THINGS THAT I AM THANKFUL FOR THIS THURSDAY
It is finally here.............Dale began his last round of chemo today. Just two more treatments; six long hours tomorrow and 3 hours on Friday and we are finished. I know there are many many cancer patients that will have to undergo their chemo regiments for a very long time (some patients continue treatments for years), and I will be praying for all of these people. During the entire "cancer" process this summer, Dale and I have had to stop many times and say thank you Dear Lord for so many blessings. We have met and come in contact with some pretty sick people. I know that God has used Dale's cancer to open my eyes, and hopefully some other's around us also.
I am so thankful to God for giving us our faith and our strength to make it this far.
I am sure I will have some good pictures after Friday, the nurses where Dale is treated has a last treatment party for patients on their last day of treatment (funny hats and wigs are welcome). I will have to sit and blog about these wonderful nurses some day, they are truly amazing.
When you pray, please just say a quick prayer for all cancer patients, and say a thank you for our blessings.
I wanted to share a few of Dale's photos he has taken this week.......yes he has a "NEW" camera. 
ANTIQUE, BUT WE CALL IT HOME
My favorite area in our backyard
She's going to shoot me for this.....you know I love you Deidre
I will be posting about our trip to NC for the Bumgarner reunion at a later date, but for now I need to say a very heartfelt THANK YOU............Deidre for the wonderful BABY items you so graciously gave to Sarah and (now that we know) little Macie.
We had a great time visiting with all of you........your girls are just absolutely the most precious little girls. I was amazed by O's vocabulary........wow.....are you sure she is only 2?
E is such a lovely young lady. God surely has blessed you and Eric with two wonderful little miracles, and we know that these two angles are MIRACLES.
Thanks again for everything.
We are in Hickory NC....for a family reunion with my hubby's family; I also have family here.....so I have made plans to visit with them later this evening. I am so excited, I have not seen my cousin Deidre http://raisingfutureesthers.blogspot.com/idre) in a very long time, I know it has been several years, as I have not officially met her youngest daughter and she is
2 yrs old I am looking forward to catching up and visiting with them, It is so sad that we do not see each more often, I miss spending time with my Aunt Trisha (Deidre's mom) and her family. We were so close for so many years........Aunt Trisha practically raised me......I spent many summers with her and the family......so I kinda grew up with Deidre and her brother Todd. I even lived with them for almost a year after I graduated high school. Wow those were some good ole days. I could write a book on my adventures with my aunt........we had so much fun. But I will have to post an entire blog about those good ole days.
I will definitely have a special post on this visit, and YES; Deidre there will be a camera involved.
Until later
Hope everyone has something exciting to look forward to this weekend.
I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SOMEONE REALLY SPECIAL IN MY LIFE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANET......
MY AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL SISTER.
LOVE YA SIS.........THANKS FOR BEING THERE FOR ME, ALL THE TIME.
I KNOW SHE IS GOING TO HATE ME NOW FOR POSTING HER PICTURE......
Seems as my plans have changed........Due to the fact that hubby cannot take the day off tomorrow.....I gave in and decided to work myself...why waste a vacation day just to sit at home alone. (what am I thinking)...anyway we will have to wait to leave for our trip until after work on Friday......like I posted before....and genuinely believe EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.
At least it will be cooler driving after the sun goes down.
If I do not get a chance to post this weekend, everyone have a great weekend
I am Thankful for my family and friends.
I am Thankful for a very casual work place, ( I do not feel like putting on my pretty face today).
I am Thankful for having two very special daughters, who took after their dad.
I am Thankful God led me to blogging. I have read some very inspiring posts in my first two weeks.
I am especially Thankful for Danielle B (http://musingsofamiddleagedwoman.blogspot.com/index.html)
I need her blog of knowledge and inspiration.
I am thankful for Deidre (http://raisingfutureesthers.blogspot.com/)
and Janet (http://bloggingwithbully.blogspot.com/) for getting me started on my blog.
I am Thankful this is my Friday.....I am off tomorrow for a trip to see family in NC.
I am definitely thankful for spell check.
To learn more about Thankful Thursday or to read more posts visit Iris at Sting My Heart.
I am answering a question from a fellow blogger
Danielle B
(http://musingsofamiddleagedwoman.blogspot.com/index.html )
What did you do this summer and what did you learn?
I have spent a lot of time this summer talking with God.
I have spent most of this summer (actually began in the spring) loving, loving and loving some more.
I have spent this summer believing that God is in full control.
I have spent this summer appreciating and loving my family in a entirely different aspect.
