I was planning to type a post but first I logged onto Facebook and was innocently reading a friend's post that had a list of things I didn't know about her... I didn't read to the end and hit "like"... Next thing I know I got a message telling me my # is 15... Huh... Turns out I now needed to tell everyone 15 things you may not know about me... Tricky since my life is an open book... Since it took me so long to type this I decided to copy it and paste it here for you guys too... 

Here goes:

1. I was born in Germany (dad in military) but left at 18 mos. old and have not been back... I have both a German and American birth cert.

2. As I child my mother picked the nick name Becky for me but I HATED it for as long as I can remember and switched to being called Rebecca as soon as I could pull it off! (Becky just never suited me...)

3. Paul and I got engaged after knowing each other only a week... We eloped... I was 18, he was 24... I have been married over 22 years to him!

4. We have lived in six different states, Tennessee, California, New Jersey, Montana, Maine & Vermont... Maine & Tennessee twice!

5. I was Saved (Born Again) at 18 and my life has never been the same... I was a crazy, party girl and over night my heart was changed. I shudder to think what my life would be like without the Lord in it!

6. I developed a shellfish allergy by eating too much of it over my 40th birthday week... In the year since it developed it has only gotten worse and I can't even touch it! (I live in Maine... So Unfair!)

7. I am happiest when I am busy, but I frequently allow myself to become too busy and get overwhelmed and want to just hide at home in my jammies!

8. My favorite thing to do besides taking care of and loving on my family is throwing parties and entertaining.

9. My second favorite thing to do is give gifts... This could explain my all out crazy love of all things Christmas!

10. I have no fear of public speaking and even though I am extremely self conscience about how I look, as soon as I start speaking I forget all of that. 

11. People either find me hilarious or not funny at all... There is little in between and I frequently become friends with the former and am very cautious of everything I say around the latter because as soon as I let my guard down around them is when I get misunderstood and in trouble.

12. Even though I am creative, I am not at all artistic and have a difficult time understanding artistic people... In fact I tend to be an extreme realist, and this complicates things... On the same thought, when people beat around the bush and don't just come to the point is my BIGGEST pet peeve. 

13. I started getting headaches from squinting on sunny days as a teen and as a result I am RARELY without sunglasses... Even at night or on cloudy days... They are ALWAYS on my head just in case I might need them. It has kinda become my signature look and even my girlies have given up trying to get me to leave them at home. 

14. At 24 I got EXTREMELY sick and almost died from a severe lung disease. As a result I was in bed for a year and on the heart/lung transplant list, but miraculously I got better... So much healthier in fact I got dropped from the list. There is no medical explanation for me to be alive, let alone healthy. Although I do have some long term side effects I have very little trace of it.

15. I am extremely loyal and once my friend, always my friend... I have friends all over the country that every time we talk it's as if no time has passed and who I would do almost anything for... I am extremely stymied by disloyal people and don't know how to deal with them and am always blindsided by them.

I promise my next post will be about what I'm up to now... 


Thanks for listening,

The Great Allison Update...

I know that last post was kind of a downer... The sad fact is almost everything in our lives were kind of a downer from January until May... At the time I didn't realize what a deep valley we were trudging through until I could look back on it!

Allison also had her own trials to face...

Last you heard she was engaged to be married this past summer and had just transferred to our school to finish out her senior year... Since I haven't announced any big news I am sure by now you have surmised that she in fact did not get married... You would be right.

Their relationship ended this past spring and it was a painful time for all of us... We all kind of got whip-lash as the guy she was planning to marry did a total 180 and became a different person from the one we had all known. Allison had seen the transformation coming for a few months and had been fighting back against it but because he was hiding things so well from the rest of us it was seeming like she was the problem. They were young (very young) but they also were doing everything right... They were leading worship every week, volunteering in multiple ministries, going to pre-marital counseling, working and saving money and planning the wedding... All seemed to be on track, until apparently he found a portion of wild oats he had yet to sow... When she finally ended things for good it became clear within days that all she had been saying about his desire to lead a less Christ centered life-style and to focus on momentary fun instead became painfully obvious.

At the same time all this was happening in her relationship, our time at the school was starting to unravel. We were holding firm to the strong Biblical foundation we were told the school needed to be on (and we believe to be true) in a setting where the large majority of the (small) student body are not Christian and several of them outwardly reject the very principals of our faith... This created constant conflict as we required ALL the students participate in prayer, devotions, Bible classes, etc... Allison got caught in this mess having transferred to our school... Being our daughter she quickly found herself on the "outside" as tensions grew... It was supposed to be her "senior year" and all the fun associated with that but instead she found herself having transferred from a public school where she hung out with a more "popular" crowd and had a huge circle of friends to being in a small private school where only one or two people would even talk to her...  To compound matters her now ex-fiancé was sowing his wild oats with a new set of friends... Ones he met through her... The current and recently former (graduated and/or dropped out) students from our school! So even though he was out of school, that was who he was choosing to hang out with... Since he had become the life of the party for them, after the break up Allison was even further on the outside then ever before. She did still have her friends from the other school and I m sure she learned some valuable life-lessons but it is extremely hard to be on the front line watching your baby go through such tough times.

I know right now you are all thinking "poor kid" but don't fret for her... Allison has the Lord center in her life and true to his promise to make all thing for good her story has a happy ending... So far as her story is long from over!

