Hello Everyone,
I thank you all for your prayers for my nephew and his family. I am praising the Lord for his blessings are unending. Teresa and Jimmy got a call from the doctor's office on Wednesday that the results of the second round of tests showed that the lymphoma had not spread to other lymph nodes. The doctor now changed his diagnosis to something other than lymphoma but they are not sure what. Teresa asked them to check for cat scratch fever and they performed that test but we don't know the results. The doctor says to keep an eye on the lump in his neck for two weeks, see if it goes down, and if it doesn't they will start looking into other causes. He is not in any pain from the lump so that is a good thing. It's a little bigger than the diameter of a quarter in size and it's raised up about the thickness of my finger. There is no doubt that it is in a lymph node but that is all we know. I just praise the Lord that the doctor has changed his diagnosis away from lymphoma. That was a scary thing to contemplate. The Lord is good and He knows the answer to all of this. Please keep praying that this lump disappears with no other diagnosis needed. I will continue to update as necessary. Take care and God bless.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sometimes in life we have to go through hard times. Things don't always go the way we'd like them to and it seems one thing after another comes at you. I think about this and how some people react to it. They wonder where God is and why they have to go through these things. Some of these people are Christians. People, we are Christians, yes, but we live in this world just like everyone else and we will go through things just like everyone else. We will not know fully what Christ is doing until we reach our home in Glory. We just have to go along putting our trust in our Lord until that day comes. God NEVER stops loving us, and He NEVER leaves us in our times of trial, and no matter what the world tells us MY LORD JESUS IS NEVER A CRUTCH. He is my Savior through all. I KNOW He is real. When we as Christians are getting smacked around by this world and Satan we need to stop running and dig in our heels and call Satan the liar that he is!
I have spent the last few days struggling with one thing or another that Satan throws at me. He has feasted on my depression. Yesterday I reached a point where I remembered something I should have remembered in the first place. Satan can't touch me because I am a child of God. I turned everything over to God and set myself free once again to stand on the Solid Rock.
Yesterday my brother and sister-in-law went for the results of a medical test on my nephew Ryan who will be 6 on October 5th. They found a lump in his neck and the doctor wouldn't tell them the results over the phone on Friday. It seems Ryan has lymphoma. I was overwhelmed. While they were here I couldn't even think of words to say to them except that I would be here for them. I let them leave my house without me praying for them. That was it. Satan can kick me all he wants but he will NOT stop me from praying for someone else. I rectified that this morning when they came to bring my younger nephew so that I could watch him as they brought Ryan for another battery of tests to see how far it has spread. Yesterday and today I began calling my friends who are prayer warriors. Whatever is going to happen in the future for my nephew, he and his family will be covered in prayer. I ask everyone who is reading this right now also to pray for Ryan. Please also pray that Ryan's family will witness God's glory through all of this. Ryan's dad and mom's names are Jimmy and Teresa and his sister and brother are Ashlee and Benjamin. Please remember them all by name in your prayers.
Do not misunderstand, this posting began by talking about me and some of this was about me, but only so that I could tell you that things go wrong in life but God is with us. Though we all struggle, we will be strengthened and my Lord will be lifted up in praise. He is the Great Counselor, the Great Physician, the Rock of my salvation, the Great I Am. If you are struggling with something He will step in when you ask Him to. We don't have to live in defeat. Give it all to Him and He will free you and you will see how much power and peace He will give to you to get you through the storm. You can only say you've given it all to Him when you don't go back and try to pick it up to fix something else. You have to trust Him enough to let Him do what He needs to do. Just pray and leave it alone. I trust Him.
I have spent the last few days struggling with one thing or another that Satan throws at me. He has feasted on my depression. Yesterday I reached a point where I remembered something I should have remembered in the first place. Satan can't touch me because I am a child of God. I turned everything over to God and set myself free once again to stand on the Solid Rock.
