A year already?

Time is so unforgiving. How could it have been a year already? Alas, time does not lie. In fact, it's been over a year.

Britton is now in Ms. Sosa's first grade, Maili in Ms. Lobiondo's 3rd grade and Dominic on the Kapok team in 6th grade. All seem to be thriving and doing well.

The newest addition to our family, a labradoodle born August 5, 2009, has been a delight. Her name is Sandy and she's one of us now. I enjoy having her around. It's been nice.

Rick is still GM at McLane FoodService Inc in Concord. I'm still multi-tasking like it actually works... when will I learn? SO, I'm still in charge of the Minor Fundraising Program with our PTA, I'm currently teaching a rotation in the toddler Sunday school room at our church, I'm staying VERY busy with my Premier Designs Jewelry business (3 years now) and trying to stay caught up with the kids.

Dominic, Maili and Britton decided they wanted to try out for the Alice in Wonderland children's production. Dominic got the role of the white rabbit, while Maili and Britton have been cast as the jury. They are excited! Their play will be January 22 & 23.

I'm signing off, as I have MUCH MUCH MUCH work to do and need more than the two hours of sleep I got last night.

Hugs and love to each of you.

A Class assignment...

Britton's teacher ROCKS! Ms. Allen sent this out today... amazing!


If you're wondering how to do this, his teacher said it's a free download from Microsoft called Photo Story Three. Get a microphone and you're ready to go!!!

Thanks Ms. Allen! You're the best!

Maili's first softball game!!!

Oh my gosh, she is beside herself with excitement!!! She had three at bats, and got on base all three times. Her team did great! I am so VERY happy for her... for all of the girls!

This is the video of her first hit!!! EVER!!!

Here's a picture after the game with her best bud, Del.

A GREAT little gift for someone special...

This was emailed to me today and I thought I'd share. It'll be something my childrens' teachers will be getting soon! Hope you enjoy! Love, Jenny.

MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons flour(that's plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well . Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share!)

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Interviewing the kids...

August 2008.

Can I say, I love my kids! What a hoot!

Dominic's Interview...


Maili's inerview...


Britton's interview...


Well, that's them... and their thoughts at the moment.

We hope you all are well!

This is too funny to pass up...

True Redneck Tank Top!!!!

This was taken in front of the Gardendale, Alabama,

Walmart while she was going to the Flea market.

This is hysterical!

Look at it closely.



Now I ask you...
Who sits and looks at a pair of men's briefs

and says hmmmm...

I can make a nice summer top from these!!

On the other hand...

$6 for a three pack is a good price!!

Cardboard Testimonies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

A woman that I care very much about sent this to me today. I took a minute to watch it, crying more with each testimony. I would encourage you to take 8 minutes and watch this. As for me, I'm pondering what my cardboard testimony would be right now.

All my love to you and yours. And my gratitude to God for His grace.

Jenny

Dad still getting better...

My dad went to the ER last night as a precaution for some symptoms he was having, as per the doctor's request. He has been having periodic episodes of breathing difficulty. They checked my dad over, complete with x-rays, and he's doing well. His hemoglobin is hoovering around 10, which I understand not to be great, but ok. My mom was getting a little concerned that maybe the pneumonia was coming back and I think my dad was growing concerned as well. It was great to hear both of their voices this morning... a sound of relief for both of them.

Funny thing... my mom told me that when she took my dad to the ER last night that he made it VERY clear to the staff that he would not be staying this time. Crack me up! Of course, if he needed it, he would have. But, he was speaking as to his desire for the outcome.

I hope you all are well and greatly appreciate you in our lives!

Most recent on my dad...

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support. I sincerely appreciate all your concern!

Much has happened since I last posted. Namely, my dad has gotten amazingly better! He was in the hospital for a week and was discharged while we were out of town on vacation. He has continued to improve and regain strength. Eating continued to be a rather significant problem. He was finally cleared to drink cleared liquids, that weren't thickened to nectar/honey consisitency, this past week. He was very happy about that. He had some problem with his esophogus such that his food wouldn't go all the way down and he would end up throwing it up. Fortunately, he was able to keep certain liquids and medicine down. There is a rather simple procedure that he may have to go through to completely resolve this for him. For now, the past two days to be specific, he has improved much on this issue. This morning he was able to eat breakfast and keep it down. My dad has lost over 30 pounds since May 19th. That's a lot of weight loss for a guy that wasn't that big to start out with.

Tomorrow my dad is going back to the hospital to have more tests done. Evidently his liver enzymes are high... not sure the implications of that, but they're checking into it. Prayers over this would appreciated.

I will try to be more diligent about my updates here... not just about my dad, but our family as well.

Again, I appreciate your prayers and support! I pray that you and yours are enjoyinig a safe and fun summer!

