Sam remains the best husband in the whole world, and the love of my life! 



He’s done a fabulous job of working hard at siteCoffee and building PixelCliff, I’m so proud of him!  He’s been getting more involved with the men’s ministry at our church by joining David’s Men and the Men’s Ministry Team.  It’s been great for him to feel like he’s starting back in ministry again, but it’s a far cry from being in ministry full tim for him or being in leadership… but one step at a time!  Vienna’s doctor asked for EKG’s from all of our family and when Sam had his done they confirmed that he indeed still has the hole in his heart that he was born with.  We’re still in process for followign through with testing with a specialist with him, but it’s not something that we are terribly concerned with at this time. But apparently he hasn’t fully filled it with Jesus yet (LOL ha ha ha… bad joke, but I just had to!)

Our girls are growing up so fast and are getting so smart and are the greatest joy in our lives!  We’ve had some special times livign with my parents and sharing our girls with them, what a blessing to see them get close to them.





Vienna started her year with follow ups for her surgery to correct her bladder reflux issue.  I’m happy to report she’s had not ONE Urinary Tract Infection since the surgery!  On the 5th we’ll return to Dornbeckers for her next follow up exam which I believe if all is well will be her last! Wahoo!  Her cardiologist did explain about her prolonged QT interval and we will have another appointment in March to check in on that situation, but over all it seems that watching what medications she takes is all we hav to worry about there… She’s such a precousious three and a  half year o 
ld!  She’s already started to recognize words and sound out letters. She’s not completely interested in learning to read, so getting her to do it is a challenge, but she can sit down and sound out words and recognizes words like Pool and Cake! LOL  Every day she amazes me with what she knows and with her love for people. A favorite memory this year was at her first time seeing the Nutcracker.  She was sooo concerned for the Mouse King who  “got hurt and his friends dragged him off to the hospital” that throughout the rest of the performance she kept asking me “Is the Mouse King feeling better yet??”.  Then, durring the arabian dance, the dancers came out with girls in belly shirts and the man shirtless.. my little gem stood right up, pointed accusingly at the stage, stomped her foot and shouted “INAPPROPRIATE!”  THAT’S MY GIRL!!!! I was so proud (thankfully it was a performance for homeschool childern so it wasn’t so mortifying having her 
shout out in the middle of everything!) She’s currently learning to ride her scooter and sings all the day long. So fun.  She also got to ride on a float in the 4th of July parade. oohh that was sooo exciting and great fun for her…. it was sooo hot that day! Ziva and I enjoyed watching for her
 



 
 


Ziva, wow, she’s learned to run from one end of the house to the other, she’s quick. Turn your back for a moment and she’s climbed onto the counter and started cooking for you, or has gathered up all the coasters in the house and is distributing them into every room.  She’s cutting the last of her teeth (I’ll be sooo glad when that’s over) and my little mountain goat is starting to try to climb out of her crib (she’s already mastered the Pack and Play! There’s no containing her) She has a giggle to melt any heart and the best smile ever.  She had so many firsts including her first Ambulance ride and stay at Dornbecker Children’s Hospital.  Another first was that she and I were flown to Colorado to see my good friend Jen. We had a blast and Ziva flew VERY well and stole EVERY attendant’s heart!!

 




Thankfully it was nothing more than a virus that was attacking her bone marrow (the dr’s did do some testing to rule out Leukimia, which was scary).  She’s finally starting to actually talk (she doesn’t need to most of the time, with 4 adults in the house to cater to her, and her sister who…well, doesn’t leave much quiet space).  It’s so fun.  She said her first “sentance” the other day at the dinner table when I was trying to get her to take a bite “NO WAY!” ahh… just like her sister taught her! ***rolling my eyes*** But she never misses a chance to raise her hands for “Hallelujah!” after our prayer’s “Amen!”

