Wake Up!

It doesn't stop... Every keystroke you make is recorded.  Even if you type something, then erase it and type something else... it is recorded.  Everything you buy is tracked, every website you visit is tracked.  People who are "in the know" of the technology our government has, refuses to have any conversations in a room with any electronics.  Did you know that you can be recorded even if your cell phone is turned off?

Here is an article about some of the companies that are storing everything you are doing click here.

Let me say this plainly... If Hitler had this technology there would not be ONE Jew left.  There would have been no secret hiding rooms saving precious Jews.  Corrie tenBoom's story would have never been.

America we are living in dangerous times... WAKE UP!

Standing

I started to write a post and erased it all.  My mind is reeling at all that is going on, and has gone one, in the government.  I know that writing about it, I could get put on a "list".  I understand the implications for my family and I by speaking out and saying enough is enough.  I have seen what has happened to people who chose to take a stand.  But I Am Standing.

I have left political stuff off my blog for a very long time, I can't do it any longer.  Someday, I hope my kids read my words and know exactly what I stood for.

Yesterday news broke from a Great Britain newspaper, that this administration has been collecting all personal communications from Verizon on millions of Americans.  I am going out on a limb here by saying, I think we will find out other cell phone carriers will be added to that list.  Please don't be fooled to think that it is for our safety.  Millions of Americans are not out to kill other Americans.  The Patriot Act under the Bush administration was opening pandora's box.  My civil rights are being infringed upon, so are yours, and if we don't stand up and say "No More", the decline of this nation will be fast.

Spying on Americans is just a drop in the bucket, this administration has slowly continued to whittle away everything that this Country has stood for.

When I was finishing up my medical schooling, I worked for a Doctor who had done one of his rotations in London.  He had scrubbed in on a surgery of an elderly women who was having a relatively easy surgery.  During surgery the head surgeon nicked something else that if not fixed would cause a fairly rapid death.  The Doctor who I worked for looked me in the eyes and with tears told me how he was chosen to go tell the family that the surgery went beautifully to fix what they had went into to fix, however the mistake (that could be easy fixed as well) would not be fixed and she would die in a matter of hours.  Why did they not fix it??  She was too old, her life wasn't considered important anymore.  Who decided that?  The government run healthcare.

This week the parents of a 10 year old little girl stood before The Health and Human Services Secretary  begging her to please allow their daughter to receive adult lungs.  If she doesn't have a transplant she will die within 5 weeks.  This is the response from the Secretary... “I would suggest, sir, that, again, this is an incredibly agonizing situation where someone lives and someone dies."

This is happening here in America now.  Why was she turned away for a lung transplant?  Because the government decided that only 12 year olds could have a lung transplant from an adult.  Does it matter that that little girls doctors all believe that they could save her life with adult lungs?  This little patient's name is Sarah Murnaghan.

To add to this very scary new federal healthcare, you have the IRS overlooking the most personal of information.  Just think, me being on the "watch list" because I don't bow to the dictator, I homeschool, I believe in the Constitution... will I get voted to live or die?  The IRS has already proven that they target conservatives or anyone who believes in the Constitution.  They can't handle our money, do you trust them to handle our healthcare?  

This is an amazing video from yesterday,  Rep. Gowdy should be applauded.

I have so much more to say....

The Craziness that is Our Life...

Well, are you ready for our story the last two weeks... The saying "When it Rains it Pours" took on a whole new meaning in our family and although it's been a struggle, and we have been questioning God's direction in our life, we are holding strong to what we know, that God has only good things in store for those that love him, which is US!

Backing up to about two week.... We had our trailer on a seasonal lot at a local campground this year.  The kids and I showed up one afternoon to discover carpenter ants all over the trailer.  I killed over 50 of them that day.  We began an all out assault against the little buggers, but were not seeming to be gaining any headway.  It all came to an abrupt halt the night our kids were on a sleepover and Kevin and I were laying in bed.  He was playing a game and I was reading a book, when a big black ant fell out of our vent in the ceiling and landed on my lap.  We pulled the trailer home the next day.

