What a day!

What a beautiful day we had again. The weather was perfect. The kids were able to be a part of our hometown parade by riding their bikes in it. The two youngest rode with Daddy in the fire truck. I, unfortunately, slept during it since I had worked the night before.

The garden is sprouting up quite nicely. If everything grows that is planted, we are going to have a ton of veggies. I'm pretty excited to see what the summer will bring as we begin to harvest our gardens. Yes, that is gardens! We have three so far.

I am looking forward to this weekend. We are honoring my soon-to-be sister in law, Katie at a bridal shower. I'm very excited for both her and my brother. They are to be married in less than a month now (gasp) and I'm sure both of them are going to be stunning on the day they walk down the aisle. I can't wait to share photos of the blessed event!!

Other than that, not much is really going on. I have been pushing myself to stay on track with the weight loss journey. I have started adding in more exercise with the hope that things will begin to "tone" up in places that they are needed. Like, everywhere! I have retaken my measurements today but need to locate my original measurements. I know I have them somewhere. I'm curious to see how many inches have been lost. PLEASE let them have been lost and not gained! :) I'll share with you once I find them.

The kids are winding down on their school year. We have some big decisions to make regarding the kids and it isn't easy. I'm hoping for some more clarity as the weeks pass. I have a pretty strong suspicion that things will be changing on many aspects in our lives over the next several months. I guess everything will be fine in the end, right? Wait...scratch that. I know everything will be fine in the end. HE is in control, ultimately. HE will bring us to where we need to be.

I hope you all have a great week.
Much love,
-Me

~~Official~~

I'm just getting a chance to sit down and relax for a minute...or two. The past few days have been very busy and filled with studying for finals and preparing and planting our gardens.

Yesterday I worked in the garden all day and well into the evening. It felt really good. Not only did I burn a ton of calories and get a lot accomplished, I also felt a deep connection to my Grandpa. I just imagined him walking there beside me, working there in the garden right along with me. I have no doubt that he is enjoying his garden up in Heaven. His gardening tradition will now live on in each one of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I also push mowed much of the side yard, raked until my arms felt like they were going to fall off, and prepared the rows in the garden for planting. I thought I had stayed well hydrated through it all but I must not have. I came inside and took a nice cold shower to cool off before eating dinner. I had a few glasses of water with dinner (spaghetti) and finished it off with some fresh strawberries...YUM!

And then, it hit.

I had a screaming migraine and no meds! I tried everything. I tried cool cloths, heat, tylenol, more water, resting in pitch black with no sound, hot towels wrapped around my head and even drew a bath of hot water and submerged my head in that. Unfortunately, nothing helped! Thankfully, I did make it to the bathroom in time for my dinner to come back up.

Just for the record, spaghetti and strawberries do NOT come back up very gracefully! There is just something not quite right when angel hair pasta is hanging out of your nostrils. Not to mention the fear it puts into your spouse when they walk in and see the toilet bowl is bright red. I had to assure him it wasn't blood.

Several times I thought about going to the hospital but I just couldn't bring myself to call an ambulance. My pulse was racing at 120-130 and my head felt like it was going to explode. After seven hours, I finally fell asleep. Thankfully, it was gone this morning when I woke up. Okay, so...around lunch time, when I woke up!

Today I worked out in the yard some more. I didn't over do it this time though. I made sure to make more frequent water breaks. I did get tomatos, onions, peppers, squash, and cucumbers in today though. We still have peas, watermelon, pumpkins, cantalope, sweet corn and a couple more things I can't remember now to plant.

We are still awaiting on our new additions to join our family. We are expecting again. Well, not WE...but our geese. We couldn't find White Wing a few weeks back. When we approached the pen, Pluto kept trying to nip at us. This was unusual for him. We opened the little hut we had built for them (that they had never used) and found White Wing sitting on a nest of six eggs! Over the next three days, she laid 3 more. So, we are expecting nine baby geese in the next week or so. We thought maybe Pluto was male and White Wing was female but couldn't be sure...and we were NOT going to sex them! I'll be sure to post a photo when they arrive!

