Happy Halloween

From Josiah, Isaac, Hunter, Todd and Teresa!

Halloween Cometh

Boo at the Zoo




Library 'Harvest Stew Festival'...


...and hayride


A few weeks ago we were asking, "What will we do with the kids for Halloween?" Now we're asking, "What can we not go to so we don't run ourselves ragged?"
So much fun. So little time.

Thank God!

I received this in an e-mail from Geraldine this morning:

Here's the latest from the doc...After the 2nd MRI the lesions he thought were from past MS flares were gone as in NO longer there!! He ordered another MRI the next day to just be sure. There are only 2 places left, both on the spine and they are smaller. What started out looking like a classic case of MS is not classic at all. We now are looking at something called acute demyelating encephalomyelitis (cut some slack on the spelling....I have no idea) or ADEM. It is rare, but hey, rare works! Statistically, Katie could develop MS down the line, but for now, she should be fine and may never have this again. She still doesn't have feeling in her arms and hands, but it should return. I had no idea how this could be such a handicap. Try finding something in your purse with no feeling in your hands...or washing your hair & checking for soap!! 8^) She is on oral steroids now for a while. Her poor arms are just nasty looking from all the sticks for drawing blood and starting IVs. And Dr. Duckworth wants to see her again in 6 months just for follow-up.

And this was a tidbit from Katie's sister's roommate's medical dictionary (did you catch all that?):
"survival through the acute phase of the illness is often followed by a remarkably complete recovery."

So. God is good and Katie is better and will continue to get better and better. She plans to be at work Monday morning. Thank you all for praying for her. I know God is a mighty God who answers prayer but sometimes it's more fun to watch than others, know what I mean?

Western Day last week at the Preschool...

 

A Candle for Katie

Todd and I have lit a couple of candles for Katie Kiser, oldest daughter of our friends Bob and Geraldine, and we'd like to invite you to light one too and say a prayer for Katie and the rest of the Kisers, especially if you know them.

Katie has been working for the US Foreign Service in Osaka, Japan this past year. She recently started having some unexplained numbness in her fingers that has since spread quite a bit. She has been given an initial diagnosis of MS (multiple sclerosis), not to be confused with MD (muscular dystrophy) which Bob has.

MS is defined at dictionary.com as:
A chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system in which gradual destruction of myelin occurs in patches throughout the brain or spinal cord or both, interfering with the nerve pathways and causing muscular weakness, loss of coordination, and speech and visual disturbances.

Not nice, though treatable. Geraldine is flying to Japan right away and Bob will go as soon as he can. He actually has to be in Tokyo next week for work but he's trying to get there sooner. They all, including Katie's 3 sisters, need your prayers.

If you'd like to light a candle with us as part of your prayers for the Kisers just go to:
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm?l=eng

From there you will be walked step-by-step through lighting the candle. When you put in your message and such there will be a spot for "group" at the bottom. Just type in "Katie" and your candle will be included as part of the group.

Thanks!

Ummm......ew?

O.K. Some parts of our vacation were more traumatic than others.

Again with the photos

Hunter on the four-wheeler.

This is almost half of the kids who were at Aunt Alicia's birthday party. All inside. They were remarkably well behaved. All of them.

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I decided not to post photos of the lake house as it is really just a double-wide in the woods. O.K., it's a double-wide with a front deck and screened back porch, 2 out buildings, a giant dog run and a covered slab that I guess counts as a gazebo or something....All with a nice view of the lake. But my pictures of it are boring and blogger will only upload 2 photos at a time.

More trip photos

Aren't PawPaws the coolest? This is a van bench bolted to a platform attached to a front end loader that's part of a tractor.


I also have photos of my mother on this with my boys and me.....also in the air with the boys. I told you it was a fun trip!

At the Beach

Notice the oil derricks? You can't see them all but I think I counted 25 on the horizon. Yikes. Think that's why the water's brown?

Fall Break

The boys, my Mom and I went on safari (it just means "travel" in kiSwahili) for Fall break this year down to Lousiana to see my grandparents. It was a really fun trip with marvelous weather and just enough mishaps to make it interesting (like the frog mysteriously appearing in the sink while I was washing my face and jumping out on my arm and making me scream and then my grandfather laughing at my kids while they huddled in the bathroom door refusing to catch it for me).

I'm trying to upload pictures but I foolishly signed up for this new beta version of Blogger and, of course, can't get them uploaded very easily....or at all for now. In fact, a post from yesterday is nowhere to be found. sigh. I did manage, however, to turn my blog pink. Like it? There is a definite lack of pink in my life. I'm trying to compensate.

When I do manage to get some shots up they will show scenes of going to the beach in south Louisiana, which was decimated by Hurricane Rita one year ago last week. You will also see shots of the boys hanging out with my grandfather on his tractor and his four-wheeler and my aunt and uncle's lake house in south Texas followed by a birthday party in Ennis that we stopped in for on our way home. It was a really great week. Wish you could'a been there.

At a Loss for Words

Ever have those days (or weeks) where you just don't have words. I don't have those days very often but I'm having some now. I just don't have any words. Or they just don't want to come out.

Maybe I'm just afraid to get started, lest the resulting flow overwhelm me.

All that to say, "Sorry I haven't blogged." I sit and stare at the computer every day and just can't seem to get words out. It's not because I don't love you. Really.
My words will come back one of these days, of this I'm sure.

'Til then, I'll do my best to post photos for you.

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