A little of this, a little of that! [With a few add-ons since I first posted it!]

Which Bible story do you think Faith was drawing about here?

IHC... and, my daughter, Faith's, first opportunity to sing in the children's mass choir! She is the little tiny girl in black near the piano. [added later: That is the picture on the right. She is not at the very end; she is kind-of behind that microphone. Sorry the pictures are so dark!]

This is just two photos of what happens at our house when it rains alot! This is just the sides of the yard! This picture was taken a few weeks ago!

A little on the dark side, but the is a picture of me and Ron on the day of his grandfather's funeral.

Playing with Charity's new bubble machine (on the white lawn chair). You may not be able to see the bubbles, but that little machine can put them out! This was a birthday gift to Charity from the Manley family. [Actually this picture is beautiful if you click on it to enlarge it... and, you can see the bubbles just fine!]

Yes, life does get weary at times. We found out today that the biopsy that they are going to take will be different than the one originally planned. They plan now to do one through the chest instead of cutting his neck and going down the trach to the smaller mass. They are going to go for the larger one, that I believe is not far from the aorta... this surgery may cause a callapse of the lung, and will require an overnight stay.

Ron's wonderful sister, Shenna, and her three children.

Ron, his dad (whose name is also Ron), and little Faithy in our canoe, at Ceasar's Creek.

Me, the great photographer

The fishermen and Faith in the canoe again.

Little Charity waiting her turn to go for a canoe ride. Her jean skirt is a little on the short side, and do I see a bellybutton? She is a doll!
Did I ever mention that Baby Hope rolled over for the first time at only 16 days of age (front to back)! Now she is working on the back to front!
As promised, Baby Hope, from a SEVERAL weeks ago!

[Another add-on... hopefully, those who have already read this post will catch these floating add-ons... but, Faith just learned how to ride a bike, I think it was on Saturday. She had already learned the tricycle a little while back, but now she did a bike with training wheels! I was so proud of her!]

Update

The doctors in Columbus talked, then they communicated with Ron's oncologist, then Ron and I met with his doctor. This is the plan at this time. Ron is to go in Monday to meet with a surgeon, who is planning to cut Ron under the throat, and put a scope down the chest to get a biopsy of one of the small masses (lymph nodes) in his chest. They want to see if it is still cancer and not scar tissue (hopefully, it is scar tissue!) before they do anything drastic! If it is negative, they will probably just finish his chemo treatments as previously planned, and maybe do a little radiation. However, if it positive, then it looks like we will be sent to the Cleveland Clinic for yet another opinion. If they decide that the stem-cell transplant is the route, as well, then, it looks like they will give him some different, and strong, chemotherapy before they admit him into the hospital. It sounds like things are going to move quickly, so I am putting on my seat belt for the the ride. The cool thing is that our insurance will reimburse us for gas and hotel expenses for Ron and me. They would even pay for it if we flew to Cleveland (don't think we would do that though).
For those who don't understand the long hospital stay, allow me to try to explain a little. This is IF they do the transplant. First, they have to up the chemo (they fear the cancer cells are building a resistance to the chemo he is currently taking, known as ABVD, which is the standard treatment for the Hodgkin's patient. This is unusual, as typically a patient either does not respond or does and it is gone. However, he responded well, but now seems to be going backwards). They would remove his own stem cells, and freeze them. Then, they will admit him in either Cleveland or OSU for the high dose chemo with stem cell support. For six days, they said, they would give him this high dose treatments, then give him back his stem cells. They would have to watch him for probably around12 days, to be sure he does not develop an infection, as the treatments will basically wipe out his white blood count. I don't think the doctor really wants Ron to go through this, so I think he would like to try something else if Cleveland can give us another plan... this treatment is seriously tough on the body, and it will be awhile before he would recover.
Ron was anointed last night at church. It is all in God's hands, His will is what we want.
Thanks for praying!

