Last week Lizzie had her Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast. They made their costumes that they wore. It was cute!
Our little Indian!
We are so proud of our School Girls!
Grandy and Nanna came for Thanksgiving! I really took only a few pics. Here they are making “acorns”
Last weekend at church we had a World Craft party. Elleigh and I were in charge of the refreshments. This is one of the things we did and I thought it turned out pretty cute. I saw the fruit skewers stuck into watermelons on pinterest which gave me the idea to use a pumpkin. I had red grapes for the skewers too but after I got them home I realized I had bought seeded. How aggravating to pick up the wrong thing! Especially when it was a big box. Anyway, we had to take some skewers and make the holes and kinda work them around so that when I stuck the fruit skewers in they would not only go in easier but also pull out without any problems. The table covering is some fabric A got me on his first trip to Africa and I have never used it. I have been waiting on something special. I am still not sure what I want to do with it but it worked well to cover the table. 
Now to our CUTE Sall Sall! Here she is modeling one of her Birthday outfits and THE BOOTS! Not sure I have ever seen her love anything like these boots! She wants to wear them every day and she makes sure everyone sees them! Could you miss them???
Yesterday was our follow up from surgery. He said her ears looked fine. However, the test results were not as we had hoped. According to the booth testing they did before surgery and the sedated test they did it appears her hearing is worsening. Obviously NOT what we want… Also, we have no idea why. There is nothing that has been done or that she has had that should have affected her hearing in the time since she was last tested. So, what does this mean? First, more testing. They are setting up a sedated MRI. We really do not like continuing to sedate her but we have no choice. The MRI will be done by Children’s in Dallas. He said they had begun doing them of the inner ear in FW but they actually pioneered this type of MRI for the inner ear at Children’s Dallas so he feels they are the best and he and we want the best results we can get. This MRI will show the structure of the inner ear to see if there is an explanation for the hearing getting worse and so that we have all details we need to move forward. Also, he is setting up 3 different types of booth testing using 2 audiologist at a time which gives them as accurate of results as possible. SO, several more trips to the metroplex in the next few weeks. These 6 hours a day in a car with surgeries or Dr appts in between are no fun but we do what we have to do. A and I both had a million questions in our heads yesterday and we did ask some but I said to Dr. Bauer, “I have so many questions that I know you really can’t answer until we have the other tests” and he said to me, “I am glad to attempt to answer them but you are right, we need the other tests” So, we wait…. He was very honest with us yesterday that no matter what we were about to be faced with some very difficult decisions to make. He went through the different options and none of them are really “good”. How are we? A always holds it together (to an extent) in the beginning and me not so much. I am broken and tired and broken, very broken. I have not been this broken in a LONG time. Thankfully my Lord puts me back together again and again and again. I feel like my hopes are being ripped away yet I know where my hope really is… However, it still hurts. I have cried more than I have in a long time and it’s been a really long time since I just couldn’t talk about it and that is where I am right now. I woke up in the middle of the night and the words of this song were my first thought:
“I have a maker
He formed my heart
Before even time began
My life was in his hands
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He see each tear that falls
And hears me when I call
I have a father
He calls me his own
He'll never leave me
No matter where I go
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear the falls
And hears me when I call
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He see each tear that falls
And hears me when I call
And he knows your name
He knows your every thought
He sees all those tears that fall
And he'll hear you when you call”
I have no idea the last time I have heard this song. I want to be strong. I want to move on (now!) but HE does know my thoughts and He does see each tear that falls and HE will never leave me. After I got up this morning I looked up this song and as I read the first 4 lines (which were not in my mind when I woke up during the night) the Lord spoke to me through that. Yesterday on the way home I just kept thinking over and over that HE made Sallie and HE has a purpose for her which may be far from what I want. Her life is in HIS HANDS.
We appreciate your prayers. Please pray for the tests to be accurate. Please pray for peace for her as she goes through more testing. Please pray for our Dr and the audiologist as they present us with our options. Most of all we want to know what God wants us to do. That is the decision we want to make and to have peace in that.
What a week! Monday was Sallie’s surgery. She had a lot of anxiety going in. It kills me! Her little heart just races. Thankfully it was not terribly long before they took her.
