Merry Christmas From My Family To Yours!

Merry Christmas to all!

Our prayer is that you all experience the

season for what is really to be celebrated!

God sent his son Jesus as the ultimate present.

God bless you and your family.

One Year Ago Today...

Was the day someone we trusted hurt our child.

It's weird to think that a year has gone by...doctor's appointments, child protective services, meetings with the prosecutor, and the trial.

One year ago since, in essence, I lost the relationship with my best friend of 10 years.

Our second in-vitro attempt and then miscarriage...

All of this and yet, I can say that God is good. He has been there everyday. Has it always been easy? Absolutely not. But, He has blessed us. We have learned so much about Him and grown so much closer to Him.

Trey is happy and healthy. We just sold our house after a year of it being on the market. God is blessing us.

The last few days we have been in Cincinnati for Frank to have some training. You see, a few months ago, a letter came across his desk stating that the Child Abuse Physician at the hospital he works for is no longer there and they are seeking a replacement. They were wondering if any physicians in Frank's group were interested.

Frank really felt that it was something he should check into. We believe that God is using our situation with Trey to help others. Frank agreed to take the job. It's only 2 half days a month at this point.

What greater person to see patients who are victims of abuse than a father whose son was abused? Just another way we are seeing God work in this otherwise terrible situation.

You can check out the first parts of Trey's story here and I am working on finishing up the rest of the posts soon.

Family Pictures

I forced convinced Frank it was time to get family pictures taken again. It's been a while and Trey seems to be getting over his picture-taking issues. He (Frank) went along with it screaming happy as can be.


Well, I think they came out great!

Of course, I could definitely be a bit (ha!) thinner. :)

My little guy's 4 year pictures. He's the cutest ever!! I am not biased at all.

Mr. Stoic. He cracks me up!

This is my FAVORITE!! It captures his personality better than any picture he's ever taken. One of God's greatest gifts to me.

Please Pray...

My friend Melissa received some news regarding her lymphoma yesterday.

Please go to her blog and pray, pray, pray. I know she and her family would appreciate it.

www.danceintherainmelissa.blogspot.com

Melissa, our hearts are heavy for you...we love you and believe with you that God is bigger than this!

Special Prayer Request

**Update #2**

As of 5:30pm the buyers accepted our counter!! So, provided our home inspection, etc., goes well, we will close sometime the middle of January!! Thanks so much for your prayers during this time. God is doing great things in our lives!

**Update**

We countered their offer yesterday afternoon. Then, this morning they countered back. We were hoping they would accept it, but in this market...well, it's a buyer's market. So, we just offered our counter back, which we believe is the best... So please continue to pray.


Remember this post??

Well, this morning I received a phone call from our realtor. He got a call to place an offer on our house last night. The offer is pretty low. It's our first offer EVER. We have lowered our price over $10k during this year. The market stinks!

BUT...we are trusting God. He knows what is best for us. He knows how we are so ready to stop making a payment on a house we haven't lived in for almost a year and buy a house where we are now. He knows I'm soo tired of living in a 2 bedroom duplex with only half of our belongings.

So, please pray with us. Pray for the buyers. Pray for the realtors. Pray for us that we would make a wise decision.

I'll keep you updated!

My Rudolph

Meet Rudolph...

Yep, the crazy child asked me to stick the red "pom pom" on his nose.

All of this after he stuck a small white snowball pom pom up his nose. After trying to get it out with my finger, I finally convinced him to "blow" it out. Oh the joy of boys.

He is soo excited for Christmas. Every time it snows he says, "It's Christmas!!". I love it. He makes me feel like a kid again. And I love having the opportunity to talk to him about the real present of Christmas...Jesus.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Things are crazy around here these days. But, I wanted to post a few pics of whats been happening around here.

Trey and I made a construction paper chain to count down the days until Christmas.

Trey + Scissors = Mess.

Trey and his Daddy at our friend Linn's house. Trey cheeesing, of course.

We got our family pictures taken on Monday. They came out soo good. Hope to get them posted soon.

Have a great rest of the week!!

Things We Cannot Do Without...

As we all know, times are tough these days. So, I've been trying to cut corners where I can. Some things work out, some - not so much. Frank and I have been discussing what household items can be "substituted" with an off-brand and which ones shall never be touched.

Here is what we've come up with:

Dishwashing detergent: There is NO substitute for Dawn. None.









American cheese slices: Hubby says Kraft Singles only.

Toilet paper: No sandpaper for this families booties.

Toothpaste: Crest only baby!!








Tennis shoes: There is something to be said about comfortable shoes. Nike, NB, whatever. If you've found some that are as great, but cheaper, let me know!!

