Where to start?

On Wednesday morning, I woke up with a small ache in my lower back. Nothing major. Just enough to know it was there. The next morning, it was pretty bad. Thursday and Friday had me walking crookedly, but with a little Advil, I made in through. This morning (Monday), it feels almost "normal".

On Friday, Eben had his little "closing program" for VBS, with a luncheon after. Dwane was able to take a little time off from work so that he could join us. Eben was really pleased with that little "surprise". Although it was overcast, and rained at times, the kids were all able to take a couple of slides down the "water slide" that was set up across from the church. Eben didn't want to leave! I was afraid he was going to get hurt, the way they all ran and jumped onto it, so I insisted we needed to leave.

Friday afternoon we learned that my Dad's renal cancer was now producing "activity" in both his upper and lower back. He will be going to Bath on Thursday to talk to a doctor about radiation. I'm keeping it together very well. God is definitely giving me a lot of strength here. I just keep telling myself that the sicker my Dad gets, the more God will be glorified when He heals him. Of course, I don't want my Dad to suffer pain to any degree, and I pray continually that he will feel better, but I just have to focus of the glorified healing that WILL come. I also have to remember that there is nothing that God and I can't get through together. I have to keep focused on Him. In the meantime, I hope you will keep praying for my Dad.

Saturday morning was busy. I had to teach the Faithbooking Bible Study at Church from 9:00 to 11:00 AM. The theme was "Rest", and I think we all had a really good time. We started with a glass of water with a couple of cucumber slices in it, which I read was good for the complexion. I had my Scentstories player going with "Relaxing in a Hammock." I also played one of Amy Grant's CDs of hymns. We all had facials before we started scrapbooking. We scrapped pictures of things that reminded us of rest. Some of the pictures included rocking chairs, cups of tea, books, beds, children (believe it or not!), and a well-worn teddy bear (mine of course!).

While I was at church (accompanied by Caleb), Eben and Dwane were down at the Tenants Harbor Baptist Church for a Cub Scout event. They shot off rockets and tried, unsuccessfully, to fly a kite. (The wind conditions were not very good.) They had a great time!

We all met back at home around noon, and then headed out to Bangor to find the elusive Barbie PlayDoh Set for Julia's birthday. We had scoured Rockland and Augusta trying to find a "girly" PlayDoh set. I just knew that Toys R Us would have one. Unfortunately, they didn't. I picked up a Ken doll while I was there, just in case. We finally found what we were looking for at K-Mart. In fact, not only did they have the Barbie PlayDoh, they also had Strawberry Shortcake and some sort of flower-making one. K-Mart always seems to have that "one thing" I just can't find anywhere else. While at K-Mart we grabbed some pizza at Little Caesars, and then tried to find a new cookware set. Didn't have any luck. We were really racing around from store to store as we wanted to get home to watch the Pepsi 400 at 7:00 PM. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the race was rain-delayed, and didn't start until about 10:30 PM.

Dwane was to have Sunday and Monday off as well, and we talked about perhaps going to New Hamsphire Sunday after church, spending the night, and then going to StoryLand on Monday. That was not to happen, though. Dwane's assistant, who was to work on Sunday, ended up getting bit by red ants, and called in sick. So, Dwane had to work from 2:00 til 6:45 PM. Then, we got a call from my parents at 4:30 this morning saying that my brother was quite sick, and they needed Dwane's help. At 8:30 AM, Dwane is still there playing the good son-in-law and EMT. Keep my brother in your prayers, too.

I guess that's enough for now. That's quite a bit!