The kids and I emptied the entire trailer and we proceeded to bomb it.  Trying to keep this story as short as possible, we ended up bombing the trailer 2 more times.  We killed hundreds of ants.  After the third bombing, we still discovered live ants.  Kevin decided to pull some of the ceiling down to "see" what was going on.

I was there for this lovely event... Now I am the bug killer in our family.  If a spider is spied somewhere in our house, my name is called (by all the members of this family) to come kill it.  I don't freak out when there are bugs around, however, I did let out a little shriek as Kevin pulled the ceiling down to reveal lots of dead ants and also live ants.  Pulling the ceiling down also revealed the reason the ants were in our trailer in the first place.  Our ceiling has water damage...fungus...mold... all over it.  After pulling the ceiling down we decided to bomb yet again.

Our insurance company will not cover any of the damage.  Thankfully we purchase our trailers at an amazing dealer and they told us to take pictures of everything and they would go to the manufacturer (KZ) of our trailer to see if they would help us in any way.  Our warranty has been up for 2 years already, but they came back and said they would provide all the material for a new roof for the whole trailer and a new ceiling, a total of $4000 in materials.  There is a reason KZ is ranked #1 RV manufacturer in the country.  However... even though we have the materials coming, we still need to either do the labor ourselves or pay $4000 for the work to be done for us.

Kevin and I have full confidence that Kev can do this work himself, but we lack a place for him to perform the work.  Once you remove the old roof, the entire trailer is completely exposed to the elements of weather until you get the new roof on, so we would need an enclosed facility, which we don't have.  Plus the materials that are coming to fix our trailer won't get here for 6-8wks.

Kevin and I decided to go to the our trailer dealer to talk through all our options, which could or could not include turning in our unit for another one so that we aren't waiting all summer for a trailer to camp in.  We were there for near minutes when we got a frantic call from home saying that they hear water running and it was coming from the master bathroom upstairs.  Our neighbor, thankfully, was able to get the water off at the toilet and worked very hard at minimizing the water damage while we raced back home.

When arriving home we discovered that the supply to the toilet had broke and it was spraying water like a hose.  Water is a sneaky and quick advancer of damage.  We estimate it took under 10min (probably closer to 5min) to get the water turned all the way off.  In that time water moved from the master bathroom, under walls into the boys room and the master closet.  It flowed down the walls and registers to the living room and continued it's way into the basement.

We called in the reserves (our Dad's) who came racing to try and prevent the water from causing even more damage.  When we had arrived home, we saw that our living room ceiling was holding water.  We raced to get plastic down to prevent our living room carpet from getting ruined.  We had just laid the last piece of plastic when a section of the ceiling fell down.  Kevin was poking relief holes in the ceiling to allow the water to pour out into buckets, that were replaced with 30 gal trash cans.

At one point Kevin was up on the ladder, removing drywall from the ceiling when he climbed down quickly and put his foot right in one of the water buckets... shoe and all... it stuck on his foot.  We got a good laugh about that...

We called a company that comes in and starts the drying out process.  They arrived around 9 pm and worked until almost 1 am, getting blowers going on all floors in all effected rooms, they also brought in huge dehumidifiers to suck the water out of the air as quickly as possible.  They sprayed on an antimicrobial spray to prohibit mold growth as well.

Yesterday we had the insurance adjuster come to check out all the damage.  I can't even begin to write all that needs to be fixed.  There was a HUGE amount of damage done.  Some of the damage is very straight forward, what needs to happen to get it fixed, but some... like our living room/kitchen area, is sickening to think what has to happen to fix things the way they were.

Sadly the arch way between our kitchen and living room received thousands of dollars worth of damage.  To fix it, would require removing half of our kitchen cabinets, countertops and parts of our tile backsplash.  It's overwhelming for Kevin to think about, which means his systematic mind is still reeling from what has to happen to fix it (this is not normal for him).  We are trying desperately to figure out a way to fix drywall damage without removing half of our kitchen.  Our living room ceiling is no more... it needs to be completely replaced... exposed floor joists are an interesting look for a living room...  Once the drywall is back up on the living room ceiling and drywall is fixed on the walls, we will need to repaint and then put the crown molding (that Kevin painstakingly removed so we could reuse it) has to go back up. Carpet was saved, but will need to be cleaned.

