recap of the weekend

Well, with no ad, we still did pretty good! Got rid of lots of things, still have some left over though. I kept the really good stuff, donated some other stuff, and threw away anything that just looked clunky or old. Made about 300.00 and for a 3rd sale, with no advertising, that is pretty respectable. Oh, also got another 100.00 from a guy who just drove up, came up to us, asked if we were the ones holding the sale for the little baby...when we said yes, he opened up his wallet, and pulled out a hundred dollar bill!!!!! Can you believe that??! I said thank you so much, and God bless you. Tony proceeded to choke on his lunch. It was surreal. My kids called him an angel. I think he was prompted by a real need to do this for us. Much like the time we helped the lady whose home burned down. We let her pick through alot of things we were saving for a garage sale, and gave her a 100.00 walmart card. She cried, and I really couldn't understand why, because it really didn't seem like a lot to me then...but now I understand. A hundred dollars when you need it so very bad is a lot of money! So, I hope he knows how much we appreciated that. He turned and walked away without so much as a goodbye. He really didn't want us to know who he was.

The church took up an offering for us this morning. We will find out about it soon enough. We are over halfway to the goal, with enough time to get the rest, I think. We are still praying!

We are going to spend this week cleaning the house, and next week packing. Hopefully we will get so much done in the week that it makes packing easy! When one is cluttered and messy, it makes packing very difficult because you can't find what you need! I could totally have another garage sale with more stuff...but I will refrain for a few months anyway. Give the people time to forget who I am, and where I live. Then it will feel all new again. LOL!

Well, gotta run! Bedtime calls. I am still waiting for you guys to delurk and tell me a bit about yourselves! Anyone have any blogs I could read? I am always on the look out for new blogs. smile!

are you sick of reading about my garage sales yet?

Got everything all set up again....No ad in the paper, so this is purely going to happen by signs and God's prompting. He can do that you know? Just make you drive somewhere, not realizing where you're going, until BAM....you're where you needed to go, but didn't know you needed to be there.

Gave some tables back, and got some new ones. That was nice. You need tables for a garage sale!!!

One of my friends from here decided she was going to put up some pickle jars at a couple of places, to garner donations of spare change and what not...We went to those two places to put up garage sale signs, and boy....there is a bunch of change in them! Praise the Lord. I have no idea how much, but every little bit helps. The lady coordinating it is taking care of bringing the money to us. This has been a challenge for me, because I am a control freak. Bad quality to have sometimes. I have had to give this over to her because it was her idea. Which is a great lesson for me! Don't get me wrong...I love it when God teaches me things. It's just been hard to not go dump the change out every couple of days and know exactly how much is there. It's not my place to know....I have to realize that.

Oh....how is this for a "cool" moment? The microcephaly website has the section about fundraising for people who want to go, but need help. Its called shining stars. I found a bear the other day at a thrift store that has a button to play a song. What song is it? Shining Stars by the Manhattans. HA! Isn't that cool? I am taking it along with us to show the coordinators of the conference. :)

another garage sale, and fears...

This is what I was afraid of when I would think about opening my blog. Seeing everyone read all my personal thoughts and daily blurbs, but not getting comments from anyone! I know...Joann, Michelle, Della, and Emily...you four are awesome! But everyone else??? Do you enjoy what I am writing about? Do I weird you out? Do you wish you would never have flipped over here? What gives? LOL!!

Just kidding....kinda!

Hey, so how about a third garage sale?? I am sort of tired of selling things to raise money. However, my house is slowly getting cleaner and more open! (Look on the bright side, Holly....) This trip will not come on it's own. Gas, food, camping fees, etc will NOT be cheap. Part of me wonders why I really want to do this? I mean, I know WHY I want to go, but what if it really isn't as informative and wonderful as I think it will? What if we went through all this fundraising stuff to get all this money, and it ends up feeling like a waste? Will it?? I hope not, but you have to understand. I have NEVER done anything like this before in my entire life. Traveled cross country with 8 children (1 3yr old and a disabled 2yr old), thinking about roughing it the whole way with tents and portable food, only to find my family lost in the sea of California....hoping that the doctor will tell me more than he did through the mail.

Will I find someone else like Rachel? Microcephaly is such a wide range of a disability, that I wonder if she will be like any of them. Will it matter? Am I just scared? I am such a homebody that this is SOOOO out of my element. I would almost like to just curl up in my chair in my familiar house and just say "forget about it". "Too much work." But, I can't........I would simply regret it and so would all of my kiddos. They are looking forward to this like you couldn't believe.

So, garage sale number 3 it is....and prayer that more money comes in....I know it will, but I am not a patient person. God is dealing with that via many avenues...Humbling experiences all around.