Yesterday my brother and sister-in-law went for the results of a medical test on my nephew Ryan who will be 6 on October 5th. They found a lump in his neck and the doctor wouldn't tell them the results over the phone on Friday. It seems Ryan has lymphoma. I was overwhelmed. While they were here I couldn't even think of words to say to them except that I would be here for them. I let them leave my house without me praying for them. That was it. Satan can kick me all he wants but he will NOT stop me from praying for someone else. I rectified that this morning when they came to bring my younger nephew so that I could watch him as they brought Ryan for another battery of tests to see how far it has spread. Yesterday and today I began calling my friends who are prayer warriors. Whatever is going to happen in the future for my nephew, he and his family will be covered in prayer. I ask everyone who is reading this right now also to pray for Ryan. Please also pray that Ryan's family will witness God's glory through all of this. Ryan's dad and mom's names are Jimmy and Teresa and his sister and brother are Ashlee and Benjamin. Please remember them all by name in your prayers.
Do not misunderstand, this posting began by talking about me and some of this was about me, but only so that I could tell you that things go wrong in life but God is with us. Though we all struggle, we will be strengthened and my Lord will be lifted up in praise. He is the Great Counselor, the Great Physician, the Rock of my salvation, the Great I Am. If you are struggling with something He will step in when you ask Him to. We don't have to live in defeat. Give it all to Him and He will free you and you will see how much power and peace He will give to you to get you through the storm. You can only say you've given it all to Him when you don't go back and try to pick it up to fix something else. You have to trust Him enough to let Him do what He needs to do. Just pray and leave it alone. I trust Him.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
post-Gustav
Hi everyone,
We are doing well. God blessed us in giving us a much smaller hurricane than we were expecting. We did not lose any food during the time we didn't have electricity. We were fortunate to have a generator that we ran to keep the food fresh; and also to share with neighbors who didn't have one. Isn't God wonderful? I was looking through the eyes of flesh and wondering how we were going to manage to keep the generator running with our low bank account. When we shared the generator our wonderful neighbors also added gas to it when they returned it to us, then when they were able to buy their own generators someone came by and gave us money enough to run the generator one more day. This person didn't know our need. I was thankful for that and then when it looked like we still wouldn't have enough, when we were near the end of that gas we got electricity back on. God knows our needs and He provides.
The girls and I had worked hard to wash clothes by hand one day so we could hang them on the line to have clean clothes. (I didn't want to waste generator fuel by running the washer.) Two days later the clothes still hung damp and now smelly. I figured out that it was too wet and so strung up a line on the patio and started over after giving in and running only the washer on the generator. I began hanging the clothes on the makeshift line and they were slowly drying. I was excited but it still took a while. When the electricity came back on (after 5 days) I ran out and began gathering the clothes to throw them in the clothes dryer. I was so excited to be able to quickly dry my clothes! I think, of all the things I missed during the time the lights were out, I missed my dryer most. Don't get me wrong I love hanging my clothes out and try to do so regularly, but scratchy towels and displaying my unmentionables to the neighbors isn't usually my style. I am also used to the line dried clothes drying in about an hour or so.
I have most of Heather's wedding dress cut out and the next step will be to sew soon. I will probably start that process today. I was a little distressed when I began pinning the pattern to find out that the lady who cut it shorted us over 13 inches so it will be slightly off grain on two pieces because I had to finagle the pieces around till they all fit reasonably on the material. Please pray that I do a good job because this is a special dress, not everyday wear. I want it to be what she dreams for it to be. Please pray also that she will be able to get David's ring back. She sent it out to get resized for him but the store's roof collapsed during Gustav. We will have to find out what to do to get it back for her. I'm sure we will.
One thing I have found is that in our little part of the neighborhood that already seemed nice, the people have drawn even closer during and after the hurricane. Neighbors who usually stayed to themselves and indoors were forced outdoors by the heat and it actually seemed like a neighborhood out of a 1950's movie where kids rode bikes, neighbors called to each other from front porches, we all spent time going back and forth to each other's homes visiting. It was neat. I pray that we will continue. I enjoyed the quiet acceptance that seemed to envelope us while we waited for the power to come on.
