New hair

Stephanie's birthday was Sept 9. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday - she said she wanted to go and get her hair cut/done with me. She also said she wanted to pick my hair style. Okay - off we go. I drove to Marion Indiana - picked up Stef and we went to get our hair done. It is taking me alot to get used to short hair...but here are the pictures...

Labor Day

We met Stephanie and Daniel after church, ate a quick bite of lunch and took off for Lake Michigan. Jason and Kendra had rented a hotel in St Joseph, MI, so we all met at the hotel and had a lovely day on the beach. The kids loved the water - we ate pizza at the waterpark and played in the sand building sandcastles, digging holes and watching the waves fill them in... we had a lovely weekend.

We did have quite an eventful night's sleep at the Hotel. About 2 am, the fire alarm went off - we were on the 7th floor - so we bounded down the stairs in our pajamas. It was about 55 degrees, so it was a little nippy out there in our jameys... For some reason the fire trucks did not come for 2 hours, the guests were furious and it was not pretty! We finally got the kids back in bed around 4:30 a.m. It was pretty frustrating and stressful. I'm glad I'm not in the hotel business.

The next morning, we got up and ate our breakfast and then wandered the quaint little shops in town...there was a great fudge shop and and Ice Cream shop that caught our fancy -- so Grandpa (Steve) bought the kids ice cream at 9:00 a.m. - and peanut butter fudge. We then went to Tower Hill in Southern Michigan and climbed the mammoth sand hill there. We were talking with Jaybin (age 3) about how that hill got up so high...he decided that a big bulldozer pushed it up there. He loved the climb and expecially the "run" down - I think he had more fun jumping and falling than actually running. Stephen and I did not take the hill - my cast was just taken off last week and I wasn't sure my foot could handle the soft sand yet so Steve stayed behind with me.

Notre Dame Season

Hooray for Notre Dame season! Yes - Jason and Kendra take off for South Bend and we get to watch Kinsen and Jaybin! We have been having such a wonderful day. Steve and Daniel went with Jason and Kendra to the game so Stephanie and I have been playing all day with the kids.

Yesterday Steve and I cleaned out the attic. We ran across two boxes of toys that our kids used to play with - but have been put in boxes for 20 years! You know, toys like "make and bake oven"... "Light bright"... "Jewels in the attic"..."Labrinth".... "giant coloring books"... "tinker toys"... "lincoln logs"...."pick-up sticks"... We had to run to Walmart to get some pans to bake in the oven; we also picked up a tiny light to go in the light bright! The kids came at 9:00 this morning, and before you know it, the Notre Dame game had started (3:30 pm) and we missed the kick-off.

Jaybin has been playing with an old game of Jason's called "Weapons and Warriors". He has sat there for over 2 hours contented to shoot cannon balls and set up his kingdoms.

Kinsen always loves a grand tea party. We got dressed up in beautiful princess dresses and put on fancy hats. (I noticed that my "shape" has changed since I last wore my fancy dresses - humm... I guess more rigorous exercise will take place in my daily routine). Kinsen and Stephanie used the make and bake oven to make our special tea cakes...my they were beautiful! Our dog, POOF, got the little debbie snack cakes as they were on the bottom shelf of the tea cart! She's laying around on the floor not moving for the last hour - - -


Right now the kids are playing a game I forgot all about called "Jewels in the Attic". This game is a "make your own story" game where you run all over the house ...Kinsen just told me that there is a green frog that keeps crawling up her pant leg...and a wolf is in the attic scratching the door trying to get out.. Stephanie used to love this game when she was a child and she is having a grand time remembering and running all over the house with the kids...I'm very happy to just be quiet right now.


Stephanie brought a movie for this evening. We are going to watch "the absent minded professor". I'm having such a great day.

Steve's 57th birthday is on Sunday (Aug 30)! Every day is a celebration as far as I'm concerned! Steve is always so hard to know what to do (or purchase) to let him know he is loved and appreciated. He doesn't like to spend money on himself, so every dime I spend on him, he complains. So...I typically plan something that doesn't involve much money. This year however, I had a really good idea - and I spent money on it too! We had purchased a new car in February that has Sirius radio. The "free" service was only for 6 months - it expired yesterday. Steve loves 50's and 60's music...I love the broadway, classical, easy listening and big band music. The variety of music is so incredible... and there are no advertisements! We have really enjoyed Sirius radio. However, if you know Steve, it is not a necessity, so we were not going to renew the subscription. Well...I just picked up the phone yesterday and called Sirius and renewed it for a year. I was amazed at how thrilled Steve was that his radio was not shut off! So, I guess I got him a gift that he really likes this year! And, he only complained about the money I spent on it once!

Also, to celebrate his birthday we are going to Frankenmuth Michigan to meet Steve's baby sister (age 40) on Friday. I love to eat at Zenders. My favorite thing to eat at this famous chicken restaurant are the wonderful fried chicken livers smothered in sauteed onions. No one else likes them...but to me they are like candy! I can't wait.

