My half-sisters

Please be in prayer for my dad and I tomorrow and Wed (April 1 and 2). We are traveling to IL to pick up my half-sister and bring her back to live with dad. I have never met her and dad has not seen her since she was a baby. She is not coming under the best of circumstances, but I pray that we can be a good influence on her life. Please pray for safety for dad and I on Tuesday, and for the three of us on Wednesday on our way home. It will be a whirlwind trip with no time to visit family there. :( Pray for Alexis as she settles into life here and for Dad, Laura and Nichole as they have big adjustments too.
Most importantly, please pray for the salvation of Alexis (17) and Kimberly (18). We hope to get to see Kimberly also, but have not been able to get in contact with her yet. Sorry this is a spastic post - kinda a last minute trip and I have been packing all evening and am going to try to head to bed early so we can leave around 3:30am!

The Business of Being Born movie

I highly recommend this movie. I finished watching it last night, and I think it is a fabulous, powerful, raw, eye-opening movie that every woman of child-bearing age should see. Get it and watch it with your friends, daughters, loved ones. It's all about being informed and having the ability to choose.

Temple Passmore

I came across this a while back. Amazing! I bought one of her CDs from www.cdbaby.com after hearing this.

Burns are healing!

Here is a pic of my burns today, 10 days after it happened. They are itching quite a bit the last couple days - which is a good sign of healing!!! I have switched to Vit E cream and bandaids which is a lot easier than the earlier protocol. I still do honey once a day and colloidal silver only if something looks suspicious of infection. You can see some white areas on the right finger - those are areas I suspect of 3rd degree. Also near the bottom of the burn on the middle finger you can see a small yellow patch, that is the area where the blister was torn off that first night. It is the only place I have really been suspicious of any infection and the only area that has scabbed over. NO skin has peeled yet! The blisters that drained just laid down flat and are covering the skin underneath still, feels like it has reattached! The brown around the edges feels hard and leathery. Pretty amazing!

Today's appt, burn update, etc...

I updated Will's page with more info on his appt today, and pics of his (now orange) cast. He is pretty happy!

As for my burns, they are doing great. The first blister popped on Monday and the second yesterday. It feels a lot better to not have that pressure and be able to cover it more comfortably. I am continuing treatment with colloidal silver (diluted) spray and raw honey.

I am anxiously awaiting the birth of my new niece today! Praying for you B & C!!!

Good news!

I talked with the surgeon's nurse yesterday afternoon and asked her what to expect at the appt tomorrow. She spoke with the dr and called me back saying that all they were going to do is x-ray through the cast! :-) Yeah! That should be easier and less painful for him! I reminded her that the dr told Will he would add some color to the cast, I am sure Will won't let him forget. :)

Healing update

My son is doing amazingly well. He is running around and playing almost like usual, he does get tired and I've managed to have him take a short nap each day. He has had no visible swelling. I think he is going to give me a heart attach before the month is out. He just wants to run and be active constantly. I am trying to prepare him for seeing the surgeon on Thursday, seeing the stitches and pins could be a bit traumatic. I am thankful that he was with me when they used the saw to cut my cast off, so he is prepared for that. He is excited to get his "colored" cast. Our appt is Thursday at 8:25am EST if you could be in prayer for us then.

My burns are improving. The blister on the middle finger got bumped and has slowly drained so that it is mostly flat but has the skin still protecting it. The other finger still has a HUGE blister on it - very tight and uncomfortable still. I have decided to try not to pop it after hearing a friend's experience with healing. I am treating with colloidal silver spray and raw honey and keeping it covered with non-stick gauze, I've been impressed with the improvements since I began that. The skin around the blisters is getting kinda tough and brownish, I expect that will all eventually heal.

Thank you for all the prayers!

Tagging friends

I don't know a lot of people with blogs, so....

Amy
Gill
Kim
Vivian

YOU'RE IT!

I've been tagged!

My friend Mary in Ireland "tagged" me.

Directions: Here's how you play. Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog of ten weird, random things, facts or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose five people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them to be tagged. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying "you're it" and to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you. Since you can't tag that person back, let him or her know when you've posted your blog so he or she can read your answers.

So....

10). I was born in Texas and have lived there and in Nebraska, Illinois and now Virginia. I also lived in Germany for a while as a girl!

9). I dyed my hair once, 7 years ago... basically the same color (not very brave, nobody could tell)!

8). I am a horrible housekeeper and pay someone to clean for me once a week.

7). I enjoy office work, and I enjoy being a homeschool mom - but I don't like juggling both.

6). I met my husband when I was 16, we dated for 14 months, were engaged for 14 months and have now been married for almost 12 years.

5). My first car was a blue Monte Carlo bought from my future brother-in-law.

4). My husband Tom and I share a birthday - March 9. My kids like to say that I was Tom's first birthday present. :-)

3). I love all animals - but especially ones that can be trained and are affectionate.