David went back to work two days after the storm hit and one day he came home to get fans. The poor cashiers were beginning to pass out from the heat, one was even taken to the hospital. The fans seemed to help until they could get the air conditioning running. The stores were only letting in a certain number of people at a time to keep down post-storm panic. I have to hand it to our governor, Bobby Jindal. He seemed to assess the needs of the people and help was here quickly. The National Guard (thanks troops!) came out to offer ice and began clearing debris, gas trucks came out to stations that opened on generator power so the gas stations could provide much needed fuel. His main focus was on the necessities first...food, fuel, water, ice and debris removal. Although there are still many without power and damage things are coming about quickly, not the fiasco that is still being recovered from Katrina, three years ago.
Heather and Tiffany went back to work...I think it was Thursday. They are trying to play catch up in ordering and restocking shelves in their individual stores. I don't remember if I told you all before but they both work for the same company in two different stores. They work for Gem's drugstore.
Rochelle completed some more drawings. There is a picture of David Phelps, comedian Taylor Mason and George Sanders (the voice of Shere Khan). She is learning new techniques on Youtube. Check it out in the photo link, post Gustav pics folder.
We have rabbits we are breeding and two days after the storm Rochelle was looking out her window and saw one on top of the cage. It seemed that the night before two of them squeezed through a small opening in the door and escaped to the top of the cage. We put the first one back up and began looking for the other one. I looked all over for it and couldn't find it so I put a little food on the ground for it in the hopes it would reappear and then left to bring Tiffany to work. I thought I had seen it out of the corner of my eye and then laughed because I realized that it was probably the gray ceramic bunny on our neighbor's driveway. About an hour later our neighbor called to say he'd seen it right where I had thought it was before so I went with a net and carrots to gather it up. It was behind a bush and I couldn't reach it with the net so I clicked my tongue and showed the carrots and it came running for them. I picked it up and brought our little wayward gray bunny home.
Our family, church and friends sustained a lot of collective damage during the storm and as I called each of them they all shared stories of the storm. Please pray for not only our area but also the areas getting ready to get hit by Hurricane Ivan. Everyone will need it.
If you look in the photo link you will find pictures of the new crochet projects I completed just before the hurricane and also a few more pictures related to this blog posting. From now on I will begin adding the newest crochet projects to an album named craft projects.
Now, it's time for a new Heather adventure. I was at mom's checking on her the day after the hurricane. My David and my brother Jimmy were putting tarps over the holes in the garage roof when I recieved a phone call from Heather telling me she was stuck in our yard. I asked her, "What do you mean you're stuck?" She told me she had tried to get out and come to see my parents. When she realized my blazer was behind her car she tried to drive through the saturated yard to get out. She told me in retrospect that she didn't think of just moving my blazer. Well, she was ok until she got over the area where we had taken down the swimming pool and then she got stuck. She tried to rock the car out but it just sunk in deeper...all the way down to the front axle. David and my brother came to get her out and realized that she really was stuck good. I don't know how she managed it but there was mud thrown all over the house and roof and also behind her on the bushes. They did manage to get her out and as she laughed while telling the next door neighbor about what happened the neighbor asked her why she didn't just try to pull forward and back up over the little bushes. She said she'd rather get teased about getting stuck than fussed for killing my bushes. Funny girl.
That's about it for this posting. I hope everyone is happy, healthy, and safe. Take care and God bless.
We are doing well. God blessed us in giving us a much smaller hurricane than we were expecting. We did not lose any food during the time we didn't have electricity. We were fortunate to have a generator that we ran to keep the food fresh; and also to share with neighbors who didn't have one. Isn't God wonderful? I was looking through the eyes of flesh and wondering how we were going to manage to keep the generator running with our low bank account. When we shared the generator our wonderful neighbors also added gas to it when they returned it to us, then when they were able to buy their own generators someone came by and gave us money enough to run the generator one more day. This person didn't know our need. I was thankful for that and then when it looked like we still wouldn't have enough, when we were near the end of that gas we got electricity back on. God knows our needs and He provides.
