Team Linda & Best Day Ever

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.There are so many great things to report! So thanks for coming back and checking it.

2 months ago we participated in the Cincinnati Ovarian Cancer Awareness Run/Walk 5K. We created a team in support of mom (Team Linda) and we were so thrilled to have over 75 friends and family participate in this race with us. Seriously. 75 people came out! People we knew and loved, and new friends that we had never met before. One of my mom's clients and friends donated our Team Linda tshirts and all the money we raised selling them went towards my mom's medical bills. We raised around $800 for her bills. We are so thankful for that day. My main goal for this race was to get as many people as possible to join our team, so that on the day of the race, my parents could look around and see some of the people who have been loving and praying for them. It was a very special day. Right after the race, I had made reservations at Sky Galley restaurant for anyone that was able to stick around and eat with us. We had about 25 close friends and family members eat with us.

The day before the race, mom received a phone call from one of her nurses in the cancer center. They knew she had a special day planned and they wanted to let her know that her scan came back clear. My family knew going into the race that things were looking pretty great for mom. That definitely made our day even more wonderful.

On September 17th, we received the official news that my mom is CANCER FREE!!!! We are so overjoyed by this news and so thankful to our Great Physician that he has allowed her to overcome this disease. We were all packed into the little check-up room when Dr. Shellhaus came in with the nurse. He said that her scan couldn't have looked better. It came back clear and the cancer is gone. Wow. He said a few other things and then he left. I was like, okay. That's it? I asked the nurse if this means she is actually cancer free and she said yes! Yes it does. Praise God. The 4 of us (mom, dad, Jess and I- Austin was there too but he was asleep) all stepped outside the cancer center and hugged and cried. What a journey. 

**I love this picture of Braylen running to the finish line. He actually believed that he won the race.** 

Thank you to everyone who participated with Team Linda. Thank you to those who sacrificed their time, money, made dinner, sent letters, emails, donated tshirts, etc. You have all played a huge role not only in the healing of my mom's cancer but also in her state of sadness and anger throughout this experience. When she was feeling bitter or sad, you would send her a note in the mail saying that you were thinking and praying for her. When she was sick and couldn't find anything to eat, you gave her Graeter's and brought her cherry icee's (that's for you dad!). When she was cold, you  made her lovely blankets and brought her warm socks. When she was too sick to be outside, you brought her beautiful flowers. When she was restless, you would be praying to our Heavenly Father to heal her body and heart. THANK YOU! God used you in my parents lives and we will all be forever changed by your servant hearts. 

Today is the final day of mom's chemo treatment. After this treatment, she will begin another treatment that is similar to chemo but not as hard on her body. This will be another precaution/prevention tool and she will be on this medicine for about a year. As of now, her insurance company has denied the request of using this particular medicine, but her doctor will continue to submit the request until it is approved.

The journey is not over.

There are still hoops to juggle.

There are still things to process.

But one thing we know is God is present, constant and the creator of all things. Even cancer. John Piper says in his article "Don't Waste Your Cancer," that you will waste your cancer if you do not believe that cancer is designed for you by God. He says, "What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it."

That is equally comforting and hard to hear at the same time. I choose to trust because the opposite is choosing to believe that God would be out to destroy. I know that's not true. If you have time, go here and read the rest of John's article. It will greatly change your perspective of cancer.

Thanks for reading! I hope to start updating more often.

A Wedding, A Shower, A Leader Weekend

The month of May was full of a lot of great weekends and parties. My BFF Hillary got married and I was so thrilled to be apart of her special day! She looked stunning and her wedding reception was awesome-full of thrifty, cute, "thought of ALL the details" finds. I wish I had more pictures but here are a few. 

The day after the wedding, my mom and I (although my mom did most of the work! love you mom!) threw a baby shower for my little sister! She is due on July 10th and I am ready to be an aunt! We keep telling Braylen about his baby boy cousin and he is getting excited. My mom and I enlisted friends and family members to help with food but my mom made mini red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and they were delicious. We also made cute pom pom hanging flowers, diaper favors, a blessing tree, and blue "bath time" punch. I of course didn't take ANY pictures! The only photo I have is of the bath time punch which turned out awesome! You can visit Cory's blog for more pics from the shower and here for instructions on the punch. Isn't it cute? 

By the way, I ended up leaving the shower early because Guy took Braylen to the hospital! He ended up being fine but he had a 104.5 fever and seemed really sick. They gave him a dose of Tylenol and he bounced back. When I showed up to the hospital, he started crying and said "I just want to feel better!" ugh. Thank you Lord that we can take our children to the hospital and doctor whenever they are really sick!

