Keys in the Car, Not my Pocket

Its been an interesting day.

I woke up, planned out my day, had a very awesome smoothie for breakfast and set out upon some Christmas errands. My last errands, might I add. My days left before Christmas are rapidly filling up. So crazy, but like always.

I ended up at Wal-Mart, because when do errands not end up at Wal-Mart? Anyway, the Wal-Mart I was at is on top of a hill. I apparently didn't realize how windy it is because I opened my door a smidge without holding onto it. The wind almost immediately pushed my door into the beautiful shiny red car next to me.

Oh no.
I cringed.
Inspected the damage.
Paint was scratched.
No ding.

Then, what to do? I started to look for a piece of paper to leave my info, when the owner walked up.

"Hi. Is this your car? I need to give you my insurance information, I just accidentally dinged your car with my door."

Then, while I was writing down information for her, the wind blew my door closed....with my keys and wallet on my front seat.

Sigh.

I called the police. They wouldn't come, because there was no one in the car. Then, I called my car insurance. We don't have road side assistance. Dang. Thought we did! Finally, I called my hubby in tears. He suggested I call his mom to come get the spare from him and bring it to me.

She's wonderful and she agreed. Unfortunately, Justin's work and Wal-Mart are about 40 minutes apart.

I can't leave the car because the keys and my wallet were in plain sight on the front seat.
It wasn't too cold out today, but because of that, I didn't bring a hat or a scarf.
I realized it was colder than I thought, really quickly.
But, I was ok.
Then it started to rain.

Double sigh.

Luckily it stopped and Diane came and rescued me.
My fingers were frozen, but defrosted nicely once I was back in the car and on my way home.
Yay for heaters and no one else in the car so I could blast the heat on high all the way home.

Odd day.

Abolishing Migraines

I feel like everything has been a whirlwind lately.

Justin is having surgery on Wednesday to open up his nasal passages. This will hopefully make his sleep apnea MUCH better, hopefully almost completely resolving it. If not, we still have a few other people to visit for him.

I found out I could test out of a class, studies, took the test, got a 71% when I needed an 80% and then realized I could have used the book. And I didn't. Yeah. I'm trying not to dwell on it. It's ok. Let it go. It's ok. Let it go. I'm just repeating that to myself, over and over til I believe it. And- well, I'm going to stop there, cause my heart rate is starting to rise. It's ok. Let it go. 

deep breath


My project at work is ongoing and going well. I just desperately need more data for it. Desperately. By the first week of November preferably. Data is such a pain to collect, I almost feel guilty asking people to help me out and collect it. But I do. Hopefully by the end of the year, this project will be wrapped up and I can stop coercing people to help me.

Finally, I started a new treatment plan for my migraines. I met with a new doctor, Dr. Shaw two days after the Women of Faith conference I went to. I had an idea of what he was going to ask me to do diet wise. He confirmed all that, threw in a few things I didn't anticipate and gave me vitamins. I'll do a post on the specifics later, but basically, I'm doing an elimination diet right now. I have taken all possible allergens out of my diet for a month. Hopefully in that time, my headaches will calm down and by the end of the month, I'll be able to add things back in one at a time and see if I react. This will help me pinpoint any more dietary triggers. In the meantime, I'm taking 15 pills of vitamins a day to help out my low stores, boost my energy and lower my migraine threshold.

The point of all this is not just to decrease my headaches, it's to get rid of them. A lot of days, that goal seems rather farfetched to me, but Dr. Shaw is pretty confident that we can get rid of them, or at least greatly lower the frequency and severity. I'll take either.

Update on David

It's been such a whirlwind the last two days and I am exhausted. Here is the short version of the last two days, bullet point-ish style.

David has second degree (we think, never got a straight answer on this) superficial burns that cover about 18-20% of his body surface. He is burned on the backs of his hands and arms from fingertips to elbows and both his legs from knee to ankles all the way around. He also has mild first degree burns on his face, which is already peeling away with new pink skin underneath. In comparison to other burn victims, he's pretty lucky. He did not need skin grafts and the doctors at the burn unit say he should heal up nicely. They said he should not scar.

