Author Archive

They say that time always flies when you’re having fun.  Well, I don’t know that I’ve been having all that much fun, but time is still flying by at Mach speed.

First, to give you an update on Stephanie.  She went home today!  YAY!  She has been able to talk for about a month now, since the trach was removed.  She has made tremendous progress physically, spiritually and emotionally.  It has been a joy to watch the light return to her eyes and see her mischievous grin.  She will continue to have hyperbaric treatments on an out-patient basis to help with the healing of her left foot.  As it stands now, Keepers: big toe and the one next to it, Loser: pinky toe will have to be removed, Unknowns: a decision will be made on the two remaining toes after she completes her round of treatments.  I am so grateful that God has brought my friend back.  I can hardly wait to see what His plans are for her now.

Next, at the end of January, I mentioned that another dear friend was going through a rough time as she was diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer.  She had a hysterectomy a few weeks ago and physically has been healing well.  As for her spiritual healing, she received some news last week that has sent her reeling into the land of “what if”.  She is now waiting for another Pathologist to run tests.  I am praying that God would move mountains for her and that she would be filled with His peace that passes understanding as she waits for the new report to be given to her this Thursday.  I will admit I’ve only known her for a little over a year, but I feel such a strong bond to her and I am so thankful that God has placed her in my life as friend and neighbor.  If I could pick a sister, I’d want her to be mine.

Finally, (for tonight at least) I wanted to give you an update on my weight loss journey.  I think the last time I posted something about it was back in December.  At that time, I was almost half way to my 30lb. goal.   After tonight’s weigh-in, (drum roll, please)  I am pleased to announce that I have lost 29.4lbs. since joining Weight Watchers.  If you count the 10lbs. I lost before starting WW, I’ve lost almost 40 pounds!  Yay, me!  I am so excited about this, I’m just beside myself.  I honestly didn’t think I would be able to do it – but I did!  Aaand, I have done TWO 5K’s this year.  I did one in January and another the last Saturday in February.  I was amazed at the difference of how I felt after each race.  After the race in January, things hurt that I didn’t know could hurt.  After the race in February, I was a little sore and tired, but had no where near the aches & pains I had after the January event.  Granted, I’m only walking the races, but still, I’m amazed at the things my body can do now.  I’m determined to get the remaining .6lb off by next week, so I can officially meet the goal, and then I’ll work on setting the next goal.  I’ll keep you posted with the results!

For now, I’m headed to bed.  It’s been a long day, and tomorrow has a whole lot more in store. So, good-night ya’ll!

I wanted to give you a quick update on my friend, Stephanie.  She’s the one I asked you to pray for last week – specifically for her toes.  Well, at this time, she still has all five toes on her left foot.   Since last week, she has been moved to another hospital.  This one has a hyperbaric chamber that they want to put her in a couple of times a week.  The doctors believe that exposure to pure oxygen will advance the healing process of both the amputation wound and the toes.  It is believed that she will end up losing the two smallest toes on the left foot, and the tips of the other two – but her big toe will remain intact.  This is a big improvement from where we stood two weeks ago – at that time they thought they might have to remove the whole left foot.  So, prayers have definitely been answered in a BIG, BIG way.

Now, for another prayer request – Stephanie is quite possibly the most verbal person on the planet.  Many hours of our nearly 20 year friendship have been spent with me listening to her talk.  It was a good arrangement (most of the time), I’m the listener and she’s the talker.  Well, during her surgery, the doctors had to put in a tracheotomy which has rendered her speechless for now.  The Speech Therapist saw her late last week and recommended a smaller trach which might help her speak, but for now she’s still speechless.  She is able to communicate through writing, and some of us can read her lips.  However, I can’t even imagine how difficult this is for her to try and come to terms with the amputation without being able to talk about it.  So, I ask for your prayers in this area, too.

Finally, I would love to ask for your help on a little project.  Stephanie LOVES mail, the fun kind, not bills obviously.  I would love to boost her morale by flooding her with encouraging notes and cards from fellow sisters in Christ.

To let you know a little about her:  She loves all things girly and pink.  She loves stickers.  She loves frogs.

