jakemaxmom's Xanga

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:54:09 GMT

I'm sitting here dreaming of my morning cup of coffee. What is it about the cup of coffee that makes everyday nifty? I find myself dreaming of that first sip of coffee quite often at this time of night. I even, some nights think of a great cigarette. Can you tell me when a cigarette was ever good? The first time you take a drag, your head spins and you feel like puking. When was that ever good? I know it wasn't but some nights I think of a good cup of coffee and a menthol cigarette. You know its been over fifteen years since I had a cig but still it calls my name. I'm so glad that Christ is my stregnth and I don't need nicotine, rat poisoning or whatever else is slipped into those cancer sticks

Another thing I was thinking about is dieting. I suppose their are only three occassions when you really think about dieting... of course the first being when you step on the scale at the doctors office and the doctor says "I seeeeeeeee!" .(when did the doctor become my judge and jury?) The second occassion is, that family picture, where you are sure your flabby arms will look thinker than your neck. The third and final occasion is a duel occassion, that being when you're just starting or ending a diet. That is the occassion I find myself at. I actually started dieting a few weeks back. I have no update because I'm not to weigh myself for 8 weeks. I find that to be one of the hardest things ever conceived of. I love the joy of stepping on the scale and having it say "good going Heather, its all worth it. You are a good person and you deserve better" OK my scale is a bit wordy but I enjoy the affirmation. The current eating plan I'm on, reboots your matabolism in 8 weeks and gradually reshapes your body. That is quite a promise. I will say the best part of this is my matabolism has gotten better because I'm taking less thyroid medicine and having plenty of energy. I am happy, this diet has not been bad at all. I suppose being stuck up in the mountains of Maine with not much to do, has helped. I've spent much time reading, including all of my diet book and time doing art.

The last and most puzzling thing I've been pondering is how to be a good wife? I know that will take a lifetime of pondering. How is it done? I watch and watch women with their husbands. I'm happy to say that I have had many good examples in my life. I have a friend who is older and she and her husband have a lovely relationship. Her advice to me was priceless. I think of it often. Her husband's example to my husband has been equally as priceless, "he loves his wife as Christ loved the church". It is a beautifully thing. Their are a multitude of "how to have the perfect marriage" books. I find them to be presumptious. 1st most of them assume you have reasonable partners on each side of the relationship. The first thing I must say is, to be reasonable and teachable you must love Christ. Thankfully God called Steve and I both. Then the books assume you have similiar problems. I have never met two marriages that are carbon copies of each other. Yes similiar in some respects. I've met many women strugling to be submissive but the definition is different for everyone (Steve says it is the same). What I mean is, Sally May might see shutting her mouth as submissive and I might see having the kitchen cleaned as submissive. The truth is submission is what God and your husband are calling you to do or be. Some women have husbands who hand over all the responsibility. What is true submission? I suppose true submission is a matter of the heart. It is similiar to circumcision of the heart. Are you doing all that you can to obey God and trust that your husband has been put in a role of headship for your own good.? I can not compare myself to others or other marriages to mine. I'm just grateful and happy to have the man God gave me.

Well that is all I have the brain power to think of for today. I'm trying to update again more often but I'm sad to say I think I'm going to a different blog spot. I'll keep you up to date.

Pray Wednesday night because the first phone interview for a nice job is happening.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:40:57 GMT

I spent today helping my friend Liz with her yard sale. Liz is a lovely woman who is trying to let go of things, in order to declutter her home. When I say "declutter" I'm serious. She bought me a book about decluttering a few years ago and it has been a contest to see who could do it best. I will say she did a great job today. Not to brag but I've done so well that I only had 4 dressses, a picture frame and an extra ironing board to sell today. Her next door neighbor was having an 'estate' sale today and I avoided it. That was really hard because I love to go to estate sales. That is kind of odd, isn't it. I even waited to look over the clutter Liz was selling until the end. She kept saying "you don't need it". She was right, I didn't. I did leave with one of her dresses and curtains she made and a hamper. I was proud of both of us.

I would like to share a few praises:

1. My little Maxwell has had amazing growth since being diagnosed with diabetes. He has grown 2 inches and before that he had not grown an inch in two years. The biggest growth has been academic. A year ago, I could not get him to focus even for a few pages in Math. He was struggling to remember his addition problems. He informed me a month ago that he was bored with math. He orally passed all his 3rd grade work, then his 4th grade in one day. He is 1/3 the way through 5th grade. He's still bored but I'm afraid to skip over too much. He does three lessons a day. He has been reading and writing and just blowing my socks off. I must admit that I was so scared for him academically. Please praise God!

2. When Steve left his job at the telephone company 8 years ago he gave bibles to 35 of his co-workers. Dave, a man he ministered to many times, recently found Steve on Facebook and thanked him for the bible. He said he has been reading it. That is amazing. Praise God.

