…so we’ll just have to stick to a list for now.

• Cool.  I’ve got bullets.  Just found ‘em.
• I called Noah’s DAN doctors’ office yesterday to make a follow up appointment.  We go next week.  As I was filling in the follow up form to send in, I realized that it’s been six months since we’ve been there.  SIX MONTHS?!  Wow.  Time is FLYING by lately.  I would have guessed like three months.
• Today is the day that I go to the Assistive Technology Conference with Noah’s teacher.  I’m pretty excited to see what’s out there in the way of “talking boxes”.
• In just over a week, we will add an early service at church.  We’re consistently filling up in our 10:00 service, so it’s time.  It’s kinda crazy.  Pastor Chuck (Smith…he is the pastor who founded Calvary Chapel) spoke in his message at the Pastor’s Conference a few weeks ago about taking “ventures in faith”.  This definitely qualifies and we’re excited to see what God does.
• Doug’s car is STILL in the shop.  They found more damage.  Oh. my.  Now we’re waiting for yet another visit from the insurance adjuster.  This will likely drag well into next week.  I’m thinking that State Farm (who is already going to ditch our homeowner’s policy) is going to break up with us any day now.  Shopping for car and homeowners insurance is not my idea of a good time, but it looks like that’s what’s gonna happen.
• This is my last bullet for now.  Have a great Friday, ya’ll.

I know a lot of ya’ll know Bella’s story.  I’ve got a wonderful update to share.

After a few weeks of concerns and, at times, some discouraging news from Bella’s Mommy and Daddy (Charles and Elizabeth) we received news this afternoon that Bella’s latest engraftment study came in at 100%.  This is HUGE and cause for much celebration.  This comes after several less than favorable test results over the past few weeks.  God is GOOD.  And FAITHFUL.  We’ve got happy tears flowing around here right now.

Bella is not out of the woods yet.  Her numbers can still fluctuate…so she still needs our constant prayer that those new little cells will stay put.  She’s also suffering from a nasty and painful rash (she has something called Graft versus Host disease)…please pray that it heals quickly.

While I’m talking about Bella, our Pennies for Bella fund raiser is still going strong.  The ticker on the website is wonky…it won’t update…but at latest count, over $10,000 has been raised.  WOO-HOO!  We got word today that some elementary school classes have taken up Bella’s cause and collected money.  (They read about Bella’s story in the Lake Family Magazine…which just happens to be owned and edited by an awesome family in our church.)  How cool is that?!

Wow.  God is amazing.  Sometimes things can look a little bleak…and then suddenly, a breakthrough.  I’m thrilled and thankful and happy dancing over this one.

Please keep up that praying for our Bella Bean!

…because I’ve got too much to do and not enough brain cells leftover to compose complete sentences and such.

List item #1:  Our refrigerator is not cooling but our freezer works just fine.  Hello?!  My Dad…ever to the rescue…came over last night and dug around in the dumb thing and thinks that there is a clog in a line somewhere.  We emptied it, turned it off and let it sit and defrost all night.  We are now living out of coolers and storing our frozen food at my parents’ house.  My Dad came over this morning and we turned it back on.  Now we wait to see if it was a clog…or if we’re suddenly in the market for a new refrigerator.  If we are, I guarantee that it WON’T be another Maytag.

List item #2:  That was a neat trick how Jack Bauer let Chloe and whats his name from the former CTU know where he buried that FBI agent.  Only I don’t remember him text messaging them in last week’s episode.  And how they revived her with that injection…ummm….can you say, suspend some disbelief?  Boy, do I love 24.

List item #3:  I received a credit card application in the mail a few days ago.  In fact, it was the fifth such application that I have received since November.  This in spite of the fact that I have not drawn a paycheck since June of 1997.  (I was an Orange county school teacher back then.)  hmmm…hello?!  It makes me want to fill in the application just to see what would happen.

Those are all the list items that I have for now.  Isaac is spending the morning at Disney with my Dad and I’m going to do some painting and cleaning while the house is empty…

The past few days have been nonstop.

Thursday and Friday, I shopped all day for Children’s Ministry supplies.  Saturday was our quarterly Children’s Ministry work day…a bunch of volunteers came up to the church and we spent the day cutting, sorting and prepping every craft and activity for every lesson of the upcoming quarter.  It’s a massive undertaking every 12 weeks or so, but is totally worth the effort.   We had an awesome group come to help and we finished just about all of it.  Sweet.

So my brain is a bit on the “all done” side of life right now, but it’s all good.  Here’s a little bit of what’s going on….

State Farm decided that Doug’s Mini Cooper is worth saving.  It is supposed to be ready sometime this week.  We decided to go ahead and have the clutch and flywheel replaced while they are in there.  All told, Doug’s stunt work will cost us around $1100.  It could have been a LOT worse, so we’re thankful.

Noah’s AT device (his “talking box”) was ordered before Christmas and should be in any time now.  On Friday, I signed off on two new IEP goals that are related to the device.  Noah’s teacher showed me some of her data that tracks Noah’s progress over the past year (related to the introduction of the device) and it was pretty wonderful.  He went from having NO interest in even working with the pictures (PECS) that would be on the device to where he is now…purposefully taking the device, turning it on, finding what he wants to say on the keyboard and looking to make sure that he is heard.  I can’t wait for his new box (a Springboard Lite) to come in and start customizing it for him.

Noah’s teacher invited me to go with her this Friday to an Assistive Technology Conference.  She wants us to go and see what else is out there…especially what’s on the cutting edge…so that we can plan for Noah’s future.  Does Noah’s teacher rock or what?!  We are blessed.

That’s it for now. Ya’ll have a restful Sunday night…I know that I plan to…

Since I’m suffering from both short and long-term memory loss of late, I’ve got to record something that Isaac said last night.

On our way to church, we drove by the Baptist church where we used to hold one of our weekly ministries.  (Before we moved to our current location, our church met in three separate buildings…the YMCA on Sundays…a little Nazarene church midweek and the Baptist church on Mondays.  The 3 building thing was a bit confusing to our boys…”which church are we going to?” was a common question from Isaac.)

So…as we’re driving by, Isaac pointed at the Baptist church and said, “Mom…that’s our “different new church”.

(Insert smile from me)…  “No…not any more.”  I explained.  “We used to use that church for one of our ministries but we don’t need to anymore”.

“Mom?”, Isaac continued, “We don’t live there anymore?”

“No honey.” (live there?), I said.  “God gave us a new building and now we don’t have to change church buildings all the time.  We get to stay in one place.”

Isaac summed it all up perfectly by stating (lisp and all)…

“Jesus takes care of us.  He gave us a good new church building.”

Awwwww….

He’s gettin’ it…