The girls and I had worked hard to wash clothes by hand one day so we could hang them on the line to have clean clothes. (I didn't want to waste generator fuel by running the washer.) Two days later the clothes still hung damp and now smelly. I figured out that it was too wet and so strung up a line on the patio and started over after giving in and running only the washer on the generator. I began hanging the clothes on the makeshift line and they were slowly drying. I was excited but it still took a while. When the electricity came back on (after 5 days) I ran out and began gathering the clothes to throw them in the clothes dryer. I was so excited to be able to quickly dry my clothes! I think, of all the things I missed during the time the lights were out, I missed my dryer most. Don't get me wrong I love hanging my clothes out and try to do so regularly, but scratchy towels and displaying my unmentionables to the neighbors isn't usually my style. I am also used to the line dried clothes drying in about an hour or so.
I have most of Heather's wedding dress cut out and the next step will be to sew soon. I will probably start that process today. I was a little distressed when I began pinning the pattern to find out that the lady who cut it shorted us over 13 inches so it will be slightly off grain on two pieces because I had to finagle the pieces around till they all fit reasonably on the material. Please pray that I do a good job because this is a special dress, not everyday wear. I want it to be what she dreams for it to be. Please pray also that she will be able to get David's ring back. She sent it out to get resized for him but the store's roof collapsed during Gustav. We will have to find out what to do to get it back for her. I'm sure we will.
One thing I have found is that in our little part of the neighborhood that already seemed nice, the people have drawn even closer during and after the hurricane. Neighbors who usually stayed to themselves and indoors were forced outdoors by the heat and it actually seemed like a neighborhood out of a 1950's movie where kids rode bikes, neighbors called to each other from front porches, we all spent time going back and forth to each other's homes visiting. It was neat. I pray that we will continue. I enjoyed the quiet acceptance that seemed to envelope us while we waited for the power to come on.
David went back to work two days after the storm hit and one day he came home to get fans. The poor cashiers were beginning to pass out from the heat, one was even taken to the hospital. The fans seemed to help until they could get the air conditioning running. The stores were only letting in a certain number of people at a time to keep down post-storm panic. I have to hand it to our governor, Bobby Jindal. He seemed to assess the needs of the people and help was here quickly. The National Guard (thanks troops!) came out to offer ice and began clearing debris, gas trucks came out to stations that opened on generator power so the gas stations could provide much needed fuel. His main focus was on the necessities first...food, fuel, water, ice and debris removal. Although there are still many without power and damage things are coming about quickly, not the fiasco that is still being recovered from Katrina, three years ago.
Heather and Tiffany went back to work...I think it was Thursday. They are trying to play catch up in ordering and restocking shelves in their individual stores. I don't remember if I told you all before but they both work for the same company in two different stores. They work for Gem's drugstore.
Rochelle completed some more drawings. There is a picture of David Phelps, comedian Taylor Mason and George Sanders (the voice of Shere Khan). She is learning new techniques on Youtube. Check it out in the photo link, post Gustav pics folder.
We have rabbits we are breeding and two days after the storm Rochelle was looking out her window and saw one on top of the cage. It seemed that the night before two of them squeezed through a small opening in the door and escaped to the top of the cage. We put the first one back up and began looking for the other one. I looked all over for it and couldn't find it so I put a little food on the ground for it in the hopes it would reappear and then left to bring Tiffany to work. I thought I had seen it out of the corner of my eye and then laughed because I realized that it was probably the gray ceramic bunny on our neighbor's driveway. About an hour later our neighbor called to say he'd seen it right where I had thought it was before so I went with a net and carrots to gather it up. It was behind a bush and I couldn't reach it with the net so I clicked my tongue and showed the carrots and it came running for them. I picked it up and brought our little wayward gray bunny home.
