Weekend Away And more

As You can see by the pictures the wedding was just wonderful. Mike's youngest step-sister was married - the last girl in the family. Beth and Chris are off on their honeymoon after a wonderful celebration.

Mike and I got into New Jersey late Friday but we were able to sleep in and relax Saturday before the festivities began. The wedding was just awesome. We really enjoyed being with the family and catching up with everyone.

When we got back Saturday morning we headed out to pick up all the kids. They were so good when we were gone. Mike and I were very proud of them. After picking them up we headed to RJ's baseball games. The first game they won and he had a double. In the second game he walked once and then got out. The team played well and lost by one run.

This week is a short one for me. I leave Thursday to go to Detroit. Once in Detroit my sister will pick me up at the airport and off to Chicago we go. We will be there until Sunday watching Austin play in the Nike Bauer Invitational. It will be busy but loads of fun. It is the first time since we have been married that I have gone anywhere without an infant or the whole family. I am sooo excited! Other than that we are having a Halloween get together with my Sister, Brother-in-law and nephew. We are having pizza and trick-or-treating. I will post Halloween Pictures Thursday before I go.

Have a great week everyone!!!

2nd Biopsy Tomorrow

As excited as I am for the weekend to arrive I wish I did not have to endure a second biopsy first. I go in tomorrow afternoon for a deeper biopsy on my mole on my back. As you know the first biopsy showed that it is Dysplastic and so they are going to do a biopsy that goes deeper and compare the two. ouch! I am not looking forward to it as you can imagine. I will let you all know what they say in a couple of weeks.

Other than that we are all counting down to Friday when they all get to go to friend's houses and Mom and Dad get to go away for a couple of days:)

Looking Forward To Friday

Hello Everyone - Well at the start of this week I am looking forward to Friday. It cannot get here soon enough:) Mike and I are getting a weekend away to attend his sister's wedding in New Jersey. We are really looking forward to alone time and time to just chill with the adults. It has been a long time since we have gotten to get away without any kids.

Thanks to the generosity of Mike' parents and all those who are helping out by taking in our kids for the weekend we are going to relax and have some fun:) Now I just have to survive the week!

More Girl Fun

Maggie has this crazy curly hair- which I love - but she refuses to put it up. It hangs in her face and makes me crazy. Well on Thursday night RJ had a baseball game and I decided to try to persuade Maggie into putting her hair up by putting mine up. I put pigtails in and came out of my room and Maggie was soo excited. She wanted hair pretties like Mom's. I put her hair up and as you can see she looks adorable. It was a small price to pay:)

God Fatihful in The Little Details

This weekend my hubby has been gone to Ann Arbor to watch our son play hockey for the weekend. My parents generously paid his way there. Needless to say that such weekends alone with 7 kids, sports, and one vehicle can be a little hectic.

Well yet again God showed me His love for me in the little details. R.J. was supposed to have a baseball tournament locally this weekend and Mikey's games were supposed to be Saturday. Also Kolbe was supposed to attend Mass at 4:00 Saturday with his CCD Class. All this was going to make for interesting arrangement making for me as well as the other kids who were going to be dragged along behind me where ever I went.

In God's great mercy and goodness everything was changed around for the better. RJ had no baseball this weekend - not even practice! His tournament is now this weekend coming up. Mikey's games were changed to today which left us completely free to hang around and get chores done Saturday and attend 4:00 Mass where Kolbe was able to then sit with his CCD class in preparation for First Holy Communion. Not only that but Friday was relatively free so I was able to get a lot of work done for my legal coding job and we still had time to go to my sister's house for dinner and hockey - University of Michigan was on and they get the Big Ten channel with their satellite dish so they had us over for dinner, hockey and fun time for the kids to hang out with their cousin.

All in all it was a great weekend where I continually felt God's gentle guidance. I must continue to ask for prayers for my sanity however. The prednisone (60 mg per day for a week) is making me very hyper and none to kind. I lost my temper badly a couple of times this weekend and had to apologize to my kiddos. They are so sweet and forgiving - I am much harder on myself. I am also struggling a little with my walk with God and all the stresses and the grind of daily life but I have definitely felt all of your prayers and have seen the results of such faithful friends praying for me and thinking of me. Have a great week everyone and I will be back as soon as I can get here.....

