Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)

Seems like I'm always stating my blog posts with something along the lines of, "I can't believe how fast time has gone by....." and then a promise to try and do better at keeping my blog updated! I guess if I made any New Year resolutions, one of them should be to be better about updating my blog, but I don't make resolutions, so...........

...Here it is, January 1st, 2013!!! WHAT???!!! Time sure does fly by, faster and faster each year! LOL! I do wish it would slow down... just a little. But I guess that just isn't going to happen. So, since I've been so bad about keeping this blog updated, here is our entire year in review! Get a cup of coffee or whatever your beverage of choice, and get ready to sit and read for a while! LOL

2012 was, well a year! :) And yes, it was an eventful year. But then, what year HASN'T been eventful for us?! Let me think...... yeah, NO year that I can remember has been uneventful. But that's not necessarily a bad thing! Ok, so I'll try to keep this as concise as possible. Here are [drum roll} the highlights of 2012 in the lives of the Cole family! :)

January - Our sweet Rachel turned 18 years old! Seriously?! I now have TWO adult children?! Yeah, that whole time flying by thing again! This was a momentous year to turn 18, too with it being a presidential election year and all! And yes, Rachel got registered as a voter and participated in the election! :)

February - This month found Bob traveling to Florida to see his dad who was in very poor health and getting ready to have major open heart surgery. Bob's brother, Mike, graciously paid for a plane ticket for Bob since our financial situation didn't warrant us being able to, and so Bob flew back for several days and was able to spend time, not only with his dad, but with other family members, as well. He hadn't seen his parents since 2001, so it was really nice for him to see them again.

Sarah competed in an Irish pageant during this month, also. She LOVES everything Irish, and even though she didn't win, she had a great time exploring her Irish heritage (from my side of the family) and she made some new friends, as well. :)

 March - Rachel was able to get some last minute tickets for Wicked, which was currently running in a theater near us. She took Bob and I with her, and WOW! It was an A.M.A.Z.I.N.G production! Rachel was THRILLED to see it, as she had been wanting to see it for a VERY long time! But Bob and I loved it, too! I will never look at The Wizard of Oz the same again! :)

The very next day after seeing Wicked, Bob received the very sad news that his dad had passed away. This was the first of our four parents to pass on, so it made it that much more difficult. :(

 March was the month when Hannah was in a pageant. She competed in the Miss Junior Teen AZ United States pageant. She had a GREAT time competing and made many new friends! And yes, the judges were BLIND! :)

April - Rachel played the part of "Lydia" in Pride & Prejudice at our local community theater. She did a great job, too! Especially with one of her lines which was, "YOO HOOOOOOOO!" You probably had to hear it, though to really understand the hilarity of it. LOL!

April was an exciting month for Sarah, as she bought her FIRST CAR! A cute little red 2001 Hyundai Accent. :) Oh the freedom she now has! LOL

April was also when our beloved cat, Simba, went to kitty heaven. He was 15 years old, and had been in poor health for a while, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but we really do miss him! But then the day after he died, God provided a brand new baby for us through our friends, the McAvoys, in the form of a cute little calico-gray kitten we have named Kiara! She is quite the character and adds a lot of laughter to our lives! :)

Simba's grave

Kiara!

At the very end of April, Bob headed back to Florida one more time to attend his dad's memorial service. A sad time, but also a time to celebrate the life of his dad. He also was able to celebrate his birthday with his family which was really nice for him. :)

May/June - May was pretty uneventful, well, except for the homeschool prom that Sarah and Rachel went to. Don't they look beautiful?! :) 

June had a little bit more going on! It started with Rachel graduating from our homeschool high school. She took part in the graduation ceremony our state homeschool organization puts on every year, and it was a wonderful ceremony! My parents and sister were also able to come, which was truly a blessing. Then it was time to party! Which we did the next night after her graduation. :)

Our beautiful graduate

Our family on graduation day

The whole family

Pretty cake

Party time!