The next weekend we went on our annual YL Leader Retreat over Memorial Weekend. This year it was at Timberwolf YL Camp in Lake City, MI instead of Rockbridge in Virginia. This is my 10th year going on this retreat! This year was super special because my family was able to stay in the same room! When I was single, I stayed with girls in the dorm and then once I had Braylen, all the moms, babies, and kids were usually thrown in the same room/cabin. Which is not the most ideal situation. Timberwolf has this awesome Assigned Team Cabin with 10 suites (2 bedroom, bathroom) a huge lobby with a fireplace, comfy couches, etc and each family had their own suite. It was so nice! Braylen had his own room and slept in his own bed! Such a big boy! Slept like a champ too. Timberwolf is on a beautiful lake and there are tons of rocking chairs, hiking trails, etc and the ATC has a playroom! I felt like someone should just pinch me. Needless to say, we had a great time. There was lots of fellowship, one on one talks with friends, and both speakers spurred us on to be more intimate with our Heavenly Father. Here are a few pics from the weekend. Oh! And Braylen went fishing for the first time and caught two fish! :)

A few other highlights from the month of May were attending my sister in law's wedding shower in Louisville. Amy is getting married in July and I cannot wait to celebrate the day with her. She will be the sweetest bride! Braylen also started playing in a soccer league. And he hated it. Which means mommy and daddy hated it. He basically only "played" in 1 game and he almost scored a goal BTW. :) We haven't gone back because, well, let me tell you mom's and dad's: it is not worth forcing your child to play in a sport when he's only 3! I just thought it would be fun. Apparently it's not. I can see marching bands and trumpets in our future..........sigh. 

Sorry for the lack of posts! I hope to update soon with details from our long but fun trip down to Charlotte! 

PUMPKINS!

Last weekend we took Braylen to Kinman Farms in Burlington, KY and we had a blast! We rode the tractor down to the pumpkin patch, went through the corn maze, sat by the bonfire, sipped apple cider and shared a funnel cake. When you ask Braylen where he went or where he got his pumpkins, he says "At the farmer's house!" so cute. This year we went at night and there were not many pumpkins left! We had to use a flash light to find them! :)

Last year we went during the day and we took some amazing pictures of Braylen. I just remember Braylen running up and down the dirt road, so happy that he found his pumpkin! He barely has any hair! 

The year before, 2008, here is Braylen peeking out our front door. I just had to include this "pumpkin" picture because it is so darn cute. Look how little he is! 

(Try to ignore the reflection of the house across the street!)

What a cute little boy. He is all about pumpkins right now. We have 3 on our porch-mommy's, daddy's, Braylen's. He likes to kick his off the porch. I do not like that as much. 

What I do like though is this delicious recipe for Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting! Oh wow. It is soooo good. I am new to baking with pumpkin but I love it. This is my mom's recipe but when I read the directions I noticed there were no instructions for how long to bake it. When I asked my mom how long, she said I don't know. Like 30 minutes? I love my mom. She is a great baker. I found this recipe at Tammy's Recipes that uses the exact same ingredients and has proper instructions on how to bake it. 

Happy Fall!!

Lately

My last post was about a month ago and since then we have done quite a few things. We had family camp at Brookeville which was so much fun, but flew by! We didn't go on the boat or go on a hike. Braylen decided to skip every single one of his afternoon naps that weekend, which you can imagine how crazy he was the rest of the evening. He is super whiny and down right cranky (although my mom would say he's a perfect little angel!). But he slept great at night and had a fun time with the other kiddies there. We had the annual cornhole tournament-with an opening ceremony-and my dear ole' dad won first place! He's so cool. And he's the best cornhole player in the league. :) My mom bought our family matching tshirts to wear. Don't we look so cute? Not redneck at all! Kidding mom!

The next weekend, we had a Young Life leader retreat in California, KY at the Gautraud's house. They have a gorgeous home that over looks the Ohio river and allows for 60+ leaders to stay the night there. My friend Maria and I have planned the retreat for the past 2 years and we really enjoy doing it. We plan the menu, sleeping arrangements, schedule, etc. We love gathering everyone in their home for fellowship, teaching, and encouragement. I left feeling spurred on to pray and consider where the Lord is working at BCHS. Things at our school have been down right tough! We are still rebuilding the ministry there and it is hard. Students just have their own busy schedules and don't want to be apart of something else. We know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him," so we will keep at it!

Last week I had the privilege of helping with the annual YL banquet. This year we hosted the banquet at the Syndicate in Newport. We had around 200 people show up and the night was very successful. Coordinating the banquet is hard work! There are so many i's to dot and t's to cross. I love being apart of it though and look forward to making improvements for next year.

