So I have thought a lot about writing this post and have finally decided that the truth is the truth and it should be heard, right?! I have always been the type of person that is very "in-touch" with the facts of life and I spend a lot of time looking at adversity's that others are facing as a baseline for how I live my life. Why am I writing about this, and why is this hard for me?...Well let me tell you what I have been watching...4 months ago one of my life long Best Friend's husband was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer that has also invaded his liver and spleen. At that time he was basically told that he had little chance of survival. He chose to go to a University hospital and do treatments that could or could not help him. After enduring this for a short while he was rescanned and found that the tumors had not responded to the treatments at all. So he was given only one other option by the doctors - and that is surgery. The invasive surgery would involve the removal of his pancreas, spleen, and almost half of his liver. The survival rate for this extensive surgical procedure alone is barely 50%, providing that the surgery is a success, he would eventually need a liver transplant somewhere in the near future with chances of survival no better than the 50%. After hearing this news he did not feel like God was directing him towards that, rather he was directing him in a whole different way. The surgeon that he was seeing told him about a place called Eden Valley Institute in Colorado. This place is a facility that will concentrate on a proven nutritional plan along with supplementation and proven non-invasive therapies. They have researched this place extensively and have found that the survival rate is very high and so this is the route he is choosing to take. So now is the place where I should mention that my friend has been separated from this man for going on 2 years now. It has been very difficult for them both as they have a diabetic son together who requires a lot of special care...Then another family we are friends with the dad was just diagnosed with Large B-Cell Lymphoma. I asked for prayers in this post here. The diagnosis that he got was not the worst news in the world but yet it is devastating to him I'm sure. Basically he will receive treatments for 18 weeks with an 80% survival rate and a chance of recurrence being the strongest in the first 2-3 years after treatment with a then survival rate of 50%...His family remains in good spirits and I believe God will pull them through all of this.The last story I want to share with you is difficult to say the least...A family with a 13 year old boy that runs in the same rodeo association as DD had a tragic accident a week ago Saturday. The 13 year old boy took a friend to show him a hunting rifle that he had gotten and there was an accident with another gun that I believe they thought was unloaded and the 13 year old young boy was tragically killed. The moment that I found out it was him, I thought to myself I wished I hadn't ever heard "who" it was...We did not know this family really well but we have watched him rope many a times and I see his face in my head every day, and I think about how devastating this is for his family...So now why am I telling you all of this sadness? Because I want share with you how I see life. I get SO upset with people who take their lives for granted or their children's lives for granted...Not to say that I myself don't need to be reminded at times because I do. I see my family as the greatest gift on earth!! I cannot imagine my life without them, and I honestly don't get people who cannot put their kids or families first! For me, I admire anyone who has half the strength as these people and I hope and pray for them everyday...So do we chose to give into the storms....
Or see the light shining through the clouds?!
