I have been sitting here clipping coupons and planning my shopping trip for tomorrow. I kid you not that I have been sitting here planning and clipping for 5 hours.  So, if you see me out tomorrow, do not get in line behind me.  You will be very aggravated at having to wait while they scan all my coupons. I hope to save some major bucks tomorrow!!  I am starting to get the hang of couponing.  My favorite sites for couponing are listed over to the right on the side bar.  Oh, and before you think I totally neglected my family to coupon...I didn't.  The kids were with me and the girls were actually trying to find their own coupons to buy some things they want.....like markers:) 

WE have been super busy since my last post.  We completed our bathroom project and it looks so good.  We were also able to get our garage painted and organized.  I got all my kids market stuff tagged and priced....this is a huge accomplishment.  We decided to hold off on starting school until after Labor Day.  This gave me more time to get our house in order before we have to go back out for surgery. 

The big question of the week has been "how are we doing?"  Well, we are anxious.  The closer we get to the surgery date, the more nervous we get.  Dave is anxious about the scan.  He will have a scan this coming Friday...the 19th.  Then we will get those results on Monday.  It's always hard having to wait for scan results.  I think even going back to MD Anderson is gonna be hard.  In some ways, it is still very surreal that we lived in Houston for 8 months and that Dave was very sick for most of that time. I am looking forward to seeing all of our Houston friends over the weekend and going to Bethel Church Sunday.  Surgery is still set for the 23rd.  Thank you to all of you who have faithfully prayed for us. 

August....It's been a year

It has been a whole year.  A long year.  In a way though, it seems like just yesterday.  We seem to look at things as before cancer and after.  We didn't know it was cancer last August.  I didn't even know Dave had gone to the doctor.  He had spent 14 days or so in Russia, had some pain while he was there,  and went to the doctor 2 days after he got home.  He got up early, left without waking me, and went to the doctor's office.  They sent him for a CT scan.  That all happened in the first few days of August last year.  We got the news that he had a cyst and needed to see a urologist. We had no idea what the next year would hold.  We have definitly been "Held" this past year.  We think we hold to Jesus, when all along he is really holding us.  Oh how thankful I am it has not been up to me or Dave or anyone else this year.

Lamentations3:22-24

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

Those are some of my favorite verses.  The song below has also been great for me this year. 

Held 

by Natalie Grant

Two months is too little, they let him go

They had no sudden healing

To think that providence

Would take a child from his mother

While she prays, is appalling

Who told us we'd be rescued

What has changed and

Why should we be saved from nightmares

We're asking why this happens to us

Who have died to live, it's unfair

This is what it means to be held

How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive

This is what it is to be loved and to know

That the promise was that when everything fell

We'd be held

This hand is bitterness

We want to taste it and

Let the hatred numb our sorrows

The wise hand opens slowly

To lilies of the valley and tomorrow

This is what it means to be held

How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive

This is what it is to be loved and to know

That the promise was that when everything fell

We'd be held

If hope if born of suffering

If this is only the beginning

Can we not wait for one hour

Watching for our Savior

This is what it means to be held

How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive

This is what it is to be loved and to know

That the promise was that when everything fell

We'd be held

New Look and a Quick Update

So my blog finally has a new look.  I like it.  It's simple and not pink anymore :)  

We have been working like crazy trying to get our downstairs bathroom completed before school starts and especially before Dave's surgery.  Boy has it been alot of work.  Thankfully we have some pretty talented brother in laws and the daddy of course who spent alot of their weekend here helping us.  I've also been dusting walls and ceilings...getting all the cobwebs down.  It's amazing how much there is to do around here.  Oh, and I promise tonight I cleaned the dirtiest oven you have ever seen. I really wish I had taken pictures.  It use to be a self cleaning oven...but, one of our sweet little children stood on the door when he was little and it hasn't locked since.  But I am happy to report it is all clean and shouldn't burn my eyes next time I bake something.  So as you can see there is nothing too exciting going on here.  Dave is doing great.  I'm positive he is doing too much...but try telling him that.  I am glad he feels good and is able to do all that he wants to.  We have decided to wait until next Monday the 8th to start school.  We really need to finish all home projects before school starts.  So we are going to enjoy our last week of summer vacation.....probably with some painting and tile laying : )

I finished painting the kitchen today. I really like it!  Here are a few pictures.