I did start to be a part of our churches Radiant girls ministry which has been fun… we had a big dessert night for the girls in December which I had a blast helping decorate for.  The biggest change for me this year was that I started a new hobby. Cake making!  It’s been great fun and I’m thinking that Esther needs to move home from Ukraine and open a bakery with me She’s been enjoying making and decorating cakes too.  Hummm… I meant to upload a picture of one of my cakes, but it doesn’t seem I did (and I can’t add any more this month cause I added too many already) but they are all on my Facebook account if anyone wants to check them out

   .

Here’s actually the fist attempt. She wanted to sing you “Angels Watching”… because she sings it all the time… but when it came time to sing… well… she had a new song on her mind… lets see if you recognize it

Incase you didn’t recognize it… that was “Step In Time” from Marry Poppins!

And then she decided to sing one more… but she got a little distracted for a bit there! She is my daughter after all!

The camera shut off just a half a second too fast!! What she’s saying in the end there is that she wants to go to McDonnalds! She’s a little obsessed with “chicken patio’s and fries” LOL (that’s Chicken nuggets and french fries) oh yeah, with milk! We used to cut up breaded chicken patties for her, so she calls nuggets chicken patio’s LOL it’s so funny. She recognizes McD’s and Burger King wherever we go! She even asked her daddy to make more money so she could have more McD’s! I swear we haven’t gone there THAT often!! (but we usually stop there when we go to the dr’s office for the girls, and we have been doing that a bit more often of late… hopefully that will stop soon!)

So there you go! Enjoy Grandma Bible! (Auntie Es and Pris and Sarah too, cause I know you’ll love watching as well!

Much love to you all…. we sure do miss you!

One Thursday night, Sam and I actually got to go out on a date with some friends of ours.  Ziva’d had a bit of a fever, but nothing over 100, so it could easily be explained by that nasty process called teething.  My mother called about half way through dinner… her fever had gone up to 103.  Mimi gave her some baby Tylenol and they were able to get her down to sleep.  By the time we got home that night she’d returned to just around 100.  Friday, she was fine, under 100 and chipper so I didn’t take her into the doctor figuring she was on the mend.  Saturday her fever was up again… Sunday night it dropped to 94.7! She was cold, clammy and it was scary.  She was asleep when it dropped so it was difficult to decide if she was acting abnormally or not.  We called a family friend who is a doctor, woke the poor guy and his wife, also a dr in her residency, up.  He calmed us down a bit and because she’d been awake enough to seem to be acting normally.  Still nervous though Sam slept holding her all night long (poor guy).
So we took her in to the dr on Monday just to see what was up.  Her temp was back to just under 100, but no UTI, no ear infection, her lungs sounded clear… everything seemed normal.  We asked the dr what to do if she dropped that low again (unlike our family friend, this dr just seemed to think I was taking her temp wrong, or hadn’t bundled her or something like that) he told us to take her to the ER…. Monday night, sure enough… 94.7, cold and clammy. So at 10:30 at night we packed her up and headed to Silverton Hospital Emergency Room.  And so began the nightmare!!!!

Once in the ER they immediately put Ziva under a heat lamp.  Sam was holding her under, sitting on the bed, under the lamp.  Then they came in to take her blood! UUHHGG… it was horrible! She was a bit dehydrated, and so when three nurses were holding her down and trying to get the needle into her vein but couldn’t because it was rolling and couldn’t get it in… I wanted to die! The look of terror in Ziva’s eyes was horrible!! and I was standing at her head trying to calm her and she’s looking at me like “what are you letting them do to me!” I was ready to go home right then.  They added a warmed IV to try to help get her temp up… it still didn’t go up much.

At about 2pm after blood work, IV, heat lamp while being held, and chest x-ray the ER dr came back in and said she looked fine, but he was consulting with OHSU/Dornbecker Children’s hospital, an hour north, and it was likely they would want her admitted. He was very ho hum about the whole thing, he said he wouldn’t admit her but just send her home and just keep her warm but we’d see.  Dornbecker’s did say she should be admitted since she wasn’t warming up and her blood count was low… and since babies can turn so fast, we’d have to go by ambulance!  At least they didn’t feel like we had to have the PANDA (Special pediatric ambulance) transport her.  At this point with the ER dr’s attitude we felt fine, like this was just an extra precaution and all…  Sam drove home to pick up a few things and I went with Ziva in the ambulance.   It only took us 45 minutes   it was nice.  The drivers Steve and Chris were both really nice guys and were even smiles at that time in the morning.  That helped too.

