Forgetting...

I originally started this post in November...and I keep putting it off and putting it off...I just wanted to have everything "perfect" when I posted it.  But I decided tonight that although I am exhausted and really need to be in bed, I NEED to write this post.  Bear with me...the ending is worth the read!  So, the reason the post started in November was that on November 9 it was 8 years to the day that I had been suffering from my neck pain.  In August/October I was told that my pain would be with me for the rest of my days and I was coming to terms with what that would mean for me emotionally and physically...living with pain for years and years more.  As I have thought about this post, I have gone back and read through an assortment of my blogs over the years of this pain journey and I cried, smiled, laughed and wondered at what all God has led me through and know that indeed He has never left me.  One thing that stuck out to me in former posts was what I was forgetting...In those 8 years, I had forgotten:
...what normal "me" was like...what it was like to NOT have pain...what a good night's sleep felt like...what it was like to NOT start my day with Tylenol and continue it all day long...what it was like to always be real with people instead of pretending to be good...what it was like to do ANYTHING without thinking of my neck and how it would affect the pain....
Then on October 15 I began drinking a nutrient rich drink called zija smart-mix...I had heard about it through a high school friend and went to an informational meeting about it...the testimonials of the relief and healing it was bringing to people made me think that it was worth a try.  If it didn't make the pain better, it would certainly make me healthier, right?  After about a week of daily drinks, I could feel my energy level shooting through the roof.  After a few weeks of it, I realized the pain was lessening in it's intensity.  Was it all in my head?  I was sure that it was to be honest.  I didn't tell my hubby how it was working for 6 weeks or so.  The funny thing was that I went 4 days in a row that I would get in the car to drive to school and think "Oh shoot, I forgot to take my Tylenol"...by that 4th day I cried when I realized it...I hadn't gone 4 days without Tylenol in over 8 years...of all the things that I forgot in those 8 years (listed above), forgetting Tylenol NEVER made the list.  I have been taking the drink for 4 months now and how do I feel by now?   INCREDIBLE!  I am not 100% pain free, but I feel simply amazing compared to the 8 years before.  At a time when I had given up hope and was trusting God for daily strength, He provided a facebook message from a high school friend that would bring me healing.  AMAZING!  Someone asked me one day if I wished that I had found zija 8 years ago...my answer may be surprising...NO, I don't.  What??????  I really don't.  The journey that God brought me on has been amazing...hard to handle and devastating at times, but those times were the times that I leaned on God and drew from His strength and gained so much more.  I think of where I was 8 years ago with the Lord??  Praise God that He brought me through that mess so that I can more fully know Him and give Him honor and glory that He so deserves!  I have enjoyed the last few months of experimenting who the real "me" is again.  My family has their wife/mom/daughter back...I rough-house with the kids, gave my daughter a horsey ride to bed tonight, paint ceilings and walls, sand drywall, rearrange furniture...and worship with a fervor that overwhelms me.  God is so incredibly good and I feel so blessed tonight as I write this.  One of the songs that I have been singing/shouting out randomly is "Praise God! Praise God! Praise God who saved my soul!  Praise God! Praise God!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"  The blessings have been flowing for the last 8 years and I can't wait to see what He will do with me now that I feel so awesome..the blessings continue to flow!  Blessed be His name!!!!!!!

Cookie Fun

Back to catching up...this year, the kids had a different Christmas Break than I did, which was a bummer.  They were off for an entire week while I was in school. Then we had a week off together, before they went back to school and I had a week off without them.   I was feeling a bit gloomy about this, but I had my concert during this first week that the kids had off...while chatting at school with another teacher, I decided I was going to take a personal day the day after my Christmas concert...I was hesitant to do this since I don't have a lot of days and being the last few days before break, but she reminded me that my priorities needed to be 1. God 2. Family 3. Job  So I went for it.  I didn't tell the kids ahead of time, so when they got up, they assumed I had a delay.  But when the jammies stayed on, they started asking questions!  Kiara and I made a quick run to the grocery store to buy some supplies and then we started in on a Christmas cookie baking day and a day to just be a MOM and focus on my kiddos!