The Results Are In

Well - I am back from getting my biopsy result for my rash and my mole.

The rash is Granuloma Annulare and so they are putting me on prednisone for a week and then a month off and then prednisone for a week. They are also giving me a steroid cream to use and they say that should stop the spreading and it should eventually go away.

The mole is not normal. It is not at melanoma stage and may never get here but it is Dysplastic Nevus - the stage before Melanoma. They are going to take a deeper biopsy in two weeks after this one heals a little more. The deeper biopsy will be compared to the other one to see if they need to take more or if they have gotten all the abnormal cells.

All in All not too bad. I am glad to have answers, but I am not glad to need a deeper biopsy in to weeks. Oh well -Such is life.

p.s. - our phone situation should be finally resolved by this evening. What a mess of lost paymetns a dreversed payents - Yikes!!!

Phone Problems

Hey all - If you are trying to reach us by phone our phone company screwed up a couple of our payments and shut our phones off with no warning. When Mike went to try to resolve the issue the computers were already shut down for the day so we have no phone service until tomorrow morning sometime. Reach me her or via e-mail

Sorry about this - we made the payments and they screwed up how they credited them and then they reversed two of our payments so it showed unpaid balances - so crazy.

talk to you all soon

Me

Thanks Everyone

Hi again - I am back after a looong day at the baseball diamond. Mikey's team had a three way where their team and two others play against each other. They won both their games which is HUGE for us. We have not won a game since the first game of the season. It was great to see the boys put together a nice team effort to win their games. Unfortunately RJ had a double header today at a different field and since we have only one vehicle we had to miss his games. they lost both of theirs by a big margin but they played the number one team in the state and did well for the most part.

I wanted to also thank all of you who called or wrote to me with such kind words and support. I must say that it has helped to lighten my load. We also were able to go to First Friday Mass as a family which is a bonus to having a hubby out of work. At First Friday Mass they did a consecration of families to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. It brought me to tears and helped a lot. God knows just what we need. I am still struggling with all of this but it is not as bad - I am not crying myself to sleep every night now and I am feeling more myself. I am struggling with my tongue though and we are fighting quite a bit due to all the stress. That has not helped my feelings of isolation but I know we are both just worn out physically and emotionally.

On a good note he has a job interview on the 16th with the City Police Department as a dispatcher. Please beg God that he gets this job. Though the pay is not great in the beginning the benefits, retirement, stability, etc are awesome.

I love you all and am so grateful to each of you for praying for me, my family, and for our situation. I will be on soon I am sure. Have a wonderful weekend everyone:)

Dropping In to Say 'Hi"

Hey Everyone - I have been so busy that I have not been to good about posting regularly.

Life here is pretty hectic at the moment. We have been very busy with homeschooling. I am teaching 5 kids this year so my days are full not to mention working for home on top of it all. At the end of a day I am spent to say the least. Mike is still looking for work which is stressful. The economy here is horrible and has been ranked as the worst place in the US to find a job. It is causing lots of stress around here but we are holding up. I am waiting for my appointment on the 12th to find out what my biopsies showed if anything.

The kids are busy too. Between school work, CCD for Kolbe and baseball we are always on the go. It is good though. The kids are doing great in school. Kolbe loves CCD and is excited to make his First Reconciliation and First Communion this year. Mikey and RJ are both thriving in baseball and love their new teams. Though they are no winning much they are learning and that is key. Austin is super busy with school work and hockey. He is finding that social time is very limited because he is so busy. Things are going well and many scouts from colleges, National Team Development Program, and the OHL are avidly watching him this year.

I am overwhelmed lately and feeling very alone and stressed. It is hard sometimes to understand why things happen and why they seem to be continual for us. I know God allows suffering because He loves us and that He loves me - it is just hard to swallow it at times. I am tired of the stress, lack of money, lack of stability, the fear of how we are going to make it etc. I am sad and have been thinking about the fact that we may be done having babies. I know we are blessed with the wonderful kids we have yet we want more. Now is obviously not the best time but I have found myself missing the babies I have lost over the past year and a half. I find that my heart and arms feel so empty at times. Well it is just where I am right now - sad, lonely, stressed, a little frightened and tired of it all. I love God and I know He is caring for us it is just hard - I am human after all.

I hope life is treating everyone well and will be back soon.....