How Can They Hear?

As I share this story with you I sit here in sadness. My heart is broken .

Back in the summer of 2009 I was fortunate to meet Cody Whittaker. He came to our church in Arizona to tell us about a trip him and his family were taking to Haiti. This family was currently living in Asheville, NC and he knew our pastor at our church and so he came out to share with us their goals, missions, and passion for life.

Simply put - their passion was the Lord. Serving the Lord, telling others about the Lord, and leading and teaching others of the Lords love.  As my husband and I worked with our youth group that fall we provided the support we could and encouragement through cards and letters. Soon after the Whittaker family settled in Haiti, the country was rocked by a horrible earthquake.  Although Cody and Maria had two young daughters, Isabela (6) and Susana (4) they stayed the course through the aftermath of the quake until it was too dangerous and they flew their daughters out for safety.  Later when the family was back together they realized that Susana was not feeling well and eventually flew her to Miami, FL to find out devastating news that Susana was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer called neuroblastoma in early 2010.

All I could think was how this little 4 year old could have such a terrible disease. This family vowed to fight this disease and pray. This family's faith is unbelievably strong! I have followed the progress of Susana through the bright advances and the sad declines in her health. What an amazing little girl Susana is!

I knew over the last little bit she had declined in health and the tumors were back. I continued to read the words of her mom and dad asking for prayers but also lifting Jesus up knowing that the Lord is ultimately in control.

Today 2/11/11 at 12:15 p.m. "Susana finished her race".  I sit here in tears as I type this for you to read because my heart is broken for this family and their loss of an amazing, awesome little girl. I encourage you to check out this family's website at How Can They Hear to read about this amazing family and the unbelievable journey and struggles they have battled through.

I am reminded that we take so many things for granted. Kiss our children when we can; hug them a little bit longer; and praise the good we see in them.  Appreciate the time we have! Please remember this family in your prayers as they now face a life without their precious Susana.

Conferences, Wrestling, and Fractures?

If you have been following my blog the last several days you know that I have been working on a project to complete each afternoon/evening after I get off work. Well yesterday my project was my kids!  Yesterday was the craziest day ever. I worked half a day, went to 5 parent/teacher conference, took Cody to wrestling for the first time, and then to an urgent care that couldn't help us and then home.

The parent/teacher conferences are never particularly fun. I mean my kids get good grades but they aren't straight students and that is ok.  We have high standards but we don't expect straight A's.

I had a particular unique situation with one of the gym teachers because Haley has a note from her Dr. if she is having pain in her ankles she is allowed to sit out of PE. (due to being flat footed and something else with the tendons).  But on Wednesday the teacher told her to run and she said she needed to sit out. His story of course differs from hers slightly in the fact that he said he asked her if she had a note and she didn't answer him or said no and her story is that when he asked that she reminded him she gave him one at the beginning of the year and he didn't care and said she needed one that morning. So after her conference I went and visited the teacher and we discussed it. I did call him out on trying to say that she said she didn't have a note. I think far too often the teacher has good intentions but doesn't want to be wrong and the kid to "look" in the right. So we got everything settled and worked out nicely.

Overall I have to say that I AM SO LUCKY! My kids have the best teachers ever! I am serious, Haley has the same 5th grade teacher Cody did and his group of teachers in 7th grade are just phenomenal!!

Cody asked me yesterday at like 2:00 if he could try wrestling for the first time and oh by the way it starts at 5:30 and it is at the high school 15 minutes away. Well because I was so excited he actually wanted to do a sport how could I say no? So we went to wrestling! I thought he actually looked great!

Mistake number one on my part was not asking how long practice was. I assumed 1 hour and it was 2! So we are pushing 7:00 and I notice that he is in pain and real pain because he has a high pain tolerance. I saw him say I broke my toe. I figured if he was in enough pain he would come see me (which is a big step for me because I am over-protective mom!).

He eventually came off and looked like I could see tears but he was manning up as he says. We did leave a little early so I took him to urgent care and they didn't have xray so we waited till today. I have come and left work 3 times today.

Cody very bored in my office - thank goodness for video games!

We went to urgent care and was told he broke his toe and was told we needed to go see an orthopaedic doctor - for a toe?!

He was not thrilled with the crutches or the really awesome cool shoe they gave him! LOL
Came back to work - tried to work more and then headed back out to the specialist.

Thankfully the specialist said it wasn't as bad as the urgent care Dr. thought so we can ditch the crutches super soon, come back in 2-3 weeks, but no running, no PE, and no wrestling for 2-3 weeks. (totally a bummer about wrestling because despite the broken toe - he LOVED it!)