First batch of cookies we made were Aunt Jul's famous Reese's peanut butter cup muffin tin cookies. Yummo!  We LOVE them at our house.  Of course a favorite part of making cookies is licking the beaters and stealing some tastes of the cookie dough.  Kiara looks as if she could put the whole beater in her mouth! While those set up, we made another favorite...puppy chow!  The boys had never helped me before and were surprised at how it was made and now wonder why I don't make it more because it is so easy! :)  They had fun shaking the bag of powder to mix it up.  Next up, sugar cookie cut-outs...Poor Grant was covered in flour from head to toe.  (along with the floor and everything surrounding the bowl!

Brock is a perfectionist and got frustrated a bit when the cookies would break apart or stretch...but he would start it over and get it right before putting them on the cookie sheet.

Oh and Kiara...she helped cut some off too and got VERY into it as you can tell by the pictures. Cracked me up!

What, Mom?  What's wrong with my face?

After an afternoon of playing games and cleaning up the huge mess, it was time to do the icing on the cookies.  I only made red and green frosting so their deer look a little sickly!

I figured they would tire of it easily, but they were so patient working on them.  I sat at the table chatting with them and just watching while they did all the work...

Cute Christmas tree that they worked on!

We had an awesome day.  A day I would describe as nearly perfect!  It was just a fun mom/kids day and we don't do that nearly often enough.  There is always cleaning or laundry to be done and rarely do we let everything go and just enjoy each other for a whole day.  There wasn't bickering or fighting...just fun.  It was a little hard to go back to work for the last two days before break after such a great day!

Sooooo glad that I took a personal day...even if it means that later on I have none left.  It was well worth it and depending on next year's breaks...it may happen again!

Concert Time

Back to catching up on a way-behind blog...December was concert time...in fact in the span of 11 days we had 4 concerts in our family.  Each of the kids had separate concerts and then I had my school concert as well. Whew!!  Kiara's was first...I decided to curl her hair since she was all dressed up.  This was the first time we have done this and she did really well holding still.  As long as she was in front of the mirror and could talk and smile and perform for the mirror, she was good!

Here she is all ready to go.  The program was at our church and she was beyond excited to go and be on the stage, "just like Mommy".   

Front and center was where she stood...not a big surprise!  Easy access to her if necessary by the pre-school staff.  She did try to make her way up to the top row once.  She climbed up two stairs before the director's daughter snatched her back down!

All smiles after the concert with 2 of the teachers Miss Kristi and Miss Becky!  We love them for loving our ornery little girl!

Big grin after the concert!

The line was super long for cupcakes and punch after the concert...so we stopped at Dairy Queen instead!

Grant's concert was next.  He totally tricked us!  He wasn't on stage when the curtain opened or for the first 2 songs and we thought he must be sick in his classroom or something.  Just as I was getting up to leave to check on him, the next song started and out came Santa Claus, aka GRANT!  We were shocked!

During the song "Santa's Getting Fit for Christmas", Grant danced, bounced and exercised around the stage...the entire song.  Wow!  We were speechless and his classmates loved his performance as well.  He got the nickname of "Granta" and around school that is what he is famous for now! After the Santa song, he stripped off his costume and came back on stage for the last couple of songs as Grant! 

The third concert was Brock's band concert with the 6-8th grade bands.  I couldn't believe how grown up he looked on the stage playing his clarinet...concentrating on the music and director...tapping his foot to the beat...sitting still! Ha! Ha!    They played well and had improved even from their fall concert!  I thought I took more pictures of him, but I had it on video and all of the "pictures" I took were actually videos...oops!

No pictures of Mommy's concert, but it went really well too.  It was a busy 11 days and we were glad to be done with the busy-ness for awhile...More on that for next time!

Kid Pics

In our desire to get a Christmas card picture, we had a little photo shoot at our house...First, Mommy took pictures of the kids for the card...then the kids took some too!

Can't believe how grown up they look...when did that happen?

You really can see the ornery, can't you?

It is so rare that I am even in pictures, but then to have one of me with each of my family members is really a treat.  The funny thing is that I was letting them take pictures and was just planning to delete them off of my camera...but then I saw them and had to keep them!

Kiara took this one of Grant and I...super close up but she got us in the frame!

Brock and I...wow...he looks so big.  I'm not old enough to have a 12 year old. Yikes!

Phil and I for some VERY RARE pictures together.  He doesn't especially like having his picture taken and will growl that it is on the blog...but....too bad!  We took some sillier ones of the two of us that I am NOT putting on here, so he can be thankful for that I guess.

So...there we are.  Love my little family of 5 and now I have some pictures for my desk at school too!