Here she is while waiting. Millie went with us and was so good. Can you see the fear in Sallie’s face? She was determined they were not taking her clothes off because she knows what it means to have those gowns on. Thankfully because it is a Children’s Hospital they are accustomed to dealing with children and they did not push the issue. The Anesthesiologist said it was not a big deal and she would change her after she was out.
Everything went fine. The cholestiatoma (tumors) were back as we had suspected. However, the Dr thinks that it was back because of all the other debris and junk in the ear. She also had a cotton ball in there (no idea!) so that was causing issues as well. SO, he got everything out. Looks like we will have to be cleaning out more often. We are going to attempt to keeping them a little more controlled in clinic and see how that goes but it is a possibility she will have to be put to sleep more often to have it done. We appreciate your prayers as we go this Thurs for a follow up and to discuss the results of the hearing test they did.
Headed home. She really is happier than she looks! Just still groggy.
Tuesday we kept her home to recover and it was her Birthday! 10 YEARS OLD!!!
Monday nt after we got home a sweet lady and fabulous cook in our church brought these sweet treats over. It is little cakes and she had cut them in girly shapes and as you can see they are pink. So, Sallie had these for her b-day breakfast! You can tell in her face she was a little weak but she did well and has recovered really well.
We had a simple party at home and we had a good time. 
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her excitement!
Wednesday she went back to school and was sporting a new b-day outfit. If you know Sallie, you know she loves a new outfit! Her teacher sent this pic in a text with the caption “somebody can’t quit looking in the mirror! Ha Ha! She looks so cute!” I LOVE IT!!!
These are a few shots I took of her last weekend. In a way it is hard to believe she is 10 and then it is hard to remember life without her. She has taught me how precious life really is and I am thankful for every day with her (and my other girls!)
It’s NOVEMBER! Where did this yr go? It has flown by and I have not documented this yr as much as I would have liked… I do love November! College Football, Thanksgiving, that time before the craziness of the holidays gets so hectic, etc. The Hall’s are coming here for Thanksgiving and we are so excited!!! We have not told the little girls yet because they will ask every day until they get here but I SO want to tell them!
The Elementary School here has what they call a Costume Parade and the kids dress up and do a “parade” through the school. I got one shot of Lizzie. Doesn’t she look happy?!? Interestingly enough, Lizzie loves attention but in a more private setting. She is really not into being on “parade” in a crowd. This is her teacher in the pic with her. Lizzie really loves her. Her daughter is 4 and was diagnosed with cancer almost a yr ago. She is entering the maintanence phase of chemo right now. Breaks my heart but she is doing well considering. I do not have a pic of Sallie in the parade. It was a little different than last yr and we only got to see Sallie from behind which probably was best because she usually gets upset if we are at the school at an odd time and she doesn’t get to leave with us. Lizzie wore her 50’s attire from a couple of yrs back. It was shorter but it worked and Sallie was an 80’s workout girl. Halloween is just not really my thing. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it other than like so many things I feel like some get way too into something that really doesn’t matter but I just can never really get into it for some reason. 
This has nothing to do with anything other than I thought I would share:
I make meatballs very occasionally and add them to marinara for pasta or meatball subs. A couple of months ago I was planning to cook meatballs as a finger food for something with the grape jelly sauce (I have no idea what it is called) and I decided to be brave and try frozen meatballs. This may not really be of benefit to anyone because maybe I am the only person who has not tried frozen meatballs until now but I just had this mindset that they would be gross. So, I tried them and they were really good! These are the ones I got from WM. I have not tried any other brands. BTW, on the grape jelly sauce I have always used gj and mustard or maybe a little bbq sauce in there but not anymore. It is so much better with chili sauce and grape jelly. Of course you can do the same sauce with cocktail sausage. These are the homestyle meatballs but I recently bought the Italian for marinara and they were really good also. We are big on homeade but these were really just as good and much easier!
A pic I got of Millie the other day. I have no explanation! Yes, my porch project is still under construction.
I am glad it has cooled off again for a few days anyway. We are ready for Saturday and hoping the #2 team in the nation becomes the #1 team in the nation after Saturday is over! ROLL TIDE!!!