She graduated in May with a 4.0 (yes, even through everything she maintained her grades!) and was Salutatorian of her class. She gave a speech that made people both laugh and tear up at the graduation. She started an online prayer ministry that has helped her to keep her focus and perspective. She has moved on and gone out on a few dates with a couple different guys which were fun for her. AND she plans to go to college next fall at Montana State University! After much prayer she felt she needed to defer a year and get back on her feet in every area of her life and she is using it productively.

Here are some pictures (that she approved for me to share) of her...

This was taking during the week she had to finally end things with her fiancé... She still had her joy... I learned so much from this girl this year!

 

Through everything she always found reasons to smile... I am sure she is a big reason that we didn't realize how deep a valley we were going through until we were on the other side!

 

 

Of course her friends really helped a lot, but she and I are closer then I thought we'd ever be. We talk about everything and have built a foundation in our relationship that hopefully will stay firm even as she flies away from our nest!

 

 

I still can't believe this beautiful young woman is actually my daughter!

 

 

Here she is with the valedictorian after graduation... they were .038 points apart GPA wise and both joked that they literally were one answer on one test apart...They both kind of shared the "top spot" and it was fun to see her claim a personal victory at the end of such a tough season!

 

Thanks for listening,

I don't know where to start...

It seems obvious... Start at the beginning... But so much has happened, and because so much of it has to do with the school and I don't know how much I can/should say about what went on there last year I am having a hard time knowing where to start...

I don't even know if I can give you the cliff notes version of the second semester of our time at the school last year... Let's just say, neither my husband or I are in any way associated with the school anymore. After three years there Paul had a harder time saying goodbye then I did, but it is for the best. I may feel I can or even want to say more to you all in the future, but for now I feel the need to not say too much. For now all I want to say is the last quarter of last year made the following Bible passage very real for me:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Ephesians 6: 10-13

So glossing over that part of the story let's hit on another aspect of my silence... In January while we were dealing with the beginning of the mess at the school it became obvious that my parent's were struggling to be home all day alone... We hired somebody to sit with them full-time and less then a week later my mom woke up not feeling well... Within less then 24 hours it became obvious she had more then a cold... She became lethargic and feverish and was so bad we couldn't get her out of her chair and on her feet. We ended up calling an ambulance and the hospital confirmed our fear... FLU! She was admitted immediately, about 48 hours later my step-father joined her in the hospital also with the flu! (It is very dangerous for people in their physical condition) I was not able to visit them because, yes, I had it too! My mother did not have the flu shot as she has an egg allergy but the rest of us did! Anyhow the next couple weeks we a blur but they both ended up in the hospital for over a week and then at a rehab (nursing) home to get their strength back...

While there (about a week after I recovered from what I swore was my four day battle with it but Paul says I was sick in bed at least a full week!) my mother had an episode that led them to believe she might be having a heart attack... They sent her to the ER where she had a series of seizures. We almost lost her several times, but after the longest four weeks of my life they discovered she has an undiagnosed neurological disorder (there are several names that partially fit her symptoms but none that sum it up, so the closest we can get is a form of MS).

During those four weeks my step father came home from rehab and he had gone down hill A LOT with his Alzheimer's and was not the same person he was before the flu. He now required 24/7 care and had his days and nights confused... We spent many. many sleepless nights while working full time and visiting my mom in the hospital. We had to pay somebody to sit with him when ever we were not home. and ended up taking shifts... Even as much as we tried we could not keep him safe... He would get up and wander at night and even though we put alarms on the exterior doors he would wander in the house, in socks, without his walker (which he almost always forget he needed) and would fall quite frequently. We ended finding out my mother had not put him on any waiting lists for nursing homes so we did that, but now we were in a full on crisis and he was at the bottom of every list! He was suffering from all the worst symptoms that come with that terrible disease and while my mother was finally stable and back at rehab, we were overwhelmed with his care. This brings us to the first week of April and we found a bed for him at a really nice memory care home and were in the process of getting him admitted when he once again was wandering in the night (like most every night) and fell (like he did about once a week) but this time he was in the bathroom. He fell against the door and since it (like most doors) opens in we could not get in so we had to all (once again) an ambulance. This time he broke his hip! It was touch and go for about a week but he pulled through and now because of his condition he shot to the top of the lists. The private nursing home we were trying to get him into would no longer take him because of the level of care he needed but we found one that would and got him admitted there.

While he was in the hospital I awoke one night in immense pain in my back... Pain like I have never had before so Paul took me to the emergency room. (My turn, I guess!) It turns out I was having a gall bladder attack and according to the ultrasound it was completely blocked. Twelve hours later I was talking to a surgeon and less the 24 hours later I was having it removed. Thankfully spring break happens in the third week of April here and my attack was the Sunday before it... I had about a week to recuperate and was able to return to school the following week.

Now with my step dad in a nursing home there were a bunch of improvements/changes we needed to do to the house before I could bring my mother home from rehab... I will go through those in detail in a later post, but for now lets just end on a happy note... We were able to finally bring her home two days before Allison's graduation at the end of May, and she was able to attend her youngest granddaughter's graduation!

 

Here she is giving her speech as Salutatorian! But that is part of her update and I'll save that for another day...

Thanks for listening,