Eeeeeeek!!
Next Tuesday I will turn 35. THIRTY FIVE. I'm getting so oooooold.
To celebrate, Jeff and I are planning on a week in New England! I hope it actually happens... Jeff has some things going on at work that might prevent our trip from happening, but he thinks he should be able to get away. I LOVE New England, especially in the fall. There's something about autumn, the changing leaves, the crisp air, that speaks vitality to my soul. It doesn't matter that winter (which I don't love so much) is just around the corner. I love fall for its own sake. It's so refreshing! So going there for my birthday week with Jeff, my lover and my best friend, is going to be just wonderful. :) Even if I am going to come back home as a 35-year-old.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Elisabeth Elliot quote
One of my Facebook friends just posted this and I love it! Just had to share it here:
The will of God is always different from what [you] expect, always bigger, and, ultimately, infinitely more glorious than [your] wildest dreams. -Elisabeth Elliot
The will of God is always different from what [you] expect, always bigger, and, ultimately, infinitely more glorious than [your] wildest dreams. -Elisabeth Elliot
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Just like a baby
Here are a few things I find myself saying to baby Kallie now and then...
"Just be patient, pumpkin... I'm almost done..."
"No, sweetie; that's not good for you to get into..."
"I know it's no fun, but I gotta do it... Just trust me..."
"Don't you worry... Nothing's gonna hurt you! I know it seems scary, but there's no need to be scared! I'm right here!"
And when I say these things to beautiful little Kallie girl, who sometimes fusses and looks up at me with weepy eyes, begging me to make things better, I can't help but realize that God must be saying those same things to me. I fuss and I cry and I flail my arms... and yet He's trying to tell me that He is in control, He knows best, and I have no need to fear because He won't let anything harm me.
That was difficult to write, because I'm going through some challenging things these days that make me feel like I'm being crushed unto death. But I was with a friend this week who reminded me about myrrh. It's bitter until it's crushed; then it emits a sweet aroma.
So I guess I should say, "Crush me, God. Though you slay me, yet will I trust you. You know what is best, you will not let any real harm come to me, and after this trial I will be a sweet aroma..." But please don't let this last much longer!
"Just be patient, pumpkin... I'm almost done..."
"No, sweetie; that's not good for you to get into..."
"I know it's no fun, but I gotta do it... Just trust me..."
"Don't you worry... Nothing's gonna hurt you! I know it seems scary, but there's no need to be scared! I'm right here!"
And when I say these things to beautiful little Kallie girl, who sometimes fusses and looks up at me with weepy eyes, begging me to make things better, I can't help but realize that God must be saying those same things to me. I fuss and I cry and I flail my arms... and yet He's trying to tell me that He is in control, He knows best, and I have no need to fear because He won't let anything harm me.
That was difficult to write, because I'm going through some challenging things these days that make me feel like I'm being crushed unto death. But I was with a friend this week who reminded me about myrrh. It's bitter until it's crushed; then it emits a sweet aroma.
So I guess I should say, "Crush me, God. Though you slay me, yet will I trust you. You know what is best, you will not let any real harm come to me, and after this trial I will be a sweet aroma..." But please don't let this last much longer!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Gray's Life Day Party
What's a Life Day Party, you ask??
It's a celebration of the day (approximately) that someone was conceived - that is, received life! It's something the Granges and others that they know do... After all, Rob takes any and every opportunity to celebrate!!! :)
So they had a party for little Gray's life day last Saturday, and Jeff and I and Kallie and Leah went. It was the first time that Leah met Gray and that Mary met Kallie! It was weird to figure out how everyone related to everyone else... Let's see, Mary is Kallie's great aunt, Leah is Gray's cousin, Kallie is Gray's...... hmm... first cousin once removed I think! Right?
Mary had cut her hair, and since I'm growing mine out, we realized that our hair is about the same length now! Which is crazy, because for the last ten years or more, Mary's hair has always been really long, and mine has always been really short! Here we are... If you shrink me down a few inches to make up for the height difference, you'll see that our hair is about the same length...
I love my sister. :)
Me with baby Gray! He was adorable in his little Mexicano hat!
