Closet Makeover

Prior to our cabin trip, we decided to organize our OUT OF CONTROL closet. It took about 3 days of painting, organizing, and deciding. Here's the before and after shots. The before shot is our closet at it's worst. Look at the clothes all bunched up and shoved on the shelves. No, No!! Now it's MUCH BETTER.

Cabin 2009

Sum sum summertime!

Summer veggies? Potatoes and PUMPKINS?

Anya mad at the shoe store lady.

John graduating KINDY!!

Wristwatch

Anya's Mother's Day Birthday

We enjoyed a lovely weekend and birthday celebration the past few days. Adam took good care of me and I'm almost well again. My mother and I went to our favorite Vogue french bistro for a Mother's Day-Eve dinner. This is where we sat.

I made a little flower arrangement for my mother too. It was relaxing to assemble the flowers. Adam swiped a few of the flowers and some floral tape to make me a sweet corsage for Mother's Day. For my birthday we went to the cardiologist and got some answers about my heart. In a nutshell, it's a slight heart murmur, SVT (abnormally rapid pulse), and a haital hernia. I should be feeling better in the months ahead. We've been so blessed and our dear friends and family have been bringing dinners, driving the kids around, and showing us such kindness. On Tuesday, we had the family over for Pei Wei and sat around talking. Thanks to all for making the past few days enjoyable!

Thanks to all

Hello to all in blog world. There have been a lot of sweet emails, phone calls, and comments in support of our family while we've been sick. Mom and Dad Barry have brought dinner, helped with the kids and given much support. Mom Kotila stayed the night when we went to the hospital and she has helped with food and the kids too. Dad Kotila helped us with food and the kids as well. There have been so many people asking how to help. We just don't know where to begin. Mostly, I think we need prayers,understanding, and advice.

Balancing health, family, church, work, finances, and school is not easy. We're trying to figure out how to make it all run smoothly. I am beginning to feel better. I'm waiting for blood work back to see if I have valley fever too. The chest pains and shortness of breath is coming from a combination of stress and illness. SO, we're learning the importance of simplifying.

John and Ella both woke up with stuffy noses, sore throats, and coughs so I kept them home from school again. I feel much better than I did yesterday, so I'm able to care for both of them today. We're all taking our vitamins and praying for strength.

Thanks to everyone! We really will welcome advice for balancing life, and how to prioritize better.

Celebrating a little to soon

We went to the hospital last night for Anya. She went through for the second time of flue like symptoms, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. She would have this cycle of nausea, heart pounding, shortness of breath and the chills every 10 minutes or so. NO FUN! She started to feel better after the IV. This has been her 6 or 7 IV in the last few weeks. They don't know what caused this to happen but we did find out that everything else is working fine in her body. Now she just needs to rest, rest even more than before since she has already been resting for have EBV.

So hopefully she is on the road to recovery. I guess this weekend was a false alarm. Thanks for every one's prays. We will let you know when she is feeling better.

Blessings

We're all feeling well again. I'll have my last IV today. I was released from primary after four years. Now I'll be teaching youth Sunday school. It was a bit of an emotional day since I wasn't quite expecting to get released yesterday, but our family welcomed the release from so many responsibilities.

I finished my finals and got B's in both classes. Not bad for doing the mommy/sick thing lately.

We also had a meeting with the school this morning - Assistant principal, speech therapist, OT, resource teacher, kindergarten teacher....it was quite a conference!! The public school here has been absolutely phenomenal. John scored above average in everything, but he has major sensory issues still. He qualified for OT services and will be getting more services for the next school year. It's nice to know we have a REALLY smart above average kid.

We feel so blessed and grateful. We got through the last month and now the storm is lifting, and the blessings are unfolding.

Friday night dancing night!

How's THIS Great Grandma and Grandpa Gerber??

Excuse the Delilah talk radio...