As you can read in the title this post if full of lots of different things. A and I have been out of town the past few days so now I am catching up in many ways including the blog. We attended the TX Baptist State Convention with 3 others from our church. It was held in Amarillo also known as The Yellow Rose of Texas which btw between that and “Amarillo By Morning”, I found myself singing a lot! I want us to go back to Amarillo maybe next summer. The second largest canyon in the US is located there. We didn’t have any time to see it and I would like to take the girls. I just thought it was flat here. It is SO flat there! The convention was good. It was interesting as a first timer (me) to see how decisions are made and to be part of that decision making. We gained some insight into ministering to those in poverty which was really good and something we needed. We ate some good food and the uninterrupted fellowship was nice. We are extremely thankful for Melbie who came and stayed with the girls for us to go! They of course had a blast!
Now for the catching up:
Last week we took Sallie to her ENT in the metroplex. He said her ears are just full of “stuff.” He really thinks it is just debris, etc and not the cholesteatoma which will be great. He just has to get it all out and see. They also did some hearing tests while we were there and the results were interesting for lack of a better word. They showed more nerve loss and normally her tests indicate more bone loss. SO, this throws another kink in the puzzle and leads to confusion on what device to implant. All of that to say, we honestly are discouraged by this. It is hard when the best of best ENT specialist is uncertain. We go Nov 7th and she will be put to sleep to have everything removed from her ears and for a sedated hearing test. We will see what the results are and go from there. We need lots of prayers! Specifically pray that the tests will leave no doubt in the Dr’s mind or ours as to where to go from here with a permanent hearing device. Either way we have some major hurdles to jump once the decision is made but our God is able! As always, please pray for peace for our sweet girl…
I took this pic in the Dr’s office. She did really well that day! I have a feeling going to the hospital might not be as easy… Her bangs are going to drive me insane! I am attempting to grow them out but one day they were so bad I trimmed them a little. I hate them in her eyes but they will not stay back yet! 
15 years ago today I married my best friend! He is still my best friend but my best friend and I have been through far more than we ever imagined 15 years ago! We are better friends because of it all…
We have proven many statistics wrong! Not because it has been or is always easy and far from perfect but we take the bad with the good and we work through it all. One of the best things A ever told me (with much authority) is that divorce was not an option and that we would work through every problem as if it were not an option. When giving advice to other couples I usually share this because it really makes a difference in how you handle situations. If there is no way out then you either work it out or live a miserable life together and no one wants that.
The world says we shouldn’t have made it to 15 but through GOD we have made it and I look forward to 15 more and 15 more and 15 more and… We are not perfect and neither is our marriage but we do value our marriage and we do invest in it realizing it is work and we do place it above our children and all other things besides God and I am thankful that after several years of an “OK” marriage we realized it takes all this to have a great marriage. We want to instill this in our girls so that they can have great marriages from the beginning!
A officiated a wedding on Saturday and as I sat and listened to the ceremony and the words of God being spoken by my husband I had an incredible sense of thankfulness that he strives to be the husband HE has called him to be. Thank you God for giving him to me and for the wonderful institution of marriage!
It was a very sweet ceremony and this was an excerpt:
Marriage is God’s truest celebration of love. In 1 Corinthians 13 we read:
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails
Paul concludes this chapter by saying, “but now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love”. Love demands a mutual submission, as Paul says in Ephesians 5: 20-21,”always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father; be subject to one another in the fear of Christ”.
He speaks to the wives.
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
Then He speaks a word of encouragement and definition to the husband:
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.
33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
The wife’s role is that of an attitude of reverence in her spirit, a servant’s heart, a grateful spirit, and a quiet spirit. The role of the husband is to be that of a priest to lead his family in worship, a provider to furnish for them the necessities of life and a valiant warrior to protect them from both physical and spiritual evils.
I pray that I am that wife and that I strive to be a more Biblical wife every day (The quiet spirit part takes A LOT of work for me but I have come a long way)! The greatest thing I ever did in our marriage was to begin to RESPECT him (although at times I still fail miserably). We need love, they need respect which is clearly stated in verse 33 above which is the basis of my favorite book on marriage titled Love and Respect.
15 years later and I love you more every day!!!
15 years and 4 daughters later and I love the way you love them!
15 years later and this is how we spend our Saturday mornings (most of them anyway)! 
15 years later and I can’t wait to love you MORE with every passing day!