In other news, I ask for your prayers for my wonderful sister-in-law as they try to figure out what is going on with her health. She has been in some tremendous pain and is hospitalized yet they are still searching for the reason. Please send up some prayers that she will recover quickly from the surgery, that they may find an answer, and that it may be fixed and put her on the road to recovery very soon!

I also ask for prayers for a dear friend and her newborn daughter. Please keep them in your thoughts as they are currently hospitalized and going through some testing. I know this is a difficult time for Mom and she could really use some good thoughts.

Last but not least, please think positive thoughts for a dear friend who is undergoing a procedure this week. Just keep thinking positive...positive....positive! :)

On an exciting note, I logged on tonight to find that I have officially been assigned my state EMT license! It's official! I'm legal! :) I am pretty excited about that! I do have a couple leads on some part time postions that I will be checking into.

As far as the weight loss, it's still progressing. The jeans I have on are on the verge of falling off. This is, of course, great news! I'm not weighing in for another few days but will update when I do. I also have my measurements so that I can keep track of inches lost vs weight lost. Sometimes the scales don't move but the way your clothes fit tell you that something is changing! I'm okay with that too.

Tonight we tried ground turkey in our chili. It wasn't too bad. I didn't get to add all of the things I wanted to because it was late, we needed a quick dinner and I forgot to purchase everything I wanted to add. It was a bit bland but it definately is much healthier than ground beef. It has a ton of protein and much less fat. That's a good thing!

I guess I will let you all get back to what you were doing before this. I've just kind of rambled on here. Hopefully I will have something a bit more interesting than this in the next few days.

Stay safe,
Becky

Just me again...

First I'd like to thank those of you who entertained and kept our four children last night so that I could spend some one on one time with Mr. Jonathon. We truly appreciated it as I really needed to have Jonathon time.

Our evening started off great. He was in such a good mood, happy and enjoying himself.



That later turned into him being an absolute terror complete with a temper tantrum to boot. Thankfully, it only lasted about thirty minutes but it was one of the longest thirty minutes I have ever spent while trying to keep a fiesty toddler in my arms in the top of the bleachers. I finally decided to step down with him and walk for a bit. He soon settled down and enjoyed the rest of our evening together. Somewhere around midnight, he finally fell asleep. Yes, I know. He was out way past curfew. But he was with his momma and daddy...does that make it better?

Today was a rough day. I didn't get to sleep until well after 3am this morning. I picked up the kids and listened to nonstop bickering for hours on end. On top of being exhausted, being a referee to my lil stinkers, and just an overall pissy attitude...my day did not go well.

By 7pm, every single one of the kids were asleep in various parts of the house. And then...it happened. Jonathon woke up and was ready to go!! The only two that have stayed asleep are Austin and Katelyn. Tonight, when Jacob and Jonathon were awake, Jacob gave Jonathon the royal treatment.



It's now nearing midnight and we're up watching Final Destination 3. We watched Phantom of the Opera before this. And to top off the movie night, it will be Freddy vs Jason or some crazy movie.

Tim did manage to get his new "treasure" put in today. Take a look:



Our garden is slowly coming in. The corn plants are peeking through the freshly tilled dirt. The cucumber plants are coming in as well. We still have peas, beans, onions, peppers, and two different types of peppers to come up.

Oh, and we are also a pet-sitter this weekend. This is Judy. She's loveable and adorable. She is usually found in Jacob's classroom and since there would be nobody there this holiday weekend, we were the lucky pet sitters! Isn't she pretty?

Another rough start...

Blah. Today hasn't been much better in the way of "good mornings." While I woke up painfree (thanks to some wonderful meds), I just didn't feel "right." It was about noon and I wasn't sure if my sugar was low or what was wrong. I went to grab some food when it hit. You know, the urge to heave all over. I took off to the bathroom where I proceeded to do just that. The only thing I had in my stomach was some water that I had just drank a few minutes prior. My stomach still feels queasy but I was able to eat some soup without any problems. I'm wondering if the pain meds were a bit too much. (even though my last dose of meds was almost 8 hours prior)

Another successful day in the garden. We finished tilling it up and planted some green beans, peas, peppers (two different types), onions, cherry tomato plants, and regular tomato plants. Oh, and two hills of cucumbers! We still have room in the garden so I'm not sure what we'll plant more of. Perhaps corn, since we eat lots of that.

