after the hospital

After the hospital we went downtown in Ann Arbor, see post from the beginning of June on our first visit, we had taken the boys with us yesterday and thought we could see some sites, however since it took so long in the hospital it was already afternoon by the time we left, we opted for lunch and found a Mongolian barbecue. We had not been to one of those even tho there is one right on hall road just 10 miles south of us, we had a great lunch and an even better dessert.... of course between the 6 of us we only got two and then shared but as you can see by the size of the sundae, sharing was no problem.

Then we headed to a local park that was really pretty close to the hospital and on future visits we may go paddle boating or canoeing, I was just to tired after the doctor appointments and truthfully we did not have any money to rent the boats but we will plan for it next time.

We did find some time for a quick photo shoot and a game of Pooh sticks off the bridge, and if you do not know what Pooh sticks is you need to go rent the original Winnie the Pooh Movie.........this was the best part of my day even if we did not spend much time here, as it was we headed into Ann Arbor at 8 am yesterday and did not get home until 7 pm.....that is a long day.

Yesterday

What I thought was going to be a quick in and out thing turned out to be all day.
We got there early by about 20 minuets, the staff had said 15 so it was not to bad
but when we arrived and I checked in they were already behind and it was only 10 Am.
However; there were a ton of things to do so it seems being early they just had me doing stuff before my appointment rather than after....things like I had to do go have blood drawn,
it was on a different floor, then I had to go to physical therapy to learn how to use crutches(again on a different floor and in the main hospital not in the cancer center)
......this started me thinking, why crutches???? As the day progressed there was talk of skin grafting, where they will take skin from my right hip to "patch" the area where they will be
taking the most skin off my cancer area, in case they can not get enough skin pulled back together to stitch my leg....(this was the first time they mentioned this) we will not know if I need a skin graph until they get in there and do the surgery, I guess my legs are too thin and not enough give in the skin to pull it closed after they remove bad skin and tissue.....so when I went to therapy it is because I will not be able to walk on it for a good week and half if it requires just stitches but longer if they have to graph it(if they graph it I will also be in a spint......:( then finally I met with the doctors to do history and physical,(they also went over what to drink and eat and not to eat before surgery, things taht promote bleeding to avoid between now and surgery day etc..... except for my elevated blood pressure????? I am pretty healthy so they liked that, that was about the only good part of the visit:). After a 4 hour stay in the hospital we were finally free to leave. The next appointment is Tuesday at 10 am. That is surgery day.....Thanks in advance for your prayers, it will be an adjustment for every one for a couple of weeks. As usual we will keep you posted.

Clean van

The van was very dirty from the weekend, dusty to say the least, I should have shown you a before picture.....anyway today the boys ad I were home and they seemed to be a bit bored, getting into the swing of the school's out for the summer mode- so I casually mentioned if they washed and cleaned the van I would take them to Dairy Queen (I had 15 dollars to my name)

They washed the outside, cleaned the inside including the windows and even vacuumed. It looks great for the old thing:)

After about an hours worth of work and a little play, I am not sure who was the wettest - we
headed to the DQ. (Our total came to $14.99)
It was a good afternoon.

Tommorrow

Okay so tomorrow is my next visit to the U of M in Ann Arbor.

They say it is for a physical and medical history, so we drive two hours,
see the surgeon have my physical (for the third time) and do a medical history,
then drive the two hours home.

However after our last visit it seems there is a lot to do in the city of Ann Arbor
so I think we will take the boys and try to see a few sights, there is a river you can take a
canoe out on ( you rent it right there riverside), so we may try that and there
is a hands on museum we may try to get into. The weather is suppose to be nice so
we are expecting a nice family day in the midst of what is not a pleasant experience.

Thanks for praying, the surgery date is scheduled for Tuesday the 26th of this month.

I will keep you posted.

UPRISING!

Icthus 2007

Providing students with the life changing experiences of truth through life changing encounters with Jesus Christ




The history of Icthus Ministries, Inc. must begin with the very origin of the name. Early Christians used the fish as the symbol to identify themselves as Christians. the word Icthus actually means fish in the Greek. During the persecution of the early Church this symbol was among those used by Christians as a means of identification and to designate a place of Christan gathering.







Noah played a rousing game of Bigger and better, where you start with something small and trade up for something bigger or better, he scored the whole festival grounds and ended up with this.


At last count there were approximately 18,000 teens, young adults and families at this festival... 30 of them were with us.......
Bands that played and this is not inclusive but close.....
This Beautiful Republic
Family force 5
Jars of Clay
David Crowder
Third day
Day of fire
Alabaster box
Chris Tomlin
Relient K
Newsboys
Toby Mac
Switchfoot

Noah worshipping Jesus through song......

Micah in the tent he and Noah shared

Hanging out at the campsite.....

the boys listening to a concert......

Last Friday

Friday was the last day of school, if you can call it that.... the older boys had exams.......BUT the younger kids had parties. Micah's birthday is in August and he never gets to celebrate it with his classmates. This year, I was a room mom so for the end of the year party we decided to celebrate summer birthdays. We had a great ice cream cake as well as pizza and all the trimmings, then we headed outside for a water balloon toss and fight, I am not sure who got the wettest, I do know it was not me!

The 5th grade had a kickball game against the teachers, it was a hot/ half day, the teachers won BUT if you ask a 5th grader the teachers cheated! Now I was there and if you ask me it was a fun/ fair game, very exciting.

They ended the game and had there last recess EVER, next year they are 6th graders and in Romeo, 6th grade is in the middle school, no recess there......so they made the most of the last one in elementary school!

Noah's 5th grade graduation

Noah and his friends and Mr. Mulder, his principal

Noah and Mom
receiving his awards, academic excellence, excellence in reading, writing, spellings, social studies, and science, above achievement in reading at home, excellent citizenship, award for drama club and I think I may be missing some. If they did honor roll at elementary school, he would have been on it.
His Teacher, Mrs. Bely and the great cake for the reception, yes he wore a nice suit and tie for the ceremony, but true to the rest of the men in this family, he took it off as soon as the formal part was over:)

This is a poem he wrote about himself for today, (click on it to enlarge it and you will be able to read it better)

and a silhouette he did in art

June 6, 2007

Today started out with the second grade awards celebration held every year at Amanda Moore Elementary.
Micah's received the super spelling awardfor having a 95% or higher in spelling for the whole year and the academic improvement award for doing greatand acheiving all his goals in the second grade.........We are very proud of him. On to third grade!


Then it was off to Ann Arbor for my consultation with the doctors who are in charge of my case. We were a bit early so we browsed around downtown for a bit, after 12 years I learned something new. I had no idea all this existed in Ann Arbor, it was beautiful. Little streets vendors, tons of sidewalk cafes and a delightful flower market next to Kerrytown, a cute refurbished old building that now houses local artists and merchants that are indigenous to Ann Arbor. It was very charming. Our short jaunt into the downtown helped ease the day a bit before heading into the hospital for hours.