Happy Birthday!

to my baby! I can hardly believe that she is 5 years old today! Oh my where have the last 5 years gone! It seems like just yesterday that she was this tiny baby in my arms! Keara, you are growing up so fast! Always remember that we love you with all our hearts and soul!

Keara 1 month old



3 months old



6 months old



Almost 1 1/2



4 years old



And today!



Happy Birthday baby girl! I love you to the end of this earth and back!!!

Proverbs 3:6

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will guide your paths.

I really needed this today as I have had a really rough emotional day! The Lord stepped in at just the right moment and made me see this for what I needed to see it as! Thank you Lord for BFF's and for husbands, even when we don't think we need them. They are there for a reason! Thank you for helping me to remember why these particular people are in my life!

4 years

It still amazes me that it has been that long already! And really 4 years isn't that long but for me it is significant! To see where I was in my life 4 years ago compared to today, WOW!!!!
Today marks my 4th anniversary from breast cancer. It seems like just yesterday that I got the call from my doctor. I can remember exactly what I was doing the moment he called and what my kids were doing. I remember how the rest of my day went and the phone calls that I had to make. The reactions of loved ones and the support of family. It seems as if it was only yesterday but it has been 4 years, 4 incredible, AMAZING years!!!!
This is a journey that I never thought I would go down. I was young when my mother was diagnosed so I don't remember much but there are things that still enter my mind every now and then. When the news came, it was like the sails had been let out of me. My doctor was concerned about my emotional state and I reassured him that I was fine. I remember calling Jason and telling him the news and hearing defeat in his voice. It was not the news that either of us were expecting. I remember throwing my lunch away (who has an appetite after news like that), and drying my eyes and heading outside where my little Mikayla was waiting for me to come and help her plant some flowers. I put on a happy face and pretended that everything was just fine, when deep down inside I was screaming with fright. Fear of the unknown, fear of what the future held for my children and my husband if I didn't survive. My baby was still a baby, she wasn't even 1 yet, that came almost 2 weeks later. I remember telling Briana, who was only in 3rd grade. So much to lay on such a young child, who doesn't understand life. I remember the day of my biopsy. It was a Friday afternoon. It was painful and left a nasty bruise. I remember driving to school that same night (I was attending Colorado Tech pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting) and telling myself "no matter what the outcome is, I am going to fight with everything I have inside of me".
Fight is exactly what I did. Fought for my life, fought to stay around to see my children grow, fought to stick around to pester my husband for more years to come. Fought with everything I had inside of me. I prayed, I cried and I relied on those around me for strength.
Then something happened on this journey. I met a wonderful God fearing young lady (and yes she was young, only 20). She had something that was missing from my life and whatever it was I wanted it. I searched, seeked, and asked questions about life and God. I have a wonderful uncle who pointed me in the right direction, a direction towards Christ. I finally found what I was looking for. I didn't find it in religion, or in a church. Instead I found it in Jesus Christ and I didn't find Him until almost a year after my diagnosis. That doesn't matter, what matters is that I finally found Him. He was knocking for many years and I was not answering, He decided to get my attention in a different way.....cancer. That got my attention all right. Loud and clear!
Even to this day, I still say that breast cancer was a blessing in disguise. Does that seem weird to you? To me, it does but when I look back over the past 4 years, in all reality nope it is not weird at all. It has been a blessing. I am grateful for cancer because of what it did for me instead of what it did to me. It pointed me to Him. It has been a journey that I never wanted to go down, but a journey that has a happy ending (so far anyway).
So here is to 4 years and many more to come!! Have a wonderful Saturday!

Cathi


Then (10 days before my hair started coming out in clumps and we needed to shave it off)


Now (taken Easter Sunday)

He is RISEN INDEED!!!!

What a Glorious Resurrection day! I have made a movie to show how our weekend was. It was a great weekend spent at home and with family! Today is just a leisure day at home watching movies that the kids got for Easter. The Easter Bunny DID NOT visit us. We are instilling the true meaning of the holidays in our children. They get to hunt for eggs that we hid and get prize baskets from us. They were excited to go hunting for eggs again. They got to do that at Grandma Bottelberghe's yesterday and they had a blast. We are blessed to have family close by to spend time with. I must say though, this post by MckMama was by far the best way to describe what Easter means to the Christians. I encourage you to click the link and check out her post for today! I follow her blog, she is a follower of Christ and you can tell that just by her posts and what she is going through with her son right now. She gives Him, the only way to Heaven, all the glory for what their family is going through. I hope that you are all having a blessed Easter and remembering that the Tomb is empty for He is not dead, but HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

Enjoy the Easter movie! (you will need to pause the blog music to hear the movie)




Cathi

Good Friday!

