loss of an arm and/or leg. We all feel so helpless ~ but I know the best and most powerful thing we can do is continue to pray and simply be there for Hannah and her family.

blessings on the CelebrationSingers

Our church youth choir, known as the CelebrationSingers, loaded up this morning and took off on a trip to Baylor University in Waco, Texas. They’re going to participate in the YouthCue Festival, which they do every year. This year they had so many kids going they had to charter two buses and recruit extra chaperones. Our youth choir program has grown SO much over the past few years ~ when they started in 2000 there were only 13 students involved. We were stationed here in 2000, and I remember when the CelebrationSingers began ~ it’s always amazing to me what Eddie can do with these kids. He manages to coax an amazing amount of talent from the kids; he sets very high standards, and the kids almost inevitably meet or exceed his expectations. You can read more about Eddie’s work at Cornerstone here.

happy birthday…………

to me!

Yesterday, we celebrated what we jokingly refer to as "the anniversary" of my 29th birthday; it was the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday (otherwise known as my 39th).

It was a lovely day; the temperature got up around 75 degrees (welcome to February in Arkansas!). I had lunch with two dear friends (thanks again, Janice and Tammera!), and did some shopping. All in all, I had a great day.

Thank you again to my family and friends who celebrated with me in one way or another ~ I appreciate you, and you know I love you all!

fun, fun, fun

I took Sawyer clothes shopping yesterday. Normally, this is not a fun occurrence. But yesterday we were shopping for some new black dress pants and a nice shirt or two. For some reason, this was deemed an acceptable shopping trip by my 14 year old son. He got 3 new pair of black dress pants, a black belt, some black dress socks, and a red polo shirt (he wasn’t too happy about the polo shirt, but I insisted). As we were getting into the car after making our purchases, Sawyer said, "Now I understand why girls like shopping so much. That was fun. I got some awesome pants!" When I inquired as to what made this particular shopping trip better than any other shopping trip, his reply was something to the effect of, "I got really cool clothes. Not like jeans or something." Well, ok then.

bonsai

This is my bonsai tree…………..

The plant is only about 6 inches high. My dad gave it (and two other plants) to me for my birthday. Hmmmm…………..hopefully I’ll be able to keep it (and its cousins) alive.

latest creation

Pics of my most recent baby blanket………..

I crocheted this baby blanket ~ it’s a gift for Justin and Jennifer Hurley’s 5th child (their 2nd girl) due the beginning of March.

president clinton

The other day I received an email from the president of the Parent’s Association of ASMSA (where Patrick goes to school) letting us know that the key note speaker for this year’s graduation ceremony will be President William Jefferson Clinton. I realize several factors have contributed to this event ~ ASMSA is in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which boasts "the boyhood home of President Clinton", the school was started when Clinton was president, and the school was mainly Clinton’s doing (according to my son). Nonetheless, contributing factors aside, I think it’s pretty cool that a little bitty school housing about 250 students, with a 2007 graduating class of about 100, was able to get a former president of the United States as their graduation key note speaker. As you may (or may not) know, I’m not a Clinton fan, but hubby and I will attend the graduation with Patrick (who, by the way, does not graduate this year ~ he’s Class of 2008) simply because of the "prestigious" speaker.

(Side note: Little Rock houses the Clinton Library ~ I’ll have to try to get a picture of it, but it looks like a huge double-wide trailer. The joke among the locals is "Bill finally bought Hillary that double-wide she’s always wanted"!!)

knitting

One of my favorite scrapbooking gurus, Cathy Zielske, has been posting about her adventures while learning to knit. I’m SO glad knitting has come back into vogue ~ there are a ton of fabulous patterns out there. And there is certainly no shortage of people who want to learn fibercrafts ~ I’m teaching about 20 ladies to knit AND crochet. My youngest student currently is 12 years old, and my oldest is around 50.

