Chelan

The last weekend in August, David, Samantha, Kacie and I hit the road for Lake Chelan. 

All needing a mini vacation to a warm spot. And all of us had never been to Chelan which made it the perfect spot. We were able to get a nice little condo for our stay. We split the condo rend four ways and all bought food to contribute to cooking. We got in late Thursday night and after a late night Walmart run we had a bunch of food for the weekend. 

The weather was 95 and sunny the entire time we were there. We did nothing but lay in the sun, eat and then maybe swim before laying in the sun again. Or sometimes we were laying in the sun while floating on the lake. It was perfect. And the best part was we all enjoyed spending time with each other and relaxing. And David didn't go crazy with three girls all weekend.

We also ate so much food. It was nice having two other girls to cook with. Things went so quickly every time. And David loved being able to BBQ. 

There were long heartfelt conversations about potential suitors for Samantha and Kacie. But the highlight of the weekend was David sharing his financial wisdom with the girls. They talked about saving for their future and why it is important to get out of debt. So I guess you could say it was a life changing weekend. 

On Saturday, we spent three hours at the water slides. So much fun, I think we all found our inner kid for those few hours. Even David, Mr. anti-aquatic loved it. Our favorite was the group water rafting slide. That was visited many times throughout the day. 

Samantha enjoyed walking up and down the hills to get to the water...

David also found great entertainment in waking the none-morning-person, Samantha up. 

Sunday morning he piled random kitchen items on her. She didn't wake up.

View from our condo.

Sunday morning we checked out of our condo and headed for Leavenworth.

  After a couple hours and lunch in Leavenworth we headed home. Home after a laughter filled, relaxing, completely successful weekend.

March ended with...the hopsital

Monday morning my alarm went off around 6:30am, I'm normally up around 7am and so I was dozing in and out of consciousness when I heard a bunch of pounding, banging and felt everything shaking. Earthquake entered my groggy thoughts but I quickly dismissed it. 

My dad came out of his room shortly after and yelled for all of us kids to get up. He said something was wrong with mom. Within in five minutes we were up and dressed and standing in the doorway to my parents room. He said he thought she either had a seizure or stroke. I instantly prayed that it wasn't a stroke. 

If you know anyone who has ever had a seizure you know the post symptoms to expect. But if you don't, it's very scary to watch what happens after a seizure. My mom went from not responding, to opening her eyes but not focusing. To finally focusing and speaking but saying complete gibberish. Finally just before the paramedics showed up she was alert and speaking normally. My dad went with her to the hospital. I went to work, my bro covered farm chores for my dad and Christie held down the fort. And we waited. 

I spoke briefly to my dad at one point and he said they had done a CAT scan and found something and were waiting for an MRI. 

Much later after still not hearing anything I called him and he told me to head home after work and he would update us then on everything. Not knowing hardly anything all day it was a very never racking few hours as different thoughts and situations went through my head. And by the time I had this conversation I did not feel good about it at all. A solemn face met me as I looked at my co-worker and voiced that I didn't feel good about this. She told me to call her later if I needed anything. Back to work I went, trying to focus as my scared thoughts went through my head. At that point I was thinking the worst...

Finally, my aunt called. She had been up there for most of the day and she calmly filled me in. They found a tumor on the left side of my mom's head. It was benign and has probably been there for years. The doctor couldn't say for sure but it could have been anywhere from 10 to 20 years. It was now the size of an egg. It has also probably been the cause of all her migraines for so many years. You don't want to have a tumor, but if you do this is about the best one you can have. 

They scheduled her for surgery the next day. We all rushed to get up there on time the next morning so we could see her before they took her into surgery. It was a scary moment for all of us. There were a lot of risks even if she came out of the surgery fine. But the amount of people praying for us was amazing. And I felt at peace most of the day. 

The three and a half hour surgery concluded with us meeting with the doctor. He said that the tumor was more into the brain than he had originally thought. He got everything he could see under the microscope but he wondered if it had impaired her speech at all. He later told us to prepare ourselves her speech was different. We went from our normal waiting room up to the ICU waiting room. Finally they rolled mom across and we saw her for a moment. She was pretty groggy though. 

Much later we were able to see her, her speech was not as bad as I had expected. It was more it took her longer to form words and she slurred some of her letters. The best part of the day was holding her hand and getting to talk to my normal and ok mom after major brain surgery.  Before I left that night I asked her how she felt. She said her head hurt and pointed to where they had done the surgery. My sister and I kinda laughed and said told her that was normal.

