...there are still miracles at work in this world.

I went to Jacob's site this morning, worried about what I would find. He had been doing better the last few days and was even off the oxygen. But I was still concerned. Well, my friends, it seems a miraculous work is afoot. Since Jacob was doing so well, they decided they might want to do another round of chemotherapy on him but first wanted to run a tumor marker test. This test generally will show if the treatment is working or not. And this time - it's working! The numbers have dropped significantly and are showing that the tumor is dying! They've decided to go with another round of chemo for now and see what happens.

Please keep praying for Jacob and his family! It is amazing to me the strength and faith the Duckworth family has through it all. They are a real inspiration to me and so many others.

I can't begin to express my feelings about the tragedy on the Gulf coast. I am a news junkie and spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening lying on my bed flipping between CNN, FoxNews and the Weather Channel. I became very attached to one reporter on Fox who was in the French Quarter and who was becoming increasingly concerned about his own safety and that of the people he had met as the day wore on. I watched in disbelief as they packed thousands of folks who had no where to go and no means to go into the Superdome.

I am in awe of the power of that which we have no control over - weather disasters, fire, etc. It is unbelievable to me how much devastation can be wrought in a few hours - lives lost and homes destroyed. I think it will be a few days until we truly know the depth of this tragedy but I already feel the grief for all that is lost.

I wish that I could pick up and go down there to help in any way. I wish I could even just help one person. It troubles me to not be able to do that when things like this happen...

Wow, it has been quite a week.

Monday, I had p/t right after work. Tuesday, I had an appointment and then led home group. Wednesday, three of us travelled to and from the Poconos for a funeral. Thursday, I had a youth group leaders meeting and Friday afternoon I left for an overnight leadership retreat for 10, 11 and 12 year olds. I ended up sleeping in a cabin in the woods with ten girls and another female leader. No bathroom - you had to walk through the camp to the bathhouse. Oh, how lovely it was.

But the icing on the cake was when we were cleaning up the cabin yesterday, getting ready to leave. I had one of the girls sweeping and the others cleaning and packing up - when a snake crawled out from under someone's mattress. Suffice it to say, there were ten screaming, freaking out girls in my cabin. Finally one of them shoved it out and off the porch with a broom. As far as we can tell, the boys put it in there in retribution for being sprayed with a supersoaker......LOVELY. But I have to say, after my initial SHOCK, I handled it fairly well. I had about eight ideas running through my head while the girls were screaming but the one with the broom acted faster!

So, I am home, exhausted and not at all ready to return to the workforce tomorrow. I think I need a vacation! Anyone have a rental on an island, far, far away from civilization (but no snakes or spiders, either, please!)

A sad update - one of the Caringbridge kids I follow passed away today. Colin (see link) had been having a very hard time lately and got very sick a few days ago and there was nothing left for the doctors to do except make him comfortable. Please pray for his family.

Please pray for the Duckworth family. Jacob is one of my Caringbridge kids (see link to the left) and they have just learned that there is no treatment left for him and he may only have a few days to live. I'm so shocked and saddened by this...yet I can't even begin to imagine what the family is going through. Yet through it all, their faith remains unwavering. Jacob's dad posted John 16:22 on their site:

Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

Even after working for a cancer network for over six years, I'm still astounded by how complex each case can be and how even the most aggressive treatments may work for some and not others. It breaks my heart to see and hear of so many struggling and so many losing the battle. I pray that one day, all the people working so hard in this fight will find a way to prevent cancer all together...and in the meantime, to continue to find new and better treatments to help people survive.

Or maybe make that crazy bee! I feel like I am running constantly this week. There is so much going on. It's been pretty calm for a while but it always throws me off when I have a week like this. But I have some dear friends who are helping me to get through it with my head still attached! And I am thankful every day for them - and for all of you! : )

We had a youth group picnic today at Neshaminy Creek...while the boys played cards, the girls captured crayfish.... 

My friend Kym and her family adopted a nine-week old Burmese Mountain Dog yesterday. He is just a big ball of fluff! And such a sweet guy too.  