It's a celebration of the day (approximately) that someone was conceived - that is, received life! It's something the Granges and others that they know do... After all, Rob takes any and every opportunity to celebrate!!! :)
So they had a party for little Gray's life day last Saturday, and Jeff and I and Kallie and Leah went. It was the first time that Leah met Gray and that Mary met Kallie! It was weird to figure out how everyone related to everyone else... Let's see, Mary is Kallie's great aunt, Leah is Gray's cousin, Kallie is Gray's...... hmm... first cousin once removed I think! Right?
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Leah & Kallie
I am so enjoying having Leah & Kallie with us! Here's Kallie in her newly-set-up crib (it was quite the accomplishment putting that thing together!).
This is one of her understated smiles... There are times that she gets so excited she can hardly contain herself! She is just full of smiles and happiness - even when she first wakes up! (That mark on her forehead is actually a birthmark... No, she did not take a tumble!)
Sleepy girl. So sweet!
Kallie loves her mommy!
And she is actually wanting to walk already! She can't on her own, but she loves walking with someone's help! She can pull herself up to a standing position on her own. Such a strong little thing!
It's so neat... we are helping Leah & Kallie, but they are also such a wonderful blessing to this home. They bring with them lots of joy. We all love them! :)
This is one of her understated smiles... There are times that she gets so excited she can hardly contain herself! She is just full of smiles and happiness - even when she first wakes up! (That mark on her forehead is actually a birthmark... No, she did not take a tumble!)
Sleepy girl. So sweet!
Kallie loves her mommy!
And she is actually wanting to walk already! She can't on her own, but she loves walking with someone's help! She can pull herself up to a standing position on her own. Such a strong little thing!
It's so neat... we are helping Leah & Kallie, but they are also such a wonderful blessing to this home. They bring with them lots of joy. We all love them! :)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
What a Day
It's a sad day for the Case family... This morning we put Allie, our sweet, beautiful Wheaton Terrier, to sleep. We believe she had bladder cancer; she had been showing signs for nearly a year. Throughout this past year she got worse and worse, which was difficult to watch. We finally just reached the point where we had to put her down. I cried and cried this morning as Jeff and the kids took her to the vet. I still can't believe she's gone! She's been such a sweet, loving dog, and we will miss her!
So the day began with saying goodbye to Allie, and it continued with saying goodbye to Phil! We didn't put him to sleep, though. :) We packed him up and moved him down to Fairfax this afternoon. He starts engineering classes tomorrow at George Mason University! It's been so neat for me to watch him mature over the past couple of years, and now he's taking this step of independence, and... it's just a little bittersweet for me.
Then, tomorrow, I drive to West Virginia to get Leah & Kallie, who are going to live with us for a while! For those of you who may not know, Sarah and Leah are my two oldest nieces (Jenny's daughters), and Kallie is Leah's baby. Jenny & Don and their other seven kids are in Texas now, although they're planning to move back east soon. But since they're so far away, and since Leah has been in a tough situation lately, Jeff and I have offered for her to stay with us. We're trying to keep this on the down-low; we don't want to make it easy for Kallie's father to know where they are. (I'm only saying it freely here because this is a private blog.) I'm excited to have them here. It will be so fun to have an adorable little baby girl around the house! And I'm so happy to be able to help Leah get a fresh start. I'm so proud of her. :)
Backtracking a bit, August 20 marked five years that Maureen (Jeff's first wife) went home to be with the Lord. (Above is one of the blooms on a rose bush planted in her memory; Jeff and the kids plant rose bushes for her every Mother's Day.) Then, August 25 would have been her 54th birthday. Phil, being the tender-hearted guy that he is, baked her a red velvet birthday cake -- from scratch! Even though he did mix up the teaspoon and tablespoon measures for a few of the ingredients, it still came out tasting pretty good! It looked a little messy, but hey, it was his first attempt at baking a cake from scratch! I think he did great. :)
Finally, look how far the shelves have come!! Since I took this picture, the mantle has gone up, and it is looking soooooo beautiful. I can't believe it's almost finished!!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Remember my migraines?
