A Special Lady, A Long Week

Well, I just posted my thoughts in the past 3 entries, that I actually typed a week ago in the car. We thought we were on our way to Indiana and then on to Jamaica. We were wrong :). We got the call that Steve's mom was on her way back to the hospital. She would not wake up that morning. She didn't wake up until Tuesday or Wednesday... it's hard to remember which day what happened. We came on to Michigan by Sunday and have been here since. What a week! What a journey! It was so sad to see her with so many tubes and machines. After waking up she was very confused, yet knew the family around her. Today, she looks so good, especially compared to a week ago. We had a "Christmas party" at the hospital last night while so many family were able to be there. She enjoyed taking it all in! Thanks so much for your continued prayers for her and the family! This cirrhosis thing is a crazy disease we are learning so much about! Here's the tired, yet still crazy :), bunch! ...it's missing Ryan who headed to Indiana on Thursday after many long days hanging out at the hospital! Thanks to the McCarty's for giving him some "normalcy"!Merry Christmas to you, our faithful blog readers!!!!

Christmas Adoration

Experiencing the Advent season with a 3, almost 4, year-old brings back such excitement that we tend to sometimes lose with age! We have made our Hershey kiss “countdown” the past two years ~ Ryan getting a “kiss” each morning for Jesus, then giving a kiss to us! He then counts down how many more days until Jesus’ birthday.

It has also been great to see his excitement over the holiday shows, such as Rudolph, Frosty, the Polar Express, and our book/video “The Crippled Lamb”, where Joshua, the lamb, keeps baby Jesus warm that Silent Night so long ago! While shopping yesterday, we saw one of those plastic, lit, almost life size, nativity scenes. I wish I had a camera. The caption would have read, “Come let us adore Him”. Ryan yells, look Mom, baby Jesus”. The fascination in his eyes was precious, as he stopped to “adore” Jesus.

We have a stocking for Jesus hanging on the fireplace, and he will often need to “fill” it for Jesus, finding creative ways to climb up and do it “all by himself”!! The other day it resulted in a “bonk” on the head from the heavy stocking holder! The price he paid for wanting to give something to Jesus! We are thankful for the price Jesus paid for us as he came to Earth as an innocent babe, preparing to pay the ultimate price!

Last weekend, we made the long wait in line to see Mr. Claus. It was a big deal this year and Ryan really wanted to tell him his wish list. He also wanted to make sure Santa knew where to find him, since we wouldn’t be at our house on Christmas morning! As we waited in line, for nearly an hour, I couldn’t help but think how much Jesus would love for the world to stop and spend that much time in anticipation of time spent with Him! May we stop and spend time with the Real Reason for this Season!!!

Gingerbread Makers

While waterparks at Thanksgiving(see previous post) may become an annual tradition, Steve has also started another one for the December Christmas preparation. Last year, he decided we should make a gingerbread house…. No, not the kind from the box you can buy. He had to research and find the “homemade” recipe :). So after hours of baking the “dough” for the walls, he is ready for construction! Last year’s was simple, yet impressive. Well this year, he decided to become a little more complex and create a similar appearance to our actual home! Here are some shots of the work in process!!! Steve always gives 100%, no matter what the job! And, of course you have to have a helper at all times!

Make sure you see the stain glass windows, made from melted life savers:)!

Thanksgiving Fun

So we’re a little behind on the posting, huh? So what’s been happening with us?

In November, Steve’s mom came to visit after her big trip to New Zealand. It was fun to have her here for a few days. Ryan and Steve acted out the “Chicken Little” book from the library. This one’s for you Uncle Jim! He read the book many times to Ryan this summer. So we couldn’t refuse the Pop Tart box offer for our very own hats!!!
Ryan and I took a big road trip and drove Grandma back to MI. While we were so “close”, we also decided to surprise Anne’s parents in Indiana… it was Grandma Marg’s birthday and PaPaw “Putty”’s was not too far away either. It was a whirlwind trip with over 1,500 miles in 4 ½ days! What a great little traveler we have! 900+ miles were with just he and I! Since we had done our share of traveling the weekend before Thanksgiving, we decided to stay in MN for the holiday. We headed to a new indoor waterpark in Minneapolis. We had gone to one last Thanksgiving as well. This may become a new family tradition, and hey, the turkey dinner at Perkins wasn’t too bad, either! Here are a few pics from the excitement that day….
Water fun and bunk beds! What more fun could a little guy ask for!

Swimming and Sweets

Ryan had swimming lessons last night at 6pm that did not get cancelled just because of Halloween. So being the dedicated participants, we went. Obviously, the other parents had different thoughts as Ryan was the only kid (out of the 8 normally) there. He had not just one on one, but two on one, instruction for the whole 25 minutes! At least that made for an easier time for me to make a fool of myself and get some pictures for the scrap book. This is his second "round" of just a short 8 sessions. The last round was earlier this year. He does enjoy the lessons, but is more timid than when it is just the three of us in a pool!

