Good News!

I had the test yesterday, and the doctor who did the procedure said that he did not see any growth or mass in the duct. So, I am definitely thanking the Lord for that! 🙂  I will probably need repeat mammograms every 6 months just to keep an eye on things, but I can handle that. But then, after the test yesterday I could probably handle about anything. 😛  Never believe a doctor when they say you will only have a bit of ‘mild discomfort’.

I am feeling a bit drained today, so I will probably take it easy. Maybe…  😀  I have a long list of things that really need to get done.

Sunday is our 22nd wedding anniversary.  It doesn’t seem like we’ve been married that long.  We’ve been through so much together, but God has blessed our marriage in ways never thought imaginable!  I am so thankful and blessed to be married to Tim.

Testing Today

Today I will be going up to N. Platte again to have more testing done. This time, one of the ladies from our ladies Bible study is taking me. The trip up and back should be hilarious because this woman is absolutely hysterical (in a good way 😉 ).  She is taking me because hubby needs to stay here and take care of JAM, our Wednesday night children’s program.  I could have gone by myself, but I have a feeling I will be in quite a bit of pain after the test and will want to take something very effective for it – which will make the trip back either more hilarious or very boring for my friend.

At any rate, I would appreciate your prayers again today. I have to be there at 2:30, and the procedure is at 3:00.

I will update when I get the results.

It’s that time of year, again…

 

 

However, some friends of ours have plugged in their vacuum to a motion detector. They then put the motion detector by their tree. Every time the cats come close the vacuum turns on. Hehehe. Now that would be entertaining!  She said that after three days her cats didn’t go anywhere near the tree. I’m thinking about trying this…

New Traditions

For most of my life, Thanksgiving has been spent with my family and extended family. I specifically remember spending Thanksgiving at my Grandpa’s house.  His small house would be filled to the brim with family and food – almost to the point of chaos, but not quite. And who could ever forget Grandma’s turkey, gravy, and peppermint pudding. Yum!

I have to be honest, Thanksgiving hasn’t been the same since my grandparents have passed.  I miss them both so much, and wish I could get just one more hug, one more ‘love you’.  My family still gets together for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately we can’t join them. Dare I admit to a bit of jealousy when I hear about huge family holiday dinners?

The past three years we have spent Thanksgiving here in Nebraska, and I have noticed new traditions surfacing. They are similar to the old traditions, just with fewer people and different places.

Okay, maybe venison roast for Thanksgiving dinner isn’t quite traditional,

but I would imagine it was eaten at the first Thanksgiving feast. I’m not sure why I felt I needed to fix three desserts for just the four of us, but at least we will be well stocked in the ‘sweets’ department for a while. 😉  We then spent the afternoon watching Myth Busters, as we have for the past 3 years.  For some reason, I was out-voted… I wanted to watch Miracle on 34th Street.

For the past few years, the four of us gotten up early and gone to town for our annual ‘Black Friday Browsing’.

As always, we went to Penney’s first to get our snow globe, but they didn’t have snow globes this year.

After Penney’s, we went to our Christian book store.  The kids then declared they were ‘staaaaarrrrrrrving’, so we popped into…

where we bumped into a church family whom we always bump into on Black Friday.

Then we went to a store where we practically live every Tuesday…

The music store. 🙂

Hey, dear sister, remember the little drum set you bought my kids when they were younger, just to drive me nuts (or was it revenge for all of the noisy toys I bought your kids? 😛 )?

Well, first of all, it didn’t drive me nuts.

Secondly, I think it paid off…

They now want an electronic drum set. Not this one specifically…. I think J has his eyes on one that’s a lot little more expensive.

While the kids were having fun,

Someone else was trying to take a nap.

He finally got his nap after we got home.

As I type, the kids are down in my daughter’s room ‘fluffing’ their Christmas tree,  (yep, we do fake trees) and hubby is bringing up decorations from the basement. Which means I need to get busy and start helping decorate… another tradition we have started on the day after Thanksgiving.

Even though I can’t be with all my family and enjoy the traditions of the past, I can be with my immediate family and enjoy spending time with them, their laughter, and their love. I am so blessed!

Scheduling Changes

I decided to change our homeschool schedule a little bit. Instead of doing all subjects on all days, I decided that we would try something different.  So, everyday they will do Math, Bible, and ASL, then one day they will focus on History, one day on Science, and one day on Language Arts – which is English Comp this year. Oh, and we will only do Spelling three days a week.

So, here are pictures of this week’s school planner.

Unfortunately, my highlighters bled through to the next page, so I’m going to need to get different colored pens to write with and color code.

And yes,  I do consider Black Friday shopping ‘life skills’ 😀

 

November 16th

The consult I had yesterday went well. I will be going in for a ductogram on the 28th. The doctor suspects that there is some type of growth in one of the milk ducts, which the ductogram will find. If there is, the duct will be removed and sent off to test for malignancy. Statistically, only 10% of these growths are malignant, so I’m not much concerned.

The community Thanksgiving dinner went well.

The kids seemed to be a bit exhausted, though. I’m guessing they are going through a growth spurt (The fact that Shan now kisses my forehead instead of my nose gave me the heads-up on that one. Waaaaaaa!  Seriously, isn’t my daughter tall enough???).

All four of the community churches were represented in the entertainment.

The Catholic church has a new priest who is almost as unconventional as their previous priest, for which I am very thankful. 🙂 They gave a dramatized version of Psalm 107. They did a great job.