Also in June, Bob and I celebrated 24 wonderful years of marriage AND we were able to go on a little romantic get-away to a nice resort in Scottsdale. :) Then two days after our anniversary, Sarah turned [gulp!] 21 YEARS OLD! I don't think I'm old enough to have a 21 year old kid, yet! LOL

And last, but not least for June, Rachel was in another production at our local community theater, this time it was Oliver. She played the part of "Charlotte" and was also in ensemble. And yes, she did great job! :)

Rachel with some of the Oliver cast

 July/August - Our HOT summer months! So we stay inside where it's air-conditioned and cool, as much as possible! Well, except when the A/C breaks down! Yep, it did, in August when it was literally 115 degrees outside! Yes, it was really 115 that day! That experience has made me SO very grateful for the invention of air-conditioning! I won't be taking THAT for granted again! :) LOL

But back to July... Hannah & Rachel were able to go to camp in the mountains of southern California with our church youth group. They were there over the 4th of July, so Bob and Sarah and I decided we'd drive up to Prescott for the 4th. It was SO nice to be where it was cool, and even rainy for part of the day! Sarah and a friend had a great time going to a rodeo that was taking place near Prescott, while Bob and I had fun wandering the streets and shops in downtown Prescott. Then there was a great fireworks show that night where we actually got COLD! Felt wonderful! The only bad thing was that we couldn't stay longer! 

Our hot summer months are somewhat tolerable because of our monsoon season that brings regular thunder storms to our area, and this summer, not only did we have some pretty good thunder storms, but also some wicked dust storms! And beautiful rainbows, too! :)

Big scary looking cloud!

Dust storm!!!

Beautiful rainbow :)

There was one more rather significant thing that happened in August. Sarah met Jeremy! Yes, she did! She and Jeremy seem to be getting along QUITE well, and since we like him a lot, that is A-OK with us! We will see what the future holds for them. And the DO make a really nice looking couple, don't they?! :)

September - Ahhhhh, September! Finally the beginning of the end of HOT! Oh...and Hannah's birthday! :) She turned sweet 16 this year! :)

Our new 16 year old

October - Hannah wanted to wait for it to cool down some more before having a sweet 16 birthday party, so we had it in October. It was a fun "formal" dance party!

The beautiful birthday girl!

Sisters!

Blowing out her candles

And then of course, even though they are 21, 18 and 16, my girls still love to dress up for Halloween! :) Sarah and Rachel had a party to go to, and Hannah decided she was still young enough to go trick or treating. :)

November - Rachel was in yet ANOTHER production at our community theater. The show was Little Mermaid, and Rachel got the part she really wanted..."Ursula"! And she played the part like a professional! She was SO good and I was SO PROUD of her!!! Many commented they thought she stole the show, and of course I totally agree! :)

"Ursula" with her "minions"

Thanksgiving was quiet this year, but nice. Just us, good food and a time to relax. :)

And that brings us to....

December! I had another 29th birthday (yes I "really" did in MY head! LOL), and well, December is always hectic, but mostly in a good way. My mom and dad and sister came and spent Christmas with us, and it was such a blessing to have them here. :)

Which brings us back around to where I started...today, January 1, 2013!  So.... HAPPY NEW YEAR, my friends! And may this year be filled with many blessings and good things. But MOSTLY, may this new year be filled with Jesus and may He have a whole new impact on your life! Love you all!

P.S. And yes, I WILL try to be better about keeping my blog updated this year! LOL :)

 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  
   ~2 Corinthians 5:17

Christmas Season?! Already???!!!

Ok, who took some days, weeks, even months out of this year to make it go by so fast?! Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and then we are in the Christmas season for 2012! I think my head is spinning time is flying by so fast! Yikes! Anyway, I've re-designed my page, and then decided to decorate for Christmas this year! And soon, yes SOON, I promise! I will write a few catch-up posts. In the meantime, have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! :)

Healthy Cheese?

