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Monday, April 28, 2014

Beautiful things
love notes  from Jeremiah
this is a lot because he doesn't like to write 
totally different than the other bunch
 

I love when all these kiddos pass out when we have friends over
 it's way past their bed time
 hard fun though


this little dude loves play dough
I love those chubby wrists and chubby fingers



these 2 big boys that constantly love taking Gabe outside
they have always wanted Gabe to come by their legs and tug on them
they wanted Gabe to choose them since he was a baby
now Gabe brings his shoes and coat to them anytime of the day
ready to go out
I have to say most of the time they take him out
when they come in though
look out because Gabe throws a fit

know that you are loved


Olivia washing Gabe's feet
can you feel her love and excitement
Gabe has no idea what is going on
he is like her big doll or something




the kiddos love playing Wi with daddy
for some reason they get so sweaty jumping around and acting crazy
it becomes a workout for them
too much for Gabe after he spilled water all over his pants


Have a great Monday!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

day to day
Gabe was doing some cooking
apron and all
he loves to be on the counters helping

making lots of messes
he likes to open our junk drawer and take most of it out and play
we always try to organize our junk drawer but we still have one


we have been enjoying the nice weather lately
riding bikes, running around and having sword battles
the kiddos are so excited to be outside
now if we can just get rid of these colds

this guy loves hats
ya tell him to grab one and he is on it.




everyone in this house tends to read while they eat except me
sometimes they forget they are eating and will keep reading


Gabe is helping me make our weekly chocolate chip coffee cake
he loves to pick out the chocolate chips as fast as he can

he loves to swing with (my mom) nanee
always tends to get a little sleepy

having good friends over and hanging out


hope all of you are having a great week
keep praying for Dave's blistering to stop
he has been having a hard time with anything he eats lately
the blisters seem to come with any food that goes in.
he just wants to eat

We are also getting ready for our charity rummage in May
the Kiel City wide
We have over 30 families that have donated items 
we have been going through everything 
getting rid of anything worn and pricing it all
money will be put into our adoption/mission account
This will be our 6th one...yahoo
We will be serving food and having a bake sale again too!
Thank you for all of your love and support!
 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

another week

Dave did really well this past week at work.  It was his first full week back at the PD in uniform.
He said it felt really good to be back but that a lot of people didn't recognize him at first due to all the weight he lost and not having his beard anymore. Some people looked at him but then had to read his name badge and were actually surprised to see it was him.
Everyone was very nice but a few people made some odd comments. One guy said "Nice to see you. I heard you were dead." Who says that to someone? Only in a small town I guess. Dave just laughs and said "Nope, not yet. Sorry to disappoint you."
His throat still bothers him. It comes and goes. A lot of it depends on what he eats so Dave is experimenting with different foods. We figured out that anything with a spice in it or vinegar causes him a lot of pain. His mouth breaks out in little clear blisters. They look like those blister rolls used to mail things in a box and cover the back of his throat. It looks awful and Dave's eyes fill with tears when it happens which is about once a day. He has a list started of what he can and cannot eat. The cannot eat list is a lot longer but we hope in few months he will have fully healed and can get back to a normal diet. Looks like eggs, toast and cheese quesadilla's it is.
Besides the mouth blisters and sore throat he feels OK. He said his muscles ache by the end of the day but this too will take time and he understands that. Dave has been doing his exercises and each week he plans to do a little more and build up his strength again.


Since they removed the lymph nodes on one side of his neck, the doctors told him that he might have fluid build up in his neck. Earlier in the week that happened really bad. Dave had t-shirt on under his bullet proof vest but it was too tight on his neckline. The fluid backed up and by the end of the day he had a big lump under his chin. Dave said he looked like a "mutant turkey". It took a few hours and massage to get it back to normal but he will no longer be wearing that brand of under shirt for his uniform. Looks like Under Armour is the best kind of t-shirt for him.
Continued thanks for all of your prayers and blessings. Every week he feels better and stronger and we know it is because of God's love and the prayers for his health.

