Happy birthday, Mike

Happy 65th birthday to my dear hubby. We love and cherish you. We thank God for you every day!

Special Delivery!

My dad surprised us with special gifts in the mail! The drawing has a special story. My dad was born in a small town in Wisconsin. He and my mom, however, were in WA and they stumbled on this artist. It was very ironic that this fishing boat was sketched by someone in WA who had been to my dad's small town. Dad even recognized the boat from being from his home town!!  The jacket he sent Brandon was his from his MP Army days!! Since Brandon in the Lord's Army at church and has an interest in being a missionary in Germany someday, this was a real treat. The jacket is big on Brandon but it fits me just fine. LOL..Thanks, Dad. We love you!! 

kaBOOM!!

Today, we staked out a spot and watched the implosion of the Mohave County Generating Station. Several years ago, they imploded the smoke stacks. It was fun. My video is a little long but the actual explosion is about 1.13 seconds into the recording. The BOOM, was several seconds after that.

Brave

We had a family conference at church this week. Our Pastor's Pastor came out and preached each meeting. Pastor Norwood brought a variety of musical instruments including harmonica's, dossimer's and flutes. He played a special every night and gave us a history of each song or instrument. We dug out Brandon's lap harp and Pastor Norwood tuned it up for Brandon. Among the instruments that Brandon enjoyed, he took a liking to the Harmonica. Pastor Norwood surprised Brandon and had him come up front to play a special with him. Brandon is very brave. At his age I would have been reduced to tears and would have tried to crawl under the chairs to hide. Despite Brandon's discomfort, he went up and bravely did his best. He is now the owner of a good harmonica and a tuned up lap harp (mini dossimer). I might just pluck away at the lap harp and see if I have any talent. I doubt it. No, Pastor Randall, before you ask, I will NOT play a special. LOL

Mom's Visit

Mom came to visit 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, she was sick a big portion of the time she was here. After a trip to ER and antibiotics she started to feel better. She had to delay her trip home to recover. As a result I was not able to take too many pictures of her trip. Here are a few though. She played baseball with Brandon and we went on some walks. We kept busy as much as possible when she was healthy.

Little Shepard Boy

I am enjoying our temporary visitors

The farmers have been moving the sheep around to graze. The other day they put up the temp fence and moved them into our back yard. I took these pictures from our bedroom window so I would not spook them.. It's been fun to watch the lambs run around. From our back wall to the sheep it is about a truck width. I enjoy it when I am outside and can hear them "baaah-ing" at each other. We've lived here two years and this is the first time they've moved them into our field. I think they are so cute!!

Thank you, Mike

 I went hunting for a new shower curtain and bath mat.





Then I walked down the bedspread section and found this!!

Thank you Mike, for allowing me to express my inner purple self! I love you! 

Fun Day

We spent the day in Vegas. Mike needed some rank awards for our Lord's Army youth group. We took our pastor's son with us. We went to the surplus store. Then we ate lunch and went and visted one of our church brothers who is sick and in the hospital in Vegas. After, we stopped off at Bass Pro Shop and the kids played.

We had quite a windy day in Vegas. There were gusts of winds up to 65 MPH. We saw this on the way home. If you can't tell what it is from my blurry cell phone picture,  it's an over turned semi.

A Sound Heart

A sound heart is the life of the flesh... Proverbs 14:30

Mike is doing very well with his new "bionic ticker". He still has some limitations in lifting as the leads continue to heal. The first picture is a duplicate of the pace maker. His pace maker is a dual lead. Which means the leads are attached to the upper and lower chambers of the heart. I am amazed at how small (as you can see, next to my car key remote) it is. No doubt, this PM is already out dated and the next one will be smaller.  Mike's PM is an assisted type. It picks up the beats where his heart natural heart beat leaves off. It does not do all the work for him and he does not have the type that would shock his heart back in to beat. He did not need that.

Now, look at this device below. This is his monitor. It arrived in the mail two weeks ago. In Feb, we will hook this up to the phone line, place the paddle over the area where the PM is and send all of his date to the Dr. . The Dr. will look the data over to make sure everything is ticking along like it should. Kinda creepy, huh?

This transmission of information allows Dr free visits- so long as everything appears normal. Eventually, he will need an upgraded PM. There is no such thing as needing new batteries in a PM. The life of the unit is what wears out. That is just an out patient surgery. They open up  the area where the unit is, unhook the old PM from the leads and plug in the new PM, sew him up and you're done. Well, it sounds simple when put that way, of course. It's not something that either of us look forward to, nor is anything like that without risks. At least it is simple compared to major heart surgeries.  I find it all very interesting.

Finally!!

After starting and stopping WW over many years. After, losing a little and putting it back on. After giving up, and wanting to give up, countless times, thinking it was hopeless and that I would never lose -82 lbs. I DID IT!! I made my weight loss goal (in November)  and maintained it long enough to reach lifetime status (January, 2012) at WW!!!. What that means is, that for the rest of my life so long as I stay within 2 lbs of my set goal weight I am free!! If I go over 2 lbs of my goal weight then I pay the meeting fees untill I get back to goal.