Getting him home from the hospital was all about pain control. Medically, he was stable to come home yesterday, but they had not yet gotten his pain under control. They changed up his regimen and the type of bandages they were putting on him. It seemed to help, but my oh my. It was still a rough day.

We brought David home this afternoon in rush hour Nashville traffic. Not a good time. With all the pain meds on board, David was very nauseous. Two hours and fifteen minutes in a car, an hour of which was spent in bumper to bumper traffic and the last hour spent on windy country roads, does not make for a happy nausea-free car trip. It seemed like forever, but we got him home and he's comfy in his bed.

The goals for the next few days are to keep him up and walking, keep his new growing skin stretched out, keep his dressings clean and intact until he goes back to the hospital on Monday or Tuesday to have his dressings changed, keep his pain under control and get TONS of calories/protein in him for wound healing.

It's going to be a long road, but being home definitely helps!
Thank you for your prayers, please keep praying.

Nashville Unexpectedly

I am sitting in the Nashville, TN airport. Somewhere I wanted to visit someday, but not like this.

So many thoughts running through my head. Mom is coming to pick me up soon and we'll head over to the hospital, I assume, to see how David is doing.

For those of you that don't know, my step-father David had an accident involving a fire yesterday. He suffered burns (I don't know the extent yet) and was life flighted to the nearest burn unit. It's the Vanderbilt Medical Center burn unit an hour and a half away from their house. My mom got the call that he was being life flighted while she was at work. Of course, it terrified her and she drove all the way to Nashville immediately without knowing what was going on.

Right now, David is stable and they think the burns are second or third degree, but they will not be able to stage them accurately until tonight. I'm anxious to get there, see how he is, make sure they are taking good care of him (I am sure they are and I know squat about burns and burn care anyways). I also want to make sure my mom is ok. I'll be here through Saturday. Hopefully we'll be able to take David home before then.

Please pray for my Mom and David.

- Pray that they are strengthened and given peace in this time. It's been a rough past 3 months for them as they just moved to KY at the beginning of May this year
- Please pray for depression/anxiety/hopelessness to be lifted from David and for him to have strength and peace from God in this time.
- Pray for wisdom for them both for medical decisions in the next few days.
- Pray for quick healing for David and for adequate pain control. He suffers from chronic pain (fibromyalgia, previous neck/back surgeries) as it is, now add acute injury onto it....can't even imagine.
- Pray for the doctors and nurses taking care of him that they would be blessed and have wisdom in his care.

I'll post more with more specifics when I know no more.
Thank you for praying for us.

My Mom Lives in Kentucky

My mom lives in Kentucky as about five weeks ago. She got a job at Fruit of the Loom (yes, the underwear people) programming things for them. Cause she's a computer programmer and such. 

I and my sister missed her so we drove down to see her new place, boxes and all. What I mean by that is Justin drove and Nichole and I slept. 

We timed it so we could attend Destiny Church's worship night with the Davis' and Bethany. Amazing stuff. I love these people and it was SO good to hug them.

We then drove into the middle of nowhere and there my mom's house was!

We shopped, talked, decorated and ate. Sacred, beautiful things when you do them with family. 

We made silly faces. 

And then we made normal faces so Justin could get a decent picture of us. 

All in all, it was so worth the 20 hour round trip drive to see all those lovely people. 

I even got bit by a tick. We were walking in mom's yard looking at bushes we thought were blackberries and something bites my foot! I look down, see a black sunshine looking thing, proceed to freak out, jumping up and down, swatting at my foot. I got it off, but I think it got some blood. 

Love you Kentucky. (You are pretty, but you have lots of bugs!)

Love you Mom! (You are just pretty.)

Getting into the mood for babies

Seeing everyone and their cute little babies on Facebook puts me in a mood to have one of my own. I lay awake at night sometimes and wonder just how she/he will look. Our first baby. I wonder and hope if they'll have Justin's lips and beautiful eyes, if they'll have my hair but his color. I wonder if they'll be cute or dorky. Either way, I know we'll love them just the same.

Getting into the mood.


