Lydia has new glasses! She looks SOOOOOO cute! She is really far sided in one eye and far sided in the other. So her right pupil was twice as big as her left so hopefully this will correct it. She picked out the purple ones all by herself!



Three year olds can be so silly!

She is so good about wanting them on, she remembers first thing every morning. When we went to Wal-mart she kept saying to Mom, 'Wow, Mommy, look at this! Look at this!' And when we walked by the fish she said, 'Look how big the fish are!'. She pushes them up with her fingers on the lense, and then asks to have them cleaned several times a day!

Hi Everybody!
This was supposed to be posted like a long time ago, but I'm getting to it now-MY fault. Anyway, I got this buck the last day of Indiana gun season - the 27th of November. It was really exiting!
Dad was so funny, He USUALLY is really calm and collected, but when this buck walked out he "queitly" shouts "Big Buck, BIG BUCK" He reaches over and clicks off the safety. "Shoot him, SHOOT HIM!' I shot him and he ran about 50 yards!
We forgot the deer carrier for the sub, so the boys came and picked it up. The inside spread is 18 inches and I'm not sure about the other 8! It was really fun!

Sleep?

A couple of months ago I trecked back to the doctors, I'm beginning to feel like an 80 year old, bringing my list of issues. They put me on a heart monitor for 48 hours and the good news is that what I am feeling isn't my heart in any dangerous zones. My 'racing' and 'slowing' are within normal ranges, so they atest it to hypersensitivity or an adrenaline feed. So nothing to do about that.

But when I mentioned that I can't sleep, they wanted to see what my heart was doing while I sleep and discovered I have apnea. So over several weeks I have had 2 nights of sleep testing. The first one diagnosed the apnea, the second was adjusting a c-pap machine to fix the apnea. I'm pretty certain this has to be a highly entertaining job! When air is pressured up your nose, and you open your mouth in the slightest, it will trigger your gag reflex, and you can't talk with it on, or kiss your hubby goodnight!

I stop breathing 9 times and hour in my normal sleep and 15 times an hour in my dream sleep. My oxygen levels drop below 80% and don't recover before the next episode.


They believe that if I can get good or even better sleep, the rest of my heart issues will dissipate. The example they used was if you drove your car all day and when you pulled it in the garage left it running, it wouldn't last long and wouldn't be good for the car. If my heart has some legitimate down time, and can actually rest and rejuvenate then it may behave better when it's up and running.

So now instead of just reading and taking a sip of water before bed, I have to hook up and adjust, turn on the machine, adjust some more, adjust pillows, adjust blankets, adjust some more, repeat as necessary! Providing all this entertainment for Jeff! Thankfully he doesn't hear the machine and isn't bothered the least by it, and I can still hear the kids when they wake up!

Before my machine I was sleeping I was averaging 4 hours of sporadic sleep each night. After a couple of weeks of adjusting I'm now sleeping 6-7 hours of straight, knock out, don't even move sleep! Which I haven't done in a very long time!

One Saturday morning I even slept in until 10:10! I couldn't even believe it! It was so quiet!

They seem to think that if I can sleep better that these remaining issues will go away, so I am so determined to make it work! I have seen great improvement on my chest pain and headaches! I think the symptoms from the apnea are what allowed them to discover the hole in my heart. Usually if an adult has a hole it's discovered by a stroke or heart attack. So I'm thankful for the apnea! The world is a different color with sleep!

Thank you for your continued concern and prayers!

Daniel's pictures

These are Daniel's birthday pictures ... I also have pictures of his actual birthday, but haven't gone through those yet. :) Daniel turned 14 on October 24th!

Pics

I don't know if the cat likes it or not. Lydia does.

Grandpa lets me drive his truck, I get stuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grandpa hunting.

Sunset.

I like the blue sky with the tree.

Sunset again.

James Monroe's dollar.

A wheat penny.

Squirrel.

Another squirrel.

Bird.

Birds.

A bird about 6 feet away.

Squirrel.

Squirrel.

Bird.

I love red.

Lydia hanging under a chair.

Squirrel.

Squirrel.

Love, Matthew

Pink Guns.....

Lydia got a pink gun for her birthday. She LOVES it!

"Take me hunting Dad."

Sure enough Dad did! They went out at about 5:00 PM so it was dark about 30 minutes later-just perfect to eat a granola bar and not get cold!!!!!

In just one year!

It's been a whole year since my ASD closure and an incredible one at that! In the last 3 or 4 weeks have been the first I have felt 'good' in a very long time. It seems like the past 4 years have been some of our most trialsome ever. When I was pregnant with Lydia there was a tumor that was beside her that the Lord just miraculously took away. Then my first c-section and the challenge of her first year. Then my heart ailments, surgery to close my ASD, and more ailments. ;-) I often think of the 6 times in this year I had to kiss all my children good bye, not knowing if I would be coming back to ever be able to do that again. The times Jeff drove me to the ER 90 mph!

