there's not much better...

than this weather! its wonderful out here! i'm sitting on the porch with geoff. we are discussing how each of our days'have been (well, i'm typing now .... he's still talking and i'm listening. yes, i can multi-task!) there has been a steady flow of golfers passing by. there is a slight breeze and things are just good! (you'd never know i had a pretty rough day with the girls .... hee hee!).

its been a little while since i updated, so i wanted to let everyone know what is new with us. actually not much! can you say r-e-l-i-e-f after getting the results from my mammogram??!! i feel so much better to have that behind me!

easter was GREAT!! we had out-of-town family in for the weekend. geoff's sister and brother-in-law came in late friday night and stayed until sunday. we always enjoy their visits and this time was no different! we had an easter lunch saturday with them complete with honeybaked ham, great sides and amazing desserts - homemade cheesecake and lamby the cake. joyce made lamby and brought him with. i'm sad to say he did not endure the 6 hour car ride! his head kind of detached from the rest of his body, but, no worries! we reassembled him and all was good! the girls never knew the difference. geoff's dad and our niece and her fiance came up too. it was such a good time. sunday we woke to the goodies the easter bunny brought: a peter pan movie, easter bunny themed potato heads, the easter bunny obviously raided the $1 section at target because there was a lot of that, and then some candy .....jelly bean filled eggs, cadbury eggs, reeses bunnies, etc. nana and z.o. brought a plate, bowl, and cup set from pottery barn kids (so cute!), and an adorable little jumper! after soaking in all that we had going on sunday morning, it was off to church with my sister, jeff and chandler and my dad came too. the service was amazing ... as always! our pastor is great! ...... our church as a whole is great. i know it is a choice to go to church there, but i feel SO blessed to have a church home such as the one we have. after church, we headed to my aunt and uncles house for lunch. i thought lunch was going to be a ham and few sides. ha! i get there to find lunch is not only a ham that was soooo good, but homemade chicken and dressing (oh sooooooooooooooo good! its a family recipe that has been handed down!), all kind of wonderful sides, a few desserts, sweet tea, and the list goes on. it was just shy of being christmas dinner, which is always HUGE. it was truly that good! we had an easter egg hunt after eating and that was probably my favorite part of the day. the girls had such a good time. it was so neat watching the kids hunt for easter eggs. i grew up in a pretty large family (my mom's side). while my mom was an only child, she had many cousins. well, they have kids and their kids have had kids now, my sister and i included obviously. so, we have a whole new generation coming along that enjoy the things that we all used to enjoy growing up as kids. i felt as if i were going back in time and watching my generation of cousins on sunday. it was pretty neat! i LOVE spending time with my family! although we don't see each other as often as i'd like (i'd like to see everyone every week, and actually, we used to), we are still very close!

that wraps up our easter weekend in a nutshell. it was grand! i look forward to each holiday as the girls are more and more fun each time one rolls around.

i hope each of you had a great easter as well. it was most importantly a time to reflect back on what christ did for us. it truly is why we are able to live and celebrate today! to god be the glory!!!!

blessings to each of you! i hope you are having a great week!

julie

mammogram results :o)

(from friday ....)

PRAISE THE LORD FOR GOOD RESULTS!!

THANK YOU JESUS!

everything came back NORMAL!!!

i know i've said it so many times in the last 2 weeks, but i'm going to say it again ..... i am so thankful for each and everyone of you. thank you for lifting me up in prayer. thank you for the phone calls and messages this morning. i am truly blessed with amazing family and friends!

as i drove to the hospital this morning, i was literally overcome with emotion. as i drive down 575, crying like no other, i say to myself, "it is so awesome to have the support i have had, and to have the encouragement and surrounding of prayer that has carried me these last two weeks". i was singing and thanking God for all of you. it is nothing i want to have to go through again, but all of you have definitely made it a lot easier to "handle". i pray blessings over each and everyone of you. may the lord bless you and keep you. may he make his face to SHINE upon you!

i had so many that wanted to know the results of my day, so i figured an email would be the best way to get the news to everyone quickly. plus, i'm emotionally SPENT. i'm going to try and catch a little bit of a nap while the girls are down.

i love you with all of my heart!
julie

(in keeping with breast cancer awareness, i figured i'd post in pink!)

mammogram tomorrow

i'm still so humbled by all the phone calls, emails, and in-person conversations i have had/received from all of yall! if i haven't expressed it enough yet ..... thank you! it truly does mean so much!

i've actually had a great week as far as not letting this get to me. i've continued to surround myself with upbeat things .... in all areas of my life. no negativity allowed here! i heard something on the radio the other day that was great, not only in this instance, but for life in general ..... life is all about attitude. its not what happens to you in life that matters, its what you do with all those "things" that happen to you that matters. well, i have chosen to make this a positive thing. finding a lump, no doubt, scared me to death. and i don't in anyway discount the severity of it because of the history of breast cancer in my family. but, i'm not going to let that "rule" me and my everyday thoughts. i have a real feeling of peace about the whole situation. i truly do.