Thanksgiving with the Witmer's

Six weeks has gone by without a post from me...yikes.  I have so much to catch up on, so I may not do it all justice.  I thought I would have TONS of time to catch up while on Christmas break and that just hasn't happened!  So...let's go alllllll the way back to Thanksgiving.  This year, my school got the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off because of parent/teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday evenings.  So, we headed out Tuesday night and drove all night.  It was a tiring trip with pouring rain for the majority of the way.  We closely missed a leaking tar truck on the turnpike, as we were following the clean up trucks.  Other vehicles had been literally stopped in their tracks with major damage to their vehicles.  Someone in PA said we were lucky...Brock summed it up best when he said...it wasn't luck, it was God!  So glad that we hadn't left an hour earlier.  Our time there from Wednesday to Saturday was filled with lots of cousin/family time for us.  Our nephew, Jackson is getting so big!  I hadn't seen him since he was just 6 months, so at just under 18 months...he looked huge to me.  He is adorable and would squeal and laugh whenever one of the cousins came into the room.  Our kids had such fun with their cousins.  Here is Jackson enjoying his meal!  Bet you can't guess what we were having...

For some reason, Jackson would make this scowling face at Phil...it became a game with them and we loved to see his scowley face!  Here Jackson and his daddy, Andy, are both scowling at us.  I LOVE this picture!

Great Grandpa Overly with the grandkids in our part of the family.

Wherever Jackson was...Kiara was sure to be found within eyesight.  For the most part, she was nice to him...not terribly rough!  She enjoyed playing with him and chasing him around with her big brothers.

Grandma and Kiara relaxing on the porch swing waiting on a visitor to arrive! I thought it was such a sweet picture, especially since Kiara doesn't usually sit still for long!

Brock, Grant and Kiara hanging out with Jackson while Grandma babysat.  He looks like a Witmer with that Broncos shirt on...and we didn't even buy it for him! HA!

Oh how challenging a great picture is when there are 6 kids plus2 adults.  I didn't get a single one that all were looking at me and had eyes open.  Sorry.

We were glad to go at Thanksgiving because it was also my nephew's birthday that week and for the first time the boys got to go to his birthday party which was a dodgeball party.  They had a blast and even Phil and Uncle Steve got in on the dodgeball action...

While we were there, we also celebrated Christmas with the Witmer's.  The boys got these awesome sleds from Aunt Jul and Uncle Andy.  We were all very spoiled this year and got great gifts.

Kiara got this PINK t-ball set from Uncle Steve and "Uncle" Heidi. She tried it out right away that day since it was so warm out.  She loves it, but you have to watch out with a bat in this girl's hands!

We had a great trip...there are so many more pictures I could put and maybe some day when I am caught up, I can go back and pick out some of my favorites...but I'm trying to minimize!   It was good to see everyone...wish we could see them more often.  We love you guys!

Game of a Lifetime

The story starts with Phil and his good friend from college Erik.  Phil is a Penn State football fan and Erik is a Nebraska fan.  They are now both in the Big Ten conference and were scheduled to play each other.  Phil's brother, Steve, is a PennState alumn and so we asked him to try to get us tickets for the game clear back before the season.  The game was sold out and we couldn't get tickets.  Fast forward to just 2 short weeks ago and you might have heard Penn State in the news...a lot over a big scandal.  Now I have thoughts and opinions on the scandal and have shared them with anyone who asks, but that isn't what this post is about, so I will only mention it briefly.  Anyway, Joe Paterno (as seen in a january post of this year) has been the coach at Penn State forever and it came out that this would be his last home game as the coach.  Steve was offered 4 tickets to the game and asked Phil and Erik to drive out.  With the scandal we weren't sure what to do.  Then it came out that Joe Pa was fired and riots broke out and we were a little concerned. BUT...it is a Penn State game that would go down in history so we decided that Phil simply couldn't miss it..So Friday evening about 7 pm Phil and Erik left from Erik's house and headed to Penn State which is over an 8 hour drive. After stopping to sleep in the car for awhile, they finally arrived at Penn State.  They pulled in to park, expecting the $40 fee to park when the man slid a pass in their window and told them the man in front of them had said to give it to the next car! Wow!  What a blessing! Here are Steve, Phil and Erik by the stadium (notice above them is the Nittany Lion mascot).

No visit to PennState is complete without a visit to the Joe Pa statue.  No matter what your views are of him...he is a legend there and it is a neat area to see.