Our basement is a little more straight forward, but it still requires a lot of work.  The "front" playroom has to be re-drywalled and repainted.  The carpet has to have pad replaced then it needs to be re-stretched and cleaned.  The ceiling has water damage spots so, we need to seal and repaint that.  We also lost some furniture down there.

As far as the upstairs, the master bath cabinet needs replacing, the wood floor had to be removed,so new flooring needs to be placed down.  The master closet/bedroom will need all new carpet.  The boys room has to have new pad laid and then the carpet needs to be stretched and cleaned.

Yesterday all the huge machines were removed from the house.  We had decided that the water, ant, mold infested trailer was a better place to sleep while our house was a hot, loud, wind tunnel.  So the last few nights we had been camping out there.  But last night, Kevin was able to put some things back, so we were able to sleep in our beds last night and it felt good.

Who knows how long it will take to get our house back in order.  At least a month for sure... but in the meantime, we are taking it a day at a time.

I need to stop right here and first say that although these last few weeks have been a trial (we had added stressors like unexpected truck repairs, a child sleep puking in his sisters bedroom thinking it was the toilet) we have been giving praise to our God that although all these things have been happening, we are all healthy and alive.  Our house might be a mess for awhile, but we have a house!  Our trailer might be damaged, but God is working there too.

Second... I need to say, that as water was pouring out of our ceiling, and parts of it were falling to the floor.  As the damage was slowly realized, Kevin never ONCE lost his cool.  He never even swore!!  He was calm and collected, he brought order to our chaos.  He brought a calm security, that although this was bad, we were going to make it through this.  The kids looked to him for comfort and found a loving father who expressed love to them in many ways.  He told them they did everything right, he told them how proud he was of their quick thinking and actions.  He hugged them many times and continued to reassure them of their good choices and smart thinking.  He even laughed with me as water dripped down my shirt, and a bucket of water became a piece of foot wear.  As we laid our heads down in the early morning hours of that first night, he held my hand and instead of praying to God about the "whys" and "how comes" he thanked God for his blessings, for his home, family, safety.  He chose to be positive in his prayer.  He has continued staying positive these past few days.  I can not tell you how his attitude in all this has blessed me.  I am usually the calm, easy going (to a fault) one, and this time around, I was having a hard time finding my groove.  He steadied me and while holding my hand, spoke blessings over our family.

I am married to an amazing man, a man who has been growing and changing.  A man who strives to be more and more like Jesus.  A man who recognizes his role as a father/husband and takes it seriously.  There is a country song that I love called "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins (click to watch the video).  Tyler loves to sing it, and in these past few weeks, watching Kevin and how he has handled all our chaos just brings this song closer to home.  I know my boys are watching him and someday when they encounter disaster of any level, they will remember how their Daddy handled it and hopefully they handle it as beautifully has he has.

Quick Post

I hate writing blog posts on the iPad and even worse on my phone. But at this moment I would have to climb over a lot of stuff to get to my computer. 

Life threw us another curve ball this past week and I still have to share last weeks discoveries... 

Here is a quick peek into Jilli's room where the boys had to crash for the night. Surprisingly they survived a night amongst all the girly stuff. 

Maybe tomorrow I will get a chance to climb over mountains of stuff to get to my computer and share our happenings these past two weeks... It's been quite interesting to say the least. Good news is that even though we are having some trials right now... Kevin and I are still laughing and smiling!

Trusting in God's Plan

Do you ever have days that you wish you could forget... We had one of those yesterday.

It was a day that just kept getting worse and as the evening wore on, our eyes were opened to more and more destruction.  I will share more later, but as of right now, it just feels as if the life we have known and loved for the last 8 years is quickly coming to a halt.  It's a dream that might have to be set aside for this period of our life and it saddens me.

