Today is THE Day!

This was in my mail today:


I can't even TELL you how exciting this is... the last two years of pre-reqs have all been worth it. Now comes that hard two years...


Lord, thank you so much for your promises, care, and provision. I am so blessed. Everything is happening just as you said it would. Father, thank you for loving me like you do!

Favorite Taylor quote of the day...

Taylor:
"Mom, I need a towel... my mustache has milk in it."

Favorite quote of the day...

Rick:
"Maddie girl, when you give me hugs & kisses, it makes my heart feel warm."

(Maddie then gives Rick a kiss and hug)

Maddie:
"There you go, Daddy. Does that make your heart feel hotter?"

I thought that was so cute, I had to share it. Enjoy the sunshine today.

Graduation

An era come and gone... Madisyn graduated from preschool yesterday. She had been attending Gardenview Montessori for a year and a half, and loved every minute of it. The montessori method was a perfect fit for her. It is all hands-on, self discovery, and a lot of flexibility in a structured environment.

Here are her teachers, Leah and Kelda.

Maddie would come home every day with a new story of something Kelda or Leah taught her, whether it was a song or a new dinosaur out of her favorite book. She also brought home stories of being "talked to" by Kelda or Leah because she and Max had broken the rules somehow or other.

She was very proud to hold her diploma, although I could NOT get her to look at the camera... oh well.

This is Max.

He was one of Maddie's best friends at school. He is younger than her, but she liked to mother the younger ones, so she chose to hang with them. Max was so sad to say goodbye, he refused to hug her. He thought if he didn't say goodbye, she wouldn't have to leave. There will be many goodbyes in her lifetime, I am sure.

This is the Gardenview 2006-07 class.

Does Maddie look like a giant compared to the rest of them? That's because she is. She has always been in the 100th % for her height. I am afraid she is going to be "that" girl for the rest of her life - you know, the tallest girl in class who gets made fun of for being tall. I don't get that, btw. Why make fun of something you can't control... kids are ruthless.

This picture was just for fun - it is the CLASSIC LITTLE KID PICTURE. Where is your finger at, Maddie?

Well, on to bigger things. Whether is it better than Gardenview, that will remain to be seen. She had a wonderful first experience with school, and we can only pray her next will be even better. Thank you Kelda and Leah for taking such wonderful care and love of our little girl.

Anyone looking for a hair dresser?

Maddie and Taylor spent the week with my mom and dad while we went on vacation. I had a frantic phone call from my mom calling to let me know Maddie had "experimented" with scissors without telling my mom.

The story goes like this (as told to me by Maddie):

Maddie woke up early one morning and helped herself to some gum my mom had bought. She began to "play" with her gum by pulling it in and out of her mouth, making it stringy. Ultimately, she got it in her hair. Because she didn't want to get in trouble for getting into the gum without asking, she took it upon herself to cut it out. She got a chair from the dining room, brought it into the bathroom, got scissors from the kitchen drawer and cut the gum out. Only problem is once she realized what she'd done, she knew she'd get in trouble for THAT too. SO, she got some glue out of the same drawer and proceeded to try and glue it back in. Not such luck, as you can imagine.

Feeling her own defeat, she put all the evidence away, threw her hair chunk out, and didn't tell my mom. The problem now was that glue had created a huge hair mat. Maddie told my mom that she'd gotten syrup in her hair, so my mom tried to wash it out. Yep, only made it worse. After two hours, 1/2 a bottle of leave-in conditioner, and pulling her hair out strand by strand, my mom finally freed the mat of hair.

The end result is this:

Hey Maddie - the trailer park called. It wants its hair back!

How do you spell relief?

M - A - N ---- C - H - A - I - R

This is the first time Rick has actually SAT and RELAXED in his chair in TWO MONTHS ... I love it!

We are home

First of all, I just want to PRAISE GOD for His amazing anointing on this entire process. We feel so encouraged and excited about Rick finally on the road to healing. So thank you, God, for keeping your promises and providing for us in every way possible.

Yes, we are now home. Thank you to all of you who were praying yesterday and all the days leading up to the surgery. We could not have gotten through these last two months without all of your steadfast prayers!

We got to the hospital yesterday at 8:30. They took Rick into the pre-op area where his got poked and prodded a little. I met him up there shortly afterwards, and quickly teased him about the hair net he was made to wear. I immediately regretted not having my camera to recored the days events. He was taken into surgery 30 min. early yesterday, so it was nice to know they were keeping up on the schedule. He had a wonderful anesthesiologist, Dr. Derby, a great surgery nurse, Richard, and of course, a very capable, funny (and chatty :-) ) surgeon, Dr. Goldman. His surgery lasted the entire two hours, but nothing too unexpected occurred, so Dr. Goldman was very pleased. He expects Rick to have a complete and speedy recovery.

He got up to his room about 1 pm, and was very groggy and humorous to talk to. But for the most part, felt NO PAIN in his leg anymore! Praise God. The only pain he was feeling was from the surgery itself (to be expected, as he did just have surgery). It took him a couple hours to join us fully, but all in all, he did great. At one point, he tried to sit up and was thinking about trying to stand, but that thought was quickly diverted when the reality of the pain set in (enter valium and percocet). But after a McDonald's cheeseburger meal (his request...) and a little more rest, he finally stood up around 11 pm and walked!

