SATURATED...

...With HIS light!

HE'S NOT HEAVY...

He's my son.

(okay, he IS heavy...but I still love him)
I never thought I would see this day.
The day where Ben would be really hard to move around.
It's here and it makes me sad.
He's now 50lbs.
I can still lift him, but it's hard.
Really hard.
Most days I rely on my big, beefy husband.
Other days I muscle down and do it.
Today we had A-TECH come out.
They did an evaluation on our home.
We are looking at getting a lift and track system,
and most likely an elevator,
to move him from place to place and floor to floor
Thankfully there is funding out there to help us with it.
We are hoping to get the ramp system done at the same time.
Great will be the day when our home is officially
"HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE"!
♥

HELP IN NUMBERS

Talented is he that can convince his neighborhood friends to shovel his driveway. :)

He knows that many hands makes lighter work.

(he knows because I quote this often)

See "him"?

He's in the green jacket to the far left.
Kaleb is rallying the troops.
(Stevie is in red)
He'll be a great leader some day...

UPDATE ON KAYLA

Kayla is doing really, really well.

She went to see the specialist a couple weeks ago,

took some more blood to rule out any viruses.

The doctor put her on naproxen

and she's been arthritis free since.

We see her back in a month,

at that time they will stop her meds.

If she goes a month without symptoms,

they'll watch one more month.

If she is still arthritis free,

they'll declare her done.

If it does come back,

they will give her the JRA diagnosis

and keep her on the meds.

BENJI

My FAVORITE PICTURE of all time. :)

WHILE I WAS AWAY

I'm embarrassed to admit

that life is HARD without the internet.

Thankfully it's back tonight.
It's been a crazy weekend.

"Lemme sum up"

I spent some of it attending a 'showcase'
at the elementary school
where Stevie was the "MC".
She did a FANTASTIC job! :)

I hosted my niece and two nephews
for the weekend.
This is Kayla with her bestest cousin Sarah.
(who could pass as my own) :)
I treated them to some NH skiing!

I coached two basketball games.

Took pictures for Good News Garage.
(for their website)

Fondued some more...
(it's our new Sunday tradition)

Spent a whole night in the ER with my sick child...

Thought about THIS amazing woman

on her birthday.

(Steve's mom)

And tonight...I am anticipating THIS.

Let it snow, let it snow, let is SNOW!!!

Now...back to my regularly scheduled blogging.

(hooray for the internet being back on)

MY DEAR BLOGGING FRIENDS:

Meet my CUTE friend April

and her precious son, Caleb.

She's a remarkable lady

with a touching story.

April has been entered
in a contest for a
COMPLETE MAKEOVER!
She's MOST deserving.
That's where YOU,
my dear blogging friends, come in.
I need you to go to this site:
http://www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com
to vote for April.

POLLS CLOSE next Thursday
at 11:59pm, so please VOTE!!!

THANK YOU!

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

(thanks for the photo Aaron)

Have you ever felt this way?

Like life couldn't be ANY better?

Well it just got better for one

particular blog reader.

Let's give a BIG shout out

to the winner of the first

ORTON FAMILY GIVEAWAY:
ANN BACH

She won with the guess of:

chocolate/banana

and she was RIGHT!

Ann will be receiving this:

a $25 gift card to

Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse
Congrats to Ann...
Round two coming soon. :)

MY HEROES

LIFE

I have been pondering this topic a lot lately.

It's a topic that is close to my heart.

You see...I have a child who's life

continuously hangs in the balance.

Therefore I am reminded

on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis,

how PRECIOUS life really is.

Why is it that some people have to

struggle each day just to stay alive?

Of course I know this answer,

but sometimes I need to ask

so that I can be reminded.

I also have a dad who has struggled with

health issues for many years now.

He continues to battle with it.

He's been diagnosed with

many different forms of cancer.

5 to be exact.

He continues to defy the odds.

I watch him quietly fight this never ending battle.

The latest cancer was thyroid.

He had to have surgery to remove it.

Because it was more complicated than expected,

his treatment continues.

Right now he is off his regular diet.

He can't have iodine, dairy, eggs, mayonaise, and fish.

(I'm sure I'm leaving some items out)

It gets complicated when you can't have iodine.

He has to deplete his body of the iodine

because the next step in his treatment

is to drink a radio-active drink.

The docs are hoping this will kill

the remaining cancer.

Things get more even complicated

when he drinks his poison.

He will have to be completely isolated

for an entire week.

He'll be relegated to the basement.

There is to be NO contact with any humans.

It's too dangerous.

This is what got me thinking.

It's amazing to me what some people have to endure...

JUST TO LIVE.

I'm grateful that my dad chooses to live.

I'm grateful for modern day medicine that

allows my dad AND my son to be here another day.

Sometimes it hurts to see them suffer,

But somehow it makes us stronger...

one day at a time.

