A Weekend Away

The weekend before Labor Day, Mike and I took off for a MUCH NEEDED weekend away! A huge word of thanks goes out to my mom, who watched the girls for us (just a week after her last chemo treatment)! We had a blast! Here are some of the highlights:

We drove up to the Petoskey/Harbor Springs area the first day, and that evening went to a fabulous little place called The Legs Inn. The atmosphere was amazing, and the food was a curious mix of Polish and Native American! Curious, but delish!
Mike and I in front of the restaurant

The back side of the restaurant, where the outdoor dining was

The view from our table (Mike took a picture of his dinner with his camera phone, so if you're interested in that . . . contact him)! He he he!

Seriously . . . this was the view from the back yard of the restaurant! Amazing!


The next morning, we drove to Petoskey State Park to hike the trails!
Hiking in the woods

We propped the camera up on a log for this shot . . . not bad!

The end of the trail came out to the dunes and Lake Michigan - here we made another attempt at a self-taken photo!

That night, we drove down to Traverse City and took a vineyard/wine tasting tour of one of my favorites - Chateau Grand Traverse (they make a yummy Riesling)!


View of the vineyard from the road

Mmmmm Riesling grapes! How I love thee!

The Hudsonville Fair

Bella and "Billy" (get it? billy goat?)
Faith and Claire and "Silly" (get it? silly goose?)
Bella and Jo Jo
A crazy group of kids! Friends are the best!
Sisters
Claire and Faith - BFF's
That's my girl!
Crazy Claire!
That's my other girl!
BFFs

Last Day at the Beach

The end of August, when I should have been busy recruiting volunteers for Stepping Stones Sunday School, Faith, Bella and I played hooky, and took off for a day at the beach!

Bella
Faith
America's Next Top Model
My girls!
H1
H2
Mommy in her "happy place"
Bella Boo - warming up!
Sing with me, "There's a hole . . . there's a hole . . . there's a hole right next to the sea!"

Can I just say I LOVE GRAND HAVEN!?!

Garage Sale!

The end of July, after Sports Camp craziness, and a week at the cottage to recuperate, I added to the summer craziness by having a garage sale! I have to admit, a tear or two was shed in the process of all this, but I finally broke down and got rid of all of my baby things! I would have loved to use it for 2 or 3 more kids . . . but sometimes our plans and God's plans don't line up. After finally coming to terms with the fact that - barring a miracle - I'm done having kids, I went through all the baby clothes and things, set them on tables and marked them to sell.





We had beautiful weather this time around (last time I attempted this, it rained all weekend), so people came out in droves!




All said, I took in over $700! Maybe we can put that toward adopting some more kids - oh - wait - I just got rid of all my baby stuff!

Cousins!

While I took my mom to get chemo, my sister-in-law, Kelly, watched my girls. She has two amazing and crazy little boys! The four of them seemed to have a lot of fun this day! It's great having cousins so close!

Blake Calvin

Bella Grace

Jared Michael

Faith Ellen

After swimming in his little pool, Blake's diaper was a little loaded down. Kelly removed it, and he ran right away to his little car and started driving around nude! You can tell he takes after his daddy! (my brother, Chad)

My Mom

As you know, in March of this year, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. In April she had a full mastectomy, and in May, she found out that, although she was considered Stage 1 with no lymph node activity, she was at high risk for the cancer coming back globally (throughout her body) - 35% risk. Because of this, her doctors decided she needed to have chemotherapy in order to cut that percentage in half - 17%. The hormone therapy that she will need to have eventually, will then cut THAT percentage in half - 8%. That made having chemo - as hard as that was to hear - a "no brainer".

Dr. Sabong has been her oncologist. He has been the one to make the decisions regarding my mom's care. He is amazingly wonderful - so thorough - so empathetic - so considerate!



Pat has been her chemo nurse. She, too, has been wonderful. God has been so good in the people He has surrounded my mom with!



My mom is now done with her chemo. She's little by little feeling stronger.

Next on the agenda is surgery #2. When she had her mastectomy in April, she had reconstruction done. The reconstruction piece was an expander that's purpose was to stretch out the skin and muscle so she could eventually have an implant put in. The implant surgery is what's next! That will happen in November. Soon after that, she'll start a hormone therapy that will block certain hormones from feeding any cancer cells that may still be in her body (please, Lord, let there be NONE!). The hormone therapy will last for 5 years. After that 5 year period of time, her chance of cancer coming back, drops to below 2%!

Thank you for your continued prayers for her, as this has been a long road! The worst of it seems to be behind her, but there is still a long way to go! She is an amazing woman, with an amazing attitude that stems from an amazing faith in an amazing God!

Sports Camp 09

Sports Camp is the most enjoyable thing I get to do for my work at Caledonia CRC! It is our summer outreach program for kids (much like a VBS). I have the privilege of planning the entire thing (with a fabulous group of volunteers), writing the presentations, picking a theme, choosing the sports, organizing the volunteers, writing out job descriptions, teaching large group, leading singing . . . it's the best! Sports Camp is offered for kids ages 4 through 5th grade! Both Bella and Faith were participants in Sports Camp, and Mike and I were busy volunteering all week (OK, so I get paid too!) Anyway, here is a slide show to give you a little snipit of what Sports Camp week is like.