Church

So, I never mentioned what happened after we left the church. Several months went by and we did nothing on Sunday. We never really started doing devotionals with the kids, and we certainly didn't do what one could consider a church service at home. It was an awful feeling. We started thinking that we would just go back to the church we left, and just consider our little time away as just that, but it never felt right. Every Sunday after that decision, we still stayed home. All the while, the kids would mention "when are we ever going to go back to church?"

We decided to try a reformed church and so we went. It was very much different than the baptist church we were used to. We had gone to the baptist church for 8 years, so that was all I knew. This new church, well, they sang the Psalms with no music. They stood, sang, sat, read, stood, sang again. Rinse and repeat. It felt so awkward and wrong somehow. The people were great, very welcoming and all, but just foreign. They have a lunch every Sunday after service and we would go to it. Slowly, but surely we got to know some people. Got used to the singing with no music thing. Found out that they have no problems with musical instruments, but that the focus of worship music should be on the words, not the sound of the music. This one is still hard for my husband and myself, because my husband was a music major in college, and I am all about music.

Still we persisted. Got to know more people. All the while, the kids loved it!! They loved the kids, and the commaradarie. So, here we are. Still going, still feeling a little different. The people there are great, and very quick to help when needed. The thing is though....they are all very educated and driven, so I feel a little dumb around them. My children are not academic scholars....Some of these kids are 16 year old high school graduates! So, that part feels strange. Plus, it is small. About 100 people or so. We are seen when our children act out in service! We are missed when we don't go.

But, you know what? In our other church, it never felt like a small close knit community. Here, we still need to get to know some of the people, but I honestly feel more important to them then I did to the other church. Is that what happens in a small church? Is it because this church is full of homeschoolers/christian schoolers, so we fit in more? Is it me? I don't know, but I am glad to be back in a church where the focus is on God. Those Sunday's at home certainly did not have a focus on anything......

musings from the day

Argh! Can someone please clue me in to the reason God created mosquitoes? I know all things were created by Him for a reason, but I truly think He messed up with the mosquito. I am serious. I went outside just now to pick worms out of the ground for the guys to use while fishing, and I received no less than 8 bites. ITCHY!!!!!!!!!

I am doing the never ending laundry pile today. We sort of slacked off on it all while we were having the marathon all week long garage sale last week, but I need clothes and so does everyone else. Ho-hum...

Adam, my 11 year old just went across the street and landed a mowing job. He is so excited to be working. Everyone thinks he is too little to push a lawnmower, but he isn't. He is spunky, and smart. He just has to show everyone that he can do it, and then they will keep him. My little entrepreneur.

raffle....

If you are here about the raffle, it is over. If you still feel led by God to donate any money for our trip, you can do that. Also, we could still use your prayers for achieving this trip. It will be a long, hard one, but seeing this doctor and meeting other families will be a huge thing for our family.

The kids are beyond excited for travel. They haven't gone anywhere like this in years. We went on a mission trip last year, but that is not the same.

Views from the crib

Isn't this cute??

She discovered that she could put her head up under her bumper pad and look out. This was right before we took it off. She still has a bumper around to protect her head when she falls over, but the big bumper was blocking her view. Just thought I would post a little pic today.

Ashley and her heart.....

I need to make a post about this. It has somewhat taken a back burner to all this fundraising hoopla, but it needs to be written for memory sake as well as to work through my feelings about it. I mentioned several times about my oldest daughters heart problems. She had to have several diagnostic tests done over the last few months, and finally had to wear a holter monitor, which she wore for a month. Anytime she had pain or heart racing episodes, she had to push a button, which went back like 30 seconds or so, and recorded her heart rate from then to about a minute or so after the button push.

We sent the recordings in, and gave the monitor back without much a thought really. She had about 5 or 6 episodes during that month. A month went by without hearing anything about it, so I called the doctor. She said that the cardiologist only came to town once a month and he may have just come when we turned it in, so wait a little and see if the results came in soon. They didn't. Life happened and we just kept thinking about it, but never hearing anything and it bugged me. So, one day, I called in again. Doc said she would look into it. Next thing I know, I am getting a call that the hospital had just put in a page of paper into the doctors slot saying my daughter had SVT and that was the diagnosis! That is it....just a piece of paper with those letters, and nothing else. We were livid, as was the doc. She insisted she had followed up, and that it must have either been the cardiologist or the hospital. Next thing we knew, we were getting a call from the cardio's office saying we needed to be seen at the next time he was there. So, we did. They apologized and blamed the hospital. I really am getting sick and tired of the medical care we are recieving......but that is another post all together. However, in a nutshell, my daughter has SVT which is supraventricular tachicardia.

Supraventricular Tachycardia Symptoms

Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) can cause a number of symptoms, depending on your overall health and how fast your heart is beating. People with heart damage or other coexisting medical problems experience a greater degree of discomfort and complications than those who are healthy. Some people have no symptoms at all.