About 4 a.m. we reached Dornbecker’s and got Ziva into her room.  Sam arrived about a half hour later (the doors were all locked for the night and one of the nurses ran down to let him in! so nice there).  They continued to give her warming blankets (I held her on my chest the rest of the night) and check her vitals, but she was still low (they kept thinking their equipment was malfunctioning because she kept dropping to 94.3 and never got over 95.8, if memory serves, that night)

The next morning the “troop” came through.  Since it is a teaching hospital there is a group of dr’s that do the rounds in the morning complete with residents and interns and dr’s and fellows and… like 6 people.  They were all very nice and all so concerned it seemed which surprised me.  But they still couldn’t figure out what would cause her temp to go so low. So, figuring it was most likely a virus they put us on a sort of quarantine.  Any medical staff that came in had to put aprons on (mostly to prevent other patients getting the virus if that wound up what was going on).  They did a bunch of tests for virus’ and said that the “blood people” are going to come in to talk to us about further testing they would like to do and that we’d likely spend another night. Here’s where things got interesting.

About 4pm the doctor comes in and introduces herself “hi, I’m so and so from oncology.” ONCOLOGY!?!?!? I thought this was just “blood people!” She starts explaining that Ziva’s marrow doesn’t seem to be doing what it should and her counts are all off  and they would like to do a bone biopsy to investigate further. I immediately freak out about leukemia as this is what my grandmother died of (it was a rare case…. she got some form that usually children get, and she died quickly).  The most dreadful night of our lives ensued!

Our friend Jenny is a Resident there at the hospital, so that night she came by and brought us pizza (Papa Johns, my favorite!) it was just what I needed to lift the spirits! She assured us that the were just being careful and that teaching hospitals “like to do tests.” But still, as a parent, when something like that is on the table, you want it off as soon as possible!!  (It was about this time that I realized that I was loosing the baby too, so it was doubly difficult).

Ziva’s test wasn’t until 12:30 the next day… needless to say it was a LONG morning. My parents an Vienna came back up for a second visit.  About one in the afternoon they took us off quarantine but no one talked to us as to why… As my dad always says “the absence of information leads to the worst case scenario!” That’s how it felt… it was awful waiting… Ziva’s main doctor came in to chat with us just before six that night, she was trying to wrap up and go home, but she stayed and talked with us for a while and was there when the Oncology dr’s came back in about seven that night!! All was well!!!  We were able to go home!!

Almost three weeks later all seems well. Ziva’s blood test came back and her counts are back up to normal.  She’s running around the house like crazy and smiling again (boy did I  miss her smile!!)  She’s still teething though, so we’re still a bit cranky, but she’s sleeping through the night again and her temps have been back in the normal range so PTL all turned out well!!!  PTL we have medical coverage for her and Vienna!  I’m still exhausted most of the time, but I am getting back to normal.

Hopefully this email is understandable… its taken me three days to write it with all the interruptions I’ve been getting   But that’s the jist of it all!

We live in a fallen world, which means, we live with imperfect bodies, and imperfect health. It does not mean however that our Lord does not love us or does not care for us or that He is not in control.  As sad as it is for us, who, in 9 short weeks, grew so very excited to meet our little one, we know that baby is now made perfect and has joined the Lord in heaven.  Life is full of loss, and life is full of tragedy. But through it all we hold fast to the truth that the Lord in heaven is in control. That when we have a relationship with him, we know where we are going.  We take heart in knowing that someday we’ll walk the streets in heaven and we’ll meet the little ones we never got to hold here on earth. (And hold tighter to the ones we do get to hold here!)