If you would consider blessing her with a note or two (or ten!), send them to me & I’ll deliver them to her.  You can send them to:
Stephanie C.
c/o Tanya Ehrler
2308 Dobree St.
Mansfield, TX 76063

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

Life has been so crazy lately that this blog has taken a back seat.  Things for me have been good, but my friends and family have been going through some struggles.  I’ve found that prayer is just about the only thing that has helped me keep my sanity.  Some nights, I’ve found that God wakes me up to pray for one of them – sometimes all of them.  What an honor it is to be awoken by the King, to pray for his people.  Here are some of the people I’ve been praying for:

Right before the holidays, my father was diagnosed with melanoma.  The procedures to remove it and close the wound occurred this week.  Many prayers have been said that the spot didn’t go too deep, that the doctors would be able to remove it all, that the wound would be able to close easily, and that healing would occur quickly.  As it stands now, it looks like all of these prayers have been answered.  He has a line of stitches about 3 1/2 inches along his right jawline, and it looks like it will be able to heal well.  Once he regrows his beard, it’s likely that you’ll never even know that there is a scar.

One of my coffee buddies is going through some major family issues.  It’s looking like some of them will come to a head in the near future.  Many prayers have been said over every family member.  Praying that the Lord would move in the hearts of some, protect some, and encourage some.

One of my dear friends was diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer last week.  She will find out next week when her hysterectomy will be scheduled.  Many prayers have been said that she would be able to take the step that is in front of her, and not worry about what is 20 steps in front of her.

My college roommate/best friend for many years had major medical trauma last week which necessitated the amputation of her right leg about 6-8 inches below the knee.   I’m still having a hard time wrapping my brain around this.  Next week, there is a strong possibility that she will need to have four toes on her left foot amputated, however, the doctors do have hope that they may be able to save them.  I can’t even begin to tell you the prayers that have been said for her the past two weeks.  Some of the prayers have been answered by the Lord saying “Trust me.”  Some of the prayers have been answered by what can only be explained as miracles.  Tonight, and this weekend – I’m praying for four precious toes.  Praying that the Lord would be able to miraculously heal them and restore them to health.  Praying that the Great Physician would care for her in amazing ways.

If you are willing and able, I ask you to join with me in praying for four precious toes.

As I mentioned in my last post, our Pastor has challenged us to a Grumble Challenge.  For the most part things have been going well and I’ve been able to keep my Grumble in check.  Of course, I have moments (sometimes many moments strung together to make a few hours) that I forget and lose sight of the goal.

One of those moments occurred this afternoon while I was out running errands.  I exited the freeway, drove to the end of the ramp and noticed  a lot of traffic in a place that doesn’t ordinarily have a lot of traffic.  I was about to start grumbling when I noticed a man walking along the side of the road.  He was pretty disheveled in appearance, and you could tell almost immediately that he was homeless.  His hair was a mess. His clothes were a mess.  His shoes were a mess.  But hanging from his shoulder was a pristine looking green duffel bag.  You could tell by the way he held this bag, that he cherished it – that it was something he truly valued.

In that moment, God reminded me of the Grumble Challenge.  He reminded me of my amazing church family.  He reminded me that our church was able to fill and distribute almost 300 duffel bags to the homeless in Fort Worth on Christmas Day.  He reminded me of how blessed I felt when we were able to fill a few of those bags as a family.  He reminded me that I really have nothing to complain about.  He reminded me that he’ll show me blessings, but if I’m complaining I won’t see them.

He showed me a blessing, and I almost missed it.

But I didn’t. Thank the Lord.

Sunday morning’s sermon was based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 – “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

After a great message, our pastor wrapped up with a challenge.  The 14-Day Grumble Challenge.  The challenge is to go 14 days with no grumbling (verbally or mentally), no complaining, no whining, no arguing, no griping – but in everything GIVE THANKS.  He suggested putting a rubber band on your wrist and popping it when you broke the challenge. (I’ll admit I didn’t do that part. )

So today, the boys and I arrive home after running some errands.  I pull my car up into the garage, and I can hear a faint beeping sound.  When I get out of the car, I hear many not-so-faint beeping sounds.  I kind of brushed it off thinking that nearby construction must be going on in full swing after the Christmas holidays.  I walk into the house and am suddenly hit with very loud beeping sounds.  After a quick investigation, I discover that every smoke alarm in our house is going off!

