America The Beautiful by Ray Charles

Holla

Late Wednesday night. Tonight was the last night for our Vacation Bible School at church, averaging over 250 kids a night. That's a lot of kids!! It was a blast, I look forward to it each year. My kids all love it, VBS is one of those memories that sticks with you for life.

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I went to the chiropractor today to get an adjustment, I mentioned to him that Jack's MRI showed a couple of areas the docs were watching then talked with him about some holistic treatments that might benefit Jack. After talking with another mom whose daughter was healed through holistic medicine after traditional medicine did all it could do for her, I learned how important detoxing was in her daughters healing. There were several methods of detoxing, but none that are easy to come by close to home for us. My doctor told me about the ionic foot bath's that he does for his patients. It is easy and in 20 minutes with your feet in a warm foot bath along with an ionic contraption, toxins are released from your system and into the water. I knew that Jack has just the normal toxins from every day life, but also toxins associated with chemo and radiation that have been left in his body. I am not real sure that this procedure is the most effective, in fact I am sure there are some other ways, but some are uncomfortable and most far away. So I decided to give the ionic foot bath a try with Jack at the docs office. It was amazing what came through the pores in his feet. I wont show you the pic because it is not something that is pretty to look at, but his body shed a lot of toxic substances, a lot of heavy metals. Jack will need to do this procedure about 20 or so times to clear most of the junk out of his system. One more little thing that we can do to keep him on the road of recovery.

***After doing some research and even a helpful comment from someone on the post I think we will use a different sort of detox. There is so much info on either side of this foot bath detox. I am not willing to just hope for the best. So I am going to look into some other alternatives. Easy is not always best. ; )

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Took the kids to see Transformers 2 the other night. I am generally quite particular about what I allow my kids to watch. Garbage in...garbage out. But for some reason, twice now both with the Transformer movies I have assumed they are kid friendly. You know what they say about assuming. I knew it was PG-13, but assumed it was for the violence of robots blowing each other up, because we are talking about Transformers here...right. Not only was the movie way too long, like almost 3 hours, it was filled with a bunch of trash. It certainly brought some conversations about. 2 Thumbs down from me.
Note to self: Transformers 3, don't assume it is for kids.

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Next week all 3 of my kids go to camp. I can hear my computer whirrrrrrring with all the work I am going to get done. I will miss them terribly, but I am so excited to get some great amounts of editing done.

Pics on My Gallery Wall For Sale

Monday morning. Such a full day ahead but wanted to check in here and say a big hello. All is good at our house, my father in law was in the town over the weekend and left to head back home in the wee hours of the morning today. We might get to see him one more time before he heads overseas to start his new job which everyone is excited about. Yesterday after church he had his grandkids just to himself without us "parents" getting in the way of the fun. Rob and I were prepping for our VBS a.k.a. Summer Bible Adventure.

Last night was our first night of VBS themed Paul and the Underground Church by Group Publishing. It is so fun. Denise asked me to help her in the Musical Instrument Shop. The kids get to make tambourine's. During the time of Paul many of the Roman shop owners were believers in many different gods. The Christ followers were being persecuted and the church was growing in leaps and bounds. I didn't want to be a pagan shop owner that was snarky to the Christians so I told Denise I would be a Christian who was a part of the underground church, working for her. Then she came up with the idea I would be her slave. It turned out so good. The kids love it. Denise gives them the rundown on the craft, then she talks to them all along talking about the heretic Jesus. I am giving Jesus the thumbs up behind her back. Then once the tambourines are made she leaves the shop and leaves me in control, while she is gone we all sing a song about Jesus while banging our newly made tambourines and I give each child the following "secret" note.

Dear Friend,
I want to encourage you in your faith. I too am a follower of the One True Christ and have experienced persecution for my faith. I am a slave that is in service to a pagan shop owner. I pray for her each day that she will come to know and love the Christ we follow.
I pray that you will be strong in your faith all your days even in times of persecution. Please keep me in your prayers to be faithful to Christ and to be bold in my words about Him.
Your sister in Christ,
Tamatha

Then I tell them to put the note away before the shop owner comes back in or she will be very mad at me. The kids totally get into it, and as they are leaving the store I am wishing them strength in their faith and high fives for Christ and then they are whispering, "I've got my note" and they point to their pocket or show me it crumpled up in their hand.

