August!

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Well, as you can see, things didn't go as I had thought they would. Here I am just now getting caught up. Chris is doing well. He got to go home from the hospital the Monday following his surgery. Last week was his first full week back. He is not allowed long distance travel as well as lifting anything more than 15 pounds until he sees Dr. suthers the 3rd of september.

Kids are back in school and it has been good for them to have something consistent in their lives. Nathaniel is enjoying it, even thought he was pretty sure he wouldn't. Hannah is glad to be making new friends as well as seeing and reconnecting with old ones. I am trying to get caught up on all the things I am behind on and not having much luck.
I am uploading a few picts from over the summer. A lot happened and so much time to fill in all the blanks. As for our fall, Chris is in the recieving department at work, which works out great for him as he can drink, go to the bathroom, sit and rest whenever he needs to, and yet is able to work 40 hours a week and help in a much needed way at the store. They have been so awesome to us this summer!!!

I start working at Antioch preschool again effective Monday. I will be working with another lady in the 2 year old class. I am excited about it as I am also taking online classes to finish my early childhood education degree. I am also coordinating the activities for the kids at our churches mother's group. It is called Mother's with grace and i am excited about being involved in it.

I don't have pictures yet, but Chris took me this past Friday out on a 10th anniversary date. Since we were in the hospital for our anniversary, he thought it would be sweet to take me to a place like where we met. It was a Happy anniversary, and thanks for taking good care of me this summer date. We went to a place called Cuppies and Joe. I will get picts on here ASAP. I took a good one of the 2 of us, which hasn't happened in quite a while!!

I am hoping that our fall will be full of peace and rest, and I hope you enjoy the picts!! Until next time!!

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My little cowboy and cowgirl at the Tuttle rodeo. They both thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

The girl cousins hanging out in Ks.

The boy cousins hanging out in Ks.

Uncle Dave, Dottie and Nathaniel playing a game.

Everyone playing dinosaurs with Uncle Timmy.

Chris' first taste of real food after the 2nd surgery. His face says it all!

Our little sumo wrestlers. We all had a good laugh with them doing this. What you can do with pillows.

Playing with Jake at the dairy farm during our trip to KS in May.

Hannah and Ms. Colvin riding Socks and Critter.

Hannah and Grandma at the mall on "lego day".

Nathaniel and the Grandpas at the "lego day".

Kids by the finished R2D2.

Nathaniel receiving the 2nd smartest 2nd grader award.

Hannah made Chris a special cupcake for Father's day. She was the one most worried about his well-being.

I shouldn't have put this one on, but I wanted to take a picture and share so that people can be reminded that what you eat does have a dramatic affect on what happens to you. It is a reminder to us that life is fragile and each minute with each other is a precious gift from God. We cherish that!

Wow, I am behind on updates

Ok, so it has been almost 2 months since my last post. As of this blog, we are back in the hospital, but for better reasons than last post.
Chris recovered well from the last post. We learned a lot about ostomy bags and his body has healed so much quicker than expected. He had a colonoscopy Friday the 17th and the results were good enough that Dr. Suthers scheduled the surgery for yesterday. The reconnective surgery went well. So well that she didn't leave a drain. They removed the catheter this morning and are hoping to hear bowel sounds today. When he can pass stool, he can go home.
My parents are here helping with some projects that have been needing some help. My dad is finishing up the dog fence that has been a thorn in my side all summer. He is getting help from Nathaniel, who was so excited to help yesterday dig holes. He is doing so well. Mom is going to teach Hannah how to sew today and I think a new dress is in the works as the boys work outside in the dirt.
Chris' parents are here too. They are staying with his grandparents and will be by this afternoon to give me a break so I can run home and see the kids and help my dad with the fencing.
Our church has been a blessing in all this, as 2 of the ministers were here bright and early yesterday to sit with us during surgery. I love and appreciate those guys so much!! And our sunday school class and our teacher has been such a God-send!!
I will try not to wait so long and will post some pictures of our summer, minus the medical stuff. :-) Hope this finds everyone well and staying cool!
We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers!! All our love to all of you!

Setbacks!