Well, we move out of Florida in 3 weeks. Don't ask where to, we don't know. God is good and we have a few interim places.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:55:21 GMT

I need prayer. I see the doctor tomorrow...today. I'm very messed up energy wise. I'm super tired. I'm in bed by 6 every night then I wake for this time of day. My meds worked for 3 weeks. I hope it is my thyroid or something easy to fix. I'm scared to be this tired again.

Steve still needs a job too. His temporary is over and we need insurance.

Maxwell broke a tooth this morning. The good news is that tooth was a baby but a filling he had two months ago was done poorly and must be done again.

I'm too tired to type more....

Oh no I neeed to type.....

My mom had a disorder in her ear. Her bone has an infection and that infection has deteriated the bone and she has to have surgery to remove the damage. She is scared because the infection could be in her brain. I'm scared too. She does not love Jesus and I wish she did. Her surgery is the 17th of June.

I'm going listen to the bible..............

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:32:52 GMT

Longtime no blog.

Here's my update:

We are here living back in Oviedo FL. We are all going to our last little league game for this season tonight. We have a choir concert on Sunday. Normally these would indicate the ending of the school year but this year we are playing catch up. Our time in Virginia put me behind a few months. Jacob has 49 days of Algebra 1/2 left so we will work until that is done. The good part about homeschooling is we can go all summer long, yet take a break when we need to.

While in Virginia I was in intense muscle pain and I was exhausted. I thought it was stress. Then Maxwell almost died from his diabetes. I'm so grateful God allowed us to find out what was wrong with him. God has been so gracious with us. During this time I was just ignoring my symptoms. When we returned to Florida I thought my symptoms would get better in the warmth but it did not. I went to my doctor for aching ears. He asked what else was wrong. I started crying about my weight but neglected to tell him this list:

Itchy skin when I eat wheat (I have Celiacs disease now, just diagnosed)
Weakness (I could not stand in the kitchen to clean for more than 10 minutes)
Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight (I gave up sugar and wheat 1 month and lost nothing but gain 5 lbs)
Coarse, dry hair (This was nasty, even my hair stylist was shocked)
Constipation
Depression
Irritability
Memory loss (I can hardly remember...............oh I forget what)
Abnormal menstrual cycles (UGGGGGGGGG)
Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches
Fatigue (I was falling asleep during teaching school, sometimes 3X a day)

I have Hypothyroidism. I've been on the meds almost two weeks and I have had more energy and I've dropped 11lbs. I have less pain and most my symptoms have lessened. I'm truly grateful for medicine. I thought I'd be happiest to lose weight but I'm happiest that my head is no longer heavy all the time. I still have alot of memory loss but I'm working on that.

Steve still needs a job. His job ends tomorrow. He has a possible pastoral job but he also has regular job opportunities in Texas and New Hampshire. Please pray for him.

My dear friend Buddy died.

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:40:38 GMT

Some of you may know that my neighbor Buddy was diagnosed with ALS. I got close to him when I made him cookies the day he told me he had ALS. You see he told me about his disease so I wanted to tell him about Jesus. He told me "I don't want to use God to escape hell". I was so at a loss for words, that I burst into tears and said "I'll go make you cookies" That started our friendship.

We moved to VA and he was still alive. When we came back to Florida a few weeks ago, he was still alive. I must be honest I was scared to see him and I was trying to build up the courage to go and give him love, the gospel and of course cookies. I never went and that I deeply regret.

Please pray for his wife Brenda, daughter Erin and his next door neighbors who loved him dearly. (Hatter and Melia)

God is Faithful

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:41:41 GMT

I often wonder how he puts up with my lack of faith. I am a wretched sinner and yet his love endures forever.

25 years ago I was hit by a car. I have waited 25 years to say thank you to a young man who walked with me from class to class when I was hobbling along and trying to walk. He walked with me when I was scared and tired. Today on facebook I asked for prayer and he said.

I just prayed. Do you remember those days of getting out of class to help walk the halls everyday from your wheelchair at Weatherbee? You've come a long ways!!

Then I got to say thank you:

I tell people about you doing that all the time. It was very encouraging to have a friend. I was so scared. Thank you and thank you for your prayers.

Thank you God!

Please pray for Steve to get a job in Orlando. He has a great lead. Two men in the company are working on getting him in the door. One is a new friend and another is a man who fixed my flat tire once. I had taught his son at one point and his son remembered me and told his dad to help me. It would allow Steve to work with other like minded men. God is amazing. I am asking you to pray for this job in Orlando. We may have a place to rent until May.

Kathryn has been more than gracious with us but it is time to move on. Thank you Kathryn you are a gem. I have thoroughly enjoyed making friends with a handful of people here. I found prayer partners and dear Kelly offered to sit at the boring hospital with us. Thanks Kelly. I was so scared and just to have you offer was a greatcomfort. Thanks Peg for taking my bewildered husband to the walk-in.

