May 2009

Hi everyone,

Wow it doesn't seem like it's been almost three months since I last wrote. So much has happened since I last wrote. Hopefully I can catch you up on most of it.

I have been definitely diagnosed with sleep apnea. My family, friends and I had prayed for the doctor to be right and that sleep apnea was the cause (as my new doctor suspected) and that God would heal me of it so that I could return to a normal life. It seems God has answered everyone's prayers. I will be getting a CPAP machine this Friday and hopefully it will do the trick. I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with a real diagnosis. I knew I wasn't crazy or pretending. I just knew I wasn't me. For the past few months I have been dealing with mild depression. I call it mild because I didn't want to go anywhere or even talk to anyone. I was tired of the questions without answers of "What is wrong?" or "Have the doctor's found anything out?" or "Are you sure there's something wrong, sometimes you look almost ok?" This strange illness has been aggravating and embarrassing to me because I don't like this type of attention and not being able to do the things I love. My strength through it all has been my family and my Lord Jesus Christ. Without them things would have seemed hopeless. They are always there for me, loving me and supporting me. I never once doubted that the Lord was with me. I am His child and he's always on call, even in the dead of night when pain makes it impossible to sleep. If the CPAP machine doesn't take away all the symptoms there may be something else in addition to the sleep apnea, but I am leaving it in the Lord's hands. He knows what's best for me and I trust Him with my life.If you don't know Him I don't know how you make it without Him. I couldn't.

My hubby is, as I speak working on remodeling the bathroom and installing a shower for me. I am excited. I love my deep bathtub but sometimes it would feel nice to just take a quick shower, so I get the best of both worlds now. He is on vacation this week so he can work on our bathroom.

Heather had her tonsils out and recovered just fine. Her hubby came home in February and they are enjoying their time together. On another happy note, I am going to be a grandma. Heather is due December 12th! I say it's going to be a spoiled baby but I'm not saying who's going to spoil it. Heather and her hubby are staying with us until they can find a house to buy.

Tiffany and Rochelle are doing well. Rochelle doesn't need an apparatus to strengthen the muscles in her face like our old doctor said. According to the dentist she has severe TMJ and she just has to give her jaw a break for a while. No hard, crunchy or chewy foods for a few months. This however is about to drive her crazy as she is an avid gum chewer.

My dad still needs your prayers. Since I last wrote he's had open heart surgery and eye surgery. They couldn't do the surgery to remove blockage on his legs because they found a massive blockage in his stomach. When they looked to see if his heart was strong enough to unblock that they found 80%, 70%, 80% and 100% blockage in his heart, so that caused the open heart surgery. He had eye surgery last week because one of his eyes was leaking. Both of those surgeries went well. He will be scheduling surgery to have the blockage in his stomach removed soon. The doctor seems to believe that there will be no need to remove blockages in his legs because the blockage in his stomach is what's causing the blood flow to stop in his legs.

Also pray for David's step dad, Jake. He also has a blockage causing trouble with his legs. They went to see if they could put in stints and they couldn't, so extra surgery is pending on him as well. Please keep both of them and my mom and mother-in-law in your prayers.

Our friend Julian who struggled so long with his battle for life has gone home to be with the Lord. Although it saddened us to see him go, we know he is now dancing on the streets of Gold and praising the Lord in person.....lucky guy. Please keep his widow Janice in your prayers.

My cousin Shirley who had the sinus cancer has been given a clean bill of health! Praise the Lord!

Our church now has a new pastor. His name is Bro. Josh Burnham. We are so excited to have him and his wife Casey in our church family. God answers prayers more than many realize. Thank you all for your faithfulness in praying for all of my requests.

I have started an email group for recipes if anyone is interested. My doctor says now that I will have the CPAP machine I should be able to start losing weight....YAY!! I want to do all that I can as I have about 100 pounds to lose now. I figured new, healthy and cheap recipes would be a great addition to my weightloss plan. The list is extremely new. Right now I am the only member. Please join in to help me. I will post new recipes as I find them but it's more fun to share. The idea is to find recipes that are quick, easy, cheap and healthy. I will post my progress here in my blog as I go. I also have a program that counts the calories, fat, sugar, carbs, etc in whatever recipes I type in so don't be shy about not knowing nutritional values. I can fix that. The address to sign up for my group is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuickEasyCheapAndHealthy

Well, that is about all of our news that I can remember for now. Stop in some time or drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you. Take care and God bless.