The Rock Church performs Ignition by Toby Mac. Father's Day 2009! TRC Rocking the House!
Search
07/09/2009
07/06/2009
Shedding Unwanted Pounds
Back in May of 2001, I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer and underwent surgery for a total removal of my thyroid. To most this may sound terrible, but in fact it was the steppingstone to a life altering journey which literally would end up lightening my load in every sense of the word.
As a kid and most of my adult life I have always been of a petite and slender frame, due to the luck of the draw I guess in family genetics. I have been blessed in that I have never known the struggle of being overweight, Praise God! My mom at 88 years of age weighs 97 Ibs, my gramma who lived to be 101 was a slight 84lbs when she finally passed still living in and caring for her own home and my niece who is also petite weighs a mere 98 lbs, every woman on my mothers side is or was small in frame, thank you mom!
Throughout my life I prided myself on keeping physically fit, making anything dance my chief source of excercise, some could say I was addicted to it, but I prefer to call it one of God's given gifts and talents given to me as a way to express myself by letting my emotions flow through me through the power and passion of dance. But all that was about to change in the Spring of 2001. Over the course of the previous 2 years I noticed myself beginning to gain weight. As I was getting older and approaching the big 5-0 I also noticed the same was happening with friends of the same gender and age, so I resolved into thinking it was just part of the mid-life process for women and nothing to be concerned about. Two years passed and I was still gaining weight, I thought okay, I am not liking this, having always weighed 100-112lbs. I was now approaching 145lbs. YIKES! at 5'2" this was not good! I was now finding myself dieting or should I say refraining from eating and I still was gaining a pound or 2 every week! Then one day while looking in the mirror I noticed something, a small swelling on the rightside of my neck. I decided to give it a couple weeks to see if it would go away on its own, but it didn't. So I made the appointment which lead to another and another till I finally had a biopsy which returned inconclusive for cancer. The biopsy lead to a partial thyroidectomy, which now this time indeed proved positive for cancer resulting in yet another surgery a week later to remove my remaining thyroid. I won't go into the details of the HELL this put my body through for the next two years of my life, but I will tell you this, the thermostat in control of "everything body" went through some major fine tuning till they finally got my medication right, and I tell you what that is an experience I would never wish on anyone!
The 2 years it took for me to pack on all that weight, I lost in 2 months time! I am happy to say my weight is now back where it should be with room for me to actually gain a pound or two, my cholesterol is good and my blood pressure is outstanding and the best thing above and beyond all else is this "speedbump" in my road became one of the turning points in my life that lead me to the Lord. Those years of adjustment to my "new normal" lead to many long days and nights of self reflection and intospection. In those first 4 months of living in question (which is an awful place to live by the way) I journaled an entire 300 page book charting all my struggles with the grief and sadness I endured for the life, my life that I had lost and for the fears of what lay ahead. Suddenly realizing how temporary this life is and that we are not guaranteed there will be a tomorrow, I was left tired, depressed, angry, sad and above all empty and apathetic, but shining dimly thru this darkness grew a thirst for what had always been there yet had been forgotten and that is the Spirit of God that lay sleeping within. I had never really called on Him before this, but now I needed Him to be real, I needed Him to show up, I needed to feel His presence. I hadn't been born again YET, but God knew the plans He had for me. This journey has not been an easy one for me but with God by my side, He has shown me He is all that I need, that He is more than enough and that I can survive anything even to the point of death.
Today I am excited to say and to share with you the weight has been lifted, not only did I shed those extra pounds, but with them something much more important, by coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior He has released me of and lifted the heavy burdens I had unknowingly been carrying all my life spent thinking I was alone in this world with know one to depend on but me. We don't know what trials we will face in this life, but I am here to tell you God is real, He is here with each and everyone of you, He listens to our prayers and He hears our crys for help. I never believed God could help or would help a sinner like me, years of denying Him and living for myself, glorifying myself, I had done some pretty unforgiveable things, yet here I am today 45 lbs lighter and 8 years cancer free and the Dr.'s telling me I am healed, course God already told me that! Thank you Lord, my life is yours!
07/05/2009
BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR!!!!!!!!
What a wonderful fourth of July! I am blessed, I am blessed, I am blessed! And these are just a few of my blessings:
07/04/2009
07/03/2009
07/01/2009
Meet "Shimmer" and "Bob"
This afternoon my daughter who lives with me went to the store to pick up a few groceries and came home with these! As she was driving on one of the backroads home she saw a sign advertising water features and seeing how our pond is in need of some cleaning up she stopped in to see if they had any suggestions as to what we could do about all the algae. What with Roy's health being our number one concern, she found out that cleaning up the sludge and the algae is not really for Roy's benefit as much as it is for our visual, however they did have a few products that would help minimize the problem while at the same time being safe for Roy. Ok cool, but rather than leaving it at that, she made the mistake of walking past all the tanks holding many varieties of Koi big and small, did I say walking past????? My daughter is a huge animal lover and when she saw those baby Koi it was all over! So with pond cleaner, summer Koi food (yes nutritionally there is a difference) and 2 baby Koi's in hand she made her way back home. The gold one is "Shimmer" and the orange and white is "Bob", the pictures below show their release process. To introduce them to the pond, like in an aquarium you let there little bodies adjust to the temperature of the pond by floating their plastic bag in the water for 45 minutes, than you gently pick them up in your hand and release them one by one disposing of the water they came in, (I don't know why). Roy of course during all of this was very curious and anxious for us to release his new pond buddies, the last picture is him surfacing for some dinnertime treats, I guess now we're going to buy them some fresh shrimp, apparently they go nuts for the stuff!
06/30/2009
They're GROWING!!!!!
ZUCCHINI, CORN, PUMPKINS, SUNFLOWERS (MILO IS VERY PROUD OF HIS GARDEN!!!), TOMATOES AND TOMATO GROWING EVEN IN THE SHADE (THAN AGAIN THEY ARE A PART OF THE NIGHTSHADE FAMILY, HAH!) SCARLET RUNNER BEANS (I LIKE THEIR RED TRUMPET FLOWERS AND SO DO THE HUMMINGBIRDS), FRONT VIEW OF VEGGIE GARDEN, MORE SUNFLOWERS BY THE POND AND OF COURSE MILO, A.K.A. RUPPIE, THE CUTEST AND BESTEST DOG EVER!!!!!!
To Amy, So far the weather is co-operating, we even tied or broke a record for 29 or 30 days straight without any rain, which is a good thing considering I had to replant most everything. I gave up on my bush beans though, I have planted and planted and nothing ever comes up ! I think out of probably 80 seeds planted 4 came up and I dunno why, but we have lots of birds, rabbits, deer and slugs and snails not to mention gophers so the answer I think lies in there somewhere lol!
