Settling in!

It is funny how things just fall in place, isn't it! Roy has settled into his job rather well. He deals with A LOT of issues everyday and he still needs to hire more nurses, but he really is happy! He seems so settled. Now, if the pain he suffers would only subside, all would be most well!!!! We had a really good appointment with our doctor yesterday and Dr. Jesse gave Roy a new medication that helps and he is sending Roy to PT for a TENS unit, which is very effective for the kind of nerve pain Roy suffers. We are hopeful!

We have really enjoyed re-connecting with our family and our friends! We are truly wealthy and are blessed with many rich relationships--family and friends. We are BLESSED!

I have decided to open a web store on Etsy.com. Etsy is a marketplace of only handmade items. I am currently working on items to list and plan to "open" the store this weekend. (Gotta buy batteries for the camera so I can take the pictures for the website--Roy is going to help with the photos this weekend) I guess I can really begin meaning it when I say I am an artist--a "STARVING" artist!!!! I am laughing out loud!!!!! I am really enjoying "creating". It has taken me a while to find a place to create (I am so missing my basement studio that I had in Wisconsin.) And I have been very frustrated about it! Kay, my "best-est buddy", suggested I take the guest room closet & a folding table and "set up shop." What a great idea! I think I have spent too much time there because any time I walked down the hall, Bailey goes with me and stands in the guest room doorway! (She is my constant companion where ever I go in the house.) I tell her "No, it is not time to create right now!" and she looks rather perplexed about it!!! More info to follow on my store!!!!

Update on our dear friend Keith and his fight with cancer--It has been 9 1/2 months since the diagnosis and he is actually doing very well! Praise the Lord!!! The docs have started him on a new cancer med that he takes daily and things have settled down and no growth is found. Cancer research has progressed by leaps and bounds and remarkable things are being reached everyday!!!!!

God IS good!

Well, I need to get to work and CREATE!!!!

Prayers for Eric

Well, Eric is going out today! Again I ask that you cover him with prayer. Please remember to keep his wife, Lenise, in your prayers as well.

Oh this is the lastest picture of Eric. Very serious and handsome, isn't he? I reckon I am just a little biased and PROUD!!!! But that is a parent's right!!!!!

And here's one of Eric and Lenise. They are so cute! God has blessed Roy and I abundantly!!!

Thanks again and Blessings!!!!

Home!

Well, we're home! We arrived on Easter Sunday and signed the lease on Monday, painted the whole house with my family's help (Thank you very much!!!!), and the furniture arrived Saturday.

We know that God has orchestrated our move to Texas! I have new motto through all this change--"If Jesus brings me to it, He will show me how to do it!" It is so true and we have seen it over and over in the last few months.

The house we rented is a nice one but needs a LOT of love. Per the neighbors, there were college kids living here and before that military--which nothing wrong about that but the house took alot of abuse and needs alot of fixing and TLC.

As of this writing: the kitchen faucet has been replaced including the sprayer, two leaking bathroom faucets, replaced a shower head, removed a pony tail tie from the shower handle, removed a glob of gunk from the m/b tub, replaced the "innards" of both toilets, replaced a ceiling fan, repaired the kitchen light fixture, the stove blew up and required a new control panel, the electric meter was tampered with requiring replacing, the A/C froze up and finally today 6/10, the cable company is coming to replace the whole cable box and wiring in the back yard!!!!!! Wow!

It has been real hard making a 2800 sq ft house fit into a 1600 sq ft house--without a basement to boot! (I miss a basement!) We've rented a storage unit and filled it. We also sold alot of stuff on Craigslist or gave it away. It is all worth it to be home and we are much happier!

Beagle Bailey has been confused! She has taken to sleeping in our closet--reckon it smells the most like us and home. She has a backyard for the first time in her life and she loves it! She just sits outsides and smells. She also walks the perimeter of the yard about 17 times a day! It is cute to watch. The weather is too hot for me --I am remembering why I treasure air conditioning! It is a blessing!

Roy says he likes his job and is making a difference. He is in charge of the whole 5th floor of Scott & White Hospital and it is alot of "mileage" every day so his knees are giving him fits. The constant pain from the diabetic neuropathy is worsening and he is suffering greatly. Please continue to pray that God will open the doors for some kind of pain relief as we talk to the doctors.

Being back home, we were able to celebrate our niece Stephanie's graduation from Mary Hardin Baylor and also celebrated with our nephew Ryan's marriage to Tracy (a great girl) May 31. They were grand affairs and good times and more blessings God has given us. Eric was in the wedding so he and Lenise got to come home. It was FANTASTIC seeing them.

Well that's the update and examples of how God has blessed us!!! Enjoy the pictures!

AND love to all!!!!!

WE ARE GOING HOME!

Roy and I have decided that it is time to go home! Texas, that is!!!!

It is just time! Not sure when or where but we are going home.

Roy has actively begun the search and his recruiter, Scott, has already but him in contact with a hospital in Texas. It is for a job that Roy will be able to return to his roots! Roy has had two real good phone interviews with them and will be going to a "face to face" interview next week!

PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!!!!

We are gona go home! YEEEEEHHHAAAAAWWWW!

I got a call from Eric his morning!!!!!

Not sure if you knew but Eric is deployed again and he just called me!!!