Well, this is just a few of our things.

Your turn. What items have to be a certain brand for you and your family??

MckMama's Small Fry

Check out MckMama's blog (for those of you who don't already) and read the awesome story about what God has done and is doing in her families life!

It's really been such a blessing to me during our recent tough times...God is good.

Two More Months and He'll Be 4!

Just for kicks!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I'm Twittering!!

Okay, so now I'm twittering...we'll see how it goes and how good I am at keeping it updated.

Please feel free to follow me. You'll find what we are up to on the right side bar of my blog.

Enjoy! (We really aren't that exciting!)

Time With Friends

Trey and I head south to our old stomping grounds about 3 times a month. We always enjoy getting to see some of our friends. One of my best friends, Susan, and her kids are always fun to get together with and Trey enjoys playing with his friends.

Trey and Avery going down the slide. They used to have a love/hate relationship. They are much better now. However, they do act like an old married couple. She knows exactly how to push his buttons. (You'll have to ask me about our Cici's Pizza experience.)



I love this picture. He has his father's fear of heights, so if he went too high a look of concern came over his face. He was having a blast.



Avery, on the other hand, is crazy. No fear. She would shake her booty side-to-side as she was swinging. She is too cute.



The big boys were running all over the place so I had to "make" them all sit together to actually get a picture of them. Devin in blue, Brice in green, Trey and Avery.

Trey loves his friends and looks forward to playing with them. Hope to do it again soon!

On a side note, Susan is one of my very best friends. She was there for me during the trial like you wouldn't believe. She helped me work through so much during this time and I don't know what I would do without her. Love ya, Sus!

More of the story... (Part 3)

We went over to Frank's partner's neighbor's home, where she so graciously offered us to stay, while she was visiting her daughter out of town. Before we went to bed, I changed Trey's diaper and noticed some red marks and bruises. I called Frank to look at it and he said it was probably from sliding down the stairs. I didn't feel great about that. But I will tell you that I am totally an over-reactor and Frank is an under-reactor. We tend to meet in the middle and we agreed to wait until the a.m.

(Side bar) I know what you're thinking... What in the world??? Why didn't you take him somewhere? Call someone? --- We were told a story...we had no reason to think that this was anything more than what we were told. These were people we knew and trusted. The story seemed consistent at the time. Hind sight is 20/20 and what I would do to know then what I know now. (End of side bar)

Well, after a terrible night of sleep...we got up and headed to Frank's office. I didn't even take a shower. I went and showed the physician's assistant Trey's butt as soon as we got there. It was worse that morning than it had been the night before. She confirmed our feelings that it was more than an accident from sliding down the stairs.

An x-ray of Trey's right forearm revealed 2 fractures. His radius and his ulna were BOTH broken. I will never forget the look of that x-ray in my life. We were sent to an orthopedist who told us that Trey would have to have surgery to complete the break of his ulna so it would heal properly. We returned to Frank's office to wait until it was time for the surgery.

Frank's partner showed up at the office. He also happens to be the county coroner. He & his wife took pictures of all the marks/bruises on Trey. It was the most horrifying thing to experience. After he was done photographing Trey, he showed me on Trey's butt where a handprint could be seen. I thought I was going to throw up.

At 2pm on December 19th, Trey underwent surgery. Child protective services (CPS) was called. They took pictures again of Trey's injuries. The police department was called to file a report. CPS instructed us to take Trey to a Children's Hospital to be checked out from head-to-toe.

He had labs drawn to make sure he didn't have a clotting disorder and that his platelets were normal. Everything came back stone-cold normal. He was x-rayed from the top of his head to his toes. They were all normal. The child mal-treatment specialist was consulted. We were to follow up with CPS in our home county. We also followed up with the child mal-treatment specialist.

That night when we got home from Children's ER, we snuggled in our bed with Trey. I asked Trey what happened to him and he proceeded to tell me... "I fell on the dog, ...spanked my butt, he got loud, because I was crying...I wanted you, he threw me on the couch." (my paraphrase) Once again, ready to vomit.



(More soon...I know, long story. Tell me about it, I lived it.)

Here's Looking At You Kid!

Have a great weekend!!

Wow! Two posts in one day!!

But this one is worth it!!

Check out Pete's blog regarding this post-election time.
I think he says it best.

It is time to move on...

Check out this stuff!!

Decorating for Halloween is not normally my thing. It's not that I have a problem with Halloween, I just am cheap and don't like to spend a lot of money on it. I prefer to spend my money on "Fall" decorations, "Harvesty", "Autumn" stuff.