After a quick and healthy :) drive thru meal from Burger King, our little swimmer guy turned into Buzz Lightyear--thanks again Andi for the costume!-- and headed out into the 20 degree Minnesota October to ring some door bells in our neighborhood. We considered going to one of the local church's big fall festival... we hear it is lots of fun, but very crowded. Our dozen houses here in the neighborhood was very sufficient for his first "door-to-door" Halloween that he remembers. Last year, we were in Michigan and just did the festival at church and the year before we "hid" in our rental house, as we didn't know many neighbors and it wasn't really a neighborhood, anyway! Ryan said as we came in from the cold... "This was the best Halloween adventure".... where does such a little mind and mouth come up with these big words?

Hope you are enjoying fall, or winter here, wherever you are!

I Thank God for You!

Those were the words--"I thank God for you"-- on the first flowers, a dozen beautiful red roses, that I received from Steve a little over 9 years ago.

Maybe it's because we started a Sunday School class this week on marriage or because our speaker at MOPS this week was on marriage or maybe God is really just reminding us.... we (I hope :) I'm speaking for Steve, too!) are so thankful for our marriage and the gift God gave each of us in the other. Over the past 9 years, we are learning that we may be more different than alike in a lot of ways...which is a good thing... would I want another me to live with!? :)

If we are honest, of course, not every single day is a honeymoon... and for those who know our honeymoon adventure we can now laugh about... I'm glad it's not :)! But seriously, marriage is work. It takes time and energy and commitment and communication! But it's work that pays off and is for a great cause! It's a covenant worth protecting! I'm so thankful for my husband, my best friend.

So here's to all those marriages out there! May you work hard, pray often, and love much!
And Steve..."I thank God for you!"

Christmas is Here!

...At least that is Ryan's perception. Snow comes. Winter is here. Christmas is here! He asked to get the Christmas tree out last night!





We had some "white out" times last night as we looked out the back and couldn't see the field behind us. This is what we saw as the sun was rising this morning! Gorgeous!! Yet still a little cold for October.











And of course we had to capture a few pictures of playing in the first snow of the year. The wind was very strong, and we had to take them quickly or turn so the wind was against us. We hear it was a wind chill of 12 degrees today!

Hope you are enjoying the beauty of God's creation no matter what your weather! :)

Just a Post

to have a post :)....

Sometimes life just isn't full of profound thoughts or wise words, but a good S'more, even in the microwave, can make for a good blog post! Check out those lips and blue eyes!!

Ryan continues to really enjoy preschool. He had his first field trip-all day,too- and school bus ride last Thursday, without mom or dad! They went to a Pumpkin Patch/Farm about 30 miles away. He really enjoyed himself from what we hear. It included a hayride, sack lunch and picking their very own pumpkin from the patch!

Some of you have been checking here for updates on "Grandma", too. Sorry we have not done well at that. She does continue to improve. We were back in Michigan a week ago and it was good to see the progress she is making. The main objectives now are to get all of this excess fluid coming off and to keep her body trying to do what the liver is not. They are estimating she has approximately 40 pounds of extra fluid to go! She is very determined to make her trip, that has been planned before all of this, to New Zealand and Fiji this coming weekend. We want her to be able to enjoy it, but pray she can physically handle it! She is going with family and good friends. They will be gone for 3 weeks... please pray for her during this time as you remember.

Everywhere we turn lately there seems to be a lot "hard stuff" going on. We are reminding our selves, and praying that others keep doing the same, that "God knows what He's doing".... see our previous post for where those wise words originated:)!

Why is Grandma Sick?

Oh... from the mouths of babes!

Steve's mom was taken to the ER a little over a week ago. She was admitted with a severe infection of some kind. When she went to the hospital, she didn't even know her own name. Praise God that didn't last long, and they were able to work to get rid of the infection throughout the week. We debated all day after we got the call when or if we should fly or drive to MI. We decided to use some miles and go on the early Friday morning flight... talk about whirlwind packing!

Over the course of the weekend, Ryan's child-like faith and caring was so precious and an inspiration. When we got the call on Thursday morning, the first thing he said was, "Can we take her some flowers to make her feel better?" Of course, I had to send some and explain that we were too far away to take her some ourselves that day. Unfortunately, they will not accept flowers in the ICU :(. So instead, we sent a big sunshine balloon and a nifty "flameless" candle. Due to the crazy day, I failed to explain this to Ryan. Also throughout that day, Ryan would say prayers for Grandma Donna. Some went like this...

"Dear God, Please help me to get up there (heaven) quick so I can bring you and Jesus down here to save Grandma! Amen."