I quickly sent the boys outside, while I investigated further.  I found absolutely no smoke, or natural gas leak – and then I was perplexed.  What do I do?  So, I went to the garage and called Hubby on his cellphone, filled him in.  He said to do all the things I had already done, but he did suggest checking the attic, just to be safe.  I did – no fire, no smoke, no funky smells.  He then says that we must have a bad battery in one of them. (All of our smoke detectors are wired together, so if one goes off, all of them will go off.)  He suggests grabbing a set of hearing protection from his office, and then take down the smoke detectors one by one until I find the one noise making culprit.

We hung up and I went off to find the noise maker.  I took 4 out of 5 of them down before the noise ceased.  Ah, silence!  I found that number 4 had an old battery.  It was probably the one installed in the alarm when the house was built.  Wow.

Well, when I saw a battery that was probably 10 years old, I figured I ought to go ahead and change all of the batteries, even the ones we changed back when we reset the clocks.  We didn’t have that many 9volt batteries, so the boys and I made a quick trip to the hardware store.  I picked up a handful  of 9volts and went to check out.  Cashier rang up my stuff, I swiped my bank card. “Uh, Ma’am, your card was declined.”  I praise God that I didn’t yell “WHAT?!” or some other inappropriate phrase, I just calmly gave her another bank card and said sorry.

I made a bee-line for the house.  Upon arrival, I passed the 5 empty smoke detectors that were waiting for me and went directly to my online banking site.  Turns out there must have been a glitch, because there were plenty of funds. Whew!  One crisis averted!

I went back to assembling and re-hanging the smoke detectors.  After getting them all back up, with new batteries, I felt a sigh of relief.  Whew! Two big crises and I didn’t complain! Yay, God!  I returned all of the necessary tools to their locations and settled in so we could get started on school for the day.

Ten minutes later, the smoke detectors started beeping again.  I started laughing.  My poor kids probably think Mommy went off her rocker.   I grabbed all the necessary tools again, and pulled down the smoke detectors until the noise ceased.  This time I only had to pull down 3.

Then I called Hubby and told him he had a project waiting for him when he got home.

So – a 14-day Grumble Challenge.  Well, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be called a challenge.

Thank you, Lord, for obnoxious beeping sounds, especially when it protects our home!  Thank you, Lord, for helping me to keep my mouth shut when I wanted to say grumble-ey things. Thank you, Lord, for all of your many blessings.

Questions & Answers for 2009

Found this list of questions at (In)courage & thought it might be interesting to answer them here.  If you want to do the same, I hope you’ll leave a comment so I can read your answers.

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year? Our family vacation in San Antonio.  The four of us spent a lot of time together and just had fun being together.  Also, we were able to visit with Hubby’s mom, whom we had not seen since Feb ‘08.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened? Without a doubt, losing my sweet beagle-boy, Alvin.  I still miss him like crazy.  Just last week, on several different occasions I found myself standing in my closet crying because I miss him so.  <sigh> I miss my snugly beagle-boy.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year? Watching the boys throw snowballs on Christmas day.  What a surprise to have a White Christmas in DFW!

4. What was an unexpected obstacle? Well, it just happened last week, but Hubby had an accident at the shooting range.  I won’t go into details here, but he’s okay, he just has two extra holes.  Seriously, he’s doing well and is up to his normal activities.  I feel so blessed that his injury is really inconsequential. It was definitely unexpected!  The good Lord was looking out for our family in a big, big way.

5. Pick three words to describe 2009.  Good.  Blessed.  Focused.

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2009 (don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you). Progress.  Challenging.  Blessed.

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2009 (again, without asking). Blessed.  Busy.  Fun.

8. What were the best books you read this year? Same Kind of Different As Me,  The Middle Place,  Help for the Harried Homeschooler, and The Help.

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships? Hubby and the boys.  My parents.  Friends from church, some old, some new.

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year? Deciding that my relationship with food needed to change.  Weight Watchers has been such a great tool to help me make this change.

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally? Learning to depend on Him, not myself, not my hubby, not my kids, not my friends, not my family – but Him.

