Through Every Season

Month: May 2011 (Page 1 of 2)

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a really nice weekend.  Spent it working on the yard and patio.
I am actually thankful now for the little bit of damage the tornado did to our house.  We got to shop for new patio furniture.  Bought some chairs and a table with a fire pit from Amazon. I’ll post pictures when they get here.
Mike and the boys put down some new mulch and planted some impatiens.
 

We didn’t realize it until much later, but we think the storm killed our tree.  We found damage low on the trunk.. we think that it must have been blown to the ground then popped back up.

We started from scratch looking for the best tree for our yard.  Based on the direction of the wind and the location of our tree and our house we decided that we didn’t want too big of a tree.  🙂

If you want to buy plants in Huntsville, we discovered that Bennett Nurseries is the place to go. They have free BBQ, drinks, live music and a miniature train.  It’s like going to a picnic.

A very nice man there spent a lot of time with us showing us and educating us on different trees. We learned that the fact that if you dig a whole in our yard it will fill up with water might not have been too great for our tree either.  He suggested several trees that would do well there and took the time to show us grown ones in the nursery.

 

 
We got a Shantung Maple.  Isn’t it pretty?  It came with the heart already carved in the bark.
I’ll write in “Mike n’ Jenny” in when it gets big enough.  🙂
We added a special soil mix into the clay to help with the water problem.
If it doesn’t make it, we are going to try a River Birch next.
Hot puppy.  It’s in the 90’s now.  In Texas, where Judi’s been, it’s been 111.  Crazy.

We took this picture before Judi left as a last ditch effort to get a family photo.
Sun’s in our eyes.. can you tell?  🙂
We normally take family photos in October.
It turned too cold too quick and we never got a good one.

I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers.
They plus the nice distractions God and Mike arranged for this weekend
are definitely helping.  I am doing very well.  Slept 8 hrs. last night.
Just the fact that I had to pack and clean and that my mom is coming would have
normally made me crazy, but I have a mightier God-peace about the surgery, tomorrow.

I am so thankful for my life and all God has blessed me with and
so glad that He has promised to be with us in the storms,
and that He works everything together for our good.

I have a couple of extra prayer requests:
My mom and Judi are on their way.  Made it to AR … and discovered that something is wrong with their brakes.  Pray they’ll have wisdom on where to take it and favor to get it fixed quickly, and enjoy the unexpected delay.

When I went to my last Thursday to my first pre-op appointment, we were told that the cat-scan showed two spots on my liver.  They don’t think it’s related to the breast cancer, but they were too small to tell anything and want to check it again in 6 months.  It was a little hard to take in, but Mike and I both are feeling from God that it’s nothing to worry about.. never hurts to take it to Him in prayer.

My confessions for today:
By your grace I am able to glory in times of trouble, knowing that they develop perseverance,
 and character and a joyful, confident hope that does not disappoint because of the love that You have poured out in my heart through Your Holy Spirit.  Romans 5:3-5

As I get to know Christ, who called me to and by Your glory and goodness, Your divine power gives me everything I need for life, making a glorious display of Your virtue in me.  2 Peter 1:3

Love,

Jenny

 

On Board..

Another “We were here.”
 Our cabin is just to up and to the left of this life raft.
 Mountains
and more mountains…
This picture is making me miss them.
Mike, 
Thank you for the wonderful trip and for the 
wonderful husband and father you have become.
Enjoying every moment with you.
Love,
Jenny

Victoria, BC.. Canada

Hanging out on our favorite deck with a sea bird.
 Miles and miles of ocean.  
There are whales, dauphins, and seals in there.  
I know because we saw them. 🙂
They order and plant over 300,000 tulips from Holland every year.

 The Butchart Family was in the cement business.

This used to be a rock quarry.
See?
Bleeding Hearts
 Love these.
 Cherry Trees!
 Believe me about the tulips?
 Love the contrasting colors!
 Original Butchart Manson
 Tired of flowers yet?
 How about a waterfall?
 How about a tree?
 Not just any tree.. a REDWOOD!
 Me and my tree.
By the bay.. the Empres Hotel
And government buildings.
… This was our last port before returning to Seattle.
We had such a WONDERFUL time!

Ketchikan, Alaska

 Want to move to Alaska?
Ketchikan was my favorite Alaskan city.
 This floating village will follow you where ever you want to go along the water.
 Eagles Galore
 Wow!
Guard Island Lighthouse
 Our ship, the Norwegian Pearl.
Doesn’t it just look fun?
 A house by the bay?
Back out to sea.

From Skagway to the Yukon

 Road the train up the mountains..
It was beautiful!
 Seamed like no matter how high you went up there would be more mountains.
 Crossed over into Canada
Beautiful Yukon  River.
A little windy up there.. time to get out our hats.
 We were there.
Ran into Sarah Palin while out shopping for souvenirs.

Juneau, Alaska

 Beautiful mountains in every view from the ship.
 Day before getting on the boat, I thought, 
“Holy beans! What was I thinking when I told Mike to sign us up for the zip line excursion?”

