Updating on life and such

Let me start this post out with a positive comment...I am so thankful for having a job with health insurance and that is willing to let me take time off to be with a sick husband!

Adam has had such an exciting (and by exciting I mean extremely painful and annoying) summer. First off he broke his foot right before our anniversary. The good thing is that he did not need surgery on it...but he did have to wear a really attractive (and by attractive I mean ugly) boot and use crutches...he did not like either of those things (and neither did Peanut). As he was finishing up the healing process he went to a doctor for his problems with his sinuses and such...they told him he needed to have surgery to fix his deviated septum and clean out his sinuses..they scheduled him for the middle of October but due to a cancellation they moved him up to September 25th...awesome (and by awesome I mean oh crap)! He came through pretty decent and is at home healing...he doesn't look too bad either! My mother came to help take care of him...make sure he ate, took his meds, and didn't die or something like that! She left this morning...I am super sad!

She left this morning to go pick my dad up from the airport so that they could head to Minnesota to help my Grandma Mooti. Mooti has been having some health issues lately and last night she took a turn for the worse. They rushed her via ambulance to a bigger hospital in Rochester, MN because of an issue they saw in blood work and on the EKG. That actually turned out fine! However, she had been having trouble with nausea etc and a pain in her side...turns out it is a huge mass in her pelvic area...they think it might be cancer...they are not sure. Further testing is required and  possibly surgery...I don't really know or understand all that is going on.

This is extremely hard for me because she is my only living grandparent and I do not want to lose her. Ever since grandpa died things have been getting harder for her...it may be selfish but I am not ready for her to give up her fight/journey here on Earth. I am praying that everything turns out fine and that we all got worried for no reason!

Please keep her in your prayers!

That is all I have time for now but I will try to write more later!

WOW

So it has definitely been too long since my last post...life sure does seem to get away from me these days! Let me fill you in on some of the things that have been keeping me busy!

1. My poor husband fractured his foot and has been on strict orders not to put ANY pressure on it in order to allow the bone to heal properly. So I have been taking care of him and the things around the house that I don't usually have to deal with. This whole experience has been slightly frustrating but overall it has taught me to be truly grateful for all the things that my husband does to help maintain our home. I never realized how much he really does. So a special shout out to my slightly crippled hubby...I love you with all of my heart and I appreciate all the chores you do...big and small! *Just a side note he should be able to walk around with slight pressure on the surgical in the next week or two*

2. My little Peanut (OK so he is not so little) has been getting a lot of my attention lately. He is growing up so fast and is really starting to mellow out and listen to commands. Peanut really does not understand why daddy can't play with him or take him outside...until Adam heals he is stuck with me. I have been trying my best to play with him and walk him on a daily basis. Yesterday he got to run around at my in-laws house so that made him pretty tired. My dog (although a major pain at times) brings me so much joy. His love for me and for Adam is unconditional. I can always count on his big brown eyes to bring a smile to my face.

3. A secret present for my dad...OK so the secret is out that I made my dad a present...I got the idea from pinterest (again I blame my sister-in-law, Cassie)...I worked really hard on it but I am not quite done with it...I won't be giving him the present until Christmas so stay tuned for when that post comes up...then you can see the picture.

4. I have also been trying really hard to cook...and by cook I mean use my crock pot. With my work schedule I find it really hard to actually cook a meal from scratch so I have been busting out the crock pot to make some delicious recipes. I have found several keepers that have been made more than once and sometimes there are not even left overs. The Butters Family seems to like the Chicken Salsa dip that I make using the crock pot, I also make a pretty mean Teriyaki Rice Bowl, Chicken Parmeasan, and a few more. It has been stressful for me because I am really trying to be a better wife but sometimes when I get home I have no energy left to cook/clean/do laundry etc...


So I apologize for my "boring life" but really it is exciting I just think you have to be living it from my end! I wanted to leave you all with a verse that I stumbled upon today...

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Have a good week! :)

A Slight Break..

Sorry blog world...I failed to post! My husband and I have been very busy bees and I just have not had the time to blog! My apologies (then again I may only be apologizing to myself since I have no clue how many people actually read my thoughts)!

OK..so we have been working like crazy on our landscaping...the bricks were laid poorly so we can't finish all of it because we need them to be fixed. However, all but three bushes/plants have been planted and I am a watering pro. I am super excited to announce that I have not killed any of them yet. In fact, my rose bush is actually producing some small flowers and my hosta bushes are still going strong! Woo Hoo! Adam and I are now officially river stone experts and have finished laying about half of them. Once it is closer to being completed I will post a picture.

We took a break from our landscaping project to celebrate my birthday with my family in Shipshewana! We had some amazing food and a good time just hanging out!

Emily rode a rooster while in Shipshewana!

I chose to ride a sheep!

Adam's family had a birthday dinner for me on my actual 26th birthday and it was a blast. The food was delicious and we got to play some games (I even got Adam to participate...only because it was my birthday)!