Our theme was "The Armor of God" and some of the highlights were:
The HOT weather - the only one of the summer he he he!
The armor "sound effects" - ffshshshsh, ca-chunk!, huh, huh!!!, sha-wing!, hawah!, stomp stomp!
Water Day!
The Caledonia fire truck
Team cheers and coats of arms
300 kids singing "Every Move I Make"
Nightly DVD recaps of the day before
100 - yes 100 - kid making a first time commitments to Christ!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Bella's Debut!

In early June, Bella had her first chance to sing in front of church. As a Director of Children's Ministries, this is one of my most favorite things! I love watching the little ones sing their little hearts out to Jesus . . . and lift up their skirts, and pick their noses, and cry out for mommy! He he!

Bella was SO excited, she could hardly contain herself. She picked out her prettiest dress and sang and smiled and did all the motions, and made her mommy proud!

Catching Up

Ok, so I know I've been a big loser and haven't updated my blog since Mother's Day . . . and an awful lot has happened since then . . . so, I decided to catch ya'll up . . . if indeed there is still a "ya'll" out there who checks this blog.

I'll start by taking you back to the end of May.

Interesting tidbit #1: May is an awesome month filled with sunny days and the hope of summer. One of the many things we do in May is open up Mike's parent's cottage. Well, there was some added work to do this year since the furnace broke last winter and the pipes and toilets froze. The guys worked hard to fix everything up that had gotten damaged, and as a result there were many things that needed to be tossed.

Interesting tidbit #2: Mike was frustrated with our cracked and crooked sidewalk, so, in late May he ripped out the old one and poured a new exposed ag sidewalk. Since our yard is mostly made up of clay, Faith and Bella had a blast making crafts out of the clay they found. There were a LOT of baths in May!




When these two interesting tidbits are combined, you end up with this:



Nice! Faith waiting for her carpool . . . sitting on a toilet in the front yard. Classy!

Let's Kick Breast Cancer to the Curb, People!!

Tomorrow is the 2009 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure!

My family is walking/running in celebration of my beautiful mother, Charlene Veenstra.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March of 2009. She had a mastectomy and reconstruction of her left breast in April. Following her surgery, the doctors determined that she had Stage 1 breast cancer (2 cm tumor, no lymph node activity and clean margins)! We were elated, and felt so happy that she was cancer-free and that the worst seemed to be behind her.
However, further tests on her tumor showed that she was at high-risk of the cancer returning. Because of that, she learned that she would have to have chemo to cut her risk from 35% down to below 10%.

The tests she had to determine her high risk are tests that were recently developed by people doing cancer research! The Lord is good! He is gifting scientists and doctors with more and more knowledge and ideas to fight breast cancer! That is one of the many reasons I think supporting the cause is so important! The money IS going to good use, and IS allowing people like my mom to live healthier, longer, cancer-free lives!

My mom completes her 6th round of chemo on September 9! Woo Hoo! Then she moves on to hormone therapy and implant surgery in November!

My mom is an incredible encouragement to everyone who knows her. She loves, laughs, and lives life to it's fullest - putting her full trust and finding her strength in her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

"But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."
Isaiah 40:31

CLICK HERE to donate to this important cause! Help us kick breast cancer to the curb!

Happy Mom's Day

Faith playing "Wonderful Words of Life" on the piano for my mom. She practiced playing that all week so she could play it for her Grandmas.





This Mother's Day was especially meaningful.

Through her struggle to fight breast cancer, I've seen my mom in a whole new light. She is the most brave, courageous, loving, generous, gracious, caring and encouraging person I've ever met. She's facing one of the scariest times of her life, and yet her character hasn't changed a bit. In fact, this struggle (as so often is the case) has seemed to make all of the things I love about her even stronger. Her faith is amazing, and she has the unbelievable ability to stay light and positive through it all.

I'm so thankful for her example. I truly hope that I can be half of the mom she is and has been. If I can even reach 50% of who she is, I will be above average.

Thanks for your example, Mom - both to me and to my girls. Thanks for staying strong in your faith and true to your character. I arise and call you BLESSED!



My Beautiful Mom, Faith, Bella and me on Mother's Day.



Also, on this Mother's Day post, on a much more hilarious note, I wanted to share the best part of the day for me, personally.

(Keep in mind as you read this, that we had a great Mother's Day sermon at church about building moms up, encouraging them, praising them, thanking them etc.)

As I was tucking in Faith last night, she was being especially goofy and funny. As I was leaving her room she said,
"Mommy, you're the best mommy in the whole world! I love you! Oh, and I learned at church today that I need to praise you, so here ya go:"

Then she stood up on her bed, raised her hands in the air and began to sing,

"It makes me want to shout, Hallelujah, Thank You Mommy, For all the good things, You do for me, I really love you, And I want to, Give you all the praise!" (Do you recognize the tune? It's a fairly new song, that we've been singing in church . . . I think it's called "When I Think about the Lord").

I was already laughing my buns off, and then she went into:

"Mommy loves the little children, All the Children of the world . . . . ." You know the rest.

Then came:

"Mommy loves me this I know, For my Daddy tells me so . . . "

I was laughing so hard, I had tears rolling down my face. That girl is hilarious! She sang these crazy songs for about 15 minutes . . . some in a very syncopated, rhythmic way . . . adding her own drum, bass and trumpet parts. She even added vibrato. The girl is a truly talented singer, and musician. I wish I could have recorded it to play back on the "not so nice" days that I need a little pick me up. I'm just glad that Mike was present to hear the songs first hand. We both had a good laugh out of it.

I don't think I'll ever hear one of those songs the same again. If you see me giggling in church when we're singing "When I Think About the Lord", now you'll know why.