Track of Light

My Grandmother

 

My grandmother is my father's mother.  We write to each other every day and have done so for about 14 years.  She also sends me a devotion every day.  She has spent her adult life writing to prisoners trying to help them grow close to God. 

Her favorite saying is, "Praise the Lord." 

Her best attribute is her faithfulness in writing.  Before she had email she wrote all of us letters very faithfully even though none of us responded in kind.  The best thing about email is that I get to write her right back.

Her biggest weakness is her TV Shows.  Her life revolves around her Christian Programming, Ice Skating and Hallmark type movies.

My favorite thing to do with her is to take her out to brunch.  That is where we were when I took these photos.

I am blessed to have her!

The "New" Red Truck

My husband's new red truck sits in our drive and we are so grateful.  We have endured a lot of traumatic things in the last few months.  It has been one major blow after the next.  The grief is profound.  The traumas and blessings sure make us reflective and the family members who are left are closer than ever.  Besides the ability of our family to band together and do what we can for each other, we are enjoying my father's retirement.  It is so nice to be with him when he is not feeling so much pressure from work.  What a blessing.

I added an ATC gallery.  I have been making a lot of ATCs because they are fun and easy to trade but mostly because I can do a lot of the collage work on the computer which is easier for my hands, neck and shoulders.  I have a lot of things I want to scrap building up in my mind so as soon as I am able they will start exploding out into 12x12 pages.  :)

I hope you have a blessed day.

There really is nothing like family.

A few days after my husband bought me my new (2005) car he totaled our 15 year old Silver Nissan Pick Up Truck.  He was and is deflated.  He was willing to drive the older vehicle so that I could have something that was easier on my neck and suddenly, the truck was gone and we actually owed money for the towing.  We were so upset it is hard to put into words.  We were glad he and the other people in the accident were OK but we had no idea how we were going to manage with out the vehicle.

We have been on a quest to find another vehicle ever since.  My family has been picking up the pieces as well.  The first thing that happened is my brother drove up to our house right away and late at night to take my husband home with him so that he could borrow his brand new and much treasured truck until we could figure something else out. 

Then, when my parents got back from their vacation they came right over and left us their van and helped us get my brother's truck back to him.  In the meantime, we have been working like mad trying to figure out what vehicle we could actually afford.

We were at a family dinner get together with some of our close family friends as well.  They started to offer their truck to us for sale.  They said for us to make them an offer.  Now, you need to know that this truck has been his "baby" and he has put lots of extra details on it like screens and running boards.  There was no way we could make them an offer.  So, they called us up and made us an offer.  They would finance, the payments would be low and there would not be any interest.  They are so kind.

We have been wanting to close the deal but the sales tax was so much that we were trying to figure out how to manage it.  If I did not get my prescriptions refilled, if we bought only a few groceries...if only.  How can we make this work?

So, my parents called and said to get the truck and they will pay the taxes.  Blessings upon blessings.  I hate for them to have to pay the taxes but I am so grateful.  I believe this will be the day when we are no longer a one car family.  What a relief!

Do I Want to Know This?

I just got back from the neurosurgeon who says I need another neck surgery.  I had a fusion of c6-c7 somewhere around 1990 after a drunk driver hit us.  Now, he says I need a fusion of c5-c6 due to deterioration of the disk there.  I believe he is right but do I really want to know this?  The good news is that surgery could help my arm and hand strength.  It is so frustrating that taking a shower (washing my hair) and blowing drying my hair is such a huge deal for me.  I want to be able to carry my cup again.  My husband doesn't really enjoy carrying my purse.  :D  So, there are upsides to getting it done and I hope to get my life back.  But, another surgery...

Spending Lots of Time at Doctors and the Good News

I have been experiencing something like seizures that are very troublesome.  Therefore, I have been undergoing a lot of medical tests.  They have discovered some interesting things that I needed to know about such a vein problem in my right frontal lobe, that I get very little (1.7%) deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) and that my heart rate is sometimes extremely irregular and some other odds and ends.  I am not sure the answer to the original question (What is happening when I have these things that are similar to seizures) but it seems like working on the other issues will help me feel better. 