Well, yesterday Trey and I were at Wally World to pick up a few household items. And lo and behold they were selling all of their left over Halloween stuff for 10 cents a piece. Yes, that's right, a dime, two nickles, 10 pennies. You heard me right.

So, being the bargain shopper my mother raised me to be, of course I took advantage. Check out this stuff:

Spider web makin' stuff, caution tape, $5 Darth Vader voice breathing thing, tarantulas...


Tissue paper, pumpkin carving tools/stencils, $7 batman gloves, a broom...

All for 10 cents a piece!! As I say, "A bargain isn't a bargain unless you tell someone". So, now you know!!

By the way...full price for these things total $48.00 and I paid $1.70. Can't beat that!

Have you ever found great deals like this before??

Halloween!

This year was really fun with Trey. He was soo excited to carve a pumpkin. And of course, trick or treating was really fun! So here are a few pics from the week.

Trey the elephant.



At the nursing home trick or treating.



Optimus Prime.



The loot.

Please Pray for Melissa

I've talked before about my friend Melissa. One of my best friends.

She has Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After 6 treatments of out-patient chemotherapy, the lymphoma is continuing to grow. As of yesterday, she was admitted to the hospital for 5 days of in-patient chemotherapy.

This means that her three kids, Caleb-5, Lauren-3, and Audrey-1, and her husband, Doug, are at home while she is receiving her chemo. They do have an awesome family who is there helping out.

If you would, please, say a prayer for Melissa. Pray that the chemo eradicates the cancer. Pray that she would not experience side effects from the chemo. Please pray for Doug and the kids. I know she would appreciate and so do I.

You can check out her blog here for updates and to see pictures of her and her family. It's always nice to put a face with a name.

Thank you for your prayers.

Church Hunting

Ok, overall I really dislike church hunting. We were perfectly satisfied with this guy's church. But, an hour is a little long to drive to church. :)



But, I will say the #1 reason to like church hunting is....

Yep, friendship bread. I wish I could say the loaf still looked like this. Trey and I have chowed down. God bless the little old lady who delivered this to my dear hubby while he was under the car changing the oil.

The Beginning of the Story... (Part 2)

December 18, 2007 - My husband's Christmas party for his new job.

Not us, but you get the point.

We needed a sitter for Trey and of course, the likely people, would be our friend's parents. They loved Trey like their grandchild. Well, they were out of town, but my friend told me she thought her sister and brother-in-law would be willing to watch him. We worked it out.

We drove the hour drive with Frank that morning and dropped him off at work. Trey and I went to Frank's new partner's house and hung out with his wife for the day. It was a good time to get to know each other better. Such sweet people.

When Frank was finished at work, Trey and I picked him up and left to take Trey to the sitters. Plans had somewhat changed in that my friend's sister would not be there when we dropped him off, she had their teenage son at a doctor's appointment.

Trey was a little cranky when we left him...he had fallen asleep on the way, since he didn't get a nap during the day. We told our friend's brother-in-law to call if he needed anyting.

I called to check on Trey when we arrived at the party about an hour after we dropped him off. I was told he fell over their chocolate lab and was crying. I told the brother-in-law to call me if he didn't settle down. We never heard another word.

We rode with Frank's partner and his wife to the party and so they took us to pick up Trey. This was around 10 o'clock. I went in to get Trey and when he saw me, he immediately started crying and came to me. He told me his arm hurt.

Almost immediately, my friend's brother-in-law asked me if Trey liked to slide down the stairs on his butt. I thought this was odd and told him he only does it at our house to get from one floor to another and we live in a tri-level, so there's only 6 stairs at a time. He then told me that Trey must have slid down their stairs a million times. He also said that he and their teenage son had slid down the stairs too. Weird, for a 35 year-old man, for sure.

I told Trey that his Daddy would look at his arm when we returned to Frank's partner's house. He really fussed about it. The brother-in-law walked me out to the car and while I put Trey in the car he asked Frank about the stairs and a few other odd questions. Trey refused to hug him goodbye or even give him high-5.

When we returned to Frank's partner's house, we took off Trey's sweatshirt for his arm to be looked at. We all noticed some red marks on his shoulder/neck. Frank and his partner both checked out Trey's arm and said there was swelling. Their thoughts were maybe he sprained it while playing and we also attributed the red marks to playing. If his arm was not better after motrin and a nights sleep we would x-ray it in the morning.

(to be continued...)


Click here for Part 3.

Blogging hiatus

Not that I blog all that often, but I'm going out of town for a few days.

I'll be traveling the 3.5 hours to spend a little quality time with these.