this guy tried his first donut this week




hope you all had a wonderful Easter
thank you for the continued love and support

Saturday, April 19, 2014


Love Wins

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” 
― G.K. Chesterton

 Today I’m thinking about the greatest gift ever given to me, you and the entire world.  He took on the sin of the world…He took on death…and won.  Love wins.  Always.  How humbling and amazing and incredible and I just will never grasp the magnitude of His love for me and you.  We don’t deserve it.  We’re ugly sinners and yet in Christ, we are new creations.  We are beautiful.  Loved.  Cherished.  Valued.  Redeemed.  Renewed.  Restored.  It absolutely floors me and I am beyond grateful.

We are so grateful for all of you and all of your love! 

Love Wins

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

beauty

 My daughter is only 8 and I am so thankful I can teach her the ways of the Bible instead of and in addition to the world’s ways.
 God is more concerned with our hearts than with our appearances. But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 NLT




love wins
 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Back to work

Dave went back to work last week and he spent the entire week moving into his new office at the new police department and catching up on all his paperwork. He just wanted to get back to something normal in his life and it helped him to get back to the police department. Dave said that everyone was really nice and happy to see him which made him feel really good. Overall he said it went very well but he was definitely tired each night when he got home.

Today he goes back to his regular schedule and he will be back in uniform. His uniform fits a little different from all the weight he lost and he had to adjust his gun belt by two notches too because it fell right off him when he put it on last week. 

His mouth still hurts. It comes and goes, some days are better than others. Sometimes his mouth hurts alot even bringing him to tears but other times it doesn't hurt too bad at all. We just keep praying that the pain will go away soon and he will not have to deal with it everyday. It hurts to watch him have that much pain but it is alot better than it was even two weeks ago.

I know it is good for Dave to be back to work but I miss having him here and the boys really enjoyed having him teach them math and history too. Odin said that he really liked having Dad teach him math problems everyday as Dave laid on the couch recovering.  I know it was not fun for him but it was nice for us to have him around and now we really miss him.


We have had a share of sinus colds/coughs going on around here this last week.  Gabe was up a lot every night and he is just starting to feel better.  The kiddos were so excited to be able to play in the sunshine.  They were outside for hours playing games and coming up with creative wood, nails and duct tape weapons.  We had a great time with friends this weekend.  Love fellowship and hearing the childrens laughter and loudness coming from every room of the house.  Thank you for the continued prayers cards and support.

Love Wins  

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

date with my girl

It's been a long time since we have taken the other 2 kiddos(the public school kids)
on a date.  We try to every month but with everything going on it just never worked out.  Odin and Jonah are always with us so that is totally different.  Olivia and Jeremiah never know what we do all day long! Hee Hee...We try to at least spend some quality one on one time with them and make things cheap and simple.  We are thrifty and simple people here.
Olivia always wants to go roller skating.  She loves it, just wish there was a roller rink closer instead of having to drive to Appleton.  The music is usually stuff we don't allow them to listen to but we just skate to the beats and once in awhile they throw Brit Nicole or  Toby Mac  in there.    She light up when they do this.  They had a lot of birthdays there this time.  There was this big family skating together behind us at one point.  The husband had made a few remarks to us a couple times as we passed.  I just said yes and nodded.  Kind of like when your kids are talking to you and your not really listening and you say yes to something you never recalled saying yes too.  The kids are getting good at this.  Sometimes they trick me and know I am  totally not  listening to them.  So we are skating along and all of a sudden this guy is behind us again and we here OH GOD!  We look back and he is on the floor.  So we decided to go around one more time.  I was  kind of scared of this guy.  He was totally on some kind of drugs and acting crazy the whole time he was there.  His family was out there by then too.  To make a long story short, they wheeled him of the rink in a wheelchair and he broke his femur.  Crazy!
Olivia looked at me while we were skating after all the hoopla and says
mom, I think we should pray for that scary man.  
She cracks me up. 
 Her prayer every night starts out like this
your an awesome God
keep rockin on
keep making miracles happen
love this girl

we ran to Hobby Lobby to return something and she wanted to push the cart. So happily she is cruising along, and ya know how small those carts are at HL.  Seriously small...
She decides to run as fast as possible down the isle and put her feet up on the foot part of the cart and hold on and go for a ride....well she tipped the cart over her head and it landed on her like a laundry basket.
Like this...
 