Now, the good news!  My husband got me a new car yesterday.  We will celebrate our 21st anniversary this week and he topped off the occasion with a lovely gold 2005 Highlander.  It drives so smoothly and it is a wonderful anniversary gift!

Horse Lessons Adventure

We are still having an amazing time learning all about horses.  One of our friends from church is teaching us.  Last week it was raining and thundering on our day to go to the stables.  Nothing could hold us back as we are completely smitten with the horses.  We were learning all about saddles (my daughter can do this, there is no way I can pick up a saddle right now) and enjoying the horses.  My daughter took to putting the gear on the horse like she had been doing it all of her life.

In the midst of all of this I heard some sounds in the field behind us and one of the horses we were working with sounded a warning.  Our friend is deaf and she had no idea what was going on.  On a side note, the horses completely know she can not hear and it is obvious they keep a watch on everything for her. 

So, I told my friend that her horse was telling her something and she needed to check out what was happening.  It turns out that 2 of the horses had broken out of their field.  They had actually broken a link in the chain that closes the gate.  She thought that was very strange because they had not done that before.  She guessed that it was the storm that spooked them.

As soon as she got the horses back in the field, we began to understand what was going on.  We hear a helicopter coming closer and closer to us.  (Of course, my friend could not hear it.)  Eventually, they came right above us and it was clear they were chasing someone.

In one of the fields right beside us is a cut out portion where a mobile home is located.  No one is living in it.  However, I looked out and there was man leaning up against the mobile home.  We watched as he disappeared inside the mobile home and a swat team surrounded the building. 

It was quite a sight to see a swat team so close to us!  Eventually, all of the swat team vehicles pulled out but we did not see them leave with the suspect.  We wondered if he was still in there.

Later, we discovered that he was caught and that he had been picked up for armer robbery.  Quite an eventful time at the stables.

The take away for me was how clearly my friend's horses watch out for her.  Actually, all of the horses that she takes care of seem to have a deep connection with her and they not only trust her they take care of her as she cares for them.

Happy Father's Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful Father's Day!

The muscle jerks are still happening.  They did a bunch of tests this week.  Apparently, there is a brain in there somewhere.  :D  The biggest problem at the moment is the sleep disturbance this is causing.  I keep going back to take another nap only to wake up even more sore than when I went to take the nap and just as tired as I started.  They are doing a sleep study in a couple of weeks but it will take a month after that to get the results.  My dh tells me that the jerks are going on all night.  (They are just like hiccups but with other parts of my body.)

I will be back to the regularly scheduled programming as soon as I can.  Please don't give up on my poor blog.  ;) 

Grandma is moved in and now has internet...

Now, she has to adapt to her new surroundings.  Moving is tough and adapting to new surroundings are hard for her.  Please add my Grandma to your prayers.  I am looking forward to her next answers, which should be coming soon.

Horse Back Riding

Well, it looks like a dream will be coming true for my daughter.  A lady from church is going to let her come to ride her horses over the summer.  I am imagining lots of horse photos to come!  :)

My Grandma project has slowed up temporarily because Grandma moved this week and we are still waiting for her internet and phone to get back online.  We can't believe the phone company disconnected the one phone and are not setting up the new one!

Oh for goodness sakes, I am a swap junkie!

I had a bunch of swaps to mail out this week.  When getting it all together I realized that I am a swap junkie!  I recently mailed in:

• rainbow swap
• ribbon swap
• postcard swap
• round robin swap
• canvas swap
• secret swap
• lay out swap
• paper swap
• trims swap (done this one several times)
• collage swap

I think there are more that I am not thinking of at the moment.  Swaps are great fun but the shipping can ruin all the fun.

What swap have you participated in that you were happiest with?