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I'm pretty much a health nut. I'm constantly reading about ways to improve my and my family's health, and am working on shedding the extra pounds FOR GOOD, that I've been carrying around for quite some time now. In my quest to to learn about better health, I've learned a lot of things that the mainstream nutrition "experts" won't tell you. One of them is that raw milk and other dairy products are really good for us! And pasteurized dairy products???... not so much. We've been led to believe that raw dairy is dangerous, and yet, there have been FAR fewer illnesses or even deaths as a result of consuming raw dairy products as there have been from eating bad meat, or even just cross contamination from raw meat. Hmmmmmm. :)

Thankfully, we have a raw milk dairy not very far from us here in the Phoenix area, but it's been nearly impossible to find other raw dairy products, such as cheese. And I LOVE cheese, so my compromise has been to look for cheese that is at least free from hormones. But even THAT is hard to find. But now I have discovered, thanks to an email newsletter that I receive from a website called "Food Renegade" that there is a website I can start ordering raw cheese from. And today, if you click on this link - http://www.foodrenegade.com/giveaway-raw-milk-grassfed-cheese-sampler/#comment-1199213 - you can enter to win a free cheese sampler. So go check it out! :)

And if you are afraid of trying raw dairy, let me assure you that it is MUCH safer, and MUCH healthier for you then you think! I can't drink pasteurized milk as it wrecks havoc with my gastrointestinal system. But raw milk, doesn't do that to me at all. Also, a little known fact is that one of the Mayo brothers who founded the Mayo Clinic, actually used raw milk to treat and heal his patients of many different illnesses and diseases. In it's raw form, milk is a living food with lots of good enzymes and nutrients in it that are destroyed through the pasteurization process. So I hope you will look more into it for your own good health. And don't forget to enter the contest for the free cheese sampler at the link above! :)

Pageants...Pageants!

As many of you know, two of my daughters have discovered the world of pageants. Not something I would ever pick for my daughters to do, but I have to say, so far I've been pleasantly surprised as to what we've encountered in our journey into the pageant world.

I've found that there is a high level of Christian & generally nice, well-accomplished girls involved in pageants, not just self-centered girls who only care about their looks. I've actually been really impressed with the caliber of the girls I've met, along with the directors of the pageants. Yes, there are always those few girls who are "in it to win it" and are very self-centered and focused on their "beauty", but they have been in the minority, and this attitude is greatly discouraged by the pageant directors. My daughters have made some really nice friends, and have found a real "sisterhood" with most of the "pageant girls".

Pageants aren't just about beauty and looking good & beautiful, but rather being involved in your community and in helping others. It is greatly encouraged to find a charitable cause you can stand behind and then make it your platform. Learning to eat right and become more fit is also encouraged rather then just being "skinny at all costs." College scholarships are what many of the winners and runners up receive which encourages the girls to further their education and gives them opportunities to go to college that they might otherwise not have had. And Sarah recently had to research her ancestry as well as write an essay as part of her entry process.

Pageants get a bad rap a lot, because people don't understand what pageants are and what they are not. Pageants ARE an avenue for growth and character building. My daughters are learning more about giving back to our community and to be involved in things that help others. It is helping them learn a confidence in themselves and how to be assertive when necessary, like when they are contacting businesses to secure sponsors. It is teaching them the importance of  physical fitness and taking care of themselves in order to remain healthy. Pageants are NOT about exploiting women. At least not the ones my daughters are involved in. Yes, beautiful girls are usually the ones in pageants, but that doesn't mean that is the only thing it's about or that they are being exploited. I can tell you one thing, pageants are NOT the same as the ones portrayed on TV in "Toddlers and Tiaras" or even movies like "Miss Congeniality", funny as that movie was. I actually would love to see the toddler and little girl pageants banned like the ones portrayed on "Toddlers & Tiaras"! VERY different "world" then the pageants my daughters are involved in.

I've seen good changes in my daughters as they've been involved in pageants. Neither of them have won anything, and yet they have lost gracefully and are genuinely happy for those who do win. I watched Hannah, this weekend, practically jump up and down for joy when SHE lost, but one of her new friends won in the most recent pageant she just competed in. I was SO proud of her at that moment! :)

I don't know if my daughters will ever win one of the pageants they enter. As their mom, I really do hope they do, but even if they never do, I know God has a plan in all of this for them, and I am glad they are going through these experiences that are growing them in a way that nothing else will.


