Checking In

Hey Everyone! Well, we made to Ohio safely and are having a great time!! Yesterday we went to the Toledo Zoo, which is apparently one of the top ten zoos in the US, that was really fun. Today we headed up to Ann Arbor Michigan to get a glimpse of the University of Michigan. The football stadium is under construction right now and we couldn't see anything! Oh well, we could still feel being in the presence of greatness! We also went to a local mall and stocked up on all of our Michigan gear for the next year. Curtis seems to go hog wild when he is in a U of M store. Today we probably spent over an hour in this little dinky store as he tried to narrow down what he exactly wanted. We have a busy weekend ahead of us with other family driving in but I just wanted to say hi. We are planning on leaving Tuesday, June 24 and then heading up to Minnesota to go to the Mall of America, and then heading down through Yellow Stone National Park. Lord willing we will be back Sunday or Monday. So, I will give a recap when I get back on all of the adventures that we have come across!

Help, I'm Drowning!

I saw Dr. McBride yesterday in this ongoing saga of my.....I don't even know what to call it anymore.....sinus, no voice, coughing, thing. After listening to me try to breathe he made the comment that I was drowning in my own mucas, that is a nice thought! Anywho, he immediately thought that it was allergies because I was feeling great while I was pregnant and usually acid reflux gets worse when you are pregnant, while allergies get better. So, I was poked, prodded, and dripped on by all of these different oils such as cats dander, grass, weed, mold and anything else you could imagine. Also, they put a drop of histamine that would insure that the test was working. After 15 minutes or so the nurse came back in to see the results and just like I had thought.....no allergies. In fact I barely had a reaction to the histamine. The nurse told me that it would itch and feel like a bug bite. Now, I am not allergic to any kind of bugs so I didn't know what a bug bite feels like. Now, I do!

Then they sent me across the street to get a CT scan. I think that the technician was pretty annoyed with me. She asked my if I was pregnant and I replied that I didn't know. She didn't understand how I couldn't know. I told her that I had just finished ovulating the week before and didn't know if I was pregnant. She must have been new because she was going to order a blood test to see if I was or not. I had to explain to her that if I was, I was too early in my pregnancy for the results to be positive even with the blood test. She looked really confused by this point. Thankfully, the other technician stepped in to explain the process of how the fertilized egg has to travel out of the tube and attach to the uterine wall and then like a week or so after that is when you would get a positive result. I don't think that she was expecting a lesson in reproduction. At this point she asked the other tech to finish up because she felt her pager go off! HAHAHAHA! Sorry that was a LONG rabbit trail. Anyways, the scan came back normal, in fact Dr. McBride stated that my septum was text book perfect, not a single curve or bend in it. I guess that is a good thing.

So now we are going with the acid reflux option and see how it works. If it is not acid reflux then I will get scoped to see if I have any polyps on my vocal cords, if I did, I would need surgery to cut them out. I don't know about you, but THAT sounds like a lot of FUN!! While we were discussing about the things that I could do to help treat GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), he talked about not eating any fat past dinner time. I explained to him that I couldn't really have anything high in fat anyways because I don't have a Gall Bladder. And then he told me that there is a pill that I could take in order to eat high fat foods without getting me sick! As I was gasping for breath, I asked him to explain about this wonder drug. He said that there is a pill one could take that helps the body to absorb fats. Then he put it in layman's terms for me. If I wanted to go to Chicago and have a deep dish Chicago style pizza, just take a couple of pills before you eat and you would be fine! THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER!!!!!! Why hasn't anyone said this before!!! I can't even fathom having french fries again!!! That news alone made my day, who cares now if I get better or not! I can have french fries again! And pizza! And hotdogs! And a peanut butter sandwich!!! How crazy is that!!!

So, all that to say, my appointment went well, and I am now in the Dr. McBride fan club and Lord willing I will be feeling better soon! Thanks everyone for their prayers and concerns! You guys rock!

Michigan looks good on everyone!

Lily came over a couple of times last week and I got out Ben's old Michigan hat just for fun. Lily looked super cute with it on. Recruiting Michigan fans one baby at a time!!

Merian Bowers

I love babies being born! I love everything about it, and how every pregnancy, every delivery, every baby is different, so unique. Andy and Leila had their baby today, and it was so exciting how everything just changes! Within one moment the baby's whole system changes from breathing in nothing and being supported completely by the mom to having his or her body being filled with air for the first time and supporting itself! How great is God that He sovereignly designed our bodies to birth another human being and that He allows us to experience all of the emotions that we have when that moment happens! I am always amazed at babies being born, I genuinely love it! ANyways here are some pictures!

Lobster Anyone??

I am just going to come out and say it......I am burnt!!! RED, RED, RED!!! But I am not going to complain because it is actually something that I was aiming for! Last week my mom (who is planning on participating in the Breast Cancer Three Day Walk,that is if she can raise enough money) and I decided to walk to Walmart from my house here in Smokey Point. It was a nice 7 mile walk, not too warm and not rainy! Well, what resulted from it was a terrible tan(burn) line on my arms, so I wanted to get more color today so that you couldn't see any lines. Well, I could have, maybe, overdone it! Oh well, the kids had a blast playing in the pool the whole day and then doing some painting, here are some pictures highlighting the day!

zzzzzzzzzzz..........

I can't seem to fall asleep. I have tried everything, and by everything I mean lying in bed and then working out. My eyes are tired and that is about it. This is probably because I took a nap this afternoon which I haven't been doing, and then on top of that there is the fact that I had a few drinks of a flat Coke because my stomach was upset. So, this means that tomorrow I will probably have a migraine since lack of sleep is a huge trigger for my migraines!! Oh the joy of it all!! So, here are some recent pictures of nothing really.

Would God not be Glorified?

My hear weeps for Andrew & Grace Mark this morning. So many life changing decisions to make, decisions that I cannot even fathom. As I lifted them up in prayer this morning, I felt myself debating with God about His ways. I found myself praying that God would completely heal Andrew of all of his cancer from his whole body. And then asking God 'Wouldn't that bring You the most glory? Wouldn't a complete healing make the doctors fall on their knees in reverence and wonder of You? God, wouldn't You be MOST glorified if You would heal Andrew Mark. I know that You are able and willing to do so. What's stopping You? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if You would just heal him?'
I am glad that God doesn't swallow up people anymore. How often I forget that God's ways are not my ways, His plans are not mine. And it is actually a better thing that He does do it His own way. Would God be glorified if He healed Andrew, yep, but maybe He would be most glorified if He took Andrew home. I don't know, He doesn't need to discuss with me why He chooses what to do. God answers prayers when our will is aligned with His, maybe we are praying for the wrong thing, the wrong direction. Sorry, that this post isn't the clearest, but it is my heart right now.