Sarah Turned Sweet 16!

Sarah and Mom


Sarah and the gang!

Sweet Sixteen

Sisters

Sarah and Dad (before he shaved his beard!!!)

Before my eldest daughter left to go back to Maryland in August we celebrated her 16th birthday. However, she just turned 16 on the 13th of September. When she called I found out that she was having a barbecue of sorts for her party. I did miss not being able to be with her on that day, but I did call and sing her "Happy Birthday"!Anyway, here are some of the photos of the day we celebrated her birthday while she was here. I can hardly believe how grown-up she is becoming. We will be picking her up on our way down to visit my parents in November this year. A long overdue visit to my parents and my sister and her family. Maybe I'll get some pictures!

Demo Days and Kidney Stones

My sweet husband

Yesterday, our Tractor Supply (Scott is the manager there), was conducting Demo Days; a day where they demonstrate a certain type of equipment. Log splitters and chain saws were the items of the day, and Scott really enjoys this part of his job. He asked me to come out yesterday and take some pictures for his boss and those on the regional team. There were quite a few people out, and they even had the Boy Scouts selling popcorn and some 4-H girls out with their fund raiser. It was a really nice New England fall day, so the weather was perfect. He did an awesome job, and the store did really well as a result!

Scott using the log splitter

However, last night when I went to pick him up from work, he told me that his lower left side was really hurting him. He was able to sleep until about 1 am when he woke with terrible pain. He walked for a bit, really hurting, but we thought perhaps it was just his diverticulitis acting up. He took a warm bath and tried to get to sleep again about 4 am. When I woke up at 7:30 he was completely doubled over in pain, so we packed up and went in to the emergency room. First, I called our pastor and let him know we wouldn't be at the service this morning (again - we have been out for a month with all of the children's strange flu-like sickness) and he said a prayer for us over the phone. As soon as we got to the emergency room, they took us right in. They said they would do a CAT scan, but were pretty sure that he was dealing with a kidney stone. After they gave him some pretty strong pain meds, they took him for his scan. When the doctor came back he said that the stone was almost to his bladder. They also said that it was a fairly large one. Scott has no history of kidney stones, nor does his family, from what they have said. So for now we just continue to work on adjusting his diet. The pain meds that they gave him made him so nauseous. The trip home was pretty hard, he couldn't keep anything down, and he kept falling asleep. As soon as we got home he went to bed. He has only stirred a tiny bit and isn't able to eat anything. He is insistent that he is going to work in the morning so I pray that the Lord will help him feel better somewhat by then. Wow! what a day - what a year! He has had so many issues with his health over the last year. The children have done very well with it all, albeit they were very concerned for Daddy today. We continue to pray that God will heal his eye amongst so many other things. I know that God is faithful and we pray that He will help us to see what He is trying to show us through this struggle.

14 Years!

Last month on August 30th, my husband and I celebrated our 14 wedding anniversary! Wow, has time flown. We drove to Providence and had dinner at Smoky Bones - Scott LOVES this restaurant! The food was great. I had to fight back the desire to bring my knitting with me - only to discover later that I probably should have brought it to work on. There were televisions all over the place at this restaurant and on each table there was a speaker that would let you select which tv to listen to. College football is just kicking off and of course, there was the baseball game (Scott is HUGE into sports so it was impossible to keep his eyes off the screens!) So I should have just brought my knitting and all would have been well. After dinner we went over the Barnes and Noble to peruse the shelves of books. I could look for hours! Anyway, the children were very well behaved while we were gone ( the oldest two are "official" babysitters - certificate and all!) which was nice - no major problems. Although the driving was foggy (I couldn't believe the fog last night!) we had a good night.

After 14 years of marriage we are still in as much love as ever, only a lot closer.