Here are some pictures from the latest pageants Sarah and Hannah have been involved in. No they haven't won a title, but what I see them "winning" is much more important then a title. :)

Hannah - Miss Jr Teen Queen Creek, Arizona United States Pageant

Sarah - Colleen & Rose Irish Pageant

I'm a Bad Blogger! LOL

So here it is 2012, and it's FEBRUARY and I haven't blogged in the new year, yet! I didn't even blog in the last month of 2011! [sigh] My intentions are good, I just can't seem to discipline myself to write things down here. I would make that a resolution for this year, but I don't believe in making resolutions anymore. LOL.

So, the last time I blogged was in November about Bob's surgery to have his kidney stone removed. I'm happy to report that he has fully recovered and is SO happy to be free of pain! Woo hoo! :) November was also the month that both Sarah and Hannah took part in the Miss Arizona and Miss Arizona Teen USA pageants. They both didn't place, but had a great time and grew as young women. I was SO very proud of them! Also had a nice Thanksgiving with my parents and sister. They don't get this direction often enough!

Thanksgiving Dinner

December was a busy month, as usual. And I apologize for not even getting a "blog-Christmas card" sent out. Seems like every year I just get worse and worse about that. But with Facebook and blogs, the need to send out that yearly Christmas letter just doesn't seem to be as urgent because we are all keeping up with each other throughout the year now in a way that wasn't possible even just a few years ago. Kind-of sad in a way, but then again, I LOVE keeping in touch with people who before Facebook I never would have been able to keep in touch with. Anyway....

The month of December always starts off with my birthday, something I'd just as soon skip over anymore! LOL. But I guess I can't really do that. I look at the number I turned this year, though, and it just doesn't seem like I've been around that long! LOL. I mean didn't I just graduate from high school a few years ago??? Yeah, like 30-something "few" years ago! LOL. I am, however, thankful to be blessed with good genes that keep me looking younger then I really am, and MOST of the time I feel younger then I really am, so I'll just pray that trend continues for many more years! LOL

Christmas, for our family, was a fun and special time this year! Some good friends from North Carolina came and spent it with us, and it was SO much fun! This is when I'm thankful for a place like Facebook, because I never would have met these friends, if it weren't for Facebook. Linda and I met in a Facebook group we are both in, and through texts and Facebook chats, we have become as close as sisters. When I first invited her, and her husband Elmer, to come visit for Christmas, I didn't even know her that well, so it was weird that I invited them! I don't usually do that sort of thing. But after their visit, Linda and I realized how providential it was that I invited them. We had a lovely time together, and our friendship continues to grow and deepen. Thanking God for that! :)

Linda and Me

January, Rachel turned 18 years old! OH MY! Now I have TWO adult children?! Hardly seems possible! Rachel also will be graduating from our homeschool high school in a few months, so I'll be down to homeschooling only one child next year! Kind of makes me sad to see the end of my homeschooling years coming so quickly!

So now February is more then halfway gone, and time marches on! Or should I say, races on! Sarah just took part in an Irish pageant called the Arizona Colleen and Rose. She didn't win, but she had a great time discovering the Irish community here in Arizona and also exploring her Irish roots, which is through my side of the family. She has long dreamed of going to Ireland, and probably will someday so I think she is very glad to discover a little piece of Ireland here in Arizona! Hannah is getting ready for HER next pageant in March as Miss Jr. Teen Queen Creek in the Arizona United States pageant.

So life goes on, one day at a time. There are still struggles such as surviving for several months with only one vehicle since the other one was broken down with no money to fix it. But God is good and He provided the money to get it fixed recently, and then directed us to a good low-cost mechanic, so we've got two running cars again! Yea! So until next time..... (which will hopefully be sooner then it was last time! :) )

Peanut m&m's and Kidney Stones

What does a peanut m&m have to do with a kidney stone, you ask? Well, on Monday, November 14, my husband, Bob, finally had surgery to remove a kidney stone, a very large kidney stone that the doctor told him was about the size of a peanut m&m (and no that is not the actual stone in the picture... that is an actual m&m). This stone has been giving him pain since the spring of 2008! It has been a long journey through already troubled times as most of you know. And if you don't, just go back in my blog and you can read all about them. We do very blessed that his treatment was able to be done at the Mayo Clinic here in Phoenix. And Monday, November 14, 2011 turned out to be an eventful day in another not so great way, as well. So here's the story....