Well, since I last wrote, Chris did really well on liquids. they got him up and movin and he was feeling good sunday and monday. by monday night, he was starting to feel nauseous and by tuesday morning, they couldn't get him to stop throwing up. they ended up having to put the stomach tube back in, which was uncomfortable. they were afraid that there was something up in his small intestine and wanted to do xrays wednesday morning.
he threw up on the xray table and was miserable all day, but the good news was that nothing was wrong in his organs. Other than the doctor said that his small intestine had decided to "go back on vacation". he had the tube in all wednesday and today. they were hoping to see progress, which they did. this afternoon they pulled the tube again and so far so good.
Tuesday was scary, as I could see in his eyes that he was giving up on me. He admits asking God to just take him home and get him out of his misery. I had to process the thought of the possiblity of him going back into surgery and not being able to make it. that was hard.
we don't know now when he will get out, but we are thankful that he is feeling better and that he is alive. we appreciate the prayers and will keep up to date as possible.

When it rains, it pours

It has been over a month since I wrote last. Chris was about to head to Tx with his overnight job last post. Well, the saturday before he left for tx, he got a call from Lifeway Christian bookstores and they were looking to hire him as eventual management. One of their managers is pregnant and wants to be a stay-at-home mom. He was looking to start filling her shoes after we returned from our 10th anniversary trip the end of June. Anyways, he started at lifeway end of April.

He was enjoying greatly his job there stocking books and doing his thing. I have been working for Rose Beattie and was getting ready to down my hours as the kids were going to be out of school and stuff. This past Friday, the 22nd, his grandma leach passed away. She hsa been battling Alzheimers for years and it was kind of a relief to let her go. So, the kids and I headed to ks, as my brother and his wife and baby were going to be there and my mom was also having surgery and I was going to help her prepare for her recovery. As we did this, he flew out to Nashville, Tn for the funeral. He called me sunday and said he didn't feel well and that his parents had taken him to the er and the decided he was dehydrated. They filled him with electrolytes and sent him home to OK. He went to work monday still not feeling well. I told him that if he was dehydrated, he wouldn't feel good and to keep up the liquids. Tuesday morning he decided he needed to see a dr., so he went Wednesday morning and they decided he was really constipated and needed to take exlax regularly. Thursday morning was my moms surgery and so after they had left and I was working on preparing meals and the house, he called and said the pain was worse. by this point, he was annoying me because I didn't know what was wrong and I thought he was just trying to get attention. Needless to say, i wasn't very compassionate. I plugged my phone into the car charger and continued with my day. meanwhile, he had gone into work and they said he looked like death warmed over and sent him away to go to the hospital. He decided he was just going to go home and lay down and on the last exit before reachiing tri-city, he saw a sign for community hospital and decided he had better give it one more shot and see if someone could figure out why he was huritng so much.
They ran a CT scan and an x ray and found out that he had a perforated colon and diverticulitis. They rushed him into emergency surgery. The kids were playing outside and heard my phone ring. I went to check the messages and it was Chris saying that he thought it was his appendix, that he had an xray and didn't know the results yet, but would call me when he did. So, I had already kind of had bags ready and started thinking about heading home. Around 7, I got a call from Susie Pendly, a family friend who was here with him, and she said they were rushing him into emergency surgery and she would keep me posted.
My dad was at the farm grinding feed, my mom was in the hospital hopped up on morphine from her surgery, so i loaded the car and ran down to grandmas to let her know what was going on. We left around 8. As i drove this way, susie as well as Chris' aunt brenda and our good friends Mark and Tammy self were callinig giving updates. As they were updating me, I was calling Mary, who was interpretting medical information to me.
Chris was in surgery for over 2 hours. They took out his appendix, and 7-9 inches of his large intestine. They disconnected his small intestine from his large intestine and poked the small intestine out the side of his stomach to drain into a bag. In doing this, the large intestine is allowed to rest and heal and his body can still eliminate waste. We got here and saw him, even though he doesn't remember it. Thats ok:-)
His doctor has been in every morning and his is recovering really well. Yesterday they took out his catheter and clamped off the tube going down into his stomach to see if he could handle the water in his stomach without being nauseaous. This morning they completely took the tubes out of his nose and he is on clear liquids for the day. If he is passing enough urine with the clear liquids he is consuming today, then he will lose the IV tomorrow and with that, the morphine. So this afternoon, they are planning on getting him onto some oral meds for pain. Tomorrow, a specialist in regards to stomas (the small intestine dripping into a bag) and will teach me how to keep clean his stoma and how to properly drain it and watch for infection. They are hoping today and tomorrow to have him up and down the halls.
His friends at Lifeway are saying he still has a job, but they are going to postpone the management training until he heals. They want him better before they want him a manager. that brings a lot of peace of mind.
The kids are doing well. They spent the first night with Hannah's first grade teacher, which they loved. last night and tonight they are staying with some friends from church and Noel is headed this way today and is going to take care of them this next week.
Anyways, so if you could continue to pray for us as we keep on trusting God, that He will continue to show himself faithful? We appreciate the prayers we have recieved so far and I will attempt to keep everyone updated.
Oh, final note, the bag is temporary. They are shooting for Labor day as a time frame to do the reversal surgery and put all his organs back where they belong. I forgot that part. :-) His spirits are good and we thank all who have come by to visit!