It also scares the bee-jee-bers out of me. That the Lord would entrust one of His precious beautiful children to us. To raise, to love, nurture and teach all about Him. How good He is, how He loves them, the difference between right and wrong, rebellion and obedience. I want our kids to know Him and know what it feels like to be known by Him. I want them to love Him, to feel His love, grace, approval and mercy for their lives. I want them to know that they matter to Him, that they are special, just as ALL of His children are special.

And I want to cuddle them.....but maybe that's just because I'm a girl.

I'm so content and happy where we are, and honestly don't want to speed this time up for anything. I have an amazing hot husband and I'm not ready to share. But that time is coming sometime and we are preparing our hearts. Someday this family will we ready for a child and we'll welcome him/her with open arms.

Thank you Jesus.

Christmas with the Ebel's

Whirlwind

Life always seems to get hectic right as the holidays are approaching. I have no idea why. I always try to plan for the unexpected and schedule in extra free time and grace for myself around this time of year, but it never seems to work. Even this year.

It's really just been a whirlwind for Justin and I these past few weeks. We've both been sick- twice. I have had increasing migraines these last few weeks and had to go back into see my neurologist. I was injured at work. Justin has been increasingly busy at work as the holiday season approaches, as with any church this time of year. We're trying to figure out my work schedule and when we can see all of our families. Plus trying to buy presents. No more than any other American at this time, right? We can all attest though that it's stressful.

For us though, these past two weeks have been stressful. Justin's grandfather went in for open heart surgery about two weeks ago, had multiple complications after surgery and was in the ICU for almost a week and a half. Sadly, Tony passed away on Saturday. So this week has been a blur of funeral arrangements, family flying in from everywhere, the viewings and tomorrow the funeral mass and burial. Tony was a great man whose family loved him very very much. We will all miss him and I will miss not getting the chance to really know him or for our children (to-be) to know him. It's been a hard few days.

Needless to say, I'm excited for Christmas, celebrating Jesus' birth and the fact that He CHOSE to come and live us, and for seeing family BUT I'm really excited for January. I just can't wait to rest.

I went Kayaking!

We had so much fun.

So, Pittsburgh has this thing called RADical Days and lots of stuff in and around Pittsburgh is free that day. Today there was free kayaking through Venture Outdoors. We drove up to North Park today and they gave us a life jacket, kayak and paddles all for free and let us go out on North Park Lake. (!!!)

It was amazing. So much fun....although our arms hurt now. :)

Anyway, more pictures are up to your right. Enjoy! ----->

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday. He will be 64 this year and he's newly retired.

I love him SO much. He's an amazing Dad and I'm grateful for him.

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope your first year of retirement is wonderful!

Love,
Kris

Praise!

Thank you all yesterday for praying for my sister!
Jesus is SO good to us!

Her surgery went wonderfully, no complications and a <2 inch incision! She is not experiencing a ton of pain. In fact, she hasn't even taken her pain meds in 10 hours. She is walking around a little, but really is supposed to lay flat mainly for the next 4 weeks. (Eww.)

AND, she got a call for an interview with a bank. This would be a wonderful job for her, the money is better, benefits are good and it'd be a great stepping stone into a career. She is going to call them back to schedule an interview on Monday. Please pray for favor with the interview and hiring process. She really needs this.

I love her SO much!
Thanks again everyone!

quite possibly the best picture ever.

please pray for this amazing redhead of mine.

she is heading into spinal surgery at 9:00am (Aug 1st) for a herniated disk
pray for a successful, uneventful surgical course,
marked with favor and the grace of God.
her name is Nichole. He loves her.
[someday she'll love him back]

I'm going to be an Auntie!

I'm going to be an Auntie!!

As some of you know, my brother was recently married. That is exciting news. I've been waiting FOREVER for my wonderful brother to meet that "special someone". I'm going to go meet her tomorrow. I'm excited....and nervous!

The other exciting news, is that my new sister-in-law Kim is pregnant with twins! YAY! My brother and Kim are having one boy and one girl. They are due in early November.

I might try to actually finish a baby blanket for them. I would have to do two blankets. The scary thing is I haven't finished a project in over 7 years. lol. That is so sad. It's time to be dedicated to my art.

The babies will be named Thomas Joseph and Cheyenne

Elizabeth.