Don't miss me too much!

Fire Station

Thursday mornings are story time at the library. Trey and I are not early birds, but we make it when we can. One Thursday they were going to the Fire Station.

Trey was really excited!

So, we actually got there on time and everybody was ready to walk the block from the library to the Fire Station. A fireman gave us the tour of the office and then the upstairs where the fireman hang out, eat and sleep. Trey was NOT impressed by any of this. He kept asking me, "where are the firetrucks?". He was, however, very intrigued by the fireman pole.

So, after what seemed like days went by

(according to Trey),
we finally got to go down to the garage.

Excuse the bluriness, the child refuses to stand still and have his picture taken.

You can see the fireman pole behind him.

The fireman did slide down the pole for us,

causing multiple children to start crying. Good stuff!

Here you can see the lights are on, which he loved.

The ladder truck, his favorite...and he loved the dually tires.
(Yes, my crazy child knows what dually tires are.)

So, overall, the trip to the Fire House was a success.
We then traveled back to the library for story time about firemen and firetrucks. Love the library!!

Before And After

The mohawk... I loved the mohawk. He was sooo cute and really, lets face it, when he gets much older it won't be so cute. And, he quit letting us spike it up so it was really looking pretty bad.






So, he wanted his hair to look like his daddy's. And he got his wish.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

National Day of Remembrance for Infant and Pregnancy Loss

We did our second attempt of in-vitro fertilization February 22, 2008. We were overjoyed to find out we were pregnant.

We found out at our second ultrasound that our baby was no longer viable. No heartbeat could be found. We were devastated. I was about 7 weeks along.

I underwent a D&C on March 28, 2008. I would be due on November 12, 2008. I think about this baby often. And I'm sure that November will be a hard time.

I want to always remember my second child, who is safe in God's arms.

If you have ever lost a child, check out Angie's post here.

How did we get here?? (Part 1)

A few blog readers have asked about the story to which I allude to surrounding my son's abuse. Because of the trial and other things, I have waited until now to tell the story. No names will be given. This is only meant to tell Trey's story...

Frank & I have been married for 11 years. Most of those years have been lived in a larger, metropolitan area, where Frank attended medical school and completed his residency in Family Practice. Let me tell you...I am ALL about the city.


We had opened our own family practice and that lasted for about 2 and a half years. We opened it 2 weeks after Trey was born. Yikes! It was actually a great time in our lives. We didn't have many patients at the beginning, and so we all three got to spend lots of newborn time together.

And here, he thinks he runs the place. :)

Well, after 2 and a half years of living paycheck to paycheck and not seeing the practice growing as we expected, and Frank was moonlighting at an Urgent Care to make ends meet, we decided to close in November of 2007.


We wanted to be open to where God wanted us to go and assumed there was something in this metropolitan area for Frank. However, the places that were sent our way were at least 45 minutes away to about 2 and a half hours away in a neighboring state.


One of the places, which we found out through my friend's father, was about an hour north of this metropolitan area. Farm country, town of about 9500 people...not my cup of tea. After interviewing, we both really felt the Lord was leading us there.

And, as you can see, Trey fits right in here in farmland!

Well, my friend was from this new area we were moving to. We have been friends for about 10 years. Frank and I felt such a peace about this move, especially knowing that our friend's parents/family lived within 15 minutes of our new location. How awesome God is. These people were like family to us.


We were unsure as to when we would be able to move up north. We had (and still have) a home for sale in our old stomping grounds.

Anyone need to buy a house???


Frank started part-time November 30th and then full-time as of January 2, 2008. He drove the hour commute during this time.

And this is where the story begins...

Click here for Part 2.

Not Me! Monday

Okay, this is my first time...we'll see how it goes.

I did NOT do 10 loads of laundry (including every blanket we own) just because we bought a new washer and dryer. I HATE laundry and would never do that.

I did NOT get jealous when another mom at Story Time at the library asked for another mom's phone number and not mine. I am soo not a jealous person. I have lots of friends...

I did NOT make my husband take Trey to the office to check his ears, mouth, nose, throat & lungs TWICE over the weekend to make sure he doesn't have an infection since he has a fever. I am NOT an over-protective mom who doubts her doctor husband. :)

Okay, that's it. Hopefully not too terrible for my first time. What did YOU not do this week?

Check out the "original" Not Me! Monday creator - MckMama.

On a lighter note...

Two Saturdays a month Lowes has a kids clinic.

You can take your child and they create something with a hammer, nails, wood and even stickers sometimes. The kids get a Lowes apron, nametag, protective eye wear and patches for each project they complete. And it's all FREE!!

