A Reason To Be Happy

Do you wake up in the morning happy and feeling blessed every single day? Hmm...that's not likely. Our family has endured many great losses over the last couple of years. Most of you who read this blog already know that over the last 4 years, we have had many deaths in our family. We've also had many, many illnesses in our family over the years as well. Sarah had brain surgery for Arnold Chiari Malformation Type 1 in August of 2006. My Uncle had 3 amputations in that same year, Terry was in a car accident in December 2005. My grandmother was hospitalized for months prior to her death. I am sure many of you who are reading this are thinking, "What the heck is she getting at." Throughout all of these ordeals, I have found myself thinking... I should be so grateful, grateful not for the materialistic things, but for family, friends and all of those relationships. It is so hard to find the blessings in difficult circumstances. I, myself am guilty of this. When we found out that Sarah had to have brain surgery, I was angry. I was angry with the doctor who missed a diagnosis for 4 years... angry that God could let something like this happen to my sweet little girl, angry just to keep myself from feeling sad. Doctors were looking for a brain tumor. Fortunately for us, they found no tumor. They found the ACM. Brain surgery was NOTHING in comparison to what she would have had to endure if she had a tumor. We had been blessed. We had a reason to be happy. Those of you who know my Mom know that she can quote the bible better than anyone... she also lives what she preaches, she has always taught my brothers and I and even my kids to look to God for help. When we were in Pre-Op with Sarah waiting for them to take her down for this surgery, she asked the surgeon and the nurses to pray with her. She asked God to guide their hands and to help her to be okay. I cried on the spot. Then something just "clicked". I cried because my daughter who was just 6 years old, had more faith in her pinkie finger than I had in my whole body. Immediately, right there, at that very moment, I was a changed person. So a couple of months after Sarah had her surgery, a friend and I were out shopping and I found a sign that said:

REJOICE IN HOPE,

BE PATIENT IN AFFLICTION,

AND FAITHFUL IN PRAYER

ROMANS 12:12

I immediately bought it.

So the point of my story is this:

No matter how bad you think things are, look for the blessings in your life. Look for the silver lining to that grey cloud. If you look hard enough, it's there.

This picture was taken 8 months after Sarah's brain surgery... this picture means the world to me.... she looks so peaceful. Like she's saying, Thank You. I never asked her what she was thinking about at the time this photo was taken, I can only imagine.

Spring Break 2009

Spring Break flew by. We did manage to get to do some things:

Terry, Faith and I went to a retirement luncheon for a fellow State Police Officer. Kaitlynn and Sarah stayed at my mom and dads house. Mom and Dad are in the middle of some house renovating, so we decided that Kaitlynn and Sarah would be more of a help, whereas Faith would make it a little more difficult for them to get things done. Kaitlynn and Sarah came home on Tuesday.

HAPPY RETIREMENT T.L.!

That same Tuesday, I went to dinner with some dear friends of mine. We met in Plymouth because one of our friends had moved to Ft. Wayne...It was great to spend some time with these lovely ladies!

We took the kids to the park {2 different parks} in the same day. The first park we had never been to, but after about 20 minutes of playing there, Kaitlynn and Sarah decided it wasn't that great. As you can see, this playground is mostly for younger kids. There are some really tall slides but the older two of our kids got bored quickly. Faith loved it!

After the girls had thier fill at this playground {about 20 minutes} we went across town to the bigger playground and let the kids play.

Even Mom & Dad had some fun...

THE END!!!

A Lesson In Being Thankful

We have been having some flooding in our basement since last Sunday {March 8th} so we knew that the water table was pretty high. Non-stop water coming in from the corners of our basement had us really upset. Saturday evening Terry's NOAA weather radio went off and stated that a 40 ft. piece of levy along the Kankakee River had broken. Sunday was a pretty nice day, so Terry, the girls and I decided to take a ride and see some of the flooding that's been going on locally. That car ride taught us a lesson in being thankful! Some of the roads were closed because of the flooding. Backyards literally looked like lakes! We even saw a man fishing from his back deck! The Kankakee River is still at 3 feet above flood stage! We are still getting water in our basement, but nothing like what we've seen around here. I took some pictures...

While we were driving around looking at all of the flooding, we saw 3 deer hanging out on the side of a gravel road. We crept up beside them and I got some amazing pictures of these beautiful animals! They even allowed me to get out of the car and snap some pictures... we were amazed! They were as curious about us as we were about them:

The deer are actually in this picture... see if you can find them!