By Wednesday they had moved her out ICU, which was faster then we expected. She was much more alert and doing well that day. Eating finally too. She hadn't eaten anything before that since Sunday. She was so nauseated that she wasn't keeping anything down. She had lots of company both that day and on Thursday. 

I talked to my dad on Thursday to see how she was doing and they said they were releasing her! We have been constantly surprised with how fast she's been recovering. So by Thursday evening she was home. 

We're all taking the weekend to recuperate and get some much-needed rest. We've had more food than we know what to do with. Thankfully we can freeze a lot of the extra. Our living room has become a regular florist shop. And we have had multiple phone calls and visitors throughout the last few days. But we're so thankful for how well she's doing. And praying that God continues to guide her through this recovery process.

The Ticket

Two weeks ago in the midst of dealing with some lows in the wedding planning department my dad called me at work on a Thursday to ask me if I had gotten a ticket. Surprised I responded no. And then he preceded to inform me that he was holding a notice in his hand that I had a $60 parking ticket. And because of my failure to respond the first time they had added overage charges and if I didn't respond would be sent to collections on the 24th of this month. 

Now that's a lot to take in over the phone as my brain is frantically flipping through all the times that I might have possibly gotten a ticket and either didn't know about it or had forgotten. Very mad and confused I instantly walked into our HR department and asked to see my time card for January. I had apparently gotten this 'ticket' on the 19th of January at 12:00. A Wednesday. A day when I was working.

I got home that night with my signed time card in hand ready to prove my innocence. Still not happy, I went to bed knowing I couldn't do anything about it until the next day. I prayed that night asking God to give me a nice person who would be understanding and believe me. 

Friday rolled around and I made the dreaded phone call. I was finally able to talk to a live person instead of their automated system. The conversation went about as follows:

"Do you drive a Mitsubishi blah blah blah."
ME: "No"
"Ticket number blah blah blah."
ME: "Yeah."
"License plate number blah blah blah."
ME: "Yeah."
"Hmm well that's weird." 
ME: "There has to be some mistake because I was working that day. And my car was with me."

Both confused, she told me to hold as she ran my plate through DOL. She returned to confirm that my plate number did match an Audi (my car) and NOT a Mitsubishi. Things got even better though when she told me that according to the picture it was in fact a Mitsubishi. At that moment I thanked God for fact that there was a picture of the other car from the violation. 

Super nice lady: "They've already taken action and there is a court date set for the 24th of March."
ME: "So I'm not liable?" 
Super nice lady: "No you're not liable because they've already taken action. Try not worry about it enjoy your weekend. I understand though that would worry me too."

I thanked her like crazy and she told me to check back after the court date to make sure everything was cleared up on my side. I was so thankful and grateful that everything worked out and God answered my prayer on that one. I was ready for a fight but my prayer was enough. 

And there you have my my crazy ticket story... 

Sadness Yet Peace

I always marvel at who is related to whom or how a friend knows another friend that you wouldn't expect them to know. There truly is something to be said about Lynden being a small tight-knit community. If you're not related to them, then you need to be careful because you probably are somewhere down the line. Or you know them through someone else. The world can easily become smaller at any time. 

Here's an example, our fed rep for Cargill, his grandson Cash just passed away. I became aware of his story about a month ago. An email came through at work asking for prayer, I knew I recognized the last name of Parriera but it wasn't until later when I mentioned it to my dad that the connection became clear. Then I found the blog detailing the last year of little Cash's battle and the highs and lows of every moment. I remember it happened to be my day off when I found the blog. And I read through it, the entire blog all 134 posts that morning. I couldn't stop. I began to learn about this family, and this sweet little boy. I was thoroughly amazed at his parents and their rock solid faith and Cash's resilience through all the chemo and treatments he went through. I smiled, laughed and then would cry at the sweet pictures of Cash that would get posted. 

I found the timing ironic that I came across Cash's story at this time in my life. We're studying the Gospel of Mark at church right now. And we've been talking about faith. Particularly what Jesus will do, could do, can't do, and won't do. At first I was concerned with the won't do and can't do. I thought to myself, what do I believe that Jesus won't do or can't do? I was looking at it in a negative way. And then my pastor clarified by saying, God won't change. He can't be unloving, he won't forsake us. Better perspective huh? And as we processed that as a staff we also talked about how to pray for people who are dealing with illness or life threatening illness. Yes we need to believe and have faith for God to heal them. But we need to pray for His WILL for them. Whether it's healing in this life or eternal healing in Heaven. We need to pray for them with all four of those faith perspectives. So I did. I prayed like crazy for little Cash. I prayed for God's best for him and his family. I often found myself in tears after. And then when I saw the post that he had passed away my heart was heavy but also at peace at the same time. He received his healing. Everyone's prayers were answered.

