Firsts

A lot of things have happened in this past year or so that have been firsts for me.

Firsts:
- Off to college

- Everything about college was it's own first.

- Job/paycheck, Filling out tax forms (Funny story about that... I called Naomi to help me)

- Bill, and first time setting up payment plans to pay said bill

- Cell phone that I actually pay for

- Paying to go the doctor, and first time to go by myself. (My mom always went with me.)

- Final notice (Don't worry it was a misunderstanding and it's all fixed :))

- Paying for my own prescriptions.

- Checking/Savings account

- Buying checks and writing them

- Debit card

- Ordering off the internet

- Riding a greyhound bus, and by myself out of state

- Getting taxes done

- Getting an I.D

- AND today I VOTED for the first time!! :)

In December I will be a bridesmaid in my friend Tawsha'a wedding. That will be a first. Plus I am flying there, a first as well! ! !


Last, I don't know about my mom. She is the same I guess, hasn't seen the doctor I don't think. Still waiting. Plus I will know more when she answers my pone calls.

Following Suit

Now that Morgan, Naomi and Angela have done it I am curious. So it would be awesome if you could post a comment to let me know who reads my blog. Please.

Pray For My Mom

Last Sunday my mom was taken to the hospital because she was having a heart attack. It would have been worse if she had not gotten there sooner. She was in the hospital for six days. She just got out on Saturday. Her being there opened a can of worms. They found tons of stuff wrong with her or that she needs to get checked out. Some we already knew about, but have gotten worse because she hasn't been taking medicine for. She already has heart problems, but she also has COPD, asthma and emphysema which only put more stress on the heart. Imagine too not taking meds for any of it. So they couldn't get her breathing under control or her enzyme levels down. Plus her blood pressure was too high so they wouldn't let her go home. Friday they were going to let her go home but when they took her off the IV she got worse.

So now she is home on a heart monitor, oxygen, breathing treatments and tons of different medications. She has coronary artery disease and some other heart stuff I can't name. Plus they say her diabetes has progressed to type 2. Now she has to take insulin shots. She is on a machine at night now because she has obstructive sleep apnea. Plus to top it all off she has to see three specialists about the possibility of cancer. They found three lumps on each breast. Mom said she thought they didn't really think it was cancer because she has had two fatty tumors before. They want her to get checked for lung cancer for the obvious reasons. Also, at the hospital they said she is losing blood somewhere and has lost too much weight too fast, thus they think its possible she may have colon cancer. Since leaving for college and coming back my mom has dropped atleast 100 pounds. I am not sure the exact figure. She has lost the majority of it in the last seven months. She hasn't really been trying plus it's always been hard for her to lose wieght, so thats the concern.

So please pray for her.

Finally

This is where my trip started. The bus station. It was my first time buying bus tickets, riding a bus on my own and riding out of state. I was excited. I felt like an adult. :) Preacher was laughing at me in amusement. He took this picture of me and Mrs. Rowell with my bag and tickets.


So the first day of the Iowa State Fair (ISF) they had this. You had to come early and eat a corn dog to get free admission to the fair. They wanted to get the most people to eat a corn dog at the same time for the Guiness World Book of Records. Well, they could only make like eight thousand corn dogs. 11,000 people showed up. Then after 11,000 they couldn't fit anymore in the stadium. If you made it by the deadline they still let you in so 31,000 people were wandering around the fair grounds in addition to that. 5,000 people were in line to get in at the deadline. Crazy huh? This was my number.


My corn dog!


Molly's mom and Molly.


Me and Molly.


Molly's dog, Cookie. I fell in love with her! I was outside playing with her. They told me she would growl and bark at me when I first got there. She didn't, she walked right up to me tail wagging and happy. She liked me too :)


Butter Cow. Cool huh?!


I know their are tons of cows around, but I had never seen one up close. So I had to take a picture.


This was taken merely because it was amusing. Elvis is so ancient. Talking about back in the day. Who new T.V guides were around back then? :) The building this was in was called pioneer hall. It was my favorite. They had old books and record players and dolls and stuff. They even had old pictures of John Wayne. :( I don't really like westerns. I found a canning guide for Mrs. Rowell from 1965. They also had someone dressed up as a blacksmith making things. They had old printing stuff too. It was just cool.


This is what me and Molly got to ride for free. Someone gave us their tickets. We had been walking around all day and needed to get to the other end of the fairgrounds so it was greatly appreciated.


It's the ISF, what do you expect? I took pictures of some animals just because it was all a new experience for me.


Who knew a llama could be in Iowa?


This was the winner of the big boar contest, weighing 1259 pounds. Or maybe it was 1258?

It's hard to see people you love go through hard things. It is especially hard to see your young nieces and nephews go through things. I wish that they didn't have to grow up the way that I did. Or experience some of the same things I did. I hate to see them suffer because of choices their parents make. I don't have favorites but two of my nieces have very special places in my heart. You love them all the same but in different ways. Shalyn has a special place in my heart because I see so much of myself in her. Because she was the first niece. Because she had me wrapped around her finger the first time I saw her. She made me want a little girl just like her someday. I hate seeing the way she has to live, a lot like the way I grew up. The other niece that has a special place in my heart is Lydia. She is sweet, naive, cheerful and perky. She is also a first. She was the second niece, but first child of a different brother. Lydia has a much happier safe life, not without problems though. Her daddy never ever payed attention to her and now has left. Doesn't care enough to be a part of her life. Her dad is not a bad person but something just went very wrong in his heart. She acts up now because her "daddy" is gone. She thrives on attention, and I have heard her say she misses her dad many times. I think that her behavior has a lot to do with the absence of her dad when he was around and the complete absence of him now. I just hurt for her because in a way I understand. I hate that her seven year old innocence has to be ruined by the D word. She's seven, she doesn't understand.

I pray for my family and things always seem to go from bad to worse. Sometimes it's hard to have faith when you feel like your prayers aren't being answered. It's hard to have faith when you look at your nieces and nephews all under the age of seven, who suffer because of their parents. It never helps either when I get lectures about having faith and never stop praying and etc. It doesn't make me want to have faith anymore than before. It just makes me want to scream. I do still pray and I am not giving up, I am just saying.

I know how God has worked in my life and I am sure He can do the same with my family. In HIS time. It makes me want to raise my kids the right way. I never want my children to experience the things I or my family members did.