Prayer request

Just wanted to post a quick one before I crashed for the night. I am not sure if I wrote about Chris' new job of working overnights, but he worked 2 nights last week as kind of an introduction. It is with Crossmark, which does resets for Home Depot. He is really enjoying it, as it is familiar to him. Anyways, he found out tonight that he will consistently work four 10 hour nights. And along with that, they need him to travel some with them as they do more store resets. This week and next week they are in the city, but the last week of April and maybe the first week of May they will be in Texas for the week. Arlington to be exact. He is a little worried about juggling this and his school work, as he has taken on going back to class online. If you would pray for him as he starts this new job and commits to his schooling and tries to juggle us as well. I know we all would appreciate it.
Hope you all had a good Easter. We did, as we enjoyed time at Aunt Glendas. Until next time, all our love!

Its been a while!

Just thought I would catch everyone up. I am finishing up my first online class this coming week. I have really enjoyed it and it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought. Just need to time manage.
Ok, first of March, I recieved a call from a lady in our church. Her mother is in her 70's and is an insurance agent. They were looking for someone to help file papers and doing other simple office stuff a few days a week. I told her I would interview and we would see where it went from there. After the interview, we decided on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After going there to get a tour of the place and help do a little clean up, they wondered if I would be interested in doing some cleaning as well. They wanted me to help Tuesdays through Fridays, paying me $10 for the office work and $13 for the house work. I couldn't turn that down, as Chris still isn't working anywhere. He ended up just quitting Sonic. He interviewed with the state again the first part of March and got another "we are so sorry" letter. He also interviewed with Crossmark, a merchandiser who sets up resets for Home Depot. And lastly, he had a super-great interview with Lifeway Christian Stores. He hasn't heard from any of them yet.
He isn't discouraged, as of lately. He was asked to speak at our church's men's retreat this past weekend and was really blessed by that. . He has decided with his free time to go back to school online as well. He figures he might as well. With the credits he has, he has decided to finish it up in Religion.
As for the kids, they are doing well. They are making straight A's and are ready for summer break. We spent a week at my parents over Spring Break, and that was really nice. We hung out with my grandma a lot and saw both of my sisters as well as spent a day at the dairy farm and a bunch of time with my mom and dad. It was good. The only down side was our last day there. We were enjoying a great day with my cousin and her two little ones when shortly after they left, Ben, our dog, got hit by a truck. Upon looking at him, he had some pretty good scratches and he was hurting, but didn't appear to have any serious injuries that we could tell.
We took him to the vet when we got home, just to check and they said he had some really bad bruising, but from how they felt him, he didn't have any internal injuries. He and I had some really good snuggling, chillin out time together. I wish we had more time to do that now and I wish we had a place condusive for that. We brought them both in when we thought we were going to get 8-16 inches of snow a few weekends ago, and only ended up with less than 1/2 inch.

Lets see, other events. I had my 31st birthday and we celebrated with some friends from church. On my actual day, we took some of our tax return money and got ourselves a dining table again!! yeah, no more sitting on the floor to eat! I opened my gifts and got a craft from the kids that we did and some vanilla candles we burnt while doing our craft. I will have to download some picts when I get a chance.It was fun. They also took me out to Ted's, yummy!!
And the only other thing I can think of is that we did April fools' jokes this year. Nathaniel was reallly pumped about playing some tricks., so he vasolined the toilet in our bathroom before heading to school so that Chris would sit on it when at home alone. However, during him doing this trick, he noticed that we had gotten him first. Chris and I painted his toenails while he was sleeping. He was not happy about it at all. We told him we were being nice because he could cover that up with his socks and wouldnt' be embarrased at school. He agreed, but still wasn't happy. Oh, and Chris never sat on the toilet. He saw the huge amts of vasoline and used the other bathroom. Instead, Hannah got it that evening. Nathaniel was thrilled.
Thats about it. We are still resting in the goodness of God. Actually, we realized just a few days ago that even though Chris has been jobless for the last 7 months, we have received huge amts of generosity from others,and with that plus our tax return and some leftovers from our financial aid, we were able this week to pay off ALL our debt, (minus our house payment and student loans). We have been working on that for almost 9 years now. That cuts our monthly budget down to a small amt, that I currently with my new job, am making at least half of. The stress for Chris to find a huge paying job is reality to him and I think that helps. We are so thankful for our parents and their help and for others who have helped supply Nathaniel with the meds he needs as well as groceries and meat and other things that have kept us a float. During this time of Easter, it is good to look back and see how we have made it this far.
Anyways, I feel like I am rambling on now. A totally different post from the last time. Thank you all for your prayers and hoping to post again before summer is here. :-) Our love to all!