September has FLOWN by and it's not about to slow down because in a few days we are leaving for this place:

It has been 3 years since our last family trip to Destin, FL and I am so excited. We planned this trip over a year ago and I can't believe it's actually here. 3 years ago Jess was not even engaged yet and I was 6 months pregnant. So much has changed! We are looking forward to some wonderful family time and much needed playtime in the ocean.

P.S. Braylen has been talking like crazy. It is so fun to hear him learn new phrases and songs. We have a Veggie Tales Sunday School cd and his favorite song to sing is "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jerricho"! His new favorite phrase-which is not so cute-is "but I don't want to!" And then throws himself on the ground. He usually says this before leaving the house or naptime. He is just as sweet as can be though, and today he hugged my leg for no reason and told me that lunch was yummy. :)

Camping 101

My family has been going camping for years! Back then we used a tent. I have really fun memories as a kid going camping. Nowadays, we use my mom and dads camper. Some people say it's not camping unless you are in a tent, blah, blah, blah. These people have never owned a camper. :) We love going camping with my parents! Tons of games, snacks, camp fire food, hiking, and relaxation! Over the weekend, the three of us went camping with my parents and we had a blast! Here are a few "must-do's" if you are wanting to go camping!

1) Pick your campsite. Mom booked us a site at Fort Boonesborough Ky State Park. Mom and dad have been all over the tri-state with their "camping group" so they know the fun places to stay.

2) Make sure you hook your truck up to your camper. Make sure that it is nice and secure.

3) Bring a wheelbarrow to unload things like wood for your campfire.

4) Don't forget to pack a warm, comfy hat. Sometimes it gets chilly around the campfire.

5) Be ready to play lots of games. We like to play Euchre, corn hole, and hide and seek in the camper.

6) After you've enjoyed a nice meal (like BBQ, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and green beans!), sit back, relax and enjoy your evening. This is the life. :)

We enjoy camping so much! Our next trip is to Brookeville, IN for the Annual Family Camping Trip. I wrote about it last year. We have been doing this trip for about 10 years now and it is a blast!

One of our favorite campfire snacks is Cinnamon Biscuits. You have to try them.

Supplies and ingredients:

1 can of biscuits, roasting sticks, cinnamon, sugar, and butter (spray butter is easy to use)

-Take one biscuit and slowly stretch it out to make it long enough to twist around the top of a roasting stick. Twist it around the stick. Roast over the fire slowly. Once it is no longer doughy, remove from the stick. Combine cinnamon and sugar. Take cooked biscuit, roll in butter and then roll in sugar mixture. ENJOY! It is sooooo good!!!

Happy Camping!

Happy Day!

The past few weeks after New Orleans have been so much fun! My sister Jessica and brother in law Vince were here for a whole week in the beginning of April! We celebrated Easter with my family by going up to Madison, IN to hear my uncle Bob preach at his church. I love doing that every year. It is so amazing to see how the Lord continues to bless their church in growth and fellowship. I was encouraged by the message of "Doubting Thomas" and I really loved the worship. Thank you Jesus for the cross!

Here we are after the service. I have the most handsome boys!

Jess and I took Braylen to the Red's Opening Day parade. It was so cool (not like Mardi Gras cool but still fun) and I had no idea how popular it was! Braylen did not like it at first and was scared to even watch it.

But he eventually warmed up to it.

We had two weddings in one day! On 4/10 Jess and Vince were in Keenan and Jen's wedding, which my mom also made their cake, and Guy was the best man in Stephen and Susan's wedding. The weddings were no where near each other! But Braylen and I were able to attend both of them-well 50% of each. :) Braylen was such a trooper and a very handsome date.

We were both super exhausted and slap happy by the end of the night.

Thankfully, daddy was there and he gave us the energy we needed (well mommy needed) to continue our fun night!

We also enjoyed some time playing Just Dance on Wii with my family. I mean it is the coolest game ever! Even Braylen got into it!

Braylen also knows how to play video games while wearing these suckers......

Those are mommy's shoes buddy!

We are teaching him the difference between girls and boys. :)

Until next time, I will leave you with a little blast from the past. Stay tuned for updates on my time at my 10 Year Reunion! Can you believe I've been out of high school for ten years? Look how short my hair used to be?

Have a great week!

A Night With Friends

Last night we had the opportunity to meet up with some great friends-Kevin and Katie Williams and Shannon and Kurt Baker! It's really amazing how the Lord has used friendships to keep us connected to one another. Here is the connection:

-Kevin and Katie were Guy and Shannon's YL leaders at Boone back in the day

-Guy and Shannon were like BFF in high school!