I totally wish I had a camera phone then.  I was tempted to ask the lady by us to take a picture  and email it to me.  It was seriously priceless.  
That is how she rolls...

Saturday, April 5, 2014

long week

 David had a very long and hard week
after our last trip to Mayo he started weaning off his pain medicines
last Sunday morning he went off all of his prescription pain medicines completely

within a short time he was having lots of pain and very tough side effects
we had no idea how much pain he actually had until he cut out the medicines that helped him
at first we thought he had the flu until we figured it out that it was from going off the medicines
Dave got very little sleep all week but he took mini naps to get by

Dave's sense of taste is slowly coming back but his appetite decreased again last week
he lost more weight too
a lot of his clothes don't fit anymore or are really baggy

his hair is growing back and its nice to see his crown of gray again

 
it was hard to see the sadness resurface and see him in such pain but it was good for him to get out of the house running a few errands here and there
it's good for the kiddos to see too
they really miss their Dad and hope he will be back to full Daddy duty soon
I can't wrestle as good as Dave does

Dave said this past week was one of the toughest he has had through the whole journey
real life sometimes mean real pain
real faith also means real pain
real connection with God can come from such pain
Dave certainly has seen this first hand


Monday Dave is going back to work
obviously he could not work until he was off his pain medicines
he hopes and prays for a new beginning
 he plans to do office work the first week  and then get back into his normal work a week later
please pray that this big change and his return to work goes well

here is a photo of my Captain America fans before they went out to a matinee to see the new "Winter Soldier" movie which they all said was "awesome"






Tuesday, April 1, 2014

time

where are these weeks going
everything is just rolling together this past month of Dave's  recovery
I really haven't had a chance to write 
 forgetting to pick up my camera but
I have been reading a lot here and there
more than I ever do
and spending a lot of time with my family
getting kind of sad that it will be Dave' last week home with us during the day
the kiddos are going to miss him.
it has been awesome!
time is just flying by 
we have had a lot of puking going on again
Jeremiah and Olivia had projectile vomiting again
I feel like you can never get that smell out of anything
praying Dave doesn't get it.
I cannot wait for spring
just to have the windows open and the kiddos running around outside
they are anxiously waiting to ride their bikes
 camping season starts at the state parks
I am so excited to see Gabe camping this year 
the messes and excitement of all things new
long walks and hikes with the kiddos

Long drives tend to make me space out and
go through my thoughts and sing songs of praises to our awesome King. 
like the one we just took to MN a few weeks ago
lots of time reflecting and talking about our hopes and dreams
Dave and I can barely talk 5 minutes at home without somebody needing something
so it's nice to have some uninterrupted time to catch up on things

it was hard being at the Mayo Clinic
always is
it seems to open your eyes on a different level to the hurting around you
my heart about skips a beat trying to figure out what I can do for others
looking around there breaks my heart
tears come to the surface so easily
not sure why but they do
there is so much hustle and bustle walking around there
meeting people in passing
or talking to them on the elevator
on in the waiting room
i love to slow down and take the time to see and hear what is going on around you
taking everything in that God has put in front of you
it' amazing what he opens our eyes too if you let him 
I love to strike up conversations with others
and hear about their life or journey they are on
life is full of stories
I love to uncover what God wants me to do with my feelings, what makes me cry and what he puts on my heart
I always have all these dreams 
someday I hope to fulfill

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, calls, emails, cards and gifts....
I am not a huge birthday person myself 
my awesome husband made the cake himself
he rocked it!
I do not like attention on me by any means.
The kids wondered what age you have to stop decorating at?
they were bothered that I didn't want decorations
I love the simple joy they get from things


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