2). I like lots of different types of music - country, classical, bluegrass, soft rock, christian contemporary - I like to find unknown artists too.

1). My middle name is Dawn.

Will update

I feel like we are recovering a bit and doing better. I was SO worn out after the stress and sleepless night at the hospital. Will didn't sleep very well last night, despite the tylenol. He ended up watching a Blue's Clues DVD on the laptop next to his bed in our room over and over again last night. Distraction seems to be the best pain control. He has done better since daddy's been home this evening, they've been playing video games and he's had someone else to help him to the toilet and feed him, etc... I found my homeopathic muscle relaxer that I used instead of pain killer when I had the broken wrist, he wasn't able to swallow them but did (to my surprise!) chew one up. My experience was that if I took 2 every 3 hours I was fine, so will see how that goes for him taking 1 every 3 hours. Kerry reminded me to be giving him Arnica also (duh! shows how brain dead I was). :-) I am hoping tonight is better for him, he has a hard time finding a comfortable position when laying down and prefers to be sitting. I plan to pick up some liquid calcium from the hfs to add to his raw milk smoothies also.

Check out his blog page for more updates and info!

My burns today

The blisters keep getting larger. I have been putting vit E cream and raw honey on them. I've decided they are 2nd degree, with a spot or two that may have hit 3rd degree. One blister broke while we were at the hospital, one of the times I picked Will up to change his bed. That area is pretty sore - middle finger knuckle. Ice still feels good but not a necessity like it was. The pressure is pretty great.

Pics of my hand

Per my mom's request....

The swelling.

The small blisters.

Here you can see the large blisters covering the fingers, the white/gray areas.

A really bad day

My little Will ended up in the hospital today. He broke his elbow pretty severely and needed surgery. :( Read more of the story on his blog page.

The day started with me pouring hot oil all over my hand, and I should have just gone back to bed right then! I have blisters covering 2 fingers and they are quite swollen. I have been keeping ice on it all day, poor nurses were probably wondering why they kept bringing ice but Will never used them (he couldn't stand the weight or the cold).

Anyhow, it's been quite the day. I have been pleased with the doctors, the nurses on the floor where we are staying now are great, the Triage nurses were not so much... but I kinda freaked them out a bit because he wasn't in their "system".

I am thankful to God that...

• Will is so strong and such a good boy and is doing fine tonight


• My friend Amy is such a dear and has been so sweet and helpful keeping the girls


• My wonderful husband came to my side as soon as I asked


• Tom arrived just before the pediatric orthopaedist came in with the news of surgery


• I have fresh memories of the pain and frustration of a broken right arm


• Will and I had the opportunity to talk about trials and lessons God can teach us through them and I could give him examples of things I learned with mine


• Our pastor came and sat and prayed with us while Will was in surgery


• We have so many friends and family to call on for faithful prayer


• The other rooms were full, so we got a nice, large private room on the Oncology floor!

And lastly, I am thankful for my laptop and wireless free internet! :D

A Productive Saturday

Today we got up and went to church to clean (it's our month), and then went and found Will a new bike (thanks for the tip Rich & Amy!), did grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, came home and I pruned the rose bushes, the butterfly bush, the forsythia, and the lilac, raked a couple of beds and then came in and completely cleaned up our school room! Tom hung the bulletin boards for me finally and Heather organized the "white shelf" all by herself! Rose and Will were very helpful with general clean-up too. It was so great to get done! Now the room is ready for our guest arriving tomorrow. :-)

"New" to us car

We got a cute little Honda Civic a few weeks ago. The van needs a new transmission, but we decided to put that money in a car with better gas mileage instead. We still have the van and do plan to fix it eventually s0 that we can use it for trips, etc... The Honda is fun,

the kids are a bit squished when we all ride together but not too bad. It reminds us of the Honda we had when we first got married (except it isn't stick and doesn't have all the fancy chrome).

Sister's visit

My littlest sister from MN visited last week with her boys. We were finally healthy enough to see her on Monday and she stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was such a nice time. Her boys, Amos (4) and Ethan (2) are darlings and she has an adorable baby bump! :-) I am going to try to visit them in July when their baby is due, flying would be nice but the drive isn't that bad. Angela called this morning and said that they were safely home, good to hear.

Here are some pics of me with both my sisters, all 7 of our children, and Amos and Will playing trains.

Spring is coming!

I was outside for a bit today. We have had some lovely weather - 60's to right about 70 Monday. We had a bit of rain and lightning last night too. Spring is in the air! I got some pics of the bulbs that are sprouting and the crocus blooming. I posted them on the Pic-A-Day page, which I am not keeping up with very well... anyway, stop by there to see if you want (nothing spectacular yet).

http://strivingforrubies-dailypic.blogspot.com/