Good Friday, the day that our Lord died to save us all from the fiery pits of hell. Today is a day of reflection for all that was done for us on the cross. It is humbling to know that He died for me, for you and for all who believe so that we can live forever with Him in eternity. To know that the curtain was torn at the moment He died, the curtain that separated us from God. That curtain is now gone because One Man lead a sinless life, died a criminals death, all because He loved us that much!!! WOW!!! I am speechless, but forever grateful for this day in History. I am thankful for His ever presence in my life daily! I am thankful that He came to save me! I am thankful for yesterday, today and tomorrow! I am thankful for it all!
Thank you Lord Jesus for coming to this earth, living a sinless life and dying for me on the cross, thank you for coming into my life at a pivotal point and guiding me in the right direction, a direction towards You!!! Thank you for making History!!!

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God Romans 3:23

Whoever has God's son has life. Whoever does not have His son does not have life. 1 John 5:12

Enjoy the video, this is one of my favorite songs by Matthew West. This man has a heart for God, and just listening to his testimony during LifeLight last year, you could see how God worked in this man's life.

Enjoy this blessed day and remember the reason why we celebrate this tragic day. Because He is not dead, He is ALIVE indeed!!!




P.S. you will need to pause the blog music in order to hear the video!!

BTW....

March 31st marked the anniversary of my blog! I can't believe that I have been at this for a year already! My goodness where does the time go????? I am planning on doing this many more years!!! Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Cathi

Plugging away.....

Again it has been awhile since I last posted. Things have been busy around here as usual. Colby, Mikayla and I have been battling the "crud" this week, all 3 of us are finally starting to feel much better today. It has been a long week to say the least. I am glad that today is Friday and it is the weekend to rest and relax. Oh wait a second, there is no such thing as relaxing and resting in this family. It is a constantly go, go, go!!! Laundry, cooking, cleaning and everything else inbetween. An update on Colby, he is still surviving his "strict" diet and I am happy to report that after 3 weeks into this he has only had 2 headaches. Mikayla on the other hand hasn't been so lucky, she has had 7. We have just a little over a week until we can start to reintroduce things back into their diet, for now things are working. We seeing some trends for Mikayla that lead us to believe that she is more prone to headaches when the weather changes and due to the fact that she has allergies and asthma. I can report for myself that I have only had 1 headache over the course of this trial and it was just this week when I was feeling pretty crummy. So I blame it on my head cold more than anything else. We are counting down to the end of the school year. 6 weeks and 2 days left of school. YES!!!! I am done teaching piano lessons in 6 weeks, take the summer off and start again in September with possibly 8 students. Should be good. We have joined our local Christian Homeschool group this past week and have paid our registration fee to attend the homeschooling conference in Sioux Falls next month. Jason and I are both pretty excited for the conference. We still haven't decided on curriculum yet, but aren't really fretting about that quite yet. I am okay with it, the Lord will lead us in the right direction. We do know that Colby and Keara will be in 1st grade together in the fall. We feel that this is the best thing for both of them. Keara will pick up quick what she is behind her brother on and Colby will be able to finally learn at his own pace instead of being pushed beyond his limits because of the standards set by the school district. We will have to test them next year in 2nd grade and that will be the true test for how they are developing. For the here and now, we are concentrating on one year at a time. We will see where the Good Lord leads us at the end of next year. I am amazed to see how God has put it all into place for us, we are truly blessed by His presence. We know that this is the right decision and that we will be okay. He will see us thru the tough times ahead, and even though the economy is kind of crappy right now, we have seen Him work in ways that we never imagined. We are blessed to have Jason at the company that he works for, and that they are keeping him busy. We are blessed that I am able to teach piano lessons and that people are still willing to have their children in those types of "luxuries" so that I will also be able to draw a "paycheck". God is good. Have a wonderful weekend!

Cathi

Updates.....