This is Missy-girl about two weeks ago. What a cutie she is! She is behaving really well and getting along with the boys but is scared of the traffic on their road, the lawn mower and the sheep next door... 

Whew! Today has been quite a day so far. I took the day off from work and my mom came down to help me clean up my basement. After seeing how a friend in the neighborhood had done hers, I wanted to create a space where kids can play when they come over or I can do crafts/scrapbooking and leave things spread out. But the basement was quite...well...crowded? That's probably an understatement. I had a ton of junk. Some boxes had never even been opened from when I moved in two years ago.

We sorted and I had a ruthless attitude - if I hadn't opened it or didn't know what was in it, it was history. We ended up filling up the entire back of the Forester with stuff (stacked to the roof - we couldn't even close the hatch all the way) and taking it to a local thrift store. I have about that much stuff to trash too - they're going to love me on trash day! But the basement is much better organized and we've cleared a nice size space out. I can't wait to get a rug and some things up down there to make it more like a finished room.

The best part,though, was spending the day with mamacita. She is so very organized (and a cleaning freak!) and I knew that she would be able to whip me and my evil basement into shape. Plus she knocked down all the cobwebs and spiders, which is a major thing in my spider-fearing book!

So now my back is yelling at me and I am in major need of a nap! But maybe that means I will sleep well tonight. I haven't worked that hard since workcamp so I sure hope so.

TTFN!

I've been pondering what to post and decided I should just be honest. This week and the last few have been pretty wearing on me.

I think some of you know that I had scoliosis really badly as a young teenager. I wore a back brace from the time I was 12 until I was 15, when they decided that the degree of the curve was progressing steadily enough to warrant surgery. So I had surgery where they put what is called a Harrington rod along my spine to straighten it out and grafted a piece of bone from my hip over it. I gained two inches in height! And for several years, no problems. Some pain off and on but nothing major.

A few years ago, I went for a checkup with my orthopedic doc because I was having some discomfort and he said I was starting to develop stenosis (narrowing) of the spine and something called flatback syndrome. A lot of people who had Harrington rod surgery in the 70s, 80s and even early 90s are now being diagnosed with this. They only used one rod then (now they use two or more) and it didn't allow your spine to flex except where the rod isn't and your lumbar area gets flat instead of curved. As with most things, I put this information aside and went on like I was completely normal (haha, I know!)

Two years ago, though, I was simply walking through the parking lot at work when something popped in my back. I ended up in the ER and got some pretty strong meds. I went back to physical therapy for a while and actually ended up needing an epidural injection. But then the pain went away (pretty much)...until a few weeks ago when it came back full force. I was out of work for almost an entire week and now am back in pt again. : ( And the joy of pt is that they (a) often don't know what in the world to do with me (though I think this therapist does) and (b) hurt me a lot in the beginning before I start to get better.

So, I am walking around feeling like an 80 year old woman and it makes me mad. It makes me mad that I can't do simple stuff like weed or wash my kitchen floor. It makes me mad that I have to have people help me with things like that.

I joined a yahoo group about flatback syndrome and while people there are really nice, when I read the files of their stories I started to freak out and had to stop. I want to be the exception to what seems to the norm - ending up with revision surgery, six months of rehab, etc.

And then I get upset because I know my "stuff" is nothing compared to others and I should not be complaining! I look at Ruben(Each Day Counts) and his struggles with his illness, yet he is always encouraging other people. I look at my Caringbridge kids...some of whom may not make it to this time next year. I think about the scare my friend had with her daughter this morning and all the other people struggling in this world...

Who am I to complain???? I think if I could just get a good night's sleep, it would help immensely!

Isn't this a great picture?!? I love it. Sean really enjoyed his first birthday! And so did the rest of us. Can't believe he's a year old already, though!  

We learned a very important lesson about pinatas...you need to either put a hole in 'em or perforate 'em first. Otherwise, the kids will have to whale on it all day...and it still won't open! :p 

It has been a long day! But a great day!