FRIENDSHIP

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

Anais Nin

Thank you, my dear friend.

GIVEAWAY!

CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED, WE HAVE A WINNER!!! THANKS FOR PLAYING MY FRIENDS. FUTURE GIVEAWAY COMING TO A POST NEAR YOU.

Don't ask me WHY I have this picture in my folder...because I wouldn't be able to tell you. I just know that my mother would be horrified.

(didn't she rasie me better than this?)

(Enough of the picture...ewww!)

On to the contest.

This is my first ever giveaway.

I'm really excited about it.

Here's how you play.

You have to indentify what

I have in my mouth.

The first one to identify it correctly...

WINS!

The prize?

TBA

This contest ends

Thursday at midnight.

Good luck all you food connoisseurs!

I NEED YOUR HELP...

Blogging friends: I need your help.

Remember THIS post?

My bathroom still isn't done.

I think my husband needs a little encouragement.

Will you take a moment and extend some his way?

(he secretly reads my blog, he'll see your comments)

Go ahead...

cheer him on!

Ben would like his bathtub back.

I appreciate your friendly cheers.

Really...it will give him some motivation.

(and me my sanity)

I thank you in advance!

Here are my 'untiled' walls.

Don't they look so BARE?

It's quite dreary in my bathroom...

with all this gray.

Here's all the trim that needs to go back on the walls.

They look much better on the wall than on my tub.

Here is Ben's beautifully deep tub.
He misses it.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

The other day

THIS CHECK

came in the mail.

It was from a complete stranger.

The check was written the same day

the article in the paper came out.

We were really touched.

There IS good in this world.

(course I already KNEW that)

Inspires me to reciprocate,

again and again.

*****

James taught that true Christianity requires a life of righteous works and service. The test of being a follower of Jesus is in daily righteousness and acts of kindness. James taught that such acts are evidence of our faith in Jesus Christ.

FUNNY PICTURES!

I love children.

I really do.

They make me laugh...

a LOT!

Today I was gone for about 6 hours.

I had lots of basketball games to coach.

Various children were left home throughout the day.

Sometimes they get bored...

when mom's not around to tell them what to do.

Today my camera was put to good use.

(okay, that's a questionable statement)

I went to download some pictures off my camera,

and THIS is what I found.

Stevie's EYE!

(an upside eye none-the-less)

This made me laugh.

I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here...

but do you think she was

BORED???

Then there were LOTS of these shots.

This is the pellet stove...

UP CLOSE!

Beautiful blurry flame.

Doesn't it just warm you right up?

FEET! Every good blog needs a shot of...well worn socked feet.

(I'm just glad you can't smell them through my blog)

How 'bout a close up of her pajamas? She took about 100 of these.

(blessed was the day that digital cameras were invented!)

MERCY! A dog licking her leg? WHY? Just in case you're wondering...There's about 42 pictures of these shots. Thank goodness too...cuz I've always wanted pictures of a dog licking a leg. Don't worry...it gets better...

How 'bout a distorted, upside down shot?

SO glad she took 238 of these.

(it did make me smile)

Tonsils anyone?

And now for my FAVORITE...

The NOSTRIL SHOT!
Need I say more?
Didn't think so.

LADY IN PINK

Tonight is sleepover night...

My mom is the guest of honor.

(it doesn't happen very often)

We've had lots of fun.

A visit is never complete without a

ROUSING

game of scrabble.

Add Stevie in the mix and it becomes

WILD!!

I couldn't resist a few pictures...

of this LADY IN PINK!

Look how cute!

She's reading: "Of Plymouth Plantation"

by William Bradford
(she's got an extra copy if you're interested)

Sharing an exciting part of the book...
(and boy are there some doozies)
Thanks for coming mom!
Come back SOON!!!
♥

MY MAIL LADY

I have this mail lady.

She scares me.

If a package is too big for the mailbox,

she'll drive into your driveway

and SIT on the horn

until you drop everything you're doing

and run

(more like a full out SPRINT)

to get your mail/package.

When we first moved in...

she apparently didn't like the way

we put our NEW mailbox up,

because she stopped delivering our mail.

It took us almost two weeks to figure it out,

you see...

she won't tell you if there is a problem,

she'll just stop delivering.

Since we live on a mountain,

our road is quite steep.

If it rains,

the runoff sometimes erodes

the area in front of the mailbox,

creating a large dip.

If it gets too deep

she won't say anything...

she'll just stop delivering.

When it snows,

you MUST have a shoveled path

to the mailbox

or she won't deliver.

No warning, no messages,

NO MAIL!!!

Today we're going on 3 days without mail.

I'm guessing our path next to the

mailbox isn't cleared enough.

My mom tells me to bake her something,

and leave it in the mailbox.

(you know...to be nice)

I could do that,

but since she chooses when to deliver our mail...

she might not get it until spring...

