A Bit of Excitement

The last several days have been very different than what I had planned. My parents stopped here on their way home from Ohio. They came to the swim banquet with us on Wednesday night and planned to leave for home Thursday morning. If you know my dad, you know how anxious he was to get back home to his dog and cats and favorite chair. We were sitting on the little round stools of the middle school cafeteria. My mom left the room for a minute, and I was talking with a friend. My dad took his glasses off, and then looked at me as if to get me to look behind me. It seemed that he wanted me to look at something without anyone knowing. I was confused and looked around and asked him what. After about a minute, I realized that he couldn't speak or move. I called 911 and someone got my mom. While I was on the phone with the dispatcher, my dad regained the ability to talk and move. The rescue squad came and checked him over, and then took him to the hospital just to check him out. He is still there. He had a 24 hour EEG on Thursday to Friday to determine what was going on. The doctor was not sure that what he was having were seizures because there was no shaking involved. Yesterday afternoon, however, after the neurologist viewed the tape of the EEG, he said that they were seizures on the left side of his brain, but not the right. They started him on anti-seizure meds immediately, and performed several more tests last night to determine the cause of the seizures. The possibilities include an infection or a mass. Since my dad has wires in his spine from the spinal cord stimulator, they can't perform an MRI, so they had to settle for a CAT scan. When I talked with him this morning, he said he felt better than he has for a very long time. He got a good night of sleep, and the anti-seizure medicine is helping. So for some time he has been affected by whatever is going on in his brain. Please keep him and my mom in your prayers. Hopefully today we will find out what the cause of the seizures are and be able to treat that as well. He has resigned himself to staying in the hospital, and this morning even admitted that it was better to be here and find out why he's having the seizures than to just get some medicine to stop them and go home, which was his motive since Wednesday night. Mom is a rock. She has been staying here at night, so is getting good sleep. But she is at the hospital much of the day. They want to observe him on the medicine to make sure that it is the right kind, so he may be here until the middle of next week. I'll keep you posted.

Happy Anniversary!

It's been a long day!

Together at last!

19 years later

Yesterday, August 5th, was our 19th wedding anniversary! I have officially been married as long as I was single. That is just so amazing to me. I've had the privilege of spending half of my life with this wonderful man. And if you can do math you realize that I was just 19 when we were married. My parents never said a word about how young I was, for which I'm very thankful. God had a plan for me and protected me from much heartache, I'm sure.

Chris, I love and respect you so much. You are my best friend. You listen to me, you love me, and you put up with me. You are the best man I know. I appreciate that you think things through where I tend to rush in. You are steady and wise. You aren't afraid to try anything in order to care for your family and home. When we came home from Ohio to a flooded laundry room, you rerouted the water pipes and gave us water again, even though you had never done anything like that before. I can trust you. I love that you still love to be with me and that working at home has been a good thing for both of us. Happy Anniversary! I am looking forward to the next 19 and more! I love you!

blogging

Pressure! I feel the pressure to blog. But nothing intersting is happening today. I never thought I would be at a loss for expressing my opinions, yet here I am. I feel a certain responsibilily to fill this little space. I have no new pictures, no exciting news, just the same.

I did have an awesome Sunday, though. I'm helping lead a small group study this summer with the youth from our church. We are plowing our way through the book of Revelation. They all wanted to do this study, so the youth pastor agreed. It has been fabulous! This Sunday there were about 15 students there, ready to talk about the woman and the dragon and the beast. We are using the New Inductive Study Series from Precepts. There are no commentaries, no other sources, only the Bible. What a blessing it has been to see these kids take the time each day to do the homework (30 min. a day) and come to learn more and share what they learned! I come away every week on a cloud. Heaven is greatly on my mind lately. I just can't wait.....

