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.