Trying to make the best of it

My title describes how I feel at this juncture in our lives. It has been over a month since I wrote and so many different things have happened. Last week of January we had an ice storm which trapped us here for 4 days. It sleeted on a Monday night, and all day Tuesday. It looked like snow outside, but was shear ice. Pictures are of us enjoying the weather on Wednesday and Thursday.

The first week of February looked promising as Chris got a job at Sonic and he also got word from Lowes that the guy who terminated him was under investigation for several wrongful terminations and for him to be aware that he might be contacted. My sisters came down for the weekend, as they had generously bought us Brian Reagan tickets for Chris' birthday. They watched the kids and we went downtown for that. He was hilarious!! The guy that opened for him was awesome too!! It was a full 2 hours of laughing. My sisters got out of here near 10 and they went home in a storm that was pretty wild. That following Tuesday was a day full of several tornados in the area. It was either that night or Tuesday night that we ended up with pieces of our neighbors doghouse in our siding. Insurance will be out sometime to see how much it will cost to get that part of the house repaired.

Lets see, what else. The kids had Friday before valentines out and monday after, so I was off Friday and Chris was off Monday to hang out with them. We spent valentines night with our friends the Mills and the Tripps. We have also really enjoyed our Saturdays with Upwards basketball. Nathaniel is doing so well. This past Saturday was his last game. We were kind of sad. His awards ceremony is tomorrow night. If I knew how to upload videos on this, I would add a clip of him. When I get a chance, I will do that. I did include some pictures of him, though.

What else. Chris' job at sonic isn't making him happy due to the fact they are working him like 2 days a week for 2-3 hours. I am still working a ton at Mazzios. I have actually resorted myself to the fact that they are really good at working with me and I do a good job at what they have entrusted to me. I should rejoice in the blessing that God has given me.

There are days when I miss terribly our old life and when I got to be involved in the kids lives. I am so unsure of what the summer holds, as we really still need the income and obviously with me working 40 hours a week at minimum wage and Chris working at sonic for less than 15 hours a week, that just isn't going to cut it. Chris is still looking for other jobs, but we are sitting at month 6 of no job for him. It is so discouraging. We all are wishing we would have stayed in St. Joe.

The kids have spring break coming up in a few weeks and we aren't even sure what we are doing then. If Chris has a better job by then, which I doubt, then I will need to work to pay our bills. If he does, I would really like to go and see my grandma in Kansas. And the idea of taking college classes online is starting to overwhelm me. I can barely handle my life and schedule now, let alone add to it the responsiblity of classes. From what they are transfering in, I won't be done until May of 2012. I think I would rather work at Mazzios the rest of my life than go crazy doing that. I don't know..

Anyways, I hope everyone out there is doing well. We are barely hanging on. I had an interview with our church as a possible candidate for the church office position, but when they asked about childcare for the summer and I told them I really didn't know, I am pretty sure that put me out of the running for that. That's about it. Besides Spring break, march is pretty bleak, as well as April. In may, Hannah has her birthday as well as my sister graduation from Ft. Hays. Hopefully we will still get to go on our Hawaii trip for our 10th anniversary. I told my mom to go ahead and book it. We will pray for steady income and time off for that as we head over there and then stop in Oregon on our way home to spend some time with my brother and his family.

Well, I need to head to bed. It is after 10 and I have to get up at 5 to go to work tomorrow. Just wanted to update our blog. Until next time, all our love. Thanks to you who have been praying! We are so appreciative of it.

Well.......