I was gently reminded by a dear friend that I hadn't updated on Colby and was just checking to see if I was still blogging. :0)!!! I am still blogging but the homeschooling thing has really taken over some of my time (along with Facebook Mafia Wars, thanks a lot Jason) plus work, and oh yeah.....LIFE!!!!! Here is where we are at.
We are 1 week into our "strict" diet with Colby (we also put Mikayla on it, because of her headache frequency, which is more than I care to have any 8 1/2 year old experience). This is now week 2 of it. We are tracking daily whether they have headaches or not, we also know every ounce of food that those two eat on a daily basis. Overwhelming???? You bet! Well worth it, MOST DEFINITELY!!!! I am happy to report that we have see HUGE improvement in both, and as of this writing Colby has been 1 whole week HEADACHE FREE!!! Praise God! Mikayla has had only 1 headache and we figured out it was something she ate, she hasn't eaten it since and hasn't had a headache. Colby's teacher last week at conferences said that she noticed an improvement in him during the week. He was able to stay on task better and didn't have to be pressed to continue working on his writing. That was huge for me to hear. We will continue the strict diet until April 13th, on that day, we will talk with the doctor and if there has been a decrease in headaches we will not have to see the pediatric neurologist (which is what we are praying for) then we will start slowly re-introducing items back into both of their diets a week at a time and see if anything happens until he is back eating all the things that we had to restrict from him during this time. It is amazing to see him be active and himself again. Not complaining or looking so run down. I myself am prone to headaches also so I decided to help the kids along in the process and do it myself. WOW!!! I am starting to feel better and have been headache free for a week also. I lost 4 1/2 pounds last week just by altering my diet, stop drinking pop (I haven't had a pop or coffee in almost 2 weeks) and lowering my consumption of bread. I am looking forward to what this week will bring for me. So we are still moving forward, as hard as it is some days but the benefits sure out weigh anything else. So there you have it,that is the update on Colby.
I told my boss last Thursday that I would not be renewing my contract for next year at the school. She was very understanding, hated to see me go but totally understood. I am not cut out to be a 1 on 1 aide for a child with disabilities. I am not sure why God put me in these positions at school but there is a reason why He did, it is not for me to understand at this time. I am just moving forward in His direction and where He is leading me at this time in my life. I am still teaching piano lessons and lovin' every minute of it. I have been at it for a month now and will be returning to it in the Fall. I will be taking the summer off to enjoy my kids and their activities. When I start in the Fall, I will have to potential to have 3 more students on top of the 3 that I already have along with their sibilings. I could possibly have 8 students next Fall. That would be AWESOME, but am trusting God to provide me with the correct number of students next Fall so that I will be able to contribute to the family income without having to get an evening job and homeschool my kiddos. It will be an interesting start to our new adventure but that is okay I am ready for anything.
I am going to end this post now, I need to have some down time for myself now that the kids are in bed (except one who is sitting by me working on her science project for school, I am so ready for that part of school to be over with-homework)!!!! Have a wonderful evening!

Cathi

Colby

Today was his doctor's appointment with the allergist. They decided to not run more testing on him because of what has already been done in December. He took Colby's family history and made his recommendations to me. For the next week I have "get ready", prepare and plan and then starting next Monday for 4 weeks, we will have Colby on a VERY STRICT DIET. Due to the fact that migraines run in Jason's family and in my family and yes I am prone to them often enough to be annoyed, and the fact that our little boy has some mild food allergies and doesn't show signs of airborn allergens, the doctor is thinking that Colby is starting to experience migraines, in a mild sense of the word. So we are going to do a strict religious diet for 4 weeks and they will call after that and see if his headaches have improved any, if not then he will refer us to the pediatric neourologist. I am hoping that the diet will work so we don't have to go to yet another doctor. He gave me 2 big packets for soybean allergies and peanut allergies and also a list of food that are migraine triggers. OH MY there are a ton of foods that I wouldn't think could trigger migraines but they do, and some of which Colby eats. YIKES!!! So we are literally back to the drawing board and will start this whole process over again. Good thing that we don't have the "easter bunny" visit us anymore, that could be hard on our little boy. I just for prayers for Colby over the next several weeks as we try to get to the bottom of this problem and get his headaches under control. I just can't wait for the school year to be over with and he will finally be in a controlled environment. I know what is in my house, my food, outside, etc. I really thing something is lurking in that school that could possibly be triggering his headaches also. Why else would they only start after he started school full time, hmmmm......makes a person wonder! Please also continue to pray for my friend "T", she will be leaving for the Mayo clinic on Wednesday and will see several doctors before she sees the surgeon on Monday. It is cancer, but they can't seem to find the primary tumor, this type of cancer is very rare, and right now they do know that it is her liver, so we are praying that the primary is in her liver. Please pray as you feel the Spirit lead. Thanks!

Cathi

Back to the drawing board....

Colby has been experiencing headaches and fatigue more recently and after he found me before lunch yesterday complaining of another headache (he had one the day before). I decided it was time to contact the allergy doctor that Dr. Rector recommended. Thankfully she had a cancellation for next Monday afternoon, so I scooped it up and am praying that this appointment will get to the bottom of his symptoms. I am sure that we will have more extensive testing done on his little body, and am praying that it won't hurt him, he doesn't do well with pain on his body. She did inform me that we should plan on being at the office for 2 - 2 1/2 hours that day. YIKES!!!! Thankfully I have a comp day at work due me so I am going to take my comp day and see this doctor myself and let him know my concerns. Something needs to be done. We have already modified his diet extensively and that helped tremendously but he is starting to revert back again. So I am not sure if there is something else that he is allergic to that didn't show up on the first test. So be thinking of Colby on Monday and praying that God will guide the doctor to get to the bottom of this problem so that he can go back to being a happy healthy 6 year old boy! I will keep you posted and let you know next week as soon as we know anything. Have a wonderful evening!!

Cathi