MY LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS

Well, I have returned to the world of blogging. Please, excuse the long absence! It has been an extremely busy couple of weeks. There was...
- a marriage conference (which was a great blessing!),
- IHC (so nice to see many of my fellow blogging friends in person!),
- several doctor's appointments (good for my children and not so good for hubby),
- a Collingsworth concert (pretty fun... but, interesting with three children... and, it was after this concert that I actually learned that a word I have used actually does not mean what I thought it did... it was not a nice word, and I never knew that! Long story, and very humbling!) Thank you John and Melissa Ritchey for inviting us!,
- church services (so nice to hear Brother Sams on Sunday night, although I did not get to hear the whole sermon),
- a two year old's birthday party (my little Charity),
- Ron's grandfather's funeral (which Ron preached),
- guests (my children have LOVED our company the past couple of weeks!),
- and, many other things that kept us hopping!

Thank you to those who did babysit, and do things to help us pull through these past two weeks!

Thank you, Franklin Bible Methodist Church for the VERY kind gift you gave our family! We hope to use it soon!

I am sure that many of you are wondering about Ron. And, you deserve to know since you all have been praying and so caring! Well, it is pretty lengthy to explain, so I will try to give you a quick version. His PET scan still shows activity, and possibly it is worse in the lymph nodes in the chest area, but other areas look better. (It has to do with sugar uptake numbers, and a bunch of stuff I don't feel like explaining and researching right now.) This means we got to take a trip to Columbus this morning for a second opinion. It looks like they may do more aggressive chemo treatments and ending with a three to four week hospital stay in the summer at Ohio State University Hospital for "high dose chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant." The road looks long and scary, but he still has a "50, 60, or 70%" chance of complete remission... yeah, that is a wide range, but that is what the doc said! These people are HIGHLY professional, and are consulting with several other doctors on Ron's specific case. You may do your research, as it would take me a while to type the details of this procedure.

Now, I know you would like to see pictures of the past couple of weeks, and I actually have several video clips to share, but, you know my computer has issues, so I will have to share those in another post!

Thanks for your prayers and love!

One day at a time...

Please pray for Ron as he goes later this week for another PET scan. If it is clear, then he should be done with chemo in the middle of May; if not, then, they plan to add two more months to the treatment plan.

A fun thing that we have planned in the near future for the teen girls is a Ladies Lock-in! Got some "special" devotionals, games, food, and much fun planned! I am excited about it! We are planning it to be May 9. Hope we have a good turn-out!

Today is ending a bit sad, as Ron's Papaw Jaynes passed away today. We had heard that he wasn't doing well. Not sure of the arrangements yet. Please, pray for the family!

It's a busy week this week, with Charity's birthday on Friday, and then on Saturday, Ron and I are planning to go to a marriage conference. That should be fun, I like those types of things... gives me a special day with hubby.

If I lack in posting for a few days, there is much going on, but I will plan to update you with Ron's results when we get them!

Update: Ron is scheduled to preach his grandfather's funeral Thursday (same day as Ron's PET scan.) This is the third funeral in his family that he has been asked to preach. He also married this grandfather and his wife, Mary. A couple of years ago, he also had the honor of marrying one of his cousins. Ron has been able to minister to both his mom's and dad's sides of the family. Please, pray for him as he prepares, and pray for the family as they grieve.

From the mouths of babes...

Tonight, Ron was wrestling around and playing with the girls, which they love! Faith can hardly get enough... Charity likes to cuddle a little more than wrestle, but she get caught away in the excitement of it all!

Well, after playing like this for a while this evening, he decided to drill Faith with questions. Here is a bit of that conversation. It went something like this:

Ron: What is your name?
Faith: Thaith (cute lisp)

Ron: How old are you?
Faith: Two... three (not quite sure at that moment)

Ron: When is your birthday?
Faith: July 6 (very good!)

Ron: Who is your God?
Faith: Jesus (Wow! Was so glad to hear that answer.)