We left our house at 6:15am in order to get up to where the Mayo Clinic hospital is by 7:30am. We decided to take both our cars since Sarah had to be at work in the afternoon. So off we went, Bob and I in one car, and the girls with Sarah driving in the other car. When we were about 15-20 minutes away from the hospital, Rachel called us to let us know that the car's clutch was slipping majorly, and they couldn't go any faster than 50 mph. I immediately felt knots in my stomach and completely helpless since we HAD to get Bob to the hospital on time! We kept communicating by cell phone with them as I was driving as fast as I legally could to get Bob to the hospital on time so that then I could deal with the girls' situation. Rachel called us again and said the car was not moving at all and they were pulling off to the side of the freeway. By this time the knots in my stomach are tying themselves into knots, and I am ready to cry! Thankfully, a pastor from our church was coming up to be with us at the hospital, Pastor Jim, and we were able to connect with him and he went and found the girls by the side of the road and stayed with them until I was able to get back to them. Also, thankfully, they weren't a real long distance from the hospital, so I didn't have to go far to find them. We called Triple A, and they put us on high priority since we were on the side of the freeway, Pastor Jim took Rachel and Hannah to the hospital, and Sarah and I sat and waited for the tow truck. It finally got there (would hate to think how long it would have been if we hadn't been "high priority"!) and after giving the driver instructions about getting the car back to our house, Sarah and I were off to the hospital. Whew! First crisis taken care of. The knots in my stomach start to lessen. This entire time I'm also praying that we get to the hospital before Bob is taken into surgery!

We get to the hospital, and I expected to find everyone on the 2nd floor which is where their surgical unit is (which we knew from Bob's emergency trip there last week), but no, they were all downstairs and I was handed a pager and told we'd be paged when we could see Bob before surgery, which should be about 30-45 minutes. After about an hour with no page, I went to inquire about what was going on with Bob and they told me he was already in surgery! What??!!! I couldn't understand why we weren't notified of that before, and I was disappointed that I didn't get to see him before he went in. However, I figured that they wanted to get it done and over with, so I updated my Facebook status saying that Bob was in surgery and sat for the next hour with my stomach in knots again and praying. I had also asked that they let me know how long he'd been in surgery already, and since they never got back to me about that, I went and inquired again. This time they asked me to wait while they found out and then told me he was in recovery and to go upstairs to a department I'd never heard of! Turns out it was the surgical unit that we were familiar with, I don't even remember what they called it downstairs. So I get upstairs to the surgical unit, and I find out that not only is Bob NOT in recovery, he hasn't even had surgery yet and is in pre-op! Wow! Where did the people downstairs get their very wrong information?! As a side note I'd just like to say, that overall, I've been super impressed with the Mayo Clinic and their employees have all been more than kind and helpful. So this whole fiasco with the wrong information and their dismissive attitude in what I later learned was the admitting department, was rather disappointing to me. However, the people in the surgical unit were MOST kind and very helpful so I focused on that, and of course on Bob. I was able to go back to his room in pre-op and "hang" with him until they came and took him to surgery. SO glad I was actually able to see him before surgery! By this time, also, Pastor Jim had left with Sarah to take her back to Queen Creek so she could get to work, so she never saw her dad before he went into surgery. In fact, I had to text her to let her know that he actually hadn't been IN surgery and that I was now with him in pre-op.

To clarify what was happening when I was told Bob was in surgery when he actually wasn't... his first procedure of the day was to have a scan so that they could take another look at his kidney stone and also insert the tube, using a local anesthetic, that they would use during surgery. I can't imagine having that done while being awake, but Bob said it was pretty cool to watch it on the screen. Makes me kind-of shudder! Anyway, this took longer than usual because the first machine turned out to be not working and they had to change rooms and re-do some prepping on him for this procedure. So then when he was sent up to pre-op after this procedure was done, that is when people downstairs told me he was in recovery. Well, if you stretch it, I guess the pre-op COULD be considered recovery from this first procedure! [rolling eyes] Still irritates me that they couldn't get their facts straight. :/ But moving on....