I really like to keep things real in my life and sometimes that's not really a good thing... I prefer to deal with emotions and get emotional about sad or upsetting issues rather than sweeping them under the rug and acting as if they don't exist.. Do you wonder what the heck I am babbling about today, I'm telling you this is where my mind has been!!Last week J attended the FFA National Convention, I was really nervous about letting him go because he has never been away from home like that. And quite frankly I just worry about EVERYTHING!! Can you say control freak?!?! I can!! So anyhoo~ away he went to Indianapolis for his 5 day trip. They really were having a great time, and I get a text message asking "what happened to the FFA Students"? I start to freak so I immediately run to the computer and log into Facebook (I know, please don't judge) because it seems to be the fastest way to find anything out!! I am texting J also and asking him what happened and he tells me a kid from TX fell like 42 feet and landed on the concrete in the mall and he was in critical condition... OH how my heart ached for his family!! So they continue on with their week and come Friday evening they get a call from some friends that are at the convention as well and they live in the county next to us, but they call all freaking out because one of their members had just "passed out" and was rushed to the hospital.. So they go to their hotel and spend some time with their friends and everyone was just freaked out!! While all of that was going on the Hubby and I were at J's football game even though he wasn't there because it was our night to provide food for the players after the game. This game was a bad one, we were down players, we had players that were playing injured and then they leave for halftime and all of the sudden there is panic going on in our side of the bleachers. One of our players was being life watched to a hospital in the city he had apparently gotten a concussion (which this is like his 3rd one this year, he's been hauled out on a stretcher once before)and they didn't realize it until half time and he was in bad shape. Thank GOD he was OK, but he will never play football again, he would then have a high chance of becoming permanently handicapped if he got another concussion.. OH dear God it was so scary!!So back to Lauren, I do not have ALL of the facts of what happened but basically she "passed out" and she was in her room and no one could get in because they did not have a key. After much fight and frustration they got someone to open the door for them and they immediately started CPR on her. Lauren had a medical condition in her heart, this is a condition that at least 1 sister that I know of has and that sister has an internal defibrillator and she is fine. But Lauren was diagnosed about 8 months ago and at that time the DR's said she was not in need of one. So when she "passed out" her heart actually stopped, so by the time they got her to the ER it had been 30 minutes and quite a long period of no oxygen to her brain. Her family was taken to her by a chartered plane and they were given hope before they got there and then all of the sudden things were not good. Laurens body started shutting down and she was on life support, on Sunday morning they did a brain scan and there was no brain activity and she died a little while after... Through all of this they tested her for H1N1 and she tested positive, no one knew she had it and your body can carry it for 6 days before you show any symptoms, so with her heart condition the actual cause of death is H1N1 because it caused the organs to malfunction due to her pre-existing conditions.. OH I can't express to you the sorrow that this community is feeling.Then the following day we lost another "member" of our community to a fatal car crash. I just cannot believe it, I don't understand where all of this is coming from!I'm sure some of my readers are also readers of Amy's blog "Our Daily Blessing...Life". Amy is an amazing woman who has been through so much I cannot even fathom how she does it. Amy herself is currently fighting a battle for her life against cancer, she also has a son named Philip who is fighting for his life he has multiple medical conditions and the DR's cannot seem to do anything to fix things for him. Then a few months ago Amy was so excited for a new light her life, her nephew Jackson. Amy just adored him and he gave her such hope and more desire to fight these battles in her life. She loved him with all of her heart.. And then suddenly October the 6th (I think was the date) Jackson died suddenly... How do you make any sense out of these tragedy's, I mean so many hearts broken and lives lost... WOW I just cannot find it in my heart to not hurt for all of these people...So in Honor of those lives lost and their families and also in Honor of my sister-in-law and my baby niece Jentri who was taken from her mommy's womb in June to be with God in Heaven I want to dedicate this song...You can follow the link to see the beautiful video by Natalie Grant, or it is the 1st song on my playlist..Held by Natalie Grant
