Walk with me as I "Follow the Fish"...JESUS!!!

A new friend from our new homeschool coop invited me to attend Rams University with her. Her husband works for a local company that supplies different things to and for the Rams and his company gave him the tickets. There were 5 of us who went. When we got there Amy told us that we had access to park in VIP parking...AWESOME. We start to get out of the van and she tells us that we get VIP seating...none of us had ever been to this or anything like it before so we weren't quite sure what to expect. The VIP seating allowed us to go into a different area to check in and get some AWESOME goodies then they walked us out past everyone to the other VIP area where we would sit...NO WAY!!! It was SO cool...we got the table that was front and center and closest to the stage/players...WAY COOL!!! Thanks Amy for asking me to go...I had an AWESOME time!!! WOO HOO - Go Rams!!!

Last Saturday we decided to go spend the day in Alton, IL. We want to try to hit a few places that are close to home that can be used 1) as a day trip away from home & 2) as a school field trip. Alton served both of those interests for us. We began our day there by eating at "My Just Desserts" . It had that country decor thing going on that I just love and they serve MUCH more than "Just Desserts"! My hubby got a chicken salad sandwich, I got a Honey Turkey, Bacon club and Heather got a ham & croissant sandwich. All of our food was SUPER yummy but Heather and I topped our meal off with a Toll House Blonde Brownie...that made the day already for me!!! We had a tour scheduled for 12:30 at The Beall Mansion - While I don't think it was worth our $25 that we spent...the lady who did the tour was really fun & friendly and shared alot of information about the 1903 mansion that donned the middle of "Millionaire Row". Our next stop was to visit th...

Well it's DEFINATELY been "SOME" year...and it's not over just yet!!! Along with the blessings we've been getting We've also had an OVER abundance of medical bills (my hysterectomy, Larry's cardiac cath, Larry's Staph infection, Larry's specialist visit for something suspicious on his prostate, Larry's chest xray that found a spot on his lungs followed by a MRI which found 3 spots on his lungs, Larry's upper GI, Larry's sleep study - all which have gotten us to his $5000 out of pocket medical deductible and my surgery was $5000 out of pocket. Larry's getting ready to have ANOTHER sleep study (because he DOES have sleep apnea but they couldn't determine it in time to get the machine on him), another upper GI to make sure the severe acid reflux is healing up, another visit to the specialist concerning his prostate, another MRI to see if the spots on his lungs have gotten larger, and he's going to have a carotoid artery ultraso...

Last night we went to a fundraising benefit for Basket of Hope . They are a ministry that provides baskets (of hope :-) to newly diagnosed children with things such as cancer, diabetes, etc. We had a great time visiting with our friends who started Basket of Hope - the Brunette's...they are like our extended family! We were so thrilled that Michael was available and decided to go with us as we don't get to do much with him these days. So our family set out to enjoy the festivities of the evening at Lafayette Square. We got a GREAT family picture... And were blessed by meeting Andy Benes - What a GREAT guy he is!!! I loved the way he shared his faith with the group when he talked. Heather gave him a book from CTA and he seemed so excited to read it. We had a GREAT time and are thankful we got to spend some family time together!!!

Well - Larry went to a new doctor a month or so ago. While there she did a prostate exam and found something that concerned her. They wanted him to have an ultrasound of the area but they don't have a code for JUST that ultrasound...the only code they have is ultrasound/biopsy. They don't have a facility that can do the biopsy side of it so she sent him to a urologist. Today was his "lucky" day and the urologist found the spot too...says it's about the size of an eraser...must be a new way to measure lumps. Says we have 2 choices - 1) do the ultrasound/biopsy or 2) wait 6 months and see if it changes in size. At the doctors recommendation, Larry has chosen to wait 6 months to see if there is any change. I pray these doctors know what they are doing and will trust in the Lord!!!

My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer March 27, 2007 and went to be with Jesus on May 27, 2009. My mom never smoked a day in her life and died from second hand cigarette smoke...so sad. My hubby seems to have some breathing/hacking coughing issues so they did a chest xray which showed some sort of spot on his lung - thankfully his new doctor is very proactive and decided to do a CT scan of the chest also - they called this morning and there are actually 3 nodules (2 upper left & 1 lower left) all under 5mm (a pencil eraser is 6mm so these are tiny) at this point there is no way to biopsy without cutting him completely open so the protocol is to wait 6 months...the medical field recommends another scan in a year but we're so thankful for our new doctor to be so caring and proactive that they are going to do it at the beginning of December to have us "good news" by Christmas. I'm telling the devil that we're NOT going to have a round two of all of this...we ...