Today I'm grateful, please pray I stay that way.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:51:03 GMT

Today is our the 16th Anniversary of our first date. We have loved each other through thick and thin. I find it so funny that God has taken a totally broken marriage and made it a strong marriage. When times are thin, God makes our marriage thick. We are very thick right now.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:28:11 GMT

Maxwell hates his diabetes and his shots. He does not want anyone to know. He is ashamed. It breaks my heart so bad. Today his blood sugar was very high at church. We sat in the foyer and kept making him walk around but his sugar kept going up. I'm all new at this and I did not know what to do. I left my book at home that tells me what to do. I am very confused. I know it has only been a week and I'll learn.

Tonight I'm very sad. I just got news that Maxwell will not be able to be in a clinical study in Gainesville Florida because we were too cheap to save our boys embilical cord blood. I feel like such a bad mom. I can't stop crying. I know God is sovereign but that doesn't mean I don't regret things. I regret so much tonight. I wish we were near our families. It is very lonely to be away from family during tough times. Even if my family is off in good times, they are great during bad times. I could tell my mom I'm scared and she'd hug me. Sometimes it is hard to be a Christian because if you say "I'm scared", people say don't worry the word of God says not to worry. Honestly I'm scared and I know God will care for my boy but I'm scared of what that looks like. I know that sounds bad but I'm not looking to be perfect any time soon.

-Please pray that Steve gets a job this week. Kathryn has been fabulous to us and we are grateful but we need to be closer to either chattanooga, Baltimore or Boston for Maxwell's treatment.

-Please pray that Maxwell be ok with his shots.

-Please pray for Jacob and Maxwell to be close friends.

Please read...

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:48:53 GMT

I want to thank our God for his protection and love. We have been lifted up in a time that was scary to us. Maxwell's our precious little ten year old was taken by ambulance from a walk-in to Children's hospital in Norfolk on Sunday after church. He has been having symptoms of diabetes for a bit of time but we just kept denying it. We have been telling him to just drink more water, which was a saving grace. When we got to the walk-in his sugar was at a critical high of 1010. Maxwell said I hate walk=ins they take too long. Well they did not. He was on an IV drip within half an hour. He was severely dehydrated because his body was trying to get rid of the sugar that was not being processed because his pancreas has shut down. All his nutrients was being rejected by his body because you need insulin to process it. That explains why he was eating all the time, he was starving. Last week we had to buy him pants because his were falling off. I know you maybe thinking, "come on Heather, all these signs and you waited". Don't worry I've asked myself those questions and I realized God let me know the perfect time. It all worked out perfectly. We had doctors who loved on my poor weak boy. Maxwell had 9 units of insulin which started bringing his levels down. The good news is he had no damage to his organs. We spent Monday learning about diabetes, 6 hours of classes and a dietician, then we came home with a little boy with diabetes. We are learning more and more on a daily basis about the grace of God.   Maxwell is well on his way to growing up strong and growing stronger in his love for our gracious saviour. Sunday night he cried in my arms and said :"I'm scare to die" and God gave me the right words of comfort for him. He cried himself to sleep as I huggged him. Yesterday evening he was educated and confident and knew God had given him so much. Today we started our day by checking blood sugar.

Praise God for saving my son.

Heather

Hello all,

     I am sending this note to a large # of you in order to have the greatest number of people praying. My son Maxwell has been diagnosed with type 1 (aka juvenile diabetes. We had noticed some changes in him recently, fatigue, frequent urinating etc. We were hesitant to bring him to the doctor because he was tested last year for diabetes and it came back negative. However, on Sunday we were both sure he needed to go to the doctor immediately even though his symptoms had not changed dramatically. We praise God that we did. His sugar count was over 1,000 which is "critically high". If we had waited until Monday morning as we planned the doctor said Maxell would have been in "serious trouble". Please praise God with us that no damage was done to his heart or lungs with such high blood glucose. Please also pray for us as I have not yet received a call and we desperately need insurance. The hospital here in VA is working very hard to get our costs covered and we are grateful. If any of you know of any jobs throughout the country that would provide medical insurance I would be grateful to hear about them. I have applied to several companies and have some prospects but the more possibilities the better! Please forgive me if this is a rambling e-mail. We have just arrived home from the hospital and I have slept little in the last 48 hours. Please forward this to anyone you know who will pray for Maxwell as he adjusts to life with type 1 diabetes.

                                                                                               In Christ,

                                                                                                      Steve Dornan

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:39:01 GMT

Beauty of Math!

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

---------------------------------------------------------

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111
---------------------------------------------------------------

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888
987654321 x 9 - 1 = 8888888888
9876543210 x 9 - 2 = 88888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?

---------------------------------------------------------
And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

------------------------------------------------------------

Now, take a look at this...

101%

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Ever wonder about those people who say they are
giving more than 100%?
We have all been in situations where someone wants
you to GIVE OVER 100% ..

How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help
answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

And:
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But:
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

THEN,
look how far the love of God will take you:

L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with
mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge
will get you close, and Attitude
will get you there,
It's the Love of God that will
put you over the top!