i do ask for your prayers as i will be going in for my mammogram tomorrow. this time tomorrow i will be getting smooshed and smashed in every way possible. i can imagine as i sit waiting to go back for the mam tomorrow i will get a little nervous, so remember me at 7:45 in the morning and lift up a little prayer for peace and of course GOOD RESULTS. i appreciate all of you standing in the gap with me. this has definitely added a new chapter to my testimony, which was already good and interesting! and if that's all i can say about it at the end of the day tomorrow ..... then i'll take that ALL DAY LONG!
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as i read your word this morning, i'm reminded you are a God of promises (1 kings 8), and i thank you for that. when man makes promises, they are often broken .... but not you! to be in relationship with the ultimate promise keeper ... there's nothing better! i can't humbly thank you enough for sending people down my path the past 2 weeks to minister to me. little things, comforting things that were said, emails, people i don't even know, people i do know, people who have been through something similar, people who have been through the same thing with not so good results and are fighting today - right now, people who have prayed with me, people who have even pulled their cars over on the side of the road because they felt led at that very moment to pray with me, the little testimonial book about a breast cancer survivor that goes to our church that i "just so happened" to pick up at church sunday. whatever the case may be, a lot of people have ministered to me since finding this lump. its been a great experience; an eye opening experience. and for whatever reason you were trying to get my attention, you've got it. i pray for everyone reading this blog. may my experience minister to them in some way, some form. thank you for choosing me. in your precious name....

drained

first, i want to thank everyone for your prayers, emails, phone calls, etc. it means SO much to be loved by all of you! i could truly feel your prayers throughout the day. i surrounded myself with prayer, praise and worship music, and scriptures of promise up until the minute i walked in the door at the doctors office and it definitely helped me to keep a positive attitude about this little bump in the road.

my doctor did an examination himself and did feel the area of suspicion that i had felt on friday. he also felt another area, same breast on the opposite side, closer to my armpit. he DOES NOT feel either lumps are abnormal - he feels both are normal, healthy breast tissue. PRAISE THE LORD!!! he did say, however, anytime you feel anything out of the ordinary, and with having a family history of breast cancer, it definitely doesn't need to be ignored. he ordered a mammogram and an ultrasound of my left breast. my mammogram is scheduled for next friday. after all i've been through with him, he said a clean bill of health and peace of mind are far more important to him than chancing it (he's the doctor who had to make the decision to do my emergency hysterectomy).

please continue to be in prayer for us this weekend and next week. as i said above, it truly makes a difference - i can feel it!

i'm mentally, physically, and emotionally DRAINED. i'm so glad today is over. i must get some sleep now.

good night friends and family,
love,
julie
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Lord i lift your name on high! you are so true and so real and i am thankful to have witnessed that first hand today. i praise you for good reports. i thank you for this "bump in the road" as it has done nothing but allow me to grow closer to you. my peace, my comforter, my all in all .... you are simply amazing! "i can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" ..... and i thank you for giving me strength today!

prayers please ....

psalm 55 - cast your cares upon the Lord
and he will sustain you ....

in doing a self breast exam friday, i felt something that doesn't feel quite right. i have an appointment scheduled tomorrow with my ob/gyn so they can do an evaluation themselves. if they feel its necessary, they'll write an order for a mammogram then.

please pray for not only good results on wednesday, but also for God to pour his peace over geoff and myself.

i'll update after my appointment.

thank you for your prayers,
love and hugs to everyone,

julie :o)
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father, i love you and i glorify your name. in the good times i'm going to praise you. in times of sorrow, i'm going to praise you. in times of need, i'm going to praise you. in times of uncertainty, i'm going to praise you. you have every hair on my head numbered and you knew this day was coming to fruition before i was ever brought into this world. as you already know the outcome of my appointment tomorrow, i ask that you act as the extended hand of my doctor giving him your wisdom during my examination.... let your mind be his mind, let your decisions be his decisions. i thank you for loving me and loving my family. i ask that you give geoff a peace that passes all understanding and give me that same peace as well. you are God and above you there is no other! Lord, we cast our cares upon you. we know you will sustain us. guide us and keep us safe. in your precious name.....

it's a BEAUTIFUL day! :o)

you know .... that u2 song .... yeah, that one! i wish i had it blaring in the background as you read this! it truly is a beautiful day!! light breeze, sunny blue sky with not a cloud in sight, (toilet paper draping from the weeping willow in our front yard, which is starting to show signs of spring growth ..... um, yeah! i'll get to that in a minute!) anyway, its basically a picture perfect day! we've inhaled lots of fresh air today! and obviously pollen too because i feel covered in pollen. isn't it a little early for the showers of yellow?