Sleep Deprivation.... Restless Confusion

My mom called me this morning to let me know that she had just returned home from a night at the hospital. The staff called her at home last night to let her knkow that my dad was really confused and anxious and asked her to come up. Mom went up and said he had a restless night. I asked her if she thought it was sleep deprivation and she said yes.

I've always heard jokes and complaints about not getting any rest while you're in the hospital. After watching my dad this past month, I understand it on a whole new level now. Not that anyone is doing anything wrong, they're not, they're just dong their job. But the nights I would go up and spend a couple of hours with him, he would barely be able to keep his eyes open for longer than a 2 minute period. He'd be in a dead sleep within 5 minutes and, low and behold, 10-30 minutes later someone was coming in to silence a beeping monitor, give him medicine, check vitals, do breathing treatments... you name it. There is a lot involved in taking care of a person in my dad's current state. It was painful to me to watch him only get these 30 minute at naps. We all, those of us with kids, remember those early days of infancy when our children didn't understand what it meant to really sleep. When I was getting two hours of sleep at a time, I was an absolute ZOMBIE. I think that was the hardest part about having a baby... the sleep deprivation. My dad is operating on a four week sleep deprivation. Tough.

Please pray for him, and my mom, they are both exhausted.

Thank you for your concern and prayers. They are absolutely priceless.

My Dad is feeling better.

My dad has received two units of blood and a couple of different IV antibiotics. He was due to have another unit of blood and a different antibiotic tonight. Mom said that he looks so much better. Determining the cause of his anemia hasn't been addressed. I'm not sure the implications of it all. My understanding at this point is that it's either due to a lack of producing red blood cells, or it's an issue of internal bleeding somewhere. It seems as though finding internal bleeding isn't as easy as it appears on TV med shows. And diagnosing and treating blood production issues doesn't seem to be much simpler. I am unclear as to whether this could be one of those 'wait and see' issues that may end up resolving themselves. I am assuming that they're trying to get his pneumonia and anemia addressed and stable, then moving forward from there.

My mom is still tired, but such a trooper. She is an amazing care-giver, wife, mom, and nurturer. I'm happy that my dad has her at his side. More prayers for my mom would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for your emails of concern and support. It truly is overwhelming to receive the love and concern from so many. For now, there really is nothing that can be done, other than prayer. Wait and see is where we're at, I think.

Again, thank you all so much for your care and concern! What a blessing you all are in our lives!

Many hugs to you and yours,
Jenny

Current update on my dad.... Robert Morrissette

[The picture above was taken in May 2007.]

I know it's been a while since I've updated anyone, and I'm sorry. I haven't been really sure as to what to write.

This is a synopsis of the past month:

My dad had open heart surgery for valve replacement on May 19th. He had many complications, mostly surrounding his breathing (COPD and emphysema), that kept him in the hospital for three weeks. One of the issues they revealed is that my dad has something called silent aspiration. Which means he is aspirating clear liquids when he drinks them. From that point on, my dad has been drinking everything with a thickener in it to make it 'nectar' consistency. He was discharged from the hospital last Monday, June 9th. Thursday, we found out that a culture taken the day he left the hospital revealed that he had a MRSA Staph infection in his lungs. He is being treated for that and all is going smoothly with it. This past week hasn't been as successful, or with any progression. He has been showing signs of sliding back. My mom was concerned, given her medical experience as a lifelong nurse, with the signs that she saw and, upon his MD's instructions, took him to the ER yesterday.

They did blood tests and x-rays on my dad that quickly revealed that he his very anemic and has pneumonia. For those that are wondering numbers, he was 7.7 and on June 3 (the last time it was checked) he was 9.8. According to my mom, that is a rather significant amount and a short time frame to loose that blood. Obviously, my dad, much to his dismay, was re-admitted to the hospital last night. They are treating him with IV antibiotics for the pneumonia and giving him a blood transfusion. Hopefully the two will make him feel much better. Pneumonia preventing oxygen from getting in the blood and then low blood supply taking the oxygen... makes you feel really sleepy, weak, winded, and just overall crumby. We certainly saw that in him.

As far as the reason for the anemia, I'm not sure. Last night the MD's didn't discuss it. I think they were seeking to get my dad stable, and I would imagine it's a conversation that will be happening today.

As for prayer, it's greatly appreciated. My mom, Judy, is exhausted. She has many big decisions on her plate right now, both professionally and personally. Please raise her up such that she may feel peace in her decisions and receive rest for her weary body.

I will do my best to keep you posted here. It's easiest, then I don't have to worry about leaving someone off the list. Thank you all so much for your calls, emails, and prayers. It means so very much to us.

Many hugs and much love to you and yours...

Jenny

Memorial Day Pics

Here are some pics of the kids from Memorial Day...