We had a ladies fellowship pool party this afternoon. It was so hot and it was just nice to float around and catch up with people. It's so hard to make time to just spend time together without having something you have to do or somewhere to be next. I still can't swim but I can sure float on a noodle. : ) And Michelle was astounding us with her diving prowess! You go, girl!

Then this evening I took my favorite eight year old to see "March of the Penguins". I found it quite interesting...especially the part about how the female penguins produce the egg and then the males take care of it until it hatches! I bet some of you moms wish you could have passed off that period of time, too! Overall, I thought it was a good movie. It feels surprising to be watching something like that in a theater - it's pretty much the kind of documentary you might see on Animal Planet or Discovery Channel but very well done. And Morgan Freeman's narration is just so calming - he has a great voice!

Afterwards, we went to Friendly's for our traditional meal and a boatload of ice cream. Ah, how I love the Hunka Chunka PB Fudge...yum....

Tomorrow is another busy day. I have to teach in Adventure Theater in the morning and then we have a first birthday party to go to. Speaking of which, I guess I should get my stuff together for the day - mornings are NOT my specialty. Much better to get ready the night before.

G'night all.

Yes, indeedy, today was one of those days!

For some unknown reason, I woke up at 4:30 and didn't fall back asleep until almost six, which meant I stayed in bed longer than I should have and gave myself about half an hour to get ready and out the door. I succeeded, only to find that, as usual, every single road you drive on in Pennsylvania has some sort of construction going on. It is true - Pennsylvania only has two seasons: winter and construction.

The day itself was pretty hectic with a few annoyances here and there. It's getting to be a busy time for me, so I need to gear up and get a lot done in a short period of time. I will say I definitely prefer to be busy so on that hand it's a good thing. But I was fried by 5 PM.

So home I fly, only to spend the evening trying to catch up HERE on everything I am behind on. Eeeeh. I really just want to lay on the couch and read...when did I become a grown up with so much to "take care" of? Hmmmm...

Actually, I just got back from two days in Ocean City! My friend and her familia have a house down there for a week and they invited me to come for some R&R. I got down there around lunch time on Monday and we headed out to the beach. It was overcast and the water was FULL of seaweed, but hey - I was at the beach. We lounged in the sand for a while talking and watching her son become a sand statue. Then we headed back to clean up and went out for dinner. After, we went to this great place called Ala Mode for ice cream! I had the St. Peter's Gate - chocolate chip cookie, choc/pnut butter ice cream, hot fudge and real whipped cream. Yeah boy!!!!!!!

Yesterday was raining but we braved it for a trip to the boardwalk. I was under strict orders to get some Fralinger's taffy and I knew I had to get some Laura's Fudge....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And after that, I was headed to home sweet home. It was great to get away for bit! I wish it was longer. I need to plan a REAL vaca next year...I'll need it after the workcamp again!

How do y'all like the new design????????? I absolutely love it! My friend Paula just setup a blog for her family and recommended the person who designed it for her. Check out her website to see some of Ginger's other work! I really recommend it if you are considering setting up a blog or have one you're not thrilled with the look of. Ginger was definitely affordable and took the time to get to know me and what I enjoy in life so those things could be incorporated here for all to see. : ) I'm so pleased with it! And I hope you like it too!

Ginger rocks!

It is? Oh, thank goodness!

This has been such a long week - and I was even off on Wednesday. Trish and Kim and I went to see Ruth at the Sight & Sound Theater in Lancaster. It was a great show - I love that story! But it was a whirlwind trip. I'm hoping for a little downtime this weekend and time to visit and play with the new addition. Nothing like a new puppy to brighten your spirits!

Here's our family's newest addition - Missy, a five month old Saint Bernard. My parents got her yesterday and she is a doll. Sam likes her but Rocky is afraid of her...and my mom wonders what in the world she was thinking! 

And this is Trippy! Trippy was the resident's 18 month old Rottweiler. She chased shadows all day long...and I mean all day long. She never looked up. But she was the cutest thing and spent all day hanging out with us. She's much cuter than this but this picture makes me laugh! 

After I USED A SAW and helped frame and build the skirting.... 

Before the skirting...just wood leaning up against the side of the trailer...