Let me see, since I last wrote:
- Nathaniel has made a basket at one of his games (he got the ball and ran to the other teams basket and shot and missed, he got the rebound and his coach whispered, "the other basket", to which he ran down and made a shot. He was so proud.)
- Chris got a letter from DPS. They decided to go with someone else for those jobs. So, he is back to square one again. Really down hearted and that has caused him to go down with yet another sickness, head cold or something.
-My parents came to bring some good cheer. They wanted to refill our cabinets and buy us a months worth of groceries. They also wanted to just do something fun, but since Chris was still fighting off junk, we stayed here and played and watched movies and just hung out. It was a good time. As Nathaniel said, it was "encouraging", and he was thankful that "Papa likes to ride bikes.". Such a sweet time together. Thanks mom and dad!!
-I have decided to go back to school online at Ashford University and get my degree in Early Childhood Education. I will start soon. I need to finish up some financial aid stuff. I am excited. I want to be doing something that will better off kids, especially mine.
- I have re-learned how to drive a stick. I haven't driven one since I quit driving the farm truck when I was a junior and I was supposed to back the truck up to a hay wagon and killed it. Chris' truck's heater is still being a stinker, so he is taking the car with heat and I am driving the truck to work. So far, we aren't complete enemies, (me and the truck) so it works.
I think that is about it. Looking forward to warmer weather. I should say, consistent warm weather. We have 65-70 days that are followed with 28-32 . My poor bulbs don't know whether or not to come up. I am looking forward to seeing them. Hannah and I talked about how we miss the really pretty wild flowers that we were so happy to see when we moved here.
Hope you all are doing well. We are surviving!
Till next time...

Well, its been a week!

It has been a week and I survived. :-) Things at work have been super slow. The change of pace has actually been really nice. Getting stuff done and not having to rush around is a nice change to the frantic chaos of last week.
Chris had an interview with the department of highway patrol yesterday. He applied about a month and a half ago to be a communications officer or dispatcher. His Aunt Lisa told him about the opening. He went in and had to take a lie detector test and had to bring over 10 pages of paperwork with lots of background stuff with him. He was interviewed by a board of 5 officers and he was asked a lot of questions and information about what he observed in some things they presented him. They told him at the end that he would either get a phone call, which would be a "you start tomorrow", or a letter in about a week saying, "we didn't want you". So, we are waiting for the results of that.
On the same day, I recieved my evaluation and the possiblity of a raise. I just don't know what to do about all this. I feel a little confused as to what's next. If Chris gets the job, depending on what they want him to work, that will change my schedule possibly in regards to the kids. I havn't mentioned any of this to my managers because I dont know what to say. I have already been debating what to do for summer break. Surely Chris will be working by then. He needs to be for our livelihood. but I am not going to expect someone else to watch them everyday so I can go earn peon money. I know people do it every day, but the choice between my family and Mazzios comes more and more obvious and I feel torn.
Of course I would choose my family, but I would feel terrible leaving them without one of the few people they can trust to get things done for the day shift. I am pretty sure the store manager wants to move me up to day shift manager, but if I need to be there for my kids, I can't accept that. I don't know. It is confusing. Just keep praying that whatever God wants for our family he will make abundantly clear. I am not sure if some of this stuff is God opening a door or testing me in my faithfulness to what he has called me to. Lots of personal questions I have to answer for myself. Lot of soul searching.
We are looking forward to this coming summer. If we still get to, we are hoping to celebrate our 10th anniversary in hawaii and Oregon. I sure hope things work out for us to still get to do this. I would bawl if we get shafted again out of another wonderful trip because our lives have taken a turn for the unexpected. Chris already had his vacation approved at Lowes for the trip. We laugh about that he is rehireable in March for Lowes, so if the DHP doesn't work out, he can just go back to Chad and ask to work for him. :-)
Anyways, Kids got their grade cards today. both are making straight A's. Nathaniel is conducting a science experiment on himself about hot and cold air. Ask him about it the next time you talk to him. :-) Hannah has been working on her design your own horse that Aunt Lisa gave her for Christmas. She is enjoying that.
Oh, and one more thing. Thanks to my animal loving husband, we have a new member to our family. A friend for Ben. We had talked about getting another dog to keep him company for when we are gone. Chris found on freecycle, which he scans everyday, a lady who needed to get rid of a puppy or it would have to be put down. If you know any of the situations in our acquiring animals, it is a familiar story. He brought home this 9 wk old half pomeranian half collie black fur ball that Ben absolutely LOVES. Their sizes are so different, but they were meant to be together I think. Ben take his red blanket and drags it on the ground so "Snuggles" can catch it and then they run together. They sleep together and share food and water with no issues. Considering he hasn't been a part of our family for very long, he has fit in really quickly. The kids named him Snuggles because when you pick him up, he nuzzles in your ear. He is really sweet. Just as goofy as Ben, so they are good together. Now we really need a good pen for them to run in. They are both chained up most of the time with extended leashes but it is not the same. Maybe when it warms up and we have an income can we make them a real home. :-) I laugh about having my cousin come down with his fencing company and asking him to do it. :-) At least he wouldn't mess it up like we would.
Well, I need to go to bed. One more day of work before a weekend off. Ooh, which reminds me of one more story I didn't tell. Last Saturday was Nathaniel's first upwards basketball game. How wonderful and fun!! He loves it and it was so fun to watch all of them learning. They play 6 6-minute quarters, with a devotion after 3 quarters. All the kids get to play at least half of the game. They run in through a tunnel that has lights and fog. Their names are announced in the gym as they run out with their team. No scores are kept. The referees were really great at working with the kids last week. They would stop the game and help the kids learn where to run to and what to do. It was really neat. He plays again this saturday at 8. Most of his games are saturday mornings at 8. He will do this until the end of February, when they will have an awards ceremony to celebrate a good season. I am so thankful for it. It is a good bible based activity and Nathaniel loves playing and learning a new sport. I will have to post pictures when I can next.
Ok, I think I am caught up. Until next time, all our love!!