Okay so... Many of you know that I have been plagued with weekly migraines for years -- over a decade, actually. I'm 34 now, and it was in my early 20s (22 maybe?) when I began getting these awful headaches right in and between my eyes. They would begin slowly and then just grow in intensity until I couldn't even think straight. Many times they've brought me to tears.
In my mid-twenties, a neurologist diagnosed them as atypical migraines, because I did not experience the more typical symptoms (nausea, sensitivity to light, aura, temporary vision loss, one-sided pounding pain, etc...). He gave me migraine medication samples, and they worked! For the first time in years, I could defeat the pain! It was wonderful. Of course, migraine meds have side effects, which I've gotten to know well over the last decade. They make my thinking fuzzy and slow my reflexes (it's dangerous to drive after taking them). Often they just knock me out. At one point I went on a preventive medicine taken daily (which didn't even prevent them entirely), and that made me lose weight to the point where I looked gaunt.
For whatever reason I seemed to average one headache per week. At some times of my life, they came as many as 4 or more times a week! I figured out some foods that triggered them: chocolate, some dairy products (especially parmesan cheese), caffeine, alcohol. Some other triggers I put my finger on were hunger, not drinking enough water, emotional stress, physical strain, strong smells, hormonal changes, being in the sun for a long time, changes in sleep pattern or just not getting enough sleep, air pressure changes (obviously something beyond my control)..... I felt like I had to handle myself with kid gloves!! And even doing that, I still got the headaches sometimes for reasons I couldn't figure out!
Of course my year in China didn't help. I ended up having to cut my second year there short because of almost-daily migraines - caused, I think, by the stress I experienced there (as well as MSG-laden foods). But while the headaches got better when I came back, they did not go away. My life was often interrupted by them - because even when I took medication for one, it often would take a couple of hours for the pain to recede; and even then I was a groggy mess.
All this while I've been praying for healing... researching how to avoid migraines... watching my diet... and the migraines still came -- about one per week, sometimes more.
Enter Margie Lung.
Margie is a friend from Blue Ridge Bible Church and a godly older woman. She and her husband, Steve, have 7 children - 5 biological and 2 adopted. They met while under the teaching of such theologians as John Piper at Bethel University in Minnesota. They're rock-solid believers; we were in the same home group for a couple years and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them.
Margie also happens to be an alternative health practitioner; she has helped many people through something called Quantum Reflex Analysis, which has something to do with the electrical system in your body. (That's pretty much all I understand about it! It makes sense when she explains it, but I can't seem to retain a good understanding of it - not enough to explain to others, anyway.) The process she uses is called muscle testing, and by it she determines what areas of your body are off balance and what herbs and such will bring those areas back into balance.
Sounds a little weird... I know. If it was some Joe Schmo who did this, I would be highly skeptical; but Margie is a mature, godly woman, and I trust her. When I approached her about my migraines, she was confident she could eradicate them. I was not quite so confident (having put up with them for as long as I have), but hope won out and I entrusted myself to her care.
I've now gone through several months of two different kinds of detoxification. I'm not quite finished the process, but I'm almost there. BUT... even at this point I am essentially migraine-free!! I haven't had to take migraine medication in a month and a half!!! I still get headaches from time to time (basically the same kind), but they're not nearly as intense, and they go away much more easily.
THIS IS AMAZING, PEOPLE.
After I'm finished the detox process, I should be rid of them altogether. She even believes I'll be able to eat chocolate again!!! Who wants to do the Happy Dance with me?!??!! Let's have a chocolate party!!!!
I have also experienced another major kind of pain relief through this detox process (by "accident" - it wasn't something we were targeting), which was a wonderful surprise. She's also confident to tackle my depression/anxiety issues, and we'll begin that shortly.
Through her influence I have come to a greater understanding and appreciation for my need to respect my body and the influences I allow in from the world around me. (I now buy organic food, grass-fed beef, and free-range chickens and eggs -- and I clean our food thoroughly. I also avoid MSG -- and its aliases and cousins -- like the plague. I'm doing other things too, like getting rid of toxic chemical household cleaners and instead using more natural products.)
