Mother/Daughter Getaway 2009

June 11-14th My Mom, sisters, and I went to New Buffalo, Michigan for our annual Mother/Daughter Getaway. Every year we go to a new place. We had a great time this year at the New Buffalo Inn and Spa. We rented a great little cabin, did a little bit of shopping, played our favorite card game, ate yummy food, and even had spa treatments. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Bobbi Jo, Mom, Grandma Irene, Me, Tricia, and Jen. We had a nice visit with my Grandma. We don't get to visit her very often.

Here is our cute little cabin for the weekend.

Bobbi and Tricia's room

The dining room

The living room

Mom's room

Me and Jen's room

The dining room

The kitchen

This is part of a yummy breakfast that Trish made for us.

This is me after my really relaxing massage.

At the spa

This is me after getting ready for dinner. I even curled my bangs. :)

We had dinner at the Tabor Hill Winery.

They sell these beautiful and delicious chocolates at the winery.

Aren't they pretty?

Smoked salmon canapes

Asparagus and morel tart

Thinly sliced beef tenderloin with capers, asiago cheese, and grilled bread.

A blurry photo of skewer appetizers. Beef, chicken, and veggie, each with it's own dipping sauce.

Another blurry shot of fried cheese and crab cakes.

Chicken and barley soup

Cream of asparagus soup

Mini sandwiches, chicken, beef, and tuna

Ravioli and Pesto Chicken Pizza

Tempura prawns and veggies

Bok Choy and Sesame Peanut noodles

Beef or Buffalo burrito

Salad

Tropical cake

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cheesecake

More pictures of the pretty chocolates.

Trish in the doorknob

A beautiful blue house in New Buffalo

Tricia, Mom, me, Bobbi, and Jen

Tim and the kids met us in New Buffalo on Sunday so that we could go visit some relatives down state. We met at a place called "Oinks". :)

Recent Photos

This is a beautiful ring that my friend, Sarah made for me. I love it! Her family owns Wexford Jewelers. http://www.wexfordjewelers.com/

Tim and the kids gave me this ring for Mother's Day. It has my birthstone and Tim's birthstone in the middle and the kids' on the outside. I believe my friend, Sarah, made this one as well as the one above it.


This is Ben, Tim, and Emily on Father's Day. Allison and Clara were not home then.


This is a sunset at the scenic overlook.


Emily with a dandelion


This one of Emily dancing in the flowers reminds me of "The Sound of Music"..."The Hills are alive..."


Dandelions reaching for the sunshine




This is some sort of a flower in the milkweed family I think.

Emily's using her fingers because these seeds are not as easy to blow off as the dandelions.

She manages to huff and puff enough to send some seeds soaring.

Tim, Ben, and Emily, and I went fishing recently and Benny caught this 21 inch bass all by himself. He hooked it and reeled it in with Daddy's encouragement. We let it go after we got lots of pictures.

Our friend, Amy, did Emily's hair up like a princess.

Update on Tim

Tim and I went to U of M again on June 18th. This was to start the lung transplant evaluation process so Tim can get on the waiting list. We met with different people that are part of the lung transplant team. They told us about preparing for a lung transplant and some of what to expect. At the end of the day, the last person that we met with was a lung transplant surgeon. He had never met Tim before or seen his case. He told us that he didn't think it was the right time for Tim to get on the transplant list. He thinks that Tim is too healthy. It was frustrating to us. I asked the surgeon if he thought that Tim would not continue to decrease 2% per month with his diffusion capacity. He said that Tim most likely WOULD continue to decrease at that rate. Right now, Tim is at less than 29% so that does not give him very much time as it is to wait on a list for lungs. We really don't understand why this surgeon thinks it's too soon to list Tim.

I was really upset and angry that day. It just seems like time is slipping away. Many times, patients have to wait more than a year on a list before they get their new lungs. With the rate Tim's health is decreasing, it doesn't seem that he'll have enough time.

Tim is still in the process of the evaluation. He has to have some testing done on his heart and some other tests. The heart tests are scheduled for July 21st and 22nd. After that, the whole lung transplant team will get together and look over Tim's case. They will decide whether or not to list him and if they do list him, they will decide at what priority to list him. We are just praying that if the surgeon we spoke to is wrong about his opinion that the other people on the team will "Outvote" him.

We are still hopeful and positive that things will turn out well for Tim.

Financially, we are doing ok right now. We have had some help from anonymous friends along with our church and family. Tim has been approved for disability, but will not receive payment until November. We are happy to know that that is approved though.

Please keep praying for Tim, our family, the doctors, and just that God's Will will be done in our situation. We know that it's all about Him and we want Him to be glorified through all of this.

Update on Us

Life has been pretty busy around here lately. School is done now for the summer. Ben and Emily had a preschool graduation. The teacher gave each child a special award. Ben got the "Junior Teacher" award and Emily got the "Rest time" award. :) She loves nap time and is always the first to fall asleep.

Clara had a D.A.R.E graduation and 5th grade graduation. The 5th grade grad. was really fun. It was Hawaiian themed. The kids had to hula hoop to a limbo stick and then limbo under that before getting their diplomas. It was a fun night. They had dinner for us and everything.

On Allison's last day of school, there was a drawing for some pretty nice prizes. That morning Allison had told us that she hoped her name would be drawn because she wanted to win a portable DVD player. Her name ended up being the very first one called, so she got to pick any prize she wanted. She got the DVD player. She was so happy!

Ben and Emily are playing T-ball this summer. They haven't had a game yet, but have had a couple of practices. Clara is playing softball too. She's played a couple of games so far.

This weekend my Mom and sisters and I are going on our annual Mother/Daughter get-a-way. This year we are going to New Buffalo, Michigan. None of us have been there before. It's always exciting exploring new places. I know we'll have a great time!

After the weekend, my sister Bobbi is taking Allison and Clara home with her to Illinois for 3 weeks! My other sister, Jen, lives there too, so the girls will get to spend time with both of them. I think they'll have a lot of fun and it might be nice for Tim and I to have some time with just Ben and Em.

Tim quit working on April 3rd. He is in the process of getting on the double lung transplant list at U of M. He has an appointment for next week to meet with surgeons, financial coordinators, a psychologist, and have tests and bloodwork done. Shortly after all of that, he should be on the list.

We are doing pretty good with everything. We have "down" days, but we try not to both be down at the same time. :) We are still really positive about everything and we have complete faith in God. Still, it can be frustrating waiting and just not knowing what to do in the mean time.

Long term disability has not been approved yet for Tim, so that's kind of a bummer. He has been approved for a supplemental income though that will at least pay our house payment each month. Our church has offered to help us with our car payment too and we have friends and family who have been anonomously sending us "gifts" in the mail or at church. We are so thankful to these people!

I can't think of any more updates at the moment. I wish I had something more interesting to post. :) I will try to post again soon.