I love that we are having fun with the booth beyond the tambourines ; )

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I decided to close down my gallery/studio. I am not up there but 2-4 or so times a month, I show up and everything is dusty and looks so lonely. I have loved having it, my original intent was to move my complete office up there, and found that I didn't have enough time on my computer up there without going back to the office at night which I didn't want to do. So I brought my office back home and met occasional clients and showed my work at artwalk. Almost all of my work is referral based, so having my work up on the wall was not integral to booking. I am bummed about not having my pics up to see, but I am also relieved to not have to think about rent. There are so many more places I would feel good about that money going to, my sponsored kids with Compassion, friends leaving for the mission field, and of course contributing to my family's budget.

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I will be open through July so if you have a picture on my wall I would love to sell it to you at a discounted rate, I would much rather have those pretty pics on display somewhere rather than in a closet at my house....or horrors...in the trash.

Thinking of the names and faces I have on my wall....Benton, Alexandria C., Hallie, Melton girls, Ella, Nic and Vanessa, Kayla and Daz, Ash and Irwin, Ashley and Kalem, Lauren, Taryn and Chase, Rachel...many more that are not coming to my mind right now. If you have seen your pic or your child's pic on my wall at some point then they are up there.

Call me, email me, facebook me, if you want to come by my studio and see your pics, I will be there for Artwalk July 9th from 6-8 pm and you can cash and carry.

Most images are 12x18 and backed with art board, if they are not framed they are $15 if they are framed then $35. These prices are WAY below cost.

Billy Jean's Knocking At My Door

When I was in high school I can vividly remember walking to auto shop class singing, "Billy Jean's Knocking At My Door," and being corrected by someone telling me that those were NOT the words to that song. Facebook and Twitter are awry with memories of songs and happenings. He was on top of the world, and then he fell. I am sure I will be listening to some old MJ music over the next couple of days, and it will be all over the television.

Farrah Fawcett, I must have been about 12 years old and I asked my mom if I could put "the" poster up on my wall. I wanted to look just like her. She was a Texas girl, so she had even more than her looks going for her. She always seemed a bit ditzy when being interviewed and then their was the infamous David Letterman interview that really solidified she was a bit air headed. But then I watched her story on cancer and gained renewed respect and amazement for just how strong she was and how hard she fought to win her battle with cancer. I pray for her son, Redmond, who seems to have lost his way and who loves his mom so very much.

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What else is happening? Working on the computer, ladies class in the morning, cleaning the house and getting ready for Rob's dad to visit us. Busy days. I spent some much needed time in scripture this morning and I have had a more productive day than I had hoped. Starting my day grounded in the Lord is such a blessing.

Many people from church know Jan Greenwood who used to live in Abilene was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and started her chemo journey yesterday. She has a blog at www.jangreenwood.blogspot.com if you want to keep up with her and support her with your prayers and comments to her blog.

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Jack is doing well. Taking summertime for all it's worth. I received a note from his radiologist and neurosurgeon last week saying that the spots that are showing subtle change in his brain (different part from the original tumor site) are not presenting in typical tumor fashion. So what that means, nobody knows what is growing in Jack's head, it is not jumping out at them as cancerous at this time, but as it is ever so slightly growing they will continue to monitor it and see what happens. The spots will not pose a health risk immediately to him, so they will wait to biopsy if need be later.
Praying they are gone before our next trip. I have changed our family water supply over to distilled, I feel good about not feeding him aluminum with every refreshing glass full of water any more.

Praising God for His faithfulness along our journey.

Jantsen's Gift

Summertime and we are taking it easy. I have had several subjects or happenings to blog about, but whenever I get to the computer, just like Elvis, my thoughts had left the building.

I spent all of yesterday hanging out with my kids and their friends at Primetime then back at our house for a while. Primetime has a great deal in the mornings, unlimited putt putt, bowling, $10 arcade card, pizza and a drink for $14.99. I took a book to read and each of the kids had a friend along and they had a blast.

