I'm completely Insane!

Ok, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to add a new blog to my to-do list....but that's what I've done! It's a blog all about great party ideas. The plan is to feature party ideas from women all over blogland! People will submit a post from their own blog featuring their fabulous and creative party/entertaining ideas....... and then I will re-post their content and feature them on my new blog. The blog is www.creativepartiesandshowers.blogspot.com

All the info is over on the new blog...so hop on over and check it out! And don't be afraid to sumbit your party post! The whole idea is for it to be a place where other people can come and be inspired!

My heart is breaking for my friends...

About a year and a half ago I posted about some family friends who had just learned that their son Luke had cancer (AML - leukemia). Shortly after that I started a blog called 500 prayers for Luke, because Luke had said his wish was that 500 people would pray for him. So many of you reached out to this family and lifted them up in prayer. As the next 6 months went on the prayers continued and we all watched while Luke continued to amaze the doctors with his bodies positive response to the treatment. Whether it was chemo or the bone marrow treatment...everything went just about as well as it could. Just a little over a year ago the bone marrow transplant was a success and Luke went home cancer free. For the past year this family has treasured every minute of life together and has given God all the glory both in the hard times and the times of celebration.

Today.....one of the hard times came. Luke's cancer is back. I've included their post from Luke's Caring Bridge site for today. Please read it and remember to be praying for this family. Feel free to leave them a note of prayer and encouragement at the caring bridge site....even if you don't know them. Last time they were sooooo encouraged by the prayers and well wishes of complete strangers.

here is their letter from today......

We met with Dr. Lamkin today and learned of the results of Luke's last bone marrow test. The results are not good. The leukemia is back, and we will need to restart treatment.

There was a tiny trace of cancer cells (too small to find in earlier test... but they were there), and those cells have multiplied to the point that they are now 15% of his bone marrow cells. Luke definitely is not at a point where he is feeling any ill effects of the leukemia; however, left untreated, he would get very sick very soon.

We have no reasonable option other than to start chemo again. Luke will receive another round of treatment (maybe more rounds, maybe radiation... we'll know more later) and will have another bone marrow transplant. Since both Jake and Tori are a match, we'll discuss with the doctors later who would be a better donor this time around.

After the appointment, we went home and shared the news with our kids. Those kids are amazing the way they responded! They understand (much better than last time) some of the challenges that lie ahead. They know that this is very real, but they are ready for this. God quite literally has graced them with a peace and a strength in the face of new fears.

So all of this new adventure will begin with Luke getting a new Hickman catheter (central line) in his chest. This might be early next week, but it is not yet scheduled. Luke will then become a resident of Doernbecher once again, and will start a new round of intense treatment.

Oh, by the way... as if all of this wasn't crazy enough, Tori fell down our stairs last night and received a minor concussion. We had to take her to the emergency room for a CT scan, and didn't get home until after 3:00 this morning. Now Tori has a bright red nose and two black eyes -- and she is a flower girl in a wedding this Saturday!!

You would think that all of this should be too much to handle. Well, it is! I'm mean, c'mon! This is ridiculous! Here's the truth: We are heartbroken. We are in pain. We are having fearful thoughts. This is very hard. BUT it is also true, at the very same time, that the Lord is carrying all of us right now. This is what is meant by 'the peace of God, that surpasses understanding..'

So, please pray for healing for Luke, for God to protect his body from all the potentially vicious and life-threatening side-effects of the treatment, for protection on the hearts and minds of each of our kids (Jake and Tori have been in the 'backseat' before, and it's not easy), for our faith to prove true in this new test of endurance, and pray that God would be glorified through all of this.

It's a lot to pray for. God is big enough!

Steve

In God We Trust!

MSNBC is currently taking a poll as whether or not americans think the statment "In God We Trust" should remain on our currency.
Here is the question they are asking:

Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?

GO VOTE NOW!!!!!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

Cute Party Goods!

My not so baby girl is feeling better today. We definitely had the 24 hour bug!

Ok, so a few posts back I made reference to a blog client with super cute Party Decor! Remember her? Jess at Polkadots & Pirates.....


Well, I finished the blog and I have to say, it's one of my all time favorites! Everytime I look at it I get a smile on my face. It's one of those that just makes me happy! Have a look....


Jess has an Etsy friend that makes bibs that compliment her party decor. People...these are fabulous. I've never seen anything cuter for a birthday bib. I did iron on's for my kids. But this is waaaay cuter and to die for!
You can check out GOLDEN's etsy store to see more!



She makes hats too!

I'm On Fever Watch!