Every Memorial Day I take the kids to the local cemetery in Harrisburg to honor those veterans that have passed. I buy several items from the dollar store (usually american flags, but this year it was patriotic crosses) that each of the kids use to honor a veteran that they choose and they say "Thank you for serving our country". You may see on the headstones that not all the veterans we honored were ones that were lost while serving our country, as Memorial Day is supposed to be. It's a little difficult conveying that to the kids at this point, so we honor all veterans and I clarify. Next year I'm going to find a cemetery dedicated to those lost while serving and make sure that the kids understand all the more what Memorial Day is for. See below for a reminder...

May we never have to know the pain of truly loosing a loved one like this. May we always be grateful for those that are willing to serve at all cost and their families that are praying for them to return home safely.

God Bless America! Thank God for the United States Soldier!

Love, The Weems Gang

Memorial Day

Please take time today to honor a fallen hero!

Here's a little excerpt from wikipedia about what MEMORIAL DAY is for:

Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (in 2008 on May 26). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.

Please don't let today pass without setting aside time for a veteran that has passed while serving our country. There's is a sacrifice that I cannot fathom and am truly humbled by.

God Bless the USA!

I'll post pictures of the kids from today later....

Drifting away again...

No, not in Margaritaville... From God.

Drifting away again from God.

When in the world will I learn? Live and dwell in Him.

It's simple. Truly, simple.

Seek and you will find. I'm not sure where that is in the bible, but EVERYONE says it. Trouble is, we repeat a lot of things that are derived from the bible, but we have no idea the context under which it was said or the level with which God has intended us to apply it to our lives.

When I'm zeroed in on God's word, life is gravy. It makes sense. It's much simpler and clearer. My decisions seem to be few, my path smooth, and the fruits of my labor seem to be more abundant than the effort I exerted.

Why? It's elementary. It's like color-by-numbers, but on a spiritual level. Nobody questions why their color-by-numbers picture turned out well. They were given specific and direct instruction on how and what to color the individual pieces of the picture... of course it should turn out well, right? Sure. So, why is it that we are given color-by-numbers instructions for how to live our lives and we insist on trying to be some sort of renegade colorer? Then we have the audacity to be dissatisfied and bewildered when the end result of our defiant coloring ends up looking like a piece of artwork in which Salvidor Dali crashed into Van Gogh in a dark alley with neons and human waste. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's ugly and it certainly is not 'art'.

I started this by saying that I'm drifting away from God, AGAIN. I'm not angry with Him, not dissatisfied (other than with myself), not feeling abandoned by Him or any other level of contempt. Quite the contrary. Life was going great, it was WONDERFUL! To God be the glory! I was reading a daily email bible study, and had actually added another one and was up to two. I was reading in my bible. I was listening to thought provoking and uplifting podcasts that were speaking volumes to me. I was SEEKING God and He was ALL OVER THE PLACE! I couldn't do a THING without hearing Him, seeing Him, feeling Him. It was amazing.

Well, what happened?

Me. Yep, Me. In my 'I can take care of this' way, I started focusing more on my 'To Do' list and my schedules and didn't make Him the priority that I was making Him. Life got busy and I stopped taking the time to pay attention to Him. I stopped making Him the priority that He should be. See, that's the cool thing that I think often gets overlooked about our relationship with God... We say it SHOULD be this and it SHOULD be that. To say 'should' implies that we have an option for doing otherwise. We have a choice. It's up to us. Our relationship with God is up to us. That choice just so happens to be an unfortuante aspect of it as well, because more consuming of a reality than most, our relationship with God isn't what it SHOULD be. Translate that as we don't consistently and intentionally choose Him in our lives.

Why should He get my first thought of the day, why should He be my top priority above all else, why, why, why? What I've seen in my life is that God wants to bless us and bless our efforts. But, He can't bless what we don't do or even attempt. Bottom line is that if I want to enjoy the peace He gives, I must seek Him in my life through His words and instructions. He doesn't give me complicated instructions like E=mc 2 (that's squared). His instructions are simple and straight forward... just like color all #2's royal blue and all #3's candy apple red. He takes all the guess work out and what I'm left with is an identifiable piece of art that I can sit back and enjoy. That piece of art is called 'my life in Him'.

I type all of this to myself with the hoovering question, "Jenny, Will you choose Him tomorrow?" Only God knows. I pray that I do... I miss His familiar and safe scent in my life.

All my love to you and yours...

Time

It's amazing how unforgiving time is. Viewed as an enemy, more often than not, that thing called time adds stress to us in such an unrelenting way. A slave-driver, you might say. Due dates, deadlines, time crunches, overbooked, overscheduled... time, time, time, time. We are a production oriented society, so it's all about time! How much can you do in how little TIME? Heck, we've made idols out of peope that can stuff an offensive amount of food down their gullet all because they can do it in such a small amount of time. Every second that passes, is a snapshot of our lives that we will never get back. How did I get to be xx years old? Where did the TIME go? Can't think about that right now... I have a deadline at work to meet. All this and I haven't even begun to touch the infamous 'Time is money' mantra! Man, what an enemy that 'time' truly is.