We paced the halls a few times during the night, but mostly tried to rest, as we knew we could go home in the morning if he was doing well enough. Dr. Goldman cleared him to go home at 8 am, so we packed up to go. They brought Rick a "delicious" looking breakfast. Actually, it was really disgusting looking (some of it was a shriveled, dry sausage called "mystery meat" by the nurse). Once the paperwork was all taken care of, we were set free! I do have to say, we loved the nursing staff. All three of Rick's nurses (Debbie, Colleen, and Anne) were wonderful. They were so helpful and compassionate, and made a great impression on us.

We decided to make a pit stop by IHOP on the way home for Chocolate Chip pancakes (Rick's choice) - his first venture sitting down PAIN FREE!! He kept commenting on how wonderful it was to sit without pain and actually be comfortable. The smile on his face was priceless. Once we got home, he SAT in his "man chair" for the first time in two months, where he promptly fell asleep. I don't think I will be able to get him out of it now! That's ok, though, he deserves it.

Once again, I just want to thank everyone for your love, concern, and care you have showered on us. We love you all!

Praise God for healing!

Time for Prayer and Healing

Rick will have surgery tomorrow. I have mixed feelings, although a majority of them are good. I know that God has put Dr. Goldman in our path. God will be guiding his hands tomorrow, of that I am confident.

Tonight, Rick preached from Matthew 6:25-34. It talks not worrying. Very fitting for the night before his surgery. Therefore, I will NOT worry - "for tomorrow will worry about itself." I will only pray for God to heal my husband. He has provided everything for this surgery to happen, and I have faith in HIM who can do ALL things. Praise God, my husband will be healed.

Grand Canyon

Our trip has gotten off to a great start! Rick did well on the flight down... we were able to get a row of three seats to ourselves, so he got to lay down the whole way. We got into Phoenix and immediately went to Fuddrucker's Burgers - home of the World's Greatest Hamburger. SO good!! The house we are staying in is incredible. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, pool in the back, temperpedic mattresses - you name it, it's here! We are so comfortable. That's a good thing because it is 107 degrees outside! We spent the first night taking it easy, walking around Desert Ridge Marketplace, enjoying the evening warmth.

The next day, we left Rick at the house to relax and enjoy some "alone time" while the rest of us headed out for the highlight of the trip - hiking the Grand Canyon! We spent the night in this crazy little town on Route 66, Williams, AZ, and had dinner at this bizarre restaurant, Cruisers 66. Our waitress was hilarious (not really). She didn't really seem to care about much... Told us that someone else took one of our steaks (after waiting 45 min. for it), so she was going to go steal someone else's. She came back with a steak and told us they could kiss her butt for stealing it - interesting customer service here in Williams. Basically, Williams was just like Radiator Springs in Carburetor County (for all you CARS fans).

We woke up at 5 am the next morning to head out for the Grand Canyon. Click here to see all of my pictures! We took the shuttle bus to the trailhead for the South Kaibab trail, and took in the view. It was SO amazing.

This was us just before venturing out. My brother- and sister-in-law, Chris and Lisa, and my in-laws, Joanne and Jim, and I all headed out (well, Lisa and Chris were a little behind us since we forgot our permit in the car - oops!)

Shortly after 8 am, we started down the trail. This picture was taken about halfway down... In the middle of the picture, you can see the switchback trail on the side of the cliff. That was basically the entire way down. The dark crevasse in the middle right was where we were heading... the bottom.

After Lisa and Chris hauled butt down the Canyon, they caught up with us at the last rest stop before the bottom, but the last part was the most difficult part, in my opinion - and the hottest! Holy Cow! As soon as we reached the bottom, it jumped 20 degrees - we all almost passed out from heat exhaustion. It was unbelievable. I have never been so hot...




After four and a half hours of downhill hiking, we finally reached Bright Angel Campgrounds - our pit stop for the night. It was next to this beautiful little stream with a gorgeous view of the Canyon. Our campsite was right next to the creek, which poured into the Colorado River. We had dinner (top ramen and tuna from a packet - yyyyuuummm!) I immediately put my sore feet in the stream. It was SO warm and refreshing - just what I needed!















We finally got to sleep after a while, although Jim enjoyed staying up and watching the bats dive bomb our tents. I am SO glad I was asleep...


We woke up the next morning at 3 am - YES, I said 3 in the AM! We packed up, ate breakfast, and headed out for a long day hiking UP the canyon... By 4 am, we were on our way up the "hill". It was the MOST beautiful part of the hike. The first half was along the Colorado River, then up into the Canyon along streams and waterfalls with lush greenery the whole way - SO beautiful. I will post pictures of that later - didn't get any good ones. This was a dark picture of one of the streams we crossed... doesn't do it justice!


We stopped for lunch (at 7:30 am) in Indian Gardens - the half way mark. There were crazy squirrels everywhere. They were so bold - they would just walk up to you, jump up on your back pack, and start digging to find food. Little buggers.

Let me just say this... Hiking 9 miles uphill with a 35 lb pack strapped to the waist doesn't NOT help a full bladder - especially when there are only TWO designated bathrooms. Therefore, I am not embarrassed to say I had to become one with nature and go... I left my mark, you could say. :-)

After five more LONG hours of uphill hiking, and a few "unplanned" bathroom stops, we made it to the top. I, of course, shed some tears at my accomplishment. It was, by far, the most difficult physical thing I've done. I am SO proud to say I did it. This was the view we were greeted with:
I am so proud of all of us! We did the entire trip in 28 hours - 12 hours of hiking! All that, and no blisters - except I might loose my big toes nails - they took a beating going down... It was an amazing trip - one I will never forget. Thanks guys for the great time! I love being a part of your family. Oh, and thanks for helping me with the "pit stops"!