I can't tell you how thrilled I am that God brought Margie into my life. And I'm so grateful that Jeff, despite strong skepticism, has supported me in getting her help.
:)
In my mid-twenties, a neurologist diagnosed them as atypical migraines, because I did not experience the more typical symptoms (nausea, sensitivity to light, aura, temporary vision loss, one-sided pounding pain, etc...). He gave me migraine medication samples, and they worked! For the first time in years, I could defeat the pain! It was wonderful. Of course, migraine meds have side effects, which I've gotten to know well over the last decade. They make my thinking fuzzy and slow my reflexes (it's dangerous to drive after taking them). Often they just knock me out. At one point I went on a preventive medicine taken daily (which didn't even prevent them entirely), and that made me lose weight to the point where I looked gaunt.
For whatever reason I seemed to average one headache per week. At some times of my life, they came as many as 4 or more times a week! I figured out some foods that triggered them: chocolate, some dairy products (especially parmesan cheese), caffeine, alcohol. Some other triggers I put my finger on were hunger, not drinking enough water, emotional stress, physical strain, strong smells, hormonal changes, being in the sun for a long time, changes in sleep pattern or just not getting enough sleep, air pressure changes (obviously something beyond my control)..... I felt like I had to handle myself with kid gloves!! And even doing that, I still got the headaches sometimes for reasons I couldn't figure out!
Of course my year in China didn't help. I ended up having to cut my second year there short because of almost-daily migraines - caused, I think, by the stress I experienced there (as well as MSG-laden foods). But while the headaches got better when I came back, they did not go away. My life was often interrupted by them - because even when I took medication for one, it often would take a couple of hours for the pain to recede; and even then I was a groggy mess.
All this while I've been praying for healing... researching how to avoid migraines... watching my diet... and the migraines still came -- about one per week, sometimes more.
Enter Margie Lung.
Margie is a friend from Blue Ridge Bible Church and a godly older woman. She and her husband, Steve, have 7 children - 5 biological and 2 adopted. They met while under the teaching of such theologians as John Piper at Bethel University in Minnesota. They're rock-solid believers; we were in the same home group for a couple years and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them.
Margie also happens to be an alternative health practitioner; she has helped many people through something called Quantum Reflex Analysis, which has something to do with the electrical system in your body. (That's pretty much all I understand about it! It makes sense when she explains it, but I can't seem to retain a good understanding of it - not enough to explain to others, anyway.) The process she uses is called muscle testing, and by it she determines what areas of your body are off balance and what herbs and such will bring those areas back into balance.
Sounds a little weird... I know. If it was some Joe Schmo who did this, I would be highly skeptical; but Margie is a mature, godly woman, and I trust her. When I approached her about my migraines, she was confident she could eradicate them. I was not quite so confident (having put up with them for as long as I have), but hope won out and I entrusted myself to her care.
I've now gone through several months of two different kinds of detoxification. I'm not quite finished the process, but I'm almost there. BUT... even at this point I am essentially migraine-free!! I haven't had to take migraine medication in a month and a half!!! I still get headaches from time to time (basically the same kind), but they're not nearly as intense, and they go away much more easily.
THIS IS AMAZING, PEOPLE.
After I'm finished the detox process, I should be rid of them altogether. She even believes I'll be able to eat chocolate again!!! Who wants to do the Happy Dance with me?!??!! Let's have a chocolate party!!!!
I have also experienced another major kind of pain relief through this detox process (by "accident" - it wasn't something we were targeting), which was a wonderful surprise. She's also confident to tackle my depression/anxiety issues, and we'll begin that shortly.
Through her influence I have come to a greater understanding and appreciation for my need to respect my body and the influences I allow in from the world around me. (I now buy organic food, grass-fed beef, and free-range chickens and eggs -- and I clean our food thoroughly. I also avoid MSG -- and its aliases and cousins -- like the plague. I'm doing other things too, like getting rid of toxic chemical household cleaners and instead using more natural products.)
I can't tell you how thrilled I am that God brought Margie into my life. And I'm so grateful that Jeff, despite strong skepticism, has supported me in getting her help.
:)
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