More...

As I sit here waiting for our hot water heater to repenish the warm water so I can soak in a warm bath. ( I have felt like trash the last 24 hours) I was on to catch up and realized I didn't get to mention that an anonomous person from our church had been extremely blessed this year and had asked Bruce for names of 3 families in our church who were hurting this holiday season. Our name was one listed, so we were supposed to give Duane, our associate minister, some interest the kids had and a list of our bills. We did and on December 23rd, Duane called and said that the people had brought by the church some gifts for us to put under the tree for the kids and if we could come by, that would be great. We got there and they had gotten Nathaniel a new bike, a speed racer track set, an air hog flyer , winter boots and gloves, and a $25 gift card to walmart. They had gotten Hannah a huge dry erase board, a huge coloring book, some snow boots and gloves, and an easy bake oven. They had also bought really neat paper and ribbons and gift tags. We put, "to hannah, from God; to nathaniel, from God." on all of them. They also gave us an envelope with $400 to help pay our utility bills. The kids were overwhelmed. We had Chris' family here that week also and I don't know what they thought of all of it. It has seemed easier, (so it feels) for them to just bypass the thought that we are surviving completely on the kindness of others and God's blessing through those people. I think they were overwhelmed with the generosity of our church and the people around us here. They were here when we had to leave to go and get all these things from the church. We were very thankful and still are. But with it being the beginning of another year and the holiday season over, we are facing the reality that we are still unsure of the future. WE are so grateful for all the kindness of others and I don't know how we would have made it through all of this without the kindness of strangers and others. We had our friends, the Mills family over last night to share in our plenty of food. We cooked off our ham and some veggies. They brought over some drinks and cookies. it was nice.
the kids and Chris have enjoyed the last few weeks just being together. I have been working extra hours at mazzios. so many, I am afraid that is why I was feeling ill all last night and all day today. Every ounce of my body was sore, and cramping. I got to thinking that I go in at 6:45 and have my vitamin water and either some toast or oatmeal, but the next chance I get to eat or have something to drink is when I get off. I have been the only cook in the back and this week, that has meant rolling dough, making dough, making all the food products, watching the buffet, cutting pizzas for orders and buffet, and watching the drive thru window. I haven't had time to stop and go get a drink. When I get off, i crash at home. Eat supper with my familty and maybe have one or two glasses of water. Otherwise, I am in bed by 9 and up to do it all over again. And this week, I have been staying until after 5. When I got off yesterday, I just left. There was a super rush right at 5 and the night crew was just getting there and weren't in the game to get in there and get the orders done. I had no energy left to help out. I just clocked out and left. I was worried I would fall over. I think most of my problem is that I am getting dehydrated and am working so long without a break to stop rushing around. I don't know how much long I can do this. It physically hurts. That is why I stayed home to rest. I slept all night and was up at 8 with the kids only to go back to bed around 9 and I slept until 4pm. I am still not feeling 100% so I am not going in tomorrow either. I am going to get a bath when I have hot water and am going to rest as much as I can the next few days. I know you all are praying. Continue to do so. This is so hard. We know God will get us through. The waiting for it is the worst. At least we have a wonderful church family and friends who are so wonderful to us.
Anyways, I am starting to feel weak again, so I am going to go and check on the water. I hope the new year will bring you all God's goodness and mercy!