Ron: Whose your daddy?
Faith: Daddy (typical)

Ron: Where do you live?
Faith: To the place of honor (Not sure what that meant)

Ron: Who is your favorite dog?
Faith: He doesn't talk... he is a toy one (we only have a pet fish named Elmo)

Ron: Where do you go to church?
Faith: Sunday School (good enough)

The conversation was longer, and humorous with a list of her "friends" real and made up, and her teachers being Brother and Sister Manley, and so forth.

The other day, Charity was asked to do something at the table... not sure if it was to pray or say a mannerly word like "thanks" or "please," but instead, she exclaimed in toddler terms that she had relieved herself. It would have been embarrassing if company was present.

The fun of having little tots!

Please, don't share...

germs! Yes, there has been a passing of germs around here! Again! Such is life with little ones sometimes!

I must apologize for not getting that video fixed of my little Hope. It is so adorable, and I want to share it with you all, so I will plan to get that fixed eventually. It just takes so long to upload, and I am so often in a hurry. I know I haven't updated for a while, so here is a quick one... not so fun news first, then you can enjoy the fun stuff afterward.

We've all taken turns being under the weather... even my little Hope. Between the combination of Hope's sad cold, Charity's vomiting a couple of times, Faithy's complaining of a bellyache, my stomach ache and serious drained feeling, and Ron's critically low blood count... we've had a time of it... but, we are amazingly active for a sick bunch! The two older girls seem to be well now, and I am making the baby sleep a lot! Sleep seems to help bodies heal so much faster! I even slept part of the day away myself... couldn't help it, I felt robbed of life and even had trouble walking straight! I feel a little better now! Guess it's a flu thing. I don't want to embarrass Ron by saying too much, but I would appreciate you all praying for him because he is a bit more tired and weaker due to the wear and tear of the chemo that he is still taking every other week. He has been so tough this far. He is scheduled to preach at our church Sunday night and he seems to be excited about whatever it is he feels led to preach about. He had a few days off work because of Spring break, and that helps one to get some extra rest!

Here is another one of Faith's cute thoughts...
It was time for bed one night when Faith said something like this:
"When I get up from taking a nap, can Mommy, Daddy, Faithy, and Charity go to Heaven? Maybe I could take my blanket, pillow, and bed with me. That would be too heavy for me. Maybe I could sleep on the disciples' beds."
That was so cute!

Now she has been playing "crucifixion," too. She has "crucified" my guests, her dolls, and her Daddy. Someday, she will understand the real pain that went with Jesus' death, and His wonderful love for her. Right now, she is really into Bible stories and acting them out. My children's ages are so fun, and exhausting at the same time. They say some of the cutest things, and sometimes the most embarrassing. Faith is so open with people and says what she thinks, while Charity is generally more reserved and shy, but very good at letting us know she has a "need." Charity is talking so well. It looks funny, because she is so tiny, she doesn't look like she should be just walking and talking so well. She is my petite one right now. Hope is now 15 pounds, and only 3 1/2 months old! I can loose just about any bad mood when I see her smiling so beautifully at me. It is so incredible to have these little people's utmost trust in me. May God help me do my best to show them His love and kindness. It sure does get tough to be patient with them, and often I fail in that area. I know I am blessed with fantastic children and an awesome husband. For this, once again, I give thanks!

update: He is now scheduled to preach in the morning instead of evening tomorrow.

When a three year old draws, Hope Christiana, and the soon-to-be two year old!

Can you guess what this is? My little Faith drew it! She says its an elephant. I think it is very good for a three year old. Then, the other day, she drew Jesus on the cross, and the two theives! It was very well done, as well! She has finally figured out how to put arms and a body on her "people," which used to only have a head and legs and feet!

Charity turns two next month! Can you believe it?! Time has flown by WAY to quickly! She is a good little talker, too, but a little shy!

This is a video of my happy little baby! She smiles so much! You just can't help to squeeze her! She just recently started a type of laugh that just gets you in the heart! All Ron or I have to do to get her to smile sometimes is to just look at her or speak to her, then she melts our hearts! The other day I was really down, and her little smile cheered me. Then, I remembered her name... HOPE! Yes, we do have hope! Thank God!