God does answer prayers, we just need to remember that it's not in our way, it's in His. 

Blessings of 2010

The holidays were a very busy time for me this year. Between work and scheduling in five Christmas dinners it made for some really busy days. Here I was thinking that I would be getting some down time. You know, to catch up on things I had been putting off, read some of my new books that I've wanted to crack open. Update my blog since my brain had been buzzing with all sorts of things I wanted to share.

But in reality it's only been this last weekend where I've been getting some time to catch up and take a deep breath.

I finally tackled my desk at home that had been piling up with all things I didn't have time to deal with. And then after Christmas all my presents got piled on there as well. It was nice to get through most of it and feel like I accomplished something. The one thing I noticed the most though was the fact that I have a lot of stuff I don't feel I want to find a place for. I would much rather pack it away in a box since I know I will be doing that soon anyway. We may still be six months out from the wedding but it will take me a while to go through all my stuff and decide what I want to take with me. It will definitely be a hard task since I know there are quite a few boxes in my closet that contain stuff I haven't looked at in years. Which makes me debate just throwing it away all together. Either way, my mindset is changing towards packing instead of cleaning.

It's a new year, and one thing I always do is make yearly goals. Not resolutions, actual attainable, reachable goals. This two is something I haven't had time for. However, it did cause me to think back on 2010 and realize that I'm a really blessed girl.

Looking back on 2010:

In February David and I celebrated two and a half years together

March marked one year working at the church

David and I got engaged in July. (Definitely the highlight of my summer)

November I took my first vacation and spent the weekend in California

  



And December I bought a car! (Better pics to come soon)

There have been highs and lows, tears and laughter. But I have a job, great family, place to live, an amazing guy whom I love deeply, awesome friends/coworkers, friends who have become closer and a God who loves me more than I can fathom. You know you're truly blessed when you feel content with where your life is at. So 2010 you were a great year. But I'm SO looking forward to all the new things that 2011 has to bring! 

First Annual Pumpkin Blast 2010

My friend Kimberly wanted to blast some pumpkins, and from that came the idea of the First Annual Pumpkin Blast 2010. 

Nine of us got together last night and it started with some pumpkin blasting:











As you can see we had a lot of fun. Then after some dinner, the pumpkin carving began. Everyone stayed pretty secretive about their designs. But there was sure a lot of laughter and giggling going on. The laughter really picked up though when my brother started carving his pumpkin:




Only my brother! 

Here's some pictures of the final product. And just when I thought we couldn't have anymore fun we watched Get Smart with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. Oh how I have not laughed that hard in a long time! At the end of the night after tons of laughter and great fun I felt really blessed to have such awesome family and amazing friends. So thank you Kimberly Martinson, David Lukens, Christie Visser, Terry Visser, Ryan Salas, Kerri Salas, Joel Bennett and Tyler DeZeeuw. I had a blast and it was all because of you! 

Six years

My cousin Kacie and I hit the ice last Friday

It's been somewhere around six years since I've been on the ice. It was a mind boggling thought when I actually figured it out.

I started out rollerblading when I was younger and then made a smooth transition onto the ice. I spent four years skating. Once a week I hit the ice and I usually spent a half hour with my coach going over things. Running repetitive figures, or spending the entire two hour session spinning or jumping. I was motivated and had dreams of taking it somewhere. But I couldn't drive, we had limited resources and when my sis started playing softball I knew it wouldn't last much longer.

I'm glad for the break, I was able to get involved at church and find some other interests. But part of me missed it. And I didn't realize how much until I stepped on the ice again last week. First the smell of the ice, it's hard to explain but it's so distinct that it brought back lots of memories. That first initial loop around made me remember that doing forward crossovers and getting down into my knees and the ice feels like I'm flying. Finding a specific edge and listening as your blade digs into the ice. Oh how I've missed this!

Things came back to me the longer I was on the ice. What I was lacking was some balance and the ability to not get dizzy when spinning. The spinning will come back with more practice. The balance I realized, once I got back into my fundamentals, was from lack of flexibility. Definitely not as flexible as I was six years ago. But that just makes me determined to gain it all back. And then there is the wonderful feeling when you skate your butt off for an hour and you get off the ice and your legs feel like jelly. That one makes me happy, just as much as being sore the next day. Productivity. :D

Some things haven't changed though...