stage name

watching the 3 d hannah montana concert on tv

colton would never admit to liking hannah montana...however i feel that this is proof enough. i love watching hannah montana with the kids. it is really a cute and funny show. it keeps us all entertained. the other night, her 3d concert was shown on the disney channel. chad went and got them 3d glasses from blockbuster that ended up not really working...as they were intended for viewing fireworks...but whatever. this was fairly close to the beginning of the concert...before they lost interest and went to play play station in our bedroom. it was at that point, that chad and i looked at each other wondering why 2 adults were sitting alone in the living room, enjoying a hannah montana 3d concert on tv. i thoroughly enjoyed myself though. in fact...i am a part of the band that is headed to ukraine this sunday and will get to sing onstage several times for who knows how many ukrainians. i have decided to change my stage name to mindy indi..........ana!!

hope...ful

chad and i are back in iowa. we got the call at 4:15 am friday morning. you know the one. the one that no one wants to get. the one that makes your heart sink and your stomach sick. it was davey...chad's sister's husband on the other end. katie (chad's sister) had been taken to the er late thursday night with what seemed to be a migraine. several hours later, what appeared to be a drug induced, peaceful and finally pain-free sleep was actually a coma. the doctor said that a test revealed that she had a ruptured brain anuerism. they gave davey a choice. we can let her quietly pass, or we can do a surgery that will most likely not help. davey made the choice. quickly. she was immediately taken in to a 3 hour brain surgery. chad and i left the kids with my parents and and caught the 7:30 am flight from houston to kansas city and then drove a rental car the remaining 2 1/2 hours to iowa methodist hospital in des moines. during our short lay-over in oklahoma city, chad talked to his brother. the doctor had just told the family that the damage was too severe and that they did not anticipate katie ever waking up. hope was lost. when we arrived at the hospital, we were met by nearly all of our family members and close friends. everyone was there for one reason. a miracle. when davey met us in the waiting room, he said that katie had squeezed his hand. she had heard his voice. she knew her husband. she did what he asked her to do. she had fought. God had fought. she showed everyone that hope is never lost. when human knowledge said there was no hope...Jesus said otherwise. katie is continuing to fight. she is fighting to wake up. she is fighting to talk. she is fighting for her life. for her family. through prayers of faith for her life...for her healing...God is fighting too. and i don't know about you, but i would want no one else fighting for her than Jesus. the ultimate warrior. the ultimate healer. her Father.

it is sunday now. chad remains at the hospital. at his family's side. at his sister's side. i am at the house with their 3 children. one of which is their 12 day old baby boy...who everytime i look at his sweet face, i see glimpses of Katie...and miracles...and Jesus.

you can find all the updates and information about Katie and her progress at http://www.confessionsofaslackermom.blogspot.com/

IOWA

on the road again...

who loves willie nelson?

we left this past friday morning at 4:30 am for the great state of iowa. we drove straight through and got here at 9:30 pm. it made for a long day.

so...i'm bloggin' from iowa. never done that before.

we have had so much going on that i sat down to check my e-mail for the first time tonight. it has been constant motion since we got here.

here are the facts...

on saturday, we had my niece's 5th birthday party, which was a hawaiian luau. aiden was in her element...getting to wear a flower in her hair and a hula skirt, colton enjoyed the competition of the limbo, but chase drew the line at learning how to hula. after the party, we got to hang out the rest of the night with friends. (which was a long-time overdue.)

then sunday, we went to two rivers. this was the church that we helped plant right after we got married. i love going there. then we went to lunch with family. after we got home from that, i played outside with all the kids (my 3 and my 2 nieces). we jumped on the trampoline for a lot of that time and then they wanted to get in the hot tub. i got in with them. that is when i played marco polo in a 6 foot by 6 foot hot tub with 5 kids. i lost.

on monday, we went to adventureland...which is an amusement park right outside of des moines. i learned my lesson last year and stayed off all the spinny rides. as did chad. we rode lots of roller coasters though...which i love. chase rode his very first roller coaster. it was the one that went upside down...twice...at a neck breaking pace. his rationale for this...it was green. colton was none-too-thrilled that he upstaged him. colton wouldn't set foot on it. our last stop at adventureland was kokomo cove, which is the waterpark area. there are like 7 water slides and we immediately lost chase and aubree. it was a beautiful day, but for some reason the water felt like it had been specially shipped in from the alaskan border and was freezing. we drew straws for who was going to go in to find them. i lost. i love water slides. i hate freezing water. then we went for dinner at some friend's house.

on tuesday, we went swimming at my friend's grandparent's pool. it was 3 moms and 8 kids, 7 and under. the older ones wanted to go off the diving board, so i treaded water for what felt like 4 hours to help them get to the side. chase has never gone off the board, and can't swim...but decided he wanted to anyway. in one motion, he climbed up, and ran off the board on top of me before i could even tell him what to do. i went under...under his weight...without being able to take a breath in. it took every bit of strength that i had left to keep him above the water to get him to the side. it is hard to explain, but i couldn't get to the surface and had to use only my legs to keep him above the water and get him to the side. i took in a lot of water and realized that i would have to let him go under so that i could use my arms a little to get us both there because i was sinking under his weight. it was scary. when i finally came up, my friend's eyes were like saucers and she was getting ready to come help me. i was coughing and chase was crying and saying..."that was not my favorite." then, last night we were over at my sister and brother-in-law's for dinner. we all went outside after dinner, where we were jumping on the trampoline again. i have a rule for myself that whenever i get a chance to be on a trampoline, i have to do some flip flops and back flips so that i know i can still do them. after that, davey...my brother-in-law was double bouncing the kids and they had to stay sitting in a tuck position. we decided that he should double bounce me and run under me when i flew up in the air. i told davey that i can't do fronts anymore and he said he would try. he whipped around in the air...landed...and his whole body went right through the trampoline mat. that's right. split the whole thing in half. he was just standing on the ground, with the tramploline mat at his waist. we all laughed. alot. oh well. we moved on to baseball in the back yard and smores around the fire pit.

today, we went to the park with friends and their kids...then to visit chad's grandpa lew. grandpa lew took them for a ride around his property in the trailer behind the tractor. chase loved this. why, you ask? it was green. then we got to go see this big little league park that was just named the lew clarkson park in honor of him. then we went for pizza at chad's dad's house and for hawaiian shaved ice. i got grape. chase and aiden got apple. why???? it's green. colton went to the iowa cubs game with his uncle kyle and chad. they just got home.

phew!!!!!!

tune in next time for the exciting conclusion of our trip to iowa.

at your own risk.