I have spent this summer being blessed with the most loving and supportive family ( my two daughters, their spouses, my wonderful parents and my awesome sister).
I spent this summer learning what I take for granted.
I spent my summer thanking God for my health and for taking care of Dale (hubby)
Dale was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his neck, so we spent most of our summer, seeing doctors, getting CTs, MRIs and biopsies.
I could preach a whole sermon on this summer, but the long and short of it is, we took what God gave us, turned it back over to him, prayed for guidance and STRENGTH and went on with the plans he put into place.
Dale and I spent our summer with surgery, radiation and chemo, We slowed down a lot and had a lot of good quality time together, laughing, crying, sharing, and learning a lot of things we really had not taken time to know about each other (that is really strange, we have been married for 29 years), God has a way of slowing you down to make you see things with new eyes.
I suppose in a nut shell, I grew up during this summer, learning the true meaning of love, happiness and that God is there to make it all wonderful.
So..............what did you learn this summer?
Life is great, and I am not complaining about anything happening in my life right now. I live by one of my favorite bible versus
( I actually like the entire 3rd chapter)
Ecclesiastes 3.1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
I know God has a plan and reason for everything in my life,
God puts many things in our lives that we may not fully understand, but no matter what the circumstance, he will use this to show us something special.
I have always had a lot of faith, knowing that God will bring me through whatever trial I am facing. I have been fortunate in witnessing several absolute medical miracles, I know the power of prayer and healing.
God has blessed me in the last few months and allowed me to be a direct recipient of such wonderful power. I have always been a true believer in turning everything over to God, (but being human I do not always practice what I preach), and having faith God will take care of the situation.
I have learned a very valuable lesson in listening to the spirit and letting him guide you through your prayers.
Dale, my husband was diagnosed with cancer this past March, his tumor was in his neck. ( I could elaborate more on this, but will share that at a later time) Our entire family immediately prayed and added his name to their prayer chains, we had so many prayers going out to God. I prayed and prayed for God's healing.........one night during my prayer time I once again was praying for the cancer to be healed, as I prayed I suddenly felt a real sense of selfishness.........maybe God did not intend on healing this neck cancer.......and that is exactly how my prayer changed, I told God that I was praying a selfish prayer and that I trusted him to do what he chose to do, and that I needed his strength to get through this and to be strong for Dale. Immediately I felt a peace. I shared this with Dale sometime later in the week, and he told me that all would be fine, he shared with me his initial prayer to God, " This is what it is, God you gave this to me and now I am giving it back to you".
I can only say two words to my Lord and Savior........THANK YOU, I have never in my life had such a peace about something as I have this cancer. God does bring things to our lives to make us stronger, better believers.
We may never know all the reasons for the cancer, but we believe God is using this for his glory.
I have sat here several times this week, coming to add a post, but never really had anything to write about......I have such an exciting life, oh well. I have been keeping my eye on the postings from my sister and my cousin, they both are such wonderful moms and are so dedicated to raising their children in a Godly home.
Especially today, I got a little teary eyed reading, I was remembering my girls when they were young. Just seems like yesterday I was taking them to school, worrying about them and trying to protect them from the school bully. Now they both are wonderful adults, I am so proud, I know Deidre and Janet both realize that these wonderful years with their young babes will soon be past...as time sure does fly.
This week has been one of those weeks when nothing goes as planned,
made me realize just how much I assume all will be as expected.
This is how my week has gone, all just minor interruptions, but how it can mess with your head and attitude.
Monday was not so unusual, we did have a nice visit from our Pastor. after our visit we delivered my nephew (Sam) his belated birthday gift. We are a close family so I delivered the gift to my mom and dad's home, where you can find my sister and Sam most evenings; anyhow...
As we were sitting there chatting. Let's go to Walmart some suggested .................being the shoppers that we are, here we go, mom, Janet and myself. Now I know you are thinking why is this so special I think this was my first trip to the Wally World that I have not purchased anything (ok I did buy trash bags for the office), but that did not count, it was not my money I spent. Yes that has to be one of the strangest parts of my week.
Tuesday is ok nothing out of the ordinary, other than this being month end day, just a strange day, my traveling boss is in the office and that makes for day with many interruptions, she is working on an important
project that must meet a deadline for month end.......so here I am in the middle of her project; luckily I am done with my month end work. Not really a bad day............just a little extra work for me.