-Shannon and I played bball and soccer against each other in high school

-I met Kevin and Katie when they were just dating when I first started doing YL in college

whew........Kurt and Shannon met a few years ago-his a fireman and super cool. Anyways. We had the best evening! We met at Abeulo's at 5:30pm and seriously didn't leave until 8:30! A 3 hour dinner! Good thing we have the most flexible child in the world (knock on wood-he did manage to pour a 1/2 empty glass of water onto his shirt and my jeans. chilly.). Guess we need to reconnect with them more often! Kevin is the area director for Urban YL in Cincinnati and Shannon and Kurt do YL at Holmes high school. They have such amazing (and funny) stories of how the Lord is moving in their school communities. Katie and Kevin are going to Ethiopia in 2 weeks to adopt twin baby boys! The boys are so sweet and adorable and have NO idea how loved they are going to be. We are so thrilled for them! Wow. The Williams and the Bakers continue to live by faith alone and it is a blessing to be their friends.

I have finally remembered to post my recipe for homemade granola. I never thought I would like something like this but I LOVE it and try to make it once a month! It's a good, healthy alternative to cereal. It is from my friend Kerri who made it for a leader retreat this past summer.

Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

2 cups regular rolled oats

1 cup chopped or sliced almonds

1/2 cup pecan pieces

1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (or honey roasted)

1/2 cup honey or maple flavored syrup

2 tablespoons veg oil

Dried fruit

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1) In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, seeds and wheat germ. Stir together honey

and cooking oil; stir into oat mixture. Spread evenly onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned; stirring after 20 minutes.

2) Spread evenly on large piece of foil to cool. Break into clumps. Stir in 1 cup of desired

dried fruit (I use cranberries-but you can use raisins, apricots, cherries,

fruit bits, banana slices). Store in airtight container for up to 1 week or store in

freezer bags and freeze for up to 2 months.

*I like to eat mine as cereal but the boys eat it with strawberry yogurt!

Monkeys and melt downs

We had a good week and weekend. Busy but good. I have been helping plan the young life banquet and worked on addressing invitations this past week. Hopefully it will all come together. Guy had Saturday morning off from class so we all went to the zoo. It was so much fun. Braylen learned how to sound like a monkey. His favorite animal is definitely the duck though. He just loves to make the quack noise. So very cute. It was Hall-zoo-ween so he was able to get a few treats before we left.

Saturday night we celebrated Jon's birthday and we all went out to eat at Smokey Bones. Braylen had a melt down! We did not know what to do. I just took him out of his chair and went to the bathroom to let him chill out. He is doing this more and more. I am starting a new book on how to train your toddler and am hopeful that I will learn a few tricks. Am I going to have a "terrible two" child? Braylen has been sooooo easy going and all of these whiney melt downs have thrown us for a loop! Any suggestions?

Even though he may drive us crazy with all of his whining, we just love him so much. He brings us so much laughter and joy. What a blessing to be his mom! I just laugh at him all day long. Tonight he even cuddled with me (for like 10 seconds but it was great).

This week we are going to the Zoo again with Grammy and aunt Amy on Tuesday and on Thursday we are going to a music class at Gymboree! It's like $40 bucks a class but your first class is free (looks like it will be our last class too because I am not paying that much money). And then this weekend is cousin Sara's wedding! Braylen is the ring bearer and I am so excited to see how he reacts! Hope for a smooth walk down the aisle with zero melt downs!

Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin Patch

After Guy's Saturday morning class, we took Braylen to Kinman Farms and we were so excited to go as a family. We didn't go to a pumpkin patch last fall so we were eager to take Braylen to one this year. We went expecting to pay full price ($7 for a hayride, pumpkin, and a walk through the corn maze) but I played high school bball with the girl taking the money so she gave us a discount! yes! Before we got on the hayride, we let Braylen go through the barn to look at all of the animals. His favorite animal??? The ducks! He would point to them and say "quack quack!" He doesn't like to touch animals. He's afraid of them so he just likes to look at them and wave.

We took the hayride over to the pumpkin patch and Braylen loved it! He would grab the hay and hand me all the pieces. When we got to the patch, we let Braylen run around everywhere and play with the "ball." He's so funny. Going through the corn maze took some time. Braylen wanted to pick up everything. He even found an old piece of corn, which of course he tried to eat. sick! At least he likes his vegetables.

We found 3 perfect pumpkins for daddy, mommy and Bray. A big, medium, and small pumpkin or as Braylen refers to it: "mum-mum." He held his "mum-mum" the rest of the time and on our car ride home. So cute.

We had a great time together! We were so fortunate to have the time to go there! Things are so busy right now and Guy has so much work to do between AWE, school and Young Life. I know that we are still getting used to our new schedule but it is pretty crazy around here. We also know that "we have to walk the rocks to see the mountain view" and that one day all of Guy's work will pay off.