The last 2 days have been CRAZY! Oh the life of a working mom - glad I could be there for my oldest baby and help him know I love him and care! Everyone needs a little pampering every once in a while! So glad this is Friday!



Saving my sink and my mind!

I had already decided I wanted to work on cleaning up the underneath cabinet of my kitchen sink and after yesterday morning I had no choice so it worked out perfectly.

As I was getting ready to head out the door with my kids for school and work I noticed my faucet was leaking again. We have the kind you can pull out and then it switches from regular faucet to a sprayer. Well sometimes the nut on the back gets loose and then water runs down the back tubing and all under the sink in the cabinet. It has happened so many times I always keep a towel under there just in case. So when I saw this I though oh well just a chance to clean it all out!

After doing emergency maintenance (and why does this never happen with the hubby is home and I am not rushing and in dress clothes?) I headed out to work and knew I would finish up in the afternoon.

This is after I removed all the water, wet towels, and cleaners. We were starting from scratch!

The kids really helped me out by going through all the bottles, foil, cleaners, etc. to clean out the old stuff and keep only the stuff that wasn't damaged.

The entire process only took about 15 minutes to go through everything and place the items back under my sink. I still have some ideas for my sink like putting some racks in the cabinet to make it multi leveled and also maybe a holder for all of my foils, wax paper, etc. but for now I worked with what I had.

I know you are probably wondering why anyone would have 5 bottles of dish detergent but they were less than a $1.00 and I  had coupons and Fry's was making all coupons a dollar so I was able to get them for free so I stocked up!

Day 2 Project 2 completed and with a sense of accomplishment! That saves my sanity! Now off break from work and finish up some work stuff to leave at lunch to head to parent teacher conferences!  It's gonna be a FUN day! Can't wait to hear from you all! What kind of projects have you been doing each night?



Free Sample of Bayer Genuine Aspirin

Free Sample of Bayer Genuine Aspirin

Operation Pitiful Pantry

I decided that I couldn't take the way my pantry was looking. Every so often I have to get down and dirty and just re-do it all!

First I went to .99 cent store to buy some essential organizing material.

I then took inventory of my pantry as it was currently.

I then took on the unbelievable task of clearing out every single thing in the pantry. I did get some appreciated help from my kids and one of their friends.

I am so fortunate to have such a big pantry and after everything was removed it really seemed overwhelming to see that I had to put everything back. But I kept telling myself one thing at a time. One project each night this week.  I cleaned it out and put some shelf paper down and then started reorganizing it. My husband came home and told the kids to help and I about freaked out and was like NO! I have place for everything lol. He said is your OCD acting up again? Hahahaha

Here is the left side of the pantry all nice and organized.

Here is the right side.

I have to say that I am quiet proud of myself for getting this all accomplished after a long day at work and somehow I cooked dinner during all of this! Now the real job is to keep it this way.  My plan this week is to complete one project each night.  That way nothing feels too overwhelming and by the end of the week - I feel very accomplished and several things will really have had an overhaul and we will have gotten rid of unwanted and un-needed waste!  How about you, what projects do you want or need to work on?

Challenge and Choices

Last week I challenged everyone to Pay It Forward and to do a Random Act of Kindness each day for a week. I want to hear from everyone! How are you doing? Have you done it yet? What happened?

I have followed through and some things I could see an immediate reaction and it was so gratifying! Other things I have done I haven't seen a reaction but that is ok because they don't know it was me and that is perfectly fine. 

One thing I have done is given some co-workers thank you cards in their mail boxes for the hard work they do and let them know someone notices and pays attention and it is appreciated. (not if any of them read this blog my cover is blown and SSSHHH don't tell any of them). I know it can be a great feeling to know someone is paying attention to the positive.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

How 5 Little Words Can Change Your Day

This morning started off like most of my mornings. Hectic running around trying to get myself and 2 kids ready while feeding the dogs and getting out the door on time. Normally I work till 3:30 but this is my 4:30 week so I am trying to take advantage of a little (very little) extra time in the morning and also make my kids breakfast (because normally it is pop tarts or cereal).


As my daughter Haley came down the steps this morning she saw me making pancakes, stirring the batter, and blow drying my hair all at the same time (ok probably not the smartest or cleanest idea, except my hair was clean!). And she looked at me and went about her business and said "You really are Super Mom!"


All was Great! What a nice morning!