My sister-in-law Cassie got me addicted to http://pinterest.com/ and I decided to take on my first art project. It turned out great and now all that is left is to hang the pictures up.

I am so proud of this! 

I was thinking about what my thoughts for the last several weeks have been. I did not know what subject to put down but I think I am going to go with family!

I know that every family is different but the root of every family is love. There may be disagreements, fights, feuds, laughter, sadness, and the list goes on but what bonds us all together is the love that we have for one another. I know that I do not say it enough to my family but I really do love them. We may yell at each other and we may fight with each other but I would not change a thing! I love who they are, who they have helped me become, and how they support me as I continue to grow in many walks of life. They have been my rock and who I can depend on. I LOVE MY FAMILY!

The Butters!

The Carstenbrocks!

So my advice to any of the readers who may stumble upon this blog is to remind your family how you love them and appreciate them. Tell them what they mean to you...even if you fight with them those moments were more than likely coming from a place of love.

Galatians 6:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

The Blessing of Health

Often times I take being healthy for granted. I never realized how thankful I should be that I am healthy and happy!
What led me to this epiphany was what transpired this week:

My amazing husband has been battling what we both had thought was simply a cold/sinus infection...but it just got worse (he still has it 3 weeks later). We think we finally have it figured out and he now is stocked up with what is a small pharmacy! Hopefully this fixes the problems! My heart literally was breaking for him, he sounded miserable with his deep coughing, his constant sinus blockage/drainage, his difficulty breathing and his inability to actually get a good night's sleep. In the beginning I felt that I was complaining because he could NOT stop coughing which was making it impossible for me to sleep. But I realized how much pain he was in and I was thankful that I could try to take care of him and that I was indeed healthy.

 

Then my incredible mother had a little bit of a scare which of course pretty much panicked all three of her daughters. Apparently my mother had a severe painful headache for several days which eventually led to her heart rate increasing and her blood pressure to elevate. My older sister Molly (thanks for being there Molly) took her to the urgent center because her regular doctor was unavailable...they hooked her up to an EKG machine and there was an irregularity in the reading. They sent her to the ER for some tests. All of this happened while I was at work and all I could think about was how scared I was for her and how lucky she was to have insurance. I was thankful for the doctors, my sister, and for my health. Everything turned out fine in the end and she was released with the intentions that she would follow up with her doctors in the next couple of days. (And she better or she will have 3 daughters yelling at her)

Another event was that my driver's wife was rushed to the hospital for severe abdominal pain, the hospital thought that she needed to have her appendix or gall bladder removed. Then other things transpired and she eventually went to a different hospital where they diagnosed her with Chron's Disesase. Again, I was so worried about her, my driver, and their family. I realized how blessed I am to be healthy.

It is sad to me how often I do not thank God for what He has done, what blessings He has given me. It is because of Him that I am here. I need to remember my good health is a blessing.

So for you readers out there I hope that you are staying healthy, that you are taking care of what the Lord has blessed you with. And for all you out there who are sick or struggling to find out what is wrong with your body know that God has it all figured out and be thankful for what He will do to bring you healing!

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Thoughts on Change

What is change really? Why is it that change is always considered to be such a bad thing? Why is it so hard to do? You see society defines change as “to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone”(dictionary.com)
However, more times than not society treats change as something that is a last resort that it is something that we should avoid. We scream from the mountain tops that change is what we want and what we need but as soon as the change begins to happen we all dread and complain that it is no longer the same? Why is that? Why is it that we cannot face the consequences of what change is? Why is it near impossible to realize how change can be a positive thing? Never once did the definition say that change was easy and that change is instantaneous and quick.
You see, I am one of those people! I am the one that complains that something needs to change; that something needs to be different. However, when the changes occur I find every reason to doubt it and to find the negatives in it. Now it is going to sound ironic to those who choose to read this but really I am trying to change. For about the past year or so I have been going to therapy. I have been trying to change how I view the everyday occurrences in my life that seem to cause me a wide range of emotions. I have been learning how to change not only how I react to these episodes in person but how I let these events dictate my life. I used to let everything be blamed on me, I used to never defend myself. That is how it always was, it was just easier to take on the problems, issues, and stresses then to defend myself and express how these things made me feel. I CHANGED!
I still fight the change sometimes but don’t we all. I can honestly say that life still throws me curve balls, and that life is not always fair but I can also say that honestly I have never felt more confident in who I am and who I want to be. I used to not want to change anything about me, about my relationships, about my personality but now I realize that changing me to improve myself is not a negative thing. It is difficult to realize what it is about you that has to change or to realize traits in your relationships need to be altered. But these changes lead to strength, unity, and confidence that the world can be better. I realize that I can be a better person and that by me initiating change I really can make a difference in this world that claims things need to be made different. I can make the difference, I can make the change.
My challenge to you is to not fear the challenge of change but to embrace what it is and what its impact on you, your relationships and community could be! Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed my rant about change. Tune in next week!

Philippians 3:21

New International Version (NIV)

²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.