so, back to the weeping willow with tp .... around midnight last night i woke to the sound of what i thought, no, actually knew, was our doorbell. frantic, i shake geoff and say, "honey! honey! wake up! someone just rang our doorbell!" he replies, " are you sure?" i say, "yes. positive". he looks at me, i look at him (like a frozen eskimo because i'm so scared) and he obviously thinks not too much about it and dozes off to sleep. i shake him again and ask him, "what should we do?" to which he replies, "do you want me to go down there?" most people would probably say yes. i said no! i didn't want someone to get him. remember, one of my "random" things was i get spooked easily. well, in my defense, i was told of a breaking and entering incident that happened one neighborhood over just a few weeks ago that has left me thinking, since hearing about it, "that was a little too close to home"! the incident i'm speaking of started the same way, with a ring of the doorbell, then progressed to an all out beating on the door, to breaking the glass on the door to reaching in and unlocking the door to entering the house, and on and on and on. without going into all the details, it was a pretty scary situation - one that i'd never, ever, ever care to be a part of. so with that being said, i'm thinking, " oh no! we are those people. we're about to go through everything they went through that night." one other thing i mentioned on my list was that i over analyze things, and of course, last night was no different. i will save the details of my analysis, otherwise yall might think i'm some crazy person! geoff wasn't too bothered (until he told me this morning he was a "little" spooked by the whole thing too), but i was still freaking out. i always sleep with a fan on for noise - well, i turned that off - i wanted to be able to hear everything. i kept the tv on (muted), and i slept with the lamp on that's on my nightstand....my thought pattern being the more light, the better. i woke up off and on from 1:30am (when i finally fell asleep) until 4:45 when geoff got up to go downstairs. i guess it finally got the best of him (lol!) i heard the door open and close and then open back up about 10 minutes later. he comes upstairs with the verdict .....we've been ROLLED!! ....... WHAT?!! are you kidding me? who have we ticked off? by all means we've got 2 year olds .... our kids aren't even old enough to make someone mad or be on the receiving end of a prank! and i don't think i've made anyone mad. geoff never has a cross word to say to anyone....surely he hasn't ticked anybody off. basically we chalked it up to a prank - or that someone got the "wrong house" - yeah right! i think it was a just a prank. but who the heck rings the doorbell and runs? i never did. i was the biggest chicken anyway and the 2 times i did go rolling - once was with my youth pastor as a joke on one of his friends and the other was with my next door neighbors' dad to roll the youth pastor and get him back. it was all in good fun, i was only in 4th or 5th grade, barely old enough to know better. i guess since i was with the youth pastor i felt "safe" and the other time, since i was with my neighbor, i knew he would protect me too. back to the story though, geoff attempted to get down all the toilet paper that he could. it is still a total eye sore though and a little bit embarrassing for whatever reason. everyone that drives by looks at it. and since it has been so nice out today, me and the girls have spent a lot of time out there and everyone who walks by makes a comment. the kids, or whoever it was, must have nerves of steel. we live right off the main street in our neighborhood, and just out of fear that someone would drive by right in the middle of tossing the 25th roll of TP (yes, they got us pretty good!), i can't believe they got us. oh well, another one for the story books as the girls have gotten a real BIG kick out of it ....."look, mommy. toil paper!" i've probably heard that no less than 500 times today between the 2 of them. its all good! not sure what kind of good it does for the FOR~SALE sign in the yard. i guess it doesn't matter to people too much ..... several have stopped to pick up flyer's today. yeah! :o)

on to the next story, geoff is out riding today. yes, since he totally took care of me and the girls friday (i had a horrible stomach virus), i gave him a pass (hee hee!) to get out of the house today. he went and picked up my dads harley and he is out riding with tray. of course, this is still somewhat new to me (and him), so i insist that he calls me when he gets to each destination. i'm such the motherly type, i know. it gives me peace of mind, and he's fine with it. whenever he rides dad's harley, that will more than likely be my request until who knows when! i don't particularly like motorcycles just for the record! geoff does though, so i guess i can "allow" it every now and then - lol! when he comes to me wanting his own, now that will be another story :o)

well, the girls are down for a nap and i must get caught up on some laundry. being out of commission on friday put me waaaaay behind!

i hope each of you are enjoying this beautiful day too! how can you not, right?!
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today has been another day about family, and i thank you, Father, for the precious time you have given me with my girls and my husband....my family. i am so glad to be your child, what a privilege to be a part of your family. i pray that i care for and meet the needs of my family a tenth of the way you care for me and meet my needs. i thank you that even though i might not always seek you, you always seek me. you never leave me or forsake me! i pray blessings of health and happiness over each person reading this. may they find rest and comfort in you this week. amen!