Well the last few days have pretty much sucked here at the ranch…We had some bad storms come through Sunday and when all was said and done we had river’s everywhere and a few lakes too!! Literally we got like 6” in a few hours so who knows where the final total ended up. So along with all of this extra water everywhere I was left with no cell service, and no INTERNET!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I was gonna come unglued!!!! OK I told myself they will fix it soon, well Monday afternoon comes and it’s still down so I call them and they say “Oh well the tower was completely torn down”!!! But they were in the process of putting up a temporary tower and I should have service by the end of the afternoon…So I asked them “OK what happens if this temporary tower doesn’t work”?? And I was told “we aren’t worrying about that right now we are hoping this will get you back online”, well the afternoon comes and goes and still nothing!!! So I figured well it didn’t work *ahhhhh* so I go on about my day until later in the evening I was talking to my SIL and she says she says she is on the net, WHAT?? Since when?? She says “since I got home from work” I’m like that’s bull crap we live 4 miles from one another so why is hers working and mine isn’t?? So I call them up and they say well it should be working, of course I am not at home because I was out getting J from his girlfriend’s softball game. So I tell the man I will call him when I get back home but they close at 9:00 pm and I had 30 minutes to get home and call them so I get there with about 5 minutes to spare and call and of course get put on hold until it’s after 9 and then I get sent to voicemail to leave a message so they can call me back tomorrow…And to top it all off I can’t even use my cell phone for anything because that service is messed up too!!! I pretty much feel like I’m going to explode!! I have so much that I need to be doing online… So finally today at 3:00 pm I am back online!!!Meanwhile at the ranch during my day from boredom!!! About 3:30 pm Monday our beloved Sharpei Laramie started barking in the dining room. I ignored her for a couple of minutes but when she continued on I knew she was seeing something. So I come and look in the garage thinking maybe someone is knocking on the door, nope not that so I look out the window and see again nothing….I’m starting to think she’s wrong about this one, so then I go to the front room window and look out and also remember that there was some cattle out the last few days so I seen a little head pop up in the driveway “OH NO I’m thinking!! There is a lost calf!!”…..OH there is the head again…..Wait a minute, that isn’t a calf head that’s a horse head *scratchin my head*….hmmm…OH CRAP that is Rita’s BABY!!!! So I grab my coat because of course it’s cold outside again!! And my rain boots then a halter and lead because I know the baby must have fallen under the wires, and no I did not know it was born until then!! So I go running out there and sure enough that baby is laying in the driveway and Rita’s pacing the fence (she is my most protective mama). So I go running out there to get her haltered and she first wants to run from me, I tell her I’m trying to take you to your baby!! So she stops and I throw the halter on, well then I have to run her to the other end of the pasture to the gate and she’s like wait whoa where are we going!! So I drag her like 5 feet and then she’d stop and look back at her baby then finally I can reach the gate and once she sees me grab it she realizes that I’m taking her out so she starts running and we run all the way to the end of the driveway to her baby. I was nearly in tears because I see this beautiful painted foal!!! Just what I wanted, I couldn’t believe my eyes!! Did I mention that Rita still has the sack hanging from her….So I’m trying to keep her still so that it won’t break. Finally the foal is able to get up and start stumbling around, and I notice that IT has a blue eye!! But not really blue more like white?!?! So now the next step is to find out the sex of the foal, I’m really wanting a filly because I can add her to my program if she turns out like I want. Studs are just hard to keep, but I will keep it a stud if he turns out right also. So down I go lookingggg under and then I see it….A weenie hole!!! OH NO it’s a boy!!! I want a girl!!!! OK I’m better now, I don’t care what you are you are gorgeous and healthy that’s what’s important. He starts coming to me and every time I touch him he jumps LOL, then bit after bit he starts liking the scratching so he stays a little longer until he is practically following me around!! And of course I am out there with no camera, well I had my phone camera which I was using but not my good one and I was by myself. So then it comes Rita starts to get antsy and I knew she needed to deliver the after birth so she lays on down and gets that baby outta there, WHEW!! All clear now!! So DD finally gets home and I lead Rita and no name into the front yard and have DD hold Rita while I go get some warmer clothes and my camera!! Of course I come out to find little Miss DD with the foal sucking her finger LOL, I don’t know how she does this but every foal loves her!! It is so amazing and beautiful to me. So finally Hubby gets home and see’s our new man, we still don’t have a name for him yet. DD is supposed to be picking this one but she hasn’t come up with a really good one yet….Finally I go to get J from the game and on the ride home I hand him my phone and he just gasps and says OH MY GOODNESS it’s beautiful!!! I think it’s the most beautiful one we’ve ever had, and he is right about that. This is the foal I have been waiting for!! Awesome Eye!!!
His color is almost matching to the tree bark!!
Little bit of gumming action LOL!!
Beautiful head!
Again amazing eye!!!
Not sure yet if he is going to be black or grulla?!?!
Sweet baby!!
DD has such a knack for babies!
Just some resting....
She loves doing this!!