(...when the snow thaws...but then it might be too muddy for her jeep which means we might be talking summer and we all know that it rains a lot so the road in front of the mailbox might be washed out and that means possibly fall, but then the leaves falling might completely cover our mailbox and she'd never be able to find it until winter...)

So...if you've sent me a letter...

I might not get it until next year! :)

FONDUE-ING

A few weeks back, right after Christmas, my extended family got together for our annual "White Elephant" party. It's always a good time. The idea behind the white elephant is that no money should be spent. It's a chance to 're-gift' those items that you may not want for yourself. Unfortuanately some of those items are not wanted by anyone else and so they often make an appearance the next year, and the next and so on. We laugh a lot. I would have posted about this event except that I was too lazy to take pictures....heck, I was too lazy to even get dressed up for the big event. (I wore my sweats) This year I felt lucky. I got something that I would never buy for myself, but don't mind having in my collection either. It's a FONDUE POT. My brother Zachary and his wife Alana re-gifted it to ME! (I'm hoping their gifter will not happen upon this post or they might be in trouble...) I thought it would be a fun Sabbath activity to do with the kids. Chocolate and the Sabbath - what could be better? :)

Here are the sacrificial reindeer (is that sacrilegious to say?). I got them 75% off at the store the day before. Can we say BARGAIN? We used three of these...

Um...did I mention my husband was in charge of the fondue-ing? I'm SO glad that he made sure the pot was CLEAN before throwing the reindeer in. (sheesh - that's embarrassing)

He did do a fantastic job cutting up the fruit though.

My friend Kathy joined us in our fondue-ing.
Only a few kids got stabbed, especially as we got down to the last couple of strawberries. They were the HOT items of the night.

Mmmmmm...marshmellow and chocolate. Could it be any sweeter? I submit that it CANNOT! Thanks Z and A...it was a hit.

SUCCOR THE WEAK...

Today as I was driving down the road, I passed a young, male hitchhiker. The compassionate side of me wanted to stop and offer this young man a ride. The cautious side of me was prompted to pass him by, and so I did. The temparature was in the single digits. It was COLD outside. I couldn't help but think of this young man, not quite suitably dressed for the outside elements. I wondered what his life must be like. How did he get to this point? I wished that I could've picked him up and taken him to where he needed to be. It brought back one particular memory of my childhood. I was around 10 years old. My mother was raising 7 biological children along with multiple foster children. We were driving home from church one Sunday in a complete blizzard. I remembered being huddled in our big blue cancer van (we called it the cancer van because of the many rust spots that it had) together, all 11 or so of us because there was no heat. We were anxious to get home to warm up in our modestly quaint home. (and by warming up, I mean putting on about 7 more layers) The storm was so intense that you couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of you. My mother was hunched up close to the wheel, squinching (is that even a word?) her eyes in hopes of seeing through the white madness. We were 10 minutes from home when we came upon an elderly man hitchhiking. He was SCARY looking. He had many layers of dirty clothes, an unkempt, discolored beard and a stench that was eye watering. My mother, as was true to her character, couldn't resist pulling over to pick up this man out of the harsh weather. We were APPALLED and totally shocked. (maybe even a little mad) My dad was in some kind of leadership position at church at the time so he wasn't with us. There is NO WAY that dad would have let mom do this had he been there. BUT...that was the type of person my mother was. She brought him home and we fed him a warm, homemade meal. He was SO grateful, perhaps humbled by my mother's generosity. He didn't know how to pay us back for our kindness and so he sang to us. He had a beautiful voice. My mother loved to hear him sing. He came to visit us a few more times after that day until he finally passed away. I will always be grateful for that experience. My heart, at the young age of 10, was changed for good. Here I am, 25 years later. I couldn't help but think back to that time when we picked up that hitchhiker out of the blizzard. I wished I could've followed in my mother's footsteps today. I wish that I felt safe enough to pick up a complete stranger, to take him out of the cold, perhaps give him a warm, homemade meal. Times have changed since that day my mother picked up that man, as well as my heart. She has taught me to "succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees", I just find other ways to do so.

MY REAL LIFE WONDER WOMAN

I love this lady.

She's one of my best friends.

I miss when we don't have our daily talks.

She's my hero - in more than one way.

She's the reason why

I have the gospel in my life.

She paved the way.

For that I will always be eternally grateful.

Thanks for being a stalwart pioneer.

I love you.

Oh...and by the way...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

(should I tell them how old you are? Should I mention the fact that you have NEVER died your hair? I'm crossing my fingers that I have inherited THOSE genes.)

Go ahead, don't be shy.

Wish this Temple Matron a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ♥

WE'RE BACK!

It was a great day.

We had the slopes to ourselves.

Here are my skiers and snowboarders...

Just call me WIMPY! I can't ski anymore without my face mask or hand/feet warmers. It's the only way you'll get me up on the mountain.