As usual, not camper progress. But I DID get my flowerbeds cleaned out and bought my first couple of plants. I know, I know...it's a little late to be planting. But somethings are better late than never.
I'm so far behind in making name blocks, I don't know if I will ever catch up...so I have spent most of my free time, sewing and making other things that take my mind off of how behind I am. That's better than procrastinating, right? I NEVER procrastinate. I'm telling you when it just HAS to be done, I can jump up and panic with the best of them!
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| And man am I feeling mighty accomplished these days! |
I got Halle's bedding done...
Made this little sign for my yard....
And a trillion of these little towels...(prettiest little model ever!)
OMG!! I forgot I promised Harper Jade one for Water Rampage tomorrow. Better hurry and get to my machine before bed.
DEBBIE DOWNER ALERT!! (scroll on down to skip the sap)
I have an experience I like to share.Something (actually someone) that happened to me when I first started my cancer treatment. And sadly I have an update...
Almost 3 months, multiple hospital trips and surgeries, and my eventual diagnosis, I was in Lakeside Hospital, oncology floor, receiving my first round of chemo. I have to say however sick I was, I was feeling very, very loved by all my friends and family. Soooo blessed. But also very spent.
Thursday, after finally starting treatments that would become routine for a few months, I was exhausted. So the nurses put a sign on my door asking visitors to just leave a note to let me know they had been there, so I would rest.
Early in the evening, despite the note, my door flies open, and I look up thinking it was the nurse. It wasn't. This sweet, almost bald (naturally bald, not from chemo)ball of fire bursts in.
Jay Green (for you Postites, not the Jay Green we went to school with)is a man in his early/mid 50s. He had at the time a beard/goatee thing. Nice starched shirt. Huge smile on his face, and I don't remember the color of his eyes, but boy were they full of something bursting to get out.
He introduced himself and apologized for ignoring the sign, but said he was just in the hall and God told him he needed to come in my room.
We started visiting and I learn that he was diagnosed with liver cancer two years before. He had a tumor the size of a mall cantaloupe. Doctors told him it was inoperable and he wasn't eligible for a transplant.
He replayed his conversation with the doctor the day he received his news.
"Well, Doctor. How long do you think I have?"
The doctor told him, "Only God really knows how long any of us have."
"Yes, I believe that too, Doc. But lets take God out of the picture for just a minute and you tell me what YOU think."
He was told that day that he had four months at best. Being the "ball of fire" I mentioned earlier (and I mean fire as in, on fire for the Lord and on fire for living)he told the doctor, "Doc...you are about to see a miracle."
No need to scroll back up to re-read. I did say TWO years prior was when he received this diagnosis. (Oh my goodness...have I mentioned lately how good our God is?)
He went through treatments and procedures, and said that the doctor told him recently (then recently, not now recently) that if they could shrink the tumor to smaller than a quarter they could go ahead with a transplant!
We visited for over an hour. He asked about us (Dicky was with me, of course) and my situation. We cried some, laughed a LOT, and it was like we had known him forever.
He told us about taking his mother to the fair shortly before she died, way up in years. They rode the tilt-a-whirl I think. He said it made the paper.
He told us about a prank he pulled on her when she was in the hospital, close to her last days, dressing up as a foreign doctor and telling her all kinds of silly things, before she realized who he was. I would repeat the story here, but I know I could never tell it like he did.
As the months went on after his diagnosis, he said he just kept setting goals for himself, deals with God, if you will.
"Ok God, just let me make it to Christmas and I'll be ready." "Let me see my first grandchild." To each birthday, holiday, event, etc.
Obviously God favored him enough to let him stay as long as he needed to spread his story and His blessings. He certainly blessed me that night. I can't begin to tell you the lift my spirit experienced while he was there, and even after he left the room.
A few months went on, and I found myself back in the hospital with pneumonia. As it happened, he decided to make a trip up to the lifesaving fifth floor and was chatting with the nurses. They told him I was there, so he again bounds into my room and gets to meet my parents this time, and my sweet friends, the Hogues.
OMGoodness, we talked and laughed for over 3 hours. His condition seemed to be getting better, as he said the tumor was shrinking and was almost at the operable size. Amazing, huh? HE IS sooo good!!
We talked about a book I had read, and I told him when I got out and was able, I would buy him a copy and take it to him.
That's just what I did a few months later. Went in to the store he managed (Lazyboy furniture in Lubbock)to see how he was and give him the book. He told us that he reached his latest milestone by going skydiving with his son, and had pictures to go along with the story.
I've intended to go back and see him, just to stay in touch with someone that helped to remind me to see the good in all situations, to keep your sense if humor, and to never lose faith.
I'm sad to say that was likely the last time I will see my friend. I stopped by the store last week and the salesman told me that Jay is retired and home on Hospice.
I don't intend to try to contact him. I told him how much he and his visit meant to me everytime I saw him.
Well, ok, I lied...I tried to look him up on Facebook, and didn't find him. But I did find this, if you want to hear more about him.
http://lubbockonline.com/faith/2012-04-07/youre-sitting-next-miracle-proximity-death-jay-green-found-ministry-life#.U8xUhPldWAU
Moral of this story...be a blessing to someone. Don't wait for tragedy to tell someone what they mean to you. Don't take life so seriously. And NEVER lose faith.
SAP alert over...
Want to know what really stinks?
Now, when you are finished reading I want you to go back and count all the "W"s (incase you can't type and didn't know what letter this is supposed to be) and see how hard I had to work to get this blog written. And the ewww between the z and x is not really as nasty as it looks. It's actually dried Modpodge that fell off my finger while I was printing shipping labels, which made me start thinking about how many I still have left after I mail these few, which lead to me writing this, to keep from thinking about that anymore.
Next time I write I will be a grandma! Halle should be here in a week or so and I almost can't contain my excitement! I'm just warning you now, there will be pictures...lots and lots of pictures. And I am apologizing in advance that MY grandbaby will be so much cuter and smarter and more well behaved than any of yours! I just don't want your feelings hurt. Yours are all pretty cute, and smart and all that...but mine's gonna be the queen of cuteness!!
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| So I look up and even my flying pick is smiling with anticipation. We are so ready to meet our Halle Bob, Halle Looya, Halle Bug, Halle Blair. |
Toolde-ooo...Go do something creative!!