 

Our little munchkins wanted to sleep in the sunroom tonight!

a little of this and that

We have been keeping ourselves very busy on these hot summer days. Last week the kids and I ran around seeing doctors getting our yearly check ups.  The kids all saw their pediatrician and got all caught up with their shots. Samuel worked himself into a full panic before his shots.  His anxiety was much worse than the actual shots.  But we got it done and  I am thankful to  report we have 3 healthy children.  

We start back to school 2 weeks from yesterday......noooooo!!!.......It's hard to believe it's almost time.  But since we will be gone for the last 2 weeks of August, we've gotta get started : (

 Dave is doing well.  He still gets tired easily, but is working full days...probably overdoing it.  He has pain sometimes which always freaks us both out.  Last week he had a pain in the middle of the night and he said it was like the pain when he had the pulmonary embolism.....well that scared me to death.  It eventually stopped and he was able to go back to sleep.  Since we have been home, it has been easy for me to forget that Dave still has cancer.  He looks good, he goes to work, he has his old personality back.....jokes and all.  I have somewhat compartmentalized things.  Cancer and the bad sickness was what we did in Houston.  Normal life is here in Weaver.   I've thought about the surgery, I scheduled flights, but I don't really think about the surgery itself.....and what will come after.  I think this is for my own sanity that I just think about what I have going on this week.  On facebook this week, John Piper has been listing Jesus' arguments against anxiety from Matthew 6. I love the way he broke this down.....it has been good for me to be reminded of these truths!

#1: Life is more than food and the body more than clothing (Matt. 6:35).
#2: God feeds the birds and you are more valuable than they are (Matt. 6:26).
#3: It's pointless. It adds not one hour to your life. (Matt. 6:27).
#4: If God clothes ephemeral grass, he will clothe eternal you (Matt. 6:28-30).
#5: Unbelievers are anxious about stuff. And you are not an unbeliever Matt. 6:32a).
#6: Your father (!) knows that you need all these things you're anxious about. (Matt. 6:32b)
#7: When you seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, what you need is added to you.
#8: Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Tomorrow's trouble stays there (Matt. 6:34).

Isn't it great to be reminded of this. Today I have enough to think about, I'll think about tomorrow....tomorrow! 

So today's project was....drum roll please....Painting the kitchen.  The girls and I started around 11 and have just completed our first coat.  I must say they did a very good job rolling and I love the new color.  I'll post a few pics when we are done.

This blog of mine is getting a makeover.  Dave is not crazy about the pink and neither am I really.  So I am having someone help me with a new look!  It should be done in the next couple of weeks....so check back  to what it looks like :)

Motherhood as a Mission Field

this is a great post....definitely worth reading. enjoy.

Motherhood as a Mission Field

Today Dave shared with our church some of his testimony of his journey with cancer. It's good to hear him tell what he went through. I tend to talk a lot more than Dave and I have blogged my way through the last 9 months so everyone has heard his story from my point of view, so it's good to hear him tell the story of his physical and spiritual battles over the past months. Maybe he will let me publish it here so those of you who want to hear from him can read his story. Anyway, it was really good today and he will finish it next Sunday. He is still feeling pretty tired and needs to rest alot in the afternoons. He had to come off of his blood thinner for a few days because his blood was too thin. He should start that back tomorrow. We are all adjusting to being home. We are planning to start back to school on August 3. Wow...that is soooo soon. We need to get a good couple of weeks in before we go back to Houston for surgery. I have already bought all of our books and the schoolroom is organized and ready for it's little pupils to sit in their desks. So my goals for this week are 1)  get on the couponing bandwagon and start saving some bucks at the grocery store.  2) get my booty up and exercise everyday. 3) plant a tree in my backyard 4) clean out my garage.  We are in the process of having our downstairs bathroom converted from a half bath to a full bath. So I am without a laundry room right now.  I have been going to the laun---dro----mat once a week and getting all of our laundry done in about 2 hours.  The drawback is that it is HOT in there.  The good thing is I can wash all of our clothes which is usually about 6-7 loads in under 2 hours.  I'm pretty sure our power bill is alot lower too. But I can't wait until this project is done and we have a bathroom and laundry room again.  This bath remodel will be much needed when Dave gets home from surgery.  It will keep him from having to go up and down the steps. All we will need is a small fridge and he could live downstairs :)  Well I have rambled on and on.  I just heard it thunder, so I think I'll enjoy a good Sunday afternoon thunderstorm curled up in my comfy recliner.  It's good to ramble about everyday normal stuff!!  :) 




This is the top of Dave's head.....look at all that hair coming in.