My Mom and Dad stopped by yesterday and as we were talking my Mom reminded me of a trip we were going to make when I was 10 years old.  We had been planning it and saving for it for years.  We had finally saved enough money ($2000) for our family to drive down to Disney World and camp for a week.  The day before our departure, our blue van was packed and ready to go when something went wrong on it.  My Dad took it to our family mechanic and was told that the van was unsafe for travel and it would cost $2000 to fix it.

Years, of digging through trash cans at the beach, looking for pop cans to turn in for ten cents, years of planning and reading books on the best and least expensive way to experience Disney World, down the tubes.  Little did we know that we had scrimped and saved to fix our only vehicle, not a family trip.

It was a devastating blow to all of us.  Even now as I think back, I still feel the feelings of loss.  But as my Mom pointed out, it was an important life lesson.

Last night, as I was shedding some tears, one of my best friends, who is such an amazing women, wrote me this....

"Oh Lyn, I am so sorry. I know how frustrating it is with minor issues... I can only imagine how discouraged you are right now-- and I know its frustrating for several reasons.  God will get you thru this and while its hard to count your blessings right now, stop and remember what He has done.... Kev has work, you have a home, your daughter who was supposed to be crippled dances, and you do not have the C word hanging over your head.  He does miracles - big and small - every day.  We all face trials, but this all develops perseverance.  James:1-3.  In the physical, yup, this sucks and I weep with you.  In the spiritual, I know He wants you to have joy... and this trial may be serving a greater purpose.  It just sucks on this side..."

She lovingly spoke to my hurt and then gently pointed my eyes back where they needed to be.  God blessed me so throughly when he placed her in my life 19 years ago!

As the kids started to understand the scope of the situation, Jilli just kept saying... "God has a plan, we have to trust in God's plan."  She cried too, but she didn't waver in trusting her Savior.  She is SEVEN and speaking truth to her Momma, showing me what a child-like faith looks like.  It's humbling...

Today is pick-up-the-pieces-and-try-and-figure-out-what-to-do day.  The rain outside speaks to my mood, my soft instrumental music soothing my hurting heart, and my almost minute by minute prayer is "I am trusting You, I know your plans are for our good."

Back to the Disney story.... Our family never made it to Disney, then when I was 18yrs old, I went with some friends on Spring Break to Florida and one of our planned stops was Disney, long story very short, I didn't end up making it there then either.  However on May 19, 1997 I saw Disney World for the first time with my new husband.  He was the one who showed me all the fun rides and special places, his hand was the one I was holding when I saw Cinderella's Castle for the first time.  He was the one who laughed at me while I rolled my eyes because he MADE me go on the WORST ride ever... It's a Small World.  So, my Disney story does have a happy ending, it just took awhile to get there.

Today, it's hard to see what is around the corner, but in the words of Jilli "God has a plan, we have to trust in God's plan."

Blessings!!

Sweet 16 and Counting

This past weekend we hit another milestone in our lives.  Part of me can't believe it and the other part of me has a hard time remembering life any differently.

Kevin and I are beating the statistics by God's grace.  16 years, I have almost been married longer than my pre-Kevin years.... just a few more months and we tip the scales the other way.

I can honestly say marriage grows sweeter with time.  Kevin and I have moved to a place where we work so well together, it hard to imagine life without the other.  We enjoy just being together.

When I was a young women I remember my Mom telling me that when I married I had to work hard at finding hobbies to do with my spouse.  That to create a life long friendship takes work, but it is well worth the effort.  I have taken my Mom's advise to heart.  Over the years we have discovered things that we enjoy doing together, we have found hobbies we both like.  Our friendship has continued to grow.

My Mom also told me that these hobbies you create together will help you through the years as your children grow up and leave your home.  So often, after the children are gone, spouses find out there isn't much they have in common anymore.  As Kevin and I were having dinner Saturday night together, we talked about how we continue another 16 years together.  The next 16 years we will see our children grown and move out, starting families of their own.  We will need our hobbies to help bridge that gap.  Especially me, who's sole purpose has been to raise and equip my children for life outside of my jurisdiction.