Our Methodist church also has a new pastor. Last night his kids did a puppet show.

It was very cute and funny.

The UCC presented a cute rendition of the Lord’s Prayer.

And we sang three songs.  We weren’t sure if the guys were going to be able to make it until just a few hours before as their jobs keep them very busy, but I was very happy they were there to sing. Unless the song is soft and slow, I stink as a lead vocalist. 😛

Today…

Today I am going up to see the surgeon.  It is just a consult for a plan of action, but I suddenly find I am wishing I didn’t have to go by myself. If you would, please remember me in your prayers this morning.  I see him at 10:00 a.m. (cst).

Afterward, I plan on doing our grocery shopping while I’m up in N. Platte. I need to remember to take a cooler with me as it is about an hour and 45 minute trip.

This evening is our community Thanksgiving dinner, and our praise team has been asked to sing. I think all of the churches are requested to participate, and usually we have our JAM kids sing a song, but this year our praise team was requested, and I am hoping that the guys will be able to get off work in time to make it. It starts at 6:30, so I am hoping to be home and rested in time.

Sign Language Lessons

Last night, the kids and I started sign language lessons. We have been trying to learn on our own, but it isn’t working out as well as planned. The pastor’s daughter of local church is an interpreter and has agreed to teach us.  So, after I picked the kids up from basketball practice, we went over to the church her father pastors and had an hour of  fun instruction. She was great, but I know she’s going to be a tough teacher. Not only is she teaching the actual signs (some of which were a bit different from what our book had listed), but she is also teaching us about deaf culture.  Learning deaf culture is a requirement if Sign Language is taken as a foreign language credit in High School. However, sign language is not considered a ‘living language’ (don’t quite understand that…) for college entrance, so the kids will also have to take another ‘living’ foreign language.  Shan has decided on Swahili, and Joel is still trying to decide. We will start the ‘living language’ next semester.

And speaking of my dear son, yesterday at basketball practice he got a bloody nose by taking an elbow to his face while trying to block a shot. I’m waiting for him to emerge this morning to try to see if it is broken.    Nope, not broken, but it is swollen and a little red, and he’s talking like he has a cold. Poor guy.  Hasn’t hurt his ability to be ornery, though… he’s currently doing wonderful job annoying his sister. LOL! 😀

As promised…

Here is the link to my new Mary Kay website:  http://www.marykay.com/andi02

Happy Shopping! 🙂

“What is that in your hand?”

This is the question that God asked Moses when He wanted him to go deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Moses didn’t want to go because he was afraid and had several excuses. God did away with his excuses by showing Moses what He could do with what Moses had in his hand.

God has been asking me that very same question.

I have been unable to find a “job” for the last month of looking, and was wondering why I hadn’t had any luck.  God asked me that question, and I answered. Here’s how I explained it to hubby:

Thursday I went into Tim’s office and said, “There’s no way I can get a job. I don’t think God wants me to.” I went on to explain that the kids needed me at home with their schooling, my counseling schedule has increased, and there is no way a company would work around my schedule. He nodded in agreement. Although he has been thankful that I am willing to help out financially, he hasn’t been thrilled with the idea of my having a job at this time.

Then I told him the question that God asked me, “What is in your hand?”  My answer, “My Mary Kay business.”

You see, I have been a Mary Kay consultant for about 9 months now, but I haven’t used the business to its full potential. Just like Moses, I’ve had excuses as to why I haven’t, but to be honest it all comes down to fear. Fear of failure? Maybe a little fear of rejection?

However, I am going to allow God to take what is in my hand and use it.

Today I, along with a few other consultants, are having a Mary Kay Open House Customer Appreciation Day from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We are running a Customer Appreciation special of 15% off all your favorites, if you bring a friend who does not already have a consultant you will receive one item at 1/2 off, and if you order over $40 you will receive a free gift. 🙂  In case you were wondering, Mary Kay has a men’s line as well.

If anyone here local is reading this and would like to come out, it will be at the Purple Moon Cookery meeting room, 1505 N. Hwy 83 in McCook. It is just north of KICX Radio Station.

If you are not local, and would still like to attend, Broomaire Broomlines is running a terrific special this week as well. 😀 😉  Just let me know, and I will send one of our state-of-the-art brooms your way. An inflight meal of triple chocolate chunck brownies and salty potato chips will be served.

If you are not local and just a bit timid of riding on my broomline, I will have my website up sometime this week, and will post a link to it. 😉  You will still receive a free gift if you order over $40.

Back to the original topic…  There is another reason I will not be getting a job.  And it’s a matter of prayer at this point.  I went in last week to have a mammogram done, and it wasn’t normal. (I knew it wouldn’t be as I’ve been having some issues) So I went in this week for another more detailed mammo and an ultrasound. My doctor called me back yesterday and wants me to see a surgeon.  She said what she thought it might be (a name with four or five words in it that I didn’t quite catch) and said that it didn’t mean it was “anything”, but it looked suspicious.  I will be seeing a surgeon in N. Platte next week.  I have told my Monday night Bible study ladies, but what happens in that Bible Study stays in that Bible study – the good, the bad, and the hilarious 😛 – but I don’t really want to say too much yet.  There is sooooo much cancer in our church right now that I would just prefer to know what is going on for sure before I say anything. But I would appreciate your prayers.  I am not worried – a bit nervous – but not worried.  Worry is a waste of both physical and emotional energy, and I just don’t have the time. 😉  I’m too busy helping others discover or enhance their beauty. 🙂