Ziva, my precious little baby, has been so kind as to help as best she can. She’s given me SEVERAL diapers worth puking over! AND she kept me from getting the slightest bit of a nap today. The moment my eyes would close and I’d get that nice floating ahhhhhh feeling… scream! She would wake up. Apparently the poor little dear is having a traumatic day! That’s ok, between the screams (I’m thinking gas and by the smell of her diapers, other gastro-intestinal-disturbances-of-another-kind) she’s been a charming flirty little girl! When she smiles, you can’t help but smile too! No matter if your head is in the toilet or not!

Vienna’s had her share of frustrations today too. She apparently is not happy with the amount of attention she is getting, because while I was on the phone with the hospital (she has some follow up tests to be done) she BIT ME! She bit my arm so hard that three hours later there were still teeth marks on my arm! Yes, she did get sent to her room! No, she did not go peaceably. Yes, in the end, I won. I am mom, hear me roar. She is now happily playing with her sister. Well, sorta, she’s giving her sister a concert! She has this “high school musical’ microphone thing. I’ve never seen the movie/show whatever it is, but I can sing two of the songs from it!! This thing is like a mini kareoke machine and plays two of their songs for you to sing along with. And yes, at two and a half Vienna pretty much can sing both those songs.. and yes, I want to pull my hair out!!! tee hee hee… just wish I could change the songs, I’m not so sure I like her memorizing them!

I think on days like this the kids act up because I really think it freaks them out when I puke. Vienna especially. Thankfully she missed most of it today but I think once was enough for her. She’ll get used to it ha ha ha…

So, thank you Lord for the confirmation pukes I’ll rest assured now everything is alright You can go ahead and revert me back to how I was feeling last week tee hee hee… Hey, even with today’s pukes, I feel much better than I did with the girls. So, I’m really not complaining, just sharing the joys of my day

I’m off to form the experimental turkey burgers that I have attempted to make for this evening. Humm… maybe I shouldn’t experiment while pregnant. They sounded sooo good last night… now I’m not so sure! Here’s hoping (don’t worry, I have Abby’s Pizza’s phone number memorized!)

I’ve been quite delinquent at blogging.  We’ve had a bit of a crazy life this last three months or so with just adjusting to combined household living.  There’s not been a lot of exciting news other than the baby news I just gave.  So my creative juices have not been flowing so well for the blog.  Sam’s done some revamping to make it look more “me” but we still need to get photo sharing back up here too, cause I don’t see that option anymore   The other thing is the enrollment into FaceCrack, I mean, CrackBook, I mean Facebook! MAN talk about sucking up all my time!! It’s a bit addicting keeping up with everyone who’s on there! It’s been fun though.

I’m in the midst too of helping plan my 20th Class Reunion.  I can not believe I am that old!!!!! Goodness Grief!!!  It has been nice though already catching up with some of my classmates at planning meetings. Its amazing to see how different all of our lives have turned out!

I’ve been enjoying taking part in the church Ensemble. Our music pastor has been trying to do a choir/ensemble once a month at church and it’s been great fun for me to be a part of it. I sooooo enjoy corporate worship and there is nothing better than actually singing with people who can sing (thankfully they tolerate my amateur vocal chords!) Easter was incredible! It’s my favorite holiday to reflect on all that the Lord does for us and how He seeks relationship with us, even though we don’t always give Him the time that is due him. It saddens me to see people going through the motions in their faith. Easter and Christmas always make me a bit sad as it is sometimes the only two days out of the year that some people come to church and seek the Lord. They see it as a requirement or a “good thing to do” instead of the joy that it is to know we are free from sin, we are forgiven and we are able to relate with the Lord personally on a daily basis, without pomp and circumstance, without intercession and ritual, without performance or works… just as we are, with needs and all. This Easter was especially poignant for me as we think about time after life on earth. Sam’s cousin Jeremy is very ill. He has an aggressive form of brain cancer, and while we still pray and believe the Lord could give us a miracle at any moment, it of course has us thinking about the end of this life. It’s exciting and scary to think about!!! Even as believers, when we know that we will go to heaven and be in the presence of the Lord and other loved ones who have believed and gone on before us… I guess it makes you think, Do I Measure Up? Will I make it? Scripture is clear that the “road is narrow” and that not everyone who is a “good person” makes it. It’s hard to understand that… thankfully the Lord is a perfect judge, who can judge each of us as individuals, on our hearts, and our faith that He knows even better than we do. I’m so very thankful that He came to earth and died on the Cross to give us forgiveness of ANY sin… that’s sooo amazing to me ANY sin is able to be forgiven, no matter how heinous! Even the Charles Manson’s and Ted Bundies of this world could be forgiven if they just accept the gift of forgiveness and allow the Lord to rule their lives! Not all choose it unfortunately, but it is available to all!!! We just need to be humble and give up our pride enough to say that we are not perfect and we do not always want what’s best for us, and allow ourselves to be guided by what scripture says and what we feel the Lord would do… We are such a selfish people that we can’t give up control of our lives to the “Parent” who really has what’s best for us in mind! Anyway… I’ve got a little sidetracked from my “update”.