It’s easy to sign up for stuff when it’s a year away.. 
 amazing how different you feel when it’s actually around the corner.   
 After learning how to fly straight and how to hold on 
while swaying 80′ up in the tree it was fun.
Sun was up 4:30 am – 10:30 pm.

Seattle Highlights

Can you see the Space Needle?  It’s down the street right between our heads.  😀
Way up in the top of this tower (The Smith Tower) taking in the sights.
  
This is the only day that it rained on us our whole trip.
What’s Seattle without rain?  It normally only gets 35 inches a year.
Some places in AK get 200 inches a year.. but had sun just for us.
Miraculous!  Thank You, Jesus! 
See the round, white ball?  It’s a radar.  Mike has something to do with it’s existence.  🙂 
 They have grass and trees growing on some of the roofs!
We learned that their average tempreture in 
the Summer is 70 and around 40 in the Winter.  Not bad right?  
Also they only have 50% humity and the bugs don’t like the dry salty air. 
We were surprised by how much we liked Seattle. 
On the cruise ship, ready to sail away….
Seattle Part Two (Land Ho!) Cruise photos coming in next post.
We walked 3 miles to see the Space Needle up close this time.
Several glass rain covers around town.
Such a pretty city.
Our hotel room was huge.
View from our room
Sight seeing again.  Don’t we look like we had a great cruise?
Surprising Seattle
So impressed by the Chittenden Locks.
Need a ride down to the sea?
This toll lives under the Fremont bridge.
  He’s holding a real VW Bug.
Loved our time away!

Fly Away With Me

 Our first day, I realized that this was the first time that 
the two of us have flown away together since our honeymoon.
 Pacific Beach was pretty cool.  You can walk, bike or skate for miles.
The weather is perfect here.
La Jolla Beach  
We saw baby and mama seals on the rocks. 
 Old Town has a ton of open air mexican food restaurants.
Everything was so fresh. 
 Birds hanging around for left overs.
 On the beach at sun set.
 Nice waves
 Love how the sun melts into the ocean.
 Beach performer.
 Balboa Park Museums
 Giant Turtles at the San Diego Zoo
 Komodo Dragon
 Elephants
 Love the trees.
 Saw many animals we’d never seen before.
 Beautiful Cat.
 So nice to see Savannah and spend the day with her at the Zoo.
 Koalas were so cute.
 Another Perfect Day.
 A baby Giraffe.
 It’s warming up a bit.
 Hanging out in the sun.
Ryan and Savannah were so much fun to hang out with.
 A Life Guard Friend for Judi
A cool animal from China.. I’ll have to look him up later.. 
should have taken a picture of his sign.
Time to catch another plane.
Hope all is well..
Loving our time away,
Jenny

Back at Home and to Birmingham

We packed up camp fast as we could Sunday morning.  A storm was blowing in and we didn’t want to take home wet tents.  Arrived home safe and took a nap.

After lunch, we took Holden home and went shopping again.  Lucked out and found an ice truck at Publix shortly after it pulled up.  Ice, propane, batteries and generators were still going fast.

3% of Huntsville now had power.  We saw a couple of lights 3-5 miles from our house that gave us some hope, and Publix now had generators for running their freezers. 

Mike and I went to bed shortly after dark.  Joel fell asleep on the couch in the living room with the dogs and they were all three awakened around midnight by a looter on our back porch.  The dogs earned their keep by barking up a storm and Joel by screaming.. the looter ran away and jumped in his get-away car.  So glad we were there that night and I am hoping that we can find a solar motion sensor light for our back porch today. 

I woke up two hours later being bit by a big tick.  Boy, can they bite.  I ran to Judi’s room because she had a candle lit.  She couldn’t sleep after the looter incident.  She tried pull off the tick with tweezers.. he was stuck on tight.. then to burn the tick with her candle lighter – I suggested we find some matches and get Mike to help.  He burned it with a lit match (not much better) and was finally able to get him off.  I should really look up symptoms for lyme disease.

Next morning I was about to enter an ice cold shower when I had an idea.. we could spend the night in Birmingham that night, take a hot shower, and not wake up as early for my appointments the next morning.  Didn’t take much to convince Mike; he’d already been thinking about it.  We went to a near by store and used their internet to find and book a hotel, bought the kids a few groceries then ran off to civilization.  Almost felt like a date instead of a doctor’s visit.

We had two hot showers, ate at Jim and Nick’s (one of our favorite bbq places) and slept in maybe the nicest hotel we’ve ever stayed at.  Appointments went well.  I didn’t have an allergic reaction to the CAT scan die (yay!) but did have a reaction to the rubbing alcohol the lab prepped me with.   It was probably a good thing.. it was my first time to have an immediate reaction.. and now I can just tell them I had a reaction and request they use something else in the future. 

It’s nice to be home again and now that the power is back on, I can get some laundry done.  We have a lot to do before Judi goes to TX on Saturday, and even more to do before Mike and I leave for Alaska.

Love,

J

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