Symptoms can come on suddenly and may go away by themselves. They can last a few minutes or as long as 1-2 days. The rapid beating of the heart during PSVT can make your heart a less effective pump so that your body organs do not receive enough blood to work normally. The following symptoms are typical with a rapid pulse of 140-250 beats per minute:

• Palpitations - The sensation of your heart pounding in your chest
  
  
• Dizziness, or light-headedness (near-faint), or fainting
  
  
• Shortness of breath
  
  
• Anxiety
  
  
• Chest pain or tightness

We were told that she could live with this the rest of her life, with only episodes that were bothersome, but not life threatning, or she could have surgery to repair it. It is not a 100 percent effective, this surgery, but it would be worth a try. We are currently talking it over amongst ourselves to see where we want to go. She doesn't have many episodes per month, and she can make them go away by sitting down, and holding her breath. That works...it was suggested on a website and she had never even read it. It was instinct with her. You know your own body best, huh? We will probably go through with the surgery, and while its not a real invasive one, they just go through the groin vein, it is still surgery. Scary stuff...and then hope for the best. I am worried about my "little" 15 year old, but at least I can breath a sigh of relief that it is not something far worse. With her biological fathers history of heart problems, and the fact that he died from them in his early 30's, this is reassuring. They aren't related at all, so they say. They will do an echo on her once a year to monitor, but the cardiologist says that SVT doesn't morph into heart disease or failure. I still need to become more educated on that before I truly believe it. There is that trust thing again.

what is microcephaly, anyway?

What exactly is microcephaly? People asked me that all the time during the garage sale. I was shocked at first, but then realized that I probably wouldn't know either unless I had a reason to know...So, I explained it, over and over again. I like educating people, and helping them to understand that even though she is disabled, she is still very much a person and deserves to be here just as much as the next guy. You know? It saddens me to think that some people think that those "less than perfect" people don't deserve to live. I am less than perfect. So are you... Just because we can walk, and talk, and do all those mundane things we do, doesn't make us any more worthy of life.

Of course, I never went into that part of the conversation because no one suggested she shouldn't be alive. They were truly curious and concerned. I loved that. I wish I would have had opportunities to talk with parents of disabled children before I had my own, so I wouldn't have struggled so long with being comfortable around them. You realize that parent's of special children are just people, like you...and that the children are just children. Just different.

So, in that light, I realize many of you probably don't know what it is either, unless you read through each and every archive. Which I don't recommend, because, BORING....LOL.

Microcephaly means "small head". Small head comes from small brain. One that isn't growing right for whatever reason. Some children can have a small case of micro, meaning their head circumference is somewhat smaller than normal, and they can be delayed but still do many things like walk and talk etc. Others can be WAY off the curve, be way under what they are supposed to be for their age and be severely delayed. That is where Rachel is. She is functional, but infant like. She may never get past infant stage. I pray daily that she does, but the reality of the situation is that she may never progress much further and while she doesn't know the difference, we do. Still others have micro and can be pretty much non functional. They can't eat on their own, and require feeding tubes etc. They don't communicate at all, and can be locked in their own little world. I am very aware that Rachel could be much worse, but also aware that she could be much better.

Microcephaly is a hard diagnosis to accept. Many things cause it, and it can't be fixed. You have to take things day by day and just let the child develop at their own rate. That is why I want to go to this conference. To meet other families with children like her that have bridged some gaps I haven't even come close to crossing. To help a new mommy of a newly diagnosed baby to know that it will be hard, but that she can do it. To learn about new developmental tools that can help her brain learn more, even if only a small amount, because a little learning is better than none. To let my kids be able to meet other children who deal with this daily in their own lives. Finally, just to get away from the normal day to day life here, and shake things up a bit by traveling and living in close quarters for a couple of weeks. This will either kill us all, or make us closer, and I truly think we will get closer. We are family, and families stick together. In normal and not so normal fashions.

garage sale, kids camping...blah blah.

Garage sale number 2 is halfway through the week...It is funny, but just sorting out all the stuff and setting the boxes on the tables makes people stop. They slam on their brakes sometimes, which is so funny, unless there is a car behind them. Then it isn't. But, our road is so traveled, that without a sign or an ad in the paper, we probably had about 100 people stop today. Granted, since everything wasn't spread out, they probably missed those treasures that they wanted, but we still sold quite a bit to those willing to dig around, and those wanting to buy the big stuff that just sits out on its own.

Austin, Ashley, Adam and Aaron slept outside in our big ole tent. They loved it!! They are getting in some good practice for what we are going to do on our ride up to California. We have 2 big 2 room tents, so together they will sleep all ten of us comfortably. For sure! We have all the sleeping bags and pillows too. It is weird, but we have all this camping stuff, and have never camped! Can you believe that??? I have either been new pregnant, old pregnant (lol) or new mommy or too hot in the mid/late summer. So, this long drive and many camping stops should make us pros, don't you think?

