Post-Op

OK, we got a call around 6 o'clock tonight from my friend's hubby informing us that she was out of surgery, was in recovery and had not woken up yet from sedation. They believe they removed all of the tumor, but she definitely lost hearing in one ear. They believe they reconnected the rest of the nerves well enough though. The tumor was sitting on her brain stem and they had to disconnect the brain stem from the brain to remove it. Please continue to pray that there are no other unexpected side effects from the surgery, that she keeps her hearing in the other ear and that she makes a full and quick recovery.

Prayer Request

I truly believe there is no better use of a blog than to ask for prayer for needs or to share stories of answered prayer to bring glory to God. I know I don't do either often enough. I do not intend to spread gossip, I sincerely ask for prayer for my friend, who shall remain nameless.

She has surgery to remove a brain tumor on Friday morning at 6:30am EST. Please pray for the surgeon, for peace for her and her family, for the surgeon to get it all out and not harm her in any way. There is an 80% risk for hearing loss from this surgery, please pray there is zero hearing loss and a quick recovery. Thank you, friends.

Autumn

The Mostest

Grandmas are always special. One Great and they're cool. Two Greats? They're AWESOME! Happy Birthday to Z and Juni's Great Great Grandma!!! Ninety-seven and counting!

My grandpa just e-mailed my this picture from a blackberry?!? I'm impressed!

My great grandma is the most fun and awesome grandma in the world. She always makes us laugh, she's super positive and won't complain to you about aches and pains unless you beg her to. She never forgets amazing stories about our heritage, Swedish royalty with a fleet of ships and pipe smoking women. She likes to tell us how her mother was a "Crook" before she got married, that being her maiden name.

Always boat fulls of fun, I wish we could be together on this special day! When I asked my mom (who just arrived last night) if she had anything to say about her grandma, she said, "I know she loves me the mostest!" That's funny, she told me she loves me the mostest!! Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you the mostest!!!

The Perfect Day

We went on a walk today behind our house. The neighbor girl tells us it's ok to walk through the farmer's field. When I asked about woods, she said that's fine too, but beware of coyotes (pronounced "ky-oats"). She told me she always takes her 22 and shoots at something random before entering just to scare them off. She's 13 years old. We didn't see any wild life today, just breathtaking landscapes.

Juju took her first steps today. Ben came home early from work and she walked from me to him, food in hand. I knew she'd involve food in this momentous occasion somehow, I just thought she'd be walking toward the food.

A car hit an electric pole down the road today, brought all the neighbors out to watch and talk. Thankfully the driver was ok, but evidently we might lose our electricity for a spell while they repair the pole. I've never had an entirely electric house before, and a well to boot. So, our kind new neighbors prepared us. They said to go home and cook dinner quick before the power out, bathe the kids, keep the tub full of water so we could pour some of it down the toilet for flushing purposes later, and pour a jug full of drinking water. Oh, and go buy a generator! Just kidding, they actually were telling me how to cook on the flat surface of our fireplace and even how to grill a lasagna or casserole if needed! I love it!

It's 10:30pm and no power out yet, so I'd better publish this quick before it happens! Goodnite!

On the back of the barley package I saw this yummy looking recipe. When we had some rhubarb that needed used as it wasn't enough to freeze for a pie, I did a little research. After reading tons of rhubarb recipes, I came back to this barley pudding recipe and altered it to go with rhubarb. My recipe for Rhubarb Barley Meal (it's more like oatmeal than a pudding) is:
1 cup stewed rhubarb
2 cups cooked barley
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/2 t. powdered ginger
1/2 t. curry powder
2 eggs

I omitted the lemon juice and followed the recipe as above only with my ingredients. So far, I'm the only one in our family to even try the stuff, but I like it! I did make a boo boo though, and cooked two cups of barley, which makes much more than two cups of cooked barley. My new friend, Elizabeth, who visited from Utah this week was brave enough to try it and sweet enough to say she liked it!

I learned of Elizabeth on our friend's blog. Turns out she's an expert knitter. I just LOVE knitters! I have several friends who knit and I just think they're AMAZING!!! You know who you are! I can knit and purl...scarves and wash cloths! That's it! Beyond that I'm lost. Besides I'm super duper slow. All of my knitter friends/relatives are SO fast! Here's Elizabeth at work with four needles! This just boggles my mind! I didn't cut her head off on purpose, I was just mesmerized by the four needles!

Here's a cutie pie bunny she made and here's the link to the free pattern.

A darling toy elephant! Here's the link to the free pattern.

Here's the hat she made herself for this winter and
the scarf she made our friend Matt for Christmas last year! It was nice meeting you, Elizabeth! Thanks for visiting!

Last week we had the privilege of having special visitors from Tennessee, my grandparents! Above we're picking out the perfect pumpkin from our community garden that we're part of. Below Grandpa's at work making our bedroom door fit nicely, he's a retired cabinet maker (though he still works in the paint/hardware dept at WalMart). We're so thankful for his expertise! We had an antique wood plane in our living room as decoration, turns out it still works! How cool is that?

Enjoying the music room!
Ben's been building fires every night just to try out the two fireplaces in our new home
We plan to buy an insert for one of them so we can heat our whole house this winter.