In this past year, every birthday, every holiday, came with tears of thankfulness. For so many times I thought I wouldn't see it.

Last month a 16 year old girl collapsed at school and died. She was apparently waiting for surgery to close the hole in her heart. That has been very sobering for me to think on. She was so young, never given the chance to marry or have children. My heart breaks for her family! Every doctor I ran into was shocked and amazed that I delivered 8 children with this hole. Now I understand. And to think of the 26 years I lived in rebellion to God, how I loved my wretched sin more than Him! How I paid no attention to His Word or plan for my life. How I showed no appreciation for the life He gave me, or the salvation He gave me through dying on the cross! How he could have taken my life at any point in time, but out of grace and mercy hasn't.

Those were some hard times to endure, at the time. But looking back I can see evidence of God! There were so many times I thought for sure I was dying. I have written down in my journal how He answered specific prayer. I know how He has drawn us closer as a family and caused the love and appreciation between Jeff and I to grow. Overcome with a renewed sense of thankfulness and appreciation for salvation, His Word, guidance, strength and a peace that passes all understanding in the midst of a trial.

So even though they seemed the worst of times, when I can look back and see God so evident in my life, it makes it the very best of times. In a way it makes it worthwhile, because His blessings are abundant!

So I will continue thanking Him for every new dawn! I will strive to live obediently to His Word! I will profess His goodness and gospel boldly! I will praise Him all the day long!

James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him."

Note: there's a link on the sidebar where you can read all the posts related to Mom's surgery. ~Megan

This is what happens when your little sister picks out her clothes!!

The sunset on sunday.

Clouds-are'nt those weird?

I LOVE Indian Corn!!

A Tree??!!!

Daniels birthday was on sunday. Lydia was "making him guess"!!

On Thursday I got my first buck--A 5 point!! It was very exciting!!

What Lydia says...

"My joy is full!"

Lydia, "So Mom, how many tids we got?"
Mom, "We have 8 kids! Aren't we so blessed?"
Lydia, "Well, I knew dhere was a lot betause dhere is always sumbody p(l)aying wis me!"

"You just have to put on one sock, betause I can do it pretty well!"

"Mom, Benny has to obey ME, right?"

Just a few bits and pieces because any bit of information she shares comes with a 5 minute dialog!

1 Peter 2:1-3 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation - if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

My first deer

I am an "Officialy Hunter of the Family" (OHF) and "Ohio Deer Hunter" (ODH). Tuesday I got my first deer. Here's the story: Me, Dad, and Daniel went to ohio on tuesday. Dropped off Daniel at his stand and went to our stand. 15-20 minutes later a buttonbuck came out. Buttonbuck's have crazy mind's. (Once, a buttonbuck came up to Robbie's stand, I mean right up to the ladder. Robbie dumped water right by it's head, it backed away, and came back, does the same thing.) So, this buttonbuck is eating acorn's really loud, it looked me straight in the eye. We didn't want to shoot a buttonbuck because in a year or two he'll probably be a nice buck. So, we, "let him go so he can grow". This buttonbuck stayed around for about 30-45 minutes. Then a doe stepped out. I had a tag for a buck and a doe, let me tell you I started breathing really heavy. This was my first deer so I was breathing heavy. Dad said,"Take a deep breath". It started to walk away so I took a deep breath. Then, just before it went in the brush, it gave me a open shot. I shot it and it ran about 75 yards and died in the field.

Matt

Teeth

Teaching Ben: "You have to brush your teeth or they will rot." So we end up with the egg/vinegar experiment! If you don't know what that is, you put a egg in a cup or jar, then you pour the vinegar over the egg till its covered. then you let it sit for a day or for like 6 hours, then take it out and feel it. "Thats what happens to your teeth if you don't brush them good." was the warning!!!

Swimming in October

Sunday afternoon the kids begged and begged to go swimming. The temperatures had reached 80 degrees and they were sure the water would feel good ... despite that the lows had been in the 40s for the last week. :P

The story was funny, because when I was 9 and Robbie was 7, we begged Dad to take us swimming ... on a warm, April day. Y'all know where this is going, right? We were convinced that it would be no different then swimming in July. We just knew that water would feel so good! Before he let us go in, Dad made us promise that we would go up to our shoulders before we got out. We STILL shiver when we remember how cold that water was!! If I remember correctly, we did go up to our shoulders, but we did not stay in very long!

So Robbie and I told the kids that the same rule applied ... they had to go up to their shoulders too! Apparently, the water wasn't as cold as when we had our swimming escapade .... since they stayed in quite a bit longer than we did. :)

I apologize for the excess of Lydia pictures here ...

Dad and Robbie and Daniel played football instead. :) It was nice because we pretty much had the beach to ourselves!





Guess her hands weren't waterproof. =)