I haven’t posted about my knitting and crochet projects lately. I’m working on a couple of baby blankets (all crochet), as well as knitting up scores of purses. My friend in Alaska (Christine) will have lots of my felted bags to sell at her craft fair booths this coming fall/winter. I’m also whipping up some newborn caps, scarves, and non-felted purses/bags. I’ll post some pics when I have my projects completed.

yorkie

This past Saturday, Roger and I went to Petsmart to get more dog food. While we were there, I got to talking to a lady who had a Yorkshire terrier puppy. For those who don’t know, I want to Yorkie something awful. The lady bought her Yorkie puppy from a husband and wife who live in Benton, Arkansas. They just happen to live off of the Hot Springs exit: I go to Hot Springs quite often to pick up Patrick from school. As a matter of fact, I’m heading that way this Thursday (Patrick has Friday off from school, and since it’s an extended weekend ~ meaning the school closes and kicks all the kids out of the dorms ~ Patrick has to actually come home this weekend). I email the couple with the Yorkies, and I’m hoping to hear back from them before I head that way. I don’t seriously expect that Roger will get me a Yorkie anytime soon ~ they’re pretty expensive, and considering we have some house/roof repairs to pay for, I’m probably out of luck right now. But it sure would be nice if I could have a Yorkie for my Valentines and/or birthday present!

the roof

A few weeks ago we had several days of good, hard rain. Lots of rain. So much so that we discovered the chimney cap and flashing around our chimney need to be replaced. Now we have water stains on the ceiling and walls directly surrounding the stone chimney in our living room. We’ve had a couple of contractors come over to take a look and turn in estimates to our insurance company. But that’s as much as they’ve done (and Roger had to hound them to get that much out of them!). We’re expecting more rain over the next couple of days, which means the repairs will have to be put off a little longer. Yesterday Roger climbed up on the roof (which is a huge deal for him considering he’s afraid of heights!) and wrapped our chimney with a tarp secured by bungee cords. Hopefully that will keep the water out and limit any further damage. It’s not pretty, but as far as a temporary fix goes it should work.

We also discovered that our fireplace doesn’t have a flue. A few months ago we were able to sell the wood burning stove one of the house’s previous owners had decided they needed (which really ruined the look of the beautiful river rock fireplace), and I was glad to see it go. What we didn’t realize at the time was that whoever installed the wood burning stove also took out the fireplace flue in order to use the wood burning stove. Our electric bill has been enormously high, and we’ve had to pull out the quilts and fleece blankets to huddle under while we sit in the living room. The other night Roger and I could actually feel a breeze coming through the living room! Rog has been up in the attic to check the insulation, we bought a programmable thermostat, and we even double checked all of the windows thinking perhaps one of them had somehow opened slightly. Then we realized the breeze was coming from the fireplace. We got out a flashlight to check the flue ~ and darned if there wasn’t a flue at all! This stumped us ~ and I still can’t really fathom WHY a previous owner would completely remove the fireplace flue, but they did. So, before Roger wrapped the chimney with the tarp, he stuffed a bag of insulation down into the chimney (with a rope attached for easy removal should we ever decide to use the fireplace or sell the house). That has made a huge difference; we were actually able to sit in the living room last night without covering up with blankets!

physical therapy

Roger has started physical therapy for his wrist. Amazingly enough, he already has a pretty good range of motion for just having had surgery 3 weeks ago. The physical therapy makes his wrist hurt, but not as much as it hurt before the surgery. The physical therapist was pretty impressed with how well Roger’s wrist had healed up in just 2 weeks, and said the surgeon who operated on Roger was a very good surgeon. Apparently this surgeon has a good track record as far as his patients healing quickly and well. Considering the experiences we’ve had with doctors and surgeons in the past, it’s a relief to know this guy has a good rep with the other people who deal with his patients.

coyotes

We have a mama coyote living in the woods around our house. We see her and her 3 pups playing and hunting in the field  (when the cows aren’t around) almost every day. The interesting thing about these coyotes is that they’re black. All of them. I didn’t know coyotes could be black. But the mama and pups are definitely coyotes, not foxes, and they’re definitely black. Sometimes they wander into our backyard ~I’m hoping to be able to snap a picture of them. When I do, I’ll post it for all to see.