Since I was with Bob as they wheeled him off to surgery, I now KNEW that he was, in fact, in surgery! So the knots in my stomach were back as we waited and prayed. The surgery lasted a little over an hour and then I was called back so the doctor could talk to me and tell me how it went. Thankfully everything went well, and he was as certain as he could be that they got all the pieces of this stone that decided to break in two last week! I was also told that he'd be in recovery for a couple of hours and that because he had to be on his stomach during the surgery, it would take longer for him to wake up. So the knots in my stomached lessened, and we waited now while he was in recovery...

Around 6pm MST, Bob was finally settled into a room. I LOVED his nurse! She was so personable and was also very good about explaining things to me. Bob was in a lot of pain when I first saw him, and he looked very pale with several tubes coming out of him. Kind-of tied up the knots in my stomach again seeing him like that. The nurse explained to me that they had to be really careful about giving him more pain meds at the moment because his respiration rate was low, and if it went any lower, he would not be able to stay on that floor. So if they gave him anything for the pain that further slowed down his respiration rate, that would not be good. They finally were able to give him something that wasn't a narcotic (which, to my understanding, is what could have slowed down his respiration to the danger level) and he finally seemed to be comfortable and was able to sleep. I heaved a big sigh of relief because I really didn't want to leave for the night knowing he was in a lot of pain. About this time it was the shift change, so I waited to meet his new nurse, and she, too was great! So I talked to her for a few minutes, made sure they had my phone number, and finally was able to leave the hospital knowing that Bob was sleeping and that he was in good hands for the night. :)

Next day, I headed for the hospital all ready to bring Bob home only to get there and find out they are keeping him another night because of a bleed on his kidney which was causing his hemoglobin levels to be too low. He looked much better then he had the night before, though, and seemed in much less pain. So I settled in to spend the afternoon and evening with him.

Finally, Wednesday, the 17th, he was released! The kidney bleed had stopped on it's own and his hemoglobin levels were back up to normal so we were ready to GO! The only thing I wasn't too excited about was the fact that they decided to leave a tube in him and I was going to have to clean and redress it everyday. I am NOT nurse material AT ALL and just looking at this tube coming out of him made me a bit nauseous! HELP! LOL. The tube being left in has definitely slowed down his healing a bit. And actually, on Monday, the 21st, he got the tube taken out. YEA! :)

So now the healing begins and NO MORE KIDNEY STONE! He will still have a stent in for a while as his kidney was pretty inflamed from this huge stone bumping around in it. So it needs to heal, but the doctor didn't think there was any permanent damage, thank goodness!!! Bob will also be taking some herbs for a while that are supportive of a healthy kidney and also are supposed to keep new stones from forming, so we are praying that they will work.

All in all, I am so grateful to God for getting him through this, and I trust Him that He will help Bob heal and get back to good health again. I am also SO grateful for our church and how they have come around us and supported us and loved us through this! I don't know how I would have gotten through this past week without them! Especially Jim Herzberg, our associate pastor, and Meredith Bryant who was my angel last Tuesday during Bob's emergency treatment. And I have SO felt all the prayers from everyone who has been praying us through this! Thank you SO much and please continue to pray as Bob heals from this surgery. :)

Just Wanted to Share....

My daughters and I sang at our church today.... "I Can Only Imagine", which was the same song we sang at my brother's funeral about a year and a half ago. Today was much more fun singing, especially after hearing a wonderful message from our pastor on heaven. :)

A few comments about the video... the beginning is a little topsy turvey as Bob had to change his camera position at the last second and I am somewhat horrified  at my appearance, nothing like seeing oneself in a video to be reminded once again that I REALLY need to get out and exercise! [sigh] Hope you enjoy the video, though. :) It's a song that will always be special to me.