My daughter seemed to have gotten away with not being sick like the rest of us....until tonight. She was complaining about her tummy hurting. She wasn't really acting like herself before she went to bed. A couple hours later I went in to check on her and she was burning up! Maybe she just gets really hot when she sleeps? I guess the morning will bring the answer. We are suppose to host a tea party for her to grandmas on Saturday....please pray she is not sick...or if she already is...that God would bring quick healing like he did for my son and I. Hopefully we can still have the party! I've been getting things together for setting a pretty table....pictures will follow if we are able to go through with it!

Yesterday I asked my prego SIL for the honor of hosting her baby shower. The shower will be sometime in May but I will be creating invites, favors, decor and stuff like that between now and then. I think I'm going with baby blue and birds. I'm thinking some sort of bird's nest for table centerpieces. So stay tuned for little sneek peeks along the way! AND my daughter's b-day is coming up at the end of april. She has chosen a disco/dance party theme. I just bought the strobe light today! I purchased supplies for the invites last week. So stay tuned for some of those fun goodies as well!

*****UPDATE******
The fever is here and so is the puke! She's only thrown up once though...let's hope it stays that way! Looks like the tea party is postponed =(

Sickness strikes the family!

My hubby was sick for like 4 days. He even had to miss this years Father/Daughter dance...no worries Papa stepped in and my daughter and her Papa Scot danced the night away! My hubby recovered and got up and went to work yesterday, then a few hours after he left I was hovering over the toilet bowl. Good times. It's weird though because he had a fever, stuffy nose, bad chest cough, and I had no fever....just the aches all over and threw up SEVERAL times all throughout the day. YUCK! So I woke up feeling better this morning. I haven't thrown up and the aches are mostly gone. HOWEVER....my son threw up this morning and is home sick from school. So the sickness lives on...UGH!

Since I spent all day yesterday in bed being MISERABLE I got quite a bit of tube time in. I was watching Rachel Ray and she had this girl on who published a book filled with women's stories about when they had their first period. This girl had such a horrible first experience and she wondered why so many women don't talk more about it. Lots of the stories are quite comical when you look back on them. So I thought I'd share mine...and maybe you would share yours!!! (that means you would have to comment!)

So, I had my first period when I was 11 years old. I was sitting with my mom with my bags packed for a long weekend of playing in a softball tournament. The tournament was a 6 hour drive away and another teammate was coming to pick us up and we were driving with them. Just before they got there I went to the bathroom and there it was. Honestly I don't remember if I called my mom in or not. I'm sure I did. So there I was wearing a pad for the very first time while riding in a car for SIX hours. Then I had to play softball all weekend while trying to get comfortable with this clunky thing in my pants. It wasn't much fun. But it's not the worse story I've every heard about a first time.

So...what about you? What's the story of your first period?

Shepherding a Child's Heart

My homegroup (couples bible study) at church is going through a book called "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. It 's been a very thought provoking book for many of us. Our group has couples with little babies all the way up to couples with teenagers. We are ALL learning and being challenged. So, I thought I would put up some excerpts from the book and see how they challenge you.

"Having well-behaved children is not a worthy goal. It is a great secondary benefit of biblical childrearing, but an unworthy goal in itself."

"If your objectives are anything other than 'Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,' you teach your children to function in the culture on its terms. How do we do this? We pander to their desires and wishes. We teach them to find their soul's delight in going places and doing things. We attempt to satisfy their lust for excitement. We fill their young lives with distractions from God. We give them material things that take delight in their delight in possessions. Then we hope that somewhere down the line they will see that a life worth living is found only in knowing and serving God. In terms of Godward orientation, we are training them in the idolatry of materialism."

"What about academic goals? Parents typically pressure their children to get good grades. Are good grades a biblical objective? What scripture passages would support this objective?.......... In contrast, there should be no pressure for good grades at all. Grades are unimportant. What is important is that your child learn to do his work diligently for God. God has promised that He will reward the faithful. Knowing that gifts and abilities are a stewardship from the Lord, your child's objective should be faithfulness. You need to train your child to find in Christ the strength and power to work for God's glory. Anything else is training him to think and act unbiblically."


Those are just a few excerpts...there is so much more. There is one scripture that really stood out to me as well.

"See that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." Colossians 2:8

There are so many books out there on child rearing that preach about how to have a well behaved child....how to have a well-adjusted child.....how to have a confident child.......how to raise a successful child.....