Trey has made a photo frame, spider, tape measure, fire engine, GMC truck...just to name a few. He loves it! And to be honest, Frank does too.

Daddy & Trey workin' hard.

Team Work!

The finished product...a firetruck! And two happy guys!

They love doing it and I love watching them. It's great father and son time. However, I have seen quite a few girls and mommies building stuff too!!

This coming Saturday, October 11th is the next one here at our Lowes.

It's a skeleton...

Pretty cool, huh?

Have any of you made anything at Lowes???

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Let me just say this, first of all...which I believe you can't fully understand until you have been through the court system. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth does not necessarily get to be revealed in court. There are certain things that are "not admissible" that we believe add incredibly to a case...specifically, prior offenses.

The justice system wants to look at each and every incident that one has with the "law" as just that...one incident. As our prosecutor told us, "If you rob Bank A on Monday and Bank B on Tuesday, when you are tried in court for Bank B, they cannot bring up Bank A". I say, "crazy". I understand if they are not related...like writing bad checks and assault, fine, but if they are in the same line, I think the judge/jury should be aware. BUT, that's not how it works and ultimately, that's okay.

I am in no way saying that the truth was not presented. That is what we prayed for and we believe it was expressed as best it could. And we chose not to offer a plea bargain because we felt that the truth needed to be expressed. Win or lose. Reasonable doubt is a sticky thing and we knew that going in. Our attorney friend said, "Unfortunately in criminal law the standard is so high, the 'beyond reasonable doubt', it is so unfortunate".

We can only look back on this situation and say that we did EVERYTHING we could to make this right. No regrets. Our Trey is as awesome today as he was 1 week ago. Our God is the same today as he was before December 18, 2007.

"God is NOT happy." ~Barbara

Well, as you can imagine, today was a little rough. Just trying to process it all. I woke up feeling like, "now what do I do?". The case seemed to take up a lot of my thoughts, time, etc. Shouldn't I be calling Sam to find out how it's going? Pursuing justice for Trey...a full-time job.

I had already scheduled an appointment with Barbara (my counselor for those of you who are new) for today. I was looking forward to it, but had a hard time getting up and ready. I knew she would give me great, godly perspective. And, yep, that's what she did.

I told her about the trial, how it was 3 days long. Whew. Then I told her the verdict and saw her disappointment. Her husband is a magistrate, so she knows about the court system. We had talked previously about the possibilities, guilty or not, and I'm sure she was prepared for either.

I told her how I felt like all of the sudden it was done. No justice. Now what do I do? I'm sure God's disappointed, but we did all we could do...

Then, she grabbed her Bible. (I LOVE her!!)

She told me that God is not happy. He wants the TRUTH and the truth did not come out.

Aquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent - the Lord detests them both.
~Proverbs 17:15

I told her how I didn't understand how the defendant has gotten away with so many different things.

If a man pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his house.
~Proverbs 17:13

She said that God is not done with this situation. I then realized I was limiting God. He is NOT done with this situation. Just because this part of it has ended doesn't mean that God is done with it. Now, I need to put it in His hands. His timing is not mine.

Oh, and she broke out the Psalms. I am loving Psalms these days.

Be sure to check out all of Psalm 55. (Wow, was God in our court room? "His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart." v21.

Here's some of it...

22Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.

23 But you, O God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of corruption;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men
will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you.

But as for me, I trust in You.

Not Guilty

Just because a person is found not guilty by reasonable doubt, does not mean that they did not commit the crime.

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. ~Romans 12:19

Trial (Day 2...and 3)

Well, the trial continued through Friday.

It will resume Monday at 8am.

Keep on praying!!

God is good!

The Trial

At 9 o'clock in the morning, we will be heading to the courthouse.

Jury selection is first. Then the trial begins.

Finally, the time we have waited for, for nearly 10 months.

Please keep us in your prayers. The jury, the attorneys, the judge, the witnesses...the TRUTH.

That's all we want. The TRUTH.

We trust in our God. We are in his hands.

High Heels for Babies??

Well, after reading Angie's blog at Bring the Rain about little girl's panties being a little on the low-rise, thong, bikini end, I came across these.



Yep, high heels for babies. Wow.

According to the website, heelarious shoes are..."extremely funny, completely soft shoes for babies 0-6 months designed to look like high heels. Not intended for walking (heel will collapse with weight). Not intended to harm children in any way".

While I am sure they are cute, funny, whatever, I'm afraid it, too, just makes the little girls of the world a little more grown up than they should be.

Just thought I'd let you all in on the newest trends for your little girls.