We had a few young people overnight at our house from UBC! And, it was so much fun! May God bless their choir tour! I even knew on of the girls from back in my New Mexico missions' days! It was nice seeing a few other young people I recognized as well! Only I remember some of them from their teen days.

Well, we have a youth event scheduled tonight, so I best be going! Keep in touch, y'all! And, thank you for praying for us!

(Please, be patient as I try to get the video going. Thanks!)

Testing... testing... one, two, three...

I have been messing around with my computer, and here I was finally able to pull up a picture from my new camera! Yea! I have learned today many things, including the fact that you can click on a picture and see it much larger! Don't laugh, I really did just figure some little things out today! I am sooo glad, although my computer is a little slow, it does work!
This is my happy driver! When he first had his surgery and a little before, I was HIS driver. Now, he has the doctor's permission to drive and I am sure he is very glad! ;-)

Our adventurous past couple of weeks...

Thanks to an email from a relative of a friend, I have been able to fix some of my posting problems... Thank you, Elisabeth D! I still have problems posting certain pictures on my blog from my computer, and they just so happen to be the pictures that are taken with my new camara. A friend of ours, Jerry A., stopped by one day to check out our computer, and he and his wife believe the pictures are "too big" for our computer to handle. I guess some pictures are heaver than others. They think they might be able to help me out with that, too. Thanks again to my new friend who helped my figure out the other problem!

A rest stop



The Washington Monument at night (below)





I believe the above picture is the Lincoln Memorial.



The White House



Another cool looking building



the great theatre where we saw "Daniel and the Lions Den"


My beautiful family!











Don't ask... just found it interesting!


Bus Convention (nursery) and hotel pictures (above)
The BIG BLIZZARD (below)


No, my girls do not usually wear pants out, but I figured a snow adventure might call for a snow suit for the toddler age since a little snow certianly measures up on their little legs... just for those of you who might be confused by the change of dress. Still hold to the belief in girls being dressed like girls... as found in Dueteronomy. Just not sure how else to keep them so warm in the snow.
Below is my first video to be put on my blog! I know that it is really dark, but we were in Washington, D.C.

Figuring out my computer!

Here, I thought I had fixed those spelling errors, but my spell check has personality! Oh, well, I think it is better now. Got that time thing fixed, too.

Well, it sure was nice to see our friends at the Kenwood Bible Methodist Church last night. Ron was to give his life story (shortened and edited version, of course). He did a good job. Glad the weather was better. Never know what to expect these days. It was nice to see GBS's President Michael Avery and Sister Avery, Dr. Wingham (who married Ron and me), Ohio Bible Methodist's President Clair Sams and his wife, Brother and Sister Durr, Larry Smith and his wife, the Cassity's, Jenny, Brother McLaughlin, and several others at the service last night. There wasn't a large crowd, I am sure it was the weather, but it definitely was fun seeing some of the ones we know have been praying so much for us. Enjoyed the meal afterwards cooked by the Durrs and Sams. Thank you, dear friends, for inviting us!

Today is a big day at the Cook home, for today RON RETURNED TO WORK! He was really tired, but he got up and went! He's a tough guy if I ever saw one! We actually figured things up again, and it might be that his chemo will be over in May! Then, of course, there will be more tests to see if it was sufficient. Hopefully, it will all be over! Would you believe the man still has hair!? Many people loose their hair, and he has been, but he still has plenty (although he is keeping it very short). His scar looks like it is fading some, and when his hair all grows back, you may not even notice it much!