Then, on Steve's actual birthday, after church, we are going to meet Jason/Kendra/Kinsen/Jaybin and Stephanie/Daniel at the Tipton park for a picnic and a geocache! Sure wish Sara/Chris/Grant/Mason lived close. It always seems so hard to meet with the family when one link is down in Florida.

On Monday of next week I am supposed to be released from the foot doctor - Wow! It will be 12 weeks. This week I have been wearing a tennis shoe on my broken foot. The tennis shoe works really well. When I put on any other shoe, my foot aches after an hour or two. I tried going to a wedding in a rubber soled black shoe (not very pretty, but at least not a white tennis shoe). I was hardly able to get to the car that evening. When I got home my foot was swollen again. So, I wore tennis shoes to church the next day. Tennis shoes and white socks! Now that was a fashion statement. It was rather humorous to me that it is not the women that noticed that I wore a pair of slacks and tennis shoes...it was the men. They were the ones that made a big deal out of the fact that this was the very first time they saw their pastor's wife in a pair of pants on Sunday morning - let alone tennis shoes.

33 years and counting

Our 33rd Wedding anniversary was this week on Friday, August 14. Thursday evening we hopped in the car and headed down to French Lick Indiana and stayed at The West Baden Hotel. It is a lovely old hotel that was remodeled in 2007. This is the first time we have ever stayed here. There really is not much to do in French Lick but rest. That we did very well. Friday morning we got up and sat out on the veranda with a cup of coffee and the newspaper letting the sunshine wake us for the day.

Then we headed out to Spring Mill State park. The park was quite rustic, but very nice. Since I have a broken foot, we did not hike, but we did take a boat ride through a cave and walked through the old inn. There is a pioneer village at Spring Mill that was delightful to walk. There is also an old mill that is still used to grind corn. Stephen was very tired the entire couple of days that we were there. As soon as he would sit down, he would fall asleep. I am hoping that there is still some anesthesia in his system that is making him so tired. It has been over a week since the heart catheter. It was a very minor surgery and Steve was awake through most of it... Never-the-less, Steve slept alot this weekend. Perhaps he was exhausted with all of the excitement and pain he has had over the past month.

As tired and worn out as Steve was on our little trip, this morning he got up, walked in the pulpit and he was strong, vibrant and shared the WORD this morning with conviction and passion. Grace UMC is doing a sermon series on the book of Phillippians. This morning we were on Philippians 2:5-12. ....Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.... I wish you all could have heard Steve this morning. He has a new sense of power in his preaching since his heart attack. At the end of the sermon, we began singing "He is Lord....He is Lord...He has risen from the dead and He is Lord....every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord .... and one by one people all over the congregation began standing on that Historic confession of faith.

Sometimes, in my weakness/humanity I wish that Steve would retire. Then he gets up in the pulpit and "does his thing" and I relax, placing my trust once again in the fact that we are called to pastoral ministry, and it is good...

Update on Stephen

Steve has been having alot of pain in his left arm, neck, jaw, and chest. He has had this pain in his arm for 5-6 months. The chest and jaw/neck pain has almost immobilized him for over a month. At our last Doctor's appointment, Dr Ritchie suggested that he needed to do a few tests to find out why Steve is in such pain. So, Aug 3, 4, and 5, Steve went through a battery of tests. The first two tests came back normal, for which we were grateful. The third test came back abnormal, which then promoted more testing. After hours of testing, we now have a better understanding of the extent of the damage that was done to Steve's heart during his massive heart attack on October 22nd.

We knew that the bottom portion of the heart was where his heart attack was. We were told after Steve's bypass surgery that the heart was regenerating itself. However, after 9 months since the surgery, we are now facing the fact that the bottom portion of Steve's heart is nothing but dead heart muscle. We also were informed that one of the bypass grafts had failed and is now completely blocked again. Luckily, the stent that was put in before the surgery was still holding and adequate blood flow is getting to the heart.

Dr Ritchie informed stressed with both of us that there is nothing that Steve cannot do. He has no restrictions. He needs to continue to keep on living, and pushing and working. We just need know his body and when he gets tired, back off for awhile.

We know that Steve will have to live with the pain perhaps for the rest of his life - it is just lack of oxygen to the left side of his upper body. We do have a new medication to help with the pain. He has been home for the last 48 hours (per doctor's orders) and has rested alot. The rest has seemed to help the pain as well. He is bored, wrestless and can't wait to get back to work.

As we have been processing what the tests showed, we have had mixed feelings. Feelings of gratitude that Steve does not have to have another surgery, or another stent at this point...but feelings of great sadness that one of the bypasses has already become blocked and that the heart tissue to the bottom of the heart is totally gone now. We are also sobered that his body is still making cholesterol and blocking arteries, even with all of the diet changes we have made.

New Experience

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Conner Prairie in Indiananpolis has a new exhibit - a helium balloon that you can ride in. There is a difference between a Hot air balloon and a Helium balloon. This one is helium - there is no fire to warm and cool the air...there is only a pully that allows the helium balloon to rise and then the pully line pulls the balloon back down to earth. We went over 350 feet in the air and it felt like a hot air balloon ride - the wind was blowing in our face and we were dangling in a basket. Conner Prairie is a wonderful day - and I was able to walk the entire experience with my walking cast.