We had our first week long vacation ever in May. We once again retuned to the Oregon coast and stayed in our favorite vacation rental. It was a glorious week… but I’ll blog about that next post J

At present we continue to live together with my parents. Seems like things are turning around for them. The real estate market in our area seems to be picking up again and now that they have renters in both of their spaces it seems like they will be able to keep their heads above water. The Lord continues to provide for them with clients and other such things. It’s good to see the relief, but we’re still praying hard as it’s still not easy.

So, that’s really all that’s been going on with us since our last post. Now that I’ve caught up again I’m hoping to keep with it (and off of FaceCrack so much!)

Happy Memorial Day to you all!

It’s been a while!! yes, yes, many of you have been telling me, and telling me, and… complaining   OK OK but it’s been an INSANE three months or so for us! Let me catch you up… (get your coffee and take a potty break… cause this is gonna take a while!!!)

Right before Thanksgiving we decided that with the economy effecting Real Estate the way it is, the best thing for the family was for us and the kids to move in with my parents.  We have been renting a house that their company owns, and they are selling that company and we are going to share expenses with them until they get through this little RE crisis going on.  With the Lords help, they will be able to keep the office building they own along with their home.  Since we don’t own anything it was a “no brainer” decision as Sam says.

We had been planning on taking a vacation right before Christmas to the Oregon Cost, and since Sam had been working so hard we decided that even though we were moving suddenly, we were still going to try to make the trip.  We found an incredible deal on a house (off season and slow economy are to thank), so we took mom and dad with us and spent 4 days at the coast.  It was crazy!!  Just two days before we left the Vally got a huge storm-front come through where we got lots of snow (well, lots for here)! Ziva’s first snow!




So the day we left, there was snow every where!  We made it through the Van Duzer Corridor and out to the coast.  I’d never seen snow at the coast before, but we had a nice little snow storm for part of a day.  We also took the girls to the Oregon Coast Aquarium! It was fantastic!  Vienna loved the touch pool they have there, we touched little stingrays, sharks, starfish, sea urchins, sea-slug, annenamies (sp?), then there was walking through the glass tunnels where sharks and other fish are swimming all around you… so many things…  and there was hardly anyone there since it was the off season! It was a great family day!

Our return however, well… the Van Duzer’s were closed due to the snow and ice (lots of trees that fell across the road) so we had to take the LONG LONG LONG way home!  (South to Newport, out through Philometh, and back up through Salem!)  There was so much snow in the Vally that we had to drive very very slow (and I stopped counting tire chains laying on the road, broken, at like thirty six if I recall).  It was an exhausting drive… but Sam did a great job, and so did my dad, and we all made it home safe  and sound!!

So, before vacation we had begun packing quickly and began living here after our pre-Christmas vacation.  ( Sam wanted Christmas to be as special as possible during the upheaval, so we raced to get in so at least the girls would be settled for Christmas).  We had  a great time celebrating Ziva’s first Christmas!