A spiritual thought: I am lately realizing the power behind fasting and prayer. I have never really made myself do it much before, but I realize now that it is a Biblical practice, and that if I want to see some people saved, I am going to have to do it. I love our teens we work with, and I went to prayer for them one day, for many of them had been missing church and I was really concerned for their souls. I missed them sooo badly! Would you know that the next Sunday nearly every teen was at church! There IS power in prayer! But, I also know that it takes sacrifice and discipline to pray this way, because Satan loves to use this time to fight against you. He did it to Jesus, too, when He was fasting and praying, but Jesus was victorious and we can be too! I am excited about this new "ministry." It is difficult in the winter for me to get out and go witnessing, because of the little ones, but when it gets nice outside, I like to go for walks with the children. This is when I get to do alot of witnessing. Parks are an awesome place to talk to parents (or grandparents) about Jesus and going to church. Or, going door to door passing out cookies and tracts is fun, too. So, in the winter, I feel at a loss! I can't take a newborn out in the snow! But, for those of you who also cannot get out, pray! That is where the real power is anyway! God is answering prayer, and I am excited! I know that you are not to brag and show off the fact you are fasting and praying, and I do not want that, but I would love to challenge my fellow readers in joining me praying for lost souls and for our own selves... many of us have some hurdles to jump. I know I do!

May you have a great week!

Okay, so I can't spell!

I am sure those who read my previous post before I just fixed it had a good laugh at my spelling errors. That's okay... I just cringed! Get used to it though, as I am not the best speller out there.

One more story for you! Ron went into a little store while we were in DC to ask for directions, and he decided to buy a package of cookies. Well, when he went to pay for it, they asked for his ID! He was shocked, and inquired at the reasoning of his being IDed for a little pack of cookies. It turns out that only military could buy there or something, and so my poor hubby left without his cookies. We may never recover from such a rejection! :-) Just another funny story to add to the pile!

VACATION!!! Well, sort-of...

if you count toting three children three and under all over the place and driving hours upon hours as vacation! But, hey, it WAS really fun! Our kind church paid our way to the Outreach and Bus Convention in Lebabon, PA! On our way, we took a quick detour down to DC. It was a crazy and fast trip, and it was night-time... the traffic was horrible, but we got to drive by the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and, I believe that one building was the Pentagon. It was very fast, but sooo exciting! I love the way some of those old buildings are made. We were all so fascinated! Oh, but, you should have seen us try to drive around that area! The weather was nice, and I had my window down; then, Ron made a quick turn and my cell phone, which had been lying on the dash, flew out the window and into the street, and we were horrified watching the cars fly by it! Ron stops the car, puts on the emergency lights, and jumps out to run and to get it! It still worked! Still shocked that those cars did not hit it! Praise God!

Then, Tuesday, we went to Sight and Sound, which was putting on Daniel and the Lion's Den! So cool!

Then, Tuesday evening through Thursday was the Convention. While going back to Ohio on Thursday, we drove through Hershey, PA. Didn't get to stop, but I was fascinated... I am a chocolate lover!

Then, that night we stayed at a "nice" hotel that appeared very clean... but, alas, upon pulling back the bed covers for my little girls to get in bed... BEHOLD! A ROACH LYETH UPON THY PILLOW! We quickly made a change of rooms!

During our final hours of driving home... a blizzard struck (to our dismay)! We probably passed 20 accidents, even a patrol car appeared to be a part of one of the accidents! One accident had a vehicle on TOP of a guard-rail. (Sorry, but that DID fascinate me, too!). Then, there was that semi that had jack-knifed, too. Yep, it was a little scary out there... so please pardon the absence of pictures of our trip, for I don't feel like going to the library in a blizzard in order get my pictures on my blog. I do plan to share those with you, however, in the near future.

Ron had chemo today, so we had to get back for that. He teases me about the Nupogen shots I have been giving him. He thinks I enjoy it as a type of revenge or something! Ha! I enjoy it because I have fascinations with health and medical stuff, NOT as a revenge... bless his heart!

We had a great week, and wouldn't trade it for anything! Enjoyed the sessions and seeing many old friends and making some new! Loved the crazy things that happen to us on family trips! Gotta have a good laugh!

Monday, Ron is scheduled to return to work after perhaps four months of being on medical leave of absence and receiving sick-leave and catastrophic sick leave pay!!! We have been VERY well cared for, and everyone has been so kind. Life is returning to a little more of a schedule... don't know whether to me happy or not... but, I am glad my hubby is as well as he is! Thanks again to EVERYONE for all you have done... keep praying! Love ya!

By the way, the word for today is "fascinate."