Summer

It's official. Summer is half over. I can't believe it. Before this week you couldn't have convinced me that this was true. The boys have been off for 5 weeks, and start 5 weeks from today. Five weeks seems like a very long time in some respects. Especially when 3 boys are sitting around with nothing to do. However, the speed of time never ceases to amaze me. I have only been in my bathing suit once this summer. Maybe we need to do that today. Swim team is over on Saturday. Peter and Sam are both swimming in the finals. Then we will have the hazy days of August to play. I hope that we can go to some fun places still before it all comes to an end. June always offers so much promise, but July and August are hard-pressed to deliver on those promises.

Fred's summer is actually over this week. He started skills camp for football, and then 2-a-days start on Friday. Now that he has moved on to JV, they even hold practices on Saturday. Isn't that special! Today he went to lifting this morning and is now out putting hay in the barn and making some hard to come by cash. He will go to skills camp at 4:30 tonight. I worry about that, but Chris tells me, "He's fine. he's young." I hope so! I admire him so much for sticking with this all summer and now into camp. He has pushed himself hard at each lift and will continue to do so through camp. I wish I had that drive and determination.

The Toths

Ron and Tammy (see pictures below) are special friends in our lives. Ron actually introduced me to Chris at a track meet way too many years ago. They were friends from church. Ron invited me to church as well. He played the trumpet with me in band and sat next to me for about a year. Because of his family, Chris and I are who we are today. They had a great impact on both of our lives. Ron's father is the minister at the church we went to in Ohio. Many great memories include one or more of the Toth family. I remember watching Haley's comet on Ron's rooftop in the middle of the night. Chris has memories of playing on the rafters in their home that used to be a barn. Ron was in our wedding, Chris was in Ron's. You get the idea.
It has been a privilege to watch their family grow. Tammy just gave birth to their 8th child in April. They lapped us! They now have 4 boys and 4 girls ranging in age from 12 to 3 months now. When we told them we were coming up to visit and wanted to see them, Tammy insisted that we spend the night with them---even with a 2 month old. We did spend a significant amount of our 2 days in Newton Falls with them because our boys didn't want to leave! There were 12 children in that house, but you couldn't tell. They all played so nicely and had a wonderful time. The boys want to move next door so they can play every day. As we were there, we could sense the joy in their home. It's not something you can fake for visitors. They truly enjoy each of their children, and the kids all love each other so much. Tammy said that many days she doesn't get to hold Josiah much because all of the children want to spend time with their baby brother. Love overflows from every room. Their hearts and home belong to Jesus in every way. Tammy is gentle and kind as a mother and a friend. Did I mention she homeschools as well? I learn so much from being with them each time and I'm so encouraged. I hope we get to see them again soon.

The Best 4th of July Ever!

Fireworks display in Newton Falls on the 4th

Eagerly anticipating the fireworks

Ben and Nathaniel Toth watching the parade in Newton Falls

Ron and Tamara Toth and baby Josiah

Fred, Tabitha, Hannah, Caleb, Ben and Nathaniel with Lydia and Moriah in the stroller behind

Growing up in Newton Falls had its perks. The 4th of July celebration was always the best around. This year this town of 5,000 drew 50,000 for their fireworks display. It was always a ton of fun. My grandma lived a block away from the park. We would park there and walk downtown to the parade if we weren't in it (which we usually were). The parade lasted about an hour or more with firetrucks from all around, baseball teams, the band, the baton twirlers, etc. Then there would be concerts at the park along with the carnival which lasted for 4 days. We were never aloud to ride any of the rides there, but it was always fun to see who was around and eat the carnival food. Then we would have a picnic at Gram's and walk down to get our places for the fireworks. When I was little didn't like the loud noise, so I stayed with Gram and we would watch from the back porch. As I got older, the lure of the crowd won out. After the fireworks we would walk back to Gram's and eat ice cream and watch the traffic for the next 45 minutes or so. It was the highlight of the year. Many times my cousin from Mississippi was in as well, which made it all the more fun.