They did wake up the little boys this morning with their racket though. That wasn't good. The college kids down the road kept waking them up all night, so I have to wonder why they all woke up at 6:45, but they did and made alot of noise outside the little kids room. So, in our room, the little guys tromped. Complaining that all the noise outside made them wake up. Ugh....

They are enjoying this week of no school. We will make up for it next week however. There will be no summer vacation from school in this house! We miss to many days here and there to actually have a full 3 months time to take off. It keeps their brains fresh this way.

Off to bed, to mentally price items and sell them in my sleep. I also type things in my head. Does anyone else do that? I am crazy, aren't I? I know it.......

Garage sale stuff, and a welcome note!

Whew...These garage sales are hard, sweaty work! I truly wish it was good for some weight loss at least, but nah...not so much. :( Anyway, I am feverishly looking for donated items for this, and getting lots from people, for which I am very thankful. It is truly great that people can rally together for things. I will never take friendship and community for granted, let me tell you that!

We are about 1/4 of the way there in our fundraising efforts, so we have lots to go, but God is faithful! I have never seen Him let me down yet. Even when He allowed my daughter to be born with this disability, He didn't let me down. We need Rachel just as much as she needs us. When I see my boys just melt for her, that is for the purpose of keeping these guys tender. She will most likely be carried for a very very long time, and I need these big strapping guys to help with that. They will not mind a bit!

Her sister is so good with her too...they have little tea parties and Ashley fixes her hair. Rachel just sits there and smiles, and it is the cutest thing. Life is far to short to be bitter about things, and to just watch it all pass without caring about the little things. It's those every day little things that we should always remember.

I am so glad I have new people coming to my blog! I worried about opening it up for a very long time, but I think God wants all of you to "get to know" my family. So, welcome!! I am glad you are here, and I hope you enjoy reading about my "little" family. :)

readers...

Who all reads this blog? Hardly anyone comments, but I love comments. Leave one, and tell me a bit about yourself. Pretty please!! :)

lazy saturdays........

Wow...who would have thought you could have a migraine for 2 days solid? Not me! Alas, I have had one though. I go to sleep, and wake up with it even. There is no reprieve from this thing. Exedrin migraine pills, lots of ibuprofen, dr. pepper....nothing works. It may have something to do with my "friend of the month" but good grief...I have had those for years and never had this. Whew! I think I need a lobotomy...

Wanting to have another garage sale, but its been rain, rain, rain...except this morning would have been perfect if not for the storms last night, and that migraine. We only have a few more weeks to get the rest of this money sent in and then have some in reserve for the gas/hotels/campgrounds/food on the way up there and back. God will provide, though. I fully believe that!

Went to frontier city amusement park last week for homeschool day. That was fun. Took the oldest 4 kiddos and Tony and I. It was Aaron's 9th birthday, so he was thrilled. Got to see an old friend, and meet her family! She looks just as young and pretty as she used to. Seriously, Michelle. I am not even lying.

Sent out a ton of postcards today and yesterday to all my friends asking for prayers and donations. Hope they are all recieved well, and unoffensive. I hate asking for help, but between this event, and the fact that Tony is on a health related sabbatical...well, money is scarce these days.

His shoulder is still causing considerable pain. We thought it would be so much better by now, but it really isn't. It affects his sleep, and his self image. He can't lift heavy things, and with this garage sale thing, there are lots and lots of heavy boxes. So, good thing I have that strapping 17 year old to help. Pray for him if you think about it. :)

Well, we are off to enjoy free hamburgers and see cop cars/ambulances and get finger prints of the kids. I hope I don't get sick from this head thing...That would be embarrasing.

New, with updates...LOL

Rain, rain, rain....nice for awhile, but now ruining my plans. We were going to be doing something on Friday, but I refuse to pay money for something that will not let me get a refund if it rains. So, we aren't going. Bah!!! Sorry Michelle! Rain was good for awhile because it kept my house cool while my a/c was broken. That was a nice blessing, so thank you God. A/C fixed now, and it is hot outside.

Moved rooms around AGAIN. 3 boys in one, 2 girls in one, 2 boys in one, and one boy in one. Then us in one. We have a door again! Woohoo...it was weird not having a traditional door. LOL!

Getting more and more stuff for the next garage sale fundraiser. Mailing out letters too probably. God will provide for this trip, but we need to work for it. Nothing ever comes from sitting on your rear, you know?

Just wanted to post an update here. Facebook is really so much easier than a blog. However, I may be printing out my blog on of these days for posterity, and I need stuff typed, don't I? Ha!