Before we headed out on our day of Primetime fun, my sister, Becky and her husband Dallas packed up their van and all the kids and moved on to the next leg of their journey, onward to Kansas to see Dallas' family. It was a quick two day visit but we all had so much fun. We all went and saw UP and it was their twins who are 2 years old first time to see a movie. They were old pro's it seemed, they sat in their chairs or on their parents laps and watched mostly in silence, except when something really exciting happened then they clapped or cheered. It was so fun to gaze down the aisle and watch their first big screen experience. All of my sisters kids are so fun and very well behaved, she homeschools the older two, so the younger two girls already know more than most kids starting Kindergarten. One of the twins discovered Jack's coin collection on the top of his dresser and decided to see what a penny tastes like and swallowed it. After a call to her doctor she was advised to give it time to work it way out of her system and it did successfully so that was a relief.

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I love to read. I haven't always loved to read, but I really just didn't know what I was missing out on. My reading hasn't been consistent over the last couple of months because work has kept me busy. I took yesterday to relax after my out of town wedding, then company, I needed a day of down time. I finished the book Jantsen's Gift.
I loved the book. Pam Cope along with Aimee Molloy wrote the book. I loved the writing style, it was very conversational and very authentic. The book is a true story based on Pam's life, the death of her 15 year old son, the crisis of depression afterwards and the journey of serving children all over the world who need her help.

Pam felt that her life was full of every material blessing, but very surface oriented. What was her purpose? Why would she still feel discontent after she finished decorating a room, or buying the perfect pillow for the living room? She never felt fulfilled. Then Jantsen died a sudden death and even though it took a lot of pain and suffering along the way she was able to look outside of her life and see what was happening in the world around her. It took that new level of suffering to understand suffering in the world. Pam has not stopped helping the children who are the least of these in our world. She and her husband started a non-profit called Touch A Life
and Pam has been featured on Oprah and had many articles written on her life. Her book Jantsen's Gift was released this year.

It was a book that touched my heart in so many ways. I am grateful for having read it.

A side note about the book is that I had met a couple of people who are in the book. Pam's brother in law, Mike lives in Abilene. And Fred Asare who runs the orphanage in Uganda that Pam speaks about was here at ACU taking classes. He was still running the orphanage from long distance, and getting a degree on top of that. When I took the class by Dr. Wray, Spiritual Formation, Fred was enrolled in the class also. I had the opportunity to hear bits and pieces of his work when Dr. Wray would ask him questions and that was such a blessing. I didn't know he was in the book until I read his name on the page. It was a "wow" moment for me.

I am so inspired by people who spend their lives taking care of the helpless, that is certainly my dream too. Mother Teresa, Pam Cope and Fred Asare are all now on my list of hero's.

My Phone Etiquette

I have owned a cell phone of some sort for about 10 years now. My first 7 or so years had the same flip phone and when it broke I moved to my beloved iphone. I love my iphone. For the first several months I could often be seen in the midst of a group with my head down checking email, googling something....over the last year I have been convicted to make the person in front of me more important than my phone. Hellooooooo, was that a news flash to me or what? It could be a clerk at Target, or a friend I am visiting with, but unless there are extenuating circumstances I just silence my phone when it rings to honor the person that is in my presence. Some people have to answer their phone because they are employed by someone who says, "you have to answer your phone." But for me, in the case I have to call someone back in 5 minutes, I imagine I will be with them sometime and need to silence my phone and they wont be made to feel that they aren't as important as the person on my phone. I really like to be an encouragement to the people God brings into my life, face to face. I think this is one way to let that person know they are important to me.

Most places in our country don't have front porch neighborhoods anymore, often times we barely even know those who live around us. Our computers have made it so we don't need to leave our house for much except work, and now our cell phones have made it common place to be on the phone in a grocery store, never making eye contact with those around us, checking out while still talking and leaving the store never even acknowledging the people around you or giving a smile so someone who might really need it.

If we turned the Good Samaritan into a modern day tale, likely it would have the first two people who unknowingly walked by the person on the street who needed help, but never even noticed their presence because they were caught up with their phone conversation. The third would be someone who wasn't attached to some form of electronic device or phone and have eyes to see what God is putting in front of him.

