The Inside Track

For those of you who pray; or those of you who don't but like me and are genuinely concerned with my life, here is an update of some chaos that's transpired of late...

As most of you know, last year was extremely tough for our family. We began the year with the diagnosis of Doug's aggressive prostate cancer. As we made our journey through the year and waded through the decisions we needed to make about Doug's treatment plan, my chronic neck issues began to flare up. By May it became apparent that I would need a two level fusion which took place in early June. That was followed by two months off of work and Doug's radical prostetechtomy in mid July. As we entered the fall season I had a second surgery to remove the spinal chord stimulator which had been implanted three years prior.

The past two to three months have seemed almost unbearable at times for all of us. We've been deluged with medical bills; seen my hours at work cut by about 60-70%; and been plagued by many other mostly annoying happenings (like having our heat pump blown out by a power surge which was caused by a wire in the ground coming loose from the electrical box as a for instance); and the latest little morsel came last week with the discovery of a mass on my breast. After a few tests (thinking squeezing, touching, more squeezing) I heard from my wonderful Doctor, Erin Kershisnik, that it's normal tissue.

All of this to say, life has been rough internally and externally for our family. I bring this up not for pity-party sake (though if any of you wants to throw me one of those parties that would be great...just make sure to bring the alcohol with you). Rather, I covet your prayers. WE are in need of them every day right now at this season in our lives. Thanks to those of you who pray and who are so great about calling me and guiding me and lecturing me when I need it (special thanks goes out to Monika).

Music

I can not imagine life without music. In my mind I am a rock star. Sometimes I forget that I need to keep that perception in MY MIND and I break out in song or an air guitar move and manage to embarrass my children in public. A select few friends have also experienced this phenomena...usually they step away and concentrate on something else effectively telling anyone who might be watching: "I do not know this person; I am not with them."

I enjoy a number of bands, some of which are listed below. I also love being able to play percussion with the Uplink band at church.

United Live http://www2.hillsong.com/united/
Desperation Band http://www.desperationonline.com/
Lostprophets http://www.lostprophets.com/news/

Friendship

In the coming days (months?) I will hopefully post pictures of my friends on this link. I have some amazing friends and I look forward to sharing them with you!

Community

Community comes in many ways...church; the gym; a book club; a neighborhood bar. I enjoy the following communities:

Our Church Home, Evergreen Christian Community http://www.ecconline.cc/ where I have the honor of participating on the worship team and the fos youth leadership team http://www.fosyouth.com/

Shape Gym of Olympia which is where I work out (along with Anna). Truth be told, the only community I experience there is with the treadmill and the weights. I do gaze at Anna now and then but usually we are both listening to our music so talking is out of the question.

What Was I Thinking?

This whole blog thing seemed like a great idea to me...at the time. What was I thinking? I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself what with the holidays and all. My last post on December 20th was followed by the usual holiday flutter with the benefit and craziness of my kids being home from school. We did have a very nice time of it though we missed our usual get together with three of our "couple friends" and their families who we've known since college days. The all live within a couple of miles of each other in Tacoma where I grew (about 30 minutes from Olympia). This was our third annual gathering together on Christmas day. We have the best time eating and laughing and telling stories of years gone by while our children of varying ages play or "hang out" together (depending on the age of course...teenagers don't "play" they "hang out"). Our trip was nixed due to the very rare presence of a snow storm which started earlier in the day. We made a valiant effort but after traveling a mere 4 blocks in 15 minutes we turned around and headed back home. Sadness. Here is a picture of our family on Christmas Eve by the tree! Yup, that's a pretty handsome group right there!

The next big event on the holiday circuit was a little New Year's party for our kids and a few of their friends. The evening revolved around a major Guitar Hero competition. We had a lot of fun playing with and against each other. For those of you interested in the important aspects of the party, we started with a subway sandwich bar with every kind of topping you can think of and completed the night with an ice cream sundae bar. I am pleased to inform you all that my husband actually stayed up past midnight which was made possible by a long nap earlier in the evening. My last check on the kids was sometime after 3 am and I have been told that Victoria and her friends made it till sometime after 6am.

Lest you think that things settled down after January 1st I will say just two words: Winter Camp. Ah yes, the annual January tradition of traveling 4 hours to a mountain camp with - count them with me - 104 students. I have determined that I am way too old for this event and I am quite sure that I will forget that determination by the time Summer Camp rolls around. Could someone make a mental note to remind me please?

Camp, actually, was wonderful (for everyone under the age of 48) and many new students joined us this year. Our speaker was phenomenal - he was also our speaker last year - and many of our students had life altering encounters with the living God. I had what felt like life ENDING encounters with things like noisy girls in our cabin who couldn't distinguish between 4 PM and

4 AM; a mattress that really couldn't qualify as a mattress and would probably be rejected as a donation by Goodwill Industries; early mornings and, my personal favorite, two - count them - two falls on icy paths. I am not by any means complaining merely stating the facts as I see them. The last great thing about Camp (besides the part where I arrived at my own home complete with a clean, hot shower and a nice mattress) is that we have seen an increased presence of God at our Wednesday night meetings (called Fos Church) and a big increase in students wanting to connect with God here at home and connect with others through our small groups. Lastly, my dear Spencer had the opportunity to stay in a cabin with a bunch of sixth grade boys and three great leaders. One big thing at camp is our Team Competition (each cabin is a team). The big event of competition day was a reenactment of the wars of old where enemies line up and take turns firing on each other. Then they move closer and fire again until one team lies in ruins. Instead of guns (they aren't allowed at camp except for the counselors stun guns of course) snow balls were used. Spencer was elected the captain of his team due to his small stature (if the captain dies the whole team loses) So, he hid behind one of the leaders who was a college basketball player, and called out all of the team's commands (you know..."left, right, left; ready, aim, fire") It was impossible for him to be hit and in the end his cabin won the entire war. (Did I mention that while this fun was going on I was in the nurses cabin all afternoon after receiving a Demerol shot?). Spence was stoked about the whole deal and came away with the "Captain my Captain" award. Pretty sweet. Below is a picture of Anna and myself...note how pretty she looks and how haggard I look. It has taken years of practice to perfect the art of looking horrible on the last day of camp but I think I've mastered it! The next image is of Anna and Tori and Tori's friend Alexis...note how pretty they ALL look.

So that's it sports fans. I'm off to a women's event at church where I have the joy of playing percussion with the band (which is much easier on my body). Peace.