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually? I’ve come to depend on my morning quiet time and Bible reading.  This has been a goal for me for a long time – I’m so glad I finally figured out how to do it this year.

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically? Through WW, I learned/re-learned about portion control and exercise – helping me to loose 20.2 pounds since Oct. 27th.

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others? Going deeper in relationships.

15. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home? Making WW recipes the whole family enjoys.

16. What was your most challenging area of home management? Keeping the kitchen clean & laundry – either would fill that category for me.

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year? Games on FaceBook – won’t be doing them in 2010.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year? Reading God’s word and applying it to my life.

19. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year? It wasn’t learned this year, but it was re-enforced.  People are the only thing that matter – having all the material wealth in the world is nothing if you don’t have people in your life to love.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2009 for you. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

I do hope you’ll share your thoughts with me if you decide to reflect over your year.

Several months ago, I shared with you that I lost my beagle boy.   Losing Alvin, left us with one remaining dog, Murray. I told you about a few of his quirks here.

Well, for as long as Murray has been a part of our lives, he has always had another dog in the house to be his playmate.  So, when Alvin was gone – Murray became pretty depressed.  He started clinging to me more than usual.  He was eating more than usual.  He reacted differently when we came home from a trip to the store.  Basically, he just wasn’t himself.  I think he didn’t A) know how to be an “only” dog, and B) was really lonely.

So, I did some searching on petfinder.com to see if I could find him a playmate.  I really wanted another beagle, because their temperament seems to do well with children, they’re dog-gone cute, and relatively small.

I came across several dogs in our area – one in particular stood out.  A petite little girl that was in the same shelter that was once Murray’s home.  We made plans to go look at her. We took the boys with us to make sure she would behave with children.  We also took Murray to make sure she was not aggressive toward other dogs.  She passed both tests with flying colors and voila – we came home with a new dog.

Macie at home in my lap.

Since then she moved right in and made herself at home.  For the first couple of days, all she did was sleep.  She didn’t seem to be feeling well.  After a quick trip to the vet we found out she had Kennel Cough.  Once she had some meds, she perked up into a lively little spitfire.  Now she only stops for a brief snuggle before finding something to get into.

Macie snuggled on the couch.

Murray and Macie snuggled together in the sunlight.

I had forgotten that one habit that many beagles enjoy is digging.  Luckily, the place she is most fond of digging is in a barrel.  I figure if she’s gotta dig, that’s a great place because at least it has a bottom and she doesn’t tear up the yard.

Macie caught in the act.

"It wasn't me, Ma!"

I try to scold her, and she tries to tell me that she didn’t do it.

"Murray, did it! It wasn't me!"

But with a face like this, she gets away with just about anything.

We took a break from school last week, which would lead you to believe that I would have more free-time than usual, but some how it all vaporized into thin air.  Now here we are with only one month left in 2009.  How the heck did THAT happen!?!?

Well, to update my stats on my quest of weight loss.  Last week I lost 4.6 lbs., this week I lost another 2.6 lbs, which brings my total to 14.4 lbs – >this< close to reaching the halfway point to my 30 lb. goal.   Again, I’m so proud of myself, I think I could bust.  Since October 28th I have lost nearly 15 pounds, which means I made it through Halloween and Thanksgiving.  And, I not only didn’t gain weight, I lost it! Woo-hoo!

Now I still have a looooooong way to go.  Most people don’t notice any change.  But I have already felt some big changes with just 14 pounds gone.  First, my knees and ankles don’t scream at me first thing in the morning.  I get up now and they don’t hurt at all.  It’s kind of weird to walk to the bathroom and realize nothing aches.  The other thing I’ve noticed is the change in my view from the top.  It sounds kind of silly, but when I look down I don’t see my tummy like I used to – it’s still there, and there is still lots of it that needs to go, it’s just that I can tell something is gone and THAT is a good thing.

We’ve also been playing with our Wii quite a bit more lately.  I’ve really enjoyed the Wii Fit.  I do have to claim an injury from it though – I overused muscles in my left wrist when boxing.  I guess I need to do it more often so I can build them up.   We’ve also played Mountain Sports, and the Sports Resort games.  They are fun to play, but they don’t make me sweat like the Wii Fit can.  I’m thinking I might want to add the Wii Fit Plus to my Christmas List for the year.