The Key To Sucess

I have received many stars, ribbons, awards, etc along the way. They seem silly to some, but they are reminders of how hard you have to work to reach your goals. They were well worth it to me. I still keep my ribbons on my fridge and my before picture in my wallet. They motivate me. I would like to be a WW leader some day. I 'get it' now. My goal now is to keep it off and keep this mind set for the rest of my life. God willing of course.

So It Is True What They Say About Arizona?

Thank You All for your Prayers!

We are home now and Mike is recovering from his surgery. He is learning to cope with an imobilized shoulder. It makes it very difficult to do some basic things, like dressing. He is only allowed to use his arm from the elbow down.  For those of you who knew what was going on, thank you for your prayers. For those that didn't know what was going on, let me fill you in.

Back in May, Mike applied for life insurance. It was declined as the home EKG,done by the visiting nurse, discovered "something". After a trip to his primary Dr and another EKG, he was diagnosed with First Degree AV block and Bradycardia. After several heart tests and trip to the Prescott VA hospital, he was diagonosed with Second Degree AV block-Type B (Moblitz II) with Bradycardia. He was told he would need a pace maker. After a trip to the Phoenix VA for MORE tests, surgery was scheduled for Monday, Nov 28th. Basically what all this means is this--His natural pace maker was not sending the right signals to his heart (Second Degree AV block). He also had an extremly low pulse (Bradycardia). A normal pulse is over 60 (however in athletes it can be lower). His tests regularly recorded his pulse around 30-35 with some dipping down into the 20's. The cardio Dr was amazed that Mike could have a pulse down around 20 without being in serious medical trouble. If this was all left untreated, eventually, it would have progressed (Third Degree AV block) and he would have been at risk for cardiac arrest. He could have passed out driving or working and injuring himself or someone else. Mike really never had any symptoms that we could directly relate to his condition but hind sight is always 20-20.

So my hubby now has a bionic ticker. He is doing very well and recovering. He is unable to move his shoulder for 2 weeks and his left arm is a sling. He will not be able to raise his arm up for at least 4 weeks while the leads heal. No driving till our follow up appt in 2 weeks and they clear him. No lifing anything over 10 lbs for 4 weeks. This all will be hard for a man who is used to working. He will most likely be off work till January.

Again, I thank you all for your prayers and ask that you keep praying. Pray that he does not go stir crazy sitting at home :).

Good Job, Brandon!!

Brandon just "ranked up" in Lord's Army. He completed many tasks and learned many verses. He is now a PFC. Colonel McKinley (Daddy) presented him with his rank tonight.

Goal!!

 Tonight I reached my goal with Weight Watchers. I've lost a total of 80 1/2 lbs. I joined on November 30, 2010, the same night they launched thier new Points Plus Plan. I can't tell you how much I truly love this plan. I have joined WW before but never reached goal. This time I was determined. I've gone from a size 2X or 3X shirt, to a 8-10. Skirts 20-22, to a size 6. I can't tell you how much better I feel physically and mentally! I am now within 6 weeks of becoming a lifetime member. I've have been asked many times.. What is the hardest part of losing weight? For me, it was not the physical aspect of losing , it was the mental challenge. I have had to say "no" to myself and my hubby and others regarding food. .My hubby has been INCREDIBLY supportive. Thank you so much honey!! I've struggled and spent time in tears watching others eat. I've fought my food and had days where I struggled and days where I was successful.. I came to the conclusion that this is the way it has to be in order to reach my goal. I will struggle with food for the rest of my life. Once I reached that understanding and decided that it was "ok" and that this is real life, I was able to keep going. It was not always pretty and it was not always fun.. I have heard mostly positive things and I've had some unexpected negative or backwards compliments, too. That is ok.. This is something I did for me and it's ok to be a little selfish in this case. Now, I pray, I can keep it up..

Before. I am standing with my beautiful daughter, Julia



At goal.

Yes, I keep my ribbons on my fridge to keep me motivated.

Fashion??

My 9 year old wanted this hat. It never occured to me my son would go through a phase.. LOL Is his unique style is starting to shine through? Interesting. What is next? A lounging jacket? :)

Belated Birthday Gift

Julia gave me a belated birthday gift. Isn't it pretty?!! Now I have 3 purple bibles. I have a special one some close friends gave me, this one and a pocket sized one. . I love my purple bibles and I use them all gently to save them :)

Us

I had Julia set the timer on her camera and snap a picture of us as a family. We were pressed for time so we were not able to stage it like I had hoped. Still, it didn't turn out too bad ...





Our Visit So Far....

Julia arrived on Wednesday. We have kept pretty busy running around town and just enjoying each other. After church on Thursday night, several of us from church went to McDonald's for ice cream. Today, we went to Oatman to see the Burro's and the gun show. Mike and Julia are going on a daddy/daughter date, tonight. 

Thank You, Secret Sister

Thank you for my blessing tonight. I am praying for you, too

 I don't know who you are yet or if you'll even see this thank you. But THANK YOU!!