He is doing fine on his mission. He ask that we pray for him and I will ask you and yours to pray for him too! Also, he is to test for Tech Sergent soon and he is studing now. He asked us to he pray that he studies well and gets his Tech stripe. Thanks for your prayers.

It was SO GOOD to hear from him!!!! I am one happy Mom!

Alot of you have asked........

Roy and I get asked alot about how it is to live in Wisconsin. Well, I was forwarded the following by a native Wisconsinite or Wisconsonian--I am not real sure which one it is----! This is our fourth winter and all if these are true and Roy and I have experienced 90% of them. It is very different living here--not bad--just different!

Jeff Foxworthy on Wisconsin

--If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 38 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Wisconsin. (This just seems to be "not right"!

--If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Park Falls is the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in Wisconsin.

--If you have ever refused to buy something because it's 'too pricey,' you might live in Wisconsin.

--If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in Wisconsin. (it really is!--I was amazed! Also: it is not ice tea season either!!!)

--If you instinctively walk like a penguin for five months out of the year, you might live in Wisconsin.

--If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you might live in Wisconsin. (we have had this happen ALOT!)

--If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Wisconsin. (seen this)

--If you may not have actually eaten it, but you have heard of Head Cheese, you might live in Wisconsin.(not only have I heard of it, I have tried it--taste like chicken!)

--If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live in Wisconsin. (done this--had to get the mail)

--If you have either a pet or a child named 'Brett,' you might live in Wisconsin.

--If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in Wisconsin. (this is soooo true!)

--If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Wisconsin. (I have! It was weird!)

--If you know how to say Oconomowoc, Waukesha , Menomonie & Manitowoc, you might live in Wisconsin. (Believe or not--we can!)

--If you think that ketchup is a little too spicy, you might live in Wisconsin.

--If every time you see moonlight on a lake, you think of a dancing bear, and you sing gently, 'From the land of sky-blue waters,'....you might live in Wisconsin

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE WISCONSINITE WHEN:

1. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway. (usually it's a John Deer)

2. 'Vacation' means going up north past Hwy 8 for the weekend.

3. You measure distance in hours. (this is so true--nothing is measured in miles!)

4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once. (this is sad but I do !)

5. You often switch from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again. (done it!)

6. Your whole family wears Packer Green to church on Sunday. (They really do that here! It is bizzare!)

7. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.(I am no where close to doing this!)

8. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings and funerals ). (Again--BIZARRE!)

9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

10. You think of the major food groups as beer, fish, and venison.

11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife or girlfriend knows how to use them. (Well, this is the qualifier for me--I do and I know how to use them!)

12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Mill's Fleet Farm at any given time. (Yup!)

13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow. (This is so true--the roads are HORRIBLE!)

15. You refer to the Packers as 'we.'

16. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.(Yup! road construction is called "Orange Barrel Season"--really it's true!)

17. You can identify a southern or eastern accent. (I am "pegged" the moment I open my mouth!)

18. You have no problem pronouncing Lac Du Flambeau.

19. You consider Minneapolis exotic.

20. You know how to polka. (I learned--Pulaski Polka Days!)

21. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

22. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

23. Down South to you means Illinois.

24. A brat is something you eat.(I am so relieved! I thought if was me!)

25. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.

26. You go out to fish fry every Friday

27. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.(How true!)

28. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

29. You find minus twenty degrees 'a little chilly.

30. You actually understand these jokes.(Sad but true--I understand them all!

Hugs and kisses to all--HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Cheri :) xoxox

At the begining of a New Year............

Well, it is the start of 2008! Happy NEW Year to all my family and friends!!!!!

Eric and Lenise came to Wisconsin for Christmas! Lenise had never seen snow and Eric had never experience this much snow!! We had 8" when they got here and during their stay, it snowed everyday and they left with about 12" total--maybe more!!!! I LOVED IT!!!!! WE all had a great time! For me it was heaven!!!!! They loved the snow and played outside alot. The woods picture is our backyard (just thought you would like to see the snow). Bailey was always at their sides and loved the snow as well. They both learned to knit using a loom. Lenise is wearing the red hat she made and Eric is not only wearing the hat she made him, he made a scarf to match the hat! (That is what he is working on in the picture above).

Roy has been put on insulin injections 4 times a day and is responding VERY well. The pain he suffers has been tolerable--doesn't go away--but he can tolerate it without wanting to "chop his hands and feet off". He still has bad days but they are very few and far between!

I think I like my job at the bank! It is busy so it goes really fast--they put me in the drive thru alot and people don't get out of their cars to come into the bank when it is below zero and there is over a foot of snow on the ground! My co-workers are great and I enjoy them. They are still not sure about me though--ya' know--the "Cheri Factor"! They have told me a joke that I thought was soooo true! I will share it with you--see if you agreee--

"How do you know someone is from Texas?-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------They tell ya!"

We are planning to go the Frankenmuth, Michigan the last weekend in January for the "Snow Festival". We are really looking forward to it! We did not get to go to Jacksonport, Wisconsin on New Year's Day to watch to crazy Polar Bear people jump in the lake, this year. It was one of those few and far between days where Roy was hurting badly. So--I worked on a blanket I am knitting for our bed and watched the Rose Bowl Parade and putzed around the house! It was nice. It was a calm, peaceful way to start 2008!

Love to all! xoxox :)