Our family, church and friends sustained a lot of collective damage during the storm and as I called each of them they all shared stories of the storm. Please pray for not only our area but also the areas getting ready to get hit by Hurricane Ivan. Everyone will need it.
If you look in the photo link you will find pictures of the new crochet projects I completed just before the hurricane and also a few more pictures related to this blog posting. From now on I will begin adding the newest crochet projects to an album named craft projects.
Now, it's time for a new Heather adventure. I was at mom's checking on her the day after the hurricane. My David and my brother Jimmy were putting tarps over the holes in the garage roof when I recieved a phone call from Heather telling me she was stuck in our yard. I asked her, "What do you mean you're stuck?" She told me she had tried to get out and come to see my parents. When she realized my blazer was behind her car she tried to drive through the saturated yard to get out. She told me in retrospect that she didn't think of just moving my blazer. Well, she was ok until she got over the area where we had taken down the swimming pool and then she got stuck. She tried to rock the car out but it just sunk in deeper...all the way down to the front axle. David and my brother came to get her out and realized that she really was stuck good. I don't know how she managed it but there was mud thrown all over the house and roof and also behind her on the bushes. They did manage to get her out and as she laughed while telling the next door neighbor about what happened the neighbor asked her why she didn't just try to pull forward and back up over the little bushes. She said she'd rather get teased about getting stuck than fussed for killing my bushes. Funny girl.
That's about it for this posting. I hope everyone is happy, healthy, and safe. Take care and God bless.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Hurricane Gustav 4:56pm September 1, 2008
We have survived the storm. Everyone in our family is safe. Praise the Lord Jesus and thank everyone for their prayers. There is damage everywhere. We spent most of the morning watching trees fall down and keeping in touch with family and friends. If you look to the slideshow on the side you will see pictures of some of the damage in our neighborhood, you can also find them in the Anders Update photo link to see them fullsize. They are in a folder called Hurricane Gustav photos.
I will give a better report later. Right now we are running the computer, refrigerator and freezer on a generator until the freezer and fridge return to good temperatures. I wanted to take the opportunity to tell everyone we are all ok. It was a little disappointing that all eyes were majorly on New Orleans even though the hurricane did not make landfall there. I understand the flooding issues and think some of the news should have come from there but not 95% of it. There were more strongly affected areas.
I am also quite a bit upset with CNN right now because the President of Plaquemines Parish was on begging people to get out if they had decided to stay despite the mandatory evacuation because the levees are about to break. He was told to hold on by Wolfe Blitzer, one of the CNN correspondents because they needed to break for a news story on the Republic National Convention....like that was more important than saving people's lives. I am Republican and I find fault with CNN for that. Right now my party's convention is NOT what is important. When they went back to the Plaqemines Parish President he was no longer on the line.....hmmm I wonder why. Then when they didn't get him back on the phone they made it sound minimal because it was a private levee. In some areas of Louisiana privately owned levees and public owned are in service together. Naturally I emailed my complaint to CNN but I'm sure they will not think anything of my opinion. I happen to believe other people's lives are more important, go figure. Sorry for my soap box, I'm upset.
I will give a better report later. Right now we are running the computer, refrigerator and freezer on a generator until the freezer and fridge return to good temperatures. I wanted to take the opportunity to tell everyone we are all ok. It was a little disappointing that all eyes were majorly on New Orleans even though the hurricane did not make landfall there. I understand the flooding issues and think some of the news should have come from there but not 95% of it. There were more strongly affected areas.
I am also quite a bit upset with CNN right now because the President of Plaquemines Parish was on begging people to get out if they had decided to stay despite the mandatory evacuation because the levees are about to break. He was told to hold on by Wolfe Blitzer, one of the CNN correspondents because they needed to break for a news story on the Republic National Convention....like that was more important than saving people's lives. I am Republican and I find fault with CNN for that. Right now my party's convention is NOT what is important. When they went back to the Plaqemines Parish President he was no longer on the line.....hmmm I wonder why. Then when they didn't get him back on the phone they made it sound minimal because it was a private levee. In some areas of Louisiana privately owned levees and public owned are in service together. Naturally I emailed my complaint to CNN but I'm sure they will not think anything of my opinion. I happen to believe other people's lives are more important, go figure. Sorry for my soap box, I'm upset.