Amidst the controversy this next picture of a mural on campus is very interesting.  This is a mural of famous/important people who have graduated from Penn State and gone out and made a difference in the world.  Two weeks ago the empty seat you see on the left bottom side of the picture had Jerry Sandusky in it. He is the former asst. coach that has been charged on numerous counts with some BAD stuff.  Well, they called in the artist during this week of turmoil at PennState and had him painted out of the picture.  In the seat if you look closely you can see a blue ribbon...that stands for Child Abuse Awareness.  I thought it was amazing that in such a quick time they had this "fixed".

Phil, Erik, Steve and Heidi were on campus plenty early and were able to watch the buses roll in with the players and see them go into the stadium.  Here's the lead bus bringing them in...

Here the fans clap and shout for the team buses all lined up and unloading the players.

Because of everything that had gone on that week, the security was pretty high. There was even a bomb threat at the stadium, which Phil so kindly texted me about to get me anxious! There were police on horses all over the place.

Steve and Heidi before the game.

Phil before the game.

The tunnel of band and alumni for the players to run through to get on the field.  The Nittany Lion and the flags all come through in front of the team.  They had awesome seats...on the corner of the endzone in the 11th row up!

The team came through the tunnel with arms linked to show their unity.

Because of all that was/is going on emotions were very high at the stadium.  After both teams made their way to the field, both teams, along with alumni, coaches, etc...kneeled down in the middle of the field all together and prayed for the victims in the child abuse scandal.  This was paired with a moment of silence for the victims.  As I watched on tv I had tears rolling down my cheeks and Phil said there weren't many dry eyes in the stands.  He said it was very powerful and an experience he won't forget.

Penn State ready to score! 

The game was a good one to see...They were down 14-0 and came back to almost get the win with a 14-17 loss.  It was very exciting and Phil said that it was simply crazy and unbelievable there.  I'm so glad and thankful that Heidi took all of these amazing pictures for me...I know there are a lot here, but there were 130 pictures to choose from...they are all so good.  Thanks Heidi!

Right after the game, Phil and Erik left to come home.  With a short stop to sleep for awhile, Phil finally came in the door about 4:30 am Sunday morning...what a whirlind of a trip, but for Phil it was totally worth it...it truly was the game of a lifetime!

Random Fallness at the Witmer's

It has been awhile since I posted just normal life for us!  This fall was full of football...practices during the week and games on the weekend.  This year, all of our games were here in town, which was really nice...but made for a long day of games since the boys were on different teams.  We discovered fairly quickly that 3-4 hours of sitting for Kiara was not going to be smooth sailing!  She did fairly well considering.  Here is Grant.  He played on the Plymouth Bears team...yes, we had to cheer for the Bears...only on Saturdays, not Sundays!  He was #22.  He had a great time playing and we really saw him improve and get more aggressive this year.

Here is Kiara at the last game, entertaining everyone with her goofiness!

This year, every team got to play at least one game "under the lights" at the RockPile...the high school field.  This was much anticipated and the boys LOVED this opportunity.  It was nice for us too to be on bleachers and up higher so that we could see better.  Brock had an exceptionally awesome game that night and we got to hear his name over the loud speakers a bunch of times!  That was pretty cool! He played for the Colts...yes, that was a tough one to cheer for too!

Grant's team had an pizza party at the end of the season and they were each given trophies.  Here he is with his coaches...they were giving him a hard time about his Broncos jersey at a "Bears" team party!  They were trying to get him to say Go Bears, but he refused!

Here is Brock at the RockPile after his game...another season under his belt!

At the team party, they had an extra trophy that they gave Kiara.  She was over the moon about this and was so proud t carry it around.  Goofball!

Another picture of Brock (blue sleeves) ready to play.

Grant (22--blue sleeves) waiting on defense.

Another favorite activity of the boys is raking leaves...not the jumping in the leaves, the raking of them.  I know...strange, but that's my boys.  They jump a couple of times, but prefer the raking part!

Of course Kiara couldn't be left out!  She made more of a mess than anything, but had fun!

We had a bow shooting evening one night.  Phil and Brock wanted to work with their bows (Brock's is brand new), so we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's house to shoot at a target on a bale of straw.

Grant took his bow as well.  Although it isn't an authentic bow, he had fun shooting it a little closer to the bale.

And really...to sum up our fall...Kiara's shirt says it all...Football, football and football!  Go Broncos!