As Christians we need to be careful. We need to ask ourselves if what we are pushing on our kids is actually biblical or if we are being fooled by the principles of this world. All of the things I previously mentioned are not bad or wrong...but they should not be our primary goal in raising our children. They WILL BE secondary benefits if we truly train our children in the ways of the Lord. Their relationship with God should ALWAYS be our primary focus. We should always be trying to direct and shepherd their hearts back towards God.

Well done ER!

I just have to say that the writers of ER did a phenominal job of putting a story together that tied all the oldies but goodies together in some way. Selfishly I wanted there to be a moment when they were all together...that didn't happen. But the writers satisfied the true ER fan's desire to get a glimpse at what happened to some former characters without selling out with a huge reunion of sorts!

What about the rest of the ER fans out there.....what did you think?

I LOVE this!

***UPDATE****
good golly people...have a sense of humor! =) the lack of comments is leading me to believe you are taking this one WAAY to seriously!

_______________________________________
ok, after you watch this SNL skit you've gotta admit that there is some actual truth to it and some of us would call Wade Blasingame if he really existed!

Watch more SpikedHumor videos on AOL Video

(....just the suing part...not the putting down part! I know this is on the extreme side, but the humor in the comparison just makes me laugh sooooo hard!)

With Rights come Responsibility.....

this little girl says it sooooo well!

Bachelor Alert!

FYI....Melissa is going to be on Ellen today and telling her side of the story for the first time. And the word is that she is saying Jason lied to her.

I know...I'm such a loser!

Age Progression???

I had a good friend tell me that at the same time she and her daughter made a comment that one of the american idol contestants looks like a grown up version of my son.

YOU tell me....

Oh that lovely appointment...

We all have to do it once a year. You know what I'm talking about! In honor of my appointment yesterday I thought I would revisit an oldie but goodie! This story has been circulating the net for several years...but it's pretty funny and so I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

let's be clear.... THIS IS NOT MY STORY!!

I was due later that week for an appointment with the gynecologist when early one morning I received a call from his office: I had been rescheduled for early that morning at 9:30am. I had just packed everyone off to work and school and it was around 8:45 already.

The trip to his office usually took about 35 minutes so I didn't have any time to spare. As most women do, I'm sure, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So I rushed upstairs, threw off my dressing gown, wet the washcloth and gave myself a wash in "that area" in front of the sink, taking extra care to make sure that I was presentable.

I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment. I was in the waiting room only a few minutes when he called me in. Knowing the procedure, as I am sure you all do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended I was in Hawaii or some other place a million miles away from here. I was a little surprised when he said:

"My...we have taken a little extra effort this morning, haven't we?" but I didn't respond. The appointment over, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day went normal, some shopping, cleaning and the evening meal, etc.

At 8:30 that evening my 14 year old daughter was fixing to go to a school dance, when she called down from the bathroom, "Mom - where's my washcloth?" I called back for her to get another from the cabinet.

She called back, "No - I need the one that was here by the sink. It had all my glitter and sparkles in it."

The Bachelor....or the Skuzbucket?

This is going to be brief....I will update this post after I see the final show tonight with the "one last surprise"!!

It had to happen eventually....I figured that sooner or later one of the Bachelors would break up with girl number 1 and go back to girl number 2.

It's not the ending I wanted. I'm curious what tonight is all about.

The party last night at my house for the viewing was fun. I decorated with red roses and rose petals and tons of candles to set the mood! Everyone brought super yummy treats! Thank goodness for DVR....because when you get that many women in a room you are bound to miss something! There was lots of rewinding!

more to come......

*****UPDATED*****

Not much to see tonight. I'm guessing the big surprise was suppose to be that Jillian is the next bachelorette. Looks like Molly and Jason are doing well, and happy. She is moving to Seattle. We will see how it goes!

My hope is that ABC will make changes to the upcoming seasons. The people need to spend more time together. More REAL time and less FANTASY time! Fewer girls...more time!

oh goodness....why do I care?

The Teen Creed

I was watching a show the other day and a celebrity brought up this thing called the "Teen Creed".
She said that her mother made her memorize it as a teen and recite it before she would go out with her friends. I had never heard this before, but I thought it was pretty good and wanted to share

Teen Creed

Don't let your parents down, They brought you up. Be humble enough to obey, You may give orders someday. Choose companions with care, You become what they are. Guard your thoughts, What you think, you are. Choose only a date Who would make a good mate. Be master of your habits, Or they will master you. Don't be a show off when you drive, Drive with safety and arrive. Don't let the crowd pressure you, Stand for something- Or you'll fall for anything. ...Author Unknown

Have any of you ever heard of this before? Was there something like this that your parents made you memorize?