Jake had a fit when we took him out last night. He stood at the barbed wire fence and did his "bar roo roo roo roo" bark ~ that’s his, "I’m a big dog, and you don’t want to mess with me or my family" bark. He used to do that whenever a moose would come around while we were living in Alaska. He wasn’t going to let those "mooses" sneak up on us! Last night he probably sensed the mama coyote. He was in the field doing his "thing" and all of a sudden he came bolting back under the fence into our yard, barking his big menacing bark all the while. Goofy dog. Whatever it was he was barking at (and running away from!) probably ran away the instant it smelled him. Roger grabbed the flashlight and ran it over the field, but we couldn’t see anything that should make Jake freak out. Oh, by the way, this is the same dog who was afraid of the fireflies in the field this past summer, so to be honest we probably weren’t in any real danger from whatever it was in the field last night!

b&n coupon

Click here for this week’s Barnes & Noble coupon. There’s an instore version and an online store version. Enjoy!

b&n coupon

Click here for this week’s Barnes & Noble coupon. There’s an instore version and an online store version. Enjoy!

the week in overview

Roger’s recovery has gone well this week. He’ll see the surgeon on Tuesday ~ hopefully the splint and all the dressings will come off then. Roger’s not very patient about having his hand all wrapped up. I think he would have taken the splint and dressing off a week ago if he could have. As it is, he can hardly keep from sticking his finger down into the dressing and poking around ("Hmm, I think that might be stitch…..").

Sawyer spent the weekend at ASMSA with Patrick. Patrick’s roommate Ethan was away for the weekend, so Sawyer actually had a bed to sleep in (as opposed to sleeping on the floor in Patrick’s dorm room). They played about a million games of ping pong, and watched several movies. When asked if he had fun, Sawyer replied in his usual, understated way, "Yeah. It was ok."

I haven’t written about it before, but we have a leak in our ceiling ~ all the way around the chimney. We called the insurance company, and they had a guy come out and do an estimate for the repairs. We’re gues-timating it’ll cost us about $2000 out-of-pocket ~ our deductible is $500, and there are some repairs that will have to be done to the chimney cap and flashing that the insurance won’t cover. I don’t know when the repairs will actually be done ~ hopefully we’ll get a date soon.

Patrick has decided not to go on the choir trip to Baylor University. Sawyer’s still planning on going, but Patrick feels like it will just be too much for him. He would have to take Friday off from school because the bus leaves from the church parking lot at 12:30pm (they have to be in Waco in time to attend the 7:00pm required practice). Patrick wouldn’t have any time to do his schoolwork while they’re gone, and he wouldn’t be back to school until late Sunday night. I’m disappointed for him that he won’t be able to go, but I do believe he’s making the best decision.

Sawyer’s at a youth group Super Bowl party this afternoon/evening. I watch the Super Bowl mainly for the commercials. Of course, I do believe the Bears’ return touchdown on the first kick of the football game is a first for me. And what was with Prince NOT singing "When Doves Cry" during half time?! Isn’t that like his most popular, best song ever?! I’m not a Prince fan, but I certainly expected to hear that song. Well, at least he didn’t have any "wardrobe malfunctions" ~ he may be a freak, but he, his band, the dancers, and even the fans managed to keep all of their clothing on.

happy dog

Jake is SO HAPPY there’s some snow on the ground! I know he misses Alaska ~ his favorite game in the whole world is "bury the ball." He plays this game in his pool in the summer, and he tries to play it in the leaves in the fall, but they’re not nearly as satisfying as burying the ball in the snow. He wants to be outside constantly, even though there’s only about an inch of snow on the ground. Roger and I know the snow will probably be melted by this afternoon, so we’re practically living in the back yard for now so Jake can get his play time in the snow!

snow?

I guess you could call it that. It looks more like a dusting of powdered sugar to me. THIS is what has all of the native Arkansans freaked out, schools and businesses closed, and the AFB on late reporting today:

I just shake my head and chuckle.