Few men in my life do I have as much respect for as I do Kevin.  As I was standing next to him in church on Sunday and we were singing praises to our Savior, I looked up at him, and was overwhelmed with love for this man.  Kevin has stood as the head of our family protecting us from all that the world throws at us.  I look at him and see a man of strength, a man who knows what he believes and stands strong when others crumble around him.  I see a man who takes the role that God has given him willingly, he is our leader.  I see a man who has been gifted with an amazing talent and uses it to provide for his family.  I see a man who earnestly tries to do his best in all that he does.  A man of Strong Character, a man of Honor, a man of Integrity.

This is for my Children... Satan speaks many lies that the world happily believes.  Satan says that not all men can be men who are leaders and that most men are spineless and worthless.  God says that the Man is the head of his household.  So boys, learn how to be a great leader from your Daddy, he has modeled it well for you.  Jilli, someday you will be a wife, I pray I modeled for you how to stand strong next your husband, but not take his leadership role away from him like so many women do.  Submission is not a bad word, it is a strong women who can submit and honor her husband.  And kids, when life gets hard and you want to give up, hold strong, God's blessings for marriage are on the other side of the storms.  You will grow as a husband and wife through the bad times and soar through the good.  Love God above all else, then your spouse, then your kids... in that order.  Daddy and I are enjoying the blessings of God because we didn't give up when the world said to give up, we held tight to God when nothing else made sense.  Our prayer is that years from now we will celebrate your anniversaries with your spouses, and our family's legacy of beautiful loving marriages will continue!

Chair Parade

Let me give you a snapshot into what a typical evening looks like on the banks of the St. Mary's River for our ever growing UP group.

Chairs come out and start lining up all on there own.

Then slowly people come out to become one with their chairs.

The kids usually don't claim a chair.  They are too busy running around or playing the latest "Grandma Linda" game.

Even I get captured on my way to my chair.

And the climax of the chair-lined parade??

The very special freighter The Edwin H. Gott who salutes the campground every time he floats by.

Painted Sky

The first year we made our way to the UP, it was cold.  Jilli was around 15 mos old.  We went to bed one night and woke up to 6 inches of snow on the ground.  We were bundled up in winter jackets, hats, and gloves, just to take a step out of the trailer.  But it is a year Kev and I will never forget.

Kev stepped out of the trailer about midnight to make sure our water hadn't frozen up yet and there in the sky were the dancing lights.  He called me out and we stood for as long as we could watching the green glowing vapors move across the night sky.  I could have burst into song, but I think it would have frozen in my throat had I tried.  And tears (which I am so famous for) would have frozen as ice mounds on my eyelids.  But it was that moving.  It was like watching God paint the sky.

Every year since that magical night Kevin and I always look to the skies before we close our eyes for the last time at night, in hopes of catching another glimpse of the magic in the sky.  And every year the magic glow as not made an appearance.  But God does not disappoint, he sends us amazing sunsets that color the sky pink and sunrises that I usually miss out on.

Blessings!!

The Last Two

I have two final pictures from the Soo Locks Tour.  These are the last two pictures I took as we were crossing over the Locks doors heading back to the "Main Land".

Here is one looking upbound at an empty lock.

Here is one looking downbound.

Blessings!!

My Grandma Would be Proud

What do you do, when you are in your trailer, you have a child that can't stop coughing, and you have no humidifier??

That was the question I faced at 2am Wednesday morning.  I got out a blanket, trapped it in the doors of our cabinets (that are over the couch) and made a little tent.  Then I took my biggest pan and started some water to boil.  Next I took a chair from our table, turned it so the back of it was next to the couch. When the water was done boiling, I added some drops of peppermint essential oil, placed it on the seat of the chair, tucked in my baby girl with her blankets and crawled back into bed.

This is what it looked like come morning.  Jilli liked it so much she spent most of the morning cuddled inside of her little tent.

**please excuse the poor picture quality**