Wednesday the fun begins, I arrive at work only to discover I have no internet connection, well this just stops my work dead in the tracks, we are networked through a server and without internet I cannot do anything.( is it not sad we have to rely on machines and phone lines to get things done). After several phones calls ( total time on the phone 2. 5 hours) to our
DSL provider and our IT tech in Nashville, we still had no resolve, After getting my sanity in check and resting; not only was I trapped on the phone for several hours, I also had many trips back and forth to our equipment room, checking connections, resetting all the networking gear ( which was a whole different story, as I am only 5 ft short, and hate ladders, I was atop the ladder during most of this time). OK........well the good part is I was only working 1/2 day.......Dale was to begin his 3 rd round of Chem0.
We arrived at the Cancer Center for a visit with the Dr., lab work and a 2-3 hour chemo drip; so here we go..........the dr was at least 45 minutes, if not a hour behind schedule, so here we wait, the lab tech brought in Dale's lab results...........oh no a low white blood cell count.......meaning no chemo this week, we see the Doc, all is well he is pleased with the treatment progress. We go to the scheduling desk to reschedule chemo for the next week, and of course we get the most dingy of schedulers, I am sorry, (glad I do not have the complaint bracelet) She always has to redo and redo the schedule, she never understands, what time's we need and how the treatments are to be set up...now after the third time of scheduling we get it right. Oh did I mention I had put a ham in the oven...........ok well usually this is no problem, I was cooking it at a low temp and we were only going to be gone for 3 hours. We arrived home, opened the front door and there it is........that burnt food odor, I rush to the oven and discover my nice brown dried up ham.......what went wrong.........that is to come later.
Ok for dinner we have some salvaged ham & mac and cheese. I know not very nutritious. Ok so now it is time for the sofa.............end of this day.
Thursday is here........get to work internet is still down......oh yeah during all the computer stuff we found out that our DSL provider has decided to change our IP address, thus causing all the problems, anyway they can seem to change this bit of technology at the drop of a hat, but getting it back to the original state will take possibly several days.........ok now what is the deal.........anyway a very angry IT person spoke with a prominent phone rep and the problem was taken care of in hmmmmmmmmmmm 3o mins. Ok so now a somewhat normal day approaches. Finally 5:00 I'm off to the house. Nothing much going on, just hubby out at the grill whipping up a couple of T-Bones.....I am doing the microbaked taters, and of course the homemade bagged salad oh and did I mention the nice garlic bread......hmmmmmm remember the burnt ham earlier in the week. Well, I was simply baking my garlic bread at 400 degrees, I hear a sizzling noise, not typical for bread......open oven to check it out, sparks coming from the oven element......not good.....then a pop and much more sparkling.......ok lets get hubby.......smart man, he turns off the oven and all is well. DUH !!!
Dinner is served minus the well toasted bread. 2 hours later just curious lets try the oven, temp set at 300, about 1o mins later, check oven, no heat..........ok will deal with this later.....I'm off to bed.
FRIDAY Whole new appreciation for TGIF...........work is good, nothing much going on (we are having some really slow sales, so I am looking for something to do).......what is that mountain ..............oh filing.......so my entire day is spent putting pieces of paper in drawers overfilled with other pieces of paper. 5:00 LETS GO HOME. Home now.........discussing the oven deal with hubby, he wants to try and find a new element for this 30 year old range (yes no kidding I said 30), I want a new range...........trip to Lowes............yippe I have a new stove...........I have to interject one point here..........THANK YOU LORD FOR PROVIDING THE MONEY TO PURCHASE THIS NEEDED ITEM..........another story another day.
I do have to mention the stress level in my home this week has been tremendous and thus hubby and I both have had short tempers and said not so kind words to each other (thank you Dale for your forgiving heart)
Too bad I must finish, hubby is needing me to help install the new air conditioner for our bedroom, wow two major purchases in the same day...Thank you God one more time.
HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND :)
Susan
Ok people, this is my first, so bear with me.
I am off to my wonderful job in approximately 1 hour, so this will be short and sweet.
I pray this days goes well, my husband Dale begins his third round of chemo treatments today; after this three days of treatment he will only have one round left. We cannot complain, because he has done absolutely, amazingly, incredibly (ok through with the adjectives) well throughout his entire treatment (radiation everyday for six weeks and two previous chemo rounds), and he and I give God all the praise for this. I am so thankful for the blessings that have resulted in Dale's short illenss, we have ground so much closer (even though we were very close beforehand), we shared thoughts and feelings that really made us realize just how much we loved each other, God really does work in mysterious ways. There are so many things I can praise God for in this whole situation, (that will have to be another day). I will also have to admit there are some things that God has taught me about myself during the past 5 months, some good and some not so good. I will definietly post about that later also.
Please anyone reading this blog, who is a believer and a prayer please send a prayer up for us today and the remainder of the week.
