Friday, November 16, 2007

Thank you Lord!

I just got off the phone with Obie's vet and they said the tests came back negative, he does not have any cancerous tumors. She said there is a small chance the test was inaccurate but she says its over 90% accurate so she feels very good that our little guy is cancer free!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support through this! Its been a long two days for us waiting to hear if he was okay. He is also back to eating good again which is encouraging so the meds they gave us seem to be working! Yay Yay Yay! :-)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Tom Petty was wrong...

Sometimes life isn't so much a highway as it is a really scary roller coaster. It seems like our lives have been filled with a lot of highs and lows but very few long highway like stretches like Tom Petty wants us to think it is.

We've been through some tough financial times, a terrible act of nature that wiped out one of our homes, and a couple trips to the hospital. We've also seen some great new friends come into our lives, got to see God provide when no one else would, and had many prayers answered. Today we experienced another of our lows.

We brought Obie into the vet today because he hasn't been eating well which is a good sign that something is wrong...especially when he loves his food as much as Obie does. Well after running a urinalysis the vet confirmed that Obie in fact has ANOTHER bladder infection. This is his second in the past few months now. It also meant another $160 out of our pocket...but hey a bladder infection isn't TOO bad.

We got home and started watching "Til Death" when the home phone rang. There are only a few people who have our home number: Telemarketers, the car salesman from last night, and the vet. When the phone rang we knew it was likely Mak from the car dealership (that is a whole different blog) or the vet (believe it or not we would have rather had Mak...even though we were avoiding him). The vet informed us that she is a little concerned about Obie. She looked at the urinalysis again and noticed that the bladder cells were splitting, rather rapidly. She is concerned that our little Obie might have Bladder Cancer!

This was the devastating kind of news we did NOT need in our lives right now. Those who have met Obie and know us, you know that Obie is more than just some dog...he is like a child to us. The thought of losing him is pretty devastating. So this blog is more of a pleading for prayer from all of our friends. We want our little boy Obie to be around for a long time yet. Please pray for his health and that it is in fact NOT cancer but just the infection she initially thought it was. In addition please pray for us, especially Meghan, as we deal with whatever God has in store us here.

Tomorrow morning I will be dropping off another urine sample in a sterile container to be submitted to a lab for further testing. We should know more in the next couple of days and we will keep you all updated...

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Building a social life from scratch

Moving to an area where you know no one is scary...especially when you have a really established core group of friends that you are leaving. Our biggest struggle while we've lived in Illinois has been figuring out how to find all new friends when you have no one to start with...it can be a lonely time (luckily, we had each other)

Well, Meghan and I are both taking some big steps in our lives here in Illinois. I've lived here for about a year and Meghan has been here for a half a year but really we've only done things with each other the whole time we've been here. I think the biggest thing we've both been missing since being down here is actually hanging out with other people of the same sex. While we really love spending time together, sometimes you just need to be apart and have fun with other people too (all you married couples know what I mean).

We joined a great small group here at our church, and as a result made our first real friends here. Its been so nice knowing other people that we can build relations
hips with. This Friday Meghan has a "girls night" with a bunch of the girls from the small group. I am excited for her to get out and hang out with them...honestly, I think its really good for us. I don't know what they are doing really but I am sure they will have a lot of fun. Since we only have one car now...looks like I'll be chillin at home for the night.

I joined an indoor flag football league and talked two of the guys from the small group into joining with me. Man, I needed this league. It's so nice to just have some time to play sports again and to spend some time with the boys. So we had our first game on the 29th, though we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into. Let's just say it showed. After being thoroughly humiliated by one of the better teams in the league (they even had team shirts) we regrouped and talked some strategy. We came back this past Monday and beat the team we played...the final score was 50-8!!!! Wow, did that feel nice! I think we all started to get a better feel for where our role with the team was going to be. My goal is to be the Wes Welker of the team!

While IL might never be "home" for us, its finally feeling like a place where we can enjoy life as long as God has us here! I am excited to see what God has in store for us here in Illinois. Its been a very trying time so far, but also a time of tremendous growth as a couple and I look forward to even more! My memory verse for this week reflects how our life has been so far since our wedding:

Hebrews 12:11 -
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Sunday, November 4, 2007

I Went Hunting!...For Poop!

This weekend most hunters in Minnesota packed up their shotguns, donned on their blaze orange hunting gear, and headed to the deer stand for deer opening. Not me. I got a flashlight, put on some shoes and a coat, got my nephew Gabriel, and went poop hunting. That's right--poop hunting.


My 20-month-old nephew's new favorite book is one that my parents got for him from a recent vacation to the Appalachian Mountains: "Who Pooped in the Park" (The Great Smokey Mountains National Park). So I decided to take Gabriel out on a nature hunt of our own to look for our own poop. Good thing I knew that the dog had just taken a poop outside so that I would not let Gabe down. He is now obsessed with looking for poop.

P.S. Sorry to disappoint, but the picture had to be taken after church as a set-up. You see, when we did our actual search for poop, it was dark out, and I did not think to get the camera out. When I realized I wanted to blog about poop hunting, I thought I should get some sort of picture to post also.
If you have a child, you should really get them a book on poop. They will be fascinated and be entertained for hours. I hope you all continue to have a fabulous fall.