Fast-forward to our first year of marriage. It's the 4th of July and we are right outside of Washington D.C. We spent the entire day at our apartment. Chris wasn't feeling well, we didn't know where to go, and I watched the fireworks on T.V. with a box of tissues. I knew the end had come. Since that time, we have done many different things for the 4th. We even spent several years on the mall in D.C. listening to the National Symphony play the 1812 Overture, cannons and all. But they never compare to the 4th of my childhood.

This year we got to spend July 4th in Newton Falls with our dear friends Ron and Tammy Toth and their 8 children. (More about them in another blog). It was just as wonderful as I had remembered. The parade was even longer than an hour with the boys and the Toth children getting way more candy than I thought possible. They loved every minute of it and so did I! The Marine's were even there with all of their cool machines driving down Broad Street. After spending the day visiting old friends and relatives, we were ready for the fireworks. God is so good to me. We even got to park 4 doors down from my Gram's old house and walk past it on the way there. We plowed our way through scores of people jammed into the walk way of the carnival. I only saw one person that I knew growing up, a former band member. But the atmosphere was electric. As we sat and waited for the fireworks and talked and laughed with our children, I remembered all of those good July 4th's of the past. This is what I've been looking for every 4th for 20 years. The boys couldn't believe how good the fireworks were. They lasted 45 minutes. Newton Falls definitely goes all out to bring an amazing show of fireworks. We oohed and aaahed over each amazing light show. When it was over we walked that familiar path back to Gram's, but we had to keep going. I gazed longingly as several people went into my Gram's house for their after the fireworks ice cream. It was bittersweet. We navigated our way through the crowd and were back at the Toth's within 15 minutes because we are locals and we know the back way. As I lay in bed that night I reveled in the fact that I was home again---at least for a day!

Vacation part 2

After Cincinnati, we headed north to Berea to spend a couple of days with my brother and his family. Phil and JoAnn have a 6 year old, Lily, and 2 year old twins, Rose and Tom. We had so much fun with them. Chris and Tommy bonded very quickly over "Baby Einstein" and the DVD shelf. When Chris wasn't available, then Tommy would recruit Fred. Their home is full of laughter and fun.

We took the boys to Cedar Point on Monday. Chris and I used to go there when I was in high school, but it's been 20 years since we've been there. Phil and Lily went with us. What a great day! Everyone got along, everyone wanted to ride pretty much the same rides. It was one of the best days of our vacation. When we got there, it was cold and wet. It rained on us twice, but we ducked into a shop for a few minutes and then it would pass. Because it was in the upper 60's and overcast all day the lines were short and the crowds were minimal. That was great for us! Lily wanted to ride EVERYTHING before we got there. Phil doesn't really do the huge roller coasters, so he had been preparing her that they wouldn't be riding everything. The first ride we road was an old wooden coaster called the Blue Streak. It's jerky and hilly and fun. That coaster did Lily in and she no longer wanted to ride the huge rides. Phil breathed a sigh of relief. Peter the daring and Chris rode the Demon Drop and the Millennium Force (way too big for me), but other than those, we all stuck together. One of the last rides we rode was the Gemini. It used to be one of the largest coasters before the days of stupidly high coasters. I remember the first time I rode it. It was the tallest thing in the park. We all ran up the ramp and jumped right in the waiting cars (how great is that?) It's a wooden coaster as well, with two trains that race each other. As we rounded the last curve the car suddenly jerked to the left, taking my head with it. That pretty much did it for me! The chiropractor fixed me yesterday!

The next day we visited our great friends, the Bocka's, in Mansfield. Liz and Joe lived in Maryland while Chris and I were there. We had our babies 9 months apart and spent a good deal of time together. They moved back to Ohio about 14 years ago, but we stay in touch by visiting when we can. They have a basement that resembles an arcade, so the boys were in heaven. We enjoyed relaxing, eating, and catching up for a couple of days. Fred, Ben, Sam and Peter all want to move there now. It certainly was a nice break.