We also decided that we would stop and let the kids play at the park in our town. The kids {and Terry and I} had a blast!!! I'll close this post with what I believe is the sweetest picture!

Sarah's Brithday Celebration

On Saturday, March 7th, Sarah turned 9. How it seems like only yesterday she was just a baby! Time has certainly flown by. I often find myself wondering where all the time has gone... and how did it pass me by so quickly? I think that's a question that everyone, at some point or another, has asked themselves.
Anyway, we had Sarah's party on her actual birthday and I managed to get some really good pictures!

Here is a picture of Sarah's cake, she decided that she was too "grown up" for the Disney Princesses this year and opted for more of a "big girl" cake:

Sarah blowing out her 9 candles + one to grow on...Faith and her BFF Mackenzie!


Sarah and her BFF Briana!

Kaitlynn being a sweetheart:

Me and my dear friend Corrine:

Terry and his 95 (soon to be 96) year old Grandma Olebos:

Grandma Olebos:It was such a wonderful day to spend with family and friends! Thank you to all of you who took the time to share in Sarah's day. Much love to all of you!

Locks of Love

Sarah decided that she wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love for her birthday this year. We went to see a very good friend of ours who also does hair... {she's awesome}! Anyway, Lori measured Sarah's hair and Sarah donated 10 inches! We are so proud of her for thinking of others and wanting to donate on her special day (or at least the day before her special day). Of course, I am posting pictures for all of you to see.We are so proud of her for doing something so wonderful!

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY, SARAH!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Colds and a Minor T.V. Meltdown

Well, Terry just got over a head cold and it seems he has passed it on to me. I tried to stay away from him while he was sick, but I guess when you sleep in the same bed, it's inevitable!

We have been having some trouble with our 36" tube T.V. for about 2 weeks. The picture would be fine and then all of a sudden, we'd be watching something and the picture would get super small and turn into a line across the width of the television. We'd just go hit the T.V. on the top and it'd be fine for a little while. Last night, we were trying {trying being the key word here} to watch a movie and it kept doing what I described above. Everytime we would sit down from giving it a big whack on the top, it would go back to it's tiny little line arcross the T.V. SO... the T.V. died. No luck this morning trying to get the picture to return. We had to pick the darn thing up and move it into the back of my SUV so that Terry could take it to the Porter County Landfill. WHEW! Those things are H-E-A-V-Y! Thankfully, we had another 36" tube T.V. in our bedroom. We had to carry that one downstairs and put it back into the entertainment center. All of this being done with only 1 nostril that was fully functioning... Not Fun at all!

I guess we will be in the market for a new LCD television pretty soon.

Anyway, the dogs had to go for their shots yesterday and Shasta needed to be spayed. She's such an active little booger, so I knew the surgery was going to be difficult for her. The doctor decided to stitch rather than glue her incision together because we told him how Kiara and Shasta play. She's really not liking having those stitches because she keeps trying to bite them... so we had to put on her lil' collar! Here's a picture:

She looks thrilled, doesn't she? Kaitlynn was worried sick... she's been following her around making sure that she behaves and doesn't try to jump or exert herself. Shasta is definitely Kaitlynn's dog!

Now as we were headed to bed for the evening, we found this:

Now here is Kiara laying down with Faith! This NEVER, EVER happens. Faith torments our poor dogs and Kiara is the one you will find the FARTHEST away from Faith. I thought this was a sweet picture!

Finally

Well, we finally got the living room, stairway and upstairs hallway painted. Thanks to my cousin, Joey and his wife Angie for helping! We are so happy with the way it turned out... here are the before pictures: Here we were painting... even the kids joined in. Good thing the walls needed 2 coats!Terry had to work afternoon shift, so he wasn't sure how much we had done. I think from the look on his face, he was pretty impressed! It took 2 coats of paint to completely cover the crappy white contractor's paint.
Terry and Joey trying to get the trim even along the ceiling! That was a horrible task!

Faith holding the "Whammer Hammer" as she calls it!

And FINALLY, the finished product!

Needless to say, we are SO glad that this is done! There are still some things left to hang along the stairway wall and in the upstairs hallway, but for the most part everything is done! We still have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to paint ... but after this job, that can wait till late Spring or early Summer!