Off to rest for a few minutes before the kids get home from school. Have a great day! It sure is beautiful outside.

Until next time...

Feeling a little better

I'm feeling a bit more at ease tonight. I decided to go outdoors after my previous post and spend some time in my gardens. It just so happened that Tim came home at the same time. Together, we decided to work on our back garden, getting it tilled up and planted. That particular garden is for our sweet corn. We ended up planting 15 rows of corn, about 160-170 seeds total. We plan to eat and freeze corn this summer. We planted four different types of sweet corn with four different harvesting times.

Tim went in to get ready for work and I moved to the east garden. I tilled it up with Jacob's help (for a few minutes, at least). I then raked most of it out, making sure I pulled any chopped up roots and weeds out. I couldn't finish it up because the storms quickly moved in. At least one garden was finished today! I also planted four bulb flowers (the name escapes me) in the flower garden near the shed. They looked pretty on the package, at least.

The weirdest thing happened tonight. I was sitting here, researching. The storms had moved through the area earlier and it appeared to be fairly calm outdoors. No lightening, no thunder but a light rain. All of a sudden, the biggest, brightest flash of white light shot before my eyes. I came from the right side and moved to the left side. Within a few seconds, the loudest crack of thunder followed. At that moment, my heart nearly stopped. I jumped up, unplugged some things, and before I knew it, Jacob came flying out of the bathroom. Apparently, he was tending to business when he saw the same thing. I started checking the walls for burn marks, thinking lightening struck our home. I am not sure what the heck that was...but it scared the snot out of me!!

I've had some very comforting emails sent my way. One in particular reminded me that I needed to stay strong and hold onto my faith. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an extremely religious person. I am, however, spiritually strong. I won't go into the whole religion thing here but I just wanted to thank you, dear friend, for reminding me to stay focused, stay positive, and stay strong. I know that everything will be okay. I know that no matter what the outcome is, I am strong and I will prevail. As you said, I have a long time ahead of me before I can go "home."

Let me just say that I have not been given a diagnosis of Cancer. I have been given no diagnosis other than a uterine mass that is on the anterior side of the uterus and extends all the way through the uterine wall. (in addition to fibroids found on the posterior side of the uterus). This mass (or tumor, as they call it) is not round. It is not well defined. It is very vascular. It is, from my understanding, located behind the bladder but on/through the uterus. It is similar to the size of an egg and oblong. It is not similar in appearance to that of a fibroid or a cyst. Maybe that is what scares me the most. Well, in addition that they can't tell me whether or not it is cancer until after the surgery.

In any event, it could be malignant or it could be benign. I'm praying that it is benign. I ask you to pray for the same. However, until I have an actual diagnosis, I will fear the worst, pray for the best, and more than likely drive you all crazy. I have a 50/50 chance, right? Let's try to focus on the 50% chance that this is benign, shall we? (wink)

This is a reply that I sent along to a friend of mine today:
Prayers have been going up A-L-O-T!!! I know, ultimately, He is in control. I know that He will guide Dr. Bs hands, give him knowledge, and give me strength. I know that what is meant to be, will be. I know that it's all in His time and not mine. As much as I hate not having the control I want...I know that everything is falling into the place it needs to be. I have to remember to hand my fears and frusterations over to Him and allow Him to take care of it all. He will. He has. He knows. I need to trust.

I do believe that Dr. B is a great doctor with a wonderful skill. I know that even if this is malignant, that he has done the best for me. I have no doubts. I am thankful that I was able to get in to him as quickly as I did and that I was able to get my appt moved up and the surgery scheduled, all within a matter of 5 weeks or so. Really, that's quick!

I want to thank you for your thoughts, emails, phone calls and prayers today! I really do appreciate them.

Until next time...