Hurricane Gustav 8:09 am Sept 1
Hello everyone,
We are halfway through the hurricane and it's not too bad. It's now a category 2 at 110 mph and more gusty and wet than anything...of course it is a hurricane. We are doing well. We lost electricity for a few minutes at about 6:30 but it is still on right now, except for a flicker every now and then. Heather and David were actually outside playing in the wind and rain until the neighbor fussed her about being outside with no shoes on, now she's inside moping. Tiffany is watching the rain and Rochelle is sleeping. Chris is playing a game on his DS...so basically we are all comfortable.
My brother called around 7 and he said that there weren't even any white caps although the barge the crewboat is docked to shifts a bit. He said all the ships on the river have turned in the wind and are now facing the east bank of the river.
Down the street someone lost a fence. The local emergency radio says manholes in New Orleans are rattling and about 92,000 are without power but there's no flooding yet.
David Ghere's parents called and they are doing ok. Teresa and the kids are doing good, they lost electricity at around 6:30, it came back on about an hour later and they are out of electricity again. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law's family are doing ok they say it's just dreary in Mississippi. Mom and dad are doing ok as well.
We are halfway through the hurricane and it's not too bad. It's now a category 2 at 110 mph and more gusty and wet than anything...of course it is a hurricane. We are doing well. We lost electricity for a few minutes at about 6:30 but it is still on right now, except for a flicker every now and then. Heather and David were actually outside playing in the wind and rain until the neighbor fussed her about being outside with no shoes on, now she's inside moping. Tiffany is watching the rain and Rochelle is sleeping. Chris is playing a game on his DS...so basically we are all comfortable.
My brother called around 7 and he said that there weren't even any white caps although the barge the crewboat is docked to shifts a bit. He said all the ships on the river have turned in the wind and are now facing the east bank of the river.
Down the street someone lost a fence. The local emergency radio says manholes in New Orleans are rattling and about 92,000 are without power but there's no flooding yet.
David Ghere's parents called and they are doing ok. Teresa and the kids are doing good, they lost electricity at around 6:30, it came back on about an hour later and they are out of electricity again. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law's family are doing ok they say it's just dreary in Mississippi. Mom and dad are doing ok as well.
Hurricane Gustav 5:25 am Monday
Hello everyone,
We are still here. I overslept my alarm and just woke up, I'm sorry if you were worried. Looks like I could sleep through a hurricane. Gustav is beginning to lick our coastline and on looking outside the winds have begun to pick up and it is raining. The dogs are definitely going to love going potty this morning. The news says that the winds and stuff have reached New Orleans. The storm is a category 3 with 115 mph winds. Coordinates are 28.4 N and 89.5 W.
Everyone else but me is asleep so I haven't tried to call anyone. I did however talk to David Ghere's parents just before I went to sleep and they are doing fine. Another friend of mine just made it back from Florida and Teresa (my sister-in-law) was doing well and the kids were sleeping.
Take care and God bless.
We are still here. I overslept my alarm and just woke up, I'm sorry if you were worried. Looks like I could sleep through a hurricane. Gustav is beginning to lick our coastline and on looking outside the winds have begun to pick up and it is raining. The dogs are definitely going to love going potty this morning. The news says that the winds and stuff have reached New Orleans. The storm is a category 3 with 115 mph winds. Coordinates are 28.4 N and 89.5 W.
Everyone else but me is asleep so I haven't tried to call anyone. I did however talk to David Ghere's parents just before I went to sleep and they are doing fine. Another friend of mine just made it back from Florida and Teresa (my sister-in-law) was doing well and the kids were sleeping.
Take care and God bless.
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