For Thanksgiving, my parents came up for a short visit.  I always love it when they come.   We had a great time, and due to their schedule, we re-scheduled Thanksgiving to Wednesday.  It was great!  We made turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry relish, “miracle mashies”, and an apple-pear crisp.  The only thing that wasn’t “cleaned” with healthier products was the gravy.  The dressing was made using a low-points value recipe for the corn bread and turkey sausage. The cranberry relish and the Apple-Pear Crisp were both WW recipes.  The Miracle Mashies were from a Hungry Girl cookbook.   Which means I managed to stay in my points range for the day – even on Thanksgiving.

There’s more to share but it’s getting late and tomorrow’s schedule is packed.  So it’s off to bed for now!

I don’t have a lot of time tonight, (because I am dead-dog tired) but I just wanted to pop in to say….

I’m down another 1.6 lbs!  Woo-hoo! Bringing my 3-week total to -7.2 lbs.  Bringing me very close to being 25% of the way toward my goal of 30 lbs.

I’m still excited about the program because this is obviously something that actually works for me.  I like that there are no “forbidden foods”.  Because in all honesty, as soon as someone says “You can’t eat that”, then “that” becomes all I want to eat.

Some of the changes I’ve made include:

Portion control – this was by far my biggest downfall prior to WW.  Learning to be satisfied with enough, instead of too much.

Bring on the veggies – I’ve added a lot more broccoli and cauliflower to my menu.  I love it, and my kids love the broccoli.

“Cleaning” recipes – I’ve gone through some of my favorite recipes and cleaned them up by using more “fat free”, “low fat”, and “sugar free” ingredients when possible.

Hungry Girl – I purchased one of her books.  I’ve made her Chocolate Cake twice in the past week.  It’s soooo yummy, and the POINTS value is pretty low.  (Her recipe is to take a box of Devils Food Cake Mix or I used a Chocolate Cake Mix, then mix it with a can of pumpkin.  Don’t add eggs or oil or water – just pumpkin.  The batter will be pretty thick when it is mixed, but it will taste wonderful.  Bake it as the box directs for the type of cake pan you use.  Voila! Yummy cake, at about 4 points per piece. And I promise, you don’t taste the pumpkin at all.)  Now, if I could just get Hubby to slow down on the cake eating, it might actually last a couple of days.

Tonight concludes my second week of following the Weight Watchers POINTS program.  As I mentioned last week, I have a fair amount to lose.  Through some research, I decided that WW would be the tool I could use to find my solution.  After living with the program another week, I still think it is the right tool for me.  I am so glad that I found it, and that my friend KC is right there beside me to offer support and encouragement.

I had another pretty good week.  Not stellar, but considering some of the lessons I learned, it was pretty gosh-darn great.   I’ve learned to calculate POINTS on everything.  And I do mean everything.  Also, it would be wise to calculate them prior to eating them.  Here’s why:

Hubby and I had a date night at Pizzaria Uno’s in Fort Worth last week.  I had a salad and two slices of pizza.  Now, I know that pizza is not the healthiest food, but I also know that WW will allow a little flexibility.  So, I had two wonderful, delicious slices of the Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza – which is the pizza Hubby and I share whenever we go there.  (Luckily for me, we only go once or twice a year.)   Anyway, when I got home I looked up the nutritional information for the Chicago Classic.

Do you care to make any guesses about how many calories are in ONE slice of this amazingly-delicious pizza?

500?

600?

700?

Nope, its MORE!

There are 770 calories in ONE slice of this pizza.  And I had TWO!  Now the good news is that because I knew I would have to write down what I ate, I only had two slices instead of three.  And truth be told, I was feeling quite full with the two – so I’m glad I didn’t have that third one.

Although once I learned the POINT values, I nearly passed out when I went to write down on my tracker how many points I ate at dinner that night.  But, I behaved quite well the rest of the week.  And, drum roll please…

I lost 1.8 pounds this week.  Bringing my two week total to 5.6 pounds, which puts me right in line with what all doctors/experts/health gurus say about healthy weight loss (i.e. right around 2 lbs. per week).

Yay, me!