OR after we got there and visited with her in ICU and Ryan realizes that we didn't send her flowers (he was very upset by this), he'd pray... "Dear God, Please help me to get Grandma Donna some flowers so she can feel all better."

So we had to "help" God with that one and did bring her flowers on Sunday! And another great question which he answered himself.... "Mom, why is Grandma sick?" And I'd attempt to say medical stuff that a 3- year-old could understand like "Her body just isn't working right.", etc. And proceed to say, "But I really don't know why. Who does?" And he answers with his finger pointing straight up, "God". I'd try to explain that's just how some things are. And he answers more profoundly than any of my attempts at an explanation. "That's OK. God knows what He's doing!!!!"

So may we all remember that and cling to that in any and all of our circumstances here on Earth. Donna did get released from the hospital on Friday afternoon and is staying with one of her sons and his family for now. She continues to improve from the infection she had, but she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. We pray God continues to heal her and slow the progression of the liver damage or stop it completely. But again, He knows what He's doing and may we trust Him completely!

A Preschooler?!?

Yes he is!! Ryan's first day of preschool was this afternoon! We've been counting down with a special activity calendar that his teacher sent this summer. He was more than ready to go. The picture above was taken just before we left with his favorite toy of the week. A "daddy-made" Larryboy(veggie tales) "suction ear"! The most exciting thing since Buzz Lightyear!

So... what a great surprise to find Larryboy on the wall at school!!! Who could have picked a better school, huh? :)

Yes, it's only preschool... but the choice has been stressful, at least for one of his parents. Can you guess which one? We applied for this school that was highly recommended back in December. However they only had their afternoon program open. I thought... oh, he'll be done with naps by next September.... I was wrong. We still very much need them. But, hey, it is only 2 afternoons a week. We will survive... but will his teachers :)? Actually, he did really well today. Steve is correct though... Ryan does great as long as he is occupied and has a task to accomplish. But look what happens once we're home...This little guy NEVER falls asleep just sitting on the couch looking at books! Guess we'll be adjusting schedules as the year progresses!

He said on the way home, "This is the best day ever!" We've had several of those lately! Oh, if we all could live life each day with the same motto :)!

Going Out With a Bang

Well, here it is September...in Minnesota that means summer is gone. :) Well, not really. It was 80 degrees today still. Here are a few pictures of some fun we've had the past few weeks...

These two pics were taken at the "Amaze-N-Farm" a few weeks ago. Ryan's first pony ride and first bunny and kitten "holding". He surprised his Mom a ton. This from a boy I had to persuade and persuade to pick up a caterpillar a few days before!! Aren't we getting brave? We went with 2 other moms and had a 5-yr-old and three 3-yr-olds... all boys! Fun time. Good naps afterwards.
Last Tuesday, one of those friends turned four and had, in Ryan's words, the "best birthday party ever". It was a Disney "Cars" theme and was held at the local go-kart place. And, yes, they let the little guys drive! What a riot to watch... Ryan was overjoyed most of the evening.

If all this wasn't fun enough... Uncle Jim was here to visit last week and we went on a road trip, making the long Labor Day weekend even longer. We visited with Steve's dad in the Chicago area and then headed on to Indiana to spend some time with Anne's family. On our way home, we also stopped in Illinois to visit with one of Anne's friends from college... giving Steve a farm lesson and Ryan a chance to see some BIG farm equipment up close. Thanks Alan and Leesa! Here they are in the big John Deere!

Just Ordinary Days

Just capturing a few snapshots of the "ordinary" days of life for Ryan's scrapbook. Thought I would post them here. Most days are ordinary by worldly standards; but if we stop and enjoy the extraordinary moments and blessings God has given us, every day can be extraordinary!! Ryan is one of those beautiful blessings and 99.9% of the time we remember that :)! No, really, we know that all the time, but it may take stepping back from some 3-year-old situations to bring it to the front of our minds! How easy it is to take our family and health for granted. We thank God for our beautiful, healthy, growing, intelligent and curious little boy. We are so grateful that God has given us the privilege to raise and love him each of these ordinary days!






Another blessing taken for granted... we now have more grass showing than dirt, YEAH... still some weeds, but we'll take care of those after the grass is well established!! Quality father/son time... Ryan really enjoys helping Steve mow these days. He will ride for sometimes up to almost 2 hours! Great time for them and Mom, too :)!

Ryan also spends several days in the sand boat - building race tracks in the sand or scooping dirt like "Bob the Builder".

I love this picture... despite his high energy level around others, he really does play quietly by himself a lot. He will sit and just flip through books for long periods of time. I caught him yesterday playing with his Leap Pad... so innocently! I love those moments!

He is so ready for the adventures of preschool. He'll go 2 afternoons a week starting after Labor Day! Look out world!