The packing was much like moving over seas since much of our stuff would go to long term storage (we’re thinking 2 years here) some to Good Will and the rest has to fit into two rooms (and a bit in the kitchen/garage) here.  We finally moved our stuff in the middle of February, and just this weekend I unpacked the last box in our bedroom! so we are officially in!! (there’s lots of re-organizing to do, but I’ve found a way to make everything fit!! NO small task!!)   We are still praying for a buyer or renter for our house and a renter for the unused half of their office building (any prayers for those things would be MUCH appreciated, the lack of a renter for the business office has really been a burden).

Ever tried packing with a two year old in the room!?!?!?

Vienna “helps” pack a box!

As if we weren’t insane enough moving so quickly with an active two year old and a five month old who’s not sleeping through the night… at the end of January we decided to head to Canada (Victoria BC) to help Sam’s father at Missions Fest Vancouver.  Thankfully my mom came to help with the girls. Poor mom was stuck in a hotel room most of the time with the girls!! But her being there meant that I was able to help man the exhibit for Wildfire World while Dad Bible and Kostya (one of our office “family” members from Ukraine) taught and attended classes.  It was a great trip.  It was the first time Grandpa Bible was able to meet Ziva!

(Poor Grandma Bible hasn’t had her chance yet, but hopefully soon!)  It was so precious to be able to introduce our littlest one to her grandfather finally! And for Vienna to have a chance to see Gandpa Bible too (we have a photo magnet of G&G Bible on our fridge and occasionally she will go up and give it kisses).  And as always, it was just great to get to spend time with Dad too.  (And to introduce Uncle Kostya to our babies too! He’s worked in the office with the family for something like ten years, so he’s like family!)


We’ve had a few milestones since I’ve written last.  Mainly, Ziva milestones. Not only is she sitting up, but on the day she turned seven months, she took her first crawl across the room!  (this video is a week later)

Ziva’s pulling herself up on things all the time now, and I constantly find her crawling to get into anything she is not supposed to… you’d think she was a puppy because her favorite thing to do is to chew on my computer cord!!! She exhausts her momma and herself as she gets about the house now!

Ziva also had her first non-milk meal. I’ll let the photo’s speak for themselves:

Yippee REAL food!!!!

What the stink IS that stuff!?!?!?

Uhhhhkkkk… that’s NASTY!!!!

Huuhhggg… Can’t stand this stuff!

How could you do that to me!?!

As for the Mucus and the Mayhem….
For the past TWO weeks I’ve been calling this place “the house of Ill” as everyone has been sick.

Ziva got our families first ear infection, both girls had this flu/cold thing going around, so eventually Sam and I got that as well as Mimi & Poppie (my parents).  Even Uncle Matthew was down with it so badly that he didn’t go to Canada as scheduled (he was going to help with another Missions Fest).   We are finally getting over the illnesses, but much mayhem still has transpired in this house… see… not terribly long ago my parents had a flood in their house… long story short, they got bran new beautiful carpet and hardwood floors… LIGHT TAN CARPETS!!!! yeah, not for long! I’m concerned by the time we leave here, they’ll be needing yet another remodel!!  So far, we’ve made several dents, scratches or other mars to the hardwoods… and Thursday Ziva had a major blow out and pooped all over the floor!!! I of course PANIC!!!!  I can’t find the carpet cleaner, I can’t just scrub it up… mom is at Curves working out… so i called there (yes, now I am the laughing stock of town!! oh well, the carpets not stained!!!).  I should have just kept the carpet cleaner out, as today Ziva pulled herself up on the coffee table and grabbed my full cup of coffee down to the floor… Praise the Lord it wasn’t HOT!!!!!  so, I spent much of today rearranging furniture and Bisseling the living room carpet!! Oh, I forgot to mention that I also chose today as the day to sort through all the 3-6 month clothes all the way through the 12-18 month clothes for the girls to lighten up… at present well.. the house is… lets just say, I’m terrified mom and dad will get back early tomorrow!!!!  I just might be pulling an all nighter!

So, there you go, for those of you who have been unhappy with the lack of posts… now you have my “excuse”

More later   We’ve still got Build-a-Bear and Buddies to talk about soon, hopefully… but, you know how life gets

Happy Days to you all