But wait. Is everything so one sided? In our lives, it is a rare occurrence that something is SO one-sided and mono-chromatic. It has a definitive beginning and end, a single-sided purpose, without exception, without excuse... ONE thing and ONE thing only- end of story. Time, is not that simple. Lest we forget, 'TIME heals all wounds'?

What's prompted my mental ramblings? Well, I've been feeling the punishing afffect of time- watching my kids get bigger, older, wiser, more mature. The days of 'little' slip through my fingers. As many have said, it feels like the tighter I try to grip, the quicker it slips through my hand. But, then I got to thinking. What about the time that has passed? The time that I wouldn't revisit, but wouldn't change. The beauty in time, I suppose. Rick and I have been through so much. TIME, moving as unforgiving and hurried as it does, is probably part of what helped us over the hump. I can't help but think that if time slowed down for just a moment during those times we've been through, that we wouldn't have made it. I don't think we're engineered to endured that which we don't absolutley HAVE to. Given a choice, more often than not, we'll take the less painful or less exerting route. Caught in a thought like this, I'm thankful for all those qualities that TIME has. It's swift and commanding nature... no matter what you do, you're not going to tell TIME how to operate.

WOW, maybe time's not exactly that ill-intended evil-doer that I often feel it to be. In my life and marriage, time has been a healer. It has been a powerful thing to help bring peace and perspective when emotions are fueled, feelings are hurt, and positions must be stood firm. Although I'm sad for the aspect of time that seems to pull my children from my bossom, I'm blessed for it. Blessed for the nurturing way God uses it to mold us and remove us. Remove us from who we were, what we were, where we were, what we were doing, who we were doing it with... and gracefully uses it to get us closer to Him.

Hmmm. Feeling a bit better about time for the moment. Eh, moment's gone... now I have to rush to my 10:30 commitment, having not done what I should have in this interim because I was drawn to sound out some thoughts in cyberspace.

Thanks for sharing in my sharing...
Jenny

joyful longing

Rick's been out of town since Monday. He returned last night.

I don't think I can sufficiently express what a wonderful feeling it is to miss someone and to be so happy to have them back. Nor could I adequately explain what a blessing it is to have their be such a gaping whole in your life, family, and home when they're away. I don't know if this makes sense, but I don't think I've ever been so happy to miss someone in my life! The implications of that longing are monumental. That sentiment didn't just ripple through our home... it rocked it! The kids were rather melancholy at certain times too. Times that Rick normally would be at his work here, and one of the kids would get quiet and rather solemn, then say, "I wish Daddy didn't have to go to Texas." I was so happy for them. Happy that they had the same feeling and longing to have him near that I did. Happy for Rick. Just happy.

I felt this sigh of relief to my core when I saw him standing at the airport awaiting our pick up. Strange as it seems, I think I heard the house let a sigh of relief when he walked through the door. It was like the rules of life didn't quite work the same while he was away... almost as if the rules of emotional gravity were somehow altered in this Salvador Dali kind of way.

What a relief to have him home. What a blessing he is. What a gift we've been given. God's grace is amazing. His patience with us is infinite. My marriage, moreover, my sincere admiration, respect, and appreciation for my husband, are a testament to God's wisdom, generosity and power. I find myself thanking God for so much. I'm genuinely remorseful for the years that I resented who Rick was as a man. More importantly, I thank God for showing me the man he created Rick to be and, in turn, helping me become the woman God intends me to be. What a blessing. What a blessing.

I pray that you would have the blessing of missing someone in your life.. the gift of longing and the experience of their absence revealing God in your life.

Have a most precious day holding close those God's given you. Trust that He has a plan to use those relationships to help deliver you to His feet and to glorify Him.

In awe and so VERY grateful,
Jenny

WOW! It's that easy...

For all this time that I've seen family and individual blogs, I've thought that they must have some serious computer genius in their family or, at the very least, be payinig a ton of money for some crazy Go Daddy dot com name. I'm so far out of the technical loop that I once understood. I spent some time this evening cleaning out my 'Inbox' and came across a link to a friend's blog. Then from there, there were links to other friends' blogs, and still more. Well, needless to say, my next move was to click 'create your own blog'. And, WA-LA, here I am.

Keep posted to see if I actually keep this thing updated. I'm making no promises of the eloquently written, tear inducing verbage that I've spent the past 30 minutes reading, but you may get a funny story or two about our gang and this beautiful thing we call 'family'.