An update from Lisa herself...

Let's start by saying that the weather is gorgeous here!  We have not experienced temperatures over zero here in a long time!!  We were able to get outdoors in between appointments and enjoy the day!  Now on to the good stuff.  Again, can't say enough about my surgeon here.  He is awesome!  I will be checking into The Methodist Hospital @7:00 tomorrow morning...8:00 your time.  :-)    I will be getting a nuclear injection in my ankle(yes, I will be glowing once again!) and then I will have surgery within two hours of this procedure.  The dye will travel up my bloodstream to my sentinel nodes which Dr. Sims will remove.  He will also be taking a large area around the ankle location.  He will remove tissue until the margins are clear....and also remove lymph nodes if the sentinel nodes show signs of cancer. The lymph nodes are tested during surgery so I will have an answer as soon as I wake up.  The plastic surgeon is on stand by in case I would need a skin graph done of the area.  If I need this, I will possibly be in the hospital for 5 days on bed rest!  YIKES!!  If I do not need a skin graph, I will stay the night and hopefully leave on Friday.  This will all be determined when the surgery is performed.  SOOO....Pray that the surgery goes well and that the least amount of procedures is needed...and NO cancer spread.  I would love to spend Easter back at home, but that is all in the Lord's hands.  I am feeling good and ready to get this surgery done and over with.  Enjoy the nice weather and I will be sure to let you know the news tomorrow when I am coherent.  My family would argue that I am the best when just out of surgery....I am quite a comedian, I hear!   Thanks for all your prayers....even though I am far away I am comforted to know you are all with me in spirit.   Love you all!   Lisa

Prayer request and praise...

For those of you who don't know, my sister-in-law Lisa has been diagnosed with Melanoma{on top of her other cancers and surgeries...ugh!} She is going to Mayo tomorrow, and will have many appointments on Wednesday. Surgery is scheduled for sometime on Thursday. I will let you know what time so you can join us in praying for her. Here is the excerpt from her email explaining the surgery:

I will need surgery to cut out a large portion of that area[spot on ankle]...then they inject a die in the area and follow the blood flow so they can find the first sentinal nodes to remove also. This will either be behind my knee or in the groin area. Then the plastic surgeon has to do a skin graph because there is not much skin to work with in this area. Just for your information....this is a huge rarety for an area to change from OK to cancer. You all know by know that I do not fall in the norm....no surprise for me here!

So with all this said.....pray we get into Mayo soon[took a few weeks, but finally have a date!] and that my lymph nodes have not been infected

**We are praying for good news on Thursday!**

Have you ever heard this song? Every time I hear it I think of Lisa!


I also have a praise/request:
My Mom spent most of the day Friday in the hospital, they ran a bunch of tests and feel that she was having a reaction to the 'new' medication she started. Praise!! Everything checked out fine, however, when she had open heart surgery almost 8 years ago, she passed most of the same tests...so, would you pray that she will start to feel good again as the medication wears off, and she can get back on her 'normal' medication?!!! Thanks!

more Anaya video...

Anaya hurt her finger last night...She is a *tad* dramatic, there was no blood, but she insisted she needed a "kitty on!"

She is always asking to go to Aunt Stephies house, or Grama's house or Aunt Lisa's house or Grama Great's house...and so I usually tell her "on Friday" or "sometime" or ..."pretty soon!" She heard" pretty soon," and she was ready to go!

Also, a few weeks ago when we went shopping(she loves to go shopping!) I {accidentally} bought her a toy phone that had lip gloss inside(I purposefully bought the phone, it was the lip gloss that I was unaware of!) Since then she has been asking to wear "lipkick!" I love that she is such a girly girl!

Ryan accused me of "brainwashing her" and I said "ah yeah, look at the boys...they eat sleep and breath hunting and fishing, where do ya think they get that from???"

blessed...

Matthew 19:14

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Easton had his last night of Cubbies last Wed. night. I can't believe how much he has grown up since he started! He will sing, go up front, and even say his verses to his teachers.

We watched a video in church Sunday morning that made me realize {again} how blessed we are to be able to send our kids to Cubbies, Sparkies, Awana, youth group and Sunday school, as well as go to church, and even know about God. It talked about how there are lines that separate people. We were born on the right side of the line of opportunity, we were born in a country that knows God. Some are not, some people have not yet had the opportunity to read the Bible in their own language. There are so many people groups out there who are not yet aware of the truth! I love New Tribes Mission, they have put out several awesome videos, and do a great job at getting the gospel out to people in need!

Anaya is learning about Jesus too, and it is so awesome to hear her singing Jesus Loves Me, and to think that if she were not in our family, she may not know the love of Jesus.

Fishing...

I took Jayden out fishing for our date tonight. That boy is so patient. One guy came out just as we got there and he left after about 20 minutes, he said the fish weren't biting! He was right, but trying to convince Jayden of that fact was a tad more difficult! It was fun to spend time with him in his element, the great outdoors!

Finally...

Anaya; screaming with delight!!
having so much fun...until, she has to get off!! This is NOT a boxing ring boys!!

After receiving a trampoline for Christmas,the boys were pretty excited to finally be able to jump on it!

Easton and Spencer were waiting for us to finish putting up the safety net, and being rather goofy!

here is the picture of said rabbit!

*Found by an unnammed boy who was about to pee on the log!!!

A few thoughts...

I ran across a couple of blog posts recently that have expressed thoughts that I have thought! Rather than steal their words, I decided I would post the link to their blogs, if you would like to check them out, use the links below:

I don't know that I would be gutsy enough to post this, but she makes some very good points:
Joining the journey

I came across this post and I wholeheartedly agree:
Why big families might be easier

And last but not least, my favorite:
I don't want my children to be happy

Okay, that covers a few of the things on my mind lately! I should blog this way more often, it is so much easier than expressing my thoughts myself!!!

ABC's Anaya style!

I love when she gets to L M N O she just sticks her tongue in and out and says lllll! Then she gets a tad mixed up at the end, she is so funny! Anaya loves to sing, a few of her favorites are the ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, and Cristo Me Ama (Jesus Loves Me in Spanish!)

"tutu party"...

Tonight I had my date with Anaya! The boys got lost for a while, and we stayed home. We started the night with a manicure...

Then we had a tea party, but Anaya kept calling it a "tutu party!" She was in fact wearing a tutu, so I guess she was right! We were enjoying our time together, when the boys showed up...They had never been to a tea/tutu party before and were pretty intrigued! A few of them had to try out the "tea"...
This is the only one who wasn't going to kill me if I put it on the blog!
We drank a TON of tea(started out with lemonade, but ended up with water,) and ate our tiny Ben and Jerry's ice creams! Too fun. Then we played with the babies. Mommy dressed them all (again ~ Anaya can get their clothes off, not on...) and sat them on the bed. Look at all the cute babies... *Anaya loves to wear hats, she has one on almost daily!

I think I refilled that little tea pot at least 20 times! She never got tired of it! I had so much fun. I am so thankful for a daughter to have tutu tea parties with!