I bought each of the babies two books and an outfit. I wrapped them up really cute today with a homemade card. They look SO cute.

Anywoo. I love babies, so I'm sure I'll have fun babysitting these two!

Hello Again

Found my cell phone. It was in my car, wedged in between the passenger door and the passenger seat.

Who knew?

You may all call me again. :)

<--- My mom, my sister and I after our birthday dinner at the Melting Pot in Station Square watching the fountain. I love them.

Today in summary

Days never go as you planned.
I had several posts planned for today, but none will be here. Which is ok. :)

I was going to tell you about my sister's 21st birthday and how amazing she is (she is!), but I ended up driving her around to different doctors today, trying to figure out why her poor eyes became red, irritated, burning and almost swollen shut overnight. Poor lovely. What a way to spend your 21st. On the couch with eye drops.

I also just wanted to comment again, on Jim Elliot. Sometimes I get way ahead of myself, and in longing for what has been promised, what I had planned on, I lose track of the blessing and responsibility of today. I lose the simple truth of His love and who He is. What really matters here on earth and for forever, is the truth of WHO HE IS. Everything else truly is details, and should come in second place in my life. He reminds me often....maybe I'll get better at this as I get older. (smile)

I did buy my birthday camera early because it was on sale and we just couldn't pass it up. My birthday is not until May 1st. I love my birthday, because I love May. You know May 1st was a pilgrim holiday said my little story book I had when I was a kid that said something special about every day of the year. I used to read my page over and over again. lol.

Spring is here....almost. It's still chilly in the shade, but today I opened the windows. Something about sitting the sun, feeling it's warmth, hearing the noises of outside stuff, feeling the wind in my hair and the silence of the neighborhood at 2pm in the afternoon...uh. I can't explain to you how perfect that feels to me. Everything just feels right in my world when it's like that. I feel lighter. It's nice.

I love pregnant people. I love pregnancy. I love babies. I love fabric. I love color. I love drawing, making things pretty. I love making kids laugh. (How can you not love the laughter and logic of a 3 year old? Best thing in the world.) I love yellow in my kitchen and I will love white in my entry way and green in my living room....someday. I love reading. I love Jesus more than all of that (even more than chocolate and ice cream....remember that game on the bus, Ash?) I love memories, too.

pause.

Yes, I think that's all I had to say for today.

Birthday Present from Mum

I ordered a birthday present early, today!

I'm very excited! This year, my mom and I have teamed up (or rather my mom offered) to buy me a digital camera! This is very, very exciting, as I have never owned a digital camera (that worked).

<--- Here it is

Isn't is beautiful? 10x optical zoom/7.2 MP
Should be here in 1-2 weeks. :)

I love my mom

I love my mom.

She's pretty amazing.
She's sweet, kind, patient, beautiful, sassy, particular about some things, easy going about most things, generous, loving, a professional marathon shopper and my mom.

I can't express to you how blessed I was to be raised and loved by this woman. :)

My mom and I hang out a lot, she's been stuck home for a week straight taking care of my sick step-dad (he's getting better), and I needed a new Easter outfit. What else to do but go shopping?

We shopped until our feet were about to drop off (I'm serious!). :)

At one point, I got a shirt stuck around my head trying to get it on and I started yelling, "help, help!" My mom started laughing and trying to pull it off, but she couldn't get it off!! My face was turning red, I was laughing hysterically at this point and my mom was bent over laughing so hard. We finally found a zipper and got it off. Our faces were bright tomato red! It was hilarious. (!!!) I love my mom so much. We think alike.

All in all we went in to almost every store in the mall, with a break for coffee in the middle so we could have enough energy to continue shopping. White chocolate mocha with whipped cream on top - YUM!

Oh yeah, the picture above? I needed a smaller size in a dress that I was trying on. Problem was, the only small was on the manequin. I looked at my mom, she looked at me, smiled and said, "I'll be right back." When she came back into the dressing room she was carrying the MANEQUIN! She didn't just take the dress off of it, she brought the whole thing in!!! I started laughing again. Really loudly. Yes, this is my mother.

We had so much fun. I'm going up to her house to spend Easter with her.
Home is where family is and home is good for my heart.
I love my mom.