I have been the first type long enough, it is time to lift the scales from my ears and eyes and pay attention to the world around me again.

Holistic....Really?

Monday lunchtime. Woke up early to get on the computer today to try and keep up with editing for sittings and weddings. It's a busy time. Took the kids to the library to turn in their movies and get some new ones. I love the library.
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Rob and I saw Terminator Salvation on Friday night. I loved the first 2 Terminators, but alas this is not even in the same realm. It did have some cool computer effects but the script was so lacking in my opinion that even the explosions didn't make up for it.
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Denise recommended a great kids book to read, it was called Savvy. It was a BlueBonnet book so it had won some awards or something. I read it, my kids had other books on the top of their lists for summer so far. It was a fun book, probably meant for pre-teen age to read. I thought it was fun. It was based on a certain family who upon their 13th birthday they receive their "savvy" kind of like a super power of some sort. I loved the main characters savvy, she could hear tattoo's talk.
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I talked again with a sweet mom of a girl who had brain cancer at about Jack's same age. One of the many who have gotten cancer in their kindergarten years in our area. It had been several years since I had first spoken to her. She is so gracious and helpful. I am going to look into some holistic options for Jack during our interim time of waiting. Her daughter had exhausted her traditional treatments and the cancer was terminal, the doctors had sent her home. This mom took her daughter to a health care facility in San Antonio that treats patients holistically. This little girl who was terminal when she was 7, after receiving her holistic treatments graduated last year from Wylie. I had remembered that the mom had told me that the healthcare facility had discovered that her daughter's body was reacting to the aluminum in the water in Abilene. Apparently Abilene add's aluminum to clean our water, helps the silt fall to the bottom. At the time of her daughters treatment the treatment plant in our area added more aluminum than the other treatment plants. Not everyone's body reacts the same to aluminum, but the healthcare center in San Antonio said they have never seen a childhood tumor that wasn't caused by aluminum. The healthcare facility also told this mom that if Abilene continued to add aluminum that there would be an increase in childhood cancer in our area....living that.

I have really dragged my feet on the holistic route, not because I think it is wrong or bad, but because of my own rebellious nature. My mom was very holistic in nature and she always made me feel bad for taking my kids to the doctor, getting their shots....So I tend to not want to embrace it for some weird personality flaw in myself. I need to look at all the options.

Right now Jack is in a waiting period and it would be a good time for us to at least meet with the Holistic Health Care Center and find out our options. But one thing I have done is ordered a Water Distiller. In my opinion there is such a great amount of kids that are diagnosed with cancer in our area that it had to be something associated with the water table, something natural or something that was added to the water. We will all drink distilled water, which is even cleaner than Reverse Osmosis water to at least do what I can in that area.

Most people will never have to deal with deciding it could be a life threatening issue for their child to drink water from the tap, but for some genetically disposed kids it could make a difference in their health.

I researched distilled water and there is of course a lot of controversy either way. Some people say that if you don't drink tap water you wont get the minerals that your body needs. Some people say that Reverse Osmosis is the best. And others that Distilled Water is the best. Dr. Andrew Weil, who I believe to be a great source for health and nutrition advocates Distilled water. But after talking to this mom yesterday and all of her experiences, and having a daughter that is free of cancer and a terminal diagnosis of brain and spine cancer, I will go with their route.

I do have an inner peace when following this direction. I am not a big believer in "signs," of course I believe in the Holy Spirit that guides us if we will listen. But whether by coincidence or if it was the push I needed this was Jack's fortune at lunch 2 hours after we got the results of his MRI.



I never even thought twice about it that day, in fact I thought, yea right...Jack eat healthy, that will never happen. Then a couple of days later I remembered my conversation from years ago with this mom, and then I remembered Jack's cookie message.


I do believe this is the way the Lord is leading me on this. Otherwise I would just like to sit back and let the doctors be responsible for my son's health, and even though it is the easy way, it doesn't seem to be the right way at this moment in time.

Please join me in prayer for wisdom and discernment on this next part of our journey.